How to Close a program using python?

Question

Is there a way that python can close a windows application (example: Firefox) ?

I know how to start an app, but now I need to know how to close one.

Answer 1

in windows you could use taskkill within subprocess.call:

subprocess.call(["taskkill","/F","/IM","firefox.exe"])

/F forces process termination. Omitting it only asks firefox to close, which can work if the app is responsive.

Cleaner/more portable solution with psutil (well, for Linux you have to drop the .exe part or use .startwith("firefox"):

import psutil,os
for pid in (process.pid for process in psutil.process_iter() if process.name()=="firefox.exe"):
    os.kill(pid)

that will kill all processes named firefox.exe

EDIT: os.kill(pid) is "overkill". process has a kill() method, so:

for process in (process for process in psutil.process_iter() if process.name()=="firefox.exe"):
    process.kill()