Losing with spawmv() under win98

[Matthew Miller]

hi everyone,

i'm helping a friend with a y2k issue involving a dinosaur dos-based
program. here's the scoop:- a batch file executes, calling a main prog
which won't load if the date exceeds 1999. however the program works
fine if at startup time, the date is <2000. one can can change the date
after the program loads to any y2k date without problem. so, i've tried
a python script which calls the batch file using os.system('batchfile')
and then spawned a new process using os.spawnv(params) which includes a
time delay (many time values tried)  to give time for the main program
to load before trying to change the date. never works though. i've tried
all combos including spawing the batchfile with all P_variants and also
calling (via spawnv) another batch file aswell as a .py script to do the
date change thing. in all situations, the dinosaur batchfile executes
but no date change process is spawned/detached. all further processing
of date change just sits there quietly until the dinosaur dos-progarm
terminates. i've used fork in linux heaps of times with no problems.
what am i doing wrong in win98? sorry, can't copy my program to the
newsgroup as it's locked away in a factory until jan-13.thanks for your
help & suggestions.

--
Matthew Miller
Zebra Software Ltd.

E-mail: matthewm at zebrasoft.co.nz
Ph: 025-2920625 / FAX: 03-3842397