How can I capture the output from a shell command in Python?

Question

What I need to do is the following: in a Python script spawn, say the ls --colors=always / Linux command, and read its output. The important part of this is that I need the output to keep all the ANSI escape sequences (colors and such) to later translate these sequences into HTML. I heard that Python pty module can do that, but I could not find a useful example of its usage in the Internet, and this module's documentation is not quite comprehensive. I'll appreciate if someone could guide me through the way of accomplishing this task.

orlp · Accepted Answer · 2011-09-20 13:56:38Z

1

import subprocess as sub

process = sub.Popen("ls --colors=always /", stdout=sub.PIPE, stderr=sub.PIPE)
output, errors = process.communicate()

Now all the data you want should be in output - including the ANSI escape sequences.

answered Sep 20, 2011 at 13:56

orlp

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3 Comments

Andrii Yurchuk Over a year ago

Yes, this works for 'ls', but for some reason it does not work for Gentoo Linux 'emerge' command, which I actually need. When I call 'emerge -pvuDN world', it just strips all ANSI escapes and returns just plain text.

orlp Over a year ago

@Ch00k: I doubt it. Does it work with the color codes for ls? I think emerge is not outputting colors if not used in an interactive shell. Try this: emerge --colory -pvuDN world.

Andrii Yurchuk Over a year ago

You're right. I need to explicitly pass the '--color y' option to force colors on non-tty outputs. Thanks!

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