Core Python Programming

17.4. thread Module

Let's take a look at what the thread module has to offer. In addition to being able to spawn threads, the threadmodule also provides a basic synchronization data structure called a lock object (a.k.a. primitive lock, simple lock, mutual exclusion lock, mutex, binary semaphore). As we mentioned earlier, such synchronization primitives go hand-in-hand with thread management.

Listed in Table 17.1 are a list of the more commonly-used thread functions and LockType lock object methods:

Table 17.1. thread Module and Lock Objects

Function/Method	Description
thread Module Functions
start_new_thread(function, args, kwargs=None)	spawns a new thread and execute function with the given args and optional kwargs
allocate_lock()	allocates LockType ...