os.system()

[Nick Craig-Wood]

Joerg Schuster <joerg.schuster.REMOVETHIS at gmail.com> wrote:
>  os.system(command)
> 
>  only works for some values of 'command' on my system (Linux). A certain
>  shell command (that *does* run on the command line) does not work when
>  called with os.system(). Does anyone know a simple and stable way to
>  have *any* string executed by the shell?

The command is exectued through the shell, eg

>>> os.system("sleep 60 > z")

$ ps axf
 5121 ?        S      0:00 rxvt
 5123 pts/77   Ss     0:00  \_ bash
 5126 pts/77   S+     0:00      \_ python
 5149 pts/77   S+     0:00          \_ sh -c sleep 60 > z
 5150 pts/77   S+     0:00              \_ sleep 60

Things to check
1) quoting, python vs shell
2) PATH - check PATH is set the same in shell / python
3) check the whole of the environment

Also if you are using 2.4 check the subprocess module

-- 
Nick Craig-Wood <nick at craig-wood.com> -- http://www.craig-wood.com/nick