160 lines
6.4 KiB
Plaintext
160 lines
6.4 KiB
Plaintext
====================
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Asynchronous support
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====================
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.. versionadded:: 3.0
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.. currentmodule:: asgiref.sync
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Django has developing support for asynchronous ("async") Python, but does not
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yet support asynchronous views or middleware; they will be coming in a future
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release.
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There is limited support for other parts of the async ecosystem; namely, Django
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can natively talk :doc:`ASGI </howto/deployment/asgi/index>`, and some async
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safety support.
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.. _async-safety:
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Async-safety
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============
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Certain key parts of Django are not able to operate safely in an asynchronous
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environment, as they have global state that is not coroutine-aware. These parts
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of Django are classified as "async-unsafe", and are protected from execution in
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an asynchronous environment. The ORM is the main example, but there are other
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parts that are also protected in this way.
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If you try to run any of these parts from a thread where there is a *running
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event loop*, you will get a
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:exc:`~django.core.exceptions.SynchronousOnlyOperation` error. Note that you
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don't have to be inside an async function directly to have this error occur. If
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you have called a synchronous function directly from an asynchronous function
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without going through something like :func:`sync_to_async` or a threadpool,
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then it can also occur, as your code is still running in an asynchronous
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context.
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If you encounter this error, you should fix your code to not call the offending
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code from an async context; instead, write your code that talks to async-unsafe
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in its own, synchronous function, and call that using
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:func:`asgiref.sync.sync_to_async`, or any other preferred way of running
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synchronous code in its own thread.
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If you are *absolutely* in dire need to run this code from an asynchronous
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context - for example, it is being forced on you by an external environment,
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and you are sure there is no chance of it being run concurrently (e.g. you are
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in a Jupyter_ notebook), then you can disable the warning with the
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``DJANGO_ALLOW_ASYNC_UNSAFE`` environment variable.
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.. warning::
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If you enable this option and there is concurrent access to the
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async-unsafe parts of Django, you may suffer data loss or corruption. Be
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very careful and do not use this in production environments.
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If you need to do this from within Python, do that with ``os.environ``::
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os.environ["DJANGO_ALLOW_ASYNC_UNSAFE"] = "true"
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.. _Jupyter: https://jupyter.org/
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Async adapter functions
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=======================
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It is necessary to adapt the calling style when calling synchronous code from
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an asynchronous context, or vice-versa. For this there are two adapter
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functions, made available from the ``asgiref.sync`` package:
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:func:`async_to_sync` and :func:`sync_to_async`. They are used to transition
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between sync and async calling styles while preserving compatibility.
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These adapter functions are widely used in Django. The `asgiref`_ package
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itself is part of the Django project, and it is automatically installed as a
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dependency when you install Django with ``pip``.
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.. _asgiref: https://pypi.org/project/asgiref/
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``async_to_sync()``
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-------------------
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.. function:: async_to_sync(async_function, force_new_loop=False)
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Wraps an asynchronous function and returns a synchronous function in its place.
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Can be used as either a direct wrapper or a decorator::
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from asgiref.sync import async_to_sync
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sync_function = async_to_sync(async_function)
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@async_to_sync
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async def async_function(...):
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...
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The asynchronous function is run in the event loop for the current thread, if
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one is present. If there is no current event loop, a new event loop is spun up
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specifically for the async function and shut down again once it completes. In
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either situation, the async function will execute on a different thread to the
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calling code.
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Threadlocals and contextvars values are preserved across the boundary in both
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directions.
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:func:`async_to_sync` is essentially a more powerful version of the
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:py:func:`asyncio.run` function available in Python's standard library. As well
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as ensuring threadlocals work, it also enables the ``thread_sensitive`` mode of
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:func:`sync_to_async` when that wrapper is used below it.
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``sync_to_async()``
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-------------------
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.. function:: sync_to_async(sync_function, thread_sensitive=False)
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Wraps a synchronous function and returns an asynchronous (awaitable) function
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in its place. Can be used as either a direct wrapper or a decorator::
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from asgiref.sync import sync_to_async
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async_function = sync_to_async(sync_function)
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async_function = sync_to_async(sensitive_sync_function, thread_sensitive=True)
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@sync_to_async
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def sync_function(...):
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...
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@sync_to_async(thread_sensitive=True)
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def sensitive_sync_function(...):
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...
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Threadlocals and contextvars values are preserved across the boundary in both
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directions.
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Synchronous functions tend to be written assuming they all run in the main
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thread, so :func:`sync_to_async` has two threading modes:
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* ``thread_sensitive=False`` (the default): the synchronous function will run
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in a brand new thread which is then closed once it completes.
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* ``thread_sensitive=True``: the synchronous function will run in the same
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thread as all other ``thread_sensitive`` functions, and this will be the main
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thread, if the main thread is synchronous and you are using the
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:func:`async_to_sync` wrapper.
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Thread-sensitive mode is quite special, and does a lot of work to run all
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functions in the same thread. Note, though, that it *relies on usage of*
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:func:`async_to_sync` *above it in the stack* to correctly run things on the
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main thread. If you use ``asyncio.run()`` (or other options instead), it will
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fall back to just running thread-sensitive functions in a single, shared thread
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(but not the main thread).
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The reason this is needed in Django is that many libraries, specifically
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database adapters, require that they are accessed in the same thread that they
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were created in, and a lot of existing Django code assumes it all runs in the
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same thread (e.g. middleware adding things to a request for later use by a
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view).
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Rather than introduce potential compatibility issues with this code, we instead
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opted to add this mode so that all existing Django synchronous code runs in the
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same thread and thus is fully compatible with asynchronous mode. Note, that
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synchronous code will always be in a *different* thread to any async code that
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is calling it, so you should avoid passing raw database handles or other
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thread-sensitive references around in any new code you write.
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