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asyncio.wait_for with non-async function [duplicate]

I'm calling a function in Python which I know may stall and force me to restart the script.
How do I call the function or what do I wrap it in so that if it takes longer than 5 seconds the script cancels it and does something else?

You may use the signal package if you are running on UNIX:
In [1]: import signal
# Register an handler for the timeout
In [2]: def handler(signum, frame):
...: print("Forever is over!")
...: raise Exception("end of time")
...:
# This function *may* run for an indetermined time...
In [3]: def loop_forever():
...: import time
...: while 1:
...: print("sec")
...: time.sleep(1)
...:
...:
# Register the signal function handler
In [4]: signal.signal(signal.SIGALRM, handler)
Out[4]: 0
# Define a timeout for your function
In [5]: signal.alarm(10)
Out[5]: 0
In [6]: try:
...: loop_forever()
...: except Exception, exc:
...: print(exc)
....:
sec
sec
sec
sec
sec
sec
sec
sec
Forever is over!
end of time
# Cancel the timer if the function returned before timeout
# (ok, mine won't but yours maybe will :)
In [7]: signal.alarm(0)
Out[7]: 0
10 seconds after the call signal.alarm(10), the handler is called. This raises an exception that you can intercept from the regular Python code.
This module doesn't play well with threads (but then, who does?)
Note that since we raise an exception when timeout happens, it may end up caught and ignored inside the function, for example of one such function:
def loop_forever():
while 1:
print('sec')
try:
time.sleep(10)
except:
continue

You can use multiprocessing.Process to do exactly that.
Code
import multiprocessing
import time
# bar
def bar():
for i in range(100):
print "Tick"
time.sleep(1)
if __name__ == '__main__':
# Start bar as a process
p = multiprocessing.Process(target=bar)
p.start()
# Wait for 10 seconds or until process finishes
p.join(10)
# If thread is still active
if p.is_alive():
print "running... let's kill it..."
# Terminate - may not work if process is stuck for good
p.terminate()
# OR Kill - will work for sure, no chance for process to finish nicely however
# p.kill()
p.join()

How do I call the function or what do I wrap it in so that if it takes longer than 5 seconds the script cancels it?
I posted a gist that solves this question/problem with a decorator and a threading.Timer. Here it is with a breakdown.
Imports and setups for compatibility
It was tested with Python 2 and 3. It should also work under Unix/Linux and Windows.
First the imports. These attempt to keep the code consistent regardless of the Python version:
from __future__ import print_function
import sys
import threading
from time import sleep
try:
import thread
except ImportError:
import _thread as thread
Use version independent code:
try:
range, _print = xrange, print
def print(*args, **kwargs):
flush = kwargs.pop('flush', False)
_print(*args, **kwargs)
if flush:
kwargs.get('file', sys.stdout).flush()
except NameError:
pass
Now we have imported our functionality from the standard library.
exit_after decorator
Next we need a function to terminate the main() from the child thread:
def quit_function(fn_name):
# print to stderr, unbuffered in Python 2.
print('{0} took too long'.format(fn_name), file=sys.stderr)
sys.stderr.flush() # Python 3 stderr is likely buffered.
thread.interrupt_main() # raises KeyboardInterrupt
And here is the decorator itself:
def exit_after(s):
'''
use as decorator to exit process if
function takes longer than s seconds
'''
def outer(fn):
def inner(*args, **kwargs):
timer = threading.Timer(s, quit_function, args=[fn.__name__])
timer.start()
try:
result = fn(*args, **kwargs)
finally:
timer.cancel()
return result
return inner
return outer
Usage
And here's the usage that directly answers your question about exiting after 5 seconds!:
#exit_after(5)
def countdown(n):
print('countdown started', flush=True)
for i in range(n, -1, -1):
print(i, end=', ', flush=True)
sleep(1)
print('countdown finished')
Demo:
>>> countdown(3)
countdown started
3, 2, 1, 0, countdown finished
>>> countdown(10)
countdown started
10, 9, 8, 7, 6, countdown took too long
Traceback (most recent call last):
File "<stdin>", line 1, in <module>
File "<stdin>", line 11, in inner
File "<stdin>", line 6, in countdown
KeyboardInterrupt
The second function call will not finish, instead the process should exit with a traceback!
KeyboardInterrupt does not always stop a sleeping thread
Note that sleep will not always be interrupted by a keyboard interrupt, on Python 2 on Windows, e.g.:
#exit_after(1)
def sleep10():
sleep(10)
print('slept 10 seconds')
>>> sleep10()
sleep10 took too long # Note that it hangs here about 9 more seconds
Traceback (most recent call last):
File "<stdin>", line 1, in <module>
File "<stdin>", line 11, in inner
File "<stdin>", line 3, in sleep10
KeyboardInterrupt
nor is it likely to interrupt code running in extensions unless it explicitly checks for PyErr_CheckSignals(), see Cython, Python and KeyboardInterrupt ignored
I would avoid sleeping a thread more than a second, in any case - that's an eon in processor time.
How do I call the function or what do I wrap it in so that if it takes longer than 5 seconds the script cancels it and does something else?
To catch it and do something else, you can catch the KeyboardInterrupt.
>>> try:
... countdown(10)
... except KeyboardInterrupt:
... print('do something else')
...
countdown started
10, 9, 8, 7, 6, countdown took too long
do something else

I have a different proposal which is a pure function (with the same API as the threading suggestion) and seems to work fine (based on suggestions on this thread)
def timeout(func, args=(), kwargs={}, timeout_duration=1, default=None):
import signal
class TimeoutError(Exception):
pass
def handler(signum, frame):
raise TimeoutError()
# set the timeout handler
signal.signal(signal.SIGALRM, handler)
signal.alarm(timeout_duration)
try:
result = func(*args, **kwargs)
except TimeoutError as exc:
result = default
finally:
signal.alarm(0)
return result

I ran across this thread when searching for a timeout call on unit tests. I didn't find anything simple in the answers or 3rd party packages so I wrote the decorator below you can drop right into code:
import multiprocessing.pool
import functools
def timeout(max_timeout):
"""Timeout decorator, parameter in seconds."""
def timeout_decorator(item):
"""Wrap the original function."""
#functools.wraps(item)
def func_wrapper(*args, **kwargs):
"""Closure for function."""
pool = multiprocessing.pool.ThreadPool(processes=1)
async_result = pool.apply_async(item, args, kwargs)
# raises a TimeoutError if execution exceeds max_timeout
return async_result.get(max_timeout)
return func_wrapper
return timeout_decorator
Then it's as simple as this to timeout a test or any function you like:
#timeout(5.0) # if execution takes longer than 5 seconds, raise a TimeoutError
def test_base_regression(self):
...

The stopit package, found on pypi, seems to handle timeouts well.
I like the #stopit.threading_timeoutable decorator, which adds a timeout parameter to the decorated function, which does what you expect, it stops the function.
Check it out on pypi: https://pypi.python.org/pypi/stopit

I am the author of wrapt_timeout_decorator.
Most of the solutions presented here work wunderfully under Linux on the first glance - because we have fork() and signals() - but on windows the things look a bit different.
And when it comes to subthreads on Linux, You cant use Signals anymore.
In order to spawn a process under Windows, it needs to be picklable - and many decorated functions or Class methods are not.
So you need to use a better pickler like dill and multiprocess (not pickle and multiprocessing) - thats why You cant use ProcessPoolExecutor (or only with limited functionality).
For the timeout itself - You need to define what timeout means - because on Windows it will take considerable (and not determinable) time to spawn the process. This can be tricky on short timeouts. Lets assume, spawning the process takes about 0.5 seconds (easily !!!). If You give a timeout of 0.2 seconds what should happen?
Should the function time out after 0.5 + 0.2 seconds (so let the method run for 0.2 seconds)?
Or should the called process time out after 0.2 seconds (in that case, the decorated function will ALWAYS timeout, because in that time it is not even spawned)?
Also nested decorators can be nasty and You cant use Signals in a subthread. If You want to create a truly universal, cross-platform decorator, all this needs to be taken into consideration (and tested).
Other issues are passing exceptions back to the caller, as well as logging issues (if used in the decorated function - logging to files in another process is NOT supported)
I tried to cover all edge cases, You might look into the package wrapt_timeout_decorator, or at least test Your own solutions inspired by the unittests used there.
#Alexis Eggermont - unfortunately I dont have enough points to comment - maybe someone else can notify You - I think I solved Your import issue.

There are a lot of suggestions, but none using concurrent.futures, which I think is the most legible way to handle this.
from concurrent.futures import ProcessPoolExecutor
# Warning: this does not terminate function if timeout
def timeout_five(fnc, *args, **kwargs):
with ProcessPoolExecutor() as p:
f = p.submit(fnc, *args, **kwargs)
return f.result(timeout=5)
Super simple to read and maintain.
We make a pool, submit a single process and then wait up to 5 seconds before raising a TimeoutError that you could catch and handle however you needed.
Native to python 3.2+ and backported to 2.7 (pip install futures).
Switching between threads and processes is as simple as replacing ProcessPoolExecutor with ThreadPoolExecutor.
If you want to terminate the Process on timeout I would suggest looking into Pebble.

Building on and and enhancing the answer by #piro , you can build a contextmanager. This allows for very readable code which will disable the alaram signal after a successful run (sets signal.alarm(0))
from contextlib import contextmanager
import signal
import time
#contextmanager
def timeout(duration):
def timeout_handler(signum, frame):
raise TimeoutError(f'block timedout after {duration} seconds')
signal.signal(signal.SIGALRM, timeout_handler)
signal.alarm(duration)
try:
yield
finally:
signal.alarm(0)
def sleeper(duration):
time.sleep(duration)
print('finished')
Example usage:
In [19]: with timeout(2):
...: sleeper(1)
...:
finished
In [20]: with timeout(2):
...: sleeper(3)
...:
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Exception Traceback (most recent call last)
<ipython-input-20-66c78858116f> in <module>()
1 with timeout(2):
----> 2 sleeper(3)
3
<ipython-input-7-a75b966bf7ac> in sleeper(t)
1 def sleeper(t):
----> 2 time.sleep(t)
3 print('finished')
4
<ipython-input-18-533b9e684466> in timeout_handler(signum, frame)
2 def timeout(duration):
3 def timeout_handler(signum, frame):
----> 4 raise Exception(f'block timedout after {duration} seconds')
5 signal.signal(signal.SIGALRM, timeout_handler)
6 signal.alarm(duration)
Exception: block timedout after 2 seconds

Great, easy to use and reliable PyPi project timeout-decorator (https://pypi.org/project/timeout-decorator/)
installation:
pip install timeout-decorator
Usage:
import time
import timeout_decorator
#timeout_decorator.timeout(5)
def mytest():
print "Start"
for i in range(1,10):
time.sleep(1)
print "%d seconds have passed" % i
if __name__ == '__main__':
mytest()

timeout-decorator don't work on windows system as , windows didn't support signal well.
If you use timeout-decorator in windows system you will get the following
AttributeError: module 'signal' has no attribute 'SIGALRM'
Some suggested to use use_signals=False but didn't worked for me.
Author #bitranox created the following package:
pip install https://github.com/bitranox/wrapt-timeout-decorator/archive/master.zip
Code Sample:
import time
from wrapt_timeout_decorator import *
#timeout(5)
def mytest(message):
print(message)
for i in range(1,10):
time.sleep(1)
print('{} seconds have passed'.format(i))
def main():
mytest('starting')
if __name__ == '__main__':
main()
Gives the following exception:
TimeoutError: Function mytest timed out after 5 seconds

Highlights
Raises TimeoutError uses exceptions to alert on timeout - can easily be modified
Cross Platform: Windows & Mac OS X
Compatibility: Python 3.6+ (I also tested on python 2.7 and it works with small syntax adjustments)
For full explanation and extension to parallel maps, see here https://flipdazed.github.io/blog/quant%20dev/parallel-functions-with-timeouts
Minimal Example
>>> #killer_call(timeout=4)
... def bar(x):
... import time
... time.sleep(x)
... return x
>>> bar(10)
Traceback (most recent call last):
...
__main__.TimeoutError: function 'bar' timed out after 4s
and as expected
>>> bar(2)
2
Full code
import multiprocessing as mp
import multiprocessing.queues as mpq
import functools
import dill
from typing import Tuple, Callable, Dict, Optional, Iterable, List, Any
class TimeoutError(Exception):
def __init__(self, func: Callable, timeout: int):
self.t = timeout
self.fname = func.__name__
def __str__(self):
return f"function '{self.fname}' timed out after {self.t}s"
def _lemmiwinks(func: Callable, args: Tuple, kwargs: Dict[str, Any], q: mp.Queue):
"""lemmiwinks crawls into the unknown"""
q.put(dill.loads(func)(*args, **kwargs))
def killer_call(func: Callable = None, timeout: int = 10) -> Callable:
"""
Single function call with a timeout
Args:
func: the function
timeout: The timeout in seconds
"""
if not isinstance(timeout, int):
raise ValueError(f'timeout needs to be an int. Got: {timeout}')
if func is None:
return functools.partial(killer_call, timeout=timeout)
#functools.wraps(killer_call)
def _inners(*args, **kwargs) -> Any:
q_worker = mp.Queue()
proc = mp.Process(target=_lemmiwinks, args=(dill.dumps(func), args, kwargs, q_worker))
proc.start()
try:
return q_worker.get(timeout=timeout)
except mpq.Empty:
raise TimeoutError(func, timeout)
finally:
try:
proc.terminate()
except:
pass
return _inners
if __name__ == '__main__':
#killer_call(timeout=4)
def bar(x):
import time
time.sleep(x)
return x
print(bar(2))
bar(10)
Notes
You will need to import inside the function because of the way dill works.
This will also mean these functions may not be not compatible with doctest if there are imports inside your target functions. You will get an issue with __import__ not found.

Just in case it is helpful for anyone, building on the answer by #piro, I've made a function decorator:
import time
import signal
from functools import wraps
def timeout(timeout_secs: int):
def wrapper(func):
#wraps(func)
def time_limited(*args, **kwargs):
# Register an handler for the timeout
def handler(signum, frame):
raise Exception(f"Timeout for function '{func.__name__}'")
# Register the signal function handler
signal.signal(signal.SIGALRM, handler)
# Define a timeout for your function
signal.alarm(timeout_secs)
result = None
try:
result = func(*args, **kwargs)
except Exception as exc:
raise exc
finally:
# disable the signal alarm
signal.alarm(0)
return result
return time_limited
return wrapper
Using the wrapper on a function with a 20 seconds timeout would look something like:
#timeout(20)
def my_slow_or_never_ending_function(name):
while True:
time.sleep(1)
print(f"Yet another second passed {name}...")
try:
results = my_slow_or_never_ending_function("Yooo!")
except Exception as e:
print(f"ERROR: {e}")

We can use signals for the same. I think the below example will be useful for you. It is very simple compared to threads.
import signal
def timeout(signum, frame):
raise myException
#this is an infinite loop, never ending under normal circumstances
def main():
print 'Starting Main ',
while 1:
print 'in main ',
#SIGALRM is only usable on a unix platform
signal.signal(signal.SIGALRM, timeout)
#change 5 to however many seconds you need
signal.alarm(5)
try:
main()
except myException:
print "whoops"

Another solution with asyncio :
If you want to cancel the background task and not just timeout on the running main code, then you need an explicit communication from main thread to ask the code of the task to cancel , like a threading.Event()
import asyncio
import functools
import multiprocessing
from concurrent.futures.thread import ThreadPoolExecutor
class SingletonTimeOut:
pool = None
#classmethod
def run(cls, to_run: functools.partial, timeout: float):
pool = cls.get_pool()
loop = cls.get_loop()
try:
task = loop.run_in_executor(pool, to_run)
return loop.run_until_complete(asyncio.wait_for(task, timeout=timeout))
except asyncio.TimeoutError as e:
error_type = type(e).__name__ #TODO
raise e
#classmethod
def get_pool(cls):
if cls.pool is None:
cls.pool = ThreadPoolExecutor(multiprocessing.cpu_count())
return cls.pool
#classmethod
def get_loop(cls):
try:
return asyncio.get_event_loop()
except RuntimeError:
asyncio.set_event_loop(asyncio.new_event_loop())
# print("NEW LOOP" + str(threading.current_thread().ident))
return asyncio.get_event_loop()
# ---------------
TIME_OUT = float('0.2') # seconds
def toto(input_items,nb_predictions):
return 1
to_run = functools.partial(toto,
input_items=1,
nb_predictions="a")
results = SingletonTimeOut.run(to_run, TIME_OUT)

#!/usr/bin/python2
import sys, subprocess, threading
proc = subprocess.Popen(sys.argv[2:])
timer = threading.Timer(float(sys.argv[1]), proc.terminate)
timer.start()
proc.wait()
timer.cancel()
exit(proc.returncode)

The func_timeout package by Tim Savannah has worked well for me.
Installation:
pip install func_timeout
Usage:
import time
from func_timeout import func_timeout, FunctionTimedOut
def my_func(n):
time.sleep(n)
time_to_sleep = 10
# time out after 2 seconds using kwargs
func_timeout(2, my_func, kwargs={'n' : time_to_sleep})
# time out after 2 seconds using args
func_timeout(2, my_func, args=(time_to_sleep,))

I had a need for nestable timed interrupts (which SIGALARM can't do) that won't get blocked by time.sleep (which the thread-based approach can't do). I ended up copying and lightly modifying code from here: http://code.activestate.com/recipes/577600-queue-for-managing-multiple-sigalrm-alarms-concurr/
The code itself:
#!/usr/bin/python
# lightly modified version of http://code.activestate.com/recipes/577600-queue-for-managing-multiple-sigalrm-alarms-concurr/
"""alarm.py: Permits multiple SIGALRM events to be queued.
Uses a `heapq` to store the objects to be called when an alarm signal is
raised, so that the next alarm is always at the top of the heap.
"""
import heapq
import signal
from time import time
__version__ = '$Revision: 2539 $'.split()[1]
alarmlist = []
__new_alarm = lambda t, f, a, k: (t + time(), f, a, k)
__next_alarm = lambda: int(round(alarmlist[0][0] - time())) if alarmlist else None
__set_alarm = lambda: signal.alarm(max(__next_alarm(), 1))
class TimeoutError(Exception):
def __init__(self, message, id_=None):
self.message = message
self.id_ = id_
class Timeout:
''' id_ allows for nested timeouts. '''
def __init__(self, id_=None, seconds=1, error_message='Timeout'):
self.seconds = seconds
self.error_message = error_message
self.id_ = id_
def handle_timeout(self):
raise TimeoutError(self.error_message, self.id_)
def __enter__(self):
self.this_alarm = alarm(self.seconds, self.handle_timeout)
def __exit__(self, type, value, traceback):
try:
cancel(self.this_alarm)
except ValueError:
pass
def __clear_alarm():
"""Clear an existing alarm.
If the alarm signal was set to a callable other than our own, queue the
previous alarm settings.
"""
oldsec = signal.alarm(0)
oldfunc = signal.signal(signal.SIGALRM, __alarm_handler)
if oldsec > 0 and oldfunc != __alarm_handler:
heapq.heappush(alarmlist, (__new_alarm(oldsec, oldfunc, [], {})))
def __alarm_handler(*zargs):
"""Handle an alarm by calling any due heap entries and resetting the alarm.
Note that multiple heap entries might get called, especially if calling an
entry takes a lot of time.
"""
try:
nextt = __next_alarm()
while nextt is not None and nextt <= 0:
(tm, func, args, keys) = heapq.heappop(alarmlist)
func(*args, **keys)
nextt = __next_alarm()
finally:
if alarmlist: __set_alarm()
def alarm(sec, func, *args, **keys):
"""Set an alarm.
When the alarm is raised in `sec` seconds, the handler will call `func`,
passing `args` and `keys`. Return the heap entry (which is just a big
tuple), so that it can be cancelled by calling `cancel()`.
"""
__clear_alarm()
try:
newalarm = __new_alarm(sec, func, args, keys)
heapq.heappush(alarmlist, newalarm)
return newalarm
finally:
__set_alarm()
def cancel(alarm):
"""Cancel an alarm by passing the heap entry returned by `alarm()`.
It is an error to try to cancel an alarm which has already occurred.
"""
__clear_alarm()
try:
alarmlist.remove(alarm)
heapq.heapify(alarmlist)
finally:
if alarmlist: __set_alarm()
and a usage example:
import alarm
from time import sleep
try:
with alarm.Timeout(id_='a', seconds=5):
try:
with alarm.Timeout(id_='b', seconds=2):
sleep(3)
except alarm.TimeoutError as e:
print 'raised', e.id_
sleep(30)
except alarm.TimeoutError as e:
print 'raised', e.id_
else:
print 'nope.'

I have face the same problem but my situation is need work on sub thread, signal didn't work for me, so I wrote a python package: timeout-timer to solve this problem, support for use as context or decorator, use signal or sub thread module to trigger a timeout interrupt:
from timeout_timer import timeout, TimeoutInterrupt
class TimeoutInterruptNested(TimeoutInterrupt):
pass
def test_timeout_nested_loop_both_timeout(timer="thread"):
cnt = 0
try:
with timeout(5, timer=timer):
try:
with timeout(2, timer=timer, exception=TimeoutInterruptNested):
sleep(2)
except TimeoutInterruptNested:
cnt += 1
time.sleep(10)
except TimeoutInterrupt:
cnt += 1
assert cnt == 2
see more: https://github.com/dozysun/timeout-timer

Here is a simple example running one method with timeout and also retriev its value if successfull.
import multiprocessing
import time
ret = {"foo": False}
def worker(queue):
"""worker function"""
ret = queue.get()
time.sleep(1)
ret["foo"] = True
queue.put(ret)
if __name__ == "__main__":
queue = multiprocessing.Queue()
queue.put(ret)
p = multiprocessing.Process(target=worker, args=(queue,))
p.start()
p.join(timeout=10)
if p.exitcode is None:
print("The worker timed out.")
else:
print(f"The worker completed and returned: {queue.get()}")

Here is a slight improvement to the given thread-based solution.
The code below supports exceptions:
def runFunctionCatchExceptions(func, *args, **kwargs):
try:
result = func(*args, **kwargs)
except Exception, message:
return ["exception", message]
return ["RESULT", result]
def runFunctionWithTimeout(func, args=(), kwargs={}, timeout_duration=10, default=None):
import threading
class InterruptableThread(threading.Thread):
def __init__(self):
threading.Thread.__init__(self)
self.result = default
def run(self):
self.result = runFunctionCatchExceptions(func, *args, **kwargs)
it = InterruptableThread()
it.start()
it.join(timeout_duration)
if it.isAlive():
return default
if it.result[0] == "exception":
raise it.result[1]
return it.result[1]
Invoking it with a 5 second timeout:
result = timeout(remote_calculate, (myarg,), timeout_duration=5)

Here is a POSIX version that combines many of the previous answers to deliver following features:
Subprocesses blocking the execution.
Usage of the timeout function on class member functions.
Strict requirement on time-to-terminate.
Here is the code and some test cases:
import threading
import signal
import os
import time
class TerminateExecution(Exception):
"""
Exception to indicate that execution has exceeded the preset running time.
"""
def quit_function(pid):
# Killing all subprocesses
os.setpgrp()
os.killpg(0, signal.SIGTERM)
# Killing the main thread
os.kill(pid, signal.SIGTERM)
def handle_term(signum, frame):
raise TerminateExecution()
def invoke_with_timeout(timeout, fn, *args, **kwargs):
# Setting a sigterm handler and initiating a timer
old_handler = signal.signal(signal.SIGTERM, handle_term)
timer = threading.Timer(timeout, quit_function, args=[os.getpid()])
terminate = False
# Executing the function
timer.start()
try:
result = fn(*args, **kwargs)
except TerminateExecution:
terminate = True
finally:
# Restoring original handler and cancel timer
signal.signal(signal.SIGTERM, old_handler)
timer.cancel()
if terminate:
raise BaseException("xxx")
return result
### Test cases
def countdown(n):
print('countdown started', flush=True)
for i in range(n, -1, -1):
print(i, end=', ', flush=True)
time.sleep(1)
print('countdown finished')
return 1337
def really_long_function():
time.sleep(10)
def really_long_function2():
os.system("sleep 787")
# Checking that we can run a function as expected.
assert invoke_with_timeout(3, countdown, 1) == 1337
# Testing various scenarios
t1 = time.time()
try:
print(invoke_with_timeout(1, countdown, 3))
assert(False)
except BaseException:
assert(time.time() - t1 < 1.1)
print("All good", time.time() - t1)
t1 = time.time()
try:
print(invoke_with_timeout(1, really_long_function2))
assert(False)
except BaseException:
assert(time.time() - t1 < 1.1)
print("All good", time.time() - t1)
t1 = time.time()
try:
print(invoke_with_timeout(1, really_long_function))
assert(False)
except BaseException:
assert(time.time() - t1 < 1.1)
print("All good", time.time() - t1)
# Checking that classes are referenced and not
# copied (as would be the case with multiprocessing)
class X:
def __init__(self):
self.value = 0
def set(self, v):
self.value = v
x = X()
invoke_with_timeout(2, x.set, 9)
assert x.value == 9

I intend to kill the process if job not done , using thread and process both to achieve this.
from concurrent.futures import ThreadPoolExecutor
from time import sleep
import multiprocessing
# test case 1
def worker_1(a,b,c):
for _ in range(2):
print('very time consuming sleep')
sleep(1)
return a+b+c
# test case 2
def worker_2(in_name):
for _ in range(10):
print('very time consuming sleep')
sleep(1)
return 'hello '+in_name
Actual class as a contextmanager
class FuncTimer():
def __init__(self,fn,args,runtime):
self.fn = fn
self.args = args
self.queue = multiprocessing.Queue()
self.runtime = runtime
self.process = multiprocessing.Process(target=self.thread_caller)
def thread_caller(self):
with ThreadPoolExecutor() as executor:
future = executor.submit(self.fn, *self.args)
self.queue.put(future.result())
def __enter__(self):
return self
def start_run(self):
self.process.start()
self.process.join(timeout=self.runtime)
if self.process.exitcode is None:
self.process.kill()
if self.process.exitcode is None:
out_res = None
print('killed premature')
else:
out_res = self.queue.get()
return out_res
def __exit__(self, exc_type, exc_value, exc_traceback):
self.process.kill()
How to use it
print('testing case 1')
with FuncTimer(fn=worker_1,args=(1,2,3),runtime = 5) as fp:
res = fp.start_run()
print(res)
print('testing case 2')
with FuncTimer(fn=worker_2,args=('ram',),runtime = 5) as fp:
res = fp.start_run()
print(res)

python 3.6, for input() - achieve time out and skip to next line [duplicate]

I'm calling a function in Python which I know may stall and force me to restart the script.
How do I call the function or what do I wrap it in so that if it takes longer than 5 seconds the script cancels it and does something else?

You may use the signal package if you are running on UNIX:
In [1]: import signal
# Register an handler for the timeout
In [2]: def handler(signum, frame):
...: print("Forever is over!")
...: raise Exception("end of time")
...:
# This function *may* run for an indetermined time...
In [3]: def loop_forever():
...: import time
...: while 1:
...: print("sec")
...: time.sleep(1)
...:
...:
# Register the signal function handler
In [4]: signal.signal(signal.SIGALRM, handler)
Out[4]: 0
# Define a timeout for your function
In [5]: signal.alarm(10)
Out[5]: 0
In [6]: try:
...: loop_forever()
...: except Exception, exc:
...: print(exc)
....:
sec
sec
sec
sec
sec
sec
sec
sec
Forever is over!
end of time
# Cancel the timer if the function returned before timeout
# (ok, mine won't but yours maybe will :)
In [7]: signal.alarm(0)
Out[7]: 0
10 seconds after the call signal.alarm(10), the handler is called. This raises an exception that you can intercept from the regular Python code.
This module doesn't play well with threads (but then, who does?)
Note that since we raise an exception when timeout happens, it may end up caught and ignored inside the function, for example of one such function:
def loop_forever():
while 1:
print('sec')
try:
time.sleep(10)
except:
continue

You can use multiprocessing.Process to do exactly that.
Code
import multiprocessing
import time
# bar
def bar():
for i in range(100):
print "Tick"
time.sleep(1)
if __name__ == '__main__':
# Start bar as a process
p = multiprocessing.Process(target=bar)
p.start()
# Wait for 10 seconds or until process finishes
p.join(10)
# If thread is still active
if p.is_alive():
print "running... let's kill it..."
# Terminate - may not work if process is stuck for good
p.terminate()
# OR Kill - will work for sure, no chance for process to finish nicely however
# p.kill()
p.join()

How do I call the function or what do I wrap it in so that if it takes longer than 5 seconds the script cancels it?
I posted a gist that solves this question/problem with a decorator and a threading.Timer. Here it is with a breakdown.
Imports and setups for compatibility
It was tested with Python 2 and 3. It should also work under Unix/Linux and Windows.
First the imports. These attempt to keep the code consistent regardless of the Python version:
from __future__ import print_function
import sys
import threading
from time import sleep
try:
import thread
except ImportError:
import _thread as thread
Use version independent code:
try:
range, _print = xrange, print
def print(*args, **kwargs):
flush = kwargs.pop('flush', False)
_print(*args, **kwargs)
if flush:
kwargs.get('file', sys.stdout).flush()
except NameError:
pass
Now we have imported our functionality from the standard library.
exit_after decorator
Next we need a function to terminate the main() from the child thread:
def quit_function(fn_name):
# print to stderr, unbuffered in Python 2.
print('{0} took too long'.format(fn_name), file=sys.stderr)
sys.stderr.flush() # Python 3 stderr is likely buffered.
thread.interrupt_main() # raises KeyboardInterrupt
And here is the decorator itself:
def exit_after(s):
'''
use as decorator to exit process if
function takes longer than s seconds
'''
def outer(fn):
def inner(*args, **kwargs):
timer = threading.Timer(s, quit_function, args=[fn.__name__])
timer.start()
try:
result = fn(*args, **kwargs)
finally:
timer.cancel()
return result
return inner
return outer
Usage
And here's the usage that directly answers your question about exiting after 5 seconds!:
#exit_after(5)
def countdown(n):
print('countdown started', flush=True)
for i in range(n, -1, -1):
print(i, end=', ', flush=True)
sleep(1)
print('countdown finished')
Demo:
>>> countdown(3)
countdown started
3, 2, 1, 0, countdown finished
>>> countdown(10)
countdown started
10, 9, 8, 7, 6, countdown took too long
Traceback (most recent call last):
File "<stdin>", line 1, in <module>
File "<stdin>", line 11, in inner
File "<stdin>", line 6, in countdown
KeyboardInterrupt
The second function call will not finish, instead the process should exit with a traceback!
KeyboardInterrupt does not always stop a sleeping thread
Note that sleep will not always be interrupted by a keyboard interrupt, on Python 2 on Windows, e.g.:
#exit_after(1)
def sleep10():
sleep(10)
print('slept 10 seconds')
>>> sleep10()
sleep10 took too long # Note that it hangs here about 9 more seconds
Traceback (most recent call last):
File "<stdin>", line 1, in <module>
File "<stdin>", line 11, in inner
File "<stdin>", line 3, in sleep10
KeyboardInterrupt
nor is it likely to interrupt code running in extensions unless it explicitly checks for PyErr_CheckSignals(), see Cython, Python and KeyboardInterrupt ignored
I would avoid sleeping a thread more than a second, in any case - that's an eon in processor time.
How do I call the function or what do I wrap it in so that if it takes longer than 5 seconds the script cancels it and does something else?
To catch it and do something else, you can catch the KeyboardInterrupt.
>>> try:
... countdown(10)
... except KeyboardInterrupt:
... print('do something else')
...
countdown started
10, 9, 8, 7, 6, countdown took too long
do something else

I have a different proposal which is a pure function (with the same API as the threading suggestion) and seems to work fine (based on suggestions on this thread)
def timeout(func, args=(), kwargs={}, timeout_duration=1, default=None):
import signal
class TimeoutError(Exception):
pass
def handler(signum, frame):
raise TimeoutError()
# set the timeout handler
signal.signal(signal.SIGALRM, handler)
signal.alarm(timeout_duration)
try:
result = func(*args, **kwargs)
except TimeoutError as exc:
result = default
finally:
signal.alarm(0)
return result

I ran across this thread when searching for a timeout call on unit tests. I didn't find anything simple in the answers or 3rd party packages so I wrote the decorator below you can drop right into code:
import multiprocessing.pool
import functools
def timeout(max_timeout):
"""Timeout decorator, parameter in seconds."""
def timeout_decorator(item):
"""Wrap the original function."""
#functools.wraps(item)
def func_wrapper(*args, **kwargs):
"""Closure for function."""
pool = multiprocessing.pool.ThreadPool(processes=1)
async_result = pool.apply_async(item, args, kwargs)
# raises a TimeoutError if execution exceeds max_timeout
return async_result.get(max_timeout)
return func_wrapper
return timeout_decorator
Then it's as simple as this to timeout a test or any function you like:
#timeout(5.0) # if execution takes longer than 5 seconds, raise a TimeoutError
def test_base_regression(self):
...

The stopit package, found on pypi, seems to handle timeouts well.
I like the #stopit.threading_timeoutable decorator, which adds a timeout parameter to the decorated function, which does what you expect, it stops the function.
Check it out on pypi: https://pypi.python.org/pypi/stopit

I am the author of wrapt_timeout_decorator.
Most of the solutions presented here work wunderfully under Linux on the first glance - because we have fork() and signals() - but on windows the things look a bit different.
And when it comes to subthreads on Linux, You cant use Signals anymore.
In order to spawn a process under Windows, it needs to be picklable - and many decorated functions or Class methods are not.
So you need to use a better pickler like dill and multiprocess (not pickle and multiprocessing) - thats why You cant use ProcessPoolExecutor (or only with limited functionality).
For the timeout itself - You need to define what timeout means - because on Windows it will take considerable (and not determinable) time to spawn the process. This can be tricky on short timeouts. Lets assume, spawning the process takes about 0.5 seconds (easily !!!). If You give a timeout of 0.2 seconds what should happen?
Should the function time out after 0.5 + 0.2 seconds (so let the method run for 0.2 seconds)?
Or should the called process time out after 0.2 seconds (in that case, the decorated function will ALWAYS timeout, because in that time it is not even spawned)?
Also nested decorators can be nasty and You cant use Signals in a subthread. If You want to create a truly universal, cross-platform decorator, all this needs to be taken into consideration (and tested).
Other issues are passing exceptions back to the caller, as well as logging issues (if used in the decorated function - logging to files in another process is NOT supported)
I tried to cover all edge cases, You might look into the package wrapt_timeout_decorator, or at least test Your own solutions inspired by the unittests used there.
#Alexis Eggermont - unfortunately I dont have enough points to comment - maybe someone else can notify You - I think I solved Your import issue.

There are a lot of suggestions, but none using concurrent.futures, which I think is the most legible way to handle this.
from concurrent.futures import ProcessPoolExecutor
# Warning: this does not terminate function if timeout
def timeout_five(fnc, *args, **kwargs):
with ProcessPoolExecutor() as p:
f = p.submit(fnc, *args, **kwargs)
return f.result(timeout=5)
Super simple to read and maintain.
We make a pool, submit a single process and then wait up to 5 seconds before raising a TimeoutError that you could catch and handle however you needed.
Native to python 3.2+ and backported to 2.7 (pip install futures).
Switching between threads and processes is as simple as replacing ProcessPoolExecutor with ThreadPoolExecutor.
If you want to terminate the Process on timeout I would suggest looking into Pebble.

Building on and and enhancing the answer by #piro , you can build a contextmanager. This allows for very readable code which will disable the alaram signal after a successful run (sets signal.alarm(0))
from contextlib import contextmanager
import signal
import time
#contextmanager
def timeout(duration):
def timeout_handler(signum, frame):
raise TimeoutError(f'block timedout after {duration} seconds')
signal.signal(signal.SIGALRM, timeout_handler)
signal.alarm(duration)
try:
yield
finally:
signal.alarm(0)
def sleeper(duration):
time.sleep(duration)
print('finished')
Example usage:
In [19]: with timeout(2):
...: sleeper(1)
...:
finished
In [20]: with timeout(2):
...: sleeper(3)
...:
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Exception Traceback (most recent call last)
<ipython-input-20-66c78858116f> in <module>()
1 with timeout(2):
----> 2 sleeper(3)
3
<ipython-input-7-a75b966bf7ac> in sleeper(t)
1 def sleeper(t):
----> 2 time.sleep(t)
3 print('finished')
4
<ipython-input-18-533b9e684466> in timeout_handler(signum, frame)
2 def timeout(duration):
3 def timeout_handler(signum, frame):
----> 4 raise Exception(f'block timedout after {duration} seconds')
5 signal.signal(signal.SIGALRM, timeout_handler)
6 signal.alarm(duration)
Exception: block timedout after 2 seconds

Great, easy to use and reliable PyPi project timeout-decorator (https://pypi.org/project/timeout-decorator/)
installation:
pip install timeout-decorator
Usage:
import time
import timeout_decorator
#timeout_decorator.timeout(5)
def mytest():
print "Start"
for i in range(1,10):
time.sleep(1)
print "%d seconds have passed" % i
if __name__ == '__main__':
mytest()

timeout-decorator don't work on windows system as , windows didn't support signal well.
If you use timeout-decorator in windows system you will get the following
AttributeError: module 'signal' has no attribute 'SIGALRM'
Some suggested to use use_signals=False but didn't worked for me.
Author #bitranox created the following package:
pip install https://github.com/bitranox/wrapt-timeout-decorator/archive/master.zip
Code Sample:
import time
from wrapt_timeout_decorator import *
#timeout(5)
def mytest(message):
print(message)
for i in range(1,10):
time.sleep(1)
print('{} seconds have passed'.format(i))
def main():
mytest('starting')
if __name__ == '__main__':
main()
Gives the following exception:
TimeoutError: Function mytest timed out after 5 seconds

Highlights
Raises TimeoutError uses exceptions to alert on timeout - can easily be modified
Cross Platform: Windows & Mac OS X
Compatibility: Python 3.6+ (I also tested on python 2.7 and it works with small syntax adjustments)
For full explanation and extension to parallel maps, see here https://flipdazed.github.io/blog/quant%20dev/parallel-functions-with-timeouts
Minimal Example
>>> #killer_call(timeout=4)
... def bar(x):
... import time
... time.sleep(x)
... return x
>>> bar(10)
Traceback (most recent call last):
...
__main__.TimeoutError: function 'bar' timed out after 4s
and as expected
>>> bar(2)
2
Full code
import multiprocessing as mp
import multiprocessing.queues as mpq
import functools
import dill
from typing import Tuple, Callable, Dict, Optional, Iterable, List, Any
class TimeoutError(Exception):
def __init__(self, func: Callable, timeout: int):
self.t = timeout
self.fname = func.__name__
def __str__(self):
return f"function '{self.fname}' timed out after {self.t}s"
def _lemmiwinks(func: Callable, args: Tuple, kwargs: Dict[str, Any], q: mp.Queue):
"""lemmiwinks crawls into the unknown"""
q.put(dill.loads(func)(*args, **kwargs))
def killer_call(func: Callable = None, timeout: int = 10) -> Callable:
"""
Single function call with a timeout
Args:
func: the function
timeout: The timeout in seconds
"""
if not isinstance(timeout, int):
raise ValueError(f'timeout needs to be an int. Got: {timeout}')
if func is None:
return functools.partial(killer_call, timeout=timeout)
#functools.wraps(killer_call)
def _inners(*args, **kwargs) -> Any:
q_worker = mp.Queue()
proc = mp.Process(target=_lemmiwinks, args=(dill.dumps(func), args, kwargs, q_worker))
proc.start()
try:
return q_worker.get(timeout=timeout)
except mpq.Empty:
raise TimeoutError(func, timeout)
finally:
try:
proc.terminate()
except:
pass
return _inners
if __name__ == '__main__':
#killer_call(timeout=4)
def bar(x):
import time
time.sleep(x)
return x
print(bar(2))
bar(10)
Notes
You will need to import inside the function because of the way dill works.
This will also mean these functions may not be not compatible with doctest if there are imports inside your target functions. You will get an issue with __import__ not found.

Just in case it is helpful for anyone, building on the answer by #piro, I've made a function decorator:
import time
import signal
from functools import wraps
def timeout(timeout_secs: int):
def wrapper(func):
#wraps(func)
def time_limited(*args, **kwargs):
# Register an handler for the timeout
def handler(signum, frame):
raise Exception(f"Timeout for function '{func.__name__}'")
# Register the signal function handler
signal.signal(signal.SIGALRM, handler)
# Define a timeout for your function
signal.alarm(timeout_secs)
result = None
try:
result = func(*args, **kwargs)
except Exception as exc:
raise exc
finally:
# disable the signal alarm
signal.alarm(0)
return result
return time_limited
return wrapper
Using the wrapper on a function with a 20 seconds timeout would look something like:
#timeout(20)
def my_slow_or_never_ending_function(name):
while True:
time.sleep(1)
print(f"Yet another second passed {name}...")
try:
results = my_slow_or_never_ending_function("Yooo!")
except Exception as e:
print(f"ERROR: {e}")

We can use signals for the same. I think the below example will be useful for you. It is very simple compared to threads.
import signal
def timeout(signum, frame):
raise myException
#this is an infinite loop, never ending under normal circumstances
def main():
print 'Starting Main ',
while 1:
print 'in main ',
#SIGALRM is only usable on a unix platform
signal.signal(signal.SIGALRM, timeout)
#change 5 to however many seconds you need
signal.alarm(5)
try:
main()
except myException:
print "whoops"

Another solution with asyncio :
If you want to cancel the background task and not just timeout on the running main code, then you need an explicit communication from main thread to ask the code of the task to cancel , like a threading.Event()
import asyncio
import functools
import multiprocessing
from concurrent.futures.thread import ThreadPoolExecutor
class SingletonTimeOut:
pool = None
#classmethod
def run(cls, to_run: functools.partial, timeout: float):
pool = cls.get_pool()
loop = cls.get_loop()
try:
task = loop.run_in_executor(pool, to_run)
return loop.run_until_complete(asyncio.wait_for(task, timeout=timeout))
except asyncio.TimeoutError as e:
error_type = type(e).__name__ #TODO
raise e
#classmethod
def get_pool(cls):
if cls.pool is None:
cls.pool = ThreadPoolExecutor(multiprocessing.cpu_count())
return cls.pool
#classmethod
def get_loop(cls):
try:
return asyncio.get_event_loop()
except RuntimeError:
asyncio.set_event_loop(asyncio.new_event_loop())
# print("NEW LOOP" + str(threading.current_thread().ident))
return asyncio.get_event_loop()
# ---------------
TIME_OUT = float('0.2') # seconds
def toto(input_items,nb_predictions):
return 1
to_run = functools.partial(toto,
input_items=1,
nb_predictions="a")
results = SingletonTimeOut.run(to_run, TIME_OUT)

#!/usr/bin/python2
import sys, subprocess, threading
proc = subprocess.Popen(sys.argv[2:])
timer = threading.Timer(float(sys.argv[1]), proc.terminate)
timer.start()
proc.wait()
timer.cancel()
exit(proc.returncode)

The func_timeout package by Tim Savannah has worked well for me.
Installation:
pip install func_timeout
Usage:
import time
from func_timeout import func_timeout, FunctionTimedOut
def my_func(n):
time.sleep(n)
time_to_sleep = 10
# time out after 2 seconds using kwargs
func_timeout(2, my_func, kwargs={'n' : time_to_sleep})
# time out after 2 seconds using args
func_timeout(2, my_func, args=(time_to_sleep,))

I had a need for nestable timed interrupts (which SIGALARM can't do) that won't get blocked by time.sleep (which the thread-based approach can't do). I ended up copying and lightly modifying code from here: http://code.activestate.com/recipes/577600-queue-for-managing-multiple-sigalrm-alarms-concurr/
The code itself:
#!/usr/bin/python
# lightly modified version of http://code.activestate.com/recipes/577600-queue-for-managing-multiple-sigalrm-alarms-concurr/
"""alarm.py: Permits multiple SIGALRM events to be queued.
Uses a `heapq` to store the objects to be called when an alarm signal is
raised, so that the next alarm is always at the top of the heap.
"""
import heapq
import signal
from time import time
__version__ = '$Revision: 2539 $'.split()[1]
alarmlist = []
__new_alarm = lambda t, f, a, k: (t + time(), f, a, k)
__next_alarm = lambda: int(round(alarmlist[0][0] - time())) if alarmlist else None
__set_alarm = lambda: signal.alarm(max(__next_alarm(), 1))
class TimeoutError(Exception):
def __init__(self, message, id_=None):
self.message = message
self.id_ = id_
class Timeout:
''' id_ allows for nested timeouts. '''
def __init__(self, id_=None, seconds=1, error_message='Timeout'):
self.seconds = seconds
self.error_message = error_message
self.id_ = id_
def handle_timeout(self):
raise TimeoutError(self.error_message, self.id_)
def __enter__(self):
self.this_alarm = alarm(self.seconds, self.handle_timeout)
def __exit__(self, type, value, traceback):
try:
cancel(self.this_alarm)
except ValueError:
pass
def __clear_alarm():
"""Clear an existing alarm.
If the alarm signal was set to a callable other than our own, queue the
previous alarm settings.
"""
oldsec = signal.alarm(0)
oldfunc = signal.signal(signal.SIGALRM, __alarm_handler)
if oldsec > 0 and oldfunc != __alarm_handler:
heapq.heappush(alarmlist, (__new_alarm(oldsec, oldfunc, [], {})))
def __alarm_handler(*zargs):
"""Handle an alarm by calling any due heap entries and resetting the alarm.
Note that multiple heap entries might get called, especially if calling an
entry takes a lot of time.
"""
try:
nextt = __next_alarm()
while nextt is not None and nextt <= 0:
(tm, func, args, keys) = heapq.heappop(alarmlist)
func(*args, **keys)
nextt = __next_alarm()
finally:
if alarmlist: __set_alarm()
def alarm(sec, func, *args, **keys):
"""Set an alarm.
When the alarm is raised in `sec` seconds, the handler will call `func`,
passing `args` and `keys`. Return the heap entry (which is just a big
tuple), so that it can be cancelled by calling `cancel()`.
"""
__clear_alarm()
try:
newalarm = __new_alarm(sec, func, args, keys)
heapq.heappush(alarmlist, newalarm)
return newalarm
finally:
__set_alarm()
def cancel(alarm):
"""Cancel an alarm by passing the heap entry returned by `alarm()`.
It is an error to try to cancel an alarm which has already occurred.
"""
__clear_alarm()
try:
alarmlist.remove(alarm)
heapq.heapify(alarmlist)
finally:
if alarmlist: __set_alarm()
and a usage example:
import alarm
from time import sleep
try:
with alarm.Timeout(id_='a', seconds=5):
try:
with alarm.Timeout(id_='b', seconds=2):
sleep(3)
except alarm.TimeoutError as e:
print 'raised', e.id_
sleep(30)
except alarm.TimeoutError as e:
print 'raised', e.id_
else:
print 'nope.'

I have face the same problem but my situation is need work on sub thread, signal didn't work for me, so I wrote a python package: timeout-timer to solve this problem, support for use as context or decorator, use signal or sub thread module to trigger a timeout interrupt:
from timeout_timer import timeout, TimeoutInterrupt
class TimeoutInterruptNested(TimeoutInterrupt):
pass
def test_timeout_nested_loop_both_timeout(timer="thread"):
cnt = 0
try:
with timeout(5, timer=timer):
try:
with timeout(2, timer=timer, exception=TimeoutInterruptNested):
sleep(2)
except TimeoutInterruptNested:
cnt += 1
time.sleep(10)
except TimeoutInterrupt:
cnt += 1
assert cnt == 2
see more: https://github.com/dozysun/timeout-timer

Here is a simple example running one method with timeout and also retriev its value if successfull.
import multiprocessing
import time
ret = {"foo": False}
def worker(queue):
"""worker function"""
ret = queue.get()
time.sleep(1)
ret["foo"] = True
queue.put(ret)
if __name__ == "__main__":
queue = multiprocessing.Queue()
queue.put(ret)
p = multiprocessing.Process(target=worker, args=(queue,))
p.start()
p.join(timeout=10)
if p.exitcode is None:
print("The worker timed out.")
else:
print(f"The worker completed and returned: {queue.get()}")

Here is a slight improvement to the given thread-based solution.
The code below supports exceptions:
def runFunctionCatchExceptions(func, *args, **kwargs):
try:
result = func(*args, **kwargs)
except Exception, message:
return ["exception", message]
return ["RESULT", result]
def runFunctionWithTimeout(func, args=(), kwargs={}, timeout_duration=10, default=None):
import threading
class InterruptableThread(threading.Thread):
def __init__(self):
threading.Thread.__init__(self)
self.result = default
def run(self):
self.result = runFunctionCatchExceptions(func, *args, **kwargs)
it = InterruptableThread()
it.start()
it.join(timeout_duration)
if it.isAlive():
return default
if it.result[0] == "exception":
raise it.result[1]
return it.result[1]
Invoking it with a 5 second timeout:
result = timeout(remote_calculate, (myarg,), timeout_duration=5)

Here is a POSIX version that combines many of the previous answers to deliver following features:
Subprocesses blocking the execution.
Usage of the timeout function on class member functions.
Strict requirement on time-to-terminate.
Here is the code and some test cases:
import threading
import signal
import os
import time
class TerminateExecution(Exception):
"""
Exception to indicate that execution has exceeded the preset running time.
"""
def quit_function(pid):
# Killing all subprocesses
os.setpgrp()
os.killpg(0, signal.SIGTERM)
# Killing the main thread
os.kill(pid, signal.SIGTERM)
def handle_term(signum, frame):
raise TerminateExecution()
def invoke_with_timeout(timeout, fn, *args, **kwargs):
# Setting a sigterm handler and initiating a timer
old_handler = signal.signal(signal.SIGTERM, handle_term)
timer = threading.Timer(timeout, quit_function, args=[os.getpid()])
terminate = False
# Executing the function
timer.start()
try:
result = fn(*args, **kwargs)
except TerminateExecution:
terminate = True
finally:
# Restoring original handler and cancel timer
signal.signal(signal.SIGTERM, old_handler)
timer.cancel()
if terminate:
raise BaseException("xxx")
return result
### Test cases
def countdown(n):
print('countdown started', flush=True)
for i in range(n, -1, -1):
print(i, end=', ', flush=True)
time.sleep(1)
print('countdown finished')
return 1337
def really_long_function():
time.sleep(10)
def really_long_function2():
os.system("sleep 787")
# Checking that we can run a function as expected.
assert invoke_with_timeout(3, countdown, 1) == 1337
# Testing various scenarios
t1 = time.time()
try:
print(invoke_with_timeout(1, countdown, 3))
assert(False)
except BaseException:
assert(time.time() - t1 < 1.1)
print("All good", time.time() - t1)
t1 = time.time()
try:
print(invoke_with_timeout(1, really_long_function2))
assert(False)
except BaseException:
assert(time.time() - t1 < 1.1)
print("All good", time.time() - t1)
t1 = time.time()
try:
print(invoke_with_timeout(1, really_long_function))
assert(False)
except BaseException:
assert(time.time() - t1 < 1.1)
print("All good", time.time() - t1)
# Checking that classes are referenced and not
# copied (as would be the case with multiprocessing)
class X:
def __init__(self):
self.value = 0
def set(self, v):
self.value = v
x = X()
invoke_with_timeout(2, x.set, 9)
assert x.value == 9

I intend to kill the process if job not done , using thread and process both to achieve this.
from concurrent.futures import ThreadPoolExecutor
from time import sleep
import multiprocessing
# test case 1
def worker_1(a,b,c):
for _ in range(2):
print('very time consuming sleep')
sleep(1)
return a+b+c
# test case 2
def worker_2(in_name):
for _ in range(10):
print('very time consuming sleep')
sleep(1)
return 'hello '+in_name
Actual class as a contextmanager
class FuncTimer():
def __init__(self,fn,args,runtime):
self.fn = fn
self.args = args
self.queue = multiprocessing.Queue()
self.runtime = runtime
self.process = multiprocessing.Process(target=self.thread_caller)
def thread_caller(self):
with ThreadPoolExecutor() as executor:
future = executor.submit(self.fn, *self.args)
self.queue.put(future.result())
def __enter__(self):
return self
def start_run(self):
self.process.start()
self.process.join(timeout=self.runtime)
if self.process.exitcode is None:
self.process.kill()
if self.process.exitcode is None:
out_res = None
print('killed premature')
else:
out_res = self.queue.get()
return out_res
def __exit__(self, exc_type, exc_value, exc_traceback):
self.process.kill()
How to use it
print('testing case 1')
with FuncTimer(fn=worker_1,args=(1,2,3),runtime = 5) as fp:
res = fp.start_run()
print(res)
print('testing case 2')
with FuncTimer(fn=worker_2,args=('ram',),runtime = 5) as fp:
res = fp.start_run()
print(res)

abortable sleep() in Python

I need a sleep() method which can be aborted (as described here or here).
My approach is to let a threading.Event.wait() timeout at the specified duration:
def abortable_sleep(secs, abort_event):
abort_event.wait(timeout=secs)
abort_event.clear()
After calling abortable_sleep(10, _abort) I can now (from another thread) call _event.set(_abort) to let abortable_sleep() terminate before the 10 seconds.
Example:
def sleeping_thread():
_start = time.perf_counter()
print("%f thread started" % (time.perf_counter() - _start))
abortable_sleep(5, _abort)
print("%f thread stopped" % (time.perf_counter() - _start))
if __name__ == '__main__':
_abort = threading.Event()
while True:
threading.Thread(target=sleeping_thread).start()
time.sleep(3)
_abort.set()
time.sleep(1)
Output:
0.000001 thread started
3.002668 thread stopped
0.000002 thread started
3.003014 thread stopped
0.000001 thread started
3.002928 thread stopped
0.000001 thread started
This code is working as expected but I still have some questions:
isn't there an easier way to have s.th. likea sleep() which can be aborted?
can this be done more elegant? E.g. this way I have to be careful with the Event instance which is not bound to an instance of abortable_sleep()
do I have to expect performance issues with high frequency loops like while True: abortable_sleep(0.0001)? How is the wait()-timeout implemented?

I have a wrapper class which basically slaps some sleep semantics on top of an Event. The nice thing is that you only have to pass around a Sleep object, which you can call sleep() on several times if you like (sleep() is not thread safe though) and that you can wake() from another thread.
from threading import Event
class Sleep(object):
def __init__(self, seconds, immediate=True):
self.seconds = seconds
self.event = Event()
if immediate:
self.sleep()
def sleep(self, seconds=None):
if seconds is None:
seconds = self.seconds
self.event.clear()
self.event.wait(timeout=seconds)
def wake(self):
self.event.set()
Usage example:
if __name__ == '__main__':
from threading import Thread
import time
import logging
logger = logging.getLogger()
logger.setLevel(logging.DEBUG)
formatter = logging.Formatter('%(created)d - %(message)s')
handler = logging.StreamHandler()
handler.setFormatter(formatter)
logger.addHandler(handler)
logger.info("sleep")
s = Sleep(3)
logger.info("awake")
def wake_it(sleeper):
time.sleep(1)
logger.info("wakeup!")
sleeper.wake()
logger.info("sleeping again")
s = Sleep(60, immediate=False)
Thread(target=wake_it, args=[s]).start()
s.sleep()
logger.info("awake again")
The above might output something like this:
1423750549 - sleep
1423750552 - awake
1423750552 - sleeping again
1423750553 - wakeup!
1423750553 - awake again
Exactly what you did, but encapsulated in a class.

Due to race conditions, your solution is not always perfectly correct. You should use a threading.BoundedSemaphore() instead. Call aquire() immediately after creating it. When you want to sleep, call acquire() with a timeout, then call release() if the acquire() returned true. To abort the sleep early, call release() from a different thread; this will raise ValueError if there is no sleep in progress.
Using an event instead is problematic if the other thread calls set() at the wrong time (i.e. at any time other than when you are actually waiting on the event).

I'd wrap the sleep/abort function up in a new class:
class AbortableSleep():
def __init__(self):
self._condition = threading.Condition()
def __call__(self, secs):
with self._condition:
self._aborted = False
self._condition.wait(timeout=secs)
return not self._aborted
def abort(self):
with self._condition:
self._condition.notify()
self._aborted = True
I'd then also supply a Thread subclass to manage the sharing of the wakeup routine on a per-thread basis:
class ThreadWithWakeup(threading.Thread):
def __init__(self, *args, **kwargs):
self.abortable_sleep = AbortableSleep()
super(ThreadWithWakeup, self).__init__(*args, **kwargs)
def wakeup(self):
self.abortable_sleep.abort()
Any other thread with access to this thread can call wakeup() to abort the current abortable_sleep() (if one is in progress).
Using ThreadWithWakeup
You can create threads using the ThreadWithWakeup class, and use it like this:
class MyThread(ThreadWithWakeup):
def run(self):
print "Sleeper: sleeping for 10"
if self.abortable_sleep(10):
print "Sleeper: awoke naturally"
else:
print "Sleeper: rudely awoken"
t = MyThread()
t.start()
print "Main: sleeping for 5"
for i in range(5):
time.sleep(1)
print i + 1
print "Main: waking thread"
t.wakeup()
The output of which looks like:
Sleeper: sleeping for 10
Main: sleeping for 5
1
2
3
4
5
Main: waking thread
Sleeper: rudely awoken
Using AbortableSleep on its own
You can also use the AbortableSleep class on its own, which is handy if you can't use the ThreadWithWakeup class for some reason (maybe you're in the main thread, maybe something else creates the threads for you, etc.):
abortable_sleep = AbortableSleep()
def run():
print "Sleeper: sleeping for 10"
if abortable_sleep(10):
print "Sleeper: awoke naturally"
else:
print "Sleeper: rudely awoken"
threading.Thread(target=run).start()
print "Main: sleeping for 5"
for i in range(5):
time.sleep(1)
print i + 1
print "Main: aborting"
abortable_sleep.abort()

kill a function after a certain time in windows

I've read a lot of posts about using threads, subprocesses, etc.. A lot of it seems over complicated for what I'm trying to do...
All I want to do is stop executing a function after X amount of time has elapsed.
def big_loop(bob):
x = bob
start = time.time()
while True:
print time.time()-start
This function is an endless loop that never throws any errors or exceptions, period.
I"m not sure the difference between "commands, shells, subprocesses, threads, etc.." and this function, which is why I'm having trouble manipulating subprocesses.
I found this code here, and tried it but as you can see it keeps printing after 10 seconds have elapsed:
import time
import threading
import subprocess as sub
import time
class RunCmd(threading.Thread):
def __init__(self, cmd, timeout):
threading.Thread.__init__(self)
self.cmd = cmd
self.timeout = timeout
def run(self):
self.p = sub.Popen(self.cmd)
self.p.wait()
def Run(self):
self.start()
self.join(self.timeout)
if self.is_alive():
self.p.terminate()
self.join()
def big_loop(bob):
x = bob
start = time.time()
while True:
print time.time()-start
RunCmd(big_loop('jimijojo'), 10).Run() #supposed to quit after 10 seconds, but doesn't
x = raw_input('DONEEEEEEEEEEEE')
What's a simple way this function can be killed. As you can see in my attempt above, it doesn't terminate after 20 seconds and just keeps on going...
***OH also, I've read about using signal, but I"m on windows so I can't use the alarm feature.. (python 2.7)
**assume the "infinitely running function" can't be manipulated or changed to be non-infinite, if I could change the function, well I'd just change it to be non infinite wouldn't I?
Here are some similar questions, which I haven't able to port over their code to work with my simple function:
Perhaps you can?
Python: kill or terminate subprocess when timeout
signal.alarm replacement in Windows [Python]
Ok I tried an answer I received, it works.. but how can I use it if I remove the if __name__ == "__main__": statement? When I remove this statement, the loop never ends as it did before..
import multiprocessing
import Queue
import time
def infinite_loop_function(bob):
var = bob
start = time.time()
while True:
time.sleep(1)
print time.time()-start
print 'this statement will never print'
def wrapper(queue, bob):
result = infinite_loop_function(bob)
queue.put(result)
queue.close()
#if __name__ == "__main__":
queue = multiprocessing.Queue(1) # Maximum size is 1
proc = multiprocessing.Process(target=wrapper, args=(queue, 'var'))
proc.start()
# Wait for TIMEOUT seconds
try:
timeout = 10
result = queue.get(True, timeout)
except Queue.Empty:
# Deal with lack of data somehow
result = None
finally:
proc.terminate()
print 'running other code, now that that infinite loop has been defeated!'
print 'bla bla bla'
x = raw_input('done')

Use the building blocks in the multiprocessing module:
import multiprocessing
import Queue
TIMEOUT = 5
def big_loop(bob):
import time
time.sleep(4)
return bob*2
def wrapper(queue, bob):
result = big_loop(bob)
queue.put(result)
queue.close()
def run_loop_with_timeout():
bob = 21 # Whatever sensible value you need
queue = multiprocessing.Queue(1) # Maximum size is 1
proc = multiprocessing.Process(target=wrapper, args=(queue, bob))
proc.start()
# Wait for TIMEOUT seconds
try:
result = queue.get(True, TIMEOUT)
except Queue.Empty:
# Deal with lack of data somehow
result = None
finally:
proc.terminate()
# Process data here, not in try block above, otherwise your process keeps running
print result
if __name__ == "__main__":
run_loop_with_timeout()
You could also accomplish this with a Pipe/Connection pair, but I'm not familiar with their API. Change the sleep time or TIMEOUT to check the behaviour for either case.

There is no straightforward way to kill a function after a certain amount of time without running the function in a separate process. A better approach would probably be to rewrite the function so that it returns after a specified time:
import time
def big_loop(bob, timeout):
x = bob
start = time.time()
end = start + timeout
while time.time() < end:
print time.time() - start
# Do more stuff here as needed

Can't you just return from the loop?
start = time.time()
endt = start + 30
while True:
now = time.time()
if now > endt:
return
else:
print end - start

import os,signal,time
cpid = os.fork()
if cpid == 0:
while True:
# do stuff
else:
time.sleep(10)
os.kill(cpid, signal.SIGKILL)
You can also check in the loop of a thread for an event, which is more portable and flexible as it allows other reactions than brute killing. However, this approach fails if # do stuff can take time (or even wait forever on some event).

Python Equivalent of setInterval()?

Does Python have a function similar to JavaScript's setInterval()?
I would like to have:
def set_interval(func, interval):
...
That will call func every interval time units.

This might be the correct snippet you were looking for:
import threading
def set_interval(func, sec):
def func_wrapper():
set_interval(func, sec)
func()
t = threading.Timer(sec, func_wrapper)
t.start()
return t

This is a version where you could start and stop.
It is not blocking.
There is also no glitch as execution time error is not added (important for long time execution with very short interval as audio for example)
import time, threading
StartTime=time.time()
def action() :
print('action ! -> time : {:.1f}s'.format(time.time()-StartTime))
class setInterval :
def __init__(self,interval,action) :
self.interval=interval
self.action=action
self.stopEvent=threading.Event()
thread=threading.Thread(target=self.__setInterval)
thread.start()
def __setInterval(self) :
nextTime=time.time()+self.interval
while not self.stopEvent.wait(nextTime-time.time()) :
nextTime+=self.interval
self.action()
def cancel(self) :
self.stopEvent.set()
# start action every 0.6s
inter=setInterval(0.6,action)
print('just after setInterval -> time : {:.1f}s'.format(time.time()-StartTime))
# will stop interval in 5s
t=threading.Timer(5,inter.cancel)
t.start()
Output is :
just after setInterval -> time : 0.0s
action ! -> time : 0.6s
action ! -> time : 1.2s
action ! -> time : 1.8s
action ! -> time : 2.4s
action ! -> time : 3.0s
action ! -> time : 3.6s
action ! -> time : 4.2s
action ! -> time : 4.8s

Just keep it nice and simple.
import threading
def setInterval(func,time):
e = threading.Event()
while not e.wait(time):
func()
def foo():
print "hello"
# using
setInterval(foo,5)
# output:
hello
hello
.
.
.
EDIT : This code is non-blocking
import threading
class ThreadJob(threading.Thread):
def __init__(self,callback,event,interval):
'''runs the callback function after interval seconds
:param callback: callback function to invoke
:param event: external event for controlling the update operation
:param interval: time in seconds after which are required to fire the callback
:type callback: function
:type interval: int
'''
self.callback = callback
self.event = event
self.interval = interval
super(ThreadJob,self).__init__()
def run(self):
while not self.event.wait(self.interval):
self.callback()
event = threading.Event()
def foo():
print "hello"
k = ThreadJob(foo,event,2)
k.start()
print "It is non-blocking"

Change Nailxx's answer a bit and you got the answer!
from threading import Timer
def hello():
print "hello, world"
Timer(30.0, hello).start()
Timer(30.0, hello).start() # after 30 seconds, "hello, world" will be printed

The sched module provides these abilities for general Python code. However, as its documentation suggests, if your code is multithreaded it might make more sense to use the threading.Timer class instead.

I think this is what you're after:
#timertest.py
import sched, time
def dostuff():
print "stuff is being done!"
s.enter(3, 1, dostuff, ())
s = sched.scheduler(time.time, time.sleep)
s.enter(3, 1, dostuff, ())
s.run()
If you add another entry to the scheduler at the end of the repeating method, it'll just keep going.

I use sched to create setInterval function gist
import functools
import sched, time
s = sched.scheduler(time.time, time.sleep)
def setInterval(sec):
def decorator(func):
#functools.wraps(func)
def wrapper(*argv, **kw):
setInterval(sec)(func)
func(*argv, **kw)
s.enter(sec, 1, wrapper, ())
return wrapper
s.run()
return decorator
#setInterval(sec=3)
def testInterval():
print ("test Interval ")
testInterval()

Simple setInterval utils
from threading import Timer
def setInterval(timer, task):
isStop = task()
if not isStop:
Timer(timer, setInterval, [timer, task]).start()
def hello():
print "do something"
return False # return True if you want to stop
if __name__ == "__main__":
setInterval(2.0, hello) # every 2 seconds, "do something" will be printed

The above method didn't quite do it for me as I needed to be able to cancel the interval. I turned the function into a class and came up with the following:
class setInterval():
def __init__(self, func, sec):
def func_wrapper():
self.t = threading.Timer(sec, func_wrapper)
self.t.start()
func()
self.t = threading.Timer(sec, func_wrapper)
self.t.start()
def cancel(self):
self.t.cancel()

Most of the answers above do not shut down the Thread properly. While using Jupyter notebook I noticed that when an explicit interrupt was sent, the threads were still running and worse, they would keep multiplying starting at 1 thread running,2, 4 etc. My method below is based on the answer by #doom but cleanly handles interrupts by running an infinite loop in the Main thread to listen for SIGINT and SIGTERM events
No drift
Cancelable
Handles SIGINT and SIGTERM very well
Doesnt make a new thread for every run
Feel free to suggest improvements
import time
import threading
import signal
# Record the time for the purposes of demonstration
start_time=time.time()
class ProgramKilled(Exception):
"""
An instance of this custom exception class will be thrown everytime we get an SIGTERM or SIGINT
"""
pass
# Raise the custom exception whenever SIGINT or SIGTERM is triggered
def signal_handler(signum, frame):
raise ProgramKilled
# This function serves as the callback triggered on every run of our IntervalThread
def action() :
print('action ! -> time : {:.1f}s'.format(time.time()-start_time))
# https://stackoverflow.com/questions/2697039/python-equivalent-of-setinterval
class IntervalThread(threading.Thread) :
def __init__(self,interval,action, *args, **kwargs) :
super(IntervalThread, self).__init__()
self.interval=interval
self.action=action
self.stopEvent=threading.Event()
self.start()
def run(self) :
nextTime=time.time()+self.interval
while not self.stopEvent.wait(nextTime-time.time()) :
nextTime+=self.interval
self.action()
def cancel(self) :
self.stopEvent.set()
def main():
# Handle SIGINT and SIFTERM with the help of the callback function
signal.signal(signal.SIGTERM, signal_handler)
signal.signal(signal.SIGINT, signal_handler)
# start action every 1s
inter=IntervalThread(1,action)
print('just after setInterval -> time : {:.1f}s'.format(time.time()-start_time))
# will stop interval in 500s
t=threading.Timer(500,inter.cancel)
t.start()
# https://www.g-loaded.eu/2016/11/24/how-to-terminate-running-python-threads-using-signals/
while True:
try:
time.sleep(1)
except ProgramKilled:
print("Program killed: running cleanup code")
inter.cancel()
break
if __name__ == "__main__":
main()

In the above solutions if a situation arises where program is shutdown, there is no guarantee that it will shutdown gracefully,Its always recommended to shut a program via a soft kill, neither did most of them have a function to stop I found a nice article on medium written by Sankalp which solves both of these issues (run periodic tasks in python) refer the attached link to get a deeper insight.
In the below sample a library named signal is used to track the kill is soft kill or a hard kill
import threading, time, signal
from datetime import timedelta
WAIT_TIME_SECONDS = 1
class ProgramKilled(Exception):
pass
def foo():
print time.ctime()
def signal_handler(signum, frame):
raise ProgramKilled
class Job(threading.Thread):
def __init__(self, interval, execute, *args, **kwargs):
threading.Thread.__init__(self)
self.daemon = False
self.stopped = threading.Event()
self.interval = interval
self.execute = execute
self.args = args
self.kwargs = kwargs
def stop(self):
self.stopped.set()
self.join()
def run(self):
while not self.stopped.wait(self.interval.total_seconds()):
self.execute(*self.args, **self.kwargs)
if __name__ == "__main__":
signal.signal(signal.SIGTERM, signal_handler)
signal.signal(signal.SIGINT, signal_handler)
job = Job(interval=timedelta(seconds=WAIT_TIME_SECONDS), execute=foo)
job.start()
while True:
try:
time.sleep(1)
except ProgramKilled:
print "Program killed: running cleanup code"
job.stop()
break
#output
#Tue Oct 16 17:47:51 2018
#Tue Oct 16 17:47:52 2018
#Tue Oct 16 17:47:53 2018
#^CProgram killed: running cleanup code

setInterval should be run on multiple thread, and not freeze the task when it running loop.
Here is my RUNTIME package that support multithread feature:
setTimeout(F,ms) : timming to fire function in independence thread.
delayF(F,ms) : similar setTimeout(F,ms).
setInterval(F,ms) : asynchronous loop
.pause, .resume : pause and resume the interval
clearInterval(interval) : clear the interval
It's short and simple. Note that python need lambda if you input direct the function, but lambda is not support command block, so you should define the function content before put it in the setInterval.
### DEMO PYTHON MULTITHREAD ASYNCHRONOUS LOOP ###
import time;
import threading;
import random;
def delay(ms):time.sleep(ms/1000); # Controil while speed
def setTimeout(R,delayMS):
t=threading.Timer(delayMS/1000,R)
t.start();
return t;
def delayF(R,delayMS):
t=threading.Timer(delayMS/1000,R)
t.start();
return t;
class THREAD:
def __init__(this):
this.R_onRun=None;
this.thread=None;
def run(this):
this.thread=threading.Thread(target=this.R_onRun);
this.thread.start();
def isRun(this): return this.thread.isAlive();
class setInterval :
def __init__(this,R_onRun,msInterval) :
this.ms=msInterval;
this.R_onRun=R_onRun;
this.kStop=False;
this.thread=THREAD();
this.thread.R_onRun=this.Clock;
this.thread.run();
def Clock(this) :
while not this.kStop :
this.R_onRun();
delay(this.ms);
def pause(this) :
this.kStop=True;
def stop(this) :
this.kStop=True;
def resume(this) :
if (this.kStop) :
this.kStop=False;
this.thread.run();
def clearInterval(Timer): Timer.stop();
# EXAMPLE
def p():print(random.random());
tm=setInterval(p,20);
tm2=setInterval(lambda:print("AAAAA"),20);
delayF(tm.pause,1000);
delayF(tm.resume,2000);
delayF(lambda:clearInterval(tm),3000);
Save to file .py and run it. You will see it print both random number and string "AAAAA". The print number thread will pause printing after 1 second and resume print again for 1 second then stop, while the print string keep printing text not corrupt.
In case you use OpenCV for graphic animation with those setInterval for boost animate speed, you must have 1 main thread to apply waitKey, otherwise the window will freeze no matter how slow delay or you applied waitKey in sub thread:
def p:... # Your drawing task
setInterval(p,1); # Subthread1 running draw
setInterval(p,1); # Subthread2 running draw
setInterval(p,1); # Subthread3 running draw
while True: cv2.waitKey(10); # Main thread which waitKey have effect

You can also try out this method:
import time
while True:
time.sleep(5)
print("5 seconds has passed")
So it will print "5 seconds has passed" every 5 seconds.
The function sleep() suspends execution for the given number of seconds. The argument may be a floating point number to indicate a more precise sleep time.

Recently, I have the same issue as you. And I find these soluation:
1. you can use the library: threading.Time(this have introduction above)
2. you can use the library: sched(this have introduction above too)
3. you can use the library: Advanced Python Scheduler(Recommend)

Some answers above that uses func_wrapper and threading.Timer indeed work, except that it spawns a new thread every time an interval is called, which is causing memory problems.
The basic example below roughly implemented a similar mechanism by putting interval on a separate thread. It sleeps at the given interval. Before jumping into code, here are some of the limitations that you need to be aware of:
JavaScript is single threaded, so when the function inside setInterval is fired, nothing else will be working at the same time (excluding worker thread, but let's talk general use case of setInterval. Therefore, threading is safe. But here in this implementation, you may encounter race conditions unless using a threading.rLock.
The implementation below uses time.sleep to simulate intervals, but adding the execution time of func, the total time for this interval may be greater than what you expect. So depending on use cases, you may want to "sleep less" (minus time taken for calling func)
I only roughly tested this, and you should definitely not use global variables the way I did, feel free to tweak it so that it fits in your system.
Enough talking, here is the code:
# Python 2.7
import threading
import time
class Interval(object):
def __init__(self):
self.daemon_alive = True
self.thread = None # keep a reference to the thread so that we can "join"
def ticktock(self, interval, func):
while self.daemon_alive:
time.sleep(interval)
func()
num = 0
def print_num():
global num
num += 1
print 'num + 1 = ', num
def print_negative_num():
global num
print '-num = ', num * -1
intervals = {} # keep track of intervals
g_id_counter = 0 # roughly generate ids for intervals
def set_interval(interval, func):
global g_id_counter
interval_obj = Interval()
# Put this interval on a new thread
t = threading.Thread(target=interval_obj.ticktock, args=(interval, func))
t.setDaemon(True)
interval_obj.thread = t
t.start()
# Register this interval so that we can clear it later
# using roughly generated id
interval_id = g_id_counter
g_id_counter += 1
intervals[interval_id] = interval_obj
# return interval id like it does in JavaScript
return interval_id
def clear_interval(interval_id):
# terminate this interval's while loop
intervals[interval_id].daemon_alive = False
# kill the thread
intervals[interval_id].thread.join()
# pop out the interval from registry for reusing
intervals.pop(interval_id)
if __name__ == '__main__':
num_interval = set_interval(1, print_num)
neg_interval = set_interval(3, print_negative_num)
time.sleep(10) # Sleep 10 seconds on main thread to let interval run
clear_interval(num_interval)
clear_interval(neg_interval)
print "- Are intervals all cleared?"
time.sleep(3) # check if both intervals are stopped (not printing)
print "- Yup, time to get beers"
Expected output:
num + 1 = 1
num + 1 = 2
-num = -2
num + 1 = 3
num + 1 = 4
num + 1 = 5
-num = -5
num + 1 = 6
num + 1 = 7
num + 1 = 8
-num = -8
num + 1 = 9
num + 1 = 10
-num = -10
Are intervals all cleared?
Yup, time to get beers

My Python 3 module jsinterval.py will be helpful! Here it is:
"""
Threaded intervals and timeouts from JavaScript
"""
import threading, sys
__all__ = ['TIMEOUTS', 'INTERVALS', 'setInterval', 'clearInterval', 'setTimeout', 'clearTimeout']
TIMEOUTS = {}
INTERVALS = {}
last_timeout_id = 0
last_interval_id = 0
class Timeout:
"""Class for all timeouts."""
def __init__(self, func, timeout):
global last_timeout_id
last_timeout_id += 1
self.timeout_id = last_timeout_id
TIMEOUTS[str(self.timeout_id)] = self
self.func = func
self.timeout = timeout
self.threadname = 'Timeout #%s' %self.timeout_id
def run(self):
func = self.func
delx = self.__del__
def func_wrapper():
func()
delx()
self.t = threading.Timer(self.timeout/1000, func_wrapper)
self.t.name = self.threadname
self.t.start()
def __repr__(self):
return '<JS Timeout set for %s seconds, launching function %s on timeout reached>' %(self.timeout, repr(self.func))
def __del__(self):
self.t.cancel()
class Interval:
"""Class for all intervals."""
def __init__(self, func, interval):
global last_interval_id
self.interval_id = last_interval_id
INTERVALS[str(self.interval_id)] = self
last_interval_id += 1
self.func = func
self.interval = interval
self.threadname = 'Interval #%s' %self.interval_id
def run(self):
func = self.func
interval = self.interval
def func_wrapper():
timeout = Timeout(func_wrapper, interval)
self.timeout = timeout
timeout.run()
func()
self.t = threading.Timer(self.interval/1000, func_wrapper)
self.t.name = self.threadname
self.t.run()
def __repr__(self):
return '<JS Interval, repeating function %s with interval %s>' %(repr(self.func), self.interval)
def __del__(self):
self.timeout.__del__()
def setInterval(func, interval):
"""
Create a JS Interval: func is the function to repeat, interval is the interval (in ms)
of executing the function.
"""
temp = Interval(func, interval)
temp.run()
idx = int(temp.interval_id)
del temp
return idx
def clearInterval(interval_id):
try:
INTERVALS[str(interval_id)].__del__()
del INTERVALS[str(interval_id)]
except KeyError:
sys.stderr.write('No such interval "Interval #%s"\n' %interval_id)
def setTimeout(func, timeout):
"""
Create a JS Timeout: func is the function to timeout, timeout is the timeout (in ms)
of executing the function.
"""
temp = Timeout(func, timeout)
temp.run()
idx = int(temp.timeout_id)
del temp
return idx
def clearTimeout(timeout_id):
try:
TIMEOUTS[str(timeout_id)].__del__()
del TIMEOUTS[str(timeout_id)]
except KeyError:
sys.stderr.write('No such timeout "Timeout #%s"\n' %timeout_id)
CODE EDIT:
Fixed the memory leak (spotted by #benjaminz). Now ALL threads are cleaned up upon end. Why does this leak happen? It happens because of the implicit (or even explicit) references. In my case, TIMEOUTS and INTERVALS. Timeouts self-clean automatically (after this patch) because they use function wrapper which calls the function and then self-kills. But how does this happen? Objects can't be deleted from memory unless all references are deleted too or gc module is used. Explaining: there's no way to create (in my code) unwanted references to timeouts/intervals. They have only ONE referrer: the TIMEOUTS/INTERVALS dicts. And, when interrupted or finished (only timeouts can finish uninterrupted) they delete the only existing reference to themselves: their corresponding dict element. Classes are perfectly encapsulated using __all__, so no space for memory leaks.

Here is a low time drift solution that uses a thread to periodically signal an Event object. The thread's run() does almost nothing while waiting for a timeout; hence the low time drift.
# Example of low drift (time) periodic execution of a function.
import threading
import time
# Thread that sets 'flag' after 'timeout'
class timerThread (threading.Thread):
def __init__(self , timeout , flag):
threading.Thread.__init__(self)
self.timeout = timeout
self.stopFlag = False
self.event = threading.Event()
self.flag = flag
# Low drift run(); there is only the 'if'
# and 'set' methods between waits.
def run(self):
while not self.event.wait(self.timeout):
if self.stopFlag:
break
self.flag.set()
def stop(self):
stopFlag = True
self.event.set()
# Data.
printCnt = 0
# Flag to print.
printFlag = threading.Event()
# Create and start the timer thread.
printThread = timerThread(3 , printFlag)
printThread.start()
# Loop to wait for flag and print time.
while True:
global printCnt
# Wait for flag.
printFlag.wait()
# Flag must be manually cleared.
printFlag.clear()
print(time.time())
printCnt += 1
if printCnt == 3:
break;
# Stop the thread and exit.
printThread.stop()
printThread.join()
print('Done')

fall asleep until the next interval of seconds length starts: (not concurrent)
def sleep_until_next_interval(self, seconds):
now = time.time()
fall_asleep = seconds - now % seconds
time.sleep(fall_asleep)
while True:
sleep_until_next_interval(10) # 10 seconds - worktime
# work here
simple and no drift.

I have written my code to make a very very flexible setInterval in python. Here you are:
import threading
class AlreadyRunning(Exception):
pass
class IntervalNotValid(Exception):
pass
class setInterval():
def __init__(this, func=None, sec=None, args=[]):
this.running = False
this.func = func # the function to be run
this.sec = sec # interval in second
this.Return = None # The returned data
this.args = args
this.runOnce = None # asociated with run_once() method
this.runOnceArgs = None # asociated with run_once() method
if (func is not None and sec is not None):
this.running = True
if (not callable(func)):
raise TypeError("non-callable object is given")
if (not isinstance(sec, int) and not isinstance(sec, float)):
raise TypeError("A non-numeric object is given")
this.TIMER = threading.Timer(this.sec, this.loop)
this.TIMER.start()
def start(this):
if (not this.running):
if (not this.isValid()):
raise IntervalNotValid("The function and/or the " +
"interval hasn't provided or invalid.")
this.running = True
this.TIMER = threading.Timer(this.sec, this.loop)
this.TIMER.start()
else:
raise AlreadyRunning("Tried to run an already run interval")
def stop(this):
this.running = False
def isValid(this):
if (not callable(this.func)):
return False
cond1 = not isinstance(this.sec, int)
cond2 = not isinstance(this.sec, float)
if (cond1 and cond2):
return False
return True
def loop(this):
if (this.running):
this.TIMER = threading.Timer(this.sec, this.loop)
this.TIMER.start()
function_, Args_ = this.func, this.args
if (this.runOnce is not None): # someone has provide the run_once
runOnce, this.runOnce = this.runOnce, None
result = runOnce(*(this.runOnceArgs))
this.runOnceArgs = None
# if and only if the result is False. not accept "None"
# nor zero.
if (result is False):
return # cancel the interval right now
this.Return = function_(*Args_)
def change_interval(this, sec):
cond1 = not isinstance(sec, int)
cond2 = not isinstance(sec, float)
if (cond1 and cond2):
raise TypeError("A non-numeric object is given")
# prevent error when providing interval to a blueprint
if (this.running):
this.TIMER.cancel()
this.sec = sec
# prevent error when providing interval to a blueprint
# if the function hasn't provided yet
if (this.running):
this.TIMER = threading.Timer(this.sec, this.loop)
this.TIMER.start()
def change_next_interval(this, sec):
if (not isinstance(sec, int) and not isinstance(sec, float)):
raise TypeError("A non-numeric object is given")
this.sec = sec
def change_func(this, func, args=[]):
if (not callable(func)):
raise TypeError("non-callable object is given")
this.func = func
this.args = args
def run_once(this, func, args=[]):
this.runOnce = func
this.runOnceArgs = args
def get_return(this):
return this.Return
You can get many features and flexibility. Running this code won't freeze your code, you can change the interval at run time, you can change the function at run time, you can pass arguments, you can get the returned object from your function, and many more. You can make your tricks too!
here's a very simple and basic example to use it:
import time
def interval(name="world"):
print(f"Hello {name}!")
# function named interval will be called every two seconds
# output: "Hello world!"
interval1 = setInterval(interval, 2)
# function named interval will be called every 1.5 seconds
# output: "Hello Jane!"
interval2 = setInterval(interval, 1.5, ["Jane"])
time.sleep(5) #stop all intervals after 5 seconds
interval1.stop()
interval2.stop()
Check out my Github project to see more examples and follow next updates :D
https://github.com/Hzzkygcs/setInterval-python

Here's something easy peazy:
import time
delay = 10 # Seconds
def setInterval():
print('I print in intervals!')
time.sleep(delay)
setInterval()

Things work differently in Python: you need to either sleep() (if you want to block the current thread) or start a new thread. See http://docs.python.org/library/threading.html

From Python Documentation:
from threading import Timer
def hello():
print "hello, world"
t = Timer(30.0, hello)
t.start() # after 30 seconds, "hello, world" will be printed