Getting a process's output

[Dietrich Epp]

Is there any easy way to get all the output of a process?  Ideally, the 
function takes parameters like exec(), calls fork(), wait()s for the 
process to complete, and returns the process's stdout, stderr, and exit 
status.  By stdout and stderr I don't mean file objects or 
descriptors... I mean strings containing the entire output.

I would try to do it myself, but I'm not sure how to interleave the 
operations.