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pythonmultithreadingpython-multithreading

How to terminate a thread when main program ends?

If I have a thread in an infinite loop, is there a way to terminate it when the main program ends (for example, when I press Ctrl+C)?

Solution

  • Check this question. The correct answer has great explanation on how to terminate threads the right way: Is there any way to kill a Thread in Python?

    To make the thread stop on Keyboard Interrupt signal (ctrl+c) you can catch the exception "KeyboardInterrupt" and cleanup before exiting. Like this:

    try:
    start_thread()  
except (KeyboardInterrupt, SystemExit):
    cleanup_stop_thread()
    sys.exit()

    This way you can control what to do whenever the program is abruptly terminated.

    You can also use the built-in signal module that lets you setup signal handlers (in your specific case the SIGINT signal): http://docs.python.org/library/signal.html