Got MultiProcessConsumer working

Other changes
* Put a message size restriction on the shared queue
  - to prevent message overload
* Wait for a while after each process is started (in constructor)
* Wait for a while in each child if the consumer does not return any messages
  Just to be nice to the CPU.
* Control the start event more granularly - this prevents infinite loops
  if the control does not return to the generator. For eg:
  for msg in consumer:
      assert False
* Update message status before yield

kafka/consumer.py

@@ -1,7 +1,9 @@
 from itertools import izip_longest, repeat
 import logging
+import time
 from threading import Lock
 from multiprocessing import Process, Queue, Event, Value
+from Queue import Empty
 
 from kafka.common import (
     ErrorMapping, FetchRequest,
@@ -412,14 +414,14 @@ class MultiProcessConsumer(Consumer):
 
         # Initiate the base consumer class
         super(MultiProcessConsumer, self).__init__(client, group, topic,
-                                    partitions=partitions,
+                                    partitions=None,
                                     auto_commit=auto_commit,
                                     auto_commit_every_n=auto_commit_every_n,
                                     auto_commit_every_t=auto_commit_every_t)
 
         # Variables for managing and controlling the data flow from
         # consumer child process to master
-        self.queue = Queue()        # Child consumers dump messages into this
+        self.queue = Queue(1024)    # Child consumers dump messages into this
         self.start = Event()        # Indicates the consumers to start fetch
         self.exit = Event()         # Requests the consumers to shutdown
         self.pause = Event()        # Requests the consumers to pause fetch
@@ -441,9 +443,11 @@ class MultiProcessConsumer(Consumer):
 
         self.procs = []
         for chunk in chunks:
-            proc = Process(target=_self._consume, args=(chunk,))
+            chunk = filter(lambda x: x is not None, list(chunk))
+            proc = Process(target=self._consume, args=(chunk,))
             proc.daemon = True
             proc.start()
+            time.sleep(0.2)
             self.procs.append(proc)
 
     def _consume(self, partitions):
@@ -468,7 +472,7 @@ class MultiProcessConsumer(Consumer):
             self.start.wait()
 
             # If we are asked to quit, do so
-            if self.exit.isSet():
+            if self.exit.is_set():
                 break
 
             # Consume messages and add them to the queue. If the controller
@@ -488,6 +492,11 @@ class MultiProcessConsumer(Consumer):
                     self.pause.wait()
                     break
 
+            # In case we did not receive any message, give up the CPU for
+            # a while before we try again
+            if count == 0:
+                time.sleep(0.1)
+
         consumer.stop()
 
     def stop(self):
@@ -507,21 +516,22 @@ class MultiProcessConsumer(Consumer):
         # Trigger the consumer procs to start off.
         # We will iterate till there are no more messages available
         self.size.value = 0
-        self.start.set()
         self.pause.set()
 
         while True:
+            self.start.set()
             try:
                 # We will block for a small while so that the consumers get
                 # a chance to run and put some messages in the queue
-                partition, message = self.queue.get(block=True, timeout=0.1)
-            except Queue.Empty:
+                partition, message = self.queue.get(block=True, timeout=1)
+            except Empty:
                 break
 
-            yield message
-
             # Count, check and commit messages if necessary
             self.offsets[partition] = message.offset
+            self.start.clear()
+            yield message
+
             self.count_since_commit += 1
             self._auto_commit()
 
@@ -555,7 +565,7 @@ class MultiProcessConsumer(Consumer):
 
             try:
                 partition, message = self.queue.get(block, timeout)
-            except Queue.Empty:
+            except Empty:
                 break
 
             messages.append(message)