QSharedMemory::handle: doesn't exist

[pymab]

Hi,

I'm currently experimenting with QSharedMemory and QProcess in PyQt. So I wrote a small application to launch a process. From this process I create a shared memory segment and write data to it. The application reads the data back when the process writes on the output. Unfortunately I get this error when the application attempts to attach to the shared memory segment: QSharedMemory::handle: doesn't exist.

Is it possible to do this sort of things ? Or maybe I should use a different approach to achieve this ?

Thanks for the help!
-mab

My application code:


from PyQt4 import QtGui, QtCore
import sys
import pickle

class Widget(QtGui.QWidget):
def __init__(self):
super(Widget,self).__init__()

# create process
self.p = QtCore.QProcess(self)

# Connect to process output
self.p.readyReadStandardOutput.connect( self.on_process_output )

self.key = 'share_mem_key'
self.shmem = QtCore.QSharedMemory( key )

self.p.start( 'python.exe test_process.py "%s"' % self.key )

def on_process_output(self):
self.shmem = QtCore.QSharedMemory( self.key )
if not self.shmem.isAttached() and not self.shmem.attach():
# Error when trying to attach to the shared memory segment
print 'ERROR %s ' % self.shmem.errorString()

self.shmem.lock()
try:
print pickle.loads(self.shmem.data().asstring())
finally:
self.shmem.unlock()

# application loop
app = QtGui.QApplication(sys.argv)
widget = Widget()

widget.show()
app.exec_()


The external process code:


from PyQt4 import QtCore
import ctypes
import ctypes.util
import pickle
import sys

CLIB = ctypes.cdll.LoadLibrary(ctypes.util.find_library(' c'))

def main(argv):
key = argv[1]

# write to shared memory
data = range(50000)
data_bytes = pickle.dumps( data, pickle.HIGHEST_PROTOCOL)
data_len = len(data_bytes)

shmem = QtCore.QSharedMemory(key)
if not shmem.create(data_len):
sys.stderr.write( 'ERROR: shared memory creation' )
sys.stderr.flush()
return

if not shmem.isAttached() and not shmem.attach():
sys.stderr.write( 'ERROR: shared memory access' )
sys.stderr.flush()
return

shmem.lock()
try:
CLIB.memcpy(int(shmem.data()), data_bytes, data_len)
finally:
shmem.unlock()

sys.stdout.write( 'done' )
sys.stdout.flush()

if __name__ == '__main__':
main(sys.argv)

[wysota]

Does the shared memory block exist when the parent process tries to access it? Have you verified the child process successfully creates it? Which platform you are using, Windows? I don't see that Qt returns such a message for Windows anywhere, only for UNIX.

[pymab]

Does the shared memory block exist when the parent process tries to access it?

Apparently no, I get this error when trying to access it from the output callback:
: QSharedMemory::handle: doesn't exist



Have you verified the child process successfully creates it?

Yes, everything is ok since I don't get an error msg in the process error callback.



Which platform you are using, Windows? I don't see that Qt returns such a message for Windows anywhere, only for UNIX.

I'm on Windows. Here's the output trace (from my updated code below):
<pre>
process state: Starting
process state: Running
process started
process output: Done writing to shared memory
Error accessing shared memory from parent process QSharedMemory::handle: doesn't exist
Error accessing data
process state: Not running
process finished
</pre>

App:

from PyQt4 import QtGui, QtCore
import sys
import pickle

class Widget(QtGui.QWidget):
def __init__(self):
super(Widget,self).__init__()

# create process
self.p = QtCore.QProcess(self)

# Connect to process output
self.p.readyReadStandardOutput.connect( self.on_process_output )
self.p.readyReadStandardError.connect( self.on_process_error_output )
self.p.stateChanged.connect(self.on_process_state_ change)
self.p.finished.connect(self.on_process_finished)
self.p.started.connect(self.on_process_started)
self.p.error.connect( self.on_process_error )

self.key = 'share_mem_key'
self.shmem = QtCore.QSharedMemory( self.key )

self.p.start( 'python.exe shmem_process_test.py "%s"' % self.key )

def on_process_output(self):
s_out = bytes.decode( bytes( self.sender().readAllStandardOutput() ) )
print 'process output: %s' % (s_out)

if not self.shmem.isAttached() and not self.shmem.attach():
print 'Error accessing shared memory from parent process: %s ' % self.shmem.errorString()

self.shmem.lock()
try:
data = self.shmem.data()
if data:
print pickle.loads(data.asstring())
finally:
print 'Error accessing data'
self.shmem.unlock()

def on_process_error_output(self):
s_out = bytes.decode( bytes( self.sender().readAllStandardError() ) )
print 'process output: %s' % (s_out)

def on_process_state_change(self,new_state):
states = ["Not running", "Starting", "Running"]
print 'process state: %s' % (states[new_state])

def on_process_finished(self):
print 'process finished'

def on_process_started(self):
print 'process started'

def on_process_error(self):
print 'process error'

# application loop
app = QtGui.QApplication(sys.argv)
widget = Widget()

widget.show()
app.exec_()


Process:

from PyQt4 import QtCore
import ctypes
import ctypes.util
import pickle
import sys

CLIB = ctypes.cdll.LoadLibrary(ctypes.util.find_library(' c'))

def main(argv):
key = argv[1]

# write to shared memory
data = range(50)
data_bytes = pickle.dumps( data, pickle.HIGHEST_PROTOCOL)
data_len = len(data_bytes)

shmem = QtCore.QSharedMemory(key)

if not shmem.create(data_len):
sys.stderr.write( 'ERROR: shared memory creation' )
sys.stderr.flush()
return

if not shmem.isAttached() and not shmem.attach():
sys.stderr.write( 'ERROR: shared memory access' )
sys.stderr.flush()
return

shmem.lock()
try:
CLIB.memcpy(int(shmem.data()), data_bytes, data_len)
finally:
shmem.unlock()

sys.stdout.write( "Done writing to shared memory" )
sys.stdout.flush()

if __name__ == '__main__':
main(sys.argv)


So it seems like the only way the parent can successfully access the shared memory is if the memory is allocated by itself before starting the child process. This is not what I want. What I want is to let the child process allocate the memory with the right size instead of allocating upfront in the parent process.

Thanks for looking at this.
-mab