def run_shell_command(cmdstr, **subprocess_kwargs):
    """
    Execute the given shell command.
    
    Note that *args and **kwargs will be passed to the subprocess call.

    If 'shell' is given in subprocess_kwargs it must be True,
    otherwise ProgramError will be raised.
    .
    If 'executable' is not given in subprocess_kwargs, it will
    be set to the value of the SHELL environment variable.

    Note that stdin, stdout and stderr will be set by default
    to PIPE unless specified in subprocess_kwargs.

    :str cmdstr: The string run as a shell command.
    :subprocess_kwargs: These will be passed to subprocess.Popen.
    """
    if 'shell' in subprocess_kwargs and not subprocess_kwargs['shell']:
        raise ProgramError(
                'The "shell" kwarg may be omitted, but if '
                'provided it must be True.')
    else:
        subprocess_kwargs['shell'] = True

    if 'executable' not in subprocess_kwargs:
        subprocess_kwargs['executable'] = os.getenv('SHELL')

    for stream in ['stdin', 'stdout', 'stderr']:
        subprocess_kwargs.setdefault(stream, subprocess.PIPE)
    subprocess_kwargs = alter_subprocess_kwargs_by_platform(
            **subprocess_kwargs)
    return subprocess.Popen(cmdstr, **subprocess_kwargs)