unsync
Unsynchronize asyncio
by using an ambient event loop, or executing in separate threads or processes.
Quick Overview
Functions marked with the @unsync
decorator will behave in one of the following ways:
async
functions will run in theunsync.loop
event loop executed fromunsync.thread
- Regular functions will execute in
unsync.thread_executor
, aThreadPoolExecutor
- Useful for IO bounded work that does not support
asyncio
- Useful for IO bounded work that does not support
- Regular functions marked with
@unsync(cpu_bound=True)
will execute inunsync.process_executor
, aProcessPoolExecutor
- Useful for CPU bounded work
All @unsync
functions will return an Unfuture
object. This new future type combines the behavior of asyncio.Future
and concurrent.Future
with the following changes:
Unfuture.set_result
is threadsafe unlikeasyncio.Future
Unfuture
instances can be awaited, even if made fromconcurrent.Future
Unfuture.result()
is a blocking operation except inunsync.loop
/unsync.thread
where it behaves likeasyncio.Future.result
and will throw an exception if the future is not done
Examples
Simple Sleep
A simple sleeping example with asyncio
:
async def sync_async():
await asyncio.sleep(1)
return 'I hate event loops'
async def main():
future1 = asyncio.create_task(sync_async())
future2 = asyncio.create_task(sync_async())
await future1, future2
print(future1.result() + future2.result())
asyncio.run(main())
# Takes 1 second to run
Same example with unsync
:
@unsync
async def unsync_async():
await asyncio.sleep(1)
return 'I like decorators'
unfuture1 = unsync_async()
unfuture2 = unsync_async()
print(unfuture1.result() + unfuture2.result())
# Takes 1 second to run
Multi-threading an IO-bound function
Synchronous functions can be made to run asynchronously by executing them in a concurrent.ThreadPoolExecutor
. This can be easily accomplished by marking the regular function @unsync
.
@unsync
def non_async_function(seconds):
time.sleep(seconds)
return 'Run concurrently!'
start = time.time()
tasks = [non_async_function(0.1) for _ in range(10)]
print([task.result() for task in tasks])
print('Executed in {} seconds'.format(time.time() - start))
Which prints:
['Run concurrently!', 'Run concurrently!', ...]
Executed in 0.10807514190673828 seconds
Continuations
Using Unfuture.then
chains asynchronous calls and returns an Unfuture
that wraps both the source, and continuation. The continuation is invoked with the source Unfuture as the first argument. Continuations can be regular functions (which will execute synchronously), or @unsync
functions.
@unsync
async def initiate(request):
await asyncio.sleep(0.1)
return request + 1
@unsync
async def process(task):
await asyncio.sleep(0.1)
return task.result() * 2
start = time.time()
print(initiate(3).then(process).result())
print('Executed in {} seconds'.format(time.time() - start))
Which prints:
8
Executed in 0.20314741134643555 seconds
Mixing methods
We'll start by converting a regular synchronous function into a threaded Unfuture
which will begin our request.
@unsync
def non_async_function(num):
time.sleep(0.1)
return num, num + 1
We may want to refine the result in another function, so we define the following continuation.
@unsync
async def result_continuation(task):
await asyncio.sleep(0.1)
num, res = task.result()
return num, res * 2
We then aggregate all the results into a single dictionary in an async function.
@unsync
async def result_processor(tasks):
output = {}
for task in tasks:
num, res = await task
output[num] = res
return output
Executing the full chain of non_async_function
→result_continuation
→result_processor
would look like:
start = time.time()
print(result_processor([non_async_function(i).then(result_continuation) for i in range(10)]).result())
print('Executed in {} seconds'.format(time.time() - start))
Which prints:
{0: 2, 1: 4, 2: 6, 3: 8, 4: 10, 5: 12, 6: 14, 7: 16, 8: 18, 9: 20}
Executed in 0.22115683555603027 seconds
Preserving typing
As far as we know it is not possible to change the return type of a method or function using a decorator. Therefore, we need a workaround to properly use IntelliSense. You have three options in general:
-
Ignore type warnings.
-
Use a suppression statement where you reach the type warning.
A. When defining the unsynced method by changing the return type to an
Unfuture
.B. When using the unsynced method.
-
Wrap the function without a decorator. Example:
def function_name(x: str) -> Unfuture[str]: async_method = unsync(__function_name_synced) return async_method(x) def __function_name_synced(x: str) -> str: return x + 'a' future_result = function_name('b') self.assertEqual('ba', future_result.result())
Custom Event Loops
In order to use custom event loops, be sure to set the event loop policy before calling any @unsync
methods. For example, to use uvloop
simply:
import unsync
import uvloop
@unsync
async def main():
# Main entry-point.
...
uvloop.install() # Equivalent to asyncio.set_event_loop_policy(EventLoopPolicy())
main()