I observed something tangential to this topic, and that is the reason for this reply. I don't understand when os.environ gets updated. The '...captured the first time the os mdule is imported...' verbiage from the following link:
http://www.python.org/dev/doc/newstyle/lib/os-procinfo.html provides some information, but it's not clear how to make that fit with the following observations: Sequence of steps...observation 1: 1) open Pythonwin interactive window 2) import os 3) os.environ['PATH'] - this presents the contents of the PATH variable 4) using Windows system properties/environment variables, change contents of PATH variable; apply the changes (after closing, I got back in to verify that the PATH variable was, in fact, changed) 5) in interactive window, reload(os) 6) os.environ['PATH'] - presents same value is in #3 Sequence of steps...observation 2: 1) open Pythonwin interactive window 2) import os 3) os.environ['PATH'] - this presents the contents of the PATH variable 4) using Windows system properties/environment variables, change contents of PATH variable; apply the changes (after closing, I got back in to verify that the PATH variable was, in fact, changed) 5) in interactive window, del os 6) in interactive window, import os 7) os.environ['PATH'] - presents the same value as in #3 I also observed that if I exit the interactive window, and then go back into the interactive window, the os.environ['PATH'] reflects changes to the PATH environment variable that happened while in the interactive window the first time. Do these observations fit with what is stated in section 6.1.1 of the Python Library Reference? -- http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/python-list
