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  <div class="section" id="module-shlex">
<h1>24.2. <tt class="xref docutils literal"><span class="pre">shlex</span></tt> &#8212; Simple lexical analysis<a class="headerlink" href="#module-shlex" title="Permalink to this headline">¶</a></h1>
<p class="versionadded">
<span class="versionmodified">New in version 1.5.2.</span></p>
<p>The <a title="shlex.shlex" class="reference internal" href="#shlex.shlex"><tt class="xref docutils literal"><span class="pre">shlex</span></tt></a> class makes it easy to write lexical analyzers for simple
syntaxes resembling that of the Unix shell.  This will often be useful for
writing minilanguages, (for example, in run control files for Python
applications) or for parsing quoted strings.</p>
<div class="admonition note">
<p class="first admonition-title">Note</p>
<p class="last">The <tt class="xref docutils literal"><span class="pre">shlex</span></tt> module currently does not support Unicode input.</p>
</div>
<p>The <tt class="xref docutils literal"><span class="pre">shlex</span></tt> module defines the following functions:</p>
<dl class="function">
<dt id="shlex.split">
<tt class="descclassname">shlex.</tt><tt class="descname">split</tt><big>(</big><em>s</em><span class="optional">[</span>, <em>comments</em><span class="optional">[</span>, <em>posix</em><span class="optional">]</span><span class="optional">]</span><big>)</big><a class="headerlink" href="#shlex.split" title="Permalink to this definition">¶</a></dt>
<dd><p>Split the string <em>s</em> using shell-like syntax. If <em>comments</em> is <a title="False" class="reference external" href="constants.html#False"><tt class="xref xref docutils literal"><span class="pre">False</span></tt></a>
(the default), the parsing of comments in the given string will be disabled
(setting the <tt class="xref docutils literal"><span class="pre">commenters</span></tt> member of the <a title="shlex.shlex" class="reference internal" href="#shlex.shlex"><tt class="xref docutils literal"><span class="pre">shlex</span></tt></a> instance to the
empty string).  This function operates in POSIX mode by default, but uses
non-POSIX mode if the <em>posix</em> argument is false.</p>
<p class="versionadded">
<span class="versionmodified">New in version 2.3.</span></p>
<p class="versionchanged">
<span class="versionmodified">Changed in version 2.6: </span>Added the <em>posix</em> parameter.</p>
<div class="admonition note">
<p class="first admonition-title">Note</p>
<p class="last">Since the <a title="shlex.split" class="reference internal" href="#shlex.split"><tt class="xref docutils literal"><span class="pre">split()</span></tt></a> function instantiates a <a title="shlex.shlex" class="reference internal" href="#shlex.shlex"><tt class="xref docutils literal"><span class="pre">shlex</span></tt></a> instance, passing
<tt class="xref docutils literal"><span class="pre">None</span></tt> for <em>s</em> will read the string to split from standard input.</p>
</div>
</dd></dl>

<p>The <tt class="xref docutils literal"><span class="pre">shlex</span></tt> module defines the following class:</p>
<dl class="class">
<dt id="shlex.shlex">
<em class="property">class </em><tt class="descclassname">shlex.</tt><tt class="descname">shlex</tt><big>(</big><span class="optional">[</span><em>instream</em><span class="optional">[</span>, <em>infile</em><span class="optional">[</span>, <em>posix</em><span class="optional">]</span><span class="optional">]</span><span class="optional">]</span><big>)</big><a class="headerlink" href="#shlex.shlex" title="Permalink to this definition">¶</a></dt>
<dd>A <a title="shlex.shlex" class="reference internal" href="#shlex.shlex"><tt class="xref docutils literal"><span class="pre">shlex</span></tt></a> instance or subclass instance is a lexical analyzer object.
The initialization argument, if present, specifies where to read characters
from. It must be a file-/stream-like object with <tt class="xref docutils literal"><span class="pre">read()</span></tt> and
<tt class="xref docutils literal"><span class="pre">readline()</span></tt> methods, or a string (strings are accepted since Python 2.3).
If no argument is given, input will be taken from <tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">sys.stdin</span></tt>.  The second
optional argument is a filename string, which sets the initial value of the
<a title="shlex.shlex.infile" class="reference internal" href="#shlex.shlex.infile"><tt class="xref docutils literal"><span class="pre">infile</span></tt></a> member.  If the <em>instream</em> argument is omitted or equal to
<tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">sys.stdin</span></tt>, this second argument defaults to &#8220;stdin&#8221;.  The <em>posix</em> argument
was introduced in Python 2.3, and defines the operational mode.  When <em>posix</em> is
not true (default), the <a title="shlex.shlex" class="reference internal" href="#shlex.shlex"><tt class="xref docutils literal"><span class="pre">shlex</span></tt></a> instance will operate in compatibility
mode.  When operating in POSIX mode, <a title="shlex.shlex" class="reference internal" href="#shlex.shlex"><tt class="xref docutils literal"><span class="pre">shlex</span></tt></a> will try to be as close as
possible to the POSIX shell parsing rules.</dd></dl>

<div class="admonition-see-also admonition seealso">
<p class="first admonition-title">See also</p>
<dl class="last docutils">
<dt>Module <a title="Configuration file parser." class="reference external" href="configparser.html#module-ConfigParser"><tt class="xref docutils literal"><span class="pre">ConfigParser</span></tt></a></dt>
<dd>Parser for configuration files similar to the Windows <tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">.ini</span></tt> files.</dd>
</dl>
</div>
<div class="section" id="shlex-objects">
<span id="id1"></span><h2>24.2.1. shlex Objects<a class="headerlink" href="#shlex-objects" title="Permalink to this headline">¶</a></h2>
<p>A <a title="shlex.shlex" class="reference internal" href="#shlex.shlex"><tt class="xref docutils literal"><span class="pre">shlex</span></tt></a> instance has the following methods:</p>
<dl class="method">
<dt id="shlex.shlex.get_token">
<tt class="descclassname">shlex.</tt><tt class="descname">get_token</tt><big>(</big><big>)</big><a class="headerlink" href="#shlex.shlex.get_token" title="Permalink to this definition">¶</a></dt>
<dd>Return a token.  If tokens have been stacked using <a title="shlex.shlex.push_token" class="reference internal" href="#shlex.shlex.push_token"><tt class="xref docutils literal"><span class="pre">push_token()</span></tt></a>, pop a
token off the stack.  Otherwise, read one from the input stream.  If reading
encounters an immediate end-of-file, <tt class="xref docutils literal"><span class="pre">self.eof</span></tt> is returned (the empty
string (<tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">''</span></tt>) in non-POSIX mode, and <tt class="xref docutils literal"><span class="pre">None</span></tt> in POSIX mode).</dd></dl>

<dl class="method">
<dt id="shlex.shlex.push_token">
<tt class="descclassname">shlex.</tt><tt class="descname">push_token</tt><big>(</big><em>str</em><big>)</big><a class="headerlink" href="#shlex.shlex.push_token" title="Permalink to this definition">¶</a></dt>
<dd>Push the argument onto the token stack.</dd></dl>

<dl class="method">
<dt id="shlex.shlex.read_token">
<tt class="descclassname">shlex.</tt><tt class="descname">read_token</tt><big>(</big><big>)</big><a class="headerlink" href="#shlex.shlex.read_token" title="Permalink to this definition">¶</a></dt>
<dd>Read a raw token.  Ignore the pushback stack, and do not interpret source
requests.  (This is not ordinarily a useful entry point, and is documented here
only for the sake of completeness.)</dd></dl>

<dl class="method">
<dt id="shlex.shlex.sourcehook">
<tt class="descclassname">shlex.</tt><tt class="descname">sourcehook</tt><big>(</big><em>filename</em><big>)</big><a class="headerlink" href="#shlex.shlex.sourcehook" title="Permalink to this definition">¶</a></dt>
<dd><p>When <a title="shlex.shlex" class="reference internal" href="#shlex.shlex"><tt class="xref docutils literal"><span class="pre">shlex</span></tt></a> detects a source request (see <a title="shlex.shlex.source" class="reference internal" href="#shlex.shlex.source"><tt class="xref docutils literal"><span class="pre">source</span></tt></a> below) this
method is given the following token as argument, and expected to return a tuple
consisting of a filename and an open file-like object.</p>
<p>Normally, this method first strips any quotes off the argument.  If the result
is an absolute pathname, or there was no previous source request in effect, or
the previous source was a stream (such as <tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">sys.stdin</span></tt>), the result is left
alone.  Otherwise, if the result is a relative pathname, the directory part of
the name of the file immediately before it on the source inclusion stack is
prepended (this behavior is like the way the C preprocessor handles <tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">#include</span>
<span class="pre">&quot;file.h&quot;</span></tt>).</p>
<p>The result of the manipulations is treated as a filename, and returned as the
first component of the tuple, with <a title="open" class="reference external" href="functions.html#open"><tt class="xref docutils literal"><span class="pre">open()</span></tt></a> called on it to yield the second
component. (Note: this is the reverse of the order of arguments in instance
initialization!)</p>
<p>This hook is exposed so that you can use it to implement directory search paths,
addition of file extensions, and other namespace hacks. There is no
corresponding &#8216;close&#8217; hook, but a shlex instance will call the <tt class="xref docutils literal"><span class="pre">close()</span></tt>
method of the sourced input stream when it returns EOF.</p>
<p>For more explicit control of source stacking, use the <a title="shlex.shlex.push_source" class="reference internal" href="#shlex.shlex.push_source"><tt class="xref docutils literal"><span class="pre">push_source()</span></tt></a> and
<a title="shlex.shlex.pop_source" class="reference internal" href="#shlex.shlex.pop_source"><tt class="xref docutils literal"><span class="pre">pop_source()</span></tt></a> methods.</p>
</dd></dl>

<dl class="method">
<dt id="shlex.shlex.push_source">
<tt class="descclassname">shlex.</tt><tt class="descname">push_source</tt><big>(</big><em>stream</em><span class="optional">[</span>, <em>filename</em><span class="optional">]</span><big>)</big><a class="headerlink" href="#shlex.shlex.push_source" title="Permalink to this definition">¶</a></dt>
<dd><p>Push an input source stream onto the input stack.  If the filename argument is
specified it will later be available for use in error messages.  This is the
same method used internally by the <a title="shlex.shlex.sourcehook" class="reference internal" href="#shlex.shlex.sourcehook"><tt class="xref docutils literal"><span class="pre">sourcehook()</span></tt></a> method.</p>
<p class="versionadded">
<span class="versionmodified">New in version 2.1.</span></p>
</dd></dl>

<dl class="method">
<dt id="shlex.shlex.pop_source">
<tt class="descclassname">shlex.</tt><tt class="descname">pop_source</tt><big>(</big><big>)</big><a class="headerlink" href="#shlex.shlex.pop_source" title="Permalink to this definition">¶</a></dt>
<dd><p>Pop the last-pushed input source from the input stack. This is the same method
used internally when the lexer reaches EOF on a stacked input stream.</p>
<p class="versionadded">
<span class="versionmodified">New in version 2.1.</span></p>
</dd></dl>

<dl class="method">
<dt id="shlex.shlex.error_leader">
<tt class="descclassname">shlex.</tt><tt class="descname">error_leader</tt><big>(</big><span class="optional">[</span><em>file</em><span class="optional">[</span>, <em>line</em><span class="optional">]</span><span class="optional">]</span><big>)</big><a class="headerlink" href="#shlex.shlex.error_leader" title="Permalink to this definition">¶</a></dt>
<dd><p>This method generates an error message leader in the format of a Unix C compiler
error label; the format is <tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">'&quot;%s&quot;,</span> <span class="pre">line</span> <span class="pre">%d:</span> <span class="pre">'</span></tt>, where the <tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">%s</span></tt> is replaced
with the name of the current source file and the <tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">%d</span></tt> with the current input
line number (the optional arguments can be used to override these).</p>
<p>This convenience is provided to encourage <tt class="xref docutils literal"><span class="pre">shlex</span></tt> users to generate error
messages in the standard, parseable format understood by Emacs and other Unix
tools.</p>
</dd></dl>

<p>Instances of <a title="shlex.shlex" class="reference internal" href="#shlex.shlex"><tt class="xref docutils literal"><span class="pre">shlex</span></tt></a> subclasses have some public instance variables which
either control lexical analysis or can be used for debugging:</p>
<dl class="attribute">
<dt id="shlex.shlex.commenters">
<tt class="descclassname">shlex.</tt><tt class="descname">commenters</tt><a class="headerlink" href="#shlex.shlex.commenters" title="Permalink to this definition">¶</a></dt>
<dd>The string of characters that are recognized as comment beginners. All
characters from the comment beginner to end of line are ignored. Includes just
<tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">'#'</span></tt> by default.</dd></dl>

<dl class="attribute">
<dt id="shlex.shlex.wordchars">
<tt class="descclassname">shlex.</tt><tt class="descname">wordchars</tt><a class="headerlink" href="#shlex.shlex.wordchars" title="Permalink to this definition">¶</a></dt>
<dd>The string of characters that will accumulate into multi-character tokens.  By
default, includes all ASCII alphanumerics and underscore.</dd></dl>

<dl class="attribute">
<dt id="shlex.shlex.whitespace">
<tt class="descclassname">shlex.</tt><tt class="descname">whitespace</tt><a class="headerlink" href="#shlex.shlex.whitespace" title="Permalink to this definition">¶</a></dt>
<dd>Characters that will be considered whitespace and skipped.  Whitespace bounds
tokens.  By default, includes space, tab, linefeed and carriage-return.</dd></dl>

<dl class="attribute">
<dt id="shlex.shlex.escape">
<tt class="descclassname">shlex.</tt><tt class="descname">escape</tt><a class="headerlink" href="#shlex.shlex.escape" title="Permalink to this definition">¶</a></dt>
<dd><p>Characters that will be considered as escape. This will be only used in POSIX
mode, and includes just <tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">'\'</span></tt> by default.</p>
<p class="versionadded">
<span class="versionmodified">New in version 2.3.</span></p>
</dd></dl>

<dl class="attribute">
<dt id="shlex.shlex.quotes">
<tt class="descclassname">shlex.</tt><tt class="descname">quotes</tt><a class="headerlink" href="#shlex.shlex.quotes" title="Permalink to this definition">¶</a></dt>
<dd>Characters that will be considered string quotes.  The token accumulates until
the same quote is encountered again (thus, different quote types protect each
other as in the shell.)  By default, includes ASCII single and double quotes.</dd></dl>

<dl class="attribute">
<dt id="shlex.shlex.escapedquotes">
<tt class="descclassname">shlex.</tt><tt class="descname">escapedquotes</tt><a class="headerlink" href="#shlex.shlex.escapedquotes" title="Permalink to this definition">¶</a></dt>
<dd><p>Characters in <a title="shlex.shlex.quotes" class="reference internal" href="#shlex.shlex.quotes"><tt class="xref docutils literal"><span class="pre">quotes</span></tt></a> that will interpret escape characters defined in
<a title="shlex.shlex.escape" class="reference internal" href="#shlex.shlex.escape"><tt class="xref docutils literal"><span class="pre">escape</span></tt></a>.  This is only used in POSIX mode, and includes just <tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">'&quot;'</span></tt> by
default.</p>
<p class="versionadded">
<span class="versionmodified">New in version 2.3.</span></p>
</dd></dl>

<dl class="attribute">
<dt id="shlex.shlex.whitespace_split">
<tt class="descclassname">shlex.</tt><tt class="descname">whitespace_split</tt><a class="headerlink" href="#shlex.shlex.whitespace_split" title="Permalink to this definition">¶</a></dt>
<dd><p>If <tt class="xref docutils literal"><span class="pre">True</span></tt>, tokens will only be split in whitespaces. This is useful, for
example, for parsing command lines with <a title="shlex.shlex" class="reference internal" href="#shlex.shlex"><tt class="xref docutils literal"><span class="pre">shlex</span></tt></a>, getting tokens in a
similar way to shell arguments.</p>
<p class="versionadded">
<span class="versionmodified">New in version 2.3.</span></p>
</dd></dl>

<dl class="attribute">
<dt id="shlex.shlex.infile">
<tt class="descclassname">shlex.</tt><tt class="descname">infile</tt><a class="headerlink" href="#shlex.shlex.infile" title="Permalink to this definition">¶</a></dt>
<dd>The name of the current input file, as initially set at class instantiation time
or stacked by later source requests.  It may be useful to examine this when
constructing error messages.</dd></dl>

<dl class="attribute">
<dt id="shlex.shlex.instream">
<tt class="descclassname">shlex.</tt><tt class="descname">instream</tt><a class="headerlink" href="#shlex.shlex.instream" title="Permalink to this definition">¶</a></dt>
<dd>The input stream from which this <a title="shlex.shlex" class="reference internal" href="#shlex.shlex"><tt class="xref docutils literal"><span class="pre">shlex</span></tt></a> instance is reading characters.</dd></dl>

<dl class="attribute">
<dt id="shlex.shlex.source">
<tt class="descclassname">shlex.</tt><tt class="descname">source</tt><a class="headerlink" href="#shlex.shlex.source" title="Permalink to this definition">¶</a></dt>
<dd>This member is <tt class="xref docutils literal"><span class="pre">None</span></tt> by default.  If you assign a string to it, that string
will be recognized as a lexical-level inclusion request similar to the
<tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">source</span></tt> keyword in various shells.  That is, the immediately following token
will opened as a filename and input taken from that stream until EOF, at which
point the <tt class="xref docutils literal"><span class="pre">close()</span></tt> method of that stream will be called and the input
source will again become the original input stream. Source requests may be
stacked any number of levels deep.</dd></dl>

<dl class="attribute">
<dt id="shlex.shlex.debug">
<tt class="descclassname">shlex.</tt><tt class="descname">debug</tt><a class="headerlink" href="#shlex.shlex.debug" title="Permalink to this definition">¶</a></dt>
<dd>If this member is numeric and <tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">1</span></tt> or more, a <a title="shlex.shlex" class="reference internal" href="#shlex.shlex"><tt class="xref docutils literal"><span class="pre">shlex</span></tt></a> instance will
print verbose progress output on its behavior.  If you need to use this, you can
read the module source code to learn the details.</dd></dl>

<dl class="attribute">
<dt id="shlex.shlex.lineno">
<tt class="descclassname">shlex.</tt><tt class="descname">lineno</tt><a class="headerlink" href="#shlex.shlex.lineno" title="Permalink to this definition">¶</a></dt>
<dd>Source line number (count of newlines seen so far plus one).</dd></dl>

<dl class="attribute">
<dt id="shlex.shlex.token">
<tt class="descclassname">shlex.</tt><tt class="descname">token</tt><a class="headerlink" href="#shlex.shlex.token" title="Permalink to this definition">¶</a></dt>
<dd>The token buffer.  It may be useful to examine this when catching exceptions.</dd></dl>

<dl class="attribute">
<dt id="shlex.shlex.eof">
<tt class="descclassname">shlex.</tt><tt class="descname">eof</tt><a class="headerlink" href="#shlex.shlex.eof" title="Permalink to this definition">¶</a></dt>
<dd><p>Token used to determine end of file. This will be set to the empty string
(<tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">''</span></tt>), in non-POSIX mode, and to <tt class="xref docutils literal"><span class="pre">None</span></tt> in POSIX mode.</p>
<p class="versionadded">
<span class="versionmodified">New in version 2.3.</span></p>
</dd></dl>

</div>
<div class="section" id="parsing-rules">
<span id="shlex-parsing-rules"></span><h2>24.2.2. Parsing Rules<a class="headerlink" href="#parsing-rules" title="Permalink to this headline">¶</a></h2>
<p>When operating in non-POSIX mode, <a title="shlex.shlex" class="reference internal" href="#shlex.shlex"><tt class="xref docutils literal"><span class="pre">shlex</span></tt></a> will try to obey to the
following rules.</p>
<ul class="simple">
<li>Quote characters are not recognized within words (<tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">Do&quot;Not&quot;Separate</span></tt> is
parsed as the single word <tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">Do&quot;Not&quot;Separate</span></tt>);</li>
<li>Escape characters are not recognized;</li>
<li>Enclosing characters in quotes preserve the literal value of all characters
within the quotes;</li>
<li>Closing quotes separate words (<tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">&quot;Do&quot;Separate</span></tt> is parsed as <tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">&quot;Do&quot;</span></tt> and
<tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">Separate</span></tt>);</li>
<li>If <tt class="xref docutils literal"><span class="pre">whitespace_split</span></tt> is <tt class="xref docutils literal"><span class="pre">False</span></tt>, any character not declared to be a
word character, whitespace, or a quote will be returned as a single-character
token. If it is <tt class="xref docutils literal"><span class="pre">True</span></tt>, <a title="shlex.shlex" class="reference internal" href="#shlex.shlex"><tt class="xref docutils literal"><span class="pre">shlex</span></tt></a> will only split words in whitespaces;</li>
<li>EOF is signaled with an empty string (<tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">''</span></tt>);</li>
<li>It&#8217;s not possible to parse empty strings, even if quoted.</li>
</ul>
<p>When operating in POSIX mode, <a title="shlex.shlex" class="reference internal" href="#shlex.shlex"><tt class="xref docutils literal"><span class="pre">shlex</span></tt></a> will try to obey to the following
parsing rules.</p>
<ul class="simple">
<li>Quotes are stripped out, and do not separate words (<tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">&quot;Do&quot;Not&quot;Separate&quot;</span></tt> is
parsed as the single word <tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">DoNotSeparate</span></tt>);</li>
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<tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">'&quot;'</span></tt>) preserves the literal value of all characters within the quotes, with
the exception of the characters mentioned in <tt class="xref docutils literal"><span class="pre">escape</span></tt>. The escape
characters retain its special meaning only when followed by the quote in use, or
the escape character itself. Otherwise the escape character will be considered a
normal character.</li>
<li>EOF is signaled with a <a title="None" class="reference external" href="constants.html#None"><tt class="xref xref docutils literal"><span class="pre">None</span></tt></a> value;</li>
<li>Quoted empty strings (<tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">''</span></tt>) are allowed;</li>
</ul>
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<li><a class="reference external" href="#">24.2. <tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">shlex</span></tt> &#8212; Simple lexical analysis</a><ul>
<li><a class="reference external" href="#shlex-objects">24.2.1. shlex Objects</a></li>
<li><a class="reference external" href="#parsing-rules">24.2.2. Parsing Rules</a></li>
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