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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> the callback 207watcher waiting for "r"eadable or "w"ritable events, respectively.
76to invoke everytime the filehandle becomes ready.
77 208
78Only one io watcher per C<fh> and C<poll> combination is allowed (i.e. on 209C<cb> is the callback to invoke each time the file handle becomes ready.
79a socket you can have one r + one w, not any more (limitation comes from
80Tk - if you are sure you are not using Tk this limitation is gone).
81 210
82Filehandles will be kept alive, so as long as the watcher exists, the 211Although the callback might get passed parameters, their value and
83filehandle exists, too. 212presence is undefined and you cannot rely on them. Portable AnyEvent
213callbacks cannot use arguments passed to I/O watcher callbacks.
84 214
85Example: 215The I/O watcher might use the underlying file descriptor or a copy of it.
216You must not close a file handle as long as any watcher is active on the
217underlying file descriptor.
86 218
219Some event loops issue spurious readiness notifications, so you should
220always use non-blocking calls when reading/writing from/to your file
221handles.
222
87 # wait for readability of STDIN, then read a line and disable the watcher 223Example: wait for readability of STDIN, then read a line and disable the
224watcher.
225
88 my $w; $w = AnyEvent->io (fh => \*STDIN, poll => 'r', cb => sub { 226 my $w; $w = AnyEvent->io (fh => \*STDIN, poll => 'r', cb => sub {
89 chomp (my $input = <STDIN>); 227 chomp (my $input = <STDIN>);
90 warn "read: $input\n"; 228 warn "read: $input\n";
91 undef $w; 229 undef $w;
92 }); 230 });
93 231
94=head2 TIME WATCHERS 232=head2 TIME WATCHERS
95 233
234 $w = AnyEvent->timer (after => <seconds>, cb => <callback>);
235
236 $w = AnyEvent->timer (
237 after => <fractional_seconds>,
238 interval => <fractional_seconds>,
239 cb => <callback>,
240 );
241
96You can create a time watcher by calling the C<< AnyEvent->timer >> 242You can create a time watcher by calling the C<< AnyEvent->timer >>
97method with the following mandatory arguments: 243method with the following mandatory arguments:
98 244
99C<after> after how many seconds (fractions are supported) should the timer 245C<after> specifies after how many seconds (fractional values are
100activate. C<cb> the callback to invoke. 246supported) the callback should be invoked. C<cb> is the callback to invoke
247in that case.
101 248
102The timer callback will be invoked at most once: if you want a repeating 249Although the callback might get passed parameters, their value and
103timer you have to create a new watcher (this is a limitation by both Tk 250presence is undefined and you cannot rely on them. Portable AnyEvent
104and Glib). 251callbacks cannot use arguments passed to time watcher callbacks.
105 252
106Example: 253The callback will normally be invoked only once. If you specify another
254parameter, C<interval>, as a strictly positive number (> 0), then the
255callback will be invoked regularly at that interval (in fractional
256seconds) after the first invocation. If C<interval> is specified with a
257false value, then it is treated as if it were not specified at all.
107 258
259The callback will be rescheduled before invoking the callback, but no
260attempt is made to avoid timer drift in most backends, so the interval is
261only approximate.
262
108 # fire an event after 7.7 seconds 263Example: fire an event after 7.7 seconds.
264
109 my $w = AnyEvent->timer (after => 7.7, cb => sub { 265 my $w = AnyEvent->timer (after => 7.7, cb => sub {
110 warn "timeout\n"; 266 warn "timeout\n";
111 }); 267 });
112 268
113 # to cancel the timer: 269 # to cancel the timer:
114 undef $w 270 undef $w;
115 271
116=head2 CONDITION WATCHERS 272Example 2: fire an event after 0.5 seconds, then roughly every second.
117 273
118Condition watchers can be created by calling the C<< AnyEvent->condvar >> 274 my $w = AnyEvent->timer (after => 0.5, interval => 1, cb => sub {
119method without any arguments. 275 warn "timeout\n";
276 };
120 277
121A condition watcher watches for a condition - precisely that the C<< 278=head3 TIMING ISSUES
122->broadcast >> method has been called.
123 279
124The watcher has only two methods: 280There are two ways to handle timers: based on real time (relative, "fire
281in 10 seconds") and based on wallclock time (absolute, "fire at 12
282o'clock").
283
284While most event loops expect timers to specified in a relative way, they
285use absolute time internally. This makes a difference when your clock
286"jumps", for example, when ntp decides to set your clock backwards from
287the wrong date of 2014-01-01 to 2008-01-01, a watcher that is supposed to
288fire "after a second" might actually take six years to finally fire.
289
290AnyEvent cannot compensate for this. The only event loop that is conscious
291of these issues is L<EV>, which offers both relative (ev_timer, based
292on true relative time) and absolute (ev_periodic, based on wallclock time)
293timers.
294
295AnyEvent always prefers relative timers, if available, matching the
296AnyEvent API.
297
298AnyEvent has two additional methods that return the "current time":
125 299
126=over 4 300=over 4
127 301
128=item $cv->wait 302=item AnyEvent->time
129 303
130Wait (blocking if necessary) until the C<< ->broadcast >> method has been 304This returns the "current wallclock time" as a fractional number of
131called on c<$cv>, while servicing other watchers normally. 305seconds since the Epoch (the same thing as C<time> or C<Time::HiRes::time>
306return, and the result is guaranteed to be compatible with those).
132 307
133Not all event models support a blocking wait - some die in that case, so 308It progresses independently of any event loop processing, i.e. each call
134if you are using this from a module, never require a blocking wait, but 309will check the system clock, which usually gets updated frequently.
135let the caller decide wether the call will block or not (for example,
136by coupling condition variables with some kind of request results and
137supporting callbacks so the caller knows that getting the result will not
138block, while still suppporting blockign waits if the caller so desires).
139 310
140You can only wait once on a condition - additional calls will return 311=item AnyEvent->now
141immediately.
142 312
143=item $cv->broadcast 313This also returns the "current wallclock time", but unlike C<time>, above,
314this value might change only once per event loop iteration, depending on
315the event loop (most return the same time as C<time>, above). This is the
316time that AnyEvent's timers get scheduled against.
144 317
145Flag the condition as ready - a running C<< ->wait >> and all further 318I<In almost all cases (in all cases if you don't care), this is the
146calls to C<wait> will return after this method has been called. If nobody 319function to call when you want to know the current time.>
147is waiting the broadcast will be remembered..
148 320
149Example: 321This function is also often faster then C<< AnyEvent->time >>, and
322thus the preferred method if you want some timestamp (for example,
323L<AnyEvent::Handle> uses this to update its activity timeouts).
150 324
151 # wait till the result is ready 325The rest of this section is only of relevance if you try to be very exact
152 my $result_ready = AnyEvent->condvar; 326with your timing; you can skip it without a bad conscience.
153 327
154 # do something such as adding a timer 328For a practical example of when these times differ, consider L<Event::Lib>
155 # or socket watcher the calls $result_ready->broadcast 329and L<EV> and the following set-up:
156 # when the "result" is ready.
157 330
158 $result_ready->wait; 331The event loop is running and has just invoked one of your callbacks at
332time=500 (assume no other callbacks delay processing). In your callback,
333you wait a second by executing C<sleep 1> (blocking the process for a
334second) and then (at time=501) you create a relative timer that fires
335after three seconds.
336
337With L<Event::Lib>, C<< AnyEvent->time >> and C<< AnyEvent->now >> will
338both return C<501>, because that is the current time, and the timer will
339be scheduled to fire at time=504 (C<501> + C<3>).
340
341With L<EV>, C<< AnyEvent->time >> returns C<501> (as that is the current
342time), but C<< AnyEvent->now >> returns C<500>, as that is the time the
343last event processing phase started. With L<EV>, your timer gets scheduled
344to run at time=503 (C<500> + C<3>).
345
346In one sense, L<Event::Lib> is more exact, as it uses the current time
347regardless of any delays introduced by event processing. However, most
348callbacks do not expect large delays in processing, so this causes a
349higher drift (and a lot more system calls to get the current time).
350
351In another sense, L<EV> is more exact, as your timer will be scheduled at
352the same time, regardless of how long event processing actually took.
353
354In either case, if you care (and in most cases, you don't), then you
355can get whatever behaviour you want with any event loop, by taking the
356difference between C<< AnyEvent->time >> and C<< AnyEvent->now >> into
357account.
358
359=item AnyEvent->now_update
360
361Some event loops (such as L<EV> or L<AnyEvent::Impl::Perl>) cache
362the current time for each loop iteration (see the discussion of L<<
363AnyEvent->now >>, above).
364
365When a callback runs for a long time (or when the process sleeps), then
366this "current" time will differ substantially from the real time, which
367might affect timers and time-outs.
368
369When this is the case, you can call this method, which will update the
370event loop's idea of "current time".
371
372A typical example would be a script in a web server (e.g. C<mod_perl>) -
373when mod_perl executes the script, then the event loop will have the wrong
374idea about the "current time" (being potentially far in the past, when the
375script ran the last time). In that case you should arrange a call to C<<
376AnyEvent->now_update >> each time the web server process wakes up again
377(e.g. at the start of your script, or in a handler).
378
379Note that updating the time I<might> cause some events to be handled.
159 380
160=back 381=back
161 382
162=head2 SIGNAL WATCHERS 383=head2 SIGNAL WATCHERS
163 384
385 $w = AnyEvent->signal (signal => <uppercase_signal_name>, cb => <callback>);
386
164You can listen for signals using a signal watcher, C<signal> is the signal 387You can watch for signals using a signal watcher, C<signal> is the signal
165I<name> without any C<SIG> prefix. Multiple signals events can be clumped 388I<name> in uppercase and without any C<SIG> prefix, C<cb> is the Perl
166together into one callback invocation, and callback invocation might or 389callback to be invoked whenever a signal occurs.
167might not be asynchronous.
168 390
169These watchers might use C<%SIG>, so programs overwriting those signals 391Although the callback might get passed parameters, their value and
170directly will likely not work correctly. 392presence is undefined and you cannot rely on them. Portable AnyEvent
393callbacks cannot use arguments passed to signal watcher callbacks.
394
395Multiple signal occurrences can be clumped together into one callback
396invocation, and callback invocation will be synchronous. Synchronous means
397that it might take a while until the signal gets handled by the process,
398but it is guaranteed not to interrupt any other callbacks.
399
400The main advantage of using these watchers is that you can share a signal
401between multiple watchers, and AnyEvent will ensure that signals will not
402interrupt your program at bad times.
403
404This watcher might use C<%SIG> (depending on the event loop used),
405so programs overwriting those signals directly will likely not work
406correctly.
171 407
172Example: exit on SIGINT 408Example: exit on SIGINT
173 409
174 my $w = AnyEvent->signal (signal => "INT", cb => sub { exit 1 }); 410 my $w = AnyEvent->signal (signal => "INT", cb => sub { exit 1 });
175 411
412=head3 Restart Behaviour
413
414While restart behaviour is up to the event loop implementation, most will
415not restart syscalls (that includes L<Async::Interrupt> and AnyEvent's
416pure perl implementation).
417
418=head3 Safe/Unsafe Signals
419
420Perl signals can be either "safe" (synchronous to opcode handling) or
421"unsafe" (asynchronous) - the former might get delayed indefinitely, the
422latter might corrupt your memory.
423
424AnyEvent signal handlers are, in addition, synchronous to the event loop,
425i.e. they will not interrupt your running perl program but will only be
426called as part of the normal event handling (just like timer, I/O etc.
427callbacks, too).
428
429=head3 Signal Races, Delays and Workarounds
430
431Many event loops (e.g. Glib, Tk, Qt, IO::Async) do not support attaching
432callbacks to signals in a generic way, which is a pity, as you cannot
433do race-free signal handling in perl, requiring C libraries for
434this. AnyEvent will try to do its best, which means in some cases,
435signals will be delayed. The maximum time a signal might be delayed is
436specified in C<$AnyEvent::MAX_SIGNAL_LATENCY> (default: 10 seconds). This
437variable can be changed only before the first signal watcher is created,
438and should be left alone otherwise. This variable determines how often
439AnyEvent polls for signals (in case a wake-up was missed). Higher values
440will cause fewer spurious wake-ups, which is better for power and CPU
441saving.
442
443All these problems can be avoided by installing the optional
444L<Async::Interrupt> module, which works with most event loops. It will not
445work with inherently broken event loops such as L<Event> or L<Event::Lib>
446(and not with L<POE> currently, as POE does its own workaround with
447one-second latency). For those, you just have to suffer the delays.
448
176=head2 CHILD PROCESS WATCHERS 449=head2 CHILD PROCESS WATCHERS
177 450
178You can also listen for the status of a child process specified by the 451 $w = AnyEvent->child (pid => <process id>, cb => <callback>);
179C<pid> argument (or any child if the pid argument is 0). The watcher will
180trigger as often as status change for the child are received. This works
181by installing a signal handler for C<SIGCHLD>. The callback will be called with
182the pid and exit status (as returned by waitpid).
183 452
184Example: wait for pid 1333 453You can also watch for a child process exit and catch its exit status.
185 454
186 my $w = AnyEvent->child (pid => 1333, cb => sub { warn "exit status $?" }); 455The child process is specified by the C<pid> argument (on some backends,
456using C<0> watches for any child process exit, on others this will
457croak). The watcher will be triggered only when the child process has
458finished and an exit status is available, not on any trace events
459(stopped/continued).
187 460
188=head1 GLOBALS 461The callback will be called with the pid and exit status (as returned by
462waitpid), so unlike other watcher types, you I<can> rely on child watcher
463callback arguments.
464
465This watcher type works by installing a signal handler for C<SIGCHLD>,
466and since it cannot be shared, nothing else should use SIGCHLD or reap
467random child processes (waiting for specific child processes, e.g. inside
468C<system>, is just fine).
469
470There is a slight catch to child watchers, however: you usually start them
471I<after> the child process was created, and this means the process could
472have exited already (and no SIGCHLD will be sent anymore).
473
474Not all event models handle this correctly (neither POE nor IO::Async do,
475see their AnyEvent::Impl manpages for details), but even for event models
476that I<do> handle this correctly, they usually need to be loaded before
477the process exits (i.e. before you fork in the first place). AnyEvent's
478pure perl event loop handles all cases correctly regardless of when you
479start the watcher.
480
481This means you cannot create a child watcher as the very first
482thing in an AnyEvent program, you I<have> to create at least one
483watcher before you C<fork> the child (alternatively, you can call
484C<AnyEvent::detect>).
485
486As most event loops do not support waiting for child events, they will be
487emulated by AnyEvent in most cases, in which the latency and race problems
488mentioned in the description of signal watchers apply.
489
490Example: fork a process and wait for it
491
492 my $done = AnyEvent->condvar;
493
494 my $pid = fork or exit 5;
495
496 my $w = AnyEvent->child (
497 pid => $pid,
498 cb => sub {
499 my ($pid, $status) = @_;
500 warn "pid $pid exited with status $status";
501 $done->send;
502 },
503 );
504
505 # do something else, then wait for process exit
506 $done->recv;
507
508=head2 IDLE WATCHERS
509
510 $w = AnyEvent->idle (cb => <callback>);
511
512This will repeatedly invoke the callback after the process becomes idle,
513until either the watcher is destroyed or new events have been detected.
514
515Idle watchers are useful when there is a need to do something, but it
516is not so important (or wise) to do it instantly. The callback will be
517invoked only when there is "nothing better to do", which is usually
518defined as "all outstanding events have been handled and no new events
519have been detected". That means that idle watchers ideally get invoked
520when the event loop has just polled for new events but none have been
521detected. Instead of blocking to wait for more events, the idle watchers
522will be invoked.
523
524Unfortunately, most event loops do not really support idle watchers (only
525EV, Event and Glib do it in a usable fashion) - for the rest, AnyEvent
526will simply call the callback "from time to time".
527
528Example: read lines from STDIN, but only process them when the
529program is otherwise idle:
530
531 my @lines; # read data
532 my $idle_w;
533 my $io_w = AnyEvent->io (fh => \*STDIN, poll => 'r', cb => sub {
534 push @lines, scalar <STDIN>;
535
536 # start an idle watcher, if not already done
537 $idle_w ||= AnyEvent->idle (cb => sub {
538 # handle only one line, when there are lines left
539 if (my $line = shift @lines) {
540 print "handled when idle: $line";
541 } else {
542 # otherwise disable the idle watcher again
543 undef $idle_w;
544 }
545 });
546 });
547
548=head2 CONDITION VARIABLES
549
550 $cv = AnyEvent->condvar;
551
552 $cv->send (<list>);
553 my @res = $cv->recv;
554
555If you are familiar with some event loops you will know that all of them
556require you to run some blocking "loop", "run" or similar function that
557will actively watch for new events and call your callbacks.
558
559AnyEvent is slightly different: it expects somebody else to run the event
560loop and will only block when necessary (usually when told by the user).
561
562The tool to do that is called a "condition variable", so called because
563they represent a condition that must become true.
564
565Now is probably a good time to look at the examples further below.
566
567Condition variables can be created by calling the C<< AnyEvent->condvar
568>> method, usually without arguments. The only argument pair allowed is
569C<cb>, which specifies a callback to be called when the condition variable
570becomes true, with the condition variable as the first argument (but not
571the results).
572
573After creation, the condition variable is "false" until it becomes "true"
574by calling the C<send> method (or calling the condition variable as if it
575were a callback, read about the caveats in the description for the C<<
576->send >> method).
577
578Since condition variables are the most complex part of the AnyEvent API, here are
579some different mental models of what they are - pick the ones you can connect to:
189 580
190=over 4 581=over 4
191 582
583=item * Condition variables are like callbacks - you can call them (and pass them instead
584of callbacks). Unlike callbacks however, you can also wait for them to be called.
585
586=item * Condition variables are signals - one side can emit or send them,
587the other side can wait for them, or install a handler that is called when
588the signal fires.
589
590=item * Condition variables are like "Merge Points" - points in your program
591where you merge multiple independent results/control flows into one.
592
593=item * Condition variables represent a transaction - functions that start
594some kind of transaction can return them, leaving the caller the choice
595between waiting in a blocking fashion, or setting a callback.
596
597=item * Condition variables represent future values, or promises to deliver
598some result, long before the result is available.
599
600=back
601
602Condition variables are very useful to signal that something has finished,
603for example, if you write a module that does asynchronous http requests,
604then a condition variable would be the ideal candidate to signal the
605availability of results. The user can either act when the callback is
606called or can synchronously C<< ->recv >> for the results.
607
608You can also use them to simulate traditional event loops - for example,
609you can block your main program until an event occurs - for example, you
610could C<< ->recv >> in your main program until the user clicks the Quit
611button of your app, which would C<< ->send >> the "quit" event.
612
613Note that condition variables recurse into the event loop - if you have
614two pieces of code that call C<< ->recv >> in a round-robin fashion, you
615lose. Therefore, condition variables are good to export to your caller, but
616you should avoid making a blocking wait yourself, at least in callbacks,
617as this asks for trouble.
618
619Condition variables are represented by hash refs in perl, and the keys
620used by AnyEvent itself are all named C<_ae_XXX> to make subclassing
621easy (it is often useful to build your own transaction class on top of
622AnyEvent). To subclass, use C<AnyEvent::CondVar> as base class and call
623its C<new> method in your own C<new> method.
624
625There are two "sides" to a condition variable - the "producer side" which
626eventually calls C<< -> send >>, and the "consumer side", which waits
627for the send to occur.
628
629Example: wait for a timer.
630
631 # condition: "wait till the timer is fired"
632 my $timer_fired = AnyEvent->condvar;
633
634 # create the timer - we could wait for, say
635 # a handle becomign ready, or even an
636 # AnyEvent::HTTP request to finish, but
637 # in this case, we simply use a timer:
638 my $w = AnyEvent->timer (
639 after => 1,
640 cb => sub { $timer_fired->send },
641 );
642
643 # this "blocks" (while handling events) till the callback
644 # calls ->send
645 $timer_fired->recv;
646
647Example: wait for a timer, but take advantage of the fact that condition
648variables are also callable directly.
649
650 my $done = AnyEvent->condvar;
651 my $delay = AnyEvent->timer (after => 5, cb => $done);
652 $done->recv;
653
654Example: Imagine an API that returns a condvar and doesn't support
655callbacks. This is how you make a synchronous call, for example from
656the main program:
657
658 use AnyEvent::CouchDB;
659
660 ...
661
662 my @info = $couchdb->info->recv;
663
664And this is how you would just set a callback to be called whenever the
665results are available:
666
667 $couchdb->info->cb (sub {
668 my @info = $_[0]->recv;
669 });
670
671=head3 METHODS FOR PRODUCERS
672
673These methods should only be used by the producing side, i.e. the
674code/module that eventually sends the signal. Note that it is also
675the producer side which creates the condvar in most cases, but it isn't
676uncommon for the consumer to create it as well.
677
678=over 4
679
680=item $cv->send (...)
681
682Flag the condition as ready - a running C<< ->recv >> and all further
683calls to C<recv> will (eventually) return after this method has been
684called. If nobody is waiting the send will be remembered.
685
686If a callback has been set on the condition variable, it is called
687immediately from within send.
688
689Any arguments passed to the C<send> call will be returned by all
690future C<< ->recv >> calls.
691
692Condition variables are overloaded so one can call them directly (as if
693they were a code reference). Calling them directly is the same as calling
694C<send>.
695
696=item $cv->croak ($error)
697
698Similar to send, but causes all calls to C<< ->recv >> to invoke
699C<Carp::croak> with the given error message/object/scalar.
700
701This can be used to signal any errors to the condition variable
702user/consumer. Doing it this way instead of calling C<croak> directly
703delays the error detection, but has the overwhelming advantage that it
704diagnoses the error at the place where the result is expected, and not
705deep in some event callback with no connection to the actual code causing
706the problem.
707
708=item $cv->begin ([group callback])
709
710=item $cv->end
711
712These two methods can be used to combine many transactions/events into
713one. For example, a function that pings many hosts in parallel might want
714to use a condition variable for the whole process.
715
716Every call to C<< ->begin >> will increment a counter, and every call to
717C<< ->end >> will decrement it. If the counter reaches C<0> in C<< ->end
718>>, the (last) callback passed to C<begin> will be executed, passing the
719condvar as first argument. That callback is I<supposed> to call C<< ->send
720>>, but that is not required. If no group callback was set, C<send> will
721be called without any arguments.
722
723You can think of C<< $cv->send >> giving you an OR condition (one call
724sends), while C<< $cv->begin >> and C<< $cv->end >> giving you an AND
725condition (all C<begin> calls must be C<end>'ed before the condvar sends).
726
727Let's start with a simple example: you have two I/O watchers (for example,
728STDOUT and STDERR for a program), and you want to wait for both streams to
729close before activating a condvar:
730
731 my $cv = AnyEvent->condvar;
732
733 $cv->begin; # first watcher
734 my $w1 = AnyEvent->io (fh => $fh1, cb => sub {
735 defined sysread $fh1, my $buf, 4096
736 or $cv->end;
737 });
738
739 $cv->begin; # second watcher
740 my $w2 = AnyEvent->io (fh => $fh2, cb => sub {
741 defined sysread $fh2, my $buf, 4096
742 or $cv->end;
743 });
744
745 $cv->recv;
746
747This works because for every event source (EOF on file handle), there is
748one call to C<begin>, so the condvar waits for all calls to C<end> before
749sending.
750
751The ping example mentioned above is slightly more complicated, as the
752there are results to be passwd back, and the number of tasks that are
753begun can potentially be zero:
754
755 my $cv = AnyEvent->condvar;
756
757 my %result;
758 $cv->begin (sub { shift->send (\%result) });
759
760 for my $host (@list_of_hosts) {
761 $cv->begin;
762 ping_host_then_call_callback $host, sub {
763 $result{$host} = ...;
764 $cv->end;
765 };
766 }
767
768 $cv->end;
769
770This code fragment supposedly pings a number of hosts and calls
771C<send> after results for all then have have been gathered - in any
772order. To achieve this, the code issues a call to C<begin> when it starts
773each ping request and calls C<end> when it has received some result for
774it. Since C<begin> and C<end> only maintain a counter, the order in which
775results arrive is not relevant.
776
777There is an additional bracketing call to C<begin> and C<end> outside the
778loop, which serves two important purposes: first, it sets the callback
779to be called once the counter reaches C<0>, and second, it ensures that
780C<send> is called even when C<no> hosts are being pinged (the loop
781doesn't execute once).
782
783This is the general pattern when you "fan out" into multiple (but
784potentially zero) subrequests: use an outer C<begin>/C<end> pair to set
785the callback and ensure C<end> is called at least once, and then, for each
786subrequest you start, call C<begin> and for each subrequest you finish,
787call C<end>.
788
789=back
790
791=head3 METHODS FOR CONSUMERS
792
793These methods should only be used by the consuming side, i.e. the
794code awaits the condition.
795
796=over 4
797
798=item $cv->recv
799
800Wait (blocking if necessary) until the C<< ->send >> or C<< ->croak
801>> methods have been called on C<$cv>, while servicing other watchers
802normally.
803
804You can only wait once on a condition - additional calls are valid but
805will return immediately.
806
807If an error condition has been set by calling C<< ->croak >>, then this
808function will call C<croak>.
809
810In list context, all parameters passed to C<send> will be returned,
811in scalar context only the first one will be returned.
812
813Note that doing a blocking wait in a callback is not supported by any
814event loop, that is, recursive invocation of a blocking C<< ->recv
815>> is not allowed, and the C<recv> call will C<croak> if such a
816condition is detected. This condition can be slightly loosened by using
817L<Coro::AnyEvent>, which allows you to do a blocking C<< ->recv >> from
818any thread that doesn't run the event loop itself.
819
820Not all event models support a blocking wait - some die in that case
821(programs might want to do that to stay interactive), so I<if you are
822using this from a module, never require a blocking wait>. Instead, let the
823caller decide whether the call will block or not (for example, by coupling
824condition variables with some kind of request results and supporting
825callbacks so the caller knows that getting the result will not block,
826while still supporting blocking waits if the caller so desires).
827
828You can ensure that C<< ->recv >> never blocks by setting a callback and
829only calling C<< ->recv >> from within that callback (or at a later
830time). This will work even when the event loop does not support blocking
831waits otherwise.
832
833=item $bool = $cv->ready
834
835Returns true when the condition is "true", i.e. whether C<send> or
836C<croak> have been called.
837
838=item $cb = $cv->cb ($cb->($cv))
839
840This is a mutator function that returns the callback set and optionally
841replaces it before doing so.
842
843The callback will be called when the condition becomes "true", i.e. when
844C<send> or C<croak> are called, with the only argument being the
845condition variable itself. If the condition is already true, the
846callback is called immediately when it is set. Calling C<recv> inside
847the callback or at any later time is guaranteed not to block.
848
849=back
850
851=head1 SUPPORTED EVENT LOOPS/BACKENDS
852
853The available backend classes are (every class has its own manpage):
854
855=over 4
856
857=item Backends that are autoprobed when no other event loop can be found.
858
859EV is the preferred backend when no other event loop seems to be in
860use. If EV is not installed, then AnyEvent will fall back to its own
861pure-perl implementation, which is available everywhere as it comes with
862AnyEvent itself.
863
864 AnyEvent::Impl::EV based on EV (interface to libev, best choice).
865 AnyEvent::Impl::Perl pure-perl implementation, fast and portable.
866
867=item Backends that are transparently being picked up when they are used.
868
869These will be used if they are already loaded when the first watcher
870is created, in which case it is assumed that the application is using
871them. This means that AnyEvent will automatically pick the right backend
872when the main program loads an event module before anything starts to
873create watchers. Nothing special needs to be done by the main program.
874
875 AnyEvent::Impl::Event based on Event, very stable, few glitches.
876 AnyEvent::Impl::Glib based on Glib, slow but very stable.
877 AnyEvent::Impl::Tk based on Tk, very broken.
878 AnyEvent::Impl::EventLib based on Event::Lib, leaks memory and worse.
879 AnyEvent::Impl::POE based on POE, very slow, some limitations.
880 AnyEvent::Impl::Irssi used when running within irssi.
881 AnyEvent::Impl::IOAsync based on IO::Async.
882 AnyEvent::Impl::Cocoa based on Cocoa::EventLoop.
883
884=item Backends with special needs.
885
886Qt requires the Qt::Application to be instantiated first, but will
887otherwise be picked up automatically. As long as the main program
888instantiates the application before any AnyEvent watchers are created,
889everything should just work.
890
891 AnyEvent::Impl::Qt based on Qt.
892
893=item Event loops that are indirectly supported via other backends.
894
895Some event loops can be supported via other modules:
896
897There is no direct support for WxWidgets (L<Wx>) or L<Prima>.
898
899B<WxWidgets> has no support for watching file handles. However, you can
900use WxWidgets through the POE adaptor, as POE has a Wx backend that simply
901polls 20 times per second, which was considered to be too horrible to even
902consider for AnyEvent.
903
904B<Prima> is not supported as nobody seems to be using it, but it has a POE
905backend, so it can be supported through POE.
906
907AnyEvent knows about both L<Prima> and L<Wx>, however, and will try to
908load L<POE> when detecting them, in the hope that POE will pick them up,
909in which case everything will be automatic.
910
911=back
912
913=head1 GLOBAL VARIABLES AND FUNCTIONS
914
915These are not normally required to use AnyEvent, but can be useful to
916write AnyEvent extension modules.
917
918=over 4
919
192=item $AnyEvent::MODEL 920=item $AnyEvent::MODEL
193 921
194Contains C<undef> until the first watcher is being created. Then it 922Contains C<undef> until the first watcher is being created, before the
923backend has been autodetected.
924
195contains the event model that is being used, which is the name of the 925Afterwards it contains the event model that is being used, which is the
196Perl class implementing the model. This class is usually one of the 926name of the Perl class implementing the model. This class is usually one
197C<AnyEvent::Impl:xxx> modules, but can be any other class in the case 927of the C<AnyEvent::Impl::xxx> modules, but can be any other class in the
198AnyEvent has been extended at runtime (e.g. in I<rxvt-unicode>). 928case AnyEvent has been extended at runtime (e.g. in I<rxvt-unicode> it
199 929will be C<urxvt::anyevent>).
200The known classes so far are:
201
202 AnyEvent::Impl::CoroEV based on Coro::EV, best choice.
203 AnyEvent::Impl::EV based on EV (an interface to libev, also best choice).
204 AnyEvent::Impl::Coro based on Coro::Event, second best choice.
205 AnyEvent::Impl::Event based on Event, also second best choice :)
206 AnyEvent::Impl::Glib based on Glib, second-best choice.
207 AnyEvent::Impl::Tk based on Tk, very bad choice.
208 AnyEvent::Impl::Perl pure-perl implementation, inefficient.
209 930
210=item AnyEvent::detect 931=item AnyEvent::detect
211 932
212Returns C<$AnyEvent::MODEL>, forcing autodetection of the event model if 933Returns C<$AnyEvent::MODEL>, forcing autodetection of the event model
213necessary. You should only call this function right before you would have 934if necessary. You should only call this function right before you would
214created an AnyEvent watcher anyway, that is, very late at runtime. 935have created an AnyEvent watcher anyway, that is, as late as possible at
936runtime, and not e.g. during initialisation of your module.
937
938If you need to do some initialisation before AnyEvent watchers are
939created, use C<post_detect>.
940
941=item $guard = AnyEvent::post_detect { BLOCK }
942
943Arranges for the code block to be executed as soon as the event model is
944autodetected (or immediately if that has already happened).
945
946The block will be executed I<after> the actual backend has been detected
947(C<$AnyEvent::MODEL> is set), but I<before> any watchers have been
948created, so it is possible to e.g. patch C<@AnyEvent::ISA> or do
949other initialisations - see the sources of L<AnyEvent::Strict> or
950L<AnyEvent::AIO> to see how this is used.
951
952The most common usage is to create some global watchers, without forcing
953event module detection too early, for example, L<AnyEvent::AIO> creates
954and installs the global L<IO::AIO> watcher in a C<post_detect> block to
955avoid autodetecting the event module at load time.
956
957If called in scalar or list context, then it creates and returns an object
958that automatically removes the callback again when it is destroyed (or
959C<undef> when the hook was immediately executed). See L<AnyEvent::AIO> for
960a case where this is useful.
961
962Example: Create a watcher for the IO::AIO module and store it in
963C<$WATCHER>, but do so only do so after the event loop is initialised.
964
965 our WATCHER;
966
967 my $guard = AnyEvent::post_detect {
968 $WATCHER = AnyEvent->io (fh => IO::AIO::poll_fileno, poll => 'r', cb => \&IO::AIO::poll_cb);
969 };
970
971 # the ||= is important in case post_detect immediately runs the block,
972 # as to not clobber the newly-created watcher. assigning both watcher and
973 # post_detect guard to the same variable has the advantage of users being
974 # able to just C<undef $WATCHER> if the watcher causes them grief.
975
976 $WATCHER ||= $guard;
977
978=item @AnyEvent::post_detect
979
980If there are any code references in this array (you can C<push> to it
981before or after loading AnyEvent), then they will be called directly
982after the event loop has been chosen.
983
984You should check C<$AnyEvent::MODEL> before adding to this array, though:
985if it is defined then the event loop has already been detected, and the
986array will be ignored.
987
988Best use C<AnyEvent::post_detect { BLOCK }> when your application allows
989it, as it takes care of these details.
990
991This variable is mainly useful for modules that can do something useful
992when AnyEvent is used and thus want to know when it is initialised, but do
993not need to even load it by default. This array provides the means to hook
994into AnyEvent passively, without loading it.
995
996Example: To load Coro::AnyEvent whenever Coro and AnyEvent are used
997together, you could put this into Coro (this is the actual code used by
998Coro to accomplish this):
999
1000 if (defined $AnyEvent::MODEL) {
1001 # AnyEvent already initialised, so load Coro::AnyEvent
1002 require Coro::AnyEvent;
1003 } else {
1004 # AnyEvent not yet initialised, so make sure to load Coro::AnyEvent
1005 # as soon as it is
1006 push @AnyEvent::post_detect, sub { require Coro::AnyEvent };
1007 }
215 1008
216=back 1009=back
217 1010
218=head1 WHAT TO DO IN A MODULE 1011=head1 WHAT TO DO IN A MODULE
219 1012
220As a module author, you should "use AnyEvent" and call AnyEvent methods 1013As a module author, you should C<use AnyEvent> and call AnyEvent methods
221freely, but you should not load a specific event module or rely on it. 1014freely, but you should not load a specific event module or rely on it.
222 1015
223Be careful when you create watchers in the module body - Anyevent will 1016Be careful when you create watchers in the module body - AnyEvent will
224decide which event module to use as soon as the first method is called, so 1017decide which event module to use as soon as the first method is called, so
225by calling AnyEvent in your module body you force the user of your module 1018by calling AnyEvent in your module body you force the user of your module
226to load the event module first. 1019to load the event module first.
227 1020
1021Never call C<< ->recv >> on a condition variable unless you I<know> that
1022the C<< ->send >> method has been called on it already. This is
1023because it will stall the whole program, and the whole point of using
1024events is to stay interactive.
1025
1026It is fine, however, to call C<< ->recv >> when the user of your module
1027requests it (i.e. if you create a http request object ad have a method
1028called C<results> that returns the results, it may call C<< ->recv >>
1029freely, as the user of your module knows what she is doing. Always).
1030
228=head1 WHAT TO DO IN THE MAIN PROGRAM 1031=head1 WHAT TO DO IN THE MAIN PROGRAM
229 1032
230There will always be a single main program - the only place that should 1033There will always be a single main program - the only place that should
231dictate which event model to use. 1034dictate which event model to use.
232 1035
233If it doesn't care, it can just "use AnyEvent" and use it itself, or not 1036If the program is not event-based, it need not do anything special, even
234do anything special and let AnyEvent decide which implementation to chose. 1037when it depends on a module that uses an AnyEvent. If the program itself
1038uses AnyEvent, but does not care which event loop is used, all it needs
1039to do is C<use AnyEvent>. In either case, AnyEvent will choose the best
1040available loop implementation.
235 1041
236If the main program relies on a specific event model (for example, in Gtk2 1042If the main program relies on a specific event model - for example, in
237programs you have to rely on either Glib or Glib::Event), you should load 1043Gtk2 programs you have to rely on the Glib module - you should load the
238it before loading AnyEvent or any module that uses it, generally, as early 1044event module before loading AnyEvent or any module that uses it: generally
239as possible. The reason is that modules might create watchers when they 1045speaking, you should load it as early as possible. The reason is that
240are loaded, and AnyEvent will decide on the event model to use as soon as 1046modules might create watchers when they are loaded, and AnyEvent will
241it creates watchers, and it might chose the wrong one unless you load the 1047decide on the event model to use as soon as it creates watchers, and it
242correct one yourself. 1048might choose the wrong one unless you load the correct one yourself.
243 1049
244You can chose to use a rather inefficient pure-perl implementation by 1050You can chose to use a pure-perl implementation by loading the
245loading the C<AnyEvent::Impl::Perl> module, but letting AnyEvent chose is 1051C<AnyEvent::Impl::Perl> module, which gives you similar behaviour
246generally better. 1052everywhere, but letting AnyEvent chose the model is generally better.
1053
1054=head2 MAINLOOP EMULATION
1055
1056Sometimes (often for short test scripts, or even standalone programs who
1057only want to use AnyEvent), you do not want to run a specific event loop.
1058
1059In that case, you can use a condition variable like this:
1060
1061 AnyEvent->condvar->recv;
1062
1063This has the effect of entering the event loop and looping forever.
1064
1065Note that usually your program has some exit condition, in which case
1066it is better to use the "traditional" approach of storing a condition
1067variable somewhere, waiting for it, and sending it when the program should
1068exit cleanly.
1069
1070
1071=head1 OTHER MODULES
1072
1073The following is a non-exhaustive list of additional modules that use
1074AnyEvent as a client and can therefore be mixed easily with other AnyEvent
1075modules and other event loops in the same program. Some of the modules
1076come as part of AnyEvent, the others are available via CPAN.
1077
1078=over 4
1079
1080=item L<AnyEvent::Util>
1081
1082Contains various utility functions that replace often-used blocking
1083functions such as C<inet_aton> with event/callback-based versions.
1084
1085=item L<AnyEvent::Socket>
1086
1087Provides various utility functions for (internet protocol) sockets,
1088addresses and name resolution. Also functions to create non-blocking tcp
1089connections or tcp servers, with IPv6 and SRV record support and more.
1090
1091=item L<AnyEvent::Handle>
1092
1093Provide read and write buffers, manages watchers for reads and writes,
1094supports raw and formatted I/O, I/O queued and fully transparent and
1095non-blocking SSL/TLS (via L<AnyEvent::TLS>).
1096
1097=item L<AnyEvent::DNS>
1098
1099Provides rich asynchronous DNS resolver capabilities.
1100
1101=item L<AnyEvent::HTTP>, L<AnyEvent::IRC>, L<AnyEvent::XMPP>, L<AnyEvent::GPSD>, L<AnyEvent::IGS>, L<AnyEvent::FCP>
1102
1103Implement event-based interfaces to the protocols of the same name (for
1104the curious, IGS is the International Go Server and FCP is the Freenet
1105Client Protocol).
1106
1107=item L<AnyEvent::Handle::UDP>
1108
1109Here be danger!
1110
1111As Pauli would put it, "Not only is it not right, it's not even wrong!" -
1112there are so many things wrong with AnyEvent::Handle::UDP, most notably
1113its use of a stream-based API with a protocol that isn't streamable, that
1114the only way to improve it is to delete it.
1115
1116It features data corruption (but typically only under load) and general
1117confusion. On top, the author is not only clueless about UDP but also
1118fact-resistant - some gems of his understanding: "connect doesn't work
1119with UDP", "UDP packets are not IP packets", "UDP only has datagrams, not
1120packets", "I don't need to implement proper error checking as UDP doesn't
1121support error checking" and so on - he doesn't even understand what's
1122wrong with his module when it is explained to him.
1123
1124=item L<AnyEvent::DBI>
1125
1126Executes L<DBI> requests asynchronously in a proxy process for you,
1127notifying you in an event-based way when the operation is finished.
1128
1129=item L<AnyEvent::AIO>
1130
1131Truly asynchronous (as opposed to non-blocking) I/O, should be in the
1132toolbox of every event programmer. AnyEvent::AIO transparently fuses
1133L<IO::AIO> and AnyEvent together, giving AnyEvent access to event-based
1134file I/O, and much more.
1135
1136=item L<AnyEvent::HTTPD>
1137
1138A simple embedded webserver.
1139
1140=item L<AnyEvent::FastPing>
1141
1142The fastest ping in the west.
1143
1144=item L<Coro>
1145
1146Has special support for AnyEvent via L<Coro::AnyEvent>.
1147
1148=back
247 1149
248=cut 1150=cut
249 1151
250package AnyEvent; 1152package AnyEvent;
251 1153
252no warnings; 1154# basically a tuned-down version of common::sense
253use strict; 1155sub common_sense {
1156 # from common:.sense 3.4
1157 ${^WARNING_BITS} ^= ${^WARNING_BITS} ^ "\x3c\x3f\x33\x00\x0f\xf0\x0f\xc0\xf0\xfc\x33\x00";
1158 # use strict vars subs - NO UTF-8, as Util.pm doesn't like this atm. (uts46data.pl)
1159 $^H |= 0x00000600;
1160}
254 1161
1162BEGIN { AnyEvent::common_sense }
1163
255use Carp; 1164use Carp ();
256 1165
257our $VERSION = '2.6'; 1166our $VERSION = '5.3';
258our $MODEL; 1167our $MODEL;
259 1168
260our $AUTOLOAD; 1169our $AUTOLOAD;
261our @ISA; 1170our @ISA;
262 1171
263our $verbose = $ENV{PERL_ANYEVENT_VERBOSE}*1;
264
265our @REGISTRY; 1172our @REGISTRY;
266 1173
1174our $VERBOSE;
1175
1176BEGIN {
1177 require "AnyEvent/constants.pl";
1178
1179 eval "sub TAINT (){" . (${^TAINT}*1) . "}";
1180
1181 delete @ENV{grep /^PERL_ANYEVENT_/, keys %ENV}
1182 if ${^TAINT};
1183
1184 $VERBOSE = $ENV{PERL_ANYEVENT_VERBOSE}*1;
1185
1186}
1187
1188our $MAX_SIGNAL_LATENCY = 10;
1189
1190our %PROTOCOL; # (ipv4|ipv6) => (1|2), higher numbers are preferred
1191
1192{
1193 my $idx;
1194 $PROTOCOL{$_} = ++$idx
1195 for reverse split /\s*,\s*/,
1196 $ENV{PERL_ANYEVENT_PROTOCOLS} || "ipv4,ipv6";
1197}
1198
267my @models = ( 1199my @models = (
268 [Coro::EV:: => AnyEvent::Impl::CoroEV::],
269 [EV:: => AnyEvent::Impl::EV::], 1200 [EV:: => AnyEvent::Impl::EV:: , 1],
270 [Coro::Event:: => AnyEvent::Impl::Coro::], 1201 [AnyEvent::Impl::Perl:: => AnyEvent::Impl::Perl:: , 1],
1202 # everything below here will not (normally) be autoprobed
1203 # as the pureperl backend should work everywhere
1204 # and is usually faster
271 [Event:: => AnyEvent::Impl::Event::], 1205 [Event:: => AnyEvent::Impl::Event::, 1],
272 [Glib:: => AnyEvent::Impl::Glib::], 1206 [Glib:: => AnyEvent::Impl::Glib:: , 1], # becomes extremely slow with many watchers
1207 [Event::Lib:: => AnyEvent::Impl::EventLib::], # too buggy
1208 [Irssi:: => AnyEvent::Impl::Irssi::], # Irssi has a bogus "Event" package
1209 [Tk:: => AnyEvent::Impl::Tk::], # crashes with many handles
1210 [Qt:: => AnyEvent::Impl::Qt::], # requires special main program
1211 [POE::Kernel:: => AnyEvent::Impl::POE::], # lasciate ogni speranza
273 [Tk:: => AnyEvent::Impl::Tk::], 1212 [Wx:: => AnyEvent::Impl::POE::],
274 [AnyEvent::Impl::Perl:: => AnyEvent::Impl::Perl::], 1213 [Prima:: => AnyEvent::Impl::POE::],
1214 [IO::Async::Loop:: => AnyEvent::Impl::IOAsync::],
1215 [Cocoa::EventLoop:: => AnyEvent::Impl::Cocoa::],
275); 1216);
276 1217
277our %method = map +($_ => 1), qw(io timer condvar broadcast wait signal one_event DESTROY); 1218our %method = map +($_ => 1),
1219 qw(io timer time now now_update signal child idle condvar one_event DESTROY);
1220
1221our @post_detect;
1222
1223sub post_detect(&) {
1224 my ($cb) = @_;
1225
1226 push @post_detect, $cb;
1227
1228 defined wantarray
1229 ? bless \$cb, "AnyEvent::Util::postdetect"
1230 : ()
1231}
1232
1233sub AnyEvent::Util::postdetect::DESTROY {
1234 @post_detect = grep $_ != ${$_[0]}, @post_detect;
1235}
278 1236
279sub detect() { 1237sub detect() {
1238 # free some memory
1239 *detect = sub () { $MODEL };
1240
1241 local $!; # for good measure
1242 local $SIG{__DIE__};
1243
1244 if ($ENV{PERL_ANYEVENT_MODEL} =~ /^([a-zA-Z]+)$/) {
1245 my $model = "AnyEvent::Impl::$1";
1246 if (eval "require $model") {
1247 $MODEL = $model;
1248 warn "AnyEvent: loaded model '$model' (forced by \$ENV{PERL_ANYEVENT_MODEL}), using it.\n" if $VERBOSE >= 2;
1249 } else {
1250 warn "AnyEvent: unable to load model '$model' (from \$ENV{PERL_ANYEVENT_MODEL}):\n$@" if $VERBOSE;
1251 }
1252 }
1253
1254 # check for already loaded models
280 unless ($MODEL) { 1255 unless ($MODEL) {
281 no strict 'refs';
282
283 # check for already loaded models
284 for (@REGISTRY, @models) { 1256 for (@REGISTRY, @models) {
285 my ($package, $model) = @$_; 1257 my ($package, $model) = @$_;
286 if (${"$package\::VERSION"} > 0) { 1258 if (${"$package\::VERSION"} > 0) {
287 if (eval "require $model") { 1259 if (eval "require $model") {
288 $MODEL = $model; 1260 $MODEL = $model;
289 warn "AnyEvent: found model '$model', using it.\n" if $verbose > 1; 1261 warn "AnyEvent: autodetected model '$model', using it.\n" if $VERBOSE >= 2;
290 last; 1262 last;
291 } 1263 }
292 } 1264 }
293 } 1265 }
294 1266
295 unless ($MODEL) { 1267 unless ($MODEL) {
296 # try to load a model 1268 # try to autoload a model
297
298 for (@REGISTRY, @models) { 1269 for (@REGISTRY, @models) {
299 my ($package, $model) = @$_; 1270 my ($package, $model, $autoload) = @$_;
1271 if (
1272 $autoload
300 if (eval "require $package" 1273 and eval "require $package"
301 and ${"$package\::VERSION"} > 0 1274 and ${"$package\::VERSION"} > 0
302 and eval "require $model") { 1275 and eval "require $model"
1276 ) {
303 $MODEL = $model; 1277 $MODEL = $model;
304 warn "AnyEvent: autoprobed and loaded model '$model', using it.\n" if $verbose > 1; 1278 warn "AnyEvent: autoloaded model '$model', using it.\n" if $VERBOSE >= 2;
305 last; 1279 last;
306 } 1280 }
307 } 1281 }
308 1282
309 $MODEL 1283 $MODEL
310 or die "No event module selected for AnyEvent and autodetect failed. Install any one of these modules: EV (or Coro+EV), Event (or Coro+Event), Glib or Tk."; 1284 or die "AnyEvent: backend autodetection failed - did you properly install AnyEvent?\n";
311 } 1285 }
312
313 unshift @ISA, $MODEL;
314 push @{"$MODEL\::ISA"}, "AnyEvent::Base";
315 } 1286 }
1287
1288 @models = (); # free probe data
1289
1290 push @{"$MODEL\::ISA"}, "AnyEvent::Base";
1291 unshift @ISA, $MODEL;
1292
1293 # now nuke some methods that are overridden by the backend.
1294 # SUPER is not allowed.
1295 for (qw(time signal child idle)) {
1296 undef &{"AnyEvent::Base::$_"}
1297 if defined &{"$MODEL\::$_"};
1298 }
1299
1300 if ($ENV{PERL_ANYEVENT_STRICT}) {
1301 eval { require AnyEvent::Strict };
1302 warn "AnyEvent: cannot load AnyEvent::Strict: $@"
1303 if $@ && $VERBOSE;
1304 }
1305
1306 (shift @post_detect)->() while @post_detect;
1307
1308 *post_detect = sub(&) {
1309 shift->();
1310
1311 undef
1312 };
316 1313
317 $MODEL 1314 $MODEL
318} 1315}
319 1316
320sub AUTOLOAD { 1317sub AUTOLOAD {
321 (my $func = $AUTOLOAD) =~ s/.*://; 1318 (my $func = $AUTOLOAD) =~ s/.*://;
322 1319
323 $method{$func} 1320 $method{$func}
324 or croak "$func: not a valid method for AnyEvent objects"; 1321 or Carp::croak "$func: not a valid AnyEvent class method";
325 1322
326 detect unless $MODEL; 1323 detect;
327 1324
328 my $class = shift; 1325 my $class = shift;
329 $class->$func (@_); 1326 $class->$func (@_);
330} 1327}
331 1328
1329# utility function to dup a filehandle. this is used by many backends
1330# to support binding more than one watcher per filehandle (they usually
1331# allow only one watcher per fd, so we dup it to get a different one).
1332sub _dupfh($$;$$) {
1333 my ($poll, $fh, $r, $w) = @_;
1334
1335 # cygwin requires the fh mode to be matching, unix doesn't
1336 my ($rw, $mode) = $poll eq "r" ? ($r, "<&") : ($w, ">&");
1337
1338 open my $fh2, $mode, $fh
1339 or die "AnyEvent->io: cannot dup() filehandle in mode '$poll': $!,";
1340
1341 # we assume CLOEXEC is already set by perl in all important cases
1342
1343 ($fh2, $rw)
1344}
1345
1346=head1 SIMPLIFIED AE API
1347
1348Starting with version 5.0, AnyEvent officially supports a second, much
1349simpler, API that is designed to reduce the calling, typing and memory
1350overhead by using function call syntax and a fixed number of parameters.
1351
1352See the L<AE> manpage for details.
1353
1354=cut
1355
1356package AE;
1357
1358our $VERSION = $AnyEvent::VERSION;
1359
1360# fall back to the main API by default - backends and AnyEvent::Base
1361# implementations can overwrite these.
1362
1363sub io($$$) {
1364 AnyEvent->io (fh => $_[0], poll => $_[1] ? "w" : "r", cb => $_[2])
1365}
1366
1367sub timer($$$) {
1368 AnyEvent->timer (after => $_[0], interval => $_[1], cb => $_[2])
1369}
1370
1371sub signal($$) {
1372 AnyEvent->signal (signal => $_[0], cb => $_[1])
1373}
1374
1375sub child($$) {
1376 AnyEvent->child (pid => $_[0], cb => $_[1])
1377}
1378
1379sub idle($) {
1380 AnyEvent->idle (cb => $_[0])
1381}
1382
1383sub cv(;&) {
1384 AnyEvent->condvar (@_ ? (cb => $_[0]) : ())
1385}
1386
1387sub now() {
1388 AnyEvent->now
1389}
1390
1391sub now_update() {
1392 AnyEvent->now_update
1393}
1394
1395sub time() {
1396 AnyEvent->time
1397}
1398
332package AnyEvent::Base; 1399package AnyEvent::Base;
333 1400
1401# default implementations for many methods
1402
1403sub time {
1404 eval q{ # poor man's autoloading {}
1405 # probe for availability of Time::HiRes
1406 if (eval "use Time::HiRes (); Time::HiRes::time (); 1") {
1407 warn "AnyEvent: using Time::HiRes for sub-second timing accuracy.\n" if $VERBOSE >= 8;
1408 *AE::time = \&Time::HiRes::time;
1409 # if (eval "use POSIX (); (POSIX::times())...
1410 } else {
1411 warn "AnyEvent: using built-in time(), WARNING, no sub-second resolution!\n" if $VERBOSE;
1412 *AE::time = sub (){ time }; # epic fail
1413 }
1414
1415 *time = sub { AE::time }; # different prototypes
1416 };
1417 die if $@;
1418
1419 &time
1420}
1421
1422*now = \&time;
1423
1424sub now_update { }
1425
334# default implementation for ->condvar, ->wait, ->broadcast 1426# default implementation for ->condvar
335 1427
336sub condvar { 1428sub condvar {
337 bless \my $flag, "AnyEvent::Base::CondVar" 1429 eval q{ # poor man's autoloading {}
338} 1430 *condvar = sub {
1431 bless { @_ == 3 ? (_ae_cb => $_[2]) : () }, "AnyEvent::CondVar"
1432 };
339 1433
340sub AnyEvent::Base::CondVar::broadcast { 1434 *AE::cv = sub (;&) {
341 ${$_[0]}++; 1435 bless { @_ ? (_ae_cb => shift) : () }, "AnyEvent::CondVar"
342} 1436 };
1437 };
1438 die if $@;
343 1439
344sub AnyEvent::Base::CondVar::wait { 1440 &condvar
345 AnyEvent->one_event while !${$_[0]};
346} 1441}
347 1442
348# default implementation for ->signal 1443# default implementation for ->signal
349 1444
350our %SIG_CB; 1445our $HAVE_ASYNC_INTERRUPT;
1446
1447sub _have_async_interrupt() {
1448 $HAVE_ASYNC_INTERRUPT = 1*(!$ENV{PERL_ANYEVENT_AVOID_ASYNC_INTERRUPT}
1449 && eval "use Async::Interrupt 1.02 (); 1")
1450 unless defined $HAVE_ASYNC_INTERRUPT;
1451
1452 $HAVE_ASYNC_INTERRUPT
1453}
1454
1455our ($SIGPIPE_R, $SIGPIPE_W, %SIG_CB, %SIG_EV, $SIG_IO);
1456our (%SIG_ASY, %SIG_ASY_W);
1457our ($SIG_COUNT, $SIG_TW);
1458
1459# install a dummy wakeup watcher to reduce signal catching latency
1460# used by Impls
1461sub _sig_add() {
1462 unless ($SIG_COUNT++) {
1463 # try to align timer on a full-second boundary, if possible
1464 my $NOW = AE::now;
1465
1466 $SIG_TW = AE::timer
1467 $MAX_SIGNAL_LATENCY - ($NOW - int $NOW),
1468 $MAX_SIGNAL_LATENCY,
1469 sub { } # just for the PERL_ASYNC_CHECK
1470 ;
1471 }
1472}
1473
1474sub _sig_del {
1475 undef $SIG_TW
1476 unless --$SIG_COUNT;
1477}
1478
1479our $_sig_name_init; $_sig_name_init = sub {
1480 eval q{ # poor man's autoloading {}
1481 undef $_sig_name_init;
1482
1483 if (_have_async_interrupt) {
1484 *sig2num = \&Async::Interrupt::sig2num;
1485 *sig2name = \&Async::Interrupt::sig2name;
1486 } else {
1487 require Config;
1488
1489 my %signame2num;
1490 @signame2num{ split ' ', $Config::Config{sig_name} }
1491 = split ' ', $Config::Config{sig_num};
1492
1493 my @signum2name;
1494 @signum2name[values %signame2num] = keys %signame2num;
1495
1496 *sig2num = sub($) {
1497 $_[0] > 0 ? shift : $signame2num{+shift}
1498 };
1499 *sig2name = sub ($) {
1500 $_[0] > 0 ? $signum2name[+shift] : shift
1501 };
1502 }
1503 };
1504 die if $@;
1505};
1506
1507sub sig2num ($) { &$_sig_name_init; &sig2num }
1508sub sig2name($) { &$_sig_name_init; &sig2name }
351 1509
352sub signal { 1510sub signal {
1511 eval q{ # poor man's autoloading {}
1512 # probe for availability of Async::Interrupt
1513 if (_have_async_interrupt) {
1514 warn "AnyEvent: using Async::Interrupt for race-free signal handling.\n" if $VERBOSE >= 8;
1515
1516 $SIGPIPE_R = new Async::Interrupt::EventPipe;
1517 $SIG_IO = AE::io $SIGPIPE_R->fileno, 0, \&_signal_exec;
1518
1519 } else {
1520 warn "AnyEvent: using emulated perl signal handling with latency timer.\n" if $VERBOSE >= 8;
1521
1522 if (AnyEvent::WIN32) {
1523 require AnyEvent::Util;
1524
1525 ($SIGPIPE_R, $SIGPIPE_W) = AnyEvent::Util::portable_pipe ();
1526 AnyEvent::Util::fh_nonblocking ($SIGPIPE_R, 1) if $SIGPIPE_R;
1527 AnyEvent::Util::fh_nonblocking ($SIGPIPE_W, 1) if $SIGPIPE_W; # just in case
1528 } else {
1529 pipe $SIGPIPE_R, $SIGPIPE_W;
1530 fcntl $SIGPIPE_R, AnyEvent::F_SETFL, AnyEvent::O_NONBLOCK if $SIGPIPE_R;
1531 fcntl $SIGPIPE_W, AnyEvent::F_SETFL, AnyEvent::O_NONBLOCK if $SIGPIPE_W; # just in case
1532
1533 # not strictly required, as $^F is normally 2, but let's make sure...
1534 fcntl $SIGPIPE_R, AnyEvent::F_SETFD, AnyEvent::FD_CLOEXEC;
1535 fcntl $SIGPIPE_W, AnyEvent::F_SETFD, AnyEvent::FD_CLOEXEC;
1536 }
1537
1538 $SIGPIPE_R
1539 or Carp::croak "AnyEvent: unable to create a signal reporting pipe: $!\n";
1540
1541 $SIG_IO = AE::io $SIGPIPE_R, 0, \&_signal_exec;
1542 }
1543
1544 *signal = $HAVE_ASYNC_INTERRUPT
1545 ? sub {
353 my (undef, %arg) = @_; 1546 my (undef, %arg) = @_;
354 1547
1548 # async::interrupt
355 my $signal = uc $arg{signal} 1549 my $signal = sig2num $arg{signal};
356 or Carp::croak "required option 'signal' is missing";
357
358 $SIG_CB{$signal}{$arg{cb}} = $arg{cb}; 1550 $SIG_CB{$signal}{$arg{cb}} = $arg{cb};
1551
1552 $SIG_ASY{$signal} ||= new Async::Interrupt
1553 cb => sub { undef $SIG_EV{$signal} },
1554 signal => $signal,
1555 pipe => [$SIGPIPE_R->filenos],
1556 pipe_autodrain => 0,
1557 ;
1558
1559 bless [$signal, $arg{cb}], "AnyEvent::Base::signal"
1560 }
1561 : sub {
1562 my (undef, %arg) = @_;
1563
1564 # pure perl
1565 my $signal = sig2name $arg{signal};
1566 $SIG_CB{$signal}{$arg{cb}} = $arg{cb};
1567
359 $SIG{$signal} ||= sub { 1568 $SIG{$signal} ||= sub {
1569 local $!;
1570 syswrite $SIGPIPE_W, "\x00", 1 unless %SIG_EV;
1571 undef $SIG_EV{$signal};
1572 };
1573
1574 # can't do signal processing without introducing races in pure perl,
1575 # so limit the signal latency.
1576 _sig_add;
1577
1578 bless [$signal, $arg{cb}], "AnyEvent::Base::signal"
1579 }
1580 ;
1581
1582 *AnyEvent::Base::signal::DESTROY = sub {
1583 my ($signal, $cb) = @{$_[0]};
1584
1585 _sig_del;
1586
1587 delete $SIG_CB{$signal}{$cb};
1588
1589 $HAVE_ASYNC_INTERRUPT
1590 ? delete $SIG_ASY{$signal}
1591 : # delete doesn't work with older perls - they then
1592 # print weird messages, or just unconditionally exit
1593 # instead of getting the default action.
1594 undef $SIG{$signal}
1595 unless keys %{ $SIG_CB{$signal} };
1596 };
1597
1598 *_signal_exec = sub {
1599 $HAVE_ASYNC_INTERRUPT
1600 ? $SIGPIPE_R->drain
1601 : sysread $SIGPIPE_R, (my $dummy), 9;
1602
1603 while (%SIG_EV) {
1604 for (keys %SIG_EV) {
1605 delete $SIG_EV{$_};
360 $_->() for values %{ $SIG_CB{$signal} || {} }; 1606 $_->() for values %{ $SIG_CB{$_} || {} };
1607 }
1608 }
1609 };
361 }; 1610 };
1611 die if $@;
362 1612
363 bless [$signal, $arg{cb}], "AnyEvent::Base::Signal" 1613 &signal
364}
365
366sub AnyEvent::Base::Signal::DESTROY {
367 my ($signal, $cb) = @{$_[0]};
368
369 delete $SIG_CB{$signal}{$cb};
370
371 $SIG{$signal} = 'DEFAULT' unless keys %{ $SIG_CB{$signal} };
372} 1614}
373 1615
374# default implementation for ->child 1616# default implementation for ->child
375 1617
376our %PID_CB; 1618our %PID_CB;
377our $CHLD_W; 1619our $CHLD_W;
378our $PID_IDLE; 1620our $CHLD_DELAY_W;
379our $WNOHANG;
380 1621
381sub _child_wait { 1622# used by many Impl's
382 while (0 <= (my $pid = waitpid -1, $WNOHANG)) { 1623sub _emit_childstatus($$) {
1624 my (undef, $rpid, $rstatus) = @_;
1625
1626 $_->($rpid, $rstatus)
383 $_->($pid, $?) for (values %{ $PID_CB{$pid} || {} }), 1627 for values %{ $PID_CB{$rpid} || {} },
384 (values %{ $PID_CB{0} || {} }); 1628 values %{ $PID_CB{0} || {} };
385 }
386
387 undef $PID_IDLE;
388} 1629}
389 1630
390sub child { 1631sub child {
1632 eval q{ # poor man's autoloading {}
1633 *_sigchld = sub {
1634 my $pid;
1635
1636 AnyEvent->_emit_childstatus ($pid, $?)
1637 while ($pid = waitpid -1, WNOHANG) > 0;
1638 };
1639
1640 *child = sub {
391 my (undef, %arg) = @_; 1641 my (undef, %arg) = @_;
392 1642
393 defined (my $pid = $arg{pid} + 0) 1643 defined (my $pid = $arg{pid} + 0)
394 or Carp::croak "required option 'pid' is missing"; 1644 or Carp::croak "required option 'pid' is missing";
395 1645
396 $PID_CB{$pid}{$arg{cb}} = $arg{cb}; 1646 $PID_CB{$pid}{$arg{cb}} = $arg{cb};
397 1647
398 unless ($WNOHANG) {
399 $WNOHANG = eval { require POSIX; &POSIX::WNOHANG } || 1;
400 }
401
402 unless ($CHLD_W) { 1648 unless ($CHLD_W) {
403 $CHLD_W = AnyEvent->signal (signal => 'CHLD', cb => \&_child_wait); 1649 $CHLD_W = AE::signal CHLD => \&_sigchld;
404 # child could be a zombie already 1650 # child could be a zombie already, so make at least one round
405 $PID_IDLE ||= AnyEvent->timer (after => 0, cb => \&_child_wait); 1651 &_sigchld;
406 } 1652 }
407 1653
408 bless [$pid, $arg{cb}], "AnyEvent::Base::Child" 1654 bless [$pid, $arg{cb}], "AnyEvent::Base::child"
409} 1655 };
410 1656
411sub AnyEvent::Base::Child::DESTROY { 1657 *AnyEvent::Base::child::DESTROY = sub {
412 my ($pid, $cb) = @{$_[0]}; 1658 my ($pid, $cb) = @{$_[0]};
413 1659
414 delete $PID_CB{$pid}{$cb}; 1660 delete $PID_CB{$pid}{$cb};
415 delete $PID_CB{$pid} unless keys %{ $PID_CB{$pid} }; 1661 delete $PID_CB{$pid} unless keys %{ $PID_CB{$pid} };
416 1662
417 undef $CHLD_W unless keys %PID_CB; 1663 undef $CHLD_W unless keys %PID_CB;
1664 };
1665 };
1666 die if $@;
1667
1668 &child
418} 1669}
1670
1671# idle emulation is done by simply using a timer, regardless
1672# of whether the process is idle or not, and not letting
1673# the callback use more than 50% of the time.
1674sub idle {
1675 eval q{ # poor man's autoloading {}
1676 *idle = sub {
1677 my (undef, %arg) = @_;
1678
1679 my ($cb, $w, $rcb) = $arg{cb};
1680
1681 $rcb = sub {
1682 if ($cb) {
1683 $w = _time;
1684 &$cb;
1685 $w = _time - $w;
1686
1687 # never use more then 50% of the time for the idle watcher,
1688 # within some limits
1689 $w = 0.0001 if $w < 0.0001;
1690 $w = 5 if $w > 5;
1691
1692 $w = AE::timer $w, 0, $rcb;
1693 } else {
1694 # clean up...
1695 undef $w;
1696 undef $rcb;
1697 }
1698 };
1699
1700 $w = AE::timer 0.05, 0, $rcb;
1701
1702 bless \\$cb, "AnyEvent::Base::idle"
1703 };
1704
1705 *AnyEvent::Base::idle::DESTROY = sub {
1706 undef $${$_[0]};
1707 };
1708 };
1709 die if $@;
1710
1711 &idle
1712}
1713
1714package AnyEvent::CondVar;
1715
1716our @ISA = AnyEvent::CondVar::Base::;
1717
1718# only to be used for subclassing
1719sub new {
1720 my $class = shift;
1721 bless AnyEvent->condvar (@_), $class
1722}
1723
1724package AnyEvent::CondVar::Base;
1725
1726#use overload
1727# '&{}' => sub { my $self = shift; sub { $self->send (@_) } },
1728# fallback => 1;
1729
1730# save 300+ kilobytes by dirtily hardcoding overloading
1731${"AnyEvent::CondVar::Base::OVERLOAD"}{dummy}++; # Register with magic by touching.
1732*{'AnyEvent::CondVar::Base::()'} = sub { }; # "Make it findable via fetchmethod."
1733*{'AnyEvent::CondVar::Base::(&{}'} = sub { my $self = shift; sub { $self->send (@_) } }; # &{}
1734${'AnyEvent::CondVar::Base::()'} = 1; # fallback
1735
1736our $WAITING;
1737
1738sub _send {
1739 # nop
1740}
1741
1742sub send {
1743 my $cv = shift;
1744 $cv->{_ae_sent} = [@_];
1745 (delete $cv->{_ae_cb})->($cv) if $cv->{_ae_cb};
1746 $cv->_send;
1747}
1748
1749sub croak {
1750 $_[0]{_ae_croak} = $_[1];
1751 $_[0]->send;
1752}
1753
1754sub ready {
1755 $_[0]{_ae_sent}
1756}
1757
1758sub _wait {
1759 $WAITING
1760 and !$_[0]{_ae_sent}
1761 and Carp::croak "AnyEvent::CondVar: recursive blocking wait detected";
1762
1763 local $WAITING = 1;
1764 AnyEvent->one_event while !$_[0]{_ae_sent};
1765}
1766
1767sub recv {
1768 $_[0]->_wait;
1769
1770 Carp::croak $_[0]{_ae_croak} if $_[0]{_ae_croak};
1771 wantarray ? @{ $_[0]{_ae_sent} } : $_[0]{_ae_sent}[0]
1772}
1773
1774sub cb {
1775 my $cv = shift;
1776
1777 @_
1778 and $cv->{_ae_cb} = shift
1779 and $cv->{_ae_sent}
1780 and (delete $cv->{_ae_cb})->($cv);
1781
1782 $cv->{_ae_cb}
1783}
1784
1785sub begin {
1786 ++$_[0]{_ae_counter};
1787 $_[0]{_ae_end_cb} = $_[1] if @_ > 1;
1788}
1789
1790sub end {
1791 return if --$_[0]{_ae_counter};
1792 &{ $_[0]{_ae_end_cb} || sub { $_[0]->send } };
1793}
1794
1795# undocumented/compatibility with pre-3.4
1796*broadcast = \&send;
1797*wait = \&_wait;
1798
1799=head1 ERROR AND EXCEPTION HANDLING
1800
1801In general, AnyEvent does not do any error handling - it relies on the
1802caller to do that if required. The L<AnyEvent::Strict> module (see also
1803the C<PERL_ANYEVENT_STRICT> environment variable, below) provides strict
1804checking of all AnyEvent methods, however, which is highly useful during
1805development.
1806
1807As for exception handling (i.e. runtime errors and exceptions thrown while
1808executing a callback), this is not only highly event-loop specific, but
1809also not in any way wrapped by this module, as this is the job of the main
1810program.
1811
1812The pure perl event loop simply re-throws the exception (usually
1813within C<< condvar->recv >>), the L<Event> and L<EV> modules call C<<
1814$Event/EV::DIED->() >>, L<Glib> uses C<< install_exception_handler >> and
1815so on.
1816
1817=head1 ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES
1818
1819The following environment variables are used by this module or its
1820submodules.
1821
1822Note that AnyEvent will remove I<all> environment variables starting with
1823C<PERL_ANYEVENT_> from C<%ENV> when it is loaded while taint mode is
1824enabled.
1825
1826=over 4
1827
1828=item C<PERL_ANYEVENT_VERBOSE>
1829
1830By default, AnyEvent will be completely silent except in fatal
1831conditions. You can set this environment variable to make AnyEvent more
1832talkative.
1833
1834When set to C<1> or higher, causes AnyEvent to warn about unexpected
1835conditions, such as not being able to load the event model specified by
1836C<PERL_ANYEVENT_MODEL>.
1837
1838When set to C<2> or higher, cause AnyEvent to report to STDERR which event
1839model it chooses.
1840
1841When set to C<8> or higher, then AnyEvent will report extra information on
1842which optional modules it loads and how it implements certain features.
1843
1844=item C<PERL_ANYEVENT_STRICT>
1845
1846AnyEvent does not do much argument checking by default, as thorough
1847argument checking is very costly. Setting this variable to a true value
1848will cause AnyEvent to load C<AnyEvent::Strict> and then to thoroughly
1849check the arguments passed to most method calls. If it finds any problems,
1850it will croak.
1851
1852In other words, enables "strict" mode.
1853
1854Unlike C<use strict> (or its modern cousin, C<< use L<common::sense>
1855>>, it is definitely recommended to keep it off in production. Keeping
1856C<PERL_ANYEVENT_STRICT=1> in your environment while developing programs
1857can be very useful, however.
1858
1859=item C<PERL_ANYEVENT_MODEL>
1860
1861This can be used to specify the event model to be used by AnyEvent, before
1862auto detection and -probing kicks in. It must be a string consisting
1863entirely of ASCII letters. The string C<AnyEvent::Impl::> gets prepended
1864and the resulting module name is loaded and if the load was successful,
1865used as event model. If it fails to load AnyEvent will proceed with
1866auto detection and -probing.
1867
1868This functionality might change in future versions.
1869
1870For example, to force the pure perl model (L<AnyEvent::Impl::Perl>) you
1871could start your program like this:
1872
1873 PERL_ANYEVENT_MODEL=Perl perl ...
1874
1875=item C<PERL_ANYEVENT_PROTOCOLS>
1876
1877Used by both L<AnyEvent::DNS> and L<AnyEvent::Socket> to determine preferences
1878for IPv4 or IPv6. The default is unspecified (and might change, or be the result
1879of auto probing).
1880
1881Must be set to a comma-separated list of protocols or address families,
1882current supported: C<ipv4> and C<ipv6>. Only protocols mentioned will be
1883used, and preference will be given to protocols mentioned earlier in the
1884list.
1885
1886This variable can effectively be used for denial-of-service attacks
1887against local programs (e.g. when setuid), although the impact is likely
1888small, as the program has to handle conenction and other failures anyways.
1889
1890Examples: C<PERL_ANYEVENT_PROTOCOLS=ipv4,ipv6> - prefer IPv4 over IPv6,
1891but support both and try to use both. C<PERL_ANYEVENT_PROTOCOLS=ipv4>
1892- only support IPv4, never try to resolve or contact IPv6
1893addresses. C<PERL_ANYEVENT_PROTOCOLS=ipv6,ipv4> support either IPv4 or
1894IPv6, but prefer IPv6 over IPv4.
1895
1896=item C<PERL_ANYEVENT_EDNS0>
1897
1898Used by L<AnyEvent::DNS> to decide whether to use the EDNS0 extension
1899for DNS. This extension is generally useful to reduce DNS traffic, but
1900some (broken) firewalls drop such DNS packets, which is why it is off by
1901default.
1902
1903Setting this variable to C<1> will cause L<AnyEvent::DNS> to announce
1904EDNS0 in its DNS requests.
1905
1906=item C<PERL_ANYEVENT_MAX_FORKS>
1907
1908The maximum number of child processes that C<AnyEvent::Util::fork_call>
1909will create in parallel.
1910
1911=item C<PERL_ANYEVENT_MAX_OUTSTANDING_DNS>
1912
1913The default value for the C<max_outstanding> parameter for the default DNS
1914resolver - this is the maximum number of parallel DNS requests that are
1915sent to the DNS server.
1916
1917=item C<PERL_ANYEVENT_RESOLV_CONF>
1918
1919The file to use instead of F</etc/resolv.conf> (or OS-specific
1920configuration) in the default resolver. When set to the empty string, no
1921default config will be used.
1922
1923=item C<PERL_ANYEVENT_CA_FILE>, C<PERL_ANYEVENT_CA_PATH>.
1924
1925When neither C<ca_file> nor C<ca_path> was specified during
1926L<AnyEvent::TLS> context creation, and either of these environment
1927variables exist, they will be used to specify CA certificate locations
1928instead of a system-dependent default.
1929
1930=item C<PERL_ANYEVENT_AVOID_GUARD> and C<PERL_ANYEVENT_AVOID_ASYNC_INTERRUPT>
1931
1932When these are set to C<1>, then the respective modules are not
1933loaded. Mostly good for testing AnyEvent itself.
1934
1935=back
419 1936
420=head1 SUPPLYING YOUR OWN EVENT MODEL INTERFACE 1937=head1 SUPPLYING YOUR OWN EVENT MODEL INTERFACE
1938
1939This is an advanced topic that you do not normally need to use AnyEvent in
1940a module. This section is only of use to event loop authors who want to
1941provide AnyEvent compatibility.
421 1942
422If you need to support another event library which isn't directly 1943If you need to support another event library which isn't directly
423supported by AnyEvent, you can supply your own interface to it by 1944supported by AnyEvent, you can supply your own interface to it by
424pushing, before the first watcher gets created, the package name of 1945pushing, before the first watcher gets created, the package name of
425the event module and the package name of the interface to use onto 1946the event module and the package name of the interface to use onto
426C<@AnyEvent::REGISTRY>. You can do that before and even without loading 1947C<@AnyEvent::REGISTRY>. You can do that before and even without loading
427AnyEvent. 1948AnyEvent, so it is reasonably cheap.
428 1949
429Example: 1950Example:
430 1951
431 push @AnyEvent::REGISTRY, [urxvt => urxvt::anyevent::]; 1952 push @AnyEvent::REGISTRY, [urxvt => urxvt::anyevent::];
432 1953
433This tells AnyEvent to (literally) use the C<urxvt::anyevent::> 1954This tells AnyEvent to (literally) use the C<urxvt::anyevent::>
434package/class when it finds the C<urxvt> package/module is loaded. When 1955package/class when it finds the C<urxvt> package/module is already loaded.
1956
435AnyEvent is loaded and asked to find a suitable event model, it will 1957When AnyEvent is loaded and asked to find a suitable event model, it
436first check for the presence of urxvt. 1958will first check for the presence of urxvt by trying to C<use> the
1959C<urxvt::anyevent> module.
437 1960
438The class should provide implementations for all watcher types (see 1961The class should provide implementations for all watcher types. See
439L<AnyEvent::Impl::Event> (source code), L<AnyEvent::Impl::Glib> 1962L<AnyEvent::Impl::EV> (source code), L<AnyEvent::Impl::Glib> (Source code)
440(Source code) and so on for actual examples, use C<perldoc -m 1963and so on for actual examples. Use C<perldoc -m AnyEvent::Impl::Glib> to
441AnyEvent::Impl::Glib> to see the sources). 1964see the sources.
442 1965
1966If you don't provide C<signal> and C<child> watchers than AnyEvent will
1967provide suitable (hopefully) replacements.
1968
443The above isn't fictitious, the I<rxvt-unicode> (a.k.a. urxvt) 1969The above example isn't fictitious, the I<rxvt-unicode> (a.k.a. urxvt)
444uses the above line as-is. An interface isn't included in AnyEvent 1970terminal emulator uses the above line as-is. An interface isn't included
445because it doesn't make sense outside the embedded interpreter inside 1971in AnyEvent because it doesn't make sense outside the embedded interpreter
446I<rxvt-unicode>, and it is updated and maintained as part of the 1972inside I<rxvt-unicode>, and it is updated and maintained as part of the
447I<rxvt-unicode> distribution. 1973I<rxvt-unicode> distribution.
448 1974
449I<rxvt-unicode> also cheats a bit by not providing blocking access to 1975I<rxvt-unicode> also cheats a bit by not providing blocking access to
450condition variables: code blocking while waiting for a condition will 1976condition variables: code blocking while waiting for a condition will
451C<die>. This still works with most modules/usages, and blocking calls must 1977C<die>. This still works with most modules/usages, and blocking calls must
452not be in an interactive application, so it makes sense. 1978not be done in an interactive application, so it makes sense.
453 1979
454=head1 ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES
455
456The following environment variables are used by this module:
457
458C<PERL_ANYEVENT_VERBOSE> when set to C<2> or higher, reports which event
459model gets used.
460
461=head1 EXAMPLE 1980=head1 EXAMPLE PROGRAM
462 1981
463The following program uses an io watcher to read data from stdin, a timer 1982The following program uses an I/O watcher to read data from STDIN, a timer
464to display a message once per second, and a condvar to exit the program 1983to display a message once per second, and a condition variable to quit the
465when the user enters quit: 1984program when the user enters quit:
466 1985
467 use AnyEvent; 1986 use AnyEvent;
468 1987
469 my $cv = AnyEvent->condvar; 1988 my $cv = AnyEvent->condvar;
470 1989
471 my $io_watcher = AnyEvent->io (fh => \*STDIN, poll => 'r', cb => sub { 1990 my $io_watcher = AnyEvent->io (
1991 fh => \*STDIN,
1992 poll => 'r',
1993 cb => sub {
472 warn "io event <$_[0]>\n"; # will always output <r> 1994 warn "io event <$_[0]>\n"; # will always output <r>
473 chomp (my $input = <STDIN>); # read a line 1995 chomp (my $input = <STDIN>); # read a line
474 warn "read: $input\n"; # output what has been read 1996 warn "read: $input\n"; # output what has been read
475 $cv->broadcast if $input =~ /^q/i; # quit program if /^q/i 1997 $cv->send if $input =~ /^q/i; # quit program if /^q/i
1998 },
1999 );
2000
2001 my $time_watcher = AnyEvent->timer (after => 1, interval => 1, cb => sub {
2002 warn "timeout\n"; # print 'timeout' at most every second
476 }); 2003 });
477 2004
478 my $time_watcher; # can only be used once
479
480 sub new_timer {
481 $timer = AnyEvent->timer (after => 1, cb => sub {
482 warn "timeout\n"; # print 'timeout' about every second
483 &new_timer; # and restart the time
484 });
485 }
486
487 new_timer; # create first timer
488
489 $cv->wait; # wait until user enters /^q/i 2005 $cv->recv; # wait until user enters /^q/i
490 2006
491=head1 REAL-WORLD EXAMPLE 2007=head1 REAL-WORLD EXAMPLE
492 2008
493Consider the L<Net::FCP> module. It features (among others) the following 2009Consider the L<Net::FCP> module. It features (among others) the following
494API calls, which are to freenet what HTTP GET requests are to http: 2010API calls, which are to freenet what HTTP GET requests are to http:
544 syswrite $txn->{fh}, $txn->{request} 2060 syswrite $txn->{fh}, $txn->{request}
545 or die "connection or write error"; 2061 or die "connection or write error";
546 $txn->{w} = AnyEvent->io (fh => $txn->{fh}, poll => 'r', cb => sub { $txn->fh_ready_r }); 2062 $txn->{w} = AnyEvent->io (fh => $txn->{fh}, poll => 'r', cb => sub { $txn->fh_ready_r });
547 2063
548Again, C<fh_ready_r> waits till all data has arrived, and then stores the 2064Again, C<fh_ready_r> waits till all data has arrived, and then stores the
549result and signals any possible waiters that the request ahs finished: 2065result and signals any possible waiters that the request has finished:
550 2066
551 sysread $txn->{fh}, $txn->{buf}, length $txn->{$buf}; 2067 sysread $txn->{fh}, $txn->{buf}, length $txn->{$buf};
552 2068
553 if (end-of-file or data complete) { 2069 if (end-of-file or data complete) {
554 $txn->{result} = $txn->{buf}; 2070 $txn->{result} = $txn->{buf};
555 $txn->{finished}->broadcast; 2071 $txn->{finished}->send;
556 $txb->{cb}->($txn) of $txn->{cb}; # also call callback 2072 $txb->{cb}->($txn) of $txn->{cb}; # also call callback
557 } 2073 }
558 2074
559The C<result> method, finally, just waits for the finished signal (if the 2075The C<result> method, finally, just waits for the finished signal (if the
560request was already finished, it doesn't wait, of course, and returns the 2076request was already finished, it doesn't wait, of course, and returns the
561data: 2077data:
562 2078
563 $txn->{finished}->wait; 2079 $txn->{finished}->recv;
564 return $txn->{result}; 2080 return $txn->{result};
565 2081
566The actual code goes further and collects all errors (C<die>s, exceptions) 2082The actual code goes further and collects all errors (C<die>s, exceptions)
567that occured during request processing. The C<result> method detects 2083that occurred during request processing. The C<result> method detects
568wether an exception as thrown (it is stored inside the $txn object) 2084whether an exception as thrown (it is stored inside the $txn object)
569and just throws the exception, which means connection errors and other 2085and just throws the exception, which means connection errors and other
570problems get reported tot he code that tries to use the result, not in a 2086problems get reported to the code that tries to use the result, not in a
571random callback. 2087random callback.
572 2088
573All of this enables the following usage styles: 2089All of this enables the following usage styles:
574 2090
5751. Blocking: 20911. Blocking:
576 2092
577 my $data = $fcp->client_get ($url); 2093 my $data = $fcp->client_get ($url);
578 2094
5792. Blocking, but parallelizing: 20952. Blocking, but running in parallel:
580 2096
581 my @datas = map $_->result, 2097 my @datas = map $_->result,
582 map $fcp->txn_client_get ($_), 2098 map $fcp->txn_client_get ($_),
583 @urls; 2099 @urls;
584 2100
585Both blocking examples work without the module user having to know 2101Both blocking examples work without the module user having to know
586anything about events. 2102anything about events.
587 2103
5883a. Event-based in a main program, using any support Event module: 21043a. Event-based in a main program, using any supported event module:
589 2105
590 use Event; 2106 use EV;
591 2107
592 $fcp->txn_client_get ($url)->cb (sub { 2108 $fcp->txn_client_get ($url)->cb (sub {
593 my $txn = shift; 2109 my $txn = shift;
594 my $data = $txn->result; 2110 my $data = $txn->result;
595 ... 2111 ...
596 }); 2112 });
597 2113
598 Event::loop; 2114 EV::loop;
599 2115
6003b. The module user could use AnyEvent, too: 21163b. The module user could use AnyEvent, too:
601 2117
602 use AnyEvent; 2118 use AnyEvent;
603 2119
604 my $quit = AnyEvent->condvar; 2120 my $quit = AnyEvent->condvar;
605 2121
606 $fcp->txn_client_get ($url)->cb (sub { 2122 $fcp->txn_client_get ($url)->cb (sub {
607 ... 2123 ...
608 $quit->broadcast; 2124 $quit->send;
609 }); 2125 });
610 2126
611 $quit->wait; 2127 $quit->recv;
2128
2129
2130=head1 BENCHMARKS
2131
2132To give you an idea of the performance and overheads that AnyEvent adds
2133over the event loops themselves and to give you an impression of the speed
2134of various event loops I prepared some benchmarks.
2135
2136=head2 BENCHMARKING ANYEVENT OVERHEAD
2137
2138Here is a benchmark of various supported event models used natively and
2139through AnyEvent. The benchmark creates a lot of timers (with a zero
2140timeout) and I/O watchers (watching STDOUT, a pty, to become writable,
2141which it is), lets them fire exactly once and destroys them again.
2142
2143Source code for this benchmark is found as F<eg/bench> in the AnyEvent
2144distribution. It uses the L<AE> interface, which makes a real difference
2145for the EV and Perl backends only.
2146
2147=head3 Explanation of the columns
2148
2149I<watcher> is the number of event watchers created/destroyed. Since
2150different event models feature vastly different performances, each event
2151loop was given a number of watchers so that overall runtime is acceptable
2152and similar between tested event loop (and keep them from crashing): Glib
2153would probably take thousands of years if asked to process the same number
2154of watchers as EV in this benchmark.
2155
2156I<bytes> is the number of bytes (as measured by the resident set size,
2157RSS) consumed by each watcher. This method of measuring captures both C
2158and Perl-based overheads.
2159
2160I<create> is the time, in microseconds (millionths of seconds), that it
2161takes to create a single watcher. The callback is a closure shared between
2162all watchers, to avoid adding memory overhead. That means closure creation
2163and memory usage is not included in the figures.
2164
2165I<invoke> is the time, in microseconds, used to invoke a simple
2166callback. The callback simply counts down a Perl variable and after it was
2167invoked "watcher" times, it would C<< ->send >> a condvar once to
2168signal the end of this phase.
2169
2170I<destroy> is the time, in microseconds, that it takes to destroy a single
2171watcher.
2172
2173=head3 Results
2174
2175 name watchers bytes create invoke destroy comment
2176 EV/EV 100000 223 0.47 0.43 0.27 EV native interface
2177 EV/Any 100000 223 0.48 0.42 0.26 EV + AnyEvent watchers
2178 Coro::EV/Any 100000 223 0.47 0.42 0.26 coroutines + Coro::Signal
2179 Perl/Any 100000 431 2.70 0.74 0.92 pure perl implementation
2180 Event/Event 16000 516 31.16 31.84 0.82 Event native interface
2181 Event/Any 16000 1203 42.61 34.79 1.80 Event + AnyEvent watchers
2182 IOAsync/Any 16000 1911 41.92 27.45 16.81 via IO::Async::Loop::IO_Poll
2183 IOAsync/Any 16000 1726 40.69 26.37 15.25 via IO::Async::Loop::Epoll
2184 Glib/Any 16000 1118 89.00 12.57 51.17 quadratic behaviour
2185 Tk/Any 2000 1346 20.96 10.75 8.00 SEGV with >> 2000 watchers
2186 POE/Any 2000 6951 108.97 795.32 14.24 via POE::Loop::Event
2187 POE/Any 2000 6648 94.79 774.40 575.51 via POE::Loop::Select
2188
2189=head3 Discussion
2190
2191The benchmark does I<not> measure scalability of the event loop very
2192well. For example, a select-based event loop (such as the pure perl one)
2193can never compete with an event loop that uses epoll when the number of
2194file descriptors grows high. In this benchmark, all events become ready at
2195the same time, so select/poll-based implementations get an unnatural speed
2196boost.
2197
2198Also, note that the number of watchers usually has a nonlinear effect on
2199overall speed, that is, creating twice as many watchers doesn't take twice
2200the time - usually it takes longer. This puts event loops tested with a
2201higher number of watchers at a disadvantage.
2202
2203To put the range of results into perspective, consider that on the
2204benchmark machine, handling an event takes roughly 1600 CPU cycles with
2205EV, 3100 CPU cycles with AnyEvent's pure perl loop and almost 3000000 CPU
2206cycles with POE.
2207
2208C<EV> is the sole leader regarding speed and memory use, which are both
2209maximal/minimal, respectively. When using the L<AE> API there is zero
2210overhead (when going through the AnyEvent API create is about 5-6 times
2211slower, with other times being equal, so still uses far less memory than
2212any other event loop and is still faster than Event natively).
2213
2214The pure perl implementation is hit in a few sweet spots (both the
2215constant timeout and the use of a single fd hit optimisations in the perl
2216interpreter and the backend itself). Nevertheless this shows that it
2217adds very little overhead in itself. Like any select-based backend its
2218performance becomes really bad with lots of file descriptors (and few of
2219them active), of course, but this was not subject of this benchmark.
2220
2221The C<Event> module has a relatively high setup and callback invocation
2222cost, but overall scores in on the third place.
2223
2224C<IO::Async> performs admirably well, about on par with C<Event>, even
2225when using its pure perl backend.
2226
2227C<Glib>'s memory usage is quite a bit higher, but it features a
2228faster callback invocation and overall ends up in the same class as
2229C<Event>. However, Glib scales extremely badly, doubling the number of
2230watchers increases the processing time by more than a factor of four,
2231making it completely unusable when using larger numbers of watchers
2232(note that only a single file descriptor was used in the benchmark, so
2233inefficiencies of C<poll> do not account for this).
2234
2235The C<Tk> adaptor works relatively well. The fact that it crashes with
2236more than 2000 watchers is a big setback, however, as correctness takes
2237precedence over speed. Nevertheless, its performance is surprising, as the
2238file descriptor is dup()ed for each watcher. This shows that the dup()
2239employed by some adaptors is not a big performance issue (it does incur a
2240hidden memory cost inside the kernel which is not reflected in the figures
2241above).
2242
2243C<POE>, regardless of underlying event loop (whether using its pure perl
2244select-based backend or the Event module, the POE-EV backend couldn't
2245be tested because it wasn't working) shows abysmal performance and
2246memory usage with AnyEvent: Watchers use almost 30 times as much memory
2247as EV watchers, and 10 times as much memory as Event (the high memory
2248requirements are caused by requiring a session for each watcher). Watcher
2249invocation speed is almost 900 times slower than with AnyEvent's pure perl
2250implementation.
2251
2252The design of the POE adaptor class in AnyEvent can not really account
2253for the performance issues, though, as session creation overhead is
2254small compared to execution of the state machine, which is coded pretty
2255optimally within L<AnyEvent::Impl::POE> (and while everybody agrees that
2256using multiple sessions is not a good approach, especially regarding
2257memory usage, even the author of POE could not come up with a faster
2258design).
2259
2260=head3 Summary
2261
2262=over 4
2263
2264=item * Using EV through AnyEvent is faster than any other event loop
2265(even when used without AnyEvent), but most event loops have acceptable
2266performance with or without AnyEvent.
2267
2268=item * The overhead AnyEvent adds is usually much smaller than the overhead of
2269the actual event loop, only with extremely fast event loops such as EV
2270adds AnyEvent significant overhead.
2271
2272=item * You should avoid POE like the plague if you want performance or
2273reasonable memory usage.
2274
2275=back
2276
2277=head2 BENCHMARKING THE LARGE SERVER CASE
2278
2279This benchmark actually benchmarks the event loop itself. It works by
2280creating a number of "servers": each server consists of a socket pair, a
2281timeout watcher that gets reset on activity (but never fires), and an I/O
2282watcher waiting for input on one side of the socket. Each time the socket
2283watcher reads a byte it will write that byte to a random other "server".
2284
2285The effect is that there will be a lot of I/O watchers, only part of which
2286are active at any one point (so there is a constant number of active
2287fds for each loop iteration, but which fds these are is random). The
2288timeout is reset each time something is read because that reflects how
2289most timeouts work (and puts extra pressure on the event loops).
2290
2291In this benchmark, we use 10000 socket pairs (20000 sockets), of which 100
2292(1%) are active. This mirrors the activity of large servers with many
2293connections, most of which are idle at any one point in time.
2294
2295Source code for this benchmark is found as F<eg/bench2> in the AnyEvent
2296distribution. It uses the L<AE> interface, which makes a real difference
2297for the EV and Perl backends only.
2298
2299=head3 Explanation of the columns
2300
2301I<sockets> is the number of sockets, and twice the number of "servers" (as
2302each server has a read and write socket end).
2303
2304I<create> is the time it takes to create a socket pair (which is
2305nontrivial) and two watchers: an I/O watcher and a timeout watcher.
2306
2307I<request>, the most important value, is the time it takes to handle a
2308single "request", that is, reading the token from the pipe and forwarding
2309it to another server. This includes deleting the old timeout and creating
2310a new one that moves the timeout into the future.
2311
2312=head3 Results
2313
2314 name sockets create request
2315 EV 20000 62.66 7.99
2316 Perl 20000 68.32 32.64
2317 IOAsync 20000 174.06 101.15 epoll
2318 IOAsync 20000 174.67 610.84 poll
2319 Event 20000 202.69 242.91
2320 Glib 20000 557.01 1689.52
2321 POE 20000 341.54 12086.32 uses POE::Loop::Event
2322
2323=head3 Discussion
2324
2325This benchmark I<does> measure scalability and overall performance of the
2326particular event loop.
2327
2328EV is again fastest. Since it is using epoll on my system, the setup time
2329is relatively high, though.
2330
2331Perl surprisingly comes second. It is much faster than the C-based event
2332loops Event and Glib.
2333
2334IO::Async performs very well when using its epoll backend, and still quite
2335good compared to Glib when using its pure perl backend.
2336
2337Event suffers from high setup time as well (look at its code and you will
2338understand why). Callback invocation also has a high overhead compared to
2339the C<< $_->() for .. >>-style loop that the Perl event loop uses. Event
2340uses select or poll in basically all documented configurations.
2341
2342Glib is hit hard by its quadratic behaviour w.r.t. many watchers. It
2343clearly fails to perform with many filehandles or in busy servers.
2344
2345POE is still completely out of the picture, taking over 1000 times as long
2346as EV, and over 100 times as long as the Perl implementation, even though
2347it uses a C-based event loop in this case.
2348
2349=head3 Summary
2350
2351=over 4
2352
2353=item * The pure perl implementation performs extremely well.
2354
2355=item * Avoid Glib or POE in large projects where performance matters.
2356
2357=back
2358
2359=head2 BENCHMARKING SMALL SERVERS
2360
2361While event loops should scale (and select-based ones do not...) even to
2362large servers, most programs we (or I :) actually write have only a few
2363I/O watchers.
2364
2365In this benchmark, I use the same benchmark program as in the large server
2366case, but it uses only eight "servers", of which three are active at any
2367one time. This should reflect performance for a small server relatively
2368well.
2369
2370The columns are identical to the previous table.
2371
2372=head3 Results
2373
2374 name sockets create request
2375 EV 16 20.00 6.54
2376 Perl 16 25.75 12.62
2377 Event 16 81.27 35.86
2378 Glib 16 32.63 15.48
2379 POE 16 261.87 276.28 uses POE::Loop::Event
2380
2381=head3 Discussion
2382
2383The benchmark tries to test the performance of a typical small
2384server. While knowing how various event loops perform is interesting, keep
2385in mind that their overhead in this case is usually not as important, due
2386to the small absolute number of watchers (that is, you need efficiency and
2387speed most when you have lots of watchers, not when you only have a few of
2388them).
2389
2390EV is again fastest.
2391
2392Perl again comes second. It is noticeably faster than the C-based event
2393loops Event and Glib, although the difference is too small to really
2394matter.
2395
2396POE also performs much better in this case, but is is still far behind the
2397others.
2398
2399=head3 Summary
2400
2401=over 4
2402
2403=item * C-based event loops perform very well with small number of
2404watchers, as the management overhead dominates.
2405
2406=back
2407
2408=head2 THE IO::Lambda BENCHMARK
2409
2410Recently I was told about the benchmark in the IO::Lambda manpage, which
2411could be misinterpreted to make AnyEvent look bad. In fact, the benchmark
2412simply compares IO::Lambda with POE, and IO::Lambda looks better (which
2413shouldn't come as a surprise to anybody). As such, the benchmark is
2414fine, and mostly shows that the AnyEvent backend from IO::Lambda isn't
2415very optimal. But how would AnyEvent compare when used without the extra
2416baggage? To explore this, I wrote the equivalent benchmark for AnyEvent.
2417
2418The benchmark itself creates an echo-server, and then, for 500 times,
2419connects to the echo server, sends a line, waits for the reply, and then
2420creates the next connection. This is a rather bad benchmark, as it doesn't
2421test the efficiency of the framework or much non-blocking I/O, but it is a
2422benchmark nevertheless.
2423
2424 name runtime
2425 Lambda/select 0.330 sec
2426 + optimized 0.122 sec
2427 Lambda/AnyEvent 0.327 sec
2428 + optimized 0.138 sec
2429 Raw sockets/select 0.077 sec
2430 POE/select, components 0.662 sec
2431 POE/select, raw sockets 0.226 sec
2432 POE/select, optimized 0.404 sec
2433
2434 AnyEvent/select/nb 0.085 sec
2435 AnyEvent/EV/nb 0.068 sec
2436 +state machine 0.134 sec
2437
2438The benchmark is also a bit unfair (my fault): the IO::Lambda/POE
2439benchmarks actually make blocking connects and use 100% blocking I/O,
2440defeating the purpose of an event-based solution. All of the newly
2441written AnyEvent benchmarks use 100% non-blocking connects (using
2442AnyEvent::Socket::tcp_connect and the asynchronous pure perl DNS
2443resolver), so AnyEvent is at a disadvantage here, as non-blocking connects
2444generally require a lot more bookkeeping and event handling than blocking
2445connects (which involve a single syscall only).
2446
2447The last AnyEvent benchmark additionally uses L<AnyEvent::Handle>, which
2448offers similar expressive power as POE and IO::Lambda, using conventional
2449Perl syntax. This means that both the echo server and the client are 100%
2450non-blocking, further placing it at a disadvantage.
2451
2452As you can see, the AnyEvent + EV combination even beats the
2453hand-optimised "raw sockets benchmark", while AnyEvent + its pure perl
2454backend easily beats IO::Lambda and POE.
2455
2456And even the 100% non-blocking version written using the high-level (and
2457slow :) L<AnyEvent::Handle> abstraction beats both POE and IO::Lambda
2458higher level ("unoptimised") abstractions by a large margin, even though
2459it does all of DNS, tcp-connect and socket I/O in a non-blocking way.
2460
2461The two AnyEvent benchmarks programs can be found as F<eg/ae0.pl> and
2462F<eg/ae2.pl> in the AnyEvent distribution, the remaining benchmarks are
2463part of the IO::Lambda distribution and were used without any changes.
2464
2465
2466=head1 SIGNALS
2467
2468AnyEvent currently installs handlers for these signals:
2469
2470=over 4
2471
2472=item SIGCHLD
2473
2474A handler for C<SIGCHLD> is installed by AnyEvent's child watcher
2475emulation for event loops that do not support them natively. Also, some
2476event loops install a similar handler.
2477
2478Additionally, when AnyEvent is loaded and SIGCHLD is set to IGNORE, then
2479AnyEvent will reset it to default, to avoid losing child exit statuses.
2480
2481=item SIGPIPE
2482
2483A no-op handler is installed for C<SIGPIPE> when C<$SIG{PIPE}> is C<undef>
2484when AnyEvent gets loaded.
2485
2486The rationale for this is that AnyEvent users usually do not really depend
2487on SIGPIPE delivery (which is purely an optimisation for shell use, or
2488badly-written programs), but C<SIGPIPE> can cause spurious and rare
2489program exits as a lot of people do not expect C<SIGPIPE> when writing to
2490some random socket.
2491
2492The rationale for installing a no-op handler as opposed to ignoring it is
2493that this way, the handler will be restored to defaults on exec.
2494
2495Feel free to install your own handler, or reset it to defaults.
2496
2497=back
2498
2499=cut
2500
2501undef $SIG{CHLD}
2502 if $SIG{CHLD} eq 'IGNORE';
2503
2504$SIG{PIPE} = sub { }
2505 unless defined $SIG{PIPE};
2506
2507=head1 RECOMMENDED/OPTIONAL MODULES
2508
2509One of AnyEvent's main goals is to be 100% Pure-Perl(tm): only perl (and
2510its built-in modules) are required to use it.
2511
2512That does not mean that AnyEvent won't take advantage of some additional
2513modules if they are installed.
2514
2515This section explains which additional modules will be used, and how they
2516affect AnyEvent's operation.
2517
2518=over 4
2519
2520=item L<Async::Interrupt>
2521
2522This slightly arcane module is used to implement fast signal handling: To
2523my knowledge, there is no way to do completely race-free and quick
2524signal handling in pure perl. To ensure that signals still get
2525delivered, AnyEvent will start an interval timer to wake up perl (and
2526catch the signals) with some delay (default is 10 seconds, look for
2527C<$AnyEvent::MAX_SIGNAL_LATENCY>).
2528
2529If this module is available, then it will be used to implement signal
2530catching, which means that signals will not be delayed, and the event loop
2531will not be interrupted regularly, which is more efficient (and good for
2532battery life on laptops).
2533
2534This affects not just the pure-perl event loop, but also other event loops
2535that have no signal handling on their own (e.g. Glib, Tk, Qt).
2536
2537Some event loops (POE, Event, Event::Lib) offer signal watchers natively,
2538and either employ their own workarounds (POE) or use AnyEvent's workaround
2539(using C<$AnyEvent::MAX_SIGNAL_LATENCY>). Installing L<Async::Interrupt>
2540does nothing for those backends.
2541
2542=item L<EV>
2543
2544This module isn't really "optional", as it is simply one of the backend
2545event loops that AnyEvent can use. However, it is simply the best event
2546loop available in terms of features, speed and stability: It supports
2547the AnyEvent API optimally, implements all the watcher types in XS, does
2548automatic timer adjustments even when no monotonic clock is available,
2549can take avdantage of advanced kernel interfaces such as C<epoll> and
2550C<kqueue>, and is the fastest backend I<by far>. You can even embed
2551L<Glib>/L<Gtk2> in it (or vice versa, see L<EV::Glib> and L<Glib::EV>).
2552
2553If you only use backends that rely on another event loop (e.g. C<Tk>),
2554then this module will do nothing for you.
2555
2556=item L<Guard>
2557
2558The guard module, when used, will be used to implement
2559C<AnyEvent::Util::guard>. This speeds up guards considerably (and uses a
2560lot less memory), but otherwise doesn't affect guard operation much. It is
2561purely used for performance.
2562
2563=item L<JSON> and L<JSON::XS>
2564
2565One of these modules is required when you want to read or write JSON data
2566via L<AnyEvent::Handle>. L<JSON> is also written in pure-perl, but can take
2567advantage of the ultra-high-speed L<JSON::XS> module when it is installed.
2568
2569=item L<Net::SSLeay>
2570
2571Implementing TLS/SSL in Perl is certainly interesting, but not very
2572worthwhile: If this module is installed, then L<AnyEvent::Handle> (with
2573the help of L<AnyEvent::TLS>), gains the ability to do TLS/SSL.
2574
2575=item L<Time::HiRes>
2576
2577This module is part of perl since release 5.008. It will be used when the
2578chosen event library does not come with a timing source of its own. The
2579pure-perl event loop (L<AnyEvent::Impl::Perl>) will additionally use it to
2580try to use a monotonic clock for timing stability.
2581
2582=back
2583
2584
2585=head1 FORK
2586
2587Most event libraries are not fork-safe. The ones who are usually are
2588because they rely on inefficient but fork-safe C<select> or C<poll> calls
2589- higher performance APIs such as BSD's kqueue or the dreaded Linux epoll
2590are usually badly thought-out hacks that are incompatible with fork in
2591one way or another. Only L<EV> is fully fork-aware and ensures that you
2592continue event-processing in both parent and child (or both, if you know
2593what you are doing).
2594
2595This means that, in general, you cannot fork and do event processing in
2596the child if the event library was initialised before the fork (which
2597usually happens when the first AnyEvent watcher is created, or the library
2598is loaded).
2599
2600If you have to fork, you must either do so I<before> creating your first
2601watcher OR you must not use AnyEvent at all in the child OR you must do
2602something completely out of the scope of AnyEvent.
2603
2604The problem of doing event processing in the parent I<and> the child
2605is much more complicated: even for backends that I<are> fork-aware or
2606fork-safe, their behaviour is not usually what you want: fork clones all
2607watchers, that means all timers, I/O watchers etc. are active in both
2608parent and child, which is almost never what you want. USing C<exec>
2609to start worker children from some kind of manage rprocess is usually
2610preferred, because it is much easier and cleaner, at the expense of having
2611to have another binary.
2612
2613
2614=head1 SECURITY CONSIDERATIONS
2615
2616AnyEvent can be forced to load any event model via
2617$ENV{PERL_ANYEVENT_MODEL}. While this cannot (to my knowledge) be used to
2618execute arbitrary code or directly gain access, it can easily be used to
2619make the program hang or malfunction in subtle ways, as AnyEvent watchers
2620will not be active when the program uses a different event model than
2621specified in the variable.
2622
2623You can make AnyEvent completely ignore this variable by deleting it
2624before the first watcher gets created, e.g. with a C<BEGIN> block:
2625
2626 BEGIN { delete $ENV{PERL_ANYEVENT_MODEL} }
2627
2628 use AnyEvent;
2629
2630Similar considerations apply to $ENV{PERL_ANYEVENT_VERBOSE}, as that can
2631be used to probe what backend is used and gain other information (which is
2632probably even less useful to an attacker than PERL_ANYEVENT_MODEL), and
2633$ENV{PERL_ANYEVENT_STRICT}.
2634
2635Note that AnyEvent will remove I<all> environment variables starting with
2636C<PERL_ANYEVENT_> from C<%ENV> when it is loaded while taint mode is
2637enabled.
2638
2639
2640=head1 BUGS
2641
2642Perl 5.8 has numerous memleaks that sometimes hit this module and are hard
2643to work around. If you suffer from memleaks, first upgrade to Perl 5.10
2644and check wether the leaks still show up. (Perl 5.10.0 has other annoying
2645memleaks, such as leaking on C<map> and C<grep> but it is usually not as
2646pronounced).
2647
612 2648
613=head1 SEE ALSO 2649=head1 SEE ALSO
614 2650
615Event modules: L<Coro::Event>, L<Coro>, L<Event>, L<Glib::Event>, L<Glib>. 2651Tutorial/Introduction: L<AnyEvent::Intro>.
616 2652
617Implementations: L<AnyEvent::Impl::Coro>, L<AnyEvent::Impl::Event>, L<AnyEvent::Impl::Glib>, L<AnyEvent::Impl::Tk>. 2653FAQ: L<AnyEvent::FAQ>.
618 2654
619Nontrivial usage example: L<Net::FCP>. 2655Utility functions: L<AnyEvent::Util>.
620 2656
621=head1 2657Event modules: L<EV>, L<EV::Glib>, L<Glib::EV>, L<Event>, L<Glib::Event>,
2658L<Glib>, L<Tk>, L<Event::Lib>, L<Qt>, L<POE>.
2659
2660Implementations: L<AnyEvent::Impl::EV>, L<AnyEvent::Impl::Event>,
2661L<AnyEvent::Impl::Glib>, L<AnyEvent::Impl::Tk>, L<AnyEvent::Impl::Perl>,
2662L<AnyEvent::Impl::EventLib>, L<AnyEvent::Impl::Qt>,
2663L<AnyEvent::Impl::POE>, L<AnyEvent::Impl::IOAsync>, L<Anyevent::Impl::Irssi>.
2664
2665Non-blocking file handles, sockets, TCP clients and
2666servers: L<AnyEvent::Handle>, L<AnyEvent::Socket>, L<AnyEvent::TLS>.
2667
2668Asynchronous DNS: L<AnyEvent::DNS>.
2669
2670Thread support: L<Coro>, L<Coro::AnyEvent>, L<Coro::EV>, L<Coro::Event>.
2671
2672Nontrivial usage examples: L<AnyEvent::GPSD>, L<AnyEvent::IRC>,
2673L<AnyEvent::HTTP>.
2674
2675
2676=head1 AUTHOR
2677
2678 Marc Lehmann <schmorp@schmorp.de>
2679 http://home.schmorp.de/
622 2680
623=cut 2681=cut
624 2682
6251 26831
626 2684

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