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Revision: 1.29
Committed: Wed Oct 31 14:17:43 2007 UTC (16 years, 8 months ago) by root
Branch: MAIN
Changes since 1.28: +3 -3 lines
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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 $AnyEvent::MODEL
191
192 Contains C<undef> until the first watcher is being created. Then it
193 contains the event model that is being used, which is the name of the
194 Perl class implementing the model. This class is usually one of the
195 C<AnyEvent::Impl:xxx> modules, but can be any other class in the case
196 AnyEvent has been extended at runtime (e.g. in I<rxvt-unicode>).
197
198 The known classes so far are:
199
200 EV::AnyEvent based on EV (an interface to libev, best choice)
201 AnyEvent::Impl::Coro based on Coro::Event, second best choice.
202 AnyEvent::Impl::Event based on Event, also second best choice :)
203 AnyEvent::Impl::Glib based on Glib, second-best choice.
204 AnyEvent::Impl::Tk based on Tk, very bad choice.
205 AnyEvent::Impl::Perl pure-perl implementation, inefficient.
206
207 =item AnyEvent::detect
208
209 Returns C<$AnyEvent::MODEL>, forcing autodetection of the event model if
210 necessary. You should only call this function right before you would have
211 created an AnyEvent watcher anyway, that is, very late at runtime.
212
213 =back
214
215 =head1 WHAT TO DO IN A MODULE
216
217 As a module author, you should "use AnyEvent" and call AnyEvent methods
218 freely, but you should not load a specific event module or rely on it.
219
220 Be careful when you create watchers in the module body - Anyevent will
221 decide which event module to use as soon as the first method is called, so
222 by calling AnyEvent in your module body you force the user of your module
223 to load the event module first.
224
225 =head1 WHAT TO DO IN THE MAIN PROGRAM
226
227 There will always be a single main program - the only place that should
228 dictate which event model to use.
229
230 If it doesn't care, it can just "use AnyEvent" and use it itself, or not
231 do anything special and let AnyEvent decide which implementation to chose.
232
233 If the main program relies on a specific event model (for example, in Gtk2
234 programs you have to rely on either Glib or Glib::Event), you should load
235 it before loading AnyEvent or any module that uses it, generally, as early
236 as possible. The reason is that modules might create watchers when they
237 are loaded, and AnyEvent will decide on the event model to use as soon as
238 it creates watchers, and it might chose the wrong one unless you load the
239 correct one yourself.
240
241 You can chose to use a rather inefficient pure-perl implementation by
242 loading the C<AnyEvent::Impl::Perl> module, but letting AnyEvent chose is
243 generally better.
244
245 =cut
246
247 package AnyEvent;
248
249 no warnings;
250 use strict;
251
252 use Carp;
253
254 our $VERSION = '2.55';
255 our $MODEL;
256
257 our $AUTOLOAD;
258 our @ISA;
259
260 our $verbose = $ENV{PERL_ANYEVENT_VERBOSE}*1;
261
262 our @REGISTRY;
263
264 my @models = (
265 [Coro::Event:: => AnyEvent::Impl::Coro::],
266 [EV:: => EV::AnyEvent::],
267 [Event:: => AnyEvent::Impl::Event::],
268 [Glib:: => AnyEvent::Impl::Glib::],
269 [Tk:: => AnyEvent::Impl::Tk::],
270 [AnyEvent::Impl::Perl:: => AnyEvent::Impl::Perl::],
271 );
272
273 our %method = map +($_ => 1), qw(io timer condvar broadcast wait signal one_event DESTROY);
274
275 sub detect() {
276 unless ($MODEL) {
277 no strict 'refs';
278
279 # check for already loaded models
280 for (@REGISTRY, @models) {
281 my ($package, $model) = @$_;
282 if (${"$package\::VERSION"} > 0) {
283 if (eval "require $model") {
284 $MODEL = $model;
285 warn "AnyEvent: found model '$model', using it.\n" if $verbose > 1;
286 last;
287 }
288 }
289 }
290
291 unless ($MODEL) {
292 # try to load a model
293
294 for (@REGISTRY, @models) {
295 my ($package, $model) = @$_;
296 if (eval "require $package"
297 and ${"$package\::VERSION"} > 0
298 and eval "require $model") {
299 $MODEL = $model;
300 warn "AnyEvent: autoprobed and loaded model '$model', using it.\n" if $verbose > 1;
301 last;
302 }
303 }
304
305 $MODEL
306 or die "No event module selected for AnyEvent and autodetect failed. Install any one of these modules: Event (or Coro+Event), Glib or Tk.";
307 }
308
309 unshift @ISA, $MODEL;
310 push @{"$MODEL\::ISA"}, "AnyEvent::Base";
311 }
312
313 $MODEL
314 }
315
316 sub AUTOLOAD {
317 (my $func = $AUTOLOAD) =~ s/.*://;
318
319 $method{$func}
320 or croak "$func: not a valid method for AnyEvent objects";
321
322 detect unless $MODEL;
323
324 my $class = shift;
325 $class->$func (@_);
326 }
327
328 package AnyEvent::Base;
329
330 # default implementation for ->condvar, ->wait, ->broadcast
331
332 sub condvar {
333 bless \my $flag, "AnyEvent::Base::CondVar"
334 }
335
336 sub AnyEvent::Base::CondVar::broadcast {
337 ${$_[0]}++;
338 }
339
340 sub AnyEvent::Base::CondVar::wait {
341 AnyEvent->one_event while !${$_[0]};
342 }
343
344 # default implementation for ->signal
345
346 our %SIG_CB;
347
348 sub signal {
349 my (undef, %arg) = @_;
350
351 my $signal = uc $arg{signal}
352 or Carp::croak "required option 'signal' is missing";
353
354 $SIG_CB{$signal}{$arg{cb}} = $arg{cb};
355 $SIG{$signal} ||= sub {
356 $_->() for values %{ $SIG_CB{$signal} || {} };
357 };
358
359 bless [$signal, $arg{cb}], "AnyEvent::Base::Signal"
360 }
361
362 sub AnyEvent::Base::Signal::DESTROY {
363 my ($signal, $cb) = @{$_[0]};
364
365 delete $SIG_CB{$signal}{$cb};
366
367 $SIG{$signal} = 'DEFAULT' unless keys %{ $SIG_CB{$signal} };
368 }
369
370 # default implementation for ->child
371
372 our %PID_CB;
373 our $CHLD_W;
374 our $PID_IDLE;
375 our $WNOHANG;
376
377 sub _child_wait {
378 while (0 < (my $pid = waitpid -1, $WNOHANG)) {
379 $_->() for values %{ (delete $PID_CB{$pid}) || {} };
380 }
381
382 undef $PID_IDLE;
383 }
384
385 sub child {
386 my (undef, %arg) = @_;
387
388 my $pid = uc $arg{pid}
389 or Carp::croak "required option 'pid' is missing";
390
391 $PID_CB{$pid}{$arg{cb}} = $arg{cb};
392
393 unless ($WNOHANG) {
394 $WNOHANG = eval { require POSIX; &POSIX::WNOHANG } || 1;
395 }
396
397 unless ($CHLD_W) {
398 $CHLD_W = AnyEvent->signal (signal => 'CHLD', cb => \&_child_wait);
399 # child could be a zombie already
400 $PID_IDLE ||= AnyEvent->timer (after => 0, cb => \&_child_wait);
401 }
402
403 bless [$pid, $arg{cb}], "AnyEvent::Base::Child"
404 }
405
406 sub AnyEvent::Base::Child::DESTROY {
407 my ($pid, $cb) = @{$_[0]};
408
409 delete $PID_CB{$pid}{$cb};
410 delete $PID_CB{$pid} unless keys %{ $PID_CB{$pid} };
411
412 undef $CHLD_W unless keys %PID_CB;
413 }
414
415 =head1 SUPPLYING YOUR OWN EVENT MODEL INTERFACE
416
417 If you need to support another event library which isn't directly
418 supported by AnyEvent, you can supply your own interface to it by
419 pushing, before the first watcher gets created, the package name of
420 the event module and the package name of the interface to use onto
421 C<@AnyEvent::REGISTRY>. You can do that before and even without loading
422 AnyEvent.
423
424 Example:
425
426 push @AnyEvent::REGISTRY, [urxvt => urxvt::anyevent::];
427
428 This tells AnyEvent to (literally) use the C<urxvt::anyevent::>
429 package/class when it finds the C<urxvt> package/module is loaded. When
430 AnyEvent is loaded and asked to find a suitable event model, it will
431 first check for the presence of urxvt.
432
433 The class should provide implementations for all watcher types (see
434 L<AnyEvent::Impl::Event> (source code), L<AnyEvent::Impl::Glib>
435 (Source code) and so on for actual examples, use C<perldoc -m
436 AnyEvent::Impl::Glib> to see the sources).
437
438 The above isn't fictitious, the I<rxvt-unicode> (a.k.a. urxvt)
439 uses the above line as-is. An interface isn't included in AnyEvent
440 because it doesn't make sense outside the embedded interpreter inside
441 I<rxvt-unicode>, and it is updated and maintained as part of the
442 I<rxvt-unicode> distribution.
443
444 I<rxvt-unicode> also cheats a bit by not providing blocking access to
445 condition variables: code blocking while waiting for a condition will
446 C<die>. This still works with most modules/usages, and blocking calls must
447 not be in an interactive application, so it makes sense.
448
449 =head1 ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES
450
451 The following environment variables are used by this module:
452
453 C<PERL_ANYEVENT_VERBOSE> when set to C<2> or higher, reports which event
454 model gets used.
455
456 =head1 EXAMPLE
457
458 The following program uses an io watcher to read data from stdin, a timer
459 to display a message once per second, and a condvar to exit the program
460 when the user enters quit:
461
462 use AnyEvent;
463
464 my $cv = AnyEvent->condvar;
465
466 my $io_watcher = AnyEvent->io (fh => \*STDIN, poll => 'r', cb => sub {
467 warn "io event <$_[0]>\n"; # will always output <r>
468 chomp (my $input = <STDIN>); # read a line
469 warn "read: $input\n"; # output what has been read
470 $cv->broadcast if $input =~ /^q/i; # quit program if /^q/i
471 });
472
473 my $time_watcher; # can only be used once
474
475 sub new_timer {
476 $timer = AnyEvent->timer (after => 1, cb => sub {
477 warn "timeout\n"; # print 'timeout' about every second
478 &new_timer; # and restart the time
479 });
480 }
481
482 new_timer; # create first timer
483
484 $cv->wait; # wait until user enters /^q/i
485
486 =head1 REAL-WORLD EXAMPLE
487
488 Consider the L<Net::FCP> module. It features (among others) the following
489 API calls, which are to freenet what HTTP GET requests are to http:
490
491 my $data = $fcp->client_get ($url); # blocks
492
493 my $transaction = $fcp->txn_client_get ($url); # does not block
494 $transaction->cb ( sub { ... } ); # set optional result callback
495 my $data = $transaction->result; # possibly blocks
496
497 The C<client_get> method works like C<LWP::Simple::get>: it requests the
498 given URL and waits till the data has arrived. It is defined to be:
499
500 sub client_get { $_[0]->txn_client_get ($_[1])->result }
501
502 And in fact is automatically generated. This is the blocking API of
503 L<Net::FCP>, and it works as simple as in any other, similar, module.
504
505 More complicated is C<txn_client_get>: It only creates a transaction
506 (completion, result, ...) object and initiates the transaction.
507
508 my $txn = bless { }, Net::FCP::Txn::;
509
510 It also creates a condition variable that is used to signal the completion
511 of the request:
512
513 $txn->{finished} = AnyAvent->condvar;
514
515 It then creates a socket in non-blocking mode.
516
517 socket $txn->{fh}, ...;
518 fcntl $txn->{fh}, F_SETFL, O_NONBLOCK;
519 connect $txn->{fh}, ...
520 and !$!{EWOULDBLOCK}
521 and !$!{EINPROGRESS}
522 and Carp::croak "unable to connect: $!\n";
523
524 Then it creates a write-watcher which gets called whenever an error occurs
525 or the connection succeeds:
526
527 $txn->{w} = AnyEvent->io (fh => $txn->{fh}, poll => 'w', cb => sub { $txn->fh_ready_w });
528
529 And returns this transaction object. The C<fh_ready_w> callback gets
530 called as soon as the event loop detects that the socket is ready for
531 writing.
532
533 The C<fh_ready_w> method makes the socket blocking again, writes the
534 request data and replaces the watcher by a read watcher (waiting for reply
535 data). The actual code is more complicated, but that doesn't matter for
536 this example:
537
538 fcntl $txn->{fh}, F_SETFL, 0;
539 syswrite $txn->{fh}, $txn->{request}
540 or die "connection or write error";
541 $txn->{w} = AnyEvent->io (fh => $txn->{fh}, poll => 'r', cb => sub { $txn->fh_ready_r });
542
543 Again, C<fh_ready_r> waits till all data has arrived, and then stores the
544 result and signals any possible waiters that the request ahs finished:
545
546 sysread $txn->{fh}, $txn->{buf}, length $txn->{$buf};
547
548 if (end-of-file or data complete) {
549 $txn->{result} = $txn->{buf};
550 $txn->{finished}->broadcast;
551 $txb->{cb}->($txn) of $txn->{cb}; # also call callback
552 }
553
554 The C<result> method, finally, just waits for the finished signal (if the
555 request was already finished, it doesn't wait, of course, and returns the
556 data:
557
558 $txn->{finished}->wait;
559 return $txn->{result};
560
561 The actual code goes further and collects all errors (C<die>s, exceptions)
562 that occured during request processing. The C<result> method detects
563 wether an exception as thrown (it is stored inside the $txn object)
564 and just throws the exception, which means connection errors and other
565 problems get reported tot he code that tries to use the result, not in a
566 random callback.
567
568 All of this enables the following usage styles:
569
570 1. Blocking:
571
572 my $data = $fcp->client_get ($url);
573
574 2. Blocking, but parallelizing:
575
576 my @datas = map $_->result,
577 map $fcp->txn_client_get ($_),
578 @urls;
579
580 Both blocking examples work without the module user having to know
581 anything about events.
582
583 3a. Event-based in a main program, using any support Event module:
584
585 use Event;
586
587 $fcp->txn_client_get ($url)->cb (sub {
588 my $txn = shift;
589 my $data = $txn->result;
590 ...
591 });
592
593 Event::loop;
594
595 3b. The module user could use AnyEvent, too:
596
597 use AnyEvent;
598
599 my $quit = AnyEvent->condvar;
600
601 $fcp->txn_client_get ($url)->cb (sub {
602 ...
603 $quit->broadcast;
604 });
605
606 $quit->wait;
607
608 =head1 SEE ALSO
609
610 Event modules: L<Coro::Event>, L<Coro>, L<Event>, L<Glib::Event>, L<Glib>.
611
612 Implementations: L<AnyEvent::Impl::Coro>, L<AnyEvent::Impl::Event>, L<AnyEvent::Impl::Glib>, L<AnyEvent::Impl::Tk>.
613
614 Nontrivial usage example: L<Net::FCP>.
615
616 =head1
617
618 =cut
619
620 1
621