processify

processify.py

# modified from https://gist.github.com/schlamar/2311116#file-processify-py-L17
# also see http://stackoverflow.com/questions/2046603/is-it-possible-to-run-function-in-a-subprocess-without-threading-or-writing-a-se

import inspect
import os
import sys
import traceback

from functools import wraps
from multiprocessing import Process, Queue


class Sentinel:
    pass


def processify(func):
    '''Decorator to run a function as a process.
    Be sure that every argument and the return value
    is *pickable*.
    The created process is joined, so the code does not
    run in parallel.
    '''

    def process_generator_func(q, *args, **kwargs):
        result = None
        error = None
        it = iter(func())
        while error is None and result != Sentinel:
            try:
                result = next(it)
                error = None
            except StopIteration:
                result = Sentinel
                error = None
            except Exception:
                ex_type, ex_value, tb = sys.exc_info()
                error = ex_type, ex_value, ''.join(traceback.format_tb(tb))
                result = None
            q.put((result, error))

    def process_func(q, *args, **kwargs):
        try:
            result = func(*args, **kwargs)
        except Exception:
            ex_type, ex_value, tb = sys.exc_info()
            error = ex_type, ex_value, ''.join(traceback.format_tb(tb))
            result = None
        else:
            error = None

        q.put((result, error))

    def wrap_func(*args, **kwargs):
        # register original function with different name
        # in sys.modules so it is pickable
        process_func.__name__ = func.__name__ + 'processify_func'
        setattr(sys.modules[__name__], process_func.__name__, process_func)

        q = Queue()
        p = Process(target=process_func, args=[q] + list(args), kwargs=kwargs)
        p.start()
        result, error = q.get()
        p.join()

        if error:
            ex_type, ex_value, tb_str = error
            message = '%s (in subprocess)\n%s' % (str(ex_value), tb_str)
            raise ex_type(message)

        return result

    def wrap_generator_func(*args, **kwargs):
        # register original function with different name
        # in sys.modules so it is pickable
        process_generator_func.__name__ = func.__name__ + 'processify_generator_func'
        setattr(sys.modules[__name__], process_generator_func.__name__, process_generator_func)

        q = Queue()
        p = Process(target=process_generator_func, args=[q] + list(args), kwargs=kwargs)
        p.start()

        result = None
        error = None
        while error is None:
            result, error = q.get()
            if result == Sentinel:
                break
            yield result
        p.join()

        if error:
            ex_type, ex_value, tb_str = error
            message = '%s (in subprocess)\n%s' % (str(ex_value), tb_str)
            raise ex_type(message)

    @wraps(func)
    def wrapper(*args, **kwargs):
        if inspect.isgeneratorfunction(func):
            return wrap_generator_func(*args, **kwargs)
        else:
            return wrap_func(*args, **kwargs)
    return wrapper


@processify
def test_function():
    return os.getpid()


@processify
def test_generator_func():
    for msg in ["generator", "function"]:
        yield msg


@processify
def test_deadlock():
    return range(30000)


@processify
def test_exception():
    raise RuntimeError('xyz')


def test():
    print(os.getpid())
    print(test_function())
    print(list(test_generator_func()))
    print(len(test_deadlock()))
    test_exception()

if __name__ == '__main__':
    test()

Python 3 + Support for generator functions.

For some reason it doesn't work for me:
AttributeError: Can't pickle local object 'processify.<locals>.process_func'

May be because of Windows. Tried on Python 3.5 and Pyton 3.7. Same error.

Maybe it is Windows, I've only tried this on Linux.

Thanks for this - proved very useful for hacking around a CUDA memory leak that slowly accrued over many iterations of my code. Launching the code in the subprocess clears the memory when it terminates. Now I should probably figure out what is causing the leak ...

np, it really just built on the original by @schlamar

This should probably be inside a library, I haven't had to use it since I modified it in 2016, but it was handy at the time for providing isolation between my new code and a whole load of knarly old code that I didn't fully trust to not do something weird and break my own.

It does feel like this should be in a library, if that hasn't happened already.