cpython/Doc/libcommands.tex

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% Documentation written by Sue Williams.
\section{Standard Module \module{commands}}
\stmodindex{commands}
\label{module-commands}
The \module{commands} module contains wrapper functions for
\function{os.popen()} which take a system command as a string and
return any output generated by the command and, optionally, the exit
status.
The \module{commands} module is only usable on systems which support
\function{os.popen()} (currently \UNIX{}). It defines the following
functions:
\begin{funcdesc}{getstatusoutput}{cmd}
Execute the string \var{cmd} in a shell with \function{os.popen()} and
return a 2-tuple \code{(\var{status}, \var{output})}. \var{cmd} is
actually run as \code{\{ \var{cmd} ; \} 2>\&1}, so that the returned
output will contain output or error messages. A trailing newline is
stripped from the output. The exit status for the command can be
interpreted according to the rules for the \C{} function
\cfunction{wait()}.
\end{funcdesc}
\begin{funcdesc}{getoutput}{cmd}
Like \function{getstatusoutput()}, except the exit status is ignored
and the return value is a string containing the command's output.
\end{funcdesc}
\begin{funcdesc}{getstatus}{file}
Return the output of \samp{ls -ld \var{file}} as a string. This
function uses the \function{getoutput()} function, and properly
escapes backslashes and dollar signs in the argument.
\end{funcdesc}
Example:
\begin{verbatim}
>>> import commands
>>> commands.getstatusoutput('ls /bin/ls')
(0, '/bin/ls')
>>> commands.getstatusoutput('cat /bin/junk')
(256, 'cat: /bin/junk: No such file or directory')
>>> commands.getstatusoutput('/bin/junk')
(256, 'sh: /bin/junk: not found')
>>> commands.getoutput('ls /bin/ls')
'/bin/ls'
>>> commands.getstatus('/bin/ls')
'-rwxr-xr-x 1 root 13352 Oct 14 1994 /bin/ls'
\end{verbatim}