How to Interrupt/Stop/End a hanging multi-threaded python program

Question

I have a python program that implements threads like this:

   class Mythread(threading.Thread):
        def __init__(self, name, q):
            threading.Thread.__init__(self)
            self.name = name
            self.q = q

        def run(self):
            print "Starting %s..." % (self.name)
            while True:
                ## Get data from queue
                data = self.q.get()
                ## do_some_processing with data ###
                process_data(data)
                ## Mark Queue item as done
                self.q.task_done()
            print "Exiting %s..." % (self.name)


    def call_threaded_program():
        ##Setup the threads. Define threads,queue,locks 
        threads = []    
        q = Queue.Queue()
        thread_count = n #some number
        data_list = [] #some data list containing data

        ##Create Threads
        for thread_id in range(1, thread_count+1):
            thread_name = "Thread-" + str(thread_id)
            thread = Mythread(thread_name,q)
            thread.daemon = True
            thread.start()

        ##Fill data in Queue
        for data_item in data_list:
            q.put(data_item)

        try:
            ##Wait for queue to be exhausted and then exit main program
            q.join()
        except (KeyboardInterrupt, SystemExit) as e:
            print "Interrupt Issued. Exiting Program with error state: %s"%(str(e))
            exit(1)

The call_threaded_program() is called from a different program.

I have the code working under normal circumstances. However if an error/exception occurs in one of the threads, then the program is stuck (as the queue join is infinitely blocking). The only way I am able to quit this program is to close the terminal itself.

What is the best way to terminate this program when a thread bails out? Is there a clean (actually I would take any way) way of doing this? I know this question has been asked numerous times, but I am still unable to find a convincing answer. I would really appreciate any help.

EDIT: I tried removing the join on the queue and used a global exit flag as suggested in Is there any way to kill a Thread in Python? However, Now the behavior is so strange, I can't comprehend what is going on.

    import threading
    import Queue
    import time

    exit_flag = False

    class Mythread (threading.Thread):
        def __init__(self,name,q):
            threading.Thread.__init__(self)
            self.name = name
            self.q = q

        def run(self):
            try:    
                # Start Thread
                print "Starting %s...."%(self.name)
                # Do Some Processing
                while not exit_flag:
                    data = self.q.get()
                    print "%s processing %s"%(self.name,str(data))
                    self.q.task_done()
                # Exit thread
                print "Exiting %s..."%(self.name)
            except Exception as e:
                print "Exiting %s due to Error: %s"%(self.name,str(e))


    def main():
        global exit_flag

        ##Setup the threads. Define threads,queue,locks 
        threads = []    
        q = Queue.Queue()
        thread_count = 20
        data_list = range(1,50)

        ##Create Threads
        for thread_id in range(1,thread_count+1):
            thread_name = "Thread-" + str(thread_id)
            thread = Mythread(thread_name,q)
            thread.daemon = True
            threads.append(thread)
            thread.start()

        ##Fill data in Queue
        for data_item in data_list:
          q.put(data_item)


        try:
          ##Wait for queue to be exhausted and then exit main program
          while not q.empty():
            pass

          # Stop the threads
          exit_flag = True

          # Wait for threads to finish
          print "Waiting for threads to finish..."
          while threading.activeCount() > 1:
            print "Active Threads:",threading.activeCount()
            time.sleep(1)
            pass

          print "Finished Successfully"
        except (KeyboardInterrupt, SystemExit) as e:
          print "Interrupt Issued. Exiting Program with error state: %s"%(str(e))


     if __name__ == '__main__':
         main()

The program's output is as below:

    #Threads get started correctly
    #The output also is getting processed but then towards the end, All i see are
    Active Threads: 16
    Active Threads: 16
    Active Threads: 16...

The program then just hangs or keeps on printing the active threads. However since the exit flag is set to True, the thread's run method is not being exercised. So I have no clue as to how these threads are kept up or what is happening.

EDIT: I found the problem. In the above code, thread's get method were blocking and hence unable to quit. Using a get method with a timeout instead did the trick. I have the code for just the run method that I modified below

    def run(self):
            try:
                   #Start Thread
                   printing "Starting %s..."%(self.name)
                   #Do Some processing
                   while not exit_flag:
                          try:
                                data = self.q.get(True,self.timeout)
                                print "%s processing %s"%(self.name,str(data))
                                self.q.task_done()
                          except:
                                 print "Queue Empty or Timeout Occurred. Try Again for %s"%(self.name)


                    # Exit thread
                    print "Exiting %s..."%(self.name)
             except Exception as e:
                print "Exiting %s due to Error: %s"%(self.name,str(e))

Solution

If you want to force all the threads to exit when the process exits, you can set the "daemon" flag of the thread to True before the thread is created.

http://docs.python.org/2/library/threading.html#threading.Thread.daemon

Comments

[NRS]

Hi, I tried wrapping the thread to catch the exception and to stop the threads using a global exit flag. But the behavior now is so strange, it is beyond my comprehension. Please see edit above

[NRS]

I had already set the "daemon" flag for the thread. Please see above Code. But that was not the issue. The issue was that, the main process would not exit because it was waiting for the queue to be exhausted. However the queue would never exit because the threads died (and hence there is no one to consume the items in the queue). So, that caused the program to be stuck. But I think I figured the problem out (Please see edits)