Policies
********

An event loop policy is a global per-process object that controls the
management of the event loop. Each event loop has a default policy,
which can be changed and customized using the policy API.

A policy defines the notion of *context* and manages a separate event
loop per context. The default policy defines *context* to be the
current thread.

By using a custom event loop policy, the behavior of
"get_event_loop()", "set_event_loop()", and "new_event_loop()"
functions can be customized.

Policy objects should implement the APIs defined in the
"AbstractEventLoopPolicy" abstract base class.


Getting and Setting the Policy
==============================

The following functions can be used to get and set the policy for the
current process:

asyncio.get_event_loop_policy()

   Return the current process-wide policy.

asyncio.set_event_loop_policy(policy)

   Set the current process-wide policy to *policy*.

   If *policy* is set to "None", the default policy is restored.


Policy Objects
==============

The abstract event loop policy base class is defined as follows:

class asyncio.AbstractEventLoopPolicy

   An abstract base class for asyncio policies.

   get_event_loop()

      Get the event loop for the current context.

      Return an event loop object implementing the "AbstractEventLoop"
      interface.

      This method should never return "None".

      Changed in version 3.6.

   set_event_loop(loop)

      Set the event loop for the current context to *loop*.

   new_event_loop()

      Create and return a new event loop object.

      This method should never return "None".

   get_child_watcher()

      Get a child process watcher object.

      Return a watcher object implementing the "AbstractChildWatcher"
      interface.

      This function is Unix specific.

   set_child_watcher(watcher)

      Set the current child process watcher to *watcher*.

      This function is Unix specific.

asyncio ships with the following built-in policies:

class asyncio.DefaultEventLoopPolicy

   The default asyncio policy.  Uses "SelectorEventLoop" on both Unix
   and Windows platforms.

   There is no need to install the default policy manually. asyncio is
   configured to use the default policy automatically.

class asyncio.WindowsProactorEventLoopPolicy

   An alternative event loop policy that uses the "ProactorEventLoop"
   event loop implementation.

   Availability: Windows.


Process Watchers
================

A process watcher allows customization of how an event loop monitors
child processes on Unix. Specifically, the event loop needs to know
when a child process has exited.

In asyncio, child processes are created with
"create_subprocess_exec()" and "loop.subprocess_exec()" functions.

asyncio defines the "AbstractChildWatcher" abstract base class, which
child watchers should implement, and has two different
implementations: "SafeChildWatcher" (configured to be used by default)
and "FastChildWatcher".

See also the Subprocess and Threads section.

The following two functions can be used to customize the child process
watcher implementation used by the asyncio event loop:

asyncio.get_child_watcher()

   Return the current child watcher for the current policy.

asyncio.set_child_watcher(watcher)

   Set the current child watcher to *watcher* for the current policy.
   *watcher* must implement methods defined in the
   "AbstractChildWatcher" base class.

Note:

  Third-party event loops implementations might not support custom
  child watchers.  For such event loops, using "set_child_watcher()"
  might be prohibited or have no effect.

class asyncio.AbstractChildWatcher

   add_child_handler(pid, callback, *args)

      Register a new child handler.

      Arrange for "callback(pid, returncode, *args)" to be called when
      a process with PID equal to *pid* terminates.  Specifying
      another callback for the same process replaces the previous
      handler.

      The *callback* callable must be thread-safe.

   remove_child_handler(pid)

      Removes the handler for process with PID equal to *pid*.

      The function returns "True" if the handler was successfully
      removed, "False" if there was nothing to remove.

   attach_loop(loop)

      Attach the watcher to an event loop.

      If the watcher was previously attached to an event loop, then it
      is first detached before attaching to the new loop.

      Note: loop may be "None".

   close()

      Close the watcher.

      This method has to be called to ensure that underlying resources
      are cleaned-up.

class asyncio.SafeChildWatcher

   This implementation avoids disrupting other code spawning processes
   by polling every process explicitly on a "SIGCHLD" signal.

   This is a safe solution but it has a significant overhead when
   handling a big number of processes (*O(n)* each time a "SIGCHLD" is
   received).

   asyncio uses this safe implementation by default.

class asyncio.FastChildWatcher

   This implementation reaps every terminated processes by calling
   "os.waitpid(-1)" directly, possibly breaking other code spawning
   processes and waiting for their termination.

   There is no noticeable overhead when handling a big number of
   children (*O(1)* each time a child terminates).


Custom Policies
===============

To implement a new event loop policy, it is recommended to subclass
"DefaultEventLoopPolicy" and override the methods for which custom
behavior is wanted, e.g.:

   class MyEventLoopPolicy(asyncio.DefaultEventLoopPolicy):

       def get_event_loop(self):
           """Get the event loop.

           This may be None or an instance of EventLoop.
           """
           loop = super().get_event_loop()
           # Do something with loop ...
           return loop

   asyncio.set_event_loop_policy(MyEventLoopPolicy())
