ViewVC Help
View File | Revision Log | Show Annotations | Download File
/cvs/AnyEvent/lib/AnyEvent.pm
(Generate patch)

Comparing AnyEvent/lib/AnyEvent.pm (file contents):
Revision 1.2 by root, Thu Dec 1 18:56:18 2005 UTC vs.
Revision 1.140 by root, Mon May 26 06:18:53 2008 UTC

1=head1 NAME 1=head1 => NAME
2 2
3AnyEvent - provide framework for multiple event loops 3AnyEvent - provide framework for multiple event loops
4 4
5Event, Coro, Glib, Tk - various supported event loops 5EV, Event, Glib, Tk, Perl, Event::Lib, Qt, POE - various supported event loops
6 6
7=head1 SYNOPSIS 7=head1 SYNOPSIS
8 8
9use AnyEvent; 9 use AnyEvent;
10 10
11 my $w = AnyEvent->timer (fh => ..., poll => "[rw]+", cb => sub { 11 my $w = AnyEvent->io (fh => $fh, poll => "r|w", cb => sub {
12 my ($poll_got) = @_;
13 ... 12 ...
14 }); 13 });
14
15 my $w = AnyEvent->io (after => $seconds, cb => sub { 15 my $w = AnyEvent->timer (after => $seconds, cb => sub {
16 ... 16 ...
17 }); 17 });
18 18
19 # watchers get canceled whenever $w is destroyed 19 my $w = AnyEvent->condvar; # stores whether a condition was flagged
20 # only one watcher per $fh and $poll type is allowed 20 $w->send; # wake up current and all future recv's
21 # (i.e. on a socket you cna have one r + one w or one rw
22 # watcher, not any more.
23 # timers can only be used once
24
25 my $w = AnyEvent->condvar; # kind of main loop replacement
26 # can only be used once
27 $w->wait; # enters main loop till $condvar gets ->send 21 $w->recv; # enters "main loop" till $condvar gets ->send
28 $w->broadcast; # wake up waiting and future wait's 22
23=head1 WHY YOU SHOULD USE THIS MODULE (OR NOT)
24
25Glib, POE, IO::Async, Event... CPAN offers event models by the dozen
26nowadays. So what is different about AnyEvent?
27
28Executive Summary: AnyEvent is I<compatible>, AnyEvent is I<free of
29policy> and AnyEvent is I<small and efficient>.
30
31First and foremost, I<AnyEvent is not an event model> itself, it only
32interfaces to whatever event model the main program happens to use in a
33pragmatic way. For event models and certain classes of immortals alike,
34the statement "there can only be one" is a bitter reality: In general,
35only one event loop can be active at the same time in a process. AnyEvent
36helps hiding the differences between those event loops.
37
38The goal of AnyEvent is to offer module authors the ability to do event
39programming (waiting for I/O or timer events) without subscribing to a
40religion, a way of living, and most importantly: without forcing your
41module users into the same thing by forcing them to use the same event
42model you use.
43
44For modules like POE or IO::Async (which is a total misnomer as it is
45actually doing all I/O I<synchronously>...), using them in your module is
46like joining a cult: After you joined, you are dependent on them and you
47cannot use anything else, as it is simply incompatible to everything that
48isn't itself. What's worse, all the potential users of your module are
49I<also> forced to use the same event loop you use.
50
51AnyEvent is different: AnyEvent + POE works fine. AnyEvent + Glib works
52fine. AnyEvent + Tk works fine etc. etc. but none of these work together
53with the rest: POE + IO::Async? no go. Tk + Event? no go. Again: if
54your module uses one of those, every user of your module has to use it,
55too. But if your module uses AnyEvent, it works transparently with all
56event models it supports (including stuff like POE and IO::Async, as long
57as those use one of the supported event loops. It is trivial to add new
58event loops to AnyEvent, too, so it is future-proof).
59
60In addition to being free of having to use I<the one and only true event
61model>, AnyEvent also is free of bloat and policy: with POE or similar
62modules, you get an enormous amount of code and strict rules you have to
63follow. AnyEvent, on the other hand, is lean and up to the point, by only
64offering the functionality that is necessary, in as thin as a wrapper as
65technically possible.
66
67Of course, if you want lots of policy (this can arguably be somewhat
68useful) and you want to force your users to use the one and only event
69model, you should I<not> use this module.
29 70
30=head1 DESCRIPTION 71=head1 DESCRIPTION
31 72
32L<AnyEvent> provides an identical interface to multiple event loops. This 73L<AnyEvent> provides an identical interface to multiple event loops. This
33allows module authors to utilizy an event loop without forcing module 74allows module authors to utilise an event loop without forcing module
34users to use the same event loop (as only a single event loop can coexist 75users to use the same event loop (as only a single event loop can coexist
35peacefully at any one time). 76peacefully at any one time).
36 77
37The interface itself is vaguely similar but not identical to the Event 78The interface itself is vaguely similar, but not identical to the L<Event>
38module. 79module.
39 80
40On the first call of any method, the module tries to detect the currently 81During the first call of any watcher-creation method, the module tries
41loaded event loop by probing wether any of the following modules is 82to detect the currently loaded event loop by probing whether one of the
42loaded: L<Coro::Event>, L<Event>, L<Glib>, L<Tk>. The first one found is 83following modules is already loaded: L<EV>,
43used. If none is found, the module tries to load these modules in the 84L<Event>, L<Glib>, L<AnyEvent::Impl::Perl>, L<Tk>, L<Event::Lib>, L<Qt>,
44order given. The first one that could be successfully loaded will be 85L<POE>. The first one found is used. If none are found, the module tries
45used. If still none could be found, it will issue an error. 86to load these modules (excluding Tk, Event::Lib, Qt and POE as the pure perl
87adaptor should always succeed) in the order given. The first one that can
88be successfully loaded will be used. If, after this, still none could be
89found, AnyEvent will fall back to a pure-perl event loop, which is not
90very efficient, but should work everywhere.
91
92Because AnyEvent first checks for modules that are already loaded, loading
93an event model explicitly before first using AnyEvent will likely make
94that model the default. For example:
95
96 use Tk;
97 use AnyEvent;
98
99 # .. AnyEvent will likely default to Tk
100
101The I<likely> means that, if any module loads another event model and
102starts using it, all bets are off. Maybe you should tell their authors to
103use AnyEvent so their modules work together with others seamlessly...
104
105The pure-perl implementation of AnyEvent is called
106C<AnyEvent::Impl::Perl>. Like other event modules you can load it
107explicitly.
108
109=head1 WATCHERS
110
111AnyEvent has the central concept of a I<watcher>, which is an object that
112stores relevant data for each kind of event you are waiting for, such as
113the callback to call, the file handle to watch, etc.
114
115These watchers are normal Perl objects with normal Perl lifetime. After
116creating a watcher it will immediately "watch" for events and invoke the
117callback when the event occurs (of course, only when the event model
118is in control).
119
120To disable the watcher you have to destroy it (e.g. by setting the
121variable you store it in to C<undef> or otherwise deleting all references
122to it).
123
124All watchers are created by calling a method on the C<AnyEvent> class.
125
126Many watchers either are used with "recursion" (repeating timers for
127example), or need to refer to their watcher object in other ways.
128
129An any way to achieve that is this pattern:
130
131 my $w; $w = AnyEvent->type (arg => value ..., cb => sub {
132 # you can use $w here, for example to undef it
133 undef $w;
134 });
135
136Note that C<my $w; $w => combination. This is necessary because in Perl,
137my variables are only visible after the statement in which they are
138declared.
139
140=head2 I/O WATCHERS
141
142You can create an I/O watcher by calling the C<< AnyEvent->io >> method
143with the following mandatory key-value pairs as arguments:
144
145C<fh> the Perl I<file handle> (I<not> file descriptor) to watch
146for events. C<poll> must be a string that is either C<r> or C<w>,
147which creates a watcher waiting for "r"eadable or "w"ritable events,
148respectively. C<cb> is the callback to invoke each time the file handle
149becomes ready.
150
151Although the callback might get passed parameters, their value and
152presence is undefined and you cannot rely on them. Portable AnyEvent
153callbacks cannot use arguments passed to I/O watcher callbacks.
154
155The I/O watcher might use the underlying file descriptor or a copy of it.
156You must not close a file handle as long as any watcher is active on the
157underlying file descriptor.
158
159Some event loops issue spurious readyness notifications, so you should
160always use non-blocking calls when reading/writing from/to your file
161handles.
162
163Example:
164
165 # wait for readability of STDIN, then read a line and disable the watcher
166 my $w; $w = AnyEvent->io (fh => \*STDIN, poll => 'r', cb => sub {
167 chomp (my $input = <STDIN>);
168 warn "read: $input\n";
169 undef $w;
170 });
171
172=head2 TIME WATCHERS
173
174You can create a time watcher by calling the C<< AnyEvent->timer >>
175method with the following mandatory arguments:
176
177C<after> specifies after how many seconds (fractional values are
178supported) the callback should be invoked. C<cb> is the callback to invoke
179in that case.
180
181Although the callback might get passed parameters, their value and
182presence is undefined and you cannot rely on them. Portable AnyEvent
183callbacks cannot use arguments passed to time watcher callbacks.
184
185The timer callback will be invoked at most once: if you want a repeating
186timer you have to create a new watcher (this is a limitation by both Tk
187and Glib).
188
189Example:
190
191 # fire an event after 7.7 seconds
192 my $w = AnyEvent->timer (after => 7.7, cb => sub {
193 warn "timeout\n";
194 });
195
196 # to cancel the timer:
197 undef $w;
198
199Example 2:
200
201 # fire an event after 0.5 seconds, then roughly every second
202 my $w;
203
204 my $cb = sub {
205 # cancel the old timer while creating a new one
206 $w = AnyEvent->timer (after => 1, cb => $cb);
207 };
208
209 # start the "loop" by creating the first watcher
210 $w = AnyEvent->timer (after => 0.5, cb => $cb);
211
212=head3 TIMING ISSUES
213
214There are two ways to handle timers: based on real time (relative, "fire
215in 10 seconds") and based on wallclock time (absolute, "fire at 12
216o'clock").
217
218While most event loops expect timers to specified in a relative way, they
219use absolute time internally. This makes a difference when your clock
220"jumps", for example, when ntp decides to set your clock backwards from
221the wrong date of 2014-01-01 to 2008-01-01, a watcher that is supposed to
222fire "after" a second might actually take six years to finally fire.
223
224AnyEvent cannot compensate for this. The only event loop that is conscious
225about these issues is L<EV>, which offers both relative (ev_timer, based
226on true relative time) and absolute (ev_periodic, based on wallclock time)
227timers.
228
229AnyEvent always prefers relative timers, if available, matching the
230AnyEvent API.
231
232=head2 SIGNAL WATCHERS
233
234You can watch for signals using a signal watcher, C<signal> is the signal
235I<name> without any C<SIG> prefix, C<cb> is the Perl callback to
236be invoked whenever a signal occurs.
237
238Although the callback might get passed parameters, their value and
239presence is undefined and you cannot rely on them. Portable AnyEvent
240callbacks cannot use arguments passed to signal watcher callbacks.
241
242Multiple signal occurrences can be clumped together into one callback
243invocation, and callback invocation will be synchronous. Synchronous means
244that it might take a while until the signal gets handled by the process,
245but it is guaranteed not to interrupt any other callbacks.
246
247The main advantage of using these watchers is that you can share a signal
248between multiple watchers.
249
250This watcher might use C<%SIG>, so programs overwriting those signals
251directly will likely not work correctly.
252
253Example: exit on SIGINT
254
255 my $w = AnyEvent->signal (signal => "INT", cb => sub { exit 1 });
256
257=head2 CHILD PROCESS WATCHERS
258
259You can also watch on a child process exit and catch its exit status.
260
261The child process is specified by the C<pid> argument (if set to C<0>, it
262watches for any child process exit). The watcher will trigger as often
263as status change for the child are received. This works by installing a
264signal handler for C<SIGCHLD>. The callback will be called with the pid
265and exit status (as returned by waitpid), so unlike other watcher types,
266you I<can> rely on child watcher callback arguments.
267
268There is a slight catch to child watchers, however: you usually start them
269I<after> the child process was created, and this means the process could
270have exited already (and no SIGCHLD will be sent anymore).
271
272Not all event models handle this correctly (POE doesn't), but even for
273event models that I<do> handle this correctly, they usually need to be
274loaded before the process exits (i.e. before you fork in the first place).
275
276This means you cannot create a child watcher as the very first thing in an
277AnyEvent program, you I<have> to create at least one watcher before you
278C<fork> the child (alternatively, you can call C<AnyEvent::detect>).
279
280Example: fork a process and wait for it
281
282 my $done = AnyEvent->condvar;
283
284 my $pid = fork or exit 5;
285
286 my $w = AnyEvent->child (
287 pid => $pid,
288 cb => sub {
289 my ($pid, $status) = @_;
290 warn "pid $pid exited with status $status";
291 $done->send;
292 },
293 );
294
295 # do something else, then wait for process exit
296 $done->recv;
297
298=head2 CONDITION VARIABLES
299
300If you are familiar with some event loops you will know that all of them
301require you to run some blocking "loop", "run" or similar function that
302will actively watch for new events and call your callbacks.
303
304AnyEvent is different, it expects somebody else to run the event loop and
305will only block when necessary (usually when told by the user).
306
307The instrument to do that is called a "condition variable", so called
308because they represent a condition that must become true.
309
310Condition variables can be created by calling the C<< AnyEvent->condvar
311>> method, usually without arguments. The only argument pair allowed is
312C<cb>, which specifies a callback to be called when the condition variable
313becomes true.
314
315After creation, the condition variable is "false" until it becomes "true"
316by calling the C<send> method (or calling the condition variable as if it
317were a callback, read about the caveats in the description for the C<<
318->send >> method).
319
320Condition variables are similar to callbacks, except that you can
321optionally wait for them. They can also be called merge points - points
322in time where multiple outstanding events have been processed. And yet
323another way to call them is transactions - each condition variable can be
324used to represent a transaction, which finishes at some point and delivers
325a result.
326
327Condition variables are very useful to signal that something has finished,
328for example, if you write a module that does asynchronous http requests,
329then a condition variable would be the ideal candidate to signal the
330availability of results. The user can either act when the callback is
331called or can synchronously C<< ->recv >> for the results.
332
333You can also use them to simulate traditional event loops - for example,
334you can block your main program until an event occurs - for example, you
335could C<< ->recv >> in your main program until the user clicks the Quit
336button of your app, which would C<< ->send >> the "quit" event.
337
338Note that condition variables recurse into the event loop - if you have
339two pieces of code that call C<< ->recv >> in a round-robin fashion, you
340lose. Therefore, condition variables are good to export to your caller, but
341you should avoid making a blocking wait yourself, at least in callbacks,
342as this asks for trouble.
343
344Condition variables are represented by hash refs in perl, and the keys
345used by AnyEvent itself are all named C<_ae_XXX> to make subclassing
346easy (it is often useful to build your own transaction class on top of
347AnyEvent). To subclass, use C<AnyEvent::CondVar> as base class and call
348it's C<new> method in your own C<new> method.
349
350There are two "sides" to a condition variable - the "producer side" which
351eventually calls C<< -> send >>, and the "consumer side", which waits
352for the send to occur.
353
354Example: wait for a timer.
355
356 # wait till the result is ready
357 my $result_ready = AnyEvent->condvar;
358
359 # do something such as adding a timer
360 # or socket watcher the calls $result_ready->send
361 # when the "result" is ready.
362 # in this case, we simply use a timer:
363 my $w = AnyEvent->timer (
364 after => 1,
365 cb => sub { $result_ready->send },
366 );
367
368 # this "blocks" (while handling events) till the callback
369 # calls send
370 $result_ready->recv;
371
372Example: wait for a timer, but take advantage of the fact that
373condition variables are also code references.
374
375 my $done = AnyEvent->condvar;
376 my $delay = AnyEvent->timer (after => 5, cb => $done);
377 $done->recv;
378
379=head3 METHODS FOR PRODUCERS
380
381These methods should only be used by the producing side, i.e. the
382code/module that eventually sends the signal. Note that it is also
383the producer side which creates the condvar in most cases, but it isn't
384uncommon for the consumer to create it as well.
46 385
47=over 4 386=over 4
48 387
388=item $cv->send (...)
389
390Flag the condition as ready - a running C<< ->recv >> and all further
391calls to C<recv> will (eventually) return after this method has been
392called. If nobody is waiting the send will be remembered.
393
394If a callback has been set on the condition variable, it is called
395immediately from within send.
396
397Any arguments passed to the C<send> call will be returned by all
398future C<< ->recv >> calls.
399
400Condition variables are overloaded so one can call them directly
401(as a code reference). Calling them directly is the same as calling
402C<send>. Note, however, that many C-based event loops do not handle
403overloading, so as tempting as it may be, passing a condition variable
404instead of a callback does not work. Both the pure perl and EV loops
405support overloading, however, as well as all functions that use perl to
406invoke a callback (as in L<AnyEvent::Socket> and L<AnyEvent::DNS> for
407example).
408
409=item $cv->croak ($error)
410
411Similar to send, but causes all call's to C<< ->recv >> to invoke
412C<Carp::croak> with the given error message/object/scalar.
413
414This can be used to signal any errors to the condition variable
415user/consumer.
416
417=item $cv->begin ([group callback])
418
419=item $cv->end
420
421These two methods are EXPERIMENTAL and MIGHT CHANGE.
422
423These two methods can be used to combine many transactions/events into
424one. For example, a function that pings many hosts in parallel might want
425to use a condition variable for the whole process.
426
427Every call to C<< ->begin >> will increment a counter, and every call to
428C<< ->end >> will decrement it. If the counter reaches C<0> in C<< ->end
429>>, the (last) callback passed to C<begin> will be executed. That callback
430is I<supposed> to call C<< ->send >>, but that is not required. If no
431callback was set, C<send> will be called without any arguments.
432
433Let's clarify this with the ping example:
434
435 my $cv = AnyEvent->condvar;
436
437 my %result;
438 $cv->begin (sub { $cv->send (\%result) });
439
440 for my $host (@list_of_hosts) {
441 $cv->begin;
442 ping_host_then_call_callback $host, sub {
443 $result{$host} = ...;
444 $cv->end;
445 };
446 }
447
448 $cv->end;
449
450This code fragment supposedly pings a number of hosts and calls
451C<send> after results for all then have have been gathered - in any
452order. To achieve this, the code issues a call to C<begin> when it starts
453each ping request and calls C<end> when it has received some result for
454it. Since C<begin> and C<end> only maintain a counter, the order in which
455results arrive is not relevant.
456
457There is an additional bracketing call to C<begin> and C<end> outside the
458loop, which serves two important purposes: first, it sets the callback
459to be called once the counter reaches C<0>, and second, it ensures that
460C<send> is called even when C<no> hosts are being pinged (the loop
461doesn't execute once).
462
463This is the general pattern when you "fan out" into multiple subrequests:
464use an outer C<begin>/C<end> pair to set the callback and ensure C<end>
465is called at least once, and then, for each subrequest you start, call
466C<begin> and for each subrequest you finish, call C<end>.
467
468=back
469
470=head3 METHODS FOR CONSUMERS
471
472These methods should only be used by the consuming side, i.e. the
473code awaits the condition.
474
475=over 4
476
477=item $cv->recv
478
479Wait (blocking if necessary) until the C<< ->send >> or C<< ->croak
480>> methods have been called on c<$cv>, while servicing other watchers
481normally.
482
483You can only wait once on a condition - additional calls are valid but
484will return immediately.
485
486If an error condition has been set by calling C<< ->croak >>, then this
487function will call C<croak>.
488
489In list context, all parameters passed to C<send> will be returned,
490in scalar context only the first one will be returned.
491
492Not all event models support a blocking wait - some die in that case
493(programs might want to do that to stay interactive), so I<if you are
494using this from a module, never require a blocking wait>, but let the
495caller decide whether the call will block or not (for example, by coupling
496condition variables with some kind of request results and supporting
497callbacks so the caller knows that getting the result will not block,
498while still supporting blocking waits if the caller so desires).
499
500Another reason I<never> to C<< ->recv >> in a module is that you cannot
501sensibly have two C<< ->recv >>'s in parallel, as that would require
502multiple interpreters or coroutines/threads, none of which C<AnyEvent>
503can supply.
504
505The L<Coro> module, however, I<can> and I<does> supply coroutines and, in
506fact, L<Coro::AnyEvent> replaces AnyEvent's condvars by coroutine-safe
507versions and also integrates coroutines into AnyEvent, making blocking
508C<< ->recv >> calls perfectly safe as long as they are done from another
509coroutine (one that doesn't run the event loop).
510
511You can ensure that C<< -recv >> never blocks by setting a callback and
512only calling C<< ->recv >> from within that callback (or at a later
513time). This will work even when the event loop does not support blocking
514waits otherwise.
515
516=item $bool = $cv->ready
517
518Returns true when the condition is "true", i.e. whether C<send> or
519C<croak> have been called.
520
521=item $cb = $cv->cb ([new callback])
522
523This is a mutator function that returns the callback set and optionally
524replaces it before doing so.
525
526The callback will be called when the condition becomes "true", i.e. when
527C<send> or C<croak> are called. Calling C<recv> inside the callback
528or at any later time is guaranteed not to block.
529
530=back
531
532=head1 GLOBAL VARIABLES AND FUNCTIONS
533
534=over 4
535
536=item $AnyEvent::MODEL
537
538Contains C<undef> until the first watcher is being created. Then it
539contains the event model that is being used, which is the name of the
540Perl class implementing the model. This class is usually one of the
541C<AnyEvent::Impl:xxx> modules, but can be any other class in the case
542AnyEvent has been extended at runtime (e.g. in I<rxvt-unicode>).
543
544The known classes so far are:
545
546 AnyEvent::Impl::EV based on EV (an interface to libev, best choice).
547 AnyEvent::Impl::Event based on Event, second best choice.
548 AnyEvent::Impl::Perl pure-perl implementation, fast and portable.
549 AnyEvent::Impl::Glib based on Glib, third-best choice.
550 AnyEvent::Impl::Tk based on Tk, very bad choice.
551 AnyEvent::Impl::Qt based on Qt, cannot be autoprobed (see its docs).
552 AnyEvent::Impl::EventLib based on Event::Lib, leaks memory and worse.
553 AnyEvent::Impl::POE based on POE, not generic enough for full support.
554
555There is no support for WxWidgets, as WxWidgets has no support for
556watching file handles. However, you can use WxWidgets through the
557POE Adaptor, as POE has a Wx backend that simply polls 20 times per
558second, which was considered to be too horrible to even consider for
559AnyEvent. Likewise, other POE backends can be used by AnyEvent by using
560it's adaptor.
561
562AnyEvent knows about L<Prima> and L<Wx> and will try to use L<POE> when
563autodetecting them.
564
565=item AnyEvent::detect
566
567Returns C<$AnyEvent::MODEL>, forcing autodetection of the event model
568if necessary. You should only call this function right before you would
569have created an AnyEvent watcher anyway, that is, as late as possible at
570runtime.
571
572=item $guard = AnyEvent::post_detect { BLOCK }
573
574Arranges for the code block to be executed as soon as the event model is
575autodetected (or immediately if this has already happened).
576
577If called in scalar or list context, then it creates and returns an object
578that automatically removes the callback again when it is destroyed. See
579L<Coro::BDB> for a case where this is useful.
580
581=item @AnyEvent::post_detect
582
583If there are any code references in this array (you can C<push> to it
584before or after loading AnyEvent), then they will called directly after
585the event loop has been chosen.
586
587You should check C<$AnyEvent::MODEL> before adding to this array, though:
588if it contains a true value then the event loop has already been detected,
589and the array will be ignored.
590
591Best use C<AnyEvent::post_detect { BLOCK }> instead.
592
593=back
594
595=head1 WHAT TO DO IN A MODULE
596
597As a module author, you should C<use AnyEvent> and call AnyEvent methods
598freely, but you should not load a specific event module or rely on it.
599
600Be careful when you create watchers in the module body - AnyEvent will
601decide which event module to use as soon as the first method is called, so
602by calling AnyEvent in your module body you force the user of your module
603to load the event module first.
604
605Never call C<< ->recv >> on a condition variable unless you I<know> that
606the C<< ->send >> method has been called on it already. This is
607because it will stall the whole program, and the whole point of using
608events is to stay interactive.
609
610It is fine, however, to call C<< ->recv >> when the user of your module
611requests it (i.e. if you create a http request object ad have a method
612called C<results> that returns the results, it should call C<< ->recv >>
613freely, as the user of your module knows what she is doing. always).
614
615=head1 WHAT TO DO IN THE MAIN PROGRAM
616
617There will always be a single main program - the only place that should
618dictate which event model to use.
619
620If it doesn't care, it can just "use AnyEvent" and use it itself, or not
621do anything special (it does not need to be event-based) and let AnyEvent
622decide which implementation to chose if some module relies on it.
623
624If the main program relies on a specific event model - for example, in
625Gtk2 programs you have to rely on the Glib module - you should load the
626event module before loading AnyEvent or any module that uses it: generally
627speaking, you should load it as early as possible. The reason is that
628modules might create watchers when they are loaded, and AnyEvent will
629decide on the event model to use as soon as it creates watchers, and it
630might chose the wrong one unless you load the correct one yourself.
631
632You can chose to use a pure-perl implementation by loading the
633C<AnyEvent::Impl::Perl> module, which gives you similar behaviour
634everywhere, but letting AnyEvent chose the model is generally better.
635
636=head2 MAINLOOP EMULATION
637
638Sometimes (often for short test scripts, or even standalone programs who
639only want to use AnyEvent), you do not want to run a specific event loop.
640
641In that case, you can use a condition variable like this:
642
643 AnyEvent->condvar->recv;
644
645This has the effect of entering the event loop and looping forever.
646
647Note that usually your program has some exit condition, in which case
648it is better to use the "traditional" approach of storing a condition
649variable somewhere, waiting for it, and sending it when the program should
650exit cleanly.
651
652
653=head1 OTHER MODULES
654
655The following is a non-exhaustive list of additional modules that use
656AnyEvent and can therefore be mixed easily with other AnyEvent modules
657in the same program. Some of the modules come with AnyEvent, some are
658available via CPAN.
659
660=over 4
661
662=item L<AnyEvent::Util>
663
664Contains various utility functions that replace often-used but blocking
665functions such as C<inet_aton> by event-/callback-based versions.
666
667=item L<AnyEvent::Handle>
668
669Provide read and write buffers and manages watchers for reads and writes.
670
671=item L<AnyEvent::Socket>
672
673Provides various utility functions for (internet protocol) sockets,
674addresses and name resolution. Also functions to create non-blocking tcp
675connections or tcp servers, with IPv6 and SRV record support and more.
676
677=item L<AnyEvent::DNS>
678
679Provides rich asynchronous DNS resolver capabilities.
680
681=item L<AnyEvent::HTTPD>
682
683Provides a simple web application server framework.
684
685=item L<AnyEvent::FastPing>
686
687The fastest ping in the west.
688
689=item L<Net::IRC3>
690
691AnyEvent based IRC client module family.
692
693=item L<Net::XMPP2>
694
695AnyEvent based XMPP (Jabber protocol) module family.
696
697=item L<Net::FCP>
698
699AnyEvent-based implementation of the Freenet Client Protocol, birthplace
700of AnyEvent.
701
702=item L<Event::ExecFlow>
703
704High level API for event-based execution flow control.
705
706=item L<Coro>
707
708Has special support for AnyEvent via L<Coro::AnyEvent>.
709
710=item L<AnyEvent::AIO>, L<IO::AIO>
711
712Truly asynchronous I/O, should be in the toolbox of every event
713programmer. AnyEvent::AIO transparently fuses IO::AIO and AnyEvent
714together.
715
716=item L<AnyEvent::BDB>, L<BDB>
717
718Truly asynchronous Berkeley DB access. AnyEvent::AIO transparently fuses
719IO::AIO and AnyEvent together.
720
721=item L<IO::Lambda>
722
723The lambda approach to I/O - don't ask, look there. Can use AnyEvent.
724
725=back
726
49=cut 727=cut
50 728
51package AnyEvent; 729package AnyEvent;
52 730
53no warnings; 731no warnings;
54use strict 'vars'; 732use strict;
733
55use Carp; 734use Carp;
56 735
57our $VERSION = 0.1; 736our $VERSION = '4.04';
58our $MODEL; 737our $MODEL;
59 738
60our $AUTOLOAD; 739our $AUTOLOAD;
61our @ISA; 740our @ISA;
62 741
742our @REGISTRY;
743
744our $WIN32;
745
746BEGIN {
747 my $win32 = ! ! ($^O =~ /mswin32/i);
748 eval "sub WIN32(){ $win32 }";
749}
750
751our $verbose = $ENV{PERL_ANYEVENT_VERBOSE}*1;
752
753our %PROTOCOL; # (ipv4|ipv6) => (1|2), higher numbers are preferred
754
755{
756 my $idx;
757 $PROTOCOL{$_} = ++$idx
758 for reverse split /\s*,\s*/,
759 $ENV{PERL_ANYEVENT_PROTOCOLS} || "ipv4,ipv6";
760}
761
63my @models = ( 762my @models = (
64 [Coro => Coro::Event::], 763 [EV:: => AnyEvent::Impl::EV::],
65 [Event => Event::], 764 [Event:: => AnyEvent::Impl::Event::],
66 [Glib => Glib::], 765 [AnyEvent::Impl::Perl:: => AnyEvent::Impl::Perl::],
67 [Tk => Tk::], 766 # everything below here will not be autoprobed
767 # as the pureperl backend should work everywhere
768 # and is usually faster
769 [Tk:: => AnyEvent::Impl::Tk::], # crashes with many handles
770 [Glib:: => AnyEvent::Impl::Glib::], # becomes extremely slow with many watchers
771 [Event::Lib:: => AnyEvent::Impl::EventLib::], # too buggy
772 [Qt:: => AnyEvent::Impl::Qt::], # requires special main program
773 [POE::Kernel:: => AnyEvent::Impl::POE::], # lasciate ogni speranza
774 [Wx:: => AnyEvent::Impl::POE::],
775 [Prima:: => AnyEvent::Impl::POE::],
68); 776);
69 777
70sub AUTOLOAD { 778our %method = map +($_ => 1), qw(io timer signal child condvar one_event DESTROY);
71 $AUTOLOAD =~ s/.*://;
72 779
780our @post_detect;
781
782sub post_detect(&) {
783 my ($cb) = @_;
784
785 if ($MODEL) {
786 $cb->();
787
788 1
789 } else {
790 push @post_detect, $cb;
791
792 defined wantarray
793 ? bless \$cb, "AnyEvent::Util::PostDetect"
794 : ()
795 }
796}
797
798sub AnyEvent::Util::PostDetect::DESTROY {
799 @post_detect = grep $_ != ${$_[0]}, @post_detect;
800}
801
802sub detect() {
73 unless ($MODEL) { 803 unless ($MODEL) {
74 # check for already loaded models 804 no strict 'refs';
75 for (@models) { 805 local $SIG{__DIE__};
76 my ($model, $package) = @$_;
77 if (scalar keys %{ *{"$package\::"} }) {
78 eval "require AnyEvent::Impl::$model"
79 or die;
80 806
81 last if $MODEL; 807 if ($ENV{PERL_ANYEVENT_MODEL} =~ /^([a-zA-Z]+)$/) {
808 my $model = "AnyEvent::Impl::$1";
809 if (eval "require $model") {
810 $MODEL = $model;
811 warn "AnyEvent: loaded model '$model' (forced by \$PERL_ANYEVENT_MODEL), using it.\n" if $verbose > 1;
812 } else {
813 warn "AnyEvent: unable to load model '$model' (from \$PERL_ANYEVENT_MODEL):\n$@" if $verbose;
82 } 814 }
83 } 815 }
84 816
817 # check for already loaded models
85 unless ($MODEL) { 818 unless ($MODEL) {
86 # try to load a model
87
88 for (@models) { 819 for (@REGISTRY, @models) {
89 my ($model, $package) = @$_; 820 my ($package, $model) = @$_;
90 eval "require AnyEvent::Impl::$model" 821 if (${"$package\::VERSION"} > 0) {
822 if (eval "require $model") {
823 $MODEL = $model;
824 warn "AnyEvent: autodetected model '$model', using it.\n" if $verbose > 1;
825 last;
91 or die; 826 }
92 827 }
93 last if $MODEL;
94 } 828 }
95 829
830 unless ($MODEL) {
831 # try to load a model
832
833 for (@REGISTRY, @models) {
834 my ($package, $model) = @$_;
835 if (eval "require $package"
836 and ${"$package\::VERSION"} > 0
837 and eval "require $model") {
838 $MODEL = $model;
839 warn "AnyEvent: autoprobed model '$model', using it.\n" if $verbose > 1;
840 last;
841 }
842 }
843
96 $MODEL 844 $MODEL
97 or die "No event module selected for AnyEvent and autodetect failed. Install any one of these modules: Coro, Event, Glib or Tk."; 845 or die "No event module selected for AnyEvent and autodetect failed. Install any one of these modules: EV, Event or Glib.";
846 }
98 } 847 }
848
849 unshift @ISA, $MODEL;
850 push @{"$MODEL\::ISA"}, "AnyEvent::Base";
851
852 (shift @post_detect)->() while @post_detect;
99 } 853 }
100 854
101 @ISA = $MODEL; 855 $MODEL
856}
857
858sub AUTOLOAD {
859 (my $func = $AUTOLOAD) =~ s/.*://;
860
861 $method{$func}
862 or croak "$func: not a valid method for AnyEvent objects";
863
864 detect unless $MODEL;
102 865
103 my $class = shift; 866 my $class = shift;
104 $class->$AUTOLOAD (@_); 867 $class->$func (@_);
105} 868}
869
870package AnyEvent::Base;
871
872# default implementation for ->condvar
873
874sub condvar {
875 bless { @_ == 3 ? (_ae_cb => $_[2]) : () }, AnyEvent::CondVar::
876}
877
878# default implementation for ->signal
879
880our %SIG_CB;
881
882sub signal {
883 my (undef, %arg) = @_;
884
885 my $signal = uc $arg{signal}
886 or Carp::croak "required option 'signal' is missing";
887
888 $SIG_CB{$signal}{$arg{cb}} = $arg{cb};
889 $SIG{$signal} ||= sub {
890 $_->() for values %{ $SIG_CB{$signal} || {} };
891 };
892
893 bless [$signal, $arg{cb}], "AnyEvent::Base::Signal"
894}
895
896sub AnyEvent::Base::Signal::DESTROY {
897 my ($signal, $cb) = @{$_[0]};
898
899 delete $SIG_CB{$signal}{$cb};
900
901 $SIG{$signal} = 'DEFAULT' unless keys %{ $SIG_CB{$signal} };
902}
903
904# default implementation for ->child
905
906our %PID_CB;
907our $CHLD_W;
908our $CHLD_DELAY_W;
909our $PID_IDLE;
910our $WNOHANG;
911
912sub _child_wait {
913 while (0 < (my $pid = waitpid -1, $WNOHANG)) {
914 $_->($pid, $?) for (values %{ $PID_CB{$pid} || {} }),
915 (values %{ $PID_CB{0} || {} });
916 }
917
918 undef $PID_IDLE;
919}
920
921sub _sigchld {
922 # make sure we deliver these changes "synchronous" with the event loop.
923 $CHLD_DELAY_W ||= AnyEvent->timer (after => 0, cb => sub {
924 undef $CHLD_DELAY_W;
925 &_child_wait;
926 });
927}
928
929sub child {
930 my (undef, %arg) = @_;
931
932 defined (my $pid = $arg{pid} + 0)
933 or Carp::croak "required option 'pid' is missing";
934
935 $PID_CB{$pid}{$arg{cb}} = $arg{cb};
936
937 unless ($WNOHANG) {
938 $WNOHANG = eval { local $SIG{__DIE__}; require POSIX; &POSIX::WNOHANG } || 1;
939 }
940
941 unless ($CHLD_W) {
942 $CHLD_W = AnyEvent->signal (signal => 'CHLD', cb => \&_sigchld);
943 # child could be a zombie already, so make at least one round
944 &_sigchld;
945 }
946
947 bless [$pid, $arg{cb}], "AnyEvent::Base::Child"
948}
949
950sub AnyEvent::Base::Child::DESTROY {
951 my ($pid, $cb) = @{$_[0]};
952
953 delete $PID_CB{$pid}{$cb};
954 delete $PID_CB{$pid} unless keys %{ $PID_CB{$pid} };
955
956 undef $CHLD_W unless keys %PID_CB;
957}
958
959package AnyEvent::CondVar;
960
961our @ISA = AnyEvent::CondVar::Base::;
962
963package AnyEvent::CondVar::Base;
964
965use overload
966 '&{}' => sub { my $self = shift; sub { $self->send (@_) } },
967 fallback => 1;
968
969sub _send {
970 # nop
971}
972
973sub send {
974 my $cv = shift;
975 $cv->{_ae_sent} = [@_];
976 (delete $cv->{_ae_cb})->($cv) if $cv->{_ae_cb};
977 $cv->_send;
978}
979
980sub croak {
981 $_[0]{_ae_croak} = $_[1];
982 $_[0]->send;
983}
984
985sub ready {
986 $_[0]{_ae_sent}
987}
988
989sub _wait {
990 AnyEvent->one_event while !$_[0]{_ae_sent};
991}
992
993sub recv {
994 $_[0]->_wait;
995
996 Carp::croak $_[0]{_ae_croak} if $_[0]{_ae_croak};
997 wantarray ? @{ $_[0]{_ae_sent} } : $_[0]{_ae_sent}[0]
998}
999
1000sub cb {
1001 $_[0]{_ae_cb} = $_[1] if @_ > 1;
1002 $_[0]{_ae_cb}
1003}
1004
1005sub begin {
1006 ++$_[0]{_ae_counter};
1007 $_[0]{_ae_end_cb} = $_[1] if @_ > 1;
1008}
1009
1010sub end {
1011 return if --$_[0]{_ae_counter};
1012 &{ $_[0]{_ae_end_cb} || sub { $_[0]->send } };
1013}
1014
1015# undocumented/compatibility with pre-3.4
1016*broadcast = \&send;
1017*wait = \&_wait;
1018
1019=head1 SUPPLYING YOUR OWN EVENT MODEL INTERFACE
1020
1021This is an advanced topic that you do not normally need to use AnyEvent in
1022a module. This section is only of use to event loop authors who want to
1023provide AnyEvent compatibility.
1024
1025If you need to support another event library which isn't directly
1026supported by AnyEvent, you can supply your own interface to it by
1027pushing, before the first watcher gets created, the package name of
1028the event module and the package name of the interface to use onto
1029C<@AnyEvent::REGISTRY>. You can do that before and even without loading
1030AnyEvent, so it is reasonably cheap.
1031
1032Example:
1033
1034 push @AnyEvent::REGISTRY, [urxvt => urxvt::anyevent::];
1035
1036This tells AnyEvent to (literally) use the C<urxvt::anyevent::>
1037package/class when it finds the C<urxvt> package/module is already loaded.
1038
1039When AnyEvent is loaded and asked to find a suitable event model, it
1040will first check for the presence of urxvt by trying to C<use> the
1041C<urxvt::anyevent> module.
1042
1043The class should provide implementations for all watcher types. See
1044L<AnyEvent::Impl::EV> (source code), L<AnyEvent::Impl::Glib> (Source code)
1045and so on for actual examples. Use C<perldoc -m AnyEvent::Impl::Glib> to
1046see the sources.
1047
1048If you don't provide C<signal> and C<child> watchers than AnyEvent will
1049provide suitable (hopefully) replacements.
1050
1051The above example isn't fictitious, the I<rxvt-unicode> (a.k.a. urxvt)
1052terminal emulator uses the above line as-is. An interface isn't included
1053in AnyEvent because it doesn't make sense outside the embedded interpreter
1054inside I<rxvt-unicode>, and it is updated and maintained as part of the
1055I<rxvt-unicode> distribution.
1056
1057I<rxvt-unicode> also cheats a bit by not providing blocking access to
1058condition variables: code blocking while waiting for a condition will
1059C<die>. This still works with most modules/usages, and blocking calls must
1060not be done in an interactive application, so it makes sense.
1061
1062=head1 ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES
1063
1064The following environment variables are used by this module:
1065
1066=over 4
1067
1068=item C<PERL_ANYEVENT_VERBOSE>
1069
1070By default, AnyEvent will be completely silent except in fatal
1071conditions. You can set this environment variable to make AnyEvent more
1072talkative.
1073
1074When set to C<1> or higher, causes AnyEvent to warn about unexpected
1075conditions, such as not being able to load the event model specified by
1076C<PERL_ANYEVENT_MODEL>.
1077
1078When set to C<2> or higher, cause AnyEvent to report to STDERR which event
1079model it chooses.
1080
1081=item C<PERL_ANYEVENT_MODEL>
1082
1083This can be used to specify the event model to be used by AnyEvent, before
1084auto detection and -probing kicks in. It must be a string consisting
1085entirely of ASCII letters. The string C<AnyEvent::Impl::> gets prepended
1086and the resulting module name is loaded and if the load was successful,
1087used as event model. If it fails to load AnyEvent will proceed with
1088auto detection and -probing.
1089
1090This functionality might change in future versions.
1091
1092For example, to force the pure perl model (L<AnyEvent::Impl::Perl>) you
1093could start your program like this:
1094
1095 PERL_ANYEVENT_MODEL=Perl perl ...
1096
1097=item C<PERL_ANYEVENT_PROTOCOLS>
1098
1099Used by both L<AnyEvent::DNS> and L<AnyEvent::Socket> to determine preferences
1100for IPv4 or IPv6. The default is unspecified (and might change, or be the result
1101of auto probing).
1102
1103Must be set to a comma-separated list of protocols or address families,
1104current supported: C<ipv4> and C<ipv6>. Only protocols mentioned will be
1105used, and preference will be given to protocols mentioned earlier in the
1106list.
1107
1108This variable can effectively be used for denial-of-service attacks
1109against local programs (e.g. when setuid), although the impact is likely
1110small, as the program has to handle connection errors already-
1111
1112Examples: C<PERL_ANYEVENT_PROTOCOLS=ipv4,ipv6> - prefer IPv4 over IPv6,
1113but support both and try to use both. C<PERL_ANYEVENT_PROTOCOLS=ipv4>
1114- only support IPv4, never try to resolve or contact IPv6
1115addresses. C<PERL_ANYEVENT_PROTOCOLS=ipv6,ipv4> support either IPv4 or
1116IPv6, but prefer IPv6 over IPv4.
1117
1118=item C<PERL_ANYEVENT_EDNS0>
1119
1120Used by L<AnyEvent::DNS> to decide whether to use the EDNS0 extension
1121for DNS. This extension is generally useful to reduce DNS traffic, but
1122some (broken) firewalls drop such DNS packets, which is why it is off by
1123default.
1124
1125Setting this variable to C<1> will cause L<AnyEvent::DNS> to announce
1126EDNS0 in its DNS requests.
106 1127
107=back 1128=back
108 1129
109=head1 EXAMPLE 1130=head1 EXAMPLE PROGRAM
110 1131
111The following program uses an io watcher to read data from stdin, a timer 1132The following program uses an I/O watcher to read data from STDIN, a timer
112to display a message once per second, and a condvar to exit the program 1133to display a message once per second, and a condition variable to quit the
113when the user enters quit: 1134program when the user enters quit:
114 1135
115 use AnyEvent; 1136 use AnyEvent;
116 1137
117 my $cv = AnyEvent->condvar; 1138 my $cv = AnyEvent->condvar;
118 1139
119 my $io_watcher = AnyEvent->io (fh => \*STDIN, poll => 'r', cb => sub { 1140 my $io_watcher = AnyEvent->io (
1141 fh => \*STDIN,
1142 poll => 'r',
1143 cb => sub {
120 warn "io event <$_[0]>\n"; # will always output <r> 1144 warn "io event <$_[0]>\n"; # will always output <r>
121 chomp (my $input = <STDIN>); # read a line 1145 chomp (my $input = <STDIN>); # read a line
122 warn "read: $input\n"; # output what has been read 1146 warn "read: $input\n"; # output what has been read
123 $cv->broadcast if $input =~ /^q/i; # quit program if /^q/i 1147 $cv->send if $input =~ /^q/i; # quit program if /^q/i
1148 },
124 }); 1149 );
125 1150
126 my $time_watcher; # can only be used once 1151 my $time_watcher; # can only be used once
127 1152
128 sub new_timer { 1153 sub new_timer {
129 $timer = AnyEvent->timer (after => 1, cb => sub { 1154 $timer = AnyEvent->timer (after => 1, cb => sub {
132 }); 1157 });
133 } 1158 }
134 1159
135 new_timer; # create first timer 1160 new_timer; # create first timer
136 1161
137 $cv->wait; # wait until user enters /^q/i 1162 $cv->recv; # wait until user enters /^q/i
1163
1164=head1 REAL-WORLD EXAMPLE
1165
1166Consider the L<Net::FCP> module. It features (among others) the following
1167API calls, which are to freenet what HTTP GET requests are to http:
1168
1169 my $data = $fcp->client_get ($url); # blocks
1170
1171 my $transaction = $fcp->txn_client_get ($url); # does not block
1172 $transaction->cb ( sub { ... } ); # set optional result callback
1173 my $data = $transaction->result; # possibly blocks
1174
1175The C<client_get> method works like C<LWP::Simple::get>: it requests the
1176given URL and waits till the data has arrived. It is defined to be:
1177
1178 sub client_get { $_[0]->txn_client_get ($_[1])->result }
1179
1180And in fact is automatically generated. This is the blocking API of
1181L<Net::FCP>, and it works as simple as in any other, similar, module.
1182
1183More complicated is C<txn_client_get>: It only creates a transaction
1184(completion, result, ...) object and initiates the transaction.
1185
1186 my $txn = bless { }, Net::FCP::Txn::;
1187
1188It also creates a condition variable that is used to signal the completion
1189of the request:
1190
1191 $txn->{finished} = AnyAvent->condvar;
1192
1193It then creates a socket in non-blocking mode.
1194
1195 socket $txn->{fh}, ...;
1196 fcntl $txn->{fh}, F_SETFL, O_NONBLOCK;
1197 connect $txn->{fh}, ...
1198 and !$!{EWOULDBLOCK}
1199 and !$!{EINPROGRESS}
1200 and Carp::croak "unable to connect: $!\n";
1201
1202Then it creates a write-watcher which gets called whenever an error occurs
1203or the connection succeeds:
1204
1205 $txn->{w} = AnyEvent->io (fh => $txn->{fh}, poll => 'w', cb => sub { $txn->fh_ready_w });
1206
1207And returns this transaction object. The C<fh_ready_w> callback gets
1208called as soon as the event loop detects that the socket is ready for
1209writing.
1210
1211The C<fh_ready_w> method makes the socket blocking again, writes the
1212request data and replaces the watcher by a read watcher (waiting for reply
1213data). The actual code is more complicated, but that doesn't matter for
1214this example:
1215
1216 fcntl $txn->{fh}, F_SETFL, 0;
1217 syswrite $txn->{fh}, $txn->{request}
1218 or die "connection or write error";
1219 $txn->{w} = AnyEvent->io (fh => $txn->{fh}, poll => 'r', cb => sub { $txn->fh_ready_r });
1220
1221Again, C<fh_ready_r> waits till all data has arrived, and then stores the
1222result and signals any possible waiters that the request has finished:
1223
1224 sysread $txn->{fh}, $txn->{buf}, length $txn->{$buf};
1225
1226 if (end-of-file or data complete) {
1227 $txn->{result} = $txn->{buf};
1228 $txn->{finished}->send;
1229 $txb->{cb}->($txn) of $txn->{cb}; # also call callback
1230 }
1231
1232The C<result> method, finally, just waits for the finished signal (if the
1233request was already finished, it doesn't wait, of course, and returns the
1234data:
1235
1236 $txn->{finished}->recv;
1237 return $txn->{result};
1238
1239The actual code goes further and collects all errors (C<die>s, exceptions)
1240that occurred during request processing. The C<result> method detects
1241whether an exception as thrown (it is stored inside the $txn object)
1242and just throws the exception, which means connection errors and other
1243problems get reported tot he code that tries to use the result, not in a
1244random callback.
1245
1246All of this enables the following usage styles:
1247
12481. Blocking:
1249
1250 my $data = $fcp->client_get ($url);
1251
12522. Blocking, but running in parallel:
1253
1254 my @datas = map $_->result,
1255 map $fcp->txn_client_get ($_),
1256 @urls;
1257
1258Both blocking examples work without the module user having to know
1259anything about events.
1260
12613a. Event-based in a main program, using any supported event module:
1262
1263 use EV;
1264
1265 $fcp->txn_client_get ($url)->cb (sub {
1266 my $txn = shift;
1267 my $data = $txn->result;
1268 ...
1269 });
1270
1271 EV::loop;
1272
12733b. The module user could use AnyEvent, too:
1274
1275 use AnyEvent;
1276
1277 my $quit = AnyEvent->condvar;
1278
1279 $fcp->txn_client_get ($url)->cb (sub {
1280 ...
1281 $quit->send;
1282 });
1283
1284 $quit->recv;
1285
1286
1287=head1 BENCHMARKS
1288
1289To give you an idea of the performance and overheads that AnyEvent adds
1290over the event loops themselves and to give you an impression of the speed
1291of various event loops I prepared some benchmarks.
1292
1293=head2 BENCHMARKING ANYEVENT OVERHEAD
1294
1295Here is a benchmark of various supported event models used natively and
1296through AnyEvent. The benchmark creates a lot of timers (with a zero
1297timeout) and I/O watchers (watching STDOUT, a pty, to become writable,
1298which it is), lets them fire exactly once and destroys them again.
1299
1300Source code for this benchmark is found as F<eg/bench> in the AnyEvent
1301distribution.
1302
1303=head3 Explanation of the columns
1304
1305I<watcher> is the number of event watchers created/destroyed. Since
1306different event models feature vastly different performances, each event
1307loop was given a number of watchers so that overall runtime is acceptable
1308and similar between tested event loop (and keep them from crashing): Glib
1309would probably take thousands of years if asked to process the same number
1310of watchers as EV in this benchmark.
1311
1312I<bytes> is the number of bytes (as measured by the resident set size,
1313RSS) consumed by each watcher. This method of measuring captures both C
1314and Perl-based overheads.
1315
1316I<create> is the time, in microseconds (millionths of seconds), that it
1317takes to create a single watcher. The callback is a closure shared between
1318all watchers, to avoid adding memory overhead. That means closure creation
1319and memory usage is not included in the figures.
1320
1321I<invoke> is the time, in microseconds, used to invoke a simple
1322callback. The callback simply counts down a Perl variable and after it was
1323invoked "watcher" times, it would C<< ->send >> a condvar once to
1324signal the end of this phase.
1325
1326I<destroy> is the time, in microseconds, that it takes to destroy a single
1327watcher.
1328
1329=head3 Results
1330
1331 name watchers bytes create invoke destroy comment
1332 EV/EV 400000 244 0.56 0.46 0.31 EV native interface
1333 EV/Any 100000 244 2.50 0.46 0.29 EV + AnyEvent watchers
1334 CoroEV/Any 100000 244 2.49 0.44 0.29 coroutines + Coro::Signal
1335 Perl/Any 100000 513 4.92 0.87 1.12 pure perl implementation
1336 Event/Event 16000 516 31.88 31.30 0.85 Event native interface
1337 Event/Any 16000 590 35.75 31.42 1.08 Event + AnyEvent watchers
1338 Glib/Any 16000 1357 98.22 12.41 54.00 quadratic behaviour
1339 Tk/Any 2000 1860 26.97 67.98 14.00 SEGV with >> 2000 watchers
1340 POE/Event 2000 6644 108.64 736.02 14.73 via POE::Loop::Event
1341 POE/Select 2000 6343 94.13 809.12 565.96 via POE::Loop::Select
1342
1343=head3 Discussion
1344
1345The benchmark does I<not> measure scalability of the event loop very
1346well. For example, a select-based event loop (such as the pure perl one)
1347can never compete with an event loop that uses epoll when the number of
1348file descriptors grows high. In this benchmark, all events become ready at
1349the same time, so select/poll-based implementations get an unnatural speed
1350boost.
1351
1352Also, note that the number of watchers usually has a nonlinear effect on
1353overall speed, that is, creating twice as many watchers doesn't take twice
1354the time - usually it takes longer. This puts event loops tested with a
1355higher number of watchers at a disadvantage.
1356
1357To put the range of results into perspective, consider that on the
1358benchmark machine, handling an event takes roughly 1600 CPU cycles with
1359EV, 3100 CPU cycles with AnyEvent's pure perl loop and almost 3000000 CPU
1360cycles with POE.
1361
1362C<EV> is the sole leader regarding speed and memory use, which are both
1363maximal/minimal, respectively. Even when going through AnyEvent, it uses
1364far less memory than any other event loop and is still faster than Event
1365natively.
1366
1367The pure perl implementation is hit in a few sweet spots (both the
1368constant timeout and the use of a single fd hit optimisations in the perl
1369interpreter and the backend itself). Nevertheless this shows that it
1370adds very little overhead in itself. Like any select-based backend its
1371performance becomes really bad with lots of file descriptors (and few of
1372them active), of course, but this was not subject of this benchmark.
1373
1374The C<Event> module has a relatively high setup and callback invocation
1375cost, but overall scores in on the third place.
1376
1377C<Glib>'s memory usage is quite a bit higher, but it features a
1378faster callback invocation and overall ends up in the same class as
1379C<Event>. However, Glib scales extremely badly, doubling the number of
1380watchers increases the processing time by more than a factor of four,
1381making it completely unusable when using larger numbers of watchers
1382(note that only a single file descriptor was used in the benchmark, so
1383inefficiencies of C<poll> do not account for this).
1384
1385The C<Tk> adaptor works relatively well. The fact that it crashes with
1386more than 2000 watchers is a big setback, however, as correctness takes
1387precedence over speed. Nevertheless, its performance is surprising, as the
1388file descriptor is dup()ed for each watcher. This shows that the dup()
1389employed by some adaptors is not a big performance issue (it does incur a
1390hidden memory cost inside the kernel which is not reflected in the figures
1391above).
1392
1393C<POE>, regardless of underlying event loop (whether using its pure perl
1394select-based backend or the Event module, the POE-EV backend couldn't
1395be tested because it wasn't working) shows abysmal performance and
1396memory usage with AnyEvent: Watchers use almost 30 times as much memory
1397as EV watchers, and 10 times as much memory as Event (the high memory
1398requirements are caused by requiring a session for each watcher). Watcher
1399invocation speed is almost 900 times slower than with AnyEvent's pure perl
1400implementation.
1401
1402The design of the POE adaptor class in AnyEvent can not really account
1403for the performance issues, though, as session creation overhead is
1404small compared to execution of the state machine, which is coded pretty
1405optimally within L<AnyEvent::Impl::POE> (and while everybody agrees that
1406using multiple sessions is not a good approach, especially regarding
1407memory usage, even the author of POE could not come up with a faster
1408design).
1409
1410=head3 Summary
1411
1412=over 4
1413
1414=item * Using EV through AnyEvent is faster than any other event loop
1415(even when used without AnyEvent), but most event loops have acceptable
1416performance with or without AnyEvent.
1417
1418=item * The overhead AnyEvent adds is usually much smaller than the overhead of
1419the actual event loop, only with extremely fast event loops such as EV
1420adds AnyEvent significant overhead.
1421
1422=item * You should avoid POE like the plague if you want performance or
1423reasonable memory usage.
1424
1425=back
1426
1427=head2 BENCHMARKING THE LARGE SERVER CASE
1428
1429This benchmark actually benchmarks the event loop itself. It works by
1430creating a number of "servers": each server consists of a socket pair, a
1431timeout watcher that gets reset on activity (but never fires), and an I/O
1432watcher waiting for input on one side of the socket. Each time the socket
1433watcher reads a byte it will write that byte to a random other "server".
1434
1435The effect is that there will be a lot of I/O watchers, only part of which
1436are active at any one point (so there is a constant number of active
1437fds for each loop iteration, but which fds these are is random). The
1438timeout is reset each time something is read because that reflects how
1439most timeouts work (and puts extra pressure on the event loops).
1440
1441In this benchmark, we use 10000 socket pairs (20000 sockets), of which 100
1442(1%) are active. This mirrors the activity of large servers with many
1443connections, most of which are idle at any one point in time.
1444
1445Source code for this benchmark is found as F<eg/bench2> in the AnyEvent
1446distribution.
1447
1448=head3 Explanation of the columns
1449
1450I<sockets> is the number of sockets, and twice the number of "servers" (as
1451each server has a read and write socket end).
1452
1453I<create> is the time it takes to create a socket pair (which is
1454nontrivial) and two watchers: an I/O watcher and a timeout watcher.
1455
1456I<request>, the most important value, is the time it takes to handle a
1457single "request", that is, reading the token from the pipe and forwarding
1458it to another server. This includes deleting the old timeout and creating
1459a new one that moves the timeout into the future.
1460
1461=head3 Results
1462
1463 name sockets create request
1464 EV 20000 69.01 11.16
1465 Perl 20000 73.32 35.87
1466 Event 20000 212.62 257.32
1467 Glib 20000 651.16 1896.30
1468 POE 20000 349.67 12317.24 uses POE::Loop::Event
1469
1470=head3 Discussion
1471
1472This benchmark I<does> measure scalability and overall performance of the
1473particular event loop.
1474
1475EV is again fastest. Since it is using epoll on my system, the setup time
1476is relatively high, though.
1477
1478Perl surprisingly comes second. It is much faster than the C-based event
1479loops Event and Glib.
1480
1481Event suffers from high setup time as well (look at its code and you will
1482understand why). Callback invocation also has a high overhead compared to
1483the C<< $_->() for .. >>-style loop that the Perl event loop uses. Event
1484uses select or poll in basically all documented configurations.
1485
1486Glib is hit hard by its quadratic behaviour w.r.t. many watchers. It
1487clearly fails to perform with many filehandles or in busy servers.
1488
1489POE is still completely out of the picture, taking over 1000 times as long
1490as EV, and over 100 times as long as the Perl implementation, even though
1491it uses a C-based event loop in this case.
1492
1493=head3 Summary
1494
1495=over 4
1496
1497=item * The pure perl implementation performs extremely well.
1498
1499=item * Avoid Glib or POE in large projects where performance matters.
1500
1501=back
1502
1503=head2 BENCHMARKING SMALL SERVERS
1504
1505While event loops should scale (and select-based ones do not...) even to
1506large servers, most programs we (or I :) actually write have only a few
1507I/O watchers.
1508
1509In this benchmark, I use the same benchmark program as in the large server
1510case, but it uses only eight "servers", of which three are active at any
1511one time. This should reflect performance for a small server relatively
1512well.
1513
1514The columns are identical to the previous table.
1515
1516=head3 Results
1517
1518 name sockets create request
1519 EV 16 20.00 6.54
1520 Perl 16 25.75 12.62
1521 Event 16 81.27 35.86
1522 Glib 16 32.63 15.48
1523 POE 16 261.87 276.28 uses POE::Loop::Event
1524
1525=head3 Discussion
1526
1527The benchmark tries to test the performance of a typical small
1528server. While knowing how various event loops perform is interesting, keep
1529in mind that their overhead in this case is usually not as important, due
1530to the small absolute number of watchers (that is, you need efficiency and
1531speed most when you have lots of watchers, not when you only have a few of
1532them).
1533
1534EV is again fastest.
1535
1536Perl again comes second. It is noticeably faster than the C-based event
1537loops Event and Glib, although the difference is too small to really
1538matter.
1539
1540POE also performs much better in this case, but is is still far behind the
1541others.
1542
1543=head3 Summary
1544
1545=over 4
1546
1547=item * C-based event loops perform very well with small number of
1548watchers, as the management overhead dominates.
1549
1550=back
1551
1552
1553=head1 FORK
1554
1555Most event libraries are not fork-safe. The ones who are usually are
1556because they rely on inefficient but fork-safe C<select> or C<poll>
1557calls. Only L<EV> is fully fork-aware.
1558
1559If you have to fork, you must either do so I<before> creating your first
1560watcher OR you must not use AnyEvent at all in the child.
1561
1562
1563=head1 SECURITY CONSIDERATIONS
1564
1565AnyEvent can be forced to load any event model via
1566$ENV{PERL_ANYEVENT_MODEL}. While this cannot (to my knowledge) be used to
1567execute arbitrary code or directly gain access, it can easily be used to
1568make the program hang or malfunction in subtle ways, as AnyEvent watchers
1569will not be active when the program uses a different event model than
1570specified in the variable.
1571
1572You can make AnyEvent completely ignore this variable by deleting it
1573before the first watcher gets created, e.g. with a C<BEGIN> block:
1574
1575 BEGIN { delete $ENV{PERL_ANYEVENT_MODEL} }
1576
1577 use AnyEvent;
1578
1579Similar considerations apply to $ENV{PERL_ANYEVENT_VERBOSE}, as that can
1580be used to probe what backend is used and gain other information (which is
1581probably even less useful to an attacker than PERL_ANYEVENT_MODEL).
1582
138 1583
139=head1 SEE ALSO 1584=head1 SEE ALSO
140 1585
141L<Coro::Event>, L<Coro>, L<Event>, L<Glib::Event>, L<Glib>, 1586Utility functions: L<AnyEvent::Util>.
142L<AnyEvent::Impl::Coro>, 1587
143L<AnyEvent::Impl::Event>, 1588Event modules: L<EV>, L<EV::Glib>, L<Glib::EV>, L<Event>, L<Glib::Event>,
144L<AnyEvent::Impl::Glib>, 1589L<Glib>, L<Tk>, L<Event::Lib>, L<Qt>, L<POE>.
1590
1591Implementations: L<AnyEvent::Impl::EV>, L<AnyEvent::Impl::Event>,
1592L<AnyEvent::Impl::Glib>, L<AnyEvent::Impl::Tk>, L<AnyEvent::Impl::Perl>,
1593L<AnyEvent::Impl::EventLib>, L<AnyEvent::Impl::Qt>,
145L<AnyEvent::Impl::Tk>. 1594L<AnyEvent::Impl::POE>.
146 1595
147=head1 1596Non-blocking file handles, sockets, TCP clients and
1597servers: L<AnyEvent::Handle>, L<AnyEvent::Socket>.
1598
1599Asynchronous DNS: L<AnyEvent::DNS>.
1600
1601Coroutine support: L<Coro>, L<Coro::AnyEvent>, L<Coro::EV>, L<Coro::Event>,
1602
1603Nontrivial usage examples: L<Net::FCP>, L<Net::XMPP2>, L<AnyEvent::DNS>.
1604
1605
1606=head1 AUTHOR
1607
1608 Marc Lehmann <schmorp@schmorp.de>
1609 http://home.schmorp.de/
148 1610
149=cut 1611=cut
150 1612
1511 16131
152 1614

Diff Legend

Removed lines
+ Added lines
< Changed lines
> Changed lines