shell.py

import shlex as shlex_
from subprocess import Popen, PIPE

def shell(args, input=None, stdout=PIPE, stderr=PIPE, shlex=False, **kwargs):
    """Gets the output of a command run in a subprocess.
    
    Arguments:
        args:   A sequence of strings, or a single string if shlex=True.
        input:  A string to be written to the process's stdin.
        Any extra keyword arguments are forwarded to Popen.
    
    Returns:
        A tuple of (stdout, stderr)
        
    >>> shell('basename /a/hello', shlex=True)
    ('hello\n','')
    """
    if shlex:
        args = shlex_.split(args)
    stdin = PIPE if input is not None else None
    p = Popen(args, stdin=stdin, stdout=stdout, stderr=stderr, **kwargs)
    return p.communicate(input=input)