I have a simple python socket server and I want my client to be able to open/ close a thread process over the duration of multiple connections (ie I don’t want to keep my client-server connection open between requests). A simplified version of the server looks like this:

_bottle_thread = None # I have tried this and a class variable

class CalibrationServer(socketserver.BaseRequestHandler):

    allow_reuse_address = True
    request_params = None
    response = None

    bottle_thread = None

    def handle(self):
        self.data = self.request.recv(1024).strip()
        self.request_params = str(self.data.decode('utf-8')).split(" ")
        method = self.request_params[0]

        if method == "start": self.handle_start()
        elif method == "stop": self.handle_stop()
        else: self.response = "ERROR: Unknown request"

        self.request.sendall(self.response.encode('utf-8'))


    def handle_start(self):
        try:
            bottle = self.request_params[1]
            _bottle_thread = threading.Thread(target=start, args=(bottle,))
            _bottle_thread.start()
            self.response = "Ran successfully"
            print(_bottle_thread.is_alive(), _bottle_thread)
        except Exception as e:
            self.response = f"ERROR: Failed to unwrap: {e}"

    def handle_stop(self):
        print(_bottle_thread)
        if _bottle_thread and _bottle_thread.is_alive():
            _bottle_thread.join()  # Wait for the thread to finish
            self.response = "Thread stopped successfully"
        else:
            self.response = "No active thread to stop"



if __name__ == "__main__":
    HOST, PORT = LOCAL_IP, CAL_PORT

    with socketserver.TCPServer((HOST, PORT), CalibrationServer) as server:
        server.serve_forever()

The process starts fine, but when my connection with the server is closed, I can no longer access the _bottle_thread. It is just re-initialized as None. I only have one master computer communicating with the server and will only need one instance of start running. I have tried using class variables to hold it and using global variables. I have also tried using Threading and Forking TCP servers. How can I access that thread to shut it down? Will I need to change it so the connection is always open? Is there another way to tackle this problem? I want to use a server so I can more easily control this process because it will be running on 8 different computers at a time but am totally open to other ideas (I tried Ansible it didn’t work for me). Thanks!