os.spawnXX functions terminates process if second argument is empty list

[sschukat]

BPO	18930
Nosy	@pfmoore, @tjguk, @zware, @zooba, @pablogsal, @isidentical

^{Note: these values reflect the state of the issue at the time it was migrated and might not reflect the current state.}

Show more details

GitHub fields:

assignee = None
closed_at = <Date 2020-01-06.12:35:03.317>
created_at = <Date 2013-09-05.10:52:34.735>
labels = ['type-bug', 'OS-windows']
title = 'os.spawnXX functions terminates process if second argument is empty list'
updated_at = <Date 2020-01-06.12:35:03.306>
user = 'https://bugs.python.org/SSchukat'

bugs.python.org fields:

activity = <Date 2020-01-06.12:35:03.306>
actor = 'pablogsal'
assignee = 'none'
closed = True
closed_date = <Date 2020-01-06.12:35:03.317>
closer = 'pablogsal'
components = ['Windows']
creation = <Date 2013-09-05.10:52:34.735>
creator = 'SSchukat'
dependencies = []
files = []
hgrepos = []
issue_num = 18930
keywords = []
message_count = 4.0
messages = ['196988', '358715', '359407', '359420']
nosy_count = 7.0
nosy_names = ['paul.moore', 'tim.golden', 'SSchukat', 'zach.ware', 'steve.dower', 'pablogsal', 'BTaskaya']
pr_nums = []
priority = 'normal'
resolution = 'fixed'
stage = 'resolved'
status = 'closed'
superseder = None
type = 'behavior'
url = 'https://bugs.python.org/issue18930'
versions = ['Python 2.7']

[sschukat]

If os.spawnv or os.spawnve is called with an empty second argument the process terminates in release builds under Windows. This is simple to reproduce:

>> import os
>> nPath = os.path.join(os.environ["windir"], "notepad.exe")
>> os.spawnv(os.P_NOWAIT, nPath, []) # or os.spawnv(os.P_NOWAIT, nPath, [], {})

This has the same cause as the bug reported for execv http://bugs.python.org/issue1039 and could be fixed in the same way.

[isidentical]

@sschukat can you reproduce this issue in python 3?

[sschukat]

@Batuhan the error does not appear anymore in at least Python 3.6.1
>>> import os
>>> nPath = os.path.join(os.environ["windir"], "notepad.exe")
>>> os.spawnv(os.P_NOWAIT, nPath, []) # or os.spawnv(os.P_NOWAIT, nPath, [], {})
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "<stdin>", line 1, in <module>
ValueError: spawnv() arg 2 cannot be empty

[pablogsal]

Closing as this also does not happen anymore on master as well.