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1=head1 NAME 1=head1 NAME
2 2
3AnyEvent - provide framework for multiple event loops 3AnyEvent - provide framework for multiple event loops
4 4
5Event, Coro, Glib, Tk - various supported event loops 5EV, Event, Glib, Tk, Perl, Event::Lib, Qt and POE are various supported
6event loops.
6 7
7=head1 SYNOPSIS 8=head1 SYNOPSIS
8 9
9 use AnyEvent; 10 use AnyEvent;
10 11
12 # file descriptor readable
11 my $w = AnyEvent->io (fh => ..., poll => "[rw]+", cb => sub { 13 my $w = AnyEvent->io (fh => $fh, poll => "r", cb => sub { ... });
12 my ($poll_got) = @_; 14
15 # one-shot or repeating timers
16 my $w = AnyEvent->timer (after => $seconds, cb => sub { ... });
17 my $w = AnyEvent->timer (after => $seconds, interval => $seconds, cb => ...
18
19 print AnyEvent->now; # prints current event loop time
20 print AnyEvent->time; # think Time::HiRes::time or simply CORE::time.
21
22 # POSIX signal
23 my $w = AnyEvent->signal (signal => "TERM", cb => sub { ... });
24
25 # child process exit
26 my $w = AnyEvent->child (pid => $pid, cb => sub {
27 my ($pid, $status) = @_;
13 ... 28 ...
14 }); 29 });
15 30
16* only one io watcher per $fh and $poll type is allowed (i.e. on a socket 31 # called when event loop idle (if applicable)
17you can have one r + one w or one rw watcher, not any more (limitation by 32 my $w = AnyEvent->idle (cb => sub { ... });
18Tk).
19 33
20* the C<$poll_got> passed to the handler needs to be checked by looking 34 my $w = AnyEvent->condvar; # stores whether a condition was flagged
21for single characters (e.g. with a regex), as it can contain more event 35 $w->send; # wake up current and all future recv's
22types than were requested (e.g. a 'w' watcher might generate 'rw' events,
23limitation by Glib).
24
25* AnyEvent will keep filehandles alive, so as long as the watcher exists,
26the filehandle exists.
27
28 my $w = AnyEvent->timer (after => $seconds, cb => sub {
29 ...
30 });
31
32* io and time watchers get canceled whenever $w is destroyed, so keep a copy
33
34* timers can only be used once and must be recreated for repeated
35operation (limitation by Glib and Tk).
36
37 my $w = AnyEvent->condvar; # kind of main loop replacement
38 $w->wait; # enters main loop till $condvar gets ->broadcast 36 $w->recv; # enters "main loop" till $condvar gets ->send
39 $w->broadcast; # wake up current and all future wait's 37 # use a condvar in callback mode:
38 $w->cb (sub { $_[0]->recv });
40 39
41* condvars are used to give blocking behaviour when neccessary. Create 40=head1 INTRODUCTION/TUTORIAL
42a condvar for any "request" or "event" your module might create, C<< 41
43->broadcast >> it when the event happens and provide a function that calls 42This manpage is mainly a reference manual. If you are interested
44C<< ->wait >> for it. See the examples below. 43in a tutorial or some gentle introduction, have a look at the
44L<AnyEvent::Intro> manpage.
45
46=head1 WHY YOU SHOULD USE THIS MODULE (OR NOT)
47
48Glib, POE, IO::Async, Event... CPAN offers event models by the dozen
49nowadays. So what is different about AnyEvent?
50
51Executive Summary: AnyEvent is I<compatible>, AnyEvent is I<free of
52policy> and AnyEvent is I<small and efficient>.
53
54First and foremost, I<AnyEvent is not an event model> itself, it only
55interfaces to whatever event model the main program happens to use, in a
56pragmatic way. For event models and certain classes of immortals alike,
57the statement "there can only be one" is a bitter reality: In general,
58only one event loop can be active at the same time in a process. AnyEvent
59cannot change this, but it can hide the differences between those event
60loops.
61
62The goal of AnyEvent is to offer module authors the ability to do event
63programming (waiting for I/O or timer events) without subscribing to a
64religion, a way of living, and most importantly: without forcing your
65module users into the same thing by forcing them to use the same event
66model you use.
67
68For modules like POE or IO::Async (which is a total misnomer as it is
69actually doing all I/O I<synchronously>...), using them in your module is
70like joining a cult: After you joined, you are dependent on them and you
71cannot use anything else, as they are simply incompatible to everything
72that isn't them. What's worse, all the potential users of your
73module are I<also> forced to use the same event loop you use.
74
75AnyEvent is different: AnyEvent + POE works fine. AnyEvent + Glib works
76fine. AnyEvent + Tk works fine etc. etc. but none of these work together
77with the rest: POE + IO::Async? No go. Tk + Event? No go. Again: if
78your module uses one of those, every user of your module has to use it,
79too. But if your module uses AnyEvent, it works transparently with all
80event models it supports (including stuff like IO::Async, as long as those
81use one of the supported event loops. It is trivial to add new event loops
82to AnyEvent, too, so it is future-proof).
83
84In addition to being free of having to use I<the one and only true event
85model>, AnyEvent also is free of bloat and policy: with POE or similar
86modules, you get an enormous amount of code and strict rules you have to
87follow. AnyEvent, on the other hand, is lean and up to the point, by only
88offering the functionality that is necessary, in as thin as a wrapper as
89technically possible.
90
91Of course, AnyEvent comes with a big (and fully optional!) toolbox
92of useful functionality, such as an asynchronous DNS resolver, 100%
93non-blocking connects (even with TLS/SSL, IPv6 and on broken platforms
94such as Windows) and lots of real-world knowledge and workarounds for
95platform bugs and differences.
96
97Now, if you I<do want> lots of policy (this can arguably be somewhat
98useful) and you want to force your users to use the one and only event
99model, you should I<not> use this module.
45 100
46=head1 DESCRIPTION 101=head1 DESCRIPTION
47 102
48L<AnyEvent> provides an identical interface to multiple event loops. This 103L<AnyEvent> provides an identical interface to multiple event loops. This
49allows module authors to utilizy an event loop without forcing module 104allows module authors to utilise an event loop without forcing module
50users to use the same event loop (as only a single event loop can coexist 105users to use the same event loop (as only a single event loop can coexist
51peacefully at any one time). 106peacefully at any one time).
52 107
53The interface itself is vaguely similar but not identical to the Event 108The interface itself is vaguely similar, but not identical to the L<Event>
54module. 109module.
55 110
56On the first call of any method, the module tries to detect the currently 111During the first call of any watcher-creation method, the module tries
57loaded event loop by probing wether any of the following modules is 112to detect the currently loaded event loop by probing whether one of the
58loaded: L<Coro::Event>, L<Event>, L<Glib>, L<Tk>. The first one found is 113following modules is already loaded: L<EV>,
59used. If none is found, the module tries to load these modules in the 114L<Event>, L<Glib>, L<AnyEvent::Impl::Perl>, L<Tk>, L<Event::Lib>, L<Qt>,
60order given. The first one that could be successfully loaded will be 115L<POE>. The first one found is used. If none are found, the module tries
61used. If still none could be found, it will issue an error. 116to load these modules (excluding Tk, Event::Lib, Qt and POE as the pure perl
117adaptor should always succeed) in the order given. The first one that can
118be successfully loaded will be used. If, after this, still none could be
119found, AnyEvent will fall back to a pure-perl event loop, which is not
120very efficient, but should work everywhere.
121
122Because AnyEvent first checks for modules that are already loaded, loading
123an event model explicitly before first using AnyEvent will likely make
124that model the default. For example:
125
126 use Tk;
127 use AnyEvent;
128
129 # .. AnyEvent will likely default to Tk
130
131The I<likely> means that, if any module loads another event model and
132starts using it, all bets are off. Maybe you should tell their authors to
133use AnyEvent so their modules work together with others seamlessly...
134
135The pure-perl implementation of AnyEvent is called
136C<AnyEvent::Impl::Perl>. Like other event modules you can load it
137explicitly and enjoy the high availability of that event loop :)
138
139=head1 WATCHERS
140
141AnyEvent has the central concept of a I<watcher>, which is an object that
142stores relevant data for each kind of event you are waiting for, such as
143the callback to call, the file handle to watch, etc.
144
145These watchers are normal Perl objects with normal Perl lifetime. After
146creating a watcher it will immediately "watch" for events and invoke the
147callback when the event occurs (of course, only when the event model
148is in control).
149
150Note that B<callbacks must not permanently change global variables>
151potentially in use by the event loop (such as C<$_> or C<$[>) and that B<<
152callbacks must not C<die> >>. The former is good programming practise in
153Perl and the latter stems from the fact that exception handling differs
154widely between event loops.
155
156To disable the watcher you have to destroy it (e.g. by setting the
157variable you store it in to C<undef> or otherwise deleting all references
158to it).
159
160All watchers are created by calling a method on the C<AnyEvent> class.
161
162Many watchers either are used with "recursion" (repeating timers for
163example), or need to refer to their watcher object in other ways.
164
165An any way to achieve that is this pattern:
166
167 my $w; $w = AnyEvent->type (arg => value ..., cb => sub {
168 # you can use $w here, for example to undef it
169 undef $w;
170 });
171
172Note that C<my $w; $w => combination. This is necessary because in Perl,
173my variables are only visible after the statement in which they are
174declared.
175
176=head2 I/O WATCHERS
177
178You can create an I/O watcher by calling the C<< AnyEvent->io >> method
179with the following mandatory key-value pairs as arguments:
180
181C<fh> is the Perl I<file handle> (I<not> file descriptor, see below) to
182watch for events (AnyEvent might or might not keep a reference to this
183file handle). Note that only file handles pointing to things for which
184non-blocking operation makes sense are allowed. This includes sockets,
185most character devices, pipes, fifos and so on, but not for example files
186or block devices.
187
188C<poll> must be a string that is either C<r> or C<w>, which creates a
189watcher waiting for "r"eadable or "w"ritable events, respectively.
190
191C<cb> is the callback to invoke each time the file handle becomes ready.
192
193Although the callback might get passed parameters, their value and
194presence is undefined and you cannot rely on them. Portable AnyEvent
195callbacks cannot use arguments passed to I/O watcher callbacks.
196
197The I/O watcher might use the underlying file descriptor or a copy of it.
198You must not close a file handle as long as any watcher is active on the
199underlying file descriptor.
200
201Some event loops issue spurious readyness notifications, so you should
202always use non-blocking calls when reading/writing from/to your file
203handles.
204
205Example: wait for readability of STDIN, then read a line and disable the
206watcher.
207
208 my $w; $w = AnyEvent->io (fh => \*STDIN, poll => 'r', cb => sub {
209 chomp (my $input = <STDIN>);
210 warn "read: $input\n";
211 undef $w;
212 });
213
214=head3 GETTING A FILE HANDLE FROM A FILE DESCRIPTOR
215
216It is not uncommon to only have a file descriptor, while AnyEvent requires
217a Perl file handle.
218
219There are basically two methods to convert a file descriptor into a file handle. If you own
220the file descriptor, you can open it with C<&=>, as in:
221
222 open my $fh, "<&=$fileno" or die "xxx: ยง!";
223
224This will "own" the file descriptor, meaning that when C<$fh> is
225destroyed, it will automatically close the C<$fileno>. Also, note that
226the open mode (read, write, read/write) must correspond with how the
227underlying file descriptor was opened.
228
229In many cases, taking over the file descriptor is now what you want, in
230which case the only alternative is to dup the file descriptor:
231
232 open my $fh, "<&$fileno" or die "xxx: $!";
233
234This has the advantage of not closing the file descriptor and the
235disadvantage of making a slow copy.
236
237=head2 TIME WATCHERS
238
239You can create a time watcher by calling the C<< AnyEvent->timer >>
240method with the following mandatory arguments:
241
242C<after> specifies after how many seconds (fractional values are
243supported) the callback should be invoked. C<cb> is the callback to invoke
244in that case.
245
246Although the callback might get passed parameters, their value and
247presence is undefined and you cannot rely on them. Portable AnyEvent
248callbacks cannot use arguments passed to time watcher callbacks.
249
250The callback will normally be invoked once only. If you specify another
251parameter, C<interval>, as a strictly positive number (> 0), then the
252callback will be invoked regularly at that interval (in fractional
253seconds) after the first invocation. If C<interval> is specified with a
254false value, then it is treated as if it were missing.
255
256The callback will be rescheduled before invoking the callback, but no
257attempt is done to avoid timer drift in most backends, so the interval is
258only approximate.
259
260Example: fire an event after 7.7 seconds.
261
262 my $w = AnyEvent->timer (after => 7.7, cb => sub {
263 warn "timeout\n";
264 });
265
266 # to cancel the timer:
267 undef $w;
268
269Example 2: fire an event after 0.5 seconds, then roughly every second.
270
271 my $w = AnyEvent->timer (after => 0.5, interval => 1, cb => sub {
272 warn "timeout\n";
273 };
274
275=head3 TIMING ISSUES
276
277There are two ways to handle timers: based on real time (relative, "fire
278in 10 seconds") and based on wallclock time (absolute, "fire at 12
279o'clock").
280
281While most event loops expect timers to specified in a relative way, they
282use absolute time internally. This makes a difference when your clock
283"jumps", for example, when ntp decides to set your clock backwards from
284the wrong date of 2014-01-01 to 2008-01-01, a watcher that is supposed to
285fire "after" a second might actually take six years to finally fire.
286
287AnyEvent cannot compensate for this. The only event loop that is conscious
288about these issues is L<EV>, which offers both relative (ev_timer, based
289on true relative time) and absolute (ev_periodic, based on wallclock time)
290timers.
291
292AnyEvent always prefers relative timers, if available, matching the
293AnyEvent API.
294
295AnyEvent has two additional methods that return the "current time":
62 296
63=over 4 297=over 4
64 298
299=item AnyEvent->time
300
301This returns the "current wallclock time" as a fractional number of
302seconds since the Epoch (the same thing as C<time> or C<Time::HiRes::time>
303return, and the result is guaranteed to be compatible with those).
304
305It progresses independently of any event loop processing, i.e. each call
306will check the system clock, which usually gets updated frequently.
307
308=item AnyEvent->now
309
310This also returns the "current wallclock time", but unlike C<time>, above,
311this value might change only once per event loop iteration, depending on
312the event loop (most return the same time as C<time>, above). This is the
313time that AnyEvent's timers get scheduled against.
314
315I<In almost all cases (in all cases if you don't care), this is the
316function to call when you want to know the current time.>
317
318This function is also often faster then C<< AnyEvent->time >>, and
319thus the preferred method if you want some timestamp (for example,
320L<AnyEvent::Handle> uses this to update it's activity timeouts).
321
322The rest of this section is only of relevance if you try to be very exact
323with your timing, you can skip it without bad conscience.
324
325For a practical example of when these times differ, consider L<Event::Lib>
326and L<EV> and the following set-up:
327
328The event loop is running and has just invoked one of your callback at
329time=500 (assume no other callbacks delay processing). In your callback,
330you wait a second by executing C<sleep 1> (blocking the process for a
331second) and then (at time=501) you create a relative timer that fires
332after three seconds.
333
334With L<Event::Lib>, C<< AnyEvent->time >> and C<< AnyEvent->now >> will
335both return C<501>, because that is the current time, and the timer will
336be scheduled to fire at time=504 (C<501> + C<3>).
337
338With L<EV>, C<< AnyEvent->time >> returns C<501> (as that is the current
339time), but C<< AnyEvent->now >> returns C<500>, as that is the time the
340last event processing phase started. With L<EV>, your timer gets scheduled
341to run at time=503 (C<500> + C<3>).
342
343In one sense, L<Event::Lib> is more exact, as it uses the current time
344regardless of any delays introduced by event processing. However, most
345callbacks do not expect large delays in processing, so this causes a
346higher drift (and a lot more system calls to get the current time).
347
348In another sense, L<EV> is more exact, as your timer will be scheduled at
349the same time, regardless of how long event processing actually took.
350
351In either case, if you care (and in most cases, you don't), then you
352can get whatever behaviour you want with any event loop, by taking the
353difference between C<< AnyEvent->time >> and C<< AnyEvent->now >> into
354account.
355
356=item AnyEvent->now_update
357
358Some event loops (such as L<EV> or L<AnyEvent::Impl::Perl>) cache
359the current time for each loop iteration (see the discussion of L<<
360AnyEvent->now >>, above).
361
362When a callback runs for a long time (or when the process sleeps), then
363this "current" time will differ substantially from the real time, which
364might affect timers and time-outs.
365
366When this is the case, you can call this method, which will update the
367event loop's idea of "current time".
368
369Note that updating the time I<might> cause some events to be handled.
370
371=back
372
373=head2 SIGNAL WATCHERS
374
375You can watch for signals using a signal watcher, C<signal> is the signal
376I<name> in uppercase and without any C<SIG> prefix, C<cb> is the Perl
377callback to be invoked whenever a signal occurs.
378
379Although the callback might get passed parameters, their value and
380presence is undefined and you cannot rely on them. Portable AnyEvent
381callbacks cannot use arguments passed to signal watcher callbacks.
382
383Multiple signal occurrences can be clumped together into one callback
384invocation, and callback invocation will be synchronous. Synchronous means
385that it might take a while until the signal gets handled by the process,
386but it is guaranteed not to interrupt any other callbacks.
387
388The main advantage of using these watchers is that you can share a signal
389between multiple watchers.
390
391This watcher might use C<%SIG>, so programs overwriting those signals
392directly will likely not work correctly.
393
394Example: exit on SIGINT
395
396 my $w = AnyEvent->signal (signal => "INT", cb => sub { exit 1 });
397
398=head2 CHILD PROCESS WATCHERS
399
400You can also watch on a child process exit and catch its exit status.
401
402The child process is specified by the C<pid> argument (if set to C<0>, it
403watches for any child process exit). The watcher will triggered only when
404the child process has finished and an exit status is available, not on
405any trace events (stopped/continued).
406
407The callback will be called with the pid and exit status (as returned by
408waitpid), so unlike other watcher types, you I<can> rely on child watcher
409callback arguments.
410
411This watcher type works by installing a signal handler for C<SIGCHLD>,
412and since it cannot be shared, nothing else should use SIGCHLD or reap
413random child processes (waiting for specific child processes, e.g. inside
414C<system>, is just fine).
415
416There is a slight catch to child watchers, however: you usually start them
417I<after> the child process was created, and this means the process could
418have exited already (and no SIGCHLD will be sent anymore).
419
420Not all event models handle this correctly (neither POE nor IO::Async do,
421see their AnyEvent::Impl manpages for details), but even for event models
422that I<do> handle this correctly, they usually need to be loaded before
423the process exits (i.e. before you fork in the first place). AnyEvent's
424pure perl event loop handles all cases correctly regardless of when you
425start the watcher.
426
427This means you cannot create a child watcher as the very first
428thing in an AnyEvent program, you I<have> to create at least one
429watcher before you C<fork> the child (alternatively, you can call
430C<AnyEvent::detect>).
431
432Example: fork a process and wait for it
433
434 my $done = AnyEvent->condvar;
435
436 my $pid = fork or exit 5;
437
438 my $w = AnyEvent->child (
439 pid => $pid,
440 cb => sub {
441 my ($pid, $status) = @_;
442 warn "pid $pid exited with status $status";
443 $done->send;
444 },
445 );
446
447 # do something else, then wait for process exit
448 $done->recv;
449
450=head2 IDLE WATCHERS
451
452Sometimes there is a need to do something, but it is not so important
453to do it instantly, but only when there is nothing better to do. This
454"nothing better to do" is usually defined to be "no other events need
455attention by the event loop".
456
457Idle watchers ideally get invoked when the event loop has nothing
458better to do, just before it would block the process to wait for new
459events. Instead of blocking, the idle watcher is invoked.
460
461Most event loops unfortunately do not really support idle watchers (only
462EV, Event and Glib do it in a usable fashion) - for the rest, AnyEvent
463will simply call the callback "from time to time".
464
465Example: read lines from STDIN, but only process them when the
466program is otherwise idle:
467
468 my @lines; # read data
469 my $idle_w;
470 my $io_w = AnyEvent->io (fh => \*STDIN, poll => 'r', cb => sub {
471 push @lines, scalar <STDIN>;
472
473 # start an idle watcher, if not already done
474 $idle_w ||= AnyEvent->idle (cb => sub {
475 # handle only one line, when there are lines left
476 if (my $line = shift @lines) {
477 print "handled when idle: $line";
478 } else {
479 # otherwise disable the idle watcher again
480 undef $idle_w;
481 }
482 });
483 });
484
485=head2 CONDITION VARIABLES
486
487If you are familiar with some event loops you will know that all of them
488require you to run some blocking "loop", "run" or similar function that
489will actively watch for new events and call your callbacks.
490
491AnyEvent is different, it expects somebody else to run the event loop and
492will only block when necessary (usually when told by the user).
493
494The instrument to do that is called a "condition variable", so called
495because they represent a condition that must become true.
496
497Condition variables can be created by calling the C<< AnyEvent->condvar
498>> method, usually without arguments. The only argument pair allowed is
499
500C<cb>, which specifies a callback to be called when the condition variable
501becomes true, with the condition variable as the first argument (but not
502the results).
503
504After creation, the condition variable is "false" until it becomes "true"
505by calling the C<send> method (or calling the condition variable as if it
506were a callback, read about the caveats in the description for the C<<
507->send >> method).
508
509Condition variables are similar to callbacks, except that you can
510optionally wait for them. They can also be called merge points - points
511in time where multiple outstanding events have been processed. And yet
512another way to call them is transactions - each condition variable can be
513used to represent a transaction, which finishes at some point and delivers
514a result.
515
516Condition variables are very useful to signal that something has finished,
517for example, if you write a module that does asynchronous http requests,
518then a condition variable would be the ideal candidate to signal the
519availability of results. The user can either act when the callback is
520called or can synchronously C<< ->recv >> for the results.
521
522You can also use them to simulate traditional event loops - for example,
523you can block your main program until an event occurs - for example, you
524could C<< ->recv >> in your main program until the user clicks the Quit
525button of your app, which would C<< ->send >> the "quit" event.
526
527Note that condition variables recurse into the event loop - if you have
528two pieces of code that call C<< ->recv >> in a round-robin fashion, you
529lose. Therefore, condition variables are good to export to your caller, but
530you should avoid making a blocking wait yourself, at least in callbacks,
531as this asks for trouble.
532
533Condition variables are represented by hash refs in perl, and the keys
534used by AnyEvent itself are all named C<_ae_XXX> to make subclassing
535easy (it is often useful to build your own transaction class on top of
536AnyEvent). To subclass, use C<AnyEvent::CondVar> as base class and call
537it's C<new> method in your own C<new> method.
538
539There are two "sides" to a condition variable - the "producer side" which
540eventually calls C<< -> send >>, and the "consumer side", which waits
541for the send to occur.
542
543Example: wait for a timer.
544
545 # wait till the result is ready
546 my $result_ready = AnyEvent->condvar;
547
548 # do something such as adding a timer
549 # or socket watcher the calls $result_ready->send
550 # when the "result" is ready.
551 # in this case, we simply use a timer:
552 my $w = AnyEvent->timer (
553 after => 1,
554 cb => sub { $result_ready->send },
555 );
556
557 # this "blocks" (while handling events) till the callback
558 # calls send
559 $result_ready->recv;
560
561Example: wait for a timer, but take advantage of the fact that
562condition variables are also code references.
563
564 my $done = AnyEvent->condvar;
565 my $delay = AnyEvent->timer (after => 5, cb => $done);
566 $done->recv;
567
568Example: Imagine an API that returns a condvar and doesn't support
569callbacks. This is how you make a synchronous call, for example from
570the main program:
571
572 use AnyEvent::CouchDB;
573
574 ...
575
576 my @info = $couchdb->info->recv;
577
578And this is how you would just ste a callback to be called whenever the
579results are available:
580
581 $couchdb->info->cb (sub {
582 my @info = $_[0]->recv;
583 });
584
585=head3 METHODS FOR PRODUCERS
586
587These methods should only be used by the producing side, i.e. the
588code/module that eventually sends the signal. Note that it is also
589the producer side which creates the condvar in most cases, but it isn't
590uncommon for the consumer to create it as well.
591
592=over 4
593
594=item $cv->send (...)
595
596Flag the condition as ready - a running C<< ->recv >> and all further
597calls to C<recv> will (eventually) return after this method has been
598called. If nobody is waiting the send will be remembered.
599
600If a callback has been set on the condition variable, it is called
601immediately from within send.
602
603Any arguments passed to the C<send> call will be returned by all
604future C<< ->recv >> calls.
605
606Condition variables are overloaded so one can call them directly
607(as a code reference). Calling them directly is the same as calling
608C<send>. Note, however, that many C-based event loops do not handle
609overloading, so as tempting as it may be, passing a condition variable
610instead of a callback does not work. Both the pure perl and EV loops
611support overloading, however, as well as all functions that use perl to
612invoke a callback (as in L<AnyEvent::Socket> and L<AnyEvent::DNS> for
613example).
614
615=item $cv->croak ($error)
616
617Similar to send, but causes all call's to C<< ->recv >> to invoke
618C<Carp::croak> with the given error message/object/scalar.
619
620This can be used to signal any errors to the condition variable
621user/consumer.
622
623=item $cv->begin ([group callback])
624
625=item $cv->end
626
627These two methods can be used to combine many transactions/events into
628one. For example, a function that pings many hosts in parallel might want
629to use a condition variable for the whole process.
630
631Every call to C<< ->begin >> will increment a counter, and every call to
632C<< ->end >> will decrement it. If the counter reaches C<0> in C<< ->end
633>>, the (last) callback passed to C<begin> will be executed. That callback
634is I<supposed> to call C<< ->send >>, but that is not required. If no
635callback was set, C<send> will be called without any arguments.
636
637You can think of C<< $cv->send >> giving you an OR condition (one call
638sends), while C<< $cv->begin >> and C<< $cv->end >> giving you an AND
639condition (all C<begin> calls must be C<end>'ed before the condvar sends).
640
641Let's start with a simple example: you have two I/O watchers (for example,
642STDOUT and STDERR for a program), and you want to wait for both streams to
643close before activating a condvar:
644
645 my $cv = AnyEvent->condvar;
646
647 $cv->begin; # first watcher
648 my $w1 = AnyEvent->io (fh => $fh1, cb => sub {
649 defined sysread $fh1, my $buf, 4096
650 or $cv->end;
651 });
652
653 $cv->begin; # second watcher
654 my $w2 = AnyEvent->io (fh => $fh2, cb => sub {
655 defined sysread $fh2, my $buf, 4096
656 or $cv->end;
657 });
658
659 $cv->recv;
660
661This works because for every event source (EOF on file handle), there is
662one call to C<begin>, so the condvar waits for all calls to C<end> before
663sending.
664
665The ping example mentioned above is slightly more complicated, as the
666there are results to be passwd back, and the number of tasks that are
667begung can potentially be zero:
668
669 my $cv = AnyEvent->condvar;
670
671 my %result;
672 $cv->begin (sub { $cv->send (\%result) });
673
674 for my $host (@list_of_hosts) {
675 $cv->begin;
676 ping_host_then_call_callback $host, sub {
677 $result{$host} = ...;
678 $cv->end;
679 };
680 }
681
682 $cv->end;
683
684This code fragment supposedly pings a number of hosts and calls
685C<send> after results for all then have have been gathered - in any
686order. To achieve this, the code issues a call to C<begin> when it starts
687each ping request and calls C<end> when it has received some result for
688it. Since C<begin> and C<end> only maintain a counter, the order in which
689results arrive is not relevant.
690
691There is an additional bracketing call to C<begin> and C<end> outside the
692loop, which serves two important purposes: first, it sets the callback
693to be called once the counter reaches C<0>, and second, it ensures that
694C<send> is called even when C<no> hosts are being pinged (the loop
695doesn't execute once).
696
697This is the general pattern when you "fan out" into multiple (but
698potentially none) subrequests: use an outer C<begin>/C<end> pair to set
699the callback and ensure C<end> is called at least once, and then, for each
700subrequest you start, call C<begin> and for each subrequest you finish,
701call C<end>.
702
703=back
704
705=head3 METHODS FOR CONSUMERS
706
707These methods should only be used by the consuming side, i.e. the
708code awaits the condition.
709
710=over 4
711
712=item $cv->recv
713
714Wait (blocking if necessary) until the C<< ->send >> or C<< ->croak
715>> methods have been called on c<$cv>, while servicing other watchers
716normally.
717
718You can only wait once on a condition - additional calls are valid but
719will return immediately.
720
721If an error condition has been set by calling C<< ->croak >>, then this
722function will call C<croak>.
723
724In list context, all parameters passed to C<send> will be returned,
725in scalar context only the first one will be returned.
726
727Not all event models support a blocking wait - some die in that case
728(programs might want to do that to stay interactive), so I<if you are
729using this from a module, never require a blocking wait>, but let the
730caller decide whether the call will block or not (for example, by coupling
731condition variables with some kind of request results and supporting
732callbacks so the caller knows that getting the result will not block,
733while still supporting blocking waits if the caller so desires).
734
735Another reason I<never> to C<< ->recv >> in a module is that you cannot
736sensibly have two C<< ->recv >>'s in parallel, as that would require
737multiple interpreters or coroutines/threads, none of which C<AnyEvent>
738can supply.
739
740The L<Coro> module, however, I<can> and I<does> supply coroutines and, in
741fact, L<Coro::AnyEvent> replaces AnyEvent's condvars by coroutine-safe
742versions and also integrates coroutines into AnyEvent, making blocking
743C<< ->recv >> calls perfectly safe as long as they are done from another
744coroutine (one that doesn't run the event loop).
745
746You can ensure that C<< -recv >> never blocks by setting a callback and
747only calling C<< ->recv >> from within that callback (or at a later
748time). This will work even when the event loop does not support blocking
749waits otherwise.
750
751=item $bool = $cv->ready
752
753Returns true when the condition is "true", i.e. whether C<send> or
754C<croak> have been called.
755
756=item $cb = $cv->cb ($cb->($cv))
757
758This is a mutator function that returns the callback set and optionally
759replaces it before doing so.
760
761The callback will be called when the condition becomes "true", i.e. when
762C<send> or C<croak> are called, with the only argument being the condition
763variable itself. Calling C<recv> inside the callback or at any later time
764is guaranteed not to block.
765
766=back
767
768=head1 GLOBAL VARIABLES AND FUNCTIONS
769
770=over 4
771
772=item $AnyEvent::MODEL
773
774Contains C<undef> until the first watcher is being created. Then it
775contains the event model that is being used, which is the name of the
776Perl class implementing the model. This class is usually one of the
777C<AnyEvent::Impl:xxx> modules, but can be any other class in the case
778AnyEvent has been extended at runtime (e.g. in I<rxvt-unicode>).
779
780The known classes so far are:
781
782 AnyEvent::Impl::EV based on EV (an interface to libev, best choice).
783 AnyEvent::Impl::Event based on Event, second best choice.
784 AnyEvent::Impl::Perl pure-perl implementation, fast and portable.
785 AnyEvent::Impl::Glib based on Glib, third-best choice.
786 AnyEvent::Impl::Tk based on Tk, very bad choice.
787 AnyEvent::Impl::Qt based on Qt, cannot be autoprobed (see its docs).
788 AnyEvent::Impl::EventLib based on Event::Lib, leaks memory and worse.
789 AnyEvent::Impl::POE based on POE, not generic enough for full support.
790
791 # warning, support for IO::Async is only partial, as it is too broken
792 # and limited toe ven support the AnyEvent API. See AnyEvent::Impl::Async.
793 AnyEvent::Impl::IOAsync based on IO::Async, cannot be autoprobed (see its docs).
794
795There is no support for WxWidgets, as WxWidgets has no support for
796watching file handles. However, you can use WxWidgets through the
797POE Adaptor, as POE has a Wx backend that simply polls 20 times per
798second, which was considered to be too horrible to even consider for
799AnyEvent. Likewise, other POE backends can be used by AnyEvent by using
800it's adaptor.
801
802AnyEvent knows about L<Prima> and L<Wx> and will try to use L<POE> when
803autodetecting them.
804
805=item AnyEvent::detect
806
807Returns C<$AnyEvent::MODEL>, forcing autodetection of the event model
808if necessary. You should only call this function right before you would
809have created an AnyEvent watcher anyway, that is, as late as possible at
810runtime.
811
812=item $guard = AnyEvent::post_detect { BLOCK }
813
814Arranges for the code block to be executed as soon as the event model is
815autodetected (or immediately if this has already happened).
816
817If called in scalar or list context, then it creates and returns an object
818that automatically removes the callback again when it is destroyed. See
819L<Coro::BDB> for a case where this is useful.
820
821=item @AnyEvent::post_detect
822
823If there are any code references in this array (you can C<push> to it
824before or after loading AnyEvent), then they will called directly after
825the event loop has been chosen.
826
827You should check C<$AnyEvent::MODEL> before adding to this array, though:
828if it contains a true value then the event loop has already been detected,
829and the array will be ignored.
830
831Best use C<AnyEvent::post_detect { BLOCK }> instead.
832
833=back
834
835=head1 WHAT TO DO IN A MODULE
836
837As a module author, you should C<use AnyEvent> and call AnyEvent methods
838freely, but you should not load a specific event module or rely on it.
839
840Be careful when you create watchers in the module body - AnyEvent will
841decide which event module to use as soon as the first method is called, so
842by calling AnyEvent in your module body you force the user of your module
843to load the event module first.
844
845Never call C<< ->recv >> on a condition variable unless you I<know> that
846the C<< ->send >> method has been called on it already. This is
847because it will stall the whole program, and the whole point of using
848events is to stay interactive.
849
850It is fine, however, to call C<< ->recv >> when the user of your module
851requests it (i.e. if you create a http request object ad have a method
852called C<results> that returns the results, it should call C<< ->recv >>
853freely, as the user of your module knows what she is doing. always).
854
855=head1 WHAT TO DO IN THE MAIN PROGRAM
856
857There will always be a single main program - the only place that should
858dictate which event model to use.
859
860If it doesn't care, it can just "use AnyEvent" and use it itself, or not
861do anything special (it does not need to be event-based) and let AnyEvent
862decide which implementation to chose if some module relies on it.
863
864If the main program relies on a specific event model - for example, in
865Gtk2 programs you have to rely on the Glib module - you should load the
866event module before loading AnyEvent or any module that uses it: generally
867speaking, you should load it as early as possible. The reason is that
868modules might create watchers when they are loaded, and AnyEvent will
869decide on the event model to use as soon as it creates watchers, and it
870might chose the wrong one unless you load the correct one yourself.
871
872You can chose to use a pure-perl implementation by loading the
873C<AnyEvent::Impl::Perl> module, which gives you similar behaviour
874everywhere, but letting AnyEvent chose the model is generally better.
875
876=head2 MAINLOOP EMULATION
877
878Sometimes (often for short test scripts, or even standalone programs who
879only want to use AnyEvent), you do not want to run a specific event loop.
880
881In that case, you can use a condition variable like this:
882
883 AnyEvent->condvar->recv;
884
885This has the effect of entering the event loop and looping forever.
886
887Note that usually your program has some exit condition, in which case
888it is better to use the "traditional" approach of storing a condition
889variable somewhere, waiting for it, and sending it when the program should
890exit cleanly.
891
892
893=head1 OTHER MODULES
894
895The following is a non-exhaustive list of additional modules that use
896AnyEvent and can therefore be mixed easily with other AnyEvent modules
897in the same program. Some of the modules come with AnyEvent, some are
898available via CPAN.
899
900=over 4
901
902=item L<AnyEvent::Util>
903
904Contains various utility functions that replace often-used but blocking
905functions such as C<inet_aton> by event-/callback-based versions.
906
907=item L<AnyEvent::Socket>
908
909Provides various utility functions for (internet protocol) sockets,
910addresses and name resolution. Also functions to create non-blocking tcp
911connections or tcp servers, with IPv6 and SRV record support and more.
912
913=item L<AnyEvent::Handle>
914
915Provide read and write buffers, manages watchers for reads and writes,
916supports raw and formatted I/O, I/O queued and fully transparent and
917non-blocking SSL/TLS.
918
919=item L<AnyEvent::DNS>
920
921Provides rich asynchronous DNS resolver capabilities.
922
923=item L<AnyEvent::HTTP>
924
925A simple-to-use HTTP library that is capable of making a lot of concurrent
926HTTP requests.
927
928=item L<AnyEvent::HTTPD>
929
930Provides a simple web application server framework.
931
932=item L<AnyEvent::FastPing>
933
934The fastest ping in the west.
935
936=item L<AnyEvent::DBI>
937
938Executes L<DBI> requests asynchronously in a proxy process.
939
940=item L<AnyEvent::AIO>
941
942Truly asynchronous I/O, should be in the toolbox of every event
943programmer. AnyEvent::AIO transparently fuses L<IO::AIO> and AnyEvent
944together.
945
946=item L<AnyEvent::BDB>
947
948Truly asynchronous Berkeley DB access. AnyEvent::BDB transparently fuses
949L<BDB> and AnyEvent together.
950
951=item L<AnyEvent::GPSD>
952
953A non-blocking interface to gpsd, a daemon delivering GPS information.
954
955=item L<AnyEvent::IGS>
956
957A non-blocking interface to the Internet Go Server protocol (used by
958L<App::IGS>).
959
960=item L<AnyEvent::IRC>
961
962AnyEvent based IRC client module family (replacing the older Net::IRC3).
963
964=item L<Net::XMPP2>
965
966AnyEvent based XMPP (Jabber protocol) module family.
967
968=item L<Net::FCP>
969
970AnyEvent-based implementation of the Freenet Client Protocol, birthplace
971of AnyEvent.
972
973=item L<Event::ExecFlow>
974
975High level API for event-based execution flow control.
976
977=item L<Coro>
978
979Has special support for AnyEvent via L<Coro::AnyEvent>.
980
981=item L<IO::Lambda>
982
983The lambda approach to I/O - don't ask, look there. Can use AnyEvent.
984
985=back
986
65=cut 987=cut
66 988
67package AnyEvent; 989package AnyEvent;
68 990
69no warnings; 991no warnings;
70use strict 'vars'; 992use strict qw(vars subs);
993
71use Carp; 994use Carp;
72 995
73our $VERSION = '0.4'; 996our $VERSION = 4.8;
74our $MODEL; 997our $MODEL;
75 998
76our $AUTOLOAD; 999our $AUTOLOAD;
77our @ISA; 1000our @ISA;
78 1001
1002our @REGISTRY;
1003
1004our $WIN32;
1005
1006BEGIN {
1007 eval "sub WIN32(){ " . (($^O =~ /mswin32/i)*1) ." }";
1008 eval "sub TAINT(){ " . (${^TAINT}*1) . " }";
1009
1010 delete @ENV{grep /^PERL_ANYEVENT_/, keys %ENV}
1011 if ${^TAINT};
1012}
1013
79our $verbose = $ENV{PERL_ANYEVENT_VERBOSE}*1; 1014our $verbose = $ENV{PERL_ANYEVENT_VERBOSE}*1;
80 1015
1016our %PROTOCOL; # (ipv4|ipv6) => (1|2), higher numbers are preferred
1017
1018{
1019 my $idx;
1020 $PROTOCOL{$_} = ++$idx
1021 for reverse split /\s*,\s*/,
1022 $ENV{PERL_ANYEVENT_PROTOCOLS} || "ipv4,ipv6";
1023}
1024
81my @models = ( 1025my @models = (
82 [Coro => Coro::Event::], 1026 [EV:: => AnyEvent::Impl::EV::],
83 [Event => Event::], 1027 [Event:: => AnyEvent::Impl::Event::],
84 [Glib => Glib::], 1028 [AnyEvent::Impl::Perl:: => AnyEvent::Impl::Perl::],
85 [Tk => Tk::], 1029 # everything below here will not be autoprobed
1030 # as the pureperl backend should work everywhere
1031 # and is usually faster
1032 [Tk:: => AnyEvent::Impl::Tk::], # crashes with many handles
1033 [Glib:: => AnyEvent::Impl::Glib::], # becomes extremely slow with many watchers
1034 [Event::Lib:: => AnyEvent::Impl::EventLib::], # too buggy
1035 [Qt:: => AnyEvent::Impl::Qt::], # requires special main program
1036 [POE::Kernel:: => AnyEvent::Impl::POE::], # lasciate ogni speranza
1037 [Wx:: => AnyEvent::Impl::POE::],
1038 [Prima:: => AnyEvent::Impl::POE::],
1039 # IO::Async is just too broken - we would need workaorunds for its
1040 # byzantine signal and broken child handling, among others.
1041 # IO::Async is rather hard to detect, as it doesn't have any
1042 # obvious default class.
1043# [IO::Async:: => AnyEvent::Impl::IOAsync::], # requires special main program
1044# [IO::Async::Loop:: => AnyEvent::Impl::IOAsync::], # requires special main program
1045# [IO::Async::Notifier:: => AnyEvent::Impl::IOAsync::], # requires special main program
86); 1046);
87 1047
88our %method = map +($_ => 1), qw(io timer condvar broadcast wait cancel DESTROY); 1048our %method = map +($_ => 1),
1049 qw(io timer time now now_update signal child idle condvar one_event DESTROY);
89 1050
90sub AUTOLOAD { 1051our @post_detect;
91 $AUTOLOAD =~ s/.*://;
92 1052
93 $method{$AUTOLOAD} 1053sub post_detect(&) {
94 or croak "$AUTOLOAD: not a valid method for AnyEvent objects"; 1054 my ($cb) = @_;
95 1055
1056 if ($MODEL) {
1057 $cb->();
1058
1059 1
1060 } else {
1061 push @post_detect, $cb;
1062
1063 defined wantarray
1064 ? bless \$cb, "AnyEvent::Util::postdetect"
1065 : ()
1066 }
1067}
1068
1069sub AnyEvent::Util::postdetect::DESTROY {
1070 @post_detect = grep $_ != ${$_[0]}, @post_detect;
1071}
1072
1073sub detect() {
96 unless ($MODEL) { 1074 unless ($MODEL) {
97 # check for already loaded models 1075 no strict 'refs';
98 for (@models) { 1076 local $SIG{__DIE__};
99 my ($model, $package) = @$_; 1077
100 if (${"$package\::VERSION"} > 0) { 1078 if ($ENV{PERL_ANYEVENT_MODEL} =~ /^([a-zA-Z]+)$/) {
101 eval "require AnyEvent::Impl::$model"; 1079 my $model = "AnyEvent::Impl::$1";
102 warn "AnyEvent: found model '$model', using it.\n" if $MODEL && $verbose > 1; 1080 if (eval "require $model") {
103 last if $MODEL; 1081 $MODEL = $model;
1082 warn "AnyEvent: loaded model '$model' (forced by \$PERL_ANYEVENT_MODEL), using it.\n" if $verbose > 1;
1083 } else {
1084 warn "AnyEvent: unable to load model '$model' (from \$PERL_ANYEVENT_MODEL):\n$@" if $verbose;
104 } 1085 }
105 } 1086 }
106 1087
1088 # check for already loaded models
107 unless ($MODEL) { 1089 unless ($MODEL) {
108 # try to load a model
109
110 for (@models) { 1090 for (@REGISTRY, @models) {
111 my ($model, $package) = @$_; 1091 my ($package, $model) = @$_;
112 eval "require AnyEvent::Impl::$model"; 1092 if (${"$package\::VERSION"} > 0) {
1093 if (eval "require $model") {
1094 $MODEL = $model;
113 warn "AnyEvent: autprobed and loaded model '$model', using it.\n" if $MODEL && $verbose > 1; 1095 warn "AnyEvent: autodetected model '$model', using it.\n" if $verbose > 1;
114 last if $MODEL; 1096 last;
1097 }
1098 }
115 } 1099 }
116 1100
1101 unless ($MODEL) {
1102 # try to load a model
1103
1104 for (@REGISTRY, @models) {
1105 my ($package, $model) = @$_;
1106 if (eval "require $package"
1107 and ${"$package\::VERSION"} > 0
1108 and eval "require $model") {
1109 $MODEL = $model;
1110 warn "AnyEvent: autoprobed model '$model', using it.\n" if $verbose > 1;
1111 last;
1112 }
1113 }
1114
117 $MODEL 1115 $MODEL
118 or die "No event module selected for AnyEvent and autodetect failed. Install any one of these modules: Coro, Event, Glib or Tk."; 1116 or die "No event module selected for AnyEvent and autodetect failed. Install any one of these modules: EV, Event or Glib.\n";
1117 }
1118 }
1119
1120 push @{"$MODEL\::ISA"}, "AnyEvent::Base";
1121
1122 unshift @ISA, $MODEL;
1123
1124 require AnyEvent::Strict if $ENV{PERL_ANYEVENT_STRICT};
1125
1126 (shift @post_detect)->() while @post_detect;
1127 }
1128
1129 $MODEL
1130}
1131
1132sub AUTOLOAD {
1133 (my $func = $AUTOLOAD) =~ s/.*://;
1134
1135 $method{$func}
1136 or croak "$func: not a valid method for AnyEvent objects";
1137
1138 detect unless $MODEL;
1139
1140 my $class = shift;
1141 $class->$func (@_);
1142}
1143
1144# utility function to dup a filehandle. this is used by many backends
1145# to support binding more than one watcher per filehandle (they usually
1146# allow only one watcher per fd, so we dup it to get a different one).
1147sub _dupfh($$;$$) {
1148 my ($poll, $fh, $r, $w) = @_;
1149
1150 # cygwin requires the fh mode to be matching, unix doesn't
1151 my ($rw, $mode) = $poll eq "r" ? ($r, "<")
1152 : $poll eq "w" ? ($w, ">")
1153 : Carp::croak "AnyEvent->io requires poll set to either 'r' or 'w'";
1154
1155 open my $fh2, "$mode&" . fileno $fh
1156 or die "cannot dup() filehandle: $!,";
1157
1158 # we assume CLOEXEC is already set by perl in all important cases
1159
1160 ($fh2, $rw)
1161}
1162
1163package AnyEvent::Base;
1164
1165# default implementations for many methods
1166
1167BEGIN {
1168 if (eval "use Time::HiRes (); Time::HiRes::time (); 1") {
1169 *_time = \&Time::HiRes::time;
1170 # if (eval "use POSIX (); (POSIX::times())...
1171 } else {
1172 *_time = sub { time }; # epic fail
1173 }
1174}
1175
1176sub time { _time }
1177sub now { _time }
1178sub now_update { }
1179
1180# default implementation for ->condvar
1181
1182sub condvar {
1183 bless { @_ == 3 ? (_ae_cb => $_[2]) : () }, "AnyEvent::CondVar"
1184}
1185
1186# default implementation for ->signal
1187
1188our ($SIGPIPE_R, $SIGPIPE_W, %SIG_CB, %SIG_EV, $SIG_IO);
1189
1190sub _signal_exec {
1191 sysread $SIGPIPE_R, my $dummy, 4;
1192
1193 while (%SIG_EV) {
1194 for (keys %SIG_EV) {
1195 delete $SIG_EV{$_};
1196 $_->() for values %{ $SIG_CB{$_} || {} };
119 } 1197 }
120 } 1198 }
1199}
121 1200
122 @ISA = $MODEL; 1201sub signal {
1202 my (undef, %arg) = @_;
123 1203
1204 unless ($SIGPIPE_R) {
1205 require Fcntl;
1206
1207 if (AnyEvent::WIN32) {
1208 require AnyEvent::Util;
1209
1210 ($SIGPIPE_R, $SIGPIPE_W) = AnyEvent::Util::portable_pipe ();
1211 AnyEvent::Util::fh_nonblocking ($SIGPIPE_R) if $SIGPIPE_R;
1212 AnyEvent::Util::fh_nonblocking ($SIGPIPE_W) if $SIGPIPE_W; # just in case
1213 } else {
1214 pipe $SIGPIPE_R, $SIGPIPE_W;
1215 fcntl $SIGPIPE_R, &Fcntl::F_SETFL, &Fcntl::O_NONBLOCK if $SIGPIPE_R;
1216 fcntl $SIGPIPE_W, &Fcntl::F_SETFL, &Fcntl::O_NONBLOCK if $SIGPIPE_W; # just in case
1217
1218 # not strictly required, as $^F is normally 2, but let's make sure...
1219 fcntl $SIGPIPE_R, &Fcntl::F_SETFD, &Fcntl::FD_CLOEXEC;
1220 fcntl $SIGPIPE_W, &Fcntl::F_SETFD, &Fcntl::FD_CLOEXEC;
1221 }
1222
1223 $SIGPIPE_R
1224 or Carp::croak "AnyEvent: unable to create a signal reporting pipe: $!\n";
1225
1226 $SIG_IO = AnyEvent->io (fh => $SIGPIPE_R, poll => "r", cb => \&_signal_exec);
1227 }
1228
1229 my $signal = uc $arg{signal}
1230 or Carp::croak "required option 'signal' is missing";
1231
1232 $SIG_CB{$signal}{$arg{cb}} = $arg{cb};
1233 $SIG{$signal} ||= sub {
1234 local $!;
1235 syswrite $SIGPIPE_W, "\x00", 1 unless %SIG_EV;
1236 undef $SIG_EV{$signal};
1237 };
1238
1239 bless [$signal, $arg{cb}], "AnyEvent::Base::signal"
1240}
1241
1242sub AnyEvent::Base::signal::DESTROY {
1243 my ($signal, $cb) = @{$_[0]};
1244
1245 delete $SIG_CB{$signal}{$cb};
1246
1247 # delete doesn't work with older perls - they then
1248 # print weird messages, or just unconditionally exit
1249 # instead of getting the default action.
1250 undef $SIG{$signal} unless keys %{ $SIG_CB{$signal} };
1251}
1252
1253# default implementation for ->child
1254
1255our %PID_CB;
1256our $CHLD_W;
1257our $CHLD_DELAY_W;
1258our $WNOHANG;
1259
1260sub _sigchld {
1261 while (0 < (my $pid = waitpid -1, $WNOHANG)) {
1262 $_->($pid, $?) for (values %{ $PID_CB{$pid} || {} }),
1263 (values %{ $PID_CB{0} || {} });
1264 }
1265}
1266
1267sub child {
1268 my (undef, %arg) = @_;
1269
1270 defined (my $pid = $arg{pid} + 0)
1271 or Carp::croak "required option 'pid' is missing";
1272
1273 $PID_CB{$pid}{$arg{cb}} = $arg{cb};
1274
1275 $WNOHANG ||= eval { local $SIG{__DIE__}; require POSIX; &POSIX::WNOHANG } || 1;
1276
1277 unless ($CHLD_W) {
1278 $CHLD_W = AnyEvent->signal (signal => 'CHLD', cb => \&_sigchld);
1279 # child could be a zombie already, so make at least one round
1280 &_sigchld;
1281 }
1282
1283 bless [$pid, $arg{cb}], "AnyEvent::Base::child"
1284}
1285
1286sub AnyEvent::Base::child::DESTROY {
1287 my ($pid, $cb) = @{$_[0]};
1288
1289 delete $PID_CB{$pid}{$cb};
1290 delete $PID_CB{$pid} unless keys %{ $PID_CB{$pid} };
1291
1292 undef $CHLD_W unless keys %PID_CB;
1293}
1294
1295# idle emulation is done by simply using a timer, regardless
1296# of whether the process is idle or not, and not letting
1297# the callback use more than 50% of the time.
1298sub idle {
1299 my (undef, %arg) = @_;
1300
1301 my ($cb, $w, $rcb) = $arg{cb};
1302
1303 $rcb = sub {
1304 if ($cb) {
1305 $w = _time;
1306 &$cb;
1307 $w = _time - $w;
1308
1309 # never use more then 50% of the time for the idle watcher,
1310 # within some limits
1311 $w = 0.0001 if $w < 0.0001;
1312 $w = 5 if $w > 5;
1313
1314 $w = AnyEvent->timer (after => $w, cb => $rcb);
1315 } else {
1316 # clean up...
1317 undef $w;
1318 undef $rcb;
1319 }
1320 };
1321
1322 $w = AnyEvent->timer (after => 0.05, cb => $rcb);
1323
1324 bless \\$cb, "AnyEvent::Base::idle"
1325}
1326
1327sub AnyEvent::Base::idle::DESTROY {
1328 undef $${$_[0]};
1329}
1330
1331package AnyEvent::CondVar;
1332
1333our @ISA = AnyEvent::CondVar::Base::;
1334
1335package AnyEvent::CondVar::Base;
1336
1337use overload
1338 '&{}' => sub { my $self = shift; sub { $self->send (@_) } },
1339 fallback => 1;
1340
1341sub _send {
1342 # nop
1343}
1344
1345sub send {
124 my $class = shift; 1346 my $cv = shift;
125 $class->$AUTOLOAD (@_); 1347 $cv->{_ae_sent} = [@_];
1348 (delete $cv->{_ae_cb})->($cv) if $cv->{_ae_cb};
1349 $cv->_send;
126} 1350}
1351
1352sub croak {
1353 $_[0]{_ae_croak} = $_[1];
1354 $_[0]->send;
1355}
1356
1357sub ready {
1358 $_[0]{_ae_sent}
1359}
1360
1361sub _wait {
1362 AnyEvent->one_event while !$_[0]{_ae_sent};
1363}
1364
1365sub recv {
1366 $_[0]->_wait;
1367
1368 Carp::croak $_[0]{_ae_croak} if $_[0]{_ae_croak};
1369 wantarray ? @{ $_[0]{_ae_sent} } : $_[0]{_ae_sent}[0]
1370}
1371
1372sub cb {
1373 $_[0]{_ae_cb} = $_[1] if @_ > 1;
1374 $_[0]{_ae_cb}
1375}
1376
1377sub begin {
1378 ++$_[0]{_ae_counter};
1379 $_[0]{_ae_end_cb} = $_[1] if @_ > 1;
1380}
1381
1382sub end {
1383 return if --$_[0]{_ae_counter};
1384 &{ $_[0]{_ae_end_cb} || sub { $_[0]->send } };
1385}
1386
1387# undocumented/compatibility with pre-3.4
1388*broadcast = \&send;
1389*wait = \&_wait;
1390
1391=head1 ERROR AND EXCEPTION HANDLING
1392
1393In general, AnyEvent does not do any error handling - it relies on the
1394caller to do that if required. The L<AnyEvent::Strict> module (see also
1395the C<PERL_ANYEVENT_STRICT> environment variable, below) provides strict
1396checking of all AnyEvent methods, however, which is highly useful during
1397development.
1398
1399As for exception handling (i.e. runtime errors and exceptions thrown while
1400executing a callback), this is not only highly event-loop specific, but
1401also not in any way wrapped by this module, as this is the job of the main
1402program.
1403
1404The pure perl event loop simply re-throws the exception (usually
1405within C<< condvar->recv >>), the L<Event> and L<EV> modules call C<<
1406$Event/EV::DIED->() >>, L<Glib> uses C<< install_exception_handler >> and
1407so on.
1408
1409=head1 ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES
1410
1411The following environment variables are used by this module or its
1412submodules.
1413
1414Note that AnyEvent will remove I<all> environment variables starting with
1415C<PERL_ANYEVENT_> from C<%ENV> when it is loaded while taint mode is
1416enabled.
1417
1418=over 4
1419
1420=item C<PERL_ANYEVENT_VERBOSE>
1421
1422By default, AnyEvent will be completely silent except in fatal
1423conditions. You can set this environment variable to make AnyEvent more
1424talkative.
1425
1426When set to C<1> or higher, causes AnyEvent to warn about unexpected
1427conditions, such as not being able to load the event model specified by
1428C<PERL_ANYEVENT_MODEL>.
1429
1430When set to C<2> or higher, cause AnyEvent to report to STDERR which event
1431model it chooses.
1432
1433=item C<PERL_ANYEVENT_STRICT>
1434
1435AnyEvent does not do much argument checking by default, as thorough
1436argument checking is very costly. Setting this variable to a true value
1437will cause AnyEvent to load C<AnyEvent::Strict> and then to thoroughly
1438check the arguments passed to most method calls. If it finds any problems,
1439it will croak.
1440
1441In other words, enables "strict" mode.
1442
1443Unlike C<use strict>, it is definitely recommended to keep it off in
1444production. Keeping C<PERL_ANYEVENT_STRICT=1> in your environment while
1445developing programs can be very useful, however.
1446
1447=item C<PERL_ANYEVENT_MODEL>
1448
1449This can be used to specify the event model to be used by AnyEvent, before
1450auto detection and -probing kicks in. It must be a string consisting
1451entirely of ASCII letters. The string C<AnyEvent::Impl::> gets prepended
1452and the resulting module name is loaded and if the load was successful,
1453used as event model. If it fails to load AnyEvent will proceed with
1454auto detection and -probing.
1455
1456This functionality might change in future versions.
1457
1458For example, to force the pure perl model (L<AnyEvent::Impl::Perl>) you
1459could start your program like this:
1460
1461 PERL_ANYEVENT_MODEL=Perl perl ...
1462
1463=item C<PERL_ANYEVENT_PROTOCOLS>
1464
1465Used by both L<AnyEvent::DNS> and L<AnyEvent::Socket> to determine preferences
1466for IPv4 or IPv6. The default is unspecified (and might change, or be the result
1467of auto probing).
1468
1469Must be set to a comma-separated list of protocols or address families,
1470current supported: C<ipv4> and C<ipv6>. Only protocols mentioned will be
1471used, and preference will be given to protocols mentioned earlier in the
1472list.
1473
1474This variable can effectively be used for denial-of-service attacks
1475against local programs (e.g. when setuid), although the impact is likely
1476small, as the program has to handle conenction and other failures anyways.
1477
1478Examples: C<PERL_ANYEVENT_PROTOCOLS=ipv4,ipv6> - prefer IPv4 over IPv6,
1479but support both and try to use both. C<PERL_ANYEVENT_PROTOCOLS=ipv4>
1480- only support IPv4, never try to resolve or contact IPv6
1481addresses. C<PERL_ANYEVENT_PROTOCOLS=ipv6,ipv4> support either IPv4 or
1482IPv6, but prefer IPv6 over IPv4.
1483
1484=item C<PERL_ANYEVENT_EDNS0>
1485
1486Used by L<AnyEvent::DNS> to decide whether to use the EDNS0 extension
1487for DNS. This extension is generally useful to reduce DNS traffic, but
1488some (broken) firewalls drop such DNS packets, which is why it is off by
1489default.
1490
1491Setting this variable to C<1> will cause L<AnyEvent::DNS> to announce
1492EDNS0 in its DNS requests.
1493
1494=item C<PERL_ANYEVENT_MAX_FORKS>
1495
1496The maximum number of child processes that C<AnyEvent::Util::fork_call>
1497will create in parallel.
1498
1499=item C<PERL_ANYEVENT_MAX_OUTSTANDING_DNS>
1500
1501The default value for the C<max_outstanding> parameter for the default DNS
1502resolver - this is the maximum number of parallel DNS requests that are
1503sent to the DNS server.
1504
1505=item C<PERL_ANYEVENT_RESOLV_CONF>
1506
1507The file to use instead of F</etc/resolv.conf> (or OS-specific
1508configuration) in the default resolver. When set to the empty string, no
1509default config will be used.
1510
1511=item C<PERL_ANYEVENT_CA_FILE>, C<PERL_ANYEVENT_CA_PATH>.
1512
1513When neither C<ca_file> nor C<ca_path> was specified during
1514L<AnyEvent::TLS> context creation, and either of these environment
1515variables exist, they will be used to specify CA certificate locations
1516instead of a system-dependent default.
127 1517
128=back 1518=back
129 1519
130=head1 ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES 1520=head1 SUPPLYING YOUR OWN EVENT MODEL INTERFACE
131 1521
132The following environment variables are used by this module: 1522This is an advanced topic that you do not normally need to use AnyEvent in
1523a module. This section is only of use to event loop authors who want to
1524provide AnyEvent compatibility.
133 1525
134C<PERL_ANYEVENT_VERBOSE> when set to C<2> or higher, reports which event 1526If you need to support another event library which isn't directly
135model gets used. 1527supported by AnyEvent, you can supply your own interface to it by
1528pushing, before the first watcher gets created, the package name of
1529the event module and the package name of the interface to use onto
1530C<@AnyEvent::REGISTRY>. You can do that before and even without loading
1531AnyEvent, so it is reasonably cheap.
136 1532
1533Example:
1534
1535 push @AnyEvent::REGISTRY, [urxvt => urxvt::anyevent::];
1536
1537This tells AnyEvent to (literally) use the C<urxvt::anyevent::>
1538package/class when it finds the C<urxvt> package/module is already loaded.
1539
1540When AnyEvent is loaded and asked to find a suitable event model, it
1541will first check for the presence of urxvt by trying to C<use> the
1542C<urxvt::anyevent> module.
1543
1544The class should provide implementations for all watcher types. See
1545L<AnyEvent::Impl::EV> (source code), L<AnyEvent::Impl::Glib> (Source code)
1546and so on for actual examples. Use C<perldoc -m AnyEvent::Impl::Glib> to
1547see the sources.
1548
1549If you don't provide C<signal> and C<child> watchers than AnyEvent will
1550provide suitable (hopefully) replacements.
1551
1552The above example isn't fictitious, the I<rxvt-unicode> (a.k.a. urxvt)
1553terminal emulator uses the above line as-is. An interface isn't included
1554in AnyEvent because it doesn't make sense outside the embedded interpreter
1555inside I<rxvt-unicode>, and it is updated and maintained as part of the
1556I<rxvt-unicode> distribution.
1557
1558I<rxvt-unicode> also cheats a bit by not providing blocking access to
1559condition variables: code blocking while waiting for a condition will
1560C<die>. This still works with most modules/usages, and blocking calls must
1561not be done in an interactive application, so it makes sense.
1562
137=head1 EXAMPLE 1563=head1 EXAMPLE PROGRAM
138 1564
139The following program uses an io watcher to read data from stdin, a timer 1565The following program uses an I/O watcher to read data from STDIN, a timer
140to display a message once per second, and a condvar to exit the program 1566to display a message once per second, and a condition variable to quit the
141when the user enters quit: 1567program when the user enters quit:
142 1568
143 use AnyEvent; 1569 use AnyEvent;
144 1570
145 my $cv = AnyEvent->condvar; 1571 my $cv = AnyEvent->condvar;
146 1572
147 my $io_watcher = AnyEvent->io (fh => \*STDIN, poll => 'r', cb => sub { 1573 my $io_watcher = AnyEvent->io (
1574 fh => \*STDIN,
1575 poll => 'r',
1576 cb => sub {
148 warn "io event <$_[0]>\n"; # will always output <r> 1577 warn "io event <$_[0]>\n"; # will always output <r>
149 chomp (my $input = <STDIN>); # read a line 1578 chomp (my $input = <STDIN>); # read a line
150 warn "read: $input\n"; # output what has been read 1579 warn "read: $input\n"; # output what has been read
151 $cv->broadcast if $input =~ /^q/i; # quit program if /^q/i 1580 $cv->send if $input =~ /^q/i; # quit program if /^q/i
1581 },
152 }); 1582 );
153 1583
154 my $time_watcher; # can only be used once 1584 my $time_watcher; # can only be used once
155 1585
156 sub new_timer { 1586 sub new_timer {
157 $timer = AnyEvent->timer (after => 1, cb => sub { 1587 $timer = AnyEvent->timer (after => 1, cb => sub {
160 }); 1590 });
161 } 1591 }
162 1592
163 new_timer; # create first timer 1593 new_timer; # create first timer
164 1594
165 $cv->wait; # wait until user enters /^q/i 1595 $cv->recv; # wait until user enters /^q/i
166 1596
167=head1 REAL-WORLD EXAMPLE 1597=head1 REAL-WORLD EXAMPLE
168 1598
169Consider the L<Net::FCP> module. It features (among others) the following 1599Consider the L<Net::FCP> module. It features (among others) the following
170API calls, which are to freenet what HTTP GET requests are to http: 1600API calls, which are to freenet what HTTP GET requests are to http:
220 syswrite $txn->{fh}, $txn->{request} 1650 syswrite $txn->{fh}, $txn->{request}
221 or die "connection or write error"; 1651 or die "connection or write error";
222 $txn->{w} = AnyEvent->io (fh => $txn->{fh}, poll => 'r', cb => sub { $txn->fh_ready_r }); 1652 $txn->{w} = AnyEvent->io (fh => $txn->{fh}, poll => 'r', cb => sub { $txn->fh_ready_r });
223 1653
224Again, C<fh_ready_r> waits till all data has arrived, and then stores the 1654Again, C<fh_ready_r> waits till all data has arrived, and then stores the
225result and signals any possible waiters that the request ahs finished: 1655result and signals any possible waiters that the request has finished:
226 1656
227 sysread $txn->{fh}, $txn->{buf}, length $txn->{$buf}; 1657 sysread $txn->{fh}, $txn->{buf}, length $txn->{$buf};
228 1658
229 if (end-of-file or data complete) { 1659 if (end-of-file or data complete) {
230 $txn->{result} = $txn->{buf}; 1660 $txn->{result} = $txn->{buf};
231 $txn->{finished}->broadcast; 1661 $txn->{finished}->send;
232 $txb->{cb}->($txn) of $txn->{cb}; # also call callback 1662 $txb->{cb}->($txn) of $txn->{cb}; # also call callback
233 } 1663 }
234 1664
235The C<result> method, finally, just waits for the finished signal (if the 1665The C<result> method, finally, just waits for the finished signal (if the
236request was already finished, it doesn't wait, of course, and returns the 1666request was already finished, it doesn't wait, of course, and returns the
237data: 1667data:
238 1668
239 $txn->{finished}->wait; 1669 $txn->{finished}->recv;
240 return $txn->{result}; 1670 return $txn->{result};
241 1671
242The actual code goes further and collects all errors (C<die>s, exceptions) 1672The actual code goes further and collects all errors (C<die>s, exceptions)
243that occured during request processing. The C<result> method detects 1673that occurred during request processing. The C<result> method detects
244wether an exception as thrown (it is stored inside the $txn object) 1674whether an exception as thrown (it is stored inside the $txn object)
245and just throws the exception, which means connection errors and other 1675and just throws the exception, which means connection errors and other
246problems get reported tot he code that tries to use the result, not in a 1676problems get reported tot he code that tries to use the result, not in a
247random callback. 1677random callback.
248 1678
249All of this enables the following usage styles: 1679All of this enables the following usage styles:
250 1680
2511. Blocking: 16811. Blocking:
252 1682
253 my $data = $fcp->client_get ($url); 1683 my $data = $fcp->client_get ($url);
254 1684
2552. Blocking, but parallelizing: 16852. Blocking, but running in parallel:
256 1686
257 my @datas = map $_->result, 1687 my @datas = map $_->result,
258 map $fcp->txn_client_get ($_), 1688 map $fcp->txn_client_get ($_),
259 @urls; 1689 @urls;
260 1690
261Both blocking examples work without the module user having to know 1691Both blocking examples work without the module user having to know
262anything about events. 1692anything about events.
263 1693
2643a. Event-based in a main program, using any support Event module: 16943a. Event-based in a main program, using any supported event module:
265 1695
266 use Event; 1696 use EV;
267 1697
268 $fcp->txn_client_get ($url)->cb (sub { 1698 $fcp->txn_client_get ($url)->cb (sub {
269 my $txn = shift; 1699 my $txn = shift;
270 my $data = $txn->result; 1700 my $data = $txn->result;
271 ... 1701 ...
272 }); 1702 });
273 1703
274 Event::loop; 1704 EV::loop;
275 1705
2763b. The module user could use AnyEvent, too: 17063b. The module user could use AnyEvent, too:
277 1707
278 use AnyEvent; 1708 use AnyEvent;
279 1709
280 my $quit = AnyEvent->condvar; 1710 my $quit = AnyEvent->condvar;
281 1711
282 $fcp->txn_client_get ($url)->cb (sub { 1712 $fcp->txn_client_get ($url)->cb (sub {
283 ... 1713 ...
284 $quit->broadcast; 1714 $quit->send;
285 }); 1715 });
286 1716
287 $quit->wait; 1717 $quit->recv;
1718
1719
1720=head1 BENCHMARKS
1721
1722To give you an idea of the performance and overheads that AnyEvent adds
1723over the event loops themselves and to give you an impression of the speed
1724of various event loops I prepared some benchmarks.
1725
1726=head2 BENCHMARKING ANYEVENT OVERHEAD
1727
1728Here is a benchmark of various supported event models used natively and
1729through AnyEvent. The benchmark creates a lot of timers (with a zero
1730timeout) and I/O watchers (watching STDOUT, a pty, to become writable,
1731which it is), lets them fire exactly once and destroys them again.
1732
1733Source code for this benchmark is found as F<eg/bench> in the AnyEvent
1734distribution.
1735
1736=head3 Explanation of the columns
1737
1738I<watcher> is the number of event watchers created/destroyed. Since
1739different event models feature vastly different performances, each event
1740loop was given a number of watchers so that overall runtime is acceptable
1741and similar between tested event loop (and keep them from crashing): Glib
1742would probably take thousands of years if asked to process the same number
1743of watchers as EV in this benchmark.
1744
1745I<bytes> is the number of bytes (as measured by the resident set size,
1746RSS) consumed by each watcher. This method of measuring captures both C
1747and Perl-based overheads.
1748
1749I<create> is the time, in microseconds (millionths of seconds), that it
1750takes to create a single watcher. The callback is a closure shared between
1751all watchers, to avoid adding memory overhead. That means closure creation
1752and memory usage is not included in the figures.
1753
1754I<invoke> is the time, in microseconds, used to invoke a simple
1755callback. The callback simply counts down a Perl variable and after it was
1756invoked "watcher" times, it would C<< ->send >> a condvar once to
1757signal the end of this phase.
1758
1759I<destroy> is the time, in microseconds, that it takes to destroy a single
1760watcher.
1761
1762=head3 Results
1763
1764 name watchers bytes create invoke destroy comment
1765 EV/EV 400000 224 0.47 0.35 0.27 EV native interface
1766 EV/Any 100000 224 2.88 0.34 0.27 EV + AnyEvent watchers
1767 CoroEV/Any 100000 224 2.85 0.35 0.28 coroutines + Coro::Signal
1768 Perl/Any 100000 452 4.13 0.73 0.95 pure perl implementation
1769 Event/Event 16000 517 32.20 31.80 0.81 Event native interface
1770 Event/Any 16000 590 35.85 31.55 1.06 Event + AnyEvent watchers
1771 IOAsync/Any 16000 989 38.10 32.77 11.13 via IO::Async::Loop::IO_Poll
1772 IOAsync/Any 16000 990 37.59 29.50 10.61 via IO::Async::Loop::Epoll
1773 Glib/Any 16000 1357 102.33 12.31 51.00 quadratic behaviour
1774 Tk/Any 2000 1860 27.20 66.31 14.00 SEGV with >> 2000 watchers
1775 POE/Event 2000 6328 109.99 751.67 14.02 via POE::Loop::Event
1776 POE/Select 2000 6027 94.54 809.13 579.80 via POE::Loop::Select
1777
1778=head3 Discussion
1779
1780The benchmark does I<not> measure scalability of the event loop very
1781well. For example, a select-based event loop (such as the pure perl one)
1782can never compete with an event loop that uses epoll when the number of
1783file descriptors grows high. In this benchmark, all events become ready at
1784the same time, so select/poll-based implementations get an unnatural speed
1785boost.
1786
1787Also, note that the number of watchers usually has a nonlinear effect on
1788overall speed, that is, creating twice as many watchers doesn't take twice
1789the time - usually it takes longer. This puts event loops tested with a
1790higher number of watchers at a disadvantage.
1791
1792To put the range of results into perspective, consider that on the
1793benchmark machine, handling an event takes roughly 1600 CPU cycles with
1794EV, 3100 CPU cycles with AnyEvent's pure perl loop and almost 3000000 CPU
1795cycles with POE.
1796
1797C<EV> is the sole leader regarding speed and memory use, which are both
1798maximal/minimal, respectively. Even when going through AnyEvent, it uses
1799far less memory than any other event loop and is still faster than Event
1800natively.
1801
1802The pure perl implementation is hit in a few sweet spots (both the
1803constant timeout and the use of a single fd hit optimisations in the perl
1804interpreter and the backend itself). Nevertheless this shows that it
1805adds very little overhead in itself. Like any select-based backend its
1806performance becomes really bad with lots of file descriptors (and few of
1807them active), of course, but this was not subject of this benchmark.
1808
1809The C<Event> module has a relatively high setup and callback invocation
1810cost, but overall scores in on the third place.
1811
1812C<IO::Async> performs admirably well, about on par with C<Event>, even
1813when using its pure perl backend.
1814
1815C<Glib>'s memory usage is quite a bit higher, but it features a
1816faster callback invocation and overall ends up in the same class as
1817C<Event>. However, Glib scales extremely badly, doubling the number of
1818watchers increases the processing time by more than a factor of four,
1819making it completely unusable when using larger numbers of watchers
1820(note that only a single file descriptor was used in the benchmark, so
1821inefficiencies of C<poll> do not account for this).
1822
1823The C<Tk> adaptor works relatively well. The fact that it crashes with
1824more than 2000 watchers is a big setback, however, as correctness takes
1825precedence over speed. Nevertheless, its performance is surprising, as the
1826file descriptor is dup()ed for each watcher. This shows that the dup()
1827employed by some adaptors is not a big performance issue (it does incur a
1828hidden memory cost inside the kernel which is not reflected in the figures
1829above).
1830
1831C<POE>, regardless of underlying event loop (whether using its pure perl
1832select-based backend or the Event module, the POE-EV backend couldn't
1833be tested because it wasn't working) shows abysmal performance and
1834memory usage with AnyEvent: Watchers use almost 30 times as much memory
1835as EV watchers, and 10 times as much memory as Event (the high memory
1836requirements are caused by requiring a session for each watcher). Watcher
1837invocation speed is almost 900 times slower than with AnyEvent's pure perl
1838implementation.
1839
1840The design of the POE adaptor class in AnyEvent can not really account
1841for the performance issues, though, as session creation overhead is
1842small compared to execution of the state machine, which is coded pretty
1843optimally within L<AnyEvent::Impl::POE> (and while everybody agrees that
1844using multiple sessions is not a good approach, especially regarding
1845memory usage, even the author of POE could not come up with a faster
1846design).
1847
1848=head3 Summary
1849
1850=over 4
1851
1852=item * Using EV through AnyEvent is faster than any other event loop
1853(even when used without AnyEvent), but most event loops have acceptable
1854performance with or without AnyEvent.
1855
1856=item * The overhead AnyEvent adds is usually much smaller than the overhead of
1857the actual event loop, only with extremely fast event loops such as EV
1858adds AnyEvent significant overhead.
1859
1860=item * You should avoid POE like the plague if you want performance or
1861reasonable memory usage.
1862
1863=back
1864
1865=head2 BENCHMARKING THE LARGE SERVER CASE
1866
1867This benchmark actually benchmarks the event loop itself. It works by
1868creating a number of "servers": each server consists of a socket pair, a
1869timeout watcher that gets reset on activity (but never fires), and an I/O
1870watcher waiting for input on one side of the socket. Each time the socket
1871watcher reads a byte it will write that byte to a random other "server".
1872
1873The effect is that there will be a lot of I/O watchers, only part of which
1874are active at any one point (so there is a constant number of active
1875fds for each loop iteration, but which fds these are is random). The
1876timeout is reset each time something is read because that reflects how
1877most timeouts work (and puts extra pressure on the event loops).
1878
1879In this benchmark, we use 10000 socket pairs (20000 sockets), of which 100
1880(1%) are active. This mirrors the activity of large servers with many
1881connections, most of which are idle at any one point in time.
1882
1883Source code for this benchmark is found as F<eg/bench2> in the AnyEvent
1884distribution.
1885
1886=head3 Explanation of the columns
1887
1888I<sockets> is the number of sockets, and twice the number of "servers" (as
1889each server has a read and write socket end).
1890
1891I<create> is the time it takes to create a socket pair (which is
1892nontrivial) and two watchers: an I/O watcher and a timeout watcher.
1893
1894I<request>, the most important value, is the time it takes to handle a
1895single "request", that is, reading the token from the pipe and forwarding
1896it to another server. This includes deleting the old timeout and creating
1897a new one that moves the timeout into the future.
1898
1899=head3 Results
1900
1901 name sockets create request
1902 EV 20000 69.01 11.16
1903 Perl 20000 73.32 35.87
1904 IOAsync 20000 157.00 98.14 epoll
1905 IOAsync 20000 159.31 616.06 poll
1906 Event 20000 212.62 257.32
1907 Glib 20000 651.16 1896.30
1908 POE 20000 349.67 12317.24 uses POE::Loop::Event
1909
1910=head3 Discussion
1911
1912This benchmark I<does> measure scalability and overall performance of the
1913particular event loop.
1914
1915EV is again fastest. Since it is using epoll on my system, the setup time
1916is relatively high, though.
1917
1918Perl surprisingly comes second. It is much faster than the C-based event
1919loops Event and Glib.
1920
1921IO::Async performs very well when using its epoll backend, and still quite
1922good compared to Glib when using its pure perl backend.
1923
1924Event suffers from high setup time as well (look at its code and you will
1925understand why). Callback invocation also has a high overhead compared to
1926the C<< $_->() for .. >>-style loop that the Perl event loop uses. Event
1927uses select or poll in basically all documented configurations.
1928
1929Glib is hit hard by its quadratic behaviour w.r.t. many watchers. It
1930clearly fails to perform with many filehandles or in busy servers.
1931
1932POE is still completely out of the picture, taking over 1000 times as long
1933as EV, and over 100 times as long as the Perl implementation, even though
1934it uses a C-based event loop in this case.
1935
1936=head3 Summary
1937
1938=over 4
1939
1940=item * The pure perl implementation performs extremely well.
1941
1942=item * Avoid Glib or POE in large projects where performance matters.
1943
1944=back
1945
1946=head2 BENCHMARKING SMALL SERVERS
1947
1948While event loops should scale (and select-based ones do not...) even to
1949large servers, most programs we (or I :) actually write have only a few
1950I/O watchers.
1951
1952In this benchmark, I use the same benchmark program as in the large server
1953case, but it uses only eight "servers", of which three are active at any
1954one time. This should reflect performance for a small server relatively
1955well.
1956
1957The columns are identical to the previous table.
1958
1959=head3 Results
1960
1961 name sockets create request
1962 EV 16 20.00 6.54
1963 Perl 16 25.75 12.62
1964 Event 16 81.27 35.86
1965 Glib 16 32.63 15.48
1966 POE 16 261.87 276.28 uses POE::Loop::Event
1967
1968=head3 Discussion
1969
1970The benchmark tries to test the performance of a typical small
1971server. While knowing how various event loops perform is interesting, keep
1972in mind that their overhead in this case is usually not as important, due
1973to the small absolute number of watchers (that is, you need efficiency and
1974speed most when you have lots of watchers, not when you only have a few of
1975them).
1976
1977EV is again fastest.
1978
1979Perl again comes second. It is noticeably faster than the C-based event
1980loops Event and Glib, although the difference is too small to really
1981matter.
1982
1983POE also performs much better in this case, but is is still far behind the
1984others.
1985
1986=head3 Summary
1987
1988=over 4
1989
1990=item * C-based event loops perform very well with small number of
1991watchers, as the management overhead dominates.
1992
1993=back
1994
1995=head2 THE IO::Lambda BENCHMARK
1996
1997Recently I was told about the benchmark in the IO::Lambda manpage, which
1998could be misinterpreted to make AnyEvent look bad. In fact, the benchmark
1999simply compares IO::Lambda with POE, and IO::Lambda looks better (which
2000shouldn't come as a surprise to anybody). As such, the benchmark is
2001fine, and mostly shows that the AnyEvent backend from IO::Lambda isn't
2002very optimal. But how would AnyEvent compare when used without the extra
2003baggage? To explore this, I wrote the equivalent benchmark for AnyEvent.
2004
2005The benchmark itself creates an echo-server, and then, for 500 times,
2006connects to the echo server, sends a line, waits for the reply, and then
2007creates the next connection. This is a rather bad benchmark, as it doesn't
2008test the efficiency of the framework or much non-blocking I/O, but it is a
2009benchmark nevertheless.
2010
2011 name runtime
2012 Lambda/select 0.330 sec
2013 + optimized 0.122 sec
2014 Lambda/AnyEvent 0.327 sec
2015 + optimized 0.138 sec
2016 Raw sockets/select 0.077 sec
2017 POE/select, components 0.662 sec
2018 POE/select, raw sockets 0.226 sec
2019 POE/select, optimized 0.404 sec
2020
2021 AnyEvent/select/nb 0.085 sec
2022 AnyEvent/EV/nb 0.068 sec
2023 +state machine 0.134 sec
2024
2025The benchmark is also a bit unfair (my fault): the IO::Lambda/POE
2026benchmarks actually make blocking connects and use 100% blocking I/O,
2027defeating the purpose of an event-based solution. All of the newly
2028written AnyEvent benchmarks use 100% non-blocking connects (using
2029AnyEvent::Socket::tcp_connect and the asynchronous pure perl DNS
2030resolver), so AnyEvent is at a disadvantage here, as non-blocking connects
2031generally require a lot more bookkeeping and event handling than blocking
2032connects (which involve a single syscall only).
2033
2034The last AnyEvent benchmark additionally uses L<AnyEvent::Handle>, which
2035offers similar expressive power as POE and IO::Lambda, using conventional
2036Perl syntax. This means that both the echo server and the client are 100%
2037non-blocking, further placing it at a disadvantage.
2038
2039As you can see, the AnyEvent + EV combination even beats the
2040hand-optimised "raw sockets benchmark", while AnyEvent + its pure perl
2041backend easily beats IO::Lambda and POE.
2042
2043And even the 100% non-blocking version written using the high-level (and
2044slow :) L<AnyEvent::Handle> abstraction beats both POE and IO::Lambda by a
2045large margin, even though it does all of DNS, tcp-connect and socket I/O
2046in a non-blocking way.
2047
2048The two AnyEvent benchmarks programs can be found as F<eg/ae0.pl> and
2049F<eg/ae2.pl> in the AnyEvent distribution, the remaining benchmarks are
2050part of the IO::lambda distribution and were used without any changes.
2051
2052
2053=head1 SIGNALS
2054
2055AnyEvent currently installs handlers for these signals:
2056
2057=over 4
2058
2059=item SIGCHLD
2060
2061A handler for C<SIGCHLD> is installed by AnyEvent's child watcher
2062emulation for event loops that do not support them natively. Also, some
2063event loops install a similar handler.
2064
2065If, when AnyEvent is loaded, SIGCHLD is set to IGNORE, then AnyEvent will
2066reset it to default, to avoid losing child exit statuses.
2067
2068=item SIGPIPE
2069
2070A no-op handler is installed for C<SIGPIPE> when C<$SIG{PIPE}> is C<undef>
2071when AnyEvent gets loaded.
2072
2073The rationale for this is that AnyEvent users usually do not really depend
2074on SIGPIPE delivery (which is purely an optimisation for shell use, or
2075badly-written programs), but C<SIGPIPE> can cause spurious and rare
2076program exits as a lot of people do not expect C<SIGPIPE> when writing to
2077some random socket.
2078
2079The rationale for installing a no-op handler as opposed to ignoring it is
2080that this way, the handler will be restored to defaults on exec.
2081
2082Feel free to install your own handler, or reset it to defaults.
2083
2084=back
2085
2086=cut
2087
2088undef $SIG{CHLD}
2089 if $SIG{CHLD} eq 'IGNORE';
2090
2091$SIG{PIPE} = sub { }
2092 unless defined $SIG{PIPE};
2093
2094=head1 FORK
2095
2096Most event libraries are not fork-safe. The ones who are usually are
2097because they rely on inefficient but fork-safe C<select> or C<poll>
2098calls. Only L<EV> is fully fork-aware.
2099
2100If you have to fork, you must either do so I<before> creating your first
2101watcher OR you must not use AnyEvent at all in the child.
2102
2103
2104=head1 SECURITY CONSIDERATIONS
2105
2106AnyEvent can be forced to load any event model via
2107$ENV{PERL_ANYEVENT_MODEL}. While this cannot (to my knowledge) be used to
2108execute arbitrary code or directly gain access, it can easily be used to
2109make the program hang or malfunction in subtle ways, as AnyEvent watchers
2110will not be active when the program uses a different event model than
2111specified in the variable.
2112
2113You can make AnyEvent completely ignore this variable by deleting it
2114before the first watcher gets created, e.g. with a C<BEGIN> block:
2115
2116 BEGIN { delete $ENV{PERL_ANYEVENT_MODEL} }
2117
2118 use AnyEvent;
2119
2120Similar considerations apply to $ENV{PERL_ANYEVENT_VERBOSE}, as that can
2121be used to probe what backend is used and gain other information (which is
2122probably even less useful to an attacker than PERL_ANYEVENT_MODEL), and
2123$ENV{PERL_ANYEVENT_STRICT}.
2124
2125Note that AnyEvent will remove I<all> environment variables starting with
2126C<PERL_ANYEVENT_> from C<%ENV> when it is loaded while taint mode is
2127enabled.
2128
2129
2130=head1 BUGS
2131
2132Perl 5.8 has numerous memleaks that sometimes hit this module and are hard
2133to work around. If you suffer from memleaks, first upgrade to Perl 5.10
2134and check wether the leaks still show up. (Perl 5.10.0 has other annoying
2135memleaks, such as leaking on C<map> and C<grep> but it is usually not as
2136pronounced).
2137
288 2138
289=head1 SEE ALSO 2139=head1 SEE ALSO
290 2140
291Event modules: L<Coro::Event>, L<Coro>, L<Event>, L<Glib::Event>, L<Glib>. 2141Utility functions: L<AnyEvent::Util>.
292 2142
293Implementations: L<AnyEvent::Impl::Coro>, L<AnyEvent::Impl::Event>, L<AnyEvent::Impl::Glib>, L<AnyEvent::Impl::Tk>. 2143Event modules: L<EV>, L<EV::Glib>, L<Glib::EV>, L<Event>, L<Glib::Event>,
2144L<Glib>, L<Tk>, L<Event::Lib>, L<Qt>, L<POE>.
294 2145
295Nontrivial usage example: L<Net::FCP>. 2146Implementations: L<AnyEvent::Impl::EV>, L<AnyEvent::Impl::Event>,
2147L<AnyEvent::Impl::Glib>, L<AnyEvent::Impl::Tk>, L<AnyEvent::Impl::Perl>,
2148L<AnyEvent::Impl::EventLib>, L<AnyEvent::Impl::Qt>,
2149L<AnyEvent::Impl::POE>.
296 2150
297=head1 2151Non-blocking file handles, sockets, TCP clients and
2152servers: L<AnyEvent::Handle>, L<AnyEvent::Socket>.
2153
2154Asynchronous DNS: L<AnyEvent::DNS>.
2155
2156Coroutine support: L<Coro>, L<Coro::AnyEvent>, L<Coro::EV>, L<Coro::Event>,
2157
2158Nontrivial usage examples: L<Net::FCP>, L<Net::XMPP2>, L<AnyEvent::DNS>.
2159
2160
2161=head1 AUTHOR
2162
2163 Marc Lehmann <schmorp@schmorp.de>
2164 http://home.schmorp.de/
298 2165
299=cut 2166=cut
300 2167
3011 21681
302 2169

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