\versionchanged[When specified, the \var{mode} argument must now start
with one of the letters \character{r}, \character{w}, or \character{a},
otherwise a \exception{ValueError} is raised]{2.3}
+\versionchanged[On \UNIX, when the \var{mode} argument starts with
+ \character{a}, the \var{O_APPEND} flag is set on the file descriptor
+ (which the \cfunction{fdopen()} implementation already does on most
+ platforms)]{2.5}
\end{funcdesc}
\begin{funcdesc}{popen}{command\optional{, mode\optional{, bufsize}}}
return suitable process handles.
\end{funcdesc}
-\begin{funcdesc}{wait3}{\{optional{options}}
+\begin{funcdesc}{wait3}{\optional{options}}
Similar to \function{waitpid()}, except no process id argument is given and
a 3-element tuple containing the child's process id, exit status indication,
and resource usage information is returned. Refer to