import socket
import subprocess
import os

"""
When a suprocess.Popen command is issued while a socket connection
is being handled the socket connection will not close until the
output of the subprocess is consumed. The connection remains open
even though the request.close() command returns successfully and we
start listening for the next connection.

This problem does not show up with the equivalent os.popen command.

Replace the command being executed with your favorite program that
produces a significant amount of output.

To reproduce:
    run socketTest.py
    use telnet to connect on port 6288
    watch for connection to close or not
"""

sock = socket.socket(socket.AF_INET, socket.SOCK_STREAM)
sock.bind(('',6288))
sock.listen(5)

while 1:
    request, client_addr = sock.accept()
    #os.popen('C:\\WINDOWS\\system32\\cmd.exe /c type C:\\WINDOWS\\system32\\mqperf.ini')
    subprocess.Popen('C:\\WINDOWS\\system32\\cmd.exe /c type C:\\WINDOWS\\system32\\mqperf.ini', stdout=subprocess.PIPE)
    request.close()