os.system question

[Asun Friere]

On Aug 13, 8:58 am, Steven D'Aprano <st... at REMOVE-THIS-
cybersource.com.au> wrote:
> On Mon, 11 Aug 2008 19:28:13 -0700, Asun Friere wrote:
>
> > but if I was in a hurry to find out who I was I would be tempted still
> > to use the deprecated "os.popen('whoami').read()".
>
> Is it really deprecated? Since when? I'm using Python 2.5 and it doesn't
> raise any warnings or mention anything in the doc string.
>

I should perhaps have put 'deprecated' in quotation marks?  Note the
post I was responding to and my own stated preference.  Though I
admit, I have been trying out Popen just recently.

> The current documentation does say:
>
> "The subprocess module provides more powerful facilities for spawning new
> processes and retrieving their results; using that module is preferable
> to using this function."
>
> http://docs.python.org/lib/os-newstreams.html#os-newstreams
>
> but that's not the same as deprecating os.popen.
>

Current documentation also states:

"[The subprocess] module intends to replace several other, older
modules and functions, such as: ... [inter alia] ... os.system,
os.popen*, commands.*"

http://docs.python.org/lib/module-subprocess.html

Which is also not exactly the same thing as deprecating os.popen, but
it does sound somehwat more ominous.  One hopes the subprocess module
is not successful in realising its intentions.

I note 3.0 runs os.popen without complaint (and had thought to mention
that in my previous).  Right now I'm wondering whether I should
install the beta 2.6 to see whether Wotjek is pulling our leg or
not. :)