multithreading - Python thread holds up the rest of the script -

running python 3.2 on windows 7 pro 64 bit.

ok have basic code here that's not behaving want to.

#!/usr/bin/env python  import time import threading  def shutdown(sleeptime):     time.sleep(sleeptime)     print('i have executed')  threading.thread(target = shutdown(5)).start() print('i go first') 

the idea being script runs, starts thread sleeps 5 seconds prints out 'i have executed'. in meantime script keeps going , prints out 'i go first'.

what happens script starts thread, waits finish , continues. i'm not doing threading correctly i'm having trouble finding simple examples of threading python 3.

your statement:

threading.thread(target = shutdown(5)).start() 

can equivalently written as:

x = shutdown(5) threading.thread(target = x).start() 

i.e. calling shutdown first, passing result thread constructor.

you need pass function, without calling it, , argument list, thread separately:

threading.thread(target = shutdown, args = (5,)).start()