shell command to string

getout.py

import shlex
import subprocess

from lib_joel import fnprint

class sp_error(StandardError):
    pass

def get_out(cmd):
    '''execute shell command in subprocess, return result'''
    try:
        sp = subprocess.Popen(shlex.split(cmd),stdout=subprocess.PIPE, stderr=subprocess.PIPE)
    except Exception as e:
        raise sp_error('command error: {0}'.format(e))
    stdout, stderr = sp.communicate()
    if stderr: raise sp_error(stderr)
    return stdout

you should rename your module to le_joel