async_exception.py

import inspect
import ctypes
from time import sleep
from threading import Thread

def _async_raise(tid, exctype):
     """raises the exception, performs cleanup if needed"""
     if not inspect.isclass(exctype):
          exctype = type(exctype)
     res = ctypes.pythonapi.PyThreadState_SetAsyncExc(ctypes.c_long(tid), ctypes.py_object(exctype))
     if res == 0:
          raise ValueError("invalid thread id")
     elif res != 1:
          # """if it returns a number greater than one, you're in trouble,
          # and you should call it again with exc=NULL to revert the effect"""
          ctypes.pythonapi.PyThreadState_SetAsyncExc(tid, None)
          raise SystemError("PyThreadState_SetAsyncExc failed")

def stop_thread(thread):
     _async_raise(thread.ident, SystemExit)

class myReader(Thread):
    def run(self):
        with open('/dev/tty', encoding='ascii') as myStream:
            try:
                for myString in myStream:
                    print(myString)
            except SystemExit:
                print("SystemExit detected")
        print("cleaning up...")

myReader = myReader()
myReader.start()
while(True):
    try:
        sleep(0.1) # Time in seconds.
    except KeyboardInterrupt:
        print("KeyboardInterrupt detected, signaling thread")
        break
stop_thread(myReader)
print("Waiting on thread join...")
myReader.join()
print("Joined.")