Stop using master/slave terminology

[timj]

Can xdist please stop using the master/slave terminology? Would you accept a PR changing "slave" to "worker"? The terminology is upsetting to some people (and I've already had complaints where I work) and there is no reason to use it when other words exist that do not offend people. Words do matter.

[nicoddemus]

Can xdist please stop using the master/slave terminology?

Definitely, we have already decided to use master/workers instead. Checkout the OVERVIEW for example.

The terminology is upsetting to some people (and I've already had complaints where I work) and there is no reason to use it when other words exist that do not offend people. Words do matter.

I understand, and I'm sure it was not the intention at all when it was written. I completely agree and understand why some people are offended by it. We did not however took the time yet to go over the code base changing the terminology.

Would you accept a PR changing "slave" to "worker"?

Definitely! Internally we can rename everything without any problem, but for flags (max-slave-restart for example) we should change to max-workers-restart but leave the old name in the code as to not break things (even if undocumented).

[RonnyPfannschmidt]

This code is around since more than 12 years,
back then that was common terminology,

recent enhancements in understanding humans make a adoption of better names an important social responsibility,

However simple renaming isnt going to cut it as we need to preserve backward compatibility

Fortunately recent additions are already using the more respectful terminology

[timj]

Are there public APIs that have "slave" in the name or are you talking about the command line options? (those would need to hang around as duplicates).

[RonnyPfannschmidt]

For example slaveinput there is likely more

[RonnyPfannschmidt]

I cant take a closer look until next week, im on a houseboat somewhere random atm

[nicoddemus]

For example slaveinput there is likely more

@timj that's a dict which is inserted into the pytestconfig object in a worker process.

This can be probably changed to workerinput and a slaveinput added as an alias.

But indeed we will have to decide on a case-by-case basis. But if you want to start the PR @timj feel free to, we can review the parts which use the public API and decide on case-by-case the proper solution to each.

[nicoddemus]

@RonnyPfannschmidt

im on a houseboat somewhere random atm

That's great! Enjoy your well deserved break! 😁 🍺

[feuillemorte]

Please, review:

#268

[nicoddemus]

Closed by #268