python - How to avoid closing the teminal

Question

A real noob question.

I just wrote my first Hello World ! python program

#!/usr/bin/env python3
# -*- coding: utf-8 -*-

def main():
    print ('Hello World !')
    return 0

if __name__ == '__main__':
    main()

Unfortunately, when I launch it, it opens the terminal for a fraction of a second. How to avoid that it exits straight.

I look for something like pause in Windows command line.

No offense but a very fast search on google gave me this, took me 8 seconds - `raw_input('Press Enter to exit')` — Dayan, Feb 25 '14 at 19:37

That1Guy · Answer 1 · 2014-02-25T19:51:02.127

5

Wait for a keystroke:

raw_input("Press <Enter> to exit.")

This will prompt the user for input and wait until it is received, at which point, the program will exit

edited Feb 25 '14 at 19:51

answered Feb 25 '14 at 19:34

That1Guy

If there's an error, it may not reach this point and the window will still disappear – mhlester Feb 25 '14 at 19:35
@mhlester Then i highly suggest OP has Exception checks in place - https://wiki.python.org/moin/HandlingExceptions – Dayan Feb 25 '14 at 19:38
And what if it happens to be a syntax error? – mhlester Feb 25 '14 at 19:39

Maxime Lorant · Accepted Answer · 2014-02-25T19:50:19.800

3

There's several solutions:

Launch a command line and then run your Python program in it, with python <your_file>, it'll not exit the console ;
With a good IDE, you can put a breakpoint at the end of your main (example with Pydev) ;

Ask a fake user input, which will freeze the program, waiting for the input

if __name__ == '__main__':
     main()
     input("Press <Enter> to exit.")      # Python 3, raw_input if Py2

edited Feb 25 '14 at 19:50

answered Feb 25 '14 at 19:36

Maxime Lorant

Thanks. This is the correct and complete answer. I tried Geany as IDE, and yes, it allows to run the program in a console that doesn't close right away. – Lorenz Meyer Feb 25 '14 at 19:44
It should be "Press enter to exit." – Lorenz Meyer Feb 25 '14 at 19:48
@LorenzMeyer Indeed, corrected. – Maxime Lorant Feb 25 '14 at 19:50

2 Answers2