From 02c895edd7bb1cc12f0ce3ac52103ec00841b2a6 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001
From: BoykoNeov <boikoneov@gmail.com>
Date: Thu, 18 Jun 2026 15:07:03 +0300
Subject: [PATCH] Run service-thread event loops on a selector loop on Windows

When the kernel runs under a ProactorEventLoop on Windows (enabled by
gh-1469 so the main loop can spawn asyncio subprocesses, gh-1468),
debugging deadlocks on Python >= 3.12.

ProactorEventLoop has no native add_reader, so tornado drives a Proactor
loop's zmq sockets via a helper "Tornado selector" thread that does
select() then call_soon_threadsafe() to wake the loop. ipykernel exempts
its own service threads from the debugger but not tornado's helper. When
debugpy suspends every thread at a breakpoint under sys.monitoring
(3.12+, interpreter-global), that un-exempt helper freezes mid-wake and
the control/debug read path never advances -- the loop sits in the IOCP
poll forever. On 3.11 (sys.settrace, per-thread) the helper is not frozen,
so it does not reproduce there.

The ipykernel service loops -- control, IOPub, the shell channel and
subshells -- never need Proactor's subprocess support, so run them on a
SelectorEventLoop instead: it implements add_reader natively and needs no
helper thread. Only the main/user-code loop stays on Proactor. Off Windows
the default loop is already selector-based, so this is a no-op there.

Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.8 <noreply@anthropic.com>
---
 ipykernel/iostream.py |  5 +++--
 ipykernel/thread.py   | 26 +++++++++++++++++++++++++-
 2 files changed, 28 insertions(+), 3 deletions(-)

diff --git a/ipykernel/iostream.py b/ipykernel/iostream.py
index 2c1094f35..a5b5b6c0b 100644
--- a/ipykernel/iostream.py
+++ b/ipykernel/iostream.py
@@ -22,9 +22,10 @@
 
 import zmq
 from jupyter_client.session import extract_header
-from tornado.ioloop import IOLoop
 from zmq.eventloop.zmqstream import ZMQStream
 
+from .thread import make_selector_io_loop
+
 # -----------------------------------------------------------------------------
 # Globals
 # -----------------------------------------------------------------------------
@@ -67,7 +68,7 @@ def __init__(self, socket, pipe=False, session=False):
         self.background_socket = BackgroundSocket(self)
         self._master_pid = os.getpid()
         self._pipe_flag = pipe
-        self.io_loop = IOLoop(make_current=False)
+        self.io_loop = make_selector_io_loop()
         if pipe:
             self._setup_pipe_in()
         self._local = threading.local()
diff --git a/ipykernel/thread.py b/ipykernel/thread.py
index 3e1d4f07a..bb6764984 100644
--- a/ipykernel/thread.py
+++ b/ipykernel/thread.py
@@ -1,5 +1,7 @@
 """Base class for threads."""
 
+import asyncio
+import sys
 from threading import Thread
 
 from tornado.ioloop import IOLoop
@@ -8,13 +10,35 @@
 SHELL_CHANNEL_THREAD_NAME = "Shell channel"
 
 
+def make_selector_io_loop() -> IOLoop:
+    """Create a non-current tornado ``IOLoop`` for an ipykernel service thread.
+
+    ipykernel runs its service channels -- control, IOPub, the shell channel and
+    subshells -- on dedicated event loops in background threads. The process-wide
+    asyncio loop on Windows is a ``ProactorEventLoop`` (so the main user-code loop
+    can spawn asyncio subprocesses, see #1468/#1469), and Proactor has no native
+    ``add_reader``. Tornado therefore drives a Proactor loop's zmq sockets through
+    a helper "Tornado selector" thread. When a debugger suspends every thread at a
+    breakpoint on Python >= 3.12 (``sys.monitoring``), that un-exempt helper thread
+    freezes mid-wake and deadlocks the control/debug read path (#1469).
+
+    These service loops never need Proactor's subprocess support, so we keep them
+    on a ``SelectorEventLoop``: it implements ``add_reader`` natively and needs no
+    helper thread. Only the main/user-code loop stays on Proactor. On non-Windows
+    platforms the default loop is already selector-based, so this is a no-op there.
+    """
+    if sys.platform == "win32":
+        return IOLoop(make_current=False, asyncio_loop=asyncio.SelectorEventLoop())
+    return IOLoop(make_current=False)
+
+
 class BaseThread(Thread):
     """Base class for threads."""
 
     def __init__(self, **kwargs):
         """Initialize the thread."""
         super().__init__(**kwargs)
-        self.io_loop = IOLoop(make_current=False)
+        self.io_loop = make_selector_io_loop()
         self.pydev_do_not_trace = True
         self.is_pydev_daemon_thread = True