How to check if there exists a process with a given pid in Python?

Question

Is there a way to check to see if a pid corresponds to a valid process? I\'m getting a pid from a different source other than from os.getpid() and I need to che

Answer 1

This will work for Linux, for example if you want to check if banshee is running... (banshee is a music player)

import subprocess

def running_process(process):
    "check if process is running. < process > is the name of the process."

    proc = subprocess.Popen(["if pgrep " + process + " >/dev/null 2>&1; then echo 'True'; else echo 'False'; fi"], stdout=subprocess.PIPE, shell=True)

    (Process_Existance, err) = proc.communicate()
    return Process_Existance

# use the function
print running_process("banshee")