compile-messages.py fails on win32

Your suggested patch is how it actually used to be, except that creates a security vulnerability; a malicious user with knowledge of how most shells work could -- if you didn't pay attention to the name of the file you were compiling -- cause arbitrary shell commands to be executed by giving the file a creative name. See this entry in the official Django blog for details: http://www.djangoproject.com/weblog/2006/aug/16/compilemessages/.

The correct solution here is to check which platform we're on and use that to determine whether variables are referenced using a dollar sign (for Unix) or a percent sign (for Windows).

Good point. Here is never version:

Instead of

cmd = 'msgfmt -o "$djangocompilemo" "$djangocompilepo"'

it should be:

if sys.platform == 'win32':
    cmd = 'msgfmt -o "%djangocompilemo%" "%djangocompilepo%"'
else:
    cmd = 'msgfmt -o "$djangocompilemo" "$djangocompilepo"'

We cannot universally make this change; this is the small security problem that was fixed recently (see the svn log message for the last change to that file to see the problem we are fixing). So somebody with detailed Windows shell knowledge needs to work out a similar fix. Reverting the change is not the (complete) solution.

Malcolm, from what I understand of Windows scripting, Jaroslaw's second suggestion would work; Windows shell variables are referenced by preceding and trailing percent signs.

Yeah, you're right, thinking about it. Sorry, I'm Windows-clueless.

(In [3672]) Fixed #2604 -- Got compile-messages.py working on win32. Thanks for the patch, Jaros?\197?\130aw Zabie?\197?\130?\197?\130o