This package contains a pure Python 3 implementation of split, join and
quote functions similar to those found in the builtin shlex.py module, but
suitable for the Windows world.
It was tested against optimum mslex project and it gives the same results (but with no regexes used), except that only the equivalent CommandLineToArgvW (and parse_cmdline from VC run-time) parser is implemented, not the CMD.EXE (Windows command prompt) one.
At a glance, a compatible modern Win32 parser follows such rules when splitting a command line:
- leading and trailing spaces are stripped from command line
- unquoted whitespace separates arguments
- quotes:
"opens a block""opens and closes a block;"""opens, adds a literal"and closes a block
- backslashes, only if followed by
":2n -> n, and opens/closes a block(2n+1) -> n, and adds a literal"
- all other characters are simply copied
split accepts an optional argument mode to set the compatibility level:
with mode=0 (default), it behaves like mslex parser; if mode&1, first argument
is parsed in a simplified way (i.e. argument is everything up to the first space if
unquoted, or the second quote otherwise); if mode&2, emulate parse_cmdline from
2005 onward (a "" inside a quoted block emit a literal quote without ending
such block).