python multiprocessing - process hangs on join for large queue

Question

I\'m running python 2.7.3 and I noticed the following strange behavior. Consider this minimal example:

from multiprocessing import Process, Queue

def foo(qi         


        

Answer 1

There must be a limit on the size of queues. Consider the following modification:

from multiprocessing import Process, Queue

def foo(qin,qout):
    while True:
        bar = qin.get()
        if bar is None:
            break
        #qout.put({'bar':bar})

if __name__=='__main__':
    import sys

    qin=Queue()
    qout=Queue()   ## POSITION 1
    for i in range(100):
        #qout=Queue()   ## POSITION 2
        worker=Process(target=foo,args=(qin,))
        worker.start()
        for j in range(1000):
            x=i*100+j
            print x
            sys.stdout.flush()
            qin.put(x**2)

        qin.put(None)
        worker.join()

    print 'Done!'

This works as-is (with qout.put line commented out). If you try to save all 100000 results, then qout becomes too large: if I uncomment out the qout.put({'bar':bar}) in foo, and leave the definition of qout in POSITION 1, the code hangs. If, however, I move qout definition to POSITION 2, then the script finishes.

So in short, you have to be careful that neither qin nor qout becomes too large. (See also: Multiprocessing Queue maxsize limit is 32767)