[python] What is the return value of os.system() in Python?

I came across this:

>>> import os
>>> os.system('ls')
file.txt README
0

What is return value of os.system()? Why I get 0?

os.system() returns some unix output, not the command output. So, if there is no error then exit code written as 0.

"On Unix, the return value is the exit status of the process encoded in the format specified for wait(). Note that POSIX does not specify the meaning of the return value of the C system() function, so the return value of the Python function is system-dependent."

http://docs.python.org/library/os.html#os.system

There is no error, so the exit code is zero

Based on the answer of @AlokThakur (thanks!):

def run_system_command(command):
    return_value = os.system(command)
    # Calculate the return value code
    return_value = int(bin(return_value).replace("0b", "").rjust(16, '0')[:8], 2)
    if return_value != 0:
        raise RuntimeError(f'The system command\n{command}\nexited with return code {return_value}')

os.system('command') returns a 16 bit number, which first 8 bits from left(lsb) talks about signal used by os to close the command, Next 8 bits talks about return code of command.

00000000    00000000
exit code   signal num

Example 1 - command exit with code 1

os.system('command') #it returns 256
256 in 16 bits -  00000001 00000000
Exit code is 00000001 which means 1

Example 2 - command exit with code 3

os.system('command') # it returns 768
768 in 16 bits  - 00000011 00000000
Exit code is 00000011 which means 3

Now try with signal - Example 3 - Write a program which sleep for long time use it as command in os.system() and then kill it by kill -15 or kill -9

os.system('command') #it returns signal num by which it is killed
15 in bits - 00000000 00001111
Signal num is 00001111 which means 15

You can have a python program as command = 'python command.py'

import sys
sys.exit(n)  # here n would be exit code

In case of c or c++ program you can use return from main() or exit(n) from any function #

Note - This is applicable on unix

On Unix, the return value is the exit status of the process encoded in the format specified for wait(). Note that POSIX does not specify the meaning of the return value of the C system() function, so the return value of the Python function is system-dependent.

os.wait()

Wait for completion of a child process, and return a tuple containing its pid and exit status indication: a 16-bit number, whose low byte is the signal number that killed the process, and whose high byte is the exit status (if the signal number is zero); the high bit of the low byte is set if a core file was produced.

Availability: Unix

.

You might want to use

return_value = os.popen('ls').read()

instead. os.system only returns the error value.

The os.popen is a neater wrapper for subprocess.Popen function as is seen within the python source code.