stdout funniness from os.system() calls when redirecting output

[Paul Watson]

"Birch" <garyb at ea.com> wrote in message
news:fb6e26e.0310141511.3bd42877 at posting.google.com...
> I have a python script that uses the print function throughout, and as
> well uses calls to os.system() to spawn DOS commandline executables.
>
> My issue is that I redirect all of the output from this script to a
> file (including that which is printed by the spawned programs) via the
> redirect (">") function on a Win2K Command Prompt.  In the captured
> output however, the output from the os.system() calls ALWAYS comes
> before the output from the print calls in the python script.
>
> This does NOT happen if I run the python script without redirecting
> the output to a file.  (everything prints out properly in the Command
> Prompt window)

You probably need to flush what is in the buffers of the parent process
before calling os.system().  Then, do not attempt redirection on the
os.system() command.  The stdout file handle should be passed to the child.
This worked on AIX under Python 2.1.

#! /usr/bin/env python
import os
import sys
print "python is started"
sys.stdout.flush()
os.system('ls -al')
print "python is done"
sys.stdout.flush()

However, it appears that Win32 Python 2.3 may not be passing the the file
descriptor or something else is awry.  Is this a bug?

C:\src\t>type pt.py
#! /usr/bin/env python
import os
print "python is started"
os.system('dir')
print "python is done"

C:\src\t>pt.py
python is started
 Volume in drive C is dir
 Volume Serial Number is 146D-04D8

 Directory of C:\src\t

2003-10-19  20:24       <DIR>          .
2003-10-19  20:24       <DIR>          ..
2003-10-19  20:25                   35 jj
2003-10-19  20:20                  104 pt.py
               2 File(s)            139 bytes
               2 Dir(s)   4,800,147,456 bytes free
python is done

C:\src\t>pt.py >jj
There is not enough space on the disk.