python 2.7.12 on Linux behaving differently than on Windows

Mon Dec 5 13:54:30 EST 2016

On Mon, Dec 5, 2016 at 4:03 PM, Paul Moore <p.f.moore at gmail.com> wrote:
> 2. On Windows, the OS primitive takes a command line. The application is
> responsible for splitting it into arguments, if it wants to. Most do, for
> compatibility with the normal argv convention inherited via C from Unix. Many
> programs let the C runtime do that splitting for them - I don't recall if Python
> does, or if it implements its own splitting these days.

Windows Python uses the CRTs parsed argument list. python.exe simply
uses the wmain entry point:
 int
 wmain(int argc, wchar_t **argv)
 {
 return Py_Main(argc, argv);
 }
pythonw.exe uses the wWinMain entry point and the CRT's __argc and
__wargv variables:
 int WINAPI wWinMain(
 HINSTANCE hInstance, /* handle to current instance */
 HINSTANCE hPrevInstance, /* handle to previous instance */
 LPWSTR lpCmdLine, /* pointer to command line */
 int nCmdShow /* show state of window */
 )
 {
 return Py_Main(__argc, __wargv);
 }
python[w].exe doesn't link in wsetargv.obj, so it doesn't support
wildcard expansion.