How do I pipe the output of file to a variable in Python?

Question

How do I pipe the output of file to a variable in Python?

Is it possible? Say to pipe the output of netstat to a variable x in Python?

Answer 1

It is possible. See:

http://docs.python.org/library/subprocess.html#replacing-bin-sh-shell-backquote

In Python 2.4 and above:

from subprocess import *
x = Popen(["netstat", "-x", "-y", "-z"], stdout=PIPE).communicate()[0]

Answer 2

Two parts:

Shell

netstat | python read_netstat.py

Python read_netstat.py

import sys
variable = sys.stdin.read()

That will read the output from netstat into a variable.