bpo-37380: subprocess: don't use _active on win (GH-14360)

As noted by @eryksun in [1] and [2], using _cleanup and _active(in
__del__) is not necessary on Windows, since:

> Unlike Unix, a process in Windows doesn't have to be waited on by
> its parent to avoid a zombie. Keeping the handle open will actually
> create a zombie until the next _cleanup() call, which may be never
> if Popen() isn't called again.

This patch simply defines `subprocess._active` as `None`, for which we already
have the proper logic in place in `subprocess.Popen.__del__`, that prevents it
from trying to append the process to the `_active`. This patch also defines
`subprocess._cleanup` as a noop for Windows.

[1] https://bugs.python.org/issue37380#msg346333
[2] https://bugs.python.org/issue36067#msg336262

Signed-off-by: Ruslan Kuprieiev <ruslan@iterative.ai>

1 files changed, 32 insertions, 16 deletions

diff --git a/Lib/subprocess.py b/Lib/subprocess.py
index c0bda96cbc..5bbeba47a3 100644
--- a/Lib/subprocess.py
+++ b/Lib/subprocess.py
@@ -218,22 +218,38 @@ else:
         _PopenSelector = selectors.SelectSelector
 
 
-# This lists holds Popen instances for which the underlying process had not
-# exited at the time its __del__ method got called: those processes are wait()ed
-# for synchronously from _cleanup() when a new Popen object is created, to avoid
-# zombie processes.
-_active = []
-
-def _cleanup():
-    for inst in _active[:]:
-        res = inst._internal_poll(_deadstate=sys.maxsize)
-        if res is not None:
-            try:
-                _active.remove(inst)
-            except ValueError:
-                # This can happen if two threads create a new Popen instance.
-                # It's harmless that it was already removed, so ignore.
-                pass
+if _mswindows:
+    # On Windows we just need to close `Popen._handle` when we no longer need
+    # it, so that the kernel can free it. `Popen._handle` gets closed
+    # implicitly when the `Popen` instance is finalized (see `Handle.__del__`,
+    # which is calling `CloseHandle` as requested in [1]), so there is nothing
+    # for `_cleanup` to do.
+    #
+    # [1] https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/desktop/ProcThread/
+    # creating-processes
+    _active = None
+
+    def _cleanup():
+        pass
+else:
+    # This lists holds Popen instances for which the underlying process had not
+    # exited at the time its __del__ method got called: those processes are
+    # wait()ed for synchronously from _cleanup() when a new Popen object is
+    # created, to avoid zombie processes.
+    _active = []
+
+    def _cleanup():
+        if _active is None:
+            return
+        for inst in _active[:]:
+            res = inst._internal_poll(_deadstate=sys.maxsize)
+            if res is not None:
+                try:
+                    _active.remove(inst)
+                except ValueError:
+                    # This can happen if two threads create a new Popen instance.
+                    # It's harmless that it was already removed, so ignore.
+                    pass
 
 PIPE = -1
 STDOUT = -2