How to use `subprocess` command with pipes

Question

I want to use subprocess.check_output() with ps -A | grep \'process_name\'. I tried various solutions but so far nothing worked. Can someone guide

Answer 1

See the documentation on setting up a pipeline using subprocess: http://docs.python.org/2/library/subprocess.html#replacing-shell-pipeline

I haven't tested the following code example but it should be roughly what you want:

query = "process_name"
ps_process = Popen(["ps", "-A"], stdout=PIPE)
grep_process = Popen(["grep", query], stdin=ps_process.stdout, stdout=PIPE)
ps_process.stdout.close()  # Allow ps_process to receive a SIGPIPE if grep_process exits.
output = grep_process.communicate()[0]

Answer 2

command = "ps -A | grep 'process_name'"
output = subprocess.check_output(["bash", "-c", command])

Answer 3

JKALAVIS solution is good, however I would add an improvement to use shlex instead of SHELL=TRUE. below im grepping out Query times

#!/bin/python
import subprocess
import shlex

cmd = "dig @8.8.4.4 +notcp www.google.com|grep 'Query'"
ps = subprocess.Popen(cmd,shell=True,stdout=subprocess.PIPE,stderr=subprocess.STDOUT)
output = ps.communicate()[0]
print(output)