[Python-Dev] subprocess not escaping "^" on Windows

[Christian Tismer]

Hi Guys,

yes I know there was a lengthy thread on python-dev in 2014
called "subprocess shell=True on Windows doesn't escape ^ character".

But in the end, I still don't understand why subprocess does
escape the double quote when shell=True but not other special
characters like "^"?

Yes I know that certain characters are escaped under certain
Windows versions and others are not. And it is not trivial to make
that work correctly in all cases. But I think if we support
some escaping at all, then we should also support all special
cases. Or what sense should an escape make if it works sometimes
and sometimes not?

The user would have to know which cases work and which not. But
I thought we want to remove exactly that burden from him?

-----

As a side note: In most cases where shell=True is found, people
seem to need evaluation of the PATH variable. To my understanding,

>>> from subprocess import call
>>> call(("ls",))

works in Linux, but (with dir) not in Windows. But that is misleading
because "dir" is a builtin command but "ls" is not. The same holds for
"del" (Windows) and "rm" (Linux).

So I thought that using shell=True was a good Thing on windows,
but actually it is the start of all evil.
Using regular commands like "git" works fine on Windows and Linux
without the shell=True parameter.

Perhaps it would be a good thing to emulate the builtin programs
in python by some shell=True replacement (emulate_shell=True?)
to match the normal user expectations without using the shell?

Cheers - Chris

-- 
Christian Tismer-Sperling    :^)   tismer at stackless.com
Software Consulting          :     http://www.stackless.com/
Karl-Liebknecht-Str. 121     :     https://github.com/PySide
14482 Potsdam                :     GPG key -> 0xFB7BEE0E
phone +49 173 24 18 776  fax +49 (30) 700143-0023

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