Skip test_default_to_shell_completion unit test on Windows

Python's built-in cmd module (and cmd2 which inherits from it) parses the command line and has relatively strict rules when parsing the beginning of the line looking for a "command".  This command can must consist of ASCII letters and digits.  The parsing logic applies prior to the default_to_shell flag attempting to run this "command" as a shell command.

A problem occurs on Windows in that nearly all executables have a "." in their name.  cmd/cmd2 will view everything before the "." as being the command.

On Windows, I would strongly encourage the use of "!" or "shell" to run shell commands and would recommend against using the "default_to_shell" flag unless you are working within the Windows Subsystem for Linux (WSL).

1 files changed, 3 insertions, 6 deletions

diff --git a/tests/test_completion.py b/tests/test_completion.py
index 7f9a6db0..78d045d7 100644
--- a/tests/test_completion.py
+++ b/tests/test_completion.py
@@ -311,18 +311,15 @@ def test_path_completion_nomatch(request):
 
     assert path_complete(text, line, begidx, endidx) == []
 
-
+@pytest.mark.skipif(sys.platform == 'win32',
+                    reason="cmd command parsing only supports ascii characters and digits as part of a command name")
 def test_default_to_shell_completion(cmd2_app, request):
     cmd2_app.default_to_shell = True
     test_dir = os.path.dirname(request.module.__file__)
 
     text = 'c'
     path = os.path.join(test_dir, text)
-
-    if sys.platform == "win32":
-        command = 'calc.exe'
-    else:
-        command = 'egrep'
+    command = 'egrep'
 
     # Make sure the command is on the testing system
     assert command in cmd2.Cmd._get_exes_in_path(command)