[New-bugs-announce] [issue37185] use os.memfd_create in multiprocessing.shared_memory?

[Pierre Glaser]

New submission from Pierre Glaser <pierreglaser at msn.com>:

Hi,
Following https://bugs.python.org/issue26836, I started thinking about using memfd_create instead of shm_open for creating shared-memory segments in multiprocessing.shared_memory.

The main advantage of memfd_create over shm_open is that the generated resources management is easier: a segment created using using memfd_create is released once all references to the segment are dropped. This is not the case for segments created using shm_open, for which additional resource tracking is needed (using the new multiprocessing.resource_tracker)

The main difference between those two calls is that segments created using memfd_create are anonymous and can only be accessed using file descriptors. The name argument in the signature serves only for debugging purposes. On the contrary, shm_open generates segments that map to a file in /dev/shm: therefore, segments each have unique names.

Would we decide to switch from shm_open to memfd_create, the name behavior will also change. How big of a deal would that be?

----------
messages: 344881
nosy: davin, pierreglaser, pitrou
priority: normal
severity: normal
status: open
title: use  os.memfd_create in multiprocessing.shared_memory?
type: resource usage
versions: Python 3.9

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<https://bugs.python.org/issue37185>
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