How do you execute external programs from Python?

[Paul Watson]

"Carl" <phleum_nospam at chello.se> wrote in message 
news:e_1qd.2176$3N5.2001 at amstwist00...
> Carl wrote:
>
> Thanks guys!
>
> It was an environmental problem. It works now; the only thing I still
> haven't solved is how to kill the spawned process after say an hour. Any
> clues?
>
> Carl

Have you investigated...?

os.spawn*()
os.P_NOWAIT
os.kill()