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pythondistutilsshlex

What is the difference between distutils.util.split_quoted and shlex.split

The python standard library provides distutils.util.split_quoted and shlex.split.

Is there any situation in which distutils.util.split_quoted(s) gives a different result to shlex.split(s)?

Solution

  • Yes. These algorithms disagree about the definition of whitespace: shlex hardcodes the four characters ' \t\r\n', however distutils uses string.whitespace in a regex. Therefore, it additionally considers some other characters as separators.

    formfeed:

    >>> distutils.util.split_quoted('A\fB')
['A', 'B']
>>> shlex.split('A\fB')
['A\x0cB']

    vertical tab:

    >>> distutils.util.split_quoted('A\vB')
['A', 'B']
>>> shlex.split('A\vB')
['A\x0bB']