Python command execution output [duplicate]

Question

Possible Duplicate:
Running shell command from python and capturing the output

I want to capture the output of a command into a variable, so later that variable can be used again. I need to change this script so it does that:

#!/usr/bin/python
import os
command = raw_input("Enter command: ")
os.system(command)

If I enter "ls" when I run this script, I get this output:

Documents Downloads Music Pictures Public Templates Videos

I want to capture that string (the output of the ls command) into a variable so I can use it again later. How do I do this?

Answer 1

import subprocess
command = raw_input("Enter command: ")
p = subprocess.Popen(command, stdout=subprocess.PIPE)
output, error = p.communicate()

Answer 2

The output of the command can be captured with the subprocess module, specifically, the check_output function..

output = subprocess.check_output("ls")

See also the documentation for subprocess.Popen for the argument list that check_output takes.