Controlling a local redis server from python code

If you start a redis client you can first try to ping -- if you get a redis.exceptions.ConnectionError then the service is probably not running. Below is an example of such a function. There are other ways to get a similar or more robust result -- this one is just an easy approach. Also note that this doesn't tell you if a particular key is setup or anything about the redis setup. It only tells you if there is a live redis server on localhost or not.

def redisLocalhostLive():
    redtest = redis.StrictRedis() # non-default ports could go here
    try:
        return redtest.ping()
    except ConnectionError:
        return False

gah, Pyrce beat me to a similar answer. posting anyway:

import redis

server = redis.Redis()
try:
    server.ping()
except redis.exceptions.ConnectionError:
    # your redis start command here

One approach is to use psutil, which is a Python module that provides a cross-platform way to retrieve info on running processes.

>>> import psutil
>>> processes = psutil.process_iter()   # Get all running processes
>>> if any(process.name == 'redis-server' for process in processes):
...     print "redis is running"
... 
redis is running