I need to know if there is a solution to exec() acting differently on windows vs unix. Best way to see the difference is using 3 little perl scripts (I'm displaying them from unix with the "more" command, but they will run as-is on windows also) 
-> more testexec*
::::::::::::::
testexec.pl
::::::::::::::
#!/usr/bin/perl
system("testexec2.pl");
print "Done $0\n";
::::::::::::::
testexec2.pl
::::::::::::::
#!/usr/bin/perl
exec($^X,"testexec3.pl") or print "exec failed - $!\n";
print "Done $0\n";
::::::::::::::
testexec3.pl
::::::::::::::
#!/usr/bin/perl
`sleep 3`;
print "Done $0\n";

[download]
On unix, things act as expected: testexec.pl waits for testexec2.pl to finish (with testexec2.pl being replaced with testexec3.pl). But on windows, testexec.pl does NOT wait for testexec2.pl/testexec3.pl to finish. Is there a way to get Windows to act the same as unix? The windows behaviour does not seem correct...

FYI: I'm trying to avoid using system() instead of exec() because then I open a can of worms regarding the quoting of arguements to the programs being exec()'d (the arguements themselves may contain quotes and/or spaces, and going through the shell on the two different OS's is a whole lot of extra code I can avoid if exec() would just act right :-)

Aaron

In reply to windows vs unix: different behaviour with exec() by abecher

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