Read output from subprocess without using pipes

Question

I'm trying to run bash.exe (Bash on Ubuntu for Windows) as a build command for Sublime Text. However, bash.exe has a bug and does not support outputting its stdout to any pipe.

Question is this: how can I run a cmd line (i.e. "bash.exe -c ls") and capture the output without ever making bash.exe output into pipes on windows?

I'm open to using any languages or environment on Windows to make this tool.

Edit

I ran bashTest = subprocess.Popen(["bash.exe", "-c", "ls"]), stdout=subproccess.PIPE)

Which yielded:

bashTest.communicate()[0] b'E\x00r\x00r\x00o\x00r\x00:\x00\x000\x00x\x008\x000\x000\x007\x000\x000\x005\x007\x00\r\x00\r\x00\n\x00'

Answer 1

This is currently not possible. There's a github issue about it which was closed as a known limitation. If you want to increase awareness of it, I see 2 related User Voice ideas: Allow Windows programs to spawn Bash and Allow native Win32 applications to launch Linux tools/commands.

There are ways you could hack around it, however. One way would be to write a script which loops forever in a bash.exe console. When the script gets a signal, it runs Linux commands with the output piped to a file then signals that it is complete. Here's some pseudo code:

Linux:

while true
  while not exists /mnt/c/dobuild
    sleep 1
  end
  gcc foo.c > /mnt/c/build.log
  rm /mnt/c/dobuild
end

Windows:

touch C:\dobuild
while exists C:\dobuild
  sleep 1
end
cat C:\build.log

This does require keeping a bash.exe console always open with the script running, which is not ideal.

Another potential workaround, which was already mentioned, is to use ReadConsoleOutput.

Answer 2

You need to use the option shell=True in Popen() to have pipes work.

like this example dont need to split this command.

>>> import subprocess as sp    
>>> cmd = 'echo "test" | cat'
>>> process = sp.Popen(cmd,stdout=sp.PIPE,shell=True)
>>> output = process.communicate()[0]
>>> print output
test

Answer 3

Your only realistic option, if you can't wait for a fix, would be to use ReadConsoleOutput and/or the related functions.