Using module 'subprocess' with timeout

Question

Here\'s the Python code to run an arbitrary command returning its stdout data, or raise an exception on non-zero exit codes:

proc = subprocess.P         


        

Answer 1

https://pypi.python.org/pypi/python-subprocess2 provides extensions to the subprocess module which allow you to wait up to a certain period of time, otherwise terminate.

So, to wait up to 10 seconds for the process to terminate, otherwise kill:

pipe  = subprocess.Popen('...')

timeout =  10

results = pipe.waitOrTerminate(timeout)

This is compatible with both windows and unix. "results" is a dictionary, it contains "returnCode" which is the return of the app (or None if it had to be killed), as well as "actionTaken". which will be "SUBPROCESS2_PROCESS_COMPLETED" if the process completed normally, or a mask of "SUBPROCESS2_PROCESS_TERMINATED" and SUBPROCESS2_PROCESS_KILLED depending on action taken (see documentation for full details)