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njsmith committed Jul 13, 2021
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101 changes: 37 additions & 64 deletions docs/source/reference-io.rst
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Expand Up @@ -665,22 +665,45 @@ Spawning subprocesses

Trio provides support for spawning other programs as subprocesses,
communicating with them via pipes, sending them signals, and waiting
for them to exit. The interface for doing so consists of two layers:
for them to exit.

* :func:`trio.run_process` runs a process from start to
finish and returns a :class:`~subprocess.CompletedProcess` object describing
its outputs and return value. This is what you should reach for if you
want to run a process to completion before continuing, while possibly
sending it some input or capturing its output. It is modelled after
the standard :func:`subprocess.run` with some additional features
and safer defaults.
Most of the time, this is done through our high-level interface,
`trio.run_process`. It lets you either run a process to completion
while optionally capturing the output, or else run it in a background
task and interact with it while it's running. It's modelled after the
standard library's `subprocess.run`, with some additional features and
safer defaults:

* `trio.open_process` starts a process in the background and returns a
`Process` object to let you interact with it. Using it requires a
bit more code than `run_process`, but exposes additional
capabilities: back-and-forth communication, processing output as
soon as it is generated, and so forth. It is modelled after the
standard library :class:`subprocess.Popen`.
.. autofunction:: trio.run_process

.. autoclass:: trio.Process

.. autoattribute:: returncode

.. automethod:: wait

.. automethod:: poll

.. automethod:: kill

.. automethod:: terminate

.. automethod:: send_signal

.. note:: :meth:`~subprocess.Popen.communicate` is not provided as a
method on :class:`~trio.Process` objects; call :func:`~trio.run_process`
normally for simple capturing, or write the loop yourself if you
have unusual needs. :meth:`~subprocess.Popen.communicate` has
quite unusual cancellation behavior in the standard library (on
some platforms it spawns a background thread which continues to
read from the child process even after the timeout has expired)
and we wanted to provide an interface with fewer surprises.

If `trio.run_process` is too limiting, we also offer a low-level API,
`trio.open_process`. For example, use `open_process` if you want to
spawn a child process that outlives the parent process:

.. autofunction:: trio.open_process


.. _subprocess-options:
Expand All @@ -706,56 +729,6 @@ with a process, so it does not support the ``encoding``, ``errors``,
options.


Running a process and waiting for it to finish
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The basic interface for running a subprocess start-to-finish is
:func:`trio.run_process`. It always waits for the subprocess to exit
before returning, so there's no need to worry about leaving a process
running by mistake after you've gone on to do other things.
:func:`~trio.run_process` is similar to the standard library
:func:`subprocess.run` function, but tries to have safer defaults:
with no options, the subprocess's input is empty rather than coming
from the user's terminal, and a failure in the subprocess will be
propagated as a :exc:`subprocess.CalledProcessError` exception. Of
course, these defaults can be changed where necessary.

.. autofunction:: trio.run_process


Interacting with a process as it runs
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

If you want more control than :func:`~trio.run_process` affords, you
can use `trio.open_process` to spawn a subprocess, and then interact
with it using the `Process` interface.

.. autofunction:: trio.open_process

.. autoclass:: trio.Process

.. autoattribute:: returncode

.. automethod:: wait

.. automethod:: poll

.. automethod:: kill

.. automethod:: terminate

.. automethod:: send_signal

.. note:: :meth:`~subprocess.Popen.communicate` is not provided as a
method on :class:`~trio.Process` objects; use :func:`~trio.run_process`
instead, or write the loop yourself if you have unusual
needs. :meth:`~subprocess.Popen.communicate` has quite unusual
cancellation behavior in the standard library (on some platforms it
spawns a background thread which continues to read from the child
process even after the timeout has expired) and we wanted to
provide an interface with fewer surprises.


.. _subprocess-quoting:

Quoting: more than you wanted to know
Expand Down
134 changes: 89 additions & 45 deletions trio/_subprocess.py
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Expand Up @@ -56,19 +56,20 @@ def pidfd_open(fd, flags):
class Process(AsyncResource, metaclass=NoPublicConstructor):
r"""A child process. Like :class:`subprocess.Popen`, but async.
This class has no public constructor. The most common way to create a
`Process` is to combine `Nursery.start` with `run_process`::
This class has no public constructor. The most common way to get a
`Process` object is to combine `Nursery.start` with `run_process`::
process = await nursery.start(run_process, ...)
process_object = await nursery.start(run_process, ...)
This way, `run_process` supervises the process, and makes sure that it is
cleaned up, while optionally checking the output, feeding it input, and so
on.
This way, `run_process` supervises the process and makes sure that it is
cleaned up properly, while optionally checking the return value, feeding
it input, and so on.
If you need more control – for example, because you want to spawn a child
process that outlives your program – then you can use `open_process`::
process that outlives your program – then another option is to use
`open_process`::
process = await trio.open_process(...)
process_object = await trio.open_process(...)
Attributes:
args (str or list): The ``command`` passed at construction time,
Expand Down Expand Up @@ -426,21 +427,39 @@ async def run_process(
task_status=trio.TASK_STATUS_IGNORED,
**options,
):
"""Run ``command`` in a subprocess, wait for it to complete, and
return a :class:`subprocess.CompletedProcess` instance describing
the results.
If cancelled, :func:`run_process` terminates the subprocess and
waits for it to exit before propagating the cancellation, like
:meth:`Process.aclose`.
**Input:** The subprocess's standard input stream is set up to
receive the bytes provided as ``stdin``. Once the given input has
been fully delivered, or if none is provided, the subprocess will
receive end-of-file when reading from its standard input.
Alternatively, if you want the subprocess to read its
standard input from the same place as the parent Trio process, you
can pass ``stdin=None``.
"""Run ``command`` in a subprocess and wait for it to complete.
This function can be called in two different ways.
One option is a direct call, like::
completed_process_info = await trio.run_process(...)
In this case, it returns a :class:`subprocess.CompletedProcess` instance
describing the results. Use this if you want to treat a process like a
function call.
The other option is to run it as a task using `Nursery.start` – the enhanced version
of `~Nursery.start_soon` that lets a task pass back a value during startup::
process = await nursery.start(trio.run_process, ...)
In this case, `~Nursery.start` returns a `Process` object that you can use
to interact with the process while it's running. Use this if you want to
treat a process like a background task.
Either way, `run_process` makes sure that the process has exited before
returning, handles cancellation, optionally checks for errors, and
provides some convenient shorthands for dealing with the child's
input/output.
**Input:** `run_process` supports all the same ``stdin=`` arguments as
`subprocess.Popen`. In addition, if you simply want to pass in some fixed
data, you can pass a plain `bytes` object, and `run_process` will take
care of setting up a pipe, feeding in the data you gave, and then sending
end-of-file. The default is `b""`, which means that the child will receive
an empty stdin. If you want the child to instead read from the parent's
stdin (like `subprocess.run` does by default), use ``stdin=None``.
**Output:** By default, any output produced by the subprocess is
passed through to the standard output and error streams of the
Expand Down Expand Up @@ -470,8 +489,17 @@ async def run_process(
the :attr:`~subprocess.CalledProcessError.stdout` and
:attr:`~subprocess.CalledProcessError.stderr` attributes of that
exception. To disable this behavior, so that :func:`run_process`
returns normally even if the subprocess exits abnormally, pass
``check=False``.
returns normally even if the subprocess exits abnormally (like `subprocess.run`
does by default), pass ``check=False``.
Note that this can make the ``capture_stdout`` and ``capture_stderr``
arguments useful even when starting `run_process` as a task: if you only
care about the output if the process fails, then you can enable capturing
and then read the output off of the `~subprocess.CalledProcessError`.
**Cancellation:** If cancelled, `run_process` sends a termination
request to the subprocess, then waits for it to fully exit. The
``deliver_cancel`` argument lets you control how the process is terminated.
Args:
command (list or str): The command to run. Typically this is a
Expand All @@ -482,24 +510,26 @@ async def run_process(
be a string, which will be parsed following platform-dependent
:ref:`quoting rules <subprocess-quoting>`.
stdin (:obj:`bytes`, file descriptor, or None): The bytes to provide to
the subprocess on its standard input stream, or ``None`` if the
subprocess's standard input should come from the same place as
the parent Trio process's standard input. As is the case with
the :mod:`subprocess` module, you can also pass a
file descriptor or an object with a ``fileno()`` method,
in which case the subprocess's standard input will come from
that file.
stdin (:obj:`bytes`, subprocess.PIPE, file descriptor, or None): The
bytes to provide to the subprocess on its standard input stream, or
``None`` if the subprocess's standard input should come from the
same place as the parent Trio process's standard input. As is the
case with the :mod:`subprocess` module, you can also pass a file
descriptor or an object with a ``fileno()`` method, in which case
the subprocess's standard input will come from that file. And when
starting `run_process` as a background task, you can use
``stdin=subprocess.PIPE``, in which case `Process.stdin` will be a
`SendStream` that you can use to send data to the child.
capture_stdout (bool): If true, capture the bytes that the subprocess
writes to its standard output stream and return them in the
:attr:`~subprocess.CompletedProcess.stdout` attribute
of the returned :class:`~subprocess.CompletedProcess` object.
`~subprocess.CompletedProcess.stdout` attribute of the returned
`subprocess.CompletedProcess` or `subprocess.CalledProcessError`.
capture_stderr (bool): If true, capture the bytes that the subprocess
writes to its standard error stream and return them in the
:attr:`~subprocess.CompletedProcess.stderr` attribute
of the returned :class:`~subprocess.CompletedProcess` object.
`~subprocess.CompletedProcess.stderr` attribute of the returned
`~subprocess.CompletedProcess` or `subprocess.CalledProcessError`.
check (bool): If false, don't validate that the subprocess exits
successfully. You should be sure to check the
Expand Down Expand Up @@ -544,8 +574,11 @@ async def my_deliver_cancel(process):
``stdout=subprocess.DEVNULL``, or file descriptors.
Returns:
A :class:`subprocess.CompletedProcess` instance describing the
return code and outputs.
When called normally: a `subprocess.CompletedProcess` instance
describing the return code and outputs.
When called via `Nursery.start`: a `trio.Process` instance.
Raises:
UnicodeError: if ``stdin`` is specified as a Unicode string, rather
Expand All @@ -568,12 +601,23 @@ async def my_deliver_cancel(process):

if isinstance(stdin, str):
raise UnicodeError("process stdin must be bytes, not str")
if stdin == subprocess.PIPE and task_status is trio.TASK_STATUS_IGNORED:
raise ValueError(
"stdin=subprocess.PIPE doesn't make sense since the pipe "
"is internal to run_process(); pass the actual data you "
"want to send over that pipe instead"
)
if task_status is trio.TASK_STATUS_IGNORED:
if stdin is subprocess.PIPE:
raise ValueError(
"stdin=subprocess.PIPE doesn't make sense without "
"nursery.start, since there's no way to access the "
"pipe; pass the data you want to send or use nursery.start"
)
if options.get("stdout") is subprocess.PIPE:
raise ValueError(
"stdout=subprocess.PIPE doesn't make sense without "
"nursery.start, since there's no way to access the pipe"
)
if options.get("stderr") is subprocess.PIPE:
raise ValueError(
"stderr=subprocess.PIPE doesn't make sense without "
"nursery.start, since there's no way to access the pipe"
)
if isinstance(stdin, (bytes, bytearray, memoryview)):
input = stdin
options["stdin"] = subprocess.PIPE
Expand Down

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