--- AnyEvent/README 2008/05/24 17:58:33 1.22 +++ AnyEvent/README 2008/06/06 11:13:07 1.26 @@ -1,4 +1,4 @@ -=> NAME +NAME AnyEvent - provide framework for multiple event loops EV, Event, Glib, Tk, Perl, Event::Lib, Qt, POE - various supported event @@ -19,6 +19,11 @@ $w->send; # wake up current and all future recv's $w->recv; # enters "main loop" till $condvar gets ->send +INTRODUCTION/TUTORIAL + This manpage is mainly a reference manual. If you are interested in a + tutorial or some gentle introduction, have a look at the AnyEvent::Intro + manpage. + WHY YOU SHOULD USE THIS MODULE (OR NOT) Glib, POE, IO::Async, Event... CPAN offers event models by the dozen nowadays. So what is different about AnyEvent? @@ -48,7 +53,7 @@ AnyEvent is different: AnyEvent + POE works fine. AnyEvent + Glib works fine. AnyEvent + Tk works fine etc. etc. but none of these work together - with the rest: POE + IO::Async? no go. Tk + Event? no go. Again: if your + with the rest: POE + IO::Async? No go. Tk + Event? No go. Again: if your module uses one of those, every user of your module has to use it, too. But if your module uses AnyEvent, it works transparently with all event models it supports (including stuff like POE and IO::Async, as long as @@ -62,7 +67,13 @@ only offering the functionality that is necessary, in as thin as a wrapper as technically possible. - Of course, if you want lots of policy (this can arguably be somewhat + Of course, AnyEvent comes with a big (and fully optional!) toolbox of + useful functionality, such as an asynchronous DNS resolver, 100% + non-blocking connects (even with TLS/SSL, IPv6 and on broken platforms + such as Windows) and lots of real-world knowledge and workarounds for + platform bugs and differences. + + Now, if you *do want* lots of policy (this can arguably be somewhat useful) and you want to force your users to use the one and only event model, you should *not* use this module. @@ -101,7 +112,7 @@ The pure-perl implementation of AnyEvent is called "AnyEvent::Impl::Perl". Like other event modules you can load it - explicitly. + explicitly and enjoy the high availability of that event loop :) WATCHERS AnyEvent has the central concept of a *watcher*, which is an object that @@ -124,10 +135,10 @@ An any way to achieve that is this pattern: - my $w; $w = AnyEvent->type (arg => value ..., cb => sub { - # you can use $w here, for example to undef it - undef $w; - }); + my $w; $w = AnyEvent->type (arg => value ..., cb => sub { + # you can use $w here, for example to undef it + undef $w; + }); Note that "my $w; $w =" combination. This is necessary because in Perl, my variables are only visible after the statement in which they are @@ -222,6 +233,68 @@ AnyEvent always prefers relative timers, if available, matching the AnyEvent API. + AnyEvent has two additional methods that return the "current time": + + AnyEvent->time + This returns the "current wallclock time" as a fractional number of + seconds since the Epoch (the same thing as "time" or + "Time::HiRes::time" return, and the result is guaranteed to be + compatible with those). + + It progresses independently of any event loop processing, i.e. each + call will check the system clock, which usually gets updated + frequently. + + AnyEvent->now + This also returns the "current wallclock time", but unlike "time", + above, this value might change only once per event loop iteration, + depending on the event loop (most return the same time as "time", + above). This is the time that AnyEvent's timers get scheduled + against. + + *In almost all cases (in all cases if you don't care), this is the + function to call when you want to know the current time.* + + This function is also often faster then "AnyEvent->time", and thus + the preferred method if you want some timestamp (for example, + AnyEvent::Handle uses this to update it's activity timeouts). + + The rest of this section is only of relevance if you try to be very + exact with your timing, you can skip it without bad conscience. + + For a practical example of when these times differ, consider + Event::Lib and EV and the following set-up: + + The event loop is running and has just invoked one of your callback + at time=500 (assume no other callbacks delay processing). In your + callback, you wait a second by executing "sleep 1" (blocking the + process for a second) and then (at time=501) you create a relative + timer that fires after three seconds. + + With Event::Lib, "AnyEvent->time" and "AnyEvent->now" will both + return 501, because that is the current time, and the timer will be + scheduled to fire at time=504 (501 + 3). + + With EV, "AnyEvent->time" returns 501 (as that is the current time), + but "AnyEvent->now" returns 500, as that is the time the last event + processing phase started. With EV, your timer gets scheduled to run + at time=503 (500 + 3). + + In one sense, Event::Lib is more exact, as it uses the current time + regardless of any delays introduced by event processing. However, + most callbacks do not expect large delays in processing, so this + causes a higher drift (and a lot more system calls to get the + current time). + + In another sense, EV is more exact, as your timer will be scheduled + at the same time, regardless of how long event processing actually + took. + + In either case, if you care (and in most cases, you don't), then you + can get whatever behaviour you want with any event loop, by taking + the difference between "AnyEvent->time" and "AnyEvent->now" into + account. + SIGNAL WATCHERS You can watch for signals using a signal watcher, "signal" is the signal *name* without any "SIG" prefix, "cb" is the Perl callback to be invoked @@ -271,21 +344,21 @@ Example: fork a process and wait for it - my $done = AnyEvent->condvar; - - my $pid = fork or exit 5; - - my $w = AnyEvent->child ( - pid => $pid, - cb => sub { - my ($pid, $status) = @_; - warn "pid $pid exited with status $status"; - $done->send; - }, - ); - - # do something else, then wait for process exit - $done->recv; + my $done = AnyEvent->condvar; + + my $pid = fork or exit 5; + + my $w = AnyEvent->child ( + pid => $pid, + cb => sub { + my ($pid, $status) = @_; + warn "pid $pid exited with status $status"; + $done->send; + }, + ); + + # do something else, then wait for process exit + $done->recv; CONDITION VARIABLES If you are familiar with some event loops you will know that all of them @@ -305,7 +378,8 @@ After creation, the condition variable is "false" until it becomes "true" by calling the "send" method (or calling the condition variable - as if it were a callback). + as if it were a callback, read about the caveats in the description for + the "->send" method). Condition variables are similar to callbacks, except that you can optionally wait for them. They can also be called merge points - points @@ -385,7 +459,12 @@ Condition variables are overloaded so one can call them directly (as a code reference). Calling them directly is the same as calling - "send". + "send". Note, however, that many C-based event loops do not handle + overloading, so as tempting as it may be, passing a condition + variable instead of a callback does not work. Both the pure perl and + EV loops support overloading, however, as well as all functions that + use perl to invoke a callback (as in AnyEvent::Socket and + AnyEvent::DNS for example). $cv->croak ($error) Similar to send, but causes all call's to "->recv" to invoke @@ -495,8 +574,9 @@ optionally replaces it before doing so. The callback will be called when the condition becomes "true", i.e. - when "send" or "croak" are called. Calling "recv" inside the - callback or at any later time is guaranteed not to block. + when "send" or "croak" are called, with the only argument being the + condition variable itself. Calling "recv" inside the callback or at + any later time is guaranteed not to block. GLOBAL VARIABLES AND FUNCTIONS $AnyEvent::MODEL @@ -580,8 +660,8 @@ AnyEvent decide which implementation to chose if some module relies on it. - If the main program relies on a specific event model. For example, in - Gtk2 programs you have to rely on the Glib module. You should load the + If the main program relies on a specific event model - for example, in + Gtk2 programs you have to rely on the Glib module - you should load the event module before loading AnyEvent or any module that uses it: generally speaking, you should load it as early as possible. The reason is that modules might create watchers when they are loaded, and AnyEvent @@ -589,9 +669,25 @@ and it might chose the wrong one unless you load the correct one yourself. - You can chose to use a rather inefficient pure-perl implementation by - loading the "AnyEvent::Impl::Perl" module, which gives you similar - behaviour everywhere, but letting AnyEvent chose is generally better. + You can chose to use a pure-perl implementation by loading the + "AnyEvent::Impl::Perl" module, which gives you similar behaviour + everywhere, but letting AnyEvent chose the model is generally better. + + MAINLOOP EMULATION + Sometimes (often for short test scripts, or even standalone programs who + only want to use AnyEvent), you do not want to run a specific event + loop. + + In that case, you can use a condition variable like this: + + AnyEvent->condvar->recv; + + This has the effect of entering the event loop and looping forever. + + Note that usually your program has some exit condition, in which case it + is better to use the "traditional" approach of storing a condition + variable somewhere, waiting for it, and sending it when the program + should exit cleanly. OTHER MODULES The following is a non-exhaustive list of additional modules that use @@ -614,12 +710,16 @@ tcp connections or tcp servers, with IPv6 and SRV record support and more. - AnyEvent::HTTPD - Provides a simple web application server framework. - AnyEvent::DNS Provides rich asynchronous DNS resolver capabilities. + AnyEvent::HTTP + A simple-to-use HTTP library that is capable of making a lot of + concurrent HTTP requests. + + AnyEvent::HTTPD + Provides a simple web application server framework. + AnyEvent::FastPing The fastest ping in the west. @@ -723,7 +823,7 @@ For example, to force the pure perl model (AnyEvent::Impl::Perl) you could start your program like this: - PERL_ANYEVENT_MODEL=Perl perl ... + PERL_ANYEVENT_MODEL=Perl perl ... "PERL_ANYEVENT_PROTOCOLS" Used by both AnyEvent::DNS and AnyEvent::Socket to determine @@ -756,6 +856,10 @@ Setting this variable to 1 will cause AnyEvent::DNS to announce EDNS0 in its DNS requests. + "PERL_ANYEVENT_MAX_FORKS" + The maximum number of child processes that + "AnyEvent::Util::fork_call" will create in parallel. + EXAMPLE PROGRAM The following program uses an I/O watcher to read data from STDIN, a timer to display a message once per second, and a condition variable to @@ -1170,14 +1274,21 @@ You can make AnyEvent completely ignore this variable by deleting it before the first watcher gets created, e.g. with a "BEGIN" block: - BEGIN { delete $ENV{PERL_ANYEVENT_MODEL} } - - use AnyEvent; + BEGIN { delete $ENV{PERL_ANYEVENT_MODEL} } + + use AnyEvent; Similar considerations apply to $ENV{PERL_ANYEVENT_VERBOSE}, as that can be used to probe what backend is used and gain other information (which is probably even less useful to an attacker than PERL_ANYEVENT_MODEL). +BUGS + Perl 5.8 has numerous memleaks that sometimes hit this module and are + hard to work around. If you suffer from memleaks, first upgrade to Perl + 5.10 and check wether the leaks still show up. (Perl 5.10.0 has other + annoying mamleaks, such as leaking on "map" and "grep" but it is usually + not as pronounced). + SEE ALSO Utility functions: AnyEvent::Util. @@ -1198,6 +1309,6 @@ Nontrivial usage examples: Net::FCP, Net::XMPP2, AnyEvent::DNS. AUTHOR - Marc Lehmann - http://home.schmorp.de/ + Marc Lehmann + http://home.schmorp.de/