Program chaining on Windows

[Eryk Sun]

On 8/23/20, Rob Cliffe via Python-list <python-list at python.org> wrote:
>
> Am I missing something?  Is there a way in Windows for one Python
> program to "chain" to another (or indeed to any executable) without
> waiting for the latter to finish?

Windows does not implement anything equivalent to the POSIX exec
family of system calls. The C runtime library implements exec
functions by spawning a new process and exiting the current process.
So a parent process, such as a shell, that's waiting on the current
process will resume, including its console I/O. If it had been up to
me, I would have ignored the C runtime exec functions in Windows
Python. They only lead to problems with cross-platform code that
assumes they work like the POSIX exec functions. Cross-platform code
needs to spawn, wait, and proxy the child's exit code.