Is it possible to run only a single step of the asyncio event loop

Question

I\'m working on a simple graphical network application, using asyncio and tkinter. I\'m running into the problem of combining the asyncio event loop with Tk\'s mainloop. If

Answer 1

Take a look at this example.

import asyncio
from tkinter import *

class asyncTk(Tk):
    def __init__(self):
        super().__init__()
        self.running = True
        self.protocol("WM_DELETE_WINDOW", self.on_closing)

    def on_closing(self):
        self.running = False
        self.destroy()
        
    def __await__(self):
        while self.running:
            self.update()
            yield

async def asd():
    for x in range(1,10):
        await asyncio.sleep(1)
        print(x)

async def main():
    w = asyncTk()
    asyncio.create_task(asd())
    await w

asyncio.run(main())

Answer 2

The missing of public method like loop.run_once() is intentional. Not every supported event loop has a method to iterate one step. Often underlying API has methods for creating event loop and running it forever but emulating single step may be very ineffective.

If you really need it you may implement single-step iteration easy:

import asyncio


def run_once(loop):
    loop.call_soon(loop.stop)
    loop.run_forever()


loop = asyncio.get_event_loop()

for i in range(100):
    print('Iteration', i)
    run_once(loop)

Answer 3

I using the following procedure for own run_once() and run_forever() creation.

Here's a simplified example:

import asyncio

async def worker(**kwargs):
    id = kwargs.get('id', '0.0.0.0.0.0')
    time = kwargs.get('time', 1)

    try:
        # Do stuff.
        print('start: ' + id)
    finally:
        await asyncio.sleep(time)

async def worker_forever(**kwargs):
    while True:
        await worker(**kwargs)

def init_loop(configs, forever=True):
    loop = asyncio.get_event_loop()

    if forever:
        tasks = [
            loop.create_task(worker_forever(id=conf['id'], time=conf['time'])) 
            for conf in config
        ]

    else:
        tasks = [
            asyncio.ensure_future(worker(id=conf['id'], time=conf['time'])) 
            for conf in configs
        ]

    return loop, tasks

def run_once(configs):
    print('RUN_ONCE')
    loop, futures = init_loop(configs, forever=False)
    result = loop.run_until_complete(asyncio.gather(*futures))
    print(result)

def run_forever(configs):
    print('RUN_FOREVER')
    loop, _ = init_loop(configs, forever=True)
    try:
        loop.run_forever()
    except KeyboardInterrupt:
        pass
    finally:
        print("Closing Loop")
        loop.close()

if __name__ == '__main__':
    configurations = [
        {'time': 5, 'id': '4'},
        {'time': 6, 'id': '5'},
        {'time': 1, 'id': '6'},
    ]  # TODO :: DUMMY

    run_once(configurations)
    run_forever(configurations)