mirror of
				https://github.com/bunny-lab-io/Borealis.git
				synced 2025-11-03 19:41:57 -07:00 
			
		
		
		
	
		
			
				
	
	
		
			474 lines
		
	
	
		
			27 KiB
		
	
	
	
		
			HTML
		
	
	
	
	
	
			
		
		
	
	
			474 lines
		
	
	
		
			27 KiB
		
	
	
	
		
			HTML
		
	
	
	
	
	
<!DOCTYPE html>
 | 
						||
 | 
						||
<html lang="en" data-content_root="../">
 | 
						||
  <head>
 | 
						||
    <meta charset="utf-8" />
 | 
						||
    <meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1.0" /><meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1" />
 | 
						||
<meta property="og:title" content="Python experimental support for free threading" />
 | 
						||
<meta property="og:type" content="website" />
 | 
						||
<meta property="og:url" content="https://docs.python.org/3/howto/free-threading-python.html" />
 | 
						||
<meta property="og:site_name" content="Python documentation" />
 | 
						||
<meta property="og:description" content="Starting with the 3.13 release, CPython has experimental support for a build of Python called free threading where the global interpreter lock(GIL) is disabled. Free-threaded execution allows for f..." />
 | 
						||
<meta property="og:image" content="https://docs.python.org/3/_static/og-image.png" />
 | 
						||
<meta property="og:image:alt" content="Python documentation" />
 | 
						||
<meta name="description" content="Starting with the 3.13 release, CPython has experimental support for a build of Python called free threading where the global interpreter lock(GIL) is disabled. Free-threaded execution allows for f..." />
 | 
						||
<meta property="og:image:width" content="200">
 | 
						||
<meta property="og:image:height" content="200">
 | 
						||
<meta name="theme-color" content="#3776ab">
 | 
						||
 | 
						||
    <title>Python experimental support for free threading — Python 3.13.3 documentation</title><meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1.0">
 | 
						||
    
 | 
						||
    <link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" href="../_static/pygments.css?v=b86133f3" />
 | 
						||
    <link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" href="../_static/pydoctheme.css?v=23252803" />
 | 
						||
    <link id="pygments_dark_css" media="(prefers-color-scheme: dark)" rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" href="../_static/pygments_dark.css?v=5349f25f" />
 | 
						||
    
 | 
						||
    <script src="../_static/documentation_options.js?v=5d57ca2d"></script>
 | 
						||
    <script src="../_static/doctools.js?v=9bcbadda"></script>
 | 
						||
    <script src="../_static/sphinx_highlight.js?v=dc90522c"></script>
 | 
						||
    
 | 
						||
    <script src="../_static/sidebar.js"></script>
 | 
						||
    
 | 
						||
    <link rel="search" type="application/opensearchdescription+xml"
 | 
						||
          title="Search within Python 3.13.3 documentation"
 | 
						||
          href="../_static/opensearch.xml"/>
 | 
						||
    <link rel="author" title="About these documents" href="../about.html" />
 | 
						||
    <link rel="index" title="Index" href="../genindex.html" />
 | 
						||
    <link rel="search" title="Search" href="../search.html" />
 | 
						||
    <link rel="copyright" title="Copyright" href="../copyright.html" />
 | 
						||
    <link rel="next" title="C API Extension Support for Free Threading" href="free-threading-extensions.html" />
 | 
						||
    <link rel="prev" title="The Python 2.3 Method Resolution Order" href="mro.html" />
 | 
						||
    
 | 
						||
    <link rel="canonical" href="https://docs.python.org/3/howto/free-threading-python.html">
 | 
						||
    
 | 
						||
      
 | 
						||
    
 | 
						||
 | 
						||
    
 | 
						||
    <style>
 | 
						||
      @media only screen {
 | 
						||
        table.full-width-table {
 | 
						||
            width: 100%;
 | 
						||
        }
 | 
						||
      }
 | 
						||
    </style>
 | 
						||
<link rel="stylesheet" href="../_static/pydoctheme_dark.css" media="(prefers-color-scheme: dark)" id="pydoctheme_dark_css">
 | 
						||
    <link rel="shortcut icon" type="image/png" href="../_static/py.svg" />
 | 
						||
            <script type="text/javascript" src="../_static/copybutton.js"></script>
 | 
						||
            <script type="text/javascript" src="../_static/menu.js"></script>
 | 
						||
            <script type="text/javascript" src="../_static/search-focus.js"></script>
 | 
						||
            <script type="text/javascript" src="../_static/themetoggle.js"></script> 
 | 
						||
            <script type="text/javascript" src="../_static/rtd_switcher.js"></script>
 | 
						||
            <meta name="readthedocs-addons-api-version" content="1">
 | 
						||
 | 
						||
  </head>
 | 
						||
<body>
 | 
						||
<div class="mobile-nav">
 | 
						||
    <input type="checkbox" id="menuToggler" class="toggler__input" aria-controls="navigation"
 | 
						||
           aria-pressed="false" aria-expanded="false" role="button" aria-label="Menu" />
 | 
						||
    <nav class="nav-content" role="navigation">
 | 
						||
        <label for="menuToggler" class="toggler__label">
 | 
						||
            <span></span>
 | 
						||
        </label>
 | 
						||
        <span class="nav-items-wrapper">
 | 
						||
            <a href="https://www.python.org/" class="nav-logo">
 | 
						||
                <img src="../_static/py.svg" alt="Python logo"/>
 | 
						||
            </a>
 | 
						||
            <span class="version_switcher_placeholder"></span>
 | 
						||
            <form role="search" class="search" action="../search.html" method="get">
 | 
						||
                <svg xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg" width="20" height="20" viewBox="0 0 24 24" class="search-icon">
 | 
						||
                    <path fill-rule="nonzero" fill="currentColor" d="M15.5 14h-.79l-.28-.27a6.5 6.5 0 001.48-5.34c-.47-2.78-2.79-5-5.59-5.34a6.505 6.505 0 00-7.27 7.27c.34 2.8 2.56 5.12 5.34 5.59a6.5 6.5 0 005.34-1.48l.27.28v.79l4.25 4.25c.41.41 1.08.41 1.49 0 .41-.41.41-1.08 0-1.49L15.5 14zm-6 0C7.01 14 5 11.99 5 9.5S7.01 5 9.5 5 14 7.01 14 9.5 11.99 14 9.5 14z"></path>
 | 
						||
                </svg>
 | 
						||
                <input placeholder="Quick search" aria-label="Quick search" type="search" name="q" />
 | 
						||
                <input type="submit" value="Go"/>
 | 
						||
            </form>
 | 
						||
        </span>
 | 
						||
    </nav>
 | 
						||
    <div class="menu-wrapper">
 | 
						||
        <nav class="menu" role="navigation" aria-label="main navigation">
 | 
						||
            <div class="language_switcher_placeholder"></div>
 | 
						||
            
 | 
						||
<label class="theme-selector-label">
 | 
						||
    Theme
 | 
						||
    <select class="theme-selector" oninput="activateTheme(this.value)">
 | 
						||
        <option value="auto" selected>Auto</option>
 | 
						||
        <option value="light">Light</option>
 | 
						||
        <option value="dark">Dark</option>
 | 
						||
    </select>
 | 
						||
</label>
 | 
						||
  <div>
 | 
						||
    <h3><a href="../contents.html">Table of Contents</a></h3>
 | 
						||
    <ul>
 | 
						||
<li><a class="reference internal" href="#">Python experimental support for free threading</a><ul>
 | 
						||
<li><a class="reference internal" href="#installation">Installation</a></li>
 | 
						||
<li><a class="reference internal" href="#identifying-free-threaded-python">Identifying free-threaded Python</a></li>
 | 
						||
<li><a class="reference internal" href="#the-global-interpreter-lock-in-free-threaded-python">The global interpreter lock in free-threaded Python</a></li>
 | 
						||
<li><a class="reference internal" href="#thread-safety">Thread safety</a></li>
 | 
						||
<li><a class="reference internal" href="#known-limitations">Known limitations</a><ul>
 | 
						||
<li><a class="reference internal" href="#immortalization">Immortalization</a></li>
 | 
						||
<li><a class="reference internal" href="#frame-objects">Frame objects</a></li>
 | 
						||
<li><a class="reference internal" href="#iterators">Iterators</a></li>
 | 
						||
<li><a class="reference internal" href="#single-threaded-performance">Single-threaded performance</a></li>
 | 
						||
</ul>
 | 
						||
</li>
 | 
						||
</ul>
 | 
						||
</li>
 | 
						||
</ul>
 | 
						||
 | 
						||
  </div>
 | 
						||
  <div>
 | 
						||
    <h4>Previous topic</h4>
 | 
						||
    <p class="topless"><a href="mro.html"
 | 
						||
                          title="previous chapter">The Python 2.3 Method Resolution Order</a></p>
 | 
						||
  </div>
 | 
						||
  <div>
 | 
						||
    <h4>Next topic</h4>
 | 
						||
    <p class="topless"><a href="free-threading-extensions.html"
 | 
						||
                          title="next chapter">C API Extension Support for Free Threading</a></p>
 | 
						||
  </div>
 | 
						||
  <div role="note" aria-label="source link">
 | 
						||
    <h3>This Page</h3>
 | 
						||
    <ul class="this-page-menu">
 | 
						||
      <li><a href="../bugs.html">Report a Bug</a></li>
 | 
						||
      <li>
 | 
						||
        <a href="https://github.com/python/cpython/blob/main/Doc/howto/free-threading-python.rst"
 | 
						||
            rel="nofollow">Show Source
 | 
						||
        </a>
 | 
						||
      </li>
 | 
						||
    </ul>
 | 
						||
  </div>
 | 
						||
        </nav>
 | 
						||
    </div>
 | 
						||
</div>
 | 
						||
 | 
						||
  
 | 
						||
    <div class="related" role="navigation" aria-label="Related">
 | 
						||
      <h3>Navigation</h3>
 | 
						||
      <ul>
 | 
						||
        <li class="right" style="margin-right: 10px">
 | 
						||
          <a href="../genindex.html" title="General Index"
 | 
						||
             accesskey="I">index</a></li>
 | 
						||
        <li class="right" >
 | 
						||
          <a href="../py-modindex.html" title="Python Module Index"
 | 
						||
             >modules</a> |</li>
 | 
						||
        <li class="right" >
 | 
						||
          <a href="free-threading-extensions.html" title="C API Extension Support for Free Threading"
 | 
						||
             accesskey="N">next</a> |</li>
 | 
						||
        <li class="right" >
 | 
						||
          <a href="mro.html" title="The Python 2.3 Method Resolution Order"
 | 
						||
             accesskey="P">previous</a> |</li>
 | 
						||
 | 
						||
          <li><img src="../_static/py.svg" alt="Python logo" style="vertical-align: middle; margin-top: -1px"/></li>
 | 
						||
          <li><a href="https://www.python.org/">Python</a> »</li>
 | 
						||
          <li class="switchers">
 | 
						||
            <div class="language_switcher_placeholder"></div>
 | 
						||
            <div class="version_switcher_placeholder"></div>
 | 
						||
          </li>
 | 
						||
          <li>
 | 
						||
              
 | 
						||
          </li>
 | 
						||
    <li id="cpython-language-and-version">
 | 
						||
      <a href="../index.html">3.13.3 Documentation</a> »
 | 
						||
    </li>
 | 
						||
 | 
						||
          <li class="nav-item nav-item-1"><a href="index.html" accesskey="U">Python HOWTOs</a> »</li>
 | 
						||
        <li class="nav-item nav-item-this"><a href="">Python experimental support for free threading</a></li>
 | 
						||
                <li class="right">
 | 
						||
                    
 | 
						||
 | 
						||
    <div class="inline-search" role="search">
 | 
						||
        <form class="inline-search" action="../search.html" method="get">
 | 
						||
          <input placeholder="Quick search" aria-label="Quick search" type="search" name="q" id="search-box" />
 | 
						||
          <input type="submit" value="Go" />
 | 
						||
        </form>
 | 
						||
    </div>
 | 
						||
                     |
 | 
						||
                </li>
 | 
						||
            <li class="right">
 | 
						||
<label class="theme-selector-label">
 | 
						||
    Theme
 | 
						||
    <select class="theme-selector" oninput="activateTheme(this.value)">
 | 
						||
        <option value="auto" selected>Auto</option>
 | 
						||
        <option value="light">Light</option>
 | 
						||
        <option value="dark">Dark</option>
 | 
						||
    </select>
 | 
						||
</label> |</li>
 | 
						||
            
 | 
						||
      </ul>
 | 
						||
    </div>    
 | 
						||
 | 
						||
    <div class="document">
 | 
						||
      <div class="documentwrapper">
 | 
						||
        <div class="bodywrapper">
 | 
						||
          <div class="body" role="main">
 | 
						||
            
 | 
						||
  <section id="python-experimental-support-for-free-threading">
 | 
						||
<span id="freethreading-python-howto"></span><h1>Python experimental support for free threading<a class="headerlink" href="#python-experimental-support-for-free-threading" title="Link to this heading">¶</a></h1>
 | 
						||
<p>Starting with the 3.13 release, CPython has experimental support for a build of
 | 
						||
Python called <a class="reference internal" href="../glossary.html#term-free-threading"><span class="xref std std-term">free threading</span></a> where the <a class="reference internal" href="../glossary.html#term-global-interpreter-lock"><span class="xref std std-term">global interpreter lock</span></a>
 | 
						||
(GIL) is disabled.  Free-threaded execution allows for full utilization of the
 | 
						||
available processing power by running threads in parallel on available CPU cores.
 | 
						||
While not all software will benefit from this automatically, programs
 | 
						||
designed with threading in mind will run faster on multi-core hardware.</p>
 | 
						||
<p><strong>The free-threaded mode is experimental</strong> and work is ongoing to improve it:
 | 
						||
expect some bugs and a substantial single-threaded performance hit.</p>
 | 
						||
<p>This document describes the implications of free threading
 | 
						||
for Python code.  See <a class="reference internal" href="free-threading-extensions.html#freethreading-extensions-howto"><span class="std std-ref">C API Extension Support for Free Threading</span></a> for information on
 | 
						||
how to write C extensions that support the free-threaded build.</p>
 | 
						||
<div class="admonition seealso">
 | 
						||
<p class="admonition-title">See also</p>
 | 
						||
<p><span class="target" id="index-0"></span><a class="pep reference external" href="https://peps.python.org/pep-0703/"><strong>PEP 703</strong></a> – Making the Global Interpreter Lock Optional in CPython for an
 | 
						||
overall description of free-threaded Python.</p>
 | 
						||
</div>
 | 
						||
<section id="installation">
 | 
						||
<h2>Installation<a class="headerlink" href="#installation" title="Link to this heading">¶</a></h2>
 | 
						||
<p>Starting with Python 3.13, the official macOS and Windows installers
 | 
						||
optionally support installing free-threaded Python binaries.  The installers
 | 
						||
are available at <a class="reference external" href="https://www.python.org/downloads/">https://www.python.org/downloads/</a>.</p>
 | 
						||
<p>For information on other platforms, see the <a class="reference external" href="https://py-free-threading.github.io/installing_cpython/">Installing a Free-Threaded Python</a>, a
 | 
						||
community-maintained installation guide for installing free-threaded Python.</p>
 | 
						||
<p>When building CPython from source, the <a class="reference internal" href="../using/configure.html#cmdoption-disable-gil"><code class="xref std std-option docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">--disable-gil</span></code></a> configure option
 | 
						||
should be used to build a free-threaded Python interpreter.</p>
 | 
						||
</section>
 | 
						||
<section id="identifying-free-threaded-python">
 | 
						||
<h2>Identifying free-threaded Python<a class="headerlink" href="#identifying-free-threaded-python" title="Link to this heading">¶</a></h2>
 | 
						||
<p>To check if the current interpreter supports free-threading, <a class="reference internal" href="../using/cmdline.html#cmdoption-V"><code class="xref std std-option docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">python</span> <span class="pre">-VV</span></code></a>
 | 
						||
and <a class="reference internal" href="../library/sys.html#sys.version" title="sys.version"><code class="xref py py-data docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">sys.version</span></code></a> contain “experimental free-threading build”.
 | 
						||
The new <a class="reference internal" href="../library/sys.html#sys._is_gil_enabled" title="sys._is_gil_enabled"><code class="xref py py-func docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">sys._is_gil_enabled()</span></code></a> function can be used to check whether
 | 
						||
the GIL is actually disabled in the running process.</p>
 | 
						||
<p>The <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">sysconfig.get_config_var("Py_GIL_DISABLED")</span></code> configuration variable can
 | 
						||
be used to determine whether the build supports free threading.  If the variable
 | 
						||
is set to <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">1</span></code>, then the build supports free threading.  This is the recommended
 | 
						||
mechanism for decisions related to the build configuration.</p>
 | 
						||
</section>
 | 
						||
<section id="the-global-interpreter-lock-in-free-threaded-python">
 | 
						||
<h2>The global interpreter lock in free-threaded Python<a class="headerlink" href="#the-global-interpreter-lock-in-free-threaded-python" title="Link to this heading">¶</a></h2>
 | 
						||
<p>Free-threaded builds of CPython support optionally running with the GIL enabled
 | 
						||
at runtime using the environment variable <span class="target" id="index-1"></span><a class="reference internal" href="../using/cmdline.html#envvar-PYTHON_GIL"><code class="xref std std-envvar docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">PYTHON_GIL</span></code></a> or
 | 
						||
the command-line option <a class="reference internal" href="../using/cmdline.html#cmdoption-X"><code class="xref std std-option docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">-X</span> <span class="pre">gil</span></code></a>.</p>
 | 
						||
<p>The GIL may also automatically be enabled when importing a C-API extension
 | 
						||
module that is not explicitly marked as supporting free threading.  A warning
 | 
						||
will be printed in this case.</p>
 | 
						||
<p>In addition to individual package documentation, the following websites track
 | 
						||
the status of popular packages support for free threading:</p>
 | 
						||
<ul class="simple">
 | 
						||
<li><p><a class="reference external" href="https://py-free-threading.github.io/tracking/">https://py-free-threading.github.io/tracking/</a></p></li>
 | 
						||
<li><p><a class="reference external" href="https://hugovk.github.io/free-threaded-wheels/">https://hugovk.github.io/free-threaded-wheels/</a></p></li>
 | 
						||
</ul>
 | 
						||
</section>
 | 
						||
<section id="thread-safety">
 | 
						||
<h2>Thread safety<a class="headerlink" href="#thread-safety" title="Link to this heading">¶</a></h2>
 | 
						||
<p>The free-threaded build of CPython aims to provide similar thread-safety
 | 
						||
behavior at the Python level to the default GIL-enabled build.  Built-in
 | 
						||
types like <a class="reference internal" href="../library/stdtypes.html#dict" title="dict"><code class="xref py py-class docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">dict</span></code></a>, <a class="reference internal" href="../library/stdtypes.html#list" title="list"><code class="xref py py-class docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">list</span></code></a>, and <a class="reference internal" href="../library/stdtypes.html#set" title="set"><code class="xref py py-class docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">set</span></code></a> use internal locks
 | 
						||
to protect against concurrent modifications in ways that behave similarly to
 | 
						||
the GIL.  However, Python has not historically guaranteed specific behavior for
 | 
						||
concurrent modifications to these built-in types, so this should be treated
 | 
						||
as a description of the current implementation, not a guarantee of current or
 | 
						||
future behavior.</p>
 | 
						||
<div class="admonition note">
 | 
						||
<p class="admonition-title">Note</p>
 | 
						||
<p>It’s recommended to use the <a class="reference internal" href="../library/threading.html#threading.Lock" title="threading.Lock"><code class="xref py py-class docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">threading.Lock</span></code></a> or other synchronization
 | 
						||
primitives instead of relying on the internal locks of built-in types, when
 | 
						||
possible.</p>
 | 
						||
</div>
 | 
						||
</section>
 | 
						||
<section id="known-limitations">
 | 
						||
<h2>Known limitations<a class="headerlink" href="#known-limitations" title="Link to this heading">¶</a></h2>
 | 
						||
<p>This section describes known limitations of the free-threaded CPython build.</p>
 | 
						||
<section id="immortalization">
 | 
						||
<h3>Immortalization<a class="headerlink" href="#immortalization" title="Link to this heading">¶</a></h3>
 | 
						||
<p>The free-threaded build of the 3.13 release makes some objects <a class="reference internal" href="../glossary.html#term-immortal"><span class="xref std std-term">immortal</span></a>.
 | 
						||
Immortal objects are not deallocated and have reference counts that are
 | 
						||
never modified.  This is done to avoid reference count contention that would
 | 
						||
prevent efficient multi-threaded scaling.</p>
 | 
						||
<p>An object will be made immortal when a new thread is started for the first time
 | 
						||
after the main thread is running.  The following objects are immortalized:</p>
 | 
						||
<ul class="simple">
 | 
						||
<li><p><a class="reference internal" href="../reference/datamodel.html#user-defined-funcs"><span class="std std-ref">function</span></a> objects declared at the module level</p></li>
 | 
						||
<li><p><a class="reference internal" href="../reference/datamodel.html#instance-methods"><span class="std std-ref">method</span></a> descriptors</p></li>
 | 
						||
<li><p><a class="reference internal" href="../reference/datamodel.html#code-objects"><span class="std std-ref">code</span></a> objects</p></li>
 | 
						||
<li><p><a class="reference internal" href="../glossary.html#term-module"><span class="xref std std-term">module</span></a> objects and their dictionaries</p></li>
 | 
						||
<li><p><a class="reference internal" href="../reference/datamodel.html#classes"><span class="std std-ref">classes</span></a> (type objects)</p></li>
 | 
						||
</ul>
 | 
						||
<p>Because immortal objects are never deallocated, applications that create many
 | 
						||
objects of these types may see increased memory usage.  This is expected to be
 | 
						||
addressed in the 3.14 release.</p>
 | 
						||
<p>Additionally, numeric and string literals in the code as well as strings
 | 
						||
returned by <a class="reference internal" href="../library/sys.html#sys.intern" title="sys.intern"><code class="xref py py-func docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">sys.intern()</span></code></a> are also immortalized.  This behavior is
 | 
						||
expected to remain in the 3.14 free-threaded build.</p>
 | 
						||
</section>
 | 
						||
<section id="frame-objects">
 | 
						||
<h3>Frame objects<a class="headerlink" href="#frame-objects" title="Link to this heading">¶</a></h3>
 | 
						||
<p>It is not safe to access <a class="reference internal" href="../reference/datamodel.html#frame-objects"><span class="std std-ref">frame</span></a> objects from other
 | 
						||
threads and doing so may cause your program to crash .  This means that
 | 
						||
<a class="reference internal" href="../library/sys.html#sys._current_frames" title="sys._current_frames"><code class="xref py py-func docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">sys._current_frames()</span></code></a> is generally not safe to use in a free-threaded
 | 
						||
build.  Functions like <a class="reference internal" href="../library/inspect.html#inspect.currentframe" title="inspect.currentframe"><code class="xref py py-func docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">inspect.currentframe()</span></code></a> and <a class="reference internal" href="../library/sys.html#sys._getframe" title="sys._getframe"><code class="xref py py-func docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">sys._getframe()</span></code></a>
 | 
						||
are generally safe as long as the resulting frame object is not passed to
 | 
						||
another thread.</p>
 | 
						||
</section>
 | 
						||
<section id="iterators">
 | 
						||
<h3>Iterators<a class="headerlink" href="#iterators" title="Link to this heading">¶</a></h3>
 | 
						||
<p>Sharing the same iterator object between multiple threads is generally not
 | 
						||
safe and threads may see duplicate or missing elements when iterating or crash
 | 
						||
the interpreter.</p>
 | 
						||
</section>
 | 
						||
<section id="single-threaded-performance">
 | 
						||
<h3>Single-threaded performance<a class="headerlink" href="#single-threaded-performance" title="Link to this heading">¶</a></h3>
 | 
						||
<p>The free-threaded build has additional overhead when executing Python code
 | 
						||
compared to the default GIL-enabled build.  In 3.13, this overhead is about
 | 
						||
40% on the <a class="reference external" href="https://pyperformance.readthedocs.io/">pyperformance</a> suite.
 | 
						||
Programs that spend most of their time in C extensions or I/O will see
 | 
						||
less of an impact.  The largest impact is because the specializing adaptive
 | 
						||
interpreter (<span class="target" id="index-2"></span><a class="pep reference external" href="https://peps.python.org/pep-0659/"><strong>PEP 659</strong></a>) is disabled in the free-threaded build.  We expect
 | 
						||
to re-enable it in a thread-safe way in the 3.14 release.  This overhead is
 | 
						||
expected to be reduced in upcoming Python release.   We are aiming for an
 | 
						||
overhead of 10% or less on the pyperformance suite compared to the default
 | 
						||
GIL-enabled build.</p>
 | 
						||
</section>
 | 
						||
</section>
 | 
						||
</section>
 | 
						||
 | 
						||
 | 
						||
            <div class="clearer"></div>
 | 
						||
          </div>
 | 
						||
        </div>
 | 
						||
      </div>
 | 
						||
      <div class="sphinxsidebar" role="navigation" aria-label="Main">
 | 
						||
        <div class="sphinxsidebarwrapper">
 | 
						||
  <div>
 | 
						||
    <h3><a href="../contents.html">Table of Contents</a></h3>
 | 
						||
    <ul>
 | 
						||
<li><a class="reference internal" href="#">Python experimental support for free threading</a><ul>
 | 
						||
<li><a class="reference internal" href="#installation">Installation</a></li>
 | 
						||
<li><a class="reference internal" href="#identifying-free-threaded-python">Identifying free-threaded Python</a></li>
 | 
						||
<li><a class="reference internal" href="#the-global-interpreter-lock-in-free-threaded-python">The global interpreter lock in free-threaded Python</a></li>
 | 
						||
<li><a class="reference internal" href="#thread-safety">Thread safety</a></li>
 | 
						||
<li><a class="reference internal" href="#known-limitations">Known limitations</a><ul>
 | 
						||
<li><a class="reference internal" href="#immortalization">Immortalization</a></li>
 | 
						||
<li><a class="reference internal" href="#frame-objects">Frame objects</a></li>
 | 
						||
<li><a class="reference internal" href="#iterators">Iterators</a></li>
 | 
						||
<li><a class="reference internal" href="#single-threaded-performance">Single-threaded performance</a></li>
 | 
						||
</ul>
 | 
						||
</li>
 | 
						||
</ul>
 | 
						||
</li>
 | 
						||
</ul>
 | 
						||
 | 
						||
  </div>
 | 
						||
  <div>
 | 
						||
    <h4>Previous topic</h4>
 | 
						||
    <p class="topless"><a href="mro.html"
 | 
						||
                          title="previous chapter">The Python 2.3 Method Resolution Order</a></p>
 | 
						||
  </div>
 | 
						||
  <div>
 | 
						||
    <h4>Next topic</h4>
 | 
						||
    <p class="topless"><a href="free-threading-extensions.html"
 | 
						||
                          title="next chapter">C API Extension Support for Free Threading</a></p>
 | 
						||
  </div>
 | 
						||
  <div role="note" aria-label="source link">
 | 
						||
    <h3>This Page</h3>
 | 
						||
    <ul class="this-page-menu">
 | 
						||
      <li><a href="../bugs.html">Report a Bug</a></li>
 | 
						||
      <li>
 | 
						||
        <a href="https://github.com/python/cpython/blob/main/Doc/howto/free-threading-python.rst"
 | 
						||
            rel="nofollow">Show Source
 | 
						||
        </a>
 | 
						||
      </li>
 | 
						||
    </ul>
 | 
						||
  </div>
 | 
						||
        </div>
 | 
						||
<div id="sidebarbutton" title="Collapse sidebar">
 | 
						||
<span>«</span>
 | 
						||
</div>
 | 
						||
 | 
						||
      </div>
 | 
						||
      <div class="clearer"></div>
 | 
						||
    </div>  
 | 
						||
    <div class="related" role="navigation" aria-label="Related">
 | 
						||
      <h3>Navigation</h3>
 | 
						||
      <ul>
 | 
						||
        <li class="right" style="margin-right: 10px">
 | 
						||
          <a href="../genindex.html" title="General Index"
 | 
						||
             >index</a></li>
 | 
						||
        <li class="right" >
 | 
						||
          <a href="../py-modindex.html" title="Python Module Index"
 | 
						||
             >modules</a> |</li>
 | 
						||
        <li class="right" >
 | 
						||
          <a href="free-threading-extensions.html" title="C API Extension Support for Free Threading"
 | 
						||
             >next</a> |</li>
 | 
						||
        <li class="right" >
 | 
						||
          <a href="mro.html" title="The Python 2.3 Method Resolution Order"
 | 
						||
             >previous</a> |</li>
 | 
						||
 | 
						||
          <li><img src="../_static/py.svg" alt="Python logo" style="vertical-align: middle; margin-top: -1px"/></li>
 | 
						||
          <li><a href="https://www.python.org/">Python</a> »</li>
 | 
						||
          <li class="switchers">
 | 
						||
            <div class="language_switcher_placeholder"></div>
 | 
						||
            <div class="version_switcher_placeholder"></div>
 | 
						||
          </li>
 | 
						||
          <li>
 | 
						||
              
 | 
						||
          </li>
 | 
						||
    <li id="cpython-language-and-version">
 | 
						||
      <a href="../index.html">3.13.3 Documentation</a> »
 | 
						||
    </li>
 | 
						||
 | 
						||
          <li class="nav-item nav-item-1"><a href="index.html" >Python HOWTOs</a> »</li>
 | 
						||
        <li class="nav-item nav-item-this"><a href="">Python experimental support for free threading</a></li>
 | 
						||
                <li class="right">
 | 
						||
                    
 | 
						||
 | 
						||
    <div class="inline-search" role="search">
 | 
						||
        <form class="inline-search" action="../search.html" method="get">
 | 
						||
          <input placeholder="Quick search" aria-label="Quick search" type="search" name="q" id="search-box" />
 | 
						||
          <input type="submit" value="Go" />
 | 
						||
        </form>
 | 
						||
    </div>
 | 
						||
                     |
 | 
						||
                </li>
 | 
						||
            <li class="right">
 | 
						||
<label class="theme-selector-label">
 | 
						||
    Theme
 | 
						||
    <select class="theme-selector" oninput="activateTheme(this.value)">
 | 
						||
        <option value="auto" selected>Auto</option>
 | 
						||
        <option value="light">Light</option>
 | 
						||
        <option value="dark">Dark</option>
 | 
						||
    </select>
 | 
						||
</label> |</li>
 | 
						||
            
 | 
						||
      </ul>
 | 
						||
    </div>  
 | 
						||
    <div class="footer">
 | 
						||
    © 
 | 
						||
      <a href="../copyright.html">
 | 
						||
    
 | 
						||
    Copyright
 | 
						||
    
 | 
						||
      </a>
 | 
						||
     2001-2025, Python Software Foundation.
 | 
						||
    <br />
 | 
						||
    This page is licensed under the Python Software Foundation License Version 2.
 | 
						||
    <br />
 | 
						||
    Examples, recipes, and other code in the documentation are additionally licensed under the Zero Clause BSD License.
 | 
						||
    <br />
 | 
						||
    
 | 
						||
      See <a href="/license.html">History and License</a> for more information.<br />
 | 
						||
    
 | 
						||
    
 | 
						||
    <br />
 | 
						||
 | 
						||
    The Python Software Foundation is a non-profit corporation.
 | 
						||
<a href="https://www.python.org/psf/donations/">Please donate.</a>
 | 
						||
<br />
 | 
						||
    <br />
 | 
						||
      Last updated on Apr 08, 2025 (14:33 UTC).
 | 
						||
    
 | 
						||
      <a href="/bugs.html">Found a bug</a>?
 | 
						||
    
 | 
						||
    <br />
 | 
						||
 | 
						||
    Created using <a href="https://www.sphinx-doc.org/">Sphinx</a> 8.2.3.
 | 
						||
    </div>
 | 
						||
 | 
						||
  </body>
 | 
						||
</html> |