"RuntimeError: dictionary changed size during iteration" ; Good atomic copy operations?

[robert]

Felipe Almeida Lessa wrote:

> Em Sáb, 2006-03-11 às 12:49 +0100, robert escreveu:
> 
>>Meanwhile I think this is a bug of cPickle.dump: It should use .keys() 
>>instead of free iteration internally, when pickling elementary dicts. 
>>I'd file a bug if no objection.
> 
> 
> AFAICS, it's a problem with your code. You should lock your object while
> using it. That's what Threading.Lock is supposed to work for. If you
> want to use threads, you have to know in what parts of your code there
> should be locks.

99.99% no. I would have to use a lock everywhere, where I add or remove 
something into a dict or list of the struct. Thats not the purpose of 
big thread locks. Such simple operations are already atomic by the 
definition of Python - and thanks to the global interpreter lock. 
(Otherwise I would leave the Python language, God beware ... :-) )

I'm of course aware, where to use locks for resons of the application. 
But this is an issue on Python level. And it can be solved gracly and 
simple in Python  - I guess:

If cPickle.dump (and maybe also copy/deepcopy?) is corrected to work 
atomic on dicts (use .keys()) and list-copies or locks python threads) 
the problem is solved gracely and generally.

Robert