get the return code when piping something to a python script?

[chris]

I use the following when I have an external command to do:

#----------------------------------------------------
def doCommand( cmd,forked=False,runFrom=None ):
    """
    Do a command, and return the (stdout+stderr) and the exit status.
    This was written to work both on Windows and *nix, and in the
limited
    testing to which it has been subjected, it works well.
    """

    import sys;
    import os;

    exitcode = None;
    output   = None;
    origin   = None;

    if runFrom:
        origin = os.getcwd()
        try:
            os.chdir( runFrom );
        except:
            pass;

    # "forked" to us means "run in background and forget about it".
The
    # method of execution is the same on both windows and unix
    if forked:
            theCommand = cmd.split()[0];
            theArgs    = cmd.split(); # Include the cmd itself in the
v.
                                      # Guaranteed to be a list.

            # P_DETACH: we don't want the process to be our child, and
            # we don't want to know what happens to it... Some father!
            exitstatus = os.spawnve(
os.P_DETACH,theCommand,theArgs,os.environ );

    # if we're not spawning off a separate child, then we do care about
    # the results of the process, and execution is different between
    # windows and unix
    else:
        if( sys.platform == "win32" ):
            import win32pipe;
            (stdin,stdout) = win32pipe.popen4( cmd,'t' );

            stdin.close();
            output = stdout.read();
            try:
                exitcode = stdout.close() or 0;
            except IOError:
                exitcode = ( -1 );

        else:
            import commands;
            ( exitstatus,output ) = commands.getstatusoutput(cmd)

            #---- exitstatus is a smashing of the return value and any
signal
            #     sent back from the child process... break them out.
            exitcode = (( exitstatus >> 8) & 0xFF );
            signal   = (  exitstatus       & 0xFF );


    if runFrom:
        #return( 0,"Returning to %s from %s" %(origin,os.getcwd()) )
        os.chdir( origin );

    return( exitcode,output );
#-----------------------------------------------------------