[SOLVED] Going back to running script in virtual environment after connection to remote server closed

Issue

I am running a Python script that collects data and is running inside a Virtual Environment hosted remotely on a VPS (Debian based). My PC crashed and I am trying to get back into the visual logs of the python script. I know that the script is still running because it saves its data into a CSV file. That CSV is still being written. If I activate the source again, then I can rerun the script. It sounds to me that I will have 2 instances of the same script running in this case...

I am not familiar with the virtual environment and I cannot find the right way to do it without deactivating and reactivating it. I am running my script on the cheapest OVH VPS I could buy because my computer is clearly not reliable for running 24/7.

Solution

You might use screen to run your script in a separate terminal session. This will avoid losing logging if the ssh connection gets dropped.
The workflow would be something in the lines of (on your host):

# Install screen
$ sudo apt udpate
$ sudo apt install screen

# Start a screen session
$ screen

# Run your script
$ python myscript.py

In case of dropping your ssh connections, it'll be enough to:

# ssh back into the host from your client

# reattach previous screen session
$ screen -r

For advanced use the official docs are quite comprehensive.

Note: As a more general note, what explained above is pretty much the basic logic of a terminal mulitplexer. You'll be able to achieve the same using tmux.

Answered By - anddt

Answer Checked By - Terry (WPSolving Volunteer)