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Python : Check if a process is running by name and find it’s Process ID (PID)

November 11, 2018 / Process Management, Python / By

In this article we will discuss a cross platform way to find a running process PIDs by name using psutil.

To install python’s psutil library use,

pip install psutil

Check if a process is running

To check if process is running or not, let’s iterate over all the running process using psutil.process_iter() and match the process name i.e.

import psutil

def checkIfProcessRunning(processName):
    '''
    Check if there is any running process that contains the given name processName.
    '''
    #Iterate over the all the running process
    for proc in psutil.process_iter():
        try:
            # Check if process name contains the given name string.
            if processName.lower() in proc.name().lower():
                return True
        except (psutil.NoSuchProcess, psutil.AccessDenied, psutil.ZombieProcess):
            pass
    return False;

Let’s use this function to check if any process with ‘chrome’ substring in name is running or not i.e.

# Check if any chrome process was running or not.
if checkIfProcessRunning('chrome'):
    print('Yes a chrome process was running')
else:
    print('No chrome process was running')

Output:

Yes a chrome process was running

As in my system many chrome instances are running. So it will return True. But how to get the process ID of all the running ‘chrome.exe’ process ?

Frequently Asked:

Find PID (Process ID) of a running process by Name

As there may be many running instances of a given process. So, we will iterate over all the running process and for each process whose name contains the given string, we will keep it’s info in a list i.e.

import psutil

def findProcessIdByName(processName):
    '''
    Get a list of all the PIDs of a all the running process whose name contains
    the given string processName
    '''

    listOfProcessObjects = []

    #Iterate over the all the running process
    for proc in psutil.process_iter():
       try:
           pinfo = proc.as_dict(attrs=['pid', 'name', 'create_time'])
           # Check if process name contains the given name string.
           if processName.lower() in pinfo['name'].lower() :
               listOfProcessObjects.append(pinfo)
       except (psutil.NoSuchProcess, psutil.AccessDenied , psutil.ZombieProcess) :
           pass

    return listOfProcessObjects;

Let’s call this function to get the PIDs of all the running chrome.exe process

# Find PIDs od all the running instances of process that contains 'chrome' in it's name
listOfProcessIds = findProcessIdByName('chrome')

if len(listOfProcessIds) > 0:
   print('Process Exists | PID and other details are')
   for elem in listOfProcessIds:
       processID = elem['pid']
       processName = elem['name']
       processCreationTime =  time.strftime('%Y-%m-%d %H:%M:%S', time.localtime(elem['create_time']))
       print((processID ,processName,processCreationTime ))
else :
   print('No Running Process found with given text')

Contents of the list will be,

(2604, 'chrome.exe', '2018-11-10 19:12:13')
(4276, 'chrome.exe', '2018-11-10 19:12:14')
(9136, 'chrome.exe', '2018-11-10 19:12:14')
(9616, 'chrome.exe', '2018-11-10 19:43:41')
(12904, 'chrome.exe', '2018-11-10 19:12:13')
(13476, 'chrome.exe', '2018-11-10 20:03:04')
(15520, 'chrome.exe', '2018-11-10 20:02:22')

We can do the same in a single line using list comprehension i.e.

# Find PIDs od all the running instances of process that contains 'chrome' in it's name
procObjList = [procObj for procObj in psutil.process_iter() if 'chrome' in procObj.name().lower() ]

procObjList is a list of Process class objects. Let’s iterate over it and print them i.e.

for elem in procObjList:
   print (elem)

Output will be,

psutil.Process(pid=2604, name='chrome.exe', started='19:12:13')
psutil.Process(pid=4276, name='chrome.exe', started='19:12:14')
psutil.Process(pid=9136, name='chrome.exe', started='19:12:14')
psutil.Process(pid=9616, name='chrome.exe', started='19:43:41')
psutil.Process(pid=12904, name='chrome.exe', started='19:12:13')
psutil.Process(pid=13476, name='chrome.exe', started='20:03:04')
psutil.Process(pid=15520, name='chrome.exe', started='20:02:22')

Complete example is as follows,

import psutil
import time

def checkIfProcessRunning(processName):
    '''
    Check if there is any running process that contains the given name processName.
    '''
    #Iterate over the all the running process
    for proc in psutil.process_iter():
        try:
            # Check if process name contains the given name string.
            if processName.lower() in proc.name().lower():
                return True
        except (psutil.NoSuchProcess, psutil.AccessDenied, psutil.ZombieProcess):
            pass
    return False;

def findProcessIdByName(processName):
    '''
    Get a list of all the PIDs of a all the running process whose name contains
    the given string processName
    '''

    listOfProcessObjects = []

    #Iterate over the all the running process
    for proc in psutil.process_iter():
       try:
           pinfo = proc.as_dict(attrs=['pid', 'name', 'create_time'])
           # Check if process name contains the given name string.
           if processName.lower() in pinfo['name'].lower() :
               listOfProcessObjects.append(pinfo)
       except (psutil.NoSuchProcess, psutil.AccessDenied , psutil.ZombieProcess) :
           pass

    return listOfProcessObjects;

def main():

    print("*** Check if a process is running or not ***")

    # Check if any chrome process was running or not.
    if checkIfProcessRunning('chrome'):
        print('Yes a chrome process was running')
    else:
        print('No chrome process was running')



    print("*** Find PIDs of a running process by Name ***")

    # Find PIDs od all the running instances of process that contains 'chrome' in it's name
    listOfProcessIds = findProcessIdByName('chrome')

    if len(listOfProcessIds) > 0:
       print('Process Exists | PID and other details are')
       for elem in listOfProcessIds:
           processID = elem['pid']
           processName = elem['name']
           processCreationTime =  time.strftime('%Y-%m-%d %H:%M:%S', time.localtime(elem['create_time']))
           print((processID ,processName,processCreationTime ))
    else :
       print('No Running Process found with given text')


    print('** Find running process by name using List comprehension **')

    # Find PIDs od all the running instances of process that contains 'chrome' in it's name
    procObjList = [procObj for procObj in psutil.process_iter() if 'chrome' in procObj.name().lower() ]

    for elem in procObjList:
       print (elem)


if __name__ == '__main__':
   main()

Output:

*** Check if a process is running or not ***
Yes a chrome process was running
*** Find PIDs of a running process by Name ***
Process Exists | PID and other details are
(2604, 'chrome.exe', '2018-11-10 19:12:13')
(4276, 'chrome.exe', '2018-11-10 19:12:14')
(9136, 'chrome.exe', '2018-11-10 19:12:14')
(9616, 'chrome.exe', '2018-11-10 19:43:41')
(12904, 'chrome.exe', '2018-11-10 19:12:13')
(13476, 'chrome.exe', '2018-11-10 20:03:04')
(15520, 'chrome.exe', '2018-11-10 20:02:22')
** Find running process by name using List comprehension **
psutil.Process(pid=2604, name='chrome.exe', started='19:12:13')
psutil.Process(pid=4276, name='chrome.exe', started='19:12:14')
psutil.Process(pid=9136, name='chrome.exe', started='19:12:14')
psutil.Process(pid=9616, name='chrome.exe', started='19:43:41')
psutil.Process(pid=12904, name='chrome.exe', started='19:12:13')
psutil.Process(pid=13476, name='chrome.exe', started='20:03:04')
psutil.Process(pid=15520, name='chrome.exe', started='20:02:22')

 

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