path: root/doc/build/core/pooling.rst

.. _pooling_toplevel:

Connection Pooling
==================

.. module:: sqlalchemy.pool

A connection pool is a standard technique used to maintain
long running connections in memory for efficient re-use,
as well as to provide
management for the total number of connections an application
might use simultaneously.

Particularly for
server-side web applications, a connection pool is the standard way to
maintain a "pool" of active database connections in memory which are
reused across requests.

SQLAlchemy includes several connection pool implementations
which integrate with the :class:`.Engine`.  They can also be used
directly for applications that want to add pooling to an otherwise
plain DBAPI approach.

Connection Pool Configuration
-----------------------------

The :class:`~.engine.Engine` returned by the
:func:`~sqlalchemy.create_engine` function in most cases has a :class:`.QueuePool`
integrated, pre-configured with reasonable pooling defaults.  If
you're reading this section only to learn how to enable pooling - congratulations!
You're already done.

The most common :class:`.QueuePool` tuning parameters can be passed
directly to :func:`~sqlalchemy.create_engine` as keyword arguments:
``pool_size``, ``max_overflow``, ``pool_recycle`` and
``pool_timeout``.  For example::

  engine = create_engine('postgresql://me@localhost/mydb',
                         pool_size=20, max_overflow=0)

In the case of SQLite, the :class:`.SingletonThreadPool` or
:class:`.NullPool` are selected by the dialect to provide
greater compatibility with SQLite's threading and locking
model, as well as to provide a reasonable default behavior
to SQLite "memory" databases, which maintain their entire
dataset within the scope of a single connection.

All SQLAlchemy pool implementations have in common
that none of them "pre create" connections - all implementations wait
until first use before creating a connection.   At that point, if
no additional concurrent checkout requests for more connections
are made, no additional connections are created.   This is why it's perfectly
fine for :func:`.create_engine` to default to using a :class:`.QueuePool`
of size five without regard to whether or not the application really needs five connections
queued up - the pool would only grow to that size if the application
actually used five connections concurrently, in which case the usage of a
small pool is an entirely appropriate default behavior.

Switching Pool Implementations
------------------------------

The usual way to use a different kind of pool with :func:`.create_engine`
is to use the ``poolclass`` argument.   This argument accepts a class
imported from the ``sqlalchemy.pool`` module, and handles the details
of building the pool for you.   Common options include specifying
:class:`.QueuePool` with SQLite::

    from sqlalchemy.pool import QueuePool
    engine = create_engine('sqlite:///file.db', poolclass=QueuePool)

Disabling pooling using :class:`.NullPool`::

    from sqlalchemy.pool import NullPool
    engine = create_engine(
              'postgresql+psycopg2://scott:tiger@localhost/test',
              poolclass=NullPool)

Using a Custom Connection Function
----------------------------------

All :class:`.Pool` classes accept an argument ``creator`` which is
a callable that creates a new connection.  :func:`.create_engine`
accepts this function to pass onto the pool via an argument of
the same name::

    import sqlalchemy.pool as pool
    import psycopg2

    def getconn():
        c = psycopg2.connect(username='ed', host='127.0.0.1', dbname='test')
        # do things with 'c' to set up
        return c

    engine = create_engine('postgresql+psycopg2://', creator=getconn)

For most "initialize on connection" routines, it's more convenient
to use the :class:`.PoolEvents` event hooks, so that the usual URL argument to
:func:`.create_engine` is still usable.  ``creator`` is there as
a last resort for when a DBAPI has some form of ``connect``
that is not at all supported by SQLAlchemy.

Constructing a Pool
------------------------

To use a :class:`.Pool` by itself, the ``creator`` function is
the only argument that's required and is passed first, followed
by any additional options::

    import sqlalchemy.pool as pool
    import psycopg2

    def getconn():
        c = psycopg2.connect(username='ed', host='127.0.0.1', dbname='test')
        return c

    mypool = pool.QueuePool(getconn, max_overflow=10, pool_size=5)

DBAPI connections can then be procured from the pool using the :meth:`.Pool.connect`
function.  The return value of this method is a DBAPI connection that's contained
within a transparent proxy::

    # get a connection
    conn = mypool.connect()

    # use it
    cursor = conn.cursor()
    cursor.execute("select foo")

The purpose of the transparent proxy is to intercept the ``close()`` call,
such that instead of the DBAPI connection being closed, it's returned to the
pool::

    # "close" the connection.  Returns
    # it to the pool.
    conn.close()

The proxy also returns its contained DBAPI connection to the pool
when it is garbage collected,
though it's not deterministic in Python that this occurs immediately (though
it is typical with cPython).

The ``close()`` step also performs the important step of calling the
``rollback()`` method of the DBAPI connection.   This is so that any
existing transaction on the connection is removed, not only ensuring
that no existing state remains on next usage, but also so that table
and row locks are released as well as that any isolated data snapshots
are removed.   This behavior can be disabled using the ``reset_on_return``
option of :class:`.Pool`.

A particular pre-created :class:`.Pool` can be shared with one or more
engines by passing it to the ``pool`` argument of :func:`.create_engine`::

    e = create_engine('postgresql://', pool=mypool)

Pool Events
-----------

Connection pools support an event interface that allows hooks to execute
upon first connect, upon each new connection, and upon checkout and
checkin of connections.   See :class:`.PoolEvents` for details.

Dealing with Disconnects
------------------------

The connection pool has the ability to refresh individual connections as well as
its entire set of connections, setting the previously pooled connections as
"invalid".   A common use case is allow the connection pool to gracefully recover
when the database server has been restarted, and all previously established connections
are no longer functional.   There are two approaches to this.

Disconnect Handling - Optimistic
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

The most common approach is to let SQLAlchemy handle disconnects as they
occur, at which point the pool is refreshed.   This assumes the :class:`.Pool`
is used in conjunction with a :class:`.Engine`.  The :class:`.Engine` has
logic which can detect disconnection events and refresh the pool automatically.

When the :class:`.Connection` attempts to use a DBAPI connection, and an
exception is raised that corresponds to a "disconnect" event, the connection
is invalidated. The :class:`.Connection` then calls the :meth:`.Pool.recreate`
method, effectively invalidating all connections not currently checked out so
that they are replaced with new ones upon next checkout::

    from sqlalchemy import create_engine, exc
    e = create_engine(...)
    c = e.connect()

    try:
        # suppose the database has been restarted.
        c.execute("SELECT * FROM table")
        c.close()
    except exc.DBAPIError, e:
        # an exception is raised, Connection is invalidated.
        if e.connection_invalidated:
            print "Connection was invalidated!"

    # after the invalidate event, a new connection
    # starts with a new Pool
    c = e.connect()
    c.execute("SELECT * FROM table")

The above example illustrates that no special intervention is needed, the pool
continues normally after a disconnection event is detected.   However, an exception is
raised.   In a typical web application using an ORM Session, the above condition would
correspond to a single request failing with a 500 error, then the web application
continuing normally beyond that.   Hence the approach is "optimistic" in that frequent
database restarts are not anticipated.

Setting Pool Recycle
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

An additional setting that can augment the "optimistic" approach is to set the
pool recycle parameter.   This parameter prevents the pool from using a particular
connection that has passed a certain age, and is appropriate for database backends
such as MySQL that automatically close connections that have been stale after a particular
period of time::

    from sqlalchemy import create_engine
    e = create_engine("mysql://scott:tiger@localhost/test", pool_recycle=3600)

Above, any DBAPI connection that has been open for more than one hour will be invalidated and replaced,
upon next checkout.   Note that the invalidation **only** occurs during checkout - not on
any connections that are held in a checked out state.     ``pool_recycle`` is a function
of the :class:`.Pool` itself, independent of whether or not an :class:`.Engine` is in use.

Disconnect Handling - Pessimistic
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

At the expense of some extra SQL emitted for each connection checked out from the pool,
a "ping" operation established by a checkout event handler
can detect an invalid connection before it's used::

    from sqlalchemy import exc
    from sqlalchemy import event
    from sqlalchemy.pool import Pool

    @event.listens_for(Pool, "checkout")
    def ping_connection(dbapi_connection, connection_record, connection_proxy):
        cursor = dbapi_connection.cursor()
        try:
            cursor.execute("SELECT 1")
        except:
            # optional - dispose the whole pool
            # instead of invalidating one at a time
            # connection_proxy._pool.dispose()

            # raise DisconnectionError - pool will try
            # connecting again up to three times before raising.
            raise exc.DisconnectionError()
        cursor.close()

Above, the :class:`.Pool` object specifically catches :class:`~sqlalchemy.exc.DisconnectionError` and attempts
to create a new DBAPI connection, up to three times, before giving up and then raising
:class:`~sqlalchemy.exc.InvalidRequestError`, failing the connection.   This recipe will ensure
that a new :class:`.Connection` will succeed even if connections
in the pool have gone stale, provided that the database server is actually running.   The expense
is that of an additional execution performed per checkout.   When using the ORM :class:`.Session`,
there is one connection checkout per transaction, so the expense is fairly low.   The ping approach
above also works with straight connection pool usage, that is, even if no :class:`.Engine` were
involved.

The event handler can be tested using a script like the following, restarting the database
server at the point at which the script pauses for input::

    from sqlalchemy import create_engine
    e = create_engine("mysql://scott:tiger@localhost/test", echo_pool=True)
    c1 = e.connect()
    c2 = e.connect()
    c3 = e.connect()
    c1.close()
    c2.close()
    c3.close()

    # pool size is now three.

    print "Restart the server"
    raw_input()

    for i in xrange(10):
        c = e.connect()
        print c.execute("select 1").fetchall()
        c.close()

API Documentation - Available Pool Implementations
---------------------------------------------------

.. autoclass:: sqlalchemy.pool.Pool

   .. automethod:: __init__
   .. automethod:: connect
   .. automethod:: dispose
   .. automethod:: recreate

.. autoclass:: sqlalchemy.pool.QueuePool
   :show-inheritance:

   .. automethod:: __init__

.. autoclass:: SingletonThreadPool
   :show-inheritance:

   .. automethod:: __init__

.. autoclass:: AssertionPool
   :show-inheritance:

.. autoclass:: NullPool
  :show-inheritance:

.. autoclass:: StaticPool
   :show-inheritance:


Pooling Plain DB-API Connections
--------------------------------

Any :pep:`249` DB-API module can be "proxied" through the connection
pool transparently.  Usage of the DB-API is exactly as before, except
the ``connect()`` method will consult the pool.  Below we illustrate
this with ``psycopg2``::

    import sqlalchemy.pool as pool
    import psycopg2 as psycopg

    psycopg = pool.manage(psycopg)

    # then connect normally
    connection = psycopg.connect(database='test', username='scott',
                                 password='tiger')

This produces a :class:`_DBProxy` object which supports the same
``connect()`` function as the original DB-API module.  Upon
connection, a connection proxy object is returned, which delegates its
calls to a real DB-API connection object.  This connection object is
stored persistently within a connection pool (an instance of
:class:`.Pool`) that corresponds to the exact connection arguments sent
to the ``connect()`` function.

The connection proxy supports all of the methods on the original
connection object, most of which are proxied via ``__getattr__()``.
The ``close()`` method will return the connection to the pool, and the
``cursor()`` method will return a proxied cursor object.  Both the
connection proxy and the cursor proxy will also return the underlying
connection to the pool after they have both been garbage collected,
which is detected via weakref callbacks  (``__del__`` is not used).

Additionally, when connections are returned to the pool, a
``rollback()`` is issued on the connection unconditionally.  This is
to release any locks still held by the connection that may have
resulted from normal activity.

By default, the ``connect()`` method will return the same connection
that is already checked out in the current thread.  This allows a
particular connection to be used in a given thread without needing to
pass it around between functions.  To disable this behavior, specify
``use_threadlocal=False`` to the ``manage()`` function.

.. autofunction:: sqlalchemy.pool.manage

.. autofunction:: sqlalchemy.pool.clear_managers