1 2 :mod:`commands` --- Utilities for running commands 3 ================================================== 4 5 .. module:: commands 6 :platform: Unix 7 :synopsis: Utility functions for running external commands. 8 :deprecated: 9 10 .. deprecated:: 2.6 11 The :mod:`commands` module has been removed in Python 3. Use the 12 :mod:`subprocess` module instead. 13 14 .. sectionauthor:: Sue Williams <sbw (a] provis.com> 15 16 17 The :mod:`commands` module contains wrapper functions for :func:`os.popen` which 18 take a system command as a string and return any output generated by the command 19 and, optionally, the exit status. 20 21 The :mod:`subprocess` module provides more powerful facilities for spawning new 22 processes and retrieving their results. Using the :mod:`subprocess` module is 23 preferable to using the :mod:`commands` module. 24 25 .. note:: 26 27 In Python 3.x, :func:`getstatus` and two undocumented functions 28 (:func:`mk2arg` and :func:`mkarg`) have been removed. Also, 29 :func:`getstatusoutput` and :func:`getoutput` have been moved to the 30 :mod:`subprocess` module. 31 32 The :mod:`commands` module defines the following functions: 33 34 35 .. function:: getstatusoutput(cmd) 36 37 Execute the string *cmd* in a shell with :func:`os.popen` and return a 2-tuple 38 ``(status, output)``. *cmd* is actually run as ``{ cmd ; } 2>&1``, so that the 39 returned output will contain output or error messages. A trailing newline is 40 stripped from the output. The exit status for the command can be interpreted 41 according to the rules for the C function :c:func:`wait`. 42 43 44 .. function:: getoutput(cmd) 45 46 Like :func:`getstatusoutput`, except the exit status is ignored and the return 47 value is a string containing the command's output. 48 49 50 .. function:: getstatus(file) 51 52 Return the output of ``ls -ld file`` as a string. This function uses the 53 :func:`getoutput` function, and properly escapes backslashes and dollar signs in 54 the argument. 55 56 .. deprecated:: 2.6 57 This function is nonobvious and useless. The name is also misleading in the 58 presence of :func:`getstatusoutput`. 59 60 61 Example:: 62 63 >>> import commands 64 >>> commands.getstatusoutput('ls /bin/ls') 65 (0, '/bin/ls') 66 >>> commands.getstatusoutput('cat /bin/junk') 67 (256, 'cat: /bin/junk: No such file or directory') 68 >>> commands.getstatusoutput('/bin/junk') 69 (256, 'sh: /bin/junk: not found') 70 >>> commands.getoutput('ls /bin/ls') 71 '/bin/ls' 72 >>> commands.getstatus('/bin/ls') 73 '-rwxr-xr-x 1 root 13352 Oct 14 1994 /bin/ls' 74 75 76 .. seealso:: 77 78 Module :mod:`subprocess` 79 Module for spawning and managing subprocesses. 80 81
