Python Subprocess CREATE_NEW_CONSOLE Windows Not Closing on kill()

Question

On a Windows server I start subprocs from the main script with a new console window and add it into a list of procs so I can close them:

p = Popen(["python", 'secondscript.py', arg1, arg2, arg3], creationflags=CREATE_NEW_CONSOLE)
Proc.append(p)

Later on if I kill the procs with:

for p in Proc:
    p.kill()

They do seem to stop running but I do get left with console windows remaining open. In itself not a huge deal but that can add up over time and start causing issues.

Life is a lot easier using the new console flag but is there a neater way of making sure the console windows close properly? I could rely on a taskkill from the OS lib maybe but that doesn't seem like a good way of doing it.

I had a look around it looks like some people had problems on Linux servers and had to send a sigkill but I thought this was what the kill() was supposed to do anyway.

I might have to just use kill() to stop it working then a taskkil to tidy up but I'd appreciate any advice if there is a neater way of doing that.

Answer 1

Maybe I misread apparently .terminate() and .kill() work differently. Terminate() seems to do the trick properly.

Answer 2

I had the same issue (on windows) and I found somewhere in SO (unfortunately it was some time ago) the following command:

proc_class = subprocess.Popen(r"C:blabla\server.bat", creationflags=CREATE_NEW_CONSOLE)

... do some stuff ...

Popen("TASKKILL /F /PID {} /T".format(proc_class.pid))

and it works pretty well