how to schedule a timed event in python

Question

I'd like to schedule a repeated timed event in python like this: "at time X launch function Y (in a separate thread) and repeat every hour"

"X" is fixed timestamp

The code should be cross-platform, so i'd like to avoid using an external program like "cron" to do this.

code extract:

    import threading
    threading.Timer(10*60, mail.check_mail).start()
    #... SET UP TIMED EVENTS HERE
    while(1):
        print("please enter command")
        try:
            command = raw_input()
        except:
            continue
        handle_command(command)

You need to provide more details about your application. Does it use an event loop, etc. — ThiefMaster
– ThiefMaster, Commented May 22, 2012 at 10:49
Why don't use cron? On windows people can use the task scheduler. — ThiefMaster
– ThiefMaster, Commented May 22, 2012 at 10:53

Mike Pennington · Accepted Answer · 2012-05-22 11:24:53Z

2

Create a dateutil.rrule, rr for your schedule and then use a loop like this in your thread:

for ts in rr:
    now = datetime.now()
    if ts < now:
        time.sleep((now - ts).total_seconds())
    # do stuff

Or a better solution that will account for clock changes:

ts = next(rr)
while True:
    now = datetime.now()
    if ts < now:
        time.sleep((now - ts).total_seconds() / 2)
        continue
    # do stuff
    ts = next(rr)

edited May 22, 2012 at 11:24

Mike Pennington

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answered May 22, 2012 at 10:53

ThiefMaster

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