Propagate Python thread name to thread state structure

[P403n1x87]

BPO	46649
Nosy	@vstinner, @P403n1x87, @arhadthedev
PRs	bpo-46649: Propagate Python thread name to PyThreadState #31142

^{Note: these values reflect the state of the issue at the time it was migrated and might not reflect the current state.}

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GitHub fields:

assignee = None
closed_at = None
created_at = <Date 2022-02-05.13:07:42.355>
labels = ['expert-C-API', 'type-feature', '3.11']
title = 'Propagate Python thread name to thread state structure'
updated_at = <Date 2022-02-05.13:55:28.257>
user = 'https://proxy-ga.blitzz.co/proxy/123456/github.com/P403n1x87'

bugs.python.org fields:

activity = <Date 2022-02-05.13:55:28.257>
actor = 'arhadthedev'
assignee = 'none'
closed = False
closed_date = None
closer = None
components = ['C API']
creation = <Date 2022-02-05.13:07:42.355>
creator = 'Gabriele Tornetta'
dependencies = []
files = []
hgrepos = []
issue_num = 46649
keywords = ['patch']
message_count = 4.0
messages = ['412569', '412570', '412571', '412574']
nosy_count = 3.0
nosy_names = ['vstinner', 'Gabriele Tornetta', 'arhadthedev']
pr_nums = ['31142']
priority = 'normal'
resolution = None
stage = 'patch review'
status = 'open'
superseder = None
type = 'enhancement'
url = 'https://proxy-ga.blitzz.co/proxy/123456/bugs.python.org/issue46649'
versions = ['Python 3.11']

[P403n1x87]

For tools like Austin (https://proxy-ga.blitzz.co/proxy/123456/github.com/P403n1x87/austin) it is currently quite challenging to derive the name of a thread based on the information exposed by the PyThreadState structure and one stored in threading._active. I would like to propose propagating the thread name from the Thread object to the PyThreadState structure so that profiling information from tools like Austin could easily be enriched with the names of each sampled thread.

[vstinner]

bpo-15500 looks like a more generic option, debuggers should be able to retrieve thread names.

faulthandler dumps "tstate->thread_id", maybe it should also dump "tstate->native_thread_id" and/or the thread name.

[P403n1x87]

Thanks for mentioning that issue, it didn't come up in my search for a similar one. Indeed, with the proposals in bpo-15500 implemented, and the fact that native_thread_id is already in PyThreadState, retrieving the name should be easy and might make for a better implementation than what I'm proposing. Furthermore, doing this at the OS level would benefit an even larger set of tools. What pushed me to open this issue is the fact that this feature has been lacking for quite some time (indeed bpo-15500 dates back to 2012!), so I thought I'd propose a different approach in case it would get a quicker resolution this way.

[arhadthedev]

bpo-15500 looks like a more generic option, debuggers should be able to retrieve thread names.

That option is not viable.

1. > Created on 2012-07-30 16:19 by bra, last changed 2022-01-19 00:32 by pitrou

2. > I don't think this should be done by default as it will break people's expectations and, perhaps worse, compatibility.

3. > It is indeed the compatibility that is the worse issue. The problem is what people have gotten used to and may have coded their applications to expect/deal with. I agree with you that most people would *not* find it surprising to see the name reflected in the OS, but I don't think the convenience of that is worth introducing a potential backward incompatibility.

Any chances?

[iritkatriel]

Closing along with the PR (see discussion there).