subprocess and & (ampersand)

[Tim Golden]

Steven Bethard wrote:
> I'm having trouble using the subprocess module on Windows when my 
> command line includes special characters like "&" (ampersand)::
> 
>  >>> command = 'lynx.bat', '-dump', 'http://www.example.com/?x=1&y=2'
>  >>> kwargs = dict(stdin=subprocess.PIPE,
> ...               stdout=subprocess.PIPE,
> ...               stderr=subprocess.PIPE)
>  >>> proc = subprocess.Popen(command, **kwargs)
>  >>> proc.stderr.read()
> "'y' is not recognized as an internal or external command,\r\noperable 
> program or batch file.\r\n"
> 
> As you can see, Windows is interpreting that "&" as separating two 
> commands, instead of being part of the single argument as I intend it to 
> be above.  Is there any workaround for this?  How do I get "&" treated 
> like a regular character using the subprocess module?

Although I'm sure you'll have looked into this already, the
subprocess module on Windows is using CreateProcess pretty
straightforwardly:

http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms682425(VS.85).aspx

The docs there say that, to call a batch file, you need to
specify the command interpreter with /c and pass the batch
file, but as far as I can see it makes no difference! (Probably
means there's a special-caser behind the scenes of CreateProcess).

TJG