Mailman 3 May 2020 - Python-Dev

Detect memory leaks in unit tests
by Giampaolo Rodola' 13 May '20

13 May '20

Hello there, I would like to discuss a proposal regarding one aspect which AFAIK is currently missing from cPython's test suite: the ability to detect memory leaks of functions implemented in the C extension modules. In psutil I use a test class/framework which calls a function many times, and fails if the process memory increased after doing so. I do this in order to quickly detect missing free() or Py_DECREF calls in the C code, but I suppose there may be other use cases. Here's the class: https://github.com/giampaolo/psutil/blob/913d4b1d6dcce88dea6ef9382b93883a04… Detecting a memory leak is no easy task, and that's because the process memory fluctuates. Sometimes it may increase (or even decrease!) even if there's no leak, I suppose because of how the OS handles memory, the Python's garbage collector, the fact that RSS is an approximation, and who knows what else. In order to compensate fluctuations I did the following: in case of failure (mem > 0 after calling fun() N times) I retry the test for up to 5 times, increasing N (repetitions) each time, so I consider the test a failure only if the memory keeps increasing across all runs. So for instance, here's a legitimate failure: psutil.tests.test_memory_leaks.TestModuleFunctionsLeaks.test_disk_partitions ... Run #1: extra-mem=696.0K, per-call=3.5K, calls=200 Run #2: extra-mem=1.4M, per-call=3.5K, calls=400 Run #3: extra-mem=2.1M, per-call=3.5K, calls=600 Run #4: extra-mem=2.7M, per-call=3.5K, calls=800 Run #5: extra-mem=3.4M, per-call=3.5K, calls=1000 FAIL If, on the other hand, the memory increased on one run (say 200 calls) but decreased on the next run (say 400 calls), then it clearly means it's a false positive, because memory consumption may be > 0 on the second run, but if it's lower than the previous run with less repetitions, then it cannot possibly represent a leak (just a fluctuation): psutil.tests.test_memory_leaks.TestModuleFunctionsLeaks.test_net_connections ... Run #1: extra-mem=568.0K, per-call=2.8K, calls=200 Run #2: extra-mem=24.0K, per-call=61.4B, calls=400 OK This is the best I could come up with as a simple leak detection mechanism to integrate with CI services, and keep more advanced tools like Valgrind out of the picture (I just wanted to know if there's a leak, not to debug the leak itself). In addition, since psutil is able to get the number of fds (UNIX) and handles (Windows) opened by a process, I also run a separate set of tests to make sure I didn't forget to call close(2) or CloseHandle() in C. Would something like this make sense to have in cPython? Here's a quick PoC I put together just to show how this thing would look like in practice: https://github.com/giampaolo/cpython/pull/2/files A proper work in terms of API coverage would result being quite huge (test all C modules), and ideally should also include cases where functions raise an exception when being fed with an improper input. The biggest stopper here is, of course, psutil, since it's a third party dep, but before getting to that I wanted to see how this idea is perceived in general. Cheers, -- Giampaolo - http://grodola.blogspot.com

5 7

inspect.getdoc and (Not) returning type/superclass docstrings in 3.9
by Matthias Bussonnier 12 May '20

12 May '20

Hi All, # Too long didn't read: In 3.9 inspect.getdoc(instance) behavior was changed and does not return the documentation of type(instance) or it's superclass(es) – I think this is a problematic change of for some project and interactive use to get info on objects that get rarely directly constructed by users. For example pandas dataframe obtained via `pandas.read_csv(filepath)`. I'd like to ask for reconsideration, and that change of behavior are better suited in a new function; potentially deprecating the old one. # Longer version In https://bugs.python.org/issue40257 attempts are made to improve the output of `pydoc`, it particular it is difficult to have fine grained logic depending on where the documentation comes from (instance, class , superclass, etc..). Which sometime can lead to nonsensical help. The following are given as examples: > inspect.getdoc(1) returns the same as inspect.getdoc(int) or >>> import wave >>> help(wave.Error) Help on class Error in module wave: class Error(builtins.Exception) | Common base class for all non-exit exceptions. | | Method resolution order: ... In 3.9 the behavior of `inspect.getdoc()` has been changed to be way more restrictive in what it returns, often returning None where it used to return docstrings. I agree with the end goal of having more controllable way of finding where the documentation/docstrings is coming from and avoiding incorrect docs in pydoc and help, though I find that change of behavior of `getdocs()` might not be the right approach. I'm quite worried many project rely on current behavior of `getdocs()` – at least IPython/Jupyter does to provide user with help/superhelp accessible via obj? and obj??. I would also argue that inaccurate help is also often better than no help. With current state on Python 3.9, a few things like asking for help on a pandas dataframe instance will currently loose informations. >>> import pandas as pd >>> from inspect import getdoc >>> df = pd.read_csv('mydata.csv') >>> print(getdoc(df)) None I'm taking the example of pandas as this is typically the kind of objects you don't construct directly, and get via for example `read_csv()`, or that another API/Package return to you. I haven't been able to confirm yet exactly how this affects sphinx rendering of docs, and how other IDEs provide help (Spyder, Pycharm...), or other projects that use `getdocs()`. I've found mentions of `getdocs()` in numpy, scipy, jedi, matplotlib ... as well (sphinx extension and various dynamic docs), and working on building them on 3.9 to check the effect. In general though the effect of `getdoc()` rarely seem to be tested as they will directly be user facing is my feeling – I was lucky to catch it in IPython/Jupyter as the failing test was unrelated and indirectly relying on the exact output of a subprocess. From the IPython/Jupyter perspective I would prefer to keep current behavior of `inspect.getdocs()` potentially deprecating it if you wish to, and provide an alternative that have a behavior of your choosing. Dealing with functions with slightly chaging behavior across Python version is not the best experience, and this would let the ecosystem get some chance to adapt. Updated project get rarely released in synchrony with new Python versions. Your thoughts on this issue are welcome, thanks for all your work on core python, and I'll support any decision that get made. -- Matthias

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Status of PEP 543 in 2020
by Nimish Telang 10 May '20

10 May '20

Hi, PEP 543, the new TLS api for Python, was published several years ago as a way to a new library unencumbered by the legacy issues around the current ssl library. In the meantime, no actual implementation has appeared. The closest appears to be https://github.com/Synss/python-mbedtls/tree/0.13.0 or https://github.com/python-hyper/pep543 both of which haven't seen much development in years not to mention that neither one has been accepted into the stdlib. The current ssl library could use some improvements to make it easier to use and to expose some more of openssl's functionality (e.g. https://github.com/python/cpython/pull/2449) but it appears that changes have been shelved in favor of PEP 543. Is there any hope for further development on ssl? Is PEP 543 abandoned? Nimish

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PEP 615 (zoneinfo) implementation ready for review
by Paul Ganssle 09 May '20

09 May '20

Hey all, The feature freeze is coming up on us fast, and the PEP 615 implementation is more or less ready to be integrated into the standard library (may need one or two little tweaks, but it's well past the "minimum viable product" stage). Normally I'd wait longer for someone to volunteer for the task of reviewing, but given the somewhat tight timeline and the fact that the code and tests alone (not including the documentation) are 6000 lines, I figured it's better to give people a head's up that I'm looking for reviewers. I've already had a few reviews on this code when it was first merged to the reference implementation, but there's also a decent chunk of otherwise unreviewed code. - The implementation and tests are in PR #19909: https://github.com/python/cpython/pull/19909 - The documentation and What's New entry is in #20006: https://github.com/python/cpython/pull/20006 There's also one other feature that I did not originally include in the PEP but which I think is a reasonable feature request that we are likely to get, which is a way to list all the time zones available on the system. The reference implementation includes an implementation for that feature in the property test suite, and it would be easy for me to port it over; I'll do that if there are no objections before the feature freeze, I've opened this BPO issue to track the discussion: https://bugs.python.org/issue40536 Thanks! Paul

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Summary of Python tracker Issues
by Python tracker 08 May '20

08 May '20

ACTIVITY SUMMARY (2020-05-01 - 2020-05-08) Python tracker at https://bugs.python.org/ To view or respond to any of the issues listed below, click on the issue. Do NOT respond to this message. Issues counts and deltas: open 7459 (+32) closed 44857 (+64) total 52316 (+96) Open issues with patches: 2996 Issues opened (66) ================== #36543: Remove old-deprecated ElementTree features (part 2) https://bugs.python.org/issue36543 reopened by scoder #40028: Math module method to find prime factors for non-negative int https://bugs.python.org/issue40028 reopened by mark.dickinson #40228: Make setting line number in frame more robust. https://bugs.python.org/issue40228 reopened by vstinner #40471: Grammar typo in issubclass docstring https://bugs.python.org/issue40471 opened by alexpovel #40474: Code coverage report not entirely accurate https://bugs.python.org/issue40474 opened by Lewis Ball #40477: Launcher on Catalina https://bugs.python.org/issue40477 opened by Auerhahn #40478: allow finding nmake.exe executable in MSVCCompiler https://bugs.python.org/issue40478 opened by japm48 #40479: Port _hashlib to OpenSSL 3.0.0 https://bugs.python.org/issue40479 opened by christian.heimes #40481: Add include and exclude filters to zipapp cli https://bugs.python.org/issue40481 opened by Jarosław Wygoda #40482: _hashlib: register Python names as OpenSSL aliases https://bugs.python.org/issue40482 opened by christian.heimes #40483: Implementing a verifier function to verify integrity of AST no https://bugs.python.org/issue40483 opened by BTaskaya #40484: Document existing compiler flags under ast https://bugs.python.org/issue40484 opened by BTaskaya #40485: Provide an abstraction for a select-able Event https://bugs.python.org/issue40485 opened by paravoid #40486: pathlib's iterdir doesn't specify what happens if directory co https://bugs.python.org/issue40486 opened by facundobatista #40487: Unexpected exception handler behavior in Jupyter when returnin https://bugs.python.org/issue40487 opened by jeanmonet #40492: -m cProfile -o f.pstats with a script that does chdir() writes https://bugs.python.org/issue40492 opened by Anthony Sottile #40494: collections.abc.Callable and type variables https://bugs.python.org/issue40494 opened by serhiy.storchaka #40495: compileall: option to hardlink duplicate optimization levels b https://bugs.python.org/issue40495 opened by frenzy #40497: subprocess.check_output() accept the check keyword argument https://bugs.python.org/issue40497 opened by remi.lapeyre #40498: Holding spacebar on button widget permanently makes it SUNKEN https://bugs.python.org/issue40498 opened by PythonAmateur742 #40500: test_multiprocessing_fork leaks processes on PPC64LE RHEL8 LTO https://bugs.python.org/issue40500 opened by vstinner #40501: Deprecate and remove ctypes usage in uuid https://bugs.python.org/issue40501 opened by steve.dower #40502: PyNode_New() does not initialize n->n_col_offset https://bugs.python.org/issue40502 opened by Tomasz Pytel #40503: PEP 615: Add zoneinfo module https://bugs.python.org/issue40503 opened by p-ganssle #40505: getpath.c doesn't know about lib64 https://bugs.python.org/issue40505 opened by lemburg #40506: add support for os.Pathlike filenames in zipfile.ZipFile.write https://bugs.python.org/issue40506 opened by d.ragusa #40507: FileNotFound error raised by os.exec* doesn't contain filename https://bugs.python.org/issue40507 opened by russelldavis #40509: In argparse, allow REMAINDER(...) arguments in a mutually excl https://bugs.python.org/issue40509 opened by Shani Armon #40510: [regression] ZipFile fails to round trip on some files https://bugs.python.org/issue40510 opened by DragonSA #40511: IDLE yellow hint frame blinks when entering () in strings in f https://bugs.python.org/issue40511 opened by wyz23x2 #40512: Meta issue: per-interpreter GIL https://bugs.python.org/issue40512 opened by vstinner #40513: Move _PyRuntimeState.ceval to PyInterpreterState https://bugs.python.org/issue40513 opened by vstinner #40514: Add --experimental-isolated-subinterpreters build option https://bugs.python.org/issue40514 opened by vstinner #40515: test_ssl.py hangs with SSL 1.1 built with no threads https://bugs.python.org/issue40515 opened by mig28suarez #40516: GCC 9 compiler warnings on MacOS Catalina https://bugs.python.org/issue40516 opened by remi.lapeyre #40519: Preserve AttributeError exception context in __getattr__ https://bugs.python.org/issue40519 opened by Arusekk #40521: Make tuple, dict, frame free lists, unicode interned strings, https://bugs.python.org/issue40521 opened by vstinner #40522: Subinterpreters: get the current Python interpreter state from https://bugs.python.org/issue40522 opened by vstinner #40525: zipapps execute symlinks as if they are code https://bugs.python.org/issue40525 opened by Anthony Sottile #40528: Improve / Clear ASDL generator https://bugs.python.org/issue40528 opened by BTaskaya #40529: Auto Completions with case insensitive https://bugs.python.org/issue40529 opened by mkasula #40530: distutils/cygwinccompiler.py doesn't support recent msvc versi https://bugs.python.org/issue40530 opened by Vadim Godunko #40533: Subinterpreters: don't share Python objects between interprete https://bugs.python.org/issue40533 opened by vstinner #40534: ShUtil doc deficiencies https://bugs.python.org/issue40534 opened by T UA #40536: Addition of a "list of available time zones" function to zonei https://bugs.python.org/issue40536 opened by p-ganssle #40540: inconstent stdin buffering/seeking behaviour https://bugs.python.org/issue40540 opened by PeterJCLaw #40543: Tamil locale is using outdated encoding https://bugs.python.org/issue40543 opened by Muthu A #40544: Formatter exception when using logging.config.fileConfig https://bugs.python.org/issue40544 opened by mirii1994 #40545: Expose _PyErr_GetTopmostException https://bugs.python.org/issue40545 opened by jd #40546: Inconsistencies between PEG parser and traceback SyntaxErrors https://bugs.python.org/issue40546 opened by lys.nikolaou #40547: 2to3 raise can silently remove code from old 2.4 string except https://bugs.python.org/issue40547 opened by Rémy Oudompheng #40548: Always run GitHub action jobs, even on documentation-only jobs https://bugs.python.org/issue40548 opened by vstinner #40549: Convert posixmodule.c to multiphase initialization (PEP 489) https://bugs.python.org/issue40549 opened by vstinner #40550: Popen.terminate fails with ProcessLookupError under certain co https://bugs.python.org/issue40550 opened by Alexander Overvoorde #40551: PRs should be rebased on top of master before running the buil https://bugs.python.org/issue40551 opened by FFY00 #40552: Enhance for loop and copy example in tutorial https://bugs.python.org/issue40552 opened by mdk #40553: Python 3.8.2 Mac freezing/not responding when saving new progr https://bugs.python.org/issue40553 opened by Zain #40554: Add escape to the glossary? https://bugs.python.org/issue40554 opened by mdk #40556: test__xxsubinterpreters leaked [1486, 1484, 1484, 1484] refere https://bugs.python.org/issue40556 opened by pablogsal #40557: Move captured_stdin(), captured_stdout(), and captured_stderr( https://bugs.python.org/issue40557 opened by felixxm #40558: update CONTRIBUTING.rst docs https://bugs.python.org/issue40558 opened by shihai1991 #40561: Provide docstrings for public-facing webbrowser functions https://bugs.python.org/issue40561 opened by bsolomon1124 #40562: SEO: differentiate between Python 2 and Python 3 docs on Googl https://bugs.python.org/issue40562 opened by simonw #40563: Support pathlike objects on dbm/shelve https://bugs.python.org/issue40563 opened by BTaskaya #40564: Using zipfile.Path with several files prematurely closes zip https://bugs.python.org/issue40564 opened by bustawin #40566: Apply PEP 573 to abc module https://bugs.python.org/issue40566 opened by corona10 Most recent 15 issues with no replies (15) ========================================== #40566: Apply PEP 573 to abc module https://bugs.python.org/issue40566 #40564: Using zipfile.Path with several files prematurely closes zip https://bugs.python.org/issue40564 #40561: Provide docstrings for public-facing webbrowser functions https://bugs.python.org/issue40561 #40556: test__xxsubinterpreters leaked [1486, 1484, 1484, 1484] refere https://bugs.python.org/issue40556 #40551: PRs should be rebased on top of master before running the buil https://bugs.python.org/issue40551 #40549: Convert posixmodule.c to multiphase initialization (PEP 489) https://bugs.python.org/issue40549 #40547: 2to3 raise can silently remove code from old 2.4 string except https://bugs.python.org/issue40547 #40544: Formatter exception when using logging.config.fileConfig https://bugs.python.org/issue40544 #40543: Tamil locale is using outdated encoding https://bugs.python.org/issue40543 #40540: inconstent stdin buffering/seeking behaviour https://bugs.python.org/issue40540 #40536: Addition of a "list of available time zones" function to zonei https://bugs.python.org/issue40536 #40534: ShUtil doc deficiencies https://bugs.python.org/issue40534 #40530: distutils/cygwinccompiler.py doesn't support recent msvc versi https://bugs.python.org/issue40530 #40510: [regression] ZipFile fails to round trip on some files https://bugs.python.org/issue40510 #40507: FileNotFound error raised by os.exec* doesn't contain filename https://bugs.python.org/issue40507 Most recent 15 issues waiting for review (15) ============================================= #40566: Apply PEP 573 to abc module https://bugs.python.org/issue40566 #40561: Provide docstrings for public-facing webbrowser functions https://bugs.python.org/issue40561 #40558: update CONTRIBUTING.rst docs https://bugs.python.org/issue40558 #40552: Enhance for loop and copy example in tutorial https://bugs.python.org/issue40552 #40549: Convert posixmodule.c to multiphase initialization (PEP 489) https://bugs.python.org/issue40549 #40548: Always run GitHub action jobs, even on documentation-only jobs https://bugs.python.org/issue40548 #40545: Expose _PyErr_GetTopmostException https://bugs.python.org/issue40545 #40544: Formatter exception when using logging.config.fileConfig https://bugs.python.org/issue40544 #40533: Subinterpreters: don't share Python objects between interprete https://bugs.python.org/issue40533 #40529: Auto Completions with case insensitive https://bugs.python.org/issue40529 #40528: Improve / Clear ASDL generator https://bugs.python.org/issue40528 #40525: zipapps execute symlinks as if they are code https://bugs.python.org/issue40525 #40522: Subinterpreters: get the current Python interpreter state from https://bugs.python.org/issue40522 #40521: Make tuple, dict, frame free lists, unicode interned strings, https://bugs.python.org/issue40521 #40519: Preserve AttributeError exception context in __getattr__ https://bugs.python.org/issue40519 Top 10 most discussed issues (10) ================================= #40513: Move _PyRuntimeState.ceval to PyInterpreterState https://bugs.python.org/issue40513 15 msgs #40334: PEP 617: new PEG-based parser https://bugs.python.org/issue40334 13 msgs #36543: Remove old-deprecated ElementTree features (part 2) https://bugs.python.org/issue36543 12 msgs #40528: Improve / Clear ASDL generator https://bugs.python.org/issue40528 11 msgs #40028: Math module method to find prime factors for non-negative int https://bugs.python.org/issue40028 10 msgs #40426: Unable to use lowercase hexadecimal digits for percent encodin https://bugs.python.org/issue40426 10 msgs #40512: Meta issue: per-interpreter GIL https://bugs.python.org/issue40512 9 msgs #40545: Expose _PyErr_GetTopmostException https://bugs.python.org/issue40545 9 msgs #40458: test_bad_getattr crashes on APPX test https://bugs.python.org/issue40458 7 msgs #40546: Inconsistencies between PEG parser and traceback SyntaxErrors https://bugs.python.org/issue40546 7 msgs Issues closed (64) ================== #2380: Raise a Py3K warning for catching nested tuples with non-BaseE https://bugs.python.org/issue2380 closed by zach.ware #5879: multiprocessing example "pool of http servers " fails on windo https://bugs.python.org/issue5879 closed by terry.reedy #17848: can't compile with clang and build a shared lib due to libffi https://bugs.python.org/issue17848 closed by ned.deily #18499: mingw: setup _ctypes module with system libffi https://bugs.python.org/issue18499 closed by ned.deily #25413: ctypes (libffi) fails to compile on Solaris X86 https://bugs.python.org/issue25413 closed by ned.deily #26192: python3 k1om dissociation permanence: libffi https://bugs.python.org/issue26192 closed by ned.deily #27133: python 3.5.1 will not compile because libffi module uses wrong https://bugs.python.org/issue27133 closed by ned.deily #31710: setup.py: _ctypes won't get built when system ffi is only in $ https://bugs.python.org/issue31710 closed by ned.deily #34823: libffi detection doesn’t work in my setup https://bugs.python.org/issue34823 closed by ned.deily #35061: Specify libffi.so soname for ctypes https://bugs.python.org/issue35061 closed by ned.deily #36944: Add support for ARM64 to libffi https://bugs.python.org/issue36944 closed by ned.deily #39470: Indicate that os.makedirs is equivalent to Path.mkdir https://bugs.python.org/issue39470 closed by nanjekyejoannah #39691: Allow passing Pathlike objects to io.open_code https://bugs.python.org/issue39691 closed by steve.dower #40135: multiprocessing: test_shared_memory_across_processes() cannot https://bugs.python.org/issue40135 closed by vstinner #40178: Convert the remaining os funtions to Argument Clinic https://bugs.python.org/issue40178 closed by serhiy.storchaka #40316: Add zero function to time, datetime, which acts as the use cas https://bugs.python.org/issue40316 closed by rhettinger #40355: The ast module fails to reject certain malformed nodes https://bugs.python.org/issue40355 closed by BTaskaya #40393: Auto-response from Python Help points to Python 2 reference https://bugs.python.org/issue40393 closed by terry.reedy #40398: typing.get_args(Callable) fails https://bugs.python.org/issue40398 closed by serhiy.storchaka #40408: GenericAlias does not support nested type variables https://bugs.python.org/issue40408 closed by serhiy.storchaka #40414: Incorrect mouse and keyboard mapping https://bugs.python.org/issue40414 closed by terry.reedy #40416: Calling TextIOWrapper.tell() in the middle of reading a gb2312 https://bugs.python.org/issue40416 closed by terry.reedy #40417: PyImport_ReloadModule emits deprecation warning https://bugs.python.org/issue40417 closed by brett.cannon #40419: timeit CLI docs still mention old power sequence https://bugs.python.org/issue40419 closed by serhiy.storchaka #40433: Equality operations between lists and arrays https://bugs.python.org/issue40433 closed by rhettinger #40449: multi-line f-string, syntaxerror points to wrong line https://bugs.python.org/issue40449 closed by lys.nikolaou #40459: [easy] undefined names in platform.py https://bugs.python.org/issue40459 closed by vstinner #40461: execution of file with pictures doesn't work in command --onef https://bugs.python.org/issue40461 closed by ned.deily #40465: Deprecate the optional *random* argument to random.shuffle() https://bugs.python.org/issue40465 closed by rhettinger #40466: asyncio.ensure_future() breaks implicit exception chaining https://bugs.python.org/issue40466 closed by chris.jerdonek #40472: PEG parser disables IDLE Shell input > 2 lines https://bugs.python.org/issue40472 closed by terry.reedy #40473: Universal newline not recognizing Mac newline (CR) when using https://bugs.python.org/issue40473 closed by larrykuhn #40475: json.JSONEncoder override default method https://bugs.python.org/issue40475 closed by xsmyqf #40476: Write file failed on OS X 10.15.4 https://bugs.python.org/issue40476 closed by 韩振宇 #40480: "fnmatch" exponential execution time https://bugs.python.org/issue40480 closed by tim.peters #40488: setup.py shall search by default for libffi.so in /usr/local/l https://bugs.python.org/issue40488 closed by ned.deily #40489: INCREF/DECREFs around the rich comparison needs tests https://bugs.python.org/issue40489 closed by rhettinger #40490: peg_generator module has unused imports https://bugs.python.org/issue40490 closed by pablogsal #40491: Typo in SyntaxError produced by pegen for numeric literals https://bugs.python.org/issue40491 closed by serhiy.storchaka #40493: Pegen can't parse some function type comments https://bugs.python.org/issue40493 closed by gvanrossum #40496: re.findall() takes a long time (100% cup usage) on Python 3.6. https://bugs.python.org/issue40496 closed by serhiy.storchaka #40499: asyncio.wait documentation on non-emptiness requirement lost i https://bugs.python.org/issue40499 closed by gvanrossum #40504: Restore weakref support for lru_cache wrappers https://bugs.python.org/issue40504 closed by rhettinger #40508: IDLE won't open https://bugs.python.org/issue40508 closed by ned.deily #40517: Syntax highlighting for ASDL https://bugs.python.org/issue40517 closed by rhettinger #40518: ValueError when using resource.setrlimit on macOS Catalina https://bugs.python.org/issue40518 closed by ned.deily #40520: Remove redundant comment in pydebug.h https://bugs.python.org/issue40520 closed by corona10 #40523: Weakref proxy missing pass throughs for hash() and reversed() https://bugs.python.org/issue40523 closed by pablogsal #40524: Print() issue https://bugs.python.org/issue40524 closed by eric.smith #40526: documentation bad on asyncio https://bugs.python.org/issue40526 closed by yselivanov #40527: Multiple "unknown option" errors when passing unknown argument https://bugs.python.org/issue40527 closed by corona10 #40531: Adding the method find() to list https://bugs.python.org/issue40531 closed by rhettinger #40532: Persmission error https://bugs.python.org/issue40532 closed by eric.smith #40535: While build python 3.8.2 in linux ctypes.so is using libffi.s https://bugs.python.org/issue40535 closed by ned.deily #40537: Typo in Doc/library/sqlite3.rst https://bugs.python.org/issue40537 closed by nanjekyejoannah #40538: struct.calcsize('L')== 8 but 4 is specified in documentation https://bugs.python.org/issue40538 closed by mark.dickinson #40539: Docs - difflib.SequenceMatcher quick_ratio and real_quick_rati https://bugs.python.org/issue40539 closed by tim.peters #40541: Add optional weights parameter to random.sample() https://bugs.python.org/issue40541 closed by rhettinger #40542: path environment variable not created correctly https://bugs.python.org/issue40542 closed by steve.dower #40555: pegen (PEP 617): bug in error handling https://bugs.python.org/issue40555 closed by pablogsal #40559: Missing Py_DECREF in task_step_impl() in _asynciomodule.c https://bugs.python.org/issue40559 closed by chris.jerdonek #40560: uuid.uuid4().hex not random https://bugs.python.org/issue40560 closed by KingUdo #40565: is comparison returns False while ids are the same. https://bugs.python.org/issue40565 closed by eric.smith #1648957: HP-UX: _ctypes/libffi/src/ia64/ffi/__attribute__/native cc https://bugs.python.org/issue1648957 closed by ned.deily

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PoC: Subinterpreters 4x faster than sequential execution or threads on CPU-bound workaround
by Victor Stinner 08 May '20

08 May '20

Hi, I wrote a "per-interpreter GIL" proof-of-concept: each interpreter gets its own GIL. I chose to benchmark a factorial function in pure Python to simulate a CPU-bound workload. I wrote the simplest possible function just to be able to run a benchmark, to check if the PEP 554 would be relevant. The proof-of-concept proves that subinterpreters can make a CPU-bound workload faster than sequential execution or threads and that they have the same speed than multiprocessing. The performance scales well with the number of CPUs. Performance =========== Factorial: n = 50_000 fact = 1 for i in range(1, n + 1): fact = fact * i 2 CPUs: Sequential: 1.00 sec +- 0.01 sec Threads: 1.08 sec +- 0.01 sec Multiprocessing: 529 ms +- 6 ms Subinterpreters: 553 ms +- 6 ms 4 CPUs: Sequential: 1.99 sec +- 0.01 sec Threads: 3.15 sec +- 0.97 sec Multiprocessing: 560 ms +- 12 ms Subinterpreters: 583 ms +- 7 ms 8 CPUs: Sequential: 4.01 sec +- 0.02 sec Threads: 9.91 sec +- 0.54 sec Multiprocessing: 1.02 sec +- 0.01 sec Subinterpreters: 1.10 sec +- 0.00 sec Benchmarks run on my laptop which has 8 logical CPUs (4 physical CPU cores with Hyper Threading). Threads are between 1.1x (2 CPUs) and 2.5x (8 CPUs) SLOWER than sequential execution. Subinterpreters are between 1.8x (2 CPUs) and 3.6x (8 CPUs) FASTER than sequential execution. Subinterpreters and multiprocessing have basically the same speed on this benchmark. See demo-pyperf.py attached to https://bugs.python.org/issue40512 for the code of the benchmark. Implementation ============== See https://bugs.python.org/issue40512 and related issues for the implementation. I already merged changes, but most code is disabled by default: a new special undocumented --with-experimental-isolated-subinterpreters build mode is required to test it. To reproduce the benchmark, use:: # up to date checkout of Python master branch ./configure \ --with-experimental-isolated-subinterpreters \ --enable-optimizations \ --with-lto make ./python demo-pyperf.py Limits of subinterpreters design ================================ Subinterpreters have a few design limits: * A Python object must not be shared between two interpreters. * Each interpreter has a minimum memory footprint, since Python internal states and modules are duplicated. * Others that I forgot :-) Incomplete implementation ========================= My proof-of-concept is just good enough to compute factorial with the code that I wrote above :-) Any other code is very likely to crash in various funny ways. I added a few "#ifdef EXPERIMENTAL_ISOLATED_SUBINTERPRETERS" for the proof-of-concept. Most are temporary workarounds until some parts of the code are modified to become compatible with subinterpreters, like tuple free lists or Unicode interned strings. Right now, there are still some states which are shared between subinterpreters: like None and True singletons, but also statically allocated types. Avoid shared states should enhance performances. See https://bugs.python.org/issue40512 for the current status and a list of tasks. Most of these tasks are already tracked in Eric Snow's "Multi Core Python" project: https://github.com/ericsnowcurrently/multi-core-python/issues Victor -- Night gathers, and now my watch begins. It shall not end until my death.

15 21

Issues with import_fresh_module
by Paul Ganssle 08 May '20

08 May '20

As part of PEP 399 <https://www.python.org/dev/peps/pep-0399/>, an idiom for testing both C and pure Python versions of a library is suggested making use if import_fresh_module. Unfortunately, I'm finding that this is not amazingly robust. We have this issue: https://bugs.python.org/issue40058, where the tester for datetime needs to do some funky manipulations <https://github.com/python/cpython/blob/302e5a8f79514fd84bafbc44b7c97ec63630…>to the state of sys.modules for reasons that are now somewhat unclear, and still sys.modules is apparently left in a bad state. When implementing PEP 615, I ran into similar issues and found it very difficult to get two independent instances of the same module – one with the C extension blocked and one with it intact. I ended up manually importing the C and Python extensions and grafting them onto two "fresh" imports with nothing blocked <https://github.com/pganssle/zoneinfo/blob/ffd21a6d065e04725e04b37bb430c2559…>. This seems to work most of the time in my repo, but when I import it into CPython, I'm now seeing failures due to this issue. The immediate symptom is that assertRaises is seeing a mismatch between the exception raised by the module and the exception *on* the module. Here's the Travis error <https://travis-ci.org/github/python/cpython/jobs/683080079#L3154-L3186> (ignore the part about `tzdata`, that needs to be removed as misleading), and here's the test <https://github.com/python/cpython/pull/19909/files#diff-885914f7d01a0c33a25…>. Evidently calling module.ZoneInfo("Bad_Zone") is raising a different module's ZoneInfoNotFoundError in some cases and I have no idea why. Is anyone familiar more familiar with the import system willing to take a look at these issues? Thanks, Paul

5 9

Deprecate os.removedirs() and os.renames()
by Serhiy Storchaka 07 May '20

07 May '20

It seems to me that os.removedirs() and os.renames() was added just for symmetry with os.makedirs(). All three functions have similar structure and was added in the same commit. Seems they were initially code examples of using some os.path and os functions. Unlike to quite popular os.makedirs(), os.removedirs() and os.renames() are not used in the stdlib and rarely used in third party code. os.removedirs() is considered as an opposite to os.makedirs(), and os.renames() is a combination of os.makedirs(), os.rename() and os.removedirs(). The problems with them are: 1. They do not remove directory if any file or other subdirectory is left. They just stop removing and return success. ZTo the user it looks like they do not work as expected, but he need to test the existence of directory explicitly to check this. 2. They can remove more than expected. If the parent directory was empty before calling os.makedirs(), the following os.removedirs() will remove not just the newly created directories, but the parent directory, and its parent if it contained a single directory, and so on. os.removedirs() is not an opposite to os.makedirs(). It can remove less or more, and you have no control on how much it will remove. It is better to use shutil.rmtree(). os.renames() correspondingly can be replaced by os.rename() or shutil.move(), with possible addition of os.makedirs() and shutil.rmtree() if needed. I propose to deprecate these functions and remove them in future Python versions.

2 1

Latest PEP 554 updates.
by Eric Snow 07 May '20

07 May '20

Hi all, Thanks for the great feedback. I've updated PEP 554 (Multiple Interpreters in the Stdlib) following feedback. https://www.python.org/dev/peps/pep-0554/ Here's a summary of the main changes: * [API] dropped/deferred the "release" and "close" methods from RecvChannel and SendChannel (they were unnecessary and the "association" stuff was too confusing) * [API] dropped RecvChannel/SendChannel.interpreters * [API] dropped/deferred SendChannel.send_buffer() * [API] renamed Interpreter.destroy() to Interpreter.close() * [API] added a per-interpreter "isolated" mode (default: on) * added a section about "Help for Extension Module Maintainers" * added a section about documentation * added many entries to the "deferred" and "rejected" sections Further feedback is welcome, though I feel like the PR is ready (or very close to ready) for pronouncement. Thanks again to all. -eric ------------------------------------------------------ PEP: 554 Title: Multiple Interpreters in the Stdlib Author: Eric Snow <ericsnowcurrently(a)gmail.com> BDFL-Delegate: Antoine Pitrou <antoine(a)python.org> Status: Draft Type: Standards Track Content-Type: text/x-rst Created: 2017-09-05 Python-Version: 3.9 Post-History: 07-Sep-2017, 08-Sep-2017, 13-Sep-2017, 05-Dec-2017, 09-May-2018, 20-Apr-2020, 01-May-2020 Abstract ======== CPython has supported multiple interpreters in the same process (AKA "subinterpreters") since version 1.5 (1997). The feature has been available via the C-API. [c-api]_ Subinterpreters operate in `relative isolation from one another <Interpreter Isolation_>`_, which facilitates novel alternative approaches to `concurrency <Concurrency_>`_. This proposal introduces the stdlib ``interpreters`` module. The module will be `provisional <Provisional Status_>`_. It exposes the basic functionality of subinterpreters already provided by the C-API, along with new (basic) functionality for sharing data between interpreters. A Disclaimer about the GIL ========================== To avoid any confusion up front: This PEP is unrelated to any efforts to stop sharing the GIL between subinterpreters. At most this proposal will allow users to take advantage of any results of work on the GIL. The position here is that exposing subinterpreters to Python code is worth doing, even if they still share the GIL. Proposal ======== The ``interpreters`` module will be added to the stdlib. To help authors of extension modules, a new page will be added to the `Extending Python <extension-docs_>`_ docs. More information on both is found in the immediately following sections. The "interpreters" Module ------------------------- The ``interpreters`` module will provide a high-level interface to subinterpreters and wrap a new low-level ``_interpreters`` (in the same way as the ``threading`` module). See the `Examples`_ section for concrete usage and use cases. Along with exposing the existing (in CPython) subinterpreter support, the module will also provide a mechanism for sharing data between interpreters. This mechanism centers around "channels", which are similar to queues and pipes. Note that *objects* are not shared between interpreters since they are tied to the interpreter in which they were created. Instead, the objects' *data* is passed between interpreters. See the `Shared data`_ section for more details about sharing between interpreters. At first only the following types will be supported for sharing: * None * bytes * str * int * PEP 554 channels Support for other basic types (e.g. bool, float, Ellipsis) will be added later. API summary for interpreters module ----------------------------------- Here is a summary of the API for the ``interpreters`` module. For a more in-depth explanation of the proposed classes and functions, see the `"interpreters" Module API`_ section below. For creating and using interpreters: +---------------------------------------------+----------------------------------------------+ | signature | description | +=============================================+==============================================+ | ``list_all() -> [Interpreter]`` | Get all existing interpreters. | +---------------------------------------------+----------------------------------------------+ | ``get_current() -> Interpreter`` | Get the currently running interpreter. | +---------------------------------------------+----------------------------------------------+ | ``get_main() -> Interpreter`` | Get the main interpreter. | +---------------------------------------------+----------------------------------------------+ | ``create(*, isolated=True) -> Interpreter`` | Initialize a new (idle) Python interpreter. | +---------------------------------------------+----------------------------------------------+ | +----------------------------------------+-----------------------------------------------------+ | signature | description | +========================================+=====================================================+ | ``class Interpreter(id)`` | A single interpreter. | +----------------------------------------+-----------------------------------------------------+ | ``.id`` | The interpreter's ID (read-only). | +----------------------------------------+-----------------------------------------------------+ | ``.isolated`` | The interpreter's mode (read-only). | +----------------------------------------+-----------------------------------------------------+ | ``.is_running() -> bool`` | Is the interpreter currently executing code? | +----------------------------------------+-----------------------------------------------------+ | ``.close()`` | Finalize and destroy the interpreter. | +----------------------------------------+-----------------------------------------------------+ | ``.run(src_str, /, *, channels=None)`` | | Run the given source code in the interpreter. | | | | (This blocks the current thread until done.) | +----------------------------------------+-----------------------------------------------------+ | +--------------------+------------------+------------------------------------------------------+ | exception | base | description | +====================+==================+======================================================+ | ``RunFailedError`` | ``RuntimeError`` | Interpreter.run() resulted in an uncaught exception. | +--------------------+------------------+------------------------------------------------------+ For sharing data between interpreters: +---------------------------------------------------------+--------------------------------------------+ | signature | description | +=========================================================+============================================+ | ``is_shareable(obj) -> Bool`` | | Can the object's data be shared | | | | between interpreters? | +---------------------------------------------------------+--------------------------------------------+ | ``create_channel() -> (RecvChannel, SendChannel)`` | | Create a new channel for passing | | | | data between interpreters. | +---------------------------------------------------------+--------------------------------------------+ | ``list_all_channels() -> [(RecvChannel, SendChannel)]`` | Get all open channels. | +---------------------------------------------------------+--------------------------------------------+ | +------------------------------------------+-----------------------------------------------+ | signature | description | +==========================================+===============================================+ | ``class RecvChannel(id)`` | The receiving end of a channel. | +------------------------------------------+-----------------------------------------------+ | ``.id`` | The channel's unique ID. | +------------------------------------------+-----------------------------------------------+ | ``.recv() -> object`` | | Get the next object from the channel, | | | | and wait if none have been sent. | +------------------------------------------+-----------------------------------------------+ | ``.recv_nowait(default=None) -> object`` | | Like recv(), but return the default | | | | instead of waiting. | +------------------------------------------+-----------------------------------------------+ | +------------------------------+--------------------------------------------------+ | signature | description | +==============================+==================================================+ | ``class SendChannel(id)`` | The sending end of a channel. | +------------------------------+--------------------------------------------------+ | ``.id`` | The channel's unique ID. | +------------------------------+--------------------------------------------------+ | ``.send(obj)`` | | Send the object (i.e. its data) to the | | | | receiving end of the channel and wait. | +------------------------------+--------------------------------------------------+ | ``.send_nowait(obj)`` | | Like send(), but return False if not received. | +------------------------------+--------------------------------------------------+ | +--------------------------+------------------------+------------------------------------------------+ | exception | base | description | +==========================+========================+================================================+ | ``ChannelError`` | ``Exception`` | The base class for channel-related exceptions. | +--------------------------+------------------------+------------------------------------------------+ | ``ChannelNotFoundError`` | ``ChannelError`` | The identified channel was not found. | +--------------------------+------------------------+------------------------------------------------+ | ``ChannelEmptyError`` | ``ChannelError`` | The channel was unexpectedly empty. | +--------------------------+------------------------+------------------------------------------------+ | ``ChannelNotEmptyError`` | ``ChannelError`` | The channel was unexpectedly not empty. | +--------------------------+------------------------+------------------------------------------------+ | ``NotReceivedError`` | ``ChannelError`` | Nothing was waiting to receive a sent object. | +--------------------------+------------------------+------------------------------------------------+ Help for Extension Module Maintainers ------------------------------------- Many extension modules do not support use in subinterpreters yet. The maintainers and users of such extension modules will both benefit when they are updated to support subinterpreters. In the meantime users may become confused by failures when using subinterpreters, which could negatively impact extension maintainers. See `Concerns`_ below. To mitigate that impact and accelerate compatibility, we will do the following: * be clear that extension modules are *not* required to support use in subinterpreters * raise ``ImportError`` when an incompatible (no PEP 489 support) module is imported in a subinterpreter * provide resources (e.g. docs) to help maintainers reach compatibility * reach out to the maintainers of Cython and of the most used extension modules (on PyPI) to get feedback and possibly provide assistance Examples ======== Run isolated code ----------------- :: interp = interpreters.create() print('before') interp.run('print("during")') print('after') Run in a thread --------------- :: interp = interpreters.create() def run(): interp.run('print("during")') t = threading.Thread(target=run) print('before') t.start() print('after') Pre-populate an interpreter --------------------------- :: interp = interpreters.create() interp.run(tw.dedent(""" import some_lib import an_expensive_module some_lib.set_up() """)) wait_for_request() interp.run(tw.dedent(""" some_lib.handle_request() """)) Handling an exception --------------------- :: interp = interpreters.create() try: interp.run(tw.dedent(""" raise KeyError """)) except interpreters.RunFailedError as exc: print(f"got the error from the subinterpreter: {exc}") Re-raising an exception ----------------------- :: interp = interpreters.create() try: try: interp.run(tw.dedent(""" raise KeyError """)) except interpreters.RunFailedError as exc: raise exc.__cause__ except KeyError: print("got a KeyError from the subinterpreter") Note that this pattern is a candidate for later improvement. Synchronize using a channel --------------------------- :: interp = interpreters.create() r, s = interpreters.create_channel() def run(): interp.run(tw.dedent(""" reader.recv() print("during") """), shared=dict( reader=r, ), ) t = threading.Thread(target=run) print('before') t.start() print('after') s.send(b'') Sharing a file descriptor ------------------------- :: interp = interpreters.create() r1, s1 = interpreters.create_channel() r2, s2 = interpreters.create_channel() def run(): interp.run(tw.dedent(""" fd = int.from_bytes( reader.recv(), 'big') for line in os.fdopen(fd): print(line) writer.send(b'') """), shared=dict( reader=r, writer=s2, ), ) t = threading.Thread(target=run) t.start() with open('spamspamspam') as infile: fd = infile.fileno().to_bytes(1, 'big') s.send(fd) r.recv() Passing objects via marshal --------------------------- :: interp = interpreters.create() r, s = interpreters.create_channel() interp.run(tw.dedent(""" import marshal """), shared=dict( reader=r, ), ) def run(): interp.run(tw.dedent(""" data = reader.recv() while data: obj = marshal.loads(data) do_something(obj) data = reader.recv() """)) t = threading.Thread(target=run) t.start() for obj in input: data = marshal.dumps(obj) s.send(data) s.send(None) Passing objects via pickle -------------------------- :: interp = interpreters.create() r, s = interpreters.create_channel() interp.run(tw.dedent(""" import pickle """), shared=dict( reader=r, ), ) def run(): interp.run(tw.dedent(""" data = reader.recv() while data: obj = pickle.loads(data) do_something(obj) data = reader.recv() """)) t = threading.Thread(target=run) t.start() for obj in input: data = pickle.dumps(obj) s.send(data) s.send(None) Running a module ---------------- :: interp = interpreters.create() main_module = mod_name interp.run(f'import runpy; runpy.run_module({main_module!r})') Running as script (including zip archives & directories) -------------------------------------------------------- :: interp = interpreters.create() main_script = path_name interp.run(f"import runpy; runpy.run_path({main_script!r})") Running in a thread pool executor --------------------------------- :: interps = [interpreters.create() for i in range(5)] with concurrent.futures.ThreadPoolExecutor(max_workers=len(interps)) as pool: print('before') for interp in interps: pool.submit(interp.run, 'print("starting"); print("stopping")' print('after') Rationale ========= Running code in multiple interpreters provides a useful level of isolation within the same process. This can be leveraged in a number of ways. Furthermore, subinterpreters provide a well-defined framework in which such isolation may extended. Nick Coghlan explained some of the benefits through a comparison with multi-processing [benefits]_:: [I] expect that communicating between subinterpreters is going to end up looking an awful lot like communicating between subprocesses via shared memory. The trade-off between the two models will then be that one still just looks like a single process from the point of view of the outside world, and hence doesn't place any extra demands on the underlying OS beyond those required to run CPython with a single interpreter, while the other gives much stricter isolation (including isolating C globals in extension modules), but also demands much more from the OS when it comes to its IPC capabilities. The security risk profiles of the two approaches will also be quite different, since using subinterpreters won't require deliberately poking holes in the process isolation that operating systems give you by default. CPython has supported subinterpreters, with increasing levels of support, since version 1.5. While the feature has the potential to be a powerful tool, subinterpreters have suffered from neglect because they are not available directly from Python. Exposing the existing functionality in the stdlib will help reverse the situation. This proposal is focused on enabling the fundamental capability of multiple isolated interpreters in the same Python process. This is a new area for Python so there is relative uncertainly about the best tools to provide as companions to subinterpreters. Thus we minimize the functionality we add in the proposal as much as possible. Concerns -------- * "subinterpreters are not worth the trouble" Some have argued that subinterpreters do not add sufficient benefit to justify making them an official part of Python. Adding features to the language (or stdlib) has a cost in increasing the size of the language. So an addition must pay for itself. In this case, subinterpreters provide a novel concurrency model focused on isolated threads of execution. Furthermore, they provide an opportunity for changes in CPython that will allow simultaneous use of multiple CPU cores (currently prevented by the GIL). Alternatives to subinterpreters include threading, async, and multiprocessing. Threading is limited by the GIL and async isn't the right solution for every problem (nor for every person). Multiprocessing is likewise valuable in some but not all situations. Direct IPC (rather than via the multiprocessing module) provides similar benefits but with the same caveat. Notably, subinterpreters are not intended as a replacement for any of the above. Certainly they overlap in some areas, but the benefits of subinterpreters include isolation and (potentially) performance. In particular, subinterpreters provide a direct route to an alternate concurrency model (e.g. CSP) which has found success elsewhere and will appeal to some Python users. That is the core value that the ``interpreters`` module will provide. * "stdlib support for subinterpreters adds extra burden on C extension authors" In the `Interpreter Isolation`_ section below we identify ways in which isolation in CPython's subinterpreters is incomplete. Most notable is extension modules that use C globals to store internal state. PEP 3121 and PEP 489 provide a solution for most of the problem, but one still remains. [petr-c-ext]_ Until that is resolved (see PEP 573), C extension authors will face extra difficulty to support subinterpreters. Consequently, projects that publish extension modules may face an increased maintenance burden as their users start using subinterpreters, where their modules may break. This situation is limited to modules that use C globals (or use libraries that use C globals) to store internal state. For numpy, the reported-bug rate is one every 6 months. [bug-rate]_ Ultimately this comes down to a question of how often it will be a problem in practice: how many projects would be affected, how often their users will be affected, what the additional maintenance burden will be for projects, and what the overall benefit of subinterpreters is to offset those costs. The position of this PEP is that the actual extra maintenance burden will be small and well below the threshold at which subinterpreters are worth it. * "creating a new concurrency API deserves much more thought and experimentation, so the new module shouldn't go into the stdlib right away, if ever" Introducing an API for a a new concurrency model, like happened with asyncio, is an extremely large project that requires a lot of careful consideration. It is not something that can be done a simply as this PEP proposes and likely deserves significant time on PyPI to mature. (See `Nathaniel's post <nathaniel-asyncio>`_ on python-dev.) However, this PEP does not propose any new concurrency API. At most it exposes minimal tools (e.g. subinterpreters, channels) which may be used to write code that follows patterns associated with (relatively) new-to-Python `concurrency models <Concurrency_>`_. Those tools could also be used as the basis for APIs for such concurrency models. Again, this PEP does not propose any such API. * "there is no point to exposing subinterpreters if they still share the GIL" * "the effort to make the GIL per-interpreter is disruptive and risky" A common misconception is that this PEP also includes a promise that subinterpreters will no longer share the GIL. When that is clarified, the next question is "what is the point?". This is already answered at length in this PEP. Just to be clear, the value lies in:: * increase exposure of the existing feature, which helps improve the code health of the entire CPython runtime * expose the (mostly) isolated execution of subinterpreters * preparation for per-interpreter GIL * encourage experimentation * "data sharing can have a negative impact on cache performance in multi-core scenarios" (See [cache-line-ping-pong]_.) This shouldn't be a problem for now as we have no immediate plans to actually share data between interpreters, instead focusing on copying. About Subinterpreters ===================== Concurrency ----------- Concurrency is a challenging area of software development. Decades of research and practice have led to a wide variety of concurrency models, each with different goals. Most center on correctness and usability. One class of concurrency models focuses on isolated threads of execution that interoperate through some message passing scheme. A notable example is `Communicating Sequential Processes`_ (CSP) (upon which Go's concurrency is roughly based). The isolation inherent to subinterpreters makes them well-suited to this approach. Shared data ----------- Subinterpreters are inherently isolated (with caveats explained below), in contrast to threads. So the same communicate-via-shared-memory approach doesn't work. Without an alternative, effective use of concurrency via subinterpreters is significantly limited. The key challenge here is that sharing objects between interpreters faces complexity due to various constraints on object ownership, visibility, and mutability. At a conceptual level it's easier to reason about concurrency when objects only exist in one interpreter at a time. At a technical level, CPython's current memory model limits how Python *objects* may be shared safely between interpreters; effectively objects are bound to the interpreter in which they were created. Furthermore the complexity of *object* sharing increases as subinterpreters become more isolated, e.g. after GIL removal. Consequently,the mechanism for sharing needs to be carefully considered. There are a number of valid solutions, several of which may be appropriate to support in Python. This proposal provides a single basic solution: "channels". Ultimately, any other solution will look similar to the proposed one, which will set the precedent. Note that the implementation of ``Interpreter.run()`` will be done in a way that allows for multiple solutions to coexist, but doing so is not technically a part of the proposal here. Regarding the proposed solution, "channels", it is a basic, opt-in data sharing mechanism that draws inspiration from pipes, queues, and CSP's channels. [fifo]_ As simply described earlier by the API summary, channels have two operations: send and receive. A key characteristic of those operations is that channels transmit data derived from Python objects rather than the objects themselves. When objects are sent, their data is extracted. When the "object" is received in the other interpreter, the data is converted back into an object owned by that interpreter. To make this work, the mutable shared state will be managed by the Python runtime, not by any of the interpreters. Initially we will support only one type of objects for shared state: the channels provided by ``create_channel()``. Channels, in turn, will carefully manage passing objects between interpreters. This approach, including keeping the API minimal, helps us avoid further exposing any underlying complexity to Python users. Along those same lines, we will initially restrict the types that may be passed through channels to the following: * None * bytes * str * int * channels Limiting the initial shareable types is a practical matter, reducing the potential complexity of the initial implementation. There are a number of strategies we may pursue in the future to expand supported objects and object sharing strategies. Interpreter Isolation --------------------- CPython's interpreters are intended to be strictly isolated from each other. Each interpreter has its own copy of all modules, classes, functions, and variables. The same applies to state in C, including in extension modules. The CPython C-API docs explain more. [caveats]_ However, there are ways in which interpreters share some state. First of all, some process-global state remains shared: * file descriptors * builtin types (e.g. dict, bytes) * singletons (e.g. None) * underlying static module data (e.g. functions) for builtin/extension/frozen modules There are no plans to change this. Second, some isolation is faulty due to bugs or implementations that did not take subinterpreters into account. This includes things like extension modules that rely on C globals. [cryptography]_ In these cases bugs should be opened (some are already): * readline module hook functions (http://bugs.python.org/issue4202) * memory leaks on re-init (http://bugs.python.org/issue21387) Finally, some potential isolation is missing due to the current design of CPython. Improvements are currently going on to address gaps in this area: * GC is not run per-interpreter [global-gc]_ * at-exit handlers are not run per-interpreter [global-atexit]_ * extensions using the ``PyGILState_*`` API are incompatible [gilstate]_ * interpreters share memory management (e.g. allocators, gc) * interpreters share the GIL Existing Usage -------------- Subinterpreters are not a widely used feature. In fact, the only documented cases of wide-spread usage are `mod_wsgi <https://github.com/GrahamDumpleton/mod_wsgi>`_, `OpenStack Ceph <https://github.com/ceph/ceph/pull/14971>`_, and `JEP <https://github.com/ninia/jep>`_. On the one hand, these cases provide confidence that existing subinterpreter support is relatively stable. On the other hand, there isn't much of a sample size from which to judge the utility of the feature. Provisional Status ================== The new ``interpreters`` module will be added with "provisional" status (see PEP 411). This allows Python users to experiment with the feature and provide feedback while still allowing us to adjust to that feedback. The module will be provisional in Python 3.9 and we will make a decision before the 3.10 release whether to keep it provisional, graduate it, or remove it. This PEP will be updated accordingly. While the module is provisional, any changes to the API (or to behavior) do not need to be reflected here, nor get approval by the BDFL-delegate. However, such changes will still need to go through the normal processes (BPO for smaller changes and python-dev/PEP for substantial ones). Alternate Python Implementations ================================ I've solicited feedback from various Python implementors about support for subinterpreters. Each has indicated that they would be able to support subinterpreters (if they choose to) without a lot of trouble. Here are the projects I contacted: * jython ([jython]_) * ironpython (personal correspondence) * pypy (personal correspondence) * micropython (personal correspondence) .. _interpreters-list-all: .. _interpreters-get-current: .. _interpreters-create: .. _interpreters-Interpreter: "interpreters" Module API ========================= The module provides the following functions:: list_all() -> [Interpreter] Return a list of all existing interpreters. get_current() => Interpreter Return the currently running interpreter. get_main() => Interpreter Return the main interpreter. If the Python implementation has no concept of a main interpreter then return None. create(*, isolated=True) -> Interpreter Initialize a new Python interpreter and return it. The interpreter will be created in the current thread and will remain idle until something is run in it. The interpreter may be used in any thread and will run in whichever thread calls ``interp.run()``. See "Interpreter Isolated Mode" below for an explanation of the "isolated" parameter. The module also provides the following class:: class Interpreter(id): id -> int: The interpreter's ID. (read-only) isolated -> bool: Whether or not the interpreter is operating in "isolated" mode. (read-only) is_running() -> bool: Return whether or not the interpreter is currently executing code. Calling this on the current interpreter will always return True. close(): Finalize and destroy the interpreter. This may not be called on an already running interpreter. Doing so results in a RuntimeError. run(source_str, /, *, channels=None): Run the provided Python source code in the interpreter. If the "channels" keyword argument is provided (and is a mapping of attribute names to channels) then it is added to the interpreter's execution namespace (the interpreter's "__main__" module). If any of the values are not RecvChannel or SendChannel instances then ValueError gets raised. This may not be called on an already running interpreter. Doing so results in a RuntimeError. A "run()" call is similar to a function call. Once it completes, the code that called "run()" continues executing (in the original interpreter). Likewise, if there is any uncaught exception then it effectively (see below) propagates into the code where ``run()`` was called. However, unlike function calls (but like threads), there is no return value. If any value is needed, pass it out via a channel. The big difference from functions is that "run()" executes the code in an entirely different interpreter, with entirely separate state. The state of the current interpreter in the current OS thread is swapped out with the state of the target interpreter (the one that will execute the code). When the target finishes executing, the original interpreter gets swapped back in and its execution resumes. So calling "run()" will effectively cause the current Python thread to pause. Sometimes you won't want that pause, in which case you should make the "run()" call in another thread. To do so, add a function that calls "run()" and then run that function in a normal "threading.Thread". Note that the interpreter's state is never reset, neither before "run()" executes the code nor after. Thus the interpreter state is preserved between calls to "run()". This includes "sys.modules", the "builtins" module, and the internal state of C extension modules. Also note that "run()" executes in the namespace of the "__main__" module, just like scripts, the REPL, "-m", and "-c". Just as the interpreter's state is not ever reset, the "__main__" module is never reset. You can imagine concatenating the code from each "run()" call into one long script. This is the same as how the REPL operates. Supported code: source text. Uncaught Exceptions ------------------- Regarding uncaught exceptions in ``Interpreter.run()``, we noted that they are "effectively" propagated into the code where ``run()`` was called. To prevent leaking exceptions (and tracebacks) between interpreters, we create a surrogate of the exception and its traceback (see ``traceback.TracebackException``), set it to ``__cause__`` on a new ``RunFailedError``, and raise that. Raising (a proxy of) the exception directly is problematic since it's harder to distinguish between an error in the ``run()`` call and an uncaught exception from the subinterpreter. .. _interpreters-is-shareable: .. _interpreters-create-channel: .. _interpreters-list-all-channels: .. _interpreters-RecvChannel: .. _interpreters-SendChannel: API for sharing data -------------------- Subinterpreters are less useful without a mechanism for sharing data between them. Sharing actual Python objects between interpreters, however, has enough potential problems that we are avoiding support for that here. Instead, only mimimum set of types will be supported. Initially this will include ``None``, ``bytes``, ``str``, ``int``, and channels. Further types may be supported later. The ``interpreters`` module provides a function that users may call to determine whether an object is shareable or not:: is_shareable(obj) -> bool: Return True if the object may be shared between interpreters. This does not necessarily mean that the actual objects will be shared. Insead, it means that the objects' underlying data will be shared in a cross-interpreter way, whether via a proxy, a copy, or some other means. This proposal provides two ways to share such objects between interpreters. First, channels may be passed to ``run()`` via the ``channels`` keyword argument, where they are effectively injected into the target interpreter's ``__main__`` module. While passing arbitrary shareable objects this way is possible, doing so is mainly intended for sharing meta-objects (e.g. channels) between interpreters. It is less useful to pass other objects (like ``bytes``) to ``run`` directly. Second, the main mechanism for sharing objects (i.e. their data) between interpreters is through channels. A channel is a simplex FIFO similar to a pipe. The main difference is that channels can be associated with zero or more interpreters on either end. Like queues, which are also many-to-many, channels are buffered (though they also offer methods with unbuffered semantics). Python objects are not shared between interpreters. However, in some cases data those objects wrap is actually shared and not just copied. One example might be PEP 3118 buffers. In those cases the object in the original interpreter is kept alive until the shared data in the other interpreter is no longer used. Then object destruction can happen like normal in the original interpreter, along with the previously shared data. The ``interpreters`` module provides the following functions related to channels:: create_channel() -> (RecvChannel, SendChannel): Create a new channel and return (recv, send), the RecvChannel and SendChannel corresponding to the ends of the channel. Both ends of the channel are supported "shared" objects (i.e. may be safely shared by different interpreters. Thus they may be passed as keyword arguments to "Interpreter.run()". list_all_channels() -> [(RecvChannel, SendChannel)]: Return a list of all open channel-end pairs. The module also provides the following channel-related classes:: class RecvChannel(id): The receiving end of a channel. An interpreter may use this to receive objects from another interpreter. At first only a few of the simple, immutable builtin types will be supported. id -> int: The channel's unique ID. This is shared with the "send" end. recv(): Return the next object from the channel. If none have been sent then wait until the next send. At the least, the object will be equivalent to the sent object. That will almost always mean the same type with the same data, though it could also be a compatible proxy. Regardless, it may use a copy of that data or actually share the data. recv_nowait(default=None): Return the next object from the channel. If none have been sent then return the default. Otherwise, this is the same as the "recv()" method. class SendChannel(id): The sending end of a channel. An interpreter may use this to send objects to another interpreter. At first only a few of the simple, immutable builtin types will be supported. id -> int: The channel's unique ID. This is shared with the "recv" end. send(obj): Send the object (i.e. its data) to the "recv" end of the channel. Wait until the object is received. If the object is not shareable then ValueError is raised. send_nowait(obj): Send the object to the "recv" end of the channel. This behaves the same as "send()", except for the waiting part. If no interpreter is currently receiving (waiting on the other end) then queue the object and return False. Otherwise return True. Channel Lifespan ---------------- A channel is automatically closed and destoyed once there are no more Python objects (e.g. ``RecvChannel`` and ``SendChannel``) referring to it. So it is effectively triggered via garbage-collection of those objects.. .. _isolated-mode: Interpreter "Isolated" Mode =========================== By default, every new interpreter created by ``interpreters.create()`` has specific restrictions on any code it runs. This includes the following: * importing an extension module fails if it does not implement the PEP 489 API * new threads are not allowed (including daemon threads) * ``os.fork()`` is not allowed (so no ``multiprocessing``) * ``os.exec*()``, AKA "fork+exec", is not allowed (so no ``subprocess``) This represents the full "isolated" mode of subinterpreters. It is applied when ``interpreters.create()`` is called with the "isolated" keyword-only argument set to ``True`` (the default). If ``interpreters.create(isolated=False)`` is called then none of those restrictions is applied. One advantage of this approach is that it allows extension maintainers to check subinterpreter compatibility before they implement the PEP 489 API. Also note that ``isolated=False`` represents the historical behavior when using the existing subinterpreters C-API, thus providing backward compatibility. For the existing C-API itself, the default remains ``isolated=False``. The same is true for the "main" module, so existing use of Python will not change. We may choose to later loosen some of the above restrictions or provide a way to enable/disable granular restrictions individually. Regardless, requiring PEP 489 support from extension modules will always be a default restriction. Documentation ============= The new stdlib docs page for the ``interpreters`` module will include the following: * (at the top) a clear note that subinterpreter support in extension modules is not required * some explanation about what subinterpreters are * brief examples of how to use subinterpreters and channels * a summary of the limitations of subinterpreters * (for extension maintainers) a link to the resources for ensuring subinterpreter compatibilty * much of the API information in this PEP A separate page will be added to the docs for resources to help extension maintainers ensure their modules can be used safely in subinterpreters, under `Extending Python <extension-docs_>`. The page will include the following information: * a summary about subinterpreters (similar to the same in the new ``interpreters`` module page and in the C-API docs) * an explanation of how extension modules can be impacted * how to implement PEP 489 support * how to move from global module state to per-interpreter * how to take advantage of PEP 384 (heap types), PEP 3121 (module state), and PEP 573 * strategies for dealing with 3rd party C libraries that keep their own subinterpreter-incompatible global state Note that the documentation will play a large part in mitigating any negative impact that the new ``interpreters`` module might have on extension module maintainers. Also, the ``ImportError`` for imcompatible extgension modules will have a message that clearly says it is due to missing subinterpreter compatibility and that extensions are not required to provide it. This will help set user expectations properly. Deferred Functionality ====================== In the interest of keeping this proposal minimal, the following functionality has been left out for future consideration. Note that this is not a judgement against any of said capability, but rather a deferment. That said, each is arguably valid. Interpreter.call() ------------------ It would be convenient to run existing functions in subinterpreters directly. ``Interpreter.run()`` could be adjusted to support this or a ``call()`` method could be added:: Interpreter.call(f, *args, **kwargs) This suffers from the same problem as sharing objects between interpreters via queues. The minimal solution (running a source string) is sufficient for us to get the feature out where it can be explored. timeout arg to recv() and send() -------------------------------- Typically functions that have a ``block`` argument also have a ``timeout`` argument. It sometimes makes sense to do likewise for functions that otherwise block, like the channel ``recv()`` and ``send()`` methods. We can add it later if needed. Interpreter.run_in_thread() --------------------------- This method would make a ``run()`` call for you in a thread. Doing this using only ``threading.Thread`` and ``run()`` is relatively trivial so we've left it out. Synchronization Primitives -------------------------- The ``threading`` module provides a number of synchronization primitives for coordinating concurrent operations. This is especially necessary due to the shared-state nature of threading. In contrast, subinterpreters do not share state. Data sharing is restricted to channels, which do away with the need for explicit synchronization. If any sort of opt-in shared state support is added to subinterpreters in the future, that same effort can introduce synchronization primitives to meet that need. CSP Library ----------- A ``csp`` module would not be a large step away from the functionality provided by this PEP. However, adding such a module is outside the minimalist goals of this proposal. Syntactic Support ----------------- The ``Go`` language provides a concurrency model based on CSP, so it's similar to the concurrency model that subinterpreters support. However, ``Go`` also provides syntactic support, as well several builtin concurrency primitives, to make concurrency a first-class feature. Conceivably, similar syntactic (and builtin) support could be added to Python using subinterpreters. However, that is *way* outside the scope of this PEP! Multiprocessing --------------- The ``multiprocessing`` module could support subinterpreters in the same way it supports threads and processes. In fact, the module's maintainer, Davin Potts, has indicated this is a reasonable feature request. However, it is outside the narrow scope of this PEP. C-extension opt-in/opt-out -------------------------- By using the ``PyModuleDef_Slot`` introduced by PEP 489, we could easily add a mechanism by which C-extension modules could opt out of support for subinterpreters. Then the import machinery, when operating in a subinterpreter, would need to check the module for support. It would raise an ImportError if unsupported. Alternately we could support opting in to subinterpreter support. However, that would probably exclude many more modules (unnecessarily) than the opt-out approach. Also, note that PEP 489 defined that an extension's use of the PEP's machinery implies support for subinterpreters. The scope of adding the ModuleDef slot and fixing up the import machinery is non-trivial, but could be worth it. It all depends on how many extension modules break under subinterpreters. Given that there are relatively few cases we know of through mod_wsgi, we can leave this for later. Poisoning channels ------------------ CSP has the concept of poisoning a channel. Once a channel has been poisoned, any ``send()`` or ``recv()`` call on it would raise a special exception, effectively ending execution in the interpreter that tried to use the poisoned channel. This could be accomplished by adding a ``poison()`` method to both ends of the channel. The ``close()`` method can be used in this way (mostly), but these semantics are relatively specialized and can wait. Resetting __main__ ------------------ As proposed, every call to ``Interpreter.run()`` will execute in the namespace of the interpreter's existing ``__main__`` module. This means that data persists there between ``run()`` calls. Sometimes this isn't desirable and you want to execute in a fresh ``__main__``. Also, you don't necessarily want to leak objects there that you aren't using any more. Note that the following won't work right because it will clear too much (e.g. ``__name__`` and the other "__dunder__" attributes:: interp.run('globals().clear()') Possible solutions include: * a ``create()`` arg to indicate resetting ``__main__`` after each ``run`` call * an ``Interpreter.reset_main`` flag to support opting in or out after the fact * an ``Interpreter.reset_main()`` method to opt in when desired * ``importlib.util.reset_globals()`` [reset_globals]_ Also note that resetting ``__main__`` does nothing about state stored in other modules. So any solution would have to be clear about the scope of what is being reset. Conceivably we could invent a mechanism by which any (or every) module could be reset, unlike ``reload()`` which does not clear the module before loading into it. Regardless, since ``__main__`` is the execution namespace of the interpreter, resetting it has a much more direct correlation to interpreters and their dynamic state than does resetting other modules. So a more generic module reset mechanism may prove unnecessary. This isn't a critical feature initially. It can wait until later if desirable. Resetting an interpreter's state -------------------------------- It may be nice to re-use an existing subinterpreter instead of spinning up a new one. Since an interpreter has substantially more state than just the ``__main__`` module, it isn't so easy to put an interpreter back into a pristine/fresh state. In fact, there *may* be parts of the state that cannot be reset from Python code. A possible solution is to add an ``Interpreter.reset()`` method. This would put the interpreter back into the state it was in when newly created. If called on a running interpreter it would fail (hence the main interpreter could never be reset). This would likely be more efficient than creating a new subinterpreter, though that depends on what optimizations will be made later to subinterpreter creation. While this would potentially provide functionality that is not otherwise available from Python code, it isn't a fundamental functionality. So in the spirit of minimalism here, this can wait. Regardless, I doubt it would be controversial to add it post-PEP. File descriptors and sockets in channels ---------------------------------------- Given that file descriptors and sockets are process-global resources, support for passing them through channels is a reasonable idea. They would be a good candidate for the first effort at expanding the types that channels support. They aren't strictly necessary for the initial API. Integration with async ---------------------- Per Antoine Pitrou [async]_:: Has any thought been given to how FIFOs could integrate with async code driven by an event loop (e.g. asyncio)? I think the model of executing several asyncio (or Tornado) applications each in their own subinterpreter may prove quite interesting to reconcile multi- core concurrency with ease of programming. That would require the FIFOs to be able to synchronize on something an event loop can wait on (probably a file descriptor?). A possible solution is to provide async implementations of the blocking channel methods (``recv()``, and ``send()``). However, the basic functionality of subinterpreters does not depend on async and can be added later. Alternately, "readiness callbacks" could be used to simplify use in async scenarios. This would mean adding an optional ``callback`` (kw-only) parameter to the ``recv_nowait()`` and ``send_nowait()`` channel methods. The callback would be called once the object was sent or received (respectively). (Note that making channels buffered makes readiness callbacks less important.) Support for iteration --------------------- Supporting iteration on ``RecvChannel`` (via ``__iter__()`` or ``_next__()``) may be useful. A trivial implementation would use the ``recv()`` method, similar to how files do iteration. Since this isn't a fundamental capability and has a simple analog, adding iteration support can wait until later. Channel context managers ------------------------ Context manager support on ``RecvChannel`` and ``SendChannel`` may be helpful. The implementation would be simple, wrapping a call to ``close()`` (or maybe ``release()``) like files do. As with iteration, this can wait. Pipes and Queues ---------------- With the proposed object passing machanism of "channels", other similar basic types aren't required to achieve the minimal useful functionality of subinterpreters. Such types include pipes (like unbuffered channels, but one-to-one) and queues (like channels, but more generic). See below in `Rejected Ideas` for more information. Even though these types aren't part of this proposal, they may still be useful in the context of concurrency. Adding them later is entirely reasonable. The could be trivially implemented as wrappers around channels. Alternatively they could be implemented for efficiency at the same low level as channels. Return a lock from send() ------------------------- When sending an object through a channel, you don't have a way of knowing when the object gets received on the other end. One way to work around this is to return a locked ``threading.Lock`` from ``SendChannel.send()`` that unlocks once the object is received. Alternately, the proposed ``SendChannel.send()`` (blocking) and ``SendChannel.send_nowait()`` provide an explicit distinction that is less likely to confuse users. Note that returning a lock would matter for buffered channels (i.e. queues). For unbuffered channels it is a non-issue. Support prioritization in channels ---------------------------------- A simple example is ``queue.PriorityQueue`` in the stdlib. Support inheriting settings (and more?) --------------------------------------- Folks might find it useful, when creating a new subinterpreter, to be able to indicate that they would like some things "inherited" by the new interpreter. The mechanism could be a strict copy or it could be copy-on-write. The motivating example is with the warnings module (e.g. copy the filters). The feature isn't critical, nor would it be widely useful, so it can wait until there's interest. Notably, both suggested solutions will require significant work, especially when it comes to complex objects and most especially for mutable containers of mutable complex objects. Make exceptions shareable ------------------------- Exceptions are propagated out of ``run()`` calls, so it isn't a big leap to make them shareable in channels. However, as noted elsewhere, it isn't essential or (particularly common) so we can wait on doing that. Make RunFailedError.__cause__ lazy ---------------------------------- An uncaught exception in a subinterpreter (from ``run()``) is copied to the calling interpreter and set as ``__cause__`` on a ``RunFailedError`` which is then raised. That copying part involves some sort of deserialization in the calling intepreter, which can be expensive (e.g. due to imports) yet is not always necessary. So it may be useful to use an ``ExceptionProxy`` type to wrap the serialized exception and only deserialize it when needed. That could be via ``ExceptionProxy__getattribute__()`` or perhaps through ``RunFailedError.resolve()`` (which would raise the deserialized exception and set ``RunFailedError.__cause__`` to the exception. It may also make sense to have ``RunFailedError.__cause__`` be a descriptor that does the lazy deserialization (and set ``__cause__``) on the ``RunFailedError`` instance. Serialize everything through channels ------------------------------------- We could use pickle (or marshal) to serialize everything sent through channels. Doing this is potentially inefficient, but it may be a matter of convenience in the end. We can add it later, but trying to remove it later would be significantly more painful. Return a value from ``run()`` ----------------------------- Currently ``run()`` always returns None. One idea is to return the return value from whatever the subinterpreter ran. However, for now it doesn't make sense. The only thing folks can run is a string of code (i.e. a script). This is equivalent to ``PyRun_StringFlags()``, ``exec()``, or a module body. None of those "return" anything. We can revisit this once ``run()`` supports functions, etc. Add a "tp_share" type slot -------------------------- This would replace the current global registry for shareable types. Expose which interpreters have actually *used* a channel end. ------------------------------------------------------------- Currently we associate interpreters upon access to a channel. We would keep a separate association list for "upon use" and expose that. Add a shareable synchronization primitive ----------------------------------------- This would be ``_threading.Lock`` (or something like it) where interpreters would actually share the underlying mutex. This would provide much better efficiency than blocking channel ops. The main concern is that locks and channels don't mix well (as learned in Go). Note that the same functionality as a lock can be acheived by passing some sort of "token" object through a channel. "send()" would be equivalent to releasing the lock and "recv()" to acquiring the lock. We can add this later if it proves desireable without much trouble. Propagate SystemExit and KeyboardInterrupt Differently ------------------------------------------------------ The exception types that inherit from ``BaseException`` (aside from ``Exception``) are usually treated specially. These types are: ``KeyboardInterrupt``, ``SystemExit``, and ``GeneratorExit``. It may make sense to treat them specially when it comes to propagation from ``run()``. Here are some options:: * propagate like normal via RunFailedError * do not propagate (handle them somehow in the subinterpreter) * propagate them directly (avoid RunFailedError) * propagate them directly (set RunFailedError as __cause__) We aren't going to worry about handling them differently. Threads already ignore ``SystemExit``, so for now we will follow that pattern. Add an explicit release() and close() to channel end classes ------------------------------------------------------------ It can be convenient to have an explicit way to close a channel against further global use. Likewise it could be useful to have an explicit way to release one of the channel ends relative to the current interpreter. Among other reasons, such a mechanism is useful for communicating overall state between interpreters without the extra boilerplate that passing objects through a channel directly would require. The challenge is getting automatic release/close right without making it hard to understand. This is especially true when dealing with a non-empty channel. We should be able to get by without release/close for now. Add SendChannel.send_buffer() ----------------------------- This method would allow no-copy sending of an object through a channel if it supports the PEP 3118 buffer protocol (e.g. memoryview). Support for this is not fundamental to channels and can be added on later without much disruption. Auto-run in a thread -------------------- The PEP proposes a hard separation between subinterpreters and threads: if you want to run in a thread you must create the thread yourself and call ``run()`` in it. However, it might be convenient if ``run()`` could do that for you, meaning there would be less boilerplate. Furthermore, we anticipate that users will want to run in a thread much more often than not. So it would make sense to make this the default behavior. We would add a kw-only param "threaded" (default ``True``) to ``run()`` to allow the run-in-the-current-thread operation. Rejected Ideas ============== Explicit channel association ---------------------------- Interpreters are implicitly associated with channels upon ``recv()`` and ``send()`` calls. They are de-associated with ``release()`` calls. The alternative would be explicit methods. It would be either ``add_channel()`` and ``remove_channel()`` methods on ``Interpreter`` objects or something similar on channel objects. In practice, this level of management shouldn't be necessary for users. So adding more explicit support would only add clutter to the API. Use pipes instead of channels ----------------------------- A pipe would be a simplex FIFO between exactly two interpreters. For most use cases this would be sufficient. It could potentially simplify the implementation as well. However, it isn't a big step to supporting a many-to-many simplex FIFO via channels. Also, with pipes the API ends up being slightly more complicated, requiring naming the pipes. Use queues instead of channels ------------------------------ Queues and buffered channels are almost the same thing. The main difference is that channels have a stronger relationship with context (i.e. the associated interpreter). The name "Channel" was used instead of "Queue" to avoid confusion with the stdlib ``queue.Queue``. "enumerate" ----------- The ``list_all()`` function provides the list of all interpreters. In the threading module, which partly inspired the proposed API, the function is called ``enumerate()``. The name is different here to avoid confusing Python users that are not already familiar with the threading API. For them "enumerate" is rather unclear, whereas "list_all" is clear. Alternate solutions to prevent leaking exceptions across interpreters --------------------------------------------------------------------- In function calls, uncaught exceptions propagate to the calling frame. The same approach could be taken with ``run()``. However, this would mean that exception objects would leak across the inter-interpreter boundary. Likewise, the frames in the traceback would potentially leak. While that might not be a problem currently, it would be a problem once interpreters get better isolation relative to memory management (which is necessary to stop sharing the GIL between interpreters). We've resolved the semantics of how the exceptions propagate by raising a ``RunFailedError`` instead, for which ``__cause__`` wraps a safe proxy for the original exception and traceback. Rejected possible solutions: * reproduce the exception and traceback in the original interpreter and raise that. * raise a subclass of RunFailedError that proxies the original exception and traceback. * raise RuntimeError instead of RunFailedError * convert at the boundary (a la ``subprocess.CalledProcessError``) (requires a cross-interpreter representation) * support customization via ``Interpreter.excepthook`` (requires a cross-interpreter representation) * wrap in a proxy at the boundary (including with support for something like ``err.raise()`` to propagate the traceback). * return the exception (or its proxy) from ``run()`` instead of raising it * return a result object (like ``subprocess`` does) [result-object]_ (unnecessary complexity?) * throw the exception away and expect users to deal with unhandled exceptions explicitly in the script they pass to ``run()`` (they can pass error info out via channels); with threads you have to do something similar Always associate each new interpreter with its own thread --------------------------------------------------------- As implemented in the C-API, a subinterpreter is not inherently tied to any thread. Furthermore, it will run in any existing thread, whether created by Python or not. You only have to activate one of its thread states (``PyThreadState``) in the thread first. This means that the same thread may run more than one interpreter (though obviously not at the same time). The proposed module maintains this behavior. Subinterpreters are not tied to threads. Only calls to ``Interpreter.run()`` are. However, one of the key objectives of this PEP is to provide a more human- centric concurrency model. With that in mind, from a conceptual standpoint the module *might* be easier to understand if each subinterpreter were associated with its own thread. That would mean ``interpreters.create()`` would create a new thread and ``Interpreter.run()`` would only execute in that thread (and nothing else would). The benefit is that users would not have to wrap ``Interpreter.run()`` calls in a new ``threading.Thread``. Nor would they be in a position to accidentally pause the current interpreter (in the current thread) while their subinterpreter executes. The idea is rejected because the benefit is small and the cost is high. The difference from the capability in the C-API would be potentially confusing. The implicit creation of threads is magical. The early creation of threads is potentially wasteful. The inability to run arbitrary interpreters in an existing thread would prevent some valid use cases, frustrating users. Tying interpreters to threads would require extra runtime modifications. It would also make the module's implementation overly complicated. Finally, it might not even make the module easier to understand. Only associate interpreters upon use ------------------------------------ Associate interpreters with channel ends only once ``recv()``, ``send()``, etc. are called. Doing this is potentially confusing and also can lead to unexpected races where a channel is auto-closed before it can be used in the original (creating) interpreter. Add a "reraise" method to RunFailedError ---------------------------------------- While having ``__cause__`` set on ``RunFailedError`` helps produce a more useful traceback, it's less helpful when handling the original error. To help facilitate this, we could add ``RunFailedError.reraise()``. This method would enable the following pattern:: try: try: interp.run(script) except RunFailedError as exc: exc.reraise() except MyException: ... This would be made even simpler if there existed a ``__reraise__`` protocol. All that said, this is completely unnecessary. Using ``__cause__`` is good enough:: try: try: interp.run(script) except RunFailedError as exc: raise exc.__cause__ except MyException: ... Note that in extreme cases it may require a little extra boilerplate:: try: try: interp.run(script) except RunFailedError as exc: if exc.__cause__ is not None: raise exc.__cause__ raise # re-raise except MyException: ... Implementation ============== The implementation of the PEP has 4 parts: * the high-level module described in this PEP (mostly a light wrapper around a low-level C extension * the low-level C extension module * additions to the ("private") C=API needed by the low-level module * secondary fixes/changes in the CPython runtime that facilitate the low-level module (among other benefits) These are at various levels of completion, with more done the lower you go: * the high-level module has been, at best, roughly implemented. However, fully implementing it will be almost trivial. * the low-level module is mostly complete. The bulk of the implementation was merged into master in December 2018 as the "_xxsubinterpreters" module (for the sake of testing subinterpreter functionality). Only 3 parts of the implementation remain: "send_wait()", "send_buffer()", and exception propagation. All three have been mostly finished, but were blocked by work related to ceval. That blocker is basically resolved now and finishing the low-level will not require extensive work. * all necessary C-API work has been finished * all anticipated work in the runtime has been finished The implementation effort for PEP 554 is being tracked as part of a larger project aimed at improving multi-core support in CPython. [multi-core-project]_ References ========== .. [c-api] https://docs.python.org/3/c-api/init.html#sub-interpreter-support .. _Communicating Sequential Processes: .. [CSP] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Communicating_sequential_processes https://github.com/futurecore/python-csp .. [fifo] https://docs.python.org/3/library/multiprocessing.html#multiprocessing.Pipe https://docs.python.org/3/library/multiprocessing.html#multiprocessing.Queue https://docs.python.org/3/library/queue.html#module-queue http://stackless.readthedocs.io/en/2.7-slp/library/stackless/channels.html https://golang.org/doc/effective_go.html#sharing http://www.jtolds.com/writing/2016/03/go-channels-are-bad-and-you-should-fe… .. [caveats] https://docs.python.org/3/c-api/init.html#bugs-and-caveats .. [petr-c-ext] https://mail.python.org/pipermail/import-sig/2016-June/001062.html https://mail.python.org/pipermail/python-ideas/2016-April/039748.html .. [cryptography] https://github.com/pyca/cryptography/issues/2299 .. [global-gc] http://bugs.python.org/issue24554 .. [gilstate] https://bugs.python.org/issue10915 http://bugs.python.org/issue15751 .. [global-atexit] https://bugs.python.org/issue6531 .. [mp-conn] https://docs.python.org/3/library/multiprocessing.html#connection-objects .. [bug-rate] https://mail.python.org/pipermail/python-ideas/2017-September/047094.html .. [benefits] https://mail.python.org/pipermail/python-ideas/2017-September/047122.html .. [main-thread] https://mail.python.org/pipermail/python-ideas/2017-September/047144.html https://mail.python.org/pipermail/python-dev/2017-September/149566.html .. [reset_globals] https://mail.python.org/pipermail/python-dev/2017-September/149545.html .. [async] https://mail.python.org/pipermail/python-dev/2017-September/149420.html https://mail.python.org/pipermail/python-dev/2017-September/149585.html .. [result-object] https://mail.python.org/pipermail/python-dev/2017-September/149562.html .. [jython] https://mail.python.org/pipermail/python-ideas/2017-May/045771.html .. [multi-core-project] https://github.com/ericsnowcurrently/multi-core-python .. [cache-line-ping-pong] https://mail.python.org/archives/list/python-dev@python.org/message/3HVRFWH… .. [nathaniel-asyncio] https://mail.python.org/archives/list/python-dev@python.org/message/TUEAZNZ… .. [extension-docs] https://docs.python.org/3/extending/index.html Copyright ========= This document has been placed in the public domain. .. Local Variables: mode: indented-text indent-tabs-mode: nil sentence-end-double-space: t fill-column: 70 coding: utf-8 End:

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Re: Improvement to SimpleNamespace
by Raymond Hettinger 07 May '20

07 May '20

[GvR] > We should not try to import JavaScript's object model into Python. Yes, I get that. Just want to point-out that working with heavily nested dictionaries (typical for JSON) is no fun with square brackets and quotation marks. Raymond

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Python-Dev May 2020