What does this Python code do: shell=(sys.platform!="win32"))

Question

I don't understand what this code is doing, I'm wanting to run a command line, in Mac OS X, the code I'm using is from somebody running a Windows command line. The command still executes, but I'd like to know what the sys.platform!="win32" is for, and if I should change it to something else for Mac OS X. It seems to be saying sys.platform is not Win32, but that doesn't seem to me.

return_code = subprocess.call(str(cline), shell=(sys.platform!="win32"))

Answer 1

Here is what this code does and does not:

• It doesn't compile (syntax error - you need a comma between the arguments) , - not anymore.
• It starts a subprocess and, if you are not on win32 it starts it through the shell. The "shell" argument can be True or False and sys.platform != 'win32' can also evaluate to either True or False.

Answer 2

Same as :

if sys.platform!="win32":
    return_code = subprocess.call(str(cline), shell=True)
else
    return_code = subprocess.call(str(cline), shell=False)

see subprocess doc (execute cline)