Can I run a Python script as a service (in Windows)? How?

Question

I am sketching the architecture for a set of programs that share various interrelated objects stored in a database. I want one of the programs to act as a service which provides a higher level interface for operations on these objects, and the other programs to access the objects through that service.

I am currently aiming for Python and the Django framework as the technologies to implement that service with. I'm pretty sure I figure how to daemonize the Python program in Linux. However, it is an optional spec item that the system should support Windows. I have little experience with Windows programming and no experience at all with Windows services.

Can I run Python programs as a Windows service (i. e. run it automatically without user login)? I won't necessarily have to implement this part, but I need a rough idea how it would be done in order to decide whether to design along these lines.

Edit: Thanks for all the answers so far, they are quite comprehensive. I would like to know one more thing: How is Windows aware of my service? Can I manage it with the native Windows utilities? Basically, what is the equivalent of putting a start/stop script in /etc/init.d?

Answer 1

You will need some "windows service wrapper", you could write it yourself or just check out srvany.exe. Here is some tutorial how to use it.

Answer 2

Yes you can. I do it using the pythoncom libraries that come included with ActivePython

This is a basic squeleton for a simple service:

import pythoncom
import win32serviceutil
import win32service
import win32event
import servicemanager


class AppServerSvc (win32serviceutil.ServiceFramework):
    _svc_name_ = "TestService"
    _svc_display_name_ = "Test Service"

    def __init__(self,args):
        win32serviceutil.ServiceFramework.__init__(self,args)
        self.hWaitStop = win32event.CreateEvent(None,0,0,None)
        socket.setdefaulttimeout(60)

    def SvcStop(self):
        self.ReportServiceStatus(win32service.SERVICE_STOP_PENDING)
        win32event.SetEvent(self.hWaitStop)

    def SvcDoRun(self):
        servicemanager.LogMsg(servicemanager.EVENTLOG_INFORMATION_TYPE,
                              servicemanager.PYS_SERVICE_STARTED,
                              (self._svc_name_,''))
        self.main()

    def main(self):
        pass

if __name__ == '__main__':
    win32serviceutil.HandleCommandLine(AppServerSvc)

Your code would go in the main() method, usually with some kind of infinite loop that might be interrumped by checking a flag, that you set in the SvcStop method

Answer 3

This article on Codeproject contains a program that can start other non-service applications as if they were a service.

Otherwise you must design a real service application which is different from a normal windows application.

Answer 4

see Python Win Service

Answer 5

Or use Tim Golden's WMI module for Python: http://timgolden.me.uk/python/wmi/tutorial.html#creating-wmi-objects