title: can Julia capture the results shell command
body: <p>I'd like to capture the result of a shell command in julia</p>
  
  <p>in ipython this works:</p>
  
  <pre><code>[1]: x = ! date
  In [2]: x
  Out[2]: ['Thu Dec 14 15:34:06 PST 2017']
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>I've already tried </p>
  
  <pre><code>julia&gt; x = ;date
  ERROR: syntax: unexpected ;
  
  julia&gt; x = readstring(`date`)
  "Thu Dec 14 21:33:48 PST 2017\n"
  julia&gt; x
  "Thu Dec 14 21:33:48 PST 2017\n"
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>is readstring the best way to accomplish this? or is there a ; way, too?</p>