diff --git a/Doc/library/multiprocessing.rst b/Doc/library/multiprocessing.rst index 128aa43b8b7..e109b1ebe1c 100644 --- a/Doc/library/multiprocessing.rst +++ b/Doc/library/multiprocessing.rst @@ -2661,6 +2661,46 @@ The :mod:`multiprocessing.dummy` module :mod:`multiprocessing.dummy` replicates the API of :mod:`multiprocessing` but is no more than a wrapper around the :mod:`threading` module. +.. currentmodule:: multiprocessing.pool + +In particular, the ``Pool`` function provided by :mod:`multiprocessing.dummy` +returns an instance of :class:`ThreadPool`, which is a subclass of +:class:`Pool` that supports all the same method calls but uses a pool of +worker threads rather than worker processes. + + +.. class:: ThreadPool([processes[, initializer[, initargs]]]) + + A thread pool object which controls a pool of worker threads to which jobs + can be submitted. :class:`ThreadPool` instances are fully interface + compatible with :class:`Pool` instances, and their resources must also be + properly managed, either by using the pool as a context manager or by + calling :meth:`~multiprocessing.pool.Pool.close` and + :meth:`~multiprocessing.pool.Pool.terminate` manually. + + *processes* is the number of worker threads to use. If *processes* is + ``None`` then the number returned by :func:`os.cpu_count` is used. + + If *initializer* is not ``None`` then each worker process will call + ``initializer(*initargs)`` when it starts. + + Unlike :class:`Pool`, *maxtasksperchild* and *context* cannot be provided. + + .. note:: + + A :class:`ThreadPool` shares the same interface as :class:`Pool`, which + is designed around a pool of processes and predates the introduction of + the :class:`concurrent.futures` module. As such, it inherits some + operations that don't make sense for a pool backed by threads, and it + has its own type for representing the status of asynchronous jobs, + :class:`AsyncResult`, that is not understood by any other libraries. + + Users should generally prefer to use + :class:`concurrent.futures.ThreadPoolExecutor`, which has a simpler + interface that was designed around threads from the start, and which + returns :class:`concurrent.futures.Future` instances that are + compatible with many other libraries, including :mod:`asyncio`. + .. _multiprocessing-programming: diff --git a/Misc/NEWS.d/next/Documentation/2020-12-16-21-06-16.bpo-17140.1leSEg.rst b/Misc/NEWS.d/next/Documentation/2020-12-16-21-06-16.bpo-17140.1leSEg.rst new file mode 100644 index 00000000000..cb1fd23a56e --- /dev/null +++ b/Misc/NEWS.d/next/Documentation/2020-12-16-21-06-16.bpo-17140.1leSEg.rst @@ -0,0 +1 @@ +Add documentation for the :class:`multiprocessing.pool.ThreadPool` class.