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Revision: 1.6
Committed: Wed Nov 1 01:22:19 2006 UTC (17 years, 6 months ago) by root
Branch: MAIN
CVS Tags: rel-2_0
Changes since 1.5: +164 -36 lines
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File Contents

# User Rev Content
1 root 1.2 NAME
2     AnyEvent - provide framework for multiple event loops
3    
4 root 1.6 Event, Coro, Glib, Tk, Perl - various supported event loops
5 root 1.2
6     SYNOPSIS
7 root 1.4 use AnyEvent;
8 root 1.2
9 root 1.6 my $w = AnyEvent->io (fh => $fh, poll => "r|w", cb => sub {
10 root 1.2 ...
11     });
12 root 1.3
13     my $w = AnyEvent->timer (after => $seconds, cb => sub {
14 root 1.2 ...
15     });
16    
17 root 1.6 my $w = AnyEvent->condvar; # stores wether a condition was flagged
18     $w->wait; # enters "main loop" till $condvar gets ->broadcast
19 root 1.3 $w->broadcast; # wake up current and all future wait's
20    
21 root 1.2 DESCRIPTION
22     AnyEvent provides an identical interface to multiple event loops. This
23 root 1.6 allows module authors to utilise an event loop without forcing module
24 root 1.2 users to use the same event loop (as only a single event loop can
25     coexist peacefully at any one time).
26    
27     The interface itself is vaguely similar but not identical to the Event
28     module.
29    
30     On the first call of any method, the module tries to detect the
31     currently loaded event loop by probing wether any of the following
32     modules is loaded: Coro::Event, Event, Glib, Tk. The first one found is
33     used. If none is found, the module tries to load these modules in the
34     order given. The first one that could be successfully loaded will be
35 root 1.6 used. If still none could be found, AnyEvent will fall back to a
36     pure-perl event loop, which is also not very efficient.
37    
38     Because AnyEvent first checks for modules that are already loaded,
39     loading an Event model explicitly before first using AnyEvent will
40     likely make that model the default. For example:
41    
42     use Tk;
43     use AnyEvent;
44    
45     # .. AnyEvent will likely default to Tk
46    
47     The pure-perl implementation of AnyEvent is called
48     "AnyEvent::Impl::Perl". Like other event modules you can load it
49     explicitly.
50    
51     WATCHERS
52     AnyEvent has the central concept of a *watcher*, which is an object that
53     stores relevant data for each kind of event you are waiting for, such as
54     the callback to call, the filehandle to watch, etc.
55    
56     These watchers are normal Perl objects with normal Perl lifetime. After
57     creating a watcher it will immediately "watch" for events and invoke the
58     callback. To disable the watcher you have to destroy it (e.g. by setting
59     the variable that stores it to "undef" or otherwise deleting all
60     references to it).
61    
62     All watchers are created by calling a method on the "AnyEvent" class.
63    
64     IO WATCHERS
65     You can create I/O watcher by calling the "AnyEvent->io" method with the
66     following mandatory arguments:
67    
68     "fh" the Perl *filehandle* (not filedescriptor) to watch for events.
69     "poll" must be a string that is either "r" or "w", that creates a
70     watcher waiting for "r"eadable or "w"ritable events. "cb" teh callback
71     to invoke everytime the filehandle becomes ready.
72    
73     Only one io watcher per "fh" and "poll" combination is allowed (i.e. on
74     a socket you can have one r + one w, not any more (limitation comes from
75     Tk - if you are sure you are not using Tk this limitation is gone).
76    
77     Filehandles will be kept alive, so as long as the watcher exists, the
78     filehandle exists, too.
79    
80     Example:
81    
82     # wait for readability of STDIN, then read a line and disable the watcher
83     my $w; $w = AnyEvent->io (fh => \*STDIN, poll => 'r', cb => sub {
84     chomp (my $input = <STDIN>);
85     warn "read: $input\n";
86     undef $w;
87     });
88    
89     TIMER WATCHERS
90     You can create a timer watcher by calling the "AnyEvent->timer" method
91     with the following mandatory arguments:
92    
93     "after" after how many seconds (fractions are supported) should the
94     timer activate. "cb" the callback to invoke.
95    
96     The timer callback will be invoked at most once: if you want a repeating
97     timer you have to create a new watcher (this is a limitation by both Tk
98     and Glib).
99    
100     Example:
101    
102     # fire an event after 7.7 seconds
103     my $w = AnyEvent->timer (after => 7.7, cb => sub {
104     warn "timeout\n";
105     });
106    
107     # to cancel the timer:
108     undef $w
109    
110     CONDITION WATCHERS
111     Condition watchers can be created by calling the "AnyEvent->condvar"
112     method without any arguments.
113    
114     A condition watcher watches for a condition - precisely that the
115     "->broadcast" method has been called.
116    
117     The watcher has only two methods:
118    
119     $cv->wait
120     Wait (blocking if necessary) until the "->broadcast" method has been
121     called on c<$cv>, while servicing other watchers normally.
122    
123     Not all event models support a blocking wait - some die in that
124     case, so if you are using this from a module, never require a
125     blocking wait, but let the caller decide wether the call will block
126     or not (for example, by coupling condition variables with some kind
127     of request results and supporting callbacks so the caller knows that
128     getting the result will not block, while still suppporting blockign
129     waits if the caller so desires).
130    
131     You can only wait once on a condition - additional calls will return
132     immediately.
133    
134     $cv->broadcast
135     Flag the condition as ready - a running "->wait" and all further
136     calls to "wait" will return after this method has been called. If
137     nobody is waiting the broadcast will be remembered..
138    
139     Example:
140    
141     # wait till the result is ready
142     my $result_ready = AnyEvent->condvar;
143    
144     # do something such as adding a timer
145     # or socket watcher the calls $result_ready->broadcast
146     # when the "result" is ready.
147    
148     $result_ready->wait;
149    
150     WHAT TO DO IN A MODULE
151     As a module author, you should "use AnyEvent" and call AnyEvent methods
152     freely, but you should not load a specific event module or rely on it.
153    
154     Be careful when you create watchers in the module body - Anyevent will
155     decide which event module to use as soon as the first method is called,
156     so by calling AnyEvent in your module body you force the user of your
157     module to load the event module first.
158    
159     WHAT TO DO IN THE MAIN PROGRAM
160     There will always be a single main program - the only place that should
161     dictate which event model to use.
162    
163     If it doesn't care, it can just "use AnyEvent" and use it itself, or not
164     do anything special and let AnyEvent decide which implementation to
165     chose.
166    
167     If the main program relies on a specific event model (for example, in
168     Gtk2 programs you have to rely on either Glib or Glib::Event), you
169     should load it before loading AnyEvent or any module that uses it,
170     generally, as early as possible. The reason is that modules might create
171     watchers when they are loaded, and AnyEvent will decide on the event
172     model to use as soon as it creates watchers, and it might chose the
173     wrong one unless you load the correct one yourself.
174    
175     You can chose to use a rather inefficient pure-perl implementation by
176     loading the "AnyEvent::Impl::Perl" module, but letting AnyEvent chose is
177     generally better.
178 root 1.2
179 root 1.5 SUPPLYING YOUR OWN EVENT MODEL INTERFACE
180     If you need to support another event library which isn't directly
181     supported by AnyEvent, you can supply your own interface to it by
182 root 1.6 pushing, before the first watcher gets created, the package name of the
183 root 1.5 event module and the package name of the interface to use onto
184     @AnyEvent::REGISTRY. You can do that before and even without loading
185     AnyEvent.
186    
187     Example:
188    
189     push @AnyEvent::REGISTRY, [urxvt => urxvt::anyevent::];
190    
191 root 1.6 This tells AnyEvent to (literally) use the "urxvt::anyevent::"
192     package/class when it finds the "urxvt" package/module is loaded. When
193     AnyEvent is loaded and asked to find a suitable event model, it will
194     first check for the presence of urxvt.
195    
196     The class should prove implementations for all watcher types (see
197     AnyEvent::Impl::Event (source code), AnyEvent::Impl::Glib (Source code)
198     and so on for actual examples, use "perldoc -m AnyEvent::Impl::Glib" to
199     see the sources).
200 root 1.5
201     The above isn't fictitious, the *rxvt-unicode* (a.k.a. urxvt) uses the
202 root 1.6 above line as-is. An interface isn't included in AnyEvent because it
203 root 1.5 doesn't make sense outside the embedded interpreter inside
204     *rxvt-unicode*, and it is updated and maintained as part of the
205     *rxvt-unicode* distribution.
206    
207 root 1.6 *rxvt-unicode* also cheats a bit by not providing blocking access to
208     condition variables: code blocking while waiting for a condition will
209     "die". This still works with most modules/usages, and blocking calls
210     must not be in an interactive appliation, so it makes sense.
211    
212 root 1.4 ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES
213     The following environment variables are used by this module:
214    
215     "PERL_ANYEVENT_VERBOSE" when set to 2 or higher, reports which event
216     model gets used.
217    
218 root 1.2 EXAMPLE
219     The following program uses an io watcher to read data from stdin, a
220     timer to display a message once per second, and a condvar to exit the
221     program when the user enters quit:
222    
223     use AnyEvent;
224    
225     my $cv = AnyEvent->condvar;
226    
227     my $io_watcher = AnyEvent->io (fh => \*STDIN, poll => 'r', cb => sub {
228     warn "io event <$_[0]>\n"; # will always output <r>
229     chomp (my $input = <STDIN>); # read a line
230     warn "read: $input\n"; # output what has been read
231     $cv->broadcast if $input =~ /^q/i; # quit program if /^q/i
232     });
233    
234     my $time_watcher; # can only be used once
235    
236     sub new_timer {
237     $timer = AnyEvent->timer (after => 1, cb => sub {
238     warn "timeout\n"; # print 'timeout' about every second
239     &new_timer; # and restart the time
240     });
241     }
242    
243     new_timer; # create first timer
244    
245     $cv->wait; # wait until user enters /^q/i
246    
247 root 1.3 REAL-WORLD EXAMPLE
248     Consider the Net::FCP module. It features (among others) the following
249     API calls, which are to freenet what HTTP GET requests are to http:
250    
251     my $data = $fcp->client_get ($url); # blocks
252    
253     my $transaction = $fcp->txn_client_get ($url); # does not block
254     $transaction->cb ( sub { ... } ); # set optional result callback
255     my $data = $transaction->result; # possibly blocks
256    
257     The "client_get" method works like "LWP::Simple::get": it requests the
258     given URL and waits till the data has arrived. It is defined to be:
259    
260     sub client_get { $_[0]->txn_client_get ($_[1])->result }
261    
262     And in fact is automatically generated. This is the blocking API of
263     Net::FCP, and it works as simple as in any other, similar, module.
264    
265     More complicated is "txn_client_get": It only creates a transaction
266     (completion, result, ...) object and initiates the transaction.
267    
268     my $txn = bless { }, Net::FCP::Txn::;
269    
270     It also creates a condition variable that is used to signal the
271     completion of the request:
272    
273     $txn->{finished} = AnyAvent->condvar;
274    
275     It then creates a socket in non-blocking mode.
276    
277     socket $txn->{fh}, ...;
278     fcntl $txn->{fh}, F_SETFL, O_NONBLOCK;
279     connect $txn->{fh}, ...
280     and !$!{EWOULDBLOCK}
281     and !$!{EINPROGRESS}
282     and Carp::croak "unable to connect: $!\n";
283    
284 root 1.4 Then it creates a write-watcher which gets called whenever an error
285 root 1.3 occurs or the connection succeeds:
286    
287     $txn->{w} = AnyEvent->io (fh => $txn->{fh}, poll => 'w', cb => sub { $txn->fh_ready_w });
288    
289     And returns this transaction object. The "fh_ready_w" callback gets
290     called as soon as the event loop detects that the socket is ready for
291     writing.
292    
293     The "fh_ready_w" method makes the socket blocking again, writes the
294     request data and replaces the watcher by a read watcher (waiting for
295     reply data). The actual code is more complicated, but that doesn't
296     matter for this example:
297    
298     fcntl $txn->{fh}, F_SETFL, 0;
299     syswrite $txn->{fh}, $txn->{request}
300     or die "connection or write error";
301     $txn->{w} = AnyEvent->io (fh => $txn->{fh}, poll => 'r', cb => sub { $txn->fh_ready_r });
302    
303     Again, "fh_ready_r" waits till all data has arrived, and then stores the
304     result and signals any possible waiters that the request ahs finished:
305    
306     sysread $txn->{fh}, $txn->{buf}, length $txn->{$buf};
307    
308     if (end-of-file or data complete) {
309     $txn->{result} = $txn->{buf};
310     $txn->{finished}->broadcast;
311 root 1.4 $txb->{cb}->($txn) of $txn->{cb}; # also call callback
312 root 1.3 }
313    
314     The "result" method, finally, just waits for the finished signal (if the
315     request was already finished, it doesn't wait, of course, and returns
316     the data:
317    
318     $txn->{finished}->wait;
319 root 1.4 return $txn->{result};
320 root 1.3
321     The actual code goes further and collects all errors ("die"s,
322     exceptions) that occured during request processing. The "result" method
323     detects wether an exception as thrown (it is stored inside the $txn
324     object) and just throws the exception, which means connection errors and
325     other problems get reported tot he code that tries to use the result,
326     not in a random callback.
327    
328     All of this enables the following usage styles:
329    
330     1. Blocking:
331    
332     my $data = $fcp->client_get ($url);
333    
334     2. Blocking, but parallelizing:
335    
336     my @datas = map $_->result,
337     map $fcp->txn_client_get ($_),
338     @urls;
339    
340     Both blocking examples work without the module user having to know
341     anything about events.
342    
343     3a. Event-based in a main program, using any support Event module:
344    
345     use Event;
346    
347     $fcp->txn_client_get ($url)->cb (sub {
348     my $txn = shift;
349     my $data = $txn->result;
350     ...
351     });
352    
353     Event::loop;
354    
355     3b. The module user could use AnyEvent, too:
356    
357     use AnyEvent;
358    
359     my $quit = AnyEvent->condvar;
360    
361     $fcp->txn_client_get ($url)->cb (sub {
362     ...
363     $quit->broadcast;
364     });
365    
366     $quit->wait;
367    
368 root 1.2 SEE ALSO
369 root 1.3 Event modules: Coro::Event, Coro, Event, Glib::Event, Glib.
370    
371     Implementations: AnyEvent::Impl::Coro, AnyEvent::Impl::Event,
372     AnyEvent::Impl::Glib, AnyEvent::Impl::Tk.
373    
374     Nontrivial usage example: Net::FCP.
375 root 1.2
376