"Unquote"/parse bash argument string in python

Question

I have a python script that takes its input from the command line arguments. For example:

./myscript.py first_item second\ item "third item"

I can output separate items and escape spaces and special characters using pipes.quote.

print " ".join(map(pipes.quote, outputItems))

Is there any existing "unquote" interface that will parse a bash argument string, keeping escaped spaces and quoted strings intact?

Something that would allow the same python script to handle this:

echo 'first_item second\ item "third item"' | ./myscript.py

Note that this is what xargs did, and it turned out to be a horrible design decision that people still suffer from 30 years later. It's generally agreed that \0 terminated strings, or at the very least \n terminated, is the way to go. — that other guy
– that other guy, Commented Mar 12, 2014 at 16:17

roippi · Accepted Answer · 2014-03-12 12:37:38Z

4

s = 'first_item second\ item "third item"'

import shlex

shlex.split(s)
Out[3]: ['first_item', 'second item', 'third item']

answered Mar 12, 2014 at 12:37

roippi

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