Run python in a separate process

Question

I'm looking for a quick bash script or program that will allow me to kick off a python script in a separate process. What's the best way to do this? I know this is incredibly simple, just curious if there's a preferred way to do it.

Answer 1

The best way to do this is to do it in python! Have a look at the multiprocess libraries.

Here is a simple example from the links above:

from multiprocessing import Process

def f(name):
    print 'hello', name

if __name__ == '__main__':
    p = Process(target=f, args=('bob',))
    p.start()
    p.join()

Answer 2

Just use the ampersand (&) in order to launch the Python process in the background. Python already is executed in a separate process from the BASH script, so saying to run it "in a separate thread" doesn't make much sense -- I'm assuming you simply want it to run in the background:

#! /bin/bash
python path/to/python/program.py &

Note that the above may result in text being printed to the console. You can get around this by using redirection to redirect both stdout and stderr to a file. For example:

#! /bin/bash
python path/to/python/program.py > results.txt 2> errors.log &