[Python-Dev] pyparallel and new memory API discussions...

[Charles-François Natali]

2013/6/19 Trent Nelson <trent at snakebite.org>:
>
>     The new memory API discussions (and PEP) warrant a quick pyparallel
>     update: a couple of weeks after PyCon, I came up with a solution for
>     the biggest show-stopper that has been plaguing pyparallel since its
>     inception: being able to detect the modification of "main thread"
>     Python objects from within a parallel context.
>
>     For example, `data.append(4)` in the example below will generate an
>     AssignmentError exception, because data is a main thread object, and
>     `data.append(4)` gets executed from within a parallel context::
>
>         data = [ 1, 2, 3 ]
>
>         def work():
>             data.append(4)
>
>         async.submit_work(work)
>
>     The solution turned out to be deceptively simple:
>
>       1.  Prior to running parallel threads, lock all "main thread"
>           memory pages as read-only (via VirtualProtect on Windows,
>           mprotect on POSIX).
>
>       2.  Detect attempts to write to main thread pages during parallel
>           thread execution (via SEH on Windows or a SIGSEGV trap on POSIX),
>           and raise an exception instead (detection is done in the ceval
>           frame exec loop).

Quick stupid question: because of refcounts, the pages will be written
to even in case of read-only access. How do you deal with this?

cf