Is this a bug or am I misusing the config?

# pants.toml
[pytest]
args = ["-m", "not integration"]

How it's being picked up and processed by the runner (it's splitting the one arg into two):

"./pytest_runner.pex_pex_shim.sh", "-m", "not", "integration"

It does seem like it's intentional: following the chain of

PyTest

subsystem's

args

->

ArgListOption

->

ShellStrListOption

-> uses of

shell_str

-> https://github.com/pantsbuild/pants/blob/2e010cd20a3b1cf2586923ee2863dd1be5f5497d/src/python/pants/option/custom_types.py#L194-L199 indicates that it's apparently intentionally splitting up each element of the list with

shlex.split

, so to fix your immediate problem

args = ["-m", "'not integration'"]

likely works. It's... unconventional that it takes a list of args, but still splits each element!

@broad-processor-92400 that worked! thank you.

unconventional that it takes a list of args, but still splits each element!

I was gonna say the opposite - most command lines/tooling I've used do something similar. I just always assumed it was a bash thing in the end which required the double escapes

interesting...

SJ, I've always seen two styles for constructing commands like this: 1. single string, which behaves according to shell rules (usually by passing the string to a shell invocation like

bash -c ...

) 2. an array, where each element is taken literally Two examples: • Python's

subprocess.run

(https://docs.python.org/3/library/subprocess.html#subprocess.run) has: a. 1 with

shell=True

:

subprocess.run("echo hello", shell=True)

passes that string as is to a shell, and so runs

echo

with arg

hello

b. 2 with the default

shell=False

:

subprocess.run(["echo hello"])

attempts to run a binary called

echo hello

, which likely doesn't exist • Docker

RUN

and other similar commands (https://docs.docker.com/reference/dockerfile/#shell-and-exec-form) has: ◦ 1 when passed text directly:

RUN echo hello

◦ 2 when passed an array:

RUN ["echo hello"]

Pants is doing a third thing, where it takes an array but splits each element, so

["echo hello"]

is equivalent to

["echo", "hello"]

.

Huh, well would you look at that. The stuff I'm referring to is a bit more artisanal CLIs from random companies - nothing I would put any particular faith in. Just never looked into it. That's kinda funny, because when I noticed that Pants args thing a while back, i just kinda shrugged it off as like "okay, sure"