How to check if there exists a process with a given pid in Python?

Question

Is there a way to check to see if a pid corresponds to a valid process? I\'m getting a pid from a different source other than from os.getpid() and I need to che

Answer 1

I found that this solution seems to work well in both windows and linux. I used psutil to check.

import psutil
import subprocess
import os
p = subprocess.Popen(['python', self.evaluation_script],stdout=subprocess.PIPE, stderr=subprocess.STDOUT) 

pid = p.pid

def __check_process_running__(self,p):
    if p is not None:
        poll = p.poll()
        if poll == None:
            return True
    return False
    
def __check_PID_running__(self,pid):
    """
        Checks if a pid is still running (UNIX works, windows we'll see)
        Inputs:
            pid - process id
        returns:
            True if running, False if not
    """
    if (platform.system() == 'Linux'):
        try:
            os.kill(pid, 0)
            if pid<0:               # In case code terminates
                return False
        except OSError:
            return False 
        else:
            return True
    elif (platform.system() == 'Windows'):
        return pid in (p.pid for p in psutil.process_iter())

Answer 2

mluebke code is not 100% correct; kill() can also raise EPERM (access denied) in which case that obviously means a process exists. This is supposed to work:

(edited as per Jason R. Coombs comments)

import errno
import os

def pid_exists(pid):
    """Check whether pid exists in the current process table.
    UNIX only.
    """
    if pid < 0:
        return False
    if pid == 0:
        # According to "man 2 kill" PID 0 refers to every process
        # in the process group of the calling process.
        # On certain systems 0 is a valid PID but we have no way
        # to know that in a portable fashion.
        raise ValueError('invalid PID 0')
    try:
        os.kill(pid, 0)
    except OSError as err:
        if err.errno == errno.ESRCH:
            # ESRCH == No such process
            return False
        elif err.errno == errno.EPERM:
            # EPERM clearly means there's a process to deny access to
            return True
        else:
            # According to "man 2 kill" possible error values are
            # (EINVAL, EPERM, ESRCH)
            raise
    else:
        return True

You can't do this on Windows unless you use pywin32, ctypes or a C extension module. If you're OK with depending from an external lib you can use psutil:

>>> import psutil
>>> psutil.pid_exists(2353)
True

Answer 3

Look here for windows-specific way of getting full list of running processes with their IDs. It would be something like

from win32com.client import GetObject
def get_proclist():
    WMI = GetObject('winmgmts:')
    processes = WMI.InstancesOf('Win32_Process')
    return [process.Properties_('ProcessID').Value for process in processes]

You can then verify pid you get against this list. I have no idea about performance cost, so you'd better check this if you're going to do pid verification often.

For *NIx, just use mluebke's solution.

Answer 4

I'd say use the PID for whatever purpose you're obtaining it and handle the errors gracefully. Otherwise, it's a classic race (the PID may be valid when you check it's valid, but go away an instant later)

Answer 5

In Windows, you can do it in this way:

import ctypes
PROCESS_QUERY_INFROMATION = 0x1000
def checkPid(pid):
    processHandle = ctypes.windll.kernel32.OpenProcess(PROCESS_QUERY_INFROMATION, 0,pid)
    if processHandle == 0:
        return False
    else:
        ctypes.windll.kernel32.CloseHandle(processHandle)
    return True

First of all, in this code you try to get a handle for process with pid given. If the handle is valid, then close the handle for process and return True; otherwise, you return False. Documentation for OpenProcess: https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windows/desktop/ms684320%28v=vs.85%29.aspx

Answer 6

This will work for Linux, for example if you want to check if banshee is running... (banshee is a music player)

import subprocess

def running_process(process):
    "check if process is running. < process > is the name of the process."

    proc = subprocess.Popen(["if pgrep " + process + " >/dev/null 2>&1; then echo 'True'; else echo 'False'; fi"], stdout=subprocess.PIPE, shell=True)

    (Process_Existance, err) = proc.communicate()
    return Process_Existance

# use the function
print running_process("banshee")