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Revision: 1.53
Committed: Sat Apr 19 04:58:14 2008 UTC (16 years, 2 months ago) by root
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CVS Tags: rel-3_11
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# Content
1 =head1 NAME
2
3 AnyEvent - provide framework for multiple event loops
4
5 EV, Event, Coro::EV, Coro::Event, Glib, Tk, Perl - various supported event loops
6
7 =head1 SYNOPSIS
8
9 use AnyEvent;
10
11 my $w = AnyEvent->io (fh => $fh, poll => "r|w", cb => sub {
12 ...
13 });
14
15 my $w = AnyEvent->timer (after => $seconds, cb => sub {
16 ...
17 });
18
19 my $w = AnyEvent->condvar; # stores whether a condition was flagged
20 $w->wait; # enters "main loop" till $condvar gets ->broadcast
21 $w->broadcast; # wake up current and all future wait's
22
23 =head1 WHY YOU SHOULD USE THIS MODULE (OR NOT)
24
25 Glib, POE, IO::Async, Event... CPAN offers event models by the dozen
26 nowadays. So what is different about AnyEvent?
27
28 Executive Summary: AnyEvent is I<compatible>, AnyEvent is I<free of
29 policy> and AnyEvent is I<small and efficient>.
30
31 First and foremost, I<AnyEvent is not an event model> itself, it only
32 interfaces to whatever event model the main program happens to use in a
33 pragmatic way. For event models and certain classes of immortals alike,
34 the statement "there can only be one" is a bitter reality: In general,
35 only one event loop can be active at the same time in a process. AnyEvent
36 helps hiding the differences between those event loops.
37
38 The goal of AnyEvent is to offer module authors the ability to do event
39 programming (waiting for I/O or timer events) without subscribing to a
40 religion, a way of living, and most importantly: without forcing your
41 module users into the same thing by forcing them to use the same event
42 model you use.
43
44 For modules like POE or IO::Async (which is a total misnomer as it is
45 actually doing all I/O I<synchronously>...), using them in your module is
46 like joining a cult: After you joined, you are dependent on them and you
47 cannot use anything else, as it is simply incompatible to everything that
48 isn't itself. What's worse, all the potential users of your module are
49 I<also> forced to use the same event loop you use.
50
51 AnyEvent is different: AnyEvent + POE works fine. AnyEvent + Glib works
52 fine. AnyEvent + Tk works fine etc. etc. but none of these work together
53 with the rest: POE + IO::Async? no go. Tk + Event? no go. Again: if
54 your module uses one of those, every user of your module has to use it,
55 too. But if your module uses AnyEvent, it works transparently with all
56 event models it supports (including stuff like POE and IO::Async, as long
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).
59
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
62 modules, you get an enourmous 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
64 offering the functionality that is necessary, in as thin as a wrapper as
65 technically possible.
66
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
69 model, you should I<not> use this module.
70
71
72 =head1 DESCRIPTION
73
74 L<AnyEvent> provides an identical interface to multiple event loops. This
75 allows module authors to utilise an event loop without forcing module
76 users to use the same event loop (as only a single event loop can coexist
77 peacefully at any one time).
78
79 The interface itself is vaguely similar, but not identical to the L<Event>
80 module.
81
82 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 the
84 following modules is already loaded: L<Coro::EV>, L<Coro::Event>, L<EV>,
85 L<Event>, L<Glib>, L<Tk>. The first one found is used. If none are found,
86 the module tries to load these modules in the stated order. The first one
87 that can be successfully loaded will be used. If, after this, still none
88 could be found, AnyEvent will fall back to a pure-perl event loop, which
89 is not very efficient, but should work everywhere.
90
91 Because AnyEvent first checks for modules that are already loaded, loading
92 an event model explicitly before first using AnyEvent will likely make
93 that model the default. For example:
94
95 use Tk;
96 use AnyEvent;
97
98 # .. AnyEvent will likely default to Tk
99
100 The I<likely> means that, if any module loads another event model and
101 starts using it, all bets are off. Maybe you should tell their authors to
102 use AnyEvent so their modules work together with others seamlessly...
103
104 The pure-perl implementation of AnyEvent is called
105 C<AnyEvent::Impl::Perl>. Like other event modules you can load it
106 explicitly.
107
108 =head1 WATCHERS
109
110 AnyEvent has the central concept of a I<watcher>, which is an object that
111 stores relevant data for each kind of event you are waiting for, such as
112 the callback to call, the filehandle to watch, etc.
113
114 These watchers are normal Perl objects with normal Perl lifetime. After
115 creating a watcher it will immediately "watch" for events and invoke the
116 callback when the event occurs (of course, only when the event model
117 is in control).
118
119 To disable the watcher you have to destroy it (e.g. by setting the
120 variable you store it in to C<undef> or otherwise deleting all references
121 to it).
122
123 All watchers are created by calling a method on the C<AnyEvent> class.
124
125 Many watchers either are used with "recursion" (repeating timers for
126 example), or need to refer to their watcher object in other ways.
127
128 An any way to achieve that is this pattern:
129
130 my $w; $w = AnyEvent->type (arg => value ..., cb => sub {
131 # you can use $w here, for example to undef it
132 undef $w;
133 });
134
135 Note that C<my $w; $w => combination. This is necessary because in Perl,
136 my variables are only visible after the statement in which they are
137 declared.
138
139 =head2 IO WATCHERS
140
141 You can create an I/O watcher by calling the C<< AnyEvent->io >> method
142 with the following mandatory key-value pairs as arguments:
143
144 C<fh> the Perl I<file handle> (I<not> file descriptor) to watch for
145 events. C<poll> must be a string that is either C<r> or C<w>, which
146 creates a watcher waiting for "r"eadable or "w"ritable events,
147 respectively. C<cb> is the callback to invoke each time the file handle
148 becomes ready.
149
150 File handles will be kept alive, so as long as the watcher exists, the
151 file handle exists, too.
152
153 It is not allowed to close a file handle as long as any watcher is active
154 on the underlying file descriptor.
155
156 Some event loops issue spurious readyness notifications, so you should
157 always use non-blocking calls when reading/writing from/to your file
158 handles.
159
160 Example:
161
162 # wait for readability of STDIN, then read a line and disable the watcher
163 my $w; $w = AnyEvent->io (fh => \*STDIN, poll => 'r', cb => sub {
164 chomp (my $input = <STDIN>);
165 warn "read: $input\n";
166 undef $w;
167 });
168
169 =head2 TIME WATCHERS
170
171 You can create a time watcher by calling the C<< AnyEvent->timer >>
172 method with the following mandatory arguments:
173
174 C<after> specifies after how many seconds (fractional values are
175 supported) should the timer activate. C<cb> the callback to invoke in that
176 case.
177
178 The timer callback will be invoked at most once: if you want a repeating
179 timer you have to create a new watcher (this is a limitation by both Tk
180 and Glib).
181
182 Example:
183
184 # fire an event after 7.7 seconds
185 my $w = AnyEvent->timer (after => 7.7, cb => sub {
186 warn "timeout\n";
187 });
188
189 # to cancel the timer:
190 undef $w;
191
192 Example 2:
193
194 # fire an event after 0.5 seconds, then roughly every second
195 my $w;
196
197 my $cb = sub {
198 # cancel the old timer while creating a new one
199 $w = AnyEvent->timer (after => 1, cb => $cb);
200 };
201
202 # start the "loop" by creating the first watcher
203 $w = AnyEvent->timer (after => 0.5, cb => $cb);
204
205 =head3 TIMING ISSUES
206
207 There are two ways to handle timers: based on real time (relative, "fire
208 in 10 seconds") and based on wallclock time (absolute, "fire at 12
209 o'clock").
210
211 While most event loops expect timers to specified in a relative way, they use
212 absolute time internally. This makes a difference when your clock "jumps",
213 for example, when ntp decides to set your clock backwards from the wrong 2014-01-01 to
214 2008-01-01, a watcher that you created to fire "after" a second might actually take
215 six years to finally fire.
216
217 AnyEvent cannot compensate for this. The only event loop that is conscious
218 about these issues is L<EV>, which offers both relative (ev_timer) and
219 absolute (ev_periodic) timers.
220
221 AnyEvent always prefers relative timers, if available, matching the
222 AnyEvent API.
223
224 =head2 SIGNAL WATCHERS
225
226 You can watch for signals using a signal watcher, C<signal> is the signal
227 I<name> without any C<SIG> prefix, C<cb> is the Perl callback to
228 be invoked whenever a signal occurs.
229
230 Multiple signals occurances can be clumped together into one callback
231 invocation, and callback invocation will be synchronous. synchronous means
232 that it might take a while until the signal gets handled by the process,
233 but it is guarenteed not to interrupt any other callbacks.
234
235 The main advantage of using these watchers is that you can share a signal
236 between multiple watchers.
237
238 This watcher might use C<%SIG>, so programs overwriting those signals
239 directly will likely not work correctly.
240
241 Example: exit on SIGINT
242
243 my $w = AnyEvent->signal (signal => "INT", cb => sub { exit 1 });
244
245 =head2 CHILD PROCESS WATCHERS
246
247 You can also watch on a child process exit and catch its exit status.
248
249 The child process is specified by the C<pid> argument (if set to C<0>, it
250 watches for any child process exit). The watcher will trigger as often
251 as status change for the child are received. This works by installing a
252 signal handler for C<SIGCHLD>. The callback will be called with the pid
253 and exit status (as returned by waitpid).
254
255 Example: wait for pid 1333
256
257 my $w = AnyEvent->child (
258 pid => 1333,
259 cb => sub {
260 my ($pid, $status) = @_;
261 warn "pid $pid exited with status $status";
262 },
263 );
264
265 =head2 CONDITION VARIABLES
266
267 Condition variables can be created by calling the C<< AnyEvent->condvar >>
268 method without any arguments.
269
270 A condition variable waits for a condition - precisely that the C<<
271 ->broadcast >> method has been called.
272
273 They are very useful to signal that a condition has been fulfilled, for
274 example, if you write a module that does asynchronous http requests,
275 then a condition variable would be the ideal candidate to signal the
276 availability of results.
277
278 You can also use condition variables to block your main program until
279 an event occurs - for example, you could C<< ->wait >> in your main
280 program until the user clicks the Quit button in your app, which would C<<
281 ->broadcast >> the "quit" event.
282
283 Note that condition variables recurse into the event loop - if you have
284 two pirces of code that call C<< ->wait >> in a round-robbin fashion, you
285 lose. Therefore, condition variables are good to export to your caller, but
286 you should avoid making a blocking wait yourself, at least in callbacks,
287 as this asks for trouble.
288
289 This object has two methods:
290
291 =over 4
292
293 =item $cv->wait
294
295 Wait (blocking if necessary) until the C<< ->broadcast >> method has been
296 called on c<$cv>, while servicing other watchers normally.
297
298 You can only wait once on a condition - additional calls will return
299 immediately.
300
301 Not all event models support a blocking wait - some die in that case
302 (programs might want to do that to stay interactive), so I<if you are
303 using this from a module, never require a blocking wait>, but let the
304 caller decide whether the call will block or not (for example, by coupling
305 condition variables with some kind of request results and supporting
306 callbacks so the caller knows that getting the result will not block,
307 while still suppporting blocking waits if the caller so desires).
308
309 Another reason I<never> to C<< ->wait >> in a module is that you cannot
310 sensibly have two C<< ->wait >>'s in parallel, as that would require
311 multiple interpreters or coroutines/threads, none of which C<AnyEvent>
312 can supply (the coroutine-aware backends L<AnyEvent::Impl::CoroEV> and
313 L<AnyEvent::Impl::CoroEvent> explicitly support concurrent C<< ->wait >>'s
314 from different coroutines, however).
315
316 =item $cv->broadcast
317
318 Flag the condition as ready - a running C<< ->wait >> and all further
319 calls to C<wait> will (eventually) return after this method has been
320 called. If nobody is waiting the broadcast will be remembered..
321
322 =back
323
324 Example:
325
326 # wait till the result is ready
327 my $result_ready = AnyEvent->condvar;
328
329 # do something such as adding a timer
330 # or socket watcher the calls $result_ready->broadcast
331 # when the "result" is ready.
332 # in this case, we simply use a timer:
333 my $w = AnyEvent->timer (
334 after => 1,
335 cb => sub { $result_ready->broadcast },
336 );
337
338 # this "blocks" (while handling events) till the watcher
339 # calls broadcast
340 $result_ready->wait;
341
342 =head1 GLOBAL VARIABLES AND FUNCTIONS
343
344 =over 4
345
346 =item $AnyEvent::MODEL
347
348 Contains C<undef> until the first watcher is being created. Then it
349 contains the event model that is being used, which is the name of the
350 Perl class implementing the model. This class is usually one of the
351 C<AnyEvent::Impl:xxx> modules, but can be any other class in the case
352 AnyEvent has been extended at runtime (e.g. in I<rxvt-unicode>).
353
354 The known classes so far are:
355
356 AnyEvent::Impl::CoroEV based on Coro::EV, best choice.
357 AnyEvent::Impl::CoroEvent based on Coro::Event, second best choice.
358 AnyEvent::Impl::EV based on EV (an interface to libev, also best choice).
359 AnyEvent::Impl::Event based on Event, also second best choice :)
360 AnyEvent::Impl::Glib based on Glib, third-best choice.
361 AnyEvent::Impl::Tk based on Tk, very bad choice.
362 AnyEvent::Impl::Perl pure-perl implementation, inefficient but portable.
363
364 =item AnyEvent::detect
365
366 Returns C<$AnyEvent::MODEL>, forcing autodetection of the event model
367 if necessary. You should only call this function right before you would
368 have created an AnyEvent watcher anyway, that is, as late as possible at
369 runtime.
370
371 =back
372
373 =head1 WHAT TO DO IN A MODULE
374
375 As a module author, you should C<use AnyEvent> and call AnyEvent methods
376 freely, but you should not load a specific event module or rely on it.
377
378 Be careful when you create watchers in the module body - AnyEvent will
379 decide which event module to use as soon as the first method is called, so
380 by calling AnyEvent in your module body you force the user of your module
381 to load the event module first.
382
383 Never call C<< ->wait >> on a condition variable unless you I<know> that
384 the C<< ->broadcast >> method has been called on it already. This is
385 because it will stall the whole program, and the whole point of using
386 events is to stay interactive.
387
388 It is fine, however, to call C<< ->wait >> when the user of your module
389 requests it (i.e. if you create a http request object ad have a method
390 called C<results> that returns the results, it should call C<< ->wait >>
391 freely, as the user of your module knows what she is doing. always).
392
393 =head1 WHAT TO DO IN THE MAIN PROGRAM
394
395 There will always be a single main program - the only place that should
396 dictate which event model to use.
397
398 If it doesn't care, it can just "use AnyEvent" and use it itself, or not
399 do anything special (it does not need to be event-based) and let AnyEvent
400 decide which implementation to chose if some module relies on it.
401
402 If the main program relies on a specific event model. For example, in
403 Gtk2 programs you have to rely on the Glib module. You should load the
404 event module before loading AnyEvent or any module that uses it: generally
405 speaking, you should load it as early as possible. The reason is that
406 modules might create watchers when they are loaded, and AnyEvent will
407 decide on the event model to use as soon as it creates watchers, and it
408 might chose the wrong one unless you load the correct one yourself.
409
410 You can chose to use a rather inefficient pure-perl implementation by
411 loading the C<AnyEvent::Impl::Perl> module, which gives you similar
412 behaviour everywhere, but letting AnyEvent chose is generally better.
413
414 =cut
415
416 package AnyEvent;
417
418 no warnings;
419 use strict;
420
421 use Carp;
422
423 our $VERSION = '3.11';
424 our $MODEL;
425
426 our $AUTOLOAD;
427 our @ISA;
428
429 our $verbose = $ENV{PERL_ANYEVENT_VERBOSE}*1;
430
431 our @REGISTRY;
432
433 my @models = (
434 [Coro::EV:: => AnyEvent::Impl::CoroEV::],
435 [Coro::Event:: => AnyEvent::Impl::CoroEvent::],
436 [EV:: => AnyEvent::Impl::EV::],
437 [Event:: => AnyEvent::Impl::Event::],
438 [Glib:: => AnyEvent::Impl::Glib::],
439 [Tk:: => AnyEvent::Impl::Tk::],
440 [AnyEvent::Impl::Perl:: => AnyEvent::Impl::Perl::],
441 );
442
443 our %method = map +($_ => 1), qw(io timer condvar broadcast wait signal one_event DESTROY);
444
445 sub detect() {
446 unless ($MODEL) {
447 no strict 'refs';
448
449 # check for already loaded models
450 for (@REGISTRY, @models) {
451 my ($package, $model) = @$_;
452 if (${"$package\::VERSION"} > 0) {
453 if (eval "require $model") {
454 $MODEL = $model;
455 warn "AnyEvent: found model '$model', using it.\n" if $verbose > 1;
456 last;
457 }
458 }
459 }
460
461 unless ($MODEL) {
462 # try to load a model
463
464 for (@REGISTRY, @models) {
465 my ($package, $model) = @$_;
466 if (eval "require $package"
467 and ${"$package\::VERSION"} > 0
468 and eval "require $model") {
469 $MODEL = $model;
470 warn "AnyEvent: autoprobed and loaded model '$model', using it.\n" if $verbose > 1;
471 last;
472 }
473 }
474
475 $MODEL
476 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), Glib or Tk.";
477 }
478
479 unshift @ISA, $MODEL;
480 push @{"$MODEL\::ISA"}, "AnyEvent::Base";
481 }
482
483 $MODEL
484 }
485
486 sub AUTOLOAD {
487 (my $func = $AUTOLOAD) =~ s/.*://;
488
489 $method{$func}
490 or croak "$func: not a valid method for AnyEvent objects";
491
492 detect unless $MODEL;
493
494 my $class = shift;
495 $class->$func (@_);
496 }
497
498 package AnyEvent::Base;
499
500 # default implementation for ->condvar, ->wait, ->broadcast
501
502 sub condvar {
503 bless \my $flag, "AnyEvent::Base::CondVar"
504 }
505
506 sub AnyEvent::Base::CondVar::broadcast {
507 ${$_[0]}++;
508 }
509
510 sub AnyEvent::Base::CondVar::wait {
511 AnyEvent->one_event while !${$_[0]};
512 }
513
514 # default implementation for ->signal
515
516 our %SIG_CB;
517
518 sub signal {
519 my (undef, %arg) = @_;
520
521 my $signal = uc $arg{signal}
522 or Carp::croak "required option 'signal' is missing";
523
524 $SIG_CB{$signal}{$arg{cb}} = $arg{cb};
525 $SIG{$signal} ||= sub {
526 $_->() for values %{ $SIG_CB{$signal} || {} };
527 };
528
529 bless [$signal, $arg{cb}], "AnyEvent::Base::Signal"
530 }
531
532 sub AnyEvent::Base::Signal::DESTROY {
533 my ($signal, $cb) = @{$_[0]};
534
535 delete $SIG_CB{$signal}{$cb};
536
537 $SIG{$signal} = 'DEFAULT' unless keys %{ $SIG_CB{$signal} };
538 }
539
540 # default implementation for ->child
541
542 our %PID_CB;
543 our $CHLD_W;
544 our $CHLD_DELAY_W;
545 our $PID_IDLE;
546 our $WNOHANG;
547
548 sub _child_wait {
549 while (0 < (my $pid = waitpid -1, $WNOHANG)) {
550 $_->($pid, $?) for (values %{ $PID_CB{$pid} || {} }),
551 (values %{ $PID_CB{0} || {} });
552 }
553
554 undef $PID_IDLE;
555 }
556
557 sub _sigchld {
558 # make sure we deliver these changes "synchronous" with the event loop.
559 $CHLD_DELAY_W ||= AnyEvent->timer (after => 0, cb => sub {
560 undef $CHLD_DELAY_W;
561 &_child_wait;
562 });
563 }
564
565 sub child {
566 my (undef, %arg) = @_;
567
568 defined (my $pid = $arg{pid} + 0)
569 or Carp::croak "required option 'pid' is missing";
570
571 $PID_CB{$pid}{$arg{cb}} = $arg{cb};
572
573 unless ($WNOHANG) {
574 $WNOHANG = eval { require POSIX; &POSIX::WNOHANG } || 1;
575 }
576
577 unless ($CHLD_W) {
578 $CHLD_W = AnyEvent->signal (signal => 'CHLD', cb => \&_sigchld);
579 # child could be a zombie already, so make at least one round
580 &_sigchld;
581 }
582
583 bless [$pid, $arg{cb}], "AnyEvent::Base::Child"
584 }
585
586 sub AnyEvent::Base::Child::DESTROY {
587 my ($pid, $cb) = @{$_[0]};
588
589 delete $PID_CB{$pid}{$cb};
590 delete $PID_CB{$pid} unless keys %{ $PID_CB{$pid} };
591
592 undef $CHLD_W unless keys %PID_CB;
593 }
594
595 =head1 SUPPLYING YOUR OWN EVENT MODEL INTERFACE
596
597 This is an advanced topic that you do not normally need to use AnyEvent in
598 a module. This section is only of use to event loop authors who want to
599 provide AnyEvent compatibility.
600
601 If you need to support another event library which isn't directly
602 supported by AnyEvent, you can supply your own interface to it by
603 pushing, before the first watcher gets created, the package name of
604 the event module and the package name of the interface to use onto
605 C<@AnyEvent::REGISTRY>. You can do that before and even without loading
606 AnyEvent, so it is reasonably cheap.
607
608 Example:
609
610 push @AnyEvent::REGISTRY, [urxvt => urxvt::anyevent::];
611
612 This tells AnyEvent to (literally) use the C<urxvt::anyevent::>
613 package/class when it finds the C<urxvt> package/module is already loaded.
614
615 When AnyEvent is loaded and asked to find a suitable event model, it
616 will first check for the presence of urxvt by trying to C<use> the
617 C<urxvt::anyevent> module.
618
619 The class should provide implementations for all watcher types. See
620 L<AnyEvent::Impl::EV> (source code), L<AnyEvent::Impl::Glib> (Source code)
621 and so on for actual examples. Use C<perldoc -m AnyEvent::Impl::Glib> to
622 see the sources.
623
624 If you don't provide C<signal> and C<child> watchers than AnyEvent will
625 provide suitable (hopefully) replacements.
626
627 The above example isn't fictitious, the I<rxvt-unicode> (a.k.a. urxvt)
628 terminal emulator uses the above line as-is. An interface isn't included
629 in AnyEvent because it doesn't make sense outside the embedded interpreter
630 inside I<rxvt-unicode>, and it is updated and maintained as part of the
631 I<rxvt-unicode> distribution.
632
633 I<rxvt-unicode> also cheats a bit by not providing blocking access to
634 condition variables: code blocking while waiting for a condition will
635 C<die>. This still works with most modules/usages, and blocking calls must
636 not be done in an interactive application, so it makes sense.
637
638 =head1 ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES
639
640 The following environment variables are used by this module:
641
642 C<PERL_ANYEVENT_VERBOSE> when set to C<2> or higher, cause AnyEvent to
643 report to STDERR which event model it chooses.
644
645 =head1 EXAMPLE PROGRAM
646
647 The following program uses an IO watcher to read data from STDIN, a timer
648 to display a message once per second, and a condition variable to quit the
649 program when the user enters quit:
650
651 use AnyEvent;
652
653 my $cv = AnyEvent->condvar;
654
655 my $io_watcher = AnyEvent->io (
656 fh => \*STDIN,
657 poll => 'r',
658 cb => sub {
659 warn "io event <$_[0]>\n"; # will always output <r>
660 chomp (my $input = <STDIN>); # read a line
661 warn "read: $input\n"; # output what has been read
662 $cv->broadcast if $input =~ /^q/i; # quit program if /^q/i
663 },
664 );
665
666 my $time_watcher; # can only be used once
667
668 sub new_timer {
669 $timer = AnyEvent->timer (after => 1, cb => sub {
670 warn "timeout\n"; # print 'timeout' about every second
671 &new_timer; # and restart the time
672 });
673 }
674
675 new_timer; # create first timer
676
677 $cv->wait; # wait until user enters /^q/i
678
679 =head1 REAL-WORLD EXAMPLE
680
681 Consider the L<Net::FCP> module. It features (among others) the following
682 API calls, which are to freenet what HTTP GET requests are to http:
683
684 my $data = $fcp->client_get ($url); # blocks
685
686 my $transaction = $fcp->txn_client_get ($url); # does not block
687 $transaction->cb ( sub { ... } ); # set optional result callback
688 my $data = $transaction->result; # possibly blocks
689
690 The C<client_get> method works like C<LWP::Simple::get>: it requests the
691 given URL and waits till the data has arrived. It is defined to be:
692
693 sub client_get { $_[0]->txn_client_get ($_[1])->result }
694
695 And in fact is automatically generated. This is the blocking API of
696 L<Net::FCP>, and it works as simple as in any other, similar, module.
697
698 More complicated is C<txn_client_get>: It only creates a transaction
699 (completion, result, ...) object and initiates the transaction.
700
701 my $txn = bless { }, Net::FCP::Txn::;
702
703 It also creates a condition variable that is used to signal the completion
704 of the request:
705
706 $txn->{finished} = AnyAvent->condvar;
707
708 It then creates a socket in non-blocking mode.
709
710 socket $txn->{fh}, ...;
711 fcntl $txn->{fh}, F_SETFL, O_NONBLOCK;
712 connect $txn->{fh}, ...
713 and !$!{EWOULDBLOCK}
714 and !$!{EINPROGRESS}
715 and Carp::croak "unable to connect: $!\n";
716
717 Then it creates a write-watcher which gets called whenever an error occurs
718 or the connection succeeds:
719
720 $txn->{w} = AnyEvent->io (fh => $txn->{fh}, poll => 'w', cb => sub { $txn->fh_ready_w });
721
722 And returns this transaction object. The C<fh_ready_w> callback gets
723 called as soon as the event loop detects that the socket is ready for
724 writing.
725
726 The C<fh_ready_w> method makes the socket blocking again, writes the
727 request data and replaces the watcher by a read watcher (waiting for reply
728 data). The actual code is more complicated, but that doesn't matter for
729 this example:
730
731 fcntl $txn->{fh}, F_SETFL, 0;
732 syswrite $txn->{fh}, $txn->{request}
733 or die "connection or write error";
734 $txn->{w} = AnyEvent->io (fh => $txn->{fh}, poll => 'r', cb => sub { $txn->fh_ready_r });
735
736 Again, C<fh_ready_r> waits till all data has arrived, and then stores the
737 result and signals any possible waiters that the request ahs finished:
738
739 sysread $txn->{fh}, $txn->{buf}, length $txn->{$buf};
740
741 if (end-of-file or data complete) {
742 $txn->{result} = $txn->{buf};
743 $txn->{finished}->broadcast;
744 $txb->{cb}->($txn) of $txn->{cb}; # also call callback
745 }
746
747 The C<result> method, finally, just waits for the finished signal (if the
748 request was already finished, it doesn't wait, of course, and returns the
749 data:
750
751 $txn->{finished}->wait;
752 return $txn->{result};
753
754 The actual code goes further and collects all errors (C<die>s, exceptions)
755 that occured during request processing. The C<result> method detects
756 whether an exception as thrown (it is stored inside the $txn object)
757 and just throws the exception, which means connection errors and other
758 problems get reported tot he code that tries to use the result, not in a
759 random callback.
760
761 All of this enables the following usage styles:
762
763 1. Blocking:
764
765 my $data = $fcp->client_get ($url);
766
767 2. Blocking, but running in parallel:
768
769 my @datas = map $_->result,
770 map $fcp->txn_client_get ($_),
771 @urls;
772
773 Both blocking examples work without the module user having to know
774 anything about events.
775
776 3a. Event-based in a main program, using any supported event module:
777
778 use EV;
779
780 $fcp->txn_client_get ($url)->cb (sub {
781 my $txn = shift;
782 my $data = $txn->result;
783 ...
784 });
785
786 EV::loop;
787
788 3b. The module user could use AnyEvent, too:
789
790 use AnyEvent;
791
792 my $quit = AnyEvent->condvar;
793
794 $fcp->txn_client_get ($url)->cb (sub {
795 ...
796 $quit->broadcast;
797 });
798
799 $quit->wait;
800
801 =head1 SEE ALSO
802
803 Event modules: L<Coro::EV>, L<EV>, L<EV::Glib>, L<Glib::EV>,
804 L<Coro::Event>, L<Event>, L<Glib::Event>, L<Glib>, L<Coro>, L<Tk>.
805
806 Implementations: L<AnyEvent::Impl::CoroEV>, L<AnyEvent::Impl::EV>,
807 L<AnyEvent::Impl::CoroEvent>, L<AnyEvent::Impl::Event>,
808 L<AnyEvent::Impl::Glib>, L<AnyEvent::Impl::Tk>, L<AnyEvent::Impl::Perl>.
809
810 Nontrivial usage examples: L<Net::FCP>, L<Net::XMPP2>.
811
812 =head1
813
814 =cut
815
816 1
817