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1=head1 NAME 1=head1 NAME
2 2
3AnyEvent - provide framework for multiple event loops 3AnyEvent - the DBI of event loop programming
4 4
5Event, Coro, Glib, Tk, Perl - various supported event loops 5EV, Event, Glib, Tk, Perl, Event::Lib, Irssi, rxvt-unicode, IO::Async, Qt
6and POE are various supported event loops/environments.
6 7
7=head1 SYNOPSIS 8=head1 SYNOPSIS
8 9
9 use AnyEvent; 10 use AnyEvent;
10 11
12 # if you prefer function calls, look at the AE manpage for
13 # an alternative API.
14
15 # file handle or descriptor readable
11 my $w = AnyEvent->io (fh => $fh, poll => "r|w", cb => sub { 16 my $w = AnyEvent->io (fh => $fh, poll => "r", cb => sub { ... });
17
18 # one-shot or repeating timers
19 my $w = AnyEvent->timer (after => $seconds, cb => sub { ... });
20 my $w = AnyEvent->timer (after => $seconds, interval => $seconds, cb => ...);
21
22 print AnyEvent->now; # prints current event loop time
23 print AnyEvent->time; # think Time::HiRes::time or simply CORE::time.
24
25 # POSIX signal
26 my $w = AnyEvent->signal (signal => "TERM", cb => sub { ... });
27
28 # child process exit
29 my $w = AnyEvent->child (pid => $pid, cb => sub {
30 my ($pid, $status) = @_;
12 ... 31 ...
13 }); 32 });
14 33
15 my $w = AnyEvent->timer (after => $seconds, cb => sub { 34 # called when event loop idle (if applicable)
16 ... 35 my $w = AnyEvent->idle (cb => sub { ... });
17 });
18 36
19 my $w = AnyEvent->condvar; # stores wether a condition was flagged 37 my $w = AnyEvent->condvar; # stores whether a condition was flagged
38 $w->send; # wake up current and all future recv's
20 $w->wait; # enters "main loop" till $condvar gets ->broadcast 39 $w->recv; # enters "main loop" till $condvar gets ->send
21 $w->broadcast; # wake up current and all future wait's 40 # use a condvar in callback mode:
41 $w->cb (sub { $_[0]->recv });
42
43=head1 INTRODUCTION/TUTORIAL
44
45This manpage is mainly a reference manual. If you are interested
46in a tutorial or some gentle introduction, have a look at the
47L<AnyEvent::Intro> manpage.
48
49=head1 SUPPORT
50
51An FAQ document is available as L<AnyEvent::FAQ>.
52
53There also is a mailinglist for discussing all things AnyEvent, and an IRC
54channel, too.
55
56See the AnyEvent project page at the B<Schmorpforge Ta-Sa Software
57Repository>, at L<http://anyevent.schmorp.de>, for more info.
22 58
23=head1 WHY YOU SHOULD USE THIS MODULE (OR NOT) 59=head1 WHY YOU SHOULD USE THIS MODULE (OR NOT)
24 60
25Glib, POE, IO::Async, Event... CPAN offers event models by the dozen 61Glib, POE, IO::Async, Event... CPAN offers event models by the dozen
26nowadays. So what is different about AnyEvent? 62nowadays. So what is different about AnyEvent?
27 63
28Executive Summary: AnyEvent is I<compatible>, AnyEvent is I<free of 64Executive Summary: AnyEvent is I<compatible>, AnyEvent is I<free of
29policy> and AnyEvent is I<small and efficient>. 65policy> and AnyEvent is I<small and efficient>.
30 66
31First and foremost, I<AnyEvent is not an event model> itself, it only 67First and foremost, I<AnyEvent is not an event model> itself, it only
32interfaces to whatever event model the main program happens to use in a 68interfaces to whatever event model the main program happens to use, in a
33pragmatic way. For event models and certain classes of immortals alike, 69pragmatic way. For event models and certain classes of immortals alike,
34the statement "there can only be one" is a bitter reality, and AnyEvent 70the statement "there can only be one" is a bitter reality: In general,
35helps hiding the differences. 71only one event loop can be active at the same time in a process. AnyEvent
72cannot change this, but it can hide the differences between those event
73loops.
36 74
37The goal of AnyEvent is to offer module authors the ability to do event 75The goal of AnyEvent is to offer module authors the ability to do event
38programming (waiting for I/O or timer events) without subscribing to a 76programming (waiting for I/O or timer events) without subscribing to a
39religion, a way of living, and most importantly: without forcing your 77religion, a way of living, and most importantly: without forcing your
40module users into the same thing by forcing them to use the same event 78module users into the same thing by forcing them to use the same event
41model you use. 79model you use.
42 80
43For modules like POE or IO::Async (which is actually doing all I/O 81For modules like POE or IO::Async (which is a total misnomer as it is
44I<synchronously>...), using them in your module is like joining a 82actually doing all I/O I<synchronously>...), using them in your module is
45cult: After you joined, you are dependent on them and you cannot use 83like joining a cult: After you join, you are dependent on them and you
46anything else, as it is simply incompatible to everything that isn't 84cannot use anything else, as they are simply incompatible to everything
47itself. 85that isn't them. What's worse, all the potential users of your
86module are I<also> forced to use the same event loop you use.
48 87
49AnyEvent + POE works fine. AnyEvent + Glib works fine. AnyEvent + Tk 88AnyEvent is different: AnyEvent + POE works fine. AnyEvent + Glib works
50works fine etc. etc. but none of these work together with the rest: POE 89fine. AnyEvent + Tk works fine etc. etc. but none of these work together
51+ IO::Async? no go. Tk + Event? no go. If your module uses one of 90with the rest: POE + EV? No go. Tk + Event? No go. Again: if your module
52those, every user of your module has to use it, too. If your module 91uses one of those, every user of your module has to use it, too. But if
53uses AnyEvent, it works transparently with all event models it supports 92your module uses AnyEvent, it works transparently with all event models it
54(including stuff like POE and IO::Async). 93supports (including stuff like IO::Async, as long as those use one of the
94supported event loops. It is easy to add new event loops to AnyEvent, too,
95so it is future-proof).
55 96
56In addition of being free of having to use I<the one and only true event 97In addition to being free of having to use I<the one and only true event
57model>, AnyEvent also is free of bloat and policy: with POE or similar 98model>, AnyEvent also is free of bloat and policy: with POE or similar
58modules, you get an enourmous amount of code and strict rules you have 99modules, you get an enormous amount of code and strict rules you have to
59to follow. AnyEvent, on the other hand, is lean and to the point by only 100follow. AnyEvent, on the other hand, is lean and to the point, by only
60offering the functionality that is useful, in as thin as a wrapper as 101offering the functionality that is necessary, in as thin as a wrapper as
61technically possible. 102technically possible.
62 103
104Of course, AnyEvent comes with a big (and fully optional!) toolbox
105of useful functionality, such as an asynchronous DNS resolver, 100%
106non-blocking connects (even with TLS/SSL, IPv6 and on broken platforms
107such as Windows) and lots of real-world knowledge and workarounds for
108platform bugs and differences.
109
63Of course, if you want lots of policy (this can arguably be somewhat 110Now, if you I<do want> lots of policy (this can arguably be somewhat
64useful) and you want to force your users to use the one and only event 111useful) and you want to force your users to use the one and only event
65model, you should I<not> use this module. 112model, you should I<not> use this module.
66 113
67
68=head1 DESCRIPTION 114=head1 DESCRIPTION
69 115
70L<AnyEvent> provides an identical interface to multiple event loops. This 116L<AnyEvent> provides a uniform interface to various event loops. This
71allows module authors to utilise an event loop without forcing module 117allows module authors to use event loop functionality without forcing
72users to use the same event loop (as only a single event loop can coexist 118module users to use a specific event loop implementation (since more
73peacefully at any one time). 119than one event loop cannot coexist peacefully).
74 120
75The interface itself is vaguely similar but not identical to the Event 121The interface itself is vaguely similar, but not identical to the L<Event>
76module. 122module.
77 123
78On the first call of any method, the module tries to detect the currently 124During the first call of any watcher-creation method, the module tries
79loaded event loop by probing wether any of the following modules is 125to detect the currently loaded event loop by probing whether one of the
80loaded: L<Coro::Event>, L<Event>, L<Glib>, L<Tk>. The first one found is 126following modules is already loaded: L<EV>, L<AnyEvent::Loop>,
81used. If none is found, the module tries to load these modules in the 127L<Event>, L<Glib>, L<Tk>, L<Event::Lib>, L<Qt>, L<POE>. The first one
82order given. The first one that could be successfully loaded will be 128found is used. If none are detected, the module tries to load the first
83used. If still none could be found, AnyEvent will fall back to a pure-perl 129four modules in the order given; but note that if L<EV> is not
84event loop, which is also not very efficient. 130available, the pure-perl L<AnyEvent::Loop> should always work, so
131the other two are not normally tried.
85 132
86Because AnyEvent first checks for modules that are already loaded, loading 133Because AnyEvent first checks for modules that are already loaded, loading
87an Event model explicitly before first using AnyEvent will likely make 134an event model explicitly before first using AnyEvent will likely make
88that model the default. For example: 135that model the default. For example:
89 136
90 use Tk; 137 use Tk;
91 use AnyEvent; 138 use AnyEvent;
92 139
93 # .. AnyEvent will likely default to Tk 140 # .. AnyEvent will likely default to Tk
94 141
142The I<likely> means that, if any module loads another event model and
143starts using it, all bets are off - this case should be very rare though,
144as very few modules hardcode event loops without announcing this very
145loudly.
146
95The pure-perl implementation of AnyEvent is called 147The pure-perl implementation of AnyEvent is called C<AnyEvent::Loop>. Like
96C<AnyEvent::Impl::Perl>. Like other event modules you can load it 148other event modules you can load it explicitly and enjoy the high
97explicitly. 149availability of that event loop :)
98 150
99=head1 WATCHERS 151=head1 WATCHERS
100 152
101AnyEvent has the central concept of a I<watcher>, which is an object that 153AnyEvent has the central concept of a I<watcher>, which is an object that
102stores relevant data for each kind of event you are waiting for, such as 154stores relevant data for each kind of event you are waiting for, such as
103the callback to call, the filehandle to watch, etc. 155the callback to call, the file handle to watch, etc.
104 156
105These watchers are normal Perl objects with normal Perl lifetime. After 157These watchers are normal Perl objects with normal Perl lifetime. After
106creating a watcher it will immediately "watch" for events and invoke 158creating a watcher it will immediately "watch" for events and invoke the
159callback when the event occurs (of course, only when the event model
160is in control).
161
162Note that B<callbacks must not permanently change global variables>
163potentially in use by the event loop (such as C<$_> or C<$[>) and that B<<
164callbacks must not C<die> >>. The former is good programming practice in
165Perl and the latter stems from the fact that exception handling differs
166widely between event loops.
167
107the callback. To disable the watcher you have to destroy it (e.g. by 168To disable a watcher you have to destroy it (e.g. by setting the
108setting the variable that stores it to C<undef> or otherwise deleting all 169variable you store it in to C<undef> or otherwise deleting all references
109references to it). 170to it).
110 171
111All watchers are created by calling a method on the C<AnyEvent> class. 172All watchers are created by calling a method on the C<AnyEvent> class.
112 173
174Many watchers either are used with "recursion" (repeating timers for
175example), or need to refer to their watcher object in other ways.
176
177One way to achieve that is this pattern:
178
179 my $w; $w = AnyEvent->type (arg => value ..., cb => sub {
180 # you can use $w here, for example to undef it
181 undef $w;
182 });
183
184Note that C<my $w; $w => combination. This is necessary because in Perl,
185my variables are only visible after the statement in which they are
186declared.
187
113=head2 IO WATCHERS 188=head2 I/O WATCHERS
114 189
190 $w = AnyEvent->io (
191 fh => <filehandle_or_fileno>,
192 poll => <"r" or "w">,
193 cb => <callback>,
194 );
195
115You can create I/O watcher by calling the C<< AnyEvent->io >> method with 196You can create an I/O watcher by calling the C<< AnyEvent->io >> method
116the following mandatory arguments: 197with the following mandatory key-value pairs as arguments:
117 198
118C<fh> the Perl I<filehandle> (not filedescriptor) to watch for 199C<fh> is the Perl I<file handle> (or a naked file descriptor) to watch
200for events (AnyEvent might or might not keep a reference to this file
201handle). Note that only file handles pointing to things for which
202non-blocking operation makes sense are allowed. This includes sockets,
203most character devices, pipes, fifos and so on, but not for example files
204or block devices.
205
119events. C<poll> must be a string that is either C<r> or C<w>, that creates 206C<poll> must be a string that is either C<r> or C<w>, which creates a
120a watcher waiting for "r"eadable or "w"ritable events. C<cb> the callback 207watcher waiting for "r"eadable or "w"ritable events, respectively.
121to invoke everytime the filehandle becomes ready.
122 208
123Only one io watcher per C<fh> and C<poll> combination is allowed (i.e. on 209C<cb> is the callback to invoke each time the file handle becomes ready.
124a socket you can have one r + one w, not any more (limitation comes from
125Tk - if you are sure you are not using Tk this limitation is gone).
126 210
127Filehandles will be kept alive, so as long as the watcher exists, the 211Although the callback might get passed parameters, their value and
128filehandle exists, too. 212presence is undefined and you cannot rely on them. Portable AnyEvent
213callbacks cannot use arguments passed to I/O watcher callbacks.
129 214
130Example: 215The I/O watcher might use the underlying file descriptor or a copy of it.
216You must not close a file handle as long as any watcher is active on the
217underlying file descriptor.
131 218
219Some event loops issue spurious readiness notifications, so you should
220always use non-blocking calls when reading/writing from/to your file
221handles.
222
132 # wait for readability of STDIN, then read a line and disable the watcher 223Example: wait for readability of STDIN, then read a line and disable the
224watcher.
225
133 my $w; $w = AnyEvent->io (fh => \*STDIN, poll => 'r', cb => sub { 226 my $w; $w = AnyEvent->io (fh => \*STDIN, poll => 'r', cb => sub {
134 chomp (my $input = <STDIN>); 227 chomp (my $input = <STDIN>);
135 warn "read: $input\n"; 228 warn "read: $input\n";
136 undef $w; 229 undef $w;
137 }); 230 });
138 231
139=head2 TIME WATCHERS 232=head2 TIME WATCHERS
140 233
234 $w = AnyEvent->timer (after => <seconds>, cb => <callback>);
235
236 $w = AnyEvent->timer (
237 after => <fractional_seconds>,
238 interval => <fractional_seconds>,
239 cb => <callback>,
240 );
241
141You can create a time watcher by calling the C<< AnyEvent->timer >> 242You can create a time watcher by calling the C<< AnyEvent->timer >>
142method with the following mandatory arguments: 243method with the following mandatory arguments:
143 244
144C<after> after how many seconds (fractions are supported) should the timer 245C<after> specifies after how many seconds (fractional values are
145activate. C<cb> the callback to invoke. 246supported) the callback should be invoked. C<cb> is the callback to invoke
247in that case.
146 248
147The timer callback will be invoked at most once: if you want a repeating 249Although the callback might get passed parameters, their value and
148timer you have to create a new watcher (this is a limitation by both Tk 250presence is undefined and you cannot rely on them. Portable AnyEvent
149and Glib). 251callbacks cannot use arguments passed to time watcher callbacks.
150 252
151Example: 253The callback will normally be invoked only once. If you specify another
254parameter, C<interval>, as a strictly positive number (> 0), then the
255callback will be invoked regularly at that interval (in fractional
256seconds) after the first invocation. If C<interval> is specified with a
257false value, then it is treated as if it were not specified at all.
152 258
259The callback will be rescheduled before invoking the callback, but no
260attempt is made to avoid timer drift in most backends, so the interval is
261only approximate.
262
153 # fire an event after 7.7 seconds 263Example: fire an event after 7.7 seconds.
264
154 my $w = AnyEvent->timer (after => 7.7, cb => sub { 265 my $w = AnyEvent->timer (after => 7.7, cb => sub {
155 warn "timeout\n"; 266 warn "timeout\n";
156 }); 267 });
157 268
158 # to cancel the timer: 269 # to cancel the timer:
159 undef $w; 270 undef $w;
160 271
161=head2 CONDITION WATCHERS 272Example 2: fire an event after 0.5 seconds, then roughly every second.
162 273
163Condition watchers can be created by calling the C<< AnyEvent->condvar >> 274 my $w = AnyEvent->timer (after => 0.5, interval => 1, cb => sub {
164method without any arguments. 275 warn "timeout\n";
276 };
165 277
166A condition watcher watches for a condition - precisely that the C<< 278=head3 TIMING ISSUES
167->broadcast >> method has been called.
168 279
169Note that condition watchers recurse into the event loop - if you have 280There are two ways to handle timers: based on real time (relative, "fire
170two watchers that call C<< ->wait >> in a round-robbin fashion, you 281in 10 seconds") and based on wallclock time (absolute, "fire at 12
171lose. Therefore, condition watchers are good to export to your caller, but 282o'clock").
172you should avoid making a blocking wait, at least in callbacks, as this
173usually asks for trouble.
174 283
175The watcher has only two methods: 284While most event loops expect timers to specified in a relative way, they
285use absolute time internally. This makes a difference when your clock
286"jumps", for example, when ntp decides to set your clock backwards from
287the wrong date of 2014-01-01 to 2008-01-01, a watcher that is supposed to
288fire "after a second" might actually take six years to finally fire.
289
290AnyEvent cannot compensate for this. The only event loop that is conscious
291of these issues is L<EV>, which offers both relative (ev_timer, based
292on true relative time) and absolute (ev_periodic, based on wallclock time)
293timers.
294
295AnyEvent always prefers relative timers, if available, matching the
296AnyEvent API.
297
298AnyEvent has two additional methods that return the "current time":
176 299
177=over 4 300=over 4
178 301
302=item AnyEvent->time
303
304This returns the "current wallclock time" as a fractional number of
305seconds since the Epoch (the same thing as C<time> or C<Time::HiRes::time>
306return, and the result is guaranteed to be compatible with those).
307
308It progresses independently of any event loop processing, i.e. each call
309will check the system clock, which usually gets updated frequently.
310
311=item AnyEvent->now
312
313This also returns the "current wallclock time", but unlike C<time>, above,
314this value might change only once per event loop iteration, depending on
315the event loop (most return the same time as C<time>, above). This is the
316time that AnyEvent's timers get scheduled against.
317
318I<In almost all cases (in all cases if you don't care), this is the
319function to call when you want to know the current time.>
320
321This function is also often faster then C<< AnyEvent->time >>, and
322thus the preferred method if you want some timestamp (for example,
323L<AnyEvent::Handle> uses this to update its activity timeouts).
324
325The rest of this section is only of relevance if you try to be very exact
326with your timing; you can skip it without a bad conscience.
327
328For a practical example of when these times differ, consider L<Event::Lib>
329and L<EV> and the following set-up:
330
331The event loop is running and has just invoked one of your callbacks at
332time=500 (assume no other callbacks delay processing). In your callback,
333you wait a second by executing C<sleep 1> (blocking the process for a
334second) and then (at time=501) you create a relative timer that fires
335after three seconds.
336
337With L<Event::Lib>, C<< AnyEvent->time >> and C<< AnyEvent->now >> will
338both return C<501>, because that is the current time, and the timer will
339be scheduled to fire at time=504 (C<501> + C<3>).
340
341With L<EV>, C<< AnyEvent->time >> returns C<501> (as that is the current
342time), but C<< AnyEvent->now >> returns C<500>, as that is the time the
343last event processing phase started. With L<EV>, your timer gets scheduled
344to run at time=503 (C<500> + C<3>).
345
346In one sense, L<Event::Lib> is more exact, as it uses the current time
347regardless of any delays introduced by event processing. However, most
348callbacks do not expect large delays in processing, so this causes a
349higher drift (and a lot more system calls to get the current time).
350
351In another sense, L<EV> is more exact, as your timer will be scheduled at
352the same time, regardless of how long event processing actually took.
353
354In either case, if you care (and in most cases, you don't), then you
355can get whatever behaviour you want with any event loop, by taking the
356difference between C<< AnyEvent->time >> and C<< AnyEvent->now >> into
357account.
358
359=item AnyEvent->now_update
360
361Some event loops (such as L<EV> or L<AnyEvent::Loop>) cache the current
362time for each loop iteration (see the discussion of L<< AnyEvent->now >>,
363above).
364
365When a callback runs for a long time (or when the process sleeps), then
366this "current" time will differ substantially from the real time, which
367might affect timers and time-outs.
368
369When this is the case, you can call this method, which will update the
370event loop's idea of "current time".
371
372A typical example would be a script in a web server (e.g. C<mod_perl>) -
373when mod_perl executes the script, then the event loop will have the wrong
374idea about the "current time" (being potentially far in the past, when the
375script ran the last time). In that case you should arrange a call to C<<
376AnyEvent->now_update >> each time the web server process wakes up again
377(e.g. at the start of your script, or in a handler).
378
379Note that updating the time I<might> cause some events to be handled.
380
381=back
382
383=head2 SIGNAL WATCHERS
384
385 $w = AnyEvent->signal (signal => <uppercase_signal_name>, cb => <callback>);
386
387You can watch for signals using a signal watcher, C<signal> is the signal
388I<name> in uppercase and without any C<SIG> prefix, C<cb> is the Perl
389callback to be invoked whenever a signal occurs.
390
391Although the callback might get passed parameters, their value and
392presence is undefined and you cannot rely on them. Portable AnyEvent
393callbacks cannot use arguments passed to signal watcher callbacks.
394
395Multiple signal occurrences can be clumped together into one callback
396invocation, and callback invocation will be synchronous. Synchronous means
397that it might take a while until the signal gets handled by the process,
398but it is guaranteed not to interrupt any other callbacks.
399
400The main advantage of using these watchers is that you can share a signal
401between multiple watchers, and AnyEvent will ensure that signals will not
402interrupt your program at bad times.
403
404This watcher might use C<%SIG> (depending on the event loop used),
405so programs overwriting those signals directly will likely not work
406correctly.
407
408Example: exit on SIGINT
409
410 my $w = AnyEvent->signal (signal => "INT", cb => sub { exit 1 });
411
412=head3 Restart Behaviour
413
414While restart behaviour is up to the event loop implementation, most will
415not restart syscalls (that includes L<Async::Interrupt> and AnyEvent's
416pure perl implementation).
417
418=head3 Safe/Unsafe Signals
419
420Perl signals can be either "safe" (synchronous to opcode handling) or
421"unsafe" (asynchronous) - the former might get delayed indefinitely, the
422latter might corrupt your memory.
423
424AnyEvent signal handlers are, in addition, synchronous to the event loop,
425i.e. they will not interrupt your running perl program but will only be
426called as part of the normal event handling (just like timer, I/O etc.
427callbacks, too).
428
429=head3 Signal Races, Delays and Workarounds
430
431Many event loops (e.g. Glib, Tk, Qt, IO::Async) do not support attaching
432callbacks to signals in a generic way, which is a pity, as you cannot
433do race-free signal handling in perl, requiring C libraries for
434this. AnyEvent will try to do its best, which means in some cases,
435signals will be delayed. The maximum time a signal might be delayed is
436specified in C<$AnyEvent::MAX_SIGNAL_LATENCY> (default: 10 seconds). This
437variable can be changed only before the first signal watcher is created,
438and should be left alone otherwise. This variable determines how often
439AnyEvent polls for signals (in case a wake-up was missed). Higher values
440will cause fewer spurious wake-ups, which is better for power and CPU
441saving.
442
443All these problems can be avoided by installing the optional
444L<Async::Interrupt> module, which works with most event loops. It will not
445work with inherently broken event loops such as L<Event> or L<Event::Lib>
446(and not with L<POE> currently, as POE does its own workaround with
447one-second latency). For those, you just have to suffer the delays.
448
449=head2 CHILD PROCESS WATCHERS
450
451 $w = AnyEvent->child (pid => <process id>, cb => <callback>);
452
453You can also watch for a child process exit and catch its exit status.
454
455The child process is specified by the C<pid> argument (on some backends,
456using C<0> watches for any child process exit, on others this will
457croak). The watcher will be triggered only when the child process has
458finished and an exit status is available, not on any trace events
459(stopped/continued).
460
461The callback will be called with the pid and exit status (as returned by
462waitpid), so unlike other watcher types, you I<can> rely on child watcher
463callback arguments.
464
465This watcher type works by installing a signal handler for C<SIGCHLD>,
466and since it cannot be shared, nothing else should use SIGCHLD or reap
467random child processes (waiting for specific child processes, e.g. inside
468C<system>, is just fine).
469
470There is a slight catch to child watchers, however: you usually start them
471I<after> the child process was created, and this means the process could
472have exited already (and no SIGCHLD will be sent anymore).
473
474Not all event models handle this correctly (neither POE nor IO::Async do,
475see their AnyEvent::Impl manpages for details), but even for event models
476that I<do> handle this correctly, they usually need to be loaded before
477the process exits (i.e. before you fork in the first place). AnyEvent's
478pure perl event loop handles all cases correctly regardless of when you
479start the watcher.
480
481This means you cannot create a child watcher as the very first
482thing in an AnyEvent program, you I<have> to create at least one
483watcher before you C<fork> the child (alternatively, you can call
484C<AnyEvent::detect>).
485
486As most event loops do not support waiting for child events, they will be
487emulated by AnyEvent in most cases, in which case the latency and race
488problems mentioned in the description of signal watchers apply.
489
490Example: fork a process and wait for it
491
492 my $done = AnyEvent->condvar;
493
494 my $pid = fork or exit 5;
495
496 my $w = AnyEvent->child (
497 pid => $pid,
498 cb => sub {
499 my ($pid, $status) = @_;
500 warn "pid $pid exited with status $status";
501 $done->send;
502 },
503 );
504
505 # do something else, then wait for process exit
506 $done->recv;
507
508=head2 IDLE WATCHERS
509
510 $w = AnyEvent->idle (cb => <callback>);
511
512This will repeatedly invoke the callback after the process becomes idle,
513until either the watcher is destroyed or new events have been detected.
514
515Idle watchers are useful when there is a need to do something, but it
516is not so important (or wise) to do it instantly. The callback will be
517invoked only when there is "nothing better to do", which is usually
518defined as "all outstanding events have been handled and no new events
519have been detected". That means that idle watchers ideally get invoked
520when the event loop has just polled for new events but none have been
521detected. Instead of blocking to wait for more events, the idle watchers
522will be invoked.
523
524Unfortunately, most event loops do not really support idle watchers (only
525EV, Event and Glib do it in a usable fashion) - for the rest, AnyEvent
526will simply call the callback "from time to time".
527
528Example: read lines from STDIN, but only process them when the
529program is otherwise idle:
530
531 my @lines; # read data
532 my $idle_w;
533 my $io_w = AnyEvent->io (fh => \*STDIN, poll => 'r', cb => sub {
534 push @lines, scalar <STDIN>;
535
536 # start an idle watcher, if not already done
537 $idle_w ||= AnyEvent->idle (cb => sub {
538 # handle only one line, when there are lines left
539 if (my $line = shift @lines) {
540 print "handled when idle: $line";
541 } else {
542 # otherwise disable the idle watcher again
543 undef $idle_w;
544 }
545 });
546 });
547
548=head2 CONDITION VARIABLES
549
550 $cv = AnyEvent->condvar;
551
552 $cv->send (<list>);
553 my @res = $cv->recv;
554
555If you are familiar with some event loops you will know that all of them
556require you to run some blocking "loop", "run" or similar function that
557will actively watch for new events and call your callbacks.
558
559AnyEvent is slightly different: it expects somebody else to run the event
560loop and will only block when necessary (usually when told by the user).
561
562The tool to do that is called a "condition variable", so called because
563they represent a condition that must become true.
564
565Now is probably a good time to look at the examples further below.
566
567Condition variables can be created by calling the C<< AnyEvent->condvar
568>> method, usually without arguments. The only argument pair allowed is
569C<cb>, which specifies a callback to be called when the condition variable
570becomes true, with the condition variable as the first argument (but not
571the results).
572
573After creation, the condition variable is "false" until it becomes "true"
574by calling the C<send> method (or calling the condition variable as if it
575were a callback, read about the caveats in the description for the C<<
576->send >> method).
577
578Since condition variables are the most complex part of the AnyEvent API, here are
579some different mental models of what they are - pick the ones you can connect to:
580
581=over 4
582
583=item * Condition variables are like callbacks - you can call them (and pass them instead
584of callbacks). Unlike callbacks however, you can also wait for them to be called.
585
586=item * Condition variables are signals - one side can emit or send them,
587the other side can wait for them, or install a handler that is called when
588the signal fires.
589
590=item * Condition variables are like "Merge Points" - points in your program
591where you merge multiple independent results/control flows into one.
592
593=item * Condition variables represent a transaction - functions that start
594some kind of transaction can return them, leaving the caller the choice
595between waiting in a blocking fashion, or setting a callback.
596
597=item * Condition variables represent future values, or promises to deliver
598some result, long before the result is available.
599
600=back
601
602Condition variables are very useful to signal that something has finished,
603for example, if you write a module that does asynchronous http requests,
604then a condition variable would be the ideal candidate to signal the
605availability of results. The user can either act when the callback is
606called or can synchronously C<< ->recv >> for the results.
607
608You can also use them to simulate traditional event loops - for example,
609you can block your main program until an event occurs - for example, you
610could C<< ->recv >> in your main program until the user clicks the Quit
611button of your app, which would C<< ->send >> the "quit" event.
612
613Note that condition variables recurse into the event loop - if you have
614two pieces of code that call C<< ->recv >> in a round-robin fashion, you
615lose. Therefore, condition variables are good to export to your caller, but
616you should avoid making a blocking wait yourself, at least in callbacks,
617as this asks for trouble.
618
619Condition variables are represented by hash refs in perl, and the keys
620used by AnyEvent itself are all named C<_ae_XXX> to make subclassing
621easy (it is often useful to build your own transaction class on top of
622AnyEvent). To subclass, use C<AnyEvent::CondVar> as base class and call
623its C<new> method in your own C<new> method.
624
625There are two "sides" to a condition variable - the "producer side" which
626eventually calls C<< -> send >>, and the "consumer side", which waits
627for the send to occur.
628
629Example: wait for a timer.
630
631 # condition: "wait till the timer is fired"
632 my $timer_fired = AnyEvent->condvar;
633
634 # create the timer - we could wait for, say
635 # a handle becomign ready, or even an
636 # AnyEvent::HTTP request to finish, but
637 # in this case, we simply use a timer:
638 my $w = AnyEvent->timer (
639 after => 1,
640 cb => sub { $timer_fired->send },
641 );
642
643 # this "blocks" (while handling events) till the callback
644 # calls ->send
645 $timer_fired->recv;
646
647Example: wait for a timer, but take advantage of the fact that condition
648variables are also callable directly.
649
650 my $done = AnyEvent->condvar;
651 my $delay = AnyEvent->timer (after => 5, cb => $done);
652 $done->recv;
653
654Example: Imagine an API that returns a condvar and doesn't support
655callbacks. This is how you make a synchronous call, for example from
656the main program:
657
658 use AnyEvent::CouchDB;
659
660 ...
661
662 my @info = $couchdb->info->recv;
663
664And this is how you would just set a callback to be called whenever the
665results are available:
666
667 $couchdb->info->cb (sub {
668 my @info = $_[0]->recv;
669 });
670
671=head3 METHODS FOR PRODUCERS
672
673These methods should only be used by the producing side, i.e. the
674code/module that eventually sends the signal. Note that it is also
675the producer side which creates the condvar in most cases, but it isn't
676uncommon for the consumer to create it as well.
677
678=over 4
679
680=item $cv->send (...)
681
682Flag the condition as ready - a running C<< ->recv >> and all further
683calls to C<recv> will (eventually) return after this method has been
684called. If nobody is waiting the send will be remembered.
685
686If a callback has been set on the condition variable, it is called
687immediately from within send.
688
689Any arguments passed to the C<send> call will be returned by all
690future C<< ->recv >> calls.
691
692Condition variables are overloaded so one can call them directly (as if
693they were a code reference). Calling them directly is the same as calling
694C<send>.
695
696=item $cv->croak ($error)
697
698Similar to send, but causes all calls to C<< ->recv >> to invoke
699C<Carp::croak> with the given error message/object/scalar.
700
701This can be used to signal any errors to the condition variable
702user/consumer. Doing it this way instead of calling C<croak> directly
703delays the error detection, but has the overwhelming advantage that it
704diagnoses the error at the place where the result is expected, and not
705deep in some event callback with no connection to the actual code causing
706the problem.
707
708=item $cv->begin ([group callback])
709
179=item $cv->wait 710=item $cv->end
180 711
181Wait (blocking if necessary) until the C<< ->broadcast >> method has been 712These two methods can be used to combine many transactions/events into
182called on c<$cv>, while servicing other watchers normally. 713one. For example, a function that pings many hosts in parallel might want
714to use a condition variable for the whole process.
183 715
716Every call to C<< ->begin >> will increment a counter, and every call to
717C<< ->end >> will decrement it. If the counter reaches C<0> in C<< ->end
718>>, the (last) callback passed to C<begin> will be executed, passing the
719condvar as first argument. That callback is I<supposed> to call C<< ->send
720>>, but that is not required. If no group callback was set, C<send> will
721be called without any arguments.
722
723You can think of C<< $cv->send >> giving you an OR condition (one call
724sends), while C<< $cv->begin >> and C<< $cv->end >> giving you an AND
725condition (all C<begin> calls must be C<end>'ed before the condvar sends).
726
727Let's start with a simple example: you have two I/O watchers (for example,
728STDOUT and STDERR for a program), and you want to wait for both streams to
729close before activating a condvar:
730
731 my $cv = AnyEvent->condvar;
732
733 $cv->begin; # first watcher
734 my $w1 = AnyEvent->io (fh => $fh1, cb => sub {
735 defined sysread $fh1, my $buf, 4096
736 or $cv->end;
737 });
738
739 $cv->begin; # second watcher
740 my $w2 = AnyEvent->io (fh => $fh2, cb => sub {
741 defined sysread $fh2, my $buf, 4096
742 or $cv->end;
743 });
744
745 $cv->recv;
746
747This works because for every event source (EOF on file handle), there is
748one call to C<begin>, so the condvar waits for all calls to C<end> before
749sending.
750
751The ping example mentioned above is slightly more complicated, as the
752there are results to be passwd back, and the number of tasks that are
753begun can potentially be zero:
754
755 my $cv = AnyEvent->condvar;
756
757 my %result;
758 $cv->begin (sub { shift->send (\%result) });
759
760 for my $host (@list_of_hosts) {
761 $cv->begin;
762 ping_host_then_call_callback $host, sub {
763 $result{$host} = ...;
764 $cv->end;
765 };
766 }
767
768 $cv->end;
769
770This code fragment supposedly pings a number of hosts and calls
771C<send> after results for all then have have been gathered - in any
772order. To achieve this, the code issues a call to C<begin> when it starts
773each ping request and calls C<end> when it has received some result for
774it. Since C<begin> and C<end> only maintain a counter, the order in which
775results arrive is not relevant.
776
777There is an additional bracketing call to C<begin> and C<end> outside the
778loop, which serves two important purposes: first, it sets the callback
779to be called once the counter reaches C<0>, and second, it ensures that
780C<send> is called even when C<no> hosts are being pinged (the loop
781doesn't execute once).
782
783This is the general pattern when you "fan out" into multiple (but
784potentially zero) subrequests: use an outer C<begin>/C<end> pair to set
785the callback and ensure C<end> is called at least once, and then, for each
786subrequest you start, call C<begin> and for each subrequest you finish,
787call C<end>.
788
789=back
790
791=head3 METHODS FOR CONSUMERS
792
793These methods should only be used by the consuming side, i.e. the
794code awaits the condition.
795
796=over 4
797
798=item $cv->recv
799
800Wait (blocking if necessary) until the C<< ->send >> or C<< ->croak
801>> methods have been called on C<$cv>, while servicing other watchers
802normally.
803
184You can only wait once on a condition - additional calls will return 804You can only wait once on a condition - additional calls are valid but
185immediately. 805will return immediately.
806
807If an error condition has been set by calling C<< ->croak >>, then this
808function will call C<croak>.
809
810In list context, all parameters passed to C<send> will be returned,
811in scalar context only the first one will be returned.
812
813Note that doing a blocking wait in a callback is not supported by any
814event loop, that is, recursive invocation of a blocking C<< ->recv
815>> is not allowed, and the C<recv> call will C<croak> if such a
816condition is detected. This condition can be slightly loosened by using
817L<Coro::AnyEvent>, which allows you to do a blocking C<< ->recv >> from
818any thread that doesn't run the event loop itself.
186 819
187Not all event models support a blocking wait - some die in that case 820Not all event models support a blocking wait - some die in that case
188(programs might want to do that so they stay interactive), so I<if you 821(programs might want to do that to stay interactive), so I<if you are
189are using this from a module, never require a blocking wait>, but let the 822using this from a module, never require a blocking wait>. Instead, let the
190caller decide wether the call will block or not (for example, by coupling 823caller decide whether the call will block or not (for example, by coupling
191condition variables with some kind of request results and supporting 824condition variables with some kind of request results and supporting
192callbacks so the caller knows that getting the result will not block, 825callbacks so the caller knows that getting the result will not block,
193while still suppporting blocking waits if the caller so desires). 826while still supporting blocking waits if the caller so desires).
194 827
195Another reason I<never> to C<< ->wait >> in a module is that you cannot 828You can ensure that C<< ->recv >> never blocks by setting a callback and
196sensibly have two C<< ->wait >>'s in parallel, as that would require 829only calling C<< ->recv >> from within that callback (or at a later
197multiple interpreters or coroutines/threads, none of which C<AnyEvent> 830time). This will work even when the event loop does not support blocking
198can supply (the coroutine-aware backends C<Coro::EV> and C<Coro::Event> 831waits otherwise.
199explicitly support concurrent C<< ->wait >>'s from different coroutines,
200however).
201 832
202=item $cv->broadcast 833=item $bool = $cv->ready
203 834
204Flag the condition as ready - a running C<< ->wait >> and all further 835Returns true when the condition is "true", i.e. whether C<send> or
205calls to C<wait> will return after this method has been called. If nobody 836C<croak> have been called.
206is waiting the broadcast will be remembered..
207 837
208Example: 838=item $cb = $cv->cb ($cb->($cv))
209 839
210 # wait till the result is ready 840This is a mutator function that returns the callback set and optionally
211 my $result_ready = AnyEvent->condvar; 841replaces it before doing so.
212 842
213 # do something such as adding a timer 843The callback will be called when the condition becomes "true", i.e. when
214 # or socket watcher the calls $result_ready->broadcast 844C<send> or C<croak> are called, with the only argument being the
215 # when the "result" is ready. 845condition variable itself. If the condition is already true, the
216 846callback is called immediately when it is set. Calling C<recv> inside
217 $result_ready->wait; 847the callback or at any later time is guaranteed not to block.
218 848
219=back 849=back
220 850
221=head2 SIGNAL WATCHERS 851=head1 SUPPORTED EVENT LOOPS/BACKENDS
222 852
223You can listen for signals using a signal watcher, C<signal> is the signal 853The available backend classes are (every class has its own manpage):
224I<name> without any C<SIG> prefix. Multiple signals events can be clumped
225together into one callback invocation, and callback invocation might or
226might not be asynchronous.
227
228These watchers might use C<%SIG>, so programs overwriting those signals
229directly will likely not work correctly.
230
231Example: exit on SIGINT
232
233 my $w = AnyEvent->signal (signal => "INT", cb => sub { exit 1 });
234
235=head2 CHILD PROCESS WATCHERS
236
237You can also listen for the status of a child process specified by the
238C<pid> argument (or any child if the pid argument is 0). The watcher will
239trigger as often as status change for the child are received. This works
240by installing a signal handler for C<SIGCHLD>. The callback will be called with
241the pid and exit status (as returned by waitpid).
242
243Example: wait for pid 1333
244
245 my $w = AnyEvent->child (pid => 1333, cb => sub { warn "exit status $?" });
246
247=head1 GLOBALS
248 854
249=over 4 855=over 4
250 856
857=item Backends that are autoprobed when no other event loop can be found.
858
859EV is the preferred backend when no other event loop seems to be in
860use. If EV is not installed, then AnyEvent will fall back to its own
861pure-perl implementation, which is available everywhere as it comes with
862AnyEvent itself.
863
864 AnyEvent::Impl::EV based on EV (interface to libev, best choice).
865 AnyEvent::Impl::Perl pure-perl AnyEvent::Loop, fast and portable.
866
867=item Backends that are transparently being picked up when they are used.
868
869These will be used if they are already loaded when the first watcher
870is created, in which case it is assumed that the application is using
871them. This means that AnyEvent will automatically pick the right backend
872when the main program loads an event module before anything starts to
873create watchers. Nothing special needs to be done by the main program.
874
875 AnyEvent::Impl::Event based on Event, very stable, few glitches.
876 AnyEvent::Impl::Glib based on Glib, slow but very stable.
877 AnyEvent::Impl::Tk based on Tk, very broken.
878 AnyEvent::Impl::EventLib based on Event::Lib, leaks memory and worse.
879 AnyEvent::Impl::POE based on POE, very slow, some limitations.
880 AnyEvent::Impl::Irssi used when running within irssi.
881 AnyEvent::Impl::IOAsync based on IO::Async.
882 AnyEvent::Impl::Cocoa based on Cocoa::EventLoop.
883 AnyEvent::Impl::FLTK based on FLTK.
884
885=item Backends with special needs.
886
887Qt requires the Qt::Application to be instantiated first, but will
888otherwise be picked up automatically. As long as the main program
889instantiates the application before any AnyEvent watchers are created,
890everything should just work.
891
892 AnyEvent::Impl::Qt based on Qt.
893
894=item Event loops that are indirectly supported via other backends.
895
896Some event loops can be supported via other modules:
897
898There is no direct support for WxWidgets (L<Wx>) or L<Prima>.
899
900B<WxWidgets> has no support for watching file handles. However, you can
901use WxWidgets through the POE adaptor, as POE has a Wx backend that simply
902polls 20 times per second, which was considered to be too horrible to even
903consider for AnyEvent.
904
905B<Prima> is not supported as nobody seems to be using it, but it has a POE
906backend, so it can be supported through POE.
907
908AnyEvent knows about both L<Prima> and L<Wx>, however, and will try to
909load L<POE> when detecting them, in the hope that POE will pick them up,
910in which case everything will be automatic.
911
912=back
913
914=head1 GLOBAL VARIABLES AND FUNCTIONS
915
916These are not normally required to use AnyEvent, but can be useful to
917write AnyEvent extension modules.
918
919=over 4
920
251=item $AnyEvent::MODEL 921=item $AnyEvent::MODEL
252 922
253Contains C<undef> until the first watcher is being created. Then it 923Contains C<undef> until the first watcher is being created, before the
924backend has been autodetected.
925
254contains the event model that is being used, which is the name of the 926Afterwards it contains the event model that is being used, which is the
255Perl class implementing the model. This class is usually one of the 927name of the Perl class implementing the model. This class is usually one
256C<AnyEvent::Impl:xxx> modules, but can be any other class in the case 928of the C<AnyEvent::Impl::xxx> modules, but can be any other class in the
257AnyEvent has been extended at runtime (e.g. in I<rxvt-unicode>). 929case AnyEvent has been extended at runtime (e.g. in I<rxvt-unicode> it
258 930will be C<urxvt::anyevent>).
259The known classes so far are:
260
261 AnyEvent::Impl::CoroEV based on Coro::EV, best choice.
262 AnyEvent::Impl::EV based on EV (an interface to libev, also best choice).
263 AnyEvent::Impl::CoroEvent based on Coro::Event, second best choice.
264 AnyEvent::Impl::Event based on Event, also second best choice :)
265 AnyEvent::Impl::Glib based on Glib, third-best choice.
266 AnyEvent::Impl::Tk based on Tk, very bad choice.
267 AnyEvent::Impl::Perl pure-perl implementation, inefficient but portable.
268 931
269=item AnyEvent::detect 932=item AnyEvent::detect
270 933
271Returns C<$AnyEvent::MODEL>, forcing autodetection of the event model if 934Returns C<$AnyEvent::MODEL>, forcing autodetection of the event model
272necessary. You should only call this function right before you would have 935if necessary. You should only call this function right before you would
273created an AnyEvent watcher anyway, that is, very late at runtime. 936have created an AnyEvent watcher anyway, that is, as late as possible at
937runtime, and not e.g. during initialisation of your module.
938
939If you need to do some initialisation before AnyEvent watchers are
940created, use C<post_detect>.
941
942=item $guard = AnyEvent::post_detect { BLOCK }
943
944Arranges for the code block to be executed as soon as the event model is
945autodetected (or immediately if that has already happened).
946
947The block will be executed I<after> the actual backend has been detected
948(C<$AnyEvent::MODEL> is set), but I<before> any watchers have been
949created, so it is possible to e.g. patch C<@AnyEvent::ISA> or do
950other initialisations - see the sources of L<AnyEvent::Strict> or
951L<AnyEvent::AIO> to see how this is used.
952
953The most common usage is to create some global watchers, without forcing
954event module detection too early, for example, L<AnyEvent::AIO> creates
955and installs the global L<IO::AIO> watcher in a C<post_detect> block to
956avoid autodetecting the event module at load time.
957
958If called in scalar or list context, then it creates and returns an object
959that automatically removes the callback again when it is destroyed (or
960C<undef> when the hook was immediately executed). See L<AnyEvent::AIO> for
961a case where this is useful.
962
963Example: Create a watcher for the IO::AIO module and store it in
964C<$WATCHER>, but do so only do so after the event loop is initialised.
965
966 our WATCHER;
967
968 my $guard = AnyEvent::post_detect {
969 $WATCHER = AnyEvent->io (fh => IO::AIO::poll_fileno, poll => 'r', cb => \&IO::AIO::poll_cb);
970 };
971
972 # the ||= is important in case post_detect immediately runs the block,
973 # as to not clobber the newly-created watcher. assigning both watcher and
974 # post_detect guard to the same variable has the advantage of users being
975 # able to just C<undef $WATCHER> if the watcher causes them grief.
976
977 $WATCHER ||= $guard;
978
979=item @AnyEvent::post_detect
980
981If there are any code references in this array (you can C<push> to it
982before or after loading AnyEvent), then they will be called directly
983after the event loop has been chosen.
984
985You should check C<$AnyEvent::MODEL> before adding to this array, though:
986if it is defined then the event loop has already been detected, and the
987array will be ignored.
988
989Best use C<AnyEvent::post_detect { BLOCK }> when your application allows
990it, as it takes care of these details.
991
992This variable is mainly useful for modules that can do something useful
993when AnyEvent is used and thus want to know when it is initialised, but do
994not need to even load it by default. This array provides the means to hook
995into AnyEvent passively, without loading it.
996
997Example: To load Coro::AnyEvent whenever Coro and AnyEvent are used
998together, you could put this into Coro (this is the actual code used by
999Coro to accomplish this):
1000
1001 if (defined $AnyEvent::MODEL) {
1002 # AnyEvent already initialised, so load Coro::AnyEvent
1003 require Coro::AnyEvent;
1004 } else {
1005 # AnyEvent not yet initialised, so make sure to load Coro::AnyEvent
1006 # as soon as it is
1007 push @AnyEvent::post_detect, sub { require Coro::AnyEvent };
1008 }
274 1009
275=back 1010=back
276 1011
277=head1 WHAT TO DO IN A MODULE 1012=head1 WHAT TO DO IN A MODULE
278 1013
279As a module author, you should "use AnyEvent" and call AnyEvent methods 1014As a module author, you should C<use AnyEvent> and call AnyEvent methods
280freely, but you should not load a specific event module or rely on it. 1015freely, but you should not load a specific event module or rely on it.
281 1016
282Be careful when you create watchers in the module body - Anyevent will 1017Be careful when you create watchers in the module body - AnyEvent will
283decide which event module to use as soon as the first method is called, so 1018decide which event module to use as soon as the first method is called, so
284by calling AnyEvent in your module body you force the user of your module 1019by calling AnyEvent in your module body you force the user of your module
285to load the event module first. 1020to load the event module first.
286 1021
1022Never call C<< ->recv >> on a condition variable unless you I<know> that
1023the C<< ->send >> method has been called on it already. This is
1024because it will stall the whole program, and the whole point of using
1025events is to stay interactive.
1026
1027It is fine, however, to call C<< ->recv >> when the user of your module
1028requests it (i.e. if you create a http request object ad have a method
1029called C<results> that returns the results, it may call C<< ->recv >>
1030freely, as the user of your module knows what she is doing. Always).
1031
287=head1 WHAT TO DO IN THE MAIN PROGRAM 1032=head1 WHAT TO DO IN THE MAIN PROGRAM
288 1033
289There will always be a single main program - the only place that should 1034There will always be a single main program - the only place that should
290dictate which event model to use. 1035dictate which event model to use.
291 1036
292If it doesn't care, it can just "use AnyEvent" and use it itself, or not 1037If the program is not event-based, it need not do anything special, even
293do anything special and let AnyEvent decide which implementation to chose. 1038when it depends on a module that uses an AnyEvent. If the program itself
1039uses AnyEvent, but does not care which event loop is used, all it needs
1040to do is C<use AnyEvent>. In either case, AnyEvent will choose the best
1041available loop implementation.
294 1042
295If the main program relies on a specific event model (for example, in Gtk2 1043If the main program relies on a specific event model - for example, in
296programs you have to rely on either Glib or Glib::Event), you should load 1044Gtk2 programs you have to rely on the Glib module - you should load the
297it before loading AnyEvent or any module that uses it, generally, as early 1045event module before loading AnyEvent or any module that uses it: generally
298as possible. The reason is that modules might create watchers when they 1046speaking, you should load it as early as possible. The reason is that
299are loaded, and AnyEvent will decide on the event model to use as soon as 1047modules might create watchers when they are loaded, and AnyEvent will
300it creates watchers, and it might chose the wrong one unless you load the 1048decide on the event model to use as soon as it creates watchers, and it
301correct one yourself. 1049might choose the wrong one unless you load the correct one yourself.
302 1050
303You can chose to use a rather inefficient pure-perl implementation by 1051You can chose to use a pure-perl implementation by loading the
304loading the C<AnyEvent::Impl::Perl> module, but letting AnyEvent chose is 1052C<AnyEvent::Loop> module, which gives you similar behaviour
305generally better. 1053everywhere, but letting AnyEvent chose the model is generally better.
1054
1055=head2 MAINLOOP EMULATION
1056
1057Sometimes (often for short test scripts, or even standalone programs who
1058only want to use AnyEvent), you do not want to run a specific event loop.
1059
1060In that case, you can use a condition variable like this:
1061
1062 AnyEvent->condvar->recv;
1063
1064This has the effect of entering the event loop and looping forever.
1065
1066Note that usually your program has some exit condition, in which case
1067it is better to use the "traditional" approach of storing a condition
1068variable somewhere, waiting for it, and sending it when the program should
1069exit cleanly.
1070
1071
1072=head1 OTHER MODULES
1073
1074The following is a non-exhaustive list of additional modules that use
1075AnyEvent as a client and can therefore be mixed easily with other AnyEvent
1076modules and other event loops in the same program. Some of the modules
1077come as part of AnyEvent, the others are available via CPAN.
1078
1079=over 4
1080
1081=item L<AnyEvent::Util>
1082
1083Contains various utility functions that replace often-used blocking
1084functions such as C<inet_aton> with event/callback-based versions.
1085
1086=item L<AnyEvent::Socket>
1087
1088Provides various utility functions for (internet protocol) sockets,
1089addresses and name resolution. Also functions to create non-blocking tcp
1090connections or tcp servers, with IPv6 and SRV record support and more.
1091
1092=item L<AnyEvent::Handle>
1093
1094Provide read and write buffers, manages watchers for reads and writes,
1095supports raw and formatted I/O, I/O queued and fully transparent and
1096non-blocking SSL/TLS (via L<AnyEvent::TLS>).
1097
1098=item L<AnyEvent::DNS>
1099
1100Provides rich asynchronous DNS resolver capabilities.
1101
1102=item L<AnyEvent::HTTP>, L<AnyEvent::IRC>, L<AnyEvent::XMPP>, L<AnyEvent::GPSD>, L<AnyEvent::IGS>, L<AnyEvent::FCP>
1103
1104Implement event-based interfaces to the protocols of the same name (for
1105the curious, IGS is the International Go Server and FCP is the Freenet
1106Client Protocol).
1107
1108=item L<AnyEvent::Handle::UDP>
1109
1110Here be danger!
1111
1112As Pauli would put it, "Not only is it not right, it's not even wrong!" -
1113there are so many things wrong with AnyEvent::Handle::UDP, most notably
1114its use of a stream-based API with a protocol that isn't streamable, that
1115the only way to improve it is to delete it.
1116
1117It features data corruption (but typically only under load) and general
1118confusion. On top, the author is not only clueless about UDP but also
1119fact-resistant - some gems of his understanding: "connect doesn't work
1120with UDP", "UDP packets are not IP packets", "UDP only has datagrams, not
1121packets", "I don't need to implement proper error checking as UDP doesn't
1122support error checking" and so on - he doesn't even understand what's
1123wrong with his module when it is explained to him.
1124
1125=item L<AnyEvent::DBI>
1126
1127Executes L<DBI> requests asynchronously in a proxy process for you,
1128notifying you in an event-based way when the operation is finished.
1129
1130=item L<AnyEvent::AIO>
1131
1132Truly asynchronous (as opposed to non-blocking) I/O, should be in the
1133toolbox of every event programmer. AnyEvent::AIO transparently fuses
1134L<IO::AIO> and AnyEvent together, giving AnyEvent access to event-based
1135file I/O, and much more.
1136
1137=item L<AnyEvent::HTTPD>
1138
1139A simple embedded webserver.
1140
1141=item L<AnyEvent::FastPing>
1142
1143The fastest ping in the west.
1144
1145=item L<Coro>
1146
1147Has special support for AnyEvent via L<Coro::AnyEvent>.
1148
1149=back
306 1150
307=cut 1151=cut
308 1152
309package AnyEvent; 1153package AnyEvent;
310 1154
311no warnings; 1155# basically a tuned-down version of common::sense
312use strict; 1156sub common_sense {
1157 # from common:.sense 3.4
1158 ${^WARNING_BITS} ^= ${^WARNING_BITS} ^ "\x3c\x3f\x33\x00\x0f\xf0\x0f\xc0\xf0\xfc\x33\x00";
1159 # use strict vars subs - NO UTF-8, as Util.pm doesn't like this atm. (uts46data.pl)
1160 $^H |= 0x00000600;
1161}
313 1162
1163BEGIN { AnyEvent::common_sense }
1164
314use Carp; 1165use Carp ();
315 1166
316our $VERSION = '3.0'; 1167our $VERSION = '5.34';
317our $MODEL; 1168our $MODEL;
318 1169
319our $AUTOLOAD; 1170our $AUTOLOAD;
320our @ISA; 1171our @ISA;
321 1172
322our $verbose = $ENV{PERL_ANYEVENT_VERBOSE}*1;
323
324our @REGISTRY; 1173our @REGISTRY;
325 1174
1175our $VERBOSE;
1176
1177BEGIN {
1178 require "AnyEvent/constants.pl";
1179
1180 eval "sub TAINT (){" . (${^TAINT}*1) . "}";
1181
1182 delete @ENV{grep /^PERL_ANYEVENT_/, keys %ENV}
1183 if ${^TAINT};
1184
1185 $VERBOSE = $ENV{PERL_ANYEVENT_VERBOSE}*1;
1186
1187}
1188
1189our $MAX_SIGNAL_LATENCY = 10;
1190
1191our %PROTOCOL; # (ipv4|ipv6) => (1|2), higher numbers are preferred
1192
1193{
1194 my $idx;
1195 $PROTOCOL{$_} = ++$idx
1196 for reverse split /\s*,\s*/,
1197 $ENV{PERL_ANYEVENT_PROTOCOLS} || "ipv4,ipv6";
1198}
1199
326my @models = ( 1200my @models = (
327 [Coro::EV:: => AnyEvent::Impl::CoroEV::],
328 [EV:: => AnyEvent::Impl::EV::], 1201 [EV:: => AnyEvent::Impl::EV:: , 1],
329 [Coro::Event:: => AnyEvent::Impl::CoroEvent::], 1202 [AnyEvent::Loop:: => AnyEvent::Impl::Perl:: , 1],
1203 # everything below here will not (normally) be autoprobed
1204 # as the pure perl backend should work everywhere
1205 # and is usually faster
330 [Event:: => AnyEvent::Impl::Event::], 1206 [Event:: => AnyEvent::Impl::Event::, 1],
331 [Glib:: => AnyEvent::Impl::Glib::], 1207 [Glib:: => AnyEvent::Impl::Glib:: , 1], # becomes extremely slow with many watchers
1208 [Event::Lib:: => AnyEvent::Impl::EventLib::], # too buggy
1209 [Irssi:: => AnyEvent::Impl::Irssi::], # Irssi has a bogus "Event" package
1210 [Tk:: => AnyEvent::Impl::Tk::], # crashes with many handles
1211 [Qt:: => AnyEvent::Impl::Qt::], # requires special main program
1212 [POE::Kernel:: => AnyEvent::Impl::POE::], # lasciate ogni speranza
332 [Tk:: => AnyEvent::Impl::Tk::], 1213 [Wx:: => AnyEvent::Impl::POE::],
333 [AnyEvent::Impl::Perl:: => AnyEvent::Impl::Perl::], 1214 [Prima:: => AnyEvent::Impl::POE::],
1215 [IO::Async::Loop:: => AnyEvent::Impl::IOAsync::],
1216 [Cocoa::EventLoop:: => AnyEvent::Impl::Cocoa::],
1217 [FLTK:: => AnyEvent::Impl::FLTK::],
334); 1218);
335 1219
336our %method = map +($_ => 1), qw(io timer condvar broadcast wait signal one_event DESTROY); 1220our %method = map +($_ => 1),
1221 qw(io timer time now now_update signal child idle condvar DESTROY);
1222
1223our @post_detect;
1224
1225sub post_detect(&) {
1226 my ($cb) = @_;
1227
1228 push @post_detect, $cb;
1229
1230 defined wantarray
1231 ? bless \$cb, "AnyEvent::Util::postdetect"
1232 : ()
1233}
1234
1235sub AnyEvent::Util::postdetect::DESTROY {
1236 @post_detect = grep $_ != ${$_[0]}, @post_detect;
1237}
337 1238
338sub detect() { 1239sub detect() {
1240 # free some memory
1241 *detect = sub () { $MODEL };
1242
1243 local $!; # for good measure
1244 local $SIG{__DIE__};
1245
1246 if ($ENV{PERL_ANYEVENT_MODEL} =~ /^([a-zA-Z]+)$/) {
1247 my $model = "AnyEvent::Impl::$1";
1248 if (eval "require $model") {
1249 $MODEL = $model;
1250 warn "AnyEvent: loaded model '$model' (forced by \$ENV{PERL_ANYEVENT_MODEL}), using it.\n" if $VERBOSE >= 2;
1251 } else {
1252 warn "AnyEvent: unable to load model '$model' (from \$ENV{PERL_ANYEVENT_MODEL}):\n$@" if $VERBOSE;
1253 }
1254 }
1255
1256 # check for already loaded models
339 unless ($MODEL) { 1257 unless ($MODEL) {
340 no strict 'refs';
341
342 # check for already loaded models
343 for (@REGISTRY, @models) { 1258 for (@REGISTRY, @models) {
344 my ($package, $model) = @$_; 1259 my ($package, $model) = @$_;
345 if (${"$package\::VERSION"} > 0) { 1260 if (${"$package\::VERSION"} > 0) {
346 if (eval "require $model") { 1261 if (eval "require $model") {
347 $MODEL = $model; 1262 $MODEL = $model;
348 warn "AnyEvent: found model '$model', using it.\n" if $verbose > 1; 1263 warn "AnyEvent: autodetected model '$model', using it.\n" if $VERBOSE >= 2;
349 last; 1264 last;
350 } 1265 }
351 } 1266 }
352 } 1267 }
353 1268
354 unless ($MODEL) { 1269 unless ($MODEL) {
355 # try to load a model 1270 # try to autoload a model
356
357 for (@REGISTRY, @models) { 1271 for (@REGISTRY, @models) {
358 my ($package, $model) = @$_; 1272 my ($package, $model, $autoload) = @$_;
1273 if (
1274 $autoload
359 if (eval "require $package" 1275 and eval "require $package"
360 and ${"$package\::VERSION"} > 0 1276 and ${"$package\::VERSION"} > 0
361 and eval "require $model") { 1277 and eval "require $model"
1278 ) {
362 $MODEL = $model; 1279 $MODEL = $model;
363 warn "AnyEvent: autoprobed and loaded model '$model', using it.\n" if $verbose > 1; 1280 warn "AnyEvent: autoloaded model '$model', using it.\n" if $VERBOSE >= 2;
364 last; 1281 last;
365 } 1282 }
366 } 1283 }
367 1284
368 $MODEL 1285 $MODEL
369 or die "No event module selected for AnyEvent and autodetect failed. Install any one of these modules: EV (or Coro+EV), Event (or Coro+Event), Glib or Tk."; 1286 or die "AnyEvent: backend autodetection failed - did you properly install AnyEvent?\n";
370 } 1287 }
371
372 unshift @ISA, $MODEL;
373 push @{"$MODEL\::ISA"}, "AnyEvent::Base";
374 } 1288 }
1289
1290 @models = (); # free probe data
1291
1292 push @{"$MODEL\::ISA"}, "AnyEvent::Base";
1293 unshift @ISA, $MODEL;
1294
1295 # now nuke some methods that are overridden by the backend.
1296 # SUPER is not allowed.
1297 for (qw(time signal child idle)) {
1298 undef &{"AnyEvent::Base::$_"}
1299 if defined &{"$MODEL\::$_"};
1300 }
1301
1302 if ($ENV{PERL_ANYEVENT_STRICT}) {
1303 eval { require AnyEvent::Strict };
1304 warn "AnyEvent: cannot load AnyEvent::Strict: $@"
1305 if $@ && $VERBOSE;
1306 }
1307
1308 (shift @post_detect)->() while @post_detect;
1309
1310 *post_detect = sub(&) {
1311 shift->();
1312
1313 undef
1314 };
375 1315
376 $MODEL 1316 $MODEL
377} 1317}
378 1318
379sub AUTOLOAD { 1319sub AUTOLOAD {
380 (my $func = $AUTOLOAD) =~ s/.*://; 1320 (my $func = $AUTOLOAD) =~ s/.*://;
381 1321
382 $method{$func} 1322 $method{$func}
383 or croak "$func: not a valid method for AnyEvent objects"; 1323 or Carp::croak "$func: not a valid AnyEvent class method";
384 1324
385 detect unless $MODEL; 1325 detect;
386 1326
387 my $class = shift; 1327 my $class = shift;
388 $class->$func (@_); 1328 $class->$func (@_);
389} 1329}
390 1330
1331# utility function to dup a filehandle. this is used by many backends
1332# to support binding more than one watcher per filehandle (they usually
1333# allow only one watcher per fd, so we dup it to get a different one).
1334sub _dupfh($$;$$) {
1335 my ($poll, $fh, $r, $w) = @_;
1336
1337 # cygwin requires the fh mode to be matching, unix doesn't
1338 my ($rw, $mode) = $poll eq "r" ? ($r, "<&") : ($w, ">&");
1339
1340 open my $fh2, $mode, $fh
1341 or die "AnyEvent->io: cannot dup() filehandle in mode '$poll': $!,";
1342
1343 # we assume CLOEXEC is already set by perl in all important cases
1344
1345 ($fh2, $rw)
1346}
1347
1348=head1 SIMPLIFIED AE API
1349
1350Starting with version 5.0, AnyEvent officially supports a second, much
1351simpler, API that is designed to reduce the calling, typing and memory
1352overhead by using function call syntax and a fixed number of parameters.
1353
1354See the L<AE> manpage for details.
1355
1356=cut
1357
1358package AE;
1359
1360our $VERSION = $AnyEvent::VERSION;
1361
1362# fall back to the main API by default - backends and AnyEvent::Base
1363# implementations can overwrite these.
1364
1365sub io($$$) {
1366 AnyEvent->io (fh => $_[0], poll => $_[1] ? "w" : "r", cb => $_[2])
1367}
1368
1369sub timer($$$) {
1370 AnyEvent->timer (after => $_[0], interval => $_[1], cb => $_[2])
1371}
1372
1373sub signal($$) {
1374 AnyEvent->signal (signal => $_[0], cb => $_[1])
1375}
1376
1377sub child($$) {
1378 AnyEvent->child (pid => $_[0], cb => $_[1])
1379}
1380
1381sub idle($) {
1382 AnyEvent->idle (cb => $_[0])
1383}
1384
1385sub cv(;&) {
1386 AnyEvent->condvar (@_ ? (cb => $_[0]) : ())
1387}
1388
1389sub now() {
1390 AnyEvent->now
1391}
1392
1393sub now_update() {
1394 AnyEvent->now_update
1395}
1396
1397sub time() {
1398 AnyEvent->time
1399}
1400
391package AnyEvent::Base; 1401package AnyEvent::Base;
392 1402
1403# default implementations for many methods
1404
1405sub time {
1406 eval q{ # poor man's autoloading {}
1407 # probe for availability of Time::HiRes
1408 if (eval "use Time::HiRes (); Time::HiRes::time (); 1") {
1409 warn "AnyEvent: using Time::HiRes for sub-second timing accuracy.\n" if $VERBOSE >= 8;
1410 *AE::time = \&Time::HiRes::time;
1411 # if (eval "use POSIX (); (POSIX::times())...
1412 } else {
1413 warn "AnyEvent: using built-in time(), WARNING, no sub-second resolution!\n" if $VERBOSE;
1414 *AE::time = sub (){ time }; # epic fail
1415 }
1416
1417 *time = sub { AE::time }; # different prototypes
1418 };
1419 die if $@;
1420
1421 &time
1422}
1423
1424*now = \&time;
1425
1426sub now_update { }
1427
1428sub _poll {
1429 Carp::croak "$AnyEvent::MODEL does not support blocking waits. Caught";
1430}
1431
393# default implementation for ->condvar, ->wait, ->broadcast 1432# default implementation for ->condvar
1433# in fact,t he default should not be overwritten
394 1434
395sub condvar { 1435sub condvar {
396 bless \my $flag, "AnyEvent::Base::CondVar" 1436 eval q{ # poor man's autoloading {}
397} 1437 *condvar = sub {
1438 bless { @_ == 3 ? (_ae_cb => $_[2]) : () }, "AnyEvent::CondVar"
1439 };
398 1440
399sub AnyEvent::Base::CondVar::broadcast { 1441 *AE::cv = sub (;&) {
400 ${$_[0]}++; 1442 bless { @_ ? (_ae_cb => shift) : () }, "AnyEvent::CondVar"
401} 1443 };
1444 };
1445 die if $@;
402 1446
403sub AnyEvent::Base::CondVar::wait { 1447 &condvar
404 AnyEvent->one_event while !${$_[0]};
405} 1448}
406 1449
407# default implementation for ->signal 1450# default implementation for ->signal
408 1451
409our %SIG_CB; 1452our $HAVE_ASYNC_INTERRUPT;
1453
1454sub _have_async_interrupt() {
1455 $HAVE_ASYNC_INTERRUPT = 1*(!$ENV{PERL_ANYEVENT_AVOID_ASYNC_INTERRUPT}
1456 && eval "use Async::Interrupt 1.02 (); 1")
1457 unless defined $HAVE_ASYNC_INTERRUPT;
1458
1459 $HAVE_ASYNC_INTERRUPT
1460}
1461
1462our ($SIGPIPE_R, $SIGPIPE_W, %SIG_CB, %SIG_EV, $SIG_IO);
1463our (%SIG_ASY, %SIG_ASY_W);
1464our ($SIG_COUNT, $SIG_TW);
1465
1466# install a dummy wakeup watcher to reduce signal catching latency
1467# used by Impls
1468sub _sig_add() {
1469 unless ($SIG_COUNT++) {
1470 # try to align timer on a full-second boundary, if possible
1471 my $NOW = AE::now;
1472
1473 $SIG_TW = AE::timer
1474 $MAX_SIGNAL_LATENCY - ($NOW - int $NOW),
1475 $MAX_SIGNAL_LATENCY,
1476 sub { } # just for the PERL_ASYNC_CHECK
1477 ;
1478 }
1479}
1480
1481sub _sig_del {
1482 undef $SIG_TW
1483 unless --$SIG_COUNT;
1484}
1485
1486our $_sig_name_init; $_sig_name_init = sub {
1487 eval q{ # poor man's autoloading {}
1488 undef $_sig_name_init;
1489
1490 if (_have_async_interrupt) {
1491 *sig2num = \&Async::Interrupt::sig2num;
1492 *sig2name = \&Async::Interrupt::sig2name;
1493 } else {
1494 require Config;
1495
1496 my %signame2num;
1497 @signame2num{ split ' ', $Config::Config{sig_name} }
1498 = split ' ', $Config::Config{sig_num};
1499
1500 my @signum2name;
1501 @signum2name[values %signame2num] = keys %signame2num;
1502
1503 *sig2num = sub($) {
1504 $_[0] > 0 ? shift : $signame2num{+shift}
1505 };
1506 *sig2name = sub ($) {
1507 $_[0] > 0 ? $signum2name[+shift] : shift
1508 };
1509 }
1510 };
1511 die if $@;
1512};
1513
1514sub sig2num ($) { &$_sig_name_init; &sig2num }
1515sub sig2name($) { &$_sig_name_init; &sig2name }
410 1516
411sub signal { 1517sub signal {
1518 eval q{ # poor man's autoloading {}
1519 # probe for availability of Async::Interrupt
1520 if (_have_async_interrupt) {
1521 warn "AnyEvent: using Async::Interrupt for race-free signal handling.\n" if $VERBOSE >= 8;
1522
1523 $SIGPIPE_R = new Async::Interrupt::EventPipe;
1524 $SIG_IO = AE::io $SIGPIPE_R->fileno, 0, \&_signal_exec;
1525
1526 } else {
1527 warn "AnyEvent: using emulated perl signal handling with latency timer.\n" if $VERBOSE >= 8;
1528
1529 if (AnyEvent::WIN32) {
1530 require AnyEvent::Util;
1531
1532 ($SIGPIPE_R, $SIGPIPE_W) = AnyEvent::Util::portable_pipe ();
1533 AnyEvent::Util::fh_nonblocking ($SIGPIPE_R, 1) if $SIGPIPE_R;
1534 AnyEvent::Util::fh_nonblocking ($SIGPIPE_W, 1) if $SIGPIPE_W; # just in case
1535 } else {
1536 pipe $SIGPIPE_R, $SIGPIPE_W;
1537 fcntl $SIGPIPE_R, AnyEvent::F_SETFL, AnyEvent::O_NONBLOCK if $SIGPIPE_R;
1538 fcntl $SIGPIPE_W, AnyEvent::F_SETFL, AnyEvent::O_NONBLOCK if $SIGPIPE_W; # just in case
1539
1540 # not strictly required, as $^F is normally 2, but let's make sure...
1541 fcntl $SIGPIPE_R, AnyEvent::F_SETFD, AnyEvent::FD_CLOEXEC;
1542 fcntl $SIGPIPE_W, AnyEvent::F_SETFD, AnyEvent::FD_CLOEXEC;
1543 }
1544
1545 $SIGPIPE_R
1546 or Carp::croak "AnyEvent: unable to create a signal reporting pipe: $!\n";
1547
1548 $SIG_IO = AE::io $SIGPIPE_R, 0, \&_signal_exec;
1549 }
1550
1551 *signal = $HAVE_ASYNC_INTERRUPT
1552 ? sub {
412 my (undef, %arg) = @_; 1553 my (undef, %arg) = @_;
413 1554
1555 # async::interrupt
414 my $signal = uc $arg{signal} 1556 my $signal = sig2num $arg{signal};
415 or Carp::croak "required option 'signal' is missing";
416
417 $SIG_CB{$signal}{$arg{cb}} = $arg{cb}; 1557 $SIG_CB{$signal}{$arg{cb}} = $arg{cb};
1558
1559 $SIG_ASY{$signal} ||= new Async::Interrupt
1560 cb => sub { undef $SIG_EV{$signal} },
1561 signal => $signal,
1562 pipe => [$SIGPIPE_R->filenos],
1563 pipe_autodrain => 0,
1564 ;
1565
1566 bless [$signal, $arg{cb}], "AnyEvent::Base::signal"
1567 }
1568 : sub {
1569 my (undef, %arg) = @_;
1570
1571 # pure perl
1572 my $signal = sig2name $arg{signal};
1573 $SIG_CB{$signal}{$arg{cb}} = $arg{cb};
1574
418 $SIG{$signal} ||= sub { 1575 $SIG{$signal} ||= sub {
1576 local $!;
1577 syswrite $SIGPIPE_W, "\x00", 1 unless %SIG_EV;
1578 undef $SIG_EV{$signal};
1579 };
1580
1581 # can't do signal processing without introducing races in pure perl,
1582 # so limit the signal latency.
1583 _sig_add;
1584
1585 bless [$signal, $arg{cb}], "AnyEvent::Base::signal"
1586 }
1587 ;
1588
1589 *AnyEvent::Base::signal::DESTROY = sub {
1590 my ($signal, $cb) = @{$_[0]};
1591
1592 _sig_del;
1593
1594 delete $SIG_CB{$signal}{$cb};
1595
1596 $HAVE_ASYNC_INTERRUPT
1597 ? delete $SIG_ASY{$signal}
1598 : # delete doesn't work with older perls - they then
1599 # print weird messages, or just unconditionally exit
1600 # instead of getting the default action.
1601 undef $SIG{$signal}
1602 unless keys %{ $SIG_CB{$signal} };
1603 };
1604
1605 *_signal_exec = sub {
1606 $HAVE_ASYNC_INTERRUPT
1607 ? $SIGPIPE_R->drain
1608 : sysread $SIGPIPE_R, (my $dummy), 9;
1609
1610 while (%SIG_EV) {
1611 for (keys %SIG_EV) {
1612 delete $SIG_EV{$_};
419 $_->() for values %{ $SIG_CB{$signal} || {} }; 1613 $_->() for values %{ $SIG_CB{$_} || {} };
1614 }
1615 }
1616 };
420 }; 1617 };
1618 die if $@;
421 1619
422 bless [$signal, $arg{cb}], "AnyEvent::Base::Signal" 1620 &signal
423}
424
425sub AnyEvent::Base::Signal::DESTROY {
426 my ($signal, $cb) = @{$_[0]};
427
428 delete $SIG_CB{$signal}{$cb};
429
430 $SIG{$signal} = 'DEFAULT' unless keys %{ $SIG_CB{$signal} };
431} 1621}
432 1622
433# default implementation for ->child 1623# default implementation for ->child
434 1624
435our %PID_CB; 1625our %PID_CB;
436our $CHLD_W; 1626our $CHLD_W;
437our $CHLD_DELAY_W; 1627our $CHLD_DELAY_W;
438our $PID_IDLE;
439our $WNOHANG;
440 1628
441sub _child_wait { 1629# used by many Impl's
442 while (0 < (my $pid = waitpid -1, $WNOHANG)) { 1630sub _emit_childstatus($$) {
1631 my (undef, $rpid, $rstatus) = @_;
1632
1633 $_->($rpid, $rstatus)
443 $_->($pid, $?) for (values %{ $PID_CB{$pid} || {} }), 1634 for values %{ $PID_CB{$rpid} || {} },
444 (values %{ $PID_CB{0} || {} }); 1635 values %{ $PID_CB{0} || {} };
1636}
1637
1638sub child {
1639 eval q{ # poor man's autoloading {}
1640 *_sigchld = sub {
1641 my $pid;
1642
1643 AnyEvent->_emit_childstatus ($pid, $?)
1644 while ($pid = waitpid -1, WNOHANG) > 0;
1645 };
1646
1647 *child = sub {
1648 my (undef, %arg) = @_;
1649
1650 my $pid = $arg{pid};
1651 my $cb = $arg{cb};
1652
1653 $PID_CB{$pid}{$cb+0} = $cb;
1654
1655 unless ($CHLD_W) {
1656 $CHLD_W = AE::signal CHLD => \&_sigchld;
1657 # child could be a zombie already, so make at least one round
1658 &_sigchld;
1659 }
1660
1661 bless [$pid, $cb+0], "AnyEvent::Base::child"
1662 };
1663
1664 *AnyEvent::Base::child::DESTROY = sub {
1665 my ($pid, $icb) = @{$_[0]};
1666
1667 delete $PID_CB{$pid}{$icb};
1668 delete $PID_CB{$pid} unless keys %{ $PID_CB{$pid} };
1669
1670 undef $CHLD_W unless keys %PID_CB;
1671 };
1672 };
1673 die if $@;
1674
1675 &child
1676}
1677
1678# idle emulation is done by simply using a timer, regardless
1679# of whether the process is idle or not, and not letting
1680# the callback use more than 50% of the time.
1681sub idle {
1682 eval q{ # poor man's autoloading {}
1683 *idle = sub {
1684 my (undef, %arg) = @_;
1685
1686 my ($cb, $w, $rcb) = $arg{cb};
1687
1688 $rcb = sub {
1689 if ($cb) {
1690 $w = _time;
1691 &$cb;
1692 $w = _time - $w;
1693
1694 # never use more then 50% of the time for the idle watcher,
1695 # within some limits
1696 $w = 0.0001 if $w < 0.0001;
1697 $w = 5 if $w > 5;
1698
1699 $w = AE::timer $w, 0, $rcb;
1700 } else {
1701 # clean up...
1702 undef $w;
1703 undef $rcb;
1704 }
1705 };
1706
1707 $w = AE::timer 0.05, 0, $rcb;
1708
1709 bless \\$cb, "AnyEvent::Base::idle"
1710 };
1711
1712 *AnyEvent::Base::idle::DESTROY = sub {
1713 undef $${$_[0]};
1714 };
1715 };
1716 die if $@;
1717
1718 &idle
1719}
1720
1721package AnyEvent::CondVar;
1722
1723our @ISA = AnyEvent::CondVar::Base::;
1724
1725# only to be used for subclassing
1726sub new {
1727 my $class = shift;
1728 bless AnyEvent->condvar (@_), $class
1729}
1730
1731package AnyEvent::CondVar::Base;
1732
1733#use overload
1734# '&{}' => sub { my $self = shift; sub { $self->send (@_) } },
1735# fallback => 1;
1736
1737# save 300+ kilobytes by dirtily hardcoding overloading
1738${"AnyEvent::CondVar::Base::OVERLOAD"}{dummy}++; # Register with magic by touching.
1739*{'AnyEvent::CondVar::Base::()'} = sub { }; # "Make it findable via fetchmethod."
1740*{'AnyEvent::CondVar::Base::(&{}'} = sub { my $self = shift; sub { $self->send (@_) } }; # &{}
1741${'AnyEvent::CondVar::Base::()'} = 1; # fallback
1742
1743our $WAITING;
1744
1745sub _send {
1746 # nop
1747}
1748
1749sub _wait {
1750 AnyEvent->_poll until $_[0]{_ae_sent};
1751}
1752
1753sub send {
1754 my $cv = shift;
1755 $cv->{_ae_sent} = [@_];
1756 (delete $cv->{_ae_cb})->($cv) if $cv->{_ae_cb};
1757 $cv->_send;
1758}
1759
1760sub croak {
1761 $_[0]{_ae_croak} = $_[1];
1762 $_[0]->send;
1763}
1764
1765sub ready {
1766 $_[0]{_ae_sent}
1767}
1768
1769sub recv {
1770 unless ($_[0]{_ae_sent}) {
1771 $WAITING
1772 and Carp::croak "AnyEvent::CondVar: recursive blocking wait attempted";
1773
1774 local $WAITING = 1;
1775 $_[0]->_wait;
445 } 1776 }
446 1777
447 undef $PID_IDLE; 1778 $_[0]{_ae_croak}
448} 1779 and Carp::croak $_[0]{_ae_croak};
449 1780
450sub _sigchld { 1781 wantarray
451 # make sure we deliver these changes "synchronous" with the event loop. 1782 ? @{ $_[0]{_ae_sent} }
452 $CHLD_DELAY_W ||= AnyEvent->timer (after => 0, cb => sub { 1783 : $_[0]{_ae_sent}[0]
453 undef $CHLD_DELAY_W;
454 &_child_wait;
455 });
456} 1784}
457 1785
458sub child { 1786sub cb {
459 my (undef, %arg) = @_; 1787 my $cv = shift;
460 1788
461 defined (my $pid = $arg{pid} + 0) 1789 @_
462 or Carp::croak "required option 'pid' is missing"; 1790 and $cv->{_ae_cb} = shift
1791 and $cv->{_ae_sent}
1792 and (delete $cv->{_ae_cb})->($cv);
463 1793
464 $PID_CB{$pid}{$arg{cb}} = $arg{cb}; 1794 $cv->{_ae_cb}
465
466 unless ($WNOHANG) {
467 $WNOHANG = eval { require POSIX; &POSIX::WNOHANG } || 1;
468 }
469
470 unless ($CHLD_W) {
471 $CHLD_W = AnyEvent->signal (signal => 'CHLD', cb => \&_sigchld);
472 # child could be a zombie already, so make at least one round
473 &_sigchld;
474 }
475
476 bless [$pid, $arg{cb}], "AnyEvent::Base::Child"
477} 1795}
478 1796
479sub AnyEvent::Base::Child::DESTROY { 1797sub begin {
480 my ($pid, $cb) = @{$_[0]}; 1798 ++$_[0]{_ae_counter};
481 1799 $_[0]{_ae_end_cb} = $_[1] if @_ > 1;
482 delete $PID_CB{$pid}{$cb};
483 delete $PID_CB{$pid} unless keys %{ $PID_CB{$pid} };
484
485 undef $CHLD_W unless keys %PID_CB;
486} 1800}
1801
1802sub end {
1803 return if --$_[0]{_ae_counter};
1804 &{ $_[0]{_ae_end_cb} || sub { $_[0]->send } };
1805}
1806
1807# undocumented/compatibility with pre-3.4
1808*broadcast = \&send;
1809*wait = \&recv;
1810
1811=head1 ERROR AND EXCEPTION HANDLING
1812
1813In general, AnyEvent does not do any error handling - it relies on the
1814caller to do that if required. The L<AnyEvent::Strict> module (see also
1815the C<PERL_ANYEVENT_STRICT> environment variable, below) provides strict
1816checking of all AnyEvent methods, however, which is highly useful during
1817development.
1818
1819As for exception handling (i.e. runtime errors and exceptions thrown while
1820executing a callback), this is not only highly event-loop specific, but
1821also not in any way wrapped by this module, as this is the job of the main
1822program.
1823
1824The pure perl event loop simply re-throws the exception (usually
1825within C<< condvar->recv >>), the L<Event> and L<EV> modules call C<<
1826$Event/EV::DIED->() >>, L<Glib> uses C<< install_exception_handler >> and
1827so on.
1828
1829=head1 ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES
1830
1831The following environment variables are used by this module or its
1832submodules.
1833
1834Note that AnyEvent will remove I<all> environment variables starting with
1835C<PERL_ANYEVENT_> from C<%ENV> when it is loaded while taint mode is
1836enabled.
1837
1838=over 4
1839
1840=item C<PERL_ANYEVENT_VERBOSE>
1841
1842By default, AnyEvent will be completely silent except in fatal
1843conditions. You can set this environment variable to make AnyEvent more
1844talkative.
1845
1846When set to C<1> or higher, causes AnyEvent to warn about unexpected
1847conditions, such as not being able to load the event model specified by
1848C<PERL_ANYEVENT_MODEL>.
1849
1850When set to C<2> or higher, cause AnyEvent to report to STDERR which event
1851model it chooses.
1852
1853When set to C<8> or higher, then AnyEvent will report extra information on
1854which optional modules it loads and how it implements certain features.
1855
1856=item C<PERL_ANYEVENT_STRICT>
1857
1858AnyEvent does not do much argument checking by default, as thorough
1859argument checking is very costly. Setting this variable to a true value
1860will cause AnyEvent to load C<AnyEvent::Strict> and then to thoroughly
1861check the arguments passed to most method calls. If it finds any problems,
1862it will croak.
1863
1864In other words, enables "strict" mode.
1865
1866Unlike C<use strict> (or its modern cousin, C<< use L<common::sense>
1867>>, it is definitely recommended to keep it off in production. Keeping
1868C<PERL_ANYEVENT_STRICT=1> in your environment while developing programs
1869can be very useful, however.
1870
1871=item C<PERL_ANYEVENT_MODEL>
1872
1873This can be used to specify the event model to be used by AnyEvent, before
1874auto detection and -probing kicks in. It must be a string consisting
1875entirely of ASCII letters. The string C<AnyEvent::Impl::> gets prepended
1876and the resulting module name is loaded and if the load was successful,
1877used as event model. If it fails to load AnyEvent will proceed with
1878auto detection and -probing.
1879
1880This functionality might change in future versions.
1881
1882For example, to force the pure perl model (L<AnyEvent::Loop::Perl>) you
1883could start your program like this:
1884
1885 PERL_ANYEVENT_MODEL=Perl perl ...
1886
1887=item C<PERL_ANYEVENT_PROTOCOLS>
1888
1889Used by both L<AnyEvent::DNS> and L<AnyEvent::Socket> to determine preferences
1890for IPv4 or IPv6. The default is unspecified (and might change, or be the result
1891of auto probing).
1892
1893Must be set to a comma-separated list of protocols or address families,
1894current supported: C<ipv4> and C<ipv6>. Only protocols mentioned will be
1895used, and preference will be given to protocols mentioned earlier in the
1896list.
1897
1898This variable can effectively be used for denial-of-service attacks
1899against local programs (e.g. when setuid), although the impact is likely
1900small, as the program has to handle conenction and other failures anyways.
1901
1902Examples: C<PERL_ANYEVENT_PROTOCOLS=ipv4,ipv6> - prefer IPv4 over IPv6,
1903but support both and try to use both. C<PERL_ANYEVENT_PROTOCOLS=ipv4>
1904- only support IPv4, never try to resolve or contact IPv6
1905addresses. C<PERL_ANYEVENT_PROTOCOLS=ipv6,ipv4> support either IPv4 or
1906IPv6, but prefer IPv6 over IPv4.
1907
1908=item C<PERL_ANYEVENT_EDNS0>
1909
1910Used by L<AnyEvent::DNS> to decide whether to use the EDNS0 extension
1911for DNS. This extension is generally useful to reduce DNS traffic, but
1912some (broken) firewalls drop such DNS packets, which is why it is off by
1913default.
1914
1915Setting this variable to C<1> will cause L<AnyEvent::DNS> to announce
1916EDNS0 in its DNS requests.
1917
1918=item C<PERL_ANYEVENT_MAX_FORKS>
1919
1920The maximum number of child processes that C<AnyEvent::Util::fork_call>
1921will create in parallel.
1922
1923=item C<PERL_ANYEVENT_MAX_OUTSTANDING_DNS>
1924
1925The default value for the C<max_outstanding> parameter for the default DNS
1926resolver - this is the maximum number of parallel DNS requests that are
1927sent to the DNS server.
1928
1929=item C<PERL_ANYEVENT_RESOLV_CONF>
1930
1931The file to use instead of F</etc/resolv.conf> (or OS-specific
1932configuration) in the default resolver. When set to the empty string, no
1933default config will be used.
1934
1935=item C<PERL_ANYEVENT_CA_FILE>, C<PERL_ANYEVENT_CA_PATH>.
1936
1937When neither C<ca_file> nor C<ca_path> was specified during
1938L<AnyEvent::TLS> context creation, and either of these environment
1939variables exist, they will be used to specify CA certificate locations
1940instead of a system-dependent default.
1941
1942=item C<PERL_ANYEVENT_AVOID_GUARD> and C<PERL_ANYEVENT_AVOID_ASYNC_INTERRUPT>
1943
1944When these are set to C<1>, then the respective modules are not
1945loaded. Mostly good for testing AnyEvent itself.
1946
1947=back
487 1948
488=head1 SUPPLYING YOUR OWN EVENT MODEL INTERFACE 1949=head1 SUPPLYING YOUR OWN EVENT MODEL INTERFACE
1950
1951This is an advanced topic that you do not normally need to use AnyEvent in
1952a module. This section is only of use to event loop authors who want to
1953provide AnyEvent compatibility.
489 1954
490If you need to support another event library which isn't directly 1955If you need to support another event library which isn't directly
491supported by AnyEvent, you can supply your own interface to it by 1956supported by AnyEvent, you can supply your own interface to it by
492pushing, before the first watcher gets created, the package name of 1957pushing, before the first watcher gets created, the package name of
493the event module and the package name of the interface to use onto 1958the event module and the package name of the interface to use onto
494C<@AnyEvent::REGISTRY>. You can do that before and even without loading 1959C<@AnyEvent::REGISTRY>. You can do that before and even without loading
495AnyEvent. 1960AnyEvent, so it is reasonably cheap.
496 1961
497Example: 1962Example:
498 1963
499 push @AnyEvent::REGISTRY, [urxvt => urxvt::anyevent::]; 1964 push @AnyEvent::REGISTRY, [urxvt => urxvt::anyevent::];
500 1965
501This tells AnyEvent to (literally) use the C<urxvt::anyevent::> 1966This tells AnyEvent to (literally) use the C<urxvt::anyevent::>
502package/class when it finds the C<urxvt> package/module is loaded. When 1967package/class when it finds the C<urxvt> package/module is already loaded.
1968
503AnyEvent is loaded and asked to find a suitable event model, it will 1969When AnyEvent is loaded and asked to find a suitable event model, it
504first check for the presence of urxvt. 1970will first check for the presence of urxvt by trying to C<use> the
1971C<urxvt::anyevent> module.
505 1972
506The class should provide implementations for all watcher types (see 1973The class should provide implementations for all watcher types. See
507L<AnyEvent::Impl::Event> (source code), L<AnyEvent::Impl::Glib> 1974L<AnyEvent::Impl::EV> (source code), L<AnyEvent::Impl::Glib> (Source code)
508(Source code) and so on for actual examples, use C<perldoc -m 1975and so on for actual examples. Use C<perldoc -m AnyEvent::Impl::Glib> to
509AnyEvent::Impl::Glib> to see the sources). 1976see the sources.
510 1977
1978If you don't provide C<signal> and C<child> watchers than AnyEvent will
1979provide suitable (hopefully) replacements.
1980
511The above isn't fictitious, the I<rxvt-unicode> (a.k.a. urxvt) 1981The above example isn't fictitious, the I<rxvt-unicode> (a.k.a. urxvt)
512uses the above line as-is. An interface isn't included in AnyEvent 1982terminal emulator uses the above line as-is. An interface isn't included
513because it doesn't make sense outside the embedded interpreter inside 1983in AnyEvent because it doesn't make sense outside the embedded interpreter
514I<rxvt-unicode>, and it is updated and maintained as part of the 1984inside I<rxvt-unicode>, and it is updated and maintained as part of the
515I<rxvt-unicode> distribution. 1985I<rxvt-unicode> distribution.
516 1986
517I<rxvt-unicode> also cheats a bit by not providing blocking access to 1987I<rxvt-unicode> also cheats a bit by not providing blocking access to
518condition variables: code blocking while waiting for a condition will 1988condition variables: code blocking while waiting for a condition will
519C<die>. This still works with most modules/usages, and blocking calls must 1989C<die>. This still works with most modules/usages, and blocking calls must
520not be in an interactive application, so it makes sense. 1990not be done in an interactive application, so it makes sense.
521 1991
522=head1 ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES
523
524The following environment variables are used by this module:
525
526C<PERL_ANYEVENT_VERBOSE> when set to C<2> or higher, reports which event
527model gets used.
528
529=head1 EXAMPLE 1992=head1 EXAMPLE PROGRAM
530 1993
531The following program uses an io watcher to read data from stdin, a timer 1994The following program uses an I/O watcher to read data from STDIN, a timer
532to display a message once per second, and a condvar to exit the program 1995to display a message once per second, and a condition variable to quit the
533when the user enters quit: 1996program when the user enters quit:
534 1997
535 use AnyEvent; 1998 use AnyEvent;
536 1999
537 my $cv = AnyEvent->condvar; 2000 my $cv = AnyEvent->condvar;
538 2001
539 my $io_watcher = AnyEvent->io (fh => \*STDIN, poll => 'r', cb => sub { 2002 my $io_watcher = AnyEvent->io (
2003 fh => \*STDIN,
2004 poll => 'r',
2005 cb => sub {
540 warn "io event <$_[0]>\n"; # will always output <r> 2006 warn "io event <$_[0]>\n"; # will always output <r>
541 chomp (my $input = <STDIN>); # read a line 2007 chomp (my $input = <STDIN>); # read a line
542 warn "read: $input\n"; # output what has been read 2008 warn "read: $input\n"; # output what has been read
543 $cv->broadcast if $input =~ /^q/i; # quit program if /^q/i 2009 $cv->send if $input =~ /^q/i; # quit program if /^q/i
2010 },
2011 );
2012
2013 my $time_watcher = AnyEvent->timer (after => 1, interval => 1, cb => sub {
2014 warn "timeout\n"; # print 'timeout' at most every second
544 }); 2015 });
545 2016
546 my $time_watcher; # can only be used once
547
548 sub new_timer {
549 $timer = AnyEvent->timer (after => 1, cb => sub {
550 warn "timeout\n"; # print 'timeout' about every second
551 &new_timer; # and restart the time
552 });
553 }
554
555 new_timer; # create first timer
556
557 $cv->wait; # wait until user enters /^q/i 2017 $cv->recv; # wait until user enters /^q/i
558 2018
559=head1 REAL-WORLD EXAMPLE 2019=head1 REAL-WORLD EXAMPLE
560 2020
561Consider the L<Net::FCP> module. It features (among others) the following 2021Consider the L<Net::FCP> module. It features (among others) the following
562API calls, which are to freenet what HTTP GET requests are to http: 2022API calls, which are to freenet what HTTP GET requests are to http:
612 syswrite $txn->{fh}, $txn->{request} 2072 syswrite $txn->{fh}, $txn->{request}
613 or die "connection or write error"; 2073 or die "connection or write error";
614 $txn->{w} = AnyEvent->io (fh => $txn->{fh}, poll => 'r', cb => sub { $txn->fh_ready_r }); 2074 $txn->{w} = AnyEvent->io (fh => $txn->{fh}, poll => 'r', cb => sub { $txn->fh_ready_r });
615 2075
616Again, C<fh_ready_r> waits till all data has arrived, and then stores the 2076Again, C<fh_ready_r> waits till all data has arrived, and then stores the
617result and signals any possible waiters that the request ahs finished: 2077result and signals any possible waiters that the request has finished:
618 2078
619 sysread $txn->{fh}, $txn->{buf}, length $txn->{$buf}; 2079 sysread $txn->{fh}, $txn->{buf}, length $txn->{$buf};
620 2080
621 if (end-of-file or data complete) { 2081 if (end-of-file or data complete) {
622 $txn->{result} = $txn->{buf}; 2082 $txn->{result} = $txn->{buf};
623 $txn->{finished}->broadcast; 2083 $txn->{finished}->send;
624 $txb->{cb}->($txn) of $txn->{cb}; # also call callback 2084 $txb->{cb}->($txn) of $txn->{cb}; # also call callback
625 } 2085 }
626 2086
627The C<result> method, finally, just waits for the finished signal (if the 2087The C<result> method, finally, just waits for the finished signal (if the
628request was already finished, it doesn't wait, of course, and returns the 2088request was already finished, it doesn't wait, of course, and returns the
629data: 2089data:
630 2090
631 $txn->{finished}->wait; 2091 $txn->{finished}->recv;
632 return $txn->{result}; 2092 return $txn->{result};
633 2093
634The actual code goes further and collects all errors (C<die>s, exceptions) 2094The actual code goes further and collects all errors (C<die>s, exceptions)
635that occured during request processing. The C<result> method detects 2095that occurred during request processing. The C<result> method detects
636wether an exception as thrown (it is stored inside the $txn object) 2096whether an exception as thrown (it is stored inside the $txn object)
637and just throws the exception, which means connection errors and other 2097and just throws the exception, which means connection errors and other
638problems get reported tot he code that tries to use the result, not in a 2098problems get reported to the code that tries to use the result, not in a
639random callback. 2099random callback.
640 2100
641All of this enables the following usage styles: 2101All of this enables the following usage styles:
642 2102
6431. Blocking: 21031. Blocking:
644 2104
645 my $data = $fcp->client_get ($url); 2105 my $data = $fcp->client_get ($url);
646 2106
6472. Blocking, but parallelizing: 21072. Blocking, but running in parallel:
648 2108
649 my @datas = map $_->result, 2109 my @datas = map $_->result,
650 map $fcp->txn_client_get ($_), 2110 map $fcp->txn_client_get ($_),
651 @urls; 2111 @urls;
652 2112
653Both blocking examples work without the module user having to know 2113Both blocking examples work without the module user having to know
654anything about events. 2114anything about events.
655 2115
6563a. Event-based in a main program, using any support Event module: 21163a. Event-based in a main program, using any supported event module:
657 2117
658 use Event; 2118 use EV;
659 2119
660 $fcp->txn_client_get ($url)->cb (sub { 2120 $fcp->txn_client_get ($url)->cb (sub {
661 my $txn = shift; 2121 my $txn = shift;
662 my $data = $txn->result; 2122 my $data = $txn->result;
663 ... 2123 ...
664 }); 2124 });
665 2125
666 Event::loop; 2126 EV::loop;
667 2127
6683b. The module user could use AnyEvent, too: 21283b. The module user could use AnyEvent, too:
669 2129
670 use AnyEvent; 2130 use AnyEvent;
671 2131
672 my $quit = AnyEvent->condvar; 2132 my $quit = AnyEvent->condvar;
673 2133
674 $fcp->txn_client_get ($url)->cb (sub { 2134 $fcp->txn_client_get ($url)->cb (sub {
675 ... 2135 ...
676 $quit->broadcast; 2136 $quit->send;
677 }); 2137 });
678 2138
679 $quit->wait; 2139 $quit->recv;
2140
2141
2142=head1 BENCHMARKS
2143
2144To give you an idea of the performance and overheads that AnyEvent adds
2145over the event loops themselves and to give you an impression of the speed
2146of various event loops I prepared some benchmarks.
2147
2148=head2 BENCHMARKING ANYEVENT OVERHEAD
2149
2150Here is a benchmark of various supported event models used natively and
2151through AnyEvent. The benchmark creates a lot of timers (with a zero
2152timeout) and I/O watchers (watching STDOUT, a pty, to become writable,
2153which it is), lets them fire exactly once and destroys them again.
2154
2155Source code for this benchmark is found as F<eg/bench> in the AnyEvent
2156distribution. It uses the L<AE> interface, which makes a real difference
2157for the EV and Perl backends only.
2158
2159=head3 Explanation of the columns
2160
2161I<watcher> is the number of event watchers created/destroyed. Since
2162different event models feature vastly different performances, each event
2163loop was given a number of watchers so that overall runtime is acceptable
2164and similar between tested event loop (and keep them from crashing): Glib
2165would probably take thousands of years if asked to process the same number
2166of watchers as EV in this benchmark.
2167
2168I<bytes> is the number of bytes (as measured by the resident set size,
2169RSS) consumed by each watcher. This method of measuring captures both C
2170and Perl-based overheads.
2171
2172I<create> is the time, in microseconds (millionths of seconds), that it
2173takes to create a single watcher. The callback is a closure shared between
2174all watchers, to avoid adding memory overhead. That means closure creation
2175and memory usage is not included in the figures.
2176
2177I<invoke> is the time, in microseconds, used to invoke a simple
2178callback. The callback simply counts down a Perl variable and after it was
2179invoked "watcher" times, it would C<< ->send >> a condvar once to
2180signal the end of this phase.
2181
2182I<destroy> is the time, in microseconds, that it takes to destroy a single
2183watcher.
2184
2185=head3 Results
2186
2187 name watchers bytes create invoke destroy comment
2188 EV/EV 100000 223 0.47 0.43 0.27 EV native interface
2189 EV/Any 100000 223 0.48 0.42 0.26 EV + AnyEvent watchers
2190 Coro::EV/Any 100000 223 0.47 0.42 0.26 coroutines + Coro::Signal
2191 Perl/Any 100000 431 2.70 0.74 0.92 pure perl implementation
2192 Event/Event 16000 516 31.16 31.84 0.82 Event native interface
2193 Event/Any 16000 1203 42.61 34.79 1.80 Event + AnyEvent watchers
2194 IOAsync/Any 16000 1911 41.92 27.45 16.81 via IO::Async::Loop::IO_Poll
2195 IOAsync/Any 16000 1726 40.69 26.37 15.25 via IO::Async::Loop::Epoll
2196 Glib/Any 16000 1118 89.00 12.57 51.17 quadratic behaviour
2197 Tk/Any 2000 1346 20.96 10.75 8.00 SEGV with >> 2000 watchers
2198 POE/Any 2000 6951 108.97 795.32 14.24 via POE::Loop::Event
2199 POE/Any 2000 6648 94.79 774.40 575.51 via POE::Loop::Select
2200
2201=head3 Discussion
2202
2203The benchmark does I<not> measure scalability of the event loop very
2204well. For example, a select-based event loop (such as the pure perl one)
2205can never compete with an event loop that uses epoll when the number of
2206file descriptors grows high. In this benchmark, all events become ready at
2207the same time, so select/poll-based implementations get an unnatural speed
2208boost.
2209
2210Also, note that the number of watchers usually has a nonlinear effect on
2211overall speed, that is, creating twice as many watchers doesn't take twice
2212the time - usually it takes longer. This puts event loops tested with a
2213higher number of watchers at a disadvantage.
2214
2215To put the range of results into perspective, consider that on the
2216benchmark machine, handling an event takes roughly 1600 CPU cycles with
2217EV, 3100 CPU cycles with AnyEvent's pure perl loop and almost 3000000 CPU
2218cycles with POE.
2219
2220C<EV> is the sole leader regarding speed and memory use, which are both
2221maximal/minimal, respectively. When using the L<AE> API there is zero
2222overhead (when going through the AnyEvent API create is about 5-6 times
2223slower, with other times being equal, so still uses far less memory than
2224any other event loop and is still faster than Event natively).
2225
2226The pure perl implementation is hit in a few sweet spots (both the
2227constant timeout and the use of a single fd hit optimisations in the perl
2228interpreter and the backend itself). Nevertheless this shows that it
2229adds very little overhead in itself. Like any select-based backend its
2230performance becomes really bad with lots of file descriptors (and few of
2231them active), of course, but this was not subject of this benchmark.
2232
2233The C<Event> module has a relatively high setup and callback invocation
2234cost, but overall scores in on the third place.
2235
2236C<IO::Async> performs admirably well, about on par with C<Event>, even
2237when using its pure perl backend.
2238
2239C<Glib>'s memory usage is quite a bit higher, but it features a
2240faster callback invocation and overall ends up in the same class as
2241C<Event>. However, Glib scales extremely badly, doubling the number of
2242watchers increases the processing time by more than a factor of four,
2243making it completely unusable when using larger numbers of watchers
2244(note that only a single file descriptor was used in the benchmark, so
2245inefficiencies of C<poll> do not account for this).
2246
2247The C<Tk> adaptor works relatively well. The fact that it crashes with
2248more than 2000 watchers is a big setback, however, as correctness takes
2249precedence over speed. Nevertheless, its performance is surprising, as the
2250file descriptor is dup()ed for each watcher. This shows that the dup()
2251employed by some adaptors is not a big performance issue (it does incur a
2252hidden memory cost inside the kernel which is not reflected in the figures
2253above).
2254
2255C<POE>, regardless of underlying event loop (whether using its pure perl
2256select-based backend or the Event module, the POE-EV backend couldn't
2257be tested because it wasn't working) shows abysmal performance and
2258memory usage with AnyEvent: Watchers use almost 30 times as much memory
2259as EV watchers, and 10 times as much memory as Event (the high memory
2260requirements are caused by requiring a session for each watcher). Watcher
2261invocation speed is almost 900 times slower than with AnyEvent's pure perl
2262implementation.
2263
2264The design of the POE adaptor class in AnyEvent can not really account
2265for the performance issues, though, as session creation overhead is
2266small compared to execution of the state machine, which is coded pretty
2267optimally within L<AnyEvent::Impl::POE> (and while everybody agrees that
2268using multiple sessions is not a good approach, especially regarding
2269memory usage, even the author of POE could not come up with a faster
2270design).
2271
2272=head3 Summary
2273
2274=over 4
2275
2276=item * Using EV through AnyEvent is faster than any other event loop
2277(even when used without AnyEvent), but most event loops have acceptable
2278performance with or without AnyEvent.
2279
2280=item * The overhead AnyEvent adds is usually much smaller than the overhead of
2281the actual event loop, only with extremely fast event loops such as EV
2282adds AnyEvent significant overhead.
2283
2284=item * You should avoid POE like the plague if you want performance or
2285reasonable memory usage.
2286
2287=back
2288
2289=head2 BENCHMARKING THE LARGE SERVER CASE
2290
2291This benchmark actually benchmarks the event loop itself. It works by
2292creating a number of "servers": each server consists of a socket pair, a
2293timeout watcher that gets reset on activity (but never fires), and an I/O
2294watcher waiting for input on one side of the socket. Each time the socket
2295watcher reads a byte it will write that byte to a random other "server".
2296
2297The effect is that there will be a lot of I/O watchers, only part of which
2298are active at any one point (so there is a constant number of active
2299fds for each loop iteration, but which fds these are is random). The
2300timeout is reset each time something is read because that reflects how
2301most timeouts work (and puts extra pressure on the event loops).
2302
2303In this benchmark, we use 10000 socket pairs (20000 sockets), of which 100
2304(1%) are active. This mirrors the activity of large servers with many
2305connections, most of which are idle at any one point in time.
2306
2307Source code for this benchmark is found as F<eg/bench2> in the AnyEvent
2308distribution. It uses the L<AE> interface, which makes a real difference
2309for the EV and Perl backends only.
2310
2311=head3 Explanation of the columns
2312
2313I<sockets> is the number of sockets, and twice the number of "servers" (as
2314each server has a read and write socket end).
2315
2316I<create> is the time it takes to create a socket pair (which is
2317nontrivial) and two watchers: an I/O watcher and a timeout watcher.
2318
2319I<request>, the most important value, is the time it takes to handle a
2320single "request", that is, reading the token from the pipe and forwarding
2321it to another server. This includes deleting the old timeout and creating
2322a new one that moves the timeout into the future.
2323
2324=head3 Results
2325
2326 name sockets create request
2327 EV 20000 62.66 7.99
2328 Perl 20000 68.32 32.64
2329 IOAsync 20000 174.06 101.15 epoll
2330 IOAsync 20000 174.67 610.84 poll
2331 Event 20000 202.69 242.91
2332 Glib 20000 557.01 1689.52
2333 POE 20000 341.54 12086.32 uses POE::Loop::Event
2334
2335=head3 Discussion
2336
2337This benchmark I<does> measure scalability and overall performance of the
2338particular event loop.
2339
2340EV is again fastest. Since it is using epoll on my system, the setup time
2341is relatively high, though.
2342
2343Perl surprisingly comes second. It is much faster than the C-based event
2344loops Event and Glib.
2345
2346IO::Async performs very well when using its epoll backend, and still quite
2347good compared to Glib when using its pure perl backend.
2348
2349Event suffers from high setup time as well (look at its code and you will
2350understand why). Callback invocation also has a high overhead compared to
2351the C<< $_->() for .. >>-style loop that the Perl event loop uses. Event
2352uses select or poll in basically all documented configurations.
2353
2354Glib is hit hard by its quadratic behaviour w.r.t. many watchers. It
2355clearly fails to perform with many filehandles or in busy servers.
2356
2357POE is still completely out of the picture, taking over 1000 times as long
2358as EV, and over 100 times as long as the Perl implementation, even though
2359it uses a C-based event loop in this case.
2360
2361=head3 Summary
2362
2363=over 4
2364
2365=item * The pure perl implementation performs extremely well.
2366
2367=item * Avoid Glib or POE in large projects where performance matters.
2368
2369=back
2370
2371=head2 BENCHMARKING SMALL SERVERS
2372
2373While event loops should scale (and select-based ones do not...) even to
2374large servers, most programs we (or I :) actually write have only a few
2375I/O watchers.
2376
2377In this benchmark, I use the same benchmark program as in the large server
2378case, but it uses only eight "servers", of which three are active at any
2379one time. This should reflect performance for a small server relatively
2380well.
2381
2382The columns are identical to the previous table.
2383
2384=head3 Results
2385
2386 name sockets create request
2387 EV 16 20.00 6.54
2388 Perl 16 25.75 12.62
2389 Event 16 81.27 35.86
2390 Glib 16 32.63 15.48
2391 POE 16 261.87 276.28 uses POE::Loop::Event
2392
2393=head3 Discussion
2394
2395The benchmark tries to test the performance of a typical small
2396server. While knowing how various event loops perform is interesting, keep
2397in mind that their overhead in this case is usually not as important, due
2398to the small absolute number of watchers (that is, you need efficiency and
2399speed most when you have lots of watchers, not when you only have a few of
2400them).
2401
2402EV is again fastest.
2403
2404Perl again comes second. It is noticeably faster than the C-based event
2405loops Event and Glib, although the difference is too small to really
2406matter.
2407
2408POE also performs much better in this case, but is is still far behind the
2409others.
2410
2411=head3 Summary
2412
2413=over 4
2414
2415=item * C-based event loops perform very well with small number of
2416watchers, as the management overhead dominates.
2417
2418=back
2419
2420=head2 THE IO::Lambda BENCHMARK
2421
2422Recently I was told about the benchmark in the IO::Lambda manpage, which
2423could be misinterpreted to make AnyEvent look bad. In fact, the benchmark
2424simply compares IO::Lambda with POE, and IO::Lambda looks better (which
2425shouldn't come as a surprise to anybody). As such, the benchmark is
2426fine, and mostly shows that the AnyEvent backend from IO::Lambda isn't
2427very optimal. But how would AnyEvent compare when used without the extra
2428baggage? To explore this, I wrote the equivalent benchmark for AnyEvent.
2429
2430The benchmark itself creates an echo-server, and then, for 500 times,
2431connects to the echo server, sends a line, waits for the reply, and then
2432creates the next connection. This is a rather bad benchmark, as it doesn't
2433test the efficiency of the framework or much non-blocking I/O, but it is a
2434benchmark nevertheless.
2435
2436 name runtime
2437 Lambda/select 0.330 sec
2438 + optimized 0.122 sec
2439 Lambda/AnyEvent 0.327 sec
2440 + optimized 0.138 sec
2441 Raw sockets/select 0.077 sec
2442 POE/select, components 0.662 sec
2443 POE/select, raw sockets 0.226 sec
2444 POE/select, optimized 0.404 sec
2445
2446 AnyEvent/select/nb 0.085 sec
2447 AnyEvent/EV/nb 0.068 sec
2448 +state machine 0.134 sec
2449
2450The benchmark is also a bit unfair (my fault): the IO::Lambda/POE
2451benchmarks actually make blocking connects and use 100% blocking I/O,
2452defeating the purpose of an event-based solution. All of the newly
2453written AnyEvent benchmarks use 100% non-blocking connects (using
2454AnyEvent::Socket::tcp_connect and the asynchronous pure perl DNS
2455resolver), so AnyEvent is at a disadvantage here, as non-blocking connects
2456generally require a lot more bookkeeping and event handling than blocking
2457connects (which involve a single syscall only).
2458
2459The last AnyEvent benchmark additionally uses L<AnyEvent::Handle>, which
2460offers similar expressive power as POE and IO::Lambda, using conventional
2461Perl syntax. This means that both the echo server and the client are 100%
2462non-blocking, further placing it at a disadvantage.
2463
2464As you can see, the AnyEvent + EV combination even beats the
2465hand-optimised "raw sockets benchmark", while AnyEvent + its pure perl
2466backend easily beats IO::Lambda and POE.
2467
2468And even the 100% non-blocking version written using the high-level (and
2469slow :) L<AnyEvent::Handle> abstraction beats both POE and IO::Lambda
2470higher level ("unoptimised") abstractions by a large margin, even though
2471it does all of DNS, tcp-connect and socket I/O in a non-blocking way.
2472
2473The two AnyEvent benchmarks programs can be found as F<eg/ae0.pl> and
2474F<eg/ae2.pl> in the AnyEvent distribution, the remaining benchmarks are
2475part of the IO::Lambda distribution and were used without any changes.
2476
2477
2478=head1 SIGNALS
2479
2480AnyEvent currently installs handlers for these signals:
2481
2482=over 4
2483
2484=item SIGCHLD
2485
2486A handler for C<SIGCHLD> is installed by AnyEvent's child watcher
2487emulation for event loops that do not support them natively. Also, some
2488event loops install a similar handler.
2489
2490Additionally, when AnyEvent is loaded and SIGCHLD is set to IGNORE, then
2491AnyEvent will reset it to default, to avoid losing child exit statuses.
2492
2493=item SIGPIPE
2494
2495A no-op handler is installed for C<SIGPIPE> when C<$SIG{PIPE}> is C<undef>
2496when AnyEvent gets loaded.
2497
2498The rationale for this is that AnyEvent users usually do not really depend
2499on SIGPIPE delivery (which is purely an optimisation for shell use, or
2500badly-written programs), but C<SIGPIPE> can cause spurious and rare
2501program exits as a lot of people do not expect C<SIGPIPE> when writing to
2502some random socket.
2503
2504The rationale for installing a no-op handler as opposed to ignoring it is
2505that this way, the handler will be restored to defaults on exec.
2506
2507Feel free to install your own handler, or reset it to defaults.
2508
2509=back
2510
2511=cut
2512
2513undef $SIG{CHLD}
2514 if $SIG{CHLD} eq 'IGNORE';
2515
2516$SIG{PIPE} = sub { }
2517 unless defined $SIG{PIPE};
2518
2519=head1 RECOMMENDED/OPTIONAL MODULES
2520
2521One of AnyEvent's main goals is to be 100% Pure-Perl(tm): only perl (and
2522its built-in modules) are required to use it.
2523
2524That does not mean that AnyEvent won't take advantage of some additional
2525modules if they are installed.
2526
2527This section explains which additional modules will be used, and how they
2528affect AnyEvent's operation.
2529
2530=over 4
2531
2532=item L<Async::Interrupt>
2533
2534This slightly arcane module is used to implement fast signal handling: To
2535my knowledge, there is no way to do completely race-free and quick
2536signal handling in pure perl. To ensure that signals still get
2537delivered, AnyEvent will start an interval timer to wake up perl (and
2538catch the signals) with some delay (default is 10 seconds, look for
2539C<$AnyEvent::MAX_SIGNAL_LATENCY>).
2540
2541If this module is available, then it will be used to implement signal
2542catching, which means that signals will not be delayed, and the event loop
2543will not be interrupted regularly, which is more efficient (and good for
2544battery life on laptops).
2545
2546This affects not just the pure-perl event loop, but also other event loops
2547that have no signal handling on their own (e.g. Glib, Tk, Qt).
2548
2549Some event loops (POE, Event, Event::Lib) offer signal watchers natively,
2550and either employ their own workarounds (POE) or use AnyEvent's workaround
2551(using C<$AnyEvent::MAX_SIGNAL_LATENCY>). Installing L<Async::Interrupt>
2552does nothing for those backends.
2553
2554=item L<EV>
2555
2556This module isn't really "optional", as it is simply one of the backend
2557event loops that AnyEvent can use. However, it is simply the best event
2558loop available in terms of features, speed and stability: It supports
2559the AnyEvent API optimally, implements all the watcher types in XS, does
2560automatic timer adjustments even when no monotonic clock is available,
2561can take avdantage of advanced kernel interfaces such as C<epoll> and
2562C<kqueue>, and is the fastest backend I<by far>. You can even embed
2563L<Glib>/L<Gtk2> in it (or vice versa, see L<EV::Glib> and L<Glib::EV>).
2564
2565If you only use backends that rely on another event loop (e.g. C<Tk>),
2566then this module will do nothing for you.
2567
2568=item L<Guard>
2569
2570The guard module, when used, will be used to implement
2571C<AnyEvent::Util::guard>. This speeds up guards considerably (and uses a
2572lot less memory), but otherwise doesn't affect guard operation much. It is
2573purely used for performance.
2574
2575=item L<JSON> and L<JSON::XS>
2576
2577One of these modules is required when you want to read or write JSON data
2578via L<AnyEvent::Handle>. L<JSON> is also written in pure-perl, but can take
2579advantage of the ultra-high-speed L<JSON::XS> module when it is installed.
2580
2581=item L<Net::SSLeay>
2582
2583Implementing TLS/SSL in Perl is certainly interesting, but not very
2584worthwhile: If this module is installed, then L<AnyEvent::Handle> (with
2585the help of L<AnyEvent::TLS>), gains the ability to do TLS/SSL.
2586
2587=item L<Time::HiRes>
2588
2589This module is part of perl since release 5.008. It will be used when the
2590chosen event library does not come with a timing source of its own. The
2591pure-perl event loop (L<AnyEvent::Loop>) will additionally load it to
2592try to use a monotonic clock for timing stability.
2593
2594=back
2595
2596
2597=head1 FORK
2598
2599Most event libraries are not fork-safe. The ones who are usually are
2600because they rely on inefficient but fork-safe C<select> or C<poll> calls
2601- higher performance APIs such as BSD's kqueue or the dreaded Linux epoll
2602are usually badly thought-out hacks that are incompatible with fork in
2603one way or another. Only L<EV> is fully fork-aware and ensures that you
2604continue event-processing in both parent and child (or both, if you know
2605what you are doing).
2606
2607This means that, in general, you cannot fork and do event processing in
2608the child if the event library was initialised before the fork (which
2609usually happens when the first AnyEvent watcher is created, or the library
2610is loaded).
2611
2612If you have to fork, you must either do so I<before> creating your first
2613watcher OR you must not use AnyEvent at all in the child OR you must do
2614something completely out of the scope of AnyEvent.
2615
2616The problem of doing event processing in the parent I<and> the child
2617is much more complicated: even for backends that I<are> fork-aware or
2618fork-safe, their behaviour is not usually what you want: fork clones all
2619watchers, that means all timers, I/O watchers etc. are active in both
2620parent and child, which is almost never what you want. USing C<exec>
2621to start worker children from some kind of manage rprocess is usually
2622preferred, because it is much easier and cleaner, at the expense of having
2623to have another binary.
2624
2625
2626=head1 SECURITY CONSIDERATIONS
2627
2628AnyEvent can be forced to load any event model via
2629$ENV{PERL_ANYEVENT_MODEL}. While this cannot (to my knowledge) be used to
2630execute arbitrary code or directly gain access, it can easily be used to
2631make the program hang or malfunction in subtle ways, as AnyEvent watchers
2632will not be active when the program uses a different event model than
2633specified in the variable.
2634
2635You can make AnyEvent completely ignore this variable by deleting it
2636before the first watcher gets created, e.g. with a C<BEGIN> block:
2637
2638 BEGIN { delete $ENV{PERL_ANYEVENT_MODEL} }
2639
2640 use AnyEvent;
2641
2642Similar considerations apply to $ENV{PERL_ANYEVENT_VERBOSE}, as that can
2643be used to probe what backend is used and gain other information (which is
2644probably even less useful to an attacker than PERL_ANYEVENT_MODEL), and
2645$ENV{PERL_ANYEVENT_STRICT}.
2646
2647Note that AnyEvent will remove I<all> environment variables starting with
2648C<PERL_ANYEVENT_> from C<%ENV> when it is loaded while taint mode is
2649enabled.
2650
2651
2652=head1 BUGS
2653
2654Perl 5.8 has numerous memleaks that sometimes hit this module and are hard
2655to work around. If you suffer from memleaks, first upgrade to Perl 5.10
2656and check wether the leaks still show up. (Perl 5.10.0 has other annoying
2657memleaks, such as leaking on C<map> and C<grep> but it is usually not as
2658pronounced).
2659
680 2660
681=head1 SEE ALSO 2661=head1 SEE ALSO
682 2662
683Event modules: L<Coro::Event>, L<Coro>, L<Event>, L<Glib::Event>, L<Glib>. 2663Tutorial/Introduction: L<AnyEvent::Intro>.
684 2664
685Implementations: L<AnyEvent::Impl::Coro>, L<AnyEvent::Impl::Event>, L<AnyEvent::Impl::Glib>, L<AnyEvent::Impl::Tk>. 2665FAQ: L<AnyEvent::FAQ>.
686 2666
687Nontrivial usage example: L<Net::FCP>. 2667Utility functions: L<AnyEvent::Util>.
688 2668
689=head1 2669Event modules: L<AnyEvent::Loop>, L<EV>, L<EV::Glib>, L<Glib::EV>,
2670L<Event>, L<Glib::Event>, L<Glib>, L<Tk>, L<Event::Lib>, L<Qt>, L<POE>.
2671
2672Implementations: L<AnyEvent::Impl::EV>, L<AnyEvent::Impl::Event>,
2673L<AnyEvent::Impl::Glib>, L<AnyEvent::Impl::Tk>, L<AnyEvent::Impl::Perl>,
2674L<AnyEvent::Impl::EventLib>, L<AnyEvent::Impl::Qt>,
2675L<AnyEvent::Impl::POE>, L<AnyEvent::Impl::IOAsync>, L<Anyevent::Impl::Irssi>.
2676
2677Non-blocking file handles, sockets, TCP clients and
2678servers: L<AnyEvent::Handle>, L<AnyEvent::Socket>, L<AnyEvent::TLS>.
2679
2680Asynchronous DNS: L<AnyEvent::DNS>.
2681
2682Thread support: L<Coro>, L<Coro::AnyEvent>, L<Coro::EV>, L<Coro::Event>.
2683
2684Nontrivial usage examples: L<AnyEvent::GPSD>, L<AnyEvent::IRC>,
2685L<AnyEvent::HTTP>.
2686
2687
2688=head1 AUTHOR
2689
2690 Marc Lehmann <schmorp@schmorp.de>
2691 http://home.schmorp.de/
690 2692
691=cut 2693=cut
692 2694
6931 26951
694 2696

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