How to kill a python child process created with subprocess.check_output() when the parent dies?

Question

I am running on a linux machine a python script which creates a child process using subprocess.check_output() as it follows:

subprocess.check_output([\"ls\",         


        

Answer 1

As of Python 3.2 there is a ridiculously simple way to do this:

from subprocess import Popen

with Popen(["sleep", "60"]) as process:
    print(f"Just launched server with PID {process.pid}")

I think this will be best for most use cases because it's simple and portable, and it avoids any dependence on global state.

If this solution isn't powerful enough, then I would recommend checking out the other answers and discussion on this question or on Python: how to kill child process(es) when parent dies?, as there are a lot of neat ways to approach the problem that provide different trade-offs around portability, resilience, and simplicity.