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1=head1 NAME 1=head1 NAME
2 2
3AnyEvent - provide framework for multiple event loops 3AnyEvent - provide framework for multiple event loops
4 4
5EV, Event, Coro::EV, Coro::Event, Glib, Tk, Perl, Event::Lib, Qt - various supported event loops 5EV, Event, Glib, Tk, Perl, Event::Lib, Qt, POE - various supported event loops
6 6
7=head1 SYNOPSIS 7=head1 SYNOPSIS
8 8
9 use AnyEvent; 9 use AnyEvent;
10 10
11 my $w = AnyEvent->io (fh => $fh, poll => "r|w", cb => sub { 11 my $w = AnyEvent->io (fh => $fh, poll => "r|w", cb => sub { ... });
12
13 my $w = AnyEvent->timer (after => $seconds, cb => sub { ... });
14 my $w = AnyEvent->timer (after => $seconds, interval => $seconds, cb => ...
15
16 print AnyEvent->now; # prints current event loop time
17 print AnyEvent->time; # think Time::HiRes::time or simply CORE::time.
18
19 my $w = AnyEvent->signal (signal => "TERM", cb => sub { ... });
20
21 my $w = AnyEvent->child (pid => $pid, cb => sub {
22 my ($pid, $status) = @_;
12 ... 23 ...
13 }); 24 });
14 25
15 my $w = AnyEvent->timer (after => $seconds, cb => sub {
16 ...
17 });
18
19 my $w = AnyEvent->condvar; # stores whether a condition was flagged 26 my $w = AnyEvent->condvar; # stores whether a condition was flagged
27 $w->send; # wake up current and all future recv's
20 $w->wait; # enters "main loop" till $condvar gets ->broadcast 28 $w->recv; # enters "main loop" till $condvar gets ->send
21 $w->broadcast; # wake up current and all future wait's 29 # use a condvar in callback mode:
30 $w->cb (sub { $_[0]->recv });
31
32=head1 INTRODUCTION/TUTORIAL
33
34This manpage is mainly a reference manual. If you are interested
35in a tutorial or some gentle introduction, have a look at the
36L<AnyEvent::Intro> manpage.
22 37
23=head1 WHY YOU SHOULD USE THIS MODULE (OR NOT) 38=head1 WHY YOU SHOULD USE THIS MODULE (OR NOT)
24 39
25Glib, POE, IO::Async, Event... CPAN offers event models by the dozen 40Glib, POE, IO::Async, Event... CPAN offers event models by the dozen
26nowadays. So what is different about AnyEvent? 41nowadays. So what is different about AnyEvent?
27 42
28Executive Summary: AnyEvent is I<compatible>, AnyEvent is I<free of 43Executive Summary: AnyEvent is I<compatible>, AnyEvent is I<free of
29policy> and AnyEvent is I<small and efficient>. 44policy> and AnyEvent is I<small and efficient>.
30 45
31First and foremost, I<AnyEvent is not an event model> itself, it only 46First and foremost, I<AnyEvent is not an event model> itself, it only
32interfaces to whatever event model the main program happens to use in a 47interfaces to whatever event model the main program happens to use, in a
33pragmatic way. For event models and certain classes of immortals alike, 48pragmatic way. For event models and certain classes of immortals alike,
34the statement "there can only be one" is a bitter reality: In general, 49the statement "there can only be one" is a bitter reality: In general,
35only one event loop can be active at the same time in a process. AnyEvent 50only one event loop can be active at the same time in a process. AnyEvent
36helps hiding the differences between those event loops. 51cannot change this, but it can hide the differences between those event
52loops.
37 53
38The goal of AnyEvent is to offer module authors the ability to do event 54The goal of AnyEvent is to offer module authors the ability to do event
39programming (waiting for I/O or timer events) without subscribing to a 55programming (waiting for I/O or timer events) without subscribing to a
40religion, a way of living, and most importantly: without forcing your 56religion, a way of living, and most importantly: without forcing your
41module users into the same thing by forcing them to use the same event 57module users into the same thing by forcing them to use the same event
42model you use. 58model you use.
43 59
44For modules like POE or IO::Async (which is a total misnomer as it is 60For modules like POE or IO::Async (which is a total misnomer as it is
45actually doing all I/O I<synchronously>...), using them in your module is 61actually doing all I/O I<synchronously>...), using them in your module is
46like joining a cult: After you joined, you are dependent on them and you 62like joining a cult: After you joined, you are dependent on them and you
47cannot use anything else, as it is simply incompatible to everything that 63cannot use anything else, as they are simply incompatible to everything
48isn't itself. What's worse, all the potential users of your module are 64that isn't them. What's worse, all the potential users of your
49I<also> forced to use the same event loop you use. 65module are I<also> forced to use the same event loop you use.
50 66
51AnyEvent is different: AnyEvent + POE works fine. AnyEvent + Glib works 67AnyEvent is different: AnyEvent + POE works fine. AnyEvent + Glib works
52fine. AnyEvent + Tk works fine etc. etc. but none of these work together 68fine. AnyEvent + Tk works fine etc. etc. but none of these work together
53with the rest: POE + IO::Async? no go. Tk + Event? no go. Again: if 69with the rest: POE + IO::Async? No go. Tk + Event? No go. Again: if
54your module uses one of those, every user of your module has to use it, 70your module uses one of those, every user of your module has to use it,
55too. But if your module uses AnyEvent, it works transparently with all 71too. But if your module uses AnyEvent, it works transparently with all
56event models it supports (including stuff like POE and IO::Async, as long 72event models it supports (including stuff like IO::Async, as long as those
57as those use one of the supported event loops. It is trivial to add new 73use one of the supported event loops. It is trivial to add new event loops
58event loops to AnyEvent, too, so it is future-proof). 74to AnyEvent, too, so it is future-proof).
59 75
60In addition to being free of having to use I<the one and only true event 76In addition to being free of having to use I<the one and only true event
61model>, AnyEvent also is free of bloat and policy: with POE or similar 77model>, AnyEvent also is free of bloat and policy: with POE or similar
62modules, you get an enourmous amount of code and strict rules you have to 78modules, you get an enormous amount of code and strict rules you have to
63follow. AnyEvent, on the other hand, is lean and up to the point, by only 79follow. AnyEvent, on the other hand, is lean and up to the point, by only
64offering the functionality that is necessary, in as thin as a wrapper as 80offering the functionality that is necessary, in as thin as a wrapper as
65technically possible. 81technically possible.
66 82
83Of course, AnyEvent comes with a big (and fully optional!) toolbox
84of useful functionality, such as an asynchronous DNS resolver, 100%
85non-blocking connects (even with TLS/SSL, IPv6 and on broken platforms
86such as Windows) and lots of real-world knowledge and workarounds for
87platform bugs and differences.
88
67Of course, if you want lots of policy (this can arguably be somewhat 89Now, if you I<do want> lots of policy (this can arguably be somewhat
68useful) and you want to force your users to use the one and only event 90useful) and you want to force your users to use the one and only event
69model, you should I<not> use this module. 91model, you should I<not> use this module.
70
71 92
72=head1 DESCRIPTION 93=head1 DESCRIPTION
73 94
74L<AnyEvent> provides an identical interface to multiple event loops. This 95L<AnyEvent> provides an identical interface to multiple event loops. This
75allows module authors to utilise an event loop without forcing module 96allows module authors to utilise an event loop without forcing module
79The interface itself is vaguely similar, but not identical to the L<Event> 100The interface itself is vaguely similar, but not identical to the L<Event>
80module. 101module.
81 102
82During the first call of any watcher-creation method, the module tries 103During the first call of any watcher-creation method, the module tries
83to detect the currently loaded event loop by probing whether one of the 104to detect the currently loaded event loop by probing whether one of the
84following modules is already loaded: L<Coro::EV>, L<Coro::Event>, L<EV>, 105following modules is already loaded: L<EV>,
85L<Event>, L<Glib>, L<Tk>. The first one found is used. If none are found, 106L<Event>, L<Glib>, L<AnyEvent::Impl::Perl>, L<Tk>, L<Event::Lib>, L<Qt>,
86the module tries to load these modules in the stated order. The first one 107L<POE>. The first one found is used. If none are found, the module tries
108to load these modules (excluding Tk, Event::Lib, Qt and POE as the pure perl
109adaptor should always succeed) in the order given. The first one that can
87that can be successfully loaded will be used. If, after this, still none 110be successfully loaded will be used. If, after this, still none could be
88could be found, AnyEvent will fall back to a pure-perl event loop, which 111found, AnyEvent will fall back to a pure-perl event loop, which is not
89is not very efficient, but should work everywhere. 112very efficient, but should work everywhere.
90 113
91Because AnyEvent first checks for modules that are already loaded, loading 114Because AnyEvent first checks for modules that are already loaded, loading
92an event model explicitly before first using AnyEvent will likely make 115an event model explicitly before first using AnyEvent will likely make
93that model the default. For example: 116that model the default. For example:
94 117
101starts using it, all bets are off. Maybe you should tell their authors to 124starts using it, all bets are off. Maybe you should tell their authors to
102use AnyEvent so their modules work together with others seamlessly... 125use AnyEvent so their modules work together with others seamlessly...
103 126
104The pure-perl implementation of AnyEvent is called 127The pure-perl implementation of AnyEvent is called
105C<AnyEvent::Impl::Perl>. Like other event modules you can load it 128C<AnyEvent::Impl::Perl>. Like other event modules you can load it
106explicitly. 129explicitly and enjoy the high availability of that event loop :)
107 130
108=head1 WATCHERS 131=head1 WATCHERS
109 132
110AnyEvent has the central concept of a I<watcher>, which is an object that 133AnyEvent has the central concept of a I<watcher>, which is an object that
111stores relevant data for each kind of event you are waiting for, such as 134stores relevant data for each kind of event you are waiting for, such as
112the callback to call, the filehandle to watch, etc. 135the callback to call, the file handle to watch, etc.
113 136
114These watchers are normal Perl objects with normal Perl lifetime. After 137These watchers are normal Perl objects with normal Perl lifetime. After
115creating a watcher it will immediately "watch" for events and invoke the 138creating a watcher it will immediately "watch" for events and invoke the
116callback when the event occurs (of course, only when the event model 139callback when the event occurs (of course, only when the event model
117is in control). 140is in control).
118 141
142Note that B<callbacks must not permanently change global variables>
143potentially in use by the event loop (such as C<$_> or C<$[>) and that B<<
144callbacks must not C<die> >>. The former is good programming practise in
145Perl and the latter stems from the fact that exception handling differs
146widely between event loops.
147
119To disable the watcher you have to destroy it (e.g. by setting the 148To disable the watcher you have to destroy it (e.g. by setting the
120variable you store it in to C<undef> or otherwise deleting all references 149variable you store it in to C<undef> or otherwise deleting all references
121to it). 150to it).
122 151
123All watchers are created by calling a method on the C<AnyEvent> class. 152All watchers are created by calling a method on the C<AnyEvent> class.
125Many watchers either are used with "recursion" (repeating timers for 154Many watchers either are used with "recursion" (repeating timers for
126example), or need to refer to their watcher object in other ways. 155example), or need to refer to their watcher object in other ways.
127 156
128An any way to achieve that is this pattern: 157An any way to achieve that is this pattern:
129 158
130 my $w; $w = AnyEvent->type (arg => value ..., cb => sub { 159 my $w; $w = AnyEvent->type (arg => value ..., cb => sub {
131 # you can use $w here, for example to undef it 160 # you can use $w here, for example to undef it
132 undef $w; 161 undef $w;
133 }); 162 });
134 163
135Note that C<my $w; $w => combination. This is necessary because in Perl, 164Note that C<my $w; $w => combination. This is necessary because in Perl,
136my variables are only visible after the statement in which they are 165my variables are only visible after the statement in which they are
137declared. 166declared.
138 167
139=head2 IO WATCHERS 168=head2 I/O WATCHERS
140 169
141You can create an I/O watcher by calling the C<< AnyEvent->io >> method 170You can create an I/O watcher by calling the C<< AnyEvent->io >> method
142with the following mandatory key-value pairs as arguments: 171with the following mandatory key-value pairs as arguments:
143 172
144C<fh> the Perl I<file handle> (I<not> file descriptor) to watch for 173C<fh> is the Perl I<file handle> (I<not> file descriptor) to watch
174for events (AnyEvent might or might not keep a reference to this file
175handle). Note that only file handles pointing to things for which
176non-blocking operation makes sense are allowed. This includes sockets,
177most character devices, pipes, fifos and so on, but not for example files
178or block devices.
179
145events. C<poll> must be a string that is either C<r> or C<w>, which 180C<poll> must be a string that is either C<r> or C<w>, which creates a
146creates a watcher waiting for "r"eadable or "w"ritable events, 181watcher waiting for "r"eadable or "w"ritable events, respectively.
182
147respectively. C<cb> is the callback to invoke each time the file handle 183C<cb> is the callback to invoke each time the file handle becomes ready.
148becomes ready.
149 184
150As long as the I/O watcher exists it will keep the file descriptor or a 185Although the callback might get passed parameters, their value and
151copy of it alive/open. 186presence is undefined and you cannot rely on them. Portable AnyEvent
187callbacks cannot use arguments passed to I/O watcher callbacks.
152 188
189The I/O watcher might use the underlying file descriptor or a copy of it.
153It is not allowed to close a file handle as long as any watcher is active 190You must not close a file handle as long as any watcher is active on the
154on the underlying file descriptor. 191underlying file descriptor.
155 192
156Some event loops issue spurious readyness notifications, so you should 193Some event loops issue spurious readyness notifications, so you should
157always use non-blocking calls when reading/writing from/to your file 194always use non-blocking calls when reading/writing from/to your file
158handles. 195handles.
159 196
160Example:
161
162 # wait for readability of STDIN, then read a line and disable the watcher 197Example: wait for readability of STDIN, then read a line and disable the
198watcher.
199
163 my $w; $w = AnyEvent->io (fh => \*STDIN, poll => 'r', cb => sub { 200 my $w; $w = AnyEvent->io (fh => \*STDIN, poll => 'r', cb => sub {
164 chomp (my $input = <STDIN>); 201 chomp (my $input = <STDIN>);
165 warn "read: $input\n"; 202 warn "read: $input\n";
166 undef $w; 203 undef $w;
167 }); 204 });
170 207
171You can create a time watcher by calling the C<< AnyEvent->timer >> 208You can create a time watcher by calling the C<< AnyEvent->timer >>
172method with the following mandatory arguments: 209method with the following mandatory arguments:
173 210
174C<after> specifies after how many seconds (fractional values are 211C<after> specifies after how many seconds (fractional values are
175supported) should the timer activate. C<cb> the callback to invoke in that 212supported) the callback should be invoked. C<cb> is the callback to invoke
176case. 213in that case.
177 214
178The timer callback will be invoked at most once: if you want a repeating 215Although the callback might get passed parameters, their value and
179timer you have to create a new watcher (this is a limitation by both Tk 216presence is undefined and you cannot rely on them. Portable AnyEvent
180and Glib). 217callbacks cannot use arguments passed to time watcher callbacks.
181 218
182Example: 219The callback will normally be invoked once only. If you specify another
220parameter, C<interval>, as a strictly positive number (> 0), then the
221callback will be invoked regularly at that interval (in fractional
222seconds) after the first invocation. If C<interval> is specified with a
223false value, then it is treated as if it were missing.
183 224
225The callback will be rescheduled before invoking the callback, but no
226attempt is done to avoid timer drift in most backends, so the interval is
227only approximate.
228
184 # fire an event after 7.7 seconds 229Example: fire an event after 7.7 seconds.
230
185 my $w = AnyEvent->timer (after => 7.7, cb => sub { 231 my $w = AnyEvent->timer (after => 7.7, cb => sub {
186 warn "timeout\n"; 232 warn "timeout\n";
187 }); 233 });
188 234
189 # to cancel the timer: 235 # to cancel the timer:
190 undef $w; 236 undef $w;
191 237
192Example 2:
193
194 # fire an event after 0.5 seconds, then roughly every second 238Example 2: fire an event after 0.5 seconds, then roughly every second.
195 my $w;
196 239
197 my $cb = sub {
198 # cancel the old timer while creating a new one
199 $w = AnyEvent->timer (after => 1, cb => $cb); 240 my $w = AnyEvent->timer (after => 0.5, interval => 1, cb => sub {
241 warn "timeout\n";
200 }; 242 };
201
202 # start the "loop" by creating the first watcher
203 $w = AnyEvent->timer (after => 0.5, cb => $cb);
204 243
205=head3 TIMING ISSUES 244=head3 TIMING ISSUES
206 245
207There are two ways to handle timers: based on real time (relative, "fire 246There are two ways to handle timers: based on real time (relative, "fire
208in 10 seconds") and based on wallclock time (absolute, "fire at 12 247in 10 seconds") and based on wallclock time (absolute, "fire at 12
209o'clock"). 248o'clock").
210 249
211While most event loops expect timers to specified in a relative way, they use 250While most event loops expect timers to specified in a relative way, they
212absolute time internally. This makes a difference when your clock "jumps", 251use absolute time internally. This makes a difference when your clock
213for example, when ntp decides to set your clock backwards from the wrong 2014-01-01 to 252"jumps", for example, when ntp decides to set your clock backwards from
2142008-01-01, a watcher that you created to fire "after" a second might actually take 253the wrong date of 2014-01-01 to 2008-01-01, a watcher that is supposed to
215six years to finally fire. 254fire "after" a second might actually take six years to finally fire.
216 255
217AnyEvent cannot compensate for this. The only event loop that is conscious 256AnyEvent cannot compensate for this. The only event loop that is conscious
218about these issues is L<EV>, which offers both relative (ev_timer) and 257about these issues is L<EV>, which offers both relative (ev_timer, based
219absolute (ev_periodic) timers. 258on true relative time) and absolute (ev_periodic, based on wallclock time)
259timers.
220 260
221AnyEvent always prefers relative timers, if available, matching the 261AnyEvent always prefers relative timers, if available, matching the
222AnyEvent API. 262AnyEvent API.
223 263
264AnyEvent has two additional methods that return the "current time":
265
266=over 4
267
268=item AnyEvent->time
269
270This returns the "current wallclock time" as a fractional number of
271seconds since the Epoch (the same thing as C<time> or C<Time::HiRes::time>
272return, and the result is guaranteed to be compatible with those).
273
274It progresses independently of any event loop processing, i.e. each call
275will check the system clock, which usually gets updated frequently.
276
277=item AnyEvent->now
278
279This also returns the "current wallclock time", but unlike C<time>, above,
280this value might change only once per event loop iteration, depending on
281the event loop (most return the same time as C<time>, above). This is the
282time that AnyEvent's timers get scheduled against.
283
284I<In almost all cases (in all cases if you don't care), this is the
285function to call when you want to know the current time.>
286
287This function is also often faster then C<< AnyEvent->time >>, and
288thus the preferred method if you want some timestamp (for example,
289L<AnyEvent::Handle> uses this to update it's activity timeouts).
290
291The rest of this section is only of relevance if you try to be very exact
292with your timing, you can skip it without bad conscience.
293
294For a practical example of when these times differ, consider L<Event::Lib>
295and L<EV> and the following set-up:
296
297The event loop is running and has just invoked one of your callback at
298time=500 (assume no other callbacks delay processing). In your callback,
299you wait a second by executing C<sleep 1> (blocking the process for a
300second) and then (at time=501) you create a relative timer that fires
301after three seconds.
302
303With L<Event::Lib>, C<< AnyEvent->time >> and C<< AnyEvent->now >> will
304both return C<501>, because that is the current time, and the timer will
305be scheduled to fire at time=504 (C<501> + C<3>).
306
307With L<EV>, C<< AnyEvent->time >> returns C<501> (as that is the current
308time), but C<< AnyEvent->now >> returns C<500>, as that is the time the
309last event processing phase started. With L<EV>, your timer gets scheduled
310to run at time=503 (C<500> + C<3>).
311
312In one sense, L<Event::Lib> is more exact, as it uses the current time
313regardless of any delays introduced by event processing. However, most
314callbacks do not expect large delays in processing, so this causes a
315higher drift (and a lot more system calls to get the current time).
316
317In another sense, L<EV> is more exact, as your timer will be scheduled at
318the same time, regardless of how long event processing actually took.
319
320In either case, if you care (and in most cases, you don't), then you
321can get whatever behaviour you want with any event loop, by taking the
322difference between C<< AnyEvent->time >> and C<< AnyEvent->now >> into
323account.
324
325=back
326
224=head2 SIGNAL WATCHERS 327=head2 SIGNAL WATCHERS
225 328
226You can watch for signals using a signal watcher, C<signal> is the signal 329You can watch for signals using a signal watcher, C<signal> is the signal
227I<name> without any C<SIG> prefix, C<cb> is the Perl callback to 330I<name> in uppercase and without any C<SIG> prefix, C<cb> is the Perl
228be invoked whenever a signal occurs. 331callback to be invoked whenever a signal occurs.
229 332
333Although the callback might get passed parameters, their value and
334presence is undefined and you cannot rely on them. Portable AnyEvent
335callbacks cannot use arguments passed to signal watcher callbacks.
336
230Multiple signals occurances can be clumped together into one callback 337Multiple signal occurrences can be clumped together into one callback
231invocation, and callback invocation will be synchronous. synchronous means 338invocation, and callback invocation will be synchronous. Synchronous means
232that it might take a while until the signal gets handled by the process, 339that it might take a while until the signal gets handled by the process,
233but it is guarenteed not to interrupt any other callbacks. 340but it is guaranteed not to interrupt any other callbacks.
234 341
235The main advantage of using these watchers is that you can share a signal 342The main advantage of using these watchers is that you can share a signal
236between multiple watchers. 343between multiple watchers.
237 344
238This watcher might use C<%SIG>, so programs overwriting those signals 345This watcher might use C<%SIG>, so programs overwriting those signals
245=head2 CHILD PROCESS WATCHERS 352=head2 CHILD PROCESS WATCHERS
246 353
247You can also watch on a child process exit and catch its exit status. 354You can also watch on a child process exit and catch its exit status.
248 355
249The child process is specified by the C<pid> argument (if set to C<0>, it 356The child process is specified by the C<pid> argument (if set to C<0>, it
250watches for any child process exit). The watcher will trigger as often 357watches for any child process exit). The watcher will triggered only when
251as status change for the child are received. This works by installing a 358the child process has finished and an exit status is available, not on
252signal handler for C<SIGCHLD>. The callback will be called with the pid 359any trace events (stopped/continued).
253and exit status (as returned by waitpid).
254 360
255Example: wait for pid 1333 361The callback will be called with the pid and exit status (as returned by
362waitpid), so unlike other watcher types, you I<can> rely on child watcher
363callback arguments.
256 364
365This watcher type works by installing a signal handler for C<SIGCHLD>,
366and since it cannot be shared, nothing else should use SIGCHLD or reap
367random child processes (waiting for specific child processes, e.g. inside
368C<system>, is just fine).
369
370There is a slight catch to child watchers, however: you usually start them
371I<after> the child process was created, and this means the process could
372have exited already (and no SIGCHLD will be sent anymore).
373
374Not all event models handle this correctly (POE doesn't), but even for
375event models that I<do> handle this correctly, they usually need to be
376loaded before the process exits (i.e. before you fork in the first place).
377
378This means you cannot create a child watcher as the very first thing in an
379AnyEvent program, you I<have> to create at least one watcher before you
380C<fork> the child (alternatively, you can call C<AnyEvent::detect>).
381
382Example: fork a process and wait for it
383
384 my $done = AnyEvent->condvar;
385
386 my $pid = fork or exit 5;
387
257 my $w = AnyEvent->child ( 388 my $w = AnyEvent->child (
258 pid => 1333, 389 pid => $pid,
259 cb => sub { 390 cb => sub {
260 my ($pid, $status) = @_; 391 my ($pid, $status) = @_;
261 warn "pid $pid exited with status $status"; 392 warn "pid $pid exited with status $status";
393 $done->send;
262 }, 394 },
263 ); 395 );
396
397 # do something else, then wait for process exit
398 $done->recv;
264 399
265=head2 CONDITION VARIABLES 400=head2 CONDITION VARIABLES
266 401
402If you are familiar with some event loops you will know that all of them
403require you to run some blocking "loop", "run" or similar function that
404will actively watch for new events and call your callbacks.
405
406AnyEvent is different, it expects somebody else to run the event loop and
407will only block when necessary (usually when told by the user).
408
409The instrument to do that is called a "condition variable", so called
410because they represent a condition that must become true.
411
267Condition variables can be created by calling the C<< AnyEvent->condvar >> 412Condition variables can be created by calling the C<< AnyEvent->condvar
268method without any arguments. 413>> method, usually without arguments. The only argument pair allowed is
269 414
270A condition variable waits for a condition - precisely that the C<< 415C<cb>, which specifies a callback to be called when the condition variable
271->broadcast >> method has been called. 416becomes true, with the condition variable as the first argument (but not
417the results).
272 418
273They are very useful to signal that a condition has been fulfilled, for 419After creation, the condition variable is "false" until it becomes "true"
420by calling the C<send> method (or calling the condition variable as if it
421were a callback, read about the caveats in the description for the C<<
422->send >> method).
423
424Condition variables are similar to callbacks, except that you can
425optionally wait for them. They can also be called merge points - points
426in time where multiple outstanding events have been processed. And yet
427another way to call them is transactions - each condition variable can be
428used to represent a transaction, which finishes at some point and delivers
429a result.
430
431Condition variables are very useful to signal that something has finished,
274example, if you write a module that does asynchronous http requests, 432for example, if you write a module that does asynchronous http requests,
275then a condition variable would be the ideal candidate to signal the 433then a condition variable would be the ideal candidate to signal the
276availability of results. 434availability of results. The user can either act when the callback is
435called or can synchronously C<< ->recv >> for the results.
277 436
278You can also use condition variables to block your main program until 437You can also use them to simulate traditional event loops - for example,
279an event occurs - for example, you could C<< ->wait >> in your main 438you can block your main program until an event occurs - for example, you
280program until the user clicks the Quit button in your app, which would C<< 439could C<< ->recv >> in your main program until the user clicks the Quit
281->broadcast >> the "quit" event. 440button of your app, which would C<< ->send >> the "quit" event.
282 441
283Note that condition variables recurse into the event loop - if you have 442Note that condition variables recurse into the event loop - if you have
284two pirces of code that call C<< ->wait >> in a round-robbin fashion, you 443two pieces of code that call C<< ->recv >> in a round-robin fashion, you
285lose. Therefore, condition variables are good to export to your caller, but 444lose. Therefore, condition variables are good to export to your caller, but
286you should avoid making a blocking wait yourself, at least in callbacks, 445you should avoid making a blocking wait yourself, at least in callbacks,
287as this asks for trouble. 446as this asks for trouble.
288 447
289This object has two methods: 448Condition variables are represented by hash refs in perl, and the keys
449used by AnyEvent itself are all named C<_ae_XXX> to make subclassing
450easy (it is often useful to build your own transaction class on top of
451AnyEvent). To subclass, use C<AnyEvent::CondVar> as base class and call
452it's C<new> method in your own C<new> method.
453
454There are two "sides" to a condition variable - the "producer side" which
455eventually calls C<< -> send >>, and the "consumer side", which waits
456for the send to occur.
457
458Example: wait for a timer.
459
460 # wait till the result is ready
461 my $result_ready = AnyEvent->condvar;
462
463 # do something such as adding a timer
464 # or socket watcher the calls $result_ready->send
465 # when the "result" is ready.
466 # in this case, we simply use a timer:
467 my $w = AnyEvent->timer (
468 after => 1,
469 cb => sub { $result_ready->send },
470 );
471
472 # this "blocks" (while handling events) till the callback
473 # calls send
474 $result_ready->recv;
475
476Example: wait for a timer, but take advantage of the fact that
477condition variables are also code references.
478
479 my $done = AnyEvent->condvar;
480 my $delay = AnyEvent->timer (after => 5, cb => $done);
481 $done->recv;
482
483Example: Imagine an API that returns a condvar and doesn't support
484callbacks. This is how you make a synchronous call, for example from
485the main program:
486
487 use AnyEvent::CouchDB;
488
489 ...
490
491 my @info = $couchdb->info->recv;
492
493And this is how you would just ste a callback to be called whenever the
494results are available:
495
496 $couchdb->info->cb (sub {
497 my @info = $_[0]->recv;
498 });
499
500=head3 METHODS FOR PRODUCERS
501
502These methods should only be used by the producing side, i.e. the
503code/module that eventually sends the signal. Note that it is also
504the producer side which creates the condvar in most cases, but it isn't
505uncommon for the consumer to create it as well.
290 506
291=over 4 507=over 4
292 508
509=item $cv->send (...)
510
511Flag the condition as ready - a running C<< ->recv >> and all further
512calls to C<recv> will (eventually) return after this method has been
513called. If nobody is waiting the send will be remembered.
514
515If a callback has been set on the condition variable, it is called
516immediately from within send.
517
518Any arguments passed to the C<send> call will be returned by all
519future C<< ->recv >> calls.
520
521Condition variables are overloaded so one can call them directly
522(as a code reference). Calling them directly is the same as calling
523C<send>. Note, however, that many C-based event loops do not handle
524overloading, so as tempting as it may be, passing a condition variable
525instead of a callback does not work. Both the pure perl and EV loops
526support overloading, however, as well as all functions that use perl to
527invoke a callback (as in L<AnyEvent::Socket> and L<AnyEvent::DNS> for
528example).
529
530=item $cv->croak ($error)
531
532Similar to send, but causes all call's to C<< ->recv >> to invoke
533C<Carp::croak> with the given error message/object/scalar.
534
535This can be used to signal any errors to the condition variable
536user/consumer.
537
538=item $cv->begin ([group callback])
539
293=item $cv->wait 540=item $cv->end
294 541
295Wait (blocking if necessary) until the C<< ->broadcast >> method has been 542These two methods are EXPERIMENTAL and MIGHT CHANGE.
543
544These two methods can be used to combine many transactions/events into
545one. For example, a function that pings many hosts in parallel might want
546to use a condition variable for the whole process.
547
548Every call to C<< ->begin >> will increment a counter, and every call to
549C<< ->end >> will decrement it. If the counter reaches C<0> in C<< ->end
550>>, the (last) callback passed to C<begin> will be executed. That callback
551is I<supposed> to call C<< ->send >>, but that is not required. If no
552callback was set, C<send> will be called without any arguments.
553
554Let's clarify this with the ping example:
555
556 my $cv = AnyEvent->condvar;
557
558 my %result;
559 $cv->begin (sub { $cv->send (\%result) });
560
561 for my $host (@list_of_hosts) {
562 $cv->begin;
563 ping_host_then_call_callback $host, sub {
564 $result{$host} = ...;
565 $cv->end;
566 };
567 }
568
569 $cv->end;
570
571This code fragment supposedly pings a number of hosts and calls
572C<send> after results for all then have have been gathered - in any
573order. To achieve this, the code issues a call to C<begin> when it starts
574each ping request and calls C<end> when it has received some result for
575it. Since C<begin> and C<end> only maintain a counter, the order in which
576results arrive is not relevant.
577
578There is an additional bracketing call to C<begin> and C<end> outside the
579loop, which serves two important purposes: first, it sets the callback
580to be called once the counter reaches C<0>, and second, it ensures that
581C<send> is called even when C<no> hosts are being pinged (the loop
582doesn't execute once).
583
584This is the general pattern when you "fan out" into multiple subrequests:
585use an outer C<begin>/C<end> pair to set the callback and ensure C<end>
586is called at least once, and then, for each subrequest you start, call
587C<begin> and for each subrequest you finish, call C<end>.
588
589=back
590
591=head3 METHODS FOR CONSUMERS
592
593These methods should only be used by the consuming side, i.e. the
594code awaits the condition.
595
596=over 4
597
598=item $cv->recv
599
600Wait (blocking if necessary) until the C<< ->send >> or C<< ->croak
296called on c<$cv>, while servicing other watchers normally. 601>> methods have been called on c<$cv>, while servicing other watchers
602normally.
297 603
298You can only wait once on a condition - additional calls will return 604You can only wait once on a condition - additional calls are valid but
299immediately. 605will return immediately.
606
607If an error condition has been set by calling C<< ->croak >>, then this
608function will call C<croak>.
609
610In list context, all parameters passed to C<send> will be returned,
611in scalar context only the first one will be returned.
300 612
301Not all event models support a blocking wait - some die in that case 613Not all event models support a blocking wait - some die in that case
302(programs might want to do that to stay interactive), so I<if you are 614(programs might want to do that to stay interactive), so I<if you are
303using this from a module, never require a blocking wait>, but let the 615using this from a module, never require a blocking wait>, but let the
304caller decide whether the call will block or not (for example, by coupling 616caller decide whether the call will block or not (for example, by coupling
305condition variables with some kind of request results and supporting 617condition variables with some kind of request results and supporting
306callbacks so the caller knows that getting the result will not block, 618callbacks so the caller knows that getting the result will not block,
307while still suppporting blocking waits if the caller so desires). 619while still supporting blocking waits if the caller so desires).
308 620
309Another reason I<never> to C<< ->wait >> in a module is that you cannot 621Another reason I<never> to C<< ->recv >> in a module is that you cannot
310sensibly have two C<< ->wait >>'s in parallel, as that would require 622sensibly have two C<< ->recv >>'s in parallel, as that would require
311multiple interpreters or coroutines/threads, none of which C<AnyEvent> 623multiple interpreters or coroutines/threads, none of which C<AnyEvent>
312can supply (the coroutine-aware backends L<AnyEvent::Impl::CoroEV> and 624can supply.
313L<AnyEvent::Impl::CoroEvent> explicitly support concurrent C<< ->wait >>'s
314from different coroutines, however).
315 625
316=item $cv->broadcast 626The L<Coro> module, however, I<can> and I<does> supply coroutines and, in
627fact, L<Coro::AnyEvent> replaces AnyEvent's condvars by coroutine-safe
628versions and also integrates coroutines into AnyEvent, making blocking
629C<< ->recv >> calls perfectly safe as long as they are done from another
630coroutine (one that doesn't run the event loop).
317 631
318Flag the condition as ready - a running C<< ->wait >> and all further 632You can ensure that C<< -recv >> never blocks by setting a callback and
319calls to C<wait> will (eventually) return after this method has been 633only calling C<< ->recv >> from within that callback (or at a later
320called. If nobody is waiting the broadcast will be remembered.. 634time). This will work even when the event loop does not support blocking
635waits otherwise.
636
637=item $bool = $cv->ready
638
639Returns true when the condition is "true", i.e. whether C<send> or
640C<croak> have been called.
641
642=item $cb = $cv->cb ($cb->($cv))
643
644This is a mutator function that returns the callback set and optionally
645replaces it before doing so.
646
647The callback will be called when the condition becomes "true", i.e. when
648C<send> or C<croak> are called, with the only argument being the condition
649variable itself. Calling C<recv> inside the callback or at any later time
650is guaranteed not to block.
321 651
322=back 652=back
323
324Example:
325
326 # wait till the result is ready
327 my $result_ready = AnyEvent->condvar;
328
329 # do something such as adding a timer
330 # or socket watcher the calls $result_ready->broadcast
331 # when the "result" is ready.
332 # in this case, we simply use a timer:
333 my $w = AnyEvent->timer (
334 after => 1,
335 cb => sub { $result_ready->broadcast },
336 );
337
338 # this "blocks" (while handling events) till the watcher
339 # calls broadcast
340 $result_ready->wait;
341 653
342=head1 GLOBAL VARIABLES AND FUNCTIONS 654=head1 GLOBAL VARIABLES AND FUNCTIONS
343 655
344=over 4 656=over 4
345 657
351C<AnyEvent::Impl:xxx> modules, but can be any other class in the case 663C<AnyEvent::Impl:xxx> modules, but can be any other class in the case
352AnyEvent has been extended at runtime (e.g. in I<rxvt-unicode>). 664AnyEvent has been extended at runtime (e.g. in I<rxvt-unicode>).
353 665
354The known classes so far are: 666The known classes so far are:
355 667
356 AnyEvent::Impl::CoroEV based on Coro::EV, best choice.
357 AnyEvent::Impl::CoroEvent based on Coro::Event, second best choice.
358 AnyEvent::Impl::EV based on EV (an interface to libev, best choice). 668 AnyEvent::Impl::EV based on EV (an interface to libev, best choice).
359 AnyEvent::Impl::Event based on Event, second best choice. 669 AnyEvent::Impl::Event based on Event, second best choice.
670 AnyEvent::Impl::Perl pure-perl implementation, fast and portable.
360 AnyEvent::Impl::Glib based on Glib, third-best choice. 671 AnyEvent::Impl::Glib based on Glib, third-best choice.
361 AnyEvent::Impl::Tk based on Tk, very bad choice. 672 AnyEvent::Impl::Tk based on Tk, very bad choice.
362 AnyEvent::Impl::Perl pure-perl implementation, inefficient but portable.
363 AnyEvent::Impl::Qt based on Qt, cannot be autoprobed (see its docs). 673 AnyEvent::Impl::Qt based on Qt, cannot be autoprobed (see its docs).
364 AnyEvent::Impl::EventLib based on Event::Lib, leaks memory and worse. 674 AnyEvent::Impl::EventLib based on Event::Lib, leaks memory and worse.
675 AnyEvent::Impl::POE based on POE, not generic enough for full support.
676
677There is no support for WxWidgets, as WxWidgets has no support for
678watching file handles. However, you can use WxWidgets through the
679POE Adaptor, as POE has a Wx backend that simply polls 20 times per
680second, which was considered to be too horrible to even consider for
681AnyEvent. Likewise, other POE backends can be used by AnyEvent by using
682it's adaptor.
683
684AnyEvent knows about L<Prima> and L<Wx> and will try to use L<POE> when
685autodetecting them.
365 686
366=item AnyEvent::detect 687=item AnyEvent::detect
367 688
368Returns C<$AnyEvent::MODEL>, forcing autodetection of the event model 689Returns C<$AnyEvent::MODEL>, forcing autodetection of the event model
369if necessary. You should only call this function right before you would 690if necessary. You should only call this function right before you would
370have created an AnyEvent watcher anyway, that is, as late as possible at 691have created an AnyEvent watcher anyway, that is, as late as possible at
371runtime. 692runtime.
372 693
694=item $guard = AnyEvent::post_detect { BLOCK }
695
696Arranges for the code block to be executed as soon as the event model is
697autodetected (or immediately if this has already happened).
698
699If called in scalar or list context, then it creates and returns an object
700that automatically removes the callback again when it is destroyed. See
701L<Coro::BDB> for a case where this is useful.
702
703=item @AnyEvent::post_detect
704
705If there are any code references in this array (you can C<push> to it
706before or after loading AnyEvent), then they will called directly after
707the event loop has been chosen.
708
709You should check C<$AnyEvent::MODEL> before adding to this array, though:
710if it contains a true value then the event loop has already been detected,
711and the array will be ignored.
712
713Best use C<AnyEvent::post_detect { BLOCK }> instead.
714
373=back 715=back
374 716
375=head1 WHAT TO DO IN A MODULE 717=head1 WHAT TO DO IN A MODULE
376 718
377As a module author, you should C<use AnyEvent> and call AnyEvent methods 719As a module author, you should C<use AnyEvent> and call AnyEvent methods
380Be careful when you create watchers in the module body - AnyEvent will 722Be careful when you create watchers in the module body - AnyEvent will
381decide which event module to use as soon as the first method is called, so 723decide which event module to use as soon as the first method is called, so
382by calling AnyEvent in your module body you force the user of your module 724by calling AnyEvent in your module body you force the user of your module
383to load the event module first. 725to load the event module first.
384 726
385Never call C<< ->wait >> on a condition variable unless you I<know> that 727Never call C<< ->recv >> on a condition variable unless you I<know> that
386the C<< ->broadcast >> method has been called on it already. This is 728the C<< ->send >> method has been called on it already. This is
387because it will stall the whole program, and the whole point of using 729because it will stall the whole program, and the whole point of using
388events is to stay interactive. 730events is to stay interactive.
389 731
390It is fine, however, to call C<< ->wait >> when the user of your module 732It is fine, however, to call C<< ->recv >> when the user of your module
391requests it (i.e. if you create a http request object ad have a method 733requests it (i.e. if you create a http request object ad have a method
392called C<results> that returns the results, it should call C<< ->wait >> 734called C<results> that returns the results, it should call C<< ->recv >>
393freely, as the user of your module knows what she is doing. always). 735freely, as the user of your module knows what she is doing. always).
394 736
395=head1 WHAT TO DO IN THE MAIN PROGRAM 737=head1 WHAT TO DO IN THE MAIN PROGRAM
396 738
397There will always be a single main program - the only place that should 739There will always be a single main program - the only place that should
399 741
400If it doesn't care, it can just "use AnyEvent" and use it itself, or not 742If it doesn't care, it can just "use AnyEvent" and use it itself, or not
401do anything special (it does not need to be event-based) and let AnyEvent 743do anything special (it does not need to be event-based) and let AnyEvent
402decide which implementation to chose if some module relies on it. 744decide which implementation to chose if some module relies on it.
403 745
404If the main program relies on a specific event model. For example, in 746If the main program relies on a specific event model - for example, in
405Gtk2 programs you have to rely on the Glib module. You should load the 747Gtk2 programs you have to rely on the Glib module - you should load the
406event module before loading AnyEvent or any module that uses it: generally 748event module before loading AnyEvent or any module that uses it: generally
407speaking, you should load it as early as possible. The reason is that 749speaking, you should load it as early as possible. The reason is that
408modules might create watchers when they are loaded, and AnyEvent will 750modules might create watchers when they are loaded, and AnyEvent will
409decide on the event model to use as soon as it creates watchers, and it 751decide on the event model to use as soon as it creates watchers, and it
410might chose the wrong one unless you load the correct one yourself. 752might chose the wrong one unless you load the correct one yourself.
411 753
412You can chose to use a rather inefficient pure-perl implementation by 754You can chose to use a pure-perl implementation by loading the
413loading the C<AnyEvent::Impl::Perl> module, which gives you similar 755C<AnyEvent::Impl::Perl> module, which gives you similar behaviour
414behaviour everywhere, but letting AnyEvent chose is generally better. 756everywhere, but letting AnyEvent chose the model is generally better.
757
758=head2 MAINLOOP EMULATION
759
760Sometimes (often for short test scripts, or even standalone programs who
761only want to use AnyEvent), you do not want to run a specific event loop.
762
763In that case, you can use a condition variable like this:
764
765 AnyEvent->condvar->recv;
766
767This has the effect of entering the event loop and looping forever.
768
769Note that usually your program has some exit condition, in which case
770it is better to use the "traditional" approach of storing a condition
771variable somewhere, waiting for it, and sending it when the program should
772exit cleanly.
773
774
775=head1 OTHER MODULES
776
777The following is a non-exhaustive list of additional modules that use
778AnyEvent and can therefore be mixed easily with other AnyEvent modules
779in the same program. Some of the modules come with AnyEvent, some are
780available via CPAN.
781
782=over 4
783
784=item L<AnyEvent::Util>
785
786Contains various utility functions that replace often-used but blocking
787functions such as C<inet_aton> by event-/callback-based versions.
788
789=item L<AnyEvent::Socket>
790
791Provides various utility functions for (internet protocol) sockets,
792addresses and name resolution. Also functions to create non-blocking tcp
793connections or tcp servers, with IPv6 and SRV record support and more.
794
795=item L<AnyEvent::Handle>
796
797Provide read and write buffers, manages watchers for reads and writes,
798supports raw and formatted I/O, I/O queued and fully transparent and
799non-blocking SSL/TLS.
800
801=item L<AnyEvent::DNS>
802
803Provides rich asynchronous DNS resolver capabilities.
804
805=item L<AnyEvent::HTTP>
806
807A simple-to-use HTTP library that is capable of making a lot of concurrent
808HTTP requests.
809
810=item L<AnyEvent::HTTPD>
811
812Provides a simple web application server framework.
813
814=item L<AnyEvent::FastPing>
815
816The fastest ping in the west.
817
818=item L<AnyEvent::DBI>
819
820Executes L<DBI> requests asynchronously in a proxy process.
821
822=item L<AnyEvent::AIO>
823
824Truly asynchronous I/O, should be in the toolbox of every event
825programmer. AnyEvent::AIO transparently fuses L<IO::AIO> and AnyEvent
826together.
827
828=item L<AnyEvent::BDB>
829
830Truly asynchronous Berkeley DB access. AnyEvent::BDB transparently fuses
831L<BDB> and AnyEvent together.
832
833=item L<AnyEvent::GPSD>
834
835A non-blocking interface to gpsd, a daemon delivering GPS information.
836
837=item L<AnyEvent::IGS>
838
839A non-blocking interface to the Internet Go Server protocol (used by
840L<App::IGS>).
841
842=item L<AnyEvent::IRC>
843
844AnyEvent based IRC client module family (replacing the older Net::IRC3).
845
846=item L<Net::XMPP2>
847
848AnyEvent based XMPP (Jabber protocol) module family.
849
850=item L<Net::FCP>
851
852AnyEvent-based implementation of the Freenet Client Protocol, birthplace
853of AnyEvent.
854
855=item L<Event::ExecFlow>
856
857High level API for event-based execution flow control.
858
859=item L<Coro>
860
861Has special support for AnyEvent via L<Coro::AnyEvent>.
862
863=item L<IO::Lambda>
864
865The lambda approach to I/O - don't ask, look there. Can use AnyEvent.
866
867=back
415 868
416=cut 869=cut
417 870
418package AnyEvent; 871package AnyEvent;
419 872
420no warnings; 873no warnings;
421use strict; 874use strict qw(vars subs);
422 875
423use Carp; 876use Carp;
424 877
425our $VERSION = '3.12'; 878our $VERSION = 4.35;
426our $MODEL; 879our $MODEL;
427 880
428our $AUTOLOAD; 881our $AUTOLOAD;
429our @ISA; 882our @ISA;
430 883
884our @REGISTRY;
885
886our $WIN32;
887
888BEGIN {
889 my $win32 = ! ! ($^O =~ /mswin32/i);
890 eval "sub WIN32(){ $win32 }";
891}
892
431our $verbose = $ENV{PERL_ANYEVENT_VERBOSE}*1; 893our $verbose = $ENV{PERL_ANYEVENT_VERBOSE}*1;
432 894
433our @REGISTRY; 895our %PROTOCOL; # (ipv4|ipv6) => (1|2), higher numbers are preferred
896
897{
898 my $idx;
899 $PROTOCOL{$_} = ++$idx
900 for reverse split /\s*,\s*/,
901 $ENV{PERL_ANYEVENT_PROTOCOLS} || "ipv4,ipv6";
902}
434 903
435my @models = ( 904my @models = (
436 [Coro::EV:: => AnyEvent::Impl::CoroEV::],
437 [Coro::Event:: => AnyEvent::Impl::CoroEvent::],
438 [EV:: => AnyEvent::Impl::EV::], 905 [EV:: => AnyEvent::Impl::EV::],
439 [Event:: => AnyEvent::Impl::Event::], 906 [Event:: => AnyEvent::Impl::Event::],
440 [Glib:: => AnyEvent::Impl::Glib::],
441 [Tk:: => AnyEvent::Impl::Tk::],
442 [AnyEvent::Impl::Perl:: => AnyEvent::Impl::Perl::], 907 [AnyEvent::Impl::Perl:: => AnyEvent::Impl::Perl::],
908 # everything below here will not be autoprobed
909 # as the pureperl backend should work everywhere
910 # and is usually faster
911 [Tk:: => AnyEvent::Impl::Tk::], # crashes with many handles
912 [Glib:: => AnyEvent::Impl::Glib::], # becomes extremely slow with many watchers
913 [Event::Lib:: => AnyEvent::Impl::EventLib::], # too buggy
914 [Qt:: => AnyEvent::Impl::Qt::], # requires special main program
915 [POE::Kernel:: => AnyEvent::Impl::POE::], # lasciate ogni speranza
916 [Wx:: => AnyEvent::Impl::POE::],
917 [Prima:: => AnyEvent::Impl::POE::],
443); 918);
444my @models_detect = (
445 [Qt:: => AnyEvent::Impl::Qt::], # requires special main program
446 [Event::Lib:: => AnyEvent::Impl::EventLib::], # too buggy
447);
448 919
449our %method = map +($_ => 1), qw(io timer signal child condvar broadcast wait one_event DESTROY); 920our %method = map +($_ => 1), qw(io timer time now signal child condvar one_event DESTROY);
921
922our @post_detect;
923
924sub post_detect(&) {
925 my ($cb) = @_;
926
927 if ($MODEL) {
928 $cb->();
929
930 1
931 } else {
932 push @post_detect, $cb;
933
934 defined wantarray
935 ? bless \$cb, "AnyEvent::Util::PostDetect"
936 : ()
937 }
938}
939
940sub AnyEvent::Util::PostDetect::DESTROY {
941 @post_detect = grep $_ != ${$_[0]}, @post_detect;
942}
450 943
451sub detect() { 944sub detect() {
452 unless ($MODEL) { 945 unless ($MODEL) {
453 no strict 'refs'; 946 no strict 'refs';
947 local $SIG{__DIE__};
454 948
455 if ($ENV{PERL_ANYEVENT_MODEL} =~ /^([a-zA-Z]+)$/) { 949 if ($ENV{PERL_ANYEVENT_MODEL} =~ /^([a-zA-Z]+)$/) {
456 my $model = "AnyEvent::Impl::$1"; 950 my $model = "AnyEvent::Impl::$1";
457 if (eval "require $model") { 951 if (eval "require $model") {
458 $MODEL = $model; 952 $MODEL = $model;
459 warn "AnyEvent: loaded model '$model' (forced by \$PERL_ANYEVENT_MODEL), using it.\n" if $verbose > 1; 953 warn "AnyEvent: loaded model '$model' (forced by \$PERL_ANYEVENT_MODEL), using it.\n" if $verbose > 1;
954 } else {
955 warn "AnyEvent: unable to load model '$model' (from \$PERL_ANYEVENT_MODEL):\n$@" if $verbose;
460 } 956 }
461 } 957 }
462 958
463 # check for already loaded models 959 # check for already loaded models
464 unless ($MODEL) { 960 unless ($MODEL) {
465 for (@REGISTRY, @models, @models_detect) { 961 for (@REGISTRY, @models) {
466 my ($package, $model) = @$_; 962 my ($package, $model) = @$_;
467 if (${"$package\::VERSION"} > 0) { 963 if (${"$package\::VERSION"} > 0) {
468 if (eval "require $model") { 964 if (eval "require $model") {
469 $MODEL = $model; 965 $MODEL = $model;
470 warn "AnyEvent: autodetected model '$model', using it.\n" if $verbose > 1; 966 warn "AnyEvent: autodetected model '$model', using it.\n" if $verbose > 1;
486 last; 982 last;
487 } 983 }
488 } 984 }
489 985
490 $MODEL 986 $MODEL
491 or die "No event module selected for AnyEvent and autodetect failed. Install any one of these modules: EV (or Coro+EV), Event (or Coro+Event) or Glib."; 987 or die "No event module selected for AnyEvent and autodetect failed. Install any one of these modules: EV, Event or Glib.";
492 } 988 }
493 } 989 }
494 990
991 push @{"$MODEL\::ISA"}, "AnyEvent::Base";
992
495 unshift @ISA, $MODEL; 993 unshift @ISA, $MODEL;
496 push @{"$MODEL\::ISA"}, "AnyEvent::Base"; 994
995 require AnyEvent::Strict if $ENV{PERL_ANYEVENT_STRICT};
996
997 (shift @post_detect)->() while @post_detect;
497 } 998 }
498 999
499 $MODEL 1000 $MODEL
500} 1001}
501 1002
509 1010
510 my $class = shift; 1011 my $class = shift;
511 $class->$func (@_); 1012 $class->$func (@_);
512} 1013}
513 1014
1015# utility function to dup a filehandle. this is used by many backends
1016# to support binding more than one watcher per filehandle (they usually
1017# allow only one watcher per fd, so we dup it to get a different one).
1018sub _dupfh($$$$) {
1019 my ($poll, $fh, $r, $w) = @_;
1020
1021 # cygwin requires the fh mode to be matching, unix doesn't
1022 my ($rw, $mode) = $poll eq "r" ? ($r, "<")
1023 : $poll eq "w" ? ($w, ">")
1024 : Carp::croak "AnyEvent->io requires poll set to either 'r' or 'w'";
1025
1026 open my $fh2, "$mode&" . fileno $fh
1027 or die "cannot dup() filehandle: $!";
1028
1029 # we assume CLOEXEC is already set by perl in all important cases
1030
1031 ($fh2, $rw)
1032}
1033
514package AnyEvent::Base; 1034package AnyEvent::Base;
515 1035
1036# default implementation for now and time
1037
1038BEGIN {
1039 if (eval "use Time::HiRes (); time (); 1") {
1040 *_time = \&Time::HiRes::time;
1041 # if (eval "use POSIX (); (POSIX::times())...
1042 } else {
1043 *_time = sub { time }; # epic fail
1044 }
1045}
1046
1047sub time { _time }
1048sub now { _time }
1049
516# default implementation for ->condvar, ->wait, ->broadcast 1050# default implementation for ->condvar
517 1051
518sub condvar { 1052sub condvar {
519 bless \my $flag, "AnyEvent::Base::CondVar" 1053 bless { @_ == 3 ? (_ae_cb => $_[2]) : () }, AnyEvent::CondVar::
520}
521
522sub AnyEvent::Base::CondVar::broadcast {
523 ${$_[0]}++;
524}
525
526sub AnyEvent::Base::CondVar::wait {
527 AnyEvent->one_event while !${$_[0]};
528} 1054}
529 1055
530# default implementation for ->signal 1056# default implementation for ->signal
531 1057
532our %SIG_CB; 1058our ($SIGPIPE_R, $SIGPIPE_W, %SIG_CB, %SIG_EV, $SIG_IO);
1059
1060sub _signal_exec {
1061 sysread $SIGPIPE_R, my $dummy, 4;
1062
1063 while (%SIG_EV) {
1064 for (keys %SIG_EV) {
1065 delete $SIG_EV{$_};
1066 $_->() for values %{ $SIG_CB{$_} || {} };
1067 }
1068 }
1069}
533 1070
534sub signal { 1071sub signal {
535 my (undef, %arg) = @_; 1072 my (undef, %arg) = @_;
536 1073
1074 unless ($SIGPIPE_R) {
1075 require Fcntl;
1076
1077 if (AnyEvent::WIN32) {
1078 require AnyEvent::Util;
1079
1080 ($SIGPIPE_R, $SIGPIPE_W) = AnyEvent::Util::portable_pipe ();
1081 AnyEvent::Util::fh_nonblocking ($SIGPIPE_R) if $SIGPIPE_R;
1082 AnyEvent::Util::fh_nonblocking ($SIGPIPE_W) if $SIGPIPE_W; # just in case
1083 } else {
1084 pipe $SIGPIPE_R, $SIGPIPE_W;
1085 fcntl $SIGPIPE_R, &Fcntl::F_SETFL, &Fcntl::O_NONBLOCK if $SIGPIPE_R;
1086 fcntl $SIGPIPE_W, &Fcntl::F_SETFL, &Fcntl::O_NONBLOCK if $SIGPIPE_W; # just in case
1087 }
1088
1089 $SIGPIPE_R
1090 or Carp::croak "AnyEvent: unable to create a signal reporting pipe: $!\n";
1091
1092 fcntl $SIGPIPE_R, &Fcntl::F_SETFD, &Fcntl::FD_CLOEXEC;
1093 fcntl $SIGPIPE_W, &Fcntl::F_SETFD, &Fcntl::FD_CLOEXEC;
1094
1095 $SIG_IO = AnyEvent->io (fh => $SIGPIPE_R, poll => "r", cb => \&_signal_exec);
1096 }
1097
537 my $signal = uc $arg{signal} 1098 my $signal = uc $arg{signal}
538 or Carp::croak "required option 'signal' is missing"; 1099 or Carp::croak "required option 'signal' is missing";
539 1100
540 $SIG_CB{$signal}{$arg{cb}} = $arg{cb}; 1101 $SIG_CB{$signal}{$arg{cb}} = $arg{cb};
541 $SIG{$signal} ||= sub { 1102 $SIG{$signal} ||= sub {
542 $_->() for values %{ $SIG_CB{$signal} || {} }; 1103 syswrite $SIGPIPE_W, "\x00", 1 unless %SIG_EV;
1104 undef $SIG_EV{$signal};
543 }; 1105 };
544 1106
545 bless [$signal, $arg{cb}], "AnyEvent::Base::Signal" 1107 bless [$signal, $arg{cb}], "AnyEvent::Base::Signal"
546} 1108}
547 1109
548sub AnyEvent::Base::Signal::DESTROY { 1110sub AnyEvent::Base::Signal::DESTROY {
549 my ($signal, $cb) = @{$_[0]}; 1111 my ($signal, $cb) = @{$_[0]};
550 1112
551 delete $SIG_CB{$signal}{$cb}; 1113 delete $SIG_CB{$signal}{$cb};
552 1114
553 $SIG{$signal} = 'DEFAULT' unless keys %{ $SIG_CB{$signal} }; 1115 delete $SIG{$signal} unless keys %{ $SIG_CB{$signal} };
554} 1116}
555 1117
556# default implementation for ->child 1118# default implementation for ->child
557 1119
558our %PID_CB; 1120our %PID_CB;
585 or Carp::croak "required option 'pid' is missing"; 1147 or Carp::croak "required option 'pid' is missing";
586 1148
587 $PID_CB{$pid}{$arg{cb}} = $arg{cb}; 1149 $PID_CB{$pid}{$arg{cb}} = $arg{cb};
588 1150
589 unless ($WNOHANG) { 1151 unless ($WNOHANG) {
590 $WNOHANG = eval { require POSIX; &POSIX::WNOHANG } || 1; 1152 $WNOHANG = eval { local $SIG{__DIE__}; require POSIX; &POSIX::WNOHANG } || 1;
591 } 1153 }
592 1154
593 unless ($CHLD_W) { 1155 unless ($CHLD_W) {
594 $CHLD_W = AnyEvent->signal (signal => 'CHLD', cb => \&_sigchld); 1156 $CHLD_W = AnyEvent->signal (signal => 'CHLD', cb => \&_sigchld);
595 # child could be a zombie already, so make at least one round 1157 # child could be a zombie already, so make at least one round
605 delete $PID_CB{$pid}{$cb}; 1167 delete $PID_CB{$pid}{$cb};
606 delete $PID_CB{$pid} unless keys %{ $PID_CB{$pid} }; 1168 delete $PID_CB{$pid} unless keys %{ $PID_CB{$pid} };
607 1169
608 undef $CHLD_W unless keys %PID_CB; 1170 undef $CHLD_W unless keys %PID_CB;
609} 1171}
1172
1173package AnyEvent::CondVar;
1174
1175our @ISA = AnyEvent::CondVar::Base::;
1176
1177package AnyEvent::CondVar::Base;
1178
1179use overload
1180 '&{}' => sub { my $self = shift; sub { $self->send (@_) } },
1181 fallback => 1;
1182
1183sub _send {
1184 # nop
1185}
1186
1187sub send {
1188 my $cv = shift;
1189 $cv->{_ae_sent} = [@_];
1190 (delete $cv->{_ae_cb})->($cv) if $cv->{_ae_cb};
1191 $cv->_send;
1192}
1193
1194sub croak {
1195 $_[0]{_ae_croak} = $_[1];
1196 $_[0]->send;
1197}
1198
1199sub ready {
1200 $_[0]{_ae_sent}
1201}
1202
1203sub _wait {
1204 AnyEvent->one_event while !$_[0]{_ae_sent};
1205}
1206
1207sub recv {
1208 $_[0]->_wait;
1209
1210 Carp::croak $_[0]{_ae_croak} if $_[0]{_ae_croak};
1211 wantarray ? @{ $_[0]{_ae_sent} } : $_[0]{_ae_sent}[0]
1212}
1213
1214sub cb {
1215 $_[0]{_ae_cb} = $_[1] if @_ > 1;
1216 $_[0]{_ae_cb}
1217}
1218
1219sub begin {
1220 ++$_[0]{_ae_counter};
1221 $_[0]{_ae_end_cb} = $_[1] if @_ > 1;
1222}
1223
1224sub end {
1225 return if --$_[0]{_ae_counter};
1226 &{ $_[0]{_ae_end_cb} || sub { $_[0]->send } };
1227}
1228
1229# undocumented/compatibility with pre-3.4
1230*broadcast = \&send;
1231*wait = \&_wait;
1232
1233=head1 ERROR AND EXCEPTION HANDLING
1234
1235In general, AnyEvent does not do any error handling - it relies on the
1236caller to do that if required. The L<AnyEvent::Strict> module (see also
1237the C<PERL_ANYEVENT_STRICT> environment variable, below) provides strict
1238checking of all AnyEvent methods, however, which is highly useful during
1239development.
1240
1241As for exception handling (i.e. runtime errors and exceptions thrown while
1242executing a callback), this is not only highly event-loop specific, but
1243also not in any way wrapped by this module, as this is the job of the main
1244program.
1245
1246The pure perl event loop simply re-throws the exception (usually
1247within C<< condvar->recv >>), the L<Event> and L<EV> modules call C<<
1248$Event/EV::DIED->() >>, L<Glib> uses C<< install_exception_handler >> and
1249so on.
1250
1251=head1 ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES
1252
1253The following environment variables are used by this module or its
1254submodules:
1255
1256=over 4
1257
1258=item C<PERL_ANYEVENT_VERBOSE>
1259
1260By default, AnyEvent will be completely silent except in fatal
1261conditions. You can set this environment variable to make AnyEvent more
1262talkative.
1263
1264When set to C<1> or higher, causes AnyEvent to warn about unexpected
1265conditions, such as not being able to load the event model specified by
1266C<PERL_ANYEVENT_MODEL>.
1267
1268When set to C<2> or higher, cause AnyEvent to report to STDERR which event
1269model it chooses.
1270
1271=item C<PERL_ANYEVENT_STRICT>
1272
1273AnyEvent does not do much argument checking by default, as thorough
1274argument checking is very costly. Setting this variable to a true value
1275will cause AnyEvent to load C<AnyEvent::Strict> and then to thoroughly
1276check the arguments passed to most method calls. If it finds any problems
1277it will croak.
1278
1279In other words, enables "strict" mode.
1280
1281Unlike C<use strict>, it is definitely recommended ot keep it off in
1282production. Keeping C<PERL_ANYEVENT_STRICT=1> in your environment while
1283developing programs can be very useful, however.
1284
1285=item C<PERL_ANYEVENT_MODEL>
1286
1287This can be used to specify the event model to be used by AnyEvent, before
1288auto detection and -probing kicks in. It must be a string consisting
1289entirely of ASCII letters. The string C<AnyEvent::Impl::> gets prepended
1290and the resulting module name is loaded and if the load was successful,
1291used as event model. If it fails to load AnyEvent will proceed with
1292auto detection and -probing.
1293
1294This functionality might change in future versions.
1295
1296For example, to force the pure perl model (L<AnyEvent::Impl::Perl>) you
1297could start your program like this:
1298
1299 PERL_ANYEVENT_MODEL=Perl perl ...
1300
1301=item C<PERL_ANYEVENT_PROTOCOLS>
1302
1303Used by both L<AnyEvent::DNS> and L<AnyEvent::Socket> to determine preferences
1304for IPv4 or IPv6. The default is unspecified (and might change, or be the result
1305of auto probing).
1306
1307Must be set to a comma-separated list of protocols or address families,
1308current supported: C<ipv4> and C<ipv6>. Only protocols mentioned will be
1309used, and preference will be given to protocols mentioned earlier in the
1310list.
1311
1312This variable can effectively be used for denial-of-service attacks
1313against local programs (e.g. when setuid), although the impact is likely
1314small, as the program has to handle conenction and other failures anyways.
1315
1316Examples: C<PERL_ANYEVENT_PROTOCOLS=ipv4,ipv6> - prefer IPv4 over IPv6,
1317but support both and try to use both. C<PERL_ANYEVENT_PROTOCOLS=ipv4>
1318- only support IPv4, never try to resolve or contact IPv6
1319addresses. C<PERL_ANYEVENT_PROTOCOLS=ipv6,ipv4> support either IPv4 or
1320IPv6, but prefer IPv6 over IPv4.
1321
1322=item C<PERL_ANYEVENT_EDNS0>
1323
1324Used by L<AnyEvent::DNS> to decide whether to use the EDNS0 extension
1325for DNS. This extension is generally useful to reduce DNS traffic, but
1326some (broken) firewalls drop such DNS packets, which is why it is off by
1327default.
1328
1329Setting this variable to C<1> will cause L<AnyEvent::DNS> to announce
1330EDNS0 in its DNS requests.
1331
1332=item C<PERL_ANYEVENT_MAX_FORKS>
1333
1334The maximum number of child processes that C<AnyEvent::Util::fork_call>
1335will create in parallel.
1336
1337=back
610 1338
611=head1 SUPPLYING YOUR OWN EVENT MODEL INTERFACE 1339=head1 SUPPLYING YOUR OWN EVENT MODEL INTERFACE
612 1340
613This is an advanced topic that you do not normally need to use AnyEvent in 1341This is an advanced topic that you do not normally need to use AnyEvent in
614a module. This section is only of use to event loop authors who want to 1342a module. This section is only of use to event loop authors who want to
649I<rxvt-unicode> also cheats a bit by not providing blocking access to 1377I<rxvt-unicode> also cheats a bit by not providing blocking access to
650condition variables: code blocking while waiting for a condition will 1378condition variables: code blocking while waiting for a condition will
651C<die>. This still works with most modules/usages, and blocking calls must 1379C<die>. This still works with most modules/usages, and blocking calls must
652not be done in an interactive application, so it makes sense. 1380not be done in an interactive application, so it makes sense.
653 1381
654=head1 ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES
655
656The following environment variables are used by this module:
657
658=over 4
659
660=item C<PERL_ANYEVENT_VERBOSE>
661
662When set to C<2> or higher, cause AnyEvent to report to STDERR which event
663model it chooses.
664
665=item C<PERL_ANYEVENT_MODEL>
666
667This can be used to specify the event model to be used by AnyEvent, before
668autodetection and -probing kicks in. It must be a string consisting
669entirely of ASCII letters. The string C<AnyEvent::Impl::> gets prepended
670and the resulting module name is loaded and if the load was successful,
671used as event model. If it fails to load AnyEvent will proceed with
672autodetection and -probing.
673
674This functionality might change in future versions.
675
676For example, to force the pure perl model (L<AnyEvent::Impl::Perl>) you
677could start your program like this:
678
679 PERL_ANYEVENT_MODEL=Perl perl ...
680
681=back
682
683=head1 EXAMPLE PROGRAM 1382=head1 EXAMPLE PROGRAM
684 1383
685The following program uses an IO watcher to read data from STDIN, a timer 1384The following program uses an I/O watcher to read data from STDIN, a timer
686to display a message once per second, and a condition variable to quit the 1385to display a message once per second, and a condition variable to quit the
687program when the user enters quit: 1386program when the user enters quit:
688 1387
689 use AnyEvent; 1388 use AnyEvent;
690 1389
695 poll => 'r', 1394 poll => 'r',
696 cb => sub { 1395 cb => sub {
697 warn "io event <$_[0]>\n"; # will always output <r> 1396 warn "io event <$_[0]>\n"; # will always output <r>
698 chomp (my $input = <STDIN>); # read a line 1397 chomp (my $input = <STDIN>); # read a line
699 warn "read: $input\n"; # output what has been read 1398 warn "read: $input\n"; # output what has been read
700 $cv->broadcast if $input =~ /^q/i; # quit program if /^q/i 1399 $cv->send if $input =~ /^q/i; # quit program if /^q/i
701 }, 1400 },
702 ); 1401 );
703 1402
704 my $time_watcher; # can only be used once 1403 my $time_watcher; # can only be used once
705 1404
710 }); 1409 });
711 } 1410 }
712 1411
713 new_timer; # create first timer 1412 new_timer; # create first timer
714 1413
715 $cv->wait; # wait until user enters /^q/i 1414 $cv->recv; # wait until user enters /^q/i
716 1415
717=head1 REAL-WORLD EXAMPLE 1416=head1 REAL-WORLD EXAMPLE
718 1417
719Consider the L<Net::FCP> module. It features (among others) the following 1418Consider the L<Net::FCP> module. It features (among others) the following
720API calls, which are to freenet what HTTP GET requests are to http: 1419API calls, which are to freenet what HTTP GET requests are to http:
770 syswrite $txn->{fh}, $txn->{request} 1469 syswrite $txn->{fh}, $txn->{request}
771 or die "connection or write error"; 1470 or die "connection or write error";
772 $txn->{w} = AnyEvent->io (fh => $txn->{fh}, poll => 'r', cb => sub { $txn->fh_ready_r }); 1471 $txn->{w} = AnyEvent->io (fh => $txn->{fh}, poll => 'r', cb => sub { $txn->fh_ready_r });
773 1472
774Again, C<fh_ready_r> waits till all data has arrived, and then stores the 1473Again, C<fh_ready_r> waits till all data has arrived, and then stores the
775result and signals any possible waiters that the request ahs finished: 1474result and signals any possible waiters that the request has finished:
776 1475
777 sysread $txn->{fh}, $txn->{buf}, length $txn->{$buf}; 1476 sysread $txn->{fh}, $txn->{buf}, length $txn->{$buf};
778 1477
779 if (end-of-file or data complete) { 1478 if (end-of-file or data complete) {
780 $txn->{result} = $txn->{buf}; 1479 $txn->{result} = $txn->{buf};
781 $txn->{finished}->broadcast; 1480 $txn->{finished}->send;
782 $txb->{cb}->($txn) of $txn->{cb}; # also call callback 1481 $txb->{cb}->($txn) of $txn->{cb}; # also call callback
783 } 1482 }
784 1483
785The C<result> method, finally, just waits for the finished signal (if the 1484The C<result> method, finally, just waits for the finished signal (if the
786request was already finished, it doesn't wait, of course, and returns the 1485request was already finished, it doesn't wait, of course, and returns the
787data: 1486data:
788 1487
789 $txn->{finished}->wait; 1488 $txn->{finished}->recv;
790 return $txn->{result}; 1489 return $txn->{result};
791 1490
792The actual code goes further and collects all errors (C<die>s, exceptions) 1491The actual code goes further and collects all errors (C<die>s, exceptions)
793that occured during request processing. The C<result> method detects 1492that occurred during request processing. The C<result> method detects
794whether an exception as thrown (it is stored inside the $txn object) 1493whether an exception as thrown (it is stored inside the $txn object)
795and just throws the exception, which means connection errors and other 1494and just throws the exception, which means connection errors and other
796problems get reported tot he code that tries to use the result, not in a 1495problems get reported tot he code that tries to use the result, not in a
797random callback. 1496random callback.
798 1497
829 1528
830 my $quit = AnyEvent->condvar; 1529 my $quit = AnyEvent->condvar;
831 1530
832 $fcp->txn_client_get ($url)->cb (sub { 1531 $fcp->txn_client_get ($url)->cb (sub {
833 ... 1532 ...
834 $quit->broadcast; 1533 $quit->send;
835 }); 1534 });
836 1535
837 $quit->wait; 1536 $quit->recv;
1537
1538
1539=head1 BENCHMARKS
1540
1541To give you an idea of the performance and overheads that AnyEvent adds
1542over the event loops themselves and to give you an impression of the speed
1543of various event loops I prepared some benchmarks.
1544
1545=head2 BENCHMARKING ANYEVENT OVERHEAD
1546
1547Here is a benchmark of various supported event models used natively and
1548through AnyEvent. The benchmark creates a lot of timers (with a zero
1549timeout) and I/O watchers (watching STDOUT, a pty, to become writable,
1550which it is), lets them fire exactly once and destroys them again.
1551
1552Source code for this benchmark is found as F<eg/bench> in the AnyEvent
1553distribution.
1554
1555=head3 Explanation of the columns
1556
1557I<watcher> is the number of event watchers created/destroyed. Since
1558different event models feature vastly different performances, each event
1559loop was given a number of watchers so that overall runtime is acceptable
1560and similar between tested event loop (and keep them from crashing): Glib
1561would probably take thousands of years if asked to process the same number
1562of watchers as EV in this benchmark.
1563
1564I<bytes> is the number of bytes (as measured by the resident set size,
1565RSS) consumed by each watcher. This method of measuring captures both C
1566and Perl-based overheads.
1567
1568I<create> is the time, in microseconds (millionths of seconds), that it
1569takes to create a single watcher. The callback is a closure shared between
1570all watchers, to avoid adding memory overhead. That means closure creation
1571and memory usage is not included in the figures.
1572
1573I<invoke> is the time, in microseconds, used to invoke a simple
1574callback. The callback simply counts down a Perl variable and after it was
1575invoked "watcher" times, it would C<< ->send >> a condvar once to
1576signal the end of this phase.
1577
1578I<destroy> is the time, in microseconds, that it takes to destroy a single
1579watcher.
1580
1581=head3 Results
1582
1583 name watchers bytes create invoke destroy comment
1584 EV/EV 400000 224 0.47 0.35 0.27 EV native interface
1585 EV/Any 100000 224 2.88 0.34 0.27 EV + AnyEvent watchers
1586 CoroEV/Any 100000 224 2.85 0.35 0.28 coroutines + Coro::Signal
1587 Perl/Any 100000 452 4.13 0.73 0.95 pure perl implementation
1588 Event/Event 16000 517 32.20 31.80 0.81 Event native interface
1589 Event/Any 16000 590 35.85 31.55 1.06 Event + AnyEvent watchers
1590 Glib/Any 16000 1357 102.33 12.31 51.00 quadratic behaviour
1591 Tk/Any 2000 1860 27.20 66.31 14.00 SEGV with >> 2000 watchers
1592 POE/Event 2000 6328 109.99 751.67 14.02 via POE::Loop::Event
1593 POE/Select 2000 6027 94.54 809.13 579.80 via POE::Loop::Select
1594
1595=head3 Discussion
1596
1597The benchmark does I<not> measure scalability of the event loop very
1598well. For example, a select-based event loop (such as the pure perl one)
1599can never compete with an event loop that uses epoll when the number of
1600file descriptors grows high. In this benchmark, all events become ready at
1601the same time, so select/poll-based implementations get an unnatural speed
1602boost.
1603
1604Also, note that the number of watchers usually has a nonlinear effect on
1605overall speed, that is, creating twice as many watchers doesn't take twice
1606the time - usually it takes longer. This puts event loops tested with a
1607higher number of watchers at a disadvantage.
1608
1609To put the range of results into perspective, consider that on the
1610benchmark machine, handling an event takes roughly 1600 CPU cycles with
1611EV, 3100 CPU cycles with AnyEvent's pure perl loop and almost 3000000 CPU
1612cycles with POE.
1613
1614C<EV> is the sole leader regarding speed and memory use, which are both
1615maximal/minimal, respectively. Even when going through AnyEvent, it uses
1616far less memory than any other event loop and is still faster than Event
1617natively.
1618
1619The pure perl implementation is hit in a few sweet spots (both the
1620constant timeout and the use of a single fd hit optimisations in the perl
1621interpreter and the backend itself). Nevertheless this shows that it
1622adds very little overhead in itself. Like any select-based backend its
1623performance becomes really bad with lots of file descriptors (and few of
1624them active), of course, but this was not subject of this benchmark.
1625
1626The C<Event> module has a relatively high setup and callback invocation
1627cost, but overall scores in on the third place.
1628
1629C<Glib>'s memory usage is quite a bit higher, but it features a
1630faster callback invocation and overall ends up in the same class as
1631C<Event>. However, Glib scales extremely badly, doubling the number of
1632watchers increases the processing time by more than a factor of four,
1633making it completely unusable when using larger numbers of watchers
1634(note that only a single file descriptor was used in the benchmark, so
1635inefficiencies of C<poll> do not account for this).
1636
1637The C<Tk> adaptor works relatively well. The fact that it crashes with
1638more than 2000 watchers is a big setback, however, as correctness takes
1639precedence over speed. Nevertheless, its performance is surprising, as the
1640file descriptor is dup()ed for each watcher. This shows that the dup()
1641employed by some adaptors is not a big performance issue (it does incur a
1642hidden memory cost inside the kernel which is not reflected in the figures
1643above).
1644
1645C<POE>, regardless of underlying event loop (whether using its pure perl
1646select-based backend or the Event module, the POE-EV backend couldn't
1647be tested because it wasn't working) shows abysmal performance and
1648memory usage with AnyEvent: Watchers use almost 30 times as much memory
1649as EV watchers, and 10 times as much memory as Event (the high memory
1650requirements are caused by requiring a session for each watcher). Watcher
1651invocation speed is almost 900 times slower than with AnyEvent's pure perl
1652implementation.
1653
1654The design of the POE adaptor class in AnyEvent can not really account
1655for the performance issues, though, as session creation overhead is
1656small compared to execution of the state machine, which is coded pretty
1657optimally within L<AnyEvent::Impl::POE> (and while everybody agrees that
1658using multiple sessions is not a good approach, especially regarding
1659memory usage, even the author of POE could not come up with a faster
1660design).
1661
1662=head3 Summary
1663
1664=over 4
1665
1666=item * Using EV through AnyEvent is faster than any other event loop
1667(even when used without AnyEvent), but most event loops have acceptable
1668performance with or without AnyEvent.
1669
1670=item * The overhead AnyEvent adds is usually much smaller than the overhead of
1671the actual event loop, only with extremely fast event loops such as EV
1672adds AnyEvent significant overhead.
1673
1674=item * You should avoid POE like the plague if you want performance or
1675reasonable memory usage.
1676
1677=back
1678
1679=head2 BENCHMARKING THE LARGE SERVER CASE
1680
1681This benchmark actually benchmarks the event loop itself. It works by
1682creating a number of "servers": each server consists of a socket pair, a
1683timeout watcher that gets reset on activity (but never fires), and an I/O
1684watcher waiting for input on one side of the socket. Each time the socket
1685watcher reads a byte it will write that byte to a random other "server".
1686
1687The effect is that there will be a lot of I/O watchers, only part of which
1688are active at any one point (so there is a constant number of active
1689fds for each loop iteration, but which fds these are is random). The
1690timeout is reset each time something is read because that reflects how
1691most timeouts work (and puts extra pressure on the event loops).
1692
1693In this benchmark, we use 10000 socket pairs (20000 sockets), of which 100
1694(1%) are active. This mirrors the activity of large servers with many
1695connections, most of which are idle at any one point in time.
1696
1697Source code for this benchmark is found as F<eg/bench2> in the AnyEvent
1698distribution.
1699
1700=head3 Explanation of the columns
1701
1702I<sockets> is the number of sockets, and twice the number of "servers" (as
1703each server has a read and write socket end).
1704
1705I<create> is the time it takes to create a socket pair (which is
1706nontrivial) and two watchers: an I/O watcher and a timeout watcher.
1707
1708I<request>, the most important value, is the time it takes to handle a
1709single "request", that is, reading the token from the pipe and forwarding
1710it to another server. This includes deleting the old timeout and creating
1711a new one that moves the timeout into the future.
1712
1713=head3 Results
1714
1715 name sockets create request
1716 EV 20000 69.01 11.16
1717 Perl 20000 73.32 35.87
1718 Event 20000 212.62 257.32
1719 Glib 20000 651.16 1896.30
1720 POE 20000 349.67 12317.24 uses POE::Loop::Event
1721
1722=head3 Discussion
1723
1724This benchmark I<does> measure scalability and overall performance of the
1725particular event loop.
1726
1727EV is again fastest. Since it is using epoll on my system, the setup time
1728is relatively high, though.
1729
1730Perl surprisingly comes second. It is much faster than the C-based event
1731loops Event and Glib.
1732
1733Event suffers from high setup time as well (look at its code and you will
1734understand why). Callback invocation also has a high overhead compared to
1735the C<< $_->() for .. >>-style loop that the Perl event loop uses. Event
1736uses select or poll in basically all documented configurations.
1737
1738Glib is hit hard by its quadratic behaviour w.r.t. many watchers. It
1739clearly fails to perform with many filehandles or in busy servers.
1740
1741POE is still completely out of the picture, taking over 1000 times as long
1742as EV, and over 100 times as long as the Perl implementation, even though
1743it uses a C-based event loop in this case.
1744
1745=head3 Summary
1746
1747=over 4
1748
1749=item * The pure perl implementation performs extremely well.
1750
1751=item * Avoid Glib or POE in large projects where performance matters.
1752
1753=back
1754
1755=head2 BENCHMARKING SMALL SERVERS
1756
1757While event loops should scale (and select-based ones do not...) even to
1758large servers, most programs we (or I :) actually write have only a few
1759I/O watchers.
1760
1761In this benchmark, I use the same benchmark program as in the large server
1762case, but it uses only eight "servers", of which three are active at any
1763one time. This should reflect performance for a small server relatively
1764well.
1765
1766The columns are identical to the previous table.
1767
1768=head3 Results
1769
1770 name sockets create request
1771 EV 16 20.00 6.54
1772 Perl 16 25.75 12.62
1773 Event 16 81.27 35.86
1774 Glib 16 32.63 15.48
1775 POE 16 261.87 276.28 uses POE::Loop::Event
1776
1777=head3 Discussion
1778
1779The benchmark tries to test the performance of a typical small
1780server. While knowing how various event loops perform is interesting, keep
1781in mind that their overhead in this case is usually not as important, due
1782to the small absolute number of watchers (that is, you need efficiency and
1783speed most when you have lots of watchers, not when you only have a few of
1784them).
1785
1786EV is again fastest.
1787
1788Perl again comes second. It is noticeably faster than the C-based event
1789loops Event and Glib, although the difference is too small to really
1790matter.
1791
1792POE also performs much better in this case, but is is still far behind the
1793others.
1794
1795=head3 Summary
1796
1797=over 4
1798
1799=item * C-based event loops perform very well with small number of
1800watchers, as the management overhead dominates.
1801
1802=back
1803
1804
1805=head1 SIGNALS
1806
1807AnyEvent currently installs handlers for these signals:
1808
1809=over 4
1810
1811=item SIGCHLD
1812
1813A handler for C<SIGCHLD> is installed by AnyEvent's child watcher
1814emulation for event loops that do not support them natively. Also, some
1815event loops install a similar handler.
1816
1817=item SIGPIPE
1818
1819A no-op handler is installed for C<SIGPIPE> when C<$SIG{PIPE}> is C<undef>
1820when AnyEvent gets loaded.
1821
1822The rationale for this is that AnyEvent users usually do not really depend
1823on SIGPIPE delivery (which is purely an optimisation for shell use, or
1824badly-written programs), but C<SIGPIPE> can cause spurious and rare
1825program exits as a lot of people do not expect C<SIGPIPE> when writing to
1826some random socket.
1827
1828The rationale for installing a no-op handler as opposed to ignoring it is
1829that this way, the handler will be restored to defaults on exec.
1830
1831Feel free to install your own handler, or reset it to defaults.
1832
1833=back
1834
1835=cut
1836
1837$SIG{PIPE} = sub { }
1838 unless defined $SIG{PIPE};
1839
838 1840
839=head1 FORK 1841=head1 FORK
840 1842
841Most event libraries are not fork-safe. The ones who are usually are 1843Most event libraries are not fork-safe. The ones who are usually are
842because they are so inefficient. Only L<EV> is fully fork-aware. 1844because they rely on inefficient but fork-safe C<select> or C<poll>
1845calls. Only L<EV> is fully fork-aware.
843 1846
844If you have to fork, you must either do so I<before> creating your first 1847If you have to fork, you must either do so I<before> creating your first
845watcher OR you must not use AnyEvent at all in the child. 1848watcher OR you must not use AnyEvent at all in the child.
1849
846 1850
847=head1 SECURITY CONSIDERATIONS 1851=head1 SECURITY CONSIDERATIONS
848 1852
849AnyEvent can be forced to load any event model via 1853AnyEvent can be forced to load any event model via
850$ENV{PERL_ANYEVENT_MODEL}. While this cannot (to my knowledge) be used to 1854$ENV{PERL_ANYEVENT_MODEL}. While this cannot (to my knowledge) be used to
854specified in the variable. 1858specified in the variable.
855 1859
856You can make AnyEvent completely ignore this variable by deleting it 1860You can make AnyEvent completely ignore this variable by deleting it
857before the first watcher gets created, e.g. with a C<BEGIN> block: 1861before the first watcher gets created, e.g. with a C<BEGIN> block:
858 1862
859 BEGIN { delete $ENV{PERL_ANYEVENT_MODEL} } 1863 BEGIN { delete $ENV{PERL_ANYEVENT_MODEL} }
860 1864
861 use AnyEvent; 1865 use AnyEvent;
1866
1867Similar considerations apply to $ENV{PERL_ANYEVENT_VERBOSE}, as that can
1868be used to probe what backend is used and gain other information (which is
1869probably even less useful to an attacker than PERL_ANYEVENT_MODEL), and
1870$ENV{PERL_ANYEGENT_STRICT}.
1871
1872
1873=head1 BUGS
1874
1875Perl 5.8 has numerous memleaks that sometimes hit this module and are hard
1876to work around. If you suffer from memleaks, first upgrade to Perl 5.10
1877and check wether the leaks still show up. (Perl 5.10.0 has other annoying
1878memleaks, such as leaking on C<map> and C<grep> but it is usually not as
1879pronounced).
1880
862 1881
863=head1 SEE ALSO 1882=head1 SEE ALSO
864 1883
865Event modules: L<Coro::EV>, L<EV>, L<EV::Glib>, L<Glib::EV>, 1884Utility functions: L<AnyEvent::Util>.
866L<Coro::Event>, L<Event>, L<Glib::Event>, L<Glib>, L<Coro>, L<Tk>,
867L<Event::Lib>, L<Qt>.
868 1885
869Implementations: L<AnyEvent::Impl::CoroEV>, L<AnyEvent::Impl::EV>, 1886Event modules: L<EV>, L<EV::Glib>, L<Glib::EV>, L<Event>, L<Glib::Event>,
870L<AnyEvent::Impl::CoroEvent>, L<AnyEvent::Impl::Event>, L<AnyEvent::Impl::Glib>, 1887L<Glib>, L<Tk>, L<Event::Lib>, L<Qt>, L<POE>.
871L<AnyEvent::Impl::Tk>, L<AnyEvent::Impl::Perl>, L<AnyEvent::Impl::EventLib>, 1888
1889Implementations: L<AnyEvent::Impl::EV>, L<AnyEvent::Impl::Event>,
1890L<AnyEvent::Impl::Glib>, L<AnyEvent::Impl::Tk>, L<AnyEvent::Impl::Perl>,
1891L<AnyEvent::Impl::EventLib>, L<AnyEvent::Impl::Qt>,
872L<AnyEvent::Impl::Qt>. 1892L<AnyEvent::Impl::POE>.
873 1893
1894Non-blocking file handles, sockets, TCP clients and
1895servers: L<AnyEvent::Handle>, L<AnyEvent::Socket>.
1896
1897Asynchronous DNS: L<AnyEvent::DNS>.
1898
1899Coroutine support: L<Coro>, L<Coro::AnyEvent>, L<Coro::EV>, L<Coro::Event>,
1900
874Nontrivial usage examples: L<Net::FCP>, L<Net::XMPP2>. 1901Nontrivial usage examples: L<Net::FCP>, L<Net::XMPP2>, L<AnyEvent::DNS>.
1902
875 1903
876=head1 AUTHOR 1904=head1 AUTHOR
877 1905
878 Marc Lehmann <schmorp@schmorp.de> 1906 Marc Lehmann <schmorp@schmorp.de>
879 http://home.schmorp.de/ 1907 http://home.schmorp.de/
880 1908
881=cut 1909=cut
882 1910
8831 19111
884 1912

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