terminate a linux command line utility from python

Question

I've got a command line utility from canutils called candump. It works like this:

I run candump (specifying the bus from which I want to dump)

root@beaglebone: candump can0

It then runs until I end it using CTRL+C

However, when I run it in a python script like so.

Popen(["candump","can0"],stdout=PIPE)

or

call(["candump","can0"])

I'm not sure how to end it. Any ideas?

[Relevant.](http://stackoverflow.com/questions/13030162/manually-closing-subprocess-pipe) — Cairnarvon, Mar 06 '13 at 22:58
`Popen.terminate()` and `Popen.kill()` should work if you don't want to use `send_signal`. [Docs](http://docs.python.org/2/library/subprocess.html#subprocess.Popen.terminate) — msvalkon, Mar 06 '13 at 23:01

score 3 · Accepted Answer · answered Mar 06 '13 at 22:59

Don't use use the call command if you want control over the subprocess

If you use Popen like you did above you should assign it to a variable like this:

p = Popen(["candump","can0"],stdout=PIPE)

score 2 · Answer 2 · answered Mar 06 '13 at 22:59

2

Use Popen(), and call send_signal(signal.SIGINT) on the returned Popen object.

answered Mar 06 '13 at 22:59

nneonneo

2 Answers2