How to start a long-running process from a Django view?
django, long-running-processes, python
Solution
I don't know if this will be suitable for your case, nevertheless here is what I do: I use a task queue (via a django model); when the view is called, it enters a new record in the tasks and redirects happily. Tasks in turn are executed by cron on a regular basis independently from django.
Edit: cron calls the relevant (and custom) django command to execute the task.
Problem
I need to run a process that might take hours to complete from a Django view. I don't need to know the state or communicate with it but I need that view to redirect away right after starting the process. I've tried using `subprocess.Popen`, using it within a new `threading.Thread`, `multiprocessing.Process`. However, the parent process keeps hanging until child terminates. The only way that almost gets it done is using a fork. Obviously that isn't good as it leaves a zombie process behind until parent terminates. That's what I'm trying to do when using fork: ``` if os.fork() == 0: subprocess.Popen(["/usr/bin/python", script_path, "-v"]) else: return HttpResponseRedirect(reverse('view_to_redirect')) ``` So, is there a way to run a completely independent process from a Django view with minimal casualties? Or am I doing something wrong?