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Revision: 1.26
Committed: Sun Jul 8 08:52:10 2007 UTC (16 years, 11 months ago) by root
Branch: MAIN
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# 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 callback 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
251 use Carp;
252
253 our $VERSION = '2.53';
254 our $MODEL;
255
256 our $AUTOLOAD;
257 our @ISA;
258
259 our $verbose = $ENV{PERL_ANYEVENT_VERBOSE}*1;
260
261 our @REGISTRY;
262
263 my @models = (
264 [Coro::Event:: => AnyEvent::Impl::Coro::],
265 [Event:: => AnyEvent::Impl::Event::],
266 [Glib:: => AnyEvent::Impl::Glib::],
267 [Tk:: => AnyEvent::Impl::Tk::],
268 [AnyEvent::Impl::Perl:: => AnyEvent::Impl::Perl::],
269 );
270
271 our %method = map +($_ => 1), qw(io timer condvar broadcast wait signal one_event DESTROY);
272
273 sub detect() {
274 unless ($MODEL) {
275 no strict 'refs';
276
277 # check for already loaded models
278 for (@REGISTRY, @models) {
279 my ($package, $model) = @$_;
280 if (${"$package\::VERSION"} > 0) {
281 if (eval "require $model") {
282 $MODEL = $model;
283 warn "AnyEvent: found model '$model', using it.\n" if $verbose > 1;
284 last;
285 }
286 }
287 }
288
289 unless ($MODEL) {
290 # try to load a model
291
292 for (@REGISTRY, @models) {
293 my ($package, $model) = @$_;
294 if (eval "require $package"
295 and ${"$package\::VERSION"} > 0
296 and eval "require $model") {
297 $MODEL = $model;
298 warn "AnyEvent: autoprobed and loaded model '$model', using it.\n" if $verbose > 1;
299 last;
300 }
301 }
302
303 $MODEL
304 or die "No event module selected for AnyEvent and autodetect failed. Install any one of these modules: Event (or Coro+Event), Glib or Tk.";
305 }
306
307 unshift @ISA, $MODEL;
308 push @{"$MODEL\::ISA"}, "AnyEvent::Base";
309 }
310
311 $MODEL
312 }
313
314 sub AUTOLOAD {
315 (my $func = $AUTOLOAD) =~ s/.*://;
316
317 $method{$func}
318 or croak "$func: not a valid method for AnyEvent objects";
319
320 detect unless $MODEL;
321
322 my $class = shift;
323 $class->$func (@_);
324 }
325
326 package AnyEvent::Base;
327
328 # default implementation for ->condvar, ->wait, ->broadcast
329
330 sub condvar {
331 bless \my $flag, "AnyEvent::Base::CondVar"
332 }
333
334 sub AnyEvent::Base::CondVar::broadcast {
335 ${$_[0]}++;
336 }
337
338 sub AnyEvent::Base::CondVar::wait {
339 AnyEvent->one_event while !${$_[0]};
340 }
341
342 # default implementation for ->signal
343
344 our %SIG_CB;
345
346 sub signal {
347 my (undef, %arg) = @_;
348
349 my $signal = uc $arg{signal}
350 or Carp::croak "required option 'signal' is missing";
351
352 $SIG_CB{$signal}{$arg{cb}} = $arg{cb};
353 $SIG{$signal} ||= sub {
354 $_->() for values %{ $SIG_CB{$signal} || {} };
355 };
356
357 bless [$signal, $arg{cb}], "AnyEvent::Base::Signal"
358 }
359
360 sub AnyEvent::Base::Signal::DESTROY {
361 my ($signal, $cb) = @{$_[0]};
362
363 delete $SIG_CB{$signal}{$cb};
364
365 $SIG{$signal} = 'DEFAULT' unless keys %{ $SIG_CB{$signal} };
366 }
367
368 # default implementation for ->child
369
370 our %PID_CB;
371 our $CHLD_W;
372 our $PID_IDLE;
373 our $WNOHANG;
374
375 sub _child_wait {
376 while (0 < (my $pid = waitpid -1, $WNOHANG)) {
377 $_->() for values %{ (delete $PID_CB{$pid}) || {} };
378 }
379
380 undef $PID_IDLE;
381 }
382
383 sub child {
384 my (undef, %arg) = @_;
385
386 my $pid = uc $arg{pid}
387 or Carp::croak "required option 'pid' is missing";
388
389 $PID_CB{$pid}{$arg{cb}} = $arg{cb};
390
391 unless ($WNOHANG) {
392 $WNOHANG = eval { require POSIX; &POSIX::WNOHANG } || 1;
393 }
394
395 unless ($CHLD_W) {
396 $CHLD_W = AnyEvent->signal (signal => 'CHLD', cb => \&_child_wait);
397 # child could be a zombie already
398 $PID_IDLE ||= AnyEvent->timer (after => 0, cb => \&_child_wait);
399 }
400
401 bless [$pid, $arg{cb}], "AnyEvent::Base::Child"
402 }
403
404 sub AnyEvent::Base::Child::DESTROY {
405 my ($pid, $cb) = @{$_[0]};
406
407 delete $PID_CB{$pid}{$cb};
408 delete $PID_CB{$pid} unless keys %{ $PID_CB{$pid} };
409
410 undef $CHLD_W unless keys %PID_CB;
411 }
412
413 =head1 SUPPLYING YOUR OWN EVENT MODEL INTERFACE
414
415 If you need to support another event library which isn't directly
416 supported by AnyEvent, you can supply your own interface to it by
417 pushing, before the first watcher gets created, the package name of
418 the event module and the package name of the interface to use onto
419 C<@AnyEvent::REGISTRY>. You can do that before and even without loading
420 AnyEvent.
421
422 Example:
423
424 push @AnyEvent::REGISTRY, [urxvt => urxvt::anyevent::];
425
426 This tells AnyEvent to (literally) use the C<urxvt::anyevent::>
427 package/class when it finds the C<urxvt> package/module is loaded. When
428 AnyEvent is loaded and asked to find a suitable event model, it will
429 first check for the presence of urxvt.
430
431 The class should provide implementations for all watcher types (see
432 L<AnyEvent::Impl::Event> (source code), L<AnyEvent::Impl::Glib>
433 (Source code) and so on for actual examples, use C<perldoc -m
434 AnyEvent::Impl::Glib> to see the sources).
435
436 The above isn't fictitious, the I<rxvt-unicode> (a.k.a. urxvt)
437 uses the above line as-is. An interface isn't included in AnyEvent
438 because it doesn't make sense outside the embedded interpreter inside
439 I<rxvt-unicode>, and it is updated and maintained as part of the
440 I<rxvt-unicode> distribution.
441
442 I<rxvt-unicode> also cheats a bit by not providing blocking access to
443 condition variables: code blocking while waiting for a condition will
444 C<die>. This still works with most modules/usages, and blocking calls must
445 not be in an interactive application, so it makes sense.
446
447 =head1 ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES
448
449 The following environment variables are used by this module:
450
451 C<PERL_ANYEVENT_VERBOSE> when set to C<2> or higher, reports which event
452 model gets used.
453
454 =head1 EXAMPLE
455
456 The following program uses an io watcher to read data from stdin, a timer
457 to display a message once per second, and a condvar to exit the program
458 when the user enters quit:
459
460 use AnyEvent;
461
462 my $cv = AnyEvent->condvar;
463
464 my $io_watcher = AnyEvent->io (fh => \*STDIN, poll => 'r', cb => sub {
465 warn "io event <$_[0]>\n"; # will always output <r>
466 chomp (my $input = <STDIN>); # read a line
467 warn "read: $input\n"; # output what has been read
468 $cv->broadcast if $input =~ /^q/i; # quit program if /^q/i
469 });
470
471 my $time_watcher; # can only be used once
472
473 sub new_timer {
474 $timer = AnyEvent->timer (after => 1, cb => sub {
475 warn "timeout\n"; # print 'timeout' about every second
476 &new_timer; # and restart the time
477 });
478 }
479
480 new_timer; # create first timer
481
482 $cv->wait; # wait until user enters /^q/i
483
484 =head1 REAL-WORLD EXAMPLE
485
486 Consider the L<Net::FCP> module. It features (among others) the following
487 API calls, which are to freenet what HTTP GET requests are to http:
488
489 my $data = $fcp->client_get ($url); # blocks
490
491 my $transaction = $fcp->txn_client_get ($url); # does not block
492 $transaction->cb ( sub { ... } ); # set optional result callback
493 my $data = $transaction->result; # possibly blocks
494
495 The C<client_get> method works like C<LWP::Simple::get>: it requests the
496 given URL and waits till the data has arrived. It is defined to be:
497
498 sub client_get { $_[0]->txn_client_get ($_[1])->result }
499
500 And in fact is automatically generated. This is the blocking API of
501 L<Net::FCP>, and it works as simple as in any other, similar, module.
502
503 More complicated is C<txn_client_get>: It only creates a transaction
504 (completion, result, ...) object and initiates the transaction.
505
506 my $txn = bless { }, Net::FCP::Txn::;
507
508 It also creates a condition variable that is used to signal the completion
509 of the request:
510
511 $txn->{finished} = AnyAvent->condvar;
512
513 It then creates a socket in non-blocking mode.
514
515 socket $txn->{fh}, ...;
516 fcntl $txn->{fh}, F_SETFL, O_NONBLOCK;
517 connect $txn->{fh}, ...
518 and !$!{EWOULDBLOCK}
519 and !$!{EINPROGRESS}
520 and Carp::croak "unable to connect: $!\n";
521
522 Then it creates a write-watcher which gets called whenever an error occurs
523 or the connection succeeds:
524
525 $txn->{w} = AnyEvent->io (fh => $txn->{fh}, poll => 'w', cb => sub { $txn->fh_ready_w });
526
527 And returns this transaction object. The C<fh_ready_w> callback gets
528 called as soon as the event loop detects that the socket is ready for
529 writing.
530
531 The C<fh_ready_w> method makes the socket blocking again, writes the
532 request data and replaces the watcher by a read watcher (waiting for reply
533 data). The actual code is more complicated, but that doesn't matter for
534 this example:
535
536 fcntl $txn->{fh}, F_SETFL, 0;
537 syswrite $txn->{fh}, $txn->{request}
538 or die "connection or write error";
539 $txn->{w} = AnyEvent->io (fh => $txn->{fh}, poll => 'r', cb => sub { $txn->fh_ready_r });
540
541 Again, C<fh_ready_r> waits till all data has arrived, and then stores the
542 result and signals any possible waiters that the request ahs finished:
543
544 sysread $txn->{fh}, $txn->{buf}, length $txn->{$buf};
545
546 if (end-of-file or data complete) {
547 $txn->{result} = $txn->{buf};
548 $txn->{finished}->broadcast;
549 $txb->{cb}->($txn) of $txn->{cb}; # also call callback
550 }
551
552 The C<result> method, finally, just waits for the finished signal (if the
553 request was already finished, it doesn't wait, of course, and returns the
554 data:
555
556 $txn->{finished}->wait;
557 return $txn->{result};
558
559 The actual code goes further and collects all errors (C<die>s, exceptions)
560 that occured during request processing. The C<result> method detects
561 wether an exception as thrown (it is stored inside the $txn object)
562 and just throws the exception, which means connection errors and other
563 problems get reported tot he code that tries to use the result, not in a
564 random callback.
565
566 All of this enables the following usage styles:
567
568 1. Blocking:
569
570 my $data = $fcp->client_get ($url);
571
572 2. Blocking, but parallelizing:
573
574 my @datas = map $_->result,
575 map $fcp->txn_client_get ($_),
576 @urls;
577
578 Both blocking examples work without the module user having to know
579 anything about events.
580
581 3a. Event-based in a main program, using any support Event module:
582
583 use Event;
584
585 $fcp->txn_client_get ($url)->cb (sub {
586 my $txn = shift;
587 my $data = $txn->result;
588 ...
589 });
590
591 Event::loop;
592
593 3b. The module user could use AnyEvent, too:
594
595 use AnyEvent;
596
597 my $quit = AnyEvent->condvar;
598
599 $fcp->txn_client_get ($url)->cb (sub {
600 ...
601 $quit->broadcast;
602 });
603
604 $quit->wait;
605
606 =head1 SEE ALSO
607
608 Event modules: L<Coro::Event>, L<Coro>, L<Event>, L<Glib::Event>, L<Glib>.
609
610 Implementations: L<AnyEvent::Impl::Coro>, L<AnyEvent::Impl::Event>, L<AnyEvent::Impl::Glib>, L<AnyEvent::Impl::Tk>.
611
612 Nontrivial usage example: L<Net::FCP>.
613
614 =head1
615
616 =cut
617
618 1
619