asyncio - is young library for asynchronous network programming. Lack of information on proper use and writing code in asyncio as well as production war stories slows down asyncio adoption. In this talk I'll cover my experience with asyncio in production, best practices for writing reliable and testable asynchronous code as well as bunch of asyncio tips and tricks. We will discuss how run asyncio application in standalone mode, execute blocking code in event loop and moreover how embed asyncio in your synchronous application.

1. BUILDING APPS WITH
ASYNCIO
Nikolay Novik
PyConUA 2016

2. I AM ...
Software Engineer: at DataRobot Ukraine
Github:
Twitter:
My Projects:
database clients: aiomysql, aioobc, aiogibson
web and etc: aiohttp_debugtoolbar,
aiobotocore, aiohttp_mako,
aiohttp_admin
https://github.com/jettify
https://twitter.com/isinf

3. POLL: YOU AND ASYNCIO
1. I am using asyncio/aiohttp extensively
2. I am using Twisted, Tornado, gevent etc. extensively
3. I think async programming is kinda cool

4. AGENDA
1. Motivation, why asyncio and asynchronous programming
2. Asyncio application design choices
3. Tips and tricks and things to consider in your app
4. Asyncio pitfalls

5. MOTIVATION. WHY YOU MIGHT WANT TO WRITE
ASYNCHRONOUS CODE?
One can do useful work instead of blocking
Idle protocols (websockets) work out of box
Encourage good development practices
Bunch of shiny new frameworks

6. ALSO WE DO SOA (MICROSERVICES) THIS DAYS...
SOA implies a lot of network communications.

7. Amazon S3 API could return response in over 9000s! In async
case only one response blocked, in sync - entire thread.
SYNC DOES NOT SCALE (TM)
from django.http import HttpResponse
def my_view(request):
# blocks thread
r = requests.get('http://graph.facebook.com/v2.5/{uid}')
data = r.json()
# ...
return HttpResponse(status=200)
from aiohttp import web
async def my_view(request):
session = request.app['session']
# context switch here
r = await session.get('http://graph.facebook.com/v2.5/{uid}')
data = await r.json()
return web.Response(status=200)

8. ASYNCIO APPLICATION DESIGN CHOICES
Event loop are spins in main thread, it schedules blocking
tasks using thread pool.
Embedded event loop, main thread gives control to the
event loop for finite amount of time, and then executes
regular sync code.
Sync code executed in main thread, but event loop spinning
in separate thread.

9. ASYNCIO IS IN MAIN THREAD
MainThread
Asyncio
Asyncio
ThreadPool
ThreadPool
blocking code
dispatch async code
dispatch async code
dispatch async code
blocking code result
Most popular and convenient asyncio mode in the wild.

10. Easy to use but a bit strange interface, default executor has 4
worker threads.
ASYNCIO IS IN MAIN THREAD. BLOCKING CALLS
ARE IN THREADPOOL
import asyncio
from pyodbc import connect
loop = asyncio.get_event_loop()
executor = ThreadPoolExecutor(max_workers=4)
async def test_example():
dsn = 'Driver=SQLite;Database=sqlite.db'
conn = await loop.run_in_executor(executor, connect, dsn)
cursor = await loop.run_in_executor(executor, conn.cursor)
conn = await loop.run_in_executor(executor, cursor.execute,
'SELECT 42;')
loop.run_until_complete(test_example())

11. THREADPOOL NOTES
No way to kill thread if task stuck inside
C extensions could consumer alot of virtual memory due to
thread arena
Convenient workaround for blocking calls

12. has same interface as
ASYNCIO IS IN MAIN THREAD. BLOCKING CODE IN
PROCESSPOOL
loop = asyncio.get_event_loop()
executor = ProcessPoolExecutor(max_workers=3)
def is_prime(n):
if n % 2 == 0: return False
sqrt_n = int(math.floor(math.sqrt(n)))
for i in range(3, sqrt_n + 1, 2): if n % i == 0: return False
return True
async def go():
result = await loop.run_in_executor(
executor, is_prime, 112272535095293)
loop.run_until_complete(go(loop, executor))
ProcessPoolExecutor
ThreadPoolExecutor

13. PROCESSPOOL NOTES
Easy to terminate
Consumes a lot of memory
Process should be created and warmed as soon as possible
in order not to copy memory due to fork()

14. EMBEDDED ASYNCIO LOOP
MainThread
SyncCode
SyncCode
ThreadPool
ThreadPool
do sync work
blocking code
spin asyncio
do async work
do async work
do async work
do sync work
blocking code result
Application may spin event loop at will, to perform IO heavy
computations.

15. Scraping or concurrent upload to external server are most
popular use cases.
EMBEDDED ASYNCIO LOOP. EXAMPLE
import asyncio, aiohttp
async def fetch(session, url, loop):
async with session.get(url) as resp:
data = await resp.text()
def collect_data(url_list):
loop = asyncio.get_event_loop()
session = aiohttp.ClientSession(loop=loop)
coros = [fetch(sessiong, u, loop) for u in url_list]
data = loop.run_until_complete(asyncio.gather(*coros, loop=loop))
loop.run_until_complete(session.close())
loop.close()
return data
def main():
url_list = db.fetch_urls()
data = collect_data(url_list)
process(data)

16. Using coroutines inside sync code is not always good idea. In
this particular case it slows down database access.
DO NOT TRY THIS AT HOME!
import aioredis
from flask import Flask
app = Flask(__name__)
loop = asyncio.get_event_loop()
redis = loop.run_until_complete(aioredis.create_redis(
('localhost', 6379), loop=loop))
@app.route("/")
def hello():
value = loop.run_until_complete(redis.get('my-key'))
return "Hello {}!".format(value)
if __name__ == "__main__":
app.run()

17. ASYNCIO LOOP HAS OWN SEPARATE THREAD
MainThread
SyncCode
SyncCode
Asyncio
Asyncio
do sync work
submit async task
do async work
do async work
do async work
async task result
Application may delegate IO heavy tasks to dedicated loop in
separate thread.

18. ASYNCIO LOOP HAS OWN SEPARATE THREAD.
EXAMPLE
import asyncio, functools
from threading import Thread, Event
class AioThread(Thread):
def __init__(self, *args, **kwargs):
super().__init__(*args, **kwargs)
self.loop = None
self.event = Event()
def run(self):
self.loop = asyncio.new_event_loop()
asyncio.set_event_loop(self._loop)
self.loop.call_soon(self.event.set)
self.loop.run_forever()
def add_task(self, coro):
fut = asyncio.run_coroutine_threadsafe(coro, loop=self.loop)
return fut
def finalize(self, timeout=None):
self._loop.call_soon_threadsafe(self._loop.stop)
self.join(timeout=timeout)

19. Make sure you have means to signal that loop has been started,
and you can finalize thread properly

20. COMMUNICATION WITH BACKGROUND EVENT
LOOP
def main():
aiothread = AioThread()
aiothread.start()
aiothread.event.wait()
loop = aiothread.loop
coro = asyncio.sleep(1, loop=loop)
future = aiothread.add_task(coro)
try:
result = future.result(timeout)
except asyncio.TimeoutError:
print('The coroutine took too long, cancelling the task')
future.cancel()
except Exception as exc:
print('The coroutine raised an exception: {!r}'.format(exc))
Make sure you wait for loop to start.
Calling future.cancel() in main thread will cancel
asyncio coroutine in background thread.

21. Cassandra's is sync but connection objects spin
event loop, in this case twisted's reactor
REAL WORLD EXAMPLE: CASSANDRA PYTHON
DRIVER
class TwistedConnection(Connection):
@classmethod
def initialize_reactor(cls):
cls._loop = TwistedLoop()
def add_connection(self):
# ...
def client_connection_made(self):
# ...
def handle_read(self):
self.process_io_buffer()
def push(self, data):
reactor.callFromThread(self.connector.transport.write, data)
python driver

22. BIDIRECTIONAL SYNC/ASYNC COMMUNICATION.
JANUS QUEUE
queue = janus.Queue(loop=loop)
await queue.async_q.get()
queue.sync_q.put(i)

23. has two APIs for same queue: sync like
and async like
JANUS QUEUE EXAMPLE
import asyncio, janus
loop = asyncio.get_event_loop()
queue = janus.Queue(loop=loop)
def threaded(sync_q):
for i in range(100):
sync_q.put(i)
sync_q.join()
async def async_coro(async_q):
for i in range(100):
val = await async_q.get()
async_q.task_done()
fut = loop.run_in_executor(None, threaded, queue.sync_q)
loop.run_until_complete(async_coro(queue.async_q))
loop.run_until_complete(fut)
janus
queue.Queue asyncio.Queue

24. ASYNCIO TIPS AND TRICKS

25. argument is required for most asyncio APIs.
TIP: USE EXPLICIT EVENT LOOP
import asyncio
async def go(loop):
future = asyncio.Future(loop=loop)
future.set_result(None)
await asyncio.sleep(3.0, loop=loop)
await future
print("foo")
loop = asyncio.get_event_loop()
loop.run_until_complete(go(loop))
loop.close()
loop

26. GLYPH ON GLOBAL EVENT LOOP
It would really be a pity if Tulip repeated
our billion-dollar mistake [global reactor]
;-)
--Glyph Lefkowitz / author of Twisted
https://groups.google.com/forum/#!msg/python-
tulip/hr1kPZfMX8U/9uqdlbRuRsoJ

27. CONVENIENCE OF EXPLICIT LOOP
Increase of testability (Hello Twisted!)
Fast access to bunch of useful methods:
run_in_executor, create_subprocess_exec,
create_task
Easier to reason about code when you have nonstandard
case like: two threads two event loops, or main thread is
sync second is async

28. TIP: THINK ABOUT GRACEFUL SHUTDOWN EARLY

29. will warn you with bunch of tracebacks if you do
not do proper shutdown.
ASYNCIO GRACEFUL SHUTDOWN
import asyncio, signal
is_working = True
async def do_work(loop):
while is_working:
await asyncio.sleep(1, loop=loop)
def signal_handler(loop):
loop.remove_signal_handler(signal.SIGTERM)
is_working = False
loop = asyncio.get_event_loop()
loop.add_signal_handler(signal.SIGTERM, signal_handler, loop)
loop.run_until_complete(do_work(loop))
asyncio

30. Now you can be sure that all requests are safe and served and
new requests is not accepted
GRACEFUL SHUTDOWN AIOHTTP EDITION
loop = asyncio.get_event_loop()
handler = app.make_handler()
f = loop.create_server(handler, '0.0.0.0', 8080)
srv = loop.run_until_complete(f)
def shutdown(loop)
loop.remove_signal_handler(signal.SIGTERM)
loop.stop()
loop.add_signal_handler(signal.SIGTERM, shutdown, loop)
loop.run_forever()
srv.close() # finish socket listening
loop.run_until_complete(srv.wait_closed())
loop.run_until_complete(app.shutdown()) # close websockets
loop.run_until_complete(handler.finish_connections(60.0))
loop.run_until_complete(app.cleanup()) # doc registered cleanups
loop.close()

31. Good candidates for extra care:
TIP: THINK ABOUT RESOURCE LIFETIME TO
AVOID RESOURCE (SOCKETES) LEAK
Any rest calls to external services
Any reconnection logic

32. is your friend
Connection pooling helps to save on expensive connection
creation.
MAKE SURE ALL RESPONSES HAS BEEN
RELEASED
aiohttp.ClientSession
import asyncio
import aiohttp
async def go(loop):
session = aiohttp.ClientSession(loop=loop)
async with session.get('http://ua.pycon.org') as resp:
data = await resp.text()
print(data)
session.close()
loop = asyncio.get_event_loop()
loop.run_until_complete(go(loop))

33. has handy signal for database
connections, as well as for websockets
BE A GOOD CITIZEN! SHUTDOWN DB
CONNECTION POOLS IN YOUR AIOHTTP APP
async def init(loop):
# setup application and extensions
app = web.Application(loop=loop)
# create connection to the database
pg = await init_postgres(conf['postgres'], loop)
async def close_pg(app):
pg.close()
await pg.wait_closed()
app.on_cleanup.append(close_pg)
# ...
aiohttp on_cleanup
on_shutdown

34. May be very tricky! Same approach as thread finalization
should be employed or
EXPLICITLY FINALIZE BACKGROUND TASKS
class Foo:
def __init__(self):
self._task = asyncio.create_task(self._do_task(),
loop=self._loop)
async def _do_task():
await self.set('foo', 'bar')
await self.set('baz', 'zap')
async def _stop_do_task(self):
await self._task
task.cancel()

35. ASYNCIO PITSFALLS

36. Fixed in python 3.5
KEEP AN EYE ON STOPITERATION IN PYTHON 3.4
@asyncio.coroutine
def coro():
raise StopIteration('batman')
@asyncio.coroutine
def coro2():
i = iter(range(2))
next(i)
next(i)
next(i) # raise StopIteration
return 'finish'
@asyncio.coroutine
def go():
data = yield from coro() # batman
data = yield from coro2() # None

37. Fixed in python 3.5 with await syntax
MISSED COROUTINE DECORATORS IN PYTHON 3.4
@asyncio.coroutine
def foo(loop):
yield from asyncio.sleep(1, loop=loop)
def bar(loop):
yield from asyncio.sleep(1, loop=loop)
loop.run_until_complete(foo(loop))
loop.run_until_complete(bar(loop))

38. Fixed in python 3.5 with await syntax
THINK 7 TIMES BEFORE USING TASK.CANCEL()
async def foo(loop):
await update1()
await update2()
task = loop.ensure_future(foo(loop))
task.cancel()

39. THE END
http://jettify.github.io/pyconua2016