How to call an external program in python and retrieve the output and return code?

python return-value external-process
cfischer picture cfischer · Apr 1, 2009 · Viewed 76.1k times · Source

How can I call an external program with a python script and retrieve the output and return code?

Answer

jkp picture jkp · Apr 1, 2009

Look at the subprocess module: a simple example follows...

from subprocess import Popen, PIPE

process = Popen(["ls", "-la", "."], stdout=PIPE)
(output, err) = process.communicate()
exit_code = process.wait()

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