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1=head1 NAME 1=head1 NAME
2 2
3AnyEvent - ??? 3AnyEvent - provide framework for multiple event loops
4
5EV, Event, Coro::EV, Coro::Event, Glib, Tk, Perl, Event::Lib, Qt, POE - various supported event loops
4 6
5=head1 SYNOPSIS 7=head1 SYNOPSIS
6 8
9 use AnyEvent;
10
11 my $w = AnyEvent->io (fh => $fh, poll => "r|w", cb => sub {
12 ...
13 });
14
15 my $w = AnyEvent->timer (after => $seconds, cb => sub {
16 ...
17 });
18
19 my $w = AnyEvent->condvar; # stores whether a condition was flagged
20 $w->wait; # enters "main loop" till $condvar gets ->broadcast
21 $w->broadcast; # wake up current and all future wait's
22
23=head1 WHY YOU SHOULD USE THIS MODULE (OR NOT)
24
25Glib, POE, IO::Async, Event... CPAN offers event models by the dozen
26nowadays. So what is different about AnyEvent?
27
28Executive Summary: AnyEvent is I<compatible>, AnyEvent is I<free of
29policy> and AnyEvent is I<small and efficient>.
30
31First and foremost, I<AnyEvent is not an event model> itself, it only
32interfaces to whatever event model the main program happens to use in a
33pragmatic way. For event models and certain classes of immortals alike,
34the statement "there can only be one" is a bitter reality: In general,
35only one event loop can be active at the same time in a process. AnyEvent
36helps hiding the differences between those event loops.
37
38The goal of AnyEvent is to offer module authors the ability to do event
39programming (waiting for I/O or timer events) without subscribing to a
40religion, a way of living, and most importantly: without forcing your
41module users into the same thing by forcing them to use the same event
42model you use.
43
44For modules like POE or IO::Async (which is a total misnomer as it is
45actually doing all I/O I<synchronously>...), using them in your module is
46like joining a cult: After you joined, you are dependent on them and you
47cannot use anything else, as it is simply incompatible to everything that
48isn't itself. What's worse, all the potential users of your module are
49I<also> forced to use the same event loop you use.
50
51AnyEvent is different: AnyEvent + POE works fine. AnyEvent + Glib works
52fine. AnyEvent + Tk works fine etc. etc. but none of these work together
53with the rest: POE + IO::Async? no go. Tk + Event? no go. Again: if
54your module uses one of those, every user of your module has to use it,
55too. But if your module uses AnyEvent, it works transparently with all
56event models it supports (including stuff like POE and IO::Async, as long
57as those use one of the supported event loops. It is trivial to add new
58event loops to AnyEvent, too, so it is future-proof).
59
60In addition to being free of having to use I<the one and only true event
61model>, AnyEvent also is free of bloat and policy: with POE or similar
62modules, you get an enourmous amount of code and strict rules you have to
63follow. AnyEvent, on the other hand, is lean and up to the point, by only
64offering the functionality that is necessary, in as thin as a wrapper as
65technically possible.
66
67Of course, if you want lots of policy (this can arguably be somewhat
68useful) and you want to force your users to use the one and only event
69model, you should I<not> use this module.
70
71
7=head1 DESCRIPTION 72=head1 DESCRIPTION
8 73
74L<AnyEvent> provides an identical interface to multiple event loops. This
75allows module authors to utilise an event loop without forcing module
76users to use the same event loop (as only a single event loop can coexist
77peacefully at any one time).
78
79The interface itself is vaguely similar, but not identical to the L<Event>
80module.
81
82During the first call of any watcher-creation method, the module tries
83to detect the currently loaded event loop by probing whether one of the
84following modules is already loaded: L<Coro::EV>, L<Coro::Event>, L<EV>,
85L<Event>, L<Glib>, L<Tk>, L<AnyEvent::Impl::Perl>, L<Event::Lib>, L<Qt>,
86L<POE>. The first one found is used. If none are found, the module tries
87to load these modules (excluding Event::Lib, Qt and POE as the pure perl
88adaptor should always succeed) in the order given. The first one that can
89be successfully loaded will be used. If, after this, still none could be
90found, AnyEvent will fall back to a pure-perl event loop, which is not
91very efficient, but should work everywhere.
92
93Because AnyEvent first checks for modules that are already loaded, loading
94an event model explicitly before first using AnyEvent will likely make
95that model the default. For example:
96
97 use Tk;
98 use AnyEvent;
99
100 # .. AnyEvent will likely default to Tk
101
102The I<likely> means that, if any module loads another event model and
103starts using it, all bets are off. Maybe you should tell their authors to
104use AnyEvent so their modules work together with others seamlessly...
105
106The pure-perl implementation of AnyEvent is called
107C<AnyEvent::Impl::Perl>. Like other event modules you can load it
108explicitly.
109
110=head1 WATCHERS
111
112AnyEvent has the central concept of a I<watcher>, which is an object that
113stores relevant data for each kind of event you are waiting for, such as
114the callback to call, the filehandle to watch, etc.
115
116These watchers are normal Perl objects with normal Perl lifetime. After
117creating a watcher it will immediately "watch" for events and invoke the
118callback when the event occurs (of course, only when the event model
119is in control).
120
121To disable the watcher you have to destroy it (e.g. by setting the
122variable you store it in to C<undef> or otherwise deleting all references
123to it).
124
125All watchers are created by calling a method on the C<AnyEvent> class.
126
127Many watchers either are used with "recursion" (repeating timers for
128example), or need to refer to their watcher object in other ways.
129
130An any way to achieve that is this pattern:
131
132 my $w; $w = AnyEvent->type (arg => value ..., cb => sub {
133 # you can use $w here, for example to undef it
134 undef $w;
135 });
136
137Note that C<my $w; $w => combination. This is necessary because in Perl,
138my variables are only visible after the statement in which they are
139declared.
140
141=head2 IO WATCHERS
142
143You can create an I/O watcher by calling the C<< AnyEvent->io >> method
144with the following mandatory key-value pairs as arguments:
145
146C<fh> the Perl I<file handle> (I<not> file descriptor) to watch for
147events. C<poll> must be a string that is either C<r> or C<w>, which
148creates a watcher waiting for "r"eadable or "w"ritable events,
149respectively. C<cb> is the callback to invoke each time the file handle
150becomes ready.
151
152As long as the I/O watcher exists it will keep the file descriptor or a
153copy of it alive/open.
154
155It is not allowed to close a file handle as long as any watcher is active
156on the underlying file descriptor.
157
158Some event loops issue spurious readyness notifications, so you should
159always use non-blocking calls when reading/writing from/to your file
160handles.
161
162Example:
163
164 # wait for readability of STDIN, then read a line and disable the watcher
165 my $w; $w = AnyEvent->io (fh => \*STDIN, poll => 'r', cb => sub {
166 chomp (my $input = <STDIN>);
167 warn "read: $input\n";
168 undef $w;
169 });
170
171=head2 TIME WATCHERS
172
173You can create a time watcher by calling the C<< AnyEvent->timer >>
174method with the following mandatory arguments:
175
176C<after> specifies after how many seconds (fractional values are
177supported) should the timer activate. C<cb> the callback to invoke in that
178case.
179
180The timer callback will be invoked at most once: if you want a repeating
181timer you have to create a new watcher (this is a limitation by both Tk
182and Glib).
183
184Example:
185
186 # fire an event after 7.7 seconds
187 my $w = AnyEvent->timer (after => 7.7, cb => sub {
188 warn "timeout\n";
189 });
190
191 # to cancel the timer:
192 undef $w;
193
194Example 2:
195
196 # fire an event after 0.5 seconds, then roughly every second
197 my $w;
198
199 my $cb = sub {
200 # cancel the old timer while creating a new one
201 $w = AnyEvent->timer (after => 1, cb => $cb);
202 };
203
204 # start the "loop" by creating the first watcher
205 $w = AnyEvent->timer (after => 0.5, cb => $cb);
206
207=head3 TIMING ISSUES
208
209There are two ways to handle timers: based on real time (relative, "fire
210in 10 seconds") and based on wallclock time (absolute, "fire at 12
211o'clock").
212
213While most event loops expect timers to specified in a relative way, they
214use absolute time internally. This makes a difference when your clock
215"jumps", for example, when ntp decides to set your clock backwards from
216the wrong date of 2014-01-01 to 2008-01-01, a watcher that is supposed to
217fire "after" a second might actually take six years to finally fire.
218
219AnyEvent cannot compensate for this. The only event loop that is conscious
220about these issues is L<EV>, which offers both relative (ev_timer, based
221on true relative time) and absolute (ev_periodic, based on wallclock time)
222timers.
223
224AnyEvent always prefers relative timers, if available, matching the
225AnyEvent API.
226
227=head2 SIGNAL WATCHERS
228
229You can watch for signals using a signal watcher, C<signal> is the signal
230I<name> without any C<SIG> prefix, C<cb> is the Perl callback to
231be invoked whenever a signal occurs.
232
233Multiple signal occurances can be clumped together into one callback
234invocation, and callback invocation will be synchronous. synchronous means
235that it might take a while until the signal gets handled by the process,
236but it is guarenteed not to interrupt any other callbacks.
237
238The main advantage of using these watchers is that you can share a signal
239between multiple watchers.
240
241This watcher might use C<%SIG>, so programs overwriting those signals
242directly will likely not work correctly.
243
244Example: exit on SIGINT
245
246 my $w = AnyEvent->signal (signal => "INT", cb => sub { exit 1 });
247
248=head2 CHILD PROCESS WATCHERS
249
250You can also watch on a child process exit and catch its exit status.
251
252The child process is specified by the C<pid> argument (if set to C<0>, it
253watches for any child process exit). The watcher will trigger as often
254as status change for the child are received. This works by installing a
255signal handler for C<SIGCHLD>. The callback will be called with the pid
256and exit status (as returned by waitpid).
257
258Example: wait for pid 1333
259
260 my $w = AnyEvent->child (
261 pid => 1333,
262 cb => sub {
263 my ($pid, $status) = @_;
264 warn "pid $pid exited with status $status";
265 },
266 );
267
268=head2 CONDITION VARIABLES
269
270Condition variables can be created by calling the C<< AnyEvent->condvar >>
271method without any arguments.
272
273A condition variable waits for a condition - precisely that the C<<
274->broadcast >> method has been called.
275
276They are very useful to signal that a condition has been fulfilled, for
277example, if you write a module that does asynchronous http requests,
278then a condition variable would be the ideal candidate to signal the
279availability of results.
280
281You can also use condition variables to block your main program until
282an event occurs - for example, you could C<< ->wait >> in your main
283program until the user clicks the Quit button in your app, which would C<<
284->broadcast >> the "quit" event.
285
286Note that condition variables recurse into the event loop - if you have
287two pirces of code that call C<< ->wait >> in a round-robbin fashion, you
288lose. Therefore, condition variables are good to export to your caller, but
289you should avoid making a blocking wait yourself, at least in callbacks,
290as this asks for trouble.
291
292This object has two methods:
293
9=over 4 294=over 4
10 295
296=item $cv->wait
297
298Wait (blocking if necessary) until the C<< ->broadcast >> method has been
299called on c<$cv>, while servicing other watchers normally.
300
301You can only wait once on a condition - additional calls will return
302immediately.
303
304Not all event models support a blocking wait - some die in that case
305(programs might want to do that to stay interactive), so I<if you are
306using this from a module, never require a blocking wait>, but let the
307caller decide whether the call will block or not (for example, by coupling
308condition variables with some kind of request results and supporting
309callbacks so the caller knows that getting the result will not block,
310while still suppporting blocking waits if the caller so desires).
311
312Another reason I<never> to C<< ->wait >> in a module is that you cannot
313sensibly have two C<< ->wait >>'s in parallel, as that would require
314multiple interpreters or coroutines/threads, none of which C<AnyEvent>
315can supply (the coroutine-aware backends L<AnyEvent::Impl::CoroEV> and
316L<AnyEvent::Impl::CoroEvent> explicitly support concurrent C<< ->wait >>'s
317from different coroutines, however).
318
319=item $cv->broadcast
320
321Flag the condition as ready - a running C<< ->wait >> and all further
322calls to C<wait> will (eventually) return after this method has been
323called. If nobody is waiting the broadcast will be remembered..
324
325=back
326
327Example:
328
329 # wait till the result is ready
330 my $result_ready = AnyEvent->condvar;
331
332 # do something such as adding a timer
333 # or socket watcher the calls $result_ready->broadcast
334 # when the "result" is ready.
335 # in this case, we simply use a timer:
336 my $w = AnyEvent->timer (
337 after => 1,
338 cb => sub { $result_ready->broadcast },
339 );
340
341 # this "blocks" (while handling events) till the watcher
342 # calls broadcast
343 $result_ready->wait;
344
345=head1 GLOBAL VARIABLES AND FUNCTIONS
346
347=over 4
348
349=item $AnyEvent::MODEL
350
351Contains C<undef> until the first watcher is being created. Then it
352contains the event model that is being used, which is the name of the
353Perl class implementing the model. This class is usually one of the
354C<AnyEvent::Impl:xxx> modules, but can be any other class in the case
355AnyEvent has been extended at runtime (e.g. in I<rxvt-unicode>).
356
357The known classes so far are:
358
359 AnyEvent::Impl::CoroEV based on Coro::EV, best choice.
360 AnyEvent::Impl::CoroEvent based on Coro::Event, second best choice.
361 AnyEvent::Impl::EV based on EV (an interface to libev, best choice).
362 AnyEvent::Impl::Event based on Event, second best choice.
363 AnyEvent::Impl::Glib based on Glib, third-best choice.
364 AnyEvent::Impl::Tk based on Tk, very bad choice.
365 AnyEvent::Impl::Perl pure-perl implementation, inefficient but portable.
366 AnyEvent::Impl::Qt based on Qt, cannot be autoprobed (see its docs).
367 AnyEvent::Impl::EventLib based on Event::Lib, leaks memory and worse.
368 AnyEvent::Impl::POE based on POE, not generic enough for full support.
369
370There is no support for WxWidgets, as WxWidgets has no support for
371watching file handles. However, you can use WxWidgets through the
372POE Adaptor, as POE has a Wx backend that simply polls 20 times per
373second, which was considered to be too horrible to even consider for
374AnyEvent. Likewise, other POE backends can be used by Anyevent by using
375it's adaptor.
376
377=item AnyEvent::detect
378
379Returns C<$AnyEvent::MODEL>, forcing autodetection of the event model
380if necessary. You should only call this function right before you would
381have created an AnyEvent watcher anyway, that is, as late as possible at
382runtime.
383
384=back
385
386=head1 WHAT TO DO IN A MODULE
387
388As a module author, you should C<use AnyEvent> and call AnyEvent methods
389freely, but you should not load a specific event module or rely on it.
390
391Be careful when you create watchers in the module body - AnyEvent will
392decide which event module to use as soon as the first method is called, so
393by calling AnyEvent in your module body you force the user of your module
394to load the event module first.
395
396Never call C<< ->wait >> on a condition variable unless you I<know> that
397the C<< ->broadcast >> method has been called on it already. This is
398because it will stall the whole program, and the whole point of using
399events is to stay interactive.
400
401It is fine, however, to call C<< ->wait >> when the user of your module
402requests it (i.e. if you create a http request object ad have a method
403called C<results> that returns the results, it should call C<< ->wait >>
404freely, as the user of your module knows what she is doing. always).
405
406=head1 WHAT TO DO IN THE MAIN PROGRAM
407
408There will always be a single main program - the only place that should
409dictate which event model to use.
410
411If it doesn't care, it can just "use AnyEvent" and use it itself, or not
412do anything special (it does not need to be event-based) and let AnyEvent
413decide which implementation to chose if some module relies on it.
414
415If the main program relies on a specific event model. For example, in
416Gtk2 programs you have to rely on the Glib module. You should load the
417event module before loading AnyEvent or any module that uses it: generally
418speaking, you should load it as early as possible. The reason is that
419modules might create watchers when they are loaded, and AnyEvent will
420decide on the event model to use as soon as it creates watchers, and it
421might chose the wrong one unless you load the correct one yourself.
422
423You can chose to use a rather inefficient pure-perl implementation by
424loading the C<AnyEvent::Impl::Perl> module, which gives you similar
425behaviour everywhere, but letting AnyEvent chose is generally better.
426
11=cut 427=cut
12 428
13package AnyEvent; 429package AnyEvent;
14 430
431no warnings;
432use strict;
433
15use Carp; 434use Carp;
16 435
17$VERSION = 0.1; 436our $VERSION = '3.2';
437our $MODEL;
18 438
19no warnings; 439our $AUTOLOAD;
440our @ISA;
441
442our $verbose = $ENV{PERL_ANYEVENT_VERBOSE}*1;
443
444our @REGISTRY;
20 445
21my @models = ( 446my @models = (
22 [Coro => Coro::Event::], 447 [Coro::EV:: => AnyEvent::Impl::CoroEV::],
23 [Event => Event::], 448 [Coro::Event:: => AnyEvent::Impl::CoroEvent::],
24 [Glib => Glib::], 449 [EV:: => AnyEvent::Impl::EV::],
25 [Tk => Tk::], 450 [Event:: => AnyEvent::Impl::Event::],
451 [Glib:: => AnyEvent::Impl::Glib::],
452 [Tk:: => AnyEvent::Impl::Tk::],
453 [AnyEvent::Impl::Perl:: => AnyEvent::Impl::Perl::],
454 # everything below here will not be autoprobed as the pureperl backend should work everywhere
455 [Event::Lib:: => AnyEvent::Impl::EventLib::], # too buggy
456 [Qt:: => AnyEvent::Impl::Qt::], # requires special main program
457 [POE::Kernel:: => AnyEvent::Impl::POE::], # lasciate ogni speranza
26); 458);
27 459
460our %method = map +($_ => 1), qw(io timer signal child condvar broadcast wait one_event DESTROY);
461
462sub detect() {
463 unless ($MODEL) {
464 no strict 'refs';
465
466 if ($ENV{PERL_ANYEVENT_MODEL} =~ /^([a-zA-Z]+)$/) {
467 my $model = "AnyEvent::Impl::$1";
468 if (eval "require $model") {
469 $MODEL = $model;
470 warn "AnyEvent: loaded model '$model' (forced by \$PERL_ANYEVENT_MODEL), using it.\n" if $verbose > 1;
471 } else {
472 warn "AnyEvent: unable to load model '$model' (from \$PERL_ANYEVENT_MODEL):\n$@" if $verbose;
473 }
474 }
475
476 # check for already loaded models
477 unless ($MODEL) {
478 for (@REGISTRY, @models) {
479 my ($package, $model) = @$_;
480 if (${"$package\::VERSION"} > 0) {
481 if (eval "require $model") {
482 $MODEL = $model;
483 warn "AnyEvent: autodetected model '$model', using it.\n" if $verbose > 1;
484 last;
485 }
486 }
487 }
488
489 unless ($MODEL) {
490 # try to load a model
491
492 for (@REGISTRY, @models) {
493 my ($package, $model) = @$_;
494 if (eval "require $package"
495 and ${"$package\::VERSION"} > 0
496 and eval "require $model") {
497 $MODEL = $model;
498 warn "AnyEvent: autoprobed model '$model', using it.\n" if $verbose > 1;
499 last;
500 }
501 }
502
503 $MODEL
504 or die "No event module selected for AnyEvent and autodetect failed. Install any one of these modules: EV (or Coro+EV), Event (or Coro+Event) or Glib.";
505 }
506 }
507
508 unshift @ISA, $MODEL;
509 push @{"$MODEL\::ISA"}, "AnyEvent::Base";
510 }
511
512 $MODEL
513}
514
28sub AUTOLOAD { 515sub AUTOLOAD {
29 $AUTOLOAD =~ s/.*://; 516 (my $func = $AUTOLOAD) =~ s/.*://;
30 517
31 for (@models) { 518 $method{$func}
32 my ($model, $package) = @$_; 519 or croak "$func: not a valid method for AnyEvent objects";
33 if (defined ${"$package\::VERSION"}) { 520
34 $EVENT = "AnyEvent::Impl::$model"; 521 detect unless $MODEL;
35 eval "require $EVENT"; die if $@; 522
36 goto &{"$EVENT\::$AUTOLOAD"}; 523 my $class = shift;
37 } 524 $class->$func (@_);
525}
526
527package AnyEvent::Base;
528
529# default implementation for ->condvar, ->wait, ->broadcast
530
531sub condvar {
532 bless \my $flag, "AnyEvent::Base::CondVar"
533}
534
535sub AnyEvent::Base::CondVar::broadcast {
536 ${$_[0]}++;
537}
538
539sub AnyEvent::Base::CondVar::wait {
540 AnyEvent->one_event while !${$_[0]};
541}
542
543# default implementation for ->signal
544
545our %SIG_CB;
546
547sub signal {
548 my (undef, %arg) = @_;
549
550 my $signal = uc $arg{signal}
551 or Carp::croak "required option 'signal' is missing";
552
553 $SIG_CB{$signal}{$arg{cb}} = $arg{cb};
554 $SIG{$signal} ||= sub {
555 $_->() for values %{ $SIG_CB{$signal} || {} };
556 };
557
558 bless [$signal, $arg{cb}], "AnyEvent::Base::Signal"
559}
560
561sub AnyEvent::Base::Signal::DESTROY {
562 my ($signal, $cb) = @{$_[0]};
563
564 delete $SIG_CB{$signal}{$cb};
565
566 $SIG{$signal} = 'DEFAULT' unless keys %{ $SIG_CB{$signal} };
567}
568
569# default implementation for ->child
570
571our %PID_CB;
572our $CHLD_W;
573our $CHLD_DELAY_W;
574our $PID_IDLE;
575our $WNOHANG;
576
577sub _child_wait {
578 while (0 < (my $pid = waitpid -1, $WNOHANG)) {
579 $_->($pid, $?) for (values %{ $PID_CB{$pid} || {} }),
580 (values %{ $PID_CB{0} || {} });
38 } 581 }
39 582
40 for (@models) { 583 undef $PID_IDLE;
41 my ($model, $package) = @$_; 584}
42 $EVENT = "AnyEvent::Impl::$model"; 585
43 if (eval "require $EVENT") { 586sub _sigchld {
44 goto &{"$EVENT\::$AUTOLOAD"}; 587 # make sure we deliver these changes "synchronous" with the event loop.
45 } 588 $CHLD_DELAY_W ||= AnyEvent->timer (after => 0, cb => sub {
589 undef $CHLD_DELAY_W;
590 &_child_wait;
591 });
592}
593
594sub child {
595 my (undef, %arg) = @_;
596
597 defined (my $pid = $arg{pid} + 0)
598 or Carp::croak "required option 'pid' is missing";
599
600 $PID_CB{$pid}{$arg{cb}} = $arg{cb};
601
602 unless ($WNOHANG) {
603 $WNOHANG = eval { require POSIX; &POSIX::WNOHANG } || 1;
46 } 604 }
47 605
48 die "No event module selected for AnyEvent and autodetect failed. Install any of these: Coro, Event, Glib or Tk."; 606 unless ($CHLD_W) {
49} 607 $CHLD_W = AnyEvent->signal (signal => 'CHLD', cb => \&_sigchld);
608 # child could be a zombie already, so make at least one round
609 &_sigchld;
610 }
50 611
511; 612 bless [$pid, $arg{cb}], "AnyEvent::Base::Child"
613}
52 614
615sub AnyEvent::Base::Child::DESTROY {
616 my ($pid, $cb) = @{$_[0]};
617
618 delete $PID_CB{$pid}{$cb};
619 delete $PID_CB{$pid} unless keys %{ $PID_CB{$pid} };
620
621 undef $CHLD_W unless keys %PID_CB;
622}
623
624=head1 SUPPLYING YOUR OWN EVENT MODEL INTERFACE
625
626This is an advanced topic that you do not normally need to use AnyEvent in
627a module. This section is only of use to event loop authors who want to
628provide AnyEvent compatibility.
629
630If you need to support another event library which isn't directly
631supported by AnyEvent, you can supply your own interface to it by
632pushing, before the first watcher gets created, the package name of
633the event module and the package name of the interface to use onto
634C<@AnyEvent::REGISTRY>. You can do that before and even without loading
635AnyEvent, so it is reasonably cheap.
636
637Example:
638
639 push @AnyEvent::REGISTRY, [urxvt => urxvt::anyevent::];
640
641This tells AnyEvent to (literally) use the C<urxvt::anyevent::>
642package/class when it finds the C<urxvt> package/module is already loaded.
643
644When AnyEvent is loaded and asked to find a suitable event model, it
645will first check for the presence of urxvt by trying to C<use> the
646C<urxvt::anyevent> module.
647
648The class should provide implementations for all watcher types. See
649L<AnyEvent::Impl::EV> (source code), L<AnyEvent::Impl::Glib> (Source code)
650and so on for actual examples. Use C<perldoc -m AnyEvent::Impl::Glib> to
651see the sources.
652
653If you don't provide C<signal> and C<child> watchers than AnyEvent will
654provide suitable (hopefully) replacements.
655
656The above example isn't fictitious, the I<rxvt-unicode> (a.k.a. urxvt)
657terminal emulator uses the above line as-is. An interface isn't included
658in AnyEvent because it doesn't make sense outside the embedded interpreter
659inside I<rxvt-unicode>, and it is updated and maintained as part of the
660I<rxvt-unicode> distribution.
661
662I<rxvt-unicode> also cheats a bit by not providing blocking access to
663condition variables: code blocking while waiting for a condition will
664C<die>. This still works with most modules/usages, and blocking calls must
665not be done in an interactive application, so it makes sense.
666
667=head1 ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES
668
669The following environment variables are used by this module:
670
671=over 4
672
673=item C<PERL_ANYEVENT_VERBOSE>
674
675By default, AnyEvent will be completely silent except in fatal
676conditions. You can set this environment variable to make AnyEvent more
677talkative.
678
679When set to C<1> or higher, causes AnyEvent to warn about unexpected
680conditions, such as not being able to load the event model specified by
681C<PERL_ANYEVENT_MODEL>.
682
683When set to C<2> or higher, cause AnyEvent to report to STDERR which event
684model it chooses.
685
686=item C<PERL_ANYEVENT_MODEL>
687
688This can be used to specify the event model to be used by AnyEvent, before
689autodetection and -probing kicks in. It must be a string consisting
690entirely of ASCII letters. The string C<AnyEvent::Impl::> gets prepended
691and the resulting module name is loaded and if the load was successful,
692used as event model. If it fails to load AnyEvent will proceed with
693autodetection and -probing.
694
695This functionality might change in future versions.
696
697For example, to force the pure perl model (L<AnyEvent::Impl::Perl>) you
698could start your program like this:
699
700 PERL_ANYEVENT_MODEL=Perl perl ...
701
702=back
703
704=head1 EXAMPLE PROGRAM
705
706The following program uses an IO watcher to read data from STDIN, a timer
707to display a message once per second, and a condition variable to quit the
708program when the user enters quit:
709
710 use AnyEvent;
711
712 my $cv = AnyEvent->condvar;
713
714 my $io_watcher = AnyEvent->io (
715 fh => \*STDIN,
716 poll => 'r',
717 cb => sub {
718 warn "io event <$_[0]>\n"; # will always output <r>
719 chomp (my $input = <STDIN>); # read a line
720 warn "read: $input\n"; # output what has been read
721 $cv->broadcast if $input =~ /^q/i; # quit program if /^q/i
722 },
723 );
724
725 my $time_watcher; # can only be used once
726
727 sub new_timer {
728 $timer = AnyEvent->timer (after => 1, cb => sub {
729 warn "timeout\n"; # print 'timeout' about every second
730 &new_timer; # and restart the time
731 });
732 }
733
734 new_timer; # create first timer
735
736 $cv->wait; # wait until user enters /^q/i
737
738=head1 REAL-WORLD EXAMPLE
739
740Consider the L<Net::FCP> module. It features (among others) the following
741API calls, which are to freenet what HTTP GET requests are to http:
742
743 my $data = $fcp->client_get ($url); # blocks
744
745 my $transaction = $fcp->txn_client_get ($url); # does not block
746 $transaction->cb ( sub { ... } ); # set optional result callback
747 my $data = $transaction->result; # possibly blocks
748
749The C<client_get> method works like C<LWP::Simple::get>: it requests the
750given URL and waits till the data has arrived. It is defined to be:
751
752 sub client_get { $_[0]->txn_client_get ($_[1])->result }
753
754And in fact is automatically generated. This is the blocking API of
755L<Net::FCP>, and it works as simple as in any other, similar, module.
756
757More complicated is C<txn_client_get>: It only creates a transaction
758(completion, result, ...) object and initiates the transaction.
759
760 my $txn = bless { }, Net::FCP::Txn::;
761
762It also creates a condition variable that is used to signal the completion
763of the request:
764
765 $txn->{finished} = AnyAvent->condvar;
766
767It then creates a socket in non-blocking mode.
768
769 socket $txn->{fh}, ...;
770 fcntl $txn->{fh}, F_SETFL, O_NONBLOCK;
771 connect $txn->{fh}, ...
772 and !$!{EWOULDBLOCK}
773 and !$!{EINPROGRESS}
774 and Carp::croak "unable to connect: $!\n";
775
776Then it creates a write-watcher which gets called whenever an error occurs
777or the connection succeeds:
778
779 $txn->{w} = AnyEvent->io (fh => $txn->{fh}, poll => 'w', cb => sub { $txn->fh_ready_w });
780
781And returns this transaction object. The C<fh_ready_w> callback gets
782called as soon as the event loop detects that the socket is ready for
783writing.
784
785The C<fh_ready_w> method makes the socket blocking again, writes the
786request data and replaces the watcher by a read watcher (waiting for reply
787data). The actual code is more complicated, but that doesn't matter for
788this example:
789
790 fcntl $txn->{fh}, F_SETFL, 0;
791 syswrite $txn->{fh}, $txn->{request}
792 or die "connection or write error";
793 $txn->{w} = AnyEvent->io (fh => $txn->{fh}, poll => 'r', cb => sub { $txn->fh_ready_r });
794
795Again, C<fh_ready_r> waits till all data has arrived, and then stores the
796result and signals any possible waiters that the request ahs finished:
797
798 sysread $txn->{fh}, $txn->{buf}, length $txn->{$buf};
799
800 if (end-of-file or data complete) {
801 $txn->{result} = $txn->{buf};
802 $txn->{finished}->broadcast;
803 $txb->{cb}->($txn) of $txn->{cb}; # also call callback
804 }
805
806The C<result> method, finally, just waits for the finished signal (if the
807request was already finished, it doesn't wait, of course, and returns the
808data:
809
810 $txn->{finished}->wait;
811 return $txn->{result};
812
813The actual code goes further and collects all errors (C<die>s, exceptions)
814that occured during request processing. The C<result> method detects
815whether an exception as thrown (it is stored inside the $txn object)
816and just throws the exception, which means connection errors and other
817problems get reported tot he code that tries to use the result, not in a
818random callback.
819
820All of this enables the following usage styles:
821
8221. Blocking:
823
824 my $data = $fcp->client_get ($url);
825
8262. Blocking, but running in parallel:
827
828 my @datas = map $_->result,
829 map $fcp->txn_client_get ($_),
830 @urls;
831
832Both blocking examples work without the module user having to know
833anything about events.
834
8353a. Event-based in a main program, using any supported event module:
836
837 use EV;
838
839 $fcp->txn_client_get ($url)->cb (sub {
840 my $txn = shift;
841 my $data = $txn->result;
842 ...
843 });
844
845 EV::loop;
846
8473b. The module user could use AnyEvent, too:
848
849 use AnyEvent;
850
851 my $quit = AnyEvent->condvar;
852
853 $fcp->txn_client_get ($url)->cb (sub {
854 ...
855 $quit->broadcast;
856 });
857
858 $quit->wait;
859
860=head1 FORK
861
862Most event libraries are not fork-safe. The ones who are usually are
863because they are so inefficient. Only L<EV> is fully fork-aware.
864
865If you have to fork, you must either do so I<before> creating your first
866watcher OR you must not use AnyEvent at all in the child.
867
868=head1 SECURITY CONSIDERATIONS
869
870AnyEvent can be forced to load any event model via
871$ENV{PERL_ANYEVENT_MODEL}. While this cannot (to my knowledge) be used to
872execute arbitrary code or directly gain access, it can easily be used to
873make the program hang or malfunction in subtle ways, as AnyEvent watchers
874will not be active when the program uses a different event model than
875specified in the variable.
876
877You can make AnyEvent completely ignore this variable by deleting it
878before the first watcher gets created, e.g. with a C<BEGIN> block:
879
880 BEGIN { delete $ENV{PERL_ANYEVENT_MODEL} }
881
882 use AnyEvent;
883
884=head1 SEE ALSO
885
886Event modules: L<Coro::EV>, L<EV>, L<EV::Glib>, L<Glib::EV>,
887L<Coro::Event>, L<Event>, L<Glib::Event>, L<Glib>, L<Coro>, L<Tk>,
888L<Event::Lib>, L<Qt>, L<POE>.
889
890Implementations: L<AnyEvent::Impl::CoroEV>, L<AnyEvent::Impl::EV>,
891L<AnyEvent::Impl::CoroEvent>, L<AnyEvent::Impl::Event>, L<AnyEvent::Impl::Glib>,
892L<AnyEvent::Impl::Tk>, L<AnyEvent::Impl::Perl>, L<AnyEvent::Impl::EventLib>,
893L<AnyEvent::Impl::Qt>, L<AnyEvent::Impl::POE>.
894
895Nontrivial usage examples: L<Net::FCP>, L<Net::XMPP2>.
896
897=head1 AUTHOR
898
899 Marc Lehmann <schmorp@schmorp.de>
900 http://home.schmorp.de/
901
902=cut
903
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