Carl K schrieb: > Grant Edwards wrote: >> On 2007-12-24, Carl K <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: >> >>>> If it is a multi page pdf Imagemagick will do: >>>> >>>> convert file.pdf page-%03d.png >>> I need python code to do this. It is going to be run on a >>> someone else's shared host web server, security and >>> performance is an issue. So I would rather not run stuff via >>> popen. >> >> Use subprocess. >> >> Trying to eliminate popen because of the overhead when running >> ghostscript to render PDF (I assume convert uses gs?) is about >> like trimming an elephants toenails to save weight. >> > > maybe, but I wouldn't be so sure. > > currently the pdf is created in a python StringIO buffer and returned to > the browser; so it never becomes a file. using convert means I have to > first save it as a file, convert from file to file, read the file, > delete the 2 files. so 6 file operations where before there were none. > That may be more of a load than the ghostscript part.
So what? I'm not sure about current HD speeds, but a couple of years ago these were about 30MByte/s - and should be faster today. Which equals 240MBit/s, much more than your user's internet connection. and this is raw IO speed, not counting disk caches. In other words: given the overall latency of a network connection, your file operations shouldn't shave off more than a split-second. So if you _can_ go the subprocess-road, do it. It's the easiest way. And withou further knowledge of the GS-library (that you lack, as do I) - how do you know that it works "in memory", and doesn't actually expect a file-name or pointer? Diez -- http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/python-list