Error starting up `Client`

The following chunk of code fails:

from distributed.client import *
import time

client = Client()

time.sleep(5)
print('five seconds later')

with:

distributed.utils - ERROR - 
        An attempt has been made to start a new process before the
        current process has finished its bootstrapping phase.

        This probably means that you are not using fork to start your
        child processes and you have forgotten to use the proper idiom
        in the main module:

            if __name__ == '__main__':
                freeze_support()
                ...

        The "freeze_support()" line can be omitted if the program
        is not going to be frozen to produce an executable.

(plus a long traceback)

[mrocklin]

By default Client() forks processes. If you use it within a module you should hide it within the __main__ block.

# client = Client()

if __name__ == '__main__':
    client = Client()
    ...

Alternatively you can choose to use threads safely.

client = Client(processes=False)

[wholmgren]

Ah, of course. Thanks. Sorry for the noise.