How to use the mv command in Python with subprocess

You can solve this by adding the parameter shell=True, to take into account wildcards in your case (and so write the command directly, without any list):

subprocess.call("mv /home/somedir/subdir/* somedir/", shell=True)

Without it, the argument is directly given to the mv command with the asterisk. It's the shell job to return every files which match the pattern in general.

if you call subprocess that way:

subprocess.call(["mv", "/home/somedir/subdir/*", "somedir/"])

you're actually giving the argument /home/somedir/subdir/* to the mv command, with an actual * file. i.e. you're actually trying to move the * file.

subprocess.call("mv /home/somedir/subdir/* somedir/", shell=True)

it will use the shell that will expand the first argument.

Nota Bene: when using the shell=True argument you need to change your argument list into a string that will be given to the shell.

Hint: You can also use the os.rename() or shutil.move() functions, along with os.path.walk() or os.listdir() to move the files to destination in a more pythonic way.