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1=head1 NAME 1=head1 NAME
2 2
3AnyEvent - provide framework for multiple event loops 3AnyEvent - the DBI of event loop programming
4 4
5Event, Coro, Glib, Tk, Perl - various supported event loops 5EV, Event, Glib, Tk, Perl, Event::Lib, Irssi, rxvt-unicode, IO::Async, Qt
6and POE are various supported event loops/environments.
6 7
7=head1 SYNOPSIS 8=head1 SYNOPSIS
8 9
9 use AnyEvent; 10 use AnyEvent;
10 11
12 # if you prefer function calls, look at the AE manpage for
13 # an alternative API.
14
15 # file handle or descriptor readable
11 my $w = AnyEvent->io (fh => $fh, poll => "r|w", cb => sub { 16 my $w = AnyEvent->io (fh => $fh, poll => "r", cb => sub { ... });
17
18 # one-shot or repeating timers
19 my $w = AnyEvent->timer (after => $seconds, cb => sub { ... });
20 my $w = AnyEvent->timer (after => $seconds, interval => $seconds, cb => ...);
21
22 print AnyEvent->now; # prints current event loop time
23 print AnyEvent->time; # think Time::HiRes::time or simply CORE::time.
24
25 # POSIX signal
26 my $w = AnyEvent->signal (signal => "TERM", cb => sub { ... });
27
28 # child process exit
29 my $w = AnyEvent->child (pid => $pid, cb => sub {
30 my ($pid, $status) = @_;
12 ... 31 ...
13 }); 32 });
14 33
15 my $w = AnyEvent->timer (after => $seconds, cb => sub { 34 # called when event loop idle (if applicable)
16 ... 35 my $w = AnyEvent->idle (cb => sub { ... });
17 });
18 36
19 my $w = AnyEvent->condvar; # stores wether a condition was flagged 37 my $w = AnyEvent->condvar; # stores whether a condition was flagged
38 $w->send; # wake up current and all future recv's
20 $w->wait; # enters "main loop" till $condvar gets ->broadcast 39 $w->recv; # enters "main loop" till $condvar gets ->send
21 $w->broadcast; # wake up current and all future wait's 40 # use a condvar in callback mode:
41 $w->cb (sub { $_[0]->recv });
42
43=head1 INTRODUCTION/TUTORIAL
44
45This manpage is mainly a reference manual. If you are interested
46in a tutorial or some gentle introduction, have a look at the
47L<AnyEvent::Intro> manpage.
48
49=head1 SUPPORT
50
51An FAQ document is available as L<AnyEvent::FAQ>.
52
53There also is a mailinglist for discussing all things AnyEvent, and an IRC
54channel, too.
55
56See the AnyEvent project page at the B<Schmorpforge Ta-Sa Software
57Repository>, at L<http://anyevent.schmorp.de>, for more info.
58
59=head1 WHY YOU SHOULD USE THIS MODULE (OR NOT)
60
61Glib, POE, IO::Async, Event... CPAN offers event models by the dozen
62nowadays. So what is different about AnyEvent?
63
64Executive Summary: AnyEvent is I<compatible>, AnyEvent is I<free of
65policy> and AnyEvent is I<small and efficient>.
66
67First and foremost, I<AnyEvent is not an event model> itself, it only
68interfaces to whatever event model the main program happens to use, in a
69pragmatic way. For event models and certain classes of immortals alike,
70the statement "there can only be one" is a bitter reality: In general,
71only one event loop can be active at the same time in a process. AnyEvent
72cannot change this, but it can hide the differences between those event
73loops.
74
75The goal of AnyEvent is to offer module authors the ability to do event
76programming (waiting for I/O or timer events) without subscribing to a
77religion, a way of living, and most importantly: without forcing your
78module users into the same thing by forcing them to use the same event
79model you use.
80
81For modules like POE or IO::Async (which is a total misnomer as it is
82actually doing all I/O I<synchronously>...), using them in your module is
83like joining a cult: After you join, you are dependent on them and you
84cannot use anything else, as they are simply incompatible to everything
85that isn't them. What's worse, all the potential users of your
86module are I<also> forced to use the same event loop you use.
87
88AnyEvent is different: AnyEvent + POE works fine. AnyEvent + Glib works
89fine. AnyEvent + Tk works fine etc. etc. but none of these work together
90with the rest: POE + IO::Async? No go. Tk + Event? No go. Again: if
91your module uses one of those, every user of your module has to use it,
92too. But if your module uses AnyEvent, it works transparently with all
93event models it supports (including stuff like IO::Async, as long as those
94use one of the supported event loops. It is easy to add new event loops
95to AnyEvent, too, so it is future-proof).
96
97In addition to being free of having to use I<the one and only true event
98model>, AnyEvent also is free of bloat and policy: with POE or similar
99modules, you get an enormous amount of code and strict rules you have to
100follow. AnyEvent, on the other hand, is lean and to the point, by only
101offering the functionality that is necessary, in as thin as a wrapper as
102technically possible.
103
104Of course, AnyEvent comes with a big (and fully optional!) toolbox
105of useful functionality, such as an asynchronous DNS resolver, 100%
106non-blocking connects (even with TLS/SSL, IPv6 and on broken platforms
107such as Windows) and lots of real-world knowledge and workarounds for
108platform bugs and differences.
109
110Now, if you I<do want> lots of policy (this can arguably be somewhat
111useful) and you want to force your users to use the one and only event
112model, you should I<not> use this module.
22 113
23=head1 DESCRIPTION 114=head1 DESCRIPTION
24 115
25L<AnyEvent> provides an identical interface to multiple event loops. This 116L<AnyEvent> provides a uniform interface to various event loops. This
26allows module authors to utilise an event loop without forcing module 117allows module authors to use event loop functionality without forcing
27users to use the same event loop (as only a single event loop can coexist 118module users to use a specific event loop implementation (since more
28peacefully at any one time). 119than one event loop cannot coexist peacefully).
29 120
30The interface itself is vaguely similar but not identical to the Event 121The interface itself is vaguely similar, but not identical to the L<Event>
31module. 122module.
32 123
33On the first call of any method, the module tries to detect the currently 124During the first call of any watcher-creation method, the module tries
34loaded event loop by probing wether any of the following modules is 125to detect the currently loaded event loop by probing whether one of the
35loaded: L<Coro::Event>, L<Event>, L<Glib>, L<Tk>. The first one found is 126following modules is already loaded: L<EV>, L<AnyEvent::Impl::Perl>,
36used. If none is found, the module tries to load these modules in the 127L<Event>, L<Glib>, L<Tk>, L<Event::Lib>, L<Qt>, L<POE>. The first one
37order given. The first one that could be successfully loaded will be 128found is used. If none are detected, the module tries to load the first
38used. If still none could be found, AnyEvent will fall back to a pure-perl 129four modules in the order given; but note that if L<EV> is not
39event loop, which is also not very efficient. 130available, the pure-perl L<AnyEvent::Impl::Perl> should always work, so
131the other two are not normally tried.
40 132
41Because AnyEvent first checks for modules that are already loaded, loading 133Because AnyEvent first checks for modules that are already loaded, loading
42an Event model explicitly before first using AnyEvent will likely make 134an event model explicitly before first using AnyEvent will likely make
43that model the default. For example: 135that model the default. For example:
44 136
45 use Tk; 137 use Tk;
46 use AnyEvent; 138 use AnyEvent;
47 139
48 # .. AnyEvent will likely default to Tk 140 # .. AnyEvent will likely default to Tk
49 141
142The I<likely> means that, if any module loads another event model and
143starts using it, all bets are off - this case should be very rare though,
144as very few modules hardcode event loops without announcing this very
145loudly.
146
50The pure-perl implementation of AnyEvent is called 147The pure-perl implementation of AnyEvent is called
51C<AnyEvent::Impl::Perl>. Like other event modules you can load it 148C<AnyEvent::Impl::Perl>. Like other event modules you can load it
52explicitly. 149explicitly and enjoy the high availability of that event loop :)
53 150
54=head1 WATCHERS 151=head1 WATCHERS
55 152
56AnyEvent has the central concept of a I<watcher>, which is an object that 153AnyEvent has the central concept of a I<watcher>, which is an object that
57stores relevant data for each kind of event you are waiting for, such as 154stores relevant data for each kind of event you are waiting for, such as
58the callback to call, the filehandle to watch, etc. 155the callback to call, the file handle to watch, etc.
59 156
60These watchers are normal Perl objects with normal Perl lifetime. After 157These watchers are normal Perl objects with normal Perl lifetime. After
61creating a watcher it will immediately "watch" for events and invoke 158creating a watcher it will immediately "watch" for events and invoke the
159callback when the event occurs (of course, only when the event model
160is in control).
161
162Note that B<callbacks must not permanently change global variables>
163potentially in use by the event loop (such as C<$_> or C<$[>) and that B<<
164callbacks must not C<die> >>. The former is good programming practice in
165Perl and the latter stems from the fact that exception handling differs
166widely between event loops.
167
62the callback. To disable the watcher you have to destroy it (e.g. by 168To disable a watcher you have to destroy it (e.g. by setting the
63setting the variable that stores it to C<undef> or otherwise deleting all 169variable you store it in to C<undef> or otherwise deleting all references
64references to it). 170to it).
65 171
66All watchers are created by calling a method on the C<AnyEvent> class. 172All watchers are created by calling a method on the C<AnyEvent> class.
67 173
174Many watchers either are used with "recursion" (repeating timers for
175example), or need to refer to their watcher object in other ways.
176
177One way to achieve that is this pattern:
178
179 my $w; $w = AnyEvent->type (arg => value ..., cb => sub {
180 # you can use $w here, for example to undef it
181 undef $w;
182 });
183
184Note that C<my $w; $w => combination. This is necessary because in Perl,
185my variables are only visible after the statement in which they are
186declared.
187
68=head2 IO WATCHERS 188=head2 I/O WATCHERS
69 189
190 $w = AnyEvent->io (
191 fh => <filehandle_or_fileno>,
192 poll => <"r" or "w">,
193 cb => <callback>,
194 );
195
70You can create I/O watcher by calling the C<< AnyEvent->io >> method with 196You can create an I/O watcher by calling the C<< AnyEvent->io >> method
71the following mandatory arguments: 197with the following mandatory key-value pairs as arguments:
72 198
73C<fh> the Perl I<filehandle> (not filedescriptor) to watch for 199C<fh> is the Perl I<file handle> (or a naked file descriptor) to watch
200for events (AnyEvent might or might not keep a reference to this file
201handle). Note that only file handles pointing to things for which
202non-blocking operation makes sense are allowed. This includes sockets,
203most character devices, pipes, fifos and so on, but not for example files
204or block devices.
205
74events. C<poll> must be a string that is either C<r> or C<w>, that creates 206C<poll> must be a string that is either C<r> or C<w>, which creates a
75a watcher waiting for "r"eadable or "w"ritable events. C<cb> teh callback 207watcher waiting for "r"eadable or "w"ritable events, respectively.
76to invoke everytime the filehandle becomes ready.
77 208
78Only one io watcher per C<fh> and C<poll> combination is allowed (i.e. on 209C<cb> is the callback to invoke each time the file handle becomes ready.
79a socket you can have one r + one w, not any more (limitation comes from
80Tk - if you are sure you are not using Tk this limitation is gone).
81 210
82Filehandles will be kept alive, so as long as the watcher exists, the 211Although the callback might get passed parameters, their value and
83filehandle exists, too. 212presence is undefined and you cannot rely on them. Portable AnyEvent
213callbacks cannot use arguments passed to I/O watcher callbacks.
84 214
85Example: 215The I/O watcher might use the underlying file descriptor or a copy of it.
216You must not close a file handle as long as any watcher is active on the
217underlying file descriptor.
86 218
219Some event loops issue spurious readiness notifications, so you should
220always use non-blocking calls when reading/writing from/to your file
221handles.
222
87 # wait for readability of STDIN, then read a line and disable the watcher 223Example: wait for readability of STDIN, then read a line and disable the
224watcher.
225
88 my $w; $w = AnyEvent->io (fh => \*STDIN, poll => 'r', cb => sub { 226 my $w; $w = AnyEvent->io (fh => \*STDIN, poll => 'r', cb => sub {
89 chomp (my $input = <STDIN>); 227 chomp (my $input = <STDIN>);
90 warn "read: $input\n"; 228 warn "read: $input\n";
91 undef $w; 229 undef $w;
92 }); 230 });
93 231
94=head2 TIME WATCHERS 232=head2 TIME WATCHERS
95 233
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
96You can create a time watcher by calling the C<< AnyEvent->timer >> 242You can create a time watcher by calling the C<< AnyEvent->timer >>
97method with the following mandatory arguments: 243method with the following mandatory arguments:
98 244
99C<after> after how many seconds (fractions are supported) should the timer 245C<after> specifies after how many seconds (fractional values are
100activate. C<cb> the callback to invoke. 246supported) the callback should be invoked. C<cb> is the callback to invoke
247in that case.
101 248
102The timer callback will be invoked at most once: if you want a repeating 249Although the callback might get passed parameters, their value and
103timer you have to create a new watcher (this is a limitation by both Tk 250presence is undefined and you cannot rely on them. Portable AnyEvent
104and Glib). 251callbacks cannot use arguments passed to time watcher callbacks.
105 252
106Example: 253The callback will normally be invoked only once. If you specify another
254parameter, C<interval>, as a strictly positive number (> 0), then the
255callback will be invoked regularly at that interval (in fractional
256seconds) after the first invocation. If C<interval> is specified with a
257false value, then it is treated as if it were not specified at all.
107 258
259The callback will be rescheduled before invoking the callback, but no
260attempt is made to avoid timer drift in most backends, so the interval is
261only approximate.
262
108 # fire an event after 7.7 seconds 263Example: fire an event after 7.7 seconds.
264
109 my $w = AnyEvent->timer (after => 7.7, cb => sub { 265 my $w = AnyEvent->timer (after => 7.7, cb => sub {
110 warn "timeout\n"; 266 warn "timeout\n";
111 }); 267 });
112 268
113 # to cancel the timer: 269 # to cancel the timer:
114 undef $w 270 undef $w;
115 271
116=head2 CONDITION WATCHERS 272Example 2: fire an event after 0.5 seconds, then roughly every second.
117 273
118Condition watchers can be created by calling the C<< AnyEvent->condvar >> 274 my $w = AnyEvent->timer (after => 0.5, interval => 1, cb => sub {
119method without any arguments. 275 warn "timeout\n";
276 };
120 277
121A condition watcher watches for a condition - precisely that the C<< 278=head3 TIMING ISSUES
122->broadcast >> method has been called.
123 279
124The watcher has only two methods: 280There are two ways to handle timers: based on real time (relative, "fire
281in 10 seconds") and based on wallclock time (absolute, "fire at 12
282o'clock").
283
284While most event loops expect timers to specified in a relative way, they
285use absolute time internally. This makes a difference when your clock
286"jumps", for example, when ntp decides to set your clock backwards from
287the wrong date of 2014-01-01 to 2008-01-01, a watcher that is supposed to
288fire "after a second" might actually take six years to finally fire.
289
290AnyEvent cannot compensate for this. The only event loop that is conscious
291of these issues is L<EV>, which offers both relative (ev_timer, based
292on true relative time) and absolute (ev_periodic, based on wallclock time)
293timers.
294
295AnyEvent always prefers relative timers, if available, matching the
296AnyEvent API.
297
298AnyEvent has two additional methods that return the "current time":
125 299
126=over 4 300=over 4
127 301
128=item $cv->wait 302=item AnyEvent->time
129 303
130Wait (blocking if necessary) until the C<< ->broadcast >> method has been 304This returns the "current wallclock time" as a fractional number of
131called on c<$cv>, while servicing other watchers normally. 305seconds since the Epoch (the same thing as C<time> or C<Time::HiRes::time>
306return, and the result is guaranteed to be compatible with those).
132 307
133Not all event models support a blocking wait - some die in that case, so 308It progresses independently of any event loop processing, i.e. each call
134if you are using this from a module, never require a blocking wait, but 309will check the system clock, which usually gets updated frequently.
135let the caller decide wether the call will block or not (for example,
136by coupling condition variables with some kind of request results and
137supporting callbacks so the caller knows that getting the result will not
138block, while still suppporting blockign waits if the caller so desires).
139 310
140You can only wait once on a condition - additional calls will return 311=item AnyEvent->now
141immediately.
142 312
143=item $cv->broadcast 313This also returns the "current wallclock time", but unlike C<time>, above,
314this value might change only once per event loop iteration, depending on
315the event loop (most return the same time as C<time>, above). This is the
316time that AnyEvent's timers get scheduled against.
144 317
145Flag the condition as ready - a running C<< ->wait >> and all further 318I<In almost all cases (in all cases if you don't care), this is the
146calls to C<wait> will return after this method has been called. If nobody 319function to call when you want to know the current time.>
147is waiting the broadcast will be remembered..
148 320
149Example: 321This function is also often faster then C<< AnyEvent->time >>, and
322thus the preferred method if you want some timestamp (for example,
323L<AnyEvent::Handle> uses this to update its activity timeouts).
150 324
151 # wait till the result is ready 325The rest of this section is only of relevance if you try to be very exact
152 my $result_ready = AnyEvent->condvar; 326with your timing; you can skip it without a bad conscience.
153 327
154 # do something such as adding a timer 328For a practical example of when these times differ, consider L<Event::Lib>
155 # or socket watcher the calls $result_ready->broadcast 329and L<EV> and the following set-up:
156 # when the "result" is ready.
157 330
158 $result_ready->wait; 331The event loop is running and has just invoked one of your callbacks at
332time=500 (assume no other callbacks delay processing). In your callback,
333you wait a second by executing C<sleep 1> (blocking the process for a
334second) and then (at time=501) you create a relative timer that fires
335after three seconds.
336
337With L<Event::Lib>, C<< AnyEvent->time >> and C<< AnyEvent->now >> will
338both return C<501>, because that is the current time, and the timer will
339be scheduled to fire at time=504 (C<501> + C<3>).
340
341With L<EV>, C<< AnyEvent->time >> returns C<501> (as that is the current
342time), but C<< AnyEvent->now >> returns C<500>, as that is the time the
343last event processing phase started. With L<EV>, your timer gets scheduled
344to run at time=503 (C<500> + C<3>).
345
346In one sense, L<Event::Lib> is more exact, as it uses the current time
347regardless of any delays introduced by event processing. However, most
348callbacks do not expect large delays in processing, so this causes a
349higher drift (and a lot more system calls to get the current time).
350
351In another sense, L<EV> is more exact, as your timer will be scheduled at
352the same time, regardless of how long event processing actually took.
353
354In either case, if you care (and in most cases, you don't), then you
355can get whatever behaviour you want with any event loop, by taking the
356difference between C<< AnyEvent->time >> and C<< AnyEvent->now >> into
357account.
358
359=item AnyEvent->now_update
360
361Some event loops (such as L<EV> or L<AnyEvent::Impl::Perl>) cache
362the current time for each loop iteration (see the discussion of L<<
363AnyEvent->now >>, above).
364
365When a callback runs for a long time (or when the process sleeps), then
366this "current" time will differ substantially from the real time, which
367might affect timers and time-outs.
368
369When this is the case, you can call this method, which will update the
370event loop's idea of "current time".
371
372A typical example would be a script in a web server (e.g. C<mod_perl>) -
373when mod_perl executes the script, then the event loop will have the wrong
374idea about the "current time" (being potentially far in the past, when the
375script ran the last time). In that case you should arrange a call to C<<
376AnyEvent->now_update >> each time the web server process wakes up again
377(e.g. at the start of your script, or in a handler).
378
379Note that updating the time I<might> cause some events to be handled.
159 380
160=back 381=back
161 382
162=head2 SIGNAL WATCHERS 383=head2 SIGNAL WATCHERS
163 384
385 $w = AnyEvent->signal (signal => <uppercase_signal_name>, cb => <callback>);
386
164You can listen for signals using a signal watcher, C<signal> is the signal 387You can watch for signals using a signal watcher, C<signal> is the signal
165I<name> without any C<SIG> prefix. Multiple signals events can be clumped 388I<name> in uppercase and without any C<SIG> prefix, C<cb> is the Perl
166together into one callback invocation, and callback invocation might or 389callback to be invoked whenever a signal occurs.
167might not be asynchronous.
168 390
169These watchers might use C<%SIG>, so programs overwriting those signals 391Although the callback might get passed parameters, their value and
170directly will likely not work correctly. 392presence is undefined and you cannot rely on them. Portable AnyEvent
393callbacks cannot use arguments passed to signal watcher callbacks.
394
395Multiple signal occurrences can be clumped together into one callback
396invocation, and callback invocation will be synchronous. Synchronous means
397that it might take a while until the signal gets handled by the process,
398but it is guaranteed not to interrupt any other callbacks.
399
400The main advantage of using these watchers is that you can share a signal
401between multiple watchers, and AnyEvent will ensure that signals will not
402interrupt your program at bad times.
403
404This watcher might use C<%SIG> (depending on the event loop used),
405so programs overwriting those signals directly will likely not work
406correctly.
171 407
172Example: exit on SIGINT 408Example: exit on SIGINT
173 409
174 my $w = AnyEvent->signal (signal => "INT", cb => sub { exit 1 }); 410 my $w = AnyEvent->signal (signal => "INT", cb => sub { exit 1 });
175 411
412=head3 Restart Behaviour
413
414While restart behaviour is up to the event loop implementation, most will
415not restart syscalls (that includes L<Async::Interrupt> and AnyEvent's
416pure perl implementation).
417
418=head3 Safe/Unsafe Signals
419
420Perl signals can be either "safe" (synchronous to opcode handling) or
421"unsafe" (asynchronous) - the former might get delayed indefinitely, the
422latter might corrupt your memory.
423
424AnyEvent signal handlers are, in addition, synchronous to the event loop,
425i.e. they will not interrupt your running perl program but will only be
426called as part of the normal event handling (just like timer, I/O etc.
427callbacks, too).
428
429=head3 Signal Races, Delays and Workarounds
430
431Many event loops (e.g. Glib, Tk, Qt, IO::Async) do not support attaching
432callbacks to signals in a generic way, which is a pity, as you cannot
433do race-free signal handling in perl, requiring C libraries for
434this. AnyEvent will try to do its best, which means in some cases,
435signals will be delayed. The maximum time a signal might be delayed is
436specified in C<$AnyEvent::MAX_SIGNAL_LATENCY> (default: 10 seconds). This
437variable can be changed only before the first signal watcher is created,
438and should be left alone otherwise. This variable determines how often
439AnyEvent polls for signals (in case a wake-up was missed). Higher values
440will cause fewer spurious wake-ups, which is better for power and CPU
441saving.
442
443All these problems can be avoided by installing the optional
444L<Async::Interrupt> module, which works with most event loops. It will not
445work with inherently broken event loops such as L<Event> or L<Event::Lib>
446(and not with L<POE> currently, as POE does its own workaround with
447one-second latency). For those, you just have to suffer the delays.
448
176=head2 CHILD PROCESS WATCHERS 449=head2 CHILD PROCESS WATCHERS
177 450
178You can also listen for the status of a child process specified by the 451 $w = AnyEvent->child (pid => <process id>, cb => <callback>);
179C<pid> argument. The watcher will only trigger once. This works by
180installing a signal handler for C<SIGCHLD>.
181 452
182Example: wait for pid 1333 453You can also watch for a child process exit and catch its exit status.
183 454
184 my $w = AnyEvent->child (pid => 1333, cb => sub { warn "exit status $?" }); 455The child process is specified by the C<pid> argument (on some backends,
456using C<0> watches for any child process exit, on others this will
457croak). The watcher will be triggered only when the child process has
458finished and an exit status is available, not on any trace events
459(stopped/continued).
185 460
186=head1 GLOBALS 461The callback will be called with the pid and exit status (as returned by
462waitpid), so unlike other watcher types, you I<can> rely on child watcher
463callback arguments.
464
465This watcher type works by installing a signal handler for C<SIGCHLD>,
466and since it cannot be shared, nothing else should use SIGCHLD or reap
467random child processes (waiting for specific child processes, e.g. inside
468C<system>, is just fine).
469
470There is a slight catch to child watchers, however: you usually start them
471I<after> the child process was created, and this means the process could
472have exited already (and no SIGCHLD will be sent anymore).
473
474Not all event models handle this correctly (neither POE nor IO::Async do,
475see their AnyEvent::Impl manpages for details), but even for event models
476that I<do> handle this correctly, they usually need to be loaded before
477the process exits (i.e. before you fork in the first place). AnyEvent's
478pure perl event loop handles all cases correctly regardless of when you
479start the watcher.
480
481This means you cannot create a child watcher as the very first
482thing in an AnyEvent program, you I<have> to create at least one
483watcher before you C<fork> the child (alternatively, you can call
484C<AnyEvent::detect>).
485
486As most event loops do not support waiting for child events, they will be
487emulated by AnyEvent in most cases, in which the latency and race problems
488mentioned in the description of signal watchers apply.
489
490Example: fork a process and wait for it
491
492 my $done = AnyEvent->condvar;
493
494 my $pid = fork or exit 5;
495
496 my $w = AnyEvent->child (
497 pid => $pid,
498 cb => sub {
499 my ($pid, $status) = @_;
500 warn "pid $pid exited with status $status";
501 $done->send;
502 },
503 );
504
505 # do something else, then wait for process exit
506 $done->recv;
507
508=head2 IDLE WATCHERS
509
510 $w = AnyEvent->idle (cb => <callback>);
511
512This will repeatedly invoke the callback after the process becomes idle,
513until either the watcher is destroyed or new events have been detected.
514
515Idle watchers are useful when there is a need to do something, but it
516is not so important (or wise) to do it instantly. The callback will be
517invoked only when there is "nothing better to do", which is usually
518defined as "all outstanding events have been handled and no new events
519have been detected". That means that idle watchers ideally get invoked
520when the event loop has just polled for new events but none have been
521detected. Instead of blocking to wait for more events, the idle watchers
522will be invoked.
523
524Unfortunately, most event loops do not really support idle watchers (only
525EV, Event and Glib do it in a usable fashion) - for the rest, AnyEvent
526will simply call the callback "from time to time".
527
528Example: read lines from STDIN, but only process them when the
529program is otherwise idle:
530
531 my @lines; # read data
532 my $idle_w;
533 my $io_w = AnyEvent->io (fh => \*STDIN, poll => 'r', cb => sub {
534 push @lines, scalar <STDIN>;
535
536 # start an idle watcher, if not already done
537 $idle_w ||= AnyEvent->idle (cb => sub {
538 # handle only one line, when there are lines left
539 if (my $line = shift @lines) {
540 print "handled when idle: $line";
541 } else {
542 # otherwise disable the idle watcher again
543 undef $idle_w;
544 }
545 });
546 });
547
548=head2 CONDITION VARIABLES
549
550 $cv = AnyEvent->condvar;
551
552 $cv->send (<list>);
553 my @res = $cv->recv;
554
555If you are familiar with some event loops you will know that all of them
556require you to run some blocking "loop", "run" or similar function that
557will actively watch for new events and call your callbacks.
558
559AnyEvent is slightly different: it expects somebody else to run the event
560loop and will only block when necessary (usually when told by the user).
561
562The tool to do that is called a "condition variable", so called because
563they represent a condition that must become true.
564
565Now is probably a good time to look at the examples further below.
566
567Condition variables can be created by calling the C<< AnyEvent->condvar
568>> method, usually without arguments. The only argument pair allowed is
569C<cb>, which specifies a callback to be called when the condition variable
570becomes true, with the condition variable as the first argument (but not
571the results).
572
573After creation, the condition variable is "false" until it becomes "true"
574by calling the C<send> method (or calling the condition variable as if it
575were a callback, read about the caveats in the description for the C<<
576->send >> method).
577
578Since condition variables are the most complex part of the AnyEvent API, here are
579some different mental models of what they are - pick the ones you can connect to:
187 580
188=over 4 581=over 4
189 582
583=item * Condition variables are like callbacks - you can call them (and pass them instead
584of callbacks). Unlike callbacks however, you can also wait for them to be called.
585
586=item * Condition variables are signals - one side can emit or send them,
587the other side can wait for them, or install a handler that is called when
588the signal fires.
589
590=item * Condition variables are like "Merge Points" - points in your program
591where you merge multiple independent results/control flows into one.
592
593=item * Condition variables represent a transaction - functions that start
594some kind of transaction can return them, leaving the caller the choice
595between waiting in a blocking fashion, or setting a callback.
596
597=item * Condition variables represent future values, or promises to deliver
598some result, long before the result is available.
599
600=back
601
602Condition variables are very useful to signal that something has finished,
603for example, if you write a module that does asynchronous http requests,
604then a condition variable would be the ideal candidate to signal the
605availability of results. The user can either act when the callback is
606called or can synchronously C<< ->recv >> for the results.
607
608You can also use them to simulate traditional event loops - for example,
609you can block your main program until an event occurs - for example, you
610could C<< ->recv >> in your main program until the user clicks the Quit
611button of your app, which would C<< ->send >> the "quit" event.
612
613Note that condition variables recurse into the event loop - if you have
614two pieces of code that call C<< ->recv >> in a round-robin fashion, you
615lose. Therefore, condition variables are good to export to your caller, but
616you should avoid making a blocking wait yourself, at least in callbacks,
617as this asks for trouble.
618
619Condition variables are represented by hash refs in perl, and the keys
620used by AnyEvent itself are all named C<_ae_XXX> to make subclassing
621easy (it is often useful to build your own transaction class on top of
622AnyEvent). To subclass, use C<AnyEvent::CondVar> as base class and call
623its C<new> method in your own C<new> method.
624
625There are two "sides" to a condition variable - the "producer side" which
626eventually calls C<< -> send >>, and the "consumer side", which waits
627for the send to occur.
628
629Example: wait for a timer.
630
631 # condition: "wait till the timer is fired"
632 my $timer_fired = AnyEvent->condvar;
633
634 # create the timer - we could wait for, say
635 # a handle becomign ready, or even an
636 # AnyEvent::HTTP request to finish, but
637 # in this case, we simply use a timer:
638 my $w = AnyEvent->timer (
639 after => 1,
640 cb => sub { $timer_fired->send },
641 );
642
643 # this "blocks" (while handling events) till the callback
644 # calls ->send
645 $timer_fired->recv;
646
647Example: wait for a timer, but take advantage of the fact that condition
648variables are also callable directly.
649
650 my $done = AnyEvent->condvar;
651 my $delay = AnyEvent->timer (after => 5, cb => $done);
652 $done->recv;
653
654Example: Imagine an API that returns a condvar and doesn't support
655callbacks. This is how you make a synchronous call, for example from
656the main program:
657
658 use AnyEvent::CouchDB;
659
660 ...
661
662 my @info = $couchdb->info->recv;
663
664And this is how you would just set a callback to be called whenever the
665results are available:
666
667 $couchdb->info->cb (sub {
668 my @info = $_[0]->recv;
669 });
670
671=head3 METHODS FOR PRODUCERS
672
673These methods should only be used by the producing side, i.e. the
674code/module that eventually sends the signal. Note that it is also
675the producer side which creates the condvar in most cases, but it isn't
676uncommon for the consumer to create it as well.
677
678=over 4
679
680=item $cv->send (...)
681
682Flag the condition as ready - a running C<< ->recv >> and all further
683calls to C<recv> will (eventually) return after this method has been
684called. If nobody is waiting the send will be remembered.
685
686If a callback has been set on the condition variable, it is called
687immediately from within send.
688
689Any arguments passed to the C<send> call will be returned by all
690future C<< ->recv >> calls.
691
692Condition variables are overloaded so one can call them directly (as if
693they were a code reference). Calling them directly is the same as calling
694C<send>.
695
696=item $cv->croak ($error)
697
698Similar to send, but causes all calls to C<< ->recv >> to invoke
699C<Carp::croak> with the given error message/object/scalar.
700
701This can be used to signal any errors to the condition variable
702user/consumer. Doing it this way instead of calling C<croak> directly
703delays the error detection, but has the overwhelming advantage that it
704diagnoses the error at the place where the result is expected, and not
705deep in some event callback with no connection to the actual code causing
706the problem.
707
708=item $cv->begin ([group callback])
709
710=item $cv->end
711
712These two methods can be used to combine many transactions/events into
713one. For example, a function that pings many hosts in parallel might want
714to use a condition variable for the whole process.
715
716Every call to C<< ->begin >> will increment a counter, and every call to
717C<< ->end >> will decrement it. If the counter reaches C<0> in C<< ->end
718>>, the (last) callback passed to C<begin> will be executed, passing the
719condvar as first argument. That callback is I<supposed> to call C<< ->send
720>>, but that is not required. If no group callback was set, C<send> will
721be called without any arguments.
722
723You can think of C<< $cv->send >> giving you an OR condition (one call
724sends), while C<< $cv->begin >> and C<< $cv->end >> giving you an AND
725condition (all C<begin> calls must be C<end>'ed before the condvar sends).
726
727Let's start with a simple example: you have two I/O watchers (for example,
728STDOUT and STDERR for a program), and you want to wait for both streams to
729close before activating a condvar:
730
731 my $cv = AnyEvent->condvar;
732
733 $cv->begin; # first watcher
734 my $w1 = AnyEvent->io (fh => $fh1, cb => sub {
735 defined sysread $fh1, my $buf, 4096
736 or $cv->end;
737 });
738
739 $cv->begin; # second watcher
740 my $w2 = AnyEvent->io (fh => $fh2, cb => sub {
741 defined sysread $fh2, my $buf, 4096
742 or $cv->end;
743 });
744
745 $cv->recv;
746
747This works because for every event source (EOF on file handle), there is
748one call to C<begin>, so the condvar waits for all calls to C<end> before
749sending.
750
751The ping example mentioned above is slightly more complicated, as the
752there are results to be passwd back, and the number of tasks that are
753begun can potentially be zero:
754
755 my $cv = AnyEvent->condvar;
756
757 my %result;
758 $cv->begin (sub { shift->send (\%result) });
759
760 for my $host (@list_of_hosts) {
761 $cv->begin;
762 ping_host_then_call_callback $host, sub {
763 $result{$host} = ...;
764 $cv->end;
765 };
766 }
767
768 $cv->end;
769
770This code fragment supposedly pings a number of hosts and calls
771C<send> after results for all then have have been gathered - in any
772order. To achieve this, the code issues a call to C<begin> when it starts
773each ping request and calls C<end> when it has received some result for
774it. Since C<begin> and C<end> only maintain a counter, the order in which
775results arrive is not relevant.
776
777There is an additional bracketing call to C<begin> and C<end> outside the
778loop, which serves two important purposes: first, it sets the callback
779to be called once the counter reaches C<0>, and second, it ensures that
780C<send> is called even when C<no> hosts are being pinged (the loop
781doesn't execute once).
782
783This is the general pattern when you "fan out" into multiple (but
784potentially zero) subrequests: use an outer C<begin>/C<end> pair to set
785the callback and ensure C<end> is called at least once, and then, for each
786subrequest you start, call C<begin> and for each subrequest you finish,
787call C<end>.
788
789=back
790
791=head3 METHODS FOR CONSUMERS
792
793These methods should only be used by the consuming side, i.e. the
794code awaits the condition.
795
796=over 4
797
798=item $cv->recv
799
800Wait (blocking if necessary) until the C<< ->send >> or C<< ->croak
801>> methods have been called on C<$cv>, while servicing other watchers
802normally.
803
804You can only wait once on a condition - additional calls are valid but
805will return immediately.
806
807If an error condition has been set by calling C<< ->croak >>, then this
808function will call C<croak>.
809
810In list context, all parameters passed to C<send> will be returned,
811in scalar context only the first one will be returned.
812
813Note that doing a blocking wait in a callback is not supported by any
814event loop, that is, recursive invocation of a blocking C<< ->recv
815>> is not allowed, and the C<recv> call will C<croak> if such a
816condition is detected. This condition can be slightly loosened by using
817L<Coro::AnyEvent>, which allows you to do a blocking C<< ->recv >> from
818any thread that doesn't run the event loop itself.
819
820Not 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
822using this from a module, never require a blocking wait>. Instead, let the
823caller decide whether the call will block or not (for example, by coupling
824condition variables with some kind of request results and supporting
825callbacks so the caller knows that getting the result will not block,
826while still supporting blocking waits if the caller so desires).
827
828You can ensure that C<< ->recv >> never blocks by setting a callback and
829only calling C<< ->recv >> from within that callback (or at a later
830time). This will work even when the event loop does not support blocking
831waits otherwise.
832
833=item $bool = $cv->ready
834
835Returns true when the condition is "true", i.e. whether C<send> or
836C<croak> have been called.
837
838=item $cb = $cv->cb ($cb->($cv))
839
840This is a mutator function that returns the callback set and optionally
841replaces it before doing so.
842
843The callback will be called when the condition becomes "true", i.e. when
844C<send> or C<croak> are called, with the only argument being the
845condition variable itself. If the condition is already true, the
846callback is called immediately when it is set. Calling C<recv> inside
847the callback or at any later time is guaranteed not to block.
848
849=back
850
851=head1 SUPPORTED EVENT LOOPS/BACKENDS
852
853The 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
859EV is the preferred backend when no other event loop seems to be in
860use. If EV is not installed, then AnyEvent will fall back to its own
861pure-perl implementation, which is available everywhere as it comes with
862AnyEvent itself.
863
864 AnyEvent::Impl::EV based on EV (interface to libev, best choice).
865 AnyEvent::Impl::Perl pure-perl implementation, fast and portable.
866
867=item Backends that are transparently being picked up when they are used.
868
869These will be used if they are already loaded when the first watcher
870is created, in which case it is assumed that the application is using
871them. This means that AnyEvent will automatically pick the right backend
872when the main program loads an event module before anything starts to
873create watchers. Nothing special needs to be done by the main program.
874
875 AnyEvent::Impl::Event based on Event, very stable, few glitches.
876 AnyEvent::Impl::Glib based on Glib, slow but very stable.
877 AnyEvent::Impl::Tk based on Tk, very broken.
878 AnyEvent::Impl::EventLib based on Event::Lib, leaks memory and worse.
879 AnyEvent::Impl::POE based on POE, very slow, some limitations.
880 AnyEvent::Impl::Irssi used when running within irssi.
881
882=item Backends with special needs.
883
884Qt requires the Qt::Application to be instantiated first, but will
885otherwise be picked up automatically. As long as the main program
886instantiates the application before any AnyEvent watchers are created,
887everything should just work.
888
889 AnyEvent::Impl::Qt based on Qt.
890
891Support for IO::Async can only be partial, as it is too broken and
892architecturally limited to even support the AnyEvent API. It also
893is the only event loop that needs the loop to be set explicitly, so
894it can only be used by a main program knowing about AnyEvent. See
895L<AnyEvent::Impl::IOAsync> for the gory details.
896
897 AnyEvent::Impl::IOAsync based on IO::Async, cannot be autoprobed.
898
899=item Event loops that are indirectly supported via other backends.
900
901Some event loops can be supported via other modules:
902
903There is no direct support for WxWidgets (L<Wx>) or L<Prima>.
904
905B<WxWidgets> has no support for watching file handles. However, you can
906use WxWidgets through the POE adaptor, as POE has a Wx backend that simply
907polls 20 times per second, which was considered to be too horrible to even
908consider for AnyEvent.
909
910B<Prima> is not supported as nobody seems to be using it, but it has a POE
911backend, so it can be supported through POE.
912
913AnyEvent knows about both L<Prima> and L<Wx>, however, and will try to
914load L<POE> when detecting them, in the hope that POE will pick them up,
915in which case everything will be automatic.
916
917=back
918
919=head1 GLOBAL VARIABLES AND FUNCTIONS
920
921These are not normally required to use AnyEvent, but can be useful to
922write AnyEvent extension modules.
923
924=over 4
925
190=item $AnyEvent::MODEL 926=item $AnyEvent::MODEL
191 927
192Contains C<undef> until the first watcher is being created. Then it 928Contains C<undef> until the first watcher is being created, before the
929backend has been autodetected.
930
193contains the event model that is being used, which is the name of the 931Afterwards it contains the event model that is being used, which is the
194Perl class implementing the model. This class is usually one of the 932name of the Perl class implementing the model. This class is usually one
195C<AnyEvent::Impl:xxx> modules, but can be any other class in the case 933of the C<AnyEvent::Impl::xxx> modules, but can be any other class in the
196AnyEvent has been extended at runtime (e.g. in I<rxvt-unicode>). 934case AnyEvent has been extended at runtime (e.g. in I<rxvt-unicode> it
197 935will be C<urxvt::anyevent>).
198The known classes so far are:
199
200 AnyEvent::Impl::Coro based on Coro::Event, best choise.
201 AnyEvent::Impl::Event based on Event, also best choice :)
202 AnyEvent::Impl::Glib based on Glib, second-best choice.
203 AnyEvent::Impl::Tk based on Tk, very bad choice.
204 AnyEvent::Impl::Perl pure-perl implementation, inefficient.
205 936
206=item AnyEvent::detect 937=item AnyEvent::detect
207 938
208Returns C<$AnyEvent::MODEL>, forcing autodetection of the event model if 939Returns C<$AnyEvent::MODEL>, forcing autodetection of the event model
209necessary. You should only call this function right before you would have 940if necessary. You should only call this function right before you would
210created an AnyEvent watcher anyway, that is, very late at runtime. 941have created an AnyEvent watcher anyway, that is, as late as possible at
942runtime, and not e.g. during initialisation of your module.
943
944If you need to do some initialisation before AnyEvent watchers are
945created, use C<post_detect>.
946
947=item $guard = AnyEvent::post_detect { BLOCK }
948
949Arranges for the code block to be executed as soon as the event model is
950autodetected (or immediately if that has already happened).
951
952The block will be executed I<after> the actual backend has been detected
953(C<$AnyEvent::MODEL> is set), but I<before> any watchers have been
954created, so it is possible to e.g. patch C<@AnyEvent::ISA> or do
955other initialisations - see the sources of L<AnyEvent::Strict> or
956L<AnyEvent::AIO> to see how this is used.
957
958The most common usage is to create some global watchers, without forcing
959event module detection too early, for example, L<AnyEvent::AIO> creates
960and installs the global L<IO::AIO> watcher in a C<post_detect> block to
961avoid autodetecting the event module at load time.
962
963If called in scalar or list context, then it creates and returns an object
964that automatically removes the callback again when it is destroyed (or
965C<undef> when the hook was immediately executed). See L<AnyEvent::AIO> for
966a case where this is useful.
967
968Example: Create a watcher for the IO::AIO module and store it in
969C<$WATCHER>, but do so only do so after the event loop is initialised.
970
971 our WATCHER;
972
973 my $guard = AnyEvent::post_detect {
974 $WATCHER = AnyEvent->io (fh => IO::AIO::poll_fileno, poll => 'r', cb => \&IO::AIO::poll_cb);
975 };
976
977 # the ||= is important in case post_detect immediately runs the block,
978 # as to not clobber the newly-created watcher. assigning both watcher and
979 # post_detect guard to the same variable has the advantage of users being
980 # able to just C<undef $WATCHER> if the watcher causes them grief.
981
982 $WATCHER ||= $guard;
983
984=item @AnyEvent::post_detect
985
986If there are any code references in this array (you can C<push> to it
987before or after loading AnyEvent), then they will be called directly
988after the event loop has been chosen.
989
990You should check C<$AnyEvent::MODEL> before adding to this array, though:
991if it is defined then the event loop has already been detected, and the
992array will be ignored.
993
994Best use C<AnyEvent::post_detect { BLOCK }> when your application allows
995it, as it takes care of these details.
996
997This variable is mainly useful for modules that can do something useful
998when AnyEvent is used and thus want to know when it is initialised, but do
999not need to even load it by default. This array provides the means to hook
1000into AnyEvent passively, without loading it.
1001
1002Example: To load Coro::AnyEvent whenever Coro and AnyEvent are used
1003together, you could put this into Coro (this is the actual code used by
1004Coro to accomplish this):
1005
1006 if (defined $AnyEvent::MODEL) {
1007 # AnyEvent already initialised, so load Coro::AnyEvent
1008 require Coro::AnyEvent;
1009 } else {
1010 # AnyEvent not yet initialised, so make sure to load Coro::AnyEvent
1011 # as soon as it is
1012 push @AnyEvent::post_detect, sub { require Coro::AnyEvent };
1013 }
211 1014
212=back 1015=back
213 1016
214=head1 WHAT TO DO IN A MODULE 1017=head1 WHAT TO DO IN A MODULE
215 1018
216As a module author, you should "use AnyEvent" and call AnyEvent methods 1019As a module author, you should C<use AnyEvent> and call AnyEvent methods
217freely, but you should not load a specific event module or rely on it. 1020freely, but you should not load a specific event module or rely on it.
218 1021
219Be careful when you create watchers in the module body - Anyevent will 1022Be careful when you create watchers in the module body - AnyEvent will
220decide which event module to use as soon as the first method is called, so 1023decide which event module to use as soon as the first method is called, so
221by calling AnyEvent in your module body you force the user of your module 1024by calling AnyEvent in your module body you force the user of your module
222to load the event module first. 1025to load the event module first.
223 1026
1027Never call C<< ->recv >> on a condition variable unless you I<know> that
1028the C<< ->send >> method has been called on it already. This is
1029because it will stall the whole program, and the whole point of using
1030events is to stay interactive.
1031
1032It is fine, however, to call C<< ->recv >> when the user of your module
1033requests it (i.e. if you create a http request object ad have a method
1034called C<results> that returns the results, it may call C<< ->recv >>
1035freely, as the user of your module knows what she is doing. Always).
1036
224=head1 WHAT TO DO IN THE MAIN PROGRAM 1037=head1 WHAT TO DO IN THE MAIN PROGRAM
225 1038
226There will always be a single main program - the only place that should 1039There will always be a single main program - the only place that should
227dictate which event model to use. 1040dictate which event model to use.
228 1041
229If it doesn't care, it can just "use AnyEvent" and use it itself, or not 1042If the program is not event-based, it need not do anything special, even
230do anything special and let AnyEvent decide which implementation to chose. 1043when it depends on a module that uses an AnyEvent. If the program itself
1044uses AnyEvent, but does not care which event loop is used, all it needs
1045to do is C<use AnyEvent>. In either case, AnyEvent will choose the best
1046available loop implementation.
231 1047
232If the main program relies on a specific event model (for example, in Gtk2 1048If the main program relies on a specific event model - for example, in
233programs you have to rely on either Glib or Glib::Event), you should load 1049Gtk2 programs you have to rely on the Glib module - you should load the
234it before loading AnyEvent or any module that uses it, generally, as early 1050event module before loading AnyEvent or any module that uses it: generally
235as possible. The reason is that modules might create watchers when they 1051speaking, you should load it as early as possible. The reason is that
236are loaded, and AnyEvent will decide on the event model to use as soon as 1052modules might create watchers when they are loaded, and AnyEvent will
237it creates watchers, and it might chose the wrong one unless you load the 1053decide on the event model to use as soon as it creates watchers, and it
238correct one yourself. 1054might choose the wrong one unless you load the correct one yourself.
239 1055
240You can chose to use a rather inefficient pure-perl implementation by 1056You can chose to use a pure-perl implementation by loading the
241loading the C<AnyEvent::Impl::Perl> module, but letting AnyEvent chose is 1057C<AnyEvent::Impl::Perl> module, which gives you similar behaviour
242generally better. 1058everywhere, but letting AnyEvent chose the model is generally better.
1059
1060=head2 MAINLOOP EMULATION
1061
1062Sometimes (often for short test scripts, or even standalone programs who
1063only want to use AnyEvent), you do not want to run a specific event loop.
1064
1065In that case, you can use a condition variable like this:
1066
1067 AnyEvent->condvar->recv;
1068
1069This has the effect of entering the event loop and looping forever.
1070
1071Note that usually your program has some exit condition, in which case
1072it is better to use the "traditional" approach of storing a condition
1073variable somewhere, waiting for it, and sending it when the program should
1074exit cleanly.
1075
1076
1077=head1 OTHER MODULES
1078
1079The following is a non-exhaustive list of additional modules that use
1080AnyEvent as a client and can therefore be mixed easily with other AnyEvent
1081modules and other event loops in the same program. Some of the modules
1082come as part of AnyEvent, the others are available via CPAN.
1083
1084=over 4
1085
1086=item L<AnyEvent::Util>
1087
1088Contains various utility functions that replace often-used blocking
1089functions such as C<inet_aton> with event/callback-based versions.
1090
1091=item L<AnyEvent::Socket>
1092
1093Provides various utility functions for (internet protocol) sockets,
1094addresses and name resolution. Also functions to create non-blocking tcp
1095connections or tcp servers, with IPv6 and SRV record support and more.
1096
1097=item L<AnyEvent::Handle>
1098
1099Provide read and write buffers, manages watchers for reads and writes,
1100supports raw and formatted I/O, I/O queued and fully transparent and
1101non-blocking SSL/TLS (via L<AnyEvent::TLS>).
1102
1103=item L<AnyEvent::DNS>
1104
1105Provides rich asynchronous DNS resolver capabilities.
1106
1107=item L<AnyEvent::HTTP>, L<AnyEvent::IRC>, L<AnyEvent::XMPP>, L<AnyEvent::GPSD>, L<AnyEvent::IGS>, L<AnyEvent::FCP>
1108
1109Implement event-based interfaces to the protocols of the same name (for
1110the curious, IGS is the International Go Server and FCP is the Freenet
1111Client Protocol).
1112
1113=item L<AnyEvent::Handle::UDP>
1114
1115Here be danger!
1116
1117As Pauli would put it, "Not only is it not right, it's not even wrong!" -
1118there are so many things wrong with AnyEvent::Handle::UDP, most notably
1119its use of a stream-based API with a protocol that isn't streamable, that
1120the only way to improve it is to delete it.
1121
1122It features data corruption (but typically only under load) and general
1123confusion. On top, the author is not only clueless about UDP but also
1124fact-resistant - some gems of his understanding: "connect doesn't work
1125with UDP", "UDP packets are not IP packets", "UDP only has datagrams, not
1126packets", "I don't need to implement proper error checking as UDP doesn't
1127support error checking" and so on - he doesn't even understand what's
1128wrong with his module when it is explained to him.
1129
1130=item L<AnyEvent::DBI>
1131
1132Executes L<DBI> requests asynchronously in a proxy process for you,
1133notifying you in an event-based way when the operation is finished.
1134
1135=item L<AnyEvent::AIO>
1136
1137Truly asynchronous (as opposed to non-blocking) I/O, should be in the
1138toolbox of every event programmer. AnyEvent::AIO transparently fuses
1139L<IO::AIO> and AnyEvent together, giving AnyEvent access to event-based
1140file I/O, and much more.
1141
1142=item L<AnyEvent::HTTPD>
1143
1144A simple embedded webserver.
1145
1146=item L<AnyEvent::FastPing>
1147
1148The fastest ping in the west.
1149
1150=item L<Coro>
1151
1152Has special support for AnyEvent via L<Coro::AnyEvent>.
1153
1154=back
243 1155
244=cut 1156=cut
245 1157
246package AnyEvent; 1158package AnyEvent;
247 1159
248no warnings; 1160# basically a tuned-down version of common::sense
249use strict; 1161sub common_sense {
1162 # from common:.sense 3.3
1163 ${^WARNING_BITS} ^= ${^WARNING_BITS} ^ "\x3c\x3f\x33\x00\x0f\xf3\x0f\xc0\xf0\xfc\x33\x00";
1164 # use strict vars subs - NO UTF-8, as Util.pm doesn't like this atm. (uts46data.pl)
1165 $^H |= 0x00000600;
1166}
1167
1168BEGIN { AnyEvent::common_sense }
1169
250use Carp; 1170use Carp ();
251 1171
252our $VERSION = '2.51'; 1172our $VERSION = '5.271';
253our $MODEL; 1173our $MODEL;
254 1174
255our $AUTOLOAD; 1175our $AUTOLOAD;
256our @ISA; 1176our @ISA;
257 1177
258our $verbose = $ENV{PERL_ANYEVENT_VERBOSE}*1;
259
260our @REGISTRY; 1178our @REGISTRY;
261 1179
1180our $VERBOSE;
1181
1182BEGIN {
1183 require "AnyEvent/constants.pl";
1184
1185 eval "sub TAINT (){" . (${^TAINT}*1) . "}";
1186
1187 delete @ENV{grep /^PERL_ANYEVENT_/, keys %ENV}
1188 if ${^TAINT};
1189
1190 $VERBOSE = $ENV{PERL_ANYEVENT_VERBOSE}*1;
1191
1192}
1193
1194our $MAX_SIGNAL_LATENCY = 10;
1195
1196our %PROTOCOL; # (ipv4|ipv6) => (1|2), higher numbers are preferred
1197
1198{
1199 my $idx;
1200 $PROTOCOL{$_} = ++$idx
1201 for reverse split /\s*,\s*/,
1202 $ENV{PERL_ANYEVENT_PROTOCOLS} || "ipv4,ipv6";
1203}
1204
262my @models = ( 1205my @models = (
263 [Coro::Event:: => AnyEvent::Impl::Coro::], 1206 [EV:: => AnyEvent::Impl::EV:: , 1],
1207 [AnyEvent::Impl::Perl:: => AnyEvent::Impl::Perl:: , 1],
1208 # everything below here will not (normally) be autoprobed
1209 # as the pureperl backend should work everywhere
1210 # and is usually faster
264 [Event:: => AnyEvent::Impl::Event::], 1211 [Event:: => AnyEvent::Impl::Event::, 1],
265 [Glib:: => AnyEvent::Impl::Glib::], 1212 [Glib:: => AnyEvent::Impl::Glib:: , 1], # becomes extremely slow with many watchers
1213 [Event::Lib:: => AnyEvent::Impl::EventLib::], # too buggy
1214 [Irssi:: => AnyEvent::Impl::Irssi::], # Irssi has a bogus "Event" package
1215 [Tk:: => AnyEvent::Impl::Tk::], # crashes with many handles
1216 [Qt:: => AnyEvent::Impl::Qt::], # requires special main program
1217 [POE::Kernel:: => AnyEvent::Impl::POE::], # lasciate ogni speranza
266 [Tk:: => AnyEvent::Impl::Tk::], 1218 [Wx:: => AnyEvent::Impl::POE::],
267 [AnyEvent::Impl::Perl:: => AnyEvent::Impl::Perl::], 1219 [Prima:: => AnyEvent::Impl::POE::],
1220 # IO::Async is just too broken - we would need workarounds for its
1221 # byzantine signal and broken child handling, among others.
1222 # IO::Async is rather hard to detect, as it doesn't have any
1223 # obvious default class.
1224 [IO::Async:: => AnyEvent::Impl::IOAsync::], # requires special main program
1225 [IO::Async::Loop:: => AnyEvent::Impl::IOAsync::], # requires special main program
1226 [IO::Async::Notifier:: => AnyEvent::Impl::IOAsync::], # requires special main program
1227 [AnyEvent::Impl::IOAsync:: => AnyEvent::Impl::IOAsync::], # requires special main program
268); 1228);
269 1229
270our %method = map +($_ => 1), qw(io timer condvar broadcast wait signal one_event DESTROY); 1230our %method = map +($_ => 1),
1231 qw(io timer time now now_update signal child idle condvar one_event DESTROY);
1232
1233our @post_detect;
1234
1235sub post_detect(&) {
1236 my ($cb) = @_;
1237
1238 push @post_detect, $cb;
1239
1240 defined wantarray
1241 ? bless \$cb, "AnyEvent::Util::postdetect"
1242 : ()
1243}
1244
1245sub AnyEvent::Util::postdetect::DESTROY {
1246 @post_detect = grep $_ != ${$_[0]}, @post_detect;
1247}
271 1248
272sub detect() { 1249sub detect() {
1250 # free some memory
1251 *detect = sub () { $MODEL };
1252
1253 local $!; # for good measure
1254 local $SIG{__DIE__};
1255
1256 if ($ENV{PERL_ANYEVENT_MODEL} =~ /^([a-zA-Z]+)$/) {
1257 my $model = "AnyEvent::Impl::$1";
1258 if (eval "require $model") {
1259 $MODEL = $model;
1260 warn "AnyEvent: loaded model '$model' (forced by \$ENV{PERL_ANYEVENT_MODEL}), using it.\n" if $VERBOSE >= 2;
1261 } else {
1262 warn "AnyEvent: unable to load model '$model' (from \$ENV{PERL_ANYEVENT_MODEL}):\n$@" if $VERBOSE;
1263 }
1264 }
1265
1266 # check for already loaded models
273 unless ($MODEL) { 1267 unless ($MODEL) {
274 no strict 'refs';
275
276 # check for already loaded models
277 for (@REGISTRY, @models) { 1268 for (@REGISTRY, @models) {
278 my ($package, $model) = @$_; 1269 my ($package, $model) = @$_;
279 if (${"$package\::VERSION"} > 0) { 1270 if (${"$package\::VERSION"} > 0) {
280 if (eval "require $model") { 1271 if (eval "require $model") {
281 $MODEL = $model; 1272 $MODEL = $model;
282 warn "AnyEvent: found model '$model', using it.\n" if $verbose > 1; 1273 warn "AnyEvent: autodetected model '$model', using it.\n" if $VERBOSE >= 2;
283 last; 1274 last;
284 } 1275 }
285 } 1276 }
286 } 1277 }
287 1278
288 unless ($MODEL) { 1279 unless ($MODEL) {
289 # try to load a model 1280 # try to autoload a model
290
291 for (@REGISTRY, @models) { 1281 for (@REGISTRY, @models) {
292 my ($package, $model) = @$_; 1282 my ($package, $model, $autoload) = @$_;
1283 if (
1284 $autoload
293 if (eval "require $package" 1285 and eval "require $package"
294 and ${"$package\::VERSION"} > 0 1286 and ${"$package\::VERSION"} > 0
295 and eval "require $model") { 1287 and eval "require $model"
1288 ) {
296 $MODEL = $model; 1289 $MODEL = $model;
297 warn "AnyEvent: autoprobed and loaded model '$model', using it.\n" if $verbose > 1; 1290 warn "AnyEvent: autoloaded model '$model', using it.\n" if $VERBOSE >= 2;
298 last; 1291 last;
299 } 1292 }
300 } 1293 }
301 1294
302 $MODEL 1295 $MODEL
303 or die "No event module selected for AnyEvent and autodetect failed. Install any one of these modules: Event (or Coro+Event), Glib or Tk."; 1296 or die "No event module selected for AnyEvent and autodetect failed. Install any one of these modules: EV, Event or Glib.\n";
304 } 1297 }
305
306 unshift @ISA, $MODEL;
307 push @{"$MODEL\::ISA"}, "AnyEvent::Base";
308 } 1298 }
1299
1300 @models = (); # free probe data
1301
1302 push @{"$MODEL\::ISA"}, "AnyEvent::Base";
1303 unshift @ISA, $MODEL;
1304
1305 # now nuke some methods that are overriden by the backend.
1306 # SUPER is not allowed.
1307 for (qw(time signal child idle)) {
1308 undef &{"AnyEvent::Base::$_"}
1309 if defined &{"$MODEL\::$_"};
1310 }
1311
1312 require AnyEvent::Strict if $ENV{PERL_ANYEVENT_STRICT};
1313
1314 (shift @post_detect)->() while @post_detect;
1315
1316 *post_detect = sub(&) {
1317 shift->();
1318
1319 undef
1320 };
309 1321
310 $MODEL 1322 $MODEL
311} 1323}
312 1324
313sub AUTOLOAD { 1325sub AUTOLOAD {
314 (my $func = $AUTOLOAD) =~ s/.*://; 1326 (my $func = $AUTOLOAD) =~ s/.*://;
315 1327
316 $method{$func} 1328 $method{$func}
317 or croak "$func: not a valid method for AnyEvent objects"; 1329 or Carp::croak "$func: not a valid AnyEvent class method";
318 1330
319 detect unless $MODEL; 1331 detect;
320 1332
321 my $class = shift; 1333 my $class = shift;
322 $class->$func (@_); 1334 $class->$func (@_);
323} 1335}
324 1336
1337# utility function to dup a filehandle. this is used by many backends
1338# to support binding more than one watcher per filehandle (they usually
1339# allow only one watcher per fd, so we dup it to get a different one).
1340sub _dupfh($$;$$) {
1341 my ($poll, $fh, $r, $w) = @_;
1342
1343 # cygwin requires the fh mode to be matching, unix doesn't
1344 my ($rw, $mode) = $poll eq "r" ? ($r, "<&") : ($w, ">&");
1345
1346 open my $fh2, $mode, $fh
1347 or die "AnyEvent->io: cannot dup() filehandle in mode '$poll': $!,";
1348
1349 # we assume CLOEXEC is already set by perl in all important cases
1350
1351 ($fh2, $rw)
1352}
1353
1354=head1 SIMPLIFIED AE API
1355
1356Starting with version 5.0, AnyEvent officially supports a second, much
1357simpler, API that is designed to reduce the calling, typing and memory
1358overhead by using function call syntax and a fixed number of parameters.
1359
1360See the L<AE> manpage for details.
1361
1362=cut
1363
1364package AE;
1365
1366our $VERSION = $AnyEvent::VERSION;
1367
1368# fall back to the main API by default - backends and AnyEvent::Base
1369# implementations can overwrite these.
1370
1371sub io($$$) {
1372 AnyEvent->io (fh => $_[0], poll => $_[1] ? "w" : "r", cb => $_[2])
1373}
1374
1375sub timer($$$) {
1376 AnyEvent->timer (after => $_[0], interval => $_[1], cb => $_[2])
1377}
1378
1379sub signal($$) {
1380 AnyEvent->signal (signal => $_[0], cb => $_[1])
1381}
1382
1383sub child($$) {
1384 AnyEvent->child (pid => $_[0], cb => $_[1])
1385}
1386
1387sub idle($) {
1388 AnyEvent->idle (cb => $_[0])
1389}
1390
1391sub cv(;&) {
1392 AnyEvent->condvar (@_ ? (cb => $_[0]) : ())
1393}
1394
1395sub now() {
1396 AnyEvent->now
1397}
1398
1399sub now_update() {
1400 AnyEvent->now_update
1401}
1402
1403sub time() {
1404 AnyEvent->time
1405}
1406
325package AnyEvent::Base; 1407package AnyEvent::Base;
326 1408
1409# default implementations for many methods
1410
1411sub time {
1412 eval q{ # poor man's autoloading {}
1413 # probe for availability of Time::HiRes
1414 if (eval "use Time::HiRes (); Time::HiRes::time (); 1") {
1415 warn "AnyEvent: using Time::HiRes for sub-second timing accuracy.\n" if $VERBOSE >= 8;
1416 *AE::time = \&Time::HiRes::time;
1417 # if (eval "use POSIX (); (POSIX::times())...
1418 } else {
1419 warn "AnyEvent: using built-in time(), WARNING, no sub-second resolution!\n" if $VERBOSE;
1420 *AE::time = sub (){ time }; # epic fail
1421 }
1422
1423 *time = sub { AE::time }; # different prototypes
1424 };
1425 die if $@;
1426
1427 &time
1428}
1429
1430*now = \&time;
1431
1432sub now_update { }
1433
327# default implementation for ->condvar, ->wait, ->broadcast 1434# default implementation for ->condvar
328 1435
329sub condvar { 1436sub condvar {
330 bless \my $flag, "AnyEvent::Base::CondVar" 1437 eval q{ # poor man's autoloading {}
331} 1438 *condvar = sub {
1439 bless { @_ == 3 ? (_ae_cb => $_[2]) : () }, "AnyEvent::CondVar"
1440 };
332 1441
333sub AnyEvent::Base::CondVar::broadcast { 1442 *AE::cv = sub (;&) {
334 ${$_[0]}++; 1443 bless { @_ ? (_ae_cb => shift) : () }, "AnyEvent::CondVar"
335} 1444 };
1445 };
1446 die if $@;
336 1447
337sub AnyEvent::Base::CondVar::wait { 1448 &condvar
338 AnyEvent->one_event while !${$_[0]};
339} 1449}
340 1450
341# default implementation for ->signal 1451# default implementation for ->signal
342 1452
343our %SIG_CB; 1453our $HAVE_ASYNC_INTERRUPT;
1454
1455sub _have_async_interrupt() {
1456 $HAVE_ASYNC_INTERRUPT = 1*(!$ENV{PERL_ANYEVENT_AVOID_ASYNC_INTERRUPT}
1457 && eval "use Async::Interrupt 1.02 (); 1")
1458 unless defined $HAVE_ASYNC_INTERRUPT;
1459
1460 $HAVE_ASYNC_INTERRUPT
1461}
1462
1463our ($SIGPIPE_R, $SIGPIPE_W, %SIG_CB, %SIG_EV, $SIG_IO);
1464our (%SIG_ASY, %SIG_ASY_W);
1465our ($SIG_COUNT, $SIG_TW);
1466
1467# install a dummy wakeup watcher to reduce signal catching latency
1468# used by Impls
1469sub _sig_add() {
1470 unless ($SIG_COUNT++) {
1471 # try to align timer on a full-second boundary, if possible
1472 my $NOW = AE::now;
1473
1474 $SIG_TW = AE::timer
1475 $MAX_SIGNAL_LATENCY - ($NOW - int $NOW),
1476 $MAX_SIGNAL_LATENCY,
1477 sub { } # just for the PERL_ASYNC_CHECK
1478 ;
1479 }
1480}
1481
1482sub _sig_del {
1483 undef $SIG_TW
1484 unless --$SIG_COUNT;
1485}
1486
1487our $_sig_name_init; $_sig_name_init = sub {
1488 eval q{ # poor man's autoloading {}
1489 undef $_sig_name_init;
1490
1491 if (_have_async_interrupt) {
1492 *sig2num = \&Async::Interrupt::sig2num;
1493 *sig2name = \&Async::Interrupt::sig2name;
1494 } else {
1495 require Config;
1496
1497 my %signame2num;
1498 @signame2num{ split ' ', $Config::Config{sig_name} }
1499 = split ' ', $Config::Config{sig_num};
1500
1501 my @signum2name;
1502 @signum2name[values %signame2num] = keys %signame2num;
1503
1504 *sig2num = sub($) {
1505 $_[0] > 0 ? shift : $signame2num{+shift}
1506 };
1507 *sig2name = sub ($) {
1508 $_[0] > 0 ? $signum2name[+shift] : shift
1509 };
1510 }
1511 };
1512 die if $@;
1513};
1514
1515sub sig2num ($) { &$_sig_name_init; &sig2num }
1516sub sig2name($) { &$_sig_name_init; &sig2name }
344 1517
345sub signal { 1518sub signal {
1519 eval q{ # poor man's autoloading {}
1520 # probe for availability of Async::Interrupt
1521 if (_have_async_interrupt) {
1522 warn "AnyEvent: using Async::Interrupt for race-free signal handling.\n" if $VERBOSE >= 8;
1523
1524 $SIGPIPE_R = new Async::Interrupt::EventPipe;
1525 $SIG_IO = AE::io $SIGPIPE_R->fileno, 0, \&_signal_exec;
1526
1527 } else {
1528 warn "AnyEvent: using emulated perl signal handling with latency timer.\n" if $VERBOSE >= 8;
1529
1530 if (AnyEvent::WIN32) {
1531 require AnyEvent::Util;
1532
1533 ($SIGPIPE_R, $SIGPIPE_W) = AnyEvent::Util::portable_pipe ();
1534 AnyEvent::Util::fh_nonblocking ($SIGPIPE_R, 1) if $SIGPIPE_R;
1535 AnyEvent::Util::fh_nonblocking ($SIGPIPE_W, 1) if $SIGPIPE_W; # just in case
1536 } else {
1537 pipe $SIGPIPE_R, $SIGPIPE_W;
1538 fcntl $SIGPIPE_R, AnyEvent::F_SETFL, AnyEvent::O_NONBLOCK if $SIGPIPE_R;
1539 fcntl $SIGPIPE_W, AnyEvent::F_SETFL, AnyEvent::O_NONBLOCK if $SIGPIPE_W; # just in case
1540
1541 # not strictly required, as $^F is normally 2, but let's make sure...
1542 fcntl $SIGPIPE_R, AnyEvent::F_SETFD, AnyEvent::FD_CLOEXEC;
1543 fcntl $SIGPIPE_W, AnyEvent::F_SETFD, AnyEvent::FD_CLOEXEC;
1544 }
1545
1546 $SIGPIPE_R
1547 or Carp::croak "AnyEvent: unable to create a signal reporting pipe: $!\n";
1548
1549 $SIG_IO = AE::io $SIGPIPE_R, 0, \&_signal_exec;
1550 }
1551
1552 *signal = $HAVE_ASYNC_INTERRUPT
1553 ? sub {
346 my (undef, %arg) = @_; 1554 my (undef, %arg) = @_;
347 1555
1556 # async::interrupt
348 my $signal = uc $arg{signal} 1557 my $signal = sig2num $arg{signal};
349 or Carp::croak "required option 'signal' is missing";
350
351 $SIG_CB{$signal}{$arg{cb}} = $arg{cb}; 1558 $SIG_CB{$signal}{$arg{cb}} = $arg{cb};
1559
1560 $SIG_ASY{$signal} ||= new Async::Interrupt
1561 cb => sub { undef $SIG_EV{$signal} },
1562 signal => $signal,
1563 pipe => [$SIGPIPE_R->filenos],
1564 pipe_autodrain => 0,
1565 ;
1566
1567 bless [$signal, $arg{cb}], "AnyEvent::Base::signal"
1568 }
1569 : sub {
1570 my (undef, %arg) = @_;
1571
1572 # pure perl
1573 my $signal = sig2name $arg{signal};
1574 $SIG_CB{$signal}{$arg{cb}} = $arg{cb};
1575
352 $SIG{$signal} ||= sub { 1576 $SIG{$signal} ||= sub {
1577 local $!;
1578 syswrite $SIGPIPE_W, "\x00", 1 unless %SIG_EV;
1579 undef $SIG_EV{$signal};
1580 };
1581
1582 # can't do signal processing without introducing races in pure perl,
1583 # so limit the signal latency.
1584 _sig_add;
1585
1586 bless [$signal, $arg{cb}], "AnyEvent::Base::signal"
1587 }
1588 ;
1589
1590 *AnyEvent::Base::signal::DESTROY = sub {
1591 my ($signal, $cb) = @{$_[0]};
1592
1593 _sig_del;
1594
1595 delete $SIG_CB{$signal}{$cb};
1596
1597 $HAVE_ASYNC_INTERRUPT
1598 ? delete $SIG_ASY{$signal}
1599 : # delete doesn't work with older perls - they then
1600 # print weird messages, or just unconditionally exit
1601 # instead of getting the default action.
1602 undef $SIG{$signal}
1603 unless keys %{ $SIG_CB{$signal} };
1604 };
1605
1606 *_signal_exec = sub {
1607 $HAVE_ASYNC_INTERRUPT
1608 ? $SIGPIPE_R->drain
1609 : sysread $SIGPIPE_R, (my $dummy), 9;
1610
1611 while (%SIG_EV) {
1612 for (keys %SIG_EV) {
1613 delete $SIG_EV{$_};
353 $_->() for values %{ $SIG_CB{$signal} || {} }; 1614 $_->() for values %{ $SIG_CB{$_} || {} };
1615 }
1616 }
1617 };
354 }; 1618 };
1619 die if $@;
355 1620
356 bless [$signal, $arg{cb}], "AnyEvent::Base::Signal" 1621 &signal
357}
358
359sub AnyEvent::Base::Signal::DESTROY {
360 my ($signal, $cb) = @{$_[0]};
361
362 delete $SIG_CB{$signal}{$cb};
363
364 $SIG{$signal} = 'DEFAULT' unless keys %{ $SIG_CB{$signal} };
365} 1622}
366 1623
367# default implementation for ->child 1624# default implementation for ->child
368 1625
369our %PID_CB; 1626our %PID_CB;
370our $CHLD_W; 1627our $CHLD_W;
371our $PID_IDLE; 1628our $CHLD_DELAY_W;
372our $WNOHANG; 1629our $WNOHANG;
373 1630
374sub _child_wait { 1631# used by many Impl's
375 while (0 < (my $pid = waitpid -1, $WNOHANG)) { 1632sub _emit_childstatus($$) {
1633 my (undef, $rpid, $rstatus) = @_;
1634
1635 $_->($rpid, $rstatus)
376 $_->() for values %{ (delete $PID_CB{$pid}) || {} }; 1636 for values %{ $PID_CB{$rpid} || {} },
377 } 1637 values %{ $PID_CB{0} || {} };
378
379 undef $PID_IDLE;
380} 1638}
381 1639
382sub child { 1640sub child {
1641 eval q{ # poor man's autoloading {}
1642 *_sigchld = sub {
1643 my $pid;
1644
1645 AnyEvent->_emit_childstatus ($pid, $?)
1646 while ($pid = waitpid -1, $WNOHANG) > 0;
1647 };
1648
1649 *child = sub {
383 my (undef, %arg) = @_; 1650 my (undef, %arg) = @_;
384 1651
385 my $pid = uc $arg{pid} 1652 defined (my $pid = $arg{pid} + 0)
386 or Carp::croak "required option 'pid' is missing"; 1653 or Carp::croak "required option 'pid' is missing";
387 1654
388 $PID_CB{$pid}{$arg{cb}} = $arg{cb}; 1655 $PID_CB{$pid}{$arg{cb}} = $arg{cb};
389 1656
390 unless ($WNOHANG) { 1657 # WNOHANG is almost cetrainly 1 everywhere
391 $CHLD_W = AnyEvent->signal (signal => 'CHLD', cb => \&_child_wait); 1658 $WNOHANG ||= $^O =~ /^(?:openbsd|netbsd|linux|freebsd|cygwin|MSWin32)$/
392 $WNOHANG = eval { require POSIX; &POSIX::WNOHANG } || 1; 1659 ? 1
393 } 1660 : eval { local $SIG{__DIE__}; require POSIX; &POSIX::WNOHANG } || 1;
394 1661
395 # child could be a zombie already 1662 unless ($CHLD_W) {
396 $PID_IDLE ||= AnyEvent->timer (after => 0, cb => \&_child_wait); 1663 $CHLD_W = AE::signal CHLD => \&_sigchld;
1664 # child could be a zombie already, so make at least one round
1665 &_sigchld;
1666 }
397 1667
398 bless [$pid, $arg{cb}], "AnyEvent::Base::Child" 1668 bless [$pid, $arg{cb}], "AnyEvent::Base::child"
399} 1669 };
400 1670
401sub AnyEvent::Base::Child::DESTROY { 1671 *AnyEvent::Base::child::DESTROY = sub {
402 my ($pid, $cb) = @{$_[0]}; 1672 my ($pid, $cb) = @{$_[0]};
403 1673
404 delete $PID_CB{$pid}{$cb}; 1674 delete $PID_CB{$pid}{$cb};
405 delete $PID_CB{$pid} unless keys %{ $PID_CB{$pid} }; 1675 delete $PID_CB{$pid} unless keys %{ $PID_CB{$pid} };
406 1676
407 undef $CHLD_W unless keys %PID_CB; 1677 undef $CHLD_W unless keys %PID_CB;
1678 };
1679 };
1680 die if $@;
1681
1682 &child
408} 1683}
1684
1685# idle emulation is done by simply using a timer, regardless
1686# of whether the process is idle or not, and not letting
1687# the callback use more than 50% of the time.
1688sub idle {
1689 eval q{ # poor man's autoloading {}
1690 *idle = sub {
1691 my (undef, %arg) = @_;
1692
1693 my ($cb, $w, $rcb) = $arg{cb};
1694
1695 $rcb = sub {
1696 if ($cb) {
1697 $w = _time;
1698 &$cb;
1699 $w = _time - $w;
1700
1701 # never use more then 50% of the time for the idle watcher,
1702 # within some limits
1703 $w = 0.0001 if $w < 0.0001;
1704 $w = 5 if $w > 5;
1705
1706 $w = AE::timer $w, 0, $rcb;
1707 } else {
1708 # clean up...
1709 undef $w;
1710 undef $rcb;
1711 }
1712 };
1713
1714 $w = AE::timer 0.05, 0, $rcb;
1715
1716 bless \\$cb, "AnyEvent::Base::idle"
1717 };
1718
1719 *AnyEvent::Base::idle::DESTROY = sub {
1720 undef $${$_[0]};
1721 };
1722 };
1723 die if $@;
1724
1725 &idle
1726}
1727
1728package AnyEvent::CondVar;
1729
1730our @ISA = AnyEvent::CondVar::Base::;
1731
1732# only to be used for subclassing
1733sub new {
1734 my $class = shift;
1735 bless AnyEvent->condvar (@_), $class
1736}
1737
1738package AnyEvent::CondVar::Base;
1739
1740#use overload
1741# '&{}' => sub { my $self = shift; sub { $self->send (@_) } },
1742# fallback => 1;
1743
1744# save 300+ kilobytes by dirtily hardcoding overloading
1745${"AnyEvent::CondVar::Base::OVERLOAD"}{dummy}++; # Register with magic by touching.
1746*{'AnyEvent::CondVar::Base::()'} = sub { }; # "Make it findable via fetchmethod."
1747*{'AnyEvent::CondVar::Base::(&{}'} = sub { my $self = shift; sub { $self->send (@_) } }; # &{}
1748${'AnyEvent::CondVar::Base::()'} = 1; # fallback
1749
1750our $WAITING;
1751
1752sub _send {
1753 # nop
1754}
1755
1756sub send {
1757 my $cv = shift;
1758 $cv->{_ae_sent} = [@_];
1759 (delete $cv->{_ae_cb})->($cv) if $cv->{_ae_cb};
1760 $cv->_send;
1761}
1762
1763sub croak {
1764 $_[0]{_ae_croak} = $_[1];
1765 $_[0]->send;
1766}
1767
1768sub ready {
1769 $_[0]{_ae_sent}
1770}
1771
1772sub _wait {
1773 $WAITING
1774 and !$_[0]{_ae_sent}
1775 and Carp::croak "AnyEvent::CondVar: recursive blocking wait detected";
1776
1777 local $WAITING = 1;
1778 AnyEvent->one_event while !$_[0]{_ae_sent};
1779}
1780
1781sub recv {
1782 $_[0]->_wait;
1783
1784 Carp::croak $_[0]{_ae_croak} if $_[0]{_ae_croak};
1785 wantarray ? @{ $_[0]{_ae_sent} } : $_[0]{_ae_sent}[0]
1786}
1787
1788sub cb {
1789 my $cv = shift;
1790
1791 @_
1792 and $cv->{_ae_cb} = shift
1793 and $cv->{_ae_sent}
1794 and (delete $cv->{_ae_cb})->($cv);
1795
1796 $cv->{_ae_cb}
1797}
1798
1799sub begin {
1800 ++$_[0]{_ae_counter};
1801 $_[0]{_ae_end_cb} = $_[1] if @_ > 1;
1802}
1803
1804sub end {
1805 return if --$_[0]{_ae_counter};
1806 &{ $_[0]{_ae_end_cb} || sub { $_[0]->send } };
1807}
1808
1809# undocumented/compatibility with pre-3.4
1810*broadcast = \&send;
1811*wait = \&_wait;
1812
1813=head1 ERROR AND EXCEPTION HANDLING
1814
1815In general, AnyEvent does not do any error handling - it relies on the
1816caller to do that if required. The L<AnyEvent::Strict> module (see also
1817the C<PERL_ANYEVENT_STRICT> environment variable, below) provides strict
1818checking of all AnyEvent methods, however, which is highly useful during
1819development.
1820
1821As for exception handling (i.e. runtime errors and exceptions thrown while
1822executing a callback), this is not only highly event-loop specific, but
1823also not in any way wrapped by this module, as this is the job of the main
1824program.
1825
1826The pure perl event loop simply re-throws the exception (usually
1827within C<< condvar->recv >>), the L<Event> and L<EV> modules call C<<
1828$Event/EV::DIED->() >>, L<Glib> uses C<< install_exception_handler >> and
1829so on.
1830
1831=head1 ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES
1832
1833The following environment variables are used by this module or its
1834submodules.
1835
1836Note that AnyEvent will remove I<all> environment variables starting with
1837C<PERL_ANYEVENT_> from C<%ENV> when it is loaded while taint mode is
1838enabled.
1839
1840=over 4
1841
1842=item C<PERL_ANYEVENT_VERBOSE>
1843
1844By default, AnyEvent will be completely silent except in fatal
1845conditions. You can set this environment variable to make AnyEvent more
1846talkative.
1847
1848When set to C<1> or higher, causes AnyEvent to warn about unexpected
1849conditions, such as not being able to load the event model specified by
1850C<PERL_ANYEVENT_MODEL>.
1851
1852When set to C<2> or higher, cause AnyEvent to report to STDERR which event
1853model it chooses.
1854
1855When set to C<8> or higher, then AnyEvent will report extra information on
1856which optional modules it loads and how it implements certain features.
1857
1858=item C<PERL_ANYEVENT_STRICT>
1859
1860AnyEvent does not do much argument checking by default, as thorough
1861argument checking is very costly. Setting this variable to a true value
1862will cause AnyEvent to load C<AnyEvent::Strict> and then to thoroughly
1863check the arguments passed to most method calls. If it finds any problems,
1864it will croak.
1865
1866In other words, enables "strict" mode.
1867
1868Unlike C<use strict> (or its modern cousin, C<< use L<common::sense>
1869>>, it is definitely recommended to keep it off in production. Keeping
1870C<PERL_ANYEVENT_STRICT=1> in your environment while developing programs
1871can be very useful, however.
1872
1873=item C<PERL_ANYEVENT_MODEL>
1874
1875This can be used to specify the event model to be used by AnyEvent, before
1876auto detection and -probing kicks in. It must be a string consisting
1877entirely of ASCII letters. The string C<AnyEvent::Impl::> gets prepended
1878and the resulting module name is loaded and if the load was successful,
1879used as event model. If it fails to load AnyEvent will proceed with
1880auto detection and -probing.
1881
1882This functionality might change in future versions.
1883
1884For example, to force the pure perl model (L<AnyEvent::Impl::Perl>) you
1885could start your program like this:
1886
1887 PERL_ANYEVENT_MODEL=Perl perl ...
1888
1889=item C<PERL_ANYEVENT_PROTOCOLS>
1890
1891Used by both L<AnyEvent::DNS> and L<AnyEvent::Socket> to determine preferences
1892for IPv4 or IPv6. The default is unspecified (and might change, or be the result
1893of auto probing).
1894
1895Must be set to a comma-separated list of protocols or address families,
1896current supported: C<ipv4> and C<ipv6>. Only protocols mentioned will be
1897used, and preference will be given to protocols mentioned earlier in the
1898list.
1899
1900This variable can effectively be used for denial-of-service attacks
1901against local programs (e.g. when setuid), although the impact is likely
1902small, as the program has to handle conenction and other failures anyways.
1903
1904Examples: C<PERL_ANYEVENT_PROTOCOLS=ipv4,ipv6> - prefer IPv4 over IPv6,
1905but support both and try to use both. C<PERL_ANYEVENT_PROTOCOLS=ipv4>
1906- only support IPv4, never try to resolve or contact IPv6
1907addresses. C<PERL_ANYEVENT_PROTOCOLS=ipv6,ipv4> support either IPv4 or
1908IPv6, but prefer IPv6 over IPv4.
1909
1910=item C<PERL_ANYEVENT_EDNS0>
1911
1912Used by L<AnyEvent::DNS> to decide whether to use the EDNS0 extension
1913for DNS. This extension is generally useful to reduce DNS traffic, but
1914some (broken) firewalls drop such DNS packets, which is why it is off by
1915default.
1916
1917Setting this variable to C<1> will cause L<AnyEvent::DNS> to announce
1918EDNS0 in its DNS requests.
1919
1920=item C<PERL_ANYEVENT_MAX_FORKS>
1921
1922The maximum number of child processes that C<AnyEvent::Util::fork_call>
1923will create in parallel.
1924
1925=item C<PERL_ANYEVENT_MAX_OUTSTANDING_DNS>
1926
1927The default value for the C<max_outstanding> parameter for the default DNS
1928resolver - this is the maximum number of parallel DNS requests that are
1929sent to the DNS server.
1930
1931=item C<PERL_ANYEVENT_RESOLV_CONF>
1932
1933The file to use instead of F</etc/resolv.conf> (or OS-specific
1934configuration) in the default resolver. When set to the empty string, no
1935default config will be used.
1936
1937=item C<PERL_ANYEVENT_CA_FILE>, C<PERL_ANYEVENT_CA_PATH>.
1938
1939When neither C<ca_file> nor C<ca_path> was specified during
1940L<AnyEvent::TLS> context creation, and either of these environment
1941variables exist, they will be used to specify CA certificate locations
1942instead of a system-dependent default.
1943
1944=item C<PERL_ANYEVENT_AVOID_GUARD> and C<PERL_ANYEVENT_AVOID_ASYNC_INTERRUPT>
1945
1946When these are set to C<1>, then the respective modules are not
1947loaded. Mostly good for testing AnyEvent itself.
1948
1949=back
409 1950
410=head1 SUPPLYING YOUR OWN EVENT MODEL INTERFACE 1951=head1 SUPPLYING YOUR OWN EVENT MODEL INTERFACE
1952
1953This is an advanced topic that you do not normally need to use AnyEvent in
1954a module. This section is only of use to event loop authors who want to
1955provide AnyEvent compatibility.
411 1956
412If you need to support another event library which isn't directly 1957If you need to support another event library which isn't directly
413supported by AnyEvent, you can supply your own interface to it by 1958supported by AnyEvent, you can supply your own interface to it by
414pushing, before the first watcher gets created, the package name of 1959pushing, before the first watcher gets created, the package name of
415the event module and the package name of the interface to use onto 1960the event module and the package name of the interface to use onto
416C<@AnyEvent::REGISTRY>. You can do that before and even without loading 1961C<@AnyEvent::REGISTRY>. You can do that before and even without loading
417AnyEvent. 1962AnyEvent, so it is reasonably cheap.
418 1963
419Example: 1964Example:
420 1965
421 push @AnyEvent::REGISTRY, [urxvt => urxvt::anyevent::]; 1966 push @AnyEvent::REGISTRY, [urxvt => urxvt::anyevent::];
422 1967
423This tells AnyEvent to (literally) use the C<urxvt::anyevent::> 1968This tells AnyEvent to (literally) use the C<urxvt::anyevent::>
424package/class when it finds the C<urxvt> package/module is loaded. When 1969package/class when it finds the C<urxvt> package/module is already loaded.
1970
425AnyEvent is loaded and asked to find a suitable event model, it will 1971When AnyEvent is loaded and asked to find a suitable event model, it
426first check for the presence of urxvt. 1972will first check for the presence of urxvt by trying to C<use> the
1973C<urxvt::anyevent> module.
427 1974
428The class should provide implementations for all watcher types (see 1975The class should provide implementations for all watcher types. See
429L<AnyEvent::Impl::Event> (source code), L<AnyEvent::Impl::Glib> 1976L<AnyEvent::Impl::EV> (source code), L<AnyEvent::Impl::Glib> (Source code)
430(Source code) and so on for actual examples, use C<perldoc -m 1977and so on for actual examples. Use C<perldoc -m AnyEvent::Impl::Glib> to
431AnyEvent::Impl::Glib> to see the sources). 1978see the sources.
432 1979
1980If you don't provide C<signal> and C<child> watchers than AnyEvent will
1981provide suitable (hopefully) replacements.
1982
433The above isn't fictitious, the I<rxvt-unicode> (a.k.a. urxvt) 1983The above example isn't fictitious, the I<rxvt-unicode> (a.k.a. urxvt)
434uses the above line as-is. An interface isn't included in AnyEvent 1984terminal emulator uses the above line as-is. An interface isn't included
435because it doesn't make sense outside the embedded interpreter inside 1985in AnyEvent because it doesn't make sense outside the embedded interpreter
436I<rxvt-unicode>, and it is updated and maintained as part of the 1986inside I<rxvt-unicode>, and it is updated and maintained as part of the
437I<rxvt-unicode> distribution. 1987I<rxvt-unicode> distribution.
438 1988
439I<rxvt-unicode> also cheats a bit by not providing blocking access to 1989I<rxvt-unicode> also cheats a bit by not providing blocking access to
440condition variables: code blocking while waiting for a condition will 1990condition variables: code blocking while waiting for a condition will
441C<die>. This still works with most modules/usages, and blocking calls must 1991C<die>. This still works with most modules/usages, and blocking calls must
442not be in an interactive appliation, so it makes sense. 1992not be done in an interactive application, so it makes sense.
443 1993
444=head1 ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES
445
446The following environment variables are used by this module:
447
448C<PERL_ANYEVENT_VERBOSE> when set to C<2> or higher, reports which event
449model gets used.
450
451=head1 EXAMPLE 1994=head1 EXAMPLE PROGRAM
452 1995
453The following program uses an io watcher to read data from stdin, a timer 1996The following program uses an I/O watcher to read data from STDIN, a timer
454to display a message once per second, and a condvar to exit the program 1997to display a message once per second, and a condition variable to quit the
455when the user enters quit: 1998program when the user enters quit:
456 1999
457 use AnyEvent; 2000 use AnyEvent;
458 2001
459 my $cv = AnyEvent->condvar; 2002 my $cv = AnyEvent->condvar;
460 2003
461 my $io_watcher = AnyEvent->io (fh => \*STDIN, poll => 'r', cb => sub { 2004 my $io_watcher = AnyEvent->io (
2005 fh => \*STDIN,
2006 poll => 'r',
2007 cb => sub {
462 warn "io event <$_[0]>\n"; # will always output <r> 2008 warn "io event <$_[0]>\n"; # will always output <r>
463 chomp (my $input = <STDIN>); # read a line 2009 chomp (my $input = <STDIN>); # read a line
464 warn "read: $input\n"; # output what has been read 2010 warn "read: $input\n"; # output what has been read
465 $cv->broadcast if $input =~ /^q/i; # quit program if /^q/i 2011 $cv->send if $input =~ /^q/i; # quit program if /^q/i
2012 },
2013 );
2014
2015 my $time_watcher = AnyEvent->timer (after => 1, interval => 1, cb => sub {
2016 warn "timeout\n"; # print 'timeout' at most every second
466 }); 2017 });
467 2018
468 my $time_watcher; # can only be used once
469
470 sub new_timer {
471 $timer = AnyEvent->timer (after => 1, cb => sub {
472 warn "timeout\n"; # print 'timeout' about every second
473 &new_timer; # and restart the time
474 });
475 }
476
477 new_timer; # create first timer
478
479 $cv->wait; # wait until user enters /^q/i 2019 $cv->recv; # wait until user enters /^q/i
480 2020
481=head1 REAL-WORLD EXAMPLE 2021=head1 REAL-WORLD EXAMPLE
482 2022
483Consider the L<Net::FCP> module. It features (among others) the following 2023Consider the L<Net::FCP> module. It features (among others) the following
484API calls, which are to freenet what HTTP GET requests are to http: 2024API calls, which are to freenet what HTTP GET requests are to http:
534 syswrite $txn->{fh}, $txn->{request} 2074 syswrite $txn->{fh}, $txn->{request}
535 or die "connection or write error"; 2075 or die "connection or write error";
536 $txn->{w} = AnyEvent->io (fh => $txn->{fh}, poll => 'r', cb => sub { $txn->fh_ready_r }); 2076 $txn->{w} = AnyEvent->io (fh => $txn->{fh}, poll => 'r', cb => sub { $txn->fh_ready_r });
537 2077
538Again, C<fh_ready_r> waits till all data has arrived, and then stores the 2078Again, C<fh_ready_r> waits till all data has arrived, and then stores the
539result and signals any possible waiters that the request ahs finished: 2079result and signals any possible waiters that the request has finished:
540 2080
541 sysread $txn->{fh}, $txn->{buf}, length $txn->{$buf}; 2081 sysread $txn->{fh}, $txn->{buf}, length $txn->{$buf};
542 2082
543 if (end-of-file or data complete) { 2083 if (end-of-file or data complete) {
544 $txn->{result} = $txn->{buf}; 2084 $txn->{result} = $txn->{buf};
545 $txn->{finished}->broadcast; 2085 $txn->{finished}->send;
546 $txb->{cb}->($txn) of $txn->{cb}; # also call callback 2086 $txb->{cb}->($txn) of $txn->{cb}; # also call callback
547 } 2087 }
548 2088
549The C<result> method, finally, just waits for the finished signal (if the 2089The C<result> method, finally, just waits for the finished signal (if the
550request was already finished, it doesn't wait, of course, and returns the 2090request was already finished, it doesn't wait, of course, and returns the
551data: 2091data:
552 2092
553 $txn->{finished}->wait; 2093 $txn->{finished}->recv;
554 return $txn->{result}; 2094 return $txn->{result};
555 2095
556The actual code goes further and collects all errors (C<die>s, exceptions) 2096The actual code goes further and collects all errors (C<die>s, exceptions)
557that occured during request processing. The C<result> method detects 2097that occurred during request processing. The C<result> method detects
558wether an exception as thrown (it is stored inside the $txn object) 2098whether an exception as thrown (it is stored inside the $txn object)
559and just throws the exception, which means connection errors and other 2099and just throws the exception, which means connection errors and other
560problems get reported tot he code that tries to use the result, not in a 2100problems get reported to the code that tries to use the result, not in a
561random callback. 2101random callback.
562 2102
563All of this enables the following usage styles: 2103All of this enables the following usage styles:
564 2104
5651. Blocking: 21051. Blocking:
566 2106
567 my $data = $fcp->client_get ($url); 2107 my $data = $fcp->client_get ($url);
568 2108
5692. Blocking, but parallelizing: 21092. Blocking, but running in parallel:
570 2110
571 my @datas = map $_->result, 2111 my @datas = map $_->result,
572 map $fcp->txn_client_get ($_), 2112 map $fcp->txn_client_get ($_),
573 @urls; 2113 @urls;
574 2114
575Both blocking examples work without the module user having to know 2115Both blocking examples work without the module user having to know
576anything about events. 2116anything about events.
577 2117
5783a. Event-based in a main program, using any support Event module: 21183a. Event-based in a main program, using any supported event module:
579 2119
580 use Event; 2120 use EV;
581 2121
582 $fcp->txn_client_get ($url)->cb (sub { 2122 $fcp->txn_client_get ($url)->cb (sub {
583 my $txn = shift; 2123 my $txn = shift;
584 my $data = $txn->result; 2124 my $data = $txn->result;
585 ... 2125 ...
586 }); 2126 });
587 2127
588 Event::loop; 2128 EV::loop;
589 2129
5903b. The module user could use AnyEvent, too: 21303b. The module user could use AnyEvent, too:
591 2131
592 use AnyEvent; 2132 use AnyEvent;
593 2133
594 my $quit = AnyEvent->condvar; 2134 my $quit = AnyEvent->condvar;
595 2135
596 $fcp->txn_client_get ($url)->cb (sub { 2136 $fcp->txn_client_get ($url)->cb (sub {
597 ... 2137 ...
598 $quit->broadcast; 2138 $quit->send;
599 }); 2139 });
600 2140
601 $quit->wait; 2141 $quit->recv;
2142
2143
2144=head1 BENCHMARKS
2145
2146To give you an idea of the performance and overheads that AnyEvent adds
2147over the event loops themselves and to give you an impression of the speed
2148of various event loops I prepared some benchmarks.
2149
2150=head2 BENCHMARKING ANYEVENT OVERHEAD
2151
2152Here is a benchmark of various supported event models used natively and
2153through AnyEvent. The benchmark creates a lot of timers (with a zero
2154timeout) and I/O watchers (watching STDOUT, a pty, to become writable,
2155which it is), lets them fire exactly once and destroys them again.
2156
2157Source code for this benchmark is found as F<eg/bench> in the AnyEvent
2158distribution. It uses the L<AE> interface, which makes a real difference
2159for the EV and Perl backends only.
2160
2161=head3 Explanation of the columns
2162
2163I<watcher> is the number of event watchers created/destroyed. Since
2164different event models feature vastly different performances, each event
2165loop was given a number of watchers so that overall runtime is acceptable
2166and similar between tested event loop (and keep them from crashing): Glib
2167would probably take thousands of years if asked to process the same number
2168of watchers as EV in this benchmark.
2169
2170I<bytes> is the number of bytes (as measured by the resident set size,
2171RSS) consumed by each watcher. This method of measuring captures both C
2172and Perl-based overheads.
2173
2174I<create> is the time, in microseconds (millionths of seconds), that it
2175takes to create a single watcher. The callback is a closure shared between
2176all watchers, to avoid adding memory overhead. That means closure creation
2177and memory usage is not included in the figures.
2178
2179I<invoke> is the time, in microseconds, used to invoke a simple
2180callback. The callback simply counts down a Perl variable and after it was
2181invoked "watcher" times, it would C<< ->send >> a condvar once to
2182signal the end of this phase.
2183
2184I<destroy> is the time, in microseconds, that it takes to destroy a single
2185watcher.
2186
2187=head3 Results
2188
2189 name watchers bytes create invoke destroy comment
2190 EV/EV 100000 223 0.47 0.43 0.27 EV native interface
2191 EV/Any 100000 223 0.48 0.42 0.26 EV + AnyEvent watchers
2192 Coro::EV/Any 100000 223 0.47 0.42 0.26 coroutines + Coro::Signal
2193 Perl/Any 100000 431 2.70 0.74 0.92 pure perl implementation
2194 Event/Event 16000 516 31.16 31.84 0.82 Event native interface
2195 Event/Any 16000 1203 42.61 34.79 1.80 Event + AnyEvent watchers
2196 IOAsync/Any 16000 1911 41.92 27.45 16.81 via IO::Async::Loop::IO_Poll
2197 IOAsync/Any 16000 1726 40.69 26.37 15.25 via IO::Async::Loop::Epoll
2198 Glib/Any 16000 1118 89.00 12.57 51.17 quadratic behaviour
2199 Tk/Any 2000 1346 20.96 10.75 8.00 SEGV with >> 2000 watchers
2200 POE/Any 2000 6951 108.97 795.32 14.24 via POE::Loop::Event
2201 POE/Any 2000 6648 94.79 774.40 575.51 via POE::Loop::Select
2202
2203=head3 Discussion
2204
2205The benchmark does I<not> measure scalability of the event loop very
2206well. For example, a select-based event loop (such as the pure perl one)
2207can never compete with an event loop that uses epoll when the number of
2208file descriptors grows high. In this benchmark, all events become ready at
2209the same time, so select/poll-based implementations get an unnatural speed
2210boost.
2211
2212Also, note that the number of watchers usually has a nonlinear effect on
2213overall speed, that is, creating twice as many watchers doesn't take twice
2214the time - usually it takes longer. This puts event loops tested with a
2215higher number of watchers at a disadvantage.
2216
2217To put the range of results into perspective, consider that on the
2218benchmark machine, handling an event takes roughly 1600 CPU cycles with
2219EV, 3100 CPU cycles with AnyEvent's pure perl loop and almost 3000000 CPU
2220cycles with POE.
2221
2222C<EV> is the sole leader regarding speed and memory use, which are both
2223maximal/minimal, respectively. When using the L<AE> API there is zero
2224overhead (when going through the AnyEvent API create is about 5-6 times
2225slower, with other times being equal, so still uses far less memory than
2226any other event loop and is still faster than Event natively).
2227
2228The pure perl implementation is hit in a few sweet spots (both the
2229constant timeout and the use of a single fd hit optimisations in the perl
2230interpreter and the backend itself). Nevertheless this shows that it
2231adds very little overhead in itself. Like any select-based backend its
2232performance becomes really bad with lots of file descriptors (and few of
2233them active), of course, but this was not subject of this benchmark.
2234
2235The C<Event> module has a relatively high setup and callback invocation
2236cost, but overall scores in on the third place.
2237
2238C<IO::Async> performs admirably well, about on par with C<Event>, even
2239when using its pure perl backend.
2240
2241C<Glib>'s memory usage is quite a bit higher, but it features a
2242faster callback invocation and overall ends up in the same class as
2243C<Event>. However, Glib scales extremely badly, doubling the number of
2244watchers increases the processing time by more than a factor of four,
2245making it completely unusable when using larger numbers of watchers
2246(note that only a single file descriptor was used in the benchmark, so
2247inefficiencies of C<poll> do not account for this).
2248
2249The C<Tk> adaptor works relatively well. The fact that it crashes with
2250more than 2000 watchers is a big setback, however, as correctness takes
2251precedence over speed. Nevertheless, its performance is surprising, as the
2252file descriptor is dup()ed for each watcher. This shows that the dup()
2253employed by some adaptors is not a big performance issue (it does incur a
2254hidden memory cost inside the kernel which is not reflected in the figures
2255above).
2256
2257C<POE>, regardless of underlying event loop (whether using its pure perl
2258select-based backend or the Event module, the POE-EV backend couldn't
2259be tested because it wasn't working) shows abysmal performance and
2260memory usage with AnyEvent: Watchers use almost 30 times as much memory
2261as EV watchers, and 10 times as much memory as Event (the high memory
2262requirements are caused by requiring a session for each watcher). Watcher
2263invocation speed is almost 900 times slower than with AnyEvent's pure perl
2264implementation.
2265
2266The design of the POE adaptor class in AnyEvent can not really account
2267for the performance issues, though, as session creation overhead is
2268small compared to execution of the state machine, which is coded pretty
2269optimally within L<AnyEvent::Impl::POE> (and while everybody agrees that
2270using multiple sessions is not a good approach, especially regarding
2271memory usage, even the author of POE could not come up with a faster
2272design).
2273
2274=head3 Summary
2275
2276=over 4
2277
2278=item * Using EV through AnyEvent is faster than any other event loop
2279(even when used without AnyEvent), but most event loops have acceptable
2280performance with or without AnyEvent.
2281
2282=item * The overhead AnyEvent adds is usually much smaller than the overhead of
2283the actual event loop, only with extremely fast event loops such as EV
2284adds AnyEvent significant overhead.
2285
2286=item * You should avoid POE like the plague if you want performance or
2287reasonable memory usage.
2288
2289=back
2290
2291=head2 BENCHMARKING THE LARGE SERVER CASE
2292
2293This benchmark actually benchmarks the event loop itself. It works by
2294creating a number of "servers": each server consists of a socket pair, a
2295timeout watcher that gets reset on activity (but never fires), and an I/O
2296watcher waiting for input on one side of the socket. Each time the socket
2297watcher reads a byte it will write that byte to a random other "server".
2298
2299The effect is that there will be a lot of I/O watchers, only part of which
2300are active at any one point (so there is a constant number of active
2301fds for each loop iteration, but which fds these are is random). The
2302timeout is reset each time something is read because that reflects how
2303most timeouts work (and puts extra pressure on the event loops).
2304
2305In this benchmark, we use 10000 socket pairs (20000 sockets), of which 100
2306(1%) are active. This mirrors the activity of large servers with many
2307connections, most of which are idle at any one point in time.
2308
2309Source code for this benchmark is found as F<eg/bench2> in the AnyEvent
2310distribution. It uses the L<AE> interface, which makes a real difference
2311for the EV and Perl backends only.
2312
2313=head3 Explanation of the columns
2314
2315I<sockets> is the number of sockets, and twice the number of "servers" (as
2316each server has a read and write socket end).
2317
2318I<create> is the time it takes to create a socket pair (which is
2319nontrivial) and two watchers: an I/O watcher and a timeout watcher.
2320
2321I<request>, the most important value, is the time it takes to handle a
2322single "request", that is, reading the token from the pipe and forwarding
2323it to another server. This includes deleting the old timeout and creating
2324a new one that moves the timeout into the future.
2325
2326=head3 Results
2327
2328 name sockets create request
2329 EV 20000 62.66 7.99
2330 Perl 20000 68.32 32.64
2331 IOAsync 20000 174.06 101.15 epoll
2332 IOAsync 20000 174.67 610.84 poll
2333 Event 20000 202.69 242.91
2334 Glib 20000 557.01 1689.52
2335 POE 20000 341.54 12086.32 uses POE::Loop::Event
2336
2337=head3 Discussion
2338
2339This benchmark I<does> measure scalability and overall performance of the
2340particular event loop.
2341
2342EV is again fastest. Since it is using epoll on my system, the setup time
2343is relatively high, though.
2344
2345Perl surprisingly comes second. It is much faster than the C-based event
2346loops Event and Glib.
2347
2348IO::Async performs very well when using its epoll backend, and still quite
2349good compared to Glib when using its pure perl backend.
2350
2351Event suffers from high setup time as well (look at its code and you will
2352understand why). Callback invocation also has a high overhead compared to
2353the C<< $_->() for .. >>-style loop that the Perl event loop uses. Event
2354uses select or poll in basically all documented configurations.
2355
2356Glib is hit hard by its quadratic behaviour w.r.t. many watchers. It
2357clearly fails to perform with many filehandles or in busy servers.
2358
2359POE is still completely out of the picture, taking over 1000 times as long
2360as EV, and over 100 times as long as the Perl implementation, even though
2361it uses a C-based event loop in this case.
2362
2363=head3 Summary
2364
2365=over 4
2366
2367=item * The pure perl implementation performs extremely well.
2368
2369=item * Avoid Glib or POE in large projects where performance matters.
2370
2371=back
2372
2373=head2 BENCHMARKING SMALL SERVERS
2374
2375While event loops should scale (and select-based ones do not...) even to
2376large servers, most programs we (or I :) actually write have only a few
2377I/O watchers.
2378
2379In this benchmark, I use the same benchmark program as in the large server
2380case, but it uses only eight "servers", of which three are active at any
2381one time. This should reflect performance for a small server relatively
2382well.
2383
2384The columns are identical to the previous table.
2385
2386=head3 Results
2387
2388 name sockets create request
2389 EV 16 20.00 6.54
2390 Perl 16 25.75 12.62
2391 Event 16 81.27 35.86
2392 Glib 16 32.63 15.48
2393 POE 16 261.87 276.28 uses POE::Loop::Event
2394
2395=head3 Discussion
2396
2397The benchmark tries to test the performance of a typical small
2398server. While knowing how various event loops perform is interesting, keep
2399in mind that their overhead in this case is usually not as important, due
2400to the small absolute number of watchers (that is, you need efficiency and
2401speed most when you have lots of watchers, not when you only have a few of
2402them).
2403
2404EV is again fastest.
2405
2406Perl again comes second. It is noticeably faster than the C-based event
2407loops Event and Glib, although the difference is too small to really
2408matter.
2409
2410POE also performs much better in this case, but is is still far behind the
2411others.
2412
2413=head3 Summary
2414
2415=over 4
2416
2417=item * C-based event loops perform very well with small number of
2418watchers, as the management overhead dominates.
2419
2420=back
2421
2422=head2 THE IO::Lambda BENCHMARK
2423
2424Recently I was told about the benchmark in the IO::Lambda manpage, which
2425could be misinterpreted to make AnyEvent look bad. In fact, the benchmark
2426simply compares IO::Lambda with POE, and IO::Lambda looks better (which
2427shouldn't come as a surprise to anybody). As such, the benchmark is
2428fine, and mostly shows that the AnyEvent backend from IO::Lambda isn't
2429very optimal. But how would AnyEvent compare when used without the extra
2430baggage? To explore this, I wrote the equivalent benchmark for AnyEvent.
2431
2432The benchmark itself creates an echo-server, and then, for 500 times,
2433connects to the echo server, sends a line, waits for the reply, and then
2434creates the next connection. This is a rather bad benchmark, as it doesn't
2435test the efficiency of the framework or much non-blocking I/O, but it is a
2436benchmark nevertheless.
2437
2438 name runtime
2439 Lambda/select 0.330 sec
2440 + optimized 0.122 sec
2441 Lambda/AnyEvent 0.327 sec
2442 + optimized 0.138 sec
2443 Raw sockets/select 0.077 sec
2444 POE/select, components 0.662 sec
2445 POE/select, raw sockets 0.226 sec
2446 POE/select, optimized 0.404 sec
2447
2448 AnyEvent/select/nb 0.085 sec
2449 AnyEvent/EV/nb 0.068 sec
2450 +state machine 0.134 sec
2451
2452The benchmark is also a bit unfair (my fault): the IO::Lambda/POE
2453benchmarks actually make blocking connects and use 100% blocking I/O,
2454defeating the purpose of an event-based solution. All of the newly
2455written AnyEvent benchmarks use 100% non-blocking connects (using
2456AnyEvent::Socket::tcp_connect and the asynchronous pure perl DNS
2457resolver), so AnyEvent is at a disadvantage here, as non-blocking connects
2458generally require a lot more bookkeeping and event handling than blocking
2459connects (which involve a single syscall only).
2460
2461The last AnyEvent benchmark additionally uses L<AnyEvent::Handle>, which
2462offers similar expressive power as POE and IO::Lambda, using conventional
2463Perl syntax. This means that both the echo server and the client are 100%
2464non-blocking, further placing it at a disadvantage.
2465
2466As you can see, the AnyEvent + EV combination even beats the
2467hand-optimised "raw sockets benchmark", while AnyEvent + its pure perl
2468backend easily beats IO::Lambda and POE.
2469
2470And even the 100% non-blocking version written using the high-level (and
2471slow :) L<AnyEvent::Handle> abstraction beats both POE and IO::Lambda
2472higher level ("unoptimised") abstractions by a large margin, even though
2473it does all of DNS, tcp-connect and socket I/O in a non-blocking way.
2474
2475The two AnyEvent benchmarks programs can be found as F<eg/ae0.pl> and
2476F<eg/ae2.pl> in the AnyEvent distribution, the remaining benchmarks are
2477part of the IO::Lambda distribution and were used without any changes.
2478
2479
2480=head1 SIGNALS
2481
2482AnyEvent currently installs handlers for these signals:
2483
2484=over 4
2485
2486=item SIGCHLD
2487
2488A handler for C<SIGCHLD> is installed by AnyEvent's child watcher
2489emulation for event loops that do not support them natively. Also, some
2490event loops install a similar handler.
2491
2492Additionally, when AnyEvent is loaded and SIGCHLD is set to IGNORE, then
2493AnyEvent will reset it to default, to avoid losing child exit statuses.
2494
2495=item SIGPIPE
2496
2497A no-op handler is installed for C<SIGPIPE> when C<$SIG{PIPE}> is C<undef>
2498when AnyEvent gets loaded.
2499
2500The rationale for this is that AnyEvent users usually do not really depend
2501on SIGPIPE delivery (which is purely an optimisation for shell use, or
2502badly-written programs), but C<SIGPIPE> can cause spurious and rare
2503program exits as a lot of people do not expect C<SIGPIPE> when writing to
2504some random socket.
2505
2506The rationale for installing a no-op handler as opposed to ignoring it is
2507that this way, the handler will be restored to defaults on exec.
2508
2509Feel free to install your own handler, or reset it to defaults.
2510
2511=back
2512
2513=cut
2514
2515undef $SIG{CHLD}
2516 if $SIG{CHLD} eq 'IGNORE';
2517
2518$SIG{PIPE} = sub { }
2519 unless defined $SIG{PIPE};
2520
2521=head1 RECOMMENDED/OPTIONAL MODULES
2522
2523One of AnyEvent's main goals is to be 100% Pure-Perl(tm): only perl (and
2524its built-in modules) are required to use it.
2525
2526That does not mean that AnyEvent won't take advantage of some additional
2527modules if they are installed.
2528
2529This section explains which additional modules will be used, and how they
2530affect AnyEvent's operation.
2531
2532=over 4
2533
2534=item L<Async::Interrupt>
2535
2536This slightly arcane module is used to implement fast signal handling: To
2537my knowledge, there is no way to do completely race-free and quick
2538signal handling in pure perl. To ensure that signals still get
2539delivered, AnyEvent will start an interval timer to wake up perl (and
2540catch the signals) with some delay (default is 10 seconds, look for
2541C<$AnyEvent::MAX_SIGNAL_LATENCY>).
2542
2543If this module is available, then it will be used to implement signal
2544catching, which means that signals will not be delayed, and the event loop
2545will not be interrupted regularly, which is more efficient (and good for
2546battery life on laptops).
2547
2548This affects not just the pure-perl event loop, but also other event loops
2549that have no signal handling on their own (e.g. Glib, Tk, Qt).
2550
2551Some event loops (POE, Event, Event::Lib) offer signal watchers natively,
2552and either employ their own workarounds (POE) or use AnyEvent's workaround
2553(using C<$AnyEvent::MAX_SIGNAL_LATENCY>). Installing L<Async::Interrupt>
2554does nothing for those backends.
2555
2556=item L<EV>
2557
2558This module isn't really "optional", as it is simply one of the backend
2559event loops that AnyEvent can use. However, it is simply the best event
2560loop available in terms of features, speed and stability: It supports
2561the AnyEvent API optimally, implements all the watcher types in XS, does
2562automatic timer adjustments even when no monotonic clock is available,
2563can take avdantage of advanced kernel interfaces such as C<epoll> and
2564C<kqueue>, and is the fastest backend I<by far>. You can even embed
2565L<Glib>/L<Gtk2> in it (or vice versa, see L<EV::Glib> and L<Glib::EV>).
2566
2567If you only use backends that rely on another event loop (e.g. C<Tk>),
2568then this module will do nothing for you.
2569
2570=item L<Guard>
2571
2572The guard module, when used, will be used to implement
2573C<AnyEvent::Util::guard>. This speeds up guards considerably (and uses a
2574lot less memory), but otherwise doesn't affect guard operation much. It is
2575purely used for performance.
2576
2577=item L<JSON> and L<JSON::XS>
2578
2579One of these modules is required when you want to read or write JSON data
2580via L<AnyEvent::Handle>. L<JSON> is also written in pure-perl, but can take
2581advantage of the ultra-high-speed L<JSON::XS> module when it is installed.
2582
2583=item L<Net::SSLeay>
2584
2585Implementing TLS/SSL in Perl is certainly interesting, but not very
2586worthwhile: If this module is installed, then L<AnyEvent::Handle> (with
2587the help of L<AnyEvent::TLS>), gains the ability to do TLS/SSL.
2588
2589=item L<Time::HiRes>
2590
2591This module is part of perl since release 5.008. It will be used when the
2592chosen event library does not come with a timing source of its own. The
2593pure-perl event loop (L<AnyEvent::Impl::Perl>) will additionally use it to
2594try to use a monotonic clock for timing stability.
2595
2596=back
2597
2598
2599=head1 FORK
2600
2601Most event libraries are not fork-safe. The ones who are usually are
2602because they rely on inefficient but fork-safe C<select> or C<poll> calls
2603- higher performance APIs such as BSD's kqueue or the dreaded Linux epoll
2604are usually badly thought-out hacks that are incompatible with fork in
2605one way or another. Only L<EV> is fully fork-aware and ensures that you
2606continue event-processing in both parent and child (or both, if you know
2607what you are doing).
2608
2609This means that, in general, you cannot fork and do event processing in
2610the child if the event library was initialised before the fork (which
2611usually happens when the first AnyEvent watcher is created, or the library
2612is loaded).
2613
2614If you have to fork, you must either do so I<before> creating your first
2615watcher OR you must not use AnyEvent at all in the child OR you must do
2616something completely out of the scope of AnyEvent.
2617
2618The problem of doing event processing in the parent I<and> the child
2619is much more complicated: even for backends that I<are> fork-aware or
2620fork-safe, their behaviour is not usually what you want: fork clones all
2621watchers, that means all timers, I/O watchers etc. are active in both
2622parent and child, which is almost never what you want. USing C<exec>
2623to start worker children from some kind of manage rprocess is usually
2624preferred, because it is much easier and cleaner, at the expense of having
2625to have another binary.
2626
2627
2628=head1 SECURITY CONSIDERATIONS
2629
2630AnyEvent can be forced to load any event model via
2631$ENV{PERL_ANYEVENT_MODEL}. While this cannot (to my knowledge) be used to
2632execute arbitrary code or directly gain access, it can easily be used to
2633make the program hang or malfunction in subtle ways, as AnyEvent watchers
2634will not be active when the program uses a different event model than
2635specified in the variable.
2636
2637You can make AnyEvent completely ignore this variable by deleting it
2638before the first watcher gets created, e.g. with a C<BEGIN> block:
2639
2640 BEGIN { delete $ENV{PERL_ANYEVENT_MODEL} }
2641
2642 use AnyEvent;
2643
2644Similar considerations apply to $ENV{PERL_ANYEVENT_VERBOSE}, as that can
2645be used to probe what backend is used and gain other information (which is
2646probably even less useful to an attacker than PERL_ANYEVENT_MODEL), and
2647$ENV{PERL_ANYEVENT_STRICT}.
2648
2649Note that AnyEvent will remove I<all> environment variables starting with
2650C<PERL_ANYEVENT_> from C<%ENV> when it is loaded while taint mode is
2651enabled.
2652
2653
2654=head1 BUGS
2655
2656Perl 5.8 has numerous memleaks that sometimes hit this module and are hard
2657to work around. If you suffer from memleaks, first upgrade to Perl 5.10
2658and check wether the leaks still show up. (Perl 5.10.0 has other annoying
2659memleaks, such as leaking on C<map> and C<grep> but it is usually not as
2660pronounced).
2661
602 2662
603=head1 SEE ALSO 2663=head1 SEE ALSO
604 2664
605Event modules: L<Coro::Event>, L<Coro>, L<Event>, L<Glib::Event>, L<Glib>. 2665Tutorial/Introduction: L<AnyEvent::Intro>.
606 2666
607Implementations: L<AnyEvent::Impl::Coro>, L<AnyEvent::Impl::Event>, L<AnyEvent::Impl::Glib>, L<AnyEvent::Impl::Tk>. 2667FAQ: L<AnyEvent::FAQ>.
608 2668
609Nontrivial usage example: L<Net::FCP>. 2669Utility functions: L<AnyEvent::Util>.
610 2670
611=head1 2671Event modules: L<EV>, L<EV::Glib>, L<Glib::EV>, L<Event>, L<Glib::Event>,
2672L<Glib>, L<Tk>, L<Event::Lib>, L<Qt>, L<POE>.
2673
2674Implementations: L<AnyEvent::Impl::EV>, L<AnyEvent::Impl::Event>,
2675L<AnyEvent::Impl::Glib>, L<AnyEvent::Impl::Tk>, L<AnyEvent::Impl::Perl>,
2676L<AnyEvent::Impl::EventLib>, L<AnyEvent::Impl::Qt>,
2677L<AnyEvent::Impl::POE>, L<AnyEvent::Impl::IOAsync>, L<Anyevent::Impl::Irssi>.
2678
2679Non-blocking file handles, sockets, TCP clients and
2680servers: L<AnyEvent::Handle>, L<AnyEvent::Socket>, L<AnyEvent::TLS>.
2681
2682Asynchronous DNS: L<AnyEvent::DNS>.
2683
2684Thread support: L<Coro>, L<Coro::AnyEvent>, L<Coro::EV L<Coro::Event >,
2685
2686Nontrivial usage examples: L<AnyEvent::GPSD>, L<AnyEvent::IRC>,
2687L<AnyEvent::HTTP>.
2688
2689
2690=head1 AUTHOR
2691
2692 Marc Lehmann <schmorp@schmorp.de>
2693 http://home.schmorp.de/
612 2694
613=cut 2695=cut
614 2696
6151 26971
616 2698

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