How to run a function in 'background' - python-3.x

Question

I'm parsing the last line of a continuously updating log file. If it matches, I want to return the match to a list and start another function using that data. I need to keep watching for new entries and parse them even while the new function continues.
I've been working this from a few different angles for about a week with varying success. I tried threading, but ran into issues getting the return value, I tried using a global var but couldn't get it working. I'm now trying asyncio, but having even more issues getting that to work.
def tail():
global match_list
f.seek(0, os.SEEK_END)
while True:
line = f.readline()
if not line:
time.sleep(0.1)
continue
yield line
def thread():
while True:
tail()
def somefun(list):
global match_list
#do things here
pass
def main():
match_list = []
f = open(r'file.txt')
thread=threading.Thread(target=thread, args=(f,))
thread.start()
while True:
if len(match_list) >= 1:
somefun(match_list)
if __name__ == '__main__':
main()
Wrote the above from memory..
I want tail() to return the line to a list that somefun() can use.
I'm having issues getting it to work, I will use threading or asyncio.. anything to get it running at this point.

Answer 1

In asyncio you might use two coroutines, one that reads from file, and the other that processes the file. Since they communicate using queue, they don't need the global variable. For example:
import os, asyncio
async def tail(f, queue):
f.seek(0, os.SEEK_END)
while True:
line = f.readline()
if not line:
await asyncio.sleep(0.1)
continue
await queue.put(line)
async def consume(queue):
lines = []
while True:
next_line = await queue.get()
lines.append(next_line)
# it is not clear if you want somefun to receive the next
# line or *all* lines, but it's easy to do either
somefun(next_line)
def somefun(line):
# do something with line
print(f'line: {line!r}')
async def main():
queue = asyncio.Queue()
with open('file.txt') as f:
await asyncio.gather(tail(f, queue), consume(queue))
if __name__ == '__main__':
asyncio.run(main())
# or, on Python older than 3.7:
#asyncio.get_event_loop().run_until_complete(main())
The beauty of an asyncio-based solution is that you can easily start an arbitrary number of such coroutines in parallel (e.g. you could start gather(main1(), main2()) in an outer coroutine, and run that), and have them all share the same thread.

Answer 2

with a few small fixes you almost run this :) (comments inside)
match_list # should be at the module scope
def tail():
# f = open(...) ???
f.seek(0, os.SEEK_END)
while True:
line = f.readline()
if not line:
time.sleep(0.1)
continue
yield line
def thread():
for line in tail():
match_list.append(line) # append line
print("thread DONE!")
def somefun(list):
#do things here
while match_list:
line = match_list.pop(0)
print(line)
def main():
match_list = []
f = open(r'file.txt')
thread=threading.Thread(target=thread, args=(f,))
thread.start()
while True:
if match_list:
somefun(match_list)
time.sleep(0.1) # <-- don't burn the CPU :)