Cannot kill Python script with Ctrl-C

user_343302 0
Viewed 125299

I am testing Python threading with the following script:

import threading

class FirstThread (threading.Thread):
    def run (self):
        while True:
            print 'first'

class SecondThread (threading.Thread):
    def run (self):
        while True:
            print 'second'

FirstThread().start()
SecondThread().start()

This is running in Python 2.7 on Kubuntu 11.10. Ctrl+C will not kill it. I also tried adding a handler for system signals, but that did not help:

import signal 
import sys
def signal_handler(signal, frame):
    sys.exit(0)
signal.signal(signal.SIGINT, signal_handler)

To kill the process I am killing it by PID after sending the program to the background with Ctrl+Z, which isn't being ignored. Why is Ctrl+C being ignored so persistently? How can I resolve this?

linux python
5 Answers

I think it's best to call join() on your threads when you expect them to die. I've taken the liberty to make the change your loops to end (you can add whatever cleanup needs are required to there as well). The variable die is checked on each pass and when it's True, the program exits.

import threading
import time

class MyThread (threading.Thread):
    die = False
    def __init__(self, name):
        threading.Thread.__init__(self)
        self.name = name

    def run (self):
        while not self.die:
            time.sleep(1)
            print (self.name)

    def join(self):
        self.die = True
        super().join()

if __name__ == '__main__':
    f = MyThread('first')
    f.start()
    s = MyThread('second')
    s.start()
    try:
        while True:
            time.sleep(2)
    except KeyboardInterrupt:
        f.join()
        s.join()
user_10170230

An improved version of @Thomas K's answer:

  • Defining an assistant function is_any_thread_alive() according to this gist, which can terminates the main() automatically.

Example codes:

import threading

def job1():
    ...

def job2():
    ...

def is_any_thread_alive(threads):
    return True in [t.is_alive() for t in threads]

if __name__ == "__main__":
    ...
    t1 = threading.Thread(target=job1,daemon=True)
    t2 = threading.Thread(target=job2,daemon=True)
    t1.start()
    t2.start()

    while is_any_thread_alive([t1,t2]):
        time.sleep(0)
user_83287860

One simple 'gotcha' to beware of, are you sure CAPS LOCK isn't on?

I was running a Python script in the Thonny IDE on a Pi4. With CAPS LOCK on, Ctrl+Shift+C is passed to the keyboard buffer, not Ctrl+C.

user_98461950
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