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1=head1 NAME 1=head1 NAME
2 2
3AnyEvent - provide framework for multiple event loops 3AnyEvent - provide framework for multiple event loops
4 4
5EV, Event, Coro::EV, Coro::Event, Glib, Tk, Perl, Event::Lib - various supported event loops 5EV, Event, Glib, Tk, Perl, Event::Lib, Qt, POE - various supported event loops
6 6
7=head1 SYNOPSIS 7=head1 SYNOPSIS
8 8
9 use AnyEvent; 9 use AnyEvent;
10 10
11 my $w = AnyEvent->io (fh => $fh, poll => "r|w", cb => sub { 11 my $w = AnyEvent->io (fh => $fh, poll => "r|w", cb => sub { ... });
12
13 my $w = AnyEvent->timer (after => $seconds, cb => sub { ... });
14 my $w = AnyEvent->timer (after => $seconds, interval => $seconds, cb => ...
15
16 print AnyEvent->now; # prints current event loop time
17 print AnyEvent->time; # think Time::HiRes::time or simply CORE::time.
18
19 my $w = AnyEvent->signal (signal => "TERM", cb => sub { ... });
20
21 my $w = AnyEvent->child (pid => $pid, cb => sub {
22 my ($pid, $status) = @_;
12 ... 23 ...
13 }); 24 });
14 25
15 my $w = AnyEvent->timer (after => $seconds, cb => sub {
16 ...
17 });
18
19 my $w = AnyEvent->condvar; # stores whether a condition was flagged 26 my $w = AnyEvent->condvar; # stores whether a condition was flagged
27 $w->send; # wake up current and all future recv's
20 $w->wait; # enters "main loop" till $condvar gets ->broadcast 28 $w->recv; # enters "main loop" till $condvar gets ->send
21 $w->broadcast; # wake up current and all future wait's 29 # use a condvar in callback mode:
30 $w->cb (sub { $_[0]->recv });
31
32=head1 INTRODUCTION/TUTORIAL
33
34This manpage is mainly a reference manual. If you are interested
35in a tutorial or some gentle introduction, have a look at the
36L<AnyEvent::Intro> manpage.
22 37
23=head1 WHY YOU SHOULD USE THIS MODULE (OR NOT) 38=head1 WHY YOU SHOULD USE THIS MODULE (OR NOT)
24 39
25Glib, POE, IO::Async, Event... CPAN offers event models by the dozen 40Glib, POE, IO::Async, Event... CPAN offers event models by the dozen
26nowadays. So what is different about AnyEvent? 41nowadays. So what is different about AnyEvent?
27 42
28Executive Summary: AnyEvent is I<compatible>, AnyEvent is I<free of 43Executive Summary: AnyEvent is I<compatible>, AnyEvent is I<free of
29policy> and AnyEvent is I<small and efficient>. 44policy> and AnyEvent is I<small and efficient>.
30 45
31First and foremost, I<AnyEvent is not an event model> itself, it only 46First 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 47interfaces to whatever event model the main program happens to use, in a
33pragmatic way. For event models and certain classes of immortals alike, 48pragmatic way. For event models and certain classes of immortals alike,
34the statement "there can only be one" is a bitter reality: In general, 49the statement "there can only be one" is a bitter reality: In general,
35only one event loop can be active at the same time in a process. AnyEvent 50only one event loop can be active at the same time in a process. AnyEvent
36helps hiding the differences between those event loops. 51cannot change this, but it can hide the differences between those event
52loops.
37 53
38The goal of AnyEvent is to offer module authors the ability to do event 54The goal of AnyEvent is to offer module authors the ability to do event
39programming (waiting for I/O or timer events) without subscribing to a 55programming (waiting for I/O or timer events) without subscribing to a
40religion, a way of living, and most importantly: without forcing your 56religion, a way of living, and most importantly: without forcing your
41module users into the same thing by forcing them to use the same event 57module users into the same thing by forcing them to use the same event
42model you use. 58model you use.
43 59
44For modules like POE or IO::Async (which is a total misnomer as it is 60For modules like POE or IO::Async (which is a total misnomer as it is
45actually doing all I/O I<synchronously>...), using them in your module is 61actually doing all I/O I<synchronously>...), using them in your module is
46like joining a cult: After you joined, you are dependent on them and you 62like joining a cult: After you joined, you are dependent on them and you
47cannot use anything else, as it is simply incompatible to everything that 63cannot use anything else, as they are simply incompatible to everything
48isn't itself. What's worse, all the potential users of your module are 64that isn't them. What's worse, all the potential users of your
49I<also> forced to use the same event loop you use. 65module are I<also> forced to use the same event loop you use.
50 66
51AnyEvent is different: AnyEvent + POE works fine. AnyEvent + Glib works 67AnyEvent is different: AnyEvent + POE works fine. AnyEvent + Glib works
52fine. AnyEvent + Tk works fine etc. etc. but none of these work together 68fine. AnyEvent + Tk works fine etc. etc. but none of these work together
53with the rest: POE + IO::Async? no go. Tk + Event? no go. Again: if 69with the rest: POE + IO::Async? No go. Tk + Event? No go. Again: if
54your module uses one of those, every user of your module has to use it, 70your module uses one of those, every user of your module has to use it,
55too. But if your module uses AnyEvent, it works transparently with all 71too. But if your module uses AnyEvent, it works transparently with all
56event models it supports (including stuff like POE and IO::Async, as long 72event models it supports (including stuff like IO::Async, as long as those
57as those use one of the supported event loops. It is trivial to add new 73use one of the supported event loops. It is trivial to add new event loops
58event loops to AnyEvent, too, so it is future-proof). 74to AnyEvent, too, so it is future-proof).
59 75
60In addition to being free of having to use I<the one and only true event 76In addition to being free of having to use I<the one and only true event
61model>, AnyEvent also is free of bloat and policy: with POE or similar 77model>, AnyEvent also is free of bloat and policy: with POE or similar
62modules, you get an enourmous amount of code and strict rules you have to 78modules, you get an enormous amount of code and strict rules you have to
63follow. AnyEvent, on the other hand, is lean and up to the point, by only 79follow. AnyEvent, on the other hand, is lean and up to the point, by only
64offering the functionality that is necessary, in as thin as a wrapper as 80offering the functionality that is necessary, in as thin as a wrapper as
65technically possible. 81technically possible.
66 82
83Of course, AnyEvent comes with a big (and fully optional!) toolbox
84of useful functionality, such as an asynchronous DNS resolver, 100%
85non-blocking connects (even with TLS/SSL, IPv6 and on broken platforms
86such as Windows) and lots of real-world knowledge and workarounds for
87platform bugs and differences.
88
67Of course, if you want lots of policy (this can arguably be somewhat 89Now, if you I<do want> lots of policy (this can arguably be somewhat
68useful) and you want to force your users to use the one and only event 90useful) and you want to force your users to use the one and only event
69model, you should I<not> use this module. 91model, you should I<not> use this module.
70
71 92
72=head1 DESCRIPTION 93=head1 DESCRIPTION
73 94
74L<AnyEvent> provides an identical interface to multiple event loops. This 95L<AnyEvent> provides an identical interface to multiple event loops. This
75allows module authors to utilise an event loop without forcing module 96allows module authors to utilise an event loop without forcing module
79The interface itself is vaguely similar, but not identical to the L<Event> 100The interface itself is vaguely similar, but not identical to the L<Event>
80module. 101module.
81 102
82During the first call of any watcher-creation method, the module tries 103During the first call of any watcher-creation method, the module tries
83to detect the currently loaded event loop by probing whether one of the 104to detect the currently loaded event loop by probing whether one of the
84following modules is already loaded: L<Coro::EV>, L<Coro::Event>, L<EV>, 105following modules is already loaded: L<EV>,
85L<Event>, L<Glib>, L<Tk>. The first one found is used. If none are found, 106L<Event>, L<Glib>, L<AnyEvent::Impl::Perl>, L<Tk>, L<Event::Lib>, L<Qt>,
86the module tries to load these modules in the stated order. The first one 107L<POE>. The first one found is used. If none are found, the module tries
108to load these modules (excluding Tk, Event::Lib, Qt and POE as the pure perl
109adaptor should always succeed) in the order given. The first one that can
87that can be successfully loaded will be used. If, after this, still none 110be successfully loaded will be used. If, after this, still none could be
88could be found, AnyEvent will fall back to a pure-perl event loop, which 111found, AnyEvent will fall back to a pure-perl event loop, which is not
89is not very efficient, but should work everywhere. 112very efficient, but should work everywhere.
90 113
91Because AnyEvent first checks for modules that are already loaded, loading 114Because AnyEvent first checks for modules that are already loaded, loading
92an event model explicitly before first using AnyEvent will likely make 115an event model explicitly before first using AnyEvent will likely make
93that model the default. For example: 116that model the default. For example:
94 117
101starts using it, all bets are off. Maybe you should tell their authors to 124starts using it, all bets are off. Maybe you should tell their authors to
102use AnyEvent so their modules work together with others seamlessly... 125use AnyEvent so their modules work together with others seamlessly...
103 126
104The pure-perl implementation of AnyEvent is called 127The pure-perl implementation of AnyEvent is called
105C<AnyEvent::Impl::Perl>. Like other event modules you can load it 128C<AnyEvent::Impl::Perl>. Like other event modules you can load it
106explicitly. 129explicitly and enjoy the high availability of that event loop :)
107 130
108=head1 WATCHERS 131=head1 WATCHERS
109 132
110AnyEvent has the central concept of a I<watcher>, which is an object that 133AnyEvent has the central concept of a I<watcher>, which is an object that
111stores relevant data for each kind of event you are waiting for, such as 134stores relevant data for each kind of event you are waiting for, such as
112the callback to call, the filehandle to watch, etc. 135the callback to call, the file handle to watch, etc.
113 136
114These watchers are normal Perl objects with normal Perl lifetime. After 137These watchers are normal Perl objects with normal Perl lifetime. After
115creating a watcher it will immediately "watch" for events and invoke the 138creating a watcher it will immediately "watch" for events and invoke the
116callback when the event occurs (of course, only when the event model 139callback when the event occurs (of course, only when the event model
117is in control). 140is in control).
118 141
142Note that B<callbacks must not permanently change global variables>
143potentially in use by the event loop (such as C<$_> or C<$[>) and that B<<
144callbacks must not C<die> >>. The former is good programming practise in
145Perl and the latter stems from the fact that exception handling differs
146widely between event loops.
147
119To disable the watcher you have to destroy it (e.g. by setting the 148To disable the watcher you have to destroy it (e.g. by setting the
120variable you store it in to C<undef> or otherwise deleting all references 149variable you store it in to C<undef> or otherwise deleting all references
121to it). 150to it).
122 151
123All watchers are created by calling a method on the C<AnyEvent> class. 152All watchers are created by calling a method on the C<AnyEvent> class.
125Many watchers either are used with "recursion" (repeating timers for 154Many watchers either are used with "recursion" (repeating timers for
126example), or need to refer to their watcher object in other ways. 155example), or need to refer to their watcher object in other ways.
127 156
128An any way to achieve that is this pattern: 157An any way to achieve that is this pattern:
129 158
130 my $w; $w = AnyEvent->type (arg => value ..., cb => sub { 159 my $w; $w = AnyEvent->type (arg => value ..., cb => sub {
131 # you can use $w here, for example to undef it 160 # you can use $w here, for example to undef it
132 undef $w; 161 undef $w;
133 }); 162 });
134 163
135Note that C<my $w; $w => combination. This is necessary because in Perl, 164Note that C<my $w; $w => combination. This is necessary because in Perl,
136my variables are only visible after the statement in which they are 165my variables are only visible after the statement in which they are
137declared. 166declared.
138 167
139=head2 IO WATCHERS 168=head2 I/O WATCHERS
140 169
141You can create an I/O watcher by calling the C<< AnyEvent->io >> method 170You can create an I/O watcher by calling the C<< AnyEvent->io >> method
142with the following mandatory key-value pairs as arguments: 171with the following mandatory key-value pairs as arguments:
143 172
144C<fh> the Perl I<file handle> (I<not> file descriptor) to watch for 173C<fh> the Perl I<file handle> (I<not> file descriptor) to watch for events
174(AnyEvent might or might not keep a reference to this file handle). C<poll>
145events. C<poll> must be a string that is either C<r> or C<w>, which 175must be a string that is either C<r> or C<w>, which creates a watcher
146creates a watcher waiting for "r"eadable or "w"ritable events, 176waiting for "r"eadable or "w"ritable events, respectively. C<cb> is the
147respectively. C<cb> is the callback to invoke each time the file handle 177callback to invoke each time the file handle becomes ready.
148becomes ready.
149 178
150File handles will be kept alive, so as long as the watcher exists, the 179Although the callback might get passed parameters, their value and
151file handle exists, too. 180presence is undefined and you cannot rely on them. Portable AnyEvent
181callbacks cannot use arguments passed to I/O watcher callbacks.
152 182
183The I/O watcher might use the underlying file descriptor or a copy of it.
153It is not allowed to close a file handle as long as any watcher is active 184You must not close a file handle as long as any watcher is active on the
154on the underlying file descriptor. 185underlying file descriptor.
155 186
156Some event loops issue spurious readyness notifications, so you should 187Some event loops issue spurious readyness notifications, so you should
157always use non-blocking calls when reading/writing from/to your file 188always use non-blocking calls when reading/writing from/to your file
158handles. 189handles.
159 190
160Example:
161
162 # wait for readability of STDIN, then read a line and disable the watcher 191Example: wait for readability of STDIN, then read a line and disable the
192watcher.
193
163 my $w; $w = AnyEvent->io (fh => \*STDIN, poll => 'r', cb => sub { 194 my $w; $w = AnyEvent->io (fh => \*STDIN, poll => 'r', cb => sub {
164 chomp (my $input = <STDIN>); 195 chomp (my $input = <STDIN>);
165 warn "read: $input\n"; 196 warn "read: $input\n";
166 undef $w; 197 undef $w;
167 }); 198 });
170 201
171You can create a time watcher by calling the C<< AnyEvent->timer >> 202You can create a time watcher by calling the C<< AnyEvent->timer >>
172method with the following mandatory arguments: 203method with the following mandatory arguments:
173 204
174C<after> specifies after how many seconds (fractional values are 205C<after> specifies after how many seconds (fractional values are
175supported) should the timer activate. C<cb> the callback to invoke in that 206supported) the callback should be invoked. C<cb> is the callback to invoke
176case. 207in that case.
177 208
178The timer callback will be invoked at most once: if you want a repeating 209Although the callback might get passed parameters, their value and
179timer you have to create a new watcher (this is a limitation by both Tk 210presence is undefined and you cannot rely on them. Portable AnyEvent
180and Glib). 211callbacks cannot use arguments passed to time watcher callbacks.
181 212
182Example: 213The callback will normally be invoked once only. If you specify another
214parameter, C<interval>, as a strictly positive number (> 0), then the
215callback will be invoked regularly at that interval (in fractional
216seconds) after the first invocation. If C<interval> is specified with a
217false value, then it is treated as if it were missing.
183 218
219The callback will be rescheduled before invoking the callback, but no
220attempt is done to avoid timer drift in most backends, so the interval is
221only approximate.
222
184 # fire an event after 7.7 seconds 223Example: fire an event after 7.7 seconds.
224
185 my $w = AnyEvent->timer (after => 7.7, cb => sub { 225 my $w = AnyEvent->timer (after => 7.7, cb => sub {
186 warn "timeout\n"; 226 warn "timeout\n";
187 }); 227 });
188 228
189 # to cancel the timer: 229 # to cancel the timer:
190 undef $w; 230 undef $w;
191 231
192Example 2:
193
194 # fire an event after 0.5 seconds, then roughly every second 232Example 2: fire an event after 0.5 seconds, then roughly every second.
195 my $w;
196 233
197 my $cb = sub {
198 # cancel the old timer while creating a new one
199 $w = AnyEvent->timer (after => 1, cb => $cb); 234 my $w = AnyEvent->timer (after => 0.5, interval => 1, cb => sub {
235 warn "timeout\n";
200 }; 236 };
201
202 # start the "loop" by creating the first watcher
203 $w = AnyEvent->timer (after => 0.5, cb => $cb);
204 237
205=head3 TIMING ISSUES 238=head3 TIMING ISSUES
206 239
207There are two ways to handle timers: based on real time (relative, "fire 240There are two ways to handle timers: based on real time (relative, "fire
208in 10 seconds") and based on wallclock time (absolute, "fire at 12 241in 10 seconds") and based on wallclock time (absolute, "fire at 12
209o'clock"). 242o'clock").
210 243
211While most event loops expect timers to specified in a relative way, they use 244While most event loops expect timers to specified in a relative way, they
212absolute time internally. This makes a difference when your clock "jumps", 245use absolute time internally. This makes a difference when your clock
213for example, when ntp decides to set your clock backwards from the wrong 2014-01-01 to 246"jumps", for example, when ntp decides to set your clock backwards from
2142008-01-01, a watcher that you created to fire "after" a second might actually take 247the wrong date of 2014-01-01 to 2008-01-01, a watcher that is supposed to
215six years to finally fire. 248fire "after" a second might actually take six years to finally fire.
216 249
217AnyEvent cannot compensate for this. The only event loop that is conscious 250AnyEvent cannot compensate for this. The only event loop that is conscious
218about these issues is L<EV>, which offers both relative (ev_timer) and 251about these issues is L<EV>, which offers both relative (ev_timer, based
219absolute (ev_periodic) timers. 252on true relative time) and absolute (ev_periodic, based on wallclock time)
253timers.
220 254
221AnyEvent always prefers relative timers, if available, matching the 255AnyEvent always prefers relative timers, if available, matching the
222AnyEvent API. 256AnyEvent API.
223 257
258AnyEvent has two additional methods that return the "current time":
259
260=over 4
261
262=item AnyEvent->time
263
264This returns the "current wallclock time" as a fractional number of
265seconds since the Epoch (the same thing as C<time> or C<Time::HiRes::time>
266return, and the result is guaranteed to be compatible with those).
267
268It progresses independently of any event loop processing, i.e. each call
269will check the system clock, which usually gets updated frequently.
270
271=item AnyEvent->now
272
273This also returns the "current wallclock time", but unlike C<time>, above,
274this value might change only once per event loop iteration, depending on
275the event loop (most return the same time as C<time>, above). This is the
276time that AnyEvent's timers get scheduled against.
277
278I<In almost all cases (in all cases if you don't care), this is the
279function to call when you want to know the current time.>
280
281This function is also often faster then C<< AnyEvent->time >>, and
282thus the preferred method if you want some timestamp (for example,
283L<AnyEvent::Handle> uses this to update it's activity timeouts).
284
285The rest of this section is only of relevance if you try to be very exact
286with your timing, you can skip it without bad conscience.
287
288For a practical example of when these times differ, consider L<Event::Lib>
289and L<EV> and the following set-up:
290
291The event loop is running and has just invoked one of your callback at
292time=500 (assume no other callbacks delay processing). In your callback,
293you wait a second by executing C<sleep 1> (blocking the process for a
294second) and then (at time=501) you create a relative timer that fires
295after three seconds.
296
297With L<Event::Lib>, C<< AnyEvent->time >> and C<< AnyEvent->now >> will
298both return C<501>, because that is the current time, and the timer will
299be scheduled to fire at time=504 (C<501> + C<3>).
300
301With L<EV>, C<< AnyEvent->time >> returns C<501> (as that is the current
302time), but C<< AnyEvent->now >> returns C<500>, as that is the time the
303last event processing phase started. With L<EV>, your timer gets scheduled
304to run at time=503 (C<500> + C<3>).
305
306In one sense, L<Event::Lib> is more exact, as it uses the current time
307regardless of any delays introduced by event processing. However, most
308callbacks do not expect large delays in processing, so this causes a
309higher drift (and a lot more system calls to get the current time).
310
311In another sense, L<EV> is more exact, as your timer will be scheduled at
312the same time, regardless of how long event processing actually took.
313
314In either case, if you care (and in most cases, you don't), then you
315can get whatever behaviour you want with any event loop, by taking the
316difference between C<< AnyEvent->time >> and C<< AnyEvent->now >> into
317account.
318
319=back
320
224=head2 SIGNAL WATCHERS 321=head2 SIGNAL WATCHERS
225 322
226You can watch for signals using a signal watcher, C<signal> is the signal 323You can watch for signals using a signal watcher, C<signal> is the signal
227I<name> without any C<SIG> prefix, C<cb> is the Perl callback to 324I<name> in uppercase and without any C<SIG> prefix, C<cb> is the Perl
228be invoked whenever a signal occurs. 325callback to be invoked whenever a signal occurs.
229 326
327Although the callback might get passed parameters, their value and
328presence is undefined and you cannot rely on them. Portable AnyEvent
329callbacks cannot use arguments passed to signal watcher callbacks.
330
230Multiple signals occurances can be clumped together into one callback 331Multiple signal occurrences can be clumped together into one callback
231invocation, and callback invocation will be synchronous. synchronous means 332invocation, and callback invocation will be synchronous. Synchronous means
232that it might take a while until the signal gets handled by the process, 333that it might take a while until the signal gets handled by the process,
233but it is guarenteed not to interrupt any other callbacks. 334but it is guaranteed not to interrupt any other callbacks.
234 335
235The main advantage of using these watchers is that you can share a signal 336The main advantage of using these watchers is that you can share a signal
236between multiple watchers. 337between multiple watchers.
237 338
238This watcher might use C<%SIG>, so programs overwriting those signals 339This watcher might use C<%SIG>, so programs overwriting those signals
245=head2 CHILD PROCESS WATCHERS 346=head2 CHILD PROCESS WATCHERS
246 347
247You can also watch on a child process exit and catch its exit status. 348You can also watch on a child process exit and catch its exit status.
248 349
249The child process is specified by the C<pid> argument (if set to C<0>, it 350The child process is specified by the C<pid> argument (if set to C<0>, it
250watches for any child process exit). The watcher will trigger as often 351watches for any child process exit). The watcher will triggered only when
251as status change for the child are received. This works by installing a 352the child process has finished and an exit status is available, not on
252signal handler for C<SIGCHLD>. The callback will be called with the pid 353any trace events (stopped/continued).
253and exit status (as returned by waitpid).
254 354
255Example: wait for pid 1333 355The callback will be called with the pid and exit status (as returned by
356waitpid), so unlike other watcher types, you I<can> rely on child watcher
357callback arguments.
256 358
359This watcher type works by installing a signal handler for C<SIGCHLD>,
360and since it cannot be shared, nothing else should use SIGCHLD or reap
361random child processes (waiting for specific child processes, e.g. inside
362C<system>, is just fine).
363
364There is a slight catch to child watchers, however: you usually start them
365I<after> the child process was created, and this means the process could
366have exited already (and no SIGCHLD will be sent anymore).
367
368Not all event models handle this correctly (POE doesn't), but even for
369event models that I<do> handle this correctly, they usually need to be
370loaded before the process exits (i.e. before you fork in the first place).
371
372This means you cannot create a child watcher as the very first thing in an
373AnyEvent program, you I<have> to create at least one watcher before you
374C<fork> the child (alternatively, you can call C<AnyEvent::detect>).
375
376Example: fork a process and wait for it
377
378 my $done = AnyEvent->condvar;
379
380 my $pid = fork or exit 5;
381
257 my $w = AnyEvent->child ( 382 my $w = AnyEvent->child (
258 pid => 1333, 383 pid => $pid,
259 cb => sub { 384 cb => sub {
260 my ($pid, $status) = @_; 385 my ($pid, $status) = @_;
261 warn "pid $pid exited with status $status"; 386 warn "pid $pid exited with status $status";
387 $done->send;
262 }, 388 },
263 ); 389 );
390
391 # do something else, then wait for process exit
392 $done->recv;
264 393
265=head2 CONDITION VARIABLES 394=head2 CONDITION VARIABLES
266 395
396If you are familiar with some event loops you will know that all of them
397require you to run some blocking "loop", "run" or similar function that
398will actively watch for new events and call your callbacks.
399
400AnyEvent is different, it expects somebody else to run the event loop and
401will only block when necessary (usually when told by the user).
402
403The instrument to do that is called a "condition variable", so called
404because they represent a condition that must become true.
405
267Condition variables can be created by calling the C<< AnyEvent->condvar >> 406Condition variables can be created by calling the C<< AnyEvent->condvar
268method without any arguments. 407>> method, usually without arguments. The only argument pair allowed is
269 408
270A condition variable waits for a condition - precisely that the C<< 409C<cb>, which specifies a callback to be called when the condition variable
271->broadcast >> method has been called. 410becomes true, with the condition variable as the first argument (but not
411the results).
272 412
273They are very useful to signal that a condition has been fulfilled, for 413After creation, the condition variable is "false" until it becomes "true"
414by calling the C<send> method (or calling the condition variable as if it
415were a callback, read about the caveats in the description for the C<<
416->send >> method).
417
418Condition variables are similar to callbacks, except that you can
419optionally wait for them. They can also be called merge points - points
420in time where multiple outstanding events have been processed. And yet
421another way to call them is transactions - each condition variable can be
422used to represent a transaction, which finishes at some point and delivers
423a result.
424
425Condition variables are very useful to signal that something has finished,
274example, if you write a module that does asynchronous http requests, 426for example, if you write a module that does asynchronous http requests,
275then a condition variable would be the ideal candidate to signal the 427then a condition variable would be the ideal candidate to signal the
276availability of results. 428availability of results. The user can either act when the callback is
429called or can synchronously C<< ->recv >> for the results.
277 430
278You can also use condition variables to block your main program until 431You can also use them to simulate traditional event loops - for example,
279an event occurs - for example, you could C<< ->wait >> in your main 432you can block your main program until an event occurs - for example, you
280program until the user clicks the Quit button in your app, which would C<< 433could C<< ->recv >> in your main program until the user clicks the Quit
281->broadcast >> the "quit" event. 434button of your app, which would C<< ->send >> the "quit" event.
282 435
283Note that condition variables recurse into the event loop - if you have 436Note that condition variables recurse into the event loop - if you have
284two pirces of code that call C<< ->wait >> in a round-robbin fashion, you 437two pieces of code that call C<< ->recv >> in a round-robin fashion, you
285lose. Therefore, condition variables are good to export to your caller, but 438lose. Therefore, condition variables are good to export to your caller, but
286you should avoid making a blocking wait yourself, at least in callbacks, 439you should avoid making a blocking wait yourself, at least in callbacks,
287as this asks for trouble. 440as this asks for trouble.
288 441
289This object has two methods: 442Condition variables are represented by hash refs in perl, and the keys
443used by AnyEvent itself are all named C<_ae_XXX> to make subclassing
444easy (it is often useful to build your own transaction class on top of
445AnyEvent). To subclass, use C<AnyEvent::CondVar> as base class and call
446it's C<new> method in your own C<new> method.
447
448There are two "sides" to a condition variable - the "producer side" which
449eventually calls C<< -> send >>, and the "consumer side", which waits
450for the send to occur.
451
452Example: wait for a timer.
453
454 # wait till the result is ready
455 my $result_ready = AnyEvent->condvar;
456
457 # do something such as adding a timer
458 # or socket watcher the calls $result_ready->send
459 # when the "result" is ready.
460 # in this case, we simply use a timer:
461 my $w = AnyEvent->timer (
462 after => 1,
463 cb => sub { $result_ready->send },
464 );
465
466 # this "blocks" (while handling events) till the callback
467 # calls send
468 $result_ready->recv;
469
470Example: wait for a timer, but take advantage of the fact that
471condition variables are also code references.
472
473 my $done = AnyEvent->condvar;
474 my $delay = AnyEvent->timer (after => 5, cb => $done);
475 $done->recv;
476
477Example: Imagine an API that returns a condvar and doesn't support
478callbacks. This is how you make a synchronous call, for example from
479the main program:
480
481 use AnyEvent::CouchDB;
482
483 ...
484
485 my @info = $couchdb->info->recv;
486
487And this is how you would just ste a callback to be called whenever the
488results are available:
489
490 $couchdb->info->cb (sub {
491 my @info = $_[0]->recv;
492 });
493
494=head3 METHODS FOR PRODUCERS
495
496These methods should only be used by the producing side, i.e. the
497code/module that eventually sends the signal. Note that it is also
498the producer side which creates the condvar in most cases, but it isn't
499uncommon for the consumer to create it as well.
290 500
291=over 4 501=over 4
292 502
503=item $cv->send (...)
504
505Flag the condition as ready - a running C<< ->recv >> and all further
506calls to C<recv> will (eventually) return after this method has been
507called. If nobody is waiting the send will be remembered.
508
509If a callback has been set on the condition variable, it is called
510immediately from within send.
511
512Any arguments passed to the C<send> call will be returned by all
513future C<< ->recv >> calls.
514
515Condition variables are overloaded so one can call them directly
516(as a code reference). Calling them directly is the same as calling
517C<send>. Note, however, that many C-based event loops do not handle
518overloading, so as tempting as it may be, passing a condition variable
519instead of a callback does not work. Both the pure perl and EV loops
520support overloading, however, as well as all functions that use perl to
521invoke a callback (as in L<AnyEvent::Socket> and L<AnyEvent::DNS> for
522example).
523
524=item $cv->croak ($error)
525
526Similar to send, but causes all call's to C<< ->recv >> to invoke
527C<Carp::croak> with the given error message/object/scalar.
528
529This can be used to signal any errors to the condition variable
530user/consumer.
531
532=item $cv->begin ([group callback])
533
293=item $cv->wait 534=item $cv->end
294 535
295Wait (blocking if necessary) until the C<< ->broadcast >> method has been 536These two methods are EXPERIMENTAL and MIGHT CHANGE.
537
538These two methods can be used to combine many transactions/events into
539one. For example, a function that pings many hosts in parallel might want
540to use a condition variable for the whole process.
541
542Every call to C<< ->begin >> will increment a counter, and every call to
543C<< ->end >> will decrement it. If the counter reaches C<0> in C<< ->end
544>>, the (last) callback passed to C<begin> will be executed. That callback
545is I<supposed> to call C<< ->send >>, but that is not required. If no
546callback was set, C<send> will be called without any arguments.
547
548Let's clarify this with the ping example:
549
550 my $cv = AnyEvent->condvar;
551
552 my %result;
553 $cv->begin (sub { $cv->send (\%result) });
554
555 for my $host (@list_of_hosts) {
556 $cv->begin;
557 ping_host_then_call_callback $host, sub {
558 $result{$host} = ...;
559 $cv->end;
560 };
561 }
562
563 $cv->end;
564
565This code fragment supposedly pings a number of hosts and calls
566C<send> after results for all then have have been gathered - in any
567order. To achieve this, the code issues a call to C<begin> when it starts
568each ping request and calls C<end> when it has received some result for
569it. Since C<begin> and C<end> only maintain a counter, the order in which
570results arrive is not relevant.
571
572There is an additional bracketing call to C<begin> and C<end> outside the
573loop, which serves two important purposes: first, it sets the callback
574to be called once the counter reaches C<0>, and second, it ensures that
575C<send> is called even when C<no> hosts are being pinged (the loop
576doesn't execute once).
577
578This is the general pattern when you "fan out" into multiple subrequests:
579use an outer C<begin>/C<end> pair to set the callback and ensure C<end>
580is called at least once, and then, for each subrequest you start, call
581C<begin> and for each subrequest you finish, call C<end>.
582
583=back
584
585=head3 METHODS FOR CONSUMERS
586
587These methods should only be used by the consuming side, i.e. the
588code awaits the condition.
589
590=over 4
591
592=item $cv->recv
593
594Wait (blocking if necessary) until the C<< ->send >> or C<< ->croak
296called on c<$cv>, while servicing other watchers normally. 595>> methods have been called on c<$cv>, while servicing other watchers
596normally.
297 597
298You can only wait once on a condition - additional calls will return 598You can only wait once on a condition - additional calls are valid but
299immediately. 599will return immediately.
600
601If an error condition has been set by calling C<< ->croak >>, then this
602function will call C<croak>.
603
604In list context, all parameters passed to C<send> will be returned,
605in scalar context only the first one will be returned.
300 606
301Not all event models support a blocking wait - some die in that case 607Not all event models support a blocking wait - some die in that case
302(programs might want to do that to stay interactive), so I<if you are 608(programs might want to do that to stay interactive), so I<if you are
303using this from a module, never require a blocking wait>, but let the 609using this from a module, never require a blocking wait>, but let the
304caller decide whether the call will block or not (for example, by coupling 610caller decide whether the call will block or not (for example, by coupling
305condition variables with some kind of request results and supporting 611condition variables with some kind of request results and supporting
306callbacks so the caller knows that getting the result will not block, 612callbacks so the caller knows that getting the result will not block,
307while still suppporting blocking waits if the caller so desires). 613while still supporting blocking waits if the caller so desires).
308 614
309Another reason I<never> to C<< ->wait >> in a module is that you cannot 615Another reason I<never> to C<< ->recv >> in a module is that you cannot
310sensibly have two C<< ->wait >>'s in parallel, as that would require 616sensibly have two C<< ->recv >>'s in parallel, as that would require
311multiple interpreters or coroutines/threads, none of which C<AnyEvent> 617multiple interpreters or coroutines/threads, none of which C<AnyEvent>
312can supply (the coroutine-aware backends L<AnyEvent::Impl::CoroEV> and 618can supply.
313L<AnyEvent::Impl::CoroEvent> explicitly support concurrent C<< ->wait >>'s
314from different coroutines, however).
315 619
316=item $cv->broadcast 620The L<Coro> module, however, I<can> and I<does> supply coroutines and, in
621fact, L<Coro::AnyEvent> replaces AnyEvent's condvars by coroutine-safe
622versions and also integrates coroutines into AnyEvent, making blocking
623C<< ->recv >> calls perfectly safe as long as they are done from another
624coroutine (one that doesn't run the event loop).
317 625
318Flag the condition as ready - a running C<< ->wait >> and all further 626You can ensure that C<< -recv >> never blocks by setting a callback and
319calls to C<wait> will (eventually) return after this method has been 627only calling C<< ->recv >> from within that callback (or at a later
320called. If nobody is waiting the broadcast will be remembered.. 628time). This will work even when the event loop does not support blocking
629waits otherwise.
630
631=item $bool = $cv->ready
632
633Returns true when the condition is "true", i.e. whether C<send> or
634C<croak> have been called.
635
636=item $cb = $cv->cb ($cb->($cv))
637
638This is a mutator function that returns the callback set and optionally
639replaces it before doing so.
640
641The callback will be called when the condition becomes "true", i.e. when
642C<send> or C<croak> are called, with the only argument being the condition
643variable itself. Calling C<recv> inside the callback or at any later time
644is guaranteed not to block.
321 645
322=back 646=back
323
324Example:
325
326 # wait till the result is ready
327 my $result_ready = AnyEvent->condvar;
328
329 # do something such as adding a timer
330 # or socket watcher the calls $result_ready->broadcast
331 # when the "result" is ready.
332 # in this case, we simply use a timer:
333 my $w = AnyEvent->timer (
334 after => 1,
335 cb => sub { $result_ready->broadcast },
336 );
337
338 # this "blocks" (while handling events) till the watcher
339 # calls broadcast
340 $result_ready->wait;
341 647
342=head1 GLOBAL VARIABLES AND FUNCTIONS 648=head1 GLOBAL VARIABLES AND FUNCTIONS
343 649
344=over 4 650=over 4
345 651
351C<AnyEvent::Impl:xxx> modules, but can be any other class in the case 657C<AnyEvent::Impl:xxx> modules, but can be any other class in the case
352AnyEvent has been extended at runtime (e.g. in I<rxvt-unicode>). 658AnyEvent has been extended at runtime (e.g. in I<rxvt-unicode>).
353 659
354The known classes so far are: 660The known classes so far are:
355 661
356 AnyEvent::Impl::CoroEV based on Coro::EV, best choice.
357 AnyEvent::Impl::CoroEvent based on Coro::Event, second best choice.
358 AnyEvent::Impl::EV based on EV (an interface to libev, also best choice). 662 AnyEvent::Impl::EV based on EV (an interface to libev, best choice).
359 AnyEvent::Impl::Event based on Event, also second best choice :) 663 AnyEvent::Impl::Event based on Event, second best choice.
664 AnyEvent::Impl::Perl pure-perl implementation, fast and portable.
360 AnyEvent::Impl::Glib based on Glib, third-best choice. 665 AnyEvent::Impl::Glib based on Glib, third-best choice.
361 AnyEvent::Impl::Tk based on Tk, very bad choice. 666 AnyEvent::Impl::Tk based on Tk, very bad choice.
362 AnyEvent::Impl::Perl pure-perl implementation, inefficient but portable. 667 AnyEvent::Impl::Qt based on Qt, cannot be autoprobed (see its docs).
363 AnyEvent::Impl::EventLib based on Event::Lib, leaks memory and worse. 668 AnyEvent::Impl::EventLib based on Event::Lib, leaks memory and worse.
669 AnyEvent::Impl::POE based on POE, not generic enough for full support.
670
671There is no support for WxWidgets, as WxWidgets has no support for
672watching file handles. However, you can use WxWidgets through the
673POE Adaptor, as POE has a Wx backend that simply polls 20 times per
674second, which was considered to be too horrible to even consider for
675AnyEvent. Likewise, other POE backends can be used by AnyEvent by using
676it's adaptor.
677
678AnyEvent knows about L<Prima> and L<Wx> and will try to use L<POE> when
679autodetecting them.
364 680
365=item AnyEvent::detect 681=item AnyEvent::detect
366 682
367Returns C<$AnyEvent::MODEL>, forcing autodetection of the event model 683Returns C<$AnyEvent::MODEL>, forcing autodetection of the event model
368if necessary. You should only call this function right before you would 684if necessary. You should only call this function right before you would
369have created an AnyEvent watcher anyway, that is, as late as possible at 685have created an AnyEvent watcher anyway, that is, as late as possible at
370runtime. 686runtime.
371 687
688=item $guard = AnyEvent::post_detect { BLOCK }
689
690Arranges for the code block to be executed as soon as the event model is
691autodetected (or immediately if this has already happened).
692
693If called in scalar or list context, then it creates and returns an object
694that automatically removes the callback again when it is destroyed. See
695L<Coro::BDB> for a case where this is useful.
696
697=item @AnyEvent::post_detect
698
699If there are any code references in this array (you can C<push> to it
700before or after loading AnyEvent), then they will called directly after
701the event loop has been chosen.
702
703You should check C<$AnyEvent::MODEL> before adding to this array, though:
704if it contains a true value then the event loop has already been detected,
705and the array will be ignored.
706
707Best use C<AnyEvent::post_detect { BLOCK }> instead.
708
372=back 709=back
373 710
374=head1 WHAT TO DO IN A MODULE 711=head1 WHAT TO DO IN A MODULE
375 712
376As a module author, you should C<use AnyEvent> and call AnyEvent methods 713As a module author, you should C<use AnyEvent> and call AnyEvent methods
379Be careful when you create watchers in the module body - AnyEvent will 716Be careful when you create watchers in the module body - AnyEvent will
380decide which event module to use as soon as the first method is called, so 717decide which event module to use as soon as the first method is called, so
381by calling AnyEvent in your module body you force the user of your module 718by calling AnyEvent in your module body you force the user of your module
382to load the event module first. 719to load the event module first.
383 720
384Never call C<< ->wait >> on a condition variable unless you I<know> that 721Never call C<< ->recv >> on a condition variable unless you I<know> that
385the C<< ->broadcast >> method has been called on it already. This is 722the C<< ->send >> method has been called on it already. This is
386because it will stall the whole program, and the whole point of using 723because it will stall the whole program, and the whole point of using
387events is to stay interactive. 724events is to stay interactive.
388 725
389It is fine, however, to call C<< ->wait >> when the user of your module 726It is fine, however, to call C<< ->recv >> when the user of your module
390requests it (i.e. if you create a http request object ad have a method 727requests it (i.e. if you create a http request object ad have a method
391called C<results> that returns the results, it should call C<< ->wait >> 728called C<results> that returns the results, it should call C<< ->recv >>
392freely, as the user of your module knows what she is doing. always). 729freely, as the user of your module knows what she is doing. always).
393 730
394=head1 WHAT TO DO IN THE MAIN PROGRAM 731=head1 WHAT TO DO IN THE MAIN PROGRAM
395 732
396There will always be a single main program - the only place that should 733There will always be a single main program - the only place that should
398 735
399If it doesn't care, it can just "use AnyEvent" and use it itself, or not 736If it doesn't care, it can just "use AnyEvent" and use it itself, or not
400do anything special (it does not need to be event-based) and let AnyEvent 737do anything special (it does not need to be event-based) and let AnyEvent
401decide which implementation to chose if some module relies on it. 738decide which implementation to chose if some module relies on it.
402 739
403If the main program relies on a specific event model. For example, in 740If the main program relies on a specific event model - for example, in
404Gtk2 programs you have to rely on the Glib module. You should load the 741Gtk2 programs you have to rely on the Glib module - you should load the
405event module before loading AnyEvent or any module that uses it: generally 742event module before loading AnyEvent or any module that uses it: generally
406speaking, you should load it as early as possible. The reason is that 743speaking, you should load it as early as possible. The reason is that
407modules might create watchers when they are loaded, and AnyEvent will 744modules might create watchers when they are loaded, and AnyEvent will
408decide on the event model to use as soon as it creates watchers, and it 745decide on the event model to use as soon as it creates watchers, and it
409might chose the wrong one unless you load the correct one yourself. 746might chose the wrong one unless you load the correct one yourself.
410 747
411You can chose to use a rather inefficient pure-perl implementation by 748You can chose to use a pure-perl implementation by loading the
412loading the C<AnyEvent::Impl::Perl> module, which gives you similar 749C<AnyEvent::Impl::Perl> module, which gives you similar behaviour
413behaviour everywhere, but letting AnyEvent chose is generally better. 750everywhere, but letting AnyEvent chose the model is generally better.
751
752=head2 MAINLOOP EMULATION
753
754Sometimes (often for short test scripts, or even standalone programs who
755only want to use AnyEvent), you do not want to run a specific event loop.
756
757In that case, you can use a condition variable like this:
758
759 AnyEvent->condvar->recv;
760
761This has the effect of entering the event loop and looping forever.
762
763Note that usually your program has some exit condition, in which case
764it is better to use the "traditional" approach of storing a condition
765variable somewhere, waiting for it, and sending it when the program should
766exit cleanly.
767
768
769=head1 OTHER MODULES
770
771The following is a non-exhaustive list of additional modules that use
772AnyEvent and can therefore be mixed easily with other AnyEvent modules
773in the same program. Some of the modules come with AnyEvent, some are
774available via CPAN.
775
776=over 4
777
778=item L<AnyEvent::Util>
779
780Contains various utility functions that replace often-used but blocking
781functions such as C<inet_aton> by event-/callback-based versions.
782
783=item L<AnyEvent::Socket>
784
785Provides various utility functions for (internet protocol) sockets,
786addresses and name resolution. Also functions to create non-blocking tcp
787connections or tcp servers, with IPv6 and SRV record support and more.
788
789=item L<AnyEvent::Handle>
790
791Provide read and write buffers, manages watchers for reads and writes,
792supports raw and formatted I/O, I/O queued and fully transparent and
793non-blocking SSL/TLS.
794
795=item L<AnyEvent::DNS>
796
797Provides rich asynchronous DNS resolver capabilities.
798
799=item L<AnyEvent::HTTP>
800
801A simple-to-use HTTP library that is capable of making a lot of concurrent
802HTTP requests.
803
804=item L<AnyEvent::HTTPD>
805
806Provides a simple web application server framework.
807
808=item L<AnyEvent::FastPing>
809
810The fastest ping in the west.
811
812=item L<AnyEvent::DBI>
813
814Executes L<DBI> requests asynchronously in a proxy process.
815
816=item L<AnyEvent::AIO>
817
818Truly asynchronous I/O, should be in the toolbox of every event
819programmer. AnyEvent::AIO transparently fuses L<IO::AIO> and AnyEvent
820together.
821
822=item L<AnyEvent::BDB>
823
824Truly asynchronous Berkeley DB access. AnyEvent::BDB transparently fuses
825L<BDB> and AnyEvent together.
826
827=item L<AnyEvent::GPSD>
828
829A non-blocking interface to gpsd, a daemon delivering GPS information.
830
831=item L<AnyEvent::IGS>
832
833A non-blocking interface to the Internet Go Server protocol (used by
834L<App::IGS>).
835
836=item L<AnyEvent::IRC>
837
838AnyEvent based IRC client module family (replacing the older Net::IRC3).
839
840=item L<Net::XMPP2>
841
842AnyEvent based XMPP (Jabber protocol) module family.
843
844=item L<Net::FCP>
845
846AnyEvent-based implementation of the Freenet Client Protocol, birthplace
847of AnyEvent.
848
849=item L<Event::ExecFlow>
850
851High level API for event-based execution flow control.
852
853=item L<Coro>
854
855Has special support for AnyEvent via L<Coro::AnyEvent>.
856
857=item L<IO::Lambda>
858
859The lambda approach to I/O - don't ask, look there. Can use AnyEvent.
860
861=back
414 862
415=cut 863=cut
416 864
417package AnyEvent; 865package AnyEvent;
418 866
419no warnings; 867no warnings;
420use strict; 868use strict qw(vars subs);
421 869
422use Carp; 870use Carp;
423 871
424our $VERSION = '3.12'; 872our $VERSION = 4.341;
425our $MODEL; 873our $MODEL;
426 874
427our $AUTOLOAD; 875our $AUTOLOAD;
428our @ISA; 876our @ISA;
429 877
878our @REGISTRY;
879
880our $WIN32;
881
882BEGIN {
883 my $win32 = ! ! ($^O =~ /mswin32/i);
884 eval "sub WIN32(){ $win32 }";
885}
886
430our $verbose = $ENV{PERL_ANYEVENT_VERBOSE}*1; 887our $verbose = $ENV{PERL_ANYEVENT_VERBOSE}*1;
431 888
432our @REGISTRY; 889our %PROTOCOL; # (ipv4|ipv6) => (1|2), higher numbers are preferred
890
891{
892 my $idx;
893 $PROTOCOL{$_} = ++$idx
894 for reverse split /\s*,\s*/,
895 $ENV{PERL_ANYEVENT_PROTOCOLS} || "ipv4,ipv6";
896}
433 897
434my @models = ( 898my @models = (
435 [Coro::EV:: => AnyEvent::Impl::CoroEV::],
436 [Coro::Event:: => AnyEvent::Impl::CoroEvent::],
437 [EV:: => AnyEvent::Impl::EV::], 899 [EV:: => AnyEvent::Impl::EV::],
438 [Event:: => AnyEvent::Impl::Event::], 900 [Event:: => AnyEvent::Impl::Event::],
439 [Glib:: => AnyEvent::Impl::Glib::],
440 [Tk:: => AnyEvent::Impl::Tk::],
441 [AnyEvent::Impl::Perl:: => AnyEvent::Impl::Perl::], 901 [AnyEvent::Impl::Perl:: => AnyEvent::Impl::Perl::],
902 # everything below here will not be autoprobed
903 # as the pureperl backend should work everywhere
904 # and is usually faster
905 [Tk:: => AnyEvent::Impl::Tk::], # crashes with many handles
906 [Glib:: => AnyEvent::Impl::Glib::], # becomes extremely slow with many watchers
442 [Event::Lib:: => AnyEvent::Impl::EventLib::], 907 [Event::Lib:: => AnyEvent::Impl::EventLib::], # too buggy
908 [Qt:: => AnyEvent::Impl::Qt::], # requires special main program
909 [POE::Kernel:: => AnyEvent::Impl::POE::], # lasciate ogni speranza
910 [Wx:: => AnyEvent::Impl::POE::],
911 [Prima:: => AnyEvent::Impl::POE::],
443); 912);
444 913
445our %method = map +($_ => 1), qw(io timer condvar broadcast wait signal one_event DESTROY); 914our %method = map +($_ => 1), qw(io timer time now signal child condvar one_event DESTROY);
915
916our @post_detect;
917
918sub post_detect(&) {
919 my ($cb) = @_;
920
921 if ($MODEL) {
922 $cb->();
923
924 1
925 } else {
926 push @post_detect, $cb;
927
928 defined wantarray
929 ? bless \$cb, "AnyEvent::Util::PostDetect"
930 : ()
931 }
932}
933
934sub AnyEvent::Util::PostDetect::DESTROY {
935 @post_detect = grep $_ != ${$_[0]}, @post_detect;
936}
446 937
447sub detect() { 938sub detect() {
448 unless ($MODEL) { 939 unless ($MODEL) {
449 no strict 'refs'; 940 no strict 'refs';
941 local $SIG{__DIE__};
450 942
451 if ($ENV{PERL_ANYEVENT_MODEL} =~ /^([a-zA-Z]+)$/) { 943 if ($ENV{PERL_ANYEVENT_MODEL} =~ /^([a-zA-Z]+)$/) {
452 my $model = "AnyEvent::Impl::$1"; 944 my $model = "AnyEvent::Impl::$1";
453 if (eval "require $model") { 945 if (eval "require $model") {
454 $MODEL = $model; 946 $MODEL = $model;
455 warn "AnyEvent: loaded model '$model' (forced by \$PERL_ANYEVENT_MODEL), using it.\n" if $verbose > 1; 947 warn "AnyEvent: loaded model '$model' (forced by \$PERL_ANYEVENT_MODEL), using it.\n" if $verbose > 1;
948 } else {
949 warn "AnyEvent: unable to load model '$model' (from \$PERL_ANYEVENT_MODEL):\n$@" if $verbose;
456 } 950 }
457 } 951 }
458 952
459 # check for already loaded models 953 # check for already loaded models
460 unless ($MODEL) { 954 unless ($MODEL) {
482 last; 976 last;
483 } 977 }
484 } 978 }
485 979
486 $MODEL 980 $MODEL
487 or die "No event module selected for AnyEvent and autodetect failed. Install any one of these modules: EV (or Coro+EV), Event (or Coro+Event) or Glib."; 981 or die "No event module selected for AnyEvent and autodetect failed. Install any one of these modules: EV, Event or Glib.";
488 } 982 }
489 } 983 }
490 984
985 push @{"$MODEL\::ISA"}, "AnyEvent::Base";
986
491 unshift @ISA, $MODEL; 987 unshift @ISA, $MODEL;
492 push @{"$MODEL\::ISA"}, "AnyEvent::Base"; 988
989 require AnyEvent::Strict if $ENV{PERL_ANYEVENT_STRICT};
990
991 (shift @post_detect)->() while @post_detect;
493 } 992 }
494 993
495 $MODEL 994 $MODEL
496} 995}
497 996
505 1004
506 my $class = shift; 1005 my $class = shift;
507 $class->$func (@_); 1006 $class->$func (@_);
508} 1007}
509 1008
1009# utility function to dup a filehandle. this is used by many backends
1010# to support binding more than one watcher per filehandle (they usually
1011# allow only one watcher per fd, so we dup it to get a different one).
1012sub _dupfh($$$$) {
1013 my ($poll, $fh, $r, $w) = @_;
1014
1015 # cygwin requires the fh mode to be matching, unix doesn't
1016 my ($rw, $mode) = $poll eq "r" ? ($r, "<")
1017 : $poll eq "w" ? ($w, ">")
1018 : Carp::croak "AnyEvent->io requires poll set to either 'r' or 'w'";
1019
1020 open my $fh2, "$mode&" . fileno $fh
1021 or die "cannot dup() filehandle: $!";
1022
1023 # we assume CLOEXEC is already set by perl in all important cases
1024
1025 ($fh2, $rw)
1026}
1027
510package AnyEvent::Base; 1028package AnyEvent::Base;
511 1029
1030# default implementation for now and time
1031
1032BEGIN {
1033 if (eval "use Time::HiRes (); time (); 1") {
1034 *_time = \&Time::HiRes::time;
1035 # if (eval "use POSIX (); (POSIX::times())...
1036 } else {
1037 *_time = sub { time }; # epic fail
1038 }
1039}
1040
1041sub time { _time }
1042sub now { _time }
1043
512# default implementation for ->condvar, ->wait, ->broadcast 1044# default implementation for ->condvar
513 1045
514sub condvar { 1046sub condvar {
515 bless \my $flag, "AnyEvent::Base::CondVar" 1047 bless { @_ == 3 ? (_ae_cb => $_[2]) : () }, AnyEvent::CondVar::
516}
517
518sub AnyEvent::Base::CondVar::broadcast {
519 ${$_[0]}++;
520}
521
522sub AnyEvent::Base::CondVar::wait {
523 AnyEvent->one_event while !${$_[0]};
524} 1048}
525 1049
526# default implementation for ->signal 1050# default implementation for ->signal
527 1051
528our %SIG_CB; 1052our ($SIGPIPE_R, $SIGPIPE_W, %SIG_CB, %SIG_EV, $SIG_IO);
1053
1054sub _signal_exec {
1055 while (%SIG_EV) {
1056 sysread $SIGPIPE_R, my $dummy, 4;
1057 for (keys %SIG_EV) {
1058 delete $SIG_EV{$_};
1059 $_->() for values %{ $SIG_CB{$_} || {} };
1060 }
1061 }
1062}
529 1063
530sub signal { 1064sub signal {
531 my (undef, %arg) = @_; 1065 my (undef, %arg) = @_;
532 1066
1067 unless ($SIGPIPE_R) {
1068 if (AnyEvent::WIN32) {
1069 ($SIGPIPE_R, $SIGPIPE_W) = AnyEvent::Util::portable_pipe ();
1070 AnyEvent::Util::fh_nonblocking ($SIGPIPE_R) if $SIGPIPE_R;
1071 AnyEvent::Util::fh_nonblocking ($SIGPIPE_W) if $SIGPIPE_W; # just in case
1072 } else {
1073 pipe $SIGPIPE_R, $SIGPIPE_W;
1074 require Fcntl;
1075 fcntl $SIGPIPE_R, &Fcntl::F_SETFL, &Fcntl::O_NONBLOCK if $SIGPIPE_R;
1076 fcntl $SIGPIPE_W, &Fcntl::F_SETFL, &Fcntl::O_NONBLOCK if $SIGPIPE_W; # just in case
1077 }
1078
1079 $SIGPIPE_R
1080 or Carp::croak "AnyEvent: unable to create a signal reporting pipe: $!\n";
1081
1082 $SIG_IO = AnyEvent->io (fh => $SIGPIPE_R, poll => "r", cb => \&_signal_exec);
1083 }
1084
533 my $signal = uc $arg{signal} 1085 my $signal = uc $arg{signal}
534 or Carp::croak "required option 'signal' is missing"; 1086 or Carp::croak "required option 'signal' is missing";
535 1087
536 $SIG_CB{$signal}{$arg{cb}} = $arg{cb}; 1088 $SIG_CB{$signal}{$arg{cb}} = $arg{cb};
537 $SIG{$signal} ||= sub { 1089 $SIG{$signal} ||= sub {
538 $_->() for values %{ $SIG_CB{$signal} || {} }; 1090 syswrite $SIGPIPE_W, "\x00", 1 unless %SIG_EV;
1091 undef $SIG_EV{$signal};
539 }; 1092 };
540 1093
541 bless [$signal, $arg{cb}], "AnyEvent::Base::Signal" 1094 bless [$signal, $arg{cb}], "AnyEvent::Base::Signal"
542} 1095}
543 1096
544sub AnyEvent::Base::Signal::DESTROY { 1097sub AnyEvent::Base::Signal::DESTROY {
545 my ($signal, $cb) = @{$_[0]}; 1098 my ($signal, $cb) = @{$_[0]};
546 1099
547 delete $SIG_CB{$signal}{$cb}; 1100 delete $SIG_CB{$signal}{$cb};
548 1101
549 $SIG{$signal} = 'DEFAULT' unless keys %{ $SIG_CB{$signal} }; 1102 delete $SIG{$signal} unless keys %{ $SIG_CB{$signal} };
550} 1103}
551 1104
552# default implementation for ->child 1105# default implementation for ->child
553 1106
554our %PID_CB; 1107our %PID_CB;
581 or Carp::croak "required option 'pid' is missing"; 1134 or Carp::croak "required option 'pid' is missing";
582 1135
583 $PID_CB{$pid}{$arg{cb}} = $arg{cb}; 1136 $PID_CB{$pid}{$arg{cb}} = $arg{cb};
584 1137
585 unless ($WNOHANG) { 1138 unless ($WNOHANG) {
586 $WNOHANG = eval { require POSIX; &POSIX::WNOHANG } || 1; 1139 $WNOHANG = eval { local $SIG{__DIE__}; require POSIX; &POSIX::WNOHANG } || 1;
587 } 1140 }
588 1141
589 unless ($CHLD_W) { 1142 unless ($CHLD_W) {
590 $CHLD_W = AnyEvent->signal (signal => 'CHLD', cb => \&_sigchld); 1143 $CHLD_W = AnyEvent->signal (signal => 'CHLD', cb => \&_sigchld);
591 # child could be a zombie already, so make at least one round 1144 # child could be a zombie already, so make at least one round
601 delete $PID_CB{$pid}{$cb}; 1154 delete $PID_CB{$pid}{$cb};
602 delete $PID_CB{$pid} unless keys %{ $PID_CB{$pid} }; 1155 delete $PID_CB{$pid} unless keys %{ $PID_CB{$pid} };
603 1156
604 undef $CHLD_W unless keys %PID_CB; 1157 undef $CHLD_W unless keys %PID_CB;
605} 1158}
1159
1160package AnyEvent::CondVar;
1161
1162our @ISA = AnyEvent::CondVar::Base::;
1163
1164package AnyEvent::CondVar::Base;
1165
1166use overload
1167 '&{}' => sub { my $self = shift; sub { $self->send (@_) } },
1168 fallback => 1;
1169
1170sub _send {
1171 # nop
1172}
1173
1174sub send {
1175 my $cv = shift;
1176 $cv->{_ae_sent} = [@_];
1177 (delete $cv->{_ae_cb})->($cv) if $cv->{_ae_cb};
1178 $cv->_send;
1179}
1180
1181sub croak {
1182 $_[0]{_ae_croak} = $_[1];
1183 $_[0]->send;
1184}
1185
1186sub ready {
1187 $_[0]{_ae_sent}
1188}
1189
1190sub _wait {
1191 AnyEvent->one_event while !$_[0]{_ae_sent};
1192}
1193
1194sub recv {
1195 $_[0]->_wait;
1196
1197 Carp::croak $_[0]{_ae_croak} if $_[0]{_ae_croak};
1198 wantarray ? @{ $_[0]{_ae_sent} } : $_[0]{_ae_sent}[0]
1199}
1200
1201sub cb {
1202 $_[0]{_ae_cb} = $_[1] if @_ > 1;
1203 $_[0]{_ae_cb}
1204}
1205
1206sub begin {
1207 ++$_[0]{_ae_counter};
1208 $_[0]{_ae_end_cb} = $_[1] if @_ > 1;
1209}
1210
1211sub end {
1212 return if --$_[0]{_ae_counter};
1213 &{ $_[0]{_ae_end_cb} || sub { $_[0]->send } };
1214}
1215
1216# undocumented/compatibility with pre-3.4
1217*broadcast = \&send;
1218*wait = \&_wait;
1219
1220=head1 ERROR AND EXCEPTION HANDLING
1221
1222In general, AnyEvent does not do any error handling - it relies on the
1223caller to do that if required. The L<AnyEvent::Strict> module (see also
1224the C<PERL_ANYEVENT_STRICT> environment variable, below) provides strict
1225checking of all AnyEvent methods, however, which is highly useful during
1226development.
1227
1228As for exception handling (i.e. runtime errors and exceptions thrown while
1229executing a callback), this is not only highly event-loop specific, but
1230also not in any way wrapped by this module, as this is the job of the main
1231program.
1232
1233The pure perl event loop simply re-throws the exception (usually
1234within C<< condvar->recv >>), the L<Event> and L<EV> modules call C<<
1235$Event/EV::DIED->() >>, L<Glib> uses C<< install_exception_handler >> and
1236so on.
1237
1238=head1 ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES
1239
1240The following environment variables are used by this module or its
1241submodules:
1242
1243=over 4
1244
1245=item C<PERL_ANYEVENT_VERBOSE>
1246
1247By default, AnyEvent will be completely silent except in fatal
1248conditions. You can set this environment variable to make AnyEvent more
1249talkative.
1250
1251When set to C<1> or higher, causes AnyEvent to warn about unexpected
1252conditions, such as not being able to load the event model specified by
1253C<PERL_ANYEVENT_MODEL>.
1254
1255When set to C<2> or higher, cause AnyEvent to report to STDERR which event
1256model it chooses.
1257
1258=item C<PERL_ANYEVENT_STRICT>
1259
1260AnyEvent does not do much argument checking by default, as thorough
1261argument checking is very costly. Setting this variable to a true value
1262will cause AnyEvent to load C<AnyEvent::Strict> and then to thoroughly
1263check the arguments passed to most method calls. If it finds any problems
1264it will croak.
1265
1266In other words, enables "strict" mode.
1267
1268Unlike C<use strict>, it is definitely recommended ot keep it off in
1269production. Keeping C<PERL_ANYEVENT_STRICT=1> in your environment while
1270developing programs can be very useful, however.
1271
1272=item C<PERL_ANYEVENT_MODEL>
1273
1274This can be used to specify the event model to be used by AnyEvent, before
1275auto detection and -probing kicks in. It must be a string consisting
1276entirely of ASCII letters. The string C<AnyEvent::Impl::> gets prepended
1277and the resulting module name is loaded and if the load was successful,
1278used as event model. If it fails to load AnyEvent will proceed with
1279auto detection and -probing.
1280
1281This functionality might change in future versions.
1282
1283For example, to force the pure perl model (L<AnyEvent::Impl::Perl>) you
1284could start your program like this:
1285
1286 PERL_ANYEVENT_MODEL=Perl perl ...
1287
1288=item C<PERL_ANYEVENT_PROTOCOLS>
1289
1290Used by both L<AnyEvent::DNS> and L<AnyEvent::Socket> to determine preferences
1291for IPv4 or IPv6. The default is unspecified (and might change, or be the result
1292of auto probing).
1293
1294Must be set to a comma-separated list of protocols or address families,
1295current supported: C<ipv4> and C<ipv6>. Only protocols mentioned will be
1296used, and preference will be given to protocols mentioned earlier in the
1297list.
1298
1299This variable can effectively be used for denial-of-service attacks
1300against local programs (e.g. when setuid), although the impact is likely
1301small, as the program has to handle conenction and other failures anyways.
1302
1303Examples: C<PERL_ANYEVENT_PROTOCOLS=ipv4,ipv6> - prefer IPv4 over IPv6,
1304but support both and try to use both. C<PERL_ANYEVENT_PROTOCOLS=ipv4>
1305- only support IPv4, never try to resolve or contact IPv6
1306addresses. C<PERL_ANYEVENT_PROTOCOLS=ipv6,ipv4> support either IPv4 or
1307IPv6, but prefer IPv6 over IPv4.
1308
1309=item C<PERL_ANYEVENT_EDNS0>
1310
1311Used by L<AnyEvent::DNS> to decide whether to use the EDNS0 extension
1312for DNS. This extension is generally useful to reduce DNS traffic, but
1313some (broken) firewalls drop such DNS packets, which is why it is off by
1314default.
1315
1316Setting this variable to C<1> will cause L<AnyEvent::DNS> to announce
1317EDNS0 in its DNS requests.
1318
1319=item C<PERL_ANYEVENT_MAX_FORKS>
1320
1321The maximum number of child processes that C<AnyEvent::Util::fork_call>
1322will create in parallel.
1323
1324=back
606 1325
607=head1 SUPPLYING YOUR OWN EVENT MODEL INTERFACE 1326=head1 SUPPLYING YOUR OWN EVENT MODEL INTERFACE
608 1327
609This is an advanced topic that you do not normally need to use AnyEvent in 1328This is an advanced topic that you do not normally need to use AnyEvent in
610a module. This section is only of use to event loop authors who want to 1329a module. This section is only of use to event loop authors who want to
645I<rxvt-unicode> also cheats a bit by not providing blocking access to 1364I<rxvt-unicode> also cheats a bit by not providing blocking access to
646condition variables: code blocking while waiting for a condition will 1365condition variables: code blocking while waiting for a condition will
647C<die>. This still works with most modules/usages, and blocking calls must 1366C<die>. This still works with most modules/usages, and blocking calls must
648not be done in an interactive application, so it makes sense. 1367not be done in an interactive application, so it makes sense.
649 1368
650=head1 ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES
651
652The following environment variables are used by this module:
653
654=over 4
655
656=item C<PERL_ANYEVENT_VERBOSE>
657
658When set to C<2> or higher, cause AnyEvent to report to STDERR which event
659model it chooses.
660
661=item C<PERL_ANYEVENT_MODEL>
662
663This can be used to specify the event model to be used by AnyEvent, before
664autodetection and -probing kicks in. It must be a string consisting
665entirely of ASCII letters. The string C<AnyEvent::Impl::> gets prepended
666and the resulting module name is loaded and if the load was successful,
667used as event model. If it fails to load AnyEvent will proceed with
668autodetection and -probing.
669
670This functionality might change in future versions.
671
672For example, to force the pure perl model (L<AnyEvent::Impl::Perl>) you
673could start your program like this:
674
675 PERL_ANYEVENT_MODEL=Perl perl ...
676
677=back
678
679=head1 EXAMPLE PROGRAM 1369=head1 EXAMPLE PROGRAM
680 1370
681The following program uses an IO watcher to read data from STDIN, a timer 1371The following program uses an I/O watcher to read data from STDIN, a timer
682to display a message once per second, and a condition variable to quit the 1372to display a message once per second, and a condition variable to quit the
683program when the user enters quit: 1373program when the user enters quit:
684 1374
685 use AnyEvent; 1375 use AnyEvent;
686 1376
691 poll => 'r', 1381 poll => 'r',
692 cb => sub { 1382 cb => sub {
693 warn "io event <$_[0]>\n"; # will always output <r> 1383 warn "io event <$_[0]>\n"; # will always output <r>
694 chomp (my $input = <STDIN>); # read a line 1384 chomp (my $input = <STDIN>); # read a line
695 warn "read: $input\n"; # output what has been read 1385 warn "read: $input\n"; # output what has been read
696 $cv->broadcast if $input =~ /^q/i; # quit program if /^q/i 1386 $cv->send if $input =~ /^q/i; # quit program if /^q/i
697 }, 1387 },
698 ); 1388 );
699 1389
700 my $time_watcher; # can only be used once 1390 my $time_watcher; # can only be used once
701 1391
706 }); 1396 });
707 } 1397 }
708 1398
709 new_timer; # create first timer 1399 new_timer; # create first timer
710 1400
711 $cv->wait; # wait until user enters /^q/i 1401 $cv->recv; # wait until user enters /^q/i
712 1402
713=head1 REAL-WORLD EXAMPLE 1403=head1 REAL-WORLD EXAMPLE
714 1404
715Consider the L<Net::FCP> module. It features (among others) the following 1405Consider the L<Net::FCP> module. It features (among others) the following
716API calls, which are to freenet what HTTP GET requests are to http: 1406API calls, which are to freenet what HTTP GET requests are to http:
766 syswrite $txn->{fh}, $txn->{request} 1456 syswrite $txn->{fh}, $txn->{request}
767 or die "connection or write error"; 1457 or die "connection or write error";
768 $txn->{w} = AnyEvent->io (fh => $txn->{fh}, poll => 'r', cb => sub { $txn->fh_ready_r }); 1458 $txn->{w} = AnyEvent->io (fh => $txn->{fh}, poll => 'r', cb => sub { $txn->fh_ready_r });
769 1459
770Again, C<fh_ready_r> waits till all data has arrived, and then stores the 1460Again, C<fh_ready_r> waits till all data has arrived, and then stores the
771result and signals any possible waiters that the request ahs finished: 1461result and signals any possible waiters that the request has finished:
772 1462
773 sysread $txn->{fh}, $txn->{buf}, length $txn->{$buf}; 1463 sysread $txn->{fh}, $txn->{buf}, length $txn->{$buf};
774 1464
775 if (end-of-file or data complete) { 1465 if (end-of-file or data complete) {
776 $txn->{result} = $txn->{buf}; 1466 $txn->{result} = $txn->{buf};
777 $txn->{finished}->broadcast; 1467 $txn->{finished}->send;
778 $txb->{cb}->($txn) of $txn->{cb}; # also call callback 1468 $txb->{cb}->($txn) of $txn->{cb}; # also call callback
779 } 1469 }
780 1470
781The C<result> method, finally, just waits for the finished signal (if the 1471The C<result> method, finally, just waits for the finished signal (if the
782request was already finished, it doesn't wait, of course, and returns the 1472request was already finished, it doesn't wait, of course, and returns the
783data: 1473data:
784 1474
785 $txn->{finished}->wait; 1475 $txn->{finished}->recv;
786 return $txn->{result}; 1476 return $txn->{result};
787 1477
788The actual code goes further and collects all errors (C<die>s, exceptions) 1478The actual code goes further and collects all errors (C<die>s, exceptions)
789that occured during request processing. The C<result> method detects 1479that occurred during request processing. The C<result> method detects
790whether an exception as thrown (it is stored inside the $txn object) 1480whether an exception as thrown (it is stored inside the $txn object)
791and just throws the exception, which means connection errors and other 1481and just throws the exception, which means connection errors and other
792problems get reported tot he code that tries to use the result, not in a 1482problems get reported tot he code that tries to use the result, not in a
793random callback. 1483random callback.
794 1484
825 1515
826 my $quit = AnyEvent->condvar; 1516 my $quit = AnyEvent->condvar;
827 1517
828 $fcp->txn_client_get ($url)->cb (sub { 1518 $fcp->txn_client_get ($url)->cb (sub {
829 ... 1519 ...
830 $quit->broadcast; 1520 $quit->send;
831 }); 1521 });
832 1522
833 $quit->wait; 1523 $quit->recv;
1524
1525
1526=head1 BENCHMARKS
1527
1528To give you an idea of the performance and overheads that AnyEvent adds
1529over the event loops themselves and to give you an impression of the speed
1530of various event loops I prepared some benchmarks.
1531
1532=head2 BENCHMARKING ANYEVENT OVERHEAD
1533
1534Here is a benchmark of various supported event models used natively and
1535through AnyEvent. The benchmark creates a lot of timers (with a zero
1536timeout) and I/O watchers (watching STDOUT, a pty, to become writable,
1537which it is), lets them fire exactly once and destroys them again.
1538
1539Source code for this benchmark is found as F<eg/bench> in the AnyEvent
1540distribution.
1541
1542=head3 Explanation of the columns
1543
1544I<watcher> is the number of event watchers created/destroyed. Since
1545different event models feature vastly different performances, each event
1546loop was given a number of watchers so that overall runtime is acceptable
1547and similar between tested event loop (and keep them from crashing): Glib
1548would probably take thousands of years if asked to process the same number
1549of watchers as EV in this benchmark.
1550
1551I<bytes> is the number of bytes (as measured by the resident set size,
1552RSS) consumed by each watcher. This method of measuring captures both C
1553and Perl-based overheads.
1554
1555I<create> is the time, in microseconds (millionths of seconds), that it
1556takes to create a single watcher. The callback is a closure shared between
1557all watchers, to avoid adding memory overhead. That means closure creation
1558and memory usage is not included in the figures.
1559
1560I<invoke> is the time, in microseconds, used to invoke a simple
1561callback. The callback simply counts down a Perl variable and after it was
1562invoked "watcher" times, it would C<< ->send >> a condvar once to
1563signal the end of this phase.
1564
1565I<destroy> is the time, in microseconds, that it takes to destroy a single
1566watcher.
1567
1568=head3 Results
1569
1570 name watchers bytes create invoke destroy comment
1571 EV/EV 400000 224 0.47 0.35 0.27 EV native interface
1572 EV/Any 100000 224 2.88 0.34 0.27 EV + AnyEvent watchers
1573 CoroEV/Any 100000 224 2.85 0.35 0.28 coroutines + Coro::Signal
1574 Perl/Any 100000 452 4.13 0.73 0.95 pure perl implementation
1575 Event/Event 16000 517 32.20 31.80 0.81 Event native interface
1576 Event/Any 16000 590 35.85 31.55 1.06 Event + AnyEvent watchers
1577 Glib/Any 16000 1357 102.33 12.31 51.00 quadratic behaviour
1578 Tk/Any 2000 1860 27.20 66.31 14.00 SEGV with >> 2000 watchers
1579 POE/Event 2000 6328 109.99 751.67 14.02 via POE::Loop::Event
1580 POE/Select 2000 6027 94.54 809.13 579.80 via POE::Loop::Select
1581
1582=head3 Discussion
1583
1584The benchmark does I<not> measure scalability of the event loop very
1585well. For example, a select-based event loop (such as the pure perl one)
1586can never compete with an event loop that uses epoll when the number of
1587file descriptors grows high. In this benchmark, all events become ready at
1588the same time, so select/poll-based implementations get an unnatural speed
1589boost.
1590
1591Also, note that the number of watchers usually has a nonlinear effect on
1592overall speed, that is, creating twice as many watchers doesn't take twice
1593the time - usually it takes longer. This puts event loops tested with a
1594higher number of watchers at a disadvantage.
1595
1596To put the range of results into perspective, consider that on the
1597benchmark machine, handling an event takes roughly 1600 CPU cycles with
1598EV, 3100 CPU cycles with AnyEvent's pure perl loop and almost 3000000 CPU
1599cycles with POE.
1600
1601C<EV> is the sole leader regarding speed and memory use, which are both
1602maximal/minimal, respectively. Even when going through AnyEvent, it uses
1603far less memory than any other event loop and is still faster than Event
1604natively.
1605
1606The pure perl implementation is hit in a few sweet spots (both the
1607constant timeout and the use of a single fd hit optimisations in the perl
1608interpreter and the backend itself). Nevertheless this shows that it
1609adds very little overhead in itself. Like any select-based backend its
1610performance becomes really bad with lots of file descriptors (and few of
1611them active), of course, but this was not subject of this benchmark.
1612
1613The C<Event> module has a relatively high setup and callback invocation
1614cost, but overall scores in on the third place.
1615
1616C<Glib>'s memory usage is quite a bit higher, but it features a
1617faster callback invocation and overall ends up in the same class as
1618C<Event>. However, Glib scales extremely badly, doubling the number of
1619watchers increases the processing time by more than a factor of four,
1620making it completely unusable when using larger numbers of watchers
1621(note that only a single file descriptor was used in the benchmark, so
1622inefficiencies of C<poll> do not account for this).
1623
1624The C<Tk> adaptor works relatively well. The fact that it crashes with
1625more than 2000 watchers is a big setback, however, as correctness takes
1626precedence over speed. Nevertheless, its performance is surprising, as the
1627file descriptor is dup()ed for each watcher. This shows that the dup()
1628employed by some adaptors is not a big performance issue (it does incur a
1629hidden memory cost inside the kernel which is not reflected in the figures
1630above).
1631
1632C<POE>, regardless of underlying event loop (whether using its pure perl
1633select-based backend or the Event module, the POE-EV backend couldn't
1634be tested because it wasn't working) shows abysmal performance and
1635memory usage with AnyEvent: Watchers use almost 30 times as much memory
1636as EV watchers, and 10 times as much memory as Event (the high memory
1637requirements are caused by requiring a session for each watcher). Watcher
1638invocation speed is almost 900 times slower than with AnyEvent's pure perl
1639implementation.
1640
1641The design of the POE adaptor class in AnyEvent can not really account
1642for the performance issues, though, as session creation overhead is
1643small compared to execution of the state machine, which is coded pretty
1644optimally within L<AnyEvent::Impl::POE> (and while everybody agrees that
1645using multiple sessions is not a good approach, especially regarding
1646memory usage, even the author of POE could not come up with a faster
1647design).
1648
1649=head3 Summary
1650
1651=over 4
1652
1653=item * Using EV through AnyEvent is faster than any other event loop
1654(even when used without AnyEvent), but most event loops have acceptable
1655performance with or without AnyEvent.
1656
1657=item * The overhead AnyEvent adds is usually much smaller than the overhead of
1658the actual event loop, only with extremely fast event loops such as EV
1659adds AnyEvent significant overhead.
1660
1661=item * You should avoid POE like the plague if you want performance or
1662reasonable memory usage.
1663
1664=back
1665
1666=head2 BENCHMARKING THE LARGE SERVER CASE
1667
1668This benchmark actually benchmarks the event loop itself. It works by
1669creating a number of "servers": each server consists of a socket pair, a
1670timeout watcher that gets reset on activity (but never fires), and an I/O
1671watcher waiting for input on one side of the socket. Each time the socket
1672watcher reads a byte it will write that byte to a random other "server".
1673
1674The effect is that there will be a lot of I/O watchers, only part of which
1675are active at any one point (so there is a constant number of active
1676fds for each loop iteration, but which fds these are is random). The
1677timeout is reset each time something is read because that reflects how
1678most timeouts work (and puts extra pressure on the event loops).
1679
1680In this benchmark, we use 10000 socket pairs (20000 sockets), of which 100
1681(1%) are active. This mirrors the activity of large servers with many
1682connections, most of which are idle at any one point in time.
1683
1684Source code for this benchmark is found as F<eg/bench2> in the AnyEvent
1685distribution.
1686
1687=head3 Explanation of the columns
1688
1689I<sockets> is the number of sockets, and twice the number of "servers" (as
1690each server has a read and write socket end).
1691
1692I<create> is the time it takes to create a socket pair (which is
1693nontrivial) and two watchers: an I/O watcher and a timeout watcher.
1694
1695I<request>, the most important value, is the time it takes to handle a
1696single "request", that is, reading the token from the pipe and forwarding
1697it to another server. This includes deleting the old timeout and creating
1698a new one that moves the timeout into the future.
1699
1700=head3 Results
1701
1702 name sockets create request
1703 EV 20000 69.01 11.16
1704 Perl 20000 73.32 35.87
1705 Event 20000 212.62 257.32
1706 Glib 20000 651.16 1896.30
1707 POE 20000 349.67 12317.24 uses POE::Loop::Event
1708
1709=head3 Discussion
1710
1711This benchmark I<does> measure scalability and overall performance of the
1712particular event loop.
1713
1714EV is again fastest. Since it is using epoll on my system, the setup time
1715is relatively high, though.
1716
1717Perl surprisingly comes second. It is much faster than the C-based event
1718loops Event and Glib.
1719
1720Event suffers from high setup time as well (look at its code and you will
1721understand why). Callback invocation also has a high overhead compared to
1722the C<< $_->() for .. >>-style loop that the Perl event loop uses. Event
1723uses select or poll in basically all documented configurations.
1724
1725Glib is hit hard by its quadratic behaviour w.r.t. many watchers. It
1726clearly fails to perform with many filehandles or in busy servers.
1727
1728POE is still completely out of the picture, taking over 1000 times as long
1729as EV, and over 100 times as long as the Perl implementation, even though
1730it uses a C-based event loop in this case.
1731
1732=head3 Summary
1733
1734=over 4
1735
1736=item * The pure perl implementation performs extremely well.
1737
1738=item * Avoid Glib or POE in large projects where performance matters.
1739
1740=back
1741
1742=head2 BENCHMARKING SMALL SERVERS
1743
1744While event loops should scale (and select-based ones do not...) even to
1745large servers, most programs we (or I :) actually write have only a few
1746I/O watchers.
1747
1748In this benchmark, I use the same benchmark program as in the large server
1749case, but it uses only eight "servers", of which three are active at any
1750one time. This should reflect performance for a small server relatively
1751well.
1752
1753The columns are identical to the previous table.
1754
1755=head3 Results
1756
1757 name sockets create request
1758 EV 16 20.00 6.54
1759 Perl 16 25.75 12.62
1760 Event 16 81.27 35.86
1761 Glib 16 32.63 15.48
1762 POE 16 261.87 276.28 uses POE::Loop::Event
1763
1764=head3 Discussion
1765
1766The benchmark tries to test the performance of a typical small
1767server. While knowing how various event loops perform is interesting, keep
1768in mind that their overhead in this case is usually not as important, due
1769to the small absolute number of watchers (that is, you need efficiency and
1770speed most when you have lots of watchers, not when you only have a few of
1771them).
1772
1773EV is again fastest.
1774
1775Perl again comes second. It is noticeably faster than the C-based event
1776loops Event and Glib, although the difference is too small to really
1777matter.
1778
1779POE also performs much better in this case, but is is still far behind the
1780others.
1781
1782=head3 Summary
1783
1784=over 4
1785
1786=item * C-based event loops perform very well with small number of
1787watchers, as the management overhead dominates.
1788
1789=back
1790
1791
1792=head1 SIGNALS
1793
1794AnyEvent currently installs handlers for these signals:
1795
1796=over 4
1797
1798=item SIGCHLD
1799
1800A handler for C<SIGCHLD> is installed by AnyEvent's child watcher
1801emulation for event loops that do not support them natively. Also, some
1802event loops install a similar handler.
1803
1804=item SIGPIPE
1805
1806A no-op handler is installed for C<SIGPIPE> when C<$SIG{PIPE}> is C<undef>
1807when AnyEvent gets loaded.
1808
1809The rationale for this is that AnyEvent users usually do not really depend
1810on SIGPIPE delivery (which is purely an optimisation for shell use, or
1811badly-written programs), but C<SIGPIPE> can cause spurious and rare
1812program exits as a lot of people do not expect C<SIGPIPE> when writing to
1813some random socket.
1814
1815The rationale for installing a no-op handler as opposed to ignoring it is
1816that this way, the handler will be restored to defaults on exec.
1817
1818Feel free to install your own handler, or reset it to defaults.
1819
1820=back
1821
1822=cut
1823
1824$SIG{PIPE} = sub { }
1825 unless defined $SIG{PIPE};
1826
834 1827
835=head1 FORK 1828=head1 FORK
836 1829
837Most event libraries are not fork-safe. The ones who are usually are 1830Most event libraries are not fork-safe. The ones who are usually are
838because they are so inefficient. Only L<EV> is fully fork-aware. 1831because they rely on inefficient but fork-safe C<select> or C<poll>
1832calls. Only L<EV> is fully fork-aware.
839 1833
840If you have to fork, you must either do so I<before> creating your first 1834If you have to fork, you must either do so I<before> creating your first
841watcher OR you must not use AnyEvent at all in the child. 1835watcher OR you must not use AnyEvent at all in the child.
1836
842 1837
843=head1 SECURITY CONSIDERATIONS 1838=head1 SECURITY CONSIDERATIONS
844 1839
845AnyEvent can be forced to load any event model via 1840AnyEvent can be forced to load any event model via
846$ENV{PERL_ANYEVENT_MODEL}. While this cannot (to my knowledge) be used to 1841$ENV{PERL_ANYEVENT_MODEL}. While this cannot (to my knowledge) be used to
850specified in the variable. 1845specified in the variable.
851 1846
852You can make AnyEvent completely ignore this variable by deleting it 1847You can make AnyEvent completely ignore this variable by deleting it
853before the first watcher gets created, e.g. with a C<BEGIN> block: 1848before the first watcher gets created, e.g. with a C<BEGIN> block:
854 1849
855 BEGIN { delete $ENV{PERL_ANYEVENT_MODEL} } 1850 BEGIN { delete $ENV{PERL_ANYEVENT_MODEL} }
856 1851
857 use AnyEvent; 1852 use AnyEvent;
1853
1854Similar considerations apply to $ENV{PERL_ANYEVENT_VERBOSE}, as that can
1855be used to probe what backend is used and gain other information (which is
1856probably even less useful to an attacker than PERL_ANYEVENT_MODEL), and
1857$ENV{PERL_ANYEGENT_STRICT}.
1858
1859
1860=head1 BUGS
1861
1862Perl 5.8 has numerous memleaks that sometimes hit this module and are hard
1863to work around. If you suffer from memleaks, first upgrade to Perl 5.10
1864and check wether the leaks still show up. (Perl 5.10.0 has other annoying
1865mamleaks, such as leaking on C<map> and C<grep> but it is usually not as
1866pronounced).
1867
858 1868
859=head1 SEE ALSO 1869=head1 SEE ALSO
860 1870
861Event modules: L<Coro::EV>, L<EV>, L<EV::Glib>, L<Glib::EV>, 1871Utility functions: L<AnyEvent::Util>.
862L<Coro::Event>, L<Event>, L<Glib::Event>, L<Glib>, L<Coro>, L<Tk>,
863L<Event::Lib>.
864 1872
865Implementations: L<AnyEvent::Impl::CoroEV>, L<AnyEvent::Impl::EV>, 1873Event modules: L<EV>, L<EV::Glib>, L<Glib::EV>, L<Event>, L<Glib::Event>,
866L<AnyEvent::Impl::CoroEvent>, L<AnyEvent::Impl::Event>, L<AnyEvent::Impl::Glib>, 1874L<Glib>, L<Tk>, L<Event::Lib>, L<Qt>, L<POE>.
867L<AnyEvent::Impl::Tk>, L<AnyEvent::Impl::Perl>, L<AnyEvent::Impl::EventLib>.
868 1875
1876Implementations: L<AnyEvent::Impl::EV>, L<AnyEvent::Impl::Event>,
1877L<AnyEvent::Impl::Glib>, L<AnyEvent::Impl::Tk>, L<AnyEvent::Impl::Perl>,
1878L<AnyEvent::Impl::EventLib>, L<AnyEvent::Impl::Qt>,
1879L<AnyEvent::Impl::POE>.
1880
1881Non-blocking file handles, sockets, TCP clients and
1882servers: L<AnyEvent::Handle>, L<AnyEvent::Socket>.
1883
1884Asynchronous DNS: L<AnyEvent::DNS>.
1885
1886Coroutine support: L<Coro>, L<Coro::AnyEvent>, L<Coro::EV>, L<Coro::Event>,
1887
869Nontrivial usage examples: L<Net::FCP>, L<Net::XMPP2>. 1888Nontrivial usage examples: L<Net::FCP>, L<Net::XMPP2>, L<AnyEvent::DNS>.
1889
870 1890
871=head1 AUTHOR 1891=head1 AUTHOR
872 1892
873 Marc Lehmann <schmorp@schmorp.de> 1893 Marc Lehmann <schmorp@schmorp.de>
874 http://home.schmorp.de/ 1894 http://home.schmorp.de/
875 1895
876=cut 1896=cut
877 1897
8781 18981
879 1899

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