How to catch exception output from Python subprocess.check_output()?

I don't think the accepted solution handles the case where the error text is reported on stderr. From my testing the exception's output attribute did not contain the results from stderr and the docs warn against using stderr=PIPE in check_output(). Instead, I would suggest one small improvement to J.F Sebastian's solution by adding stderr support. We are, after all, trying to handle errors and stderr is where they are often reported.

from subprocess import Popen, PIPE

p = Popen(['bitcoin', 'sendtoaddress', ..], stdout=PIPE, stderr=PIPE)
output, error = p.communicate()
if p.returncode != 0: 
   print("bitcoin failed %d %s %s" % (p.returncode, output, error))

According to the subprocess.check_output() docs, the exception raised on error has an output attribute that you can use to access the error details:

try:
    subprocess.check_output(...)
except subprocess.CalledProcessError as e:
    print(e.output)

You should then be able to analyse this string and parse the error details with the json module:

if e.output.startswith('error: {'):
    error = json.loads(e.output[7:]) # Skip "error: "
    print(error['code'])
    print(error['message'])

As mentioned by @Sebastian the default solution should aim to use run(): https://docs.python.org/3/library/subprocess.html#subprocess.run

Here a convenient implementation (feel free to change the log class with print statements or what ever other logging functionality you are using):

import subprocess

def _run_command(command):
    log.debug("Command: {}".format(command))
    result = subprocess.run(command, shell=True, capture_output=True)
    if result.stderr:
        raise subprocess.CalledProcessError(
                returncode = result.returncode,
                cmd = result.args,
                stderr = result.stderr
                )
    if result.stdout:
        log.debug("Command Result: {}".format(result.stdout.decode('utf-8')))
    return result

And sample usage (code is unrelated, but I think it serves as example of how readable and easy to work with errors it is with this simple implementation):

try:
    # Unlock PIN Card
    _run_command(
        "sudo qmicli --device=/dev/cdc-wdm0 -p --uim-verify-pin=PIN1,{}"
        .format(pin)
    )

except subprocess.CalledProcessError as error:
    if "couldn't verify PIN" in error.stderr.decode("utf-8"):
        log.error(
                "SIM card could not be unlocked. "
                "Either the PIN is wrong or the card is not properly connected. "
                "Resetting module..."
                )
        _reset_4g_hat()
        return

Trying to "transfer an amount larger than my bitcoin balance" is not an unexpected error. You could use Popen.communicate() directly instead of check_output() to avoid raising an exception unnecessarily:

from subprocess import Popen, PIPE

p = Popen(['bitcoin', 'sendtoaddress', ..], stdout=PIPE)
output = p.communicate()[0]
if p.returncode != 0: 
   print("bitcoin failed %d %s" % (p.returncode, output))