python: run a process with timeout and capture stdout, stderr and exit status [duplicate]

Question

Possible Duplicate:
subprocess with timeout

What is the easiest way to do the following in Python:

Run an external process
Capture stdout in a string, stderr, and exit status
Set a timeout.

I would like something like this:

import proc try: status, stdout, stderr = proc.run(["ls", "-l"], timeout=10) except proc.Timeout: print "failed"

Just so we know where you're starting from, have you considered the subprocess module? docs.python.org/library/subprocess.html — Greg Hewgill
– Greg Hewgill, Commented Oct 12, 2009 at 19:11
subprocess' Popen.communicate with timeout, similar question: stackoverflow.com/questions/1191374/subprocess-with-timeout — Mark
– Mark, Commented Oct 12, 2009 at 19:15

flybywire · Accepted Answer · 2009-10-12 22:40:22Z

I hate doing the work by myself. Just copy this into your proc.py module.

import subprocess import time import sys class Timeout(Exception): pass def run(command, timeout=10): proc = subprocess.Popen(command, bufsize=0, stdout=subprocess.PIPE, stderr=subprocess.PIPE) poll_seconds = .250 deadline = time.time()+timeout while time.time() < deadline and proc.poll() == None: time.sleep(poll_seconds) if proc.poll() == None: if float(sys.version[:3]) >= 2.6: proc.terminate() raise Timeout() stdout, stderr = proc.communicate() return stdout, stderr, proc.returncode if __name__=="__main__": print run(["ls", "-l"]) print run(["find", "/"], timeout=3) #should timeout

This version might timeout due to pipe buffer overflow (when stdout or stderr ~64K).
If the command times out, you won't get any output generated up to the timeout.
print run(["ping www.redicecn.com"], timeout=10),the script threw out Timeout exception, but the ping process was still running.

pixelbeat · Accepted Answer · 2009-10-12 23:33:44Z

Note on linux with coreutils >= 7.0 you can prepend timeout to the command like:

timeout 1 sleep 1000

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