Finding name for a signal number

[Oliver Fromme]

Hi,

I've just begun learning Python, so please don't eat me
for lunch if my question is too stupid.

In a small script I'd like to print the name of a signal
number:  In the event that an os.system() call is aborted
by a signal, the signal number is returned in the lower 7
bits of the return value.  I'd like to print a meaningful
message which includes the signal name (like "SIGQUIT"),
not just the number.

I've searched the library reference for a signal name
dictionary (just like the errno.errorcode dictionary in
the errno module), but haven't found one.

The next thing I came up with is extracting the signal
names from the namespace dictionary of the signal module
itself, like this:

    import signal
    
    def get_signame (n):
        "Return the signal name for a signal number."
        for sig in dir(signal):
            if sig.startswith("SIG"):
                value = eval("signal." + sig)
                if type(value) is IntType and value == n:
                    return sig
        return "SIG#" + str(n)

This works.  However, the above code seems awkward and
inefficient, in particular the eval() part.  Is there a
better way?  Did I miss something?

Thanks in advance!

Regards
   Oliver

-- 
Oliver Fromme, secnetix GmbH & Co KG, Oettingenstr. 2, 80538 München
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