Share a list between different processes?

the following is from python documentation:

from multiprocessing import shared_memory
a = shared_memory.ShareableList(['howdy', b'HoWdY', -273.154, 100, None, True, 42])
[ type(entry) for entry in a ]
[<class 'str'>, <class 'bytes'>, <class 'float'>, <class 'int'>, <class 'NoneType'>, <class 'bool'>, <class 'int'>]
a[2]
-273.154
a[2] = -78.5
a[2]
-78.5
a[2] = 'dry ice'  # Changing data types is supported as well
a[2]
'dry ice'
a[2] = 'larger than previously allocated storage space'
Traceback (most recent call last):
  ...
ValueError: exceeds available storage for existing str
a[2]
'dry ice'
len(a)
7
a.index(42)
6
a.count(b'howdy')
0
a.count(b'HoWdY')
1
a.shm.close()
a.shm.unlink()
del a  # Use of a ShareableList after call to unlink() is unsupported

One way is to use a manager object and create your shared list object from it:

from multiprocessing import Manager, Pool

input_list = ['A', 'B', 'C', 'D', 'E', 'F']

manager = Manager()
shared_list = manager.list()

def do_stuff(element):
    element_dict = {}
    element_dict['name'] = element
    shared_list.append(element_dict)
    if len(shared_list) > 3:
        print('list > 3')

pool = Pool(processes=6)
pool.map(do_stuff, input_list)
pool.close()

Remember, unlike threads, processes do not share memory space. (When spawned, each process gets its own copy of the memory footprint of the spawning process, and then runs with it.) So they can only communicate via some form of IPC (interprocess communication). In Python, one such method is multiprocessing.Manager and the data structures it exposes, e.g. list or dict. These are used in code as easily as their built-in equivalents, but under the hood utilize some form of IPC (sockets probably).

Edit Feb 1, 2022: Removed unneeded global shared_list declaration from the function, since the object is not being replaced.