[Python-Dev] Is thread-safe smtpd desired/possible?

[R. David Murray]

On Tue, 21 May 2013 18:50:23 +0200, Sorin Stelian <sorin.stelian at axis.com> wrote:
> I am posting this here since I could find no active maintainer of the smtpd module.

Currently I am effectively the maintainer of that module, though other
people are helping out.

> In my work as a test engineer for Axis (www.axis.com) I encountered
> the need of having thread-safe SMTP servers. I know the use case of
> several SMTP servers running in concurrent threads might seem odd, but
> it can actually be quite useful for testing purposes.
> 
> I have implemented (for my own use) a possible solution which
> basically means that every SMTP channel has its own socket map,
> instead of using asyncore's global socket map. It would not involve
> any change in asyncore.
> 
> Looking at the disucssion from http://bugs.python.org/issue11959 it
> seems to me that such a solution would not be accepted. Do you think
> that modifying asyncore is more feasible? If not, is this something
> that might be looked at?
> 
> I can provide code if needed, but I would first like to know your
> thoughts about this.

I don't think issue 11959 represents a categorical rejection of
improvements here; however, I suspect that tulip has an impact on this.

Regardless of that, any changes need to be discussed in a wider context
than just the smtpd module, no matter where changes are actually made.

--David