spawnmyapp

spawnmyapp is a lightweight command-line tool for launching and managing separate application processes with configurable isolation. It is designed for testing, automation, and development workflows where running multiple instances or controlling environment and input/output is useful, without the overhead of a full container runtime.

Key capabilities include starting a command with a dedicated environment, working directory, and redirected standard streams; optional timeouts and automatic termination; and per-invocation cleanup to ensure no stray processes remain. It supports running multiple instances concurrently and provides simple logging of each instance’s output for debugging and record-keeping. While it offers some level of isolation, it does not replace a full virtualization or container solution.

On Linux, macOS, and Windows, spawnmyapp creates a child process with the specified settings. It does not enforce complete virtualization; rather, it provides lightweight isolation by controlling the process environment and IO, with optional platform-specific sandboxing features to reduce resource leakage between runs. The tool is suitable for sandboxed test runs, reproducible execution in continuous integration, and automation tasks where exact command arguments and environment must be preserved.

Typical usage involves passing a command to execute along with environment variables, working directory, and redirection targets. For example, one could invoke: spawnmyapp --cmd /usr/bin/python3 --args server.py --env ENV=prod --cwd /home/user/app --stdout logs/out.log --stderr logs/err.log --timeout 600. Documentation and further options are usually provided with the distribution or project repository.