CODEWITHSUNDEEP
pythonprocessparent
john
john

Reputation: 418

Run a child process free of the parent in Python

I have a program I'm running within another. The parent program freezes up while the child process is running. Is there a way to run the child process in the OS as a parent process itself?

Upvotes: 2

Views: 9196

Answers (2)

dano
dano

Reputation: 94881

You can use subprocess.Popen, assuming you're really trying to launch a program that's completely separate from the parent Python script:

import subprocess
subprocess.Popen(["command", "-a", "arg1", "-b", "arg2"])

This will launch command as a child process of the calling script, without blocking to wait for it to finish. If the parent exits, the child process will continue to run.

Upvotes: 5

DrV
DrV

Reputation: 23500

If you really want to have independent processes, please have a look at the multiprocessing module. If it is enough to have a separate thread running in the same OS process, then use threading. Or are you interested in starting an external program from within a Python script with subprocess?

Unfortunately, the terminology is a bit confusing. For example, in Linux "thread" and "process" are both independent processes with no real difference. In python "process" is a separate OS precess, thread runs in the same OS process.

For more information on these, you might have a look at this question: Multiprocessing vs Threading Python

Upvotes: 0

Related Questions