Exit an imported module without exiting the main program - Python

Question

I have a module called randomstuff which I import into my main program. The problem is that at times, the code being run in randomstuff needs to be stopped, without affecting the main program.

I have tried exit(), quit() and a few os functions, but all of them want to close my main program as well. Inside of the module, I have a thread that checks if the module should be stopped - so what function should I put in the thread when it realizes that the program must be stopped.

Any ideas on how to go about this? Thanks

So, how do you "run" the code in the imported module in a way that it still run while you are executing code in the main program? Threads? — Klaus D.
– Klaus D., Commented Jan 21, 2015 at 16:26
possible duplicate of Stopping a thread after a certain amount of time — Klaus D.
– Klaus D., Commented Jan 21, 2015 at 16:32

mhega · Accepted Answer · 2020-02-22 06:40:41Z

3

Basically I imported the module within a try except, but since I wanted to do the same thing on multiple modules, I found out a way to programmatically for loop through the modules within a single try-except and continue.

From the main program:

import importlib
importList = ['module1','module2']
for lib in importList:
    try:
        print('Importing %s' % lib)
        globals()[lib] = importlib.import_module(lib)
    except SystemExit:
        continue

From the module thread:

sys.exit()

answered Feb 22, 2020 at 6:40

mhega

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Malik Brahimi · Accepted Answer · 2015-01-21 17:00:31Z

0

I have a new answer as I now know what you mean. You'll have to extend the thread class with a Boolean to store the current state of the thread like so:

mythread.py

from threading import *
import time

class MyThread(Thread):
    def __init__(self):
        self.running = True
        Thread.__init__(self)

    def stop(self):
        self.running = False

    def run(self):
        while self.running:
            print 'Doing something'
            time.sleep(1.0/60)


thread = MyThread()
thread.start()

mainscript.py

from mythread import *
thread.stop() # omit this line to continue the thread

answered Jan 21, 2015 at 17:00

Malik Brahimi

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7 Comments

user3147471 Over a year ago

Sorry for the additional response, but I have just had time to test it, and it does not seem to work. I used your exact code, except added a 100ms delay in mainscript.py between importing the thread, and stopping it.

Malik Brahimi Over a year ago

It works fine on my computer. The thread is initialized in one file, imported and stopped in the other.

Malik Brahimi Over a year ago

Try omitting thread.stop() and you'll see that it will continuously print.

user3147471 Over a year ago

Yes, it works if I omit the thread.stop() as it works continuously. However, if I put in thread.stop(), it does not stop the thread.

Malik Brahimi Over a year ago

It works fine for me, it's printed once then the thread stops. Try running in IDLE.

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