unblock

unblock provides small utilities that convert synchronous functions, methods, and classes into asynchronous ones for use inside an asyncio event loop. It offloads blocking work to a thread or process pool so it does not block the loop.

For full documentation, see https://unblock.readthedocs.io/en/latest/

Install (distribution name is get-unblock, import name is unblock):

pip install get-unblock

Quick example:

import asyncio
from unblock import asyncify


@asyncify
def my_sync_func():
    ...  # do something blocking


if __name__ == "__main__":
    asyncio.run(my_sync_func())

Run on a process pool instead of threads:

@asyncify(executor="process")
def cpu_bound(n):
    return sum(i * i for i in range(n))

Development

Requires Python 3.10+.

python -m venv .venv
. .venv/Scripts/activate        # or: source .venv/bin/activate
pip install -e ".[dev]"

ruff check .
ruff format --check .
mypy
pytest --cov=unblock --cov-branch

Release Notes

0.1.0

A ground-up refactor of the library. There is no compatibility with 0.0.1.

• One unified asyncify entry point for functions, methods, and classes, with an executor parameter ("thread", "process", or an Executor instance). @asyncify(executor="process") now works as a decorator on importable functions.
• A single executor-configurable mixin family (AsyncMixin, AsyncIterMixin, AsyncContextMixin, AsyncContextIterMixin) replaces the previous eight base classes; method names no longer need to be listed as strings.
• async_property and async_cached_property redesigned as proper descriptors; the cached variant now computes exactly once even under concurrent awaits.
• Work always binds to the running event loop (fixes cross-loop errors); the return-type duality (started future when a loop runs, coroutine otherwise) is documented.
• Thread/process pools are bounded, created thread-safely, and shut down cleanly via shutdown() and an atexit hook.
• Asynchronous tasks still start in the background when a loop is running; you await only to collect the result.
• Works with asyncio-compatible event loops (asyncio, uvloop). It does not support trio/curio, which are not asyncio compatible natively.
• Ships type information (PEP 561). Supports Python 3.10 and above.