execvpe weirdness

Nathan Gray n8gray at caltech.edu.is.my.e-mail.address
Wed Feb 21 00:09:46 EST 2001


Nathan Gray wrote


> OK, thanks to a dejanews search I figured out that I need to say:
>     execvpe(execName, [execName], os.environ)
> or
>     execle(execName, execName, os.environ)
> 
> and I think I even understand why -- it's so you can call an executable 
> with something other than the name of the executable as argv[0].  I can 
> sorta see why this is useful, but it would be nice if the documentation 
> for exec* was a little more explicit about the nature of "arg0".  A line 
> like:  "Note:  arg0 is traditionally the name of the executable, and 
> some executables will depend on this." would have saved me a lot of 
> hair-pulling.
> 
> Or have I misunderstood something?
> 
> -n8

Since we've already decided that flaming onesself is inappropriate on 
this newsgroup <wink>, I'll simply point out to poor Nathan that the 
documentation in 2.0 is much better on the exec* functions.

"""
The various exec*() functions take a list of arguments for the new 
program loaded into the process. In each case, the first of these 
arguments is passed to the new program as its own name rather than as an 
argument a user may have typed on a command line. For the C programmer, 
this is the argv[0] passed to a program's main(). For example, 
"os.execv('/bin/echo', ['foo', 'bar'])" will only print "bar" on 
standard output; "foo" will seem to be ignored.
"""

Maybe I'll make a witty remark about the time machine, too.

In response, Nathan will say that although the documentation is indeed 
better for 2.0, it's still a bit confusing for those who don't program 
in C, and he thinks that his suggestion still might help.

To which I'll respond that if he wants to see this happen he should 
really send his suggestion to python-docs at python.org.  Depending on my 
mood, I may also chastise him for not looking for the correct venue 
before posting.

With a mild air of indignity he'll reply that he already *has* sent his 
suggestion to python-docs at python.org.

I'll then apologize, and the two of us will co-write, co-direct, and 
co-star in a movie about long-separated twin cops who reunite to track 
down a wacky gang of incompetent jewel thieves.

Thanks for tuning in,
-n8

-- 
_.~'^`~._.~'^`~._.~'^`~._.~'^`~._.~'^`~._
               Nathaniel Gray
     California Institute of Technology
      Computation and Neural Systems
       n8gray <at> caltech <dot> edu
_.~'^`~._.~'^`~._.~'^`~._.~'^`~._.~'^`~._




More information about the Python-list mailing list