capturing keyboard interrupts during while executing Python scripts

Question

I am executing a bash script in Python using the tempfile and subprocess like so:

 with tempfile.NamedTemporaryFile() as scriptfile:
                scriptfile.write(teststr)
                scriptfile.flush()
                subprocess.call(['/bin/bash', scriptfile.name])

Here, teststr has the entire bash script within it. My question is, once it starts to execute, it doesn't capture keyboard interrupts like Ctrl+c and ctrl+z.

Is there anyway to interrupt the execution of the script once it has begun?

Can't reproduce. Even if child process executes signal(SIGINT, SIG_IGN) and enters infinite loop, signal is successfully delivered to Python parent (as it should be: entire process group is affected) where it raises an appropriate exception. EDIT: Oh, never mind: the child keeps running and that is the problem, probably. — rkhayrov
– rkhayrov, Commented Aug 8, 2013 at 11:52

rkhayrov · Accepted Answer · 2013-08-08 12:06:44Z

1

I assume that the problem is that Python parent process receives SIGINT from Ctrl+C and quits with unhandled exception, but the child ignores signal and keeps running. That is the only scenario I was able to reproduce. Actual problem may differ. Catching exception and killing subprocess explicitly with SIGKILL may work.

Instead of subprocess.call:

proc = subprocess.Popen(['/bin/bash', scriptfile.name])
try:
    proc.wait()
except:
    proc.kill()
    raise

answered Aug 8, 2013 at 12:06

rkhayrov

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1 Comment

msw Over a year ago

Never use naked excepts: if you don't know what you're catching, then you don't know how to handle it. except KeyboardInterrupt is what you want here. And SIGKILL is a last resort, not a first one; SIGTERM is what you send when you want to give an arbirtrary process a chance at orderly clean-up.

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