import subprocess import sys def get_helptext(program): cmd = [program, "-help"] # py3.7+ # p = subprocess.run(cmd, capture_output=True) # stderr = p.stderr # py3.6 also p = subprocess.Popen( cmd, stdout=subprocess.PIPE, stderr=subprocess.PIPE, shell=False, ) _, stderr = p.communicate() helptext = stderr.decode("utf-8", "ignore") return helptext def platform_is_osx(): return sys.platform == "darwin"