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Revision 1.29 by root, Wed Oct 31 14:17:43 2007 UTC vs.
Revision 1.173 by root, Mon Jul 21 03:47:22 2008 UTC

1=head1 NAME 1=head1 NAME
2 2
3AnyEvent - provide framework for multiple event loops 3AnyEvent - provide framework for multiple event loops
4 4
5Event, Coro, Glib, Tk, 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
11 my $w = AnyEvent->io (fh => $fh, poll => "r|w", cb => sub { 11 my $w = AnyEvent->io (fh => $fh, poll => "r|w", cb => sub { ... });
12
13 my $w = AnyEvent->timer (after => $seconds, cb => sub { ... });
14 my $w = AnyEvent->timer (after => $seconds, interval => $seconds, cb => ...
15
16 print AnyEvent->now; # prints current event loop time
17 print AnyEvent->time; # think Time::HiRes::time or simply CORE::time.
18
19 my $w = AnyEvent->signal (signal => "TERM", cb => sub { ... });
20
21 my $w = AnyEvent->child (pid => $pid, cb => sub {
22 my ($pid, $status) = @_;
12 ... 23 ...
13 }); 24 });
14 25
15 my $w = AnyEvent->timer (after => $seconds, cb => sub {
16 ...
17 });
18
19 my $w = AnyEvent->condvar; # stores wether a condition was flagged 26 my $w = AnyEvent->condvar; # stores whether a condition was flagged
27 $w->send; # wake up current and all future recv's
20 $w->wait; # enters "main loop" till $condvar gets ->broadcast 28 $w->recv; # enters "main loop" till $condvar gets ->send
21 $w->broadcast; # wake up current and all future wait's 29 # use a condvar in callback mode:
30 $w->cb (sub { $_[0]->recv });
31
32=head1 INTRODUCTION/TUTORIAL
33
34This manpage is mainly a reference manual. If you are interested
35in a tutorial or some gentle introduction, have a look at the
36L<AnyEvent::Intro> manpage.
37
38=head1 WHY YOU SHOULD USE THIS MODULE (OR NOT)
39
40Glib, POE, IO::Async, Event... CPAN offers event models by the dozen
41nowadays. So what is different about AnyEvent?
42
43Executive Summary: AnyEvent is I<compatible>, AnyEvent is I<free of
44policy> and AnyEvent is I<small and efficient>.
45
46First and foremost, I<AnyEvent is not an event model> itself, it only
47interfaces to whatever event model the main program happens to use, in a
48pragmatic way. For event models and certain classes of immortals alike,
49the statement "there can only be one" is a bitter reality: In general,
50only one event loop can be active at the same time in a process. AnyEvent
51cannot change this, but it can hide the differences between those event
52loops.
53
54The goal of AnyEvent is to offer module authors the ability to do event
55programming (waiting for I/O or timer events) without subscribing to a
56religion, a way of living, and most importantly: without forcing your
57module users into the same thing by forcing them to use the same event
58model you use.
59
60For modules like POE or IO::Async (which is a total misnomer as it is
61actually doing all I/O I<synchronously>...), using them in your module is
62like joining a cult: After you joined, you are dependent on them and you
63cannot use anything else, as they are simply incompatible to everything
64that isn't them. What's worse, all the potential users of your
65module are I<also> forced to use the same event loop you use.
66
67AnyEvent is different: AnyEvent + POE works fine. AnyEvent + Glib works
68fine. AnyEvent + Tk works fine etc. etc. but none of these work together
69with the rest: POE + IO::Async? No go. Tk + Event? No go. Again: if
70your module uses one of those, every user of your module has to use it,
71too. But if your module uses AnyEvent, it works transparently with all
72event models it supports (including stuff like IO::Async, as long as those
73use one of the supported event loops. It is trivial to add new event loops
74to AnyEvent, too, so it is future-proof).
75
76In addition to being free of having to use I<the one and only true event
77model>, AnyEvent also is free of bloat and policy: with POE or similar
78modules, you get an enormous amount of code and strict rules you have to
79follow. AnyEvent, on the other hand, is lean and up to the point, by only
80offering the functionality that is necessary, in as thin as a wrapper as
81technically possible.
82
83Of course, AnyEvent comes with a big (and fully optional!) toolbox
84of useful functionality, such as an asynchronous DNS resolver, 100%
85non-blocking connects (even with TLS/SSL, IPv6 and on broken platforms
86such as Windows) and lots of real-world knowledge and workarounds for
87platform bugs and differences.
88
89Now, if you I<do want> lots of policy (this can arguably be somewhat
90useful) and you want to force your users to use the one and only event
91model, you should I<not> use this module.
22 92
23=head1 DESCRIPTION 93=head1 DESCRIPTION
24 94
25L<AnyEvent> provides an identical interface to multiple event loops. This 95L<AnyEvent> provides an identical interface to multiple event loops. This
26allows module authors to utilise an event loop without forcing module 96allows module authors to utilise an event loop without forcing module
27users to use the same event loop (as only a single event loop can coexist 97users to use the same event loop (as only a single event loop can coexist
28peacefully at any one time). 98peacefully at any one time).
29 99
30The interface itself is vaguely similar but not identical to the Event 100The interface itself is vaguely similar, but not identical to the L<Event>
31module. 101module.
32 102
33On the first call of any method, the module tries to detect the currently 103During the first call of any watcher-creation method, the module tries
34loaded event loop by probing wether any of the following modules is 104to detect the currently loaded event loop by probing whether one of the
35loaded: L<Coro::Event>, L<Event>, L<Glib>, L<Tk>. The first one found is 105following modules is already loaded: L<EV>,
36used. If none is found, the module tries to load these modules in the 106L<Event>, L<Glib>, L<AnyEvent::Impl::Perl>, L<Tk>, L<Event::Lib>, L<Qt>,
37order given. The first one that could be successfully loaded will be 107L<POE>. The first one found is used. If none are found, the module tries
38used. If still none could be found, AnyEvent will fall back to a pure-perl 108to load these modules (excluding Tk, Event::Lib, Qt and POE as the pure perl
39event loop, which is also not very efficient. 109adaptor should always succeed) in the order given. The first one that can
110be successfully loaded will be used. If, after this, still none could be
111found, AnyEvent will fall back to a pure-perl event loop, which is not
112very efficient, but should work everywhere.
40 113
41Because AnyEvent first checks for modules that are already loaded, loading 114Because AnyEvent first checks for modules that are already loaded, loading
42an Event model explicitly before first using AnyEvent will likely make 115an event model explicitly before first using AnyEvent will likely make
43that model the default. For example: 116that model the default. For example:
44 117
45 use Tk; 118 use Tk;
46 use AnyEvent; 119 use AnyEvent;
47 120
48 # .. AnyEvent will likely default to Tk 121 # .. AnyEvent will likely default to Tk
49 122
123The I<likely> means that, if any module loads another event model and
124starts using it, all bets are off. Maybe you should tell their authors to
125use AnyEvent so their modules work together with others seamlessly...
126
50The pure-perl implementation of AnyEvent is called 127The pure-perl implementation of AnyEvent is called
51C<AnyEvent::Impl::Perl>. Like other event modules you can load it 128C<AnyEvent::Impl::Perl>. Like other event modules you can load it
52explicitly. 129explicitly and enjoy the high availability of that event loop :)
53 130
54=head1 WATCHERS 131=head1 WATCHERS
55 132
56AnyEvent has the central concept of a I<watcher>, which is an object that 133AnyEvent has the central concept of a I<watcher>, which is an object that
57stores relevant data for each kind of event you are waiting for, such as 134stores relevant data for each kind of event you are waiting for, such as
58the callback to call, the filehandle to watch, etc. 135the callback to call, the file handle to watch, etc.
59 136
60These watchers are normal Perl objects with normal Perl lifetime. After 137These watchers are normal Perl objects with normal Perl lifetime. After
61creating a watcher it will immediately "watch" for events and invoke 138creating a watcher it will immediately "watch" for events and invoke the
139callback when the event occurs (of course, only when the event model
140is in control).
141
62the callback. To disable the watcher you have to destroy it (e.g. by 142To disable the watcher you have to destroy it (e.g. by setting the
63setting the variable that stores it to C<undef> or otherwise deleting all 143variable you store it in to C<undef> or otherwise deleting all references
64references to it). 144to it).
65 145
66All watchers are created by calling a method on the C<AnyEvent> class. 146All watchers are created by calling a method on the C<AnyEvent> class.
67 147
148Many watchers either are used with "recursion" (repeating timers for
149example), or need to refer to their watcher object in other ways.
150
151An any way to achieve that is this pattern:
152
153 my $w; $w = AnyEvent->type (arg => value ..., cb => sub {
154 # you can use $w here, for example to undef it
155 undef $w;
156 });
157
158Note that C<my $w; $w => combination. This is necessary because in Perl,
159my variables are only visible after the statement in which they are
160declared.
161
68=head2 IO WATCHERS 162=head2 I/O WATCHERS
69 163
70You can create I/O watcher by calling the C<< AnyEvent->io >> method with 164You can create an I/O watcher by calling the C<< AnyEvent->io >> method
71the following mandatory arguments: 165with the following mandatory key-value pairs as arguments:
72 166
73C<fh> the Perl I<filehandle> (not filedescriptor) to watch for 167C<fh> the Perl I<file handle> (I<not> file descriptor) to watch for events
168(AnyEvent might or might not keep a reference to this file handle). C<poll>
74events. C<poll> must be a string that is either C<r> or C<w>, that creates 169must be a string that is either C<r> or C<w>, which creates a watcher
75a watcher waiting for "r"eadable or "w"ritable events. C<cb> teh callback 170waiting for "r"eadable or "w"ritable events, respectively. C<cb> is the
76to invoke everytime the filehandle becomes ready. 171callback to invoke each time the file handle becomes ready.
77 172
78Only one io watcher per C<fh> and C<poll> combination is allowed (i.e. on 173Although the callback might get passed parameters, their value and
79a socket you can have one r + one w, not any more (limitation comes from 174presence is undefined and you cannot rely on them. Portable AnyEvent
80Tk - if you are sure you are not using Tk this limitation is gone). 175callbacks cannot use arguments passed to I/O watcher callbacks.
81 176
82Filehandles will be kept alive, so as long as the watcher exists, the 177The I/O watcher might use the underlying file descriptor or a copy of it.
83filehandle exists, too. 178You must not close a file handle as long as any watcher is active on the
179underlying file descriptor.
84 180
85Example: 181Some event loops issue spurious readyness notifications, so you should
182always use non-blocking calls when reading/writing from/to your file
183handles.
86 184
87 # wait for readability of STDIN, then read a line and disable the watcher 185Example: wait for readability of STDIN, then read a line and disable the
186watcher.
187
88 my $w; $w = AnyEvent->io (fh => \*STDIN, poll => 'r', cb => sub { 188 my $w; $w = AnyEvent->io (fh => \*STDIN, poll => 'r', cb => sub {
89 chomp (my $input = <STDIN>); 189 chomp (my $input = <STDIN>);
90 warn "read: $input\n"; 190 warn "read: $input\n";
91 undef $w; 191 undef $w;
92 }); 192 });
94=head2 TIME WATCHERS 194=head2 TIME WATCHERS
95 195
96You can create a time watcher by calling the C<< AnyEvent->timer >> 196You can create a time watcher by calling the C<< AnyEvent->timer >>
97method with the following mandatory arguments: 197method with the following mandatory arguments:
98 198
99C<after> after how many seconds (fractions are supported) should the timer 199C<after> specifies after how many seconds (fractional values are
100activate. C<cb> the callback to invoke. 200supported) the callback should be invoked. C<cb> is the callback to invoke
201in that case.
101 202
102The timer callback will be invoked at most once: if you want a repeating 203Although the callback might get passed parameters, their value and
103timer you have to create a new watcher (this is a limitation by both Tk 204presence is undefined and you cannot rely on them. Portable AnyEvent
104and Glib). 205callbacks cannot use arguments passed to time watcher callbacks.
105 206
106Example: 207The callback will normally be invoked once only. If you specify another
208parameter, C<interval>, as a strictly positive number (> 0), then the
209callback will be invoked regularly at that interval (in fractional
210seconds) after the first invocation. If C<interval> is specified with a
211false value, then it is treated as if it were missing.
107 212
213The callback will be rescheduled before invoking the callback, but no
214attempt is done to avoid timer drift in most backends, so the interval is
215only approximate.
216
108 # fire an event after 7.7 seconds 217Example: fire an event after 7.7 seconds.
218
109 my $w = AnyEvent->timer (after => 7.7, cb => sub { 219 my $w = AnyEvent->timer (after => 7.7, cb => sub {
110 warn "timeout\n"; 220 warn "timeout\n";
111 }); 221 });
112 222
113 # to cancel the timer: 223 # to cancel the timer:
114 undef $w 224 undef $w;
115 225
116=head2 CONDITION WATCHERS 226Example 2: fire an event after 0.5 seconds, then roughly every second.
117 227
118Condition watchers can be created by calling the C<< AnyEvent->condvar >> 228 my $w = AnyEvent->timer (after => 0.5, interval => 1, cb => sub {
119method without any arguments. 229 warn "timeout\n";
230 };
120 231
121A condition watcher watches for a condition - precisely that the C<< 232=head3 TIMING ISSUES
122->broadcast >> method has been called.
123 233
124The watcher has only two methods: 234There are two ways to handle timers: based on real time (relative, "fire
235in 10 seconds") and based on wallclock time (absolute, "fire at 12
236o'clock").
237
238While most event loops expect timers to specified in a relative way, they
239use absolute time internally. This makes a difference when your clock
240"jumps", for example, when ntp decides to set your clock backwards from
241the wrong date of 2014-01-01 to 2008-01-01, a watcher that is supposed to
242fire "after" a second might actually take six years to finally fire.
243
244AnyEvent cannot compensate for this. The only event loop that is conscious
245about these issues is L<EV>, which offers both relative (ev_timer, based
246on true relative time) and absolute (ev_periodic, based on wallclock time)
247timers.
248
249AnyEvent always prefers relative timers, if available, matching the
250AnyEvent API.
251
252AnyEvent has two additional methods that return the "current time":
125 253
126=over 4 254=over 4
127 255
128=item $cv->wait 256=item AnyEvent->time
129 257
130Wait (blocking if necessary) until the C<< ->broadcast >> method has been 258This returns the "current wallclock time" as a fractional number of
131called on c<$cv>, while servicing other watchers normally. 259seconds since the Epoch (the same thing as C<time> or C<Time::HiRes::time>
260return, and the result is guaranteed to be compatible with those).
132 261
133Not all event models support a blocking wait - some die in that case, so 262It progresses independently of any event loop processing, i.e. each call
134if you are using this from a module, never require a blocking wait, but 263will check the system clock, which usually gets updated frequently.
135let the caller decide wether the call will block or not (for example,
136by coupling condition variables with some kind of request results and
137supporting callbacks so the caller knows that getting the result will not
138block, while still suppporting blockign waits if the caller so desires).
139 264
140You can only wait once on a condition - additional calls will return 265=item AnyEvent->now
141immediately.
142 266
143=item $cv->broadcast 267This also returns the "current wallclock time", but unlike C<time>, above,
268this value might change only once per event loop iteration, depending on
269the event loop (most return the same time as C<time>, above). This is the
270time that AnyEvent's timers get scheduled against.
144 271
145Flag the condition as ready - a running C<< ->wait >> and all further 272I<In almost all cases (in all cases if you don't care), this is the
146calls to C<wait> will return after this method has been called. If nobody 273function to call when you want to know the current time.>
147is waiting the broadcast will be remembered..
148 274
149Example: 275This function is also often faster then C<< AnyEvent->time >>, and
276thus the preferred method if you want some timestamp (for example,
277L<AnyEvent::Handle> uses this to update it's activity timeouts).
278
279The rest of this section is only of relevance if you try to be very exact
280with your timing, you can skip it without bad conscience.
281
282For a practical example of when these times differ, consider L<Event::Lib>
283and L<EV> and the following set-up:
284
285The event loop is running and has just invoked one of your callback at
286time=500 (assume no other callbacks delay processing). In your callback,
287you wait a second by executing C<sleep 1> (blocking the process for a
288second) and then (at time=501) you create a relative timer that fires
289after three seconds.
290
291With L<Event::Lib>, C<< AnyEvent->time >> and C<< AnyEvent->now >> will
292both return C<501>, because that is the current time, and the timer will
293be scheduled to fire at time=504 (C<501> + C<3>).
294
295With L<EV>, C<< AnyEvent->time >> returns C<501> (as that is the current
296time), but C<< AnyEvent->now >> returns C<500>, as that is the time the
297last event processing phase started. With L<EV>, your timer gets scheduled
298to run at time=503 (C<500> + C<3>).
299
300In one sense, L<Event::Lib> is more exact, as it uses the current time
301regardless of any delays introduced by event processing. However, most
302callbacks do not expect large delays in processing, so this causes a
303higher drift (and a lot more system calls to get the current time).
304
305In another sense, L<EV> is more exact, as your timer will be scheduled at
306the same time, regardless of how long event processing actually took.
307
308In either case, if you care (and in most cases, you don't), then you
309can get whatever behaviour you want with any event loop, by taking the
310difference between C<< AnyEvent->time >> and C<< AnyEvent->now >> into
311account.
312
313=back
314
315=head2 SIGNAL WATCHERS
316
317You can watch for signals using a signal watcher, C<signal> is the signal
318I<name> in uppercase and without any C<SIG> prefix, C<cb> is the Perl
319callback to be invoked whenever a signal occurs.
320
321Although the callback might get passed parameters, their value and
322presence is undefined and you cannot rely on them. Portable AnyEvent
323callbacks cannot use arguments passed to signal watcher callbacks.
324
325Multiple signal occurrences can be clumped together into one callback
326invocation, and callback invocation will be synchronous. Synchronous means
327that it might take a while until the signal gets handled by the process,
328but it is guaranteed not to interrupt any other callbacks.
329
330The main advantage of using these watchers is that you can share a signal
331between multiple watchers.
332
333This watcher might use C<%SIG>, so programs overwriting those signals
334directly will likely not work correctly.
335
336Example: exit on SIGINT
337
338 my $w = AnyEvent->signal (signal => "INT", cb => sub { exit 1 });
339
340=head2 CHILD PROCESS WATCHERS
341
342You can also watch on a child process exit and catch its exit status.
343
344The child process is specified by the C<pid> argument (if set to C<0>, it
345watches for any child process exit). The watcher will trigger as often
346as status change for the child are received. This works by installing a
347signal handler for C<SIGCHLD>. The callback will be called with the pid
348and exit status (as returned by waitpid), so unlike other watcher types,
349you I<can> rely on child watcher callback arguments.
350
351There is a slight catch to child watchers, however: you usually start them
352I<after> the child process was created, and this means the process could
353have exited already (and no SIGCHLD will be sent anymore).
354
355Not all event models handle this correctly (POE doesn't), but even for
356event models that I<do> handle this correctly, they usually need to be
357loaded before the process exits (i.e. before you fork in the first place).
358
359This means you cannot create a child watcher as the very first thing in an
360AnyEvent program, you I<have> to create at least one watcher before you
361C<fork> the child (alternatively, you can call C<AnyEvent::detect>).
362
363Example: fork a process and wait for it
364
365 my $done = AnyEvent->condvar;
366
367 my $pid = fork or exit 5;
368
369 my $w = AnyEvent->child (
370 pid => $pid,
371 cb => sub {
372 my ($pid, $status) = @_;
373 warn "pid $pid exited with status $status";
374 $done->send;
375 },
376 );
377
378 # do something else, then wait for process exit
379 $done->recv;
380
381=head2 CONDITION VARIABLES
382
383If you are familiar with some event loops you will know that all of them
384require you to run some blocking "loop", "run" or similar function that
385will actively watch for new events and call your callbacks.
386
387AnyEvent is different, it expects somebody else to run the event loop and
388will only block when necessary (usually when told by the user).
389
390The instrument to do that is called a "condition variable", so called
391because they represent a condition that must become true.
392
393Condition variables can be created by calling the C<< AnyEvent->condvar
394
395>> method, usually without arguments. The only argument pair allowed is
396
397C<cb>, which specifies a callback to be called when the condition variable
398becomes true, with the condition variable as the first argument (but not
399the results).
400
401After creation, the condition variable is "false" until it becomes "true"
402by calling the C<send> method (or calling the condition variable as if it
403were a callback, read about the caveats in the description for the C<<
404->send >> method).
405
406Condition variables are similar to callbacks, except that you can
407optionally wait for them. They can also be called merge points - points
408in time where multiple outstanding events have been processed. And yet
409another way to call them is transactions - each condition variable can be
410used to represent a transaction, which finishes at some point and delivers
411a result.
412
413Condition variables are very useful to signal that something has finished,
414for example, if you write a module that does asynchronous http requests,
415then a condition variable would be the ideal candidate to signal the
416availability of results. The user can either act when the callback is
417called or can synchronously C<< ->recv >> for the results.
418
419You can also use them to simulate traditional event loops - for example,
420you can block your main program until an event occurs - for example, you
421could C<< ->recv >> in your main program until the user clicks the Quit
422button of your app, which would C<< ->send >> the "quit" event.
423
424Note that condition variables recurse into the event loop - if you have
425two pieces of code that call C<< ->recv >> in a round-robin fashion, you
426lose. Therefore, condition variables are good to export to your caller, but
427you should avoid making a blocking wait yourself, at least in callbacks,
428as this asks for trouble.
429
430Condition variables are represented by hash refs in perl, and the keys
431used by AnyEvent itself are all named C<_ae_XXX> to make subclassing
432easy (it is often useful to build your own transaction class on top of
433AnyEvent). To subclass, use C<AnyEvent::CondVar> as base class and call
434it's C<new> method in your own C<new> method.
435
436There are two "sides" to a condition variable - the "producer side" which
437eventually calls C<< -> send >>, and the "consumer side", which waits
438for the send to occur.
439
440Example: wait for a timer.
150 441
151 # wait till the result is ready 442 # wait till the result is ready
152 my $result_ready = AnyEvent->condvar; 443 my $result_ready = AnyEvent->condvar;
153 444
154 # do something such as adding a timer 445 # do something such as adding a timer
155 # or socket watcher the calls $result_ready->broadcast 446 # or socket watcher the calls $result_ready->send
156 # when the "result" is ready. 447 # when the "result" is ready.
448 # in this case, we simply use a timer:
449 my $w = AnyEvent->timer (
450 after => 1,
451 cb => sub { $result_ready->send },
452 );
157 453
454 # this "blocks" (while handling events) till the callback
455 # calls send
158 $result_ready->wait; 456 $result_ready->recv;
457
458Example: wait for a timer, but take advantage of the fact that
459condition variables are also code references.
460
461 my $done = AnyEvent->condvar;
462 my $delay = AnyEvent->timer (after => 5, cb => $done);
463 $done->recv;
464
465Example: Imagine an API that returns a condvar and doesn't support
466callbacks. This is how you make a synchronous call, for example from
467the main program:
468
469 use AnyEvent::CouchDB;
470
471 ...
472
473 my @info = $couchdb->info->recv;
474
475And this is how you would just ste a callback to be called whenever the
476results are available:
477
478 $couchdb->info->cb (sub {
479 my @info = $_[0]->recv;
480 });
481
482=head3 METHODS FOR PRODUCERS
483
484These methods should only be used by the producing side, i.e. the
485code/module that eventually sends the signal. Note that it is also
486the producer side which creates the condvar in most cases, but it isn't
487uncommon for the consumer to create it as well.
488
489=over 4
490
491=item $cv->send (...)
492
493Flag the condition as ready - a running C<< ->recv >> and all further
494calls to C<recv> will (eventually) return after this method has been
495called. If nobody is waiting the send will be remembered.
496
497If a callback has been set on the condition variable, it is called
498immediately from within send.
499
500Any arguments passed to the C<send> call will be returned by all
501future C<< ->recv >> calls.
502
503Condition variables are overloaded so one can call them directly
504(as a code reference). Calling them directly is the same as calling
505C<send>. Note, however, that many C-based event loops do not handle
506overloading, so as tempting as it may be, passing a condition variable
507instead of a callback does not work. Both the pure perl and EV loops
508support overloading, however, as well as all functions that use perl to
509invoke a callback (as in L<AnyEvent::Socket> and L<AnyEvent::DNS> for
510example).
511
512=item $cv->croak ($error)
513
514Similar to send, but causes all call's to C<< ->recv >> to invoke
515C<Carp::croak> with the given error message/object/scalar.
516
517This can be used to signal any errors to the condition variable
518user/consumer.
519
520=item $cv->begin ([group callback])
521
522=item $cv->end
523
524These two methods are EXPERIMENTAL and MIGHT CHANGE.
525
526These two methods can be used to combine many transactions/events into
527one. For example, a function that pings many hosts in parallel might want
528to use a condition variable for the whole process.
529
530Every call to C<< ->begin >> will increment a counter, and every call to
531C<< ->end >> will decrement it. If the counter reaches C<0> in C<< ->end
532>>, the (last) callback passed to C<begin> will be executed. That callback
533is I<supposed> to call C<< ->send >>, but that is not required. If no
534callback was set, C<send> will be called without any arguments.
535
536Let's clarify this with the ping example:
537
538 my $cv = AnyEvent->condvar;
539
540 my %result;
541 $cv->begin (sub { $cv->send (\%result) });
542
543 for my $host (@list_of_hosts) {
544 $cv->begin;
545 ping_host_then_call_callback $host, sub {
546 $result{$host} = ...;
547 $cv->end;
548 };
549 }
550
551 $cv->end;
552
553This code fragment supposedly pings a number of hosts and calls
554C<send> after results for all then have have been gathered - in any
555order. To achieve this, the code issues a call to C<begin> when it starts
556each ping request and calls C<end> when it has received some result for
557it. Since C<begin> and C<end> only maintain a counter, the order in which
558results arrive is not relevant.
559
560There is an additional bracketing call to C<begin> and C<end> outside the
561loop, which serves two important purposes: first, it sets the callback
562to be called once the counter reaches C<0>, and second, it ensures that
563C<send> is called even when C<no> hosts are being pinged (the loop
564doesn't execute once).
565
566This is the general pattern when you "fan out" into multiple subrequests:
567use an outer C<begin>/C<end> pair to set the callback and ensure C<end>
568is called at least once, and then, for each subrequest you start, call
569C<begin> and for each subrequest you finish, call C<end>.
159 570
160=back 571=back
161 572
162=head2 SIGNAL WATCHERS 573=head3 METHODS FOR CONSUMERS
163 574
164You can listen for signals using a signal watcher, C<signal> is the signal 575These methods should only be used by the consuming side, i.e. the
165I<name> without any C<SIG> prefix. Multiple signals events can be clumped 576code awaits the condition.
166together into one callback invocation, and callback invocation might or
167might not be asynchronous.
168 577
169These watchers might use C<%SIG>, so programs overwriting those signals 578=over 4
170directly will likely not work correctly.
171 579
172Example: exit on SIGINT 580=item $cv->recv
173 581
174 my $w = AnyEvent->signal (signal => "INT", cb => sub { exit 1 }); 582Wait (blocking if necessary) until the C<< ->send >> or C<< ->croak
583>> methods have been called on c<$cv>, while servicing other watchers
584normally.
175 585
176=head2 CHILD PROCESS WATCHERS 586You can only wait once on a condition - additional calls are valid but
587will return immediately.
177 588
178You can also listen for the status of a child process specified by the 589If an error condition has been set by calling C<< ->croak >>, then this
179C<pid> argument. The watcher will only trigger once. This works by 590function will call C<croak>.
180installing a signal handler for C<SIGCHLD>.
181 591
182Example: wait for pid 1333 592In list context, all parameters passed to C<send> will be returned,
593in scalar context only the first one will be returned.
183 594
184 my $w = AnyEvent->child (pid => 1333, cb => sub { warn "exit status $?" }); 595Not all event models support a blocking wait - some die in that case
596(programs might want to do that to stay interactive), so I<if you are
597using this from a module, never require a blocking wait>, but let the
598caller decide whether the call will block or not (for example, by coupling
599condition variables with some kind of request results and supporting
600callbacks so the caller knows that getting the result will not block,
601while still supporting blocking waits if the caller so desires).
185 602
186=head1 GLOBALS 603Another reason I<never> to C<< ->recv >> in a module is that you cannot
604sensibly have two C<< ->recv >>'s in parallel, as that would require
605multiple interpreters or coroutines/threads, none of which C<AnyEvent>
606can supply.
607
608The L<Coro> module, however, I<can> and I<does> supply coroutines and, in
609fact, L<Coro::AnyEvent> replaces AnyEvent's condvars by coroutine-safe
610versions and also integrates coroutines into AnyEvent, making blocking
611C<< ->recv >> calls perfectly safe as long as they are done from another
612coroutine (one that doesn't run the event loop).
613
614You can ensure that C<< -recv >> never blocks by setting a callback and
615only calling C<< ->recv >> from within that callback (or at a later
616time). This will work even when the event loop does not support blocking
617waits otherwise.
618
619=item $bool = $cv->ready
620
621Returns true when the condition is "true", i.e. whether C<send> or
622C<croak> have been called.
623
624=item $cb = $cv->cb ($cb->($cv))
625
626This is a mutator function that returns the callback set and optionally
627replaces it before doing so.
628
629The callback will be called when the condition becomes "true", i.e. when
630C<send> or C<croak> are called, with the only argument being the condition
631variable itself. Calling C<recv> inside the callback or at any later time
632is guaranteed not to block.
633
634=back
635
636=head1 GLOBAL VARIABLES AND FUNCTIONS
187 637
188=over 4 638=over 4
189 639
190=item $AnyEvent::MODEL 640=item $AnyEvent::MODEL
191 641
195C<AnyEvent::Impl:xxx> modules, but can be any other class in the case 645C<AnyEvent::Impl:xxx> modules, but can be any other class in the case
196AnyEvent has been extended at runtime (e.g. in I<rxvt-unicode>). 646AnyEvent has been extended at runtime (e.g. in I<rxvt-unicode>).
197 647
198The known classes so far are: 648The known classes so far are:
199 649
200 EV::AnyEvent based on EV (an interface to libev, best choice) 650 AnyEvent::Impl::EV based on EV (an interface to libev, best choice).
201 AnyEvent::Impl::Coro based on Coro::Event, second best choice.
202 AnyEvent::Impl::Event based on Event, also second best choice :) 651 AnyEvent::Impl::Event based on Event, second best choice.
652 AnyEvent::Impl::Perl pure-perl implementation, fast and portable.
203 AnyEvent::Impl::Glib based on Glib, second-best choice. 653 AnyEvent::Impl::Glib based on Glib, third-best choice.
204 AnyEvent::Impl::Tk based on Tk, very bad choice. 654 AnyEvent::Impl::Tk based on Tk, very bad choice.
205 AnyEvent::Impl::Perl pure-perl implementation, inefficient. 655 AnyEvent::Impl::Qt based on Qt, cannot be autoprobed (see its docs).
656 AnyEvent::Impl::EventLib based on Event::Lib, leaks memory and worse.
657 AnyEvent::Impl::POE based on POE, not generic enough for full support.
658
659There is no support for WxWidgets, as WxWidgets has no support for
660watching file handles. However, you can use WxWidgets through the
661POE Adaptor, as POE has a Wx backend that simply polls 20 times per
662second, which was considered to be too horrible to even consider for
663AnyEvent. Likewise, other POE backends can be used by AnyEvent by using
664it's adaptor.
665
666AnyEvent knows about L<Prima> and L<Wx> and will try to use L<POE> when
667autodetecting them.
206 668
207=item AnyEvent::detect 669=item AnyEvent::detect
208 670
209Returns C<$AnyEvent::MODEL>, forcing autodetection of the event model if 671Returns C<$AnyEvent::MODEL>, forcing autodetection of the event model
210necessary. You should only call this function right before you would have 672if necessary. You should only call this function right before you would
211created an AnyEvent watcher anyway, that is, very late at runtime. 673have created an AnyEvent watcher anyway, that is, as late as possible at
674runtime.
675
676=item $guard = AnyEvent::post_detect { BLOCK }
677
678Arranges for the code block to be executed as soon as the event model is
679autodetected (or immediately if this has already happened).
680
681If called in scalar or list context, then it creates and returns an object
682that automatically removes the callback again when it is destroyed. See
683L<Coro::BDB> for a case where this is useful.
684
685=item @AnyEvent::post_detect
686
687If there are any code references in this array (you can C<push> to it
688before or after loading AnyEvent), then they will called directly after
689the event loop has been chosen.
690
691You should check C<$AnyEvent::MODEL> before adding to this array, though:
692if it contains a true value then the event loop has already been detected,
693and the array will be ignored.
694
695Best use C<AnyEvent::post_detect { BLOCK }> instead.
212 696
213=back 697=back
214 698
215=head1 WHAT TO DO IN A MODULE 699=head1 WHAT TO DO IN A MODULE
216 700
217As a module author, you should "use AnyEvent" and call AnyEvent methods 701As a module author, you should C<use AnyEvent> and call AnyEvent methods
218freely, but you should not load a specific event module or rely on it. 702freely, but you should not load a specific event module or rely on it.
219 703
220Be careful when you create watchers in the module body - Anyevent will 704Be careful when you create watchers in the module body - AnyEvent will
221decide which event module to use as soon as the first method is called, so 705decide which event module to use as soon as the first method is called, so
222by calling AnyEvent in your module body you force the user of your module 706by calling AnyEvent in your module body you force the user of your module
223to load the event module first. 707to load the event module first.
224 708
709Never call C<< ->recv >> on a condition variable unless you I<know> that
710the C<< ->send >> method has been called on it already. This is
711because it will stall the whole program, and the whole point of using
712events is to stay interactive.
713
714It is fine, however, to call C<< ->recv >> when the user of your module
715requests it (i.e. if you create a http request object ad have a method
716called C<results> that returns the results, it should call C<< ->recv >>
717freely, as the user of your module knows what she is doing. always).
718
225=head1 WHAT TO DO IN THE MAIN PROGRAM 719=head1 WHAT TO DO IN THE MAIN PROGRAM
226 720
227There will always be a single main program - the only place that should 721There will always be a single main program - the only place that should
228dictate which event model to use. 722dictate which event model to use.
229 723
230If it doesn't care, it can just "use AnyEvent" and use it itself, or not 724If it doesn't care, it can just "use AnyEvent" and use it itself, or not
231do anything special and let AnyEvent decide which implementation to chose. 725do anything special (it does not need to be event-based) and let AnyEvent
726decide which implementation to chose if some module relies on it.
232 727
233If the main program relies on a specific event model (for example, in Gtk2 728If the main program relies on a specific event model - for example, in
234programs you have to rely on either Glib or Glib::Event), you should load 729Gtk2 programs you have to rely on the Glib module - you should load the
235it before loading AnyEvent or any module that uses it, generally, as early 730event module before loading AnyEvent or any module that uses it: generally
236as possible. The reason is that modules might create watchers when they 731speaking, you should load it as early as possible. The reason is that
237are loaded, and AnyEvent will decide on the event model to use as soon as 732modules might create watchers when they are loaded, and AnyEvent will
238it creates watchers, and it might chose the wrong one unless you load the 733decide on the event model to use as soon as it creates watchers, and it
239correct one yourself. 734might chose the wrong one unless you load the correct one yourself.
240 735
241You can chose to use a rather inefficient pure-perl implementation by 736You can chose to use a pure-perl implementation by loading the
242loading the C<AnyEvent::Impl::Perl> module, but letting AnyEvent chose is 737C<AnyEvent::Impl::Perl> module, which gives you similar behaviour
243generally better. 738everywhere, but letting AnyEvent chose the model is generally better.
739
740=head2 MAINLOOP EMULATION
741
742Sometimes (often for short test scripts, or even standalone programs who
743only want to use AnyEvent), you do not want to run a specific event loop.
744
745In that case, you can use a condition variable like this:
746
747 AnyEvent->condvar->recv;
748
749This has the effect of entering the event loop and looping forever.
750
751Note that usually your program has some exit condition, in which case
752it is better to use the "traditional" approach of storing a condition
753variable somewhere, waiting for it, and sending it when the program should
754exit cleanly.
755
756
757=head1 OTHER MODULES
758
759The following is a non-exhaustive list of additional modules that use
760AnyEvent and can therefore be mixed easily with other AnyEvent modules
761in the same program. Some of the modules come with AnyEvent, some are
762available via CPAN.
763
764=over 4
765
766=item L<AnyEvent::Util>
767
768Contains various utility functions that replace often-used but blocking
769functions such as C<inet_aton> by event-/callback-based versions.
770
771=item L<AnyEvent::Socket>
772
773Provides various utility functions for (internet protocol) sockets,
774addresses and name resolution. Also functions to create non-blocking tcp
775connections or tcp servers, with IPv6 and SRV record support and more.
776
777=item L<AnyEvent::Handle>
778
779Provide read and write buffers, manages watchers for reads and writes,
780supports raw and formatted I/O, I/O queued and fully transparent and
781non-blocking SSL/TLS.
782
783=item L<AnyEvent::DNS>
784
785Provides rich asynchronous DNS resolver capabilities.
786
787=item L<AnyEvent::HTTP>
788
789A simple-to-use HTTP library that is capable of making a lot of concurrent
790HTTP requests.
791
792=item L<AnyEvent::HTTPD>
793
794Provides a simple web application server framework.
795
796=item L<AnyEvent::FastPing>
797
798The fastest ping in the west.
799
800=item L<AnyEvent::DBI>
801
802Executes L<DBI> requests asynchronously in a proxy process.
803
804=item L<AnyEvent::AIO>
805
806Truly asynchronous I/O, should be in the toolbox of every event
807programmer. AnyEvent::AIO transparently fuses L<IO::AIO> and AnyEvent
808together.
809
810=item L<AnyEvent::BDB>
811
812Truly asynchronous Berkeley DB access. AnyEvent::BDB transparently fuses
813L<BDB> and AnyEvent together.
814
815=item L<AnyEvent::GPSD>
816
817A non-blocking interface to gpsd, a daemon delivering GPS information.
818
819=item L<AnyEvent::IGS>
820
821A non-blocking interface to the Internet Go Server protocol (used by
822L<App::IGS>).
823
824=item L<Net::IRC3>
825
826AnyEvent based IRC client module family.
827
828=item L<Net::XMPP2>
829
830AnyEvent based XMPP (Jabber protocol) module family.
831
832=item L<Net::FCP>
833
834AnyEvent-based implementation of the Freenet Client Protocol, birthplace
835of AnyEvent.
836
837=item L<Event::ExecFlow>
838
839High level API for event-based execution flow control.
840
841=item L<Coro>
842
843Has special support for AnyEvent via L<Coro::AnyEvent>.
844
845=item L<IO::Lambda>
846
847The lambda approach to I/O - don't ask, look there. Can use AnyEvent.
848
849=back
244 850
245=cut 851=cut
246 852
247package AnyEvent; 853package AnyEvent;
248 854
249no warnings; 855no warnings;
250use strict; 856use strict;
251 857
252use Carp; 858use Carp;
253 859
254our $VERSION = '2.55'; 860our $VERSION = 4.22;
255our $MODEL; 861our $MODEL;
256 862
257our $AUTOLOAD; 863our $AUTOLOAD;
258our @ISA; 864our @ISA;
259 865
866our @REGISTRY;
867
868our $WIN32;
869
870BEGIN {
871 my $win32 = ! ! ($^O =~ /mswin32/i);
872 eval "sub WIN32(){ $win32 }";
873}
874
260our $verbose = $ENV{PERL_ANYEVENT_VERBOSE}*1; 875our $verbose = $ENV{PERL_ANYEVENT_VERBOSE}*1;
261 876
262our @REGISTRY; 877our %PROTOCOL; # (ipv4|ipv6) => (1|2), higher numbers are preferred
878
879{
880 my $idx;
881 $PROTOCOL{$_} = ++$idx
882 for reverse split /\s*,\s*/,
883 $ENV{PERL_ANYEVENT_PROTOCOLS} || "ipv4,ipv6";
884}
263 885
264my @models = ( 886my @models = (
265 [Coro::Event:: => AnyEvent::Impl::Coro::],
266 [EV:: => EV::AnyEvent::], 887 [EV:: => AnyEvent::Impl::EV::],
267 [Event:: => AnyEvent::Impl::Event::], 888 [Event:: => AnyEvent::Impl::Event::],
268 [Glib:: => AnyEvent::Impl::Glib::],
269 [Tk:: => AnyEvent::Impl::Tk::],
270 [AnyEvent::Impl::Perl:: => AnyEvent::Impl::Perl::], 889 [AnyEvent::Impl::Perl:: => AnyEvent::Impl::Perl::],
890 # everything below here will not be autoprobed
891 # as the pureperl backend should work everywhere
892 # and is usually faster
893 [Tk:: => AnyEvent::Impl::Tk::], # crashes with many handles
894 [Glib:: => AnyEvent::Impl::Glib::], # becomes extremely slow with many watchers
895 [Event::Lib:: => AnyEvent::Impl::EventLib::], # too buggy
896 [Qt:: => AnyEvent::Impl::Qt::], # requires special main program
897 [POE::Kernel:: => AnyEvent::Impl::POE::], # lasciate ogni speranza
898 [Wx:: => AnyEvent::Impl::POE::],
899 [Prima:: => AnyEvent::Impl::POE::],
271); 900);
272 901
273our %method = map +($_ => 1), qw(io timer condvar broadcast wait signal one_event DESTROY); 902our %method = map +($_ => 1), qw(io timer time now signal child condvar one_event DESTROY);
903
904our @post_detect;
905
906sub post_detect(&) {
907 my ($cb) = @_;
908
909 if ($MODEL) {
910 $cb->();
911
912 1
913 } else {
914 push @post_detect, $cb;
915
916 defined wantarray
917 ? bless \$cb, "AnyEvent::Util::PostDetect"
918 : ()
919 }
920}
921
922sub AnyEvent::Util::PostDetect::DESTROY {
923 @post_detect = grep $_ != ${$_[0]}, @post_detect;
924}
274 925
275sub detect() { 926sub detect() {
276 unless ($MODEL) { 927 unless ($MODEL) {
277 no strict 'refs'; 928 no strict 'refs';
929 local $SIG{__DIE__};
930
931 if ($ENV{PERL_ANYEVENT_MODEL} =~ /^([a-zA-Z]+)$/) {
932 my $model = "AnyEvent::Impl::$1";
933 if (eval "require $model") {
934 $MODEL = $model;
935 warn "AnyEvent: loaded model '$model' (forced by \$PERL_ANYEVENT_MODEL), using it.\n" if $verbose > 1;
936 } else {
937 warn "AnyEvent: unable to load model '$model' (from \$PERL_ANYEVENT_MODEL):\n$@" if $verbose;
938 }
939 }
278 940
279 # check for already loaded models 941 # check for already loaded models
942 unless ($MODEL) {
280 for (@REGISTRY, @models) { 943 for (@REGISTRY, @models) {
281 my ($package, $model) = @$_; 944 my ($package, $model) = @$_;
282 if (${"$package\::VERSION"} > 0) { 945 if (${"$package\::VERSION"} > 0) {
283 if (eval "require $model") { 946 if (eval "require $model") {
284 $MODEL = $model; 947 $MODEL = $model;
285 warn "AnyEvent: found model '$model', using it.\n" if $verbose > 1; 948 warn "AnyEvent: autodetected model '$model', using it.\n" if $verbose > 1;
286 last; 949 last;
950 }
287 } 951 }
288 } 952 }
953
954 unless ($MODEL) {
955 # try to load a model
956
957 for (@REGISTRY, @models) {
958 my ($package, $model) = @$_;
959 if (eval "require $package"
960 and ${"$package\::VERSION"} > 0
961 and eval "require $model") {
962 $MODEL = $model;
963 warn "AnyEvent: autoprobed model '$model', using it.\n" if $verbose > 1;
964 last;
965 }
966 }
967
968 $MODEL
969 or die "No event module selected for AnyEvent and autodetect failed. Install any one of these modules: EV, Event or Glib.";
970 }
289 } 971 }
290 972
291 unless ($MODEL) { 973 push @{"$MODEL\::ISA"}, "AnyEvent::Base";
292 # try to load a model
293
294 for (@REGISTRY, @models) {
295 my ($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 }
308 974
309 unshift @ISA, $MODEL; 975 unshift @ISA, $MODEL;
310 push @{"$MODEL\::ISA"}, "AnyEvent::Base"; 976
977 require AnyEvent::Strict if $ENV{PERL_ANYEVENT_STRICT};
978
979 (shift @post_detect)->() while @post_detect;
311 } 980 }
312 981
313 $MODEL 982 $MODEL
314} 983}
315 984
323 992
324 my $class = shift; 993 my $class = shift;
325 $class->$func (@_); 994 $class->$func (@_);
326} 995}
327 996
997# utility function to dup a filehandle. this is used by many backends
998# to support binding more than one watcher per filehandle (they usually
999# allow only one watcher per fd, so we dup it to get a different one).
1000sub _dupfh($$$$) {
1001 my ($poll, $fh, $r, $w) = @_;
1002
1003 require Fcntl;
1004
1005 # cygwin requires the fh mode to be matching, unix doesn't
1006 my ($rw, $mode) = $poll eq "r" ? ($r, "<")
1007 : $poll eq "w" ? ($w, ">")
1008 : Carp::croak "AnyEvent->io requires poll set to either 'r' or 'w'";
1009
1010 open my $fh2, "$mode&" . fileno $fh
1011 or die "cannot dup() filehandle: $!";
1012
1013 # we assume CLOEXEC is already set by perl in all important cases
1014
1015 ($fh2, $rw)
1016}
1017
328package AnyEvent::Base; 1018package AnyEvent::Base;
329 1019
1020# default implementation for now and time
1021
1022use Time::HiRes ();
1023
1024sub time { Time::HiRes::time }
1025sub now { Time::HiRes::time }
1026
330# default implementation for ->condvar, ->wait, ->broadcast 1027# default implementation for ->condvar
331 1028
332sub condvar { 1029sub condvar {
333 bless \my $flag, "AnyEvent::Base::CondVar" 1030 bless { @_ == 3 ? (_ae_cb => $_[2]) : () }, AnyEvent::CondVar::
334}
335
336sub AnyEvent::Base::CondVar::broadcast {
337 ${$_[0]}++;
338}
339
340sub AnyEvent::Base::CondVar::wait {
341 AnyEvent->one_event while !${$_[0]};
342} 1031}
343 1032
344# default implementation for ->signal 1033# default implementation for ->signal
345 1034
346our %SIG_CB; 1035our %SIG_CB;
362sub AnyEvent::Base::Signal::DESTROY { 1051sub AnyEvent::Base::Signal::DESTROY {
363 my ($signal, $cb) = @{$_[0]}; 1052 my ($signal, $cb) = @{$_[0]};
364 1053
365 delete $SIG_CB{$signal}{$cb}; 1054 delete $SIG_CB{$signal}{$cb};
366 1055
367 $SIG{$signal} = 'DEFAULT' unless keys %{ $SIG_CB{$signal} }; 1056 delete $SIG{$signal} unless keys %{ $SIG_CB{$signal} };
368} 1057}
369 1058
370# default implementation for ->child 1059# default implementation for ->child
371 1060
372our %PID_CB; 1061our %PID_CB;
373our $CHLD_W; 1062our $CHLD_W;
1063our $CHLD_DELAY_W;
374our $PID_IDLE; 1064our $PID_IDLE;
375our $WNOHANG; 1065our $WNOHANG;
376 1066
377sub _child_wait { 1067sub _child_wait {
378 while (0 < (my $pid = waitpid -1, $WNOHANG)) { 1068 while (0 < (my $pid = waitpid -1, $WNOHANG)) {
379 $_->() for values %{ (delete $PID_CB{$pid}) || {} }; 1069 $_->($pid, $?) for (values %{ $PID_CB{$pid} || {} }),
1070 (values %{ $PID_CB{0} || {} });
380 } 1071 }
381 1072
382 undef $PID_IDLE; 1073 undef $PID_IDLE;
1074}
1075
1076sub _sigchld {
1077 # make sure we deliver these changes "synchronous" with the event loop.
1078 $CHLD_DELAY_W ||= AnyEvent->timer (after => 0, cb => sub {
1079 undef $CHLD_DELAY_W;
1080 &_child_wait;
1081 });
383} 1082}
384 1083
385sub child { 1084sub child {
386 my (undef, %arg) = @_; 1085 my (undef, %arg) = @_;
387 1086
388 my $pid = uc $arg{pid} 1087 defined (my $pid = $arg{pid} + 0)
389 or Carp::croak "required option 'pid' is missing"; 1088 or Carp::croak "required option 'pid' is missing";
390 1089
391 $PID_CB{$pid}{$arg{cb}} = $arg{cb}; 1090 $PID_CB{$pid}{$arg{cb}} = $arg{cb};
392 1091
393 unless ($WNOHANG) { 1092 unless ($WNOHANG) {
394 $WNOHANG = eval { require POSIX; &POSIX::WNOHANG } || 1; 1093 $WNOHANG = eval { local $SIG{__DIE__}; require POSIX; &POSIX::WNOHANG } || 1;
395 } 1094 }
396 1095
397 unless ($CHLD_W) { 1096 unless ($CHLD_W) {
398 $CHLD_W = AnyEvent->signal (signal => 'CHLD', cb => \&_child_wait); 1097 $CHLD_W = AnyEvent->signal (signal => 'CHLD', cb => \&_sigchld);
399 # child could be a zombie already 1098 # child could be a zombie already, so make at least one round
400 $PID_IDLE ||= AnyEvent->timer (after => 0, cb => \&_child_wait); 1099 &_sigchld;
401 } 1100 }
402 1101
403 bless [$pid, $arg{cb}], "AnyEvent::Base::Child" 1102 bless [$pid, $arg{cb}], "AnyEvent::Base::Child"
404} 1103}
405 1104
410 delete $PID_CB{$pid} unless keys %{ $PID_CB{$pid} }; 1109 delete $PID_CB{$pid} unless keys %{ $PID_CB{$pid} };
411 1110
412 undef $CHLD_W unless keys %PID_CB; 1111 undef $CHLD_W unless keys %PID_CB;
413} 1112}
414 1113
1114package AnyEvent::CondVar;
1115
1116our @ISA = AnyEvent::CondVar::Base::;
1117
1118package AnyEvent::CondVar::Base;
1119
1120use overload
1121 '&{}' => sub { my $self = shift; sub { $self->send (@_) } },
1122 fallback => 1;
1123
1124sub _send {
1125 # nop
1126}
1127
1128sub send {
1129 my $cv = shift;
1130 $cv->{_ae_sent} = [@_];
1131 (delete $cv->{_ae_cb})->($cv) if $cv->{_ae_cb};
1132 $cv->_send;
1133}
1134
1135sub croak {
1136 $_[0]{_ae_croak} = $_[1];
1137 $_[0]->send;
1138}
1139
1140sub ready {
1141 $_[0]{_ae_sent}
1142}
1143
1144sub _wait {
1145 AnyEvent->one_event while !$_[0]{_ae_sent};
1146}
1147
1148sub recv {
1149 $_[0]->_wait;
1150
1151 Carp::croak $_[0]{_ae_croak} if $_[0]{_ae_croak};
1152 wantarray ? @{ $_[0]{_ae_sent} } : $_[0]{_ae_sent}[0]
1153}
1154
1155sub cb {
1156 $_[0]{_ae_cb} = $_[1] if @_ > 1;
1157 $_[0]{_ae_cb}
1158}
1159
1160sub begin {
1161 ++$_[0]{_ae_counter};
1162 $_[0]{_ae_end_cb} = $_[1] if @_ > 1;
1163}
1164
1165sub end {
1166 return if --$_[0]{_ae_counter};
1167 &{ $_[0]{_ae_end_cb} || sub { $_[0]->send } };
1168}
1169
1170# undocumented/compatibility with pre-3.4
1171*broadcast = \&send;
1172*wait = \&_wait;
1173
415=head1 SUPPLYING YOUR OWN EVENT MODEL INTERFACE 1174=head1 SUPPLYING YOUR OWN EVENT MODEL INTERFACE
1175
1176This is an advanced topic that you do not normally need to use AnyEvent in
1177a module. This section is only of use to event loop authors who want to
1178provide AnyEvent compatibility.
416 1179
417If you need to support another event library which isn't directly 1180If you need to support another event library which isn't directly
418supported by AnyEvent, you can supply your own interface to it by 1181supported by AnyEvent, you can supply your own interface to it by
419pushing, before the first watcher gets created, the package name of 1182pushing, before the first watcher gets created, the package name of
420the event module and the package name of the interface to use onto 1183the event module and the package name of the interface to use onto
421C<@AnyEvent::REGISTRY>. You can do that before and even without loading 1184C<@AnyEvent::REGISTRY>. You can do that before and even without loading
422AnyEvent. 1185AnyEvent, so it is reasonably cheap.
423 1186
424Example: 1187Example:
425 1188
426 push @AnyEvent::REGISTRY, [urxvt => urxvt::anyevent::]; 1189 push @AnyEvent::REGISTRY, [urxvt => urxvt::anyevent::];
427 1190
428This tells AnyEvent to (literally) use the C<urxvt::anyevent::> 1191This tells AnyEvent to (literally) use the C<urxvt::anyevent::>
429package/class when it finds the C<urxvt> package/module is loaded. When 1192package/class when it finds the C<urxvt> package/module is already loaded.
1193
430AnyEvent is loaded and asked to find a suitable event model, it will 1194When AnyEvent is loaded and asked to find a suitable event model, it
431first check for the presence of urxvt. 1195will first check for the presence of urxvt by trying to C<use> the
1196C<urxvt::anyevent> module.
432 1197
433The class should provide implementations for all watcher types (see 1198The class should provide implementations for all watcher types. See
434L<AnyEvent::Impl::Event> (source code), L<AnyEvent::Impl::Glib> 1199L<AnyEvent::Impl::EV> (source code), L<AnyEvent::Impl::Glib> (Source code)
435(Source code) and so on for actual examples, use C<perldoc -m 1200and so on for actual examples. Use C<perldoc -m AnyEvent::Impl::Glib> to
436AnyEvent::Impl::Glib> to see the sources). 1201see the sources.
437 1202
1203If you don't provide C<signal> and C<child> watchers than AnyEvent will
1204provide suitable (hopefully) replacements.
1205
438The above isn't fictitious, the I<rxvt-unicode> (a.k.a. urxvt) 1206The above example isn't fictitious, the I<rxvt-unicode> (a.k.a. urxvt)
439uses the above line as-is. An interface isn't included in AnyEvent 1207terminal emulator uses the above line as-is. An interface isn't included
440because it doesn't make sense outside the embedded interpreter inside 1208in AnyEvent because it doesn't make sense outside the embedded interpreter
441I<rxvt-unicode>, and it is updated and maintained as part of the 1209inside I<rxvt-unicode>, and it is updated and maintained as part of the
442I<rxvt-unicode> distribution. 1210I<rxvt-unicode> distribution.
443 1211
444I<rxvt-unicode> also cheats a bit by not providing blocking access to 1212I<rxvt-unicode> also cheats a bit by not providing blocking access to
445condition variables: code blocking while waiting for a condition will 1213condition variables: code blocking while waiting for a condition will
446C<die>. This still works with most modules/usages, and blocking calls must 1214C<die>. This still works with most modules/usages, and blocking calls must
447not be in an interactive application, so it makes sense. 1215not be done in an interactive application, so it makes sense.
448 1216
449=head1 ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES 1217=head1 ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES
450 1218
451The following environment variables are used by this module: 1219The following environment variables are used by this module:
452 1220
453C<PERL_ANYEVENT_VERBOSE> when set to C<2> or higher, reports which event 1221=over 4
454model gets used.
455 1222
1223=item C<PERL_ANYEVENT_VERBOSE>
1224
1225By default, AnyEvent will be completely silent except in fatal
1226conditions. You can set this environment variable to make AnyEvent more
1227talkative.
1228
1229When set to C<1> or higher, causes AnyEvent to warn about unexpected
1230conditions, such as not being able to load the event model specified by
1231C<PERL_ANYEVENT_MODEL>.
1232
1233When set to C<2> or higher, cause AnyEvent to report to STDERR which event
1234model it chooses.
1235
1236=item C<PERL_ANYEVENT_STRICT>
1237
1238AnyEvent does not do much argument checking by default, as thorough
1239argument checking is very costly. Setting this variable to a true value
1240will cause AnyEvent to load C<AnyEvent::Strict> and then to thoroughly
1241check the arguments passed to most method calls. If it finds any problems
1242it will croak.
1243
1244In other words, enables "strict" mode.
1245
1246Unlike C<use strict> it is definitely recommended ot keep it off in
1247production.
1248
1249=item C<PERL_ANYEVENT_MODEL>
1250
1251This can be used to specify the event model to be used by AnyEvent, before
1252auto detection and -probing kicks in. It must be a string consisting
1253entirely of ASCII letters. The string C<AnyEvent::Impl::> gets prepended
1254and the resulting module name is loaded and if the load was successful,
1255used as event model. If it fails to load AnyEvent will proceed with
1256auto detection and -probing.
1257
1258This functionality might change in future versions.
1259
1260For example, to force the pure perl model (L<AnyEvent::Impl::Perl>) you
1261could start your program like this:
1262
1263 PERL_ANYEVENT_MODEL=Perl perl ...
1264
1265=item C<PERL_ANYEVENT_PROTOCOLS>
1266
1267Used by both L<AnyEvent::DNS> and L<AnyEvent::Socket> to determine preferences
1268for IPv4 or IPv6. The default is unspecified (and might change, or be the result
1269of auto probing).
1270
1271Must be set to a comma-separated list of protocols or address families,
1272current supported: C<ipv4> and C<ipv6>. Only protocols mentioned will be
1273used, and preference will be given to protocols mentioned earlier in the
1274list.
1275
1276This variable can effectively be used for denial-of-service attacks
1277against local programs (e.g. when setuid), although the impact is likely
1278small, as the program has to handle connection errors already-
1279
1280Examples: C<PERL_ANYEVENT_PROTOCOLS=ipv4,ipv6> - prefer IPv4 over IPv6,
1281but support both and try to use both. C<PERL_ANYEVENT_PROTOCOLS=ipv4>
1282- only support IPv4, never try to resolve or contact IPv6
1283addresses. C<PERL_ANYEVENT_PROTOCOLS=ipv6,ipv4> support either IPv4 or
1284IPv6, but prefer IPv6 over IPv4.
1285
1286=item C<PERL_ANYEVENT_EDNS0>
1287
1288Used by L<AnyEvent::DNS> to decide whether to use the EDNS0 extension
1289for DNS. This extension is generally useful to reduce DNS traffic, but
1290some (broken) firewalls drop such DNS packets, which is why it is off by
1291default.
1292
1293Setting this variable to C<1> will cause L<AnyEvent::DNS> to announce
1294EDNS0 in its DNS requests.
1295
1296=item C<PERL_ANYEVENT_MAX_FORKS>
1297
1298The maximum number of child processes that C<AnyEvent::Util::fork_call>
1299will create in parallel.
1300
1301=back
1302
456=head1 EXAMPLE 1303=head1 EXAMPLE PROGRAM
457 1304
458The following program uses an io watcher to read data from stdin, a timer 1305The following program uses an I/O watcher to read data from STDIN, a timer
459to display a message once per second, and a condvar to exit the program 1306to display a message once per second, and a condition variable to quit the
460when the user enters quit: 1307program when the user enters quit:
461 1308
462 use AnyEvent; 1309 use AnyEvent;
463 1310
464 my $cv = AnyEvent->condvar; 1311 my $cv = AnyEvent->condvar;
465 1312
466 my $io_watcher = AnyEvent->io (fh => \*STDIN, poll => 'r', cb => sub { 1313 my $io_watcher = AnyEvent->io (
1314 fh => \*STDIN,
1315 poll => 'r',
1316 cb => sub {
467 warn "io event <$_[0]>\n"; # will always output <r> 1317 warn "io event <$_[0]>\n"; # will always output <r>
468 chomp (my $input = <STDIN>); # read a line 1318 chomp (my $input = <STDIN>); # read a line
469 warn "read: $input\n"; # output what has been read 1319 warn "read: $input\n"; # output what has been read
470 $cv->broadcast if $input =~ /^q/i; # quit program if /^q/i 1320 $cv->send if $input =~ /^q/i; # quit program if /^q/i
1321 },
471 }); 1322 );
472 1323
473 my $time_watcher; # can only be used once 1324 my $time_watcher; # can only be used once
474 1325
475 sub new_timer { 1326 sub new_timer {
476 $timer = AnyEvent->timer (after => 1, cb => sub { 1327 $timer = AnyEvent->timer (after => 1, cb => sub {
479 }); 1330 });
480 } 1331 }
481 1332
482 new_timer; # create first timer 1333 new_timer; # create first timer
483 1334
484 $cv->wait; # wait until user enters /^q/i 1335 $cv->recv; # wait until user enters /^q/i
485 1336
486=head1 REAL-WORLD EXAMPLE 1337=head1 REAL-WORLD EXAMPLE
487 1338
488Consider the L<Net::FCP> module. It features (among others) the following 1339Consider the L<Net::FCP> module. It features (among others) the following
489API calls, which are to freenet what HTTP GET requests are to http: 1340API calls, which are to freenet what HTTP GET requests are to http:
539 syswrite $txn->{fh}, $txn->{request} 1390 syswrite $txn->{fh}, $txn->{request}
540 or die "connection or write error"; 1391 or die "connection or write error";
541 $txn->{w} = AnyEvent->io (fh => $txn->{fh}, poll => 'r', cb => sub { $txn->fh_ready_r }); 1392 $txn->{w} = AnyEvent->io (fh => $txn->{fh}, poll => 'r', cb => sub { $txn->fh_ready_r });
542 1393
543Again, C<fh_ready_r> waits till all data has arrived, and then stores the 1394Again, C<fh_ready_r> waits till all data has arrived, and then stores the
544result and signals any possible waiters that the request ahs finished: 1395result and signals any possible waiters that the request has finished:
545 1396
546 sysread $txn->{fh}, $txn->{buf}, length $txn->{$buf}; 1397 sysread $txn->{fh}, $txn->{buf}, length $txn->{$buf};
547 1398
548 if (end-of-file or data complete) { 1399 if (end-of-file or data complete) {
549 $txn->{result} = $txn->{buf}; 1400 $txn->{result} = $txn->{buf};
550 $txn->{finished}->broadcast; 1401 $txn->{finished}->send;
551 $txb->{cb}->($txn) of $txn->{cb}; # also call callback 1402 $txb->{cb}->($txn) of $txn->{cb}; # also call callback
552 } 1403 }
553 1404
554The C<result> method, finally, just waits for the finished signal (if the 1405The C<result> method, finally, just waits for the finished signal (if the
555request was already finished, it doesn't wait, of course, and returns the 1406request was already finished, it doesn't wait, of course, and returns the
556data: 1407data:
557 1408
558 $txn->{finished}->wait; 1409 $txn->{finished}->recv;
559 return $txn->{result}; 1410 return $txn->{result};
560 1411
561The actual code goes further and collects all errors (C<die>s, exceptions) 1412The actual code goes further and collects all errors (C<die>s, exceptions)
562that occured during request processing. The C<result> method detects 1413that occurred during request processing. The C<result> method detects
563wether an exception as thrown (it is stored inside the $txn object) 1414whether an exception as thrown (it is stored inside the $txn object)
564and just throws the exception, which means connection errors and other 1415and just throws the exception, which means connection errors and other
565problems get reported tot he code that tries to use the result, not in a 1416problems get reported tot he code that tries to use the result, not in a
566random callback. 1417random callback.
567 1418
568All of this enables the following usage styles: 1419All of this enables the following usage styles:
569 1420
5701. Blocking: 14211. Blocking:
571 1422
572 my $data = $fcp->client_get ($url); 1423 my $data = $fcp->client_get ($url);
573 1424
5742. Blocking, but parallelizing: 14252. Blocking, but running in parallel:
575 1426
576 my @datas = map $_->result, 1427 my @datas = map $_->result,
577 map $fcp->txn_client_get ($_), 1428 map $fcp->txn_client_get ($_),
578 @urls; 1429 @urls;
579 1430
580Both blocking examples work without the module user having to know 1431Both blocking examples work without the module user having to know
581anything about events. 1432anything about events.
582 1433
5833a. Event-based in a main program, using any support Event module: 14343a. Event-based in a main program, using any supported event module:
584 1435
585 use Event; 1436 use EV;
586 1437
587 $fcp->txn_client_get ($url)->cb (sub { 1438 $fcp->txn_client_get ($url)->cb (sub {
588 my $txn = shift; 1439 my $txn = shift;
589 my $data = $txn->result; 1440 my $data = $txn->result;
590 ... 1441 ...
591 }); 1442 });
592 1443
593 Event::loop; 1444 EV::loop;
594 1445
5953b. The module user could use AnyEvent, too: 14463b. The module user could use AnyEvent, too:
596 1447
597 use AnyEvent; 1448 use AnyEvent;
598 1449
599 my $quit = AnyEvent->condvar; 1450 my $quit = AnyEvent->condvar;
600 1451
601 $fcp->txn_client_get ($url)->cb (sub { 1452 $fcp->txn_client_get ($url)->cb (sub {
602 ... 1453 ...
603 $quit->broadcast; 1454 $quit->send;
604 }); 1455 });
605 1456
606 $quit->wait; 1457 $quit->recv;
1458
1459
1460=head1 BENCHMARKS
1461
1462To give you an idea of the performance and overheads that AnyEvent adds
1463over the event loops themselves and to give you an impression of the speed
1464of various event loops I prepared some benchmarks.
1465
1466=head2 BENCHMARKING ANYEVENT OVERHEAD
1467
1468Here is a benchmark of various supported event models used natively and
1469through AnyEvent. The benchmark creates a lot of timers (with a zero
1470timeout) and I/O watchers (watching STDOUT, a pty, to become writable,
1471which it is), lets them fire exactly once and destroys them again.
1472
1473Source code for this benchmark is found as F<eg/bench> in the AnyEvent
1474distribution.
1475
1476=head3 Explanation of the columns
1477
1478I<watcher> is the number of event watchers created/destroyed. Since
1479different event models feature vastly different performances, each event
1480loop was given a number of watchers so that overall runtime is acceptable
1481and similar between tested event loop (and keep them from crashing): Glib
1482would probably take thousands of years if asked to process the same number
1483of watchers as EV in this benchmark.
1484
1485I<bytes> is the number of bytes (as measured by the resident set size,
1486RSS) consumed by each watcher. This method of measuring captures both C
1487and Perl-based overheads.
1488
1489I<create> is the time, in microseconds (millionths of seconds), that it
1490takes to create a single watcher. The callback is a closure shared between
1491all watchers, to avoid adding memory overhead. That means closure creation
1492and memory usage is not included in the figures.
1493
1494I<invoke> is the time, in microseconds, used to invoke a simple
1495callback. The callback simply counts down a Perl variable and after it was
1496invoked "watcher" times, it would C<< ->send >> a condvar once to
1497signal the end of this phase.
1498
1499I<destroy> is the time, in microseconds, that it takes to destroy a single
1500watcher.
1501
1502=head3 Results
1503
1504 name watchers bytes create invoke destroy comment
1505 EV/EV 400000 244 0.56 0.46 0.31 EV native interface
1506 EV/Any 100000 244 2.50 0.46 0.29 EV + AnyEvent watchers
1507 CoroEV/Any 100000 244 2.49 0.44 0.29 coroutines + Coro::Signal
1508 Perl/Any 100000 513 4.92 0.87 1.12 pure perl implementation
1509 Event/Event 16000 516 31.88 31.30 0.85 Event native interface
1510 Event/Any 16000 590 35.75 31.42 1.08 Event + AnyEvent watchers
1511 Glib/Any 16000 1357 98.22 12.41 54.00 quadratic behaviour
1512 Tk/Any 2000 1860 26.97 67.98 14.00 SEGV with >> 2000 watchers
1513 POE/Event 2000 6644 108.64 736.02 14.73 via POE::Loop::Event
1514 POE/Select 2000 6343 94.13 809.12 565.96 via POE::Loop::Select
1515
1516=head3 Discussion
1517
1518The benchmark does I<not> measure scalability of the event loop very
1519well. For example, a select-based event loop (such as the pure perl one)
1520can never compete with an event loop that uses epoll when the number of
1521file descriptors grows high. In this benchmark, all events become ready at
1522the same time, so select/poll-based implementations get an unnatural speed
1523boost.
1524
1525Also, note that the number of watchers usually has a nonlinear effect on
1526overall speed, that is, creating twice as many watchers doesn't take twice
1527the time - usually it takes longer. This puts event loops tested with a
1528higher number of watchers at a disadvantage.
1529
1530To put the range of results into perspective, consider that on the
1531benchmark machine, handling an event takes roughly 1600 CPU cycles with
1532EV, 3100 CPU cycles with AnyEvent's pure perl loop and almost 3000000 CPU
1533cycles with POE.
1534
1535C<EV> is the sole leader regarding speed and memory use, which are both
1536maximal/minimal, respectively. Even when going through AnyEvent, it uses
1537far less memory than any other event loop and is still faster than Event
1538natively.
1539
1540The pure perl implementation is hit in a few sweet spots (both the
1541constant timeout and the use of a single fd hit optimisations in the perl
1542interpreter and the backend itself). Nevertheless this shows that it
1543adds very little overhead in itself. Like any select-based backend its
1544performance becomes really bad with lots of file descriptors (and few of
1545them active), of course, but this was not subject of this benchmark.
1546
1547The C<Event> module has a relatively high setup and callback invocation
1548cost, but overall scores in on the third place.
1549
1550C<Glib>'s memory usage is quite a bit higher, but it features a
1551faster callback invocation and overall ends up in the same class as
1552C<Event>. However, Glib scales extremely badly, doubling the number of
1553watchers increases the processing time by more than a factor of four,
1554making it completely unusable when using larger numbers of watchers
1555(note that only a single file descriptor was used in the benchmark, so
1556inefficiencies of C<poll> do not account for this).
1557
1558The C<Tk> adaptor works relatively well. The fact that it crashes with
1559more than 2000 watchers is a big setback, however, as correctness takes
1560precedence over speed. Nevertheless, its performance is surprising, as the
1561file descriptor is dup()ed for each watcher. This shows that the dup()
1562employed by some adaptors is not a big performance issue (it does incur a
1563hidden memory cost inside the kernel which is not reflected in the figures
1564above).
1565
1566C<POE>, regardless of underlying event loop (whether using its pure perl
1567select-based backend or the Event module, the POE-EV backend couldn't
1568be tested because it wasn't working) shows abysmal performance and
1569memory usage with AnyEvent: Watchers use almost 30 times as much memory
1570as EV watchers, and 10 times as much memory as Event (the high memory
1571requirements are caused by requiring a session for each watcher). Watcher
1572invocation speed is almost 900 times slower than with AnyEvent's pure perl
1573implementation.
1574
1575The design of the POE adaptor class in AnyEvent can not really account
1576for the performance issues, though, as session creation overhead is
1577small compared to execution of the state machine, which is coded pretty
1578optimally within L<AnyEvent::Impl::POE> (and while everybody agrees that
1579using multiple sessions is not a good approach, especially regarding
1580memory usage, even the author of POE could not come up with a faster
1581design).
1582
1583=head3 Summary
1584
1585=over 4
1586
1587=item * Using EV through AnyEvent is faster than any other event loop
1588(even when used without AnyEvent), but most event loops have acceptable
1589performance with or without AnyEvent.
1590
1591=item * The overhead AnyEvent adds is usually much smaller than the overhead of
1592the actual event loop, only with extremely fast event loops such as EV
1593adds AnyEvent significant overhead.
1594
1595=item * You should avoid POE like the plague if you want performance or
1596reasonable memory usage.
1597
1598=back
1599
1600=head2 BENCHMARKING THE LARGE SERVER CASE
1601
1602This benchmark actually benchmarks the event loop itself. It works by
1603creating a number of "servers": each server consists of a socket pair, a
1604timeout watcher that gets reset on activity (but never fires), and an I/O
1605watcher waiting for input on one side of the socket. Each time the socket
1606watcher reads a byte it will write that byte to a random other "server".
1607
1608The effect is that there will be a lot of I/O watchers, only part of which
1609are active at any one point (so there is a constant number of active
1610fds for each loop iteration, but which fds these are is random). The
1611timeout is reset each time something is read because that reflects how
1612most timeouts work (and puts extra pressure on the event loops).
1613
1614In this benchmark, we use 10000 socket pairs (20000 sockets), of which 100
1615(1%) are active. This mirrors the activity of large servers with many
1616connections, most of which are idle at any one point in time.
1617
1618Source code for this benchmark is found as F<eg/bench2> in the AnyEvent
1619distribution.
1620
1621=head3 Explanation of the columns
1622
1623I<sockets> is the number of sockets, and twice the number of "servers" (as
1624each server has a read and write socket end).
1625
1626I<create> is the time it takes to create a socket pair (which is
1627nontrivial) and two watchers: an I/O watcher and a timeout watcher.
1628
1629I<request>, the most important value, is the time it takes to handle a
1630single "request", that is, reading the token from the pipe and forwarding
1631it to another server. This includes deleting the old timeout and creating
1632a new one that moves the timeout into the future.
1633
1634=head3 Results
1635
1636 name sockets create request
1637 EV 20000 69.01 11.16
1638 Perl 20000 73.32 35.87
1639 Event 20000 212.62 257.32
1640 Glib 20000 651.16 1896.30
1641 POE 20000 349.67 12317.24 uses POE::Loop::Event
1642
1643=head3 Discussion
1644
1645This benchmark I<does> measure scalability and overall performance of the
1646particular event loop.
1647
1648EV is again fastest. Since it is using epoll on my system, the setup time
1649is relatively high, though.
1650
1651Perl surprisingly comes second. It is much faster than the C-based event
1652loops Event and Glib.
1653
1654Event suffers from high setup time as well (look at its code and you will
1655understand why). Callback invocation also has a high overhead compared to
1656the C<< $_->() for .. >>-style loop that the Perl event loop uses. Event
1657uses select or poll in basically all documented configurations.
1658
1659Glib is hit hard by its quadratic behaviour w.r.t. many watchers. It
1660clearly fails to perform with many filehandles or in busy servers.
1661
1662POE is still completely out of the picture, taking over 1000 times as long
1663as EV, and over 100 times as long as the Perl implementation, even though
1664it uses a C-based event loop in this case.
1665
1666=head3 Summary
1667
1668=over 4
1669
1670=item * The pure perl implementation performs extremely well.
1671
1672=item * Avoid Glib or POE in large projects where performance matters.
1673
1674=back
1675
1676=head2 BENCHMARKING SMALL SERVERS
1677
1678While event loops should scale (and select-based ones do not...) even to
1679large servers, most programs we (or I :) actually write have only a few
1680I/O watchers.
1681
1682In this benchmark, I use the same benchmark program as in the large server
1683case, but it uses only eight "servers", of which three are active at any
1684one time. This should reflect performance for a small server relatively
1685well.
1686
1687The columns are identical to the previous table.
1688
1689=head3 Results
1690
1691 name sockets create request
1692 EV 16 20.00 6.54
1693 Perl 16 25.75 12.62
1694 Event 16 81.27 35.86
1695 Glib 16 32.63 15.48
1696 POE 16 261.87 276.28 uses POE::Loop::Event
1697
1698=head3 Discussion
1699
1700The benchmark tries to test the performance of a typical small
1701server. While knowing how various event loops perform is interesting, keep
1702in mind that their overhead in this case is usually not as important, due
1703to the small absolute number of watchers (that is, you need efficiency and
1704speed most when you have lots of watchers, not when you only have a few of
1705them).
1706
1707EV is again fastest.
1708
1709Perl again comes second. It is noticeably faster than the C-based event
1710loops Event and Glib, although the difference is too small to really
1711matter.
1712
1713POE also performs much better in this case, but is is still far behind the
1714others.
1715
1716=head3 Summary
1717
1718=over 4
1719
1720=item * C-based event loops perform very well with small number of
1721watchers, as the management overhead dominates.
1722
1723=back
1724
1725
1726=head1 FORK
1727
1728Most event libraries are not fork-safe. The ones who are usually are
1729because they rely on inefficient but fork-safe C<select> or C<poll>
1730calls. Only L<EV> is fully fork-aware.
1731
1732If you have to fork, you must either do so I<before> creating your first
1733watcher OR you must not use AnyEvent at all in the child.
1734
1735
1736=head1 SECURITY CONSIDERATIONS
1737
1738AnyEvent can be forced to load any event model via
1739$ENV{PERL_ANYEVENT_MODEL}. While this cannot (to my knowledge) be used to
1740execute arbitrary code or directly gain access, it can easily be used to
1741make the program hang or malfunction in subtle ways, as AnyEvent watchers
1742will not be active when the program uses a different event model than
1743specified in the variable.
1744
1745You can make AnyEvent completely ignore this variable by deleting it
1746before the first watcher gets created, e.g. with a C<BEGIN> block:
1747
1748 BEGIN { delete $ENV{PERL_ANYEVENT_MODEL} }
1749
1750 use AnyEvent;
1751
1752Similar considerations apply to $ENV{PERL_ANYEVENT_VERBOSE}, as that can
1753be used to probe what backend is used and gain other information (which is
1754probably even less useful to an attacker than PERL_ANYEVENT_MODEL), and
1755$ENV{PERL_ANYEGENT_STRICT}.
1756
1757
1758=head1 BUGS
1759
1760Perl 5.8 has numerous memleaks that sometimes hit this module and are hard
1761to work around. If you suffer from memleaks, first upgrade to Perl 5.10
1762and check wether the leaks still show up. (Perl 5.10.0 has other annoying
1763mamleaks, such as leaking on C<map> and C<grep> but it is usually not as
1764pronounced).
1765
607 1766
608=head1 SEE ALSO 1767=head1 SEE ALSO
609 1768
610Event modules: L<Coro::Event>, L<Coro>, L<Event>, L<Glib::Event>, L<Glib>. 1769Utility functions: L<AnyEvent::Util>.
611 1770
612Implementations: L<AnyEvent::Impl::Coro>, L<AnyEvent::Impl::Event>, L<AnyEvent::Impl::Glib>, L<AnyEvent::Impl::Tk>. 1771Event modules: L<EV>, L<EV::Glib>, L<Glib::EV>, L<Event>, L<Glib::Event>,
1772L<Glib>, L<Tk>, L<Event::Lib>, L<Qt>, L<POE>.
613 1773
614Nontrivial usage example: L<Net::FCP>. 1774Implementations: L<AnyEvent::Impl::EV>, L<AnyEvent::Impl::Event>,
1775L<AnyEvent::Impl::Glib>, L<AnyEvent::Impl::Tk>, L<AnyEvent::Impl::Perl>,
1776L<AnyEvent::Impl::EventLib>, L<AnyEvent::Impl::Qt>,
1777L<AnyEvent::Impl::POE>.
615 1778
616=head1 1779Non-blocking file handles, sockets, TCP clients and
1780servers: L<AnyEvent::Handle>, L<AnyEvent::Socket>.
1781
1782Asynchronous DNS: L<AnyEvent::DNS>.
1783
1784Coroutine support: L<Coro>, L<Coro::AnyEvent>, L<Coro::EV>, L<Coro::Event>,
1785
1786Nontrivial usage examples: L<Net::FCP>, L<Net::XMPP2>, L<AnyEvent::DNS>.
1787
1788
1789=head1 AUTHOR
1790
1791 Marc Lehmann <schmorp@schmorp.de>
1792 http://home.schmorp.de/
617 1793
618=cut 1794=cut
619 1795
6201 17961
621 1797

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