How to put tcp server on another thread in python

Question

I try to write a daemon in python. But I have no idea how can I use a thread to start parallel tcp server in this daemon. And even what type of server I should use : asyncore?SocketServer?socket?

this is part of my code:

import os
def demonized():
   child_pid = os.fork()
   if child_pid == 0:
       child_pid = os.fork()
       if child_pid == 0:          #fork twice for demonize
           file = open('###', "r") # open file
           event = file.read()
           while event:
               #TODO check for changes put changes in list variable
               event = file.read()
       file.close()
       else:
           sys.exit(0)
   else:
       sys.exit(0)


if __name__ == "__main__":
  demonized()

So in a loop I have a list variable with some data appended every circle, and I want to start a thread with tcp server that wait for connection in the loop and if client connects send it this data(with zeroing variable). So I do not need to handle multiple clients, the client will be only one at time. What is the optimal way to implement this?

Thank you.

Answer 1

In case you want to avoid repeating boilerplate, Python will soon have a standard module that does the fork() pair and standard-I/O manipulations (which you have not added to your program yet?) that make it a daemon. You can download and use this module right now, from:

http://pypi.python.org/pypi/python-daemon

Running a TCP server in a separate thread is often as simple as:

import threading

def my_tcp_server():
    sock = socket.socket(...)
    sock.bind(...)
    sock.listen()
    while True:
        conn, address = sock.accept()
        ...
        ... talk on the connection ...
        ...
        conn.close()

def main():
    ...
    threading.Thread(target=my_tcp_server).start()
    ...

I strongly recommend against trying to get your file-reader thread and your socket-answering thread talking with a list and lock of your own devising; such schemes are hard to get working and hard to keep working. Instead, use the standard library's Queue.Queue() class which does all of the locking and appending correctly for you.

Answer 2

Do you want to append items to the list in while event:... loop and serving this list simultaneously? If so then you have two writers and you must somehow protect your list.

In the sample SocketServer.TCPServer and threading.Lock was used:

import threading
import SocketServer
import time


class DataHandler(SocketServer.StreamRequestHandler):

    def handle(self):
        self.server.list_block.acquire()
        self.wfile.write(', '.join(self.server.data))
        self.wfile.flush()
        self.server.data = []
        self.server.list_block.release()


if __name__ == '__main__':
    data = []
    list_block = threading.Lock()

    server = SocketServer.TCPServer(('localhost', 0), DataHandler)
    server.list_block = list_block
    server.data = data

    t = threading.Thread(target=server.serve_forever)
    t.start()

    while True:
        list_block.acquire()
        data.append(1)
        list_block.release()
        time.sleep(1)