The essential problem is how to not get output from a program. Let me explain: Ete2, a Python module for representing phylogenies, has a number of dependencies (MySQLdb, Numpy, PyQt, etc.) that it doesn't necessarily need and it xcan be installed without them. If you don't use the associated functionality, you won't need these dependencies. But,…

silent-output.py

import os, sys

class SuppressAllOutput (object):
def __enter__(self):
sys.stderr.flush()
self.old_stderr = sys.stderr
sys.stderr = open('/dev/null', 'a+', 0)
sys.stdout.flush()
self.old_stdout = sys.stdout
sys.stdout = open('/dev/null', 'a+', 0)

def __exit__(self, exc_type, exc_value, traceback):
sys.stderr.flush()
sys.stderr = self.old_stderr
sys.stdout.flush()
sys.stdout = self.old_stdout

print >>sys.stdout, "printing to stdout before suppression"
print >>sys.stderr, "printing to stderr before suppression"

with SuppressAllOutput():
import ete2
print >>sys.stdout, "printing to stdout during suppression"
print >>sys.stderr, "printing to stderr during suppression"

print >>sys.stdout, "printing to stdout after suppression"
print >>sys.stderr, "printing to stderr after suppression"

I fixed it:

class SuppressAllOutput(object):
    """For those annoying modules that can't shut-up about warnings"""

    def __enter__(self):
        # Standard error #
        sys.stderr.flush()
        self.old_stderr = sys.stderr
        sys.stderr = open('/dev/null', 'a+', 0)
        # Standard out #
        sys.stdout.flush()
        self.old_stdout = sys.stdout
        sys.stdout = open('/dev/null', 'a+', 0)

    def __exit__(self, exc_type, exc_value, traceback):
        # Standard error #
        sys.stderr.flush()
        sys.stderr = self.old_stderr
        # Standard out #
        sys.stdout.flush()
        sys.stdout = self.old_stdout

    def test():
        print >>sys.stdout, "printing to stdout before suppression"
        print >>sys.stderr, "printing to stderr before suppression"
        with SuppressAllOutput():
            print >>sys.stdout, "printing to stdout during suppression"
            print >>sys.stderr, "printing to stderr during suppression"
        print >>sys.stdout, "printing to stdout after suppression"
        print >>sys.stderr, "printing to stderr after suppression"