Bulk delete a larger number of rows without locking up the table

batch-delete.py

import subprocess
import re
import time

def delete():
  delete_stmt = [
    'mysql',
    '-h', '...',
    '-u',  '...',
    '--password=...',
    'table_abc',
    '--skip-column-names',
    '-e', "delete from ... where ...;",
    '-vvv'
  ]

  result = subprocess.run(delete_stmt, stdout=subprocess.PIPE)
  output = result.stdout.decode('utf-8')

  print(output)

  match = re.search( r'(\d*) rows affected', output)
  affected_rows = int(match.group(1))
  return affected_rows

affected_rows = 1000

while affected_rows > 0:
  affected_rows = delete()
  time.sleep(2)