commands.getoutput() does not work on windows

[pfedin]

BPO	15073
Nosy	@amauryfa, @bitdancer
Superseder	bpo-10197: subprocess.getoutput fails on win32

^{Note: these values reflect the state of the issue at the time it was migrated and might not reflect the current state.}

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GitHub fields:

assignee = None
closed_at = <Date 2012-06-15.08:38:47.693>
created_at = <Date 2012-06-15.05:53:20.256>
labels = ['type-bug', 'OS-windows']
title = 'commands.getoutput() does not work on windows'
updated_at = <Date 2012-06-15.13:30:41.712>
user = 'https://bugs.python.org/pfedin'

bugs.python.org fields:

activity = <Date 2012-06-15.13:30:41.712>
actor = 'p.fedin'
assignee = 'none'
closed = True
closed_date = <Date 2012-06-15.08:38:47.693>
closer = 'amaury.forgeotdarc'
components = ['Windows']
creation = <Date 2012-06-15.05:53:20.256>
creator = 'p.fedin'
dependencies = []
files = []
hgrepos = []
issue_num = 15073
keywords = []
message_count = 4.0
messages = ['162844', '162874', '162894', '162897']
nosy_count = 3.0
nosy_names = ['amaury.forgeotdarc', 'r.david.murray', 'p.fedin']
pr_nums = []
priority = 'normal'
resolution = 'duplicate'
stage = None
status = 'closed'
superseder = '10197'
type = 'behavior'
url = 'https://bugs.python.org/issue15073'
versions = ['Python 2.7']

[pfedin]

commands.getoutput() is broken on Windows. The issue has been detected in v2.7.2, but still persists in v2.7.3:
--- cut ---

Python 2.7.3 (default, Apr 10 2012, 23:24:47) [MSC v.1500 64 bit (AMD64)] on win32
Type "help", "copyright", "credits" or "license" for more information.
>>> import commands;
>>> print commands.getoutput("dir");
'{' is not recognized as an internal or external command,
operable program or batch file.
>>>
--- cut 

---

The error message comes from cmd.exe. Looks like Python tries to feed native Windows shell with UNIX-style commands sequence in {...}.
I believe this is very simple to fix, please take a look at it. Some our internal software croaks because of this.

[amauryfa]

The documentation http://docs.python.org/library/commands.html
prominently says "Platforms: Unix".  This module does not work on Windows.
You should really use the subprocess module:
>>> import subprocess
>>> output = subprocess.check_output("dir", shell=True)

[bitdancer]

Hmm. Maybe bpo-10197 should be reclassified as an enhancement...

[pfedin]

I see it's deprecated and dropped, but anyway, why not to fix it to work on Windows? From 10197 i see the fix is quite simple, and there is lots of legacy code i believe.