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Revision: 1.32
Committed: Sat Nov 3 09:29:51 2007 UTC (16 years, 8 months ago) by root
Branch: MAIN
CVS Tags: rel-2_55
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File Contents

# Content
1 =head1 NAME
2
3 AnyEvent - provide framework for multiple event loops
4
5 Event, Coro, Glib, Tk, Perl - various supported event loops
6
7 =head1 SYNOPSIS
8
9 use AnyEvent;
10
11 my $w = AnyEvent->io (fh => $fh, poll => "r|w", cb => sub {
12 ...
13 });
14
15 my $w = AnyEvent->timer (after => $seconds, cb => sub {
16 ...
17 });
18
19 my $w = AnyEvent->condvar; # stores wether a condition was flagged
20 $w->wait; # enters "main loop" till $condvar gets ->broadcast
21 $w->broadcast; # wake up current and all future wait's
22
23 =head1 DESCRIPTION
24
25 L<AnyEvent> provides an identical interface to multiple event loops. This
26 allows module authors to utilise an event loop without forcing module
27 users to use the same event loop (as only a single event loop can coexist
28 peacefully at any one time).
29
30 The interface itself is vaguely similar but not identical to the Event
31 module.
32
33 On the first call of any method, the module tries to detect the currently
34 loaded event loop by probing wether any of the following modules is
35 loaded: L<Coro::Event>, L<Event>, L<Glib>, L<Tk>. The first one found is
36 used. If none is found, the module tries to load these modules in the
37 order given. The first one that could be successfully loaded will be
38 used. If still none could be found, AnyEvent will fall back to a pure-perl
39 event loop, which is also not very efficient.
40
41 Because AnyEvent first checks for modules that are already loaded, loading
42 an Event model explicitly before first using AnyEvent will likely make
43 that model the default. For example:
44
45 use Tk;
46 use AnyEvent;
47
48 # .. AnyEvent will likely default to Tk
49
50 The pure-perl implementation of AnyEvent is called
51 C<AnyEvent::Impl::Perl>. Like other event modules you can load it
52 explicitly.
53
54 =head1 WATCHERS
55
56 AnyEvent has the central concept of a I<watcher>, which is an object that
57 stores relevant data for each kind of event you are waiting for, such as
58 the callback to call, the filehandle to watch, etc.
59
60 These watchers are normal Perl objects with normal Perl lifetime. After
61 creating a watcher it will immediately "watch" for events and invoke
62 the callback. To disable the watcher you have to destroy it (e.g. by
63 setting the variable that stores it to C<undef> or otherwise deleting all
64 references to it).
65
66 All watchers are created by calling a method on the C<AnyEvent> class.
67
68 =head2 IO WATCHERS
69
70 You can create I/O watcher by calling the C<< AnyEvent->io >> method with
71 the following mandatory arguments:
72
73 C<fh> the Perl I<filehandle> (not filedescriptor) to watch for
74 events. C<poll> must be a string that is either C<r> or C<w>, that creates
75 a watcher waiting for "r"eadable or "w"ritable events. C<cb> teh callback
76 to invoke everytime the filehandle becomes ready.
77
78 Only one io watcher per C<fh> and C<poll> combination is allowed (i.e. on
79 a socket you can have one r + one w, not any more (limitation comes from
80 Tk - if you are sure you are not using Tk this limitation is gone).
81
82 Filehandles will be kept alive, so as long as the watcher exists, the
83 filehandle exists, too.
84
85 Example:
86
87 # wait for readability of STDIN, then read a line and disable the watcher
88 my $w; $w = AnyEvent->io (fh => \*STDIN, poll => 'r', cb => sub {
89 chomp (my $input = <STDIN>);
90 warn "read: $input\n";
91 undef $w;
92 });
93
94 =head2 TIME WATCHERS
95
96 You can create a time watcher by calling the C<< AnyEvent->timer >>
97 method with the following mandatory arguments:
98
99 C<after> after how many seconds (fractions are supported) should the timer
100 activate. C<cb> the callback to invoke.
101
102 The timer callback will be invoked at most once: if you want a repeating
103 timer you have to create a new watcher (this is a limitation by both Tk
104 and Glib).
105
106 Example:
107
108 # fire an event after 7.7 seconds
109 my $w = AnyEvent->timer (after => 7.7, cb => sub {
110 warn "timeout\n";
111 });
112
113 # to cancel the timer:
114 undef $w
115
116 =head2 CONDITION WATCHERS
117
118 Condition watchers can be created by calling the C<< AnyEvent->condvar >>
119 method without any arguments.
120
121 A condition watcher watches for a condition - precisely that the C<<
122 ->broadcast >> method has been called.
123
124 The watcher has only two methods:
125
126 =over 4
127
128 =item $cv->wait
129
130 Wait (blocking if necessary) until the C<< ->broadcast >> method has been
131 called on c<$cv>, while servicing other watchers normally.
132
133 Not all event models support a blocking wait - some die in that case, so
134 if you are using this from a module, never require a blocking wait, but
135 let the caller decide wether the call will block or not (for example,
136 by coupling condition variables with some kind of request results and
137 supporting callbacks so the caller knows that getting the result will not
138 block, while still suppporting blockign waits if the caller so desires).
139
140 You can only wait once on a condition - additional calls will return
141 immediately.
142
143 =item $cv->broadcast
144
145 Flag the condition as ready - a running C<< ->wait >> and all further
146 calls to C<wait> will return after this method has been called. If nobody
147 is waiting the broadcast will be remembered..
148
149 Example:
150
151 # wait till the result is ready
152 my $result_ready = AnyEvent->condvar;
153
154 # do something such as adding a timer
155 # or socket watcher the calls $result_ready->broadcast
156 # when the "result" is ready.
157
158 $result_ready->wait;
159
160 =back
161
162 =head2 SIGNAL WATCHERS
163
164 You can listen for signals using a signal watcher, C<signal> is the signal
165 I<name> without any C<SIG> prefix. Multiple signals events can be clumped
166 together into one callback invocation, and callback invocation might or
167 might not be asynchronous.
168
169 These watchers might use C<%SIG>, so programs overwriting those signals
170 directly will likely not work correctly.
171
172 Example: exit on SIGINT
173
174 my $w = AnyEvent->signal (signal => "INT", cb => sub { exit 1 });
175
176 =head2 CHILD PROCESS WATCHERS
177
178 You can also listen for the status of a child process specified by the
179 C<pid> argument (or any child if the pid argument is 0). The watcher will
180 trigger as often as status change for the child are received. This works
181 by installing a signal handler for C<SIGCHLD>. The callback will be called with
182 the pid and exit status (as returned by waitpid).
183
184 Example: wait for pid 1333
185
186 my $w = AnyEvent->child (pid => 1333, cb => sub { warn "exit status $?" });
187
188 =head1 GLOBALS
189
190 =over 4
191
192 =item $AnyEvent::MODEL
193
194 Contains C<undef> until the first watcher is being created. Then it
195 contains the event model that is being used, which is the name of the
196 Perl class implementing the model. This class is usually one of the
197 C<AnyEvent::Impl:xxx> modules, but can be any other class in the case
198 AnyEvent has been extended at runtime (e.g. in I<rxvt-unicode>).
199
200 The known classes so far are:
201
202 EV::AnyEvent based on EV (an interface to libev, best choice)
203 AnyEvent::Impl::Coro based on Coro::Event, second best choice.
204 AnyEvent::Impl::Event based on Event, also second best choice :)
205 AnyEvent::Impl::Glib based on Glib, second-best choice.
206 AnyEvent::Impl::Tk based on Tk, very bad choice.
207 AnyEvent::Impl::Perl pure-perl implementation, inefficient.
208
209 =item AnyEvent::detect
210
211 Returns C<$AnyEvent::MODEL>, forcing autodetection of the event model if
212 necessary. You should only call this function right before you would have
213 created an AnyEvent watcher anyway, that is, very late at runtime.
214
215 =back
216
217 =head1 WHAT TO DO IN A MODULE
218
219 As a module author, you should "use AnyEvent" and call AnyEvent methods
220 freely, but you should not load a specific event module or rely on it.
221
222 Be careful when you create watchers in the module body - Anyevent will
223 decide which event module to use as soon as the first method is called, so
224 by calling AnyEvent in your module body you force the user of your module
225 to load the event module first.
226
227 =head1 WHAT TO DO IN THE MAIN PROGRAM
228
229 There will always be a single main program - the only place that should
230 dictate which event model to use.
231
232 If it doesn't care, it can just "use AnyEvent" and use it itself, or not
233 do anything special and let AnyEvent decide which implementation to chose.
234
235 If the main program relies on a specific event model (for example, in Gtk2
236 programs you have to rely on either Glib or Glib::Event), you should load
237 it before loading AnyEvent or any module that uses it, generally, as early
238 as possible. The reason is that modules might create watchers when they
239 are loaded, and AnyEvent will decide on the event model to use as soon as
240 it creates watchers, and it might chose the wrong one unless you load the
241 correct one yourself.
242
243 You can chose to use a rather inefficient pure-perl implementation by
244 loading the C<AnyEvent::Impl::Perl> module, but letting AnyEvent chose is
245 generally better.
246
247 =cut
248
249 package AnyEvent;
250
251 no warnings;
252 use strict;
253
254 use Carp;
255
256 our $VERSION = '2.55';
257 our $MODEL;
258
259 our $AUTOLOAD;
260 our @ISA;
261
262 our $verbose = $ENV{PERL_ANYEVENT_VERBOSE}*1;
263
264 our @REGISTRY;
265
266 my @models = (
267 [Coro::Event:: => AnyEvent::Impl::Coro::],
268 [EV:: => EV::AnyEvent::],
269 [Event:: => AnyEvent::Impl::Event::],
270 [Glib:: => AnyEvent::Impl::Glib::],
271 [Tk:: => AnyEvent::Impl::Tk::],
272 [AnyEvent::Impl::Perl:: => AnyEvent::Impl::Perl::],
273 );
274
275 our %method = map +($_ => 1), qw(io timer condvar broadcast wait signal one_event DESTROY);
276
277 sub detect() {
278 unless ($MODEL) {
279 no strict 'refs';
280
281 # check for already loaded models
282 for (@REGISTRY, @models) {
283 my ($package, $model) = @$_;
284 if (${"$package\::VERSION"} > 0) {
285 if (eval "require $model") {
286 $MODEL = $model;
287 warn "AnyEvent: found model '$model', using it.\n" if $verbose > 1;
288 last;
289 }
290 }
291 }
292
293 unless ($MODEL) {
294 # try to load a model
295
296 for (@REGISTRY, @models) {
297 my ($package, $model) = @$_;
298 if (eval "require $package"
299 and ${"$package\::VERSION"} > 0
300 and eval "require $model") {
301 $MODEL = $model;
302 warn "AnyEvent: autoprobed and loaded model '$model', using it.\n" if $verbose > 1;
303 last;
304 }
305 }
306
307 $MODEL
308 or die "No event module selected for AnyEvent and autodetect failed. Install any one of these modules: Event (or Coro+Event), Glib or Tk.";
309 }
310
311 unshift @ISA, $MODEL;
312 push @{"$MODEL\::ISA"}, "AnyEvent::Base";
313 }
314
315 $MODEL
316 }
317
318 sub AUTOLOAD {
319 (my $func = $AUTOLOAD) =~ s/.*://;
320
321 $method{$func}
322 or croak "$func: not a valid method for AnyEvent objects";
323
324 detect unless $MODEL;
325
326 my $class = shift;
327 $class->$func (@_);
328 }
329
330 package AnyEvent::Base;
331
332 # default implementation for ->condvar, ->wait, ->broadcast
333
334 sub condvar {
335 bless \my $flag, "AnyEvent::Base::CondVar"
336 }
337
338 sub AnyEvent::Base::CondVar::broadcast {
339 ${$_[0]}++;
340 }
341
342 sub AnyEvent::Base::CondVar::wait {
343 AnyEvent->one_event while !${$_[0]};
344 }
345
346 # default implementation for ->signal
347
348 our %SIG_CB;
349
350 sub signal {
351 my (undef, %arg) = @_;
352
353 my $signal = uc $arg{signal}
354 or Carp::croak "required option 'signal' is missing";
355
356 $SIG_CB{$signal}{$arg{cb}} = $arg{cb};
357 $SIG{$signal} ||= sub {
358 $_->() for values %{ $SIG_CB{$signal} || {} };
359 };
360
361 bless [$signal, $arg{cb}], "AnyEvent::Base::Signal"
362 }
363
364 sub AnyEvent::Base::Signal::DESTROY {
365 my ($signal, $cb) = @{$_[0]};
366
367 delete $SIG_CB{$signal}{$cb};
368
369 $SIG{$signal} = 'DEFAULT' unless keys %{ $SIG_CB{$signal} };
370 }
371
372 # default implementation for ->child
373
374 our %PID_CB;
375 our $CHLD_W;
376 our $PID_IDLE;
377 our $WNOHANG;
378
379 sub _child_wait {
380 while (0 <= (my $pid = waitpid -1, $WNOHANG)) {
381 $_->($pid, $?) for (values %{ $PID_CB{$pid} || {} }),
382 (values %{ $PID_CB{0} || {} });
383 }
384
385 undef $PID_IDLE;
386 }
387
388 sub child {
389 my (undef, %arg) = @_;
390
391 defined (my $pid = $arg{pid} + 0)
392 or Carp::croak "required option 'pid' is missing";
393
394 $PID_CB{$pid}{$arg{cb}} = $arg{cb};
395
396 unless ($WNOHANG) {
397 $WNOHANG = eval { require POSIX; &POSIX::WNOHANG } || 1;
398 }
399
400 unless ($CHLD_W) {
401 $CHLD_W = AnyEvent->signal (signal => 'CHLD', cb => \&_child_wait);
402 # child could be a zombie already
403 $PID_IDLE ||= AnyEvent->timer (after => 0, cb => \&_child_wait);
404 }
405
406 bless [$pid, $arg{cb}], "AnyEvent::Base::Child"
407 }
408
409 sub AnyEvent::Base::Child::DESTROY {
410 my ($pid, $cb) = @{$_[0]};
411
412 delete $PID_CB{$pid}{$cb};
413 delete $PID_CB{$pid} unless keys %{ $PID_CB{$pid} };
414
415 undef $CHLD_W unless keys %PID_CB;
416 }
417
418 =head1 SUPPLYING YOUR OWN EVENT MODEL INTERFACE
419
420 If you need to support another event library which isn't directly
421 supported by AnyEvent, you can supply your own interface to it by
422 pushing, before the first watcher gets created, the package name of
423 the event module and the package name of the interface to use onto
424 C<@AnyEvent::REGISTRY>. You can do that before and even without loading
425 AnyEvent.
426
427 Example:
428
429 push @AnyEvent::REGISTRY, [urxvt => urxvt::anyevent::];
430
431 This tells AnyEvent to (literally) use the C<urxvt::anyevent::>
432 package/class when it finds the C<urxvt> package/module is loaded. When
433 AnyEvent is loaded and asked to find a suitable event model, it will
434 first check for the presence of urxvt.
435
436 The class should provide implementations for all watcher types (see
437 L<AnyEvent::Impl::Event> (source code), L<AnyEvent::Impl::Glib>
438 (Source code) and so on for actual examples, use C<perldoc -m
439 AnyEvent::Impl::Glib> to see the sources).
440
441 The above isn't fictitious, the I<rxvt-unicode> (a.k.a. urxvt)
442 uses the above line as-is. An interface isn't included in AnyEvent
443 because it doesn't make sense outside the embedded interpreter inside
444 I<rxvt-unicode>, and it is updated and maintained as part of the
445 I<rxvt-unicode> distribution.
446
447 I<rxvt-unicode> also cheats a bit by not providing blocking access to
448 condition variables: code blocking while waiting for a condition will
449 C<die>. This still works with most modules/usages, and blocking calls must
450 not be in an interactive application, so it makes sense.
451
452 =head1 ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES
453
454 The following environment variables are used by this module:
455
456 C<PERL_ANYEVENT_VERBOSE> when set to C<2> or higher, reports which event
457 model gets used.
458
459 =head1 EXAMPLE
460
461 The following program uses an io watcher to read data from stdin, a timer
462 to display a message once per second, and a condvar to exit the program
463 when the user enters quit:
464
465 use AnyEvent;
466
467 my $cv = AnyEvent->condvar;
468
469 my $io_watcher = AnyEvent->io (fh => \*STDIN, poll => 'r', cb => sub {
470 warn "io event <$_[0]>\n"; # will always output <r>
471 chomp (my $input = <STDIN>); # read a line
472 warn "read: $input\n"; # output what has been read
473 $cv->broadcast if $input =~ /^q/i; # quit program if /^q/i
474 });
475
476 my $time_watcher; # can only be used once
477
478 sub new_timer {
479 $timer = AnyEvent->timer (after => 1, cb => sub {
480 warn "timeout\n"; # print 'timeout' about every second
481 &new_timer; # and restart the time
482 });
483 }
484
485 new_timer; # create first timer
486
487 $cv->wait; # wait until user enters /^q/i
488
489 =head1 REAL-WORLD EXAMPLE
490
491 Consider the L<Net::FCP> module. It features (among others) the following
492 API calls, which are to freenet what HTTP GET requests are to http:
493
494 my $data = $fcp->client_get ($url); # blocks
495
496 my $transaction = $fcp->txn_client_get ($url); # does not block
497 $transaction->cb ( sub { ... } ); # set optional result callback
498 my $data = $transaction->result; # possibly blocks
499
500 The C<client_get> method works like C<LWP::Simple::get>: it requests the
501 given URL and waits till the data has arrived. It is defined to be:
502
503 sub client_get { $_[0]->txn_client_get ($_[1])->result }
504
505 And in fact is automatically generated. This is the blocking API of
506 L<Net::FCP>, and it works as simple as in any other, similar, module.
507
508 More complicated is C<txn_client_get>: It only creates a transaction
509 (completion, result, ...) object and initiates the transaction.
510
511 my $txn = bless { }, Net::FCP::Txn::;
512
513 It also creates a condition variable that is used to signal the completion
514 of the request:
515
516 $txn->{finished} = AnyAvent->condvar;
517
518 It then creates a socket in non-blocking mode.
519
520 socket $txn->{fh}, ...;
521 fcntl $txn->{fh}, F_SETFL, O_NONBLOCK;
522 connect $txn->{fh}, ...
523 and !$!{EWOULDBLOCK}
524 and !$!{EINPROGRESS}
525 and Carp::croak "unable to connect: $!\n";
526
527 Then it creates a write-watcher which gets called whenever an error occurs
528 or the connection succeeds:
529
530 $txn->{w} = AnyEvent->io (fh => $txn->{fh}, poll => 'w', cb => sub { $txn->fh_ready_w });
531
532 And returns this transaction object. The C<fh_ready_w> callback gets
533 called as soon as the event loop detects that the socket is ready for
534 writing.
535
536 The C<fh_ready_w> method makes the socket blocking again, writes the
537 request data and replaces the watcher by a read watcher (waiting for reply
538 data). The actual code is more complicated, but that doesn't matter for
539 this example:
540
541 fcntl $txn->{fh}, F_SETFL, 0;
542 syswrite $txn->{fh}, $txn->{request}
543 or die "connection or write error";
544 $txn->{w} = AnyEvent->io (fh => $txn->{fh}, poll => 'r', cb => sub { $txn->fh_ready_r });
545
546 Again, C<fh_ready_r> waits till all data has arrived, and then stores the
547 result and signals any possible waiters that the request ahs finished:
548
549 sysread $txn->{fh}, $txn->{buf}, length $txn->{$buf};
550
551 if (end-of-file or data complete) {
552 $txn->{result} = $txn->{buf};
553 $txn->{finished}->broadcast;
554 $txb->{cb}->($txn) of $txn->{cb}; # also call callback
555 }
556
557 The C<result> method, finally, just waits for the finished signal (if the
558 request was already finished, it doesn't wait, of course, and returns the
559 data:
560
561 $txn->{finished}->wait;
562 return $txn->{result};
563
564 The actual code goes further and collects all errors (C<die>s, exceptions)
565 that occured during request processing. The C<result> method detects
566 wether an exception as thrown (it is stored inside the $txn object)
567 and just throws the exception, which means connection errors and other
568 problems get reported tot he code that tries to use the result, not in a
569 random callback.
570
571 All of this enables the following usage styles:
572
573 1. Blocking:
574
575 my $data = $fcp->client_get ($url);
576
577 2. Blocking, but parallelizing:
578
579 my @datas = map $_->result,
580 map $fcp->txn_client_get ($_),
581 @urls;
582
583 Both blocking examples work without the module user having to know
584 anything about events.
585
586 3a. Event-based in a main program, using any support Event module:
587
588 use Event;
589
590 $fcp->txn_client_get ($url)->cb (sub {
591 my $txn = shift;
592 my $data = $txn->result;
593 ...
594 });
595
596 Event::loop;
597
598 3b. The module user could use AnyEvent, too:
599
600 use AnyEvent;
601
602 my $quit = AnyEvent->condvar;
603
604 $fcp->txn_client_get ($url)->cb (sub {
605 ...
606 $quit->broadcast;
607 });
608
609 $quit->wait;
610
611 =head1 SEE ALSO
612
613 Event modules: L<Coro::Event>, L<Coro>, L<Event>, L<Glib::Event>, L<Glib>.
614
615 Implementations: L<AnyEvent::Impl::Coro>, L<AnyEvent::Impl::Event>, L<AnyEvent::Impl::Glib>, L<AnyEvent::Impl::Tk>.
616
617 Nontrivial usage example: L<Net::FCP>.
618
619 =head1
620
621 =cut
622
623 1
624