They're thin wrappers around the same C functions -- that's just how C works

it is also documented: https://docs.python.org/3/library/os.html#os.execvpe

> In either case, the arguments to the child process **should start with the name of the command being run**, but this is not enforced.

The pattern that I usually use is

```python
cmd = ('bash', '--init-file', 'foo')
os.execvp(cmd[0], cmd)  # never returns
```