The GIL is a mutex used by the CPython interpreter, which is the most widespread implementation of Python. The key function of the GIL is to limit Python bytecode execution to a single thread.?
This is important for various reasons, including simplifying memory management across multiple threads. It also prevents multiple threads from accessing shared data at the same time, which can cause data corruption.?
Finally, the GIL ensures compatibility with C extension models that aren?t designed to handle multi-threading.