Why does this JS snippet makes gnome shell explode?

Question

I'm developing a gnome shell extensions, which should execute a Python program. It includes:

GLib.spawn_sync(null, ['python', '-c', '"import os"'], null, 4, null)

This line make the entire shell crash, even if I run it in the looking glass.

Answer 1

You should not spawn_sync processes from the shell. This means that the shell will lock up until your process returns. For some reason, the shell does not tolerate this and perish. Use spawn_async and it will work fine.