multiprocessing module - isn't it a bug?

[Terry Reedy]

dmitrey wrote:
> # THIS WORKS OK
> from multiprocessing import Pool
> N = 400
> K = 800
> processes = 2
> 
> def costlyFunction2(z):
>     r = 0
>     for k in xrange(1, K+2):
>         r += z ** (1 / k**1.5)
>     return r
> 
> class ABC:
>     def __init__(self): pass
>     def testParallel(self):
>         po = Pool(processes=processes)
>         r = po.map(costlyFunction2, xrange(N), chunksize = N/
> (10*processes))
> A=ABC()
> A.testParallel()
> print 'done'
> 
> # But when I define costlyFunction2 inside of class, it doesn't work:
> from multiprocessing import Pool
> N = 400
> K = 800
> processes = 2
> class ABC:
>     def __init__(self): pass
>     def testParallel(self):
>         po = Pool(processes=processes)
>         def costlyFunction2(z):
>             r = 0
>             for k in xrange(1, K+2):
>                 r += z ** (1 / k**1.5)
>             return r
>         r = po.map(costlyFunction2, xrange(N), chunksize = N/
> (10*processes))
> A=ABC()
> A.testParallel()
> print 'done'
> 
> Exception in thread Thread-1:
> Traceback (most recent call last):
>   File "/usr/lib/python2.6/threading.py", line 522, in
> __bootstrap_inner
>     self.run()
>   File "/usr/lib/python2.6/threading.py", line 477, in run
>     self.__target(*self.__args, **self.__kwargs)
>   File "/usr/lib/python2.6/multiprocessing/pool.py", line 225, in
> _handle_tasks
>     put(task)
> PicklingError: Can't pickle <type 'function'>: attribute lookup
> __builtin__.function failed
> 
> This doesn't work for
> costlyFunction2 = lambda x: 11
> as well; and it doesn't work for imap, apply_async as well (same
> error).
> So, isn't it a bug, or it can be somehow fixed?

Since the multiproccessing Programming Guidelines say
"Picklability
Ensure that the arguments to the methods of proxies are picklable."
and you got a PicklingError, perhaps 'no' and 'no', but I would research 
the pickle module and 'picklability' to be sure.

tjr