Redirect the output to DEVNULL:
import os
import subprocess
FNULL = open(os.devnull, 'w')
retcode = subprocess.call(['echo', 'foo'],
stdout=FNULL,
stderr=subprocess.STDOUT)
It is effectively the same as running this shell command:
retcode = os.system("echo 'foo' &> /dev/null")
Update: This answer applies to the original question relating to python 2.7. As of python >= 3.3 an official subprocess.DEVNULL
symbol was added.
retcode = subprocess.call(['echo', 'foo'],
stdout=subprocess.DEVNULL,
stderr=subprocess.STDOUT)