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Revision: 1.34
Committed: Fri Nov 9 19:37:05 2007 UTC (16 years, 7 months ago) by root
Branch: MAIN
CVS Tags: rel-2_6
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# Content
1 =head1 NAME
2
3 AnyEvent - provide framework for multiple event loops
4
5 Event, Coro, Glib, Tk, Perl - various supported event loops
6
7 =head1 SYNOPSIS
8
9 use AnyEvent;
10
11 my $w = AnyEvent->io (fh => $fh, poll => "r|w", cb => sub {
12 ...
13 });
14
15 my $w = AnyEvent->timer (after => $seconds, cb => sub {
16 ...
17 });
18
19 my $w = AnyEvent->condvar; # stores wether a condition was flagged
20 $w->wait; # enters "main loop" till $condvar gets ->broadcast
21 $w->broadcast; # wake up current and all future wait's
22
23 =head1 DESCRIPTION
24
25 L<AnyEvent> provides an identical interface to multiple event loops. This
26 allows module authors to utilise an event loop without forcing module
27 users to use the same event loop (as only a single event loop can coexist
28 peacefully at any one time).
29
30 The interface itself is vaguely similar but not identical to the Event
31 module.
32
33 On the first call of any method, the module tries to detect the currently
34 loaded event loop by probing wether any of the following modules is
35 loaded: L<Coro::Event>, L<Event>, L<Glib>, L<Tk>. The first one found is
36 used. If none is found, the module tries to load these modules in the
37 order given. The first one that could be successfully loaded will be
38 used. If still none could be found, AnyEvent will fall back to a pure-perl
39 event loop, which is also not very efficient.
40
41 Because AnyEvent first checks for modules that are already loaded, loading
42 an Event model explicitly before first using AnyEvent will likely make
43 that model the default. For example:
44
45 use Tk;
46 use AnyEvent;
47
48 # .. AnyEvent will likely default to Tk
49
50 The pure-perl implementation of AnyEvent is called
51 C<AnyEvent::Impl::Perl>. Like other event modules you can load it
52 explicitly.
53
54 =head1 WATCHERS
55
56 AnyEvent has the central concept of a I<watcher>, which is an object that
57 stores relevant data for each kind of event you are waiting for, such as
58 the callback to call, the filehandle to watch, etc.
59
60 These watchers are normal Perl objects with normal Perl lifetime. After
61 creating a watcher it will immediately "watch" for events and invoke
62 the callback. To disable the watcher you have to destroy it (e.g. by
63 setting the variable that stores it to C<undef> or otherwise deleting all
64 references to it).
65
66 All watchers are created by calling a method on the C<AnyEvent> class.
67
68 =head2 IO WATCHERS
69
70 You can create I/O watcher by calling the C<< AnyEvent->io >> method with
71 the following mandatory arguments:
72
73 C<fh> the Perl I<filehandle> (not filedescriptor) to watch for
74 events. C<poll> must be a string that is either C<r> or C<w>, that creates
75 a watcher waiting for "r"eadable or "w"ritable events. C<cb> teh callback
76 to invoke everytime the filehandle becomes ready.
77
78 Only one io watcher per C<fh> and C<poll> combination is allowed (i.e. on
79 a socket you can have one r + one w, not any more (limitation comes from
80 Tk - if you are sure you are not using Tk this limitation is gone).
81
82 Filehandles will be kept alive, so as long as the watcher exists, the
83 filehandle exists, too.
84
85 Example:
86
87 # wait for readability of STDIN, then read a line and disable the watcher
88 my $w; $w = AnyEvent->io (fh => \*STDIN, poll => 'r', cb => sub {
89 chomp (my $input = <STDIN>);
90 warn "read: $input\n";
91 undef $w;
92 });
93
94 =head2 TIME WATCHERS
95
96 You can create a time watcher by calling the C<< AnyEvent->timer >>
97 method with the following mandatory arguments:
98
99 C<after> after how many seconds (fractions are supported) should the timer
100 activate. C<cb> the callback to invoke.
101
102 The timer callback will be invoked at most once: if you want a repeating
103 timer you have to create a new watcher (this is a limitation by both Tk
104 and Glib).
105
106 Example:
107
108 # fire an event after 7.7 seconds
109 my $w = AnyEvent->timer (after => 7.7, cb => sub {
110 warn "timeout\n";
111 });
112
113 # to cancel the timer:
114 undef $w
115
116 =head2 CONDITION WATCHERS
117
118 Condition watchers can be created by calling the C<< AnyEvent->condvar >>
119 method without any arguments.
120
121 A condition watcher watches for a condition - precisely that the C<<
122 ->broadcast >> method has been called.
123
124 The watcher has only two methods:
125
126 =over 4
127
128 =item $cv->wait
129
130 Wait (blocking if necessary) until the C<< ->broadcast >> method has been
131 called on c<$cv>, while servicing other watchers normally.
132
133 Not all event models support a blocking wait - some die in that case, so
134 if you are using this from a module, never require a blocking wait, but
135 let the caller decide wether the call will block or not (for example,
136 by coupling condition variables with some kind of request results and
137 supporting callbacks so the caller knows that getting the result will not
138 block, while still suppporting blockign waits if the caller so desires).
139
140 You can only wait once on a condition - additional calls will return
141 immediately.
142
143 =item $cv->broadcast
144
145 Flag the condition as ready - a running C<< ->wait >> and all further
146 calls to C<wait> will return after this method has been called. If nobody
147 is waiting the broadcast will be remembered..
148
149 Example:
150
151 # wait till the result is ready
152 my $result_ready = AnyEvent->condvar;
153
154 # do something such as adding a timer
155 # or socket watcher the calls $result_ready->broadcast
156 # when the "result" is ready.
157
158 $result_ready->wait;
159
160 =back
161
162 =head2 SIGNAL WATCHERS
163
164 You can listen for signals using a signal watcher, C<signal> is the signal
165 I<name> without any C<SIG> prefix. Multiple signals events can be clumped
166 together into one callback invocation, and callback invocation might or
167 might not be asynchronous.
168
169 These watchers might use C<%SIG>, so programs overwriting those signals
170 directly will likely not work correctly.
171
172 Example: exit on SIGINT
173
174 my $w = AnyEvent->signal (signal => "INT", cb => sub { exit 1 });
175
176 =head2 CHILD PROCESS WATCHERS
177
178 You can also listen for the status of a child process specified by the
179 C<pid> argument (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 $AnyEvent::MODEL
193
194 Contains C<undef> until the first watcher is being created. Then it
195 contains the event model that is being used, which is the name of the
196 Perl class implementing the model. This class is usually one of the
197 C<AnyEvent::Impl:xxx> modules, but can be any other class in the case
198 AnyEvent has been extended at runtime (e.g. in I<rxvt-unicode>).
199
200 The known classes so far are:
201
202 AnyEvent::Impl::CoroEV based on Coro::EV, best choice.
203 AnyEvent::Impl::EV based on EV (an interface to libev, also best choice).
204 AnyEvent::Impl::Coro based on Coro::Event, second best choice.
205 AnyEvent::Impl::Event based on Event, also second best choice :)
206 AnyEvent::Impl::Glib based on Glib, second-best choice.
207 AnyEvent::Impl::Tk based on Tk, very bad choice.
208 AnyEvent::Impl::Perl pure-perl implementation, inefficient.
209
210 =item AnyEvent::detect
211
212 Returns C<$AnyEvent::MODEL>, forcing autodetection of the event model if
213 necessary. You should only call this function right before you would have
214 created an AnyEvent watcher anyway, that is, very late at runtime.
215
216 =back
217
218 =head1 WHAT TO DO IN A MODULE
219
220 As a module author, you should "use AnyEvent" and call AnyEvent methods
221 freely, but you should not load a specific event module or rely on it.
222
223 Be careful when you create watchers in the module body - Anyevent will
224 decide which event module to use as soon as the first method is called, so
225 by calling AnyEvent in your module body you force the user of your module
226 to load the event module first.
227
228 =head1 WHAT TO DO IN THE MAIN PROGRAM
229
230 There will always be a single main program - the only place that should
231 dictate which event model to use.
232
233 If it doesn't care, it can just "use AnyEvent" and use it itself, or not
234 do anything special and let AnyEvent decide which implementation to chose.
235
236 If the main program relies on a specific event model (for example, in Gtk2
237 programs you have to rely on either Glib or Glib::Event), you should load
238 it before loading AnyEvent or any module that uses it, generally, as early
239 as possible. The reason is that modules might create watchers when they
240 are loaded, and AnyEvent will decide on the event model to use as soon as
241 it creates watchers, and it might chose the wrong one unless you load the
242 correct one yourself.
243
244 You can chose to use a rather inefficient pure-perl implementation by
245 loading the C<AnyEvent::Impl::Perl> module, but letting AnyEvent chose is
246 generally better.
247
248 =cut
249
250 package AnyEvent;
251
252 no warnings;
253 use strict;
254
255 use Carp;
256
257 our $VERSION = '2.6';
258 our $MODEL;
259
260 our $AUTOLOAD;
261 our @ISA;
262
263 our $verbose = $ENV{PERL_ANYEVENT_VERBOSE}*1;
264
265 our @REGISTRY;
266
267 my @models = (
268 [Coro::EV:: => AnyEvent::Impl::CoroEV::],
269 [EV:: => AnyEvent::Impl::EV::],
270 [Coro::Event:: => AnyEvent::Impl::Coro::],
271 [Event:: => AnyEvent::Impl::Event::],
272 [Glib:: => AnyEvent::Impl::Glib::],
273 [Tk:: => AnyEvent::Impl::Tk::],
274 [AnyEvent::Impl::Perl:: => AnyEvent::Impl::Perl::],
275 );
276
277 our %method = map +($_ => 1), qw(io timer condvar broadcast wait signal one_event DESTROY);
278
279 sub detect() {
280 unless ($MODEL) {
281 no strict 'refs';
282
283 # check for already loaded models
284 for (@REGISTRY, @models) {
285 my ($package, $model) = @$_;
286 if (${"$package\::VERSION"} > 0) {
287 if (eval "require $model") {
288 $MODEL = $model;
289 warn "AnyEvent: found model '$model', using it.\n" if $verbose > 1;
290 last;
291 }
292 }
293 }
294
295 unless ($MODEL) {
296 # try to load a model
297
298 for (@REGISTRY, @models) {
299 my ($package, $model) = @$_;
300 if (eval "require $package"
301 and ${"$package\::VERSION"} > 0
302 and eval "require $model") {
303 $MODEL = $model;
304 warn "AnyEvent: autoprobed and loaded model '$model', using it.\n" if $verbose > 1;
305 last;
306 }
307 }
308
309 $MODEL
310 or die "No event module selected for AnyEvent and autodetect failed. Install any one of these modules: Event (or Coro+Event), Glib or Tk.";
311 }
312
313 unshift @ISA, $MODEL;
314 push @{"$MODEL\::ISA"}, "AnyEvent::Base";
315 }
316
317 $MODEL
318 }
319
320 sub AUTOLOAD {
321 (my $func = $AUTOLOAD) =~ s/.*://;
322
323 $method{$func}
324 or croak "$func: not a valid method for AnyEvent objects";
325
326 detect unless $MODEL;
327
328 my $class = shift;
329 $class->$func (@_);
330 }
331
332 package AnyEvent::Base;
333
334 # default implementation for ->condvar, ->wait, ->broadcast
335
336 sub condvar {
337 bless \my $flag, "AnyEvent::Base::CondVar"
338 }
339
340 sub AnyEvent::Base::CondVar::broadcast {
341 ${$_[0]}++;
342 }
343
344 sub AnyEvent::Base::CondVar::wait {
345 AnyEvent->one_event while !${$_[0]};
346 }
347
348 # default implementation for ->signal
349
350 our %SIG_CB;
351
352 sub signal {
353 my (undef, %arg) = @_;
354
355 my $signal = uc $arg{signal}
356 or Carp::croak "required option 'signal' is missing";
357
358 $SIG_CB{$signal}{$arg{cb}} = $arg{cb};
359 $SIG{$signal} ||= sub {
360 $_->() for values %{ $SIG_CB{$signal} || {} };
361 };
362
363 bless [$signal, $arg{cb}], "AnyEvent::Base::Signal"
364 }
365
366 sub AnyEvent::Base::Signal::DESTROY {
367 my ($signal, $cb) = @{$_[0]};
368
369 delete $SIG_CB{$signal}{$cb};
370
371 $SIG{$signal} = 'DEFAULT' unless keys %{ $SIG_CB{$signal} };
372 }
373
374 # default implementation for ->child
375
376 our %PID_CB;
377 our $CHLD_W;
378 our $PID_IDLE;
379 our $WNOHANG;
380
381 sub _child_wait {
382 while (0 <= (my $pid = waitpid -1, $WNOHANG)) {
383 $_->($pid, $?) for (values %{ $PID_CB{$pid} || {} }),
384 (values %{ $PID_CB{0} || {} });
385 }
386
387 undef $PID_IDLE;
388 }
389
390 sub child {
391 my (undef, %arg) = @_;
392
393 defined (my $pid = $arg{pid} + 0)
394 or Carp::croak "required option 'pid' is missing";
395
396 $PID_CB{$pid}{$arg{cb}} = $arg{cb};
397
398 unless ($WNOHANG) {
399 $WNOHANG = eval { require POSIX; &POSIX::WNOHANG } || 1;
400 }
401
402 unless ($CHLD_W) {
403 $CHLD_W = AnyEvent->signal (signal => 'CHLD', cb => \&_child_wait);
404 # child could be a zombie already
405 $PID_IDLE ||= AnyEvent->timer (after => 0, cb => \&_child_wait);
406 }
407
408 bless [$pid, $arg{cb}], "AnyEvent::Base::Child"
409 }
410
411 sub AnyEvent::Base::Child::DESTROY {
412 my ($pid, $cb) = @{$_[0]};
413
414 delete $PID_CB{$pid}{$cb};
415 delete $PID_CB{$pid} unless keys %{ $PID_CB{$pid} };
416
417 undef $CHLD_W unless keys %PID_CB;
418 }
419
420 =head1 SUPPLYING YOUR OWN EVENT MODEL INTERFACE
421
422 If you need to support another event library which isn't directly
423 supported by AnyEvent, you can supply your own interface to it by
424 pushing, before the first watcher gets created, the package name of
425 the event module and the package name of the interface to use onto
426 C<@AnyEvent::REGISTRY>. You can do that before and even without loading
427 AnyEvent.
428
429 Example:
430
431 push @AnyEvent::REGISTRY, [urxvt => urxvt::anyevent::];
432
433 This tells AnyEvent to (literally) use the C<urxvt::anyevent::>
434 package/class when it finds the C<urxvt> package/module is loaded. When
435 AnyEvent is loaded and asked to find a suitable event model, it will
436 first check for the presence of urxvt.
437
438 The class should provide implementations for all watcher types (see
439 L<AnyEvent::Impl::Event> (source code), L<AnyEvent::Impl::Glib>
440 (Source code) and so on for actual examples, use C<perldoc -m
441 AnyEvent::Impl::Glib> to see the sources).
442
443 The above isn't fictitious, the I<rxvt-unicode> (a.k.a. urxvt)
444 uses the above line as-is. An interface isn't included in AnyEvent
445 because it doesn't make sense outside the embedded interpreter inside
446 I<rxvt-unicode>, and it is updated and maintained as part of the
447 I<rxvt-unicode> distribution.
448
449 I<rxvt-unicode> also cheats a bit by not providing blocking access to
450 condition variables: code blocking while waiting for a condition will
451 C<die>. This still works with most modules/usages, and blocking calls must
452 not be in an interactive application, so it makes sense.
453
454 =head1 ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES
455
456 The following environment variables are used by this module:
457
458 C<PERL_ANYEVENT_VERBOSE> when set to C<2> or higher, reports which event
459 model gets used.
460
461 =head1 EXAMPLE
462
463 The following program uses an io watcher to read data from stdin, a timer
464 to display a message once per second, and a condvar to exit the program
465 when the user enters quit:
466
467 use AnyEvent;
468
469 my $cv = AnyEvent->condvar;
470
471 my $io_watcher = AnyEvent->io (fh => \*STDIN, poll => 'r', cb => sub {
472 warn "io event <$_[0]>\n"; # will always output <r>
473 chomp (my $input = <STDIN>); # read a line
474 warn "read: $input\n"; # output what has been read
475 $cv->broadcast if $input =~ /^q/i; # quit program if /^q/i
476 });
477
478 my $time_watcher; # can only be used once
479
480 sub new_timer {
481 $timer = AnyEvent->timer (after => 1, cb => sub {
482 warn "timeout\n"; # print 'timeout' about every second
483 &new_timer; # and restart the time
484 });
485 }
486
487 new_timer; # create first timer
488
489 $cv->wait; # wait until user enters /^q/i
490
491 =head1 REAL-WORLD EXAMPLE
492
493 Consider the L<Net::FCP> module. It features (among others) the following
494 API calls, which are to freenet what HTTP GET requests are to http:
495
496 my $data = $fcp->client_get ($url); # blocks
497
498 my $transaction = $fcp->txn_client_get ($url); # does not block
499 $transaction->cb ( sub { ... } ); # set optional result callback
500 my $data = $transaction->result; # possibly blocks
501
502 The C<client_get> method works like C<LWP::Simple::get>: it requests the
503 given URL and waits till the data has arrived. It is defined to be:
504
505 sub client_get { $_[0]->txn_client_get ($_[1])->result }
506
507 And in fact is automatically generated. This is the blocking API of
508 L<Net::FCP>, and it works as simple as in any other, similar, module.
509
510 More complicated is C<txn_client_get>: It only creates a transaction
511 (completion, result, ...) object and initiates the transaction.
512
513 my $txn = bless { }, Net::FCP::Txn::;
514
515 It also creates a condition variable that is used to signal the completion
516 of the request:
517
518 $txn->{finished} = AnyAvent->condvar;
519
520 It then creates a socket in non-blocking mode.
521
522 socket $txn->{fh}, ...;
523 fcntl $txn->{fh}, F_SETFL, O_NONBLOCK;
524 connect $txn->{fh}, ...
525 and !$!{EWOULDBLOCK}
526 and !$!{EINPROGRESS}
527 and Carp::croak "unable to connect: $!\n";
528
529 Then it creates a write-watcher which gets called whenever an error occurs
530 or the connection succeeds:
531
532 $txn->{w} = AnyEvent->io (fh => $txn->{fh}, poll => 'w', cb => sub { $txn->fh_ready_w });
533
534 And returns this transaction object. The C<fh_ready_w> callback gets
535 called as soon as the event loop detects that the socket is ready for
536 writing.
537
538 The C<fh_ready_w> method makes the socket blocking again, writes the
539 request data and replaces the watcher by a read watcher (waiting for reply
540 data). The actual code is more complicated, but that doesn't matter for
541 this example:
542
543 fcntl $txn->{fh}, F_SETFL, 0;
544 syswrite $txn->{fh}, $txn->{request}
545 or die "connection or write error";
546 $txn->{w} = AnyEvent->io (fh => $txn->{fh}, poll => 'r', cb => sub { $txn->fh_ready_r });
547
548 Again, C<fh_ready_r> waits till all data has arrived, and then stores the
549 result and signals any possible waiters that the request ahs finished:
550
551 sysread $txn->{fh}, $txn->{buf}, length $txn->{$buf};
552
553 if (end-of-file or data complete) {
554 $txn->{result} = $txn->{buf};
555 $txn->{finished}->broadcast;
556 $txb->{cb}->($txn) of $txn->{cb}; # also call callback
557 }
558
559 The C<result> method, finally, just waits for the finished signal (if the
560 request was already finished, it doesn't wait, of course, and returns the
561 data:
562
563 $txn->{finished}->wait;
564 return $txn->{result};
565
566 The actual code goes further and collects all errors (C<die>s, exceptions)
567 that occured during request processing. The C<result> method detects
568 wether an exception as thrown (it is stored inside the $txn object)
569 and just throws the exception, which means connection errors and other
570 problems get reported tot he code that tries to use the result, not in a
571 random callback.
572
573 All of this enables the following usage styles:
574
575 1. Blocking:
576
577 my $data = $fcp->client_get ($url);
578
579 2. Blocking, but parallelizing:
580
581 my @datas = map $_->result,
582 map $fcp->txn_client_get ($_),
583 @urls;
584
585 Both blocking examples work without the module user having to know
586 anything about events.
587
588 3a. Event-based in a main program, using any support Event module:
589
590 use Event;
591
592 $fcp->txn_client_get ($url)->cb (sub {
593 my $txn = shift;
594 my $data = $txn->result;
595 ...
596 });
597
598 Event::loop;
599
600 3b. The module user could use AnyEvent, too:
601
602 use AnyEvent;
603
604 my $quit = AnyEvent->condvar;
605
606 $fcp->txn_client_get ($url)->cb (sub {
607 ...
608 $quit->broadcast;
609 });
610
611 $quit->wait;
612
613 =head1 SEE ALSO
614
615 Event modules: L<Coro::Event>, L<Coro>, L<Event>, L<Glib::Event>, L<Glib>.
616
617 Implementations: L<AnyEvent::Impl::Coro>, L<AnyEvent::Impl::Event>, L<AnyEvent::Impl::Glib>, L<AnyEvent::Impl::Tk>.
618
619 Nontrivial usage example: L<Net::FCP>.
620
621 =head1
622
623 =cut
624
625 1
626