Subprocess module

[Dominique.Holzwarth at ch.delarue.com]

Hello all

I want to convert a tex file into a pdf by using pdflatex. For that, I thought the 'subprocess' module might be a good option. My code doesn't work at all tho:

Import os, subprocess

def main():
        scriptpath = os.path.dirname(__file__)

        p = subprocess.Popen("pdflatex --include-directory=%s --output-directory=%s/output --aux-directory=%s/temp --interaction=nonstopmode                                                    myFile.tex"
                             % (scriptpath, scriptpath, scriptpath),
                             stdin=subprocess.PIPE,
                             stdout=subprocess.PIPE,
                             stderr=subprocess.PIPE,
                             shell=True,
                             cwd=scriptpath)
    (child_stdin,
     child_stdout,
     child_stderr) = (p.stdin, p.stdout, p.stderr)
    print 'stdin'
    print child_stdin
    print 'stdout'
    print child_stdout
    print 'stderr'
    print child_stderr

When I run that code I get the following printouts:

stdin
<open file '<fdopen>', mode 'wb' at 0x009E7968>
stdout
<open file '<fdopen>', mode 'rb' at 0x009E7A40>
stderr
<open file '<fdopen>', mode 'rb' at 0x009E79F8>
Done

The pdf file however is not created, nor are there any tex-temporary files (like *.log or *.aux) created. If I include a 'p.wait()' I see the python.exe and the pdflatex.exe processes are running, but I have it to terminate them manually (they never finish). My system is winXP btw.

Does anyone have an idea what could be wrong? The reason why I want to use the Popen class is because it has the wait() function, so I can wait for the childprocess (pdflatex) to terminate before I start it again (because you need to run pdflatex several times to get all the references/index things correct in the generated pdf).

Thanks for help,
Dominique