how to get my script to repeat every 30 mins with python on windows

Question

I have got the below scrip and i want it to run every 30 minutes can someone point me in the right direction on how to do this.

I have searched for existing questions like this but don't seem to find any think that will work with my script but don't know if that's me being dumb.

My script goes to different positions on my screen clicks and then does a screen shot and then sends me the image to my gmail account.

import pyautogui
import time
import smtplib
from email.mime.multipart import MIMEMultipart
from email.mime.base import MIMEBase
from email.mime.text import MIMEText
from email import encoders
import os


time.sleep(5)
pyautogui.PAUSE = 1
pyautogui.moveTo(922,134)
pyautogui.click()
pyautogui.PAUSE = 1
pyautogui.moveTo(178,277)
pyautogui.click()
pyautogui.PAUSE = 1
pyautogui.moveTo(178,297)
pyautogui.click()
pyautogui.PAUSE = 1
pyautogui.moveTo(178,315)
pyautogui.click()
pyautogui.PAUSE = 1
pyautogui.screenshot('web.png')

pyautogui.PAUSE = 5

gmail_user = "user@gmail.com"
gmail_pwd = "password"

to = "user@gmail.com"
subject = "Report"
text = "Picture report"
attach = 'web.png'

msg = MIMEMultipart()

msg['From'] = gmail_user
msg['To'] = to
msg['Subject'] = subject

msg.attach(MIMEText(text))

part = MIMEBase('application', 'octet-stream')
part.set_payload(open(attach, 'rb').read())
encoders.encode_base64(part)
part.add_header('Content-Disposition',
   'attachment; filename="%s"' % os.path.basename(attach))
msg.attach(part)

mailServer = smtplib.SMTP("smtp.gmail.com", 587)
mailServer.ehlo()
mailServer.starttls()
mailServer.ehlo()
mailServer.login(gmail_user, gmail_pwd)
mailServer.sendmail(gmail_user, to, msg.as_string())
# Should be mailServer.quit(), but that crashes...
mailServer.close()

why not creating a task that executes the script every 30 min? — , Feb 15 '18 at 15:12
why not wrapping your code in an infinite loop with `time.sleep(30*60)` ? — Jean-François Fabre, Feb 15 '18 at 15:14
https://stackoverflow.com/questions/132971/what-is-the-windows-version-of-cron Linux has crontab. I've never used something like this on Windows, but the link seems to have several possible solutions. — Alex Dubrovsky, Feb 15 '18 at 15:19
hi, im new to python so im still learning so not quite sure how write it as a task or put it in an infinite loop can you show me an example please — scott.turner, Feb 15 '18 at 15:21
duplicate of https://stackoverflow.com/questions/4249542/run-a-task-every-x-minutes-with-windows-task-scheduler — Jean-François Fabre, Feb 15 '18 at 15:33
@MikePalmice it specifies in the title that he is using windows — Qwerty, Feb 15 '18 at 16:08

score 5 · Answer 1 · answered Feb 15 '18 at 15:20

5

Use windows schtasks:

schtasks /create /sc minute /mo 30 /tn "PyAutoGUI Task" /tr "python <path to script>"

answered Feb 15 '18 at 15:20

Totoro

867
9
10

1

This is the better solution. – Sanchit Anand Feb 15 '18 at 15:22
2

hi were would i do this – scott.turner Feb 16 '18 at 11:45

score 0 · Answer 2 · answered Feb 15 '18 at 15:19

0

Your loop should look like this:

while '1' == '1':
    '''
    Your script that should loop here
    '''
    time.sleep(1800)

answered Feb 15 '18 at 15:19

NaruS

168
1
15

5

`while True: ...` is a better version of it. – Alex Dubrovsky Feb 15 '18 at 15:21
It is its just a habit of mine I really need to break haha – NaruS Feb 15 '18 at 15:23
when i run the script with the above it just opens then close – scott.turner Feb 15 '18 at 15:25
@scott.turner you need to import time for it to work, see mine – Qwerty Feb 15 '18 at 15:27
I was going off just your code @scott.turner, I was simply giving you the loop the place the rest of your code(Not including your imports) into. Keep your imports OUT of this section of code, you don't need tot have it continue to import. – NaruS Feb 15 '18 at 15:34

Qwerty · Answer 3 · 2018-02-15T15:34:09.280

0

Let's assume the filename for your original script is testfile.py

Make another file in the same directory as the first one with this code:

import time,os
while 1:
    time.sleep(1800)
    os.system("start python testfile.py")

Running this script will run your other file every 30 minutes regardless of how long the script takes to run!

edited Feb 15 '18 at 15:34

answered Feb 15 '18 at 15:25

Qwerty

1,252
1
11
23

1

being picky: if the task itself lasts 20 minutes, that won't run the script every 30 minutes but every 50 minutes. – Jean-François Fabre Feb 15 '18 at 15:32
@Jean-FrançoisFabre I've changed it to run every 20 minutes regardless of the time it takes to run – Qwerty Feb 15 '18 at 15:35
1

This might not be a feasible solution. Even though the python program sleeps for the time specified, its just you are asking the python to not perform any operations, which means Python compiler is still utilizing your processor. What if the program execution lasts only for 10 secs ? You are sacrificing the processor for 29 mins 50 secs. – ExtractTable.com Feb 15 '18 at 15:40
In any form of Unix, the CPU is released during sleep() calls. Pretty sure this is the case with Python's time.sleep(). Please update if I'm wrong! – Brian C Nov 23 '21 at 01:09

score 0 · Answer 4 · answered Feb 15 '18 at 15:42

0

Wrap the program (make sure to supply the credentials by setting environment variables, if needed)
Create a batch file which commands the processor to run python program
Create a task in Windows Scheduler to trigger the batch file

answered Feb 15 '18 at 15:42

ExtractTable.com

762
10
20

hi can i do this if i create an exe file – scott.turner Feb 16 '18 at 12:36

score 0 · Answer 5 · answered Mar 05 '21 at 11:18

I believe time.sleep(), as stated in the rest of the answers would occupy the processor even when not in use.

I had a similar requirement where I had to run a section of code, but also connect with server every 30 minutes otherwise it would time out.

This is what I did

import time
start = time.time()
process_time = 0
max_processing_time = 20000
sleep_time = 1800

while process_time < max_processing_time:
    if (time.time() - start) > sleep_time:
        start = time.time()
        service = service_connect() ## Connect to server every 30 minutes
    
    ## Otherwise keep on running this code
    function_which_I_want_to_run_continously()

In your sccenario, you can insert your section of code within the 'if' block. You can set max_processing_time and sleep_time as per your requirement.

Looks to me like this version uses the CPU continuously; [as far as I can tell, Python's time.sleep() does release the CPU](https://stackoverflow.com/questions/17075788/python-is-time-sleepn-cpu-intensive) — Brian C, Nov 23 '21 at 01:36

how to get my script to repeat every 30 mins with python on windows

5 Answers5

Linked