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Revision 1.203 by root, Sat Apr 11 05:56:36 2009 UTC

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, Perl - various supported event loops 5EV, Event, Glib, Tk, Perl, Event::Lib, Qt, POE - various supported event loops
6 6
7=head1 SYNOPSIS 7=head1 SYNOPSIS
8 8
9 use AnyEvent; 9 use AnyEvent;
10 10
11 my $w = AnyEvent->io (fh => $fh, poll => "r|w", cb => sub { 11 my $w = AnyEvent->io (fh => $fh, poll => "r|w", cb => sub { ... });
12
13 my $w = AnyEvent->timer (after => $seconds, cb => sub { ... });
14 my $w = AnyEvent->timer (after => $seconds, interval => $seconds, cb => ...
15
16 print AnyEvent->now; # prints current event loop time
17 print AnyEvent->time; # think Time::HiRes::time or simply CORE::time.
18
19 my $w = AnyEvent->signal (signal => "TERM", cb => sub { ... });
20
21 my $w = AnyEvent->child (pid => $pid, cb => sub {
22 my ($pid, $status) = @_;
12 ... 23 ...
13 }); 24 });
14 25
15 my $w = AnyEvent->timer (after => $seconds, cb => sub {
16 ...
17 });
18
19 my $w = AnyEvent->condvar; # stores wether a condition was flagged 26 my $w = AnyEvent->condvar; # stores whether a condition was flagged
27 $w->send; # wake up current and all future recv's
20 $w->wait; # enters "main loop" till $condvar gets ->broadcast 28 $w->recv; # enters "main loop" till $condvar gets ->send
21 $w->broadcast; # wake up current and all future wait's 29 # use a condvar in callback mode:
30 $w->cb (sub { $_[0]->recv });
31
32=head1 INTRODUCTION/TUTORIAL
33
34This manpage is mainly a reference manual. If you are interested
35in a tutorial or some gentle introduction, have a look at the
36L<AnyEvent::Intro> manpage.
37
38=head1 WHY YOU SHOULD USE THIS MODULE (OR NOT)
39
40Glib, POE, IO::Async, Event... CPAN offers event models by the dozen
41nowadays. So what is different about AnyEvent?
42
43Executive Summary: AnyEvent is I<compatible>, AnyEvent is I<free of
44policy> and AnyEvent is I<small and efficient>.
45
46First and foremost, I<AnyEvent is not an event model> itself, it only
47interfaces to whatever event model the main program happens to use, in a
48pragmatic way. For event models and certain classes of immortals alike,
49the statement "there can only be one" is a bitter reality: In general,
50only one event loop can be active at the same time in a process. AnyEvent
51cannot change this, but it can hide the differences between those event
52loops.
53
54The goal of AnyEvent is to offer module authors the ability to do event
55programming (waiting for I/O or timer events) without subscribing to a
56religion, a way of living, and most importantly: without forcing your
57module users into the same thing by forcing them to use the same event
58model you use.
59
60For modules like POE or IO::Async (which is a total misnomer as it is
61actually doing all I/O I<synchronously>...), using them in your module is
62like joining a cult: After you joined, you are dependent on them and you
63cannot use anything else, as they are simply incompatible to everything
64that isn't them. What's worse, all the potential users of your
65module are I<also> forced to use the same event loop you use.
66
67AnyEvent is different: AnyEvent + POE works fine. AnyEvent + Glib works
68fine. AnyEvent + Tk works fine etc. etc. but none of these work together
69with the rest: POE + IO::Async? No go. Tk + Event? No go. Again: if
70your module uses one of those, every user of your module has to use it,
71too. But if your module uses AnyEvent, it works transparently with all
72event models it supports (including stuff like IO::Async, as long as those
73use one of the supported event loops. It is trivial to add new event loops
74to AnyEvent, too, so it is future-proof).
75
76In addition to being free of having to use I<the one and only true event
77model>, AnyEvent also is free of bloat and policy: with POE or similar
78modules, you get an enormous amount of code and strict rules you have to
79follow. AnyEvent, on the other hand, is lean and up to the point, by only
80offering the functionality that is necessary, in as thin as a wrapper as
81technically possible.
82
83Of course, AnyEvent comes with a big (and fully optional!) toolbox
84of useful functionality, such as an asynchronous DNS resolver, 100%
85non-blocking connects (even with TLS/SSL, IPv6 and on broken platforms
86such as Windows) and lots of real-world knowledge and workarounds for
87platform bugs and differences.
88
89Now, if you I<do want> lots of policy (this can arguably be somewhat
90useful) and you want to force your users to use the one and only event
91model, you should I<not> use this module.
22 92
23=head1 DESCRIPTION 93=head1 DESCRIPTION
24 94
25L<AnyEvent> provides an identical interface to multiple event loops. This 95L<AnyEvent> provides an identical interface to multiple event loops. This
26allows module authors to utilise an event loop without forcing module 96allows module authors to utilise an event loop without forcing module
27users to use the same event loop (as only a single event loop can coexist 97users to use the same event loop (as only a single event loop can coexist
28peacefully at any one time). 98peacefully at any one time).
29 99
30The interface itself is vaguely similar but not identical to the Event 100The interface itself is vaguely similar, but not identical to the L<Event>
31module. 101module.
32 102
33On the first call of any method, the module tries to detect the currently 103During the first call of any watcher-creation method, the module tries
34loaded event loop by probing wether any of the following modules is 104to detect the currently loaded event loop by probing whether one of the
35loaded: L<Coro::Event>, L<Event>, L<Glib>, L<Tk>. The first one found is 105following modules is already loaded: L<EV>,
36used. If none is found, the module tries to load these modules in the 106L<Event>, L<Glib>, L<AnyEvent::Impl::Perl>, L<Tk>, L<Event::Lib>, L<Qt>,
37order given. The first one that could be successfully loaded will be 107L<POE>. The first one found is used. If none are found, the module tries
38used. If still none could be found, AnyEvent will fall back to a pure-perl 108to load these modules (excluding Tk, Event::Lib, Qt and POE as the pure perl
39event loop, which is also not very efficient. 109adaptor should always succeed) in the order given. The first one that can
110be successfully loaded will be used. If, after this, still none could be
111found, AnyEvent will fall back to a pure-perl event loop, which is not
112very efficient, but should work everywhere.
40 113
41Because AnyEvent first checks for modules that are already loaded, loading 114Because AnyEvent first checks for modules that are already loaded, loading
42an Event model explicitly before first using AnyEvent will likely make 115an event model explicitly before first using AnyEvent will likely make
43that model the default. For example: 116that model the default. For example:
44 117
45 use Tk; 118 use Tk;
46 use AnyEvent; 119 use AnyEvent;
47 120
48 # .. AnyEvent will likely default to Tk 121 # .. AnyEvent will likely default to Tk
49 122
123The I<likely> means that, if any module loads another event model and
124starts using it, all bets are off. Maybe you should tell their authors to
125use AnyEvent so their modules work together with others seamlessly...
126
50The pure-perl implementation of AnyEvent is called 127The pure-perl implementation of AnyEvent is called
51C<AnyEvent::Impl::Perl>. Like other event modules you can load it 128C<AnyEvent::Impl::Perl>. Like other event modules you can load it
52explicitly. 129explicitly and enjoy the high availability of that event loop :)
53 130
54=head1 WATCHERS 131=head1 WATCHERS
55 132
56AnyEvent has the central concept of a I<watcher>, which is an object that 133AnyEvent has the central concept of a I<watcher>, which is an object that
57stores relevant data for each kind of event you are waiting for, such as 134stores relevant data for each kind of event you are waiting for, such as
58the callback to call, the filehandle to watch, etc. 135the callback to call, the file handle to watch, etc.
59 136
60These watchers are normal Perl objects with normal Perl lifetime. After 137These watchers are normal Perl objects with normal Perl lifetime. After
61creating a watcher it will immediately "watch" for events and invoke 138creating a watcher it will immediately "watch" for events and invoke the
139callback when the event occurs (of course, only when the event model
140is in control).
141
142Note that B<callbacks must not permanently change global variables>
143potentially in use by the event loop (such as C<$_> or C<$[>) and that B<<
144callbacks must not C<die> >>. The former is good programming practise in
145Perl and the latter stems from the fact that exception handling differs
146widely between event loops.
147
62the callback. To disable the watcher you have to destroy it (e.g. by 148To disable the watcher you have to destroy it (e.g. by setting the
63setting the variable that stores it to C<undef> or otherwise deleting all 149variable you store it in to C<undef> or otherwise deleting all references
64references to it). 150to it).
65 151
66All watchers are created by calling a method on the C<AnyEvent> class. 152All watchers are created by calling a method on the C<AnyEvent> class.
67 153
154Many watchers either are used with "recursion" (repeating timers for
155example), or need to refer to their watcher object in other ways.
156
157An any way to achieve that is this pattern:
158
159 my $w; $w = AnyEvent->type (arg => value ..., cb => sub {
160 # you can use $w here, for example to undef it
161 undef $w;
162 });
163
164Note that C<my $w; $w => combination. This is necessary because in Perl,
165my variables are only visible after the statement in which they are
166declared.
167
68=head2 IO WATCHERS 168=head2 I/O WATCHERS
69 169
70You can create I/O watcher by calling the C<< AnyEvent->io >> method with 170You can create an I/O watcher by calling the C<< AnyEvent->io >> method
71the following mandatory arguments: 171with the following mandatory key-value pairs as arguments:
72 172
73C<fh> the Perl I<filehandle> (not filedescriptor) to watch for 173C<fh> is the Perl I<file handle> (I<not> file descriptor) to watch
174for events (AnyEvent might or might not keep a reference to this file
175handle). Note that only file handles pointing to things for which
176non-blocking operation makes sense are allowed. This includes sockets,
177most character devices, pipes, fifos and so on, but not for example files
178or block devices.
179
74events. C<poll> must be a string that is either C<r> or C<w>, that creates 180C<poll> must be a string that is either C<r> or C<w>, which creates a
75a watcher waiting for "r"eadable or "w"ritable events. C<cb> teh callback 181watcher waiting for "r"eadable or "w"ritable events, respectively.
76to invoke everytime the filehandle becomes ready.
77 182
78Only one io watcher per C<fh> and C<poll> combination is allowed (i.e. on 183C<cb> is the callback to invoke each time the file handle becomes ready.
79a socket you can have one r + one w, not any more (limitation comes from
80Tk - if you are sure you are not using Tk this limitation is gone).
81 184
82Filehandles will be kept alive, so as long as the watcher exists, the 185Although the callback might get passed parameters, their value and
83filehandle exists, too. 186presence is undefined and you cannot rely on them. Portable AnyEvent
187callbacks cannot use arguments passed to I/O watcher callbacks.
84 188
85Example: 189The I/O watcher might use the underlying file descriptor or a copy of it.
190You must not close a file handle as long as any watcher is active on the
191underlying file descriptor.
86 192
193Some event loops issue spurious readyness notifications, so you should
194always use non-blocking calls when reading/writing from/to your file
195handles.
196
87 # wait for readability of STDIN, then read a line and disable the watcher 197Example: wait for readability of STDIN, then read a line and disable the
198watcher.
199
88 my $w; $w = AnyEvent->io (fh => \*STDIN, poll => 'r', cb => sub { 200 my $w; $w = AnyEvent->io (fh => \*STDIN, poll => 'r', cb => sub {
89 chomp (my $input = <STDIN>); 201 chomp (my $input = <STDIN>);
90 warn "read: $input\n"; 202 warn "read: $input\n";
91 undef $w; 203 undef $w;
92 }); 204 });
94=head2 TIME WATCHERS 206=head2 TIME WATCHERS
95 207
96You can create a time watcher by calling the C<< AnyEvent->timer >> 208You can create a time watcher by calling the C<< AnyEvent->timer >>
97method with the following mandatory arguments: 209method with the following mandatory arguments:
98 210
99C<after> after how many seconds (fractions are supported) should the timer 211C<after> specifies after how many seconds (fractional values are
100activate. C<cb> the callback to invoke. 212supported) the callback should be invoked. C<cb> is the callback to invoke
213in that case.
101 214
102The timer callback will be invoked at most once: if you want a repeating 215Although the callback might get passed parameters, their value and
103timer you have to create a new watcher (this is a limitation by both Tk 216presence is undefined and you cannot rely on them. Portable AnyEvent
104and Glib). 217callbacks cannot use arguments passed to time watcher callbacks.
105 218
106Example: 219The callback will normally be invoked once only. If you specify another
220parameter, C<interval>, as a strictly positive number (> 0), then the
221callback will be invoked regularly at that interval (in fractional
222seconds) after the first invocation. If C<interval> is specified with a
223false value, then it is treated as if it were missing.
107 224
225The callback will be rescheduled before invoking the callback, but no
226attempt is done to avoid timer drift in most backends, so the interval is
227only approximate.
228
108 # fire an event after 7.7 seconds 229Example: fire an event after 7.7 seconds.
230
109 my $w = AnyEvent->timer (after => 7.7, cb => sub { 231 my $w = AnyEvent->timer (after => 7.7, cb => sub {
110 warn "timeout\n"; 232 warn "timeout\n";
111 }); 233 });
112 234
113 # to cancel the timer: 235 # to cancel the timer:
114 undef $w 236 undef $w;
115 237
116=head2 CONDITION WATCHERS 238Example 2: fire an event after 0.5 seconds, then roughly every second.
117 239
118Condition watchers can be created by calling the C<< AnyEvent->condvar >> 240 my $w = AnyEvent->timer (after => 0.5, interval => 1, cb => sub {
119method without any arguments. 241 warn "timeout\n";
242 };
120 243
121A condition watcher watches for a condition - precisely that the C<< 244=head3 TIMING ISSUES
122->broadcast >> method has been called.
123 245
124The watcher has only two methods: 246There are two ways to handle timers: based on real time (relative, "fire
247in 10 seconds") and based on wallclock time (absolute, "fire at 12
248o'clock").
249
250While most event loops expect timers to specified in a relative way, they
251use absolute time internally. This makes a difference when your clock
252"jumps", for example, when ntp decides to set your clock backwards from
253the wrong date of 2014-01-01 to 2008-01-01, a watcher that is supposed to
254fire "after" a second might actually take six years to finally fire.
255
256AnyEvent cannot compensate for this. The only event loop that is conscious
257about these issues is L<EV>, which offers both relative (ev_timer, based
258on true relative time) and absolute (ev_periodic, based on wallclock time)
259timers.
260
261AnyEvent always prefers relative timers, if available, matching the
262AnyEvent API.
263
264AnyEvent has two additional methods that return the "current time":
125 265
126=over 4 266=over 4
127 267
128=item $cv->wait 268=item AnyEvent->time
129 269
130Wait (blocking if necessary) until the C<< ->broadcast >> method has been 270This returns the "current wallclock time" as a fractional number of
131called on c<$cv>, while servicing other watchers normally. 271seconds since the Epoch (the same thing as C<time> or C<Time::HiRes::time>
272return, and the result is guaranteed to be compatible with those).
132 273
133Not all event models support a blocking wait - some die in that case, so 274It progresses independently of any event loop processing, i.e. each call
134if you are using this from a module, never require a blocking wait, but 275will check the system clock, which usually gets updated frequently.
135let the caller decide wether the call will block or not (for example,
136by coupling condition variables with some kind of request results and
137supporting callbacks so the caller knows that getting the result will not
138block, while still suppporting blockign waits if the caller so desires).
139 276
140You can only wait once on a condition - additional calls will return 277=item AnyEvent->now
141immediately.
142 278
143=item $cv->broadcast 279This also returns the "current wallclock time", but unlike C<time>, above,
280this value might change only once per event loop iteration, depending on
281the event loop (most return the same time as C<time>, above). This is the
282time that AnyEvent's timers get scheduled against.
144 283
145Flag the condition as ready - a running C<< ->wait >> and all further 284I<In almost all cases (in all cases if you don't care), this is the
146calls to C<wait> will return after this method has been called. If nobody 285function to call when you want to know the current time.>
147is waiting the broadcast will be remembered..
148 286
149Example: 287This function is also often faster then C<< AnyEvent->time >>, and
288thus the preferred method if you want some timestamp (for example,
289L<AnyEvent::Handle> uses this to update it's activity timeouts).
290
291The rest of this section is only of relevance if you try to be very exact
292with your timing, you can skip it without bad conscience.
293
294For a practical example of when these times differ, consider L<Event::Lib>
295and L<EV> and the following set-up:
296
297The event loop is running and has just invoked one of your callback at
298time=500 (assume no other callbacks delay processing). In your callback,
299you wait a second by executing C<sleep 1> (blocking the process for a
300second) and then (at time=501) you create a relative timer that fires
301after three seconds.
302
303With L<Event::Lib>, C<< AnyEvent->time >> and C<< AnyEvent->now >> will
304both return C<501>, because that is the current time, and the timer will
305be scheduled to fire at time=504 (C<501> + C<3>).
306
307With L<EV>, C<< AnyEvent->time >> returns C<501> (as that is the current
308time), but C<< AnyEvent->now >> returns C<500>, as that is the time the
309last event processing phase started. With L<EV>, your timer gets scheduled
310to run at time=503 (C<500> + C<3>).
311
312In one sense, L<Event::Lib> is more exact, as it uses the current time
313regardless of any delays introduced by event processing. However, most
314callbacks do not expect large delays in processing, so this causes a
315higher drift (and a lot more system calls to get the current time).
316
317In another sense, L<EV> is more exact, as your timer will be scheduled at
318the same time, regardless of how long event processing actually took.
319
320In either case, if you care (and in most cases, you don't), then you
321can get whatever behaviour you want with any event loop, by taking the
322difference between C<< AnyEvent->time >> and C<< AnyEvent->now >> into
323account.
324
325=back
326
327=head2 SIGNAL WATCHERS
328
329You can watch for signals using a signal watcher, C<signal> is the signal
330I<name> in uppercase and without any C<SIG> prefix, C<cb> is the Perl
331callback to be invoked whenever a signal occurs.
332
333Although the callback might get passed parameters, their value and
334presence is undefined and you cannot rely on them. Portable AnyEvent
335callbacks cannot use arguments passed to signal watcher callbacks.
336
337Multiple signal occurrences can be clumped together into one callback
338invocation, and callback invocation will be synchronous. Synchronous means
339that it might take a while until the signal gets handled by the process,
340but it is guaranteed not to interrupt any other callbacks.
341
342The main advantage of using these watchers is that you can share a signal
343between multiple watchers.
344
345This watcher might use C<%SIG>, so programs overwriting those signals
346directly will likely not work correctly.
347
348Example: exit on SIGINT
349
350 my $w = AnyEvent->signal (signal => "INT", cb => sub { exit 1 });
351
352=head2 CHILD PROCESS WATCHERS
353
354You can also watch on a child process exit and catch its exit status.
355
356The child process is specified by the C<pid> argument (if set to C<0>, it
357watches for any child process exit). The watcher will triggered only when
358the child process has finished and an exit status is available, not on
359any trace events (stopped/continued).
360
361The callback will be called with the pid and exit status (as returned by
362waitpid), so unlike other watcher types, you I<can> rely on child watcher
363callback arguments.
364
365This watcher type works by installing a signal handler for C<SIGCHLD>,
366and since it cannot be shared, nothing else should use SIGCHLD or reap
367random child processes (waiting for specific child processes, e.g. inside
368C<system>, is just fine).
369
370There is a slight catch to child watchers, however: you usually start them
371I<after> the child process was created, and this means the process could
372have exited already (and no SIGCHLD will be sent anymore).
373
374Not all event models handle this correctly (POE doesn't), but even for
375event models that I<do> handle this correctly, they usually need to be
376loaded before the process exits (i.e. before you fork in the first place).
377
378This means you cannot create a child watcher as the very first thing in an
379AnyEvent program, you I<have> to create at least one watcher before you
380C<fork> the child (alternatively, you can call C<AnyEvent::detect>).
381
382Example: fork a process and wait for it
383
384 my $done = AnyEvent->condvar;
385
386 my $pid = fork or exit 5;
387
388 my $w = AnyEvent->child (
389 pid => $pid,
390 cb => sub {
391 my ($pid, $status) = @_;
392 warn "pid $pid exited with status $status";
393 $done->send;
394 },
395 );
396
397 # do something else, then wait for process exit
398 $done->recv;
399
400=head2 CONDITION VARIABLES
401
402If you are familiar with some event loops you will know that all of them
403require you to run some blocking "loop", "run" or similar function that
404will actively watch for new events and call your callbacks.
405
406AnyEvent is different, it expects somebody else to run the event loop and
407will only block when necessary (usually when told by the user).
408
409The instrument to do that is called a "condition variable", so called
410because they represent a condition that must become true.
411
412Condition variables can be created by calling the C<< AnyEvent->condvar
413>> method, usually without arguments. The only argument pair allowed is
414
415C<cb>, which specifies a callback to be called when the condition variable
416becomes true, with the condition variable as the first argument (but not
417the results).
418
419After creation, the condition variable is "false" until it becomes "true"
420by calling the C<send> method (or calling the condition variable as if it
421were a callback, read about the caveats in the description for the C<<
422->send >> method).
423
424Condition variables are similar to callbacks, except that you can
425optionally wait for them. They can also be called merge points - points
426in time where multiple outstanding events have been processed. And yet
427another way to call them is transactions - each condition variable can be
428used to represent a transaction, which finishes at some point and delivers
429a result.
430
431Condition variables are very useful to signal that something has finished,
432for example, if you write a module that does asynchronous http requests,
433then a condition variable would be the ideal candidate to signal the
434availability of results. The user can either act when the callback is
435called or can synchronously C<< ->recv >> for the results.
436
437You can also use them to simulate traditional event loops - for example,
438you can block your main program until an event occurs - for example, you
439could C<< ->recv >> in your main program until the user clicks the Quit
440button of your app, which would C<< ->send >> the "quit" event.
441
442Note that condition variables recurse into the event loop - if you have
443two pieces of code that call C<< ->recv >> in a round-robin fashion, you
444lose. Therefore, condition variables are good to export to your caller, but
445you should avoid making a blocking wait yourself, at least in callbacks,
446as this asks for trouble.
447
448Condition variables are represented by hash refs in perl, and the keys
449used by AnyEvent itself are all named C<_ae_XXX> to make subclassing
450easy (it is often useful to build your own transaction class on top of
451AnyEvent). To subclass, use C<AnyEvent::CondVar> as base class and call
452it's C<new> method in your own C<new> method.
453
454There are two "sides" to a condition variable - the "producer side" which
455eventually calls C<< -> send >>, and the "consumer side", which waits
456for the send to occur.
457
458Example: wait for a timer.
150 459
151 # wait till the result is ready 460 # wait till the result is ready
152 my $result_ready = AnyEvent->condvar; 461 my $result_ready = AnyEvent->condvar;
153 462
154 # do something such as adding a timer 463 # do something such as adding a timer
155 # or socket watcher the calls $result_ready->broadcast 464 # or socket watcher the calls $result_ready->send
156 # when the "result" is ready. 465 # when the "result" is ready.
466 # in this case, we simply use a timer:
467 my $w = AnyEvent->timer (
468 after => 1,
469 cb => sub { $result_ready->send },
470 );
157 471
472 # this "blocks" (while handling events) till the callback
473 # calls send
158 $result_ready->wait; 474 $result_ready->recv;
475
476Example: wait for a timer, but take advantage of the fact that
477condition variables are also code references.
478
479 my $done = AnyEvent->condvar;
480 my $delay = AnyEvent->timer (after => 5, cb => $done);
481 $done->recv;
482
483Example: Imagine an API that returns a condvar and doesn't support
484callbacks. This is how you make a synchronous call, for example from
485the main program:
486
487 use AnyEvent::CouchDB;
488
489 ...
490
491 my @info = $couchdb->info->recv;
492
493And this is how you would just ste a callback to be called whenever the
494results are available:
495
496 $couchdb->info->cb (sub {
497 my @info = $_[0]->recv;
498 });
499
500=head3 METHODS FOR PRODUCERS
501
502These methods should only be used by the producing side, i.e. the
503code/module that eventually sends the signal. Note that it is also
504the producer side which creates the condvar in most cases, but it isn't
505uncommon for the consumer to create it as well.
506
507=over 4
508
509=item $cv->send (...)
510
511Flag the condition as ready - a running C<< ->recv >> and all further
512calls to C<recv> will (eventually) return after this method has been
513called. If nobody is waiting the send will be remembered.
514
515If a callback has been set on the condition variable, it is called
516immediately from within send.
517
518Any arguments passed to the C<send> call will be returned by all
519future C<< ->recv >> calls.
520
521Condition variables are overloaded so one can call them directly
522(as a code reference). Calling them directly is the same as calling
523C<send>. Note, however, that many C-based event loops do not handle
524overloading, so as tempting as it may be, passing a condition variable
525instead of a callback does not work. Both the pure perl and EV loops
526support overloading, however, as well as all functions that use perl to
527invoke a callback (as in L<AnyEvent::Socket> and L<AnyEvent::DNS> for
528example).
529
530=item $cv->croak ($error)
531
532Similar to send, but causes all call's to C<< ->recv >> to invoke
533C<Carp::croak> with the given error message/object/scalar.
534
535This can be used to signal any errors to the condition variable
536user/consumer.
537
538=item $cv->begin ([group callback])
539
540=item $cv->end
541
542These two methods are EXPERIMENTAL and MIGHT CHANGE.
543
544These two methods can be used to combine many transactions/events into
545one. For example, a function that pings many hosts in parallel might want
546to use a condition variable for the whole process.
547
548Every call to C<< ->begin >> will increment a counter, and every call to
549C<< ->end >> will decrement it. If the counter reaches C<0> in C<< ->end
550>>, the (last) callback passed to C<begin> will be executed. That callback
551is I<supposed> to call C<< ->send >>, but that is not required. If no
552callback was set, C<send> will be called without any arguments.
553
554Let's clarify this with the ping example:
555
556 my $cv = AnyEvent->condvar;
557
558 my %result;
559 $cv->begin (sub { $cv->send (\%result) });
560
561 for my $host (@list_of_hosts) {
562 $cv->begin;
563 ping_host_then_call_callback $host, sub {
564 $result{$host} = ...;
565 $cv->end;
566 };
567 }
568
569 $cv->end;
570
571This code fragment supposedly pings a number of hosts and calls
572C<send> after results for all then have have been gathered - in any
573order. To achieve this, the code issues a call to C<begin> when it starts
574each ping request and calls C<end> when it has received some result for
575it. Since C<begin> and C<end> only maintain a counter, the order in which
576results arrive is not relevant.
577
578There is an additional bracketing call to C<begin> and C<end> outside the
579loop, which serves two important purposes: first, it sets the callback
580to be called once the counter reaches C<0>, and second, it ensures that
581C<send> is called even when C<no> hosts are being pinged (the loop
582doesn't execute once).
583
584This is the general pattern when you "fan out" into multiple subrequests:
585use an outer C<begin>/C<end> pair to set the callback and ensure C<end>
586is called at least once, and then, for each subrequest you start, call
587C<begin> and for each subrequest you finish, call C<end>.
159 588
160=back 589=back
161 590
162=head2 SIGNAL WATCHERS 591=head3 METHODS FOR CONSUMERS
163 592
164You can listen for signals using a signal watcher, C<signal> is the signal 593These methods should only be used by the consuming side, i.e. the
165I<name> without any C<SIG> prefix. Multiple signals events can be clumped 594code awaits the condition.
166together into one callback invocation, and callback invocation might or
167might not be asynchronous.
168 595
169These watchers might use C<%SIG>, so programs overwriting those signals 596=over 4
170directly will likely not work correctly.
171 597
172Example: exit on SIGINT 598=item $cv->recv
173 599
174 my $w = AnyEvent->signal (signal => "INT", cb => sub { exit 1 }); 600Wait (blocking if necessary) until the C<< ->send >> or C<< ->croak
601>> methods have been called on c<$cv>, while servicing other watchers
602normally.
175 603
176=head2 CHILD PROCESS WATCHERS 604You can only wait once on a condition - additional calls are valid but
605will return immediately.
177 606
178You can also listen for the status of a child process specified by the 607If an error condition has been set by calling C<< ->croak >>, then this
179C<pid> argument. The watcher will only trigger once. This works by 608function will call C<croak>.
180installing a signal handler for C<SIGCHLD>.
181 609
182Example: wait for pid 1333 610In list context, all parameters passed to C<send> will be returned,
611in scalar context only the first one will be returned.
183 612
184 my $w = AnyEvent->child (pid => 1333, cb => sub { warn "exit status $?" }); 613Not all event models support a blocking wait - some die in that case
614(programs might want to do that to stay interactive), so I<if you are
615using this from a module, never require a blocking wait>, but let the
616caller decide whether the call will block or not (for example, by coupling
617condition variables with some kind of request results and supporting
618callbacks so the caller knows that getting the result will not block,
619while still supporting blocking waits if the caller so desires).
185 620
186=head1 GLOBALS 621Another reason I<never> to C<< ->recv >> in a module is that you cannot
622sensibly have two C<< ->recv >>'s in parallel, as that would require
623multiple interpreters or coroutines/threads, none of which C<AnyEvent>
624can supply.
625
626The L<Coro> module, however, I<can> and I<does> supply coroutines and, in
627fact, L<Coro::AnyEvent> replaces AnyEvent's condvars by coroutine-safe
628versions and also integrates coroutines into AnyEvent, making blocking
629C<< ->recv >> calls perfectly safe as long as they are done from another
630coroutine (one that doesn't run the event loop).
631
632You can ensure that C<< -recv >> never blocks by setting a callback and
633only calling C<< ->recv >> from within that callback (or at a later
634time). This will work even when the event loop does not support blocking
635waits otherwise.
636
637=item $bool = $cv->ready
638
639Returns true when the condition is "true", i.e. whether C<send> or
640C<croak> have been called.
641
642=item $cb = $cv->cb ($cb->($cv))
643
644This is a mutator function that returns the callback set and optionally
645replaces it before doing so.
646
647The callback will be called when the condition becomes "true", i.e. when
648C<send> or C<croak> are called, with the only argument being the condition
649variable itself. Calling C<recv> inside the callback or at any later time
650is guaranteed not to block.
651
652=back
653
654=head1 GLOBAL VARIABLES AND FUNCTIONS
187 655
188=over 4 656=over 4
189 657
190=item $AnyEvent::MODEL 658=item $AnyEvent::MODEL
191 659
195C<AnyEvent::Impl:xxx> modules, but can be any other class in the case 663C<AnyEvent::Impl:xxx> modules, but can be any other class in the case
196AnyEvent has been extended at runtime (e.g. in I<rxvt-unicode>). 664AnyEvent has been extended at runtime (e.g. in I<rxvt-unicode>).
197 665
198The known classes so far are: 666The known classes so far are:
199 667
200 AnyEvent::Impl::Coro based on Coro::Event, best choise. 668 AnyEvent::Impl::EV based on EV (an interface to libev, best choice).
201 AnyEvent::Impl::Event based on Event, also best choice :) 669 AnyEvent::Impl::Event based on Event, second best choice.
670 AnyEvent::Impl::Perl pure-perl implementation, fast and portable.
202 AnyEvent::Impl::Glib based on Glib, second-best choice. 671 AnyEvent::Impl::Glib based on Glib, third-best choice.
203 AnyEvent::Impl::Tk based on Tk, very bad choice. 672 AnyEvent::Impl::Tk based on Tk, very bad choice.
204 AnyEvent::Impl::Perl pure-perl implementation, inefficient. 673 AnyEvent::Impl::Qt based on Qt, cannot be autoprobed (see its docs).
674 AnyEvent::Impl::EventLib based on Event::Lib, leaks memory and worse.
675 AnyEvent::Impl::POE based on POE, not generic enough for full support.
676
677There is no support for WxWidgets, as WxWidgets has no support for
678watching file handles. However, you can use WxWidgets through the
679POE Adaptor, as POE has a Wx backend that simply polls 20 times per
680second, which was considered to be too horrible to even consider for
681AnyEvent. Likewise, other POE backends can be used by AnyEvent by using
682it's adaptor.
683
684AnyEvent knows about L<Prima> and L<Wx> and will try to use L<POE> when
685autodetecting them.
205 686
206=item AnyEvent::detect 687=item AnyEvent::detect
207 688
208Returns C<$AnyEvent::MODEL>, forcing autodetection of the event model if 689Returns C<$AnyEvent::MODEL>, forcing autodetection of the event model
209necessary. You should only call this function right before you would have 690if necessary. You should only call this function right before you would
210created an AnyEvent watcher anyway, that is, very late at runtime. 691have created an AnyEvent watcher anyway, that is, as late as possible at
692runtime.
693
694=item $guard = AnyEvent::post_detect { BLOCK }
695
696Arranges for the code block to be executed as soon as the event model is
697autodetected (or immediately if this has already happened).
698
699If called in scalar or list context, then it creates and returns an object
700that automatically removes the callback again when it is destroyed. See
701L<Coro::BDB> for a case where this is useful.
702
703=item @AnyEvent::post_detect
704
705If there are any code references in this array (you can C<push> to it
706before or after loading AnyEvent), then they will called directly after
707the event loop has been chosen.
708
709You should check C<$AnyEvent::MODEL> before adding to this array, though:
710if it contains a true value then the event loop has already been detected,
711and the array will be ignored.
712
713Best use C<AnyEvent::post_detect { BLOCK }> instead.
211 714
212=back 715=back
213 716
214=head1 WHAT TO DO IN A MODULE 717=head1 WHAT TO DO IN A MODULE
215 718
216As a module author, you should "use AnyEvent" and call AnyEvent methods 719As a module author, you should C<use AnyEvent> and call AnyEvent methods
217freely, but you should not load a specific event module or rely on it. 720freely, but you should not load a specific event module or rely on it.
218 721
219Be careful when you create watchers in the module body - Anyevent will 722Be careful when you create watchers in the module body - AnyEvent will
220decide which event module to use as soon as the first method is called, so 723decide which event module to use as soon as the first method is called, so
221by calling AnyEvent in your module body you force the user of your module 724by calling AnyEvent in your module body you force the user of your module
222to load the event module first. 725to load the event module first.
223 726
727Never call C<< ->recv >> on a condition variable unless you I<know> that
728the C<< ->send >> method has been called on it already. This is
729because it will stall the whole program, and the whole point of using
730events is to stay interactive.
731
732It is fine, however, to call C<< ->recv >> when the user of your module
733requests it (i.e. if you create a http request object ad have a method
734called C<results> that returns the results, it should call C<< ->recv >>
735freely, as the user of your module knows what she is doing. always).
736
224=head1 WHAT TO DO IN THE MAIN PROGRAM 737=head1 WHAT TO DO IN THE MAIN PROGRAM
225 738
226There will always be a single main program - the only place that should 739There will always be a single main program - the only place that should
227dictate which event model to use. 740dictate which event model to use.
228 741
229If it doesn't care, it can just "use AnyEvent" and use it itself, or not 742If it doesn't care, it can just "use AnyEvent" and use it itself, or not
230do anything special and let AnyEvent decide which implementation to chose. 743do anything special (it does not need to be event-based) and let AnyEvent
744decide which implementation to chose if some module relies on it.
231 745
232If the main program relies on a specific event model (for example, in Gtk2 746If the main program relies on a specific event model - for example, in
233programs you have to rely on either Glib or Glib::Event), you should load 747Gtk2 programs you have to rely on the Glib module - you should load the
234it before loading AnyEvent or any module that uses it, generally, as early 748event module before loading AnyEvent or any module that uses it: generally
235as possible. The reason is that modules might create watchers when they 749speaking, you should load it as early as possible. The reason is that
236are loaded, and AnyEvent will decide on the event model to use as soon as 750modules might create watchers when they are loaded, and AnyEvent will
237it creates watchers, and it might chose the wrong one unless you load the 751decide on the event model to use as soon as it creates watchers, and it
238correct one yourself. 752might chose the wrong one unless you load the correct one yourself.
239 753
240You can chose to use a rather inefficient pure-perl implementation by 754You can chose to use a pure-perl implementation by loading the
241loading the C<AnyEvent::Impl::Perl> module, but letting AnyEvent chose is 755C<AnyEvent::Impl::Perl> module, which gives you similar behaviour
242generally better. 756everywhere, but letting AnyEvent chose the model is generally better.
757
758=head2 MAINLOOP EMULATION
759
760Sometimes (often for short test scripts, or even standalone programs who
761only want to use AnyEvent), you do not want to run a specific event loop.
762
763In that case, you can use a condition variable like this:
764
765 AnyEvent->condvar->recv;
766
767This has the effect of entering the event loop and looping forever.
768
769Note that usually your program has some exit condition, in which case
770it is better to use the "traditional" approach of storing a condition
771variable somewhere, waiting for it, and sending it when the program should
772exit cleanly.
773
774
775=head1 OTHER MODULES
776
777The following is a non-exhaustive list of additional modules that use
778AnyEvent and can therefore be mixed easily with other AnyEvent modules
779in the same program. Some of the modules come with AnyEvent, some are
780available via CPAN.
781
782=over 4
783
784=item L<AnyEvent::Util>
785
786Contains various utility functions that replace often-used but blocking
787functions such as C<inet_aton> by event-/callback-based versions.
788
789=item L<AnyEvent::Socket>
790
791Provides various utility functions for (internet protocol) sockets,
792addresses and name resolution. Also functions to create non-blocking tcp
793connections or tcp servers, with IPv6 and SRV record support and more.
794
795=item L<AnyEvent::Handle>
796
797Provide read and write buffers, manages watchers for reads and writes,
798supports raw and formatted I/O, I/O queued and fully transparent and
799non-blocking SSL/TLS.
800
801=item L<AnyEvent::DNS>
802
803Provides rich asynchronous DNS resolver capabilities.
804
805=item L<AnyEvent::HTTP>
806
807A simple-to-use HTTP library that is capable of making a lot of concurrent
808HTTP requests.
809
810=item L<AnyEvent::HTTPD>
811
812Provides a simple web application server framework.
813
814=item L<AnyEvent::FastPing>
815
816The fastest ping in the west.
817
818=item L<AnyEvent::DBI>
819
820Executes L<DBI> requests asynchronously in a proxy process.
821
822=item L<AnyEvent::AIO>
823
824Truly asynchronous I/O, should be in the toolbox of every event
825programmer. AnyEvent::AIO transparently fuses L<IO::AIO> and AnyEvent
826together.
827
828=item L<AnyEvent::BDB>
829
830Truly asynchronous Berkeley DB access. AnyEvent::BDB transparently fuses
831L<BDB> and AnyEvent together.
832
833=item L<AnyEvent::GPSD>
834
835A non-blocking interface to gpsd, a daemon delivering GPS information.
836
837=item L<AnyEvent::IGS>
838
839A non-blocking interface to the Internet Go Server protocol (used by
840L<App::IGS>).
841
842=item L<AnyEvent::IRC>
843
844AnyEvent based IRC client module family (replacing the older Net::IRC3).
845
846=item L<Net::XMPP2>
847
848AnyEvent based XMPP (Jabber protocol) module family.
849
850=item L<Net::FCP>
851
852AnyEvent-based implementation of the Freenet Client Protocol, birthplace
853of AnyEvent.
854
855=item L<Event::ExecFlow>
856
857High level API for event-based execution flow control.
858
859=item L<Coro>
860
861Has special support for AnyEvent via L<Coro::AnyEvent>.
862
863=item L<IO::Lambda>
864
865The lambda approach to I/O - don't ask, look there. Can use AnyEvent.
866
867=back
243 868
244=cut 869=cut
245 870
246package AnyEvent; 871package AnyEvent;
247 872
248no warnings; 873no warnings;
249use strict; 874use strict qw(vars subs);
250 875
251use Carp; 876use Carp;
252 877
253our $VERSION = '2.54'; 878our $VERSION = 4.351;
254our $MODEL; 879our $MODEL;
255 880
256our $AUTOLOAD; 881our $AUTOLOAD;
257our @ISA; 882our @ISA;
258 883
884our @REGISTRY;
885
886our $WIN32;
887
888BEGIN {
889 my $win32 = ! ! ($^O =~ /mswin32/i);
890 eval "sub WIN32(){ $win32 }";
891}
892
259our $verbose = $ENV{PERL_ANYEVENT_VERBOSE}*1; 893our $verbose = $ENV{PERL_ANYEVENT_VERBOSE}*1;
260 894
261our @REGISTRY; 895our %PROTOCOL; # (ipv4|ipv6) => (1|2), higher numbers are preferred
896
897{
898 my $idx;
899 $PROTOCOL{$_} = ++$idx
900 for reverse split /\s*,\s*/,
901 $ENV{PERL_ANYEVENT_PROTOCOLS} || "ipv4,ipv6";
902}
262 903
263my @models = ( 904my @models = (
264 [Coro::Event:: => AnyEvent::Impl::Coro::], 905 [EV:: => AnyEvent::Impl::EV::],
265 [Event:: => AnyEvent::Impl::Event::], 906 [Event:: => AnyEvent::Impl::Event::],
266 [Glib:: => AnyEvent::Impl::Glib::],
267 [Tk:: => AnyEvent::Impl::Tk::],
268 [AnyEvent::Impl::Perl:: => AnyEvent::Impl::Perl::], 907 [AnyEvent::Impl::Perl:: => AnyEvent::Impl::Perl::],
908 # everything below here will not be autoprobed
909 # as the pureperl backend should work everywhere
910 # and is usually faster
911 [Tk:: => AnyEvent::Impl::Tk::], # crashes with many handles
912 [Glib:: => AnyEvent::Impl::Glib::], # becomes extremely slow with many watchers
913 [Event::Lib:: => AnyEvent::Impl::EventLib::], # too buggy
914 [Qt:: => AnyEvent::Impl::Qt::], # requires special main program
915 [POE::Kernel:: => AnyEvent::Impl::POE::], # lasciate ogni speranza
916 [Wx:: => AnyEvent::Impl::POE::],
917 [Prima:: => AnyEvent::Impl::POE::],
269); 918);
270 919
271our %method = map +($_ => 1), qw(io timer condvar broadcast wait signal one_event DESTROY); 920our %method = map +($_ => 1), qw(io timer time now signal child condvar one_event DESTROY);
921
922our @post_detect;
923
924sub post_detect(&) {
925 my ($cb) = @_;
926
927 if ($MODEL) {
928 $cb->();
929
930 1
931 } else {
932 push @post_detect, $cb;
933
934 defined wantarray
935 ? bless \$cb, "AnyEvent::Util::PostDetect"
936 : ()
937 }
938}
939
940sub AnyEvent::Util::PostDetect::DESTROY {
941 @post_detect = grep $_ != ${$_[0]}, @post_detect;
942}
272 943
273sub detect() { 944sub detect() {
274 unless ($MODEL) { 945 unless ($MODEL) {
275 no strict 'refs'; 946 no strict 'refs';
947 local $SIG{__DIE__};
948
949 if ($ENV{PERL_ANYEVENT_MODEL} =~ /^([a-zA-Z]+)$/) {
950 my $model = "AnyEvent::Impl::$1";
951 if (eval "require $model") {
952 $MODEL = $model;
953 warn "AnyEvent: loaded model '$model' (forced by \$PERL_ANYEVENT_MODEL), using it.\n" if $verbose > 1;
954 } else {
955 warn "AnyEvent: unable to load model '$model' (from \$PERL_ANYEVENT_MODEL):\n$@" if $verbose;
956 }
957 }
276 958
277 # check for already loaded models 959 # check for already loaded models
960 unless ($MODEL) {
278 for (@REGISTRY, @models) { 961 for (@REGISTRY, @models) {
279 my ($package, $model) = @$_; 962 my ($package, $model) = @$_;
280 if (${"$package\::VERSION"} > 0) { 963 if (${"$package\::VERSION"} > 0) {
281 if (eval "require $model") { 964 if (eval "require $model") {
282 $MODEL = $model; 965 $MODEL = $model;
283 warn "AnyEvent: found model '$model', using it.\n" if $verbose > 1; 966 warn "AnyEvent: autodetected model '$model', using it.\n" if $verbose > 1;
284 last; 967 last;
968 }
285 } 969 }
286 } 970 }
971
972 unless ($MODEL) {
973 # try to load a model
974
975 for (@REGISTRY, @models) {
976 my ($package, $model) = @$_;
977 if (eval "require $package"
978 and ${"$package\::VERSION"} > 0
979 and eval "require $model") {
980 $MODEL = $model;
981 warn "AnyEvent: autoprobed model '$model', using it.\n" if $verbose > 1;
982 last;
983 }
984 }
985
986 $MODEL
987 or die "No event module selected for AnyEvent and autodetect failed. Install any one of these modules: EV, Event or Glib.";
988 }
287 } 989 }
288 990
289 unless ($MODEL) { 991 push @{"$MODEL\::ISA"}, "AnyEvent::Base";
290 # try to load a model
291
292 for (@REGISTRY, @models) {
293 my ($package, $model) = @$_;
294 if (eval "require $package"
295 and ${"$package\::VERSION"} > 0
296 and eval "require $model") {
297 $MODEL = $model;
298 warn "AnyEvent: autoprobed and loaded model '$model', using it.\n" if $verbose > 1;
299 last;
300 }
301 }
302
303 $MODEL
304 or die "No event module selected for AnyEvent and autodetect failed. Install any one of these modules: Event (or Coro+Event), Glib or Tk.";
305 }
306 992
307 unshift @ISA, $MODEL; 993 unshift @ISA, $MODEL;
308 push @{"$MODEL\::ISA"}, "AnyEvent::Base"; 994
995 require AnyEvent::Strict if $ENV{PERL_ANYEVENT_STRICT};
996
997 (shift @post_detect)->() while @post_detect;
309 } 998 }
310 999
311 $MODEL 1000 $MODEL
312} 1001}
313 1002
321 1010
322 my $class = shift; 1011 my $class = shift;
323 $class->$func (@_); 1012 $class->$func (@_);
324} 1013}
325 1014
1015# utility function to dup a filehandle. this is used by many backends
1016# to support binding more than one watcher per filehandle (they usually
1017# allow only one watcher per fd, so we dup it to get a different one).
1018sub _dupfh($$$$) {
1019 my ($poll, $fh, $r, $w) = @_;
1020
1021 # cygwin requires the fh mode to be matching, unix doesn't
1022 my ($rw, $mode) = $poll eq "r" ? ($r, "<")
1023 : $poll eq "w" ? ($w, ">")
1024 : Carp::croak "AnyEvent->io requires poll set to either 'r' or 'w'";
1025
1026 open my $fh2, "$mode&" . fileno $fh
1027 or die "cannot dup() filehandle: $!";
1028
1029 # we assume CLOEXEC is already set by perl in all important cases
1030
1031 ($fh2, $rw)
1032}
1033
326package AnyEvent::Base; 1034package AnyEvent::Base;
327 1035
1036# default implementation for now and time
1037
1038BEGIN {
1039 if (eval "use Time::HiRes (); time (); 1") {
1040 *_time = \&Time::HiRes::time;
1041 # if (eval "use POSIX (); (POSIX::times())...
1042 } else {
1043 *_time = sub { time }; # epic fail
1044 }
1045}
1046
1047sub time { _time }
1048sub now { _time }
1049
328# default implementation for ->condvar, ->wait, ->broadcast 1050# default implementation for ->condvar
329 1051
330sub condvar { 1052sub condvar {
331 bless \my $flag, "AnyEvent::Base::CondVar" 1053 bless { @_ == 3 ? (_ae_cb => $_[2]) : () }, AnyEvent::CondVar::
332}
333
334sub AnyEvent::Base::CondVar::broadcast {
335 ${$_[0]}++;
336}
337
338sub AnyEvent::Base::CondVar::wait {
339 AnyEvent->one_event while !${$_[0]};
340} 1054}
341 1055
342# default implementation for ->signal 1056# default implementation for ->signal
343 1057
344our %SIG_CB; 1058our ($SIGPIPE_R, $SIGPIPE_W, %SIG_CB, %SIG_EV, $SIG_IO);
1059
1060sub _signal_exec {
1061 sysread $SIGPIPE_R, my $dummy, 4;
1062
1063 while (%SIG_EV) {
1064 for (keys %SIG_EV) {
1065 delete $SIG_EV{$_};
1066 $_->() for values %{ $SIG_CB{$_} || {} };
1067 }
1068 }
1069}
345 1070
346sub signal { 1071sub signal {
347 my (undef, %arg) = @_; 1072 my (undef, %arg) = @_;
348 1073
1074 unless ($SIGPIPE_R) {
1075 require Fcntl;
1076
1077 if (AnyEvent::WIN32) {
1078 require AnyEvent::Util;
1079
1080 ($SIGPIPE_R, $SIGPIPE_W) = AnyEvent::Util::portable_pipe ();
1081 AnyEvent::Util::fh_nonblocking ($SIGPIPE_R) if $SIGPIPE_R;
1082 AnyEvent::Util::fh_nonblocking ($SIGPIPE_W) if $SIGPIPE_W; # just in case
1083 } else {
1084 pipe $SIGPIPE_R, $SIGPIPE_W;
1085 fcntl $SIGPIPE_R, &Fcntl::F_SETFL, &Fcntl::O_NONBLOCK if $SIGPIPE_R;
1086 fcntl $SIGPIPE_W, &Fcntl::F_SETFL, &Fcntl::O_NONBLOCK if $SIGPIPE_W; # just in case
1087 }
1088
1089 $SIGPIPE_R
1090 or Carp::croak "AnyEvent: unable to create a signal reporting pipe: $!\n";
1091
1092 # not strictly required, as $^F is normally 2, but let's make sure...
1093 fcntl $SIGPIPE_R, &Fcntl::F_SETFD, &Fcntl::FD_CLOEXEC;
1094 fcntl $SIGPIPE_W, &Fcntl::F_SETFD, &Fcntl::FD_CLOEXEC;
1095
1096 $SIG_IO = AnyEvent->io (fh => $SIGPIPE_R, poll => "r", cb => \&_signal_exec);
1097 }
1098
349 my $signal = uc $arg{signal} 1099 my $signal = uc $arg{signal}
350 or Carp::croak "required option 'signal' is missing"; 1100 or Carp::croak "required option 'signal' is missing";
351 1101
352 $SIG_CB{$signal}{$arg{cb}} = $arg{cb}; 1102 $SIG_CB{$signal}{$arg{cb}} = $arg{cb};
353 $SIG{$signal} ||= sub { 1103 $SIG{$signal} ||= sub {
354 $_->() for values %{ $SIG_CB{$signal} || {} }; 1104 local $!;
1105 syswrite $SIGPIPE_W, "\x00", 1 unless %SIG_EV;
1106 undef $SIG_EV{$signal};
355 }; 1107 };
356 1108
357 bless [$signal, $arg{cb}], "AnyEvent::Base::Signal" 1109 bless [$signal, $arg{cb}], "AnyEvent::Base::Signal"
358} 1110}
359 1111
360sub AnyEvent::Base::Signal::DESTROY { 1112sub AnyEvent::Base::Signal::DESTROY {
361 my ($signal, $cb) = @{$_[0]}; 1113 my ($signal, $cb) = @{$_[0]};
362 1114
363 delete $SIG_CB{$signal}{$cb}; 1115 delete $SIG_CB{$signal}{$cb};
364 1116
365 $SIG{$signal} = 'DEFAULT' unless keys %{ $SIG_CB{$signal} }; 1117 delete $SIG{$signal} unless keys %{ $SIG_CB{$signal} };
366} 1118}
367 1119
368# default implementation for ->child 1120# default implementation for ->child
369 1121
370our %PID_CB; 1122our %PID_CB;
371our $CHLD_W; 1123our $CHLD_W;
1124our $CHLD_DELAY_W;
372our $PID_IDLE; 1125our $PID_IDLE;
373our $WNOHANG; 1126our $WNOHANG;
374 1127
375sub _child_wait { 1128sub _child_wait {
376 while (0 < (my $pid = waitpid -1, $WNOHANG)) { 1129 while (0 < (my $pid = waitpid -1, $WNOHANG)) {
377 $_->() for values %{ (delete $PID_CB{$pid}) || {} }; 1130 $_->($pid, $?) for (values %{ $PID_CB{$pid} || {} }),
1131 (values %{ $PID_CB{0} || {} });
378 } 1132 }
379 1133
380 undef $PID_IDLE; 1134 undef $PID_IDLE;
1135}
1136
1137sub _sigchld {
1138 # make sure we deliver these changes "synchronous" with the event loop.
1139 $CHLD_DELAY_W ||= AnyEvent->timer (after => 0, cb => sub {
1140 undef $CHLD_DELAY_W;
1141 &_child_wait;
1142 });
381} 1143}
382 1144
383sub child { 1145sub child {
384 my (undef, %arg) = @_; 1146 my (undef, %arg) = @_;
385 1147
386 my $pid = uc $arg{pid} 1148 defined (my $pid = $arg{pid} + 0)
387 or Carp::croak "required option 'pid' is missing"; 1149 or Carp::croak "required option 'pid' is missing";
388 1150
389 $PID_CB{$pid}{$arg{cb}} = $arg{cb}; 1151 $PID_CB{$pid}{$arg{cb}} = $arg{cb};
390 1152
391 unless ($WNOHANG) { 1153 unless ($WNOHANG) {
392 $WNOHANG = eval { require POSIX; &POSIX::WNOHANG } || 1; 1154 $WNOHANG = eval { local $SIG{__DIE__}; require POSIX; &POSIX::WNOHANG } || 1;
393 } 1155 }
394 1156
395 unless ($CHLD_W) { 1157 unless ($CHLD_W) {
396 $CHLD_W = AnyEvent->signal (signal => 'CHLD', cb => \&_child_wait); 1158 $CHLD_W = AnyEvent->signal (signal => 'CHLD', cb => \&_sigchld);
397 # child could be a zombie already 1159 # child could be a zombie already, so make at least one round
398 $PID_IDLE ||= AnyEvent->timer (after => 0, cb => \&_child_wait); 1160 &_sigchld;
399 } 1161 }
400 1162
401 bless [$pid, $arg{cb}], "AnyEvent::Base::Child" 1163 bless [$pid, $arg{cb}], "AnyEvent::Base::Child"
402} 1164}
403 1165
408 delete $PID_CB{$pid} unless keys %{ $PID_CB{$pid} }; 1170 delete $PID_CB{$pid} unless keys %{ $PID_CB{$pid} };
409 1171
410 undef $CHLD_W unless keys %PID_CB; 1172 undef $CHLD_W unless keys %PID_CB;
411} 1173}
412 1174
1175package AnyEvent::CondVar;
1176
1177our @ISA = AnyEvent::CondVar::Base::;
1178
1179package AnyEvent::CondVar::Base;
1180
1181use overload
1182 '&{}' => sub { my $self = shift; sub { $self->send (@_) } },
1183 fallback => 1;
1184
1185sub _send {
1186 # nop
1187}
1188
1189sub send {
1190 my $cv = shift;
1191 $cv->{_ae_sent} = [@_];
1192 (delete $cv->{_ae_cb})->($cv) if $cv->{_ae_cb};
1193 $cv->_send;
1194}
1195
1196sub croak {
1197 $_[0]{_ae_croak} = $_[1];
1198 $_[0]->send;
1199}
1200
1201sub ready {
1202 $_[0]{_ae_sent}
1203}
1204
1205sub _wait {
1206 AnyEvent->one_event while !$_[0]{_ae_sent};
1207}
1208
1209sub recv {
1210 $_[0]->_wait;
1211
1212 Carp::croak $_[0]{_ae_croak} if $_[0]{_ae_croak};
1213 wantarray ? @{ $_[0]{_ae_sent} } : $_[0]{_ae_sent}[0]
1214}
1215
1216sub cb {
1217 $_[0]{_ae_cb} = $_[1] if @_ > 1;
1218 $_[0]{_ae_cb}
1219}
1220
1221sub begin {
1222 ++$_[0]{_ae_counter};
1223 $_[0]{_ae_end_cb} = $_[1] if @_ > 1;
1224}
1225
1226sub end {
1227 return if --$_[0]{_ae_counter};
1228 &{ $_[0]{_ae_end_cb} || sub { $_[0]->send } };
1229}
1230
1231# undocumented/compatibility with pre-3.4
1232*broadcast = \&send;
1233*wait = \&_wait;
1234
1235=head1 ERROR AND EXCEPTION HANDLING
1236
1237In general, AnyEvent does not do any error handling - it relies on the
1238caller to do that if required. The L<AnyEvent::Strict> module (see also
1239the C<PERL_ANYEVENT_STRICT> environment variable, below) provides strict
1240checking of all AnyEvent methods, however, which is highly useful during
1241development.
1242
1243As for exception handling (i.e. runtime errors and exceptions thrown while
1244executing a callback), this is not only highly event-loop specific, but
1245also not in any way wrapped by this module, as this is the job of the main
1246program.
1247
1248The pure perl event loop simply re-throws the exception (usually
1249within C<< condvar->recv >>), the L<Event> and L<EV> modules call C<<
1250$Event/EV::DIED->() >>, L<Glib> uses C<< install_exception_handler >> and
1251so on.
1252
1253=head1 ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES
1254
1255The following environment variables are used by this module or its
1256submodules:
1257
1258=over 4
1259
1260=item C<PERL_ANYEVENT_VERBOSE>
1261
1262By default, AnyEvent will be completely silent except in fatal
1263conditions. You can set this environment variable to make AnyEvent more
1264talkative.
1265
1266When set to C<1> or higher, causes AnyEvent to warn about unexpected
1267conditions, such as not being able to load the event model specified by
1268C<PERL_ANYEVENT_MODEL>.
1269
1270When set to C<2> or higher, cause AnyEvent to report to STDERR which event
1271model it chooses.
1272
1273=item C<PERL_ANYEVENT_STRICT>
1274
1275AnyEvent does not do much argument checking by default, as thorough
1276argument checking is very costly. Setting this variable to a true value
1277will cause AnyEvent to load C<AnyEvent::Strict> and then to thoroughly
1278check the arguments passed to most method calls. If it finds any problems
1279it will croak.
1280
1281In other words, enables "strict" mode.
1282
1283Unlike C<use strict>, it is definitely recommended ot keep it off in
1284production. Keeping C<PERL_ANYEVENT_STRICT=1> in your environment while
1285developing programs can be very useful, however.
1286
1287=item C<PERL_ANYEVENT_MODEL>
1288
1289This can be used to specify the event model to be used by AnyEvent, before
1290auto detection and -probing kicks in. It must be a string consisting
1291entirely of ASCII letters. The string C<AnyEvent::Impl::> gets prepended
1292and the resulting module name is loaded and if the load was successful,
1293used as event model. If it fails to load AnyEvent will proceed with
1294auto detection and -probing.
1295
1296This functionality might change in future versions.
1297
1298For example, to force the pure perl model (L<AnyEvent::Impl::Perl>) you
1299could start your program like this:
1300
1301 PERL_ANYEVENT_MODEL=Perl perl ...
1302
1303=item C<PERL_ANYEVENT_PROTOCOLS>
1304
1305Used by both L<AnyEvent::DNS> and L<AnyEvent::Socket> to determine preferences
1306for IPv4 or IPv6. The default is unspecified (and might change, or be the result
1307of auto probing).
1308
1309Must be set to a comma-separated list of protocols or address families,
1310current supported: C<ipv4> and C<ipv6>. Only protocols mentioned will be
1311used, and preference will be given to protocols mentioned earlier in the
1312list.
1313
1314This variable can effectively be used for denial-of-service attacks
1315against local programs (e.g. when setuid), although the impact is likely
1316small, as the program has to handle conenction and other failures anyways.
1317
1318Examples: C<PERL_ANYEVENT_PROTOCOLS=ipv4,ipv6> - prefer IPv4 over IPv6,
1319but support both and try to use both. C<PERL_ANYEVENT_PROTOCOLS=ipv4>
1320- only support IPv4, never try to resolve or contact IPv6
1321addresses. C<PERL_ANYEVENT_PROTOCOLS=ipv6,ipv4> support either IPv4 or
1322IPv6, but prefer IPv6 over IPv4.
1323
1324=item C<PERL_ANYEVENT_EDNS0>
1325
1326Used by L<AnyEvent::DNS> to decide whether to use the EDNS0 extension
1327for DNS. This extension is generally useful to reduce DNS traffic, but
1328some (broken) firewalls drop such DNS packets, which is why it is off by
1329default.
1330
1331Setting this variable to C<1> will cause L<AnyEvent::DNS> to announce
1332EDNS0 in its DNS requests.
1333
1334=item C<PERL_ANYEVENT_MAX_FORKS>
1335
1336The maximum number of child processes that C<AnyEvent::Util::fork_call>
1337will create in parallel.
1338
1339=back
1340
413=head1 SUPPLYING YOUR OWN EVENT MODEL INTERFACE 1341=head1 SUPPLYING YOUR OWN EVENT MODEL INTERFACE
1342
1343This is an advanced topic that you do not normally need to use AnyEvent in
1344a module. This section is only of use to event loop authors who want to
1345provide AnyEvent compatibility.
414 1346
415If you need to support another event library which isn't directly 1347If you need to support another event library which isn't directly
416supported by AnyEvent, you can supply your own interface to it by 1348supported by AnyEvent, you can supply your own interface to it by
417pushing, before the first watcher gets created, the package name of 1349pushing, before the first watcher gets created, the package name of
418the event module and the package name of the interface to use onto 1350the event module and the package name of the interface to use onto
419C<@AnyEvent::REGISTRY>. You can do that before and even without loading 1351C<@AnyEvent::REGISTRY>. You can do that before and even without loading
420AnyEvent. 1352AnyEvent, so it is reasonably cheap.
421 1353
422Example: 1354Example:
423 1355
424 push @AnyEvent::REGISTRY, [urxvt => urxvt::anyevent::]; 1356 push @AnyEvent::REGISTRY, [urxvt => urxvt::anyevent::];
425 1357
426This tells AnyEvent to (literally) use the C<urxvt::anyevent::> 1358This tells AnyEvent to (literally) use the C<urxvt::anyevent::>
427package/class when it finds the C<urxvt> package/module is loaded. When 1359package/class when it finds the C<urxvt> package/module is already loaded.
1360
428AnyEvent is loaded and asked to find a suitable event model, it will 1361When AnyEvent is loaded and asked to find a suitable event model, it
429first check for the presence of urxvt. 1362will first check for the presence of urxvt by trying to C<use> the
1363C<urxvt::anyevent> module.
430 1364
431The class should provide implementations for all watcher types (see 1365The class should provide implementations for all watcher types. See
432L<AnyEvent::Impl::Event> (source code), L<AnyEvent::Impl::Glib> 1366L<AnyEvent::Impl::EV> (source code), L<AnyEvent::Impl::Glib> (Source code)
433(Source code) and so on for actual examples, use C<perldoc -m 1367and so on for actual examples. Use C<perldoc -m AnyEvent::Impl::Glib> to
434AnyEvent::Impl::Glib> to see the sources). 1368see the sources.
435 1369
1370If you don't provide C<signal> and C<child> watchers than AnyEvent will
1371provide suitable (hopefully) replacements.
1372
436The above isn't fictitious, the I<rxvt-unicode> (a.k.a. urxvt) 1373The above example isn't fictitious, the I<rxvt-unicode> (a.k.a. urxvt)
437uses the above line as-is. An interface isn't included in AnyEvent 1374terminal emulator uses the above line as-is. An interface isn't included
438because it doesn't make sense outside the embedded interpreter inside 1375in AnyEvent because it doesn't make sense outside the embedded interpreter
439I<rxvt-unicode>, and it is updated and maintained as part of the 1376inside I<rxvt-unicode>, and it is updated and maintained as part of the
440I<rxvt-unicode> distribution. 1377I<rxvt-unicode> distribution.
441 1378
442I<rxvt-unicode> also cheats a bit by not providing blocking access to 1379I<rxvt-unicode> also cheats a bit by not providing blocking access to
443condition variables: code blocking while waiting for a condition will 1380condition variables: code blocking while waiting for a condition will
444C<die>. This still works with most modules/usages, and blocking calls must 1381C<die>. This still works with most modules/usages, and blocking calls must
445not be in an interactive application, so it makes sense. 1382not be done in an interactive application, so it makes sense.
446 1383
447=head1 ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES
448
449The following environment variables are used by this module:
450
451C<PERL_ANYEVENT_VERBOSE> when set to C<2> or higher, reports which event
452model gets used.
453
454=head1 EXAMPLE 1384=head1 EXAMPLE PROGRAM
455 1385
456The following program uses an io watcher to read data from stdin, a timer 1386The following program uses an I/O watcher to read data from STDIN, a timer
457to display a message once per second, and a condvar to exit the program 1387to display a message once per second, and a condition variable to quit the
458when the user enters quit: 1388program when the user enters quit:
459 1389
460 use AnyEvent; 1390 use AnyEvent;
461 1391
462 my $cv = AnyEvent->condvar; 1392 my $cv = AnyEvent->condvar;
463 1393
464 my $io_watcher = AnyEvent->io (fh => \*STDIN, poll => 'r', cb => sub { 1394 my $io_watcher = AnyEvent->io (
1395 fh => \*STDIN,
1396 poll => 'r',
1397 cb => sub {
465 warn "io event <$_[0]>\n"; # will always output <r> 1398 warn "io event <$_[0]>\n"; # will always output <r>
466 chomp (my $input = <STDIN>); # read a line 1399 chomp (my $input = <STDIN>); # read a line
467 warn "read: $input\n"; # output what has been read 1400 warn "read: $input\n"; # output what has been read
468 $cv->broadcast if $input =~ /^q/i; # quit program if /^q/i 1401 $cv->send if $input =~ /^q/i; # quit program if /^q/i
1402 },
469 }); 1403 );
470 1404
471 my $time_watcher; # can only be used once 1405 my $time_watcher; # can only be used once
472 1406
473 sub new_timer { 1407 sub new_timer {
474 $timer = AnyEvent->timer (after => 1, cb => sub { 1408 $timer = AnyEvent->timer (after => 1, cb => sub {
477 }); 1411 });
478 } 1412 }
479 1413
480 new_timer; # create first timer 1414 new_timer; # create first timer
481 1415
482 $cv->wait; # wait until user enters /^q/i 1416 $cv->recv; # wait until user enters /^q/i
483 1417
484=head1 REAL-WORLD EXAMPLE 1418=head1 REAL-WORLD EXAMPLE
485 1419
486Consider the L<Net::FCP> module. It features (among others) the following 1420Consider the L<Net::FCP> module. It features (among others) the following
487API calls, which are to freenet what HTTP GET requests are to http: 1421API calls, which are to freenet what HTTP GET requests are to http:
537 syswrite $txn->{fh}, $txn->{request} 1471 syswrite $txn->{fh}, $txn->{request}
538 or die "connection or write error"; 1472 or die "connection or write error";
539 $txn->{w} = AnyEvent->io (fh => $txn->{fh}, poll => 'r', cb => sub { $txn->fh_ready_r }); 1473 $txn->{w} = AnyEvent->io (fh => $txn->{fh}, poll => 'r', cb => sub { $txn->fh_ready_r });
540 1474
541Again, C<fh_ready_r> waits till all data has arrived, and then stores the 1475Again, C<fh_ready_r> waits till all data has arrived, and then stores the
542result and signals any possible waiters that the request ahs finished: 1476result and signals any possible waiters that the request has finished:
543 1477
544 sysread $txn->{fh}, $txn->{buf}, length $txn->{$buf}; 1478 sysread $txn->{fh}, $txn->{buf}, length $txn->{$buf};
545 1479
546 if (end-of-file or data complete) { 1480 if (end-of-file or data complete) {
547 $txn->{result} = $txn->{buf}; 1481 $txn->{result} = $txn->{buf};
548 $txn->{finished}->broadcast; 1482 $txn->{finished}->send;
549 $txb->{cb}->($txn) of $txn->{cb}; # also call callback 1483 $txb->{cb}->($txn) of $txn->{cb}; # also call callback
550 } 1484 }
551 1485
552The C<result> method, finally, just waits for the finished signal (if the 1486The C<result> method, finally, just waits for the finished signal (if the
553request was already finished, it doesn't wait, of course, and returns the 1487request was already finished, it doesn't wait, of course, and returns the
554data: 1488data:
555 1489
556 $txn->{finished}->wait; 1490 $txn->{finished}->recv;
557 return $txn->{result}; 1491 return $txn->{result};
558 1492
559The actual code goes further and collects all errors (C<die>s, exceptions) 1493The actual code goes further and collects all errors (C<die>s, exceptions)
560that occured during request processing. The C<result> method detects 1494that occurred during request processing. The C<result> method detects
561wether an exception as thrown (it is stored inside the $txn object) 1495whether an exception as thrown (it is stored inside the $txn object)
562and just throws the exception, which means connection errors and other 1496and just throws the exception, which means connection errors and other
563problems get reported tot he code that tries to use the result, not in a 1497problems get reported tot he code that tries to use the result, not in a
564random callback. 1498random callback.
565 1499
566All of this enables the following usage styles: 1500All of this enables the following usage styles:
567 1501
5681. Blocking: 15021. Blocking:
569 1503
570 my $data = $fcp->client_get ($url); 1504 my $data = $fcp->client_get ($url);
571 1505
5722. Blocking, but parallelizing: 15062. Blocking, but running in parallel:
573 1507
574 my @datas = map $_->result, 1508 my @datas = map $_->result,
575 map $fcp->txn_client_get ($_), 1509 map $fcp->txn_client_get ($_),
576 @urls; 1510 @urls;
577 1511
578Both blocking examples work without the module user having to know 1512Both blocking examples work without the module user having to know
579anything about events. 1513anything about events.
580 1514
5813a. Event-based in a main program, using any support Event module: 15153a. Event-based in a main program, using any supported event module:
582 1516
583 use Event; 1517 use EV;
584 1518
585 $fcp->txn_client_get ($url)->cb (sub { 1519 $fcp->txn_client_get ($url)->cb (sub {
586 my $txn = shift; 1520 my $txn = shift;
587 my $data = $txn->result; 1521 my $data = $txn->result;
588 ... 1522 ...
589 }); 1523 });
590 1524
591 Event::loop; 1525 EV::loop;
592 1526
5933b. The module user could use AnyEvent, too: 15273b. The module user could use AnyEvent, too:
594 1528
595 use AnyEvent; 1529 use AnyEvent;
596 1530
597 my $quit = AnyEvent->condvar; 1531 my $quit = AnyEvent->condvar;
598 1532
599 $fcp->txn_client_get ($url)->cb (sub { 1533 $fcp->txn_client_get ($url)->cb (sub {
600 ... 1534 ...
601 $quit->broadcast; 1535 $quit->send;
602 }); 1536 });
603 1537
604 $quit->wait; 1538 $quit->recv;
1539
1540
1541=head1 BENCHMARKS
1542
1543To give you an idea of the performance and overheads that AnyEvent adds
1544over the event loops themselves and to give you an impression of the speed
1545of various event loops I prepared some benchmarks.
1546
1547=head2 BENCHMARKING ANYEVENT OVERHEAD
1548
1549Here is a benchmark of various supported event models used natively and
1550through AnyEvent. The benchmark creates a lot of timers (with a zero
1551timeout) and I/O watchers (watching STDOUT, a pty, to become writable,
1552which it is), lets them fire exactly once and destroys them again.
1553
1554Source code for this benchmark is found as F<eg/bench> in the AnyEvent
1555distribution.
1556
1557=head3 Explanation of the columns
1558
1559I<watcher> is the number of event watchers created/destroyed. Since
1560different event models feature vastly different performances, each event
1561loop was given a number of watchers so that overall runtime is acceptable
1562and similar between tested event loop (and keep them from crashing): Glib
1563would probably take thousands of years if asked to process the same number
1564of watchers as EV in this benchmark.
1565
1566I<bytes> is the number of bytes (as measured by the resident set size,
1567RSS) consumed by each watcher. This method of measuring captures both C
1568and Perl-based overheads.
1569
1570I<create> is the time, in microseconds (millionths of seconds), that it
1571takes to create a single watcher. The callback is a closure shared between
1572all watchers, to avoid adding memory overhead. That means closure creation
1573and memory usage is not included in the figures.
1574
1575I<invoke> is the time, in microseconds, used to invoke a simple
1576callback. The callback simply counts down a Perl variable and after it was
1577invoked "watcher" times, it would C<< ->send >> a condvar once to
1578signal the end of this phase.
1579
1580I<destroy> is the time, in microseconds, that it takes to destroy a single
1581watcher.
1582
1583=head3 Results
1584
1585 name watchers bytes create invoke destroy comment
1586 EV/EV 400000 224 0.47 0.35 0.27 EV native interface
1587 EV/Any 100000 224 2.88 0.34 0.27 EV + AnyEvent watchers
1588 CoroEV/Any 100000 224 2.85 0.35 0.28 coroutines + Coro::Signal
1589 Perl/Any 100000 452 4.13 0.73 0.95 pure perl implementation
1590 Event/Event 16000 517 32.20 31.80 0.81 Event native interface
1591 Event/Any 16000 590 35.85 31.55 1.06 Event + AnyEvent watchers
1592 Glib/Any 16000 1357 102.33 12.31 51.00 quadratic behaviour
1593 Tk/Any 2000 1860 27.20 66.31 14.00 SEGV with >> 2000 watchers
1594 POE/Event 2000 6328 109.99 751.67 14.02 via POE::Loop::Event
1595 POE/Select 2000 6027 94.54 809.13 579.80 via POE::Loop::Select
1596
1597=head3 Discussion
1598
1599The benchmark does I<not> measure scalability of the event loop very
1600well. For example, a select-based event loop (such as the pure perl one)
1601can never compete with an event loop that uses epoll when the number of
1602file descriptors grows high. In this benchmark, all events become ready at
1603the same time, so select/poll-based implementations get an unnatural speed
1604boost.
1605
1606Also, note that the number of watchers usually has a nonlinear effect on
1607overall speed, that is, creating twice as many watchers doesn't take twice
1608the time - usually it takes longer. This puts event loops tested with a
1609higher number of watchers at a disadvantage.
1610
1611To put the range of results into perspective, consider that on the
1612benchmark machine, handling an event takes roughly 1600 CPU cycles with
1613EV, 3100 CPU cycles with AnyEvent's pure perl loop and almost 3000000 CPU
1614cycles with POE.
1615
1616C<EV> is the sole leader regarding speed and memory use, which are both
1617maximal/minimal, respectively. Even when going through AnyEvent, it uses
1618far less memory than any other event loop and is still faster than Event
1619natively.
1620
1621The pure perl implementation is hit in a few sweet spots (both the
1622constant timeout and the use of a single fd hit optimisations in the perl
1623interpreter and the backend itself). Nevertheless this shows that it
1624adds very little overhead in itself. Like any select-based backend its
1625performance becomes really bad with lots of file descriptors (and few of
1626them active), of course, but this was not subject of this benchmark.
1627
1628The C<Event> module has a relatively high setup and callback invocation
1629cost, but overall scores in on the third place.
1630
1631C<Glib>'s memory usage is quite a bit higher, but it features a
1632faster callback invocation and overall ends up in the same class as
1633C<Event>. However, Glib scales extremely badly, doubling the number of
1634watchers increases the processing time by more than a factor of four,
1635making it completely unusable when using larger numbers of watchers
1636(note that only a single file descriptor was used in the benchmark, so
1637inefficiencies of C<poll> do not account for this).
1638
1639The C<Tk> adaptor works relatively well. The fact that it crashes with
1640more than 2000 watchers is a big setback, however, as correctness takes
1641precedence over speed. Nevertheless, its performance is surprising, as the
1642file descriptor is dup()ed for each watcher. This shows that the dup()
1643employed by some adaptors is not a big performance issue (it does incur a
1644hidden memory cost inside the kernel which is not reflected in the figures
1645above).
1646
1647C<POE>, regardless of underlying event loop (whether using its pure perl
1648select-based backend or the Event module, the POE-EV backend couldn't
1649be tested because it wasn't working) shows abysmal performance and
1650memory usage with AnyEvent: Watchers use almost 30 times as much memory
1651as EV watchers, and 10 times as much memory as Event (the high memory
1652requirements are caused by requiring a session for each watcher). Watcher
1653invocation speed is almost 900 times slower than with AnyEvent's pure perl
1654implementation.
1655
1656The design of the POE adaptor class in AnyEvent can not really account
1657for the performance issues, though, as session creation overhead is
1658small compared to execution of the state machine, which is coded pretty
1659optimally within L<AnyEvent::Impl::POE> (and while everybody agrees that
1660using multiple sessions is not a good approach, especially regarding
1661memory usage, even the author of POE could not come up with a faster
1662design).
1663
1664=head3 Summary
1665
1666=over 4
1667
1668=item * Using EV through AnyEvent is faster than any other event loop
1669(even when used without AnyEvent), but most event loops have acceptable
1670performance with or without AnyEvent.
1671
1672=item * The overhead AnyEvent adds is usually much smaller than the overhead of
1673the actual event loop, only with extremely fast event loops such as EV
1674adds AnyEvent significant overhead.
1675
1676=item * You should avoid POE like the plague if you want performance or
1677reasonable memory usage.
1678
1679=back
1680
1681=head2 BENCHMARKING THE LARGE SERVER CASE
1682
1683This benchmark actually benchmarks the event loop itself. It works by
1684creating a number of "servers": each server consists of a socket pair, a
1685timeout watcher that gets reset on activity (but never fires), and an I/O
1686watcher waiting for input on one side of the socket. Each time the socket
1687watcher reads a byte it will write that byte to a random other "server".
1688
1689The effect is that there will be a lot of I/O watchers, only part of which
1690are active at any one point (so there is a constant number of active
1691fds for each loop iteration, but which fds these are is random). The
1692timeout is reset each time something is read because that reflects how
1693most timeouts work (and puts extra pressure on the event loops).
1694
1695In this benchmark, we use 10000 socket pairs (20000 sockets), of which 100
1696(1%) are active. This mirrors the activity of large servers with many
1697connections, most of which are idle at any one point in time.
1698
1699Source code for this benchmark is found as F<eg/bench2> in the AnyEvent
1700distribution.
1701
1702=head3 Explanation of the columns
1703
1704I<sockets> is the number of sockets, and twice the number of "servers" (as
1705each server has a read and write socket end).
1706
1707I<create> is the time it takes to create a socket pair (which is
1708nontrivial) and two watchers: an I/O watcher and a timeout watcher.
1709
1710I<request>, the most important value, is the time it takes to handle a
1711single "request", that is, reading the token from the pipe and forwarding
1712it to another server. This includes deleting the old timeout and creating
1713a new one that moves the timeout into the future.
1714
1715=head3 Results
1716
1717 name sockets create request
1718 EV 20000 69.01 11.16
1719 Perl 20000 73.32 35.87
1720 Event 20000 212.62 257.32
1721 Glib 20000 651.16 1896.30
1722 POE 20000 349.67 12317.24 uses POE::Loop::Event
1723
1724=head3 Discussion
1725
1726This benchmark I<does> measure scalability and overall performance of the
1727particular event loop.
1728
1729EV is again fastest. Since it is using epoll on my system, the setup time
1730is relatively high, though.
1731
1732Perl surprisingly comes second. It is much faster than the C-based event
1733loops Event and Glib.
1734
1735Event suffers from high setup time as well (look at its code and you will
1736understand why). Callback invocation also has a high overhead compared to
1737the C<< $_->() for .. >>-style loop that the Perl event loop uses. Event
1738uses select or poll in basically all documented configurations.
1739
1740Glib is hit hard by its quadratic behaviour w.r.t. many watchers. It
1741clearly fails to perform with many filehandles or in busy servers.
1742
1743POE is still completely out of the picture, taking over 1000 times as long
1744as EV, and over 100 times as long as the Perl implementation, even though
1745it uses a C-based event loop in this case.
1746
1747=head3 Summary
1748
1749=over 4
1750
1751=item * The pure perl implementation performs extremely well.
1752
1753=item * Avoid Glib or POE in large projects where performance matters.
1754
1755=back
1756
1757=head2 BENCHMARKING SMALL SERVERS
1758
1759While event loops should scale (and select-based ones do not...) even to
1760large servers, most programs we (or I :) actually write have only a few
1761I/O watchers.
1762
1763In this benchmark, I use the same benchmark program as in the large server
1764case, but it uses only eight "servers", of which three are active at any
1765one time. This should reflect performance for a small server relatively
1766well.
1767
1768The columns are identical to the previous table.
1769
1770=head3 Results
1771
1772 name sockets create request
1773 EV 16 20.00 6.54
1774 Perl 16 25.75 12.62
1775 Event 16 81.27 35.86
1776 Glib 16 32.63 15.48
1777 POE 16 261.87 276.28 uses POE::Loop::Event
1778
1779=head3 Discussion
1780
1781The benchmark tries to test the performance of a typical small
1782server. While knowing how various event loops perform is interesting, keep
1783in mind that their overhead in this case is usually not as important, due
1784to the small absolute number of watchers (that is, you need efficiency and
1785speed most when you have lots of watchers, not when you only have a few of
1786them).
1787
1788EV is again fastest.
1789
1790Perl again comes second. It is noticeably faster than the C-based event
1791loops Event and Glib, although the difference is too small to really
1792matter.
1793
1794POE also performs much better in this case, but is is still far behind the
1795others.
1796
1797=head3 Summary
1798
1799=over 4
1800
1801=item * C-based event loops perform very well with small number of
1802watchers, as the management overhead dominates.
1803
1804=back
1805
1806
1807=head1 SIGNALS
1808
1809AnyEvent currently installs handlers for these signals:
1810
1811=over 4
1812
1813=item SIGCHLD
1814
1815A handler for C<SIGCHLD> is installed by AnyEvent's child watcher
1816emulation for event loops that do not support them natively. Also, some
1817event loops install a similar handler.
1818
1819=item SIGPIPE
1820
1821A no-op handler is installed for C<SIGPIPE> when C<$SIG{PIPE}> is C<undef>
1822when AnyEvent gets loaded.
1823
1824The rationale for this is that AnyEvent users usually do not really depend
1825on SIGPIPE delivery (which is purely an optimisation for shell use, or
1826badly-written programs), but C<SIGPIPE> can cause spurious and rare
1827program exits as a lot of people do not expect C<SIGPIPE> when writing to
1828some random socket.
1829
1830The rationale for installing a no-op handler as opposed to ignoring it is
1831that this way, the handler will be restored to defaults on exec.
1832
1833Feel free to install your own handler, or reset it to defaults.
1834
1835=back
1836
1837=cut
1838
1839$SIG{PIPE} = sub { }
1840 unless defined $SIG{PIPE};
1841
1842
1843=head1 FORK
1844
1845Most event libraries are not fork-safe. The ones who are usually are
1846because they rely on inefficient but fork-safe C<select> or C<poll>
1847calls. Only L<EV> is fully fork-aware.
1848
1849If you have to fork, you must either do so I<before> creating your first
1850watcher OR you must not use AnyEvent at all in the child.
1851
1852
1853=head1 SECURITY CONSIDERATIONS
1854
1855AnyEvent can be forced to load any event model via
1856$ENV{PERL_ANYEVENT_MODEL}. While this cannot (to my knowledge) be used to
1857execute arbitrary code or directly gain access, it can easily be used to
1858make the program hang or malfunction in subtle ways, as AnyEvent watchers
1859will not be active when the program uses a different event model than
1860specified in the variable.
1861
1862You can make AnyEvent completely ignore this variable by deleting it
1863before the first watcher gets created, e.g. with a C<BEGIN> block:
1864
1865 BEGIN { delete $ENV{PERL_ANYEVENT_MODEL} }
1866
1867 use AnyEvent;
1868
1869Similar considerations apply to $ENV{PERL_ANYEVENT_VERBOSE}, as that can
1870be used to probe what backend is used and gain other information (which is
1871probably even less useful to an attacker than PERL_ANYEVENT_MODEL), and
1872$ENV{PERL_ANYEGENT_STRICT}.
1873
1874
1875=head1 BUGS
1876
1877Perl 5.8 has numerous memleaks that sometimes hit this module and are hard
1878to work around. If you suffer from memleaks, first upgrade to Perl 5.10
1879and check wether the leaks still show up. (Perl 5.10.0 has other annoying
1880memleaks, such as leaking on C<map> and C<grep> but it is usually not as
1881pronounced).
1882
605 1883
606=head1 SEE ALSO 1884=head1 SEE ALSO
607 1885
608Event modules: L<Coro::Event>, L<Coro>, L<Event>, L<Glib::Event>, L<Glib>. 1886Utility functions: L<AnyEvent::Util>.
609 1887
610Implementations: L<AnyEvent::Impl::Coro>, L<AnyEvent::Impl::Event>, L<AnyEvent::Impl::Glib>, L<AnyEvent::Impl::Tk>. 1888Event modules: L<EV>, L<EV::Glib>, L<Glib::EV>, L<Event>, L<Glib::Event>,
1889L<Glib>, L<Tk>, L<Event::Lib>, L<Qt>, L<POE>.
611 1890
612Nontrivial usage example: L<Net::FCP>. 1891Implementations: L<AnyEvent::Impl::EV>, L<AnyEvent::Impl::Event>,
1892L<AnyEvent::Impl::Glib>, L<AnyEvent::Impl::Tk>, L<AnyEvent::Impl::Perl>,
1893L<AnyEvent::Impl::EventLib>, L<AnyEvent::Impl::Qt>,
1894L<AnyEvent::Impl::POE>.
613 1895
614=head1 1896Non-blocking file handles, sockets, TCP clients and
1897servers: L<AnyEvent::Handle>, L<AnyEvent::Socket>.
1898
1899Asynchronous DNS: L<AnyEvent::DNS>.
1900
1901Coroutine support: L<Coro>, L<Coro::AnyEvent>, L<Coro::EV>, L<Coro::Event>,
1902
1903Nontrivial usage examples: L<Net::FCP>, L<Net::XMPP2>, L<AnyEvent::DNS>.
1904
1905
1906=head1 AUTHOR
1907
1908 Marc Lehmann <schmorp@schmorp.de>
1909 http://home.schmorp.de/
615 1910
616=cut 1911=cut
617 1912
6181 19131
619 1914

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