Python thread name doesn’t show up on ps or htop

First install the prctl module. (On debian/ubuntu just type sudo apt-get install python-prctl)

from threading import Thread
import time
import prctl

def sleeper():
    prctl.set_name("sleeping tiger")
    while True:
        time.sleep(10)
        print "sleeping"

t = Thread(target=sleeper, name="Sleeper01")
t.start()
t.join()

This prints

$ ps -T
  PID  SPID TTY          TIME CMD
22684 22684 pts/29   00:00:00 bash
23302 23302 pts/29   00:00:00 python
23302 23303 pts/29   00:00:00 sleeping tiger
23304 23304 pts/29   00:00:00 ps

Note: python3 users may wish to use pyprctl.