make a copy of dead thread - multithreading

I have a class that subclasses threading.thread. In the daemon that initialises the thread objects i periodically check the thread status. If the status is incomplete and the thread is not alive this means that there has been an error in doing something like an api call to another server.
My question is if this happens is it possible to make a copy of the thread object and call the start method. I had considered calling the run method again on the original object but this would mess up the daemon workflow.
Any ideas greatly appreciated!
C

Put an infinite loop in the daemon and check the isAlive()/is_alive() method if something has gone wrong. If it has just start up a new object using the same values.
Another way to solve your problem would be to catch the real problem within the thread object and just take care of the problem there. I assume you have a loop in your run() method. Just put everything within the loop in a try/except clause that will re-initialize whatever you are doing to check the other servers.
Something like this:
def run(self):
while 1:
try:
if not server.isconnected():
server.connect()
server.getsomeinfo()
except server.error as x:
server.disconnect()
time.sleep(1)
This will reconnect as soon as it is an error of type server.error. You can make the solution a lot prettier and add some intervals before retrying etc. I have done exactly this and it works perfectly.

Related

QtConcurrent::run how to stop background task

I have the same situation like this: stop thread started by qtconcurrent::run
I need to close child thread (started with QtConcurrent::run) on closeEvent in QMainWindow.
But my function in child thread use code from *.dll: I can`t use loop because all that I do - is calling the external dll like
QFuture<void> = QtConcurrent::run(obj->useDllfunc_with_longTermJob());
And when I close the app with x-button my gui is closed, but second thread with_longTermJob() still worked and when is finished I have an error.
I know some decisions for this:
using other functions like map() or something else with
QFuture.cancel/stop functionality, not QtConcurrent::run().But I need only one function call. run() is what I need.
or use QThread instead Concurrent.But it`s not good for me.
What method more simple and better and how can I implement this? Is there a method that I don`t listed?
Could you provide small code sample for decision. Thx!
QtConcurrent::run isn't a problem here. You must have means of stopping the dllFuncWithLongTermJob. If you don't have such means, then the API you're using is broken, and you're out of luck. There's nothing you can do that'd be generally safe. Forcibly terminating a thread can leave the heap in an inconsistent state, etc. - if you need to terminate a thread, you need to immediately abort the application.
Hopefully, you can call something like stopLongTermJob that sets some flag that interrupts the dllFuncWithLongTermJob.
Then:
auto obj = new Worker;
auto objFuture = QtConcurrent::run([=]{obj->dllFuncWithLongTermJob();});
To interrupt:
obj->stopLongTermJob(); // must be thread-safe, sets a flag
objFuture.waitForFinished();

Lua Script coroutine

Hi need some help on my lua script. I have a script here that will run a server like application (infinite loop). Problem here is it doesn't execute the second coroutine.
Could you tell me whats wrong Thank you.
function startServer()
print( "...Running server" )
--run a server like application infinite loop
os.execute( "server.exe" )
end
function continue()
print("continue")
end
co = coroutine.create( startServer() )
co1 = coroutine.create( continue() )
Lua have cooperative multithreading. Threads are not swtiched automatically, but must yield to others. When one thread is running, every other thread is waiting for it to finish or yield. Your first thread in this example seems to run server.exe, which, I assume, never finishes until interrupted. Thus second thread never gets its turn to run.
You also run threads wrong. In your example you're not running any threads at all. You execute function and then would try to create coroutine with its output, which naturally would fail. But since you never get back from server.exe you didn't notice this problem yet. Remove those brackets after startServer and continue to fix it.
As already noted, there are several issues with the script that prevent you from getting what you want:
os.execute("...") is blocked until the command is completed and in your case it doesn't complete (as it runs an infinite loop). Solution: you need to detach that process from yours by using something like io.popen() instead of os.execute()
co = coroutine.create( startServer() ) doesn't create a coroutine in your case. coroutine.create call accepts a function reference and you pass it the result of startServer call, which is nil. Solution: use co = coroutine.create( startServer ) (note that parenthesis are dropped, so it's not a function call anymore).
You are not yielding from your coroutines; if you want several coroutines to work together, they need to be cooperating by giving control to each other when appropriate. That's what yield command is for and that's why it's called non-preemptive multithreading. Solution: you need to use a combination of resume and yield calls after you create your coroutine.
startServer doesn't need to be a coroutine as you are not giving control back to it; its only purpose is to start the server.
In your case, the solution may not even need coroutines as all you need to do is: (1) start the server and let it detach from your process (for example, using popen) and (2) work with your process using whatever communication protocol it requires (pipes, sockets, etc.).
There are more complex and complete solutions (like LuaLanes) and also several good descriptions on creating simple coroutine dispatchers.
Your coroutine is not yielding

PySide timers/threading crash

I've written a PySide Windows application that uses libvlc to show a video, log keystrokes, and write aggregated information about those keystrokes to a file. I'm experiencing two bugs that are causing the application to crash (other question here -> https://stackoverflow.com/questions/18326943/pyside-qlistwidget-crash).
The application writes the keystroke file at every five minute interval on the video. Users can change the playback speed, so that five minute interval may take more or less than five minutes; it's not controlled by a timer.
The video continues playing while the file is written, so I've created an object inheriting from threading.Thread for the file creation - IntervalFile. Some information about the file to be written is passed in the constructor; IntervalFile doesn't access its parent (the main QWidget) at all. This is the only threading object I use in the app. There are no timer declared anywhere.
Intermittently, the application will crash and I'll get the following message: "QObject::killTimers: timers cannot be stopped from another thread".
The code that creates IntervalFile is (part of CustomWidget, inherited from QWidget):
def doIntervalChange(self):
...
ifile = IntervalFile(5, filepath, dbpath) # db is sqlite, with new connection created within IntervalFile
ifile.start()
#end of def
doIntervalChange is called from within QWidget using a signal.
IntervalFile is:
class IntervalFile(threading.Thread):
def __init__(self, interval, filepath, dbpath):
# declaration of variables
threading.Thread.__init__(self)
def run(self):
shutil.copy('db.local', self.dbPath) # because db is still being used in main QWidget
self.localDB = local(self.dbPath) # creates connection to sqlite db, with sql within the object to make db calls easier
# query db for keystroke data
# write file
self.localDB.close()
self.localDB = None
os.remove(self.dbPath) # don't need this copy anymore
When ifile.start() is commented out, I don't see the killTimers crash. Any suggestions? Note that the crash seems random; sometimes I can use the app (just continuely pressing the same keystroke over and over) for an hour without it crashing, sometimes it's within the first couple of intervals. Because of this difficulty reproducing the crashes, I think these lines of code are the issue, but I'm not 100% sure.
I'm pretty sure you need to hold a reference to your thread object. When your doIntervalChange() method finishes, nothing is holding a reference to the thread object (ifile) any more and so it can be garbage collected. Presumably this is why the crash happens randomly (if the thread finishes it's task before the object is garbage collected, then you don't have a problem).
Not exactly sure what is creating the QTimers, but I'm fairly certain that won't affect my proposed solution!
So in doIntervalChange() save a reference to ifile in a list, and periodically clean up the list when threads have finished execution. Have a look at this for an idea (and if a better way to clean up threads shows up in that post, implement that!): Is there a more elegant way to clean up thread references in python? Do I even have to worry about them?

How can i interrupt a live Job in Play! framework

I have tried looking, without any luck, for some kind of function to kill/interrupt a working Job in the Play! framework.
Am i missing something? or did Play! actually not add this functionality?
There is nothing like the stop method in the Java Thread class, which is deprecated for good reasons. The clean way is to have something like an interrupted boolean. If you extend play.jobs.Job you can easily add own interrupt methods the change the jobs state. You can do something like:
ComputeBigPrime primeJob = new ComputeBigPrime();
Promise<Integer> promisedPrime = primeJob.now();
// Timeout for interrupt
await("10s");
primeJob.interrupt();
// Wait until it's really finished to get the result
Integer prime = await(promisedPrime);
render(prime);
If you want to do the interrupt between more than one request, you can use the
play.cache.Cache and set an unique id (e.g. a UUID) with the information, if the thread is interrupted or not.
Of course this does not work, if you job is hanging in some other API call and you can not use a loop the check the interrupted boolean, but if you really need to do a hard stop like in Thread, you can try to use a Thread inside you controller or job. As its all just Java it should work.

QPointer in multi-threaded programs

According to http://doc.qt.io/qt-5/qpointer.html, QPointer is very useful. But I found it could be inefficient in the following context:
If I want to show label for three times or do something else, I have to use
if(label) label->show1();
if(label) label->show2();
if(label) label->show3();
instead of
if(label) { label->show1();label->show2();label->show3(); }
just because label might be destroyed in another thread after label->show1(); or label->show2();.
Is there a beautiful way other than three ifs to get the same functionality?
Another question is, when label is destroyed after if(label), is if(label) label->show1(); still wrong?
I don't have experience in multi-threaded programs. Any help is appreciated. ;)
I think the only safe way to do it is to make sure you only access your QWidgets from within the main/GUI thread (that is, the thread that is running Qt's event loop, inside QApplication::exec()).
If you have code that is running within a different thread, and that code wants the QLabels to be shown/hidden/whatever, then that code needs to create a QEvent object (or a subclass thereof) and call qApp->postEvent() to send that object to the main thread. Then when the Qt event loop picks up and handles that QEvent in the main thread, that is the point at which your code can safely do things to the QLabels.
Alternatively (and perhaps more simply), your thread's code could emit a cross-thread signal (as described here) and let Qt handle the event-posting internally. That might be better for your purpose.
Neither of your approaches is thread-safe. It's possible that your first thread will execute the if statement, then the other thread will delete your label, and then you will be inside of your if statement and crash.
Qt provides a number of thread synchronization constructs, you'll probably want to start with QMutex and learn more about thread-safety before you continue working on this program.
Using a mutex would make your function would look something like this:
mutex.lock();
label1->show();
label2->show();
label3->show();
mutex.unlock()
As long as your other thread is using locking that same mutex object then it will prevented from deleting your labels while you're showing them.

Resources