rI would like to know if it is possible to capture an entered full command line with pipe or semicolon as below:
$> python foo.py arg arg | arg arg
OR
$> python foo.py arg arg ; arg arg
Today in my attempts, sys.argv is returning only what is typed in the left side of the pipe/semicolon and the second part runs as an independent command (what is understandable, but not desired :) ).
I tried the code:
if not '\'' in sys.argv or not '"' in sys.argv:
print 'foo failed'
exit
to force the commands be quoted (and maybe to force the system to see everything as a single command line), but did not work and the second part keeps being executed after the break.
Python is not given access to those parts. Those are not part of the command arguments for Python, those are input for the shell. Pipes, quoting and semicolons are part of the shell syntax, not a command line for subprocesses that the shell starts.
The shell splits out syntax you give it, then calls Python with just the arguments addressed to the python binary. You can't retrieve the whole shell commands from subprocesses, that'd be a potential security issue.
If you want to pass on information to the Python script, you must do so in the command arguments. That means that if you must include quotes in your arguments, you must first escape them at the shell level, so they are not interpreted as shell syntax, e.g.
python foo.py arg1 '|' arg2
is then available in sys.argv as
['foo.py', 'arg1', '|', 'arg2']
where the single quotes around the | tell the shell to treat that character as argument text.
You need to consult the documentation for your specific shell environment for the details on how quoting works. For example, if you use bash, read the Bash manual section on quoting.