import subprocess # Make a check for shell call. Don't mind on `ls` out, its an articat of glot.io print "check `ls -l`: {0}".format(subprocess.check_call(["ls", "-l"])) # And now lets demonstrate the exception rises on called process error try: # When you use shell=True it actually equivalent to: # /bin/sh -c *args print "check `exit 1`: {0}".format(subprocess.check_call("exit 1", shell=True)) except subprocess.CalledProcessError as e: print "Error: {0}".format(e)