When to call .join() on a process?

Try to run this:

import math
import time
from multiprocessing import Queue
import multiprocessing

def factorize_naive(n):
    factors = []
    for div in range(2, int(n**.5)+1):
        while not n % div:
            factors.append(div)
            n //= div
    if n != 1:
        factors.append(n)
    return factors

nums = range(100000)
nprocs = 4

def worker(nums, out_q):
    """ The worker function, invoked in a process. 'nums' is a
        list of numbers to factor. The results are placed in
        a dictionary that's pushed to a queue.
    """
    outdict = {}
    for n in nums:
        outdict[n] = factorize_naive(n)
    out_q.put(outdict)

# Each process will get 'chunksize' nums and a queue to put his out
# dict into
out_q = Queue()
chunksize = int(math.ceil(len(nums) / float(nprocs)))
procs = []

for i in range(nprocs):
    p = multiprocessing.Process(
            target=worker,
            args=(nums[chunksize * i:chunksize * (i + 1)],
                  out_q))
    procs.append(p)
    p.start()

# Collect all results into a single result dict. We know how many dicts
# with results to expect.
resultdict = {}
for i in range(nprocs):
    resultdict.update(out_q.get())

time.sleep(5)

# Wait for all worker processes to finish
for p in procs:
    p.join()

print resultdict

time.sleep(15)

And open the task-manager. You should be able to see that the 4 subprocesses go in zombie state for some seconds before being terminated by the OS(due to the join calls):

With more complex situations the child processes could stay in zombie state forever(like the situation you was asking about in an other question), and if you create enough child-processes you could fill the process table causing troubles to the OS(which may kill your main process to avoid failures).

At the point just before you call join, all workers have put their results into their queues, but they did not necessarily return, and their processes may not yet have terminated. They may or may not have done so, depending on timing.

Calling join makes sure that all processes are given the time to properly terminate.