Develop Reference

How could I stop the script without having to wait for the time set for interval to pass?

In this script I was looking to launch a given program and monitor it as long as the program exists. Thus, I reached the point where I got to use the threading's module Timer method for controlling a loop that writes to a file and prints out to the console a specific stat of the launched process (for this case, mspaint).
The problem arises when I'm hitting CTRL + C in the console or when I close mspaint, with the script capturing any of the 2 events only after the time defined for the interval has completely ran out. These events make the script stop.
For example, if a 20 seconds time is set for the interval, once the script has started, if at second 5 I either hit CTRL + C or close mspaint, the script will stop only after the remaining 15 seconds will have passed.
I would like for the script to stop right away when I either hit CTRL + C or close mspaint (or any other process launched through this script).
The script can be used with the following command, according to the example:
python.exe mon_tool.py -p "C:\Windows\System32\mspaint.exe" -i 20
I'd really appreciate if you could come up with a working example.
I had used python 3.10.4 and psutil 5.9.0 .
This is the code:
# mon_tool.py
import psutil, sys, os, argparse
from subprocess import Popen
from threading import Timer
debug = False
def parse_args(args):
parser = argparse.ArgumentParser()
parser.add_argument("-p", "--path", type=str, required=True)
parser.add_argument("-i", "--interval", type=float, required=True)
return parser.parse_args(args)
def exceptionHandler(exception_type, exception, traceback, debug_hook=sys.excepthook):
'''Print user friendly error messages normally, full traceback if DEBUG on.
Adapted from http://stackoverflow.com/questions/27674602/hide-traceback-unless-a-debug-flag-is-set
'''
if debug:
print('\n*** Error:')
debug_hook(exception_type, exception, traceback)
else:
print("%s: %s" % (exception_type.__name__, exception))
sys.excepthook = exceptionHandler
def validate(data):
try:
if data.interval < 0:
raise ValueError
except ValueError:
raise ValueError(f"Time has a negative value: {data.interval}. Please use a positive value")
def main():
args = parse_args(sys.argv[1:])
validate(args)
# creates the "Process monitor data" folder in the "Documents" folder
# of the current Windows profile
default_path: str = f"{os.path.expanduser('~')}\\Documents\Process monitor data"
if not os.path.exists(default_path):
os.makedirs(default_path)
abs_path: str = f'{default_path}\data_test.txt'
print("data_test.txt can be found in: " + default_path)
# launches the provided process for the path argument, and
# it checks if the process was indeed launched
p: Popen[bytes] = Popen(args.path)
PID = p.pid
isProcess: bool = True
while isProcess:
for proc in psutil.process_iter():
if(proc.pid == PID):
isProcess = False
process_stats = psutil.Process(PID)
# creates the data_test.txt and it erases its content
with open(abs_path, 'w', newline='', encoding='utf-8') as testfile:
testfile.write("")
# loop for writing the handles count to data_test.txt, and
# for printing out the handles count to the console
def process_monitor_loop():
with open(abs_path, 'a', newline='', encoding='utf-8') as testfile:
testfile.write(f"{process_stats.num_handles()}\n")
print(process_stats.num_handles())
Timer(args.interval, process_monitor_loop).start()
process_monitor_loop()
if __name__ == '__main__':
main()
Thank you!

I think you could use python-worker (link) for the alternatives
import time
from datetime import datetime
from worker import worker, enableKeyboardInterrupt
# make sure to execute this before running the worker to enable keyboard interrupt
enableKeyboardInterrupt()
# your codes
...
# block lines with periodic check
def block_next_lines(duration):
t0 = time.time()
while time.time() - t0 <= duration:
time.sleep(0.05) # to reduce resource consumption
def main():
# your codes
...
#worker(keyboard_interrupt=True)
def process_monitor_loop():
while True:
print("hii", datetime.now().isoformat())
block_next_lines(3)
return process_monitor_loop()
if __name__ == '__main__':
main_worker = main()
main_worker.wait()
here your process_monitor_loop will be able to stop even if it's not exactly 20 sec of interval

You can try registering a signal handler for SIGINT, that way whenever the user presses Ctrl+C you can have a custom handler to clean all of your dependencies, like the interval, and exit gracefully.
See this for a simple implementation.

This is the solution for the second part of the problem, which checks if the launched process exists. If it doesn't exist, it stops the script.
This solution comes on top of the solution, for the first part of the problem, provided above by #danangjoyoo, which deals with stopping the script when CTRL + C is used.
Thank you very much once again, #danangjoyoo! :)
This is the code for the second part of the problem:
import time, psutil, sys, os
from datetime import datetime
from worker import worker, enableKeyboardInterrupt, abort_all_thread, ThreadWorkerManager
from threading import Timer
# make sure to execute this before running the worker to enable keyboard interrupt
enableKeyboardInterrupt()
# block lines with periodic check
def block_next_lines(duration):
t0 = time.time()
while time.time() - t0 <= duration:
time.sleep(0.05) # to reduce resource consumption
def main():
# launches mspaint, gets its PID and checks if it was indeed launched
path = f"C:\Windows\System32\mspaint.exe"
p = psutil.Popen(path)
PID = p.pid
isProcess: bool = True
while isProcess:
for proc in psutil.process_iter():
if(proc.pid == PID):
isProcess = False
interval = 5
global counter
counter = 0
#allows for sub_process to run only once
global run_sub_process_once
run_sub_process_once = 1
#worker(keyboard_interrupt=True)
def process_monitor_loop():
while True:
print("hii", datetime.now().isoformat())
def sub_proccess():
'''
Checks every second if the launched process still exists.
If the process doesn't exist anymore, the script will be stopped.
'''
print("Process online:", psutil.pid_exists(PID))
t = Timer(1, sub_proccess)
t.start()
global counter
counter += 1
print(counter)
# Checks if the worker thread is alive.
# If it is not alive, it will kill the thread spawned by sub_process
# hence, stopping the script.
for _, key in enumerate(ThreadWorkerManager.allWorkers):
w = ThreadWorkerManager.allWorkers[key]
if not w.is_alive:
t.cancel()
if not psutil.pid_exists(PID):
abort_all_thread()
t.cancel()
global run_sub_process_once
if run_sub_process_once:
run_sub_process_once = 0
sub_proccess()
block_next_lines(interval)
return process_monitor_loop()
if __name__ == '__main__':
main_worker = main()
main_worker.wait()
Also, I have to note that #danangjoyoo's solution comes as an alternative to signal.pause() for Windows. This only deals with CTRL + C problem part. signal.pause() works only for Unix systems. This is how it was supposed for its usage, for my case, in case it were a Unix system:
import signal, sys
from threading import Timer
def main():
def signal_handler(sig, frame):
print('\nYou pressed Ctrl+C!')
sys.exit(0)
signal.signal(signal.SIGINT, signal_handler)
print('Press Ctrl+C')
def process_monitor_loop():
try:
print("hi")
except KeyboardInterrupt:
signal.pause()
Timer(10, process_monitor_loop).start()
process_monitor_loop()
if __name__ == '__main__':
main()
The code above is based on this.

Python threads and linux ioctl wait

I have the following toy example for Python threading module
from __future__ import print_function
import threading
import time
import signal
import sys
import os
import time
class ThreadShutdown(Exception):
# Custom exception to allow clean thread exit
pass
def thread_shutdown(signum, frame):
print(" o Signal {} caught and raising ThreadShutdown exception".format(signum))
raise ThreadShutdown
def main():
"""
Register the signal handlers needed to stop
cleanly the child accessing thread
"""
signal.signal(signal.SIGTERM, thread_shutdown)
signal.signal(signal.SIGINT, thread_shutdown)
test_run_seconds = 120
try:
thread = ChildThread()
thread.start()
time.sleep(1)
while test_run_seconds > 0:
test_run_seconds -= 1
print(" o [{}] remaining time is {} seconds".format(time.asctime( time.localtime(time.time()) ), test_run_seconds))
time.sleep(1)
except ThreadShutdown:
thread.shutdown_flag.set()
thread.join()
print(" o ThreadShutdown procedure complete")
return
proc.terminate()
thread.shutdown_flag.set()
thread.join()
print(" o Test terminated")
class ChildThread(threading.Thread):
def __init__(self):
threading.Thread.__init__(self)
self.shutdown_flag = threading.Event()
def run(self):
while not self.shutdown_flag.is_set():
print(" o [{}] is the current time in child, sleep for 10s".format(time.asctime( time.localtime(time.time()))))
time.sleep(10)
return
if __name__ == "__main__":
sys.exit(main())
which behaves as expected (the main thread counts every second while the spawned thread prints only every 10 seconds.
I was trying to understand the behaviour of the same code snippet in presence of blocking waits in kernel mode in the spawned thread. For example, assume that the spawned thread now goes into a killable wait in an ioctl with a timeout of 10s, I would still expect to have the main thread counting every second. For some reason, it instead counts every 10s, as if it was blocked as well in the wait of the spawned thread. What is the reason?

killing a thread without waiting for join

I want to kill a thread in python. This thread can run in a blocking operation and join can't terminate it.
Simular to this:
from threading import Thread
import time
def block():
while True:
print("running")
time.sleep(1)
if __name__ == "__main__":
thread = Thread(target = block)
thread.start()
#kill thread
#do other stuff
My problem is that the real blocking operation is in another module that is not from me so there is no place where I can break with a running variable.

The thread will be killed when exiting the main process if you set it up as a daemon:
from threading import Thread
import time
def block():
while True:
print("running")
time.sleep(1)
if __name__ == "__main__":
thread = Thread(target = block, daemon = True)
thread.start()
sys.exit(0)
Otherwise just set a flag, I'm using a bad example (you should use some synchronization not just a plain variable):
from threading import Thread
import time
RUNNING = True
def block():
global RUNNING
while RUNNING:
print("running")
time.sleep(1)
if __name__ == "__main__":
thread = Thread(target = block, daemon = True)
thread.start()
RUNNING = False # thread will stop, not killed until next loop iteration
.... continue your stuff here

Use a running variable:
from threading import Thread
import time
running = True
def block():
global running
while running:
print("running")
time.sleep(1)
if __name__ == "__main__":
thread = Thread(target = block)
thread.start()
running = False
# do other stuff
I would prefer to wrap it all in a class, but this should work (untested though).

EDIT
There is a way to asynchronously raise an exception in a separate thread which could be caught by a try: except: block, but it's a dirty dirty hack: https://gist.github.com/liuw/2407154
Original post
"I want to kill a thread in python." you can't. Threads are only killed when they're daemons when there are no more non-daemonic threads running from the parent process. Any thread can be asked nicely to terminate itself using standard inter-thread communication methods, but you state that you don't have any chance to interrupt the function you want to kill. This leaves processes.
Processes have more overhead, and are more difficult to pass data to and from, but they do support being killed by sending SIGTERM or SIGKILL.
from multiprocessing import Process, Queue
from time import sleep
def workfunction(*args, **kwargs): #any arguments you send to a child process must be picklable by python's pickle module
sleep(args[0]) #really long computation you might want to kill
return 'results' #anything you want to get back from a child process must be picklable by python's pickle module
class daemon_worker(Process):
def __init__(self, target_func, *args, **kwargs):
self.return_queue = Queue()
self.target_func = target_func
self.args = args
self.kwargs = kwargs
super().__init__(daemon=True)
self.start()
def run(self): #called by self.start()
self.return_queue.put(self.target_func(*self.args, **self.kwargs))
def get_result(self): #raises queue.Empty if no result is ready
return self.return_queue.get()
if __name__=='__main__':
#start some work that takes 1 sec:
worker1 = daemon_worker(workfunction, 1)
worker1.join(3) #wait up to 3 sec for the worker to complete
if not worker1.is_alive(): #if we didn't hit 3 sec timeout
print('worker1 got: {}'.format(worker1.get_result()))
else:
print('worker1 still running')
worker1.terminate()
print('killing worker1')
sleep(.1) #calling worker.is_alive() immediately might incur a race condition where it may or may not have shut down yet.
print('worker1 is alive: {}'.format(worker1.is_alive()))
#start some work that takes 100 sec:
worker2 = daemon_worker(workfunction, 100)
worker2.join(3) #wait up to 3 sec for the worker to complete
if not worker2.is_alive(): #if we didn't hit 3 sec timeout
print('worker2 got: {}'.format(worker2.get_result()))
else:
print('worker2 still running')
worker2.terminate()
print('killing worker2')
sleep(.1) #calling worker.is_alive() immediately might incur a race condition where it may or may not have shut down yet.
print('worker2 is alive: {}'.format(worker2.is_alive())

python multiprocessing.Process.terminate - How to kill child processes

This code:
import multiprocessing as mp
from threading import Thread
import subprocess
import time
class WorkerProcess(mp.Process):
def run(self):
# Simulate long running task
self.subprocess = subprocess.Popen(['python', '-c', 'import time; time.sleep(1000)'])
self.code = self.subprocess.wait()
class ControlThread(Thread):
def run():
jobs = []
for _ in range(2):
job = WorkerProcess()
jobs.append(job)
job.start()
# wait for a while and then kill jobs
time.sleep(2)
for job in jobs:
job.terminate()
if __name__ == "__main__":
controller = ControlThread()
controller.start()
When I terminate the spawned WorkerProcess instances. They die just fine, however the subprocesses python -c 'import time; time.sleep(1000) runs until completition. This is well documented in the official docs, but how do I kill the child processes of a killed process?
A possbile soultion might be:
Wrap WorkerProcess.run() method inside try/except block catching SIGTERM, and terminating the subprocess.call call. But I am not sure how to catch the SIGTERM in the WorkerProcess
I also tried setting signal.signal(signal.SIGINT, handler) in the WorkerProcess, but I am getting ValuError, because it is allowed to be set only in the main thread.
What do I do now?

EDIT: As #svalorzen pointed out in comments this doesn't really work since the reference to self.subprocess is lost.
Finally came to a clean, acceptable solution. Since mp.Process.terminate is a method, we can override it.
class WorkerProcess(mp.Process):
def run(self):
# Simulate long running task
self.subprocess = subprocess.Popen(['python', '-c', 'import time; time.sleep(1000)'])
self.code = self.subprocess.wait()
# HERE
def terminate(self):
self.subprocess.terminate()
super(WorkerProcess, self).terminate()

You can use queues to message to your subprocesses and ask them nicely to terminate their children before exiting themselves. You can't use signals in anywhere else but your main thread, so signals are not suitable for this.
Curiously, when I modify the code like this, even if I interrupt it with control+C, subprocesses will die as well. This may be OS related thing, though.
import multiprocessing as mp
from threading import Thread
import subprocess
import time
from Queue import Empty
class WorkerProcess(mp.Process):
def __init__(self,que):
super(WorkerProcess,self).__init__()
self.queue = que
def run(self):
# Simulate long running task
self.subprocess = subprocess.Popen(['python', '-c', 'import time; time.sleep(1000)'])
while True:
a = self.subprocess.poll()
if a is None:
time.sleep(1)
try:
if self.queue.get(0) == "exit":
print "kill"
self.subprocess.kill()
self.subprocess.wait()
break
else:
pass
except Empty:
pass
print "run"
else:
print "exiting"
class ControlThread(Thread):
def run(self):
jobs = []
queues = []
for _ in range(2):
q = mp.Queue()
job = WorkerProcess(q)
queues.append(q)
jobs.append(job)
job.start()
# wait for a while and then kill jobs
time.sleep(5)
for q in queues:
q.put("exit")
time.sleep(30)
if __name__ == "__main__":
controller = ControlThread()
controller.start()
Hope this helps.
Hannu

How to stop a looping thread in Python?

What's the proper way to tell a looping thread to stop looping?
I have a fairly simple program that pings a specified host in a separate threading.Thread class. In this class it sleeps 60 seconds, the runs again until the application quits.
I'd like to implement a 'Stop' button in my wx.Frame to ask the looping thread to stop. It doesn't need to end the thread right away, it can just stop looping once it wakes up.
Here is my threading class (note: I haven't implemented looping yet, but it would likely fall under the run method in PingAssets)
class PingAssets(threading.Thread):
def __init__(self, threadNum, asset, window):
threading.Thread.__init__(self)
self.threadNum = threadNum
self.window = window
self.asset = asset
def run(self):
config = controller.getConfig()
fmt = config['timefmt']
start_time = datetime.now().strftime(fmt)
try:
if onlinecheck.check_status(self.asset):
status = "online"
else:
status = "offline"
except socket.gaierror:
status = "an invalid asset tag."
msg =("{}: {} is {}. \n".format(start_time, self.asset, status))
wx.CallAfter(self.window.Logger, msg)
And in my wxPyhton Frame I have this function called from a Start button:
def CheckAsset(self, asset):
self.count += 1
thread = PingAssets(self.count, asset, self)
self.threads.append(thread)
thread.start()

Threaded stoppable function
Instead of subclassing threading.Thread, one can modify the function to allow
stopping by a flag.
We need an object, accessible to running function, to which we set the flag to stop running.
We can use threading.currentThread() object.
import threading
import time
def doit(arg):
t = threading.currentThread()
while getattr(t, "do_run", True):
print ("working on %s" % arg)
time.sleep(1)
print("Stopping as you wish.")
def main():
t = threading.Thread(target=doit, args=("task",))
t.start()
time.sleep(5)
t.do_run = False
if __name__ == "__main__":
main()
The trick is, that the running thread can have attached additional properties. The solution builds
on assumptions:
the thread has a property "do_run" with default value True
driving parent process can assign to started thread the property "do_run" to False.
Running the code, we get following output:
$ python stopthread.py
working on task
working on task
working on task
working on task
working on task
Stopping as you wish.
Pill to kill - using Event
Other alternative is to use threading.Event as function argument. It is by
default False, but external process can "set it" (to True) and function can
learn about it using wait(timeout) function.
We can wait with zero timeout, but we can also use it as the sleeping timer (used below).
def doit(stop_event, arg):
while not stop_event.wait(1):
print ("working on %s" % arg)
print("Stopping as you wish.")
def main():
pill2kill = threading.Event()
t = threading.Thread(target=doit, args=(pill2kill, "task"))
t.start()
time.sleep(5)
pill2kill.set()
t.join()
Edit: I tried this in Python 3.6. stop_event.wait() blocks the event (and so the while loop) until release. It does not return a boolean value. Using stop_event.is_set() works instead.
Stopping multiple threads with one pill
Advantage of pill to kill is better seen, if we have to stop multiple threads
at once, as one pill will work for all.
The doit will not change at all, only the main handles the threads a bit differently.
def main():
pill2kill = threading.Event()
tasks = ["task ONE", "task TWO", "task THREE"]
def thread_gen(pill2kill, tasks):
for task in tasks:
t = threading.Thread(target=doit, args=(pill2kill, task))
yield t
threads = list(thread_gen(pill2kill, tasks))
for thread in threads:
thread.start()
time.sleep(5)
pill2kill.set()
for thread in threads:
thread.join()

This has been asked before on Stack. See the following links:
Is there any way to kill a Thread in Python?
Stopping a thread after a certain amount of time
Basically you just need to set up the thread with a stop function that sets a sentinel value that the thread will check. In your case, you'll have the something in your loop check the sentinel value to see if it's changed and if it has, the loop can break and the thread can die.

I read the other questions on Stack but I was still a little confused on communicating across classes. Here is how I approached it:
I use a list to hold all my threads in the __init__ method of my wxFrame class: self.threads = []
As recommended in How to stop a looping thread in Python? I use a signal in my thread class which is set to True when initializing the threading class.
class PingAssets(threading.Thread):
def __init__(self, threadNum, asset, window):
threading.Thread.__init__(self)
self.threadNum = threadNum
self.window = window
self.asset = asset
self.signal = True
def run(self):
while self.signal:
do_stuff()
sleep()
and I can stop these threads by iterating over my threads:
def OnStop(self, e):
for t in self.threads:
t.signal = False

I had a different approach. I've sub-classed a Thread class and in the constructor I've created an Event object. Then I've written custom join() method, which first sets this event and then calls a parent's version of itself.
Here is my class, I'm using for serial port communication in wxPython app:
import wx, threading, serial, Events, Queue
class PumpThread(threading.Thread):
def __init__ (self, port, queue, parent):
super(PumpThread, self).__init__()
self.port = port
self.queue = queue
self.parent = parent
self.serial = serial.Serial()
self.serial.port = self.port
self.serial.timeout = 0.5
self.serial.baudrate = 9600
self.serial.parity = 'N'
self.stopRequest = threading.Event()
def run (self):
try:
self.serial.open()
except Exception, ex:
print ("[ERROR]\tUnable to open port {}".format(self.port))
print ("[ERROR]\t{}\n\n{}".format(ex.message, ex.traceback))
self.stopRequest.set()
else:
print ("[INFO]\tListening port {}".format(self.port))
self.serial.write("FLOW?\r")
while not self.stopRequest.isSet():
msg = ''
if not self.queue.empty():
try:
command = self.queue.get()
self.serial.write(command)
except Queue.Empty:
continue
while self.serial.inWaiting():
char = self.serial.read(1)
if '\r' in char and len(msg) > 1:
char = ''
#~ print('[DATA]\t{}'.format(msg))
event = Events.PumpDataEvent(Events.SERIALRX, wx.ID_ANY, msg)
wx.PostEvent(self.parent, event)
msg = ''
break
msg += char
self.serial.close()
def join (self, timeout=None):
self.stopRequest.set()
super(PumpThread, self).join(timeout)
def SetPort (self, serial):
self.serial = serial
def Write (self, msg):
if self.serial.is_open:
self.queue.put(msg)
else:
print("[ERROR]\tPort {} is not open!".format(self.port))
def Stop(self):
if self.isAlive():
self.join()
The Queue is used for sending messages to the port and main loop takes responses back. I've used no serial.readline() method, because of different end-line char, and I have found the usage of io classes to be too much fuss.

Depends on what you run in that thread.
If that's your code, then you can implement a stop condition (see other answers).
However, if what you want is to run someone else's code, then you should fork and start a process. Like this:
import multiprocessing
proc = multiprocessing.Process(target=your_proc_function, args=())
proc.start()
now, whenever you want to stop that process, send it a SIGTERM like this:
proc.terminate()
proc.join()
And it's not slow: fractions of a second.
Enjoy :)

My solution is:
import threading, time
def a():
t = threading.currentThread()
while getattr(t, "do_run", True):
print('Do something')
time.sleep(1)
def getThreadByName(name):
threads = threading.enumerate() #Threads list
for thread in threads:
if thread.name == name:
return thread
threading.Thread(target=a, name='228').start() #Init thread
t = getThreadByName('228') #Get thread by name
time.sleep(5)
t.do_run = False #Signal to stop thread
t.join()

I find it useful to have a class, derived from threading.Thread, to encapsulate my thread functionality. You simply provide your own main loop in an overridden version of run() in this class. Calling start() arranges for the object’s run() method to be invoked in a separate thread.
Inside the main loop, periodically check whether a threading.Event has been set. Such an event is thread-safe.
Inside this class, you have your own join() method that sets the stop event object before calling the join() method of the base class. It can optionally take a time value to pass to the base class's join() method to ensure your thread is terminated in a short amount of time.
import threading
import time
class MyThread(threading.Thread):
def __init__(self, sleep_time=0.1):
self._stop_event = threading.Event()
self._sleep_time = sleep_time
"""call base class constructor"""
super().__init__()
def run(self):
"""main control loop"""
while not self._stop_event.isSet():
#do work
print("hi")
self._stop_event.wait(self._sleep_time)
def join(self, timeout=None):
"""set stop event and join within a given time period"""
self._stop_event.set()
super().join(timeout)
if __name__ == "__main__":
t = MyThread()
t.start()
time.sleep(5)
t.join(1) #wait 1s max
Having a small sleep inside the main loop before checking the threading.Event is less CPU intensive than looping continuously. You can have a default sleep time (e.g. 0.1s), but you can also pass the value in the constructor.

Sometimes you don't have control over the running target. In those cases you can use signal.pthread_kill to send a stop signal.
from signal import pthread_kill, SIGTSTP
from threading import Thread
from itertools import count
from time import sleep
def target():
for num in count():
print(num)
sleep(1)
thread = Thread(target=target)
thread.start()
sleep(5)
pthread_kill(thread.ident, SIGTSTP)
result
0
1
2
3
4
[14]+ Stopped