Threads can fail to start

[BarneyStratford]

BPO	41149
Nosy	@BarneyStratford, @pablogsal
PRs	bpo-41149 Fix a bug in threading that causes threads to fail to start. #21201

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

Show more details

GitHub fields:

assignee = None
closed_at = <Date 2021-02-02.20:24:38.552>
created_at = <Date 2020-06-28.16:01:04.598>
labels = ['type-bug', 'library', '3.10']
title = 'Threads can fail to start'
updated_at = <Date 2021-02-02.20:24:38.551>
user = 'https://github.com/BarneyStratford'

bugs.python.org fields:

activity = <Date 2021-02-02.20:24:38.551>
actor = 'pablogsal'
assignee = 'none'
closed = True
closed_date = <Date 2021-02-02.20:24:38.552>
closer = 'pablogsal'
components = ['Library (Lib)']
creation = <Date 2020-06-28.16:01:04.598>
creator = 'Barney Stratford'
dependencies = []
files = []
hgrepos = []
issue_num = 41149
keywords = ['patch']
message_count = 2.0
messages = ['372521', '386169']
nosy_count = 3.0
nosy_names = ['python-dev', 'Barney Stratford', 'pablogsal']
pr_nums = ['21201']
priority = 'normal'
resolution = 'fixed'
stage = 'resolved'
status = 'closed'
superseder = None
type = 'behavior'
url = 'https://bugs.python.org/issue41149'
versions = ['Python 3.10']

[BarneyStratford]

>>> import threading
>>> class foo (object):
...     def __bool__ (self):
...         return False
...     def __call__ (self):
...         print ("Running")
...
>>> threading.Thread (target = foo ()).start ()

The expected result of these commands would be for the thread to print
"Running". However, in actual fact it prints nothing at all. This is
because threading.Thread.run only runs the target if it is True as a
boolean. This is presumably to make the thread do nothing at all if
the target is None. In this case, I have a legitimate target that is
False as a boolean.

I propose to remove the test altogether. The effect of this is that
failure to set the target of the thread, or setting a non-callable
target, will cause the thread to raise a TypeError as soon as it is
started. Forgetting to set the target is in almost every case a bug,
and bugs should never be silent.

PR to follow.

[pablogsal]

New changeset 01c4fdd by BarneyStratford in branch 'master':
bpo-41149: Fix a bug in threading that causes fals-y threads callables to fail to start. (GH-21201)
01c4fdd