Processes in Linux from Python

Diez B. Roggisch deets at nospam.web.de
Mon Sep 1 02:40:42 EDT 2008


Johny schrieb:
> To get a number of  the http processes running on my Linux( Debia box)
> I use
> ps -ef | grep "[h]ttpd" | wc -l
> 
> But If I want to use to get a number of the http processes from my
> Python program I must use  a popen command e.g.
> popen2.popen3('ps -ef | grep "[h]ttpd" | wc -l')
> that is I must call an external  command from Python.

The shell does the exact same thing. And by the way: i think you miss a

grep -v grep

after the first grep - otherwise you count the grep itself.

> But it creates a zombie.

Try using the subprocess module. It should not require you to call wait 
yourself.

> So my question is:
> Is it possible to get a number of the http processes running on Linux
> directly from Python ?

Not really, or at least not with less effort & without duplicating 
system tools functionality.

Diez



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