[Ecls-list] RUN-PROGRAM

[Hannu Koivisto]

"Dave Richards" <dave at synergy.org> writes:

> This sounds very similar to the CLISP implementation.

It also sounds similar to the more extensive CMUCL/SBCL
run-program.

> One of my frustrations with this interface is that :wait nil isn't very
> useful.  I was looking at using :wait nil in CLISP to implement a
> variation on "pmake", which executes multiple programs concurrently.
> For such an application it is essential that run-program have a
> corresponding wait-program function for determining the exit status of a
> previous run-program.

In CMUCL/SBCL's interface this is not a problem.  run-program
returns a process object that can be queried for PID, status, exit
code, pty, input/output streams (if available) etc. and it can also
be used to wait for the process to finish, kill it, close the
associated streams and also to set/get a hook function that is
called whenever the status of the process changes (so you don't
necessarily have to wait explicitly).  I think this is a very nice
interface and I hope ECL's version will move towards it.

-- 
Hannu