Make sure only a single instance of a program is running

Question

The following code should do the job, it is cross-platform and runs on Python 2.4-3.2. I tested it on Windows, OS X and Linux.

from tendo import singleton
me = singleton.SingleInstance() # will sys.exit(-1) if other instance is running

The latest code version is available singleton.py. Please file bugs here.

You can install tend using one of the following methods:

• easy_install tendo
• pip install tendo
• manually by getting it from http://pypi.python.org/pypi/tendo

Simple, cross-platform solution, found in another question by zgoda:

import fcntl
import os
import sys

def instance_already_running(label="default"):
    """
    Detect if an an instance with the label is already running, globally
    at the operating system level.

    Using `os.open` ensures that the file pointer won't be closed
    by Python's garbage collector after the function's scope is exited.

    The lock will be released when the program exits, or could be
    released if the file pointer were closed.
    """

    lock_file_pointer = os.open(f"/tmp/instance_{label}.lock", os.O_WRONLY)

    try:
        fcntl.lockf(lock_file_pointer, fcntl.LOCK_EX | fcntl.LOCK_NB)
        already_running = False
    except IOError:
        already_running = True

    return already_running

A lot like S.Lott's suggestion, but with the code.

This code is Linux specific. It uses 'abstract' UNIX domain sockets, but it is simple and won't leave stale lock files around. I prefer it to the solution above because it doesn't require a specially reserved TCP port.

try:
    import socket
    s = socket.socket(socket.AF_UNIX, socket.SOCK_STREAM)
    ## Create an abstract socket, by prefixing it with null. 
    s.bind( '\0postconnect_gateway_notify_lock') 
except socket.error as e:
    error_code = e.args[0]
    error_string = e.args[1]
    print "Process already running (%d:%s ). Exiting" % ( error_code, error_string) 
    sys.exit (0) 

The unique string postconnect_gateway_notify_lock can be changed to allow multiple programs that need a single instance enforced.

I don't know if it's pythonic enough, but in the Java world listening on a defined port is a pretty widely used solution, as it works on all major platforms and doesn't have any problems with crashing programs.

Another advantage of listening to a port is that you could send a command to the running instance. For example when the users starts the program a second time, you could send the running instance a command to tell it to open another window (that's what Firefox does, for example. I don't know if they use TCP ports or named pipes or something like that, 'though).

Never written python before, but this is what I've just implemented in mycheckpoint, to prevent it being started twice or more by crond:

import os
import sys
import fcntl
fh=0
def run_once():
    global fh
    fh=open(os.path.realpath(__file__),'r')
    try:
        fcntl.flock(fh,fcntl.LOCK_EX|fcntl.LOCK_NB)
    except:
        os._exit(0)

run_once()

Found Slava-N's suggestion after posting this in another issue (http://stackoverflow.com/questions/2959474). This one is called as a function, locks the executing scripts file (not a pid file) and maintains the lock until the script ends (normal or error).

Use a pid file. You have some known location, "/path/to/pidfile" and at startup you do something like this (partially pseudocode because I'm pre-coffee and don't want to work all that hard):

import os, os.path
pidfilePath = """/path/to/pidfile"""
if os.path.exists(pidfilePath):
   pidfile = open(pidfilePath,"r")
   pidString = pidfile.read()
   if <pidString is equal to os.getpid()>:
      # something is real weird
      Sys.exit(BADCODE)
   else:
      <use ps or pidof to see if the process with pid pidString is still running>
      if  <process with pid == 'pidString' is still running>:
          Sys.exit(ALREADAYRUNNING)
      else:
          # the previous server must have crashed
          <log server had crashed>
          <reopen pidfilePath for writing>
          pidfile.write(os.getpid())
else:
    <open pidfilePath for writing>
    pidfile.write(os.getpid())

So, in other words, you're checking if a pidfile exists; if not, write your pid to that file. If the pidfile does exist, then check to see if the pid is the pid of a running process; if so, then you've got another live process running, so just shut down. If not, then the previous process crashed, so log it, and then write your own pid to the file in place of the old one. Then continue.

This may work.

1. Attempt create a PID file to a known location. If you fail, someone has the file locked, you're done.

2. When you finish normally, close and remove the PID file, so someone else can overwrite it.

You can wrap your program in a shell script that removes the PID file even if your program crashes.

You can, also, use the PID file to kill the program if it hangs.