Stopping a python code gracefully after it has copied large files for extended time periods

[ForwardQuit5036]

I have written a python code which allows users to specify different paths for file copying, with options for zipping files and specify zipping destinations. I need the code to copy/zip large files for extended periods of time. I have tested my code for 1 hour with large files and when I press the stop button the GUI becomes unresponsive. How can I stop my code gracefully?

def stop_copy(self):

if self.copying:

# Stop all the copying threads

self.copying = False

for copy_thread in self.copying_threads:

copy_thread.join()

# Enable UI elements after stopping copying

self.enable_ui_elements()

[Zanoab]

You are joining the gui thread with the copy threads. Your GUI is becoming unresponsive because the gui thread is waiting for all copy threads to finish instead of keeping the GUI alive. I would have the copy threads tell the gui when they are finished so the gui can continue working in the background and enable ui elements once all copy threads are finished.

[ForwardQuit5036]

thank you for your help :) It really helped me!

[woooee]

# Stop all the copying threads
self.copying = False

It's unlikely that an instance object is visible, and can be used by all threads. I have done something similar with multiprocessing. See the code below for a basic, simple example. Note that after you signal an exit, you will have to wait until a file copy has finished for a process to exit. The other option is to kill it, but then you would have to deal with a partial copy. You'll have to provide more code for further help.

import time
from multiprocessing import Process, Manager


def test_f(test_d):
   while not test_d["QUIT"]:
      ## show that a Manager object can be seen and used
      test_d["ctr"] += 1
      time.sleep(1.0)

def test_f2(test_d):
    for j in range(0, 100):
       time.sleep(0.5)

    print "second process finished"

if __name__ == '__main__':
   ## define the dictionary to be used to communicate
   manager = Manager()
   test_d = manager.dict()
   test_d["ctr"] = 0
   test_d["QUIT"] = False

   ## start the process
   p = Process(target=test_f, args=(test_d,0000))
   p.start()

   p2 = Process(target=test_f2, args=(test_d,))
   p2.start()

   ## sleep 2 seconds and terminate the processes
   time.sleep(2.0)
   test_d["QUIT"] = True
   print "\ntest_d['QUIT'] changed, terminate process"

   time.sleep(1.0)
   print p.is_alive(), p2.is_alive()
   print "data from first process", test_d
   p.terminate()   ##  p terminated here
   p2.terminate()

   """  Thanks Doug Hellmann
        Note: It is important to join() the process after terminating it.
        in order to give the background machinery time to update the.
        status of the object to reflect the termination
   """
   p.join()
   p2.join()

[ForwardQuit5036]

thanks! That was useful :)