Redirecting system output quietly

[David Bolen]

hugonz at hotmail.com (Hugo Gonz?lez) writes:

> There's an even easier way to do this. You can use the "commands"
> module:
> 
> http://www.python.org/doc/current/lib/module-commands.html
> 
> This is easier and faster than using popen, and will allow you to get
> exit status (os.popen* won't let you)

Well, since the commands module is just a simple wrapper around the
os.popen() call, it's hard to see it giving you anything you can't get
with the call itself :-)

You can certainly get the exit status from os.popen - it is returned
as the result of the close() operation.  (Under Windows, for the
higher order popen* calls, you get the exit status from the close() on
the final of the multiple handles you close, while under Unix I think
you need to explicitly do a wait() on the returned handle).

One thing to be aware of with commands (although this shouldn't be a
problem for the OP in this case), is that it is Unix only, and won't
work properly under Windows.

-- David