Python Library Reference

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5.15 shlex -- Simple lexical analysis

New in version 1.5.2.

The shlex 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, e.g. in run control files for Python applications.

class shlex([stream[, file]])

A shlex 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- or stream-like object with read() and readline() methods. If no argument is given, input will be taken from sys.stdin. The second optional argument is a filename string, which sets the initial value of the infile member. If the stream argument is omitted or equal to sys.stdin, this second argument defaults to ``stdin''.

• 5.15.1 shlex Objects

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Python Library Reference

Previous: 5.14.1 Cmd Objects Up: 5. Miscellaneous Services Next: 5.15.1 shlex Objects

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Release 2.2, documentation updated on December 21, 2001.