Executing DOS command with result

[Peter Hansen]

C42 wrote:
> 
> I'm trying to write a Python script to automate an MS Exchange defragment
> procedure.
> 
> Part of the procedure uses a Microsoft-created DOS utility that, when run,
> returns a message in the DOS box that reports how it ran.
> 
> What I'm trying to determine is if there is any way to have Python use
> conditional statements based upon the result of running this program.

Check out os.popen(), or the popen2 module in the standard library.

Used with some simple text-matching, or regular expressions, one can
definitely do what you ask.

-Peter