[issue5527] multiprocessing won't work with Tkinter (under Linux)

[Davin Potts]

Davin Potts added the comment:

Unable to reproduce on Ubuntu 12.04.5 with Python 2.7.8 and current libtk8.5 and libtcl8.5 releases using the attached hanger.py example.

Key findings to-date:
1. Posts to this issue have concluded that there exists a problem with thread- and process-safety in specific parts of Tcl library routines and that this known issue is addressed in more recent releases.
2. For those affected versions of the Tcl libraries, there is a workaround for in building those libraries to prevent the issue.
3. The Python Tkinter module (nor other standard library modules) does not appear to be a source of the described behaviors.  Furthermore, Richard offers yet another workaround through multiprocessing's spawn.


The question was raised whether there should be a note added to the Tkinter module's docs about this situation.  Because this issue is the result of particular versions on particular platforms built in a particular way and the issue appears addressed in current releases of those third party libraries, it probably makes good sense to track this sort of issue in the Tcl/Tk projects themselves and not in the Tkinter module's docs.  If others encountering this issue in the future feel it is still too easy to end up with the right (wrong) combination of platform+tcl_version+build, they are encouraged to please open a new issue requesting a note be added to the documentation for Tkinter.

Closing this issue, marking it as "third party".

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nosy: +davin
resolution:  -> third party
stage: needs patch -> resolved
status: open -> closed

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Python tracker <report at bugs.python.org>
<http://bugs.python.org/issue5527>
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