From: Paul Lutus <nospam@...>
Date: 2006-11-20T11:35:09+09:00
Subject: Re: backticks asynchronous?

Giles Bowkett wrote:

> sorry, dumb question possibly, I just want to make sure. if I call
> some Unix command using backticks, that invokes the command, launches
> a new process, and waits until that process terminates before resuming
> program execution, right? especially if I do this:
> 
> shell_output = `some process`
> 
> which should capture the output of the process. right? it isn't possible
> to say
> 
> shell_output = `some process`
> 
> and accidentally see execution fork, is it?

That depends on what you put between the back-ticks.

This:

`command > /dev/null &`

will almost certainly fork. There are any number of forking contingencies,
depending on what you try to run, and how.

-- 
Paul Lutus
http://www.arachnoid.com