Python 2.6 on Windows: how to terminate subprocess.Popen with "shell=True" argument?

Question

Is there a way to terminate a process started with the subprocess.Popen class with the "shell" argument set to "True"? In the working minimal example below (uses wxPython) you can open and terminate a Notepad process happily, however if you change the Popen "shell" argument to "True" then the Notepad process doesn't terminate.

import wx
import threading
import subprocess

class MainWindow(wx.Frame):

    def __init__(self, parent, id, title):        
        wx.Frame.__init__(self, parent, id, title)
        self.main_panel = wx.Panel(self, -1)

        self.border_sizer = wx.BoxSizer()

        self.process_button = wx.Button(self.main_panel, -1, "Start process", (50, 50))
        self.process_button.Bind(wx.EVT_BUTTON, self.processButtonClick)

        self.border_sizer.Add(self.process_button)
        self.main_panel.SetSizerAndFit(self.border_sizer)
        self.Fit()

        self.Centre()
        self.Show(True)

    def processButtonClick(self, event):
        if self.process_button.GetLabel() == "Start process":
            self.process_button.SetLabel("End process")
            self.notepad = threading.Thread(target = self.runProcess)
            self.notepad.start()
        else:
            self.cancel = 1
            self.process_button.SetLabel("Start process")

    def runProcess(self):
        self.cancel = 0

        notepad_process = subprocess.Popen("notepad", shell = False)

        while notepad_process.poll() == None: # While process has not yet terminated.
            if self.cancel:
                notepad_process.terminate()
                break

def main():
    app = wx.PySimpleApp()
    mainView = MainWindow(None, wx.ID_ANY, "test")
    app.MainLoop()

if __name__ == "__main__":
    main()

Please accept for the sake of this question that "shell" does have to equal "True".

Answer 1

Why are you using shell=True?

Just don't do it. You don't need it, it invokes the shell and that is useless.

I don't accept it has to be True, because it doesn't. Using shell=True only brings you problems and no benefit. Just avoid it at all costs. Unless you're running some shell internal command, you don't need it, ever.