# Process::Status or exit code from popen3 win32? **URL:** \ **Category:** Ruby\ **Created:** [May 22, 2006, 5:12pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/process-status-or-exit-code-from-popen3-win32/61273 "2006-05-22T17:12:35Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 2\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![John-Mason\_PSShack](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/j/94ad74/32.png) [@John-Mason\_PSShack](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/John-Mason_PSShack)\ **Post date:** [May 22, 2006, 5:12pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/process-status-or-exit-code-from-popen3-win32/61273/1 "2006-05-22T17:12:35Z")
Greetings all, The win32 version of popen3 does not appear to set $? and Process.waitpid2(pid) always seems to fail with “no child process”. Other than Ara’s clever hack at [http://groups.google.com/group/comp.lang.ruby/msg/c0e7fc74641b9a50](http://groups.google.com/group/comp.lang.ruby/msg/c0e7fc74641b9a50) , can anyone recommend how I can grab stdout, stderr, and the Process::Status (or at least the return code) for a child process on windows? My objective is to build a basic cross-platform popen4-like method (though I do not strictly need stdin) and the lack of Process::Status / exit code appears to be the only thing preventing me from using win32 popen3 for that purpose. ## Many thanks, John-Mason Shackelford Software Developer Pearson Educational Measurement 2510 North Dodge St. Iowa City, IA 52245 ph. 319-354-9200x6214 removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid [http://pearsonedmeasurement.com](http://pearsonedmeasurement.com) ---
**Author:** ![John-Mason\_PSShack](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/j/94ad74/32.png) [@John-Mason\_PSShack](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/John-Mason_PSShack)\ **Post date:** [May 29, 2006, 11:51pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/process-status-or-exit-code-from-popen3-win32/61273/2 "2006-05-29T23:51:06Z")
Many thanks to Samuel Tesla for his helpful patch which provides Process::Status when popen4 is called with a block, just as the unix Open4 library does. This moves us closer to cross platform compatiblity in capturing stdout, stderr and Process::Status for child processes. See [http://rubyforge.org/tracker/?func=detail&atid=413&aid=4603&group\_id=85](http://rubyforge.org/tracker/?func=detail&atid=413&aid=4603&group_id=85) – John-Mason Shackelford Software Developer Pearson Educational Measurement 2510 North Dodge St. Iowa City, IA 52245 ph. 319-354-9200x6214 removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid [http://pearsonedmeasurement.com](http://pearsonedmeasurement.com)