Non-blocking read on a subprocess.PIPE in python

Question

I'm using the subprocess module to start a subprocess and connect to it's output stream (stdout). I want to be able to execute non-blocking reads on its stdout. Is there a way to make .readline non-blocking or to check if there is data on the stream before I invoke .readline? I'd like this to be portable or at least work under Windows and Linux.

here is how I do it for now (It's blocking on the .readline if no data is avaible):

p = subprocess.Popen('myprogram.exe', stdout = subprocess.PIPE)
output_str = p.stdout.readline()

Answer 1

I also faced the problem described by Jesse and solved it by using "select" as Bradley, Andy and others did but in a blocking mode to avoid a busy loop. It uses a dummy Pipe as a fake stdin. The select blocks and wait for either stdin or the pipe to be ready. When a key is pressed stdin unblocks the select and the key value can be retrieved with read(1). When a different thread writes to the pipe then the pipe unblocks the select and it can be taken as an indication that the need for stdin is over. Here is some reference code:

import sys
import os
from select import select

# -------------------------------------------------------------------------    
# Set the pipe (fake stdin) to simulate a final key stroke
# which will unblock the select statement
readEnd, writeEnd = os.pipe()
readFile = os.fdopen(readEnd)
writeFile = os.fdopen(writeEnd, "w")

# -------------------------------------------------------------------------
def getKey():

    # Wait for stdin or pipe (fake stdin) to be ready
    dr,dw,de = select([sys.__stdin__, readFile], [], [])

    # If stdin is the one ready then read it and return value
    if sys.__stdin__ in dr:
        return sys.__stdin__.read(1)   # For Windows use ----> getch() from module msvcrt

    # Must finish
    else:
        return None

# -------------------------------------------------------------------------
def breakStdinRead():
    writeFile.write(' ')
    writeFile.flush()

# -------------------------------------------------------------------------
# MAIN CODE

# Get key stroke
key = getKey()

# Keyboard input
if key:
    # ... do your stuff with the key value

# Faked keystroke
else:
    # ... use of stdin finished

# -------------------------------------------------------------------------
# OTHER THREAD CODE

breakStdinRead()

Answer 2

Working from J.F. Sebastian's answer, and several other sources, I've put together a simple subprocess manager. It provides the request non-blocking reading, as well as running several processes in parallel. It doesn't use any OS-specific call (that I'm aware) and thus should work anywhere.

It's available from pypi, so just pip install shelljob. Refer to the project page for examples and full docs.