Re: SPAWNing IDL from IDL under UNIX

[Nigel Wade <nmw(at)ion.le.ac.uk>]

"D. Mattes" wrote:
> 
> hello IDL gurus:  here's a fun self-referential problem that i REALLY need
> solved.  i have a lengthy minimization process coded using IDL.  what i
> would like is to allow the user to use my widgets to set minimization
> parameters, etc. and then spawn idl as a UNIX process which runs the
> minimization.
> 
> so i would use spawn to set the idl startup file:
> spawn,'setenv IDL_STARTUP my_min_proc'
> 
> then, i would like to spawn idl as a unix process, using the unix 'at'
> command:
> spawn,'at now; idl; ^D'
> 
> the preceeding command starts idl using the specified startup file, but it
> runs in the current terminal shell.  if i exit the shell, i lose the
> process.
> 
> any insight into this issue would be greatly appreciated!
> 
> thanks,
> david mattes


If you really want to use the at command you have to provide its
commands
as standard input. What your spawn does is to run two commands, one
after the
other (at followed by idl).

Try changing it to spawn,"echo idl | at now"

-- 
-----------------------------------------------------------
Nigel Wade, System Administrator, Space Plasma Physics Group,
            University of Leicester, Leicester, LE1 7RH, UK 
E-mail :    nmw@ion.le.ac.uk 
Phone :     +44 (0)116 2523568, Fax : +44 (0)116 2523555