python call external program non-blocking way

Question

is there a way to call an external program inside python and don\'t wait for its execution to finish?

I tried this, but no luck:

os.system(\"external         


        

Answer 1

Forget about os.system(). It is deprecated in favour of the subprocess module.

It provides a way to execute subprograms for almost every thinkable use case.

Answer 2

Yes, use the subprocess module. For example:

p = subprocess.Popen(['external_program', 'arg1', 'arg2'])
# Process is now running in the background, do other stuff...
...
# Check if process has completed
if p.poll() is not None:
    ...
...
# Wait for process to complete
p.wait()