multiprocessing to a python function - python

How I can implement the multiprocessing to my function.I tried like this but did not work.
def steric_clashes_parallel(system):
rna_st = system[MolWithResID("G")].molecule()
for i in system.molNums():
peg_st = system[i].molecule()
if rna_st != peg_st:
print(peg_st)
for i in rna_st.atoms(AtomIdx()):
for j in peg_st.atoms(AtomIdx()):
# print(Vector.distance(i.evaluate().center(), j.evaluate().center()))
dist = Vector.distance(i.evaluate().center(), j.evaluate().center())
if dist<2:
return print("there is a steric clash")
return print("there is no steric clashes")
mix = PDB().read("clash_1.pdb")
system = System()
system.add(mix)
from multiprocessing import Pool
p = Pool(4)
p.map(steric_clashes_parallel,system)
I've thousand of pdb or system files to test through this function. It took 2 h for one file on a single core without multiprocessing module. Any suggestion would be great help.
My traceback looks something like this:
self.run()
File "/home/sajid/sire.app/bundled/lib/python3.3/threading.py", line 858,
in run self._target(*self._args, **self._kwargs)
File "/home/sajid/sire.app/bundled/lib/python3.3/multiprocessing/pool.py", line 351,
in _handle_tasks put(task)
File "/home/sajid/sire.app/bundled/lib/python3.3/multiprocessing/connection.py", line 206,
in send ForkingPickler(buf, pickle.HIGHEST_PROTOCOL).dump(obj)
RuntimeError: Pickling of "Sire.System._System.System" instances is not enabled
(boost.org/libs/python/doc/v2/pickle.html)

The problem is that Sire.System._System.System can't be serialized so it can't be sent to the child process. Multiprocessing uses the pickle module for serialization and you can frequently do a sanity check in the main program with pickle.dumps(my_mp_object) to verify.
You have another problem, though (or I think you do, based on variable names). the map method takes an iterable and fans its iterated objects out to pool members, but it appears that you want to process system itself, not something at it iterates.
One trick to multiprocessing is to keep the payload that you send from the parent to the child simple and let the child do the heavy lifting of creating its objects. Here, you might be better off just sending down filenames and letting the children do most of the work.
def steric_clashes_from_file(filename):
mix = PDB().read(filename)
system = System()
system.add(mix)
steric_clashes_parallel(system)
def steric_clashes_parallel(system):
rna_st = system[MolWithResID("G")].molecule()
for i in system.molNums():
peg_st = system[i].molecule()
if rna_st != peg_st:
print(peg_st)
for i in rna_st.atoms(AtomIdx()):
for j in peg_st.atoms(AtomIdx()):
# print(Vector.distance(i.evaluate().center(), j.evaluate().center()))
dist = Vector.distance(i.evaluate().center(), j.evaluate().center())
if dist<2:
return print("there is a steric clash")
return print("there is no steric clashes")
filenames = ["clash_1.pdb",]
from multiprocessing import Pool
p = Pool(4, chunksize=1)
p.map(steric_clashes_from_file,filenames)

# martineau:
I tested pickle command and it gave me;
----> 1 pickle.dumps(clash_1.pdb)
RuntimeError: Pickling of "Sire.Mol._Mol.MoleculeGroup" instances is not enabled (http://www.boost.org/libs/python/doc/v2/pickle.html)
----> 1 pickle.dumps(system)
RuntimeError: Pickling of "Sire.System._System.System" instances is not enabled (http://www.boost.org/libs/python/doc/v2/pickle.html)
With your script it took the same time and using a single core only. dist line is iterable though. Can i run this single line over multicores ? I modify the line as;
for i in rna_st.atoms(AtomIdx()):
icent = i.evaluate().center()
for j in peg_st.atoms(AtomIdx()):
dist = Vector.distance(icent, j.evaluate().center())

There is one trick you can do to get a faster computation for each file -- processing each file sequentially, but processing the contents of the file in parallel. This relies on a number of caveats:
Your are running on a system that can fork processes (such as Linux).
The computations you are doing do not have side effects that effect the result of future computations.
It seems like this is the case in your situation, but I can't be 100% sure.
When a process is forked, all the memory in the child process is duplicated from the parent process (what's more it is duplicated in an efficient manner -- bits of memory that are only read from aren't duplicated). This makes it easy to share big, complex initial states between processes. However, once the child processes have started they will not see any changes to objects made in the parent process though (and vice versa).
Sample code:
import multiprocessing
system = None
rna_st = None
class StericClash(Exception):
"""Exception used to halt processing of a file. Could be modified to
include information about what caused the clash if this is useful."""
pass
def steric_clashes_parallel(system_index):
peg_st = system[system_index].molecule()
if rna_st != peg_st:
for i in rna_st.atoms(AtomIdx()):
for j in peg_st.atoms(AtomIdx()):
dist = Vector.distance(i.evaluate().center(),
j.evaluate().center())
if dist < 2:
raise StericClash()
def process_file(filename):
global system, rna_st
# initialise global values before creating pool
mix = PDB().read(filename)
system = System()
system.add(mix)
rna_st = system[MolWithResID("G")].molecule()
with multiprocessing.Pool() as pool:
# contents of file processed in parallel
try:
pool.map(steric_clashes_parallel, range(system.molNums()))
except StericClash:
# terminate called to halt current jobs and further processing
# of file
pool.terminate()
# wait for pool processes to terminate before returning
pool.join()
return False
else:
pool.close()
pool.join()
return True
finally:
# reset globals
system = rna_st = None
if __name__ == "__main__":
for filename in get_files_to_be_processed():
# files are being processed in serial
result = process_file(filename)
save_result_to_disk(filename, result)

Related

Why am I getting an error from the following usage of multiprocessing.Manager().Queue() [duplicate]

I am trying to:
share a dataframe between processes
update a shared dict based on calculations performed on (but not changing) that dataframe
I am using a multiprocessing.Manager() to create a dict in shared memory (to store results) and a Namespace to store/share my dataframe that I want to read from.
import multiprocessing
import pandas as pd
import numpy as np
def add_empty_dfs_to_shared_dict(shared_dict, key):
shared_dict[key] = pd.DataFrame()
def edit_df_in_shared_dict(shared_dict, namespace, ind):
row_to_insert = namespace.df.loc[ind]
df = shared_dict[ind]
df[ind] = row_to_insert
shared_dict[ind] = df
if __name__ == '__main__':
manager = multiprocessing.Manager()
shared_dict = manager.dict()
namespace = manager.Namespace()
n = 100
dataframe_to_be_shared = pd.DataFrame({
'player_id': list(range(n)),
'data': np.random.random(n),
}).set_index('player_id')
namespace.df = dataframe_to_be_shared
for i in range(n):
add_empty_dfs_to_shared_dict(shared_dict, i)
jobs = []
for i in range(n):
p = multiprocessing.Process(
target=edit_df_in_shared_dict,
args=(shared_dict, namespace, i)
)
jobs.append(p)
p.start()
for p in jobs:
p.join()
print(shared_dict[1])
When running the above, it writes to shared_dict correctly as my print statement executes with some data. I also get an error regarding the manager:
Process Process-88:
Traceback (most recent call last):
File "/Users/henrysorsky/.pyenv/versions/3.7.3/lib/python3.7/multiprocessing/managers.py", line 788, in _callmethod
conn = self._tls.connection
AttributeError: 'ForkAwareLocal' object has no attribute 'connection'
During handling of the above exception, another exception occurred:
Traceback (most recent call last):
File "/Users/henrysorsky/.pyenv/versions/3.7.3/lib/python3.7/multiprocessing/process.py", line 297, in _bootstrap
self.run()
File "/Users/henrysorsky/.pyenv/versions/3.7.3/lib/python3.7/multiprocessing/process.py", line 99, in run
self._target(*self._args, **self._kwargs)
File "/Users/henrysorsky/Library/Preferences/PyCharm2019.2/scratches/scratch_13.py", line 34, in edit_df_in_shared_dict
row_to_insert = namespace.df.loc[ind]
File "/Users/henrysorsky/.pyenv/versions/3.7.3/lib/python3.7/multiprocessing/managers.py", line 1099, in __getattr__
return callmethod('__getattribute__', (key,))
File "/Users/henrysorsky/.pyenv/versions/3.7.3/lib/python3.7/multiprocessing/managers.py", line 792, in _callmethod
self._connect()
File "/Users/henrysorsky/.pyenv/versions/3.7.3/lib/python3.7/multiprocessing/managers.py", line 779, in _connect
conn = self._Client(self._token.address, authkey=self._authkey)
File "/Users/henrysorsky/.pyenv/versions/3.7.3/lib/python3.7/multiprocessing/connection.py", line 492, in Client
c = SocketClient(address)
File "/Users/henrysorsky/.pyenv/versions/3.7.3/lib/python3.7/multiprocessing/connection.py", line 619, in SocketClient
s.connect(address)
ConnectionRefusedError: [Errno 61] Connection refused
I understand this is coming from the manager and seems to be due to it not shutting down properly. The only similar issue I can find online:
Share list between process in python server
suggests joining all the child processes, which I am already doing.
So after a full nights sleep I realised it was actually the reading of the dataframe in shared memory that was causing issues and that at around the 20th child process, some of them were failing this read. I added a max number of processes to run at once and this solved it.
For anyone wondering, the code I used is:
import multiprocessing
import pandas as pd
import numpy as np
def add_empty_dfs_to_shared_dict(shared_dict, key):
shared_dict[key] = pd.DataFrame()
def edit_df_in_shared_dict(shared_dict, namespace, ind):
row_to_insert = namespace.df.loc[ind]
df = shared_dict[ind]
df[ind] = row_to_insert
shared_dict[ind] = df
if __name__ == '__main__':
# region define inputs
max_jobs_running = 4
n = 100
# endregion
manager = multiprocessing.Manager()
shared_dict = manager.dict()
namespace = manager.Namespace()
dataframe_to_be_shared = pd.DataFrame({
'player_id': list(range(n)),
'data': np.random.random(n),
}).set_index('player_id')
namespace.df = dataframe_to_be_shared
for i in range(n):
add_empty_dfs_to_shared_dict(shared_dict, i)
jobs = []
jobs_running = 0
for i in range(n):
p = multiprocessing.Process(
target=edit_df_in_shared_dict,
args=(shared_dict, namespace, i)
)
jobs.append(p)
p.start()
jobs_running += 1
if jobs_running >= max_jobs_running:
while jobs_running >= max_jobs_running:
jobs_running = 0
for p in jobs:
jobs_running += p.is_alive()
for p in jobs:
p.join()
for key, value in shared_dict.items():
print(f"key: {key}")
print(f"value: {value}")
print("-" * 50)
This would probably be better handled by a Queue and Pool setup rather than my hacky fix.
The problem is probably in your main process, which created the shared dict. If you forgot to use process.join() (or an infinite loop) in your main process, then the main process may finish before the other processes using the dict. This way the dict gets destroyed, and the processes cannot connect to it.
The number of processes should not be a problem. You should be able to use the dict with as many as you wish.
TL;DR This error might happen if you initiate too many new connections to multiprocessing.Manager() objects in parallel due to hard-coded backlog limit (16 at the time of writing) in multiprocessing/managers.py:
# do authentication later
self.listener = Listener(address=address, backlog=16)
self.address = self.listener.address
Details: I was starting a few hundreds subprocesses trying to get a value from multiprocessing.Manager().dict object at the very start of my program (basically instantly parallel). First few worked fine, but then they started to fail sporadically.
Interestingly, in my case, this only happened under VSCode debugger. I have found a mailing list discussion mentioning this issue more than 10 years ago. Looking at the source code of multiprocessing I found out that the backlog limit is still hard-coded (seems to get increased from 5 to 16 in modern versions). I increased it to 64 and all errors were gone.
So if the pending connections queue reaches the limit, all new connections will be refused. Especially when you run your code under debugger, connections are getting served a tick slower and the backlog buffer may get full when hundreds of them are flowing fast in parallel.

python: monitor updates in /proc/mydev file

I wrote a kernel module that writes in /proc/mydev to notify the python program in userspace. I want to trigger a function in the python program whenever there is an update of data in /proc/mydev from the kernel module. What is the best way to listen for an update here? I am thinking about using "watchdog" (https://pythonhosted.org/watchdog/). Is there a better way for this?
This is an easy and efficient way:
import os
from time import sleep
from datetime import datetime
def myfuction(_time):
print("file modified, time: "+datetime.fromtimestamp(_time).strftime("%H:%M:%S"))
if __name__ == "__main__":
_time = 0
while True:
last_modified_time = os.stat("/proc/mydev").st_mtime
if last_modified_time > _time:
myfuction(last_modified_time)
_time = last_modified_time
sleep(1) # prevent high cpu usage
result:
file modified, time: 11:44:09
file modified, time: 11:46:15
file modified, time: 11:46:24
The while loop guarantees that the program keeps listening to changes forever.
You can set the interval by changing the sleep time. Low sleep time causes high CPU usage.
import time
import os
# get the file descriptor for the proc file
fd = os.open("/proc/mydev", os.O_RDONLY)
# create a polling object to monitor the file for updates
poller = select.poll()
poller.register(fd, select.POLLIN)
# create a loop to monitor the file for updates
while True:
events = poller.poll(10000)
if len(events) > 0:
# read the contents of the file if updated
print(os.read(fd, 1024))
sudo pip install inotify
Example
Code for monitoring a simple, flat path (see “Recursive Watching” for watching a hierarchical structure):
import inotify.adapters
def _main():
i = inotify.adapters.Inotify()
i.add_watch('/tmp')
with open('/tmp/test_file', 'w'):
pass
for event in i.event_gen(yield_nones=False):
(_, type_names, path, filename) = event
print("PATH=[{}] FILENAME=[{}] EVENT_TYPES={}".format(
path, filename, type_names))
if __name__ == '__main__':
_main()
Expected output:
PATH=[/tmp] FILENAME=[test_file] EVENT_TYPES=['IN_MODIFY']
PATH=[/tmp] FILENAME=[test_file] EVENT_TYPES=['IN_OPEN']
PATH=[/tmp] FILENAME=[test_file] EVENT_TYPES=['IN_CLOSE_WRITE']
I'm not sure if this would work for your situation, since it seems that you're wanting to watch a folder, but this program watches a file at a time until the main() loop repeats:
import os
import time
def main():
contents = os.listdir("/proc/mydev")
for file in contents:
f = open("/proc/mydev/" + file, "r")
init = f.read()
f.close()
while different = false:
f = open("/proc/mydev/" + file, "r")
check = f.read()
f.close()
if init !== check:
different = true
else:
different = false
time.sleep(1)
main()
# Write what you would want to happen if a change occured here...
main()
main()
main()
You could then write what you would want to happen right before the last usage of main(), as it would then repeat.
Also, this may contain errors, since I rushed this.
Hope this at least helps!
You can't do this efficiently without modifying your kernel driver.
Instead of using procfs, have it register a new character device under /dev, and write that driver to make new content available to read from that device only when new content has in fact come in from the underlying hardware, such that the application layer can issue a blocking read and have it return only when new content exists.
A good example to work from (which also has plenty of native Python clients) is the evdev devices in the input core.

Using Python Multiprocessing Queue Inside AWS Lambda Function

I have some python that creates multiple processes to complete a task much quicker. When I create these processes I pass in a queue. Inside the processes I use queue.put(data) so I am able to retrieve the data outside of the processes. It works fantastic on my local machine, but when I upload the zip to an AWS Lambda function (Python 3.8) it says the Queue() function has not been implemented.The project runs great in the AWS Lambda when I simply take out the queue functionality so I know this is the only hang up I currently have.
I ensured to install the multiprocessing package directly to my python project by using "pip install multiprocess -t ./" as well as "pip install boto3 -t ./".
I am new to python specifically as well as AWS but the research I have come across recently potentially points we to SQS.
Reading over these SQS docs I am not sure if this is exactly what I am looking for.
Here is the code I am running in the Lambda that works locally but not on AWS. See the *'s for important pieces:
from multiprocessing import Process, Queue
from craigslist import CraigslistForSale
import time
import math
sitesHold = ["sfbay", "seattle", "newyork", "(many more)..." ]
results = []
def f(sites, category, search_keys, queue):
local_results = []
for site in sites:
cl_fs = CraigslistForSale(site=site, category=category, filters={'query': search_keys})
for result in cl_fs.get_results(sort_by='newest'):
local_results.append(result)
if len(local_results) > 0:
print(local_results)
queue.put(local_results) # Putting data *********************************
def scan_handler(event, context):
started_at = time.monotonic()
queue = Queue()
print("Running...")
amount_of_lists = int(event['amountOfLists'])
list_length = int(len(sitesHold) / amount_of_lists)
extra_lists = math.ceil((len(sitesHold) - (amount_of_lists * list_length)) / list_length)
site_list = []
list_creator_counter = 0
site_counter = 0
for i in range(amount_of_lists + extra_lists):
site_list.append(sitesHold[list_creator_counter:list_creator_counter + list_length])
list_creator_counter += list_length
processes = []
for i in range(len(site_list)):
site_counter = site_counter + len(site_list[i])
processes.append(Process(target=f, args=(site_list[i], event['category'], event['searchQuery'], queue,))) # Creating processes and creating queues ***************************
for process in processes:
process.start() # Starting processes ***********************
for process in processes:
listings = queue.get() # Getting from queue ****************************
if len(listings) > 0:
for listing in listings:
results.append(listing)
print(f"Results: {results}")
for process in processes:
process.join()
total_time_took = time.monotonic() - started_at
print(f"Sites processed: {site_counter}")
print(f'Took {total_time_took} seconds long')
This is the error the Lambda function is giving me:
{
"errorMessage": "[Errno 38] Function not implemented",
"errorType": "OSError",
"stackTrace": [
" File \"/var/task/main.py\", line 90, in scan_handler\n queue = Queue()\n",
" File \"/var/lang/lib/python3.8/multiprocessing/context.py\", line 103, in Queue\n return Queue(maxsize, ctx=self.get_context())\n",
" File \"/var/lang/lib/python3.8/multiprocessing/queues.py\", line 42, in __init__\n self._rlock = ctx.Lock()\n",
" File \"/var/lang/lib/python3.8/multiprocessing/context.py\", line 68, in Lock\n return Lock(ctx=self.get_context())\n",
" File \"/var/lang/lib/python3.8/multiprocessing/synchronize.py\", line 162, in __init__\n SemLock.__init__(self, SEMAPHORE, 1, 1, ctx=ctx)\n",
" File \"/var/lang/lib/python3.8/multiprocessing/synchronize.py\", line 57, in __init__\n sl = self._semlock = _multiprocessing.SemLock(\n"
]
}
Does Queue() work in an AWS Lambda? What is the best way to accomplish my goal?
doesn't look like it's supported -
https://blog.ruanbekker.com/blog/2019/02/19/parallel-processing-on-aws-lambda-with-python-using-multiprocessing/
From the AWS docs
If you develop a Lambda function with Python, parallelism doesn’t come
by default. Lambda supports Python 2.7 and Python 3.6, both of which
have multiprocessing and threading modules.
The multiprocessing module that comes with Python lets you run
multiple processes in parallel. Due to the Lambda execution
environment not having /dev/shm (shared memory for processes) support,
you can’t use multiprocessing.Queue or multiprocessing.Pool.
On the other hand, you can use multiprocessing.Pipe instead of
multiprocessing.Queue to accomplish what you need without getting any
errors during the execution of the Lambda function.

Python shutil module move exception handling

Destination path /tmp/abc in both Process 1 & Process 2
Say there are N number of process running
we need to retain the file generated by the latest one
Process1
import shutil
shutil.move(src_path, destination_path)
Process 2
import os
os.remove(destination_path)
Solution
1. Handle the process saying if copy fails with [ErrNo2]No Such File or Directory
Is this the correct solution? Is there a better way to handle this
Useful Link A safe, atomic file-copy operation
You can use FileNotFoundError error
try :
shutil.move(src_path, destination_path)
except FileNotFoundError:
print ('File Not Found')
# Add whatever logic you want to execute
except :
print ('Some Other error')
The primary solutions that come to mind are either
Keep partial information in per-process staging file
Rely on the os for atomic moves
or
Keep partial information in per-process memory
Rely on interprocess communication / locks for atomic writes
For the first, e.g.:
import tempfile
import os
FINAL = '/tmp/something'
def do_stuff():
fd, name = tempfile.mkstemp(suffix="-%s" % os.getpid())
while keep_doing_stuff():
os.write(fd, get_output())
os.close(fd)
os.rename(name, FINAL)
if __name__ == '__main__':
do_stuff()
You can choose to invoke individually from a shell (as shown above) or with some process wrappers (subprocess or multiprocessing would be fine), and either way will work.
For interprocess you would probably want to spawn everything from a parent process
from multiprocessing import Process, Lock
from cStringIO import StringIO
def do_stuff(lock):
output = StringIO()
while keep_doing_stuff():
output.write(get_output())
with lock:
with open(FINAL, 'w') as f:
f.write(output.getvalue())
output.close()
if __name__ == '__main__':
lock = Lock()
for num in range(2):
Process(target=do_stuff, args=(lock,)).start()

Python pint module with multiprocessing

The python pint module implements physical quantities. I would like to use it together with multiprocessing. However, I don't know how to handle creating a UnitRegistry in the new process. If I do the intuitive:
from multiprocessing import Process
from pint import UnitRegistry, set_application_registry
ureg = UnitRegistry()
set_application_registry(ureg)
Q = ureg.Quantity
def f(one, two):
print(one / two)
if __name__ == '__main__':
p = Process(target=f, args=(Q(50, 'ms'), Q(50, 'ns')))
p.start()
p.join()
Then I get an the following exception:
Traceback (most recent call last):
File "C:\WinPython-64bit-3.4.4.2Qt5\python-3.4.4.amd64\lib\multiprocessing\process.py", line 254, in _bootstrap
self.run()
File "C:\WinPython-64bit-3.4.4.2Qt5\python-3.4.4.amd64\lib\multiprocessing\process.py", line 93, in run
self._target(*self._args, **self._kwargs)
File "C:\Users\pmaunz\PyCharmProjects\IonControl34\tests\pintmultiprocessing.py", line 12, in f
print(one / two)
File "C:\WinPython-64bit-3.4.4.2Qt5\python-3.4.4.amd64\lib\site-packages\pint\quantity.py", line 738, in __truediv__
return self._mul_div(other, operator.truediv)
File "C:\WinPython-64bit-3.4.4.2Qt5\python-3.4.4.amd64\lib\site-packages\pint\quantity.py", line 675, in _mul_div
offset_units_self = self._get_non_multiplicative_units()
File "C:\WinPython-64bit-3.4.4.2Qt5\python-3.4.4.amd64\lib\site-packages\pint\quantity.py", line 1312, in _get_non_multiplicative_units
offset_units = [unit for unit in self._units.keys()
File "C:\WinPython-64bit-3.4.4.2Qt5\python-3.4.4.amd64\lib\site-packages\pint\quantity.py", line 1313, in <listcomp>
if not self._REGISTRY._units[unit].is_multiplicative]
KeyError: 'millisecond'
Which I assume originates from the lack of initializing the UnitRegistry on the child process before unpickling the arguments. (Initializing the UnitRegistry in the function f does not work, as the variables have already been unpickled).
How would I go about sending a pint Quantity to a child process?
Edit after Tim Peter's answer:
The problem is not tied to multiprocessing. Simply pickling quantities
from pint import UnitRegistry, set_application_registry
import pickle
ureg = UnitRegistry()
set_application_registry(ureg)
Q = ureg.Quantity
with open("pint.pkl", 'wb') as f:
pickle.dump(Q(50, 'ms'), f)
pickle.dump(Q(50, 'ns'), f)
and then unpickling in a new script leads to the same problem:
from pint import UnitRegistry, set_application_registry
import pickle
ureg = UnitRegistry()
set_application_registry(ureg)
Q = ureg.Quantity
with open("pint.pkl", 'rb') as f:
t1 = pickle.load(f)
t2 = pickle.load(f)
print(t1 / t2)
results in the same exception. As Tim points out, it is sufficient to add a line Q(50, 'ns'); Q(50, 'ms') before unpickling. When digging into the source code for pint, upon creation of a quantity with unit ms this unit is added to an internal registry. Pickling uses a UnitContainer instance to save the units. When creating a Quantity via unpickling the unit is not added to the registry.
A simple fix (in pint source code) is to change the function Quantity.__reduce__ to return a string.
diff --git a/pint/quantity.py b/pint/quantity.py
index 3f30a25..695866a 100644
--- a/pint/quantity.py
+++ b/pint/quantity.py
## -57,7 +57,7 ## class _Quantity(SharedRegistryObject):
def __reduce__(self):
from . import _build_quantity
- return _build_quantity, (self.magnitude, self._units)
+ return _build_quantity, (self.magnitude, str(self._units))
def __new__(cls, value, units=None):
if units is None:
I have opened an issue on pint's github site.
I never used pint before, but this looked interesting ;-) First thing I noted is that I have no problem if I stick to units explicitly listed by this line:
print(dir(ureg.sys.mks))
For example, "hour" and "second" are both in the output of that, and your program runs fine if the Process line is changed to:
p = Process(target=f, args=(Q(50, 'hour'), Q(50, 'second')))
You're on Windows, so multiprocessing is using the "spawn" method: the entire program is imported fresh by the worker process, so in particular the:
ureg = UnitRegistry()
set_application_registry(ureg)
Q = ureg.Quantity
lines were executed in the worker process too. So the unit registry is initialized in the worker, but it's not the same (identical) registry used in the main program - no memory is shared between processes.
To get much deeper we really need an expert in how pint is implemented. My guess is that for units "made up" (not in the output produced by the dir() line above) by parsing strings, new stuff is added to the registry at some level, which is needed later to reconstruct the values. "ns" and "ms" are of this nature: they are not in the dir() output.
Your program works fine as-is if I add a line like this immediately after your Q=ureg.Quantity line:
Q(1, 'ms'); Q(1, 'ns')
That was a shot in the dark (an "educated guess") that worked: it just forced the worker process to parse the same "made up" units used in the main process, to try to force its unit registry into a similar state.
I hope there's a cleaner way to get it to work, but can't help more. I'd ask the pint authors about it.

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