`loop{}` versus `loop{sleep 1}` - ruby

I am using a loop to wait on a keyboard interrupt and then allow for some clean up operation before exit in a multi threaded environment.
begin
loop {}
rescue Interrupt
p "Ctr-C Pressed..Cleaning Up & Shutting Down"
loop do
break if exit_bool.false?
end
exit 130
end
This piece of code runs in the main thread. There are multiple threads performing several file and DB ops. exit_bool is an atomic var set by other threads to indicate they are in the middle of some operation. I check for the value and wait until it turns false and then exit.
I'm wondering what the cost of loop{} is as opposed to loop{sleep x}.

loop {} results in a high CPU utilization (~100%), whereas loop { sleep x } does not.
Another option is to just sleep forever:
begin
sleep
rescue Interrupt
# ...
end

Related

Ruby: intercept popen system call and log stdout and stderr to same file

In ruby code I am running a system call with Open3.popen3 and using the resultant IO for stdout and stderr to do some log message formatting before writing to one log file. I was wondering what would be the best way to do this so log messages will maintain the correct order, note I need to do separate formatting for error messages as for stdout messages.
Here's my current code (Assume logger is thread safe)
Open3.popen3("my_custom_script with_some_args") do |_in, stdout, stderr|
stdout_thr = Thread.new do
while line = stdout.gets.chomp
logger.info(format(:info, line))
end
end
stderr_thr = Thread.new do
while line = stderr.gets.chomp
logger.error(format(:error, line))
end
end
[stdout_thr, stderr_thr].each(&:join)
end
This has worked for me so far, but I'm not so confident that I can guarantee the correct order of the log messages. Is there a better way?
What you're trying to achieve is not possible with a guarantee. First thing to note is that your code could only possibly order based on the time that the data was received, not when it was produced, which is not quite the same. The only way to guarantee this would be to do something on the source which will add some guaranteed ordering between the two systems.
The below code should make it "more likely" to be correct by removing the threads. Assuming that you're using MRI, the threads are "green" so technically can't be running at the same time. That means you're beholden upon the scheduler choosing to run your thread at the "right" time.
Open3.popen3("my_custom_script with_some_args") do |_in, stdout, stderr|
for_reading = [stdout, stderr]
until(for_reading.empty?) do
wait_timeout = 1
# IO.select blocks until one of the streams is has something to read
# or the wait timeout is reached
readable, _writable, errors = IO.select(for_reading, [], [], wait_timeout)
# readable is nil in the case of a timeout - loop back again
if readable.nil?
Thread.pass
else
# In the case that both streams are readable (and thus have content)
# read from each of them. In this case, we cannot guarantee any order
# because we recieve the items at essentially the same time.
# We can still ensure that we don't mix data incorrectly.
readable.each do |stream|
buffer = ''
# loop through reading data until there is an EOF (value is nil)
# or there is no more data to read (value is empty)
while(true) do
tmp = stream.read_nonblock(4096, buffer, exception: false)
if tmp.nil?
# stream is EOF - nothing more to read on that one..
for_reading -= [stream]
break
elsif tmp.empty? || tmp == :wait_readable
# nothing more to read right now...
# continue on to process the buffer into lines and log them
break
end
end
if stream == stdout
buffer.split("\n").each { |line| logger.info(format(:info, line)) }
elsif stream == stderr
buffer.split("\n").each { |line| logger.info(format(:error, line)) }
end
end
end
end
end
Note that in a system generating a lot of output in a very short period of time there is more likely to be an overlap where things get out of order. This likelihood increases with the amount time taken to read the stream and process it. It would be best to ensure that the absolute minimum processing is done inside the loop. If the formatting (and writing) are expensive, consider moving those items into a separate thread reading from a single queue, and have the code inside the loop only push the buffer (and source identifier) onto the queue.

User input with multithreading Ruby

I'm trying to make one thread display the current time while the user enters some input in the main thread.
When I run this,
thr=Thread.new {
loop {
time = Time.now
puts time.strftime("Time: %H:%M:%S")
sleep(1)
print"\033[A","\033[K"
}
}
thr.join
print"Name: ";name=gets.chomp
the time string moves too on the terminal, and it copies what I type in the main thread too.
Is there a way to lock a string or divide the threads?
First, don't call Thread#join, because at that point your main thread blocks and will do nothing further until the thr thread exits, and it never will.
Second, the terminal doesn't know anything about threads. You have to make your threads play nice with each other as far as cursor positioning. The easiest way to do that is to have the one that is interrupting and seizing the cursor save the position and restore it when it has done its thing.
print "\033[2J" # clear screen
print "\033[4;2fName: " # absolute position for prompt
thr = Thread.new {
loop {
print "\0337" # save cursor position
print "\033[2;2f\033[2K" # absolution position for clock
print Time.now.strftime("Time: %H:%M:%S")
print "\0338" # restore cursor position
sleep(1)
}
}
name = gets.chomp
puts "Hello, #{name}."
sleep # forever, because thread 'thr' will be killed when the main program exits

Python multiprocessing Pool map and imap

I have a multiprocessing script with pool.map that works. The problem is that not all processes take as long to finish, so some processes fall asleep because they wait until all processes are finished (same problem as in this question). Some files are finished in less than a second, others take minutes (or hours).
If I understand the manual (and this post) correctly, pool.imap is not waiting for all the processes to finish, if one is done, it is providing a new file to process. When I try that, the script is speeding over the files to process, the small ones are processed as expected, the large files (that take more time to process) don't finish until the end (are killed without notice ?). Is this normal behavior for pool.imap, or do I need to add more commands/parameters ? When I add the time.sleep(100) in the else part as test, it is processing more large files but the other processes fall asleep. Any suggestions ? Thanks
def process_file(infile):
#read infile
#compare things in infile
#acquire Lock, save things in outfile, release Lock
#delete infile
def main():
#nprocesses = 8
global filename
pathlist = ['tmp0', 'tmp1', 'tmp2', 'tmp3', 'tmp4', 'tmp5', 'tmp6', 'tmp7', 'tmp8', 'tmp9']
for d in pathlist:
os.chdir(d)
todolist = []
for infile in os.listdir():
todolist.append(infile)
try:
p = Pool(processes=nprocesses)
p.imap(process_file, todolist)
except KeyboardInterrupt:
print("Shutting processes down")
# Optionally try to gracefully shut down the worker processes here.
p.close()
p.terminate()
p.join()
except StopIteration:
continue
else:
time.sleep(100)
os.chdir('..')
p.close()
p.join()
if __name__ == '__main__':
main()
Since you already put all your files in a list, you could put them directly into a queue. The queue is then shared with your sub-processes that take the file names from the queue and do their stuff. No need to do it twice (first into list, then pickle list by Pool.imap). Pool.imap is doing exactly the same but without you knowing it.
todolist = []
for infile in os.listdir():
todolist.append(infile)
can be replaced by:
todolist = Queue()
for infile in os.listdir():
todolist.put(infile)
The complete solution would then look like:
def process_file(inqueue):
for infile in iter(inqueue.get, "STOP"):
#do stuff until inqueue.get returns "STOP"
#read infile
#compare things in infile
#acquire Lock, save things in outfile, release Lock
#delete infile
def main():
nprocesses = 8
global filename
pathlist = ['tmp0', 'tmp1', 'tmp2', 'tmp3', 'tmp4', 'tmp5', 'tmp6', 'tmp7', 'tmp8', 'tmp9']
for d in pathlist:
os.chdir(d)
todolist = Queue()
for infile in os.listdir():
todolist.put(infile)
process = [Process(target=process_file,
args=(todolist) for x in range(nprocesses)]
for p in process:
#task the processes to stop when all files are handled
#"STOP" is at the very end of queue
todolist.put("STOP")
for p in process:
p.start()
for p in process:
p.join()
if __name__ == '__main__':
main()

Recommendations for workflow when debugging Python scripts employing multiprocessing?

I use the Spyder IDE. Usually, when I am running non-parallelized scripts, I tend to debug using print statements. Depending on which statements are printed (or not), I can see where errors are occurring.
For example:
print "Started while loop..."
doWhileLoop = False
while doWhileLoop == True:
print "Doing something important!"
time.sleep(5)
print "Finished while loop..."
Above, I am missing a line that changes doWhileLoop to False at some point, so I will be stuck perpetually in the while loop, but my print statements let me see where it is in my code that I have hung up.
However, when running scripts that are parallelized, I get no output to the console until after the process has finished. Normally, what I do in this case is attempt to debug with a single process (i.e. temporarily deparallelize the program by running only one task, for instance), but currently, I am dealing with an error that seems to occur only when I am running more than one task.
So, I am having trouble figuring out what this error is using my usual methods -- how should I change my usual debugging practice in order to efficiently debug scripts employing multiprocessing?
Like #roippi said, debugging parallel things is hard. Another tool is using logging over print. Logging gives you severity, timestamps, and most importantly which process is doing something.
Example code:
import logging, multiprocessing, Queue
def myproc(arg):
return arg*2
def worker(inqueue, outqueue):
mylog = multiprocessing.get_logger()
mylog.info('start')
for job in iter(inqueue.get, 'STOP'):
mylog.info('got %s', job)
try:
outqueue.put( myproc(job), timeout=1 )
except Queue.Full:
mylog.error('queue full!')
mylog.info('done')
def executive(inqueue):
total = 0
mylog = multiprocessing.get_logger()
for num in iter(inqueue.get, 'STOP'):
total += num
mylog.info('got {}\ttotal{}', job, total)
logger = multiprocessing.log_to_stderr(
level=logging.INFO,
)
logger.info('setup')
inqueue, outqueue = multiprocessing.Queue(), multiprocessing.Queue()
if 0: # debug 'queue full!' issues
outqueue = multiprocessing.Queue(maxsize=1)
# prefill with 3 jobs
for num in range(3):
inqueue.put(num)
# signal end of jobs
inqueue.put('STOP')
worker_p = multiprocessing.Process(
target=worker, args=(inqueue, outqueue),
name='worker',
)
worker_p.start()
worker_p.join()
logger.info('done')
Example output:
[INFO/MainProcess] setup
[INFO/worker] child process calling self.run()
[INFO/worker] start
[INFO/worker] got 0
[INFO/worker] got 1
[INFO/worker] got 2
[INFO/worker] done
[INFO/worker] process shutting down
[INFO/worker] process exiting with exitcode 0
[INFO/MainProcess] done
[INFO/MainProcess] process shutting down

How to timeout named pipes in ruby?

I saw an article which suggests the following code for a writer:
output = open("my_pipe", "w+") # the w+ means we don't block
output.puts "hello world"
output.flush # do this when we're done writing data
and a reader:
input = open("my_pipe", "r+") # the r+ means we don't block
puts input.gets # will block if there's nothing in the pipe
But could it happen that open, puts, gets will block the program? Is there some kind of timeout in place? Can one change it? Also, how come w+ means non-blocking call? Which open system call flags is it converted to?
Okay, let me share with you my picture of the world. As rogerdpack said, there are two options: 1) using select in blocking mode, 2) using non-blocking mode (O_NONBLOCK flag, read_nonblock, write_nonblock, select methods). I haven't tried, so these are just speculations.
As to why open, puts and gets may block the thread. open call blocks until there are at least one reader and at least one writer. And that must be the reason why we need to specify r+, w+ for open call. Judging from strace output they both are converted to O_RDWR flag. Then there must be some buffer, where not yet received data are stored. And that must be the reason why write methods may block. Read methods may block because they expect more data to be available, than it really is.
UPD
If a process attempts to read from an empty pipe, then read(2) will block until data is available. If a process attempts to write to a full pipe (see below), then write(2) blocks until sufficient data has been read from the pipe to allow the write to complete.
-- http://linux.die.net/man/7/pipe
The FIFO must be opened on both ends (reading and writing) before data can be passed. Normally, opening the FIFO blocks until the other end is opened also.
Under Linux, opening a FIFO for read and write will succeed both in blocking and nonblocking mode. POSIX leaves this behavior undefined. This can be used to open a FIFO for writing while there are no readers available.
-- http://linux.die.net/man/7/fifo
And here's the implementation I came up with:
#!/home/yuri/.rbenv/shims/ruby
require 'timeout'
data = ((0..15).to_a.map { |v|
(v < 10 ? '0'.ord + v : 'a'.ord + v - 10).chr
} * 4096 * 2).reduce('', :+)
timeout = 10
start = Time.now
open('1.fifo', File::WRONLY | File::NONBLOCK) { |out|
out.flock(File::LOCK_EX)
nwritten = 0
data_len = data.length
begin
delta = out.write_nonblock data
data = data[delta..-1]
nwritten += delta
rescue IO::WaitWritable, Errno::EINTR
timeout_left = timeout - (Time.now - start)
if timeout_left < 0
puts Time.now - start
raise Timeout::Error
end
IO.select nil, [out], nil, timeout_left
retry
end while nwritten < data_len
}
puts Time.now - start
But for my problem at hand I decided to ignore this timeout thing. It probably will suffice to handle just situations when there is no reader on the other end of the pipe (Errno::ENXIO):
open('1.fifo', File::WRONLY | File::NONBLOCK) { |out|
out.flock(File::LOCK_EX)
nwritten = 0
data_len = data.length
begin
delta = out.write_nonblock data
data = data[delta..-1]
nwritten += delta
rescue IO::WaitWritable, Errno::EINTR
IO.select nil, [out]
retry
end while nwritten < data_len
}
P.S. Your feedback is appreciated.
This page should answer all your questions... http://www.ruby-doc.org/core-2.0.0/IO.html
In general, puts can always block the current thread, since they may have to wait for IO to complete for it to return. gets can also block the current thread because it will read and read forever until it hits the first newline, then it will return everything it read. HTH.

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