psutil get parent process

get_parent_process.py

# -*- coding: utf-8 -*-
import psutil

def get_parent_process(ok_names, limit=10):
    '''Walk up the process tree until we find a process we like.

    Arguments:
        ok_names: Return the first one of these processes that we find
    '''

    depth = 0
    this_proc = psutil.Process(os.getpid())
    next_proc = parent = psutil.Process(this_proc.ppid())
    while depth < limit:

        if next_proc.name() in ok_names:
            return next_proc.name()

        next_proc = psutil.Process(next_proc.ppid())
        depth += 1

    return parent.name()