Terminate a python script from another python script

python process terminate
Nick picture Nick · Jun 16, 2010 · Viewed 14.7k times · Source

I've got a long running python script that I want to be able to end from another python script. Ideally what I'm looking for is some way of setting a process ID to the first script and being able to see if it is running or not via that ID from the second. Additionally, I'd like to be able to terminate that long running process.

Any cool shortcuts exist to make this happen?

Also, I'm working in a Windows environment.

I just recently found an alternative answer here: Check to see if python script is running

Answer

Joschua picture Joschua · Jun 16, 2010

You could get your own PID (Process Identifier) through 

import os
os.getpid()

and to kill a process in Unix

import os, signal
os.kill(5383, signal.SIGKILL)

to kill in Windows use

import subprocess as s
def killProcess(pid):
    s.Popen('taskkill /F /PID {0}'.format(pid), shell=True)

You can send the PID to the other programm or you could search in the process-list to find the name of the other script and kill it with the above script.

I hope that helps you.

Related questions

How to start a background process in Python?

I'm trying to port a shell script to the much more readable python version. The original shell script starts several processes (utilities, monitors, etc.) in the background with "&". How can I achieve the same effect in python? I'd like …

Read More
Kill process by name?

I'm trying to kill a process (specifically iChat). On the command line, I use these commands: ps -A | grep iChat Then: kill -9 PID However, I'm not exactly sure how to translate these commands over to Python.

Read More
Check to see if python script is running

I have a python daemon running as a part of my web app/ How can I quickly check (using python) if my daemon is running and, if not, launch it? I want to do it that way to fix any …

Read More