Multiprocessing Process terminate fails on Linux

Question

I just noticed the problem with process terminate (from `multiprocessing` library) method on Linux. I have application working with `multiprocessing` library but... when I call `terminate` function on Windows everything works great, on the other hand Linux fails with this solution. As a replacement of process killing I was forced to use ``` os.system('kill -9 {}'.format(pid)) ``` I know this isn't too smart, but it works. So I just wondering why this code works on Windows, but on Linux fails. Example: ``` from multiprocessing import Process import os process=Process(target=foo,args=('bar',)) pid=process.pid process.terminate() # works on Windows only ... os.sytem('kill -9 {}'.format(pid)) # my replacements on Linux ``` My configuration: python 3.2.0 build 88445; Linux-2.6.32-Debian-6.0.4 This is a sample from my code. I hope it will be sufficient. ``` def start_test(timestamp,current_test_suite,user_ip): global_test_table[timestamp] = current_test_suite setattr(global_test_table[times…

Accepted Answer

From the docs:

terminate()

Terminate the process. On Unix this is done using the SIGTERM signal; on Windows TerminateProcess() is used. Note that exit handlers and finally clauses, etc., will not be executed.

Note that descendant processes of the process will not be terminated – they will simply become orphaned.

So it looks like you have to make sure that your process handles the SIGTERM signal correctly.

Use `signal.signal` to set a signal handler.

To set a SIGTERM signal handler that simply exist the process, use:

```
import signal
import sys
signal.signal(signal.SIGTERM, lambda signum, stack_frame: sys.exit(1))
```

EDIT

A Python process normally terminates on SIGTERM, I don't know why your multiprocessing process doesn't terminate on SIGTERM.

Multiprocessing Process terminate fails on Linux

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