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Revision 1.398 by root, Tue Mar 27 16:21:11 2012 UTC

1=head1 NAME 1=head1 NAME
2 2
3AnyEvent - provide framework for multiple event loops 3AnyEvent - the DBI of event loop programming
4 4
5EV, Event, Coro::EV, Coro::Event, Glib, Tk, Perl - various supported event loops 5EV, Event, Glib, Tk, Perl, Event::Lib, Irssi, rxvt-unicode, IO::Async, Qt,
6FLTK and 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 whether 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.
22 58
23=head1 WHY YOU SHOULD USE THIS MODULE (OR NOT) 59=head1 WHY YOU SHOULD USE THIS MODULE (OR NOT)
24 60
25Glib, POE, IO::Async, Event... CPAN offers event models by the dozen 61Glib, POE, IO::Async, Event... CPAN offers event models by the dozen
26nowadays. So what is different about AnyEvent? 62nowadays. So what is different about AnyEvent?
27 63
28Executive Summary: AnyEvent is I<compatible>, AnyEvent is I<free of 64Executive Summary: AnyEvent is I<compatible>, AnyEvent is I<free of
29policy> and AnyEvent is I<small and efficient>. 65policy> and AnyEvent is I<small and efficient>.
30 66
31First and foremost, I<AnyEvent is not an event model> itself, it only 67First and foremost, I<AnyEvent is not an event model> itself, it only
32interfaces to whatever event model the main program happens to use in a 68interfaces to whatever event model the main program happens to use, in a
33pragmatic way. For event models and certain classes of immortals alike, 69pragmatic way. For event models and certain classes of immortals alike,
34the statement "there can only be one" is a bitter reality, and AnyEvent 70the statement "there can only be one" is a bitter reality: In general,
35helps hiding the differences. 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.
36 74
37The goal of AnyEvent is to offer module authors the ability to do event 75The goal of AnyEvent is to offer module authors the ability to do event
38programming (waiting for I/O or timer events) without subscribing to a 76programming (waiting for I/O or timer events) without subscribing to a
39religion, a way of living, and most importantly: without forcing your 77religion, a way of living, and most importantly: without forcing your
40module users into the same thing by forcing them to use the same event 78module users into the same thing by forcing them to use the same event
41model you use. 79model you use.
42 80
43For modules like POE or IO::Async (which is actually doing all I/O 81For modules like POE or IO::Async (which is a total misnomer as it is
44I<synchronously>...), using them in your module is like joining a 82actually doing all I/O I<synchronously>...), using them in your module is
45cult: After you joined, you are dependent on them and you cannot use 83like joining a cult: After you join, you are dependent on them and you
46anything else, as it is simply incompatible to everything that isn't 84cannot use anything else, as they are simply incompatible to everything
47itself. 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.
48 87
49AnyEvent + POE works fine. AnyEvent + Glib works fine. AnyEvent + Tk 88AnyEvent is different: AnyEvent + POE works fine. AnyEvent + Glib works
50works fine etc. etc. but none of these work together with the rest: POE 89fine. AnyEvent + Tk works fine etc. etc. but none of these work together
51+ IO::Async? no go. Tk + Event? no go. If your module uses one of 90with the rest: POE + EV? No go. Tk + Event? No go. Again: if your module
52those, every user of your module has to use it, too. If your module 91uses one of those, every user of your module has to use it, too. But if
53uses AnyEvent, it works transparently with all event models it supports 92your module uses AnyEvent, it works transparently with all event models it
54(including stuff like POE and IO::Async). 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).
55 96
56In addition of being free of having to use I<the one and only true event 97In addition to being free of having to use I<the one and only true event
57model>, AnyEvent also is free of bloat and policy: with POE or similar 98model>, AnyEvent also is free of bloat and policy: with POE or similar
58modules, you get an enourmous amount of code and strict rules you have 99modules, you get an enormous amount of code and strict rules you have to
59to follow. AnyEvent, on the other hand, is lean and to the point by only 100follow. AnyEvent, on the other hand, is lean and to the point, by only
60offering the functionality that is useful, in as thin as a wrapper as 101offering the functionality that is necessary, in as thin as a wrapper as
61technically possible. 102technically possible.
62 103
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
63Of course, if you want lots of policy (this can arguably be somewhat 110Now, if you I<do want> lots of policy (this can arguably be somewhat
64useful) and you want to force your users to use the one and only event 111useful) and you want to force your users to use the one and only event
65model, you should I<not> use this module. 112model, you should I<not> use this module.
66 113
67
68=head1 DESCRIPTION 114=head1 DESCRIPTION
69 115
70L<AnyEvent> provides an identical interface to multiple event loops. This 116L<AnyEvent> provides a uniform interface to various event loops. This
71allows module authors to utilise an event loop without forcing module 117allows module authors to use event loop functionality without forcing
72users 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
73peacefully at any one time). 119than one event loop cannot coexist peacefully).
74 120
75The interface itself is vaguely similar but not identical to the Event 121The interface itself is vaguely similar, but not identical to the L<Event>
76module. 122module.
77 123
78On 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
79loaded event loop by probing whether any of the following modules is 125to detect the currently loaded event loop by probing whether one of the
80loaded: L<Coro::EV>, L<Coro::Event>, L<EV>, L<Event>, L<Glib>, L<Tk>. The 126following modules is already loaded: L<EV>, L<AnyEvent::Loop>,
127L<Event>, L<Glib>, L<Tk>, L<Event::Lib>, L<Qt>, L<POE>. The first one
81first one found is used. If none are found, the module tries to load these 128found is used. If none are detected, the module tries to load the first
82modules in the order given. The first one that could be successfully 129four modules in the order given; but note that if L<EV> is not
83loaded will be used. If still none could be found, AnyEvent will fall back 130available, the pure-perl L<AnyEvent::Loop> should always work, so
84to a pure-perl event loop, which is also not very efficient. 131the other two are not normally tried.
85 132
86Because AnyEvent first checks for modules that are already loaded, loading 133Because AnyEvent first checks for modules that are already loaded, loading
87an Event model explicitly before first using AnyEvent will likely make 134an event model explicitly before first using AnyEvent will likely make
88that model the default. For example: 135that model the default. For example:
89 136
90 use Tk; 137 use Tk;
91 use AnyEvent; 138 use AnyEvent;
92 139
93 # .. AnyEvent will likely default to Tk 140 # .. AnyEvent will likely default to Tk
94 141
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
95The pure-perl implementation of AnyEvent is called 147The pure-perl implementation of AnyEvent is called C<AnyEvent::Loop>. Like
96C<AnyEvent::Impl::Perl>. Like other event modules you can load it 148other event modules you can load it explicitly and enjoy the high
97explicitly. 149availability of that event loop :)
98 150
99=head1 WATCHERS 151=head1 WATCHERS
100 152
101AnyEvent 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
102stores 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
103the callback to call, the filehandle to watch, etc. 155the callback to call, the file handle to watch, etc.
104 156
105These watchers are normal Perl objects with normal Perl lifetime. After 157These watchers are normal Perl objects with normal Perl lifetime. After
106creating 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
107the 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
108setting 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
109references to it). 170to it).
110 171
111All 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.
112 173
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
113=head2 IO WATCHERS 188=head2 I/O WATCHERS
114 189
190 $w = AnyEvent->io (
191 fh => <filehandle_or_fileno>,
192 poll => <"r" or "w">,
193 cb => <callback>,
194 );
195
115You 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
116the following mandatory arguments: 197with the following mandatory key-value pairs as arguments:
117 198
118C<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
119events. 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
120a watcher waiting for "r"eadable or "w"ritable events. C<cb> the callback 207watcher waiting for "r"eadable or "w"ritable events, respectively.
121to invoke everytime the filehandle becomes ready.
122 208
123Filehandles will be kept alive, so as long as the watcher exists, the 209C<cb> is the callback to invoke each time the file handle becomes ready.
124filehandle exists, too.
125 210
126Example: 211Although the callback might get passed parameters, their value and
212presence is undefined and you cannot rely on them. Portable AnyEvent
213callbacks cannot use arguments passed to I/O watcher callbacks.
127 214
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.
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
128 # 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
129 my $w; $w = AnyEvent->io (fh => \*STDIN, poll => 'r', cb => sub { 226 my $w; $w = AnyEvent->io (fh => \*STDIN, poll => 'r', cb => sub {
130 chomp (my $input = <STDIN>); 227 chomp (my $input = <STDIN>);
131 warn "read: $input\n"; 228 warn "read: $input\n";
132 undef $w; 229 undef $w;
133 }); 230 });
134 231
135=head2 TIME WATCHERS 232=head2 TIME WATCHERS
136 233
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
137You can create a time watcher by calling the C<< AnyEvent->timer >> 242You can create a time watcher by calling the C<< AnyEvent->timer >>
138method with the following mandatory arguments: 243method with the following mandatory arguments:
139 244
140C<after> after how many seconds (fractions are supported) should the timer 245C<after> specifies after how many seconds (fractional values are
141activate. C<cb> the callback to invoke. 246supported) the callback should be invoked. C<cb> is the callback to invoke
247in that case.
142 248
143The timer callback will be invoked at most once: if you want a repeating 249Although the callback might get passed parameters, their value and
144timer 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
145and Glib). 251callbacks cannot use arguments passed to time watcher callbacks.
146 252
147Example: 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.
148 258
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
149 # fire an event after 7.7 seconds 263Example: fire an event after 7.7 seconds.
264
150 my $w = AnyEvent->timer (after => 7.7, cb => sub { 265 my $w = AnyEvent->timer (after => 7.7, cb => sub {
151 warn "timeout\n"; 266 warn "timeout\n";
152 }); 267 });
153 268
154 # to cancel the timer: 269 # to cancel the timer:
155 undef $w; 270 undef $w;
156 271
157=head2 CONDITION WATCHERS 272Example 2: fire an event after 0.5 seconds, then roughly every second.
158 273
159Condition watchers can be created by calling the C<< AnyEvent->condvar >> 274 my $w = AnyEvent->timer (after => 0.5, interval => 1, cb => sub {
160method without any arguments. 275 warn "timeout\n";
276 };
161 277
162A condition watcher watches for a condition - precisely that the C<< 278=head3 TIMING ISSUES
163->broadcast >> method has been called.
164 279
165Note that condition watchers recurse into the event loop - if you have 280There are two ways to handle timers: based on real time (relative, "fire
166two watchers that call C<< ->wait >> in a round-robbin fashion, you 281in 10 seconds") and based on wallclock time (absolute, "fire at 12
167lose. Therefore, condition watchers are good to export to your caller, but 282o'clock").
168you should avoid making a blocking wait, at least in callbacks, as this
169usually asks for trouble.
170 283
171The watcher has only two methods: 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":
172 299
173=over 4 300=over 4
174 301
302=item AnyEvent->time
303
304This returns the "current wallclock time" as a fractional number of
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).
307
308It progresses independently of any event loop processing, i.e. each call
309will check the system clock, which usually gets updated frequently.
310
311=item AnyEvent->now
312
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.
317
318I<In almost all cases (in all cases if you don't care), this is the
319function to call when you want to know the current time.>
320
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).
324
325The rest of this section is only of relevance if you try to be very exact
326with your timing; you can skip it without a bad conscience.
327
328For a practical example of when these times differ, consider L<Event::Lib>
329and L<EV> and the following set-up:
330
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::Loop>) cache the current
362time for each loop iteration (see the discussion of L<< AnyEvent->now >>,
363above).
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.
380
381=back
382
383=head2 SIGNAL WATCHERS
384
385 $w = AnyEvent->signal (signal => <uppercase_signal_name>, cb => <callback>);
386
387You can watch for signals using a signal watcher, C<signal> is the signal
388I<name> in uppercase and without any C<SIG> prefix, C<cb> is the Perl
389callback to be invoked whenever a signal occurs.
390
391Although the callback might get passed parameters, their value and
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.
407
408Example: exit on SIGINT
409
410 my $w = AnyEvent->signal (signal => "INT", cb => sub { exit 1 });
411
412=head3 Restart Behaviour
413
414While restart behaviour is up to the event loop implementation, most will
415not restart syscalls (that includes L<Async::Interrupt> and AnyEvent's
416pure perl implementation).
417
418=head3 Safe/Unsafe Signals
419
420Perl signals can be either "safe" (synchronous to opcode handling)
421or "unsafe" (asynchronous) - the former might delay signal delivery
422indefinitely, the latter might corrupt your memory.
423
424AnyEvent signal handlers are, in addition, synchronous to the event loop,
425i.e. they will not interrupt your running perl program but will only be
426called as part of the normal event handling (just like timer, I/O etc.
427callbacks, too).
428
429=head3 Signal Races, Delays and Workarounds
430
431Many event loops (e.g. Glib, Tk, Qt, IO::Async) do not support
432attaching callbacks to signals in a generic way, which is a pity,
433as you cannot do race-free signal handling in perl, requiring
434C libraries for this. AnyEvent will try to do its best, which
435means in some cases, signals will be delayed. The maximum time
436a signal might be delayed is 10 seconds by default, but can
437be overriden via C<$ENV{PERL_ANYEVENT_MAX_SIGNAL_LATENCY}> or
438C<$AnyEvent::MAX_SIGNAL_LATENCY> - see the L<ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES>
439section for details.
440
441All these problems can be avoided by installing the optional
442L<Async::Interrupt> module, which works with most event loops. It will not
443work with inherently broken event loops such as L<Event> or L<Event::Lib>
444(and not with L<POE> currently). For those, you just have to suffer the
445delays.
446
447=head2 CHILD PROCESS WATCHERS
448
449 $w = AnyEvent->child (pid => <process id>, cb => <callback>);
450
451You can also watch for a child process exit and catch its exit status.
452
453The child process is specified by the C<pid> argument (on some backends,
454using C<0> watches for any child process exit, on others this will
455croak). The watcher will be triggered only when the child process has
456finished and an exit status is available, not on any trace events
457(stopped/continued).
458
459The callback will be called with the pid and exit status (as returned by
460waitpid), so unlike other watcher types, you I<can> rely on child watcher
461callback arguments.
462
463This watcher type works by installing a signal handler for C<SIGCHLD>,
464and since it cannot be shared, nothing else should use SIGCHLD or reap
465random child processes (waiting for specific child processes, e.g. inside
466C<system>, is just fine).
467
468There is a slight catch to child watchers, however: you usually start them
469I<after> the child process was created, and this means the process could
470have exited already (and no SIGCHLD will be sent anymore).
471
472Not all event models handle this correctly (neither POE nor IO::Async do,
473see their AnyEvent::Impl manpages for details), but even for event models
474that I<do> handle this correctly, they usually need to be loaded before
475the process exits (i.e. before you fork in the first place). AnyEvent's
476pure perl event loop handles all cases correctly regardless of when you
477start the watcher.
478
479This means you cannot create a child watcher as the very first
480thing in an AnyEvent program, you I<have> to create at least one
481watcher before you C<fork> the child (alternatively, you can call
482C<AnyEvent::detect>).
483
484As most event loops do not support waiting for child events, they will be
485emulated by AnyEvent in most cases, in which case the latency and race
486problems mentioned in the description of signal watchers apply.
487
488Example: fork a process and wait for it
489
490 my $done = AnyEvent->condvar;
491
492 my $pid = fork or exit 5;
493
494 my $w = AnyEvent->child (
495 pid => $pid,
496 cb => sub {
497 my ($pid, $status) = @_;
498 warn "pid $pid exited with status $status";
499 $done->send;
500 },
501 );
502
503 # do something else, then wait for process exit
504 $done->recv;
505
506=head2 IDLE WATCHERS
507
508 $w = AnyEvent->idle (cb => <callback>);
509
510This will repeatedly invoke the callback after the process becomes idle,
511until either the watcher is destroyed or new events have been detected.
512
513Idle watchers are useful when there is a need to do something, but it
514is not so important (or wise) to do it instantly. The callback will be
515invoked only when there is "nothing better to do", which is usually
516defined as "all outstanding events have been handled and no new events
517have been detected". That means that idle watchers ideally get invoked
518when the event loop has just polled for new events but none have been
519detected. Instead of blocking to wait for more events, the idle watchers
520will be invoked.
521
522Unfortunately, most event loops do not really support idle watchers (only
523EV, Event and Glib do it in a usable fashion) - for the rest, AnyEvent
524will simply call the callback "from time to time".
525
526Example: read lines from STDIN, but only process them when the
527program is otherwise idle:
528
529 my @lines; # read data
530 my $idle_w;
531 my $io_w = AnyEvent->io (fh => \*STDIN, poll => 'r', cb => sub {
532 push @lines, scalar <STDIN>;
533
534 # start an idle watcher, if not already done
535 $idle_w ||= AnyEvent->idle (cb => sub {
536 # handle only one line, when there are lines left
537 if (my $line = shift @lines) {
538 print "handled when idle: $line";
539 } else {
540 # otherwise disable the idle watcher again
541 undef $idle_w;
542 }
543 });
544 });
545
546=head2 CONDITION VARIABLES
547
548 $cv = AnyEvent->condvar;
549
550 $cv->send (<list>);
551 my @res = $cv->recv;
552
553If you are familiar with some event loops you will know that all of them
554require you to run some blocking "loop", "run" or similar function that
555will actively watch for new events and call your callbacks.
556
557AnyEvent is slightly different: it expects somebody else to run the event
558loop and will only block when necessary (usually when told by the user).
559
560The tool to do that is called a "condition variable", so called because
561they represent a condition that must become true.
562
563Now is probably a good time to look at the examples further below.
564
565Condition variables can be created by calling the C<< AnyEvent->condvar
566>> method, usually without arguments. The only argument pair allowed is
567C<cb>, which specifies a callback to be called when the condition variable
568becomes true, with the condition variable as the first argument (but not
569the results).
570
571After creation, the condition variable is "false" until it becomes "true"
572by calling the C<send> method (or calling the condition variable as if it
573were a callback, read about the caveats in the description for the C<<
574->send >> method).
575
576Since condition variables are the most complex part of the AnyEvent API, here are
577some different mental models of what they are - pick the ones you can connect to:
578
579=over 4
580
581=item * Condition variables are like callbacks - you can call them (and pass them instead
582of callbacks). Unlike callbacks however, you can also wait for them to be called.
583
584=item * Condition variables are signals - one side can emit or send them,
585the other side can wait for them, or install a handler that is called when
586the signal fires.
587
588=item * Condition variables are like "Merge Points" - points in your program
589where you merge multiple independent results/control flows into one.
590
591=item * Condition variables represent a transaction - functions that start
592some kind of transaction can return them, leaving the caller the choice
593between waiting in a blocking fashion, or setting a callback.
594
595=item * Condition variables represent future values, or promises to deliver
596some result, long before the result is available.
597
598=back
599
600Condition variables are very useful to signal that something has finished,
601for example, if you write a module that does asynchronous http requests,
602then a condition variable would be the ideal candidate to signal the
603availability of results. The user can either act when the callback is
604called or can synchronously C<< ->recv >> for the results.
605
606You can also use them to simulate traditional event loops - for example,
607you can block your main program until an event occurs - for example, you
608could C<< ->recv >> in your main program until the user clicks the Quit
609button of your app, which would C<< ->send >> the "quit" event.
610
611Note that condition variables recurse into the event loop - if you have
612two pieces of code that call C<< ->recv >> in a round-robin fashion, you
613lose. Therefore, condition variables are good to export to your caller, but
614you should avoid making a blocking wait yourself, at least in callbacks,
615as this asks for trouble.
616
617Condition variables are represented by hash refs in perl, and the keys
618used by AnyEvent itself are all named C<_ae_XXX> to make subclassing
619easy (it is often useful to build your own transaction class on top of
620AnyEvent). To subclass, use C<AnyEvent::CondVar> as base class and call
621its C<new> method in your own C<new> method.
622
623There are two "sides" to a condition variable - the "producer side" which
624eventually calls C<< -> send >>, and the "consumer side", which waits
625for the send to occur.
626
627Example: wait for a timer.
628
629 # condition: "wait till the timer is fired"
630 my $timer_fired = AnyEvent->condvar;
631
632 # create the timer - we could wait for, say
633 # a handle becomign ready, or even an
634 # AnyEvent::HTTP request to finish, but
635 # in this case, we simply use a timer:
636 my $w = AnyEvent->timer (
637 after => 1,
638 cb => sub { $timer_fired->send },
639 );
640
641 # this "blocks" (while handling events) till the callback
642 # calls ->send
643 $timer_fired->recv;
644
645Example: wait for a timer, but take advantage of the fact that condition
646variables are also callable directly.
647
648 my $done = AnyEvent->condvar;
649 my $delay = AnyEvent->timer (after => 5, cb => $done);
650 $done->recv;
651
652Example: Imagine an API that returns a condvar and doesn't support
653callbacks. This is how you make a synchronous call, for example from
654the main program:
655
656 use AnyEvent::CouchDB;
657
658 ...
659
660 my @info = $couchdb->info->recv;
661
662And this is how you would just set a callback to be called whenever the
663results are available:
664
665 $couchdb->info->cb (sub {
666 my @info = $_[0]->recv;
667 });
668
669=head3 METHODS FOR PRODUCERS
670
671These methods should only be used by the producing side, i.e. the
672code/module that eventually sends the signal. Note that it is also
673the producer side which creates the condvar in most cases, but it isn't
674uncommon for the consumer to create it as well.
675
676=over 4
677
678=item $cv->send (...)
679
680Flag the condition as ready - a running C<< ->recv >> and all further
681calls to C<recv> will (eventually) return after this method has been
682called. If nobody is waiting the send will be remembered.
683
684If a callback has been set on the condition variable, it is called
685immediately from within send.
686
687Any arguments passed to the C<send> call will be returned by all
688future C<< ->recv >> calls.
689
690Condition variables are overloaded so one can call them directly (as if
691they were a code reference). Calling them directly is the same as calling
692C<send>.
693
694=item $cv->croak ($error)
695
696Similar to send, but causes all calls to C<< ->recv >> to invoke
697C<Carp::croak> with the given error message/object/scalar.
698
699This can be used to signal any errors to the condition variable
700user/consumer. Doing it this way instead of calling C<croak> directly
701delays the error detection, but has the overwhelming advantage that it
702diagnoses the error at the place where the result is expected, and not
703deep in some event callback with no connection to the actual code causing
704the problem.
705
706=item $cv->begin ([group callback])
707
175=item $cv->wait 708=item $cv->end
176 709
177Wait (blocking if necessary) until the C<< ->broadcast >> method has been 710These two methods can be used to combine many transactions/events into
178called on c<$cv>, while servicing other watchers normally. 711one. For example, a function that pings many hosts in parallel might want
712to use a condition variable for the whole process.
179 713
714Every call to C<< ->begin >> will increment a counter, and every call to
715C<< ->end >> will decrement it. If the counter reaches C<0> in C<< ->end
716>>, the (last) callback passed to C<begin> will be executed, passing the
717condvar as first argument. That callback is I<supposed> to call C<< ->send
718>>, but that is not required. If no group callback was set, C<send> will
719be called without any arguments.
720
721You can think of C<< $cv->send >> giving you an OR condition (one call
722sends), while C<< $cv->begin >> and C<< $cv->end >> giving you an AND
723condition (all C<begin> calls must be C<end>'ed before the condvar sends).
724
725Let's start with a simple example: you have two I/O watchers (for example,
726STDOUT and STDERR for a program), and you want to wait for both streams to
727close before activating a condvar:
728
729 my $cv = AnyEvent->condvar;
730
731 $cv->begin; # first watcher
732 my $w1 = AnyEvent->io (fh => $fh1, cb => sub {
733 defined sysread $fh1, my $buf, 4096
734 or $cv->end;
735 });
736
737 $cv->begin; # second watcher
738 my $w2 = AnyEvent->io (fh => $fh2, cb => sub {
739 defined sysread $fh2, my $buf, 4096
740 or $cv->end;
741 });
742
743 $cv->recv;
744
745This works because for every event source (EOF on file handle), there is
746one call to C<begin>, so the condvar waits for all calls to C<end> before
747sending.
748
749The ping example mentioned above is slightly more complicated, as the
750there are results to be passwd back, and the number of tasks that are
751begun can potentially be zero:
752
753 my $cv = AnyEvent->condvar;
754
755 my %result;
756 $cv->begin (sub { shift->send (\%result) });
757
758 for my $host (@list_of_hosts) {
759 $cv->begin;
760 ping_host_then_call_callback $host, sub {
761 $result{$host} = ...;
762 $cv->end;
763 };
764 }
765
766 $cv->end;
767
768This code fragment supposedly pings a number of hosts and calls
769C<send> after results for all then have have been gathered - in any
770order. To achieve this, the code issues a call to C<begin> when it starts
771each ping request and calls C<end> when it has received some result for
772it. Since C<begin> and C<end> only maintain a counter, the order in which
773results arrive is not relevant.
774
775There is an additional bracketing call to C<begin> and C<end> outside the
776loop, which serves two important purposes: first, it sets the callback
777to be called once the counter reaches C<0>, and second, it ensures that
778C<send> is called even when C<no> hosts are being pinged (the loop
779doesn't execute once).
780
781This is the general pattern when you "fan out" into multiple (but
782potentially zero) subrequests: use an outer C<begin>/C<end> pair to set
783the callback and ensure C<end> is called at least once, and then, for each
784subrequest you start, call C<begin> and for each subrequest you finish,
785call C<end>.
786
787=back
788
789=head3 METHODS FOR CONSUMERS
790
791These methods should only be used by the consuming side, i.e. the
792code awaits the condition.
793
794=over 4
795
796=item $cv->recv
797
798Wait (blocking if necessary) until the C<< ->send >> or C<< ->croak
799>> methods have been called on C<$cv>, while servicing other watchers
800normally.
801
180You can only wait once on a condition - additional calls will return 802You can only wait once on a condition - additional calls are valid but
181immediately. 803will return immediately.
804
805If an error condition has been set by calling C<< ->croak >>, then this
806function will call C<croak>.
807
808In list context, all parameters passed to C<send> will be returned,
809in scalar context only the first one will be returned.
810
811Note that doing a blocking wait in a callback is not supported by any
812event loop, that is, recursive invocation of a blocking C<< ->recv
813>> is not allowed, and the C<recv> call will C<croak> if such a
814condition is detected. This condition can be slightly loosened by using
815L<Coro::AnyEvent>, which allows you to do a blocking C<< ->recv >> from
816any thread that doesn't run the event loop itself.
182 817
183Not all event models support a blocking wait - some die in that case 818Not all event models support a blocking wait - some die in that case
184(programs might want to do that so they stay interactive), so I<if you 819(programs might want to do that to stay interactive), so I<if you are
185are using this from a module, never require a blocking wait>, but let the 820using this from a module, never require a blocking wait>. Instead, let the
186caller decide whether the call will block or not (for example, by coupling 821caller decide whether the call will block or not (for example, by coupling
187condition variables with some kind of request results and supporting 822condition variables with some kind of request results and supporting
188callbacks so the caller knows that getting the result will not block, 823callbacks so the caller knows that getting the result will not block,
189while still suppporting blocking waits if the caller so desires). 824while still supporting blocking waits if the caller so desires).
190 825
191Another reason I<never> to C<< ->wait >> in a module is that you cannot 826You can ensure that C<< ->recv >> never blocks by setting a callback and
192sensibly have two C<< ->wait >>'s in parallel, as that would require 827only calling C<< ->recv >> from within that callback (or at a later
193multiple interpreters or coroutines/threads, none of which C<AnyEvent> 828time). This will work even when the event loop does not support blocking
194can supply (the coroutine-aware backends C<Coro::EV> and C<Coro::Event> 829waits otherwise.
195explicitly support concurrent C<< ->wait >>'s from different coroutines,
196however).
197 830
198=item $cv->broadcast 831=item $bool = $cv->ready
199 832
200Flag the condition as ready - a running C<< ->wait >> and all further 833Returns true when the condition is "true", i.e. whether C<send> or
201calls to C<wait> will return after this method has been called. If nobody 834C<croak> have been called.
202is waiting the broadcast will be remembered..
203 835
204Example: 836=item $cb = $cv->cb ($cb->($cv))
205 837
206 # wait till the result is ready 838This is a mutator function that returns the callback set and optionally
207 my $result_ready = AnyEvent->condvar; 839replaces it before doing so.
208 840
209 # do something such as adding a timer 841The callback will be called when the condition becomes "true", i.e. when
210 # or socket watcher the calls $result_ready->broadcast 842C<send> or C<croak> are called, with the only argument being the
211 # when the "result" is ready. 843condition variable itself. If the condition is already true, the
212 844callback is called immediately when it is set. Calling C<recv> inside
213 $result_ready->wait; 845the callback or at any later time is guaranteed not to block.
214 846
215=back 847=back
216 848
217=head2 SIGNAL WATCHERS 849=head1 SUPPORTED EVENT LOOPS/BACKENDS
218 850
219You can listen for signals using a signal watcher, C<signal> is the signal 851The available backend classes are (every class has its own manpage):
220I<name> without any C<SIG> prefix. Multiple signals events can be clumped
221together into one callback invocation, and callback invocation might or
222might not be asynchronous.
223
224These watchers might use C<%SIG>, so programs overwriting those signals
225directly will likely not work correctly.
226
227Example: exit on SIGINT
228
229 my $w = AnyEvent->signal (signal => "INT", cb => sub { exit 1 });
230
231=head2 CHILD PROCESS WATCHERS
232
233You can also listen for the status of a child process specified by the
234C<pid> argument (or any child if the pid argument is 0). The watcher will
235trigger as often as status change for the child are received. This works
236by installing a signal handler for C<SIGCHLD>. The callback will be called with
237the pid and exit status (as returned by waitpid).
238
239Example: wait for pid 1333
240
241 my $w = AnyEvent->child (pid => 1333, cb => sub { warn "exit status $?" });
242
243=head1 GLOBALS
244 852
245=over 4 853=over 4
246 854
855=item Backends that are autoprobed when no other event loop can be found.
856
857EV is the preferred backend when no other event loop seems to be in
858use. If EV is not installed, then AnyEvent will fall back to its own
859pure-perl implementation, which is available everywhere as it comes with
860AnyEvent itself.
861
862 AnyEvent::Impl::EV based on EV (interface to libev, best choice).
863 AnyEvent::Impl::Perl pure-perl AnyEvent::Loop, fast and portable.
864
865=item Backends that are transparently being picked up when they are used.
866
867These will be used if they are already loaded when the first watcher
868is created, in which case it is assumed that the application is using
869them. This means that AnyEvent will automatically pick the right backend
870when the main program loads an event module before anything starts to
871create watchers. Nothing special needs to be done by the main program.
872
873 AnyEvent::Impl::Event based on Event, very stable, few glitches.
874 AnyEvent::Impl::Glib based on Glib, slow but very stable.
875 AnyEvent::Impl::Tk based on Tk, very broken.
876 AnyEvent::Impl::EventLib based on Event::Lib, leaks memory and worse.
877 AnyEvent::Impl::POE based on POE, very slow, some limitations.
878 AnyEvent::Impl::Irssi used when running within irssi.
879 AnyEvent::Impl::IOAsync based on IO::Async.
880 AnyEvent::Impl::Cocoa based on Cocoa::EventLoop.
881 AnyEvent::Impl::FLTK based on FLTK (fltk 2 binding).
882
883=item Backends with special needs.
884
885Qt requires the Qt::Application to be instantiated first, but will
886otherwise be picked up automatically. As long as the main program
887instantiates the application before any AnyEvent watchers are created,
888everything should just work.
889
890 AnyEvent::Impl::Qt based on Qt.
891
892=item Event loops that are indirectly supported via other backends.
893
894Some event loops can be supported via other modules:
895
896There is no direct support for WxWidgets (L<Wx>) or L<Prima>.
897
898B<WxWidgets> has no support for watching file handles. However, you can
899use WxWidgets through the POE adaptor, as POE has a Wx backend that simply
900polls 20 times per second, which was considered to be too horrible to even
901consider for AnyEvent.
902
903B<Prima> is not supported as nobody seems to be using it, but it has a POE
904backend, so it can be supported through POE.
905
906AnyEvent knows about both L<Prima> and L<Wx>, however, and will try to
907load L<POE> when detecting them, in the hope that POE will pick them up,
908in which case everything will be automatic.
909
910=back
911
912=head1 GLOBAL VARIABLES AND FUNCTIONS
913
914These are not normally required to use AnyEvent, but can be useful to
915write AnyEvent extension modules.
916
917=over 4
918
247=item $AnyEvent::MODEL 919=item $AnyEvent::MODEL
248 920
249Contains C<undef> until the first watcher is being created. Then it 921Contains C<undef> until the first watcher is being created, before the
922backend has been autodetected.
923
250contains the event model that is being used, which is the name of the 924Afterwards it contains the event model that is being used, which is the
251Perl class implementing the model. This class is usually one of the 925name of the Perl class implementing the model. This class is usually one
252C<AnyEvent::Impl:xxx> modules, but can be any other class in the case 926of the C<AnyEvent::Impl::xxx> modules, but can be any other class in the
253AnyEvent has been extended at runtime (e.g. in I<rxvt-unicode>). 927case AnyEvent has been extended at runtime (e.g. in I<rxvt-unicode> it
254 928will be C<urxvt::anyevent>).
255The known classes so far are:
256
257 AnyEvent::Impl::CoroEV based on Coro::EV, best choice.
258 AnyEvent::Impl::CoroEvent based on Coro::Event, second best choice.
259 AnyEvent::Impl::EV based on EV (an interface to libev, also best choice).
260 AnyEvent::Impl::Event based on Event, also second best choice :)
261 AnyEvent::Impl::Glib based on Glib, third-best choice.
262 AnyEvent::Impl::Tk based on Tk, very bad choice.
263 AnyEvent::Impl::Perl pure-perl implementation, inefficient but portable.
264 929
265=item AnyEvent::detect 930=item AnyEvent::detect
266 931
267Returns C<$AnyEvent::MODEL>, forcing autodetection of the event model if 932Returns C<$AnyEvent::MODEL>, forcing autodetection of the event model
268necessary. You should only call this function right before you would have 933if necessary. You should only call this function right before you would
269created an AnyEvent watcher anyway, that is, very late at runtime. 934have created an AnyEvent watcher anyway, that is, as late as possible at
935runtime, and not e.g. during initialisation of your module.
936
937The effect of calling this function is as if a watcher had been created
938(specifically, actions that happen "when the first watcher is created"
939happen when calling detetc as well).
940
941If you need to do some initialisation before AnyEvent watchers are
942created, use C<post_detect>.
943
944=item $guard = AnyEvent::post_detect { BLOCK }
945
946Arranges for the code block to be executed as soon as the event model is
947autodetected (or immediately if that has already happened).
948
949The block will be executed I<after> the actual backend has been detected
950(C<$AnyEvent::MODEL> is set), but I<before> any watchers have been
951created, so it is possible to e.g. patch C<@AnyEvent::ISA> or do
952other initialisations - see the sources of L<AnyEvent::Strict> or
953L<AnyEvent::AIO> to see how this is used.
954
955The most common usage is to create some global watchers, without forcing
956event module detection too early, for example, L<AnyEvent::AIO> creates
957and installs the global L<IO::AIO> watcher in a C<post_detect> block to
958avoid autodetecting the event module at load time.
959
960If called in scalar or list context, then it creates and returns an object
961that automatically removes the callback again when it is destroyed (or
962C<undef> when the hook was immediately executed). See L<AnyEvent::AIO> for
963a case where this is useful.
964
965Example: Create a watcher for the IO::AIO module and store it in
966C<$WATCHER>, but do so only do so after the event loop is initialised.
967
968 our WATCHER;
969
970 my $guard = AnyEvent::post_detect {
971 $WATCHER = AnyEvent->io (fh => IO::AIO::poll_fileno, poll => 'r', cb => \&IO::AIO::poll_cb);
972 };
973
974 # the ||= is important in case post_detect immediately runs the block,
975 # as to not clobber the newly-created watcher. assigning both watcher and
976 # post_detect guard to the same variable has the advantage of users being
977 # able to just C<undef $WATCHER> if the watcher causes them grief.
978
979 $WATCHER ||= $guard;
980
981=item @AnyEvent::post_detect
982
983If there are any code references in this array (you can C<push> to it
984before or after loading AnyEvent), then they will be called directly
985after the event loop has been chosen.
986
987You should check C<$AnyEvent::MODEL> before adding to this array, though:
988if it is defined then the event loop has already been detected, and the
989array will be ignored.
990
991Best use C<AnyEvent::post_detect { BLOCK }> when your application allows
992it, as it takes care of these details.
993
994This variable is mainly useful for modules that can do something useful
995when AnyEvent is used and thus want to know when it is initialised, but do
996not need to even load it by default. This array provides the means to hook
997into AnyEvent passively, without loading it.
998
999Example: To load Coro::AnyEvent whenever Coro and AnyEvent are used
1000together, you could put this into Coro (this is the actual code used by
1001Coro to accomplish this):
1002
1003 if (defined $AnyEvent::MODEL) {
1004 # AnyEvent already initialised, so load Coro::AnyEvent
1005 require Coro::AnyEvent;
1006 } else {
1007 # AnyEvent not yet initialised, so make sure to load Coro::AnyEvent
1008 # as soon as it is
1009 push @AnyEvent::post_detect, sub { require Coro::AnyEvent };
1010 }
1011
1012=item AnyEvent::postpone { BLOCK }
1013
1014Arranges for the block to be executed as soon as possible, but not before
1015the call itself returns. In practise, the block will be executed just
1016before the event loop polls for new events, or shortly afterwards.
1017
1018This function never returns anything (to make the C<return postpone { ...
1019}> idiom more useful.
1020
1021To understand the usefulness of this function, consider a function that
1022asynchronously does something for you and returns some transaction
1023object or guard to let you cancel the operation. For example,
1024C<AnyEvent::Socket::tcp_connect>:
1025
1026 # start a conenction attempt unless one is active
1027 $self->{connect_guard} ||= AnyEvent::Socket::tcp_connect "www.example.net", 80, sub {
1028 delete $self->{connect_guard};
1029 ...
1030 };
1031
1032Imagine that this function could instantly call the callback, for
1033example, because it detects an obvious error such as a negative port
1034number. Invoking the callback before the function returns causes problems
1035however: the callback will be called and will try to delete the guard
1036object. But since the function hasn't returned yet, there is nothing to
1037delete. When the function eventually returns it will assign the guard
1038object to C<< $self->{connect_guard} >>, where it will likely never be
1039deleted, so the program thinks it is still trying to connect.
1040
1041This is where C<AnyEvent::postpone> should be used. Instead of calling the
1042callback directly on error:
1043
1044 $cb->(undef), return # signal error to callback, BAD!
1045 if $some_error_condition;
1046
1047It should use C<postpone>:
1048
1049 AnyEvent::postpone { $cb->(undef) }, return # signal error to callback, later
1050 if $some_error_condition;
1051
1052=item AnyEvent::log $level, $msg[, @args]
1053
1054Log the given C<$msg> at the given C<$level>.
1055
1056If L<AnyEvent::Log> is not loaded then this function makes a simple test
1057to see whether the message will be logged. If the test succeeds it will
1058load AnyEvent::Log and call C<AnyEvent::Log::log> - consequently, look at
1059the L<AnyEvent::Log> documentation for details.
1060
1061If the test fails it will simply return. Right now this happens when a
1062numerical loglevel is used and it is larger than the level specified via
1063C<$ENV{PERL_ANYEVENT_VERBOSE}>.
1064
1065If you want to sprinkle loads of logging calls around your code, consider
1066creating a logger callback with the C<AnyEvent::Log::logger> function,
1067which can reduce typing, codesize and can reduce the logging overhead
1068enourmously.
270 1069
271=back 1070=back
272 1071
273=head1 WHAT TO DO IN A MODULE 1072=head1 WHAT TO DO IN A MODULE
274 1073
275As a module author, you should "use AnyEvent" and call AnyEvent methods 1074As a module author, you should C<use AnyEvent> and call AnyEvent methods
276freely, but you should not load a specific event module or rely on it. 1075freely, but you should not load a specific event module or rely on it.
277 1076
278Be careful when you create watchers in the module body - Anyevent will 1077Be careful when you create watchers in the module body - AnyEvent will
279decide which event module to use as soon as the first method is called, so 1078decide which event module to use as soon as the first method is called, so
280by calling AnyEvent in your module body you force the user of your module 1079by calling AnyEvent in your module body you force the user of your module
281to load the event module first. 1080to load the event module first.
282 1081
1082Never call C<< ->recv >> on a condition variable unless you I<know> that
1083the C<< ->send >> method has been called on it already. This is
1084because it will stall the whole program, and the whole point of using
1085events is to stay interactive.
1086
1087It is fine, however, to call C<< ->recv >> when the user of your module
1088requests it (i.e. if you create a http request object ad have a method
1089called C<results> that returns the results, it may call C<< ->recv >>
1090freely, as the user of your module knows what she is doing. Always).
1091
283=head1 WHAT TO DO IN THE MAIN PROGRAM 1092=head1 WHAT TO DO IN THE MAIN PROGRAM
284 1093
285There will always be a single main program - the only place that should 1094There will always be a single main program - the only place that should
286dictate which event model to use. 1095dictate which event model to use.
287 1096
288If it doesn't care, it can just "use AnyEvent" and use it itself, or not 1097If the program is not event-based, it need not do anything special, even
289do anything special and let AnyEvent decide which implementation to chose. 1098when it depends on a module that uses an AnyEvent. If the program itself
1099uses AnyEvent, but does not care which event loop is used, all it needs
1100to do is C<use AnyEvent>. In either case, AnyEvent will choose the best
1101available loop implementation.
290 1102
291If the main program relies on a specific event model (for example, in Gtk2 1103If the main program relies on a specific event model - for example, in
292programs you have to rely on either Glib or Glib::Event), you should load 1104Gtk2 programs you have to rely on the Glib module - you should load the
293it before loading AnyEvent or any module that uses it, generally, as early 1105event module before loading AnyEvent or any module that uses it: generally
294as possible. The reason is that modules might create watchers when they 1106speaking, you should load it as early as possible. The reason is that
295are loaded, and AnyEvent will decide on the event model to use as soon as 1107modules might create watchers when they are loaded, and AnyEvent will
296it creates watchers, and it might chose the wrong one unless you load the 1108decide on the event model to use as soon as it creates watchers, and it
297correct one yourself. 1109might choose the wrong one unless you load the correct one yourself.
298 1110
299You can chose to use a rather inefficient pure-perl implementation by 1111You can chose to use a pure-perl implementation by loading the
300loading the C<AnyEvent::Impl::Perl> module, but letting AnyEvent chose is 1112C<AnyEvent::Loop> module, which gives you similar behaviour
301generally better. 1113everywhere, but letting AnyEvent chose the model is generally better.
1114
1115=head2 MAINLOOP EMULATION
1116
1117Sometimes (often for short test scripts, or even standalone programs who
1118only want to use AnyEvent), you do not want to run a specific event loop.
1119
1120In that case, you can use a condition variable like this:
1121
1122 AnyEvent->condvar->recv;
1123
1124This has the effect of entering the event loop and looping forever.
1125
1126Note that usually your program has some exit condition, in which case
1127it is better to use the "traditional" approach of storing a condition
1128variable somewhere, waiting for it, and sending it when the program should
1129exit cleanly.
1130
1131
1132=head1 OTHER MODULES
1133
1134The following is a non-exhaustive list of additional modules that use
1135AnyEvent as a client and can therefore be mixed easily with other
1136AnyEvent modules and other event loops in the same program. Some of the
1137modules come as part of AnyEvent, the others are available via CPAN (see
1138L<http://search.cpan.org/search?m=module&q=anyevent%3A%3A*> for
1139a longer non-exhaustive list), and the list is heavily biased towards
1140modules of the AnyEvent author himself :)
1141
1142=over 4
1143
1144=item L<AnyEvent::Util>
1145
1146Contains various utility functions that replace often-used blocking
1147functions such as C<inet_aton> with event/callback-based versions.
1148
1149=item L<AnyEvent::Socket>
1150
1151Provides various utility functions for (internet protocol) sockets,
1152addresses and name resolution. Also functions to create non-blocking tcp
1153connections or tcp servers, with IPv6 and SRV record support and more.
1154
1155=item L<AnyEvent::Handle>
1156
1157Provide read and write buffers, manages watchers for reads and writes,
1158supports raw and formatted I/O, I/O queued and fully transparent and
1159non-blocking SSL/TLS (via L<AnyEvent::TLS>).
1160
1161=item L<AnyEvent::DNS>
1162
1163Provides rich asynchronous DNS resolver capabilities.
1164
1165=item L<AnyEvent::HTTP>, L<AnyEvent::IRC>, L<AnyEvent::XMPP>, L<AnyEvent::GPSD>, L<AnyEvent::IGS>, L<AnyEvent::FCP>
1166
1167Implement event-based interfaces to the protocols of the same name (for
1168the curious, IGS is the International Go Server and FCP is the Freenet
1169Client Protocol).
1170
1171=item L<AnyEvent::AIO>
1172
1173Truly asynchronous (as opposed to non-blocking) I/O, should be in the
1174toolbox of every event programmer. AnyEvent::AIO transparently fuses
1175L<IO::AIO> and AnyEvent together, giving AnyEvent access to event-based
1176file I/O, and much more.
1177
1178=item L<AnyEvent::Filesys::Notify>
1179
1180AnyEvent is good for non-blocking stuff, but it can't detect file or
1181path changes (e.g. "watch this directory for new files", "watch this
1182file for changes"). The L<AnyEvent::Filesys::Notify> module promises to
1183do just that in a portbale fashion, supporting inotify on GNU/Linux and
1184some weird, without doubt broken, stuff on OS X to monitor files. It can
1185fall back to blocking scans at regular intervals transparently on other
1186platforms, so it's about as portable as it gets.
1187
1188(I haven't used it myself, but I haven't heard anybody complaining about
1189it yet).
1190
1191=item L<AnyEvent::DBI>
1192
1193Executes L<DBI> requests asynchronously in a proxy process for you,
1194notifying you in an event-based way when the operation is finished.
1195
1196=item L<AnyEvent::HTTPD>
1197
1198A simple embedded webserver.
1199
1200=item L<AnyEvent::FastPing>
1201
1202The fastest ping in the west.
1203
1204=item L<Coro>
1205
1206Has special support for AnyEvent via L<Coro::AnyEvent>, which allows you
1207to simply invert the flow control - don't call us, we will call you:
1208
1209 async {
1210 Coro::AnyEvent::sleep 5; # creates a 5s timer and waits for it
1211 print "5 seconds later!\n";
1212
1213 Coro::AnyEvent::readable *STDIN; # uses an I/O watcher
1214 my $line = <STDIN>; # works for ttys
1215
1216 AnyEvent::HTTP::http_get "url", Coro::rouse_cb;
1217 my ($body, $hdr) = Coro::rouse_wait;
1218 };
1219
1220=back
302 1221
303=cut 1222=cut
304 1223
305package AnyEvent; 1224package AnyEvent;
306 1225
307no warnings; 1226# basically a tuned-down version of common::sense
308use strict; 1227sub common_sense {
1228 # from common:.sense 3.5
1229 local $^W;
1230 ${^WARNING_BITS} ^= ${^WARNING_BITS} ^ "\x3c\x3f\x33\x00\x0f\xf0\x0f\xc0\xf0\xfc\x33\x00";
1231 # use strict vars subs - NO UTF-8, as Util.pm doesn't like this atm. (uts46data.pl)
1232 $^H |= 0x00000600;
1233}
309 1234
1235BEGIN { AnyEvent::common_sense }
1236
310use Carp; 1237use Carp ();
311 1238
312our $VERSION = '3.1'; 1239our $VERSION = '6.14';
313our $MODEL; 1240our $MODEL;
314
315our $AUTOLOAD;
316our @ISA; 1241our @ISA;
317
318our $verbose = $ENV{PERL_ANYEVENT_VERBOSE}*1;
319
320our @REGISTRY; 1242our @REGISTRY;
1243our $VERBOSE;
1244our %PROTOCOL; # (ipv4|ipv6) => (1|2), higher numbers are preferred
1245our $MAX_SIGNAL_LATENCY = $ENV{PERL_ANYEVENT_MAX_SIGNAL_LATENCY} || 10; # executes after the BEGIN block below (tainting!)
321 1246
1247BEGIN {
1248 require "AnyEvent/constants.pl";
1249
1250 eval "sub TAINT (){" . (${^TAINT}*1) . "}";
1251
1252 delete @ENV{grep /^PERL_ANYEVENT_/, keys %ENV}
1253 if ${^TAINT};
1254
1255 $ENV{"PERL_ANYEVENT_$_"} = $ENV{"AE_$_"}
1256 for grep s/^AE_// && !exists $ENV{"PERL_ANYEVENT_$_"}, keys %ENV;
1257
1258 @ENV{grep /^PERL_ANYEVENT_/, keys %ENV} = ()
1259 if ${^TAINT};
1260
1261 # $ENV{PERL_ANYEVENT_xxx} now valid
1262
1263 $VERBOSE = length $ENV{PERL_ANYEVENT_VERBOSE} ? $ENV{PERL_ANYEVENT_VERBOSE}*1 : 4;
1264
1265 my $idx;
1266 $PROTOCOL{$_} = ++$idx
1267 for reverse split /\s*,\s*/,
1268 $ENV{PERL_ANYEVENT_PROTOCOLS} || "ipv4,ipv6";
1269}
1270
1271our @post_detect;
1272
1273sub post_detect(&) {
1274 my ($cb) = @_;
1275
1276 push @post_detect, $cb;
1277
1278 defined wantarray
1279 ? bless \$cb, "AnyEvent::Util::postdetect"
1280 : ()
1281}
1282
1283sub AnyEvent::Util::postdetect::DESTROY {
1284 @post_detect = grep $_ != ${$_[0]}, @post_detect;
1285}
1286
1287our $POSTPONE_W;
1288our @POSTPONE;
1289
1290sub _postpone_exec {
1291 undef $POSTPONE_W;
1292
1293 &{ shift @POSTPONE }
1294 while @POSTPONE;
1295}
1296
1297sub postpone(&) {
1298 push @POSTPONE, shift;
1299
1300 $POSTPONE_W ||= AE::timer (0, 0, \&_postpone_exec);
1301
1302 ()
1303}
1304
1305sub log($$;@) {
1306 # only load the big bloated module when we actually are about to log something
1307 if ($_[0] <= ($VERBOSE || 1)) { # also catches non-numeric levels(!) and fatal
1308 local ($!, $@);
1309 require AnyEvent::Log; # among other things, sets $VERBOSE to 9
1310 # AnyEvent::Log overwrites this function
1311 goto &log;
1312 }
1313
1314 0 # not logged
1315}
1316
1317sub _logger($;$) {
1318 my ($level, $renabled) = @_;
1319
1320 $$renabled = $level <= $VERBOSE;
1321
1322 my $logger = [(caller)[0], $level, $renabled];
1323
1324 $AnyEvent::Log::LOGGER{$logger+0} = $logger;
1325
1326# return unless defined wantarray;
1327#
1328# require AnyEvent::Util;
1329# my $guard = AnyEvent::Util::guard (sub {
1330# # "clean up"
1331# delete $LOGGER{$logger+0};
1332# });
1333#
1334# sub {
1335# return 0 unless $$renabled;
1336#
1337# $guard if 0; # keep guard alive, but don't cause runtime overhead
1338# require AnyEvent::Log unless $AnyEvent::Log::VERSION;
1339# package AnyEvent::Log;
1340# _log ($logger->[0], $level, @_) # logger->[0] has been converted at load time
1341# }
1342}
1343
1344if (length $ENV{PERL_ANYEVENT_LOG}) {
1345 require AnyEvent::Log; # AnyEvent::Log does the thing for us
1346}
1347
322my @models = ( 1348our @models = (
323 [Coro::EV:: => AnyEvent::Impl::CoroEV::],
324 [Coro::Event:: => AnyEvent::Impl::CoroEvent::],
325 [EV:: => AnyEvent::Impl::EV::], 1349 [EV:: => AnyEvent::Impl::EV::],
1350 [AnyEvent::Loop:: => AnyEvent::Impl::Perl::],
1351 # everything below here will not (normally) be autoprobed
1352 # as the pure perl backend should work everywhere
1353 # and is usually faster
1354 [Irssi:: => AnyEvent::Impl::Irssi::], # Irssi has a bogus "Event" package, so msut be near the top
326 [Event:: => AnyEvent::Impl::Event::], 1355 [Event:: => AnyEvent::Impl::Event::], # slow, stable
327 [Glib:: => AnyEvent::Impl::Glib::], 1356 [Glib:: => AnyEvent::Impl::Glib::], # becomes extremely slow with many watchers
1357 # everything below here should not be autoloaded
1358 [Event::Lib:: => AnyEvent::Impl::EventLib::], # too buggy
1359 [Tk:: => AnyEvent::Impl::Tk::], # crashes with many handles
1360 [Qt:: => AnyEvent::Impl::Qt::], # requires special main program
1361 [POE::Kernel:: => AnyEvent::Impl::POE::], # lasciate ogni speranza
328 [Tk:: => AnyEvent::Impl::Tk::], 1362 [Wx:: => AnyEvent::Impl::POE::],
329 [AnyEvent::Impl::Perl:: => AnyEvent::Impl::Perl::], 1363 [Prima:: => AnyEvent::Impl::POE::],
1364 [IO::Async::Loop:: => AnyEvent::Impl::IOAsync::], # a bitch to autodetect
1365 [Cocoa::EventLoop:: => AnyEvent::Impl::Cocoa::],
1366 [FLTK:: => AnyEvent::Impl::FLTK::],
330); 1367);
331 1368
332our %method = map +($_ => 1), qw(io timer condvar broadcast wait signal one_event DESTROY); 1369our @isa_hook;
1370
1371sub _isa_set {
1372 my @pkg = ("AnyEvent", (map $_->[0], grep defined, @isa_hook), $MODEL);
1373
1374 @{"$pkg[$_-1]::ISA"} = $pkg[$_]
1375 for 1 .. $#pkg;
1376
1377 grep $_ && $_->[1], @isa_hook
1378 and AE::_reset ();
1379}
1380
1381# used for hooking AnyEvent::Strict and AnyEvent::Debug::Wrap into the class hierarchy
1382sub _isa_hook($$;$) {
1383 my ($i, $pkg, $reset_ae) = @_;
1384
1385 $isa_hook[$i] = $pkg ? [$pkg, $reset_ae] : undef;
1386
1387 _isa_set;
1388}
1389
1390# all autoloaded methods reserve the complete glob, not just the method slot.
1391# due to bugs in perls method cache implementation.
1392our @methods = qw(io timer time now now_update signal child idle condvar);
333 1393
334sub detect() { 1394sub detect() {
1395 return $MODEL if $MODEL; # some programs keep references to detect
1396
1397 # IO::Async::Loop::AnyEvent is extremely evil, refuse to work with it
1398 # the author knows about the problems and what it does to AnyEvent as a whole
1399 # (and the ability of others to use AnyEvent), but simply wants to abuse AnyEvent
1400 # anyway.
1401 AnyEvent::log fatal => "AnyEvent: IO::Async::Loop::AnyEvent detected - that module is broken by\n"
1402 . "design, abuses internals and breaks AnyEvent - will not continue."
1403 if exists $INC{"IO/Async/Loop/AnyEvent.pm"};
1404
1405 local $!; # for good measure
1406 local $SIG{__DIE__}; # we use eval
1407
1408 # free some memory
1409 *detect = sub () { $MODEL };
1410 # undef &func doesn't correctly update the method cache. grmbl.
1411 # so we delete the whole glob. grmbl.
1412 # otoh, perl doesn't let me undef an active usb, but it lets me free
1413 # a glob with an active sub. hrm. i hope it works, but perl is
1414 # usually buggy in this department. sigh.
1415 delete @{"AnyEvent::"}{@methods};
1416 undef @methods;
1417
1418 if ($ENV{PERL_ANYEVENT_MODEL} =~ /^([a-zA-Z0-9:]+)$/) {
1419 my $model = $1;
1420 $model = "AnyEvent::Impl::$model" unless $model =~ s/::$//;
1421 if (eval "require $model") {
1422 AnyEvent::log 7 => "loaded model '$model' (forced by \$ENV{PERL_ANYEVENT_MODEL}), using it.";
1423 $MODEL = $model;
1424 } else {
1425 AnyEvent::log 4 => "unable to load model '$model' (from \$ENV{PERL_ANYEVENT_MODEL}):\n$@";
1426 }
1427 }
1428
1429 # check for already loaded models
335 unless ($MODEL) { 1430 unless ($MODEL) {
336 no strict 'refs';
337
338 # check for already loaded models
339 for (@REGISTRY, @models) { 1431 for (@REGISTRY, @models) {
340 my ($package, $model) = @$_; 1432 my ($package, $model) = @$_;
341 if (${"$package\::VERSION"} > 0) { 1433 if (${"$package\::VERSION"} > 0) {
342 if (eval "require $model") { 1434 if (eval "require $model") {
1435 AnyEvent::log 7 => "autodetected model '$model', using it.";
343 $MODEL = $model; 1436 $MODEL = $model;
344 warn "AnyEvent: found model '$model', using it.\n" if $verbose > 1; 1437 last;
1438 } else {
1439 AnyEvent::log 8 => "detected event loop $package, but cannot load '$model', skipping: $@";
1440 }
1441 }
1442 }
1443
1444 unless ($MODEL) {
1445 # try to autoload a model
1446 for (@REGISTRY, @models) {
1447 my ($package, $model) = @$_;
1448 if (
1449 eval "require $package"
1450 and ${"$package\::VERSION"} > 0
1451 and eval "require $model"
1452 ) {
1453 AnyEvent::log 7 => "autoloaded model '$model', using it.";
1454 $MODEL = $model;
345 last; 1455 last;
346 } 1456 }
347 } 1457 }
1458
1459 $MODEL
1460 or AnyEvent::log fatal => "AnyEvent: backend autodetection failed - did you properly install AnyEvent?";
348 } 1461 }
1462 }
349 1463
350 unless ($MODEL) { 1464 # free memory only needed for probing
351 # try to load a model 1465 undef @models;
1466 undef @REGISTRY;
352 1467
353 for (@REGISTRY, @models) { 1468 push @{"$MODEL\::ISA"}, "AnyEvent::Base";
354 my ($package, $model) = @$_; 1469
355 if (eval "require $package" 1470 # now nuke some methods that are overridden by the backend.
356 and ${"$package\::VERSION"} > 0 1471 # SUPER usage is not allowed in these.
357 and eval "require $model") { 1472 for (qw(time signal child idle)) {
358 $MODEL = $model; 1473 undef &{"AnyEvent::Base::$_"}
359 warn "AnyEvent: autoprobed and loaded model '$model', using it.\n" if $verbose > 1; 1474 if defined &{"$MODEL\::$_"};
1475 }
1476
1477 _isa_set;
1478
1479 # we're officially open!
1480
1481 if ($ENV{PERL_ANYEVENT_STRICT}) {
1482 require AnyEvent::Strict;
1483 }
1484
1485 if ($ENV{PERL_ANYEVENT_DEBUG_WRAP}) {
1486 require AnyEvent::Debug;
1487 AnyEvent::Debug::wrap ($ENV{PERL_ANYEVENT_DEBUG_WRAP});
1488 }
1489
1490 if (length $ENV{PERL_ANYEVENT_DEBUG_SHELL}) {
1491 require AnyEvent::Socket;
1492 require AnyEvent::Debug;
1493
1494 my $shell = $ENV{PERL_ANYEVENT_DEBUG_SHELL};
1495 $shell =~ s/\$\$/$$/g;
1496
1497 my ($host, $service) = AnyEvent::Socket::parse_hostport ($shell);
1498 $AnyEvent::Debug::SHELL = AnyEvent::Debug::shell ($host, $service);
1499 }
1500
1501 # now the anyevent environment is set up as the user told us to, so
1502 # call the actual user code - post detects
1503
1504 (shift @post_detect)->() while @post_detect;
1505 undef @post_detect;
1506
1507 *post_detect = sub(&) {
1508 shift->();
1509
1510 undef
1511 };
1512
1513 $MODEL
1514}
1515
1516for my $name (@methods) {
1517 *$name = sub {
1518 detect;
1519 # we use goto because
1520 # a) it makes the thunk more transparent
1521 # b) it allows us to delete the thunk later
1522 goto &{ UNIVERSAL::can AnyEvent => "SUPER::$name" }
1523 };
1524}
1525
1526# utility function to dup a filehandle. this is used by many backends
1527# to support binding more than one watcher per filehandle (they usually
1528# allow only one watcher per fd, so we dup it to get a different one).
1529sub _dupfh($$;$$) {
1530 my ($poll, $fh, $r, $w) = @_;
1531
1532 # cygwin requires the fh mode to be matching, unix doesn't
1533 my ($rw, $mode) = $poll eq "r" ? ($r, "<&") : ($w, ">&");
1534
1535 open my $fh2, $mode, $fh
1536 or die "AnyEvent->io: cannot dup() filehandle in mode '$poll': $!,";
1537
1538 # we assume CLOEXEC is already set by perl in all important cases
1539
1540 ($fh2, $rw)
1541}
1542
1543=head1 SIMPLIFIED AE API
1544
1545Starting with version 5.0, AnyEvent officially supports a second, much
1546simpler, API that is designed to reduce the calling, typing and memory
1547overhead by using function call syntax and a fixed number of parameters.
1548
1549See the L<AE> manpage for details.
1550
1551=cut
1552
1553package AE;
1554
1555our $VERSION = $AnyEvent::VERSION;
1556
1557sub _reset() {
1558 eval q{
1559 # fall back to the main API by default - backends and AnyEvent::Base
1560 # implementations can overwrite these.
1561
1562 sub io($$$) {
1563 AnyEvent->io (fh => $_[0], poll => $_[1] ? "w" : "r", cb => $_[2])
1564 }
1565
1566 sub timer($$$) {
1567 AnyEvent->timer (after => $_[0], interval => $_[1], cb => $_[2])
1568 }
1569
1570 sub signal($$) {
1571 AnyEvent->signal (signal => $_[0], cb => $_[1])
1572 }
1573
1574 sub child($$) {
1575 AnyEvent->child (pid => $_[0], cb => $_[1])
1576 }
1577
1578 sub idle($) {
1579 AnyEvent->idle (cb => $_[0]);
1580 }
1581
1582 sub cv(;&) {
1583 AnyEvent->condvar (@_ ? (cb => $_[0]) : ())
1584 }
1585
1586 sub now() {
1587 AnyEvent->now
1588 }
1589
1590 sub now_update() {
1591 AnyEvent->now_update
1592 }
1593
1594 sub time() {
1595 AnyEvent->time
1596 }
1597
1598 *postpone = \&AnyEvent::postpone;
1599 *log = \&AnyEvent::log;
1600 };
1601 die if $@;
1602}
1603
1604BEGIN { _reset }
1605
1606package AnyEvent::Base;
1607
1608# default implementations for many methods
1609
1610sub time {
1611 eval q{ # poor man's autoloading {}
1612 # probe for availability of Time::HiRes
1613 if (eval "use Time::HiRes (); Time::HiRes::time (); 1") {
1614 *time = sub { Time::HiRes::time () };
1615 *AE::time = \& Time::HiRes::time ;
1616 *now = \&time;
1617 AnyEvent::log 8 => "AnyEvent: using Time::HiRes for sub-second timing accuracy.";
1618 # if (eval "use POSIX (); (POSIX::times())...
1619 } else {
1620 *time = sub { CORE::time };
1621 *AE::time = sub (){ CORE::time };
1622 *now = \&time;
1623 AnyEvent::log 3 => "using built-in time(), WARNING, no sub-second resolution!";
1624 }
1625 };
1626 die if $@;
1627
1628 &time
1629}
1630
1631*now = \&time;
1632sub now_update { }
1633
1634sub _poll {
1635 Carp::croak "$AnyEvent::MODEL does not support blocking waits. Caught";
1636}
1637
1638# default implementation for ->condvar
1639# in fact, the default should not be overwritten
1640
1641sub condvar {
1642 eval q{ # poor man's autoloading {}
1643 *condvar = sub {
1644 bless { @_ == 3 ? (_ae_cb => $_[2]) : () }, "AnyEvent::CondVar"
1645 };
1646
1647 *AE::cv = sub (;&) {
1648 bless { @_ ? (_ae_cb => shift) : () }, "AnyEvent::CondVar"
1649 };
1650 };
1651 die if $@;
1652
1653 &condvar
1654}
1655
1656# default implementation for ->signal
1657
1658our $HAVE_ASYNC_INTERRUPT;
1659
1660sub _have_async_interrupt() {
1661 $HAVE_ASYNC_INTERRUPT = 1*(!$ENV{PERL_ANYEVENT_AVOID_ASYNC_INTERRUPT}
1662 && eval "use Async::Interrupt 1.02 (); 1")
1663 unless defined $HAVE_ASYNC_INTERRUPT;
1664
1665 $HAVE_ASYNC_INTERRUPT
1666}
1667
1668our ($SIGPIPE_R, $SIGPIPE_W, %SIG_CB, %SIG_EV, $SIG_IO);
1669our (%SIG_ASY, %SIG_ASY_W);
1670our ($SIG_COUNT, $SIG_TW);
1671
1672# install a dummy wakeup watcher to reduce signal catching latency
1673# used by Impls
1674sub _sig_add() {
1675 unless ($SIG_COUNT++) {
1676 # try to align timer on a full-second boundary, if possible
1677 my $NOW = AE::now;
1678
1679 $SIG_TW = AE::timer
1680 $MAX_SIGNAL_LATENCY - ($NOW - int $NOW),
1681 $MAX_SIGNAL_LATENCY,
1682 sub { } # just for the PERL_ASYNC_CHECK
1683 ;
1684 }
1685}
1686
1687sub _sig_del {
1688 undef $SIG_TW
1689 unless --$SIG_COUNT;
1690}
1691
1692our $_sig_name_init; $_sig_name_init = sub {
1693 eval q{ # poor man's autoloading {}
1694 undef $_sig_name_init;
1695
1696 if (_have_async_interrupt) {
1697 *sig2num = \&Async::Interrupt::sig2num;
1698 *sig2name = \&Async::Interrupt::sig2name;
1699 } else {
1700 require Config;
1701
1702 my %signame2num;
1703 @signame2num{ split ' ', $Config::Config{sig_name} }
1704 = split ' ', $Config::Config{sig_num};
1705
1706 my @signum2name;
1707 @signum2name[values %signame2num] = keys %signame2num;
1708
1709 *sig2num = sub($) {
1710 $_[0] > 0 ? shift : $signame2num{+shift}
1711 };
1712 *sig2name = sub ($) {
1713 $_[0] > 0 ? $signum2name[+shift] : shift
1714 };
1715 }
1716 };
1717 die if $@;
1718};
1719
1720sub sig2num ($) { &$_sig_name_init; &sig2num }
1721sub sig2name($) { &$_sig_name_init; &sig2name }
1722
1723sub signal {
1724 eval q{ # poor man's autoloading {}
1725 # probe for availability of Async::Interrupt
1726 if (_have_async_interrupt) {
1727 AnyEvent::log 8 => "using Async::Interrupt for race-free signal handling.";
1728
1729 $SIGPIPE_R = new Async::Interrupt::EventPipe;
1730 $SIG_IO = AE::io $SIGPIPE_R->fileno, 0, \&_signal_exec;
1731
1732 } else {
1733 AnyEvent::log 8 => "using emulated perl signal handling with latency timer.";
1734
1735 if (AnyEvent::WIN32) {
1736 require AnyEvent::Util;
1737
1738 ($SIGPIPE_R, $SIGPIPE_W) = AnyEvent::Util::portable_pipe ();
1739 AnyEvent::Util::fh_nonblocking ($SIGPIPE_R, 1) if $SIGPIPE_R;
1740 AnyEvent::Util::fh_nonblocking ($SIGPIPE_W, 1) if $SIGPIPE_W; # just in case
1741 } else {
1742 pipe $SIGPIPE_R, $SIGPIPE_W;
1743 fcntl $SIGPIPE_R, AnyEvent::F_SETFL, AnyEvent::O_NONBLOCK if $SIGPIPE_R;
1744 fcntl $SIGPIPE_W, AnyEvent::F_SETFL, AnyEvent::O_NONBLOCK if $SIGPIPE_W; # just in case
1745
1746 # not strictly required, as $^F is normally 2, but let's make sure...
1747 fcntl $SIGPIPE_R, AnyEvent::F_SETFD, AnyEvent::FD_CLOEXEC;
1748 fcntl $SIGPIPE_W, AnyEvent::F_SETFD, AnyEvent::FD_CLOEXEC;
1749 }
1750
1751 $SIGPIPE_R
1752 or Carp::croak "AnyEvent: unable to create a signal reporting pipe: $!\n";
1753
1754 $SIG_IO = AE::io $SIGPIPE_R, 0, \&_signal_exec;
1755 }
1756
1757 *signal = $HAVE_ASYNC_INTERRUPT
1758 ? sub {
1759 my (undef, %arg) = @_;
1760
1761 # async::interrupt
1762 my $signal = sig2num $arg{signal};
1763 $SIG_CB{$signal}{$arg{cb}} = $arg{cb};
1764
1765 $SIG_ASY{$signal} ||= new Async::Interrupt
1766 cb => sub { undef $SIG_EV{$signal} },
1767 signal => $signal,
1768 pipe => [$SIGPIPE_R->filenos],
1769 pipe_autodrain => 0,
360 last; 1770 ;
1771
1772 bless [$signal, $arg{cb}], "AnyEvent::Base::signal"
1773 }
1774 : sub {
1775 my (undef, %arg) = @_;
1776
1777 # pure perl
1778 my $signal = sig2name $arg{signal};
1779 $SIG_CB{$signal}{$arg{cb}} = $arg{cb};
1780
1781 $SIG{$signal} ||= sub {
1782 local $!;
1783 syswrite $SIGPIPE_W, "\x00", 1 unless %SIG_EV;
1784 undef $SIG_EV{$signal};
1785 };
1786
1787 # can't do signal processing without introducing races in pure perl,
1788 # so limit the signal latency.
1789 _sig_add;
1790
1791 bless [$signal, $arg{cb}], "AnyEvent::Base::signal"
1792 }
1793 ;
1794
1795 *AnyEvent::Base::signal::DESTROY = sub {
1796 my ($signal, $cb) = @{$_[0]};
1797
1798 _sig_del;
1799
1800 delete $SIG_CB{$signal}{$cb};
1801
1802 $HAVE_ASYNC_INTERRUPT
1803 ? delete $SIG_ASY{$signal}
1804 : # delete doesn't work with older perls - they then
1805 # print weird messages, or just unconditionally exit
1806 # instead of getting the default action.
1807 undef $SIG{$signal}
1808 unless keys %{ $SIG_CB{$signal} };
1809 };
1810
1811 *_signal_exec = sub {
1812 $HAVE_ASYNC_INTERRUPT
1813 ? $SIGPIPE_R->drain
1814 : sysread $SIGPIPE_R, (my $dummy), 9;
1815
1816 while (%SIG_EV) {
1817 for (keys %SIG_EV) {
1818 delete $SIG_EV{$_};
1819 &$_ for values %{ $SIG_CB{$_} || {} };
361 } 1820 }
362 } 1821 }
363
364 $MODEL
365 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.";
366 } 1822 };
367
368 unshift @ISA, $MODEL;
369 push @{"$MODEL\::ISA"}, "AnyEvent::Base";
370 }
371
372 $MODEL
373}
374
375sub AUTOLOAD {
376 (my $func = $AUTOLOAD) =~ s/.*://;
377
378 $method{$func}
379 or croak "$func: not a valid method for AnyEvent objects";
380
381 detect unless $MODEL;
382
383 my $class = shift;
384 $class->$func (@_);
385}
386
387package AnyEvent::Base;
388
389# default implementation for ->condvar, ->wait, ->broadcast
390
391sub condvar {
392 bless \my $flag, "AnyEvent::Base::CondVar"
393}
394
395sub AnyEvent::Base::CondVar::broadcast {
396 ${$_[0]}++;
397}
398
399sub AnyEvent::Base::CondVar::wait {
400 AnyEvent->one_event while !${$_[0]};
401}
402
403# default implementation for ->signal
404
405our %SIG_CB;
406
407sub signal {
408 my (undef, %arg) = @_;
409
410 my $signal = uc $arg{signal}
411 or Carp::croak "required option 'signal' is missing";
412
413 $SIG_CB{$signal}{$arg{cb}} = $arg{cb};
414 $SIG{$signal} ||= sub {
415 $_->() for values %{ $SIG_CB{$signal} || {} };
416 }; 1823 };
1824 die if $@;
417 1825
418 bless [$signal, $arg{cb}], "AnyEvent::Base::Signal" 1826 &signal
419}
420
421sub AnyEvent::Base::Signal::DESTROY {
422 my ($signal, $cb) = @{$_[0]};
423
424 delete $SIG_CB{$signal}{$cb};
425
426 $SIG{$signal} = 'DEFAULT' unless keys %{ $SIG_CB{$signal} };
427} 1827}
428 1828
429# default implementation for ->child 1829# default implementation for ->child
430 1830
431our %PID_CB; 1831our %PID_CB;
432our $CHLD_W; 1832our $CHLD_W;
433our $CHLD_DELAY_W; 1833our $CHLD_DELAY_W;
434our $PID_IDLE;
435our $WNOHANG;
436 1834
437sub _child_wait { 1835# used by many Impl's
438 while (0 < (my $pid = waitpid -1, $WNOHANG)) { 1836sub _emit_childstatus($$) {
1837 my (undef, $rpid, $rstatus) = @_;
1838
1839 $_->($rpid, $rstatus)
439 $_->($pid, $?) for (values %{ $PID_CB{$pid} || {} }), 1840 for values %{ $PID_CB{$rpid} || {} },
440 (values %{ $PID_CB{0} || {} }); 1841 values %{ $PID_CB{0} || {} };
1842}
1843
1844sub child {
1845 eval q{ # poor man's autoloading {}
1846 *_sigchld = sub {
1847 my $pid;
1848
1849 AnyEvent->_emit_childstatus ($pid, $?)
1850 while ($pid = waitpid -1, WNOHANG) > 0;
1851 };
1852
1853 *child = sub {
1854 my (undef, %arg) = @_;
1855
1856 my $pid = $arg{pid};
1857 my $cb = $arg{cb};
1858
1859 $PID_CB{$pid}{$cb+0} = $cb;
1860
1861 unless ($CHLD_W) {
1862 $CHLD_W = AE::signal CHLD => \&_sigchld;
1863 # child could be a zombie already, so make at least one round
1864 &_sigchld;
1865 }
1866
1867 bless [$pid, $cb+0], "AnyEvent::Base::child"
1868 };
1869
1870 *AnyEvent::Base::child::DESTROY = sub {
1871 my ($pid, $icb) = @{$_[0]};
1872
1873 delete $PID_CB{$pid}{$icb};
1874 delete $PID_CB{$pid} unless keys %{ $PID_CB{$pid} };
1875
1876 undef $CHLD_W unless keys %PID_CB;
1877 };
1878 };
1879 die if $@;
1880
1881 &child
1882}
1883
1884# idle emulation is done by simply using a timer, regardless
1885# of whether the process is idle or not, and not letting
1886# the callback use more than 50% of the time.
1887sub idle {
1888 eval q{ # poor man's autoloading {}
1889 *idle = sub {
1890 my (undef, %arg) = @_;
1891
1892 my ($cb, $w, $rcb) = $arg{cb};
1893
1894 $rcb = sub {
1895 if ($cb) {
1896 $w = AE::time;
1897 &$cb;
1898 $w = AE::time - $w;
1899
1900 # never use more then 50% of the time for the idle watcher,
1901 # within some limits
1902 $w = 0.0001 if $w < 0.0001;
1903 $w = 5 if $w > 5;
1904
1905 $w = AE::timer $w, 0, $rcb;
1906 } else {
1907 # clean up...
1908 undef $w;
1909 undef $rcb;
1910 }
1911 };
1912
1913 $w = AE::timer 0.05, 0, $rcb;
1914
1915 bless \\$cb, "AnyEvent::Base::idle"
1916 };
1917
1918 *AnyEvent::Base::idle::DESTROY = sub {
1919 undef $${$_[0]};
1920 };
1921 };
1922 die if $@;
1923
1924 &idle
1925}
1926
1927package AnyEvent::CondVar;
1928
1929our @ISA = AnyEvent::CondVar::Base::;
1930
1931# only to be used for subclassing
1932sub new {
1933 my $class = shift;
1934 bless AnyEvent->condvar (@_), $class
1935}
1936
1937package AnyEvent::CondVar::Base;
1938
1939#use overload
1940# '&{}' => sub { my $self = shift; sub { $self->send (@_) } },
1941# fallback => 1;
1942
1943# save 300+ kilobytes by dirtily hardcoding overloading
1944${"AnyEvent::CondVar::Base::OVERLOAD"}{dummy}++; # Register with magic by touching.
1945*{'AnyEvent::CondVar::Base::()'} = sub { }; # "Make it findable via fetchmethod."
1946*{'AnyEvent::CondVar::Base::(&{}'} = sub { my $self = shift; sub { $self->send (@_) } }; # &{}
1947${'AnyEvent::CondVar::Base::()'} = 1; # fallback
1948
1949our $WAITING;
1950
1951sub _send {
1952 # nop
1953}
1954
1955sub _wait {
1956 AnyEvent->_poll until $_[0]{_ae_sent};
1957}
1958
1959sub send {
1960 my $cv = shift;
1961 $cv->{_ae_sent} = [@_];
1962 (delete $cv->{_ae_cb})->($cv) if $cv->{_ae_cb};
1963 $cv->_send;
1964}
1965
1966sub croak {
1967 $_[0]{_ae_croak} = $_[1];
1968 $_[0]->send;
1969}
1970
1971sub ready {
1972 $_[0]{_ae_sent}
1973}
1974
1975sub recv {
1976 unless ($_[0]{_ae_sent}) {
1977 $WAITING
1978 and Carp::croak "AnyEvent::CondVar: recursive blocking wait attempted";
1979
1980 local $WAITING = 1;
1981 $_[0]->_wait;
441 } 1982 }
442 1983
443 undef $PID_IDLE; 1984 $_[0]{_ae_croak}
444} 1985 and Carp::croak $_[0]{_ae_croak};
445 1986
446sub _sigchld { 1987 wantarray
447 # make sure we deliver these changes "synchronous" with the event loop. 1988 ? @{ $_[0]{_ae_sent} }
448 $CHLD_DELAY_W ||= AnyEvent->timer (after => 0, cb => sub { 1989 : $_[0]{_ae_sent}[0]
449 undef $CHLD_DELAY_W;
450 &_child_wait;
451 });
452} 1990}
453 1991
454sub child { 1992sub cb {
455 my (undef, %arg) = @_; 1993 my $cv = shift;
456 1994
457 defined (my $pid = $arg{pid} + 0) 1995 @_
458 or Carp::croak "required option 'pid' is missing"; 1996 and $cv->{_ae_cb} = shift
1997 and $cv->{_ae_sent}
1998 and (delete $cv->{_ae_cb})->($cv);
459 1999
460 $PID_CB{$pid}{$arg{cb}} = $arg{cb}; 2000 $cv->{_ae_cb}
461
462 unless ($WNOHANG) {
463 $WNOHANG = eval { require POSIX; &POSIX::WNOHANG } || 1;
464 }
465
466 unless ($CHLD_W) {
467 $CHLD_W = AnyEvent->signal (signal => 'CHLD', cb => \&_sigchld);
468 # child could be a zombie already, so make at least one round
469 &_sigchld;
470 }
471
472 bless [$pid, $arg{cb}], "AnyEvent::Base::Child"
473} 2001}
474 2002
475sub AnyEvent::Base::Child::DESTROY { 2003sub begin {
476 my ($pid, $cb) = @{$_[0]}; 2004 ++$_[0]{_ae_counter};
477 2005 $_[0]{_ae_end_cb} = $_[1] if @_ > 1;
478 delete $PID_CB{$pid}{$cb};
479 delete $PID_CB{$pid} unless keys %{ $PID_CB{$pid} };
480
481 undef $CHLD_W unless keys %PID_CB;
482} 2006}
2007
2008sub end {
2009 return if --$_[0]{_ae_counter};
2010 &{ $_[0]{_ae_end_cb} || sub { $_[0]->send } };
2011}
2012
2013# undocumented/compatibility with pre-3.4
2014*broadcast = \&send;
2015*wait = \&recv;
2016
2017=head1 ERROR AND EXCEPTION HANDLING
2018
2019In general, AnyEvent does not do any error handling - it relies on the
2020caller to do that if required. The L<AnyEvent::Strict> module (see also
2021the C<PERL_ANYEVENT_STRICT> environment variable, below) provides strict
2022checking of all AnyEvent methods, however, which is highly useful during
2023development.
2024
2025As for exception handling (i.e. runtime errors and exceptions thrown while
2026executing a callback), this is not only highly event-loop specific, but
2027also not in any way wrapped by this module, as this is the job of the main
2028program.
2029
2030The pure perl event loop simply re-throws the exception (usually
2031within C<< condvar->recv >>), the L<Event> and L<EV> modules call C<<
2032$Event/EV::DIED->() >>, L<Glib> uses C<< install_exception_handler >> and
2033so on.
2034
2035=head1 ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES
2036
2037AnyEvent supports a number of environment variables that tune the
2038runtime behaviour. They are usually evaluated when AnyEvent is
2039loaded, initialised, or a submodule that uses them is loaded. Many of
2040them also cause AnyEvent to load additional modules - for example,
2041C<PERL_ANYEVENT_DEBUG_WRAP> causes the L<AnyEvent::Debug> module to be
2042loaded.
2043
2044All the environment variables documented here start with
2045C<PERL_ANYEVENT_>, which is what AnyEvent considers its own
2046namespace. Other modules are encouraged (but by no means required) to use
2047C<PERL_ANYEVENT_SUBMODULE> if they have registered the AnyEvent::Submodule
2048namespace on CPAN, for any submodule. For example, L<AnyEvent::HTTP> could
2049be expected to use C<PERL_ANYEVENT_HTTP_PROXY> (it should not access env
2050variables starting with C<AE_>, see below).
2051
2052All variables can also be set via the C<AE_> prefix, that is, instead
2053of setting C<PERL_ANYEVENT_VERBOSE> you can also set C<AE_VERBOSE>. In
2054case there is a clash btween anyevent and another program that uses
2055C<AE_something> you can set the corresponding C<PERL_ANYEVENT_something>
2056variable to the empty string, as those variables take precedence.
2057
2058When AnyEvent is first loaded, it copies all C<AE_xxx> env variables
2059to their C<PERL_ANYEVENT_xxx> counterpart unless that variable already
2060exists. If taint mode is on, then AnyEvent will remove I<all> environment
2061variables starting with C<PERL_ANYEVENT_> from C<%ENV> (or replace them
2062with C<undef> or the empty string, if the corresaponding C<AE_> variable
2063is set).
2064
2065The exact algorithm is currently:
2066
2067 1. if taint mode enabled, delete all PERL_ANYEVENT_xyz variables from %ENV
2068 2. copy over AE_xyz to PERL_ANYEVENT_xyz unless the latter alraedy exists
2069 3. if taint mode enabled, set all PERL_ANYEVENT_xyz variables to undef.
2070
2071This ensures that child processes will not see the C<AE_> variables.
2072
2073The following environment variables are currently known to AnyEvent:
2074
2075=over 4
2076
2077=item C<PERL_ANYEVENT_VERBOSE>
2078
2079By default, AnyEvent will log messages with loglevel C<4> (C<error>) or
2080higher (see L<AnyEvent::Log>). You can set this environment variable to a
2081numerical loglevel to make AnyEvent more (or less) talkative.
2082
2083If you want to do more than just set the global logging level
2084you should have a look at C<PERL_ANYEVENT_LOG>, which allows much more
2085complex specifications.
2086
2087When set to C<0> (C<off>), then no messages whatsoever will be logged with
2088everything else at defaults.
2089
2090When set to C<5> or higher (C<warn>), AnyEvent warns about unexpected
2091conditions, such as not being able to load the event model specified by
2092C<PERL_ANYEVENT_MODEL>, or a guard callback throwing an exception - this
2093is the minimum recommended level for use during development.
2094
2095When set to C<7> or higher (info), AnyEvent reports which event model it
2096chooses.
2097
2098When set to C<8> or higher (debug), then AnyEvent will report extra
2099information on which optional modules it loads and how it implements
2100certain features.
2101
2102=item C<PERL_ANYEVENT_LOG>
2103
2104Accepts rather complex logging specifications. For example, you could log
2105all C<debug> messages of some module to stderr, warnings and above to
2106stderr, and errors and above to syslog, with:
2107
2108 PERL_ANYEVENT_LOG=Some::Module=debug,+log:filter=warn,+%syslog:%syslog=error,syslog
2109
2110For the rather extensive details, see L<AnyEvent::Log>.
2111
2112This variable is evaluated when AnyEvent (or L<AnyEvent::Log>) is loaded,
2113so will take effect even before AnyEvent has initialised itself.
2114
2115Note that specifying this environment variable causes the L<AnyEvent::Log>
2116module to be loaded, while C<PERL_ANYEVENT_VERBOSE> does not, so only
2117using the latter saves a few hundred kB of memory unless a module
2118explicitly needs the extra features of AnyEvent::Log.
2119
2120=item C<PERL_ANYEVENT_STRICT>
2121
2122AnyEvent does not do much argument checking by default, as thorough
2123argument checking is very costly. Setting this variable to a true value
2124will cause AnyEvent to load C<AnyEvent::Strict> and then to thoroughly
2125check the arguments passed to most method calls. If it finds any problems,
2126it will croak.
2127
2128In other words, enables "strict" mode.
2129
2130Unlike C<use strict> (or its modern cousin, C<< use L<common::sense>
2131>>, it is definitely recommended to keep it off in production. Keeping
2132C<PERL_ANYEVENT_STRICT=1> in your environment while developing programs
2133can be very useful, however.
2134
2135=item C<PERL_ANYEVENT_DEBUG_SHELL>
2136
2137If this env variable is nonempty, then its contents will be interpreted by
2138C<AnyEvent::Socket::parse_hostport> and C<AnyEvent::Debug::shell> (after
2139replacing every occurance of C<$$> by the process pid). The shell object
2140is saved in C<$AnyEvent::Debug::SHELL>.
2141
2142This happens when the first watcher is created.
2143
2144For example, to bind a debug shell on a unix domain socket in
2145F<< /tmp/debug<pid>.sock >>, you could use this:
2146
2147 PERL_ANYEVENT_DEBUG_SHELL=/tmp/debug\$\$.sock perlprog
2148 # connect with e.g.: socat readline /tmp/debug123.sock
2149
2150Or to bind to tcp port 4545 on localhost:
2151
2152 PERL_ANYEVENT_DEBUG_SHELL=127.0.0.1:4545 perlprog
2153 # connect with e.g.: telnet localhost 4545
2154
2155Note that creating sockets in F</tmp> or on localhost is very unsafe on
2156multiuser systems.
2157
2158=item C<PERL_ANYEVENT_DEBUG_WRAP>
2159
2160Can be set to C<0>, C<1> or C<2> and enables wrapping of all watchers for
2161debugging purposes. See C<AnyEvent::Debug::wrap> for details.
2162
2163=item C<PERL_ANYEVENT_MODEL>
2164
2165This can be used to specify the event model to be used by AnyEvent, before
2166auto detection and -probing kicks in.
2167
2168It normally is a string consisting entirely of ASCII letters (e.g. C<EV>
2169or C<IOAsync>). The string C<AnyEvent::Impl::> gets prepended and the
2170resulting module name is loaded and - if the load was successful - used as
2171event model backend. If it fails to load then AnyEvent will proceed with
2172auto detection and -probing.
2173
2174If the string ends with C<::> instead (e.g. C<AnyEvent::Impl::EV::>) then
2175nothing gets prepended and the module name is used as-is (hint: C<::> at
2176the end of a string designates a module name and quotes it appropriately).
2177
2178For example, to force the pure perl model (L<AnyEvent::Loop::Perl>) you
2179could start your program like this:
2180
2181 PERL_ANYEVENT_MODEL=Perl perl ...
2182
2183=item C<PERL_ANYEVENT_PROTOCOLS>
2184
2185Used by both L<AnyEvent::DNS> and L<AnyEvent::Socket> to determine preferences
2186for IPv4 or IPv6. The default is unspecified (and might change, or be the result
2187of auto probing).
2188
2189Must be set to a comma-separated list of protocols or address families,
2190current supported: C<ipv4> and C<ipv6>. Only protocols mentioned will be
2191used, and preference will be given to protocols mentioned earlier in the
2192list.
2193
2194This variable can effectively be used for denial-of-service attacks
2195against local programs (e.g. when setuid), although the impact is likely
2196small, as the program has to handle conenction and other failures anyways.
2197
2198Examples: C<PERL_ANYEVENT_PROTOCOLS=ipv4,ipv6> - prefer IPv4 over IPv6,
2199but support both and try to use both. C<PERL_ANYEVENT_PROTOCOLS=ipv4>
2200- only support IPv4, never try to resolve or contact IPv6
2201addresses. C<PERL_ANYEVENT_PROTOCOLS=ipv6,ipv4> support either IPv4 or
2202IPv6, but prefer IPv6 over IPv4.
2203
2204=item C<PERL_ANYEVENT_HOSTS>
2205
2206This variable, if specified, overrides the F</etc/hosts> file used by
2207L<AnyEvent::Socket>C<::resolve_sockaddr>, i.e. hosts aliases will be read
2208from that file instead.
2209
2210=item C<PERL_ANYEVENT_EDNS0>
2211
2212Used by L<AnyEvent::DNS> to decide whether to use the EDNS0 extension for
2213DNS. This extension is generally useful to reduce DNS traffic, especially
2214when DNSSEC is involved, but some (broken) firewalls drop such DNS
2215packets, which is why it is off by default.
2216
2217Setting this variable to C<1> will cause L<AnyEvent::DNS> to announce
2218EDNS0 in its DNS requests.
2219
2220=item C<PERL_ANYEVENT_MAX_FORKS>
2221
2222The maximum number of child processes that C<AnyEvent::Util::fork_call>
2223will create in parallel.
2224
2225=item C<PERL_ANYEVENT_MAX_OUTSTANDING_DNS>
2226
2227The default value for the C<max_outstanding> parameter for the default DNS
2228resolver - this is the maximum number of parallel DNS requests that are
2229sent to the DNS server.
2230
2231=item C<PERL_ANYEVENT_MAX_SIGNAL_LATENCY>
2232
2233Perl has inherently racy signal handling (you can basically choose between
2234losing signals and memory corruption) - pure perl event loops (including
2235C<AnyEvent::Loop>, when C<Async::Interrupt> isn't available) therefore
2236have to poll regularly to avoid losing signals.
2237
2238Some event loops are racy, but don't poll regularly, and some event loops
2239are written in C but are still racy. For those event loops, AnyEvent
2240installs a timer that regularly wakes up the event loop.
2241
2242By default, the interval for this timer is C<10> seconds, but you can
2243override this delay with this environment variable (or by setting
2244the C<$AnyEvent::MAX_SIGNAL_LATENCY> variable before creating signal
2245watchers).
2246
2247Lower values increase CPU (and energy) usage, higher values can introduce
2248long delays when reaping children or waiting for signals.
2249
2250The L<AnyEvent::Async> module, if available, will be used to avoid this
2251polling (with most event loops).
2252
2253=item C<PERL_ANYEVENT_RESOLV_CONF>
2254
2255The absolute path to a F<resolv.conf>-style file to use instead of
2256F</etc/resolv.conf> (or the OS-specific configuration) in the default
2257resolver, or the empty string to select the default configuration.
2258
2259=item C<PERL_ANYEVENT_CA_FILE>, C<PERL_ANYEVENT_CA_PATH>.
2260
2261When neither C<ca_file> nor C<ca_path> was specified during
2262L<AnyEvent::TLS> context creation, and either of these environment
2263variables are nonempty, they will be used to specify CA certificate
2264locations instead of a system-dependent default.
2265
2266=item C<PERL_ANYEVENT_AVOID_GUARD> and C<PERL_ANYEVENT_AVOID_ASYNC_INTERRUPT>
2267
2268When these are set to C<1>, then the respective modules are not
2269loaded. Mostly good for testing AnyEvent itself.
2270
2271=back
483 2272
484=head1 SUPPLYING YOUR OWN EVENT MODEL INTERFACE 2273=head1 SUPPLYING YOUR OWN EVENT MODEL INTERFACE
2274
2275This is an advanced topic that you do not normally need to use AnyEvent in
2276a module. This section is only of use to event loop authors who want to
2277provide AnyEvent compatibility.
485 2278
486If you need to support another event library which isn't directly 2279If you need to support another event library which isn't directly
487supported by AnyEvent, you can supply your own interface to it by 2280supported by AnyEvent, you can supply your own interface to it by
488pushing, before the first watcher gets created, the package name of 2281pushing, before the first watcher gets created, the package name of
489the event module and the package name of the interface to use onto 2282the event module and the package name of the interface to use onto
490C<@AnyEvent::REGISTRY>. You can do that before and even without loading 2283C<@AnyEvent::REGISTRY>. You can do that before and even without loading
491AnyEvent. 2284AnyEvent, so it is reasonably cheap.
492 2285
493Example: 2286Example:
494 2287
495 push @AnyEvent::REGISTRY, [urxvt => urxvt::anyevent::]; 2288 push @AnyEvent::REGISTRY, [urxvt => urxvt::anyevent::];
496 2289
497This tells AnyEvent to (literally) use the C<urxvt::anyevent::> 2290This tells AnyEvent to (literally) use the C<urxvt::anyevent::>
498package/class when it finds the C<urxvt> package/module is loaded. When 2291package/class when it finds the C<urxvt> package/module is already loaded.
2292
499AnyEvent is loaded and asked to find a suitable event model, it will 2293When AnyEvent is loaded and asked to find a suitable event model, it
500first check for the presence of urxvt. 2294will first check for the presence of urxvt by trying to C<use> the
2295C<urxvt::anyevent> module.
501 2296
502The class should provide implementations for all watcher types (see 2297The class should provide implementations for all watcher types. See
503L<AnyEvent::Impl::Event> (source code), L<AnyEvent::Impl::Glib> 2298L<AnyEvent::Impl::EV> (source code), L<AnyEvent::Impl::Glib> (Source code)
504(Source code) and so on for actual examples, use C<perldoc -m 2299and so on for actual examples. Use C<perldoc -m AnyEvent::Impl::Glib> to
505AnyEvent::Impl::Glib> to see the sources). 2300see the sources.
506 2301
2302If you don't provide C<signal> and C<child> watchers than AnyEvent will
2303provide suitable (hopefully) replacements.
2304
507The above isn't fictitious, the I<rxvt-unicode> (a.k.a. urxvt) 2305The above example isn't fictitious, the I<rxvt-unicode> (a.k.a. urxvt)
508uses the above line as-is. An interface isn't included in AnyEvent 2306terminal emulator uses the above line as-is. An interface isn't included
509because it doesn't make sense outside the embedded interpreter inside 2307in AnyEvent because it doesn't make sense outside the embedded interpreter
510I<rxvt-unicode>, and it is updated and maintained as part of the 2308inside I<rxvt-unicode>, and it is updated and maintained as part of the
511I<rxvt-unicode> distribution. 2309I<rxvt-unicode> distribution.
512 2310
513I<rxvt-unicode> also cheats a bit by not providing blocking access to 2311I<rxvt-unicode> also cheats a bit by not providing blocking access to
514condition variables: code blocking while waiting for a condition will 2312condition variables: code blocking while waiting for a condition will
515C<die>. This still works with most modules/usages, and blocking calls must 2313C<die>. This still works with most modules/usages, and blocking calls must
516not be in an interactive application, so it makes sense. 2314not be done in an interactive application, so it makes sense.
517 2315
518=head1 ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES
519
520The following environment variables are used by this module:
521
522C<PERL_ANYEVENT_VERBOSE> when set to C<2> or higher, reports which event
523model gets used.
524
525=head1 EXAMPLE 2316=head1 EXAMPLE PROGRAM
526 2317
527The following program uses an io watcher to read data from stdin, a timer 2318The following program uses an I/O watcher to read data from STDIN, a timer
528to display a message once per second, and a condvar to exit the program 2319to display a message once per second, and a condition variable to quit the
529when the user enters quit: 2320program when the user enters quit:
530 2321
531 use AnyEvent; 2322 use AnyEvent;
532 2323
533 my $cv = AnyEvent->condvar; 2324 my $cv = AnyEvent->condvar;
534 2325
535 my $io_watcher = AnyEvent->io (fh => \*STDIN, poll => 'r', cb => sub { 2326 my $io_watcher = AnyEvent->io (
2327 fh => \*STDIN,
2328 poll => 'r',
2329 cb => sub {
536 warn "io event <$_[0]>\n"; # will always output <r> 2330 warn "io event <$_[0]>\n"; # will always output <r>
537 chomp (my $input = <STDIN>); # read a line 2331 chomp (my $input = <STDIN>); # read a line
538 warn "read: $input\n"; # output what has been read 2332 warn "read: $input\n"; # output what has been read
539 $cv->broadcast if $input =~ /^q/i; # quit program if /^q/i 2333 $cv->send if $input =~ /^q/i; # quit program if /^q/i
2334 },
2335 );
2336
2337 my $time_watcher = AnyEvent->timer (after => 1, interval => 1, cb => sub {
2338 warn "timeout\n"; # print 'timeout' at most every second
540 }); 2339 });
541 2340
542 my $time_watcher; # can only be used once
543
544 sub new_timer {
545 $timer = AnyEvent->timer (after => 1, cb => sub {
546 warn "timeout\n"; # print 'timeout' about every second
547 &new_timer; # and restart the time
548 });
549 }
550
551 new_timer; # create first timer
552
553 $cv->wait; # wait until user enters /^q/i 2341 $cv->recv; # wait until user enters /^q/i
554 2342
555=head1 REAL-WORLD EXAMPLE 2343=head1 REAL-WORLD EXAMPLE
556 2344
557Consider the L<Net::FCP> module. It features (among others) the following 2345Consider the L<Net::FCP> module. It features (among others) the following
558API calls, which are to freenet what HTTP GET requests are to http: 2346API calls, which are to freenet what HTTP GET requests are to http:
608 syswrite $txn->{fh}, $txn->{request} 2396 syswrite $txn->{fh}, $txn->{request}
609 or die "connection or write error"; 2397 or die "connection or write error";
610 $txn->{w} = AnyEvent->io (fh => $txn->{fh}, poll => 'r', cb => sub { $txn->fh_ready_r }); 2398 $txn->{w} = AnyEvent->io (fh => $txn->{fh}, poll => 'r', cb => sub { $txn->fh_ready_r });
611 2399
612Again, C<fh_ready_r> waits till all data has arrived, and then stores the 2400Again, C<fh_ready_r> waits till all data has arrived, and then stores the
613result and signals any possible waiters that the request ahs finished: 2401result and signals any possible waiters that the request has finished:
614 2402
615 sysread $txn->{fh}, $txn->{buf}, length $txn->{$buf}; 2403 sysread $txn->{fh}, $txn->{buf}, length $txn->{$buf};
616 2404
617 if (end-of-file or data complete) { 2405 if (end-of-file or data complete) {
618 $txn->{result} = $txn->{buf}; 2406 $txn->{result} = $txn->{buf};
619 $txn->{finished}->broadcast; 2407 $txn->{finished}->send;
620 $txb->{cb}->($txn) of $txn->{cb}; # also call callback 2408 $txb->{cb}->($txn) of $txn->{cb}; # also call callback
621 } 2409 }
622 2410
623The C<result> method, finally, just waits for the finished signal (if the 2411The C<result> method, finally, just waits for the finished signal (if the
624request was already finished, it doesn't wait, of course, and returns the 2412request was already finished, it doesn't wait, of course, and returns the
625data: 2413data:
626 2414
627 $txn->{finished}->wait; 2415 $txn->{finished}->recv;
628 return $txn->{result}; 2416 return $txn->{result};
629 2417
630The actual code goes further and collects all errors (C<die>s, exceptions) 2418The actual code goes further and collects all errors (C<die>s, exceptions)
631that occured during request processing. The C<result> method detects 2419that occurred during request processing. The C<result> method detects
632whether an exception as thrown (it is stored inside the $txn object) 2420whether an exception as thrown (it is stored inside the $txn object)
633and just throws the exception, which means connection errors and other 2421and just throws the exception, which means connection errors and other
634problems get reported tot he code that tries to use the result, not in a 2422problems get reported to the code that tries to use the result, not in a
635random callback. 2423random callback.
636 2424
637All of this enables the following usage styles: 2425All of this enables the following usage styles:
638 2426
6391. Blocking: 24271. Blocking:
667 2455
668 my $quit = AnyEvent->condvar; 2456 my $quit = AnyEvent->condvar;
669 2457
670 $fcp->txn_client_get ($url)->cb (sub { 2458 $fcp->txn_client_get ($url)->cb (sub {
671 ... 2459 ...
672 $quit->broadcast; 2460 $quit->send;
673 }); 2461 });
674 2462
675 $quit->wait; 2463 $quit->recv;
2464
2465
2466=head1 BENCHMARKS
2467
2468To give you an idea of the performance and overheads that AnyEvent adds
2469over the event loops themselves and to give you an impression of the speed
2470of various event loops I prepared some benchmarks.
2471
2472=head2 BENCHMARKING ANYEVENT OVERHEAD
2473
2474Here is a benchmark of various supported event models used natively and
2475through AnyEvent. The benchmark creates a lot of timers (with a zero
2476timeout) and I/O watchers (watching STDOUT, a pty, to become writable,
2477which it is), lets them fire exactly once and destroys them again.
2478
2479Source code for this benchmark is found as F<eg/bench> in the AnyEvent
2480distribution. It uses the L<AE> interface, which makes a real difference
2481for the EV and Perl backends only.
2482
2483=head3 Explanation of the columns
2484
2485I<watcher> is the number of event watchers created/destroyed. Since
2486different event models feature vastly different performances, each event
2487loop was given a number of watchers so that overall runtime is acceptable
2488and similar between tested event loop (and keep them from crashing): Glib
2489would probably take thousands of years if asked to process the same number
2490of watchers as EV in this benchmark.
2491
2492I<bytes> is the number of bytes (as measured by the resident set size,
2493RSS) consumed by each watcher. This method of measuring captures both C
2494and Perl-based overheads.
2495
2496I<create> is the time, in microseconds (millionths of seconds), that it
2497takes to create a single watcher. The callback is a closure shared between
2498all watchers, to avoid adding memory overhead. That means closure creation
2499and memory usage is not included in the figures.
2500
2501I<invoke> is the time, in microseconds, used to invoke a simple
2502callback. The callback simply counts down a Perl variable and after it was
2503invoked "watcher" times, it would C<< ->send >> a condvar once to
2504signal the end of this phase.
2505
2506I<destroy> is the time, in microseconds, that it takes to destroy a single
2507watcher.
2508
2509=head3 Results
2510
2511 name watchers bytes create invoke destroy comment
2512 EV/EV 100000 223 0.47 0.43 0.27 EV native interface
2513 EV/Any 100000 223 0.48 0.42 0.26 EV + AnyEvent watchers
2514 Coro::EV/Any 100000 223 0.47 0.42 0.26 coroutines + Coro::Signal
2515 Perl/Any 100000 431 2.70 0.74 0.92 pure perl implementation
2516 Event/Event 16000 516 31.16 31.84 0.82 Event native interface
2517 Event/Any 16000 1203 42.61 34.79 1.80 Event + AnyEvent watchers
2518 IOAsync/Any 16000 1911 41.92 27.45 16.81 via IO::Async::Loop::IO_Poll
2519 IOAsync/Any 16000 1726 40.69 26.37 15.25 via IO::Async::Loop::Epoll
2520 Glib/Any 16000 1118 89.00 12.57 51.17 quadratic behaviour
2521 Tk/Any 2000 1346 20.96 10.75 8.00 SEGV with >> 2000 watchers
2522 POE/Any 2000 6951 108.97 795.32 14.24 via POE::Loop::Event
2523 POE/Any 2000 6648 94.79 774.40 575.51 via POE::Loop::Select
2524
2525=head3 Discussion
2526
2527The benchmark does I<not> measure scalability of the event loop very
2528well. For example, a select-based event loop (such as the pure perl one)
2529can never compete with an event loop that uses epoll when the number of
2530file descriptors grows high. In this benchmark, all events become ready at
2531the same time, so select/poll-based implementations get an unnatural speed
2532boost.
2533
2534Also, note that the number of watchers usually has a nonlinear effect on
2535overall speed, that is, creating twice as many watchers doesn't take twice
2536the time - usually it takes longer. This puts event loops tested with a
2537higher number of watchers at a disadvantage.
2538
2539To put the range of results into perspective, consider that on the
2540benchmark machine, handling an event takes roughly 1600 CPU cycles with
2541EV, 3100 CPU cycles with AnyEvent's pure perl loop and almost 3000000 CPU
2542cycles with POE.
2543
2544C<EV> is the sole leader regarding speed and memory use, which are both
2545maximal/minimal, respectively. When using the L<AE> API there is zero
2546overhead (when going through the AnyEvent API create is about 5-6 times
2547slower, with other times being equal, so still uses far less memory than
2548any other event loop and is still faster than Event natively).
2549
2550The pure perl implementation is hit in a few sweet spots (both the
2551constant timeout and the use of a single fd hit optimisations in the perl
2552interpreter and the backend itself). Nevertheless this shows that it
2553adds very little overhead in itself. Like any select-based backend its
2554performance becomes really bad with lots of file descriptors (and few of
2555them active), of course, but this was not subject of this benchmark.
2556
2557The C<Event> module has a relatively high setup and callback invocation
2558cost, but overall scores in on the third place.
2559
2560C<IO::Async> performs admirably well, about on par with C<Event>, even
2561when using its pure perl backend.
2562
2563C<Glib>'s memory usage is quite a bit higher, but it features a
2564faster callback invocation and overall ends up in the same class as
2565C<Event>. However, Glib scales extremely badly, doubling the number of
2566watchers increases the processing time by more than a factor of four,
2567making it completely unusable when using larger numbers of watchers
2568(note that only a single file descriptor was used in the benchmark, so
2569inefficiencies of C<poll> do not account for this).
2570
2571The C<Tk> adaptor works relatively well. The fact that it crashes with
2572more than 2000 watchers is a big setback, however, as correctness takes
2573precedence over speed. Nevertheless, its performance is surprising, as the
2574file descriptor is dup()ed for each watcher. This shows that the dup()
2575employed by some adaptors is not a big performance issue (it does incur a
2576hidden memory cost inside the kernel which is not reflected in the figures
2577above).
2578
2579C<POE>, regardless of underlying event loop (whether using its pure perl
2580select-based backend or the Event module, the POE-EV backend couldn't
2581be tested because it wasn't working) shows abysmal performance and
2582memory usage with AnyEvent: Watchers use almost 30 times as much memory
2583as EV watchers, and 10 times as much memory as Event (the high memory
2584requirements are caused by requiring a session for each watcher). Watcher
2585invocation speed is almost 900 times slower than with AnyEvent's pure perl
2586implementation.
2587
2588The design of the POE adaptor class in AnyEvent can not really account
2589for the performance issues, though, as session creation overhead is
2590small compared to execution of the state machine, which is coded pretty
2591optimally within L<AnyEvent::Impl::POE> (and while everybody agrees that
2592using multiple sessions is not a good approach, especially regarding
2593memory usage, even the author of POE could not come up with a faster
2594design).
2595
2596=head3 Summary
2597
2598=over 4
2599
2600=item * Using EV through AnyEvent is faster than any other event loop
2601(even when used without AnyEvent), but most event loops have acceptable
2602performance with or without AnyEvent.
2603
2604=item * The overhead AnyEvent adds is usually much smaller than the overhead of
2605the actual event loop, only with extremely fast event loops such as EV
2606does AnyEvent add significant overhead.
2607
2608=item * You should avoid POE like the plague if you want performance or
2609reasonable memory usage.
2610
2611=back
2612
2613=head2 BENCHMARKING THE LARGE SERVER CASE
2614
2615This benchmark actually benchmarks the event loop itself. It works by
2616creating a number of "servers": each server consists of a socket pair, a
2617timeout watcher that gets reset on activity (but never fires), and an I/O
2618watcher waiting for input on one side of the socket. Each time the socket
2619watcher reads a byte it will write that byte to a random other "server".
2620
2621The effect is that there will be a lot of I/O watchers, only part of which
2622are active at any one point (so there is a constant number of active
2623fds for each loop iteration, but which fds these are is random). The
2624timeout is reset each time something is read because that reflects how
2625most timeouts work (and puts extra pressure on the event loops).
2626
2627In this benchmark, we use 10000 socket pairs (20000 sockets), of which 100
2628(1%) are active. This mirrors the activity of large servers with many
2629connections, most of which are idle at any one point in time.
2630
2631Source code for this benchmark is found as F<eg/bench2> in the AnyEvent
2632distribution. It uses the L<AE> interface, which makes a real difference
2633for the EV and Perl backends only.
2634
2635=head3 Explanation of the columns
2636
2637I<sockets> is the number of sockets, and twice the number of "servers" (as
2638each server has a read and write socket end).
2639
2640I<create> is the time it takes to create a socket pair (which is
2641nontrivial) and two watchers: an I/O watcher and a timeout watcher.
2642
2643I<request>, the most important value, is the time it takes to handle a
2644single "request", that is, reading the token from the pipe and forwarding
2645it to another server. This includes deleting the old timeout and creating
2646a new one that moves the timeout into the future.
2647
2648=head3 Results
2649
2650 name sockets create request
2651 EV 20000 62.66 7.99
2652 Perl 20000 68.32 32.64
2653 IOAsync 20000 174.06 101.15 epoll
2654 IOAsync 20000 174.67 610.84 poll
2655 Event 20000 202.69 242.91
2656 Glib 20000 557.01 1689.52
2657 POE 20000 341.54 12086.32 uses POE::Loop::Event
2658
2659=head3 Discussion
2660
2661This benchmark I<does> measure scalability and overall performance of the
2662particular event loop.
2663
2664EV is again fastest. Since it is using epoll on my system, the setup time
2665is relatively high, though.
2666
2667Perl surprisingly comes second. It is much faster than the C-based event
2668loops Event and Glib.
2669
2670IO::Async performs very well when using its epoll backend, and still quite
2671good compared to Glib when using its pure perl backend.
2672
2673Event suffers from high setup time as well (look at its code and you will
2674understand why). Callback invocation also has a high overhead compared to
2675the C<< $_->() for .. >>-style loop that the Perl event loop uses. Event
2676uses select or poll in basically all documented configurations.
2677
2678Glib is hit hard by its quadratic behaviour w.r.t. many watchers. It
2679clearly fails to perform with many filehandles or in busy servers.
2680
2681POE is still completely out of the picture, taking over 1000 times as long
2682as EV, and over 100 times as long as the Perl implementation, even though
2683it uses a C-based event loop in this case.
2684
2685=head3 Summary
2686
2687=over 4
2688
2689=item * The pure perl implementation performs extremely well.
2690
2691=item * Avoid Glib or POE in large projects where performance matters.
2692
2693=back
2694
2695=head2 BENCHMARKING SMALL SERVERS
2696
2697While event loops should scale (and select-based ones do not...) even to
2698large servers, most programs we (or I :) actually write have only a few
2699I/O watchers.
2700
2701In this benchmark, I use the same benchmark program as in the large server
2702case, but it uses only eight "servers", of which three are active at any
2703one time. This should reflect performance for a small server relatively
2704well.
2705
2706The columns are identical to the previous table.
2707
2708=head3 Results
2709
2710 name sockets create request
2711 EV 16 20.00 6.54
2712 Perl 16 25.75 12.62
2713 Event 16 81.27 35.86
2714 Glib 16 32.63 15.48
2715 POE 16 261.87 276.28 uses POE::Loop::Event
2716
2717=head3 Discussion
2718
2719The benchmark tries to test the performance of a typical small
2720server. While knowing how various event loops perform is interesting, keep
2721in mind that their overhead in this case is usually not as important, due
2722to the small absolute number of watchers (that is, you need efficiency and
2723speed most when you have lots of watchers, not when you only have a few of
2724them).
2725
2726EV is again fastest.
2727
2728Perl again comes second. It is noticeably faster than the C-based event
2729loops Event and Glib, although the difference is too small to really
2730matter.
2731
2732POE also performs much better in this case, but is is still far behind the
2733others.
2734
2735=head3 Summary
2736
2737=over 4
2738
2739=item * C-based event loops perform very well with small number of
2740watchers, as the management overhead dominates.
2741
2742=back
2743
2744=head2 THE IO::Lambda BENCHMARK
2745
2746Recently I was told about the benchmark in the IO::Lambda manpage, which
2747could be misinterpreted to make AnyEvent look bad. In fact, the benchmark
2748simply compares IO::Lambda with POE, and IO::Lambda looks better (which
2749shouldn't come as a surprise to anybody). As such, the benchmark is
2750fine, and mostly shows that the AnyEvent backend from IO::Lambda isn't
2751very optimal. But how would AnyEvent compare when used without the extra
2752baggage? To explore this, I wrote the equivalent benchmark for AnyEvent.
2753
2754The benchmark itself creates an echo-server, and then, for 500 times,
2755connects to the echo server, sends a line, waits for the reply, and then
2756creates the next connection. This is a rather bad benchmark, as it doesn't
2757test the efficiency of the framework or much non-blocking I/O, but it is a
2758benchmark nevertheless.
2759
2760 name runtime
2761 Lambda/select 0.330 sec
2762 + optimized 0.122 sec
2763 Lambda/AnyEvent 0.327 sec
2764 + optimized 0.138 sec
2765 Raw sockets/select 0.077 sec
2766 POE/select, components 0.662 sec
2767 POE/select, raw sockets 0.226 sec
2768 POE/select, optimized 0.404 sec
2769
2770 AnyEvent/select/nb 0.085 sec
2771 AnyEvent/EV/nb 0.068 sec
2772 +state machine 0.134 sec
2773
2774The benchmark is also a bit unfair (my fault): the IO::Lambda/POE
2775benchmarks actually make blocking connects and use 100% blocking I/O,
2776defeating the purpose of an event-based solution. All of the newly
2777written AnyEvent benchmarks use 100% non-blocking connects (using
2778AnyEvent::Socket::tcp_connect and the asynchronous pure perl DNS
2779resolver), so AnyEvent is at a disadvantage here, as non-blocking connects
2780generally require a lot more bookkeeping and event handling than blocking
2781connects (which involve a single syscall only).
2782
2783The last AnyEvent benchmark additionally uses L<AnyEvent::Handle>, which
2784offers similar expressive power as POE and IO::Lambda, using conventional
2785Perl syntax. This means that both the echo server and the client are 100%
2786non-blocking, further placing it at a disadvantage.
2787
2788As you can see, the AnyEvent + EV combination even beats the
2789hand-optimised "raw sockets benchmark", while AnyEvent + its pure perl
2790backend easily beats IO::Lambda and POE.
2791
2792And even the 100% non-blocking version written using the high-level (and
2793slow :) L<AnyEvent::Handle> abstraction beats both POE and IO::Lambda
2794higher level ("unoptimised") abstractions by a large margin, even though
2795it does all of DNS, tcp-connect and socket I/O in a non-blocking way.
2796
2797The two AnyEvent benchmarks programs can be found as F<eg/ae0.pl> and
2798F<eg/ae2.pl> in the AnyEvent distribution, the remaining benchmarks are
2799part of the IO::Lambda distribution and were used without any changes.
2800
2801
2802=head1 SIGNALS
2803
2804AnyEvent currently installs handlers for these signals:
2805
2806=over 4
2807
2808=item SIGCHLD
2809
2810A handler for C<SIGCHLD> is installed by AnyEvent's child watcher
2811emulation for event loops that do not support them natively. Also, some
2812event loops install a similar handler.
2813
2814Additionally, when AnyEvent is loaded and SIGCHLD is set to IGNORE, then
2815AnyEvent will reset it to default, to avoid losing child exit statuses.
2816
2817=item SIGPIPE
2818
2819A no-op handler is installed for C<SIGPIPE> when C<$SIG{PIPE}> is C<undef>
2820when AnyEvent gets loaded.
2821
2822The rationale for this is that AnyEvent users usually do not really depend
2823on SIGPIPE delivery (which is purely an optimisation for shell use, or
2824badly-written programs), but C<SIGPIPE> can cause spurious and rare
2825program exits as a lot of people do not expect C<SIGPIPE> when writing to
2826some random socket.
2827
2828The rationale for installing a no-op handler as opposed to ignoring it is
2829that this way, the handler will be restored to defaults on exec.
2830
2831Feel free to install your own handler, or reset it to defaults.
2832
2833=back
2834
2835=cut
2836
2837undef $SIG{CHLD}
2838 if $SIG{CHLD} eq 'IGNORE';
2839
2840$SIG{PIPE} = sub { }
2841 unless defined $SIG{PIPE};
2842
2843=head1 RECOMMENDED/OPTIONAL MODULES
2844
2845One of AnyEvent's main goals is to be 100% Pure-Perl(tm): only perl (and
2846its built-in modules) are required to use it.
2847
2848That does not mean that AnyEvent won't take advantage of some additional
2849modules if they are installed.
2850
2851This section explains which additional modules will be used, and how they
2852affect AnyEvent's operation.
2853
2854=over 4
2855
2856=item L<Async::Interrupt>
2857
2858This slightly arcane module is used to implement fast signal handling: To
2859my knowledge, there is no way to do completely race-free and quick
2860signal handling in pure perl. To ensure that signals still get
2861delivered, AnyEvent will start an interval timer to wake up perl (and
2862catch the signals) with some delay (default is 10 seconds, look for
2863C<$AnyEvent::MAX_SIGNAL_LATENCY>).
2864
2865If this module is available, then it will be used to implement signal
2866catching, which means that signals will not be delayed, and the event loop
2867will not be interrupted regularly, which is more efficient (and good for
2868battery life on laptops).
2869
2870This affects not just the pure-perl event loop, but also other event loops
2871that have no signal handling on their own (e.g. Glib, Tk, Qt).
2872
2873Some event loops (POE, Event, Event::Lib) offer signal watchers natively,
2874and either employ their own workarounds (POE) or use AnyEvent's workaround
2875(using C<$AnyEvent::MAX_SIGNAL_LATENCY>). Installing L<Async::Interrupt>
2876does nothing for those backends.
2877
2878=item L<EV>
2879
2880This module isn't really "optional", as it is simply one of the backend
2881event loops that AnyEvent can use. However, it is simply the best event
2882loop available in terms of features, speed and stability: It supports
2883the AnyEvent API optimally, implements all the watcher types in XS, does
2884automatic timer adjustments even when no monotonic clock is available,
2885can take avdantage of advanced kernel interfaces such as C<epoll> and
2886C<kqueue>, and is the fastest backend I<by far>. You can even embed
2887L<Glib>/L<Gtk2> in it (or vice versa, see L<EV::Glib> and L<Glib::EV>).
2888
2889If you only use backends that rely on another event loop (e.g. C<Tk>),
2890then this module will do nothing for you.
2891
2892=item L<Guard>
2893
2894The guard module, when used, will be used to implement
2895C<AnyEvent::Util::guard>. This speeds up guards considerably (and uses a
2896lot less memory), but otherwise doesn't affect guard operation much. It is
2897purely used for performance.
2898
2899=item L<JSON> and L<JSON::XS>
2900
2901One of these modules is required when you want to read or write JSON data
2902via L<AnyEvent::Handle>. L<JSON> is also written in pure-perl, but can take
2903advantage of the ultra-high-speed L<JSON::XS> module when it is installed.
2904
2905=item L<Net::SSLeay>
2906
2907Implementing TLS/SSL in Perl is certainly interesting, but not very
2908worthwhile: If this module is installed, then L<AnyEvent::Handle> (with
2909the help of L<AnyEvent::TLS>), gains the ability to do TLS/SSL.
2910
2911=item L<Time::HiRes>
2912
2913This module is part of perl since release 5.008. It will be used when the
2914chosen event library does not come with a timing source of its own. The
2915pure-perl event loop (L<AnyEvent::Loop>) will additionally load it to
2916try to use a monotonic clock for timing stability.
2917
2918=back
2919
2920
2921=head1 FORK
2922
2923Most event libraries are not fork-safe. The ones who are usually are
2924because they rely on inefficient but fork-safe C<select> or C<poll> calls
2925- higher performance APIs such as BSD's kqueue or the dreaded Linux epoll
2926are usually badly thought-out hacks that are incompatible with fork in
2927one way or another. Only L<EV> is fully fork-aware and ensures that you
2928continue event-processing in both parent and child (or both, if you know
2929what you are doing).
2930
2931This means that, in general, you cannot fork and do event processing in
2932the child if the event library was initialised before the fork (which
2933usually happens when the first AnyEvent watcher is created, or the library
2934is loaded).
2935
2936If you have to fork, you must either do so I<before> creating your first
2937watcher OR you must not use AnyEvent at all in the child OR you must do
2938something completely out of the scope of AnyEvent.
2939
2940The problem of doing event processing in the parent I<and> the child
2941is much more complicated: even for backends that I<are> fork-aware or
2942fork-safe, their behaviour is not usually what you want: fork clones all
2943watchers, that means all timers, I/O watchers etc. are active in both
2944parent and child, which is almost never what you want. USing C<exec>
2945to start worker children from some kind of manage rprocess is usually
2946preferred, because it is much easier and cleaner, at the expense of having
2947to have another binary.
2948
2949
2950=head1 SECURITY CONSIDERATIONS
2951
2952AnyEvent can be forced to load any event model via
2953$ENV{PERL_ANYEVENT_MODEL}. While this cannot (to my knowledge) be used to
2954execute arbitrary code or directly gain access, it can easily be used to
2955make the program hang or malfunction in subtle ways, as AnyEvent watchers
2956will not be active when the program uses a different event model than
2957specified in the variable.
2958
2959You can make AnyEvent completely ignore this variable by deleting it
2960before the first watcher gets created, e.g. with a C<BEGIN> block:
2961
2962 BEGIN { delete $ENV{PERL_ANYEVENT_MODEL} }
2963
2964 use AnyEvent;
2965
2966Similar considerations apply to $ENV{PERL_ANYEVENT_VERBOSE}, as that can
2967be used to probe what backend is used and gain other information (which is
2968probably even less useful to an attacker than PERL_ANYEVENT_MODEL), and
2969$ENV{PERL_ANYEVENT_STRICT}.
2970
2971Note that AnyEvent will remove I<all> environment variables starting with
2972C<PERL_ANYEVENT_> from C<%ENV> when it is loaded while taint mode is
2973enabled.
2974
2975
2976=head1 BUGS
2977
2978Perl 5.8 has numerous memleaks that sometimes hit this module and are hard
2979to work around. If you suffer from memleaks, first upgrade to Perl 5.10
2980and check wether the leaks still show up. (Perl 5.10.0 has other annoying
2981memleaks, such as leaking on C<map> and C<grep> but it is usually not as
2982pronounced).
2983
676 2984
677=head1 SEE ALSO 2985=head1 SEE ALSO
678 2986
679Event modules: L<Coro::EV>, L<EV>, L<EV::Glib>, L<Glib::EV>, 2987Tutorial/Introduction: L<AnyEvent::Intro>.
680L<Coro::Event>, L<Event>, L<Glib::Event>, L<Glib>, L<Coro>, L<Tk>.
681 2988
682Implementations: L<AnyEvent::Impl::CoroEV>, L<AnyEvent::Impl::EV>, 2989FAQ: L<AnyEvent::FAQ>.
2990
2991Utility functions: L<AnyEvent::Util> (misc. grab-bag), L<AnyEvent::Log>
2992(simply logging).
2993
2994Development/Debugging: L<AnyEvent::Strict> (stricter checking),
2995L<AnyEvent::Debug> (interactive shell, watcher tracing).
2996
2997Supported event modules: L<AnyEvent::Loop>, L<EV>, L<EV::Glib>,
2998L<Glib::EV>, L<Event>, L<Glib::Event>, L<Glib>, L<Tk>, L<Event::Lib>,
2999L<Qt>, L<POE>, L<FLTK>.
3000
683L<AnyEvent::Impl::CoroEvent>, L<AnyEvent::Impl::Event>, 3001Implementations: L<AnyEvent::Impl::EV>, L<AnyEvent::Impl::Event>,
684L<AnyEvent::Impl::Glib>, L<AnyEvent::Impl::Tk>, L<AnyEvent::Impl::Perl>. 3002L<AnyEvent::Impl::Glib>, L<AnyEvent::Impl::Tk>, L<AnyEvent::Impl::Perl>,
3003L<AnyEvent::Impl::EventLib>, L<AnyEvent::Impl::Qt>,
3004L<AnyEvent::Impl::POE>, L<AnyEvent::Impl::IOAsync>, L<Anyevent::Impl::Irssi>,
3005L<AnyEvent::Impl::FLTK>.
685 3006
3007Non-blocking handles, pipes, stream sockets, TCP clients and
3008servers: L<AnyEvent::Handle>, L<AnyEvent::Socket>, L<AnyEvent::TLS>.
3009
3010Asynchronous DNS: L<AnyEvent::DNS>.
3011
3012Thread support: L<Coro>, L<Coro::AnyEvent>, L<Coro::EV>, L<Coro::Event>.
3013
686Nontrivial usage examples: L<Net::FCP>, L<Net::XMPP2>. 3014Nontrivial usage examples: L<AnyEvent::GPSD>, L<AnyEvent::IRC>,
3015L<AnyEvent::HTTP>.
687 3016
688=head1 3017
3018=head1 AUTHOR
3019
3020 Marc Lehmann <schmorp@schmorp.de>
3021 http://home.schmorp.de/
689 3022
690=cut 3023=cut
691 3024
6921 30251
693 3026

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