CODEWITHSUNDEEP
pythontracpython-2.4
Shawn
Shawn

Reputation: 19793

Help with subprocess.call on a Windows machine

I am trying to modify a trac plugin that allows downloading of wiki pages to word documents. pagetodoc.py throws an exception on this line:

# Call the subprocess using convenience method
retval = subprocess.call(command, shell=True, stderr=errptr, stdout=outptr, close_fds = True)

Saying that close_fds is not supported on Windows. The process seems to create some temporary files in C:\Windows\Temp. I tried removing the close_fds parameter, but then files the subprocess writes to stay open indefinitely. An exception is then thrown when the files are written to later. This is my first time working with Python, and I am not familiar with the libraries. It is even more difficult since most people probably code on Unix machines. Any ideas how I can rework this code?

Thanks!

Upvotes: 4

Views: 3116

Answers (1)

ax.
ax.

Reputation: 59917

close_fds is supported on Windows (search for "close_fds" after that link) starting with Python 2.6 (if stdin/stdout/stderr are not redirected). You might consider upgrading.

From the linked doc:

Note that on Windows, you cannot set close_fds to true and also redirect the standard handles by setting stdin, stdout or stderr.

So you can either subprocess.call with close_fds = True and not setting stdin, stdout or stderr (the default) (or setting them to None):

subprocess.call(command, shell=True, close_fds = True)

or you subprocess.call with close_fds = False:

subprocess.call(command, shell=True, stderr=errptr, stdout=outptr, close_fds = False)

or (Python >= 3.2) you let subprocess.call figure out the value of close_fds by itself:

subprocess.call(command, shell=True, stderr=errptr, stdout=outptr)

Upvotes: 0

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