Stopping PyQGIS script that has infinite loop, using keyboard?

Question

So I wrote a script that does what I want over and over again using a "while True:" in a certain time interval (every 5 seconds using time.sleep(5)). So far so good, BUT when I want to stop it I just can't.

I have tried Control+C, Control+Break, Escape and it practically ignores my keyboard. The only way to stop it is to close QGIS. Any ideas? Furthermore, when the script hits time.sleep(5) QGIS kind of lags and freezes for 5 seconds and I can not, for example, pan the layer but I assume this is normal.

Here is my script:

from PyQt4.QtGui import *
from PyQt4.QtCore import *
from qgis.core import *
from qgis.utils import iface
import time


while True: 

    def change_color():
        active_layer = iface.activeLayer()
        pipeline=[]
        txt=open('C:/users/stelios/desktop/project/Sensor.txt','r')
        for line in txt.readlines():
            pipeline.append(line.split())
        print pipeline 
        pipeline2=[]
        for label,color in pipeline:
            if "0" in color:
                pipeline2.append([label,"green"])
            else:
                pipeline2.append([label,"red"])

        print pipeline2
        elatomatikoi=""
        categories=[]

        for label,color in pipeline2:
            if 'red' in color:
                elatomatikoi=elatomatikoi + label+","
            symbol = QgsSymbolV2.defaultSymbol(active_layer.geometryType())
            symbol.setColor(QColor(color))
            category = QgsRendererCategoryV2(int(label), symbol, label)
            categories.append(category)

        expression = 'id' 
        renderer = QgsCategorizedSymbolRendererV2(expression, categories)
        active_layer.setRendererV2(renderer)
        active_layer.setCacheImage(None)
        iface.mapCanvas().refresh()
        iface.legendInterface().refreshLayerSymbology(active_layer)
        elatomatikoi= elatomatikoi[:-1]

        for label,color in pipeline2:
            if 'red' in color:
                QMessageBox.critical(None,"Warning",("Leakage at pipe(s):%s\nCheck Pipeline status " %elatomatikoi))
                break
        txt.close()

    change_color()
    time.sleep(5)

Answer 1

QGIS offers the full power of python to you. This opens up amazing possibilities but also comes with potential pitfalls. Which may make QGIS unresponsive, freeze or even crash it. Use it wisely!

In your case, instead of sending the main thread to sleep for 5 seconds, you better let QGIS do something else (like listening to your keystrokes or button presses) and post a timer event to the main event loop that will hand the control back to your script 5 seconds later.

You can use the example from this answer as a good starting point. To stop it, just connect some event to the stop() slot of the timer.

def change_color():
    print('I am now red')

timer = QTimer()
timer.timeout.connect(change_color)
timer.start(5000)

someButton.clicked.connect(timer.stop)

Or just call it manually from the console when you think it's time to stop it

timer.stop()

You could also install an eventFilter() on the main window to intercept key presses if you need that.

Answer 2

As a work around, you can use a QT widget with a cancel button.

It's a bit rough, but here is the widget script I've used:

from PyQt4 import QtCore, QtGui

try:
    _fromUtf8 = QtCore.QString.fromUtf8
except AttributeError:
    def _fromUtf8(s):
        return s

try:
    _encoding = QtGui.QApplication.UnicodeUTF8
    def _translate(context, text, disambig):
        return QtGui.QApplication.translate(context, text, disambig, _encoding)
except AttributeError:
    def _translate(context, text, disambig):
        return QtGui.QApplication.translate(context, text, disambig)

class Ui_Form(QtGui.QWidget):
    def __init__(self):
        QtGui.QWidget.__init__(self)
        self.setupUi(self)
        self.running = True
    def setupUi(self, Form):
        Form.setObjectName(_fromUtf8("Form"))
        Form.resize(100, 100)
        self.horizontalLayout_3 = QtGui.QHBoxLayout(Form)
        self.horizontalLayout_3.setObjectName(_fromUtf8("horizontalLayout_3"))
        self.horizontalLayout = QtGui.QHBoxLayout()
        self.horizontalLayout.setObjectName(_fromUtf8("horizontalLayout"))
        self.Cancel_btn = QtGui.QPushButton(Form)
        self.Cancel_btn.setMinimumSize(QtCore.QSize(0, 0))
        self.Cancel_btn.setMaximumSize(QtCore.QSize(425, 27))
        self.Cancel_btn.setObjectName(_fromUtf8("Cancel_btn"))
        self.horizontalLayout.addWidget(self.Cancel_btn)
        self.horizontalLayout_3.addLayout(self.horizontalLayout)
        self.retranslateUi(Form)
        QtCore.QMetaObject.connectSlotsByName(Form)

    def retranslateUi(self, Form):
        Form.setWindowTitle(_translate("Form", "Cancel", None))
        self.Cancel_btn.setText(_translate("Form", "Cancel", None))
        self.Cancel_btn.clicked.connect(self.Cancel)


    def Cancel(self):
        self.running = False

This can be imported into your pyQgis script (you'll have to append the directory to sys.path) and then you can use the running variable to stop your while loop:

import sys
sys.path.append("path/to/cancel_widget")

import cancel_widget

btn = cancel_widget.Ui_Form()
btn.show()

while btn.running:
    ...