Why is run_forever required in this sample code? - python-3.x

In the python asyncio websockets library, the example calls run_forever(). Why is this required?
Shouldn't run_until_complete() block and run the websockets loop?
#!/usr/bin/env python
# WS server example
import asyncio
import websockets
async def hello(websocket, path):
name = await websocket.recv()
print(f"< {name}")
greeting = f"Hello {name}!"
await websocket.send(greeting)
print(f"> {greeting}")
start_server = websockets.serve(hello, "localhost", 8765)
asyncio.get_event_loop().run_until_complete(start_server)
asyncio.get_event_loop().run_forever()
# if you comment out the above line, this doesn't work, i.e., the server
# doesn't actually block waiting for data...
If I comment out run_forever(), the program ends immediately.
start_server is an awaitable returned by the library. Why isn't run_until_complete sufficient to cause it to block/await on hello()?

websockets.serve simply starts the server and exits immediately. (It still needs to be awaited because configuring the server can require network communication.) Because of that, you need to actually run the event loop.
Since the server is designed to run indefinitely, you cannot run the event loop in the usual way, by passing a coroutine to run_until_complete. As the server has already started, there is no coroutine to run, you just need to let the event loop run and do its job. This is where run_forever comes in useful - it tells the event loop to run (executing the tasks previously scheduled, such as those belonging to the server) indefinitely, or until told to stop by a call to loop.stop.
In Python 3.7 and later one should use asyncio.run to run asyncio code, which will create a new event loop, so the above trick won't work. A good way to accomplish the above in modern asyncio code would be to use the serve_forever method (untested):
async def my_server():
ws_server = await websockets.serve(hello, "localhost", 8765)
await ws_server.server.serve_forever()
asyncio.run(my_server())

Related

What happens when using python input() if no TTY?

I am trying to write an API client for Telegram using Telethon.
https://github.com/LonamiWebs/Telethon
If you create a TelegramClient(session) it prompts for input upon initialization if your session isn’t authorized.
This is great when manually running the program from the terminal, but what if I want to run it inside a daemon or cron job?
They are using the default Input method from python3 to gather the input. I don’t see any way in the library to specify a session file and check if it’s logged in that can be run before initializing a TelegramClient, and it’s the initializer that will prompt for input if not logged in.
This feels like a catch 22! Does anybody know if this might produce an error that could be caught? Or what happens when input() is run with no tty? Would it just hang? Could I add a timeout in that case?
Thanks in advance for helping me understand better!
You are affirming that the initialization of TelegramClient invokes the input function as default, but this is done inside the TelegramClient.start method (docs).
Taking the solution that you give at the end of your question is a fair aproach, so let's use a timeout when invoking input.
from asyncio import get_event_loop, wait_for, TimeoutError
from functools import partial
from telethon import TelegramClient
async def ainput(prompt):
"""Reads input from stdin in an async way"""
loop = get_event_loop()
await loop.run_in_executor(None, print, prompt)
return await loop.run_in_executor(None, input)
async def get_code(timeout):
"""Waits for the code from stdin with a timeout"""
try:
return await wait_for(
ainput("Please, type the code you received: "),
timeout=timeout
)
except TimeoutError:
pass
client = TelegramClient(session, api_id, api_hash).start(
phone=phone,
code_callback=partial(get_code, 30)
)
You should keep in mind that when you call start the arguments phone, and password also reads from stdin if it isn't provided a callable or default value, so you can handle them like in this example with code_callback.
In your case you can get the code from a POST to your API or in other way, just get creative and write the callable that fits your needs.

What is best practice to interact with subprocesses in python

I'm building an apllication which is intended to do a bulk-job processing data within another software. To control the other software automatically I'm using pyautoit, and everything works fine, except for application errors, caused from the external software, which occur from time to time.
To handle those cases, I built a watchdog:
It starts the script with the bulk job within a subprocess
process = subprocess.Popen(['python', job_script, src_path], stdout=subprocess.PIPE,
stderr=subprocess.PIPE, shell=True)
It listens to the system event using winevt.EventLog module
EventLog.Subscribe('System', 'Event/System[Level<=2]', handle_event)
In case of an error occurs, it shuts down everything and re-starts the script again.
Ok, if an system error event occurs, this event should get handled in a way, that the supprocess gets notified. This notification should then lead to the following action within the subprocess:
Within the subprocess there's an object controlling everything and continuously collecting
generated data. In order to not having to start the whole job from the beginnig, after re-starting the script, this object has to be dumped using pickle (which isn't the problem here!)
Listening to the system event from inside the subprocess didn't work. It results in a continuous loop, when calling subprocess.Popen().
So, my question is how I can either subscribe for system events from inside a childproces, or communicate between the parent and childprocess - means, sending a message like "hey, an errorocurred", listening within the subprocess and then creating the dump?
I'm really sorry not being allowed to post any code in this case. But I hope (and actually think), that my description should be understandable. My question is just about what module to use to accomplish this in the best way?
Would be really happy, if somebody could point me into the right direction...
Br,
Mic
I believe the best answer may lie here: https://docs.python.org/3/library/subprocess.html#subprocess.Popen.stdin
These attributes should allow for proper communication between the different processes fairly easily, and without any other dependancies.
Note that Popen.communicate() may suit better if other processes may cause issues.
EDIT to add example scripts:
main.py
from subprocess import *
import sys
def check_output(p):
out = p.stdout.readline()
return out
def send_data(p, data):
p.stdin.write(bytes(f'{data}\r\n', 'utf8')) # auto newline
p.stdin.flush()
def initiate(p):
#p.stdin.write(bytes('init\r\n', 'utf8')) # function to send first communication
#p.stdin.flush()
send_data(p, 'init')
return check_output(p)
def test(p, data):
send_data(p, data)
return check_output(p)
def main()
exe_name = 'Doc2.py'
p = Popen([sys.executable, exe_name], stdout=PIPE, stderr=STDOUT, stdin=PIPE)
print(initiate(p))
print(test(p, 'test'))
print(test(p, 'test2')) # testing responses
print(test(p, 'test3'))
if __name__ == '__main__':
main()
Doc2.py
import sys, time, random
def recv_data():
return sys.stdin.readline()
def send_data(data):
print(data)
while 1:
d = recv_data()
#print(f'd: {d}')
if d.strip() == 'test':
send_data('return')
elif d.strip() == 'init':
send_data('Acknowledge')
else:
send_data('Failed')
This is the best method I could come up with for cross-process communication. Also make sure all requests and responses don't contain newlines, or the code will break.

Implementing a while loop without interrupting the bot's main event loop

I am in the middle of having two of my bots interfacing with each other via a ZMQ server, unfortunately that also requires a second loop for the receiver, so i started looking around the web for solutions and came up with this:
async def interfaceSocket():
while True:
message = socket.recv()
time.sleep(1)
socket.send(b"World")
await asyncio.sleep(3)
#client.event
async def on_ready():
print('logged in as:')
print(client.user.name)
client.loop.create_task(interfaceSocket())
client.run(TOKEN)
I basically added the interfaceSocket function to the event loop as a task as another while loop so i can constantly check the socket receiver while also checking the on_message listener from the discord bot itself but for some reason, the loop still interrupts the main event loop. Why is this?
Although interfaceSocket is technically a task, it doesn't await anything in its while loop and uses blocking calls such as socket.recv() and time.sleep(). Because of that it blocks the whole event loop while it waits for something to happen.
If socket refers to a ZMQ socket, you should be using the ZMQ asyncio interface, i.e. use zmq.asyncio.Context to create a zmq.asyncio.Socket instead of. Then interfaceSocket can use await and become a well-behaved coroutine:
async def interfaceSocket():
while True:
message = await socket.recv()
await asyncio.sleep(1)
await socket.send(b"World")

Launching a non-blocking async function call via HTTP requests to a route in Python 3.6 Flask app

I am currently writing a small flask-based micro-service which launches other python scripts via calls to a CLI using python's subprocess module. My ultimate goal is make a non-blocking async function call triggered by http requests to a route in the service and have the service return 200 response from the route while the async function runs in the background.
I have been perusing the docs (I am using Python 3.6.3 for this service) cannot work out how to achieve this. Here is a small example of how my code is structured:
#app.route('/execute_job')
def execute_job():
params = ...
run_async_job(params)
return 'Launched async job according to params, it is now running.'
async def run_async_job(params):
command = 'run_python_cli_scripts args'
proc = subprocess.Popen(command)
# change some envs, do some file io, yada yada yada
...
while True:
if proc.poll() is not None: # the cli script is finished
return notify_external_api_job_complete()
I know that simply calling run_async_job(params) does not actually begin its execution, but instead returns an awaitable or Task which must been thrown in an event_loop. My issue is that I cannot figure out how to run this task in an event_loop such that the return in execute_ job is reached before it completes. Is this sort of thing possible? This is my first foray into async python, and I am looking for behaviour similar to what you would see in async javascript. Is trying to use async def for the function I want to be non-blocking the wrong approach or is there a way to launch the tasks in an event_loop in a non-blocking fashion so that the aforementioned return 'Launched async job according to params, it is now running.' can be reached and the function completed before run_async_job(params) completes?
Thanks in advance for your time and wisdom.
Fwiw to posterity: I opted for using a child process launched via the subprocess module. This was achievable by converting the library file I imported my async def'd function from into a script which uses command line arguments parsed from the argparse module. My route now looks like
#app.route('/execute_job')
def execute_job():
params = ...
command = ('python', params)
subprocess.Popen(command)
return 'Launched async job according to params, it is now running.'
edit: formatting

Async alternative to pycurl in python 3.5+

I have a discord bot that I suspect is having periodic issues due to occasional slow pycurl calls. After some research I found out pycurl is not asynchronous, and likely the cause for my troubles.
I have this function:
def communicate_wallet(wallet_command):
buffer = BytesIO()
c = pycurl.Curl()
c.setopt(c.URL, '[::1]')
c.setopt(c.PORT, 7076)
c.setopt(c.POSTFIELDS, json.dumps(wallet_command))
c.setopt(c.WRITEFUNCTION, buffer.write)
c.perform()
c.close()
body = buffer.getvalue()
parsed_json = json.loads(body.decode('iso-8859-1'))
return parsed_json
This is equivalent to a curl command like:
curl -g -d '{ "action": "action_def" }' '[::1]:7076'
I'm wondering if there's an async alternative to do this, so i can call communicate_wallet with await. I couldn't seem to find any asynchronous-compatible alternatives to pycurl.
Thanks
I'm wondering if there's an async alternative to do this, so i can call communicate_wallet with await.
The simplest option is to use run_in_executor for the blocking code:
loop = asyncio.get_event_loop()
data = await loop.run_in_executor(None, communicate_wallet, wallet_command)
This will submit the blocking function to a thread pool and awaken your coroutine when complete, allowing asyncio to go about its business in the meantime.
A better way is to replace pycurl with an http client that natively supports asyncio, such as aiohttp. This will take more work initially, but might pay off in the long run because it will allow the http code to communicate with the tasks run by asyncio without thread synchronization.
The Tornado package seems to have what you want in the form of tornado.curl_httpclient.CurlAsyncHTTPClient.

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