Python equivalent to the perl `backtick` operator?

[Michael Hudson]

"Kevin Howe" <khowe at performance-net.com> writes:

> How do you execute a program from python?
> 
> In Perl you would do it like this:
> 
>     $varName = `programName`;

import commands
varName = commands.getoutput("programName")

- or probably better -
 
result, varName  = commands.getstatusoutput("programName")

HTH,
Michael