Problem using os.system() with sed command

Question

I\'m writing a small method to replace some text in a file. The only argument I need is the new text, as it is always the same file and text to be replaced.

I\'m hav

Answer 1

So from previous answers we now know that id is a Unicode string, which makes cmd1 a Unicode string, which os.system() is converting to a byte string for execution in the default encoding.

a) I suggest using subprocess rather than os.system()

b) I suggest not using the name of a built-in function as a variable (id).

c) I suggest explicitly encoding the string to a byte string before executing:

if isinstance(cmd,unicode):
    cmd = cmd.encode("UTF-8")

d) For Lennart Regebro's suggestion add:

assert type(cmd1) == type(cmd2)

after

print cmd1 == cmd2