Preserve quotes when using shlex.split

Question

How can one preserve the quotes around "value with spaces" when using shlex.split()?

s = "SOME_VAR=\"value with spaces\" VAR2=value2"
shlex.split(s)
['SOME_VAR=value with spaces', 'VAR2=value2']

Thank you

Answer 1

Your choice of a Python tool may not be optimal.

How about:

$ cat /tmp/tmp.py
import csv
import StringIO

s = "SOME_VAR=\"value with spaces\" VAR2=value2"
reader = csv.reader(StringIO.StringIO(s), csv.excel)

for i in reader:
  print i

$ python /tmp/tmp.py
['SOME_VAR="value with spaces" VAR2=value2']