Helper function to easily run a bash command and get its output

run_bash_command.py

import subprocess


def run_bash_command(command):
    '''
    Returns the stdout of the command.
    If the exit code is non-zero, raises a subprocess.CalledProcessError.
    Note: If the command involves ssh, it's recommended that you pass the -T option to ssh, to prevent it from messing with your terminal modes.
    '''
    return subprocess.check_output(['bash', '-c', command]).strip()


# --------------------
# Example usage below:
# --------------------

get_num_files_cmd = "ls -l | grep -v '^total' | grep -v '^d' | wc -l"

num_files = int(run_bash_command(get_num_files_cmd))
pwd = run_bash_command("pwd")
print 'There are %d files in the current directory' % (num_files,)
print 'The current directory is %r' % (pwd,)

try:
    run_bash_command("wtf_is_this")
except subprocess.CalledProcessError:
    print 'Exception thrown as expected (this is good).'