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Date: Wed, 19 Dec 2012 10:03:16 +1100
From: Cameron Simpson <cs@zip.com.au>
To: Dave Angel <d@davea.name>
Subject: Re: os.system and subprocess odd behavior
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On 18Dec2012 05:39, Dave Angel <d@davea.name> wrote:
| On 12/18/2012 05:27 AM, Hans Mulder wrote:
| > On 18/12/12 06:10:43, photonymous@gmail.com wrote:
| >> I hope I understand the question... but shouldn't you wait for the process to complete before exiting?
| >>
| >> Something like:
| >>
| >> pid = subprocess.Popen(...)
| >> pid.wait()
| >>
| >> Otherwise, it'll exit before the background process is done. 
| > Why would that be a problem?
| 
| Because you don't want to bog the system down with a zombie task.

A zombie task is just a process table slot; it costs the system almost
nothing. It is untidy but except in extreme cases, not a performance or
resource issue.

OTOH, a child process that is still active (pointlessly) might be a
problem...
-- 
Cameron Simpson <cs@zip.com.au>

My initial work-around is to rebuild history.
        - gary@sci34hub.sci.com (Gary Heston)