how to kill a process

[Larry Bates]

Richard Rossel wrote:
> Hi Fellows,
> I have a problem with process termination. I have a python code that
> apache runs through a django interface.
> The code is very simple, first, it creates a process with the
> subprocess.Popen call, and afterwards, (using a web request) the
> python code uses the PID of the previously created process(stored in a
> db) and kills it with an os.kill call using the SIGKILL signal.
> 
> The creation of the process is ok, apache calls the python code, this
> code creates the process and exits leaving the process up and
> running :)
> But when the python code is called to kill the created process, the
> process is left in a zombie state.
> 
> The kill code that I'm using is:
> os.kill(pid, signal.SIGKILL)
> 
> and I also tried:
>  kill_proc = Popen("kill -9 " + pid, shell=true)
> but with no success.
> 
> I suppose that the reason maybe that the python code exits before the
> kill call has finished,
> so I tried with a while loop until kill_proc.poll() != None, but
> without success too :(
> 
> do you know what is what I'm doing wrong?
> 
> thanks very much.-
> 
Wouldn't it be better to make the process that you start respond gracefully
to some signal?  Either a command over a socket or some other signal?

-Larry