docs: def get_external_command_output(command: str) -> bytes:
      """
      Takes a command-line command, executes it, and returns its ``stdout``
      output.
  
      Args:
          command: command string
  
      Returns:
          output from the command as ``bytes``
  
      """
      args = shlex.split(command)
      ret = subprocess.check_output(args)  # this needs Python 2.7 or higher
      return ret