如何检查Python中是否存在具有给定pid的进程？

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 check to see if a process with that pid doesn't exist on the machine.

I need it to be available in Unix and Windows. I'm also checking to see if the PID is NOT in use.

Answer 1

Sending signal 0 to a pid will raise an OSError exception if the pid is not running, and do nothing otherwise.

import os

def check_pid(pid):        
    """ Check For the existence of a unix pid. """
    try:
        os.kill(pid, 0)
    except OSError:
        return False
    else:
        return True

Answer 2

Have a look at the psutil module:

psutil (python system and process utilities) is a cross-platform library for retrieving information on running processes and system utilization (CPU, memory, disks, network) in Python. [...] It currently supports Linux , Windows , OSX , FreeBSD and Sun Solaris , both 32-bit and 64-bit architectures, with Python versions from 2.6 to 3.4 (users of Python 2.4 and 2.5 may use 2.1.3 version). PyPy is also known to work.

It has a function called pid_exists() that you can use to check whether a process with the given pid exists.

Here's an example:

import psutil
pid = 12345
if psutil.pid_exists(pid):
    print("a process with pid %d exists" % pid)
else:
    print("a process with pid %d does not exist" % pid)

For reference:

• https://pypi.python.org/pypi/psutil
• https://github.com/giampaolo/psutil
• http://pythonhosted.org/psutil/#psutil.pid_exists

Answer 3

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 4

The answers involving sending 'signal 0' to the process will work only if the process in question is owned by the user running the test . Otherwise you will get an OSError due to permissions , even if the pid exists in the system.

In order to bypass this limitation you can check if /proc/<pid> exists:

import os

def is_running(pid):
    if os.path.isdir('/proc/{}'.format(pid)):
        return True
    return False

This applies to linux based systems only, obviously.

Answer 5

In Python 3.3+, you could use exception names instead of errno constants. Posix version :

import os

def pid_exists(pid): 
    if pid < 0: return False #NOTE: pid == 0 returns True
    try:
        os.kill(pid, 0) 
    except ProcessLookupError: # errno.ESRCH
        return False # No such process
    except PermissionError: # errno.EPERM
        return True # Operation not permitted (i.e., process exists)
    else:
        return True # no error, we can send a signal to the process

Answer 6

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 7

Building upon ntrrgc's I've beefed up the windows version so it checks the process exit code and checks for permissions:

def pid_exists(pid):
    """Check whether pid exists in the current process table."""
    if os.name == 'posix':
        import errno
        if pid < 0:
            return False
        try:
            os.kill(pid, 0)
        except OSError as e:
            return e.errno == errno.EPERM
        else:
            return True
    else:
        import ctypes
        kernel32 = ctypes.windll.kernel32
        HANDLE = ctypes.c_void_p
        DWORD = ctypes.c_ulong
        LPDWORD = ctypes.POINTER(DWORD)
        class ExitCodeProcess(ctypes.Structure):
            _fields_ = [ ('hProcess', HANDLE),
                ('lpExitCode', LPDWORD)]

        SYNCHRONIZE = 0x100000
        process = kernel32.OpenProcess(SYNCHRONIZE, 0, pid)
        if not process:
            return False

        ec = ExitCodeProcess()
        out = kernel32.GetExitCodeProcess(process, ctypes.byref(ec))
        if not out:
            err = kernel32.GetLastError()
            if kernel32.GetLastError() == 5:
                # Access is denied.
                logging.warning("Access is denied to get pid info.")
            kernel32.CloseHandle(process)
            return False
        elif bool(ec.lpExitCode):
            # print ec.lpExitCode.contents
            # There is an exist code, it quit
            kernel32.CloseHandle(process)
            return False
        # No exit code, it's running.
        kernel32.CloseHandle(process)
        return True

Answer 8

Combining Giampaolo Rodolà's answer for POSIX and mine for Windows I got this:

import os
if os.name == 'posix':
    def pid_exists(pid):
        """Check whether pid exists in the current process table."""
        import errno
        if pid < 0:
            return False
        try:
            os.kill(pid, 0)
        except OSError as e:
            return e.errno == errno.EPERM
        else:
            return True
else:
    def pid_exists(pid):
        import ctypes
        kernel32 = ctypes.windll.kernel32
        SYNCHRONIZE = 0x100000

        process = kernel32.OpenProcess(SYNCHRONIZE, 0, pid)
        if process != 0:
            kernel32.CloseHandle(process)
            return True
        else:
            return False

Answer 9

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")

Answer 10

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 11

The following code works on both Linux and Windows, and not depending on external modules

import os
import subprocess
import platform
import re

def pid_alive(pid:int):
    """ Check For whether a pid is alive """


    system = platform.uname().system
    if re.search('Linux', system, re.IGNORECASE):
        try:
            os.kill(pid, 0)
        except OSError:
            return False
        else:
            return True
    elif re.search('Windows', system, re.IGNORECASE):
        out = subprocess.check_output(["tasklist","/fi",f"PID eq {pid}"]).strip()
        # b'INFO: No tasks are running which match the specified criteria.'

        if re.search(b'No tasks', out, re.IGNORECASE):
            return False
        else:
            return True
    else:
        raise RuntimeError(f"unsupported system={system}")

It can be easily enhanced in case you need

1. other platforms
2. other language

Answer 12

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 13

Another option for Windows is through the pywin32 package:

pid in win32process.EnumProcesses()

The win32process.EnumProcesses() returns PIDs for currently running processes.

Answer 14

After trying different solutions, relying on psutil was the best OS agnostic way to accurately say if a PID exists. As suggested above, psutil.pid_exists(pid) works as intended but the downside is, it includes stale process IDs and processes that were terminated recently.

Solution: Check if process ID exists and if it is actively running.

import psutil

def process_active(pid: int or str) -> bool:
    try:
        process = psutil.Process(pid)
    except psutil.Error as error:  # includes NoSuchProcess error
        return False
    if psutil.pid_exists(pid) and process.status() == psutil.STATUS_RUNNING:
        return True

Answer 15

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)