This is a Python class that will daemonize your Python script so it can continue running in the background. It works on Unix, Linux and OS X, creates a PID file and has standard commands (start, stop, restart) + a foreground mode.

Licensed under Creative Commons BY 3.0 SA.

Define a class which inherits from Daemon and has a run() method (which is what will be called once the daemonization is completed.

from daemon import Daemon

class pantalaimon(Daemon):
    def run(self):
        # Do stuff

Create a new object of your class, specifying where you want your PID file to exist:

pineMarten = pantalaimon('/path/to/pid.pid')
pineMarten.start()

• start() - starts the daemon (creates PID and daemonizes).
• stop() - stops the daemon (stops the child process and removes the PID).
• restart() - does stop() then start().

This is useful for debugging because you can start the code without making it a daemon. The running script then depends on the open shell like any normal Python script.

To do this, just call the run() method directly.

pineMarten.run()

The run() method will be executed just once so if you want the daemon to be doing stuff continuously you may wish to use the sched module to execute code repeatedly (example).

2014 Mar 15 - converted module into package - added pytest.ini, LICENSE.txt, MANIFEST.in, .gitignore, pip requirements files and setup.py file - cleanup of main Daemon class

2010 Aug 13 (David Mytton [email protected] - fixed unhandled exception if PID file is empty

2009 Mar 11 (David Mytton [email protected]) - fixed problem with daemon exiting on Python 2.4 (before SystemExit was part of the Exception base)

2009 Jan 23 (David Mytton [email protected]) - replaced hard coded '/dev/null in init with os.devnull - added OS check to conditionally remove code that doesn't work on OS X - added output to console on completion - tidied up formatting