Returning result from execute function.

[CRIBBSJ <CRIBBSJ@...>]

This is probably going to be a pretty basic question, but how do you return 
the result of an execute() call.  For example, on windows I want to do a:

execute("dir")

and get back the directory listing.  Instead, all I get is a status code.  I 
have looked at the docs, but it only talks about the status code.

Thanks in advance for any help.

Jamey.