feat: A different approach to warning users of fork() issues with Polars

py-polars/polars/__init__.py

@@ -414,3 +414,31 @@ def __getattr__(name: str) -> Any:
 
     msg = f"module {__name__!r} has no attribute {name!r}"
     raise AttributeError(msg)
+
+
+# fork() breaks Polars thread pool, so warn users who might be doing this.
+def __install_postfork_hook() -> None:
+    message = """\
+Using fork() can cause Polars to deadlock in the child process.
+In addition, using fork() with Python in general is a recipe for mysterious
+deadlocks and crashes.
+
+The most likely reason you are seeing this error is because you are using the
+multiprocessing module on Linux, which uses fork() by default. This will be
+fixed in Python 3.14. Until then, you want to use the "spawn" context instead.
+
+See https://docs.pola.rs/user-guide/misc/multiprocessing/ for details.
+"""
+
+    def before_hook() -> None:
+        import warnings
+
+        warnings.warn(message, RuntimeWarning, stacklevel=2)
+
+    import os
+
+    if hasattr(os, "register_at_fork"):
+        os.register_at_fork(before=before_hook)
+
+
+__install_postfork_hook()

py-polars/tests/unit/test_polars_import.py

@@ -1,6 +1,8 @@
 from __future__ import annotations
 
 import compileall
+import multiprocessing
+import os
 import subprocess
 import sys
 from pathlib import Path
@@ -97,3 +99,32 @@ def test_polars_import() -> None:
             import_time_ms = polars_import_time // 1_000
             msg = f"Possible import speed regression; took {import_time_ms}ms\n{df_import}"
             raise AssertionError(msg)
+
+
+def run_in_child() -> int:
+    return 123
+
+
+@pytest.mark.skipif(not hasattr(os, "fork"), reason="Requires fork()")
+def test_fork_safety(recwarn: pytest.WarningsRecorder) -> None:
+    def get_num_fork_warnings() -> int:
+        fork_warnings = 0
+        for warning in recwarn:
+            if issubclass(warning.category, RuntimeWarning) and str(
+                warning.message
+            ).startswith("Using fork() can cause Polars"):
+                fork_warnings += 1
+        return fork_warnings
+
+    assert get_num_fork_warnings() == 0
+
+    # Using forkserver and spawn context should not do any of our warning:
+    for context in ["spawn", "forkserver"]:
+        with multiprocessing.get_context(context).Pool(1) as pool:
+            assert pool.apply(run_in_child) == 123
+    assert get_num_fork_warnings() == 0
+
+    # Using fork()-based multiprocessing should raise a warning:
+    with multiprocessing.get_context("fork").Pool(1) as pool:
+        assert pool.apply(run_in_child) == 123
+    assert get_num_fork_warnings() == 1