`MultiThreadedExecutor:spin_until_future_complete` can block when the future is ready

Bug report

Required Info:

• Operating System:
  • Ubuntu 20.04
• Installation type:
  • From source
• Version or commit hash:
  • Foxy
• DDS implementation:
  • Fast-RTPS
• Client library (if applicable):
  • rclpy

Steps to reproduce the issue

• Publish a message from one node (with latching_qos)
• In another node, subscribe to the topic with a callback that sets the result of the future
• Start both nodes in a MuliThreadedExecutor
• Spin until future complete

import rclpy
from rclpy.executors import MultiThreadedExecutor, SingleThreadedExecutor
from rclpy.node import Node
from std_msgs.msg import String
from rclpy.qos import QoSProfile, QoSDurabilityPolicy
from rclpy.task import Future
import os

latching_qos = QoSProfile(depth=1,
    durability=QoSDurabilityPolicy.RMW_QOS_POLICY_DURABILITY_TRANSIENT_LOCAL)

def main():

    rclpy.init()
    
    # Set up publisher
    pubnode = Node('pubnode_' + str(os.getpid()))
    pub1 = pubnode.create_publisher(String, 'topic1', latching_qos)
    msg1 = String()
    msg1.data = "hello1"
    pubnode.get_logger().info("Publishing hello1")
    pub1.publish(msg1)

    # Set up listener
    future_msgs = Future()
    subnode = Node('subnode_' + str(os.getpid()))
    subnode.create_subscription(String, 'topic1', lambda msg : ([
            subnode.get_logger().info("Received message on topic1"),
            future_msgs.set_result(msg)
    ]), latching_qos)

    # Start nodes
    exe = MultiThreadedExecutor()
    exe.add_node(pubnode)
    exe.add_node(subnode)

    future_msgs.add_done_callback(lambda fut : print("Future is done"))
    exe.spin_until_future_complete(future_msgs)

if __name__ == '__main__':
    main()

Expected behavior

The subnode should receive the message, set the future as complete, and then the program should exit.

Actual behavior

The subnode receives the message, sets the future as complete, but the exe.spin_until_future_complete(future_msgs) never returns.

Additional information

This only happens with the MultiThreadedExector. If I swap this out for the SingleThreadedExecutor then it works as expected.

If the pub node is running in a different process, it also works as expected.

I have also asked a question on ROS Answers here.

Here is a workspace that you can clone and run to immediately test this issue. Here is the code for the node defined in that workspace. It is very similar to the code posted in this bug report, but with a few argparse options.

[ivanpauno]

As @fujitatomoya explained here, there’s no deadlock. I’ve updated the PR title accordingly.

https://github.com/ros2/rclpy/pull/605 is a proposed fix. @craigh92 @fujitatomoya it would be great if you can confirm that the proposed fix solves the issue in the posted example, thanks!

[russkel]

sure @fujitatomoya I will do so.