Inconsistent KeyboardInterrupt Handling in multiprocessing due to Context Manager Order
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Description
Bug report
Bug description:
When using multiprocessing.Manager with concurrent.futures.ProcessPoolExecutor, there is a particular ordering of the context managers that results in multiprocessing.managers.py hanging in the method serve_forever, forever. This can be triggered by raising a KeyboardInterrupt while the child process(es), here something, are busy. The ordering that leads to the bug is: Manager first, then ProcessPoolExecutor inside.
import multiprocessing
from concurrent.futures import ProcessPoolExecutor
from time import sleep
def something():
sleep(10)
# Uncomment one of the following blocks
### Works correctly:
# # Interrupt with CTRL+C while `something` is busy
# # Takes just one KeyboardInterrupts to terminate fully
# with ProcessPoolExecutor() as executor:
# futures = []
# with multiprocessing.Manager() as manager:
# futures.append(executor.submit(something))
#
# for f in futures:
# f.result()
### Doesn't work correctly, will hang often, try it a few times:
# # Interrupt with CTRL+C while `something` is busy
# # Takes one KeyboardInterrupts to get stuck, and another to terminate fully
# with multiprocessing.Manager() as manager:
# with ProcessPoolExecutor() as executor:
# futures = [executor.submit(something)]
#
# for f in futures:
# f.result()
I am not too familiar with the exact inner workings of these two context managers, but as a user, there was at least nothing to make me aware that the 2nd example is bad. If it's not a bug, and just incorrect ordering, perhaps ProcessPoolExecutor could raise an exception or print a warning that it shouldn't be used inside a Manager context in such a way.
CPython versions tested on:
3.9, 3.10, 3.11, 3.12
Operating systems tested on:
Linux
Contributor guide
First steps
- Read the whole issue, then the project's contributing guide.
- Comment on the issue to say you are picking it up — it saves two people doing the same work.
- Fork the repository and make your change on a branch.
- Open a pull request that references the issue number.
Research direction
Start by reproducing the two context-manager orderings with the provided ProcessPoolExecutor and multiprocessing.Manager example, then inspect multiprocessing.managers.py at serve_forever and the related shutdown paths. Done means the problematic ordering no longer hangs after KeyboardInterrupt and both orderings terminate consistently; no test file is named in the issue.
Written by the indexing model from the issue text.
Assessment
- Tech stack
- python
- Domain
- distributed-systems
- Issue type
- Bug
- Difficulty
- 4/5
- Estimated time
- 3-5 days
- Activity status
- Stale
- Clarity
- Mostly clear
- Newbie friendliness
- 35/100