PyQT Segmentation fault (sometimes)

Question

i'm creating one interface to manage some servers, the basic functions like restarting services and thinks like that, I made the interface in QTCreator and the programming in PyQT5, it's working properly (sometimes).

Sometimes it just work as well, other times i get Segmentation Fault or QObject::connect: Cannot queue arguments of type 'QTextCursor' (Make sure 'QTextCursor' is registered using qRegisterMetaType().)

It happen when I hit restart_nginx in MainWindow, maybe some problem with thread management, it's the first project that i'm working with PyQT/QT

Thank you.

#!/usr/bin/env python
# -*- coding: utf-8 -*-

from __future__ import unicode_literals

import paramiko
import threading

from PyQt5.QtCore import *
from PyQt5.QtGui import *
from PyQt5.QtWidgets import *
from ui_mainwindow import Ui_MainWindow

servers = {
    "Mars": "198.58.112.***",
    "Saturn": "198.58.116.***"
}

green = "rgb(83, 236, 17)"
default = "rgb(154, 154, 154)"
yellow = "yellow"
red = "red"
pw = 'pass'

def format_status(color):
    return "background-color: " + color + "; border: 1px solid black;"

class Worker(QObject):

    def __init__(self, ui, server, command=None, sudo=False, *args, **kwargs):
        QObject.__init__(self, *args, **kwargs)

        self.ssh = paramiko.SSHClient()
        self.ssh.set_missing_host_key_policy(paramiko.AutoAddPolicy())

        self.ui = ui
        self.command = command
        self.sudo = sudo
        self.server = server

    finished = pyqtSignal()

    @pyqtSlot()
    def execute(self):

        self.ui.status_restart_nginx.setStyleSheet(format_status(color=yellow))

        try:

            self.ssh.connect(self.server, username='hercules', password=pw)

        except paramiko.SSHException as e:

            self.ui.log.append("ERRO: Impossible to connect: %s", e)
            self.ui.status_restart_nginx.setStyleSheet(format_status(color=red))

        try:

            session = self.ssh.get_transport().open_session()
            session.get_pty()

            f = session.makefile()

            session.exec_command("ls -lh")

            #if self.sudo:
            #    session.send(pw + '\n')

            for line in f.readlines():
                self.ui.log.append(line)

            f.close()

            self.ssh.close()

            self.ui.status_restart_nginx.setStyleSheet(format_status(color=green))

        except Exception as e:
            self.ui.status_restart_nginx.setStyleSheet(format_status(color=red))
            print 'errinho: ', e

        self.finished.emit()

class MainWindow(QMainWindow, Ui_MainWindow):
    def __init__(self, parent=None, **kwargs):
        super(MainWindow, self).__init__(parent)
        self.setupUi(self)

        self.btn_restart_nginx.clicked.connect(self.restart_nginx)

        self.thread_worker = None
        self.obj_worker = None

    def create_worker(self, server, command=None, sudo=False):

        self.thread_worker = QThread(parent = self)
        self.obj_worker = Worker(ui = self, server = server, command = command, sudo = sudo)
        self.obj_worker.moveToThread(self.thread_worker)
        self.obj_worker.finished.connect(self.thread_worker.quit)
        self.thread_worker.started.connect(self.obj_worker.execute)
        self.thread_worker.start()

    def restart_nginx(self):

        self.status_restart_nginx.setStyleSheet(format_status(color=yellow))

        self.log.append("(Mars) Nginx: trying to restart front-end...")

        self.create_worker(servers["Mars"], command = "sudo service nginx restart", sudo = True)

if __name__=="__main__":

    from sys import argv, exit

    app = QApplication(argv)

    m = MainWindow()
    m.show()
    m.raise_()

    exit(app.exec_())

Answer 1

Never attempt to make changes to the GUI from within a worker thread. Only ever update the GUI from within the main GUI thread, and do not pass references to GUI elements to the worker thread.

The simplest and safest way to communicate between the GUI thread and the worker thread is to emit custom signals. When signals are emitted across threads in this way, they are queued, and the slot will be invoked in the receiver's thread once control returns to it's event-loop.

In PyQt, it is also generally advisable to use the pyqtSlot decorator when making connections across threads, for the reasons outlined in this answer.