spawn* or exec* and fork, what should I use and how ?

[Jp Calderone]

On Thu, 16 Dec 2004 03:00:45 GMT, Lingyun Yang <jing.cheng at insightbb.com> wrote:
>Hi,
> 
>    I want to use python as a "shell like" program,
> and execute an external program in it( such as mv, cp, tar, gnuplot)
> I tried:
> 
> os.execv("/bin/bash",("/usr/bin/gnuplot",'-c "gnuplot < plot.tmp"'))
> 
> since it's in a for-loop, it should be executed many times, but
> It exits after the first time running.

    http://www.die.net/doc/linux/man/man3/execv.3.html

  Note in particular this line:

    The exec family of functions replaces the current process image with a new process image.

  So the program is doing exactly what you asked it to.  If you want to run multiple things, os.execv() is probably not for you.

  Jp