[Python-Dev] Issue 13524: subprocess on Windows (original) (raw)

"Martin v. Löwis" martin at v.loewis.de
Mon Dec 5 09:10:51 CET 2011


Thoughts?

Apparently, there are at least two "users" of SystemRoot:

I agree with Nick that we shouldn't do anything except perhaps for documentation changes. There are many other environment variables whose absence could also cause failures to run the executable, such as PATH, LD_LIBRARY_PATH, etc. Even not passing DISPLAY may cause the subprocess to fail starting.

IOW, users should "normally" pass all environment variables, and only augment it with any specific additions and deletions that they know are needed for the subprocess. If a user deliberately passes a small set of environment variables (e.g. none), we must assume that it was deliberate, and that any resulting failures are desired. People do such stuff for security reasons, and side-stepping their enforcement is not appropriate for Python to do.

Regards, Martin



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