New submission from Vincent Bernat : asyncio will only keep weak references to alive tasks (in `_all_tasks`). If a user does not keep a reference to a task and the task is not currently executing or sleeping, the user may get "Task was destroyed but it is pending!". I would suggest adding the following paragraph to `create_task()` documentation: Python only keeps weak references to the scheduled tasks. To avoid the task being destroyed by the garbage collector while still pending, a reference to it should be kept until the task is done. And maybe an example in case a user wants something "fire and forget"? ```python running_tasks = set() # [...] task = asyncio.create_task(some_background_function()) running_tasks.add(task) task.add_done_callback(lambda t: running_tasks.remove(t)) ``` The same applies to ensure_future as it now uses create_task, so maybe a "See create_task()". ---------- assignee: docs@python components: Documentation messages: 397741 nosy: bernat, docs@python priority: normal severity: normal status: open title: asyncio.create_task() documentation should mention user needs to keep reference to the task type: enhancement versions: Python 3.10, Python 3.11, Python 3.9 _______________________________________ Python tracker https://bugs.python.org/issue44665 _______________________________________