How can I periodically execute a function with asyncio?
For Python versions below 3.5:
import asyncio
@asyncio.coroutine
def periodic():
while True:
print('periodic')
yield from asyncio.sleep(1)
def stop():
task.cancel()
loop = asyncio.get_event_loop()
loop.call_later(5, stop)
task = loop.create_task(periodic())
try:
loop.run_until_complete(task)
except asyncio.CancelledError:
pass
For Python 3.5 and above:
import asyncio
async def periodic():
while True:
print('periodic')
await asyncio.sleep(1)
def stop():
task.cancel()
loop = asyncio.get_event_loop()
loop.call_later(5, stop)
task = loop.create_task(periodic())
try:
loop.run_until_complete(task)
except asyncio.CancelledError:
pass
When you feel that something should happen "in background" of your asyncio program, asyncio.Task
might be good way to do it. You can read this post to see how to work with tasks.
Here's possible implementation of class that executes some function periodically:
import asyncio
from contextlib import suppress
class Periodic:
def __init__(self, func, time):
self.func = func
self.time = time
self.is_started = False
self._task = None
async def start(self):
if not self.is_started:
self.is_started = True
# Start task to call func periodically:
self._task = asyncio.ensure_future(self._run())
async def stop(self):
if self.is_started:
self.is_started = False
# Stop task and await it stopped:
self._task.cancel()
with suppress(asyncio.CancelledError):
await self._task
async def _run(self):
while True:
await asyncio.sleep(self.time)
self.func()
Let's test it:
async def main():
p = Periodic(lambda: print('test'), 1)
try:
print('Start')
await p.start()
await asyncio.sleep(3.1)
print('Stop')
await p.stop()
await asyncio.sleep(3.1)
print('Start')
await p.start()
await asyncio.sleep(3.1)
finally:
await p.stop() # we should stop task finally
if __name__ == '__main__':
loop = asyncio.get_event_loop()
loop.run_until_complete(main())
Output:
Start
test
test
test
Stop
Start
test
test
test
[Finished in 9.5s]
As you see on start
we just start task that calls some functions and sleeps some time in endless loop. On stop
we just cancel that task. Note, that task should be stopped at the moment program finished.
One more important thing that your callback shouldn't take much time to be executed (or it'll freeze your event loop). If you're planning to call some long-running func
, you possibly would need to run it in executor.