Answer My Searches

Update: The subprocess module is the way to go for Python 2.4 and later. It aims to handle all your system calling needs, e.g., os.system, os.spawn*, os.popen*, popen2.*, and commands.*

Here’s my new snippet using subprocess to launch/spawn a process and not wait for it:

from subprocess import Popen
Popen([r'C:\Python24\Python.exe','C:\\AUTOMA~1\\AOSWEB\\ACTUAL~1.PY',str(order_no)])
#use win32api.GetShortPathName to get that 'C:\\AUTOMA~1\\AOSWEB\\ACTUAL~1.PY' thing, #Python/Windows aint like spaces ..

Here is my previous method which also seems to work:

Wow, I spent an hour trying to get os.spawn to work in Windows. The documentation does nothing!

Finally I found this thread where Doug Holton has written a nice “wrapper” for os.spawn:

import os

def run (program, *args):
   "Run external program, wait til it quits, and return the exit code"
   #Actually comment out line below on windows, I get attribute error here
   spawn = os.spawnvp #not available on windows though
   if os.name == "nt": spawn = os.spawnv
   return spawn(os.P_WAIT, program, (program,) + args)

def start (program, *args):
   "Start an external program and return immediately, returning proc id"
   #Actually comment out line below on windows, I get attribute error here
   spawn = os.spawnvp #not available on windows though
   if os.name == "nt": spawn = os.spawnv
   return spawn(os.P_NOWAIT, program, (program,) + args)

#example:
errcode = run('cp','index.html','index2.html')
if errcode == 0: #no error
   pid = start('cp','index2.html','index3.html')
else:
   print "error finding or copying the index.html file"

I think Windows commands have always been a sore spot for Python I’m afraid Of course I would guess the blame lies with Windows like everything else in this world though.

[tags]os.spawn, spawn, popen, windows[/tags]