Python - A keyboard command to stop infinite loop?

Question

Possible Duplicate:
Why can't I handle a KeyboardInterrupt in python?

I was playing around with some Python code and created an infinite loop:

y = 0
x = -4

itersLeft = x
while(itersLeft<0):
    y = y + x
    itersLeft = itersLeft - 1
    print "y = ",y, "itersLeft = ", itersLeft

print y

Is there a keyboard shortcut that would allow me to stop the looping - allowing me to fix the loop and then restart it?

I've tried Ctrl+C and didn't have any luck. If it helps I'm using a Windows 7 environment.

Thanks.

EDIT

---

I should have also mentioned that I'm using Aptana Studio 3 and attempted to run the Ctrl+C command within that. It doesn't work there - but trying it within the regular console works fine. I'm assuming it must be because of the Aptana environment.

Solution

Ctrl+C is what you need. If it didn't work, hit it harder. :-) Of course, you can also just close the shell window.

Edit: You didn't mention the circumstances. As a last resort, you could write a batch file that contains taskkill /im python.exe, and put it on your desktop, Start menu, etc. and run it when you need to kill a runaway script. Of course, it will kill all Python processes, so be careful.

Comments

[PhillipKregg]

Thanks Kindall. I should also have mentioned that I'm using Aptana Studio 3 and attempted to use the Ctrl-C command there. It works fine in the regular terminal window, but not within Aptana. I actually had to restart Aptana in order to stop the loop.

[mpen]

@Phillip: Don't know about Aptana, but most IDE's have a "Stop" or "Stop and Restart" button for console apps.

[PhillipKregg]

Ok, thanks for the help - I was just hoping the keyboard shortcut would work within Aptana.

[john ktejik]

what if you executed the python script from rc.local? :(

[J.M. Janzen]

I've got nothing but an anecdotal "hunch" but I feel runaway printing responds more snappily to <C-c> when the -u command line flag (for unbuffering stdout/err) is set. Eg. python -u my-loop-script.py.

[Kyle Delaney]

Does Ctrl-C throw an exception that would mean it wouldn't work if it's in a try block?

[ccpizza]

On linux/osx you could use pkill -f mynastyscript.py — so you will only kill your script and not everything else. You don't have to include the extension if the name is unique enough since -f will match by any substring in the full command line.