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1=head1 NAME 1=head1 NAME
2 2
3AnyEvent::MP - multi-processing/message-passing framework 3AnyEvent::MP - erlang-style multi-processing/message-passing framework
4 4
5=head1 SYNOPSIS 5=head1 SYNOPSIS
6 6
7 use AnyEvent::MP; 7 use AnyEvent::MP;
8 8
9 NODE # returns this node identifier
10 $NODE # contains this node identifier 9 $NODE # contains this node's node ID
10 NODE # returns this node's node ID
11 11
12 $SELF # receiving/own port id in rcv callbacks
13
14 # initialise the node so it can send/receive messages
15 configure;
16
17 # ports are message destinations
18
19 # sending messages
12 snd $port, type => data...; 20 snd $port, type => data...;
21 snd $port, @msg;
22 snd @msg_with_first_element_being_a_port;
13 23
14 rcv $port, smartmatch => $cb->($port, @msg); 24 # creating/using ports, the simple way
25 my $simple_port = port { my @msg = @_ };
15 26
16 # examples: 27 # creating/using ports, tagged message matching
28 my $port = port;
17 rcv $port2, ping => sub { snd $_[0], "pong"; 0 }; 29 rcv $port, ping => sub { snd $_[0], "pong" };
18 rcv $port1, pong => sub { warn "pong received\n" }; 30 rcv $port, pong => sub { warn "pong received\n" };
19 snd $port2, ping => $port1;
20 31
21 # more, smarter, matches (_any_ is exported by this module) 32 # create a port on another node
22 rcv $port, [child_died => $pid] => sub { ... 33 my $port = spawn $node, $initfunc, @initdata;
23 rcv $port, [_any_, _any_, 3] => sub { .. $_[2] is 3 34
35 # destroy a port again
36 kil $port; # "normal" kill
37 kil $port, my_error => "everything is broken"; # error kill
38
39 # monitoring
40 mon $port, $cb->(@msg) # callback is invoked on death
41 mon $port, $localport # kill localport on abnormal death
42 mon $port, $localport, @msg # send message on death
43
44 # temporarily execute code in port context
45 peval $port, sub { die "kill the port!" };
46
47 # execute callbacks in $SELF port context
48 my $timer = AE::timer 1, 0, psub {
49 die "kill the port, delayed";
50 };
24 51
25=head1 DESCRIPTION 52=head1 DESCRIPTION
26 53
27This module (-family) implements a simple message passing framework. 54This module (-family) implements a simple message passing framework.
28 55
29Despite its simplicity, you can securely message other processes running 56Despite its simplicity, you can securely message other processes running
30on the same or other hosts. 57on the same or other hosts, and you can supervise entities remotely.
31 58
32At the moment, this module family is severly brokena nd underdocumented, 59For an introduction to this module family, see the L<AnyEvent::MP::Intro>
33so do not use. This was uploaded mainly to resreve the CPAN namespace - 60manual page and the examples under F<eg/>.
34stay tuned!
35 61
36=head1 CONCEPTS 62=head1 CONCEPTS
37 63
38=over 4 64=over 4
39 65
40=item port 66=item port
41 67
42A port is something you can send messages to with the C<snd> function, and 68Not to be confused with a TCP port, a "port" is something you can send
43you can register C<rcv> handlers with. All C<rcv> handlers will receive 69messages to (with the C<snd> function).
44messages they match, messages will not be queued.
45 70
71Ports allow you to register C<rcv> handlers that can match all or just
72some messages. Messages send to ports will not be queued, regardless of
73anything was listening for them or not.
74
75Ports are represented by (printable) strings called "port IDs".
76
46=item port id - C<noderef#portname> 77=item port ID - C<nodeid#portname>
47 78
48A port id is always the noderef, a hash-mark (C<#>) as separator, followed 79A port ID is the concatenation of a node ID, a hash-mark (C<#>)
49by a port name (a printable string of unspecified format). 80as separator, and a port name (a printable string of unspecified
81format created by AnyEvent::MP).
50 82
51=item node 83=item node
52 84
53A node is a single process containing at least one port - the node 85A node is a single process containing at least one port - the node port,
54port. You can send messages to node ports to let them create new ports, 86which enables nodes to manage each other remotely, and to create new
55among other things. 87ports.
56 88
57Initially, nodes are either private (single-process only) or hidden 89Nodes are either public (have one or more listening ports) or private
58(connected to a master node only). Only when they epxlicitly "become 90(no listening ports). Private nodes cannot talk to other private nodes
59public" can you send them messages from unrelated other nodes. 91currently, but all nodes can talk to public nodes.
60 92
61=item noderef - C<host:port,host:port...>, C<id@noderef>, C<id> 93Nodes is represented by (printable) strings called "node IDs".
62 94
95=item node ID - C<[A-Za-z0-9_\-.:]*>
96
63A noderef is a string that either uniquely identifies a given node (for 97A node ID is a string that uniquely identifies the node within a
64private and hidden nodes), or contains a recipe on how to reach a given 98network. Depending on the configuration used, node IDs can look like a
65node (for public nodes). 99hostname, a hostname and a port, or a random string. AnyEvent::MP itself
100doesn't interpret node IDs in any way except to uniquely identify a node.
101
102=item binds - C<ip:port>
103
104Nodes can only talk to each other by creating some kind of connection to
105each other. To do this, nodes should listen on one or more local transport
106endpoints - binds.
107
108Currently, only standard C<ip:port> specifications can be used, which
109specify TCP ports to listen on. So a bind is basically just a tcp socket
110in listening mode thta accepts conenctions form other nodes.
111
112=item seed nodes
113
114When a node starts, it knows nothing about the network it is in - it
115needs to connect to at least one other node that is already in the
116network. These other nodes are called "seed nodes".
117
118Seed nodes themselves are not special - they are seed nodes only because
119some other node I<uses> them as such, but any node can be used as seed
120node for other nodes, and eahc node cna use a different set of seed nodes.
121
122In addition to discovering the network, seed nodes are also used to
123maintain the network - all nodes using the same seed node form are part of
124the same network. If a network is split into multiple subnets because e.g.
125the network link between the parts goes down, then using the same seed
126nodes for all nodes ensures that eventually the subnets get merged again.
127
128Seed nodes are expected to be long-running, and at least one seed node
129should always be available. They should also be relatively responsive - a
130seed node that blocks for long periods will slow down everybody else.
131
132For small networks, it's best if every node uses the same set of seed
133nodes. For large networks, it can be useful to specify "regional" seed
134nodes for most nodes in an area, and use all seed nodes as seed nodes for
135each other. What's important is that all seed nodes connections form a
136complete graph, so that the network cannot split into separate subnets
137forever.
138
139Seed nodes are represented by seed IDs.
140
141=item seed IDs - C<host:port>
142
143Seed IDs are transport endpoint(s) (usually a hostname/IP address and a
144TCP port) of nodes that should be used as seed nodes.
145
146=item global nodes
147
148An AEMP network needs a discovery service - nodes need to know how to
149connect to other nodes they only know by name. In addition, AEMP offers a
150distributed "group database", which maps group names to a list of strings
151- for example, to register worker ports.
152
153A network needs at least one global node to work, and allows every node to
154be a global node.
155
156Any node that loads the L<AnyEvent::MP::Global> module becomes a global
157node and tries to keep connections to all other nodes. So while it can
158make sense to make every node "global" in small networks, it usually makes
159sense to only make seed nodes into global nodes in large networks (nodes
160keep connections to seed nodes and global nodes, so makign them the same
161reduces overhead).
66 162
67=back 163=back
68 164
69=head1 VARIABLES/FUNCTIONS 165=head1 VARIABLES/FUNCTIONS
70 166
72 168
73=cut 169=cut
74 170
75package AnyEvent::MP; 171package AnyEvent::MP;
76 172
173use AnyEvent::MP::Config ();
77use AnyEvent::MP::Base; 174use AnyEvent::MP::Kernel;
175use AnyEvent::MP::Kernel qw(%NODE %PORT %PORT_DATA $UNIQ $RUNIQ $ID);
78 176
79use common::sense; 177use common::sense;
80 178
81use Carp (); 179use Carp ();
82 180
83use AE (); 181use AnyEvent ();
182use Guard ();
84 183
85use base "Exporter"; 184use base "Exporter";
86 185
87our $VERSION = '0.02'; 186our $VERSION = $AnyEvent::MP::Config::VERSION;
187
88our @EXPORT = qw( 188our @EXPORT = qw(
89 NODE $NODE $PORT snd rcv _any_ 189 NODE $NODE *SELF node_of after
90 create_port create_port_on 190 configure
91 become_slave become_public 191 snd rcv mon mon_guard kil psub peval spawn cal
192 port
193 db_set db_del db_reg
194 db_mon db_family db_keys db_values
92); 195);
93 196
197our $SELF;
198
199sub _self_die() {
200 my $msg = $@;
201 $msg =~ s/\n+$// unless ref $msg;
202 kil $SELF, die => $msg;
203}
204
94=item NODE / $NODE 205=item $thisnode = NODE / $NODE
95 206
96The C<NODE ()> function and the C<$NODE> variable contain the noderef of 207The C<NODE> function returns, and the C<$NODE> variable contains, the node
97the local node. The value is initialised by a call to C<become_public> or 208ID of the node running in the current process. This value is initialised by
98C<become_slave>, after which all local port identifiers become invalid. 209a call to C<configure>.
99 210
211=item $nodeid = node_of $port
212
213Extracts and returns the node ID from a port ID or a node ID.
214
215=item configure $profile, key => value...
216
217=item configure key => value...
218
219Before a node can talk to other nodes on the network (i.e. enter
220"distributed mode") it has to configure itself - the minimum a node needs
221to know is its own name, and optionally it should know the addresses of
222some other nodes in the network to discover other nodes.
223
224This function configures a node - it must be called exactly once (or
225never) before calling other AnyEvent::MP functions.
226
227The key/value pairs are basically the same ones as documented for the
228F<aemp> command line utility (sans the set/del prefix), with these additions:
229
230=over 4
231
232=item norc => $boolean (default false)
233
234If true, then the rc file (e.g. F<~/.perl-anyevent-mp>) will I<not>
235be consulted - all configuraiton options must be specified in the
236C<configure> call.
237
238=item force => $boolean (default false)
239
240IF true, then the values specified in the C<configure> will take
241precedence over any values configured via the rc file. The default is for
242the rc file to override any options specified in the program.
243
244=item secure => $pass->(@msg)
245
246In addition to specifying a boolean, you can specify a code reference that
247is called for every code execution attempt - the execution request is
248granted iff the callback returns a true value.
249
250Most of the time the callback should look only at
251C<$AnyEvent::MP::Kernel::SRCNODE> to make a decision, and not at the
252actual message (which can be about anything, and is mostly provided for
253diagnostic purposes).
254
255See F<semp setsecure> for more info.
256
257=back
258
259=over 4
260
261=item step 1, gathering configuration from profiles
262
263The function first looks up a profile in the aemp configuration (see the
264L<aemp> commandline utility). The profile name can be specified via the
265named C<profile> parameter or can simply be the first parameter). If it is
266missing, then the nodename (F<uname -n>) will be used as profile name.
267
268The profile data is then gathered as follows:
269
270First, all remaining key => value pairs (all of which are conveniently
271undocumented at the moment) will be interpreted as configuration
272data. Then they will be overwritten by any values specified in the global
273default configuration (see the F<aemp> utility), then the chain of
274profiles chosen by the profile name (and any C<parent> attributes).
275
276That means that the values specified in the profile have highest priority
277and the values specified directly via C<configure> have lowest priority,
278and can only be used to specify defaults.
279
280If the profile specifies a node ID, then this will become the node ID of
281this process. If not, then the profile name will be used as node ID, with
282a unique randoms tring (C</%u>) appended.
283
284The node ID can contain some C<%> sequences that are expanded: C<%n>
285is expanded to the local nodename, C<%u> is replaced by a random
286strign to make the node unique. For example, the F<aemp> commandline
287utility uses C<aemp/%n/%u> as nodename, which might expand to
288C<aemp/cerebro/ZQDGSIkRhEZQDGSIkRhE>.
289
290=item step 2, bind listener sockets
291
292The next step is to look up the binds in the profile, followed by binding
293aemp protocol listeners on all binds specified (it is possible and valid
294to have no binds, meaning that the node cannot be contacted form the
295outside. This means the node cannot talk to other nodes that also have no
296binds, but it can still talk to all "normal" nodes).
297
298If the profile does not specify a binds list, then a default of C<*> is
299used, meaning the node will bind on a dynamically-assigned port on every
300local IP address it finds.
301
302=item step 3, connect to seed nodes
303
304As the last step, the seed ID list from the profile is passed to the
305L<AnyEvent::MP::Global> module, which will then use it to keep
306connectivity with at least one node at any point in time.
307
308=back
309
310Example: become a distributed node using the local node name as profile.
311This should be the most common form of invocation for "daemon"-type nodes.
312
313 configure
314
315Example: become a semi-anonymous node. This form is often used for
316commandline clients.
317
318 configure nodeid => "myscript/%n/%u";
319
320Example: configure a node using a profile called seed, which is suitable
321for a seed node as it binds on all local addresses on a fixed port (4040,
322customary for aemp).
323
324 # use the aemp commandline utility
325 # aemp profile seed binds '*:4040'
326
327 # then use it
328 configure profile => "seed";
329
330 # or simply use aemp from the shell again:
331 # aemp run profile seed
332
333 # or provide a nicer-to-remember nodeid
334 # aemp run profile seed nodeid "$(hostname)"
335
336=item $SELF
337
338Contains the current port id while executing C<rcv> callbacks or C<psub>
339blocks.
340
341=item *SELF, SELF, %SELF, @SELF...
342
343Due to some quirks in how perl exports variables, it is impossible to
344just export C<$SELF>, all the symbols named C<SELF> are exported by this
345module, but only C<$SELF> is currently used.
346
100=item snd $portid, type => @data 347=item snd $port, type => @data
101 348
102=item snd $portid, @msg 349=item snd $port, @msg
103 350
104Send the given message to the given port ID, which can identify either 351Send the given message to the given port, which can identify either a
105a local or a remote port, and can be either a string or soemthignt hat 352local or a remote port, and must be a port ID.
106stringifies a sa port ID (such as a port object :).
107 353
108While the message can be about anything, it is highly recommended to use a 354While the message can be almost anything, it is highly recommended to
109string as first element (a portid, or some word that indicates a request 355use a string as first element (a port ID, or some word that indicates a
110type etc.). 356request type etc.) and to consist if only simple perl values (scalars,
357arrays, hashes) - if you think you need to pass an object, think again.
111 358
112The message data effectively becomes read-only after a call to this 359The message data logically becomes read-only after a call to this
113function: modifying any argument is not allowed and can cause many 360function: modifying any argument (or values referenced by them) is
114problems. 361forbidden, as there can be considerable time between the call to C<snd>
362and the time the message is actually being serialised - in fact, it might
363never be copied as within the same process it is simply handed to the
364receiving port.
115 365
116The type of data you can transfer depends on the transport protocol: when 366The type of data you can transfer depends on the transport protocol: when
117JSON is used, then only strings, numbers and arrays and hashes consisting 367JSON is used, then only strings, numbers and arrays and hashes consisting
118of those are allowed (no objects). When Storable is used, then anything 368of those are allowed (no objects). When Storable is used, then anything
119that Storable can serialise and deserialise is allowed, and for the local 369that Storable can serialise and deserialise is allowed, and for the local
120node, anything can be passed. 370node, anything can be passed. Best rely only on the common denominator of
371these.
121 372
122=item $local_port = create_port 373=item $local_port = port
123 374
124Create a new local port object. See the next section for allowed methods. 375Create a new local port object and returns its port ID. Initially it has
376no callbacks set and will throw an error when it receives messages.
377
378=item $local_port = port { my @msg = @_ }
379
380Creates a new local port, and returns its ID. Semantically the same as
381creating a port and calling C<rcv $port, $callback> on it.
382
383The block will be called for every message received on the port, with the
384global variable C<$SELF> set to the port ID. Runtime errors will cause the
385port to be C<kil>ed. The message will be passed as-is, no extra argument
386(i.e. no port ID) will be passed to the callback.
387
388If you want to stop/destroy the port, simply C<kil> it:
389
390 my $port = port {
391 my @msg = @_;
392 ...
393 kil $SELF;
394 };
125 395
126=cut 396=cut
127 397
128sub create_port { 398sub rcv($@);
129 my $id = "$AnyEvent::MP::Base::UNIQ." . ++$AnyEvent::MP::Base::ID;
130 399
131 my $self = bless { 400my $KILME = sub {
132 id => "$NODE#$id", 401 (my $tag = substr $_[0], 0, 30) =~ s/([\x20-\x7e])/./g;
133 names => [$id], 402 kil $SELF, unhandled_message => "no callback found for message '$tag'";
134 }, "AnyEvent::MP::Port"; 403};
135 404
136 $AnyEvent::MP::Base::PORT{$id} = sub { 405sub port(;&) {
137 unshift @_, $self; 406 my $id = $UNIQ . ++$ID;
407 my $port = "$NODE#$id";
138 408
139 for (@{ $self->{rc0}{$_[1]} }) { 409 rcv $port, shift || $KILME;
140 $_ && &{$_->[0]} 410
141 && undef $_; 411 $port
412}
413
414=item rcv $local_port, $callback->(@msg)
415
416Replaces the default callback on the specified port. There is no way to
417remove the default callback: use C<sub { }> to disable it, or better
418C<kil> the port when it is no longer needed.
419
420The global C<$SELF> (exported by this module) contains C<$port> while
421executing the callback. Runtime errors during callback execution will
422result in the port being C<kil>ed.
423
424The default callback receives all messages not matched by a more specific
425C<tag> match.
426
427=item rcv $local_port, tag => $callback->(@msg_without_tag), ...
428
429Register (or replace) callbacks to be called on messages starting with the
430given tag on the given port (and return the port), or unregister it (when
431C<$callback> is C<$undef> or missing). There can only be one callback
432registered for each tag.
433
434The original message will be passed to the callback, after the first
435element (the tag) has been removed. The callback will use the same
436environment as the default callback (see above).
437
438Example: create a port and bind receivers on it in one go.
439
440 my $port = rcv port,
441 msg1 => sub { ... },
442 msg2 => sub { ... },
443 ;
444
445Example: create a port, bind receivers and send it in a message elsewhere
446in one go:
447
448 snd $otherport, reply =>
449 rcv port,
450 msg1 => sub { ... },
451 ...
452 ;
453
454Example: temporarily register a rcv callback for a tag matching some port
455(e.g. for an rpc reply) and unregister it after a message was received.
456
457 rcv $port, $otherport => sub {
458 my @reply = @_;
459
460 rcv $SELF, $otherport;
461 };
462
463=cut
464
465sub rcv($@) {
466 my $port = shift;
467 my ($nodeid, $portid) = split /#/, $port, 2;
468
469 $NODE{$nodeid} == $NODE{""}
470 or Carp::croak "$port: rcv can only be called on local ports, caught";
471
472 while (@_) {
473 if (ref $_[0]) {
474 if (my $self = $PORT_DATA{$portid}) {
475 "AnyEvent::MP::Port" eq ref $self
476 or Carp::croak "$port: rcv can only be called on message matching ports, caught";
477
478 $self->[0] = shift;
479 } else {
480 my $cb = shift;
481 $PORT{$portid} = sub {
482 local $SELF = $port;
483 eval { &$cb }; _self_die if $@;
484 };
485 }
486 } elsif (defined $_[0]) {
487 my $self = $PORT_DATA{$portid} ||= do {
488 my $self = bless [$PORT{$portid} || sub { }, { }, $port], "AnyEvent::MP::Port";
489
490 $PORT{$portid} = sub {
491 local $SELF = $port;
492
493 if (my $cb = $self->[1]{$_[0]}) {
494 shift;
495 eval { &$cb }; _self_die if $@;
496 } else {
497 &{ $self->[0] };
498 }
499 };
500
501 $self
502 };
503
504 "AnyEvent::MP::Port" eq ref $self
505 or Carp::croak "$port: rcv can only be called on message matching ports, caught";
506
507 my ($tag, $cb) = splice @_, 0, 2;
508
509 if (defined $cb) {
510 $self->[1]{$tag} = $cb;
511 } else {
512 delete $self->[1]{$tag};
513 }
142 } 514 }
515 }
143 516
144 for (@{ $self->{rcv}{$_[1]} }) { 517 $port
145 $_ && [@_[1 .. @{$_->[1]}]] ~~ $_->[1] 518}
146 && &{$_->[0]}
147 && undef $_;
148 }
149 519
150 for (@{ $self->{any} }) { 520=item peval $port, $coderef[, @args]
151 $_ && [@_[0 .. $#{$_->[1]}]] ~~ $_->[1] 521
152 && &{$_->[0]} 522Evaluates the given C<$codref> within the contetx of C<$port>, that is,
153 && undef $_; 523when the code throews an exception the C<$port> will be killed.
154 } 524
525Any remaining args will be passed to the callback. Any return values will
526be returned to the caller.
527
528This is useful when you temporarily want to execute code in the context of
529a port.
530
531Example: create a port and run some initialisation code in it's context.
532
533 my $port = port { ... };
534
535 peval $port, sub {
536 init
537 or die "unable to init";
155 }; 538 };
156 539
157 $self
158}
159
160package AnyEvent::MP::Port;
161
162=back
163
164=head1 METHODS FOR PORT OBJECTS
165
166=over 4
167
168=item "$port"
169
170A port object stringifies to its port ID, so can be used directly for
171C<snd> operations.
172
173=cut 540=cut
174 541
175use overload 542sub peval($$) {
176 '""' => sub { $_[0]{id} }, 543 local $SELF = shift;
177 fallback => 1; 544 my $cb = shift;
178 545
179=item $port->rcv (type => $callback->($port, @msg)) 546 if (wantarray) {
180 547 my @res = eval { &$cb };
181=item $port->rcv ($smartmatch => $callback->($port, @msg)) 548 _self_die if $@;
182 549 @res
183=item $port->rcv ([$smartmatch...] => $callback->($port, @msg))
184
185Register a callback on the given port.
186
187The callback has to return a true value when its work is done, after
188which is will be removed, or a false value in which case it will stay
189registered.
190
191If the match is an array reference, then it will be matched against the
192first elements of the message, otherwise only the first element is being
193matched.
194
195Any element in the match that is specified as C<_any_> (a function
196exported by this module) matches any single element of the message.
197
198While not required, it is highly recommended that the first matching
199element is a string identifying the message. The one-string-only match is
200also the most efficient match (by far).
201
202=cut
203
204sub rcv($@) {
205 my ($self, $match, $cb) = @_;
206
207 if (!ref $match) {
208 push @{ $self->{rc0}{$match} }, [$cb];
209 } elsif (("ARRAY" eq ref $match && !ref $match->[0])) {
210 my ($type, @match) = @$match;
211 @match
212 ? push @{ $self->{rcv}{$match->[0]} }, [$cb, \@match]
213 : push @{ $self->{rc0}{$match->[0]} }, [$cb];
214 } else { 550 } else {
215 push @{ $self->{any} }, [$cb, $match]; 551 my $res = eval { &$cb };
552 _self_die if $@;
553 $res
216 } 554 }
217} 555}
218 556
219=item $port->register ($name) 557=item $closure = psub { BLOCK }
220 558
221Registers the given port under the well known name C<$name>. If the name 559Remembers C<$SELF> and creates a closure out of the BLOCK. When the
222already exists it is replaced. 560closure is executed, sets up the environment in the same way as in C<rcv>
561callbacks, i.e. runtime errors will cause the port to get C<kil>ed.
223 562
224A port can only be registered under one well known name. 563The effect is basically as if it returned C<< sub { peval $SELF, sub {
564BLOCK }, @_ } >>.
565
566This is useful when you register callbacks from C<rcv> callbacks:
567
568 rcv delayed_reply => sub {
569 my ($delay, @reply) = @_;
570 my $timer = AE::timer $delay, 0, psub {
571 snd @reply, $SELF;
572 };
573 };
225 574
226=cut 575=cut
227 576
228sub register { 577sub psub(&) {
229 my ($self, $name) = @_; 578 my $cb = shift;
230 579
231 $self->{wkname} = $name; 580 my $port = $SELF
232 $AnyEvent::MP::Base::WKP{$name} = "$self"; 581 or Carp::croak "psub can only be called from within rcv or psub callbacks, not";
582
583 sub {
584 local $SELF = $port;
585
586 if (wantarray) {
587 my @res = eval { &$cb };
588 _self_die if $@;
589 @res
590 } else {
591 my $res = eval { &$cb };
592 _self_die if $@;
593 $res
594 }
595 }
233} 596}
234 597
235=item $port->destroy 598=item $guard = mon $port, $rcvport # kill $rcvport when $port dies
236 599
237Explicitly destroy/remove/nuke/vaporise the port. 600=item $guard = mon $port # kill $SELF when $port dies
238 601
239Ports are normally kept alive by there mere existance alone, and need to 602=item $guard = mon $port, $cb->(@reason) # call $cb when $port dies
240be destroyed explicitly. 603
604=item $guard = mon $port, $rcvport, @msg # send a message when $port dies
605
606Monitor the given port and do something when the port is killed or
607messages to it were lost, and optionally return a guard that can be used
608to stop monitoring again.
609
610The first two forms distinguish between "normal" and "abnormal" kil's:
611
612In the first form (another port given), if the C<$port> is C<kil>'ed with
613a non-empty reason, the other port (C<$rcvport>) will be kil'ed with the
614same reason. That is, on "normal" kil's nothing happens, while under all
615other conditions, the other port is killed with the same reason.
616
617The second form (kill self) is the same as the first form, except that
618C<$rvport> defaults to C<$SELF>.
619
620The remaining forms don't distinguish between "normal" and "abnormal" kil's
621- it's up to the callback or receiver to check whether the C<@reason> is
622empty and act accordingly.
623
624In the third form (callback), the callback is simply called with any
625number of C<@reason> elements (empty @reason means that the port was deleted
626"normally"). Note also that I<< the callback B<must> never die >>, so use
627C<eval> if unsure.
628
629In the last form (message), a message of the form C<$rcvport, @msg,
630@reason> will be C<snd>.
631
632Monitoring-actions are one-shot: once messages are lost (and a monitoring
633alert was raised), they are removed and will not trigger again, even if it
634turns out that the port is still alive.
635
636As a rule of thumb, monitoring requests should always monitor a remote
637port locally (using a local C<$rcvport> or a callback). The reason is that
638kill messages might get lost, just like any other message. Another less
639obvious reason is that even monitoring requests can get lost (for example,
640when the connection to the other node goes down permanently). When
641monitoring a port locally these problems do not exist.
642
643C<mon> effectively guarantees that, in the absence of hardware failures,
644after starting the monitor, either all messages sent to the port will
645arrive, or the monitoring action will be invoked after possible message
646loss has been detected. No messages will be lost "in between" (after
647the first lost message no further messages will be received by the
648port). After the monitoring action was invoked, further messages might get
649delivered again.
650
651Inter-host-connection timeouts and monitoring depend on the transport
652used. The only transport currently implemented is TCP, and AnyEvent::MP
653relies on TCP to detect node-downs (this can take 10-15 minutes on a
654non-idle connection, and usually around two hours for idle connections).
655
656This means that monitoring is good for program errors and cleaning up
657stuff eventually, but they are no replacement for a timeout when you need
658to ensure some maximum latency.
659
660Example: call a given callback when C<$port> is killed.
661
662 mon $port, sub { warn "port died because of <@_>\n" };
663
664Example: kill ourselves when C<$port> is killed abnormally.
665
666 mon $port;
667
668Example: send us a restart message when another C<$port> is killed.
669
670 mon $port, $self => "restart";
241 671
242=cut 672=cut
243 673
244sub destroy { 674sub mon {
245 my ($self) = @_; 675 my ($nodeid, $port) = split /#/, shift, 2;
246 676
247 delete $AnyEvent::MP::Base::WKP{ $self->{wkname} }; 677 my $node = $NODE{$nodeid} || add_node $nodeid;
248 678
249 delete $AnyEvent::MP::Base::PORT{$_} 679 my $cb = @_ ? shift : $SELF || Carp::croak 'mon: called with one argument only, but $SELF not set,';
250 for @{ $self->{names} }; 680
681 unless (ref $cb) {
682 if (@_) {
683 # send a kill info message
684 my (@msg) = ($cb, @_);
685 $cb = sub { snd @msg, @_ };
686 } else {
687 # simply kill other port
688 my $port = $cb;
689 $cb = sub { kil $port, @_ if @_ };
690 }
691 }
692
693 $node->monitor ($port, $cb);
694
695 defined wantarray
696 and ($cb += 0, Guard::guard { $node->unmonitor ($port, $cb) })
251} 697}
252 698
699=item $guard = mon_guard $port, $ref, $ref...
700
701Monitors the given C<$port> and keeps the passed references. When the port
702is killed, the references will be freed.
703
704Optionally returns a guard that will stop the monitoring.
705
706This function is useful when you create e.g. timers or other watchers and
707want to free them when the port gets killed (note the use of C<psub>):
708
709 $port->rcv (start => sub {
710 my $timer; $timer = mon_guard $port, AE::timer 1, 1, psub {
711 undef $timer if 0.9 < rand;
712 });
713 });
714
715=cut
716
717sub mon_guard {
718 my ($port, @refs) = @_;
719
720 #TODO: mon-less form?
721
722 mon $port, sub { 0 && @refs }
723}
724
725=item kil $port[, @reason]
726
727Kill the specified port with the given C<@reason>.
728
729If no C<@reason> is specified, then the port is killed "normally" -
730monitor callback will be invoked, but the kil will not cause linked ports
731(C<mon $mport, $lport> form) to get killed.
732
733If a C<@reason> is specified, then linked ports (C<mon $mport, $lport>
734form) get killed with the same reason.
735
736Runtime errors while evaluating C<rcv> callbacks or inside C<psub> blocks
737will be reported as reason C<< die => $@ >>.
738
739Transport/communication errors are reported as C<< transport_error =>
740$message >>.
741
742Common idioms:
743
744 # silently remove yourself, do not kill linked ports
745 kil $SELF;
746
747 # report a failure in some detail
748 kil $SELF, failure_mode_1 => "it failed with too high temperature";
749
750 # do not waste much time with killing, just die when something goes wrong
751 open my $fh, "<file"
752 or die "file: $!";
753
754=item $port = spawn $node, $initfunc[, @initdata]
755
756Creates a port on the node C<$node> (which can also be a port ID, in which
757case it's the node where that port resides).
758
759The port ID of the newly created port is returned immediately, and it is
760possible to immediately start sending messages or to monitor the port.
761
762After the port has been created, the init function is called on the remote
763node, in the same context as a C<rcv> callback. This function must be a
764fully-qualified function name (e.g. C<MyApp::Chat::Server::init>). To
765specify a function in the main program, use C<::name>.
766
767If the function doesn't exist, then the node tries to C<require>
768the package, then the package above the package and so on (e.g.
769C<MyApp::Chat::Server>, C<MyApp::Chat>, C<MyApp>) until the function
770exists or it runs out of package names.
771
772The init function is then called with the newly-created port as context
773object (C<$SELF>) and the C<@initdata> values as arguments. It I<must>
774call one of the C<rcv> functions to set callbacks on C<$SELF>, otherwise
775the port might not get created.
776
777A common idiom is to pass a local port, immediately monitor the spawned
778port, and in the remote init function, immediately monitor the passed
779local port. This two-way monitoring ensures that both ports get cleaned up
780when there is a problem.
781
782C<spawn> guarantees that the C<$initfunc> has no visible effects on the
783caller before C<spawn> returns (by delaying invocation when spawn is
784called for the local node).
785
786Example: spawn a chat server port on C<$othernode>.
787
788 # this node, executed from within a port context:
789 my $server = spawn $othernode, "MyApp::Chat::Server::connect", $SELF;
790 mon $server;
791
792 # init function on C<$othernode>
793 sub connect {
794 my ($srcport) = @_;
795
796 mon $srcport;
797
798 rcv $SELF, sub {
799 ...
800 };
801 }
802
803=cut
804
805sub _spawn {
806 my $port = shift;
807 my $init = shift;
808
809 # rcv will create the actual port
810 local $SELF = "$NODE#$port";
811 eval {
812 &{ load_func $init }
813 };
814 _self_die if $@;
815}
816
817sub spawn(@) {
818 my ($nodeid, undef) = split /#/, shift, 2;
819
820 my $id = $RUNIQ . ++$ID;
821
822 $_[0] =~ /::/
823 or Carp::croak "spawn init function must be a fully-qualified name, caught";
824
825 snd_to_func $nodeid, "AnyEvent::MP::_spawn" => $id, @_;
826
827 "$nodeid#$id"
828}
829
830
831=item after $timeout, @msg
832
833=item after $timeout, $callback
834
835Either sends the given message, or call the given callback, after the
836specified number of seconds.
837
838This is simply a utility function that comes in handy at times - the
839AnyEvent::MP author is not convinced of the wisdom of having it, though,
840so it may go away in the future.
841
842=cut
843
844sub after($@) {
845 my ($timeout, @action) = @_;
846
847 my $t; $t = AE::timer $timeout, 0, sub {
848 undef $t;
849 ref $action[0]
850 ? $action[0]()
851 : snd @action;
852 };
853}
854
855#=item $cb2 = timeout $seconds, $cb[, @args]
856
857=item cal $port, @msg, $callback[, $timeout]
858
859A simple form of RPC - sends a message to the given C<$port> with the
860given contents (C<@msg>), but adds a reply port to the message.
861
862The reply port is created temporarily just for the purpose of receiving
863the reply, and will be C<kil>ed when no longer needed.
864
865A reply message sent to the port is passed to the C<$callback> as-is.
866
867If an optional time-out (in seconds) is given and it is not C<undef>,
868then the callback will be called without any arguments after the time-out
869elapsed and the port is C<kil>ed.
870
871If no time-out is given (or it is C<undef>), then the local port will
872monitor the remote port instead, so it eventually gets cleaned-up.
873
874Currently this function returns the temporary port, but this "feature"
875might go in future versions unless you can make a convincing case that
876this is indeed useful for something.
877
878=cut
879
880sub cal(@) {
881 my $timeout = ref $_[-1] ? undef : pop;
882 my $cb = pop;
883
884 my $port = port {
885 undef $timeout;
886 kil $SELF;
887 &$cb;
888 };
889
890 if (defined $timeout) {
891 $timeout = AE::timer $timeout, 0, sub {
892 undef $timeout;
893 kil $port;
894 $cb->();
895 };
896 } else {
897 mon $_[0], sub {
898 kil $port;
899 $cb->();
900 };
901 }
902
903 push @_, $port;
904 &snd;
905
906 $port
907}
908
253=back 909=back
254 910
255=head1 FUNCTIONS FOR NODES 911=head1 DISTRIBUTED DATABASE
912
913AnyEvent::MP comes with a simple distributed database. The database will
914be mirrored asynchronously on all global nodes. Other nodes bind to one
915of the global nodes for their needs. Every node has a "local database"
916which contains all the values that are set locally. All local databases
917are merged together to form the global database, which can be queried.
918
919The database structure is that of a two-level hash - the database hash
920contains hashes which contain values, similarly to a perl hash of hashes,
921i.e.:
922
923 $DATABASE{$family}{$subkey} = $value
924
925The top level hash key is called "family", and the second-level hash key
926is called "subkey" or simply "key".
927
928The family must be alphanumeric, i.e. start with a letter and consist
929of letters, digits, underscores and colons (C<[A-Za-z][A-Za-z0-9_:]*>,
930pretty much like Perl module names.
931
932As the family namespace is global, it is recommended to prefix family names
933with the name of the application or module using it.
934
935The subkeys must be non-empty strings, with no further restrictions.
936
937The values should preferably be strings, but other perl scalars should
938work as well (such as C<undef>, arrays and hashes).
939
940Every database entry is owned by one node - adding the same family/subkey
941combination on multiple nodes will not cause discomfort for AnyEvent::MP,
942but the result might be nondeterministic, i.e. the key might have
943different values on different nodes.
944
945Different subkeys in the same family can be owned by different nodes
946without problems, and in fact, this is the common method to create worker
947pools. For example, a worker port for image scaling might do this:
948
949 db_set my_image_scalers => $port;
950
951And clients looking for an image scaler will want to get the
952C<my_image_scalers> keys from time to time:
953
954 db_keys my_image_scalers => sub {
955 @ports = @{ $_[0] };
956 };
957
958Or better yet, they want to monitor the database family, so they always
959have a reasonable up-to-date copy:
960
961 db_mon my_image_scalers => sub {
962 @ports = keys %{ $_[0] };
963 };
964
965In general, you can set or delete single subkeys, but query and monitor
966whole families only.
967
968If you feel the need to monitor or query a single subkey, try giving it
969it's own family.
970
971=over
972
973=item $guard = db_set $family => $subkey [=> $value]
974
975Sets (or replaces) a key to the database - if C<$value> is omitted,
976C<undef> is used instead.
977
978When called in non-void context, C<db_set> returns a guard that
979automatically calls C<db_del> when it is destroyed.
980
981=item db_del $family => $subkey...
982
983Deletes one or more subkeys from the database family.
984
985=item $guard = db_reg $family => $port => $value
986
987=item $guard = db_reg $family => $port
988
989=item $guard = db_reg $family
990
991Registers a port in the given family and optionally returns a guard to
992remove it.
993
994This function basically does the same as:
995
996 db_set $family => $port => $value
997
998Except that the port is monitored and automatically removed from the
999database family when it is kil'ed.
1000
1001If C<$value> is missing, C<undef> is used. If C<$port> is missing, then
1002C<$SELF> is used.
1003
1004This function is most useful to register a port in some port group (which
1005is just another name for a database family), and have it removed when the
1006port is gone. This works best when the port is a local port.
1007
1008=cut
1009
1010sub db_reg($$;$) {
1011 my $family = shift;
1012 my $port = @_ ? shift : $SELF;
1013
1014 my $clr = sub { db_del $family => $port };
1015 mon $port, $clr;
1016
1017 db_set $family => $port => $_[0];
1018
1019 defined wantarray
1020 and &Guard::guard ($clr)
1021}
1022
1023=item db_family $family => $cb->(\%familyhash)
1024
1025Queries the named database C<$family> and call the callback with the
1026family represented as a hash. You can keep and freely modify the hash.
1027
1028=item db_keys $family => $cb->(\@keys)
1029
1030Same as C<db_family>, except it only queries the family I<subkeys> and passes
1031them as array reference to the callback.
1032
1033=item db_values $family => $cb->(\@values)
1034
1035Same as C<db_family>, except it only queries the family I<values> and passes them
1036as array reference to the callback.
1037
1038=item $guard = db_mon $family => $cb->($familyhash, \@added, \@changed, \@deleted)
1039
1040Creates a monitor on the given database family. Each time a key is set
1041or or is deleted the callback is called with a hash containing the
1042database family and three lists of added, changed and deleted subkeys,
1043respectively. If no keys have changed then the array reference might be
1044C<undef> or even missing.
1045
1046If not called in void context, a guard object is returned that, when
1047destroyed, stops the monitor.
1048
1049The family hash reference and the key arrays belong to AnyEvent::MP and
1050B<must not be modified or stored> by the callback. When in doubt, make a
1051copy.
1052
1053As soon as possible after the monitoring starts, the callback will be
1054called with the intiial contents of the family, even if it is empty,
1055i.e. there will always be a timely call to the callback with the current
1056contents.
1057
1058It is possible that the callback is called with a change event even though
1059the subkey is already present and the value has not changed.
1060
1061The monitoring stops when the guard object is destroyed.
1062
1063Example: on every change to the family "mygroup", print out all keys.
1064
1065 my $guard = db_mon mygroup => sub {
1066 my ($family, $a, $c, $d) = @_;
1067 print "mygroup members: ", (join " ", keys %$family), "\n";
1068 };
1069
1070Exmaple: wait until the family "My::Module::workers" is non-empty.
1071
1072 my $guard; $guard = db_mon My::Module::workers => sub {
1073 my ($family, $a, $c, $d) = @_;
1074 return unless %$family;
1075 undef $guard;
1076 print "My::Module::workers now nonempty\n";
1077 };
1078
1079Example: print all changes to the family "AnyRvent::Fantasy::Module".
1080
1081 my $guard = db_mon AnyRvent::Fantasy::Module => sub {
1082 my ($family, $a, $c, $d) = @_;
1083
1084 print "+$_=$family->{$_}\n" for @$a;
1085 print "*$_=$family->{$_}\n" for @$c;
1086 print "-$_=$family->{$_}\n" for @$d;
1087 };
1088
1089=cut
1090
1091=back
1092
1093=head1 AnyEvent::MP vs. Distributed Erlang
1094
1095AnyEvent::MP got lots of its ideas from distributed Erlang (Erlang node
1096== aemp node, Erlang process == aemp port), so many of the documents and
1097programming techniques employed by Erlang apply to AnyEvent::MP. Here is a
1098sample:
1099
1100 http://www.erlang.se/doc/programming_rules.shtml
1101 http://erlang.org/doc/getting_started/part_frame.html # chapters 3 and 4
1102 http://erlang.org/download/erlang-book-part1.pdf # chapters 5 and 6
1103 http://erlang.org/download/armstrong_thesis_2003.pdf # chapters 4 and 5
1104
1105Despite the similarities, there are also some important differences:
256 1106
257=over 4 1107=over 4
258 1108
259=item mon $noderef, $callback->($noderef, $status, $) 1109=item * Node IDs are arbitrary strings in AEMP.
260 1110
261Monitors the given noderef. 1111Erlang relies on special naming and DNS to work everywhere in the same
1112way. AEMP relies on each node somehow knowing its own address(es) (e.g. by
1113configuration or DNS), and possibly the addresses of some seed nodes, but
1114will otherwise discover other nodes (and their IDs) itself.
262 1115
263=item become_public endpoint... 1116=item * Erlang has a "remote ports are like local ports" philosophy, AEMP
1117uses "local ports are like remote ports".
264 1118
265Tells the node to become a public node, i.e. reachable from other nodes. 1119The failure modes for local ports are quite different (runtime errors
1120only) then for remote ports - when a local port dies, you I<know> it dies,
1121when a connection to another node dies, you know nothing about the other
1122port.
266 1123
267If no arguments are given, or the first argument is C<undef>, then 1124Erlang pretends remote ports are as reliable as local ports, even when
268AnyEvent::MP tries to bind on port C<4040> on all IP addresses that the 1125they are not.
269local nodename resolves to.
270 1126
271Otherwise the first argument must be an array-reference with transport 1127AEMP encourages a "treat remote ports differently" philosophy, with local
272endpoints ("ip:port", "hostname:port") or port numbers (in which case the 1128ports being the special case/exception, where transport errors cannot
273local nodename is used as hostname). The endpoints are all resolved and 1129occur.
274will become the node reference.
275 1130
276=cut 1131=item * Erlang uses processes and a mailbox, AEMP does not queue.
1132
1133Erlang uses processes that selectively receive messages out of order, and
1134therefore needs a queue. AEMP is event based, queuing messages would serve
1135no useful purpose. For the same reason the pattern-matching abilities
1136of AnyEvent::MP are more limited, as there is little need to be able to
1137filter messages without dequeuing them.
1138
1139This is not a philosophical difference, but simply stems from AnyEvent::MP
1140being event-based, while Erlang is process-based.
1141
1142You cna have a look at L<Coro::MP> for a more Erlang-like process model on
1143top of AEMP and Coro threads.
1144
1145=item * Erlang sends are synchronous, AEMP sends are asynchronous.
1146
1147Sending messages in Erlang is synchronous and blocks the process until
1148a conenction has been established and the message sent (and so does not
1149need a queue that can overflow). AEMP sends return immediately, connection
1150establishment is handled in the background.
1151
1152=item * Erlang suffers from silent message loss, AEMP does not.
1153
1154Erlang implements few guarantees on messages delivery - messages can get
1155lost without any of the processes realising it (i.e. you send messages a,
1156b, and c, and the other side only receives messages a and c).
1157
1158AEMP guarantees (modulo hardware errors) correct ordering, and the
1159guarantee that after one message is lost, all following ones sent to the
1160same port are lost as well, until monitoring raises an error, so there are
1161no silent "holes" in the message sequence.
1162
1163If you want your software to be very reliable, you have to cope with
1164corrupted and even out-of-order messages in both Erlang and AEMP. AEMP
1165simply tries to work better in common error cases, such as when a network
1166link goes down.
1167
1168=item * Erlang can send messages to the wrong port, AEMP does not.
1169
1170In Erlang it is quite likely that a node that restarts reuses an Erlang
1171process ID known to other nodes for a completely different process,
1172causing messages destined for that process to end up in an unrelated
1173process.
1174
1175AEMP does not reuse port IDs, so old messages or old port IDs floating
1176around in the network will not be sent to an unrelated port.
1177
1178=item * Erlang uses unprotected connections, AEMP uses secure
1179authentication and can use TLS.
1180
1181AEMP can use a proven protocol - TLS - to protect connections and
1182securely authenticate nodes.
1183
1184=item * The AEMP protocol is optimised for both text-based and binary
1185communications.
1186
1187The AEMP protocol, unlike the Erlang protocol, supports both programming
1188language independent text-only protocols (good for debugging), and binary,
1189language-specific serialisers (e.g. Storable). By default, unless TLS is
1190used, the protocol is actually completely text-based.
1191
1192It has also been carefully designed to be implementable in other languages
1193with a minimum of work while gracefully degrading functionality to make the
1194protocol simple.
1195
1196=item * AEMP has more flexible monitoring options than Erlang.
1197
1198In Erlang, you can chose to receive I<all> exit signals as messages or
1199I<none>, there is no in-between, so monitoring single Erlang processes is
1200difficult to implement.
1201
1202Monitoring in AEMP is more flexible than in Erlang, as one can choose
1203between automatic kill, exit message or callback on a per-port basis.
1204
1205=item * Erlang tries to hide remote/local connections, AEMP does not.
1206
1207Monitoring in Erlang is not an indicator of process death/crashes, in the
1208same way as linking is (except linking is unreliable in Erlang).
1209
1210In AEMP, you don't "look up" registered port names or send to named ports
1211that might or might not be persistent. Instead, you normally spawn a port
1212on the remote node. The init function monitors you, and you monitor the
1213remote port. Since both monitors are local to the node, they are much more
1214reliable (no need for C<spawn_link>).
1215
1216This also saves round-trips and avoids sending messages to the wrong port
1217(hard to do in Erlang).
277 1218
278=back 1219=back
279 1220
280=head1 NODE MESSAGES 1221=head1 RATIONALE
281
282Nodes understand the following messages sent to them. Many of them take
283arguments called C<@reply>, which will simply be used to compose a reply
284message - C<$reply[0]> is the port to reply to, C<$reply[1]> the type and
285the remaining arguments are simply the message data.
286 1222
287=over 4 1223=over 4
288 1224
289=cut 1225=item Why strings for port and node IDs, why not objects?
290 1226
291=item wkp => $name, @reply 1227We considered "objects", but found that the actual number of methods
1228that can be called are quite low. Since port and node IDs travel over
1229the network frequently, the serialising/deserialising would add lots of
1230overhead, as well as having to keep a proxy object everywhere.
292 1231
293Replies with the port ID of the specified well-known port, or C<undef>. 1232Strings can easily be printed, easily serialised etc. and need no special
1233procedures to be "valid".
294 1234
295=item devnull => ... 1235And as a result, a port with just a default receiver consists of a single
1236code reference stored in a global hash - it can't become much cheaper.
296 1237
297Generic data sink/CPU heat conversion. 1238=item Why favour JSON, why not a real serialising format such as Storable?
298 1239
299=item relay => $port, @msg 1240In fact, any AnyEvent::MP node will happily accept Storable as framing
1241format, but currently there is no way to make a node use Storable by
1242default (although all nodes will accept it).
300 1243
301Simply forwards the message to the given port. 1244The default framing protocol is JSON because a) JSON::XS is many times
1245faster for small messages and b) most importantly, after years of
1246experience we found that object serialisation is causing more problems
1247than it solves: Just like function calls, objects simply do not travel
1248easily over the network, mostly because they will always be a copy, so you
1249always have to re-think your design.
302 1250
303=item eval => $string[ @reply] 1251Keeping your messages simple, concentrating on data structures rather than
304 1252objects, will keep your messages clean, tidy and efficient.
305Evaluates the given string. If C<@reply> is given, then a message of the
306form C<@reply, $@, @evalres> is sent.
307
308Example: crash another node.
309
310 snd $othernode, eval => "exit";
311
312=item time => @reply
313
314Replies the the current node time to C<@reply>.
315
316Example: tell the current node to send the current time to C<$myport> in a
317C<timereply> message.
318
319 snd $NODE, time => $myport, timereply => 1, 2;
320 # => snd $myport, timereply => 1, 2, <time>
321 1253
322=back 1254=back
323 1255
1256=head1 PORTING FROM AnyEvent::MP VERSION 1.X
1257
1258AEMP version 2 has a few major incompatible changes compared to version 1:
1259
1260=over 4
1261
1262=item AnyEvent::MP::Global no longer has group management functions.
1263
1264At least not officially - the grp_* functions are still exported and might
1265work, but they will be removed in some later release.
1266
1267AnyEvent::MP now comes with a distributed database that is more
1268powerful. Its database families map closely to port groups, but the API
1269has changed (the functions are also now exported by AnyEvent::MP). Here is
1270a rough porting guide:
1271
1272 grp_reg $group, $port # old
1273 db_reg $group, $port # new
1274
1275 $list = grp_get $group # old
1276 db_keys $group, sub { my $list = shift } # new
1277
1278 grp_mon $group, $cb->(\@ports, $add, $del) # old
1279 db_mon $group, $cb->(\%ports, $add, $change, $del) # new
1280
1281C<grp_reg> is a no-brainer (just replace by C<db_reg>), but C<grp_get> is
1282no longer instant, because the local node might not have a copy of the
1283group. You can either modify your code to allow for a callback, or use
1284C<db_mon> to keep an updated copy of the group:
1285
1286 my $local_group_copy;
1287 db_mon $group => sub { $local_group_copy = $_[0] };
1288
1289 # now "keys %$local_group_copy" always returns the most up-to-date
1290 # list of ports in the group.
1291
1292C<grp_mon> can be replaced by C<db_mon> with minor changes - C<db_mon>
1293passes a hash as first argument, and an extra C<$chg> argument that can be
1294ignored:
1295
1296 db_mon $group => sub {
1297 my ($ports, $add, $chg, $lde) = @_;
1298 $ports = [keys %$ports];
1299
1300 # now $ports, $add and $del are the same as
1301 # were originally passed by grp_mon.
1302 ...
1303 };
1304
1305=item Nodes not longer connect to all other nodes.
1306
1307In AEMP 1.x, every node automatically loads the L<AnyEvent::MP::Global>
1308module, which in turn would create connections to all other nodes in the
1309network (helped by the seed nodes).
1310
1311In version 2.x, global nodes still connect to all other global nodes, but
1312other nodes don't - now every node either is a global node itself, or
1313attaches itself to another global node.
1314
1315If a node isn't a global node itself, then it attaches itself to one
1316of its seed nodes. If that seed node isn't a global node yet, it will
1317automatically be upgraded to a global node.
1318
1319So in many cases, nothing needs to be changed - one just has to make sure
1320that all seed nodes are meshed together with the other seed nodes (as with
1321AEMP 1.x), and other nodes specify them as seed nodes. This is most easily
1322achieved by specifying the same set of seed nodes for all nodes in the
1323network.
1324
1325Not opening a connection to every other node is usually an advantage,
1326except when you need the lower latency of an already established
1327connection. To ensure a node establishes a connection to another node,
1328you can monitor the node port (C<mon $node, ...>), which will attempt to
1329create the connection (and notify you when the connection fails).
1330
1331=item Listener-less nodes (nodes without binds) are gone.
1332
1333And are not coming back, at least not in their old form. If no C<binds>
1334are specified for a node, AnyEvent::MP assumes a default of C<*:*>.
1335
1336There are vague plans to implement some form of routing domains, which
1337might or might not bring back listener-less nodes, but don't count on it.
1338
1339The fact that most connections are now optional somewhat mitigates this,
1340as a node can be effectively unreachable from the outside without any
1341problems, as long as it isn't a global node and only reaches out to other
1342nodes (as opposed to being contacted from other nodes).
1343
1344=item $AnyEvent::MP::Kernel::WARN has gone.
1345
1346AnyEvent has acquired a logging framework (L<AnyEvent::Log>), and AEMP now
1347uses this, and so should your programs.
1348
1349Every module now documents what kinds of messages it generates, with
1350AnyEvent::MP acting as a catch all.
1351
1352On the positive side, this means that instead of setting
1353C<PERL_ANYEVENT_MP_WARNLEVEL>, you can get away by setting C<AE_VERBOSE> -
1354much less to type.
1355
1356=back
1357
1358=head1 LOGGING
1359
1360AnyEvent::MP does not normally log anything by itself, but sinc eit is the
1361root of the contetx hierarchy for AnyEvent::MP modules, it will receive
1362all log messages by submodules.
1363
324=head1 SEE ALSO 1364=head1 SEE ALSO
1365
1366L<AnyEvent::MP::Intro> - a gentle introduction.
1367
1368L<AnyEvent::MP::Kernel> - more, lower-level, stuff.
1369
1370L<AnyEvent::MP::Global> - network maintenance and port groups, to find
1371your applications.
1372
1373L<AnyEvent::MP::DataConn> - establish data connections between nodes.
1374
1375L<AnyEvent::MP::LogCatcher> - simple service to display log messages from
1376all nodes.
325 1377
326L<AnyEvent>. 1378L<AnyEvent>.
327 1379
328=head1 AUTHOR 1380=head1 AUTHOR
329 1381

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