concurrent.futures
— Launching parallel tasks¶
New in version 3.2.
Source code: Lib/concurrent/futures/thread.py and Lib/concurrent/futures/process.py
The concurrent.futures
module provides a high-level interface for
asynchronously executing callables.
The asynchronous execution can be performed with threads, using
ThreadPoolExecutor
, or separate processes, using
ProcessPoolExecutor
. Both implement the same interface, which is
defined by the abstract Executor
class.
Executor Objects¶
-
class
concurrent.futures.
Executor
¶ An abstract class that provides methods to execute calls asynchronously. It should not be used directly, but through its concrete subclasses.
-
submit
(fn, *args, **kwargs)¶ Schedules the callable, fn, to be executed as
fn(*args **kwargs)
and returns aFuture
object representing the execution of the callable.with ThreadPoolExecutor(max_workers=1) as executor: future = executor.submit(pow, 323, 1235) print(future.result())
-
map
(func, *iterables, timeout=None, chunksize=1)¶ Similar to
map(func, *iterables)
except:the iterables are collected immediately rather than lazily;
func is executed asynchronously and several calls to func may be made concurrently.
The returned iterator raises a
concurrent.futures.TimeoutError
if__next__()
is called and the result isn’t available after timeout seconds from the original call toExecutor.map()
. timeout can be an int or a float. If timeout is not specified orNone
, there is no limit to the wait time.If a func call raises an exception, then that exception will be raised when its value is retrieved from the iterator.
When using
ProcessPoolExecutor
, this method chops iterables into a number of chunks which it submits to the pool as separate tasks. The (approximate) size of these chunks can be specified by setting chunksize to a positive integer. For very long iterables, using a large value for chunksize can significantly improve performance compared to the default size of 1. WithThreadPoolExecutor
, chunksize has no effect.Changed in version 3.5: Added the chunksize argument.
-
shutdown
(wait=True)¶ Signal the executor that it should free any resources that it is using when the currently pending futures are done executing. Calls to
Executor.submit()
andExecutor.map()
made after shutdown will raiseRuntimeError
.If wait is
True
then this method will not return until all the pending futures are done executing and the resources associated with the executor have been freed. If wait isFalse
then this method will return immediately and the resources associated with the executor will be freed when all pending futures are done executing. Regardless of the value of wait, the entire Python program will not exit until all pending futures are done executing.You can avoid having to call this method explicitly if you use the
with
statement, which will shutdown theExecutor
(waiting as ifExecutor.shutdown()
were called with wait set toTrue
):import shutil with ThreadPoolExecutor(max_workers=4) as e: e.submit(shutil.copy, 'src1.txt', 'dest1.txt') e.submit(shutil.copy, 'src2.txt', 'dest2.txt') e.submit(shutil.copy, 'src3.txt', 'dest3.txt') e.submit(shutil.copy, 'src4.txt', 'dest4.txt')
-
ThreadPoolExecutor¶
ThreadPoolExecutor
is an Executor
subclass that uses a pool of
threads to execute calls asynchronously.
Deadlocks can occur when the callable associated with a Future
waits on
the results of another Future
. For example:
import time
def wait_on_b():
time.sleep(5)
print(b.result()) # b will never complete because it is waiting on a.
return 5
def wait_on_a():
time.sleep(5)
print(a.result()) # a will never complete because it is waiting on b.
return 6
executor = ThreadPoolExecutor(max_workers=2)
a = executor.submit(wait_on_b)
b = executor.submit(wait_on_a)
And:
def wait_on_future():
f = executor.submit(pow, 5, 2)
# This will never complete because there is only one worker thread and
# it is executing this function.
print(f.result())
executor = ThreadPoolExecutor(max_workers=1)
executor.submit(wait_on_future)
-
class
concurrent.futures.
ThreadPoolExecutor
(max_workers=None, thread_name_prefix='', initializer=None, initargs=())¶ An
Executor
subclass that uses a pool of at most max_workers threads to execute calls asynchronously.initializer is an optional callable that is called at the start of each worker thread; initargs is a tuple of arguments passed to the initializer. Should initializer raise an exception, all currently pending jobs will raise a
BrokenThreadPool
, as well as any attempt to submit more jobs to the pool.Changed in version 3.5: If max_workers is
None
or not given, it will default to the number of processors on the machine, multiplied by5
, assuming thatThreadPoolExecutor
is often used to overlap I/O instead of CPU work and the number of workers should be higher than the number of workers forProcessPoolExecutor
.New in version 3.6: The thread_name_prefix argument was added to allow users to control the
threading.Thread
names for worker threads created by the pool for easier debugging.Changed in version 3.7: Added the initializer and initargs arguments.
Changed in version 3.8: Default value of max_workers is changed to
min(32, os.cpu_count() + 4)
. This default value preserves at least 5 workers for I/O bound tasks. It utilizes at most 32 CPU cores for CPU bound tasks which release the GIL. And it avoids using very large resources implicitly on many-core machines.ThreadPoolExecutor now reuses idle worker threads before starting max_workers worker threads too.
ThreadPoolExecutor Example¶
import concurrent.futures
import urllib.request
URLS = ['http://www.foxnews.com/',
'http://www.cnn.com/',
'http://europe.wsj.com/',
'http://www.bbc.co.uk/',
'http://some-made-up-domain.com/']
# Retrieve a single page and report the URL and contents
def load_url(url, timeout):
with urllib.request.urlopen(url, timeout=timeout) as conn:
return conn.read()
# We can use a with statement to ensure threads are cleaned up promptly
with concurrent.futures.ThreadPoolExecutor(max_workers=5) as executor:
# Start the load operations and mark each future with its URL
future_to_url = {executor.submit(load_url, url, 60): url for url in URLS}
for future in concurrent.futures.as_completed(future_to_url):
url = future_to_url[future]
try:
data = future.result()
except Exception as exc:
print('%r generated an exception: %s' % (url, exc))
else:
print('%r page is %d bytes' % (url, len(data)))
ProcessPoolExecutor¶
The ProcessPoolExecutor
class is an Executor
subclass that
uses a pool of processes to execute calls asynchronously.
ProcessPoolExecutor
uses the multiprocessing
module, which
allows it to side-step the Global Interpreter Lock but also means that
only picklable objects can be executed and returned.
The __main__
module must be importable by worker subprocesses. This means
that ProcessPoolExecutor
will not work in the interactive interpreter.
Calling Executor
or Future
methods from a callable submitted
to a ProcessPoolExecutor
will result in deadlock.
-
class
concurrent.futures.
ProcessPoolExecutor
(max_workers=None, mp_context=None, initializer=None, initargs=())¶ An
Executor
subclass that executes calls asynchronously using a pool of at most max_workers processes. If max_workers isNone
or not given, it will default to the number of processors on the machine. If max_workers is less than or equal to0
, then aValueError
will be raised. On Windows, max_workers must be less than or equal to61
. If it is not thenValueError
will be raised. If max_workers isNone
, then the default chosen will be at most61
, even if more processors are available. mp_context can be a multiprocessing context or None. It will be used to launch the workers. If mp_context isNone
or not given, the default multiprocessing context is used.initializer is an optional callable that is called at the start of each worker process; initargs is a tuple of arguments passed to the initializer. Should initializer raise an exception, all currently pending jobs will raise a
BrokenProcessPool
, as well as any attempt to submit more jobs to the pool.Changed in version 3.3: When one of the worker processes terminates abruptly, a
BrokenProcessPool
error is now raised. Previously, behaviour was undefined but operations on the executor or its futures would often freeze or deadlock.Changed in version 3.7: The mp_context argument was added to allow users to control the start_method for worker processes created by the pool.
Added the initializer and initargs arguments.
ProcessPoolExecutor Example¶
import concurrent.futures
import math
PRIMES = [
112272535095293,
112582705942171,
112272535095293,
115280095190773,
115797848077099,
1099726899285419]
def is_prime(n):
if n < 2:
return False
if n == 2:
return True
if n % 2 == 0:
return False
sqrt_n = int(math.floor(math.sqrt(n)))
for i in range(3, sqrt_n + 1, 2):
if n % i == 0:
return False
return True
def main():
with concurrent.futures.ProcessPoolExecutor() as executor:
for number, prime in zip(PRIMES, executor.map(is_prime, PRIMES)):
print('%d is prime: %s' % (number, prime))
if __name__ == '__main__':
main()
Future Objects¶
The Future
class encapsulates the asynchronous execution of a callable.
Future
instances are created by Executor.submit()
.
-
class
concurrent.futures.
Future
¶ Encapsulates the asynchronous execution of a callable.
Future
instances are created byExecutor.submit()
and should not be created directly except for testing.-
cancel
()¶ Attempt to cancel the call. If the call is currently being executed or finished running and cannot be cancelled then the method will return
False
, otherwise the call will be cancelled and the method will returnTrue
.
-
cancelled
()¶ Return
True
if the call was successfully cancelled.
-
running
()¶ Return
True
if the call is currently being executed and cannot be cancelled.
-
done
()¶ Return
True
if the call was successfully cancelled or finished running.
-
result
(timeout=None)¶ Return the value returned by the call. If the call hasn’t yet completed then this method will wait up to timeout seconds. If the call hasn’t completed in timeout seconds, then a
concurrent.futures.TimeoutError
will be raised. timeout can be an int or float. If timeout is not specified orNone
, there is no limit to the wait time.If the future is cancelled before completing then
CancelledError
will be raised.If the call raised, this method will raise the same exception.
-
exception
(timeout=None)¶ Return the exception raised by the call. If the call hasn’t yet completed then this method will wait up to timeout seconds. If the call hasn’t completed in timeout seconds, then a
concurrent.futures.TimeoutError
will be raised. timeout can be an int or float. If timeout is not specified orNone
, there is no limit to the wait time.If the future is cancelled before completing then
CancelledError
will be raised.If the call completed without raising,
None
is returned.
-
add_done_callback
(fn)¶ Attaches the callable fn to the future. fn will be called, with the future as its only argument, when the future is cancelled or finishes running.
Added callables are called in the order that they were added and are always called in a thread belonging to the process that added them. If the callable raises an
Exception
subclass, it will be logged and ignored. If the callable raises aBaseException
subclass, the behavior is undefined.If the future has already completed or been cancelled, fn will be called immediately.
The following
Future
methods are meant for use in unit tests andExecutor
implementations.-
set_running_or_notify_cancel
()¶ This method should only be called by
Executor
implementations before executing the work associated with theFuture
and by unit tests.If the method returns
False
then theFuture
was cancelled, i.e.Future.cancel()
was called and returned True. Any threads waiting on theFuture
completing (i.e. throughas_completed()
orwait()
) will be woken up.If the method returns
True
then theFuture
was not cancelled and has been put in the running state, i.e. calls toFuture.running()
will return True.This method can only be called once and cannot be called after
Future.set_result()
orFuture.set_exception()
have been called.
-
set_result
(result)¶ Sets the result of the work associated with the
Future
to result.This method should only be used by
Executor
implementations and unit tests.Changed in version 3.8: This method raises
concurrent.futures.InvalidStateError
if theFuture
is already done.
-
Module Functions¶
-
concurrent.futures.
wait
(fs, timeout=None, return_when=ALL_COMPLETED)¶ Wait for the
Future
instances (possibly created by differentExecutor
instances) given by fs to complete. Returns a named 2-tuple of sets. The first set, nameddone
, contains the futures that completed (finished or cancelled futures) before the wait completed. The second set, namednot_done
, contains the futures that did not complete (pending or running futures).timeout can be used to control the maximum number of seconds to wait before returning. timeout can be an int or float. If timeout is not specified or
None
, there is no limit to the wait time.return_when indicates when this function should return. It must be one of the following constants:
Constant
Description
FIRST_COMPLETED
The function will return when any future finishes or is cancelled.
FIRST_EXCEPTION
The function will return when any future finishes by raising an exception. If no future raises an exception then it is equivalent to
ALL_COMPLETED
.ALL_COMPLETED
The function will return when all futures finish or are cancelled.
-
concurrent.futures.
as_completed
(fs, timeout=None)¶ Returns an iterator over the
Future
instances (possibly created by differentExecutor
instances) given by fs that yields futures as they complete (finished or cancelled futures). Any futures given by fs that are duplicated will be returned once. Any futures that completed beforeas_completed()
is called will be yielded first. The returned iterator raises aconcurrent.futures.TimeoutError
if__next__()
is called and the result isn’t available after timeout seconds from the original call toas_completed()
. timeout can be an int or float. If timeout is not specified orNone
, there is no limit to the wait time.
See also
- PEP 3148 – futures - execute computations asynchronously
The proposal which described this feature for inclusion in the Python standard library.
Exception classes¶
-
exception
concurrent.futures.
CancelledError
¶ Raised when a future is cancelled.
-
exception
concurrent.futures.
TimeoutError
¶ Raised when a future operation exceeds the given timeout.
-
exception
concurrent.futures.
BrokenExecutor
¶ Derived from
RuntimeError
, this exception class is raised when an executor is broken for some reason, and cannot be used to submit or execute new tasks.New in version 3.7.
-
exception
concurrent.futures.
InvalidStateError
¶ Raised when an operation is performed on a future that is not allowed in the current state.
New in version 3.8.
-
exception
concurrent.futures.thread.
BrokenThreadPool
¶ Derived from
BrokenExecutor
, this exception class is raised when one of the workers of aThreadPoolExecutor
has failed initializing.New in version 3.7.
-
exception
concurrent.futures.process.
BrokenProcessPool
¶ Derived from
BrokenExecutor
(formerlyRuntimeError
), this exception class is raised when one of the workers of aProcessPoolExecutor
has terminated in a non-clean fashion (for example, if it was killed from the outside).New in version 3.3.