Index: gui/middleware/notifier.py
===================================================================
--- gui/middleware/notifier.py  (revision 10844)
+++ gui/middleware/notifier.py  (working copy)
@@ -122,7 +122,6 @@
     from pwd import getpwnam as ___getpwnam
     IDENTIFIER = 'notifier'
     def __system(self, command):
-        log.debug("Executing: %s", command)
         # TODO: python's signal class should be taught about sigprocmask(2)
         # This is hacky hack to work around this issue.
         libc = ctypes.cdll.LoadLibrary("libc.so.7")
@@ -132,14 +131,13 @@
         pomask = ctypes.pointer(omask)
         libc.sigprocmask(signal.SIGQUIT, pmask, pomask)
         try:
-            self.___system("(" + command + ") 2>&1 | logger -p daemon.notice -t %s"
-                           % (self.IDENTIFIER, ))
+            p = self.__pipeopen('(%s 2>&1 | logger -p daemon.notice -t %s)'
+                                % (command, self.IDENTIFIER, ))
+            p.wait()
         finally:
             libc.sigprocmask(signal.SIGQUIT, pomask, None)
-        log.debug("Executed: %s", command)

     def __system_nolog(self, command):
-        log.debug("Executing: %s", command)
         # TODO: python's signal class should be taught about sigprocmask(2)
         # This is hacky hack to work around this issue.
         libc = ctypes.cdll.LoadLibrary("libc.so.7")
@@ -148,16 +146,35 @@
         pmask = ctypes.pointer(mask)
         pomask = ctypes.pointer(omask)
         libc.sigprocmask(signal.SIGQUIT, pmask, pomask)
+        err = ''
         try:
-            retval = self.___system("(" + command + ") >/dev/null 2>&1")
+            p = self.__pipeopen(command)
+            __, err = p.communicate()
+            retval = p.returncode
         finally:
             libc.sigprocmask(signal.SIGQUIT, pomask, None)
-        log.debug("Executed: %s; returned %d", command, retval >> 8)
+        log.debug("Executed: %s; returned %d", command, retval)
+        if retval and err:
+            log.debug('Error output:\n%s', err)
         return retval

     def __pipeopen(self, command):
+        """Create a subprocess.Popen object based on ``command``
+
+        Notes:
+        - File descriptors are closed prior to execution.
+        - A full shell environment is instantiated.
+        - The command is sanitized properly (run through shlex.split(..)).
+
+        Arguments:
+        command - a string to execute via subprocess
+        """
         log.debug("Popen()ing: %s", command)
-        return Popen(command, stdin=PIPE, stdout=PIPE, stderr=PIPE, shell=True, close_fds=True)
+        return subprocess.Popen(shlex.split(command),
+                                stdout=subprocess.PIPE,
+                                stderr=subprocess.PIPE,
+                                shell=True,
+                                close_fds=True)

     def _do_nada(self):
         pass