How can a Python script be designed to enable manual start and stop?

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One way to enable manual start and stop of a Python script is to use command line arguments or flags. Here is an example of how it could work:

1. Define two flags that will be recognized by the script: --start and --stop. These flags will indicate whether the script should start or stop.

2. Use a command line argument parser, such as argparse, to read the flags passed from the command line.

3. Once the flags are read, perform the corresponding action based on the flag passed:

4. If --start is passed, start the main functionality of the script.
5. If --stop is passed, stop the main functionality of the script and gracefully exit.

Here is an example Python code snippet that implements this approach:

import argparse

# Define the command line arguments
parser = argparse.ArgumentParser()
parser.add_argument('--start', action='store_true', help='Start the script')
parser.add_argument('--stop', action='store_true', help='Stop the script')

# Parse the command line arguments
args = parser.parse_args()

# Perform the corresponding action based on the flag passed
if args.start:
    print('Starting the script...')
    # Call the main functionality of the script here
elif args.stop:
    print('Stopping the script...')
    # Stop the main functionality and gracefully exit here
else:
    print('No action specified. Use --start or --stop to enable manual start and stop.')