def silent_popen(args, **kwargs):
    """Wrapper for subprocess.Popen with suppressed output.

    STERR is redirected to STDOUT which is piped back to the
    calling process and returned as the result.
    """
    return subprocess.Popen(args,
                            stderr=subprocess.STDOUT,
                            stdout=subprocess.PIPE, **kwargs).communicate()[0]
Wrapper for subprocess.Popen with suppressed output.

    STERR is redirected to STDOUT which is piped back to the
    calling process and returned as the result.