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When I was trying python on cmd prompt and I was trying to exit to install a package, the sentence "keyboard interrupt" was displayed instead of actually exiting. I couldn't find a "break" key to try ctrl + break, so I kept trying with ctrl + c. I tried the default settings, removing the quick edit mode, and run as administrator, I just can't seem to exit out of python.

Any help with this problem would be much appreciated.

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  • This?
    – Kamil Maciorowski
    Feb 8, 2020 at 23:35
  • Thank you so much, @KamilMaciorowski ! It worked. But I am just annoyed that ctrl + c didn't work.
    – S.R.
    Feb 8, 2020 at 23:37
  • I would expect Ctrl+d but I know neither Python nor cmd.exe.
    – Kamil Maciorowski
    Feb 8, 2020 at 23:41
  • Ctrl-C does not break out of simple Terminal in Kali, so I expect it is just the way Linux is
    – John
    Feb 9, 2020 at 0:28

2 Answers 2

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On Windows, in the interactive Python interpreter, the options to exit are:

  • quit()

  • exit()

  • Ctrl + Z then Enter

  • Ctrl + Break

When running scripts, Ctrl + C can generally be used to send a KeyboardInterrupt that halts script execution (note that a Traceback will be generated).

The Ctrl + Break option assumes your keyboard has a Break or Pause/Break key.

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Due to a design decision, the Python interpeter does not exit on Ctrl+C,
but rather on Ctrl+D or the command exit().

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  • 1
    I'm a Linux guy and I find normal that interactive interpreters (e.g. shells) use Ctrl+D for this, not Ctrl+C. I think even cmd.exe in Windows doesn't exit on Ctrl+C. Why should Python differ? In this context "unknown reason" seems unjustified.
    – Kamil Maciorowski
    Feb 9, 2020 at 0:34
  • @KamilMaciorowski: I rephrased the introductory sentence. However, CTRL-C (C for Cancel) seems to be the most widespread key combination for exiting some sub-space. Unless you argue for CTRL-D (D for delete)...
    – zx485
    Feb 9, 2020 at 0:38
  • It could be that the process running the python interpreter at least originally needed a quit option as well, thus CTRL-C would be ambiguous if used for both the interpreter and the host program?
    – CourageousPotato
    Feb 9, 2020 at 2:47

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