from subprocess import Popen, PIPE, STDOUT

def shell_output(cmd):

''' execute a shell command and get its output (stdout/stderr) '''

p = Popen(cmd, shell=True, stdin=PIPE, stdout=PIPE, stderr=STDOUT)

return p.communicate()[0]

def shell_rc_and_output(cmd):

''' execute a shell command and get its return code and output (stdout/stderr) '''

p = Popen(cmd, shell=True, stdin=PIPE, stdout=PIPE, stderr=STDOUT)

out = p.communicate()[0]

rc = p.returncode

return rc, out

if __name__ == "__main__":

cmd = 'ls -l'

print(shell_output(cmd))

rc, out = shell_rc_and_output(cmd)

print(rc)

print('rc: {}, out: {}'.format(rc, out))