Python Queue get()/task_done() issue
No, queue.get() pops the item off the queue. After you do that, you can do whatever you want with it, as long as the producer works like it should and doesn't touch it anymore. queue.task_done() is called only to notify the queue that you are done with something (it doesn't even know about the specific item, it just counts unfinished items in the queue), so that queue.join() knows the work is finished.