I have a Python script that starts a daemon process. I was able to do this by using the code found at: https://gist.github.com/marazmiki/3618191.
The code starts the daemon process exactly as expected. However, sometimes, and only sometimes, when the daemon process is stopped, the running job is zombied.
The stop function of the code is:
def stop(self):
"""
Stop the daemon
"""
# Get the pid from the pidfile
try:
pf = file(self.pidfile, 'r')
pid = int(pf.read().strip())
pf.close()
except:
pid = None
if not pid:
message = "pidfile %s does not exist. Daemon not running?\n"
sys.stderr.write(message % self.pidfile)
return # not an error in a restart
# Try killing the daemon process
try:
while 1:
os.kill(pid, SIGTERM)
time.sleep(1.0)
except OSError, err:
err = str(err)
if err.find("No such process") > 0:
if os.path.exists(self.pidfile):
os.remove(self.pidfile)
else:
print str(err)
sys.exit(1)
When this stop() method is run, the process (pid) appears to hang, and when I Control+C out, I see the script is KeyboardInterrupted on the line time.sleep(1.0), which leads me to believe that the line:
os.kill(pid, SIGTERM)
is the offending code.
Does anyone have any idea why this could be happening? Why would this os.kill() would force a process to become a zombie?
I am running this on Ubuntu linux (if it matters).
UPDATE: I'm including my start() method per @paulus's answer.
def start(self):
"""
Start the daemon
"""
pid = None
# Check for a pidfile to see if the daemon already runs
try:
pf = file(self.pidfile, 'r')
pid = int(pf.read().strip())
pf.close()
except:
pid = None
if pid:
message = "pidfile %s already exist. Daemon already running?\n"
sys.stderr.write(message % self.pidfile)
sys.exit(1)
# Start the daemon
self.daemonize()
self.run()
UPDATE 2: And here is the daemonize() method:
def daemonize(self):
"""
do the UNIX double-fork magic, see Stevens' "Advanced
Programming in the UNIX Environment" for details (ISBN 0201563177)
http://www.erlenstar.demon.co.uk/unix/faq_2.html#SEC16
"""
try:
pid = os.fork()
if pid > 0:
# exit first parent
sys.exit(0)
except OSError, e:
sys.stderr.write("fork #1 failed: %d (%s)\n" % (e.errno, e.strerror))
sys.exit(1)
# decouple from parent environment
os.chdir("/")
os.setsid()
os.umask(0)
# do second fork
try:
pid = os.fork()
if pid > 0:
# exit from second parent
sys.exit(0)
except OSError, e:
sys.stderr.write("fork #2 failed: %d (%s)\n" % (e.errno, e.strerror))
sys.exit(1)
# redirect standard file descriptors
sys.stdout.flush()
sys.stderr.flush()
sys.stdout = file(self.stdout, 'a+', 0)
si = file(self.stdin, 'r')
so = file(self.stdout, 'a+')
se = file(self.stderr, 'a+', 0)
os.dup2(si.fileno(), sys.stdin.fileno())
os.dup2(so.fileno(), sys.stdout.fileno())
os.dup2(se.fileno(), sys.stderr.fileno())
# write pidfile
atexit.register(self.delpid)
pid = str(os.getpid())
file(self.pidfile, 'w+').write("%s\n" % pid)
