How to communicate with worker thread - python

I'm using a library which heaviliy uses I/O. For that reason calls to that library can last very long (more than 5 seconds) possible.
Using that directly inside an UI is not a good idea because it will freeze.
For that reason I outsourced the library calls to a thread queue like shown in this example: Python threads: communication and stopping
Nevertheless I'm not very happy with that solution since this has a major drawback:
I cannot really communicate with the UI.
Every lib command returns a return message, which can either be an error message or some computational result.
How would I get this?
Consider a library call do_test(foo):
def do_test(foo):
time.sleep(10)
return random.random() * foo
def ui_btn_click():
threaded_queue.put((do_test, 42))
# Now how to display the result without freezing the UI?
Can someone give me advice how to realize such a pattern?
Edit:
This here is a minimal example:
import os, time, random
import threading, queue
CMD_FOO = 1
CMD_BAR = 2
class ThreadedQueue(threading.Thread):
def __init__(self):
super().__init__()
self.in_queue = queue.Queue()
self.out_queue = queue.Queue()
self.__stoprequest = threading.Event()
def run(self):
while not self.__stoprequest.isSet():
(cmd, arg) = self.in_queue.get(True)
if cmd == CMD_FOO:
ret = self.handle_foo(arg)
elif cmd == CMD_BAR:
ret = self.handle_bar(arg)
else:
print("Unsupported cmd {0}".format(cmd))
self.out_queue.put(ret)
self.in_queue.task_done()
def handle_foo(self, arg):
print("start handle foo")
time.sleep(10)
return random.random() * arg
def handle_bar(self, arg):
print("start handle bar")
time.sleep(2)
return (random.random() * arg, 2 * arg)
if __name__ == "__main__":
print("START")
t = ThreadedQueue()
t.start()
t.in_queue.put((CMD_FOO, 10))
t.in_queue.put((CMD_BAR, 10))
print("Waiting")
while True:
x = t.out_queue.get(True)
t.out_queue.task_done()
print(x)
I personally use PySide but I don't want to depend this library on PySide or any other ui-related library.

I thought a bit about my implementations. THe conclusion is that I start another thread for picking the results of the queue:
class ReceiveThread(threading.Thread):
"""
Processes the output queue and calls a callback for each message
"""
def __init__(self, queue, callback):
super().__init__()
self.__queue = queue
self.__callback = callback
self.__stoprequest = threading.Event()
self.start()
def run(self):
while not self.__stoprequest.isSet():
ret = self.__queue.get(True)
self.__callback(ret)
self.__queue.task_done()
The given callback from an UI or elsewhere is called with every result from the queue.

Related

how can you use threading in python, so that it would change the value of i in loop which is outside class in a function [duplicate]

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())

How to allow a class's variables to be modified concurrently by multiple threads

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()

How to stop GUI from freezing when running a loop / function?

I am trying to add threading to a Python 3.63 Tkinter program where a function will run but the GUI will still be responsive, including if the user wants to close the program while the function is running.
In the example below I have tried to run a simple printing to console function on a separate thread to the GUI mainloop so the user could click the X in the top right to close the program while the loop is running if they so wish.
The error I am getting is:
TypeError: start() takes 1 positional argument but 2 were given
try:
import tkinter as tk
import queue as queue
except:
import Tkinter as tk
import Queue as queue
import threading
def center(toplevel,desired_width=None,desired_height=None):
toplevel.update_idletasks()
w, h = toplevel.winfo_screenwidth() - 20, toplevel.winfo_screenheight() - 100
if desired_width and desired_height:
size = (desired_width,desired_height)
else:
size = tuple(int(Q) for Q in toplevel.geometry().split("+")[0].split("x"))
toplevel.geometry("%dx%d+%d+%d" % (size + (w/2 - size[0]/2, h/2 - size[1]/2)))
class ThreadedTask(threading.Thread):
def __init__(self,queue):
threading.Thread.__init__(self)
self.queue = queue
def run(self,func):
func()
class app(tk.Tk):
def __init__(self):
tk.Tk.__init__(self)
center(self,desired_width=500,desired_height=400)
self.queue = queue.Queue()
self.run_func_button = tk.Button(self,
text="Run Function",
font=("Calibri",20,"bold"),
command=self.run_func)
self.run_func_button.pack()
def run_func(self):
ThreadedTask(self.queue).start(self.count_to_1500)
def count_to_1500(self):
for i in range(1500):
print (i)
app_start = app()
app_start.mainloop()
See doc threading - start() doesn't use arguments but you use .start(self.count_to_1500) - and this gives your error.
You could use
Thread(target=self.count_to_1500).start()
or
Thread(target=self.count_to_1500, args=(self.queue,)).start()
if you define
def count_to_1500(self, queue):
EDIT: working example with thread which put in quoue and method which get data from queue.
try:
import tkinter as tk
import queue as queue
except:
import Tkinter as tk
import Queue as queue
import threading
import time
def center(toplevel,desired_width=None,desired_height=None):
toplevel.update_idletasks()
w, h = toplevel.winfo_screenwidth() - 20, toplevel.winfo_screenheight() - 100
if desired_width and desired_height:
size = (desired_width,desired_height)
else:
size = tuple(int(Q) for Q in toplevel.geometry().split("+")[0].split("x"))
toplevel.geometry("%dx%d+%d+%d" % (size + (w/2 - size[0]/2, h/2 - size[1]/2)))
class app(tk.Tk):
def __init__(self):
tk.Tk.__init__(self)
center(self,desired_width=500,desired_height=400)
self.queue = queue.Queue()
self.run_func_button = tk.Button(self,
text="Run Function",
font=("Calibri",20,"bold"),
command=self.run_func)
self.run_func_button.pack()
def run_func(self):
threading.Thread(target=self.count_to_1500).start()
threading.Thread(target=self.count_to_1500_with_queue, args=(self.queue,)).start()
self.check_queue()
def count_to_1500(self):
for i in range(10):
print('1:', i)
time.sleep(0.2)
def count_to_1500_with_queue(self, queue):
for i in range(10):
print('put:', i)
queue.put(i)
time.sleep(1)
queue.put('last')
def check_queue(self):
print("check queue")
data = None
if not self.queue.empty():
data = self.queue.get()
print('get:', data)
if data != 'last':
self.after(200, self.check_queue)
app_start = app()
app_start.mainloop()
Thread.start takes no parameters: https://docs.python.org/3/library/threading.html
The correct way to use a Thread is:
# Will call func(*args, **kwargs)
t = threading.Thread(target=func, args=(), kwargs={})
t.start()
t.join()
The join is important. Without it you will have many zombie threads in your app, which will also prevent your app from shutting down cleanly.
Another pattern is to use a daemon thread, which processes a queue. daemon threads are automatically killed when the program exits.
def worker(q):
while True:
try:
f = q.get()
q.task_done()
if f is None: return
f()
except Exception:
import traceback
traceback.print_exc()
q = Queue.Queue()
t = threading.Thread(target=worker, args=(q,))
t.daemon=True
t.start()
# f is a no-arg function to be executed
q.put(f)
# Call at shutdown
q.join()
To run several tasks at the same time, start many threads.
Yet another method, use multiprocessing.pool.ThreadPool
from multiprocessing.pool import ThreadPool
# Create at startup
pool = ThreadPool(8)
# For each treaded task
pool.apply_async(func, args, kwds)
# Call at shutdown
pool.close()
pool.join()
... which works, more or less, as the above.
I recommend reading:
https://docs.python.org/2/library/multiprocessing.html#multiprocessing-programming

Python GUI stays frozen waiting for thread code to finish running

I have a python GUI program that needs to do a same task but with several threads. The problem is that I call the threads but they don't execute parallel but sequentially. First one executes, it ends and then second one, etc. I want them to start independently.
The main components are:
1. Menu (view)
2. ProcesStarter (controller)
3. Process (controller)
The Menu is where you click on the "Start" button which calls a function at ProcesStarter.
The ProcesStarter creates objects of Process and threads, and starts all threads in a for-loop.
Menu:
class VotingFrame(BaseFrame):
def create_widgets(self):
self.start_process = tk.Button(root, text="Start Process", command=lambda: self.start_process())
self.start_process.grid(row=3,column=0, sticky=tk.W)
def start_process(self):
procesor = XProcesStarter()
procesor_thread = Thread(target=procesor.start_process())
procesor_thread.start()
ProcesStarter:
class XProcesStarter:
def start_process(self):
print "starting new process..."
# thread count
thread_count = self.get_thread_count()
# initialize Process objects with data, and start threads
for i in range(thread_count):
vote_process = XProcess(self.get_proxy_list(), self.get_url())
t = Thread(target=vote_process.start_process())
t.start()
Process:
class XProcess():
def __init__(self, proxy_list, url, browser_show=False):
# init code
def start_process(self):
# code for process
When I press the GUI button for "Start Process" the gui is locked until both threads finish execution.
The idea is that threads should work in the background and work in parallel.
you call procesor.start_process() immediately when specifying it as the target of the Thread:
#use this
procesor_thread = Thread(target=procesor.start_process)
#not this
procesor_thread = Thread(target=procesor.start_process())
# this is called right away ^
If you call it right away it returns None which is a valid target for Thread (it just does nothing) which is why it happens sequentially, the threads are not doing anything.
One way to use a class as the target of a thread is to use the class as the target, and the arguments to the constructor as args.
from threading import Thread
from time import sleep
from random import randint
class XProcesStarter:
def __init__(self, thread_count):
print ("starting new process...")
self._i = 0
for i in range(thread_count):
t = Thread(
target=XProcess,
args=(self.get_proxy_list(), self.get_url())
)
t.start()
def get_proxy_list(self):
self._i += 1
return "Proxy list #%s" % self._i
def get_url(self):
self._i += 1
return "URL #%d" % self._i
class XProcess():
def __init__(self, proxy_list, url, browser_show=False):
r = 0.001 * randint( 1, 5000)
sleep(r)
print (proxy_list)
print (url)
def main():
t = Thread( target=XProcesStarter, args=(4, ) )
t.start()
if __name__ == '__main__':
main()
This code runs in python2 and python3.
The reason is that the target of a Thread object must be a callable (search for "callable" and "__call__" in python documentation for a complete explanation).
Edit The other way has been explained in other people's answers (see Tadhg McDonald-Jensen).
I think your issue is that in both places you're starting threads, you're actually calling the method you want to pass as the target to the thread. That runs its code in the main thread (and tries to start the new thread on the return value, if any, once its done).
Try:
procesor_thread = Thread(target=procesor.start_process) # no () after start_process
And:
t = Thread(target=vote_process.start_process) # no () here either

Python Equivalent of setInterval()?

Does Python have a function similar to JavaScript's setInterval()?
I would like to have:
def set_interval(func, interval):
...
That will call func every interval time units.
This might be the correct snippet you were looking for:
import threading
def set_interval(func, sec):
def func_wrapper():
set_interval(func, sec)
func()
t = threading.Timer(sec, func_wrapper)
t.start()
return t
This is a version where you could start and stop.
It is not blocking.
There is also no glitch as execution time error is not added (important for long time execution with very short interval as audio for example)
import time, threading
StartTime=time.time()
def action() :
print('action ! -> time : {:.1f}s'.format(time.time()-StartTime))
class setInterval :
def __init__(self,interval,action) :
self.interval=interval
self.action=action
self.stopEvent=threading.Event()
thread=threading.Thread(target=self.__setInterval)
thread.start()
def __setInterval(self) :
nextTime=time.time()+self.interval
while not self.stopEvent.wait(nextTime-time.time()) :
nextTime+=self.interval
self.action()
def cancel(self) :
self.stopEvent.set()
# start action every 0.6s
inter=setInterval(0.6,action)
print('just after setInterval -> time : {:.1f}s'.format(time.time()-StartTime))
# will stop interval in 5s
t=threading.Timer(5,inter.cancel)
t.start()
Output is :
just after setInterval -> time : 0.0s
action ! -> time : 0.6s
action ! -> time : 1.2s
action ! -> time : 1.8s
action ! -> time : 2.4s
action ! -> time : 3.0s
action ! -> time : 3.6s
action ! -> time : 4.2s
action ! -> time : 4.8s
Just keep it nice and simple.
import threading
def setInterval(func,time):
e = threading.Event()
while not e.wait(time):
func()
def foo():
print "hello"
# using
setInterval(foo,5)
# output:
hello
hello
.
.
.
EDIT : This code is non-blocking
import threading
class ThreadJob(threading.Thread):
def __init__(self,callback,event,interval):
'''runs the callback function after interval seconds
:param callback: callback function to invoke
:param event: external event for controlling the update operation
:param interval: time in seconds after which are required to fire the callback
:type callback: function
:type interval: int
'''
self.callback = callback
self.event = event
self.interval = interval
super(ThreadJob,self).__init__()
def run(self):
while not self.event.wait(self.interval):
self.callback()
event = threading.Event()
def foo():
print "hello"
k = ThreadJob(foo,event,2)
k.start()
print "It is non-blocking"
Change Nailxx's answer a bit and you got the answer!
from threading import Timer
def hello():
print "hello, world"
Timer(30.0, hello).start()
Timer(30.0, hello).start() # after 30 seconds, "hello, world" will be printed
The sched module provides these abilities for general Python code. However, as its documentation suggests, if your code is multithreaded it might make more sense to use the threading.Timer class instead.
I think this is what you're after:
#timertest.py
import sched, time
def dostuff():
print "stuff is being done!"
s.enter(3, 1, dostuff, ())
s = sched.scheduler(time.time, time.sleep)
s.enter(3, 1, dostuff, ())
s.run()
If you add another entry to the scheduler at the end of the repeating method, it'll just keep going.
I use sched to create setInterval function gist
import functools
import sched, time
s = sched.scheduler(time.time, time.sleep)
def setInterval(sec):
def decorator(func):
#functools.wraps(func)
def wrapper(*argv, **kw):
setInterval(sec)(func)
func(*argv, **kw)
s.enter(sec, 1, wrapper, ())
return wrapper
s.run()
return decorator
#setInterval(sec=3)
def testInterval():
print ("test Interval ")
testInterval()
Simple setInterval utils
from threading import Timer
def setInterval(timer, task):
isStop = task()
if not isStop:
Timer(timer, setInterval, [timer, task]).start()
def hello():
print "do something"
return False # return True if you want to stop
if __name__ == "__main__":
setInterval(2.0, hello) # every 2 seconds, "do something" will be printed
The above method didn't quite do it for me as I needed to be able to cancel the interval. I turned the function into a class and came up with the following:
class setInterval():
def __init__(self, func, sec):
def func_wrapper():
self.t = threading.Timer(sec, func_wrapper)
self.t.start()
func()
self.t = threading.Timer(sec, func_wrapper)
self.t.start()
def cancel(self):
self.t.cancel()
Most of the answers above do not shut down the Thread properly. While using Jupyter notebook I noticed that when an explicit interrupt was sent, the threads were still running and worse, they would keep multiplying starting at 1 thread running,2, 4 etc. My method below is based on the answer by #doom but cleanly handles interrupts by running an infinite loop in the Main thread to listen for SIGINT and SIGTERM events
No drift
Cancelable
Handles SIGINT and SIGTERM very well
Doesnt make a new thread for every run
Feel free to suggest improvements
import time
import threading
import signal
# Record the time for the purposes of demonstration
start_time=time.time()
class ProgramKilled(Exception):
"""
An instance of this custom exception class will be thrown everytime we get an SIGTERM or SIGINT
"""
pass
# Raise the custom exception whenever SIGINT or SIGTERM is triggered
def signal_handler(signum, frame):
raise ProgramKilled
# This function serves as the callback triggered on every run of our IntervalThread
def action() :
print('action ! -> time : {:.1f}s'.format(time.time()-start_time))
# https://stackoverflow.com/questions/2697039/python-equivalent-of-setinterval
class IntervalThread(threading.Thread) :
def __init__(self,interval,action, *args, **kwargs) :
super(IntervalThread, self).__init__()
self.interval=interval
self.action=action
self.stopEvent=threading.Event()
self.start()
def run(self) :
nextTime=time.time()+self.interval
while not self.stopEvent.wait(nextTime-time.time()) :
nextTime+=self.interval
self.action()
def cancel(self) :
self.stopEvent.set()
def main():
# Handle SIGINT and SIFTERM with the help of the callback function
signal.signal(signal.SIGTERM, signal_handler)
signal.signal(signal.SIGINT, signal_handler)
# start action every 1s
inter=IntervalThread(1,action)
print('just after setInterval -> time : {:.1f}s'.format(time.time()-start_time))
# will stop interval in 500s
t=threading.Timer(500,inter.cancel)
t.start()
# https://www.g-loaded.eu/2016/11/24/how-to-terminate-running-python-threads-using-signals/
while True:
try:
time.sleep(1)
except ProgramKilled:
print("Program killed: running cleanup code")
inter.cancel()
break
if __name__ == "__main__":
main()
In the above solutions if a situation arises where program is shutdown, there is no guarantee that it will shutdown gracefully,Its always recommended to shut a program via a soft kill, neither did most of them have a function to stop I found a nice article on medium written by Sankalp which solves both of these issues (run periodic tasks in python) refer the attached link to get a deeper insight.
In the below sample a library named signal is used to track the kill is soft kill or a hard kill
import threading, time, signal
from datetime import timedelta
WAIT_TIME_SECONDS = 1
class ProgramKilled(Exception):
pass
def foo():
print time.ctime()
def signal_handler(signum, frame):
raise ProgramKilled
class Job(threading.Thread):
def __init__(self, interval, execute, *args, **kwargs):
threading.Thread.__init__(self)
self.daemon = False
self.stopped = threading.Event()
self.interval = interval
self.execute = execute
self.args = args
self.kwargs = kwargs
def stop(self):
self.stopped.set()
self.join()
def run(self):
while not self.stopped.wait(self.interval.total_seconds()):
self.execute(*self.args, **self.kwargs)
if __name__ == "__main__":
signal.signal(signal.SIGTERM, signal_handler)
signal.signal(signal.SIGINT, signal_handler)
job = Job(interval=timedelta(seconds=WAIT_TIME_SECONDS), execute=foo)
job.start()
while True:
try:
time.sleep(1)
except ProgramKilled:
print "Program killed: running cleanup code"
job.stop()
break
#output
#Tue Oct 16 17:47:51 2018
#Tue Oct 16 17:47:52 2018
#Tue Oct 16 17:47:53 2018
#^CProgram killed: running cleanup code
setInterval should be run on multiple thread, and not freeze the task when it running loop.
Here is my RUNTIME package that support multithread feature:
setTimeout(F,ms) : timming to fire function in independence thread.
delayF(F,ms) : similar setTimeout(F,ms).
setInterval(F,ms) : asynchronous loop
.pause, .resume : pause and resume the interval
clearInterval(interval) : clear the interval
It's short and simple. Note that python need lambda if you input direct the function, but lambda is not support command block, so you should define the function content before put it in the setInterval.
### DEMO PYTHON MULTITHREAD ASYNCHRONOUS LOOP ###
import time;
import threading;
import random;
def delay(ms):time.sleep(ms/1000); # Controil while speed
def setTimeout(R,delayMS):
t=threading.Timer(delayMS/1000,R)
t.start();
return t;
def delayF(R,delayMS):
t=threading.Timer(delayMS/1000,R)
t.start();
return t;
class THREAD:
def __init__(this):
this.R_onRun=None;
this.thread=None;
def run(this):
this.thread=threading.Thread(target=this.R_onRun);
this.thread.start();
def isRun(this): return this.thread.isAlive();
class setInterval :
def __init__(this,R_onRun,msInterval) :
this.ms=msInterval;
this.R_onRun=R_onRun;
this.kStop=False;
this.thread=THREAD();
this.thread.R_onRun=this.Clock;
this.thread.run();
def Clock(this) :
while not this.kStop :
this.R_onRun();
delay(this.ms);
def pause(this) :
this.kStop=True;
def stop(this) :
this.kStop=True;
def resume(this) :
if (this.kStop) :
this.kStop=False;
this.thread.run();
def clearInterval(Timer): Timer.stop();
# EXAMPLE
def p():print(random.random());
tm=setInterval(p,20);
tm2=setInterval(lambda:print("AAAAA"),20);
delayF(tm.pause,1000);
delayF(tm.resume,2000);
delayF(lambda:clearInterval(tm),3000);
Save to file .py and run it. You will see it print both random number and string "AAAAA". The print number thread will pause printing after 1 second and resume print again for 1 second then stop, while the print string keep printing text not corrupt.
In case you use OpenCV for graphic animation with those setInterval for boost animate speed, you must have 1 main thread to apply waitKey, otherwise the window will freeze no matter how slow delay or you applied waitKey in sub thread:
def p:... # Your drawing task
setInterval(p,1); # Subthread1 running draw
setInterval(p,1); # Subthread2 running draw
setInterval(p,1); # Subthread3 running draw
while True: cv2.waitKey(10); # Main thread which waitKey have effect
You can also try out this method:
import time
while True:
time.sleep(5)
print("5 seconds has passed")
So it will print "5 seconds has passed" every 5 seconds.
The function sleep() suspends execution for the given number of seconds. The argument may be a floating point number to indicate a more precise sleep time.
Recently, I have the same issue as you. And I find these soluation:
1. you can use the library: threading.Time(this have introduction above)
2. you can use the library: sched(this have introduction above too)
3. you can use the library: Advanced Python Scheduler(Recommend)
Some answers above that uses func_wrapper and threading.Timer indeed work, except that it spawns a new thread every time an interval is called, which is causing memory problems.
The basic example below roughly implemented a similar mechanism by putting interval on a separate thread. It sleeps at the given interval. Before jumping into code, here are some of the limitations that you need to be aware of:
JavaScript is single threaded, so when the function inside setInterval is fired, nothing else will be working at the same time (excluding worker thread, but let's talk general use case of setInterval. Therefore, threading is safe. But here in this implementation, you may encounter race conditions unless using a threading.rLock.
The implementation below uses time.sleep to simulate intervals, but adding the execution time of func, the total time for this interval may be greater than what you expect. So depending on use cases, you may want to "sleep less" (minus time taken for calling func)
I only roughly tested this, and you should definitely not use global variables the way I did, feel free to tweak it so that it fits in your system.
Enough talking, here is the code:
# Python 2.7
import threading
import time
class Interval(object):
def __init__(self):
self.daemon_alive = True
self.thread = None # keep a reference to the thread so that we can "join"
def ticktock(self, interval, func):
while self.daemon_alive:
time.sleep(interval)
func()
num = 0
def print_num():
global num
num += 1
print 'num + 1 = ', num
def print_negative_num():
global num
print '-num = ', num * -1
intervals = {} # keep track of intervals
g_id_counter = 0 # roughly generate ids for intervals
def set_interval(interval, func):
global g_id_counter
interval_obj = Interval()
# Put this interval on a new thread
t = threading.Thread(target=interval_obj.ticktock, args=(interval, func))
t.setDaemon(True)
interval_obj.thread = t
t.start()
# Register this interval so that we can clear it later
# using roughly generated id
interval_id = g_id_counter
g_id_counter += 1
intervals[interval_id] = interval_obj
# return interval id like it does in JavaScript
return interval_id
def clear_interval(interval_id):
# terminate this interval's while loop
intervals[interval_id].daemon_alive = False
# kill the thread
intervals[interval_id].thread.join()
# pop out the interval from registry for reusing
intervals.pop(interval_id)
if __name__ == '__main__':
num_interval = set_interval(1, print_num)
neg_interval = set_interval(3, print_negative_num)
time.sleep(10) # Sleep 10 seconds on main thread to let interval run
clear_interval(num_interval)
clear_interval(neg_interval)
print "- Are intervals all cleared?"
time.sleep(3) # check if both intervals are stopped (not printing)
print "- Yup, time to get beers"
Expected output:
num + 1 = 1
num + 1 = 2
-num = -2
num + 1 = 3
num + 1 = 4
num + 1 = 5
-num = -5
num + 1 = 6
num + 1 = 7
num + 1 = 8
-num = -8
num + 1 = 9
num + 1 = 10
-num = -10
Are intervals all cleared?
Yup, time to get beers
My Python 3 module jsinterval.py will be helpful! Here it is:
"""
Threaded intervals and timeouts from JavaScript
"""
import threading, sys
__all__ = ['TIMEOUTS', 'INTERVALS', 'setInterval', 'clearInterval', 'setTimeout', 'clearTimeout']
TIMEOUTS = {}
INTERVALS = {}
last_timeout_id = 0
last_interval_id = 0
class Timeout:
"""Class for all timeouts."""
def __init__(self, func, timeout):
global last_timeout_id
last_timeout_id += 1
self.timeout_id = last_timeout_id
TIMEOUTS[str(self.timeout_id)] = self
self.func = func
self.timeout = timeout
self.threadname = 'Timeout #%s' %self.timeout_id
def run(self):
func = self.func
delx = self.__del__
def func_wrapper():
func()
delx()
self.t = threading.Timer(self.timeout/1000, func_wrapper)
self.t.name = self.threadname
self.t.start()
def __repr__(self):
return '<JS Timeout set for %s seconds, launching function %s on timeout reached>' %(self.timeout, repr(self.func))
def __del__(self):
self.t.cancel()
class Interval:
"""Class for all intervals."""
def __init__(self, func, interval):
global last_interval_id
self.interval_id = last_interval_id
INTERVALS[str(self.interval_id)] = self
last_interval_id += 1
self.func = func
self.interval = interval
self.threadname = 'Interval #%s' %self.interval_id
def run(self):
func = self.func
interval = self.interval
def func_wrapper():
timeout = Timeout(func_wrapper, interval)
self.timeout = timeout
timeout.run()
func()
self.t = threading.Timer(self.interval/1000, func_wrapper)
self.t.name = self.threadname
self.t.run()
def __repr__(self):
return '<JS Interval, repeating function %s with interval %s>' %(repr(self.func), self.interval)
def __del__(self):
self.timeout.__del__()
def setInterval(func, interval):
"""
Create a JS Interval: func is the function to repeat, interval is the interval (in ms)
of executing the function.
"""
temp = Interval(func, interval)
temp.run()
idx = int(temp.interval_id)
del temp
return idx
def clearInterval(interval_id):
try:
INTERVALS[str(interval_id)].__del__()
del INTERVALS[str(interval_id)]
except KeyError:
sys.stderr.write('No such interval "Interval #%s"\n' %interval_id)
def setTimeout(func, timeout):
"""
Create a JS Timeout: func is the function to timeout, timeout is the timeout (in ms)
of executing the function.
"""
temp = Timeout(func, timeout)
temp.run()
idx = int(temp.timeout_id)
del temp
return idx
def clearTimeout(timeout_id):
try:
TIMEOUTS[str(timeout_id)].__del__()
del TIMEOUTS[str(timeout_id)]
except KeyError:
sys.stderr.write('No such timeout "Timeout #%s"\n' %timeout_id)
CODE EDIT:
Fixed the memory leak (spotted by #benjaminz). Now ALL threads are cleaned up upon end. Why does this leak happen? It happens because of the implicit (or even explicit) references. In my case, TIMEOUTS and INTERVALS. Timeouts self-clean automatically (after this patch) because they use function wrapper which calls the function and then self-kills. But how does this happen? Objects can't be deleted from memory unless all references are deleted too or gc module is used. Explaining: there's no way to create (in my code) unwanted references to timeouts/intervals. They have only ONE referrer: the TIMEOUTS/INTERVALS dicts. And, when interrupted or finished (only timeouts can finish uninterrupted) they delete the only existing reference to themselves: their corresponding dict element. Classes are perfectly encapsulated using __all__, so no space for memory leaks.
Here is a low time drift solution that uses a thread to periodically signal an Event object. The thread's run() does almost nothing while waiting for a timeout; hence the low time drift.
# Example of low drift (time) periodic execution of a function.
import threading
import time
# Thread that sets 'flag' after 'timeout'
class timerThread (threading.Thread):
def __init__(self , timeout , flag):
threading.Thread.__init__(self)
self.timeout = timeout
self.stopFlag = False
self.event = threading.Event()
self.flag = flag
# Low drift run(); there is only the 'if'
# and 'set' methods between waits.
def run(self):
while not self.event.wait(self.timeout):
if self.stopFlag:
break
self.flag.set()
def stop(self):
stopFlag = True
self.event.set()
# Data.
printCnt = 0
# Flag to print.
printFlag = threading.Event()
# Create and start the timer thread.
printThread = timerThread(3 , printFlag)
printThread.start()
# Loop to wait for flag and print time.
while True:
global printCnt
# Wait for flag.
printFlag.wait()
# Flag must be manually cleared.
printFlag.clear()
print(time.time())
printCnt += 1
if printCnt == 3:
break;
# Stop the thread and exit.
printThread.stop()
printThread.join()
print('Done')
fall asleep until the next interval of seconds length starts: (not concurrent)
def sleep_until_next_interval(self, seconds):
now = time.time()
fall_asleep = seconds - now % seconds
time.sleep(fall_asleep)
while True:
sleep_until_next_interval(10) # 10 seconds - worktime
# work here
simple and no drift.
I have written my code to make a very very flexible setInterval in python. Here you are:
import threading
class AlreadyRunning(Exception):
pass
class IntervalNotValid(Exception):
pass
class setInterval():
def __init__(this, func=None, sec=None, args=[]):
this.running = False
this.func = func # the function to be run
this.sec = sec # interval in second
this.Return = None # The returned data
this.args = args
this.runOnce = None # asociated with run_once() method
this.runOnceArgs = None # asociated with run_once() method
if (func is not None and sec is not None):
this.running = True
if (not callable(func)):
raise TypeError("non-callable object is given")
if (not isinstance(sec, int) and not isinstance(sec, float)):
raise TypeError("A non-numeric object is given")
this.TIMER = threading.Timer(this.sec, this.loop)
this.TIMER.start()
def start(this):
if (not this.running):
if (not this.isValid()):
raise IntervalNotValid("The function and/or the " +
"interval hasn't provided or invalid.")
this.running = True
this.TIMER = threading.Timer(this.sec, this.loop)
this.TIMER.start()
else:
raise AlreadyRunning("Tried to run an already run interval")
def stop(this):
this.running = False
def isValid(this):
if (not callable(this.func)):
return False
cond1 = not isinstance(this.sec, int)
cond2 = not isinstance(this.sec, float)
if (cond1 and cond2):
return False
return True
def loop(this):
if (this.running):
this.TIMER = threading.Timer(this.sec, this.loop)
this.TIMER.start()
function_, Args_ = this.func, this.args
if (this.runOnce is not None): # someone has provide the run_once
runOnce, this.runOnce = this.runOnce, None
result = runOnce(*(this.runOnceArgs))
this.runOnceArgs = None
# if and only if the result is False. not accept "None"
# nor zero.
if (result is False):
return # cancel the interval right now
this.Return = function_(*Args_)
def change_interval(this, sec):
cond1 = not isinstance(sec, int)
cond2 = not isinstance(sec, float)
if (cond1 and cond2):
raise TypeError("A non-numeric object is given")
# prevent error when providing interval to a blueprint
if (this.running):
this.TIMER.cancel()
this.sec = sec
# prevent error when providing interval to a blueprint
# if the function hasn't provided yet
if (this.running):
this.TIMER = threading.Timer(this.sec, this.loop)
this.TIMER.start()
def change_next_interval(this, sec):
if (not isinstance(sec, int) and not isinstance(sec, float)):
raise TypeError("A non-numeric object is given")
this.sec = sec
def change_func(this, func, args=[]):
if (not callable(func)):
raise TypeError("non-callable object is given")
this.func = func
this.args = args
def run_once(this, func, args=[]):
this.runOnce = func
this.runOnceArgs = args
def get_return(this):
return this.Return
You can get many features and flexibility. Running this code won't freeze your code, you can change the interval at run time, you can change the function at run time, you can pass arguments, you can get the returned object from your function, and many more. You can make your tricks too!
here's a very simple and basic example to use it:
import time
def interval(name="world"):
print(f"Hello {name}!")
# function named interval will be called every two seconds
# output: "Hello world!"
interval1 = setInterval(interval, 2)
# function named interval will be called every 1.5 seconds
# output: "Hello Jane!"
interval2 = setInterval(interval, 1.5, ["Jane"])
time.sleep(5) #stop all intervals after 5 seconds
interval1.stop()
interval2.stop()
Check out my Github project to see more examples and follow next updates :D
https://github.com/Hzzkygcs/setInterval-python
Here's something easy peazy:
import time
delay = 10 # Seconds
def setInterval():
print('I print in intervals!')
time.sleep(delay)
setInterval()
Things work differently in Python: you need to either sleep() (if you want to block the current thread) or start a new thread. See http://docs.python.org/library/threading.html
From Python Documentation:
from threading import Timer
def hello():
print "hello, world"
t = Timer(30.0, hello)
t.start() # after 30 seconds, "hello, world" will be printed

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