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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 + EV? No go. Tk + Event? No go. Again: if your module
91uses one of those, every user of your module has to use it, too. But if
92your module uses AnyEvent, it works transparently with all event models it
93supports (including stuff like IO::Async, as long as those use one of the
94supported event loops. It is easy to add new event loops to AnyEvent, too,
95so it is future-proof).
96
97In addition to being free of having to use I<the one and only true event
98model>, AnyEvent also is free of bloat and policy: with POE or similar
99modules, you get an enormous amount of code and strict rules you have to
100follow. AnyEvent, on the other hand, is lean and to the point, by only
101offering the functionality that is necessary, in as thin as a wrapper as
102technically possible.
103
104Of course, AnyEvent comes with a big (and fully optional!) toolbox
105of useful functionality, such as an asynchronous DNS resolver, 100%
106non-blocking connects (even with TLS/SSL, IPv6 and on broken platforms
107such as Windows) and lots of real-world knowledge and workarounds for
108platform bugs and differences.
109
110Now, if you I<do want> lots of policy (this can arguably be somewhat
111useful) and you want to force your users to use the one and only event
112model, you should I<not> use this module.
22 113
23=head1 DESCRIPTION 114=head1 DESCRIPTION
24 115
25L<AnyEvent> provides an identical interface to multiple event loops. This 116L<AnyEvent> provides a uniform interface to various event loops. This
26allows module authors to utilise an event loop without forcing module 117allows module authors to use event loop functionality without forcing
27users to use the same event loop (as only a single event loop can coexist 118module users to use a specific event loop implementation (since more
28peacefully at any one time). 119than one event loop cannot coexist peacefully).
29 120
30The interface itself is vaguely similar but not identical to the Event 121The interface itself is vaguely similar, but not identical to the L<Event>
31module. 122module.
32 123
33On the first call of any method, the module tries to detect the currently 124During the first call of any watcher-creation method, the module tries
34loaded event loop by probing wether any of the following modules is 125to detect the currently loaded event loop by probing whether one of the
35loaded: L<Coro::Event>, L<Event>, L<Glib>, L<Tk>. The first one found is 126following modules is already loaded: L<EV>, L<AnyEvent::Impl::Perl>,
36used. If none is found, the module tries to load these modules in the 127L<Event>, L<Glib>, L<Tk>, L<Event::Lib>, L<Qt>, L<POE>. The first one
37order given. The first one that could be successfully loaded will be 128found is used. If none are detected, the module tries to load the first
38used. If still none could be found, AnyEvent will fall back to a pure-perl 129four modules in the order given; but note that if L<EV> is not
39event loop, which is also not very efficient. 130available, the pure-perl L<AnyEvent::Impl::Perl> should always work, so
131the other two are not normally tried.
40 132
41Because AnyEvent first checks for modules that are already loaded, loading 133Because AnyEvent first checks for modules that are already loaded, loading
42an Event model explicitly before first using AnyEvent will likely make 134an event model explicitly before first using AnyEvent will likely make
43that model the default. For example: 135that model the default. For example:
44 136
45 use Tk; 137 use Tk;
46 use AnyEvent; 138 use AnyEvent;
47 139
48 # .. AnyEvent will likely default to Tk 140 # .. AnyEvent will likely default to Tk
49 141
142The I<likely> means that, if any module loads another event model and
143starts using it, all bets are off - this case should be very rare though,
144as very few modules hardcode event loops without announcing this very
145loudly.
146
50The pure-perl implementation of AnyEvent is called 147The pure-perl implementation of AnyEvent is called
51C<AnyEvent::Impl::Perl>. Like other event modules you can load it 148C<AnyEvent::Impl::Perl>. Like other event modules you can load it
52explicitly. 149explicitly and enjoy the high availability of that event loop :)
53 150
54=head1 WATCHERS 151=head1 WATCHERS
55 152
56AnyEvent has the central concept of a I<watcher>, which is an object that 153AnyEvent has the central concept of a I<watcher>, which is an object that
57stores relevant data for each kind of event you are waiting for, such as 154stores relevant data for each kind of event you are waiting for, such as
58the callback to call, the filehandle to watch, etc. 155the callback to call, the file handle to watch, etc.
59 156
60These watchers are normal Perl objects with normal Perl lifetime. After 157These watchers are normal Perl objects with normal Perl lifetime. After
61creating a watcher it will immediately "watch" for events and invoke 158creating a watcher it will immediately "watch" for events and invoke the
159callback when the event occurs (of course, only when the event model
160is in control).
161
162Note that B<callbacks must not permanently change global variables>
163potentially in use by the event loop (such as C<$_> or C<$[>) and that B<<
164callbacks must not C<die> >>. The former is good programming practice in
165Perl and the latter stems from the fact that exception handling differs
166widely between event loops.
167
62the callback. To disable the watcher you have to destroy it (e.g. by 168To disable a watcher you have to destroy it (e.g. by setting the
63setting the variable that stores it to C<undef> or otherwise deleting all 169variable you store it in to C<undef> or otherwise deleting all references
64references to it). 170to it).
65 171
66All watchers are created by calling a method on the C<AnyEvent> class. 172All watchers are created by calling a method on the C<AnyEvent> class.
67 173
174Many watchers either are used with "recursion" (repeating timers for
175example), or need to refer to their watcher object in other ways.
176
177One way to achieve that is this pattern:
178
179 my $w; $w = AnyEvent->type (arg => value ..., cb => sub {
180 # you can use $w here, for example to undef it
181 undef $w;
182 });
183
184Note that C<my $w; $w => combination. This is necessary because in Perl,
185my variables are only visible after the statement in which they are
186declared.
187
68=head2 IO WATCHERS 188=head2 I/O WATCHERS
69 189
190 $w = AnyEvent->io (
191 fh => <filehandle_or_fileno>,
192 poll => <"r" or "w">,
193 cb => <callback>,
194 );
195
70You can create I/O watcher by calling the C<< AnyEvent->io >> method with 196You can create an I/O watcher by calling the C<< AnyEvent->io >> method
71the following mandatory arguments: 197with the following mandatory key-value pairs as arguments:
72 198
73C<fh> the Perl I<filehandle> (not filedescriptor) to watch for 199C<fh> is the Perl I<file handle> (or a naked file descriptor) to watch
200for events (AnyEvent might or might not keep a reference to this file
201handle). Note that only file handles pointing to things for which
202non-blocking operation makes sense are allowed. This includes sockets,
203most character devices, pipes, fifos and so on, but not for example files
204or block devices.
205
74events. C<poll> must be a string that is either C<r> or C<w>, that creates 206C<poll> must be a string that is either C<r> or C<w>, which creates a
75a watcher waiting for "r"eadable or "w"ritable events. C<cb> teh callback 207watcher waiting for "r"eadable or "w"ritable events, respectively.
76to invoke everytime the filehandle becomes ready.
77 208
78Only one io watcher per C<fh> and C<poll> combination is allowed (i.e. on 209C<cb> is the callback to invoke each time the file handle becomes ready.
79a socket you can have one r + one w, not any more (limitation comes from
80Tk - if you are sure you are not using Tk this limitation is gone).
81 210
82Filehandles will be kept alive, so as long as the watcher exists, the 211Although the callback might get passed parameters, their value and
83filehandle exists, too. 212presence is undefined and you cannot rely on them. Portable AnyEvent
213callbacks cannot use arguments passed to I/O watcher callbacks.
84 214
85Example: 215The I/O watcher might use the underlying file descriptor or a copy of it.
216You must not close a file handle as long as any watcher is active on the
217underlying file descriptor.
86 218
219Some event loops issue spurious readiness notifications, so you should
220always use non-blocking calls when reading/writing from/to your file
221handles.
222
87 # wait for readability of STDIN, then read a line and disable the watcher 223Example: wait for readability of STDIN, then read a line and disable the
224watcher.
225
88 my $w; $w = AnyEvent->io (fh => \*STDIN, poll => 'r', cb => sub { 226 my $w; $w = AnyEvent->io (fh => \*STDIN, poll => 'r', cb => sub {
89 chomp (my $input = <STDIN>); 227 chomp (my $input = <STDIN>);
90 warn "read: $input\n"; 228 warn "read: $input\n";
91 undef $w; 229 undef $w;
92 }); 230 });
93 231
94=head2 TIME WATCHERS 232=head2 TIME WATCHERS
95 233
234 $w = AnyEvent->timer (after => <seconds>, cb => <callback>);
235
236 $w = AnyEvent->timer (
237 after => <fractional_seconds>,
238 interval => <fractional_seconds>,
239 cb => <callback>,
240 );
241
96You can create a time watcher by calling the C<< AnyEvent->timer >> 242You can create a time watcher by calling the C<< AnyEvent->timer >>
97method with the following mandatory arguments: 243method with the following mandatory arguments:
98 244
99C<after> after how many seconds (fractions are supported) should the timer 245C<after> specifies after how many seconds (fractional values are
100activate. C<cb> the callback to invoke. 246supported) the callback should be invoked. C<cb> is the callback to invoke
247in that case.
101 248
102The timer callback will be invoked at most once: if you want a repeating 249Although the callback might get passed parameters, their value and
103timer you have to create a new watcher (this is a limitation by both Tk 250presence is undefined and you cannot rely on them. Portable AnyEvent
104and Glib). 251callbacks cannot use arguments passed to time watcher callbacks.
105 252
106Example: 253The callback will normally be invoked only once. If you specify another
254parameter, C<interval>, as a strictly positive number (> 0), then the
255callback will be invoked regularly at that interval (in fractional
256seconds) after the first invocation. If C<interval> is specified with a
257false value, then it is treated as if it were not specified at all.
107 258
259The callback will be rescheduled before invoking the callback, but no
260attempt is made to avoid timer drift in most backends, so the interval is
261only approximate.
262
108 # fire an event after 7.7 seconds 263Example: fire an event after 7.7 seconds.
264
109 my $w = AnyEvent->timer (after => 7.7, cb => sub { 265 my $w = AnyEvent->timer (after => 7.7, cb => sub {
110 warn "timeout\n"; 266 warn "timeout\n";
111 }); 267 });
112 268
113 # to cancel the timer: 269 # to cancel the timer:
114 undef $w 270 undef $w;
115 271
116=head2 CONDITION WATCHERS 272Example 2: fire an event after 0.5 seconds, then roughly every second.
117 273
118Condition watchers can be created by calling the C<< AnyEvent->condvar >> 274 my $w = AnyEvent->timer (after => 0.5, interval => 1, cb => sub {
119method without any arguments. 275 warn "timeout\n";
276 };
120 277
121A condition watcher watches for a condition - precisely that the C<< 278=head3 TIMING ISSUES
122->broadcast >> method has been called.
123 279
124The watcher has only two methods: 280There are two ways to handle timers: based on real time (relative, "fire
281in 10 seconds") and based on wallclock time (absolute, "fire at 12
282o'clock").
283
284While most event loops expect timers to specified in a relative way, they
285use absolute time internally. This makes a difference when your clock
286"jumps", for example, when ntp decides to set your clock backwards from
287the wrong date of 2014-01-01 to 2008-01-01, a watcher that is supposed to
288fire "after a second" might actually take six years to finally fire.
289
290AnyEvent cannot compensate for this. The only event loop that is conscious
291of these issues is L<EV>, which offers both relative (ev_timer, based
292on true relative time) and absolute (ev_periodic, based on wallclock time)
293timers.
294
295AnyEvent always prefers relative timers, if available, matching the
296AnyEvent API.
297
298AnyEvent has two additional methods that return the "current time":
125 299
126=over 4 300=over 4
127 301
128=item $cv->wait 302=item AnyEvent->time
129 303
130Wait (blocking if necessary) until the C<< ->broadcast >> method has been 304This returns the "current wallclock time" as a fractional number of
131called on c<$cv>, while servicing other watchers normally. 305seconds since the Epoch (the same thing as C<time> or C<Time::HiRes::time>
306return, and the result is guaranteed to be compatible with those).
132 307
133Not all event models support a blocking wait - some die in that case, so 308It progresses independently of any event loop processing, i.e. each call
134if you are using this from a module, never require a blocking wait, but 309will check the system clock, which usually gets updated frequently.
135let the caller decide wether the call will block or not (for example,
136by coupling condition variables with some kind of request results and
137supporting callbacks so the caller knows that getting the result will not
138block, while still suppporting blockign waits if the caller so desires).
139 310
140You can only wait once on a condition - additional calls will return 311=item AnyEvent->now
141immediately.
142 312
143=item $cv->broadcast 313This also returns the "current wallclock time", but unlike C<time>, above,
314this value might change only once per event loop iteration, depending on
315the event loop (most return the same time as C<time>, above). This is the
316time that AnyEvent's timers get scheduled against.
144 317
145Flag the condition as ready - a running C<< ->wait >> and all further 318I<In almost all cases (in all cases if you don't care), this is the
146calls to C<wait> will return after this method has been called. If nobody 319function to call when you want to know the current time.>
147is waiting the broadcast will be remembered..
148 320
149Example: 321This function is also often faster then C<< AnyEvent->time >>, and
322thus the preferred method if you want some timestamp (for example,
323L<AnyEvent::Handle> uses this to update its activity timeouts).
150 324
151 # wait till the result is ready 325The rest of this section is only of relevance if you try to be very exact
152 my $result_ready = AnyEvent->condvar; 326with your timing; you can skip it without a bad conscience.
153 327
154 # do something such as adding a timer 328For a practical example of when these times differ, consider L<Event::Lib>
155 # or socket watcher the calls $result_ready->broadcast 329and L<EV> and the following set-up:
156 # when the "result" is ready.
157 330
158 $result_ready->wait; 331The event loop is running and has just invoked one of your callbacks at
332time=500 (assume no other callbacks delay processing). In your callback,
333you wait a second by executing C<sleep 1> (blocking the process for a
334second) and then (at time=501) you create a relative timer that fires
335after three seconds.
336
337With L<Event::Lib>, C<< AnyEvent->time >> and C<< AnyEvent->now >> will
338both return C<501>, because that is the current time, and the timer will
339be scheduled to fire at time=504 (C<501> + C<3>).
340
341With L<EV>, C<< AnyEvent->time >> returns C<501> (as that is the current
342time), but C<< AnyEvent->now >> returns C<500>, as that is the time the
343last event processing phase started. With L<EV>, your timer gets scheduled
344to run at time=503 (C<500> + C<3>).
345
346In one sense, L<Event::Lib> is more exact, as it uses the current time
347regardless of any delays introduced by event processing. However, most
348callbacks do not expect large delays in processing, so this causes a
349higher drift (and a lot more system calls to get the current time).
350
351In another sense, L<EV> is more exact, as your timer will be scheduled at
352the same time, regardless of how long event processing actually took.
353
354In either case, if you care (and in most cases, you don't), then you
355can get whatever behaviour you want with any event loop, by taking the
356difference between C<< AnyEvent->time >> and C<< AnyEvent->now >> into
357account.
358
359=item AnyEvent->now_update
360
361Some event loops (such as L<EV> or L<AnyEvent::Impl::Perl>) cache
362the current time for each loop iteration (see the discussion of L<<
363AnyEvent->now >>, above).
364
365When a callback runs for a long time (or when the process sleeps), then
366this "current" time will differ substantially from the real time, which
367might affect timers and time-outs.
368
369When this is the case, you can call this method, which will update the
370event loop's idea of "current time".
371
372A typical example would be a script in a web server (e.g. C<mod_perl>) -
373when mod_perl executes the script, then the event loop will have the wrong
374idea about the "current time" (being potentially far in the past, when the
375script ran the last time). In that case you should arrange a call to C<<
376AnyEvent->now_update >> each time the web server process wakes up again
377(e.g. at the start of your script, or in a handler).
378
379Note that updating the time I<might> cause some events to be handled.
159 380
160=back 381=back
161 382
162=head2 SIGNAL WATCHERS 383=head2 SIGNAL WATCHERS
163 384
385 $w = AnyEvent->signal (signal => <uppercase_signal_name>, cb => <callback>);
386
164You can listen for signals using a signal watcher, C<signal> is the signal 387You can watch for signals using a signal watcher, C<signal> is the signal
165I<name> without any C<SIG> prefix. Multiple signals events can be clumped 388I<name> in uppercase and without any C<SIG> prefix, C<cb> is the Perl
166together into one callback invocation, and callback invocation might or 389callback to be invoked whenever a signal occurs.
167might not be asynchronous.
168 390
169These watchers might use C<%SIG>, so programs overwriting those signals 391Although the callback might get passed parameters, their value and
170directly will likely not work correctly. 392presence is undefined and you cannot rely on them. Portable AnyEvent
393callbacks cannot use arguments passed to signal watcher callbacks.
394
395Multiple signal occurrences can be clumped together into one callback
396invocation, and callback invocation will be synchronous. Synchronous means
397that it might take a while until the signal gets handled by the process,
398but it is guaranteed not to interrupt any other callbacks.
399
400The main advantage of using these watchers is that you can share a signal
401between multiple watchers, and AnyEvent will ensure that signals will not
402interrupt your program at bad times.
403
404This watcher might use C<%SIG> (depending on the event loop used),
405so programs overwriting those signals directly will likely not work
406correctly.
171 407
172Example: exit on SIGINT 408Example: exit on SIGINT
173 409
174 my $w = AnyEvent->signal (signal => "INT", cb => sub { exit 1 }); 410 my $w = AnyEvent->signal (signal => "INT", cb => sub { exit 1 });
175 411
412=head3 Restart Behaviour
413
414While restart behaviour is up to the event loop implementation, most will
415not restart syscalls (that includes L<Async::Interrupt> and AnyEvent's
416pure perl implementation).
417
418=head3 Safe/Unsafe Signals
419
420Perl signals can be either "safe" (synchronous to opcode handling) or
421"unsafe" (asynchronous) - the former might get delayed indefinitely, the
422latter might corrupt your memory.
423
424AnyEvent signal handlers are, in addition, synchronous to the event loop,
425i.e. they will not interrupt your running perl program but will only be
426called as part of the normal event handling (just like timer, I/O etc.
427callbacks, too).
428
429=head3 Signal Races, Delays and Workarounds
430
431Many event loops (e.g. Glib, Tk, Qt, IO::Async) do not support attaching
432callbacks to signals in a generic way, which is a pity, as you cannot
433do race-free signal handling in perl, requiring C libraries for
434this. AnyEvent will try to do its best, which means in some cases,
435signals will be delayed. The maximum time a signal might be delayed is
436specified in C<$AnyEvent::MAX_SIGNAL_LATENCY> (default: 10 seconds). This
437variable can be changed only before the first signal watcher is created,
438and should be left alone otherwise. This variable determines how often
439AnyEvent polls for signals (in case a wake-up was missed). Higher values
440will cause fewer spurious wake-ups, which is better for power and CPU
441saving.
442
443All these problems can be avoided by installing the optional
444L<Async::Interrupt> module, which works with most event loops. It will not
445work with inherently broken event loops such as L<Event> or L<Event::Lib>
446(and not with L<POE> currently, as POE does its own workaround with
447one-second latency). For those, you just have to suffer the delays.
448
176=head2 CHILD PROCESS WATCHERS 449=head2 CHILD PROCESS WATCHERS
177 450
178You can also listen for the status of a child process specified by the 451 $w = AnyEvent->child (pid => <process id>, cb => <callback>);
179C<pid> argument. The watcher will only trigger once. This works by
180installing a signal handler for C<SIGCHLD>.
181 452
182Example: wait for pid 1333 453You can also watch for a child process exit and catch its exit status.
183 454
184 my $w = AnyEvent->child (pid => 1333, cb => sub { warn "exit status $?" }); 455The child process is specified by the C<pid> argument (on some backends,
456using C<0> watches for any child process exit, on others this will
457croak). The watcher will be triggered only when the child process has
458finished and an exit status is available, not on any trace events
459(stopped/continued).
185 460
186=head1 GLOBALS 461The callback will be called with the pid and exit status (as returned by
462waitpid), so unlike other watcher types, you I<can> rely on child watcher
463callback arguments.
464
465This watcher type works by installing a signal handler for C<SIGCHLD>,
466and since it cannot be shared, nothing else should use SIGCHLD or reap
467random child processes (waiting for specific child processes, e.g. inside
468C<system>, is just fine).
469
470There is a slight catch to child watchers, however: you usually start them
471I<after> the child process was created, and this means the process could
472have exited already (and no SIGCHLD will be sent anymore).
473
474Not all event models handle this correctly (neither POE nor IO::Async do,
475see their AnyEvent::Impl manpages for details), but even for event models
476that I<do> handle this correctly, they usually need to be loaded before
477the process exits (i.e. before you fork in the first place). AnyEvent's
478pure perl event loop handles all cases correctly regardless of when you
479start the watcher.
480
481This means you cannot create a child watcher as the very first
482thing in an AnyEvent program, you I<have> to create at least one
483watcher before you C<fork> the child (alternatively, you can call
484C<AnyEvent::detect>).
485
486As most event loops do not support waiting for child events, they will be
487emulated by AnyEvent in most cases, in which the latency and race problems
488mentioned in the description of signal watchers apply.
489
490Example: fork a process and wait for it
491
492 my $done = AnyEvent->condvar;
493
494 my $pid = fork or exit 5;
495
496 my $w = AnyEvent->child (
497 pid => $pid,
498 cb => sub {
499 my ($pid, $status) = @_;
500 warn "pid $pid exited with status $status";
501 $done->send;
502 },
503 );
504
505 # do something else, then wait for process exit
506 $done->recv;
507
508=head2 IDLE WATCHERS
509
510 $w = AnyEvent->idle (cb => <callback>);
511
512This will repeatedly invoke the callback after the process becomes idle,
513until either the watcher is destroyed or new events have been detected.
514
515Idle watchers are useful when there is a need to do something, but it
516is not so important (or wise) to do it instantly. The callback will be
517invoked only when there is "nothing better to do", which is usually
518defined as "all outstanding events have been handled and no new events
519have been detected". That means that idle watchers ideally get invoked
520when the event loop has just polled for new events but none have been
521detected. Instead of blocking to wait for more events, the idle watchers
522will be invoked.
523
524Unfortunately, most event loops do not really support idle watchers (only
525EV, Event and Glib do it in a usable fashion) - for the rest, AnyEvent
526will simply call the callback "from time to time".
527
528Example: read lines from STDIN, but only process them when the
529program is otherwise idle:
530
531 my @lines; # read data
532 my $idle_w;
533 my $io_w = AnyEvent->io (fh => \*STDIN, poll => 'r', cb => sub {
534 push @lines, scalar <STDIN>;
535
536 # start an idle watcher, if not already done
537 $idle_w ||= AnyEvent->idle (cb => sub {
538 # handle only one line, when there are lines left
539 if (my $line = shift @lines) {
540 print "handled when idle: $line";
541 } else {
542 # otherwise disable the idle watcher again
543 undef $idle_w;
544 }
545 });
546 });
547
548=head2 CONDITION VARIABLES
549
550 $cv = AnyEvent->condvar;
551
552 $cv->send (<list>);
553 my @res = $cv->recv;
554
555If you are familiar with some event loops you will know that all of them
556require you to run some blocking "loop", "run" or similar function that
557will actively watch for new events and call your callbacks.
558
559AnyEvent is slightly different: it expects somebody else to run the event
560loop and will only block when necessary (usually when told by the user).
561
562The tool to do that is called a "condition variable", so called because
563they represent a condition that must become true.
564
565Now is probably a good time to look at the examples further below.
566
567Condition variables can be created by calling the C<< AnyEvent->condvar
568>> method, usually without arguments. The only argument pair allowed is
569C<cb>, which specifies a callback to be called when the condition variable
570becomes true, with the condition variable as the first argument (but not
571the results).
572
573After creation, the condition variable is "false" until it becomes "true"
574by calling the C<send> method (or calling the condition variable as if it
575were a callback, read about the caveats in the description for the C<<
576->send >> method).
577
578Since condition variables are the most complex part of the AnyEvent API, here are
579some different mental models of what they are - pick the ones you can connect to:
187 580
188=over 4 581=over 4
189 582
583=item * Condition variables are like callbacks - you can call them (and pass them instead
584of callbacks). Unlike callbacks however, you can also wait for them to be called.
585
586=item * Condition variables are signals - one side can emit or send them,
587the other side can wait for them, or install a handler that is called when
588the signal fires.
589
590=item * Condition variables are like "Merge Points" - points in your program
591where you merge multiple independent results/control flows into one.
592
593=item * Condition variables represent a transaction - functions that start
594some kind of transaction can return them, leaving the caller the choice
595between waiting in a blocking fashion, or setting a callback.
596
597=item * Condition variables represent future values, or promises to deliver
598some result, long before the result is available.
599
600=back
601
602Condition variables are very useful to signal that something has finished,
603for example, if you write a module that does asynchronous http requests,
604then a condition variable would be the ideal candidate to signal the
605availability of results. The user can either act when the callback is
606called or can synchronously C<< ->recv >> for the results.
607
608You can also use them to simulate traditional event loops - for example,
609you can block your main program until an event occurs - for example, you
610could C<< ->recv >> in your main program until the user clicks the Quit
611button of your app, which would C<< ->send >> the "quit" event.
612
613Note that condition variables recurse into the event loop - if you have
614two pieces of code that call C<< ->recv >> in a round-robin fashion, you
615lose. Therefore, condition variables are good to export to your caller, but
616you should avoid making a blocking wait yourself, at least in callbacks,
617as this asks for trouble.
618
619Condition variables are represented by hash refs in perl, and the keys
620used by AnyEvent itself are all named C<_ae_XXX> to make subclassing
621easy (it is often useful to build your own transaction class on top of
622AnyEvent). To subclass, use C<AnyEvent::CondVar> as base class and call
623its C<new> method in your own C<new> method.
624
625There are two "sides" to a condition variable - the "producer side" which
626eventually calls C<< -> send >>, and the "consumer side", which waits
627for the send to occur.
628
629Example: wait for a timer.
630
631 # condition: "wait till the timer is fired"
632 my $timer_fired = AnyEvent->condvar;
633
634 # create the timer - we could wait for, say
635 # a handle becomign ready, or even an
636 # AnyEvent::HTTP request to finish, but
637 # in this case, we simply use a timer:
638 my $w = AnyEvent->timer (
639 after => 1,
640 cb => sub { $timer_fired->send },
641 );
642
643 # this "blocks" (while handling events) till the callback
644 # calls ->send
645 $timer_fired->recv;
646
647Example: wait for a timer, but take advantage of the fact that condition
648variables are also callable directly.
649
650 my $done = AnyEvent->condvar;
651 my $delay = AnyEvent->timer (after => 5, cb => $done);
652 $done->recv;
653
654Example: Imagine an API that returns a condvar and doesn't support
655callbacks. This is how you make a synchronous call, for example from
656the main program:
657
658 use AnyEvent::CouchDB;
659
660 ...
661
662 my @info = $couchdb->info->recv;
663
664And this is how you would just set a callback to be called whenever the
665results are available:
666
667 $couchdb->info->cb (sub {
668 my @info = $_[0]->recv;
669 });
670
671=head3 METHODS FOR PRODUCERS
672
673These methods should only be used by the producing side, i.e. the
674code/module that eventually sends the signal. Note that it is also
675the producer side which creates the condvar in most cases, but it isn't
676uncommon for the consumer to create it as well.
677
678=over 4
679
680=item $cv->send (...)
681
682Flag the condition as ready - a running C<< ->recv >> and all further
683calls to C<recv> will (eventually) return after this method has been
684called. If nobody is waiting the send will be remembered.
685
686If a callback has been set on the condition variable, it is called
687immediately from within send.
688
689Any arguments passed to the C<send> call will be returned by all
690future C<< ->recv >> calls.
691
692Condition variables are overloaded so one can call them directly (as if
693they were a code reference). Calling them directly is the same as calling
694C<send>.
695
696=item $cv->croak ($error)
697
698Similar to send, but causes all calls to C<< ->recv >> to invoke
699C<Carp::croak> with the given error message/object/scalar.
700
701This can be used to signal any errors to the condition variable
702user/consumer. Doing it this way instead of calling C<croak> directly
703delays the error detection, but has the overwhelming advantage that it
704diagnoses the error at the place where the result is expected, and not
705deep in some event callback with no connection to the actual code causing
706the problem.
707
708=item $cv->begin ([group callback])
709
710=item $cv->end
711
712These two methods can be used to combine many transactions/events into
713one. For example, a function that pings many hosts in parallel might want
714to use a condition variable for the whole process.
715
716Every call to C<< ->begin >> will increment a counter, and every call to
717C<< ->end >> will decrement it. If the counter reaches C<0> in C<< ->end
718>>, the (last) callback passed to C<begin> will be executed, passing the
719condvar as first argument. That callback is I<supposed> to call C<< ->send
720>>, but that is not required. If no group callback was set, C<send> will
721be called without any arguments.
722
723You can think of C<< $cv->send >> giving you an OR condition (one call
724sends), while C<< $cv->begin >> and C<< $cv->end >> giving you an AND
725condition (all C<begin> calls must be C<end>'ed before the condvar sends).
726
727Let's start with a simple example: you have two I/O watchers (for example,
728STDOUT and STDERR for a program), and you want to wait for both streams to
729close before activating a condvar:
730
731 my $cv = AnyEvent->condvar;
732
733 $cv->begin; # first watcher
734 my $w1 = AnyEvent->io (fh => $fh1, cb => sub {
735 defined sysread $fh1, my $buf, 4096
736 or $cv->end;
737 });
738
739 $cv->begin; # second watcher
740 my $w2 = AnyEvent->io (fh => $fh2, cb => sub {
741 defined sysread $fh2, my $buf, 4096
742 or $cv->end;
743 });
744
745 $cv->recv;
746
747This works because for every event source (EOF on file handle), there is
748one call to C<begin>, so the condvar waits for all calls to C<end> before
749sending.
750
751The ping example mentioned above is slightly more complicated, as the
752there are results to be passwd back, and the number of tasks that are
753begun can potentially be zero:
754
755 my $cv = AnyEvent->condvar;
756
757 my %result;
758 $cv->begin (sub { shift->send (\%result) });
759
760 for my $host (@list_of_hosts) {
761 $cv->begin;
762 ping_host_then_call_callback $host, sub {
763 $result{$host} = ...;
764 $cv->end;
765 };
766 }
767
768 $cv->end;
769
770This code fragment supposedly pings a number of hosts and calls
771C<send> after results for all then have have been gathered - in any
772order. To achieve this, the code issues a call to C<begin> when it starts
773each ping request and calls C<end> when it has received some result for
774it. Since C<begin> and C<end> only maintain a counter, the order in which
775results arrive is not relevant.
776
777There is an additional bracketing call to C<begin> and C<end> outside the
778loop, which serves two important purposes: first, it sets the callback
779to be called once the counter reaches C<0>, and second, it ensures that
780C<send> is called even when C<no> hosts are being pinged (the loop
781doesn't execute once).
782
783This is the general pattern when you "fan out" into multiple (but
784potentially zero) subrequests: use an outer C<begin>/C<end> pair to set
785the callback and ensure C<end> is called at least once, and then, for each
786subrequest you start, call C<begin> and for each subrequest you finish,
787call C<end>.
788
789=back
790
791=head3 METHODS FOR CONSUMERS
792
793These methods should only be used by the consuming side, i.e. the
794code awaits the condition.
795
796=over 4
797
798=item $cv->recv
799
800Wait (blocking if necessary) until the C<< ->send >> or C<< ->croak
801>> methods have been called on C<$cv>, while servicing other watchers
802normally.
803
804You can only wait once on a condition - additional calls are valid but
805will return immediately.
806
807If an error condition has been set by calling C<< ->croak >>, then this
808function will call C<croak>.
809
810In list context, all parameters passed to C<send> will be returned,
811in scalar context only the first one will be returned.
812
813Note that doing a blocking wait in a callback is not supported by any
814event loop, that is, recursive invocation of a blocking C<< ->recv
815>> is not allowed, and the C<recv> call will C<croak> if such a
816condition is detected. This condition can be slightly loosened by using
817L<Coro::AnyEvent>, which allows you to do a blocking C<< ->recv >> from
818any thread that doesn't run the event loop itself.
819
820Not all event models support a blocking wait - some die in that case
821(programs might want to do that to stay interactive), so I<if you are
822using this from a module, never require a blocking wait>. Instead, let the
823caller decide whether the call will block or not (for example, by coupling
824condition variables with some kind of request results and supporting
825callbacks so the caller knows that getting the result will not block,
826while still supporting blocking waits if the caller so desires).
827
828You can ensure that C<< ->recv >> never blocks by setting a callback and
829only calling C<< ->recv >> from within that callback (or at a later
830time). This will work even when the event loop does not support blocking
831waits otherwise.
832
833=item $bool = $cv->ready
834
835Returns true when the condition is "true", i.e. whether C<send> or
836C<croak> have been called.
837
838=item $cb = $cv->cb ($cb->($cv))
839
840This is a mutator function that returns the callback set and optionally
841replaces it before doing so.
842
843The callback will be called when the condition becomes "true", i.e. when
844C<send> or C<croak> are called, with the only argument being the
845condition variable itself. If the condition is already true, the
846callback is called immediately when it is set. Calling C<recv> inside
847the callback or at any later time is guaranteed not to block.
848
849=back
850
851=head1 SUPPORTED EVENT LOOPS/BACKENDS
852
853The available backend classes are (every class has its own manpage):
854
855=over 4
856
857=item Backends that are autoprobed when no other event loop can be found.
858
859EV is the preferred backend when no other event loop seems to be in
860use. If EV is not installed, then AnyEvent will fall back to its own
861pure-perl implementation, which is available everywhere as it comes with
862AnyEvent itself.
863
864 AnyEvent::Impl::EV based on EV (interface to libev, best choice).
865 AnyEvent::Impl::Perl pure-perl implementation, fast and portable.
866
867=item Backends that are transparently being picked up when they are used.
868
869These will be used if they are already loaded when the first watcher
870is created, in which case it is assumed that the application is using
871them. This means that AnyEvent will automatically pick the right backend
872when the main program loads an event module before anything starts to
873create watchers. Nothing special needs to be done by the main program.
874
875 AnyEvent::Impl::Event based on Event, very stable, few glitches.
876 AnyEvent::Impl::Glib based on Glib, slow but very stable.
877 AnyEvent::Impl::Tk based on Tk, very broken.
878 AnyEvent::Impl::EventLib based on Event::Lib, leaks memory and worse.
879 AnyEvent::Impl::POE based on POE, very slow, some limitations.
880 AnyEvent::Impl::Irssi used when running within irssi.
881 AnyEvent::Impl::IOAsync based on IO::Async.
882 AnyEvent::Impl::Cocoa based on Cocoa::EventLoop.
883 AnyEvent::Impl::FLTK based on FLTK.
884
885=item Backends with special needs.
886
887Qt requires the Qt::Application to be instantiated first, but will
888otherwise be picked up automatically. As long as the main program
889instantiates the application before any AnyEvent watchers are created,
890everything should just work.
891
892 AnyEvent::Impl::Qt based on Qt.
893
894=item Event loops that are indirectly supported via other backends.
895
896Some event loops can be supported via other modules:
897
898There is no direct support for WxWidgets (L<Wx>) or L<Prima>.
899
900B<WxWidgets> has no support for watching file handles. However, you can
901use WxWidgets through the POE adaptor, as POE has a Wx backend that simply
902polls 20 times per second, which was considered to be too horrible to even
903consider for AnyEvent.
904
905B<Prima> is not supported as nobody seems to be using it, but it has a POE
906backend, so it can be supported through POE.
907
908AnyEvent knows about both L<Prima> and L<Wx>, however, and will try to
909load L<POE> when detecting them, in the hope that POE will pick them up,
910in which case everything will be automatic.
911
912=back
913
914=head1 GLOBAL VARIABLES AND FUNCTIONS
915
916These are not normally required to use AnyEvent, but can be useful to
917write AnyEvent extension modules.
918
919=over 4
920
190=item $AnyEvent::MODEL 921=item $AnyEvent::MODEL
191 922
192Contains C<undef> until the first watcher is being created. Then it 923Contains C<undef> until the first watcher is being created, before the
924backend has been autodetected.
925
193contains the event model that is being used, which is the name of the 926Afterwards it contains the event model that is being used, which is the
194Perl class implementing the model. This class is usually one of the 927name of the Perl class implementing the model. This class is usually one
195C<AnyEvent::Impl:xxx> modules, but can be any other class in the case 928of the C<AnyEvent::Impl::xxx> modules, but can be any other class in the
196AnyEvent has been extended at runtime (e.g. in I<rxvt-unicode>). 929case AnyEvent has been extended at runtime (e.g. in I<rxvt-unicode> it
197 930will be C<urxvt::anyevent>).
198The known classes so far are:
199
200 AnyEvent::Impl::Coro based on Coro::Event, best choise.
201 AnyEvent::Impl::Event based on Event, also best choice :)
202 AnyEvent::Impl::Glib based on Glib, second-best choice.
203 AnyEvent::Impl::Tk based on Tk, very bad choice.
204 AnyEvent::Impl::Perl pure-perl implementation, inefficient.
205 931
206=item AnyEvent::detect 932=item AnyEvent::detect
207 933
208Returns C<$AnyEvent::MODEL>, forcing autodetection of the event model if 934Returns C<$AnyEvent::MODEL>, forcing autodetection of the event model
209necessary. You should only call this function right before you would have 935if necessary. You should only call this function right before you would
210created an AnyEvent watcher anyway, that is, very late at runtime. 936have created an AnyEvent watcher anyway, that is, as late as possible at
937runtime, and not e.g. during initialisation of your module.
938
939If you need to do some initialisation before AnyEvent watchers are
940created, use C<post_detect>.
941
942=item $guard = AnyEvent::post_detect { BLOCK }
943
944Arranges for the code block to be executed as soon as the event model is
945autodetected (or immediately if that has already happened).
946
947The block will be executed I<after> the actual backend has been detected
948(C<$AnyEvent::MODEL> is set), but I<before> any watchers have been
949created, so it is possible to e.g. patch C<@AnyEvent::ISA> or do
950other initialisations - see the sources of L<AnyEvent::Strict> or
951L<AnyEvent::AIO> to see how this is used.
952
953The most common usage is to create some global watchers, without forcing
954event module detection too early, for example, L<AnyEvent::AIO> creates
955and installs the global L<IO::AIO> watcher in a C<post_detect> block to
956avoid autodetecting the event module at load time.
957
958If called in scalar or list context, then it creates and returns an object
959that automatically removes the callback again when it is destroyed (or
960C<undef> when the hook was immediately executed). See L<AnyEvent::AIO> for
961a case where this is useful.
962
963Example: Create a watcher for the IO::AIO module and store it in
964C<$WATCHER>, but do so only do so after the event loop is initialised.
965
966 our WATCHER;
967
968 my $guard = AnyEvent::post_detect {
969 $WATCHER = AnyEvent->io (fh => IO::AIO::poll_fileno, poll => 'r', cb => \&IO::AIO::poll_cb);
970 };
971
972 # the ||= is important in case post_detect immediately runs the block,
973 # as to not clobber the newly-created watcher. assigning both watcher and
974 # post_detect guard to the same variable has the advantage of users being
975 # able to just C<undef $WATCHER> if the watcher causes them grief.
976
977 $WATCHER ||= $guard;
978
979=item @AnyEvent::post_detect
980
981If there are any code references in this array (you can C<push> to it
982before or after loading AnyEvent), then they will be called directly
983after the event loop has been chosen.
984
985You should check C<$AnyEvent::MODEL> before adding to this array, though:
986if it is defined then the event loop has already been detected, and the
987array will be ignored.
988
989Best use C<AnyEvent::post_detect { BLOCK }> when your application allows
990it, as it takes care of these details.
991
992This variable is mainly useful for modules that can do something useful
993when AnyEvent is used and thus want to know when it is initialised, but do
994not need to even load it by default. This array provides the means to hook
995into AnyEvent passively, without loading it.
996
997Example: To load Coro::AnyEvent whenever Coro and AnyEvent are used
998together, you could put this into Coro (this is the actual code used by
999Coro to accomplish this):
1000
1001 if (defined $AnyEvent::MODEL) {
1002 # AnyEvent already initialised, so load Coro::AnyEvent
1003 require Coro::AnyEvent;
1004 } else {
1005 # AnyEvent not yet initialised, so make sure to load Coro::AnyEvent
1006 # as soon as it is
1007 push @AnyEvent::post_detect, sub { require Coro::AnyEvent };
1008 }
211 1009
212=back 1010=back
213 1011
214=head1 WHAT TO DO IN A MODULE 1012=head1 WHAT TO DO IN A MODULE
215 1013
216As a module author, you should "use AnyEvent" and call AnyEvent methods 1014As a module author, you should C<use AnyEvent> and call AnyEvent methods
217freely, but you should not load a specific event module or rely on it. 1015freely, but you should not load a specific event module or rely on it.
218 1016
219Be careful when you create watchers in the module body - Anyevent will 1017Be careful when you create watchers in the module body - AnyEvent will
220decide which event module to use as soon as the first method is called, so 1018decide which event module to use as soon as the first method is called, so
221by calling AnyEvent in your module body you force the user of your module 1019by calling AnyEvent in your module body you force the user of your module
222to load the event module first. 1020to load the event module first.
223 1021
1022Never call C<< ->recv >> on a condition variable unless you I<know> that
1023the C<< ->send >> method has been called on it already. This is
1024because it will stall the whole program, and the whole point of using
1025events is to stay interactive.
1026
1027It is fine, however, to call C<< ->recv >> when the user of your module
1028requests it (i.e. if you create a http request object ad have a method
1029called C<results> that returns the results, it may call C<< ->recv >>
1030freely, as the user of your module knows what she is doing. Always).
1031
224=head1 WHAT TO DO IN THE MAIN PROGRAM 1032=head1 WHAT TO DO IN THE MAIN PROGRAM
225 1033
226There will always be a single main program - the only place that should 1034There will always be a single main program - the only place that should
227dictate which event model to use. 1035dictate which event model to use.
228 1036
229If it doesn't care, it can just "use AnyEvent" and use it itself, or not 1037If the program is not event-based, it need not do anything special, even
230do anything special and let AnyEvent decide which implementation to chose. 1038when it depends on a module that uses an AnyEvent. If the program itself
1039uses AnyEvent, but does not care which event loop is used, all it needs
1040to do is C<use AnyEvent>. In either case, AnyEvent will choose the best
1041available loop implementation.
231 1042
232If the main program relies on a specific event model (for example, in Gtk2 1043If the main program relies on a specific event model - for example, in
233programs you have to rely on either Glib or Glib::Event), you should load 1044Gtk2 programs you have to rely on the Glib module - you should load the
234it before loading AnyEvent or any module that uses it, generally, as early 1045event module before loading AnyEvent or any module that uses it: generally
235as possible. The reason is that modules might create watchers when they 1046speaking, you should load it as early as possible. The reason is that
236are loaded, and AnyEvent will decide on the event model to use as soon as 1047modules might create watchers when they are loaded, and AnyEvent will
237it creates watchers, and it might chose the wrong one unless you load the 1048decide on the event model to use as soon as it creates watchers, and it
238correct one yourself. 1049might choose the wrong one unless you load the correct one yourself.
239 1050
240You can chose to use a rather inefficient pure-perl implementation by 1051You can chose to use a pure-perl implementation by loading the
241loading the C<AnyEvent::Impl::Perl> module, but letting AnyEvent chose is 1052C<AnyEvent::Impl::Perl> module, which gives you similar behaviour
242generally better. 1053everywhere, but letting AnyEvent chose the model is generally better.
1054
1055=head2 MAINLOOP EMULATION
1056
1057Sometimes (often for short test scripts, or even standalone programs who
1058only want to use AnyEvent), you do not want to run a specific event loop.
1059
1060In that case, you can use a condition variable like this:
1061
1062 AnyEvent->condvar->recv;
1063
1064This has the effect of entering the event loop and looping forever.
1065
1066Note that usually your program has some exit condition, in which case
1067it is better to use the "traditional" approach of storing a condition
1068variable somewhere, waiting for it, and sending it when the program should
1069exit cleanly.
1070
1071
1072=head1 OTHER MODULES
1073
1074The following is a non-exhaustive list of additional modules that use
1075AnyEvent as a client and can therefore be mixed easily with other AnyEvent
1076modules and other event loops in the same program. Some of the modules
1077come as part of AnyEvent, the others are available via CPAN.
1078
1079=over 4
1080
1081=item L<AnyEvent::Util>
1082
1083Contains various utility functions that replace often-used blocking
1084functions such as C<inet_aton> with event/callback-based versions.
1085
1086=item L<AnyEvent::Socket>
1087
1088Provides various utility functions for (internet protocol) sockets,
1089addresses and name resolution. Also functions to create non-blocking tcp
1090connections or tcp servers, with IPv6 and SRV record support and more.
1091
1092=item L<AnyEvent::Handle>
1093
1094Provide read and write buffers, manages watchers for reads and writes,
1095supports raw and formatted I/O, I/O queued and fully transparent and
1096non-blocking SSL/TLS (via L<AnyEvent::TLS>).
1097
1098=item L<AnyEvent::DNS>
1099
1100Provides rich asynchronous DNS resolver capabilities.
1101
1102=item L<AnyEvent::HTTP>, L<AnyEvent::IRC>, L<AnyEvent::XMPP>, L<AnyEvent::GPSD>, L<AnyEvent::IGS>, L<AnyEvent::FCP>
1103
1104Implement event-based interfaces to the protocols of the same name (for
1105the curious, IGS is the International Go Server and FCP is the Freenet
1106Client Protocol).
1107
1108=item L<AnyEvent::Handle::UDP>
1109
1110Here be danger!
1111
1112As Pauli would put it, "Not only is it not right, it's not even wrong!" -
1113there are so many things wrong with AnyEvent::Handle::UDP, most notably
1114its use of a stream-based API with a protocol that isn't streamable, that
1115the only way to improve it is to delete it.
1116
1117It features data corruption (but typically only under load) and general
1118confusion. On top, the author is not only clueless about UDP but also
1119fact-resistant - some gems of his understanding: "connect doesn't work
1120with UDP", "UDP packets are not IP packets", "UDP only has datagrams, not
1121packets", "I don't need to implement proper error checking as UDP doesn't
1122support error checking" and so on - he doesn't even understand what's
1123wrong with his module when it is explained to him.
1124
1125=item L<AnyEvent::DBI>
1126
1127Executes L<DBI> requests asynchronously in a proxy process for you,
1128notifying you in an event-based way when the operation is finished.
1129
1130=item L<AnyEvent::AIO>
1131
1132Truly asynchronous (as opposed to non-blocking) I/O, should be in the
1133toolbox of every event programmer. AnyEvent::AIO transparently fuses
1134L<IO::AIO> and AnyEvent together, giving AnyEvent access to event-based
1135file I/O, and much more.
1136
1137=item L<AnyEvent::HTTPD>
1138
1139A simple embedded webserver.
1140
1141=item L<AnyEvent::FastPing>
1142
1143The fastest ping in the west.
1144
1145=item L<Coro>
1146
1147Has special support for AnyEvent via L<Coro::AnyEvent>.
1148
1149=back
243 1150
244=cut 1151=cut
245 1152
246package AnyEvent; 1153package AnyEvent;
247 1154
248no warnings; 1155# basically a tuned-down version of common::sense
249use strict; 1156sub common_sense {
1157 # from common:.sense 3.4
1158 ${^WARNING_BITS} ^= ${^WARNING_BITS} ^ "\x3c\x3f\x33\x00\x0f\xf0\x0f\xc0\xf0\xfc\x33\x00";
1159 # use strict vars subs - NO UTF-8, as Util.pm doesn't like this atm. (uts46data.pl)
1160 $^H |= 0x00000600;
1161}
250 1162
1163BEGIN { AnyEvent::common_sense }
1164
251use Carp; 1165use Carp ();
252 1166
253our $VERSION = '2.52'; 1167our $VERSION = '5.34';
254our $MODEL; 1168our $MODEL;
255 1169
256our $AUTOLOAD; 1170our $AUTOLOAD;
257our @ISA; 1171our @ISA;
258 1172
259our $verbose = $ENV{PERL_ANYEVENT_VERBOSE}*1;
260
261our @REGISTRY; 1173our @REGISTRY;
262 1174
1175our $VERBOSE;
1176
1177BEGIN {
1178 require "AnyEvent/constants.pl";
1179
1180 eval "sub TAINT (){" . (${^TAINT}*1) . "}";
1181
1182 delete @ENV{grep /^PERL_ANYEVENT_/, keys %ENV}
1183 if ${^TAINT};
1184
1185 $VERBOSE = $ENV{PERL_ANYEVENT_VERBOSE}*1;
1186
1187}
1188
1189our $MAX_SIGNAL_LATENCY = 10;
1190
1191our %PROTOCOL; # (ipv4|ipv6) => (1|2), higher numbers are preferred
1192
1193{
1194 my $idx;
1195 $PROTOCOL{$_} = ++$idx
1196 for reverse split /\s*,\s*/,
1197 $ENV{PERL_ANYEVENT_PROTOCOLS} || "ipv4,ipv6";
1198}
1199
263my @models = ( 1200my @models = (
264 [Coro::Event:: => AnyEvent::Impl::Coro::], 1201 [EV:: => AnyEvent::Impl::EV:: , 1],
1202 [AnyEvent::Impl::Perl:: => AnyEvent::Impl::Perl:: , 1],
1203 # everything below here will not (normally) be autoprobed
1204 # as the pureperl backend should work everywhere
1205 # and is usually faster
265 [Event:: => AnyEvent::Impl::Event::], 1206 [Event:: => AnyEvent::Impl::Event::, 1],
266 [Glib:: => AnyEvent::Impl::Glib::], 1207 [Glib:: => AnyEvent::Impl::Glib:: , 1], # becomes extremely slow with many watchers
1208 [Event::Lib:: => AnyEvent::Impl::EventLib::], # too buggy
1209 [Irssi:: => AnyEvent::Impl::Irssi::], # Irssi has a bogus "Event" package
1210 [Tk:: => AnyEvent::Impl::Tk::], # crashes with many handles
1211 [Qt:: => AnyEvent::Impl::Qt::], # requires special main program
1212 [POE::Kernel:: => AnyEvent::Impl::POE::], # lasciate ogni speranza
267 [Tk:: => AnyEvent::Impl::Tk::], 1213 [Wx:: => AnyEvent::Impl::POE::],
268 [AnyEvent::Impl::Perl:: => AnyEvent::Impl::Perl::], 1214 [Prima:: => AnyEvent::Impl::POE::],
1215 [IO::Async::Loop:: => AnyEvent::Impl::IOAsync::],
1216 [Cocoa::EventLoop:: => AnyEvent::Impl::Cocoa::],
1217 [FLTK:: => AnyEvent::Impl::FLTK::],
269); 1218);
270 1219
271our %method = map +($_ => 1), qw(io timer condvar broadcast wait signal one_event DESTROY); 1220our %method = map +($_ => 1),
1221 qw(io timer time now now_update signal child idle condvar DESTROY);
1222
1223our @post_detect;
1224
1225sub post_detect(&) {
1226 my ($cb) = @_;
1227
1228 push @post_detect, $cb;
1229
1230 defined wantarray
1231 ? bless \$cb, "AnyEvent::Util::postdetect"
1232 : ()
1233}
1234
1235sub AnyEvent::Util::postdetect::DESTROY {
1236 @post_detect = grep $_ != ${$_[0]}, @post_detect;
1237}
272 1238
273sub detect() { 1239sub detect() {
1240 # free some memory
1241 *detect = sub () { $MODEL };
1242
1243 local $!; # for good measure
1244 local $SIG{__DIE__};
1245
1246 if ($ENV{PERL_ANYEVENT_MODEL} =~ /^([a-zA-Z]+)$/) {
1247 my $model = "AnyEvent::Impl::$1";
1248 if (eval "require $model") {
1249 $MODEL = $model;
1250 warn "AnyEvent: loaded model '$model' (forced by \$ENV{PERL_ANYEVENT_MODEL}), using it.\n" if $VERBOSE >= 2;
1251 } else {
1252 warn "AnyEvent: unable to load model '$model' (from \$ENV{PERL_ANYEVENT_MODEL}):\n$@" if $VERBOSE;
1253 }
1254 }
1255
1256 # check for already loaded models
274 unless ($MODEL) { 1257 unless ($MODEL) {
275 no strict 'refs';
276
277 # check for already loaded models
278 for (@REGISTRY, @models) { 1258 for (@REGISTRY, @models) {
279 my ($package, $model) = @$_; 1259 my ($package, $model) = @$_;
280 if (${"$package\::VERSION"} > 0) { 1260 if (${"$package\::VERSION"} > 0) {
281 if (eval "require $model") { 1261 if (eval "require $model") {
282 $MODEL = $model; 1262 $MODEL = $model;
283 warn "AnyEvent: found model '$model', using it.\n" if $verbose > 1; 1263 warn "AnyEvent: autodetected model '$model', using it.\n" if $VERBOSE >= 2;
284 last; 1264 last;
285 } 1265 }
286 } 1266 }
287 } 1267 }
288 1268
289 unless ($MODEL) { 1269 unless ($MODEL) {
290 # try to load a model 1270 # try to autoload a model
291
292 for (@REGISTRY, @models) { 1271 for (@REGISTRY, @models) {
293 my ($package, $model) = @$_; 1272 my ($package, $model, $autoload) = @$_;
1273 if (
1274 $autoload
294 if (eval "require $package" 1275 and eval "require $package"
295 and ${"$package\::VERSION"} > 0 1276 and ${"$package\::VERSION"} > 0
296 and eval "require $model") { 1277 and eval "require $model"
1278 ) {
297 $MODEL = $model; 1279 $MODEL = $model;
298 warn "AnyEvent: autoprobed and loaded model '$model', using it.\n" if $verbose > 1; 1280 warn "AnyEvent: autoloaded model '$model', using it.\n" if $VERBOSE >= 2;
299 last; 1281 last;
300 } 1282 }
301 } 1283 }
302 1284
303 $MODEL 1285 $MODEL
304 or die "No event module selected for AnyEvent and autodetect failed. Install any one of these modules: Event (or Coro+Event), Glib or Tk."; 1286 or die "AnyEvent: backend autodetection failed - did you properly install AnyEvent?\n";
305 } 1287 }
306
307 unshift @ISA, $MODEL;
308 push @{"$MODEL\::ISA"}, "AnyEvent::Base";
309 } 1288 }
1289
1290 @models = (); # free probe data
1291
1292 push @{"$MODEL\::ISA"}, "AnyEvent::Base";
1293 unshift @ISA, $MODEL;
1294
1295 # now nuke some methods that are overridden by the backend.
1296 # SUPER is not allowed.
1297 for (qw(time signal child idle)) {
1298 undef &{"AnyEvent::Base::$_"}
1299 if defined &{"$MODEL\::$_"};
1300 }
1301
1302 if ($ENV{PERL_ANYEVENT_STRICT}) {
1303 eval { require AnyEvent::Strict };
1304 warn "AnyEvent: cannot load AnyEvent::Strict: $@"
1305 if $@ && $VERBOSE;
1306 }
1307
1308 (shift @post_detect)->() while @post_detect;
1309
1310 *post_detect = sub(&) {
1311 shift->();
1312
1313 undef
1314 };
310 1315
311 $MODEL 1316 $MODEL
312} 1317}
313 1318
314sub AUTOLOAD { 1319sub AUTOLOAD {
315 (my $func = $AUTOLOAD) =~ s/.*://; 1320 (my $func = $AUTOLOAD) =~ s/.*://;
316 1321
317 $method{$func} 1322 $method{$func}
318 or croak "$func: not a valid method for AnyEvent objects"; 1323 or Carp::croak "$func: not a valid AnyEvent class method";
319 1324
320 detect unless $MODEL; 1325 detect;
321 1326
322 my $class = shift; 1327 my $class = shift;
323 $class->$func (@_); 1328 $class->$func (@_);
324} 1329}
325 1330
1331# utility function to dup a filehandle. this is used by many backends
1332# to support binding more than one watcher per filehandle (they usually
1333# allow only one watcher per fd, so we dup it to get a different one).
1334sub _dupfh($$;$$) {
1335 my ($poll, $fh, $r, $w) = @_;
1336
1337 # cygwin requires the fh mode to be matching, unix doesn't
1338 my ($rw, $mode) = $poll eq "r" ? ($r, "<&") : ($w, ">&");
1339
1340 open my $fh2, $mode, $fh
1341 or die "AnyEvent->io: cannot dup() filehandle in mode '$poll': $!,";
1342
1343 # we assume CLOEXEC is already set by perl in all important cases
1344
1345 ($fh2, $rw)
1346}
1347
1348=head1 SIMPLIFIED AE API
1349
1350Starting with version 5.0, AnyEvent officially supports a second, much
1351simpler, API that is designed to reduce the calling, typing and memory
1352overhead by using function call syntax and a fixed number of parameters.
1353
1354See the L<AE> manpage for details.
1355
1356=cut
1357
1358package AE;
1359
1360our $VERSION = $AnyEvent::VERSION;
1361
1362# fall back to the main API by default - backends and AnyEvent::Base
1363# implementations can overwrite these.
1364
1365sub io($$$) {
1366 AnyEvent->io (fh => $_[0], poll => $_[1] ? "w" : "r", cb => $_[2])
1367}
1368
1369sub timer($$$) {
1370 AnyEvent->timer (after => $_[0], interval => $_[1], cb => $_[2])
1371}
1372
1373sub signal($$) {
1374 AnyEvent->signal (signal => $_[0], cb => $_[1])
1375}
1376
1377sub child($$) {
1378 AnyEvent->child (pid => $_[0], cb => $_[1])
1379}
1380
1381sub idle($) {
1382 AnyEvent->idle (cb => $_[0])
1383}
1384
1385sub cv(;&) {
1386 AnyEvent->condvar (@_ ? (cb => $_[0]) : ())
1387}
1388
1389sub now() {
1390 AnyEvent->now
1391}
1392
1393sub now_update() {
1394 AnyEvent->now_update
1395}
1396
1397sub time() {
1398 AnyEvent->time
1399}
1400
326package AnyEvent::Base; 1401package AnyEvent::Base;
327 1402
1403# default implementations for many methods
1404
1405sub time {
1406 eval q{ # poor man's autoloading {}
1407 # probe for availability of Time::HiRes
1408 if (eval "use Time::HiRes (); Time::HiRes::time (); 1") {
1409 warn "AnyEvent: using Time::HiRes for sub-second timing accuracy.\n" if $VERBOSE >= 8;
1410 *AE::time = \&Time::HiRes::time;
1411 # if (eval "use POSIX (); (POSIX::times())...
1412 } else {
1413 warn "AnyEvent: using built-in time(), WARNING, no sub-second resolution!\n" if $VERBOSE;
1414 *AE::time = sub (){ time }; # epic fail
1415 }
1416
1417 *time = sub { AE::time }; # different prototypes
1418 };
1419 die if $@;
1420
1421 &time
1422}
1423
1424*now = \&time;
1425
1426sub now_update { }
1427
328# default implementation for ->condvar, ->wait, ->broadcast 1428# default implementation for ->condvar
329 1429
330sub condvar { 1430sub condvar {
331 bless \my $flag, "AnyEvent::Base::CondVar" 1431 eval q{ # poor man's autoloading {}
332} 1432 *condvar = sub {
1433 bless { @_ == 3 ? (_ae_cb => $_[2]) : () }, "AnyEvent::CondVar"
1434 };
333 1435
334sub AnyEvent::Base::CondVar::broadcast { 1436 *AE::cv = sub (;&) {
335 ${$_[0]}++; 1437 bless { @_ ? (_ae_cb => shift) : () }, "AnyEvent::CondVar"
336} 1438 };
1439 };
1440 die if $@;
337 1441
338sub AnyEvent::Base::CondVar::wait { 1442 &condvar
339 AnyEvent->one_event while !${$_[0]};
340} 1443}
341 1444
342# default implementation for ->signal 1445# default implementation for ->signal
343 1446
344our %SIG_CB; 1447our $HAVE_ASYNC_INTERRUPT;
1448
1449sub _have_async_interrupt() {
1450 $HAVE_ASYNC_INTERRUPT = 1*(!$ENV{PERL_ANYEVENT_AVOID_ASYNC_INTERRUPT}
1451 && eval "use Async::Interrupt 1.02 (); 1")
1452 unless defined $HAVE_ASYNC_INTERRUPT;
1453
1454 $HAVE_ASYNC_INTERRUPT
1455}
1456
1457our ($SIGPIPE_R, $SIGPIPE_W, %SIG_CB, %SIG_EV, $SIG_IO);
1458our (%SIG_ASY, %SIG_ASY_W);
1459our ($SIG_COUNT, $SIG_TW);
1460
1461# install a dummy wakeup watcher to reduce signal catching latency
1462# used by Impls
1463sub _sig_add() {
1464 unless ($SIG_COUNT++) {
1465 # try to align timer on a full-second boundary, if possible
1466 my $NOW = AE::now;
1467
1468 $SIG_TW = AE::timer
1469 $MAX_SIGNAL_LATENCY - ($NOW - int $NOW),
1470 $MAX_SIGNAL_LATENCY,
1471 sub { } # just for the PERL_ASYNC_CHECK
1472 ;
1473 }
1474}
1475
1476sub _sig_del {
1477 undef $SIG_TW
1478 unless --$SIG_COUNT;
1479}
1480
1481our $_sig_name_init; $_sig_name_init = sub {
1482 eval q{ # poor man's autoloading {}
1483 undef $_sig_name_init;
1484
1485 if (_have_async_interrupt) {
1486 *sig2num = \&Async::Interrupt::sig2num;
1487 *sig2name = \&Async::Interrupt::sig2name;
1488 } else {
1489 require Config;
1490
1491 my %signame2num;
1492 @signame2num{ split ' ', $Config::Config{sig_name} }
1493 = split ' ', $Config::Config{sig_num};
1494
1495 my @signum2name;
1496 @signum2name[values %signame2num] = keys %signame2num;
1497
1498 *sig2num = sub($) {
1499 $_[0] > 0 ? shift : $signame2num{+shift}
1500 };
1501 *sig2name = sub ($) {
1502 $_[0] > 0 ? $signum2name[+shift] : shift
1503 };
1504 }
1505 };
1506 die if $@;
1507};
1508
1509sub sig2num ($) { &$_sig_name_init; &sig2num }
1510sub sig2name($) { &$_sig_name_init; &sig2name }
345 1511
346sub signal { 1512sub signal {
1513 eval q{ # poor man's autoloading {}
1514 # probe for availability of Async::Interrupt
1515 if (_have_async_interrupt) {
1516 warn "AnyEvent: using Async::Interrupt for race-free signal handling.\n" if $VERBOSE >= 8;
1517
1518 $SIGPIPE_R = new Async::Interrupt::EventPipe;
1519 $SIG_IO = AE::io $SIGPIPE_R->fileno, 0, \&_signal_exec;
1520
1521 } else {
1522 warn "AnyEvent: using emulated perl signal handling with latency timer.\n" if $VERBOSE >= 8;
1523
1524 if (AnyEvent::WIN32) {
1525 require AnyEvent::Util;
1526
1527 ($SIGPIPE_R, $SIGPIPE_W) = AnyEvent::Util::portable_pipe ();
1528 AnyEvent::Util::fh_nonblocking ($SIGPIPE_R, 1) if $SIGPIPE_R;
1529 AnyEvent::Util::fh_nonblocking ($SIGPIPE_W, 1) if $SIGPIPE_W; # just in case
1530 } else {
1531 pipe $SIGPIPE_R, $SIGPIPE_W;
1532 fcntl $SIGPIPE_R, AnyEvent::F_SETFL, AnyEvent::O_NONBLOCK if $SIGPIPE_R;
1533 fcntl $SIGPIPE_W, AnyEvent::F_SETFL, AnyEvent::O_NONBLOCK if $SIGPIPE_W; # just in case
1534
1535 # not strictly required, as $^F is normally 2, but let's make sure...
1536 fcntl $SIGPIPE_R, AnyEvent::F_SETFD, AnyEvent::FD_CLOEXEC;
1537 fcntl $SIGPIPE_W, AnyEvent::F_SETFD, AnyEvent::FD_CLOEXEC;
1538 }
1539
1540 $SIGPIPE_R
1541 or Carp::croak "AnyEvent: unable to create a signal reporting pipe: $!\n";
1542
1543 $SIG_IO = AE::io $SIGPIPE_R, 0, \&_signal_exec;
1544 }
1545
1546 *signal = $HAVE_ASYNC_INTERRUPT
1547 ? sub {
347 my (undef, %arg) = @_; 1548 my (undef, %arg) = @_;
348 1549
1550 # async::interrupt
349 my $signal = uc $arg{signal} 1551 my $signal = sig2num $arg{signal};
350 or Carp::croak "required option 'signal' is missing";
351
352 $SIG_CB{$signal}{$arg{cb}} = $arg{cb}; 1552 $SIG_CB{$signal}{$arg{cb}} = $arg{cb};
1553
1554 $SIG_ASY{$signal} ||= new Async::Interrupt
1555 cb => sub { undef $SIG_EV{$signal} },
1556 signal => $signal,
1557 pipe => [$SIGPIPE_R->filenos],
1558 pipe_autodrain => 0,
1559 ;
1560
1561 bless [$signal, $arg{cb}], "AnyEvent::Base::signal"
1562 }
1563 : sub {
1564 my (undef, %arg) = @_;
1565
1566 # pure perl
1567 my $signal = sig2name $arg{signal};
1568 $SIG_CB{$signal}{$arg{cb}} = $arg{cb};
1569
353 $SIG{$signal} ||= sub { 1570 $SIG{$signal} ||= sub {
1571 local $!;
1572 syswrite $SIGPIPE_W, "\x00", 1 unless %SIG_EV;
1573 undef $SIG_EV{$signal};
1574 };
1575
1576 # can't do signal processing without introducing races in pure perl,
1577 # so limit the signal latency.
1578 _sig_add;
1579
1580 bless [$signal, $arg{cb}], "AnyEvent::Base::signal"
1581 }
1582 ;
1583
1584 *AnyEvent::Base::signal::DESTROY = sub {
1585 my ($signal, $cb) = @{$_[0]};
1586
1587 _sig_del;
1588
1589 delete $SIG_CB{$signal}{$cb};
1590
1591 $HAVE_ASYNC_INTERRUPT
1592 ? delete $SIG_ASY{$signal}
1593 : # delete doesn't work with older perls - they then
1594 # print weird messages, or just unconditionally exit
1595 # instead of getting the default action.
1596 undef $SIG{$signal}
1597 unless keys %{ $SIG_CB{$signal} };
1598 };
1599
1600 *_signal_exec = sub {
1601 $HAVE_ASYNC_INTERRUPT
1602 ? $SIGPIPE_R->drain
1603 : sysread $SIGPIPE_R, (my $dummy), 9;
1604
1605 while (%SIG_EV) {
1606 for (keys %SIG_EV) {
1607 delete $SIG_EV{$_};
354 $_->() for values %{ $SIG_CB{$signal} || {} }; 1608 $_->() for values %{ $SIG_CB{$_} || {} };
1609 }
1610 }
1611 };
355 }; 1612 };
1613 die if $@;
356 1614
357 bless [$signal, $arg{cb}], "AnyEvent::Base::Signal" 1615 &signal
358}
359
360sub AnyEvent::Base::Signal::DESTROY {
361 my ($signal, $cb) = @{$_[0]};
362
363 delete $SIG_CB{$signal}{$cb};
364
365 $SIG{$signal} = 'DEFAULT' unless keys %{ $SIG_CB{$signal} };
366} 1616}
367 1617
368# default implementation for ->child 1618# default implementation for ->child
369 1619
370our %PID_CB; 1620our %PID_CB;
371our $CHLD_W; 1621our $CHLD_W;
372our $PID_IDLE; 1622our $CHLD_DELAY_W;
373our $WNOHANG;
374 1623
375sub _child_wait { 1624# used by many Impl's
376 while (0 < (my $pid = waitpid -1, $WNOHANG)) { 1625sub _emit_childstatus($$) {
1626 my (undef, $rpid, $rstatus) = @_;
1627
1628 $_->($rpid, $rstatus)
377 $_->() for values %{ (delete $PID_CB{$pid}) || {} }; 1629 for values %{ $PID_CB{$rpid} || {} },
1630 values %{ $PID_CB{0} || {} };
1631}
1632
1633sub child {
1634 eval q{ # poor man's autoloading {}
1635 *_sigchld = sub {
1636 my $pid;
1637
1638 AnyEvent->_emit_childstatus ($pid, $?)
1639 while ($pid = waitpid -1, WNOHANG) > 0;
1640 };
1641
1642 *child = sub {
1643 my (undef, %arg) = @_;
1644
1645 defined (my $pid = $arg{pid} + 0)
1646 or Carp::croak "required option 'pid' is missing";
1647
1648 $PID_CB{$pid}{$arg{cb}} = $arg{cb};
1649
1650 unless ($CHLD_W) {
1651 $CHLD_W = AE::signal CHLD => \&_sigchld;
1652 # child could be a zombie already, so make at least one round
1653 &_sigchld;
1654 }
1655
1656 bless [$pid, $arg{cb}], "AnyEvent::Base::child"
1657 };
1658
1659 *AnyEvent::Base::child::DESTROY = sub {
1660 my ($pid, $cb) = @{$_[0]};
1661
1662 delete $PID_CB{$pid}{$cb};
1663 delete $PID_CB{$pid} unless keys %{ $PID_CB{$pid} };
1664
1665 undef $CHLD_W unless keys %PID_CB;
1666 };
1667 };
1668 die if $@;
1669
1670 &child
1671}
1672
1673# idle emulation is done by simply using a timer, regardless
1674# of whether the process is idle or not, and not letting
1675# the callback use more than 50% of the time.
1676sub idle {
1677 eval q{ # poor man's autoloading {}
1678 *idle = sub {
1679 my (undef, %arg) = @_;
1680
1681 my ($cb, $w, $rcb) = $arg{cb};
1682
1683 $rcb = sub {
1684 if ($cb) {
1685 $w = _time;
1686 &$cb;
1687 $w = _time - $w;
1688
1689 # never use more then 50% of the time for the idle watcher,
1690 # within some limits
1691 $w = 0.0001 if $w < 0.0001;
1692 $w = 5 if $w > 5;
1693
1694 $w = AE::timer $w, 0, $rcb;
1695 } else {
1696 # clean up...
1697 undef $w;
1698 undef $rcb;
1699 }
1700 };
1701
1702 $w = AE::timer 0.05, 0, $rcb;
1703
1704 bless \\$cb, "AnyEvent::Base::idle"
1705 };
1706
1707 *AnyEvent::Base::idle::DESTROY = sub {
1708 undef $${$_[0]};
1709 };
1710 };
1711 die if $@;
1712
1713 &idle
1714}
1715
1716package AnyEvent::CondVar;
1717
1718our @ISA = AnyEvent::CondVar::Base::;
1719
1720# only to be used for subclassing
1721sub new {
1722 my $class = shift;
1723 bless AnyEvent->condvar (@_), $class
1724}
1725
1726package AnyEvent::CondVar::Base;
1727
1728#use overload
1729# '&{}' => sub { my $self = shift; sub { $self->send (@_) } },
1730# fallback => 1;
1731
1732# save 300+ kilobytes by dirtily hardcoding overloading
1733${"AnyEvent::CondVar::Base::OVERLOAD"}{dummy}++; # Register with magic by touching.
1734*{'AnyEvent::CondVar::Base::()'} = sub { }; # "Make it findable via fetchmethod."
1735*{'AnyEvent::CondVar::Base::(&{}'} = sub { my $self = shift; sub { $self->send (@_) } }; # &{}
1736${'AnyEvent::CondVar::Base::()'} = 1; # fallback
1737
1738our $WAITING;
1739
1740sub _send {
1741 # nop
1742}
1743
1744sub _wait {
1745 Carp::croak "$AnyEvent::MODEL does not support blocking waits. Caught";
1746}
1747
1748sub send {
1749 my $cv = shift;
1750 $cv->{_ae_sent} = [@_];
1751 (delete $cv->{_ae_cb})->($cv) if $cv->{_ae_cb};
1752 $cv->_send;
1753}
1754
1755sub croak {
1756 $_[0]{_ae_croak} = $_[1];
1757 $_[0]->send;
1758}
1759
1760sub ready {
1761 $_[0]{_ae_sent}
1762}
1763
1764sub recv {
1765 unless ($_[0]{_ae_sent}) {
1766 $WAITING
1767 and Carp::croak "AnyEvent::CondVar: recursive blocking wait detected";
1768
1769 local $WAITING = 1;
1770 $_[0]->_wait;
378 } 1771 }
379 1772
380 undef $PID_IDLE; 1773 $_[0]{_ae_croak}
381} 1774 and Carp::croak $_[0]{_ae_croak};
382 1775
383sub child { 1776 wantarray
384 my (undef, %arg) = @_; 1777 ? @{ $_[0]{_ae_sent} }
385 1778 : $_[0]{_ae_sent}[0]
386 my $pid = uc $arg{pid}
387 or Carp::croak "required option 'pid' is missing";
388
389 $PID_CB{$pid}{$arg{cb}} = $arg{cb};
390
391 unless ($WNOHANG) {
392 $WNOHANG = eval { require POSIX; &POSIX::WNOHANG } || 1;
393 }
394
395 unless ($CHLD_W) {
396 $CHLD_W = AnyEvent->signal (signal => 'CHLD', cb => \&_child_wait);
397 # child could be a zombie already
398 $PID_IDLE ||= AnyEvent->timer (after => 0, cb => \&_child_wait);
399 }
400
401 bless [$pid, $arg{cb}], "AnyEvent::Base::Child"
402} 1779}
403 1780
404sub AnyEvent::Base::Child::DESTROY { 1781sub cb {
405 my ($pid, $cb) = @{$_[0]}; 1782 my $cv = shift;
406 1783
407 delete $PID_CB{$pid}{$cb}; 1784 @_
408 delete $PID_CB{$pid} unless keys %{ $PID_CB{$pid} }; 1785 and $cv->{_ae_cb} = shift
1786 and $cv->{_ae_sent}
1787 and (delete $cv->{_ae_cb})->($cv);
409 1788
410 undef $CHLD_W unless keys %PID_CB; 1789 $cv->{_ae_cb}
411} 1790}
1791
1792sub begin {
1793 ++$_[0]{_ae_counter};
1794 $_[0]{_ae_end_cb} = $_[1] if @_ > 1;
1795}
1796
1797sub end {
1798 return if --$_[0]{_ae_counter};
1799 &{ $_[0]{_ae_end_cb} || sub { $_[0]->send } };
1800}
1801
1802# undocumented/compatibility with pre-3.4
1803*broadcast = \&send;
1804*wait = \&recv;
1805
1806=head1 ERROR AND EXCEPTION HANDLING
1807
1808In general, AnyEvent does not do any error handling - it relies on the
1809caller to do that if required. The L<AnyEvent::Strict> module (see also
1810the C<PERL_ANYEVENT_STRICT> environment variable, below) provides strict
1811checking of all AnyEvent methods, however, which is highly useful during
1812development.
1813
1814As for exception handling (i.e. runtime errors and exceptions thrown while
1815executing a callback), this is not only highly event-loop specific, but
1816also not in any way wrapped by this module, as this is the job of the main
1817program.
1818
1819The pure perl event loop simply re-throws the exception (usually
1820within C<< condvar->recv >>), the L<Event> and L<EV> modules call C<<
1821$Event/EV::DIED->() >>, L<Glib> uses C<< install_exception_handler >> and
1822so on.
1823
1824=head1 ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES
1825
1826The following environment variables are used by this module or its
1827submodules.
1828
1829Note that AnyEvent will remove I<all> environment variables starting with
1830C<PERL_ANYEVENT_> from C<%ENV> when it is loaded while taint mode is
1831enabled.
1832
1833=over 4
1834
1835=item C<PERL_ANYEVENT_VERBOSE>
1836
1837By default, AnyEvent will be completely silent except in fatal
1838conditions. You can set this environment variable to make AnyEvent more
1839talkative.
1840
1841When set to C<1> or higher, causes AnyEvent to warn about unexpected
1842conditions, such as not being able to load the event model specified by
1843C<PERL_ANYEVENT_MODEL>.
1844
1845When set to C<2> or higher, cause AnyEvent to report to STDERR which event
1846model it chooses.
1847
1848When set to C<8> or higher, then AnyEvent will report extra information on
1849which optional modules it loads and how it implements certain features.
1850
1851=item C<PERL_ANYEVENT_STRICT>
1852
1853AnyEvent does not do much argument checking by default, as thorough
1854argument checking is very costly. Setting this variable to a true value
1855will cause AnyEvent to load C<AnyEvent::Strict> and then to thoroughly
1856check the arguments passed to most method calls. If it finds any problems,
1857it will croak.
1858
1859In other words, enables "strict" mode.
1860
1861Unlike C<use strict> (or its modern cousin, C<< use L<common::sense>
1862>>, it is definitely recommended to keep it off in production. Keeping
1863C<PERL_ANYEVENT_STRICT=1> in your environment while developing programs
1864can be very useful, however.
1865
1866=item C<PERL_ANYEVENT_MODEL>
1867
1868This can be used to specify the event model to be used by AnyEvent, before
1869auto detection and -probing kicks in. It must be a string consisting
1870entirely of ASCII letters. The string C<AnyEvent::Impl::> gets prepended
1871and the resulting module name is loaded and if the load was successful,
1872used as event model. If it fails to load AnyEvent will proceed with
1873auto detection and -probing.
1874
1875This functionality might change in future versions.
1876
1877For example, to force the pure perl model (L<AnyEvent::Impl::Perl>) you
1878could start your program like this:
1879
1880 PERL_ANYEVENT_MODEL=Perl perl ...
1881
1882=item C<PERL_ANYEVENT_PROTOCOLS>
1883
1884Used by both L<AnyEvent::DNS> and L<AnyEvent::Socket> to determine preferences
1885for IPv4 or IPv6. The default is unspecified (and might change, or be the result
1886of auto probing).
1887
1888Must be set to a comma-separated list of protocols or address families,
1889current supported: C<ipv4> and C<ipv6>. Only protocols mentioned will be
1890used, and preference will be given to protocols mentioned earlier in the
1891list.
1892
1893This variable can effectively be used for denial-of-service attacks
1894against local programs (e.g. when setuid), although the impact is likely
1895small, as the program has to handle conenction and other failures anyways.
1896
1897Examples: C<PERL_ANYEVENT_PROTOCOLS=ipv4,ipv6> - prefer IPv4 over IPv6,
1898but support both and try to use both. C<PERL_ANYEVENT_PROTOCOLS=ipv4>
1899- only support IPv4, never try to resolve or contact IPv6
1900addresses. C<PERL_ANYEVENT_PROTOCOLS=ipv6,ipv4> support either IPv4 or
1901IPv6, but prefer IPv6 over IPv4.
1902
1903=item C<PERL_ANYEVENT_EDNS0>
1904
1905Used by L<AnyEvent::DNS> to decide whether to use the EDNS0 extension
1906for DNS. This extension is generally useful to reduce DNS traffic, but
1907some (broken) firewalls drop such DNS packets, which is why it is off by
1908default.
1909
1910Setting this variable to C<1> will cause L<AnyEvent::DNS> to announce
1911EDNS0 in its DNS requests.
1912
1913=item C<PERL_ANYEVENT_MAX_FORKS>
1914
1915The maximum number of child processes that C<AnyEvent::Util::fork_call>
1916will create in parallel.
1917
1918=item C<PERL_ANYEVENT_MAX_OUTSTANDING_DNS>
1919
1920The default value for the C<max_outstanding> parameter for the default DNS
1921resolver - this is the maximum number of parallel DNS requests that are
1922sent to the DNS server.
1923
1924=item C<PERL_ANYEVENT_RESOLV_CONF>
1925
1926The file to use instead of F</etc/resolv.conf> (or OS-specific
1927configuration) in the default resolver. When set to the empty string, no
1928default config will be used.
1929
1930=item C<PERL_ANYEVENT_CA_FILE>, C<PERL_ANYEVENT_CA_PATH>.
1931
1932When neither C<ca_file> nor C<ca_path> was specified during
1933L<AnyEvent::TLS> context creation, and either of these environment
1934variables exist, they will be used to specify CA certificate locations
1935instead of a system-dependent default.
1936
1937=item C<PERL_ANYEVENT_AVOID_GUARD> and C<PERL_ANYEVENT_AVOID_ASYNC_INTERRUPT>
1938
1939When these are set to C<1>, then the respective modules are not
1940loaded. Mostly good for testing AnyEvent itself.
1941
1942=back
412 1943
413=head1 SUPPLYING YOUR OWN EVENT MODEL INTERFACE 1944=head1 SUPPLYING YOUR OWN EVENT MODEL INTERFACE
1945
1946This is an advanced topic that you do not normally need to use AnyEvent in
1947a module. This section is only of use to event loop authors who want to
1948provide AnyEvent compatibility.
414 1949
415If you need to support another event library which isn't directly 1950If you need to support another event library which isn't directly
416supported by AnyEvent, you can supply your own interface to it by 1951supported by AnyEvent, you can supply your own interface to it by
417pushing, before the first watcher gets created, the package name of 1952pushing, before the first watcher gets created, the package name of
418the event module and the package name of the interface to use onto 1953the event module and the package name of the interface to use onto
419C<@AnyEvent::REGISTRY>. You can do that before and even without loading 1954C<@AnyEvent::REGISTRY>. You can do that before and even without loading
420AnyEvent. 1955AnyEvent, so it is reasonably cheap.
421 1956
422Example: 1957Example:
423 1958
424 push @AnyEvent::REGISTRY, [urxvt => urxvt::anyevent::]; 1959 push @AnyEvent::REGISTRY, [urxvt => urxvt::anyevent::];
425 1960
426This tells AnyEvent to (literally) use the C<urxvt::anyevent::> 1961This tells AnyEvent to (literally) use the C<urxvt::anyevent::>
427package/class when it finds the C<urxvt> package/module is loaded. When 1962package/class when it finds the C<urxvt> package/module is already loaded.
1963
428AnyEvent is loaded and asked to find a suitable event model, it will 1964When AnyEvent is loaded and asked to find a suitable event model, it
429first check for the presence of urxvt. 1965will first check for the presence of urxvt by trying to C<use> the
1966C<urxvt::anyevent> module.
430 1967
431The class should provide implementations for all watcher types (see 1968The class should provide implementations for all watcher types. See
432L<AnyEvent::Impl::Event> (source code), L<AnyEvent::Impl::Glib> 1969L<AnyEvent::Impl::EV> (source code), L<AnyEvent::Impl::Glib> (Source code)
433(Source code) and so on for actual examples, use C<perldoc -m 1970and so on for actual examples. Use C<perldoc -m AnyEvent::Impl::Glib> to
434AnyEvent::Impl::Glib> to see the sources). 1971see the sources.
435 1972
1973If you don't provide C<signal> and C<child> watchers than AnyEvent will
1974provide suitable (hopefully) replacements.
1975
436The above isn't fictitious, the I<rxvt-unicode> (a.k.a. urxvt) 1976The above example isn't fictitious, the I<rxvt-unicode> (a.k.a. urxvt)
437uses the above line as-is. An interface isn't included in AnyEvent 1977terminal emulator uses the above line as-is. An interface isn't included
438because it doesn't make sense outside the embedded interpreter inside 1978in AnyEvent because it doesn't make sense outside the embedded interpreter
439I<rxvt-unicode>, and it is updated and maintained as part of the 1979inside I<rxvt-unicode>, and it is updated and maintained as part of the
440I<rxvt-unicode> distribution. 1980I<rxvt-unicode> distribution.
441 1981
442I<rxvt-unicode> also cheats a bit by not providing blocking access to 1982I<rxvt-unicode> also cheats a bit by not providing blocking access to
443condition variables: code blocking while waiting for a condition will 1983condition variables: code blocking while waiting for a condition will
444C<die>. This still works with most modules/usages, and blocking calls must 1984C<die>. This still works with most modules/usages, and blocking calls must
445not be in an interactive application, so it makes sense. 1985not be done in an interactive application, so it makes sense.
446 1986
447=head1 ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES
448
449The following environment variables are used by this module:
450
451C<PERL_ANYEVENT_VERBOSE> when set to C<2> or higher, reports which event
452model gets used.
453
454=head1 EXAMPLE 1987=head1 EXAMPLE PROGRAM
455 1988
456The following program uses an io watcher to read data from stdin, a timer 1989The following program uses an I/O watcher to read data from STDIN, a timer
457to display a message once per second, and a condvar to exit the program 1990to display a message once per second, and a condition variable to quit the
458when the user enters quit: 1991program when the user enters quit:
459 1992
460 use AnyEvent; 1993 use AnyEvent;
461 1994
462 my $cv = AnyEvent->condvar; 1995 my $cv = AnyEvent->condvar;
463 1996
464 my $io_watcher = AnyEvent->io (fh => \*STDIN, poll => 'r', cb => sub { 1997 my $io_watcher = AnyEvent->io (
1998 fh => \*STDIN,
1999 poll => 'r',
2000 cb => sub {
465 warn "io event <$_[0]>\n"; # will always output <r> 2001 warn "io event <$_[0]>\n"; # will always output <r>
466 chomp (my $input = <STDIN>); # read a line 2002 chomp (my $input = <STDIN>); # read a line
467 warn "read: $input\n"; # output what has been read 2003 warn "read: $input\n"; # output what has been read
468 $cv->broadcast if $input =~ /^q/i; # quit program if /^q/i 2004 $cv->send if $input =~ /^q/i; # quit program if /^q/i
2005 },
2006 );
2007
2008 my $time_watcher = AnyEvent->timer (after => 1, interval => 1, cb => sub {
2009 warn "timeout\n"; # print 'timeout' at most every second
469 }); 2010 });
470 2011
471 my $time_watcher; # can only be used once
472
473 sub new_timer {
474 $timer = AnyEvent->timer (after => 1, cb => sub {
475 warn "timeout\n"; # print 'timeout' about every second
476 &new_timer; # and restart the time
477 });
478 }
479
480 new_timer; # create first timer
481
482 $cv->wait; # wait until user enters /^q/i 2012 $cv->recv; # wait until user enters /^q/i
483 2013
484=head1 REAL-WORLD EXAMPLE 2014=head1 REAL-WORLD EXAMPLE
485 2015
486Consider the L<Net::FCP> module. It features (among others) the following 2016Consider the L<Net::FCP> module. It features (among others) the following
487API calls, which are to freenet what HTTP GET requests are to http: 2017API calls, which are to freenet what HTTP GET requests are to http:
537 syswrite $txn->{fh}, $txn->{request} 2067 syswrite $txn->{fh}, $txn->{request}
538 or die "connection or write error"; 2068 or die "connection or write error";
539 $txn->{w} = AnyEvent->io (fh => $txn->{fh}, poll => 'r', cb => sub { $txn->fh_ready_r }); 2069 $txn->{w} = AnyEvent->io (fh => $txn->{fh}, poll => 'r', cb => sub { $txn->fh_ready_r });
540 2070
541Again, C<fh_ready_r> waits till all data has arrived, and then stores the 2071Again, C<fh_ready_r> waits till all data has arrived, and then stores the
542result and signals any possible waiters that the request ahs finished: 2072result and signals any possible waiters that the request has finished:
543 2073
544 sysread $txn->{fh}, $txn->{buf}, length $txn->{$buf}; 2074 sysread $txn->{fh}, $txn->{buf}, length $txn->{$buf};
545 2075
546 if (end-of-file or data complete) { 2076 if (end-of-file or data complete) {
547 $txn->{result} = $txn->{buf}; 2077 $txn->{result} = $txn->{buf};
548 $txn->{finished}->broadcast; 2078 $txn->{finished}->send;
549 $txb->{cb}->($txn) of $txn->{cb}; # also call callback 2079 $txb->{cb}->($txn) of $txn->{cb}; # also call callback
550 } 2080 }
551 2081
552The C<result> method, finally, just waits for the finished signal (if the 2082The C<result> method, finally, just waits for the finished signal (if the
553request was already finished, it doesn't wait, of course, and returns the 2083request was already finished, it doesn't wait, of course, and returns the
554data: 2084data:
555 2085
556 $txn->{finished}->wait; 2086 $txn->{finished}->recv;
557 return $txn->{result}; 2087 return $txn->{result};
558 2088
559The actual code goes further and collects all errors (C<die>s, exceptions) 2089The actual code goes further and collects all errors (C<die>s, exceptions)
560that occured during request processing. The C<result> method detects 2090that occurred during request processing. The C<result> method detects
561wether an exception as thrown (it is stored inside the $txn object) 2091whether an exception as thrown (it is stored inside the $txn object)
562and just throws the exception, which means connection errors and other 2092and just throws the exception, which means connection errors and other
563problems get reported tot he code that tries to use the result, not in a 2093problems get reported to the code that tries to use the result, not in a
564random callback. 2094random callback.
565 2095
566All of this enables the following usage styles: 2096All of this enables the following usage styles:
567 2097
5681. Blocking: 20981. Blocking:
569 2099
570 my $data = $fcp->client_get ($url); 2100 my $data = $fcp->client_get ($url);
571 2101
5722. Blocking, but parallelizing: 21022. Blocking, but running in parallel:
573 2103
574 my @datas = map $_->result, 2104 my @datas = map $_->result,
575 map $fcp->txn_client_get ($_), 2105 map $fcp->txn_client_get ($_),
576 @urls; 2106 @urls;
577 2107
578Both blocking examples work without the module user having to know 2108Both blocking examples work without the module user having to know
579anything about events. 2109anything about events.
580 2110
5813a. Event-based in a main program, using any support Event module: 21113a. Event-based in a main program, using any supported event module:
582 2112
583 use Event; 2113 use EV;
584 2114
585 $fcp->txn_client_get ($url)->cb (sub { 2115 $fcp->txn_client_get ($url)->cb (sub {
586 my $txn = shift; 2116 my $txn = shift;
587 my $data = $txn->result; 2117 my $data = $txn->result;
588 ... 2118 ...
589 }); 2119 });
590 2120
591 Event::loop; 2121 EV::loop;
592 2122
5933b. The module user could use AnyEvent, too: 21233b. The module user could use AnyEvent, too:
594 2124
595 use AnyEvent; 2125 use AnyEvent;
596 2126
597 my $quit = AnyEvent->condvar; 2127 my $quit = AnyEvent->condvar;
598 2128
599 $fcp->txn_client_get ($url)->cb (sub { 2129 $fcp->txn_client_get ($url)->cb (sub {
600 ... 2130 ...
601 $quit->broadcast; 2131 $quit->send;
602 }); 2132 });
603 2133
604 $quit->wait; 2134 $quit->recv;
2135
2136
2137=head1 BENCHMARKS
2138
2139To give you an idea of the performance and overheads that AnyEvent adds
2140over the event loops themselves and to give you an impression of the speed
2141of various event loops I prepared some benchmarks.
2142
2143=head2 BENCHMARKING ANYEVENT OVERHEAD
2144
2145Here is a benchmark of various supported event models used natively and
2146through AnyEvent. The benchmark creates a lot of timers (with a zero
2147timeout) and I/O watchers (watching STDOUT, a pty, to become writable,
2148which it is), lets them fire exactly once and destroys them again.
2149
2150Source code for this benchmark is found as F<eg/bench> in the AnyEvent
2151distribution. It uses the L<AE> interface, which makes a real difference
2152for the EV and Perl backends only.
2153
2154=head3 Explanation of the columns
2155
2156I<watcher> is the number of event watchers created/destroyed. Since
2157different event models feature vastly different performances, each event
2158loop was given a number of watchers so that overall runtime is acceptable
2159and similar between tested event loop (and keep them from crashing): Glib
2160would probably take thousands of years if asked to process the same number
2161of watchers as EV in this benchmark.
2162
2163I<bytes> is the number of bytes (as measured by the resident set size,
2164RSS) consumed by each watcher. This method of measuring captures both C
2165and Perl-based overheads.
2166
2167I<create> is the time, in microseconds (millionths of seconds), that it
2168takes to create a single watcher. The callback is a closure shared between
2169all watchers, to avoid adding memory overhead. That means closure creation
2170and memory usage is not included in the figures.
2171
2172I<invoke> is the time, in microseconds, used to invoke a simple
2173callback. The callback simply counts down a Perl variable and after it was
2174invoked "watcher" times, it would C<< ->send >> a condvar once to
2175signal the end of this phase.
2176
2177I<destroy> is the time, in microseconds, that it takes to destroy a single
2178watcher.
2179
2180=head3 Results
2181
2182 name watchers bytes create invoke destroy comment
2183 EV/EV 100000 223 0.47 0.43 0.27 EV native interface
2184 EV/Any 100000 223 0.48 0.42 0.26 EV + AnyEvent watchers
2185 Coro::EV/Any 100000 223 0.47 0.42 0.26 coroutines + Coro::Signal
2186 Perl/Any 100000 431 2.70 0.74 0.92 pure perl implementation
2187 Event/Event 16000 516 31.16 31.84 0.82 Event native interface
2188 Event/Any 16000 1203 42.61 34.79 1.80 Event + AnyEvent watchers
2189 IOAsync/Any 16000 1911 41.92 27.45 16.81 via IO::Async::Loop::IO_Poll
2190 IOAsync/Any 16000 1726 40.69 26.37 15.25 via IO::Async::Loop::Epoll
2191 Glib/Any 16000 1118 89.00 12.57 51.17 quadratic behaviour
2192 Tk/Any 2000 1346 20.96 10.75 8.00 SEGV with >> 2000 watchers
2193 POE/Any 2000 6951 108.97 795.32 14.24 via POE::Loop::Event
2194 POE/Any 2000 6648 94.79 774.40 575.51 via POE::Loop::Select
2195
2196=head3 Discussion
2197
2198The benchmark does I<not> measure scalability of the event loop very
2199well. For example, a select-based event loop (such as the pure perl one)
2200can never compete with an event loop that uses epoll when the number of
2201file descriptors grows high. In this benchmark, all events become ready at
2202the same time, so select/poll-based implementations get an unnatural speed
2203boost.
2204
2205Also, note that the number of watchers usually has a nonlinear effect on
2206overall speed, that is, creating twice as many watchers doesn't take twice
2207the time - usually it takes longer. This puts event loops tested with a
2208higher number of watchers at a disadvantage.
2209
2210To put the range of results into perspective, consider that on the
2211benchmark machine, handling an event takes roughly 1600 CPU cycles with
2212EV, 3100 CPU cycles with AnyEvent's pure perl loop and almost 3000000 CPU
2213cycles with POE.
2214
2215C<EV> is the sole leader regarding speed and memory use, which are both
2216maximal/minimal, respectively. When using the L<AE> API there is zero
2217overhead (when going through the AnyEvent API create is about 5-6 times
2218slower, with other times being equal, so still uses far less memory than
2219any other event loop and is still faster than Event natively).
2220
2221The pure perl implementation is hit in a few sweet spots (both the
2222constant timeout and the use of a single fd hit optimisations in the perl
2223interpreter and the backend itself). Nevertheless this shows that it
2224adds very little overhead in itself. Like any select-based backend its
2225performance becomes really bad with lots of file descriptors (and few of
2226them active), of course, but this was not subject of this benchmark.
2227
2228The C<Event> module has a relatively high setup and callback invocation
2229cost, but overall scores in on the third place.
2230
2231C<IO::Async> performs admirably well, about on par with C<Event>, even
2232when using its pure perl backend.
2233
2234C<Glib>'s memory usage is quite a bit higher, but it features a
2235faster callback invocation and overall ends up in the same class as
2236C<Event>. However, Glib scales extremely badly, doubling the number of
2237watchers increases the processing time by more than a factor of four,
2238making it completely unusable when using larger numbers of watchers
2239(note that only a single file descriptor was used in the benchmark, so
2240inefficiencies of C<poll> do not account for this).
2241
2242The C<Tk> adaptor works relatively well. The fact that it crashes with
2243more than 2000 watchers is a big setback, however, as correctness takes
2244precedence over speed. Nevertheless, its performance is surprising, as the
2245file descriptor is dup()ed for each watcher. This shows that the dup()
2246employed by some adaptors is not a big performance issue (it does incur a
2247hidden memory cost inside the kernel which is not reflected in the figures
2248above).
2249
2250C<POE>, regardless of underlying event loop (whether using its pure perl
2251select-based backend or the Event module, the POE-EV backend couldn't
2252be tested because it wasn't working) shows abysmal performance and
2253memory usage with AnyEvent: Watchers use almost 30 times as much memory
2254as EV watchers, and 10 times as much memory as Event (the high memory
2255requirements are caused by requiring a session for each watcher). Watcher
2256invocation speed is almost 900 times slower than with AnyEvent's pure perl
2257implementation.
2258
2259The design of the POE adaptor class in AnyEvent can not really account
2260for the performance issues, though, as session creation overhead is
2261small compared to execution of the state machine, which is coded pretty
2262optimally within L<AnyEvent::Impl::POE> (and while everybody agrees that
2263using multiple sessions is not a good approach, especially regarding
2264memory usage, even the author of POE could not come up with a faster
2265design).
2266
2267=head3 Summary
2268
2269=over 4
2270
2271=item * Using EV through AnyEvent is faster than any other event loop
2272(even when used without AnyEvent), but most event loops have acceptable
2273performance with or without AnyEvent.
2274
2275=item * The overhead AnyEvent adds is usually much smaller than the overhead of
2276the actual event loop, only with extremely fast event loops such as EV
2277adds AnyEvent significant overhead.
2278
2279=item * You should avoid POE like the plague if you want performance or
2280reasonable memory usage.
2281
2282=back
2283
2284=head2 BENCHMARKING THE LARGE SERVER CASE
2285
2286This benchmark actually benchmarks the event loop itself. It works by
2287creating a number of "servers": each server consists of a socket pair, a
2288timeout watcher that gets reset on activity (but never fires), and an I/O
2289watcher waiting for input on one side of the socket. Each time the socket
2290watcher reads a byte it will write that byte to a random other "server".
2291
2292The effect is that there will be a lot of I/O watchers, only part of which
2293are active at any one point (so there is a constant number of active
2294fds for each loop iteration, but which fds these are is random). The
2295timeout is reset each time something is read because that reflects how
2296most timeouts work (and puts extra pressure on the event loops).
2297
2298In this benchmark, we use 10000 socket pairs (20000 sockets), of which 100
2299(1%) are active. This mirrors the activity of large servers with many
2300connections, most of which are idle at any one point in time.
2301
2302Source code for this benchmark is found as F<eg/bench2> in the AnyEvent
2303distribution. It uses the L<AE> interface, which makes a real difference
2304for the EV and Perl backends only.
2305
2306=head3 Explanation of the columns
2307
2308I<sockets> is the number of sockets, and twice the number of "servers" (as
2309each server has a read and write socket end).
2310
2311I<create> is the time it takes to create a socket pair (which is
2312nontrivial) and two watchers: an I/O watcher and a timeout watcher.
2313
2314I<request>, the most important value, is the time it takes to handle a
2315single "request", that is, reading the token from the pipe and forwarding
2316it to another server. This includes deleting the old timeout and creating
2317a new one that moves the timeout into the future.
2318
2319=head3 Results
2320
2321 name sockets create request
2322 EV 20000 62.66 7.99
2323 Perl 20000 68.32 32.64
2324 IOAsync 20000 174.06 101.15 epoll
2325 IOAsync 20000 174.67 610.84 poll
2326 Event 20000 202.69 242.91
2327 Glib 20000 557.01 1689.52
2328 POE 20000 341.54 12086.32 uses POE::Loop::Event
2329
2330=head3 Discussion
2331
2332This benchmark I<does> measure scalability and overall performance of the
2333particular event loop.
2334
2335EV is again fastest. Since it is using epoll on my system, the setup time
2336is relatively high, though.
2337
2338Perl surprisingly comes second. It is much faster than the C-based event
2339loops Event and Glib.
2340
2341IO::Async performs very well when using its epoll backend, and still quite
2342good compared to Glib when using its pure perl backend.
2343
2344Event suffers from high setup time as well (look at its code and you will
2345understand why). Callback invocation also has a high overhead compared to
2346the C<< $_->() for .. >>-style loop that the Perl event loop uses. Event
2347uses select or poll in basically all documented configurations.
2348
2349Glib is hit hard by its quadratic behaviour w.r.t. many watchers. It
2350clearly fails to perform with many filehandles or in busy servers.
2351
2352POE is still completely out of the picture, taking over 1000 times as long
2353as EV, and over 100 times as long as the Perl implementation, even though
2354it uses a C-based event loop in this case.
2355
2356=head3 Summary
2357
2358=over 4
2359
2360=item * The pure perl implementation performs extremely well.
2361
2362=item * Avoid Glib or POE in large projects where performance matters.
2363
2364=back
2365
2366=head2 BENCHMARKING SMALL SERVERS
2367
2368While event loops should scale (and select-based ones do not...) even to
2369large servers, most programs we (or I :) actually write have only a few
2370I/O watchers.
2371
2372In this benchmark, I use the same benchmark program as in the large server
2373case, but it uses only eight "servers", of which three are active at any
2374one time. This should reflect performance for a small server relatively
2375well.
2376
2377The columns are identical to the previous table.
2378
2379=head3 Results
2380
2381 name sockets create request
2382 EV 16 20.00 6.54
2383 Perl 16 25.75 12.62
2384 Event 16 81.27 35.86
2385 Glib 16 32.63 15.48
2386 POE 16 261.87 276.28 uses POE::Loop::Event
2387
2388=head3 Discussion
2389
2390The benchmark tries to test the performance of a typical small
2391server. While knowing how various event loops perform is interesting, keep
2392in mind that their overhead in this case is usually not as important, due
2393to the small absolute number of watchers (that is, you need efficiency and
2394speed most when you have lots of watchers, not when you only have a few of
2395them).
2396
2397EV is again fastest.
2398
2399Perl again comes second. It is noticeably faster than the C-based event
2400loops Event and Glib, although the difference is too small to really
2401matter.
2402
2403POE also performs much better in this case, but is is still far behind the
2404others.
2405
2406=head3 Summary
2407
2408=over 4
2409
2410=item * C-based event loops perform very well with small number of
2411watchers, as the management overhead dominates.
2412
2413=back
2414
2415=head2 THE IO::Lambda BENCHMARK
2416
2417Recently I was told about the benchmark in the IO::Lambda manpage, which
2418could be misinterpreted to make AnyEvent look bad. In fact, the benchmark
2419simply compares IO::Lambda with POE, and IO::Lambda looks better (which
2420shouldn't come as a surprise to anybody). As such, the benchmark is
2421fine, and mostly shows that the AnyEvent backend from IO::Lambda isn't
2422very optimal. But how would AnyEvent compare when used without the extra
2423baggage? To explore this, I wrote the equivalent benchmark for AnyEvent.
2424
2425The benchmark itself creates an echo-server, and then, for 500 times,
2426connects to the echo server, sends a line, waits for the reply, and then
2427creates the next connection. This is a rather bad benchmark, as it doesn't
2428test the efficiency of the framework or much non-blocking I/O, but it is a
2429benchmark nevertheless.
2430
2431 name runtime
2432 Lambda/select 0.330 sec
2433 + optimized 0.122 sec
2434 Lambda/AnyEvent 0.327 sec
2435 + optimized 0.138 sec
2436 Raw sockets/select 0.077 sec
2437 POE/select, components 0.662 sec
2438 POE/select, raw sockets 0.226 sec
2439 POE/select, optimized 0.404 sec
2440
2441 AnyEvent/select/nb 0.085 sec
2442 AnyEvent/EV/nb 0.068 sec
2443 +state machine 0.134 sec
2444
2445The benchmark is also a bit unfair (my fault): the IO::Lambda/POE
2446benchmarks actually make blocking connects and use 100% blocking I/O,
2447defeating the purpose of an event-based solution. All of the newly
2448written AnyEvent benchmarks use 100% non-blocking connects (using
2449AnyEvent::Socket::tcp_connect and the asynchronous pure perl DNS
2450resolver), so AnyEvent is at a disadvantage here, as non-blocking connects
2451generally require a lot more bookkeeping and event handling than blocking
2452connects (which involve a single syscall only).
2453
2454The last AnyEvent benchmark additionally uses L<AnyEvent::Handle>, which
2455offers similar expressive power as POE and IO::Lambda, using conventional
2456Perl syntax. This means that both the echo server and the client are 100%
2457non-blocking, further placing it at a disadvantage.
2458
2459As you can see, the AnyEvent + EV combination even beats the
2460hand-optimised "raw sockets benchmark", while AnyEvent + its pure perl
2461backend easily beats IO::Lambda and POE.
2462
2463And even the 100% non-blocking version written using the high-level (and
2464slow :) L<AnyEvent::Handle> abstraction beats both POE and IO::Lambda
2465higher level ("unoptimised") abstractions by a large margin, even though
2466it does all of DNS, tcp-connect and socket I/O in a non-blocking way.
2467
2468The two AnyEvent benchmarks programs can be found as F<eg/ae0.pl> and
2469F<eg/ae2.pl> in the AnyEvent distribution, the remaining benchmarks are
2470part of the IO::Lambda distribution and were used without any changes.
2471
2472
2473=head1 SIGNALS
2474
2475AnyEvent currently installs handlers for these signals:
2476
2477=over 4
2478
2479=item SIGCHLD
2480
2481A handler for C<SIGCHLD> is installed by AnyEvent's child watcher
2482emulation for event loops that do not support them natively. Also, some
2483event loops install a similar handler.
2484
2485Additionally, when AnyEvent is loaded and SIGCHLD is set to IGNORE, then
2486AnyEvent will reset it to default, to avoid losing child exit statuses.
2487
2488=item SIGPIPE
2489
2490A no-op handler is installed for C<SIGPIPE> when C<$SIG{PIPE}> is C<undef>
2491when AnyEvent gets loaded.
2492
2493The rationale for this is that AnyEvent users usually do not really depend
2494on SIGPIPE delivery (which is purely an optimisation for shell use, or
2495badly-written programs), but C<SIGPIPE> can cause spurious and rare
2496program exits as a lot of people do not expect C<SIGPIPE> when writing to
2497some random socket.
2498
2499The rationale for installing a no-op handler as opposed to ignoring it is
2500that this way, the handler will be restored to defaults on exec.
2501
2502Feel free to install your own handler, or reset it to defaults.
2503
2504=back
2505
2506=cut
2507
2508undef $SIG{CHLD}
2509 if $SIG{CHLD} eq 'IGNORE';
2510
2511$SIG{PIPE} = sub { }
2512 unless defined $SIG{PIPE};
2513
2514=head1 RECOMMENDED/OPTIONAL MODULES
2515
2516One of AnyEvent's main goals is to be 100% Pure-Perl(tm): only perl (and
2517its built-in modules) are required to use it.
2518
2519That does not mean that AnyEvent won't take advantage of some additional
2520modules if they are installed.
2521
2522This section explains which additional modules will be used, and how they
2523affect AnyEvent's operation.
2524
2525=over 4
2526
2527=item L<Async::Interrupt>
2528
2529This slightly arcane module is used to implement fast signal handling: To
2530my knowledge, there is no way to do completely race-free and quick
2531signal handling in pure perl. To ensure that signals still get
2532delivered, AnyEvent will start an interval timer to wake up perl (and
2533catch the signals) with some delay (default is 10 seconds, look for
2534C<$AnyEvent::MAX_SIGNAL_LATENCY>).
2535
2536If this module is available, then it will be used to implement signal
2537catching, which means that signals will not be delayed, and the event loop
2538will not be interrupted regularly, which is more efficient (and good for
2539battery life on laptops).
2540
2541This affects not just the pure-perl event loop, but also other event loops
2542that have no signal handling on their own (e.g. Glib, Tk, Qt).
2543
2544Some event loops (POE, Event, Event::Lib) offer signal watchers natively,
2545and either employ their own workarounds (POE) or use AnyEvent's workaround
2546(using C<$AnyEvent::MAX_SIGNAL_LATENCY>). Installing L<Async::Interrupt>
2547does nothing for those backends.
2548
2549=item L<EV>
2550
2551This module isn't really "optional", as it is simply one of the backend
2552event loops that AnyEvent can use. However, it is simply the best event
2553loop available in terms of features, speed and stability: It supports
2554the AnyEvent API optimally, implements all the watcher types in XS, does
2555automatic timer adjustments even when no monotonic clock is available,
2556can take avdantage of advanced kernel interfaces such as C<epoll> and
2557C<kqueue>, and is the fastest backend I<by far>. You can even embed
2558L<Glib>/L<Gtk2> in it (or vice versa, see L<EV::Glib> and L<Glib::EV>).
2559
2560If you only use backends that rely on another event loop (e.g. C<Tk>),
2561then this module will do nothing for you.
2562
2563=item L<Guard>
2564
2565The guard module, when used, will be used to implement
2566C<AnyEvent::Util::guard>. This speeds up guards considerably (and uses a
2567lot less memory), but otherwise doesn't affect guard operation much. It is
2568purely used for performance.
2569
2570=item L<JSON> and L<JSON::XS>
2571
2572One of these modules is required when you want to read or write JSON data
2573via L<AnyEvent::Handle>. L<JSON> is also written in pure-perl, but can take
2574advantage of the ultra-high-speed L<JSON::XS> module when it is installed.
2575
2576=item L<Net::SSLeay>
2577
2578Implementing TLS/SSL in Perl is certainly interesting, but not very
2579worthwhile: If this module is installed, then L<AnyEvent::Handle> (with
2580the help of L<AnyEvent::TLS>), gains the ability to do TLS/SSL.
2581
2582=item L<Time::HiRes>
2583
2584This module is part of perl since release 5.008. It will be used when the
2585chosen event library does not come with a timing source of its own. The
2586pure-perl event loop (L<AnyEvent::Impl::Perl>) will additionally use it to
2587try to use a monotonic clock for timing stability.
2588
2589=back
2590
2591
2592=head1 FORK
2593
2594Most event libraries are not fork-safe. The ones who are usually are
2595because they rely on inefficient but fork-safe C<select> or C<poll> calls
2596- higher performance APIs such as BSD's kqueue or the dreaded Linux epoll
2597are usually badly thought-out hacks that are incompatible with fork in
2598one way or another. Only L<EV> is fully fork-aware and ensures that you
2599continue event-processing in both parent and child (or both, if you know
2600what you are doing).
2601
2602This means that, in general, you cannot fork and do event processing in
2603the child if the event library was initialised before the fork (which
2604usually happens when the first AnyEvent watcher is created, or the library
2605is loaded).
2606
2607If you have to fork, you must either do so I<before> creating your first
2608watcher OR you must not use AnyEvent at all in the child OR you must do
2609something completely out of the scope of AnyEvent.
2610
2611The problem of doing event processing in the parent I<and> the child
2612is much more complicated: even for backends that I<are> fork-aware or
2613fork-safe, their behaviour is not usually what you want: fork clones all
2614watchers, that means all timers, I/O watchers etc. are active in both
2615parent and child, which is almost never what you want. USing C<exec>
2616to start worker children from some kind of manage rprocess is usually
2617preferred, because it is much easier and cleaner, at the expense of having
2618to have another binary.
2619
2620
2621=head1 SECURITY CONSIDERATIONS
2622
2623AnyEvent can be forced to load any event model via
2624$ENV{PERL_ANYEVENT_MODEL}. While this cannot (to my knowledge) be used to
2625execute arbitrary code or directly gain access, it can easily be used to
2626make the program hang or malfunction in subtle ways, as AnyEvent watchers
2627will not be active when the program uses a different event model than
2628specified in the variable.
2629
2630You can make AnyEvent completely ignore this variable by deleting it
2631before the first watcher gets created, e.g. with a C<BEGIN> block:
2632
2633 BEGIN { delete $ENV{PERL_ANYEVENT_MODEL} }
2634
2635 use AnyEvent;
2636
2637Similar considerations apply to $ENV{PERL_ANYEVENT_VERBOSE}, as that can
2638be used to probe what backend is used and gain other information (which is
2639probably even less useful to an attacker than PERL_ANYEVENT_MODEL), and
2640$ENV{PERL_ANYEVENT_STRICT}.
2641
2642Note that AnyEvent will remove I<all> environment variables starting with
2643C<PERL_ANYEVENT_> from C<%ENV> when it is loaded while taint mode is
2644enabled.
2645
2646
2647=head1 BUGS
2648
2649Perl 5.8 has numerous memleaks that sometimes hit this module and are hard
2650to work around. If you suffer from memleaks, first upgrade to Perl 5.10
2651and check wether the leaks still show up. (Perl 5.10.0 has other annoying
2652memleaks, such as leaking on C<map> and C<grep> but it is usually not as
2653pronounced).
2654
605 2655
606=head1 SEE ALSO 2656=head1 SEE ALSO
607 2657
608Event modules: L<Coro::Event>, L<Coro>, L<Event>, L<Glib::Event>, L<Glib>. 2658Tutorial/Introduction: L<AnyEvent::Intro>.
609 2659
610Implementations: L<AnyEvent::Impl::Coro>, L<AnyEvent::Impl::Event>, L<AnyEvent::Impl::Glib>, L<AnyEvent::Impl::Tk>. 2660FAQ: L<AnyEvent::FAQ>.
611 2661
612Nontrivial usage example: L<Net::FCP>. 2662Utility functions: L<AnyEvent::Util>.
613 2663
614=head1 2664Event modules: L<EV>, L<EV::Glib>, L<Glib::EV>, L<Event>, L<Glib::Event>,
2665L<Glib>, L<Tk>, L<Event::Lib>, L<Qt>, L<POE>.
2666
2667Implementations: L<AnyEvent::Impl::EV>, L<AnyEvent::Impl::Event>,
2668L<AnyEvent::Impl::Glib>, L<AnyEvent::Impl::Tk>, L<AnyEvent::Impl::Perl>,
2669L<AnyEvent::Impl::EventLib>, L<AnyEvent::Impl::Qt>,
2670L<AnyEvent::Impl::POE>, L<AnyEvent::Impl::IOAsync>, L<Anyevent::Impl::Irssi>.
2671
2672Non-blocking file handles, sockets, TCP clients and
2673servers: L<AnyEvent::Handle>, L<AnyEvent::Socket>, L<AnyEvent::TLS>.
2674
2675Asynchronous DNS: L<AnyEvent::DNS>.
2676
2677Thread support: L<Coro>, L<Coro::AnyEvent>, L<Coro::EV>, L<Coro::Event>.
2678
2679Nontrivial usage examples: L<AnyEvent::GPSD>, L<AnyEvent::IRC>,
2680L<AnyEvent::HTTP>.
2681
2682
2683=head1 AUTHOR
2684
2685 Marc Lehmann <schmorp@schmorp.de>
2686 http://home.schmorp.de/
615 2687
616=cut 2688=cut
617 2689
6181 26901
619 2691

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