Add support for parsing PDF pages in parallel (multiprocessing)

camelot/cli.py

@@ -39,6 +39,12 @@ def set_config(self, key, value):
     default="1",
     help="Comma-separated page numbers." " Example: 1,3,4 or 1,4-end or all.",
 )
+@click.option(
+    "--parallel",
+    is_flag=True,
+    default=False,
+    help="Read pdf pages in parallel using all CPU cores.",
+)
 @click.option("-pw", "--password", help="Password for decryption.")
 @click.option("-o", "--output", help="Output file path.")
 @click.option(

camelot/handlers.py

@@ -1,3 +1,4 @@
+import multiprocessing as mp
 import os
 import sys
 from pathlib import Path
@@ -143,7 +144,12 @@ def _save_page(self, filepath: Union[StrByteType, Path], page, temp):
             instream.close()
 
     def parse(
-        self, flavor="lattice", suppress_stdout=False, layout_kwargs=None, **kwargs
+        self,
+        flavor="lattice",
+        suppress_stdout=False,
+        parallel=False,
+        layout_kwargs=None,
+        **kwargs
     ):
         """Extracts tables by calling parser.get_tables on all single
         page PDFs.
@@ -153,8 +159,10 @@ def parse(
         flavor : str (default: 'lattice')
             The parsing method to use ('lattice' or 'stream').
             Lattice is used by default.
-        suppress_stdout : str (default: False)
+        suppress_stdout : bool (default: False)
             Suppress logs and warnings.
+        parallel : bool (default: False)
+            Process pages in parallel using all available cpu cores.
         layout_kwargs : dict, optional (default: {})
             A dict of `pdfminer.layout.LAParams
             <https://github.com/euske/pdfminer/blob/master/pdfminer/layout.py#L33>`_ kwargs.
@@ -171,14 +179,54 @@ def parse(
             layout_kwargs = {}
 
         tables = []
+        parser = Lattice(**kwargs) if flavor == "lattice" else Stream(**kwargs)
         with TemporaryDirectory() as tempdir:
-            for p in self.pages:
-                self._save_page(self.filepath, p, tempdir)
-            pages = [os.path.join(tempdir, f"page-{p}.pdf") for p in self.pages]
-            parser = Lattice(**kwargs) if flavor == "lattice" else Stream(**kwargs)
-            for p in pages:
-                t = parser.extract_tables(
-                    p, suppress_stdout=suppress_stdout, layout_kwargs=layout_kwargs
-                )
-                tables.extend(t)
+            cpu_count = mp.cpu_count()
+            # Using multiprocessing only when cpu_count > 1 to prevent a stallness issue
+            # when cpu_count is 1
+            if parallel and len(self.pages) > 1 and cpu_count > 1:
+                with mp.get_context("spawn").Pool(processes=cpu_count) as pool:
+                    jobs = [
+                        pool.apply_async(
+                            self._parse_page,
+                            (p, tempdir, parser, suppress_stdout, layout_kwargs)
+                        ) for p in self.pages
+                    ]
+                    for j in jobs:
+                        t = j.get()
+                        tables.extend(t)
+            else:
+                for p in self.pages:
+                    t = self._parse_page(p, tempdir, parser, suppress_stdout, layout_kwargs)
+                    tables.extend(t)
         return TableList(sorted(tables))
+
+    def _parse_page(
+        self, page, tempdir, parser, suppress_stdout, layout_kwargs
+    ):
+        """Extracts tables by calling parser.get_tables on a single
+        page PDF.
+
+        Parameters
+        ----------
+        page : str
+            Page number to parse
+        parser : Lattice or Stream
+            The parser to use (Lattice or Stream).
+        suppress_stdout : bool
+            Suppress logs and warnings.
+        layout_kwargs : dict, optional (default: {})
+            A dict of `pdfminer.layout.LAParams <https://github.com/euske/pdfminer/blob/master/pdfminer/layout.py#L33>`_ kwargs.
+
+        Returns
+        -------
+        tables : camelot.core.TableList
+            List of tables found in PDF.
+
+        """
+        self._save_page(self.filepath, page, tempdir)
+        page_path = os.path.join(tempdir, f"page-{page}.pdf")
+        tables = parser.extract_tables(
+            page_path, suppress_stdout=suppress_stdout, layout_kwargs=layout_kwargs
+        )
+        return tables

camelot/io.py

@@ -15,6 +15,7 @@ def read_pdf(
     password=None,
     flavor="lattice",
     suppress_stdout=False,
+    parallel=False,
     layout_kwargs=None,
     **kwargs
 ):
@@ -37,6 +38,8 @@ def read_pdf(
         Lattice is used by default.
     suppress_stdout : bool, optional (default: True)
         Print all logs and warnings.
+    parallel : bool, optional (default: False)
+        Process pages in parallel using all available cpu cores.
     layout_kwargs : dict, optional (default: {})
         A dict of `pdfminer.layout.LAParams
         <https://github.com/euske/pdfminer/blob/master/pdfminer/layout.py#L33>`_ kwargs.
@@ -122,6 +125,7 @@ def read_pdf(
         tables = p.parse(
             flavor=flavor,
             suppress_stdout=suppress_stdout,
+            parallel=parallel,
             layout_kwargs=layout_kwargs,
             **kwargs
         )

docs/user/quickstart.rst

@@ -99,6 +99,26 @@ By default, Camelot only uses the first page of the PDF to extract tables. To sp
 
 The ``pages`` keyword argument accepts pages as comma-separated string of page numbers. You can also specify page ranges — for example, ``pages=1,4-10,20-30`` or ``pages=1,4-10,20-end``.
 
+Extract tables in parallel
+--------------------------
+
+Camelot supports extracting tables in parrallel using all the available CPU cores.
+
+::
+
+    >>> tables = camelot.read_pdf('foo.pdf', page='all', parallel=True)
+    >>> tables
+    <TableList n=1>
+
+.. tip::
+    Here's how you can do the same with the :ref:`command-line interface <cli>`.
+    ::
+
+        $ camelot --pages all --parallel lattice foo.pdf
+
+.. note:: The reading of the PDF document is parallelized by processing pages by different CPU core.
+    Therefore, a document with a low page count could be slower to process in parallel.  
+
 Reading encrypted PDFs
 ----------------------
 

tests/test_cli.py

@@ -62,6 +62,30 @@ def test_cli_stream(testdir):
         assert format_error in result.output
 
 
+@skip_on_windows
+def test_cli_parallel(testdir):
+    with TemporaryDirectory() as tempdir:
+        infile = os.path.join(testdir, "diesel_engines.pdf")
+        outfile = os.path.join(tempdir, "diesel_engines.csv")
+        runner = CliRunner()
+        result = runner.invoke(
+            cli,
+            [
+                "--parallel",
+                "--pages",
+                "1,2,3",
+                "--format",
+                "csv",
+                "--output",
+                outfile,
+                "lattice",
+                infile,
+            ],
+        )
+        assert result.exit_code == 0
+        assert result.output == "Found 2 tables\n"
+
+
 def test_cli_password(testdir):
     with TemporaryDirectory() as tempdir:
         infile = os.path.join(testdir, "health_protected.pdf")