Thanks, excellent advice as usual, I'll keep going (and it keeps me learning) Cheers, Stephen <div class="gmail_quote">On Wed, Mar 12, 2008 at 8:20 PM, Eli Barzilay <<a href="mailto:eli@barzilay.org">eli@barzilay.org</a>> wrote: <blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="border-left: 1px solid rgb(204, 204, 204); margin: 0pt 0pt 0pt 0.8ex; padding-left: 1ex;"><div class="Ih2E3d">On Mar 12, Stephen De Gabrielle wrote: </div>> Thanks, <div class="Ih2E3d">> > I don't need the path, so I modified your suggestion; > > (system "/bin/sh -c \". /etc/profile;. ~/.profile ;svn commit  -m > \"auto-commit\"\"") </div>This approach is *extremely* fragile, and likely to break in all kinds of ways.  One thing that is already broken are your quotes, it should be <div class="Ih2E3d">  (system "/bin/sh -c \". /etc/profile;. ~/.profile ;svn commit  -m </div>  \\\"auto-commit\\\"\"") But it's a bad idea in way you look at it.  If all you need is the PATH, then I recommend writing code *just* for OSX to set *just* the PATH.  Here's a sketch that seems reasonable:  (when (equal? 'macosx (system-type))    (parameterize ([current-output-port (open-output-string)])      (if (system* "/bin/sh" "-c"                   ". /etc/profile ; printf \"%s\" \"$PATH\"")        (putenv "PATH" (get-output-string (current-output-port)))        (error "something bad happened")))) Once you have that, I recommend using `system*' to invoke executables, so you don't end up in shell-quoting-hell.  I usually like to make a scheme function that behaves like the command, something like this:  (define svn    (let ([exe (or (find-executable-path "svn")                   (error 'svn "cannot find executable"))])      (lambda args        (apply system* exe args)))) And then  (svn "commit" "-m" "auto-commit") (Warning: I didn't test any of the above code, but it should get you closer to a better solution.) <div class="Ih2E3d"> > Works nicely. (I'm this will work on my linux machine) > > Weirdly a 'read'-syle[eof] prompt appears then disappears - without > need for input. </div>If you're running this from DrScheme, then when the process starts it gets all input -- drscheme gives you a chance to feed the process that input, because it cannot tell that the process will never use it.  To avoid that, make sure that the subprocess is always working from an explicitly empty input, for example:  (parameterize ([current-input-port (open-input-string "")])    ...your-code...) -- <div><div></div><div class="Wj3C7c">          ((lambda (x) (x x)) (lambda (x) (x x)))          Eli Barzilay:                  <a href="http://www.barzilay.org/" target="_blank">http://www.barzilay.org/</a>                 Maze is Life! </div></div></blockquote></div> -- Cheers, Stephen -- Stephen De Gabrielle <a href="mailto:s.degabrielle@ucl.ac.uk">s.degabrielle@ucl.ac.uk</a> Telephone +44 (0)20 7679 5242 (x45242) Mobile 079 851 890 45 Project: Making Sense of Information (MaSI) <a href="http://www.uclic.ucl.ac.uk/annb/MaSI.html">http://www.uclic.ucl.ac.uk/annb/MaSI.html</a> UCLIC: University College London Interaction Centre <a href="http://www.uclic.ucl.ac.uk/">http://www.uclic.ucl.ac.uk/</a> Remax House - 31/32 Alfred Place London - WC1E 7DP