You may keep local file file_pc
as is (pipes.quote
will escape the spaces). The remote file should be changed:
import pipes
file_pi = 'pi@192.168.X.X:/home/pi/folder/file with space.smth'
host, colon, path = file_pi.partition(':')
assert colon
file_pi = host + colon + pipes.quote(path)
i.e., user@host:/path/with space
should be changed to user@host:'/path/with space'