Related
Is there a Pool class for worker threads, similar to the multiprocessing module's Pool class?
I like for example the easy way to parallelize a map function
def long_running_func(p):
c_func_no_gil(p)
p = multiprocessing.Pool(4)
xs = p.map(long_running_func, range(100))
however I would like to do it without the overhead of creating new processes.
I know about the GIL. However, in my usecase, the function will be an IO-bound C function for which the python wrapper will release the GIL before the actual function call.
Do I have to write my own threading pool?
I just found out that there actually is a thread-based Pool interface in the multiprocessing module, however it is hidden somewhat and not properly documented.
It can be imported via
from multiprocessing.pool import ThreadPool
It is implemented using a dummy Process class wrapping a python thread. This thread-based Process class can be found in multiprocessing.dummy which is mentioned briefly in the docs. This dummy module supposedly provides the whole multiprocessing interface based on threads.
In Python 3 you can use concurrent.futures.ThreadPoolExecutor, i.e.:
executor = ThreadPoolExecutor(max_workers=10)
a = executor.submit(my_function)
See the docs for more info and examples.
Yes, and it seems to have (more or less) the same API.
import multiprocessing
def worker(lnk):
....
def start_process():
.....
....
if(PROCESS):
pool = multiprocessing.Pool(processes=POOL_SIZE, initializer=start_process)
else:
pool = multiprocessing.pool.ThreadPool(processes=POOL_SIZE,
initializer=start_process)
pool.map(worker, inputs)
....
For something very simple and lightweight (slightly modified from here):
from Queue import Queue
from threading import Thread
class Worker(Thread):
"""Thread executing tasks from a given tasks queue"""
def __init__(self, tasks):
Thread.__init__(self)
self.tasks = tasks
self.daemon = True
self.start()
def run(self):
while True:
func, args, kargs = self.tasks.get()
try:
func(*args, **kargs)
except Exception, e:
print e
finally:
self.tasks.task_done()
class ThreadPool:
"""Pool of threads consuming tasks from a queue"""
def __init__(self, num_threads):
self.tasks = Queue(num_threads)
for _ in range(num_threads):
Worker(self.tasks)
def add_task(self, func, *args, **kargs):
"""Add a task to the queue"""
self.tasks.put((func, args, kargs))
def wait_completion(self):
"""Wait for completion of all the tasks in the queue"""
self.tasks.join()
if __name__ == '__main__':
from random import randrange
from time import sleep
delays = [randrange(1, 10) for i in range(100)]
def wait_delay(d):
print 'sleeping for (%d)sec' % d
sleep(d)
pool = ThreadPool(20)
for i, d in enumerate(delays):
pool.add_task(wait_delay, d)
pool.wait_completion()
To support callbacks on task completion you can just add the callback to the task tuple.
Hi to use the thread pool in Python you can use this library :
from multiprocessing.dummy import Pool as ThreadPool
and then for use, this library do like that :
pool = ThreadPool(threads)
results = pool.map(service, tasks)
pool.close()
pool.join()
return results
The threads are the number of threads that you want and tasks are a list of task that most map to the service.
Yes, there is a threading pool similar to the multiprocessing Pool, however, it is hidden somewhat and not properly documented. You can import it by following way:-
from multiprocessing.pool import ThreadPool
Just I show you simple example
def test_multithread_stringio_read_csv(self):
# see gh-11786
max_row_range = 10000
num_files = 100
bytes_to_df = [
'\n'.join(
['%d,%d,%d' % (i, i, i) for i in range(max_row_range)]
).encode() for j in range(num_files)]
files = [BytesIO(b) for b in bytes_to_df]
# read all files in many threads
pool = ThreadPool(8)
results = pool.map(self.read_csv, files)
first_result = results[0]
for result in results:
tm.assert_frame_equal(first_result, result)
Here's the result I finally ended up using. It's a modified version of the classes by dgorissen above.
File: threadpool.py
from queue import Queue, Empty
import threading
from threading import Thread
class Worker(Thread):
_TIMEOUT = 2
""" Thread executing tasks from a given tasks queue. Thread is signalable,
to exit
"""
def __init__(self, tasks, th_num):
Thread.__init__(self)
self.tasks = tasks
self.daemon, self.th_num = True, th_num
self.done = threading.Event()
self.start()
def run(self):
while not self.done.is_set():
try:
func, args, kwargs = self.tasks.get(block=True,
timeout=self._TIMEOUT)
try:
func(*args, **kwargs)
except Exception as e:
print(e)
finally:
self.tasks.task_done()
except Empty as e:
pass
return
def signal_exit(self):
""" Signal to thread to exit """
self.done.set()
class ThreadPool:
"""Pool of threads consuming tasks from a queue"""
def __init__(self, num_threads, tasks=[]):
self.tasks = Queue(num_threads)
self.workers = []
self.done = False
self._init_workers(num_threads)
for task in tasks:
self.tasks.put(task)
def _init_workers(self, num_threads):
for i in range(num_threads):
self.workers.append(Worker(self.tasks, i))
def add_task(self, func, *args, **kwargs):
"""Add a task to the queue"""
self.tasks.put((func, args, kwargs))
def _close_all_threads(self):
""" Signal all threads to exit and lose the references to them """
for workr in self.workers:
workr.signal_exit()
self.workers = []
def wait_completion(self):
"""Wait for completion of all the tasks in the queue"""
self.tasks.join()
def __del__(self):
self._close_all_threads()
def create_task(func, *args, **kwargs):
return (func, args, kwargs)
To use the pool
from random import randrange
from time import sleep
delays = [randrange(1, 10) for i in range(30)]
def wait_delay(d):
print('sleeping for (%d)sec' % d)
sleep(d)
pool = ThreadPool(20)
for i, d in enumerate(delays):
pool.add_task(wait_delay, d)
pool.wait_completion()
another way can be adding the process to thethread queue pool
import concurrent.futures
with concurrent.futures.ThreadPoolExecutor(max_workers=cpus) as executor:
for i in range(10):
a = executor.submit(arg1, arg2,....)
The overhead of creating the new processes is minimal, especially when it's just 4 of them. I doubt this is a performance hot spot of your application. Keep it simple, optimize where you have to and where profiling results point to.
There is no built in thread based pool. However, it can be very quick to implement a producer/consumer queue with the Queue class.
From:
https://docs.python.org/2/library/queue.html
from threading import Thread
from Queue import Queue
def worker():
while True:
item = q.get()
do_work(item)
q.task_done()
q = Queue()
for i in range(num_worker_threads):
t = Thread(target=worker)
t.daemon = True
t.start()
for item in source():
q.put(item)
q.join() # block until all tasks are done
If you don't mind executing other's code, here's mine:
Note: There is lot of extra code you may want to remove [added for better clarificaiton and demonstration how it works]
Note: Python naming conventions were used for method names and variable names instead of camelCase.
Working procedure:
MultiThread class will initiate with no of instances of threads by sharing lock, work queue, exit flag and results.
SingleThread will be started by MultiThread once it creates all instances.
We can add works using MultiThread (It will take care of locking).
SingleThreads will process work queue using a lock in middle.
Once your work is done, you can destroy all threads with shared boolean value.
Here, work can be anything. It can automatically import (uncomment import line) and process module using given arguments.
Results will be added to results and we can get using get_results
Code:
import threading
import queue
class SingleThread(threading.Thread):
def __init__(self, name, work_queue, lock, exit_flag, results):
threading.Thread.__init__(self)
self.name = name
self.work_queue = work_queue
self.lock = lock
self.exit_flag = exit_flag
self.results = results
def run(self):
# print("Coming %s with parameters %s", self.name, self.exit_flag)
while not self.exit_flag:
# print(self.exit_flag)
self.lock.acquire()
if not self.work_queue.empty():
work = self.work_queue.get()
module, operation, args, kwargs = work.module, work.operation, work.args, work.kwargs
self.lock.release()
print("Processing : " + operation + " with parameters " + str(args) + " and " + str(kwargs) + " by " + self.name + "\n")
# module = __import__(module_name)
result = str(getattr(module, operation)(*args, **kwargs))
print("Result : " + result + " for operation " + operation + " and input " + str(args) + " " + str(kwargs))
self.results.append(result)
else:
self.lock.release()
# process_work_queue(self.work_queue)
class MultiThread:
def __init__(self, no_of_threads):
self.exit_flag = bool_instance()
self.queue_lock = threading.Lock()
self.threads = []
self.work_queue = queue.Queue()
self.results = []
for index in range(0, no_of_threads):
thread = SingleThread("Thread" + str(index+1), self.work_queue, self.queue_lock, self.exit_flag, self.results)
thread.start()
self.threads.append(thread)
def add_work(self, work):
self.queue_lock.acquire()
self.work_queue._put(work)
self.queue_lock.release()
def destroy(self):
self.exit_flag.value = True
for thread in self.threads:
thread.join()
def get_results(self):
return self.results
class Work:
def __init__(self, module, operation, args, kwargs={}):
self.module = module
self.operation = operation
self.args = args
self.kwargs = kwargs
class SimpleOperations:
def sum(self, *args):
return sum([int(arg) for arg in args])
#staticmethod
def mul(a, b, c=0):
return int(a) * int(b) + int(c)
class bool_instance:
def __init__(self, value=False):
self.value = value
def __setattr__(self, key, value):
if key != "value":
raise AttributeError("Only value can be set!")
if not isinstance(value, bool):
raise AttributeError("Only True/False can be set!")
self.__dict__[key] = value
# super.__setattr__(key, bool(value))
def __bool__(self):
return self.value
if __name__ == "__main__":
multi_thread = MultiThread(5)
multi_thread.add_work(Work(SimpleOperations(), "mul", [2, 3], {"c":4}))
while True:
data_input = input()
if data_input == "":
pass
elif data_input == "break":
break
else:
work = data_input.split()
multi_thread.add_work(Work(SimpleOperations(), work[0], work[1:], {}))
multi_thread.destroy()
print(multi_thread.get_results())
I have a class (MyClass) which contains a queue (self.msg_queue) of actions that need to be run and I have multiple sources of input that can add tasks to the queue.
Right now I have three functions that I want to run concurrently:
MyClass.get_input_from_user()
Creates a window in tkinter that has the user fill out information and when the user presses submit it pushes that message onto the queue.
MyClass.get_input_from_server()
Checks the server for a message, reads the message, and then puts it onto the queue. This method uses functions from MyClass's parent class.
MyClass.execute_next_item_on_the_queue()
Pops a message off of the queue and then acts upon it. It is dependent on what the message is, but each message corresponds to some method in MyClass or its parent which gets run according to a big decision tree.
Process description:
After the class has joined the network, I have it spawn three threads (one for each of the above functions). Each threaded function adds items from the queue with the syntax "self.msg_queue.put(message)" and removes items from the queue with "self.msg_queue.get_nowait()".
Problem description:
The issue I am having is that it seems that each thread is modifying its own queue object (they are not sharing the queue, msg_queue, of the class of which they, the functions, are all members).
I am not familiar enough with Multiprocessing to know what the important error messages are; however, it is stating that it cannot pickle a weakref object (it gives no indication of which object is the weakref object), and that within the queue.put() call the line "self._sem.acquire(block, timeout) yields a '[WinError 5] Access is denied'" error. Would it be safe to assume that this failure in the queue's reference not copying over properly?
[I am using Python 3.7.2 and the Multiprocessing package's Process and Queue]
[I have seen multiple Q/As about having threads shuttle information between classes--create a master harness that generates a queue and then pass that queue as an argument to each thread. If the functions didn't have to use other functions from MyClass I could see adapting this strategy by having those functions take in a queue and use a local variable rather than class variables.]
[I am fairly confident that this error is not the result of passing my queue to the tkinter object as my unit tests on how my GUI modifies its caller's queue work fine]
Below is a minimal reproducible example for the queue's error:
from multiprocessing import Queue
from multiprocessing import Process
import queue
import time
class MyTest:
def __init__(self):
self.my_q = Queue()
self.counter = 0
def input_function_A(self):
while True:
self.my_q.put(self.counter)
self.counter = self.counter + 1
time.sleep(0.2)
def input_function_B(self):
while True:
self.counter = 0
self.my_q.put(self.counter)
time.sleep(1)
def output_function(self):
while True:
try:
var = self.my_q.get_nowait()
except queue.Empty:
var = -1
except:
break
print(var)
time.sleep(1)
def run(self):
process_A = Process(target=self.input_function_A)
process_B = Process(target=self.input_function_B)
process_C = Process(target=self.output_function)
process_A.start()
process_B.start()
process_C.start()
# without this it generates the WinError:
# with this it still behaves as if the two input functions do not modify the queue
process_C.join()
if __name__ == '__main__':
test = MyTest()
test.run()
Indeed - these are not "threads" - these are "processes" - while if you were using multithreading, and not multiprocessing, the self.my_q instance would be the same object, placed at the same memory space on the computer,
multiprocessing does a fork of the process, and any data in the original process (the one in execution in the "run" call) will be duplicated when it is used - so, each subprocess will see its own "Queue" instance, unrelated to the others.
The correct way to have various process share a multiprocessing.Queue object is to pass it as a parameter to the target methods. The simpler way to reorganize your code so that it works is thus:
from multiprocessing import Queue
from multiprocessing import Process
import queue
import time
class MyTest:
def __init__(self):
self.my_q = Queue()
self.counter = 0
def input_function_A(self, queue):
while True:
queue.put(self.counter)
self.counter = self.counter + 1
time.sleep(0.2)
def input_function_B(self, queue):
while True:
self.counter = 0
queue.put(self.counter)
time.sleep(1)
def output_function(self, queue):
while True:
try:
var = queue.get_nowait()
except queue.Empty:
var = -1
except:
break
print(var)
time.sleep(1)
def run(self):
process_A = Process(target=self.input_function_A, args=(queue,))
process_B = Process(target=self.input_function_B, args=(queue,))
process_C = Process(target=self.output_function, args=(queue,))
process_A.start()
process_B.start()
process_C.start()
# without this it generates the WinError:
# with this it still behaves as if the two input functions do not modify the queue
process_C.join()
if __name__ == '__main__':
test = MyTest()
test.run()
As you can see, since your class is not actually sharing any data through the instance's attributes, this "class" design does not make much sense for your application - but for grouping the different workers in the same code block.
It would be possible to have a magic-multiprocess-class that would have some internal method to actually start the worker-methods and share the Queue instance - so if you have a lot of those in a project, there would be a lot less boilerplate.
Something along:
from multiprocessing import Queue
from multiprocessing import Process
import time
class MPWorkerBase:
def __init__(self, *args, **kw):
self.queue = None
self.is_parent_process = False
self.is_child_process = False
self.processes = []
# ensure this can be used as a colaborative mixin
super().__init__(*args, **kw)
def run(self):
if self.is_parent_process or self.is_child_process:
# workers already initialized
return
self.queue = Queue()
processes = []
cls = self.__class__
for name in dir(cls):
method = getattr(cls, name)
if callable(method) and getattr(method, "_MP_worker", False):
process = Process(target=self._start_worker, args=(self.queue, name))
self.processes.append(process)
process.start()
# Setting these attributes here ensure the child processes have the initial values for them.
self.is_parent_process = True
self.processes = processes
def _start_worker(self, queue, method_name):
# this method is called in a new spawned process - attribute
# changes here no longer reflect attributes on the
# object in the initial process
# overwrite queue in this process with the queue object sent over the wire:
self.queue = queue
self.is_child_process = True
# call the worker method
getattr(self, method_name)()
def __del__(self):
for process in self.processes:
process.join()
def worker(func):
"""decorator to mark a method as a worker that should
run in its own subprocess
"""
func._MP_worker = True
return func
class MyTest(MPWorkerBase):
def __init__(self):
super().__init__()
self.counter = 0
#worker
def input_function_A(self):
while True:
self.queue.put(self.counter)
self.counter = self.counter + 1
time.sleep(0.2)
#worker
def input_function_B(self):
while True:
self.counter = 0
self.queue.put(self.counter)
time.sleep(1)
#worker
def output_function(self):
while True:
try:
var = self.queue.get_nowait()
except queue.Empty:
var = -1
except:
break
print(var)
time.sleep(1)
if __name__ == '__main__':
test = MyTest()
test.run()
I spent quite a bit of time looking on how to use the multiprocessing package, but couldn't find anything on how to use it inside a plugin in QGIS. I am developing a plugin that does some optimization for several elements. I would like to parallelize it.
I found a useful link on multi-threading inside a python plugin (http://snorf.net/blog/2013/12/07/multithreading-in-qgis-python-plugins/), but nothing on using the multiprocessing module, which might be easier?
I have been trying with a very basic example. I am only showing the run function from the plugin here:
def run(self):
"""Run method that performs all the real work"""
# show the dialog
self.dlg.show()
# Run the dialog event loop
result = self.dlg.exec_()
# See if OK was pressed and run code
if result:
#Get number of cores
nProcs = mp.cpu_count()
#Start a Process
p = mp.Pool(nProcs)
#Define function
def cube(x):
return x**3
#Run parallel
results = p.map(cube, range(1,7))
When I run this code from the plugin in QGIS, it opens several QGIS windows, which then return errors (can't load layers, etc.). What am I missing? Do I need to start a worker first on another thread and then use multiprocessing there? Or would we use another function from multiprocessing?
Please let me know if the question needs edits. I am working under windows 7, using QGIS 2.10.
Thanks,
UPDATE
I created a worker class to implement the function and sent it to a new thread, but I get the same problem when I use multiprocessing in that thread.
The class I created is as follows:
class Worker(QObject):
'''Example worker'''
def __init__(self, result_queue, f, attr=[], repet=None, nbCores=None):
QObject.__init__(self)
if not hasattr(f, '__call__'):
#Check if not a function
raise TypeError('Worker expected a function as second argument')
if not isinstance(attr, list) and not repet==None:
#Check if not a list if there is a repet command
raise TypeError('Input problem:\nThe arguments for the function should be in a list if repet is provided')
if not all(isinstance(elem, list) for elem in attr) and repet==None and len(inspect.getargspec(f).args) > 1:
#Check if not a list of lists if there isn't a repet command
raise TypeError('Input problem:\nThe arguments for the function should be a list of lists if repet is not provided')
if not repet == None and (not isinstance(repet, int) or repet == 0):
#Check that provided an integer greater than 0
raise TypeError('If provided, repet should be None or a strictly positive integer')
self.result_queue = result_queue
self.f = f
self.attr = attr
self.repet = repet
self.nbCores = nbCores
if self.nbCores == None:
self.nbCores = mp.cpu_count() - 1
def fStar(self, arg):
"""Convert the function to taking a list as arguments"""
return self.f(*arg)
def run(self):
ret = None
try:
if self.repet == 1:
# estimates the function based on provided arguments
ret = self.f(*self.attr) #The star unpacks the list into attributes
else:
pool = mp.Pool(processes=self.nbCores)
if self.repet > 1:
ret = pool.map(self.fStar, itools.repeat(self.attr,self.repet))
elif self.repet == None:
ret = pool.map(self.fStar, self.attr)
pool.close()
pool.join()
except Exception, e:
#I can't pass an exception, it makes qgis bug
pass
self.result_queue.put(ret) #Pass the result to the queue
finished = pyqtSignal(object)
error = pyqtSignal(Exception, basestring)
I start the worker and send it to a new thread using the following function:
def startWorker(f, attr, repet=None, nbCores=None):
#Create a result queue
result_queue = queue.Queue()
# create a new worker instance
worker = Worker(result_queue, f, attr, repet, nbCores)
# start the worker in a new thread
thread = QThread()
worker.moveToThread(thread)
thread.started.connect(worker.run)
thread.start()
#Clean up when the thread is finished
worker.deleteLater()
thread.quit()
thread.wait()
thread.deleteLater()
#Export the result to the queue
res = []
while not result_queue.empty():
r = result_queue.get()
if r is None:
continue
res.append(r)
return res
As in my initial question, I just replaced results = p.map(cube, range(1,7)) by calling the startWorker function
Please let me know if you have any idea how to make this work. I implemented the work in multiple threads, but it would be much faster to use several cores...
I was under the impression that python passed objects by reference, so logically (I thought), passing a dictionary to a thread's worker function would allow me to set new key-value pairs that would be preserved after the worker function had returned. Unfortunately, it seems as though I am wrong!
Without further ado, here's a test case:
from Queue import Queue
from threading import Thread
def work_fn(dictionary, dfield):
dictionary[dfield] = True
class Worker(Thread):
"""Thread executing tasks from a given tasks queue"""
def __init__(self, tasks):
Thread.__init__(self)
self.tasks = tasks
self.daemon = True
self.start()
def run(self):
while True:
func, args, kargs = self.tasks.get()
try:
func(*args, **kargs)
except Exception, e:
print e
self.tasks.task_done()
class ThreadPool(object):
"""Pool of threads consuming tasks from a queue"""
def __init__(self, num_threads):
self.tasks = Queue(num_threads)
for i in range(num_threads):
Worker(self.tasks)
def add_task(self, func, *args, **kargs):
"""Add a task to the queue"""
self.tasks.put((func, args, kargs))
def wait_completion(self):
"""Wait for completion of all the tasks in the queue"""
self.tasks.join()
if __name__ == '__main__':
pool = ThreadPool(4)
data = [{} for _ in range(10)]
for i, d in enumerate(data):
pool.add_task(work_fn, d, str(i))
pool.wait_completion()
for d in data:
print d.keys()
What is actually going on here?
What should I be doing differently?
I don't see where you are waiting for the tasks to finish before printing the results. It seems like you need to do the collection of results in a subsequent loop after spawning the jobs.
I'm having much trouble trying to understand just how the multiprocessing queue works on python and how to implement it. Lets say I have two python modules that access data from a shared file, let's call these two modules a writer and a reader. My plan is to have both the reader and writer put requests into two separate multiprocessing queues, and then have a third process pop these requests in a loop and execute as such.
My main problem is that I really don't know how to implement multiprocessing.queue correctly, you cannot really instantiate the object for each process since they will be separate queues, how do you make sure that all processes relate to a shared queue (or in this case, queues)
My main problem is that I really don't know how to implement multiprocessing.queue correctly, you cannot really instantiate the object for each process since they will be separate queues, how do you make sure that all processes relate to a shared queue (or in this case, queues)
This is a simple example of a reader and writer sharing a single queue... The writer sends a bunch of integers to the reader; when the writer runs out of numbers, it sends 'DONE', which lets the reader know to break out of the read loop.
You can spawn as many reader processes as you like...
from multiprocessing import Process, Queue
import time
import sys
def reader_proc(queue):
"""Read from the queue; this spawns as a separate Process"""
while True:
msg = queue.get() # Read from the queue and do nothing
if msg == "DONE":
break
def writer(count, num_of_reader_procs, queue):
"""Write integers into the queue. A reader_proc() will read them from the queue"""
for ii in range(0, count):
queue.put(ii) # Put 'count' numbers into queue
### Tell all readers to stop...
for ii in range(0, num_of_reader_procs):
queue.put("DONE")
def start_reader_procs(qq, num_of_reader_procs):
"""Start the reader processes and return all in a list to the caller"""
all_reader_procs = list()
for ii in range(0, num_of_reader_procs):
### reader_p() reads from qq as a separate process...
### you can spawn as many reader_p() as you like
### however, there is usually a point of diminishing returns
reader_p = Process(target=reader_proc, args=((qq),))
reader_p.daemon = True
reader_p.start() # Launch reader_p() as another proc
all_reader_procs.append(reader_p)
return all_reader_procs
if __name__ == "__main__":
num_of_reader_procs = 2
qq = Queue() # writer() writes to qq from _this_ process
for count in [10**4, 10**5, 10**6]:
assert 0 < num_of_reader_procs < 4
all_reader_procs = start_reader_procs(qq, num_of_reader_procs)
writer(count, len(all_reader_procs), qq) # Queue stuff to all reader_p()
print("All reader processes are pulling numbers from the queue...")
_start = time.time()
for idx, a_reader_proc in enumerate(all_reader_procs):
print(" Waiting for reader_p.join() index %s" % idx)
a_reader_proc.join() # Wait for a_reader_proc() to finish
print(" reader_p() idx:%s is done" % idx)
print(
"Sending {0} integers through Queue() took {1} seconds".format(
count, (time.time() - _start)
)
)
print("")
Here's a dead simple usage of multiprocessing.Queue and multiprocessing.Process that allows callers to send an "event" plus arguments to a separate process that dispatches the event to a "do_" method on the process. (Python 3.4+)
import multiprocessing as mp
import collections
Msg = collections.namedtuple('Msg', ['event', 'args'])
class BaseProcess(mp.Process):
"""A process backed by an internal queue for simple one-way message passing.
"""
def __init__(self, *args, **kwargs):
super().__init__(*args, **kwargs)
self.queue = mp.Queue()
def send(self, event, *args):
"""Puts the event and args as a `Msg` on the queue
"""
msg = Msg(event, args)
self.queue.put(msg)
def dispatch(self, msg):
event, args = msg
handler = getattr(self, "do_%s" % event, None)
if not handler:
raise NotImplementedError("Process has no handler for [%s]" % event)
handler(*args)
def run(self):
while True:
msg = self.queue.get()
self.dispatch(msg)
Usage:
class MyProcess(BaseProcess):
def do_helloworld(self, arg1, arg2):
print(arg1, arg2)
if __name__ == "__main__":
process = MyProcess()
process.start()
process.send('helloworld', 'hello', 'world')
The send happens in the parent process, the do_* happens in the child process.
I left out any exception handling that would obviously interrupt the run loop and exit the child process. You can also customize it by overriding run to control blocking or whatever else.
This is really only useful in situations where you have a single worker process, but I think it's a relevant answer to this question to demonstrate a common scenario with a little more object-orientation.
I had a look at multiple answers across stack overflow and the web while trying to set-up a way of doing multiprocessing using queues for passing around large pandas dataframes. It seemed to me that every answer was re-iterating the same kind of solutions without any consideration of the multitude of edge cases one will definitely come across when setting up calculations like these. The problem is that there is many things at play at the same time. The number of tasks, the number of workers, the duration of each task and possible exceptions during task execution. All of these make synchronization tricky and most answers do not address how you can go about it. So this is my take after fiddling around for a few hours, hopefully this will be generic enough for most people to find it useful.
Some thoughts before any coding examples. Since queue.Empty or queue.qsize() or any other similar method is unreliable for flow control, any code of the like
while True:
try:
task = pending_queue.get_nowait()
except queue.Empty:
break
is bogus. This will kill the worker even if milliseconds later another task turns up in the queue. The worker will not recover and after a while ALL the workers will disappear as they randomly find the queue momentarily empty. The end result will be that the main multiprocessing function (the one with the join() on the processes) will return without all the tasks having completed. Nice. Good luck debugging through that if you have thousands of tasks and a few are missing.
The other issue is the use of sentinel values. Many people have suggested adding a sentinel value in the queue to flag the end of the queue. But to flag it to whom exactly? If there is N workers, assuming N is the number of cores available give or take, then a single sentinel value will only flag the end of the queue to one worker. All the other workers will sit waiting for more work when there is none left. Typical examples I've seen are
while True:
task = pending_queue.get()
if task == SOME_SENTINEL_VALUE:
break
One worker will get the sentinel value while the rest will wait indefinitely. No post I came across mentioned that you need to submit the sentinel value to the queue AT LEAST as many times as you have workers so that ALL of them get it.
The other issue is the handling of exceptions during task execution. Again these should be caught and managed. Moreover, if you have a completed_tasks queue you should independently count in a deterministic way how many items are in the queue before you decide that the job is done. Again relying on queue sizes is bound to fail and returns unexpected results.
In the example below, the par_proc() function will receive a list of tasks including the functions with which these tasks should be executed alongside any named arguments and values.
import multiprocessing as mp
import dill as pickle
import queue
import time
import psutil
SENTINEL = None
def do_work(tasks_pending, tasks_completed):
# Get the current worker's name
worker_name = mp.current_process().name
while True:
try:
task = tasks_pending.get_nowait()
except queue.Empty:
print(worker_name + ' found an empty queue. Sleeping for a while before checking again...')
time.sleep(0.01)
else:
try:
if task == SENTINEL:
print(worker_name + ' no more work left to be done. Exiting...')
break
print(worker_name + ' received some work... ')
time_start = time.perf_counter()
work_func = pickle.loads(task['func'])
result = work_func(**task['task'])
tasks_completed.put({work_func.__name__: result})
time_end = time.perf_counter() - time_start
print(worker_name + ' done in {} seconds'.format(round(time_end, 5)))
except Exception as e:
print(worker_name + ' task failed. ' + str(e))
tasks_completed.put({work_func.__name__: None})
def par_proc(job_list, num_cpus=None):
# Get the number of cores
if not num_cpus:
num_cpus = psutil.cpu_count(logical=False)
print('* Parallel processing')
print('* Running on {} cores'.format(num_cpus))
# Set-up the queues for sending and receiving data to/from the workers
tasks_pending = mp.Queue()
tasks_completed = mp.Queue()
# Gather processes and results here
processes = []
results = []
# Count tasks
num_tasks = 0
# Add the tasks to the queue
for job in job_list:
for task in job['tasks']:
expanded_job = {}
num_tasks = num_tasks + 1
expanded_job.update({'func': pickle.dumps(job['func'])})
expanded_job.update({'task': task})
tasks_pending.put(expanded_job)
# Use as many workers as there are cores (usually chokes the system so better use less)
num_workers = num_cpus
# We need as many sentinels as there are worker processes so that ALL processes exit when there is no more
# work left to be done.
for c in range(num_workers):
tasks_pending.put(SENTINEL)
print('* Number of tasks: {}'.format(num_tasks))
# Set-up and start the workers
for c in range(num_workers):
p = mp.Process(target=do_work, args=(tasks_pending, tasks_completed))
p.name = 'worker' + str(c)
processes.append(p)
p.start()
# Gather the results
completed_tasks_counter = 0
while completed_tasks_counter < num_tasks:
results.append(tasks_completed.get())
completed_tasks_counter = completed_tasks_counter + 1
for p in processes:
p.join()
return results
And here is a test to run the above code against
def test_parallel_processing():
def heavy_duty1(arg1, arg2, arg3):
return arg1 + arg2 + arg3
def heavy_duty2(arg1, arg2, arg3):
return arg1 * arg2 * arg3
task_list = [
{'func': heavy_duty1, 'tasks': [{'arg1': 1, 'arg2': 2, 'arg3': 3}, {'arg1': 1, 'arg2': 3, 'arg3': 5}]},
{'func': heavy_duty2, 'tasks': [{'arg1': 1, 'arg2': 2, 'arg3': 3}, {'arg1': 1, 'arg2': 3, 'arg3': 5}]},
]
results = par_proc(task_list)
job1 = sum([y for x in results if 'heavy_duty1' in x.keys() for y in list(x.values())])
job2 = sum([y for x in results if 'heavy_duty2' in x.keys() for y in list(x.values())])
assert job1 == 15
assert job2 == 21
plus another one with some exceptions
def test_parallel_processing_exceptions():
def heavy_duty1_raises(arg1, arg2, arg3):
raise ValueError('Exception raised')
return arg1 + arg2 + arg3
def heavy_duty2(arg1, arg2, arg3):
return arg1 * arg2 * arg3
task_list = [
{'func': heavy_duty1_raises, 'tasks': [{'arg1': 1, 'arg2': 2, 'arg3': 3}, {'arg1': 1, 'arg2': 3, 'arg3': 5}]},
{'func': heavy_duty2, 'tasks': [{'arg1': 1, 'arg2': 2, 'arg3': 3}, {'arg1': 1, 'arg2': 3, 'arg3': 5}]},
]
results = par_proc(task_list)
job1 = sum([y for x in results if 'heavy_duty1' in x.keys() for y in list(x.values())])
job2 = sum([y for x in results if 'heavy_duty2' in x.keys() for y in list(x.values())])
assert not job1
assert job2 == 21
Hope that is helpful.
in "from queue import Queue" there is no module called queue, instead multiprocessing should be used. Therefore, it should look like "from multiprocessing import Queue"
Just made a simple and general example for demonstrating passing a message over a Queue between 2 standalone programs. It doesn't directly answer the OP's question but should be clear enough indicating the concept.
Server:
multiprocessing-queue-manager-server.py
import asyncio
import concurrent.futures
import multiprocessing
import multiprocessing.managers
import queue
import sys
import threading
from typing import Any, AnyStr, Dict, Union
class QueueManager(multiprocessing.managers.BaseManager):
def get_queue(self, ident: Union[AnyStr, int, type(None)] = None) -> multiprocessing.Queue:
pass
def get_queue(ident: Union[AnyStr, int, type(None)] = None) -> multiprocessing.Queue:
global q
if not ident in q:
q[ident] = multiprocessing.Queue()
return q[ident]
q: Dict[Union[AnyStr, int, type(None)], multiprocessing.Queue] = dict()
delattr(QueueManager, 'get_queue')
def init_queue_manager_server():
if not hasattr(QueueManager, 'get_queue'):
QueueManager.register('get_queue', get_queue)
def serve(no: int, term_ev: threading.Event):
manager: QueueManager
with QueueManager(authkey=QueueManager.__name__.encode()) as manager:
print(f"Server address {no}: {manager.address}")
while not term_ev.is_set():
try:
item: Any = manager.get_queue().get(timeout=0.1)
print(f"Client {no}: {item} from {manager.address}")
except queue.Empty:
continue
async def main(n: int):
init_queue_manager_server()
term_ev: threading.Event = threading.Event()
executor: concurrent.futures.ThreadPoolExecutor = concurrent.futures.ThreadPoolExecutor()
i: int
for i in range(n):
asyncio.ensure_future(asyncio.get_running_loop().run_in_executor(executor, serve, i, term_ev))
# Gracefully shut down
try:
await asyncio.get_running_loop().create_future()
except asyncio.CancelledError:
term_ev.set()
executor.shutdown()
raise
if __name__ == '__main__':
asyncio.run(main(int(sys.argv[1])))
Client:
multiprocessing-queue-manager-client.py
import multiprocessing
import multiprocessing.managers
import os
import sys
from typing import AnyStr, Union
class QueueManager(multiprocessing.managers.BaseManager):
def get_queue(self, ident: Union[AnyStr, int, type(None)] = None) -> multiprocessing.Queue:
pass
delattr(QueueManager, 'get_queue')
def init_queue_manager_client():
if not hasattr(QueueManager, 'get_queue'):
QueueManager.register('get_queue')
def main():
init_queue_manager_client()
manager: QueueManager = QueueManager(sys.argv[1], authkey=QueueManager.__name__.encode())
manager.connect()
message = f"A message from {os.getpid()}"
print(f"Message to send: {message}")
manager.get_queue().put(message)
if __name__ == '__main__':
main()
Usage
Server:
$ python3 multiprocessing-queue-manager-server.py N
N is a integer indicating how many servers should be created. Copy one of the <server-address-N> output by the server and make it the first argument of each multiprocessing-queue-manager-client.py.
Client:
python3 multiprocessing-queue-manager-client.py <server-address-1>
Result
Server:
Client 1: <item> from <server-address-1>
Gist: https://gist.github.com/89062d639e40110c61c2f88018a8b0e5
UPD: Created a package here.
Server:
import ipcq
with ipcq.QueueManagerServer(address=ipcq.Address.AUTO, authkey=ipcq.AuthKey.AUTO) as server:
server.get_queue().get()
Client:
import ipcq
client = ipcq.QueueManagerClient(address=ipcq.Address.AUTO, authkey=ipcq.AuthKey.AUTO)
client.get_queue().put('a message')
We implemented two versions of this, one a simple multi thread pool that can execute many types of callables, making our lives much easier and the second version that uses processes, which is less flexible in terms of callables and requires and extra call to dill.
Setting frozen_pool to true will freeze execution until finish_pool_queue is called in either class.
Thread Version:
'''
Created on Nov 4, 2019
#author: Kevin
'''
from threading import Lock, Thread
from Queue import Queue
import traceback
from helium.loaders.loader_retailers import print_info
from time import sleep
import signal
import os
class ThreadPool(object):
def __init__(self, queue_threads, *args, **kwargs):
self.frozen_pool = kwargs.get('frozen_pool', False)
self.print_queue = kwargs.get('print_queue', True)
self.pool_results = []
self.lock = Lock()
self.queue_threads = queue_threads
self.queue = Queue()
self.threads = []
for i in range(self.queue_threads):
t = Thread(target=self.make_pool_call)
t.daemon = True
t.start()
self.threads.append(t)
def make_pool_call(self):
while True:
if self.frozen_pool:
#print '--> Queue is frozen'
sleep(1)
continue
item = self.queue.get()
if item is None:
break
call = item.get('call', None)
args = item.get('args', [])
kwargs = item.get('kwargs', {})
keep_results = item.get('keep_results', False)
try:
result = call(*args, **kwargs)
if keep_results:
self.lock.acquire()
self.pool_results.append((item, result))
self.lock.release()
except Exception as e:
self.lock.acquire()
print e
traceback.print_exc()
self.lock.release()
os.kill(os.getpid(), signal.SIGUSR1)
self.queue.task_done()
def finish_pool_queue(self):
self.frozen_pool = False
while self.queue.unfinished_tasks > 0:
if self.print_queue:
print_info('--> Thread pool... %s' % self.queue.unfinished_tasks)
sleep(5)
self.queue.join()
for i in range(self.queue_threads):
self.queue.put(None)
for t in self.threads:
t.join()
del self.threads[:]
def get_pool_results(self):
return self.pool_results
def clear_pool_results(self):
del self.pool_results[:]
Process Version:
'''
Created on Nov 4, 2019
#author: Kevin
'''
import traceback
from helium.loaders.loader_retailers import print_info
from time import sleep
import signal
import os
from multiprocessing import Queue, Process, Value, Array, JoinableQueue, Lock,\
RawArray, Manager
from dill import dill
import ctypes
from helium.misc.utils import ignore_exception
from mem_top import mem_top
import gc
class ProcessPool(object):
def __init__(self, queue_processes, *args, **kwargs):
self.frozen_pool = Value(ctypes.c_bool, kwargs.get('frozen_pool', False))
self.print_queue = kwargs.get('print_queue', True)
self.manager = Manager()
self.pool_results = self.manager.list()
self.queue_processes = queue_processes
self.queue = JoinableQueue()
self.processes = []
for i in range(self.queue_processes):
p = Process(target=self.make_pool_call)
p.start()
self.processes.append(p)
print 'Processes', self.queue_processes
def make_pool_call(self):
while True:
if self.frozen_pool.value:
sleep(1)
continue
item_pickled = self.queue.get()
if item_pickled is None:
#print '--> Ending'
self.queue.task_done()
break
item = dill.loads(item_pickled)
call = item.get('call', None)
args = item.get('args', [])
kwargs = item.get('kwargs', {})
keep_results = item.get('keep_results', False)
try:
result = call(*args, **kwargs)
if keep_results:
self.pool_results.append(dill.dumps((item, result)))
else:
del call, args, kwargs, keep_results, item, result
except Exception as e:
print e
traceback.print_exc()
os.kill(os.getpid(), signal.SIGUSR1)
self.queue.task_done()
def finish_pool_queue(self, callable=None):
self.frozen_pool.value = False
while self.queue._unfinished_tasks.get_value() > 0:
if self.print_queue:
print_info('--> Process pool... %s' % (self.queue._unfinished_tasks.get_value()))
if callable:
callable()
sleep(5)
for i in range(self.queue_processes):
self.queue.put(None)
self.queue.join()
self.queue.close()
for p in self.processes:
with ignore_exception: p.join(10)
with ignore_exception: p.terminate()
with ignore_exception: del self.processes[:]
def get_pool_results(self):
return self.pool_results
def clear_pool_results(self):
del self.pool_results[:]
def test(eg):
print 'EG', eg
Call with either:
tp = ThreadPool(queue_threads=2)
tp.queue.put({'call': test, 'args': [random.randint(0, 100)]})
tp.finish_pool_queue()
or
pp = ProcessPool(queue_processes=2)
pp.queue.put(dill.dumps({'call': test, 'args': [random.randint(0, 100)]}))
pp.queue.put(dill.dumps({'call': test, 'args': [random.randint(0, 100)]}))
pp.finish_pool_queue()
A multi-producers and multi-consumers example, verified. It should be easy to modify it to cover other cases, single/multi producers, single/multi consumers.
from multiprocessing import Process, JoinableQueue
import time
import os
q = JoinableQueue()
def producer():
for item in range(30):
time.sleep(2)
q.put(item)
pid = os.getpid()
print(f'producer {pid} done')
def worker():
while True:
item = q.get()
pid = os.getpid()
print(f'pid {pid} Working on {item}')
print(f'pid {pid} Finished {item}')
q.task_done()
for i in range(5):
p = Process(target=worker, daemon=True).start()
# send thirty task requests to the worker
producers = []
for i in range(2):
p = Process(target=producer)
producers.append(p)
p.start()
# make sure producers done
for p in producers:
p.join()
# block until all workers are done
q.join()
print('All work completed')
Explanation:
Two producers and five consumers in this example.
JoinableQueue is used to make sure all elements stored in queue will be processed. 'task_done' is for worker to notify an element is done. 'q.join()' will wait for all elements marked as done.
With #2, there is no need to join wait for every worker.
But it is important to join wait for every producer to store element into queue. Otherwise, program exit immediately.