[New-bugs-announce] [issue17285] subprocess.check_output incorrectly state that output is always bytes

[Baptiste Lepilleur]

New submission from Baptiste Lepilleur:

Documentation states:

>>> help( subprocess.check_output )
check_output(*popenargs, timeout=None, **kwargs)
    Run command with arguments and return its output as a byte string.

But the most common usage is:
>>> subprocess.check_output( 'echo test', shell=True, universal_newlines=True )
'test\n'

Which obviously output a text string, not a byte string.

IMHO, one of the example should also be modified to show the existence of this flag, as it is what user want 90% of the times.

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assignee: docs at python
components: Documentation
messages: 182868
nosy: Baptiste.Lepilleur, docs at python
priority: normal
severity: normal
status: open
title: subprocess.check_output incorrectly state that output is always bytes
versions: Python 3.1, Python 3.2, Python 3.3

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Python tracker <report at bugs.python.org>
<http://bugs.python.org/issue17285>
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