How to kill Linux process with Python

Question

I want to automate capturing logs from serial port with 2 functions:

1) trigger to start capture

2) trigger to stop

First looks like

def start_capture_output():
  file = '/home/test/Desktop/log.txt'
  os.system('touch %s' % file)
  os.system('chmod +rwx %s' % file)
  os.system('cat </dev/ttyUSB0>%s' % file)

and it works, but I wonder how to stop this process without manually pressing Ctrl+C

Answer 1

If you spawn the process with

child = subprocess.Popen("command")

Then you can call

child.terminate()
child.kill()

• [0] https://docs.python.org/2/library/subprocess.html#subprocess.Popen
• [1] https://docs.python.org/2/library/subprocess.html#popen-objects