os.system question

[stanleyxu]

kyosohma at gmail.com wrote:
> On Dec 28, 12:57 pm, stanleyxu <no_re... at microsoft.com> wrote:
>> To note this problem occurs when debugging script in IDLE editor.
>> When I double click on my_script.py, all outputs will be printed in one
>> console.
>>
>> --
>>         ___
>>    oo  // \\
>>   (_,\/ \_/ \     Xu, Qian
>>     \ \_/_\_/>      stanleyxu2005
>>     /_/   \_\
> 
> 
> Why are you using os.system for these commands in the first place? You
> should be using the os and shutil modules instead as they would be
> more cross-platform friendly.
> 
> Something like this:
> 
> # untested
> for new_folder, old_folder in folder_array:
>        os.mkdir(new_folder)
>        shutil.copytree(old_folder, new_folder)
> 
> 
> Adjust the path as needed in the mkdir call.
> 
> See shutil's docs for more info:
> http://docs.python.org/lib/module-shutil.html
> 
> And here's some folder manipulation docs:
> http://effbot.org/librarybook/os.htm
> 
> By the by, the subprocess module is supposed to be used in place of
> the os.system and os.popen* calls: http://docs.python.org/lib/module-subprocess.html
> 
> Mike

Thanks Mike,

you have provided another option.

But my question has not been answered yet. The reason, why I use 
os.system(), is that I want to avoid accident file deletion by writing a 
script. My real script looks like:

# 1. Funtion to execute a command in DOS-console
def execCommand(cmd):
     if DEBUG_MODE:
         print 'DOS> ' + cmd;
     else:
         os.system(cmd);

# 2.1 Creates temp folder. Removes it first, if it exists.
if os.path.exists(tmp_folder):
     execCommand('RD "' + tmp_folder + '" /S /Q');
execCommand('MD "' + tmp_folder + '"');

# 2.2 Copies all files to the temp folder, that are going to be put in 
package.
for source_folder, dest_folder in folders_array:
     if not os.path.exists(dest_folder):
         execCommand('MD "' + dest_folder + '"');
     execCommand('XCOPY \"' + source_folder + '" "' + dest_folder + '" /Y');


The benefit is that, when I set DEBUG_MODE=True, I can see what will be 
executed. So that I can make sure that my script will not delete any 
other important files by accident.

-- 
        ___
   oo  // \\
  (_,\/ \_/ \     Xu, Qian
    \ \_/_\_/>      stanleyxu2005
    /_/   \_\