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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> the 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 (or any child if the pid argument is 0). The watcher will
180trigger as often as status change for the child are received. This works
181by installing a signal handler for C<SIGCHLD>. The callback will be called with
182the pid and exit status (as returned by waitpid).
183 452
184Example: wait for pid 1333 453You can also watch for a child process exit and catch its exit status.
185 454
186 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).
187 460
188=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:
189 580
190=over 4 581=over 4
191 582
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
192=item $AnyEvent::MODEL 926=item $AnyEvent::MODEL
193 927
194Contains C<undef> until the first watcher is being created. Then it 928Contains C<undef> until the first watcher is being created, before the
929backend has been autodetected.
930
195contains the event model that is being used, which is the name of the 931Afterwards it contains the event model that is being used, which is the
196Perl class implementing the model. This class is usually one of the 932name of the Perl class implementing the model. This class is usually one
197C<AnyEvent::Impl:xxx> modules, but can be any other class in the case 933of the C<AnyEvent::Impl::xxx> modules, but can be any other class in the
198AnyEvent has been extended at runtime (e.g. in I<rxvt-unicode>). 934case AnyEvent has been extended at runtime (e.g. in I<rxvt-unicode> it
199 935will be C<urxvt::anyevent>).
200The known classes so far are:
201
202 AnyEvent::Impl::CoroEV based on Coro::EV, best choice.
203 AnyEvent::Impl::EV based on EV (an interface to libev, also best choice).
204 AnyEvent::Impl::Coro based on Coro::Event, second best choice.
205 AnyEvent::Impl::Event based on Event, also second best choice :)
206 AnyEvent::Impl::Glib based on Glib, second-best choice.
207 AnyEvent::Impl::Tk based on Tk, very bad choice.
208 AnyEvent::Impl::Perl pure-perl implementation, inefficient.
209 936
210=item AnyEvent::detect 937=item AnyEvent::detect
211 938
212Returns C<$AnyEvent::MODEL>, forcing autodetection of the event model if 939Returns C<$AnyEvent::MODEL>, forcing autodetection of the event model
213necessary. You should only call this function right before you would have 940if necessary. You should only call this function right before you would
214created 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 }
215 1014
216=back 1015=back
217 1016
218=head1 WHAT TO DO IN A MODULE 1017=head1 WHAT TO DO IN A MODULE
219 1018
220As a module author, you should "use AnyEvent" and call AnyEvent methods 1019As a module author, you should C<use AnyEvent> and call AnyEvent methods
221freely, 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.
222 1021
223Be careful when you create watchers in the module body - Anyevent will 1022Be careful when you create watchers in the module body - AnyEvent will
224decide 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
225by 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
226to load the event module first. 1025to load the event module first.
227 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
228=head1 WHAT TO DO IN THE MAIN PROGRAM 1037=head1 WHAT TO DO IN THE MAIN PROGRAM
229 1038
230There 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
231dictate which event model to use. 1040dictate which event model to use.
232 1041
233If 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
234do 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.
235 1047
236If 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
237programs 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
238it before loading AnyEvent or any module that uses it, generally, as early 1050event module before loading AnyEvent or any module that uses it: generally
239as possible. The reason is that modules might create watchers when they 1051speaking, you should load it as early as possible. The reason is that
240are 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
241it 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
242correct one yourself. 1054might choose the wrong one unless you load the correct one yourself.
243 1055
244You can chose to use a rather inefficient pure-perl implementation by 1056You can chose to use a pure-perl implementation by loading the
245loading the C<AnyEvent::Impl::Perl> module, but letting AnyEvent chose is 1057C<AnyEvent::Impl::Perl> module, which gives you similar behaviour
246generally 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
247 1155
248=cut 1156=cut
249 1157
250package AnyEvent; 1158package AnyEvent;
251 1159
252no warnings; 1160# basically a tuned-down version of common::sense
253use 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}
254 1167
1168BEGIN { AnyEvent::common_sense }
1169
255use Carp; 1170use Carp ();
256 1171
257our $VERSION = '2.8'; 1172our $VERSION = '5.29';
258our $MODEL; 1173our $MODEL;
259 1174
260our $AUTOLOAD; 1175our $AUTOLOAD;
261our @ISA; 1176our @ISA;
262 1177
263our $verbose = $ENV{PERL_ANYEVENT_VERBOSE}*1;
264
265our @REGISTRY; 1178our @REGISTRY;
266 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 $ENV{PERL_ANYEVENT_PROTOCOLS} || "ipv4,ipv6";
1203}
1204
267my @models = ( 1205my @models = (
268 [Coro::EV:: => AnyEvent::Impl::CoroEV::],
269 [EV:: => AnyEvent::Impl::EV::], 1206 [EV:: => AnyEvent::Impl::EV:: , 1],
270 [Coro::Event:: => AnyEvent::Impl::Coro::], 1207 [AnyEvent::Impl::Perl:: => AnyEvent::Impl::Perl:: , 1],
1208 # everything below here will not (normally) be autoprobed
1209 # as the pureperl backend should work everywhere
1210 # and is usually faster
271 [Event:: => AnyEvent::Impl::Event::], 1211 [Event:: => AnyEvent::Impl::Event::, 1],
272 [Glib:: => AnyEvent::Impl::Glib::], 1212 [Glib:: => AnyEvent::Impl::Glib:: , 1], # becomes extremely slow with many watchers
1213 [Event::Lib:: => AnyEvent::Impl::EventLib::], # too buggy
1214 [Irssi:: => AnyEvent::Impl::Irssi::], # Irssi has a bogus "Event" package
1215 [Tk:: => AnyEvent::Impl::Tk::], # crashes with many handles
1216 [Qt:: => AnyEvent::Impl::Qt::], # requires special main program
1217 [POE::Kernel:: => AnyEvent::Impl::POE::], # lasciate ogni speranza
273 [Tk:: => AnyEvent::Impl::Tk::], 1218 [Wx:: => AnyEvent::Impl::POE::],
274 [AnyEvent::Impl::Perl:: => AnyEvent::Impl::Perl::], 1219 [Prima:: => AnyEvent::Impl::POE::],
1220 # IO::Async is just too broken - we would need workarounds for its
1221 # byzantine signal and broken child handling, among others.
1222 # IO::Async is rather hard to detect, as it doesn't have any
1223 # obvious default class.
1224 [IO::Async:: => AnyEvent::Impl::IOAsync::], # requires special main program
1225 [IO::Async::Loop:: => AnyEvent::Impl::IOAsync::], # requires special main program
1226 [IO::Async::Notifier:: => AnyEvent::Impl::IOAsync::], # requires special main program
1227 [AnyEvent::Impl::IOAsync:: => AnyEvent::Impl::IOAsync::], # requires special main program
275); 1228);
276 1229
277our %method = map +($_ => 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}
278 1248
279sub 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 $VERBOSE;
1263 }
1264 }
1265
1266 # check for already loaded models
280 unless ($MODEL) { 1267 unless ($MODEL) {
281 no strict 'refs';
282
283 # check for already loaded models
284 for (@REGISTRY, @models) { 1268 for (@REGISTRY, @models) {
285 my ($package, $model) = @$_; 1269 my ($package, $model) = @$_;
286 if (${"$package\::VERSION"} > 0) { 1270 if (${"$package\::VERSION"} > 0) {
287 if (eval "require $model") { 1271 if (eval "require $model") {
288 $MODEL = $model; 1272 $MODEL = $model;
289 warn "AnyEvent: found model '$model', using it.\n" if $verbose > 1; 1273 warn "AnyEvent: autodetected model '$model', using it.\n" if $VERBOSE >= 2;
290 last; 1274 last;
291 } 1275 }
292 } 1276 }
293 } 1277 }
294 1278
295 unless ($MODEL) { 1279 unless ($MODEL) {
296 # try to load a model 1280 # try to autoload a model
297
298 for (@REGISTRY, @models) { 1281 for (@REGISTRY, @models) {
299 my ($package, $model) = @$_; 1282 my ($package, $model, $autoload) = @$_;
1283 if (
1284 $autoload
300 if (eval "require $package" 1285 and eval "require $package"
301 and ${"$package\::VERSION"} > 0 1286 and ${"$package\::VERSION"} > 0
302 and eval "require $model") { 1287 and eval "require $model"
1288 ) {
303 $MODEL = $model; 1289 $MODEL = $model;
304 warn "AnyEvent: autoprobed and loaded model '$model', using it.\n" if $verbose > 1; 1290 warn "AnyEvent: autoloaded model '$model', using it.\n" if $VERBOSE >= 2;
305 last; 1291 last;
306 } 1292 }
307 } 1293 }
308 1294
309 $MODEL 1295 $MODEL
310 or die "No event module selected for AnyEvent and autodetect failed. Install any one of these modules: EV (or Coro+EV), Event (or Coro+Event), Glib or Tk."; 1296 or die "AnyEvent: backend autodetection failed - did you properly install AnyEvent?\n";
311 } 1297 }
312
313 unshift @ISA, $MODEL;
314 push @{"$MODEL\::ISA"}, "AnyEvent::Base";
315 } 1298 }
1299
1300 @models = (); # free probe data
1301
1302 push @{"$MODEL\::ISA"}, "AnyEvent::Base";
1303 unshift @ISA, $MODEL;
1304
1305 # now nuke some methods that are overridden by the backend.
1306 # SUPER is not allowed.
1307 for (qw(time signal child idle)) {
1308 undef &{"AnyEvent::Base::$_"}
1309 if defined &{"$MODEL\::$_"};
1310 }
1311
1312 if ($ENV{PERL_ANYEVENT_STRICT}) {
1313 eval { require AnyEvent::Strict };
1314 warn "AnyEvent: cannot load AnyEvent::Strict: $@"
1315 if $@ && $VERBOSE;
1316 }
1317
1318 (shift @post_detect)->() while @post_detect;
1319
1320 *post_detect = sub(&) {
1321 shift->();
1322
1323 undef
1324 };
316 1325
317 $MODEL 1326 $MODEL
318} 1327}
319 1328
320sub AUTOLOAD { 1329sub AUTOLOAD {
321 (my $func = $AUTOLOAD) =~ s/.*://; 1330 (my $func = $AUTOLOAD) =~ s/.*://;
322 1331
323 $method{$func} 1332 $method{$func}
324 or croak "$func: not a valid method for AnyEvent objects"; 1333 or Carp::croak "$func: not a valid AnyEvent class method";
325 1334
326 detect unless $MODEL; 1335 detect;
327 1336
328 my $class = shift; 1337 my $class = shift;
329 $class->$func (@_); 1338 $class->$func (@_);
330} 1339}
331 1340
1341# utility function to dup a filehandle. this is used by many backends
1342# to support binding more than one watcher per filehandle (they usually
1343# allow only one watcher per fd, so we dup it to get a different one).
1344sub _dupfh($$;$$) {
1345 my ($poll, $fh, $r, $w) = @_;
1346
1347 # cygwin requires the fh mode to be matching, unix doesn't
1348 my ($rw, $mode) = $poll eq "r" ? ($r, "<&") : ($w, ">&");
1349
1350 open my $fh2, $mode, $fh
1351 or die "AnyEvent->io: cannot dup() filehandle in mode '$poll': $!,";
1352
1353 # we assume CLOEXEC is already set by perl in all important cases
1354
1355 ($fh2, $rw)
1356}
1357
1358=head1 SIMPLIFIED AE API
1359
1360Starting with version 5.0, AnyEvent officially supports a second, much
1361simpler, API that is designed to reduce the calling, typing and memory
1362overhead by using function call syntax and a fixed number of parameters.
1363
1364See the L<AE> manpage for details.
1365
1366=cut
1367
1368package AE;
1369
1370our $VERSION = $AnyEvent::VERSION;
1371
1372# fall back to the main API by default - backends and AnyEvent::Base
1373# implementations can overwrite these.
1374
1375sub io($$$) {
1376 AnyEvent->io (fh => $_[0], poll => $_[1] ? "w" : "r", cb => $_[2])
1377}
1378
1379sub timer($$$) {
1380 AnyEvent->timer (after => $_[0], interval => $_[1], cb => $_[2])
1381}
1382
1383sub signal($$) {
1384 AnyEvent->signal (signal => $_[0], cb => $_[1])
1385}
1386
1387sub child($$) {
1388 AnyEvent->child (pid => $_[0], cb => $_[1])
1389}
1390
1391sub idle($) {
1392 AnyEvent->idle (cb => $_[0])
1393}
1394
1395sub cv(;&) {
1396 AnyEvent->condvar (@_ ? (cb => $_[0]) : ())
1397}
1398
1399sub now() {
1400 AnyEvent->now
1401}
1402
1403sub now_update() {
1404 AnyEvent->now_update
1405}
1406
1407sub time() {
1408 AnyEvent->time
1409}
1410
332package AnyEvent::Base; 1411package AnyEvent::Base;
333 1412
1413# default implementations for many methods
1414
1415sub time {
1416 eval q{ # poor man's autoloading {}
1417 # probe for availability of Time::HiRes
1418 if (eval "use Time::HiRes (); Time::HiRes::time (); 1") {
1419 warn "AnyEvent: using Time::HiRes for sub-second timing accuracy.\n" if $VERBOSE >= 8;
1420 *AE::time = \&Time::HiRes::time;
1421 # if (eval "use POSIX (); (POSIX::times())...
1422 } else {
1423 warn "AnyEvent: using built-in time(), WARNING, no sub-second resolution!\n" if $VERBOSE;
1424 *AE::time = sub (){ time }; # epic fail
1425 }
1426
1427 *time = sub { AE::time }; # different prototypes
1428 };
1429 die if $@;
1430
1431 &time
1432}
1433
1434*now = \&time;
1435
1436sub now_update { }
1437
334# default implementation for ->condvar, ->wait, ->broadcast 1438# default implementation for ->condvar
335 1439
336sub condvar { 1440sub condvar {
337 bless \my $flag, "AnyEvent::Base::CondVar" 1441 eval q{ # poor man's autoloading {}
338} 1442 *condvar = sub {
1443 bless { @_ == 3 ? (_ae_cb => $_[2]) : () }, "AnyEvent::CondVar"
1444 };
339 1445
340sub AnyEvent::Base::CondVar::broadcast { 1446 *AE::cv = sub (;&) {
341 ${$_[0]}++; 1447 bless { @_ ? (_ae_cb => shift) : () }, "AnyEvent::CondVar"
342} 1448 };
1449 };
1450 die if $@;
343 1451
344sub AnyEvent::Base::CondVar::wait { 1452 &condvar
345 AnyEvent->one_event while !${$_[0]};
346} 1453}
347 1454
348# default implementation for ->signal 1455# default implementation for ->signal
349 1456
350our %SIG_CB; 1457our $HAVE_ASYNC_INTERRUPT;
1458
1459sub _have_async_interrupt() {
1460 $HAVE_ASYNC_INTERRUPT = 1*(!$ENV{PERL_ANYEVENT_AVOID_ASYNC_INTERRUPT}
1461 && eval "use Async::Interrupt 1.02 (); 1")
1462 unless defined $HAVE_ASYNC_INTERRUPT;
1463
1464 $HAVE_ASYNC_INTERRUPT
1465}
1466
1467our ($SIGPIPE_R, $SIGPIPE_W, %SIG_CB, %SIG_EV, $SIG_IO);
1468our (%SIG_ASY, %SIG_ASY_W);
1469our ($SIG_COUNT, $SIG_TW);
1470
1471# install a dummy wakeup watcher to reduce signal catching latency
1472# used by Impls
1473sub _sig_add() {
1474 unless ($SIG_COUNT++) {
1475 # try to align timer on a full-second boundary, if possible
1476 my $NOW = AE::now;
1477
1478 $SIG_TW = AE::timer
1479 $MAX_SIGNAL_LATENCY - ($NOW - int $NOW),
1480 $MAX_SIGNAL_LATENCY,
1481 sub { } # just for the PERL_ASYNC_CHECK
1482 ;
1483 }
1484}
1485
1486sub _sig_del {
1487 undef $SIG_TW
1488 unless --$SIG_COUNT;
1489}
1490
1491our $_sig_name_init; $_sig_name_init = sub {
1492 eval q{ # poor man's autoloading {}
1493 undef $_sig_name_init;
1494
1495 if (_have_async_interrupt) {
1496 *sig2num = \&Async::Interrupt::sig2num;
1497 *sig2name = \&Async::Interrupt::sig2name;
1498 } else {
1499 require Config;
1500
1501 my %signame2num;
1502 @signame2num{ split ' ', $Config::Config{sig_name} }
1503 = split ' ', $Config::Config{sig_num};
1504
1505 my @signum2name;
1506 @signum2name[values %signame2num] = keys %signame2num;
1507
1508 *sig2num = sub($) {
1509 $_[0] > 0 ? shift : $signame2num{+shift}
1510 };
1511 *sig2name = sub ($) {
1512 $_[0] > 0 ? $signum2name[+shift] : shift
1513 };
1514 }
1515 };
1516 die if $@;
1517};
1518
1519sub sig2num ($) { &$_sig_name_init; &sig2num }
1520sub sig2name($) { &$_sig_name_init; &sig2name }
351 1521
352sub signal { 1522sub signal {
1523 eval q{ # poor man's autoloading {}
1524 # probe for availability of Async::Interrupt
1525 if (_have_async_interrupt) {
1526 warn "AnyEvent: using Async::Interrupt for race-free signal handling.\n" if $VERBOSE >= 8;
1527
1528 $SIGPIPE_R = new Async::Interrupt::EventPipe;
1529 $SIG_IO = AE::io $SIGPIPE_R->fileno, 0, \&_signal_exec;
1530
1531 } else {
1532 warn "AnyEvent: using emulated perl signal handling with latency timer.\n" if $VERBOSE >= 8;
1533
1534 if (AnyEvent::WIN32) {
1535 require AnyEvent::Util;
1536
1537 ($SIGPIPE_R, $SIGPIPE_W) = AnyEvent::Util::portable_pipe ();
1538 AnyEvent::Util::fh_nonblocking ($SIGPIPE_R, 1) if $SIGPIPE_R;
1539 AnyEvent::Util::fh_nonblocking ($SIGPIPE_W, 1) if $SIGPIPE_W; # just in case
1540 } else {
1541 pipe $SIGPIPE_R, $SIGPIPE_W;
1542 fcntl $SIGPIPE_R, AnyEvent::F_SETFL, AnyEvent::O_NONBLOCK if $SIGPIPE_R;
1543 fcntl $SIGPIPE_W, AnyEvent::F_SETFL, AnyEvent::O_NONBLOCK if $SIGPIPE_W; # just in case
1544
1545 # not strictly required, as $^F is normally 2, but let's make sure...
1546 fcntl $SIGPIPE_R, AnyEvent::F_SETFD, AnyEvent::FD_CLOEXEC;
1547 fcntl $SIGPIPE_W, AnyEvent::F_SETFD, AnyEvent::FD_CLOEXEC;
1548 }
1549
1550 $SIGPIPE_R
1551 or Carp::croak "AnyEvent: unable to create a signal reporting pipe: $!\n";
1552
1553 $SIG_IO = AE::io $SIGPIPE_R, 0, \&_signal_exec;
1554 }
1555
1556 *signal = $HAVE_ASYNC_INTERRUPT
1557 ? sub {
353 my (undef, %arg) = @_; 1558 my (undef, %arg) = @_;
354 1559
1560 # async::interrupt
355 my $signal = uc $arg{signal} 1561 my $signal = sig2num $arg{signal};
356 or Carp::croak "required option 'signal' is missing";
357
358 $SIG_CB{$signal}{$arg{cb}} = $arg{cb}; 1562 $SIG_CB{$signal}{$arg{cb}} = $arg{cb};
1563
1564 $SIG_ASY{$signal} ||= new Async::Interrupt
1565 cb => sub { undef $SIG_EV{$signal} },
1566 signal => $signal,
1567 pipe => [$SIGPIPE_R->filenos],
1568 pipe_autodrain => 0,
1569 ;
1570
1571 bless [$signal, $arg{cb}], "AnyEvent::Base::signal"
1572 }
1573 : sub {
1574 my (undef, %arg) = @_;
1575
1576 # pure perl
1577 my $signal = sig2name $arg{signal};
1578 $SIG_CB{$signal}{$arg{cb}} = $arg{cb};
1579
359 $SIG{$signal} ||= sub { 1580 $SIG{$signal} ||= sub {
1581 local $!;
1582 syswrite $SIGPIPE_W, "\x00", 1 unless %SIG_EV;
1583 undef $SIG_EV{$signal};
1584 };
1585
1586 # can't do signal processing without introducing races in pure perl,
1587 # so limit the signal latency.
1588 _sig_add;
1589
1590 bless [$signal, $arg{cb}], "AnyEvent::Base::signal"
1591 }
1592 ;
1593
1594 *AnyEvent::Base::signal::DESTROY = sub {
1595 my ($signal, $cb) = @{$_[0]};
1596
1597 _sig_del;
1598
1599 delete $SIG_CB{$signal}{$cb};
1600
1601 $HAVE_ASYNC_INTERRUPT
1602 ? delete $SIG_ASY{$signal}
1603 : # delete doesn't work with older perls - they then
1604 # print weird messages, or just unconditionally exit
1605 # instead of getting the default action.
1606 undef $SIG{$signal}
1607 unless keys %{ $SIG_CB{$signal} };
1608 };
1609
1610 *_signal_exec = sub {
1611 $HAVE_ASYNC_INTERRUPT
1612 ? $SIGPIPE_R->drain
1613 : sysread $SIGPIPE_R, (my $dummy), 9;
1614
1615 while (%SIG_EV) {
1616 for (keys %SIG_EV) {
1617 delete $SIG_EV{$_};
360 $_->() for values %{ $SIG_CB{$signal} || {} }; 1618 $_->() for values %{ $SIG_CB{$_} || {} };
1619 }
1620 }
1621 };
361 }; 1622 };
1623 die if $@;
362 1624
363 bless [$signal, $arg{cb}], "AnyEvent::Base::Signal" 1625 &signal
364}
365
366sub AnyEvent::Base::Signal::DESTROY {
367 my ($signal, $cb) = @{$_[0]};
368
369 delete $SIG_CB{$signal}{$cb};
370
371 $SIG{$signal} = 'DEFAULT' unless keys %{ $SIG_CB{$signal} };
372} 1626}
373 1627
374# default implementation for ->child 1628# default implementation for ->child
375 1629
376our %PID_CB; 1630our %PID_CB;
377our $CHLD_W; 1631our $CHLD_W;
378our $CHLD_DELAY_W; 1632our $CHLD_DELAY_W;
379our $PID_IDLE;
380our $WNOHANG; 1633our $WNOHANG;
381 1634
382sub _child_wait { 1635# used by many Impl's
383 while (0 < (my $pid = waitpid -1, $WNOHANG)) { 1636sub _emit_childstatus($$) {
1637 my (undef, $rpid, $rstatus) = @_;
1638
1639 $_->($rpid, $rstatus)
384 $_->($pid, $?) for (values %{ $PID_CB{$pid} || {} }), 1640 for values %{ $PID_CB{$rpid} || {} },
385 (values %{ $PID_CB{0} || {} }); 1641 values %{ $PID_CB{0} || {} };
386 }
387
388 undef $PID_IDLE;
389}
390
391sub _sigchld {
392 # make sure we deliver these changes "synchronous" with the event loop.
393 $CHLD_DELAY_W ||= AnyEvent->timer (after => 0, cb => sub {
394 undef $CHLD_DELAY_W;
395 &_child_wait;
396 });
397} 1642}
398 1643
399sub child { 1644sub child {
1645 eval q{ # poor man's autoloading {}
1646 *_sigchld = sub {
1647 my $pid;
1648
1649 AnyEvent->_emit_childstatus ($pid, $?)
1650 while ($pid = waitpid -1, $WNOHANG) > 0;
1651 };
1652
1653 *child = sub {
400 my (undef, %arg) = @_; 1654 my (undef, %arg) = @_;
401 1655
402 defined (my $pid = $arg{pid} + 0) 1656 defined (my $pid = $arg{pid} + 0)
403 or Carp::croak "required option 'pid' is missing"; 1657 or Carp::croak "required option 'pid' is missing";
404 1658
405 $PID_CB{$pid}{$arg{cb}} = $arg{cb}; 1659 $PID_CB{$pid}{$arg{cb}} = $arg{cb};
406 1660
407 unless ($WNOHANG) { 1661 # WNOHANG is almost cetrainly 1 everywhere
408 $WNOHANG = eval { require POSIX; &POSIX::WNOHANG } || 1; 1662 $WNOHANG ||= $^O =~ /^(?:openbsd|netbsd|linux|freebsd|cygwin|MSWin32)$/
409 } 1663 ? 1
1664 : eval { local $SIG{__DIE__}; require POSIX; &POSIX::WNOHANG } || 1;
410 1665
411 unless ($CHLD_W) { 1666 unless ($CHLD_W) {
412 $CHLD_W = AnyEvent->signal (signal => 'CHLD', cb => \&_sigchld); 1667 $CHLD_W = AE::signal CHLD => \&_sigchld;
413 # child could be a zombie already, so make at least one round 1668 # child could be a zombie already, so make at least one round
414 &_sigchld; 1669 &_sigchld;
415 } 1670 }
416 1671
417 bless [$pid, $arg{cb}], "AnyEvent::Base::Child" 1672 bless [$pid, $arg{cb}], "AnyEvent::Base::child"
418} 1673 };
419 1674
420sub AnyEvent::Base::Child::DESTROY { 1675 *AnyEvent::Base::child::DESTROY = sub {
421 my ($pid, $cb) = @{$_[0]}; 1676 my ($pid, $cb) = @{$_[0]};
422 1677
423 delete $PID_CB{$pid}{$cb}; 1678 delete $PID_CB{$pid}{$cb};
424 delete $PID_CB{$pid} unless keys %{ $PID_CB{$pid} }; 1679 delete $PID_CB{$pid} unless keys %{ $PID_CB{$pid} };
425 1680
426 undef $CHLD_W unless keys %PID_CB; 1681 undef $CHLD_W unless keys %PID_CB;
1682 };
1683 };
1684 die if $@;
1685
1686 &child
427} 1687}
1688
1689# idle emulation is done by simply using a timer, regardless
1690# of whether the process is idle or not, and not letting
1691# the callback use more than 50% of the time.
1692sub idle {
1693 eval q{ # poor man's autoloading {}
1694 *idle = sub {
1695 my (undef, %arg) = @_;
1696
1697 my ($cb, $w, $rcb) = $arg{cb};
1698
1699 $rcb = sub {
1700 if ($cb) {
1701 $w = _time;
1702 &$cb;
1703 $w = _time - $w;
1704
1705 # never use more then 50% of the time for the idle watcher,
1706 # within some limits
1707 $w = 0.0001 if $w < 0.0001;
1708 $w = 5 if $w > 5;
1709
1710 $w = AE::timer $w, 0, $rcb;
1711 } else {
1712 # clean up...
1713 undef $w;
1714 undef $rcb;
1715 }
1716 };
1717
1718 $w = AE::timer 0.05, 0, $rcb;
1719
1720 bless \\$cb, "AnyEvent::Base::idle"
1721 };
1722
1723 *AnyEvent::Base::idle::DESTROY = sub {
1724 undef $${$_[0]};
1725 };
1726 };
1727 die if $@;
1728
1729 &idle
1730}
1731
1732package AnyEvent::CondVar;
1733
1734our @ISA = AnyEvent::CondVar::Base::;
1735
1736# only to be used for subclassing
1737sub new {
1738 my $class = shift;
1739 bless AnyEvent->condvar (@_), $class
1740}
1741
1742package AnyEvent::CondVar::Base;
1743
1744#use overload
1745# '&{}' => sub { my $self = shift; sub { $self->send (@_) } },
1746# fallback => 1;
1747
1748# save 300+ kilobytes by dirtily hardcoding overloading
1749${"AnyEvent::CondVar::Base::OVERLOAD"}{dummy}++; # Register with magic by touching.
1750*{'AnyEvent::CondVar::Base::()'} = sub { }; # "Make it findable via fetchmethod."
1751*{'AnyEvent::CondVar::Base::(&{}'} = sub { my $self = shift; sub { $self->send (@_) } }; # &{}
1752${'AnyEvent::CondVar::Base::()'} = 1; # fallback
1753
1754our $WAITING;
1755
1756sub _send {
1757 # nop
1758}
1759
1760sub send {
1761 my $cv = shift;
1762 $cv->{_ae_sent} = [@_];
1763 (delete $cv->{_ae_cb})->($cv) if $cv->{_ae_cb};
1764 $cv->_send;
1765}
1766
1767sub croak {
1768 $_[0]{_ae_croak} = $_[1];
1769 $_[0]->send;
1770}
1771
1772sub ready {
1773 $_[0]{_ae_sent}
1774}
1775
1776sub _wait {
1777 $WAITING
1778 and !$_[0]{_ae_sent}
1779 and Carp::croak "AnyEvent::CondVar: recursive blocking wait detected";
1780
1781 local $WAITING = 1;
1782 AnyEvent->one_event while !$_[0]{_ae_sent};
1783}
1784
1785sub recv {
1786 $_[0]->_wait;
1787
1788 Carp::croak $_[0]{_ae_croak} if $_[0]{_ae_croak};
1789 wantarray ? @{ $_[0]{_ae_sent} } : $_[0]{_ae_sent}[0]
1790}
1791
1792sub cb {
1793 my $cv = shift;
1794
1795 @_
1796 and $cv->{_ae_cb} = shift
1797 and $cv->{_ae_sent}
1798 and (delete $cv->{_ae_cb})->($cv);
1799
1800 $cv->{_ae_cb}
1801}
1802
1803sub begin {
1804 ++$_[0]{_ae_counter};
1805 $_[0]{_ae_end_cb} = $_[1] if @_ > 1;
1806}
1807
1808sub end {
1809 return if --$_[0]{_ae_counter};
1810 &{ $_[0]{_ae_end_cb} || sub { $_[0]->send } };
1811}
1812
1813# undocumented/compatibility with pre-3.4
1814*broadcast = \&send;
1815*wait = \&_wait;
1816
1817=head1 ERROR AND EXCEPTION HANDLING
1818
1819In general, AnyEvent does not do any error handling - it relies on the
1820caller to do that if required. The L<AnyEvent::Strict> module (see also
1821the C<PERL_ANYEVENT_STRICT> environment variable, below) provides strict
1822checking of all AnyEvent methods, however, which is highly useful during
1823development.
1824
1825As for exception handling (i.e. runtime errors and exceptions thrown while
1826executing a callback), this is not only highly event-loop specific, but
1827also not in any way wrapped by this module, as this is the job of the main
1828program.
1829
1830The pure perl event loop simply re-throws the exception (usually
1831within C<< condvar->recv >>), the L<Event> and L<EV> modules call C<<
1832$Event/EV::DIED->() >>, L<Glib> uses C<< install_exception_handler >> and
1833so on.
1834
1835=head1 ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES
1836
1837The following environment variables are used by this module or its
1838submodules.
1839
1840Note that AnyEvent will remove I<all> environment variables starting with
1841C<PERL_ANYEVENT_> from C<%ENV> when it is loaded while taint mode is
1842enabled.
1843
1844=over 4
1845
1846=item C<PERL_ANYEVENT_VERBOSE>
1847
1848By default, AnyEvent will be completely silent except in fatal
1849conditions. You can set this environment variable to make AnyEvent more
1850talkative.
1851
1852When set to C<1> or higher, causes AnyEvent to warn about unexpected
1853conditions, such as not being able to load the event model specified by
1854C<PERL_ANYEVENT_MODEL>.
1855
1856When set to C<2> or higher, cause AnyEvent to report to STDERR which event
1857model it chooses.
1858
1859When set to C<8> or higher, then AnyEvent will report extra information on
1860which optional modules it loads and how it implements certain features.
1861
1862=item C<PERL_ANYEVENT_STRICT>
1863
1864AnyEvent does not do much argument checking by default, as thorough
1865argument checking is very costly. Setting this variable to a true value
1866will cause AnyEvent to load C<AnyEvent::Strict> and then to thoroughly
1867check the arguments passed to most method calls. If it finds any problems,
1868it will croak.
1869
1870In other words, enables "strict" mode.
1871
1872Unlike C<use strict> (or its modern cousin, C<< use L<common::sense>
1873>>, it is definitely recommended to keep it off in production. Keeping
1874C<PERL_ANYEVENT_STRICT=1> in your environment while developing programs
1875can be very useful, however.
1876
1877=item C<PERL_ANYEVENT_MODEL>
1878
1879This can be used to specify the event model to be used by AnyEvent, before
1880auto detection and -probing kicks in. It must be a string consisting
1881entirely of ASCII letters. The string C<AnyEvent::Impl::> gets prepended
1882and the resulting module name is loaded and if the load was successful,
1883used as event model. If it fails to load AnyEvent will proceed with
1884auto detection and -probing.
1885
1886This functionality might change in future versions.
1887
1888For example, to force the pure perl model (L<AnyEvent::Impl::Perl>) you
1889could start your program like this:
1890
1891 PERL_ANYEVENT_MODEL=Perl perl ...
1892
1893=item C<PERL_ANYEVENT_PROTOCOLS>
1894
1895Used by both L<AnyEvent::DNS> and L<AnyEvent::Socket> to determine preferences
1896for IPv4 or IPv6. The default is unspecified (and might change, or be the result
1897of auto probing).
1898
1899Must be set to a comma-separated list of protocols or address families,
1900current supported: C<ipv4> and C<ipv6>. Only protocols mentioned will be
1901used, and preference will be given to protocols mentioned earlier in the
1902list.
1903
1904This variable can effectively be used for denial-of-service attacks
1905against local programs (e.g. when setuid), although the impact is likely
1906small, as the program has to handle conenction and other failures anyways.
1907
1908Examples: C<PERL_ANYEVENT_PROTOCOLS=ipv4,ipv6> - prefer IPv4 over IPv6,
1909but support both and try to use both. C<PERL_ANYEVENT_PROTOCOLS=ipv4>
1910- only support IPv4, never try to resolve or contact IPv6
1911addresses. C<PERL_ANYEVENT_PROTOCOLS=ipv6,ipv4> support either IPv4 or
1912IPv6, but prefer IPv6 over IPv4.
1913
1914=item C<PERL_ANYEVENT_EDNS0>
1915
1916Used by L<AnyEvent::DNS> to decide whether to use the EDNS0 extension
1917for DNS. This extension is generally useful to reduce DNS traffic, but
1918some (broken) firewalls drop such DNS packets, which is why it is off by
1919default.
1920
1921Setting this variable to C<1> will cause L<AnyEvent::DNS> to announce
1922EDNS0 in its DNS requests.
1923
1924=item C<PERL_ANYEVENT_MAX_FORKS>
1925
1926The maximum number of child processes that C<AnyEvent::Util::fork_call>
1927will create in parallel.
1928
1929=item C<PERL_ANYEVENT_MAX_OUTSTANDING_DNS>
1930
1931The default value for the C<max_outstanding> parameter for the default DNS
1932resolver - this is the maximum number of parallel DNS requests that are
1933sent to the DNS server.
1934
1935=item C<PERL_ANYEVENT_RESOLV_CONF>
1936
1937The file to use instead of F</etc/resolv.conf> (or OS-specific
1938configuration) in the default resolver. When set to the empty string, no
1939default config will be used.
1940
1941=item C<PERL_ANYEVENT_CA_FILE>, C<PERL_ANYEVENT_CA_PATH>.
1942
1943When neither C<ca_file> nor C<ca_path> was specified during
1944L<AnyEvent::TLS> context creation, and either of these environment
1945variables exist, they will be used to specify CA certificate locations
1946instead of a system-dependent default.
1947
1948=item C<PERL_ANYEVENT_AVOID_GUARD> and C<PERL_ANYEVENT_AVOID_ASYNC_INTERRUPT>
1949
1950When these are set to C<1>, then the respective modules are not
1951loaded. Mostly good for testing AnyEvent itself.
1952
1953=back
428 1954
429=head1 SUPPLYING YOUR OWN EVENT MODEL INTERFACE 1955=head1 SUPPLYING YOUR OWN EVENT MODEL INTERFACE
1956
1957This is an advanced topic that you do not normally need to use AnyEvent in
1958a module. This section is only of use to event loop authors who want to
1959provide AnyEvent compatibility.
430 1960
431If you need to support another event library which isn't directly 1961If you need to support another event library which isn't directly
432supported by AnyEvent, you can supply your own interface to it by 1962supported by AnyEvent, you can supply your own interface to it by
433pushing, before the first watcher gets created, the package name of 1963pushing, before the first watcher gets created, the package name of
434the event module and the package name of the interface to use onto 1964the event module and the package name of the interface to use onto
435C<@AnyEvent::REGISTRY>. You can do that before and even without loading 1965C<@AnyEvent::REGISTRY>. You can do that before and even without loading
436AnyEvent. 1966AnyEvent, so it is reasonably cheap.
437 1967
438Example: 1968Example:
439 1969
440 push @AnyEvent::REGISTRY, [urxvt => urxvt::anyevent::]; 1970 push @AnyEvent::REGISTRY, [urxvt => urxvt::anyevent::];
441 1971
442This tells AnyEvent to (literally) use the C<urxvt::anyevent::> 1972This tells AnyEvent to (literally) use the C<urxvt::anyevent::>
443package/class when it finds the C<urxvt> package/module is loaded. When 1973package/class when it finds the C<urxvt> package/module is already loaded.
1974
444AnyEvent is loaded and asked to find a suitable event model, it will 1975When AnyEvent is loaded and asked to find a suitable event model, it
445first check for the presence of urxvt. 1976will first check for the presence of urxvt by trying to C<use> the
1977C<urxvt::anyevent> module.
446 1978
447The class should provide implementations for all watcher types (see 1979The class should provide implementations for all watcher types. See
448L<AnyEvent::Impl::Event> (source code), L<AnyEvent::Impl::Glib> 1980L<AnyEvent::Impl::EV> (source code), L<AnyEvent::Impl::Glib> (Source code)
449(Source code) and so on for actual examples, use C<perldoc -m 1981and so on for actual examples. Use C<perldoc -m AnyEvent::Impl::Glib> to
450AnyEvent::Impl::Glib> to see the sources). 1982see the sources.
451 1983
1984If you don't provide C<signal> and C<child> watchers than AnyEvent will
1985provide suitable (hopefully) replacements.
1986
452The above isn't fictitious, the I<rxvt-unicode> (a.k.a. urxvt) 1987The above example isn't fictitious, the I<rxvt-unicode> (a.k.a. urxvt)
453uses the above line as-is. An interface isn't included in AnyEvent 1988terminal emulator uses the above line as-is. An interface isn't included
454because it doesn't make sense outside the embedded interpreter inside 1989in AnyEvent because it doesn't make sense outside the embedded interpreter
455I<rxvt-unicode>, and it is updated and maintained as part of the 1990inside I<rxvt-unicode>, and it is updated and maintained as part of the
456I<rxvt-unicode> distribution. 1991I<rxvt-unicode> distribution.
457 1992
458I<rxvt-unicode> also cheats a bit by not providing blocking access to 1993I<rxvt-unicode> also cheats a bit by not providing blocking access to
459condition variables: code blocking while waiting for a condition will 1994condition variables: code blocking while waiting for a condition will
460C<die>. This still works with most modules/usages, and blocking calls must 1995C<die>. This still works with most modules/usages, and blocking calls must
461not be in an interactive application, so it makes sense. 1996not be done in an interactive application, so it makes sense.
462 1997
463=head1 ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES
464
465The following environment variables are used by this module:
466
467C<PERL_ANYEVENT_VERBOSE> when set to C<2> or higher, reports which event
468model gets used.
469
470=head1 EXAMPLE 1998=head1 EXAMPLE PROGRAM
471 1999
472The following program uses an io watcher to read data from stdin, a timer 2000The following program uses an I/O watcher to read data from STDIN, a timer
473to display a message once per second, and a condvar to exit the program 2001to display a message once per second, and a condition variable to quit the
474when the user enters quit: 2002program when the user enters quit:
475 2003
476 use AnyEvent; 2004 use AnyEvent;
477 2005
478 my $cv = AnyEvent->condvar; 2006 my $cv = AnyEvent->condvar;
479 2007
480 my $io_watcher = AnyEvent->io (fh => \*STDIN, poll => 'r', cb => sub { 2008 my $io_watcher = AnyEvent->io (
2009 fh => \*STDIN,
2010 poll => 'r',
2011 cb => sub {
481 warn "io event <$_[0]>\n"; # will always output <r> 2012 warn "io event <$_[0]>\n"; # will always output <r>
482 chomp (my $input = <STDIN>); # read a line 2013 chomp (my $input = <STDIN>); # read a line
483 warn "read: $input\n"; # output what has been read 2014 warn "read: $input\n"; # output what has been read
484 $cv->broadcast if $input =~ /^q/i; # quit program if /^q/i 2015 $cv->send if $input =~ /^q/i; # quit program if /^q/i
2016 },
2017 );
2018
2019 my $time_watcher = AnyEvent->timer (after => 1, interval => 1, cb => sub {
2020 warn "timeout\n"; # print 'timeout' at most every second
485 }); 2021 });
486 2022
487 my $time_watcher; # can only be used once
488
489 sub new_timer {
490 $timer = AnyEvent->timer (after => 1, cb => sub {
491 warn "timeout\n"; # print 'timeout' about every second
492 &new_timer; # and restart the time
493 });
494 }
495
496 new_timer; # create first timer
497
498 $cv->wait; # wait until user enters /^q/i 2023 $cv->recv; # wait until user enters /^q/i
499 2024
500=head1 REAL-WORLD EXAMPLE 2025=head1 REAL-WORLD EXAMPLE
501 2026
502Consider the L<Net::FCP> module. It features (among others) the following 2027Consider the L<Net::FCP> module. It features (among others) the following
503API calls, which are to freenet what HTTP GET requests are to http: 2028API calls, which are to freenet what HTTP GET requests are to http:
553 syswrite $txn->{fh}, $txn->{request} 2078 syswrite $txn->{fh}, $txn->{request}
554 or die "connection or write error"; 2079 or die "connection or write error";
555 $txn->{w} = AnyEvent->io (fh => $txn->{fh}, poll => 'r', cb => sub { $txn->fh_ready_r }); 2080 $txn->{w} = AnyEvent->io (fh => $txn->{fh}, poll => 'r', cb => sub { $txn->fh_ready_r });
556 2081
557Again, C<fh_ready_r> waits till all data has arrived, and then stores the 2082Again, C<fh_ready_r> waits till all data has arrived, and then stores the
558result and signals any possible waiters that the request ahs finished: 2083result and signals any possible waiters that the request has finished:
559 2084
560 sysread $txn->{fh}, $txn->{buf}, length $txn->{$buf}; 2085 sysread $txn->{fh}, $txn->{buf}, length $txn->{$buf};
561 2086
562 if (end-of-file or data complete) { 2087 if (end-of-file or data complete) {
563 $txn->{result} = $txn->{buf}; 2088 $txn->{result} = $txn->{buf};
564 $txn->{finished}->broadcast; 2089 $txn->{finished}->send;
565 $txb->{cb}->($txn) of $txn->{cb}; # also call callback 2090 $txb->{cb}->($txn) of $txn->{cb}; # also call callback
566 } 2091 }
567 2092
568The C<result> method, finally, just waits for the finished signal (if the 2093The C<result> method, finally, just waits for the finished signal (if the
569request was already finished, it doesn't wait, of course, and returns the 2094request was already finished, it doesn't wait, of course, and returns the
570data: 2095data:
571 2096
572 $txn->{finished}->wait; 2097 $txn->{finished}->recv;
573 return $txn->{result}; 2098 return $txn->{result};
574 2099
575The actual code goes further and collects all errors (C<die>s, exceptions) 2100The actual code goes further and collects all errors (C<die>s, exceptions)
576that occured during request processing. The C<result> method detects 2101that occurred during request processing. The C<result> method detects
577wether an exception as thrown (it is stored inside the $txn object) 2102whether an exception as thrown (it is stored inside the $txn object)
578and just throws the exception, which means connection errors and other 2103and just throws the exception, which means connection errors and other
579problems get reported tot he code that tries to use the result, not in a 2104problems get reported to the code that tries to use the result, not in a
580random callback. 2105random callback.
581 2106
582All of this enables the following usage styles: 2107All of this enables the following usage styles:
583 2108
5841. Blocking: 21091. Blocking:
585 2110
586 my $data = $fcp->client_get ($url); 2111 my $data = $fcp->client_get ($url);
587 2112
5882. Blocking, but parallelizing: 21132. Blocking, but running in parallel:
589 2114
590 my @datas = map $_->result, 2115 my @datas = map $_->result,
591 map $fcp->txn_client_get ($_), 2116 map $fcp->txn_client_get ($_),
592 @urls; 2117 @urls;
593 2118
594Both blocking examples work without the module user having to know 2119Both blocking examples work without the module user having to know
595anything about events. 2120anything about events.
596 2121
5973a. Event-based in a main program, using any support Event module: 21223a. Event-based in a main program, using any supported event module:
598 2123
599 use Event; 2124 use EV;
600 2125
601 $fcp->txn_client_get ($url)->cb (sub { 2126 $fcp->txn_client_get ($url)->cb (sub {
602 my $txn = shift; 2127 my $txn = shift;
603 my $data = $txn->result; 2128 my $data = $txn->result;
604 ... 2129 ...
605 }); 2130 });
606 2131
607 Event::loop; 2132 EV::loop;
608 2133
6093b. The module user could use AnyEvent, too: 21343b. The module user could use AnyEvent, too:
610 2135
611 use AnyEvent; 2136 use AnyEvent;
612 2137
613 my $quit = AnyEvent->condvar; 2138 my $quit = AnyEvent->condvar;
614 2139
615 $fcp->txn_client_get ($url)->cb (sub { 2140 $fcp->txn_client_get ($url)->cb (sub {
616 ... 2141 ...
617 $quit->broadcast; 2142 $quit->send;
618 }); 2143 });
619 2144
620 $quit->wait; 2145 $quit->recv;
2146
2147
2148=head1 BENCHMARKS
2149
2150To give you an idea of the performance and overheads that AnyEvent adds
2151over the event loops themselves and to give you an impression of the speed
2152of various event loops I prepared some benchmarks.
2153
2154=head2 BENCHMARKING ANYEVENT OVERHEAD
2155
2156Here is a benchmark of various supported event models used natively and
2157through AnyEvent. The benchmark creates a lot of timers (with a zero
2158timeout) and I/O watchers (watching STDOUT, a pty, to become writable,
2159which it is), lets them fire exactly once and destroys them again.
2160
2161Source code for this benchmark is found as F<eg/bench> in the AnyEvent
2162distribution. It uses the L<AE> interface, which makes a real difference
2163for the EV and Perl backends only.
2164
2165=head3 Explanation of the columns
2166
2167I<watcher> is the number of event watchers created/destroyed. Since
2168different event models feature vastly different performances, each event
2169loop was given a number of watchers so that overall runtime is acceptable
2170and similar between tested event loop (and keep them from crashing): Glib
2171would probably take thousands of years if asked to process the same number
2172of watchers as EV in this benchmark.
2173
2174I<bytes> is the number of bytes (as measured by the resident set size,
2175RSS) consumed by each watcher. This method of measuring captures both C
2176and Perl-based overheads.
2177
2178I<create> is the time, in microseconds (millionths of seconds), that it
2179takes to create a single watcher. The callback is a closure shared between
2180all watchers, to avoid adding memory overhead. That means closure creation
2181and memory usage is not included in the figures.
2182
2183I<invoke> is the time, in microseconds, used to invoke a simple
2184callback. The callback simply counts down a Perl variable and after it was
2185invoked "watcher" times, it would C<< ->send >> a condvar once to
2186signal the end of this phase.
2187
2188I<destroy> is the time, in microseconds, that it takes to destroy a single
2189watcher.
2190
2191=head3 Results
2192
2193 name watchers bytes create invoke destroy comment
2194 EV/EV 100000 223 0.47 0.43 0.27 EV native interface
2195 EV/Any 100000 223 0.48 0.42 0.26 EV + AnyEvent watchers
2196 Coro::EV/Any 100000 223 0.47 0.42 0.26 coroutines + Coro::Signal
2197 Perl/Any 100000 431 2.70 0.74 0.92 pure perl implementation
2198 Event/Event 16000 516 31.16 31.84 0.82 Event native interface
2199 Event/Any 16000 1203 42.61 34.79 1.80 Event + AnyEvent watchers
2200 IOAsync/Any 16000 1911 41.92 27.45 16.81 via IO::Async::Loop::IO_Poll
2201 IOAsync/Any 16000 1726 40.69 26.37 15.25 via IO::Async::Loop::Epoll
2202 Glib/Any 16000 1118 89.00 12.57 51.17 quadratic behaviour
2203 Tk/Any 2000 1346 20.96 10.75 8.00 SEGV with >> 2000 watchers
2204 POE/Any 2000 6951 108.97 795.32 14.24 via POE::Loop::Event
2205 POE/Any 2000 6648 94.79 774.40 575.51 via POE::Loop::Select
2206
2207=head3 Discussion
2208
2209The benchmark does I<not> measure scalability of the event loop very
2210well. For example, a select-based event loop (such as the pure perl one)
2211can never compete with an event loop that uses epoll when the number of
2212file descriptors grows high. In this benchmark, all events become ready at
2213the same time, so select/poll-based implementations get an unnatural speed
2214boost.
2215
2216Also, note that the number of watchers usually has a nonlinear effect on
2217overall speed, that is, creating twice as many watchers doesn't take twice
2218the time - usually it takes longer. This puts event loops tested with a
2219higher number of watchers at a disadvantage.
2220
2221To put the range of results into perspective, consider that on the
2222benchmark machine, handling an event takes roughly 1600 CPU cycles with
2223EV, 3100 CPU cycles with AnyEvent's pure perl loop and almost 3000000 CPU
2224cycles with POE.
2225
2226C<EV> is the sole leader regarding speed and memory use, which are both
2227maximal/minimal, respectively. When using the L<AE> API there is zero
2228overhead (when going through the AnyEvent API create is about 5-6 times
2229slower, with other times being equal, so still uses far less memory than
2230any other event loop and is still faster than Event natively).
2231
2232The pure perl implementation is hit in a few sweet spots (both the
2233constant timeout and the use of a single fd hit optimisations in the perl
2234interpreter and the backend itself). Nevertheless this shows that it
2235adds very little overhead in itself. Like any select-based backend its
2236performance becomes really bad with lots of file descriptors (and few of
2237them active), of course, but this was not subject of this benchmark.
2238
2239The C<Event> module has a relatively high setup and callback invocation
2240cost, but overall scores in on the third place.
2241
2242C<IO::Async> performs admirably well, about on par with C<Event>, even
2243when using its pure perl backend.
2244
2245C<Glib>'s memory usage is quite a bit higher, but it features a
2246faster callback invocation and overall ends up in the same class as
2247C<Event>. However, Glib scales extremely badly, doubling the number of
2248watchers increases the processing time by more than a factor of four,
2249making it completely unusable when using larger numbers of watchers
2250(note that only a single file descriptor was used in the benchmark, so
2251inefficiencies of C<poll> do not account for this).
2252
2253The C<Tk> adaptor works relatively well. The fact that it crashes with
2254more than 2000 watchers is a big setback, however, as correctness takes
2255precedence over speed. Nevertheless, its performance is surprising, as the
2256file descriptor is dup()ed for each watcher. This shows that the dup()
2257employed by some adaptors is not a big performance issue (it does incur a
2258hidden memory cost inside the kernel which is not reflected in the figures
2259above).
2260
2261C<POE>, regardless of underlying event loop (whether using its pure perl
2262select-based backend or the Event module, the POE-EV backend couldn't
2263be tested because it wasn't working) shows abysmal performance and
2264memory usage with AnyEvent: Watchers use almost 30 times as much memory
2265as EV watchers, and 10 times as much memory as Event (the high memory
2266requirements are caused by requiring a session for each watcher). Watcher
2267invocation speed is almost 900 times slower than with AnyEvent's pure perl
2268implementation.
2269
2270The design of the POE adaptor class in AnyEvent can not really account
2271for the performance issues, though, as session creation overhead is
2272small compared to execution of the state machine, which is coded pretty
2273optimally within L<AnyEvent::Impl::POE> (and while everybody agrees that
2274using multiple sessions is not a good approach, especially regarding
2275memory usage, even the author of POE could not come up with a faster
2276design).
2277
2278=head3 Summary
2279
2280=over 4
2281
2282=item * Using EV through AnyEvent is faster than any other event loop
2283(even when used without AnyEvent), but most event loops have acceptable
2284performance with or without AnyEvent.
2285
2286=item * The overhead AnyEvent adds is usually much smaller than the overhead of
2287the actual event loop, only with extremely fast event loops such as EV
2288adds AnyEvent significant overhead.
2289
2290=item * You should avoid POE like the plague if you want performance or
2291reasonable memory usage.
2292
2293=back
2294
2295=head2 BENCHMARKING THE LARGE SERVER CASE
2296
2297This benchmark actually benchmarks the event loop itself. It works by
2298creating a number of "servers": each server consists of a socket pair, a
2299timeout watcher that gets reset on activity (but never fires), and an I/O
2300watcher waiting for input on one side of the socket. Each time the socket
2301watcher reads a byte it will write that byte to a random other "server".
2302
2303The effect is that there will be a lot of I/O watchers, only part of which
2304are active at any one point (so there is a constant number of active
2305fds for each loop iteration, but which fds these are is random). The
2306timeout is reset each time something is read because that reflects how
2307most timeouts work (and puts extra pressure on the event loops).
2308
2309In this benchmark, we use 10000 socket pairs (20000 sockets), of which 100
2310(1%) are active. This mirrors the activity of large servers with many
2311connections, most of which are idle at any one point in time.
2312
2313Source code for this benchmark is found as F<eg/bench2> in the AnyEvent
2314distribution. It uses the L<AE> interface, which makes a real difference
2315for the EV and Perl backends only.
2316
2317=head3 Explanation of the columns
2318
2319I<sockets> is the number of sockets, and twice the number of "servers" (as
2320each server has a read and write socket end).
2321
2322I<create> is the time it takes to create a socket pair (which is
2323nontrivial) and two watchers: an I/O watcher and a timeout watcher.
2324
2325I<request>, the most important value, is the time it takes to handle a
2326single "request", that is, reading the token from the pipe and forwarding
2327it to another server. This includes deleting the old timeout and creating
2328a new one that moves the timeout into the future.
2329
2330=head3 Results
2331
2332 name sockets create request
2333 EV 20000 62.66 7.99
2334 Perl 20000 68.32 32.64
2335 IOAsync 20000 174.06 101.15 epoll
2336 IOAsync 20000 174.67 610.84 poll
2337 Event 20000 202.69 242.91
2338 Glib 20000 557.01 1689.52
2339 POE 20000 341.54 12086.32 uses POE::Loop::Event
2340
2341=head3 Discussion
2342
2343This benchmark I<does> measure scalability and overall performance of the
2344particular event loop.
2345
2346EV is again fastest. Since it is using epoll on my system, the setup time
2347is relatively high, though.
2348
2349Perl surprisingly comes second. It is much faster than the C-based event
2350loops Event and Glib.
2351
2352IO::Async performs very well when using its epoll backend, and still quite
2353good compared to Glib when using its pure perl backend.
2354
2355Event suffers from high setup time as well (look at its code and you will
2356understand why). Callback invocation also has a high overhead compared to
2357the C<< $_->() for .. >>-style loop that the Perl event loop uses. Event
2358uses select or poll in basically all documented configurations.
2359
2360Glib is hit hard by its quadratic behaviour w.r.t. many watchers. It
2361clearly fails to perform with many filehandles or in busy servers.
2362
2363POE is still completely out of the picture, taking over 1000 times as long
2364as EV, and over 100 times as long as the Perl implementation, even though
2365it uses a C-based event loop in this case.
2366
2367=head3 Summary
2368
2369=over 4
2370
2371=item * The pure perl implementation performs extremely well.
2372
2373=item * Avoid Glib or POE in large projects where performance matters.
2374
2375=back
2376
2377=head2 BENCHMARKING SMALL SERVERS
2378
2379While event loops should scale (and select-based ones do not...) even to
2380large servers, most programs we (or I :) actually write have only a few
2381I/O watchers.
2382
2383In this benchmark, I use the same benchmark program as in the large server
2384case, but it uses only eight "servers", of which three are active at any
2385one time. This should reflect performance for a small server relatively
2386well.
2387
2388The columns are identical to the previous table.
2389
2390=head3 Results
2391
2392 name sockets create request
2393 EV 16 20.00 6.54
2394 Perl 16 25.75 12.62
2395 Event 16 81.27 35.86
2396 Glib 16 32.63 15.48
2397 POE 16 261.87 276.28 uses POE::Loop::Event
2398
2399=head3 Discussion
2400
2401The benchmark tries to test the performance of a typical small
2402server. While knowing how various event loops perform is interesting, keep
2403in mind that their overhead in this case is usually not as important, due
2404to the small absolute number of watchers (that is, you need efficiency and
2405speed most when you have lots of watchers, not when you only have a few of
2406them).
2407
2408EV is again fastest.
2409
2410Perl again comes second. It is noticeably faster than the C-based event
2411loops Event and Glib, although the difference is too small to really
2412matter.
2413
2414POE also performs much better in this case, but is is still far behind the
2415others.
2416
2417=head3 Summary
2418
2419=over 4
2420
2421=item * C-based event loops perform very well with small number of
2422watchers, as the management overhead dominates.
2423
2424=back
2425
2426=head2 THE IO::Lambda BENCHMARK
2427
2428Recently I was told about the benchmark in the IO::Lambda manpage, which
2429could be misinterpreted to make AnyEvent look bad. In fact, the benchmark
2430simply compares IO::Lambda with POE, and IO::Lambda looks better (which
2431shouldn't come as a surprise to anybody). As such, the benchmark is
2432fine, and mostly shows that the AnyEvent backend from IO::Lambda isn't
2433very optimal. But how would AnyEvent compare when used without the extra
2434baggage? To explore this, I wrote the equivalent benchmark for AnyEvent.
2435
2436The benchmark itself creates an echo-server, and then, for 500 times,
2437connects to the echo server, sends a line, waits for the reply, and then
2438creates the next connection. This is a rather bad benchmark, as it doesn't
2439test the efficiency of the framework or much non-blocking I/O, but it is a
2440benchmark nevertheless.
2441
2442 name runtime
2443 Lambda/select 0.330 sec
2444 + optimized 0.122 sec
2445 Lambda/AnyEvent 0.327 sec
2446 + optimized 0.138 sec
2447 Raw sockets/select 0.077 sec
2448 POE/select, components 0.662 sec
2449 POE/select, raw sockets 0.226 sec
2450 POE/select, optimized 0.404 sec
2451
2452 AnyEvent/select/nb 0.085 sec
2453 AnyEvent/EV/nb 0.068 sec
2454 +state machine 0.134 sec
2455
2456The benchmark is also a bit unfair (my fault): the IO::Lambda/POE
2457benchmarks actually make blocking connects and use 100% blocking I/O,
2458defeating the purpose of an event-based solution. All of the newly
2459written AnyEvent benchmarks use 100% non-blocking connects (using
2460AnyEvent::Socket::tcp_connect and the asynchronous pure perl DNS
2461resolver), so AnyEvent is at a disadvantage here, as non-blocking connects
2462generally require a lot more bookkeeping and event handling than blocking
2463connects (which involve a single syscall only).
2464
2465The last AnyEvent benchmark additionally uses L<AnyEvent::Handle>, which
2466offers similar expressive power as POE and IO::Lambda, using conventional
2467Perl syntax. This means that both the echo server and the client are 100%
2468non-blocking, further placing it at a disadvantage.
2469
2470As you can see, the AnyEvent + EV combination even beats the
2471hand-optimised "raw sockets benchmark", while AnyEvent + its pure perl
2472backend easily beats IO::Lambda and POE.
2473
2474And even the 100% non-blocking version written using the high-level (and
2475slow :) L<AnyEvent::Handle> abstraction beats both POE and IO::Lambda
2476higher level ("unoptimised") abstractions by a large margin, even though
2477it does all of DNS, tcp-connect and socket I/O in a non-blocking way.
2478
2479The two AnyEvent benchmarks programs can be found as F<eg/ae0.pl> and
2480F<eg/ae2.pl> in the AnyEvent distribution, the remaining benchmarks are
2481part of the IO::Lambda distribution and were used without any changes.
2482
2483
2484=head1 SIGNALS
2485
2486AnyEvent currently installs handlers for these signals:
2487
2488=over 4
2489
2490=item SIGCHLD
2491
2492A handler for C<SIGCHLD> is installed by AnyEvent's child watcher
2493emulation for event loops that do not support them natively. Also, some
2494event loops install a similar handler.
2495
2496Additionally, when AnyEvent is loaded and SIGCHLD is set to IGNORE, then
2497AnyEvent will reset it to default, to avoid losing child exit statuses.
2498
2499=item SIGPIPE
2500
2501A no-op handler is installed for C<SIGPIPE> when C<$SIG{PIPE}> is C<undef>
2502when AnyEvent gets loaded.
2503
2504The rationale for this is that AnyEvent users usually do not really depend
2505on SIGPIPE delivery (which is purely an optimisation for shell use, or
2506badly-written programs), but C<SIGPIPE> can cause spurious and rare
2507program exits as a lot of people do not expect C<SIGPIPE> when writing to
2508some random socket.
2509
2510The rationale for installing a no-op handler as opposed to ignoring it is
2511that this way, the handler will be restored to defaults on exec.
2512
2513Feel free to install your own handler, or reset it to defaults.
2514
2515=back
2516
2517=cut
2518
2519undef $SIG{CHLD}
2520 if $SIG{CHLD} eq 'IGNORE';
2521
2522$SIG{PIPE} = sub { }
2523 unless defined $SIG{PIPE};
2524
2525=head1 RECOMMENDED/OPTIONAL MODULES
2526
2527One of AnyEvent's main goals is to be 100% Pure-Perl(tm): only perl (and
2528its built-in modules) are required to use it.
2529
2530That does not mean that AnyEvent won't take advantage of some additional
2531modules if they are installed.
2532
2533This section explains which additional modules will be used, and how they
2534affect AnyEvent's operation.
2535
2536=over 4
2537
2538=item L<Async::Interrupt>
2539
2540This slightly arcane module is used to implement fast signal handling: To
2541my knowledge, there is no way to do completely race-free and quick
2542signal handling in pure perl. To ensure that signals still get
2543delivered, AnyEvent will start an interval timer to wake up perl (and
2544catch the signals) with some delay (default is 10 seconds, look for
2545C<$AnyEvent::MAX_SIGNAL_LATENCY>).
2546
2547If this module is available, then it will be used to implement signal
2548catching, which means that signals will not be delayed, and the event loop
2549will not be interrupted regularly, which is more efficient (and good for
2550battery life on laptops).
2551
2552This affects not just the pure-perl event loop, but also other event loops
2553that have no signal handling on their own (e.g. Glib, Tk, Qt).
2554
2555Some event loops (POE, Event, Event::Lib) offer signal watchers natively,
2556and either employ their own workarounds (POE) or use AnyEvent's workaround
2557(using C<$AnyEvent::MAX_SIGNAL_LATENCY>). Installing L<Async::Interrupt>
2558does nothing for those backends.
2559
2560=item L<EV>
2561
2562This module isn't really "optional", as it is simply one of the backend
2563event loops that AnyEvent can use. However, it is simply the best event
2564loop available in terms of features, speed and stability: It supports
2565the AnyEvent API optimally, implements all the watcher types in XS, does
2566automatic timer adjustments even when no monotonic clock is available,
2567can take avdantage of advanced kernel interfaces such as C<epoll> and
2568C<kqueue>, and is the fastest backend I<by far>. You can even embed
2569L<Glib>/L<Gtk2> in it (or vice versa, see L<EV::Glib> and L<Glib::EV>).
2570
2571If you only use backends that rely on another event loop (e.g. C<Tk>),
2572then this module will do nothing for you.
2573
2574=item L<Guard>
2575
2576The guard module, when used, will be used to implement
2577C<AnyEvent::Util::guard>. This speeds up guards considerably (and uses a
2578lot less memory), but otherwise doesn't affect guard operation much. It is
2579purely used for performance.
2580
2581=item L<JSON> and L<JSON::XS>
2582
2583One of these modules is required when you want to read or write JSON data
2584via L<AnyEvent::Handle>. L<JSON> is also written in pure-perl, but can take
2585advantage of the ultra-high-speed L<JSON::XS> module when it is installed.
2586
2587=item L<Net::SSLeay>
2588
2589Implementing TLS/SSL in Perl is certainly interesting, but not very
2590worthwhile: If this module is installed, then L<AnyEvent::Handle> (with
2591the help of L<AnyEvent::TLS>), gains the ability to do TLS/SSL.
2592
2593=item L<Time::HiRes>
2594
2595This module is part of perl since release 5.008. It will be used when the
2596chosen event library does not come with a timing source of its own. The
2597pure-perl event loop (L<AnyEvent::Impl::Perl>) will additionally use it to
2598try to use a monotonic clock for timing stability.
2599
2600=back
2601
2602
2603=head1 FORK
2604
2605Most event libraries are not fork-safe. The ones who are usually are
2606because they rely on inefficient but fork-safe C<select> or C<poll> calls
2607- higher performance APIs such as BSD's kqueue or the dreaded Linux epoll
2608are usually badly thought-out hacks that are incompatible with fork in
2609one way or another. Only L<EV> is fully fork-aware and ensures that you
2610continue event-processing in both parent and child (or both, if you know
2611what you are doing).
2612
2613This means that, in general, you cannot fork and do event processing in
2614the child if the event library was initialised before the fork (which
2615usually happens when the first AnyEvent watcher is created, or the library
2616is loaded).
2617
2618If you have to fork, you must either do so I<before> creating your first
2619watcher OR you must not use AnyEvent at all in the child OR you must do
2620something completely out of the scope of AnyEvent.
2621
2622The problem of doing event processing in the parent I<and> the child
2623is much more complicated: even for backends that I<are> fork-aware or
2624fork-safe, their behaviour is not usually what you want: fork clones all
2625watchers, that means all timers, I/O watchers etc. are active in both
2626parent and child, which is almost never what you want. USing C<exec>
2627to start worker children from some kind of manage rprocess is usually
2628preferred, because it is much easier and cleaner, at the expense of having
2629to have another binary.
2630
2631
2632=head1 SECURITY CONSIDERATIONS
2633
2634AnyEvent can be forced to load any event model via
2635$ENV{PERL_ANYEVENT_MODEL}. While this cannot (to my knowledge) be used to
2636execute arbitrary code or directly gain access, it can easily be used to
2637make the program hang or malfunction in subtle ways, as AnyEvent watchers
2638will not be active when the program uses a different event model than
2639specified in the variable.
2640
2641You can make AnyEvent completely ignore this variable by deleting it
2642before the first watcher gets created, e.g. with a C<BEGIN> block:
2643
2644 BEGIN { delete $ENV{PERL_ANYEVENT_MODEL} }
2645
2646 use AnyEvent;
2647
2648Similar considerations apply to $ENV{PERL_ANYEVENT_VERBOSE}, as that can
2649be used to probe what backend is used and gain other information (which is
2650probably even less useful to an attacker than PERL_ANYEVENT_MODEL), and
2651$ENV{PERL_ANYEVENT_STRICT}.
2652
2653Note that AnyEvent will remove I<all> environment variables starting with
2654C<PERL_ANYEVENT_> from C<%ENV> when it is loaded while taint mode is
2655enabled.
2656
2657
2658=head1 BUGS
2659
2660Perl 5.8 has numerous memleaks that sometimes hit this module and are hard
2661to work around. If you suffer from memleaks, first upgrade to Perl 5.10
2662and check wether the leaks still show up. (Perl 5.10.0 has other annoying
2663memleaks, such as leaking on C<map> and C<grep> but it is usually not as
2664pronounced).
2665
621 2666
622=head1 SEE ALSO 2667=head1 SEE ALSO
623 2668
624Event modules: L<Coro::Event>, L<Coro>, L<Event>, L<Glib::Event>, L<Glib>. 2669Tutorial/Introduction: L<AnyEvent::Intro>.
625 2670
626Implementations: L<AnyEvent::Impl::Coro>, L<AnyEvent::Impl::Event>, L<AnyEvent::Impl::Glib>, L<AnyEvent::Impl::Tk>. 2671FAQ: L<AnyEvent::FAQ>.
627 2672
628Nontrivial usage example: L<Net::FCP>. 2673Utility functions: L<AnyEvent::Util>.
629 2674
630=head1 2675Event modules: L<EV>, L<EV::Glib>, L<Glib::EV>, L<Event>, L<Glib::Event>,
2676L<Glib>, L<Tk>, L<Event::Lib>, L<Qt>, L<POE>.
2677
2678Implementations: L<AnyEvent::Impl::EV>, L<AnyEvent::Impl::Event>,
2679L<AnyEvent::Impl::Glib>, L<AnyEvent::Impl::Tk>, L<AnyEvent::Impl::Perl>,
2680L<AnyEvent::Impl::EventLib>, L<AnyEvent::Impl::Qt>,
2681L<AnyEvent::Impl::POE>, L<AnyEvent::Impl::IOAsync>, L<Anyevent::Impl::Irssi>.
2682
2683Non-blocking file handles, sockets, TCP clients and
2684servers: L<AnyEvent::Handle>, L<AnyEvent::Socket>, L<AnyEvent::TLS>.
2685
2686Asynchronous DNS: L<AnyEvent::DNS>.
2687
2688Thread support: L<Coro>, L<Coro::AnyEvent>, L<Coro::EV>, L<Coro::Event>.
2689
2690Nontrivial usage examples: L<AnyEvent::GPSD>, L<AnyEvent::IRC>,
2691L<AnyEvent::HTTP>.
2692
2693
2694=head1 AUTHOR
2695
2696 Marc Lehmann <schmorp@schmorp.de>
2697 http://home.schmorp.de/
631 2698
632=cut 2699=cut
633 2700
6341 27011
635 2702

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