Develop Reference

What is the best practice of 'restarting' a thread? [duplicate]

How can I start and stop a thread with my poor thread class?
It is in loop, and I want to restart it again at the beginning of the code. How can I do start-stop-restart-stop-restart?
My class:
import threading
class Concur(threading.Thread):
def __init__(self):
self.stopped = False
threading.Thread.__init__(self)
def run(self):
i = 0
while not self.stopped:
time.sleep(1)
i = i + 1
In the main code, I want:
inst = Concur()
while conditon:
inst.start()
# After some operation
inst.stop()
# Some other operation

You can't actually stop and then restart a thread since you can't call its start() method again after its run() method has terminated. However you can make one pause and then later resume its execution by using a threading.Condition variable to avoid concurrency problems when checking or changing its running state.
threading.Condition objects have an associated threading.Lock object and methods to wait for it to be released and will notify any waiting threads when that occurs. Here's an example derived from the code in your question which shows this being done. In the example code I've made the Condition variable a part of Thread subclass instances to better encapsulate the implementation and avoid needing to introduce additional global variables:
from __future__ import print_function
import threading
import time
class Concur(threading.Thread):
def __init__(self):
super(Concur, self).__init__()
self.iterations = 0
self.daemon = True # Allow main to exit even if still running.
self.paused = True # Start out paused.
self.state = threading.Condition()
def run(self):
self.resume()
while True:
with self.state:
if self.paused:
self.state.wait() # Block execution until notified.
# Do stuff...
time.sleep(.1)
self.iterations += 1
def pause(self):
with self.state:
self.paused = True # Block self.
def resume(self):
with self.state:
self.paused = False
self.state.notify() # Unblock self if waiting.
class Stopwatch(object):
""" Simple class to measure elapsed times. """
def start(self):
""" Establish reference point for elapsed time measurements. """
self.start_time = time.time()
return self
#property
def elapsed_time(self):
""" Seconds since started. """
try:
return time.time() - self.start_time
except AttributeError: # Wasn't explicitly started.
self.start_time = time.time()
return 0
MAX_RUN_TIME = 5 # Seconds.
concur = Concur()
stopwatch = Stopwatch()
print('Running for {} seconds...'.format(MAX_RUN_TIME))
concur.start()
while stopwatch.elapsed_time < MAX_RUN_TIME:
concur.resume()
# Can also do other concurrent operations here...
concur.pause()
# Do some other stuff...
# Show Concur thread executed.
print('concur.iterations: {}'.format(concur.iterations))

This is David Heffernan's idea fleshed-out. The example below runs for 1 second, then stops for 1 second, then runs for 1 second, and so on.
import time
import threading
import datetime as DT
import logging
logger = logging.getLogger(__name__)
def worker(cond):
i = 0
while True:
with cond:
cond.wait()
logger.info(i)
time.sleep(0.01)
i += 1
logging.basicConfig(level=logging.DEBUG,
format='[%(asctime)s %(threadName)s] %(message)s',
datefmt='%H:%M:%S')
cond = threading.Condition()
t = threading.Thread(target=worker, args=(cond, ))
t.daemon = True
t.start()
start = DT.datetime.now()
while True:
now = DT.datetime.now()
if (now-start).total_seconds() > 60: break
if now.second % 2:
with cond:
cond.notify()

The implementation of stop() would look like this:
def stop(self):
self.stopped = True
If you want to restart, then you can just create a new instance and start that.
while conditon:
inst = Concur()
inst.start()
#after some operation
inst.stop()
#some other operation
The documentation for Thread makes it clear that the start() method can only be called once for each instance of the class.
If you want to pause and resume a thread, then you'll need to use a condition variable.

Python 3 Limit count of active threads (finished threads do not quit)

I want to limit the number of active threads. What i have seen is, that a finished thread stays alive and does not exit itself, so the number of active threads keep growing until an error occours.
The following code starts only 8 threads at a time but they stay alive even when they finished. So the number keeps growing:
class ThreadEx(threading.Thread):
__thread_limiter = None
__max_threads = 2
#classmethod
def max_threads(cls, thread_max):
ThreadEx.__max_threads = thread_max
ThreadEx.__thread_limiter = threading.BoundedSemaphore(value=ThreadEx.__max_threads)
def __init__(self, target=None, args:tuple=()):
super().__init__(target=target, args=args)
if not ThreadEx.__thread_limiter:
ThreadEx.__thread_limiter = threading.BoundedSemaphore(value=ThreadEx.__max_threads)
def run(self):
ThreadEx.__thread_limiter.acquire()
try:
#success = self._target(*self._args)
#if success: return True
super().run()
except:
pass
finally:
ThreadEx.__thread_limiter.release()
def call_me(test1, test2):
print(test1 + test2)
time.sleep(1)
ThreadEx.max_threads(8)
for i in range(0, 99):
t = ThreadEx(target=call_me, args=("Thread count: ", str(threading.active_count())))
t.start()
Due to the for loop, the number of threads keep growing to 99.
I know that a thread has done its work because call_me has been executed and threading.active_count() was printed.
Does somebody know how i make sure, a finished thread does not stay alive?

This may be a silly answer but to me it looks you are trying to reinvent ThreadPool.
from multiprocessing.pool import ThreadPool
from time import sleep
p = ThreadPool(8)
def call_me(test1):
print(test1)
sleep(1)
for i in range(0, 99):
p.apply_async(call_me, args=(i,))
p.close()
p.join()
This will ensure only 8 concurrent threads are running your function at any point of time. And if you want a bit more performance, you can import Pool from multiprocessing and use that. The interface is exactly the same but your pool will now be subprocesses instead of threads, which usually gives a performance boost as GIL does not come in the way.

I have changed the class according to the help of Hannu.
I post it for reference, maybe it's useful for others that come across this post:
import threading
from multiprocessing.pool import ThreadPool
import time
class MultiThread():
__thread_pool = None
#classmethod
def begin(cls, max_threads):
MultiThread.__thread_pool = ThreadPool(max_threads)
#classmethod
def end(cls):
MultiThread.__thread_pool.close()
MultiThread.__thread_pool.join()
def __init__(self, target=None, args:tuple=()):
self.__target = target
self.__args = args
def run(self):
try:
result = MultiThread.__thread_pool.apply_async(self.__target, args=self.__args)
return result.get()
except:
pass
def call_me(test1, test2):
print(test1 + test2)
time.sleep(1)
return 0
MultiThread.begin(8)
for i in range(0, 99):
t = MultiThread(target=call_me, args=("Thread count: ", str(threading.active_count())))
t.run()
MultiThread.end()
The maximum of threads is 8 at any given time determined by the method begin.
And also the method run returns the result of your passed function if it returns something.
Hope that helps.

How to use a thread pool to do infinite loop function?

I want to do a infinite loop function.
Here is my code
def do_request():
# my code here
print(result)
while True:
do_request()
When use while True to do this, it's a little slow, so I want to use a thread pool to concurrently execute the function do_request(). How to do this ?
Just like use ab (Apache Bench) to test HTTP server.

Finally, I've solved this problem. I use a variable to limit the thread number.
Here is my final code, solved my problem.
import threading
import time
thread_num = 0
lock = threading.Lock()
def do_request():
global thread_num
# -------------
# my code here
# -------------
with lock:
thread_num -= 1
while True:
if thread_num <= 50:
with lock:
thread_num += 1
t = threading.Thread(target=do_request)
t.start()
else:
time.sleep(0.01)
Thanks for all replies.

You can use threading in Python to implement this.
Can be something similar to this (when using two extra threads only):
import threading
# define threads
task1 = threading.Thread(target = do_request)
task2 = threading.Thread(target = do_request)
# start both threads
task1.start()
task2.start()
# wait for threads to complete
task1.join()
task2.join()
Basically, you start as many threads as you need (make sure you don't get too many, so your system can handle it), then you .join() them to wait for tasks to complete.
Or you can get fancier with multiprocessing Python module.

Try the following code:
import multiprocessing as mp
import time
def do_request():
while(True):
print('I\'m making requests')
time.sleep(0.5)
p = mp.Process(target=do_request)
p.start()
for ii in range(10):
print 'I\'m also doing other things though'
time.sleep(0.7)
print 'Now it is time to kill the service thread'
p.terminate()
The main thread stars a service thread that does the request and goes on until it has to, and then it finishes up the service thread.

Maybe you can use the concurrent.futures.ThreadPoolExecutor
from concurrent.futures import ThreadPoolExecutor
import time
def wait_on_b(hello):
time.sleep(1)
print(hello) # b will never complete because it is waiting on a.
return 5
def wait_on_a():
time.sleep(1)
print(a.result()) # a will never complete because it is waiting on b.
return 6
executor = ThreadPoolExecutor(max_workers=2)
a = executor.submit(wait_on_b, 3)
b = executor.submit(wait_on_a)

How about this?
from threading import Thread, Event
class WorkerThread(Thread):
def __init__(self, logger, func):
Thread.__init__(self)
self.stop_event = Event()
self.logger = logger
self.func = func
def run(self):
self.logger("Going to start the infinite loop...")
#Your code
self.func()
concur_task = WorkerThread(logger, func = do_request)
concur_task.start()
To end this thread...
concur_task.stop_event.set()
concur_task.join(10) #or any value you like

How to start and stop a thread

How can I start and stop a thread with my poor thread class?
It is in loop, and I want to restart it again at the beginning of the code. How can I do start-stop-restart-stop-restart?
My class:
import threading
class Concur(threading.Thread):
def __init__(self):
self.stopped = False
threading.Thread.__init__(self)
def run(self):
i = 0
while not self.stopped:
time.sleep(1)
i = i + 1
In the main code, I want:
inst = Concur()
while conditon:
inst.start()
# After some operation
inst.stop()
# Some other operation

You can't actually stop and then restart a thread since you can't call its start() method again after its run() method has terminated. However you can make one pause and then later resume its execution by using a threading.Condition variable to avoid concurrency problems when checking or changing its running state.
threading.Condition objects have an associated threading.Lock object and methods to wait for it to be released and will notify any waiting threads when that occurs. Here's an example derived from the code in your question which shows this being done. In the example code I've made the Condition variable a part of Thread subclass instances to better encapsulate the implementation and avoid needing to introduce additional global variables:
from __future__ import print_function
import threading
import time
class Concur(threading.Thread):
def __init__(self):
super(Concur, self).__init__()
self.iterations = 0
self.daemon = True # Allow main to exit even if still running.
self.paused = True # Start out paused.
self.state = threading.Condition()
def run(self):
self.resume()
while True:
with self.state:
if self.paused:
self.state.wait() # Block execution until notified.
# Do stuff...
time.sleep(.1)
self.iterations += 1
def pause(self):
with self.state:
self.paused = True # Block self.
def resume(self):
with self.state:
self.paused = False
self.state.notify() # Unblock self if waiting.
class Stopwatch(object):
""" Simple class to measure elapsed times. """
def start(self):
""" Establish reference point for elapsed time measurements. """
self.start_time = time.time()
return self
#property
def elapsed_time(self):
""" Seconds since started. """
try:
return time.time() - self.start_time
except AttributeError: # Wasn't explicitly started.
self.start_time = time.time()
return 0
MAX_RUN_TIME = 5 # Seconds.
concur = Concur()
stopwatch = Stopwatch()
print('Running for {} seconds...'.format(MAX_RUN_TIME))
concur.start()
while stopwatch.elapsed_time < MAX_RUN_TIME:
concur.resume()
# Can also do other concurrent operations here...
concur.pause()
# Do some other stuff...
# Show Concur thread executed.
print('concur.iterations: {}'.format(concur.iterations))

This is David Heffernan's idea fleshed-out. The example below runs for 1 second, then stops for 1 second, then runs for 1 second, and so on.
import time
import threading
import datetime as DT
import logging
logger = logging.getLogger(__name__)
def worker(cond):
i = 0
while True:
with cond:
cond.wait()
logger.info(i)
time.sleep(0.01)
i += 1
logging.basicConfig(level=logging.DEBUG,
format='[%(asctime)s %(threadName)s] %(message)s',
datefmt='%H:%M:%S')
cond = threading.Condition()
t = threading.Thread(target=worker, args=(cond, ))
t.daemon = True
t.start()
start = DT.datetime.now()
while True:
now = DT.datetime.now()
if (now-start).total_seconds() > 60: break
if now.second % 2:
with cond:
cond.notify()

The implementation of stop() would look like this:
def stop(self):
self.stopped = True
If you want to restart, then you can just create a new instance and start that.
while conditon:
inst = Concur()
inst.start()
#after some operation
inst.stop()
#some other operation
The documentation for Thread makes it clear that the start() method can only be called once for each instance of the class.
If you want to pause and resume a thread, then you'll need to use a condition variable.

How to terminate a thread in Python without loop in run method?

Having class which has a long method.
Creating a thread for that method.
How i can kill\terminate this thread?
Main problem is that i can't check for threading.Event in thread run() method because it doesn't contain loop.
Similar code as here:
import time
import threading
class LongAction:
def time_consuming_action(self):
tmax = 600
for i in range(tmax):
print i
time.sleep(1)
time.sleep(tmax)
self.tmax = tmax
return "Slept well"
class LongActionThread(threading.Thread):
def __init__(self, la_object):
self.la = la_object
threading.Thread.__init__(self)
def run(self):
self.la.time_consuming_action()
la = LongAction()
la_thread = LongActionThread(la)
la_thread.start()
# After 5 sec i've changed my mind and trying to kill LongActionThread
time.sleep(5)
print "Trying to kill LongActionThread"
la_thread.kill()

This code works fine but there is a need to explicitly flush data from standard output.
Haven't found a way where prints would work without flushing.
import time
from multiprocessing.process import Process
import sys
class LongAction:
def time_consuming_action(self):
tmax = 600
for i in range(tmax):
print i
time.sleep(1)
sys.stdout.flush()
time.sleep(tmax)
self.tmax = tmax
return "Slept well"
sys.stdout.flush()
class LongActionThread(Process):
def __init__(self, la_object):
self.la = la_object
Process.__init__(self)
def run(self):
self.la.time_consuming_action()
if __name__ == "__main__":
la = LongAction()
la_thread = LongActionThread(la)
la_thread.start()
# After 5 sec i've changed my mind and trying to kill LongActionThread
time.sleep(5)
print "Trying to kill LongActionThread"
la_thread.terminate()

While it is not a good idea to kill a thread, if you really must do it, the easiest solution is to implement a running semaphor, divide your time consuming method in sub_methods and check for thread status between the submethods.
Code partly copied from this SO question:
class StoppableThread(threading.Thread):
"""Thread class with a stop() method. The thread itself has to check
regularly for the stopped() condition."""
def __init__(self,la_object):
super(StoppableThread, self).__init__()
self.la = la_object
self._stop = threading.Event()
def stop(self):
self._stop.set()
def stopped(self):
return self._stop.isSet()
def run(self):
self.la.time_consuming_action( self.stopped )
class La :
def __init__(self):
#init here
def time_consuming_action(self, thread_stop_callback ):
sub_work1()
if thread_stop_callback():
raise 'Thread Killed ! '
sub_work2()
if thread_stop_callback():
raise 'Thread Killed ! '
sub_work3()
#etc...