Sending ^C to Python subprocess objects on Windows

Question

I have a test harness (written in Python) that needs to shut down the program under test (written in C) by sending it ^C. On Unix,

proc.send_sign         


        

Answer 1

Here is a fully working example which doesn't need any modification in the target script.

This overrides the sitecustomize module so it might no be suitable for every scenario. However, in this case you could use a *.pth file in site-packages to execute code at the subprocess startup (see https://nedbatchelder.com/blog/201001/running_code_at_python_startup.html).

Edit This works only out of the box for subprocesses in Python. Other processes have to manually call SetConsoleCtrlHandler(NULL, FALSE).

main.py

import os
import signal
import subprocess
import sys
import time


def main():
    env = os.environ.copy()
    env['PYTHONPATH'] = '%s%s%s' % ('custom-site', os.pathsep,
                                    env.get('PYTHONPATH', ''))
    proc = subprocess.Popen(
        [sys.executable, 'sub.py'],
        env=env,
        creationflags=subprocess.CREATE_NEW_PROCESS_GROUP,
        )
    time.sleep(1)
    proc.send_signal(signal.CTRL_C_EVENT)
    proc.wait()


if __name__ == '__main__':
    main()

custom-site\sitecustomize.py

import ctypes
import sys
kernel32 = ctypes.WinDLL('kernel32', use_last_error=True)

if not kernel32.SetConsoleCtrlHandler(None, False):
    print('SetConsoleCtrlHandler Error: ', ctypes.get_last_error(),
          file=sys.stderr)

sub.py

import atexit
import time


def cleanup():
    print ('cleanup')

atexit.register(cleanup)


while True:
    time.sleep(1)