[python] How do I handle the window close event in Tkinter?

I'd like to thank the answer by Apostolos for bringing this to my attention. Here's a much more detailed example for Python 3 in the year 2019, with a clearer description and example code.

Beware of the fact that destroy() (or not having a custom window closing handler at all) will destroy the window and all of its running callbacks instantly when the user closes it.

This can be bad for you, depending on your current Tkinter activity, and especially when using tkinter.after (periodic callbacks). You might be using a callback which processes some data and writes to disk... in that case, you obviously want the data writing to finish without being abruptly killed.

The best solution for that is to use a flag. So when the user requests window closing, you mark that as a flag, and then react to it.

(Note: I normally design GUIs as nicely encapsulated classes and separate worker threads, and I definitely don't use "global" (I use class instance variables instead), but this is meant to be a simple, stripped-down example to demonstrate how Tk abruptly kills your periodic callbacks when the user closes the window...)

from tkinter import *
import time

# Try setting this to False and look at the printed numbers (1 to 10)
# during the work-loop, if you close the window while the periodic_call
# worker is busy working (printing). It will abruptly end the numbers,
# and kill the periodic callback! That's why you should design most
# applications with a safe closing callback as described in this demo.
safe_closing = True

# ---------

busy_processing = False
close_requested = False

def close_window():
    global close_requested
    close_requested = True
    print("User requested close at:", time.time(), "Was busy processing:", busy_processing)

root = Tk()
if safe_closing:
    root.protocol("WM_DELETE_WINDOW", close_window)
lbl = Label(root)
lbl.pack()

def periodic_call():
    global busy_processing

    if not close_requested:
        busy_processing = True
        for i in range(10):
            print((i+1), "of 10")
            time.sleep(0.2)
            lbl["text"] = str(time.time()) # Will error if force-closed.
            root.update() # Force redrawing since we change label multiple times in a row.
        busy_processing = False
        root.after(500, periodic_call)
    else:
        print("Destroying GUI at:", time.time())
        try: # "destroy()" can throw, so you should wrap it like this.
            root.destroy()
        except:
            # NOTE: In most code, you'll wanna force a close here via
            # "exit" if the window failed to destroy. Just ensure that
            # you have no code after your `mainloop()` call (at the
            # bottom of this file), since the exit call will cause the
            # process to terminate immediately without running any more
            # code. Of course, you should NEVER have code after your
            # `mainloop()` call in well-designed code anyway...
            # exit(0)
            pass

root.after_idle(periodic_call)
root.mainloop()

This code will show you that the WM_DELETE_WINDOW handler runs even while our custom periodic_call() is busy in the middle of work/loops!

We use some pretty exaggerated .after() values: 500 milliseconds. This is just meant to make it very easy for you to see the difference between closing while the periodic call is busy, or not... If you close while the numbers are updating, you will see that the WM_DELETE_WINDOW happened while your periodic call "was busy processing: True". If you close while the numbers are paused (meaning that the periodic callback isn't processing at that moment), you see that the close happened while it's "not busy".

In real-world usage, your .after() would use something like 30-100 milliseconds, to have a responsive GUI. This is just a demonstration to help you understand how to protect yourself against Tk's default "instantly interrupt all work when closing" behavior.

In summary: Make the WM_DELETE_WINDOW handler set a flag, and then check that flag periodically and manually .destroy() the window when it's safe (when your app is done with all work).

PS: You can also use WM_DELETE_WINDOW to ask the user if they REALLY want to close the window; and if they answer no, you don't set the flag. It's very simple. You just show a messagebox in your WM_DELETE_WINDOW and set the flag based on the user's answer.