How to get the output of a command?

How to get the output of a command?

[Marcin Borkowski]

Hello there,

I'd like to run some shell command and then receive its output *as the
value of some expression*.  IOW, I'd like to do this:

(setq output (do-magic "echo Whatever"))

so that `output's value is the string "Whatever".

What should I put in place of do-magic?  I skimmed through the manual
section on processes, but I suspect there might be some simple way...

Best,

-- 
Marcin Borkowski
http://octd.wmi.amu.edu.pl/en/Marcin_Borkowski
Faculty of Mathematics and Computer Science
Adam Mickiewicz University

Re: How to get the output of a command?

[Tassilo Horn]

Marcin Borkowski <mbork@wmi.amu.edu.pl> writes:

Hi Marcin,

> I'd like to run some shell command and then receive its output *as the
> value of some expression*.  IOW, I'd like to do this:
>
> (setq output (do-magic "echo Whatever"))
>
> so that `output's value is the string "Whatever".
>
> What should I put in place of do-magic?

,----[ C-h f shell-command-to-string RET ]
| shell-command-to-string is a compiled Lisp function in `simple.el'.
| 
| (shell-command-to-string COMMAND)
| 
| Execute shell command COMMAND and return its output as a string.
`----

Bye,
Tassilo