:mod:`commands` --- Utilities for running commands

.. module:: commands
   :platform: Unix
   :synopsis: Utility functions for running external commands.
   :deprecated:

.. deprecated:: 2.6
   The :mod:`commands` module has been removed in Python 3.  Use the
   :mod:`subprocess` module instead.

.. sectionauthor:: Sue Williams <sbw@provis.com>

The :mod:`commands` module contains wrapper functions for :func:`os.popen` which take a system command as a string and return any output generated by the command and, optionally, the exit status.

The :mod:`subprocess` module provides more powerful facilities for spawning new processes and retrieving their results. Using the :mod:`subprocess` module is preferable to using the :mod:`commands` module.

The :mod:`commands` module defines the following functions:

.. function:: getstatusoutput(cmd)

   Execute the string *cmd* in a shell with :func:`os.popen` and return a 2-tuple
   ``(status, output)``.  *cmd* is actually run as ``{ cmd ; } 2>&1``, so that the
   returned output will contain output or error messages. 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`.

.. function:: getoutput(cmd)

   Like :func:`getstatusoutput`, except the exit status is ignored and the return
   value is a string containing the command's output.

.. function:: getstatus(file)

   Return the output of ``ls -ld file`` as a string.  This function uses the
   :func:`getoutput` function, and properly escapes backslashes and dollar signs in
   the argument.

   .. deprecated:: 2.6
      This function is nonobvious and useless.  The name is also misleading in the
      presence of :func:`getstatusoutput`.

Example:

>>> import commands
>>> commands.getstatusoutput('ls /bin/ls')
(0, '/bin/ls')
>>> commands.getstatusoutput('cat /bin/junk')
(256, 'cat: /bin/junk: No such file or directory')
>>> commands.getstatusoutput('/bin/junk')
(256, 'sh: /bin/junk: not found')
>>> commands.getoutput('ls /bin/ls')
'/bin/ls'
>>> commands.getstatus('/bin/ls')
'-rwxr-xr-x  1 root        13352 Oct 14  1994 /bin/ls'

.. seealso::

   Module :mod:`subprocess`
      Module for spawning and managing subprocesses.