The Python Subprocess Module for OpenVMS was the result of working on open source projects and finding that the subprocess module of Python did not support OpenVMS. So an effort was made to create at least a minimally sufficient subprocess module to support the existing needs of current projects.

OpenVMS does not have a "fork()" function in the sense of Unix or Linux. The closest functionality available is the "create process" facility. This creates a process either as a detached process or as a subprocess. There are several C Runtime Library functions which use this facility, but none are a true fork() function where the address space of the current process is duplicated and the new child process starts executing at the point after the fork in the code. This specific feature was not necessary in our project so we could use the other aspects of creating separate processes and having them execute independently of the parent process.

The Python Subprocess Module for OpenVMS is available as open source code and may be used as desired in your projects.

CCSS would be happy to help you with your projects as well. Just give us a shout.