def execute(command, outfile=""):
    """
    Allows for dots to be printed to the terminal while waiting for a long system call to run
    :param command: the command to be executed
    :param outfile: optional string of an output file
    from https://stackoverflow.com/questions/4417546/constantly-print-subprocess-output-while-process-is-running
    """
    # Initialise count
    count = 0
    # Initialise the starting time
    start = int(time.time())
    maxtime = 0
    # Removing Shell=True to prevent excess memory use thus shlex split if needed
    if type(command) is not list:
        command = shlex.split(command)
    # Run the commands - direct stdout to PIPE and stderr to stdout
    # DO NOT USE subprocess.PIPE if not writing it!
    if outfile:
        process = Popen(command, stdout=PIPE, stderr=STDOUT)
    else:
        devnull = open(os.devnull, 'wb')
        process = Popen(command, stdout=devnull, stderr=STDOUT)
    # Write the initial time
    sys.stdout.write('[{:}] '.format(time.strftime('%H:%M:%S')))
    # Create the output file - if not provided, then nothing should happen
    writeout = open(outfile, "ab+") if outfile else ""
    # Poll process for new output until finished
    while True:
        # If an output file name is provided
        if outfile:
            # Get stdout into a variable
            nextline = process.stdout.readline()
            # Print stdout to the file
            writeout.write(nextline)
        # Break from the loop if the command is finished
        if process.poll() is not None:
            break
        # Adding sleep commands slowed down this method when there was lots of output. Difference between the start time
        # of the analysis and the current time. Action on each second passed
        currenttime = int(time.time())
        if currenttime - start > maxtime:
            # Set the max time for each iteration
            maxtime = currenttime - start
            # Print up to 80 dots on a line, with a one second delay between each dot
            if count <= 80:
                sys.stdout.write('.')
                count += 1
            # Once there are 80 dots on a line, start a new line with the the time
            else:
                sys.stdout.write('\n[{:}] .'.format(time.strftime('%H:%M:%S')))
                count = 1
    # Close the output file
    writeout.close() if outfile else ""
    sys.stdout.write('\n')
Allows for dots to be printed to the terminal while waiting for a long system call to run
    :param command: the command to be executed
    :param outfile: optional string of an output file
    from https://stackoverflow.com/questions/4417546/constantly-print-subprocess-output-while-process-is-running