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How to wait until user close the process in python?

I want to create a program that init a new process and then wait until thhis process was killed by user or another program.
But i cant understand why the process create by subprocess is finished after a fraction of time and not by the user closing the process.
import subprocess
import psutil
old_process = {p.pid for p in psutil.process_iter()}
calc_process = subprocess.Popen('C:\Windows\System32\calc')
new_process = {p.pid for p in psutil.process_iter()}
process = list(new_process - old_process)[0]
while psutil.pid_exists(process):
print('Process running')
print('Done')

Popen has this built in using the poll method.
from subprocess import Popen
process = Popen('C:\Windows\System32\calc')
process.wait()
while not process.poll():
print('Process running')
print('Done')

Python Subprocess readline() hangs; can't use normal options

To start, I'm aware this looks like a duplicate. I've been reading:
Python subprocess readlines() hangs
Python Subprocess readline hangs() after reading all input
subprocess readline hangs waiting for EOF
But these options either straight don't work or I can't use them.
The Problem
# Obviously, swap HOSTNAME1 and HOSTNAME2 with something real
cmd = "ssh -N -f -L 1111:<HOSTNAME1>:80 <HOSTNAME2>"
p = subprocess.Popen(cmd, shell=True, stdout=subprocess.PIPE, stderr=subprocess.STDOUT, env=os.environ)
while True:
out = p.stdout.readline()
# Hangs here ^^^^^^^ forever
out = out.decode('utf-8')
if out:
print(out)
if p.poll() is not None:
break
My dilemma is that the function calling the subprocess.Popen() is a library function for running bash commands, so it needs to be very generic and has the following restrictions:
Must display output as it comes in; not block and then spam the screen all at once
Can't use multiprocessing in case the parent caller is multiprocessing the library function (Python doesn't allow child processes to have child processes)
Can't use signal.SIGALRM for the same reason as multiprocessing; the parent caller may be trying to set their own timeout
Can't use third party non-built-in modules
Threading straight up doesn't work. When the readline() call is in a thread, thread.join(timeout=1)lets the program continue, but ctrl+c doesn't work on it at all, and calling sys.exit() doesn't exit the program, since the thread is still open. And as you know, you can't kill a thread in python by design.
No manner of bufsize or other subprocess args seems to make a difference; neither does putting readline() in an iterator.
I would have a workable solution if I could kill a thread, but that's super taboo, even though this is definitely a legitimate use case.
I'm open to any ideas.

One option is to use a thread to publish to a queue. Then you can block on the queue with a timeout. You can make the reader thread a daemon so it won't prevent system exit. Here's a sketch:
import subprocess
from threading import Thread
from queue import Queue
def reader(stream, queue):
while True:
line = stream.readline()
queue.put(line)
if not line:
break
p = subprocess.Popen(cmd, stdout=subprocess.PIPE, ...)
queue = Queue()
thread = Thread(target=reader, args=(p.stdout, queue))
thread.daemon = True
thread.start()
while True:
out = queue.get(timeout=1) # timeout is optional
if not out: # Reached end of stream
break
... # Do whatever with output
# Output stream was closed but process may still be running
p.wait()
Note that you should adapt this answer to your particular use case. For example, you may want to add a way to signal to the reader thread to stop running before reaching the end of stream.
Another option would be to poll the input stream, like in this question: timeout on subprocess readline in python

I finally got a working solution; the key piece of information I was missing was thread.daemon = True, which #augurar pointed out in their answer.
Setting thread.daemon = True allows the thread to be terminated when the main process terminates; therefore unblocking my use of a sub-thread to monitor readline().
Here is a sample implementation of my solution; I used a Queue() object to pass strings to the main process, and I implemented a 3 second timer for cases like the original problem I was trying to solve where the subprocess has finished and terminated, but the readline() is hung for some reason.
This also helps avoid a race condition between which thing finishes first.
This works for both Python 2 and 3.
import sys
import threading
import subprocess
from datetime import datetime
try:
import queue
except:
import Queue as queue # Python 2 compatibility
def _monitor_readline(process, q):
while True:
bail = True
if process.poll() is None:
bail = False
out = ""
if sys.version_info[0] >= 3:
out = process.stdout.readline().decode('utf-8')
else:
out = process.stdout.readline()
q.put(out)
if q.empty() and bail:
break
def bash(cmd):
# Kick off the command
process = subprocess.Popen(cmd, stdout=subprocess.PIPE, stderr=subprocess.STDOUT, shell=True)
# Create the queue instance
q = queue.Queue()
# Kick off the monitoring thread
thread = threading.Thread(target=_monitor_readline, args=(process, q))
thread.daemon = True
thread.start()
start = datetime.now()
while True:
bail = True
if process.poll() is None:
bail = False
# Re-set the thread timer
start = datetime.now()
out = ""
while not q.empty():
out += q.get()
if out:
print(out)
# In the case where the thread is still alive and reading, and
# the process has exited and finished, give it up to 3 seconds
# to finish reading
if bail and thread.is_alive() and (datetime.now() - start).total_seconds() < 3:
bail = False
if bail:
break
# To demonstrate output in realtime, sleep is called in between these echos
bash("echo lol;sleep 2;echo bbq")

Python 3 Stopping subprocess by sending Ctrl C

I have some GPU test software i'm trying to automate using python3, The test would normally be run for 3 minutes then cancelled by a user using ctrl+c generating the following output
After exiting with ctrl+c the test can then be run again with no issue
When trying to automate this with subprocess popen and sending SIGINT or SIGTERM i'm not getting the same as if keyboard entry was used. The script exits abruptly and on subsequent runs cant find the gpus (assume its not unloading the driver properly)
from subprocess import Popen, PIPE
from signal import SIGINT
from time import time
def check_subproc_alive(subproc):
return subproc.poll() is None
def print_subproc(subproc, timer=True):
start_time = time()
while check_subproc_alive(subproc):
line = subproc.stdout.readline().decode('utf-8')
print(line, end="")
if timer and (time() - start_time) > 10:
break
subproc = Popen(['./gpu_test.sh', '-t', '1'], stdin=PIPE, stdout=PIPE, stderr=PIPE, shell=False)
print_subproc(subproc)
subproc.send_signal(SIGINT)
print_subproc(subproc, False)
How can I send ctrl+c to a subprocess as if a user typed it?
**UPDATE
import subprocess
def start(executable_file):
return subprocess.Popen(
executable_file,
stdin=subprocess.PIPE,
stdout=subprocess.PIPE,
stderr=subprocess.PIPE
)
def read(process):
return process.stdout.readline().decode("utf-8").strip()
def write(process):
process.stdin.write('\x03'.encode())
process.stdin.flush()
def terminate(process):
process.stdin.close()
process.terminate()
process.wait(timeout=0.2)
process = start("./test.sh")
write(process)
for x in range(100):
print(read(process))
terminate(process)
Tried the above code and can get characters to register with dummy sh script however sending the \x03 command just sends an empty char and doesn't end script

I think you can probably use something like this:
import signal
try:
p=subprocess...
except KeyboardInterrupt:
p.send_signal(signal.SIGINT)

The following solution is the only one I could find that works for windows and is the closest resemblance to sending a Ctrl+C event.
import signal
os.kill(self.p.pid, signal.CTRL_C_EVENT)

how to handle the commands that are hung indefinitely [duplicate]

Is there any argument or options to setup a timeout for Python's subprocess.Popen method?
Something like this:
subprocess.Popen(['..'], ..., timeout=20) ?

I would advise taking a look at the Timer class in the threading module. I used it to implement a timeout for a Popen.
First, create a callback:
def timeout( p ):
if p.poll() is None:
print 'Error: process taking too long to complete--terminating'
p.kill()
Then open the process:
proc = Popen( ... )
Then create a timer that will call the callback, passing the process to it.
t = threading.Timer( 10.0, timeout, [proc] )
t.start()
t.join()
Somewhere later in the program, you may want to add the line:
t.cancel()
Otherwise, the python program will keep running until the timer has finished running.
EDIT: I was advised that there is a race condition that the subprocess p may terminate between the p.poll() and p.kill() calls. I believe the following code can fix that:
import errno
def timeout( p ):
if p.poll() is None:
try:
p.kill()
print 'Error: process taking too long to complete--terminating'
except OSError as e:
if e.errno != errno.ESRCH:
raise
Though you may want to clean the exception handling to specifically handle just the particular exception that occurs when the subprocess has already terminated normally.

subprocess.Popen doesn't block so you can do something like this:
import time
p = subprocess.Popen(['...'])
time.sleep(20)
if p.poll() is None:
p.kill()
print 'timed out'
else:
print p.communicate()
It has a drawback in that you must always wait at least 20 seconds for it to finish.

import subprocess, threading
class Command(object):
def __init__(self, cmd):
self.cmd = cmd
self.process = None
def run(self, timeout):
def target():
print 'Thread started'
self.process = subprocess.Popen(self.cmd, shell=True)
self.process.communicate()
print 'Thread finished'
thread = threading.Thread(target=target)
thread.start()
thread.join(timeout)
if thread.is_alive():
print 'Terminating process'
self.process.terminate()
thread.join()
print self.process.returncode
command = Command("echo 'Process started'; sleep 2; echo 'Process finished'")
command.run(timeout=3)
command.run(timeout=1)
The output of this should be:
Thread started
Process started
Process finished
Thread finished
0
Thread started
Process started
Terminating process
Thread finished
-15
where it can be seen that, in the first execution, the process finished correctly (return code 0), while the in the second one the process was terminated (return code -15).
I haven't tested in windows; but, aside from updating the example command, I think it should work since I haven't found in the documentation anything that says that thread.join or process.terminate is not supported.

You could do
from twisted.internet import reactor, protocol, error, defer
class DyingProcessProtocol(protocol.ProcessProtocol):
def __init__(self, timeout):
self.timeout = timeout
def connectionMade(self):
#defer.inlineCallbacks
def killIfAlive():
try:
yield self.transport.signalProcess('KILL')
except error.ProcessExitedAlready:
pass
d = reactor.callLater(self.timeout, killIfAlive)
reactor.spawnProcess(DyingProcessProtocol(20), ...)
using Twisted's asynchronous process API.

A python subprocess auto-timeout is not built in, so you're going to have to build your own.
This works for me on Ubuntu 12.10 running python 2.7.3
Put this in a file called test.py
#!/usr/bin/python
import subprocess
import threading
class RunMyCmd(threading.Thread):
def __init__(self, cmd, timeout):
threading.Thread.__init__(self)
self.cmd = cmd
self.timeout = timeout
def run(self):
self.p = subprocess.Popen(self.cmd)
self.p.wait()
def run_the_process(self):
self.start()
self.join(self.timeout)
if self.is_alive():
self.p.terminate() #if your process needs a kill -9 to make
#it go away, use self.p.kill() here instead.
self.join()
RunMyCmd(["sleep", "20"], 3).run_the_process()
Save it, and run it:
python test.py
The sleep 20 command takes 20 seconds to complete. If it doesn't terminate in 3 seconds (it won't) then the process is terminated.
el#apollo:~$ python test.py
el#apollo:~$
There is three seconds between when the process is run, and it is terminated.

As of Python 3.3, there is also a timeout argument to the blocking helper functions in the subprocess module.
https://docs.python.org/3/library/subprocess.html

Unfortunately, there isn't such a solution. I managed to do this using a threaded timer that would launch along with the process that would kill it after the timeout but I did run into some stale file descriptor issues because of zombie processes or some such.

No there is no time out. I guess, what you are looking for is to kill the sub process after some time. Since you are able to signal the subprocess, you should be able to kill it too.
generic approach to sending a signal to subprocess:
proc = subprocess.Popen([command])
time.sleep(1)
print 'signaling child'
sys.stdout.flush()
os.kill(proc.pid, signal.SIGUSR1)
You could use this mechanism to terminate after a time out period.

Yes, https://pypi.python.org/pypi/python-subprocess2 will extend the Popen module with two additional functions,
Popen.waitUpTo(timeout=seconds)
This will wait up to acertain number of seconds for the process to complete, otherwise return None
also,
Popen.waitOrTerminate
This will wait up to a point, and then call .terminate(), then .kill(), one orthe other or some combination of both, see docs for full details:
http://htmlpreview.github.io/?https://github.com/kata198/python-subprocess2/blob/master/doc/subprocess2.html

For Linux, you can use a signal. This is platform dependent so another solution is required for Windows. It may work with Mac though.
def launch_cmd(cmd, timeout=0):
'''Launch an external command
It launchs the program redirecting the program's STDIO
to a communication pipe, and appends those responses to
a list. Waits for the program to exit, then returns the
ouput lines.
Args:
cmd: command Line of the external program to launch
time: time to wait for the command to complete, 0 for indefinitely
Returns:
A list of the response lines from the program
'''
import subprocess
import signal
class Alarm(Exception):
pass
def alarm_handler(signum, frame):
raise Alarm
lines = []
if not launch_cmd.init:
launch_cmd.init = True
signal.signal(signal.SIGALRM, alarm_handler)
p = subprocess.Popen(cmd, stdout=subprocess.PIPE)
signal.alarm(timeout) # timeout sec
try:
for line in p.stdout:
lines.append(line.rstrip())
p.wait()
signal.alarm(0) # disable alarm
except:
print "launch_cmd taking too long!"
p.kill()
return lines
launch_cmd.init = False

How to limit program's execution time when using subprocess?

I want to use subprocess to run a program and I need to limit the execution time. For example, I want to kill it if it runs for more than 2 seconds.
For common programs, kill() works well. But if I try to run /usr/bin/time something, kill() can’t really kill the program.
My code below seems doesn’t work well. The program is still running.
import subprocess
import time
exec_proc = subprocess.Popen("/usr/bin/time -f \"%e\\n%M\" ./son > /dev/null", stdout = subprocess.PIPE, stderr = subprocess.STDOUT, shell = True)
max_time = 1
cur_time = 0.0
return_code = 0
while cur_time <= max_time:
if exec_proc.poll() != None:
return_code = exec_proc.poll()
break
time.sleep(0.1)
cur_time += 0.1
if cur_time > max_time:
exec_proc.kill()

If you're using Python 2.6 or later, you can use the multiprocessing module.
from multiprocessing import Process
def f():
# Stuff to run your process here
p = Process(target=f)
p.start()
p.join(timeout)
if p.is_alive():
p.terminate()
Actually, multiprocessing is the wrong module for this task since it is just a way to control how long a thread runs. You have no control over any children the thread may run. As singularity suggests, using signal.alarm is the normal approach.
import signal
import subprocess
def handle_alarm(signum, frame):
# If the alarm is triggered, we're still in the exec_proc.communicate()
# call, so use exec_proc.kill() to end the process.
frame.f_locals['self'].kill()
max_time = ...
stdout = stderr = None
signal.signal(signal.SIGALRM, handle_alarm)
exec_proc = subprocess.Popen(['time', 'ping', '-c', '5', 'google.com'],
stdin=None, stdout=subprocess.PIPE,
stderr=subprocess.STDOUT)
signal.alarm(max_time)
try:
(stdout, stderr) = exec_proc.communicate()
except IOError:
# process was killed due to exceeding the alarm
finally:
signal.alarm(0)
# do stuff with stdout/stderr if they're not None

do it like so in your command line:
perl -e 'alarm shift #ARGV; exec #ARGV' <timeout> <your_command>
this will run the command <your_command> and terminate it in <timeout> second.
a dummy example :
# set time out to 5, so that the command will be killed after 5 second
command = ['perl', '-e', "'alarm shift #ARGV; exec #ARGV'", "5"]
command += ["ping", "www.google.com"]
exec_proc = subprocess.Popen(command)
or you can use the signal.alarm() if you want it with python but it's the same.

I use os.kill() but am not sure if it works on all OSes.
Pseudo code follows, and see Doug Hellman's page.
proc = subprocess.Popen(['google-chrome'])
os.kill(proc.pid, signal.SIGUSR1)</code>