Kill a background program from another program

Question

So I'm running a python script: It starts a logging program in the background Does a bunch of stuff. Then stops the logging program.

So I have two questions: 1) I understand to run a background program, I could call: os.system("test_log_prog &") but can I also do: os.system("test_echo_prog > logfile.log &") or something equivalent?

2) How can I close test_echo_prog? for the program, I was using pkill "test_log_prog" but for some reason it doesn't work when using > logfile.log.....

Thanks in advance!

Cheers!

dstromberg · Accepted Answer · 2012-08-27 22:20:13Z

3

You can use Python's os.kill to kill a process by its pid, sending a mostly-arbitrary signal to it like SIGTERM or SIGINT. If it won't die, try SIGKILL.

You can look up a process' pid using the pidof program, or if you use subprocess.Popen you can get the pid from the popen object without needing to spawn another subprogram. os.system is no longer in great favor, at least not compared to subprocess.Popen.

answered Aug 27, 2012 at 22:20

dstromberg

7,2432 gold badges31 silver badges30 bronze badges

Sign up to request clarification or add additional context in comments.

1 Comment

John Snow Over a year ago

Thanks! Used Popen and it did exactly as I wanted.

Collectives™ on Stack Overflow

Kill a background program from another program

1 Answer 1

1 Comment

Your Answer

Hot Network Questions

Collectives™ on Stack Overflow

1 Answer 1

1 Comment

Your Answer

Sign up or log in

Post as a guest

Related