:mod:`subprocess` --- Subprocess management
.. module:: subprocess :synopsis: Subprocess management.
.. moduleauthor:: Peter Åstrand <astrand@lysator.liu.se>
.. sectionauthor:: Peter Åstrand <astrand@lysator.liu.se>
Source code: :source:`Lib/subprocess.py`
The :mod:`subprocess` module allows you to spawn new processes, connect to their input/output/error pipes, and obtain their return codes. This module intends to replace several older modules and functions:
os.system os.spawn*
Information about how the :mod:`subprocess` module can be used to replace these modules and functions can be found in the following sections.
.. seealso:: :pep:`324` -- PEP proposing the subprocess module
Using the :mod:`subprocess` Module
The recommended approach to invoking subprocesses is to use the :func:`run` function for all use cases it can handle. For more advanced use cases, the underlying :class:`Popen` interface can be used directly.
The :func:`run` function was added in Python 3.5; if you need to retain compatibility with older versions, see the :ref:`call-function-trio` section.
.. function:: run(args, *, stdin=None, input=None, stdout=None, stderr=None,\ shell=False, timeout=None, check=False) Run the command described by *args*. Wait for command to complete, then return a :class:`CompletedProcess` instance. The arguments shown above are merely the most common ones, described below in :ref:`frequently-used-arguments` (hence the use of keyword-only notation in the abbreviated signature). The full function signature is largely the same as that of the :class:`Popen` constructor - apart from *timeout*, *input* and *check*, all the arguments to this function are passed through to that interface. This does not capture stdout or stderr by default. To do so, pass :data:`PIPE` for the *stdout* and/or *stderr* arguments. The *timeout* argument is passed to :meth:`Popen.communicate`. If the timeout expires, the child process will be killed and waited for. The :exc:`TimeoutExpired` exception will be re-raised after the child process has terminated. The *input* argument is passed to :meth:`Popen.communicate` and thus to the subprocess's stdin. If used it must be a byte sequence, or a string if ``universal_newlines=True``. When used, the internal :class:`Popen` object is automatically created with ``stdin=PIPE``, and the *stdin* argument may not be used as well. If *check* is True, and the process exits with a non-zero exit code, a :exc:`CalledProcessError` exception will be raised. Attributes of that exception hold the arguments, the exit code, and stdout and stderr if they were captured. Examples:: >>> subprocess.run(["ls", "-l"]) # doesn't capture output CompletedProcess(args=['ls', '-l'], returncode=0) >>> subprocess.run("exit 1", shell=True, check=True) Traceback (most recent call last): ... subprocess.CalledProcessError: Command 'exit 1' returned non-zero exit status 1 >>> subprocess.run(["ls", "-l", "/dev/null"], stdout=subprocess.PIPE) CompletedProcess(args=['ls', '-l', '/dev/null'], returncode=0, stdout=b'crw-rw-rw- 1 root root 1, 3 Jan 23 16:23 /dev/null\n') .. versionadded:: 3.5
The return value from :func:`run`, representing a process that has finished.
.. attribute:: args The arguments used to launch the process. This may be a list or a string.
.. attribute:: returncode Exit status of the child process. Typically, an exit status of 0 indicates that it ran successfully. A negative value ``-N`` indicates that the child was terminated by signal ``N`` (POSIX only).
.. attribute:: stdout Captured stdout from the child process. A bytes sequence, or a string if :func:`run` was called with ``universal_newlines=True``. None if stdout was not captured. If you ran the process with ``stderr=subprocess.STDOUT``, stdout and stderr will be combined in this attribute, and :attr:`stderr` will be None.
.. attribute:: stderr Captured stderr from the child process. A bytes sequence, or a string if :func:`run` was called with ``universal_newlines=True``. None if stderr was not captured.
.. method:: check_returncode() If :attr:`returncode` is non-zero, raise a :exc:`CalledProcessError`.
.. versionadded:: 3.5
.. data:: DEVNULL Special value that can be used as the *stdin*, *stdout* or *stderr* argument to :class:`Popen` and indicates that the special file :data:`os.devnull` will be used. .. versionadded:: 3.3
.. data:: PIPE Special value that can be used as the *stdin*, *stdout* or *stderr* argument to :class:`Popen` and indicates that a pipe to the standard stream should be opened. Most useful with :meth:`Popen.communicate`.
.. data:: STDOUT Special value that can be used as the *stderr* argument to :class:`Popen` and indicates that standard error should go into the same handle as standard output.
.. exception:: SubprocessError Base class for all other exceptions from this module. .. versionadded:: 3.3
.. exception:: TimeoutExpired Subclass of :exc:`SubprocessError`, raised when a timeout expires while waiting for a child process. .. attribute:: cmd Command that was used to spawn the child process. .. attribute:: timeout Timeout in seconds. .. attribute:: output Output of the child process if it was captured by :func:`run` or :func:`check_output`. Otherwise, ``None``. .. attribute:: stdout Alias for output, for symmetry with :attr:`stderr`. .. attribute:: stderr Stderr output of the child process if it was captured by :func:`run`. Otherwise, ``None``. .. versionadded:: 3.3 .. versionchanged:: 3.5 *stdout* and *stderr* attributes added
.. exception:: CalledProcessError Subclass of :exc:`SubprocessError`, raised when a process run by :func:`check_call` or :func:`check_output` returns a non-zero exit status. .. attribute:: returncode Exit status of the child process. If the process exited due to a signal, this will be the negative signal number. .. attribute:: cmd Command that was used to spawn the child process. .. attribute:: output Output of the child process if it was captured by :func:`run` or :func:`check_output`. Otherwise, ``None``. .. attribute:: stdout Alias for output, for symmetry with :attr:`stderr`. .. attribute:: stderr Stderr output of the child process if it was captured by :func:`run`. Otherwise, ``None``. .. versionchanged:: 3.5 *stdout* and *stderr* attributes added
To support a wide variety of use cases, the :class:`Popen` constructor (and the convenience functions) accept a large number of optional arguments. For most typical use cases, many of these arguments can be safely left at their default values. The arguments that are most commonly needed are:
args is required for all calls and should be a string, or a sequence of program arguments. Providing a sequence of arguments is generally preferred, as it allows the module to take care of any required escaping and quoting of arguments (e.g. to permit spaces in file names). If passing a single string, either shell must be :const:`True` (see below) or else the string must simply name the program to be executed without specifying any arguments.
stdin, stdout and stderr specify the executed program's standard input, standard output and standard error file handles, respectively. Valid values are :data:`PIPE`, :data:`DEVNULL`, an existing file descriptor (a positive integer), an existing file object, and
None
. :data:`PIPE` indicates that a new pipe to the child should be created. :data:`DEVNULL` indicates that the special file :data:`os.devnull` will be used. With the default settings ofNone
, no redirection will occur; the child's file handles will be inherited from the parent. Additionally, stderr can be :data:`STDOUT`, which indicates that the stderr data from the child process should be captured into the same file handle as for stdout... index:: single: universal newlines; subprocess moduleIf universal_newlines is
False
the file objects stdin, stdout and stderr will be opened as binary streams, and no line ending conversion is done.If universal_newlines is
True
, these file objects will be opened as text streams in :term:`universal newlines` mode using the encoding returned by :func:`locale.getpreferredencoding(False) <locale.getpreferredencoding>`. For stdin, line ending characters'\n'
in the input will be converted to the default line separator :data:`os.linesep`. For stdout and stderr, all line endings in the output will be converted to'\n'
. For more information see the documentation of the :class:`io.TextIOWrapper` class when the newline argument to its constructor isNone
.Note
The newlines attribute of the file objects :attr:`Popen.stdin`, :attr:`Popen.stdout` and :attr:`Popen.stderr` are not updated by the :meth:`Popen.communicate` method.
If shell is
True
, the specified command will be executed through the shell. This can be useful if you are using Python primarily for the enhanced control flow it offers over most system shells and still want convenient access to other shell features such as shell pipes, filename wildcards, environment variable expansion, and expansion of~
to a user's home directory. However, note that Python itself offers implementations of many shell-like features (in particular, :mod:`glob`, :mod:`fnmatch`, :func:`os.walk`, :func:`os.path.expandvars`, :func:`os.path.expanduser`, and :mod:`shutil`)... versionchanged:: 3.3 When *universal_newlines* is ``True``, the class uses the encoding :func:`locale.getpreferredencoding(False) <locale.getpreferredencoding>` instead of ``locale.getpreferredencoding()``. See the :class:`io.TextIOWrapper` class for more information on this change.Note
Read the Security Considerations section before using
shell=True
.
These options, along with all of the other options, are described in more detail in the :class:`Popen` constructor documentation.
The underlying process creation and management in this module is handled by the :class:`Popen` class. It offers a lot of flexibility so that developers are able to handle the less common cases not covered by the convenience functions.
Exceptions raised in the child process, before the new program has started to execute, will be re-raised in the parent. Additionally, the exception object will have one extra attribute called :attr:`child_traceback`, which is a string containing traceback information from the child's point of view.
The most common exception raised is :exc:`OSError`. This occurs, for example, when trying to execute a non-existent file. Applications should prepare for :exc:`OSError` exceptions.
A :exc:`ValueError` will be raised if :class:`Popen` is called with invalid arguments.
:func:`check_call` and :func:`check_output` will raise :exc:`CalledProcessError` if the called process returns a non-zero return code.
All of the functions and methods that accept a timeout parameter, such as :func:`call` and :meth:`Popen.communicate` will raise :exc:`TimeoutExpired` if the timeout expires before the process exits.
Exceptions defined in this module all inherit from :exc:`SubprocessError`.
.. versionadded:: 3.3 The :exc:`SubprocessError` base class was added.
Unlike some other popen functions, this implementation will never
implicitly call a system shell. This means that all characters,
including shell metacharacters, can safely be passed to child processes.
If the shell is invoked explicitly, via shell=True
, it is the application's
responsibility to ensure that all whitespace and metacharacters are
quoted appropriately to avoid
shell injection
vulnerabilities.
When using shell=True
, the :func:`shlex.quote` function can be
used to properly escape whitespace and shell metacharacters in strings
that are going to be used to construct shell commands.
Instances of the :class:`Popen` class have the following methods:
.. method:: Popen.poll() Check if child process has terminated. Set and return :attr:`~Popen.returncode` attribute.
.. method:: Popen.wait(timeout=None) Wait for child process to terminate. Set and return :attr:`~Popen.returncode` attribute. If the process does not terminate after *timeout* seconds, raise a :exc:`TimeoutExpired` exception. It is safe to catch this exception and retry the wait. .. note:: This will deadlock when using ``stdout=PIPE`` or ``stderr=PIPE`` and the child process generates enough output to a pipe such that it blocks waiting for the OS pipe buffer to accept more data. Use :meth:`Popen.communicate` when using pipes to avoid that. .. note:: The function is implemented using a busy loop (non-blocking call and short sleeps). Use the :mod:`asyncio` module for an asynchronous wait: see :class:`asyncio.create_subprocess_exec`. .. versionchanged:: 3.3 *timeout* was added. .. deprecated:: 3.4 Do not use the *endtime* parameter. It is was unintentionally exposed in 3.3 but was left undocumented as it was intended to be private for internal use. Use *timeout* instead.
.. method:: Popen.communicate(input=None, timeout=None) Interact with process: Send data to stdin. Read data from stdout and stderr, until end-of-file is reached. Wait for process to terminate. The optional *input* argument should be data to be sent to the child process, or ``None``, if no data should be sent to the child. The type of *input* must be bytes or, if *universal_newlines* was ``True``, a string. :meth:`communicate` returns a tuple ``(stdout_data, stderr_data)``. The data will be bytes or, if *universal_newlines* was ``True``, strings. Note that if you want to send data to the process's stdin, you need to create the Popen object with ``stdin=PIPE``. Similarly, to get anything other than ``None`` in the result tuple, you need to give ``stdout=PIPE`` and/or ``stderr=PIPE`` too. If the process does not terminate after *timeout* seconds, a :exc:`TimeoutExpired` exception will be raised. Catching this exception and retrying communication will not lose any output. The child process is not killed if the timeout expires, so in order to cleanup properly a well-behaved application should kill the child process and finish communication:: proc = subprocess.Popen(...) try: outs, errs = proc.communicate(timeout=15) except TimeoutExpired: proc.kill() outs, errs = proc.communicate() .. note:: The data read is buffered in memory, so do not use this method if the data size is large or unlimited. .. versionchanged:: 3.3 *timeout* was added.
.. method:: Popen.send_signal(signal) Sends the signal *signal* to the child. .. note:: On Windows, SIGTERM is an alias for :meth:`terminate`. CTRL_C_EVENT and CTRL_BREAK_EVENT can be sent to processes started with a *creationflags* parameter which includes `CREATE_NEW_PROCESS_GROUP`.
.. method:: Popen.terminate() Stop the child. On Posix OSs the method sends SIGTERM to the child. On Windows the Win32 API function :c:func:`TerminateProcess` is called to stop the child.
.. method:: Popen.kill() Kills the child. On Posix OSs the function sends SIGKILL to the child. On Windows :meth:`kill` is an alias for :meth:`terminate`.
The following attributes are also available:
.. attribute:: Popen.args The *args* argument as it was passed to :class:`Popen` -- a sequence of program arguments or else a single string. .. versionadded:: 3.3
.. attribute:: Popen.stdin If the *stdin* argument was :data:`PIPE`, this attribute is a writeable stream object as returned by :func:`open`. If the *universal_newlines* argument was ``True``, the stream is a text stream, otherwise it is a byte stream. If the *stdin* argument was not :data:`PIPE`, this attribute is ``None``.
.. attribute:: Popen.stdout If the *stdout* argument was :data:`PIPE`, this attribute is a readable stream object as returned by :func:`open`. Reading from the stream provides output from the child process. If the *universal_newlines* argument was ``True``, the stream is a text stream, otherwise it is a byte stream. If the *stdout* argument was not :data:`PIPE`, this attribute is ``None``.
.. attribute:: Popen.stderr If the *stderr* argument was :data:`PIPE`, this attribute is a readable stream object as returned by :func:`open`. Reading from the stream provides error output from the child process. If the *universal_newlines* argument was ``True``, the stream is a text stream, otherwise it is a byte stream. If the *stderr* argument was not :data:`PIPE`, this attribute is ``None``.
Warning
Use :meth:`~Popen.communicate` rather than :attr:`.stdin.write <Popen.stdin>`, :attr:`.stdout.read <Popen.stdout>` or :attr:`.stderr.read <Popen.stderr>` to avoid deadlocks due to any of the other OS pipe buffers filling up and blocking the child process.
.. attribute:: Popen.pid The process ID of the child process. Note that if you set the *shell* argument to ``True``, this is the process ID of the spawned shell.
.. attribute:: Popen.returncode The child return code, set by :meth:`poll` and :meth:`wait` (and indirectly by :meth:`communicate`). A ``None`` value indicates that the process hasn't terminated yet. A negative value ``-N`` indicates that the child was terminated by signal ``N`` (POSIX only).
The :class:`STARTUPINFO` class and following constants are only available on Windows.
Partial support of the Windows STARTUPINFO structure is used for :class:`Popen` creation.
.. attribute:: dwFlags A bit field that determines whether certain :class:`STARTUPINFO` attributes are used when the process creates a window. :: si = subprocess.STARTUPINFO() si.dwFlags = subprocess.STARTF_USESTDHANDLES | subprocess.STARTF_USESHOWWINDOW
.. attribute:: hStdInput If :attr:`dwFlags` specifies :data:`STARTF_USESTDHANDLES`, this attribute is the standard input handle for the process. If :data:`STARTF_USESTDHANDLES` is not specified, the default for standard input is the keyboard buffer.
.. attribute:: hStdOutput If :attr:`dwFlags` specifies :data:`STARTF_USESTDHANDLES`, this attribute is the standard output handle for the process. Otherwise, this attribute is ignored and the default for standard output is the console window's buffer.
.. attribute:: hStdError If :attr:`dwFlags` specifies :data:`STARTF_USESTDHANDLES`, this attribute is the standard error handle for the process. Otherwise, this attribute is ignored and the default for standard error is the console window's buffer.
.. attribute:: wShowWindow If :attr:`dwFlags` specifies :data:`STARTF_USESHOWWINDOW`, this attribute can be any of the values that can be specified in the ``nCmdShow`` parameter for the `ShowWindow <https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms633548(v=vs.85).aspx>`__ function, except for ``SW_SHOWDEFAULT``. Otherwise, this attribute is ignored. :data:`SW_HIDE` is provided for this attribute. It is used when :class:`Popen` is called with ``shell=True``.
The :mod:`subprocess` module exposes the following constants.
.. data:: STD_INPUT_HANDLE The standard input device. Initially, this is the console input buffer, ``CONIN$``.
.. data:: STD_OUTPUT_HANDLE The standard output device. Initially, this is the active console screen buffer, ``CONOUT$``.
.. data:: STD_ERROR_HANDLE The standard error device. Initially, this is the active console screen buffer, ``CONOUT$``.
.. data:: SW_HIDE Hides the window. Another window will be activated.
.. data:: STARTF_USESTDHANDLES Specifies that the :attr:`STARTUPINFO.hStdInput`, :attr:`STARTUPINFO.hStdOutput`, and :attr:`STARTUPINFO.hStdError` attributes contain additional information.
.. data:: STARTF_USESHOWWINDOW Specifies that the :attr:`STARTUPINFO.wShowWindow` attribute contains additional information.
.. data:: CREATE_NEW_CONSOLE The new process has a new console, instead of inheriting its parent's console (the default).
.. data:: CREATE_NEW_PROCESS_GROUP A :class:`Popen` ``creationflags`` parameter to specify that a new process group will be created. This flag is necessary for using :func:`os.kill` on the subprocess. This flag is ignored if :data:`CREATE_NEW_CONSOLE` is specified.
Prior to Python 3.5, these three functions comprised the high level API to subprocess. You can now use :func:`run` in many cases, but lots of existing code calls these functions.
.. function:: call(args, *, stdin=None, stdout=None, stderr=None, shell=False, timeout=None) Run the command described by *args*. Wait for command to complete, then return the :attr:`~Popen.returncode` attribute. This is equivalent to:: run(...).returncode (except that the *input* and *check* parameters are not supported) The arguments shown above are merely the most common ones. The full function signature is largely the same as that of the :class:`Popen` constructor - this function passes all supplied arguments other than *timeout* directly through to that interface. .. note:: Do not use ``stdout=PIPE`` or ``stderr=PIPE`` with this function. The child process will block if it generates enough output to a pipe to fill up the OS pipe buffer as the pipes are not being read from. .. versionchanged:: 3.3 *timeout* was added.
.. function:: check_call(args, *, stdin=None, stdout=None, stderr=None, shell=False, timeout=None) Run command with arguments. Wait for command to complete. If the return code was zero then return, otherwise raise :exc:`CalledProcessError`. The :exc:`CalledProcessError` object will have the return code in the :attr:`~CalledProcessError.returncode` attribute. This is equivalent to:: run(..., check=True) (except that the *input* parameter is not supported) The arguments shown above are merely the most common ones. The full function signature is largely the same as that of the :class:`Popen` constructor - this function passes all supplied arguments other than *timeout* directly through to that interface. .. note:: Do not use ``stdout=PIPE`` or ``stderr=PIPE`` with this function. The child process will block if it generates enough output to a pipe to fill up the OS pipe buffer as the pipes are not being read from. .. versionchanged:: 3.3 *timeout* was added.
.. function:: check_output(args, *, stdin=None, stderr=None, shell=False, universal_newlines=False, timeout=None) Run command with arguments and return its output. If the return code was non-zero it raises a :exc:`CalledProcessError`. The :exc:`CalledProcessError` object will have the return code in the :attr:`~CalledProcessError.returncode` attribute and any output in the :attr:`~CalledProcessError.output` attribute. This is equivalent to:: run(..., check=True, stdout=PIPE).stdout The arguments shown above are merely the most common ones. The full function signature is largely the same as that of :func:`run` - most arguments are passed directly through to that interface. However, explicitly passing ``input=None`` to inherit the parent's standard input file handle is not supported. By default, this function will return the data as encoded bytes. The actual encoding of the output data may depend on the command being invoked, so the decoding to text will often need to be handled at the application level. This behaviour may be overridden by setting *universal_newlines* to ``True`` as described above in :ref:`frequently-used-arguments`. To also capture standard error in the result, use ``stderr=subprocess.STDOUT``:: >>> subprocess.check_output( ... "ls non_existent_file; exit 0", ... stderr=subprocess.STDOUT, ... shell=True) 'ls: non_existent_file: No such file or directory\n' .. versionadded:: 3.1 .. versionchanged:: 3.3 *timeout* was added. .. versionchanged:: 3.4 Support for the *input* keyword argument was added.
Replacing Older Functions with the :mod:`subprocess` Module
In this section, "a becomes b" means that b can be used as a replacement for a.
Note
All "a" functions in this section fail (more or less) silently if the executed program cannot be found; the "b" replacements raise :exc:`OSError` instead.
In addition, the replacements using :func:`check_output` will fail with a :exc:`CalledProcessError` if the requested operation produces a non-zero return code. The output is still available as the :attr:`~CalledProcessError.output` attribute of the raised exception.
In the following examples, we assume that the relevant functions have already been imported from the :mod:`subprocess` module.
output=`mycmd myarg`
becomes:
output = check_output(["mycmd", "myarg"])
output=`dmesg | grep hda`
becomes:
p1 = Popen(["dmesg"], stdout=PIPE) p2 = Popen(["grep", "hda"], stdin=p1.stdout, stdout=PIPE) p1.stdout.close() # Allow p1 to receive a SIGPIPE if p2 exits. output = p2.communicate()[0]
The p1.stdout.close() call after starting the p2 is important in order for p1 to receive a SIGPIPE if p2 exits before p1.
Alternatively, for trusted input, the shell's own pipeline support may still be used directly:
output=`dmesg | grep hda`
becomes:
output=check_output("dmesg | grep hda", shell=True)
Replacing :func:`os.system`
sts = os.system("mycmd" + " myarg") # becomes sts = call("mycmd" + " myarg", shell=True)
Notes:
- Calling the program through the shell is usually not required.
A more realistic example would look like this:
try: retcode = call("mycmd" + " myarg", shell=True) if retcode < 0: print("Child was terminated by signal", -retcode, file=sys.stderr) else: print("Child returned", retcode, file=sys.stderr) except OSError as e: print("Execution failed:", e, file=sys.stderr)
Replacing the :func:`os.spawn <os.spawnl>` family
P_NOWAIT example:
pid = os.spawnlp(os.P_NOWAIT, "/bin/mycmd", "mycmd", "myarg") ==> pid = Popen(["/bin/mycmd", "myarg"]).pid
P_WAIT example:
retcode = os.spawnlp(os.P_WAIT, "/bin/mycmd", "mycmd", "myarg") ==> retcode = call(["/bin/mycmd", "myarg"])
Vector example:
os.spawnvp(os.P_NOWAIT, path, args) ==> Popen([path] + args[1:])
Environment example:
os.spawnlpe(os.P_NOWAIT, "/bin/mycmd", "mycmd", "myarg", env) ==> Popen(["/bin/mycmd", "myarg"], env={"PATH": "/usr/bin"})
Replacing :func:`os.popen`, :func:`os.popen2`, :func:`os.popen3`
(child_stdin, child_stdout) = os.popen2(cmd, mode, bufsize) ==> p = Popen(cmd, shell=True, bufsize=bufsize, stdin=PIPE, stdout=PIPE, close_fds=True) (child_stdin, child_stdout) = (p.stdin, p.stdout)
(child_stdin, child_stdout, child_stderr) = os.popen3(cmd, mode, bufsize) ==> p = Popen(cmd, shell=True, bufsize=bufsize, stdin=PIPE, stdout=PIPE, stderr=PIPE, close_fds=True) (child_stdin, child_stdout, child_stderr) = (p.stdin, p.stdout, p.stderr)
(child_stdin, child_stdout_and_stderr) = os.popen4(cmd, mode, bufsize) ==> p = Popen(cmd, shell=True, bufsize=bufsize, stdin=PIPE, stdout=PIPE, stderr=STDOUT, close_fds=True) (child_stdin, child_stdout_and_stderr) = (p.stdin, p.stdout)
Return code handling translates as follows:
pipe = os.popen(cmd, 'w') ... rc = pipe.close() if rc is not None and rc >> 8: print("There were some errors") ==> process = Popen(cmd, stdin=PIPE) ... process.stdin.close() if process.wait() != 0: print("There were some errors")
Replacing functions from the :mod:`popen2` module
Note
If the cmd argument to popen2 functions is a string, the command is executed through /bin/sh. If it is a list, the command is directly executed.
(child_stdout, child_stdin) = popen2.popen2("somestring", bufsize, mode) ==> p = Popen("somestring", shell=True, bufsize=bufsize, stdin=PIPE, stdout=PIPE, close_fds=True) (child_stdout, child_stdin) = (p.stdout, p.stdin)
(child_stdout, child_stdin) = popen2.popen2(["mycmd", "myarg"], bufsize, mode) ==> p = Popen(["mycmd", "myarg"], bufsize=bufsize, stdin=PIPE, stdout=PIPE, close_fds=True) (child_stdout, child_stdin) = (p.stdout, p.stdin)
:class:`popen2.Popen3` and :class:`popen2.Popen4` basically work as :class:`subprocess.Popen`, except that:
- :class:`Popen` raises an exception if the execution fails.
- the capturestderr argument is replaced with the stderr argument.
stdin=PIPE
andstdout=PIPE
must be specified.- popen2 closes all file descriptors by default, but you have to specify
close_fds=True
with :class:`Popen` to guarantee this behavior on all platforms or past Python versions.
This module also provides the following legacy functions from the 2.x
commands
module. These operations implicitly invoke the system shell and
none of the guarantees described above regarding security and exception
handling consistency are valid for these functions.
.. function:: getstatusoutput(cmd) Return ``(status, output)`` of executing *cmd* in a shell. Execute the string *cmd* in a shell with :meth:`Popen.check_output` and return a 2-tuple ``(status, output)``. Universal newlines mode is used; see the notes on :ref:`frequently-used-arguments` for more details. A trailing newline is stripped from the output. The exit status for the command can be interpreted according to the rules for the C function :c:func:`wait`. Example:: >>> subprocess.getstatusoutput('ls /bin/ls') (0, '/bin/ls') >>> subprocess.getstatusoutput('cat /bin/junk') (256, 'cat: /bin/junk: No such file or directory') >>> subprocess.getstatusoutput('/bin/junk') (256, 'sh: /bin/junk: not found') Availability: POSIX & Windows .. versionchanged:: 3.3.4 Windows support added
.. function:: getoutput(cmd) Return output (stdout and stderr) of executing *cmd* in a shell. Like :func:`getstatusoutput`, except the exit status is ignored and the return value is a string containing the command's output. Example:: >>> subprocess.getoutput('ls /bin/ls') '/bin/ls' Availability: POSIX & Windows .. versionchanged:: 3.3.4 Windows support added
On Windows, an args sequence is converted to a string that can be parsed using the following rules (which correspond to the rules used by the MS C runtime):
- Arguments are delimited by white space, which is either a space or a tab.
- A string surrounded by double quotation marks is interpreted as a single argument, regardless of white space contained within. A quoted string can be embedded in an argument.
- A double quotation mark preceded by a backslash is interpreted as a literal double quotation mark.
- Backslashes are interpreted literally, unless they immediately precede a double quotation mark.
- If backslashes immediately precede a double quotation mark, every pair of backslashes is interpreted as a literal backslash. If the number of backslashes is odd, the last backslash escapes the next double quotation mark as described in rule 3.
.. seealso:: :mod:`shlex` Module which provides function to parse and escape command lines.