How to stop python from propagating signals to subprocesses?

Question

I\'m using python to manage some simulations. I build the parameters and run the program using:

pipe = open(\'/dev/null\', \'w\')
pid = subprocess.Popen(shle         


        

Answer 1

This can indeed be done using ctypes. I wouldn't really recommend this solution, but I was interested enough to cook something up, so I thought I would share it.

parent.py

#!/usr/bin/python

from ctypes import *
import signal
import subprocess
import sys
import time

# Get the size of the array used to
# represent the signal mask
SIGSET_NWORDS = 1024 / (8 * sizeof(c_ulong))

# Define the sigset_t structure
class SIGSET(Structure):
    _fields_ = [
        ('val', c_ulong * SIGSET_NWORDS)
    ]

# Create a new sigset_t to mask out SIGINT
sigs = (c_ulong * SIGSET_NWORDS)()
sigs[0] = 2 ** (signal.SIGINT - 1)
mask = SIGSET(sigs)

libc = CDLL('libc.so.6')

def handle(sig, _):
    if sig == signal.SIGINT:
        print("SIGINT from parent!")

def disable_sig():
    '''Mask the SIGINT in the child process'''
    SIG_BLOCK = 0
    libc.sigprocmask(SIG_BLOCK, pointer(mask), 0)

# Set up the parent's signal handler
signal.signal(signal.SIGINT, handle)

# Call the child process
pid = subprocess.Popen("./child.py", stdout=sys.stdout, stderr=sys.stdin, preexec_fn=disable_sig)

while (1):
    time.sleep(1)

child.py

#!/usr/bin/python
import time
import signal

def handle(sig, _):
    if sig == signal.SIGINT:
        print("SIGINT from child!")

signal.signal(signal.SIGINT, handle)
while (1):
    time.sleep(1)

Note that this makes a bunch of assumptions about various libc structures and as such, is probably quite fragile. When running, you won't see the message "SIGINT from child!" printed. However, if you comment out the call to sigprocmask, then you will. Seems to do the job :)