Use Python subprocess.check_output() with LC_ALL as first argument - python-2.7

Question

from a Python script I want to call a few external programs and use their output inside the script. Now I found that this script is running on my local system, but gets problems on another one that uses another language. So instead of checking the output in different languages, I want to call these programs with a specified "LC_ALL=en_US.utf8" as first argument. But it seems that subprocess does not like this:
lc = "LC_ALL=en_US.utf8"
uptimedata = subprocess.check_output([lc, "/bin/uptime"])
When I run the script, I get:
Traceback (most recent call last):
File "./serverwatch.py", line 22, in <module>
uptimedata = subprocess.check_output([lc, "/bin/uptime"])
File "/usr/lib/python2.7/subprocess.py", line 537, in check_output
process = Popen(stdout=PIPE, *popenargs, **kwargs)
File "/usr/lib/python2.7/subprocess.py", line 679, in __init__
errread, errwrite)
File "/usr/lib/python2.7/subprocess.py", line 1259, in _execute_child
raise child_exception
OSError: [Errno 2] No such file or directory
I understand that subprocess.check_output() wants the first argument to be the command to be called. So how can I run the command with the changed LC?
This is Python 2.7.3 on Debian Wheezy. The other system is running the same versions.

Answer 1

Execute your command through bash:
>>> lc = "LC_ALL=en_US.utf8"
>>> command = ["/usr/bin/bash", "-c", "%s /bin/uptime" % lc]
>>> command
['/usr/bin/bash', '-c', 'LC_ALL=en_US.utf8 /bin/uptime']
>>> uptimedata = subprocess.check_output(command)
>>> uptimedata
b' 13:26:01 up 17:43, 1 user, load average: 0.36, 0.41, 0.44\n'
>>>