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

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