When file-like objects aren't file-like enough for Windows

[Tim Golden]

William McBrine wrote:
> Now, I have a similar problem with subprocess.Popen... The code that 
> works in Linux looks like this:
> 
>     source = urllib.urlopen(url)
>     child = subprocess.Popen(cmd, stdout=subprocess.PIPE, stdin=source)
>     try:
>         shutil.copyfileobj(child.stdout, self.wfile)
>     except:
>         kill(child.pid)
> 
> But wfile isn't the problem this time; instead, it's the source:
> 
> ...
> child = subprocess.Popen(cmd, stdout=subprocess.PIPE, stdin=source)
> File "C:\Python25\lib\subprocess.py", line 586, in __init__
> errread, errwrite) = self._get_handles(stdin, stdout, stderr)
> File "C:\Python25\lib\subprocess.py", line 698, in _get_handles
> p2cread = msvcrt.get_osfhandle(stdin.fileno())
> IOError: [Errno 9] Bad file descriptor 
> 
> How can I get around this, short of resorting to copying all of the input 
> before passing it to the child?

It looks like you're stuck, I'm afraid. Basically you're
falling foul of a documented limitation of the underlying
socket file-likeness whose fileno () under Windows "cannot be
used where a file descriptor can be used (such as os.fdopen())"

I doubt you have any choice but to channel your urlopen
data through some real file so it can make the stdin of
the external process.

TJG