I have a script in which a Slow and a Fast function processes the same global object array. The Slow function is for filling up the array with new objects based on resource intensive calculations, the Fast is only for iterating the existing objects in the array and maintaining/displaying them. The Slow function only needs to be run only in every few seconds, but the Fast function is imperative to run as frequently as possible. I tried using asyncio and ensure_future calling the Slow process, but the result was that the Fast(main) function ran until I stopped it, and only at the end was the Slow function called. I need the Slow function to start running in the instance it is called in the background and complete whenever it can, but without blocking the call of the Fast function. Can you help me please?
Thank you!
An example of what I tried:
import asyncio
variable = []
async def slow():
temp = get_new_objects() #resource intensive
global variable
variable = temp
async def main():
while True: #Looping
if need_to_run_slow: #Only run sometimes
asyncio.ensure_future(slow())
do_fast_stuff_with(variable) #fast part
if __name__ == "__main__":
loop = asyncio.get_event_loop()
loop.run_until_complete(main())
loop.close()
asyncio.ensure_future(slow()) only schedules slow() to run at the next pass of the event loop. Since your while loop doesn't await anything that can actually block, you are not giving the event loop a chance to run.
You can work around the issue by adding an await asyncio.sleep(0) after the call to the fast function:
async def main():
while True:
if need_to_run_slow:
asyncio.ensure_future(slow())
await asyncio.sleep(0)
do_fast_stuff_with(variable)
The no-op sleep will ensure that at every iteration of the while loop (and between runs of the "fast" function") gives a chance for a previously scheduled slow() to make progress.
However, your slow() doesn't await either, so all of its code will run in a single iteration, which makes the above equivalent to the much simpler:
def main():
while True:
slow() # slow() is an ordinary function
do_fast_stuff_with(variable)
A code example closer to your actual use case would probably result in a more directly usable answer.
Related
I have a asyncio running loop, and from the coroutine I'm calling a sync function, is there any way we can call and get result from an async function in a sync function
tried below code, it is not working
want to print output of hel() in i() without changing i() to async function
is it possible, if yes how?
import asyncio
async def hel():
return 4
def i():
loop = asyncio.get_running_loop()
x = asyncio.run_coroutine_threadsafe(hel(), loop) ## need to change
y = x.result() ## this lines
print(y)
async def h():
i()
asyncio.run(h())
This is one of the most commonly asked type of question here. The tools to do this are in the standard library and require only a few lines of setup code. However, the result is not 100% robust and needs to be used with care. This is probably why it's not already a high-level function.
The basic problem with running an async function from a sync function is that async functions contain await expressions. Await expressions pause the execution of the current task and allow the event loop to run other tasks. Therefore async functions (coroutines) have special properties that allow them to yield control and resume again where they left off. Sync functions cannot do this. So when your sync function calls an async function and that function encounters an await expression, what is supposed to happen? The sync function has no ability to yield and resume.
A simple solution is to run the async function in another thread, with its own event loop. The calling thread blocks until the result is available. The async function behaves like a normal function, returning a value. The downside is that the async function now runs in another thread, which can cause all the well-known problems that come with threaded programming. For many cases this may not be an issue.
This can be set up as follows. This is a complete script that can be imported anywhere in an application. The test code that runs in the if __name__ == "__main__" block is almost the same as the code in the original question.
The thread is lazily initialized so it doesn't get created until it's used. It's a daemon thread so it will not keep your program from exiting.
The solution doesn't care if there is a running event loop in the main thread.
import asyncio
import threading
_loop = asyncio.new_event_loop()
_thr = threading.Thread(target=_loop.run_forever, name="Async Runner",
daemon=True)
# This will block the calling thread until the coroutine is finished.
# Any exception that occurs in the coroutine is raised in the caller
def run_async(coro): # coro is a couroutine, see example
if not _thr.is_alive():
_thr.start()
future = asyncio.run_coroutine_threadsafe(coro, _loop)
return future.result()
if __name__ == "__main__":
async def hel():
await asyncio.sleep(0.1)
print("Running in thread", threading.current_thread())
return 4
def i():
y = run_async(hel())
print("Answer", y, threading.current_thread())
async def h():
i()
asyncio.run(h())
Output:
Running in thread <Thread(Async Runner, started daemon 28816)>
Answer 4 <_MainThread(MainThread, started 22100)>
In order to call an async function from a sync method, you need to use asyncio.run, however this should be the single entry point of an async program so asyncio makes sure that you don't do this more than once per program, so you can't do that.
That being said, this project https://github.com/erdewit/nest_asyncio patches the asyncio event loop to do that, so after using it you should be able to just call asyncio.run in your sync function.
My project requires me to run a blocking code (from another library), whilst continuing my asyncio while: true loop. The code looks something like this:
async def main():
while True:
session_timeout = aiohttp.ClientTimeout()
async with aiohttp.ClientSession() as session:
// Do async stuffs like session.get and so on
# At a certain point, I have a blocking code that I need to execute
// Blocking_code() starts here. The blocking code needs time to get the return value.
Running blocking_code() is the last thing to do in my main() function.
# My objective is to run the blocking code separately.
# Such that whilst the blocking_code() runs, I would like my loop to start from the beginning again,
# and not having to wait until blocking_code() completes and returns.
# In other words, go back to the top of the while loop.
# Separately, the blocking_code() will continue to run independently, which would eventually complete
# and returns. When it returns, nothing in main() will need the return value. Rather the returned
# result continue to be used in blocking_code()
asyncio.run(main())
I have tried using pool = ThreadPool(processes=1) and thread = pool.apply_async(blocking_code, params). It sort of works if there are things that needs to be done after blocking_code() within main(); but blocking_code() is the last thing in main(), and it would cause the whole while loop to pause, until blocking_code() completes, before starting back from the top.
I don't know if this is possible, and if it is, how it's done; but the ideal scenario is this.
Run main(), then run blocking_code() in its own instance. As if executing another .py file. So once the loops reaches blocking_code() in main(), it triggers the blocking_code.py file, and whilst blocking_code.py script runs, the while loops continues from the top again.
If by the time on the 2nd pass in the while loop, it reaches blocking_code() again and the previous run has not complete; another instance of blocking_code() will run on its own instance, independently.
Does what I say make sense? Is it possible to achieve the desired outcome?
Thank you!
This is possible with threads. So you don't block your main loop, you'll need to wrap your thread in an asyncio task. You can wait for return values once your loop is finished if you need to. You can do this with a combination of asyncio.create_task and asyncio.to_thread
import aiohttp
import asyncio
import time
def blocking_code():
print('Starting blocking code.')
time.sleep(5)
print('Finished blocking code.')
async def main():
blocking_code_tasks = []
while True:
session_timeout = aiohttp.ClientTimeout()
async with aiohttp.ClientSession() as session:
print('Executing GET.')
result = await session.get('https://www.example.com')
blocking_code_task = asyncio.create_task(asyncio.to_thread(blocking_code))
blocking_code_tasks.append(blocking_code_task)
#do something with blocking_code_tasks, wait for them to finish, extract errors, etc.
asyncio.run(main())
The above code runes blocking code in a thread and then puts that into an asyncio task. We then add this to the blocking_code_tasks list to keep track of all the currently running tasks. Later on, you can get the values or errors out with something like asyncio.gather
I am trying to learn to use asyncio in Python to optimize scripts.
My example returns a coroutine was never awaited warning, can you help to understand and find how to solve it?
import time
import datetime
import random
import asyncio
import aiohttp
import requests
def requete_bloquante(num):
print(f'Get {num}')
uid = requests.get("https://httpbin.org/uuid").json()['uuid']
print(f"Res {num}: {uid}")
def faire_toutes_les_requetes():
for x in range(10):
requete_bloquante(x)
print("Bloquant : ")
start = datetime.datetime.now()
faire_toutes_les_requetes()
exec_time = (datetime.datetime.now() - start).seconds
print(f"Pour faire 10 requêtes, ça prend {exec_time}s\n")
async def requete_sans_bloquer(num, session):
print(f'Get {num}')
async with session.get("https://httpbin.org/uuid") as response:
uid = (await response.json()['uuid'])
print(f"Res {num}: {uid}")
async def faire_toutes_les_requetes_sans_bloquer():
loop = asyncio.get_event_loop()
with aiohttp.ClientSession() as session:
futures = [requete_sans_bloquer(x, session) for x in range(10)]
loop.run_until_complete(asyncio.gather(*futures))
loop.close()
print("Fin de la boucle !")
print("Non bloquant : ")
start = datetime.datetime.now()
faire_toutes_les_requetes_sans_bloquer()
exec_time = (datetime.datetime.now() - start).seconds
print(f"Pour faire 10 requêtes, ça prend {exec_time}s\n")
The first classic part of the code runs correctly, but the second half only produces:
synchronicite.py:43: RuntimeWarning: coroutine 'faire_toutes_les_requetes_sans_bloquer' was never awaited
You made faire_toutes_les_requetes_sans_bloquer an awaitable function, a coroutine, by using async def.
When you call an awaitable function, you create a new coroutine object. The code inside the function won't run until you then await on the function or run it as a task:
>>> async def foo():
... print("Running the foo coroutine")
...
>>> foo()
<coroutine object foo at 0x10b186348>
>>> import asyncio
>>> asyncio.run(foo())
Running the foo coroutine
You want to keep that function synchronous, because you don't start the loop until inside that function:
def faire_toutes_les_requetes_sans_bloquer():
loop = asyncio.get_event_loop()
# ...
loop.close()
print("Fin de la boucle !")
However, you are also trying to use a aiophttp.ClientSession() object, and that's an asynchronous context manager, you are expected to use it with async with, not just with, and so has to be run in aside an awaitable task. If you use with instead of async with a TypeError("Use async with instead") exception will be raised.
That all means you need to move the loop.run_until_complete() call out of your faire_toutes_les_requetes_sans_bloquer() function, so you can keep that as the main task to be run; you can call and await on asycio.gather() directly then:
async def faire_toutes_les_requetes_sans_bloquer():
async with aiohttp.ClientSession() as session:
futures = [requete_sans_bloquer(x, session) for x in range(10)]
await asyncio.gather(*futures)
print("Fin de la boucle !")
print("Non bloquant : ")
start = datetime.datetime.now()
asyncio.run(faire_toutes_les_requetes_sans_bloquer())
exec_time = (datetime.datetime.now() - start).seconds
print(f"Pour faire 10 requêtes, ça prend {exec_time}s\n")
I used the new asyncio.run() function (Python 3.7 and up) to run the single main task. This creates a dedicated loop for that top-level coroutine and runs it until complete.
Next, you need to move the closing ) parenthesis on the await resp.json() expression:
uid = (await response.json())['uuid']
You want to access the 'uuid' key on the result of the await, not the coroutine that response.json() produces.
With those changes your code works, but the asyncio version finishes in sub-second time; you may want to print microseconds:
exec_time = (datetime.datetime.now() - start).total_seconds()
print(f"Pour faire 10 requêtes, ça prend {exec_time:.3f}s\n")
On my machine, the synchronous requests code in about 4-5 seconds, and the asycio code completes in under .5 seconds.
Do not use loop.run_until_complete call inside async function. The purpose for that method is to run an async function inside sync context. Anyway here's how you should change the code:
async def faire_toutes_les_requetes_sans_bloquer():
async with aiohttp.ClientSession() as session:
futures = [requete_sans_bloquer(x, session) for x in range(10)]
await asyncio.gather(*futures)
print("Fin de la boucle !")
loop = asyncio.get_event_loop()
loop.run_until_complete(faire_toutes_les_requetes_sans_bloquer())
Note that alone faire_toutes_les_requetes_sans_bloquer() call creates a future that has to be either awaited via explicit await (for that you have to be inside async context) or passed to some event loop. When left alone Python complains about that. In your original code you do none of that.
Not sure if this was the issue for you, but for me the response from the coroutine was another coroutine, so my code started warning me (note not actually crashing) I had creating coroutines that weren't being called. After I actually called them (although I didn't realy use the response the error went away).
Note main code I added was:
content_from_url_as_str: list[str] = await asyncio.gather(*content_from_url, return_exceptions=True)
inspired after I saw:
response: str = await content_from_url[0]
Full code:
"""
-- Notes from [1]
Threading and asyncio both run on a single processor and therefore only run one at a time [1]. It's cooperative concurrency.
Note: threads.py has a very good block with good defintions for io-bound, cpu-bound if you need to recall it.
Note: coroutine is an important definition to understand before proceeding. Definition provided at the end of this tutorial.
General idea for asyncio is that there is a general event loop that controls how and when each tasks gets run.
The event loop is aware of each task and knows what states they are in.
For simplicitly of exponsition assume there are only two states:
a) Ready state
b) Waiting state
a) indicates that a task has work to do and can be run - while b) indicates that a task is waiting for a response from an
external thing (e.g. io, printer, disk, network, coq, etc). This simplified event loop has two lists of tasks
(ready_to_run_lst, waiting_lst) and runs things from the ready to run list. Once a task runs it is in complete control
until it cooperatively hands back control to the event loop.
The way it works is that the task that was ran does what it needs to do (usually an io operation, or an interleaved op
or something like that) but crucially it gives control back to the event loop when the running task (with control) thinks is best.
(Note that this means the task might not have fully completed getting what is "fully needs".
This is probably useful when the user whats to implement the interleaving himself.)
Once the task cooperatively gives back control to the event loop it is placed by the event loop in either the
ready to run list or waiting list (depending how fast the io ran, etc). Then the event loop goes through the waiting
loop to see if anything waiting has "returned".
Once all the tasks have been sorted into the right list the event loop is able to choose what to run next (e.g. by
choosing the one that has been waiting to be ran the longest). This repeats until the event loop code you wrote is done.
The crucial point (and distinction with threads) that we want to emphasizes is that in asyncio, an operation is never
interrupted in the middle and every switching/interleaving is done deliberately by the programmer.
In a way you don't have to worry about making your code thread safe.
For more details see [2], [3].
Asyncio syntax:
i) await = this is where the code you wrote calls an expensive function (e.g. an io) and thus hands back control to the
event loop. Then the event loop will likely put it in the waiting loop and runs some other task. Likely eventually
the event loop comes back to this function and runs the remaining code given that we have the value from the io now.
await = the key word that does (mainly) two things 1) gives control back to the event loop to see if there is something
else to run if we called it on a real expensive io operation (e.g. calling network, printer, etc) 2) gives control to
the new coroutine (code that might give up control copperatively) that it is awaiting. If this is your own code with async
then it means it will go into this new async function (coroutine) you defined.
No real async benefits are being experienced until you call (await) a real io e.g. asyncio.sleep is the typical debug example.
todo: clarify, I think await doesn't actually give control back to the event loop but instead runs the "coroutine" this
await is pointing too. This means that if it's a real IO then it will actually give it back to the event loop
to do something else. In this case it is actually doing something "in parallel" in the async way.
Otherwise, it is your own python coroutine and thus gives it the control but "no true async parallelism" happens.
iii) async = approximately a flag that tells python the defined function might use await. This is not strictly true but
it gives you a simple model while your getting started. todo - clarify async.
async = defines a coroutine. This doesn't define a real io, it only defines a function that can give up and give the
execution power to other coroutines or the (asyncio) event loop.
todo - context manager with async
ii) awaiting = when you call something (e.g. a function) that usually requires waiting for the io response/return/value.
todo: though it seems it's also the python keyword to give control to a coroutine you wrote in python or give
control to the event loop assuming your awaiting an actual io call.
iv) async with = this creates a context manager from an object you would normally await - i.e. an object you would
wait to get the return value from an io. So usually we swap out (switch) from this object.
todo - e.g.
Note: - any function that calls await needs to be marked with async or you’ll get a syntax error otherwise.
- a task never gives up control without intentionally doing so e.g. never in the middle of an op.
Cons: - note how this also requires more thinking carefully (but feels less dangerous than threading due to no pre-emptive
switching) due to the concurrency. Another disadvantage is again the idisocyncracies of using this in python + learning
new syntax and details for it to actually work.
- understanding the semanics of new syntax + learning where to really put the syntax to avoid semantic errors.
- we needed a special asycio compatible lib for requests, since the normal requests is not designed to inform
the event loop that it's block (or done blocking)
- if one of the tasks doesn't cooperate properly then the whole code can be a mess and slow it down.
- not all libraries support the async IO paradigm in python (e.g. asyncio, trio, etc).
Pro: + despite learning where to put await and async might be annoying it forces your to think carefully about your code
which on itself can be an advantage (e.g. better, faster, less bugs due to thinking carefully)
+ often faster...? (skeptical)
1. https://realpython.com/python-concurrency/
2. https://realpython.com/async-io-python/
3. https://stackoverflow.com/a/51116910/6843734
todo - read [2] later (or [3] but thats not a tutorial and its more details so perhaps not a priority).
asynchronous = 1) dictionary def: not happening at the same time
e.g. happening indepedently 2) computing def: happening independently of the main program flow
couroutine = are computer program components that generalize subroutines for non-preemptive multitasking, by allowing execution to be suspended and resumed.
So basically it's a routine/"function" that can give up control in "a controlled way" (i.e. not randomly like with threads).
Usually they are associated with a single process -- so it's concurrent but not parallel.
Interesting note: Coroutines are well-suited for implementing familiar program components such as cooperative tasks, exceptions, event loops, iterators, infinite lists and pipes.
Likely we have an event loop in this document as an example. I guess yield and operators too are good examples!
Interesting contrast with subroutines: Subroutines are special cases of coroutines.[3] When subroutines are invoked, execution begins at the start,
and once a subroutine exits, it is finished; an instance of a subroutine only returns once, and does not hold state between invocations.
By contrast, coroutines can exit by calling other coroutines, which may later return to the point where they were invoked in the original coroutine;
from the coroutine's point of view, it is not exiting but calling another coroutine.
Coroutines are very similar to threads. However, coroutines are cooperatively multitasked, whereas threads are typically preemptively multitasked.
event loop = event loop is a programming construct or design pattern that waits for and dispatches events or messages in a program.
Appendix:
For I/O-bound problems, there’s a general rule of thumb in the Python community:
“Use asyncio when you can, threading when you must.”
asyncio can provide the best speed up for this type of program, but sometimes you will require critical libraries that
have not been ported to take advantage of asyncio.
Remember that any task that doesn’t give up control to the event loop will block all of the other tasks
-- Notes from [2]
see asyncio_example2.py file.
The sync fil should have taken longer e.g. in one run the async file took:
Downloaded 160 sites in 0.4063692092895508 seconds
While the sync option took:
Downloaded 160 in 3.351937770843506 seconds
"""
import asyncio
from asyncio import Task
from asyncio.events import AbstractEventLoop
import aiohttp
from aiohttp import ClientResponse
from aiohttp.client import ClientSession
from typing import Coroutine
import time
async def download_site(session: ClientSession, url: str) -> str:
async with session.get(url) as response:
print(f"Read {response.content_length} from {url}")
return response.text()
async def download_all_sites(sites: list[str]) -> list[str]:
# async with = this creates a context manager from an object you would normally await - i.e. an object you would wait to get the return value from an io. So usually we swap out (switch) from this object.
async with aiohttp.ClientSession() as session: # we will usually away session.FUNCS
# create all the download code a coroutines/task to be later managed/run by the event loop
tasks: list[Task] = []
for url in sites:
# creates a task from a coroutine todo: basically it seems it creates a callable coroutine? (i.e. function that is able to give up control cooperatively or runs an external io and also thus gives back control cooperatively to the event loop). read more? https://stackoverflow.com/questions/36342899/asyncio-ensure-future-vs-baseeventloop-create-task-vs-simple-coroutine
task: Task = asyncio.ensure_future(download_site(session, url))
tasks.append(task)
# runs tasks/coroutines in the event loop and aggrates the results. todo: does this halt until all coroutines have returned? I think so due to the paridgm of how async code works.
content_from_url: list[ClientResponse.text] = await asyncio.gather(*tasks, return_exceptions=True)
assert isinstance(content_from_url[0], Coroutine) # note allresponses are coroutines
print(f'result after aggregating/doing all coroutine tasks/jobs = {content_from_url=}')
# this is needed since the response is in a coroutine object for some reason
content_from_url_as_str: list[str] = await asyncio.gather(*content_from_url, return_exceptions=True)
print(f'result after getting response from coroutines that hold the text = {content_from_url_as_str=}')
return content_from_url_as_str
if __name__ == "__main__":
# - args
num_sites: int = 80
sites: list[str] = ["https://www.jython.org", "http://olympus.realpython.org/dice"] * num_sites
start_time: float = time.time()
# - run the same 160 tasks but without async paradigm, should be slower!
# note: you can't actually do this here because you have the async definitions to your functions.
# to test the synchronous version see the synchronous.py file. Then compare the two run times.
# await download_all_sites(sites)
# download_all_sites(sites)
# - Execute the coroutine coro and return the result.
asyncio.run(download_all_sites(sites))
# - run event loop manager and run all tasks with cooperative concurrency
# asyncio.get_event_loop().run_until_complete(download_all_sites(sites))
# makes explicit the creation of the event loop that manages the coroutines & external ios
# event_loop: AbstractEventLoop = asyncio.get_event_loop()
# asyncio.run(download_all_sites(sites))
# making creating the coroutine that hasn't been ran yet with it's args explicit
# event_loop: AbstractEventLoop = asyncio.get_event_loop()
# download_all_sites_coroutine: Coroutine = download_all_sites(sites)
# asyncio.run(download_all_sites_coroutine)
# - print stats about the content download and duration
duration = time.time() - start_time
print(f"Downloaded {len(sites)} sites in {duration} seconds")
print('Success.\a')
I want to execute web scraping with a set of categories, and each category also has a list of URLs. So I decided to call a function based only on each category in the main function, and within the inner function there is a non-blocking call.
So here is the code:
def main():
loop = asyncio.get_event_loop()
b = loop.create_task(f("p", all_p_list))
f = loop.create_task(f("f", all_f_list))
loop.run_until_complete(asyncio.gather(p, f))
It should execute the f function concurrently.
But the f function also has to run the loop, since in the function it calls a function simultaneously, based on each URL.
async def f(category, total):
urls = [urls_template[category].format(t) for t in t_list]
soups_coro = map(parseURL_async, urls)
loop = asyncio.get_event_loop()
result = await loop.run_until_complete(asyncio.gather(*soups_coro))
But after I run the script, it got an This event loop is already running error, and I found that it is because I call loop.run_until_complete() in both inner and outer functions.
However, when I strip the run_until_complete(), and just call f() in the main(), the function call immediately got finished and it cannot wait for the inner function to finish. So it is inevitable to call the loop in the main(). But then I think it is incompatible with the inner function, which also must call it.
How can I deal with the problem and run the loop? The orinigal code is all in the same main() and it worked, but I want to make it cleaner if possible.
How can I deal with the problem and run the loop?
The loop is already running. You don't need to (and can't) run it again.
result = await loop.run_until_complete(asyncio.gather(*soups_coro))
You're awaiting the wrong thing. loop.run_until_complete doesn't return something you can await (a Future); it returns the result of whatever you're running until completion.
The reason nothing appears to happen when you call f directly is that f is an asyncio-style coroutine. As such it returns a future that must be scheduled with the event loop. It doesn't execute until a running event loop tells it to. loop.run_until_complete takes care of all of that for you.
To wrap up your question, you want to await asyncio.gather.
async def f(category, total):
urls = [urls_template[category].format(t) for t in t_list]
soups_coro = map(parseURL_async, urls)
result = await asyncio.gather(*soups_coro)
And you probably also want to include return result at the end of f, too.
Convert main() into async function and execute it by loop.run_until_complete().
When the code has the only one run_until_complete() -- everything becomes much easier. In Python 3.7 you will be able to write just asyncio.run(main())
I've written a library of objects, many which make HTTP / IO calls. I've been looking at moving over to asyncio due to the mounting overheads, but I don't want to rewrite the underlying code.
I've been hoping to wrap asyncio around my code in order to perform functions asynchronously without replacing all of my deep / low level code with await / yield.
I began by attempting the following:
async def my_function1(some_object, some_params):
#Lots of existing code which uses existing objects
#No await statements
return output_data
async def my_function2():
#Does more stuff
while True:
loop = asyncio.get_event_loop()
tasks = my_function(some_object, some_params), my_function2()
output_data = loop.run_until_complete(asyncio.gather(*tasks))
print(output_data)
I quickly realised that while this code runs, nothing actually happens asynchronously, the functions complete synchronously. I'm very new to asynchronous programming, but I think this is because neither of my functions are using the keyword await or yield and thus these functions are not cooroutines, and do not yield, thus do not provide an opportunity to move to a different cooroutine. Please correct me if I am wrong.
My question is, is it possible to wrap complex functions (where deep within they make HTTP / IO calls ) in an asyncio await keyword, e.g.
async def my_function():
print("Welcome to my function")
data = await bigSlowFunction()
UPDATE - Following Karlson's Answer
Following and thanks to Karlsons accepted answer, I used the following code which works nicely:
from concurrent.futures import ThreadPoolExecutor
import time
#Some vars
a_var_1 = 0
a_var_2 = 10
pool = ThreadPoolExecutor(3)
future = pool.submit(my_big_function, object, a_var_1, a_var_2)
while not future.done() :
print("Waiting for future...")
time.sleep(0.01)
print("Future done")
print(future.result())
This works really nicely, and the future.done() / sleep loop gives you an idea of how many CPU cycles you get to use by going async.
The short answer is, you can't have the benefits of asyncio without explicitly marking the points in your code where control may be passed back to the event loop. This is done by turning your IO heavy functions into coroutines, just like you assumed.
Without changing existing code you might achieve your goal with greenlets (have a look at eventlet or gevent).
Another possibility would be to make use of Python's Future implementation wrapping and passing calls to your already written functions to some ThreadPoolExecutor and yield the resulting Future. Be aware, that this comes with all the caveats of multi-threaded programming, though.
Something along the lines of
from concurrent.futures import ThreadPoolExecutor
from thinair import big_slow_function
executor = ThreadPoolExecutor(max_workers=5)
async def big_slow_coroutine():
await executor.submit(big_slow_function)
As of python 3.9 you can wrap a blocking (non-async) function in a coroutine to make it awaitable using asyncio.to_thread(). The exampe given in the official documentation is:
def blocking_io():
print(f"start blocking_io at {time.strftime('%X')}")
# Note that time.sleep() can be replaced with any blocking
# IO-bound operation, such as file operations.
time.sleep(1)
print(f"blocking_io complete at {time.strftime('%X')}")
async def main():
print(f"started main at {time.strftime('%X')}")
await asyncio.gather(
asyncio.to_thread(blocking_io),
asyncio.sleep(1))
print(f"finished main at {time.strftime('%X')}")
asyncio.run(main())
# Expected output:
#
# started main at 19:50:53
# start blocking_io at 19:50:53
# blocking_io complete at 19:50:54
# finished main at 19:50:54
This seems like a more joined up approach than using concurrent.futures to make a coroutine, but I haven't tested it extensively.