From 90439607caef14f9821a7270625c01eacc1c4e09 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001
From: "Gregory P. Smith" <68491+gpshead@users.noreply.github.com>
Date: Sun, 15 Mar 2026 22:50:19 -0700
Subject: [PATCH] gh-140814: Fix freeze_support() setting start method as side
 effect (GH-144608)
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freeze_support() called get_start_method() without allow_none=True,
which locked in the default start method context. This caused a
subsequent set_start_method() call to raise "context has already been
set". Use allow_none=True and accept None as a matching value, since
spawn.freeze_support() independently detects spawned child processes.

Test that freeze_support() does not lock in the default start method,
which would prevent a subsequent set_start_method() call.
(cherry picked from commit ee5318025b0f9f4d30d9358627df68181e0d223f)

Co-authored-by: Gregory P. Smith <68491+gpshead@users.noreply.github.com>
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.6 <noreply@anthropic.com>
Co-authored-by: Bénédikt Tran <10796600+picnixz@users.noreply.github.com>
---
 Lib/multiprocessing/context.py                     |  8 +++++++-
 Lib/test/_test_multiprocessing.py                  | 14 ++++++++++++++
 .../2026-02-08-22-04-06.gh-issue-140814.frzSpn.rst |  3 +++
 3 files changed, 24 insertions(+), 1 deletion(-)
 create mode 100644 Misc/NEWS.d/next/Library/2026-02-08-22-04-06.gh-issue-140814.frzSpn.rst

diff --git a/Lib/multiprocessing/context.py b/Lib/multiprocessing/context.py
index 051d567d457928..5fa6d7e48611f0 100644
--- a/Lib/multiprocessing/context.py
+++ b/Lib/multiprocessing/context.py
@@ -145,7 +145,13 @@ def freeze_support(self):
         '''Check whether this is a fake forked process in a frozen executable.
         If so then run code specified by commandline and exit.
         '''
-        if self.get_start_method() == 'spawn' and getattr(sys, 'frozen', False):
+        # gh-140814: allow_none=True avoids locking in the default start
+        # method, which would cause a later set_start_method() to fail.
+        # None is safe to pass through: spawn.freeze_support()
+        # independently detects whether this process is a spawned
+        # child, so the start method check here is only an optimization.
+        if (getattr(sys, 'frozen', False)
+                and self.get_start_method(allow_none=True) in ('spawn', None)):
             from .spawn import freeze_support
             freeze_support()
 
diff --git a/Lib/test/_test_multiprocessing.py b/Lib/test/_test_multiprocessing.py
index cb22acb49ebcc5..073bab3b70ca00 100644
--- a/Lib/test/_test_multiprocessing.py
+++ b/Lib/test/_test_multiprocessing.py
@@ -5869,6 +5869,20 @@ def test_spawn_dont_set_context(self):
             process.join()
             self.assertIsNone(multiprocessing.get_start_method(allow_none=True))
 
+    @only_run_in_spawn_testsuite("freeze_support is not start method specific")
+    def test_freeze_support_dont_set_context(self):
+        # gh-140814: freeze_support() should not set the start method
+        # as a side effect, so a later set_start_method() still works.
+        multiprocessing.set_start_method(None, force=True)
+        try:
+            multiprocessing.freeze_support()
+            self.assertIsNone(
+                multiprocessing.get_start_method(allow_none=True))
+            # Should not raise "context has already been set"
+            multiprocessing.set_start_method('spawn')
+        finally:
+            multiprocessing.set_start_method(None, force=True)
+
     def test_context_check_module_types(self):
         try:
             ctx = multiprocessing.get_context('forkserver')
diff --git a/Misc/NEWS.d/next/Library/2026-02-08-22-04-06.gh-issue-140814.frzSpn.rst b/Misc/NEWS.d/next/Library/2026-02-08-22-04-06.gh-issue-140814.frzSpn.rst
new file mode 100644
index 00000000000000..6077de8ac9ae51
--- /dev/null
+++ b/Misc/NEWS.d/next/Library/2026-02-08-22-04-06.gh-issue-140814.frzSpn.rst
@@ -0,0 +1,3 @@
+:func:`multiprocessing.freeze_support` no longer sets the default start method
+as a side effect, which previously caused a subsequent
+:func:`multiprocessing.set_start_method` call to raise :exc:`RuntimeError`.