How Many Threads?

Since Gunicorn 19, a threads option can be used to process requests in multiple threads. Using threads assumes use of the gthread worker. One benefit from threads is that requests can take longer than the worker timeout while notifying the master process that it is not frozen and should not be killed. Depending on the system, using multiple threads, multiple worker processes, or some mixture, may yield the best results. For example, CPython may not perform as well as Jython when using threads, as threading is implemented differently by each. Using threads instead of processes is a good way to reduce the memory footprint of Gunicorn, while still allowing for application upgrades using the reload signal, as the application code will be shared among workers but loaded only in the worker processes (unlike when using the preload setting, which loads the code in the master process).

Note

Under Python 2.x, you need to install the ‘futures’ package to use this feature.