Make a blocking function timeout in Python

Question

I have a blocking function, sometimes it hangs indefinitly, it is not cpu bound, it's accessing something externaly also it's a call to unmanaged code. I would like this to work on Windows or Unix

What is the best practice for running this method with a timeout? I assume this will involve running a new thread and having a wait event. I'm after the most lightweight in terms of both lines of code and cpu.

Thanks

You will greatly increase your chances of getting an answer for your question if you include your input, what you have tried, your expected output vs. your actual output and the full stack trace of any errors you receive. You can also read this guide — kylieCatt
– kylieCatt, Commented Jul 1, 2015 at 12:44
This isn't for a specific case, it's a general question on best practice. — Daniel Slater
– Daniel Slater, Commented Jul 1, 2015 at 12:47
answers over there : stackoverflow.com/questions/2281850/… — lucasg
– lucasg, Commented Jul 1, 2015 at 12:49
I think best practice would be to use the built-in tools unless your requirements made that solution inappropriate. — Open AI - Opting Out
– Open AI - Opting Out, Commented Jul 1, 2015 at 12:53

User · Accepted Answer · 2015-07-01 18:14:49Z

2

You would use the wait(timeout=None) method to wait with a timeout for results when you use a pool and asynchronous calls:

>>> import multiprocessing
>>> p = multiprocessing.Pool()
>>> a = p.apply_async(None) # Replace None with the function to execute.
>>> help(a.__class__)
Help on class ApplyResult in module multiprocessing.pool:

class ApplyResult(builtins.object)
 |  Methods defined here:
 |  
 |  __init__(self, cache, callback, error_callback)
 |  
 |  get(self, timeout=None)
 |  
 |  ready(self)
 |  
 |  successful(self)
 |  
 |  wait(self, timeout=None)
[...]

concurrent.futures also has wait methods or a timeout for get.

edited Jul 1, 2015 at 18:14

answered Jul 1, 2015 at 14:41

User

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1 Comment

Daniel Slater Over a year ago

This is a good answer though you might want to show passing in an example function instead on None

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