os.popen3 delivers no error exist status ?

[robert]

os.popen3 delivers no error exit status on .close()  - while os.popen does

Is this intended or a bug? How do I get the status?

Robert

Python 2.4.1 (#2, May  5 2005, 11:32:06)
[GCC 3.3.5 (Debian 1:3.3.5-12)] on linux2
Type "help", "copyright", "credits" or "license" for more information.
 >>> import os
 >>> csi,cso,cse=os.popen3('recodex latin1:utf8 <text.lat1-noexist.txt','r')
 >>> csi.close();cso.read();cso.close();cse.read();cso.close()
''
'/bin/sh: line 1: text.lat1-noexist.txt: No such file or directory\n'
 >>> cso=os.popen('recode latin1:utf8 <text.lat1-noexist.txt','r')
 >>> sh: line 1: text.lat1-noexist.txt: No such file or directory

 >>> cso.read();cso.close()
''
256
 >>>