Although, It is not a good idea to kill a thread abruptly, in python or in any language.
This is due to two main reason I can think of:
> the thread is holding a critical resource that must be closed properly
> the thread has created several other threads that must be killed as well.
In addition to that mixing signals and threads is always a little precarious.
Python only handles signals in the main thread. If the OS delivered the signal to another thread, that thread may be briefly interrupted (when it's performing, say, a systemcall) but it won't execute the signal handler. The main thread will be asked to execute the signalhandler at the next opportunity.
If you have ever done multithreaded programming in Python you have probably found it frustrating that you can't simply hit Ctrl-C in the terminal and have it exit like a normal Python process. Instead you have to put the process in the background (Ctrl-D) and then either "kill %%" or kill the PID. The good news is that it doesn't have to be this way. After experimenting whole day I finally figured out why it doesn't work normally and what you have to do to make it work.
This is due to two main reason I can think of:
> the thread is holding a critical resource that must be closed properly
> the thread has created several other threads that must be killed as well.
In addition to that mixing signals and threads is always a little precarious.
Python only handles signals in the main thread. If the OS delivered the signal to another thread, that thread may be briefly interrupted (when it's performing, say, a systemcall) but it won't execute the signal handler. The main thread will be asked to execute the signalhandler at the next opportunity.
If you have ever done multithreaded programming in Python you have probably found it frustrating that you can't simply hit Ctrl-C in the terminal and have it exit like a normal Python process. Instead you have to put the process in the background (Ctrl-D) and then either "kill %%" or kill the PID. The good news is that it doesn't have to be this way. After experimenting whole day I finally figured out why it doesn't work normally and what you have to do to make it work.
Have a look at the code here: https://bitbucket.org/sanfx/filedownloader/
Research Links:
http://stackoverflow.com/questions/18114560/python-catch-ctrl-c-command-prompt-really-want-to-quit-y-n-resume-executi
http://stackoverflow.com/questions/19652446/python-program-with-thread-cant-catch-ctrlc?rq=1
http://stackoverflow.com/questions/631441/interruptible-thread-join-in-python
http://stackoverflow.com/questions/1635080/terminate-a-multi-thread-python-program
KeyboardInterrupt and signals are only seen by the process (ie the main thread)... Have a look at Ctrl-c i.e. KeyboardInterrupt to kill threads in python
http://stackoverflow.com/questions/19652446/python-program-with-thread-cant-catch-ctrlc?rq=1
http://stackoverflow.com/questions/631441/interruptible-thread-join-in-python
http://stackoverflow.com/questions/1635080/terminate-a-multi-thread-python-program
KeyboardInterrupt and signals are only seen by the process (ie the main thread)... Have a look at Ctrl-c i.e. KeyboardInterrupt to kill threads in python
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