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Revision 1.52 by root, Sat Apr 19 03:47:24 2008 UTC vs.
Revision 1.133 by root, Sun May 25 03:44:03 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
5EV, Event, Coro::EV, Coro::Event, Glib, Tk, Perl - 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
9 use AnyEvent; 9 use AnyEvent;
10 10
15 my $w = AnyEvent->timer (after => $seconds, cb => sub { 15 my $w = AnyEvent->timer (after => $seconds, cb => sub {
16 ... 16 ...
17 }); 17 });
18 18
19 my $w = AnyEvent->condvar; # stores whether a condition was flagged 19 my $w = AnyEvent->condvar; # stores whether a condition was flagged
20 $w->send; # wake up current and all future recv's
20 $w->wait; # enters "main loop" till $condvar gets ->broadcast 21 $w->recv; # enters "main loop" till $condvar gets ->send
21 $w->broadcast; # wake up current and all future wait's
22 22
23=head1 WHY YOU SHOULD USE THIS MODULE (OR NOT) 23=head1 WHY YOU SHOULD USE THIS MODULE (OR NOT)
24 24
25Glib, POE, IO::Async, Event... CPAN offers event models by the dozen 25Glib, POE, IO::Async, Event... CPAN offers event models by the dozen
26nowadays. So what is different about AnyEvent? 26nowadays. So what is different about AnyEvent?
29policy> and AnyEvent is I<small and efficient>. 29policy> and AnyEvent is I<small and efficient>.
30 30
31First and foremost, I<AnyEvent is not an event model> itself, it only 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 32interfaces to whatever event model the main program happens to use in a
33pragmatic way. For event models and certain classes of immortals alike, 33pragmatic way. For event models and certain classes of immortals alike,
34the statement "there can only be one" is a bitter reality, and AnyEvent 34the statement "there can only be one" is a bitter reality: In general,
35helps hiding the differences. 35only one event loop can be active at the same time in a process. AnyEvent
36helps hiding the differences between those event loops.
36 37
37The goal of AnyEvent is to offer module authors the ability to do event 38The goal of AnyEvent is to offer module authors the ability to do event
38programming (waiting for I/O or timer events) without subscribing to a 39programming (waiting for I/O or timer events) without subscribing to a
39religion, a way of living, and most importantly: without forcing your 40religion, a way of living, and most importantly: without forcing your
40module users into the same thing by forcing them to use the same event 41module users into the same thing by forcing them to use the same event
41model you use. 42model you use.
42 43
43For modules like POE or IO::Async (which is actually doing all I/O 44For modules like POE or IO::Async (which is a total misnomer as it is
44I<synchronously>...), using them in your module is like joining a 45actually doing all I/O I<synchronously>...), using them in your module is
45cult: After you joined, you are dependent on them and you cannot use 46like joining a cult: After you joined, you are dependent on them and you
46anything else, as it is simply incompatible to everything that isn't 47cannot use anything else, as it is simply incompatible to everything that
47itself. 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.
48 50
49AnyEvent + POE works fine. AnyEvent + Glib works fine. AnyEvent + Tk 51AnyEvent is different: AnyEvent + POE works fine. AnyEvent + Glib works
50works fine etc. etc. but none of these work together with the rest: POE 52fine. AnyEvent + Tk works fine etc. etc. but none of these work together
51+ IO::Async? no go. Tk + Event? no go. If your module uses one of 53with the rest: POE + IO::Async? no go. Tk + Event? no go. Again: if
52those, every user of your module has to use it, too. If your module 54your module uses one of those, every user of your module has to use it,
53uses AnyEvent, it works transparently with all event models it supports 55too. But if your module uses AnyEvent, it works transparently with all
54(including stuff like POE and IO::Async). 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).
55 59
56In addition of being free of having to use I<the one and only true event 60In addition to being free of having to use I<the one and only true event
57model>, AnyEvent also is free of bloat and policy: with POE or similar 61model>, AnyEvent also is free of bloat and policy: with POE or similar
58modules, you get an enourmous amount of code and strict rules you have 62modules, you get an enormous amount of code and strict rules you have to
59to follow. AnyEvent, on the other hand, is lean and to the point by only 63follow. AnyEvent, on the other hand, is lean and up to the point, by only
60offering the functionality that is useful, in as thin as a wrapper as 64offering the functionality that is necessary, in as thin as a wrapper as
61technically possible. 65technically possible.
62 66
63Of course, if you want lots of policy (this can arguably be somewhat 67Of course, if you want lots of policy (this can arguably be somewhat
64useful) and you want to force your users to use the one and only event 68useful) and you want to force your users to use the one and only event
65model, you should I<not> use this module. 69model, you should I<not> use this module.
66
67 70
68=head1 DESCRIPTION 71=head1 DESCRIPTION
69 72
70L<AnyEvent> provides an identical interface to multiple event loops. This 73L<AnyEvent> provides an identical interface to multiple event loops. This
71allows module authors to utilise an event loop without forcing module 74allows module authors to utilise an event loop without forcing module
72users 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
73peacefully at any one time). 76peacefully at any one time).
74 77
75The interface itself is vaguely similar but not identical to the Event 78The interface itself is vaguely similar, but not identical to the L<Event>
76module. 79module.
77 80
78On 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
79loaded event loop by probing whether any of the following modules is 82to detect the currently loaded event loop by probing whether one of the
80loaded: L<Coro::EV>, L<Coro::Event>, L<EV>, L<Event>, L<Glib>, L<Tk>. The 83following modules is already loaded: L<EV>,
84L<Event>, L<Glib>, L<AnyEvent::Impl::Perl>, L<Tk>, L<Event::Lib>, L<Qt>,
81first one found is used. If none are found, the module tries to load these 85L<POE>. The first one found is used. If none are found, the module tries
82modules in the order given. The first one that could be successfully 86to load these modules (excluding Tk, Event::Lib, Qt and POE as the pure perl
83loaded will be used. If still none could be found, AnyEvent will fall back 87adaptor should always succeed) in the order given. The first one that can
84to a pure-perl event loop, which is also not very efficient. 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.
85 91
86Because AnyEvent first checks for modules that are already loaded, loading 92Because AnyEvent first checks for modules that are already loaded, loading
87an Event model explicitly before first using AnyEvent will likely make 93an event model explicitly before first using AnyEvent will likely make
88that model the default. For example: 94that model the default. For example:
89 95
90 use Tk; 96 use Tk;
91 use AnyEvent; 97 use AnyEvent;
92 98
93 # .. AnyEvent will likely default to Tk 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...
94 104
95The pure-perl implementation of AnyEvent is called 105The pure-perl implementation of AnyEvent is called
96C<AnyEvent::Impl::Perl>. Like other event modules you can load it 106C<AnyEvent::Impl::Perl>. Like other event modules you can load it
97explicitly. 107explicitly.
98 108
99=head1 WATCHERS 109=head1 WATCHERS
100 110
101AnyEvent has the central concept of a I<watcher>, which is an object that 111AnyEvent has the central concept of a I<watcher>, which is an object that
102stores relevant data for each kind of event you are waiting for, such as 112stores relevant data for each kind of event you are waiting for, such as
103the callback to call, the filehandle to watch, etc. 113the callback to call, the file handle to watch, etc.
104 114
105These watchers are normal Perl objects with normal Perl lifetime. After 115These watchers are normal Perl objects with normal Perl lifetime. After
106creating a watcher it will immediately "watch" for events and invoke 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
107the callback. To disable the watcher you have to destroy it (e.g. by 120To disable the watcher you have to destroy it (e.g. by setting the
108setting the variable that stores it to C<undef> or otherwise deleting all 121variable you store it in to C<undef> or otherwise deleting all references
109references to it). 122to it).
110 123
111All watchers are created by calling a method on the C<AnyEvent> class. 124All watchers are created by calling a method on the C<AnyEvent> class.
112 125
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
113=head2 IO WATCHERS 140=head2 I/O WATCHERS
114 141
115You can create I/O watcher by calling the C<< AnyEvent->io >> method with 142You can create an I/O watcher by calling the C<< AnyEvent->io >> method
116the following mandatory arguments: 143with the following mandatory key-value pairs as arguments:
117 144
118C<fh> the Perl I<filehandle> (not filedescriptor) to watch for 145C<fh> the Perl I<file handle> (I<not> file descriptor) to watch
119events. C<poll> must be a string that is either C<r> or C<w>, that creates 146for events. C<poll> must be a string that is either C<r> or C<w>,
120a watcher waiting for "r"eadable or "w"ritable events. C<cb> the callback 147which creates a watcher waiting for "r"eadable or "w"ritable events,
121to invoke everytime the filehandle becomes ready. 148respectively. C<cb> is the callback to invoke each time the file handle
149becomes ready.
122 150
123Filehandles will be kept alive, so as long as the watcher exists, the 151Although the callback might get passed parameters, their value and
124filehandle exists, too. 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.
125 162
126Example: 163Example:
127 164
128 # wait for readability of STDIN, then read a line and disable the watcher 165 # wait for readability of STDIN, then read a line and disable the watcher
129 my $w; $w = AnyEvent->io (fh => \*STDIN, poll => 'r', cb => sub { 166 my $w; $w = AnyEvent->io (fh => \*STDIN, poll => 'r', cb => sub {
135=head2 TIME WATCHERS 172=head2 TIME WATCHERS
136 173
137You can create a time watcher by calling the C<< AnyEvent->timer >> 174You can create a time watcher by calling the C<< AnyEvent->timer >>
138method with the following mandatory arguments: 175method with the following mandatory arguments:
139 176
140C<after> after how many seconds (fractions are supported) should the timer 177C<after> specifies after how many seconds (fractional values are
141activate. C<cb> the callback to invoke. 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.
142 184
143The timer callback will be invoked at most once: if you want a repeating 185The timer callback will be invoked at most once: if you want a repeating
144timer you have to create a new watcher (this is a limitation by both Tk 186timer you have to create a new watcher (this is a limitation by both Tk
145and Glib). 187and Glib).
146 188
152 }); 194 });
153 195
154 # to cancel the timer: 196 # to cancel the timer:
155 undef $w; 197 undef $w;
156 198
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
157=head2 CONDITION WATCHERS 298=head2 CONDITION VARIABLES
158 299
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
159Condition watchers can be created by calling the C<< AnyEvent->condvar >> 310Condition variables can be created by calling the C<< AnyEvent->condvar
160method without any arguments. 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.
161 314
162A condition watcher watches for a condition - precisely that the C<< 315After creation, the condition variable is "false" until it becomes "true"
163->broadcast >> method has been called. 316by calling the C<send> method (or calling the condition variable as if it
317were a callback).
164 318
319Condition variables are similar to callbacks, except that you can
320optionally wait for them. They can also be called merge points - points
321in time where multiple outstanding events have been processed. And yet
322another way to call them is transactions - each condition variable can be
323used to represent a transaction, which finishes at some point and delivers
324a result.
325
326Condition variables are very useful to signal that something has finished,
327for example, if you write a module that does asynchronous http requests,
328then a condition variable would be the ideal candidate to signal the
329availability of results. The user can either act when the callback is
330called or can synchronously C<< ->recv >> for the results.
331
332You can also use them to simulate traditional event loops - for example,
333you can block your main program until an event occurs - for example, you
334could C<< ->recv >> in your main program until the user clicks the Quit
335button of your app, which would C<< ->send >> the "quit" event.
336
165Note that condition watchers recurse into the event loop - if you have 337Note that condition variables recurse into the event loop - if you have
166two watchers that call C<< ->wait >> in a round-robbin fashion, you 338two pieces of code that call C<< ->recv >> in a round-robin fashion, you
167lose. Therefore, condition watchers are good to export to your caller, but 339lose. Therefore, condition variables are good to export to your caller, but
168you should avoid making a blocking wait, at least in callbacks, as this 340you should avoid making a blocking wait yourself, at least in callbacks,
169usually asks for trouble. 341as this asks for trouble.
170 342
171The watcher has only two methods: 343Condition variables are represented by hash refs in perl, and the keys
344used by AnyEvent itself are all named C<_ae_XXX> to make subclassing
345easy (it is often useful to build your own transaction class on top of
346AnyEvent). To subclass, use C<AnyEvent::CondVar> as base class and call
347it's C<new> method in your own C<new> method.
348
349There are two "sides" to a condition variable - the "producer side" which
350eventually calls C<< -> send >>, and the "consumer side", which waits
351for the send to occur.
352
353Example: wait for a timer.
354
355 # wait till the result is ready
356 my $result_ready = AnyEvent->condvar;
357
358 # do something such as adding a timer
359 # or socket watcher the calls $result_ready->send
360 # when the "result" is ready.
361 # in this case, we simply use a timer:
362 my $w = AnyEvent->timer (
363 after => 1,
364 cb => sub { $result_ready->send },
365 );
366
367 # this "blocks" (while handling events) till the callback
368 # calls send
369 $result_ready->recv;
370
371Example: wait for a timer, but take advantage of the fact that
372condition variables are also code references.
373
374 my $done = AnyEvent->condvar;
375 my $delay = AnyEvent->timer (after => 5, cb => $done);
376 $done->recv;
377
378=head3 METHODS FOR PRODUCERS
379
380These methods should only be used by the producing side, i.e. the
381code/module that eventually sends the signal. Note that it is also
382the producer side which creates the condvar in most cases, but it isn't
383uncommon for the consumer to create it as well.
172 384
173=over 4 385=over 4
174 386
387=item $cv->send (...)
388
389Flag the condition as ready - a running C<< ->recv >> and all further
390calls to C<recv> will (eventually) return after this method has been
391called. If nobody is waiting the send will be remembered.
392
393If a callback has been set on the condition variable, it is called
394immediately from within send.
395
396Any arguments passed to the C<send> call will be returned by all
397future C<< ->recv >> calls.
398
399Condition variables are overloaded so one can call them directly (as a
400code reference). Calling them directly is the same as calling C<send>.
401
402=item $cv->croak ($error)
403
404Similar to send, but causes all call's to C<< ->recv >> to invoke
405C<Carp::croak> with the given error message/object/scalar.
406
407This can be used to signal any errors to the condition variable
408user/consumer.
409
410=item $cv->begin ([group callback])
411
175=item $cv->wait 412=item $cv->end
176 413
177Wait (blocking if necessary) until the C<< ->broadcast >> method has been 414These two methods are EXPERIMENTAL and MIGHT CHANGE.
415
416These two methods can be used to combine many transactions/events into
417one. For example, a function that pings many hosts in parallel might want
418to use a condition variable for the whole process.
419
420Every call to C<< ->begin >> will increment a counter, and every call to
421C<< ->end >> will decrement it. If the counter reaches C<0> in C<< ->end
422>>, the (last) callback passed to C<begin> will be executed. That callback
423is I<supposed> to call C<< ->send >>, but that is not required. If no
424callback was set, C<send> will be called without any arguments.
425
426Let's clarify this with the ping example:
427
428 my $cv = AnyEvent->condvar;
429
430 my %result;
431 $cv->begin (sub { $cv->send (\%result) });
432
433 for my $host (@list_of_hosts) {
434 $cv->begin;
435 ping_host_then_call_callback $host, sub {
436 $result{$host} = ...;
437 $cv->end;
438 };
439 }
440
441 $cv->end;
442
443This code fragment supposedly pings a number of hosts and calls
444C<send> after results for all then have have been gathered - in any
445order. To achieve this, the code issues a call to C<begin> when it starts
446each ping request and calls C<end> when it has received some result for
447it. Since C<begin> and C<end> only maintain a counter, the order in which
448results arrive is not relevant.
449
450There is an additional bracketing call to C<begin> and C<end> outside the
451loop, which serves two important purposes: first, it sets the callback
452to be called once the counter reaches C<0>, and second, it ensures that
453C<send> is called even when C<no> hosts are being pinged (the loop
454doesn't execute once).
455
456This is the general pattern when you "fan out" into multiple subrequests:
457use an outer C<begin>/C<end> pair to set the callback and ensure C<end>
458is called at least once, and then, for each subrequest you start, call
459C<begin> and for each subrequest you finish, call C<end>.
460
461=back
462
463=head3 METHODS FOR CONSUMERS
464
465These methods should only be used by the consuming side, i.e. the
466code awaits the condition.
467
468=over 4
469
470=item $cv->recv
471
472Wait (blocking if necessary) until the C<< ->send >> or C<< ->croak
178called on c<$cv>, while servicing other watchers normally. 473>> methods have been called on c<$cv>, while servicing other watchers
474normally.
179 475
180You can only wait once on a condition - additional calls will return 476You can only wait once on a condition - additional calls are valid but
181immediately. 477will return immediately.
478
479If an error condition has been set by calling C<< ->croak >>, then this
480function will call C<croak>.
481
482In list context, all parameters passed to C<send> will be returned,
483in scalar context only the first one will be returned.
182 484
183Not all event models support a blocking wait - some die in that case 485Not all event models support a blocking wait - some die in that case
184(programs might want to do that so they stay interactive), so I<if you 486(programs might want to do that to stay interactive), so I<if you are
185are using this from a module, never require a blocking wait>, but let the 487using this from a module, never require a blocking wait>, but let the
186caller decide whether the call will block or not (for example, by coupling 488caller decide whether the call will block or not (for example, by coupling
187condition variables with some kind of request results and supporting 489condition variables with some kind of request results and supporting
188callbacks so the caller knows that getting the result will not block, 490callbacks so the caller knows that getting the result will not block,
189while still suppporting blocking waits if the caller so desires). 491while still supporting blocking waits if the caller so desires).
190 492
191Another reason I<never> to C<< ->wait >> in a module is that you cannot 493Another reason I<never> to C<< ->recv >> in a module is that you cannot
192sensibly have two C<< ->wait >>'s in parallel, as that would require 494sensibly have two C<< ->recv >>'s in parallel, as that would require
193multiple interpreters or coroutines/threads, none of which C<AnyEvent> 495multiple interpreters or coroutines/threads, none of which C<AnyEvent>
194can supply (the coroutine-aware backends C<Coro::EV> and C<Coro::Event> 496can supply.
195explicitly support concurrent C<< ->wait >>'s from different coroutines,
196however).
197 497
198=item $cv->broadcast 498The L<Coro> module, however, I<can> and I<does> supply coroutines and, in
499fact, L<Coro::AnyEvent> replaces AnyEvent's condvars by coroutine-safe
500versions and also integrates coroutines into AnyEvent, making blocking
501C<< ->recv >> calls perfectly safe as long as they are done from another
502coroutine (one that doesn't run the event loop).
199 503
200Flag the condition as ready - a running C<< ->wait >> and all further 504You can ensure that C<< -recv >> never blocks by setting a callback and
201calls to C<wait> will return after this method has been called. If nobody 505only calling C<< ->recv >> from within that callback (or at a later
202is waiting the broadcast will be remembered.. 506time). This will work even when the event loop does not support blocking
507waits otherwise.
203 508
204Example: 509=item $bool = $cv->ready
205 510
206 # wait till the result is ready 511Returns true when the condition is "true", i.e. whether C<send> or
207 my $result_ready = AnyEvent->condvar; 512C<croak> have been called.
208 513
209 # do something such as adding a timer 514=item $cb = $cv->cb ([new callback])
210 # or socket watcher the calls $result_ready->broadcast
211 # when the "result" is ready.
212 515
213 $result_ready->wait; 516This is a mutator function that returns the callback set and optionally
517replaces it before doing so.
518
519The callback will be called when the condition becomes "true", i.e. when
520C<send> or C<croak> are called. Calling C<recv> inside the callback
521or at any later time is guaranteed not to block.
214 522
215=back 523=back
216 524
217=head2 SIGNAL WATCHERS 525=head3 MAINLOOP EMULATION
218 526
219You can listen for signals using a signal watcher, C<signal> is the signal 527Sometimes (often for short test scripts, or even standalone programs
220I<name> without any C<SIG> prefix. Multiple signals events can be clumped 528who only want to use AnyEvent), you I<do> want your program to block
221together into one callback invocation, and callback invocation might or 529indefinitely in some event loop.
222might not be asynchronous.
223 530
224These watchers might use C<%SIG>, so programs overwriting those signals 531In that case, you cna use a condition variable like this:
225directly will likely not work correctly.
226 532
227Example: exit on SIGINT 533 AnyEvent->condvar->recv;
228 534
229 my $w = AnyEvent->signal (signal => "INT", cb => sub { exit 1 }); 535This has the effect of entering the event loop and looping forever.
230 536
231=head2 CHILD PROCESS WATCHERS 537Note that usually your program has some exit condition, in which case
538it is better to use the "traditional" approach of storing a condition
539variable, waiting for it, and sending it when the program should exit
540cleanly.
232 541
233You can also listen for the status of a child process specified by the
234C<pid> argument (or any child if the pid argument is 0). The watcher will
235trigger as often as status change for the child are received. This works
236by installing a signal handler for C<SIGCHLD>. The callback will be called with
237the pid and exit status (as returned by waitpid).
238 542
239Example: wait for pid 1333 543=head1 GLOBAL VARIABLES AND FUNCTIONS
240
241 my $w = AnyEvent->child (pid => 1333, cb => sub { warn "exit status $?" });
242
243=head1 GLOBALS
244 544
245=over 4 545=over 4
246 546
247=item $AnyEvent::MODEL 547=item $AnyEvent::MODEL
248 548
252C<AnyEvent::Impl:xxx> modules, but can be any other class in the case 552C<AnyEvent::Impl:xxx> modules, but can be any other class in the case
253AnyEvent has been extended at runtime (e.g. in I<rxvt-unicode>). 553AnyEvent has been extended at runtime (e.g. in I<rxvt-unicode>).
254 554
255The known classes so far are: 555The known classes so far are:
256 556
257 AnyEvent::Impl::CoroEV based on Coro::EV, best choice.
258 AnyEvent::Impl::CoroEvent based on Coro::Event, second best choice.
259 AnyEvent::Impl::EV based on EV (an interface to libev, also best choice). 557 AnyEvent::Impl::EV based on EV (an interface to libev, best choice).
260 AnyEvent::Impl::Event based on Event, also second best choice :) 558 AnyEvent::Impl::Event based on Event, second best choice.
559 AnyEvent::Impl::Perl pure-perl implementation, fast and portable.
261 AnyEvent::Impl::Glib based on Glib, third-best choice. 560 AnyEvent::Impl::Glib based on Glib, third-best choice.
262 AnyEvent::Impl::Tk based on Tk, very bad choice. 561 AnyEvent::Impl::Tk based on Tk, very bad choice.
263 AnyEvent::Impl::Perl pure-perl implementation, inefficient but portable. 562 AnyEvent::Impl::Qt based on Qt, cannot be autoprobed (see its docs).
563 AnyEvent::Impl::EventLib based on Event::Lib, leaks memory and worse.
564 AnyEvent::Impl::POE based on POE, not generic enough for full support.
565
566There is no support for WxWidgets, as WxWidgets has no support for
567watching file handles. However, you can use WxWidgets through the
568POE Adaptor, as POE has a Wx backend that simply polls 20 times per
569second, which was considered to be too horrible to even consider for
570AnyEvent. Likewise, other POE backends can be used by AnyEvent by using
571it's adaptor.
572
573AnyEvent knows about L<Prima> and L<Wx> and will try to use L<POE> when
574autodetecting them.
264 575
265=item AnyEvent::detect 576=item AnyEvent::detect
266 577
267Returns C<$AnyEvent::MODEL>, forcing autodetection of the event model if 578Returns C<$AnyEvent::MODEL>, forcing autodetection of the event model
268necessary. You should only call this function right before you would have 579if necessary. You should only call this function right before you would
269created an AnyEvent watcher anyway, that is, very late at runtime. 580have created an AnyEvent watcher anyway, that is, as late as possible at
581runtime.
582
583=item $guard = AnyEvent::post_detect { BLOCK }
584
585Arranges for the code block to be executed as soon as the event model is
586autodetected (or immediately if this has already happened).
587
588If called in scalar or list context, then it creates and returns an object
589that automatically removes the callback again when it is destroyed. See
590L<Coro::BDB> for a case where this is useful.
591
592=item @AnyEvent::post_detect
593
594If there are any code references in this array (you can C<push> to it
595before or after loading AnyEvent), then they will called directly after
596the event loop has been chosen.
597
598You should check C<$AnyEvent::MODEL> before adding to this array, though:
599if it contains a true value then the event loop has already been detected,
600and the array will be ignored.
601
602Best use C<AnyEvent::post_detect { BLOCK }> instead.
270 603
271=back 604=back
272 605
273=head1 WHAT TO DO IN A MODULE 606=head1 WHAT TO DO IN A MODULE
274 607
275As a module author, you should "use AnyEvent" and call AnyEvent methods 608As a module author, you should C<use AnyEvent> and call AnyEvent methods
276freely, but you should not load a specific event module or rely on it. 609freely, but you should not load a specific event module or rely on it.
277 610
278Be careful when you create watchers in the module body - Anyevent will 611Be careful when you create watchers in the module body - AnyEvent will
279decide which event module to use as soon as the first method is called, so 612decide which event module to use as soon as the first method is called, so
280by calling AnyEvent in your module body you force the user of your module 613by calling AnyEvent in your module body you force the user of your module
281to load the event module first. 614to load the event module first.
282 615
616Never call C<< ->recv >> on a condition variable unless you I<know> that
617the C<< ->send >> method has been called on it already. This is
618because it will stall the whole program, and the whole point of using
619events is to stay interactive.
620
621It is fine, however, to call C<< ->recv >> when the user of your module
622requests it (i.e. if you create a http request object ad have a method
623called C<results> that returns the results, it should call C<< ->recv >>
624freely, as the user of your module knows what she is doing. always).
625
283=head1 WHAT TO DO IN THE MAIN PROGRAM 626=head1 WHAT TO DO IN THE MAIN PROGRAM
284 627
285There will always be a single main program - the only place that should 628There will always be a single main program - the only place that should
286dictate which event model to use. 629dictate which event model to use.
287 630
288If it doesn't care, it can just "use AnyEvent" and use it itself, or not 631If it doesn't care, it can just "use AnyEvent" and use it itself, or not
289do anything special and let AnyEvent decide which implementation to chose. 632do anything special (it does not need to be event-based) and let AnyEvent
633decide which implementation to chose if some module relies on it.
290 634
291If the main program relies on a specific event model (for example, in Gtk2 635If the main program relies on a specific event model. For example, in
292programs you have to rely on either Glib or Glib::Event), you should load 636Gtk2 programs you have to rely on the Glib module. You should load the
293it before loading AnyEvent or any module that uses it, generally, as early 637event module before loading AnyEvent or any module that uses it: generally
294as possible. The reason is that modules might create watchers when they 638speaking, you should load it as early as possible. The reason is that
295are loaded, and AnyEvent will decide on the event model to use as soon as 639modules might create watchers when they are loaded, and AnyEvent will
296it creates watchers, and it might chose the wrong one unless you load the 640decide on the event model to use as soon as it creates watchers, and it
297correct one yourself. 641might chose the wrong one unless you load the correct one yourself.
298 642
299You can chose to use a rather inefficient pure-perl implementation by 643You can chose to use a rather inefficient pure-perl implementation by
300loading the C<AnyEvent::Impl::Perl> module, but letting AnyEvent chose is 644loading the C<AnyEvent::Impl::Perl> module, which gives you similar
301generally better. 645behaviour everywhere, but letting AnyEvent chose is generally better.
646
647=head1 OTHER MODULES
648
649The following is a non-exhaustive list of additional modules that use
650AnyEvent and can therefore be mixed easily with other AnyEvent modules
651in the same program. Some of the modules come with AnyEvent, some are
652available via CPAN.
653
654=over 4
655
656=item L<AnyEvent::Util>
657
658Contains various utility functions that replace often-used but blocking
659functions such as C<inet_aton> by event-/callback-based versions.
660
661=item L<AnyEvent::Handle>
662
663Provide read and write buffers and manages watchers for reads and writes.
664
665=item L<AnyEvent::Socket>
666
667Provides various utility functions for (internet protocol) sockets,
668addresses and name resolution. Also functions to create non-blocking tcp
669connections or tcp servers, with IPv6 and SRV record support and more.
670
671=item L<AnyEvent::HTTPD>
672
673Provides a simple web application server framework.
674
675=item L<AnyEvent::DNS>
676
677Provides rich asynchronous DNS resolver capabilities.
678
679=item L<AnyEvent::FastPing>
680
681The fastest ping in the west.
682
683=item L<Net::IRC3>
684
685AnyEvent based IRC client module family.
686
687=item L<Net::XMPP2>
688
689AnyEvent based XMPP (Jabber protocol) module family.
690
691=item L<Net::FCP>
692
693AnyEvent-based implementation of the Freenet Client Protocol, birthplace
694of AnyEvent.
695
696=item L<Event::ExecFlow>
697
698High level API for event-based execution flow control.
699
700=item L<Coro>
701
702Has special support for AnyEvent via L<Coro::AnyEvent>.
703
704=item L<AnyEvent::AIO>, L<IO::AIO>
705
706Truly asynchronous I/O, should be in the toolbox of every event
707programmer. AnyEvent::AIO transparently fuses IO::AIO and AnyEvent
708together.
709
710=item L<AnyEvent::BDB>, L<BDB>
711
712Truly asynchronous Berkeley DB access. AnyEvent::AIO transparently fuses
713IO::AIO and AnyEvent together.
714
715=item L<IO::Lambda>
716
717The lambda approach to I/O - don't ask, look there. Can use AnyEvent.
718
719=back
302 720
303=cut 721=cut
304 722
305package AnyEvent; 723package AnyEvent;
306 724
307no warnings; 725no warnings;
308use strict; 726use strict;
309 727
310use Carp; 728use Carp;
311 729
312our $VERSION = '3.1'; 730our $VERSION = '4.03';
313our $MODEL; 731our $MODEL;
314 732
315our $AUTOLOAD; 733our $AUTOLOAD;
316our @ISA; 734our @ISA;
317 735
318our $verbose = $ENV{PERL_ANYEVENT_VERBOSE}*1; 736our $verbose = $ENV{PERL_ANYEVENT_VERBOSE}*1;
319 737
320our @REGISTRY; 738our @REGISTRY;
321 739
740our %PROTOCOL; # (ipv4|ipv6) => (1|2)
741
742{
743 my $idx;
744 $PROTOCOL{$_} = ++$idx
745 for split /\s*,\s*/, $ENV{PERL_ANYEVENT_PROTOCOLS} || "ipv4,ipv6";
746}
747
322my @models = ( 748my @models = (
323 [Coro::EV:: => AnyEvent::Impl::CoroEV::],
324 [Coro::Event:: => AnyEvent::Impl::CoroEvent::],
325 [EV:: => AnyEvent::Impl::EV::], 749 [EV:: => AnyEvent::Impl::EV::],
326 [Event:: => AnyEvent::Impl::Event::], 750 [Event:: => AnyEvent::Impl::Event::],
751 [Tk:: => AnyEvent::Impl::Tk::],
752 [Wx:: => AnyEvent::Impl::POE::],
753 [Prima:: => AnyEvent::Impl::POE::],
754 [AnyEvent::Impl::Perl:: => AnyEvent::Impl::Perl::],
755 # everything below here will not be autoprobed as the pureperl backend should work everywhere
327 [Glib:: => AnyEvent::Impl::Glib::], 756 [Glib:: => AnyEvent::Impl::Glib::],
328 [Tk:: => AnyEvent::Impl::Tk::], 757 [Event::Lib:: => AnyEvent::Impl::EventLib::], # too buggy
329 [AnyEvent::Impl::Perl:: => AnyEvent::Impl::Perl::], 758 [Qt:: => AnyEvent::Impl::Qt::], # requires special main program
759 [POE::Kernel:: => AnyEvent::Impl::POE::], # lasciate ogni speranza
330); 760);
331 761
332our %method = map +($_ => 1), qw(io timer condvar broadcast wait signal one_event DESTROY); 762our %method = map +($_ => 1), qw(io timer signal child condvar one_event DESTROY);
763
764our @post_detect;
765
766sub post_detect(&) {
767 my ($cb) = @_;
768
769 if ($MODEL) {
770 $cb->();
771
772 1
773 } else {
774 push @post_detect, $cb;
775
776 defined wantarray
777 ? bless \$cb, "AnyEvent::Util::PostDetect"
778 : ()
779 }
780}
781
782sub AnyEvent::Util::PostDetect::DESTROY {
783 @post_detect = grep $_ != ${$_[0]}, @post_detect;
784}
333 785
334sub detect() { 786sub detect() {
335 unless ($MODEL) { 787 unless ($MODEL) {
336 no strict 'refs'; 788 no strict 'refs';
337 789
790 if ($ENV{PERL_ANYEVENT_MODEL} =~ /^([a-zA-Z]+)$/) {
791 my $model = "AnyEvent::Impl::$1";
792 if (eval "require $model") {
793 $MODEL = $model;
794 warn "AnyEvent: loaded model '$model' (forced by \$PERL_ANYEVENT_MODEL), using it.\n" if $verbose > 1;
795 } else {
796 warn "AnyEvent: unable to load model '$model' (from \$PERL_ANYEVENT_MODEL):\n$@" if $verbose;
797 }
798 }
799
338 # check for already loaded models 800 # check for already loaded models
801 unless ($MODEL) {
339 for (@REGISTRY, @models) { 802 for (@REGISTRY, @models) {
340 my ($package, $model) = @$_; 803 my ($package, $model) = @$_;
341 if (${"$package\::VERSION"} > 0) { 804 if (${"$package\::VERSION"} > 0) {
342 if (eval "require $model") { 805 if (eval "require $model") {
343 $MODEL = $model; 806 $MODEL = $model;
344 warn "AnyEvent: found model '$model', using it.\n" if $verbose > 1; 807 warn "AnyEvent: autodetected model '$model', using it.\n" if $verbose > 1;
345 last; 808 last;
809 }
346 } 810 }
347 } 811 }
348 }
349 812
350 unless ($MODEL) { 813 unless ($MODEL) {
351 # try to load a model 814 # try to load a model
352 815
353 for (@REGISTRY, @models) { 816 for (@REGISTRY, @models) {
354 my ($package, $model) = @$_; 817 my ($package, $model) = @$_;
355 if (eval "require $package" 818 if (eval "require $package"
356 and ${"$package\::VERSION"} > 0 819 and ${"$package\::VERSION"} > 0
357 and eval "require $model") { 820 and eval "require $model") {
358 $MODEL = $model; 821 $MODEL = $model;
359 warn "AnyEvent: autoprobed and loaded model '$model', using it.\n" if $verbose > 1; 822 warn "AnyEvent: autoprobed model '$model', using it.\n" if $verbose > 1;
360 last; 823 last;
824 }
361 } 825 }
826
827 $MODEL
828 or die "No event module selected for AnyEvent and autodetect failed. Install any one of these modules: EV, Event or Glib.";
362 } 829 }
363
364 $MODEL
365 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.";
366 } 830 }
367 831
368 unshift @ISA, $MODEL; 832 unshift @ISA, $MODEL;
369 push @{"$MODEL\::ISA"}, "AnyEvent::Base"; 833 push @{"$MODEL\::ISA"}, "AnyEvent::Base";
834
835 (shift @post_detect)->() while @post_detect;
370 } 836 }
371 837
372 $MODEL 838 $MODEL
373} 839}
374 840
384 $class->$func (@_); 850 $class->$func (@_);
385} 851}
386 852
387package AnyEvent::Base; 853package AnyEvent::Base;
388 854
389# default implementation for ->condvar, ->wait, ->broadcast 855# default implementation for ->condvar
390 856
391sub condvar { 857sub condvar {
392 bless \my $flag, "AnyEvent::Base::CondVar" 858 bless { @_ == 3 ? (_ae_cb => $_[2]) : () }, AnyEvent::CondVar::
393}
394
395sub AnyEvent::Base::CondVar::broadcast {
396 ${$_[0]}++;
397}
398
399sub AnyEvent::Base::CondVar::wait {
400 AnyEvent->one_event while !${$_[0]};
401} 859}
402 860
403# default implementation for ->signal 861# default implementation for ->signal
404 862
405our %SIG_CB; 863our %SIG_CB;
479 delete $PID_CB{$pid} unless keys %{ $PID_CB{$pid} }; 937 delete $PID_CB{$pid} unless keys %{ $PID_CB{$pid} };
480 938
481 undef $CHLD_W unless keys %PID_CB; 939 undef $CHLD_W unless keys %PID_CB;
482} 940}
483 941
942package AnyEvent::CondVar;
943
944our @ISA = AnyEvent::CondVar::Base::;
945
946package AnyEvent::CondVar::Base;
947
948use overload
949 '&{}' => sub { my $self = shift; sub { $self->send (@_) } },
950 fallback => 1;
951
952sub _send {
953 # nop
954}
955
956sub send {
957 my $cv = shift;
958 $cv->{_ae_sent} = [@_];
959 (delete $cv->{_ae_cb})->($cv) if $cv->{_ae_cb};
960 $cv->_send;
961}
962
963sub croak {
964 $_[0]{_ae_croak} = $_[1];
965 $_[0]->send;
966}
967
968sub ready {
969 $_[0]{_ae_sent}
970}
971
972sub _wait {
973 AnyEvent->one_event while !$_[0]{_ae_sent};
974}
975
976sub recv {
977 $_[0]->_wait;
978
979 Carp::croak $_[0]{_ae_croak} if $_[0]{_ae_croak};
980 wantarray ? @{ $_[0]{_ae_sent} } : $_[0]{_ae_sent}[0]
981}
982
983sub cb {
984 $_[0]{_ae_cb} = $_[1] if @_ > 1;
985 $_[0]{_ae_cb}
986}
987
988sub begin {
989 ++$_[0]{_ae_counter};
990 $_[0]{_ae_end_cb} = $_[1] if @_ > 1;
991}
992
993sub end {
994 return if --$_[0]{_ae_counter};
995 &{ $_[0]{_ae_end_cb} || sub { $_[0]->send } };
996}
997
998# undocumented/compatibility with pre-3.4
999*broadcast = \&send;
1000*wait = \&_wait;
1001
484=head1 SUPPLYING YOUR OWN EVENT MODEL INTERFACE 1002=head1 SUPPLYING YOUR OWN EVENT MODEL INTERFACE
1003
1004This is an advanced topic that you do not normally need to use AnyEvent in
1005a module. This section is only of use to event loop authors who want to
1006provide AnyEvent compatibility.
485 1007
486If you need to support another event library which isn't directly 1008If you need to support another event library which isn't directly
487supported by AnyEvent, you can supply your own interface to it by 1009supported by AnyEvent, you can supply your own interface to it by
488pushing, before the first watcher gets created, the package name of 1010pushing, before the first watcher gets created, the package name of
489the event module and the package name of the interface to use onto 1011the event module and the package name of the interface to use onto
490C<@AnyEvent::REGISTRY>. You can do that before and even without loading 1012C<@AnyEvent::REGISTRY>. You can do that before and even without loading
491AnyEvent. 1013AnyEvent, so it is reasonably cheap.
492 1014
493Example: 1015Example:
494 1016
495 push @AnyEvent::REGISTRY, [urxvt => urxvt::anyevent::]; 1017 push @AnyEvent::REGISTRY, [urxvt => urxvt::anyevent::];
496 1018
497This tells AnyEvent to (literally) use the C<urxvt::anyevent::> 1019This tells AnyEvent to (literally) use the C<urxvt::anyevent::>
498package/class when it finds the C<urxvt> package/module is loaded. When 1020package/class when it finds the C<urxvt> package/module is already loaded.
1021
499AnyEvent is loaded and asked to find a suitable event model, it will 1022When AnyEvent is loaded and asked to find a suitable event model, it
500first check for the presence of urxvt. 1023will first check for the presence of urxvt by trying to C<use> the
1024C<urxvt::anyevent> module.
501 1025
502The class should provide implementations for all watcher types (see 1026The class should provide implementations for all watcher types. See
503L<AnyEvent::Impl::Event> (source code), L<AnyEvent::Impl::Glib> 1027L<AnyEvent::Impl::EV> (source code), L<AnyEvent::Impl::Glib> (Source code)
504(Source code) and so on for actual examples, use C<perldoc -m 1028and so on for actual examples. Use C<perldoc -m AnyEvent::Impl::Glib> to
505AnyEvent::Impl::Glib> to see the sources). 1029see the sources.
506 1030
1031If you don't provide C<signal> and C<child> watchers than AnyEvent will
1032provide suitable (hopefully) replacements.
1033
507The above isn't fictitious, the I<rxvt-unicode> (a.k.a. urxvt) 1034The above example isn't fictitious, the I<rxvt-unicode> (a.k.a. urxvt)
508uses the above line as-is. An interface isn't included in AnyEvent 1035terminal emulator uses the above line as-is. An interface isn't included
509because it doesn't make sense outside the embedded interpreter inside 1036in AnyEvent because it doesn't make sense outside the embedded interpreter
510I<rxvt-unicode>, and it is updated and maintained as part of the 1037inside I<rxvt-unicode>, and it is updated and maintained as part of the
511I<rxvt-unicode> distribution. 1038I<rxvt-unicode> distribution.
512 1039
513I<rxvt-unicode> also cheats a bit by not providing blocking access to 1040I<rxvt-unicode> also cheats a bit by not providing blocking access to
514condition variables: code blocking while waiting for a condition will 1041condition variables: code blocking while waiting for a condition will
515C<die>. This still works with most modules/usages, and blocking calls must 1042C<die>. This still works with most modules/usages, and blocking calls must
516not be in an interactive application, so it makes sense. 1043not be done in an interactive application, so it makes sense.
517 1044
518=head1 ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES 1045=head1 ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES
519 1046
520The following environment variables are used by this module: 1047The following environment variables are used by this module:
521 1048
522C<PERL_ANYEVENT_VERBOSE> when set to C<2> or higher, reports which event 1049=over 4
523model gets used.
524 1050
1051=item C<PERL_ANYEVENT_VERBOSE>
1052
1053By default, AnyEvent will be completely silent except in fatal
1054conditions. You can set this environment variable to make AnyEvent more
1055talkative.
1056
1057When set to C<1> or higher, causes AnyEvent to warn about unexpected
1058conditions, such as not being able to load the event model specified by
1059C<PERL_ANYEVENT_MODEL>.
1060
1061When set to C<2> or higher, cause AnyEvent to report to STDERR which event
1062model it chooses.
1063
1064=item C<PERL_ANYEVENT_MODEL>
1065
1066This can be used to specify the event model to be used by AnyEvent, before
1067auto detection and -probing kicks in. It must be a string consisting
1068entirely of ASCII letters. The string C<AnyEvent::Impl::> gets prepended
1069and the resulting module name is loaded and if the load was successful,
1070used as event model. If it fails to load AnyEvent will proceed with
1071auto detection and -probing.
1072
1073This functionality might change in future versions.
1074
1075For example, to force the pure perl model (L<AnyEvent::Impl::Perl>) you
1076could start your program like this:
1077
1078 PERL_ANYEVENT_MODEL=Perl perl ...
1079
1080=item C<PERL_ANYEVENT_PROTOCOLS>
1081
1082Used by both L<AnyEvent::DNS> and L<AnyEvent::Socket> to determine preferences
1083for IPv4 or IPv6. The default is unspecified (and might change, or be the result
1084of auto probing).
1085
1086Must be set to a comma-separated list of protocols or address families,
1087current supported: C<ipv4> and C<ipv6>. Only protocols mentioned will be
1088used, and preference will be given to protocols mentioned earlier in the
1089list.
1090
1091This variable can effectively be used for denial-of-service attacks
1092against local programs (e.g. when setuid), although the impact is likely
1093small, as the program has to handle connection errors already-
1094
1095Examples: C<PERL_ANYEVENT_PROTOCOLS=ipv4,ipv6> - prefer IPv4 over IPv6,
1096but support both and try to use both. C<PERL_ANYEVENT_PROTOCOLS=ipv4>
1097- only support IPv4, never try to resolve or contact IPv6
1098addresses. C<PERL_ANYEVENT_PROTOCOLS=ipv6,ipv4> support either IPv4 or
1099IPv6, but prefer IPv6 over IPv4.
1100
1101=item C<PERL_ANYEVENT_EDNS0>
1102
1103Used by L<AnyEvent::DNS> to decide whether to use the EDNS0 extension
1104for DNS. This extension is generally useful to reduce DNS traffic, but
1105some (broken) firewalls drop such DNS packets, which is why it is off by
1106default.
1107
1108Setting this variable to C<1> will cause L<AnyEvent::DNS> to announce
1109EDNS0 in its DNS requests.
1110
1111=back
1112
525=head1 EXAMPLE 1113=head1 EXAMPLE PROGRAM
526 1114
527The following program uses an io watcher to read data from stdin, a timer 1115The following program uses an I/O watcher to read data from STDIN, a timer
528to display a message once per second, and a condvar to exit the program 1116to display a message once per second, and a condition variable to quit the
529when the user enters quit: 1117program when the user enters quit:
530 1118
531 use AnyEvent; 1119 use AnyEvent;
532 1120
533 my $cv = AnyEvent->condvar; 1121 my $cv = AnyEvent->condvar;
534 1122
535 my $io_watcher = AnyEvent->io (fh => \*STDIN, poll => 'r', cb => sub { 1123 my $io_watcher = AnyEvent->io (
1124 fh => \*STDIN,
1125 poll => 'r',
1126 cb => sub {
536 warn "io event <$_[0]>\n"; # will always output <r> 1127 warn "io event <$_[0]>\n"; # will always output <r>
537 chomp (my $input = <STDIN>); # read a line 1128 chomp (my $input = <STDIN>); # read a line
538 warn "read: $input\n"; # output what has been read 1129 warn "read: $input\n"; # output what has been read
539 $cv->broadcast if $input =~ /^q/i; # quit program if /^q/i 1130 $cv->send if $input =~ /^q/i; # quit program if /^q/i
1131 },
540 }); 1132 );
541 1133
542 my $time_watcher; # can only be used once 1134 my $time_watcher; # can only be used once
543 1135
544 sub new_timer { 1136 sub new_timer {
545 $timer = AnyEvent->timer (after => 1, cb => sub { 1137 $timer = AnyEvent->timer (after => 1, cb => sub {
548 }); 1140 });
549 } 1141 }
550 1142
551 new_timer; # create first timer 1143 new_timer; # create first timer
552 1144
553 $cv->wait; # wait until user enters /^q/i 1145 $cv->recv; # wait until user enters /^q/i
554 1146
555=head1 REAL-WORLD EXAMPLE 1147=head1 REAL-WORLD EXAMPLE
556 1148
557Consider the L<Net::FCP> module. It features (among others) the following 1149Consider the L<Net::FCP> module. It features (among others) the following
558API calls, which are to freenet what HTTP GET requests are to http: 1150API calls, which are to freenet what HTTP GET requests are to http:
608 syswrite $txn->{fh}, $txn->{request} 1200 syswrite $txn->{fh}, $txn->{request}
609 or die "connection or write error"; 1201 or die "connection or write error";
610 $txn->{w} = AnyEvent->io (fh => $txn->{fh}, poll => 'r', cb => sub { $txn->fh_ready_r }); 1202 $txn->{w} = AnyEvent->io (fh => $txn->{fh}, poll => 'r', cb => sub { $txn->fh_ready_r });
611 1203
612Again, C<fh_ready_r> waits till all data has arrived, and then stores the 1204Again, C<fh_ready_r> waits till all data has arrived, and then stores the
613result and signals any possible waiters that the request ahs finished: 1205result and signals any possible waiters that the request has finished:
614 1206
615 sysread $txn->{fh}, $txn->{buf}, length $txn->{$buf}; 1207 sysread $txn->{fh}, $txn->{buf}, length $txn->{$buf};
616 1208
617 if (end-of-file or data complete) { 1209 if (end-of-file or data complete) {
618 $txn->{result} = $txn->{buf}; 1210 $txn->{result} = $txn->{buf};
619 $txn->{finished}->broadcast; 1211 $txn->{finished}->send;
620 $txb->{cb}->($txn) of $txn->{cb}; # also call callback 1212 $txb->{cb}->($txn) of $txn->{cb}; # also call callback
621 } 1213 }
622 1214
623The C<result> method, finally, just waits for the finished signal (if the 1215The C<result> method, finally, just waits for the finished signal (if the
624request was already finished, it doesn't wait, of course, and returns the 1216request was already finished, it doesn't wait, of course, and returns the
625data: 1217data:
626 1218
627 $txn->{finished}->wait; 1219 $txn->{finished}->recv;
628 return $txn->{result}; 1220 return $txn->{result};
629 1221
630The actual code goes further and collects all errors (C<die>s, exceptions) 1222The actual code goes further and collects all errors (C<die>s, exceptions)
631that occured during request processing. The C<result> method detects 1223that occurred during request processing. The C<result> method detects
632whether an exception as thrown (it is stored inside the $txn object) 1224whether an exception as thrown (it is stored inside the $txn object)
633and just throws the exception, which means connection errors and other 1225and just throws the exception, which means connection errors and other
634problems get reported tot he code that tries to use the result, not in a 1226problems get reported tot he code that tries to use the result, not in a
635random callback. 1227random callback.
636 1228
667 1259
668 my $quit = AnyEvent->condvar; 1260 my $quit = AnyEvent->condvar;
669 1261
670 $fcp->txn_client_get ($url)->cb (sub { 1262 $fcp->txn_client_get ($url)->cb (sub {
671 ... 1263 ...
672 $quit->broadcast; 1264 $quit->send;
673 }); 1265 });
674 1266
675 $quit->wait; 1267 $quit->recv;
1268
1269
1270=head1 BENCHMARKS
1271
1272To give you an idea of the performance and overheads that AnyEvent adds
1273over the event loops themselves and to give you an impression of the speed
1274of various event loops I prepared some benchmarks.
1275
1276=head2 BENCHMARKING ANYEVENT OVERHEAD
1277
1278Here is a benchmark of various supported event models used natively and
1279through AnyEvent. The benchmark creates a lot of timers (with a zero
1280timeout) and I/O watchers (watching STDOUT, a pty, to become writable,
1281which it is), lets them fire exactly once and destroys them again.
1282
1283Source code for this benchmark is found as F<eg/bench> in the AnyEvent
1284distribution.
1285
1286=head3 Explanation of the columns
1287
1288I<watcher> is the number of event watchers created/destroyed. Since
1289different event models feature vastly different performances, each event
1290loop was given a number of watchers so that overall runtime is acceptable
1291and similar between tested event loop (and keep them from crashing): Glib
1292would probably take thousands of years if asked to process the same number
1293of watchers as EV in this benchmark.
1294
1295I<bytes> is the number of bytes (as measured by the resident set size,
1296RSS) consumed by each watcher. This method of measuring captures both C
1297and Perl-based overheads.
1298
1299I<create> is the time, in microseconds (millionths of seconds), that it
1300takes to create a single watcher. The callback is a closure shared between
1301all watchers, to avoid adding memory overhead. That means closure creation
1302and memory usage is not included in the figures.
1303
1304I<invoke> is the time, in microseconds, used to invoke a simple
1305callback. The callback simply counts down a Perl variable and after it was
1306invoked "watcher" times, it would C<< ->send >> a condvar once to
1307signal the end of this phase.
1308
1309I<destroy> is the time, in microseconds, that it takes to destroy a single
1310watcher.
1311
1312=head3 Results
1313
1314 name watchers bytes create invoke destroy comment
1315 EV/EV 400000 244 0.56 0.46 0.31 EV native interface
1316 EV/Any 100000 244 2.50 0.46 0.29 EV + AnyEvent watchers
1317 CoroEV/Any 100000 244 2.49 0.44 0.29 coroutines + Coro::Signal
1318 Perl/Any 100000 513 4.92 0.87 1.12 pure perl implementation
1319 Event/Event 16000 516 31.88 31.30 0.85 Event native interface
1320 Event/Any 16000 590 35.75 31.42 1.08 Event + AnyEvent watchers
1321 Glib/Any 16000 1357 98.22 12.41 54.00 quadratic behaviour
1322 Tk/Any 2000 1860 26.97 67.98 14.00 SEGV with >> 2000 watchers
1323 POE/Event 2000 6644 108.64 736.02 14.73 via POE::Loop::Event
1324 POE/Select 2000 6343 94.13 809.12 565.96 via POE::Loop::Select
1325
1326=head3 Discussion
1327
1328The benchmark does I<not> measure scalability of the event loop very
1329well. For example, a select-based event loop (such as the pure perl one)
1330can never compete with an event loop that uses epoll when the number of
1331file descriptors grows high. In this benchmark, all events become ready at
1332the same time, so select/poll-based implementations get an unnatural speed
1333boost.
1334
1335Also, note that the number of watchers usually has a nonlinear effect on
1336overall speed, that is, creating twice as many watchers doesn't take twice
1337the time - usually it takes longer. This puts event loops tested with a
1338higher number of watchers at a disadvantage.
1339
1340To put the range of results into perspective, consider that on the
1341benchmark machine, handling an event takes roughly 1600 CPU cycles with
1342EV, 3100 CPU cycles with AnyEvent's pure perl loop and almost 3000000 CPU
1343cycles with POE.
1344
1345C<EV> is the sole leader regarding speed and memory use, which are both
1346maximal/minimal, respectively. Even when going through AnyEvent, it uses
1347far less memory than any other event loop and is still faster than Event
1348natively.
1349
1350The pure perl implementation is hit in a few sweet spots (both the
1351constant timeout and the use of a single fd hit optimisations in the perl
1352interpreter and the backend itself). Nevertheless this shows that it
1353adds very little overhead in itself. Like any select-based backend its
1354performance becomes really bad with lots of file descriptors (and few of
1355them active), of course, but this was not subject of this benchmark.
1356
1357The C<Event> module has a relatively high setup and callback invocation
1358cost, but overall scores in on the third place.
1359
1360C<Glib>'s memory usage is quite a bit higher, but it features a
1361faster callback invocation and overall ends up in the same class as
1362C<Event>. However, Glib scales extremely badly, doubling the number of
1363watchers increases the processing time by more than a factor of four,
1364making it completely unusable when using larger numbers of watchers
1365(note that only a single file descriptor was used in the benchmark, so
1366inefficiencies of C<poll> do not account for this).
1367
1368The C<Tk> adaptor works relatively well. The fact that it crashes with
1369more than 2000 watchers is a big setback, however, as correctness takes
1370precedence over speed. Nevertheless, its performance is surprising, as the
1371file descriptor is dup()ed for each watcher. This shows that the dup()
1372employed by some adaptors is not a big performance issue (it does incur a
1373hidden memory cost inside the kernel which is not reflected in the figures
1374above).
1375
1376C<POE>, regardless of underlying event loop (whether using its pure perl
1377select-based backend or the Event module, the POE-EV backend couldn't
1378be tested because it wasn't working) shows abysmal performance and
1379memory usage with AnyEvent: Watchers use almost 30 times as much memory
1380as EV watchers, and 10 times as much memory as Event (the high memory
1381requirements are caused by requiring a session for each watcher). Watcher
1382invocation speed is almost 900 times slower than with AnyEvent's pure perl
1383implementation.
1384
1385The design of the POE adaptor class in AnyEvent can not really account
1386for the performance issues, though, as session creation overhead is
1387small compared to execution of the state machine, which is coded pretty
1388optimally within L<AnyEvent::Impl::POE> (and while everybody agrees that
1389using multiple sessions is not a good approach, especially regarding
1390memory usage, even the author of POE could not come up with a faster
1391design).
1392
1393=head3 Summary
1394
1395=over 4
1396
1397=item * Using EV through AnyEvent is faster than any other event loop
1398(even when used without AnyEvent), but most event loops have acceptable
1399performance with or without AnyEvent.
1400
1401=item * The overhead AnyEvent adds is usually much smaller than the overhead of
1402the actual event loop, only with extremely fast event loops such as EV
1403adds AnyEvent significant overhead.
1404
1405=item * You should avoid POE like the plague if you want performance or
1406reasonable memory usage.
1407
1408=back
1409
1410=head2 BENCHMARKING THE LARGE SERVER CASE
1411
1412This benchmark actually benchmarks the event loop itself. It works by
1413creating a number of "servers": each server consists of a socket pair, a
1414timeout watcher that gets reset on activity (but never fires), and an I/O
1415watcher waiting for input on one side of the socket. Each time the socket
1416watcher reads a byte it will write that byte to a random other "server".
1417
1418The effect is that there will be a lot of I/O watchers, only part of which
1419are active at any one point (so there is a constant number of active
1420fds for each loop iteration, but which fds these are is random). The
1421timeout is reset each time something is read because that reflects how
1422most timeouts work (and puts extra pressure on the event loops).
1423
1424In this benchmark, we use 10000 socket pairs (20000 sockets), of which 100
1425(1%) are active. This mirrors the activity of large servers with many
1426connections, most of which are idle at any one point in time.
1427
1428Source code for this benchmark is found as F<eg/bench2> in the AnyEvent
1429distribution.
1430
1431=head3 Explanation of the columns
1432
1433I<sockets> is the number of sockets, and twice the number of "servers" (as
1434each server has a read and write socket end).
1435
1436I<create> is the time it takes to create a socket pair (which is
1437nontrivial) and two watchers: an I/O watcher and a timeout watcher.
1438
1439I<request>, the most important value, is the time it takes to handle a
1440single "request", that is, reading the token from the pipe and forwarding
1441it to another server. This includes deleting the old timeout and creating
1442a new one that moves the timeout into the future.
1443
1444=head3 Results
1445
1446 name sockets create request
1447 EV 20000 69.01 11.16
1448 Perl 20000 73.32 35.87
1449 Event 20000 212.62 257.32
1450 Glib 20000 651.16 1896.30
1451 POE 20000 349.67 12317.24 uses POE::Loop::Event
1452
1453=head3 Discussion
1454
1455This benchmark I<does> measure scalability and overall performance of the
1456particular event loop.
1457
1458EV is again fastest. Since it is using epoll on my system, the setup time
1459is relatively high, though.
1460
1461Perl surprisingly comes second. It is much faster than the C-based event
1462loops Event and Glib.
1463
1464Event suffers from high setup time as well (look at its code and you will
1465understand why). Callback invocation also has a high overhead compared to
1466the C<< $_->() for .. >>-style loop that the Perl event loop uses. Event
1467uses select or poll in basically all documented configurations.
1468
1469Glib is hit hard by its quadratic behaviour w.r.t. many watchers. It
1470clearly fails to perform with many filehandles or in busy servers.
1471
1472POE is still completely out of the picture, taking over 1000 times as long
1473as EV, and over 100 times as long as the Perl implementation, even though
1474it uses a C-based event loop in this case.
1475
1476=head3 Summary
1477
1478=over 4
1479
1480=item * The pure perl implementation performs extremely well.
1481
1482=item * Avoid Glib or POE in large projects where performance matters.
1483
1484=back
1485
1486=head2 BENCHMARKING SMALL SERVERS
1487
1488While event loops should scale (and select-based ones do not...) even to
1489large servers, most programs we (or I :) actually write have only a few
1490I/O watchers.
1491
1492In this benchmark, I use the same benchmark program as in the large server
1493case, but it uses only eight "servers", of which three are active at any
1494one time. This should reflect performance for a small server relatively
1495well.
1496
1497The columns are identical to the previous table.
1498
1499=head3 Results
1500
1501 name sockets create request
1502 EV 16 20.00 6.54
1503 Perl 16 25.75 12.62
1504 Event 16 81.27 35.86
1505 Glib 16 32.63 15.48
1506 POE 16 261.87 276.28 uses POE::Loop::Event
1507
1508=head3 Discussion
1509
1510The benchmark tries to test the performance of a typical small
1511server. While knowing how various event loops perform is interesting, keep
1512in mind that their overhead in this case is usually not as important, due
1513to the small absolute number of watchers (that is, you need efficiency and
1514speed most when you have lots of watchers, not when you only have a few of
1515them).
1516
1517EV is again fastest.
1518
1519Perl again comes second. It is noticeably faster than the C-based event
1520loops Event and Glib, although the difference is too small to really
1521matter.
1522
1523POE also performs much better in this case, but is is still far behind the
1524others.
1525
1526=head3 Summary
1527
1528=over 4
1529
1530=item * C-based event loops perform very well with small number of
1531watchers, as the management overhead dominates.
1532
1533=back
1534
1535
1536=head1 FORK
1537
1538Most event libraries are not fork-safe. The ones who are usually are
1539because they rely on inefficient but fork-safe C<select> or C<poll>
1540calls. Only L<EV> is fully fork-aware.
1541
1542If you have to fork, you must either do so I<before> creating your first
1543watcher OR you must not use AnyEvent at all in the child.
1544
1545
1546=head1 SECURITY CONSIDERATIONS
1547
1548AnyEvent can be forced to load any event model via
1549$ENV{PERL_ANYEVENT_MODEL}. While this cannot (to my knowledge) be used to
1550execute arbitrary code or directly gain access, it can easily be used to
1551make the program hang or malfunction in subtle ways, as AnyEvent watchers
1552will not be active when the program uses a different event model than
1553specified in the variable.
1554
1555You can make AnyEvent completely ignore this variable by deleting it
1556before the first watcher gets created, e.g. with a C<BEGIN> block:
1557
1558 BEGIN { delete $ENV{PERL_ANYEVENT_MODEL} }
1559
1560 use AnyEvent;
1561
1562Similar considerations apply to $ENV{PERL_ANYEVENT_VERBOSE}, as that can
1563be used to probe what backend is used and gain other information (which is
1564probably even less useful to an attacker than PERL_ANYEVENT_MODEL).
1565
676 1566
677=head1 SEE ALSO 1567=head1 SEE ALSO
678 1568
679Event modules: L<Coro::EV>, L<EV>, L<EV::Glib>, L<Glib::EV>, 1569Utility functions: L<AnyEvent::Util>.
680L<Coro::Event>, L<Event>, L<Glib::Event>, L<Glib>, L<Coro>, L<Tk>.
681 1570
682Implementations: L<AnyEvent::Impl::CoroEV>, L<AnyEvent::Impl::EV>, 1571Event modules: L<EV>, L<EV::Glib>, L<Glib::EV>, L<Event>, L<Glib::Event>,
1572L<Glib>, L<Tk>, L<Event::Lib>, L<Qt>, L<POE>.
1573
683L<AnyEvent::Impl::CoroEvent>, L<AnyEvent::Impl::Event>, 1574Implementations: L<AnyEvent::Impl::EV>, L<AnyEvent::Impl::Event>,
684L<AnyEvent::Impl::Glib>, L<AnyEvent::Impl::Tk>, L<AnyEvent::Impl::Perl>. 1575L<AnyEvent::Impl::Glib>, L<AnyEvent::Impl::Tk>, L<AnyEvent::Impl::Perl>,
1576L<AnyEvent::Impl::EventLib>, L<AnyEvent::Impl::Qt>,
1577L<AnyEvent::Impl::POE>.
685 1578
1579Non-blocking file handles, sockets, TCP clients and
1580servers: L<AnyEvent::Handle>, L<AnyEvent::Socket>.
1581
1582Asynchronous DNS: L<AnyEvent::DNS>.
1583
1584Coroutine support: L<Coro>, L<Coro::AnyEvent>, L<Coro::EV>, L<Coro::Event>,
1585
686Nontrivial usage examples: L<Net::FCP>, L<Net::XMPP2>. 1586Nontrivial usage examples: L<Net::FCP>, L<Net::XMPP2>, L<AnyEvent::DNS>.
687 1587
688=head1 1588
1589=head1 AUTHOR
1590
1591 Marc Lehmann <schmorp@schmorp.de>
1592 http://home.schmorp.de/
689 1593
690=cut 1594=cut
691 1595
6921 15961
693 1597

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