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# 17.6. `multiprocessing` — Process-based “threading” interface

New in version 2.6.

## 17.6.1. Introduction

`multiprocessing` is a package that supports spawning processes using an API similar to the `threading` module. The `multiprocessing` package offers both local and remote concurrency, effectively side-stepping the Global Interpreter Lock by using subprocesses instead of threads. Due to this, the `multiprocessing` module allows the programmer to fully leverage multiple processors on a given machine. It runs on both Unix and Windows.

Warning

Some of this package’s functionality requires a functioning shared semaphore implementation on the host operating system. Without one, the `multiprocessing.synchronize` module will be disabled, and attempts to import it will result in an `ImportError`. See issue 3770 for additional information.

Note

Functionality within this package requires that the `__main__` method be importable by the children. This is covered in Programming guidelines however it is worth pointing out here. This means that some examples, such as the `multiprocessing.Pool` examples will not work in the interactive interpreter. For example:

    >>> from multiprocessing import Pool
    >>> p = Pool(5)
    >>> def f(x):
    ...     return x*x
    ...
    >>> p.map(f, [1,2,3])
    Process PoolWorker-1:
    Process PoolWorker-2:
    Process PoolWorker-3:
    Traceback (most recent call last):
    AttributeError: 'module' object has no attribute 'f'
    AttributeError: 'module' object has no attribute 'f'
    AttributeError: 'module' object has no attribute 'f'

(If you try this it will actually output three full tracebacks interleaved in a semi-random fashion, and then you may have to stop the master process somehow.)

### 17.6.1.1. The `Process` class

In `multiprocessing`, processes are spawned by creating a `Process` object and then calling its `start()` method. `Process` follows the API of `threading.Thread`. A trivial example of a multiprocess program is

    from multiprocessing import Process

    def f(name):
        print 'hello', name

    if __name__ == '__main__':
        p = Process(target=f, args=('bob',))
        p.start()
        p.join()

To show the individual process IDs involved, here is an expanded example:

    from multiprocessing import Process
    import os

    def info(title):
        print title
        print 'module name:', __name__
        print 'parent process:', os.getppid()
        print 'process id:', os.getpid()

    def f(name):
        info('function f')
        print 'hello', name

    if __name__ == '__main__':
        info('main line')
        p = Process(target=f, args=('bob',))
        p.start()
        p.join()

For an explanation of why (on Windows) the `if __name__ == '__main__'` part is necessary, see Programming guidelines.

### 17.6.1.2. Exchanging objects between processes

`multiprocessing` supports two types of communication channel between processes:

Queues

> The `Queue` class is a near clone of `Queue.Queue`. For example:

>     from multiprocessing import Process, Queue

>     def f(q):
>         q.put([42, None, 'hello'])

>     if __name__ == '__main__':
>         q = Queue()
>         p = Process(target=f, args=(q,))
>         p.start()
>         print q.get()    # prints "[42, None, 'hello']"
>         p.join()

> Queues are thread and process safe.

Pipes

> The `Pipe()` function returns a pair of connection objects connected by a pipe which by default is duplex (two-way). For example:

>     from multiprocessing import Process, Pipe

>     def f(conn):
>         conn.send([42, None, 'hello'])
>         conn.close()

>     if __name__ == '__main__':
>         parent_conn, child_conn = Pipe()
>         p = Process(target=f, args=(child_conn,))
>         p.start()
>         print parent_conn.recv()   # prints "[42, None, 'hello']"
>         p.join()

> The two connection objects returned by `Pipe()` represent the two ends of the pipe. Each connection object has `send()` and `recv()` methods (among others). Note that data in a pipe may become corrupted if two processes (or threads) try to read from or write to the same end of the pipe at the same time. Of course there is no risk of corruption from processes using different ends of the pipe at the same time.

### 17.6.1.3. Synchronization between processes

`multiprocessing` contains equivalents of all the synchronization primitives from `threading`. For instance one can use a lock to ensure that only one process prints to standard output at a time:

    from multiprocessing import Process, Lock

    def f(l, i):
        l.acquire()
        print 'hello world', i
        l.release()

    if __name__ == '__main__':
        lock = Lock()

        for num in range(10):
            Process(target=f, args=(lock, num)).start()

Without using the lock output from the different processes is liable to get all mixed up.

### 17.6.1.4. Sharing state between processes

As mentioned above, when doing concurrent programming it is usually best to avoid using shared state as far as possible. This is particularly true when using multiple processes.

However, if you really do need to use some shared data then `multiprocessing` provides a couple of ways of doing so.

Shared memory

> Data can be stored in a shared memory map using `Value` or `Array`. For example, the following code

>     from multiprocessing import Process, Value, Array

>     def f(n, a):
>         n.value = 3.1415927
>         for i in range(len(a)):
>             a[i] = -a[i]

>     if __name__ == '__main__':
>         num = Value('d', 0.0)
>         arr = Array('i', range(10))

>         p = Process(target=f, args=(num, arr))
>         p.start()
>         p.join()

>         print num.value
>         print arr[:]

> will print

>     3.1415927
>     [0, -1, -2, -3, -4, -5, -6, -7, -8, -9]

> The `'d'` and `'i'` arguments used when creating `num` and `arr` are typecodes of the kind used by the `array` module: `'d'` indicates a double precision float and `'i'` indicates a signed integer. These shared objects will be process and thread safe.

> For more flexibility in using shared memory one can use the `multiprocessing.sharedctypes` module which supports the creation of arbitrary ctypes objects allocated from shared memory.

Server process

> A manager object returned by `Manager()` controls a server process which holds Python objects and allows other processes to manipulate them using proxies.

> A manager returned by `Manager()` will support types `list`, `dict`, `Namespace`, `Lock`, `RLock`, `Semaphore`, `BoundedSemaphore`, `Condition`, `Event`, `Queue`, `Value` and `Array`. For example,

>     from multiprocessing import Process, Manager

>     def f(d, l):
>         d[1] = '1'
>         d['2'] = 2
>         d[0.25] = None
>         l.reverse()

>     if __name__ == '__main__':
>         manager = Manager()

>         d = manager.dict()
>         l = manager.list(range(10))

>         p = Process(target=f, args=(d, l))
>         p.start()
>         p.join()

>         print d
>         print l

> will print

>     {0.25: None, 1: '1', '2': 2}
>     [9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1, 0]

> Server process managers are more flexible than using shared memory objects because they can be made to support arbitrary object types. Also, a single manager can be shared by processes on different computers over a network. They are, however, slower than using shared memory.

### 17.6.1.5. Using a pool of workers

The `Pool` class represents a pool of worker processes. It has methods which allows tasks to be offloaded to the worker processes in a few different ways.

For example:

    from multiprocessing import Pool

    def f(x):
        return x*x

    if __name__ == '__main__':
        pool = Pool(processes=4)              # start 4 worker processes
        result = pool.apply_async(f, [10])     # evaluate "f(10)" asynchronously
        print result.get(timeout=1)           # prints "100" unless your computer is *very* slow
        print pool.map(f, range(10))          # prints "[0, 1, 4,..., 81]"

## 17.6.2. Reference

The `multiprocessing` package mostly replicates the API of the `threading` module.

### 17.6.2.1. `Process` and exceptions

class `multiprocessing.``Process`([group[, target[, name[, args[, kwargs]]]]])

  Process objects represent activity that is run in a separate process. The `Process` class has equivalents of all the methods of `threading.Thread`.

  The constructor should always be called with keyword arguments. group should always be `None`; it exists solely for compatibility with `threading.Thread`. target is the callable object to be invoked by the `run()` method. It defaults to `None`, meaning nothing is called. name is the process name. By default, a unique name is constructed of the form ‘Process-N1:N2:...:Nk‘ where N1,N2,...,Nk is a sequence of integers whose length is determined by the generation of the process. args is the argument tuple for the target invocation. kwargs is a dictionary of keyword arguments for the target invocation. By default, no arguments are passed to target.

  If a subclass overrides the constructor, it must make sure it invokes the base class constructor (`Process.__init__()`) before doing anything else to the process.

  `run`()

    Method representing the process’s activity.

    You may override this method in a subclass. The standard `run()` method invokes the callable object passed to the object’s constructor as the target argument, if any, with sequential and keyword arguments taken from the args and kwargs arguments, respectively.

  `start`()

    Start the process’s activity.

    This must be called at most once per process object. It arranges for the object’s `run()` method to be invoked in a separate process.

  `join`([timeout])

    Block the calling thread until the process whose `join()` method is called terminates or until the optional timeout occurs.

    If timeout is `None` then there is no timeout.

    A process can be joined many times.

    A process cannot join itself because this would cause a deadlock. It is an error to attempt to join a process before it has been started.

  `name`

    The process’s name.

    The name is a string used for identification purposes only. It has no semantics. Multiple processes may be given the same name. The initial name is set by the constructor.

  `is_alive`()

    Return whether the process is alive.

    Roughly, a process object is alive from the moment the `start()` method returns until the child process terminates.

  `daemon`

    The process’s daemon flag, a Boolean value. This must be set before `start()` is called.

    The initial value is inherited from the creating process.

    When a process exits, it attempts to terminate all of its daemonic child processes.

    Note that a daemonic process is not allowed to create child processes. Otherwise a daemonic process would leave its children orphaned if it gets terminated when its parent process exits. Additionally, these are not Unix daemons or services, they are normal processes that will be terminated (and not joined) if non-dameonic processes have exited.

  In addition to the `Threading.Thread` API, `Process` objects also support the following attributes and methods:

  `pid`
    Return the process ID. Before the process is spawned, this will be `None`.
  `exitcode`
    The child’s exit code. This will be `None` if the process has not yet terminated. A negative value -N indicates that the child was terminated by signal N.
  `authkey`

    The process’s authentication key (a byte string).

    When `multiprocessing` is initialized the main process is assigned a random string using `os.random()`.

    When a `Process` object is created, it will inherit the authentication key of its parent process, although this may be changed by setting `authkey` to another byte string.

    See Authentication keys.

  `terminate`()

    Terminate the process. On Unix this is done using the `SIGTERM` signal; on Windows `TerminateProcess()` is used. Note that exit handlers and finally clauses, etc., will not be executed.

    Note that descendant processes of the process will not be terminated – they will simply become orphaned.

    Warning

    If this method is used when the associated process is using a pipe or queue then the pipe or queue is liable to become corrupted and may become unusable by other process. Similarly, if the process has acquired a lock or semaphore etc. then terminating it is liable to cause other processes to deadlock.

  Note that the `start()`, `join()`, `is_alive()` and `exit_code` methods should only be called by the process that created the process object.

  Example usage of some of the methods of `Process`:

      >>> import multiprocessing, time, signal
      >>> p = multiprocessing.Process(target=time.sleep, args=(1000,))
      >>> print p, p.is_alive()
      <Process(Process-1, initial)> False
      >>> p.start()
      >>> print p, p.is_alive()
      <Process(Process-1, started)> True
      >>> p.terminate()
      >>> time.sleep(0.1)
      >>> print p, p.is_alive()
      <Process(Process-1, stopped[SIGTERM])> False
      >>> p.exitcode == -signal.SIGTERM
      True

exception `multiprocessing.``BufferTooShort`

  Exception raised by `Connection.recv_bytes_into()` when the supplied buffer object is too small for the message read.

  If `e` is an instance of `BufferTooShort` then `e.args[0]` will give the message as a byte string.

### 17.6.2.2. Pipes and Queues

When using multiple processes, one generally uses message passing for communication between processes and avoids having to use any synchronization primitives like locks.

For passing messages one can use `Pipe()` (for a connection between two processes) or a queue (which allows multiple producers and consumers).

The `Queue` and `JoinableQueue` types are multi-producer, multi-consumer FIFO queues modelled on the `Queue.Queue` class in the standard library. They differ in that `Queue` lacks the `task_done()` and `join()` methods introduced into Python 2.5’s `Queue.Queue` class.

If you use `JoinableQueue` then you must call `JoinableQueue.task_done()` for each task removed from the queue or else the semaphore used to count the number of unfinished tasks may eventually overflow raising an exception.

Note that one can also create a shared queue by using a manager object – see Managers.

Note

`multiprocessing` uses the usual `Queue.Empty` and `Queue.Full` exceptions to signal a timeout. They are not available in the `multiprocessing` namespace so you need to import them from `Queue`.

Warning

If a process is killed using `Process.terminate()` or `os.kill()` while it is trying to use a `Queue`, then the data in the queue is likely to become corrupted. This may cause any other processes to get an exception when it tries to use the queue later on.

Warning

As mentioned above, if a child process has put items on a queue (and it has not used `JoinableQueue.cancel_join_thread()`), then that process will not terminate until all buffered items have been flushed to the pipe.

This means that if you try joining that process you may get a deadlock unless you are sure that all items which have been put on the queue have been consumed. Similarly, if the child process is non-daemonic then the parent process may hang on exit when it tries to join all its non-daemonic children.

Note that a queue created using a manager does not have this issue. See Programming guidelines.

For an example of the usage of queues for interprocess communication see Examples.

`multiprocessing.``Pipe`([duplex])

  Returns a pair `(conn1, conn2)` of `Connection` objects representing the ends of a pipe.

  If duplex is `True` (the default) then the pipe is bidirectional. If duplex is `False` then the pipe is unidirectional: `conn1` can only be used for receiving messages and `conn2` can only be used for sending messages.

class `multiprocessing.``Queue`([maxsize])

  Returns a process shared queue implemented using a pipe and a few locks/semaphores. When a process first puts an item on the queue a feeder thread is started which transfers objects from a buffer into the pipe.

  The usual `Queue.Empty` and `Queue.Full` exceptions from the standard library’s `Queue` module are raised to signal timeouts.

  `Queue` implements all the methods of `Queue.Queue` except for `task_done()` and `join()`.

  `qsize`()

    Return the approximate size of the queue. Because of multithreading/multiprocessing semantics, this number is not reliable.

    Note that this may raise `NotImplementedError` on Unix platforms like Mac OS X where `sem_getvalue()` is not implemented.

  `empty`()
    Return `True` if the queue is empty, `False` otherwise. Because of multithreading/multiprocessing semantics, this is not reliable.
  `full`()
    Return `True` if the queue is full, `False` otherwise. Because of multithreading/multiprocessing semantics, this is not reliable.
  `put`(item[, block[, timeout]])
    Put item into the queue. If the optional argument block is `True` (the default) and timeout is `None` (the default), block if necessary until a free slot is available. If timeout is a positive number, it blocks at most timeout seconds and raises the `Queue.Full` exception if no free slot was available within that time. Otherwise (block is `False`), put an item on the queue if a free slot is immediately available, else raise the `Queue.Full` exception (timeout is ignored in that case).
  `put_nowait`(item)
    Equivalent to `put(item, False)`.
  `get`([block[, timeout]])
    Remove and return an item from the queue. If optional args block is `True` (the default) and timeout is `None` (the default), block if necessary until an item is available. If timeout is a positive number, it blocks at most timeout seconds and raises the `Queue.Empty` exception if no item was available within that time. Otherwise (block is `False`), return an item if one is immediately available, else raise the `Queue.Empty` exception (timeout is ignored in that case).
  `get_nowait`()
  `get_no_wait`()
    Equivalent to `get(False)`.

  `multiprocessing.Queue` has a few additional methods not found in `Queue.Queue`. These methods are usually unnecessary for most code:

  `close`()
    Indicate that no more data will be put on this queue by the current process. The background thread will quit once it has flushed all buffered data to the pipe. This is called automatically when the queue is garbage collected.
  `join_thread`()

    Join the background thread. This can only be used after `close()` has been called. It blocks until the background thread exits, ensuring that all data in the buffer has been flushed to the pipe.

    By default if a process is not the creator of the queue then on exit it will attempt to join the queue’s background thread. The process can call `cancel_join_thread()` to make `join_thread()` do nothing.

  `cancel_join_thread`()
    Prevent `join_thread()` from blocking. In particular, this prevents the background thread from being joined automatically when the process exits – see `join_thread()`.

class `multiprocessing.``JoinableQueue`([maxsize])

  `JoinableQueue`, a `Queue` subclass, is a queue which additionally has `task_done()` and `join()` methods.

  `task_done`()

    Indicate that a formerly enqueued task is complete. Used by queue consumer threads. For each `get()` used to fetch a task, a subsequent call to `task_done()` tells the queue that the processing on the task is complete.

    If a `join()` is currently blocking, it will resume when all items have been processed (meaning that a `task_done()` call was received for every item that had been `put()` into the queue).

    Raises a `ValueError` if called more times than there were items placed in the queue.

  `join`()

    Block until all items in the queue have been gotten and processed.

    The count of unfinished tasks goes up whenever an item is added to the queue. The count goes down whenever a consumer thread calls `task_done()` to indicate that the item was retrieved and all work on it is complete. When the count of unfinished tasks drops to zero, `join()` unblocks.

### 17.6.2.3. Miscellaneous

`multiprocessing.``active_children`()

  Return list of all live children of the current process.

  Calling this has the side affect of “joining” any processes which have already finished.

`multiprocessing.``cpu_count`()
  Return the number of CPUs in the system. May raise `NotImplementedError`.

`multiprocessing.``current_process`()

  Return the `Process` object corresponding to the current process.

  An analogue of `threading.current_thread()`.

`multiprocessing.``freeze_support`()

  Add support for when a program which uses `multiprocessing` has been frozen to produce a Windows executable. (Has been tested with py2exe, PyInstaller and cx_Freeze.)

  One needs to call this function straight after the `if __name__ == '__main__'` line of the main module. For example:

      from multiprocessing import Process, freeze_support

      def f():
          print 'hello world!'

      if __name__ == '__main__':
          freeze_support()
          Process(target=f).start()

  If the `freeze_support()` line is omitted then trying to run the frozen executable will raise `RuntimeError`.

  If the module is being run normally by the Python interpreter then `freeze_support()` has no effect.

`multiprocessing.``set_executable`()

  Sets the path of the Python interpreter to use when starting a child process. (By default `sys.executable` is used). Embedders will probably need to do some thing like

      setExecutable(os.path.join(sys.exec_prefix, 'pythonw.exe'))

  before they can create child processes. (Windows only)

Note

`multiprocessing` contains no analogues of `threading.active_count()`, `threading.enumerate()`, `threading.settrace()`, `threading.setprofile()`, `threading.Timer`, or `threading.local`.

### 17.6.2.4. Connection Objects

Connection objects allow the sending and receiving of picklable objects or strings. They can be thought of as message oriented connected sockets.

Connection objects usually created using `Pipe()` – see also Listeners and Clients.

class `multiprocessing.``Connection`
  `send`(obj)

    Send an object to the other end of the connection which should be read using `recv()`.

    The object must be picklable.

  `recv`()
    Return an object sent from the other end of the connection using `send()`. Raises `EOFError` if there is nothing left to receive and the other end was closed.
  `fileno`()
    Returns the file descriptor or handle used by the connection.
  `close`()

    Close the connection.

    This is called automatically when the connection is garbage collected.

  `poll`([timeout])

    Return whether there is any data available to be read.

    If timeout is not specified then it will return immediately. If timeout is a number then this specifies the maximum time in seconds to block. If timeout is `None` then an infinite timeout is used.

  `send_bytes`(buffer[, offset[, size]])

    Send byte data from an object supporting the buffer interface as a complete message.

    If offset is given then data is read from that position in buffer. If size is given then that many bytes will be read from buffer.

  `recv_bytes`([maxlength])

    Return a complete message of byte data sent from the other end of the connection as a string. Raises `EOFError` if there is nothing left to receive and the other end has closed.

    If maxlength is specified and the message is longer than maxlength then `IOError` is raised and the connection will no longer be readable.

  `recv_bytes_into`(buffer[, offset])

    Read into buffer a complete message of byte data sent from the other end of the connection and return the number of bytes in the message. Raises `EOFError` if there is nothing left to receive and the other end was closed.

    buffer must be an object satisfying the writable buffer interface. If offset is given then the message will be written into the buffer from that position. Offset must be a non-negative integer less than the length of buffer (in bytes).

    If the buffer is too short then a `BufferTooShort` exception is raised and the complete message is available as `e.args[0]` where `e` is the exception instance.

For example:

    >>> from multiprocessing import Pipe
    >>> a, b = Pipe()
    >>> a.send([1, 'hello', None])
    >>> b.recv()
    [1, 'hello', None]
    >>> b.send_bytes('thank you')
    >>> a.recv_bytes()
    'thank you'
    >>> import array
    >>> arr1 = array.array('i', range(5))
    >>> arr2 = array.array('i', [0] * 10)
    >>> a.send_bytes(arr1)
    >>> count = b.recv_bytes_into(arr2)
    >>> assert count == len(arr1) * arr1.itemsize
    >>> arr2
    array('i', [0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0])

Warning

The `Connection.recv()` method automatically unpickles the data it receives, which can be a security risk unless you can trust the process which sent the message.

Therefore, unless the connection object was produced using `Pipe()` you should only use the `recv()` and `send()` methods after performing some sort of authentication. See Authentication keys.

Warning

If a process is killed while it is trying to read or write to a pipe then the data in the pipe is likely to become corrupted, because it may become impossible to be sure where the message boundaries lie.

### 17.6.2.5. Synchronization primitives

Generally synchronization primitives are not as necessary in a multiprocess program as they are in a multithreaded program. See the documentation for `threading` module.

Note that one can also create synchronization primitives by using a manager object – see Managers.

class `multiprocessing.``BoundedSemaphore`([value])

  A bounded semaphore object: a clone of `threading.BoundedSemaphore`.

  (On Mac OS X this is indistinguishable from `Semaphore` because `sem_getvalue()` is not implemented on that platform).

class `multiprocessing.``Condition`([lock])

  A condition variable: a clone of `threading.Condition`.

  If lock is specified then it should be a `Lock` or `RLock` object from `multiprocessing`.

class `multiprocessing.``Event`
  A clone of `threading.Event`.

class `multiprocessing.``Lock`
  A non-recursive lock object: a clone of `threading.Lock`.

class `multiprocessing.``RLock`
  A recursive lock object: a clone of `threading.RLock`.

class `multiprocessing.``Semaphore`([value])
  A bounded semaphore object: a clone of `threading.Semaphore`.

Note

The `acquire()` method of `BoundedSemaphore`, `Lock`, `RLock` and `Semaphore` has a timeout parameter not supported by the equivalents in `threading`. The signature is `acquire(block=True, timeout=None)` with keyword parameters being acceptable. If block is `True` and timeout is not `None` then it specifies a timeout in seconds. If block is `False` then timeout is ignored.

Note

On OS/X `sem_timedwait` is unsupported, so timeout arguments for the aforementioned `acquire()` methods will be ignored on OS/X.

Note

If the SIGINT signal generated by Ctrl-C arrives while the main thread is blocked by a call to `BoundedSemaphore.acquire()`, `Lock.acquire()`, `RLock.acquire()`, `Semaphore.acquire()`, `Condition.acquire()` or `Condition.wait()` then the call will be immediately interrupted and `KeyboardInterrupt` will be raised.

This differs from the behaviour of `threading` where SIGINT will be ignored while the equivalent blocking calls are in progress.

### 17.6.2.6. Shared `ctypes` Objects

It is possible to create shared objects using shared memory which can be inherited by child processes.

`multiprocessing.``Value`(typecode_or_type, *args[, lock])

  Return a `ctypes` object allocated from shared memory. By default the return value is actually a synchronized wrapper for the object.

  typecode_or_type determines the type of the returned object: it is either a ctypes type or a one character typecode of the kind used by the `array` module. *args is passed on to the constructor for the type.

  If lock is `True` (the default) then a new lock object is created to synchronize access to the value. If lock is a `Lock` or `RLock` object then that will be used to synchronize access to the value. If lock is `False` then access to the returned object will not be automatically protected by a lock, so it will not necessarily be “process-safe”.

  Note that lock is a keyword-only argument.

`multiprocessing.``Array`(typecode_or_type, size_or_initializer, *, lock=True)

  Return a ctypes array allocated from shared memory. By default the return value is actually a synchronized wrapper for the array.

  typecode_or_type determines the type of the elements of the returned array: it is either a ctypes type or a one character typecode of the kind used by the `array` module. If size_or_initializer is an integer, then it determines the length of the array, and the array will be initially zeroed. Otherwise, size_or_initializer is a sequence which is used to initialize the array and whose length determines the length of the array.

  If lock is `True` (the default) then a new lock object is created to synchronize access to the value. If lock is a `Lock` or `RLock` object then that will be used to synchronize access to the value. If lock is `False` then access to the returned object will not be automatically protected by a lock, so it will not necessarily be “process-safe”.

  Note that lock is a keyword only argument.

  Note that an array of `ctypes.c_char` has value and raw attributes which allow one to use it to store and retrieve strings.

#### 17.6.2.6.1. The `multiprocessing.sharedctypes` module

The `multiprocessing.sharedctypes` module provides functions for allocating `ctypes` objects from shared memory which can be inherited by child processes.

Note

Although it is possible to store a pointer in shared memory remember that this will refer to a location in the address space of a specific process. However, the pointer is quite likely to be invalid in the context of a second process and trying to dereference the pointer from the second process may cause a crash.

`multiprocessing.sharedctypes.``RawArray`(typecode_or_type, size_or_initializer)

  Return a ctypes array allocated from shared memory.

  typecode_or_type determines the type of the elements of the returned array: it is either a ctypes type or a one character typecode of the kind used by the `array` module. If size_or_initializer is an integer then it determines the length of the array, and the array will be initially zeroed. Otherwise size_or_initializer is a sequence which is used to initialize the array and whose length determines the length of the array.

  Note that setting and getting an element is potentially non-atomic – use `Array()` instead to make sure that access is automatically synchronized using a lock.

`multiprocessing.sharedctypes.``RawValue`(typecode_or_type, *args)

  Return a ctypes object allocated from shared memory.

  typecode_or_type determines the type of the returned object: it is either a ctypes type or a one character typecode of the kind used by the `array` module. *args is passed on to the constructor for the type.

  Note that setting and getting the value is potentially non-atomic – use `Value()` instead to make sure that access is automatically synchronized using a lock.

  Note that an array of `ctypes.c_char` has `value` and `raw` attributes which allow one to use it to store and retrieve strings – see documentation for `ctypes`.

`multiprocessing.sharedctypes.``Array`(typecode_or_type, size_or_initializer, *args[, lock])

  The same as `RawArray()` except that depending on the value of lock a process-safe synchronization wrapper may be returned instead of a raw ctypes array.

  If lock is `True` (the default) then a new lock object is created to synchronize access to the value. If lock is a `Lock` or `RLock` object then that will be used to synchronize access to the value. If lock is `False` then access to the returned object will not be automatically protected by a lock, so it will not necessarily be “process-safe”.

  Note that lock is a keyword-only argument.

`multiprocessing.sharedctypes.``Value`(typecode_or_type, *args[, lock])

  The same as `RawValue()` except that depending on the value of lock a process-safe synchronization wrapper may be returned instead of a raw ctypes object.

  If lock is `True` (the default) then a new lock object is created to synchronize access to the value. If lock is a `Lock` or `RLock` object then that will be used to synchronize access to the value. If lock is `False` then access to the returned object will not be automatically protected by a lock, so it will not necessarily be “process-safe”.

  Note that lock is a keyword-only argument.

`multiprocessing.sharedctypes.``copy`(obj)
  Return a ctypes object allocated from shared memory which is a copy of the ctypes object obj.

`multiprocessing.sharedctypes.``synchronized`(obj[, lock])

  Return a process-safe wrapper object for a ctypes object which uses lock to synchronize access. If lock is `None` (the default) then a `multiprocessing.RLock` object is created automatically.

  A synchronized wrapper will have two methods in addition to those of the object it wraps: `get_obj()` returns the wrapped object and `get_lock()` returns the lock object used for synchronization.

  Note that accessing the ctypes object through the wrapper can be a lot slower than accessing the raw ctypes object.

The table below compares the syntax for creating shared ctypes objects from shared memory with the normal ctypes syntax. (In the table `MyStruct` is some subclass of `ctypes.Structure`.)

ctypes | sharedctypes using type | sharedctypes using typecode
--- | --- | ---
c_double(2.4) | RawValue(c_double, 2.4) | RawValue(‘d’, 2.4)
MyStruct(4, 6) | RawValue(MyStruct, 4, 6) |
(c_short * 7)() | RawArray(c_short, 7) | RawArray(‘h’, 7)
(c_int * 3)(9, 2, 8) | RawArray(c_int, (9, 2, 8)) | RawArray(‘i’, (9, 2, 8))

Below is an example where a number of ctypes objects are modified by a child process:

    from multiprocessing import Process, Lock
    from multiprocessing.sharedctypes import Value, Array
    from ctypes import Structure, c_double

    class Point(Structure):
        _fields_ = [('x', c_double), ('y', c_double)]

    def modify(n, x, s, A):
        n.value **= 2
        x.value **= 2
        s.value = s.value.upper()
        for a in A:
            a.x **= 2
            a.y **= 2

    if __name__ == '__main__':
        lock = Lock()

        n = Value('i', 7)
        x = Value(c_double, 1.0/3.0, lock=False)
        s = Array('c', 'hello world', lock=lock)
        A = Array(Point, [(1.875,-6.25), (-5.75,2.0), (2.375,9.5)], lock=lock)

        p = Process(target=modify, args=(n, x, s, A))
        p.start()
        p.join()

        print n.value
        print x.value
        print s.value
        print [(a.x, a.y) for a in A]

The results printed are

    49
    0.1111111111111111
    HELLO WORLD
    [(3.515625, 39.0625), (33.0625, 4.0), (5.640625, 90.25)]

### 17.6.2.7. Managers

Managers provide a way to create data which can be shared between different processes. A manager object controls a server process which manages shared objects. Other processes can access the shared objects by using proxies.

`multiprocessing.``Manager`()
  Returns a started `SyncManager` object which can be used for sharing objects between processes. The returned manager object corresponds to a spawned child process and has methods which will create shared objects and return corresponding proxies.

Manager processes will be shutdown as soon as they are garbage collected or their parent process exits. The manager classes are defined in the `multiprocessing.managers` module:

class `multiprocessing.managers.``BaseManager`([address[, authkey]])

  Create a BaseManager object.

  Once created one should call `start()` or `serve_forever()` to ensure that the manager object refers to a started manager process.

  address is the address on which the manager process listens for new connections. If address is `None` then an arbitrary one is chosen.

  authkey is the authentication key which will be used to check the validity of incoming connections to the server process. If authkey is `None` then `current_process().authkey`. Otherwise authkey is used and it must be a string.

  `start`()
    Start a subprocess to start the manager.
  `serve_forever`()
    Run the server in the current process.
  `get_server`()

    Returns a `Server` object which represents the actual server under the control of the Manager. The `Server` object supports the `serve_forever()` method:

        >>> from multiprocessing.managers import BaseManager
        >>> manager = BaseManager(address=('', 50000), authkey='abc')
        >>> server = manager.get_server()
        >>> server.serve_forever()

    `Server` additionally has an `address` attribute.

  `connect`()

    Connect a local manager object to a remote manager process:

        >>> from multiprocessing.managers import BaseManager
        >>> m = BaseManager(address=('127.0.0.1', 5000), authkey='abc')
        >>> m.connect()

  `shutdown`()

    Stop the process used by the manager. This is only available if `start()` has been used to start the server process.

    This can be called multiple times.

  `register`(typeid[, callable[, proxytype[, exposed[, method_to_typeid[, create_method]]]]])

    A classmethod which can be used for registering a type or callable with the manager class.

    typeid is a “type identifier” which is used to identify a particular type of shared object. This must be a string.

    callable is a callable used for creating objects for this type identifier. If a manager instance will be created using the `from_address()` classmethod or if the create_method argument is `False` then this can be left as `None`.

    proxytype is a subclass of `BaseProxy` which is used to create proxies for shared objects with this typeid. If `None` then a proxy class is created automatically.

    exposed is used to specify a sequence of method names which proxies for this typeid should be allowed to access using `BaseProxy._callMethod()`. (If exposed is `None` then `proxytype._exposed_` is used instead if it exists.) In the case where no exposed list is specified, all “public methods” of the shared object will be accessible. (Here a “public method” means any attribute which has a `__call__()` method and whose name does not begin with `'_'`.)

    method_to_typeid is a mapping used to specify the return type of those exposed methods which should return a proxy. It maps method names to typeid strings. (If method_to_typeid is `None` then `proxytype._method_to_typeid_` is used instead if it exists.) If a method’s name is not a key of this mapping or if the mapping is `None` then the object returned by the method will be copied by value.

    create_method determines whether a method should be created with name typeid which can be used to tell the server process to create a new shared object and return a proxy for it. By default it is `True`.

  `BaseManager` instances also have one read-only property:

  `address`
    The address used by the manager.

class `multiprocessing.managers.``SyncManager`

  A subclass of `BaseManager` which can be used for the synchronization of processes. Objects of this type are returned by `multiprocessing.Manager()`.

  It also supports creation of shared lists and dictionaries.

  `BoundedSemaphore`([value])
    Create a shared `threading.BoundedSemaphore` object and return a proxy for it.
  `Condition`([lock])

    Create a shared `threading.Condition` object and return a proxy for it.

    If lock is supplied then it should be a proxy for a `threading.Lock` or `threading.RLock` object.

  `Event`()
    Create a shared `threading.Event` object and return a proxy for it.
  `Lock`()
    Create a shared `threading.Lock` object and return a proxy for it.
  `Namespace`()
    Create a shared `Namespace` object and return a proxy for it.
  `Queue`([maxsize])
    Create a shared `Queue.Queue` object and return a proxy for it.
  `RLock`()
    Create a shared `threading.RLock` object and return a proxy for it.
  `Semaphore`([value])
    Create a shared `threading.Semaphore` object and return a proxy for it.
  `Array`(typecode, sequence)
    Create an array and return a proxy for it.
  `Value`(typecode, value)
    Create an object with a writable `value` attribute and return a proxy for it.
  `dict`()
  `dict`(mapping)
  `dict`(sequence)
    Create a shared `dict` object and return a proxy for it.
  `list`()
  `list`(sequence)
    Create a shared `list` object and return a proxy for it.

#### 17.6.2.7.1. Namespace objects

A namespace object has no public methods, but does have writable attributes. Its representation shows the values of its attributes.

However, when using a proxy for a namespace object, an attribute beginning with `'_'` will be an attribute of the proxy and not an attribute of the referent:

    >>> manager = multiprocessing.Manager()
    >>> Global = manager.Namespace()
    >>> Global.x = 10
    >>> Global.y = 'hello'
    >>> Global._z = 12.3    # this is an attribute of the proxy
    >>> print Global
    Namespace(x=10, y='hello')

#### 17.6.2.7.2. Customized managers

To create one’s own manager, one creates a subclass of `BaseManager` and use the `register()` classmethod to register new types or callables with the manager class. For example:

    from multiprocessing.managers import BaseManager

    class MathsClass(object):
        def add(self, x, y):
            return x + y
        def mul(self, x, y):
            return x * y

    class MyManager(BaseManager):
        pass

    MyManager.register('Maths', MathsClass)

    if __name__ == '__main__':
        manager = MyManager()
        manager.start()
        maths = manager.Maths()
        print maths.add(4, 3)         # prints 7
        print maths.mul(7, 8)         # prints 56

#### 17.6.2.7.3. Using a remote manager

It is possible to run a manager server on one machine and have clients use it from other machines (assuming that the firewalls involved allow it).

Running the following commands creates a server for a single shared queue which remote clients can access:

    >>> from multiprocessing.managers import BaseManager
    >>> import Queue
    >>> queue = Queue.Queue()
    >>> class QueueManager(BaseManager): pass
    >>> QueueManager.register('get_queue', callable=lambda:queue)
    >>> m = QueueManager(address=('', 50000), authkey='abracadabra')
    >>> s = m.get_server()
    >>> s.serve_forever()

One client can access the server as follows:

    >>> from multiprocessing.managers import BaseManager
    >>> class QueueManager(BaseManager): pass
    >>> QueueManager.register('get_queue')
    >>> m = QueueManager(address=('foo.bar.org', 50000), authkey='abracadabra')
    >>> m.connect()
    >>> queue = m.get_queue()
    >>> queue.put('hello')

Another client can also use it:

    >>> from multiprocessing.managers import BaseManager
    >>> class QueueManager(BaseManager): pass
    >>> QueueManager.register('get_queue')
    >>> m = QueueManager(address=('foo.bar.org', 50000), authkey='abracadabra')
    >>> m.connect()
    >>> queue = m.get_queue()
    >>> queue.get()
    'hello'

Local processes can also access that queue, using the code from above on the client to access it remotely:

    >>> from multiprocessing import Process, Queue
    >>> from multiprocessing.managers import BaseManager
    >>> class Worker(Process):
    ...     def __init__(self, q):
    ...         self.q = q
    ...         super(Worker, self).__init__()
    ...     def run(self):
    ...         self.q.put('local hello')
    ...
    >>> queue = Queue()
    >>> w = Worker(queue)
    >>> w.start()
    >>> class QueueManager(BaseManager): pass
    ...
    >>> QueueManager.register('get_queue', callable=lambda: queue)
    >>> m = QueueManager(address=('', 50000), authkey='abracadabra')
    >>> s = m.get_server()
    >>> s.serve_forever()

### 17.6.2.8. Proxy Objects

A proxy is an object which refers to a shared object which lives (presumably) in a different process. The shared object is said to be the referent of the proxy. Multiple proxy objects may have the same referent.

A proxy object has methods which invoke corresponding methods of its referent (although not every method of the referent will necessarily be available through the proxy). A proxy can usually be used in most of the same ways that its referent can:

    >>> from multiprocessing import Manager
    >>> manager = Manager()
    >>> l = manager.list([i*i for i in range(10)])
    >>> print l
    [0, 1, 4, 9, 16, 25, 36, 49, 64, 81]
    >>> print repr(l)
    <ListProxy object, typeid 'list' at 0x...>
    >>> l[4]
    16
    >>> l[2:5]
    [4, 9, 16]

Notice that applying `str()` to a proxy will return the representation of the referent, whereas applying `repr()` will return the representation of the proxy.

An important feature of proxy objects is that they are picklable so they can be passed between processes. Note, however, that if a proxy is sent to the corresponding manager’s process then unpickling it will produce the referent itself. This means, for example, that one shared object can contain a second:

    >>> a = manager.list()
    >>> b = manager.list()
    >>> a.append(b)         # referent of a now contains referent of b
    >>> print a, b
    [[]] []
    >>> b.append('hello')
    >>> print a, b
    [['hello']] ['hello']

Note

The proxy types in `multiprocessing` do nothing to support comparisons by value. So, for instance, we have:

    >>> manager.list([1,2,3]) == [1,2,3]
    False

One should just use a copy of the referent instead when making comparisons.

class `multiprocessing.managers.``BaseProxy`

  Proxy objects are instances of subclasses of `BaseProxy`.

  `_callmethod`(methodname[, args[, kwds]])

    Call and return the result of a method of the proxy’s referent.

    If `proxy` is a proxy whose referent is `obj` then the expression

        proxy._callmethod(methodname, args, kwds)

    will evaluate the expression

        getattr(obj, methodname)(*args, **kwds)

    in the manager’s process.

    The returned value will be a copy of the result of the call or a proxy to a new shared object – see documentation for the method_to_typeid argument of `BaseManager.register()`.

    If an exception is raised by the call, then then is re-raised by `_callmethod()`. If some other exception is raised in the manager’s process then this is converted into a `RemoteError` exception and is raised by `_callmethod()`.

    Note in particular that an exception will be raised if methodname has not been exposed

    An example of the usage of `_callmethod()`:

        >>> l = manager.list(range(10))
        >>> l._callmethod('__len__')
        10
        >>> l._callmethod('__getslice__', (2, 7))   # equiv to `l[2:7]`
        [2, 3, 4, 5, 6]
        >>> l._callmethod('__getitem__', (20,))     # equiv to `l[20]`
        ...
        IndexError: list index out of range

  `_getvalue`()

    Return a copy of the referent.

    If the referent is unpicklable then this will raise an exception.

  `__repr__`()
    Return a representation of the proxy object.
  `__str__`()
    Return the representation of the referent.

#### 17.6.2.8.1. Cleanup

A proxy object uses a weakref callback so that when it gets garbage collected it deregisters itself from the manager which owns its referent.

A shared object gets deleted from the manager process when there are no longer any proxies referring to it.

### 17.6.2.9. Process Pools

One can create a pool of processes which will carry out tasks submitted to it with the `Pool` class.

class `multiprocessing.``Pool`([processes[, initializer[, initargs]]])

  A process pool object which controls a pool of worker processes to which jobs can be submitted. It supports asynchronous results with timeouts and callbacks and has a parallel map implementation.

  processes is the number of worker processes to use. If processes is `None` then the number returned by `cpu_count()` is used. If initializer is not `None` then each worker process will call `initializer(*initargs)` when it starts.

  `apply`(func[, args[, kwds]])
    Equivalent of the `apply()` built-in function. It blocks till the result is ready. Given this blocks, `apply_async()` is better suited for performing work in parallel. Additionally, the passed in function is only executed in one of the workers of the pool.
  `apply_async`(func[, args[, kwds[, callback]]])

    A variant of the `apply()` method which returns a result object.

    If callback is specified then it should be a callable which accepts a single argument. When the result becomes ready callback is applied to it (unless the call failed). callback should complete immediately since otherwise the thread which handles the results will get blocked.

  `map`(func, iterable[, chunksize])

    A parallel equivalent of the `map()` built-in function (it supports only one iterable argument though). It blocks till the result is ready.

    This method chops the iterable into a number of chunks which it submits to the process pool as separate tasks. The (approximate) size of these chunks can be specified by setting chunksize to a positive integer.

  `map_async`(func, iterable[, chunksize[, callback]])

    A variant of the `map()` method which returns a result object.

    If callback is specified then it should be a callable which accepts a single argument. When the result becomes ready callback is applied to it (unless the call failed). callback should complete immediately since otherwise the thread which handles the results will get blocked.

  `imap`(func, iterable[, chunksize])

    An equivalent of `itertools.imap()`.

    The chunksize argument is the same as the one used by the `map()` method. For very long iterables using a large value for chunksize can make make the job complete much faster than using the default value of `1`.

    Also if chunksize is `1` then the `next()` method of the iterator returned by the `imap()` method has an optional timeout parameter: `next(timeout)` will raise `multiprocessing.TimeoutError` if the result cannot be returned within timeout seconds.

  `imap_unordered`(func, iterable[, chunksize])
    The same as `imap()` except that the ordering of the results from the returned iterator should be considered arbitrary. (Only when there is only one worker process is the order guaranteed to be “correct”.)
  `close`()
    Prevents any more tasks from being submitted to the pool. Once all the tasks have been completed the worker processes will exit.
  `terminate`()
    Stops the worker processes immediately without completing outstanding work. When the pool object is garbage collected `terminate()` will be called immediately.
  `join`()
    Wait for the worker processes to exit. One must call `close()` or `terminate()` before using `join()`.

class `multiprocessing.pool.``AsyncResult`

  The class of the result returned by `Pool.apply_async()` and `Pool.map_async()`.

  `get`([timeout])
    Return the result when it arrives. If timeout is not `None` and the result does not arrive within timeout seconds then `multiprocessing.TimeoutError` is raised. If the remote call raised an exception then that exception will be reraised by `get()`.
  `wait`([timeout])
    Wait until the result is available or until timeout seconds pass.
  `ready`()
    Return whether the call has completed.
  `successful`()
    Return whether the call completed without raising an exception. Will raise `AssertionError` if the result is not ready.

The following example demonstrates the use of a pool:

    from multiprocessing import Pool

    def f(x):
        return x*x

    if __name__ == '__main__':
        pool = Pool(processes=4)              # start 4 worker processes

        result = pool.apply_async(f, (10,))    # evaluate "f(10)" asynchronously
        print result.get(timeout=1)           # prints "100" unless your computer is *very* slow

        print pool.map(f, range(10))          # prints "[0, 1, 4,..., 81]"

        it = pool.imap(f, range(10))
        print it.next()                       # prints "0"
        print it.next()                       # prints "1"
        print it.next(timeout=1)              # prints "4" unless your computer is *very* slow

        import time
        result = pool.apply_async(time.sleep, (10,))
        print result.get(timeout=1)           # raises TimeoutError

### 17.6.2.10. Listeners and Clients

Usually message passing between processes is done using queues or by using `Connection` objects returned by `Pipe()`.

However, the `multiprocessing.connection` module allows some extra flexibility. It basically gives a high level message oriented API for dealing with sockets or Windows named pipes, and also has support for digest authentication using the `hmac` module.

`multiprocessing.connection.``deliver_challenge`(connection, authkey)

  Send a randomly generated message to the other end of the connection and wait for a reply.

  If the reply matches the digest of the message using authkey as the key then a welcome message is sent to the other end of the connection. Otherwise `AuthenticationError` is raised.

`multiprocessing.connection.``answerChallenge`(connection, authkey)

  Receive a message, calculate the digest of the message using authkey as the key, and then send the digest back.

  If a welcome message is not received, then `AuthenticationError` is raised.

`multiprocessing.connection.``Client`(address[, family[, authenticate[, authkey]]])

  Attempt to set up a connection to the listener which is using address address, returning a `Connection`.

  The type of the connection is determined by family argument, but this can generally be omitted since it can usually be inferred from the format of address. (See Address Formats)

  If authenticate is `True` or authkey is a string then digest authentication is used. The key used for authentication will be either authkey or `current_process().authkey)` if authkey is `None`. If authentication fails then `AuthenticationError` is raised. See Authentication keys.

class `multiprocessing.connection.``Listener`([address[, family[, backlog[, authenticate[, authkey]]]]])

  A wrapper for a bound socket or Windows named pipe which is ‘listening’ for connections.

  address is the address to be used by the bound socket or named pipe of the listener object.

  Note

  If an address of ‘0.0.0.0’ is used, the address will not be a connectable end point on Windows. If you require a connectable end-point, you should use ‘127.0.0.1’.

  family is the type of socket (or named pipe) to use. This can be one of the strings `'AF_INET'` (for a TCP socket), `'AF_UNIX'` (for a Unix domain socket) or `'AF_PIPE'` (for a Windows named pipe). Of these only the first is guaranteed to be available. If family is `None` then the family is inferred from the format of address. If address is also `None` then a default is chosen. This default is the family which is assumed to be the fastest available. See Address Formats. Note that if family is `'AF_UNIX'` and address is `None` then the socket will be created in a private temporary directory created using `tempfile.mkstemp()`.

  If the listener object uses a socket then backlog (1 by default) is passed to the `listen()` method of the socket once it has been bound.

  If authenticate is `True` (`False` by default) or authkey is not `None` then digest authentication is used.

  If authkey is a string then it will be used as the authentication key; otherwise it must be None.

  If authkey is `None` and authenticate is `True` then `current_process().authkey` is used as the authentication key. If authkey is `None` and authenticate is `False` then no authentication is done. If authentication fails then `AuthenticationError` is raised. See Authentication keys.

  `accept`()
    Accept a connection on the bound socket or named pipe of the listener object and return a `Connection` object. If authentication is attempted and fails, then `AuthenticationError` is raised.
  `close`()
    Close the bound socket or named pipe of the listener object. This is called automatically when the listener is garbage collected. However it is advisable to call it explicitly.

  Listener objects have the following read-only properties:

  `address`
    The address which is being used by the Listener object.
  `last_accepted`
    The address from which the last accepted connection came. If this is unavailable then it is `None`.

The module defines two exceptions:

exception `multiprocessing.connection.``AuthenticationError`
  Exception raised when there is an authentication error.

Examples

The following server code creates a listener which uses `'secret password'` as an authentication key. It then waits for a connection and sends some data to the client:

    from multiprocessing.connection import Listener
    from array import array

    address = ('localhost', 6000)     # family is deduced to be 'AF_INET'
    listener = Listener(address, authkey='secret password')

    conn = listener.accept()
    print 'connection accepted from', listener.last_accepted

    conn.send([2.25, None, 'junk', float])

    conn.send_bytes('hello')

    conn.send_bytes(array('i', [42, 1729]))

    conn.close()
    listener.close()

The following code connects to the server and receives some data from the server:

    from multiprocessing.connection import Client
    from array import array

    address = ('localhost', 6000)
    conn = Client(address, authkey='secret password')

    print conn.recv()                 # => [2.25, None, 'junk', float]

    print conn.recv_bytes()            # => 'hello'

    arr = array('i', [0, 0, 0, 0, 0])
    print conn.recv_bytes_into(arr)     # => 8
    print arr                         # => array('i', [42, 1729, 0, 0, 0])

    conn.close()

#### 17.6.2.10.1. Address Formats

- An `'AF_INET'` address is a tuple of the form `(hostname, port)` where hostname is a string and port is an integer.

- An `'AF_UNIX'` address is a string representing a filename on the filesystem.

- An `'AF_PIPE'` address is a string of the form

    `r'\\.\pipe\PipeName'`. To use `Client()` to connect to a named pipe on a remote computer called ServerName one should use an address of the form `r'\\ServerName\pipe\PipeName'` instead.

Note that any string beginning with two backslashes is assumed by default to be an `'AF_PIPE'` address rather than an `'AF_UNIX'` address.

### 17.6.2.11. Authentication keys

When one uses `Connection.recv()`, the data received is automatically unpickled. Unfortunately unpickling data from an untrusted source is a security risk. Therefore `Listener` and `Client()` use the `hmac` module to provide digest authentication.

An authentication key is a string which can be thought of as a password: once a connection is established both ends will demand proof that the other knows the authentication key. (Demonstrating that both ends are using the same key does not involve sending the key over the connection.)

If authentication is requested but do authentication key is specified then the return value of `current_process().authkey` is used (see `Process`). This value will automatically inherited by any `Process` object that the current process creates. This means that (by default) all processes of a multi-process program will share a single authentication key which can be used when setting up connections between themselves.

Suitable authentication keys can also be generated by using `os.urandom()`.

### 17.6.2.12. Logging

Some support for logging is available. Note, however, that the `logging` package does not use process shared locks so it is possible (depending on the handler type) for messages from different processes to get mixed up.

`multiprocessing.``get_logger`()

  Returns the logger used by `multiprocessing`. If necessary, a new one will be created.

  When first created the logger has level `logging.NOTSET` and no default handler. Messages sent to this logger will not by default propagate to the root logger.

  Note that on Windows child processes will only inherit the level of the parent process’s logger – any other customization of the logger will not be inherited.

`multiprocessing.``log_to_stderr`()
  This function performs a call to `get_logger()` but in addition to returning the logger created by get_logger, it adds a handler which sends output to `sys.stderr` using format `'[%(levelname)s/%(processName)s] %(message)s'`.

Below is an example session with logging turned on:

    >>> import multiprocessing, logging
    >>> logger = multiprocessing.log_to_stderr()
    >>> logger.setLevel(logging.INFO)
    >>> logger.warning('doomed')
    [WARNING/MainProcess] doomed
    >>> m = multiprocessing.Manager()
    [INFO/SyncManager-...] child process calling self.run()
    [INFO/SyncManager-...] created temp directory /.../pymp-...
    [INFO/SyncManager-...] manager serving at '/.../listener-...'
    >>> del m
    [INFO/MainProcess] sending shutdown message to manager
    [INFO/SyncManager-...] manager exiting with exitcode 0

In addition to having these two logging functions, the multiprocessing also exposes two additional logging level attributes. These are `SUBWARNING` and `SUBDEBUG`. The table below illustrates where theses fit in the normal level hierarchy.

Level | Numeric value
--- | ---
`SUBWARNING` | 25
`SUBDEBUG` | 5

For a full table of logging levels, see the `logging` module.

These additional logging levels are used primarily for certain debug messages within the multiprocessing module. Below is the same example as above, except with `SUBDEBUG` enabled:

    >>> import multiprocessing, logging
    >>> logger = multiprocessing.log_to_stderr()
    >>> logger.setLevel(multiprocessing.SUBDEBUG)
    >>> logger.warning('doomed')
    [WARNING/MainProcess] doomed
    >>> m = multiprocessing.Manager()
    [INFO/SyncManager-...] child process calling self.run()
    [INFO/SyncManager-...] created temp directory /.../pymp-...
    [INFO/SyncManager-...] manager serving at '/.../pymp-djGBXN/listener-...'
    >>> del m
    [SUBDEBUG/MainProcess] finalizer calling ...
    [INFO/MainProcess] sending shutdown message to manager
    [DEBUG/SyncManager-...] manager received shutdown message
    [SUBDEBUG/SyncManager-...] calling <Finalize object, callback=unlink, ...
    [SUBDEBUG/SyncManager-...] finalizer calling <built-in function unlink> ...
    [SUBDEBUG/SyncManager-...] calling <Finalize object, dead>
    [SUBDEBUG/SyncManager-...] finalizer calling <function rmtree at 0x5aa730> ...
    [INFO/SyncManager-...] manager exiting with exitcode 0

### 17.6.2.13. The `multiprocessing.dummy` module

`multiprocessing.dummy` replicates the API of `multiprocessing` but is no more than a wrapper around the `threading` module.

## 17.6.3. Programming guidelines

There are certain guidelines and idioms which should be adhered to when using `multiprocessing`.

### 17.6.3.1. All platforms

Avoid shared state

> As far as possible one should try to avoid shifting large amounts of data between processes.

> It is probably best to stick to using queues or pipes for communication between processes rather than using the lower level synchronization primitives from the `threading` module.

Picklability

> Ensure that the arguments to the methods of proxies are picklable.

Thread safety of proxies

> Do not use a proxy object from more than one thread unless you protect it with a lock.

> (There is never a problem with different processes using the same proxy.)

Joining zombie processes

> On Unix when a process finishes but has not been joined it becomes a zombie. There should never be very many because each time a new process starts (or `active_children()` is called) all completed processes which have not yet been joined will be joined. Also calling a finished process’s `Process.is_alive()` will join the process. Even so it is probably good practice to explicitly join all the processes that you start.

Better to inherit than pickle/unpickle

> On Windows many types from `multiprocessing` need to be picklable so that child processes can use them. However, one should generally avoid sending shared objects to other processes using pipes or queues. Instead you should arrange the program so that a process which need access to a shared resource created elsewhere can inherit it from an ancestor process.

Avoid terminating processes

> Using the `Process.terminate()` method to stop a process is liable to cause any shared resources (such as locks, semaphores, pipes and queues) currently being used by the process to become broken or unavailable to other processes.

> Therefore it is probably best to only consider using `Process.terminate()` on processes which never use any shared resources.

Joining processes that use queues

> Bear in mind that a process that has put items in a queue will wait before terminating until all the buffered items are fed by the “feeder” thread to the underlying pipe. (The child process can call the `Queue.cancel_join_thread()` method of the queue to avoid this behaviour.)

> This means that whenever you use a queue you need to make sure that all items which have been put on the queue will eventually be removed before the process is joined. Otherwise you cannot be sure that processes which have put items on the queue will terminate. Remember also that non-daemonic processes will be automatically be joined.

> An example which will deadlock is the following:

>     from multiprocessing import Process, Queue

>     def f(q):
>         q.put('X' * 1000000)

>     if __name__ == '__main__':
>         queue = Queue()
>         p = Process(target=f, args=(queue,))
>         p.start()
>         p.join()                    # this deadlocks
>         obj = queue.get()

> A fix here would be to swap the last two lines round (or simply remove the `p.join()` line).

Explicitly pass resources to child processes

> On Unix a child process can make use of a shared resource created in a parent process using a global resource. However, it is better to pass the object as an argument to the constructor for the child process.

> Apart from making the code (potentially) compatible with Windows this also ensures that as long as the child process is still alive the object will not be garbage collected in the parent process. This might be important if some resource is freed when the object is garbage collected in the parent process.

> So for instance

>     from multiprocessing import Process, Lock

>     def f():
>         ... do something using "lock" ...

>     if __name__ == '__main__':
>        lock = Lock()
>        for i in range(10):
>             Process(target=f).start()

> should be rewritten as

>     from multiprocessing import Process, Lock

>     def f(l):
>         ... do something using "l" ...

>     if __name__ == '__main__':
>        lock = Lock()
>        for i in range(10):
>             Process(target=f, args=(lock,)).start()

Beware replacing sys.stdin with a “file like object”

> `multiprocessing` originally unconditionally called:

>     os.close(sys.stdin.fileno())

> in the `multiprocessing.Process._bootstrap()` method — this resulted in issues with processes-in-processes. This has been changed to:

>     sys.stdin.close()
>     sys.stdin = open(os.devnull)

> Which solves the fundamental issue of processes colliding with each other resulting in a bad file descriptor error, but introduces a potential danger to applications which replace `sys.stdin()` with a “file-like object” with output buffering. This danger is that if multiple processes call `close()` on this file-like object, it could result in the same data being flushed to the object multiple times, resulting in corruption.

> If you write a file-like object and implement your own caching, you can make it fork-safe by storing the pid whenever you append to the cache, and discarding the cache when the pid changes. For example:

>     @property
>     def cache(self):
>         pid = os.getpid()
>         if pid != self._pid:
>             self._pid = pid
>             self._cache = []
>         return self._cache

> For more information, see issue 5155, issue 5313 and issue 5331

### 17.6.3.2. Windows

Since Windows lacks `os.fork()` it has a few extra restrictions:

More picklability

> Ensure that all arguments to `Process.__init__()` are picklable. This means, in particular, that bound or unbound methods cannot be used directly as the `target` argument on Windows — just define a function and use that instead.

> Also, if you subclass `Process` then make sure that instances will be picklable when the `Process.start()` method is called.

Global variables

> Bear in mind that if code run in a child process tries to access a global variable, then the value it sees (if any) may not be the same as the value in the parent process at the time that `Process.start()` was called.

> However, global variables which are just module level constants cause no problems.

Safe importing of main module

> Make sure that the main module can be safely imported by a new Python interpreter without causing unintended side effects (such a starting a new process).

> For example, under Windows running the following module would fail with a `RuntimeError`:

>     from multiprocessing import Process

>     def foo():
>         print 'hello'

>     p = Process(target=foo)
>     p.start()

> Instead one should protect the “entry point” of the program by using `if __name__ == '__main__':` as follows:

>     from multiprocessing import Process, freeze_support

>     def foo():
>         print 'hello'

>     if __name__ == '__main__':
>         freeze_support()
>         p = Process(target=foo)
>         p.start()

> (The `freeze_support()` line can be omitted if the program will be run normally instead of frozen.)

> This allows the newly spawned Python interpreter to safely import the module and then run the module’s `foo()` function.

> Similar restrictions apply if a pool or manager is created in the main module.

## 17.6.4. Examples

Demonstration of how to create and use customized managers and proxies:

    #
    # This module shows how to use arbitrary callables with a subclass of
    # `BaseManager`.
    #
    # Copyright (c) 2006-2008, R Oudkerk
    # All rights reserved.
    #

    from multiprocessing import freeze_support
    from multiprocessing.managers import BaseManager, BaseProxy
    import operator

    ##

    class Foo(object):
        def f(self):
            print 'you called Foo.f()'
        def g(self):
            print 'you called Foo.g()'
        def _h(self):
            print 'you called Foo._h()'

    # A simple generator function
    def baz():
        for i in xrange(10):
            yield i*i

    # Proxy type for generator objects
    class GeneratorProxy(BaseProxy):
        _exposed_ = ('next', '__next__')
        def __iter__(self):
            return self
        def next(self):
            return self._callmethod('next')
        def __next__(self):
            return self._callmethod('__next__')

    # Function to return the operator module
    def get_operator_module():
        return operator

    ##

    class MyManager(BaseManager):
        pass

    # register the Foo class; make `f()` and `g()` accessible via proxy
    MyManager.register('Foo1', Foo)

    # register the Foo class; make `g()` and `_h()` accessible via proxy
    MyManager.register('Foo2', Foo, exposed=('g', '_h'))

    # register the generator function baz; use `GeneratorProxy` to make proxies
    MyManager.register('baz', baz, proxytype=GeneratorProxy)

    # register get_operator_module(); make public functions accessible via proxy
    MyManager.register('operator', get_operator_module)

    ##

    def test():
        manager = MyManager()
        manager.start()

        print '-' * 20

        f1 = manager.Foo1()
        f1.f()
        f1.g()
        assert not hasattr(f1, '_h')
        assert sorted(f1._exposed_) == sorted(['f', 'g'])

        print '-' * 20

        f2 = manager.Foo2()
        f2.g()
        f2._h()
        assert not hasattr(f2, 'f')
        assert sorted(f2._exposed_) == sorted(['g', '_h'])

        print '-' * 20

        it = manager.baz()
        for i in it:
            print '<%d>' % i,
        print

        print '-' * 20

        op = manager.operator()
        print 'op.add(23, 45) =', op.add(23, 45)
        print 'op.pow(2, 94) =', op.pow(2, 94)
        print 'op.getslice(range(10), 2, 6) =', op.getslice(range(10), 2, 6)
        print 'op.repeat(range(5), 3) =', op.repeat(range(5), 3)
        print 'op._exposed_ =', op._exposed_

    ##

    if __name__ == '__main__':
        freeze_support()
        test()

Using `Pool`:

    #
    # A test of `multiprocessing.Pool` class
    #
    # Copyright (c) 2006-2008, R Oudkerk
    # All rights reserved.
    #

    import multiprocessing
    import time
    import random
    import sys

    #
    # Functions used by test code
    #

    def calculate(func, args):
        result = func(*args)
        return '%s says that %s%s = %s' % (
            multiprocessing.current_process().name,
            func.__name__, args, result
            )

    def calculatestar(args):
        return calculate(*args)

    def mul(a, b):
        time.sleep(0.5*random.random())
        return a * b

    def plus(a, b):
        time.sleep(0.5*random.random())
        return a + b

    def f(x):
        return 1.0 / (x-5.0)

    def pow3(x):
        return x**3

    def noop(x):
        pass

    #
    # Test code
    #

    def test():
        print 'cpu_count() = %d\n' % multiprocessing.cpu_count()

        #
        # Create pool
        #

        PROCESSES = 4
        print 'Creating pool with %d processes\n' % PROCESSES
        pool = multiprocessing.Pool(PROCESSES)
        print 'pool = %s' % pool
        print

        #
        # Tests
        #

        TASKS = [(mul, (i, 7)) for i in range(10)] + \
                [(plus, (i, 8)) for i in range(10)]

        results = [pool.apply_async(calculate, t) for t in TASKS]
        imap_it = pool.imap(calculatestar, TASKS)
        imap_unordered_it = pool.imap_unordered(calculatestar, TASKS)

        print 'Ordered results using pool.apply_async():'
        for r in results:
            print '\t', r.get()
        print

        print 'Ordered results using pool.imap():'
        for x in imap_it:
            print '\t', x
        print

        print 'Unordered results using pool.imap_unordered():'
        for x in imap_unordered_it:
            print '\t', x
        print

        print 'Ordered results using pool.map() --- will block till complete:'
        for x in pool.map(calculatestar, TASKS):
            print '\t', x
        print

        #
        # Simple benchmarks
        #

        N = 100000
        print 'def pow3(x): return x**3'

        t = time.time()
        A = map(pow3, xrange(N))
        print '\tmap(pow3, xrange(%d)):\n\t\t%s seconds' % \
              (N, time.time() - t)

        t = time.time()
        B = pool.map(pow3, xrange(N))
        print '\tpool.map(pow3, xrange(%d)):\n\t\t%s seconds' % \
              (N, time.time() - t)

        t = time.time()
        C = list(pool.imap(pow3, xrange(N), chunksize=N//8))
        print '\tlist(pool.imap(pow3, xrange(%d), chunksize=%d)):\n\t\t%s' \
              ' seconds' % (N, N//8, time.time() - t)

        assert A == B == C, (len(A), len(B), len(C))
        print

        L = [None] * 1000000
        print 'def noop(x): pass'
        print 'L = [None] * 1000000'

        t = time.time()
        A = map(noop, L)
        print '\tmap(noop, L):\n\t\t%s seconds' % \
              (time.time() - t)

        t = time.time()
        B = pool.map(noop, L)
        print '\tpool.map(noop, L):\n\t\t%s seconds' % \
              (time.time() - t)

        t = time.time()
        C = list(pool.imap(noop, L, chunksize=len(L)//8))
        print '\tlist(pool.imap(noop, L, chunksize=%d)):\n\t\t%s seconds' % \
              (len(L)//8, time.time() - t)

        assert A == B == C, (len(A), len(B), len(C))
        print

        del A, B, C, L

        #
        # Test error handling
        #

        print 'Testing error handling:'

        try:
            print pool.apply(f, (5,))
        except ZeroDivisionError:
            print '\tGot ZeroDivisionError as expected from pool.apply()'
        else:
            raise AssertionError('expected ZeroDivisionError')

        try:
            print pool.map(f, range(10))
        except ZeroDivisionError:
            print '\tGot ZeroDivisionError as expected from pool.map()'
        else:
            raise AssertionError('expected ZeroDivisionError')

        try:
            print list(pool.imap(f, range(10)))
        except ZeroDivisionError:
            print '\tGot ZeroDivisionError as expected from list(pool.imap())'
        else:
            raise AssertionError('expected ZeroDivisionError')

        it = pool.imap(f, range(10))
        for i in range(10):
            try:
                x = it.next()
            except ZeroDivisionError:
                if i == 5:
                    pass
            except StopIteration:
                break
            else:
                if i == 5:
                    raise AssertionError('expected ZeroDivisionError')

        assert i == 9
        print '\tGot ZeroDivisionError as expected from IMapIterator.next()'
        print

        #
        # Testing timeouts
        #

        print 'Testing ApplyResult.get() with timeout:',
        res = pool.apply_async(calculate, TASKS[0])
        while 1:
            sys.stdout.flush()
            try:
                sys.stdout.write('\n\t%s' % res.get(0.02))
                break
            except multiprocessing.TimeoutError:
                sys.stdout.write('.')
        print
        print

        print 'Testing IMapIterator.next() with timeout:',
        it = pool.imap(calculatestar, TASKS)
        while 1:
            sys.stdout.flush()
            try:
                sys.stdout.write('\n\t%s' % it.next(0.02))
            except StopIteration:
                break
            except multiprocessing.TimeoutError:
                sys.stdout.write('.')
        print
        print

        #
        # Testing callback
        #

        print 'Testing callback:'

        A = []
        B = [56, 0, 1, 8, 27, 64, 125, 216, 343, 512, 729]

        r = pool.apply_async(mul, (7, 8), callback=A.append)
        r.wait()

        r = pool.map_async(pow3, range(10), callback=A.extend)
        r.wait()

        if A == B:
            print '\tcallbacks succeeded\n'
        else:
            print '\t*** callbacks failed\n\t\t%s != %s\n' % (A, B)

        #
        # Check there are no outstanding tasks
        #

        assert not pool._cache, 'cache = %r' % pool._cache

        #
        # Check close() methods
        #

        print 'Testing close():'

        for worker in pool._pool:
            assert worker.is_alive()

        result = pool.apply_async(time.sleep, [0.5])
        pool.close()
        pool.join()

        assert result.get() is None

        for worker in pool._pool:
            assert not worker.is_alive()

        print '\tclose() succeeded\n'

        #
        # Check terminate() method
        #

        print 'Testing terminate():'

        pool = multiprocessing.Pool(2)
        DELTA = 0.1
        ignore = pool.apply(pow3, [2])
        results = [pool.apply_async(time.sleep, [DELTA]) for i in range(100)]
        pool.terminate()
        pool.join()

        for worker in pool._pool:
            assert not worker.is_alive()

        print '\tterminate() succeeded\n'

        #
        # Check garbage collection
        #

        print 'Testing garbage collection:'

        pool = multiprocessing.Pool(2)
        DELTA = 0.1
        processes = pool._pool
        ignore = pool.apply(pow3, [2])
        results = [pool.apply_async(time.sleep, [DELTA]) for i in range(100)]

        results = pool = None

        time.sleep(DELTA * 2)

        for worker in processes:
            assert not worker.is_alive()

        print '\tgarbage collection succeeded\n'

    if __name__ == '__main__':
        multiprocessing.freeze_support()

        assert len(sys.argv) in (1, 2)

        if len(sys.argv) == 1 or sys.argv[1] == 'processes':
            print ' Using processes '.center(79, '-')
        elif sys.argv[1] == 'threads':
            print ' Using threads '.center(79, '-')
            import multiprocessing.dummy as multiprocessing
        else:
            print 'Usage:\n\t%s [processes | threads]' % sys.argv[0]
            raise SystemExit(2)

        test()

Synchronization types like locks, conditions and queues:

    #
    # A test file for the `multiprocessing` package
    #
    # Copyright (c) 2006-2008, R Oudkerk
    # All rights reserved.
    #

    import time, sys, random
    from Queue import Empty

    import multiprocessing               # may get overwritten

    #### TEST_VALUE

    def value_func(running, mutex):
        random.seed()
        time.sleep(random.random()*4)

        mutex.acquire()
        print '\n\t\t\t' + str(multiprocessing.current_process()) + ' has finished'
        running.value -= 1
        mutex.release()

    def test_value():
        TASKS = 10
        running = multiprocessing.Value('i', TASKS)
        mutex = multiprocessing.Lock()

        for i in range(TASKS):
            p = multiprocessing.Process(target=value_func, args=(running, mutex))
            p.start()

        while running.value > 0:
            time.sleep(0.08)
            mutex.acquire()
            print running.value,
            sys.stdout.flush()
            mutex.release()

        print
        print 'No more running processes'

    #### TEST_QUEUE

    def queue_func(queue):
        for i in range(30):
            time.sleep(0.5 * random.random())
            queue.put(i*i)
        queue.put('STOP')

    def test_queue():
        q = multiprocessing.Queue()

        p = multiprocessing.Process(target=queue_func, args=(q,))
        p.start()

        o = None
        while o != 'STOP':
            try:
                o = q.get(timeout=0.3)
                print o,
                sys.stdout.flush()
            except Empty:
                print 'TIMEOUT'

        print

    #### TEST_CONDITION

    def condition_func(cond):
        cond.acquire()
        print '\t' + str(cond)
        time.sleep(2)
        print '\tchild is notifying'
        print '\t' + str(cond)
        cond.notify()
        cond.release()

    def test_condition():
        cond = multiprocessing.Condition()

        p = multiprocessing.Process(target=condition_func, args=(cond,))
        print cond

        cond.acquire()
        print cond
        cond.acquire()
        print cond

        p.start()

        print 'main is waiting'
        cond.wait()
        print 'main has woken up'

        print cond
        cond.release()
        print cond
        cond.release()

        p.join()
        print cond

    #### TEST_SEMAPHORE

    def semaphore_func(sema, mutex, running):
        sema.acquire()

        mutex.acquire()
        running.value += 1
        print running.value, 'tasks are running'
        mutex.release()

        random.seed()
        time.sleep(random.random()*2)

        mutex.acquire()
        running.value -= 1
        print '%s has finished' % multiprocessing.current_process()
        mutex.release()

        sema.release()

    def test_semaphore():
        sema = multiprocessing.Semaphore(3)
        mutex = multiprocessing.RLock()
        running = multiprocessing.Value('i', 0)

        processes = [
            multiprocessing.Process(target=semaphore_func,
                                    args=(sema, mutex, running))
            for i in range(10)
            ]

        for p in processes:
            p.start()

        for p in processes:
            p.join()

    #### TEST_JOIN_TIMEOUT

    def join_timeout_func():
        print '\tchild sleeping'
        time.sleep(5.5)
        print '\n\tchild terminating'

    def test_join_timeout():
        p = multiprocessing.Process(target=join_timeout_func)
        p.start()

        print 'waiting for process to finish'

        while 1:
            p.join(timeout=1)
            if not p.is_alive():
                break
            print '.',
            sys.stdout.flush()

    #### TEST_EVENT

    def event_func(event):
        print '\t%r is waiting' % multiprocessing.current_process()
        event.wait()
        print '\t%r has woken up' % multiprocessing.current_process()

    def test_event():
        event = multiprocessing.Event()

        processes = [multiprocessing.Process(target=event_func, args=(event,))
                     for i in range(5)]

        for p in processes:
            p.start()

        print 'main is sleeping'
        time.sleep(2)

        print 'main is setting event'
        event.set()

        for p in processes:
            p.join()

    #### TEST_SHAREDVALUES

    def sharedvalues_func(values, arrays, shared_values, shared_arrays):
        for i in range(len(values)):
            v = values[i][1]
            sv = shared_values[i].value
            assert v == sv

        for i in range(len(values)):
            a = arrays[i][1]
            sa = list(shared_arrays[i][:])
            assert a == sa

        print 'Tests passed'

    def test_sharedvalues():
        values = [
            ('i', 10),
            ('h', -2),
            ('d', 1.25)
            ]
        arrays = [
            ('i', range(100)),
            ('d', [0.25 * i for i in range(100)]),
            ('H', range(1000))
            ]

        shared_values = [multiprocessing.Value(id, v) for id, v in values]
        shared_arrays = [multiprocessing.Array(id, a) for id, a in arrays]

        p = multiprocessing.Process(
            target=sharedvalues_func,
            args=(values, arrays, shared_values, shared_arrays)
            )
        p.start()
        p.join()

        assert p.exitcode == 0

    ####

    def test(namespace=multiprocessing):
        global multiprocessing

        multiprocessing = namespace

        for func in [ test_value, test_queue, test_condition,
                      test_semaphore, test_join_timeout, test_event,
                      test_sharedvalues ]:

            print '\n\t######## %s\n' % func.__name__
            func()

        ignore = multiprocessing.active_children()      # cleanup any old processes
        if hasattr(multiprocessing, '_debug_info'):
            info = multiprocessing._debug_info()
            if info:
                print info
                raise ValueError('there should be no positive refcounts left')

    if __name__ == '__main__':
        multiprocessing.freeze_support()

        assert len(sys.argv) in (1, 2)

        if len(sys.argv) == 1 or sys.argv[1] == 'processes':
            print ' Using processes '.center(79, '-')
            namespace = multiprocessing
        elif sys.argv[1] == 'manager':
            print ' Using processes and a manager '.center(79, '-')
            namespace = multiprocessing.Manager()
            namespace.Process = multiprocessing.Process
            namespace.current_process = multiprocessing.current_process
            namespace.active_children = multiprocessing.active_children
        elif sys.argv[1] == 'threads':
            print ' Using threads '.center(79, '-')
            import multiprocessing.dummy as namespace
        else:
            print 'Usage:\n\t%s [processes | manager | threads]' % sys.argv[0]
            raise SystemExit(2)

        test(namespace)

An showing how to use queues to feed tasks to a collection of worker process and collect the results:

    #
    # Simple example which uses a pool of workers to carry out some tasks.
    #
    # Notice that the results will probably not come out of the output
    # queue in the same in the same order as the corresponding tasks were
    # put on the input queue.  If it is important to get the results back
    # in the original order then consider using `Pool.map()` or
    # `Pool.imap()` (which will save on the amount of code needed anyway).
    #
    # Copyright (c) 2006-2008, R Oudkerk
    # All rights reserved.
    #

    import time
    import random

    from multiprocessing import Process, Queue, current_process, freeze_support

    #
    # Function run by worker processes
    #

    def worker(input, output):
        for func, args in iter(input.get, 'STOP'):
            result = calculate(func, args)
            output.put(result)

    #
    # Function used to calculate result
    #

    def calculate(func, args):
        result = func(*args)
        return '%s says that %s%s = %s' % \
            (current_process().name, func.__name__, args, result)

    #
    # Functions referenced by tasks
    #

    def mul(a, b):
        time.sleep(0.5*random.random())
        return a * b

    def plus(a, b):
        time.sleep(0.5*random.random())
        return a + b

    #
    #
    #

    def test():
        NUMBER_OF_PROCESSES = 4
        TASKS1 = [(mul, (i, 7)) for i in range(20)]
        TASKS2 = [(plus, (i, 8)) for i in range(10)]

        # Create queues
        task_queue = Queue()
        done_queue = Queue()

        # Submit tasks
        for task in TASKS1:
            task_queue.put(task)

        # Start worker processes
        for i in range(NUMBER_OF_PROCESSES):
            Process(target=worker, args=(task_queue, done_queue)).start()

        # Get and print results
        print 'Unordered results:'
        for i in range(len(TASKS1)):
            print '\t', done_queue.get()

        # Add more tasks using `put()`
        for task in TASKS2:
            task_queue.put(task)

        # Get and print some more results
        for i in range(len(TASKS2)):
            print '\t', done_queue.get()

        # Tell child processes to stop
        for i in range(NUMBER_OF_PROCESSES):
            task_queue.put('STOP')

    if __name__ == '__main__':
        freeze_support()
        test()

An example of how a pool of worker processes can each run a `SimpleHTTPServer.HttpServer` instance while sharing a single listening socket.

    #
    # Example where a pool of http servers share a single listening socket
    #
    # On Windows this module depends on the ability to pickle a socket
    # object so that the worker processes can inherit a copy of the server
    # object.  (We import `multiprocessing.reduction` to enable this pickling.)
    #
    # Not sure if we should synchronize access to `socket.accept()` method by
    # using a process-shared lock -- does not seem to be necessary.
    #
    # Copyright (c) 2006-2008, R Oudkerk
    # All rights reserved.
    #

    import os
    import sys

    from multiprocessing import Process, current_process, freeze_support
    from BaseHTTPServer import HTTPServer
    from SimpleHTTPServer import SimpleHTTPRequestHandler

    if sys.platform == 'win32':
        import multiprocessing.reduction    # make sockets pickable/inheritable

    def note(format, *args):
        sys.stderr.write('[%s]\t%s\n' % (current_process().name, format%args))

    class RequestHandler(SimpleHTTPRequestHandler):
        # we override log_message() to show which process is handling the request
        def log_message(self, format, *args):
            note(format, *args)

    def serve_forever(server):
        note('starting server')
        try:
            server.serve_forever()
        except KeyboardInterrupt:
            pass

    def runpool(address, number_of_processes):
        # create a single server object -- children will each inherit a copy
        server = HTTPServer(address, RequestHandler)

        # create child processes to act as workers
        for i in range(number_of_processes-1):
            Process(target=serve_forever, args=(server,)).start()

        # main process also acts as a worker
        serve_forever(server)

    def test():
        DIR = os.path.join(os.path.dirname(__file__), '..')
        ADDRESS = ('localhost', 8000)
        NUMBER_OF_PROCESSES = 4

        print 'Serving at http://%s:%d using %d worker processes' % \
              (ADDRESS[0], ADDRESS[1], NUMBER_OF_PROCESSES)
        print 'To exit press Ctrl-' + ['C', 'Break'][sys.platform=='win32']

        os.chdir(DIR)
        runpool(ADDRESS, NUMBER_OF_PROCESSES)

    if __name__ == '__main__':
        freeze_support()
        test()

Some simple benchmarks comparing `multiprocessing` with `threading`:

    #
    # Simple benchmarks for the multiprocessing package
    #
    # Copyright (c) 2006-2008, R Oudkerk
    # All rights reserved.
    #

    import time, sys, multiprocessing, threading, Queue, gc

    if sys.platform == 'win32':
        _timer = time.clock
    else:
        _timer = time.time

    delta = 1

    #### TEST_QUEUESPEED

    def queuespeed_func(q, c, iterations):
        a = '0' * 256
        c.acquire()
        c.notify()
        c.release()

        for i in xrange(iterations):
            q.put(a)

        q.put('STOP')

    def test_queuespeed(Process, q, c):
        elapsed = 0
        iterations = 1

        while elapsed < delta:
            iterations *= 2

            p = Process(target=queuespeed_func, args=(q, c, iterations))
            c.acquire()
            p.start()
            c.wait()
            c.release()

            result = None
            t = _timer()

            while result != 'STOP':
                result = q.get()

            elapsed = _timer() - t

            p.join()

        print iterations, 'objects passed through the queue in', elapsed, 'seconds'
        print 'average number/sec:', iterations/elapsed

    #### TEST_PIPESPEED

    def pipe_func(c, cond, iterations):
        a = '0' * 256
        cond.acquire()
        cond.notify()
        cond.release()

        for i in xrange(iterations):
            c.send(a)

        c.send('STOP')

    def test_pipespeed():
        c, d = multiprocessing.Pipe()
        cond = multiprocessing.Condition()
        elapsed = 0
        iterations = 1

        while elapsed < delta:
            iterations *= 2

            p = multiprocessing.Process(target=pipe_func,
                                        args=(d, cond, iterations))
            cond.acquire()
            p.start()
            cond.wait()
            cond.release()

            result = None
            t = _timer()

            while result != 'STOP':
                result = c.recv()

            elapsed = _timer() - t
            p.join()

        print iterations, 'objects passed through connection in',elapsed,'seconds'
        print 'average number/sec:', iterations/elapsed

    #### TEST_SEQSPEED

    def test_seqspeed(seq):
        elapsed = 0
        iterations = 1

        while elapsed < delta:
            iterations *= 2

            t = _timer()

            for i in xrange(iterations):
                a = seq[5]

            elapsed = _timer()-t

        print iterations, 'iterations in', elapsed, 'seconds'
        print 'average number/sec:', iterations/elapsed

    #### TEST_LOCK

    def test_lockspeed(l):
        elapsed = 0
        iterations = 1

        while elapsed < delta:
            iterations *= 2

            t = _timer()

            for i in xrange(iterations):
                l.acquire()
                l.release()

            elapsed = _timer()-t

        print iterations, 'iterations in', elapsed, 'seconds'
        print 'average number/sec:', iterations/elapsed

    #### TEST_CONDITION

    def conditionspeed_func(c, N):
        c.acquire()
        c.notify()

        for i in xrange(N):
            c.wait()
            c.notify()

        c.release()

    def test_conditionspeed(Process, c):
        elapsed = 0
        iterations = 1

        while elapsed < delta:
            iterations *= 2

            c.acquire()
            p = Process(target=conditionspeed_func, args=(c, iterations))
            p.start()

            c.wait()

            t = _timer()

            for i in xrange(iterations):
                c.notify()
                c.wait()

            elapsed = _timer()-t

            c.release()
            p.join()

        print iterations * 2, 'waits in', elapsed, 'seconds'
        print 'average number/sec:', iterations * 2 / elapsed

    ####

    def test():
        manager = multiprocessing.Manager()

        gc.disable()

        print '\n\t######## testing Queue.Queue\n'
        test_queuespeed(threading.Thread, Queue.Queue(),
                        threading.Condition())
        print '\n\t######## testing multiprocessing.Queue\n'
        test_queuespeed(multiprocessing.Process, multiprocessing.Queue(),
                        multiprocessing.Condition())
        print '\n\t######## testing Queue managed by server process\n'
        test_queuespeed(multiprocessing.Process, manager.Queue(),
                        manager.Condition())
        print '\n\t######## testing multiprocessing.Pipe\n'
        test_pipespeed()

        print

        print '\n\t######## testing list\n'
        test_seqspeed(range(10))
        print '\n\t######## testing list managed by server process\n'
        test_seqspeed(manager.list(range(10)))
        print '\n\t######## testing Array("i", ..., lock=False)\n'
        test_seqspeed(multiprocessing.Array('i', range(10), lock=False))
        print '\n\t######## testing Array("i", ..., lock=True)\n'
        test_seqspeed(multiprocessing.Array('i', range(10), lock=True))

        print

        print '\n\t######## testing threading.Lock\n'
        test_lockspeed(threading.Lock())
        print '\n\t######## testing threading.RLock\n'
        test_lockspeed(threading.RLock())
        print '\n\t######## testing multiprocessing.Lock\n'
        test_lockspeed(multiprocessing.Lock())
        print '\n\t######## testing multiprocessing.RLock\n'
        test_lockspeed(multiprocessing.RLock())
        print '\n\t######## testing lock managed by server process\n'
        test_lockspeed(manager.Lock())
        print '\n\t######## testing rlock managed by server process\n'
        test_lockspeed(manager.RLock())

        print

        print '\n\t######## testing threading.Condition\n'
        test_conditionspeed(threading.Thread, threading.Condition())
        print '\n\t######## testing multiprocessing.Condition\n'
        test_conditionspeed(multiprocessing.Process, multiprocessing.Condition())
        print '\n\t######## testing condition managed by a server process\n'
        test_conditionspeed(multiprocessing.Process, manager.Condition())

        gc.enable()

    if __name__ == '__main__':
        multiprocessing.freeze_support()
        test()

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