[ViewVC] Diff of: cvs/AnyEvent/lib/AnyEvent.pm

Comparing AnyEvent/lib/AnyEvent.pm (file contents):
Revision 1.60 by root, Fri Apr 25 01:05:26 2008 UTC vs.
Revision 1.133 by root, Sun May 25 03:44:03 2008 UTC

…		…
1	=head1 NAME	1	=head1 => NAME
2		2
3	AnyEvent - provide framework for multiple event loops	3	AnyEvent - provide framework for multiple event loops
4		4
5	EV, Event, Coro::EV, Coro::Event, Glib, Tk, Perl, Event::Lib, Qt - various supported event loops	5	EV, Event, Glib, Tk, Perl, Event::Lib, Qt, POE - various supported event loops
6		6
7	=head1 SYNOPSIS	7	=head1 SYNOPSIS
8		8
9	use AnyEvent;	9	use AnyEvent;
10		10
15	my $w = AnyEvent->timer (after => $seconds, cb => sub {	15	my $w = AnyEvent->timer (after => $seconds, cb => sub {
16	...	16	...
17	});	17	});
18		18
19	my $w = AnyEvent->condvar; # stores whether a condition was flagged	19	my $w = AnyEvent->condvar; # stores whether a condition was flagged
		20	$w->send; # wake up current and all future recv's
20	$w->wait; # enters "main loop" till $condvar gets ->broadcast	21	$w->recv; # enters "main loop" till $condvar gets ->send
21	$w->broadcast; # wake up current and all future wait's
22		22
23	=head1 WHY YOU SHOULD USE THIS MODULE (OR NOT)	23	=head1 WHY YOU SHOULD USE THIS MODULE (OR NOT)
24		24
25	Glib, POE, IO::Async, Event... CPAN offers event models by the dozen	25	Glib, POE, IO::Async, Event... CPAN offers event models by the dozen
26	nowadays. So what is different about AnyEvent?	26	nowadays. So what is different about AnyEvent?
…		…
57	as those use one of the supported event loops. It is trivial to add new	57	as those use one of the supported event loops. It is trivial to add new
58	event loops to AnyEvent, too, so it is future-proof).	58	event loops to AnyEvent, too, so it is future-proof).
59		59
60	In addition to being free of having to use I<the one and only true event	60	In addition to being free of having to use I<the one and only true event
61	model>, AnyEvent also is free of bloat and policy: with POE or similar	61	model>, AnyEvent also is free of bloat and policy: with POE or similar
62	modules, you get an enourmous amount of code and strict rules you have to	62	modules, you get an enormous amount of code and strict rules you have to
63	follow. AnyEvent, on the other hand, is lean and up to the point, by only	63	follow. AnyEvent, on the other hand, is lean and up to the point, by only
64	offering the functionality that is necessary, in as thin as a wrapper as	64	offering the functionality that is necessary, in as thin as a wrapper as
65	technically possible.	65	technically possible.
66		66
67	Of course, if you want lots of policy (this can arguably be somewhat	67	Of course, if you want lots of policy (this can arguably be somewhat
68	useful) and you want to force your users to use the one and only event	68	useful) and you want to force your users to use the one and only event
69	model, you should I<not> use this module.	69	model, you should I<not> use this module.
70
71		70
72	=head1 DESCRIPTION	71	=head1 DESCRIPTION
73		72
74	L<AnyEvent> provides an identical interface to multiple event loops. This	73	L<AnyEvent> provides an identical interface to multiple event loops. This
75	allows module authors to utilise an event loop without forcing module	74	allows module authors to utilise an event loop without forcing module
…		…
78		77
79	The interface itself is vaguely similar, but not identical to the L<Event>	78	The interface itself is vaguely similar, but not identical to the L<Event>
80	module.	79	module.
81		80
82	During the first call of any watcher-creation method, the module tries	81	During the first call of any watcher-creation method, the module tries
83	to detect the currently loaded event loop by probing whether one of	82	to detect the currently loaded event loop by probing whether one of the
84	the following modules is already loaded: L<Coro::EV>, L<Coro::Event>,	83	following modules is already loaded: L<EV>,
85	L<EV>, L<Event>, L<Glib>, L<Tk>, L<Event::Lib>, L<Qt>. The first one	84	L<Event>, L<Glib>, L<AnyEvent::Impl::Perl>, L<Tk>, L<Event::Lib>, L<Qt>,
86	found is used. If none are found, the module tries to load these modules	85	L<POE>. The first one found is used. If none are found, the module tries
87	(excluding Event::Lib and Qt) in the order given. The first one that can	86	to load these modules (excluding Tk, Event::Lib, Qt and POE as the pure perl
		87	adaptor should always succeed) in the order given. The first one that can
88	be successfully loaded will be used. If, after this, still none could be	88	be successfully loaded will be used. If, after this, still none could be
89	found, AnyEvent will fall back to a pure-perl event loop, which is not	89	found, AnyEvent will fall back to a pure-perl event loop, which is not
90	very efficient, but should work everywhere.	90	very efficient, but should work everywhere.
91		91
92	Because AnyEvent first checks for modules that are already loaded, loading	92	Because AnyEvent first checks for modules that are already loaded, loading
…		…
108		108
109	=head1 WATCHERS	109	=head1 WATCHERS
110		110
111	AnyEvent has the central concept of a I<watcher>, which is an object that	111	AnyEvent has the central concept of a I<watcher>, which is an object that
112	stores relevant data for each kind of event you are waiting for, such as	112	stores relevant data for each kind of event you are waiting for, such as
113	the callback to call, the filehandle to watch, etc.	113	the callback to call, the file handle to watch, etc.
114		114
115	These watchers are normal Perl objects with normal Perl lifetime. After	115	These watchers are normal Perl objects with normal Perl lifetime. After
116	creating a watcher it will immediately "watch" for events and invoke the	116	creating a watcher it will immediately "watch" for events and invoke the
117	callback when the event occurs (of course, only when the event model	117	callback when the event occurs (of course, only when the event model
118	is in control).	118	is in control).
…		…
135		135
136	Note that C<my $w; $w => combination. This is necessary because in Perl,	136	Note that C<my $w; $w => combination. This is necessary because in Perl,
137	my variables are only visible after the statement in which they are	137	my variables are only visible after the statement in which they are
138	declared.	138	declared.
139		139
140	=head2 IO WATCHERS	140	=head2 I/O WATCHERS
141		141
142	You can create an I/O watcher by calling the C<< AnyEvent->io >> method	142	You can create an I/O watcher by calling the C<< AnyEvent->io >> method
143	with the following mandatory key-value pairs as arguments:	143	with the following mandatory key-value pairs as arguments:
144		144
145	C<fh> the Perl I<file handle> (I<not> file descriptor) to watch for	145	C<fh> the Perl I<file handle> (I<not> file descriptor) to watch
146	events. C<poll> must be a string that is either C<r> or C<w>, which	146	for events. C<poll> must be a string that is either C<r> or C<w>,
147	creates a watcher waiting for "r"eadable or "w"ritable events,	147	which creates a watcher waiting for "r"eadable or "w"ritable events,
148	respectively. C<cb> is the callback to invoke each time the file handle	148	respectively. C<cb> is the callback to invoke each time the file handle
149	becomes ready.	149	becomes ready.
150		150
151	As long as the I/O watcher exists it will keep the file descriptor or a	151	Although the callback might get passed parameters, their value and
152	copy of it alive/open.	152	presence is undefined and you cannot rely on them. Portable AnyEvent
		153	callbacks cannot use arguments passed to I/O watcher callbacks.
153		154
		155	The I/O watcher might use the underlying file descriptor or a copy of it.
154	It is not allowed to close a file handle as long as any watcher is active	156	You must not close a file handle as long as any watcher is active on the
155	on the underlying file descriptor.	157	underlying file descriptor.
156		158
157	Some event loops issue spurious readyness notifications, so you should	159	Some event loops issue spurious readyness notifications, so you should
158	always use non-blocking calls when reading/writing from/to your file	160	always use non-blocking calls when reading/writing from/to your file
159	handles.	161	handles.
160		162
…		…
171		173
172	You can create a time watcher by calling the C<< AnyEvent->timer >>	174	You can create a time watcher by calling the C<< AnyEvent->timer >>
173	method with the following mandatory arguments:	175	method with the following mandatory arguments:
174		176
175	C<after> specifies after how many seconds (fractional values are	177	C<after> specifies after how many seconds (fractional values are
176	supported) should the timer activate. C<cb> the callback to invoke in that	178	supported) the callback should be invoked. C<cb> is the callback to invoke
177	case.	179	in that case.
		180
		181	Although the callback might get passed parameters, their value and
		182	presence is undefined and you cannot rely on them. Portable AnyEvent
		183	callbacks cannot use arguments passed to time watcher callbacks.
178		184
179	The timer callback will be invoked at most once: if you want a repeating	185	The timer callback will be invoked at most once: if you want a repeating
180	timer you have to create a new watcher (this is a limitation by both Tk	186	timer you have to create a new watcher (this is a limitation by both Tk
181	and Glib).	187	and Glib).
182		188
…		…
227		233
228	You can watch for signals using a signal watcher, C<signal> is the signal	234	You can watch for signals using a signal watcher, C<signal> is the signal
229	I<name> without any C<SIG> prefix, C<cb> is the Perl callback to	235	I<name> without any C<SIG> prefix, C<cb> is the Perl callback to
230	be invoked whenever a signal occurs.	236	be invoked whenever a signal occurs.
231		237
		238	Although the callback might get passed parameters, their value and
		239	presence is undefined and you cannot rely on them. Portable AnyEvent
		240	callbacks cannot use arguments passed to signal watcher callbacks.
		241
232	Multiple signal occurances can be clumped together into one callback	242	Multiple signal occurrences can be clumped together into one callback
233	invocation, and callback invocation will be synchronous. synchronous means	243	invocation, and callback invocation will be synchronous. Synchronous means
234	that it might take a while until the signal gets handled by the process,	244	that it might take a while until the signal gets handled by the process,
235	but it is guarenteed not to interrupt any other callbacks.	245	but it is guaranteed not to interrupt any other callbacks.
236		246
237	The main advantage of using these watchers is that you can share a signal	247	The main advantage of using these watchers is that you can share a signal
238	between multiple watchers.	248	between multiple watchers.
239		249
240	This watcher might use C<%SIG>, so programs overwriting those signals	250	This watcher might use C<%SIG>, so programs overwriting those signals
…		…
250		260
251	The child process is specified by the C<pid> argument (if set to C<0>, it	261	The child process is specified by the C<pid> argument (if set to C<0>, it
252	watches for any child process exit). The watcher will trigger as often	262	watches for any child process exit). The watcher will trigger as often
253	as status change for the child are received. This works by installing a	263	as status change for the child are received. This works by installing a
254	signal handler for C<SIGCHLD>. The callback will be called with the pid	264	signal handler for C<SIGCHLD>. The callback will be called with the pid
255	and exit status (as returned by waitpid).	265	and exit status (as returned by waitpid), so unlike other watcher types,
		266	you I<can> rely on child watcher callback arguments.
256		267
257	Example: wait for pid 1333	268	There is a slight catch to child watchers, however: you usually start them
		269	I<after> the child process was created, and this means the process could
		270	have exited already (and no SIGCHLD will be sent anymore).
		271
		272	Not all event models handle this correctly (POE doesn't), but even for
		273	event models that I<do> handle this correctly, they usually need to be
		274	loaded before the process exits (i.e. before you fork in the first place).
		275
		276	This means you cannot create a child watcher as the very first thing in an
		277	AnyEvent program, you I<have> to create at least one watcher before you
		278	C<fork> the child (alternatively, you can call C<AnyEvent::detect>).
		279
		280	Example: fork a process and wait for it
		281
		282	my $done = AnyEvent->condvar;
		283
		284	my $pid = fork or exit 5;
258		285
259	my $w = AnyEvent->child (	286	my $w = AnyEvent->child (
260	pid => 1333,	287	pid => $pid,
261	cb => sub {	288	cb => sub {
262	my ($pid, $status) = @_;	289	my ($pid, $status) = @_;
263	warn "pid $pid exited with status $status";	290	warn "pid $pid exited with status $status";
		291	$done->send;
264	},	292	},
265	);	293	);
266		294
		295	# do something else, then wait for process exit
		296	$done->recv;
		297
267	=head2 CONDITION VARIABLES	298	=head2 CONDITION VARIABLES
268		299
		300	If you are familiar with some event loops you will know that all of them
		301	require you to run some blocking "loop", "run" or similar function that
		302	will actively watch for new events and call your callbacks.
		303
		304	AnyEvent is different, it expects somebody else to run the event loop and
		305	will only block when necessary (usually when told by the user).
		306
		307	The instrument to do that is called a "condition variable", so called
		308	because they represent a condition that must become true.
		309
269	Condition variables can be created by calling the C<< AnyEvent->condvar >>	310	Condition variables can be created by calling the C<< AnyEvent->condvar
270	method without any arguments.	311	>> method, usually without arguments. The only argument pair allowed is
		312	C<cb>, which specifies a callback to be called when the condition variable
		313	becomes true.
271		314
272	A condition variable waits for a condition - precisely that the C<<	315	After creation, the condition variable is "false" until it becomes "true"
273	->broadcast >> method has been called.	316	by calling the C<send> method (or calling the condition variable as if it
		317	were a callback).
274		318
275	They are very useful to signal that a condition has been fulfilled, for	319	Condition variables are similar to callbacks, except that you can
		320	optionally wait for them. They can also be called merge points - points
		321	in time where multiple outstanding events have been processed. And yet
		322	another way to call them is transactions - each condition variable can be
		323	used to represent a transaction, which finishes at some point and delivers
		324	a result.
		325
		326	Condition variables are very useful to signal that something has finished,
276	example, if you write a module that does asynchronous http requests,	327	for example, if you write a module that does asynchronous http requests,
277	then a condition variable would be the ideal candidate to signal the	328	then a condition variable would be the ideal candidate to signal the
278	availability of results.	329	availability of results. The user can either act when the callback is
		330	called or can synchronously C<< ->recv >> for the results.
279		331
280	You can also use condition variables to block your main program until	332	You can also use them to simulate traditional event loops - for example,
281	an event occurs - for example, you could C<< ->wait >> in your main	333	you can block your main program until an event occurs - for example, you
282	program until the user clicks the Quit button in your app, which would C<<	334	could C<< ->recv >> in your main program until the user clicks the Quit
283	->broadcast >> the "quit" event.	335	button of your app, which would C<< ->send >> the "quit" event.
284		336
285	Note that condition variables recurse into the event loop - if you have	337	Note that condition variables recurse into the event loop - if you have
286	two pirces of code that call C<< ->wait >> in a round-robbin fashion, you	338	two pieces of code that call C<< ->recv >> in a round-robin fashion, you
287	lose. Therefore, condition variables are good to export to your caller, but	339	lose. Therefore, condition variables are good to export to your caller, but
288	you should avoid making a blocking wait yourself, at least in callbacks,	340	you should avoid making a blocking wait yourself, at least in callbacks,
289	as this asks for trouble.	341	as this asks for trouble.
290		342
291	This object has two methods:	343	Condition variables are represented by hash refs in perl, and the keys
		344	used by AnyEvent itself are all named C<_ae_XXX> to make subclassing
		345	easy (it is often useful to build your own transaction class on top of
		346	AnyEvent). To subclass, use C<AnyEvent::CondVar> as base class and call
		347	it's C<new> method in your own C<new> method.
		348
		349	There are two "sides" to a condition variable - the "producer side" which
		350	eventually calls C<< -> send >>, and the "consumer side", which waits
		351	for the send to occur.
		352
		353	Example: wait for a timer.
		354
		355	# wait till the result is ready
		356	my $result_ready = AnyEvent->condvar;
		357
		358	# do something such as adding a timer
		359	# or socket watcher the calls $result_ready->send
		360	# when the "result" is ready.
		361	# in this case, we simply use a timer:
		362	my $w = AnyEvent->timer (
		363	after => 1,
		364	cb => sub { $result_ready->send },
		365	);
		366
		367	# this "blocks" (while handling events) till the callback
		368	# calls send
		369	$result_ready->recv;
		370
		371	Example: wait for a timer, but take advantage of the fact that
		372	condition variables are also code references.
		373
		374	my $done = AnyEvent->condvar;
		375	my $delay = AnyEvent->timer (after => 5, cb => $done);
		376	$done->recv;
		377
		378	=head3 METHODS FOR PRODUCERS
		379
		380	These methods should only be used by the producing side, i.e. the
		381	code/module that eventually sends the signal. Note that it is also
		382	the producer side which creates the condvar in most cases, but it isn't
		383	uncommon for the consumer to create it as well.
292		384
293	=over 4	385	=over 4
294		386
		387	=item $cv->send (...)
		388
		389	Flag the condition as ready - a running C<< ->recv >> and all further
		390	calls to C<recv> will (eventually) return after this method has been
		391	called. If nobody is waiting the send will be remembered.
		392
		393	If a callback has been set on the condition variable, it is called
		394	immediately from within send.
		395
		396	Any arguments passed to the C<send> call will be returned by all
		397	future C<< ->recv >> calls.
		398
		399	Condition variables are overloaded so one can call them directly (as a
		400	code reference). Calling them directly is the same as calling C<send>.
		401
		402	=item $cv->croak ($error)
		403
		404	Similar to send, but causes all call's to C<< ->recv >> to invoke
		405	C<Carp::croak> with the given error message/object/scalar.
		406
		407	This can be used to signal any errors to the condition variable
		408	user/consumer.
		409
		410	=item $cv->begin ([group callback])
		411
295	=item $cv->wait	412	=item $cv->end
296		413
297	Wait (blocking if necessary) until the C<< ->broadcast >> method has been	414	These two methods are EXPERIMENTAL and MIGHT CHANGE.
		415
		416	These two methods can be used to combine many transactions/events into
		417	one. For example, a function that pings many hosts in parallel might want
		418	to use a condition variable for the whole process.
		419
		420	Every call to C<< ->begin >> will increment a counter, and every call to
		421	C<< ->end >> will decrement it. If the counter reaches C<0> in C<< ->end
		422	>>, the (last) callback passed to C<begin> will be executed. That callback
		423	is I<supposed> to call C<< ->send >>, but that is not required. If no
		424	callback was set, C<send> will be called without any arguments.
		425
		426	Let's clarify this with the ping example:
		427
		428	my $cv = AnyEvent->condvar;
		429
		430	my %result;
		431	$cv->begin (sub { $cv->send (\%result) });
		432
		433	for my $host (@list_of_hosts) {
		434	$cv->begin;
		435	ping_host_then_call_callback $host, sub {
		436	$result{$host} = ...;
		437	$cv->end;
		438	};
		439	}
		440
		441	$cv->end;
		442
		443	This code fragment supposedly pings a number of hosts and calls
		444	C<send> after results for all then have have been gathered - in any
		445	order. To achieve this, the code issues a call to C<begin> when it starts
		446	each ping request and calls C<end> when it has received some result for
		447	it. Since C<begin> and C<end> only maintain a counter, the order in which
		448	results arrive is not relevant.
		449
		450	There is an additional bracketing call to C<begin> and C<end> outside the
		451	loop, which serves two important purposes: first, it sets the callback
		452	to be called once the counter reaches C<0>, and second, it ensures that
		453	C<send> is called even when C<no> hosts are being pinged (the loop
		454	doesn't execute once).
		455
		456	This is the general pattern when you "fan out" into multiple subrequests:
		457	use an outer C<begin>/C<end> pair to set the callback and ensure C<end>
		458	is called at least once, and then, for each subrequest you start, call
		459	C<begin> and for each subrequest you finish, call C<end>.
		460
		461	=back
		462
		463	=head3 METHODS FOR CONSUMERS
		464
		465	These methods should only be used by the consuming side, i.e. the
		466	code awaits the condition.
		467
		468	=over 4
		469
		470	=item $cv->recv
		471
		472	Wait (blocking if necessary) until the C<< ->send >> or C<< ->croak
298	called on c<$cv>, while servicing other watchers normally.	473	>> methods have been called on c<$cv>, while servicing other watchers
		474	normally.
299		475
300	You can only wait once on a condition - additional calls will return	476	You can only wait once on a condition - additional calls are valid but
301	immediately.	477	will return immediately.
		478
		479	If an error condition has been set by calling C<< ->croak >>, then this
		480	function will call C<croak>.
		481
		482	In list context, all parameters passed to C<send> will be returned,
		483	in scalar context only the first one will be returned.
302		484
303	Not all event models support a blocking wait - some die in that case	485	Not all event models support a blocking wait - some die in that case
304	(programs might want to do that to stay interactive), so I<if you are	486	(programs might want to do that to stay interactive), so I<if you are
305	using this from a module, never require a blocking wait>, but let the	487	using this from a module, never require a blocking wait>, but let the
306	caller decide whether the call will block or not (for example, by coupling	488	caller decide whether the call will block or not (for example, by coupling
307	condition variables with some kind of request results and supporting	489	condition variables with some kind of request results and supporting
308	callbacks so the caller knows that getting the result will not block,	490	callbacks so the caller knows that getting the result will not block,
309	while still suppporting blocking waits if the caller so desires).	491	while still supporting blocking waits if the caller so desires).
310		492
311	Another reason I<never> to C<< ->wait >> in a module is that you cannot	493	Another reason I<never> to C<< ->recv >> in a module is that you cannot
312	sensibly have two C<< ->wait >>'s in parallel, as that would require	494	sensibly have two C<< ->recv >>'s in parallel, as that would require
313	multiple interpreters or coroutines/threads, none of which C<AnyEvent>	495	multiple interpreters or coroutines/threads, none of which C<AnyEvent>
314	can supply (the coroutine-aware backends L<AnyEvent::Impl::CoroEV> and	496	can supply.
315	L<AnyEvent::Impl::CoroEvent> explicitly support concurrent C<< ->wait >>'s
316	from different coroutines, however).
317		497
318	=item $cv->broadcast	498	The L<Coro> module, however, I<can> and I<does> supply coroutines and, in
		499	fact, L<Coro::AnyEvent> replaces AnyEvent's condvars by coroutine-safe
		500	versions and also integrates coroutines into AnyEvent, making blocking
		501	C<< ->recv >> calls perfectly safe as long as they are done from another
		502	coroutine (one that doesn't run the event loop).
319		503
320	Flag the condition as ready - a running C<< ->wait >> and all further	504	You can ensure that C<< -recv >> never blocks by setting a callback and
321	calls to C<wait> will (eventually) return after this method has been	505	only calling C<< ->recv >> from within that callback (or at a later
322	called. If nobody is waiting the broadcast will be remembered..	506	time). This will work even when the event loop does not support blocking
		507	waits otherwise.
		508
		509	=item $bool = $cv->ready
		510
		511	Returns true when the condition is "true", i.e. whether C<send> or
		512	C<croak> have been called.
		513
		514	=item $cb = $cv->cb ([new callback])
		515
		516	This is a mutator function that returns the callback set and optionally
		517	replaces it before doing so.
		518
		519	The callback will be called when the condition becomes "true", i.e. when
		520	C<send> or C<croak> are called. Calling C<recv> inside the callback
		521	or at any later time is guaranteed not to block.
323		522
324	=back	523	=back
325		524
326	Example:	525	=head3 MAINLOOP EMULATION
327		526
328	# wait till the result is ready	527	Sometimes (often for short test scripts, or even standalone programs
329	my $result_ready = AnyEvent->condvar;	528	who only want to use AnyEvent), you I<do> want your program to block
		529	indefinitely in some event loop.
330		530
331	# do something such as adding a timer	531	In that case, you cna use a condition variable like this:
332	# or socket watcher the calls $result_ready->broadcast
333	# when the "result" is ready.
334	# in this case, we simply use a timer:
335	my $w = AnyEvent->timer (
336	after => 1,
337	cb => sub { $result_ready->broadcast },
338	);
339		532
340	# this "blocks" (while handling events) till the watcher	533	AnyEvent->condvar->recv;
341	# calls broadcast	534
342	$result_ready->wait;	535	This has the effect of entering the event loop and looping forever.
		536
		537	Note that usually your program has some exit condition, in which case
		538	it is better to use the "traditional" approach of storing a condition
		539	variable, waiting for it, and sending it when the program should exit
		540	cleanly.
		541
343		542
344	=head1 GLOBAL VARIABLES AND FUNCTIONS	543	=head1 GLOBAL VARIABLES AND FUNCTIONS
345		544
346	=over 4	545	=over 4
347		546
…		…
353	C<AnyEvent::Impl:xxx> modules, but can be any other class in the case	552	C<AnyEvent::Impl:xxx> modules, but can be any other class in the case
354	AnyEvent has been extended at runtime (e.g. in I<rxvt-unicode>).	553	AnyEvent has been extended at runtime (e.g. in I<rxvt-unicode>).
355		554
356	The known classes so far are:	555	The known classes so far are:
357		556
358	AnyEvent::Impl::CoroEV based on Coro::EV, best choice.
359	AnyEvent::Impl::CoroEvent based on Coro::Event, second best choice.
360	AnyEvent::Impl::EV based on EV (an interface to libev, best choice).	557	AnyEvent::Impl::EV based on EV (an interface to libev, best choice).
361	AnyEvent::Impl::Event based on Event, second best choice.	558	AnyEvent::Impl::Event based on Event, second best choice.
		559	AnyEvent::Impl::Perl pure-perl implementation, fast and portable.
362	AnyEvent::Impl::Glib based on Glib, third-best choice.	560	AnyEvent::Impl::Glib based on Glib, third-best choice.
363	AnyEvent::Impl::Tk based on Tk, very bad choice.	561	AnyEvent::Impl::Tk based on Tk, very bad choice.
364	AnyEvent::Impl::Perl pure-perl implementation, inefficient but portable.
365	AnyEvent::Impl::Qt based on Qt, cannot be autoprobed (see its docs).	562	AnyEvent::Impl::Qt based on Qt, cannot be autoprobed (see its docs).
366	AnyEvent::Impl::EventLib based on Event::Lib, leaks memory and worse.	563	AnyEvent::Impl::EventLib based on Event::Lib, leaks memory and worse.
		564	AnyEvent::Impl::POE based on POE, not generic enough for full support.
		565
		566	There is no support for WxWidgets, as WxWidgets has no support for
		567	watching file handles. However, you can use WxWidgets through the
		568	POE Adaptor, as POE has a Wx backend that simply polls 20 times per
		569	second, which was considered to be too horrible to even consider for
		570	AnyEvent. Likewise, other POE backends can be used by AnyEvent by using
		571	it's adaptor.
		572
		573	AnyEvent knows about L<Prima> and L<Wx> and will try to use L<POE> when
		574	autodetecting them.
367		575
368	=item AnyEvent::detect	576	=item AnyEvent::detect
369		577
370	Returns C<$AnyEvent::MODEL>, forcing autodetection of the event model	578	Returns C<$AnyEvent::MODEL>, forcing autodetection of the event model
371	if necessary. You should only call this function right before you would	579	if necessary. You should only call this function right before you would
372	have created an AnyEvent watcher anyway, that is, as late as possible at	580	have created an AnyEvent watcher anyway, that is, as late as possible at
373	runtime.	581	runtime.
374		582
		583	=item $guard = AnyEvent::post_detect { BLOCK }
		584
		585	Arranges for the code block to be executed as soon as the event model is
		586	autodetected (or immediately if this has already happened).
		587
		588	If called in scalar or list context, then it creates and returns an object
		589	that automatically removes the callback again when it is destroyed. See
		590	L<Coro::BDB> for a case where this is useful.
		591
		592	=item @AnyEvent::post_detect
		593
		594	If there are any code references in this array (you can C<push> to it
		595	before or after loading AnyEvent), then they will called directly after
		596	the event loop has been chosen.
		597
		598	You should check C<$AnyEvent::MODEL> before adding to this array, though:
		599	if it contains a true value then the event loop has already been detected,
		600	and the array will be ignored.
		601
		602	Best use C<AnyEvent::post_detect { BLOCK }> instead.
		603
375	=back	604	=back
376		605
377	=head1 WHAT TO DO IN A MODULE	606	=head1 WHAT TO DO IN A MODULE
378		607
379	As a module author, you should C<use AnyEvent> and call AnyEvent methods	608	As a module author, you should C<use AnyEvent> and call AnyEvent methods
…		…
382	Be careful when you create watchers in the module body - AnyEvent will	611	Be careful when you create watchers in the module body - AnyEvent will
383	decide which event module to use as soon as the first method is called, so	612	decide which event module to use as soon as the first method is called, so
384	by calling AnyEvent in your module body you force the user of your module	613	by calling AnyEvent in your module body you force the user of your module
385	to load the event module first.	614	to load the event module first.
386		615
387	Never call C<< ->wait >> on a condition variable unless you I<know> that	616	Never call C<< ->recv >> on a condition variable unless you I<know> that
388	the C<< ->broadcast >> method has been called on it already. This is	617	the C<< ->send >> method has been called on it already. This is
389	because it will stall the whole program, and the whole point of using	618	because it will stall the whole program, and the whole point of using
390	events is to stay interactive.	619	events is to stay interactive.
391		620
392	It is fine, however, to call C<< ->wait >> when the user of your module	621	It is fine, however, to call C<< ->recv >> when the user of your module
393	requests it (i.e. if you create a http request object ad have a method	622	requests it (i.e. if you create a http request object ad have a method
394	called C<results> that returns the results, it should call C<< ->wait >>	623	called C<results> that returns the results, it should call C<< ->recv >>
395	freely, as the user of your module knows what she is doing. always).	624	freely, as the user of your module knows what she is doing. always).
396		625
397	=head1 WHAT TO DO IN THE MAIN PROGRAM	626	=head1 WHAT TO DO IN THE MAIN PROGRAM
398		627
399	There will always be a single main program - the only place that should	628	There will always be a single main program - the only place that should
…		…
413		642
414	You can chose to use a rather inefficient pure-perl implementation by	643	You can chose to use a rather inefficient pure-perl implementation by
415	loading the C<AnyEvent::Impl::Perl> module, which gives you similar	644	loading the C<AnyEvent::Impl::Perl> module, which gives you similar
416	behaviour everywhere, but letting AnyEvent chose is generally better.	645	behaviour everywhere, but letting AnyEvent chose is generally better.
417		646
		647	=head1 OTHER MODULES
		648
		649	The following is a non-exhaustive list of additional modules that use
		650	AnyEvent and can therefore be mixed easily with other AnyEvent modules
		651	in the same program. Some of the modules come with AnyEvent, some are
		652	available via CPAN.
		653
		654	=over 4
		655
		656	=item L<AnyEvent::Util>
		657
		658	Contains various utility functions that replace often-used but blocking
		659	functions such as C<inet_aton> by event-/callback-based versions.
		660
		661	=item L<AnyEvent::Handle>
		662
		663	Provide read and write buffers and manages watchers for reads and writes.
		664
		665	=item L<AnyEvent::Socket>
		666
		667	Provides various utility functions for (internet protocol) sockets,
		668	addresses and name resolution. Also functions to create non-blocking tcp
		669	connections or tcp servers, with IPv6 and SRV record support and more.
		670
		671	=item L<AnyEvent::HTTPD>
		672
		673	Provides a simple web application server framework.
		674
		675	=item L<AnyEvent::DNS>
		676
		677	Provides rich asynchronous DNS resolver capabilities.
		678
		679	=item L<AnyEvent::FastPing>
		680
		681	The fastest ping in the west.
		682
		683	=item L<Net::IRC3>
		684
		685	AnyEvent based IRC client module family.
		686
		687	=item L<Net::XMPP2>
		688
		689	AnyEvent based XMPP (Jabber protocol) module family.
		690
		691	=item L<Net::FCP>
		692
		693	AnyEvent-based implementation of the Freenet Client Protocol, birthplace
		694	of AnyEvent.
		695
		696	=item L<Event::ExecFlow>
		697
		698	High level API for event-based execution flow control.
		699
		700	=item L<Coro>
		701
		702	Has special support for AnyEvent via L<Coro::AnyEvent>.
		703
		704	=item L<AnyEvent::AIO>, L<IO::AIO>
		705
		706	Truly asynchronous I/O, should be in the toolbox of every event
		707	programmer. AnyEvent::AIO transparently fuses IO::AIO and AnyEvent
		708	together.
		709
		710	=item L<AnyEvent::BDB>, L<BDB>
		711
		712	Truly asynchronous Berkeley DB access. AnyEvent::AIO transparently fuses
		713	IO::AIO and AnyEvent together.
		714
		715	=item L<IO::Lambda>
		716
		717	The lambda approach to I/O - don't ask, look there. Can use AnyEvent.
		718
		719	=back
		720
418	=cut	721	=cut
419		722
420	package AnyEvent;	723	package AnyEvent;
421		724
422	no warnings;	725	no warnings;
423	use strict;	726	use strict;
424		727
425	use Carp;	728	use Carp;
426		729
427	our $VERSION = '3.2';	730	our $VERSION = '4.03';
428	our $MODEL;	731	our $MODEL;
429		732
430	our $AUTOLOAD;	733	our $AUTOLOAD;
431	our @ISA;	734	our @ISA;
432		735
433	our $verbose = $ENV{PERL_ANYEVENT_VERBOSE}*1;	736	our $verbose = $ENV{PERL_ANYEVENT_VERBOSE}*1;
434		737
435	our @REGISTRY;	738	our @REGISTRY;
436		739
		740	our %PROTOCOL; # (ipv4\|ipv6) => (1\|2)
		741
		742	{
		743	my $idx;
		744	$PROTOCOL{$_} = ++$idx
		745	for split /\s,\s/, $ENV{PERL_ANYEVENT_PROTOCOLS} \|\| "ipv4,ipv6";
		746	}
		747
437	my @models = (	748	my @models = (
438	[Coro::EV:: => AnyEvent::Impl::CoroEV::],
439	[Coro::Event:: => AnyEvent::Impl::CoroEvent::],
440	[EV:: => AnyEvent::Impl::EV::],	749	[EV:: => AnyEvent::Impl::EV::],
441	[Event:: => AnyEvent::Impl::Event::],	750	[Event:: => AnyEvent::Impl::Event::],
		751	[Tk:: => AnyEvent::Impl::Tk::],
		752	[Wx:: => AnyEvent::Impl::POE::],
		753	[Prima:: => AnyEvent::Impl::POE::],
		754	[AnyEvent::Impl::Perl:: => AnyEvent::Impl::Perl::],
		755	# everything below here will not be autoprobed as the pureperl backend should work everywhere
442	[Glib:: => AnyEvent::Impl::Glib::],	756	[Glib:: => AnyEvent::Impl::Glib::],
443	[Tk:: => AnyEvent::Impl::Tk::],	757	[Event::Lib:: => AnyEvent::Impl::EventLib::], # too buggy
444	[AnyEvent::Impl::Perl:: => AnyEvent::Impl::Perl::],	758	[Qt:: => AnyEvent::Impl::Qt::], # requires special main program
		759	[POE::Kernel:: => AnyEvent::Impl::POE::], # lasciate ogni speranza
445	);	760	);
446	my @models_detect = (
447	[Qt:: => AnyEvent::Impl::Qt::], # requires special main program
448	[Event::Lib:: => AnyEvent::Impl::EventLib::], # too buggy
449	);
450		761
451	our %method = map +($_ => 1), qw(io timer signal child condvar broadcast wait one_event DESTROY);	762	our %method = map +($_ => 1), qw(io timer signal child condvar one_event DESTROY);
		763
		764	our @post_detect;
		765
		766	sub post_detect(&) {
		767	my ($cb) = @_;
		768
		769	if ($MODEL) {
		770	$cb->();
		771
		772	1
		773	} else {
		774	push @post_detect, $cb;
		775
		776	defined wantarray
		777	? bless \$cb, "AnyEvent::Util::PostDetect"
		778	: ()
		779	}
		780	}
		781
		782	sub AnyEvent::Util::PostDetect::DESTROY {
		783	@post_detect = grep $_ != ${$_[0]}, @post_detect;
		784	}
452		785
453	sub detect() {	786	sub detect() {
454	unless ($MODEL) {	787	unless ($MODEL) {
455	no strict 'refs';	788	no strict 'refs';
456		789
…		…
464	}	797	}
465	}	798	}
466		799
467	# check for already loaded models	800	# check for already loaded models
468	unless ($MODEL) {	801	unless ($MODEL) {
469	for (@REGISTRY, @models, @models_detect) {	802	for (@REGISTRY, @models) {
470	my ($package, $model) = @$_;	803	my ($package, $model) = @$_;
471	if (${"$package\::VERSION"} > 0) {	804	if (${"$package\::VERSION"} > 0) {
472	if (eval "require $model") {	805	if (eval "require $model") {
473	$MODEL = $model;	806	$MODEL = $model;
474	warn "AnyEvent: autodetected model '$model', using it.\n" if $verbose > 1;	807	warn "AnyEvent: autodetected model '$model', using it.\n" if $verbose > 1;
…		…
490	last;	823	last;
491	}	824	}
492	}	825	}
493		826
494	$MODEL	827	$MODEL
495	or die "No event module selected for AnyEvent and autodetect failed. Install any one of these modules: EV (or Coro+EV), Event (or Coro+Event) or Glib.";	828	or die "No event module selected for AnyEvent and autodetect failed. Install any one of these modules: EV, Event or Glib.";
496	}	829	}
497	}	830	}
498		831
499	unshift @ISA, $MODEL;	832	unshift @ISA, $MODEL;
500	push @{"$MODEL\::ISA"}, "AnyEvent::Base";	833	push @{"$MODEL\::ISA"}, "AnyEvent::Base";
		834
		835	(shift @post_detect)->() while @post_detect;
501	}	836	}
502		837
503	$MODEL	838	$MODEL
504	}	839	}
505		840
…		…
515	$class->$func (@_);	850	$class->$func (@_);
516	}	851	}
517		852
518	package AnyEvent::Base;	853	package AnyEvent::Base;
519		854
520	# default implementation for ->condvar, ->wait, ->broadcast	855	# default implementation for ->condvar
521		856
522	sub condvar {	857	sub condvar {
523	bless \my $flag, "AnyEvent::Base::CondVar"	858	bless { @_ == 3 ? (_ae_cb => $_[2]) : () }, AnyEvent::CondVar::
524	}
525
526	sub AnyEvent::Base::CondVar::broadcast {
527	${$_[0]}++;
528	}
529
530	sub AnyEvent::Base::CondVar::wait {
531	AnyEvent->one_event while !${$_[0]};
532	}	859	}
533		860
534	# default implementation for ->signal	861	# default implementation for ->signal
535		862
536	our %SIG_CB;	863	our %SIG_CB;
…		…
610	delete $PID_CB{$pid} unless keys %{ $PID_CB{$pid} };	937	delete $PID_CB{$pid} unless keys %{ $PID_CB{$pid} };
611		938
612	undef $CHLD_W unless keys %PID_CB;	939	undef $CHLD_W unless keys %PID_CB;
613	}	940	}
614		941
		942	package AnyEvent::CondVar;
		943
		944	our @ISA = AnyEvent::CondVar::Base::;
		945
		946	package AnyEvent::CondVar::Base;
		947
		948	use overload
		949	'&{}' => sub { my $self = shift; sub { $self->send (@_) } },
		950	fallback => 1;
		951
		952	sub _send {
		953	# nop
		954	}
		955
		956	sub send {
		957	my $cv = shift;
		958	$cv->{_ae_sent} = [@_];
		959	(delete $cv->{_ae_cb})->($cv) if $cv->{_ae_cb};
		960	$cv->_send;
		961	}
		962
		963	sub croak {
		964	$_[0]{_ae_croak} = $_[1];
		965	$_[0]->send;
		966	}
		967
		968	sub ready {
		969	$_[0]{_ae_sent}
		970	}
		971
		972	sub _wait {
		973	AnyEvent->one_event while !$_[0]{_ae_sent};
		974	}
		975
		976	sub recv {
		977	$_[0]->_wait;
		978
		979	Carp::croak $_[0]{_ae_croak} if $_[0]{_ae_croak};
		980	wantarray ? @{ $_[0]{_ae_sent} } : $_[0]{_ae_sent}[0]
		981	}
		982
		983	sub cb {
		984	$_[0]{_ae_cb} = $_[1] if @_ > 1;
		985	$_[0]{_ae_cb}
		986	}
		987
		988	sub begin {
		989	++$_[0]{_ae_counter};
		990	$_[0]{_ae_end_cb} = $_[1] if @_ > 1;
		991	}
		992
		993	sub end {
		994	return if --$_[0]{_ae_counter};
		995	&{ $_[0]{_ae_end_cb} \|\| sub { $_[0]->send } };
		996	}
		997
		998	# undocumented/compatibility with pre-3.4
		999	*broadcast = \&send;
		1000	*wait = \&_wait;
		1001
615	=head1 SUPPLYING YOUR OWN EVENT MODEL INTERFACE	1002	=head1 SUPPLYING YOUR OWN EVENT MODEL INTERFACE
616		1003
617	This is an advanced topic that you do not normally need to use AnyEvent in	1004	This is an advanced topic that you do not normally need to use AnyEvent in
618	a module. This section is only of use to event loop authors who want to	1005	a module. This section is only of use to event loop authors who want to
619	provide AnyEvent compatibility.	1006	provide AnyEvent compatibility.
…		…
675	model it chooses.	1062	model it chooses.
676		1063
677	=item C<PERL_ANYEVENT_MODEL>	1064	=item C<PERL_ANYEVENT_MODEL>
678		1065
679	This can be used to specify the event model to be used by AnyEvent, before	1066	This can be used to specify the event model to be used by AnyEvent, before
680	autodetection and -probing kicks in. It must be a string consisting	1067	auto detection and -probing kicks in. It must be a string consisting
681	entirely of ASCII letters. The string C<AnyEvent::Impl::> gets prepended	1068	entirely of ASCII letters. The string C<AnyEvent::Impl::> gets prepended
682	and the resulting module name is loaded and if the load was successful,	1069	and the resulting module name is loaded and if the load was successful,
683	used as event model. If it fails to load AnyEvent will proceed with	1070	used as event model. If it fails to load AnyEvent will proceed with
684	autodetection and -probing.	1071	auto detection and -probing.
685		1072
686	This functionality might change in future versions.	1073	This functionality might change in future versions.
687		1074
688	For example, to force the pure perl model (L<AnyEvent::Impl::Perl>) you	1075	For example, to force the pure perl model (L<AnyEvent::Impl::Perl>) you
689	could start your program like this:	1076	could start your program like this:
690		1077
691	PERL_ANYEVENT_MODEL=Perl perl ...	1078	PERL_ANYEVENT_MODEL=Perl perl ...
692		1079
		1080	=item C<PERL_ANYEVENT_PROTOCOLS>
		1081
		1082	Used by both L<AnyEvent::DNS> and L<AnyEvent::Socket> to determine preferences
		1083	for IPv4 or IPv6. The default is unspecified (and might change, or be the result
		1084	of auto probing).
		1085
		1086	Must be set to a comma-separated list of protocols or address families,
		1087	current supported: C<ipv4> and C<ipv6>. Only protocols mentioned will be
		1088	used, and preference will be given to protocols mentioned earlier in the
		1089	list.
		1090
		1091	This variable can effectively be used for denial-of-service attacks
		1092	against local programs (e.g. when setuid), although the impact is likely
		1093	small, as the program has to handle connection errors already-
		1094
		1095	Examples: C<PERL_ANYEVENT_PROTOCOLS=ipv4,ipv6> - prefer IPv4 over IPv6,
		1096	but support both and try to use both. C<PERL_ANYEVENT_PROTOCOLS=ipv4>
		1097	- only support IPv4, never try to resolve or contact IPv6
		1098	addresses. C<PERL_ANYEVENT_PROTOCOLS=ipv6,ipv4> support either IPv4 or
		1099	IPv6, but prefer IPv6 over IPv4.
		1100
		1101	=item C<PERL_ANYEVENT_EDNS0>
		1102
		1103	Used by L<AnyEvent::DNS> to decide whether to use the EDNS0 extension
		1104	for DNS. This extension is generally useful to reduce DNS traffic, but
		1105	some (broken) firewalls drop such DNS packets, which is why it is off by
		1106	default.
		1107
		1108	Setting this variable to C<1> will cause L<AnyEvent::DNS> to announce
		1109	EDNS0 in its DNS requests.
		1110
693	=back	1111	=back
694		1112
695	=head1 EXAMPLE PROGRAM	1113	=head1 EXAMPLE PROGRAM
696		1114
697	The following program uses an IO watcher to read data from STDIN, a timer	1115	The following program uses an I/O watcher to read data from STDIN, a timer
698	to display a message once per second, and a condition variable to quit the	1116	to display a message once per second, and a condition variable to quit the
699	program when the user enters quit:	1117	program when the user enters quit:
700		1118
701	use AnyEvent;	1119	use AnyEvent;
702		1120
…		…
707	poll => 'r',	1125	poll => 'r',
708	cb => sub {	1126	cb => sub {
709	warn "io event <$_[0]>\n"; # will always output <r>	1127	warn "io event <$_[0]>\n"; # will always output <r>
710	chomp (my $input = <STDIN>); # read a line	1128	chomp (my $input = <STDIN>); # read a line
711	warn "read: $input\n"; # output what has been read	1129	warn "read: $input\n"; # output what has been read
712	$cv->broadcast if $input =~ /^q/i; # quit program if /^q/i	1130	$cv->send if $input =~ /^q/i; # quit program if /^q/i
713	},	1131	},
714	);	1132	);
715		1133
716	my $time_watcher; # can only be used once	1134	my $time_watcher; # can only be used once
717		1135
…		…
722	});	1140	});
723	}	1141	}
724		1142
725	new_timer; # create first timer	1143	new_timer; # create first timer
726		1144
727	$cv->wait; # wait until user enters /^q/i	1145	$cv->recv; # wait until user enters /^q/i
728		1146
729	=head1 REAL-WORLD EXAMPLE	1147	=head1 REAL-WORLD EXAMPLE
730		1148
731	Consider the L<Net::FCP> module. It features (among others) the following	1149	Consider the L<Net::FCP> module. It features (among others) the following
732	API calls, which are to freenet what HTTP GET requests are to http:	1150	API calls, which are to freenet what HTTP GET requests are to http:
…		…
782	syswrite $txn->{fh}, $txn->{request}	1200	syswrite $txn->{fh}, $txn->{request}
783	or die "connection or write error";	1201	or die "connection or write error";
784	$txn->{w} = AnyEvent->io (fh => $txn->{fh}, poll => 'r', cb => sub { $txn->fh_ready_r });	1202	$txn->{w} = AnyEvent->io (fh => $txn->{fh}, poll => 'r', cb => sub { $txn->fh_ready_r });
785		1203
786	Again, C<fh_ready_r> waits till all data has arrived, and then stores the	1204	Again, C<fh_ready_r> waits till all data has arrived, and then stores the
787	result and signals any possible waiters that the request ahs finished:	1205	result and signals any possible waiters that the request has finished:
788		1206
789	sysread $txn->{fh}, $txn->{buf}, length $txn->{$buf};	1207	sysread $txn->{fh}, $txn->{buf}, length $txn->{$buf};
790		1208
791	if (end-of-file or data complete) {	1209	if (end-of-file or data complete) {
792	$txn->{result} = $txn->{buf};	1210	$txn->{result} = $txn->{buf};
793	$txn->{finished}->broadcast;	1211	$txn->{finished}->send;
794	$txb->{cb}->($txn) of $txn->{cb}; # also call callback	1212	$txb->{cb}->($txn) of $txn->{cb}; # also call callback
795	}	1213	}
796		1214
797	The C<result> method, finally, just waits for the finished signal (if the	1215	The C<result> method, finally, just waits for the finished signal (if the
798	request was already finished, it doesn't wait, of course, and returns the	1216	request was already finished, it doesn't wait, of course, and returns the
799	data:	1217	data:
800		1218
801	$txn->{finished}->wait;	1219	$txn->{finished}->recv;
802	return $txn->{result};	1220	return $txn->{result};
803		1221
804	The actual code goes further and collects all errors (C<die>s, exceptions)	1222	The actual code goes further and collects all errors (C<die>s, exceptions)
805	that occured during request processing. The C<result> method detects	1223	that occurred during request processing. The C<result> method detects
806	whether an exception as thrown (it is stored inside the $txn object)	1224	whether an exception as thrown (it is stored inside the $txn object)
807	and just throws the exception, which means connection errors and other	1225	and just throws the exception, which means connection errors and other
808	problems get reported tot he code that tries to use the result, not in a	1226	problems get reported tot he code that tries to use the result, not in a
809	random callback.	1227	random callback.
810		1228
…		…
841		1259
842	my $quit = AnyEvent->condvar;	1260	my $quit = AnyEvent->condvar;
843		1261
844	$fcp->txn_client_get ($url)->cb (sub {	1262	$fcp->txn_client_get ($url)->cb (sub {
845	...	1263	...
846	$quit->broadcast;	1264	$quit->send;
847	});	1265	});
848		1266
849	$quit->wait;	1267	$quit->recv;
		1268
		1269
		1270	=head1 BENCHMARKS
		1271
		1272	To give you an idea of the performance and overheads that AnyEvent adds
		1273	over the event loops themselves and to give you an impression of the speed
		1274	of various event loops I prepared some benchmarks.
		1275
		1276	=head2 BENCHMARKING ANYEVENT OVERHEAD
		1277
		1278	Here is a benchmark of various supported event models used natively and
		1279	through AnyEvent. The benchmark creates a lot of timers (with a zero
		1280	timeout) and I/O watchers (watching STDOUT, a pty, to become writable,
		1281	which it is), lets them fire exactly once and destroys them again.
		1282
		1283	Source code for this benchmark is found as F<eg/bench> in the AnyEvent
		1284	distribution.
		1285
		1286	=head3 Explanation of the columns
		1287
		1288	I<watcher> is the number of event watchers created/destroyed. Since
		1289	different event models feature vastly different performances, each event
		1290	loop was given a number of watchers so that overall runtime is acceptable
		1291	and similar between tested event loop (and keep them from crashing): Glib
		1292	would probably take thousands of years if asked to process the same number
		1293	of watchers as EV in this benchmark.
		1294
		1295	I<bytes> is the number of bytes (as measured by the resident set size,
		1296	RSS) consumed by each watcher. This method of measuring captures both C
		1297	and Perl-based overheads.
		1298
		1299	I<create> is the time, in microseconds (millionths of seconds), that it
		1300	takes to create a single watcher. The callback is a closure shared between
		1301	all watchers, to avoid adding memory overhead. That means closure creation
		1302	and memory usage is not included in the figures.
		1303
		1304	I<invoke> is the time, in microseconds, used to invoke a simple
		1305	callback. The callback simply counts down a Perl variable and after it was
		1306	invoked "watcher" times, it would C<< ->send >> a condvar once to
		1307	signal the end of this phase.
		1308
		1309	I<destroy> is the time, in microseconds, that it takes to destroy a single
		1310	watcher.
		1311
		1312	=head3 Results
		1313
		1314	name watchers bytes create invoke destroy comment
		1315	EV/EV 400000 244 0.56 0.46 0.31 EV native interface
		1316	EV/Any 100000 244 2.50 0.46 0.29 EV + AnyEvent watchers
		1317	CoroEV/Any 100000 244 2.49 0.44 0.29 coroutines + Coro::Signal
		1318	Perl/Any 100000 513 4.92 0.87 1.12 pure perl implementation
		1319	Event/Event 16000 516 31.88 31.30 0.85 Event native interface
		1320	Event/Any 16000 590 35.75 31.42 1.08 Event + AnyEvent watchers
		1321	Glib/Any 16000 1357 98.22 12.41 54.00 quadratic behaviour
		1322	Tk/Any 2000 1860 26.97 67.98 14.00 SEGV with >> 2000 watchers
		1323	POE/Event 2000 6644 108.64 736.02 14.73 via POE::Loop::Event
		1324	POE/Select 2000 6343 94.13 809.12 565.96 via POE::Loop::Select
		1325
		1326	=head3 Discussion
		1327
		1328	The benchmark does I<not> measure scalability of the event loop very
		1329	well. For example, a select-based event loop (such as the pure perl one)
		1330	can never compete with an event loop that uses epoll when the number of
		1331	file descriptors grows high. In this benchmark, all events become ready at
		1332	the same time, so select/poll-based implementations get an unnatural speed
		1333	boost.
		1334
		1335	Also, note that the number of watchers usually has a nonlinear effect on
		1336	overall speed, that is, creating twice as many watchers doesn't take twice
		1337	the time - usually it takes longer. This puts event loops tested with a
		1338	higher number of watchers at a disadvantage.
		1339
		1340	To put the range of results into perspective, consider that on the
		1341	benchmark machine, handling an event takes roughly 1600 CPU cycles with
		1342	EV, 3100 CPU cycles with AnyEvent's pure perl loop and almost 3000000 CPU
		1343	cycles with POE.
		1344
		1345	C<EV> is the sole leader regarding speed and memory use, which are both
		1346	maximal/minimal, respectively. Even when going through AnyEvent, it uses
		1347	far less memory than any other event loop and is still faster than Event
		1348	natively.
		1349
		1350	The pure perl implementation is hit in a few sweet spots (both the
		1351	constant timeout and the use of a single fd hit optimisations in the perl
		1352	interpreter and the backend itself). Nevertheless this shows that it
		1353	adds very little overhead in itself. Like any select-based backend its
		1354	performance becomes really bad with lots of file descriptors (and few of
		1355	them active), of course, but this was not subject of this benchmark.
		1356
		1357	The C<Event> module has a relatively high setup and callback invocation
		1358	cost, but overall scores in on the third place.
		1359
		1360	C<Glib>'s memory usage is quite a bit higher, but it features a
		1361	faster callback invocation and overall ends up in the same class as
		1362	C<Event>. However, Glib scales extremely badly, doubling the number of
		1363	watchers increases the processing time by more than a factor of four,
		1364	making it completely unusable when using larger numbers of watchers
		1365	(note that only a single file descriptor was used in the benchmark, so
		1366	inefficiencies of C<poll> do not account for this).
		1367
		1368	The C<Tk> adaptor works relatively well. The fact that it crashes with
		1369	more than 2000 watchers is a big setback, however, as correctness takes
		1370	precedence over speed. Nevertheless, its performance is surprising, as the
		1371	file descriptor is dup()ed for each watcher. This shows that the dup()
		1372	employed by some adaptors is not a big performance issue (it does incur a
		1373	hidden memory cost inside the kernel which is not reflected in the figures
		1374	above).
		1375
		1376	C<POE>, regardless of underlying event loop (whether using its pure perl
		1377	select-based backend or the Event module, the POE-EV backend couldn't
		1378	be tested because it wasn't working) shows abysmal performance and
		1379	memory usage with AnyEvent: Watchers use almost 30 times as much memory
		1380	as EV watchers, and 10 times as much memory as Event (the high memory
		1381	requirements are caused by requiring a session for each watcher). Watcher
		1382	invocation speed is almost 900 times slower than with AnyEvent's pure perl
		1383	implementation.
		1384
		1385	The design of the POE adaptor class in AnyEvent can not really account
		1386	for the performance issues, though, as session creation overhead is
		1387	small compared to execution of the state machine, which is coded pretty
		1388	optimally within L<AnyEvent::Impl::POE> (and while everybody agrees that
		1389	using multiple sessions is not a good approach, especially regarding
		1390	memory usage, even the author of POE could not come up with a faster
		1391	design).
		1392
		1393	=head3 Summary
		1394
		1395	=over 4
		1396
		1397	=item * Using EV through AnyEvent is faster than any other event loop
		1398	(even when used without AnyEvent), but most event loops have acceptable
		1399	performance with or without AnyEvent.
		1400
		1401	=item * The overhead AnyEvent adds is usually much smaller than the overhead of
		1402	the actual event loop, only with extremely fast event loops such as EV
		1403	adds AnyEvent significant overhead.
		1404
		1405	=item * You should avoid POE like the plague if you want performance or
		1406	reasonable memory usage.
		1407
		1408	=back
		1409
		1410	=head2 BENCHMARKING THE LARGE SERVER CASE
		1411
		1412	This benchmark actually benchmarks the event loop itself. It works by
		1413	creating a number of "servers": each server consists of a socket pair, a
		1414	timeout watcher that gets reset on activity (but never fires), and an I/O
		1415	watcher waiting for input on one side of the socket. Each time the socket
		1416	watcher reads a byte it will write that byte to a random other "server".
		1417
		1418	The effect is that there will be a lot of I/O watchers, only part of which
		1419	are active at any one point (so there is a constant number of active
		1420	fds for each loop iteration, but which fds these are is random). The
		1421	timeout is reset each time something is read because that reflects how
		1422	most timeouts work (and puts extra pressure on the event loops).
		1423
		1424	In this benchmark, we use 10000 socket pairs (20000 sockets), of which 100
		1425	(1%) are active. This mirrors the activity of large servers with many
		1426	connections, most of which are idle at any one point in time.
		1427
		1428	Source code for this benchmark is found as F<eg/bench2> in the AnyEvent
		1429	distribution.
		1430
		1431	=head3 Explanation of the columns
		1432
		1433	I<sockets> is the number of sockets, and twice the number of "servers" (as
		1434	each server has a read and write socket end).
		1435
		1436	I<create> is the time it takes to create a socket pair (which is
		1437	nontrivial) and two watchers: an I/O watcher and a timeout watcher.
		1438
		1439	I<request>, the most important value, is the time it takes to handle a
		1440	single "request", that is, reading the token from the pipe and forwarding
		1441	it to another server. This includes deleting the old timeout and creating
		1442	a new one that moves the timeout into the future.
		1443
		1444	=head3 Results
		1445
		1446	name sockets create request
		1447	EV 20000 69.01 11.16
		1448	Perl 20000 73.32 35.87
		1449	Event 20000 212.62 257.32
		1450	Glib 20000 651.16 1896.30
		1451	POE 20000 349.67 12317.24 uses POE::Loop::Event
		1452
		1453	=head3 Discussion
		1454
		1455	This benchmark I<does> measure scalability and overall performance of the
		1456	particular event loop.
		1457
		1458	EV is again fastest. Since it is using epoll on my system, the setup time
		1459	is relatively high, though.
		1460
		1461	Perl surprisingly comes second. It is much faster than the C-based event
		1462	loops Event and Glib.
		1463
		1464	Event suffers from high setup time as well (look at its code and you will
		1465	understand why). Callback invocation also has a high overhead compared to
		1466	the C<< $_->() for .. >>-style loop that the Perl event loop uses. Event
		1467	uses select or poll in basically all documented configurations.
		1468
		1469	Glib is hit hard by its quadratic behaviour w.r.t. many watchers. It
		1470	clearly fails to perform with many filehandles or in busy servers.
		1471
		1472	POE is still completely out of the picture, taking over 1000 times as long
		1473	as EV, and over 100 times as long as the Perl implementation, even though
		1474	it uses a C-based event loop in this case.
		1475
		1476	=head3 Summary
		1477
		1478	=over 4
		1479
		1480	=item * The pure perl implementation performs extremely well.
		1481
		1482	=item * Avoid Glib or POE in large projects where performance matters.
		1483
		1484	=back
		1485
		1486	=head2 BENCHMARKING SMALL SERVERS
		1487
		1488	While event loops should scale (and select-based ones do not...) even to
		1489	large servers, most programs we (or I :) actually write have only a few
		1490	I/O watchers.
		1491
		1492	In this benchmark, I use the same benchmark program as in the large server
		1493	case, but it uses only eight "servers", of which three are active at any
		1494	one time. This should reflect performance for a small server relatively
		1495	well.
		1496
		1497	The columns are identical to the previous table.
		1498
		1499	=head3 Results
		1500
		1501	name sockets create request
		1502	EV 16 20.00 6.54
		1503	Perl 16 25.75 12.62
		1504	Event 16 81.27 35.86
		1505	Glib 16 32.63 15.48
		1506	POE 16 261.87 276.28 uses POE::Loop::Event
		1507
		1508	=head3 Discussion
		1509
		1510	The benchmark tries to test the performance of a typical small
		1511	server. While knowing how various event loops perform is interesting, keep
		1512	in mind that their overhead in this case is usually not as important, due
		1513	to the small absolute number of watchers (that is, you need efficiency and
		1514	speed most when you have lots of watchers, not when you only have a few of
		1515	them).
		1516
		1517	EV is again fastest.
		1518
		1519	Perl again comes second. It is noticeably faster than the C-based event
		1520	loops Event and Glib, although the difference is too small to really
		1521	matter.
		1522
		1523	POE also performs much better in this case, but is is still far behind the
		1524	others.
		1525
		1526	=head3 Summary
		1527
		1528	=over 4
		1529
		1530	=item * C-based event loops perform very well with small number of
		1531	watchers, as the management overhead dominates.
		1532
		1533	=back
		1534
850		1535
851	=head1 FORK	1536	=head1 FORK
852		1537
853	Most event libraries are not fork-safe. The ones who are usually are	1538	Most event libraries are not fork-safe. The ones who are usually are
854	because they are so inefficient. Only L<EV> is fully fork-aware.	1539	because they rely on inefficient but fork-safe C<select> or C<poll>
		1540	calls. Only L<EV> is fully fork-aware.
855		1541
856	If you have to fork, you must either do so I<before> creating your first	1542	If you have to fork, you must either do so I<before> creating your first
857	watcher OR you must not use AnyEvent at all in the child.	1543	watcher OR you must not use AnyEvent at all in the child.
		1544
858		1545
859	=head1 SECURITY CONSIDERATIONS	1546	=head1 SECURITY CONSIDERATIONS
860		1547
861	AnyEvent can be forced to load any event model via	1548	AnyEvent can be forced to load any event model via
862	$ENV{PERL_ANYEVENT_MODEL}. While this cannot (to my knowledge) be used to	1549	$ENV{PERL_ANYEVENT_MODEL}. While this cannot (to my knowledge) be used to
…		…
870		1557
871	BEGIN { delete $ENV{PERL_ANYEVENT_MODEL} }	1558	BEGIN { delete $ENV{PERL_ANYEVENT_MODEL} }
872		1559
873	use AnyEvent;	1560	use AnyEvent;
874		1561
		1562	Similar considerations apply to $ENV{PERL_ANYEVENT_VERBOSE}, as that can
		1563	be used to probe what backend is used and gain other information (which is
		1564	probably even less useful to an attacker than PERL_ANYEVENT_MODEL).
		1565
		1566
875	=head1 SEE ALSO	1567	=head1 SEE ALSO
876		1568
877	Event modules: L<Coro::EV>, L<EV>, L<EV::Glib>, L<Glib::EV>,	1569	Utility functions: L<AnyEvent::Util>.
878	L<Coro::Event>, L<Event>, L<Glib::Event>, L<Glib>, L<Coro>, L<Tk>,
879	L<Event::Lib>, L<Qt>.
880		1570
881	Implementations: L<AnyEvent::Impl::CoroEV>, L<AnyEvent::Impl::EV>,	1571	Event modules: L<EV>, L<EV::Glib>, L<Glib::EV>, L<Event>, L<Glib::Event>,
882	L<AnyEvent::Impl::CoroEvent>, L<AnyEvent::Impl::Event>, L<AnyEvent::Impl::Glib>,	1572	L<Glib>, L<Tk>, L<Event::Lib>, L<Qt>, L<POE>.
883	L<AnyEvent::Impl::Tk>, L<AnyEvent::Impl::Perl>, L<AnyEvent::Impl::EventLib>,	1573
		1574	Implementations: L<AnyEvent::Impl::EV>, L<AnyEvent::Impl::Event>,
		1575	L<AnyEvent::Impl::Glib>, L<AnyEvent::Impl::Tk>, L<AnyEvent::Impl::Perl>,
		1576	L<AnyEvent::Impl::EventLib>, L<AnyEvent::Impl::Qt>,
884	L<AnyEvent::Impl::Qt>.	1577	L<AnyEvent::Impl::POE>.
885		1578
		1579	Non-blocking file handles, sockets, TCP clients and
		1580	servers: L<AnyEvent::Handle>, L<AnyEvent::Socket>.
		1581
		1582	Asynchronous DNS: L<AnyEvent::DNS>.
		1583
		1584	Coroutine support: L<Coro>, L<Coro::AnyEvent>, L<Coro::EV>, L<Coro::Event>,
		1585
886	Nontrivial usage examples: L<Net::FCP>, L<Net::XMPP2>.	1586	Nontrivial usage examples: L<Net::FCP>, L<Net::XMPP2>, L<AnyEvent::DNS>.
		1587
887		1588
888	=head1 AUTHOR	1589	=head1 AUTHOR
889		1590
890	Marc Lehmann <schmorp@schmorp.de>	1591	Marc Lehmann <schmorp@schmorp.de>
891	http://home.schmorp.de/	1592	http://home.schmorp.de/

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Revision 1.133 by root, Sun May 25 03:44:03 2008 UTC