Import error for multiprocessing in 2.7rc2 on Windows

[ot]

BPO	9144
Nosy	@loewis, @brettcannon, @pfmoore, @benjaminp, @merwok
Files	mp.diff

^{Note: these values reflect the state of the issue at the time it was migrated and might not reflect the current state.}

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GitHub fields:

assignee = 'https://github.com/benjaminp'
closed_at = <Date 2010-07-03.12:26:47.601>
created_at = <Date 2010-07-02.13:43:14.459>
labels = ['build', 'type-crash', 'release-blocker']
title = 'Import error for multiprocessing in 2.7rc2 on Windows'
updated_at = <Date 2010-07-03.12:26:47.600>
user = 'https://bugs.python.org/ot'

bugs.python.org fields:

activity = <Date 2010-07-03.12:26:47.600>
actor = 'jnoller'
assignee = 'benjamin.peterson'
closed = True
closed_date = <Date 2010-07-03.12:26:47.601>
closer = 'jnoller'
components = ['Build']
creation = <Date 2010-07-02.13:43:14.459>
creator = 'ot'
dependencies = []
files = ['17849']
hgrepos = []
issue_num = 9144
keywords = ['patch']
message_count = 8.0
messages = ['109109', '109125', '109163', '109164', '109165', '109169', '109178', '109180']
nosy_count = 7.0
nosy_names = ['loewis', 'brett.cannon', 'paul.moore', 'benjamin.peterson', 'jnoller', 'eric.araujo', 'ot']
pr_nums = []
priority = 'release blocker'
resolution = 'accepted'
stage = None
status = 'closed'
superseder = None
type = 'crash'
url = 'https://bugs.python.org/issue9144'
versions = ['Python 2.7']

[ot]

With a fresh install from python-2.7rc2.amd64.msi (rc1 is also affected) multiprocessing gives the following error:

Python 2.7rc2 (r27rc2:82154, Jun 22 2010, 21:22:29) [MSC v.1500 64 bit (AMD64)] on win32
Type "help", "copyright", "credits" or "license" for more information.
>>> import multiprocessing
>>> multiprocessing.Pool()
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "<stdin>", line 1, in <module>
  File "C:\Python27\lib\multiprocessing\__init__.py", line 227, in Pool
    return Pool(processes, initializer, initargs, maxtasksperchild)
  File "C:\Python27\lib\multiprocessing\pool.py", line 89, in __init__
    self._setup_queues()
  File "C:\Python27\lib\multiprocessing\pool.py", line 181, in _setup_queues
    from .queues import SimpleQueue
  File "C:\Python27\lib\multiprocessing\queues.py", line 22, in <module>
    from multiprocessing.synchronize import Lock, BoundedSemaphore, Semaphore, Condition
  File "C:\Python27\lib\multiprocessing\synchronize.py", line 22, in <module>
    from multiprocessing.forking import assert_spawning, Popen
  File "C:\Python27\lib\multiprocessing\forking.py", line 158, in <module>
    from ._multiprocessing import win32, Connection, PipeConnection
ImportError: No module named _multiprocessing

I noticed that _multiprocessing.lib is not in Lib/multiprocessing/ but in libs/, so I don't know why there is a relative import here.
Changing all the occurrences to
from _multiprocessing import ...
everything works fine.

[benjaminp]

Martin, any ideas?

[loewis]

Here is the problem: there is no module multiprocessing._multiprocessing; _multiprocessing is a global module. However, multiprocessing/init.py imports _multiprocessing, providing multiprocessing._multiprocessing as a valid attribute. sys.modules['multiprocessing._multiprocessing'] is None.

Now, on Windows, for some reason,

from ._multiprocessing import win32

is used. In 2.6, this used to work. In 2.7, due to r81380, it stopped working (i.e. if I revert r81380, it works again). Adding Brett to the nosy list, as he made this change.

[pfmoore]

Martin's analysis (and the description of the commit he refers to) indicates that the correct fix is Cuiseppe's suggestion to change the relative imports to absolute:

from _multiprocessing import ...

as the previous code was only working because, as a result of the bug fixed in r81380, from ._multiprocessing was falling back to this form anyway.

[pfmoore]

Here's a patch implementing the suggested change. test_multiprocessing passes. I am just running the full test suite now.

[pfmoore]

Full test suite also looks OK.

[jnoller]

the patch looks good to me - unless someone beats me to it, I'm going to commit it shortly to fix 2.7

[jnoller]

Pushed it in r82489 - worked for me on Linux and OS/X. Please let me know if anything else comes up.