How do you run a Python script as a service in Windows

Question

I am sketching the architecture for a set of programs that share various interrelated objects stored in a database  I want one of the programs to act as a service which provides a higher level interface for operations on these objects  and the other programs to access the objects through that service   I am currently aiming for Python and the Django framework as the technologies to implement that service with  I m pretty sure I figure how to daemonize the Python program in Linux  However  it is an optional spec item that the system should support Windows  I have little experience with Windows programming and no experience at all with Windows services   Is it possible to run a Python programs as a Windows service  i  e  run it automatically without user login   I won t necessarily have to implement this part  but I need a rough idea how it would be done in order to decide whether to design along these lines   Edit  Thanks for all the answers so far  they are quite comprehensive  I would like to know one more thing  How is Windows aware of my service  Can I manage it with the native Windows utilities  What is the equivalent of putting a start stop script in  etc init d

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nssm in python 3    I converted my  py file to  exe with pyinstaller   nssm  as said before   run nssm install  ServiceName  On NSSM  s console   path  path to your program exe  Startup directory  path to your   same as the path but without your program exe  Arguments  empty   If you don t want to convert your project to  exe    create a  bat file with python   your python py file name   and set the path to the  bat file

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pysc  Service Control Manager on Python  Example script to run as a service taken from pythonhosted org    from xmlrpc server import SimpleXMLRPCServer  from pysc import event stop   class TestServer       def echo self  msg           return msg   if   name         main         server   SimpleXMLRPCServer   127 0 0 1   9001         event stop     def stop            server server close        server register instance TestServer        server serve forever         Create and start service  import os import sys from xmlrpc client import ServerProxy  import pysc   if   name         main         service name    test xmlrpc server      script path   os path join          os path dirname   file      xmlrpc server py            pysc create          service name service name          cmd  sys executable  script path            pysc start service name       client   ServerProxy  http   127 0 0 1 9001       print client echo  test scm          Stop and delete service  import pysc  service name    test xmlrpc server   pysc stop service name  pysc delete service name       pip install pysc

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This answer is plagiarizer from several sources on StackOverflow - most of them above  but I ve forgotten the others - sorry  It s simple and scripts run  quot as is quot   For releases you test you script  then copy it to the server and Stop Start the associated service  And it should work for all scripting languages  Python  Perl  node js   plus batch scripts such as GitBash  PowerShell  even old DOS bat scripts  pyGlue is the glue that sits between Windows Services and your script      A script to create a Windows Service  which  when started  will run an executable with the specified parameters  Optionally  you can also specify a startup directory  To use this script you MUST define  in class Service  1  A name for your service  short - preferably no spaces  2  A display name for your service  the name visibile in Windows Services  3  A description for your service  long details visible when you inspect the service in Windows Services  4  The full path of the executable  usually C  Python38 python exe or C WINDOWS System32 WindowsPowerShell v1 0 powershell exe 5  The script which Python or PowerShell will run or specify None if your executable is standalone - in which case you don t need pyGlue  6  The startup directory  or specify None  7  Any parameters for your script  or for your executable if you have no script   NOTE  This does not make a portable script  The associated   svc name exe  in the dist folder will only work if the executable   and any optional startup directory  actually exist in those locations on the target system  Usage   pyGlue exe  options  install update remove start       stop restart       debug        Options for  install  and  update  commands only          --username domain  username   The Username the service is to run under         --password password   The password for the username         --startup  manual auto disabled delayed    How the service starts  default   manual         --interactive   Allow the service to interact with the desktop          --perfmonini file   ini file to use for registering performance monitor data         --perfmondll file   dll file to use when querying the service for performance data  default   perfmondata dll Options for  start  and  stop  commands only          --wait seconds  Wait for the service to actually start or stop                  If you specify --wait with the  stop  option  the service and all dependent services will be stopped                  each waiting the specified period         Import all the modules that make life easy import servicemanager import socket import sys import win32event import win32service import win32serviceutil import win32evtlogutil import os from logging import Formatter  Handler import logging import subprocess     Define the win32api class class Service  win32serviceutil ServiceFramework             The following variable are edited by the build sh script          svc name     quot TestService quot           svc display name     quot Test Service quot           svc description     quot Test Running Python Scripts as a Service quot          service exe    c  Python27 python exe          service script   None         service params              service startDir   None            Initialize the service         def   init   self  args                   win32serviceutil ServiceFramework   init   self  args                  self hWaitStop   win32event CreateEvent None  0  0  None                  self configure logging                   socket setdefaulttimeout 60             Configure logging to the WINDOWS Event logs         def configure logging self                   self formatter   Formatter    message s                   self handler   logHandler                   self handler setFormatter self formatter                  self logger   logging getLogger                   self logger addHandler self handler                  self logger setLevel logging INFO             Stop the service         def SvcStop self                   self ReportServiceStatus win32service SERVICE STOP PENDING                  win32event SetEvent self hWaitStop             Run the service         def SvcDoRun self                   self main              This is the service         def main self                      Log that we are starting                 servicemanager LogMsg servicemanager EVENTLOG INFORMATION TYPE  servicemanager PYS SERVICE STARTED                                                             self  svc name                           Fire off the real process that does the real work                 logging info   s - about to call Popen   to run  s  s  s   self  svc name   self service exe  self service script  self service params                  self process   subprocess Popen  self service exe  self service script    self service params  shell False  cwd self service startDir                  logging info   s - started process  d   self  svc name   self process pid                     Wait until WINDOWS kills us - retrigger the wait for stop every 60 seconds                 rc   None                 while rc    win32event WAIT OBJECT 0                          rc   win32event WaitForSingleObject self hWaitStop   1   60   1000                      Shut down the real process and exit                 logging info   s - is terminating process  d   self  svc name   self process pid                  self process terminate                   logging info   s - is exiting   self  svc name     class logHandler Handler               Emit a log record to the WINDOWS Event log                      def emit self  record                   servicemanager LogInfoMsg record getMessage        The main code if   name         main                 Create a Windows Service  which  when started  will run an executable with the specified parameters                         Check that configuration contains valid values just in case this service has accidentally           been moved to a server where things are in different places         if not os path isfile Service service exe                   print  Executable file   s   does not exist  format Service service exe   file sys stderr                  sys exit 0          if not os access Service service exe  os X OK                   print  Executable file   s   is not executable  format Service service exe   file sys stderr                  sys exit 0            Check that any optional startup directory exists         if  Service service startDir is not None  and  not os path isdir Service service startDir                    print  Start up directory   s   does not exist  format Service service startDir   file sys stderr                  sys exit 0           if len sys argv     1                  servicemanager Initialize                   servicemanager PrepareToHostSingle Service                  servicemanager StartServiceCtrlDispatcher           else                    install update remove start stop restart or debug the service                   One of those command line options must be specified                 win32serviceutil HandleCommandLine Service   Now there s a bit of editing and you don t want all your services called  pyGlue   So there s a script  build sh  to plug in the bits and create a customized  pyGlue  and create an   exe   It is this   exe  which gets installed as a Windows Service  Once installed you can set it to run automatically     bin sh   This script build a Windows Service that will install start stop remove a service that runs a script   That is  executes Python to run a Python script  or PowerShell to run a PowerShell script  etc  if      -lt 6    then         echo  quot Usage  build sh Name Display Description Executable Script StartupDir  Params     quot          exit 0 fi  name  1 display  2 desc  3 exe  4 script  5 startDir  6 shift  shift  shift  shift  shift  shift params  while      -gt 0    do         if    quot   params  quot      quot  quot     then                 params  quot   params    quot          fi         params  quot   params   1  quot          shift done  cat pyGlue py   sed -e  quot s pyGlue   name  g quot              sed -e  quot   svc name    s          name    quot              sed -e  quot   svc display name    s          display    quot              sed -e  quot   svc description    s          desc    quot              sed -e  quot  service exe   s         exe   quot              sed -e  quot  service script   s         script   quot              sed -e  quot  service params   s          params    quot              sed -e  quot  service startDir   s          startDir    quot   gt    name  py  cxfreeze   name  py --include-modules win32timezone  Installation - copy the   exe  the server and the script to the specified folder  Run the   exe   as Administrator  with the  install  option  Open Windows Services  as Adminstrator  and start you service  For upgrade  just copy the new version of the script and Stop Start the service  Now every server is different - different installations of Python  different folder structures  I maintain a folder for every server  with a copy of pyGlue py and build sh  And I create a  serverBuild sh  script for rebuilding all the service on that server    A script to build all the script based Services on this PC sh build sh AutoCode  AutoCode Medical Documents   Autocode Medical Documents to SNOMED CT and AIHW codes  C  Python38 python exe autocode py C  Users russell Documents autocoding -S -T

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A complete pywin32 example using loop or subthread After working on this on and off for a few days  here is the answer I would have wished to find  using pywin32 to keep it nice and self contained  This is complete working code for one loop-based and one thread-based solution  It may work on both python 2 and 3  although I ve only tested the latest version on 2 7 and Win7  The loop should be good for polling code  and the tread should work with more server-like code  It seems to work nicely with the waitress wsgi server that does not have a standard way to shut down gracefully  I would also like to note that there seems to be loads of examples out there  like this that are almost useful  but in reality misleading  because they have cut and pasted other examples blindly  I could be wrong  but why create an event if you never wait for it  That said I still feel I m on somewhat shaky ground here  especially with regards to how clean the exit from the thread version is  but at least I believe there are nothing misleading here  To run simply copy the code to a file and follow the instructions  update  Use a simple flag to terminate thread  The important bit is that  quot thread done quot  prints  For a more elaborate example exiting from an uncooperative server thread see my post about the waitress wsgi server    uncomment mainthread   or mainloop   call below   run without parameters to see HandleCommandLine options   install service with  quot install quot  and remove with  quot remove quot    run with  quot debug quot  to see print statements   with  quot start quot  and  quot stop quot  watch for files to appear   check Windows EventViever for log messages  import socket import sys import threading import time from random import randint from os import path  import servicemanager import win32event import win32service import win32serviceutil   see http   timgolden me uk pywin32-docs contents html for details   def dummytask once msg  once        fn   path join path dirname   file                       s  s txt     msg  randint 1  10000        with open fn   w   as fh          print fn          fh write       def dummytask loop        global do run     while do run          dummytask once msg  loop           time sleep 3    class MyThread threading Thread       def   init   self           threading Thread   init   self       def run self           global do run         do run   True         print  thread start n           dummytask loop           print  thread done n        def exit self           global do run         do run   False   class SMWinservice win32serviceutil ServiceFramework        svc name     PyWinSvc       svc display name     Python Windows Service       svc description     An example of a windows service in Python        classmethod     def parse command line cls           win32serviceutil HandleCommandLine cls       def   init   self  args           win32serviceutil ServiceFramework   init   self  args          self stopEvt   win32event CreateEvent None  0  0  None     create generic event         socket setdefaulttimeout 60       def SvcStop self           servicemanager LogMsg servicemanager EVENTLOG INFORMATION TYPE                              servicemanager PYS SERVICE STOPPED                               self  svc name                self ReportServiceStatus win32service SERVICE STOP PENDING          win32event SetEvent self stopEvt     raise event      def SvcDoRun self           servicemanager LogMsg servicemanager EVENTLOG INFORMATION TYPE                              servicemanager PYS SERVICE STARTED                               self  svc name                  UNCOMMENT ONE OF THESE           self mainthread             self mainloop          Wait for stopEvt indefinitely after starting thread      def mainthread self           print  main start           self server   MyThread           self server start           print  wait for win32event           win32event WaitForSingleObject self stopEvt  win32event INFINITE          self server exit           print  wait for thread           self server join           print  main done          Wait for stopEvt event in loop      def mainloop self           print  loop start           rc   None         while rc    win32event WAIT OBJECT 0              dummytask once               rc   win32event WaitForSingleObject self stopEvt  3000          print  loop done     if   name         main         SMWinservice parse command line

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Step by step explanation how to make it work    1- First create a python file according to the basic skeleton mentioned above  And save it to a path for example     c  PythonFiles AppServerSvc py   import win32serviceutil import win32service import win32event import servicemanager import socket   class AppServerSvc  win32serviceutil ServiceFramework        svc name     TestService       svc display name     Test Service        def   init   self args           win32serviceutil ServiceFramework   init   self args          self hWaitStop   win32event CreateEvent None 0 0 None          socket setdefaulttimeout 60       def SvcStop self           self ReportServiceStatus win32service SERVICE STOP PENDING          win32event SetEvent self hWaitStop       def SvcDoRun self           servicemanager LogMsg servicemanager EVENTLOG INFORMATION TYPE                            servicemanager PYS SERVICE STARTED                             self  svc name               self main        def main self             Your business logic or call to any class should be here           this time it creates a text txt and writes Test Service in a daily manner          f   open  C   test txt    a           rc   None         while rc    win32event WAIT OBJECT 0              f write  Test Service   n               f flush                 block for 24 60 60 seconds and wait for a stop event               it is used for a one-day loop             rc   win32event WaitForSingleObject self hWaitStop  24   60   60   1000          f write  shut down  n           f close    if   name         main         win32serviceutil HandleCommandLine AppServerSvc    2 - On this step we should register our service    Run command prompt as administrator and type as       sc create TestService binpath   C  Python36 Python exe c  PythonFiles AppServerSvc py  DisplayName   TestService  start  auto   the first argument of binpath is the path of python exe   second argument of binpath  is the path of your python file that we created already  Don t miss that you should put one space after every     sign    Then if everything is ok  you should see       SC  CreateService SUCCESS   Now your python service is installed as windows service now  You can see it in Service Manager and registry  under     HKEY LOCAL MACHINE SYSTEM CurrentControlSet Services TestService  3- Ok now  You can start your service on service manager    You can execute every python file that provides this service skeleton

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The simplest way is to use the  NSSM - the Non-Sucking Service Manager  Just download and unzip to a location of your choosing  It s a self-contained utility  around 300KB  much less than installing the entire pywin32 suite just for this purpose  and no  quot installation quot  is needed  The zip contains a 64-bit and a 32-bit version of the utility  Either should work well on current systems  you can use the 32-bit version to manage services on 64-bit systems   GUI approach 1 - install the python program as a service  Open a Win prompt as admin c   gt nssm exe install WinService  2 - On NSSM  s GUI console  path  C  Python27 Python27 exe Startup directory  C  Python27 Arguments  c  WinService py 3 - check the created services on services msc Scripting approach  no GUI  This is handy if your service should be part of an automated  non-interactive procedure  that may be beyond your control  such as a batch or installer script  It is assumed that the commands are executed with administrative privileges  For convenience the commands are described here by simply referring to the utility as nssm exe  It is advisable  however  to refer to it more explicitly in scripting with its full path c  path to nssm exe  since it s a self-contained executable that may be located in a private path that the system is not aware of  1  Install the service You must specify a name for the service  the path to the proper Python executable  and the path to the script  nssm exe install ProjectService  quot c  path to python exe quot   quot c  path to project app main py quot   More explicitly  nssm exe install ProjectService  nssm exe set ProjectService Application  quot c  path to python exe quot  nssm exe set ProjectService AppParameters  quot c  path to project app main py quot   Alternatively you may want your Python app to be started as a Python module  One easy approach is to tell nssm that it needs to change to the proper starting directory  as you would do yourself when launching from a command shell  nssm exe install ProjectService  quot c  path to python exe quot   quot -m app main quot  nssm exe set ProjectService AppDirectory  quot c  path to project quot   This approach works well with virtual environments and self-contained  embedded  Python installs  Just make sure to have properly resolved any path issues in those environments with the usual methods  nssm has a way to set environment variables  e g  PYTHONPATH  if needed  and can also launch batch scripts  2  To start the service nssm exe start ProjectService   3  To stop the service nssm exe stop ProjectService  4  To remove the service  specify the confirm parameter to skip the interactive confirmation  nssm exe remove ProjectService confirm

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The accepted answer using win32serviceutil works but is complicated and makes debugging and changes harder  It is far easier to use NSSM  the Non-Sucking Service Manager   You write and comfortably debug a normal python program and when it finally works you use NSSM to install it as a service in less than a minute   From an elevated  admin  command prompt you run nssm exe install NameOfYourService and you fill-in these options    path   the path to python exe e g  C  Python27 Python exe  Arguments   the path to your python script  e g  c  path to program py    By the way  if your program prints useful messages that you want to keep in a log file NSSM can also handle this and a lot more for you

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https   www chrisumbel com article windows services in python   Follow up the PySvc py changing the dll folder    I know this is old but I was stuck on this forever  For me  this specific problem was solved by copying this file - pywintypes36 dll  From -  Python36 Lib site-packages pywin32 system32  To -  Python36 Lib site-packages win32  setx  M PATH   PATH  C  Users user AppData Local Programs Python Python38-32 C  Users user AppData Local Programs Python Python38-32 Scripts C  Users user AppData Local Programs Python Python38-32 Lib site-packages pywin32 system32 C  Users user AppData Local Programs Python Python38-32 Lib site-packages win32    changing the path to python folder by   cd C  Users user AppData Local Programs Python Python38-32   NET START PySvc NET STOP PySvc

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There are a couple alternatives for installing as a service virtually any Windows executable   Method 1  Use instsrv and srvany from rktools exe  For Windows Home Server or Windows Server 2003  works with WinXP too   the Windows Server 2003 Resource Kit Tools comes with utilities that can be used in tandem for this  called instsrv exe and srvany exe   See this Microsoft KB article KB137890 for details on how to use these utils     For Windows Home Server  there is a great user friendly wrapper for these utilities named aptly  Any Service Installer      Method 2  Use ServiceInstaller for Windows NT  There is another alternative using ServiceInstaller for Windows NT  download-able here  with python instructions available   Contrary to the name  it works with both Windows 2000 and Windows XP as well   Here are some instructions for how to install a python script as a service      Installing a Python script      Run ServiceInstaller to create a new   service   In this example  it is   assumed that python is installed at   c  python25   Service Name    PythonTest Display Name   PythonTest  Startup   Manual  or whatever you like  Dependencies    Leave blank or fill to fit your needs  Executable   c  python25 python exe Arguments   c  path to your python script test py Working Directory   c  path to your python script       After installing  open the Control   Panel s Services applet  select and   start the PythonTest service    After my initial answer  I noticed there were closely related Q amp A already posted on SO  See also   Can I run a Python script as a service  in Windows   How   How do I make Windows aware of a service I have written in Python

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Yes you can  I do it using the pythoncom libraries that come included with ActivePython or can be installed with pywin32  Python for Windows extensions    This is a basic skeleton for a simple service   import win32serviceutil import win32service import win32event import servicemanager import socket   class AppServerSvc  win32serviceutil ServiceFramework        svc name     TestService       svc display name     Test Service       def   init   self args           win32serviceutil ServiceFramework   init   self args          self hWaitStop   win32event CreateEvent None 0 0 None          socket setdefaulttimeout 60       def SvcStop self           self ReportServiceStatus win32service SERVICE STOP PENDING          win32event SetEvent self hWaitStop       def SvcDoRun self           servicemanager LogMsg servicemanager EVENTLOG INFORMATION TYPE                                servicemanager PYS SERVICE STARTED                                 self  svc name               self main        def main self           pass  if   name         main         win32serviceutil HandleCommandLine AppServerSvc    Your code would go in the main   method   usually with some kind of infinite loop that might be interrupted by checking a flag  which you set in the SvcStop method

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The simplest way to achieve this is to use native command sc exe   sc create PythonApp binPath   C  Python34 Python exe --C  tmp pythonscript py    References    https   technet microsoft com en-us library cc990289 v ws 11  aspx When creating a service with sc exe how to pass in context parameters

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Although I upvoted the chosen answer a couple of weeks back  in the meantime I struggled a lot more with this topic  It feels like having a special Python installation and using special modules to run a script as a service is simply the wrong way  What about portability and such   I stumbled across the wonderful Non-sucking Service Manager  which made it really simple and sane to deal with Windows Services  I figured since I could pass options to an installed service  I could just as well select my Python executable and pass my script as an option   I have not yet tried this solution  but I will do so right now and update this post along the process  I am also interested in using virtualenvs on Windows  so I might come up with a tutorial sooner or later and link to it here

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I started hosting as a service with pywin32   Everything was well but I met the problem that service was not able to start within 30 seconds  default timeout for Windows  on system startup  It was critical for me because Windows startup took place simultaneous on several virtual machines hosted on one physical machine  and IO load was huge  Error messages were   Error 1053  The service did not respond to the start or control request in a timely fashion   Error 7009  Timeout  30000 milliseconds  waiting for the  lt ServiceName gt  service to connect   I fought a lot with pywin  but ended up with using NSSM as it was proposed in this answer  It was very easy to migrate to it

[python] How do you run a Python script as a service in Windows?

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