I am trying to create a python script which I will later run as a service. Now I want to run a particular part of the code only when iTunes is running. I understand from some research that polling the entire command list and then searching for the application for that list is expensive.
I found out that processes on UNIX-based operating systems create a lock file to notify that a program is currently running, at which point we can use os.stat(location_of_file) to check if the file exists to determine if a program is running or not.
Is there a similar lock file created on Windows?
If not what are the various ways in Python by which we can determine if a process is running or not?
I am using python 2.7 and iTunes COM interface.
import psutil
for p in psutil.process_iter(attrs=['pid', 'name']):
if "itunes.exe" in (p.info['name']).lower():
print("yes", (p.info['name']).lower())
for python 3.7
import psutil
for p in psutil.process_iter(attrs=['pid', 'name']):
if p.info['name'] == "itunes.exe":
print("yes", (p.info['name']))
This works for python 3.8 & psutil 5.7.0, windows
import psutil
def check_process_status(process_name):
"""
Return status of process based on process name.
"""
process_status = [ proc.status() for proc in psutil.process_iter() if proc.name() == process_name ]
if process_status:
print("Process name %s and staus %s"%(process_name, process_status[0]))
else:
print("Process name not valid", process_name)
Long Codes Are Not Necessary To Find Out Whether The App Is Running Or Not This is for those who use TK in PYTHON and For Those Who Are Beginner In Python
from tkinter import *
import os
root = Tk()
def killer(appname):
a = os.system(f'taskkill /PID '+appname+'.exe /F')
if a==1 or a==0:
l1.config(text=appname+' Has Been Killed Successfully')
else:
l1.config(text=appname+" Is Not Running")
Button(text="Kill VLC MEIDA PLAYER",command=lambda:(killer('VLC'))).pack()
Button(text="Kill CMD",command=lambda:(killer('CMD'))).pack()
Button(text="Kill Notepad",command=lambda:(killer('NOTEPAD'))).pack()
l1 = Label(text="")
l1.pack()
root.mainloop()
a = os.system('taskkill /PID cmd.exe /F')
# Here Insted Of Cmd You Can Give Your Program Name
if a==0 or a==1:
print('Cmd Is Running And Is Killed')
else:
print('CMD is Not Running')
inn = input('Press Any Key To Continue')
# Insted Of Cmd.exe You Can Give Your Program Name Such As VLC.exe
win32ui.FindWindow(classname, None) returns a window handle if any window with the given class name is found. It raises window32ui.error otherwise.
import win32ui
def WindowExists(classname):
try:
win32ui.FindWindow(classname, None)
except win32ui.error:
return False
else:
return True
if WindowExists("DropboxTrayIcon"):
print "Dropbox is running, sir."
else:
print "Dropbox is running..... not."
I found that the window class name for the Dropbox tray icon was DropboxTrayIcon using Autohotkey Window Spy.
See also
Try this code:
import subprocess
def process_exists(process_name):
progs = str(subprocess.check_output('tasklist'))
if process_name in progs:
return True
else:
return False
And to check if the process is running:
if process_exists('example.exe'):
#do something
According to the ewerybody post: https://stackoverflow.com/a/29275361/7530957
Multiple problems can arise:
The 'ewerybody's' code will not work if the process name is long. So there is a problem with this line:
last_line.lower().startswith(process_name.lower())
Because last_line will be shorter than the process name.
So if you just want to know if a process/processes is/are active:
from subprocess import check_output
def process_exists(process_name):
call = 'TASKLIST', '/FI', 'imagename eq %s' % process_name
if check_output(call).splitlines()[3:]:
return True
Instead for all the information of a process/processes
from subprocess import check_output
def process_exists(process_name):
call = 'TASKLIST', '/FI', 'imagename eq %s' % process_name
processes = []
for process in check_output(call).splitlines()[3:]:
process = process.decode()
processes.append(process.split())
return processes
Lock files are generally not used on Windows (and rarely on Unix). Typically when a Windows program wants to see if another instance of itself is already running, it will call FindWindow with a known title or class name.
def iTunesRunning():
import win32ui
# may need FindWindow("iTunes", None) or FindWindow(None, "iTunes")
# or something similar
if FindWindow("iTunes", "iTunes"):
print "Found an iTunes window"
return True
If you are testing application with Behave you can use pywinauto.
Similar with previously comment, you can use this function:
def check_if_app_is_running(context, processName):
try:
context.controller = pywinauto.Application(backend='uia').connect(best_match = processName, timeout = 5)
context.controller.top_window().set_focus()
return True
except pywinauto.application.ProcessNotFoundError:
pass
return False
backend can be 'uia' or 'win32'
timeout if for force reconnect with the applicaction during 5 seconds.
This works nicely
def running():
n=0# number of instances of the program running
prog=[line.split() for line in subprocess.check_output("tasklist").splitlines()]
[prog.pop(e) for e in [0,1,2]] #useless
for task in prog:
if task[0]=="itunes.exe":
n=n+1
if n>0:
return True
else:
return False
Psutil is the best solution for this.
import psutil
processes = list(p.name() for p in psutil.process_iter())
# print(processes)
count = processes.count("<app_name>.exe")
if count == 1:
logging.info('Application started')
# print('Application started')
else:
logging.info('Process is already running!')
# print('Process is already running!')
sys.exit(0) # Stops duplicate instance from running
Psutil suggested by Mark, is really the best solution, its only drawback is the GPL compatible license. If that's a problem, then you can invoke Windows' process info commands: wmic process where WMI is available (XP pro, vista, win7) or tasklist. Here is a description to do it: How to call an external program in python and retrieve the output and return code? (not the only possible way...)
If can't rely on the process name like python scripts which will always have python.exe as process name. If found this method very handy
import psutil
psutil.pid_exists(pid)
check docs for further info http://psutil.readthedocs.io/en/latest/#psutil.pid_exists
I'd like to add this solution to the list, for historical purposes. It allows you to find out based on .exe instead of window title, and also returns memory used & PID.
processes = subprocess.Popen('tasklist', stdin=subprocess.PIPE, stderr=subprocess.PIPE, stdout=subprocess.PIPE).communicate()[0]
# Put a regex for exact matches, or a simple 'in' for naive matches
A slice of example output:
notepad.exe 13944 Console 1 11,920 K
python.exe 5240 Console 1 28,616 K
conhost.exe 9796 Console 1 7,812 K
svchost.exe 1052 Services 0 18,524 K
iTunes.exe 1108 Console 1 157,764 K
Although @zeller said it already here is an example how to use tasklist. As I was just looking for vanilla python alternatives...
import subprocess
def process_exists(process_name):
call = 'TASKLIST', '/FI', 'imagename eq %s' % process_name
# use buildin check_output right away
output = subprocess.check_output(call).decode()
# check in last line for process name
last_line = output.strip().split('\r\n')[-1]
# because Fail message could be translated
return last_line.lower().startswith(process_name.lower())
and now you can do:
>>> process_exists('eclipse.exe')
True
>>> process_exists('AJKGVSJGSCSeclipse.exe')
False
To avoid calling this multiple times and have an overview of all the processes this way you could do something like:
# get info dict about all running processes
import subprocess
output = subprocess.check_output(('TASKLIST', '/FO', 'CSV')).decode()
# get rid of extra " and split into lines
output = output.replace('"', '').split('\r\n')
keys = output[0].split(',')
proc_list = [i.split(',') for i in output[1:] if i]
# make dict with proc names as keys and dicts with the extra nfo as values
proc_dict = dict((i[0], dict(zip(keys[1:], i[1:]))) for i in proc_list)
for name, values in sorted(proc_dict.items(), key=lambda x: x[0].lower()):
print('%s: %s' % (name, values))
import subprocess as sp
for v in str(sp.check_output('powershell "gps | where {$_.MainWindowTitle}"')).split(' '):
if len(v) is not 0 and '-' not in v and '\\r\\' not in v and 'iTunes' in v: print('Found !')
There is a python module called wmi.
import wmi
c=wmi.WMI()
def check_process_running(str_):
if(c.Win32_Process(name=str_)):
print("Process is running")
else:
print("Process is not running")
check_process_running("yourprocess.exe")
Would you be happy with your Python command running another program to get the info?
If so, I'd suggest you have a look at PsList and all its options. For example, The following would tell you about any running iTunes process
PsList itunes
If you can work out how to interpret the results, this should hopefully get you going.
Edit:
When I'm not running iTunes, I get the following:
pslist v1.29 - Sysinternals PsList
Copyright (C) 2000-2009 Mark Russinovich
Sysinternals
Process information for CLARESPC:
Name Pid Pri Thd Hnd Priv CPU Time Elapsed Time
iTunesHelper 3784 8 10 229 3164 0:00:00.046 3:41:05.053
With itunes running, I get this one extra line:
iTunes 928 8 24 813 106168 0:00:08.734 0:02:08.672
However, the following command prints out info only about the iTunes program itself, i.e. with the -e argument:
pslist -e itunes
Source: Stackoverflow.com