[Python-ideas] solving multi-core Python

[Gregory P. Smith]

On Sat, Jun 20, 2015 at 5:42 PM Chris Angelico <rosuav at gmail.com> wrote:

> On Sun, Jun 21, 2015 at 7:42 AM, Eric Snow <ericsnowcurrently at gmail.com>
> wrote:
> > * disallow forking within subinterpreters
>
> I love the idea as a whole (if only because the detractors can be told
> "Just use subinterpreters, then you get concurrency"), but this seems
> like a tricky restriction. That means no subprocess.Popen, no shelling
> out to other applications. And I don't know what of other restrictions
> might limit any given program. Will it feel like subinterpreters are
> "write your code according to these tight restrictions and it'll
> work", or will it be more of "most programs will run in parallel just
> fine, but there are a few things to be careful of"?
>

It wouldn't disallow use of subprocess, only os.fork(). C extension modules
can alway fork. The restriction being placed in this scheme is: "if your
extension module code forks from a subinterpreter, the child process MUST
not return control to Python."

I'm not sure if this restriction would actually be *needed* or not but I
agree with it regardless.

-gps
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