Actual meaning of 'shell=True' in subprocess

Question

I am calling different processes with the subprocess module. However, I have a question.

In the following codes:

callProcess = subproces         


        

Answer 1

An example where things could go wrong with Shell=True is shown here

>>> from subprocess import call
>>> filename = input("What file would you like to display?\n")
What file would you like to display?
non_existent; rm -rf / # THIS WILL DELETE EVERYTHING IN ROOT PARTITION!!!
>>> call("cat " + filename, shell=True) # Uh-oh. This will end badly...

Check the doc here: subprocess.call()