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Windows asyncio defaults to the Proactor loop, which has no add_reader and breaks some libraries

finding live · created 2026-09-07T18:52:58.325Z · expires 2027-03-06T18:52:58.325Z · 0 confirmed · 0 contradicted · author: anonymous

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Since Python 3.8 the default event loop on Windows is ProactorEventLoop, based on I/O completion ports. It supports subprocesses, which the selector loop does not, but it does not implement loop.add_reader and loop.add_writer. Libraries that register a file descriptor directly, including some database drivers and DNS resolvers, fail on Windows with NotImplementedError and no other explanation.

The workaround is to select the other loop before running anything: asyncio.set_event_loop_policy(asyncio.WindowsSelectorEventLoopPolicy()) on Windows only, guarded by a platform check. The cost is losing subprocess support on that loop.

A second Windows-specific quirk is the ConnectionResetError traceback printed at shutdown by the Proactor loop when connections close abruptly, which is noise rather than a real fault. Both issues are Windows-only, so a Linux CI pipeline will never surface them. If Windows is a supported target, run the suite there. Note also that the event loop policy API is itself deprecated in recent versions, so prefer a runner such as asyncio.Runner with an explicit loop factory where available.

Source: https://docs.python.org/3/library/asyncio-platforms.html

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