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Revision 1.175 by root, Sun Jul 27 08:43:32 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 - 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
9use AnyEvent; 9 use AnyEvent;
10 10
11 my $w = AnyEvent->timer (fh => ..., poll => "[rw]+", cb => sub { 11 my $w = AnyEvent->io (fh => $fh, poll => "r|w", cb => sub { ... });
12 my ($poll_got) = @_; 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) = @_;
13 ... 23 ...
14 }); 24 });
15 my $w = AnyEvent->io (after => $seconds, cb => sub {
16 ...
17 });
18 25
19 # watchers get canceled whenever $w is destroyed 26 my $w = AnyEvent->condvar; # stores whether a condition was flagged
20 # only one watcher per $fh and $poll type is allowed 27 $w->send; # wake up current and all future recv's
21 # (i.e. on a socket you cna have one r + one w or one rw
22 # watcher, not any more.
23 # timers can only be used once
24
25 my $w = AnyEvent->condvar; # kind of main loop replacement
26 # can only be used once
27 $w->wait; # enters main loop till $condvar gets ->send 28 $w->recv; # enters "main loop" till $condvar gets ->send
28 $w->broadcast; # wake up waiting and 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.
29 92
30=head1 DESCRIPTION 93=head1 DESCRIPTION
31 94
32L<AnyEvent> provides an identical interface to multiple event loops. This 95L<AnyEvent> provides an identical interface to multiple event loops. This
33allows module authors to utilizy an event loop without forcing module 96allows module authors to utilise an event loop without forcing module
34users 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
35peacefully at any one time). 98peacefully at any one time).
36 99
37The interface itself is vaguely similar but not identical to the Event 100The interface itself is vaguely similar, but not identical to the L<Event>
38module. 101module.
39 102
40On 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
41loaded event loop by probing wether any of the following modules is 104to detect the currently loaded event loop by probing whether one of the
42loaded: L<Coro::Event>, L<Event>, L<Glib>, L<Tk>. The first one found is 105following modules is already loaded: L<EV>,
43used. 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>,
44order 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
45used. If still none could be found, it will issue an error. 108to load these modules (excluding Tk, Event::Lib, Qt and POE as the pure perl
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.
113
114Because AnyEvent first checks for modules that are already loaded, loading
115an event model explicitly before first using AnyEvent will likely make
116that model the default. For example:
117
118 use Tk;
119 use AnyEvent;
120
121 # .. AnyEvent will likely default to Tk
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
127The pure-perl implementation of AnyEvent is called
128C<AnyEvent::Impl::Perl>. Like other event modules you can load it
129explicitly and enjoy the high availability of that event loop :)
130
131=head1 WATCHERS
132
133AnyEvent has the central concept of a I<watcher>, which is an object that
134stores relevant data for each kind of event you are waiting for, such as
135the callback to call, the file handle to watch, etc.
136
137These watchers are normal Perl objects with normal Perl lifetime. After
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
142To disable the watcher you have to destroy it (e.g. by setting the
143variable you store it in to C<undef> or otherwise deleting all references
144to it).
145
146All watchers are created by calling a method on the C<AnyEvent> class.
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
162=head2 I/O WATCHERS
163
164You can create an I/O watcher by calling the C<< AnyEvent->io >> method
165with the following mandatory key-value pairs as arguments:
166
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>
169must be a string that is either C<r> or C<w>, which creates a watcher
170waiting for "r"eadable or "w"ritable events, respectively. C<cb> is the
171callback to invoke each time the file handle becomes ready.
172
173Although the callback might get passed parameters, their value and
174presence is undefined and you cannot rely on them. Portable AnyEvent
175callbacks cannot use arguments passed to I/O watcher callbacks.
176
177The I/O watcher might use the underlying file descriptor or a copy of it.
178You must not close a file handle as long as any watcher is active on the
179underlying file descriptor.
180
181Some event loops issue spurious readyness notifications, so you should
182always use non-blocking calls when reading/writing from/to your file
183handles.
184
185Example: wait for readability of STDIN, then read a line and disable the
186watcher.
187
188 my $w; $w = AnyEvent->io (fh => \*STDIN, poll => 'r', cb => sub {
189 chomp (my $input = <STDIN>);
190 warn "read: $input\n";
191 undef $w;
192 });
193
194=head2 TIME WATCHERS
195
196You can create a time watcher by calling the C<< AnyEvent->timer >>
197method with the following mandatory arguments:
198
199C<after> specifies after how many seconds (fractional values are
200supported) the callback should be invoked. C<cb> is the callback to invoke
201in that case.
202
203Although the callback might get passed parameters, their value and
204presence is undefined and you cannot rely on them. Portable AnyEvent
205callbacks cannot use arguments passed to time watcher callbacks.
206
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.
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
217Example: fire an event after 7.7 seconds.
218
219 my $w = AnyEvent->timer (after => 7.7, cb => sub {
220 warn "timeout\n";
221 });
222
223 # to cancel the timer:
224 undef $w;
225
226Example 2: fire an event after 0.5 seconds, then roughly every second.
227
228 my $w = AnyEvent->timer (after => 0.5, interval => 1, cb => sub {
229 warn "timeout\n";
230 };
231
232=head3 TIMING ISSUES
233
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":
46 253
47=over 4 254=over 4
48 255
256=item AnyEvent->time
257
258This returns the "current wallclock time" as a fractional number of
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).
261
262It progresses independently of any event loop processing, i.e. each call
263will check the system clock, which usually gets updated frequently.
264
265=item AnyEvent->now
266
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.
271
272I<In almost all cases (in all cases if you don't care), this is the
273function to call when you want to know the current time.>
274
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>> method, usually without arguments. The only argument pair allowed is
395
396C<cb>, which specifies a callback to be called when the condition variable
397becomes true, with the condition variable as the first argument (but not
398the results).
399
400After creation, the condition variable is "false" until it becomes "true"
401by calling the C<send> method (or calling the condition variable as if it
402were a callback, read about the caveats in the description for the C<<
403->send >> method).
404
405Condition variables are similar to callbacks, except that you can
406optionally wait for them. They can also be called merge points - points
407in time where multiple outstanding events have been processed. And yet
408another way to call them is transactions - each condition variable can be
409used to represent a transaction, which finishes at some point and delivers
410a result.
411
412Condition variables are very useful to signal that something has finished,
413for example, if you write a module that does asynchronous http requests,
414then a condition variable would be the ideal candidate to signal the
415availability of results. The user can either act when the callback is
416called or can synchronously C<< ->recv >> for the results.
417
418You can also use them to simulate traditional event loops - for example,
419you can block your main program until an event occurs - for example, you
420could C<< ->recv >> in your main program until the user clicks the Quit
421button of your app, which would C<< ->send >> the "quit" event.
422
423Note that condition variables recurse into the event loop - if you have
424two pieces of code that call C<< ->recv >> in a round-robin fashion, you
425lose. Therefore, condition variables are good to export to your caller, but
426you should avoid making a blocking wait yourself, at least in callbacks,
427as this asks for trouble.
428
429Condition variables are represented by hash refs in perl, and the keys
430used by AnyEvent itself are all named C<_ae_XXX> to make subclassing
431easy (it is often useful to build your own transaction class on top of
432AnyEvent). To subclass, use C<AnyEvent::CondVar> as base class and call
433it's C<new> method in your own C<new> method.
434
435There are two "sides" to a condition variable - the "producer side" which
436eventually calls C<< -> send >>, and the "consumer side", which waits
437for the send to occur.
438
439Example: wait for a timer.
440
441 # wait till the result is ready
442 my $result_ready = AnyEvent->condvar;
443
444 # do something such as adding a timer
445 # or socket watcher the calls $result_ready->send
446 # when the "result" is ready.
447 # in this case, we simply use a timer:
448 my $w = AnyEvent->timer (
449 after => 1,
450 cb => sub { $result_ready->send },
451 );
452
453 # this "blocks" (while handling events) till the callback
454 # calls send
455 $result_ready->recv;
456
457Example: wait for a timer, but take advantage of the fact that
458condition variables are also code references.
459
460 my $done = AnyEvent->condvar;
461 my $delay = AnyEvent->timer (after => 5, cb => $done);
462 $done->recv;
463
464Example: Imagine an API that returns a condvar and doesn't support
465callbacks. This is how you make a synchronous call, for example from
466the main program:
467
468 use AnyEvent::CouchDB;
469
470 ...
471
472 my @info = $couchdb->info->recv;
473
474And this is how you would just ste a callback to be called whenever the
475results are available:
476
477 $couchdb->info->cb (sub {
478 my @info = $_[0]->recv;
479 });
480
481=head3 METHODS FOR PRODUCERS
482
483These methods should only be used by the producing side, i.e. the
484code/module that eventually sends the signal. Note that it is also
485the producer side which creates the condvar in most cases, but it isn't
486uncommon for the consumer to create it as well.
487
488=over 4
489
490=item $cv->send (...)
491
492Flag the condition as ready - a running C<< ->recv >> and all further
493calls to C<recv> will (eventually) return after this method has been
494called. If nobody is waiting the send will be remembered.
495
496If a callback has been set on the condition variable, it is called
497immediately from within send.
498
499Any arguments passed to the C<send> call will be returned by all
500future C<< ->recv >> calls.
501
502Condition variables are overloaded so one can call them directly
503(as a code reference). Calling them directly is the same as calling
504C<send>. Note, however, that many C-based event loops do not handle
505overloading, so as tempting as it may be, passing a condition variable
506instead of a callback does not work. Both the pure perl and EV loops
507support overloading, however, as well as all functions that use perl to
508invoke a callback (as in L<AnyEvent::Socket> and L<AnyEvent::DNS> for
509example).
510
511=item $cv->croak ($error)
512
513Similar to send, but causes all call's to C<< ->recv >> to invoke
514C<Carp::croak> with the given error message/object/scalar.
515
516This can be used to signal any errors to the condition variable
517user/consumer.
518
519=item $cv->begin ([group callback])
520
521=item $cv->end
522
523These two methods are EXPERIMENTAL and MIGHT CHANGE.
524
525These two methods can be used to combine many transactions/events into
526one. For example, a function that pings many hosts in parallel might want
527to use a condition variable for the whole process.
528
529Every call to C<< ->begin >> will increment a counter, and every call to
530C<< ->end >> will decrement it. If the counter reaches C<0> in C<< ->end
531>>, the (last) callback passed to C<begin> will be executed. That callback
532is I<supposed> to call C<< ->send >>, but that is not required. If no
533callback was set, C<send> will be called without any arguments.
534
535Let's clarify this with the ping example:
536
537 my $cv = AnyEvent->condvar;
538
539 my %result;
540 $cv->begin (sub { $cv->send (\%result) });
541
542 for my $host (@list_of_hosts) {
543 $cv->begin;
544 ping_host_then_call_callback $host, sub {
545 $result{$host} = ...;
546 $cv->end;
547 };
548 }
549
550 $cv->end;
551
552This code fragment supposedly pings a number of hosts and calls
553C<send> after results for all then have have been gathered - in any
554order. To achieve this, the code issues a call to C<begin> when it starts
555each ping request and calls C<end> when it has received some result for
556it. Since C<begin> and C<end> only maintain a counter, the order in which
557results arrive is not relevant.
558
559There is an additional bracketing call to C<begin> and C<end> outside the
560loop, which serves two important purposes: first, it sets the callback
561to be called once the counter reaches C<0>, and second, it ensures that
562C<send> is called even when C<no> hosts are being pinged (the loop
563doesn't execute once).
564
565This is the general pattern when you "fan out" into multiple subrequests:
566use an outer C<begin>/C<end> pair to set the callback and ensure C<end>
567is called at least once, and then, for each subrequest you start, call
568C<begin> and for each subrequest you finish, call C<end>.
569
570=back
571
572=head3 METHODS FOR CONSUMERS
573
574These methods should only be used by the consuming side, i.e. the
575code awaits the condition.
576
577=over 4
578
579=item $cv->recv
580
581Wait (blocking if necessary) until the C<< ->send >> or C<< ->croak
582>> methods have been called on c<$cv>, while servicing other watchers
583normally.
584
585You can only wait once on a condition - additional calls are valid but
586will return immediately.
587
588If an error condition has been set by calling C<< ->croak >>, then this
589function will call C<croak>.
590
591In list context, all parameters passed to C<send> will be returned,
592in scalar context only the first one will be returned.
593
594Not all event models support a blocking wait - some die in that case
595(programs might want to do that to stay interactive), so I<if you are
596using this from a module, never require a blocking wait>, but let the
597caller decide whether the call will block or not (for example, by coupling
598condition variables with some kind of request results and supporting
599callbacks so the caller knows that getting the result will not block,
600while still supporting blocking waits if the caller so desires).
601
602Another reason I<never> to C<< ->recv >> in a module is that you cannot
603sensibly have two C<< ->recv >>'s in parallel, as that would require
604multiple interpreters or coroutines/threads, none of which C<AnyEvent>
605can supply.
606
607The L<Coro> module, however, I<can> and I<does> supply coroutines and, in
608fact, L<Coro::AnyEvent> replaces AnyEvent's condvars by coroutine-safe
609versions and also integrates coroutines into AnyEvent, making blocking
610C<< ->recv >> calls perfectly safe as long as they are done from another
611coroutine (one that doesn't run the event loop).
612
613You can ensure that C<< -recv >> never blocks by setting a callback and
614only calling C<< ->recv >> from within that callback (or at a later
615time). This will work even when the event loop does not support blocking
616waits otherwise.
617
618=item $bool = $cv->ready
619
620Returns true when the condition is "true", i.e. whether C<send> or
621C<croak> have been called.
622
623=item $cb = $cv->cb ($cb->($cv))
624
625This is a mutator function that returns the callback set and optionally
626replaces it before doing so.
627
628The callback will be called when the condition becomes "true", i.e. when
629C<send> or C<croak> are called, with the only argument being the condition
630variable itself. Calling C<recv> inside the callback or at any later time
631is guaranteed not to block.
632
633=back
634
635=head1 GLOBAL VARIABLES AND FUNCTIONS
636
637=over 4
638
639=item $AnyEvent::MODEL
640
641Contains C<undef> until the first watcher is being created. Then it
642contains the event model that is being used, which is the name of the
643Perl class implementing the model. This class is usually one of the
644C<AnyEvent::Impl:xxx> modules, but can be any other class in the case
645AnyEvent has been extended at runtime (e.g. in I<rxvt-unicode>).
646
647The known classes so far are:
648
649 AnyEvent::Impl::EV based on EV (an interface to libev, best choice).
650 AnyEvent::Impl::Event based on Event, second best choice.
651 AnyEvent::Impl::Perl pure-perl implementation, fast and portable.
652 AnyEvent::Impl::Glib based on Glib, third-best choice.
653 AnyEvent::Impl::Tk based on Tk, very bad choice.
654 AnyEvent::Impl::Qt based on Qt, cannot be autoprobed (see its docs).
655 AnyEvent::Impl::EventLib based on Event::Lib, leaks memory and worse.
656 AnyEvent::Impl::POE based on POE, not generic enough for full support.
657
658There is no support for WxWidgets, as WxWidgets has no support for
659watching file handles. However, you can use WxWidgets through the
660POE Adaptor, as POE has a Wx backend that simply polls 20 times per
661second, which was considered to be too horrible to even consider for
662AnyEvent. Likewise, other POE backends can be used by AnyEvent by using
663it's adaptor.
664
665AnyEvent knows about L<Prima> and L<Wx> and will try to use L<POE> when
666autodetecting them.
667
668=item AnyEvent::detect
669
670Returns C<$AnyEvent::MODEL>, forcing autodetection of the event model
671if necessary. You should only call this function right before you would
672have created an AnyEvent watcher anyway, that is, as late as possible at
673runtime.
674
675=item $guard = AnyEvent::post_detect { BLOCK }
676
677Arranges for the code block to be executed as soon as the event model is
678autodetected (or immediately if this has already happened).
679
680If called in scalar or list context, then it creates and returns an object
681that automatically removes the callback again when it is destroyed. See
682L<Coro::BDB> for a case where this is useful.
683
684=item @AnyEvent::post_detect
685
686If there are any code references in this array (you can C<push> to it
687before or after loading AnyEvent), then they will called directly after
688the event loop has been chosen.
689
690You should check C<$AnyEvent::MODEL> before adding to this array, though:
691if it contains a true value then the event loop has already been detected,
692and the array will be ignored.
693
694Best use C<AnyEvent::post_detect { BLOCK }> instead.
695
696=back
697
698=head1 WHAT TO DO IN A MODULE
699
700As a module author, you should C<use AnyEvent> and call AnyEvent methods
701freely, but you should not load a specific event module or rely on it.
702
703Be careful when you create watchers in the module body - AnyEvent will
704decide which event module to use as soon as the first method is called, so
705by calling AnyEvent in your module body you force the user of your module
706to load the event module first.
707
708Never call C<< ->recv >> on a condition variable unless you I<know> that
709the C<< ->send >> method has been called on it already. This is
710because it will stall the whole program, and the whole point of using
711events is to stay interactive.
712
713It is fine, however, to call C<< ->recv >> when the user of your module
714requests it (i.e. if you create a http request object ad have a method
715called C<results> that returns the results, it should call C<< ->recv >>
716freely, as the user of your module knows what she is doing. always).
717
718=head1 WHAT TO DO IN THE MAIN PROGRAM
719
720There will always be a single main program - the only place that should
721dictate which event model to use.
722
723If it doesn't care, it can just "use AnyEvent" and use it itself, or not
724do anything special (it does not need to be event-based) and let AnyEvent
725decide which implementation to chose if some module relies on it.
726
727If the main program relies on a specific event model - for example, in
728Gtk2 programs you have to rely on the Glib module - you should load the
729event module before loading AnyEvent or any module that uses it: generally
730speaking, you should load it as early as possible. The reason is that
731modules might create watchers when they are loaded, and AnyEvent will
732decide on the event model to use as soon as it creates watchers, and it
733might chose the wrong one unless you load the correct one yourself.
734
735You can chose to use a pure-perl implementation by loading the
736C<AnyEvent::Impl::Perl> module, which gives you similar behaviour
737everywhere, but letting AnyEvent chose the model is generally better.
738
739=head2 MAINLOOP EMULATION
740
741Sometimes (often for short test scripts, or even standalone programs who
742only want to use AnyEvent), you do not want to run a specific event loop.
743
744In that case, you can use a condition variable like this:
745
746 AnyEvent->condvar->recv;
747
748This has the effect of entering the event loop and looping forever.
749
750Note that usually your program has some exit condition, in which case
751it is better to use the "traditional" approach of storing a condition
752variable somewhere, waiting for it, and sending it when the program should
753exit cleanly.
754
755
756=head1 OTHER MODULES
757
758The following is a non-exhaustive list of additional modules that use
759AnyEvent and can therefore be mixed easily with other AnyEvent modules
760in the same program. Some of the modules come with AnyEvent, some are
761available via CPAN.
762
763=over 4
764
765=item L<AnyEvent::Util>
766
767Contains various utility functions that replace often-used but blocking
768functions such as C<inet_aton> by event-/callback-based versions.
769
770=item L<AnyEvent::Socket>
771
772Provides various utility functions for (internet protocol) sockets,
773addresses and name resolution. Also functions to create non-blocking tcp
774connections or tcp servers, with IPv6 and SRV record support and more.
775
776=item L<AnyEvent::Handle>
777
778Provide read and write buffers, manages watchers for reads and writes,
779supports raw and formatted I/O, I/O queued and fully transparent and
780non-blocking SSL/TLS.
781
782=item L<AnyEvent::DNS>
783
784Provides rich asynchronous DNS resolver capabilities.
785
786=item L<AnyEvent::HTTP>
787
788A simple-to-use HTTP library that is capable of making a lot of concurrent
789HTTP requests.
790
791=item L<AnyEvent::HTTPD>
792
793Provides a simple web application server framework.
794
795=item L<AnyEvent::FastPing>
796
797The fastest ping in the west.
798
799=item L<AnyEvent::DBI>
800
801Executes L<DBI> requests asynchronously in a proxy process.
802
803=item L<AnyEvent::AIO>
804
805Truly asynchronous I/O, should be in the toolbox of every event
806programmer. AnyEvent::AIO transparently fuses L<IO::AIO> and AnyEvent
807together.
808
809=item L<AnyEvent::BDB>
810
811Truly asynchronous Berkeley DB access. AnyEvent::BDB transparently fuses
812L<BDB> and AnyEvent together.
813
814=item L<AnyEvent::GPSD>
815
816A non-blocking interface to gpsd, a daemon delivering GPS information.
817
818=item L<AnyEvent::IGS>
819
820A non-blocking interface to the Internet Go Server protocol (used by
821L<App::IGS>).
822
823=item L<Net::IRC3>
824
825AnyEvent based IRC client module family.
826
827=item L<Net::XMPP2>
828
829AnyEvent based XMPP (Jabber protocol) module family.
830
831=item L<Net::FCP>
832
833AnyEvent-based implementation of the Freenet Client Protocol, birthplace
834of AnyEvent.
835
836=item L<Event::ExecFlow>
837
838High level API for event-based execution flow control.
839
840=item L<Coro>
841
842Has special support for AnyEvent via L<Coro::AnyEvent>.
843
844=item L<IO::Lambda>
845
846The lambda approach to I/O - don't ask, look there. Can use AnyEvent.
847
848=back
849
49=cut 850=cut
50 851
51package AnyEvent; 852package AnyEvent;
52 853
53no warnings; 854no warnings;
54use strict 'vars'; 855use strict;
856
55use Carp; 857use Carp;
56 858
57our $VERSION = 0.2; 859our $VERSION = 4.23;
58our $MODEL; 860our $MODEL;
59 861
60our $AUTOLOAD; 862our $AUTOLOAD;
61our @ISA; 863our @ISA;
62 864
865our @REGISTRY;
866
867our $WIN32;
868
869BEGIN {
870 my $win32 = ! ! ($^O =~ /mswin32/i);
871 eval "sub WIN32(){ $win32 }";
872}
873
874our $verbose = $ENV{PERL_ANYEVENT_VERBOSE}*1;
875
876our %PROTOCOL; # (ipv4|ipv6) => (1|2), higher numbers are preferred
877
878{
879 my $idx;
880 $PROTOCOL{$_} = ++$idx
881 for reverse split /\s*,\s*/,
882 $ENV{PERL_ANYEVENT_PROTOCOLS} || "ipv4,ipv6";
883}
884
63my @models = ( 885my @models = (
64 [Coro => Coro::Event::], 886 [EV:: => AnyEvent::Impl::EV::],
65 [Event => Event::], 887 [Event:: => AnyEvent::Impl::Event::],
66 [Glib => Glib::], 888 [AnyEvent::Impl::Perl:: => AnyEvent::Impl::Perl::],
67 [Tk => Tk::], 889 # everything below here will not be autoprobed
890 # as the pureperl backend should work everywhere
891 # and is usually faster
892 [Tk:: => AnyEvent::Impl::Tk::], # crashes with many handles
893 [Glib:: => AnyEvent::Impl::Glib::], # becomes extremely slow with many watchers
894 [Event::Lib:: => AnyEvent::Impl::EventLib::], # too buggy
895 [Qt:: => AnyEvent::Impl::Qt::], # requires special main program
896 [POE::Kernel:: => AnyEvent::Impl::POE::], # lasciate ogni speranza
897 [Wx:: => AnyEvent::Impl::POE::],
898 [Prima:: => AnyEvent::Impl::POE::],
68); 899);
69 900
70our %method = map +($_ => 1), qw(io timer condvar broadcast wait cancel DESTROY); 901our %method = map +($_ => 1), qw(io timer time now signal child condvar one_event DESTROY);
71 902
72sub AUTOLOAD { 903our @post_detect;
73 $AUTOLOAD =~ s/.*://;
74 904
75 $method{$AUTOLOAD} 905sub post_detect(&) {
76 or croak "$AUTOLOAD: not a valid method for AnyEvent objects"; 906 my ($cb) = @_;
77 907
908 if ($MODEL) {
909 $cb->();
910
911 1
912 } else {
913 push @post_detect, $cb;
914
915 defined wantarray
916 ? bless \$cb, "AnyEvent::Util::PostDetect"
917 : ()
918 }
919}
920
921sub AnyEvent::Util::PostDetect::DESTROY {
922 @post_detect = grep $_ != ${$_[0]}, @post_detect;
923}
924
925sub detect() {
78 unless ($MODEL) { 926 unless ($MODEL) {
79 # check for already loaded models 927 no strict 'refs';
80 for (@models) { 928 local $SIG{__DIE__};
81 my ($model, $package) = @$_;
82 if (scalar keys %{ *{"$package\::"} }) {
83 eval "require AnyEvent::Impl::$model"
84 or die;
85 929
86 last if $MODEL; 930 if ($ENV{PERL_ANYEVENT_MODEL} =~ /^([a-zA-Z]+)$/) {
931 my $model = "AnyEvent::Impl::$1";
932 if (eval "require $model") {
933 $MODEL = $model;
934 warn "AnyEvent: loaded model '$model' (forced by \$PERL_ANYEVENT_MODEL), using it.\n" if $verbose > 1;
935 } else {
936 warn "AnyEvent: unable to load model '$model' (from \$PERL_ANYEVENT_MODEL):\n$@" if $verbose;
87 } 937 }
88 } 938 }
89 939
940 # check for already loaded models
90 unless ($MODEL) { 941 unless ($MODEL) {
91 # try to load a model
92
93 for (@models) { 942 for (@REGISTRY, @models) {
94 my ($model, $package) = @$_; 943 my ($package, $model) = @$_;
95 eval "require AnyEvent::Impl::$model" 944 if (${"$package\::VERSION"} > 0) {
945 if (eval "require $model") {
946 $MODEL = $model;
947 warn "AnyEvent: autodetected model '$model', using it.\n" if $verbose > 1;
948 last;
96 or die; 949 }
97 950 }
98 last if $MODEL;
99 } 951 }
100 952
953 unless ($MODEL) {
954 # try to load a model
955
956 for (@REGISTRY, @models) {
957 my ($package, $model) = @$_;
958 if (eval "require $package"
959 and ${"$package\::VERSION"} > 0
960 and eval "require $model") {
961 $MODEL = $model;
962 warn "AnyEvent: autoprobed model '$model', using it.\n" if $verbose > 1;
963 last;
964 }
965 }
966
101 $MODEL 967 $MODEL
102 or die "No event module selected for AnyEvent and autodetect failed. Install any one of these modules: Coro, Event, Glib or Tk."; 968 or die "No event module selected for AnyEvent and autodetect failed. Install any one of these modules: EV, Event or Glib.";
969 }
103 } 970 }
971
972 push @{"$MODEL\::ISA"}, "AnyEvent::Base";
973
974 unshift @ISA, $MODEL;
975
976 require AnyEvent::Strict if $ENV{PERL_ANYEVENT_STRICT};
977
978 (shift @post_detect)->() while @post_detect;
104 } 979 }
105 980
106 @ISA = $MODEL; 981 $MODEL
982}
983
984sub AUTOLOAD {
985 (my $func = $AUTOLOAD) =~ s/.*://;
986
987 $method{$func}
988 or croak "$func: not a valid method for AnyEvent objects";
989
990 detect unless $MODEL;
107 991
108 my $class = shift; 992 my $class = shift;
109 $class->$AUTOLOAD (@_); 993 $class->$func (@_);
110} 994}
995
996# utility function to dup a filehandle. this is used by many backends
997# to support binding more than one watcher per filehandle (they usually
998# allow only one watcher per fd, so we dup it to get a different one).
999sub _dupfh($$$$) {
1000 my ($poll, $fh, $r, $w) = @_;
1001
1002 require Fcntl;
1003
1004 # cygwin requires the fh mode to be matching, unix doesn't
1005 my ($rw, $mode) = $poll eq "r" ? ($r, "<")
1006 : $poll eq "w" ? ($w, ">")
1007 : Carp::croak "AnyEvent->io requires poll set to either 'r' or 'w'";
1008
1009 open my $fh2, "$mode&" . fileno $fh
1010 or die "cannot dup() filehandle: $!";
1011
1012 # we assume CLOEXEC is already set by perl in all important cases
1013
1014 ($fh2, $rw)
1015}
1016
1017package AnyEvent::Base;
1018
1019# default implementation for now and time
1020
1021use Time::HiRes ();
1022
1023sub time { Time::HiRes::time }
1024sub now { Time::HiRes::time }
1025
1026# default implementation for ->condvar
1027
1028sub condvar {
1029 bless { @_ == 3 ? (_ae_cb => $_[2]) : () }, AnyEvent::CondVar::
1030}
1031
1032# default implementation for ->signal
1033
1034our %SIG_CB;
1035
1036sub signal {
1037 my (undef, %arg) = @_;
1038
1039 my $signal = uc $arg{signal}
1040 or Carp::croak "required option 'signal' is missing";
1041
1042 $SIG_CB{$signal}{$arg{cb}} = $arg{cb};
1043 $SIG{$signal} ||= sub {
1044 $_->() for values %{ $SIG_CB{$signal} || {} };
1045 };
1046
1047 bless [$signal, $arg{cb}], "AnyEvent::Base::Signal"
1048}
1049
1050sub AnyEvent::Base::Signal::DESTROY {
1051 my ($signal, $cb) = @{$_[0]};
1052
1053 delete $SIG_CB{$signal}{$cb};
1054
1055 delete $SIG{$signal} unless keys %{ $SIG_CB{$signal} };
1056}
1057
1058# default implementation for ->child
1059
1060our %PID_CB;
1061our $CHLD_W;
1062our $CHLD_DELAY_W;
1063our $PID_IDLE;
1064our $WNOHANG;
1065
1066sub _child_wait {
1067 while (0 < (my $pid = waitpid -1, $WNOHANG)) {
1068 $_->($pid, $?) for (values %{ $PID_CB{$pid} || {} }),
1069 (values %{ $PID_CB{0} || {} });
1070 }
1071
1072 undef $PID_IDLE;
1073}
1074
1075sub _sigchld {
1076 # make sure we deliver these changes "synchronous" with the event loop.
1077 $CHLD_DELAY_W ||= AnyEvent->timer (after => 0, cb => sub {
1078 undef $CHLD_DELAY_W;
1079 &_child_wait;
1080 });
1081}
1082
1083sub child {
1084 my (undef, %arg) = @_;
1085
1086 defined (my $pid = $arg{pid} + 0)
1087 or Carp::croak "required option 'pid' is missing";
1088
1089 $PID_CB{$pid}{$arg{cb}} = $arg{cb};
1090
1091 unless ($WNOHANG) {
1092 $WNOHANG = eval { local $SIG{__DIE__}; require POSIX; &POSIX::WNOHANG } || 1;
1093 }
1094
1095 unless ($CHLD_W) {
1096 $CHLD_W = AnyEvent->signal (signal => 'CHLD', cb => \&_sigchld);
1097 # child could be a zombie already, so make at least one round
1098 &_sigchld;
1099 }
1100
1101 bless [$pid, $arg{cb}], "AnyEvent::Base::Child"
1102}
1103
1104sub AnyEvent::Base::Child::DESTROY {
1105 my ($pid, $cb) = @{$_[0]};
1106
1107 delete $PID_CB{$pid}{$cb};
1108 delete $PID_CB{$pid} unless keys %{ $PID_CB{$pid} };
1109
1110 undef $CHLD_W unless keys %PID_CB;
1111}
1112
1113package AnyEvent::CondVar;
1114
1115our @ISA = AnyEvent::CondVar::Base::;
1116
1117package AnyEvent::CondVar::Base;
1118
1119use overload
1120 '&{}' => sub { my $self = shift; sub { $self->send (@_) } },
1121 fallback => 1;
1122
1123sub _send {
1124 # nop
1125}
1126
1127sub send {
1128 my $cv = shift;
1129 $cv->{_ae_sent} = [@_];
1130 (delete $cv->{_ae_cb})->($cv) if $cv->{_ae_cb};
1131 $cv->_send;
1132}
1133
1134sub croak {
1135 $_[0]{_ae_croak} = $_[1];
1136 $_[0]->send;
1137}
1138
1139sub ready {
1140 $_[0]{_ae_sent}
1141}
1142
1143sub _wait {
1144 AnyEvent->one_event while !$_[0]{_ae_sent};
1145}
1146
1147sub recv {
1148 $_[0]->_wait;
1149
1150 Carp::croak $_[0]{_ae_croak} if $_[0]{_ae_croak};
1151 wantarray ? @{ $_[0]{_ae_sent} } : $_[0]{_ae_sent}[0]
1152}
1153
1154sub cb {
1155 $_[0]{_ae_cb} = $_[1] if @_ > 1;
1156 $_[0]{_ae_cb}
1157}
1158
1159sub begin {
1160 ++$_[0]{_ae_counter};
1161 $_[0]{_ae_end_cb} = $_[1] if @_ > 1;
1162}
1163
1164sub end {
1165 return if --$_[0]{_ae_counter};
1166 &{ $_[0]{_ae_end_cb} || sub { $_[0]->send } };
1167}
1168
1169# undocumented/compatibility with pre-3.4
1170*broadcast = \&send;
1171*wait = \&_wait;
1172
1173=head1 SUPPLYING YOUR OWN EVENT MODEL INTERFACE
1174
1175This is an advanced topic that you do not normally need to use AnyEvent in
1176a module. This section is only of use to event loop authors who want to
1177provide AnyEvent compatibility.
1178
1179If you need to support another event library which isn't directly
1180supported by AnyEvent, you can supply your own interface to it by
1181pushing, before the first watcher gets created, the package name of
1182the event module and the package name of the interface to use onto
1183C<@AnyEvent::REGISTRY>. You can do that before and even without loading
1184AnyEvent, so it is reasonably cheap.
1185
1186Example:
1187
1188 push @AnyEvent::REGISTRY, [urxvt => urxvt::anyevent::];
1189
1190This tells AnyEvent to (literally) use the C<urxvt::anyevent::>
1191package/class when it finds the C<urxvt> package/module is already loaded.
1192
1193When AnyEvent is loaded and asked to find a suitable event model, it
1194will first check for the presence of urxvt by trying to C<use> the
1195C<urxvt::anyevent> module.
1196
1197The class should provide implementations for all watcher types. See
1198L<AnyEvent::Impl::EV> (source code), L<AnyEvent::Impl::Glib> (Source code)
1199and so on for actual examples. Use C<perldoc -m AnyEvent::Impl::Glib> to
1200see the sources.
1201
1202If you don't provide C<signal> and C<child> watchers than AnyEvent will
1203provide suitable (hopefully) replacements.
1204
1205The above example isn't fictitious, the I<rxvt-unicode> (a.k.a. urxvt)
1206terminal emulator uses the above line as-is. An interface isn't included
1207in AnyEvent because it doesn't make sense outside the embedded interpreter
1208inside I<rxvt-unicode>, and it is updated and maintained as part of the
1209I<rxvt-unicode> distribution.
1210
1211I<rxvt-unicode> also cheats a bit by not providing blocking access to
1212condition variables: code blocking while waiting for a condition will
1213C<die>. This still works with most modules/usages, and blocking calls must
1214not be done in an interactive application, so it makes sense.
1215
1216=head1 ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES
1217
1218The following environment variables are used by this module:
1219
1220=over 4
1221
1222=item C<PERL_ANYEVENT_VERBOSE>
1223
1224By default, AnyEvent will be completely silent except in fatal
1225conditions. You can set this environment variable to make AnyEvent more
1226talkative.
1227
1228When set to C<1> or higher, causes AnyEvent to warn about unexpected
1229conditions, such as not being able to load the event model specified by
1230C<PERL_ANYEVENT_MODEL>.
1231
1232When set to C<2> or higher, cause AnyEvent to report to STDERR which event
1233model it chooses.
1234
1235=item C<PERL_ANYEVENT_STRICT>
1236
1237AnyEvent does not do much argument checking by default, as thorough
1238argument checking is very costly. Setting this variable to a true value
1239will cause AnyEvent to load C<AnyEvent::Strict> and then to thoroughly
1240check the arguments passed to most method calls. If it finds any problems
1241it will croak.
1242
1243In other words, enables "strict" mode.
1244
1245Unlike C<use strict> it is definitely recommended ot keep it off in
1246production.
1247
1248=item C<PERL_ANYEVENT_MODEL>
1249
1250This can be used to specify the event model to be used by AnyEvent, before
1251auto detection and -probing kicks in. It must be a string consisting
1252entirely of ASCII letters. The string C<AnyEvent::Impl::> gets prepended
1253and the resulting module name is loaded and if the load was successful,
1254used as event model. If it fails to load AnyEvent will proceed with
1255auto detection and -probing.
1256
1257This functionality might change in future versions.
1258
1259For example, to force the pure perl model (L<AnyEvent::Impl::Perl>) you
1260could start your program like this:
1261
1262 PERL_ANYEVENT_MODEL=Perl perl ...
1263
1264=item C<PERL_ANYEVENT_PROTOCOLS>
1265
1266Used by both L<AnyEvent::DNS> and L<AnyEvent::Socket> to determine preferences
1267for IPv4 or IPv6. The default is unspecified (and might change, or be the result
1268of auto probing).
1269
1270Must be set to a comma-separated list of protocols or address families,
1271current supported: C<ipv4> and C<ipv6>. Only protocols mentioned will be
1272used, and preference will be given to protocols mentioned earlier in the
1273list.
1274
1275This variable can effectively be used for denial-of-service attacks
1276against local programs (e.g. when setuid), although the impact is likely
1277small, as the program has to handle connection errors already-
1278
1279Examples: C<PERL_ANYEVENT_PROTOCOLS=ipv4,ipv6> - prefer IPv4 over IPv6,
1280but support both and try to use both. C<PERL_ANYEVENT_PROTOCOLS=ipv4>
1281- only support IPv4, never try to resolve or contact IPv6
1282addresses. C<PERL_ANYEVENT_PROTOCOLS=ipv6,ipv4> support either IPv4 or
1283IPv6, but prefer IPv6 over IPv4.
1284
1285=item C<PERL_ANYEVENT_EDNS0>
1286
1287Used by L<AnyEvent::DNS> to decide whether to use the EDNS0 extension
1288for DNS. This extension is generally useful to reduce DNS traffic, but
1289some (broken) firewalls drop such DNS packets, which is why it is off by
1290default.
1291
1292Setting this variable to C<1> will cause L<AnyEvent::DNS> to announce
1293EDNS0 in its DNS requests.
1294
1295=item C<PERL_ANYEVENT_MAX_FORKS>
1296
1297The maximum number of child processes that C<AnyEvent::Util::fork_call>
1298will create in parallel.
111 1299
112=back 1300=back
113 1301
114=head1 EXAMPLE 1302=head1 EXAMPLE PROGRAM
115 1303
116The following program uses an io watcher to read data from stdin, a timer 1304The following program uses an I/O watcher to read data from STDIN, a timer
117to display a message once per second, and a condvar to exit the program 1305to display a message once per second, and a condition variable to quit the
118when the user enters quit: 1306program when the user enters quit:
119 1307
120 use AnyEvent; 1308 use AnyEvent;
121 1309
122 my $cv = AnyEvent->condvar; 1310 my $cv = AnyEvent->condvar;
123 1311
124 my $io_watcher = AnyEvent->io (fh => \*STDIN, poll => 'r', cb => sub { 1312 my $io_watcher = AnyEvent->io (
1313 fh => \*STDIN,
1314 poll => 'r',
1315 cb => sub {
125 warn "io event <$_[0]>\n"; # will always output <r> 1316 warn "io event <$_[0]>\n"; # will always output <r>
126 chomp (my $input = <STDIN>); # read a line 1317 chomp (my $input = <STDIN>); # read a line
127 warn "read: $input\n"; # output what has been read 1318 warn "read: $input\n"; # output what has been read
128 $cv->broadcast if $input =~ /^q/i; # quit program if /^q/i 1319 $cv->send if $input =~ /^q/i; # quit program if /^q/i
1320 },
129 }); 1321 );
130 1322
131 my $time_watcher; # can only be used once 1323 my $time_watcher; # can only be used once
132 1324
133 sub new_timer { 1325 sub new_timer {
134 $timer = AnyEvent->timer (after => 1, cb => sub { 1326 $timer = AnyEvent->timer (after => 1, cb => sub {
137 }); 1329 });
138 } 1330 }
139 1331
140 new_timer; # create first timer 1332 new_timer; # create first timer
141 1333
142 $cv->wait; # wait until user enters /^q/i 1334 $cv->recv; # wait until user enters /^q/i
1335
1336=head1 REAL-WORLD EXAMPLE
1337
1338Consider the L<Net::FCP> module. It features (among others) the following
1339API calls, which are to freenet what HTTP GET requests are to http:
1340
1341 my $data = $fcp->client_get ($url); # blocks
1342
1343 my $transaction = $fcp->txn_client_get ($url); # does not block
1344 $transaction->cb ( sub { ... } ); # set optional result callback
1345 my $data = $transaction->result; # possibly blocks
1346
1347The C<client_get> method works like C<LWP::Simple::get>: it requests the
1348given URL and waits till the data has arrived. It is defined to be:
1349
1350 sub client_get { $_[0]->txn_client_get ($_[1])->result }
1351
1352And in fact is automatically generated. This is the blocking API of
1353L<Net::FCP>, and it works as simple as in any other, similar, module.
1354
1355More complicated is C<txn_client_get>: It only creates a transaction
1356(completion, result, ...) object and initiates the transaction.
1357
1358 my $txn = bless { }, Net::FCP::Txn::;
1359
1360It also creates a condition variable that is used to signal the completion
1361of the request:
1362
1363 $txn->{finished} = AnyAvent->condvar;
1364
1365It then creates a socket in non-blocking mode.
1366
1367 socket $txn->{fh}, ...;
1368 fcntl $txn->{fh}, F_SETFL, O_NONBLOCK;
1369 connect $txn->{fh}, ...
1370 and !$!{EWOULDBLOCK}
1371 and !$!{EINPROGRESS}
1372 and Carp::croak "unable to connect: $!\n";
1373
1374Then it creates a write-watcher which gets called whenever an error occurs
1375or the connection succeeds:
1376
1377 $txn->{w} = AnyEvent->io (fh => $txn->{fh}, poll => 'w', cb => sub { $txn->fh_ready_w });
1378
1379And returns this transaction object. The C<fh_ready_w> callback gets
1380called as soon as the event loop detects that the socket is ready for
1381writing.
1382
1383The C<fh_ready_w> method makes the socket blocking again, writes the
1384request data and replaces the watcher by a read watcher (waiting for reply
1385data). The actual code is more complicated, but that doesn't matter for
1386this example:
1387
1388 fcntl $txn->{fh}, F_SETFL, 0;
1389 syswrite $txn->{fh}, $txn->{request}
1390 or die "connection or write error";
1391 $txn->{w} = AnyEvent->io (fh => $txn->{fh}, poll => 'r', cb => sub { $txn->fh_ready_r });
1392
1393Again, C<fh_ready_r> waits till all data has arrived, and then stores the
1394result and signals any possible waiters that the request has finished:
1395
1396 sysread $txn->{fh}, $txn->{buf}, length $txn->{$buf};
1397
1398 if (end-of-file or data complete) {
1399 $txn->{result} = $txn->{buf};
1400 $txn->{finished}->send;
1401 $txb->{cb}->($txn) of $txn->{cb}; # also call callback
1402 }
1403
1404The C<result> method, finally, just waits for the finished signal (if the
1405request was already finished, it doesn't wait, of course, and returns the
1406data:
1407
1408 $txn->{finished}->recv;
1409 return $txn->{result};
1410
1411The actual code goes further and collects all errors (C<die>s, exceptions)
1412that occurred during request processing. The C<result> method detects
1413whether an exception as thrown (it is stored inside the $txn object)
1414and just throws the exception, which means connection errors and other
1415problems get reported tot he code that tries to use the result, not in a
1416random callback.
1417
1418All of this enables the following usage styles:
1419
14201. Blocking:
1421
1422 my $data = $fcp->client_get ($url);
1423
14242. Blocking, but running in parallel:
1425
1426 my @datas = map $_->result,
1427 map $fcp->txn_client_get ($_),
1428 @urls;
1429
1430Both blocking examples work without the module user having to know
1431anything about events.
1432
14333a. Event-based in a main program, using any supported event module:
1434
1435 use EV;
1436
1437 $fcp->txn_client_get ($url)->cb (sub {
1438 my $txn = shift;
1439 my $data = $txn->result;
1440 ...
1441 });
1442
1443 EV::loop;
1444
14453b. The module user could use AnyEvent, too:
1446
1447 use AnyEvent;
1448
1449 my $quit = AnyEvent->condvar;
1450
1451 $fcp->txn_client_get ($url)->cb (sub {
1452 ...
1453 $quit->send;
1454 });
1455
1456 $quit->recv;
1457
1458
1459=head1 BENCHMARKS
1460
1461To give you an idea of the performance and overheads that AnyEvent adds
1462over the event loops themselves and to give you an impression of the speed
1463of various event loops I prepared some benchmarks.
1464
1465=head2 BENCHMARKING ANYEVENT OVERHEAD
1466
1467Here is a benchmark of various supported event models used natively and
1468through AnyEvent. The benchmark creates a lot of timers (with a zero
1469timeout) and I/O watchers (watching STDOUT, a pty, to become writable,
1470which it is), lets them fire exactly once and destroys them again.
1471
1472Source code for this benchmark is found as F<eg/bench> in the AnyEvent
1473distribution.
1474
1475=head3 Explanation of the columns
1476
1477I<watcher> is the number of event watchers created/destroyed. Since
1478different event models feature vastly different performances, each event
1479loop was given a number of watchers so that overall runtime is acceptable
1480and similar between tested event loop (and keep them from crashing): Glib
1481would probably take thousands of years if asked to process the same number
1482of watchers as EV in this benchmark.
1483
1484I<bytes> is the number of bytes (as measured by the resident set size,
1485RSS) consumed by each watcher. This method of measuring captures both C
1486and Perl-based overheads.
1487
1488I<create> is the time, in microseconds (millionths of seconds), that it
1489takes to create a single watcher. The callback is a closure shared between
1490all watchers, to avoid adding memory overhead. That means closure creation
1491and memory usage is not included in the figures.
1492
1493I<invoke> is the time, in microseconds, used to invoke a simple
1494callback. The callback simply counts down a Perl variable and after it was
1495invoked "watcher" times, it would C<< ->send >> a condvar once to
1496signal the end of this phase.
1497
1498I<destroy> is the time, in microseconds, that it takes to destroy a single
1499watcher.
1500
1501=head3 Results
1502
1503 name watchers bytes create invoke destroy comment
1504 EV/EV 400000 244 0.56 0.46 0.31 EV native interface
1505 EV/Any 100000 244 2.50 0.46 0.29 EV + AnyEvent watchers
1506 CoroEV/Any 100000 244 2.49 0.44 0.29 coroutines + Coro::Signal
1507 Perl/Any 100000 513 4.92 0.87 1.12 pure perl implementation
1508 Event/Event 16000 516 31.88 31.30 0.85 Event native interface
1509 Event/Any 16000 590 35.75 31.42 1.08 Event + AnyEvent watchers
1510 Glib/Any 16000 1357 98.22 12.41 54.00 quadratic behaviour
1511 Tk/Any 2000 1860 26.97 67.98 14.00 SEGV with >> 2000 watchers
1512 POE/Event 2000 6644 108.64 736.02 14.73 via POE::Loop::Event
1513 POE/Select 2000 6343 94.13 809.12 565.96 via POE::Loop::Select
1514
1515=head3 Discussion
1516
1517The benchmark does I<not> measure scalability of the event loop very
1518well. For example, a select-based event loop (such as the pure perl one)
1519can never compete with an event loop that uses epoll when the number of
1520file descriptors grows high. In this benchmark, all events become ready at
1521the same time, so select/poll-based implementations get an unnatural speed
1522boost.
1523
1524Also, note that the number of watchers usually has a nonlinear effect on
1525overall speed, that is, creating twice as many watchers doesn't take twice
1526the time - usually it takes longer. This puts event loops tested with a
1527higher number of watchers at a disadvantage.
1528
1529To put the range of results into perspective, consider that on the
1530benchmark machine, handling an event takes roughly 1600 CPU cycles with
1531EV, 3100 CPU cycles with AnyEvent's pure perl loop and almost 3000000 CPU
1532cycles with POE.
1533
1534C<EV> is the sole leader regarding speed and memory use, which are both
1535maximal/minimal, respectively. Even when going through AnyEvent, it uses
1536far less memory than any other event loop and is still faster than Event
1537natively.
1538
1539The pure perl implementation is hit in a few sweet spots (both the
1540constant timeout and the use of a single fd hit optimisations in the perl
1541interpreter and the backend itself). Nevertheless this shows that it
1542adds very little overhead in itself. Like any select-based backend its
1543performance becomes really bad with lots of file descriptors (and few of
1544them active), of course, but this was not subject of this benchmark.
1545
1546The C<Event> module has a relatively high setup and callback invocation
1547cost, but overall scores in on the third place.
1548
1549C<Glib>'s memory usage is quite a bit higher, but it features a
1550faster callback invocation and overall ends up in the same class as
1551C<Event>. However, Glib scales extremely badly, doubling the number of
1552watchers increases the processing time by more than a factor of four,
1553making it completely unusable when using larger numbers of watchers
1554(note that only a single file descriptor was used in the benchmark, so
1555inefficiencies of C<poll> do not account for this).
1556
1557The C<Tk> adaptor works relatively well. The fact that it crashes with
1558more than 2000 watchers is a big setback, however, as correctness takes
1559precedence over speed. Nevertheless, its performance is surprising, as the
1560file descriptor is dup()ed for each watcher. This shows that the dup()
1561employed by some adaptors is not a big performance issue (it does incur a
1562hidden memory cost inside the kernel which is not reflected in the figures
1563above).
1564
1565C<POE>, regardless of underlying event loop (whether using its pure perl
1566select-based backend or the Event module, the POE-EV backend couldn't
1567be tested because it wasn't working) shows abysmal performance and
1568memory usage with AnyEvent: Watchers use almost 30 times as much memory
1569as EV watchers, and 10 times as much memory as Event (the high memory
1570requirements are caused by requiring a session for each watcher). Watcher
1571invocation speed is almost 900 times slower than with AnyEvent's pure perl
1572implementation.
1573
1574The design of the POE adaptor class in AnyEvent can not really account
1575for the performance issues, though, as session creation overhead is
1576small compared to execution of the state machine, which is coded pretty
1577optimally within L<AnyEvent::Impl::POE> (and while everybody agrees that
1578using multiple sessions is not a good approach, especially regarding
1579memory usage, even the author of POE could not come up with a faster
1580design).
1581
1582=head3 Summary
1583
1584=over 4
1585
1586=item * Using EV through AnyEvent is faster than any other event loop
1587(even when used without AnyEvent), but most event loops have acceptable
1588performance with or without AnyEvent.
1589
1590=item * The overhead AnyEvent adds is usually much smaller than the overhead of
1591the actual event loop, only with extremely fast event loops such as EV
1592adds AnyEvent significant overhead.
1593
1594=item * You should avoid POE like the plague if you want performance or
1595reasonable memory usage.
1596
1597=back
1598
1599=head2 BENCHMARKING THE LARGE SERVER CASE
1600
1601This benchmark actually benchmarks the event loop itself. It works by
1602creating a number of "servers": each server consists of a socket pair, a
1603timeout watcher that gets reset on activity (but never fires), and an I/O
1604watcher waiting for input on one side of the socket. Each time the socket
1605watcher reads a byte it will write that byte to a random other "server".
1606
1607The effect is that there will be a lot of I/O watchers, only part of which
1608are active at any one point (so there is a constant number of active
1609fds for each loop iteration, but which fds these are is random). The
1610timeout is reset each time something is read because that reflects how
1611most timeouts work (and puts extra pressure on the event loops).
1612
1613In this benchmark, we use 10000 socket pairs (20000 sockets), of which 100
1614(1%) are active. This mirrors the activity of large servers with many
1615connections, most of which are idle at any one point in time.
1616
1617Source code for this benchmark is found as F<eg/bench2> in the AnyEvent
1618distribution.
1619
1620=head3 Explanation of the columns
1621
1622I<sockets> is the number of sockets, and twice the number of "servers" (as
1623each server has a read and write socket end).
1624
1625I<create> is the time it takes to create a socket pair (which is
1626nontrivial) and two watchers: an I/O watcher and a timeout watcher.
1627
1628I<request>, the most important value, is the time it takes to handle a
1629single "request", that is, reading the token from the pipe and forwarding
1630it to another server. This includes deleting the old timeout and creating
1631a new one that moves the timeout into the future.
1632
1633=head3 Results
1634
1635 name sockets create request
1636 EV 20000 69.01 11.16
1637 Perl 20000 73.32 35.87
1638 Event 20000 212.62 257.32
1639 Glib 20000 651.16 1896.30
1640 POE 20000 349.67 12317.24 uses POE::Loop::Event
1641
1642=head3 Discussion
1643
1644This benchmark I<does> measure scalability and overall performance of the
1645particular event loop.
1646
1647EV is again fastest. Since it is using epoll on my system, the setup time
1648is relatively high, though.
1649
1650Perl surprisingly comes second. It is much faster than the C-based event
1651loops Event and Glib.
1652
1653Event suffers from high setup time as well (look at its code and you will
1654understand why). Callback invocation also has a high overhead compared to
1655the C<< $_->() for .. >>-style loop that the Perl event loop uses. Event
1656uses select or poll in basically all documented configurations.
1657
1658Glib is hit hard by its quadratic behaviour w.r.t. many watchers. It
1659clearly fails to perform with many filehandles or in busy servers.
1660
1661POE is still completely out of the picture, taking over 1000 times as long
1662as EV, and over 100 times as long as the Perl implementation, even though
1663it uses a C-based event loop in this case.
1664
1665=head3 Summary
1666
1667=over 4
1668
1669=item * The pure perl implementation performs extremely well.
1670
1671=item * Avoid Glib or POE in large projects where performance matters.
1672
1673=back
1674
1675=head2 BENCHMARKING SMALL SERVERS
1676
1677While event loops should scale (and select-based ones do not...) even to
1678large servers, most programs we (or I :) actually write have only a few
1679I/O watchers.
1680
1681In this benchmark, I use the same benchmark program as in the large server
1682case, but it uses only eight "servers", of which three are active at any
1683one time. This should reflect performance for a small server relatively
1684well.
1685
1686The columns are identical to the previous table.
1687
1688=head3 Results
1689
1690 name sockets create request
1691 EV 16 20.00 6.54
1692 Perl 16 25.75 12.62
1693 Event 16 81.27 35.86
1694 Glib 16 32.63 15.48
1695 POE 16 261.87 276.28 uses POE::Loop::Event
1696
1697=head3 Discussion
1698
1699The benchmark tries to test the performance of a typical small
1700server. While knowing how various event loops perform is interesting, keep
1701in mind that their overhead in this case is usually not as important, due
1702to the small absolute number of watchers (that is, you need efficiency and
1703speed most when you have lots of watchers, not when you only have a few of
1704them).
1705
1706EV is again fastest.
1707
1708Perl again comes second. It is noticeably faster than the C-based event
1709loops Event and Glib, although the difference is too small to really
1710matter.
1711
1712POE also performs much better in this case, but is is still far behind the
1713others.
1714
1715=head3 Summary
1716
1717=over 4
1718
1719=item * C-based event loops perform very well with small number of
1720watchers, as the management overhead dominates.
1721
1722=back
1723
1724
1725=head1 FORK
1726
1727Most event libraries are not fork-safe. The ones who are usually are
1728because they rely on inefficient but fork-safe C<select> or C<poll>
1729calls. Only L<EV> is fully fork-aware.
1730
1731If you have to fork, you must either do so I<before> creating your first
1732watcher OR you must not use AnyEvent at all in the child.
1733
1734
1735=head1 SECURITY CONSIDERATIONS
1736
1737AnyEvent can be forced to load any event model via
1738$ENV{PERL_ANYEVENT_MODEL}. While this cannot (to my knowledge) be used to
1739execute arbitrary code or directly gain access, it can easily be used to
1740make the program hang or malfunction in subtle ways, as AnyEvent watchers
1741will not be active when the program uses a different event model than
1742specified in the variable.
1743
1744You can make AnyEvent completely ignore this variable by deleting it
1745before the first watcher gets created, e.g. with a C<BEGIN> block:
1746
1747 BEGIN { delete $ENV{PERL_ANYEVENT_MODEL} }
1748
1749 use AnyEvent;
1750
1751Similar considerations apply to $ENV{PERL_ANYEVENT_VERBOSE}, as that can
1752be used to probe what backend is used and gain other information (which is
1753probably even less useful to an attacker than PERL_ANYEVENT_MODEL), and
1754$ENV{PERL_ANYEGENT_STRICT}.
1755
1756
1757=head1 BUGS
1758
1759Perl 5.8 has numerous memleaks that sometimes hit this module and are hard
1760to work around. If you suffer from memleaks, first upgrade to Perl 5.10
1761and check wether the leaks still show up. (Perl 5.10.0 has other annoying
1762mamleaks, such as leaking on C<map> and C<grep> but it is usually not as
1763pronounced).
1764
143 1765
144=head1 SEE ALSO 1766=head1 SEE ALSO
145 1767
146L<Coro::Event>, L<Coro>, L<Event>, L<Glib::Event>, L<Glib>, 1768Utility functions: L<AnyEvent::Util>.
147L<AnyEvent::Impl::Coro>, 1769
148L<AnyEvent::Impl::Event>, 1770Event modules: L<EV>, L<EV::Glib>, L<Glib::EV>, L<Event>, L<Glib::Event>,
149L<AnyEvent::Impl::Glib>, 1771L<Glib>, L<Tk>, L<Event::Lib>, L<Qt>, L<POE>.
1772
1773Implementations: L<AnyEvent::Impl::EV>, L<AnyEvent::Impl::Event>,
1774L<AnyEvent::Impl::Glib>, L<AnyEvent::Impl::Tk>, L<AnyEvent::Impl::Perl>,
1775L<AnyEvent::Impl::EventLib>, L<AnyEvent::Impl::Qt>,
150L<AnyEvent::Impl::Tk>. 1776L<AnyEvent::Impl::POE>.
151 1777
152=head1 1778Non-blocking file handles, sockets, TCP clients and
1779servers: L<AnyEvent::Handle>, L<AnyEvent::Socket>.
1780
1781Asynchronous DNS: L<AnyEvent::DNS>.
1782
1783Coroutine support: L<Coro>, L<Coro::AnyEvent>, L<Coro::EV>, L<Coro::Event>,
1784
1785Nontrivial usage examples: L<Net::FCP>, L<Net::XMPP2>, L<AnyEvent::DNS>.
1786
1787
1788=head1 AUTHOR
1789
1790 Marc Lehmann <schmorp@schmorp.de>
1791 http://home.schmorp.de/
153 1792
154=cut 1793=cut
155 1794
1561 17951
157 1796

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