end child process when parent dies (on Unix)

[Дамјан ГеоргиевÑки]

Hi all,
I'm starting a Unix tool with subprocess.Popen() from a python script
and I want the child to be killed when the parent (my script) ends for
whatever reason *including* if it gets killed by SIGKILL.

For normal situations I can send a signal to the pid of the Popen object.
But not if the script ends abnormally (SIGKILL etc).

AFAIK there were some tricks with process leaders and stuff like that so if
someone remembers the exact semantics of that could refresh my memory.



--
дамјан ( http://softver.org.mk/damjan/ )

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[Lawrence D'Oliveiro]

I'm starting a Unix tool with subprocess.Popen() from a python script
and I want the child to be killed when the parent (my script) ends for
whatever reason *including* if it gets killed by SIGKILL.

A Linux-specific solution is prctl(2).

 

[Дамјан ГеоргиевÑки]

I'm starting a Unix tool with subprocess.Popen() from a python script

A Linux-specific solution is prctl(2).

I've tried this in a test C program... exactly what I need. Now if I
could slip this between the fork and exec in subprocess.Popen()

 

[Lawrence D'Oliveiro]

I've tried this in a test C program... exactly what I need. Now if I
could slip this between the fork and exec in subprocess.Popen()

An obvious way, if you're trying to hack something without the source, is to substitute your own executable which does the prctl before execing the real executable.

 

[Miles]

I've tried this in a test C program... exactly what I need. Now if I
could slip this between the fork and exec in subprocess.Popen()

preexec_fn, perhaps?

http://docs.python.org/library/subprocess.html#using-the-subprocess-module

-Miles