Mastering Python Scripting for System Administrators

Capturing output using the subprocess module

In this section, we are going to learn about how we can capture output. We will pass PIPE for the stdout argument to capture the output. Write a script called capture_output.py and write the following code in it:

import subprocessres = subprocess.run(['ls', '-1'], stdout=subprocess.PIPE,)print('returncode:', res.returncode)print(' {} bytes in stdout:\n{}'.format(len(res.stdout), res.stdout.decode('utf-8'))) 

Execute the script as follows:

student@ubuntu:~$ python3 capture_output.py

On execution, we will receive the following output:

Output:returncode: 0191 bytes in stdout:1.pyaccept_by_input_file.pyaccept_by_pipe.pyexecute_external_commands.pygetpass_example.pyouput.txtoutput.txtpassword_prompt_again.py ...