Python subprocess.run does not return a string as stdout when calling "git remote"

Question

I am making a program to show git remotes, but this code just returns b''

>>> subprocess.run(
... "git remote",
... capture_output=True,
... shell=True,
... cwd=r'\Users\Andy\source\repos\PyPlus', stdout=subprocess.PIPE
... ).stdout

I also tried this, and this also returns b'':

>>> subprocess.run(
... "git remote",
... shell=True,
... cwd=r'\Users\Andy\source\repos\PyPlus', stdout=subprocess.PIPE
... ).stdout

In PowerShell, this command works.

PS C:\Users\Andy\source\repos\PyPlus> git remote
origin

So why this does not work? Thanks for any ideas!

• PSKP: check this answer stackoverflow.com/questions/61956345/…
• MisterMiyagi: I cannot reproduce the issue with the code shown. Both approaches (the first needs removing stdout to not fail with ValueError) correctly return b'origin\n' in a git repository.

Answer 1

I tested this in a random directory and it seems like the return goes into stderr instead of stdout. So this worked:

test = subprocess.run("git remote", shell=True, stderr=subprocess.PIPE).stderr
>>> test
b'fatal: not a git repository (or any of the parent directories): .git\n'

Edit: tested it in a git repository folder and your explained code worked for me:

test = subprocess.run("git remote", shell=True, stderr=subprocess.PIPE, stdout=subprocess.PIPE).stdout
>>> test
b'origin\n'

Maybe another solution which works for you:

import os
test = os.popen("git remote").read()

• MisterMiyagi: When the directory is not random but in fact a git repository, the output does not got to stderr but instead to stdout. That fatal error goes to stderr is to be expected, but not the use-case of the question.
• mnikley: youre right - works as intended. I think the comment from @PSKP is more suitable anyway
• ZCGCoder: Got it. I’ll change the cwd attribute.