Getting return status AND program output

With Lua 5.2 I can do the following and it works

-- This will open the file
local file = io.popen('dmesg')
-- This will read all of the output, as always
local output = file:read('*all')
-- This will get a table with some return stuff
-- rc[1] will be true, false or nil
-- rc[3] will be the signal
local rc = {file:close()}

I hope this helps!

I can't use Lua 5.2, I use this helper function.

function execute_command(command)
    local tmpfile = '/tmp/lua_execute_tmp_file'
    local exit = os.execute(command .. ' > ' .. tmpfile .. ' 2> ' .. tmpfile .. '.err')

    local stdout_file = io.open(tmpfile)
    local stdout = stdout_file:read("*all")

    local stderr_file = io.open(tmpfile .. '.err')
    local stderr = stderr_file:read("*all")

    stdout_file:close()
    stderr_file:close()

    return exit, stdout, stderr
end