[Zope] Problems Executing pdftk from within zope.

[Jerry Westrick]

On Saturday 08 April 2006 20.47, Dieter Maurer wrote:
> Jerry Westrick wrote at 2006-4-8 00:42 +0200:
> >I trying to modify pdf files from within zope.
> >I use the following command:
> >
> >'/usr/bin/pdftk /t/in.pdf attach_files /t/a1.pdf /t/a2.pdf output
> > /t/out.pdf'
> >
> >When I execute it as root it works...
>
> I do not know what "pdftk" does.
> But from your description, it would be really strange when it required
> execution as root. If it really does, I would say: do not use it!
>
> >When executed from within zope,
> >(this i've done via external command that executes os.system(...))
> >A task is started to executed it, but the task hangs.
>
> Apart from the most recent Python versions, earlier Python versions
> had a bug: forked processes from multi-threaded applications (such
> as Zope) had all signals blocked. Thus, when a forked application
> used signals (e.g. "alarm"), it could hang.
> Checking the "sigmask" of the application can tell you whether
> this problem still exists with your Python version.
>
Ahhh, I bet this is the problem...

>
> The most recent Python versions in the 2.3 and 2.4 series should have
> this problem fixed.