CPython thread starvation

[MRAB]

On 27/04/2012 23:30, Dennis Lee Bieber wrote:
>
> 	Oh, continuation thought...
>
> 	If the workers are calling into C-language operations, unless those
> operations release the GIL, it doesn't matter what the OS or Python
> thread switch timings are. The OS may interrupt the thread (running
> C-language code), pass control to the Python interpreter which finds the
> GIL is locked, and just blocks -- control passes back to the interrupted
> thread.
>
> 	Any long-running C-language function should release the GIL while
> doing things with local data -- and reacquire the GIL when it needs to
> manipulate Python data structures or returning...

The OP mentioned parsing webpages. If that involves the re module at
some point, it doesn't release the GIL while it's looking for matches.