Running Python script(s) as a Windows Service – Keep your Python Mojo Engines Running while you Sleep!
Now any Python duct-taper integrate-anything junkie like me has a need to schedule their things (in production) every once in awhile. Usually this is not a problem – Unix / Linux cron jobs handle this nicely – but for a client or job that runs on a Windows server – the built-in “Scheduled Tasks” just never really cut it for me – in fact, I’ve always though that it was pretty Mickey-Mouse and not super reliable (just my opinion – don’t flame me, you wily Windows Dudes – I know that there are 1,000 ways to skin a cat, here’s mine!)…
It honestly gave me the creeps to put production stuff on there that NEEDED to be run every X minutes, hours, etc. Besides, making a batch file to fire off a python scripts feels so… well, unpolished – and pretty much of a lazy hack that made it into prod…
Disclaimer: Hey, I love hacks – they make the IT world go around, but I don’t like delivering shit to clients that have loose feeling triggers like that. Especially, if some smart ass IT dickface (who COULDN’T pull off what I did, or else I wouldn’t have been paid to do it) is going to dig into them one day and bad mouth me about it (rightfully so).
Besides, I’ll find you! :)
Enough blather – here is the whole script. Modify and distribute where you see fit – parts of it were written by others that I can’t recall (so if its you – please accept my apology and an expired gift card).
### Usage : python aservice.py install (or / then start, stop, remove)
import win32service
import win32serviceutil
import win32api
import win32con
import win32event
import win32evtlogutil
import os, sys, string, time
class aservice(win32serviceutil.ServiceFramework):
_svc_name_ = "MyServiceShortName"
_svc_display_name_ = "My Serivce Long Fancy Name!"
_svc_description_ = "THis is what my crazy little service does - aka a DESCRIPTION! WHoa!"
def __init__(self, args):
win32serviceutil.ServiceFramework.__init__(self, args)
self.hWaitStop = win32event.CreateEvent(None, 0, 0, None)
def SvcStop(self):
self.ReportServiceStatus(win32service.SERVICE_STOP_PENDING)
win32event.SetEvent(self.hWaitStop)
def SvcDoRun(self):
import servicemanager
servicemanager.LogMsg(servicemanager.EVENTLOG_INFORMATION_TYPE,servicemanager.PYS_SERVICE_STARTED,(self._svc_name_, ''))
#self.timeout = 640000 #640 seconds / 10 minutes (value is in milliseconds)
self.timeout = 120000 #120 seconds / 2 minutes
# This is how long the service will wait to run / refresh itself (see script below)
while 1:
# Wait for service stop signal, if I timeout, loop again
rc = win32event.WaitForSingleObject(self.hWaitStop, self.timeout)
# Check to see if self.hWaitStop happened
if rc == win32event.WAIT_OBJECT_0:
# Stop signal encountered
servicemanager.LogInfoMsg("SomeShortNameVersion - STOPPED!") #For Event Log
break
else:
#Ok, here's the real money shot right here.
#[actual service code between rests]
try:
file_path = "C:\whereever\my_REAL_py_work_to_be_done.py"
execfile(file_path) #Execute the script
inc_file_path2 = "C:\whereever\MORE_REAL_py_work_to_be_done.py"
execfile(inc_file_path2) #Execute the script
except:
pass
#[actual service code between rests]
def ctrlHandler(ctrlType):
return True
if __name__ == '__main__':
win32api.SetConsoleCtrlHandler(ctrlHandler, True)
win32serviceutil.HandleCommandLine(aservice)
# Done! Lets go out and get some dinner, bitches!
As you can see above between the [actual service code between rests] text – THAT’S the real meat of this script – since that is the ACTION that will be executed within the service with each iteration (regardless of the timing).
So it doesn’t matter if you’re:
- Running some Python ETL processes
- Scraping some data off the web
- Sending emails and reading IMAP accounts
- Updating a Data warehouse
- EMail your Grandmother the latest news from Blabbermouth.net
Hell, it can be and do virtually anything! Hey, its YOUR service after all.
Don’t want to Cut-N-Paste? I don’t blame you – download the whole she-bang here.
Questions, Comments, Corrections? Comment me below!
(especially corrections – sometimes things get mangled in cut-n-paste)
Related Posts
- Using a simple Python script for End-to-End Data Transformation and ETL (Part 1)
- Using XLWT and Python to export an Oracle dataset to Excel (Python Simple ETL Part 2)
- Cut-N-Paste Corner: Microsoft SQL Server 2000, 2005, 2008 Simple Loop Template
Not able to execute this code.
When i run this code like:
python aservice.py install –> It show following messsage on command prompt
Usage: ‘aservice.py [options] install|update|remove|start [...]|stop|restart [..
.]|debug [...]‘
Options for ‘install’ and ‘update’ commands only:
–username domain\username : The Username the service is to run under
–password password : The password for the username
–startup [manual|auto|disabled] : How the service starts, default = manual
–interactive : Allow the service to interact with the desktop.
–perfmonini file: .ini file to use for registering performance monitor data
–perfmondll file: .dll file to use when querying the service for
performance data, default = perfmondata.dll
Options for ‘start’ and ‘stop’ commands only:
–wait seconds: Wait for the service to actually start or stop.
If you specify –wait with the ‘stop’ option, the service
and all dependent services will be stopped, each waiting
the specified period.
Please help me to execute this code(create window service)