[Image-SIG] python with PIL : problem showing images in Win 7

[Christoph Gohlke]

On 6/30/2011 9:23 AM, Jean-Claude Arbaut wrote:
> I just installed Python 2.7.2 and PIL 1.1.7. In pil-handbook.pdf there
> is a trivial example (slightly modified here to change image name):
>
> import Image
> im = Image.open("fruit.ppm")
> im.show()
>
> Everything runs well, except I get an error from Windows image viewer,
> saying the file has been deleted.
> The problem seems to come from line 99 in ImageShow.py,
> return "start /wait %s && del /f %s" % (file, file)
> Looks like the del doesn't wait for start to finish, hence the file
> doesn't exist when the viewer
> is launched. If I try instead :
> return "start /wait %s" % file
> Then the image is shown as expected. So there is a workaround, but the
> file is not
> destroyed afterwards.
>
> Is there a cleaner way to solve the problem, e.g. forcing a wait before
> del ?
>


This is a known issue. A possible solution is to sleep about a second 
before deleting the file, e.g.:

return "start /wait %s && sleep 1 && del /f %s" % (file, file)

<http://stackoverflow.com/questions/4607633/image-format-to-save-in-python>

Christoph