Python on Windows - how to wait for multiple child processes?

Question

How to wait for multiple child processes in Python on Windows, without active wait (polling)? Something like this almost works for me:

proc1 = subpr         


        

Answer 1

Twisted on Windows will perform an active wait under the covers. If you don't want to use threads, you will have to use the win32 API to avoid polling. Something like this:

import win32process
import win32event

# Note: CreateProcess() args are somewhat cryptic, look them up on MSDN
proc1, thread1, pid1, tid1 = win32process.CreateProcess(...)
proc2, thread2, pid2, tid2 = win32process.CreateProcess(...)
thread1.close()
thread2.close()

processes = {proc1: "proc1", proc2: "proc2"}

while processes:
    handles = processes.keys()
    # Note: WaitForMultipleObjects() supports at most 64 processes at a time
    index = win32event.WaitForMultipleObjects(handles, False, win32event.INFINITE)
    finished = handles[index]
    exitcode = win32process.GetExitCodeProcess(finished)
    procname = processes.pop(finished)
    finished.close()
    print "Subprocess %s finished with exit code %d" % (procname, exitcode)