[Python-Dev] "Deprecation" of os.system in favor of subprocess?

[Antoine Pitrou]

On Wed, 24 Oct 2018 08:05:21 +0200
Stephane Wirtel <stephane at wirtel.be> wrote:
> Good morning/afternoon/evening/night ;-)
> 
> In the documentation of os.system [1], there is this paragraph, where we
> suggest to use subprocess instead of os.system.
> 
> """
> The subprocess module provides more powerful facilities for spawning new
> processes and retrieving their results; using that module is preferable
> to using this function. See the Replacing Older Functions with the
> subprocess Module section in the subprocess documentation for some
> helpful recipes.
> """
> 
> But I have found some references (between 15 and 23 (if we include
> setup.py)) of os.system.
> 
> 
> Do we need to keep the code like that or could we start to use
> subprocess for these "references" because it is preferable?
> 
> If you think we could move to subprocess, I would like to open an issue
> and try to fix it.
> 
> 1. Add the 'deprecated' directive in the doc
> 2. Use subprocess for these references
> 
> What is your opinion?

I don't think it's useful to deprecate something that works fine for
the intended purpose.

Regards

Antoine.