def _spawn(self,command,args=[]):

        """This starts the given command in a child process. This does all the
        fork/exec type of stuff for a pty. This is called by __init__. If args
        is empty then command will be parsed (split on spaces) and args will be
        set to parsed arguments. """

        # The pid and child_fd of this object get set by this method.
        # Note that it is difficult for this method to fail.
        # You cannot detect if the child process cannot start.
        # So the only way you can tell if the child process started
        # or not is to try to read from the file descriptor. If you get
        # EOF immediately then it means that the child is already dead.
        # That may not necessarily be bad because you may haved spawned a child
        # that performs some task; creates no stdout output; and then dies.

        # If command is an int type then it may represent a file descriptor.
        if type(command) == type(0):
            raise ExceptionPexpect ('Command is an int type. If this is a file descriptor then maybe you want to use fdpexpect.fdspawn which takes an existing file descriptor instead of a command string.')

        if type (args) != type([]):
            raise TypeError ('The argument, args, must be a list.')

        if args == []:
            self.args = split_command_line(command)
            self.command = self.args[0]
        else:
            self.args = args[:] # work with a copy
            self.args.insert (0, command)
            self.command = command

        command_with_path = which(self.command)
        if command_with_path is None:
            raise ExceptionPexpect ('The command was not found or was not executable: %s.' % self.command)
        self.command = command_with_path
        self.args[0] = self.command

        self.name = '<' + ' '.join (self.args) + '>'

        assert self.pid is None, 'The pid member should be None.'
        assert self.command is not None, 'The command member should not be None.'

        if self.use_native_pty_fork:
            try:
                self.pid, self.child_fd = pty.fork()
            except OSError, e:
                raise ExceptionPexpect('Error! pty.fork() failed: ' + str(e))
        else: # Use internal __fork_pty
            self.pid, self.child_fd = self.__fork_pty()

        if self.pid == 0: # Child
            try:
                self.child_fd = sys.stdout.fileno() # used by setwinsize()
                self.setwinsize(24, 80)
            except:
                # Some platforms do not like setwinsize (Cygwin).
                # This will cause problem when running applications that
                # are very picky about window size.
                # This is a serious limitation, but not a show stopper.
                pass
            # Do not allow child to inherit open file descriptors from parent.
            max_fd = resource.getrlimit(resource.RLIMIT_NOFILE)[0]
            for i in range (3, max_fd):
                try:
                    os.close (i)
                except OSError:
                    pass

            # I don't know why this works, but ignoring SIGHUP fixes a
            # problem when trying to start a Java daemon with sudo
            # (specifically, Tomcat).
            signal.signal(signal.SIGHUP, signal.SIG_IGN)

            if self.cwd is not None:
                os.chdir(self.cwd)
            if self.env is None:
                os.execv(self.command, self.args)
            else:
                os.execvpe(self.command, self.args, self.env)

        # Parent
        self.terminated = False
        self.closed = False
This starts the given command in a child process. This does all the
        fork/exec type of stuff for a pty. This is called by __init__. If args
        is empty then command will be parsed (split on spaces) and args will be
        set to parsed arguments.