Intro

What is DeliveryBoy

DeliveryBoy is a lightweight and transparent intermediary for executing a Python callable – a function or method – in a new Python process such that a developer using this intermediary does not have to care about how the object and modules are passed.

The new Python process is started by a transport command yielding a wide range of applications, e.g.:

  • Execution as a different user via sudo.
  • Execution on a remote host via ssh.
  • Execution on a HPC cluster via bsub (in case of LSF).

The base assumptions for this implementation are:

  • On the target host a compatible version of Python is installed.
  • On the target host the Python environment contains the deliveryboy package.
  • The Python environment on the source and target hosts are identical (aka. same modules installed).
  • Only the callable, module names for modules in the (virtual) environment and modules from outside the environment need to be transported.

@startuml hide footbox title __Example:__ Sequence for usage with ``ssh`` box "'Local Host'" #LightBlue control "Your script" as script boundary "DeliveryBoy" as db1 end box box "'Remote Host'" #LightGray boundary "DeliveryBoy" as db2 end box -> script: call activate script script -> script: call decorator activate script script -> db1 activate db1 db1 -> db1: pickle activate db1 deactivate db1 db1 -> db2: call through transport activate db2 db2 -> db2: unpickle activate db2 deactivate db2 db2 -> db2: load modules activate db2 deactivate db2 db2 -> db2: call decorated activate db2 deactivate db2 db2 -> db2: pickle activate db2 deactivate db2 db2 -> db1: return deactivate db2 db1 -> db1: unpickle activate db1 deactivate db1 db1 -> script: return deactivate db1 deactivate script <- script: exit deactivate script @enduml

Acknowledgement

This project was inspired by:

Indices and tables