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  <section id="module-shlex">
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<span id="shlex-simple-lexical-analysis"></span><h1><code class="xref py py-mod docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">shlex</span></code> — Simple lexical analysis<a class="headerlink" href="#module-shlex" title="Link to this heading">¶</a></h1>
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<p><strong>Source code:</strong> <a class="extlink-source reference external" href="https://github.com/python/cpython/tree/3.13/Lib/shlex.py">Lib/shlex.py</a></p>
 | 
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<hr class="docutils" />
 | 
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<p>The <a class="reference internal" href="#shlex.shlex" title="shlex.shlex"><code class="xref py py-class docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">shlex</span></code></a> class makes it easy to write lexical analyzers for
 | 
						||
simple syntaxes resembling that of the Unix shell.  This will often be useful
 | 
						||
for writing minilanguages, (for example, in run control files for Python
 | 
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applications) or for parsing quoted strings.</p>
 | 
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<p>The <a class="reference internal" href="#module-shlex" title="shlex: Simple lexical analysis for Unix shell-like languages."><code class="xref py py-mod docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">shlex</span></code></a> module defines the following functions:</p>
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<dl class="py function">
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<dt class="sig sig-object py" id="shlex.split">
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<span class="sig-prename descclassname"><span class="pre">shlex.</span></span><span class="sig-name descname"><span class="pre">split</span></span><span class="sig-paren">(</span><em class="sig-param"><span class="n"><span class="pre">s</span></span></em>, <em class="sig-param"><span class="n"><span class="pre">comments</span></span><span class="o"><span class="pre">=</span></span><span class="default_value"><span class="pre">False</span></span></em>, <em class="sig-param"><span class="n"><span class="pre">posix</span></span><span class="o"><span class="pre">=</span></span><span class="default_value"><span class="pre">True</span></span></em><span class="sig-paren">)</span><a class="headerlink" href="#shlex.split" title="Link to this definition">¶</a></dt>
 | 
						||
<dd><p>Split the string <em>s</em> using shell-like syntax. If <em>comments</em> is <a class="reference internal" href="constants.html#False" title="False"><code class="xref py py-const docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">False</span></code></a>
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(the default), the parsing of comments in the given string will be disabled
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(setting the <a class="reference internal" href="#shlex.shlex.commenters" title="shlex.shlex.commenters"><code class="xref py py-attr docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">commenters</span></code></a> attribute of the
 | 
						||
<a class="reference internal" href="#shlex.shlex" title="shlex.shlex"><code class="xref py py-class docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">shlex</span></code></a> instance to the empty string).  This function operates
 | 
						||
in POSIX mode by default, but uses non-POSIX mode if the <em>posix</em> argument is
 | 
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false.</p>
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<div class="versionchanged">
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						||
<p><span class="versionmodified changed">Changed in version 3.12: </span>Passing <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">None</span></code> for <em>s</em> argument now raises an exception, rather than
 | 
						||
reading <a class="reference internal" href="sys.html#sys.stdin" title="sys.stdin"><code class="xref py py-data docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">sys.stdin</span></code></a>.</p>
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</div>
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</dd></dl>
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<dl class="py function">
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<dt class="sig sig-object py" id="shlex.join">
 | 
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<span class="sig-prename descclassname"><span class="pre">shlex.</span></span><span class="sig-name descname"><span class="pre">join</span></span><span class="sig-paren">(</span><em class="sig-param"><span class="n"><span class="pre">split_command</span></span></em><span class="sig-paren">)</span><a class="headerlink" href="#shlex.join" title="Link to this definition">¶</a></dt>
 | 
						||
<dd><p>Concatenate the tokens of the list <em>split_command</em> and return a string.
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This function is the inverse of <a class="reference internal" href="#shlex.split" title="shlex.split"><code class="xref py py-func docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">split()</span></code></a>.</p>
 | 
						||
<div class="doctest highlight-default notranslate"><div class="highlight"><pre><span></span><span class="gp">>>> </span><span class="kn">from</span><span class="w"> </span><span class="nn">shlex</span><span class="w"> </span><span class="kn">import</span> <span class="n">join</span>
 | 
						||
<span class="gp">>>> </span><span class="nb">print</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="n">join</span><span class="p">([</span><span class="s1">'echo'</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="s1">'-n'</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="s1">'Multiple words'</span><span class="p">]))</span>
 | 
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<span class="go">echo -n 'Multiple words'</span>
 | 
						||
</pre></div>
 | 
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</div>
 | 
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<p>The returned value is shell-escaped to protect against injection
 | 
						||
vulnerabilities (see <a class="reference internal" href="#shlex.quote" title="shlex.quote"><code class="xref py py-func docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">quote()</span></code></a>).</p>
 | 
						||
<div class="versionadded">
 | 
						||
<p><span class="versionmodified added">Added in version 3.8.</span></p>
 | 
						||
</div>
 | 
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</dd></dl>
 | 
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 | 
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<dl class="py function">
 | 
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<dt class="sig sig-object py" id="shlex.quote">
 | 
						||
<span class="sig-prename descclassname"><span class="pre">shlex.</span></span><span class="sig-name descname"><span class="pre">quote</span></span><span class="sig-paren">(</span><em class="sig-param"><span class="n"><span class="pre">s</span></span></em><span class="sig-paren">)</span><a class="headerlink" href="#shlex.quote" title="Link to this definition">¶</a></dt>
 | 
						||
<dd><p>Return a shell-escaped version of the string <em>s</em>.  The returned value is a
 | 
						||
string that can safely be used as one token in a shell command line, for
 | 
						||
cases where you cannot use a list.</p>
 | 
						||
<div class="admonition warning" id="shlex-quote-warning">
 | 
						||
<p class="admonition-title">Warning</p>
 | 
						||
<p>The <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">shlex</span></code> module is <strong>only designed for Unix shells</strong>.</p>
 | 
						||
<p>The <a class="reference internal" href="#shlex.quote" title="shlex.quote"><code class="xref py py-func docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">quote()</span></code></a> function is not guaranteed to be correct on non-POSIX
 | 
						||
compliant shells or shells from other operating systems such as Windows.
 | 
						||
Executing commands quoted by this module on such shells can open up the
 | 
						||
possibility of a command injection vulnerability.</p>
 | 
						||
<p>Consider using functions that pass command arguments with lists such as
 | 
						||
<a class="reference internal" href="subprocess.html#subprocess.run" title="subprocess.run"><code class="xref py py-func docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">subprocess.run()</span></code></a> with <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">shell=False</span></code>.</p>
 | 
						||
</div>
 | 
						||
<p>This idiom would be unsafe:</p>
 | 
						||
<div class="doctest highlight-default notranslate"><div class="highlight"><pre><span></span><span class="gp">>>> </span><span class="n">filename</span> <span class="o">=</span> <span class="s1">'somefile; rm -rf ~'</span>
 | 
						||
<span class="gp">>>> </span><span class="n">command</span> <span class="o">=</span> <span class="s1">'ls -l </span><span class="si">{}</span><span class="s1">'</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">format</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="n">filename</span><span class="p">)</span>
 | 
						||
<span class="gp">>>> </span><span class="nb">print</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="n">command</span><span class="p">)</span>  <span class="c1"># executed by a shell: boom!</span>
 | 
						||
<span class="go">ls -l somefile; rm -rf ~</span>
 | 
						||
</pre></div>
 | 
						||
</div>
 | 
						||
<p><a class="reference internal" href="#shlex.quote" title="shlex.quote"><code class="xref py py-func docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">quote()</span></code></a> lets you plug the security hole:</p>
 | 
						||
<div class="doctest highlight-default notranslate"><div class="highlight"><pre><span></span><span class="gp">>>> </span><span class="kn">from</span><span class="w"> </span><span class="nn">shlex</span><span class="w"> </span><span class="kn">import</span> <span class="n">quote</span>
 | 
						||
<span class="gp">>>> </span><span class="n">command</span> <span class="o">=</span> <span class="s1">'ls -l </span><span class="si">{}</span><span class="s1">'</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">format</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="n">quote</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="n">filename</span><span class="p">))</span>
 | 
						||
<span class="gp">>>> </span><span class="nb">print</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="n">command</span><span class="p">)</span>
 | 
						||
<span class="go">ls -l 'somefile; rm -rf ~'</span>
 | 
						||
<span class="gp">>>> </span><span class="n">remote_command</span> <span class="o">=</span> <span class="s1">'ssh home </span><span class="si">{}</span><span class="s1">'</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">format</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="n">quote</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="n">command</span><span class="p">))</span>
 | 
						||
<span class="gp">>>> </span><span class="nb">print</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="n">remote_command</span><span class="p">)</span>
 | 
						||
<span class="go">ssh home 'ls -l '"'"'somefile; rm -rf ~'"'"''</span>
 | 
						||
</pre></div>
 | 
						||
</div>
 | 
						||
<p>The quoting is compatible with UNIX shells and with <a class="reference internal" href="#shlex.split" title="shlex.split"><code class="xref py py-func docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">split()</span></code></a>:</p>
 | 
						||
<div class="doctest highlight-default notranslate"><div class="highlight"><pre><span></span><span class="gp">>>> </span><span class="kn">from</span><span class="w"> </span><span class="nn">shlex</span><span class="w"> </span><span class="kn">import</span> <span class="n">split</span>
 | 
						||
<span class="gp">>>> </span><span class="n">remote_command</span> <span class="o">=</span> <span class="n">split</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="n">remote_command</span><span class="p">)</span>
 | 
						||
<span class="gp">>>> </span><span class="n">remote_command</span>
 | 
						||
<span class="go">['ssh', 'home', "ls -l 'somefile; rm -rf ~'"]</span>
 | 
						||
<span class="gp">>>> </span><span class="n">command</span> <span class="o">=</span> <span class="n">split</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="n">remote_command</span><span class="p">[</span><span class="o">-</span><span class="mi">1</span><span class="p">])</span>
 | 
						||
<span class="gp">>>> </span><span class="n">command</span>
 | 
						||
<span class="go">['ls', '-l', 'somefile; rm -rf ~']</span>
 | 
						||
</pre></div>
 | 
						||
</div>
 | 
						||
<div class="versionadded">
 | 
						||
<p><span class="versionmodified added">Added in version 3.3.</span></p>
 | 
						||
</div>
 | 
						||
</dd></dl>
 | 
						||
 | 
						||
<p>The <a class="reference internal" href="#module-shlex" title="shlex: Simple lexical analysis for Unix shell-like languages."><code class="xref py py-mod docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">shlex</span></code></a> module defines the following class:</p>
 | 
						||
<dl class="py class">
 | 
						||
<dt class="sig sig-object py" id="shlex.shlex">
 | 
						||
<em class="property"><span class="k"><span class="pre">class</span></span><span class="w"> </span></em><span class="sig-prename descclassname"><span class="pre">shlex.</span></span><span class="sig-name descname"><span class="pre">shlex</span></span><span class="sig-paren">(</span><em class="sig-param"><span class="n"><span class="pre">instream</span></span><span class="o"><span class="pre">=</span></span><span class="default_value"><span class="pre">None</span></span></em>, <em class="sig-param"><span class="n"><span class="pre">infile</span></span><span class="o"><span class="pre">=</span></span><span class="default_value"><span class="pre">None</span></span></em>, <em class="sig-param"><span class="n"><span class="pre">posix</span></span><span class="o"><span class="pre">=</span></span><span class="default_value"><span class="pre">False</span></span></em>, <em class="sig-param"><span class="n"><span class="pre">punctuation_chars</span></span><span class="o"><span class="pre">=</span></span><span class="default_value"><span class="pre">False</span></span></em><span class="sig-paren">)</span><a class="headerlink" href="#shlex.shlex" title="Link to this definition">¶</a></dt>
 | 
						||
<dd><p>A <a class="reference internal" href="#shlex.shlex" title="shlex.shlex"><code class="xref py py-class docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">shlex</span></code></a> instance or subclass instance is a lexical analyzer
 | 
						||
object.  The initialization argument, if present, specifies where to read
 | 
						||
characters from.  It must be a file-/stream-like object with
 | 
						||
<a class="reference internal" href="io.html#io.TextIOBase.read" title="io.TextIOBase.read"><code class="xref py py-meth docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">read()</span></code></a> and <a class="reference internal" href="io.html#io.TextIOBase.readline" title="io.TextIOBase.readline"><code class="xref py py-meth docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">readline()</span></code></a> methods, or
 | 
						||
a string.  If no argument is given, input will be taken from <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">sys.stdin</span></code>.
 | 
						||
The second optional argument is a filename string, which sets the initial
 | 
						||
value of the <a class="reference internal" href="#shlex.shlex.infile" title="shlex.shlex.infile"><code class="xref py py-attr docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">infile</span></code></a> attribute.  If the <em>instream</em>
 | 
						||
argument is omitted or equal to <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">sys.stdin</span></code>, this second argument
 | 
						||
defaults to “stdin”.  The <em>posix</em> argument defines the operational mode:
 | 
						||
when <em>posix</em> is not true (default), the <a class="reference internal" href="#shlex.shlex" title="shlex.shlex"><code class="xref py py-class docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">shlex</span></code></a> instance will
 | 
						||
operate in compatibility mode.  When operating in POSIX mode,
 | 
						||
<a class="reference internal" href="#shlex.shlex" title="shlex.shlex"><code class="xref py py-class docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">shlex</span></code></a> will try to be as close as possible to the POSIX shell
 | 
						||
parsing rules.  The <em>punctuation_chars</em> argument provides a way to make the
 | 
						||
behaviour even closer to how real shells parse.  This can take a number of
 | 
						||
values: the default value, <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">False</span></code>, preserves the behaviour seen under
 | 
						||
Python 3.5 and earlier.  If set to <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">True</span></code>, then parsing of the characters
 | 
						||
<code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">();<>|&</span></code> is changed: any run of these characters (considered punctuation
 | 
						||
characters) is returned as a single token.  If set to a non-empty string of
 | 
						||
characters, those characters will be used as the punctuation characters.  Any
 | 
						||
characters in the <a class="reference internal" href="#shlex.shlex.wordchars" title="shlex.shlex.wordchars"><code class="xref py py-attr docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">wordchars</span></code></a> attribute that appear in
 | 
						||
<em>punctuation_chars</em> will be removed from <a class="reference internal" href="#shlex.shlex.wordchars" title="shlex.shlex.wordchars"><code class="xref py py-attr docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">wordchars</span></code></a>.  See
 | 
						||
<a class="reference internal" href="#improved-shell-compatibility"><span class="std std-ref">Improved Compatibility with Shells</span></a> for more information. <em>punctuation_chars</em>
 | 
						||
can be set only upon <a class="reference internal" href="#shlex.shlex" title="shlex.shlex"><code class="xref py py-class docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">shlex</span></code></a> instance creation and can’t be
 | 
						||
modified later.</p>
 | 
						||
<div class="versionchanged">
 | 
						||
<p><span class="versionmodified changed">Changed in version 3.6: </span>The <em>punctuation_chars</em> parameter was added.</p>
 | 
						||
</div>
 | 
						||
</dd></dl>
 | 
						||
 | 
						||
<div class="admonition seealso">
 | 
						||
<p class="admonition-title">See also</p>
 | 
						||
<dl class="simple">
 | 
						||
<dt>Module <a class="reference internal" href="configparser.html#module-configparser" title="configparser: Configuration file parser."><code class="xref py py-mod docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">configparser</span></code></a></dt><dd><p>Parser for configuration files similar to the Windows <code class="file docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">.ini</span></code> files.</p>
 | 
						||
</dd>
 | 
						||
</dl>
 | 
						||
</div>
 | 
						||
<section id="shlex-objects">
 | 
						||
<span id="id1"></span><h2>shlex Objects<a class="headerlink" href="#shlex-objects" title="Link to this heading">¶</a></h2>
 | 
						||
<p>A <a class="reference internal" href="#shlex.shlex" title="shlex.shlex"><code class="xref py py-class docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">shlex</span></code></a> instance has the following methods:</p>
 | 
						||
<dl class="py method">
 | 
						||
<dt class="sig sig-object py" id="shlex.shlex.get_token">
 | 
						||
<span class="sig-prename descclassname"><span class="pre">shlex.</span></span><span class="sig-name descname"><span class="pre">get_token</span></span><span class="sig-paren">(</span><span class="sig-paren">)</span><a class="headerlink" href="#shlex.shlex.get_token" title="Link to this definition">¶</a></dt>
 | 
						||
<dd><p>Return a token.  If tokens have been stacked using <a class="reference internal" href="#shlex.shlex.push_token" title="shlex.shlex.push_token"><code class="xref py py-meth docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">push_token()</span></code></a>, pop a
 | 
						||
token off the stack.  Otherwise, read one from the input stream.  If reading
 | 
						||
encounters an immediate end-of-file, <a class="reference internal" href="#shlex.shlex.eof" title="shlex.shlex.eof"><code class="xref py py-attr docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">eof</span></code></a> is returned (the empty
 | 
						||
string (<code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">''</span></code>) in non-POSIX mode, and <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">None</span></code> in POSIX mode).</p>
 | 
						||
</dd></dl>
 | 
						||
 | 
						||
<dl class="py method">
 | 
						||
<dt class="sig sig-object py" id="shlex.shlex.push_token">
 | 
						||
<span class="sig-prename descclassname"><span class="pre">shlex.</span></span><span class="sig-name descname"><span class="pre">push_token</span></span><span class="sig-paren">(</span><em class="sig-param"><span class="n"><span class="pre">str</span></span></em><span class="sig-paren">)</span><a class="headerlink" href="#shlex.shlex.push_token" title="Link to this definition">¶</a></dt>
 | 
						||
<dd><p>Push the argument onto the token stack.</p>
 | 
						||
</dd></dl>
 | 
						||
 | 
						||
<dl class="py method">
 | 
						||
<dt class="sig sig-object py" id="shlex.shlex.read_token">
 | 
						||
<span class="sig-prename descclassname"><span class="pre">shlex.</span></span><span class="sig-name descname"><span class="pre">read_token</span></span><span class="sig-paren">(</span><span class="sig-paren">)</span><a class="headerlink" href="#shlex.shlex.read_token" title="Link to this definition">¶</a></dt>
 | 
						||
<dd><p>Read a raw token.  Ignore the pushback stack, and do not interpret source
 | 
						||
requests.  (This is not ordinarily a useful entry point, and is documented here
 | 
						||
only for the sake of completeness.)</p>
 | 
						||
</dd></dl>
 | 
						||
 | 
						||
<dl class="py method">
 | 
						||
<dt class="sig sig-object py" id="shlex.shlex.sourcehook">
 | 
						||
<span class="sig-prename descclassname"><span class="pre">shlex.</span></span><span class="sig-name descname"><span class="pre">sourcehook</span></span><span class="sig-paren">(</span><em class="sig-param"><span class="n"><span class="pre">filename</span></span></em><span class="sig-paren">)</span><a class="headerlink" href="#shlex.shlex.sourcehook" title="Link to this definition">¶</a></dt>
 | 
						||
<dd><p>When <a class="reference internal" href="#shlex.shlex" title="shlex.shlex"><code class="xref py py-class docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">shlex</span></code></a> detects a source request (see <a class="reference internal" href="#shlex.shlex.source" title="shlex.shlex.source"><code class="xref py py-attr docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">source</span></code></a>
 | 
						||
below) this method is given the following token as argument, and expected
 | 
						||
to return a tuple consisting of a filename and an open file-like object.</p>
 | 
						||
<p>Normally, this method first strips any quotes off the argument.  If the result
 | 
						||
is an absolute pathname, or there was no previous source request in effect, or
 | 
						||
the previous source was a stream (such as <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">sys.stdin</span></code>), the result is left
 | 
						||
alone.  Otherwise, if the result is a relative pathname, the directory part of
 | 
						||
the name of the file immediately before it on the source inclusion stack is
 | 
						||
prepended (this behavior is like the way the C preprocessor handles <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">#include</span>
 | 
						||
<span class="pre">"file.h"</span></code>).</p>
 | 
						||
<p>The result of the manipulations is treated as a filename, and returned as the
 | 
						||
first component of the tuple, with <a class="reference internal" href="functions.html#open" title="open"><code class="xref py py-func docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">open()</span></code></a> called on it to yield the second
 | 
						||
component. (Note: this is the reverse of the order of arguments in instance
 | 
						||
initialization!)</p>
 | 
						||
<p>This hook is exposed so that you can use it to implement directory search paths,
 | 
						||
addition of file extensions, and other namespace hacks. There is no
 | 
						||
corresponding ‘close’ hook, but a shlex instance will call the
 | 
						||
<a class="reference internal" href="io.html#io.IOBase.close" title="io.IOBase.close"><code class="xref py py-meth docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">close()</span></code></a> method of the sourced input stream when it returns
 | 
						||
EOF.</p>
 | 
						||
<p>For more explicit control of source stacking, use the <a class="reference internal" href="#shlex.shlex.push_source" title="shlex.shlex.push_source"><code class="xref py py-meth docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">push_source()</span></code></a> and
 | 
						||
<a class="reference internal" href="#shlex.shlex.pop_source" title="shlex.shlex.pop_source"><code class="xref py py-meth docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">pop_source()</span></code></a> methods.</p>
 | 
						||
</dd></dl>
 | 
						||
 | 
						||
<dl class="py method">
 | 
						||
<dt class="sig sig-object py" id="shlex.shlex.push_source">
 | 
						||
<span class="sig-prename descclassname"><span class="pre">shlex.</span></span><span class="sig-name descname"><span class="pre">push_source</span></span><span class="sig-paren">(</span><em class="sig-param"><span class="n"><span class="pre">newstream</span></span></em>, <em class="sig-param"><span class="n"><span class="pre">newfile</span></span><span class="o"><span class="pre">=</span></span><span class="default_value"><span class="pre">None</span></span></em><span class="sig-paren">)</span><a class="headerlink" href="#shlex.shlex.push_source" title="Link to this definition">¶</a></dt>
 | 
						||
<dd><p>Push an input source stream onto the input stack.  If the filename argument is
 | 
						||
specified it will later be available for use in error messages.  This is the
 | 
						||
same method used internally by the <a class="reference internal" href="#shlex.shlex.sourcehook" title="shlex.shlex.sourcehook"><code class="xref py py-meth docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">sourcehook()</span></code></a> method.</p>
 | 
						||
</dd></dl>
 | 
						||
 | 
						||
<dl class="py method">
 | 
						||
<dt class="sig sig-object py" id="shlex.shlex.pop_source">
 | 
						||
<span class="sig-prename descclassname"><span class="pre">shlex.</span></span><span class="sig-name descname"><span class="pre">pop_source</span></span><span class="sig-paren">(</span><span class="sig-paren">)</span><a class="headerlink" href="#shlex.shlex.pop_source" title="Link to this definition">¶</a></dt>
 | 
						||
<dd><p>Pop the last-pushed input source from the input stack. This is the same method
 | 
						||
used internally when the lexer reaches EOF on a stacked input stream.</p>
 | 
						||
</dd></dl>
 | 
						||
 | 
						||
<dl class="py method">
 | 
						||
<dt class="sig sig-object py" id="shlex.shlex.error_leader">
 | 
						||
<span class="sig-prename descclassname"><span class="pre">shlex.</span></span><span class="sig-name descname"><span class="pre">error_leader</span></span><span class="sig-paren">(</span><em class="sig-param"><span class="n"><span class="pre">infile</span></span><span class="o"><span class="pre">=</span></span><span class="default_value"><span class="pre">None</span></span></em>, <em class="sig-param"><span class="n"><span class="pre">lineno</span></span><span class="o"><span class="pre">=</span></span><span class="default_value"><span class="pre">None</span></span></em><span class="sig-paren">)</span><a class="headerlink" href="#shlex.shlex.error_leader" title="Link to this definition">¶</a></dt>
 | 
						||
<dd><p>This method generates an error message leader in the format of a Unix C compiler
 | 
						||
error label; the format is <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">'"%s",</span> <span class="pre">line</span> <span class="pre">%d:</span> <span class="pre">'</span></code>, where the <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">%s</span></code> is replaced
 | 
						||
with the name of the current source file and the <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">%d</span></code> with the current input
 | 
						||
line number (the optional arguments can be used to override these).</p>
 | 
						||
<p>This convenience is provided to encourage <a class="reference internal" href="#module-shlex" title="shlex: Simple lexical analysis for Unix shell-like languages."><code class="xref py py-mod docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">shlex</span></code></a> users to generate error
 | 
						||
messages in the standard, parseable format understood by Emacs and other Unix
 | 
						||
tools.</p>
 | 
						||
</dd></dl>
 | 
						||
 | 
						||
<p>Instances of <a class="reference internal" href="#shlex.shlex" title="shlex.shlex"><code class="xref py py-class docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">shlex</span></code></a> subclasses have some public instance
 | 
						||
variables which either control lexical analysis or can be used for debugging:</p>
 | 
						||
<dl class="py attribute">
 | 
						||
<dt class="sig sig-object py" id="shlex.shlex.commenters">
 | 
						||
<span class="sig-prename descclassname"><span class="pre">shlex.</span></span><span class="sig-name descname"><span class="pre">commenters</span></span><a class="headerlink" href="#shlex.shlex.commenters" title="Link to this definition">¶</a></dt>
 | 
						||
<dd><p>The string of characters that are recognized as comment beginners. All
 | 
						||
characters from the comment beginner to end of line are ignored. Includes just
 | 
						||
<code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">'#'</span></code> by default.</p>
 | 
						||
</dd></dl>
 | 
						||
 | 
						||
<dl class="py attribute">
 | 
						||
<dt class="sig sig-object py" id="shlex.shlex.wordchars">
 | 
						||
<span class="sig-prename descclassname"><span class="pre">shlex.</span></span><span class="sig-name descname"><span class="pre">wordchars</span></span><a class="headerlink" href="#shlex.shlex.wordchars" title="Link to this definition">¶</a></dt>
 | 
						||
<dd><p>The string of characters that will accumulate into multi-character tokens.  By
 | 
						||
default, includes all ASCII alphanumerics and underscore.  In POSIX mode, the
 | 
						||
accented characters in the Latin-1 set are also included.  If
 | 
						||
<a class="reference internal" href="#shlex.shlex.punctuation_chars" title="shlex.shlex.punctuation_chars"><code class="xref py py-attr docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">punctuation_chars</span></code></a> is not empty, the characters <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">~-./*?=</span></code>, which can
 | 
						||
appear in filename specifications and command line parameters, will also be
 | 
						||
included in this attribute, and any characters which appear in
 | 
						||
<code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">punctuation_chars</span></code> will be removed from <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">wordchars</span></code> if they are present
 | 
						||
there. If <a class="reference internal" href="#shlex.shlex.whitespace_split" title="shlex.shlex.whitespace_split"><code class="xref py py-attr docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">whitespace_split</span></code></a> is set to <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">True</span></code>, this will have no
 | 
						||
effect.</p>
 | 
						||
</dd></dl>
 | 
						||
 | 
						||
<dl class="py attribute">
 | 
						||
<dt class="sig sig-object py" id="shlex.shlex.whitespace">
 | 
						||
<span class="sig-prename descclassname"><span class="pre">shlex.</span></span><span class="sig-name descname"><span class="pre">whitespace</span></span><a class="headerlink" href="#shlex.shlex.whitespace" title="Link to this definition">¶</a></dt>
 | 
						||
<dd><p>Characters that will be considered whitespace and skipped.  Whitespace bounds
 | 
						||
tokens.  By default, includes space, tab, linefeed and carriage-return.</p>
 | 
						||
</dd></dl>
 | 
						||
 | 
						||
<dl class="py attribute">
 | 
						||
<dt class="sig sig-object py" id="shlex.shlex.escape">
 | 
						||
<span class="sig-prename descclassname"><span class="pre">shlex.</span></span><span class="sig-name descname"><span class="pre">escape</span></span><a class="headerlink" href="#shlex.shlex.escape" title="Link to this definition">¶</a></dt>
 | 
						||
<dd><p>Characters that will be considered as escape. This will be only used in POSIX
 | 
						||
mode, and includes just <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">'\'</span></code> by default.</p>
 | 
						||
</dd></dl>
 | 
						||
 | 
						||
<dl class="py attribute">
 | 
						||
<dt class="sig sig-object py" id="shlex.shlex.quotes">
 | 
						||
<span class="sig-prename descclassname"><span class="pre">shlex.</span></span><span class="sig-name descname"><span class="pre">quotes</span></span><a class="headerlink" href="#shlex.shlex.quotes" title="Link to this definition">¶</a></dt>
 | 
						||
<dd><p>Characters that will be considered string quotes.  The token accumulates until
 | 
						||
the same quote is encountered again (thus, different quote types protect each
 | 
						||
other as in the shell.)  By default, includes ASCII single and double quotes.</p>
 | 
						||
</dd></dl>
 | 
						||
 | 
						||
<dl class="py attribute">
 | 
						||
<dt class="sig sig-object py" id="shlex.shlex.escapedquotes">
 | 
						||
<span class="sig-prename descclassname"><span class="pre">shlex.</span></span><span class="sig-name descname"><span class="pre">escapedquotes</span></span><a class="headerlink" href="#shlex.shlex.escapedquotes" title="Link to this definition">¶</a></dt>
 | 
						||
<dd><p>Characters in <a class="reference internal" href="#shlex.shlex.quotes" title="shlex.shlex.quotes"><code class="xref py py-attr docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">quotes</span></code></a> that will interpret escape characters defined in
 | 
						||
<a class="reference internal" href="#shlex.shlex.escape" title="shlex.shlex.escape"><code class="xref py py-attr docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">escape</span></code></a>.  This is only used in POSIX mode, and includes just <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">'"'</span></code> by
 | 
						||
default.</p>
 | 
						||
</dd></dl>
 | 
						||
 | 
						||
<dl class="py attribute">
 | 
						||
<dt class="sig sig-object py" id="shlex.shlex.whitespace_split">
 | 
						||
<span class="sig-prename descclassname"><span class="pre">shlex.</span></span><span class="sig-name descname"><span class="pre">whitespace_split</span></span><a class="headerlink" href="#shlex.shlex.whitespace_split" title="Link to this definition">¶</a></dt>
 | 
						||
<dd><p>If <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">True</span></code>, tokens will only be split in whitespaces.  This is useful, for
 | 
						||
example, for parsing command lines with <a class="reference internal" href="#shlex.shlex" title="shlex.shlex"><code class="xref py py-class docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">shlex</span></code></a>, getting
 | 
						||
tokens in a similar way to shell arguments.  When used in combination with
 | 
						||
<a class="reference internal" href="#shlex.shlex.punctuation_chars" title="shlex.shlex.punctuation_chars"><code class="xref py py-attr docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">punctuation_chars</span></code></a>, tokens will be split on whitespace in addition to
 | 
						||
those characters.</p>
 | 
						||
<div class="versionchanged">
 | 
						||
<p><span class="versionmodified changed">Changed in version 3.8: </span>The <a class="reference internal" href="#shlex.shlex.punctuation_chars" title="shlex.shlex.punctuation_chars"><code class="xref py py-attr docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">punctuation_chars</span></code></a> attribute was made compatible with the
 | 
						||
<a class="reference internal" href="#shlex.shlex.whitespace_split" title="shlex.shlex.whitespace_split"><code class="xref py py-attr docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">whitespace_split</span></code></a> attribute.</p>
 | 
						||
</div>
 | 
						||
</dd></dl>
 | 
						||
 | 
						||
<dl class="py attribute">
 | 
						||
<dt class="sig sig-object py" id="shlex.shlex.infile">
 | 
						||
<span class="sig-prename descclassname"><span class="pre">shlex.</span></span><span class="sig-name descname"><span class="pre">infile</span></span><a class="headerlink" href="#shlex.shlex.infile" title="Link to this definition">¶</a></dt>
 | 
						||
<dd><p>The name of the current input file, as initially set at class instantiation time
 | 
						||
or stacked by later source requests.  It may be useful to examine this when
 | 
						||
constructing error messages.</p>
 | 
						||
</dd></dl>
 | 
						||
 | 
						||
<dl class="py attribute">
 | 
						||
<dt class="sig sig-object py" id="shlex.shlex.instream">
 | 
						||
<span class="sig-prename descclassname"><span class="pre">shlex.</span></span><span class="sig-name descname"><span class="pre">instream</span></span><a class="headerlink" href="#shlex.shlex.instream" title="Link to this definition">¶</a></dt>
 | 
						||
<dd><p>The input stream from which this <a class="reference internal" href="#shlex.shlex" title="shlex.shlex"><code class="xref py py-class docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">shlex</span></code></a> instance is reading
 | 
						||
characters.</p>
 | 
						||
</dd></dl>
 | 
						||
 | 
						||
<dl class="py attribute">
 | 
						||
<dt class="sig sig-object py" id="shlex.shlex.source">
 | 
						||
<span class="sig-prename descclassname"><span class="pre">shlex.</span></span><span class="sig-name descname"><span class="pre">source</span></span><a class="headerlink" href="#shlex.shlex.source" title="Link to this definition">¶</a></dt>
 | 
						||
<dd><p>This attribute is <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">None</span></code> by default.  If you assign a string to it, that
 | 
						||
string will be recognized as a lexical-level inclusion request similar to the
 | 
						||
<code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">source</span></code> keyword in various shells.  That is, the immediately following token
 | 
						||
will be opened as a filename and input will be taken from that stream until
 | 
						||
EOF, at which point the <a class="reference internal" href="io.html#io.IOBase.close" title="io.IOBase.close"><code class="xref py py-meth docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">close()</span></code></a> method of that stream will be
 | 
						||
called and the input source will again become the original input stream.  Source
 | 
						||
requests may be stacked any number of levels deep.</p>
 | 
						||
</dd></dl>
 | 
						||
 | 
						||
<dl class="py attribute">
 | 
						||
<dt class="sig sig-object py" id="shlex.shlex.debug">
 | 
						||
<span class="sig-prename descclassname"><span class="pre">shlex.</span></span><span class="sig-name descname"><span class="pre">debug</span></span><a class="headerlink" href="#shlex.shlex.debug" title="Link to this definition">¶</a></dt>
 | 
						||
<dd><p>If this attribute is numeric and <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">1</span></code> or more, a <a class="reference internal" href="#shlex.shlex" title="shlex.shlex"><code class="xref py py-class docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">shlex</span></code></a>
 | 
						||
instance will print verbose progress output on its behavior.  If you need
 | 
						||
to use this, you can read the module source code to learn the details.</p>
 | 
						||
</dd></dl>
 | 
						||
 | 
						||
<dl class="py attribute">
 | 
						||
<dt class="sig sig-object py" id="shlex.shlex.lineno">
 | 
						||
<span class="sig-prename descclassname"><span class="pre">shlex.</span></span><span class="sig-name descname"><span class="pre">lineno</span></span><a class="headerlink" href="#shlex.shlex.lineno" title="Link to this definition">¶</a></dt>
 | 
						||
<dd><p>Source line number (count of newlines seen so far plus one).</p>
 | 
						||
</dd></dl>
 | 
						||
 | 
						||
<dl class="py attribute">
 | 
						||
<dt class="sig sig-object py" id="shlex.shlex.token">
 | 
						||
<span class="sig-prename descclassname"><span class="pre">shlex.</span></span><span class="sig-name descname"><span class="pre">token</span></span><a class="headerlink" href="#shlex.shlex.token" title="Link to this definition">¶</a></dt>
 | 
						||
<dd><p>The token buffer.  It may be useful to examine this when catching exceptions.</p>
 | 
						||
</dd></dl>
 | 
						||
 | 
						||
<dl class="py attribute">
 | 
						||
<dt class="sig sig-object py" id="shlex.shlex.eof">
 | 
						||
<span class="sig-prename descclassname"><span class="pre">shlex.</span></span><span class="sig-name descname"><span class="pre">eof</span></span><a class="headerlink" href="#shlex.shlex.eof" title="Link to this definition">¶</a></dt>
 | 
						||
<dd><p>Token used to determine end of file. This will be set to the empty string
 | 
						||
(<code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">''</span></code>), in non-POSIX mode, and to <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">None</span></code> in POSIX mode.</p>
 | 
						||
</dd></dl>
 | 
						||
 | 
						||
<dl class="py attribute">
 | 
						||
<dt class="sig sig-object py" id="shlex.shlex.punctuation_chars">
 | 
						||
<span class="sig-prename descclassname"><span class="pre">shlex.</span></span><span class="sig-name descname"><span class="pre">punctuation_chars</span></span><a class="headerlink" href="#shlex.shlex.punctuation_chars" title="Link to this definition">¶</a></dt>
 | 
						||
<dd><p>A read-only property. Characters that will be considered punctuation. Runs of
 | 
						||
punctuation characters will be returned as a single token. However, note that no
 | 
						||
semantic validity checking will be performed: for example, ‘>>>’ could be
 | 
						||
returned as a token, even though it may not be recognised as such by shells.</p>
 | 
						||
<div class="versionadded">
 | 
						||
<p><span class="versionmodified added">Added in version 3.6.</span></p>
 | 
						||
</div>
 | 
						||
</dd></dl>
 | 
						||
 | 
						||
</section>
 | 
						||
<section id="parsing-rules">
 | 
						||
<span id="shlex-parsing-rules"></span><h2>Parsing Rules<a class="headerlink" href="#parsing-rules" title="Link to this heading">¶</a></h2>
 | 
						||
<p>When operating in non-POSIX mode, <a class="reference internal" href="#shlex.shlex" title="shlex.shlex"><code class="xref py py-class docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">shlex</span></code></a> will try to obey to the
 | 
						||
following rules.</p>
 | 
						||
<ul class="simple">
 | 
						||
<li><p>Quote characters are not recognized within words (<code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">Do"Not"Separate</span></code> is
 | 
						||
parsed as the single word <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">Do"Not"Separate</span></code>);</p></li>
 | 
						||
<li><p>Escape characters are not recognized;</p></li>
 | 
						||
<li><p>Enclosing characters in quotes preserve the literal value of all characters
 | 
						||
within the quotes;</p></li>
 | 
						||
<li><p>Closing quotes separate words (<code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">"Do"Separate</span></code> is parsed as <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">"Do"</span></code> and
 | 
						||
<code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">Separate</span></code>);</p></li>
 | 
						||
<li><p>If <a class="reference internal" href="#shlex.shlex.whitespace_split" title="shlex.shlex.whitespace_split"><code class="xref py py-attr docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">whitespace_split</span></code></a> is <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">False</span></code>, any character not
 | 
						||
declared to be a word character, whitespace, or a quote will be returned as
 | 
						||
a single-character token. If it is <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">True</span></code>, <a class="reference internal" href="#shlex.shlex" title="shlex.shlex"><code class="xref py py-class docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">shlex</span></code></a> will only
 | 
						||
split words in whitespaces;</p></li>
 | 
						||
<li><p>EOF is signaled with an empty string (<code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">''</span></code>);</p></li>
 | 
						||
<li><p>It’s not possible to parse empty strings, even if quoted.</p></li>
 | 
						||
</ul>
 | 
						||
<p>When operating in POSIX mode, <a class="reference internal" href="#shlex.shlex" title="shlex.shlex"><code class="xref py py-class docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">shlex</span></code></a> will try to obey to the
 | 
						||
following parsing rules.</p>
 | 
						||
<ul class="simple">
 | 
						||
<li><p>Quotes are stripped out, and do not separate words (<code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">"Do"Not"Separate"</span></code> is
 | 
						||
parsed as the single word <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">DoNotSeparate</span></code>);</p></li>
 | 
						||
<li><p>Non-quoted escape characters (e.g. <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">'\'</span></code>) preserve the literal value of the
 | 
						||
next character that follows;</p></li>
 | 
						||
<li><p>Enclosing characters in quotes which are not part of
 | 
						||
<a class="reference internal" href="#shlex.shlex.escapedquotes" title="shlex.shlex.escapedquotes"><code class="xref py py-attr docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">escapedquotes</span></code></a> (e.g. <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">"'"</span></code>) preserve the literal value
 | 
						||
of all characters within the quotes;</p></li>
 | 
						||
<li><p>Enclosing characters in quotes which are part of
 | 
						||
<a class="reference internal" href="#shlex.shlex.escapedquotes" title="shlex.shlex.escapedquotes"><code class="xref py py-attr docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">escapedquotes</span></code></a> (e.g. <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">'"'</span></code>) preserves the literal value
 | 
						||
of all characters within the quotes, with the exception of the characters
 | 
						||
mentioned in <a class="reference internal" href="#shlex.shlex.escape" title="shlex.shlex.escape"><code class="xref py py-attr docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">escape</span></code></a>.  The escape characters retain its
 | 
						||
special meaning only when followed by the quote in use, or the escape
 | 
						||
character itself. Otherwise the escape character will be considered a
 | 
						||
normal character.</p></li>
 | 
						||
<li><p>EOF is signaled with a <a class="reference internal" href="constants.html#None" title="None"><code class="xref py py-const docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">None</span></code></a> value;</p></li>
 | 
						||
<li><p>Quoted empty strings (<code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">''</span></code>) are allowed.</p></li>
 | 
						||
</ul>
 | 
						||
</section>
 | 
						||
<section id="improved-compatibility-with-shells">
 | 
						||
<span id="improved-shell-compatibility"></span><h2>Improved Compatibility with Shells<a class="headerlink" href="#improved-compatibility-with-shells" title="Link to this heading">¶</a></h2>
 | 
						||
<div class="versionadded">
 | 
						||
<p><span class="versionmodified added">Added in version 3.6.</span></p>
 | 
						||
</div>
 | 
						||
<p>The <a class="reference internal" href="#module-shlex" title="shlex: Simple lexical analysis for Unix shell-like languages."><code class="xref py py-class docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">shlex</span></code></a> class provides compatibility with the parsing performed by
 | 
						||
common Unix shells like <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">bash</span></code>, <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">dash</span></code>, and <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">sh</span></code>.  To take advantage of
 | 
						||
this compatibility, specify the <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">punctuation_chars</span></code> argument in the
 | 
						||
constructor.  This defaults to <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">False</span></code>, which preserves pre-3.6 behaviour.
 | 
						||
However, if it is set to <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">True</span></code>, then parsing of the characters <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">();<>|&</span></code>
 | 
						||
is changed: any run of these characters is returned as a single token.  While
 | 
						||
this is short of a full parser for shells (which would be out of scope for the
 | 
						||
standard library, given the multiplicity of shells out there), it does allow
 | 
						||
you to perform processing of command lines more easily than you could
 | 
						||
otherwise.  To illustrate, you can see the difference in the following snippet:</p>
 | 
						||
<div class="highlight-pycon notranslate"><div class="highlight"><pre><span></span><span class="gp">>>> </span><span class="kn">import</span><span class="w"> </span><span class="nn">shlex</span>
 | 
						||
<span class="gp">>>> </span><span class="n">text</span> <span class="o">=</span> <span class="s2">"a && b; c && d || e; f >'abc'; (def </span><span class="se">\"</span><span class="s2">ghi</span><span class="se">\"</span><span class="s2">)"</span>
 | 
						||
<span class="gp">>>> </span><span class="n">s</span> <span class="o">=</span> <span class="n">shlex</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">shlex</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="n">text</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="n">posix</span><span class="o">=</span><span class="kc">True</span><span class="p">)</span>
 | 
						||
<span class="gp">>>> </span><span class="n">s</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">whitespace_split</span> <span class="o">=</span> <span class="kc">True</span>
 | 
						||
<span class="gp">>>> </span><span class="nb">list</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="n">s</span><span class="p">)</span>
 | 
						||
<span class="go">['a', '&&', 'b;', 'c', '&&', 'd', '||', 'e;', 'f', '>abc;', '(def', 'ghi)']</span>
 | 
						||
<span class="gp">>>> </span><span class="n">s</span> <span class="o">=</span> <span class="n">shlex</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">shlex</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="n">text</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="n">posix</span><span class="o">=</span><span class="kc">True</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="n">punctuation_chars</span><span class="o">=</span><span class="kc">True</span><span class="p">)</span>
 | 
						||
<span class="gp">>>> </span><span class="n">s</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">whitespace_split</span> <span class="o">=</span> <span class="kc">True</span>
 | 
						||
<span class="gp">>>> </span><span class="nb">list</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="n">s</span><span class="p">)</span>
 | 
						||
<span class="go">['a', '&&', 'b', ';', 'c', '&&', 'd', '||', 'e', ';', 'f', '>', 'abc', ';',</span>
 | 
						||
<span class="go">'(', 'def', 'ghi', ')']</span>
 | 
						||
</pre></div>
 | 
						||
</div>
 | 
						||
<p>Of course, tokens will be returned which are not valid for shells, and you’ll
 | 
						||
need to implement your own error checks on the returned tokens.</p>
 | 
						||
<p>Instead of passing <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">True</span></code> as the value for the punctuation_chars parameter,
 | 
						||
you can pass a string with specific characters, which will be used to determine
 | 
						||
which characters constitute punctuation. For example:</p>
 | 
						||
<div class="highlight-python3 notranslate"><div class="highlight"><pre><span></span><span class="gp">>>> </span><span class="kn">import</span><span class="w"> </span><span class="nn">shlex</span>
 | 
						||
<span class="gp">>>> </span><span class="n">s</span> <span class="o">=</span> <span class="n">shlex</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">shlex</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="s2">"a && b || c"</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="n">punctuation_chars</span><span class="o">=</span><span class="s2">"|"</span><span class="p">)</span>
 | 
						||
<span class="gp">>>> </span><span class="nb">list</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="n">s</span><span class="p">)</span>
 | 
						||
<span class="go">['a', '&', '&', 'b', '||', 'c']</span>
 | 
						||
</pre></div>
 | 
						||
</div>
 | 
						||
<div class="admonition note">
 | 
						||
<p class="admonition-title">Note</p>
 | 
						||
<p>When <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">punctuation_chars</span></code> is specified, the <a class="reference internal" href="#shlex.shlex.wordchars" title="shlex.shlex.wordchars"><code class="xref py py-attr docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">wordchars</span></code></a>
 | 
						||
attribute is augmented with the characters <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">~-./*?=</span></code>.  That is because these
 | 
						||
characters can appear in file names (including wildcards) and command-line
 | 
						||
arguments (e.g. <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">--color=auto</span></code>). Hence:</p>
 | 
						||
<div class="highlight-python3 notranslate"><div class="highlight"><pre><span></span><span class="gp">>>> </span><span class="kn">import</span><span class="w"> </span><span class="nn">shlex</span>
 | 
						||
<span class="gp">>>> </span><span class="n">s</span> <span class="o">=</span> <span class="n">shlex</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">shlex</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="s1">'~/a && b-c --color=auto || d *.py?'</span><span class="p">,</span>
 | 
						||
<span class="gp">... </span>                <span class="n">punctuation_chars</span><span class="o">=</span><span class="kc">True</span><span class="p">)</span>
 | 
						||
<span class="gp">>>> </span><span class="nb">list</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="n">s</span><span class="p">)</span>
 | 
						||
<span class="go">['~/a', '&&', 'b-c', '--color=auto', '||', 'd', '*.py?']</span>
 | 
						||
</pre></div>
 | 
						||
</div>
 | 
						||
<p>However, to match the shell as closely as possible, it is recommended to
 | 
						||
always use <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">posix</span></code> and <a class="reference internal" href="#shlex.shlex.whitespace_split" title="shlex.shlex.whitespace_split"><code class="xref py py-attr docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">whitespace_split</span></code></a> when using
 | 
						||
<a class="reference internal" href="#shlex.shlex.punctuation_chars" title="shlex.shlex.punctuation_chars"><code class="xref py py-attr docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">punctuation_chars</span></code></a>, which will negate
 | 
						||
<a class="reference internal" href="#shlex.shlex.wordchars" title="shlex.shlex.wordchars"><code class="xref py py-attr docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">wordchars</span></code></a> entirely.</p>
 | 
						||
</div>
 | 
						||
<p>For best effect, <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">punctuation_chars</span></code> should be set in conjunction with
 | 
						||
<code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">posix=True</span></code>. (Note that <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">posix=False</span></code> is the default for
 | 
						||
<a class="reference internal" href="#shlex.shlex" title="shlex.shlex"><code class="xref py py-class docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">shlex</span></code></a>.)</p>
 | 
						||
</section>
 | 
						||
</section>
 | 
						||
 | 
						||
 | 
						||
            <div class="clearer"></div>
 | 
						||
          </div>
 | 
						||
        </div>
 | 
						||
      </div>
 | 
						||
      <div class="sphinxsidebar" role="navigation" aria-label="Main">
 | 
						||
        <div class="sphinxsidebarwrapper">
 | 
						||
  <div>
 | 
						||
    <h3><a href="../contents.html">Table of Contents</a></h3>
 | 
						||
    <ul>
 | 
						||
<li><a class="reference internal" href="#"><code class="xref py py-mod docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">shlex</span></code> — Simple lexical analysis</a><ul>
 | 
						||
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