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1=head1 NAME 1=head1 NAME
2 2
3AnyEvent - provide framework for multiple event loops 3AnyEvent - the DBI of event loop programming
4 4
5Event, Coro, Glib, Tk, Perl - various supported event loops 5EV, Event, Glib, Tk, Perl, Event::Lib, Irssi, rxvt-unicode, IO::Async, Qt
6and POE are various supported event loops/environments.
6 7
7=head1 SYNOPSIS 8=head1 SYNOPSIS
8 9
9 use AnyEvent; 10 use AnyEvent;
10 11
12 # if you prefer function calls, look at the AE manpage for
13 # an alternative API.
14
15 # file handle or descriptor readable
11 my $w = AnyEvent->io (fh => $fh, poll => "r|w", cb => sub { 16 my $w = AnyEvent->io (fh => $fh, poll => "r", cb => sub { ... });
17
18 # one-shot or repeating timers
19 my $w = AnyEvent->timer (after => $seconds, cb => sub { ... });
20 my $w = AnyEvent->timer (after => $seconds, interval => $seconds, cb => ...);
21
22 print AnyEvent->now; # prints current event loop time
23 print AnyEvent->time; # think Time::HiRes::time or simply CORE::time.
24
25 # POSIX signal
26 my $w = AnyEvent->signal (signal => "TERM", cb => sub { ... });
27
28 # child process exit
29 my $w = AnyEvent->child (pid => $pid, cb => sub {
30 my ($pid, $status) = @_;
12 ... 31 ...
13 }); 32 });
14 33
15 my $w = AnyEvent->timer (after => $seconds, cb => sub { 34 # called when event loop idle (if applicable)
16 ... 35 my $w = AnyEvent->idle (cb => sub { ... });
17 });
18 36
19 my $w = AnyEvent->condvar; # stores wether a condition was flagged 37 my $w = AnyEvent->condvar; # stores whether a condition was flagged
38 $w->send; # wake up current and all future recv's
20 $w->wait; # enters "main loop" till $condvar gets ->broadcast 39 $w->recv; # enters "main loop" till $condvar gets ->send
21 $w->broadcast; # wake up current and all future wait's 40 # use a condvar in callback mode:
41 $w->cb (sub { $_[0]->recv });
42
43=head1 INTRODUCTION/TUTORIAL
44
45This manpage is mainly a reference manual. If you are interested
46in a tutorial or some gentle introduction, have a look at the
47L<AnyEvent::Intro> manpage.
48
49=head1 SUPPORT
50
51An FAQ document is available as L<AnyEvent::FAQ>.
52
53There also is a mailinglist for discussing all things AnyEvent, and an IRC
54channel, too.
55
56See the AnyEvent project page at the B<Schmorpforge Ta-Sa Software
57Repository>, at L<http://anyevent.schmorp.de>, for more info.
22 58
23=head1 WHY YOU SHOULD USE THIS MODULE (OR NOT) 59=head1 WHY YOU SHOULD USE THIS MODULE (OR NOT)
24 60
25Glib, POE, IO::Async, Event... CPAN offers event models by the dozen 61Glib, POE, IO::Async, Event... CPAN offers event models by the dozen
26nowadays. So what is different about AnyEvent? 62nowadays. So what is different about AnyEvent?
27 63
28Executive Summary: AnyEvent is I<compatible>, AnyEvent is I<free of 64Executive Summary: AnyEvent is I<compatible>, AnyEvent is I<free of
29policy> and AnyEvent is I<small and efficient>. 65policy> and AnyEvent is I<small and efficient>.
30 66
31First and foremost, I<AnyEvent is not an event model> itself, it only 67First 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 68interfaces to whatever event model the main program happens to use, in a
33pragmatic way. For event models and certain classes of immortals alike, 69pragmatic way. For event models and certain classes of immortals alike,
34the statement "there can only be one" is a bitter reality, and AnyEvent 70the statement "there can only be one" is a bitter reality: In general,
35helps hiding the differences. 71only one event loop can be active at the same time in a process. AnyEvent
72cannot change this, but it can hide the differences between those event
73loops.
36 74
37The goal of AnyEvent is to offer module authors the ability to do event 75The 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 76programming (waiting for I/O or timer events) without subscribing to a
39religion, a way of living, and most importantly: without forcing your 77religion, a way of living, and most importantly: without forcing your
40module users into the same thing by forcing them to use the same event 78module users into the same thing by forcing them to use the same event
41model you use. 79model you use.
42 80
43For modules like POE or IO::Async (which is actually doing all I/O 81For 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 82actually 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 83like joining a cult: After you join, you are dependent on them and you
46anything else, as it is simply incompatible to everything that isn't 84cannot use anything else, as they are simply incompatible to everything
47itself. 85that isn't them. What's worse, all the potential users of your
86module are I<also> forced to use the same event loop you use.
48 87
49AnyEvent + POE works fine. AnyEvent + Glib works fine. AnyEvent + Tk 88AnyEvent is different: AnyEvent + POE works fine. AnyEvent + Glib works
50works fine etc. etc. but none of these work together with the rest: POE 89fine. 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 90with 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 91your 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 92too. But if your module uses AnyEvent, it works transparently with all
54(including stuff like POE and IO::Async). 93event models it supports (including stuff like IO::Async, as long as those
94use one of the supported event loops. It is easy to add new event loops
95to AnyEvent, too, so it is future-proof).
55 96
56In addition of being free of having to use I<the one and only true event 97In 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 98model>, 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 99modules, 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 100follow. AnyEvent, on the other hand, is lean and to the point, by only
60offering the functionality that is useful, in as thin as a wrapper as 101offering the functionality that is necessary, in as thin as a wrapper as
61technically possible. 102technically possible.
62 103
104Of course, AnyEvent comes with a big (and fully optional!) toolbox
105of useful functionality, such as an asynchronous DNS resolver, 100%
106non-blocking connects (even with TLS/SSL, IPv6 and on broken platforms
107such as Windows) and lots of real-world knowledge and workarounds for
108platform bugs and differences.
109
63Of course, if you want lots of policy (this is arguably somewhat useful in 110Now, if you I<do want> lots of policy (this can arguably be somewhat
64many cases) and you want your users to the one and only event model your 111useful) and you want to force your users to use the one and only event
65module forces on them, you should I<not> use this module. 112model, you should I<not> use this module.
66
67 113
68=head1 DESCRIPTION 114=head1 DESCRIPTION
69 115
70L<AnyEvent> provides an identical interface to multiple event loops. This 116L<AnyEvent> provides a uniform interface to various event loops. This
71allows module authors to utilise an event loop without forcing module 117allows module authors to use event loop functionality without forcing
72users to use the same event loop (as only a single event loop can coexist 118module users to use a specific event loop implementation (since more
73peacefully at any one time). 119than one event loop cannot coexist peacefully).
74 120
75The interface itself is vaguely similar but not identical to the Event 121The interface itself is vaguely similar, but not identical to the L<Event>
76module. 122module.
77 123
78On the first call of any method, the module tries to detect the currently 124During the first call of any watcher-creation method, the module tries
79loaded event loop by probing wether any of the following modules is 125to detect the currently loaded event loop by probing whether one of the
80loaded: L<Coro::Event>, L<Event>, L<Glib>, L<Tk>. The first one found is 126following modules is already loaded: L<EV>, L<AnyEvent::Impl::Perl>,
81used. If none is found, the module tries to load these modules in the 127L<Event>, L<Glib>, L<Tk>, L<Event::Lib>, L<Qt>, L<POE>. The first one
82order given. The first one that could be successfully loaded will be 128found is used. If none are detected, the module tries to load the first
83used. If still none could be found, AnyEvent will fall back to a pure-perl 129four modules in the order given; but note that if L<EV> is not
84event loop, which is also not very efficient. 130available, the pure-perl L<AnyEvent::Impl::Perl> should always work, so
131the other two are not normally tried.
85 132
86Because AnyEvent first checks for modules that are already loaded, loading 133Because AnyEvent first checks for modules that are already loaded, loading
87an Event model explicitly before first using AnyEvent will likely make 134an event model explicitly before first using AnyEvent will likely make
88that model the default. For example: 135that model the default. For example:
89 136
90 use Tk; 137 use Tk;
91 use AnyEvent; 138 use AnyEvent;
92 139
93 # .. AnyEvent will likely default to Tk 140 # .. AnyEvent will likely default to Tk
94 141
142The I<likely> means that, if any module loads another event model and
143starts using it, all bets are off - this case should be very rare though,
144as very few modules hardcode event loops without announcing this very
145loudly.
146
95The pure-perl implementation of AnyEvent is called 147The pure-perl implementation of AnyEvent is called
96C<AnyEvent::Impl::Perl>. Like other event modules you can load it 148C<AnyEvent::Impl::Perl>. Like other event modules you can load it
97explicitly. 149explicitly and enjoy the high availability of that event loop :)
98 150
99=head1 WATCHERS 151=head1 WATCHERS
100 152
101AnyEvent has the central concept of a I<watcher>, which is an object that 153AnyEvent 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 154stores relevant data for each kind of event you are waiting for, such as
103the callback to call, the filehandle to watch, etc. 155the callback to call, the file handle to watch, etc.
104 156
105These watchers are normal Perl objects with normal Perl lifetime. After 157These watchers are normal Perl objects with normal Perl lifetime. After
106creating a watcher it will immediately "watch" for events and invoke 158creating a watcher it will immediately "watch" for events and invoke the
159callback when the event occurs (of course, only when the event model
160is in control).
161
162Note that B<callbacks must not permanently change global variables>
163potentially in use by the event loop (such as C<$_> or C<$[>) and that B<<
164callbacks must not C<die> >>. The former is good programming practice in
165Perl and the latter stems from the fact that exception handling differs
166widely between event loops.
167
107the callback. To disable the watcher you have to destroy it (e.g. by 168To disable a watcher you have to destroy it (e.g. by setting the
108setting the variable that stores it to C<undef> or otherwise deleting all 169variable you store it in to C<undef> or otherwise deleting all references
109references to it). 170to it).
110 171
111All watchers are created by calling a method on the C<AnyEvent> class. 172All watchers are created by calling a method on the C<AnyEvent> class.
112 173
174Many watchers either are used with "recursion" (repeating timers for
175example), or need to refer to their watcher object in other ways.
176
177One way to achieve that is this pattern:
178
179 my $w; $w = AnyEvent->type (arg => value ..., cb => sub {
180 # you can use $w here, for example to undef it
181 undef $w;
182 });
183
184Note that C<my $w; $w => combination. This is necessary because in Perl,
185my variables are only visible after the statement in which they are
186declared.
187
113=head2 IO WATCHERS 188=head2 I/O WATCHERS
114 189
190 $w = AnyEvent->io (
191 fh => <filehandle_or_fileno>,
192 poll => <"r" or "w">,
193 cb => <callback>,
194 );
195
115You can create I/O watcher by calling the C<< AnyEvent->io >> method with 196You can create an I/O watcher by calling the C<< AnyEvent->io >> method
116the following mandatory arguments: 197with the following mandatory key-value pairs as arguments:
117 198
118C<fh> the Perl I<filehandle> (not filedescriptor) to watch for 199C<fh> is the Perl I<file handle> (or a naked file descriptor) to watch
200for events (AnyEvent might or might not keep a reference to this file
201handle). Note that only file handles pointing to things for which
202non-blocking operation makes sense are allowed. This includes sockets,
203most character devices, pipes, fifos and so on, but not for example files
204or block devices.
205
119events. C<poll> must be a string that is either C<r> or C<w>, that creates 206C<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 207watcher waiting for "r"eadable or "w"ritable events, respectively.
121to invoke everytime the filehandle becomes ready.
122 208
123Only one io watcher per C<fh> and C<poll> combination is allowed (i.e. on 209C<cb> is the callback to invoke each time the file handle becomes ready.
124a socket you can have one r + one w, not any more (limitation comes from
125Tk - if you are sure you are not using Tk this limitation is gone).
126 210
127Filehandles will be kept alive, so as long as the watcher exists, the 211Although the callback might get passed parameters, their value and
128filehandle exists, too. 212presence is undefined and you cannot rely on them. Portable AnyEvent
213callbacks cannot use arguments passed to I/O watcher callbacks.
129 214
130Example: 215The I/O watcher might use the underlying file descriptor or a copy of it.
216You must not close a file handle as long as any watcher is active on the
217underlying file descriptor.
131 218
219Some event loops issue spurious readiness notifications, so you should
220always use non-blocking calls when reading/writing from/to your file
221handles.
222
132 # wait for readability of STDIN, then read a line and disable the watcher 223Example: wait for readability of STDIN, then read a line and disable the
224watcher.
225
133 my $w; $w = AnyEvent->io (fh => \*STDIN, poll => 'r', cb => sub { 226 my $w; $w = AnyEvent->io (fh => \*STDIN, poll => 'r', cb => sub {
134 chomp (my $input = <STDIN>); 227 chomp (my $input = <STDIN>);
135 warn "read: $input\n"; 228 warn "read: $input\n";
136 undef $w; 229 undef $w;
137 }); 230 });
138 231
139=head2 TIME WATCHERS 232=head2 TIME WATCHERS
140 233
234 $w = AnyEvent->timer (after => <seconds>, cb => <callback>);
235
236 $w = AnyEvent->timer (
237 after => <fractional_seconds>,
238 interval => <fractional_seconds>,
239 cb => <callback>,
240 );
241
141You can create a time watcher by calling the C<< AnyEvent->timer >> 242You can create a time watcher by calling the C<< AnyEvent->timer >>
142method with the following mandatory arguments: 243method with the following mandatory arguments:
143 244
144C<after> after how many seconds (fractions are supported) should the timer 245C<after> specifies after how many seconds (fractional values are
145activate. C<cb> the callback to invoke. 246supported) the callback should be invoked. C<cb> is the callback to invoke
247in that case.
146 248
147The timer callback will be invoked at most once: if you want a repeating 249Although the callback might get passed parameters, their value and
148timer you have to create a new watcher (this is a limitation by both Tk 250presence is undefined and you cannot rely on them. Portable AnyEvent
149and Glib). 251callbacks cannot use arguments passed to time watcher callbacks.
150 252
151Example: 253The callback will normally be invoked only once. If you specify another
254parameter, C<interval>, as a strictly positive number (> 0), then the
255callback will be invoked regularly at that interval (in fractional
256seconds) after the first invocation. If C<interval> is specified with a
257false value, then it is treated as if it were not specified at all.
152 258
259The callback will be rescheduled before invoking the callback, but no
260attempt is made to avoid timer drift in most backends, so the interval is
261only approximate.
262
153 # fire an event after 7.7 seconds 263Example: fire an event after 7.7 seconds.
264
154 my $w = AnyEvent->timer (after => 7.7, cb => sub { 265 my $w = AnyEvent->timer (after => 7.7, cb => sub {
155 warn "timeout\n"; 266 warn "timeout\n";
156 }); 267 });
157 268
158 # to cancel the timer: 269 # to cancel the timer:
159 undef $w; 270 undef $w;
160 271
161=head2 CONDITION WATCHERS 272Example 2: fire an event after 0.5 seconds, then roughly every second.
162 273
163Condition watchers can be created by calling the C<< AnyEvent->condvar >> 274 my $w = AnyEvent->timer (after => 0.5, interval => 1, cb => sub {
164method without any arguments. 275 warn "timeout\n";
276 };
165 277
166A condition watcher watches for a condition - precisely that the C<< 278=head3 TIMING ISSUES
167->broadcast >> method has been called.
168 279
169Note that condition watchers recurse into the event loop - if you have 280There are two ways to handle timers: based on real time (relative, "fire
170two watchers that call C<< ->wait >> in a round-robbin fashion, you 281in 10 seconds") and based on wallclock time (absolute, "fire at 12
171lose. Therefore, condition watchers are good to export to your caller, but 282o'clock").
172you should avoid making a blocking wait, at least in callbacks, as this
173usually asks for trouble.
174 283
175The watcher has only two methods: 284While most event loops expect timers to specified in a relative way, they
285use absolute time internally. This makes a difference when your clock
286"jumps", for example, when ntp decides to set your clock backwards from
287the wrong date of 2014-01-01 to 2008-01-01, a watcher that is supposed to
288fire "after a second" might actually take six years to finally fire.
289
290AnyEvent cannot compensate for this. The only event loop that is conscious
291of these issues is L<EV>, which offers both relative (ev_timer, based
292on true relative time) and absolute (ev_periodic, based on wallclock time)
293timers.
294
295AnyEvent always prefers relative timers, if available, matching the
296AnyEvent API.
297
298AnyEvent has two additional methods that return the "current time":
176 299
177=over 4 300=over 4
178 301
179=item $cv->wait 302=item AnyEvent->time
180 303
181Wait (blocking if necessary) until the C<< ->broadcast >> method has been 304This returns the "current wallclock time" as a fractional number of
182called on c<$cv>, while servicing other watchers normally. 305seconds since the Epoch (the same thing as C<time> or C<Time::HiRes::time>
306return, and the result is guaranteed to be compatible with those).
183 307
184Not all event models support a blocking wait - some die in that case, so 308It progresses independently of any event loop processing, i.e. each call
185if you are using this from a module, never require a blocking wait, but 309will check the system clock, which usually gets updated frequently.
186let the caller decide wether the call will block or not (for example,
187by coupling condition variables with some kind of request results and
188supporting callbacks so the caller knows that getting the result will not
189block, while still suppporting blockign waits if the caller so desires).
190 310
191You can only wait once on a condition - additional calls will return 311=item AnyEvent->now
192immediately.
193 312
194=item $cv->broadcast 313This also returns the "current wallclock time", but unlike C<time>, above,
314this value might change only once per event loop iteration, depending on
315the event loop (most return the same time as C<time>, above). This is the
316time that AnyEvent's timers get scheduled against.
195 317
196Flag the condition as ready - a running C<< ->wait >> and all further 318I<In almost all cases (in all cases if you don't care), this is the
197calls to C<wait> will return after this method has been called. If nobody 319function to call when you want to know the current time.>
198is waiting the broadcast will be remembered..
199 320
200Example: 321This function is also often faster then C<< AnyEvent->time >>, and
322thus the preferred method if you want some timestamp (for example,
323L<AnyEvent::Handle> uses this to update its activity timeouts).
201 324
202 # wait till the result is ready 325The rest of this section is only of relevance if you try to be very exact
203 my $result_ready = AnyEvent->condvar; 326with your timing; you can skip it without a bad conscience.
204 327
205 # do something such as adding a timer 328For a practical example of when these times differ, consider L<Event::Lib>
206 # or socket watcher the calls $result_ready->broadcast 329and L<EV> and the following set-up:
207 # when the "result" is ready.
208 330
209 $result_ready->wait; 331The event loop is running and has just invoked one of your callbacks at
332time=500 (assume no other callbacks delay processing). In your callback,
333you wait a second by executing C<sleep 1> (blocking the process for a
334second) and then (at time=501) you create a relative timer that fires
335after three seconds.
336
337With L<Event::Lib>, C<< AnyEvent->time >> and C<< AnyEvent->now >> will
338both return C<501>, because that is the current time, and the timer will
339be scheduled to fire at time=504 (C<501> + C<3>).
340
341With L<EV>, C<< AnyEvent->time >> returns C<501> (as that is the current
342time), but C<< AnyEvent->now >> returns C<500>, as that is the time the
343last event processing phase started. With L<EV>, your timer gets scheduled
344to run at time=503 (C<500> + C<3>).
345
346In one sense, L<Event::Lib> is more exact, as it uses the current time
347regardless of any delays introduced by event processing. However, most
348callbacks do not expect large delays in processing, so this causes a
349higher drift (and a lot more system calls to get the current time).
350
351In another sense, L<EV> is more exact, as your timer will be scheduled at
352the same time, regardless of how long event processing actually took.
353
354In either case, if you care (and in most cases, you don't), then you
355can get whatever behaviour you want with any event loop, by taking the
356difference between C<< AnyEvent->time >> and C<< AnyEvent->now >> into
357account.
358
359=item AnyEvent->now_update
360
361Some event loops (such as L<EV> or L<AnyEvent::Impl::Perl>) cache
362the current time for each loop iteration (see the discussion of L<<
363AnyEvent->now >>, above).
364
365When a callback runs for a long time (or when the process sleeps), then
366this "current" time will differ substantially from the real time, which
367might affect timers and time-outs.
368
369When this is the case, you can call this method, which will update the
370event loop's idea of "current time".
371
372A typical example would be a script in a web server (e.g. C<mod_perl>) -
373when mod_perl executes the script, then the event loop will have the wrong
374idea about the "current time" (being potentially far in the past, when the
375script ran the last time). In that case you should arrange a call to C<<
376AnyEvent->now_update >> each time the web server process wakes up again
377(e.g. at the start of your script, or in a handler).
378
379Note that updating the time I<might> cause some events to be handled.
210 380
211=back 381=back
212 382
213=head2 SIGNAL WATCHERS 383=head2 SIGNAL WATCHERS
214 384
385 $w = AnyEvent->signal (signal => <uppercase_signal_name>, cb => <callback>);
386
215You can listen for signals using a signal watcher, C<signal> is the signal 387You can watch for signals using a signal watcher, C<signal> is the signal
216I<name> without any C<SIG> prefix. Multiple signals events can be clumped 388I<name> in uppercase and without any C<SIG> prefix, C<cb> is the Perl
217together into one callback invocation, and callback invocation might or 389callback to be invoked whenever a signal occurs.
218might not be asynchronous.
219 390
220These watchers might use C<%SIG>, so programs overwriting those signals 391Although the callback might get passed parameters, their value and
221directly will likely not work correctly. 392presence is undefined and you cannot rely on them. Portable AnyEvent
393callbacks cannot use arguments passed to signal watcher callbacks.
394
395Multiple signal occurrences can be clumped together into one callback
396invocation, and callback invocation will be synchronous. Synchronous means
397that it might take a while until the signal gets handled by the process,
398but it is guaranteed not to interrupt any other callbacks.
399
400The main advantage of using these watchers is that you can share a signal
401between multiple watchers, and AnyEvent will ensure that signals will not
402interrupt your program at bad times.
403
404This watcher might use C<%SIG> (depending on the event loop used),
405so programs overwriting those signals directly will likely not work
406correctly.
222 407
223Example: exit on SIGINT 408Example: exit on SIGINT
224 409
225 my $w = AnyEvent->signal (signal => "INT", cb => sub { exit 1 }); 410 my $w = AnyEvent->signal (signal => "INT", cb => sub { exit 1 });
226 411
412=head3 Restart Behaviour
413
414While restart behaviour is up to the event loop implementation, most will
415not restart syscalls (that includes L<Async::Interrupt> and AnyEvent's
416pure perl implementation).
417
418=head3 Safe/Unsafe Signals
419
420Perl signals can be either "safe" (synchronous to opcode handling) or
421"unsafe" (asynchronous) - the former might get delayed indefinitely, the
422latter might corrupt your memory.
423
424AnyEvent signal handlers are, in addition, synchronous to the event loop,
425i.e. they will not interrupt your running perl program but will only be
426called as part of the normal event handling (just like timer, I/O etc.
427callbacks, too).
428
429=head3 Signal Races, Delays and Workarounds
430
431Many event loops (e.g. Glib, Tk, Qt, IO::Async) do not support attaching
432callbacks to signals in a generic way, which is a pity, as you cannot
433do race-free signal handling in perl, requiring C libraries for
434this. AnyEvent will try to do its best, which means in some cases,
435signals will be delayed. The maximum time a signal might be delayed is
436specified in C<$AnyEvent::MAX_SIGNAL_LATENCY> (default: 10 seconds). This
437variable can be changed only before the first signal watcher is created,
438and should be left alone otherwise. This variable determines how often
439AnyEvent polls for signals (in case a wake-up was missed). Higher values
440will cause fewer spurious wake-ups, which is better for power and CPU
441saving.
442
443All these problems can be avoided by installing the optional
444L<Async::Interrupt> module, which works with most event loops. It will not
445work with inherently broken event loops such as L<Event> or L<Event::Lib>
446(and not with L<POE> currently, as POE does its own workaround with
447one-second latency). For those, you just have to suffer the delays.
448
227=head2 CHILD PROCESS WATCHERS 449=head2 CHILD PROCESS WATCHERS
228 450
229You can also listen for the status of a child process specified by the 451 $w = AnyEvent->child (pid => <process id>, cb => <callback>);
230C<pid> argument (or any child if the pid argument is 0). The watcher will
231trigger as often as status change for the child are received. This works
232by installing a signal handler for C<SIGCHLD>. The callback will be called with
233the pid and exit status (as returned by waitpid).
234 452
235Example: wait for pid 1333 453You can also watch for a child process exit and catch its exit status.
236 454
237 my $w = AnyEvent->child (pid => 1333, cb => sub { warn "exit status $?" }); 455The child process is specified by the C<pid> argument (on some backends,
456using C<0> watches for any child process exit, on others this will
457croak). The watcher will be triggered only when the child process has
458finished and an exit status is available, not on any trace events
459(stopped/continued).
238 460
239=head1 GLOBALS 461The callback will be called with the pid and exit status (as returned by
462waitpid), so unlike other watcher types, you I<can> rely on child watcher
463callback arguments.
464
465This watcher type works by installing a signal handler for C<SIGCHLD>,
466and since it cannot be shared, nothing else should use SIGCHLD or reap
467random child processes (waiting for specific child processes, e.g. inside
468C<system>, is just fine).
469
470There is a slight catch to child watchers, however: you usually start them
471I<after> the child process was created, and this means the process could
472have exited already (and no SIGCHLD will be sent anymore).
473
474Not all event models handle this correctly (neither POE nor IO::Async do,
475see their AnyEvent::Impl manpages for details), but even for event models
476that I<do> handle this correctly, they usually need to be loaded before
477the process exits (i.e. before you fork in the first place). AnyEvent's
478pure perl event loop handles all cases correctly regardless of when you
479start the watcher.
480
481This means you cannot create a child watcher as the very first
482thing in an AnyEvent program, you I<have> to create at least one
483watcher before you C<fork> the child (alternatively, you can call
484C<AnyEvent::detect>).
485
486As most event loops do not support waiting for child events, they will be
487emulated by AnyEvent in most cases, in which the latency and race problems
488mentioned in the description of signal watchers apply.
489
490Example: fork a process and wait for it
491
492 my $done = AnyEvent->condvar;
493
494 my $pid = fork or exit 5;
495
496 my $w = AnyEvent->child (
497 pid => $pid,
498 cb => sub {
499 my ($pid, $status) = @_;
500 warn "pid $pid exited with status $status";
501 $done->send;
502 },
503 );
504
505 # do something else, then wait for process exit
506 $done->recv;
507
508=head2 IDLE WATCHERS
509
510 $w = AnyEvent->idle (cb => <callback>);
511
512This will repeatedly invoke the callback after the process becomes idle,
513until either the watcher is destroyed or new events have been detected.
514
515Idle watchers are useful when there is a need to do something, but it
516is not so important (or wise) to do it instantly. The callback will be
517invoked only when there is "nothing better to do", which is usually
518defined as "all outstanding events have been handled and no new events
519have been detected". That means that idle watchers ideally get invoked
520when the event loop has just polled for new events but none have been
521detected. Instead of blocking to wait for more events, the idle watchers
522will be invoked.
523
524Unfortunately, most event loops do not really support idle watchers (only
525EV, Event and Glib do it in a usable fashion) - for the rest, AnyEvent
526will simply call the callback "from time to time".
527
528Example: read lines from STDIN, but only process them when the
529program is otherwise idle:
530
531 my @lines; # read data
532 my $idle_w;
533 my $io_w = AnyEvent->io (fh => \*STDIN, poll => 'r', cb => sub {
534 push @lines, scalar <STDIN>;
535
536 # start an idle watcher, if not already done
537 $idle_w ||= AnyEvent->idle (cb => sub {
538 # handle only one line, when there are lines left
539 if (my $line = shift @lines) {
540 print "handled when idle: $line";
541 } else {
542 # otherwise disable the idle watcher again
543 undef $idle_w;
544 }
545 });
546 });
547
548=head2 CONDITION VARIABLES
549
550 $cv = AnyEvent->condvar;
551
552 $cv->send (<list>);
553 my @res = $cv->recv;
554
555If you are familiar with some event loops you will know that all of them
556require you to run some blocking "loop", "run" or similar function that
557will actively watch for new events and call your callbacks.
558
559AnyEvent is slightly different: it expects somebody else to run the event
560loop and will only block when necessary (usually when told by the user).
561
562The tool to do that is called a "condition variable", so called because
563they represent a condition that must become true.
564
565Now is probably a good time to look at the examples further below.
566
567Condition variables can be created by calling the C<< AnyEvent->condvar
568>> method, usually without arguments. The only argument pair allowed is
569C<cb>, which specifies a callback to be called when the condition variable
570becomes true, with the condition variable as the first argument (but not
571the results).
572
573After creation, the condition variable is "false" until it becomes "true"
574by calling the C<send> method (or calling the condition variable as if it
575were a callback, read about the caveats in the description for the C<<
576->send >> method).
577
578Since condition variables are the most complex part of the AnyEvent API, here are
579some different mental models of what they are - pick the ones you can connect to:
240 580
241=over 4 581=over 4
242 582
583=item * Condition variables are like callbacks - you can call them (and pass them instead
584of callbacks). Unlike callbacks however, you can also wait for them to be called.
585
586=item * Condition variables are signals - one side can emit or send them,
587the other side can wait for them, or install a handler that is called when
588the signal fires.
589
590=item * Condition variables are like "Merge Points" - points in your program
591where you merge multiple independent results/control flows into one.
592
593=item * Condition variables represent a transaction - functions that start
594some kind of transaction can return them, leaving the caller the choice
595between waiting in a blocking fashion, or setting a callback.
596
597=item * Condition variables represent future values, or promises to deliver
598some result, long before the result is available.
599
600=back
601
602Condition variables are very useful to signal that something has finished,
603for example, if you write a module that does asynchronous http requests,
604then a condition variable would be the ideal candidate to signal the
605availability of results. The user can either act when the callback is
606called or can synchronously C<< ->recv >> for the results.
607
608You can also use them to simulate traditional event loops - for example,
609you can block your main program until an event occurs - for example, you
610could C<< ->recv >> in your main program until the user clicks the Quit
611button of your app, which would C<< ->send >> the "quit" event.
612
613Note that condition variables recurse into the event loop - if you have
614two pieces of code that call C<< ->recv >> in a round-robin fashion, you
615lose. Therefore, condition variables are good to export to your caller, but
616you should avoid making a blocking wait yourself, at least in callbacks,
617as this asks for trouble.
618
619Condition variables are represented by hash refs in perl, and the keys
620used by AnyEvent itself are all named C<_ae_XXX> to make subclassing
621easy (it is often useful to build your own transaction class on top of
622AnyEvent). To subclass, use C<AnyEvent::CondVar> as base class and call
623its C<new> method in your own C<new> method.
624
625There are two "sides" to a condition variable - the "producer side" which
626eventually calls C<< -> send >>, and the "consumer side", which waits
627for the send to occur.
628
629Example: wait for a timer.
630
631 # condition: "wait till the timer is fired"
632 my $timer_fired = AnyEvent->condvar;
633
634 # create the timer - we could wait for, say
635 # a handle becomign ready, or even an
636 # AnyEvent::HTTP request to finish, but
637 # in this case, we simply use a timer:
638 my $w = AnyEvent->timer (
639 after => 1,
640 cb => sub { $timer_fired->send },
641 );
642
643 # this "blocks" (while handling events) till the callback
644 # calls ->send
645 $timer_fired->recv;
646
647Example: wait for a timer, but take advantage of the fact that condition
648variables are also callable directly.
649
650 my $done = AnyEvent->condvar;
651 my $delay = AnyEvent->timer (after => 5, cb => $done);
652 $done->recv;
653
654Example: Imagine an API that returns a condvar and doesn't support
655callbacks. This is how you make a synchronous call, for example from
656the main program:
657
658 use AnyEvent::CouchDB;
659
660 ...
661
662 my @info = $couchdb->info->recv;
663
664And this is how you would just set a callback to be called whenever the
665results are available:
666
667 $couchdb->info->cb (sub {
668 my @info = $_[0]->recv;
669 });
670
671=head3 METHODS FOR PRODUCERS
672
673These methods should only be used by the producing side, i.e. the
674code/module that eventually sends the signal. Note that it is also
675the producer side which creates the condvar in most cases, but it isn't
676uncommon for the consumer to create it as well.
677
678=over 4
679
680=item $cv->send (...)
681
682Flag the condition as ready - a running C<< ->recv >> and all further
683calls to C<recv> will (eventually) return after this method has been
684called. If nobody is waiting the send will be remembered.
685
686If a callback has been set on the condition variable, it is called
687immediately from within send.
688
689Any arguments passed to the C<send> call will be returned by all
690future C<< ->recv >> calls.
691
692Condition variables are overloaded so one can call them directly (as if
693they were a code reference). Calling them directly is the same as calling
694C<send>.
695
696=item $cv->croak ($error)
697
698Similar to send, but causes all calls to C<< ->recv >> to invoke
699C<Carp::croak> with the given error message/object/scalar.
700
701This can be used to signal any errors to the condition variable
702user/consumer. Doing it this way instead of calling C<croak> directly
703delays the error detection, but has the overwhelming advantage that it
704diagnoses the error at the place where the result is expected, and not
705deep in some event callback with no connection to the actual code causing
706the problem.
707
708=item $cv->begin ([group callback])
709
710=item $cv->end
711
712These two methods can be used to combine many transactions/events into
713one. For example, a function that pings many hosts in parallel might want
714to use a condition variable for the whole process.
715
716Every call to C<< ->begin >> will increment a counter, and every call to
717C<< ->end >> will decrement it. If the counter reaches C<0> in C<< ->end
718>>, the (last) callback passed to C<begin> will be executed, passing the
719condvar as first argument. That callback is I<supposed> to call C<< ->send
720>>, but that is not required. If no group callback was set, C<send> will
721be called without any arguments.
722
723You can think of C<< $cv->send >> giving you an OR condition (one call
724sends), while C<< $cv->begin >> and C<< $cv->end >> giving you an AND
725condition (all C<begin> calls must be C<end>'ed before the condvar sends).
726
727Let's start with a simple example: you have two I/O watchers (for example,
728STDOUT and STDERR for a program), and you want to wait for both streams to
729close before activating a condvar:
730
731 my $cv = AnyEvent->condvar;
732
733 $cv->begin; # first watcher
734 my $w1 = AnyEvent->io (fh => $fh1, cb => sub {
735 defined sysread $fh1, my $buf, 4096
736 or $cv->end;
737 });
738
739 $cv->begin; # second watcher
740 my $w2 = AnyEvent->io (fh => $fh2, cb => sub {
741 defined sysread $fh2, my $buf, 4096
742 or $cv->end;
743 });
744
745 $cv->recv;
746
747This works because for every event source (EOF on file handle), there is
748one call to C<begin>, so the condvar waits for all calls to C<end> before
749sending.
750
751The ping example mentioned above is slightly more complicated, as the
752there are results to be passwd back, and the number of tasks that are
753begun can potentially be zero:
754
755 my $cv = AnyEvent->condvar;
756
757 my %result;
758 $cv->begin (sub { shift->send (\%result) });
759
760 for my $host (@list_of_hosts) {
761 $cv->begin;
762 ping_host_then_call_callback $host, sub {
763 $result{$host} = ...;
764 $cv->end;
765 };
766 }
767
768 $cv->end;
769
770This code fragment supposedly pings a number of hosts and calls
771C<send> after results for all then have have been gathered - in any
772order. To achieve this, the code issues a call to C<begin> when it starts
773each ping request and calls C<end> when it has received some result for
774it. Since C<begin> and C<end> only maintain a counter, the order in which
775results arrive is not relevant.
776
777There is an additional bracketing call to C<begin> and C<end> outside the
778loop, which serves two important purposes: first, it sets the callback
779to be called once the counter reaches C<0>, and second, it ensures that
780C<send> is called even when C<no> hosts are being pinged (the loop
781doesn't execute once).
782
783This is the general pattern when you "fan out" into multiple (but
784potentially zero) subrequests: use an outer C<begin>/C<end> pair to set
785the callback and ensure C<end> is called at least once, and then, for each
786subrequest you start, call C<begin> and for each subrequest you finish,
787call C<end>.
788
789=back
790
791=head3 METHODS FOR CONSUMERS
792
793These methods should only be used by the consuming side, i.e. the
794code awaits the condition.
795
796=over 4
797
798=item $cv->recv
799
800Wait (blocking if necessary) until the C<< ->send >> or C<< ->croak
801>> methods have been called on C<$cv>, while servicing other watchers
802normally.
803
804You can only wait once on a condition - additional calls are valid but
805will return immediately.
806
807If an error condition has been set by calling C<< ->croak >>, then this
808function will call C<croak>.
809
810In list context, all parameters passed to C<send> will be returned,
811in scalar context only the first one will be returned.
812
813Note that doing a blocking wait in a callback is not supported by any
814event loop, that is, recursive invocation of a blocking C<< ->recv
815>> is not allowed, and the C<recv> call will C<croak> if such a
816condition is detected. This condition can be slightly loosened by using
817L<Coro::AnyEvent>, which allows you to do a blocking C<< ->recv >> from
818any thread that doesn't run the event loop itself.
819
820Not all event models support a blocking wait - some die in that case
821(programs might want to do that to stay interactive), so I<if you are
822using this from a module, never require a blocking wait>. Instead, let the
823caller decide whether the call will block or not (for example, by coupling
824condition variables with some kind of request results and supporting
825callbacks so the caller knows that getting the result will not block,
826while still supporting blocking waits if the caller so desires).
827
828You can ensure that C<< ->recv >> never blocks by setting a callback and
829only calling C<< ->recv >> from within that callback (or at a later
830time). This will work even when the event loop does not support blocking
831waits otherwise.
832
833=item $bool = $cv->ready
834
835Returns true when the condition is "true", i.e. whether C<send> or
836C<croak> have been called.
837
838=item $cb = $cv->cb ($cb->($cv))
839
840This is a mutator function that returns the callback set and optionally
841replaces it before doing so.
842
843The callback will be called when the condition becomes "true", i.e. when
844C<send> or C<croak> are called, with the only argument being the
845condition variable itself. If the condition is already true, the
846callback is called immediately when it is set. Calling C<recv> inside
847the callback or at any later time is guaranteed not to block.
848
849=back
850
851=head1 SUPPORTED EVENT LOOPS/BACKENDS
852
853The available backend classes are (every class has its own manpage):
854
855=over 4
856
857=item Backends that are autoprobed when no other event loop can be found.
858
859EV is the preferred backend when no other event loop seems to be in
860use. If EV is not installed, then AnyEvent will fall back to its own
861pure-perl implementation, which is available everywhere as it comes with
862AnyEvent itself.
863
864 AnyEvent::Impl::EV based on EV (interface to libev, best choice).
865 AnyEvent::Impl::Perl pure-perl implementation, fast and portable.
866
867=item Backends that are transparently being picked up when they are used.
868
869These will be used if they are already loaded when the first watcher
870is created, in which case it is assumed that the application is using
871them. This means that AnyEvent will automatically pick the right backend
872when the main program loads an event module before anything starts to
873create watchers. Nothing special needs to be done by the main program.
874
875 AnyEvent::Impl::Event based on Event, very stable, few glitches.
876 AnyEvent::Impl::Glib based on Glib, slow but very stable.
877 AnyEvent::Impl::Tk based on Tk, very broken.
878 AnyEvent::Impl::EventLib based on Event::Lib, leaks memory and worse.
879 AnyEvent::Impl::POE based on POE, very slow, some limitations.
880 AnyEvent::Impl::Irssi used when running within irssi.
881
882=item Backends with special needs.
883
884Qt requires the Qt::Application to be instantiated first, but will
885otherwise be picked up automatically. As long as the main program
886instantiates the application before any AnyEvent watchers are created,
887everything should just work.
888
889 AnyEvent::Impl::Qt based on Qt.
890
891Support for IO::Async can only be partial, as it is too broken and
892architecturally limited to even support the AnyEvent API. It also
893is the only event loop that needs the loop to be set explicitly, so
894it can only be used by a main program knowing about AnyEvent. See
895L<AnyEvent::Impl::IOAsync> for the gory details.
896
897 AnyEvent::Impl::IOAsync based on IO::Async, cannot be autoprobed.
898
899=item Event loops that are indirectly supported via other backends.
900
901Some event loops can be supported via other modules:
902
903There is no direct support for WxWidgets (L<Wx>) or L<Prima>.
904
905B<WxWidgets> has no support for watching file handles. However, you can
906use WxWidgets through the POE adaptor, as POE has a Wx backend that simply
907polls 20 times per second, which was considered to be too horrible to even
908consider for AnyEvent.
909
910B<Prima> is not supported as nobody seems to be using it, but it has a POE
911backend, so it can be supported through POE.
912
913AnyEvent knows about both L<Prima> and L<Wx>, however, and will try to
914load L<POE> when detecting them, in the hope that POE will pick them up,
915in which case everything will be automatic.
916
917=back
918
919=head1 GLOBAL VARIABLES AND FUNCTIONS
920
921These are not normally required to use AnyEvent, but can be useful to
922write AnyEvent extension modules.
923
924=over 4
925
243=item $AnyEvent::MODEL 926=item $AnyEvent::MODEL
244 927
245Contains C<undef> until the first watcher is being created. Then it 928Contains C<undef> until the first watcher is being created, before the
929backend has been autodetected.
930
246contains the event model that is being used, which is the name of the 931Afterwards it contains the event model that is being used, which is the
247Perl class implementing the model. This class is usually one of the 932name of the Perl class implementing the model. This class is usually one
248C<AnyEvent::Impl:xxx> modules, but can be any other class in the case 933of the C<AnyEvent::Impl::xxx> modules, but can be any other class in the
249AnyEvent has been extended at runtime (e.g. in I<rxvt-unicode>). 934case AnyEvent has been extended at runtime (e.g. in I<rxvt-unicode> it
250 935will be C<urxvt::anyevent>).
251The known classes so far are:
252
253 AnyEvent::Impl::CoroEV based on Coro::EV, best choice.
254 AnyEvent::Impl::EV based on EV (an interface to libev, also best choice).
255 AnyEvent::Impl::CoroEvent based on Coro::Event, second best choice.
256 AnyEvent::Impl::Event based on Event, also second best choice :)
257 AnyEvent::Impl::Glib based on Glib, second-best choice.
258 AnyEvent::Impl::Tk based on Tk, very bad choice.
259 AnyEvent::Impl::Perl pure-perl implementation, inefficient.
260 936
261=item AnyEvent::detect 937=item AnyEvent::detect
262 938
263Returns C<$AnyEvent::MODEL>, forcing autodetection of the event model if 939Returns C<$AnyEvent::MODEL>, forcing autodetection of the event model
264necessary. You should only call this function right before you would have 940if necessary. You should only call this function right before you would
265created an AnyEvent watcher anyway, that is, very late at runtime. 941have created an AnyEvent watcher anyway, that is, as late as possible at
942runtime, and not e.g. during initialisation of your module.
943
944If you need to do some initialisation before AnyEvent watchers are
945created, use C<post_detect>.
946
947=item $guard = AnyEvent::post_detect { BLOCK }
948
949Arranges for the code block to be executed as soon as the event model is
950autodetected (or immediately if that has already happened).
951
952The block will be executed I<after> the actual backend has been detected
953(C<$AnyEvent::MODEL> is set), but I<before> any watchers have been
954created, so it is possible to e.g. patch C<@AnyEvent::ISA> or do
955other initialisations - see the sources of L<AnyEvent::Strict> or
956L<AnyEvent::AIO> to see how this is used.
957
958The most common usage is to create some global watchers, without forcing
959event module detection too early, for example, L<AnyEvent::AIO> creates
960and installs the global L<IO::AIO> watcher in a C<post_detect> block to
961avoid autodetecting the event module at load time.
962
963If called in scalar or list context, then it creates and returns an object
964that automatically removes the callback again when it is destroyed (or
965C<undef> when the hook was immediately executed). See L<AnyEvent::AIO> for
966a case where this is useful.
967
968Example: Create a watcher for the IO::AIO module and store it in
969C<$WATCHER>, but do so only do so after the event loop is initialised.
970
971 our WATCHER;
972
973 my $guard = AnyEvent::post_detect {
974 $WATCHER = AnyEvent->io (fh => IO::AIO::poll_fileno, poll => 'r', cb => \&IO::AIO::poll_cb);
975 };
976
977 # the ||= is important in case post_detect immediately runs the block,
978 # as to not clobber the newly-created watcher. assigning both watcher and
979 # post_detect guard to the same variable has the advantage of users being
980 # able to just C<undef $WATCHER> if the watcher causes them grief.
981
982 $WATCHER ||= $guard;
983
984=item @AnyEvent::post_detect
985
986If there are any code references in this array (you can C<push> to it
987before or after loading AnyEvent), then they will be called directly
988after the event loop has been chosen.
989
990You should check C<$AnyEvent::MODEL> before adding to this array, though:
991if it is defined then the event loop has already been detected, and the
992array will be ignored.
993
994Best use C<AnyEvent::post_detect { BLOCK }> when your application allows
995it, as it takes care of these details.
996
997This variable is mainly useful for modules that can do something useful
998when AnyEvent is used and thus want to know when it is initialised, but do
999not need to even load it by default. This array provides the means to hook
1000into AnyEvent passively, without loading it.
1001
1002Example: To load Coro::AnyEvent whenever Coro and AnyEvent are used
1003together, you could put this into Coro (this is the actual code used by
1004Coro to accomplish this):
1005
1006 if (defined $AnyEvent::MODEL) {
1007 # AnyEvent already initialised, so load Coro::AnyEvent
1008 require Coro::AnyEvent;
1009 } else {
1010 # AnyEvent not yet initialised, so make sure to load Coro::AnyEvent
1011 # as soon as it is
1012 push @AnyEvent::post_detect, sub { require Coro::AnyEvent };
1013 }
266 1014
267=back 1015=back
268 1016
269=head1 WHAT TO DO IN A MODULE 1017=head1 WHAT TO DO IN A MODULE
270 1018
271As a module author, you should "use AnyEvent" and call AnyEvent methods 1019As a module author, you should C<use AnyEvent> and call AnyEvent methods
272freely, but you should not load a specific event module or rely on it. 1020freely, but you should not load a specific event module or rely on it.
273 1021
274Be careful when you create watchers in the module body - Anyevent will 1022Be careful when you create watchers in the module body - AnyEvent will
275decide which event module to use as soon as the first method is called, so 1023decide which event module to use as soon as the first method is called, so
276by calling AnyEvent in your module body you force the user of your module 1024by calling AnyEvent in your module body you force the user of your module
277to load the event module first. 1025to load the event module first.
278 1026
1027Never call C<< ->recv >> on a condition variable unless you I<know> that
1028the C<< ->send >> method has been called on it already. This is
1029because it will stall the whole program, and the whole point of using
1030events is to stay interactive.
1031
1032It is fine, however, to call C<< ->recv >> when the user of your module
1033requests it (i.e. if you create a http request object ad have a method
1034called C<results> that returns the results, it may call C<< ->recv >>
1035freely, as the user of your module knows what she is doing. Always).
1036
279=head1 WHAT TO DO IN THE MAIN PROGRAM 1037=head1 WHAT TO DO IN THE MAIN PROGRAM
280 1038
281There will always be a single main program - the only place that should 1039There will always be a single main program - the only place that should
282dictate which event model to use. 1040dictate which event model to use.
283 1041
284If it doesn't care, it can just "use AnyEvent" and use it itself, or not 1042If the program is not event-based, it need not do anything special, even
285do anything special and let AnyEvent decide which implementation to chose. 1043when it depends on a module that uses an AnyEvent. If the program itself
1044uses AnyEvent, but does not care which event loop is used, all it needs
1045to do is C<use AnyEvent>. In either case, AnyEvent will choose the best
1046available loop implementation.
286 1047
287If the main program relies on a specific event model (for example, in Gtk2 1048If the main program relies on a specific event model - for example, in
288programs you have to rely on either Glib or Glib::Event), you should load 1049Gtk2 programs you have to rely on the Glib module - you should load the
289it before loading AnyEvent or any module that uses it, generally, as early 1050event module before loading AnyEvent or any module that uses it: generally
290as possible. The reason is that modules might create watchers when they 1051speaking, you should load it as early as possible. The reason is that
291are loaded, and AnyEvent will decide on the event model to use as soon as 1052modules might create watchers when they are loaded, and AnyEvent will
292it creates watchers, and it might chose the wrong one unless you load the 1053decide on the event model to use as soon as it creates watchers, and it
293correct one yourself. 1054might choose the wrong one unless you load the correct one yourself.
294 1055
295You can chose to use a rather inefficient pure-perl implementation by 1056You can chose to use a pure-perl implementation by loading the
296loading the C<AnyEvent::Impl::Perl> module, but letting AnyEvent chose is 1057C<AnyEvent::Impl::Perl> module, which gives you similar behaviour
297generally better. 1058everywhere, but letting AnyEvent chose the model is generally better.
1059
1060=head2 MAINLOOP EMULATION
1061
1062Sometimes (often for short test scripts, or even standalone programs who
1063only want to use AnyEvent), you do not want to run a specific event loop.
1064
1065In that case, you can use a condition variable like this:
1066
1067 AnyEvent->condvar->recv;
1068
1069This has the effect of entering the event loop and looping forever.
1070
1071Note that usually your program has some exit condition, in which case
1072it is better to use the "traditional" approach of storing a condition
1073variable somewhere, waiting for it, and sending it when the program should
1074exit cleanly.
1075
1076
1077=head1 OTHER MODULES
1078
1079The following is a non-exhaustive list of additional modules that use
1080AnyEvent as a client and can therefore be mixed easily with other AnyEvent
1081modules and other event loops in the same program. Some of the modules
1082come as part of AnyEvent, the others are available via CPAN.
1083
1084=over 4
1085
1086=item L<AnyEvent::Util>
1087
1088Contains various utility functions that replace often-used blocking
1089functions such as C<inet_aton> with event/callback-based versions.
1090
1091=item L<AnyEvent::Socket>
1092
1093Provides various utility functions for (internet protocol) sockets,
1094addresses and name resolution. Also functions to create non-blocking tcp
1095connections or tcp servers, with IPv6 and SRV record support and more.
1096
1097=item L<AnyEvent::Handle>
1098
1099Provide read and write buffers, manages watchers for reads and writes,
1100supports raw and formatted I/O, I/O queued and fully transparent and
1101non-blocking SSL/TLS (via L<AnyEvent::TLS>).
1102
1103=item L<AnyEvent::DNS>
1104
1105Provides rich asynchronous DNS resolver capabilities.
1106
1107=item L<AnyEvent::HTTP>, L<AnyEvent::IRC>, L<AnyEvent::XMPP>, L<AnyEvent::GPSD>, L<AnyEvent::IGS>, L<AnyEvent::FCP>
1108
1109Implement event-based interfaces to the protocols of the same name (for
1110the curious, IGS is the International Go Server and FCP is the Freenet
1111Client Protocol).
1112
1113=item L<AnyEvent::Handle::UDP>
1114
1115Here be danger!
1116
1117As Pauli would put it, "Not only is it not right, it's not even wrong!" -
1118there are so many things wrong with AnyEvent::Handle::UDP, most notably
1119its use of a stream-based API with a protocol that isn't streamable, that
1120the only way to improve it is to delete it.
1121
1122It features data corruption (but typically only under load) and general
1123confusion. On top, the author is not only clueless about UDP but also
1124fact-resistant - some gems of his understanding: "connect doesn't work
1125with UDP", "UDP packets are not IP packets", "UDP only has datagrams, not
1126packets", "I don't need to implement proper error checking as UDP doesn't
1127support error checking" and so on - he doesn't even understand what's
1128wrong with his module when it is explained to him.
1129
1130=item L<AnyEvent::DBI>
1131
1132Executes L<DBI> requests asynchronously in a proxy process for you,
1133notifying you in an event-based way when the operation is finished.
1134
1135=item L<AnyEvent::AIO>
1136
1137Truly asynchronous (as opposed to non-blocking) I/O, should be in the
1138toolbox of every event programmer. AnyEvent::AIO transparently fuses
1139L<IO::AIO> and AnyEvent together, giving AnyEvent access to event-based
1140file I/O, and much more.
1141
1142=item L<AnyEvent::HTTPD>
1143
1144A simple embedded webserver.
1145
1146=item L<AnyEvent::FastPing>
1147
1148The fastest ping in the west.
1149
1150=item L<Coro>
1151
1152Has special support for AnyEvent via L<Coro::AnyEvent>.
1153
1154=back
298 1155
299=cut 1156=cut
300 1157
301package AnyEvent; 1158package AnyEvent;
302 1159
303no warnings; 1160# basically a tuned-down version of common::sense
304use strict; 1161sub common_sense {
1162 # from common:.sense 3.3
1163 ${^WARNING_BITS} ^= ${^WARNING_BITS} ^ "\x3c\x3f\x33\x00\x0f\xf3\x0f\xc0\xf0\xfc\x33\x00";
1164 # use strict vars subs - NO UTF-8, as Util.pm doesn't like this atm. (uts46data.pl)
1165 $^H |= 0x00000600;
1166}
305 1167
1168BEGIN { AnyEvent::common_sense }
1169
306use Carp; 1170use Carp ();
307 1171
308our $VERSION = '3.0'; 1172our $VERSION = '5.29';
309our $MODEL; 1173our $MODEL;
310 1174
311our $AUTOLOAD; 1175our $AUTOLOAD;
312our @ISA; 1176our @ISA;
313 1177
314our $verbose = $ENV{PERL_ANYEVENT_VERBOSE}*1;
315
316our @REGISTRY; 1178our @REGISTRY;
317 1179
1180our $VERBOSE;
1181
1182BEGIN {
1183 require "AnyEvent/constants.pl";
1184
1185 eval "sub TAINT (){" . (${^TAINT}*1) . "}";
1186
1187 delete @ENV{grep /^PERL_ANYEVENT_/, keys %ENV}
1188 if ${^TAINT};
1189
1190 $VERBOSE = $ENV{PERL_ANYEVENT_VERBOSE}*1;
1191
1192}
1193
1194our $MAX_SIGNAL_LATENCY = 10;
1195
1196our %PROTOCOL; # (ipv4|ipv6) => (1|2), higher numbers are preferred
1197
1198{
1199 my $idx;
1200 $PROTOCOL{$_} = ++$idx
1201 for reverse split /\s*,\s*/,
1202 $ENV{PERL_ANYEVENT_PROTOCOLS} || "ipv4,ipv6";
1203}
1204
318my @models = ( 1205my @models = (
319 [Coro::EV:: => AnyEvent::Impl::CoroEV::],
320 [EV:: => AnyEvent::Impl::EV::], 1206 [EV:: => AnyEvent::Impl::EV:: , 1],
321 [Coro::Event:: => AnyEvent::Impl::CoroEvent::], 1207 [AnyEvent::Impl::Perl:: => AnyEvent::Impl::Perl:: , 1],
1208 # everything below here will not (normally) be autoprobed
1209 # as the pureperl backend should work everywhere
1210 # and is usually faster
322 [Event:: => AnyEvent::Impl::Event::], 1211 [Event:: => AnyEvent::Impl::Event::, 1],
323 [Glib:: => AnyEvent::Impl::Glib::], 1212 [Glib:: => AnyEvent::Impl::Glib:: , 1], # becomes extremely slow with many watchers
1213 [Event::Lib:: => AnyEvent::Impl::EventLib::], # too buggy
1214 [Irssi:: => AnyEvent::Impl::Irssi::], # Irssi has a bogus "Event" package
1215 [Tk:: => AnyEvent::Impl::Tk::], # crashes with many handles
1216 [Qt:: => AnyEvent::Impl::Qt::], # requires special main program
1217 [POE::Kernel:: => AnyEvent::Impl::POE::], # lasciate ogni speranza
324 [Tk:: => AnyEvent::Impl::Tk::], 1218 [Wx:: => AnyEvent::Impl::POE::],
325 [AnyEvent::Impl::Perl:: => AnyEvent::Impl::Perl::], 1219 [Prima:: => AnyEvent::Impl::POE::],
1220 # IO::Async is just too broken - we would need workarounds for its
1221 # byzantine signal and broken child handling, among others.
1222 # IO::Async is rather hard to detect, as it doesn't have any
1223 # obvious default class.
1224 [IO::Async:: => AnyEvent::Impl::IOAsync::], # requires special main program
1225 [IO::Async::Loop:: => AnyEvent::Impl::IOAsync::], # requires special main program
1226 [IO::Async::Notifier:: => AnyEvent::Impl::IOAsync::], # requires special main program
1227 [AnyEvent::Impl::IOAsync:: => AnyEvent::Impl::IOAsync::], # requires special main program
326); 1228);
327 1229
328our %method = map +($_ => 1), qw(io timer condvar broadcast wait signal one_event DESTROY); 1230our %method = map +($_ => 1),
1231 qw(io timer time now now_update signal child idle condvar one_event DESTROY);
1232
1233our @post_detect;
1234
1235sub post_detect(&) {
1236 my ($cb) = @_;
1237
1238 push @post_detect, $cb;
1239
1240 defined wantarray
1241 ? bless \$cb, "AnyEvent::Util::postdetect"
1242 : ()
1243}
1244
1245sub AnyEvent::Util::postdetect::DESTROY {
1246 @post_detect = grep $_ != ${$_[0]}, @post_detect;
1247}
329 1248
330sub detect() { 1249sub detect() {
1250 # free some memory
1251 *detect = sub () { $MODEL };
1252
1253 local $!; # for good measure
1254 local $SIG{__DIE__};
1255
1256 if ($ENV{PERL_ANYEVENT_MODEL} =~ /^([a-zA-Z]+)$/) {
1257 my $model = "AnyEvent::Impl::$1";
1258 if (eval "require $model") {
1259 $MODEL = $model;
1260 warn "AnyEvent: loaded model '$model' (forced by \$ENV{PERL_ANYEVENT_MODEL}), using it.\n" if $VERBOSE >= 2;
1261 } else {
1262 warn "AnyEvent: unable to load model '$model' (from \$ENV{PERL_ANYEVENT_MODEL}):\n$@" if $VERBOSE;
1263 }
1264 }
1265
1266 # check for already loaded models
331 unless ($MODEL) { 1267 unless ($MODEL) {
332 no strict 'refs';
333
334 # check for already loaded models
335 for (@REGISTRY, @models) { 1268 for (@REGISTRY, @models) {
336 my ($package, $model) = @$_; 1269 my ($package, $model) = @$_;
337 if (${"$package\::VERSION"} > 0) { 1270 if (${"$package\::VERSION"} > 0) {
338 if (eval "require $model") { 1271 if (eval "require $model") {
339 $MODEL = $model; 1272 $MODEL = $model;
340 warn "AnyEvent: found model '$model', using it.\n" if $verbose > 1; 1273 warn "AnyEvent: autodetected model '$model', using it.\n" if $VERBOSE >= 2;
341 last; 1274 last;
342 } 1275 }
343 } 1276 }
344 } 1277 }
345 1278
346 unless ($MODEL) { 1279 unless ($MODEL) {
347 # try to load a model 1280 # try to autoload a model
348
349 for (@REGISTRY, @models) { 1281 for (@REGISTRY, @models) {
350 my ($package, $model) = @$_; 1282 my ($package, $model, $autoload) = @$_;
1283 if (
1284 $autoload
351 if (eval "require $package" 1285 and eval "require $package"
352 and ${"$package\::VERSION"} > 0 1286 and ${"$package\::VERSION"} > 0
353 and eval "require $model") { 1287 and eval "require $model"
1288 ) {
354 $MODEL = $model; 1289 $MODEL = $model;
355 warn "AnyEvent: autoprobed and loaded model '$model', using it.\n" if $verbose > 1; 1290 warn "AnyEvent: autoloaded model '$model', using it.\n" if $VERBOSE >= 2;
356 last; 1291 last;
357 } 1292 }
358 } 1293 }
359 1294
360 $MODEL 1295 $MODEL
361 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."; 1296 or die "AnyEvent: backend autodetection failed - did you properly install AnyEvent?\n";
362 } 1297 }
363
364 unshift @ISA, $MODEL;
365 push @{"$MODEL\::ISA"}, "AnyEvent::Base";
366 } 1298 }
1299
1300 @models = (); # free probe data
1301
1302 push @{"$MODEL\::ISA"}, "AnyEvent::Base";
1303 unshift @ISA, $MODEL;
1304
1305 # now nuke some methods that are overridden by the backend.
1306 # SUPER is not allowed.
1307 for (qw(time signal child idle)) {
1308 undef &{"AnyEvent::Base::$_"}
1309 if defined &{"$MODEL\::$_"};
1310 }
1311
1312 if ($ENV{PERL_ANYEVENT_STRICT}) {
1313 eval { require AnyEvent::Strict };
1314 warn "AnyEvent: cannot load AnyEvent::Strict: $@"
1315 if $@ && $VERBOSE;
1316 }
1317
1318 (shift @post_detect)->() while @post_detect;
1319
1320 *post_detect = sub(&) {
1321 shift->();
1322
1323 undef
1324 };
367 1325
368 $MODEL 1326 $MODEL
369} 1327}
370 1328
371sub AUTOLOAD { 1329sub AUTOLOAD {
372 (my $func = $AUTOLOAD) =~ s/.*://; 1330 (my $func = $AUTOLOAD) =~ s/.*://;
373 1331
374 $method{$func} 1332 $method{$func}
375 or croak "$func: not a valid method for AnyEvent objects"; 1333 or Carp::croak "$func: not a valid AnyEvent class method";
376 1334
377 detect unless $MODEL; 1335 detect;
378 1336
379 my $class = shift; 1337 my $class = shift;
380 $class->$func (@_); 1338 $class->$func (@_);
381} 1339}
382 1340
1341# utility function to dup a filehandle. this is used by many backends
1342# to support binding more than one watcher per filehandle (they usually
1343# allow only one watcher per fd, so we dup it to get a different one).
1344sub _dupfh($$;$$) {
1345 my ($poll, $fh, $r, $w) = @_;
1346
1347 # cygwin requires the fh mode to be matching, unix doesn't
1348 my ($rw, $mode) = $poll eq "r" ? ($r, "<&") : ($w, ">&");
1349
1350 open my $fh2, $mode, $fh
1351 or die "AnyEvent->io: cannot dup() filehandle in mode '$poll': $!,";
1352
1353 # we assume CLOEXEC is already set by perl in all important cases
1354
1355 ($fh2, $rw)
1356}
1357
1358=head1 SIMPLIFIED AE API
1359
1360Starting with version 5.0, AnyEvent officially supports a second, much
1361simpler, API that is designed to reduce the calling, typing and memory
1362overhead by using function call syntax and a fixed number of parameters.
1363
1364See the L<AE> manpage for details.
1365
1366=cut
1367
1368package AE;
1369
1370our $VERSION = $AnyEvent::VERSION;
1371
1372# fall back to the main API by default - backends and AnyEvent::Base
1373# implementations can overwrite these.
1374
1375sub io($$$) {
1376 AnyEvent->io (fh => $_[0], poll => $_[1] ? "w" : "r", cb => $_[2])
1377}
1378
1379sub timer($$$) {
1380 AnyEvent->timer (after => $_[0], interval => $_[1], cb => $_[2])
1381}
1382
1383sub signal($$) {
1384 AnyEvent->signal (signal => $_[0], cb => $_[1])
1385}
1386
1387sub child($$) {
1388 AnyEvent->child (pid => $_[0], cb => $_[1])
1389}
1390
1391sub idle($) {
1392 AnyEvent->idle (cb => $_[0])
1393}
1394
1395sub cv(;&) {
1396 AnyEvent->condvar (@_ ? (cb => $_[0]) : ())
1397}
1398
1399sub now() {
1400 AnyEvent->now
1401}
1402
1403sub now_update() {
1404 AnyEvent->now_update
1405}
1406
1407sub time() {
1408 AnyEvent->time
1409}
1410
383package AnyEvent::Base; 1411package AnyEvent::Base;
384 1412
1413# default implementations for many methods
1414
1415sub time {
1416 eval q{ # poor man's autoloading {}
1417 # probe for availability of Time::HiRes
1418 if (eval "use Time::HiRes (); Time::HiRes::time (); 1") {
1419 warn "AnyEvent: using Time::HiRes for sub-second timing accuracy.\n" if $VERBOSE >= 8;
1420 *AE::time = \&Time::HiRes::time;
1421 # if (eval "use POSIX (); (POSIX::times())...
1422 } else {
1423 warn "AnyEvent: using built-in time(), WARNING, no sub-second resolution!\n" if $VERBOSE;
1424 *AE::time = sub (){ time }; # epic fail
1425 }
1426
1427 *time = sub { AE::time }; # different prototypes
1428 };
1429 die if $@;
1430
1431 &time
1432}
1433
1434*now = \&time;
1435
1436sub now_update { }
1437
385# default implementation for ->condvar, ->wait, ->broadcast 1438# default implementation for ->condvar
386 1439
387sub condvar { 1440sub condvar {
388 bless \my $flag, "AnyEvent::Base::CondVar" 1441 eval q{ # poor man's autoloading {}
389} 1442 *condvar = sub {
1443 bless { @_ == 3 ? (_ae_cb => $_[2]) : () }, "AnyEvent::CondVar"
1444 };
390 1445
391sub AnyEvent::Base::CondVar::broadcast { 1446 *AE::cv = sub (;&) {
392 ${$_[0]}++; 1447 bless { @_ ? (_ae_cb => shift) : () }, "AnyEvent::CondVar"
393} 1448 };
1449 };
1450 die if $@;
394 1451
395sub AnyEvent::Base::CondVar::wait { 1452 &condvar
396 AnyEvent->one_event while !${$_[0]};
397} 1453}
398 1454
399# default implementation for ->signal 1455# default implementation for ->signal
400 1456
401our %SIG_CB; 1457our $HAVE_ASYNC_INTERRUPT;
1458
1459sub _have_async_interrupt() {
1460 $HAVE_ASYNC_INTERRUPT = 1*(!$ENV{PERL_ANYEVENT_AVOID_ASYNC_INTERRUPT}
1461 && eval "use Async::Interrupt 1.02 (); 1")
1462 unless defined $HAVE_ASYNC_INTERRUPT;
1463
1464 $HAVE_ASYNC_INTERRUPT
1465}
1466
1467our ($SIGPIPE_R, $SIGPIPE_W, %SIG_CB, %SIG_EV, $SIG_IO);
1468our (%SIG_ASY, %SIG_ASY_W);
1469our ($SIG_COUNT, $SIG_TW);
1470
1471# install a dummy wakeup watcher to reduce signal catching latency
1472# used by Impls
1473sub _sig_add() {
1474 unless ($SIG_COUNT++) {
1475 # try to align timer on a full-second boundary, if possible
1476 my $NOW = AE::now;
1477
1478 $SIG_TW = AE::timer
1479 $MAX_SIGNAL_LATENCY - ($NOW - int $NOW),
1480 $MAX_SIGNAL_LATENCY,
1481 sub { } # just for the PERL_ASYNC_CHECK
1482 ;
1483 }
1484}
1485
1486sub _sig_del {
1487 undef $SIG_TW
1488 unless --$SIG_COUNT;
1489}
1490
1491our $_sig_name_init; $_sig_name_init = sub {
1492 eval q{ # poor man's autoloading {}
1493 undef $_sig_name_init;
1494
1495 if (_have_async_interrupt) {
1496 *sig2num = \&Async::Interrupt::sig2num;
1497 *sig2name = \&Async::Interrupt::sig2name;
1498 } else {
1499 require Config;
1500
1501 my %signame2num;
1502 @signame2num{ split ' ', $Config::Config{sig_name} }
1503 = split ' ', $Config::Config{sig_num};
1504
1505 my @signum2name;
1506 @signum2name[values %signame2num] = keys %signame2num;
1507
1508 *sig2num = sub($) {
1509 $_[0] > 0 ? shift : $signame2num{+shift}
1510 };
1511 *sig2name = sub ($) {
1512 $_[0] > 0 ? $signum2name[+shift] : shift
1513 };
1514 }
1515 };
1516 die if $@;
1517};
1518
1519sub sig2num ($) { &$_sig_name_init; &sig2num }
1520sub sig2name($) { &$_sig_name_init; &sig2name }
402 1521
403sub signal { 1522sub signal {
1523 eval q{ # poor man's autoloading {}
1524 # probe for availability of Async::Interrupt
1525 if (_have_async_interrupt) {
1526 warn "AnyEvent: using Async::Interrupt for race-free signal handling.\n" if $VERBOSE >= 8;
1527
1528 $SIGPIPE_R = new Async::Interrupt::EventPipe;
1529 $SIG_IO = AE::io $SIGPIPE_R->fileno, 0, \&_signal_exec;
1530
1531 } else {
1532 warn "AnyEvent: using emulated perl signal handling with latency timer.\n" if $VERBOSE >= 8;
1533
1534 if (AnyEvent::WIN32) {
1535 require AnyEvent::Util;
1536
1537 ($SIGPIPE_R, $SIGPIPE_W) = AnyEvent::Util::portable_pipe ();
1538 AnyEvent::Util::fh_nonblocking ($SIGPIPE_R, 1) if $SIGPIPE_R;
1539 AnyEvent::Util::fh_nonblocking ($SIGPIPE_W, 1) if $SIGPIPE_W; # just in case
1540 } else {
1541 pipe $SIGPIPE_R, $SIGPIPE_W;
1542 fcntl $SIGPIPE_R, AnyEvent::F_SETFL, AnyEvent::O_NONBLOCK if $SIGPIPE_R;
1543 fcntl $SIGPIPE_W, AnyEvent::F_SETFL, AnyEvent::O_NONBLOCK if $SIGPIPE_W; # just in case
1544
1545 # not strictly required, as $^F is normally 2, but let's make sure...
1546 fcntl $SIGPIPE_R, AnyEvent::F_SETFD, AnyEvent::FD_CLOEXEC;
1547 fcntl $SIGPIPE_W, AnyEvent::F_SETFD, AnyEvent::FD_CLOEXEC;
1548 }
1549
1550 $SIGPIPE_R
1551 or Carp::croak "AnyEvent: unable to create a signal reporting pipe: $!\n";
1552
1553 $SIG_IO = AE::io $SIGPIPE_R, 0, \&_signal_exec;
1554 }
1555
1556 *signal = $HAVE_ASYNC_INTERRUPT
1557 ? sub {
404 my (undef, %arg) = @_; 1558 my (undef, %arg) = @_;
405 1559
1560 # async::interrupt
406 my $signal = uc $arg{signal} 1561 my $signal = sig2num $arg{signal};
407 or Carp::croak "required option 'signal' is missing";
408
409 $SIG_CB{$signal}{$arg{cb}} = $arg{cb}; 1562 $SIG_CB{$signal}{$arg{cb}} = $arg{cb};
1563
1564 $SIG_ASY{$signal} ||= new Async::Interrupt
1565 cb => sub { undef $SIG_EV{$signal} },
1566 signal => $signal,
1567 pipe => [$SIGPIPE_R->filenos],
1568 pipe_autodrain => 0,
1569 ;
1570
1571 bless [$signal, $arg{cb}], "AnyEvent::Base::signal"
1572 }
1573 : sub {
1574 my (undef, %arg) = @_;
1575
1576 # pure perl
1577 my $signal = sig2name $arg{signal};
1578 $SIG_CB{$signal}{$arg{cb}} = $arg{cb};
1579
410 $SIG{$signal} ||= sub { 1580 $SIG{$signal} ||= sub {
1581 local $!;
1582 syswrite $SIGPIPE_W, "\x00", 1 unless %SIG_EV;
1583 undef $SIG_EV{$signal};
1584 };
1585
1586 # can't do signal processing without introducing races in pure perl,
1587 # so limit the signal latency.
1588 _sig_add;
1589
1590 bless [$signal, $arg{cb}], "AnyEvent::Base::signal"
1591 }
1592 ;
1593
1594 *AnyEvent::Base::signal::DESTROY = sub {
1595 my ($signal, $cb) = @{$_[0]};
1596
1597 _sig_del;
1598
1599 delete $SIG_CB{$signal}{$cb};
1600
1601 $HAVE_ASYNC_INTERRUPT
1602 ? delete $SIG_ASY{$signal}
1603 : # delete doesn't work with older perls - they then
1604 # print weird messages, or just unconditionally exit
1605 # instead of getting the default action.
1606 undef $SIG{$signal}
1607 unless keys %{ $SIG_CB{$signal} };
1608 };
1609
1610 *_signal_exec = sub {
1611 $HAVE_ASYNC_INTERRUPT
1612 ? $SIGPIPE_R->drain
1613 : sysread $SIGPIPE_R, (my $dummy), 9;
1614
1615 while (%SIG_EV) {
1616 for (keys %SIG_EV) {
1617 delete $SIG_EV{$_};
411 $_->() for values %{ $SIG_CB{$signal} || {} }; 1618 $_->() for values %{ $SIG_CB{$_} || {} };
1619 }
1620 }
1621 };
412 }; 1622 };
1623 die if $@;
413 1624
414 bless [$signal, $arg{cb}], "AnyEvent::Base::Signal" 1625 &signal
415}
416
417sub AnyEvent::Base::Signal::DESTROY {
418 my ($signal, $cb) = @{$_[0]};
419
420 delete $SIG_CB{$signal}{$cb};
421
422 $SIG{$signal} = 'DEFAULT' unless keys %{ $SIG_CB{$signal} };
423} 1626}
424 1627
425# default implementation for ->child 1628# default implementation for ->child
426 1629
427our %PID_CB; 1630our %PID_CB;
428our $CHLD_W; 1631our $CHLD_W;
429our $CHLD_DELAY_W; 1632our $CHLD_DELAY_W;
430our $PID_IDLE;
431our $WNOHANG;
432 1633
433sub _child_wait { 1634# used by many Impl's
434 while (0 < (my $pid = waitpid -1, $WNOHANG)) { 1635sub _emit_childstatus($$) {
1636 my (undef, $rpid, $rstatus) = @_;
1637
1638 $_->($rpid, $rstatus)
435 $_->($pid, $?) for (values %{ $PID_CB{$pid} || {} }), 1639 for values %{ $PID_CB{$rpid} || {} },
436 (values %{ $PID_CB{0} || {} }); 1640 values %{ $PID_CB{0} || {} };
437 }
438
439 undef $PID_IDLE;
440}
441
442sub _sigchld {
443 # make sure we deliver these changes "synchronous" with the event loop.
444 $CHLD_DELAY_W ||= AnyEvent->timer (after => 0, cb => sub {
445 undef $CHLD_DELAY_W;
446 &_child_wait;
447 });
448} 1641}
449 1642
450sub child { 1643sub child {
1644 eval q{ # poor man's autoloading {}
1645 *_sigchld = sub {
1646 my $pid;
1647
1648 AnyEvent->_emit_childstatus ($pid, $?)
1649 while ($pid = waitpid -1, WNOHANG) > 0;
1650 };
1651
1652 *child = sub {
451 my (undef, %arg) = @_; 1653 my (undef, %arg) = @_;
452 1654
453 defined (my $pid = $arg{pid} + 0) 1655 defined (my $pid = $arg{pid} + 0)
454 or Carp::croak "required option 'pid' is missing"; 1656 or Carp::croak "required option 'pid' is missing";
455 1657
456 $PID_CB{$pid}{$arg{cb}} = $arg{cb}; 1658 $PID_CB{$pid}{$arg{cb}} = $arg{cb};
457 1659
458 unless ($WNOHANG) {
459 $WNOHANG = eval { require POSIX; &POSIX::WNOHANG } || 1;
460 }
461
462 unless ($CHLD_W) { 1660 unless ($CHLD_W) {
463 $CHLD_W = AnyEvent->signal (signal => 'CHLD', cb => \&_sigchld); 1661 $CHLD_W = AE::signal CHLD => \&_sigchld;
464 # child could be a zombie already, so make at least one round 1662 # child could be a zombie already, so make at least one round
465 &_sigchld; 1663 &_sigchld;
466 } 1664 }
467 1665
468 bless [$pid, $arg{cb}], "AnyEvent::Base::Child" 1666 bless [$pid, $arg{cb}], "AnyEvent::Base::child"
469} 1667 };
470 1668
471sub AnyEvent::Base::Child::DESTROY { 1669 *AnyEvent::Base::child::DESTROY = sub {
472 my ($pid, $cb) = @{$_[0]}; 1670 my ($pid, $cb) = @{$_[0]};
473 1671
474 delete $PID_CB{$pid}{$cb}; 1672 delete $PID_CB{$pid}{$cb};
475 delete $PID_CB{$pid} unless keys %{ $PID_CB{$pid} }; 1673 delete $PID_CB{$pid} unless keys %{ $PID_CB{$pid} };
476 1674
477 undef $CHLD_W unless keys %PID_CB; 1675 undef $CHLD_W unless keys %PID_CB;
1676 };
1677 };
1678 die if $@;
1679
1680 &child
478} 1681}
1682
1683# idle emulation is done by simply using a timer, regardless
1684# of whether the process is idle or not, and not letting
1685# the callback use more than 50% of the time.
1686sub idle {
1687 eval q{ # poor man's autoloading {}
1688 *idle = sub {
1689 my (undef, %arg) = @_;
1690
1691 my ($cb, $w, $rcb) = $arg{cb};
1692
1693 $rcb = sub {
1694 if ($cb) {
1695 $w = _time;
1696 &$cb;
1697 $w = _time - $w;
1698
1699 # never use more then 50% of the time for the idle watcher,
1700 # within some limits
1701 $w = 0.0001 if $w < 0.0001;
1702 $w = 5 if $w > 5;
1703
1704 $w = AE::timer $w, 0, $rcb;
1705 } else {
1706 # clean up...
1707 undef $w;
1708 undef $rcb;
1709 }
1710 };
1711
1712 $w = AE::timer 0.05, 0, $rcb;
1713
1714 bless \\$cb, "AnyEvent::Base::idle"
1715 };
1716
1717 *AnyEvent::Base::idle::DESTROY = sub {
1718 undef $${$_[0]};
1719 };
1720 };
1721 die if $@;
1722
1723 &idle
1724}
1725
1726package AnyEvent::CondVar;
1727
1728our @ISA = AnyEvent::CondVar::Base::;
1729
1730# only to be used for subclassing
1731sub new {
1732 my $class = shift;
1733 bless AnyEvent->condvar (@_), $class
1734}
1735
1736package AnyEvent::CondVar::Base;
1737
1738#use overload
1739# '&{}' => sub { my $self = shift; sub { $self->send (@_) } },
1740# fallback => 1;
1741
1742# save 300+ kilobytes by dirtily hardcoding overloading
1743${"AnyEvent::CondVar::Base::OVERLOAD"}{dummy}++; # Register with magic by touching.
1744*{'AnyEvent::CondVar::Base::()'} = sub { }; # "Make it findable via fetchmethod."
1745*{'AnyEvent::CondVar::Base::(&{}'} = sub { my $self = shift; sub { $self->send (@_) } }; # &{}
1746${'AnyEvent::CondVar::Base::()'} = 1; # fallback
1747
1748our $WAITING;
1749
1750sub _send {
1751 # nop
1752}
1753
1754sub send {
1755 my $cv = shift;
1756 $cv->{_ae_sent} = [@_];
1757 (delete $cv->{_ae_cb})->($cv) if $cv->{_ae_cb};
1758 $cv->_send;
1759}
1760
1761sub croak {
1762 $_[0]{_ae_croak} = $_[1];
1763 $_[0]->send;
1764}
1765
1766sub ready {
1767 $_[0]{_ae_sent}
1768}
1769
1770sub _wait {
1771 $WAITING
1772 and !$_[0]{_ae_sent}
1773 and Carp::croak "AnyEvent::CondVar: recursive blocking wait detected";
1774
1775 local $WAITING = 1;
1776 AnyEvent->one_event while !$_[0]{_ae_sent};
1777}
1778
1779sub recv {
1780 $_[0]->_wait;
1781
1782 Carp::croak $_[0]{_ae_croak} if $_[0]{_ae_croak};
1783 wantarray ? @{ $_[0]{_ae_sent} } : $_[0]{_ae_sent}[0]
1784}
1785
1786sub cb {
1787 my $cv = shift;
1788
1789 @_
1790 and $cv->{_ae_cb} = shift
1791 and $cv->{_ae_sent}
1792 and (delete $cv->{_ae_cb})->($cv);
1793
1794 $cv->{_ae_cb}
1795}
1796
1797sub begin {
1798 ++$_[0]{_ae_counter};
1799 $_[0]{_ae_end_cb} = $_[1] if @_ > 1;
1800}
1801
1802sub end {
1803 return if --$_[0]{_ae_counter};
1804 &{ $_[0]{_ae_end_cb} || sub { $_[0]->send } };
1805}
1806
1807# undocumented/compatibility with pre-3.4
1808*broadcast = \&send;
1809*wait = \&_wait;
1810
1811=head1 ERROR AND EXCEPTION HANDLING
1812
1813In general, AnyEvent does not do any error handling - it relies on the
1814caller to do that if required. The L<AnyEvent::Strict> module (see also
1815the C<PERL_ANYEVENT_STRICT> environment variable, below) provides strict
1816checking of all AnyEvent methods, however, which is highly useful during
1817development.
1818
1819As for exception handling (i.e. runtime errors and exceptions thrown while
1820executing a callback), this is not only highly event-loop specific, but
1821also not in any way wrapped by this module, as this is the job of the main
1822program.
1823
1824The pure perl event loop simply re-throws the exception (usually
1825within C<< condvar->recv >>), the L<Event> and L<EV> modules call C<<
1826$Event/EV::DIED->() >>, L<Glib> uses C<< install_exception_handler >> and
1827so on.
1828
1829=head1 ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES
1830
1831The following environment variables are used by this module or its
1832submodules.
1833
1834Note that AnyEvent will remove I<all> environment variables starting with
1835C<PERL_ANYEVENT_> from C<%ENV> when it is loaded while taint mode is
1836enabled.
1837
1838=over 4
1839
1840=item C<PERL_ANYEVENT_VERBOSE>
1841
1842By default, AnyEvent will be completely silent except in fatal
1843conditions. You can set this environment variable to make AnyEvent more
1844talkative.
1845
1846When set to C<1> or higher, causes AnyEvent to warn about unexpected
1847conditions, such as not being able to load the event model specified by
1848C<PERL_ANYEVENT_MODEL>.
1849
1850When set to C<2> or higher, cause AnyEvent to report to STDERR which event
1851model it chooses.
1852
1853When set to C<8> or higher, then AnyEvent will report extra information on
1854which optional modules it loads and how it implements certain features.
1855
1856=item C<PERL_ANYEVENT_STRICT>
1857
1858AnyEvent does not do much argument checking by default, as thorough
1859argument checking is very costly. Setting this variable to a true value
1860will cause AnyEvent to load C<AnyEvent::Strict> and then to thoroughly
1861check the arguments passed to most method calls. If it finds any problems,
1862it will croak.
1863
1864In other words, enables "strict" mode.
1865
1866Unlike C<use strict> (or its modern cousin, C<< use L<common::sense>
1867>>, it is definitely recommended to keep it off in production. Keeping
1868C<PERL_ANYEVENT_STRICT=1> in your environment while developing programs
1869can be very useful, however.
1870
1871=item C<PERL_ANYEVENT_MODEL>
1872
1873This can be used to specify the event model to be used by AnyEvent, before
1874auto detection and -probing kicks in. It must be a string consisting
1875entirely of ASCII letters. The string C<AnyEvent::Impl::> gets prepended
1876and the resulting module name is loaded and if the load was successful,
1877used as event model. If it fails to load AnyEvent will proceed with
1878auto detection and -probing.
1879
1880This functionality might change in future versions.
1881
1882For example, to force the pure perl model (L<AnyEvent::Impl::Perl>) you
1883could start your program like this:
1884
1885 PERL_ANYEVENT_MODEL=Perl perl ...
1886
1887=item C<PERL_ANYEVENT_PROTOCOLS>
1888
1889Used by both L<AnyEvent::DNS> and L<AnyEvent::Socket> to determine preferences
1890for IPv4 or IPv6. The default is unspecified (and might change, or be the result
1891of auto probing).
1892
1893Must be set to a comma-separated list of protocols or address families,
1894current supported: C<ipv4> and C<ipv6>. Only protocols mentioned will be
1895used, and preference will be given to protocols mentioned earlier in the
1896list.
1897
1898This variable can effectively be used for denial-of-service attacks
1899against local programs (e.g. when setuid), although the impact is likely
1900small, as the program has to handle conenction and other failures anyways.
1901
1902Examples: C<PERL_ANYEVENT_PROTOCOLS=ipv4,ipv6> - prefer IPv4 over IPv6,
1903but support both and try to use both. C<PERL_ANYEVENT_PROTOCOLS=ipv4>
1904- only support IPv4, never try to resolve or contact IPv6
1905addresses. C<PERL_ANYEVENT_PROTOCOLS=ipv6,ipv4> support either IPv4 or
1906IPv6, but prefer IPv6 over IPv4.
1907
1908=item C<PERL_ANYEVENT_EDNS0>
1909
1910Used by L<AnyEvent::DNS> to decide whether to use the EDNS0 extension
1911for DNS. This extension is generally useful to reduce DNS traffic, but
1912some (broken) firewalls drop such DNS packets, which is why it is off by
1913default.
1914
1915Setting this variable to C<1> will cause L<AnyEvent::DNS> to announce
1916EDNS0 in its DNS requests.
1917
1918=item C<PERL_ANYEVENT_MAX_FORKS>
1919
1920The maximum number of child processes that C<AnyEvent::Util::fork_call>
1921will create in parallel.
1922
1923=item C<PERL_ANYEVENT_MAX_OUTSTANDING_DNS>
1924
1925The default value for the C<max_outstanding> parameter for the default DNS
1926resolver - this is the maximum number of parallel DNS requests that are
1927sent to the DNS server.
1928
1929=item C<PERL_ANYEVENT_RESOLV_CONF>
1930
1931The file to use instead of F</etc/resolv.conf> (or OS-specific
1932configuration) in the default resolver. When set to the empty string, no
1933default config will be used.
1934
1935=item C<PERL_ANYEVENT_CA_FILE>, C<PERL_ANYEVENT_CA_PATH>.
1936
1937When neither C<ca_file> nor C<ca_path> was specified during
1938L<AnyEvent::TLS> context creation, and either of these environment
1939variables exist, they will be used to specify CA certificate locations
1940instead of a system-dependent default.
1941
1942=item C<PERL_ANYEVENT_AVOID_GUARD> and C<PERL_ANYEVENT_AVOID_ASYNC_INTERRUPT>
1943
1944When these are set to C<1>, then the respective modules are not
1945loaded. Mostly good for testing AnyEvent itself.
1946
1947=back
479 1948
480=head1 SUPPLYING YOUR OWN EVENT MODEL INTERFACE 1949=head1 SUPPLYING YOUR OWN EVENT MODEL INTERFACE
1950
1951This is an advanced topic that you do not normally need to use AnyEvent in
1952a module. This section is only of use to event loop authors who want to
1953provide AnyEvent compatibility.
481 1954
482If you need to support another event library which isn't directly 1955If you need to support another event library which isn't directly
483supported by AnyEvent, you can supply your own interface to it by 1956supported by AnyEvent, you can supply your own interface to it by
484pushing, before the first watcher gets created, the package name of 1957pushing, before the first watcher gets created, the package name of
485the event module and the package name of the interface to use onto 1958the event module and the package name of the interface to use onto
486C<@AnyEvent::REGISTRY>. You can do that before and even without loading 1959C<@AnyEvent::REGISTRY>. You can do that before and even without loading
487AnyEvent. 1960AnyEvent, so it is reasonably cheap.
488 1961
489Example: 1962Example:
490 1963
491 push @AnyEvent::REGISTRY, [urxvt => urxvt::anyevent::]; 1964 push @AnyEvent::REGISTRY, [urxvt => urxvt::anyevent::];
492 1965
493This tells AnyEvent to (literally) use the C<urxvt::anyevent::> 1966This tells AnyEvent to (literally) use the C<urxvt::anyevent::>
494package/class when it finds the C<urxvt> package/module is loaded. When 1967package/class when it finds the C<urxvt> package/module is already loaded.
1968
495AnyEvent is loaded and asked to find a suitable event model, it will 1969When AnyEvent is loaded and asked to find a suitable event model, it
496first check for the presence of urxvt. 1970will first check for the presence of urxvt by trying to C<use> the
1971C<urxvt::anyevent> module.
497 1972
498The class should provide implementations for all watcher types (see 1973The class should provide implementations for all watcher types. See
499L<AnyEvent::Impl::Event> (source code), L<AnyEvent::Impl::Glib> 1974L<AnyEvent::Impl::EV> (source code), L<AnyEvent::Impl::Glib> (Source code)
500(Source code) and so on for actual examples, use C<perldoc -m 1975and so on for actual examples. Use C<perldoc -m AnyEvent::Impl::Glib> to
501AnyEvent::Impl::Glib> to see the sources). 1976see the sources.
502 1977
1978If you don't provide C<signal> and C<child> watchers than AnyEvent will
1979provide suitable (hopefully) replacements.
1980
503The above isn't fictitious, the I<rxvt-unicode> (a.k.a. urxvt) 1981The above example isn't fictitious, the I<rxvt-unicode> (a.k.a. urxvt)
504uses the above line as-is. An interface isn't included in AnyEvent 1982terminal emulator uses the above line as-is. An interface isn't included
505because it doesn't make sense outside the embedded interpreter inside 1983in AnyEvent because it doesn't make sense outside the embedded interpreter
506I<rxvt-unicode>, and it is updated and maintained as part of the 1984inside I<rxvt-unicode>, and it is updated and maintained as part of the
507I<rxvt-unicode> distribution. 1985I<rxvt-unicode> distribution.
508 1986
509I<rxvt-unicode> also cheats a bit by not providing blocking access to 1987I<rxvt-unicode> also cheats a bit by not providing blocking access to
510condition variables: code blocking while waiting for a condition will 1988condition variables: code blocking while waiting for a condition will
511C<die>. This still works with most modules/usages, and blocking calls must 1989C<die>. This still works with most modules/usages, and blocking calls must
512not be in an interactive application, so it makes sense. 1990not be done in an interactive application, so it makes sense.
513 1991
514=head1 ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES
515
516The following environment variables are used by this module:
517
518C<PERL_ANYEVENT_VERBOSE> when set to C<2> or higher, reports which event
519model gets used.
520
521=head1 EXAMPLE 1992=head1 EXAMPLE PROGRAM
522 1993
523The following program uses an io watcher to read data from stdin, a timer 1994The following program uses an I/O watcher to read data from STDIN, a timer
524to display a message once per second, and a condvar to exit the program 1995to display a message once per second, and a condition variable to quit the
525when the user enters quit: 1996program when the user enters quit:
526 1997
527 use AnyEvent; 1998 use AnyEvent;
528 1999
529 my $cv = AnyEvent->condvar; 2000 my $cv = AnyEvent->condvar;
530 2001
531 my $io_watcher = AnyEvent->io (fh => \*STDIN, poll => 'r', cb => sub { 2002 my $io_watcher = AnyEvent->io (
2003 fh => \*STDIN,
2004 poll => 'r',
2005 cb => sub {
532 warn "io event <$_[0]>\n"; # will always output <r> 2006 warn "io event <$_[0]>\n"; # will always output <r>
533 chomp (my $input = <STDIN>); # read a line 2007 chomp (my $input = <STDIN>); # read a line
534 warn "read: $input\n"; # output what has been read 2008 warn "read: $input\n"; # output what has been read
535 $cv->broadcast if $input =~ /^q/i; # quit program if /^q/i 2009 $cv->send if $input =~ /^q/i; # quit program if /^q/i
2010 },
2011 );
2012
2013 my $time_watcher = AnyEvent->timer (after => 1, interval => 1, cb => sub {
2014 warn "timeout\n"; # print 'timeout' at most every second
536 }); 2015 });
537 2016
538 my $time_watcher; # can only be used once
539
540 sub new_timer {
541 $timer = AnyEvent->timer (after => 1, cb => sub {
542 warn "timeout\n"; # print 'timeout' about every second
543 &new_timer; # and restart the time
544 });
545 }
546
547 new_timer; # create first timer
548
549 $cv->wait; # wait until user enters /^q/i 2017 $cv->recv; # wait until user enters /^q/i
550 2018
551=head1 REAL-WORLD EXAMPLE 2019=head1 REAL-WORLD EXAMPLE
552 2020
553Consider the L<Net::FCP> module. It features (among others) the following 2021Consider the L<Net::FCP> module. It features (among others) the following
554API calls, which are to freenet what HTTP GET requests are to http: 2022API calls, which are to freenet what HTTP GET requests are to http:
604 syswrite $txn->{fh}, $txn->{request} 2072 syswrite $txn->{fh}, $txn->{request}
605 or die "connection or write error"; 2073 or die "connection or write error";
606 $txn->{w} = AnyEvent->io (fh => $txn->{fh}, poll => 'r', cb => sub { $txn->fh_ready_r }); 2074 $txn->{w} = AnyEvent->io (fh => $txn->{fh}, poll => 'r', cb => sub { $txn->fh_ready_r });
607 2075
608Again, C<fh_ready_r> waits till all data has arrived, and then stores the 2076Again, C<fh_ready_r> waits till all data has arrived, and then stores the
609result and signals any possible waiters that the request ahs finished: 2077result and signals any possible waiters that the request has finished:
610 2078
611 sysread $txn->{fh}, $txn->{buf}, length $txn->{$buf}; 2079 sysread $txn->{fh}, $txn->{buf}, length $txn->{$buf};
612 2080
613 if (end-of-file or data complete) { 2081 if (end-of-file or data complete) {
614 $txn->{result} = $txn->{buf}; 2082 $txn->{result} = $txn->{buf};
615 $txn->{finished}->broadcast; 2083 $txn->{finished}->send;
616 $txb->{cb}->($txn) of $txn->{cb}; # also call callback 2084 $txb->{cb}->($txn) of $txn->{cb}; # also call callback
617 } 2085 }
618 2086
619The C<result> method, finally, just waits for the finished signal (if the 2087The C<result> method, finally, just waits for the finished signal (if the
620request was already finished, it doesn't wait, of course, and returns the 2088request was already finished, it doesn't wait, of course, and returns the
621data: 2089data:
622 2090
623 $txn->{finished}->wait; 2091 $txn->{finished}->recv;
624 return $txn->{result}; 2092 return $txn->{result};
625 2093
626The actual code goes further and collects all errors (C<die>s, exceptions) 2094The actual code goes further and collects all errors (C<die>s, exceptions)
627that occured during request processing. The C<result> method detects 2095that occurred during request processing. The C<result> method detects
628wether an exception as thrown (it is stored inside the $txn object) 2096whether an exception as thrown (it is stored inside the $txn object)
629and just throws the exception, which means connection errors and other 2097and just throws the exception, which means connection errors and other
630problems get reported tot he code that tries to use the result, not in a 2098problems get reported to the code that tries to use the result, not in a
631random callback. 2099random callback.
632 2100
633All of this enables the following usage styles: 2101All of this enables the following usage styles:
634 2102
6351. Blocking: 21031. Blocking:
636 2104
637 my $data = $fcp->client_get ($url); 2105 my $data = $fcp->client_get ($url);
638 2106
6392. Blocking, but parallelizing: 21072. Blocking, but running in parallel:
640 2108
641 my @datas = map $_->result, 2109 my @datas = map $_->result,
642 map $fcp->txn_client_get ($_), 2110 map $fcp->txn_client_get ($_),
643 @urls; 2111 @urls;
644 2112
645Both blocking examples work without the module user having to know 2113Both blocking examples work without the module user having to know
646anything about events. 2114anything about events.
647 2115
6483a. Event-based in a main program, using any support Event module: 21163a. Event-based in a main program, using any supported event module:
649 2117
650 use Event; 2118 use EV;
651 2119
652 $fcp->txn_client_get ($url)->cb (sub { 2120 $fcp->txn_client_get ($url)->cb (sub {
653 my $txn = shift; 2121 my $txn = shift;
654 my $data = $txn->result; 2122 my $data = $txn->result;
655 ... 2123 ...
656 }); 2124 });
657 2125
658 Event::loop; 2126 EV::loop;
659 2127
6603b. The module user could use AnyEvent, too: 21283b. The module user could use AnyEvent, too:
661 2129
662 use AnyEvent; 2130 use AnyEvent;
663 2131
664 my $quit = AnyEvent->condvar; 2132 my $quit = AnyEvent->condvar;
665 2133
666 $fcp->txn_client_get ($url)->cb (sub { 2134 $fcp->txn_client_get ($url)->cb (sub {
667 ... 2135 ...
668 $quit->broadcast; 2136 $quit->send;
669 }); 2137 });
670 2138
671 $quit->wait; 2139 $quit->recv;
2140
2141
2142=head1 BENCHMARKS
2143
2144To give you an idea of the performance and overheads that AnyEvent adds
2145over the event loops themselves and to give you an impression of the speed
2146of various event loops I prepared some benchmarks.
2147
2148=head2 BENCHMARKING ANYEVENT OVERHEAD
2149
2150Here is a benchmark of various supported event models used natively and
2151through AnyEvent. The benchmark creates a lot of timers (with a zero
2152timeout) and I/O watchers (watching STDOUT, a pty, to become writable,
2153which it is), lets them fire exactly once and destroys them again.
2154
2155Source code for this benchmark is found as F<eg/bench> in the AnyEvent
2156distribution. It uses the L<AE> interface, which makes a real difference
2157for the EV and Perl backends only.
2158
2159=head3 Explanation of the columns
2160
2161I<watcher> is the number of event watchers created/destroyed. Since
2162different event models feature vastly different performances, each event
2163loop was given a number of watchers so that overall runtime is acceptable
2164and similar between tested event loop (and keep them from crashing): Glib
2165would probably take thousands of years if asked to process the same number
2166of watchers as EV in this benchmark.
2167
2168I<bytes> is the number of bytes (as measured by the resident set size,
2169RSS) consumed by each watcher. This method of measuring captures both C
2170and Perl-based overheads.
2171
2172I<create> is the time, in microseconds (millionths of seconds), that it
2173takes to create a single watcher. The callback is a closure shared between
2174all watchers, to avoid adding memory overhead. That means closure creation
2175and memory usage is not included in the figures.
2176
2177I<invoke> is the time, in microseconds, used to invoke a simple
2178callback. The callback simply counts down a Perl variable and after it was
2179invoked "watcher" times, it would C<< ->send >> a condvar once to
2180signal the end of this phase.
2181
2182I<destroy> is the time, in microseconds, that it takes to destroy a single
2183watcher.
2184
2185=head3 Results
2186
2187 name watchers bytes create invoke destroy comment
2188 EV/EV 100000 223 0.47 0.43 0.27 EV native interface
2189 EV/Any 100000 223 0.48 0.42 0.26 EV + AnyEvent watchers
2190 Coro::EV/Any 100000 223 0.47 0.42 0.26 coroutines + Coro::Signal
2191 Perl/Any 100000 431 2.70 0.74 0.92 pure perl implementation
2192 Event/Event 16000 516 31.16 31.84 0.82 Event native interface
2193 Event/Any 16000 1203 42.61 34.79 1.80 Event + AnyEvent watchers
2194 IOAsync/Any 16000 1911 41.92 27.45 16.81 via IO::Async::Loop::IO_Poll
2195 IOAsync/Any 16000 1726 40.69 26.37 15.25 via IO::Async::Loop::Epoll
2196 Glib/Any 16000 1118 89.00 12.57 51.17 quadratic behaviour
2197 Tk/Any 2000 1346 20.96 10.75 8.00 SEGV with >> 2000 watchers
2198 POE/Any 2000 6951 108.97 795.32 14.24 via POE::Loop::Event
2199 POE/Any 2000 6648 94.79 774.40 575.51 via POE::Loop::Select
2200
2201=head3 Discussion
2202
2203The benchmark does I<not> measure scalability of the event loop very
2204well. For example, a select-based event loop (such as the pure perl one)
2205can never compete with an event loop that uses epoll when the number of
2206file descriptors grows high. In this benchmark, all events become ready at
2207the same time, so select/poll-based implementations get an unnatural speed
2208boost.
2209
2210Also, note that the number of watchers usually has a nonlinear effect on
2211overall speed, that is, creating twice as many watchers doesn't take twice
2212the time - usually it takes longer. This puts event loops tested with a
2213higher number of watchers at a disadvantage.
2214
2215To put the range of results into perspective, consider that on the
2216benchmark machine, handling an event takes roughly 1600 CPU cycles with
2217EV, 3100 CPU cycles with AnyEvent's pure perl loop and almost 3000000 CPU
2218cycles with POE.
2219
2220C<EV> is the sole leader regarding speed and memory use, which are both
2221maximal/minimal, respectively. When using the L<AE> API there is zero
2222overhead (when going through the AnyEvent API create is about 5-6 times
2223slower, with other times being equal, so still uses far less memory than
2224any other event loop and is still faster than Event natively).
2225
2226The pure perl implementation is hit in a few sweet spots (both the
2227constant timeout and the use of a single fd hit optimisations in the perl
2228interpreter and the backend itself). Nevertheless this shows that it
2229adds very little overhead in itself. Like any select-based backend its
2230performance becomes really bad with lots of file descriptors (and few of
2231them active), of course, but this was not subject of this benchmark.
2232
2233The C<Event> module has a relatively high setup and callback invocation
2234cost, but overall scores in on the third place.
2235
2236C<IO::Async> performs admirably well, about on par with C<Event>, even
2237when using its pure perl backend.
2238
2239C<Glib>'s memory usage is quite a bit higher, but it features a
2240faster callback invocation and overall ends up in the same class as
2241C<Event>. However, Glib scales extremely badly, doubling the number of
2242watchers increases the processing time by more than a factor of four,
2243making it completely unusable when using larger numbers of watchers
2244(note that only a single file descriptor was used in the benchmark, so
2245inefficiencies of C<poll> do not account for this).
2246
2247The C<Tk> adaptor works relatively well. The fact that it crashes with
2248more than 2000 watchers is a big setback, however, as correctness takes
2249precedence over speed. Nevertheless, its performance is surprising, as the
2250file descriptor is dup()ed for each watcher. This shows that the dup()
2251employed by some adaptors is not a big performance issue (it does incur a
2252hidden memory cost inside the kernel which is not reflected in the figures
2253above).
2254
2255C<POE>, regardless of underlying event loop (whether using its pure perl
2256select-based backend or the Event module, the POE-EV backend couldn't
2257be tested because it wasn't working) shows abysmal performance and
2258memory usage with AnyEvent: Watchers use almost 30 times as much memory
2259as EV watchers, and 10 times as much memory as Event (the high memory
2260requirements are caused by requiring a session for each watcher). Watcher
2261invocation speed is almost 900 times slower than with AnyEvent's pure perl
2262implementation.
2263
2264The design of the POE adaptor class in AnyEvent can not really account
2265for the performance issues, though, as session creation overhead is
2266small compared to execution of the state machine, which is coded pretty
2267optimally within L<AnyEvent::Impl::POE> (and while everybody agrees that
2268using multiple sessions is not a good approach, especially regarding
2269memory usage, even the author of POE could not come up with a faster
2270design).
2271
2272=head3 Summary
2273
2274=over 4
2275
2276=item * Using EV through AnyEvent is faster than any other event loop
2277(even when used without AnyEvent), but most event loops have acceptable
2278performance with or without AnyEvent.
2279
2280=item * The overhead AnyEvent adds is usually much smaller than the overhead of
2281the actual event loop, only with extremely fast event loops such as EV
2282adds AnyEvent significant overhead.
2283
2284=item * You should avoid POE like the plague if you want performance or
2285reasonable memory usage.
2286
2287=back
2288
2289=head2 BENCHMARKING THE LARGE SERVER CASE
2290
2291This benchmark actually benchmarks the event loop itself. It works by
2292creating a number of "servers": each server consists of a socket pair, a
2293timeout watcher that gets reset on activity (but never fires), and an I/O
2294watcher waiting for input on one side of the socket. Each time the socket
2295watcher reads a byte it will write that byte to a random other "server".
2296
2297The effect is that there will be a lot of I/O watchers, only part of which
2298are active at any one point (so there is a constant number of active
2299fds for each loop iteration, but which fds these are is random). The
2300timeout is reset each time something is read because that reflects how
2301most timeouts work (and puts extra pressure on the event loops).
2302
2303In this benchmark, we use 10000 socket pairs (20000 sockets), of which 100
2304(1%) are active. This mirrors the activity of large servers with many
2305connections, most of which are idle at any one point in time.
2306
2307Source code for this benchmark is found as F<eg/bench2> in the AnyEvent
2308distribution. It uses the L<AE> interface, which makes a real difference
2309for the EV and Perl backends only.
2310
2311=head3 Explanation of the columns
2312
2313I<sockets> is the number of sockets, and twice the number of "servers" (as
2314each server has a read and write socket end).
2315
2316I<create> is the time it takes to create a socket pair (which is
2317nontrivial) and two watchers: an I/O watcher and a timeout watcher.
2318
2319I<request>, the most important value, is the time it takes to handle a
2320single "request", that is, reading the token from the pipe and forwarding
2321it to another server. This includes deleting the old timeout and creating
2322a new one that moves the timeout into the future.
2323
2324=head3 Results
2325
2326 name sockets create request
2327 EV 20000 62.66 7.99
2328 Perl 20000 68.32 32.64
2329 IOAsync 20000 174.06 101.15 epoll
2330 IOAsync 20000 174.67 610.84 poll
2331 Event 20000 202.69 242.91
2332 Glib 20000 557.01 1689.52
2333 POE 20000 341.54 12086.32 uses POE::Loop::Event
2334
2335=head3 Discussion
2336
2337This benchmark I<does> measure scalability and overall performance of the
2338particular event loop.
2339
2340EV is again fastest. Since it is using epoll on my system, the setup time
2341is relatively high, though.
2342
2343Perl surprisingly comes second. It is much faster than the C-based event
2344loops Event and Glib.
2345
2346IO::Async performs very well when using its epoll backend, and still quite
2347good compared to Glib when using its pure perl backend.
2348
2349Event suffers from high setup time as well (look at its code and you will
2350understand why). Callback invocation also has a high overhead compared to
2351the C<< $_->() for .. >>-style loop that the Perl event loop uses. Event
2352uses select or poll in basically all documented configurations.
2353
2354Glib is hit hard by its quadratic behaviour w.r.t. many watchers. It
2355clearly fails to perform with many filehandles or in busy servers.
2356
2357POE is still completely out of the picture, taking over 1000 times as long
2358as EV, and over 100 times as long as the Perl implementation, even though
2359it uses a C-based event loop in this case.
2360
2361=head3 Summary
2362
2363=over 4
2364
2365=item * The pure perl implementation performs extremely well.
2366
2367=item * Avoid Glib or POE in large projects where performance matters.
2368
2369=back
2370
2371=head2 BENCHMARKING SMALL SERVERS
2372
2373While event loops should scale (and select-based ones do not...) even to
2374large servers, most programs we (or I :) actually write have only a few
2375I/O watchers.
2376
2377In this benchmark, I use the same benchmark program as in the large server
2378case, but it uses only eight "servers", of which three are active at any
2379one time. This should reflect performance for a small server relatively
2380well.
2381
2382The columns are identical to the previous table.
2383
2384=head3 Results
2385
2386 name sockets create request
2387 EV 16 20.00 6.54
2388 Perl 16 25.75 12.62
2389 Event 16 81.27 35.86
2390 Glib 16 32.63 15.48
2391 POE 16 261.87 276.28 uses POE::Loop::Event
2392
2393=head3 Discussion
2394
2395The benchmark tries to test the performance of a typical small
2396server. While knowing how various event loops perform is interesting, keep
2397in mind that their overhead in this case is usually not as important, due
2398to the small absolute number of watchers (that is, you need efficiency and
2399speed most when you have lots of watchers, not when you only have a few of
2400them).
2401
2402EV is again fastest.
2403
2404Perl again comes second. It is noticeably faster than the C-based event
2405loops Event and Glib, although the difference is too small to really
2406matter.
2407
2408POE also performs much better in this case, but is is still far behind the
2409others.
2410
2411=head3 Summary
2412
2413=over 4
2414
2415=item * C-based event loops perform very well with small number of
2416watchers, as the management overhead dominates.
2417
2418=back
2419
2420=head2 THE IO::Lambda BENCHMARK
2421
2422Recently I was told about the benchmark in the IO::Lambda manpage, which
2423could be misinterpreted to make AnyEvent look bad. In fact, the benchmark
2424simply compares IO::Lambda with POE, and IO::Lambda looks better (which
2425shouldn't come as a surprise to anybody). As such, the benchmark is
2426fine, and mostly shows that the AnyEvent backend from IO::Lambda isn't
2427very optimal. But how would AnyEvent compare when used without the extra
2428baggage? To explore this, I wrote the equivalent benchmark for AnyEvent.
2429
2430The benchmark itself creates an echo-server, and then, for 500 times,
2431connects to the echo server, sends a line, waits for the reply, and then
2432creates the next connection. This is a rather bad benchmark, as it doesn't
2433test the efficiency of the framework or much non-blocking I/O, but it is a
2434benchmark nevertheless.
2435
2436 name runtime
2437 Lambda/select 0.330 sec
2438 + optimized 0.122 sec
2439 Lambda/AnyEvent 0.327 sec
2440 + optimized 0.138 sec
2441 Raw sockets/select 0.077 sec
2442 POE/select, components 0.662 sec
2443 POE/select, raw sockets 0.226 sec
2444 POE/select, optimized 0.404 sec
2445
2446 AnyEvent/select/nb 0.085 sec
2447 AnyEvent/EV/nb 0.068 sec
2448 +state machine 0.134 sec
2449
2450The benchmark is also a bit unfair (my fault): the IO::Lambda/POE
2451benchmarks actually make blocking connects and use 100% blocking I/O,
2452defeating the purpose of an event-based solution. All of the newly
2453written AnyEvent benchmarks use 100% non-blocking connects (using
2454AnyEvent::Socket::tcp_connect and the asynchronous pure perl DNS
2455resolver), so AnyEvent is at a disadvantage here, as non-blocking connects
2456generally require a lot more bookkeeping and event handling than blocking
2457connects (which involve a single syscall only).
2458
2459The last AnyEvent benchmark additionally uses L<AnyEvent::Handle>, which
2460offers similar expressive power as POE and IO::Lambda, using conventional
2461Perl syntax. This means that both the echo server and the client are 100%
2462non-blocking, further placing it at a disadvantage.
2463
2464As you can see, the AnyEvent + EV combination even beats the
2465hand-optimised "raw sockets benchmark", while AnyEvent + its pure perl
2466backend easily beats IO::Lambda and POE.
2467
2468And even the 100% non-blocking version written using the high-level (and
2469slow :) L<AnyEvent::Handle> abstraction beats both POE and IO::Lambda
2470higher level ("unoptimised") abstractions by a large margin, even though
2471it does all of DNS, tcp-connect and socket I/O in a non-blocking way.
2472
2473The two AnyEvent benchmarks programs can be found as F<eg/ae0.pl> and
2474F<eg/ae2.pl> in the AnyEvent distribution, the remaining benchmarks are
2475part of the IO::Lambda distribution and were used without any changes.
2476
2477
2478=head1 SIGNALS
2479
2480AnyEvent currently installs handlers for these signals:
2481
2482=over 4
2483
2484=item SIGCHLD
2485
2486A handler for C<SIGCHLD> is installed by AnyEvent's child watcher
2487emulation for event loops that do not support them natively. Also, some
2488event loops install a similar handler.
2489
2490Additionally, when AnyEvent is loaded and SIGCHLD is set to IGNORE, then
2491AnyEvent will reset it to default, to avoid losing child exit statuses.
2492
2493=item SIGPIPE
2494
2495A no-op handler is installed for C<SIGPIPE> when C<$SIG{PIPE}> is C<undef>
2496when AnyEvent gets loaded.
2497
2498The rationale for this is that AnyEvent users usually do not really depend
2499on SIGPIPE delivery (which is purely an optimisation for shell use, or
2500badly-written programs), but C<SIGPIPE> can cause spurious and rare
2501program exits as a lot of people do not expect C<SIGPIPE> when writing to
2502some random socket.
2503
2504The rationale for installing a no-op handler as opposed to ignoring it is
2505that this way, the handler will be restored to defaults on exec.
2506
2507Feel free to install your own handler, or reset it to defaults.
2508
2509=back
2510
2511=cut
2512
2513undef $SIG{CHLD}
2514 if $SIG{CHLD} eq 'IGNORE';
2515
2516$SIG{PIPE} = sub { }
2517 unless defined $SIG{PIPE};
2518
2519=head1 RECOMMENDED/OPTIONAL MODULES
2520
2521One of AnyEvent's main goals is to be 100% Pure-Perl(tm): only perl (and
2522its built-in modules) are required to use it.
2523
2524That does not mean that AnyEvent won't take advantage of some additional
2525modules if they are installed.
2526
2527This section explains which additional modules will be used, and how they
2528affect AnyEvent's operation.
2529
2530=over 4
2531
2532=item L<Async::Interrupt>
2533
2534This slightly arcane module is used to implement fast signal handling: To
2535my knowledge, there is no way to do completely race-free and quick
2536signal handling in pure perl. To ensure that signals still get
2537delivered, AnyEvent will start an interval timer to wake up perl (and
2538catch the signals) with some delay (default is 10 seconds, look for
2539C<$AnyEvent::MAX_SIGNAL_LATENCY>).
2540
2541If this module is available, then it will be used to implement signal
2542catching, which means that signals will not be delayed, and the event loop
2543will not be interrupted regularly, which is more efficient (and good for
2544battery life on laptops).
2545
2546This affects not just the pure-perl event loop, but also other event loops
2547that have no signal handling on their own (e.g. Glib, Tk, Qt).
2548
2549Some event loops (POE, Event, Event::Lib) offer signal watchers natively,
2550and either employ their own workarounds (POE) or use AnyEvent's workaround
2551(using C<$AnyEvent::MAX_SIGNAL_LATENCY>). Installing L<Async::Interrupt>
2552does nothing for those backends.
2553
2554=item L<EV>
2555
2556This module isn't really "optional", as it is simply one of the backend
2557event loops that AnyEvent can use. However, it is simply the best event
2558loop available in terms of features, speed and stability: It supports
2559the AnyEvent API optimally, implements all the watcher types in XS, does
2560automatic timer adjustments even when no monotonic clock is available,
2561can take avdantage of advanced kernel interfaces such as C<epoll> and
2562C<kqueue>, and is the fastest backend I<by far>. You can even embed
2563L<Glib>/L<Gtk2> in it (or vice versa, see L<EV::Glib> and L<Glib::EV>).
2564
2565If you only use backends that rely on another event loop (e.g. C<Tk>),
2566then this module will do nothing for you.
2567
2568=item L<Guard>
2569
2570The guard module, when used, will be used to implement
2571C<AnyEvent::Util::guard>. This speeds up guards considerably (and uses a
2572lot less memory), but otherwise doesn't affect guard operation much. It is
2573purely used for performance.
2574
2575=item L<JSON> and L<JSON::XS>
2576
2577One of these modules is required when you want to read or write JSON data
2578via L<AnyEvent::Handle>. L<JSON> is also written in pure-perl, but can take
2579advantage of the ultra-high-speed L<JSON::XS> module when it is installed.
2580
2581=item L<Net::SSLeay>
2582
2583Implementing TLS/SSL in Perl is certainly interesting, but not very
2584worthwhile: If this module is installed, then L<AnyEvent::Handle> (with
2585the help of L<AnyEvent::TLS>), gains the ability to do TLS/SSL.
2586
2587=item L<Time::HiRes>
2588
2589This module is part of perl since release 5.008. It will be used when the
2590chosen event library does not come with a timing source of its own. The
2591pure-perl event loop (L<AnyEvent::Impl::Perl>) will additionally use it to
2592try to use a monotonic clock for timing stability.
2593
2594=back
2595
2596
2597=head1 FORK
2598
2599Most event libraries are not fork-safe. The ones who are usually are
2600because they rely on inefficient but fork-safe C<select> or C<poll> calls
2601- higher performance APIs such as BSD's kqueue or the dreaded Linux epoll
2602are usually badly thought-out hacks that are incompatible with fork in
2603one way or another. Only L<EV> is fully fork-aware and ensures that you
2604continue event-processing in both parent and child (or both, if you know
2605what you are doing).
2606
2607This means that, in general, you cannot fork and do event processing in
2608the child if the event library was initialised before the fork (which
2609usually happens when the first AnyEvent watcher is created, or the library
2610is loaded).
2611
2612If you have to fork, you must either do so I<before> creating your first
2613watcher OR you must not use AnyEvent at all in the child OR you must do
2614something completely out of the scope of AnyEvent.
2615
2616The problem of doing event processing in the parent I<and> the child
2617is much more complicated: even for backends that I<are> fork-aware or
2618fork-safe, their behaviour is not usually what you want: fork clones all
2619watchers, that means all timers, I/O watchers etc. are active in both
2620parent and child, which is almost never what you want. USing C<exec>
2621to start worker children from some kind of manage rprocess is usually
2622preferred, because it is much easier and cleaner, at the expense of having
2623to have another binary.
2624
2625
2626=head1 SECURITY CONSIDERATIONS
2627
2628AnyEvent can be forced to load any event model via
2629$ENV{PERL_ANYEVENT_MODEL}. While this cannot (to my knowledge) be used to
2630execute arbitrary code or directly gain access, it can easily be used to
2631make the program hang or malfunction in subtle ways, as AnyEvent watchers
2632will not be active when the program uses a different event model than
2633specified in the variable.
2634
2635You can make AnyEvent completely ignore this variable by deleting it
2636before the first watcher gets created, e.g. with a C<BEGIN> block:
2637
2638 BEGIN { delete $ENV{PERL_ANYEVENT_MODEL} }
2639
2640 use AnyEvent;
2641
2642Similar considerations apply to $ENV{PERL_ANYEVENT_VERBOSE}, as that can
2643be used to probe what backend is used and gain other information (which is
2644probably even less useful to an attacker than PERL_ANYEVENT_MODEL), and
2645$ENV{PERL_ANYEVENT_STRICT}.
2646
2647Note that AnyEvent will remove I<all> environment variables starting with
2648C<PERL_ANYEVENT_> from C<%ENV> when it is loaded while taint mode is
2649enabled.
2650
2651
2652=head1 BUGS
2653
2654Perl 5.8 has numerous memleaks that sometimes hit this module and are hard
2655to work around. If you suffer from memleaks, first upgrade to Perl 5.10
2656and check wether the leaks still show up. (Perl 5.10.0 has other annoying
2657memleaks, such as leaking on C<map> and C<grep> but it is usually not as
2658pronounced).
2659
672 2660
673=head1 SEE ALSO 2661=head1 SEE ALSO
674 2662
675Event modules: L<Coro::Event>, L<Coro>, L<Event>, L<Glib::Event>, L<Glib>. 2663Tutorial/Introduction: L<AnyEvent::Intro>.
676 2664
677Implementations: L<AnyEvent::Impl::Coro>, L<AnyEvent::Impl::Event>, L<AnyEvent::Impl::Glib>, L<AnyEvent::Impl::Tk>. 2665FAQ: L<AnyEvent::FAQ>.
678 2666
679Nontrivial usage example: L<Net::FCP>. 2667Utility functions: L<AnyEvent::Util>.
680 2668
681=head1 2669Event modules: L<EV>, L<EV::Glib>, L<Glib::EV>, L<Event>, L<Glib::Event>,
2670L<Glib>, L<Tk>, L<Event::Lib>, L<Qt>, L<POE>.
2671
2672Implementations: L<AnyEvent::Impl::EV>, L<AnyEvent::Impl::Event>,
2673L<AnyEvent::Impl::Glib>, L<AnyEvent::Impl::Tk>, L<AnyEvent::Impl::Perl>,
2674L<AnyEvent::Impl::EventLib>, L<AnyEvent::Impl::Qt>,
2675L<AnyEvent::Impl::POE>, L<AnyEvent::Impl::IOAsync>, L<Anyevent::Impl::Irssi>.
2676
2677Non-blocking file handles, sockets, TCP clients and
2678servers: L<AnyEvent::Handle>, L<AnyEvent::Socket>, L<AnyEvent::TLS>.
2679
2680Asynchronous DNS: L<AnyEvent::DNS>.
2681
2682Thread support: L<Coro>, L<Coro::AnyEvent>, L<Coro::EV>, L<Coro::Event>.
2683
2684Nontrivial usage examples: L<AnyEvent::GPSD>, L<AnyEvent::IRC>,
2685L<AnyEvent::HTTP>.
2686
2687
2688=head1 AUTHOR
2689
2690 Marc Lehmann <schmorp@schmorp.de>
2691 http://home.schmorp.de/
682 2692
683=cut 2693=cut
684 2694
6851 26951
686 2696

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