From 45843761c9ad2c070885d457cd0c3ba51be84627 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001
From: Alec Rosenbaum <alec.rosenbaum@close.com>
Date: Fri, 25 Sep 2026 15:45:49 +0000
Subject: [PATCH 1/2] Force sync workers to exit after job timeouts

---
 tasktiger/worker.py   | 10 ++++++----
 tests/tasks.py        | 10 ++++++++++
 tests/test_workers.py | 21 ++++++++++++++-------
 3 files changed, 30 insertions(+), 11 deletions(-)

diff --git a/tasktiger/worker.py b/tasktiger/worker.py
index 38d4fd1c..e3ee968d 100644
--- a/tasktiger/worker.py
+++ b/tasktiger/worker.py
@@ -4,7 +4,6 @@
 import os
 import random
 import signal
-import sys
 import time
 import uuid
 from collections import OrderedDict
@@ -832,10 +831,13 @@ def _mark_done() -> None:
                     runner = runner_class(self.tiger)
                     runner.on_permanent_error(task, execution)
 
-            # Exit the process with an error code if a task timed out to
-            # prevent any inconsistent state in case the runner requires it.
+            # Force the process to exit after a task times out. A normal interpreter
+            # shutdown can wait indefinitely for threads started by the task.
             if self.executor.exit_worker_on_job_timeout and has_job_timeout:
-                sys.exit("exiting worker due to job timeout error")
+                try:
+                    os.write(2, b"exiting worker due to job timeout error\n")
+                finally:
+                    os._exit(1)
 
     def _worker_run(self) -> None:
         """
diff --git a/tests/tasks.py b/tests/tasks.py
index c6860c7b..6d493024 100644
--- a/tests/tasks.py
+++ b/tests/tasks.py
@@ -1,4 +1,5 @@
 import json
+import threading
 import time
 from math import ceil
 
@@ -54,6 +55,15 @@ def long_task_killed():
     time.sleep(DELAY * 2)
 
 
+@tiger.task(hard_timeout=DELAY)
+def long_task_with_blocked_thread():
+    blocker = threading.Event()
+    # A non-daemon thread makes normal interpreter shutdown wait indefinitely.
+    thread = threading.Thread(target=blocker.wait, daemon=False)
+    thread.start()
+    time.sleep(DELAY * 2)
+
+
 @tiger.task(hard_timeout=DELAY * 2)
 def long_task_ok():
     # Signal task has started
diff --git a/tests/test_workers.py b/tests/test_workers.py
index a4c895c9..49983eea 100644
--- a/tests/test_workers.py
+++ b/tests/test_workers.py
@@ -4,7 +4,6 @@
 import time
 from multiprocessing import Process
 
-import pytest
 from freezefrog import FreezeTime
 
 from tasktiger import Task, Worker
@@ -15,8 +14,8 @@
 from .config import DELAY
 from .tasks import (
     exception_task,
-    long_task_killed,
     long_task_ok,
+    long_task_with_blocked_thread,
     simple_task,
     sleep_task,
     system_exit_task,
@@ -182,11 +181,19 @@ def test_handles_exception(self, tiger, ensure_queues):
         ensure_queues(error={"default": 1})
 
     def test_handles_timeout(self, tiger, ensure_queues):
-        Task(tiger, long_task_killed).delay()
-        worker = Worker(tiger, executor_class=SyncExecutor)
-        # Worker should exit to avoid any inconsistencies.
-        with pytest.raises(SystemExit):
-            worker.run(once=True, force_once=True)
+        Task(tiger, long_task_with_blocked_thread).delay()
+        worker = Process(
+            target=external_worker,
+            kwargs={"worker_kwargs": {"executor_class": SyncExecutor}},
+        )
+        worker.start()
+        worker.join(timeout=DELAY * 5)
+        try:
+            assert worker.exitcode == 1
+        finally:
+            if worker.is_alive():
+                worker.kill()
+                worker.join()
         ensure_queues(error={"default": 1})
 
     def test_heartbeat(self, tiger):

From bdb01dd119c46914dcb2f6ffd23d9f2a2eb12f47 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001
From: Alec Rosenbaum <alec.rosenbaum@close.com>
Date: Fri, 25 Sep 2026 16:19:22 +0000
Subject: [PATCH 2/2] Release 0.26.2

---
 CHANGELOG.md          | 4 ++++
 tasktiger/__init__.py | 2 +-
 2 files changed, 5 insertions(+), 1 deletion(-)

diff --git a/CHANGELOG.md b/CHANGELOG.md
index 5c15def3..85dec8d3 100644
--- a/CHANGELOG.md
+++ b/CHANGELOG.md
@@ -1,5 +1,9 @@
 # Changelog
 
+## Version 0.26.2
+
+* Force-exit sync workers after hard timeouts so interpreter shutdown cannot leave them waiting for task-created threads ([#384](https://github.com/closeio/tasktiger/pull/384)).
+
 ## Version 0.26.1
 
 * `Task.tasks_from_queue` leaves out tasks without a payload if `include_not_found` is false. Versions 0.23.0 to 0.26.0 raised `UnboundLocalError` or returned the previous task again ([#382](https://github.com/closeio/tasktiger/pull/382)).
diff --git a/tasktiger/__init__.py b/tasktiger/__init__.py
index 2a533ba4..a2031c64 100644
--- a/tasktiger/__init__.py
+++ b/tasktiger/__init__.py
@@ -12,7 +12,7 @@
 from .tasktiger import TaskTiger, run_worker
 from .worker import Worker
 
-__version__ = "0.26.1"
+__version__ = "0.26.2"
 __all__ = [
     "TaskTiger",
     "Worker",