🔒 tkinter: root.quit() vs root.destroy()

[sterile rain]

After browsing a few stackoverflow threads, I am still confused. What is the difference between quit and destroy?

[onyx nexus]

@sterile rain

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[nova dagger]

root.quit() terminates the main loop. It allowes the code to stop. It does not immedently termainate, and lets it exit gracefully.

root.destroy() immediately destroys the window with widgets and other things. typically used when you want to close the application abruptly

[sterile rain]

got it

if all i have in my window is a few labels and buttons, does it matter which one i use?

[nova dagger]

I'd just use the .quit()

quit is like the peaceful closing of it

[quartz egret]

huh, most of the scripts ive seen use destroy even during graceful exits

that method gets called on your widgets when the user clicks the close button too

[nova dagger]

I've never seen destroy

[quartz egret]

and ive never seen quit

[nova dagger]

Or knew it existed

[quartz egret]

there does seem to be a tangible difference in that widgets don't get their destroy methods called when calling quit()
https://paste.pythondiscord.com/R4BQ

clicking destroy shows the destroy messages for MyTk and MyWidget before graceful exit, while clicking quit only shows graceful exit message

hmm, it seems the technical difference is that destroy invokes the Tk destroy command on the widget and its children
https://github.com/python/cpython/blob/v3.12.2/Lib/tkinter/__init__.py#L2383-L2391

[onyx nexus]

Lib/tkinter/__init__.py lines 2383 to 2391

def destroy(self):
    """Destroy this and all descendants widgets. This will
    end the application of this Tcl interpreter."""
    for c in list(self.children.values()): c.destroy()
    self.tk.call('destroy', self._w)
    Misc.destroy(self)
    global _default_root
    if _support_default_root and _default_root is self:
        _default_root = None```

[quartz egret]

while Tk.quit() only tells the mainloop to stop running at the next iteration
https://github.com/python/cpython/blob/v3.12.2/Modules/_tkinter.c#L2743-L2749

[onyx nexus]

Modules/_tkinter.c lines 2743 to 2749

static PyObject *
_tkinter_tkapp_quit_impl(TkappObject *self)
/*[clinic end generated code: output=7f21eeff481f754f input=e03020dc38aff23c]*/
{
    quitMainLoop = 1;
    Py_RETURN_NONE;
}```

[quartz egret]

i dont notice any cleanup of the Tcl interpreter in _tkinter_tkapp_mainloop_impl, though its not obvious to me what cleanup Tk does when the root window is destroyed either...

fwiw i don't see quit() mentioned in either the python docs or TkDocs

seems weird how poorly documented they are

i guess because the difference is usually unimportant?

[sterile rain]

huh

[quartz egret]

hmm, the customtkinter library seems to use quit() during testing
https://github.com/search?q=repo%3ATomSchimansky%2FCustomTkinter quit&type=code
but at the same time, they also override the destroy() method in a bunch of their widgets
https://github.com/search?q=repo%3ATomSchimansky%2FCustomTkinter+destroy&type=code

i guess for customtkinter at least, destroying the root would be safer than quitting

[onyx nexus]

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