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Kill a process and its children

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  • SGaistS Offline
    SGaistS Offline
    SGaist
    Lifetime Qt Champion
    wrote on last edited by
    #12

    If the QProcess::kill suggested by @jsulm does not work as expected (which I think should), then try sending the SIGINT signal to the process.

    Interested in AI ? www.idiap.ch
    Please read the Qt Code of Conduct - https://forum.qt.io/topic/113070/qt-code-of-conduct

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    • H hbatalha

      @JonB said in Kill a process and its children:

      Why does it not exit normally after doing whatever it is you ask it to do?

      It does exit normally after completing its task. But I want to give the user the option to cancel whatever it is doing any time. I can't stop ffmpeg with QProcess because it is a child process of the process QProcess

      But you chose not to answer.

      Sorry, I must have missed it. Yes I can go in the task manager and kill with no problem, that's what I have been doing.

      @SGaist said in Kill a process and its children:

      what exactly are you using to pilot ffmpeg ?

      I am using yt-dlp which in turn uses ffmpeg to do some file conversions. Those conversion usually takes a long time, that's why I want to give the user the ability to cancel it anytime.

      JonBJ Offline
      JonBJ Offline
      JonB
      wrote on last edited by JonB
      #13

      @hbatalha said in Kill a process and its children:

      Yes I can go in the task manager and kill with no problem, that's what I have been doing

      You can try @SGaist's attempt to send the parent process a SIGINT and hope that might interrupt its child, I don't know how that all works on Windows.

      To get at the ffmpeg process to kill it: you should be able to use EnumProcesses function (psapi.h) to enumerate all running processes and look at their names, and kill the desired one. I came across https://social.msdn.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/67331e20-a30b-417d-85e5-f9350fef908d/do-we-need-to-use-enumprocesses-and-enumprocessmodules-when-terminating-the-process-in-c?forum=vcgeneral or https://stackoverflow.com/questions/1916574/how-to-effectively-kill-a-process-in-c-win32 you might want to read through. Or Google windows enumprocesses kill process to get going.

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      • JoeCFDJ Offline
        JoeCFDJ Offline
        JoeCFD
        wrote on last edited by
        #14

        @JonB said in Kill a process and its children:

        ffmpeg

        https://stackoverflow.com/questions/9722624/how-to-stop-ffmpeg-remotely

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        • JoeCFDJ Offline
          JoeCFDJ Offline
          JoeCFD
          wrote on last edited by JoeCFD
          #15

          You send out ctrl + C to exit cleanly
          kill( m_process->processId(), SIGINT );

          1 Reply Last reply
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          • H Offline
            H Offline
            hbatalha
            wrote on last edited by hbatalha
            #16

            I thank everyone's reply here, I was able to find a solution for windows by, as suggested in the replies, sending SIGNT signal to the parent process.

            I found the solution in @JonB referenced SO post in this answer and translated it into Qt code:

            QProcess::execute("taskkill", {"/pid", QString::number(process->processId()), "/t", "/f"});
            

            I am yet to test the QProcess::kill behavior in Linux. It would be a bonus if someone who knows telling me.

            JoeCFDJ 1 Reply Last reply
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            • H hbatalha

              I thank everyone's reply here, I was able to find a solution for windows by, as suggested in the replies, sending SIGNT signal to the parent process.

              I found the solution in @JonB referenced SO post in this answer and translated it into Qt code:

              QProcess::execute("taskkill", {"/pid", QString::number(process->processId()), "/t", "/f"});
              

              I am yet to test the QProcess::kill behavior in Linux. It would be a bonus if someone who knows telling me.

              JoeCFDJ Offline
              JoeCFDJ Offline
              JoeCFD
              wrote on last edited by JoeCFD
              #17

              @hbatalha kill( m_process->processId(), SIGINT ); is same as Ctrl + C.
              will work on both Windows and Linux. kill() is c code. You do not need taskkill pid on Windows and kill -9 pid on Linux.

              H 1 Reply Last reply
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              • JoeCFDJ JoeCFD

                @hbatalha kill( m_process->processId(), SIGINT ); is same as Ctrl + C.
                will work on both Windows and Linux. kill() is c code. You do not need taskkill pid on Windows and kill -9 pid on Linux.

                H Offline
                H Offline
                hbatalha
                wrote on last edited by
                #18

                @JoeCFD in which header will I find the kill function?

                JoeCFDJ 1 Reply Last reply
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                • H hbatalha

                  @JoeCFD in which header will I find the kill function?

                  JoeCFDJ Offline
                  JoeCFDJ Offline
                  JoeCFD
                  wrote on last edited by
                  #19

                  @hbatalha #include <signal.h>

                  H 1 Reply Last reply
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                  • JoeCFDJ JoeCFD

                    @hbatalha #include <signal.h>

                    H Offline
                    H Offline
                    hbatalha
                    wrote on last edited by
                    #20

                    @JoeCFD said in Kill a process and its children:

                    @hbatalha #include <signal.h>

                    I am still getting undeclared identifier 'kill' error after including <signal.h>

                    JoeCFDJ 1 Reply Last reply
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                    • H hbatalha

                      @JoeCFD said in Kill a process and its children:

                      @hbatalha #include <signal.h>

                      I am still getting undeclared identifier 'kill' error after including <signal.h>

                      JoeCFDJ Offline
                      JoeCFDJ Offline
                      JoeCFD
                      wrote on last edited by
                      #21

                      @hbatalha https://man7.org/linux/man-pages/man2/kill.2.html

                      H 1 Reply Last reply
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                      • JoeCFDJ JoeCFD

                        @hbatalha https://man7.org/linux/man-pages/man2/kill.2.html

                        H Offline
                        H Offline
                        hbatalha
                        wrote on last edited by
                        #22

                        @JoeCFD that's for linux, I was asking for MingW equivalent

                        JoeCFDJ 1 Reply Last reply
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                        • jeremy_kJ Offline
                          jeremy_kJ Offline
                          jeremy_k
                          wrote on last edited by
                          #23

                          kill() is a posix API. It isn't part of standard C or C++.

                          Asking a question about code? http://eel.is/iso-c++/testcase/

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                          • H hbatalha

                            @JoeCFD that's for linux, I was asking for MingW equivalent

                            JoeCFDJ Offline
                            JoeCFDJ Offline
                            JoeCFD
                            wrote on last edited by JoeCFD
                            #24

                            @hbatalha Sorry. My bad. It is not for Windows. I thought it is standard C code.
                            You may try kill -9 pid on MingW.

                            H 1 Reply Last reply
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                            • JoeCFDJ JoeCFD

                              @hbatalha Sorry. My bad. It is not for Windows. I thought it is standard C code.
                              You may try kill -9 pid on MingW.

                              H Offline
                              H Offline
                              hbatalha
                              wrote on last edited by
                              #25

                              @JoeCFD what about taskkill that I am currently using?

                              JoeCFDJ 1 Reply Last reply
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                              • H hbatalha

                                @JoeCFD what about taskkill that I am currently using?

                                JoeCFDJ Offline
                                JoeCFDJ Offline
                                JoeCFD
                                wrote on last edited by
                                #26

                                @hbatalha if it works, it should be ok. Ctrl+C is cleaner, I believe.

                                https://stackoverflow.com/questions/813086/can-i-send-a-ctrl-c-sigint-to-an-application-on-windows

                                H 1 Reply Last reply
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                                • JoeCFDJ JoeCFD

                                  @hbatalha if it works, it should be ok. Ctrl+C is cleaner, I believe.

                                  https://stackoverflow.com/questions/813086/can-i-send-a-ctrl-c-sigint-to-an-application-on-windows

                                  H Offline
                                  H Offline
                                  hbatalha
                                  wrote on last edited by
                                  #27

                                  @JoeCFD Ok, thanks for your input in this post, I appreciate it.

                                  kshegunovK 1 Reply Last reply
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                                  • H hbatalha

                                    @JoeCFD Ok, thanks for your input in this post, I appreciate it.

                                    kshegunovK Offline
                                    kshegunovK Offline
                                    kshegunov
                                    Moderators
                                    wrote on last edited by
                                    #28

                                    What you want is QProcess::terminate, which does the right thing™, and the right thing is to traverse the threads of the process and post the WM_QUIT message to each one that runs an event loop. If the process doesn't run an event loop, then the program you're trying to run was never (ever) intended to be controlled from the outside and you should open a feature request for its developers. Coincidentally if it doesn't integrate into the windows event queue, then don't run it, or at least don't expect to (semi)magically be able to control it from another process.

                                    Don't kill processes, just as you don't (assumedly) go around killing kittens. It's called kill for a good reason and it's bad and ugly, and you shan't do it unless you've exhausted every other means, which you haven't.

                                    Read and abide by the Qt Code of Conduct

                                    H 2 Replies Last reply
                                    1
                                    • kshegunovK kshegunov

                                      What you want is QProcess::terminate, which does the right thing™, and the right thing is to traverse the threads of the process and post the WM_QUIT message to each one that runs an event loop. If the process doesn't run an event loop, then the program you're trying to run was never (ever) intended to be controlled from the outside and you should open a feature request for its developers. Coincidentally if it doesn't integrate into the windows event queue, then don't run it, or at least don't expect to (semi)magically be able to control it from another process.

                                      Don't kill processes, just as you don't (assumedly) go around killing kittens. It's called kill for a good reason and it's bad and ugly, and you shan't do it unless you've exhausted every other means, which you haven't.

                                      H Offline
                                      H Offline
                                      hbatalha
                                      wrote on last edited by
                                      #29

                                      @kshegunov said in Kill a process and its children:

                                      What you want is QProcess::terminate

                                      QProcess::terminate doesn't do anything when I call it on Windows

                                      and the right thing is to traverse the threads of the process and post the WM_QUIT message to each one that runs an event loop.

                                      How do you propose to do that?

                                      then the program you're trying to run was never (ever) intended to be controlled from the outside and you should open a feature request for its developers.

                                      Could you elaborate?

                                      kshegunovK 1 Reply Last reply
                                      0
                                      • kshegunovK kshegunov

                                        What you want is QProcess::terminate, which does the right thing™, and the right thing is to traverse the threads of the process and post the WM_QUIT message to each one that runs an event loop. If the process doesn't run an event loop, then the program you're trying to run was never (ever) intended to be controlled from the outside and you should open a feature request for its developers. Coincidentally if it doesn't integrate into the windows event queue, then don't run it, or at least don't expect to (semi)magically be able to control it from another process.

                                        Don't kill processes, just as you don't (assumedly) go around killing kittens. It's called kill for a good reason and it's bad and ugly, and you shan't do it unless you've exhausted every other means, which you haven't.

                                        H Offline
                                        H Offline
                                        hbatalha
                                        wrote on last edited by
                                        #30

                                        @kshegunov Also QProcess::terminate :

                                        Console applications on Windows that do not run an event loop, or whose event loop does not handle the WM_CLOSE message, can only be terminated by calling kill().

                                        1 Reply Last reply
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                                        • H hbatalha

                                          @kshegunov said in Kill a process and its children:

                                          What you want is QProcess::terminate

                                          QProcess::terminate doesn't do anything when I call it on Windows

                                          and the right thing is to traverse the threads of the process and post the WM_QUIT message to each one that runs an event loop.

                                          How do you propose to do that?

                                          then the program you're trying to run was never (ever) intended to be controlled from the outside and you should open a feature request for its developers.

                                          Could you elaborate?

                                          kshegunovK Offline
                                          kshegunovK Offline
                                          kshegunov
                                          Moderators
                                          wrote on last edited by
                                          #31

                                          @hbatalha said in Kill a process and its children:

                                          QProcess::terminate doesn't do anything when I call it on Windows

                                          In that case don't run such processes at all. Sorry to break it to you, but you're trying to fit a square peg into a round hole and you actually think this is the right thing to do.

                                          Anecdote time (warning metaphor incoming) ...

                                          You go on this much anticipated date ... you like the girl, you want to have a meaningful conversation with her. You try this and that but somehow it doesn't work out. You stand up to leave but instead of saying a polite goodbye and just walking out, like any regular guy, you reach for and take a baseball bat and beat your date senseless ...

                                          ... this in a nutshell is what running a process and then killing it is ...

                                          Read and abide by the Qt Code of Conduct

                                          H 1 Reply Last reply
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