6.3.6 Working with threads

The getcontext() function accesses a different Context object for each thread. Having separate thread contexts means that threads may make changes (such as getcontext.prec=10) without interfering with other threads.

Likewise, the setcontext() function automatically assigns its target to the current thread.

If setcontext() has not been called before getcontext(), then getcontext() will automatically create a new context for use in the current thread.

The new context is copied from a prototype context called DefaultContext. To control the defaults so that each thread will use the same values throughout the application, directly modify the DefaultContext object. This should be done before any threads are started so that there won't be a race condition between threads calling getcontext(). For example:

# Set applicationwide defaults for all threads about to be launched
DefaultContext.prec = 12
DefaultContext.rounding = ROUND_DOWN
DefaultContext.traps = ExtendedContext.traps.copy()
DefaultContext.traps[InvalidOperation] = 1
setcontext(DefaultContext)

# Afterwards, the threads can be started
t1.start()
t2.start()
t3.start()
 . . .

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