import sys from subprocess import PIPE, Popen from threading import Thread try: from Queue import Queue, Empty except ImportError: from queue import Queue, Empty # python 3.x ON_POSIX = 'posix' in sys.builtin_module_names def enqueue_output(out, queue): for line in iter(out.readline, b''): queue.put(line) out.close() p = Popen(['myprogram.exe'], stdout=PIPE, bufsize=1, close_fds=ON_POSIX) q = Queue() t = Thread(target=enqueue_output, args=(p.stdout, q)) t.daemon = True # thread dies with the program t.start() # ... do other things here # read line without blocking try: line = q.get_nowait() # or q.get(timeout=.1) except Empty: print('no output yet') else: # got line # ... do something with line
http://stackoverflow.com/questions/375427/non-blocking-read-on-a-subprocess-pipe-in-python