Re: Re: urllib and ftplib hang in bundle but not when run directly

At 11:56 AM +0100 5/14/04, Michael Hudson wrote:
> "Russell E. Owen" <rowen@xxxxxxxxxxx> writes:
>
> >  In article <rowen-C76C8E.09571605052004@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>,
> >   "Russell E. Owen" <rowen@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
> >
> > > I am having trouble with some ftp code. On some platforms it works fine
> > > and on others it reliably hangs....(including MacOS X command-line
> > > it works, but a bundled app version of the identical code fails)
> >
> >  After some experimentation, I found the hanging was occurring in ftplib.
> >  It delays importing re and compiling two regular expressions until they
> >  are needed, and the thread hangs both on the import and (if I modify
> >  ftplib to import re in advance) on the compilation. Modifying ftplib to
> >  do both jobs in advance (when first imported) fixes the problem.
>
> Um.  Python has an 'import lock' so only one thread can be importing a
> module at the same time.
>
> Do you have code like this:
>
> def main():
>     ....
>
> main()
>
> i.e. that does things as a result of being imported?  You should stop
> that :-)


It's an interesting idea. I didn't know about any import lock (just 
the global interpreter lock, which I doubt is relevant).

I do have code like this:
def _createMyConst():
   ...
_MyConst = _creatMyConst()

that runs as a result of being imported. I thought that was normal 
python -- initialization can safely be done when the module is 
imported. I don't understand why that is considered dangerous or how 
it could run afoul of an importer lock. Also, my own code has fully 
loaded and finished initializing well before I try any ftp transfers 
and run into the problem.

The hang occurs inside ftplib itself. I use it to fetch a file in a 
separate (background) thread. If "too much other stuff" is going on, 
that thread hangs. With ftplib as written, it hangs while executing 
"import re" (which is only done once the ftp starts). If I modify 
ftplib to import re right away at the beginning, then the thread 
hangs in ftplib compiling a regular expression. Modifying ftplib to 
pre-compile the two regular expressions it uses makes it stop hanging 
and my code starts working again.

It seems strange to me that a thread could either work fine or 100% 
totally hang like that. It always works fine when run on MacOS X 
(when run as a command-line app). It always hangs forever when the 
identical code is run as a macOS X bundled app or when run on RedHat 
linux. When the same code is run as part of a smaller app, it runs 
fine on linux.

-- Russell

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