bpo-45735: Promise the long-time truth that `args=list` works (GH-30982)

For threads, and for multiprocessing, it's always been the case that ``args=list`` works fine when passed to ``Process()`` or ``Thread()``, and such code is common in the wild. But, according to the docs, only a tuple can be used. This brings the docs into synch with reality.

Doc changes by Charlie Zhao.
Co-authored-by: Tim Peters <tim.peters@gmail.com>

1 files changed, 16 insertions, 1 deletions

diff --git a/Doc/library/multiprocessing.rst b/Doc/library/multiprocessing.rst
index cbbe184..ee40688 100644
--- a/Doc/library/multiprocessing.rst
+++ b/Doc/library/multiprocessing.rst
@@ -485,7 +485,9 @@ The :mod:`multiprocessing` package mostly replicates the API of the
    to ``True`` or ``False``.  If ``None`` (the default), this flag will be
    inherited from the creating process.
 
-   By default, no arguments are passed to *target*.
+   By default, no arguments are passed to *target*. The *args* argument,
+   which defaults to ``()``, can be used to specify a list or tuple of the arguments
+   to pass to *target*.
 
    If a subclass overrides the constructor, it must make sure it invokes the
    base class constructor (:meth:`Process.__init__`) before doing anything else
@@ -503,6 +505,19 @@ The :mod:`multiprocessing` package mostly replicates the API of the
       the target argument, if any, with sequential and keyword arguments taken
       from the *args* and *kwargs* arguments, respectively.
 
+      Using a list or tuple as the *args* argument passed to :class:`Process`
+      achieves the same effect.
+
+      Example::
+
+         >>> from multiprocessing import Process
+         >>> p = Process(target=print, args=[1])
+         >>> p.run()
+         1
+         >>> p = Process(target=print, args=(1,))
+         >>> p.run()
+         1
+
    .. method:: start()
 
       Start the process's activity.