in earlier versions of Python; this is useful information for people
interested in writing code that is portable across Python versions.
Suggested by Peter Funk <pf@artcom-gmbh.de>.
object, except that when the exit status is zero (termination without
errors), \code{None} is returned.
Availability: \UNIX{}, Windows.
+
+\versionchanged[This function worked unreliably under Windows in
+ earlier versions of Python. This was due to the use of the
+ \cfunction{_popen()} function from the libraries provided with
+ Windows. Newer versions of Python do not use the broken
+ implementation from the Windows libraries]{2.0}
\end{funcdesc}
\begin{funcdesc}{tmpfile}{}