Using variables in signal handler - require global?

Question

I have a signal handler to handle ctrl-c interrupt. If in the signal handler I want to read a variable set in my main script, is there an alternative to using a \"global\" s

Answer 1

If you're just reading the variable, there should be no need to make the variable "global"

def foo():
    print a
a = 3
foo()  #3

global is necessary to allow you to change the variable and have that change propagate into the module namespace.

If you want to pass some state to your callback without using global, the typical way to do this us to use an instance method as the callback:

class foo(object):
     def __init__(self,arg):
         self.arg = arg
     def callback_print_arg(self):
         print self.arg

def call_callback(callback):
    callback()

a = foo(42)
call_callback(a.callback_print_arg) #42