Using os.system() and string concatenation

[Michael Hoffman]

Wayne Witzel III wrote:
> os.system("/usr/sbin/useradd"+ " -d " + user[0] + " -s " + user[1] + "
> " + user[3])
>  
> when I change os.system() to print .. it outputs just fine and I can
> copy and paste the results and they execute. Just using os.system()
> they do not execute unless I place the string in cmd variable first.
> 
> cmd = "/usr/sbin/useradd"+ " -d " + user[0] + " -s " + user[1] + " " + user[3]
> os.system(cmd)
> 
> This works fine.

This is very odd, Wayne, and somewhat unexpected. What happens if you 
replace /usr/sbin/useradd with /bin/echo (or wherever your echo command is):

 >>> import os
 >>> user = ["foo", "bar", "baz", "moo"]
 >>> os.system("/bin/echo"+ " -d " + user[0] + " -s " + user[1] + " " + 
user[3])
-d foo -s bar moo
0
 >>> cmd = "/bin/echo"+ " -d " + user[0] + " -s " + user[1] + " " + user[3]
 >>> os.system(cmd)
-d foo -s bar moo

As others have said, os.spawnv() is probably a better choice anyway...
-- 
Michael Hoffman