How to get the output of a command?

[Marcin Borkowski]

Hello there,

I'd like to run some shell command and then receive its output *as the
value of some expression*.  IOW, I'd like to do this:

(setq output (do-magic "echo Whatever"))

so that `output's value is the string "Whatever".

What should I put in place of do-magic?  I skimmed through the manual
section on processes, but I suspect there might be some simple way...

Best,

-- 
Marcin Borkowski
http://octd.wmi.amu.edu.pl/en/Marcin_Borkowski
Faculty of Mathematics and Computer Science
Adam Mickiewicz University