hide 7z/kindlegen consoles on Windows

[VampiroMedicado]

• fix 7zip window popup that steals focus #674

Hide the subprocess that runs kindlegen.exe when the program is performing the .mobi creation, to prevent the user from losing focus on what they are doing while a conversion is being done.

[axu2]

@VampiroMedicado D'oh! Sorry for not noticing this Windows-OS-only quirk.

This is probably due to me removing the stdin=PIPE in

- #633
- https://stackoverflow.com/questions/24455337/pyinstaller-on-windows-with-noconsole-simply-wont-work

You want to try putting it back? I notice a console window opens at EVERY point I call subprocess.run, including 7z, etc.

You can generate an exe with

python setup.py build_binary

[VampiroMedicado]

@VampiroMedicado D'oh! Sorry for not noticing this Windows-only quirk.

This is probably due to me removing the stdin=PIPE in

• fix p7zip-rar error and files with ' or " by using arg lists instead of strings #633
• https://stackoverflow.com/questions/24455337/pyinstaller-on-windows-with-noconsole-simply-wont-work

You want to try putting it back? I notice a console window opens at EVERY point I call subprocess.run, including 7z, etc.

You can generate an exe with

python setup.py build_binary

Seems like the removal of Popen is intentional in PR #581.

What about using a utils function def run_silent_subprocess to handle this?

[axu2]

@VampiroMedicado

Subprocess.run and popen have the same args. Re-adding stdin=PIPE everywhere as an arg should work.

[axu2]

Actually, the proper way to do this is to use the

creationflags=CREATE_NO_WINDOW,

arg in subprocess.run

[VampiroMedicado]

Actually, the proper way to do this is to use the

creationflags=CREATE_NO_WINDOW,

arg in subprocess.run

Yeah, it sounds better now.

I was checking the docs and found nothing about how stdin=PIPE might interact with Windows Shell, but I'm not near my computer to test it. 😅

I'll update the PR tomorrow.

[axu2]

I was checking the docs and found nothing about how stdin=PIPE might interact with Windows Shell, but I'm not near my computer to test it. 😅

I was basing this on the stackoverflow answer, but it seems to not be true.

Also, the CREATE_NO_WINDOW constant is Windows-OS only and throws an Import Error on mac.
https://docs.python.org/3/library/subprocess.html#windows-constants

ImportError: cannot import name 'CREATE_NO_WINDOW' from 'subprocess' (/Library/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/3.11/lib/python3.11/subprocess.py)

What about using a utils function def run_silent_subprocess to handle this?

Sounds good, it just needs to check for Windows-OS or not.
It seems this issue stemmed from not using the unsafe shell=True...

[VampiroMedicado]

I was checking the docs and found nothing about how stdin=PIPE might interact with Windows Shell, but I'm not near my computer to test it. 😅

I was basing this on the stackoverflow answer, but it seems to not be true.

Also, the CREATE_NO_WINDOW constant is Windows only and throws an Import Error on mac.
https://docs.python.org/3/library/subprocess.html#windows-constants

ImportError: cannot import name 'CREATE_NO_WINDOW' from 'subprocess' (/Library/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/3.11/lib/python3.11/subprocess.py)

What about using a utils function def run_silent_subprocess to handle this?

Sounds good, it just needs to check for windows or not.
It seems this issue stemmed from not using the unsafe shell=True...

The current solution works right on Mac? I only have a Windows desktop.

[axu2]

Yes, Mac and Linux don't create extra console windows already. This is Windows OS only issue. Just check the os before importing.

[VampiroMedicado]

Hi, @axu2 happy new year 🎉

I made some changes, utils.py has the helper function and replaced any ocurrence of subprocess.run with it.

[axu2]

A few comments, I can confirm it runs on macOS. Thanks for the great work!

[VampiroMedicado]

@axu2 changes done.

Tested on Windows without issues.

[axu2]

Looks great, I'll include these fixes in the next release!

[axu2]

I've decided to backport this fix to v5.6.5. V5.7.0 is in prerelease and gets fewer downloads than v5.6.5