--- /dev/null	Thu Jan 01 00:00:00 1970 +0000
+++ b/python/multiproc.py	Wed Jan 29 11:12:09 2014 -0800
@@ -0,0 +1,42 @@
+#!/usr/bin/env python
+
+"""
+multiprocessing/subprocess experiments
+"""
+
+import argparse
+import os
+import subprocess
+import sys
+import time
+import tempfile
+
+here = os.path.dirname(os.path.realpath(__file__))
+prog = ["yes"]
+timeout = 4.
+sleep = 1.
+
+def main(args=sys.argv[1:]):
+
+    usage = '%prog [options]'
+    parser = argparse.ArgumentParser(usage=usage, description=__doc__)
+    parser.add_argument("-t", "--time", dest="time",
+                        type=float, default=1.,
+                        help="seconds to run for")
+    options = parser.parse_args(args)
+
+    output = tempfile.SpooledTemporaryFile()
+    start = time.time()
+    proc = subprocess.Popen(prog, stdout=output)
+    while proc.poll() is None:
+        if time.time() - start > options.time:
+            proc.kill()
+
+    # reset tempfile
+    output.seek(0)
+
+    n_lines = len(output.read().splitlines())
+    print ("{}: {} lines".format(subprocess.list2cmdline(prog), n_lines))
+
+if __name__ == '__main__':
+    main()