Store output of subprocess.Popen call in a string
python, subprocess
Solution
In Python 2.7 or Python 3
Instead of making a `Popen` object directly, you can use the `subprocess.check_output()` function to store output of a command in a string:
from subprocess import check_output
out = check_output(["ntpq", "-p"])
In Python 2.4-2.6
Use the `communicate` method.
import subprocess
p = subprocess.Popen(["ntpq", "-p"], stdout=subprocess.PIPE)
out, err = p.communicate()
`out` is what you want.
Important note about the other answers
Note how I passed in the command. The `"ntpq -p"` example brings up another matter. Since `Popen` does not invoke the shell, you would use a list of the command and options—`["ntpq", "-p"]`.
Problem
I'm trying to make a system call in Python and store the output to a string that I can manipulate in the Python program. ``` #!/usr/bin/python import subprocess p2 = subprocess.Popen("ntpq -p") ``` I've tried a few things including some of the suggestions here: Retrieving the output of subprocess.call() but without any luck.