`Display was started twice` even though `stop` was called about pyvirtualdisplay HOT 6 CLOSED

@Sebadst you can do:

from pyvirtualdisplay import Display

display = Display()
display.start()
display.stop()
del display
display = Display()
display.start()

When calling display.stop() it in fact stops the Xvfb, Xephir or Xvnc displays but the Display object still exists. If I get rid of it and instantiate it again I am able to start the display again.

from pyvirtualdisplay.

You don't even have to delete the old object

>>> from pyvirtualdisplay import Display
>>> display = Display()
>>> display.start()
<pyvirtualdisplay.display.Display object at 0x7f0b585e9df0>
>>> display.stop()
<pyvirtualdisplay.display.Display object at 0x7f0b585e9df0>
>>> display = Display()
>>> display.start()
<pyvirtualdisplay.display.Display object at 0x7f0b5868b1f0>

You don't have such problems with context manager (check the README)

from pyvirtualdisplay import Display
with Display() as disp:
    # display is active
    pass
# display is stopped

from pyvirtualdisplay.

Display wraps one call to Xvfb, so you can use start() only once on it. Don't call it twice.

from pyvirtualdisplay import Display

display = Display()
display.start()
display.stop()

from pyvirtualdisplay.

what does the stop() call do exactly then?

from pyvirtualdisplay.

start() starts Xvfb stop() stops Xvfb.

Example from README:

from pyvirtualdisplay import Display
disp = Display().start()
# display is active
disp.stop()
# display is stopped

from pyvirtualdisplay.

Yes, working with context manager is an alternative but in my case I had a multi-threaded scenario with the virtual display as a shared resource where using context wouldn't allow me to implement the flexibility I needed and so I ended up just deleting the old object after stopping the display to be able to start it again when required.

from pyvirtualdisplay.