The `threading` module now sets the operating system thread name

Core Development
1

Hi,

I modified the threading module to set the operating system thread name when spawning a thread.

Example on Linux:

$ ./python
>>> import threading, time
>>> thread=threading.Thread(target=time.sleep, args=(600,))
>>> thread.start()
>>> thread2=threading.Thread(target=time.sleep, args=(600,), name="worker")
>>> thread2.start()

The Tree View in htop displays the thread names “Thread-1 (sleep)” (thread) and “worker” (thread2):

htop

On Linux, a thread name is truncated to 15 bytes, so you don’t see the closing parenthesis of “Thread-1 (sleep)”.

Currently, the feature is supported on Linux, macOS, iOS, FreeBSD and Solaris. I plan to add Windows support. The code can be extended to support more operating systems.

Victor

17 Likes
2

I’ll add that it is partially supported on other platforms, but, if the name is longer than a platform specific limit, setting it does not have any effect instead of truncating it.

There may be other issues, so please test this feature, especially on non-mainstream platforms.

3 Likes