[Octave-bug-tracker] [bug #56600] system blocks when user calls a background command ending in ampersand

[Mike Miller]

Update of bug #56600 (project octave):

                Severity:              3 - Normal => 2 - Minor              
                Priority:              5 - Normal => 3 - Low                
                  Status:               Need Info => Confirmed              
                 Summary: 'system' commnad returns pid for async process, not
on Matlab => system blocks when user calls a background command ending in
ampersand

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Follow-up Comment #7:

I think we should support commands ending with ampersand, and be compatible in
the return values and not block when called with two return values. We are
basically almost compatible, we just need to return an empty string
immediately when the command is backgrounded and the user requests command
output. Maybe there is something simple we can do in octave_procbuf to handle
this correctly?

I see that octave_procbuf already uses


execl (SHELL_PATH, "sh", "-c", command, static_cast<void *> (nullptr));


to run the system command argument when output is requested.

When I run "sh -c 'sleep 10 &'" at a command prompt, it returns immediately.
However, when I try to capture the output with "foo=$(sh -c 'sleep 10 &')", it
blocks. This is basically what's going on in this bug report. We need a way
for that to return immediately if the user is trying to capture command output
but we know the command is backgrounded.

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