Python background loop while running other commands

Question

I'm working on an irl minigame where you get materials every 5 minutes. To monitor this i wanted to write a simple python script. But now there is a little roadblok,

how do you make a loop that does something every x minutes, while still running other keyboard inputs without it disrupting the loop?

First read this learn how to ask a question from following link stackoverflow.com/help/asking — Kallz
We're not supposed to offer tutorials here on SO but let me bend the rules. You probably need to read about organising your code into threads. One of these threads would wake up every five minutes and do something. The other thread would appear to run continuously to handle keyboard and mouse events. — Bill Bell

PM 2Ring PM 2Ring · Accepted Answer · 2017-07-18T10:48:28

Here's a fairly simple example of using a threading.Timer. It displays the current time every 5 seconds while responding to user input.

This code will run in any terminal that supports ANSI / VT100 Terminal Control Escape Sequences.

#!/usr/bin/env python3

''' Scrolling Timer

    Use a threading Timer loop to display the current time
    while processing user input

    See https://stackoverflow.com/q/45130837/4014959

    Written by PM 2Ring 2017.07.18
'''

import readline
from time import ctime
from threading import Timer

# Some ANSI/VT100 Terminal Control Escape Sequences
CSI = '\x1b['
CLEAR = CSI + '2J'
CLEAR_LINE = CSI + '2K'
SAVE_CURSOR = CSI + 's'
UNSAVE_CURSOR = CSI + 'u'
GOTO_LINE = CSI + '%d;0H'

def emit(*args):
    print(*args, sep='', end='', flush=True)

# Show the current time in the top line using a Timer thread loop
def show_time(interval):
    global timer
    emit(SAVE_CURSOR, GOTO_LINE % 1, CLEAR_LINE, ctime(), UNSAVE_CURSOR)
    timer = Timer(interval, show_time, (interval,))
    timer.start()

# Set up scrolling, leaving the top line fixed
emit(CLEAR, CSI + '2;r', GOTO_LINE % 2)

# Start the timer loop
show_time(interval=5)

try:
    while True:
        # Get user input and print it in upper case
        print(input('> ').upper())
except KeyboardInterrupt:
    timer.cancel()
    # Cancel scrolling
    emit('\n', SAVE_CURSOR, CSI + '0;0r', UNSAVE_CURSOR)

You need to send a KeyboardInterrupt, that is, hit CtrlC to stop this program,

Python background loop while running other commands

2 Answers