CODEWITHSUNDEEP
pythonmultithreading
GAP2002
GAP2002

Reputation: 979

How to terminate or kill a thread in Python

I would like to kill a thread in python upon certain events.

For example, I have a class within the class there is a neccessary function, for example this:

class exampleClass:
    def neccessary_function(self):
        try:
            do_something()
            return
        except:
            kill_this_thread()

I have multiple threads running simultaneously and I only want to kill that specific thread not all of them.

I can't return the function or anything like that, I need to either stop the thread doing anything or kill it. I currently have in the except section:

while True:
    time.sleep(300)

But I feel as though that is not the best way to do it.

Upvotes: 0

Views: 228

Answers (1)

DanDayne
DanDayne

Reputation: 179

It is generally considered unsafe to kill a thread - it could still be holding onto some resources and can lead to deadlocks.

You can look at ways to kill a thread, although as long as you want to be safe, your options are just to "ask the thread kindly to stop when it's ready".

I would suggest you take a look at multiprocessing or asyncio - both APIs provide a rather simple way to cancel an async operation.

Upvotes: 1

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