How do I capture SIGINT in Python?

Question

I\'m working on a python script that starts several processes and database connections. Every now and then I want to kill the script with a Ctrl+C sign

Answer 1

In contrast to Matt J his answer, I use a simple object. This gives me the possibily to parse this handler to all the threads that needs to be stopped securlery.

class SIGINT_handler():
    def __init__(self):
        self.SIGINT = False

    def signal_handler(self, signal, frame):
        print('You pressed Ctrl+C!')
        self.SIGINT = True


handler = SIGINT_handler()
signal.signal(signal.SIGINT, handler.signal_handler)

Elsewhere

while True:
    # task
    if handler.SIGINT:
        break

Answer 2

thanks for existing answers, but added signal.getsignal()

import signal

# store default handler of signal.SIGINT
default_handler = signal.getsignal(signal.SIGINT)
catch_count = 0

def handler(signum, frame):
    global default_handler, catch_count
    catch_count += 1
    print ('wait:', catch_count)
    if catch_count > 3:
        # recover handler for signal.SIGINT
        signal.signal(signal.SIGINT, default_handler)
        print('expecting KeyboardInterrupt')

signal.signal(signal.SIGINT, handler)
print('Press Ctrl+c here')

while True:
    pass

Answer 3

You can use the functions in Python's built-in signal module to set up signal handlers in python. Specifically the signal.signal(signalnum, handler) function is used to register the handler function for signal signalnum.

Answer 4

You can treat it like an exception (KeyboardInterrupt), like any other. Make a new file and run it from your shell with the following contents to see what I mean:

import time, sys

x = 1
while True:
    try:
        print x
        time.sleep(.3)
        x += 1
    except KeyboardInterrupt:
        print "Bye"
        sys.exit()

Answer 5

If you want to ensure that your cleanup process finishes I would add on to Matt J's answer by using a SIG_IGN so that further SIGINT are ignored which will prevent your cleanup from being interrupted.

import signal
import sys

def signal_handler(signum, frame):
    signal.signal(signum, signal.SIG_IGN) # ignore additional signals
    cleanup() # give your process a chance to clean up
    sys.exit(0)

signal.signal(signal.SIGINT, signal_handler) # register the signal with the signal handler first
do_stuff()

Answer 6

Register your handler with signal.signal like this:

#!/usr/bin/env python
import signal
import sys

def signal_handler(sig, frame):
    print('You pressed Ctrl+C!')
    sys.exit(0)
signal.signal(signal.SIGINT, signal_handler)
print('Press Ctrl+C')
signal.pause()

Code adapted from here.

More documentation on signal can be found here.