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Antoine Pitrou64a467d2010-12-12 20:34:49 +00001:mod:`multiprocessing` --- Process-based parallelism
2====================================================
Benjamin Petersone711caf2008-06-11 16:44:04 +00003
4.. module:: multiprocessing
Antoine Pitrou64a467d2010-12-12 20:34:49 +00005 :synopsis: Process-based parallelism.
Benjamin Petersone711caf2008-06-11 16:44:04 +00006
Benjamin Petersone711caf2008-06-11 16:44:04 +00007
8Introduction
Georg Brandl49702152008-09-29 06:43:45 +00009------------
Benjamin Petersone711caf2008-06-11 16:44:04 +000010
Benjamin Peterson5289b2b2008-06-28 00:40:54 +000011:mod:`multiprocessing` is a package that supports spawning processes using an
12API similar to the :mod:`threading` module. The :mod:`multiprocessing` package
13offers both local and remote concurrency, effectively side-stepping the
14:term:`Global Interpreter Lock` by using subprocesses instead of threads. Due
15to this, the :mod:`multiprocessing` module allows the programmer to fully
16leverage multiple processors on a given machine. It runs on both Unix and
17Windows.
Benjamin Petersone711caf2008-06-11 16:44:04 +000018
Raymond Hettingerfd151912010-11-04 03:02:56 +000019.. note::
Benjamin Petersone5384b02008-10-04 22:00:42 +000020
21 Some of this package's functionality requires a functioning shared semaphore
Georg Brandl48310cd2009-01-03 21:18:54 +000022 implementation on the host operating system. Without one, the
23 :mod:`multiprocessing.synchronize` module will be disabled, and attempts to
24 import it will result in an :exc:`ImportError`. See
Benjamin Petersone5384b02008-10-04 22:00:42 +000025 :issue:`3770` for additional information.
Benjamin Petersone711caf2008-06-11 16:44:04 +000026
Jesse Noller45239682008-11-28 18:46:19 +000027.. note::
28
Ezio Melotti2ee88352011-04-29 07:10:24 +030029 Functionality within this package requires that the ``__main__`` module be
Jesse Noller45239682008-11-28 18:46:19 +000030 importable by the children. This is covered in :ref:`multiprocessing-programming`
31 however it is worth pointing out here. This means that some examples, such
32 as the :class:`multiprocessing.Pool` examples will not work in the
33 interactive interpreter. For example::
34
35 >>> from multiprocessing import Pool
36 >>> p = Pool(5)
37 >>> def f(x):
Georg Brandla1c6a1c2009-01-03 21:26:05 +000038 ... return x*x
Georg Brandl48310cd2009-01-03 21:18:54 +000039 ...
Jesse Noller45239682008-11-28 18:46:19 +000040 >>> p.map(f, [1,2,3])
41 Process PoolWorker-1:
42 Process PoolWorker-2:
R. David Murray8e8099c2009-04-28 18:02:00 +000043 Process PoolWorker-3:
44 Traceback (most recent call last):
Jesse Noller45239682008-11-28 18:46:19 +000045 Traceback (most recent call last):
46 Traceback (most recent call last):
47 AttributeError: 'module' object has no attribute 'f'
48 AttributeError: 'module' object has no attribute 'f'
49 AttributeError: 'module' object has no attribute 'f'
50
R. David Murray8e8099c2009-04-28 18:02:00 +000051 (If you try this it will actually output three full tracebacks
52 interleaved in a semi-random fashion, and then you may have to
53 stop the master process somehow.)
54
Jesse Noller45239682008-11-28 18:46:19 +000055
Benjamin Petersone711caf2008-06-11 16:44:04 +000056The :class:`Process` class
57~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
58
59In :mod:`multiprocessing`, processes are spawned by creating a :class:`Process`
Benjamin Peterson5289b2b2008-06-28 00:40:54 +000060object and then calling its :meth:`~Process.start` method. :class:`Process`
Benjamin Petersone711caf2008-06-11 16:44:04 +000061follows the API of :class:`threading.Thread`. A trivial example of a
62multiprocess program is ::
63
Georg Brandlb3959bd2010-04-08 06:33:16 +000064 from multiprocessing import Process
Benjamin Petersone711caf2008-06-11 16:44:04 +000065
66 def f(name):
Georg Brandl49702152008-09-29 06:43:45 +000067 print('hello', name)
Benjamin Petersone711caf2008-06-11 16:44:04 +000068
Georg Brandlb3959bd2010-04-08 06:33:16 +000069 if __name__ == '__main__':
70 p = Process(target=f, args=('bob',))
71 p.start()
72 p.join()
Benjamin Petersone711caf2008-06-11 16:44:04 +000073
Jesse Noller45239682008-11-28 18:46:19 +000074To show the individual process IDs involved, here is an expanded example::
75
76 from multiprocessing import Process
77 import os
78
79 def info(title):
Ezio Melotti985e24d2009-09-13 07:54:02 +000080 print(title)
81 print('module name:', __name__)
82 print('parent process:', os.getppid())
83 print('process id:', os.getpid())
Georg Brandl48310cd2009-01-03 21:18:54 +000084
Jesse Noller45239682008-11-28 18:46:19 +000085 def f(name):
86 info('function f')
Ezio Melotti985e24d2009-09-13 07:54:02 +000087 print('hello', name)
Georg Brandl48310cd2009-01-03 21:18:54 +000088
Jesse Noller45239682008-11-28 18:46:19 +000089 if __name__ == '__main__':
90 info('main line')
91 p = Process(target=f, args=('bob',))
92 p.start()
93 p.join()
Benjamin Petersone711caf2008-06-11 16:44:04 +000094
95For an explanation of why (on Windows) the ``if __name__ == '__main__'`` part is
96necessary, see :ref:`multiprocessing-programming`.
97
98
99
100Exchanging objects between processes
101~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
102
103:mod:`multiprocessing` supports two types of communication channel between
104processes:
105
106**Queues**
107
Benjamin Peterson257060a2008-06-28 01:42:41 +0000108 The :class:`Queue` class is a near clone of :class:`queue.Queue`. For
Benjamin Petersone711caf2008-06-11 16:44:04 +0000109 example::
110
111 from multiprocessing import Process, Queue
112
113 def f(q):
114 q.put([42, None, 'hello'])
115
Georg Brandl1f01deb2009-01-03 22:47:39 +0000116 if __name__ == '__main__':
117 q = Queue()
118 p = Process(target=f, args=(q,))
119 p.start()
120 print(q.get()) # prints "[42, None, 'hello']"
121 p.join()
Benjamin Petersone711caf2008-06-11 16:44:04 +0000122
Antoine Pitroufc6accc2012-05-18 13:57:04 +0200123 Queues are thread and process safe.
Benjamin Petersone711caf2008-06-11 16:44:04 +0000124
125**Pipes**
126
127 The :func:`Pipe` function returns a pair of connection objects connected by a
128 pipe which by default is duplex (two-way). For example::
129
130 from multiprocessing import Process, Pipe
131
132 def f(conn):
133 conn.send([42, None, 'hello'])
134 conn.close()
135
136 if __name__ == '__main__':
137 parent_conn, child_conn = Pipe()
138 p = Process(target=f, args=(child_conn,))
139 p.start()
Georg Brandl49702152008-09-29 06:43:45 +0000140 print(parent_conn.recv()) # prints "[42, None, 'hello']"
Benjamin Petersone711caf2008-06-11 16:44:04 +0000141 p.join()
142
143 The two connection objects returned by :func:`Pipe` represent the two ends of
Benjamin Peterson5289b2b2008-06-28 00:40:54 +0000144 the pipe. Each connection object has :meth:`~Connection.send` and
145 :meth:`~Connection.recv` methods (among others). Note that data in a pipe
146 may become corrupted if two processes (or threads) try to read from or write
147 to the *same* end of the pipe at the same time. Of course there is no risk
148 of corruption from processes using different ends of the pipe at the same
149 time.
Benjamin Petersone711caf2008-06-11 16:44:04 +0000150
151
152Synchronization between processes
153~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
154
155:mod:`multiprocessing` contains equivalents of all the synchronization
156primitives from :mod:`threading`. For instance one can use a lock to ensure
157that only one process prints to standard output at a time::
158
159 from multiprocessing import Process, Lock
160
161 def f(l, i):
162 l.acquire()
Georg Brandl49702152008-09-29 06:43:45 +0000163 print('hello world', i)
Benjamin Petersone711caf2008-06-11 16:44:04 +0000164 l.release()
165
166 if __name__ == '__main__':
167 lock = Lock()
168
169 for num in range(10):
170 Process(target=f, args=(lock, num)).start()
171
172Without using the lock output from the different processes is liable to get all
173mixed up.
174
175
176Sharing state between processes
177~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
178
179As mentioned above, when doing concurrent programming it is usually best to
180avoid using shared state as far as possible. This is particularly true when
181using multiple processes.
182
183However, if you really do need to use some shared data then
184:mod:`multiprocessing` provides a couple of ways of doing so.
185
186**Shared memory**
187
188 Data can be stored in a shared memory map using :class:`Value` or
189 :class:`Array`. For example, the following code ::
190
191 from multiprocessing import Process, Value, Array
192
193 def f(n, a):
194 n.value = 3.1415927
195 for i in range(len(a)):
196 a[i] = -a[i]
197
198 if __name__ == '__main__':
199 num = Value('d', 0.0)
200 arr = Array('i', range(10))
201
202 p = Process(target=f, args=(num, arr))
203 p.start()
204 p.join()
205
Georg Brandl49702152008-09-29 06:43:45 +0000206 print(num.value)
207 print(arr[:])
Benjamin Petersone711caf2008-06-11 16:44:04 +0000208
209 will print ::
210
211 3.1415927
212 [0, -1, -2, -3, -4, -5, -6, -7, -8, -9]
213
214 The ``'d'`` and ``'i'`` arguments used when creating ``num`` and ``arr`` are
215 typecodes of the kind used by the :mod:`array` module: ``'d'`` indicates a
Georg Brandl2ee470f2008-07-16 12:55:28 +0000216 double precision float and ``'i'`` indicates a signed integer. These shared
Georg Brandlf285bcc2010-10-19 21:07:16 +0000217 objects will be process and thread-safe.
Benjamin Petersone711caf2008-06-11 16:44:04 +0000218
219 For more flexibility in using shared memory one can use the
220 :mod:`multiprocessing.sharedctypes` module which supports the creation of
221 arbitrary ctypes objects allocated from shared memory.
222
223**Server process**
224
225 A manager object returned by :func:`Manager` controls a server process which
Georg Brandl2ee470f2008-07-16 12:55:28 +0000226 holds Python objects and allows other processes to manipulate them using
Benjamin Petersone711caf2008-06-11 16:44:04 +0000227 proxies.
228
229 A manager returned by :func:`Manager` will support types :class:`list`,
230 :class:`dict`, :class:`Namespace`, :class:`Lock`, :class:`RLock`,
231 :class:`Semaphore`, :class:`BoundedSemaphore`, :class:`Condition`,
232 :class:`Event`, :class:`Queue`, :class:`Value` and :class:`Array`. For
233 example, ::
234
235 from multiprocessing import Process, Manager
236
237 def f(d, l):
238 d[1] = '1'
239 d['2'] = 2
240 d[0.25] = None
241 l.reverse()
242
243 if __name__ == '__main__':
244 manager = Manager()
245
246 d = manager.dict()
247 l = manager.list(range(10))
248
249 p = Process(target=f, args=(d, l))
250 p.start()
251 p.join()
252
Georg Brandl49702152008-09-29 06:43:45 +0000253 print(d)
254 print(l)
Benjamin Petersone711caf2008-06-11 16:44:04 +0000255
256 will print ::
257
258 {0.25: None, 1: '1', '2': 2}
259 [9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1, 0]
260
261 Server process managers are more flexible than using shared memory objects
262 because they can be made to support arbitrary object types. Also, a single
263 manager can be shared by processes on different computers over a network.
264 They are, however, slower than using shared memory.
265
266
267Using a pool of workers
268~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
269
Benjamin Peterson5289b2b2008-06-28 00:40:54 +0000270The :class:`~multiprocessing.pool.Pool` class represents a pool of worker
Benjamin Petersone711caf2008-06-11 16:44:04 +0000271processes. It has methods which allows tasks to be offloaded to the worker
272processes in a few different ways.
273
274For example::
275
276 from multiprocessing import Pool
277
278 def f(x):
279 return x*x
280
281 if __name__ == '__main__':
Ezio Melotti985e24d2009-09-13 07:54:02 +0000282 pool = Pool(processes=4) # start 4 worker processes
Jesse Noller45239682008-11-28 18:46:19 +0000283 result = pool.apply_async(f, [10]) # evaluate "f(10)" asynchronously
Ezio Melotti985e24d2009-09-13 07:54:02 +0000284 print(result.get(timeout=1)) # prints "100" unless your computer is *very* slow
285 print(pool.map(f, range(10))) # prints "[0, 1, 4,..., 81]"
Benjamin Petersone711caf2008-06-11 16:44:04 +0000286
287
288Reference
289---------
290
291The :mod:`multiprocessing` package mostly replicates the API of the
292:mod:`threading` module.
293
294
295:class:`Process` and exceptions
296~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
297
Antoine Pitrou0bd4deb2011-02-25 22:07:43 +0000298.. class:: Process([group[, target[, name[, args[, kwargs]]]]], *, daemon=None)
Benjamin Petersone711caf2008-06-11 16:44:04 +0000299
300 Process objects represent activity that is run in a separate process. The
301 :class:`Process` class has equivalents of all the methods of
302 :class:`threading.Thread`.
303
304 The constructor should always be called with keyword arguments. *group*
Benjamin Peterson5289b2b2008-06-28 00:40:54 +0000305 should always be ``None``; it exists solely for compatibility with
Benjamin Petersona786b022008-08-25 21:05:21 +0000306 :class:`threading.Thread`. *target* is the callable object to be invoked by
Benjamin Peterson5289b2b2008-06-28 00:40:54 +0000307 the :meth:`run()` method. It defaults to ``None``, meaning nothing is
Benjamin Petersone711caf2008-06-11 16:44:04 +0000308 called. *name* is the process name. By default, a unique name is constructed
309 of the form 'Process-N\ :sub:`1`:N\ :sub:`2`:...:N\ :sub:`k`' where N\
310 :sub:`1`,N\ :sub:`2`,...,N\ :sub:`k` is a sequence of integers whose length
311 is determined by the *generation* of the process. *args* is the argument
312 tuple for the target invocation. *kwargs* is a dictionary of keyword
Antoine Pitrou0bd4deb2011-02-25 22:07:43 +0000313 arguments for the target invocation. If provided, the keyword-only *daemon* argument
314 sets the process :attr:`daemon` flag to ``True`` or ``False``. If ``None``
315 (the default), this flag will be inherited from the creating process.
316
317 By default, no arguments are passed to *target*.
Benjamin Petersone711caf2008-06-11 16:44:04 +0000318
319 If a subclass overrides the constructor, it must make sure it invokes the
320 base class constructor (:meth:`Process.__init__`) before doing anything else
321 to the process.
322
Antoine Pitrou0bd4deb2011-02-25 22:07:43 +0000323 .. versionchanged:: 3.3
324 Added the *daemon* argument.
325
Benjamin Petersone711caf2008-06-11 16:44:04 +0000326 .. method:: run()
327
328 Method representing the process's activity.
329
330 You may override this method in a subclass. The standard :meth:`run`
331 method invokes the callable object passed to the object's constructor as
332 the target argument, if any, with sequential and keyword arguments taken
333 from the *args* and *kwargs* arguments, respectively.
334
335 .. method:: start()
336
337 Start the process's activity.
338
339 This must be called at most once per process object. It arranges for the
340 object's :meth:`run` method to be invoked in a separate process.
341
342 .. method:: join([timeout])
343
Charles-François Nataliacd9f7c2011-07-25 18:35:49 +0200344 If the optional argument *timeout* is ``None`` (the default), the method
345 blocks until the process whose :meth:`join` method is called terminates.
346 If *timeout* is a positive number, it blocks at most *timeout* seconds.
Benjamin Petersone711caf2008-06-11 16:44:04 +0000347
348 A process can be joined many times.
349
350 A process cannot join itself because this would cause a deadlock. It is
351 an error to attempt to join a process before it has been started.
352
Benjamin Petersona786b022008-08-25 21:05:21 +0000353 .. attribute:: name
Benjamin Petersone711caf2008-06-11 16:44:04 +0000354
Benjamin Petersona786b022008-08-25 21:05:21 +0000355 The process's name.
Benjamin Petersone711caf2008-06-11 16:44:04 +0000356
357 The name is a string used for identification purposes only. It has no
358 semantics. Multiple processes may be given the same name. The initial
359 name is set by the constructor.
360
Jesse Noller45239682008-11-28 18:46:19 +0000361 .. method:: is_alive
Benjamin Petersone711caf2008-06-11 16:44:04 +0000362
363 Return whether the process is alive.
364
365 Roughly, a process object is alive from the moment the :meth:`start`
366 method returns until the child process terminates.
367
Benjamin Petersona786b022008-08-25 21:05:21 +0000368 .. attribute:: daemon
Benjamin Petersone711caf2008-06-11 16:44:04 +0000369
Benjamin Petersonda10d3b2009-01-01 00:23:30 +0000370 The process's daemon flag, a Boolean value. This must be set before
Benjamin Petersona786b022008-08-25 21:05:21 +0000371 :meth:`start` is called.
Benjamin Petersone711caf2008-06-11 16:44:04 +0000372
373 The initial value is inherited from the creating process.
374
375 When a process exits, it attempts to terminate all of its daemonic child
376 processes.
377
378 Note that a daemonic process is not allowed to create child processes.
379 Otherwise a daemonic process would leave its children orphaned if it gets
Alexandre Vassalotti260484d2009-07-17 11:43:26 +0000380 terminated when its parent process exits. Additionally, these are **not**
381 Unix daemons or services, they are normal processes that will be
Georg Brandl6faee4e2010-09-21 14:48:28 +0000382 terminated (and not joined) if non-daemonic processes have exited.
Benjamin Petersone711caf2008-06-11 16:44:04 +0000383
Benjamin Petersona786b022008-08-25 21:05:21 +0000384 In addition to the :class:`Threading.Thread` API, :class:`Process` objects
385 also support the following attributes and methods:
Benjamin Petersone711caf2008-06-11 16:44:04 +0000386
Benjamin Petersona786b022008-08-25 21:05:21 +0000387 .. attribute:: pid
Benjamin Petersone711caf2008-06-11 16:44:04 +0000388
389 Return the process ID. Before the process is spawned, this will be
390 ``None``.
391
Benjamin Petersona786b022008-08-25 21:05:21 +0000392 .. attribute:: exitcode
Benjamin Petersone711caf2008-06-11 16:44:04 +0000393
Benjamin Petersona786b022008-08-25 21:05:21 +0000394 The child's exit code. This will be ``None`` if the process has not yet
395 terminated. A negative value *-N* indicates that the child was terminated
396 by signal *N*.
Benjamin Petersone711caf2008-06-11 16:44:04 +0000397
Benjamin Petersona786b022008-08-25 21:05:21 +0000398 .. attribute:: authkey
Benjamin Petersone711caf2008-06-11 16:44:04 +0000399
Benjamin Petersona786b022008-08-25 21:05:21 +0000400 The process's authentication key (a byte string).
Benjamin Petersone711caf2008-06-11 16:44:04 +0000401
402 When :mod:`multiprocessing` is initialized the main process is assigned a
403 random string using :func:`os.random`.
404
405 When a :class:`Process` object is created, it will inherit the
Benjamin Petersona786b022008-08-25 21:05:21 +0000406 authentication key of its parent process, although this may be changed by
407 setting :attr:`authkey` to another byte string.
Benjamin Petersone711caf2008-06-11 16:44:04 +0000408
409 See :ref:`multiprocessing-auth-keys`.
410
Antoine Pitrou176f07d2011-06-06 19:35:31 +0200411 .. attribute:: sentinel
412
413 A numeric handle of a system object which will become "ready" when
414 the process ends.
415
Antoine Pitroubdb1cf12012-03-05 19:28:37 +0100416 You can use this value if you want to wait on several events at
417 once using :func:`multiprocessing.connection.wait`. Otherwise
418 calling :meth:`join()` is simpler.
419
Antoine Pitrou176f07d2011-06-06 19:35:31 +0200420 On Windows, this is an OS handle usable with the ``WaitForSingleObject``
421 and ``WaitForMultipleObjects`` family of API calls. On Unix, this is
422 a file descriptor usable with primitives from the :mod:`select` module.
423
Antoine Pitrou176f07d2011-06-06 19:35:31 +0200424 .. versionadded:: 3.3
425
Benjamin Peterson5289b2b2008-06-28 00:40:54 +0000426 .. method:: terminate()
Benjamin Petersone711caf2008-06-11 16:44:04 +0000427
Benjamin Peterson5289b2b2008-06-28 00:40:54 +0000428 Terminate the process. On Unix this is done using the ``SIGTERM`` signal;
Georg Brandl60203b42010-10-06 10:11:56 +0000429 on Windows :c:func:`TerminateProcess` is used. Note that exit handlers and
Benjamin Peterson5289b2b2008-06-28 00:40:54 +0000430 finally clauses, etc., will not be executed.
Benjamin Petersone711caf2008-06-11 16:44:04 +0000431
432 Note that descendant processes of the process will *not* be terminated --
433 they will simply become orphaned.
434
435 .. warning::
436
437 If this method is used when the associated process is using a pipe or
438 queue then the pipe or queue is liable to become corrupted and may
439 become unusable by other process. Similarly, if the process has
440 acquired a lock or semaphore etc. then terminating it is liable to
441 cause other processes to deadlock.
442
Ask Solemff7ffdd2010-11-09 21:52:33 +0000443 Note that the :meth:`start`, :meth:`join`, :meth:`is_alive`,
444 :meth:`terminate` and :attr:`exit_code` methods should only be called by
445 the process that created the process object.
Benjamin Petersone711caf2008-06-11 16:44:04 +0000446
R. David Murray8e8099c2009-04-28 18:02:00 +0000447 Example usage of some of the methods of :class:`Process`:
448
449 .. doctest::
Benjamin Petersone711caf2008-06-11 16:44:04 +0000450
Benjamin Peterson206e3072008-10-19 14:07:49 +0000451 >>> import multiprocessing, time, signal
452 >>> p = multiprocessing.Process(target=time.sleep, args=(1000,))
Georg Brandl49702152008-09-29 06:43:45 +0000453 >>> print(p, p.is_alive())
Benjamin Petersone711caf2008-06-11 16:44:04 +0000454 <Process(Process-1, initial)> False
455 >>> p.start()
Georg Brandl49702152008-09-29 06:43:45 +0000456 >>> print(p, p.is_alive())
Benjamin Petersone711caf2008-06-11 16:44:04 +0000457 <Process(Process-1, started)> True
458 >>> p.terminate()
R. David Murray8e8099c2009-04-28 18:02:00 +0000459 >>> time.sleep(0.1)
Georg Brandl49702152008-09-29 06:43:45 +0000460 >>> print(p, p.is_alive())
Benjamin Petersone711caf2008-06-11 16:44:04 +0000461 <Process(Process-1, stopped[SIGTERM])> False
Benjamin Petersona786b022008-08-25 21:05:21 +0000462 >>> p.exitcode == -signal.SIGTERM
Benjamin Petersone711caf2008-06-11 16:44:04 +0000463 True
464
465
466.. exception:: BufferTooShort
467
468 Exception raised by :meth:`Connection.recv_bytes_into()` when the supplied
469 buffer object is too small for the message read.
470
471 If ``e`` is an instance of :exc:`BufferTooShort` then ``e.args[0]`` will give
472 the message as a byte string.
473
474
475Pipes and Queues
476~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
477
478When using multiple processes, one generally uses message passing for
479communication between processes and avoids having to use any synchronization
480primitives like locks.
481
482For passing messages one can use :func:`Pipe` (for a connection between two
483processes) or a queue (which allows multiple producers and consumers).
484
Sandro Tosicd778152012-02-15 23:27:00 +0100485The :class:`Queue`, :class:`SimpleQueue` and :class:`JoinableQueue` types are multi-producer,
Benjamin Peterson257060a2008-06-28 01:42:41 +0000486multi-consumer FIFO queues modelled on the :class:`queue.Queue` class in the
Benjamin Petersone711caf2008-06-11 16:44:04 +0000487standard library. They differ in that :class:`Queue` lacks the
Benjamin Peterson257060a2008-06-28 01:42:41 +0000488:meth:`~queue.Queue.task_done` and :meth:`~queue.Queue.join` methods introduced
489into Python 2.5's :class:`queue.Queue` class.
Benjamin Petersone711caf2008-06-11 16:44:04 +0000490
491If you use :class:`JoinableQueue` then you **must** call
492:meth:`JoinableQueue.task_done` for each task removed from the queue or else the
Eli Benderskyd08effe2011-12-31 07:20:26 +0200493semaphore used to count the number of unfinished tasks may eventually overflow,
Benjamin Petersone711caf2008-06-11 16:44:04 +0000494raising an exception.
495
Benjamin Peterson5289b2b2008-06-28 00:40:54 +0000496Note that one can also create a shared queue by using a manager object -- see
497:ref:`multiprocessing-managers`.
498
Benjamin Petersone711caf2008-06-11 16:44:04 +0000499.. note::
500
Benjamin Peterson257060a2008-06-28 01:42:41 +0000501 :mod:`multiprocessing` uses the usual :exc:`queue.Empty` and
502 :exc:`queue.Full` exceptions to signal a timeout. They are not available in
Benjamin Petersone711caf2008-06-11 16:44:04 +0000503 the :mod:`multiprocessing` namespace so you need to import them from
Benjamin Peterson257060a2008-06-28 01:42:41 +0000504 :mod:`queue`.
Benjamin Petersone711caf2008-06-11 16:44:04 +0000505
506
507.. warning::
508
509 If a process is killed using :meth:`Process.terminate` or :func:`os.kill`
510 while it is trying to use a :class:`Queue`, then the data in the queue is
Eli Benderskyd08effe2011-12-31 07:20:26 +0200511 likely to become corrupted. This may cause any other process to get an
Benjamin Petersone711caf2008-06-11 16:44:04 +0000512 exception when it tries to use the queue later on.
513
514.. warning::
515
516 As mentioned above, if a child process has put items on a queue (and it has
517 not used :meth:`JoinableQueue.cancel_join_thread`), then that process will
518 not terminate until all buffered items have been flushed to the pipe.
519
520 This means that if you try joining that process you may get a deadlock unless
521 you are sure that all items which have been put on the queue have been
522 consumed. Similarly, if the child process is non-daemonic then the parent
Georg Brandl2ee470f2008-07-16 12:55:28 +0000523 process may hang on exit when it tries to join all its non-daemonic children.
Benjamin Petersone711caf2008-06-11 16:44:04 +0000524
525 Note that a queue created using a manager does not have this issue. See
526 :ref:`multiprocessing-programming`.
527
Benjamin Petersone711caf2008-06-11 16:44:04 +0000528For an example of the usage of queues for interprocess communication see
529:ref:`multiprocessing-examples`.
530
531
532.. function:: Pipe([duplex])
533
534 Returns a pair ``(conn1, conn2)`` of :class:`Connection` objects representing
535 the ends of a pipe.
536
537 If *duplex* is ``True`` (the default) then the pipe is bidirectional. If
538 *duplex* is ``False`` then the pipe is unidirectional: ``conn1`` can only be
539 used for receiving messages and ``conn2`` can only be used for sending
540 messages.
541
542
543.. class:: Queue([maxsize])
544
545 Returns a process shared queue implemented using a pipe and a few
546 locks/semaphores. When a process first puts an item on the queue a feeder
547 thread is started which transfers objects from a buffer into the pipe.
548
Benjamin Peterson257060a2008-06-28 01:42:41 +0000549 The usual :exc:`queue.Empty` and :exc:`queue.Full` exceptions from the
Benjamin Petersone711caf2008-06-11 16:44:04 +0000550 standard library's :mod:`Queue` module are raised to signal timeouts.
551
Benjamin Peterson257060a2008-06-28 01:42:41 +0000552 :class:`Queue` implements all the methods of :class:`queue.Queue` except for
553 :meth:`~queue.Queue.task_done` and :meth:`~queue.Queue.join`.
Benjamin Petersone711caf2008-06-11 16:44:04 +0000554
555 .. method:: qsize()
556
557 Return the approximate size of the queue. Because of
558 multithreading/multiprocessing semantics, this number is not reliable.
559
560 Note that this may raise :exc:`NotImplementedError` on Unix platforms like
Georg Brandlc575c902008-09-13 17:46:05 +0000561 Mac OS X where ``sem_getvalue()`` is not implemented.
Benjamin Petersone711caf2008-06-11 16:44:04 +0000562
563 .. method:: empty()
564
565 Return ``True`` if the queue is empty, ``False`` otherwise. Because of
566 multithreading/multiprocessing semantics, this is not reliable.
567
568 .. method:: full()
569
570 Return ``True`` if the queue is full, ``False`` otherwise. Because of
571 multithreading/multiprocessing semantics, this is not reliable.
572
Senthil Kumarane969a212011-09-06 00:21:30 +0800573 .. method:: put(obj[, block[, timeout]])
Benjamin Petersone711caf2008-06-11 16:44:04 +0000574
Senthil Kumarane969a212011-09-06 00:21:30 +0800575 Put obj into the queue. If the optional argument *block* is ``True``
Benjamin Peterson5289b2b2008-06-28 00:40:54 +0000576 (the default) and *timeout* is ``None`` (the default), block if necessary until
Benjamin Petersone711caf2008-06-11 16:44:04 +0000577 a free slot is available. If *timeout* is a positive number, it blocks at
Benjamin Peterson257060a2008-06-28 01:42:41 +0000578 most *timeout* seconds and raises the :exc:`queue.Full` exception if no
Benjamin Petersone711caf2008-06-11 16:44:04 +0000579 free slot was available within that time. Otherwise (*block* is
580 ``False``), put an item on the queue if a free slot is immediately
Benjamin Peterson257060a2008-06-28 01:42:41 +0000581 available, else raise the :exc:`queue.Full` exception (*timeout* is
Benjamin Petersone711caf2008-06-11 16:44:04 +0000582 ignored in that case).
583
Senthil Kumarane969a212011-09-06 00:21:30 +0800584 .. method:: put_nowait(obj)
Benjamin Petersone711caf2008-06-11 16:44:04 +0000585
Senthil Kumarane969a212011-09-06 00:21:30 +0800586 Equivalent to ``put(obj, False)``.
Benjamin Petersone711caf2008-06-11 16:44:04 +0000587
588 .. method:: get([block[, timeout]])
589
590 Remove and return an item from the queue. If optional args *block* is
591 ``True`` (the default) and *timeout* is ``None`` (the default), block if
592 necessary until an item is available. If *timeout* is a positive number,
Benjamin Peterson257060a2008-06-28 01:42:41 +0000593 it blocks at most *timeout* seconds and raises the :exc:`queue.Empty`
Benjamin Petersone711caf2008-06-11 16:44:04 +0000594 exception if no item was available within that time. Otherwise (block is
595 ``False``), return an item if one is immediately available, else raise the
Benjamin Peterson257060a2008-06-28 01:42:41 +0000596 :exc:`queue.Empty` exception (*timeout* is ignored in that case).
Benjamin Petersone711caf2008-06-11 16:44:04 +0000597
598 .. method:: get_nowait()
599 get_no_wait()
600
601 Equivalent to ``get(False)``.
602
603 :class:`multiprocessing.Queue` has a few additional methods not found in
Georg Brandl2ee470f2008-07-16 12:55:28 +0000604 :class:`queue.Queue`. These methods are usually unnecessary for most
605 code:
Benjamin Petersone711caf2008-06-11 16:44:04 +0000606
607 .. method:: close()
608
609 Indicate that no more data will be put on this queue by the current
610 process. The background thread will quit once it has flushed all buffered
611 data to the pipe. This is called automatically when the queue is garbage
612 collected.
613
614 .. method:: join_thread()
615
616 Join the background thread. This can only be used after :meth:`close` has
617 been called. It blocks until the background thread exits, ensuring that
618 all data in the buffer has been flushed to the pipe.
619
620 By default if a process is not the creator of the queue then on exit it
621 will attempt to join the queue's background thread. The process can call
Benjamin Peterson5289b2b2008-06-28 00:40:54 +0000622 :meth:`cancel_join_thread` to make :meth:`join_thread` do nothing.
Benjamin Petersone711caf2008-06-11 16:44:04 +0000623
624 .. method:: cancel_join_thread()
625
626 Prevent :meth:`join_thread` from blocking. In particular, this prevents
627 the background thread from being joined automatically when the process
Benjamin Peterson5289b2b2008-06-28 00:40:54 +0000628 exits -- see :meth:`join_thread`.
Benjamin Petersone711caf2008-06-11 16:44:04 +0000629
630
Sandro Tosicd778152012-02-15 23:27:00 +0100631.. class:: SimpleQueue()
Sandro Tosi5cb522c2012-02-15 23:14:21 +0100632
633 It is a simplified :class:`Queue` type, very close to a locked :class:`Pipe`.
634
635 .. method:: empty()
636
637 Return ``True`` if the queue is empty, ``False`` otherwise.
638
639 .. method:: get()
640
641 Remove and return an item from the queue.
642
643 .. method:: put(item)
644
645 Put *item* into the queue.
646
647
Benjamin Petersone711caf2008-06-11 16:44:04 +0000648.. class:: JoinableQueue([maxsize])
649
650 :class:`JoinableQueue`, a :class:`Queue` subclass, is a queue which
651 additionally has :meth:`task_done` and :meth:`join` methods.
652
653 .. method:: task_done()
654
655 Indicate that a formerly enqueued task is complete. Used by queue consumer
Benjamin Peterson5289b2b2008-06-28 00:40:54 +0000656 threads. For each :meth:`~Queue.get` used to fetch a task, a subsequent
657 call to :meth:`task_done` tells the queue that the processing on the task
658 is complete.
Benjamin Petersone711caf2008-06-11 16:44:04 +0000659
Benjamin Peterson5289b2b2008-06-28 00:40:54 +0000660 If a :meth:`~Queue.join` is currently blocking, it will resume when all
661 items have been processed (meaning that a :meth:`task_done` call was
662 received for every item that had been :meth:`~Queue.put` into the queue).
Benjamin Petersone711caf2008-06-11 16:44:04 +0000663
664 Raises a :exc:`ValueError` if called more times than there were items
665 placed in the queue.
666
667
668 .. method:: join()
669
670 Block until all items in the queue have been gotten and processed.
671
672 The count of unfinished tasks goes up whenever an item is added to the
673 queue. The count goes down whenever a consumer thread calls
674 :meth:`task_done` to indicate that the item was retrieved and all work on
675 it is complete. When the count of unfinished tasks drops to zero,
Benjamin Peterson5289b2b2008-06-28 00:40:54 +0000676 :meth:`~Queue.join` unblocks.
Benjamin Petersone711caf2008-06-11 16:44:04 +0000677
678
679Miscellaneous
680~~~~~~~~~~~~~
681
682.. function:: active_children()
683
684 Return list of all live children of the current process.
685
686 Calling this has the side affect of "joining" any processes which have
687 already finished.
688
689.. function:: cpu_count()
690
691 Return the number of CPUs in the system. May raise
692 :exc:`NotImplementedError`.
693
694.. function:: current_process()
695
696 Return the :class:`Process` object corresponding to the current process.
697
698 An analogue of :func:`threading.current_thread`.
699
700.. function:: freeze_support()
701
702 Add support for when a program which uses :mod:`multiprocessing` has been
703 frozen to produce a Windows executable. (Has been tested with **py2exe**,
704 **PyInstaller** and **cx_Freeze**.)
705
706 One needs to call this function straight after the ``if __name__ ==
707 '__main__'`` line of the main module. For example::
708
709 from multiprocessing import Process, freeze_support
710
711 def f():
Georg Brandl49702152008-09-29 06:43:45 +0000712 print('hello world!')
Benjamin Petersone711caf2008-06-11 16:44:04 +0000713
714 if __name__ == '__main__':
715 freeze_support()
716 Process(target=f).start()
717
R. David Murray8e8099c2009-04-28 18:02:00 +0000718 If the ``freeze_support()`` line is omitted then trying to run the frozen
Benjamin Peterson5289b2b2008-06-28 00:40:54 +0000719 executable will raise :exc:`RuntimeError`.
Benjamin Petersone711caf2008-06-11 16:44:04 +0000720
721 If the module is being run normally by the Python interpreter then
Benjamin Peterson5289b2b2008-06-28 00:40:54 +0000722 :func:`freeze_support` has no effect.
Benjamin Petersone711caf2008-06-11 16:44:04 +0000723
724.. function:: set_executable()
725
Ezio Melotti0639d5a2009-12-19 23:26:38 +0000726 Sets the path of the Python interpreter to use when starting a child process.
Benjamin Peterson5289b2b2008-06-28 00:40:54 +0000727 (By default :data:`sys.executable` is used). Embedders will probably need to
728 do some thing like ::
Benjamin Petersone711caf2008-06-11 16:44:04 +0000729
Eli Benderskyd08effe2011-12-31 07:20:26 +0200730 set_executable(os.path.join(sys.exec_prefix, 'pythonw.exe'))
Benjamin Petersone711caf2008-06-11 16:44:04 +0000731
R. David Murray8e8099c2009-04-28 18:02:00 +0000732 before they can create child processes. (Windows only)
Benjamin Petersone711caf2008-06-11 16:44:04 +0000733
734
735.. note::
736
737 :mod:`multiprocessing` contains no analogues of
738 :func:`threading.active_count`, :func:`threading.enumerate`,
739 :func:`threading.settrace`, :func:`threading.setprofile`,
740 :class:`threading.Timer`, or :class:`threading.local`.
741
742
743Connection Objects
744~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
745
746Connection objects allow the sending and receiving of picklable objects or
747strings. They can be thought of as message oriented connected sockets.
748
Eli Benderskyd08effe2011-12-31 07:20:26 +0200749Connection objects are usually created using :func:`Pipe` -- see also
Benjamin Petersone711caf2008-06-11 16:44:04 +0000750:ref:`multiprocessing-listeners-clients`.
751
752.. class:: Connection
753
754 .. method:: send(obj)
755
756 Send an object to the other end of the connection which should be read
757 using :meth:`recv`.
758
Benjamin Peterson965ce872009-04-05 21:24:58 +0000759 The object must be picklable. Very large pickles (approximately 32 MB+,
760 though it depends on the OS) may raise a ValueError exception.
Benjamin Petersone711caf2008-06-11 16:44:04 +0000761
762 .. method:: recv()
763
764 Return an object sent from the other end of the connection using
Sandro Tosib52e7a92012-01-07 17:56:58 +0100765 :meth:`send`. Blocks until there its something to receive. Raises
766 :exc:`EOFError` if there is nothing left to receive
Benjamin Petersone711caf2008-06-11 16:44:04 +0000767 and the other end was closed.
768
769 .. method:: fileno()
770
Eli Benderskyd08effe2011-12-31 07:20:26 +0200771 Return the file descriptor or handle used by the connection.
Benjamin Petersone711caf2008-06-11 16:44:04 +0000772
773 .. method:: close()
774
775 Close the connection.
776
777 This is called automatically when the connection is garbage collected.
778
779 .. method:: poll([timeout])
780
781 Return whether there is any data available to be read.
782
783 If *timeout* is not specified then it will return immediately. If
784 *timeout* is a number then this specifies the maximum time in seconds to
785 block. If *timeout* is ``None`` then an infinite timeout is used.
786
Antoine Pitroubdb1cf12012-03-05 19:28:37 +0100787 Note that multiple connection objects may be polled at once by
788 using :func:`multiprocessing.connection.wait`.
789
Benjamin Petersone711caf2008-06-11 16:44:04 +0000790 .. method:: send_bytes(buffer[, offset[, size]])
791
792 Send byte data from an object supporting the buffer interface as a
793 complete message.
794
795 If *offset* is given then data is read from that position in *buffer*. If
Benjamin Peterson965ce872009-04-05 21:24:58 +0000796 *size* is given then that many bytes will be read from buffer. Very large
797 buffers (approximately 32 MB+, though it depends on the OS) may raise a
Eli Benderskyd08effe2011-12-31 07:20:26 +0200798 :exc:`ValueError` exception
Benjamin Petersone711caf2008-06-11 16:44:04 +0000799
800 .. method:: recv_bytes([maxlength])
801
802 Return a complete message of byte data sent from the other end of the
Sandro Tosib52e7a92012-01-07 17:56:58 +0100803 connection as a string. Blocks until there is something to receive.
804 Raises :exc:`EOFError` if there is nothing left
Benjamin Petersone711caf2008-06-11 16:44:04 +0000805 to receive and the other end has closed.
806
807 If *maxlength* is specified and the message is longer than *maxlength*
Antoine Pitrou62ab10a2011-10-12 20:10:51 +0200808 then :exc:`OSError` is raised and the connection will no longer be
Benjamin Petersone711caf2008-06-11 16:44:04 +0000809 readable.
810
Antoine Pitrou62ab10a2011-10-12 20:10:51 +0200811 .. versionchanged:: 3.3
812 This function used to raise a :exc:`IOError`, which is now an
813 alias of :exc:`OSError`.
814
815
Benjamin Petersone711caf2008-06-11 16:44:04 +0000816 .. method:: recv_bytes_into(buffer[, offset])
817
818 Read into *buffer* a complete message of byte data sent from the other end
Sandro Tosib52e7a92012-01-07 17:56:58 +0100819 of the connection and return the number of bytes in the message. Blocks
820 until there is something to receive. Raises
Benjamin Petersone711caf2008-06-11 16:44:04 +0000821 :exc:`EOFError` if there is nothing left to receive and the other end was
822 closed.
823
824 *buffer* must be an object satisfying the writable buffer interface. If
825 *offset* is given then the message will be written into the buffer from
R. David Murray8e8099c2009-04-28 18:02:00 +0000826 that position. Offset must be a non-negative integer less than the
827 length of *buffer* (in bytes).
Benjamin Petersone711caf2008-06-11 16:44:04 +0000828
829 If the buffer is too short then a :exc:`BufferTooShort` exception is
830 raised and the complete message is available as ``e.args[0]`` where ``e``
831 is the exception instance.
832
Antoine Pitrou5438ed12012-04-24 22:56:57 +0200833 .. versionchanged:: 3.3
834 Connection objects themselves can now be transferred between processes
835 using :meth:`Connection.send` and :meth:`Connection.recv`.
836
Benjamin Petersone711caf2008-06-11 16:44:04 +0000837
838For example:
839
R. David Murray8e8099c2009-04-28 18:02:00 +0000840.. doctest::
841
Benjamin Petersone711caf2008-06-11 16:44:04 +0000842 >>> from multiprocessing import Pipe
843 >>> a, b = Pipe()
844 >>> a.send([1, 'hello', None])
845 >>> b.recv()
846 [1, 'hello', None]
Georg Brandl30176892010-10-29 05:22:17 +0000847 >>> b.send_bytes(b'thank you')
Benjamin Petersone711caf2008-06-11 16:44:04 +0000848 >>> a.recv_bytes()
Georg Brandl30176892010-10-29 05:22:17 +0000849 b'thank you'
Benjamin Petersone711caf2008-06-11 16:44:04 +0000850 >>> import array
851 >>> arr1 = array.array('i', range(5))
852 >>> arr2 = array.array('i', [0] * 10)
853 >>> a.send_bytes(arr1)
854 >>> count = b.recv_bytes_into(arr2)
855 >>> assert count == len(arr1) * arr1.itemsize
856 >>> arr2
857 array('i', [0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0])
858
859
860.. warning::
861
862 The :meth:`Connection.recv` method automatically unpickles the data it
863 receives, which can be a security risk unless you can trust the process
864 which sent the message.
865
Benjamin Peterson5289b2b2008-06-28 00:40:54 +0000866 Therefore, unless the connection object was produced using :func:`Pipe` you
867 should only use the :meth:`~Connection.recv` and :meth:`~Connection.send`
868 methods after performing some sort of authentication. See
869 :ref:`multiprocessing-auth-keys`.
Benjamin Petersone711caf2008-06-11 16:44:04 +0000870
871.. warning::
872
873 If a process is killed while it is trying to read or write to a pipe then
874 the data in the pipe is likely to become corrupted, because it may become
875 impossible to be sure where the message boundaries lie.
876
877
878Synchronization primitives
879~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
880
881Generally synchronization primitives are not as necessary in a multiprocess
Georg Brandl2ee470f2008-07-16 12:55:28 +0000882program as they are in a multithreaded program. See the documentation for
Benjamin Peterson5289b2b2008-06-28 00:40:54 +0000883:mod:`threading` module.
Benjamin Petersone711caf2008-06-11 16:44:04 +0000884
885Note that one can also create synchronization primitives by using a manager
886object -- see :ref:`multiprocessing-managers`.
887
888.. class:: BoundedSemaphore([value])
889
890 A bounded semaphore object: a clone of :class:`threading.BoundedSemaphore`.
891
Georg Brandl592296e2010-05-21 21:48:27 +0000892 (On Mac OS X, this is indistinguishable from :class:`Semaphore` because
Benjamin Petersone711caf2008-06-11 16:44:04 +0000893 ``sem_getvalue()`` is not implemented on that platform).
894
895.. class:: Condition([lock])
896
Benjamin Peterson5289b2b2008-06-28 00:40:54 +0000897 A condition variable: a clone of :class:`threading.Condition`.
Benjamin Petersone711caf2008-06-11 16:44:04 +0000898
899 If *lock* is specified then it should be a :class:`Lock` or :class:`RLock`
900 object from :mod:`multiprocessing`.
901
Charles-François Natalic8ce7152012-04-17 18:45:57 +0200902 .. versionchanged:: 3.3
903 The :meth:`wait_for` method was added.
904
Benjamin Petersone711caf2008-06-11 16:44:04 +0000905.. class:: Event()
906
907 A clone of :class:`threading.Event`.
Benjamin Peterson965ce872009-04-05 21:24:58 +0000908 This method returns the state of the internal semaphore on exit, so it
909 will always return ``True`` except if a timeout is given and the operation
910 times out.
911
Raymond Hettinger35a88362009-04-09 00:08:24 +0000912 .. versionchanged:: 3.1
Benjamin Peterson965ce872009-04-05 21:24:58 +0000913 Previously, the method always returned ``None``.
Benjamin Petersone711caf2008-06-11 16:44:04 +0000914
915.. class:: Lock()
916
917 A non-recursive lock object: a clone of :class:`threading.Lock`.
918
919.. class:: RLock()
920
921 A recursive lock object: a clone of :class:`threading.RLock`.
922
923.. class:: Semaphore([value])
924
Ross Lagerwall8fea2e62011-03-14 10:40:15 +0200925 A semaphore object: a clone of :class:`threading.Semaphore`.
Benjamin Petersone711caf2008-06-11 16:44:04 +0000926
927.. note::
928
Richard Oudkerk59d54042012-05-10 16:11:12 +0100929 The :meth:`acquire` and :meth:`wait` methods of each of these types
930 treat negative timeouts as zero timeouts. This differs from
931 :mod:`threading` where, since version 3.2, the equivalent
932 :meth:`acquire` methods treat negative timeouts as infinite
933 timeouts.
934
Georg Brandl592296e2010-05-21 21:48:27 +0000935 On Mac OS X, ``sem_timedwait`` is unsupported, so calling ``acquire()`` with
936 a timeout will emulate that function's behavior using a sleeping loop.
Benjamin Petersone711caf2008-06-11 16:44:04 +0000937
938.. note::
939
940 If the SIGINT signal generated by Ctrl-C arrives while the main thread is
941 blocked by a call to :meth:`BoundedSemaphore.acquire`, :meth:`Lock.acquire`,
942 :meth:`RLock.acquire`, :meth:`Semaphore.acquire`, :meth:`Condition.acquire`
943 or :meth:`Condition.wait` then the call will be immediately interrupted and
944 :exc:`KeyboardInterrupt` will be raised.
945
946 This differs from the behaviour of :mod:`threading` where SIGINT will be
947 ignored while the equivalent blocking calls are in progress.
948
949
950Shared :mod:`ctypes` Objects
951~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
952
953It is possible to create shared objects using shared memory which can be
954inherited by child processes.
955
Richard Oudkerk87ea7802012-05-29 12:01:47 +0100956.. function:: Value(typecode_or_type, *args, lock=True)
Benjamin Petersone711caf2008-06-11 16:44:04 +0000957
958 Return a :mod:`ctypes` object allocated from shared memory. By default the
959 return value is actually a synchronized wrapper for the object.
960
961 *typecode_or_type* determines the type of the returned object: it is either a
962 ctypes type or a one character typecode of the kind used by the :mod:`array`
963 module. *\*args* is passed on to the constructor for the type.
964
965 If *lock* is ``True`` (the default) then a new lock object is created to
966 synchronize access to the value. If *lock* is a :class:`Lock` or
967 :class:`RLock` object then that will be used to synchronize access to the
968 value. If *lock* is ``False`` then access to the returned object will not be
969 automatically protected by a lock, so it will not necessarily be
970 "process-safe".
971
972 Note that *lock* is a keyword-only argument.
973
974.. function:: Array(typecode_or_type, size_or_initializer, *, lock=True)
975
976 Return a ctypes array allocated from shared memory. By default the return
977 value is actually a synchronized wrapper for the array.
978
979 *typecode_or_type* determines the type of the elements of the returned array:
980 it is either a ctypes type or a one character typecode of the kind used by
981 the :mod:`array` module. If *size_or_initializer* is an integer, then it
982 determines the length of the array, and the array will be initially zeroed.
983 Otherwise, *size_or_initializer* is a sequence which is used to initialize
984 the array and whose length determines the length of the array.
985
986 If *lock* is ``True`` (the default) then a new lock object is created to
987 synchronize access to the value. If *lock* is a :class:`Lock` or
988 :class:`RLock` object then that will be used to synchronize access to the
989 value. If *lock* is ``False`` then access to the returned object will not be
990 automatically protected by a lock, so it will not necessarily be
991 "process-safe".
992
993 Note that *lock* is a keyword only argument.
994
Amaury Forgeot d'Arcb0c29162008-11-22 22:18:04 +0000995 Note that an array of :data:`ctypes.c_char` has *value* and *raw*
Benjamin Petersone711caf2008-06-11 16:44:04 +0000996 attributes which allow one to use it to store and retrieve strings.
997
998
999The :mod:`multiprocessing.sharedctypes` module
1000>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
1001
1002.. module:: multiprocessing.sharedctypes
1003 :synopsis: Allocate ctypes objects from shared memory.
1004
1005The :mod:`multiprocessing.sharedctypes` module provides functions for allocating
1006:mod:`ctypes` objects from shared memory which can be inherited by child
1007processes.
1008
1009.. note::
1010
Georg Brandl2ee470f2008-07-16 12:55:28 +00001011 Although it is possible to store a pointer in shared memory remember that
1012 this will refer to a location in the address space of a specific process.
Benjamin Petersone711caf2008-06-11 16:44:04 +00001013 However, the pointer is quite likely to be invalid in the context of a second
1014 process and trying to dereference the pointer from the second process may
1015 cause a crash.
1016
1017.. function:: RawArray(typecode_or_type, size_or_initializer)
1018
1019 Return a ctypes array allocated from shared memory.
1020
1021 *typecode_or_type* determines the type of the elements of the returned array:
1022 it is either a ctypes type or a one character typecode of the kind used by
1023 the :mod:`array` module. If *size_or_initializer* is an integer then it
1024 determines the length of the array, and the array will be initially zeroed.
1025 Otherwise *size_or_initializer* is a sequence which is used to initialize the
1026 array and whose length determines the length of the array.
1027
1028 Note that setting and getting an element is potentially non-atomic -- use
1029 :func:`Array` instead to make sure that access is automatically synchronized
1030 using a lock.
1031
1032.. function:: RawValue(typecode_or_type, *args)
1033
1034 Return a ctypes object allocated from shared memory.
1035
1036 *typecode_or_type* determines the type of the returned object: it is either a
1037 ctypes type or a one character typecode of the kind used by the :mod:`array`
Jesse Nollerb0516a62009-01-18 03:11:38 +00001038 module. *\*args* is passed on to the constructor for the type.
Benjamin Petersone711caf2008-06-11 16:44:04 +00001039
1040 Note that setting and getting the value is potentially non-atomic -- use
1041 :func:`Value` instead to make sure that access is automatically synchronized
1042 using a lock.
1043
Amaury Forgeot d'Arcb0c29162008-11-22 22:18:04 +00001044 Note that an array of :data:`ctypes.c_char` has ``value`` and ``raw``
Benjamin Petersone711caf2008-06-11 16:44:04 +00001045 attributes which allow one to use it to store and retrieve strings -- see
1046 documentation for :mod:`ctypes`.
1047
Richard Oudkerk87ea7802012-05-29 12:01:47 +01001048.. function:: Array(typecode_or_type, size_or_initializer, *, lock=True)
Benjamin Petersone711caf2008-06-11 16:44:04 +00001049
1050 The same as :func:`RawArray` except that depending on the value of *lock* a
1051 process-safe synchronization wrapper may be returned instead of a raw ctypes
1052 array.
1053
1054 If *lock* is ``True`` (the default) then a new lock object is created to
1055 synchronize access to the value. If *lock* is a :class:`Lock` or
1056 :class:`RLock` object then that will be used to synchronize access to the
1057 value. If *lock* is ``False`` then access to the returned object will not be
1058 automatically protected by a lock, so it will not necessarily be
1059 "process-safe".
1060
1061 Note that *lock* is a keyword-only argument.
1062
Richard Oudkerk87ea7802012-05-29 12:01:47 +01001063.. function:: Value(typecode_or_type, *args, lock=True)
Benjamin Petersone711caf2008-06-11 16:44:04 +00001064
1065 The same as :func:`RawValue` except that depending on the value of *lock* a
1066 process-safe synchronization wrapper may be returned instead of a raw ctypes
1067 object.
1068
1069 If *lock* is ``True`` (the default) then a new lock object is created to
1070 synchronize access to the value. If *lock* is a :class:`Lock` or
1071 :class:`RLock` object then that will be used to synchronize access to the
1072 value. If *lock* is ``False`` then access to the returned object will not be
1073 automatically protected by a lock, so it will not necessarily be
1074 "process-safe".
1075
1076 Note that *lock* is a keyword-only argument.
1077
1078.. function:: copy(obj)
1079
1080 Return a ctypes object allocated from shared memory which is a copy of the
1081 ctypes object *obj*.
1082
1083.. function:: synchronized(obj[, lock])
1084
1085 Return a process-safe wrapper object for a ctypes object which uses *lock* to
1086 synchronize access. If *lock* is ``None`` (the default) then a
1087 :class:`multiprocessing.RLock` object is created automatically.
1088
1089 A synchronized wrapper will have two methods in addition to those of the
Benjamin Peterson5289b2b2008-06-28 00:40:54 +00001090 object it wraps: :meth:`get_obj` returns the wrapped object and
1091 :meth:`get_lock` returns the lock object used for synchronization.
Benjamin Petersone711caf2008-06-11 16:44:04 +00001092
1093 Note that accessing the ctypes object through the wrapper can be a lot slower
Benjamin Peterson5289b2b2008-06-28 00:40:54 +00001094 than accessing the raw ctypes object.
Benjamin Petersone711caf2008-06-11 16:44:04 +00001095
1096
1097The table below compares the syntax for creating shared ctypes objects from
1098shared memory with the normal ctypes syntax. (In the table ``MyStruct`` is some
1099subclass of :class:`ctypes.Structure`.)
1100
1101==================== ========================== ===========================
1102ctypes sharedctypes using type sharedctypes using typecode
1103==================== ========================== ===========================
1104c_double(2.4) RawValue(c_double, 2.4) RawValue('d', 2.4)
1105MyStruct(4, 6) RawValue(MyStruct, 4, 6)
1106(c_short * 7)() RawArray(c_short, 7) RawArray('h', 7)
1107(c_int * 3)(9, 2, 8) RawArray(c_int, (9, 2, 8)) RawArray('i', (9, 2, 8))
1108==================== ========================== ===========================
1109
1110
1111Below is an example where a number of ctypes objects are modified by a child
1112process::
1113
1114 from multiprocessing import Process, Lock
1115 from multiprocessing.sharedctypes import Value, Array
1116 from ctypes import Structure, c_double
1117
1118 class Point(Structure):
1119 _fields_ = [('x', c_double), ('y', c_double)]
1120
1121 def modify(n, x, s, A):
1122 n.value **= 2
1123 x.value **= 2
1124 s.value = s.value.upper()
1125 for a in A:
1126 a.x **= 2
1127 a.y **= 2
1128
1129 if __name__ == '__main__':
1130 lock = Lock()
1131
1132 n = Value('i', 7)
R. David Murray8e8099c2009-04-28 18:02:00 +00001133 x = Value(c_double, 1.0/3.0, lock=False)
Benjamin Petersone711caf2008-06-11 16:44:04 +00001134 s = Array('c', 'hello world', lock=lock)
1135 A = Array(Point, [(1.875,-6.25), (-5.75,2.0), (2.375,9.5)], lock=lock)
1136
1137 p = Process(target=modify, args=(n, x, s, A))
1138 p.start()
1139 p.join()
1140
Georg Brandl49702152008-09-29 06:43:45 +00001141 print(n.value)
1142 print(x.value)
1143 print(s.value)
1144 print([(a.x, a.y) for a in A])
Benjamin Petersone711caf2008-06-11 16:44:04 +00001145
1146
Georg Brandl49702152008-09-29 06:43:45 +00001147.. highlight:: none
Benjamin Petersone711caf2008-06-11 16:44:04 +00001148
1149The results printed are ::
1150
1151 49
1152 0.1111111111111111
1153 HELLO WORLD
1154 [(3.515625, 39.0625), (33.0625, 4.0), (5.640625, 90.25)]
1155
Ezio Melottif86b28e2012-04-13 20:50:48 -06001156.. highlight:: python3
Benjamin Petersone711caf2008-06-11 16:44:04 +00001157
1158
1159.. _multiprocessing-managers:
1160
1161Managers
1162~~~~~~~~
1163
1164Managers provide a way to create data which can be shared between different
1165processes. A manager object controls a server process which manages *shared
1166objects*. Other processes can access the shared objects by using proxies.
1167
1168.. function:: multiprocessing.Manager()
1169
Benjamin Peterson5289b2b2008-06-28 00:40:54 +00001170 Returns a started :class:`~multiprocessing.managers.SyncManager` object which
1171 can be used for sharing objects between processes. The returned manager
1172 object corresponds to a spawned child process and has methods which will
1173 create shared objects and return corresponding proxies.
Benjamin Petersone711caf2008-06-11 16:44:04 +00001174
1175.. module:: multiprocessing.managers
1176 :synopsis: Share data between process with shared objects.
1177
1178Manager processes will be shutdown as soon as they are garbage collected or
1179their parent process exits. The manager classes are defined in the
1180:mod:`multiprocessing.managers` module:
1181
1182.. class:: BaseManager([address[, authkey]])
1183
1184 Create a BaseManager object.
1185
Benjamin Peterson21896a32010-03-21 22:03:03 +00001186 Once created one should call :meth:`start` or ``get_server().serve_forever()`` to ensure
Benjamin Petersone711caf2008-06-11 16:44:04 +00001187 that the manager object refers to a started manager process.
1188
1189 *address* is the address on which the manager process listens for new
1190 connections. If *address* is ``None`` then an arbitrary one is chosen.
1191
1192 *authkey* is the authentication key which will be used to check the validity
1193 of incoming connections to the server process. If *authkey* is ``None`` then
Benjamin Petersona786b022008-08-25 21:05:21 +00001194 ``current_process().authkey``. Otherwise *authkey* is used and it
Benjamin Petersone711caf2008-06-11 16:44:04 +00001195 must be a string.
1196
Benjamin Petersonf47ed4a2009-04-11 20:45:40 +00001197 .. method:: start([initializer[, initargs]])
Benjamin Petersone711caf2008-06-11 16:44:04 +00001198
Benjamin Petersonf47ed4a2009-04-11 20:45:40 +00001199 Start a subprocess to start the manager. If *initializer* is not ``None``
1200 then the subprocess will call ``initializer(*initargs)`` when it starts.
Benjamin Petersone711caf2008-06-11 16:44:04 +00001201
Jesse Noller45239682008-11-28 18:46:19 +00001202 .. method:: get_server()
Georg Brandl48310cd2009-01-03 21:18:54 +00001203
Jesse Noller45239682008-11-28 18:46:19 +00001204 Returns a :class:`Server` object which represents the actual server under
Georg Brandl48310cd2009-01-03 21:18:54 +00001205 the control of the Manager. The :class:`Server` object supports the
R. David Murray8e8099c2009-04-28 18:02:00 +00001206 :meth:`serve_forever` method::
Georg Brandl48310cd2009-01-03 21:18:54 +00001207
Georg Brandl1f01deb2009-01-03 22:47:39 +00001208 >>> from multiprocessing.managers import BaseManager
R. David Murray8e8099c2009-04-28 18:02:00 +00001209 >>> manager = BaseManager(address=('', 50000), authkey='abc')
1210 >>> server = manager.get_server()
1211 >>> server.serve_forever()
Georg Brandl48310cd2009-01-03 21:18:54 +00001212
R. David Murray8e8099c2009-04-28 18:02:00 +00001213 :class:`Server` additionally has an :attr:`address` attribute.
Jesse Noller45239682008-11-28 18:46:19 +00001214
1215 .. method:: connect()
Georg Brandl48310cd2009-01-03 21:18:54 +00001216
R. David Murray8e8099c2009-04-28 18:02:00 +00001217 Connect a local manager object to a remote manager process::
Georg Brandl48310cd2009-01-03 21:18:54 +00001218
Jesse Noller45239682008-11-28 18:46:19 +00001219 >>> from multiprocessing.managers import BaseManager
R. David Murray8e8099c2009-04-28 18:02:00 +00001220 >>> m = BaseManager(address=('127.0.0.1', 5000), authkey='abc')
Jesse Noller45239682008-11-28 18:46:19 +00001221 >>> m.connect()
1222
Benjamin Petersone711caf2008-06-11 16:44:04 +00001223 .. method:: shutdown()
1224
1225 Stop the process used by the manager. This is only available if
Benjamin Peterson5289b2b2008-06-28 00:40:54 +00001226 :meth:`start` has been used to start the server process.
Benjamin Petersone711caf2008-06-11 16:44:04 +00001227
1228 This can be called multiple times.
1229
1230 .. method:: register(typeid[, callable[, proxytype[, exposed[, method_to_typeid[, create_method]]]]])
1231
1232 A classmethod which can be used for registering a type or callable with
1233 the manager class.
1234
1235 *typeid* is a "type identifier" which is used to identify a particular
1236 type of shared object. This must be a string.
1237
1238 *callable* is a callable used for creating objects for this type
Richard Oudkerkf0604fd2012-06-11 17:56:08 +01001239 identifier. If a manager instance will be connected to the
1240 server using the :meth:`connect` method, or if the
1241 *create_method* argument is ``False`` then this can be left as
1242 ``None``.
Benjamin Petersone711caf2008-06-11 16:44:04 +00001243
Benjamin Peterson5289b2b2008-06-28 00:40:54 +00001244 *proxytype* is a subclass of :class:`BaseProxy` which is used to create
1245 proxies for shared objects with this *typeid*. If ``None`` then a proxy
1246 class is created automatically.
Benjamin Petersone711caf2008-06-11 16:44:04 +00001247
1248 *exposed* is used to specify a sequence of method names which proxies for
1249 this typeid should be allowed to access using
1250 :meth:`BaseProxy._callMethod`. (If *exposed* is ``None`` then
1251 :attr:`proxytype._exposed_` is used instead if it exists.) In the case
1252 where no exposed list is specified, all "public methods" of the shared
1253 object will be accessible. (Here a "public method" means any attribute
Benjamin Peterson5289b2b2008-06-28 00:40:54 +00001254 which has a :meth:`__call__` method and whose name does not begin with
Benjamin Petersone711caf2008-06-11 16:44:04 +00001255 ``'_'``.)
1256
1257 *method_to_typeid* is a mapping used to specify the return type of those
1258 exposed methods which should return a proxy. It maps method names to
1259 typeid strings. (If *method_to_typeid* is ``None`` then
1260 :attr:`proxytype._method_to_typeid_` is used instead if it exists.) If a
1261 method's name is not a key of this mapping or if the mapping is ``None``
1262 then the object returned by the method will be copied by value.
1263
1264 *create_method* determines whether a method should be created with name
1265 *typeid* which can be used to tell the server process to create a new
1266 shared object and return a proxy for it. By default it is ``True``.
1267
1268 :class:`BaseManager` instances also have one read-only property:
1269
1270 .. attribute:: address
1271
1272 The address used by the manager.
1273
1274
1275.. class:: SyncManager
1276
1277 A subclass of :class:`BaseManager` which can be used for the synchronization
1278 of processes. Objects of this type are returned by
Benjamin Peterson5289b2b2008-06-28 00:40:54 +00001279 :func:`multiprocessing.Manager`.
Benjamin Petersone711caf2008-06-11 16:44:04 +00001280
1281 It also supports creation of shared lists and dictionaries.
1282
1283 .. method:: BoundedSemaphore([value])
1284
1285 Create a shared :class:`threading.BoundedSemaphore` object and return a
1286 proxy for it.
1287
1288 .. method:: Condition([lock])
1289
1290 Create a shared :class:`threading.Condition` object and return a proxy for
1291 it.
1292
1293 If *lock* is supplied then it should be a proxy for a
1294 :class:`threading.Lock` or :class:`threading.RLock` object.
1295
Charles-François Natalic8ce7152012-04-17 18:45:57 +02001296 .. versionchanged:: 3.3
1297 The :meth:`wait_for` method was added.
1298
Benjamin Petersone711caf2008-06-11 16:44:04 +00001299 .. method:: Event()
1300
1301 Create a shared :class:`threading.Event` object and return a proxy for it.
1302
1303 .. method:: Lock()
1304
1305 Create a shared :class:`threading.Lock` object and return a proxy for it.
1306
1307 .. method:: Namespace()
1308
1309 Create a shared :class:`Namespace` object and return a proxy for it.
1310
1311 .. method:: Queue([maxsize])
1312
Benjamin Peterson257060a2008-06-28 01:42:41 +00001313 Create a shared :class:`queue.Queue` object and return a proxy for it.
Benjamin Petersone711caf2008-06-11 16:44:04 +00001314
1315 .. method:: RLock()
1316
1317 Create a shared :class:`threading.RLock` object and return a proxy for it.
1318
1319 .. method:: Semaphore([value])
1320
1321 Create a shared :class:`threading.Semaphore` object and return a proxy for
1322 it.
1323
1324 .. method:: Array(typecode, sequence)
1325
Benjamin Peterson5289b2b2008-06-28 00:40:54 +00001326 Create an array and return a proxy for it.
Benjamin Petersone711caf2008-06-11 16:44:04 +00001327
1328 .. method:: Value(typecode, value)
1329
1330 Create an object with a writable ``value`` attribute and return a proxy
1331 for it.
1332
1333 .. method:: dict()
1334 dict(mapping)
1335 dict(sequence)
1336
1337 Create a shared ``dict`` object and return a proxy for it.
1338
1339 .. method:: list()
1340 list(sequence)
1341
1342 Create a shared ``list`` object and return a proxy for it.
1343
Georg Brandl3ed41142010-10-15 16:19:43 +00001344 .. note::
1345
1346 Modifications to mutable values or items in dict and list proxies will not
1347 be propagated through the manager, because the proxy has no way of knowing
1348 when its values or items are modified. To modify such an item, you can
1349 re-assign the modified object to the container proxy::
1350
1351 # create a list proxy and append a mutable object (a dictionary)
1352 lproxy = manager.list()
1353 lproxy.append({})
1354 # now mutate the dictionary
1355 d = lproxy[0]
1356 d['a'] = 1
1357 d['b'] = 2
1358 # at this point, the changes to d are not yet synced, but by
1359 # reassigning the dictionary, the proxy is notified of the change
1360 lproxy[0] = d
1361
Benjamin Petersone711caf2008-06-11 16:44:04 +00001362
1363Namespace objects
1364>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
1365
1366A namespace object has no public methods, but does have writable attributes.
1367Its representation shows the values of its attributes.
1368
1369However, when using a proxy for a namespace object, an attribute beginning with
R. David Murray8e8099c2009-04-28 18:02:00 +00001370``'_'`` will be an attribute of the proxy and not an attribute of the referent:
1371
1372.. doctest::
Benjamin Petersone711caf2008-06-11 16:44:04 +00001373
1374 >>> manager = multiprocessing.Manager()
1375 >>> Global = manager.Namespace()
1376 >>> Global.x = 10
1377 >>> Global.y = 'hello'
1378 >>> Global._z = 12.3 # this is an attribute of the proxy
Georg Brandl49702152008-09-29 06:43:45 +00001379 >>> print(Global)
Benjamin Petersone711caf2008-06-11 16:44:04 +00001380 Namespace(x=10, y='hello')
1381
1382
1383Customized managers
1384>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
1385
1386To create one's own manager, one creates a subclass of :class:`BaseManager` and
Eli Benderskyd08effe2011-12-31 07:20:26 +02001387uses the :meth:`~BaseManager.register` classmethod to register new types or
Benjamin Peterson5289b2b2008-06-28 00:40:54 +00001388callables with the manager class. For example::
Benjamin Petersone711caf2008-06-11 16:44:04 +00001389
1390 from multiprocessing.managers import BaseManager
1391
Éric Araujo28053fb2010-11-22 03:09:19 +00001392 class MathsClass:
Benjamin Petersone711caf2008-06-11 16:44:04 +00001393 def add(self, x, y):
1394 return x + y
1395 def mul(self, x, y):
1396 return x * y
1397
1398 class MyManager(BaseManager):
1399 pass
1400
1401 MyManager.register('Maths', MathsClass)
1402
1403 if __name__ == '__main__':
1404 manager = MyManager()
1405 manager.start()
1406 maths = manager.Maths()
Georg Brandl49702152008-09-29 06:43:45 +00001407 print(maths.add(4, 3)) # prints 7
1408 print(maths.mul(7, 8)) # prints 56
Benjamin Petersone711caf2008-06-11 16:44:04 +00001409
1410
1411Using a remote manager
1412>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
1413
1414It is possible to run a manager server on one machine and have clients use it
1415from other machines (assuming that the firewalls involved allow it).
1416
1417Running the following commands creates a server for a single shared queue which
1418remote clients can access::
1419
1420 >>> from multiprocessing.managers import BaseManager
Benjamin Peterson257060a2008-06-28 01:42:41 +00001421 >>> import queue
1422 >>> queue = queue.Queue()
Benjamin Petersone711caf2008-06-11 16:44:04 +00001423 >>> class QueueManager(BaseManager): pass
Jesse Noller45239682008-11-28 18:46:19 +00001424 >>> QueueManager.register('get_queue', callable=lambda:queue)
Benjamin Petersone711caf2008-06-11 16:44:04 +00001425 >>> m = QueueManager(address=('', 50000), authkey='abracadabra')
Jesse Noller45239682008-11-28 18:46:19 +00001426 >>> s = m.get_server()
R. David Murray8e8099c2009-04-28 18:02:00 +00001427 >>> s.serve_forever()
Benjamin Petersone711caf2008-06-11 16:44:04 +00001428
1429One client can access the server as follows::
1430
1431 >>> from multiprocessing.managers import BaseManager
1432 >>> class QueueManager(BaseManager): pass
Jesse Noller45239682008-11-28 18:46:19 +00001433 >>> QueueManager.register('get_queue')
1434 >>> m = QueueManager(address=('foo.bar.org', 50000), authkey='abracadabra')
1435 >>> m.connect()
1436 >>> queue = m.get_queue()
Benjamin Petersone711caf2008-06-11 16:44:04 +00001437 >>> queue.put('hello')
1438
1439Another client can also use it::
1440
1441 >>> from multiprocessing.managers import BaseManager
1442 >>> class QueueManager(BaseManager): pass
R. David Murray8e8099c2009-04-28 18:02:00 +00001443 >>> QueueManager.register('get_queue')
1444 >>> m = QueueManager(address=('foo.bar.org', 50000), authkey='abracadabra')
1445 >>> m.connect()
1446 >>> queue = m.get_queue()
Benjamin Petersone711caf2008-06-11 16:44:04 +00001447 >>> queue.get()
1448 'hello'
1449
Georg Brandl48310cd2009-01-03 21:18:54 +00001450Local processes can also access that queue, using the code from above on the
Jesse Noller45239682008-11-28 18:46:19 +00001451client to access it remotely::
1452
1453 >>> from multiprocessing import Process, Queue
1454 >>> from multiprocessing.managers import BaseManager
1455 >>> class Worker(Process):
1456 ... def __init__(self, q):
1457 ... self.q = q
1458 ... super(Worker, self).__init__()
1459 ... def run(self):
1460 ... self.q.put('local hello')
Georg Brandl48310cd2009-01-03 21:18:54 +00001461 ...
Jesse Noller45239682008-11-28 18:46:19 +00001462 >>> queue = Queue()
1463 >>> w = Worker(queue)
1464 >>> w.start()
1465 >>> class QueueManager(BaseManager): pass
Georg Brandl48310cd2009-01-03 21:18:54 +00001466 ...
Jesse Noller45239682008-11-28 18:46:19 +00001467 >>> QueueManager.register('get_queue', callable=lambda: queue)
1468 >>> m = QueueManager(address=('', 50000), authkey='abracadabra')
1469 >>> s = m.get_server()
1470 >>> s.serve_forever()
Benjamin Petersone711caf2008-06-11 16:44:04 +00001471
1472Proxy Objects
1473~~~~~~~~~~~~~
1474
1475A proxy is an object which *refers* to a shared object which lives (presumably)
1476in a different process. The shared object is said to be the *referent* of the
1477proxy. Multiple proxy objects may have the same referent.
1478
1479A proxy object has methods which invoke corresponding methods of its referent
1480(although not every method of the referent will necessarily be available through
1481the proxy). A proxy can usually be used in most of the same ways that its
R. David Murray8e8099c2009-04-28 18:02:00 +00001482referent can:
1483
1484.. doctest::
Benjamin Petersone711caf2008-06-11 16:44:04 +00001485
1486 >>> from multiprocessing import Manager
1487 >>> manager = Manager()
1488 >>> l = manager.list([i*i for i in range(10)])
Georg Brandl49702152008-09-29 06:43:45 +00001489 >>> print(l)
Benjamin Petersone711caf2008-06-11 16:44:04 +00001490 [0, 1, 4, 9, 16, 25, 36, 49, 64, 81]
Georg Brandl49702152008-09-29 06:43:45 +00001491 >>> print(repr(l))
R. David Murray8e8099c2009-04-28 18:02:00 +00001492 <ListProxy object, typeid 'list' at 0x...>
Benjamin Petersone711caf2008-06-11 16:44:04 +00001493 >>> l[4]
1494 16
1495 >>> l[2:5]
1496 [4, 9, 16]
1497
1498Notice that applying :func:`str` to a proxy will return the representation of
1499the referent, whereas applying :func:`repr` will return the representation of
1500the proxy.
1501
1502An important feature of proxy objects is that they are picklable so they can be
1503passed between processes. Note, however, that if a proxy is sent to the
1504corresponding manager's process then unpickling it will produce the referent
R. David Murray8e8099c2009-04-28 18:02:00 +00001505itself. This means, for example, that one shared object can contain a second:
1506
1507.. doctest::
Benjamin Petersone711caf2008-06-11 16:44:04 +00001508
1509 >>> a = manager.list()
1510 >>> b = manager.list()
Benjamin Peterson5289b2b2008-06-28 00:40:54 +00001511 >>> a.append(b) # referent of a now contains referent of b
Georg Brandl49702152008-09-29 06:43:45 +00001512 >>> print(a, b)
Benjamin Petersone711caf2008-06-11 16:44:04 +00001513 [[]] []
1514 >>> b.append('hello')
Georg Brandl49702152008-09-29 06:43:45 +00001515 >>> print(a, b)
Benjamin Petersone711caf2008-06-11 16:44:04 +00001516 [['hello']] ['hello']
1517
1518.. note::
1519
1520 The proxy types in :mod:`multiprocessing` do nothing to support comparisons
R. David Murray8e8099c2009-04-28 18:02:00 +00001521 by value. So, for instance, we have:
Benjamin Petersone711caf2008-06-11 16:44:04 +00001522
R. David Murray8e8099c2009-04-28 18:02:00 +00001523 .. doctest::
Benjamin Petersone711caf2008-06-11 16:44:04 +00001524
R. David Murray8e8099c2009-04-28 18:02:00 +00001525 >>> manager.list([1,2,3]) == [1,2,3]
1526 False
1527
1528 One should just use a copy of the referent instead when making comparisons.
Benjamin Petersone711caf2008-06-11 16:44:04 +00001529
1530.. class:: BaseProxy
1531
1532 Proxy objects are instances of subclasses of :class:`BaseProxy`.
1533
Benjamin Peterson6ebe78f2008-12-21 00:06:59 +00001534 .. method:: _callmethod(methodname[, args[, kwds]])
Benjamin Petersone711caf2008-06-11 16:44:04 +00001535
1536 Call and return the result of a method of the proxy's referent.
1537
1538 If ``proxy`` is a proxy whose referent is ``obj`` then the expression ::
1539
Benjamin Peterson6ebe78f2008-12-21 00:06:59 +00001540 proxy._callmethod(methodname, args, kwds)
Benjamin Petersone711caf2008-06-11 16:44:04 +00001541
1542 will evaluate the expression ::
1543
1544 getattr(obj, methodname)(*args, **kwds)
1545
1546 in the manager's process.
1547
1548 The returned value will be a copy of the result of the call or a proxy to
1549 a new shared object -- see documentation for the *method_to_typeid*
1550 argument of :meth:`BaseManager.register`.
1551
Ezio Melottie130a522011-10-19 10:58:56 +03001552 If an exception is raised by the call, then is re-raised by
Benjamin Peterson6ebe78f2008-12-21 00:06:59 +00001553 :meth:`_callmethod`. If some other exception is raised in the manager's
Benjamin Petersone711caf2008-06-11 16:44:04 +00001554 process then this is converted into a :exc:`RemoteError` exception and is
Benjamin Peterson6ebe78f2008-12-21 00:06:59 +00001555 raised by :meth:`_callmethod`.
Benjamin Petersone711caf2008-06-11 16:44:04 +00001556
1557 Note in particular that an exception will be raised if *methodname* has
1558 not been *exposed*
1559
R. David Murray8e8099c2009-04-28 18:02:00 +00001560 An example of the usage of :meth:`_callmethod`:
1561
1562 .. doctest::
Benjamin Petersone711caf2008-06-11 16:44:04 +00001563
1564 >>> l = manager.list(range(10))
Benjamin Peterson6ebe78f2008-12-21 00:06:59 +00001565 >>> l._callmethod('__len__')
Benjamin Petersone711caf2008-06-11 16:44:04 +00001566 10
Benjamin Peterson6ebe78f2008-12-21 00:06:59 +00001567 >>> l._callmethod('__getslice__', (2, 7)) # equiv to `l[2:7]`
Benjamin Petersone711caf2008-06-11 16:44:04 +00001568 [2, 3, 4, 5, 6]
Benjamin Peterson6ebe78f2008-12-21 00:06:59 +00001569 >>> l._callmethod('__getitem__', (20,)) # equiv to `l[20]`
Benjamin Petersone711caf2008-06-11 16:44:04 +00001570 Traceback (most recent call last):
1571 ...
1572 IndexError: list index out of range
1573
Benjamin Peterson6ebe78f2008-12-21 00:06:59 +00001574 .. method:: _getvalue()
Benjamin Petersone711caf2008-06-11 16:44:04 +00001575
1576 Return a copy of the referent.
1577
1578 If the referent is unpicklable then this will raise an exception.
1579
1580 .. method:: __repr__
1581
1582 Return a representation of the proxy object.
1583
1584 .. method:: __str__
1585
1586 Return the representation of the referent.
1587
1588
1589Cleanup
1590>>>>>>>
1591
1592A proxy object uses a weakref callback so that when it gets garbage collected it
1593deregisters itself from the manager which owns its referent.
1594
1595A shared object gets deleted from the manager process when there are no longer
1596any proxies referring to it.
1597
1598
1599Process Pools
1600~~~~~~~~~~~~~
1601
1602.. module:: multiprocessing.pool
1603 :synopsis: Create pools of processes.
1604
1605One can create a pool of processes which will carry out tasks submitted to it
Benjamin Peterson5289b2b2008-06-28 00:40:54 +00001606with the :class:`Pool` class.
Benjamin Petersone711caf2008-06-11 16:44:04 +00001607
Jesse Noller1f0b6582010-01-27 03:36:01 +00001608.. class:: multiprocessing.Pool([processes[, initializer[, initargs[, maxtasksperchild]]]])
Benjamin Petersone711caf2008-06-11 16:44:04 +00001609
1610 A process pool object which controls a pool of worker processes to which jobs
1611 can be submitted. It supports asynchronous results with timeouts and
1612 callbacks and has a parallel map implementation.
1613
1614 *processes* is the number of worker processes to use. If *processes* is
1615 ``None`` then the number returned by :func:`cpu_count` is used. If
1616 *initializer* is not ``None`` then each worker process will call
1617 ``initializer(*initargs)`` when it starts.
1618
Georg Brandl17ef0d52010-10-17 06:21:59 +00001619 .. versionadded:: 3.2
1620 *maxtasksperchild* is the number of tasks a worker process can complete
1621 before it will exit and be replaced with a fresh worker process, to enable
1622 unused resources to be freed. The default *maxtasksperchild* is None, which
1623 means worker processes will live as long as the pool.
Jesse Noller1f0b6582010-01-27 03:36:01 +00001624
1625 .. note::
1626
Georg Brandl17ef0d52010-10-17 06:21:59 +00001627 Worker processes within a :class:`Pool` typically live for the complete
1628 duration of the Pool's work queue. A frequent pattern found in other
1629 systems (such as Apache, mod_wsgi, etc) to free resources held by
1630 workers is to allow a worker within a pool to complete only a set
1631 amount of work before being exiting, being cleaned up and a new
1632 process spawned to replace the old one. The *maxtasksperchild*
1633 argument to the :class:`Pool` exposes this ability to the end user.
Jesse Noller1f0b6582010-01-27 03:36:01 +00001634
Benjamin Petersone711caf2008-06-11 16:44:04 +00001635 .. method:: apply(func[, args[, kwds]])
1636
Benjamin Peterson37d2fe02008-10-24 22:28:58 +00001637 Call *func* with arguments *args* and keyword arguments *kwds*. It blocks
Eli Benderskyd08effe2011-12-31 07:20:26 +02001638 until the result is ready. Given this blocks, :meth:`apply_async` is
1639 better suited for performing work in parallel. Additionally, *func*
1640 is only executed in one of the workers of the pool.
Benjamin Petersone711caf2008-06-11 16:44:04 +00001641
Ask Solem1d3b8932010-11-09 21:36:56 +00001642 .. method:: apply_async(func[, args[, kwds[, callback[, error_callback]]]])
Benjamin Petersone711caf2008-06-11 16:44:04 +00001643
1644 A variant of the :meth:`apply` method which returns a result object.
1645
1646 If *callback* is specified then it should be a callable which accepts a
1647 single argument. When the result becomes ready *callback* is applied to
Ask Solem1d3b8932010-11-09 21:36:56 +00001648 it, that is unless the call failed, in which case the *error_callback*
1649 is applied instead
1650
1651 If *error_callback* is specified then it should be a callable which
1652 accepts a single argument. If the target function fails, then
1653 the *error_callback* is called with the exception instance.
1654
1655 Callbacks should complete immediately since otherwise the thread which
1656 handles the results will get blocked.
Benjamin Petersone711caf2008-06-11 16:44:04 +00001657
1658 .. method:: map(func, iterable[, chunksize])
1659
Georg Brandl22b34312009-07-26 14:54:51 +00001660 A parallel equivalent of the :func:`map` built-in function (it supports only
Eli Benderskyd08effe2011-12-31 07:20:26 +02001661 one *iterable* argument though). It blocks until the result is ready.
Benjamin Petersone711caf2008-06-11 16:44:04 +00001662
1663 This method chops the iterable into a number of chunks which it submits to
1664 the process pool as separate tasks. The (approximate) size of these
1665 chunks can be specified by setting *chunksize* to a positive integer.
1666
Sandro Tosidb79e952011-08-08 16:38:13 +02001667 .. method:: map_async(func, iterable[, chunksize[, callback[, error_callback]]])
Benjamin Petersone711caf2008-06-11 16:44:04 +00001668
Georg Brandl502d9a52009-07-26 15:02:41 +00001669 A variant of the :meth:`.map` method which returns a result object.
Benjamin Petersone711caf2008-06-11 16:44:04 +00001670
1671 If *callback* is specified then it should be a callable which accepts a
1672 single argument. When the result becomes ready *callback* is applied to
Ask Solem1d3b8932010-11-09 21:36:56 +00001673 it, that is unless the call failed, in which case the *error_callback*
1674 is applied instead
1675
1676 If *error_callback* is specified then it should be a callable which
1677 accepts a single argument. If the target function fails, then
1678 the *error_callback* is called with the exception instance.
1679
1680 Callbacks should complete immediately since otherwise the thread which
1681 handles the results will get blocked.
Benjamin Petersone711caf2008-06-11 16:44:04 +00001682
1683 .. method:: imap(func, iterable[, chunksize])
1684
Georg Brandl92905032008-11-22 08:51:39 +00001685 A lazier version of :meth:`map`.
Benjamin Petersone711caf2008-06-11 16:44:04 +00001686
1687 The *chunksize* argument is the same as the one used by the :meth:`.map`
1688 method. For very long iterables using a large value for *chunksize* can
Ezio Melottie130a522011-10-19 10:58:56 +03001689 make the job complete **much** faster than using the default value of
Benjamin Petersone711caf2008-06-11 16:44:04 +00001690 ``1``.
1691
Georg Brandl502d9a52009-07-26 15:02:41 +00001692 Also if *chunksize* is ``1`` then the :meth:`!next` method of the iterator
Benjamin Petersone711caf2008-06-11 16:44:04 +00001693 returned by the :meth:`imap` method has an optional *timeout* parameter:
1694 ``next(timeout)`` will raise :exc:`multiprocessing.TimeoutError` if the
1695 result cannot be returned within *timeout* seconds.
1696
1697 .. method:: imap_unordered(func, iterable[, chunksize])
1698
1699 The same as :meth:`imap` except that the ordering of the results from the
1700 returned iterator should be considered arbitrary. (Only when there is
1701 only one worker process is the order guaranteed to be "correct".)
1702
Antoine Pitroude911b22011-12-21 11:03:24 +01001703 .. method:: starmap(func, iterable[, chunksize])
1704
1705 Like :meth:`map` except that the elements of the `iterable` are expected
1706 to be iterables that are unpacked as arguments.
1707
1708 Hence an `iterable` of `[(1,2), (3, 4)]` results in `[func(1,2),
1709 func(3,4)]`.
1710
1711 .. versionadded:: 3.3
1712
1713 .. method:: starmap_async(func, iterable[, chunksize[, callback[, error_back]]])
1714
1715 A combination of :meth:`starmap` and :meth:`map_async` that iterates over
1716 `iterable` of iterables and calls `func` with the iterables unpacked.
1717 Returns a result object.
1718
1719 .. versionadded:: 3.3
1720
Benjamin Petersone711caf2008-06-11 16:44:04 +00001721 .. method:: close()
1722
1723 Prevents any more tasks from being submitted to the pool. Once all the
1724 tasks have been completed the worker processes will exit.
1725
1726 .. method:: terminate()
1727
1728 Stops the worker processes immediately without completing outstanding
1729 work. When the pool object is garbage collected :meth:`terminate` will be
1730 called immediately.
1731
1732 .. method:: join()
1733
1734 Wait for the worker processes to exit. One must call :meth:`close` or
1735 :meth:`terminate` before using :meth:`join`.
1736
1737
1738.. class:: AsyncResult
1739
1740 The class of the result returned by :meth:`Pool.apply_async` and
1741 :meth:`Pool.map_async`.
1742
Georg Brandle3d70ae2008-11-22 08:54:21 +00001743 .. method:: get([timeout])
Benjamin Petersone711caf2008-06-11 16:44:04 +00001744
1745 Return the result when it arrives. If *timeout* is not ``None`` and the
1746 result does not arrive within *timeout* seconds then
1747 :exc:`multiprocessing.TimeoutError` is raised. If the remote call raised
1748 an exception then that exception will be reraised by :meth:`get`.
1749
1750 .. method:: wait([timeout])
1751
1752 Wait until the result is available or until *timeout* seconds pass.
1753
1754 .. method:: ready()
1755
1756 Return whether the call has completed.
1757
1758 .. method:: successful()
1759
1760 Return whether the call completed without raising an exception. Will
1761 raise :exc:`AssertionError` if the result is not ready.
1762
1763The following example demonstrates the use of a pool::
1764
1765 from multiprocessing import Pool
1766
1767 def f(x):
1768 return x*x
1769
1770 if __name__ == '__main__':
1771 pool = Pool(processes=4) # start 4 worker processes
1772
Georg Brandle3d70ae2008-11-22 08:54:21 +00001773 result = pool.apply_async(f, (10,)) # evaluate "f(10)" asynchronously
Georg Brandl49702152008-09-29 06:43:45 +00001774 print(result.get(timeout=1)) # prints "100" unless your computer is *very* slow
Benjamin Petersone711caf2008-06-11 16:44:04 +00001775
Georg Brandl49702152008-09-29 06:43:45 +00001776 print(pool.map(f, range(10))) # prints "[0, 1, 4,..., 81]"
Benjamin Petersone711caf2008-06-11 16:44:04 +00001777
1778 it = pool.imap(f, range(10))
Georg Brandl49702152008-09-29 06:43:45 +00001779 print(next(it)) # prints "0"
1780 print(next(it)) # prints "1"
1781 print(it.next(timeout=1)) # prints "4" unless your computer is *very* slow
Benjamin Petersone711caf2008-06-11 16:44:04 +00001782
1783 import time
Georg Brandle3d70ae2008-11-22 08:54:21 +00001784 result = pool.apply_async(time.sleep, (10,))
Georg Brandl49702152008-09-29 06:43:45 +00001785 print(result.get(timeout=1)) # raises TimeoutError
Benjamin Petersone711caf2008-06-11 16:44:04 +00001786
1787
1788.. _multiprocessing-listeners-clients:
1789
1790Listeners and Clients
1791~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
1792
1793.. module:: multiprocessing.connection
1794 :synopsis: API for dealing with sockets.
1795
1796Usually message passing between processes is done using queues or by using
1797:class:`Connection` objects returned by :func:`Pipe`.
1798
1799However, the :mod:`multiprocessing.connection` module allows some extra
1800flexibility. It basically gives a high level message oriented API for dealing
Antoine Pitroubdb1cf12012-03-05 19:28:37 +01001801with sockets or Windows named pipes. It also has support for *digest
1802authentication* using the :mod:`hmac` module, and for polling
1803multiple connections at the same time.
Benjamin Petersone711caf2008-06-11 16:44:04 +00001804
1805
1806.. function:: deliver_challenge(connection, authkey)
1807
1808 Send a randomly generated message to the other end of the connection and wait
1809 for a reply.
1810
1811 If the reply matches the digest of the message using *authkey* as the key
1812 then a welcome message is sent to the other end of the connection. Otherwise
1813 :exc:`AuthenticationError` is raised.
1814
1815.. function:: answerChallenge(connection, authkey)
1816
1817 Receive a message, calculate the digest of the message using *authkey* as the
1818 key, and then send the digest back.
1819
1820 If a welcome message is not received, then :exc:`AuthenticationError` is
1821 raised.
1822
1823.. function:: Client(address[, family[, authenticate[, authkey]]])
1824
1825 Attempt to set up a connection to the listener which is using address
Benjamin Peterson5289b2b2008-06-28 00:40:54 +00001826 *address*, returning a :class:`~multiprocessing.Connection`.
Benjamin Petersone711caf2008-06-11 16:44:04 +00001827
1828 The type of the connection is determined by *family* argument, but this can
1829 generally be omitted since it can usually be inferred from the format of
1830 *address*. (See :ref:`multiprocessing-address-formats`)
1831
Alexandre Vassalottic57a84f2009-07-17 12:07:01 +00001832 If *authenticate* is ``True`` or *authkey* is a string then digest
Benjamin Petersone711caf2008-06-11 16:44:04 +00001833 authentication is used. The key used for authentication will be either
Benjamin Petersona786b022008-08-25 21:05:21 +00001834 *authkey* or ``current_process().authkey)`` if *authkey* is ``None``.
Benjamin Petersone711caf2008-06-11 16:44:04 +00001835 If authentication fails then :exc:`AuthenticationError` is raised. See
1836 :ref:`multiprocessing-auth-keys`.
1837
1838.. class:: Listener([address[, family[, backlog[, authenticate[, authkey]]]]])
1839
1840 A wrapper for a bound socket or Windows named pipe which is 'listening' for
1841 connections.
1842
1843 *address* is the address to be used by the bound socket or named pipe of the
1844 listener object.
1845
Benjamin Petersond23f8222009-04-05 19:13:16 +00001846 .. note::
1847
1848 If an address of '0.0.0.0' is used, the address will not be a connectable
1849 end point on Windows. If you require a connectable end-point,
1850 you should use '127.0.0.1'.
1851
Benjamin Petersone711caf2008-06-11 16:44:04 +00001852 *family* is the type of socket (or named pipe) to use. This can be one of
1853 the strings ``'AF_INET'`` (for a TCP socket), ``'AF_UNIX'`` (for a Unix
1854 domain socket) or ``'AF_PIPE'`` (for a Windows named pipe). Of these only
1855 the first is guaranteed to be available. If *family* is ``None`` then the
1856 family is inferred from the format of *address*. If *address* is also
1857 ``None`` then a default is chosen. This default is the family which is
1858 assumed to be the fastest available. See
1859 :ref:`multiprocessing-address-formats`. Note that if *family* is
1860 ``'AF_UNIX'`` and address is ``None`` then the socket will be created in a
1861 private temporary directory created using :func:`tempfile.mkstemp`.
1862
1863 If the listener object uses a socket then *backlog* (1 by default) is passed
1864 to the :meth:`listen` method of the socket once it has been bound.
1865
1866 If *authenticate* is ``True`` (``False`` by default) or *authkey* is not
1867 ``None`` then digest authentication is used.
1868
1869 If *authkey* is a string then it will be used as the authentication key;
1870 otherwise it must be *None*.
1871
1872 If *authkey* is ``None`` and *authenticate* is ``True`` then
Benjamin Petersona786b022008-08-25 21:05:21 +00001873 ``current_process().authkey`` is used as the authentication key. If
Alexandre Vassalottic57a84f2009-07-17 12:07:01 +00001874 *authkey* is ``None`` and *authenticate* is ``False`` then no
Benjamin Petersone711caf2008-06-11 16:44:04 +00001875 authentication is done. If authentication fails then
1876 :exc:`AuthenticationError` is raised. See :ref:`multiprocessing-auth-keys`.
1877
1878 .. method:: accept()
1879
1880 Accept a connection on the bound socket or named pipe of the listener
1881 object and return a :class:`Connection` object. If authentication is
1882 attempted and fails, then :exc:`AuthenticationError` is raised.
1883
1884 .. method:: close()
1885
1886 Close the bound socket or named pipe of the listener object. This is
1887 called automatically when the listener is garbage collected. However it
1888 is advisable to call it explicitly.
1889
1890 Listener objects have the following read-only properties:
1891
1892 .. attribute:: address
1893
1894 The address which is being used by the Listener object.
1895
1896 .. attribute:: last_accepted
1897
1898 The address from which the last accepted connection came. If this is
1899 unavailable then it is ``None``.
1900
Antoine Pitroubdb1cf12012-03-05 19:28:37 +01001901.. function:: wait(object_list, timeout=None)
1902
1903 Wait till an object in *object_list* is ready. Returns the list of
1904 those objects in *object_list* which are ready. If *timeout* is a
1905 float then the call blocks for at most that many seconds. If
1906 *timeout* is ``None`` then it will block for an unlimited period.
Richard Oudkerk59d54042012-05-10 16:11:12 +01001907 A negative timeout is equivalent to a zero timeout.
Antoine Pitroubdb1cf12012-03-05 19:28:37 +01001908
1909 For both Unix and Windows, an object can appear in *object_list* if
1910 it is
1911
1912 * a readable :class:`~multiprocessing.Connection` object;
1913 * a connected and readable :class:`socket.socket` object; or
1914 * the :attr:`~multiprocessing.Process.sentinel` attribute of a
1915 :class:`~multiprocessing.Process` object.
1916
1917 A connection or socket object is ready when there is data available
1918 to be read from it, or the other end has been closed.
1919
1920 **Unix**: ``wait(object_list, timeout)`` almost equivalent
1921 ``select.select(object_list, [], [], timeout)``. The difference is
1922 that, if :func:`select.select` is interrupted by a signal, it can
1923 raise :exc:`OSError` with an error number of ``EINTR``, whereas
1924 :func:`wait` will not.
1925
1926 **Windows**: An item in *object_list* must either be an integer
1927 handle which is waitable (according to the definition used by the
1928 documentation of the Win32 function ``WaitForMultipleObjects()``)
1929 or it can be an object with a :meth:`fileno` method which returns a
1930 socket handle or pipe handle. (Note that pipe handles and socket
1931 handles are **not** waitable handles.)
1932
1933 .. versionadded:: 3.3
Benjamin Petersone711caf2008-06-11 16:44:04 +00001934
1935The module defines two exceptions:
1936
1937.. exception:: AuthenticationError
1938
1939 Exception raised when there is an authentication error.
1940
Benjamin Petersone711caf2008-06-11 16:44:04 +00001941
1942**Examples**
1943
1944The following server code creates a listener which uses ``'secret password'`` as
1945an authentication key. It then waits for a connection and sends some data to
1946the client::
1947
1948 from multiprocessing.connection import Listener
1949 from array import array
1950
1951 address = ('localhost', 6000) # family is deduced to be 'AF_INET'
Senthil Kumaran79941b52010-10-10 06:13:49 +00001952 listener = Listener(address, authkey=b'secret password')
Benjamin Petersone711caf2008-06-11 16:44:04 +00001953
1954 conn = listener.accept()
Georg Brandl49702152008-09-29 06:43:45 +00001955 print('connection accepted from', listener.last_accepted)
Benjamin Petersone711caf2008-06-11 16:44:04 +00001956
1957 conn.send([2.25, None, 'junk', float])
1958
Senthil Kumaran79941b52010-10-10 06:13:49 +00001959 conn.send_bytes(b'hello')
Benjamin Petersone711caf2008-06-11 16:44:04 +00001960
1961 conn.send_bytes(array('i', [42, 1729]))
1962
1963 conn.close()
1964 listener.close()
1965
1966The following code connects to the server and receives some data from the
1967server::
1968
1969 from multiprocessing.connection import Client
1970 from array import array
1971
1972 address = ('localhost', 6000)
Senthil Kumaran79941b52010-10-10 06:13:49 +00001973 conn = Client(address, authkey=b'secret password')
Benjamin Petersone711caf2008-06-11 16:44:04 +00001974
Georg Brandl49702152008-09-29 06:43:45 +00001975 print(conn.recv()) # => [2.25, None, 'junk', float]
Benjamin Petersone711caf2008-06-11 16:44:04 +00001976
Georg Brandl49702152008-09-29 06:43:45 +00001977 print(conn.recv_bytes()) # => 'hello'
Benjamin Petersone711caf2008-06-11 16:44:04 +00001978
1979 arr = array('i', [0, 0, 0, 0, 0])
Georg Brandl49702152008-09-29 06:43:45 +00001980 print(conn.recv_bytes_into(arr)) # => 8
1981 print(arr) # => array('i', [42, 1729, 0, 0, 0])
Benjamin Petersone711caf2008-06-11 16:44:04 +00001982
1983 conn.close()
1984
Antoine Pitroubdb1cf12012-03-05 19:28:37 +01001985The following code uses :func:`~multiprocessing.connection.wait` to
1986wait for messages from multiple processes at once::
1987
1988 import time, random
1989 from multiprocessing import Process, Pipe, current_process
1990 from multiprocessing.connection import wait
1991
1992 def foo(w):
1993 for i in range(10):
1994 w.send((i, current_process().name))
1995 w.close()
1996
1997 if __name__ == '__main__':
1998 readers = []
1999
2000 for i in range(4):
2001 r, w = Pipe(duplex=False)
2002 readers.append(r)
2003 p = Process(target=foo, args=(w,))
2004 p.start()
2005 # We close the writable end of the pipe now to be sure that
2006 # p is the only process which owns a handle for it. This
2007 # ensures that when p closes its handle for the writable end,
2008 # wait() will promptly report the readable end as being ready.
2009 w.close()
2010
2011 while readers:
2012 for r in wait(readers):
2013 try:
2014 msg = r.recv()
2015 except EOFError:
2016 readers.remove(r)
2017 else:
2018 print(msg)
2019
Benjamin Petersone711caf2008-06-11 16:44:04 +00002020
2021.. _multiprocessing-address-formats:
2022
2023Address Formats
2024>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
2025
Benjamin Peterson5289b2b2008-06-28 00:40:54 +00002026* An ``'AF_INET'`` address is a tuple of the form ``(hostname, port)`` where
Benjamin Petersone711caf2008-06-11 16:44:04 +00002027 *hostname* is a string and *port* is an integer.
2028
Benjamin Peterson5289b2b2008-06-28 00:40:54 +00002029* An ``'AF_UNIX'`` address is a string representing a filename on the
Benjamin Petersone711caf2008-06-11 16:44:04 +00002030 filesystem.
2031
2032* An ``'AF_PIPE'`` address is a string of the form
Benjamin Petersonda10d3b2009-01-01 00:23:30 +00002033 :samp:`r'\\\\.\\pipe\\{PipeName}'`. To use :func:`Client` to connect to a named
Georg Brandl1f01deb2009-01-03 22:47:39 +00002034 pipe on a remote computer called *ServerName* one should use an address of the
Benjamin Peterson28d88b42009-01-09 03:03:23 +00002035 form :samp:`r'\\\\{ServerName}\\pipe\\{PipeName}'` instead.
Benjamin Petersone711caf2008-06-11 16:44:04 +00002036
2037Note that any string beginning with two backslashes is assumed by default to be
2038an ``'AF_PIPE'`` address rather than an ``'AF_UNIX'`` address.
2039
2040
2041.. _multiprocessing-auth-keys:
2042
2043Authentication keys
2044~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
2045
2046When one uses :meth:`Connection.recv`, the data received is automatically
2047unpickled. Unfortunately unpickling data from an untrusted source is a security
2048risk. Therefore :class:`Listener` and :func:`Client` use the :mod:`hmac` module
2049to provide digest authentication.
2050
2051An authentication key is a string which can be thought of as a password: once a
2052connection is established both ends will demand proof that the other knows the
2053authentication key. (Demonstrating that both ends are using the same key does
2054**not** involve sending the key over the connection.)
2055
2056If authentication is requested but do authentication key is specified then the
Benjamin Petersona786b022008-08-25 21:05:21 +00002057return value of ``current_process().authkey`` is used (see
Benjamin Peterson5289b2b2008-06-28 00:40:54 +00002058:class:`~multiprocessing.Process`). This value will automatically inherited by
2059any :class:`~multiprocessing.Process` object that the current process creates.
2060This means that (by default) all processes of a multi-process program will share
2061a single authentication key which can be used when setting up connections
Benjamin Petersond23f8222009-04-05 19:13:16 +00002062between themselves.
Benjamin Petersone711caf2008-06-11 16:44:04 +00002063
2064Suitable authentication keys can also be generated by using :func:`os.urandom`.
2065
2066
2067Logging
2068~~~~~~~
2069
2070Some support for logging is available. Note, however, that the :mod:`logging`
2071package does not use process shared locks so it is possible (depending on the
2072handler type) for messages from different processes to get mixed up.
2073
2074.. currentmodule:: multiprocessing
2075.. function:: get_logger()
2076
2077 Returns the logger used by :mod:`multiprocessing`. If necessary, a new one
2078 will be created.
2079
Jesse Noller41faa542009-01-25 03:45:53 +00002080 When first created the logger has level :data:`logging.NOTSET` and no
2081 default handler. Messages sent to this logger will not by default propagate
2082 to the root logger.
Benjamin Petersone711caf2008-06-11 16:44:04 +00002083
2084 Note that on Windows child processes will only inherit the level of the
2085 parent process's logger -- any other customization of the logger will not be
2086 inherited.
2087
Jesse Noller41faa542009-01-25 03:45:53 +00002088.. currentmodule:: multiprocessing
2089.. function:: log_to_stderr()
2090
2091 This function performs a call to :func:`get_logger` but in addition to
2092 returning the logger created by get_logger, it adds a handler which sends
2093 output to :data:`sys.stderr` using format
2094 ``'[%(levelname)s/%(processName)s] %(message)s'``.
2095
Benjamin Petersone711caf2008-06-11 16:44:04 +00002096Below is an example session with logging turned on::
2097
Benjamin Peterson206e3072008-10-19 14:07:49 +00002098 >>> import multiprocessing, logging
Jesse Noller41faa542009-01-25 03:45:53 +00002099 >>> logger = multiprocessing.log_to_stderr()
Benjamin Petersone711caf2008-06-11 16:44:04 +00002100 >>> logger.setLevel(logging.INFO)
2101 >>> logger.warning('doomed')
2102 [WARNING/MainProcess] doomed
Benjamin Peterson206e3072008-10-19 14:07:49 +00002103 >>> m = multiprocessing.Manager()
R. David Murray8e8099c2009-04-28 18:02:00 +00002104 [INFO/SyncManager-...] child process calling self.run()
2105 [INFO/SyncManager-...] created temp directory /.../pymp-...
2106 [INFO/SyncManager-...] manager serving at '/.../listener-...'
Benjamin Petersone711caf2008-06-11 16:44:04 +00002107 >>> del m
2108 [INFO/MainProcess] sending shutdown message to manager
R. David Murray8e8099c2009-04-28 18:02:00 +00002109 [INFO/SyncManager-...] manager exiting with exitcode 0
Benjamin Petersone711caf2008-06-11 16:44:04 +00002110
Jesse Noller41faa542009-01-25 03:45:53 +00002111In addition to having these two logging functions, the multiprocessing also
2112exposes two additional logging level attributes. These are :const:`SUBWARNING`
2113and :const:`SUBDEBUG`. The table below illustrates where theses fit in the
2114normal level hierarchy.
2115
2116+----------------+----------------+
2117| Level | Numeric value |
2118+================+================+
2119| ``SUBWARNING`` | 25 |
2120+----------------+----------------+
2121| ``SUBDEBUG`` | 5 |
2122+----------------+----------------+
2123
2124For a full table of logging levels, see the :mod:`logging` module.
2125
2126These additional logging levels are used primarily for certain debug messages
2127within the multiprocessing module. Below is the same example as above, except
2128with :const:`SUBDEBUG` enabled::
2129
2130 >>> import multiprocessing, logging
2131 >>> logger = multiprocessing.log_to_stderr()
2132 >>> logger.setLevel(multiprocessing.SUBDEBUG)
2133 >>> logger.warning('doomed')
2134 [WARNING/MainProcess] doomed
2135 >>> m = multiprocessing.Manager()
R. David Murray8e8099c2009-04-28 18:02:00 +00002136 [INFO/SyncManager-...] child process calling self.run()
2137 [INFO/SyncManager-...] created temp directory /.../pymp-...
2138 [INFO/SyncManager-...] manager serving at '/.../pymp-djGBXN/listener-...'
Jesse Noller41faa542009-01-25 03:45:53 +00002139 >>> del m
2140 [SUBDEBUG/MainProcess] finalizer calling ...
2141 [INFO/MainProcess] sending shutdown message to manager
R. David Murray8e8099c2009-04-28 18:02:00 +00002142 [DEBUG/SyncManager-...] manager received shutdown message
2143 [SUBDEBUG/SyncManager-...] calling <Finalize object, callback=unlink, ...
2144 [SUBDEBUG/SyncManager-...] finalizer calling <built-in function unlink> ...
2145 [SUBDEBUG/SyncManager-...] calling <Finalize object, dead>
2146 [SUBDEBUG/SyncManager-...] finalizer calling <function rmtree at 0x5aa730> ...
2147 [INFO/SyncManager-...] manager exiting with exitcode 0
Benjamin Petersone711caf2008-06-11 16:44:04 +00002148
2149The :mod:`multiprocessing.dummy` module
2150~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
2151
2152.. module:: multiprocessing.dummy
2153 :synopsis: Dumb wrapper around threading.
2154
2155:mod:`multiprocessing.dummy` replicates the API of :mod:`multiprocessing` but is
Benjamin Peterson5289b2b2008-06-28 00:40:54 +00002156no more than a wrapper around the :mod:`threading` module.
Benjamin Petersone711caf2008-06-11 16:44:04 +00002157
2158
2159.. _multiprocessing-programming:
2160
2161Programming guidelines
2162----------------------
2163
2164There are certain guidelines and idioms which should be adhered to when using
2165:mod:`multiprocessing`.
2166
2167
2168All platforms
2169~~~~~~~~~~~~~
2170
2171Avoid shared state
2172
2173 As far as possible one should try to avoid shifting large amounts of data
2174 between processes.
2175
2176 It is probably best to stick to using queues or pipes for communication
2177 between processes rather than using the lower level synchronization
2178 primitives from the :mod:`threading` module.
2179
2180Picklability
2181
2182 Ensure that the arguments to the methods of proxies are picklable.
2183
2184Thread safety of proxies
2185
2186 Do not use a proxy object from more than one thread unless you protect it
2187 with a lock.
2188
2189 (There is never a problem with different processes using the *same* proxy.)
2190
2191Joining zombie processes
2192
2193 On Unix when a process finishes but has not been joined it becomes a zombie.
2194 There should never be very many because each time a new process starts (or
2195 :func:`active_children` is called) all completed processes which have not
2196 yet been joined will be joined. Also calling a finished process's
2197 :meth:`Process.is_alive` will join the process. Even so it is probably good
2198 practice to explicitly join all the processes that you start.
2199
2200Better to inherit than pickle/unpickle
2201
Benjamin Peterson5289b2b2008-06-28 00:40:54 +00002202 On Windows many types from :mod:`multiprocessing` need to be picklable so
Benjamin Petersone711caf2008-06-11 16:44:04 +00002203 that child processes can use them. However, one should generally avoid
2204 sending shared objects to other processes using pipes or queues. Instead
Eli Benderskyd08effe2011-12-31 07:20:26 +02002205 you should arrange the program so that a process which needs access to a
Benjamin Petersone711caf2008-06-11 16:44:04 +00002206 shared resource created elsewhere can inherit it from an ancestor process.
2207
2208Avoid terminating processes
2209
2210 Using the :meth:`Process.terminate` method to stop a process is liable to
2211 cause any shared resources (such as locks, semaphores, pipes and queues)
2212 currently being used by the process to become broken or unavailable to other
2213 processes.
2214
2215 Therefore it is probably best to only consider using
Benjamin Peterson5289b2b2008-06-28 00:40:54 +00002216 :meth:`Process.terminate` on processes which never use any shared resources.
Benjamin Petersone711caf2008-06-11 16:44:04 +00002217
2218Joining processes that use queues
2219
2220 Bear in mind that a process that has put items in a queue will wait before
2221 terminating until all the buffered items are fed by the "feeder" thread to
2222 the underlying pipe. (The child process can call the
Benjamin Petersonae5360b2008-09-08 23:05:23 +00002223 :meth:`Queue.cancel_join_thread` method of the queue to avoid this behaviour.)
Benjamin Petersone711caf2008-06-11 16:44:04 +00002224
2225 This means that whenever you use a queue you need to make sure that all
2226 items which have been put on the queue will eventually be removed before the
2227 process is joined. Otherwise you cannot be sure that processes which have
2228 put items on the queue will terminate. Remember also that non-daemonic
2229 processes will be automatically be joined.
2230
2231 An example which will deadlock is the following::
2232
2233 from multiprocessing import Process, Queue
2234
2235 def f(q):
2236 q.put('X' * 1000000)
2237
2238 if __name__ == '__main__':
2239 queue = Queue()
2240 p = Process(target=f, args=(queue,))
2241 p.start()
2242 p.join() # this deadlocks
2243 obj = queue.get()
2244
2245 A fix here would be to swap the last two lines round (or simply remove the
2246 ``p.join()`` line).
2247
Benjamin Peterson5289b2b2008-06-28 00:40:54 +00002248Explicitly pass resources to child processes
Benjamin Petersone711caf2008-06-11 16:44:04 +00002249
2250 On Unix a child process can make use of a shared resource created in a
2251 parent process using a global resource. However, it is better to pass the
2252 object as an argument to the constructor for the child process.
2253
2254 Apart from making the code (potentially) compatible with Windows this also
2255 ensures that as long as the child process is still alive the object will not
2256 be garbage collected in the parent process. This might be important if some
2257 resource is freed when the object is garbage collected in the parent
2258 process.
2259
2260 So for instance ::
2261
2262 from multiprocessing import Process, Lock
2263
2264 def f():
2265 ... do something using "lock" ...
2266
2267 if __name__ == '__main__':
2268 lock = Lock()
2269 for i in range(10):
2270 Process(target=f).start()
2271
2272 should be rewritten as ::
2273
2274 from multiprocessing import Process, Lock
2275
2276 def f(l):
2277 ... do something using "l" ...
2278
2279 if __name__ == '__main__':
2280 lock = Lock()
2281 for i in range(10):
2282 Process(target=f, args=(lock,)).start()
2283
Eli Benderskyd08effe2011-12-31 07:20:26 +02002284Beware of replacing :data:`sys.stdin` with a "file like object"
Alexandre Vassalottic57a84f2009-07-17 12:07:01 +00002285
2286 :mod:`multiprocessing` originally unconditionally called::
2287
2288 os.close(sys.stdin.fileno())
2289
2290 in the :meth:`multiprocessing.Process._bootstrap` method --- this resulted
2291 in issues with processes-in-processes. This has been changed to::
2292
2293 sys.stdin.close()
2294 sys.stdin = open(os.devnull)
2295
2296 Which solves the fundamental issue of processes colliding with each other
2297 resulting in a bad file descriptor error, but introduces a potential danger
2298 to applications which replace :func:`sys.stdin` with a "file-like object"
2299 with output buffering. This danger is that if multiple processes call
2300 :func:`close()` on this file-like object, it could result in the same
2301 data being flushed to the object multiple times, resulting in corruption.
2302
2303 If you write a file-like object and implement your own caching, you can
2304 make it fork-safe by storing the pid whenever you append to the cache,
2305 and discarding the cache when the pid changes. For example::
2306
2307 @property
2308 def cache(self):
2309 pid = os.getpid()
2310 if pid != self._pid:
2311 self._pid = pid
2312 self._cache = []
2313 return self._cache
2314
2315 For more information, see :issue:`5155`, :issue:`5313` and :issue:`5331`
Benjamin Petersone711caf2008-06-11 16:44:04 +00002316
2317Windows
2318~~~~~~~
2319
2320Since Windows lacks :func:`os.fork` it has a few extra restrictions:
2321
2322More picklability
2323
2324 Ensure that all arguments to :meth:`Process.__init__` are picklable. This
2325 means, in particular, that bound or unbound methods cannot be used directly
2326 as the ``target`` argument on Windows --- just define a function and use
2327 that instead.
2328
2329 Also, if you subclass :class:`Process` then make sure that instances will be
2330 picklable when the :meth:`Process.start` method is called.
2331
2332Global variables
2333
2334 Bear in mind that if code run in a child process tries to access a global
2335 variable, then the value it sees (if any) may not be the same as the value
2336 in the parent process at the time that :meth:`Process.start` was called.
2337
2338 However, global variables which are just module level constants cause no
2339 problems.
2340
2341Safe importing of main module
2342
2343 Make sure that the main module can be safely imported by a new Python
2344 interpreter without causing unintended side effects (such a starting a new
2345 process).
2346
2347 For example, under Windows running the following module would fail with a
2348 :exc:`RuntimeError`::
2349
2350 from multiprocessing import Process
2351
2352 def foo():
Georg Brandl49702152008-09-29 06:43:45 +00002353 print('hello')
Benjamin Petersone711caf2008-06-11 16:44:04 +00002354
2355 p = Process(target=foo)
2356 p.start()
2357
2358 Instead one should protect the "entry point" of the program by using ``if
2359 __name__ == '__main__':`` as follows::
2360
2361 from multiprocessing import Process, freeze_support
2362
2363 def foo():
Georg Brandl49702152008-09-29 06:43:45 +00002364 print('hello')
Benjamin Petersone711caf2008-06-11 16:44:04 +00002365
2366 if __name__ == '__main__':
2367 freeze_support()
2368 p = Process(target=foo)
2369 p.start()
2370
Benjamin Peterson5289b2b2008-06-28 00:40:54 +00002371 (The ``freeze_support()`` line can be omitted if the program will be run
Benjamin Petersone711caf2008-06-11 16:44:04 +00002372 normally instead of frozen.)
2373
2374 This allows the newly spawned Python interpreter to safely import the module
2375 and then run the module's ``foo()`` function.
2376
2377 Similar restrictions apply if a pool or manager is created in the main
2378 module.
2379
2380
2381.. _multiprocessing-examples:
2382
2383Examples
2384--------
2385
2386Demonstration of how to create and use customized managers and proxies:
2387
2388.. literalinclude:: ../includes/mp_newtype.py
Ezio Melottif86b28e2012-04-13 20:50:48 -06002389 :language: python3
Benjamin Petersone711caf2008-06-11 16:44:04 +00002390
2391
2392Using :class:`Pool`:
2393
2394.. literalinclude:: ../includes/mp_pool.py
Ezio Melottif86b28e2012-04-13 20:50:48 -06002395 :language: python3
Benjamin Petersone711caf2008-06-11 16:44:04 +00002396
2397
2398Synchronization types like locks, conditions and queues:
2399
2400.. literalinclude:: ../includes/mp_synchronize.py
Ezio Melottif86b28e2012-04-13 20:50:48 -06002401 :language: python3
Benjamin Petersone711caf2008-06-11 16:44:04 +00002402
2403
Georg Brandl0b37b332010-09-03 22:49:27 +00002404An example showing how to use queues to feed tasks to a collection of worker
Eli Benderskyd08effe2011-12-31 07:20:26 +02002405processes and collect the results:
Benjamin Petersone711caf2008-06-11 16:44:04 +00002406
2407.. literalinclude:: ../includes/mp_workers.py
2408
2409
2410An example of how a pool of worker processes can each run a
Georg Brandl47d48bb2010-07-10 11:51:06 +00002411:class:`~http.server.SimpleHTTPRequestHandler` instance while sharing a single
2412listening socket.
Benjamin Petersone711caf2008-06-11 16:44:04 +00002413
2414.. literalinclude:: ../includes/mp_webserver.py
2415
2416
2417Some simple benchmarks comparing :mod:`multiprocessing` with :mod:`threading`:
2418
2419.. literalinclude:: ../includes/mp_benchmarks.py
2420