[Zope] Launching external apps to process uploads to LocalFS, possible?

[Chris Beaumont]

I'm setting up a document repository that allows people to upload files
(Using Zope) to a LocalFS directory. 

Those files then become visible through the Zope
management interface. Is there any Zope friendly way to launch external
Linux apps to process them once they have been uploaded? I'd like to
translate .dvi and Word .doc files into PDF using wvWare and dvipdfm.

I suppose I could use a cron job and a shell script to do the conversion
at regular intervals, but I'd rather do it immediately. I guess what I
am asking is if Zope's Python can be told to launch apps on the hosting
machine.. But that seems like it would be a major security hole, so I
understand if its not possible..

-Thank you,
Chris