How to run Python programs in the background?

Question

I have a Python program that interfaces with the browser, and now I meed to make that as my background process, so that every time I click the button, the program should start running in the background.

Can anyone help me with an easy solution for this?

score 6 · Answer 1 · answered Mar 09 '11 at 04:49

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If you're on a Unix-like system (e.g. Mac OSX, Linux), the command is python myscript &, which runs the command in the background. In general, in bash (as well as most other shells) if you append a & to your command it runs the command in the background.

answered Mar 09 '11 at 04:49

Rafe Kettler

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Thanku for the reply and yes I am using Linux(Ubuntu) as my operating system .I will check the answer and get back to you if any doubts. – Anusha Mar 09 '11 at 04:54
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But in this case, if I close my terminal window the python process is killed. – Thiago Chaves Mar 14 '13 at 20:20

score 2 · Answer 2 · edited May 23 '17 at 12:02

Depending on the way your script is launched, backgrounding with & may not necessarily work since there's a non-login shell that might be what's launched - and it would terminate when your browser session terminates. But there's a whole existing thread dedicated to this issue: Calling an external command in Python

What you want to do is spawn either a separate process, or perhaps create a daemon that's started by your browser click.

score 0 · Answer 3 · answered Sep 27 '15 at 09:16

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nohup python filename.py &

answered Sep 27 '15 at 09:16

Reza Nazeri

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score 0 · Answer 4 · edited May 23 '17 at 10:29

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And if you're using Windows, this might help: Creating a python win32 service

edited May 23 '17 at 10:29

Community

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answered Mar 09 '11 at 04:51

jcomeau_ictx

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you could also make a batch file with something like: start /b /min myprocess.py, but that's kind of ugly. there are probably other ways to do it too, but I try to steer clear of Windows – jcomeau_ictx Mar 09 '11 at 04:52

score 0 · Answer 5 · answered Mar 09 '11 at 05:26

You can use http://wwwsearch.sourceforge.net/mechanize/faq.html or use http://curl.haxx.se/libcurl/python/ or use:

* Creating your own HTTP requests using urllib2 standard python library
* Using a more advanced library that provides the capability to navigate through a websit simulating a browser such as  mechanize.

but the "trigger" which will fire the script on Linux, is what YOU have to develop.

Hope this helps.

How to run Python programs in the background?

5 Answers5