--noconsole on Windows and subprocess call

[Bryan A. Jones]

All,

I'm stuck with a Pyinstaller problem (Windows 7, latest pyinstaller from git, Python 2.7). I'd like to create an application without a console window, so I pass --noconsole to pyinstaller. However, I also call some external programs from my application, which is causing problems:

1. If I use subprocess.call and friends, I get the exception OSError exception "[Error 6] the handle is invalid." This is because a noconsole app has no stdin/stdout/stderr; by default, subprocess tries to pass these on to the child process, which fails.
2. If I use subprocess.call with stdin=PIPE, stdout=PIPE, stderr=PIPE (which opens a pipe between the child process and my parent Python process), everything works, but I get a command window that appears briefly on the screen. Because I call this child process a lot, I see a lot of distracting consoles opening and closing.
3. Trying op.spawnl produces identical results to #2.

All the code works fine when running without --noconsole or running directly from Python. Any ideas on how to run a child subprocess successfully, but without opening a console window?

Thanks!

Bryan

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[Martin Zibricky]

On Friday 10 of January 2014 15:00:39 Bryan A. Jones wrote:
> All the code works fine when running without --noconsole or running
> directly from Python. Any ideas on how to run a child subprocess
> successfully, but without opening a console window?

Do you have any code that would reproduce this behavior easily?

[Bryan A. Jones]

Yes. Running the attached subprocess_test.py produces out.txt containing 'Failed: [Error 6] The handle is invalid' when run as pyinstaller --noconsole subprocess_test.py. Running using pyinstaller subprocess_test.py or python subprocess_test.py produces the usual Python help text.

Bryan

[Michael Hipp]

Have you tried calling it something like this:
Popen(cmd, creationflags=win32process.CREATE_NO_WINDOW)

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[Bryan A. Jones]

All,

Another programmer helped me find a nice approach that still uses the newer subprocess module. Is there a good place to post this on the Pyinstaller site? I hope that it can help others who stumble across the same problem. This works directly from Python, and from the pyinstaller binary, and from the pyinstaller binary when using --noconsole.

import subprocess

with open('out.txt', 'w') as f:

    try:

        si = subprocess.STARTUPINFO()

        si.dwFlags |= subprocess.STARTF_USESHOWWINDOW

        h = subprocess.check_output(['python', '--help'],

            stdin=subprocess.PIPE,

            stderr=subprocess.PIPE,

            startupinfo=si)

        f.write(h)

    except OSError as e:

        f.write('Failed: ' + str(e))

[Michael Hipp]

I'd imagine this might be the correct place: http://www.pyinstaller.org/wiki/Recipe

[Bryan A. Jones]

OK, I'm dumb. I can't find any edit button or link on the Trac wiki page given above, even after registering to create an account. Any pointers?

[Steve Barnes]

On 27/01/14 15:36, Bryan A. Jones wrote:

OK, I'm dumb. I can't find any edit button or link on the Trac wiki page given above, even after registering to create an account. Any pointers?

To create a new recipe, please put a WikiPageName at the end of the URL of this page (after the Recipe/).

Any help!

[Bryan A. Jones]

Steve,

Thanks! I tried that, but got a "Page Recipe/Subprocess not found" error for the URL of http://www.pyinstaller.org/wiki/Recipe/Subprocess while I was logged in. I can't follow the instructions at http://www.pyinstaller.org/wiki/WikiNewPage, which tell me to edit an existing page to add a link to a new page, since I can't find an edit button / link.

Bryan

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[Steve Barnes]

On 27/01/14 20:45, Bryan A. Jones wrote:

Steve,

Thanks! I tried that, but got a "Page Recipe/Subprocess not found" error for the URL of http://www.pyinstaller.org/wiki/Recipe/Subprocess while I was logged in. I can't follow the instructions at http://www.pyinstaller.org/wiki/WikiNewPage, which tell me to edit an existing page to add a link to a new page, since I can't find an edit button / link.

Bryan

Bryan,

There is a bit here, http://universaleditbutton.org/Universal_Edit_Button, about an edit button that should appear when you are on an editable page.

Not set up an account to try it but it looks hopeful.

Steve

[Bryan A. Jones]

Steve,

Thanks. I installed it, but it doesn't appear when I'm on the trac wiki.

Bryan

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[Steve Barnes]

On 27/01/14 22:26, Bryan A. Jones wrote:
> Steve,
>

> Thanks. I installed it, but it doesn't appear when I'm on the trac wiki.
>
> Bryan
>

Sorry Bryan I'm out of ideas!

[tomas....@gmail.com]

Hi,

I'm facing similar kind of problems although a bit different.

In my case, the subprocess opens a new window on its own and the
pyinstaller -noconsole option does not seem to apply to that window.
In addition to the new window that I want, I get an additional empty
terminal window. The solution as suggested by Bryan does not work
since I actually want the window to stay open, but I don't want the
console.

Any ideas on how to handle that case so that the -noconsole also
applies to any windows opened by subprocesses?

Windows 7
Python 2.6.2
PyInstaller 2.1


Thankful for any help.
BR,
Tomas Melin