I'd go with one of these much simpler methods:

system(1,"iexplore $outputFile");
# or
system("start iexplorer $outputFile");
[download]

I determined the problem yesterday. The script was being launched from an application directly, and it was that application that wouldn't let the script stop executing until the browser window had been closed. When I disable the application's "Capture Output" option, it works fine.

The first way you poined out results in a "Bad Command or Filename" on my system, but your second suggestion works just as well as the one I'm using now, so I'll switch to it.

Thanks, eh!

Hot Pastrami

The first way you poined out results in a "Bad Command or Filename" on my system

Yeah, that is because I typoed "iexplorer", leaving off the final "r".

        - tye (but my friends call me "Tye")

I had a similar problem launching a batch file on NT from a cgi program. This seems like something people would do somewhat often, but it was very hard to find support. Your method system("start iexplorer $outputFile"); works great where the normal system call stinks.

Where did you learn that "start somesuchfile.exe" kicks off a windows program like that? I love this site, but there should be more easily searched support for Win32 eccentricities.

What you're looking for is the Wait method. Here's a little example I whipped up:

use strict;
use Win32::Process;

my $appname = "c:\\winnt\\notepad.exe";
my $cmdline = "notepad";
my $inherit = 0;
my $flags   = 'NORMAL_PRIORITY_CLASS';
my $currdir = '.';
my $timeout = 5000; # milliseconds

my $ProcObj;

Win32::Process::Create($ProcObj,$appname,$cmdline,$inherit,$flags,$cur
+rdir) || die &ErrorReport();

$ProcObj->Wait($timeout);

print "Done!\n";
    
sub ErrorReport {
    print Win32::FormatMessage( Win32::GetLastError() );
}
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Thanks for the response, but it seems to have the same behavior as what I already have. What I want it basically to launch the browser in another process entirely, and the script should cease to care what becomes of that other process, finishing it's own execution and exiting normally, whether the browser is still open or not.

I tried it the way you specified, and I also tried it with $processObject->Wait(0); just as a test, and it did the same thing both times... the script just sits and waits until the browser is finally closed by the user.

Any other ideas?

Update: OK, in my attempts, I was just adapting my script to use the same flags and such as yours, and added the Wait() command, and had no success. But when I run yours exactly as you sent it (except changing the path to Notepad to be consistent with Win9x), it works OK. There must be something up someplace else in my code. Thanks for the help, I guess I gotta jusy go through the rest of my script and find the inconsistency.

Hot Pastrami