Synchronization Primitives¶
Source code: Lib/asyncio/locks.py
asyncio synchronization primitives are designed to be similar to
those of the threading module with two important caveats:
- asyncio primitives are not thread-safe, therefore they should not be used for OS thread synchronization (use - threadingfor that);
- methods of these synchronization primitives do not accept the timeout argument; use the - asyncio.wait_for()function to perform operations with timeouts.
asyncio has the following basic synchronization primitives:
Lock¶
- class asyncio.Lock¶
- Implements a mutex lock for asyncio tasks. Not thread-safe. - An asyncio lock can be used to guarantee exclusive access to a shared resource. - The preferred way to use a Lock is an - async withstatement:- lock = asyncio.Lock() # ... later async with lock: # access shared state - which is equivalent to: - lock = asyncio.Lock() # ... later await lock.acquire() try: # access shared state finally: lock.release() - Changed in version 3.10: Removed the loop parameter. - coroutine acquire()¶
- Acquire the lock. - This method waits until the lock is unlocked, sets it to locked and returns - True.- When more than one coroutine is blocked in - acquire()waiting for the lock to be unlocked, only one coroutine eventually proceeds.- Acquiring a lock is fair: the coroutine that proceeds will be the first coroutine that started waiting on the lock. 
 - release()¶
- Release the lock. - When the lock is locked, reset it to unlocked and return. - If the lock is unlocked, a - RuntimeErroris raised.
 - locked()¶
- Return - Trueif the lock is locked.
 
Event¶
- class asyncio.Event¶
- An event object. Not thread-safe. - An asyncio event can be used to notify multiple asyncio tasks that some event has happened. - An Event object manages an internal flag that can be set to true with the - set()method and reset to false with the- clear()method. The- wait()method blocks until the flag is set to true. The flag is set to false initially.- Changed in version 3.10: Removed the loop parameter. - Example: - async def waiter(event): print('waiting for it ...') await event.wait() print('... got it!') async def main(): # Create an Event object. event = asyncio.Event() # Spawn a Task to wait until 'event' is set. waiter_task = asyncio.create_task(waiter(event)) # Sleep for 1 second and set the event. await asyncio.sleep(1) event.set() # Wait until the waiter task is finished. await waiter_task asyncio.run(main()) - coroutine wait()¶
- Wait until the event is set. - If the event is set, return - Trueimmediately. Otherwise block until another task calls- set().
 - set()¶
- Set the event. - All tasks waiting for event to be set will be immediately awakened. 
 - clear()¶
- Clear (unset) the event. - Tasks awaiting on - wait()will now block until the- set()method is called again.
 - is_set()¶
- Return - Trueif the event is set.
 
Condition¶
- class asyncio.Condition(lock=None)¶
- A Condition object. Not thread-safe. - An asyncio condition primitive can be used by a task to wait for some event to happen and then get exclusive access to a shared resource. - In essence, a Condition object combines the functionality of an - Eventand a- Lock. It is possible to have multiple Condition objects share one Lock, which allows coordinating exclusive access to a shared resource between different tasks interested in particular states of that shared resource.- The optional lock argument must be a - Lockobject or- None. In the latter case a new Lock object is created automatically.- Changed in version 3.10: Removed the loop parameter. - The preferred way to use a Condition is an - async withstatement:- cond = asyncio.Condition() # ... later async with cond: await cond.wait() - which is equivalent to: - cond = asyncio.Condition() # ... later await cond.acquire() try: await cond.wait() finally: cond.release() - coroutine acquire()¶
- Acquire the underlying lock. - This method waits until the underlying lock is unlocked, sets it to locked and returns - True.
 - notify(n=1)¶
- Wake up at most n tasks (1 by default) waiting on this condition. The method is no-op if no tasks are waiting. - The lock must be acquired before this method is called and released shortly after. If called with an unlocked lock a - RuntimeErrorerror is raised.
 - locked()¶
- Return - Trueif the underlying lock is acquired.
 - notify_all()¶
- Wake up all tasks waiting on this condition. - This method acts like - notify(), but wakes up all waiting tasks.- The lock must be acquired before this method is called and released shortly after. If called with an unlocked lock a - RuntimeErrorerror is raised.
 - release()¶
- Release the underlying lock. - When invoked on an unlocked lock, a - RuntimeErroris raised.
 - coroutine wait()¶
- Wait until notified. - If the calling task has not acquired the lock when this method is called, a - RuntimeErroris raised.- This method releases the underlying lock, and then blocks until it is awakened by a - notify()or- notify_all()call. Once awakened, the Condition re-acquires its lock and this method returns- True.
 - coroutine wait_for(predicate)¶
- Wait until a predicate becomes true. - The predicate must be a callable which result will be interpreted as a boolean value. The final value is the return value. 
 
Semaphore¶
- class asyncio.Semaphore(value=1)¶
- A Semaphore object. Not thread-safe. - A semaphore manages an internal counter which is decremented by each - acquire()call and incremented by each- release()call. The counter can never go below zero; when- acquire()finds that it is zero, it blocks, waiting until some task calls- release().- The optional value argument gives the initial value for the internal counter ( - 1by default). If the given value is less than- 0a- ValueErroris raised.- Changed in version 3.10: Removed the loop parameter. - The preferred way to use a Semaphore is an - async withstatement:- sem = asyncio.Semaphore(10) # ... later async with sem: # work with shared resource - which is equivalent to: - sem = asyncio.Semaphore(10) # ... later await sem.acquire() try: # work with shared resource finally: sem.release() - coroutine acquire()¶
- Acquire a semaphore. - If the internal counter is greater than zero, decrement it by one and return - Trueimmediately. If it is zero, wait until a- release()is called and return- True.
 - locked()¶
- Returns - Trueif semaphore can not be acquired immediately.
 - release()¶
- Release a semaphore, incrementing the internal counter by one. Can wake up a task waiting to acquire the semaphore. - Unlike - BoundedSemaphore,- Semaphoreallows making more- release()calls than- acquire()calls.
 
BoundedSemaphore¶
- class asyncio.BoundedSemaphore(value=1)¶
- A bounded semaphore object. Not thread-safe. - Bounded Semaphore is a version of - Semaphorethat raises a- ValueErrorin- release()if it increases the internal counter above the initial value.- Changed in version 3.10: Removed the loop parameter. 
Barrier¶
- class asyncio.Barrier(parties)¶
- A barrier object. Not thread-safe. - A barrier is a simple synchronization primitive that allows to block until parties number of tasks are waiting on it. Tasks can wait on the - wait()method and would be blocked until the specified number of tasks end up waiting on- wait(). At that point all of the waiting tasks would unblock simultaneously.- async withcan be used as an alternative to awaiting on- wait().- The barrier can be reused any number of times. - Example: - async def example_barrier(): # barrier with 3 parties b = asyncio.Barrier(3) # create 2 new waiting tasks asyncio.create_task(b.wait()) asyncio.create_task(b.wait()) await asyncio.sleep(0) print(b) # The third .wait() call passes the barrier await b.wait() print(b) print("barrier passed") await asyncio.sleep(0) print(b) asyncio.run(example_barrier()) - Result of this example is: - <asyncio.locks.Barrier object at 0x... [filling, waiters:2/3]> <asyncio.locks.Barrier object at 0x... [draining, waiters:0/3]> barrier passed <asyncio.locks.Barrier object at 0x... [filling, waiters:0/3]> - New in version 3.11. - coroutine wait()¶
- Pass the barrier. When all the tasks party to the barrier have called this function, they are all unblocked simultaneously. - When a waiting or blocked task in the barrier is cancelled, this task exits the barrier which stays in the same state. If the state of the barrier is “filling”, the number of waiting task decreases by 1. - The return value is an integer in the range of 0 to - parties-1, different for each task. This can be used to select a task to do some special housekeeping, e.g.:- ... async with barrier as position: if position == 0: # Only one task prints this print('End of *draining phase*') - This method may raise a - BrokenBarrierErrorexception if the barrier is broken or reset while a task is waiting. It could raise a- CancelledErrorif a task is cancelled.
 - coroutine reset()¶
- Return the barrier to the default, empty state. Any tasks waiting on it will receive the - BrokenBarrierErrorexception.- If a barrier is broken it may be better to just leave it and create a new one. 
 - coroutine abort()¶
- Put the barrier into a broken state. This causes any active or future calls to - wait()to fail with the- BrokenBarrierError. Use this for example if one of the tasks needs to abort, to avoid infinite waiting tasks.
 - parties¶
- The number of tasks required to pass the barrier. 
 - n_waiting¶
- The number of tasks currently waiting in the barrier while filling. 
 - broken¶
- A boolean that is - Trueif the barrier is in the broken state.
 
- exception asyncio.BrokenBarrierError¶
- This exception, a subclass of - RuntimeError, is raised when the- Barrierobject is reset or broken.
Changed in version 3.9: Acquiring a lock using await lock or yield from lock and/or
with statement (with await lock, with (yield from
lock)) was removed.  Use async with lock instead.