[Python-Dev] Handling of sys.args (Re: User's complaints)

[Ka-Ping Yee]

On Thu, 13 Jul 2006, Greg Ewing wrote:
> Would it help if sys were pre-imported into the builtins?
> Or do you think that args shouldn't live in sys at all?

I feel like the command-line arguments don't really belong in sys,
and i'd rather not have 'sys' pre-imported into the builtins.

I think of 'sys' as the place for sensitive interpreter internals
and the builtins as the place for harmless functions.  They're at
opposite ends of the scale -- 'sys' is the most privileged;
builtins are the least privileged.  From a security point of view,
'import' is the main way to get dangerous new functionality.
I realize 'open' breaks this concept, but it's nice to be able to
say, to a rough approximation, that preventing 'import' gives you
an interpreter that can do computations but isn't a security risk.

These are just my feelings -- i'm not sure how consistent this is
with the original intent of 'sys'.  I think it would be a quite
useful distinction to have, though.

> And while we're on the subject, anyone think it would
> be a good idea to drop the silly feature of having
> the program name as args[0]? You almost *never* want
> to treat it the same way as the rest of the args,
> so the first thing you always do is args[1:].

Starting the args array with the first argument (and putting
the program name somewhere else) seems Pythonic to me.


-- ?!ng