Re: [Python 2.4/2.5] subprocess module is sorely deficient?

2008-04-23 Thread Mark Wooding
Harishankar <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
> On Wednesday 23 Apr 2008 15:11:21 Ben Kaplan wrote:
>> I don't know about all Linux distros, but my Ubuntu machine (8.04 Beta),
>> has the 'TERM' (xterm) and 'COLORTERM' (gnome-terminal) keys in os.environ.
> This is set on Debian too. Thanks. I should be able to use this environment 
> variable on most Linux distributions, I suspect.

No!  The TERM variable is not the name of a terminal emulation program!
It's a terminal name intended to be looked up in the termcap and/or
terminfo databases.  For example, I use pterm as my terminal, but it
(correctly) sets TERM=xterm.

I'd suggest trying to run (in order, until one actually works):
$X_TERMINAL_EMULATOR, sensible-x-terminal-emulator, x-terminal-emulator,
xterm.

-- [mdw]
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Re: subprocess module is sorely deficient?

2008-04-23 Thread Paul Boddie
On 23 Apr, 13:17, Harishankar <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
> On Wednesday 23 Apr 2008 15:11:21 Ben Kaplan wrote:
> > I don't know about all Linux distros, but my Ubuntu machine (8.04 Beta),
> > has the 'TERM' (xterm) and 'COLORTERM' (gnome-terminal) keys in os.environ.
> > You might be able to use that to ensure that the terminal is installed, but
> > you should probably look at a couple of other popular distros first to make
> > sure that the key is there.
>
> This is set on Debian too. Thanks. I should be able to use this environment
> variable on most Linux distributions, I suspect.

Here on RHEL 4, COLORTERM has an empty value. I suppose that the
freedesktop.org standards should cover this kind of thing, and there
are some scripts out there which attempt to provide cross-desktop
support on Free Software desktops:

http://portland.freedesktop.org/wiki/XdgUtils

Similarly, the desktop module should provide support for various
desktop features, but opening command line windows or terminals isn't
yet possible:

http://www.python.org/pypi/desktop

It'd be interesting to know if we could find out (or make up) reliable
ways of opening the user's preferred terminal application.

Paul
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Re: [Python 2.4/2.5] subprocess module is sorely deficient?

2008-04-23 Thread Harishankar
On Wednesday 23 Apr 2008 15:11:21 Ben Kaplan wrote:
> I don't know about all Linux distros, but my Ubuntu machine (8.04 Beta),
> has the 'TERM' (xterm) and 'COLORTERM' (gnome-terminal) keys in os.environ.
> You might be able to use that to ensure that the terminal is installed, but
> you should probably look at a couple of other popular distros first to make
> sure that the key is there.
This is set on Debian too. Thanks. I should be able to use this environment 
variable on most Linux distributions, I suspect.
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Re: [Python 2.4/2.5] subprocess module is sorely deficient?

2008-04-23 Thread Ben Kaplan
I don't know about all Linux distros, but my Ubuntu machine (8.04 Beta), has 
the 'TERM' (xterm) and 'COLORTERM' (gnome-terminal) keys in os.environ. You 
might be able to use that to ensure that the terminal is installed, but you 
should probably look at a couple of other popular distros first to make sure 
that the key is there.

- Original Message 
From: Harishankar <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: python-list@python.org
Sent: Wednesday, April 23, 2008 5:31:54 AM
Subject: Re: [Python 2.4/2.5] subprocess module is sorely deficient?

On Wednesday 23 Apr 2008 14:46:20 Christian Heimes wrote:
> Harishankar schrieb:
> > Is there any platform independent way to launch a terminal window from a
> > desktop (Windows, Linux, etc.)?
>
> No, there isn't. It usually not possible to create a graphical terminal
> window on a remote server.
>
> Christian

Ah, well, since my application is a desktop tool and it requires a GUI I'm 
doing something like this:

However, I have to then force the user to use xterm (which is a popular/common 
X Terminal)

if (sys.platform.startswith ('win'):
# launch the windows cmd.exe with the command
...
else:
# warn the user that xterm is required and then launch xterm
...

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Re: subprocess module is sorely deficient?

2008-04-23 Thread Nick Craig-Wood
Mike Hansen <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
> > I think the best solution would be to port Pexpect to windows which
> > wouldn't be that difficult according to my reading of the code.  If
> > only I had more free time!
> 
>  Sage ( http://www.sagemath.org ) uses pexpect fairly extensively to
>  interface with all sorts of other systems.  We recently received
>  funding from Microsoft to do a native port of Sage (and all of its
>  components to Windows.  Part of this will most likely be a port of
>  pexpect to Windows.

Hooray!
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Re: [Python 2.4/2.5] subprocess module is sorely deficient?

2008-04-23 Thread Harishankar
On Wednesday 23 Apr 2008 14:46:20 Christian Heimes wrote:
> Harishankar schrieb:
> > Is there any platform independent way to launch a terminal window from a
> > desktop (Windows, Linux, etc.)?
>
> No, there isn't. It usually not possible to create a graphical terminal
> window on a remote server.
>
> Christian

Ah, well, since my application is a desktop tool and it requires a GUI I'm 
doing something like this:

However, I have to then force the user to use xterm (which is a popular/common 
X Terminal)

if (sys.platform.startswith ('win'):
# launch the windows cmd.exe with the command
...
else:
# warn the user that xterm is required and then launch xterm
...

-- 
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V. Harishankar

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Re: [Python 2.4/2.5] subprocess module is sorely deficient?

2008-04-23 Thread Christian Heimes
Harishankar schrieb:
> Is there any platform independent way to launch a terminal window from a 
> desktop (Windows, Linux, etc.)?

No, there isn't. It usually not possible to create a graphical terminal
window on a remote server.

Christian

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Re: [Python 2.4/2.5] subprocess module is sorely deficient?

2008-04-22 Thread Harishankar
On Wednesday 23 Apr 2008 08:27:01 Heikki Toivonen wrote:
> At OSAF we used a slightly modified killableprocess module with a
> wrapper to deal with complexities of various redirections in
> cross-platform way. I actually blogged about this a week ago so rather
> than rehash the issues I'll point you to the article which contains
> links to all the pieces we used:
>
> http://www.heikkitoivonen.net/blog/2008/04/16/pythons-ossystem-considered-h
>armful/
killableprocess.py looks like a good solution indeed. I actually came across 
your website in my searches. I just wanted to be absolutely sure that it 
worked because you had mentioned that it has some drawbacks.

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Re: [Python 2.4/2.5] subprocess module is sorely deficient?

2008-04-22 Thread Harishankar
On Wednesday 23 Apr 2008 02:25:14 Christian Heimes wrote:
> Nick Craig-Wood schrieb:
> > Nothing apart from the fact it doesn't work on windows.  The buffering
> > will cause you grief too.  If you want to do this properly under unix
> > use pexpect not subprocess.
> >
> >   http://www.noah.org/wiki/Pexpect
> >
> > Proper non blocking IO is an absolute nightmare under Windows in my
> > experience!  It really isn't the Windows way so you are fighting the
> > system the whole time.
>
> Nick is correct. The subproces tries to work around the issues with
> threads. But it's no more than an ugly workaround fir Windows' short
> comings on async file IO. It's a shame Windows implements the select()
> syscall in wsock32 and limits its usage to sockets.
>
> By the way I'm willing to dedicate some time to help enhancing the
> subprocess. Everybody is invited to submit patches and I'll review and
> check them into the trunk and py3k ASAP. Any help is appreciated:
> enhancements for async IO, doc updates, more examples ...
>
> Christian
> Python core developer

Thanks a lot to everybody who's been following this discussion. Very 
interesting indeed.

I'm currently thinking of working around this problem by actually opening a 
new terminal window and running the command from there, thus allowing the 
user full control over the process.

Is there any platform independent way to launch a terminal window from a 
desktop (Windows, Linux, etc.)?

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Re: [Python 2.4/2.5] subprocess module is sorely deficient?

2008-04-22 Thread Heikki Toivonen
Harishankar wrote:
> Sorry to start off on a negative note in the list, but I feel that the Python 
> subprocess module is sorely deficient because it lacks a mechanism to:

At OSAF we used a slightly modified killableprocess module with a
wrapper to deal with complexities of various redirections in
cross-platform way. I actually blogged about this a week ago so rather
than rehash the issues I'll point you to the article which contains
links to all the pieces we used:

http://www.heikkitoivonen.net/blog/2008/04/16/pythons-ossystem-considered-harmful/

-- 
  Heikki Toivonen
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Re: subprocess module is sorely deficient?

2008-04-22 Thread Mike Hansen
> I think the best solution would be to port Pexpect to windows which
> wouldn't be that difficult according to my reading of the code.  If
> only I had more free time!

Sage ( http://www.sagemath.org ) uses pexpect fairly extensively to
interface with all sorts of other systems.  We recently received
funding from Microsoft to do a native port of Sage (and all of its
components to Windows.  Part of this will most likely be a port of
pexpect to Windows.

--Mike
--
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Re: [Python 2.4/2.5] subprocess module is sorely deficient?

2008-04-22 Thread Christian Heimes
Martin v. Löwis schrieb:
>> 2. Kill the subprocess in a platform independent manner (i.e. no third party 
>> modules and no hacks).
> 
> What's wrong with the .terminate method of the Popen object?

It's brand new ;)

Christian
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Re: [Python 2.4/2.5] subprocess module is sorely deficient?

2008-04-22 Thread Martin v. Löwis
> 2. Kill the subprocess in a platform independent manner (i.e. no third party 
> modules and no hacks).

What's wrong with the .terminate method of the Popen object?

Regards,
Martin
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Re: [Python 2.4/2.5] subprocess module is sorely deficient?

2008-04-22 Thread Christian Heimes
Nick Craig-Wood schrieb:
> Nothing apart from the fact it doesn't work on windows.  The buffering
> will cause you grief too.  If you want to do this properly under unix
> use pexpect not subprocess.
> 
>   http://www.noah.org/wiki/Pexpect
> 
> Proper non blocking IO is an absolute nightmare under Windows in my
> experience!  It really isn't the Windows way so you are fighting the
> system the whole time.

Nick is correct. The subproces tries to work around the issues with
threads. But it's no more than an ugly workaround fir Windows' short
comings on async file IO. It's a shame Windows implements the select()
syscall in wsock32 and limits its usage to sockets.

By the way I'm willing to dedicate some time to help enhancing the
subprocess. Everybody is invited to submit patches and I'll review and
check them into the trunk and py3k ASAP. Any help is appreciated:
enhancements for async IO, doc updates, more examples ...

Christian
Python core developer

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Re: [Python 2.4/2.5] subprocess module is sorely deficient?

2008-04-22 Thread Christian Heimes
Harishankar schrieb:
> 2. Kill the subprocess in a platform independent manner (i.e. no third party 
> modules and no hacks).

I've added the feature to the Popen class a few days ago. The new
methods are kill(), terminate() and send_signal(sig). On Windows all
methods just fall back to _subprocess.TerminateProcess. On POSIX OS
os.kill() is used.

The code also works on Python 2.4 and 2.5 but I can't add new features
to maintainence branches.

Christian

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Re: [Python 2.4/2.5] subprocess module is sorely deficient?

2008-04-22 Thread Nick Craig-Wood
Mark Wooding <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
>  Nick Craig-Wood <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
> > Harishankar <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
> >>  1. Create non-blocking pipes which can be read in a separate thread
> >>  [...]
> >
> > You are correct on both of those points.
> 
>  I must be missing something.  What's wrong with spawning the subprocess
>  with subprocess.Popen as usual, passing subprocess.PIPE as stdin/stdout/
>  whatever, making your end nonblocking with fcntl.fcntl and then using
>  os.read/os.write in the obvious ways?

Nothing apart from the fact it doesn't work on windows.  The buffering
will cause you grief too.  If you want to do this properly under unix
use pexpect not subprocess.

  http://www.noah.org/wiki/Pexpect

Proper non blocking IO is an absolute nightmare under Windows in my
experience!  It really isn't the Windows way so you are fighting the
system the whole time.

-- 
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Re: subprocess module is sorely deficient?

2008-04-22 Thread sturlamolden
On Apr 22, 12:52 pm, Harishankar <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:

> Sorry to start off on a negative note in the list, but I feel that the Python
> subprocess module is sorely deficient because it lacks a mechanism to

Have you looked at the processing module in cheese shop?

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Re: [Python 2.4/2.5] subprocess module is sorely deficient?

2008-04-22 Thread Mark Wooding
Nick Craig-Wood <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
> Harishankar <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
>>  1. Create non-blocking pipes which can be read in a separate thread
>>  [...]
>
> You are correct on both of those points.

I must be missing something.  What's wrong with spawning the subprocess
with subprocess.Popen as usual, passing subprocess.PIPE as stdin/stdout/
whatever, making your end nonblocking with fcntl.fcntl and then using
os.read/os.write in the obvious ways?

-- [mdw]
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Re: [Python 2.4/2.5] subprocess module is sorely deficient?

2008-04-22 Thread A.T.Hofkamp
On 2008-04-22, Harishankar <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
> Hi,
>
> Sorry to start off on a negative note in the list, but I feel that the Python 
> subprocess module is sorely deficient because it lacks a mechanism to:
>
> 1. Create non-blocking pipes which can be read in a separate thread (I am 

I don't know about threading, but you can read/write streams in a non-blocking
way in Python (under Linux) with the os.read/os.write functions (these map
directly to read(2)/write(2) primitives). You should first check that something
can be read/written. Use eg select.select() for this. Several GUI toolkits also
allow monitoring of file handles.

Whether this also works at other OSes, I don't know.


Alternatively, you can create your own pipes, make them non-blocking, and give
the file handles to subprocess.


> 2. Kill the subprocess in a platform independent manner (i.e. no third party 
> modules and no hacks).

The concept of sub-process is platform dependent already.

Usually however, closing the child input stream is sufficient for most child
programs to decide that they can quit.

> Is there any way to use non-blocking Popen objects using subprocess? and 2 - 
> is there a way to kill the subprocess in a platform independent manner in a 
> purely Pythonic way? I thought initially that this problem is simple enough, 
> but over the last couple of days I've been really struggling to find any 
> answer. I've been through dozens of mailing list archives in to find a 
> solution. Unfortunately none of the solutions seem to fit my needs.

Interfacing with the rest of the world implies you are going to need services
provided by the OS at one time or another. Python is rather transparent here
and gives you quick access to the OS services.

While this is bad for uniformity, it is good to let people make their own
choices in optimally using the OS services. Python helps here by giving
light-weight access to the underlying OS, making explicit what part is OS
dependent.

(and if still in doubt, why do you think were all the solutions you found 'not
fitting'?).

> My only solution seems to be to offer the end user the mencoder command line 
> and make them execute it manually and be done with it but that seems a rather 
> weak solution.

This is always a good fallback.


Sincerely,
Albert

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Re: [Python 2.4/2.5] subprocess module is sorely deficient?

2008-04-22 Thread Harishankar
On Tuesday 22 Apr 2008 19:02:17 Tim Golden wrote:
> Well if you want to, you can reproduce the same effect by using ctypes
> which *is* in the standard library. But why reinvent the wheel?

The reason is once again, rightly or wrongly I feel that using non-standard 
extensions could make it:

1. Difficult to distribute the application as I am not able to package the 
third-party extension with distutils.
2. Difficult to predict its behaviour with future versions of Python.

> Correct. It's part of the pywin32 extensions, one of many useful packages
> available to the discerning Python programmer who doesn't feel in some way
> bound to whatever comes bundled with the standard library.
>
> TJG
I wouldn't feel "bound" if I restricted the program to myself. But if I want 
to distribute it (as I intend to) I have to think of others as well.

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Re: [Python 2.4/2.5] subprocess module is sorely deficient?

2008-04-22 Thread Tim Golden

Harishankar wrote:

On Tuesday 22 Apr 2008 18:00:02 Nick Craig-Wood wrote:

There is a recipe in the cookbook

  http://aspn.activestate.com/ASPN/Cookbook/Python/Recipe/440554

Which I've used and it works.
Thanks. I found that recipe too. I was hoping I could cook up something 
similar without having to use the module win32api... 


Well if you want to, you can reproduce the same effect by using ctypes
which *is* in the standard library. But why reinvent the wheel?

By the way, the win32api seems to be a nonstandard module (i.e. not present in 
the main distribution).


Correct. It's part of the pywin32 extensions, one of many useful packages 
available
to the discerning Python programmer who doesn't feel in some way bound to
whatever comes bundled with the standard library.

TJG
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Re: subprocess module is sorely deficient?

2008-04-22 Thread Harishankar
On Tuesday 22 Apr 2008 17:54:00 Nicola Musatti wrote:
> I suggest you check out this:
> http://aspn.activestate.com/ASPN/Cookbook/Python/Recipe/440554
>
> Cheers,
> Nicola Musatti
> --
> http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/python-list

An interesting solution. Thanks a lot for the link.

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Re: [Python 2.4/2.5] subprocess module is sorely deficient?

2008-04-22 Thread Harishankar
On Tuesday 22 Apr 2008 18:00:02 Nick Craig-Wood wrote:
> There is a recipe in the cookbook
>
>   http://aspn.activestate.com/ASPN/Cookbook/Python/Recipe/440554
>
> Which I've used and it works.
Thanks. I found that recipe too. I was hoping I could cook up something 
similar without having to use the module win32api, but looks like that's not 
the case.

>
> you can also (if on unix) use
>
>   http://www.noah.org/wiki/Pexpect
>
I'm on Linux. Debian. Pexpect would do the job fine too. The only thing is 
it's a third party module and so would reduce the portability of my 
application. But never mind. I guess I have to make a compromise one way or 
the other.

> import os
> from subprocess import *
> from subprocess import mswindows
> from time import sleep
>
> if mswindows:
> import win32api
> else:
> import signal
>
> class PopenNB(Popen):
> # - see cookbook recipe for rest of stuff
> # ...
> def kill(self, killpg=False):
> """
> Kill the running process
> """
> pid = self.pid
> if mswindows:
> # Kill the process using win32api and pid - ignore errors
> try:
> PROCESS_TERMINATE = 1
> handle = win32api.OpenProcess(PROCESS_TERMINATE, False,
> pid) win32api.TerminateProcess(handle, -1)
> win32api.CloseHandle(handle)
> except pywintypes.error:
> pass
> else:
> # Kill the process by sending the pid / process group a
>   signal
> if killpg:
> try:
> pgid = os.getpgid(pid)
> except OSError:
> killpg = False
> try:
> if killpg:
> os.killpg(pgid, signal.SIGTERM)
> else:
> os.kill(pid, signal.SIGTERM)
> except OSError:
> return
> sleep(1.0)
> try:
> if killpg:
> os.killpg(pgid, signal.SIGKILL)
> else:
> os.kill(pid, signal.SIGKILL)
> except OSError:
> return

Thanks for this bit of code. It should probably be adaptible to my needs.

By the way, the win32api seems to be a nonstandard module (i.e. not present in 
the main distribution).

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V. Harishankar

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Re: [Python 2.4/2.5] subprocess module is sorely deficient?

2008-04-22 Thread Nick Craig-Wood
Harishankar <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
>  Sorry to start off on a negative note in the list, but I feel that the 
> Python 
>  subprocess module is sorely deficient because it lacks a mechanism to:
> 
>  1. Create non-blocking pipes which can be read in a separate thread (I am 
>  currently writing a mencoder GUI in Tkinter and need a full fledged process 
>  handler to control the command line and to display the progress in a 
>  text-box)
> 
>  2. Kill the subprocess in a platform independent manner (i.e. no third party 
>  modules and no hacks).

You are correct on both of those points.  Subprocess isn't for
interacting with subprocesses - this should be written in large
letters in the help!

>  Is there any way to use non-blocking Popen objects using
>  subprocess?

There is a recipe in the cookbook

  http://aspn.activestate.com/ASPN/Cookbook/Python/Recipe/440554

Which I've used and it works.

you can also (if on unix) use

  http://www.noah.org/wiki/Pexpect

I think the best solution would be to port Pexpect to windows which
wouldn't be that difficult according to my reading of the code.  If
only I had more free time!

>  and 2 - is there a way to kill the subprocess in a platform
>  independent manner in a purely Pythonic way? I thought initially
>  that this problem is simple enough, but over the last couple of
>  days I've been really struggling to find any answer. I've been
>  through dozens of mailing list archives in to find a
>  solution. Unfortunately none of the solutions seem to fit my needs.

No...

This is the best I came up with to add to the subprocess recipe above

import os
from subprocess import *
from subprocess import mswindows
from time import sleep

if mswindows:
import win32api
else:
import signal

class PopenNB(Popen):
# - see cookbook recipe for rest of stuff
# ...
def kill(self, killpg=False):
"""
Kill the running process
"""
pid = self.pid
if mswindows:
# Kill the process using win32api and pid - ignore errors
try:
PROCESS_TERMINATE = 1
handle = win32api.OpenProcess(PROCESS_TERMINATE, False, pid)
win32api.TerminateProcess(handle, -1)
win32api.CloseHandle(handle)
except pywintypes.error:
pass
else:
# Kill the process by sending the pid / process group a
signal
if killpg:
try:
pgid = os.getpgid(pid)
except OSError:
killpg = False
try:
if killpg:
os.killpg(pgid, signal.SIGTERM)
else:
os.kill(pid, signal.SIGTERM)
except OSError:
return
sleep(1.0)
try:
if killpg:
os.killpg(pgid, signal.SIGKILL)
else:
os.kill(pid, signal.SIGKILL)
except OSError:
return

-- 
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Re: subprocess module is sorely deficient?

2008-04-22 Thread Nicola Musatti
On Apr 22, 12:52 pm, Harishankar <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
> Hi,
>
> Sorry to start off on a negative note in the list, but I feel that the Python
> subprocess module is sorely deficient because it lacks a mechanism to:
>
> 1. Create non-blocking pipes which can be read in a separate thread (I am
> currently writing a mencoder GUI in Tkinter and need a full fledged process
> handler to control the command line and to display the progress in a
> text-box)

I suggest you check out this: 
http://aspn.activestate.com/ASPN/Cookbook/Python/Recipe/440554

Cheers,
Nicola Musatti
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Re: subprocess module is sorely deficient?

2008-04-22 Thread Harishankar
On Tuesday 22 Apr 2008 17:06:26 Paul Boddie wrote:
> On 22 Apr, 12:52, Harishankar <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
> > Is there any way to use non-blocking Popen objects using subprocess? and
> > 2 - is there a way to kill the subprocess in a platform independent
> > manner in a purely Pythonic way? I thought initially that this problem is
> > simple enough, but over the last couple of days I've been really
> > struggling to find any answer. I've been through dozens of mailing list
> > archives in to find a solution. Unfortunately none of the solutions seem
> > to fit my needs.
>
> If you want some hints about using subprocesses with non-blocking I/O,
> you might find some in my jailtools and pprocess projects:
>
> http://www.python.org/pypi/jailtools
> http://www.python.org/pypi/pprocess
>
Thank you. I will take a look at those. Actually I feel a mechanism like this 
should be built-in to Python in the future. 

> Although these projects involve things which are not exactly cross-
> platform, the communications mechanisms should be portable, perhaps
> with a bit of effort (since I don't recall whether the poll library
> function is available on Windows, so you might have to use the select
> function instead). It can be awkward sustaining non-blocking
> communications with processes if they use buffered I/O, and the only
> way I could make Python-based subprocesses work in jailtools was to
> invoke them with the unbuffered option (-u).
>
> > My only solution seems to be to offer the end user the mencoder command
> > line and make them execute it manually and be done with it but that seems
> > a rather weak solution.
>
> The subprocess module may be an improvement over the popen2 module and
> various os module functions, but it's still rather arcane.

Yes. I am quite sure there must be an elegant solution to the subprocess 
handling/management. Problem is I've been at this for three days and I'm 
getting quite bleary eyed trying to pore through a lot of documentation ;-)

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Regards,
V. Harishankar

http://hari.literaryforums.org
http://harishankar.org
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Re: subprocess module is sorely deficient?

2008-04-22 Thread Paul Boddie
On 22 Apr, 12:52, Harishankar <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
>
> Is there any way to use non-blocking Popen objects using subprocess? and 2 -
> is there a way to kill the subprocess in a platform independent manner in a
> purely Pythonic way? I thought initially that this problem is simple enough,
> but over the last couple of days I've been really struggling to find any
> answer. I've been through dozens of mailing list archives in to find a
> solution. Unfortunately none of the solutions seem to fit my needs.

If you want some hints about using subprocesses with non-blocking I/O,
you might find some in my jailtools and pprocess projects:

http://www.python.org/pypi/jailtools
http://www.python.org/pypi/pprocess

Although these projects involve things which are not exactly cross-
platform, the communications mechanisms should be portable, perhaps
with a bit of effort (since I don't recall whether the poll library
function is available on Windows, so you might have to use the select
function instead). It can be awkward sustaining non-blocking
communications with processes if they use buffered I/O, and the only
way I could make Python-based subprocesses work in jailtools was to
invoke them with the unbuffered option (-u).

> My only solution seems to be to offer the end user the mencoder command line
> and make them execute it manually and be done with it but that seems a rather
> weak solution.

The subprocess module may be an improvement over the popen2 module and
various os module functions, but it's still rather arcane.

Paul
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[Python 2.4/2.5] subprocess module is sorely deficient?

2008-04-22 Thread Harishankar
Hi,

Sorry to start off on a negative note in the list, but I feel that the Python 
subprocess module is sorely deficient because it lacks a mechanism to:

1. Create non-blocking pipes which can be read in a separate thread (I am 
currently writing a mencoder GUI in Tkinter and need a full fledged process 
handler to control the command line and to display the progress in a 
text-box)

2. Kill the subprocess in a platform independent manner (i.e. no third party 
modules and no hacks).

Is there any way to use non-blocking Popen objects using subprocess? and 2 - 
is there a way to kill the subprocess in a platform independent manner in a 
purely Pythonic way? I thought initially that this problem is simple enough, 
but over the last couple of days I've been really struggling to find any 
answer. I've been through dozens of mailing list archives in to find a 
solution. Unfortunately none of the solutions seem to fit my needs.

My only solution seems to be to offer the end user the mencoder command line 
and make them execute it manually and be done with it but that seems a rather 
weak solution.

-- 
Regards,
V. Harishankar

http://hari.literaryforums.org
http://harishankar.org
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