os.environ conflicts with my shell

[Michael Hudson]

lewst <lewst at yahoo.com> writes:

> I'm having problems with os.environ conflicting with my shell when
> trying to set environment variables.  I'll illustrate with an example.
> Take the following short Python program:
> 
>   #!/usr/bin/env python
>   # start up an xterm with $NAME="John Q. Public"
>   import os
>   os.environ["NAME"] = "John Q. Public"
>   os.system("xterm &")
> 
> The trouble is that the environment in the new xterm still contains
> the old value of the $NAME environment variable.  I'm guessing this is
> because $NAME is also set in my .zshrc which overwrites the value
> Python assigned to $NAME.
> 
> How can I get the value of os.environ["NAME"] to stick in new xterm's
> environment?

Works here; what version of Python are you using?  Try this instead:

>>> os.putenv("NAME","John Q. Public")
>>> os.system("xterm &")

But that shouldn't be necessary since Python 1.5.x (for some value of
x).

Cheers,
Michael

-- 
well, take it from an old hand: the only reason it would be easier
to program in C is that you can't easily express complex  problems
in C, so you don't.                 -- Erik Naggum, comp.lang.lisp