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classification
Title: The docs never define what a pool "task" is
Type: enhancement Stage:
Components: Documentation, Library (Lib) Versions: Python 3.11, Python 3.10, Python 3.9, Python 3.8
process
Status: open Resolution:
Dependencies: Superseder:
Assigned To: docs@python Nosy List: Daniel Neuberger, Zahari.Dim, davin, docs@python, sbt
Priority: normal Keywords:

Created on 2015-06-19 17:05 by Zahari.Dim, last changed 2022-04-11 14:58 by admin.

Messages (2)
msg245509 - (view) Author: Zahari Dim (Zahari.Dim) Date: 2015-06-19 17:05
See:

http://stackoverflow.com/questions/30943161/multiprocessing-pool-with-maxtasksperchild-produces-equal-pids

The documentation never makes clear what a "task" in the context of Pool.map. At best, it says:

"This method chops the iterable into a number of chunks which it submits to the process pool as separate tasks. The (approximate) size of these chunks can be specified by setting chunksize to a positive integer."

in the map documentation. However it does not say how this chunks are calculated by default, making the maxtasksperchild argument not very useful. The fact that a function evaluated by map is not a "task" should be much clearer in the documentation.

Also, in the examples, such as:

 with multiprocessing.Pool(PROCESSES) as pool:
        #
        # Tests
        #

        TASKS = [(mul, (i, 7)) for i in range(10)] + \
                [(plus, (i, 8)) for i in range(10)]

        results = [pool.apply_async(calculate, t) for t in TASKS]
        imap_it = pool.imap(calculatestar, TASKS)
        imap_unordered_it = pool.imap_unordered(calculatestar, TASKS)

TASKS are not actually "tasks" but rather "task groups".
msg245966 - (view) Author: Daniel Neuberger (Daniel Neuberger) Date: 2015-06-29 20:41
I second this. I was definitely confused at first and it took me a little while of googling to realize that jobs are not what one (at least me) would intuitively think they are.
History
Date User Action Args
2022-04-11 14:58:18adminsetgithub: 68663
2021-04-28 18:03:55iritkatrielsetcomponents: + Library (Lib)
versions: + Python 3.8, Python 3.9, Python 3.10, Python 3.11, - Python 2.7, Python 3.4, Python 3.5, Python 3.6
2015-09-07 23:04:00davinsettype: enhancement
2015-06-29 20:41:47Daniel Neubergersetnosy: + Daniel Neuberger
messages: + msg245966
2015-06-19 20:15:39ned.deilysetnosy: + sbt, davin

versions: - Python 3.2, Python 3.3
2015-06-19 17:05:37Zahari.Dimcreate