Calling BASH from Python

A function to call a bash command, and capture stdout and sterr (text is returned).

def system_stdin_stderr (cmd, readlimitbytes=4000):
    p = subprocess.Popen(cmd, shell=True, stdin=subprocess.PIPE, stdout=subprocess.PIPE, stderr=subprocess.STDOUT, close_fds=True)
    (pin, pout) = (p.stdin, p.stdout)
    results = pout.read(readlimitbytes)
    pin.close(); pout.close()
    os.kill(p.pid, 1)
    return results