How to know if the system console is open?

Question

Can we know, with python, if the system console of blender is open? I know that we can open or close it with this function:

bpy.ops.wm.console_toggle()

But it doesn't return the 'state' of the system console like open or closed (True,False).

I want to be sure that the console is open when i execute one of my script.

Answer 1

Short Answer: You cannot

First, bpy.ops.wm.console_toggle() is available only on Windows. And I admit, it is a work around. Other OSs run without a console. If you want a console, you must start blender from a terminal on Linux and Mac.

The I/O steam redirect blender.exe > out.txt should work. (but I haven't test it)

If you realy want to communicate with user, you should use a dialog box: http://wiki.blender.org/index.php/Dev:2.5/Py/Scripts/Cookbook/Code_snippets/Interface

error message or save it in a log file. Those methods should work on any system.

P.S.

On C code side, the function returns the current status, and you can query the status.

Answer 2

You can on Windows ; On Windows, it's possible to check using python code, whether the blender console window is already visible or not.

That Blender's console window being most probably the only window of the console class (ConsoleWindowClass) with the name ""

(see bellow to install win32gui)

def show_blender_system_console():
    import win32gui

    def enum_windows_callback(hwnd, results):
        class_name = win32gui.GetClassName(hwnd)
        if class_name == "ConsoleWindowClass":
            results.append((hwnd, win32gui.GetWindowText(hwnd)))

    windows = []
    win32gui.EnumWindows(enum_windows_callback, windows)

    for hwnd, title in windows:
        if title=="":
            break

    print(f"The Blender console window is {hwnd}")

    # Check if the window is visible or hidden
    is_visible = win32gui.IsWindowVisible(hwnd)

    if is_visible:
        print("The window is visible.")
        win32gui.SetForegroundWindow(hwnd)
    else:
        print("The window is hidden.")
        bpy.ops.wm.console_toggle()

win32gui is included in pywin32 ; to install a python package do in a cmd (win+R>cmd):

C:\[path to your blender app]\python\bin\python.exe -m pip install pywin32

e.g. (Change the path accordingly to your version):

C:\Program Files\Blender Foundation\Blender 3.5\3.5\python\python.exe -m pip install pywin32

you might want to do ensure pip is installed and updated before:

C:\[path to your blender app]\python\bin\python.exe -m ensurepip
C:\[path to your blender app]\python\bin\python.exe -m pip  install --upgrade pip

Answer 3

import bpy
from bpy.app.handlers import persistent

bl_info = {
  "name": "Startup",
  "author": "",
  "version": (1, 2, 4),
  "blender": (3, 6, 0),
  "location": "",
  "description": "startup scripts",
  "warning": "",
  "doc_url": "",
  "category": "startup",
  "addon_id": "startup"
}

console_opened = False
def ensure_console():
  global console_opened
  if console_opened: return
  bpy.ops.wm.console_toggle()
  console_opened = True

@persistent
def load_handler(a, b):
  ensure_console()
  
def register():
  bpy.app.handlers.load_post.append(load_handler)

if __name__ == "__main__":
  register()

This will execute the console open just once.
So no need for external stuff.