Refactor the multi-processing module to use QProcess, should make it more robust.

src/libprs500/parallel.py

@@ -15,8 +15,10 @@
 '''
 Used to run jobs in parallel in separate processes.
 '''
-import re, sys, tempfile, os, subprocess, cPickle, cStringIO, traceback, atexit, time, binascii
+import re, sys, tempfile, os, cPickle, cStringIO, traceback, atexit, binascii, time
 from functools import partial
+from PyQt4.QtCore import QProcess, QIODevice
+
 from libprs500.ebooks.lrf.any.convert_from import main as any2lrf
 from libprs500.ebooks.lrf.web.convert_from import main as web2lrf
 from libprs500.gui2.lrf_renderer.main import main as lrfviewer
@@ -27,12 +29,9 @@ PARALLEL_FUNCS = {
                   'web2lrf'   : web2lrf,
                   'lrfviewer' : lrfviewer,
                   }
-Popen = subprocess.Popen
 
 python = sys.executable
 if iswindows:
-    import win32con
-    Popen = partial(Popen, creationflags=win32con.CREATE_NO_WINDOW)
     if hasattr(sys, 'frozen'):
         python = os.path.join(os.path.dirname(python), 'parallel.exe')
     else:
@@ -56,6 +55,7 @@ class Server(object):
         atexit.register(cleanup, self.tdir)
         self.stdout = {}
         self.kill_jobs = []
+        self.detached_jobs = [] 
         
     def kill(self, job_id):
         '''
@@ -63,27 +63,20 @@ class Server(object):
         '''
         self.kill_jobs.append(str(job_id))
         
-    def _terminate(self, pid):
+    def _terminate(self, process):
         '''
-        Kill process identified by C{pid}.
-        @param pid: On unix a process number, on windows a process handle.
+        Kill process.
         '''
-        if iswindows:
-            import win32api
-            try:
-                win32api.TerminateProcess(int(pid), -1)
-            except:
-                pass
+        if iswindows: # Note that QProcess.kill doesn't actually kill the process on windows
+            process.kill()
+            process.waitForFinished(20)
         else:
+            # We don't use QProcess.kill as it doesn't seem to work
             import signal
-            try:
-                try:
-                    os.kill(pid, signal.SIGTERM)
-                finally:
-                    time.sleep(2)
-                    os.kill(pid, signal.SIGKILL)                    
-            except:
-                pass
+            os.kill(process.pid(), signal.SIGKILL)
+            time.sleep(0.05)
+        
+        
     
     def run(self, job_id, func, args=[], kwdargs={}, monitor=True):
         '''
@@ -114,18 +107,31 @@ class Server(object):
                 os.environ['PATH'] += ':'+fd
         cmd = prefix + 'from libprs500.parallel import run_job; run_job(\'%s\')'%binascii.hexlify(job_data)
         
+        p = QProcess()
+        
         if monitor:
-            p = Popen((python, '-c', cmd), stdout=subprocess.PIPE, stderr=subprocess.STDOUT)
+            p.setProcessChannelMode(QProcess.MergedChannels)
+            p.start(python, ['-c', cmd], QIODevice.ReadWrite|QIODevice.Text)                                     
         else:
-            Popen((python, '-c', cmd))
-            return 
-        while p.returncode is None:
+            p.setProcessChannelMode(QProcess.ForwardedChannels)
+            p.start(python, ['-c', cmd])
+            self.detached_jobs.append(p)                        
+            return p.waitForStarted(10000)
+        
+        started = p.waitForStarted(30000) # Wait at most 30 secs
+        if not started:
+            raise RuntimeError('Could not run job: %s %s'%(func, args))
+        
+        while p.state() == QProcess.Running:
             if job_id in self.kill_jobs:
-                self._terminate(p._handle if iswindows else p.pid)
+                self._terminate(p)
                 return self.KILL_RESULT, None, None, _('Job killed by user')
-            p.poll()
-            time.sleep(0.5) # Wait for half a second
-        self.stdout[job_id].write(p.stdout.read())
+            
+            if p.waitForReadyRead(100): # Wait 0.1 secs for data to become available
+                self.stdout[job_id].write(str(p.read(10))) # Read atmost 10 bytes of data
+             
+             
+        self.stdout[job_id].write(p.readAll())
         
         job_result = os.path.join(job_dir, 'job_result.pickle')
         if not os.path.exists(job_result):