https://github.com/python/cpython/commit/1ed6b78232a8739aa3b1ee1ce7ce2e1d998e3607 commit: 1ed6b78232a8739aa3b1ee1ce7ce2e1d998e3607 branch: main author: Serhiy Storchaka <[email protected]> committer: serhiy-storchaka <[email protected]> date: 2026-08-13T13:15:29+03:00 summary:
gh-154139: Document that curses is not thread-safe (GH-154173) Whether curses is thread-safe depends on the library and how it was built. The blocking and refresh methods release the GIL, so with a non-reentrant curses, unsynchronized use from several threads can crash. Co-authored-by: Claude Opus 4.8 <[email protected]> files: M Doc/library/curses.rst diff --git a/Doc/library/curses.rst b/Doc/library/curses.rst index a833914a5d56d4..04cf2e17d538fc 100644 --- a/Doc/library/curses.rst +++ b/Doc/library/curses.rst @@ -31,6 +31,19 @@ Linux and the BSD variants of Unix. Whenever the documentation mentions a *character string* it can be specified as a Unicode string or a byte string. +.. note:: + + Whether curses may be used from several threads + depends on the underlying library and how it was built. + In many implementations, including the default build of ncurses, + the screen state is shared and not thread-safe; + since the blocking and refresh methods + (such as :meth:`~window.getch` and :meth:`~window.refresh`) + release the :term:`GIL`, + unsynchronized use from several threads can then crash the interpreter. + Serialize the calls, + or wrap them in :meth:`window.use` and :meth:`screen.use`. + .. seealso:: Module :mod:`curses.ascii` _______________________________________________ Python-checkins mailing list -- [email protected] To unsubscribe send an email to [email protected] https://mail.python.org/mailman3//lists/python-checkins.python.org Member address: [email protected]
