return value of a system call?

[Alberto]

Is it possible to save the return value of system call to a variable.

I'm using system to call another script, written by someone else if python, that returns a variable that I need.

I know how to sent the STDOUT to null but I want to retain it for use inside my script. Is this possible? Thanks

[Alberto]

Well just wanted to respond that I found that answer to my question

You can use backquotes to Invoke System Commands

for example: $myname = `whoami`;

be aware the you will almost always have to chop that variable after doing this because of the newlines appended to the output of normal system calls.