python / python/cpython

`ProcessPoolExecutor` fails to notify when called with `shutdown(cancel_futures=True)`

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stdlib topic-multiprocessing type-bug
Dominant language
Python
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Description

Bug report

Bug description:

I am running a small processor that handles large tasks. When a task encounters an exception I want to store all errors (including other tasks errors) and cancel any other queued work.

However, it seems like the ProcessPoolExecutor's _ExecutorManagerThread does not notify any waiting threads of the future cancelations: making the idiom as_completed hang indefinitely.

Minimal Reproducable Example

import concurrent.futures
import time


def task(n: int) -> int:
    if n == 2:
        raise Exception("Not gonna do it")
    else:
        time.sleep(0.1)
        return n


def main() -> None:
    with concurrent.futures.ProcessPoolExecutor(
        max_workers=2,
    ) as executor:
        futures = [executor.submit(task, i) for i in range(1, 16)]

        for future in concurrent.futures.as_completed(futures):
            try:
                result = future.result()
            except Exception as e:
                print(f"Exception: {e}")
                executor.shutdown(wait=False, cancel_futures=True)
                continue
            print(f"Result: {result}")

            # Look for 'CANCELLED' here:
            print("Other futures states:", [f._state for f in futures])


if __name__ == "__main__":
    main()

Workaround

A workaround is to break after the first future that completed with a failure and do a post hoc gathering of other exceptions of non-cancelled futures.

Suggested Fix

In https://github.com/python/cpython/blob/a68ddea3bf7e9bb77d096c613bce2ec1e67a28f4/Lib/concurrent/futures/process.py#L520-L522

One could replace it with:

for work_id, work_item in self.pending_work_items.items():
    canceled = work_item.future.cancel()
    if canceled:
        work_item.future.set_running_or_notify_cancel()
    else:
        new_pending_work_items[work_id] = work_item

Similar like:

CPython versions tested on:

3.13

Operating systems tested on:

macOS

Linked PRs
  • gh-140021

Contributor guide

Open the contributing guide

First steps

  1. Read the whole issue, then the project's contributing guide.
  2. Comment on the issue to say you are picking it up — it saves two people doing the same work.
  3. Fork the repository and make your change on a branch.
  4. Open a pull request that references the issue number.

Research direction

Start in Lib/concurrent/futures/process.py around lines 520-522 and reproduce the hang with the minimal ProcessPoolExecutor example. Compare the proposed behavior with PR 134618, then verify that shutdown(cancel_futures=True) notifies cancelled futures so as_completed does not hang.

Written by the indexing model from the issue text.

Assessment

Tech stack
python
Domain
backend
Issue type
Bug
Difficulty
3/5
Estimated time
1-2 days
Activity status
Stale
Clarity
Mostly clear
Newbie friendliness
38/100

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