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Revision: 1.381
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# Content
1 =head1 NAME
2
3 AnyEvent - the DBI of event loop programming
4
5 EV, Event, Glib, Tk, Perl, Event::Lib, Irssi, rxvt-unicode, IO::Async, Qt,
6 FLTK and POE are various supported event loops/environments.
7
8 =head1 SYNOPSIS
9
10 use AnyEvent;
11
12 # if you prefer function calls, look at the AE manpage for
13 # an alternative API.
14
15 # file handle or descriptor readable
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) = @_;
31 ...
32 });
33
34 # called when event loop idle (if applicable)
35 my $w = AnyEvent->idle (cb => sub { ... });
36
37 my $w = AnyEvent->condvar; # stores whether a condition was flagged
38 $w->send; # wake up current and all future recv's
39 $w->recv; # enters "main loop" till $condvar gets ->send
40 # use a condvar in callback mode:
41 $w->cb (sub { $_[0]->recv });
42
43 =head1 INTRODUCTION/TUTORIAL
44
45 This manpage is mainly a reference manual. If you are interested
46 in a tutorial or some gentle introduction, have a look at the
47 L<AnyEvent::Intro> manpage.
48
49 =head1 SUPPORT
50
51 An FAQ document is available as L<AnyEvent::FAQ>.
52
53 There also is a mailinglist for discussing all things AnyEvent, and an IRC
54 channel, too.
55
56 See the AnyEvent project page at the B<Schmorpforge Ta-Sa Software
57 Repository>, at L<http://anyevent.schmorp.de>, for more info.
58
59 =head1 WHY YOU SHOULD USE THIS MODULE (OR NOT)
60
61 Glib, POE, IO::Async, Event... CPAN offers event models by the dozen
62 nowadays. So what is different about AnyEvent?
63
64 Executive Summary: AnyEvent is I<compatible>, AnyEvent is I<free of
65 policy> and AnyEvent is I<small and efficient>.
66
67 First and foremost, I<AnyEvent is not an event model> itself, it only
68 interfaces to whatever event model the main program happens to use, in a
69 pragmatic way. For event models and certain classes of immortals alike,
70 the statement "there can only be one" is a bitter reality: In general,
71 only one event loop can be active at the same time in a process. AnyEvent
72 cannot change this, but it can hide the differences between those event
73 loops.
74
75 The goal of AnyEvent is to offer module authors the ability to do event
76 programming (waiting for I/O or timer events) without subscribing to a
77 religion, a way of living, and most importantly: without forcing your
78 module users into the same thing by forcing them to use the same event
79 model you use.
80
81 For modules like POE or IO::Async (which is a total misnomer as it is
82 actually doing all I/O I<synchronously>...), using them in your module is
83 like joining a cult: After you join, you are dependent on them and you
84 cannot use anything else, as they are simply incompatible to everything
85 that isn't them. What's worse, all the potential users of your
86 module are I<also> forced to use the same event loop you use.
87
88 AnyEvent is different: AnyEvent + POE works fine. AnyEvent + Glib works
89 fine. AnyEvent + Tk works fine etc. etc. but none of these work together
90 with the rest: POE + EV? No go. Tk + Event? No go. Again: if your module
91 uses one of those, every user of your module has to use it, too. But if
92 your module uses AnyEvent, it works transparently with all event models it
93 supports (including stuff like IO::Async, as long as those use one of the
94 supported event loops. It is easy to add new event loops to AnyEvent, too,
95 so it is future-proof).
96
97 In addition to being free of having to use I<the one and only true event
98 model>, AnyEvent also is free of bloat and policy: with POE or similar
99 modules, you get an enormous amount of code and strict rules you have to
100 follow. AnyEvent, on the other hand, is lean and to the point, by only
101 offering the functionality that is necessary, in as thin as a wrapper as
102 technically possible.
103
104 Of course, AnyEvent comes with a big (and fully optional!) toolbox
105 of useful functionality, such as an asynchronous DNS resolver, 100%
106 non-blocking connects (even with TLS/SSL, IPv6 and on broken platforms
107 such as Windows) and lots of real-world knowledge and workarounds for
108 platform bugs and differences.
109
110 Now, if you I<do want> lots of policy (this can arguably be somewhat
111 useful) and you want to force your users to use the one and only event
112 model, you should I<not> use this module.
113
114 =head1 DESCRIPTION
115
116 L<AnyEvent> provides a uniform interface to various event loops. This
117 allows module authors to use event loop functionality without forcing
118 module users to use a specific event loop implementation (since more
119 than one event loop cannot coexist peacefully).
120
121 The interface itself is vaguely similar, but not identical to the L<Event>
122 module.
123
124 During the first call of any watcher-creation method, the module tries
125 to detect the currently loaded event loop by probing whether one of the
126 following modules is already loaded: L<EV>, L<AnyEvent::Loop>,
127 L<Event>, L<Glib>, L<Tk>, L<Event::Lib>, L<Qt>, L<POE>. The first one
128 found is used. If none are detected, the module tries to load the first
129 four modules in the order given; but note that if L<EV> is not
130 available, the pure-perl L<AnyEvent::Loop> should always work, so
131 the other two are not normally tried.
132
133 Because AnyEvent first checks for modules that are already loaded, loading
134 an event model explicitly before first using AnyEvent will likely make
135 that model the default. For example:
136
137 use Tk;
138 use AnyEvent;
139
140 # .. AnyEvent will likely default to Tk
141
142 The I<likely> means that, if any module loads another event model and
143 starts using it, all bets are off - this case should be very rare though,
144 as very few modules hardcode event loops without announcing this very
145 loudly.
146
147 The pure-perl implementation of AnyEvent is called C<AnyEvent::Loop>. Like
148 other event modules you can load it explicitly and enjoy the high
149 availability of that event loop :)
150
151 =head1 WATCHERS
152
153 AnyEvent has the central concept of a I<watcher>, which is an object that
154 stores relevant data for each kind of event you are waiting for, such as
155 the callback to call, the file handle to watch, etc.
156
157 These watchers are normal Perl objects with normal Perl lifetime. After
158 creating a watcher it will immediately "watch" for events and invoke the
159 callback when the event occurs (of course, only when the event model
160 is in control).
161
162 Note that B<callbacks must not permanently change global variables>
163 potentially in use by the event loop (such as C<$_> or C<$[>) and that B<<
164 callbacks must not C<die> >>. The former is good programming practice in
165 Perl and the latter stems from the fact that exception handling differs
166 widely between event loops.
167
168 To disable a watcher you have to destroy it (e.g. by setting the
169 variable you store it in to C<undef> or otherwise deleting all references
170 to it).
171
172 All watchers are created by calling a method on the C<AnyEvent> class.
173
174 Many watchers either are used with "recursion" (repeating timers for
175 example), or need to refer to their watcher object in other ways.
176
177 One 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
184 Note that C<my $w; $w => combination. This is necessary because in Perl,
185 my variables are only visible after the statement in which they are
186 declared.
187
188 =head2 I/O WATCHERS
189
190 $w = AnyEvent->io (
191 fh => <filehandle_or_fileno>,
192 poll => <"r" or "w">,
193 cb => <callback>,
194 );
195
196 You can create an I/O watcher by calling the C<< AnyEvent->io >> method
197 with the following mandatory key-value pairs as arguments:
198
199 C<fh> is the Perl I<file handle> (or a naked file descriptor) to watch
200 for events (AnyEvent might or might not keep a reference to this file
201 handle). Note that only file handles pointing to things for which
202 non-blocking operation makes sense are allowed. This includes sockets,
203 most character devices, pipes, fifos and so on, but not for example files
204 or block devices.
205
206 C<poll> must be a string that is either C<r> or C<w>, which creates a
207 watcher waiting for "r"eadable or "w"ritable events, respectively.
208
209 C<cb> is the callback to invoke each time the file handle becomes ready.
210
211 Although the callback might get passed parameters, their value and
212 presence is undefined and you cannot rely on them. Portable AnyEvent
213 callbacks cannot use arguments passed to I/O watcher callbacks.
214
215 The I/O watcher might use the underlying file descriptor or a copy of it.
216 You must not close a file handle as long as any watcher is active on the
217 underlying file descriptor.
218
219 Some event loops issue spurious readiness notifications, so you should
220 always use non-blocking calls when reading/writing from/to your file
221 handles.
222
223 Example: wait for readability of STDIN, then read a line and disable the
224 watcher.
225
226 my $w; $w = AnyEvent->io (fh => \*STDIN, poll => 'r', cb => sub {
227 chomp (my $input = <STDIN>);
228 warn "read: $input\n";
229 undef $w;
230 });
231
232 =head2 TIME WATCHERS
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
242 You can create a time watcher by calling the C<< AnyEvent->timer >>
243 method with the following mandatory arguments:
244
245 C<after> specifies after how many seconds (fractional values are
246 supported) the callback should be invoked. C<cb> is the callback to invoke
247 in that case.
248
249 Although the callback might get passed parameters, their value and
250 presence is undefined and you cannot rely on them. Portable AnyEvent
251 callbacks cannot use arguments passed to time watcher callbacks.
252
253 The callback will normally be invoked only once. If you specify another
254 parameter, C<interval>, as a strictly positive number (> 0), then the
255 callback will be invoked regularly at that interval (in fractional
256 seconds) after the first invocation. If C<interval> is specified with a
257 false value, then it is treated as if it were not specified at all.
258
259 The callback will be rescheduled before invoking the callback, but no
260 attempt is made to avoid timer drift in most backends, so the interval is
261 only approximate.
262
263 Example: fire an event after 7.7 seconds.
264
265 my $w = AnyEvent->timer (after => 7.7, cb => sub {
266 warn "timeout\n";
267 });
268
269 # to cancel the timer:
270 undef $w;
271
272 Example 2: fire an event after 0.5 seconds, then roughly every second.
273
274 my $w = AnyEvent->timer (after => 0.5, interval => 1, cb => sub {
275 warn "timeout\n";
276 };
277
278 =head3 TIMING ISSUES
279
280 There are two ways to handle timers: based on real time (relative, "fire
281 in 10 seconds") and based on wallclock time (absolute, "fire at 12
282 o'clock").
283
284 While most event loops expect timers to specified in a relative way, they
285 use absolute time internally. This makes a difference when your clock
286 "jumps", for example, when ntp decides to set your clock backwards from
287 the wrong date of 2014-01-01 to 2008-01-01, a watcher that is supposed to
288 fire "after a second" might actually take six years to finally fire.
289
290 AnyEvent cannot compensate for this. The only event loop that is conscious
291 of these issues is L<EV>, which offers both relative (ev_timer, based
292 on true relative time) and absolute (ev_periodic, based on wallclock time)
293 timers.
294
295 AnyEvent always prefers relative timers, if available, matching the
296 AnyEvent API.
297
298 AnyEvent has two additional methods that return the "current time":
299
300 =over 4
301
302 =item AnyEvent->time
303
304 This returns the "current wallclock time" as a fractional number of
305 seconds since the Epoch (the same thing as C<time> or C<Time::HiRes::time>
306 return, and the result is guaranteed to be compatible with those).
307
308 It progresses independently of any event loop processing, i.e. each call
309 will check the system clock, which usually gets updated frequently.
310
311 =item AnyEvent->now
312
313 This also returns the "current wallclock time", but unlike C<time>, above,
314 this value might change only once per event loop iteration, depending on
315 the event loop (most return the same time as C<time>, above). This is the
316 time that AnyEvent's timers get scheduled against.
317
318 I<In almost all cases (in all cases if you don't care), this is the
319 function to call when you want to know the current time.>
320
321 This function is also often faster then C<< AnyEvent->time >>, and
322 thus the preferred method if you want some timestamp (for example,
323 L<AnyEvent::Handle> uses this to update its activity timeouts).
324
325 The rest of this section is only of relevance if you try to be very exact
326 with your timing; you can skip it without a bad conscience.
327
328 For a practical example of when these times differ, consider L<Event::Lib>
329 and L<EV> and the following set-up:
330
331 The event loop is running and has just invoked one of your callbacks at
332 time=500 (assume no other callbacks delay processing). In your callback,
333 you wait a second by executing C<sleep 1> (blocking the process for a
334 second) and then (at time=501) you create a relative timer that fires
335 after three seconds.
336
337 With L<Event::Lib>, C<< AnyEvent->time >> and C<< AnyEvent->now >> will
338 both return C<501>, because that is the current time, and the timer will
339 be scheduled to fire at time=504 (C<501> + C<3>).
340
341 With L<EV>, C<< AnyEvent->time >> returns C<501> (as that is the current
342 time), but C<< AnyEvent->now >> returns C<500>, as that is the time the
343 last event processing phase started. With L<EV>, your timer gets scheduled
344 to run at time=503 (C<500> + C<3>).
345
346 In one sense, L<Event::Lib> is more exact, as it uses the current time
347 regardless of any delays introduced by event processing. However, most
348 callbacks do not expect large delays in processing, so this causes a
349 higher drift (and a lot more system calls to get the current time).
350
351 In another sense, L<EV> is more exact, as your timer will be scheduled at
352 the same time, regardless of how long event processing actually took.
353
354 In either case, if you care (and in most cases, you don't), then you
355 can get whatever behaviour you want with any event loop, by taking the
356 difference between C<< AnyEvent->time >> and C<< AnyEvent->now >> into
357 account.
358
359 =item AnyEvent->now_update
360
361 Some event loops (such as L<EV> or L<AnyEvent::Loop>) cache the current
362 time for each loop iteration (see the discussion of L<< AnyEvent->now >>,
363 above).
364
365 When a callback runs for a long time (or when the process sleeps), then
366 this "current" time will differ substantially from the real time, which
367 might affect timers and time-outs.
368
369 When this is the case, you can call this method, which will update the
370 event loop's idea of "current time".
371
372 A typical example would be a script in a web server (e.g. C<mod_perl>) -
373 when mod_perl executes the script, then the event loop will have the wrong
374 idea about the "current time" (being potentially far in the past, when the
375 script ran the last time). In that case you should arrange a call to C<<
376 AnyEvent->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
379 Note 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
387 You can watch for signals using a signal watcher, C<signal> is the signal
388 I<name> in uppercase and without any C<SIG> prefix, C<cb> is the Perl
389 callback to be invoked whenever a signal occurs.
390
391 Although the callback might get passed parameters, their value and
392 presence is undefined and you cannot rely on them. Portable AnyEvent
393 callbacks cannot use arguments passed to signal watcher callbacks.
394
395 Multiple signal occurrences can be clumped together into one callback
396 invocation, and callback invocation will be synchronous. Synchronous means
397 that it might take a while until the signal gets handled by the process,
398 but it is guaranteed not to interrupt any other callbacks.
399
400 The main advantage of using these watchers is that you can share a signal
401 between multiple watchers, and AnyEvent will ensure that signals will not
402 interrupt your program at bad times.
403
404 This watcher might use C<%SIG> (depending on the event loop used),
405 so programs overwriting those signals directly will likely not work
406 correctly.
407
408 Example: exit on SIGINT
409
410 my $w = AnyEvent->signal (signal => "INT", cb => sub { exit 1 });
411
412 =head3 Restart Behaviour
413
414 While restart behaviour is up to the event loop implementation, most will
415 not restart syscalls (that includes L<Async::Interrupt> and AnyEvent's
416 pure perl implementation).
417
418 =head3 Safe/Unsafe Signals
419
420 Perl signals can be either "safe" (synchronous to opcode handling) or
421 "unsafe" (asynchronous) - the former might get delayed indefinitely, the
422 latter might corrupt your memory.
423
424 AnyEvent signal handlers are, in addition, synchronous to the event loop,
425 i.e. they will not interrupt your running perl program but will only be
426 called as part of the normal event handling (just like timer, I/O etc.
427 callbacks, too).
428
429 =head3 Signal Races, Delays and Workarounds
430
431 Many event loops (e.g. Glib, Tk, Qt, IO::Async) do not support attaching
432 callbacks to signals in a generic way, which is a pity, as you cannot
433 do race-free signal handling in perl, requiring C libraries for
434 this. AnyEvent will try to do its best, which means in some cases,
435 signals will be delayed. The maximum time a signal might be delayed is
436 specified in C<$AnyEvent::MAX_SIGNAL_LATENCY> (default: 10 seconds). This
437 variable can be changed only before the first signal watcher is created,
438 and should be left alone otherwise. This variable determines how often
439 AnyEvent polls for signals (in case a wake-up was missed). Higher values
440 will cause fewer spurious wake-ups, which is better for power and CPU
441 saving.
442
443 All these problems can be avoided by installing the optional
444 L<Async::Interrupt> module, which works with most event loops. It will not
445 work 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
447 one-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
453 You can also watch for a child process exit and catch its exit status.
454
455 The child process is specified by the C<pid> argument (on some backends,
456 using C<0> watches for any child process exit, on others this will
457 croak). The watcher will be triggered only when the child process has
458 finished and an exit status is available, not on any trace events
459 (stopped/continued).
460
461 The callback will be called with the pid and exit status (as returned by
462 waitpid), so unlike other watcher types, you I<can> rely on child watcher
463 callback arguments.
464
465 This watcher type works by installing a signal handler for C<SIGCHLD>,
466 and since it cannot be shared, nothing else should use SIGCHLD or reap
467 random child processes (waiting for specific child processes, e.g. inside
468 C<system>, is just fine).
469
470 There is a slight catch to child watchers, however: you usually start them
471 I<after> the child process was created, and this means the process could
472 have exited already (and no SIGCHLD will be sent anymore).
473
474 Not all event models handle this correctly (neither POE nor IO::Async do,
475 see their AnyEvent::Impl manpages for details), but even for event models
476 that I<do> handle this correctly, they usually need to be loaded before
477 the process exits (i.e. before you fork in the first place). AnyEvent's
478 pure perl event loop handles all cases correctly regardless of when you
479 start the watcher.
480
481 This means you cannot create a child watcher as the very first
482 thing in an AnyEvent program, you I<have> to create at least one
483 watcher before you C<fork> the child (alternatively, you can call
484 C<AnyEvent::detect>).
485
486 As most event loops do not support waiting for child events, they will be
487 emulated by AnyEvent in most cases, in which case the latency and race
488 problems mentioned in the description of signal watchers apply.
489
490 Example: 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
512 This will repeatedly invoke the callback after the process becomes idle,
513 until either the watcher is destroyed or new events have been detected.
514
515 Idle watchers are useful when there is a need to do something, but it
516 is not so important (or wise) to do it instantly. The callback will be
517 invoked only when there is "nothing better to do", which is usually
518 defined as "all outstanding events have been handled and no new events
519 have been detected". That means that idle watchers ideally get invoked
520 when the event loop has just polled for new events but none have been
521 detected. Instead of blocking to wait for more events, the idle watchers
522 will be invoked.
523
524 Unfortunately, most event loops do not really support idle watchers (only
525 EV, Event and Glib do it in a usable fashion) - for the rest, AnyEvent
526 will simply call the callback "from time to time".
527
528 Example: read lines from STDIN, but only process them when the
529 program 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
555 If you are familiar with some event loops you will know that all of them
556 require you to run some blocking "loop", "run" or similar function that
557 will actively watch for new events and call your callbacks.
558
559 AnyEvent is slightly different: it expects somebody else to run the event
560 loop and will only block when necessary (usually when told by the user).
561
562 The tool to do that is called a "condition variable", so called because
563 they represent a condition that must become true.
564
565 Now is probably a good time to look at the examples further below.
566
567 Condition variables can be created by calling the C<< AnyEvent->condvar
568 >> method, usually without arguments. The only argument pair allowed is
569 C<cb>, which specifies a callback to be called when the condition variable
570 becomes true, with the condition variable as the first argument (but not
571 the results).
572
573 After creation, the condition variable is "false" until it becomes "true"
574 by calling the C<send> method (or calling the condition variable as if it
575 were a callback, read about the caveats in the description for the C<<
576 ->send >> method).
577
578 Since condition variables are the most complex part of the AnyEvent API, here are
579 some 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
584 of 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,
587 the other side can wait for them, or install a handler that is called when
588 the signal fires.
589
590 =item * Condition variables are like "Merge Points" - points in your program
591 where you merge multiple independent results/control flows into one.
592
593 =item * Condition variables represent a transaction - functions that start
594 some kind of transaction can return them, leaving the caller the choice
595 between waiting in a blocking fashion, or setting a callback.
596
597 =item * Condition variables represent future values, or promises to deliver
598 some result, long before the result is available.
599
600 =back
601
602 Condition variables are very useful to signal that something has finished,
603 for example, if you write a module that does asynchronous http requests,
604 then a condition variable would be the ideal candidate to signal the
605 availability of results. The user can either act when the callback is
606 called or can synchronously C<< ->recv >> for the results.
607
608 You can also use them to simulate traditional event loops - for example,
609 you can block your main program until an event occurs - for example, you
610 could C<< ->recv >> in your main program until the user clicks the Quit
611 button of your app, which would C<< ->send >> the "quit" event.
612
613 Note that condition variables recurse into the event loop - if you have
614 two pieces of code that call C<< ->recv >> in a round-robin fashion, you
615 lose. Therefore, condition variables are good to export to your caller, but
616 you should avoid making a blocking wait yourself, at least in callbacks,
617 as this asks for trouble.
618
619 Condition variables are represented by hash refs in perl, and the keys
620 used by AnyEvent itself are all named C<_ae_XXX> to make subclassing
621 easy (it is often useful to build your own transaction class on top of
622 AnyEvent). To subclass, use C<AnyEvent::CondVar> as base class and call
623 its C<new> method in your own C<new> method.
624
625 There are two "sides" to a condition variable - the "producer side" which
626 eventually calls C<< -> send >>, and the "consumer side", which waits
627 for the send to occur.
628
629 Example: 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
647 Example: wait for a timer, but take advantage of the fact that condition
648 variables are also callable directly.
649
650 my $done = AnyEvent->condvar;
651 my $delay = AnyEvent->timer (after => 5, cb => $done);
652 $done->recv;
653
654 Example: Imagine an API that returns a condvar and doesn't support
655 callbacks. This is how you make a synchronous call, for example from
656 the main program:
657
658 use AnyEvent::CouchDB;
659
660 ...
661
662 my @info = $couchdb->info->recv;
663
664 And this is how you would just set a callback to be called whenever the
665 results are available:
666
667 $couchdb->info->cb (sub {
668 my @info = $_[0]->recv;
669 });
670
671 =head3 METHODS FOR PRODUCERS
672
673 These methods should only be used by the producing side, i.e. the
674 code/module that eventually sends the signal. Note that it is also
675 the producer side which creates the condvar in most cases, but it isn't
676 uncommon for the consumer to create it as well.
677
678 =over 4
679
680 =item $cv->send (...)
681
682 Flag the condition as ready - a running C<< ->recv >> and all further
683 calls to C<recv> will (eventually) return after this method has been
684 called. If nobody is waiting the send will be remembered.
685
686 If a callback has been set on the condition variable, it is called
687 immediately from within send.
688
689 Any arguments passed to the C<send> call will be returned by all
690 future C<< ->recv >> calls.
691
692 Condition variables are overloaded so one can call them directly (as if
693 they were a code reference). Calling them directly is the same as calling
694 C<send>.
695
696 =item $cv->croak ($error)
697
698 Similar to send, but causes all calls to C<< ->recv >> to invoke
699 C<Carp::croak> with the given error message/object/scalar.
700
701 This can be used to signal any errors to the condition variable
702 user/consumer. Doing it this way instead of calling C<croak> directly
703 delays the error detection, but has the overwhelming advantage that it
704 diagnoses the error at the place where the result is expected, and not
705 deep in some event callback with no connection to the actual code causing
706 the problem.
707
708 =item $cv->begin ([group callback])
709
710 =item $cv->end
711
712 These two methods can be used to combine many transactions/events into
713 one. For example, a function that pings many hosts in parallel might want
714 to use a condition variable for the whole process.
715
716 Every call to C<< ->begin >> will increment a counter, and every call to
717 C<< ->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
719 condvar 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
721 be called without any arguments.
722
723 You can think of C<< $cv->send >> giving you an OR condition (one call
724 sends), while C<< $cv->begin >> and C<< $cv->end >> giving you an AND
725 condition (all C<begin> calls must be C<end>'ed before the condvar sends).
726
727 Let's start with a simple example: you have two I/O watchers (for example,
728 STDOUT and STDERR for a program), and you want to wait for both streams to
729 close 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
747 This works because for every event source (EOF on file handle), there is
748 one call to C<begin>, so the condvar waits for all calls to C<end> before
749 sending.
750
751 The ping example mentioned above is slightly more complicated, as the
752 there are results to be passwd back, and the number of tasks that are
753 begun 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
770 This code fragment supposedly pings a number of hosts and calls
771 C<send> after results for all then have have been gathered - in any
772 order. To achieve this, the code issues a call to C<begin> when it starts
773 each ping request and calls C<end> when it has received some result for
774 it. Since C<begin> and C<end> only maintain a counter, the order in which
775 results arrive is not relevant.
776
777 There is an additional bracketing call to C<begin> and C<end> outside the
778 loop, which serves two important purposes: first, it sets the callback
779 to be called once the counter reaches C<0>, and second, it ensures that
780 C<send> is called even when C<no> hosts are being pinged (the loop
781 doesn't execute once).
782
783 This is the general pattern when you "fan out" into multiple (but
784 potentially zero) subrequests: use an outer C<begin>/C<end> pair to set
785 the callback and ensure C<end> is called at least once, and then, for each
786 subrequest you start, call C<begin> and for each subrequest you finish,
787 call C<end>.
788
789 =back
790
791 =head3 METHODS FOR CONSUMERS
792
793 These methods should only be used by the consuming side, i.e. the
794 code awaits the condition.
795
796 =over 4
797
798 =item $cv->recv
799
800 Wait (blocking if necessary) until the C<< ->send >> or C<< ->croak
801 >> methods have been called on C<$cv>, while servicing other watchers
802 normally.
803
804 You can only wait once on a condition - additional calls are valid but
805 will return immediately.
806
807 If an error condition has been set by calling C<< ->croak >>, then this
808 function will call C<croak>.
809
810 In list context, all parameters passed to C<send> will be returned,
811 in scalar context only the first one will be returned.
812
813 Note that doing a blocking wait in a callback is not supported by any
814 event 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
816 condition is detected. This condition can be slightly loosened by using
817 L<Coro::AnyEvent>, which allows you to do a blocking C<< ->recv >> from
818 any thread that doesn't run the event loop itself.
819
820 Not all event models support a blocking wait - some die in that case
821 (programs might want to do that to stay interactive), so I<if you are
822 using this from a module, never require a blocking wait>. Instead, let the
823 caller decide whether the call will block or not (for example, by coupling
824 condition variables with some kind of request results and supporting
825 callbacks so the caller knows that getting the result will not block,
826 while still supporting blocking waits if the caller so desires).
827
828 You can ensure that C<< ->recv >> never blocks by setting a callback and
829 only calling C<< ->recv >> from within that callback (or at a later
830 time). This will work even when the event loop does not support blocking
831 waits otherwise.
832
833 =item $bool = $cv->ready
834
835 Returns true when the condition is "true", i.e. whether C<send> or
836 C<croak> have been called.
837
838 =item $cb = $cv->cb ($cb->($cv))
839
840 This is a mutator function that returns the callback set and optionally
841 replaces it before doing so.
842
843 The callback will be called when the condition becomes "true", i.e. when
844 C<send> or C<croak> are called, with the only argument being the
845 condition variable itself. If the condition is already true, the
846 callback is called immediately when it is set. Calling C<recv> inside
847 the callback or at any later time is guaranteed not to block.
848
849 =back
850
851 =head1 SUPPORTED EVENT LOOPS/BACKENDS
852
853 The available backend classes are (every class has its own manpage):
854
855 =over 4
856
857 =item Backends that are autoprobed when no other event loop can be found.
858
859 EV is the preferred backend when no other event loop seems to be in
860 use. If EV is not installed, then AnyEvent will fall back to its own
861 pure-perl implementation, which is available everywhere as it comes with
862 AnyEvent 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
869 These will be used if they are already loaded when the first watcher
870 is created, in which case it is assumed that the application is using
871 them. This means that AnyEvent will automatically pick the right backend
872 when the main program loads an event module before anything starts to
873 create 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 (fltk 2 binding).
884
885 =item Backends with special needs.
886
887 Qt requires the Qt::Application to be instantiated first, but will
888 otherwise be picked up automatically. As long as the main program
889 instantiates the application before any AnyEvent watchers are created,
890 everything should just work.
891
892 AnyEvent::Impl::Qt based on Qt.
893
894 =item Event loops that are indirectly supported via other backends.
895
896 Some event loops can be supported via other modules:
897
898 There is no direct support for WxWidgets (L<Wx>) or L<Prima>.
899
900 B<WxWidgets> has no support for watching file handles. However, you can
901 use WxWidgets through the POE adaptor, as POE has a Wx backend that simply
902 polls 20 times per second, which was considered to be too horrible to even
903 consider for AnyEvent.
904
905 B<Prima> is not supported as nobody seems to be using it, but it has a POE
906 backend, so it can be supported through POE.
907
908 AnyEvent knows about both L<Prima> and L<Wx>, however, and will try to
909 load L<POE> when detecting them, in the hope that POE will pick them up,
910 in which case everything will be automatic.
911
912 =back
913
914 =head1 GLOBAL VARIABLES AND FUNCTIONS
915
916 These are not normally required to use AnyEvent, but can be useful to
917 write AnyEvent extension modules.
918
919 =over 4
920
921 =item $AnyEvent::MODEL
922
923 Contains C<undef> until the first watcher is being created, before the
924 backend has been autodetected.
925
926 Afterwards it contains the event model that is being used, which is the
927 name of the Perl class implementing the model. This class is usually one
928 of the C<AnyEvent::Impl::xxx> modules, but can be any other class in the
929 case AnyEvent has been extended at runtime (e.g. in I<rxvt-unicode> it
930 will be C<urxvt::anyevent>).
931
932 =item AnyEvent::detect
933
934 Returns C<$AnyEvent::MODEL>, forcing autodetection of the event model
935 if necessary. You should only call this function right before you would
936 have created an AnyEvent watcher anyway, that is, as late as possible at
937 runtime, and not e.g. during initialisation of your module.
938
939 The effect of calling this function is as if a watcher had been created
940 (specifically, actions that happen "when the first watcher is created"
941 happen when calling detetc as well).
942
943 If you need to do some initialisation before AnyEvent watchers are
944 created, use C<post_detect>.
945
946 =item $guard = AnyEvent::post_detect { BLOCK }
947
948 Arranges for the code block to be executed as soon as the event model is
949 autodetected (or immediately if that has already happened).
950
951 The block will be executed I<after> the actual backend has been detected
952 (C<$AnyEvent::MODEL> is set), but I<before> any watchers have been
953 created, so it is possible to e.g. patch C<@AnyEvent::ISA> or do
954 other initialisations - see the sources of L<AnyEvent::Strict> or
955 L<AnyEvent::AIO> to see how this is used.
956
957 The most common usage is to create some global watchers, without forcing
958 event module detection too early, for example, L<AnyEvent::AIO> creates
959 and installs the global L<IO::AIO> watcher in a C<post_detect> block to
960 avoid autodetecting the event module at load time.
961
962 If called in scalar or list context, then it creates and returns an object
963 that automatically removes the callback again when it is destroyed (or
964 C<undef> when the hook was immediately executed). See L<AnyEvent::AIO> for
965 a case where this is useful.
966
967 Example: Create a watcher for the IO::AIO module and store it in
968 C<$WATCHER>, but do so only do so after the event loop is initialised.
969
970 our WATCHER;
971
972 my $guard = AnyEvent::post_detect {
973 $WATCHER = AnyEvent->io (fh => IO::AIO::poll_fileno, poll => 'r', cb => \&IO::AIO::poll_cb);
974 };
975
976 # the ||= is important in case post_detect immediately runs the block,
977 # as to not clobber the newly-created watcher. assigning both watcher and
978 # post_detect guard to the same variable has the advantage of users being
979 # able to just C<undef $WATCHER> if the watcher causes them grief.
980
981 $WATCHER ||= $guard;
982
983 =item @AnyEvent::post_detect
984
985 If there are any code references in this array (you can C<push> to it
986 before or after loading AnyEvent), then they will be called directly
987 after the event loop has been chosen.
988
989 You should check C<$AnyEvent::MODEL> before adding to this array, though:
990 if it is defined then the event loop has already been detected, and the
991 array will be ignored.
992
993 Best use C<AnyEvent::post_detect { BLOCK }> when your application allows
994 it, as it takes care of these details.
995
996 This variable is mainly useful for modules that can do something useful
997 when AnyEvent is used and thus want to know when it is initialised, but do
998 not need to even load it by default. This array provides the means to hook
999 into AnyEvent passively, without loading it.
1000
1001 Example: To load Coro::AnyEvent whenever Coro and AnyEvent are used
1002 together, you could put this into Coro (this is the actual code used by
1003 Coro to accomplish this):
1004
1005 if (defined $AnyEvent::MODEL) {
1006 # AnyEvent already initialised, so load Coro::AnyEvent
1007 require Coro::AnyEvent;
1008 } else {
1009 # AnyEvent not yet initialised, so make sure to load Coro::AnyEvent
1010 # as soon as it is
1011 push @AnyEvent::post_detect, sub { require Coro::AnyEvent };
1012 }
1013
1014 =item AnyEvent::postpone { BLOCK }
1015
1016 Arranges for the block to be executed as soon as possible, but not before
1017 the call itself returns. In practise, the block will be executed just
1018 before the event loop polls for new events, or shortly afterwards.
1019
1020 This function never returns anything (to make the C<return postpone { ...
1021 }> idiom more useful.
1022
1023 To understand the usefulness of this function, consider a function that
1024 asynchronously does something for you and returns some transaction
1025 object or guard to let you cancel the operation. For example,
1026 C<AnyEvent::Socket::tcp_connect>:
1027
1028 # start a conenction attempt unless one is active
1029 $self->{connect_guard} ||= AnyEvent::Socket::tcp_connect "www.example.net", 80, sub {
1030 delete $self->{connect_guard};
1031 ...
1032 };
1033
1034 Imagine that this function could instantly call the callback, for
1035 example, because it detects an obvious error such as a negative port
1036 number. Invoking the callback before the function returns causes problems
1037 however: the callback will be called and will try to delete the guard
1038 object. But since the function hasn't returned yet, there is nothing to
1039 delete. When the function eventually returns it will assign the guard
1040 object to C<< $self->{connect_guard} >>, where it will likely never be
1041 deleted, so the program thinks it is still trying to connect.
1042
1043 This is where C<AnyEvent::postpone> should be used. Instead of calling the
1044 callback directly on error:
1045
1046 $cb->(undef), return # signal error to callback, BAD!
1047 if $some_error_condition;
1048
1049 It should use C<postpone>:
1050
1051 AnyEvent::postpone { $cb->(undef) }, return # signal error to callback, later
1052 if $some_error_condition;
1053
1054 =item AnyEvent::log $level, $msg[, @args]
1055
1056 Log the given C<$msg> at the given C<$level>.
1057
1058 If L<AnyEvent::Log> is not loaded then this function makes a simple test
1059 to see whether the message will be logged. If the test succeeds it will
1060 load AnyEvent::Log and call C<AnyEvent::Log::log> - consequently, look at
1061 the L<AnyEvent::Log> documentation for details.
1062
1063 If the test fails it will simply return. Right now this happens when a
1064 numerical loglevel is used and it is larger than the level specified via
1065 C<$ENV{PERL_ANYEVENT_VERBOSE}>.
1066
1067 If you want to sprinkle loads of logging calls around your code, consider
1068 creating a logger callback with the C<AnyEvent::Log::logger> function,
1069 which can reduce typing, codesize and can reduce the logging overhead
1070 enourmously.
1071
1072 =back
1073
1074 =head1 WHAT TO DO IN A MODULE
1075
1076 As a module author, you should C<use AnyEvent> and call AnyEvent methods
1077 freely, but you should not load a specific event module or rely on it.
1078
1079 Be careful when you create watchers in the module body - AnyEvent will
1080 decide which event module to use as soon as the first method is called, so
1081 by calling AnyEvent in your module body you force the user of your module
1082 to load the event module first.
1083
1084 Never call C<< ->recv >> on a condition variable unless you I<know> that
1085 the C<< ->send >> method has been called on it already. This is
1086 because it will stall the whole program, and the whole point of using
1087 events is to stay interactive.
1088
1089 It is fine, however, to call C<< ->recv >> when the user of your module
1090 requests it (i.e. if you create a http request object ad have a method
1091 called C<results> that returns the results, it may call C<< ->recv >>
1092 freely, as the user of your module knows what she is doing. Always).
1093
1094 =head1 WHAT TO DO IN THE MAIN PROGRAM
1095
1096 There will always be a single main program - the only place that should
1097 dictate which event model to use.
1098
1099 If the program is not event-based, it need not do anything special, even
1100 when it depends on a module that uses an AnyEvent. If the program itself
1101 uses AnyEvent, but does not care which event loop is used, all it needs
1102 to do is C<use AnyEvent>. In either case, AnyEvent will choose the best
1103 available loop implementation.
1104
1105 If the main program relies on a specific event model - for example, in
1106 Gtk2 programs you have to rely on the Glib module - you should load the
1107 event module before loading AnyEvent or any module that uses it: generally
1108 speaking, you should load it as early as possible. The reason is that
1109 modules might create watchers when they are loaded, and AnyEvent will
1110 decide on the event model to use as soon as it creates watchers, and it
1111 might choose the wrong one unless you load the correct one yourself.
1112
1113 You can chose to use a pure-perl implementation by loading the
1114 C<AnyEvent::Loop> module, which gives you similar behaviour
1115 everywhere, but letting AnyEvent chose the model is generally better.
1116
1117 =head2 MAINLOOP EMULATION
1118
1119 Sometimes (often for short test scripts, or even standalone programs who
1120 only want to use AnyEvent), you do not want to run a specific event loop.
1121
1122 In that case, you can use a condition variable like this:
1123
1124 AnyEvent->condvar->recv;
1125
1126 This has the effect of entering the event loop and looping forever.
1127
1128 Note that usually your program has some exit condition, in which case
1129 it is better to use the "traditional" approach of storing a condition
1130 variable somewhere, waiting for it, and sending it when the program should
1131 exit cleanly.
1132
1133
1134 =head1 OTHER MODULES
1135
1136 The following is a non-exhaustive list of additional modules that use
1137 AnyEvent as a client and can therefore be mixed easily with other
1138 AnyEvent modules and other event loops in the same program. Some of the
1139 modules come as part of AnyEvent, the others are available via CPAN (see
1140 L<http://search.cpan.org/search?m=module&q=anyevent%3A%3A*> for
1141 a longer non-exhaustive list), and the list is heavily biased towards
1142 modules of the AnyEvent author himself :)
1143
1144 =over 4
1145
1146 =item L<AnyEvent::Util>
1147
1148 Contains various utility functions that replace often-used blocking
1149 functions such as C<inet_aton> with event/callback-based versions.
1150
1151 =item L<AnyEvent::Socket>
1152
1153 Provides various utility functions for (internet protocol) sockets,
1154 addresses and name resolution. Also functions to create non-blocking tcp
1155 connections or tcp servers, with IPv6 and SRV record support and more.
1156
1157 =item L<AnyEvent::Handle>
1158
1159 Provide read and write buffers, manages watchers for reads and writes,
1160 supports raw and formatted I/O, I/O queued and fully transparent and
1161 non-blocking SSL/TLS (via L<AnyEvent::TLS>).
1162
1163 =item L<AnyEvent::DNS>
1164
1165 Provides rich asynchronous DNS resolver capabilities.
1166
1167 =item L<AnyEvent::HTTP>, L<AnyEvent::IRC>, L<AnyEvent::XMPP>, L<AnyEvent::GPSD>, L<AnyEvent::IGS>, L<AnyEvent::FCP>
1168
1169 Implement event-based interfaces to the protocols of the same name (for
1170 the curious, IGS is the International Go Server and FCP is the Freenet
1171 Client Protocol).
1172
1173 =item L<AnyEvent::AIO>
1174
1175 Truly asynchronous (as opposed to non-blocking) I/O, should be in the
1176 toolbox of every event programmer. AnyEvent::AIO transparently fuses
1177 L<IO::AIO> and AnyEvent together, giving AnyEvent access to event-based
1178 file I/O, and much more.
1179
1180 =item L<AnyEvent::Filesys::Notify>
1181
1182 AnyEvent is good for non-blocking stuff, but it can't detect file or
1183 path changes (e.g. "watch this directory for new files", "watch this
1184 file for changes"). The L<AnyEvent::Filesys::Notify> module promises to
1185 do just that in a portbale fashion, supporting inotify on GNU/Linux and
1186 some weird, without doubt broken, stuff on OS X to monitor files. It can
1187 fall back to blocking scans at regular intervals transparently on other
1188 platforms, so it's about as portable as it gets.
1189
1190 (I haven't used it myself, but I haven't heard anybody complaining about
1191 it yet).
1192
1193 =item L<AnyEvent::DBI>
1194
1195 Executes L<DBI> requests asynchronously in a proxy process for you,
1196 notifying you in an event-based way when the operation is finished.
1197
1198 =item L<AnyEvent::HTTPD>
1199
1200 A simple embedded webserver.
1201
1202 =item L<AnyEvent::FastPing>
1203
1204 The fastest ping in the west.
1205
1206 =item L<Coro>
1207
1208 Has special support for AnyEvent via L<Coro::AnyEvent>, which allows you
1209 to simply invert the flow control - don't call us, we will call you:
1210
1211 async {
1212 Coro::AnyEvent::sleep 5; # creates a 5s timer and waits for it
1213 print "5 seconds later!\n";
1214
1215 Coro::AnyEvent::readable *STDIN; # uses an I/O watcher
1216 my $line = <STDIN>; # works for ttys
1217
1218 AnyEvent::HTTP::http_get "url", Coro::rouse_cb;
1219 my ($body, $hdr) = Coro::rouse_wait;
1220 };
1221
1222 =back
1223
1224 =cut
1225
1226 package AnyEvent;
1227
1228 # basically a tuned-down version of common::sense
1229 sub common_sense {
1230 # from common:.sense 3.4
1231 ${^WARNING_BITS} ^= ${^WARNING_BITS} ^ "\x3c\x3f\x33\x00\x0f\xf0\x0f\xc0\xf0\xfc\x33\x00";
1232 # use strict vars subs - NO UTF-8, as Util.pm doesn't like this atm. (uts46data.pl)
1233 $^H |= 0x00000600;
1234 }
1235
1236 BEGIN { AnyEvent::common_sense }
1237
1238 use Carp ();
1239
1240 our $VERSION = '6.02';
1241 our $MODEL;
1242
1243 our @ISA;
1244
1245 our @REGISTRY;
1246
1247 our $VERBOSE;
1248
1249 BEGIN {
1250 require "AnyEvent/constants.pl";
1251
1252 eval "sub TAINT (){" . (${^TAINT}*1) . "}";
1253
1254 delete @ENV{grep /^PERL_ANYEVENT_/, keys %ENV}
1255 if ${^TAINT};
1256
1257 $ENV{"PERL_ANYEVENT_$_"} = $ENV{"AE_$_"}
1258 for grep s/^AE_// && !exists $ENV{"PERL_ANYEVENT_$_"}, keys %ENV;
1259
1260 @ENV{grep /^PERL_ANYEVENT_/, keys %ENV} = ()
1261 if ${^TAINT};
1262
1263 # $ENV{PERL_ANYEVENT_xxx} now valid
1264
1265 $VERBOSE = length $ENV{PERL_ANYEVENT_VERBOSE} ? $ENV{PERL_ANYEVENT_VERBOSE}*1 : 3;
1266 }
1267
1268 our $MAX_SIGNAL_LATENCY = 10;
1269
1270 our %PROTOCOL; # (ipv4|ipv6) => (1|2), higher numbers are preferred
1271
1272 {
1273 my $idx;
1274 $PROTOCOL{$_} = ++$idx
1275 for reverse split /\s*,\s*/,
1276 $ENV{PERL_ANYEVENT_PROTOCOLS} || "ipv4,ipv6";
1277 }
1278
1279 our @post_detect;
1280
1281 sub post_detect(&) {
1282 my ($cb) = @_;
1283
1284 push @post_detect, $cb;
1285
1286 defined wantarray
1287 ? bless \$cb, "AnyEvent::Util::postdetect"
1288 : ()
1289 }
1290
1291 sub AnyEvent::Util::postdetect::DESTROY {
1292 @post_detect = grep $_ != ${$_[0]}, @post_detect;
1293 }
1294
1295 our $POSTPONE_W;
1296 our @POSTPONE;
1297
1298 sub _postpone_exec {
1299 undef $POSTPONE_W;
1300
1301 &{ shift @POSTPONE }
1302 while @POSTPONE;
1303 }
1304
1305 sub postpone(&) {
1306 push @POSTPONE, shift;
1307
1308 $POSTPONE_W ||= AE::timer (0, 0, \&_postpone_exec);
1309
1310 ()
1311 }
1312
1313 sub log($$;@) {
1314 # only load the big bloated module when we actually are about to log something
1315 if ($_[0] <= $VERBOSE) { # also catches non-numeric levels(!)
1316 require AnyEvent::Log;
1317 # AnyEvent::Log overwrites this function
1318 goto &log;
1319 }
1320
1321 0 # not logged
1322 }
1323
1324 if (length $ENV{PERL_ANYEVENT_LOG}) {
1325 require AnyEvent::Log; # AnyEvent::Log does the thing for us
1326 }
1327
1328 our @models = (
1329 [EV:: => AnyEvent::Impl::EV:: , 1],
1330 [AnyEvent::Loop:: => AnyEvent::Impl::Perl:: , 1],
1331 # everything below here will not (normally) be autoprobed
1332 # as the pure perl backend should work everywhere
1333 # and is usually faster
1334 [Event:: => AnyEvent::Impl::Event::, 1],
1335 [Glib:: => AnyEvent::Impl::Glib:: , 1], # becomes extremely slow with many watchers
1336 [Event::Lib:: => AnyEvent::Impl::EventLib::], # too buggy
1337 [Irssi:: => AnyEvent::Impl::Irssi::], # Irssi has a bogus "Event" package
1338 [Tk:: => AnyEvent::Impl::Tk::], # crashes with many handles
1339 [Qt:: => AnyEvent::Impl::Qt::], # requires special main program
1340 [POE::Kernel:: => AnyEvent::Impl::POE::], # lasciate ogni speranza
1341 [Wx:: => AnyEvent::Impl::POE::],
1342 [Prima:: => AnyEvent::Impl::POE::],
1343 [IO::Async::Loop:: => AnyEvent::Impl::IOAsync::], # a bitch to autodetect
1344 [Cocoa::EventLoop:: => AnyEvent::Impl::Cocoa::],
1345 [FLTK:: => AnyEvent::Impl::FLTK::],
1346 );
1347
1348 our @isa_hook;
1349
1350 sub _isa_set {
1351 my @pkg = ("AnyEvent", (map $_->[0], grep defined, @isa_hook), $MODEL);
1352
1353 @{"$pkg[$_-1]::ISA"} = $pkg[$_]
1354 for 1 .. $#pkg;
1355
1356 grep $_ && $_->[1], @isa_hook
1357 and AE::_reset ();
1358 }
1359
1360 # used for hooking AnyEvent::Strict and AnyEvent::Debug::Wrap into the class hierarchy
1361 sub _isa_hook($$;$) {
1362 my ($i, $pkg, $reset_ae) = @_;
1363
1364 $isa_hook[$i] = $pkg ? [$pkg, $reset_ae] : undef;
1365
1366 _isa_set;
1367 }
1368
1369 # all autoloaded methods reserve the complete glob, not just the method slot.
1370 # due to bugs in perls method cache implementation.
1371 our @methods = qw(io timer time now now_update signal child idle condvar);
1372
1373 sub detect() {
1374 return $MODEL if $MODEL; # some programs keep references to detect
1375
1376 local $!; # for good measure
1377 local $SIG{__DIE__}; # we use eval
1378
1379 # free some memory
1380 *detect = sub () { $MODEL };
1381 # undef &func doesn't correctly update the method cache. grmbl.
1382 # so we delete the whole glob. grmbl.
1383 # otoh, perl doesn't let me undef an active usb, but it lets me free
1384 # a glob with an active sub. hrm. i hope it works, but perl is
1385 # usually buggy in this department. sigh.
1386 delete @{"AnyEvent::"}{@methods};
1387 undef @methods;
1388
1389 if ($ENV{PERL_ANYEVENT_MODEL} =~ /^([a-zA-Z0-9:]+)$/) {
1390 my $model = $1;
1391 $model = "AnyEvent::Impl::$model" unless $model =~ s/::$//;
1392 if (eval "require $model") {
1393 AnyEvent::log 7 => "loaded model '$model' (forced by \$ENV{PERL_ANYEVENT_MODEL}), using it.";
1394 $MODEL = $model;
1395 } else {
1396 AnyEvent::log 5 => "unable to load model '$model' (from \$ENV{PERL_ANYEVENT_MODEL}):\n$@";
1397 }
1398 }
1399
1400 # check for already loaded models
1401 unless ($MODEL) {
1402 for (@REGISTRY, @models) {
1403 my ($package, $model) = @$_;
1404 if (${"$package\::VERSION"} > 0) {
1405 if (eval "require $model") {
1406 AnyEvent::log 7 => "autodetected model '$model', using it.";
1407 $MODEL = $model;
1408 last;
1409 }
1410 }
1411 }
1412
1413 unless ($MODEL) {
1414 # try to autoload a model
1415 for (@REGISTRY, @models) {
1416 my ($package, $model, $autoload) = @$_;
1417 if (
1418 $autoload
1419 and eval "require $package"
1420 and ${"$package\::VERSION"} > 0
1421 and eval "require $model"
1422 ) {
1423 AnyEvent::log 7 => "autoloaded model '$model', using it.";
1424 $MODEL = $model;
1425 last;
1426 }
1427 }
1428
1429 $MODEL
1430 or die "AnyEvent: backend autodetection failed - did you properly install AnyEvent?";
1431 }
1432 }
1433
1434 # free memory only needed for probing
1435 undef @models;
1436 undef @REGISTRY;
1437
1438 push @{"$MODEL\::ISA"}, "AnyEvent::Base";
1439
1440 # now nuke some methods that are overridden by the backend.
1441 # SUPER usage is not allowed in these.
1442 for (qw(time signal child idle)) {
1443 undef &{"AnyEvent::Base::$_"}
1444 if defined &{"$MODEL\::$_"};
1445 }
1446
1447 _isa_set;
1448
1449 # we're officially open!
1450
1451 if ($ENV{PERL_ANYEVENT_STRICT}) {
1452 require AnyEvent::Strict;
1453 }
1454
1455 if ($ENV{PERL_ANYEVENT_DEBUG_WRAP}) {
1456 require AnyEvent::Debug;
1457 AnyEvent::Debug::wrap ($ENV{PERL_ANYEVENT_DEBUG_WRAP});
1458 }
1459
1460 if (length $ENV{PERL_ANYEVENT_DEBUG_SHELL}) {
1461 require AnyEvent::Socket;
1462 require AnyEvent::Debug;
1463
1464 my $shell = $ENV{PERL_ANYEVENT_DEBUG_SHELL};
1465 $shell =~ s/\$\$/$$/g;
1466
1467 my ($host, $service) = AnyEvent::Socket::parse_hostport ($shell);
1468 $AnyEvent::Debug::SHELL = AnyEvent::Debug::shell ($host, $service);
1469 }
1470
1471 # now the anyevent environment is set up as the user told us to, so
1472 # call the actual user code - post detects
1473
1474 (shift @post_detect)->() while @post_detect;
1475 undef @post_detect;
1476
1477 *post_detect = sub(&) {
1478 shift->();
1479
1480 undef
1481 };
1482
1483 $MODEL
1484 }
1485
1486 for my $name (@methods) {
1487 *$name = sub {
1488 detect;
1489 # we use goto because
1490 # a) it makes the thunk more transparent
1491 # b) it allows us to delete the thunk later
1492 goto &{ UNIVERSAL::can AnyEvent => "SUPER::$name" }
1493 };
1494 }
1495
1496 # utility function to dup a filehandle. this is used by many backends
1497 # to support binding more than one watcher per filehandle (they usually
1498 # allow only one watcher per fd, so we dup it to get a different one).
1499 sub _dupfh($$;$$) {
1500 my ($poll, $fh, $r, $w) = @_;
1501
1502 # cygwin requires the fh mode to be matching, unix doesn't
1503 my ($rw, $mode) = $poll eq "r" ? ($r, "<&") : ($w, ">&");
1504
1505 open my $fh2, $mode, $fh
1506 or die "AnyEvent->io: cannot dup() filehandle in mode '$poll': $!,";
1507
1508 # we assume CLOEXEC is already set by perl in all important cases
1509
1510 ($fh2, $rw)
1511 }
1512
1513 =head1 SIMPLIFIED AE API
1514
1515 Starting with version 5.0, AnyEvent officially supports a second, much
1516 simpler, API that is designed to reduce the calling, typing and memory
1517 overhead by using function call syntax and a fixed number of parameters.
1518
1519 See the L<AE> manpage for details.
1520
1521 =cut
1522
1523 package AE;
1524
1525 our $VERSION = $AnyEvent::VERSION;
1526
1527 sub _reset() {
1528 eval q{
1529 # fall back to the main API by default - backends and AnyEvent::Base
1530 # implementations can overwrite these.
1531
1532 sub io($$$) {
1533 AnyEvent->io (fh => $_[0], poll => $_[1] ? "w" : "r", cb => $_[2])
1534 }
1535
1536 sub timer($$$) {
1537 AnyEvent->timer (after => $_[0], interval => $_[1], cb => $_[2])
1538 }
1539
1540 sub signal($$) {
1541 AnyEvent->signal (signal => $_[0], cb => $_[1])
1542 }
1543
1544 sub child($$) {
1545 AnyEvent->child (pid => $_[0], cb => $_[1])
1546 }
1547
1548 sub idle($) {
1549 AnyEvent->idle (cb => $_[0]);
1550 }
1551
1552 sub cv(;&) {
1553 AnyEvent->condvar (@_ ? (cb => $_[0]) : ())
1554 }
1555
1556 sub now() {
1557 AnyEvent->now
1558 }
1559
1560 sub now_update() {
1561 AnyEvent->now_update
1562 }
1563
1564 sub time() {
1565 AnyEvent->time
1566 }
1567
1568 *postpone = \&AnyEvent::postpone;
1569 *log = \&AnyEvent::log;
1570 };
1571 die if $@;
1572 }
1573
1574 BEGIN { _reset }
1575
1576 package AnyEvent::Base;
1577
1578 # default implementations for many methods
1579
1580 sub time {
1581 eval q{ # poor man's autoloading {}
1582 # probe for availability of Time::HiRes
1583 if (eval "use Time::HiRes (); Time::HiRes::time (); 1") {
1584 *time = sub { Time::HiRes::time () };
1585 *AE::time = \& Time::HiRes::time ;
1586 *now = \&time;
1587 AnyEvent::log 8 => "AnyEvent: using Time::HiRes for sub-second timing accuracy.";
1588 # if (eval "use POSIX (); (POSIX::times())...
1589 } else {
1590 *time = sub { CORE::time };
1591 *AE::time = sub (){ CORE::time };
1592 *now = \&time;
1593 AnyEvent::log 3 => "using built-in time(), WARNING, no sub-second resolution!";
1594 }
1595 };
1596 die if $@;
1597
1598 &time
1599 }
1600
1601 *now = \&time;
1602 sub now_update { }
1603
1604 sub _poll {
1605 Carp::croak "$AnyEvent::MODEL does not support blocking waits. Caught";
1606 }
1607
1608 # default implementation for ->condvar
1609 # in fact, the default should not be overwritten
1610
1611 sub condvar {
1612 eval q{ # poor man's autoloading {}
1613 *condvar = sub {
1614 bless { @_ == 3 ? (_ae_cb => $_[2]) : () }, "AnyEvent::CondVar"
1615 };
1616
1617 *AE::cv = sub (;&) {
1618 bless { @_ ? (_ae_cb => shift) : () }, "AnyEvent::CondVar"
1619 };
1620 };
1621 die if $@;
1622
1623 &condvar
1624 }
1625
1626 # default implementation for ->signal
1627
1628 our $HAVE_ASYNC_INTERRUPT;
1629
1630 sub _have_async_interrupt() {
1631 $HAVE_ASYNC_INTERRUPT = 1*(!$ENV{PERL_ANYEVENT_AVOID_ASYNC_INTERRUPT}
1632 && eval "use Async::Interrupt 1.02 (); 1")
1633 unless defined $HAVE_ASYNC_INTERRUPT;
1634
1635 $HAVE_ASYNC_INTERRUPT
1636 }
1637
1638 our ($SIGPIPE_R, $SIGPIPE_W, %SIG_CB, %SIG_EV, $SIG_IO);
1639 our (%SIG_ASY, %SIG_ASY_W);
1640 our ($SIG_COUNT, $SIG_TW);
1641
1642 # install a dummy wakeup watcher to reduce signal catching latency
1643 # used by Impls
1644 sub _sig_add() {
1645 unless ($SIG_COUNT++) {
1646 # try to align timer on a full-second boundary, if possible
1647 my $NOW = AE::now;
1648
1649 $SIG_TW = AE::timer
1650 $MAX_SIGNAL_LATENCY - ($NOW - int $NOW),
1651 $MAX_SIGNAL_LATENCY,
1652 sub { } # just for the PERL_ASYNC_CHECK
1653 ;
1654 }
1655 }
1656
1657 sub _sig_del {
1658 undef $SIG_TW
1659 unless --$SIG_COUNT;
1660 }
1661
1662 our $_sig_name_init; $_sig_name_init = sub {
1663 eval q{ # poor man's autoloading {}
1664 undef $_sig_name_init;
1665
1666 if (_have_async_interrupt) {
1667 *sig2num = \&Async::Interrupt::sig2num;
1668 *sig2name = \&Async::Interrupt::sig2name;
1669 } else {
1670 require Config;
1671
1672 my %signame2num;
1673 @signame2num{ split ' ', $Config::Config{sig_name} }
1674 = split ' ', $Config::Config{sig_num};
1675
1676 my @signum2name;
1677 @signum2name[values %signame2num] = keys %signame2num;
1678
1679 *sig2num = sub($) {
1680 $_[0] > 0 ? shift : $signame2num{+shift}
1681 };
1682 *sig2name = sub ($) {
1683 $_[0] > 0 ? $signum2name[+shift] : shift
1684 };
1685 }
1686 };
1687 die if $@;
1688 };
1689
1690 sub sig2num ($) { &$_sig_name_init; &sig2num }
1691 sub sig2name($) { &$_sig_name_init; &sig2name }
1692
1693 sub signal {
1694 eval q{ # poor man's autoloading {}
1695 # probe for availability of Async::Interrupt
1696 if (_have_async_interrupt) {
1697 AnyEvent::log 8 => "using Async::Interrupt for race-free signal handling.";
1698
1699 $SIGPIPE_R = new Async::Interrupt::EventPipe;
1700 $SIG_IO = AE::io $SIGPIPE_R->fileno, 0, \&_signal_exec;
1701
1702 } else {
1703 AnyEvent::log 8 => "using emulated perl signal handling with latency timer.";
1704
1705 if (AnyEvent::WIN32) {
1706 require AnyEvent::Util;
1707
1708 ($SIGPIPE_R, $SIGPIPE_W) = AnyEvent::Util::portable_pipe ();
1709 AnyEvent::Util::fh_nonblocking ($SIGPIPE_R, 1) if $SIGPIPE_R;
1710 AnyEvent::Util::fh_nonblocking ($SIGPIPE_W, 1) if $SIGPIPE_W; # just in case
1711 } else {
1712 pipe $SIGPIPE_R, $SIGPIPE_W;
1713 fcntl $SIGPIPE_R, AnyEvent::F_SETFL, AnyEvent::O_NONBLOCK if $SIGPIPE_R;
1714 fcntl $SIGPIPE_W, AnyEvent::F_SETFL, AnyEvent::O_NONBLOCK if $SIGPIPE_W; # just in case
1715
1716 # not strictly required, as $^F is normally 2, but let's make sure...
1717 fcntl $SIGPIPE_R, AnyEvent::F_SETFD, AnyEvent::FD_CLOEXEC;
1718 fcntl $SIGPIPE_W, AnyEvent::F_SETFD, AnyEvent::FD_CLOEXEC;
1719 }
1720
1721 $SIGPIPE_R
1722 or Carp::croak "AnyEvent: unable to create a signal reporting pipe: $!\n";
1723
1724 $SIG_IO = AE::io $SIGPIPE_R, 0, \&_signal_exec;
1725 }
1726
1727 *signal = $HAVE_ASYNC_INTERRUPT
1728 ? sub {
1729 my (undef, %arg) = @_;
1730
1731 # async::interrupt
1732 my $signal = sig2num $arg{signal};
1733 $SIG_CB{$signal}{$arg{cb}} = $arg{cb};
1734
1735 $SIG_ASY{$signal} ||= new Async::Interrupt
1736 cb => sub { undef $SIG_EV{$signal} },
1737 signal => $signal,
1738 pipe => [$SIGPIPE_R->filenos],
1739 pipe_autodrain => 0,
1740 ;
1741
1742 bless [$signal, $arg{cb}], "AnyEvent::Base::signal"
1743 }
1744 : sub {
1745 my (undef, %arg) = @_;
1746
1747 # pure perl
1748 my $signal = sig2name $arg{signal};
1749 $SIG_CB{$signal}{$arg{cb}} = $arg{cb};
1750
1751 $SIG{$signal} ||= sub {
1752 local $!;
1753 syswrite $SIGPIPE_W, "\x00", 1 unless %SIG_EV;
1754 undef $SIG_EV{$signal};
1755 };
1756
1757 # can't do signal processing without introducing races in pure perl,
1758 # so limit the signal latency.
1759 _sig_add;
1760
1761 bless [$signal, $arg{cb}], "AnyEvent::Base::signal"
1762 }
1763 ;
1764
1765 *AnyEvent::Base::signal::DESTROY = sub {
1766 my ($signal, $cb) = @{$_[0]};
1767
1768 _sig_del;
1769
1770 delete $SIG_CB{$signal}{$cb};
1771
1772 $HAVE_ASYNC_INTERRUPT
1773 ? delete $SIG_ASY{$signal}
1774 : # delete doesn't work with older perls - they then
1775 # print weird messages, or just unconditionally exit
1776 # instead of getting the default action.
1777 undef $SIG{$signal}
1778 unless keys %{ $SIG_CB{$signal} };
1779 };
1780
1781 *_signal_exec = sub {
1782 $HAVE_ASYNC_INTERRUPT
1783 ? $SIGPIPE_R->drain
1784 : sysread $SIGPIPE_R, (my $dummy), 9;
1785
1786 while (%SIG_EV) {
1787 for (keys %SIG_EV) {
1788 delete $SIG_EV{$_};
1789 &$_ for values %{ $SIG_CB{$_} || {} };
1790 }
1791 }
1792 };
1793 };
1794 die if $@;
1795
1796 &signal
1797 }
1798
1799 # default implementation for ->child
1800
1801 our %PID_CB;
1802 our $CHLD_W;
1803 our $CHLD_DELAY_W;
1804
1805 # used by many Impl's
1806 sub _emit_childstatus($$) {
1807 my (undef, $rpid, $rstatus) = @_;
1808
1809 $_->($rpid, $rstatus)
1810 for values %{ $PID_CB{$rpid} || {} },
1811 values %{ $PID_CB{0} || {} };
1812 }
1813
1814 sub child {
1815 eval q{ # poor man's autoloading {}
1816 *_sigchld = sub {
1817 my $pid;
1818
1819 AnyEvent->_emit_childstatus ($pid, $?)
1820 while ($pid = waitpid -1, WNOHANG) > 0;
1821 };
1822
1823 *child = sub {
1824 my (undef, %arg) = @_;
1825
1826 my $pid = $arg{pid};
1827 my $cb = $arg{cb};
1828
1829 $PID_CB{$pid}{$cb+0} = $cb;
1830
1831 unless ($CHLD_W) {
1832 $CHLD_W = AE::signal CHLD => \&_sigchld;
1833 # child could be a zombie already, so make at least one round
1834 &_sigchld;
1835 }
1836
1837 bless [$pid, $cb+0], "AnyEvent::Base::child"
1838 };
1839
1840 *AnyEvent::Base::child::DESTROY = sub {
1841 my ($pid, $icb) = @{$_[0]};
1842
1843 delete $PID_CB{$pid}{$icb};
1844 delete $PID_CB{$pid} unless keys %{ $PID_CB{$pid} };
1845
1846 undef $CHLD_W unless keys %PID_CB;
1847 };
1848 };
1849 die if $@;
1850
1851 &child
1852 }
1853
1854 # idle emulation is done by simply using a timer, regardless
1855 # of whether the process is idle or not, and not letting
1856 # the callback use more than 50% of the time.
1857 sub idle {
1858 eval q{ # poor man's autoloading {}
1859 *idle = sub {
1860 my (undef, %arg) = @_;
1861
1862 my ($cb, $w, $rcb) = $arg{cb};
1863
1864 $rcb = sub {
1865 if ($cb) {
1866 $w = AE::time;
1867 &$cb;
1868 $w = AE::time - $w;
1869
1870 # never use more then 50% of the time for the idle watcher,
1871 # within some limits
1872 $w = 0.0001 if $w < 0.0001;
1873 $w = 5 if $w > 5;
1874
1875 $w = AE::timer $w, 0, $rcb;
1876 } else {
1877 # clean up...
1878 undef $w;
1879 undef $rcb;
1880 }
1881 };
1882
1883 $w = AE::timer 0.05, 0, $rcb;
1884
1885 bless \\$cb, "AnyEvent::Base::idle"
1886 };
1887
1888 *AnyEvent::Base::idle::DESTROY = sub {
1889 undef $${$_[0]};
1890 };
1891 };
1892 die if $@;
1893
1894 &idle
1895 }
1896
1897 package AnyEvent::CondVar;
1898
1899 our @ISA = AnyEvent::CondVar::Base::;
1900
1901 # only to be used for subclassing
1902 sub new {
1903 my $class = shift;
1904 bless AnyEvent->condvar (@_), $class
1905 }
1906
1907 package AnyEvent::CondVar::Base;
1908
1909 #use overload
1910 # '&{}' => sub { my $self = shift; sub { $self->send (@_) } },
1911 # fallback => 1;
1912
1913 # save 300+ kilobytes by dirtily hardcoding overloading
1914 ${"AnyEvent::CondVar::Base::OVERLOAD"}{dummy}++; # Register with magic by touching.
1915 *{'AnyEvent::CondVar::Base::()'} = sub { }; # "Make it findable via fetchmethod."
1916 *{'AnyEvent::CondVar::Base::(&{}'} = sub { my $self = shift; sub { $self->send (@_) } }; # &{}
1917 ${'AnyEvent::CondVar::Base::()'} = 1; # fallback
1918
1919 our $WAITING;
1920
1921 sub _send {
1922 # nop
1923 }
1924
1925 sub _wait {
1926 AnyEvent->_poll until $_[0]{_ae_sent};
1927 }
1928
1929 sub send {
1930 my $cv = shift;
1931 $cv->{_ae_sent} = [@_];
1932 (delete $cv->{_ae_cb})->($cv) if $cv->{_ae_cb};
1933 $cv->_send;
1934 }
1935
1936 sub croak {
1937 $_[0]{_ae_croak} = $_[1];
1938 $_[0]->send;
1939 }
1940
1941 sub ready {
1942 $_[0]{_ae_sent}
1943 }
1944
1945 sub recv {
1946 unless ($_[0]{_ae_sent}) {
1947 $WAITING
1948 and Carp::croak "AnyEvent::CondVar: recursive blocking wait attempted";
1949
1950 local $WAITING = 1;
1951 $_[0]->_wait;
1952 }
1953
1954 $_[0]{_ae_croak}
1955 and Carp::croak $_[0]{_ae_croak};
1956
1957 wantarray
1958 ? @{ $_[0]{_ae_sent} }
1959 : $_[0]{_ae_sent}[0]
1960 }
1961
1962 sub cb {
1963 my $cv = shift;
1964
1965 @_
1966 and $cv->{_ae_cb} = shift
1967 and $cv->{_ae_sent}
1968 and (delete $cv->{_ae_cb})->($cv);
1969
1970 $cv->{_ae_cb}
1971 }
1972
1973 sub begin {
1974 ++$_[0]{_ae_counter};
1975 $_[0]{_ae_end_cb} = $_[1] if @_ > 1;
1976 }
1977
1978 sub end {
1979 return if --$_[0]{_ae_counter};
1980 &{ $_[0]{_ae_end_cb} || sub { $_[0]->send } };
1981 }
1982
1983 # undocumented/compatibility with pre-3.4
1984 *broadcast = \&send;
1985 *wait = \&recv;
1986
1987 =head1 ERROR AND EXCEPTION HANDLING
1988
1989 In general, AnyEvent does not do any error handling - it relies on the
1990 caller to do that if required. The L<AnyEvent::Strict> module (see also
1991 the C<PERL_ANYEVENT_STRICT> environment variable, below) provides strict
1992 checking of all AnyEvent methods, however, which is highly useful during
1993 development.
1994
1995 As for exception handling (i.e. runtime errors and exceptions thrown while
1996 executing a callback), this is not only highly event-loop specific, but
1997 also not in any way wrapped by this module, as this is the job of the main
1998 program.
1999
2000 The pure perl event loop simply re-throws the exception (usually
2001 within C<< condvar->recv >>), the L<Event> and L<EV> modules call C<<
2002 $Event/EV::DIED->() >>, L<Glib> uses C<< install_exception_handler >> and
2003 so on.
2004
2005 =head1 ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES
2006
2007 AnyEvent supports a number of environment variables that tune the
2008 runtime behaviour. They are usually evaluated when AnyEvent is
2009 loaded, initialised, or a submodule that uses them is loaded. Many of
2010 them also cause AnyEvent to load additional modules - for example,
2011 C<PERL_ANYEVENT_DEBUG_WRAP> causes the L<AnyEvent::Debug> module to be
2012 loaded.
2013
2014 All the environment variables documented here start with
2015 C<PERL_ANYEVENT_>, which is what AnyEvent considers its own
2016 namespace. Other modules are encouraged (but by no means required) to use
2017 C<PERL_ANYEVENT_SUBMODULE> if they have registered the AnyEvent::Submodule
2018 namespace on CPAN, for any submodule. For example, L<AnyEvent::HTTP> could
2019 be expected to use C<PERL_ANYEVENT_HTTP_PROXY> (it should not access env
2020 variables starting with C<AE_>, see below).
2021
2022 All variables can also be set via the C<AE_> prefix, that is, instead
2023 of setting C<PERL_ANYEVENT_VERBOSE> you can also set C<AE_VERBOSE>. In
2024 case there is a clash btween anyevent and another program that uses
2025 C<AE_something> you can set the corresponding C<PERL_ANYEVENT_something>
2026 variable to the empty string, as those variables take precedence.
2027
2028 When AnyEvent is first loaded, it copies all C<AE_xxx> env variables
2029 to their C<PERL_ANYEVENT_xxx> counterpart unless that variable already
2030 exists. If taint mode is on, then AnyEvent will remove I<all> environment
2031 variables starting with C<PERL_ANYEVENT_> from C<%ENV> (or replace them
2032 with C<undef> or the empty string, if the corresaponding C<AE_> variable
2033 is set).
2034
2035 The exact algorithm is currently:
2036
2037 1. if taint mode enabled, delete all PERL_ANYEVENT_xyz variables from %ENV
2038 2. copy over AE_xyz to PERL_ANYEVENT_xyz unless the latter alraedy exists
2039 3. if taint mode enabled, set all PERL_ANYEVENT_xyz variables to undef.
2040
2041 This ensures that child processes will not see the C<AE_> variables.
2042
2043 The following environment variables are currently known to AnyEvent:
2044
2045 =over 4
2046
2047 =item C<PERL_ANYEVENT_VERBOSE>
2048
2049 By default, AnyEvent will only log messages with loglevel C<3>
2050 (C<critical>) or higher (see L<AnyEvent::Log>). You can set this
2051 environment variable to a numerical loglevel to make AnyEvent more (or
2052 less) talkative.
2053
2054 If you want to do more than just set the global logging level
2055 you should have a look at C<PERL_ANYEVENT_LOG>, which allows much more
2056 complex specifications.
2057
2058 When set to C<0> (C<off>), then no messages whatsoever will be logged with
2059 the default logging settings.
2060
2061 When set to C<5> or higher (C<warn>), causes AnyEvent to warn about
2062 unexpected conditions, such as not being able to load the event model
2063 specified by C<PERL_ANYEVENT_MODEL>, or a guard callback throwing an
2064 exception - this is the minimum recommended level.
2065
2066 When set to C<7> or higher (info), cause AnyEvent to report which event model it
2067 chooses.
2068
2069 When set to C<8> or higher (debug), then AnyEvent will report extra information on
2070 which optional modules it loads and how it implements certain features.
2071
2072 =item C<PERL_ANYEVENT_LOG>
2073
2074 Accepts rather complex logging specifications. For example, you could log
2075 all C<debug> messages of some module to stderr, warnings and above to
2076 stderr, and errors and above to syslog, with:
2077
2078 PERL_ANYEVENT_LOG=Some::Module=debug,+log:filter=warn,+%syslog:%syslog=error,syslog
2079
2080 For the rather extensive details, see L<AnyEvent::Log>.
2081
2082 This variable is evaluated when AnyEvent (or L<AnyEvent::Log>) is loaded,
2083 so will take effect even before AnyEvent has initialised itself.
2084
2085 Note that specifying this environment variable causes the L<AnyEvent::Log>
2086 module to be loaded, while C<PERL_ANYEVENT_VERBOSE> does not, so only
2087 using the latter saves a few hundred kB of memory until the first message
2088 is being logged.
2089
2090 =item C<PERL_ANYEVENT_STRICT>
2091
2092 AnyEvent does not do much argument checking by default, as thorough
2093 argument checking is very costly. Setting this variable to a true value
2094 will cause AnyEvent to load C<AnyEvent::Strict> and then to thoroughly
2095 check the arguments passed to most method calls. If it finds any problems,
2096 it will croak.
2097
2098 In other words, enables "strict" mode.
2099
2100 Unlike C<use strict> (or its modern cousin, C<< use L<common::sense>
2101 >>, it is definitely recommended to keep it off in production. Keeping
2102 C<PERL_ANYEVENT_STRICT=1> in your environment while developing programs
2103 can be very useful, however.
2104
2105 =item C<PERL_ANYEVENT_DEBUG_SHELL>
2106
2107 If this env variable is set, then its contents will be interpreted by
2108 C<AnyEvent::Socket::parse_hostport> (after replacing every occurance of
2109 C<$$> by the process pid) and an C<AnyEvent::Debug::shell> is bound on
2110 that port. The shell object is saved in C<$AnyEvent::Debug::SHELL>.
2111
2112 This happens when the first watcher is created.
2113
2114 For example, to bind a debug shell on a unix domain socket in
2115 F<< /tmp/debug<pid>.sock >>, you could use this:
2116
2117 PERL_ANYEVENT_DEBUG_SHELL=/tmp/debug\$\$.sock perlprog
2118
2119 Note that creating sockets in F</tmp> is very unsafe on multiuser
2120 systems.
2121
2122 =item C<PERL_ANYEVENT_DEBUG_WRAP>
2123
2124 Can be set to C<0>, C<1> or C<2> and enables wrapping of all watchers for
2125 debugging purposes. See C<AnyEvent::Debug::wrap> for details.
2126
2127 =item C<PERL_ANYEVENT_MODEL>
2128
2129 This can be used to specify the event model to be used by AnyEvent, before
2130 auto detection and -probing kicks in.
2131
2132 It normally is a string consisting entirely of ASCII letters (e.g. C<EV>
2133 or C<IOAsync>). The string C<AnyEvent::Impl::> gets prepended and the
2134 resulting module name is loaded and - if the load was successful - used as
2135 event model backend. If it fails to load then AnyEvent will proceed with
2136 auto detection and -probing.
2137
2138 If the string ends with C<::> instead (e.g. C<AnyEvent::Impl::EV::>) then
2139 nothing gets prepended and the module name is used as-is (hint: C<::> at
2140 the end of a string designates a module name and quotes it appropriately).
2141
2142 For example, to force the pure perl model (L<AnyEvent::Loop::Perl>) you
2143 could start your program like this:
2144
2145 PERL_ANYEVENT_MODEL=Perl perl ...
2146
2147 =item C<PERL_ANYEVENT_PROTOCOLS>
2148
2149 Used by both L<AnyEvent::DNS> and L<AnyEvent::Socket> to determine preferences
2150 for IPv4 or IPv6. The default is unspecified (and might change, or be the result
2151 of auto probing).
2152
2153 Must be set to a comma-separated list of protocols or address families,
2154 current supported: C<ipv4> and C<ipv6>. Only protocols mentioned will be
2155 used, and preference will be given to protocols mentioned earlier in the
2156 list.
2157
2158 This variable can effectively be used for denial-of-service attacks
2159 against local programs (e.g. when setuid), although the impact is likely
2160 small, as the program has to handle conenction and other failures anyways.
2161
2162 Examples: C<PERL_ANYEVENT_PROTOCOLS=ipv4,ipv6> - prefer IPv4 over IPv6,
2163 but support both and try to use both. C<PERL_ANYEVENT_PROTOCOLS=ipv4>
2164 - only support IPv4, never try to resolve or contact IPv6
2165 addresses. C<PERL_ANYEVENT_PROTOCOLS=ipv6,ipv4> support either IPv4 or
2166 IPv6, but prefer IPv6 over IPv4.
2167
2168 =item C<PERL_ANYEVENT_HOSTS>
2169
2170 This variable, if specified, overrides the F</etc/hosts> file used by
2171 L<AnyEvent::Socket>C<::resolve_sockaddr>, i.e. hosts aliases will be read
2172 from that file instead.
2173
2174 =item C<PERL_ANYEVENT_EDNS0>
2175
2176 Used by L<AnyEvent::DNS> to decide whether to use the EDNS0 extension for
2177 DNS. This extension is generally useful to reduce DNS traffic, especially
2178 when DNSSEC is involved, but some (broken) firewalls drop such DNS
2179 packets, which is why it is off by default.
2180
2181 Setting this variable to C<1> will cause L<AnyEvent::DNS> to announce
2182 EDNS0 in its DNS requests.
2183
2184 =item C<PERL_ANYEVENT_MAX_FORKS>
2185
2186 The maximum number of child processes that C<AnyEvent::Util::fork_call>
2187 will create in parallel.
2188
2189 =item C<PERL_ANYEVENT_MAX_OUTSTANDING_DNS>
2190
2191 The default value for the C<max_outstanding> parameter for the default DNS
2192 resolver - this is the maximum number of parallel DNS requests that are
2193 sent to the DNS server.
2194
2195 =item C<PERL_ANYEVENT_RESOLV_CONF>
2196
2197 The absolute path to a F<resolv.conf>-style file to use instead of
2198 F</etc/resolv.conf> (or the OS-specific configuration) in the default
2199 resolver, or the empty string to select the default configuration.
2200
2201 =item C<PERL_ANYEVENT_CA_FILE>, C<PERL_ANYEVENT_CA_PATH>.
2202
2203 When neither C<ca_file> nor C<ca_path> was specified during
2204 L<AnyEvent::TLS> context creation, and either of these environment
2205 variables are nonempty, they will be used to specify CA certificate
2206 locations instead of a system-dependent default.
2207
2208 =item C<PERL_ANYEVENT_AVOID_GUARD> and C<PERL_ANYEVENT_AVOID_ASYNC_INTERRUPT>
2209
2210 When these are set to C<1>, then the respective modules are not
2211 loaded. Mostly good for testing AnyEvent itself.
2212
2213 =back
2214
2215 =head1 SUPPLYING YOUR OWN EVENT MODEL INTERFACE
2216
2217 This is an advanced topic that you do not normally need to use AnyEvent in
2218 a module. This section is only of use to event loop authors who want to
2219 provide AnyEvent compatibility.
2220
2221 If you need to support another event library which isn't directly
2222 supported by AnyEvent, you can supply your own interface to it by
2223 pushing, before the first watcher gets created, the package name of
2224 the event module and the package name of the interface to use onto
2225 C<@AnyEvent::REGISTRY>. You can do that before and even without loading
2226 AnyEvent, so it is reasonably cheap.
2227
2228 Example:
2229
2230 push @AnyEvent::REGISTRY, [urxvt => urxvt::anyevent::];
2231
2232 This tells AnyEvent to (literally) use the C<urxvt::anyevent::>
2233 package/class when it finds the C<urxvt> package/module is already loaded.
2234
2235 When AnyEvent is loaded and asked to find a suitable event model, it
2236 will first check for the presence of urxvt by trying to C<use> the
2237 C<urxvt::anyevent> module.
2238
2239 The class should provide implementations for all watcher types. See
2240 L<AnyEvent::Impl::EV> (source code), L<AnyEvent::Impl::Glib> (Source code)
2241 and so on for actual examples. Use C<perldoc -m AnyEvent::Impl::Glib> to
2242 see the sources.
2243
2244 If you don't provide C<signal> and C<child> watchers than AnyEvent will
2245 provide suitable (hopefully) replacements.
2246
2247 The above example isn't fictitious, the I<rxvt-unicode> (a.k.a. urxvt)
2248 terminal emulator uses the above line as-is. An interface isn't included
2249 in AnyEvent because it doesn't make sense outside the embedded interpreter
2250 inside I<rxvt-unicode>, and it is updated and maintained as part of the
2251 I<rxvt-unicode> distribution.
2252
2253 I<rxvt-unicode> also cheats a bit by not providing blocking access to
2254 condition variables: code blocking while waiting for a condition will
2255 C<die>. This still works with most modules/usages, and blocking calls must
2256 not be done in an interactive application, so it makes sense.
2257
2258 =head1 EXAMPLE PROGRAM
2259
2260 The following program uses an I/O watcher to read data from STDIN, a timer
2261 to display a message once per second, and a condition variable to quit the
2262 program when the user enters quit:
2263
2264 use AnyEvent;
2265
2266 my $cv = AnyEvent->condvar;
2267
2268 my $io_watcher = AnyEvent->io (
2269 fh => \*STDIN,
2270 poll => 'r',
2271 cb => sub {
2272 warn "io event <$_[0]>\n"; # will always output <r>
2273 chomp (my $input = <STDIN>); # read a line
2274 warn "read: $input\n"; # output what has been read
2275 $cv->send if $input =~ /^q/i; # quit program if /^q/i
2276 },
2277 );
2278
2279 my $time_watcher = AnyEvent->timer (after => 1, interval => 1, cb => sub {
2280 warn "timeout\n"; # print 'timeout' at most every second
2281 });
2282
2283 $cv->recv; # wait until user enters /^q/i
2284
2285 =head1 REAL-WORLD EXAMPLE
2286
2287 Consider the L<Net::FCP> module. It features (among others) the following
2288 API calls, which are to freenet what HTTP GET requests are to http:
2289
2290 my $data = $fcp->client_get ($url); # blocks
2291
2292 my $transaction = $fcp->txn_client_get ($url); # does not block
2293 $transaction->cb ( sub { ... } ); # set optional result callback
2294 my $data = $transaction->result; # possibly blocks
2295
2296 The C<client_get> method works like C<LWP::Simple::get>: it requests the
2297 given URL and waits till the data has arrived. It is defined to be:
2298
2299 sub client_get { $_[0]->txn_client_get ($_[1])->result }
2300
2301 And in fact is automatically generated. This is the blocking API of
2302 L<Net::FCP>, and it works as simple as in any other, similar, module.
2303
2304 More complicated is C<txn_client_get>: It only creates a transaction
2305 (completion, result, ...) object and initiates the transaction.
2306
2307 my $txn = bless { }, Net::FCP::Txn::;
2308
2309 It also creates a condition variable that is used to signal the completion
2310 of the request:
2311
2312 $txn->{finished} = AnyAvent->condvar;
2313
2314 It then creates a socket in non-blocking mode.
2315
2316 socket $txn->{fh}, ...;
2317 fcntl $txn->{fh}, F_SETFL, O_NONBLOCK;
2318 connect $txn->{fh}, ...
2319 and !$!{EWOULDBLOCK}
2320 and !$!{EINPROGRESS}
2321 and Carp::croak "unable to connect: $!\n";
2322
2323 Then it creates a write-watcher which gets called whenever an error occurs
2324 or the connection succeeds:
2325
2326 $txn->{w} = AnyEvent->io (fh => $txn->{fh}, poll => 'w', cb => sub { $txn->fh_ready_w });
2327
2328 And returns this transaction object. The C<fh_ready_w> callback gets
2329 called as soon as the event loop detects that the socket is ready for
2330 writing.
2331
2332 The C<fh_ready_w> method makes the socket blocking again, writes the
2333 request data and replaces the watcher by a read watcher (waiting for reply
2334 data). The actual code is more complicated, but that doesn't matter for
2335 this example:
2336
2337 fcntl $txn->{fh}, F_SETFL, 0;
2338 syswrite $txn->{fh}, $txn->{request}
2339 or die "connection or write error";
2340 $txn->{w} = AnyEvent->io (fh => $txn->{fh}, poll => 'r', cb => sub { $txn->fh_ready_r });
2341
2342 Again, C<fh_ready_r> waits till all data has arrived, and then stores the
2343 result and signals any possible waiters that the request has finished:
2344
2345 sysread $txn->{fh}, $txn->{buf}, length $txn->{$buf};
2346
2347 if (end-of-file or data complete) {
2348 $txn->{result} = $txn->{buf};
2349 $txn->{finished}->send;
2350 $txb->{cb}->($txn) of $txn->{cb}; # also call callback
2351 }
2352
2353 The C<result> method, finally, just waits for the finished signal (if the
2354 request was already finished, it doesn't wait, of course, and returns the
2355 data:
2356
2357 $txn->{finished}->recv;
2358 return $txn->{result};
2359
2360 The actual code goes further and collects all errors (C<die>s, exceptions)
2361 that occurred during request processing. The C<result> method detects
2362 whether an exception as thrown (it is stored inside the $txn object)
2363 and just throws the exception, which means connection errors and other
2364 problems get reported to the code that tries to use the result, not in a
2365 random callback.
2366
2367 All of this enables the following usage styles:
2368
2369 1. Blocking:
2370
2371 my $data = $fcp->client_get ($url);
2372
2373 2. Blocking, but running in parallel:
2374
2375 my @datas = map $_->result,
2376 map $fcp->txn_client_get ($_),
2377 @urls;
2378
2379 Both blocking examples work without the module user having to know
2380 anything about events.
2381
2382 3a. Event-based in a main program, using any supported event module:
2383
2384 use EV;
2385
2386 $fcp->txn_client_get ($url)->cb (sub {
2387 my $txn = shift;
2388 my $data = $txn->result;
2389 ...
2390 });
2391
2392 EV::loop;
2393
2394 3b. The module user could use AnyEvent, too:
2395
2396 use AnyEvent;
2397
2398 my $quit = AnyEvent->condvar;
2399
2400 $fcp->txn_client_get ($url)->cb (sub {
2401 ...
2402 $quit->send;
2403 });
2404
2405 $quit->recv;
2406
2407
2408 =head1 BENCHMARKS
2409
2410 To give you an idea of the performance and overheads that AnyEvent adds
2411 over the event loops themselves and to give you an impression of the speed
2412 of various event loops I prepared some benchmarks.
2413
2414 =head2 BENCHMARKING ANYEVENT OVERHEAD
2415
2416 Here is a benchmark of various supported event models used natively and
2417 through AnyEvent. The benchmark creates a lot of timers (with a zero
2418 timeout) and I/O watchers (watching STDOUT, a pty, to become writable,
2419 which it is), lets them fire exactly once and destroys them again.
2420
2421 Source code for this benchmark is found as F<eg/bench> in the AnyEvent
2422 distribution. It uses the L<AE> interface, which makes a real difference
2423 for the EV and Perl backends only.
2424
2425 =head3 Explanation of the columns
2426
2427 I<watcher> is the number of event watchers created/destroyed. Since
2428 different event models feature vastly different performances, each event
2429 loop was given a number of watchers so that overall runtime is acceptable
2430 and similar between tested event loop (and keep them from crashing): Glib
2431 would probably take thousands of years if asked to process the same number
2432 of watchers as EV in this benchmark.
2433
2434 I<bytes> is the number of bytes (as measured by the resident set size,
2435 RSS) consumed by each watcher. This method of measuring captures both C
2436 and Perl-based overheads.
2437
2438 I<create> is the time, in microseconds (millionths of seconds), that it
2439 takes to create a single watcher. The callback is a closure shared between
2440 all watchers, to avoid adding memory overhead. That means closure creation
2441 and memory usage is not included in the figures.
2442
2443 I<invoke> is the time, in microseconds, used to invoke a simple
2444 callback. The callback simply counts down a Perl variable and after it was
2445 invoked "watcher" times, it would C<< ->send >> a condvar once to
2446 signal the end of this phase.
2447
2448 I<destroy> is the time, in microseconds, that it takes to destroy a single
2449 watcher.
2450
2451 =head3 Results
2452
2453 name watchers bytes create invoke destroy comment
2454 EV/EV 100000 223 0.47 0.43 0.27 EV native interface
2455 EV/Any 100000 223 0.48 0.42 0.26 EV + AnyEvent watchers
2456 Coro::EV/Any 100000 223 0.47 0.42 0.26 coroutines + Coro::Signal
2457 Perl/Any 100000 431 2.70 0.74 0.92 pure perl implementation
2458 Event/Event 16000 516 31.16 31.84 0.82 Event native interface
2459 Event/Any 16000 1203 42.61 34.79 1.80 Event + AnyEvent watchers
2460 IOAsync/Any 16000 1911 41.92 27.45 16.81 via IO::Async::Loop::IO_Poll
2461 IOAsync/Any 16000 1726 40.69 26.37 15.25 via IO::Async::Loop::Epoll
2462 Glib/Any 16000 1118 89.00 12.57 51.17 quadratic behaviour
2463 Tk/Any 2000 1346 20.96 10.75 8.00 SEGV with >> 2000 watchers
2464 POE/Any 2000 6951 108.97 795.32 14.24 via POE::Loop::Event
2465 POE/Any 2000 6648 94.79 774.40 575.51 via POE::Loop::Select
2466
2467 =head3 Discussion
2468
2469 The benchmark does I<not> measure scalability of the event loop very
2470 well. For example, a select-based event loop (such as the pure perl one)
2471 can never compete with an event loop that uses epoll when the number of
2472 file descriptors grows high. In this benchmark, all events become ready at
2473 the same time, so select/poll-based implementations get an unnatural speed
2474 boost.
2475
2476 Also, note that the number of watchers usually has a nonlinear effect on
2477 overall speed, that is, creating twice as many watchers doesn't take twice
2478 the time - usually it takes longer. This puts event loops tested with a
2479 higher number of watchers at a disadvantage.
2480
2481 To put the range of results into perspective, consider that on the
2482 benchmark machine, handling an event takes roughly 1600 CPU cycles with
2483 EV, 3100 CPU cycles with AnyEvent's pure perl loop and almost 3000000 CPU
2484 cycles with POE.
2485
2486 C<EV> is the sole leader regarding speed and memory use, which are both
2487 maximal/minimal, respectively. When using the L<AE> API there is zero
2488 overhead (when going through the AnyEvent API create is about 5-6 times
2489 slower, with other times being equal, so still uses far less memory than
2490 any other event loop and is still faster than Event natively).
2491
2492 The pure perl implementation is hit in a few sweet spots (both the
2493 constant timeout and the use of a single fd hit optimisations in the perl
2494 interpreter and the backend itself). Nevertheless this shows that it
2495 adds very little overhead in itself. Like any select-based backend its
2496 performance becomes really bad with lots of file descriptors (and few of
2497 them active), of course, but this was not subject of this benchmark.
2498
2499 The C<Event> module has a relatively high setup and callback invocation
2500 cost, but overall scores in on the third place.
2501
2502 C<IO::Async> performs admirably well, about on par with C<Event>, even
2503 when using its pure perl backend.
2504
2505 C<Glib>'s memory usage is quite a bit higher, but it features a
2506 faster callback invocation and overall ends up in the same class as
2507 C<Event>. However, Glib scales extremely badly, doubling the number of
2508 watchers increases the processing time by more than a factor of four,
2509 making it completely unusable when using larger numbers of watchers
2510 (note that only a single file descriptor was used in the benchmark, so
2511 inefficiencies of C<poll> do not account for this).
2512
2513 The C<Tk> adaptor works relatively well. The fact that it crashes with
2514 more than 2000 watchers is a big setback, however, as correctness takes
2515 precedence over speed. Nevertheless, its performance is surprising, as the
2516 file descriptor is dup()ed for each watcher. This shows that the dup()
2517 employed by some adaptors is not a big performance issue (it does incur a
2518 hidden memory cost inside the kernel which is not reflected in the figures
2519 above).
2520
2521 C<POE>, regardless of underlying event loop (whether using its pure perl
2522 select-based backend or the Event module, the POE-EV backend couldn't
2523 be tested because it wasn't working) shows abysmal performance and
2524 memory usage with AnyEvent: Watchers use almost 30 times as much memory
2525 as EV watchers, and 10 times as much memory as Event (the high memory
2526 requirements are caused by requiring a session for each watcher). Watcher
2527 invocation speed is almost 900 times slower than with AnyEvent's pure perl
2528 implementation.
2529
2530 The design of the POE adaptor class in AnyEvent can not really account
2531 for the performance issues, though, as session creation overhead is
2532 small compared to execution of the state machine, which is coded pretty
2533 optimally within L<AnyEvent::Impl::POE> (and while everybody agrees that
2534 using multiple sessions is not a good approach, especially regarding
2535 memory usage, even the author of POE could not come up with a faster
2536 design).
2537
2538 =head3 Summary
2539
2540 =over 4
2541
2542 =item * Using EV through AnyEvent is faster than any other event loop
2543 (even when used without AnyEvent), but most event loops have acceptable
2544 performance with or without AnyEvent.
2545
2546 =item * The overhead AnyEvent adds is usually much smaller than the overhead of
2547 the actual event loop, only with extremely fast event loops such as EV
2548 does AnyEvent add significant overhead.
2549
2550 =item * You should avoid POE like the plague if you want performance or
2551 reasonable memory usage.
2552
2553 =back
2554
2555 =head2 BENCHMARKING THE LARGE SERVER CASE
2556
2557 This benchmark actually benchmarks the event loop itself. It works by
2558 creating a number of "servers": each server consists of a socket pair, a
2559 timeout watcher that gets reset on activity (but never fires), and an I/O
2560 watcher waiting for input on one side of the socket. Each time the socket
2561 watcher reads a byte it will write that byte to a random other "server".
2562
2563 The effect is that there will be a lot of I/O watchers, only part of which
2564 are active at any one point (so there is a constant number of active
2565 fds for each loop iteration, but which fds these are is random). The
2566 timeout is reset each time something is read because that reflects how
2567 most timeouts work (and puts extra pressure on the event loops).
2568
2569 In this benchmark, we use 10000 socket pairs (20000 sockets), of which 100
2570 (1%) are active. This mirrors the activity of large servers with many
2571 connections, most of which are idle at any one point in time.
2572
2573 Source code for this benchmark is found as F<eg/bench2> in the AnyEvent
2574 distribution. It uses the L<AE> interface, which makes a real difference
2575 for the EV and Perl backends only.
2576
2577 =head3 Explanation of the columns
2578
2579 I<sockets> is the number of sockets, and twice the number of "servers" (as
2580 each server has a read and write socket end).
2581
2582 I<create> is the time it takes to create a socket pair (which is
2583 nontrivial) and two watchers: an I/O watcher and a timeout watcher.
2584
2585 I<request>, the most important value, is the time it takes to handle a
2586 single "request", that is, reading the token from the pipe and forwarding
2587 it to another server. This includes deleting the old timeout and creating
2588 a new one that moves the timeout into the future.
2589
2590 =head3 Results
2591
2592 name sockets create request
2593 EV 20000 62.66 7.99
2594 Perl 20000 68.32 32.64
2595 IOAsync 20000 174.06 101.15 epoll
2596 IOAsync 20000 174.67 610.84 poll
2597 Event 20000 202.69 242.91
2598 Glib 20000 557.01 1689.52
2599 POE 20000 341.54 12086.32 uses POE::Loop::Event
2600
2601 =head3 Discussion
2602
2603 This benchmark I<does> measure scalability and overall performance of the
2604 particular event loop.
2605
2606 EV is again fastest. Since it is using epoll on my system, the setup time
2607 is relatively high, though.
2608
2609 Perl surprisingly comes second. It is much faster than the C-based event
2610 loops Event and Glib.
2611
2612 IO::Async performs very well when using its epoll backend, and still quite
2613 good compared to Glib when using its pure perl backend.
2614
2615 Event suffers from high setup time as well (look at its code and you will
2616 understand why). Callback invocation also has a high overhead compared to
2617 the C<< $_->() for .. >>-style loop that the Perl event loop uses. Event
2618 uses select or poll in basically all documented configurations.
2619
2620 Glib is hit hard by its quadratic behaviour w.r.t. many watchers. It
2621 clearly fails to perform with many filehandles or in busy servers.
2622
2623 POE is still completely out of the picture, taking over 1000 times as long
2624 as EV, and over 100 times as long as the Perl implementation, even though
2625 it uses a C-based event loop in this case.
2626
2627 =head3 Summary
2628
2629 =over 4
2630
2631 =item * The pure perl implementation performs extremely well.
2632
2633 =item * Avoid Glib or POE in large projects where performance matters.
2634
2635 =back
2636
2637 =head2 BENCHMARKING SMALL SERVERS
2638
2639 While event loops should scale (and select-based ones do not...) even to
2640 large servers, most programs we (or I :) actually write have only a few
2641 I/O watchers.
2642
2643 In this benchmark, I use the same benchmark program as in the large server
2644 case, but it uses only eight "servers", of which three are active at any
2645 one time. This should reflect performance for a small server relatively
2646 well.
2647
2648 The columns are identical to the previous table.
2649
2650 =head3 Results
2651
2652 name sockets create request
2653 EV 16 20.00 6.54
2654 Perl 16 25.75 12.62
2655 Event 16 81.27 35.86
2656 Glib 16 32.63 15.48
2657 POE 16 261.87 276.28 uses POE::Loop::Event
2658
2659 =head3 Discussion
2660
2661 The benchmark tries to test the performance of a typical small
2662 server. While knowing how various event loops perform is interesting, keep
2663 in mind that their overhead in this case is usually not as important, due
2664 to the small absolute number of watchers (that is, you need efficiency and
2665 speed most when you have lots of watchers, not when you only have a few of
2666 them).
2667
2668 EV is again fastest.
2669
2670 Perl again comes second. It is noticeably faster than the C-based event
2671 loops Event and Glib, although the difference is too small to really
2672 matter.
2673
2674 POE also performs much better in this case, but is is still far behind the
2675 others.
2676
2677 =head3 Summary
2678
2679 =over 4
2680
2681 =item * C-based event loops perform very well with small number of
2682 watchers, as the management overhead dominates.
2683
2684 =back
2685
2686 =head2 THE IO::Lambda BENCHMARK
2687
2688 Recently I was told about the benchmark in the IO::Lambda manpage, which
2689 could be misinterpreted to make AnyEvent look bad. In fact, the benchmark
2690 simply compares IO::Lambda with POE, and IO::Lambda looks better (which
2691 shouldn't come as a surprise to anybody). As such, the benchmark is
2692 fine, and mostly shows that the AnyEvent backend from IO::Lambda isn't
2693 very optimal. But how would AnyEvent compare when used without the extra
2694 baggage? To explore this, I wrote the equivalent benchmark for AnyEvent.
2695
2696 The benchmark itself creates an echo-server, and then, for 500 times,
2697 connects to the echo server, sends a line, waits for the reply, and then
2698 creates the next connection. This is a rather bad benchmark, as it doesn't
2699 test the efficiency of the framework or much non-blocking I/O, but it is a
2700 benchmark nevertheless.
2701
2702 name runtime
2703 Lambda/select 0.330 sec
2704 + optimized 0.122 sec
2705 Lambda/AnyEvent 0.327 sec
2706 + optimized 0.138 sec
2707 Raw sockets/select 0.077 sec
2708 POE/select, components 0.662 sec
2709 POE/select, raw sockets 0.226 sec
2710 POE/select, optimized 0.404 sec
2711
2712 AnyEvent/select/nb 0.085 sec
2713 AnyEvent/EV/nb 0.068 sec
2714 +state machine 0.134 sec
2715
2716 The benchmark is also a bit unfair (my fault): the IO::Lambda/POE
2717 benchmarks actually make blocking connects and use 100% blocking I/O,
2718 defeating the purpose of an event-based solution. All of the newly
2719 written AnyEvent benchmarks use 100% non-blocking connects (using
2720 AnyEvent::Socket::tcp_connect and the asynchronous pure perl DNS
2721 resolver), so AnyEvent is at a disadvantage here, as non-blocking connects
2722 generally require a lot more bookkeeping and event handling than blocking
2723 connects (which involve a single syscall only).
2724
2725 The last AnyEvent benchmark additionally uses L<AnyEvent::Handle>, which
2726 offers similar expressive power as POE and IO::Lambda, using conventional
2727 Perl syntax. This means that both the echo server and the client are 100%
2728 non-blocking, further placing it at a disadvantage.
2729
2730 As you can see, the AnyEvent + EV combination even beats the
2731 hand-optimised "raw sockets benchmark", while AnyEvent + its pure perl
2732 backend easily beats IO::Lambda and POE.
2733
2734 And even the 100% non-blocking version written using the high-level (and
2735 slow :) L<AnyEvent::Handle> abstraction beats both POE and IO::Lambda
2736 higher level ("unoptimised") abstractions by a large margin, even though
2737 it does all of DNS, tcp-connect and socket I/O in a non-blocking way.
2738
2739 The two AnyEvent benchmarks programs can be found as F<eg/ae0.pl> and
2740 F<eg/ae2.pl> in the AnyEvent distribution, the remaining benchmarks are
2741 part of the IO::Lambda distribution and were used without any changes.
2742
2743
2744 =head1 SIGNALS
2745
2746 AnyEvent currently installs handlers for these signals:
2747
2748 =over 4
2749
2750 =item SIGCHLD
2751
2752 A handler for C<SIGCHLD> is installed by AnyEvent's child watcher
2753 emulation for event loops that do not support them natively. Also, some
2754 event loops install a similar handler.
2755
2756 Additionally, when AnyEvent is loaded and SIGCHLD is set to IGNORE, then
2757 AnyEvent will reset it to default, to avoid losing child exit statuses.
2758
2759 =item SIGPIPE
2760
2761 A no-op handler is installed for C<SIGPIPE> when C<$SIG{PIPE}> is C<undef>
2762 when AnyEvent gets loaded.
2763
2764 The rationale for this is that AnyEvent users usually do not really depend
2765 on SIGPIPE delivery (which is purely an optimisation for shell use, or
2766 badly-written programs), but C<SIGPIPE> can cause spurious and rare
2767 program exits as a lot of people do not expect C<SIGPIPE> when writing to
2768 some random socket.
2769
2770 The rationale for installing a no-op handler as opposed to ignoring it is
2771 that this way, the handler will be restored to defaults on exec.
2772
2773 Feel free to install your own handler, or reset it to defaults.
2774
2775 =back
2776
2777 =cut
2778
2779 undef $SIG{CHLD}
2780 if $SIG{CHLD} eq 'IGNORE';
2781
2782 $SIG{PIPE} = sub { }
2783 unless defined $SIG{PIPE};
2784
2785 =head1 RECOMMENDED/OPTIONAL MODULES
2786
2787 One of AnyEvent's main goals is to be 100% Pure-Perl(tm): only perl (and
2788 its built-in modules) are required to use it.
2789
2790 That does not mean that AnyEvent won't take advantage of some additional
2791 modules if they are installed.
2792
2793 This section explains which additional modules will be used, and how they
2794 affect AnyEvent's operation.
2795
2796 =over 4
2797
2798 =item L<Async::Interrupt>
2799
2800 This slightly arcane module is used to implement fast signal handling: To
2801 my knowledge, there is no way to do completely race-free and quick
2802 signal handling in pure perl. To ensure that signals still get
2803 delivered, AnyEvent will start an interval timer to wake up perl (and
2804 catch the signals) with some delay (default is 10 seconds, look for
2805 C<$AnyEvent::MAX_SIGNAL_LATENCY>).
2806
2807 If this module is available, then it will be used to implement signal
2808 catching, which means that signals will not be delayed, and the event loop
2809 will not be interrupted regularly, which is more efficient (and good for
2810 battery life on laptops).
2811
2812 This affects not just the pure-perl event loop, but also other event loops
2813 that have no signal handling on their own (e.g. Glib, Tk, Qt).
2814
2815 Some event loops (POE, Event, Event::Lib) offer signal watchers natively,
2816 and either employ their own workarounds (POE) or use AnyEvent's workaround
2817 (using C<$AnyEvent::MAX_SIGNAL_LATENCY>). Installing L<Async::Interrupt>
2818 does nothing for those backends.
2819
2820 =item L<EV>
2821
2822 This module isn't really "optional", as it is simply one of the backend
2823 event loops that AnyEvent can use. However, it is simply the best event
2824 loop available in terms of features, speed and stability: It supports
2825 the AnyEvent API optimally, implements all the watcher types in XS, does
2826 automatic timer adjustments even when no monotonic clock is available,
2827 can take avdantage of advanced kernel interfaces such as C<epoll> and
2828 C<kqueue>, and is the fastest backend I<by far>. You can even embed
2829 L<Glib>/L<Gtk2> in it (or vice versa, see L<EV::Glib> and L<Glib::EV>).
2830
2831 If you only use backends that rely on another event loop (e.g. C<Tk>),
2832 then this module will do nothing for you.
2833
2834 =item L<Guard>
2835
2836 The guard module, when used, will be used to implement
2837 C<AnyEvent::Util::guard>. This speeds up guards considerably (and uses a
2838 lot less memory), but otherwise doesn't affect guard operation much. It is
2839 purely used for performance.
2840
2841 =item L<JSON> and L<JSON::XS>
2842
2843 One of these modules is required when you want to read or write JSON data
2844 via L<AnyEvent::Handle>. L<JSON> is also written in pure-perl, but can take
2845 advantage of the ultra-high-speed L<JSON::XS> module when it is installed.
2846
2847 =item L<Net::SSLeay>
2848
2849 Implementing TLS/SSL in Perl is certainly interesting, but not very
2850 worthwhile: If this module is installed, then L<AnyEvent::Handle> (with
2851 the help of L<AnyEvent::TLS>), gains the ability to do TLS/SSL.
2852
2853 =item L<Time::HiRes>
2854
2855 This module is part of perl since release 5.008. It will be used when the
2856 chosen event library does not come with a timing source of its own. The
2857 pure-perl event loop (L<AnyEvent::Loop>) will additionally load it to
2858 try to use a monotonic clock for timing stability.
2859
2860 =back
2861
2862
2863 =head1 FORK
2864
2865 Most event libraries are not fork-safe. The ones who are usually are
2866 because they rely on inefficient but fork-safe C<select> or C<poll> calls
2867 - higher performance APIs such as BSD's kqueue or the dreaded Linux epoll
2868 are usually badly thought-out hacks that are incompatible with fork in
2869 one way or another. Only L<EV> is fully fork-aware and ensures that you
2870 continue event-processing in both parent and child (or both, if you know
2871 what you are doing).
2872
2873 This means that, in general, you cannot fork and do event processing in
2874 the child if the event library was initialised before the fork (which
2875 usually happens when the first AnyEvent watcher is created, or the library
2876 is loaded).
2877
2878 If you have to fork, you must either do so I<before> creating your first
2879 watcher OR you must not use AnyEvent at all in the child OR you must do
2880 something completely out of the scope of AnyEvent.
2881
2882 The problem of doing event processing in the parent I<and> the child
2883 is much more complicated: even for backends that I<are> fork-aware or
2884 fork-safe, their behaviour is not usually what you want: fork clones all
2885 watchers, that means all timers, I/O watchers etc. are active in both
2886 parent and child, which is almost never what you want. USing C<exec>
2887 to start worker children from some kind of manage rprocess is usually
2888 preferred, because it is much easier and cleaner, at the expense of having
2889 to have another binary.
2890
2891
2892 =head1 SECURITY CONSIDERATIONS
2893
2894 AnyEvent can be forced to load any event model via
2895 $ENV{PERL_ANYEVENT_MODEL}. While this cannot (to my knowledge) be used to
2896 execute arbitrary code or directly gain access, it can easily be used to
2897 make the program hang or malfunction in subtle ways, as AnyEvent watchers
2898 will not be active when the program uses a different event model than
2899 specified in the variable.
2900
2901 You can make AnyEvent completely ignore this variable by deleting it
2902 before the first watcher gets created, e.g. with a C<BEGIN> block:
2903
2904 BEGIN { delete $ENV{PERL_ANYEVENT_MODEL} }
2905
2906 use AnyEvent;
2907
2908 Similar considerations apply to $ENV{PERL_ANYEVENT_VERBOSE}, as that can
2909 be used to probe what backend is used and gain other information (which is
2910 probably even less useful to an attacker than PERL_ANYEVENT_MODEL), and
2911 $ENV{PERL_ANYEVENT_STRICT}.
2912
2913 Note that AnyEvent will remove I<all> environment variables starting with
2914 C<PERL_ANYEVENT_> from C<%ENV> when it is loaded while taint mode is
2915 enabled.
2916
2917
2918 =head1 BUGS
2919
2920 Perl 5.8 has numerous memleaks that sometimes hit this module and are hard
2921 to work around. If you suffer from memleaks, first upgrade to Perl 5.10
2922 and check wether the leaks still show up. (Perl 5.10.0 has other annoying
2923 memleaks, such as leaking on C<map> and C<grep> but it is usually not as
2924 pronounced).
2925
2926
2927 =head1 SEE ALSO
2928
2929 Tutorial/Introduction: L<AnyEvent::Intro>.
2930
2931 FAQ: L<AnyEvent::FAQ>.
2932
2933 Utility functions: L<AnyEvent::Util> (misc. grab-bag), L<AnyEvent::Log>
2934 (simply logging).
2935
2936 Development/Debugging: L<AnyEvent::Strict> (stricter checking),
2937 L<AnyEvent::Debug> (interactive shell, watcher tracing).
2938
2939 Supported event modules: L<AnyEvent::Loop>, L<EV>, L<EV::Glib>,
2940 L<Glib::EV>, L<Event>, L<Glib::Event>, L<Glib>, L<Tk>, L<Event::Lib>,
2941 L<Qt>, L<POE>, L<FLTK>.
2942
2943 Implementations: L<AnyEvent::Impl::EV>, L<AnyEvent::Impl::Event>,
2944 L<AnyEvent::Impl::Glib>, L<AnyEvent::Impl::Tk>, L<AnyEvent::Impl::Perl>,
2945 L<AnyEvent::Impl::EventLib>, L<AnyEvent::Impl::Qt>,
2946 L<AnyEvent::Impl::POE>, L<AnyEvent::Impl::IOAsync>, L<Anyevent::Impl::Irssi>,
2947 L<AnyEvent::Impl::FLTK>.
2948
2949 Non-blocking handles, pipes, stream sockets, TCP clients and
2950 servers: L<AnyEvent::Handle>, L<AnyEvent::Socket>, L<AnyEvent::TLS>.
2951
2952 Asynchronous DNS: L<AnyEvent::DNS>.
2953
2954 Thread support: L<Coro>, L<Coro::AnyEvent>, L<Coro::EV>, L<Coro::Event>.
2955
2956 Nontrivial usage examples: L<AnyEvent::GPSD>, L<AnyEvent::IRC>,
2957 L<AnyEvent::HTTP>.
2958
2959
2960 =head1 AUTHOR
2961
2962 Marc Lehmann <schmorp@schmorp.de>
2963 http://home.schmorp.de/
2964
2965 =cut
2966
2967 1
2968