显示子流程check_output的可读输出

Question

How can I make my output from subprocess.check_output(args, "command") readable by humans? I have researched this topic, and have found how to "tokenize" but not erm.. "de-tokenize" the output. My example code below is relatively what I'm after, but to explain better, when I print the string that string = subprocess.check_output(...) feeds out, it is nearly unintelligible.

Code:

from subprocess import *
readOutput = check_output(
    "dir",
    shell = True)
print(readOutput)`

Output:

b' Volume in drive C has no label.\r\n Volume Serial Number is 2AAE-9786\r\n\r\n Directory of C:\\Users\\spike\\Documents\\GitHub\\GitterGUI\\example\r\n\r\n10/19/2015  06:29 PM    <DIR>          .\r\n10/19/2015  06:29 PM    <DIR>          ..\r\n10/19/2015  06:29 PM                60 batfile.bat\r\n10/19/2015  06:26 PM                 0 New Bitmap Image.bmp\r\n10/19/2015  06:26 PM                22 New Compressed (zipped) Folder.zip\r\n10/19/2015  06:26 PM    <DIR>          New folder\r\n10/19/2015  06:26 PM    <DIR>          New folder (2)\r\n10/19/2015  06:26 PM                 0 New Text Document (2).txt\r\n10/19/2015  06:26 PM                 0 New Text Document (3).txt\r\n10/19/2015  06:26 PM                 0 New Text Document.txt\r\n10/19/2015  06:27 PM                96 script.py\r\n               7 File(s)            178 bytes\r\n               4 Dir(s)  819,483,295,744 bytes free\r\n'

It should be:

 Volume in drive C has no label.
 Volume Serial Number is 2AAE-9786

 Directory of C:\Users\spike\Documents\GitHub\GitterGUI\example

10/19/2015  06:29 PM    <DIR>          .
10/19/2015  06:29 PM    <DIR>          ..
10/19/2015  06:29 PM                60 batfile.bat
10/19/2015  06:26 PM                 0 New Bitmap Image.bmp
10/19/2015  06:26 PM                22 New Compressed (zipped) Folder.zip
10/19/2015  06:26 PM    <DIR>          New folder
10/19/2015  06:26 PM    <DIR>          New folder (2)
10/19/2015  06:26 PM                 0 New Text Document (2).txt
10/19/2015  06:26 PM                 0 New Text Document (3).txt
10/19/2015  06:26 PM                 0 New Text Document.txt
10/19/2015  06:27 PM                96 script.py
               7 File(s)            178 bytes
               4 Dir(s)  819,481,882,624 bytes free

As you can see, my script needs serious work. Thanks in advance.

Answer 1

Use print((readOutput).decode('utf-8')) instead of print(readOutput)

The issue was that the output to the string readOutput was not Unicode format.

Edit:

I liked the response:

"Alternatively, pass universal_newlines=True to check_output to make it decode automatically."

– ShadowRanger