GIL state during import

[Dave Angel]

Terry Reedy wrote:
> <div class="moz-text-flowed" style="font-family: -moz-fixed">On 
> 2/16/2010 4:37 PM, Doron Tal wrote:
>> Is the GIL released during import statement execution when accessing the
>> file?
>> If not, is it a bug?
>> If it is not a bug, or it is here to stay for any other reason, I think
>> it should be mentioned in the documentation.
>
> The CPython GIL is a CPython implementation artifact and should not be 
> mentioned in the language docs (and is not, as far as I know). Were 
> you thinking of something else? And why this specific feature of its 
> behavior, whatever it is.
>
> tjr
>
Threading vs. imports is mentioned at least once in the Python docs.  
See   http://docs.python.org/library/threading.html, section 17.2.9 (at 
least in version 2.6.4)

"""While the import machinery is thread safe, there are two key 
restrictions on threaded imports due to inherent limitations in the way 
that thread safety is provided:

    * Firstly, other than in the main module, an import should not have
      the side effect of spawning a new thread and then waiting for that
      thread in any way. Failing to abide by this restriction can lead
      to a deadlock if the spawned thread directly or indirectly
      attempts to import a module.
    * Secondly, all import attempts must be completed before the
      interpreter starts shutting itself down. This can be most easily
      achieved by only performing imports from non-daemon threads
      created through the threading module. Daemon threads and threads
      created directly with the thread module will require some other
      form of synchronization to ensure they do not attempt imports
      after system shutdown has commenced. Failure to abide by this
      restriction will lead to intermittent exceptions and crashes
      during interpreter shutdown (as the late imports attempt to access
      machinery which is no longer in a valid state).

"""

So it may or may not use the GIL, but there are thread restrictions 
during an import.  The rule I try to follow is not to do anything 
non-trivial during top-level code of a module, except inside the
  if __name__ == "__main__":

portion.  If we're inside that portion, we're not a module, we're a script.

Even better, import all your modules before starting any new threads.

DaveA