From fe6e784a9dc1e1c3281f2a62d2d5f48134cc4fd5 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001 From: "R. David Murray" Date: Fri, 29 May 2009 19:30:27 +0000 Subject: [PATCH] Issue 6141: document that the first item of args is still the command name even when executable is specified. --- Doc/library/subprocess.rst | 9 ++++++--- 1 file changed, 6 insertions(+), 3 deletions(-) diff --git a/Doc/library/subprocess.rst b/Doc/library/subprocess.rst index 946a504c4f4..73c622e7677 100644 --- a/Doc/library/subprocess.rst +++ b/Doc/library/subprocess.rst @@ -39,9 +39,12 @@ This module defines one class called :class:`Popen`: Arguments are: *args* should be a string, or a sequence of program arguments. The program - to execute is normally the first item in the args sequence or the string if a - string is given, but can be explicitly set by using the *executable* - argument. + to execute is normally the first item in the args sequence or the string if + a string is given, but can be explicitly set by using the *executable* + argument. When *executable* is given, the first item in the args sequence + is still treated by most programs as the command name, which can then be + different from the actual executable name. On Unix, it becomes the display + name for the executing program in utilities such as :program:`ps`. On Unix, with *shell=False* (default): In this case, the Popen class uses :meth:`os.execvp` to execute the child program. *args* should normally be a