Index: Doc/library/subprocess.rst
===================================================================
--- Doc/library/subprocess.rst	(revision 65655)
+++ Doc/library/subprocess.rst	(working copy)
@@ -148,7 +148,18 @@
 
    .. versionadded:: 2.5
 
+.. function:: pipe(*commands, **kw)
 
+    Run a chain of commands, returns the output of the last one.
+
+    Arguments are a list of command line arguments, an optional keyword "stderr"
+    can be used to capture stdandard error as well. Example::
+
+    chain(["dmesg"], ["grep", "hda"])
+
+   .. versionadded:: 2.6
+
+
 Exceptions
 ^^^^^^^^^^
 
Index: Lib/test/test_subprocess.py
===================================================================
--- Lib/test/test_subprocess.py	(revision 65655)
+++ Lib/test/test_subprocess.py	(working copy)
@@ -82,6 +82,14 @@
                         env=newenv)
         self.assertEqual(rc, 1)
 
+    def test_pipe(self):
+        cmd1 = [sys.executable, "-c", "print 'MOO'"]
+        cmd2 = [sys.executable, "-c",
+                "import sys; print sys.stdin.read().replace('M', 'B')"]
+
+        out = subprocess.pipe(cmd1, cmd2).strip()
+        self.assertEqual(out, "BOO")
+
     def test_stdin_none(self):
         # .stdin is None when not redirected
         p = subprocess.Popen([sys.executable, "-c", 'print "banana"'],
Index: Lib/subprocess.py
===================================================================
--- Lib/subprocess.py	(revision 65655)
+++ Lib/subprocess.py	(working copy)
@@ -127,6 +127,14 @@
 
     check_call(["ls", "-l"])
 
+pipe(*commands, **kw):
+    Run a chain of commands, reutns the output of the last one.
+
+    Arguments are a list of command line arguments, an optional keyword "stderr"
+    can be used to capture stdandard error as well. Example:
+
+    chain(["dmesg"], ["grep", "hda"])
+
 Exceptions
 ----------
 Exceptions raised in the child process, before the new program has
@@ -224,11 +232,8 @@
 -------------------------
 output=`dmesg | grep hda`
 ==>
-p1 = Popen(["dmesg"], stdout=PIPE)
-p2 = Popen(["grep", "hda"], stdin=p1.stdout, stdout=PIPE)
-output = p2.communicate()[0]
+output = pipe(["dmesg"], ["grep", "hda"])
 
-
 Replacing os.system()
 ---------------------
 sts = os.system("mycmd" + " myarg")
@@ -462,7 +467,22 @@
         raise CalledProcessError(retcode, cmd)
     return retcode
 
+def pipe(*commands, **kw):
+    """Run a chain of commands, returns the output of the last one.
 
+    Arguments are a list of command line arguments, an optional keyword "stderr"
+    can be used to capture stdandard error as well. Example:
+
+    chain(["dmesg"], ["grep", "hda"])
+    """
+    stderr = STDOUT if kw.get("stderr", False) else None
+    pipe = None
+    for cmdline in commands:
+        stdin = pipe.stdout if pipe else None
+        pipe = Popen(cmdline, stdin=stdin, stdout=PIPE, stderr=stderr)
+
+    return pipe.communicate()[0]
+
 def list2cmdline(seq):
     """
     Translate a sequence of arguments into a command line