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Revision: 1.20
Committed: Mon Dec 11 01:16:09 2006 UTC (17 years, 6 months ago) by root
Branch: MAIN
CVS Tags: rel-2_5
Changes since 1.19: +73 -6 lines
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File Contents

# User Rev Content
1 root 1.1 =head1 NAME
2    
3 root 1.2 AnyEvent - provide framework for multiple event loops
4    
5 root 1.14 Event, Coro, Glib, Tk, Perl - various supported event loops
6 root 1.1
7     =head1 SYNOPSIS
8    
9 root 1.7 use AnyEvent;
10 root 1.2
11 root 1.14 my $w = AnyEvent->io (fh => $fh, poll => "r|w", cb => sub {
12 root 1.2 ...
13     });
14 root 1.5
15     my $w = AnyEvent->timer (after => $seconds, cb => sub {
16 root 1.2 ...
17     });
18    
19 root 1.14 my $w = AnyEvent->condvar; # stores wether a condition was flagged
20     $w->wait; # enters "main loop" till $condvar gets ->broadcast
21 root 1.5 $w->broadcast; # wake up current and all future wait's
22    
23 root 1.1 =head1 DESCRIPTION
24    
25 root 1.2 L<AnyEvent> provides an identical interface to multiple event loops. This
26 root 1.13 allows module authors to utilise an event loop without forcing module
27 root 1.2 users to use the same event loop (as only a single event loop can coexist
28     peacefully at any one time).
29    
30     The interface itself is vaguely similar but not identical to the Event
31     module.
32    
33     On the first call of any method, the module tries to detect the currently
34     loaded event loop by probing wether any of the following modules is
35     loaded: L<Coro::Event>, L<Event>, L<Glib>, L<Tk>. The first one found is
36     used. If none is found, the module tries to load these modules in the
37     order given. The first one that could be successfully loaded will be
38 root 1.14 used. If still none could be found, AnyEvent will fall back to a pure-perl
39     event loop, which is also not very efficient.
40    
41     Because AnyEvent first checks for modules that are already loaded, loading
42     an Event model explicitly before first using AnyEvent will likely make
43     that model the default. For example:
44    
45     use Tk;
46     use AnyEvent;
47    
48     # .. AnyEvent will likely default to Tk
49    
50     The pure-perl implementation of AnyEvent is called
51     C<AnyEvent::Impl::Perl>. Like other event modules you can load it
52     explicitly.
53    
54     =head1 WATCHERS
55    
56     AnyEvent has the central concept of a I<watcher>, which is an object that
57     stores relevant data for each kind of event you are waiting for, such as
58     the callback to call, the filehandle to watch, etc.
59    
60     These watchers are normal Perl objects with normal Perl lifetime. After
61     creating a watcher it will immediately "watch" for events and invoke
62     the callback. To disable the watcher you have to destroy it (e.g. by
63     setting the variable that stores it to C<undef> or otherwise deleting all
64     references to it).
65    
66     All watchers are created by calling a method on the C<AnyEvent> class.
67    
68     =head2 IO WATCHERS
69    
70     You can create I/O watcher by calling the C<< AnyEvent->io >> method with
71     the following mandatory arguments:
72    
73     C<fh> the Perl I<filehandle> (not filedescriptor) to watch for
74     events. C<poll> must be a string that is either C<r> or C<w>, that creates
75     a watcher waiting for "r"eadable or "w"ritable events. C<cb> teh callback
76     to invoke everytime the filehandle becomes ready.
77    
78     Only one io watcher per C<fh> and C<poll> combination is allowed (i.e. on
79     a socket you can have one r + one w, not any more (limitation comes from
80     Tk - if you are sure you are not using Tk this limitation is gone).
81    
82     Filehandles will be kept alive, so as long as the watcher exists, the
83     filehandle exists, too.
84    
85     Example:
86    
87     # wait for readability of STDIN, then read a line and disable the watcher
88     my $w; $w = AnyEvent->io (fh => \*STDIN, poll => 'r', cb => sub {
89     chomp (my $input = <STDIN>);
90     warn "read: $input\n";
91     undef $w;
92     });
93    
94 root 1.19 =head2 TIME WATCHERS
95 root 1.14
96 root 1.19 You can create a time watcher by calling the C<< AnyEvent->timer >>
97 root 1.14 method with the following mandatory arguments:
98    
99     C<after> after how many seconds (fractions are supported) should the timer
100     activate. C<cb> the callback to invoke.
101    
102     The timer callback will be invoked at most once: if you want a repeating
103     timer you have to create a new watcher (this is a limitation by both Tk
104     and Glib).
105    
106     Example:
107    
108     # fire an event after 7.7 seconds
109     my $w = AnyEvent->timer (after => 7.7, cb => sub {
110     warn "timeout\n";
111     });
112    
113     # to cancel the timer:
114     undef $w
115    
116     =head2 CONDITION WATCHERS
117    
118     Condition watchers can be created by calling the C<< AnyEvent->condvar >>
119     method without any arguments.
120    
121     A condition watcher watches for a condition - precisely that the C<<
122     ->broadcast >> method has been called.
123    
124     The watcher has only two methods:
125 root 1.2
126 root 1.1 =over 4
127    
128 root 1.14 =item $cv->wait
129    
130     Wait (blocking if necessary) until the C<< ->broadcast >> method has been
131     called on c<$cv>, while servicing other watchers normally.
132    
133     Not all event models support a blocking wait - some die in that case, so
134     if you are using this from a module, never require a blocking wait, but
135     let the caller decide wether the call will block or not (for example,
136     by coupling condition variables with some kind of request results and
137     supporting callbacks so the caller knows that getting the result will not
138     block, while still suppporting blockign waits if the caller so desires).
139    
140     You can only wait once on a condition - additional calls will return
141     immediately.
142    
143     =item $cv->broadcast
144    
145     Flag the condition as ready - a running C<< ->wait >> and all further
146     calls to C<wait> will return after this method has been called. If nobody
147     is waiting the broadcast will be remembered..
148    
149     Example:
150    
151     # wait till the result is ready
152     my $result_ready = AnyEvent->condvar;
153    
154     # do something such as adding a timer
155     # or socket watcher the calls $result_ready->broadcast
156     # when the "result" is ready.
157    
158     $result_ready->wait;
159    
160     =back
161    
162 root 1.19 =head2 SIGNAL WATCHERS
163    
164     You can listen for signals using a signal watcher, C<signal> is the signal
165 root 1.20 I<name> without any C<SIG> prefix. Multiple signals events can be clumped
166     together into one callback invocation, and callbakc invocation might or
167     might not be asynchronous.
168 root 1.19
169     These watchers might use C<%SIG>, so programs overwriting those signals
170     directly will likely not work correctly.
171    
172     Example: exit on SIGINT
173    
174     my $w = AnyEvent->signal (signal => "INT", cb => sub { exit 1 });
175    
176 root 1.20 =head2 CHILD PROCESS WATCHERS
177    
178     You can also listen for the status of a child process specified by the
179     C<pid> argument. The watcher will only trigger once. This works by
180     installing a signal handler for C<SIGCHLD>.
181    
182     Example: wait for pid 1333
183    
184     my $w = AnyEvent->child (pid => 1333, cb => sub { warn "exit status $?" });
185    
186 root 1.16 =head1 GLOBALS
187    
188     =over 4
189    
190     =item $AnyEvent::MODEL
191    
192     Contains C<undef> until the first watcher is being created. Then it
193     contains the event model that is being used, which is the name of the
194     Perl class implementing the model. This class is usually one of the
195     C<AnyEvent::Impl:xxx> modules, but can be any other class in the case
196     AnyEvent has been extended at runtime (e.g. in I<rxvt-unicode>).
197    
198     The known classes so far are:
199    
200     AnyEvent::Impl::Coro based on Coro::Event, best choise.
201     AnyEvent::Impl::Event based on Event, also best choice :)
202     AnyEvent::Impl::Glib based on Glib, second-best choice.
203     AnyEvent::Impl::Tk based on Tk, very bad choice.
204     AnyEvent::Impl::Perl pure-perl implementation, inefficient.
205    
206 root 1.19 =item AnyEvent::detect
207    
208     Returns C<$AnyEvent::MODEL>, forcing autodetection of the event model if
209     necessary. You should only call this function right before you would have
210     created an AnyEvent watcher anyway, that is, very late at runtime.
211    
212 root 1.16 =back
213    
214 root 1.14 =head1 WHAT TO DO IN A MODULE
215    
216     As a module author, you should "use AnyEvent" and call AnyEvent methods
217     freely, but you should not load a specific event module or rely on it.
218    
219     Be careful when you create watchers in the module body - Anyevent will
220     decide which event module to use as soon as the first method is called, so
221     by calling AnyEvent in your module body you force the user of your module
222     to load the event module first.
223    
224     =head1 WHAT TO DO IN THE MAIN PROGRAM
225    
226     There will always be a single main program - the only place that should
227     dictate which event model to use.
228    
229     If it doesn't care, it can just "use AnyEvent" and use it itself, or not
230     do anything special and let AnyEvent decide which implementation to chose.
231    
232     If the main program relies on a specific event model (for example, in Gtk2
233     programs you have to rely on either Glib or Glib::Event), you should load
234     it before loading AnyEvent or any module that uses it, generally, as early
235     as possible. The reason is that modules might create watchers when they
236     are loaded, and AnyEvent will decide on the event model to use as soon as
237     it creates watchers, and it might chose the wrong one unless you load the
238     correct one yourself.
239    
240     You can chose to use a rather inefficient pure-perl implementation by
241     loading the C<AnyEvent::Impl::Perl> module, but letting AnyEvent chose is
242     generally better.
243    
244 root 1.1 =cut
245    
246     package AnyEvent;
247    
248 root 1.2 no warnings;
249 root 1.19 use strict;
250 root 1.1 use Carp;
251    
252 root 1.19 our $VERSION = '2.5';
253 root 1.2 our $MODEL;
254 root 1.1
255 root 1.2 our $AUTOLOAD;
256     our @ISA;
257 root 1.1
258 root 1.7 our $verbose = $ENV{PERL_ANYEVENT_VERBOSE}*1;
259    
260 root 1.8 our @REGISTRY;
261    
262 root 1.1 my @models = (
263 root 1.18 [Coro::Event:: => AnyEvent::Impl::Coro::],
264     [Event:: => AnyEvent::Impl::Event::],
265     [Glib:: => AnyEvent::Impl::Glib::],
266     [Tk:: => AnyEvent::Impl::Tk::],
267     [AnyEvent::Impl::Perl:: => AnyEvent::Impl::Perl::],
268 root 1.1 );
269    
270 root 1.19 our %method = map +($_ => 1), qw(io timer condvar broadcast wait signal one_event DESTROY);
271 root 1.3
272 root 1.19 sub detect() {
273     unless ($MODEL) {
274     no strict 'refs';
275 root 1.1
276 root 1.2 # check for already loaded models
277 root 1.8 for (@REGISTRY, @models) {
278     my ($package, $model) = @$_;
279 root 1.7 if (${"$package\::VERSION"} > 0) {
280 root 1.8 if (eval "require $model") {
281     $MODEL = $model;
282     warn "AnyEvent: found model '$model', using it.\n" if $verbose > 1;
283     last;
284     }
285 root 1.2 }
286 root 1.1 }
287    
288 root 1.2 unless ($MODEL) {
289     # try to load a model
290    
291 root 1.8 for (@REGISTRY, @models) {
292     my ($package, $model) = @$_;
293     if (eval "require $model") {
294     $MODEL = $model;
295     warn "AnyEvent: autoprobed and loaded model '$model', using it.\n" if $verbose > 1;
296     last;
297     }
298 root 1.2 }
299    
300     $MODEL
301 root 1.19 or die "No event module selected for AnyEvent and autodetect failed. Install any one of these modules: Event (or Coro+Event), Glib or Tk.";
302 root 1.1 }
303 root 1.19
304     unshift @ISA, $MODEL;
305     push @{"$MODEL\::ISA"}, "AnyEvent::Base";
306 root 1.1 }
307    
308 root 1.19 $MODEL
309     }
310    
311     sub AUTOLOAD {
312     (my $func = $AUTOLOAD) =~ s/.*://;
313    
314     $method{$func}
315     or croak "$func: not a valid method for AnyEvent objects";
316    
317     detect unless $MODEL;
318 root 1.2
319     my $class = shift;
320 root 1.18 $class->$func (@_);
321 root 1.1 }
322    
323 root 1.19 package AnyEvent::Base;
324    
325 root 1.20 # default implementation for ->condvar, ->wait, ->broadcast
326    
327     sub condvar {
328     bless \my $flag, "AnyEvent::Base::CondVar"
329     }
330    
331     sub AnyEvent::Base::CondVar::broadcast {
332     ${$_[0]}++;
333     }
334    
335     sub AnyEvent::Base::CondVar::wait {
336     AnyEvent->one_event while !${$_[0]};
337     }
338    
339     # default implementation for ->signal
340 root 1.19
341     our %SIG_CB;
342    
343     sub signal {
344     my (undef, %arg) = @_;
345    
346     my $signal = uc $arg{signal}
347     or Carp::croak "required option 'signal' is missing";
348    
349     $SIG_CB{$signal}{$arg{cb}} = $arg{cb};
350     $SIG{$signal} ||= sub {
351 root 1.20 $_->() for values %{ $SIG_CB{$signal} || {} };
352 root 1.19 };
353    
354 root 1.20 bless [$signal, $arg{cb}], "AnyEvent::Base::Signal"
355 root 1.19 }
356    
357     sub AnyEvent::Base::Signal::DESTROY {
358     my ($signal, $cb) = @{$_[0]};
359    
360     delete $SIG_CB{$signal}{$cb};
361    
362     $SIG{$signal} = 'DEFAULT' unless keys %{ $SIG_CB{$signal} };
363     }
364    
365 root 1.20 # default implementation for ->child
366    
367     our %PID_CB;
368     our $CHLD_W;
369     our $PID_IDLE;
370     our $WNOHANG;
371    
372     sub _child_wait {
373     while (0 < (my $pid = waitpid -1, $WNOHANG)) {
374     $_->() for values %{ (delete $PID_CB{$pid}) || {} };
375     }
376    
377     undef $PID_IDLE;
378     }
379    
380     sub child {
381     my (undef, %arg) = @_;
382    
383     my $pid = uc $arg{pid}
384     or Carp::croak "required option 'pid' is missing";
385    
386     $PID_CB{$pid}{$arg{cb}} = $arg{cb};
387    
388     unless ($WNOHANG) {
389     $CHLD_W = AnyEvent->signal (signal => 'CHLD', cb => \&_child_wait);
390     $WNOHANG = eval { require POSIX; &POSIX::WNOHANG } || 1;
391     }
392    
393     # child could be a zombie already
394     $PID_IDLE ||= AnyEvent->timer (after => 0, cb => \&_child_wait);
395    
396     bless [$pid, $arg{cb}], "AnyEvent::Base::Child"
397     }
398    
399     sub AnyEvent::Base::Child::DESTROY {
400     my ($pid, $cb) = @{$_[0]};
401    
402     delete $PID_CB{$pid}{$cb};
403     delete $PID_CB{$pid} unless keys %{ $PID_CB{$pid} };
404    
405     undef $CHLD_W unless keys %PID_CB;
406     }
407    
408 root 1.8 =head1 SUPPLYING YOUR OWN EVENT MODEL INTERFACE
409    
410     If you need to support another event library which isn't directly
411     supported by AnyEvent, you can supply your own interface to it by
412 root 1.11 pushing, before the first watcher gets created, the package name of
413 root 1.8 the event module and the package name of the interface to use onto
414     C<@AnyEvent::REGISTRY>. You can do that before and even without loading
415     AnyEvent.
416    
417     Example:
418    
419     push @AnyEvent::REGISTRY, [urxvt => urxvt::anyevent::];
420    
421 root 1.12 This tells AnyEvent to (literally) use the C<urxvt::anyevent::>
422     package/class when it finds the C<urxvt> package/module is loaded. When
423     AnyEvent is loaded and asked to find a suitable event model, it will
424     first check for the presence of urxvt.
425    
426 root 1.19 The class should provide implementations for all watcher types (see
427 root 1.12 L<AnyEvent::Impl::Event> (source code), L<AnyEvent::Impl::Glib>
428     (Source code) and so on for actual examples, use C<perldoc -m
429     AnyEvent::Impl::Glib> to see the sources).
430 root 1.8
431 root 1.12 The above isn't fictitious, the I<rxvt-unicode> (a.k.a. urxvt)
432     uses the above line as-is. An interface isn't included in AnyEvent
433 root 1.8 because it doesn't make sense outside the embedded interpreter inside
434     I<rxvt-unicode>, and it is updated and maintained as part of the
435     I<rxvt-unicode> distribution.
436    
437 root 1.12 I<rxvt-unicode> also cheats a bit by not providing blocking access to
438     condition variables: code blocking while waiting for a condition will
439     C<die>. This still works with most modules/usages, and blocking calls must
440     not be in an interactive appliation, so it makes sense.
441    
442 root 1.7 =head1 ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES
443    
444     The following environment variables are used by this module:
445    
446     C<PERL_ANYEVENT_VERBOSE> when set to C<2> or higher, reports which event
447     model gets used.
448    
449 root 1.2 =head1 EXAMPLE
450    
451     The following program uses an io watcher to read data from stdin, a timer
452     to display a message once per second, and a condvar to exit the program
453     when the user enters quit:
454    
455     use AnyEvent;
456    
457     my $cv = AnyEvent->condvar;
458    
459     my $io_watcher = AnyEvent->io (fh => \*STDIN, poll => 'r', cb => sub {
460     warn "io event <$_[0]>\n"; # will always output <r>
461     chomp (my $input = <STDIN>); # read a line
462     warn "read: $input\n"; # output what has been read
463     $cv->broadcast if $input =~ /^q/i; # quit program if /^q/i
464     });
465    
466     my $time_watcher; # can only be used once
467    
468     sub new_timer {
469     $timer = AnyEvent->timer (after => 1, cb => sub {
470     warn "timeout\n"; # print 'timeout' about every second
471     &new_timer; # and restart the time
472     });
473     }
474    
475     new_timer; # create first timer
476    
477     $cv->wait; # wait until user enters /^q/i
478    
479 root 1.5 =head1 REAL-WORLD EXAMPLE
480    
481     Consider the L<Net::FCP> module. It features (among others) the following
482     API calls, which are to freenet what HTTP GET requests are to http:
483    
484     my $data = $fcp->client_get ($url); # blocks
485    
486     my $transaction = $fcp->txn_client_get ($url); # does not block
487     $transaction->cb ( sub { ... } ); # set optional result callback
488     my $data = $transaction->result; # possibly blocks
489    
490     The C<client_get> method works like C<LWP::Simple::get>: it requests the
491     given URL and waits till the data has arrived. It is defined to be:
492    
493     sub client_get { $_[0]->txn_client_get ($_[1])->result }
494    
495     And in fact is automatically generated. This is the blocking API of
496     L<Net::FCP>, and it works as simple as in any other, similar, module.
497    
498     More complicated is C<txn_client_get>: It only creates a transaction
499     (completion, result, ...) object and initiates the transaction.
500    
501     my $txn = bless { }, Net::FCP::Txn::;
502    
503     It also creates a condition variable that is used to signal the completion
504     of the request:
505    
506     $txn->{finished} = AnyAvent->condvar;
507    
508     It then creates a socket in non-blocking mode.
509    
510     socket $txn->{fh}, ...;
511     fcntl $txn->{fh}, F_SETFL, O_NONBLOCK;
512     connect $txn->{fh}, ...
513     and !$!{EWOULDBLOCK}
514     and !$!{EINPROGRESS}
515     and Carp::croak "unable to connect: $!\n";
516    
517 root 1.6 Then it creates a write-watcher which gets called whenever an error occurs
518 root 1.5 or the connection succeeds:
519    
520     $txn->{w} = AnyEvent->io (fh => $txn->{fh}, poll => 'w', cb => sub { $txn->fh_ready_w });
521    
522     And returns this transaction object. The C<fh_ready_w> callback gets
523     called as soon as the event loop detects that the socket is ready for
524     writing.
525    
526     The C<fh_ready_w> method makes the socket blocking again, writes the
527     request data and replaces the watcher by a read watcher (waiting for reply
528     data). The actual code is more complicated, but that doesn't matter for
529     this example:
530    
531     fcntl $txn->{fh}, F_SETFL, 0;
532     syswrite $txn->{fh}, $txn->{request}
533     or die "connection or write error";
534     $txn->{w} = AnyEvent->io (fh => $txn->{fh}, poll => 'r', cb => sub { $txn->fh_ready_r });
535    
536     Again, C<fh_ready_r> waits till all data has arrived, and then stores the
537     result and signals any possible waiters that the request ahs finished:
538    
539     sysread $txn->{fh}, $txn->{buf}, length $txn->{$buf};
540    
541     if (end-of-file or data complete) {
542     $txn->{result} = $txn->{buf};
543     $txn->{finished}->broadcast;
544 root 1.6 $txb->{cb}->($txn) of $txn->{cb}; # also call callback
545 root 1.5 }
546    
547     The C<result> method, finally, just waits for the finished signal (if the
548     request was already finished, it doesn't wait, of course, and returns the
549     data:
550    
551     $txn->{finished}->wait;
552 root 1.6 return $txn->{result};
553 root 1.5
554     The actual code goes further and collects all errors (C<die>s, exceptions)
555     that occured during request processing. The C<result> method detects
556     wether an exception as thrown (it is stored inside the $txn object)
557     and just throws the exception, which means connection errors and other
558     problems get reported tot he code that tries to use the result, not in a
559     random callback.
560    
561     All of this enables the following usage styles:
562    
563     1. Blocking:
564    
565     my $data = $fcp->client_get ($url);
566    
567     2. Blocking, but parallelizing:
568    
569     my @datas = map $_->result,
570     map $fcp->txn_client_get ($_),
571     @urls;
572    
573     Both blocking examples work without the module user having to know
574     anything about events.
575    
576     3a. Event-based in a main program, using any support Event module:
577    
578     use Event;
579    
580     $fcp->txn_client_get ($url)->cb (sub {
581     my $txn = shift;
582     my $data = $txn->result;
583     ...
584     });
585    
586     Event::loop;
587    
588     3b. The module user could use AnyEvent, too:
589    
590     use AnyEvent;
591    
592     my $quit = AnyEvent->condvar;
593    
594     $fcp->txn_client_get ($url)->cb (sub {
595     ...
596     $quit->broadcast;
597     });
598    
599     $quit->wait;
600    
601 root 1.2 =head1 SEE ALSO
602    
603 root 1.5 Event modules: L<Coro::Event>, L<Coro>, L<Event>, L<Glib::Event>, L<Glib>.
604    
605     Implementations: L<AnyEvent::Impl::Coro>, L<AnyEvent::Impl::Event>, L<AnyEvent::Impl::Glib>, L<AnyEvent::Impl::Tk>.
606    
607     Nontrivial usage example: L<Net::FCP>.
608 root 1.2
609     =head1
610    
611     =cut
612    
613     1
614 root 1.1