Python Queue get()/task_done() issue

Question

My consumer side of the queue:

m = queue.get()
queue.task_done()

<rest of the program>

Questions:

1. Does task_done() effectively pops m off the queue and release whatever locks the consumer has on the queue?

2. I need to use m during the rest of the program. Is it safe, or do I need to copy it before I call task_done() or is m usable after task_done()?

be happy

Answer 1

No, queue.get() pops the item off the queue. After you do that, you can do whatever you want with it, as long as the producer works like it should and doesn't touch it anymore. queue.task_done() is called only to notify the queue that you are done with something (it doesn't even know about the specific item, it just counts unfinished items in the queue), so that queue.join() knows the work is finished.