# This module provides a simple task manager for running parallel # calculations on shared-memory machines. # # Written by Konrad Hinsen # last revision: 2006-6-12 # """ Parallel task manager for shared-memory multiprocessor machines @undocumented: Task """ import threading class TaskManager: """ Parallel task manager for shared-memory multiprocessor machines This class provides a rather simple way to profit from shared-memory multiprocessor machines by running several tasks in parallel. The calling program decides how many execution threads should run at any given time, and then feeds compute tasks to the task manager, who runs them as soon as possible without exceeding the maximum number of threads. The major limitation of this approach lies in Python's Global Interpreter Lock. This effectively means that no more than one Python thread can run at the same time. Consequently, parallelization can only be achieved if the tasks to be parallelized spend significant time in C extension modules that release the Global Interpreter Lock. """ def __init__(self, nthreads): """ @param nthreads: the maximum number of compute threads that should run in parallel. Note: This does not include the main thread which generated and feeds the task manager! @type nthreads: C{int} """ self.nthreads = nthreads self.waiting_tasks = [] self.running_tasks = [] self.lock = threading.Lock() self.data_lock = threading.Lock() self.can_run = threading.Condition(self.lock) self.can_submit = threading.Condition(self.lock) self.task_available = threading.Condition(self.lock) self.scheduler = threading.Thread(target=self._scheduler) self.scheduler.start() def runTask(self, function, args): """ Run a task as soon as processing capacity becomes available @param function: the function that will be executed as the body of the task @type function: callable @param args: the arguments that will be passed to function when it is called. An additional argument will be added at the end: a lock object that the task can use to get temporarily exclusive access to data shared with other tasks. @type args: C{tuple} """ self.can_submit.acquire() if len(self.waiting_tasks) >= self.nthreads: self.can_submit.wait() self.can_submit.release() task = Task(self, function, args + (self.data_lock,)) self.task_available.acquire() self.waiting_tasks.append(task) self.task_available.notify() self.task_available.release() def terminate(self): """ Wait until all tasks have finished """ self.task_available.acquire() self.waiting_tasks.append(None) self.task_available.notify() self.task_available.release() self.scheduler.join() done = 0 while not done: self.can_run.acquire() if self.running_tasks: self.can_run.wait() done = len(self.running_tasks) == 0 self.can_run.release() def _removeTask(self, task): self.can_run.acquire() self.running_tasks.remove(task) self.can_run.notifyAll() self.can_run.release() def _scheduler(self): while 1: self.task_available.acquire() if not self.waiting_tasks: self.task_available.wait() self.task_available.release() self.can_run.acquire() while len(self.running_tasks) >= self.nthreads: self.can_run.wait() task = self.waiting_tasks[0] del self.waiting_tasks[0] if task is not None: self.running_tasks.append(task) task.start() self.can_submit.notify() self.can_run.release() if task is None: break class Task(threading.Thread): def __init__(self, manager, function, args): self.__task_manager = manager self.__function = function self.__args = args threading.Thread.__init__(self) def run(self): apply(self.__function, self.__args) self.__task_manager._removeTask(self) # Test code if __name__ == '__main__': import time from random import randint def dummy(n, results, lock): print n, "running" time.sleep(randint(1, 5)) lock.acquire() results.append(n) lock.release() print n, "finished" m = TaskManager(2) results = [] for i in range(5): m.runTask(dummy, (i, results)) m.terminate() print "All finished" print results