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1=head1 NAME 1=head1 NAME
2 2
3AnyEvent - provide framework for multiple event loops 3AnyEvent - provide framework for multiple event loops
4 4
5EV, Event, Coro::EV, Coro::Event, Glib, Tk, Perl - various supported event loops 5EV, Event, Glib, Tk, Perl, Event::Lib, Qt and POE are various supported
6event loops.
6 7
7=head1 SYNOPSIS 8=head1 SYNOPSIS
8 9
9 use AnyEvent; 10 use AnyEvent;
10 11
12 # file descriptor readable
11 my $w = AnyEvent->io (fh => $fh, poll => "r|w", cb => sub { 13 my $w = AnyEvent->io (fh => $fh, poll => "r", cb => sub { ... });
14
15 # one-shot or repeating timers
16 my $w = AnyEvent->timer (after => $seconds, cb => sub { ... });
17 my $w = AnyEvent->timer (after => $seconds, interval => $seconds, cb => ...
18
19 print AnyEvent->now; # prints current event loop time
20 print AnyEvent->time; # think Time::HiRes::time or simply CORE::time.
21
22 # POSIX signal
23 my $w = AnyEvent->signal (signal => "TERM", cb => sub { ... });
24
25 # child process exit
26 my $w = AnyEvent->child (pid => $pid, cb => sub {
27 my ($pid, $status) = @_;
12 ... 28 ...
13 }); 29 });
14 30
15 my $w = AnyEvent->timer (after => $seconds, cb => sub { 31 # called when event loop idle (if applicable)
16 ... 32 my $w = AnyEvent->idle (cb => sub { ... });
17 });
18 33
19 my $w = AnyEvent->condvar; # stores whether a condition was flagged 34 my $w = AnyEvent->condvar; # stores whether a condition was flagged
35 $w->send; # wake up current and all future recv's
20 $w->wait; # enters "main loop" till $condvar gets ->broadcast 36 $w->recv; # enters "main loop" till $condvar gets ->send
21 $w->broadcast; # wake up current and all future wait's 37 # use a condvar in callback mode:
38 $w->cb (sub { $_[0]->recv });
39
40=head1 INTRODUCTION/TUTORIAL
41
42This manpage is mainly a reference manual. If you are interested
43in a tutorial or some gentle introduction, have a look at the
44L<AnyEvent::Intro> manpage.
22 45
23=head1 WHY YOU SHOULD USE THIS MODULE (OR NOT) 46=head1 WHY YOU SHOULD USE THIS MODULE (OR NOT)
24 47
25Glib, POE, IO::Async, Event... CPAN offers event models by the dozen 48Glib, POE, IO::Async, Event... CPAN offers event models by the dozen
26nowadays. So what is different about AnyEvent? 49nowadays. So what is different about AnyEvent?
27 50
28Executive Summary: AnyEvent is I<compatible>, AnyEvent is I<free of 51Executive Summary: AnyEvent is I<compatible>, AnyEvent is I<free of
29policy> and AnyEvent is I<small and efficient>. 52policy> and AnyEvent is I<small and efficient>.
30 53
31First and foremost, I<AnyEvent is not an event model> itself, it only 54First 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 55interfaces to whatever event model the main program happens to use, in a
33pragmatic way. For event models and certain classes of immortals alike, 56pragmatic way. For event models and certain classes of immortals alike,
34the statement "there can only be one" is a bitter reality, and AnyEvent 57the statement "there can only be one" is a bitter reality: In general,
35helps hiding the differences. 58only one event loop can be active at the same time in a process. AnyEvent
59cannot change this, but it can hide the differences between those event
60loops.
36 61
37The goal of AnyEvent is to offer module authors the ability to do event 62The goal of AnyEvent is to offer module authors the ability to do event
38programming (waiting for I/O or timer events) without subscribing to a 63programming (waiting for I/O or timer events) without subscribing to a
39religion, a way of living, and most importantly: without forcing your 64religion, a way of living, and most importantly: without forcing your
40module users into the same thing by forcing them to use the same event 65module users into the same thing by forcing them to use the same event
41model you use. 66model you use.
42 67
43For modules like POE or IO::Async (which is actually doing all I/O 68For modules like POE or IO::Async (which is a total misnomer as it is
44I<synchronously>...), using them in your module is like joining a 69actually doing all I/O I<synchronously>...), using them in your module is
45cult: After you joined, you are dependent on them and you cannot use 70like joining a cult: After you joined, you are dependent on them and you
46anything else, as it is simply incompatible to everything that isn't 71cannot use anything else, as they are simply incompatible to everything
47itself. 72that isn't them. What's worse, all the potential users of your
73module are I<also> forced to use the same event loop you use.
48 74
49AnyEvent + POE works fine. AnyEvent + Glib works fine. AnyEvent + Tk 75AnyEvent is different: AnyEvent + POE works fine. AnyEvent + Glib works
50works fine etc. etc. but none of these work together with the rest: POE 76fine. AnyEvent + Tk works fine etc. etc. but none of these work together
51+ IO::Async? no go. Tk + Event? no go. If your module uses one of 77with the rest: POE + IO::Async? No go. Tk + Event? No go. Again: if
52those, every user of your module has to use it, too. If your module 78your module uses one of those, every user of your module has to use it,
53uses AnyEvent, it works transparently with all event models it supports 79too. But if your module uses AnyEvent, it works transparently with all
54(including stuff like POE and IO::Async). 80event models it supports (including stuff like IO::Async, as long as those
81use one of the supported event loops. It is trivial to add new event loops
82to AnyEvent, too, so it is future-proof).
55 83
56In addition of being free of having to use I<the one and only true event 84In addition to being free of having to use I<the one and only true event
57model>, AnyEvent also is free of bloat and policy: with POE or similar 85model>, AnyEvent also is free of bloat and policy: with POE or similar
58modules, you get an enourmous amount of code and strict rules you have 86modules, you get an enormous amount of code and strict rules you have to
59to follow. AnyEvent, on the other hand, is lean and to the point by only 87follow. AnyEvent, on the other hand, is lean and up to the point, by only
60offering the functionality that is useful, in as thin as a wrapper as 88offering the functionality that is necessary, in as thin as a wrapper as
61technically possible. 89technically possible.
62 90
91Of course, AnyEvent comes with a big (and fully optional!) toolbox
92of useful functionality, such as an asynchronous DNS resolver, 100%
93non-blocking connects (even with TLS/SSL, IPv6 and on broken platforms
94such as Windows) and lots of real-world knowledge and workarounds for
95platform bugs and differences.
96
63Of course, if you want lots of policy (this can arguably be somewhat 97Now, if you I<do want> lots of policy (this can arguably be somewhat
64useful) and you want to force your users to use the one and only event 98useful) and you want to force your users to use the one and only event
65model, you should I<not> use this module. 99model, you should I<not> use this module.
66
67 100
68=head1 DESCRIPTION 101=head1 DESCRIPTION
69 102
70L<AnyEvent> provides an identical interface to multiple event loops. This 103L<AnyEvent> provides an identical interface to multiple event loops. This
71allows module authors to utilise an event loop without forcing module 104allows module authors to utilise an event loop without forcing module
72users to use the same event loop (as only a single event loop can coexist 105users to use the same event loop (as only a single event loop can coexist
73peacefully at any one time). 106peacefully at any one time).
74 107
75The interface itself is vaguely similar but not identical to the Event 108The interface itself is vaguely similar, but not identical to the L<Event>
76module. 109module.
77 110
78On the first call of any method, the module tries to detect the currently 111During the first call of any watcher-creation method, the module tries
79loaded event loop by probing whether any of the following modules is 112to detect the currently loaded event loop by probing whether one of the
80loaded: L<Coro::EV>, L<Coro::Event>, L<EV>, L<Event>, L<Glib>, L<Tk>. The 113following modules is already loaded: L<EV>,
114L<Event>, L<Glib>, L<AnyEvent::Impl::Perl>, L<Tk>, L<Event::Lib>, L<Qt>,
81first one found is used. If none are found, the module tries to load these 115L<POE>. The first one found is used. If none are found, the module tries
82modules in the order given. The first one that could be successfully 116to load these modules (excluding Tk, Event::Lib, Qt and POE as the pure perl
83loaded will be used. If still none could be found, AnyEvent will fall back 117adaptor should always succeed) in the order given. The first one that can
84to a pure-perl event loop, which is also not very efficient. 118be successfully loaded will be used. If, after this, still none could be
119found, AnyEvent will fall back to a pure-perl event loop, which is not
120very efficient, but should work everywhere.
85 121
86Because AnyEvent first checks for modules that are already loaded, loading 122Because AnyEvent first checks for modules that are already loaded, loading
87an Event model explicitly before first using AnyEvent will likely make 123an event model explicitly before first using AnyEvent will likely make
88that model the default. For example: 124that model the default. For example:
89 125
90 use Tk; 126 use Tk;
91 use AnyEvent; 127 use AnyEvent;
92 128
93 # .. AnyEvent will likely default to Tk 129 # .. AnyEvent will likely default to Tk
94 130
131The I<likely> means that, if any module loads another event model and
132starts using it, all bets are off. Maybe you should tell their authors to
133use AnyEvent so their modules work together with others seamlessly...
134
95The pure-perl implementation of AnyEvent is called 135The pure-perl implementation of AnyEvent is called
96C<AnyEvent::Impl::Perl>. Like other event modules you can load it 136C<AnyEvent::Impl::Perl>. Like other event modules you can load it
97explicitly. 137explicitly and enjoy the high availability of that event loop :)
98 138
99=head1 WATCHERS 139=head1 WATCHERS
100 140
101AnyEvent has the central concept of a I<watcher>, which is an object that 141AnyEvent has the central concept of a I<watcher>, which is an object that
102stores relevant data for each kind of event you are waiting for, such as 142stores relevant data for each kind of event you are waiting for, such as
103the callback to call, the filehandle to watch, etc. 143the callback to call, the file handle to watch, etc.
104 144
105These watchers are normal Perl objects with normal Perl lifetime. After 145These watchers are normal Perl objects with normal Perl lifetime. After
106creating a watcher it will immediately "watch" for events and invoke 146creating a watcher it will immediately "watch" for events and invoke the
147callback when the event occurs (of course, only when the event model
148is in control).
149
150Note that B<callbacks must not permanently change global variables>
151potentially in use by the event loop (such as C<$_> or C<$[>) and that B<<
152callbacks must not C<die> >>. The former is good programming practise in
153Perl and the latter stems from the fact that exception handling differs
154widely between event loops.
155
107the callback. To disable the watcher you have to destroy it (e.g. by 156To disable the watcher you have to destroy it (e.g. by setting the
108setting the variable that stores it to C<undef> or otherwise deleting all 157variable you store it in to C<undef> or otherwise deleting all references
109references to it). 158to it).
110 159
111All watchers are created by calling a method on the C<AnyEvent> class. 160All watchers are created by calling a method on the C<AnyEvent> class.
112 161
162Many watchers either are used with "recursion" (repeating timers for
163example), or need to refer to their watcher object in other ways.
164
165An any way to achieve that is this pattern:
166
167 my $w; $w = AnyEvent->type (arg => value ..., cb => sub {
168 # you can use $w here, for example to undef it
169 undef $w;
170 });
171
172Note that C<my $w; $w => combination. This is necessary because in Perl,
173my variables are only visible after the statement in which they are
174declared.
175
113=head2 IO WATCHERS 176=head2 I/O WATCHERS
114 177
115You can create I/O watcher by calling the C<< AnyEvent->io >> method with 178You can create an I/O watcher by calling the C<< AnyEvent->io >> method
116the following mandatory arguments: 179with the following mandatory key-value pairs as arguments:
117 180
118C<fh> the Perl I<filehandle> (not filedescriptor) to watch for 181C<fh> is the Perl I<file handle> (I<not> file descriptor) to watch
182for events (AnyEvent might or might not keep a reference to this file
183handle). Note that only file handles pointing to things for which
184non-blocking operation makes sense are allowed. This includes sockets,
185most character devices, pipes, fifos and so on, but not for example files
186or block devices.
187
119events. C<poll> must be a string that is either C<r> or C<w>, that creates 188C<poll> must be a string that is either C<r> or C<w>, which creates a
120a watcher waiting for "r"eadable or "w"ritable events. C<cb> the callback 189watcher waiting for "r"eadable or "w"ritable events, respectively.
121to invoke everytime the filehandle becomes ready.
122 190
123Filehandles will be kept alive, so as long as the watcher exists, the 191C<cb> is the callback to invoke each time the file handle becomes ready.
124filehandle exists, too.
125 192
126Example: 193Although the callback might get passed parameters, their value and
194presence is undefined and you cannot rely on them. Portable AnyEvent
195callbacks cannot use arguments passed to I/O watcher callbacks.
127 196
197The I/O watcher might use the underlying file descriptor or a copy of it.
198You must not close a file handle as long as any watcher is active on the
199underlying file descriptor.
200
201Some event loops issue spurious readyness notifications, so you should
202always use non-blocking calls when reading/writing from/to your file
203handles.
204
128 # wait for readability of STDIN, then read a line and disable the watcher 205Example: wait for readability of STDIN, then read a line and disable the
206watcher.
207
129 my $w; $w = AnyEvent->io (fh => \*STDIN, poll => 'r', cb => sub { 208 my $w; $w = AnyEvent->io (fh => \*STDIN, poll => 'r', cb => sub {
130 chomp (my $input = <STDIN>); 209 chomp (my $input = <STDIN>);
131 warn "read: $input\n"; 210 warn "read: $input\n";
132 undef $w; 211 undef $w;
133 }); 212 });
135=head2 TIME WATCHERS 214=head2 TIME WATCHERS
136 215
137You can create a time watcher by calling the C<< AnyEvent->timer >> 216You can create a time watcher by calling the C<< AnyEvent->timer >>
138method with the following mandatory arguments: 217method with the following mandatory arguments:
139 218
140C<after> after how many seconds (fractions are supported) should the timer 219C<after> specifies after how many seconds (fractional values are
141activate. C<cb> the callback to invoke. 220supported) the callback should be invoked. C<cb> is the callback to invoke
221in that case.
142 222
143The timer callback will be invoked at most once: if you want a repeating 223Although the callback might get passed parameters, their value and
144timer you have to create a new watcher (this is a limitation by both Tk 224presence is undefined and you cannot rely on them. Portable AnyEvent
145and Glib). 225callbacks cannot use arguments passed to time watcher callbacks.
146 226
147Example: 227The callback will normally be invoked once only. If you specify another
228parameter, C<interval>, as a strictly positive number (> 0), then the
229callback will be invoked regularly at that interval (in fractional
230seconds) after the first invocation. If C<interval> is specified with a
231false value, then it is treated as if it were missing.
148 232
233The callback will be rescheduled before invoking the callback, but no
234attempt is done to avoid timer drift in most backends, so the interval is
235only approximate.
236
149 # fire an event after 7.7 seconds 237Example: fire an event after 7.7 seconds.
238
150 my $w = AnyEvent->timer (after => 7.7, cb => sub { 239 my $w = AnyEvent->timer (after => 7.7, cb => sub {
151 warn "timeout\n"; 240 warn "timeout\n";
152 }); 241 });
153 242
154 # to cancel the timer: 243 # to cancel the timer:
155 undef $w; 244 undef $w;
156 245
157=head2 CONDITION WATCHERS 246Example 2: fire an event after 0.5 seconds, then roughly every second.
158 247
159Condition watchers can be created by calling the C<< AnyEvent->condvar >> 248 my $w = AnyEvent->timer (after => 0.5, interval => 1, cb => sub {
160method without any arguments. 249 warn "timeout\n";
250 };
161 251
162A condition watcher watches for a condition - precisely that the C<< 252=head3 TIMING ISSUES
163->broadcast >> method has been called.
164 253
165Note that condition watchers recurse into the event loop - if you have 254There are two ways to handle timers: based on real time (relative, "fire
166two watchers that call C<< ->wait >> in a round-robbin fashion, you 255in 10 seconds") and based on wallclock time (absolute, "fire at 12
167lose. Therefore, condition watchers are good to export to your caller, but 256o'clock").
168you should avoid making a blocking wait, at least in callbacks, as this
169usually asks for trouble.
170 257
171The watcher has only two methods: 258While most event loops expect timers to specified in a relative way, they
259use absolute time internally. This makes a difference when your clock
260"jumps", for example, when ntp decides to set your clock backwards from
261the wrong date of 2014-01-01 to 2008-01-01, a watcher that is supposed to
262fire "after" a second might actually take six years to finally fire.
263
264AnyEvent cannot compensate for this. The only event loop that is conscious
265about these issues is L<EV>, which offers both relative (ev_timer, based
266on true relative time) and absolute (ev_periodic, based on wallclock time)
267timers.
268
269AnyEvent always prefers relative timers, if available, matching the
270AnyEvent API.
271
272AnyEvent has two additional methods that return the "current time":
172 273
173=over 4 274=over 4
174 275
276=item AnyEvent->time
277
278This returns the "current wallclock time" as a fractional number of
279seconds since the Epoch (the same thing as C<time> or C<Time::HiRes::time>
280return, and the result is guaranteed to be compatible with those).
281
282It progresses independently of any event loop processing, i.e. each call
283will check the system clock, which usually gets updated frequently.
284
285=item AnyEvent->now
286
287This also returns the "current wallclock time", but unlike C<time>, above,
288this value might change only once per event loop iteration, depending on
289the event loop (most return the same time as C<time>, above). This is the
290time that AnyEvent's timers get scheduled against.
291
292I<In almost all cases (in all cases if you don't care), this is the
293function to call when you want to know the current time.>
294
295This function is also often faster then C<< AnyEvent->time >>, and
296thus the preferred method if you want some timestamp (for example,
297L<AnyEvent::Handle> uses this to update it's activity timeouts).
298
299The rest of this section is only of relevance if you try to be very exact
300with your timing, you can skip it without bad conscience.
301
302For a practical example of when these times differ, consider L<Event::Lib>
303and L<EV> and the following set-up:
304
305The event loop is running and has just invoked one of your callback at
306time=500 (assume no other callbacks delay processing). In your callback,
307you wait a second by executing C<sleep 1> (blocking the process for a
308second) and then (at time=501) you create a relative timer that fires
309after three seconds.
310
311With L<Event::Lib>, C<< AnyEvent->time >> and C<< AnyEvent->now >> will
312both return C<501>, because that is the current time, and the timer will
313be scheduled to fire at time=504 (C<501> + C<3>).
314
315With L<EV>, C<< AnyEvent->time >> returns C<501> (as that is the current
316time), but C<< AnyEvent->now >> returns C<500>, as that is the time the
317last event processing phase started. With L<EV>, your timer gets scheduled
318to run at time=503 (C<500> + C<3>).
319
320In one sense, L<Event::Lib> is more exact, as it uses the current time
321regardless of any delays introduced by event processing. However, most
322callbacks do not expect large delays in processing, so this causes a
323higher drift (and a lot more system calls to get the current time).
324
325In another sense, L<EV> is more exact, as your timer will be scheduled at
326the same time, regardless of how long event processing actually took.
327
328In either case, if you care (and in most cases, you don't), then you
329can get whatever behaviour you want with any event loop, by taking the
330difference between C<< AnyEvent->time >> and C<< AnyEvent->now >> into
331account.
332
333=item AnyEvent->now_update
334
335Some event loops (such as L<EV> or L<AnyEvent::Impl::Perl>) cache
336the current time for each loop iteration (see the discussion of L<<
337AnyEvent->now >>, above).
338
339When a callback runs for a long time (or when the process sleeps), then
340this "current" time will differ substantially from the real time, which
341might affect timers and time-outs.
342
343When this is the case, you can call this method, which will update the
344event loop's idea of "current time".
345
346Note that updating the time I<might> cause some events to be handled.
347
348=back
349
350=head2 SIGNAL WATCHERS
351
352You can watch for signals using a signal watcher, C<signal> is the signal
353I<name> in uppercase and without any C<SIG> prefix, C<cb> is the Perl
354callback to be invoked whenever a signal occurs.
355
356Although the callback might get passed parameters, their value and
357presence is undefined and you cannot rely on them. Portable AnyEvent
358callbacks cannot use arguments passed to signal watcher callbacks.
359
360Multiple signal occurrences can be clumped together into one callback
361invocation, and callback invocation will be synchronous. Synchronous means
362that it might take a while until the signal gets handled by the process,
363but it is guaranteed not to interrupt any other callbacks.
364
365The main advantage of using these watchers is that you can share a signal
366between multiple watchers.
367
368This watcher might use C<%SIG>, so programs overwriting those signals
369directly will likely not work correctly.
370
371Example: exit on SIGINT
372
373 my $w = AnyEvent->signal (signal => "INT", cb => sub { exit 1 });
374
375=head2 CHILD PROCESS WATCHERS
376
377You can also watch on a child process exit and catch its exit status.
378
379The child process is specified by the C<pid> argument (if set to C<0>, it
380watches for any child process exit). The watcher will triggered only when
381the child process has finished and an exit status is available, not on
382any trace events (stopped/continued).
383
384The callback will be called with the pid and exit status (as returned by
385waitpid), so unlike other watcher types, you I<can> rely on child watcher
386callback arguments.
387
388This watcher type works by installing a signal handler for C<SIGCHLD>,
389and since it cannot be shared, nothing else should use SIGCHLD or reap
390random child processes (waiting for specific child processes, e.g. inside
391C<system>, is just fine).
392
393There is a slight catch to child watchers, however: you usually start them
394I<after> the child process was created, and this means the process could
395have exited already (and no SIGCHLD will be sent anymore).
396
397Not all event models handle this correctly (POE doesn't), but even for
398event models that I<do> handle this correctly, they usually need to be
399loaded before the process exits (i.e. before you fork in the first place).
400
401This means you cannot create a child watcher as the very first thing in an
402AnyEvent program, you I<have> to create at least one watcher before you
403C<fork> the child (alternatively, you can call C<AnyEvent::detect>).
404
405Example: fork a process and wait for it
406
407 my $done = AnyEvent->condvar;
408
409 my $pid = fork or exit 5;
410
411 my $w = AnyEvent->child (
412 pid => $pid,
413 cb => sub {
414 my ($pid, $status) = @_;
415 warn "pid $pid exited with status $status";
416 $done->send;
417 },
418 );
419
420 # do something else, then wait for process exit
421 $done->recv;
422
423=head2 IDLE WATCHERS
424
425Sometimes there is a need to do something, but it is not so important
426to do it instantly, but only when there is nothing better to do. This
427"nothing better to do" is usually defined to be "no other events need
428attention by the event loop".
429
430Idle watchers ideally get invoked when the event loop has nothing
431better to do, just before it would block the process to wait for new
432events. Instead of blocking, the idle watcher is invoked.
433
434Most event loops unfortunately do not really support idle watchers (only
435EV, Event and Glib do it in a usable fashion) - for the rest, AnyEvent
436will simply call the callback "from time to time".
437
438Example: read lines from STDIN, but only process them when the
439program is otherwise idle:
440
441 my @lines; # read data
442 my $idle_w;
443 my $io_w = AnyEvent->io (fh => \*STDIN, poll => 'r', cb => sub {
444 push @lines, scalar <STDIN>;
445
446 # start an idle watcher, if not already done
447 $idle_w ||= AnyEvent->idle (cb => sub {
448 # handle only one line, when there are lines left
449 if (my $line = shift @lines) {
450 print "handled when idle: $line";
451 } else {
452 # otherwise disable the idle watcher again
453 undef $idle_w;
454 }
455 });
456 });
457
458=head2 CONDITION VARIABLES
459
460If you are familiar with some event loops you will know that all of them
461require you to run some blocking "loop", "run" or similar function that
462will actively watch for new events and call your callbacks.
463
464AnyEvent is different, it expects somebody else to run the event loop and
465will only block when necessary (usually when told by the user).
466
467The instrument to do that is called a "condition variable", so called
468because they represent a condition that must become true.
469
470Condition variables can be created by calling the C<< AnyEvent->condvar
471>> method, usually without arguments. The only argument pair allowed is
472
473C<cb>, which specifies a callback to be called when the condition variable
474becomes true, with the condition variable as the first argument (but not
475the results).
476
477After creation, the condition variable is "false" until it becomes "true"
478by calling the C<send> method (or calling the condition variable as if it
479were a callback, read about the caveats in the description for the C<<
480->send >> method).
481
482Condition variables are similar to callbacks, except that you can
483optionally wait for them. They can also be called merge points - points
484in time where multiple outstanding events have been processed. And yet
485another way to call them is transactions - each condition variable can be
486used to represent a transaction, which finishes at some point and delivers
487a result.
488
489Condition variables are very useful to signal that something has finished,
490for example, if you write a module that does asynchronous http requests,
491then a condition variable would be the ideal candidate to signal the
492availability of results. The user can either act when the callback is
493called or can synchronously C<< ->recv >> for the results.
494
495You can also use them to simulate traditional event loops - for example,
496you can block your main program until an event occurs - for example, you
497could C<< ->recv >> in your main program until the user clicks the Quit
498button of your app, which would C<< ->send >> the "quit" event.
499
500Note that condition variables recurse into the event loop - if you have
501two pieces of code that call C<< ->recv >> in a round-robin fashion, you
502lose. Therefore, condition variables are good to export to your caller, but
503you should avoid making a blocking wait yourself, at least in callbacks,
504as this asks for trouble.
505
506Condition variables are represented by hash refs in perl, and the keys
507used by AnyEvent itself are all named C<_ae_XXX> to make subclassing
508easy (it is often useful to build your own transaction class on top of
509AnyEvent). To subclass, use C<AnyEvent::CondVar> as base class and call
510it's C<new> method in your own C<new> method.
511
512There are two "sides" to a condition variable - the "producer side" which
513eventually calls C<< -> send >>, and the "consumer side", which waits
514for the send to occur.
515
516Example: wait for a timer.
517
518 # wait till the result is ready
519 my $result_ready = AnyEvent->condvar;
520
521 # do something such as adding a timer
522 # or socket watcher the calls $result_ready->send
523 # when the "result" is ready.
524 # in this case, we simply use a timer:
525 my $w = AnyEvent->timer (
526 after => 1,
527 cb => sub { $result_ready->send },
528 );
529
530 # this "blocks" (while handling events) till the callback
531 # calls send
532 $result_ready->recv;
533
534Example: wait for a timer, but take advantage of the fact that
535condition variables are also code references.
536
537 my $done = AnyEvent->condvar;
538 my $delay = AnyEvent->timer (after => 5, cb => $done);
539 $done->recv;
540
541Example: Imagine an API that returns a condvar and doesn't support
542callbacks. This is how you make a synchronous call, for example from
543the main program:
544
545 use AnyEvent::CouchDB;
546
547 ...
548
549 my @info = $couchdb->info->recv;
550
551And this is how you would just ste a callback to be called whenever the
552results are available:
553
554 $couchdb->info->cb (sub {
555 my @info = $_[0]->recv;
556 });
557
558=head3 METHODS FOR PRODUCERS
559
560These methods should only be used by the producing side, i.e. the
561code/module that eventually sends the signal. Note that it is also
562the producer side which creates the condvar in most cases, but it isn't
563uncommon for the consumer to create it as well.
564
565=over 4
566
567=item $cv->send (...)
568
569Flag the condition as ready - a running C<< ->recv >> and all further
570calls to C<recv> will (eventually) return after this method has been
571called. If nobody is waiting the send will be remembered.
572
573If a callback has been set on the condition variable, it is called
574immediately from within send.
575
576Any arguments passed to the C<send> call will be returned by all
577future C<< ->recv >> calls.
578
579Condition variables are overloaded so one can call them directly
580(as a code reference). Calling them directly is the same as calling
581C<send>. Note, however, that many C-based event loops do not handle
582overloading, so as tempting as it may be, passing a condition variable
583instead of a callback does not work. Both the pure perl and EV loops
584support overloading, however, as well as all functions that use perl to
585invoke a callback (as in L<AnyEvent::Socket> and L<AnyEvent::DNS> for
586example).
587
588=item $cv->croak ($error)
589
590Similar to send, but causes all call's to C<< ->recv >> to invoke
591C<Carp::croak> with the given error message/object/scalar.
592
593This can be used to signal any errors to the condition variable
594user/consumer.
595
596=item $cv->begin ([group callback])
597
175=item $cv->wait 598=item $cv->end
176 599
177Wait (blocking if necessary) until the C<< ->broadcast >> method has been 600These two methods are EXPERIMENTAL and MIGHT CHANGE.
601
602These two methods can be used to combine many transactions/events into
603one. For example, a function that pings many hosts in parallel might want
604to use a condition variable for the whole process.
605
606Every call to C<< ->begin >> will increment a counter, and every call to
607C<< ->end >> will decrement it. If the counter reaches C<0> in C<< ->end
608>>, the (last) callback passed to C<begin> will be executed. That callback
609is I<supposed> to call C<< ->send >>, but that is not required. If no
610callback was set, C<send> will be called without any arguments.
611
612Let's clarify this with the ping example:
613
614 my $cv = AnyEvent->condvar;
615
616 my %result;
617 $cv->begin (sub { $cv->send (\%result) });
618
619 for my $host (@list_of_hosts) {
620 $cv->begin;
621 ping_host_then_call_callback $host, sub {
622 $result{$host} = ...;
623 $cv->end;
624 };
625 }
626
627 $cv->end;
628
629This code fragment supposedly pings a number of hosts and calls
630C<send> after results for all then have have been gathered - in any
631order. To achieve this, the code issues a call to C<begin> when it starts
632each ping request and calls C<end> when it has received some result for
633it. Since C<begin> and C<end> only maintain a counter, the order in which
634results arrive is not relevant.
635
636There is an additional bracketing call to C<begin> and C<end> outside the
637loop, which serves two important purposes: first, it sets the callback
638to be called once the counter reaches C<0>, and second, it ensures that
639C<send> is called even when C<no> hosts are being pinged (the loop
640doesn't execute once).
641
642This is the general pattern when you "fan out" into multiple subrequests:
643use an outer C<begin>/C<end> pair to set the callback and ensure C<end>
644is called at least once, and then, for each subrequest you start, call
645C<begin> and for each subrequest you finish, call C<end>.
646
647=back
648
649=head3 METHODS FOR CONSUMERS
650
651These methods should only be used by the consuming side, i.e. the
652code awaits the condition.
653
654=over 4
655
656=item $cv->recv
657
658Wait (blocking if necessary) until the C<< ->send >> or C<< ->croak
178called on c<$cv>, while servicing other watchers normally. 659>> methods have been called on c<$cv>, while servicing other watchers
660normally.
179 661
180You can only wait once on a condition - additional calls will return 662You can only wait once on a condition - additional calls are valid but
181immediately. 663will return immediately.
664
665If an error condition has been set by calling C<< ->croak >>, then this
666function will call C<croak>.
667
668In list context, all parameters passed to C<send> will be returned,
669in scalar context only the first one will be returned.
182 670
183Not all event models support a blocking wait - some die in that case 671Not all event models support a blocking wait - some die in that case
184(programs might want to do that so they stay interactive), so I<if you 672(programs might want to do that to stay interactive), so I<if you are
185are using this from a module, never require a blocking wait>, but let the 673using this from a module, never require a blocking wait>, but let the
186caller decide whether the call will block or not (for example, by coupling 674caller decide whether the call will block or not (for example, by coupling
187condition variables with some kind of request results and supporting 675condition variables with some kind of request results and supporting
188callbacks so the caller knows that getting the result will not block, 676callbacks so the caller knows that getting the result will not block,
189while still suppporting blocking waits if the caller so desires). 677while still supporting blocking waits if the caller so desires).
190 678
191Another reason I<never> to C<< ->wait >> in a module is that you cannot 679Another reason I<never> to C<< ->recv >> in a module is that you cannot
192sensibly have two C<< ->wait >>'s in parallel, as that would require 680sensibly have two C<< ->recv >>'s in parallel, as that would require
193multiple interpreters or coroutines/threads, none of which C<AnyEvent> 681multiple interpreters or coroutines/threads, none of which C<AnyEvent>
194can supply (the coroutine-aware backends C<Coro::EV> and C<Coro::Event> 682can supply.
195explicitly support concurrent C<< ->wait >>'s from different coroutines,
196however).
197 683
198=item $cv->broadcast 684The L<Coro> module, however, I<can> and I<does> supply coroutines and, in
685fact, L<Coro::AnyEvent> replaces AnyEvent's condvars by coroutine-safe
686versions and also integrates coroutines into AnyEvent, making blocking
687C<< ->recv >> calls perfectly safe as long as they are done from another
688coroutine (one that doesn't run the event loop).
199 689
200Flag the condition as ready - a running C<< ->wait >> and all further 690You can ensure that C<< -recv >> never blocks by setting a callback and
201calls to C<wait> will return after this method has been called. If nobody 691only calling C<< ->recv >> from within that callback (or at a later
202is waiting the broadcast will be remembered.. 692time). This will work even when the event loop does not support blocking
693waits otherwise.
203 694
204Example: 695=item $bool = $cv->ready
205 696
206 # wait till the result is ready 697Returns true when the condition is "true", i.e. whether C<send> or
207 my $result_ready = AnyEvent->condvar; 698C<croak> have been called.
208 699
209 # do something such as adding a timer 700=item $cb = $cv->cb ($cb->($cv))
210 # or socket watcher the calls $result_ready->broadcast
211 # when the "result" is ready.
212 701
213 $result_ready->wait; 702This is a mutator function that returns the callback set and optionally
703replaces it before doing so.
704
705The callback will be called when the condition becomes "true", i.e. when
706C<send> or C<croak> are called, with the only argument being the condition
707variable itself. Calling C<recv> inside the callback or at any later time
708is guaranteed not to block.
214 709
215=back 710=back
216 711
217=head2 SIGNAL WATCHERS 712=head1 GLOBAL VARIABLES AND FUNCTIONS
218
219You can listen for signals using a signal watcher, C<signal> is the signal
220I<name> without any C<SIG> prefix. Multiple signals events can be clumped
221together into one callback invocation, and callback invocation might or
222might not be asynchronous.
223
224These watchers might use C<%SIG>, so programs overwriting those signals
225directly will likely not work correctly.
226
227Example: exit on SIGINT
228
229 my $w = AnyEvent->signal (signal => "INT", cb => sub { exit 1 });
230
231=head2 CHILD PROCESS WATCHERS
232
233You can also listen for the status of a child process specified by the
234C<pid> argument (or any child if the pid argument is 0). The watcher will
235trigger as often as status change for the child are received. This works
236by installing a signal handler for C<SIGCHLD>. The callback will be called with
237the pid and exit status (as returned by waitpid).
238
239Example: wait for pid 1333
240
241 my $w = AnyEvent->child (pid => 1333, cb => sub { warn "exit status $?" });
242
243=head1 GLOBALS
244 713
245=over 4 714=over 4
246 715
247=item $AnyEvent::MODEL 716=item $AnyEvent::MODEL
248 717
252C<AnyEvent::Impl:xxx> modules, but can be any other class in the case 721C<AnyEvent::Impl:xxx> modules, but can be any other class in the case
253AnyEvent has been extended at runtime (e.g. in I<rxvt-unicode>). 722AnyEvent has been extended at runtime (e.g. in I<rxvt-unicode>).
254 723
255The known classes so far are: 724The known classes so far are:
256 725
257 AnyEvent::Impl::CoroEV based on Coro::EV, best choice.
258 AnyEvent::Impl::CoroEvent based on Coro::Event, second best choice.
259 AnyEvent::Impl::EV based on EV (an interface to libev, also best choice). 726 AnyEvent::Impl::EV based on EV (an interface to libev, best choice).
260 AnyEvent::Impl::Event based on Event, also second best choice :) 727 AnyEvent::Impl::Event based on Event, second best choice.
728 AnyEvent::Impl::Perl pure-perl implementation, fast and portable.
261 AnyEvent::Impl::Glib based on Glib, third-best choice. 729 AnyEvent::Impl::Glib based on Glib, third-best choice.
262 AnyEvent::Impl::Tk based on Tk, very bad choice. 730 AnyEvent::Impl::Tk based on Tk, very bad choice.
263 AnyEvent::Impl::Perl pure-perl implementation, inefficient but portable. 731 AnyEvent::Impl::Qt based on Qt, cannot be autoprobed (see its docs).
732 AnyEvent::Impl::EventLib based on Event::Lib, leaks memory and worse.
733 AnyEvent::Impl::POE based on POE, not generic enough for full support.
734
735There is no support for WxWidgets, as WxWidgets has no support for
736watching file handles. However, you can use WxWidgets through the
737POE Adaptor, as POE has a Wx backend that simply polls 20 times per
738second, which was considered to be too horrible to even consider for
739AnyEvent. Likewise, other POE backends can be used by AnyEvent by using
740it's adaptor.
741
742AnyEvent knows about L<Prima> and L<Wx> and will try to use L<POE> when
743autodetecting them.
264 744
265=item AnyEvent::detect 745=item AnyEvent::detect
266 746
267Returns C<$AnyEvent::MODEL>, forcing autodetection of the event model if 747Returns C<$AnyEvent::MODEL>, forcing autodetection of the event model
268necessary. You should only call this function right before you would have 748if necessary. You should only call this function right before you would
269created an AnyEvent watcher anyway, that is, very late at runtime. 749have created an AnyEvent watcher anyway, that is, as late as possible at
750runtime.
751
752=item $guard = AnyEvent::post_detect { BLOCK }
753
754Arranges for the code block to be executed as soon as the event model is
755autodetected (or immediately if this has already happened).
756
757If called in scalar or list context, then it creates and returns an object
758that automatically removes the callback again when it is destroyed. See
759L<Coro::BDB> for a case where this is useful.
760
761=item @AnyEvent::post_detect
762
763If there are any code references in this array (you can C<push> to it
764before or after loading AnyEvent), then they will called directly after
765the event loop has been chosen.
766
767You should check C<$AnyEvent::MODEL> before adding to this array, though:
768if it contains a true value then the event loop has already been detected,
769and the array will be ignored.
770
771Best use C<AnyEvent::post_detect { BLOCK }> instead.
270 772
271=back 773=back
272 774
273=head1 WHAT TO DO IN A MODULE 775=head1 WHAT TO DO IN A MODULE
274 776
275As a module author, you should "use AnyEvent" and call AnyEvent methods 777As a module author, you should C<use AnyEvent> and call AnyEvent methods
276freely, but you should not load a specific event module or rely on it. 778freely, but you should not load a specific event module or rely on it.
277 779
278Be careful when you create watchers in the module body - Anyevent will 780Be careful when you create watchers in the module body - AnyEvent will
279decide which event module to use as soon as the first method is called, so 781decide which event module to use as soon as the first method is called, so
280by calling AnyEvent in your module body you force the user of your module 782by calling AnyEvent in your module body you force the user of your module
281to load the event module first. 783to load the event module first.
282 784
785Never call C<< ->recv >> on a condition variable unless you I<know> that
786the C<< ->send >> method has been called on it already. This is
787because it will stall the whole program, and the whole point of using
788events is to stay interactive.
789
790It is fine, however, to call C<< ->recv >> when the user of your module
791requests it (i.e. if you create a http request object ad have a method
792called C<results> that returns the results, it should call C<< ->recv >>
793freely, as the user of your module knows what she is doing. always).
794
283=head1 WHAT TO DO IN THE MAIN PROGRAM 795=head1 WHAT TO DO IN THE MAIN PROGRAM
284 796
285There will always be a single main program - the only place that should 797There will always be a single main program - the only place that should
286dictate which event model to use. 798dictate which event model to use.
287 799
288If it doesn't care, it can just "use AnyEvent" and use it itself, or not 800If it doesn't care, it can just "use AnyEvent" and use it itself, or not
289do anything special and let AnyEvent decide which implementation to chose. 801do anything special (it does not need to be event-based) and let AnyEvent
802decide which implementation to chose if some module relies on it.
290 803
291If the main program relies on a specific event model (for example, in Gtk2 804If the main program relies on a specific event model - for example, in
292programs you have to rely on either Glib or Glib::Event), you should load 805Gtk2 programs you have to rely on the Glib module - you should load the
293it before loading AnyEvent or any module that uses it, generally, as early 806event module before loading AnyEvent or any module that uses it: generally
294as possible. The reason is that modules might create watchers when they 807speaking, you should load it as early as possible. The reason is that
295are loaded, and AnyEvent will decide on the event model to use as soon as 808modules might create watchers when they are loaded, and AnyEvent will
296it creates watchers, and it might chose the wrong one unless you load the 809decide on the event model to use as soon as it creates watchers, and it
297correct one yourself. 810might chose the wrong one unless you load the correct one yourself.
298 811
299You can chose to use a rather inefficient pure-perl implementation by 812You can chose to use a pure-perl implementation by loading the
300loading the C<AnyEvent::Impl::Perl> module, but letting AnyEvent chose is 813C<AnyEvent::Impl::Perl> module, which gives you similar behaviour
301generally better. 814everywhere, but letting AnyEvent chose the model is generally better.
815
816=head2 MAINLOOP EMULATION
817
818Sometimes (often for short test scripts, or even standalone programs who
819only want to use AnyEvent), you do not want to run a specific event loop.
820
821In that case, you can use a condition variable like this:
822
823 AnyEvent->condvar->recv;
824
825This has the effect of entering the event loop and looping forever.
826
827Note that usually your program has some exit condition, in which case
828it is better to use the "traditional" approach of storing a condition
829variable somewhere, waiting for it, and sending it when the program should
830exit cleanly.
831
832
833=head1 OTHER MODULES
834
835The following is a non-exhaustive list of additional modules that use
836AnyEvent and can therefore be mixed easily with other AnyEvent modules
837in the same program. Some of the modules come with AnyEvent, some are
838available via CPAN.
839
840=over 4
841
842=item L<AnyEvent::Util>
843
844Contains various utility functions that replace often-used but blocking
845functions such as C<inet_aton> by event-/callback-based versions.
846
847=item L<AnyEvent::Socket>
848
849Provides various utility functions for (internet protocol) sockets,
850addresses and name resolution. Also functions to create non-blocking tcp
851connections or tcp servers, with IPv6 and SRV record support and more.
852
853=item L<AnyEvent::Handle>
854
855Provide read and write buffers, manages watchers for reads and writes,
856supports raw and formatted I/O, I/O queued and fully transparent and
857non-blocking SSL/TLS.
858
859=item L<AnyEvent::DNS>
860
861Provides rich asynchronous DNS resolver capabilities.
862
863=item L<AnyEvent::HTTP>
864
865A simple-to-use HTTP library that is capable of making a lot of concurrent
866HTTP requests.
867
868=item L<AnyEvent::HTTPD>
869
870Provides a simple web application server framework.
871
872=item L<AnyEvent::FastPing>
873
874The fastest ping in the west.
875
876=item L<AnyEvent::DBI>
877
878Executes L<DBI> requests asynchronously in a proxy process.
879
880=item L<AnyEvent::AIO>
881
882Truly asynchronous I/O, should be in the toolbox of every event
883programmer. AnyEvent::AIO transparently fuses L<IO::AIO> and AnyEvent
884together.
885
886=item L<AnyEvent::BDB>
887
888Truly asynchronous Berkeley DB access. AnyEvent::BDB transparently fuses
889L<BDB> and AnyEvent together.
890
891=item L<AnyEvent::GPSD>
892
893A non-blocking interface to gpsd, a daemon delivering GPS information.
894
895=item L<AnyEvent::IGS>
896
897A non-blocking interface to the Internet Go Server protocol (used by
898L<App::IGS>).
899
900=item L<AnyEvent::IRC>
901
902AnyEvent based IRC client module family (replacing the older Net::IRC3).
903
904=item L<Net::XMPP2>
905
906AnyEvent based XMPP (Jabber protocol) module family.
907
908=item L<Net::FCP>
909
910AnyEvent-based implementation of the Freenet Client Protocol, birthplace
911of AnyEvent.
912
913=item L<Event::ExecFlow>
914
915High level API for event-based execution flow control.
916
917=item L<Coro>
918
919Has special support for AnyEvent via L<Coro::AnyEvent>.
920
921=item L<IO::Lambda>
922
923The lambda approach to I/O - don't ask, look there. Can use AnyEvent.
924
925=back
302 926
303=cut 927=cut
304 928
305package AnyEvent; 929package AnyEvent;
306 930
307no warnings; 931no warnings;
308use strict; 932use strict qw(vars subs);
309 933
310use Carp; 934use Carp;
311 935
312our $VERSION = '3.1'; 936our $VERSION = 4.411;
313our $MODEL; 937our $MODEL;
314 938
315our $AUTOLOAD; 939our $AUTOLOAD;
316our @ISA; 940our @ISA;
317 941
942our @REGISTRY;
943
944our $WIN32;
945
946BEGIN {
947 my $win32 = ! ! ($^O =~ /mswin32/i);
948 eval "sub WIN32(){ $win32 }";
949}
950
318our $verbose = $ENV{PERL_ANYEVENT_VERBOSE}*1; 951our $verbose = $ENV{PERL_ANYEVENT_VERBOSE}*1;
319 952
320our @REGISTRY; 953our %PROTOCOL; # (ipv4|ipv6) => (1|2), higher numbers are preferred
954
955{
956 my $idx;
957 $PROTOCOL{$_} = ++$idx
958 for reverse split /\s*,\s*/,
959 $ENV{PERL_ANYEVENT_PROTOCOLS} || "ipv4,ipv6";
960}
321 961
322my @models = ( 962my @models = (
323 [Coro::EV:: => AnyEvent::Impl::CoroEV::],
324 [Coro::Event:: => AnyEvent::Impl::CoroEvent::],
325 [EV:: => AnyEvent::Impl::EV::], 963 [EV:: => AnyEvent::Impl::EV::],
326 [Event:: => AnyEvent::Impl::Event::], 964 [Event:: => AnyEvent::Impl::Event::],
327 [Glib:: => AnyEvent::Impl::Glib::],
328 [Tk:: => AnyEvent::Impl::Tk::],
329 [AnyEvent::Impl::Perl:: => AnyEvent::Impl::Perl::], 965 [AnyEvent::Impl::Perl:: => AnyEvent::Impl::Perl::],
966 # everything below here will not be autoprobed
967 # as the pureperl backend should work everywhere
968 # and is usually faster
969 [Tk:: => AnyEvent::Impl::Tk::], # crashes with many handles
970 [Glib:: => AnyEvent::Impl::Glib::], # becomes extremely slow with many watchers
971 [Event::Lib:: => AnyEvent::Impl::EventLib::], # too buggy
972 [Qt:: => AnyEvent::Impl::Qt::], # requires special main program
973 [POE::Kernel:: => AnyEvent::Impl::POE::], # lasciate ogni speranza
974 [Wx:: => AnyEvent::Impl::POE::],
975 [Prima:: => AnyEvent::Impl::POE::],
330); 976);
331 977
332our %method = map +($_ => 1), qw(io timer condvar broadcast wait signal one_event DESTROY); 978our %method = map +($_ => 1),
979 qw(io timer time now now_update signal child idle condvar one_event DESTROY);
980
981our @post_detect;
982
983sub post_detect(&) {
984 my ($cb) = @_;
985
986 if ($MODEL) {
987 $cb->();
988
989 1
990 } else {
991 push @post_detect, $cb;
992
993 defined wantarray
994 ? bless \$cb, "AnyEvent::Util::postdetect"
995 : ()
996 }
997}
998
999sub AnyEvent::Util::postdetect::DESTROY {
1000 @post_detect = grep $_ != ${$_[0]}, @post_detect;
1001}
333 1002
334sub detect() { 1003sub detect() {
335 unless ($MODEL) { 1004 unless ($MODEL) {
336 no strict 'refs'; 1005 no strict 'refs';
1006 local $SIG{__DIE__};
1007
1008 if ($ENV{PERL_ANYEVENT_MODEL} =~ /^([a-zA-Z]+)$/) {
1009 my $model = "AnyEvent::Impl::$1";
1010 if (eval "require $model") {
1011 $MODEL = $model;
1012 warn "AnyEvent: loaded model '$model' (forced by \$PERL_ANYEVENT_MODEL), using it.\n" if $verbose > 1;
1013 } else {
1014 warn "AnyEvent: unable to load model '$model' (from \$PERL_ANYEVENT_MODEL):\n$@" if $verbose;
1015 }
1016 }
337 1017
338 # check for already loaded models 1018 # check for already loaded models
1019 unless ($MODEL) {
339 for (@REGISTRY, @models) { 1020 for (@REGISTRY, @models) {
340 my ($package, $model) = @$_; 1021 my ($package, $model) = @$_;
341 if (${"$package\::VERSION"} > 0) { 1022 if (${"$package\::VERSION"} > 0) {
342 if (eval "require $model") { 1023 if (eval "require $model") {
343 $MODEL = $model; 1024 $MODEL = $model;
344 warn "AnyEvent: found model '$model', using it.\n" if $verbose > 1; 1025 warn "AnyEvent: autodetected model '$model', using it.\n" if $verbose > 1;
345 last; 1026 last;
1027 }
346 } 1028 }
347 } 1029 }
1030
1031 unless ($MODEL) {
1032 # try to load a model
1033
1034 for (@REGISTRY, @models) {
1035 my ($package, $model) = @$_;
1036 if (eval "require $package"
1037 and ${"$package\::VERSION"} > 0
1038 and eval "require $model") {
1039 $MODEL = $model;
1040 warn "AnyEvent: autoprobed model '$model', using it.\n" if $verbose > 1;
1041 last;
1042 }
1043 }
1044
1045 $MODEL
1046 or die "No event module selected for AnyEvent and autodetect failed. Install any one of these modules: EV, Event or Glib.\n";
1047 }
348 } 1048 }
349 1049
350 unless ($MODEL) { 1050 push @{"$MODEL\::ISA"}, "AnyEvent::Base";
351 # try to load a model
352
353 for (@REGISTRY, @models) {
354 my ($package, $model) = @$_;
355 if (eval "require $package"
356 and ${"$package\::VERSION"} > 0
357 and eval "require $model") {
358 $MODEL = $model;
359 warn "AnyEvent: autoprobed and loaded model '$model', using it.\n" if $verbose > 1;
360 last;
361 }
362 }
363
364 $MODEL
365 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), Glib or Tk.";
366 }
367 1051
368 unshift @ISA, $MODEL; 1052 unshift @ISA, $MODEL;
369 push @{"$MODEL\::ISA"}, "AnyEvent::Base"; 1053
1054 require AnyEvent::Strict if $ENV{PERL_ANYEVENT_STRICT};
1055
1056 (shift @post_detect)->() while @post_detect;
370 } 1057 }
371 1058
372 $MODEL 1059 $MODEL
373} 1060}
374 1061
382 1069
383 my $class = shift; 1070 my $class = shift;
384 $class->$func (@_); 1071 $class->$func (@_);
385} 1072}
386 1073
1074# utility function to dup a filehandle. this is used by many backends
1075# to support binding more than one watcher per filehandle (they usually
1076# allow only one watcher per fd, so we dup it to get a different one).
1077sub _dupfh($$$$) {
1078 my ($poll, $fh, $r, $w) = @_;
1079
1080 # cygwin requires the fh mode to be matching, unix doesn't
1081 my ($rw, $mode) = $poll eq "r" ? ($r, "<")
1082 : $poll eq "w" ? ($w, ">")
1083 : Carp::croak "AnyEvent->io requires poll set to either 'r' or 'w'";
1084
1085 open my $fh2, "$mode&" . fileno $fh
1086 or die "cannot dup() filehandle: $!,";
1087
1088 # we assume CLOEXEC is already set by perl in all important cases
1089
1090 ($fh2, $rw)
1091}
1092
387package AnyEvent::Base; 1093package AnyEvent::Base;
388 1094
1095# default implementations for many methods
1096
1097BEGIN {
1098 if (eval "use Time::HiRes (); Time::HiRes::time (); 1") {
1099 *_time = \&Time::HiRes::time;
1100 # if (eval "use POSIX (); (POSIX::times())...
1101 } else {
1102 *_time = sub { time }; # epic fail
1103 }
1104}
1105
1106sub time { _time }
1107sub now { _time }
1108sub now_update { }
1109
389# default implementation for ->condvar, ->wait, ->broadcast 1110# default implementation for ->condvar
390 1111
391sub condvar { 1112sub condvar {
392 bless \my $flag, "AnyEvent::Base::CondVar" 1113 bless { @_ == 3 ? (_ae_cb => $_[2]) : () }, "AnyEvent::CondVar"
393}
394
395sub AnyEvent::Base::CondVar::broadcast {
396 ${$_[0]}++;
397}
398
399sub AnyEvent::Base::CondVar::wait {
400 AnyEvent->one_event while !${$_[0]};
401} 1114}
402 1115
403# default implementation for ->signal 1116# default implementation for ->signal
404 1117
405our %SIG_CB; 1118our ($SIGPIPE_R, $SIGPIPE_W, %SIG_CB, %SIG_EV, $SIG_IO);
1119
1120sub _signal_exec {
1121 sysread $SIGPIPE_R, my $dummy, 4;
1122
1123 while (%SIG_EV) {
1124 for (keys %SIG_EV) {
1125 delete $SIG_EV{$_};
1126 $_->() for values %{ $SIG_CB{$_} || {} };
1127 }
1128 }
1129}
406 1130
407sub signal { 1131sub signal {
408 my (undef, %arg) = @_; 1132 my (undef, %arg) = @_;
409 1133
1134 unless ($SIGPIPE_R) {
1135 require Fcntl;
1136
1137 if (AnyEvent::WIN32) {
1138 require AnyEvent::Util;
1139
1140 ($SIGPIPE_R, $SIGPIPE_W) = AnyEvent::Util::portable_pipe ();
1141 AnyEvent::Util::fh_nonblocking ($SIGPIPE_R) if $SIGPIPE_R;
1142 AnyEvent::Util::fh_nonblocking ($SIGPIPE_W) if $SIGPIPE_W; # just in case
1143 } else {
1144 pipe $SIGPIPE_R, $SIGPIPE_W;
1145 fcntl $SIGPIPE_R, &Fcntl::F_SETFL, &Fcntl::O_NONBLOCK if $SIGPIPE_R;
1146 fcntl $SIGPIPE_W, &Fcntl::F_SETFL, &Fcntl::O_NONBLOCK if $SIGPIPE_W; # just in case
1147
1148 # not strictly required, as $^F is normally 2, but let's make sure...
1149 fcntl $SIGPIPE_R, &Fcntl::F_SETFD, &Fcntl::FD_CLOEXEC;
1150 fcntl $SIGPIPE_W, &Fcntl::F_SETFD, &Fcntl::FD_CLOEXEC;
1151 }
1152
1153 $SIGPIPE_R
1154 or Carp::croak "AnyEvent: unable to create a signal reporting pipe: $!\n";
1155
1156 $SIG_IO = AnyEvent->io (fh => $SIGPIPE_R, poll => "r", cb => \&_signal_exec);
1157 }
1158
410 my $signal = uc $arg{signal} 1159 my $signal = uc $arg{signal}
411 or Carp::croak "required option 'signal' is missing"; 1160 or Carp::croak "required option 'signal' is missing";
412 1161
413 $SIG_CB{$signal}{$arg{cb}} = $arg{cb}; 1162 $SIG_CB{$signal}{$arg{cb}} = $arg{cb};
414 $SIG{$signal} ||= sub { 1163 $SIG{$signal} ||= sub {
415 $_->() for values %{ $SIG_CB{$signal} || {} }; 1164 local $!;
1165 syswrite $SIGPIPE_W, "\x00", 1 unless %SIG_EV;
1166 undef $SIG_EV{$signal};
416 }; 1167 };
417 1168
418 bless [$signal, $arg{cb}], "AnyEvent::Base::Signal" 1169 bless [$signal, $arg{cb}], "AnyEvent::Base::signal"
419} 1170}
420 1171
421sub AnyEvent::Base::Signal::DESTROY { 1172sub AnyEvent::Base::signal::DESTROY {
422 my ($signal, $cb) = @{$_[0]}; 1173 my ($signal, $cb) = @{$_[0]};
423 1174
424 delete $SIG_CB{$signal}{$cb}; 1175 delete $SIG_CB{$signal}{$cb};
425 1176
1177 # delete doesn't work with older perls - they then
1178 # print weird messages, or just unconditionally exit
1179 # instead of getting the default action.
426 $SIG{$signal} = 'DEFAULT' unless keys %{ $SIG_CB{$signal} }; 1180 undef $SIG{$signal} unless keys %{ $SIG_CB{$signal} };
427} 1181}
428 1182
429# default implementation for ->child 1183# default implementation for ->child
430 1184
431our %PID_CB; 1185our %PID_CB;
432our $CHLD_W; 1186our $CHLD_W;
433our $CHLD_DELAY_W; 1187our $CHLD_DELAY_W;
434our $PID_IDLE;
435our $WNOHANG; 1188our $WNOHANG;
436 1189
437sub _child_wait { 1190sub _sigchld {
438 while (0 < (my $pid = waitpid -1, $WNOHANG)) { 1191 while (0 < (my $pid = waitpid -1, $WNOHANG)) {
439 $_->($pid, $?) for (values %{ $PID_CB{$pid} || {} }), 1192 $_->($pid, $?) for (values %{ $PID_CB{$pid} || {} }),
440 (values %{ $PID_CB{0} || {} }); 1193 (values %{ $PID_CB{0} || {} });
441 } 1194 }
442
443 undef $PID_IDLE;
444}
445
446sub _sigchld {
447 # make sure we deliver these changes "synchronous" with the event loop.
448 $CHLD_DELAY_W ||= AnyEvent->timer (after => 0, cb => sub {
449 undef $CHLD_DELAY_W;
450 &_child_wait;
451 });
452} 1195}
453 1196
454sub child { 1197sub child {
455 my (undef, %arg) = @_; 1198 my (undef, %arg) = @_;
456 1199
457 defined (my $pid = $arg{pid} + 0) 1200 defined (my $pid = $arg{pid} + 0)
458 or Carp::croak "required option 'pid' is missing"; 1201 or Carp::croak "required option 'pid' is missing";
459 1202
460 $PID_CB{$pid}{$arg{cb}} = $arg{cb}; 1203 $PID_CB{$pid}{$arg{cb}} = $arg{cb};
461 1204
462 unless ($WNOHANG) {
463 $WNOHANG = eval { require POSIX; &POSIX::WNOHANG } || 1; 1205 $WNOHANG ||= eval { local $SIG{__DIE__}; require POSIX; &POSIX::WNOHANG } || 1;
464 }
465 1206
466 unless ($CHLD_W) { 1207 unless ($CHLD_W) {
467 $CHLD_W = AnyEvent->signal (signal => 'CHLD', cb => \&_sigchld); 1208 $CHLD_W = AnyEvent->signal (signal => 'CHLD', cb => \&_sigchld);
468 # child could be a zombie already, so make at least one round 1209 # child could be a zombie already, so make at least one round
469 &_sigchld; 1210 &_sigchld;
470 } 1211 }
471 1212
472 bless [$pid, $arg{cb}], "AnyEvent::Base::Child" 1213 bless [$pid, $arg{cb}], "AnyEvent::Base::child"
473} 1214}
474 1215
475sub AnyEvent::Base::Child::DESTROY { 1216sub AnyEvent::Base::child::DESTROY {
476 my ($pid, $cb) = @{$_[0]}; 1217 my ($pid, $cb) = @{$_[0]};
477 1218
478 delete $PID_CB{$pid}{$cb}; 1219 delete $PID_CB{$pid}{$cb};
479 delete $PID_CB{$pid} unless keys %{ $PID_CB{$pid} }; 1220 delete $PID_CB{$pid} unless keys %{ $PID_CB{$pid} };
480 1221
481 undef $CHLD_W unless keys %PID_CB; 1222 undef $CHLD_W unless keys %PID_CB;
482} 1223}
483 1224
1225# idle emulation is done by simply using a timer, regardless
1226# of whether the process is idle or not, and not letting
1227# the callback use more than 50% of the time.
1228sub idle {
1229 my (undef, %arg) = @_;
1230
1231 my ($cb, $w, $rcb) = $arg{cb};
1232
1233 $rcb = sub {
1234 if ($cb) {
1235 $w = _time;
1236 &$cb;
1237 $w = _time - $w;
1238
1239 # never use more then 50% of the time for the idle watcher,
1240 # within some limits
1241 $w = 0.0001 if $w < 0.0001;
1242 $w = 5 if $w > 5;
1243
1244 $w = AnyEvent->timer (after => $w, cb => $rcb);
1245 } else {
1246 # clean up...
1247 undef $w;
1248 undef $rcb;
1249 }
1250 };
1251
1252 $w = AnyEvent->timer (after => 0.05, cb => $rcb);
1253
1254 bless \\$cb, "AnyEvent::Base::idle"
1255}
1256
1257sub AnyEvent::Base::idle::DESTROY {
1258 undef $${$_[0]};
1259}
1260
1261package AnyEvent::CondVar;
1262
1263our @ISA = AnyEvent::CondVar::Base::;
1264
1265package AnyEvent::CondVar::Base;
1266
1267use overload
1268 '&{}' => sub { my $self = shift; sub { $self->send (@_) } },
1269 fallback => 1;
1270
1271sub _send {
1272 # nop
1273}
1274
1275sub send {
1276 my $cv = shift;
1277 $cv->{_ae_sent} = [@_];
1278 (delete $cv->{_ae_cb})->($cv) if $cv->{_ae_cb};
1279 $cv->_send;
1280}
1281
1282sub croak {
1283 $_[0]{_ae_croak} = $_[1];
1284 $_[0]->send;
1285}
1286
1287sub ready {
1288 $_[0]{_ae_sent}
1289}
1290
1291sub _wait {
1292 AnyEvent->one_event while !$_[0]{_ae_sent};
1293}
1294
1295sub recv {
1296 $_[0]->_wait;
1297
1298 Carp::croak $_[0]{_ae_croak} if $_[0]{_ae_croak};
1299 wantarray ? @{ $_[0]{_ae_sent} } : $_[0]{_ae_sent}[0]
1300}
1301
1302sub cb {
1303 $_[0]{_ae_cb} = $_[1] if @_ > 1;
1304 $_[0]{_ae_cb}
1305}
1306
1307sub begin {
1308 ++$_[0]{_ae_counter};
1309 $_[0]{_ae_end_cb} = $_[1] if @_ > 1;
1310}
1311
1312sub end {
1313 return if --$_[0]{_ae_counter};
1314 &{ $_[0]{_ae_end_cb} || sub { $_[0]->send } };
1315}
1316
1317# undocumented/compatibility with pre-3.4
1318*broadcast = \&send;
1319*wait = \&_wait;
1320
1321=head1 ERROR AND EXCEPTION HANDLING
1322
1323In general, AnyEvent does not do any error handling - it relies on the
1324caller to do that if required. The L<AnyEvent::Strict> module (see also
1325the C<PERL_ANYEVENT_STRICT> environment variable, below) provides strict
1326checking of all AnyEvent methods, however, which is highly useful during
1327development.
1328
1329As for exception handling (i.e. runtime errors and exceptions thrown while
1330executing a callback), this is not only highly event-loop specific, but
1331also not in any way wrapped by this module, as this is the job of the main
1332program.
1333
1334The pure perl event loop simply re-throws the exception (usually
1335within C<< condvar->recv >>), the L<Event> and L<EV> modules call C<<
1336$Event/EV::DIED->() >>, L<Glib> uses C<< install_exception_handler >> and
1337so on.
1338
1339=head1 ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES
1340
1341The following environment variables are used by this module or its
1342submodules:
1343
1344=over 4
1345
1346=item C<PERL_ANYEVENT_VERBOSE>
1347
1348By default, AnyEvent will be completely silent except in fatal
1349conditions. You can set this environment variable to make AnyEvent more
1350talkative.
1351
1352When set to C<1> or higher, causes AnyEvent to warn about unexpected
1353conditions, such as not being able to load the event model specified by
1354C<PERL_ANYEVENT_MODEL>.
1355
1356When set to C<2> or higher, cause AnyEvent to report to STDERR which event
1357model it chooses.
1358
1359=item C<PERL_ANYEVENT_STRICT>
1360
1361AnyEvent does not do much argument checking by default, as thorough
1362argument checking is very costly. Setting this variable to a true value
1363will cause AnyEvent to load C<AnyEvent::Strict> and then to thoroughly
1364check the arguments passed to most method calls. If it finds any problems
1365it will croak.
1366
1367In other words, enables "strict" mode.
1368
1369Unlike C<use strict>, it is definitely recommended ot keep it off in
1370production. Keeping C<PERL_ANYEVENT_STRICT=1> in your environment while
1371developing programs can be very useful, however.
1372
1373=item C<PERL_ANYEVENT_MODEL>
1374
1375This can be used to specify the event model to be used by AnyEvent, before
1376auto detection and -probing kicks in. It must be a string consisting
1377entirely of ASCII letters. The string C<AnyEvent::Impl::> gets prepended
1378and the resulting module name is loaded and if the load was successful,
1379used as event model. If it fails to load AnyEvent will proceed with
1380auto detection and -probing.
1381
1382This functionality might change in future versions.
1383
1384For example, to force the pure perl model (L<AnyEvent::Impl::Perl>) you
1385could start your program like this:
1386
1387 PERL_ANYEVENT_MODEL=Perl perl ...
1388
1389=item C<PERL_ANYEVENT_PROTOCOLS>
1390
1391Used by both L<AnyEvent::DNS> and L<AnyEvent::Socket> to determine preferences
1392for IPv4 or IPv6. The default is unspecified (and might change, or be the result
1393of auto probing).
1394
1395Must be set to a comma-separated list of protocols or address families,
1396current supported: C<ipv4> and C<ipv6>. Only protocols mentioned will be
1397used, and preference will be given to protocols mentioned earlier in the
1398list.
1399
1400This variable can effectively be used for denial-of-service attacks
1401against local programs (e.g. when setuid), although the impact is likely
1402small, as the program has to handle conenction and other failures anyways.
1403
1404Examples: C<PERL_ANYEVENT_PROTOCOLS=ipv4,ipv6> - prefer IPv4 over IPv6,
1405but support both and try to use both. C<PERL_ANYEVENT_PROTOCOLS=ipv4>
1406- only support IPv4, never try to resolve or contact IPv6
1407addresses. C<PERL_ANYEVENT_PROTOCOLS=ipv6,ipv4> support either IPv4 or
1408IPv6, but prefer IPv6 over IPv4.
1409
1410=item C<PERL_ANYEVENT_EDNS0>
1411
1412Used by L<AnyEvent::DNS> to decide whether to use the EDNS0 extension
1413for DNS. This extension is generally useful to reduce DNS traffic, but
1414some (broken) firewalls drop such DNS packets, which is why it is off by
1415default.
1416
1417Setting this variable to C<1> will cause L<AnyEvent::DNS> to announce
1418EDNS0 in its DNS requests.
1419
1420=item C<PERL_ANYEVENT_MAX_FORKS>
1421
1422The maximum number of child processes that C<AnyEvent::Util::fork_call>
1423will create in parallel.
1424
1425=back
1426
484=head1 SUPPLYING YOUR OWN EVENT MODEL INTERFACE 1427=head1 SUPPLYING YOUR OWN EVENT MODEL INTERFACE
1428
1429This is an advanced topic that you do not normally need to use AnyEvent in
1430a module. This section is only of use to event loop authors who want to
1431provide AnyEvent compatibility.
485 1432
486If you need to support another event library which isn't directly 1433If you need to support another event library which isn't directly
487supported by AnyEvent, you can supply your own interface to it by 1434supported by AnyEvent, you can supply your own interface to it by
488pushing, before the first watcher gets created, the package name of 1435pushing, before the first watcher gets created, the package name of
489the event module and the package name of the interface to use onto 1436the event module and the package name of the interface to use onto
490C<@AnyEvent::REGISTRY>. You can do that before and even without loading 1437C<@AnyEvent::REGISTRY>. You can do that before and even without loading
491AnyEvent. 1438AnyEvent, so it is reasonably cheap.
492 1439
493Example: 1440Example:
494 1441
495 push @AnyEvent::REGISTRY, [urxvt => urxvt::anyevent::]; 1442 push @AnyEvent::REGISTRY, [urxvt => urxvt::anyevent::];
496 1443
497This tells AnyEvent to (literally) use the C<urxvt::anyevent::> 1444This tells AnyEvent to (literally) use the C<urxvt::anyevent::>
498package/class when it finds the C<urxvt> package/module is loaded. When 1445package/class when it finds the C<urxvt> package/module is already loaded.
1446
499AnyEvent is loaded and asked to find a suitable event model, it will 1447When AnyEvent is loaded and asked to find a suitable event model, it
500first check for the presence of urxvt. 1448will first check for the presence of urxvt by trying to C<use> the
1449C<urxvt::anyevent> module.
501 1450
502The class should provide implementations for all watcher types (see 1451The class should provide implementations for all watcher types. See
503L<AnyEvent::Impl::Event> (source code), L<AnyEvent::Impl::Glib> 1452L<AnyEvent::Impl::EV> (source code), L<AnyEvent::Impl::Glib> (Source code)
504(Source code) and so on for actual examples, use C<perldoc -m 1453and so on for actual examples. Use C<perldoc -m AnyEvent::Impl::Glib> to
505AnyEvent::Impl::Glib> to see the sources). 1454see the sources.
506 1455
1456If you don't provide C<signal> and C<child> watchers than AnyEvent will
1457provide suitable (hopefully) replacements.
1458
507The above isn't fictitious, the I<rxvt-unicode> (a.k.a. urxvt) 1459The above example isn't fictitious, the I<rxvt-unicode> (a.k.a. urxvt)
508uses the above line as-is. An interface isn't included in AnyEvent 1460terminal emulator uses the above line as-is. An interface isn't included
509because it doesn't make sense outside the embedded interpreter inside 1461in AnyEvent because it doesn't make sense outside the embedded interpreter
510I<rxvt-unicode>, and it is updated and maintained as part of the 1462inside I<rxvt-unicode>, and it is updated and maintained as part of the
511I<rxvt-unicode> distribution. 1463I<rxvt-unicode> distribution.
512 1464
513I<rxvt-unicode> also cheats a bit by not providing blocking access to 1465I<rxvt-unicode> also cheats a bit by not providing blocking access to
514condition variables: code blocking while waiting for a condition will 1466condition variables: code blocking while waiting for a condition will
515C<die>. This still works with most modules/usages, and blocking calls must 1467C<die>. This still works with most modules/usages, and blocking calls must
516not be in an interactive application, so it makes sense. 1468not be done in an interactive application, so it makes sense.
517 1469
518=head1 ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES
519
520The following environment variables are used by this module:
521
522C<PERL_ANYEVENT_VERBOSE> when set to C<2> or higher, reports which event
523model gets used.
524
525=head1 EXAMPLE 1470=head1 EXAMPLE PROGRAM
526 1471
527The following program uses an io watcher to read data from stdin, a timer 1472The following program uses an I/O watcher to read data from STDIN, a timer
528to display a message once per second, and a condvar to exit the program 1473to display a message once per second, and a condition variable to quit the
529when the user enters quit: 1474program when the user enters quit:
530 1475
531 use AnyEvent; 1476 use AnyEvent;
532 1477
533 my $cv = AnyEvent->condvar; 1478 my $cv = AnyEvent->condvar;
534 1479
535 my $io_watcher = AnyEvent->io (fh => \*STDIN, poll => 'r', cb => sub { 1480 my $io_watcher = AnyEvent->io (
1481 fh => \*STDIN,
1482 poll => 'r',
1483 cb => sub {
536 warn "io event <$_[0]>\n"; # will always output <r> 1484 warn "io event <$_[0]>\n"; # will always output <r>
537 chomp (my $input = <STDIN>); # read a line 1485 chomp (my $input = <STDIN>); # read a line
538 warn "read: $input\n"; # output what has been read 1486 warn "read: $input\n"; # output what has been read
539 $cv->broadcast if $input =~ /^q/i; # quit program if /^q/i 1487 $cv->send if $input =~ /^q/i; # quit program if /^q/i
1488 },
540 }); 1489 );
541 1490
542 my $time_watcher; # can only be used once 1491 my $time_watcher; # can only be used once
543 1492
544 sub new_timer { 1493 sub new_timer {
545 $timer = AnyEvent->timer (after => 1, cb => sub { 1494 $timer = AnyEvent->timer (after => 1, cb => sub {
548 }); 1497 });
549 } 1498 }
550 1499
551 new_timer; # create first timer 1500 new_timer; # create first timer
552 1501
553 $cv->wait; # wait until user enters /^q/i 1502 $cv->recv; # wait until user enters /^q/i
554 1503
555=head1 REAL-WORLD EXAMPLE 1504=head1 REAL-WORLD EXAMPLE
556 1505
557Consider the L<Net::FCP> module. It features (among others) the following 1506Consider the L<Net::FCP> module. It features (among others) the following
558API calls, which are to freenet what HTTP GET requests are to http: 1507API calls, which are to freenet what HTTP GET requests are to http:
608 syswrite $txn->{fh}, $txn->{request} 1557 syswrite $txn->{fh}, $txn->{request}
609 or die "connection or write error"; 1558 or die "connection or write error";
610 $txn->{w} = AnyEvent->io (fh => $txn->{fh}, poll => 'r', cb => sub { $txn->fh_ready_r }); 1559 $txn->{w} = AnyEvent->io (fh => $txn->{fh}, poll => 'r', cb => sub { $txn->fh_ready_r });
611 1560
612Again, C<fh_ready_r> waits till all data has arrived, and then stores the 1561Again, C<fh_ready_r> waits till all data has arrived, and then stores the
613result and signals any possible waiters that the request ahs finished: 1562result and signals any possible waiters that the request has finished:
614 1563
615 sysread $txn->{fh}, $txn->{buf}, length $txn->{$buf}; 1564 sysread $txn->{fh}, $txn->{buf}, length $txn->{$buf};
616 1565
617 if (end-of-file or data complete) { 1566 if (end-of-file or data complete) {
618 $txn->{result} = $txn->{buf}; 1567 $txn->{result} = $txn->{buf};
619 $txn->{finished}->broadcast; 1568 $txn->{finished}->send;
620 $txb->{cb}->($txn) of $txn->{cb}; # also call callback 1569 $txb->{cb}->($txn) of $txn->{cb}; # also call callback
621 } 1570 }
622 1571
623The C<result> method, finally, just waits for the finished signal (if the 1572The C<result> method, finally, just waits for the finished signal (if the
624request was already finished, it doesn't wait, of course, and returns the 1573request was already finished, it doesn't wait, of course, and returns the
625data: 1574data:
626 1575
627 $txn->{finished}->wait; 1576 $txn->{finished}->recv;
628 return $txn->{result}; 1577 return $txn->{result};
629 1578
630The actual code goes further and collects all errors (C<die>s, exceptions) 1579The actual code goes further and collects all errors (C<die>s, exceptions)
631that occured during request processing. The C<result> method detects 1580that occurred during request processing. The C<result> method detects
632whether an exception as thrown (it is stored inside the $txn object) 1581whether an exception as thrown (it is stored inside the $txn object)
633and just throws the exception, which means connection errors and other 1582and just throws the exception, which means connection errors and other
634problems get reported tot he code that tries to use the result, not in a 1583problems get reported tot he code that tries to use the result, not in a
635random callback. 1584random callback.
636 1585
667 1616
668 my $quit = AnyEvent->condvar; 1617 my $quit = AnyEvent->condvar;
669 1618
670 $fcp->txn_client_get ($url)->cb (sub { 1619 $fcp->txn_client_get ($url)->cb (sub {
671 ... 1620 ...
672 $quit->broadcast; 1621 $quit->send;
673 }); 1622 });
674 1623
675 $quit->wait; 1624 $quit->recv;
1625
1626
1627=head1 BENCHMARKS
1628
1629To give you an idea of the performance and overheads that AnyEvent adds
1630over the event loops themselves and to give you an impression of the speed
1631of various event loops I prepared some benchmarks.
1632
1633=head2 BENCHMARKING ANYEVENT OVERHEAD
1634
1635Here is a benchmark of various supported event models used natively and
1636through AnyEvent. The benchmark creates a lot of timers (with a zero
1637timeout) and I/O watchers (watching STDOUT, a pty, to become writable,
1638which it is), lets them fire exactly once and destroys them again.
1639
1640Source code for this benchmark is found as F<eg/bench> in the AnyEvent
1641distribution.
1642
1643=head3 Explanation of the columns
1644
1645I<watcher> is the number of event watchers created/destroyed. Since
1646different event models feature vastly different performances, each event
1647loop was given a number of watchers so that overall runtime is acceptable
1648and similar between tested event loop (and keep them from crashing): Glib
1649would probably take thousands of years if asked to process the same number
1650of watchers as EV in this benchmark.
1651
1652I<bytes> is the number of bytes (as measured by the resident set size,
1653RSS) consumed by each watcher. This method of measuring captures both C
1654and Perl-based overheads.
1655
1656I<create> is the time, in microseconds (millionths of seconds), that it
1657takes to create a single watcher. The callback is a closure shared between
1658all watchers, to avoid adding memory overhead. That means closure creation
1659and memory usage is not included in the figures.
1660
1661I<invoke> is the time, in microseconds, used to invoke a simple
1662callback. The callback simply counts down a Perl variable and after it was
1663invoked "watcher" times, it would C<< ->send >> a condvar once to
1664signal the end of this phase.
1665
1666I<destroy> is the time, in microseconds, that it takes to destroy a single
1667watcher.
1668
1669=head3 Results
1670
1671 name watchers bytes create invoke destroy comment
1672 EV/EV 400000 224 0.47 0.35 0.27 EV native interface
1673 EV/Any 100000 224 2.88 0.34 0.27 EV + AnyEvent watchers
1674 CoroEV/Any 100000 224 2.85 0.35 0.28 coroutines + Coro::Signal
1675 Perl/Any 100000 452 4.13 0.73 0.95 pure perl implementation
1676 Event/Event 16000 517 32.20 31.80 0.81 Event native interface
1677 Event/Any 16000 590 35.85 31.55 1.06 Event + AnyEvent watchers
1678 Glib/Any 16000 1357 102.33 12.31 51.00 quadratic behaviour
1679 Tk/Any 2000 1860 27.20 66.31 14.00 SEGV with >> 2000 watchers
1680 POE/Event 2000 6328 109.99 751.67 14.02 via POE::Loop::Event
1681 POE/Select 2000 6027 94.54 809.13 579.80 via POE::Loop::Select
1682
1683=head3 Discussion
1684
1685The benchmark does I<not> measure scalability of the event loop very
1686well. For example, a select-based event loop (such as the pure perl one)
1687can never compete with an event loop that uses epoll when the number of
1688file descriptors grows high. In this benchmark, all events become ready at
1689the same time, so select/poll-based implementations get an unnatural speed
1690boost.
1691
1692Also, note that the number of watchers usually has a nonlinear effect on
1693overall speed, that is, creating twice as many watchers doesn't take twice
1694the time - usually it takes longer. This puts event loops tested with a
1695higher number of watchers at a disadvantage.
1696
1697To put the range of results into perspective, consider that on the
1698benchmark machine, handling an event takes roughly 1600 CPU cycles with
1699EV, 3100 CPU cycles with AnyEvent's pure perl loop and almost 3000000 CPU
1700cycles with POE.
1701
1702C<EV> is the sole leader regarding speed and memory use, which are both
1703maximal/minimal, respectively. Even when going through AnyEvent, it uses
1704far less memory than any other event loop and is still faster than Event
1705natively.
1706
1707The pure perl implementation is hit in a few sweet spots (both the
1708constant timeout and the use of a single fd hit optimisations in the perl
1709interpreter and the backend itself). Nevertheless this shows that it
1710adds very little overhead in itself. Like any select-based backend its
1711performance becomes really bad with lots of file descriptors (and few of
1712them active), of course, but this was not subject of this benchmark.
1713
1714The C<Event> module has a relatively high setup and callback invocation
1715cost, but overall scores in on the third place.
1716
1717C<Glib>'s memory usage is quite a bit higher, but it features a
1718faster callback invocation and overall ends up in the same class as
1719C<Event>. However, Glib scales extremely badly, doubling the number of
1720watchers increases the processing time by more than a factor of four,
1721making it completely unusable when using larger numbers of watchers
1722(note that only a single file descriptor was used in the benchmark, so
1723inefficiencies of C<poll> do not account for this).
1724
1725The C<Tk> adaptor works relatively well. The fact that it crashes with
1726more than 2000 watchers is a big setback, however, as correctness takes
1727precedence over speed. Nevertheless, its performance is surprising, as the
1728file descriptor is dup()ed for each watcher. This shows that the dup()
1729employed by some adaptors is not a big performance issue (it does incur a
1730hidden memory cost inside the kernel which is not reflected in the figures
1731above).
1732
1733C<POE>, regardless of underlying event loop (whether using its pure perl
1734select-based backend or the Event module, the POE-EV backend couldn't
1735be tested because it wasn't working) shows abysmal performance and
1736memory usage with AnyEvent: Watchers use almost 30 times as much memory
1737as EV watchers, and 10 times as much memory as Event (the high memory
1738requirements are caused by requiring a session for each watcher). Watcher
1739invocation speed is almost 900 times slower than with AnyEvent's pure perl
1740implementation.
1741
1742The design of the POE adaptor class in AnyEvent can not really account
1743for the performance issues, though, as session creation overhead is
1744small compared to execution of the state machine, which is coded pretty
1745optimally within L<AnyEvent::Impl::POE> (and while everybody agrees that
1746using multiple sessions is not a good approach, especially regarding
1747memory usage, even the author of POE could not come up with a faster
1748design).
1749
1750=head3 Summary
1751
1752=over 4
1753
1754=item * Using EV through AnyEvent is faster than any other event loop
1755(even when used without AnyEvent), but most event loops have acceptable
1756performance with or without AnyEvent.
1757
1758=item * The overhead AnyEvent adds is usually much smaller than the overhead of
1759the actual event loop, only with extremely fast event loops such as EV
1760adds AnyEvent significant overhead.
1761
1762=item * You should avoid POE like the plague if you want performance or
1763reasonable memory usage.
1764
1765=back
1766
1767=head2 BENCHMARKING THE LARGE SERVER CASE
1768
1769This benchmark actually benchmarks the event loop itself. It works by
1770creating a number of "servers": each server consists of a socket pair, a
1771timeout watcher that gets reset on activity (but never fires), and an I/O
1772watcher waiting for input on one side of the socket. Each time the socket
1773watcher reads a byte it will write that byte to a random other "server".
1774
1775The effect is that there will be a lot of I/O watchers, only part of which
1776are active at any one point (so there is a constant number of active
1777fds for each loop iteration, but which fds these are is random). The
1778timeout is reset each time something is read because that reflects how
1779most timeouts work (and puts extra pressure on the event loops).
1780
1781In this benchmark, we use 10000 socket pairs (20000 sockets), of which 100
1782(1%) are active. This mirrors the activity of large servers with many
1783connections, most of which are idle at any one point in time.
1784
1785Source code for this benchmark is found as F<eg/bench2> in the AnyEvent
1786distribution.
1787
1788=head3 Explanation of the columns
1789
1790I<sockets> is the number of sockets, and twice the number of "servers" (as
1791each server has a read and write socket end).
1792
1793I<create> is the time it takes to create a socket pair (which is
1794nontrivial) and two watchers: an I/O watcher and a timeout watcher.
1795
1796I<request>, the most important value, is the time it takes to handle a
1797single "request", that is, reading the token from the pipe and forwarding
1798it to another server. This includes deleting the old timeout and creating
1799a new one that moves the timeout into the future.
1800
1801=head3 Results
1802
1803 name sockets create request
1804 EV 20000 69.01 11.16
1805 Perl 20000 73.32 35.87
1806 Event 20000 212.62 257.32
1807 Glib 20000 651.16 1896.30
1808 POE 20000 349.67 12317.24 uses POE::Loop::Event
1809
1810=head3 Discussion
1811
1812This benchmark I<does> measure scalability and overall performance of the
1813particular event loop.
1814
1815EV is again fastest. Since it is using epoll on my system, the setup time
1816is relatively high, though.
1817
1818Perl surprisingly comes second. It is much faster than the C-based event
1819loops Event and Glib.
1820
1821Event suffers from high setup time as well (look at its code and you will
1822understand why). Callback invocation also has a high overhead compared to
1823the C<< $_->() for .. >>-style loop that the Perl event loop uses. Event
1824uses select or poll in basically all documented configurations.
1825
1826Glib is hit hard by its quadratic behaviour w.r.t. many watchers. It
1827clearly fails to perform with many filehandles or in busy servers.
1828
1829POE is still completely out of the picture, taking over 1000 times as long
1830as EV, and over 100 times as long as the Perl implementation, even though
1831it uses a C-based event loop in this case.
1832
1833=head3 Summary
1834
1835=over 4
1836
1837=item * The pure perl implementation performs extremely well.
1838
1839=item * Avoid Glib or POE in large projects where performance matters.
1840
1841=back
1842
1843=head2 BENCHMARKING SMALL SERVERS
1844
1845While event loops should scale (and select-based ones do not...) even to
1846large servers, most programs we (or I :) actually write have only a few
1847I/O watchers.
1848
1849In this benchmark, I use the same benchmark program as in the large server
1850case, but it uses only eight "servers", of which three are active at any
1851one time. This should reflect performance for a small server relatively
1852well.
1853
1854The columns are identical to the previous table.
1855
1856=head3 Results
1857
1858 name sockets create request
1859 EV 16 20.00 6.54
1860 Perl 16 25.75 12.62
1861 Event 16 81.27 35.86
1862 Glib 16 32.63 15.48
1863 POE 16 261.87 276.28 uses POE::Loop::Event
1864
1865=head3 Discussion
1866
1867The benchmark tries to test the performance of a typical small
1868server. While knowing how various event loops perform is interesting, keep
1869in mind that their overhead in this case is usually not as important, due
1870to the small absolute number of watchers (that is, you need efficiency and
1871speed most when you have lots of watchers, not when you only have a few of
1872them).
1873
1874EV is again fastest.
1875
1876Perl again comes second. It is noticeably faster than the C-based event
1877loops Event and Glib, although the difference is too small to really
1878matter.
1879
1880POE also performs much better in this case, but is is still far behind the
1881others.
1882
1883=head3 Summary
1884
1885=over 4
1886
1887=item * C-based event loops perform very well with small number of
1888watchers, as the management overhead dominates.
1889
1890=back
1891
1892
1893=head1 SIGNALS
1894
1895AnyEvent currently installs handlers for these signals:
1896
1897=over 4
1898
1899=item SIGCHLD
1900
1901A handler for C<SIGCHLD> is installed by AnyEvent's child watcher
1902emulation for event loops that do not support them natively. Also, some
1903event loops install a similar handler.
1904
1905=item SIGPIPE
1906
1907A no-op handler is installed for C<SIGPIPE> when C<$SIG{PIPE}> is C<undef>
1908when AnyEvent gets loaded.
1909
1910The rationale for this is that AnyEvent users usually do not really depend
1911on SIGPIPE delivery (which is purely an optimisation for shell use, or
1912badly-written programs), but C<SIGPIPE> can cause spurious and rare
1913program exits as a lot of people do not expect C<SIGPIPE> when writing to
1914some random socket.
1915
1916The rationale for installing a no-op handler as opposed to ignoring it is
1917that this way, the handler will be restored to defaults on exec.
1918
1919Feel free to install your own handler, or reset it to defaults.
1920
1921=back
1922
1923=cut
1924
1925$SIG{PIPE} = sub { }
1926 unless defined $SIG{PIPE};
1927
1928
1929=head1 FORK
1930
1931Most event libraries are not fork-safe. The ones who are usually are
1932because they rely on inefficient but fork-safe C<select> or C<poll>
1933calls. Only L<EV> is fully fork-aware.
1934
1935If you have to fork, you must either do so I<before> creating your first
1936watcher OR you must not use AnyEvent at all in the child.
1937
1938
1939=head1 SECURITY CONSIDERATIONS
1940
1941AnyEvent can be forced to load any event model via
1942$ENV{PERL_ANYEVENT_MODEL}. While this cannot (to my knowledge) be used to
1943execute arbitrary code or directly gain access, it can easily be used to
1944make the program hang or malfunction in subtle ways, as AnyEvent watchers
1945will not be active when the program uses a different event model than
1946specified in the variable.
1947
1948You can make AnyEvent completely ignore this variable by deleting it
1949before the first watcher gets created, e.g. with a C<BEGIN> block:
1950
1951 BEGIN { delete $ENV{PERL_ANYEVENT_MODEL} }
1952
1953 use AnyEvent;
1954
1955Similar considerations apply to $ENV{PERL_ANYEVENT_VERBOSE}, as that can
1956be used to probe what backend is used and gain other information (which is
1957probably even less useful to an attacker than PERL_ANYEVENT_MODEL), and
1958$ENV{PERL_ANYEVENT_STRICT}.
1959
1960
1961=head1 BUGS
1962
1963Perl 5.8 has numerous memleaks that sometimes hit this module and are hard
1964to work around. If you suffer from memleaks, first upgrade to Perl 5.10
1965and check wether the leaks still show up. (Perl 5.10.0 has other annoying
1966memleaks, such as leaking on C<map> and C<grep> but it is usually not as
1967pronounced).
1968
676 1969
677=head1 SEE ALSO 1970=head1 SEE ALSO
678 1971
679Event modules: L<Coro::EV>, L<EV>, L<EV::Glib>, L<Glib::EV>, 1972Utility functions: L<AnyEvent::Util>.
680L<Coro::Event>, L<Event>, L<Glib::Event>, L<Glib>, L<Coro>, L<Tk>.
681 1973
682Implementations: L<AnyEvent::Impl::CoroEV>, L<AnyEvent::Impl::EV>, 1974Event modules: L<EV>, L<EV::Glib>, L<Glib::EV>, L<Event>, L<Glib::Event>,
1975L<Glib>, L<Tk>, L<Event::Lib>, L<Qt>, L<POE>.
1976
683L<AnyEvent::Impl::CoroEvent>, L<AnyEvent::Impl::Event>, 1977Implementations: L<AnyEvent::Impl::EV>, L<AnyEvent::Impl::Event>,
684L<AnyEvent::Impl::Glib>, L<AnyEvent::Impl::Tk>, L<AnyEvent::Impl::Perl>. 1978L<AnyEvent::Impl::Glib>, L<AnyEvent::Impl::Tk>, L<AnyEvent::Impl::Perl>,
1979L<AnyEvent::Impl::EventLib>, L<AnyEvent::Impl::Qt>,
1980L<AnyEvent::Impl::POE>.
685 1981
1982Non-blocking file handles, sockets, TCP clients and
1983servers: L<AnyEvent::Handle>, L<AnyEvent::Socket>.
1984
1985Asynchronous DNS: L<AnyEvent::DNS>.
1986
1987Coroutine support: L<Coro>, L<Coro::AnyEvent>, L<Coro::EV>, L<Coro::Event>,
1988
686Nontrivial usage examples: L<Net::FCP>, L<Net::XMPP2>. 1989Nontrivial usage examples: L<Net::FCP>, L<Net::XMPP2>, L<AnyEvent::DNS>.
687 1990
688=head1 1991
1992=head1 AUTHOR
1993
1994 Marc Lehmann <schmorp@schmorp.de>
1995 http://home.schmorp.de/
689 1996
690=cut 1997=cut
691 1998
6921 19991
693 2000

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