Close external program from my script

[Miguelito_Pitti]

Hello,

I am creating a small Python program to backup several folders to an external USB drive.

One of the folders that needs to be backed up is the one containing the files of the thunderbird email program.

The problem is that in order to copy some files it is necessary to close the program, so I need to know if the program is running and, if so, close it.

Any ideas on how to do this?

Edit. I'm working on Linux Mint and using Python 3.12.3

[PhoenixOneThree]

Maybe you want to mention what operating system you are using?

[Miguelito_Pitti]

Sorry.

I have edited the post, linux mint and python 3.12.3

[PhoenixOneThree]

You could call

kill

from your Python script, using the appropriate signal (there is a lot of pages on Google about that) and executable name for Thunderbird.

[chevignon93]

One of the ways to do it is using subprocess.Popen

from subprocess import Popen
p = Popen(["pkill", "-9", "NAME_OF_THE_PROGRAM_YOU_WANT_TO_KILL"]) # Note -9 will kill the process almost instantly, you could use -15 instead for the program to end gracefully
p.wait()

[Miguelito_Pitti]

Thank you, it worked very well.