[cctbxbb] libtbx.easy_mp semantics

[markus.gerstel at diamond.ac.uk]

Hello everyone,

Could someone please explain the libtbx.easy_mp semantics to me?

Currently, if you run easy_mp with multiple processes, objects are 'reset' back to their original state, ie. the state of the object in the main thread is retained, changes in the processing threads are dropped.
However if you run easy_mp with the number of processes set to 1, object states are modified, because the main thread is the executing thread.

How it this supposed to work?

For a more detailed test please run
$ libtbx.python libtbx/tst_easy_mp_state.py
The source code explains the test in more detail.

This behaviour currently causes dials.integrate to fail on bzipped input files.
Given that this code is used in many places and this particular feature is not obvious, it may explain other anecdotal emergent behaviour, too.

-Markus

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