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Revision: 1.375
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# Content
1 =head1 NAME
2
3 AnyEvent - the DBI of event loop programming
4
5 EV, Event, Glib, Tk, Perl, Event::Lib, Irssi, rxvt-unicode, IO::Async, Qt,
6 FLTK and POE are various supported event loops/environments.
7
8 =head1 SYNOPSIS
9
10 use AnyEvent;
11
12 # if you prefer function calls, look at the AE manpage for
13 # an alternative API.
14
15 # file handle or descriptor readable
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) = @_;
31 ...
32 });
33
34 # called when event loop idle (if applicable)
35 my $w = AnyEvent->idle (cb => sub { ... });
36
37 my $w = AnyEvent->condvar; # stores whether a condition was flagged
38 $w->send; # wake up current and all future recv's
39 $w->recv; # enters "main loop" till $condvar gets ->send
40 # use a condvar in callback mode:
41 $w->cb (sub { $_[0]->recv });
42
43 =head1 INTRODUCTION/TUTORIAL
44
45 This manpage is mainly a reference manual. If you are interested
46 in a tutorial or some gentle introduction, have a look at the
47 L<AnyEvent::Intro> manpage.
48
49 =head1 SUPPORT
50
51 An FAQ document is available as L<AnyEvent::FAQ>.
52
53 There also is a mailinglist for discussing all things AnyEvent, and an IRC
54 channel, too.
55
56 See the AnyEvent project page at the B<Schmorpforge Ta-Sa Software
57 Repository>, at L<http://anyevent.schmorp.de>, for more info.
58
59 =head1 WHY YOU SHOULD USE THIS MODULE (OR NOT)
60
61 Glib, POE, IO::Async, Event... CPAN offers event models by the dozen
62 nowadays. So what is different about AnyEvent?
63
64 Executive Summary: AnyEvent is I<compatible>, AnyEvent is I<free of
65 policy> and AnyEvent is I<small and efficient>.
66
67 First and foremost, I<AnyEvent is not an event model> itself, it only
68 interfaces to whatever event model the main program happens to use, in a
69 pragmatic way. For event models and certain classes of immortals alike,
70 the statement "there can only be one" is a bitter reality: In general,
71 only one event loop can be active at the same time in a process. AnyEvent
72 cannot change this, but it can hide the differences between those event
73 loops.
74
75 The goal of AnyEvent is to offer module authors the ability to do event
76 programming (waiting for I/O or timer events) without subscribing to a
77 religion, a way of living, and most importantly: without forcing your
78 module users into the same thing by forcing them to use the same event
79 model you use.
80
81 For modules like POE or IO::Async (which is a total misnomer as it is
82 actually doing all I/O I<synchronously>...), using them in your module is
83 like joining a cult: After you join, you are dependent on them and you
84 cannot use anything else, as they are simply incompatible to everything
85 that isn't them. What's worse, all the potential users of your
86 module are I<also> forced to use the same event loop you use.
87
88 AnyEvent is different: AnyEvent + POE works fine. AnyEvent + Glib works
89 fine. AnyEvent + Tk works fine etc. etc. but none of these work together
90 with the rest: POE + EV? No go. Tk + Event? No go. Again: if your module
91 uses one of those, every user of your module has to use it, too. But if
92 your module uses AnyEvent, it works transparently with all event models it
93 supports (including stuff like IO::Async, as long as those use one of the
94 supported event loops. It is easy to add new event loops to AnyEvent, too,
95 so it is future-proof).
96
97 In addition to being free of having to use I<the one and only true event
98 model>, AnyEvent also is free of bloat and policy: with POE or similar
99 modules, you get an enormous amount of code and strict rules you have to
100 follow. AnyEvent, on the other hand, is lean and to the point, by only
101 offering the functionality that is necessary, in as thin as a wrapper as
102 technically possible.
103
104 Of course, AnyEvent comes with a big (and fully optional!) toolbox
105 of useful functionality, such as an asynchronous DNS resolver, 100%
106 non-blocking connects (even with TLS/SSL, IPv6 and on broken platforms
107 such as Windows) and lots of real-world knowledge and workarounds for
108 platform bugs and differences.
109
110 Now, if you I<do want> lots of policy (this can arguably be somewhat
111 useful) and you want to force your users to use the one and only event
112 model, you should I<not> use this module.
113
114 =head1 DESCRIPTION
115
116 L<AnyEvent> provides a uniform interface to various event loops. This
117 allows module authors to use event loop functionality without forcing
118 module users to use a specific event loop implementation (since more
119 than one event loop cannot coexist peacefully).
120
121 The interface itself is vaguely similar, but not identical to the L<Event>
122 module.
123
124 During the first call of any watcher-creation method, the module tries
125 to detect the currently loaded event loop by probing whether one of the
126 following modules is already loaded: L<EV>, L<AnyEvent::Loop>,
127 L<Event>, L<Glib>, L<Tk>, L<Event::Lib>, L<Qt>, L<POE>. The first one
128 found is used. If none are detected, the module tries to load the first
129 four modules in the order given; but note that if L<EV> is not
130 available, the pure-perl L<AnyEvent::Loop> should always work, so
131 the other two are not normally tried.
132
133 Because AnyEvent first checks for modules that are already loaded, loading
134 an event model explicitly before first using AnyEvent will likely make
135 that model the default. For example:
136
137 use Tk;
138 use AnyEvent;
139
140 # .. AnyEvent will likely default to Tk
141
142 The I<likely> means that, if any module loads another event model and
143 starts using it, all bets are off - this case should be very rare though,
144 as very few modules hardcode event loops without announcing this very
145 loudly.
146
147 The pure-perl implementation of AnyEvent is called C<AnyEvent::Loop>. Like
148 other event modules you can load it explicitly and enjoy the high
149 availability of that event loop :)
150
151 =head1 WATCHERS
152
153 AnyEvent has the central concept of a I<watcher>, which is an object that
154 stores relevant data for each kind of event you are waiting for, such as
155 the callback to call, the file handle to watch, etc.
156
157 These watchers are normal Perl objects with normal Perl lifetime. After
158 creating a watcher it will immediately "watch" for events and invoke the
159 callback when the event occurs (of course, only when the event model
160 is in control).
161
162 Note that B<callbacks must not permanently change global variables>
163 potentially in use by the event loop (such as C<$_> or C<$[>) and that B<<
164 callbacks must not C<die> >>. The former is good programming practice in
165 Perl and the latter stems from the fact that exception handling differs
166 widely between event loops.
167
168 To disable a watcher you have to destroy it (e.g. by setting the
169 variable you store it in to C<undef> or otherwise deleting all references
170 to it).
171
172 All watchers are created by calling a method on the C<AnyEvent> class.
173
174 Many watchers either are used with "recursion" (repeating timers for
175 example), or need to refer to their watcher object in other ways.
176
177 One 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
184 Note that C<my $w; $w => combination. This is necessary because in Perl,
185 my variables are only visible after the statement in which they are
186 declared.
187
188 =head2 I/O WATCHERS
189
190 $w = AnyEvent->io (
191 fh => <filehandle_or_fileno>,
192 poll => <"r" or "w">,
193 cb => <callback>,
194 );
195
196 You can create an I/O watcher by calling the C<< AnyEvent->io >> method
197 with the following mandatory key-value pairs as arguments:
198
199 C<fh> is the Perl I<file handle> (or a naked file descriptor) to watch
200 for events (AnyEvent might or might not keep a reference to this file
201 handle). Note that only file handles pointing to things for which
202 non-blocking operation makes sense are allowed. This includes sockets,
203 most character devices, pipes, fifos and so on, but not for example files
204 or block devices.
205
206 C<poll> must be a string that is either C<r> or C<w>, which creates a
207 watcher waiting for "r"eadable or "w"ritable events, respectively.
208
209 C<cb> is the callback to invoke each time the file handle becomes ready.
210
211 Although the callback might get passed parameters, their value and
212 presence is undefined and you cannot rely on them. Portable AnyEvent
213 callbacks cannot use arguments passed to I/O watcher callbacks.
214
215 The I/O watcher might use the underlying file descriptor or a copy of it.
216 You must not close a file handle as long as any watcher is active on the
217 underlying file descriptor.
218
219 Some event loops issue spurious readiness notifications, so you should
220 always use non-blocking calls when reading/writing from/to your file
221 handles.
222
223 Example: wait for readability of STDIN, then read a line and disable the
224 watcher.
225
226 my $w; $w = AnyEvent->io (fh => \*STDIN, poll => 'r', cb => sub {
227 chomp (my $input = <STDIN>);
228 warn "read: $input\n";
229 undef $w;
230 });
231
232 =head2 TIME WATCHERS
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
242 You can create a time watcher by calling the C<< AnyEvent->timer >>
243 method with the following mandatory arguments:
244
245 C<after> specifies after how many seconds (fractional values are
246 supported) the callback should be invoked. C<cb> is the callback to invoke
247 in that case.
248
249 Although the callback might get passed parameters, their value and
250 presence is undefined and you cannot rely on them. Portable AnyEvent
251 callbacks cannot use arguments passed to time watcher callbacks.
252
253 The callback will normally be invoked only once. If you specify another
254 parameter, C<interval>, as a strictly positive number (> 0), then the
255 callback will be invoked regularly at that interval (in fractional
256 seconds) after the first invocation. If C<interval> is specified with a
257 false value, then it is treated as if it were not specified at all.
258
259 The callback will be rescheduled before invoking the callback, but no
260 attempt is made to avoid timer drift in most backends, so the interval is
261 only approximate.
262
263 Example: fire an event after 7.7 seconds.
264
265 my $w = AnyEvent->timer (after => 7.7, cb => sub {
266 warn "timeout\n";
267 });
268
269 # to cancel the timer:
270 undef $w;
271
272 Example 2: fire an event after 0.5 seconds, then roughly every second.
273
274 my $w = AnyEvent->timer (after => 0.5, interval => 1, cb => sub {
275 warn "timeout\n";
276 };
277
278 =head3 TIMING ISSUES
279
280 There are two ways to handle timers: based on real time (relative, "fire
281 in 10 seconds") and based on wallclock time (absolute, "fire at 12
282 o'clock").
283
284 While most event loops expect timers to specified in a relative way, they
285 use absolute time internally. This makes a difference when your clock
286 "jumps", for example, when ntp decides to set your clock backwards from
287 the wrong date of 2014-01-01 to 2008-01-01, a watcher that is supposed to
288 fire "after a second" might actually take six years to finally fire.
289
290 AnyEvent cannot compensate for this. The only event loop that is conscious
291 of these issues is L<EV>, which offers both relative (ev_timer, based
292 on true relative time) and absolute (ev_periodic, based on wallclock time)
293 timers.
294
295 AnyEvent always prefers relative timers, if available, matching the
296 AnyEvent API.
297
298 AnyEvent has two additional methods that return the "current time":
299
300 =over 4
301
302 =item AnyEvent->time
303
304 This returns the "current wallclock time" as a fractional number of
305 seconds since the Epoch (the same thing as C<time> or C<Time::HiRes::time>
306 return, and the result is guaranteed to be compatible with those).
307
308 It progresses independently of any event loop processing, i.e. each call
309 will check the system clock, which usually gets updated frequently.
310
311 =item AnyEvent->now
312
313 This also returns the "current wallclock time", but unlike C<time>, above,
314 this value might change only once per event loop iteration, depending on
315 the event loop (most return the same time as C<time>, above). This is the
316 time that AnyEvent's timers get scheduled against.
317
318 I<In almost all cases (in all cases if you don't care), this is the
319 function to call when you want to know the current time.>
320
321 This function is also often faster then C<< AnyEvent->time >>, and
322 thus the preferred method if you want some timestamp (for example,
323 L<AnyEvent::Handle> uses this to update its activity timeouts).
324
325 The rest of this section is only of relevance if you try to be very exact
326 with your timing; you can skip it without a bad conscience.
327
328 For a practical example of when these times differ, consider L<Event::Lib>
329 and L<EV> and the following set-up:
330
331 The event loop is running and has just invoked one of your callbacks at
332 time=500 (assume no other callbacks delay processing). In your callback,
333 you wait a second by executing C<sleep 1> (blocking the process for a
334 second) and then (at time=501) you create a relative timer that fires
335 after three seconds.
336
337 With L<Event::Lib>, C<< AnyEvent->time >> and C<< AnyEvent->now >> will
338 both return C<501>, because that is the current time, and the timer will
339 be scheduled to fire at time=504 (C<501> + C<3>).
340
341 With L<EV>, C<< AnyEvent->time >> returns C<501> (as that is the current
342 time), but C<< AnyEvent->now >> returns C<500>, as that is the time the
343 last event processing phase started. With L<EV>, your timer gets scheduled
344 to run at time=503 (C<500> + C<3>).
345
346 In one sense, L<Event::Lib> is more exact, as it uses the current time
347 regardless of any delays introduced by event processing. However, most
348 callbacks do not expect large delays in processing, so this causes a
349 higher drift (and a lot more system calls to get the current time).
350
351 In another sense, L<EV> is more exact, as your timer will be scheduled at
352 the same time, regardless of how long event processing actually took.
353
354 In either case, if you care (and in most cases, you don't), then you
355 can get whatever behaviour you want with any event loop, by taking the
356 difference between C<< AnyEvent->time >> and C<< AnyEvent->now >> into
357 account.
358
359 =item AnyEvent->now_update
360
361 Some event loops (such as L<EV> or L<AnyEvent::Loop>) cache the current
362 time for each loop iteration (see the discussion of L<< AnyEvent->now >>,
363 above).
364
365 When a callback runs for a long time (or when the process sleeps), then
366 this "current" time will differ substantially from the real time, which
367 might affect timers and time-outs.
368
369 When this is the case, you can call this method, which will update the
370 event loop's idea of "current time".
371
372 A typical example would be a script in a web server (e.g. C<mod_perl>) -
373 when mod_perl executes the script, then the event loop will have the wrong
374 idea about the "current time" (being potentially far in the past, when the
375 script ran the last time). In that case you should arrange a call to C<<
376 AnyEvent->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
379 Note 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
387 You can watch for signals using a signal watcher, C<signal> is the signal
388 I<name> in uppercase and without any C<SIG> prefix, C<cb> is the Perl
389 callback to be invoked whenever a signal occurs.
390
391 Although the callback might get passed parameters, their value and
392 presence is undefined and you cannot rely on them. Portable AnyEvent
393 callbacks cannot use arguments passed to signal watcher callbacks.
394
395 Multiple signal occurrences can be clumped together into one callback
396 invocation, and callback invocation will be synchronous. Synchronous means
397 that it might take a while until the signal gets handled by the process,
398 but it is guaranteed not to interrupt any other callbacks.
399
400 The main advantage of using these watchers is that you can share a signal
401 between multiple watchers, and AnyEvent will ensure that signals will not
402 interrupt your program at bad times.
403
404 This watcher might use C<%SIG> (depending on the event loop used),
405 so programs overwriting those signals directly will likely not work
406 correctly.
407
408 Example: exit on SIGINT
409
410 my $w = AnyEvent->signal (signal => "INT", cb => sub { exit 1 });
411
412 =head3 Restart Behaviour
413
414 While restart behaviour is up to the event loop implementation, most will
415 not restart syscalls (that includes L<Async::Interrupt> and AnyEvent's
416 pure perl implementation).
417
418 =head3 Safe/Unsafe Signals
419
420 Perl signals can be either "safe" (synchronous to opcode handling) or
421 "unsafe" (asynchronous) - the former might get delayed indefinitely, the
422 latter might corrupt your memory.
423
424 AnyEvent signal handlers are, in addition, synchronous to the event loop,
425 i.e. they will not interrupt your running perl program but will only be
426 called as part of the normal event handling (just like timer, I/O etc.
427 callbacks, too).
428
429 =head3 Signal Races, Delays and Workarounds
430
431 Many event loops (e.g. Glib, Tk, Qt, IO::Async) do not support attaching
432 callbacks to signals in a generic way, which is a pity, as you cannot
433 do race-free signal handling in perl, requiring C libraries for
434 this. AnyEvent will try to do its best, which means in some cases,
435 signals will be delayed. The maximum time a signal might be delayed is
436 specified in C<$AnyEvent::MAX_SIGNAL_LATENCY> (default: 10 seconds). This
437 variable can be changed only before the first signal watcher is created,
438 and should be left alone otherwise. This variable determines how often
439 AnyEvent polls for signals (in case a wake-up was missed). Higher values
440 will cause fewer spurious wake-ups, which is better for power and CPU
441 saving.
442
443 All these problems can be avoided by installing the optional
444 L<Async::Interrupt> module, which works with most event loops. It will not
445 work with inherently broken event loops such as L<Event> or L<Event::Lib>
446 (and not with L<POE> currently, as POE does its own workaround with
447 one-second latency). For those, you just have to suffer the delays.
448
449 =head2 CHILD PROCESS WATCHERS
450
451 $w = AnyEvent->child (pid => <process id>, cb => <callback>);
452
453 You can also watch for a child process exit and catch its exit status.
454
455 The child process is specified by the C<pid> argument (on some backends,
456 using C<0> watches for any child process exit, on others this will
457 croak). The watcher will be triggered only when the child process has
458 finished and an exit status is available, not on any trace events
459 (stopped/continued).
460
461 The callback will be called with the pid and exit status (as returned by
462 waitpid), so unlike other watcher types, you I<can> rely on child watcher
463 callback arguments.
464
465 This watcher type works by installing a signal handler for C<SIGCHLD>,
466 and since it cannot be shared, nothing else should use SIGCHLD or reap
467 random child processes (waiting for specific child processes, e.g. inside
468 C<system>, is just fine).
469
470 There is a slight catch to child watchers, however: you usually start them
471 I<after> the child process was created, and this means the process could
472 have exited already (and no SIGCHLD will be sent anymore).
473
474 Not all event models handle this correctly (neither POE nor IO::Async do,
475 see their AnyEvent::Impl manpages for details), but even for event models
476 that I<do> handle this correctly, they usually need to be loaded before
477 the process exits (i.e. before you fork in the first place). AnyEvent's
478 pure perl event loop handles all cases correctly regardless of when you
479 start the watcher.
480
481 This means you cannot create a child watcher as the very first
482 thing in an AnyEvent program, you I<have> to create at least one
483 watcher before you C<fork> the child (alternatively, you can call
484 C<AnyEvent::detect>).
485
486 As most event loops do not support waiting for child events, they will be
487 emulated by AnyEvent in most cases, in which case the latency and race
488 problems mentioned in the description of signal watchers apply.
489
490 Example: fork a process and wait for it
491
492 my $done = AnyEvent->condvar;
493
494 my $pid = fork or exit 5;
495
496 my $w = AnyEvent->child (
497 pid => $pid,
498 cb => sub {
499 my ($pid, $status) = @_;
500 warn "pid $pid exited with status $status";
501 $done->send;
502 },
503 );
504
505 # do something else, then wait for process exit
506 $done->recv;
507
508 =head2 IDLE WATCHERS
509
510 $w = AnyEvent->idle (cb => <callback>);
511
512 This will repeatedly invoke the callback after the process becomes idle,
513 until either the watcher is destroyed or new events have been detected.
514
515 Idle watchers are useful when there is a need to do something, but it
516 is not so important (or wise) to do it instantly. The callback will be
517 invoked only when there is "nothing better to do", which is usually
518 defined as "all outstanding events have been handled and no new events
519 have been detected". That means that idle watchers ideally get invoked
520 when the event loop has just polled for new events but none have been
521 detected. Instead of blocking to wait for more events, the idle watchers
522 will be invoked.
523
524 Unfortunately, most event loops do not really support idle watchers (only
525 EV, Event and Glib do it in a usable fashion) - for the rest, AnyEvent
526 will simply call the callback "from time to time".
527
528 Example: read lines from STDIN, but only process them when the
529 program is otherwise idle:
530
531 my @lines; # read data
532 my $idle_w;
533 my $io_w = AnyEvent->io (fh => \*STDIN, poll => 'r', cb => sub {
534 push @lines, scalar <STDIN>;
535
536 # start an idle watcher, if not already done
537 $idle_w ||= AnyEvent->idle (cb => sub {
538 # handle only one line, when there are lines left
539 if (my $line = shift @lines) {
540 print "handled when idle: $line";
541 } else {
542 # otherwise disable the idle watcher again
543 undef $idle_w;
544 }
545 });
546 });
547
548 =head2 CONDITION VARIABLES
549
550 $cv = AnyEvent->condvar;
551
552 $cv->send (<list>);
553 my @res = $cv->recv;
554
555 If you are familiar with some event loops you will know that all of them
556 require you to run some blocking "loop", "run" or similar function that
557 will actively watch for new events and call your callbacks.
558
559 AnyEvent is slightly different: it expects somebody else to run the event
560 loop and will only block when necessary (usually when told by the user).
561
562 The tool to do that is called a "condition variable", so called because
563 they represent a condition that must become true.
564
565 Now is probably a good time to look at the examples further below.
566
567 Condition variables can be created by calling the C<< AnyEvent->condvar
568 >> method, usually without arguments. The only argument pair allowed is
569 C<cb>, which specifies a callback to be called when the condition variable
570 becomes true, with the condition variable as the first argument (but not
571 the results).
572
573 After creation, the condition variable is "false" until it becomes "true"
574 by calling the C<send> method (or calling the condition variable as if it
575 were a callback, read about the caveats in the description for the C<<
576 ->send >> method).
577
578 Since condition variables are the most complex part of the AnyEvent API, here are
579 some different mental models of what they are - pick the ones you can connect to:
580
581 =over 4
582
583 =item * Condition variables are like callbacks - you can call them (and pass them instead
584 of callbacks). Unlike callbacks however, you can also wait for them to be called.
585
586 =item * Condition variables are signals - one side can emit or send them,
587 the other side can wait for them, or install a handler that is called when
588 the signal fires.
589
590 =item * Condition variables are like "Merge Points" - points in your program
591 where you merge multiple independent results/control flows into one.
592
593 =item * Condition variables represent a transaction - functions that start
594 some kind of transaction can return them, leaving the caller the choice
595 between waiting in a blocking fashion, or setting a callback.
596
597 =item * Condition variables represent future values, or promises to deliver
598 some result, long before the result is available.
599
600 =back
601
602 Condition variables are very useful to signal that something has finished,
603 for example, if you write a module that does asynchronous http requests,
604 then a condition variable would be the ideal candidate to signal the
605 availability of results. The user can either act when the callback is
606 called or can synchronously C<< ->recv >> for the results.
607
608 You can also use them to simulate traditional event loops - for example,
609 you can block your main program until an event occurs - for example, you
610 could C<< ->recv >> in your main program until the user clicks the Quit
611 button of your app, which would C<< ->send >> the "quit" event.
612
613 Note that condition variables recurse into the event loop - if you have
614 two pieces of code that call C<< ->recv >> in a round-robin fashion, you
615 lose. Therefore, condition variables are good to export to your caller, but
616 you should avoid making a blocking wait yourself, at least in callbacks,
617 as this asks for trouble.
618
619 Condition variables are represented by hash refs in perl, and the keys
620 used by AnyEvent itself are all named C<_ae_XXX> to make subclassing
621 easy (it is often useful to build your own transaction class on top of
622 AnyEvent). To subclass, use C<AnyEvent::CondVar> as base class and call
623 its C<new> method in your own C<new> method.
624
625 There are two "sides" to a condition variable - the "producer side" which
626 eventually calls C<< -> send >>, and the "consumer side", which waits
627 for the send to occur.
628
629 Example: wait for a timer.
630
631 # condition: "wait till the timer is fired"
632 my $timer_fired = AnyEvent->condvar;
633
634 # create the timer - we could wait for, say
635 # a handle becomign ready, or even an
636 # AnyEvent::HTTP request to finish, but
637 # in this case, we simply use a timer:
638 my $w = AnyEvent->timer (
639 after => 1,
640 cb => sub { $timer_fired->send },
641 );
642
643 # this "blocks" (while handling events) till the callback
644 # calls ->send
645 $timer_fired->recv;
646
647 Example: wait for a timer, but take advantage of the fact that condition
648 variables are also callable directly.
649
650 my $done = AnyEvent->condvar;
651 my $delay = AnyEvent->timer (after => 5, cb => $done);
652 $done->recv;
653
654 Example: Imagine an API that returns a condvar and doesn't support
655 callbacks. This is how you make a synchronous call, for example from
656 the main program:
657
658 use AnyEvent::CouchDB;
659
660 ...
661
662 my @info = $couchdb->info->recv;
663
664 And this is how you would just set a callback to be called whenever the
665 results are available:
666
667 $couchdb->info->cb (sub {
668 my @info = $_[0]->recv;
669 });
670
671 =head3 METHODS FOR PRODUCERS
672
673 These methods should only be used by the producing side, i.e. the
674 code/module that eventually sends the signal. Note that it is also
675 the producer side which creates the condvar in most cases, but it isn't
676 uncommon for the consumer to create it as well.
677
678 =over 4
679
680 =item $cv->send (...)
681
682 Flag the condition as ready - a running C<< ->recv >> and all further
683 calls to C<recv> will (eventually) return after this method has been
684 called. If nobody is waiting the send will be remembered.
685
686 If a callback has been set on the condition variable, it is called
687 immediately from within send.
688
689 Any arguments passed to the C<send> call will be returned by all
690 future C<< ->recv >> calls.
691
692 Condition variables are overloaded so one can call them directly (as if
693 they were a code reference). Calling them directly is the same as calling
694 C<send>.
695
696 =item $cv->croak ($error)
697
698 Similar to send, but causes all calls to C<< ->recv >> to invoke
699 C<Carp::croak> with the given error message/object/scalar.
700
701 This can be used to signal any errors to the condition variable
702 user/consumer. Doing it this way instead of calling C<croak> directly
703 delays the error detection, but has the overwhelming advantage that it
704 diagnoses the error at the place where the result is expected, and not
705 deep in some event callback with no connection to the actual code causing
706 the problem.
707
708 =item $cv->begin ([group callback])
709
710 =item $cv->end
711
712 These two methods can be used to combine many transactions/events into
713 one. For example, a function that pings many hosts in parallel might want
714 to use a condition variable for the whole process.
715
716 Every call to C<< ->begin >> will increment a counter, and every call to
717 C<< ->end >> will decrement it. If the counter reaches C<0> in C<< ->end
718 >>, the (last) callback passed to C<begin> will be executed, passing the
719 condvar as first argument. That callback is I<supposed> to call C<< ->send
720 >>, but that is not required. If no group callback was set, C<send> will
721 be called without any arguments.
722
723 You can think of C<< $cv->send >> giving you an OR condition (one call
724 sends), while C<< $cv->begin >> and C<< $cv->end >> giving you an AND
725 condition (all C<begin> calls must be C<end>'ed before the condvar sends).
726
727 Let's start with a simple example: you have two I/O watchers (for example,
728 STDOUT and STDERR for a program), and you want to wait for both streams to
729 close before activating a condvar:
730
731 my $cv = AnyEvent->condvar;
732
733 $cv->begin; # first watcher
734 my $w1 = AnyEvent->io (fh => $fh1, cb => sub {
735 defined sysread $fh1, my $buf, 4096
736 or $cv->end;
737 });
738
739 $cv->begin; # second watcher
740 my $w2 = AnyEvent->io (fh => $fh2, cb => sub {
741 defined sysread $fh2, my $buf, 4096
742 or $cv->end;
743 });
744
745 $cv->recv;
746
747 This works because for every event source (EOF on file handle), there is
748 one call to C<begin>, so the condvar waits for all calls to C<end> before
749 sending.
750
751 The ping example mentioned above is slightly more complicated, as the
752 there are results to be passwd back, and the number of tasks that are
753 begun can potentially be zero:
754
755 my $cv = AnyEvent->condvar;
756
757 my %result;
758 $cv->begin (sub { shift->send (\%result) });
759
760 for my $host (@list_of_hosts) {
761 $cv->begin;
762 ping_host_then_call_callback $host, sub {
763 $result{$host} = ...;
764 $cv->end;
765 };
766 }
767
768 $cv->end;
769
770 This code fragment supposedly pings a number of hosts and calls
771 C<send> after results for all then have have been gathered - in any
772 order. To achieve this, the code issues a call to C<begin> when it starts
773 each ping request and calls C<end> when it has received some result for
774 it. Since C<begin> and C<end> only maintain a counter, the order in which
775 results arrive is not relevant.
776
777 There is an additional bracketing call to C<begin> and C<end> outside the
778 loop, which serves two important purposes: first, it sets the callback
779 to be called once the counter reaches C<0>, and second, it ensures that
780 C<send> is called even when C<no> hosts are being pinged (the loop
781 doesn't execute once).
782
783 This is the general pattern when you "fan out" into multiple (but
784 potentially zero) subrequests: use an outer C<begin>/C<end> pair to set
785 the callback and ensure C<end> is called at least once, and then, for each
786 subrequest you start, call C<begin> and for each subrequest you finish,
787 call C<end>.
788
789 =back
790
791 =head3 METHODS FOR CONSUMERS
792
793 These methods should only be used by the consuming side, i.e. the
794 code awaits the condition.
795
796 =over 4
797
798 =item $cv->recv
799
800 Wait (blocking if necessary) until the C<< ->send >> or C<< ->croak
801 >> methods have been called on C<$cv>, while servicing other watchers
802 normally.
803
804 You can only wait once on a condition - additional calls are valid but
805 will return immediately.
806
807 If an error condition has been set by calling C<< ->croak >>, then this
808 function will call C<croak>.
809
810 In list context, all parameters passed to C<send> will be returned,
811 in scalar context only the first one will be returned.
812
813 Note that doing a blocking wait in a callback is not supported by any
814 event loop, that is, recursive invocation of a blocking C<< ->recv
815 >> is not allowed, and the C<recv> call will C<croak> if such a
816 condition is detected. This condition can be slightly loosened by using
817 L<Coro::AnyEvent>, which allows you to do a blocking C<< ->recv >> from
818 any thread that doesn't run the event loop itself.
819
820 Not all event models support a blocking wait - some die in that case
821 (programs might want to do that to stay interactive), so I<if you are
822 using this from a module, never require a blocking wait>. Instead, let the
823 caller decide whether the call will block or not (for example, by coupling
824 condition variables with some kind of request results and supporting
825 callbacks so the caller knows that getting the result will not block,
826 while still supporting blocking waits if the caller so desires).
827
828 You can ensure that C<< ->recv >> never blocks by setting a callback and
829 only calling C<< ->recv >> from within that callback (or at a later
830 time). This will work even when the event loop does not support blocking
831 waits otherwise.
832
833 =item $bool = $cv->ready
834
835 Returns true when the condition is "true", i.e. whether C<send> or
836 C<croak> have been called.
837
838 =item $cb = $cv->cb ($cb->($cv))
839
840 This is a mutator function that returns the callback set and optionally
841 replaces it before doing so.
842
843 The callback will be called when the condition becomes "true", i.e. when
844 C<send> or C<croak> are called, with the only argument being the
845 condition variable itself. If the condition is already true, the
846 callback is called immediately when it is set. Calling C<recv> inside
847 the callback or at any later time is guaranteed not to block.
848
849 =back
850
851 =head1 SUPPORTED EVENT LOOPS/BACKENDS
852
853 The available backend classes are (every class has its own manpage):
854
855 =over 4
856
857 =item Backends that are autoprobed when no other event loop can be found.
858
859 EV is the preferred backend when no other event loop seems to be in
860 use. If EV is not installed, then AnyEvent will fall back to its own
861 pure-perl implementation, which is available everywhere as it comes with
862 AnyEvent itself.
863
864 AnyEvent::Impl::EV based on EV (interface to libev, best choice).
865 AnyEvent::Impl::Perl pure-perl AnyEvent::Loop, fast and portable.
866
867 =item Backends that are transparently being picked up when they are used.
868
869 These will be used if they are already loaded when the first watcher
870 is created, in which case it is assumed that the application is using
871 them. This means that AnyEvent will automatically pick the right backend
872 when the main program loads an event module before anything starts to
873 create watchers. Nothing special needs to be done by the main program.
874
875 AnyEvent::Impl::Event based on Event, very stable, few glitches.
876 AnyEvent::Impl::Glib based on Glib, slow but very stable.
877 AnyEvent::Impl::Tk based on Tk, very broken.
878 AnyEvent::Impl::EventLib based on Event::Lib, leaks memory and worse.
879 AnyEvent::Impl::POE based on POE, very slow, some limitations.
880 AnyEvent::Impl::Irssi used when running within irssi.
881 AnyEvent::Impl::IOAsync based on IO::Async.
882 AnyEvent::Impl::Cocoa based on Cocoa::EventLoop.
883 AnyEvent::Impl::FLTK2 based on FLTK (fltk 2 binding).
884
885 =item Backends with special needs.
886
887 Qt requires the Qt::Application to be instantiated first, but will
888 otherwise be picked up automatically. As long as the main program
889 instantiates the application before any AnyEvent watchers are created,
890 everything should just work.
891
892 AnyEvent::Impl::Qt based on Qt.
893
894 =item Event loops that are indirectly supported via other backends.
895
896 Some event loops can be supported via other modules:
897
898 There is no direct support for WxWidgets (L<Wx>) or L<Prima>.
899
900 B<WxWidgets> has no support for watching file handles. However, you can
901 use WxWidgets through the POE adaptor, as POE has a Wx backend that simply
902 polls 20 times per second, which was considered to be too horrible to even
903 consider for AnyEvent.
904
905 B<Prima> is not supported as nobody seems to be using it, but it has a POE
906 backend, so it can be supported through POE.
907
908 AnyEvent knows about both L<Prima> and L<Wx>, however, and will try to
909 load L<POE> when detecting them, in the hope that POE will pick them up,
910 in which case everything will be automatic.
911
912 =back
913
914 =head1 GLOBAL VARIABLES AND FUNCTIONS
915
916 These are not normally required to use AnyEvent, but can be useful to
917 write AnyEvent extension modules.
918
919 =over 4
920
921 =item $AnyEvent::MODEL
922
923 Contains C<undef> until the first watcher is being created, before the
924 backend has been autodetected.
925
926 Afterwards it contains the event model that is being used, which is the
927 name of the Perl class implementing the model. This class is usually one
928 of the C<AnyEvent::Impl::xxx> modules, but can be any other class in the
929 case AnyEvent has been extended at runtime (e.g. in I<rxvt-unicode> it
930 will be C<urxvt::anyevent>).
931
932 =item AnyEvent::detect
933
934 Returns C<$AnyEvent::MODEL>, forcing autodetection of the event model
935 if necessary. You should only call this function right before you would
936 have created an AnyEvent watcher anyway, that is, as late as possible at
937 runtime, and not e.g. during initialisation of your module.
938
939 The effect of calling this function is as if a watcher had been created
940 (specifically, actions that happen "when the first watcher is created"
941 happen when calling detetc as well).
942
943 If you need to do some initialisation before AnyEvent watchers are
944 created, use C<post_detect>.
945
946 =item $guard = AnyEvent::post_detect { BLOCK }
947
948 Arranges for the code block to be executed as soon as the event model is
949 autodetected (or immediately if that has already happened).
950
951 The block will be executed I<after> the actual backend has been detected
952 (C<$AnyEvent::MODEL> is set), but I<before> any watchers have been
953 created, so it is possible to e.g. patch C<@AnyEvent::ISA> or do
954 other initialisations - see the sources of L<AnyEvent::Strict> or
955 L<AnyEvent::AIO> to see how this is used.
956
957 The most common usage is to create some global watchers, without forcing
958 event module detection too early, for example, L<AnyEvent::AIO> creates
959 and installs the global L<IO::AIO> watcher in a C<post_detect> block to
960 avoid autodetecting the event module at load time.
961
962 If called in scalar or list context, then it creates and returns an object
963 that automatically removes the callback again when it is destroyed (or
964 C<undef> when the hook was immediately executed). See L<AnyEvent::AIO> for
965 a case where this is useful.
966
967 Example: Create a watcher for the IO::AIO module and store it in
968 C<$WATCHER>, but do so only do so after the event loop is initialised.
969
970 our WATCHER;
971
972 my $guard = AnyEvent::post_detect {
973 $WATCHER = AnyEvent->io (fh => IO::AIO::poll_fileno, poll => 'r', cb => \&IO::AIO::poll_cb);
974 };
975
976 # the ||= is important in case post_detect immediately runs the block,
977 # as to not clobber the newly-created watcher. assigning both watcher and
978 # post_detect guard to the same variable has the advantage of users being
979 # able to just C<undef $WATCHER> if the watcher causes them grief.
980
981 $WATCHER ||= $guard;
982
983 =item @AnyEvent::post_detect
984
985 If there are any code references in this array (you can C<push> to it
986 before or after loading AnyEvent), then they will be called directly
987 after the event loop has been chosen.
988
989 You should check C<$AnyEvent::MODEL> before adding to this array, though:
990 if it is defined then the event loop has already been detected, and the
991 array will be ignored.
992
993 Best use C<AnyEvent::post_detect { BLOCK }> when your application allows
994 it, as it takes care of these details.
995
996 This variable is mainly useful for modules that can do something useful
997 when AnyEvent is used and thus want to know when it is initialised, but do
998 not need to even load it by default. This array provides the means to hook
999 into AnyEvent passively, without loading it.
1000
1001 Example: To load Coro::AnyEvent whenever Coro and AnyEvent are used
1002 together, you could put this into Coro (this is the actual code used by
1003 Coro to accomplish this):
1004
1005 if (defined $AnyEvent::MODEL) {
1006 # AnyEvent already initialised, so load Coro::AnyEvent
1007 require Coro::AnyEvent;
1008 } else {
1009 # AnyEvent not yet initialised, so make sure to load Coro::AnyEvent
1010 # as soon as it is
1011 push @AnyEvent::post_detect, sub { require Coro::AnyEvent };
1012 }
1013
1014 =item AnyEvent::postpone { BLOCK }
1015
1016 Arranges for the block to be executed as soon as possible, but not before
1017 the call itself returns. In practise, the block will be executed just
1018 before the event loop polls for new events, or shortly afterwards.
1019
1020 This function never returns anything (to make the C<return postpone { ...
1021 }> idiom more useful.
1022
1023 To understand the usefulness of this function, consider a function that
1024 asynchronously does something for you and returns some transaction
1025 object or guard to let you cancel the operation. For example,
1026 C<AnyEvent::Socket::tcp_connect>:
1027
1028 # start a conenction attempt unless one is active
1029 $self->{connect_guard} ||= AnyEvent::Socket::tcp_connect "www.example.net", 80, sub {
1030 delete $self->{connect_guard};
1031 ...
1032 };
1033
1034 Imagine that this function could instantly call the callback, for
1035 example, because it detects an obvious error such as a negative port
1036 number. Invoking the callback before the function returns causes problems
1037 however: the callback will be called and will try to delete the guard
1038 object. But since the function hasn't returned yet, there is nothing to
1039 delete. When the function eventually returns it will assign the guard
1040 object to C<< $self->{connect_guard} >>, where it will likely never be
1041 deleted, so the program thinks it is still trying to connect.
1042
1043 This is where C<AnyEvent::postpone> should be used. Instead of calling the
1044 callback directly on error:
1045
1046 $cb->(undef), return # signal error to callback, BAD!
1047 if $some_error_condition;
1048
1049 It should use C<postpone>:
1050
1051 AnyEvent::postpone { $cb->(undef) }, return # signal error to callback, later
1052 if $some_error_condition;
1053
1054 =item AnyEvent::log $level, $msg[, @args]
1055
1056 Log the given C<$msg> at the given C<$level>.
1057
1058 Loads AnyEvent::Log on first use and calls C<AnyEvent::Log::log> -
1059 consequently, look at the L<AnyEvent::Log> documentation for details.
1060
1061 If you want to sprinkle loads of logging calls around your code, consider
1062 creating a logger callback with the C<AnyEvent::Log::logger> function.
1063
1064 =back
1065
1066 =head1 WHAT TO DO IN A MODULE
1067
1068 As a module author, you should C<use AnyEvent> and call AnyEvent methods
1069 freely, but you should not load a specific event module or rely on it.
1070
1071 Be careful when you create watchers in the module body - AnyEvent will
1072 decide which event module to use as soon as the first method is called, so
1073 by calling AnyEvent in your module body you force the user of your module
1074 to load the event module first.
1075
1076 Never call C<< ->recv >> on a condition variable unless you I<know> that
1077 the C<< ->send >> method has been called on it already. This is
1078 because it will stall the whole program, and the whole point of using
1079 events is to stay interactive.
1080
1081 It is fine, however, to call C<< ->recv >> when the user of your module
1082 requests it (i.e. if you create a http request object ad have a method
1083 called C<results> that returns the results, it may call C<< ->recv >>
1084 freely, as the user of your module knows what she is doing. Always).
1085
1086 =head1 WHAT TO DO IN THE MAIN PROGRAM
1087
1088 There will always be a single main program - the only place that should
1089 dictate which event model to use.
1090
1091 If the program is not event-based, it need not do anything special, even
1092 when it depends on a module that uses an AnyEvent. If the program itself
1093 uses AnyEvent, but does not care which event loop is used, all it needs
1094 to do is C<use AnyEvent>. In either case, AnyEvent will choose the best
1095 available loop implementation.
1096
1097 If the main program relies on a specific event model - for example, in
1098 Gtk2 programs you have to rely on the Glib module - you should load the
1099 event module before loading AnyEvent or any module that uses it: generally
1100 speaking, you should load it as early as possible. The reason is that
1101 modules might create watchers when they are loaded, and AnyEvent will
1102 decide on the event model to use as soon as it creates watchers, and it
1103 might choose the wrong one unless you load the correct one yourself.
1104
1105 You can chose to use a pure-perl implementation by loading the
1106 C<AnyEvent::Loop> module, which gives you similar behaviour
1107 everywhere, but letting AnyEvent chose the model is generally better.
1108
1109 =head2 MAINLOOP EMULATION
1110
1111 Sometimes (often for short test scripts, or even standalone programs who
1112 only want to use AnyEvent), you do not want to run a specific event loop.
1113
1114 In that case, you can use a condition variable like this:
1115
1116 AnyEvent->condvar->recv;
1117
1118 This has the effect of entering the event loop and looping forever.
1119
1120 Note that usually your program has some exit condition, in which case
1121 it is better to use the "traditional" approach of storing a condition
1122 variable somewhere, waiting for it, and sending it when the program should
1123 exit cleanly.
1124
1125
1126 =head1 OTHER MODULES
1127
1128 The following is a non-exhaustive list of additional modules that use
1129 AnyEvent as a client and can therefore be mixed easily with other
1130 AnyEvent modules and other event loops in the same program. Some of the
1131 modules come as part of AnyEvent, the others are available via CPAN (see
1132 L<http://search.cpan.org/search?m=module&q=anyevent%3A%3A*> for
1133 a longer non-exhaustive list), and the list is heavily biased towards
1134 modules of the AnyEvent author himself :)
1135
1136 =over 4
1137
1138 =item L<AnyEvent::Util>
1139
1140 Contains various utility functions that replace often-used blocking
1141 functions such as C<inet_aton> with event/callback-based versions.
1142
1143 =item L<AnyEvent::Socket>
1144
1145 Provides various utility functions for (internet protocol) sockets,
1146 addresses and name resolution. Also functions to create non-blocking tcp
1147 connections or tcp servers, with IPv6 and SRV record support and more.
1148
1149 =item L<AnyEvent::Handle>
1150
1151 Provide read and write buffers, manages watchers for reads and writes,
1152 supports raw and formatted I/O, I/O queued and fully transparent and
1153 non-blocking SSL/TLS (via L<AnyEvent::TLS>).
1154
1155 =item L<AnyEvent::DNS>
1156
1157 Provides rich asynchronous DNS resolver capabilities.
1158
1159 =item L<AnyEvent::HTTP>, L<AnyEvent::IRC>, L<AnyEvent::XMPP>, L<AnyEvent::GPSD>, L<AnyEvent::IGS>, L<AnyEvent::FCP>
1160
1161 Implement event-based interfaces to the protocols of the same name (for
1162 the curious, IGS is the International Go Server and FCP is the Freenet
1163 Client Protocol).
1164
1165 =item L<AnyEvent::Handle::UDP>
1166
1167 Here be danger!
1168
1169 As Pauli would put it, "Not only is it not right, it's not even wrong!" -
1170 there are so many things wrong with AnyEvent::Handle::UDP, most notably
1171 its use of a stream-based API with a protocol that isn't streamable, that
1172 the only way to improve it is to delete it.
1173
1174 It features data corruption (but typically only under load) and general
1175 confusion. On top, the author is not only clueless about UDP but also
1176 fact-resistant - some gems of his understanding: "connect doesn't work
1177 with UDP", "UDP packets are not IP packets", "UDP only has datagrams, not
1178 packets", "I don't need to implement proper error checking as UDP doesn't
1179 support error checking" and so on - he doesn't even understand what's
1180 wrong with his module when it is explained to him.
1181
1182 =item L<AnyEvent::DBI>
1183
1184 Executes L<DBI> requests asynchronously in a proxy process for you,
1185 notifying you in an event-based way when the operation is finished.
1186
1187 =item L<AnyEvent::AIO>
1188
1189 Truly asynchronous (as opposed to non-blocking) I/O, should be in the
1190 toolbox of every event programmer. AnyEvent::AIO transparently fuses
1191 L<IO::AIO> and AnyEvent together, giving AnyEvent access to event-based
1192 file I/O, and much more.
1193
1194 =item L<AnyEvent::HTTPD>
1195
1196 A simple embedded webserver.
1197
1198 =item L<AnyEvent::FastPing>
1199
1200 The fastest ping in the west.
1201
1202 =item L<Coro>
1203
1204 Has special support for AnyEvent via L<Coro::AnyEvent>.
1205
1206 =back
1207
1208 =cut
1209
1210 package AnyEvent;
1211
1212 # basically a tuned-down version of common::sense
1213 sub common_sense {
1214 # from common:.sense 3.4
1215 ${^WARNING_BITS} ^= ${^WARNING_BITS} ^ "\x3c\x3f\x33\x00\x0f\xf0\x0f\xc0\xf0\xfc\x33\x00";
1216 # use strict vars subs - NO UTF-8, as Util.pm doesn't like this atm. (uts46data.pl)
1217 $^H |= 0x00000600;
1218 }
1219
1220 BEGIN { AnyEvent::common_sense }
1221
1222 use Carp ();
1223
1224 our $VERSION = '6.01';
1225 our $MODEL;
1226
1227 our @ISA;
1228
1229 our @REGISTRY;
1230
1231 our $VERBOSE;
1232
1233 BEGIN {
1234 require "AnyEvent/constants.pl";
1235
1236 eval "sub TAINT (){" . (${^TAINT}*1) . "}";
1237
1238 delete @ENV{grep /^PERL_ANYEVENT_/, keys %ENV}
1239 if ${^TAINT};
1240
1241 $ENV{"PERL_ANYEVENT_$_"} = $ENV{"AE_$_"}
1242 for grep s/^AE_// && !exists $ENV{"PERL_ANYEVENT_$_"}, keys %ENV;
1243
1244 @ENV{grep /^PERL_ANYEVENT_/, keys %ENV} = ()
1245 if ${^TAINT};
1246
1247 $VERBOSE = $ENV{PERL_ANYEVENT_VERBOSE}*1;
1248 }
1249
1250 our $MAX_SIGNAL_LATENCY = 10;
1251
1252 our %PROTOCOL; # (ipv4|ipv6) => (1|2), higher numbers are preferred
1253
1254 {
1255 my $idx;
1256 $PROTOCOL{$_} = ++$idx
1257 for reverse split /\s*,\s*/,
1258 $ENV{PERL_ANYEVENT_PROTOCOLS} || "ipv4,ipv6";
1259 }
1260
1261 our @post_detect;
1262
1263 sub post_detect(&) {
1264 my ($cb) = @_;
1265
1266 push @post_detect, $cb;
1267
1268 defined wantarray
1269 ? bless \$cb, "AnyEvent::Util::postdetect"
1270 : ()
1271 }
1272
1273 sub AnyEvent::Util::postdetect::DESTROY {
1274 @post_detect = grep $_ != ${$_[0]}, @post_detect;
1275 }
1276
1277 our $POSTPONE_W;
1278 our @POSTPONE;
1279
1280 sub _postpone_exec {
1281 undef $POSTPONE_W;
1282
1283 &{ shift @POSTPONE }
1284 while @POSTPONE;
1285 }
1286
1287 sub postpone(&) {
1288 push @POSTPONE, shift;
1289
1290 $POSTPONE_W ||= AE::timer (0, 0, \&_postpone_exec);
1291
1292 ()
1293 }
1294
1295 sub log($$;@) {
1296 # only load the bug bloated module when we actually are about to log something
1297 if ($_[0] <= $VERBOSE) {
1298 require AnyEvent::Log;
1299 # AnyEvent::Log overwrites this function
1300 goto &log;
1301 }
1302 }
1303
1304 if (length $ENV{PERL_ANYEVENT_LOG}) {
1305 require AnyEvent::Log; # AnyEvent::Log does the thing for us
1306 }
1307
1308 our @models = (
1309 [EV:: => AnyEvent::Impl::EV:: , 1],
1310 [AnyEvent::Loop:: => AnyEvent::Impl::Perl:: , 1],
1311 # everything below here will not (normally) be autoprobed
1312 # as the pure perl backend should work everywhere
1313 # and is usually faster
1314 [Event:: => AnyEvent::Impl::Event::, 1],
1315 [Glib:: => AnyEvent::Impl::Glib:: , 1], # becomes extremely slow with many watchers
1316 [Event::Lib:: => AnyEvent::Impl::EventLib::], # too buggy
1317 [Irssi:: => AnyEvent::Impl::Irssi::], # Irssi has a bogus "Event" package
1318 [Tk:: => AnyEvent::Impl::Tk::], # crashes with many handles
1319 [Qt:: => AnyEvent::Impl::Qt::], # requires special main program
1320 [POE::Kernel:: => AnyEvent::Impl::POE::], # lasciate ogni speranza
1321 [Wx:: => AnyEvent::Impl::POE::],
1322 [Prima:: => AnyEvent::Impl::POE::],
1323 [IO::Async::Loop:: => AnyEvent::Impl::IOAsync::], # a bitch to autodetect
1324 [Cocoa::EventLoop:: => AnyEvent::Impl::Cocoa::],
1325 [FLTK:: => AnyEvent::Impl::FLTK2::],
1326 );
1327
1328 our @isa_hook;
1329
1330 sub _isa_set {
1331 my @pkg = ("AnyEvent", (map $_->[0], grep defined, @isa_hook), $MODEL);
1332
1333 @{"$pkg[$_-1]::ISA"} = $pkg[$_]
1334 for 1 .. $#pkg;
1335
1336 grep $_ && $_->[1], @isa_hook
1337 and AE::_reset ();
1338 }
1339
1340 # used for hooking AnyEvent::Strict and AnyEvent::Debug::Wrap into the class hierarchy
1341 sub _isa_hook($$;$) {
1342 my ($i, $pkg, $reset_ae) = @_;
1343
1344 $isa_hook[$i] = $pkg ? [$pkg, $reset_ae] : undef;
1345
1346 _isa_set;
1347 }
1348
1349 # all autoloaded methods reserve the complete glob, not just the method slot.
1350 # due to bugs in perls method cache implementation.
1351 our @methods = qw(io timer time now now_update signal child idle condvar);
1352
1353 sub detect() {
1354 return $MODEL if $MODEL; # some programs keep references to detect
1355
1356 local $!; # for good measure
1357 local $SIG{__DIE__}; # we use eval
1358
1359 # free some memory
1360 *detect = sub () { $MODEL };
1361 # undef &func doesn't correctly update the method cache. grmbl.
1362 # so we delete the whole glob. grmbl.
1363 # otoh, perl doesn't let me undef an active usb, but it lets me free
1364 # a glob with an active sub. hrm. i hope it works, but perl is
1365 # usually buggy in this department. sigh.
1366 delete @{"AnyEvent::"}{@methods};
1367 undef @methods;
1368
1369 if ($ENV{PERL_ANYEVENT_MODEL} =~ /^([a-zA-Z0-9:]+)$/) {
1370 my $model = $1;
1371 $model = "AnyEvent::Impl::$model" unless $model =~ s/::$//;
1372 if (eval "require $model") {
1373 AnyEvent::log 7 => "loaded model '$model' (forced by \$ENV{PERL_ANYEVENT_MODEL}), using it.";
1374 $MODEL = $model;
1375 } else {
1376 AnyEvent::log warn => "unable to load model '$model' (from \$ENV{PERL_ANYEVENT_MODEL}):\n$@";
1377 }
1378 }
1379
1380 # check for already loaded models
1381 unless ($MODEL) {
1382 for (@REGISTRY, @models) {
1383 my ($package, $model) = @$_;
1384 if (${"$package\::VERSION"} > 0) {
1385 if (eval "require $model") {
1386 AnyEvent::log 7 => "autodetected model '$model', using it.";
1387 $MODEL = $model;
1388 last;
1389 }
1390 }
1391 }
1392
1393 unless ($MODEL) {
1394 # try to autoload a model
1395 for (@REGISTRY, @models) {
1396 my ($package, $model, $autoload) = @$_;
1397 if (
1398 $autoload
1399 and eval "require $package"
1400 and ${"$package\::VERSION"} > 0
1401 and eval "require $model"
1402 ) {
1403 AnyEvent::log 7 => "autoloaded model '$model', using it.";
1404 $MODEL = $model;
1405 last;
1406 }
1407 }
1408
1409 $MODEL
1410 or die "AnyEvent: backend autodetection failed - did you properly install AnyEvent?";
1411 }
1412 }
1413
1414 # free memory only needed for probing
1415 undef @models;
1416 undef @REGISTRY;
1417
1418 push @{"$MODEL\::ISA"}, "AnyEvent::Base";
1419
1420 # now nuke some methods that are overridden by the backend.
1421 # SUPER usage is not allowed in these.
1422 for (qw(time signal child idle)) {
1423 undef &{"AnyEvent::Base::$_"}
1424 if defined &{"$MODEL\::$_"};
1425 }
1426
1427 _isa_set;
1428
1429 # we're officially open!
1430
1431 if ($ENV{PERL_ANYEVENT_STRICT}) {
1432 require AnyEvent::Strict;
1433 }
1434
1435 if ($ENV{PERL_ANYEVENT_DEBUG_WRAP}) {
1436 require AnyEvent::Debug;
1437 AnyEvent::Debug::wrap ($ENV{PERL_ANYEVENT_DEBUG_WRAP});
1438 }
1439
1440 if (length $ENV{PERL_ANYEVENT_DEBUG_SHELL}) {
1441 require AnyEvent::Socket;
1442 require AnyEvent::Debug;
1443
1444 my $shell = $ENV{PERL_ANYEVENT_DEBUG_SHELL};
1445 $shell =~ s/\$\$/$$/g;
1446
1447 my ($host, $service) = AnyEvent::Socket::parse_hostport ($shell);
1448 $AnyEvent::Debug::SHELL = AnyEvent::Debug::shell ($host, $service);
1449 }
1450
1451 # now the anyevent environment is set up as the user told us to, so
1452 # call the actual user code - post detects
1453
1454 (shift @post_detect)->() while @post_detect;
1455 undef @post_detect;
1456
1457 *post_detect = sub(&) {
1458 shift->();
1459
1460 undef
1461 };
1462
1463 $MODEL
1464 }
1465
1466 for my $name (@methods) {
1467 *$name = sub {
1468 detect;
1469 # we use goto because
1470 # a) it makes the thunk more transparent
1471 # b) it allows us to delete the thunk later
1472 goto &{ UNIVERSAL::can AnyEvent => "SUPER::$name" }
1473 };
1474 }
1475
1476 # utility function to dup a filehandle. this is used by many backends
1477 # to support binding more than one watcher per filehandle (they usually
1478 # allow only one watcher per fd, so we dup it to get a different one).
1479 sub _dupfh($$;$$) {
1480 my ($poll, $fh, $r, $w) = @_;
1481
1482 # cygwin requires the fh mode to be matching, unix doesn't
1483 my ($rw, $mode) = $poll eq "r" ? ($r, "<&") : ($w, ">&");
1484
1485 open my $fh2, $mode, $fh
1486 or die "AnyEvent->io: cannot dup() filehandle in mode '$poll': $!,";
1487
1488 # we assume CLOEXEC is already set by perl in all important cases
1489
1490 ($fh2, $rw)
1491 }
1492
1493 =head1 SIMPLIFIED AE API
1494
1495 Starting with version 5.0, AnyEvent officially supports a second, much
1496 simpler, API that is designed to reduce the calling, typing and memory
1497 overhead by using function call syntax and a fixed number of parameters.
1498
1499 See the L<AE> manpage for details.
1500
1501 =cut
1502
1503 package AE;
1504
1505 our $VERSION = $AnyEvent::VERSION;
1506
1507 sub _reset() {
1508 eval q{
1509 # fall back to the main API by default - backends and AnyEvent::Base
1510 # implementations can overwrite these.
1511
1512 sub io($$$) {
1513 AnyEvent->io (fh => $_[0], poll => $_[1] ? "w" : "r", cb => $_[2])
1514 }
1515
1516 sub timer($$$) {
1517 AnyEvent->timer (after => $_[0], interval => $_[1], cb => $_[2])
1518 }
1519
1520 sub signal($$) {
1521 AnyEvent->signal (signal => $_[0], cb => $_[1])
1522 }
1523
1524 sub child($$) {
1525 AnyEvent->child (pid => $_[0], cb => $_[1])
1526 }
1527
1528 sub idle($) {
1529 AnyEvent->idle (cb => $_[0]);
1530 }
1531
1532 sub cv(;&) {
1533 AnyEvent->condvar (@_ ? (cb => $_[0]) : ())
1534 }
1535
1536 sub now() {
1537 AnyEvent->now
1538 }
1539
1540 sub now_update() {
1541 AnyEvent->now_update
1542 }
1543
1544 sub time() {
1545 AnyEvent->time
1546 }
1547
1548 *postpone = \&AnyEvent::postpone;
1549 *log = \&AnyEvent::log;
1550 };
1551 die if $@;
1552 }
1553
1554 BEGIN { _reset }
1555
1556 package AnyEvent::Base;
1557
1558 # default implementations for many methods
1559
1560 sub time {
1561 eval q{ # poor man's autoloading {}
1562 # probe for availability of Time::HiRes
1563 if (eval "use Time::HiRes (); Time::HiRes::time (); 1") {
1564 AnyEvent::log 8 => "AnyEvent: using Time::HiRes for sub-second timing accuracy."
1565 if $AnyEvent::VERBOSE >= 8;
1566 *time = sub { Time::HiRes::time () };
1567 *AE::time = \& Time::HiRes::time ;
1568 # if (eval "use POSIX (); (POSIX::times())...
1569 } else {
1570 AnyEvent::log critical => "using built-in time(), WARNING, no sub-second resolution!";
1571 *time = sub { CORE::time };
1572 *AE::time = sub (){ CORE::time };
1573 }
1574
1575 *now = \&time;
1576 };
1577 die if $@;
1578
1579 &time
1580 }
1581
1582 *now = \&time;
1583 sub now_update { }
1584
1585 sub _poll {
1586 Carp::croak "$AnyEvent::MODEL does not support blocking waits. Caught";
1587 }
1588
1589 # default implementation for ->condvar
1590 # in fact, the default should not be overwritten
1591
1592 sub condvar {
1593 eval q{ # poor man's autoloading {}
1594 *condvar = sub {
1595 bless { @_ == 3 ? (_ae_cb => $_[2]) : () }, "AnyEvent::CondVar"
1596 };
1597
1598 *AE::cv = sub (;&) {
1599 bless { @_ ? (_ae_cb => shift) : () }, "AnyEvent::CondVar"
1600 };
1601 };
1602 die if $@;
1603
1604 &condvar
1605 }
1606
1607 # default implementation for ->signal
1608
1609 our $HAVE_ASYNC_INTERRUPT;
1610
1611 sub _have_async_interrupt() {
1612 $HAVE_ASYNC_INTERRUPT = 1*(!$ENV{PERL_ANYEVENT_AVOID_ASYNC_INTERRUPT}
1613 && eval "use Async::Interrupt 1.02 (); 1")
1614 unless defined $HAVE_ASYNC_INTERRUPT;
1615
1616 $HAVE_ASYNC_INTERRUPT
1617 }
1618
1619 our ($SIGPIPE_R, $SIGPIPE_W, %SIG_CB, %SIG_EV, $SIG_IO);
1620 our (%SIG_ASY, %SIG_ASY_W);
1621 our ($SIG_COUNT, $SIG_TW);
1622
1623 # install a dummy wakeup watcher to reduce signal catching latency
1624 # used by Impls
1625 sub _sig_add() {
1626 unless ($SIG_COUNT++) {
1627 # try to align timer on a full-second boundary, if possible
1628 my $NOW = AE::now;
1629
1630 $SIG_TW = AE::timer
1631 $MAX_SIGNAL_LATENCY - ($NOW - int $NOW),
1632 $MAX_SIGNAL_LATENCY,
1633 sub { } # just for the PERL_ASYNC_CHECK
1634 ;
1635 }
1636 }
1637
1638 sub _sig_del {
1639 undef $SIG_TW
1640 unless --$SIG_COUNT;
1641 }
1642
1643 our $_sig_name_init; $_sig_name_init = sub {
1644 eval q{ # poor man's autoloading {}
1645 undef $_sig_name_init;
1646
1647 if (_have_async_interrupt) {
1648 *sig2num = \&Async::Interrupt::sig2num;
1649 *sig2name = \&Async::Interrupt::sig2name;
1650 } else {
1651 require Config;
1652
1653 my %signame2num;
1654 @signame2num{ split ' ', $Config::Config{sig_name} }
1655 = split ' ', $Config::Config{sig_num};
1656
1657 my @signum2name;
1658 @signum2name[values %signame2num] = keys %signame2num;
1659
1660 *sig2num = sub($) {
1661 $_[0] > 0 ? shift : $signame2num{+shift}
1662 };
1663 *sig2name = sub ($) {
1664 $_[0] > 0 ? $signum2name[+shift] : shift
1665 };
1666 }
1667 };
1668 die if $@;
1669 };
1670
1671 sub sig2num ($) { &$_sig_name_init; &sig2num }
1672 sub sig2name($) { &$_sig_name_init; &sig2name }
1673
1674 sub signal {
1675 eval q{ # poor man's autoloading {}
1676 # probe for availability of Async::Interrupt
1677 if (_have_async_interrupt) {
1678 AnyEvent::log 8 => "using Async::Interrupt for race-free signal handling."
1679 if $AnyEvent::VERBOSE >= 8;
1680
1681 $SIGPIPE_R = new Async::Interrupt::EventPipe;
1682 $SIG_IO = AE::io $SIGPIPE_R->fileno, 0, \&_signal_exec;
1683
1684 } else {
1685 AnyEvent::log 8 => "using emulated perl signal handling with latency timer."
1686 if $AnyEvent::VERBOSE >= 8;
1687
1688 if (AnyEvent::WIN32) {
1689 require AnyEvent::Util;
1690
1691 ($SIGPIPE_R, $SIGPIPE_W) = AnyEvent::Util::portable_pipe ();
1692 AnyEvent::Util::fh_nonblocking ($SIGPIPE_R, 1) if $SIGPIPE_R;
1693 AnyEvent::Util::fh_nonblocking ($SIGPIPE_W, 1) if $SIGPIPE_W; # just in case
1694 } else {
1695 pipe $SIGPIPE_R, $SIGPIPE_W;
1696 fcntl $SIGPIPE_R, AnyEvent::F_SETFL, AnyEvent::O_NONBLOCK if $SIGPIPE_R;
1697 fcntl $SIGPIPE_W, AnyEvent::F_SETFL, AnyEvent::O_NONBLOCK if $SIGPIPE_W; # just in case
1698
1699 # not strictly required, as $^F is normally 2, but let's make sure...
1700 fcntl $SIGPIPE_R, AnyEvent::F_SETFD, AnyEvent::FD_CLOEXEC;
1701 fcntl $SIGPIPE_W, AnyEvent::F_SETFD, AnyEvent::FD_CLOEXEC;
1702 }
1703
1704 $SIGPIPE_R
1705 or Carp::croak "AnyEvent: unable to create a signal reporting pipe: $!\n";
1706
1707 $SIG_IO = AE::io $SIGPIPE_R, 0, \&_signal_exec;
1708 }
1709
1710 *signal = $HAVE_ASYNC_INTERRUPT
1711 ? sub {
1712 my (undef, %arg) = @_;
1713
1714 # async::interrupt
1715 my $signal = sig2num $arg{signal};
1716 $SIG_CB{$signal}{$arg{cb}} = $arg{cb};
1717
1718 $SIG_ASY{$signal} ||= new Async::Interrupt
1719 cb => sub { undef $SIG_EV{$signal} },
1720 signal => $signal,
1721 pipe => [$SIGPIPE_R->filenos],
1722 pipe_autodrain => 0,
1723 ;
1724
1725 bless [$signal, $arg{cb}], "AnyEvent::Base::signal"
1726 }
1727 : sub {
1728 my (undef, %arg) = @_;
1729
1730 # pure perl
1731 my $signal = sig2name $arg{signal};
1732 $SIG_CB{$signal}{$arg{cb}} = $arg{cb};
1733
1734 $SIG{$signal} ||= sub {
1735 local $!;
1736 syswrite $SIGPIPE_W, "\x00", 1 unless %SIG_EV;
1737 undef $SIG_EV{$signal};
1738 };
1739
1740 # can't do signal processing without introducing races in pure perl,
1741 # so limit the signal latency.
1742 _sig_add;
1743
1744 bless [$signal, $arg{cb}], "AnyEvent::Base::signal"
1745 }
1746 ;
1747
1748 *AnyEvent::Base::signal::DESTROY = sub {
1749 my ($signal, $cb) = @{$_[0]};
1750
1751 _sig_del;
1752
1753 delete $SIG_CB{$signal}{$cb};
1754
1755 $HAVE_ASYNC_INTERRUPT
1756 ? delete $SIG_ASY{$signal}
1757 : # delete doesn't work with older perls - they then
1758 # print weird messages, or just unconditionally exit
1759 # instead of getting the default action.
1760 undef $SIG{$signal}
1761 unless keys %{ $SIG_CB{$signal} };
1762 };
1763
1764 *_signal_exec = sub {
1765 $HAVE_ASYNC_INTERRUPT
1766 ? $SIGPIPE_R->drain
1767 : sysread $SIGPIPE_R, (my $dummy), 9;
1768
1769 while (%SIG_EV) {
1770 for (keys %SIG_EV) {
1771 delete $SIG_EV{$_};
1772 &$_ for values %{ $SIG_CB{$_} || {} };
1773 }
1774 }
1775 };
1776 };
1777 die if $@;
1778
1779 &signal
1780 }
1781
1782 # default implementation for ->child
1783
1784 our %PID_CB;
1785 our $CHLD_W;
1786 our $CHLD_DELAY_W;
1787
1788 # used by many Impl's
1789 sub _emit_childstatus($$) {
1790 my (undef, $rpid, $rstatus) = @_;
1791
1792 $_->($rpid, $rstatus)
1793 for values %{ $PID_CB{$rpid} || {} },
1794 values %{ $PID_CB{0} || {} };
1795 }
1796
1797 sub child {
1798 eval q{ # poor man's autoloading {}
1799 *_sigchld = sub {
1800 my $pid;
1801
1802 AnyEvent->_emit_childstatus ($pid, $?)
1803 while ($pid = waitpid -1, WNOHANG) > 0;
1804 };
1805
1806 *child = sub {
1807 my (undef, %arg) = @_;
1808
1809 my $pid = $arg{pid};
1810 my $cb = $arg{cb};
1811
1812 $PID_CB{$pid}{$cb+0} = $cb;
1813
1814 unless ($CHLD_W) {
1815 $CHLD_W = AE::signal CHLD => \&_sigchld;
1816 # child could be a zombie already, so make at least one round
1817 &_sigchld;
1818 }
1819
1820 bless [$pid, $cb+0], "AnyEvent::Base::child"
1821 };
1822
1823 *AnyEvent::Base::child::DESTROY = sub {
1824 my ($pid, $icb) = @{$_[0]};
1825
1826 delete $PID_CB{$pid}{$icb};
1827 delete $PID_CB{$pid} unless keys %{ $PID_CB{$pid} };
1828
1829 undef $CHLD_W unless keys %PID_CB;
1830 };
1831 };
1832 die if $@;
1833
1834 &child
1835 }
1836
1837 # idle emulation is done by simply using a timer, regardless
1838 # of whether the process is idle or not, and not letting
1839 # the callback use more than 50% of the time.
1840 sub idle {
1841 eval q{ # poor man's autoloading {}
1842 *idle = sub {
1843 my (undef, %arg) = @_;
1844
1845 my ($cb, $w, $rcb) = $arg{cb};
1846
1847 $rcb = sub {
1848 if ($cb) {
1849 $w = AE::time;
1850 &$cb;
1851 $w = AE::time - $w;
1852
1853 # never use more then 50% of the time for the idle watcher,
1854 # within some limits
1855 $w = 0.0001 if $w < 0.0001;
1856 $w = 5 if $w > 5;
1857
1858 $w = AE::timer $w, 0, $rcb;
1859 } else {
1860 # clean up...
1861 undef $w;
1862 undef $rcb;
1863 }
1864 };
1865
1866 $w = AE::timer 0.05, 0, $rcb;
1867
1868 bless \\$cb, "AnyEvent::Base::idle"
1869 };
1870
1871 *AnyEvent::Base::idle::DESTROY = sub {
1872 undef $${$_[0]};
1873 };
1874 };
1875 die if $@;
1876
1877 &idle
1878 }
1879
1880 package AnyEvent::CondVar;
1881
1882 our @ISA = AnyEvent::CondVar::Base::;
1883
1884 # only to be used for subclassing
1885 sub new {
1886 my $class = shift;
1887 bless AnyEvent->condvar (@_), $class
1888 }
1889
1890 package AnyEvent::CondVar::Base;
1891
1892 #use overload
1893 # '&{}' => sub { my $self = shift; sub { $self->send (@_) } },
1894 # fallback => 1;
1895
1896 # save 300+ kilobytes by dirtily hardcoding overloading
1897 ${"AnyEvent::CondVar::Base::OVERLOAD"}{dummy}++; # Register with magic by touching.
1898 *{'AnyEvent::CondVar::Base::()'} = sub { }; # "Make it findable via fetchmethod."
1899 *{'AnyEvent::CondVar::Base::(&{}'} = sub { my $self = shift; sub { $self->send (@_) } }; # &{}
1900 ${'AnyEvent::CondVar::Base::()'} = 1; # fallback
1901
1902 our $WAITING;
1903
1904 sub _send {
1905 # nop
1906 }
1907
1908 sub _wait {
1909 AnyEvent->_poll until $_[0]{_ae_sent};
1910 }
1911
1912 sub send {
1913 my $cv = shift;
1914 $cv->{_ae_sent} = [@_];
1915 (delete $cv->{_ae_cb})->($cv) if $cv->{_ae_cb};
1916 $cv->_send;
1917 }
1918
1919 sub croak {
1920 $_[0]{_ae_croak} = $_[1];
1921 $_[0]->send;
1922 }
1923
1924 sub ready {
1925 $_[0]{_ae_sent}
1926 }
1927
1928 sub recv {
1929 unless ($_[0]{_ae_sent}) {
1930 $WAITING
1931 and Carp::croak "AnyEvent::CondVar: recursive blocking wait attempted";
1932
1933 local $WAITING = 1;
1934 $_[0]->_wait;
1935 }
1936
1937 $_[0]{_ae_croak}
1938 and Carp::croak $_[0]{_ae_croak};
1939
1940 wantarray
1941 ? @{ $_[0]{_ae_sent} }
1942 : $_[0]{_ae_sent}[0]
1943 }
1944
1945 sub cb {
1946 my $cv = shift;
1947
1948 @_
1949 and $cv->{_ae_cb} = shift
1950 and $cv->{_ae_sent}
1951 and (delete $cv->{_ae_cb})->($cv);
1952
1953 $cv->{_ae_cb}
1954 }
1955
1956 sub begin {
1957 ++$_[0]{_ae_counter};
1958 $_[0]{_ae_end_cb} = $_[1] if @_ > 1;
1959 }
1960
1961 sub end {
1962 return if --$_[0]{_ae_counter};
1963 &{ $_[0]{_ae_end_cb} || sub { $_[0]->send } };
1964 }
1965
1966 # undocumented/compatibility with pre-3.4
1967 *broadcast = \&send;
1968 *wait = \&recv;
1969
1970 =head1 ERROR AND EXCEPTION HANDLING
1971
1972 In general, AnyEvent does not do any error handling - it relies on the
1973 caller to do that if required. The L<AnyEvent::Strict> module (see also
1974 the C<PERL_ANYEVENT_STRICT> environment variable, below) provides strict
1975 checking of all AnyEvent methods, however, which is highly useful during
1976 development.
1977
1978 As for exception handling (i.e. runtime errors and exceptions thrown while
1979 executing a callback), this is not only highly event-loop specific, but
1980 also not in any way wrapped by this module, as this is the job of the main
1981 program.
1982
1983 The pure perl event loop simply re-throws the exception (usually
1984 within C<< condvar->recv >>), the L<Event> and L<EV> modules call C<<
1985 $Event/EV::DIED->() >>, L<Glib> uses C<< install_exception_handler >> and
1986 so on.
1987
1988 =head1 ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES
1989
1990 AnyEvent supports a number of environment variables that tune the
1991 runtime behaviour. They are usually evaluated when AnyEvent is
1992 loaded, initialised, or a submodule that uses them is loaded. Many of
1993 them also cause AnyEvent to load additional modules - for example,
1994 C<PERL_ANYEVENT_DEBUG_WRAP> causes the L<AnyEvent::Debug> module to be
1995 loaded.
1996
1997 All the environment variables documented here start with
1998 C<PERL_ANYEVENT_>, which is what AnyEvent considers its own
1999 namespace. Other modules are encouraged (but by no means required) to use
2000 C<PERL_ANYEVENT_SUBMODULE> if they have registered the AnyEvent::Submodule
2001 namespace on CPAN, for any submodule. For example, L<AnyEvent::HTTP> could
2002 be expected to use C<PERL_ANYEVENT_HTTP_PROXY> (it should not access env
2003 variables starting with C<AE_>, see below).
2004
2005 All variables can also be set via the C<AE_> prefix, that is, instead
2006 of setting C<PERL_ANYEVENT_VERBOSE> you can also set C<AE_VERBOSE>. In
2007 case there is a clash btween anyevent and another program that uses
2008 C<AE_something> you can set the corresponding C<PERL_ANYEVENT_something>
2009 variable to the empty string, as those variables take precedence.
2010
2011 When AnyEvent is first loaded, it copies all C<AE_xxx> env variables
2012 to their C<PERL_ANYEVENT_xxx> counterpart unless that variable already
2013 exists. If taint mode is on, then AnyEvent will remove I<all> environment
2014 variables starting with C<PERL_ANYEVENT_> from C<%ENV> (or replace them
2015 with C<undef> or the empty string, if the corresaponding C<AE_> variable
2016 is set).
2017
2018 The exact algorithm is currently:
2019
2020 1. if taint mode enabled, delete all PERL_ANYEVENT_xyz variables from %ENV
2021 2. copy over AE_xyz to PERL_ANYEVENT_xyz unless the latter alraedy exists
2022 3. if taint mode enabled, set all PERL_ANYEVENT_xyz variables to undef.
2023
2024 This ensures that child processes will not see the C<AE_> variables.
2025
2026 The following environment variables are currently known to AnyEvent:
2027
2028 =over 4
2029
2030 =item C<PERL_ANYEVENT_VERBOSE>
2031
2032 By default, AnyEvent will be completely silent except in fatal
2033 conditions. You can set this environment variable to make AnyEvent more
2034 talkative. If you want to do more than just set the global logging level
2035 you should have a look at C<PERL_ANYEVENT_LOG>, which allows much more
2036 complex specifications.
2037
2038 When set to C<5> or higher, causes AnyEvent to warn about unexpected
2039 conditions, such as not being able to load the event model specified by
2040 C<PERL_ANYEVENT_MODEL>.
2041
2042 When set to C<7> or higher, cause AnyEvent to report to STDERR which event
2043 model it chooses.
2044
2045 When set to C<8> or higher, then AnyEvent will report extra information on
2046 which optional modules it loads and how it implements certain features.
2047
2048 =item C<PERL_ANYEVENT_LOG>
2049
2050 Accepts rather complex logging specifications. For example, you could log
2051 all C<debug> messages of some module to stderr, warnings and above to
2052 stderr, and errors and above to syslog, with:
2053
2054 PERL_ANYEVENT_LOG=Some::Module=debug,+log:filter=warn,+%syslog:%syslog=error,syslog
2055
2056 For the rather extensive details, see L<AnyEvent::Log>.
2057
2058 This variable is evaluated when AnyEvent (or L<AnyEvent::Log>) is loaded,
2059 so will take effect even before AnyEvent has initialised itself.
2060
2061 Note that specifying this environment variable causes the L<AnyEvent::Log>
2062 module to be loaded, while C<PERL_ANYEVENT_VERBOSE> does not, so only
2063 using the latter saves a few hundred kB of memory until the first message
2064 is being logged.
2065
2066 =item C<PERL_ANYEVENT_STRICT>
2067
2068 AnyEvent does not do much argument checking by default, as thorough
2069 argument checking is very costly. Setting this variable to a true value
2070 will cause AnyEvent to load C<AnyEvent::Strict> and then to thoroughly
2071 check the arguments passed to most method calls. If it finds any problems,
2072 it will croak.
2073
2074 In other words, enables "strict" mode.
2075
2076 Unlike C<use strict> (or its modern cousin, C<< use L<common::sense>
2077 >>, it is definitely recommended to keep it off in production. Keeping
2078 C<PERL_ANYEVENT_STRICT=1> in your environment while developing programs
2079 can be very useful, however.
2080
2081 =item C<PERL_ANYEVENT_DEBUG_SHELL>
2082
2083 If this env variable is set, then its contents will be interpreted by
2084 C<AnyEvent::Socket::parse_hostport> (after replacing every occurance of
2085 C<$$> by the process pid) and an C<AnyEvent::Debug::shell> is bound on
2086 that port. The shell object is saved in C<$AnyEvent::Debug::SHELL>.
2087
2088 This happens when the first watcher is created.
2089
2090 For example, to bind a debug shell on a unix domain socket in
2091 F<< /tmp/debug<pid>.sock >>, you could use this:
2092
2093 PERL_ANYEVENT_DEBUG_SHELL=/tmp/debug\$\$.sock perlprog
2094
2095 Note that creating sockets in F</tmp> is very unsafe on multiuser
2096 systems.
2097
2098 =item C<PERL_ANYEVENT_DEBUG_WRAP>
2099
2100 Can be set to C<0>, C<1> or C<2> and enables wrapping of all watchers for
2101 debugging purposes. See C<AnyEvent::Debug::wrap> for details.
2102
2103 =item C<PERL_ANYEVENT_MODEL>
2104
2105 This can be used to specify the event model to be used by AnyEvent, before
2106 auto detection and -probing kicks in.
2107
2108 It normally is a string consisting entirely of ASCII letters (e.g. C<EV>
2109 or C<IOAsync>). The string C<AnyEvent::Impl::> gets prepended and the
2110 resulting module name is loaded and - if the load was successful - used as
2111 event model backend. If it fails to load then AnyEvent will proceed with
2112 auto detection and -probing.
2113
2114 If the string ends with C<::> instead (e.g. C<AnyEvent::Impl::EV::>) then
2115 nothing gets prepended and the module name is used as-is (hint: C<::> at
2116 the end of a string designates a module name and quotes it appropriately).
2117
2118 For example, to force the pure perl model (L<AnyEvent::Loop::Perl>) you
2119 could start your program like this:
2120
2121 PERL_ANYEVENT_MODEL=Perl perl ...
2122
2123 =item C<PERL_ANYEVENT_PROTOCOLS>
2124
2125 Used by both L<AnyEvent::DNS> and L<AnyEvent::Socket> to determine preferences
2126 for IPv4 or IPv6. The default is unspecified (and might change, or be the result
2127 of auto probing).
2128
2129 Must be set to a comma-separated list of protocols or address families,
2130 current supported: C<ipv4> and C<ipv6>. Only protocols mentioned will be
2131 used, and preference will be given to protocols mentioned earlier in the
2132 list.
2133
2134 This variable can effectively be used for denial-of-service attacks
2135 against local programs (e.g. when setuid), although the impact is likely
2136 small, as the program has to handle conenction and other failures anyways.
2137
2138 Examples: C<PERL_ANYEVENT_PROTOCOLS=ipv4,ipv6> - prefer IPv4 over IPv6,
2139 but support both and try to use both. C<PERL_ANYEVENT_PROTOCOLS=ipv4>
2140 - only support IPv4, never try to resolve or contact IPv6
2141 addresses. C<PERL_ANYEVENT_PROTOCOLS=ipv6,ipv4> support either IPv4 or
2142 IPv6, but prefer IPv6 over IPv4.
2143
2144 =item C<PERL_ANYEVENT_HOSTS>
2145
2146 This variable, if specified, overrides the F</etc/hosts> file used by
2147 L<AnyEvent::Socket>C<::resolve_sockaddr>, i.e. hosts aliases will be read
2148 from that file instead.
2149
2150 =item C<PERL_ANYEVENT_EDNS0>
2151
2152 Used by L<AnyEvent::DNS> to decide whether to use the EDNS0 extension for
2153 DNS. This extension is generally useful to reduce DNS traffic, especially
2154 when DNSSEC is involved, but some (broken) firewalls drop such DNS
2155 packets, which is why it is off by default.
2156
2157 Setting this variable to C<1> will cause L<AnyEvent::DNS> to announce
2158 EDNS0 in its DNS requests.
2159
2160 =item C<PERL_ANYEVENT_MAX_FORKS>
2161
2162 The maximum number of child processes that C<AnyEvent::Util::fork_call>
2163 will create in parallel.
2164
2165 =item C<PERL_ANYEVENT_MAX_OUTSTANDING_DNS>
2166
2167 The default value for the C<max_outstanding> parameter for the default DNS
2168 resolver - this is the maximum number of parallel DNS requests that are
2169 sent to the DNS server.
2170
2171 =item C<PERL_ANYEVENT_RESOLV_CONF>
2172
2173 The absolute path to a F<resolv.conf>-style file to use instead of
2174 F</etc/resolv.conf> (or the OS-specific configuration) in the default
2175 resolver, or the empty string to select the default configuration.
2176
2177 =item C<PERL_ANYEVENT_CA_FILE>, C<PERL_ANYEVENT_CA_PATH>.
2178
2179 When neither C<ca_file> nor C<ca_path> was specified during
2180 L<AnyEvent::TLS> context creation, and either of these environment
2181 variables are nonempty, they will be used to specify CA certificate
2182 locations instead of a system-dependent default.
2183
2184 =item C<PERL_ANYEVENT_AVOID_GUARD> and C<PERL_ANYEVENT_AVOID_ASYNC_INTERRUPT>
2185
2186 When these are set to C<1>, then the respective modules are not
2187 loaded. Mostly good for testing AnyEvent itself.
2188
2189 =back
2190
2191 =head1 SUPPLYING YOUR OWN EVENT MODEL INTERFACE
2192
2193 This is an advanced topic that you do not normally need to use AnyEvent in
2194 a module. This section is only of use to event loop authors who want to
2195 provide AnyEvent compatibility.
2196
2197 If you need to support another event library which isn't directly
2198 supported by AnyEvent, you can supply your own interface to it by
2199 pushing, before the first watcher gets created, the package name of
2200 the event module and the package name of the interface to use onto
2201 C<@AnyEvent::REGISTRY>. You can do that before and even without loading
2202 AnyEvent, so it is reasonably cheap.
2203
2204 Example:
2205
2206 push @AnyEvent::REGISTRY, [urxvt => urxvt::anyevent::];
2207
2208 This tells AnyEvent to (literally) use the C<urxvt::anyevent::>
2209 package/class when it finds the C<urxvt> package/module is already loaded.
2210
2211 When AnyEvent is loaded and asked to find a suitable event model, it
2212 will first check for the presence of urxvt by trying to C<use> the
2213 C<urxvt::anyevent> module.
2214
2215 The class should provide implementations for all watcher types. See
2216 L<AnyEvent::Impl::EV> (source code), L<AnyEvent::Impl::Glib> (Source code)
2217 and so on for actual examples. Use C<perldoc -m AnyEvent::Impl::Glib> to
2218 see the sources.
2219
2220 If you don't provide C<signal> and C<child> watchers than AnyEvent will
2221 provide suitable (hopefully) replacements.
2222
2223 The above example isn't fictitious, the I<rxvt-unicode> (a.k.a. urxvt)
2224 terminal emulator uses the above line as-is. An interface isn't included
2225 in AnyEvent because it doesn't make sense outside the embedded interpreter
2226 inside I<rxvt-unicode>, and it is updated and maintained as part of the
2227 I<rxvt-unicode> distribution.
2228
2229 I<rxvt-unicode> also cheats a bit by not providing blocking access to
2230 condition variables: code blocking while waiting for a condition will
2231 C<die>. This still works with most modules/usages, and blocking calls must
2232 not be done in an interactive application, so it makes sense.
2233
2234 =head1 EXAMPLE PROGRAM
2235
2236 The following program uses an I/O watcher to read data from STDIN, a timer
2237 to display a message once per second, and a condition variable to quit the
2238 program when the user enters quit:
2239
2240 use AnyEvent;
2241
2242 my $cv = AnyEvent->condvar;
2243
2244 my $io_watcher = AnyEvent->io (
2245 fh => \*STDIN,
2246 poll => 'r',
2247 cb => sub {
2248 warn "io event <$_[0]>\n"; # will always output <r>
2249 chomp (my $input = <STDIN>); # read a line
2250 warn "read: $input\n"; # output what has been read
2251 $cv->send if $input =~ /^q/i; # quit program if /^q/i
2252 },
2253 );
2254
2255 my $time_watcher = AnyEvent->timer (after => 1, interval => 1, cb => sub {
2256 warn "timeout\n"; # print 'timeout' at most every second
2257 });
2258
2259 $cv->recv; # wait until user enters /^q/i
2260
2261 =head1 REAL-WORLD EXAMPLE
2262
2263 Consider the L<Net::FCP> module. It features (among others) the following
2264 API calls, which are to freenet what HTTP GET requests are to http:
2265
2266 my $data = $fcp->client_get ($url); # blocks
2267
2268 my $transaction = $fcp->txn_client_get ($url); # does not block
2269 $transaction->cb ( sub { ... } ); # set optional result callback
2270 my $data = $transaction->result; # possibly blocks
2271
2272 The C<client_get> method works like C<LWP::Simple::get>: it requests the
2273 given URL and waits till the data has arrived. It is defined to be:
2274
2275 sub client_get { $_[0]->txn_client_get ($_[1])->result }
2276
2277 And in fact is automatically generated. This is the blocking API of
2278 L<Net::FCP>, and it works as simple as in any other, similar, module.
2279
2280 More complicated is C<txn_client_get>: It only creates a transaction
2281 (completion, result, ...) object and initiates the transaction.
2282
2283 my $txn = bless { }, Net::FCP::Txn::;
2284
2285 It also creates a condition variable that is used to signal the completion
2286 of the request:
2287
2288 $txn->{finished} = AnyAvent->condvar;
2289
2290 It then creates a socket in non-blocking mode.
2291
2292 socket $txn->{fh}, ...;
2293 fcntl $txn->{fh}, F_SETFL, O_NONBLOCK;
2294 connect $txn->{fh}, ...
2295 and !$!{EWOULDBLOCK}
2296 and !$!{EINPROGRESS}
2297 and Carp::croak "unable to connect: $!\n";
2298
2299 Then it creates a write-watcher which gets called whenever an error occurs
2300 or the connection succeeds:
2301
2302 $txn->{w} = AnyEvent->io (fh => $txn->{fh}, poll => 'w', cb => sub { $txn->fh_ready_w });
2303
2304 And returns this transaction object. The C<fh_ready_w> callback gets
2305 called as soon as the event loop detects that the socket is ready for
2306 writing.
2307
2308 The C<fh_ready_w> method makes the socket blocking again, writes the
2309 request data and replaces the watcher by a read watcher (waiting for reply
2310 data). The actual code is more complicated, but that doesn't matter for
2311 this example:
2312
2313 fcntl $txn->{fh}, F_SETFL, 0;
2314 syswrite $txn->{fh}, $txn->{request}
2315 or die "connection or write error";
2316 $txn->{w} = AnyEvent->io (fh => $txn->{fh}, poll => 'r', cb => sub { $txn->fh_ready_r });
2317
2318 Again, C<fh_ready_r> waits till all data has arrived, and then stores the
2319 result and signals any possible waiters that the request has finished:
2320
2321 sysread $txn->{fh}, $txn->{buf}, length $txn->{$buf};
2322
2323 if (end-of-file or data complete) {
2324 $txn->{result} = $txn->{buf};
2325 $txn->{finished}->send;
2326 $txb->{cb}->($txn) of $txn->{cb}; # also call callback
2327 }
2328
2329 The C<result> method, finally, just waits for the finished signal (if the
2330 request was already finished, it doesn't wait, of course, and returns the
2331 data:
2332
2333 $txn->{finished}->recv;
2334 return $txn->{result};
2335
2336 The actual code goes further and collects all errors (C<die>s, exceptions)
2337 that occurred during request processing. The C<result> method detects
2338 whether an exception as thrown (it is stored inside the $txn object)
2339 and just throws the exception, which means connection errors and other
2340 problems get reported to the code that tries to use the result, not in a
2341 random callback.
2342
2343 All of this enables the following usage styles:
2344
2345 1. Blocking:
2346
2347 my $data = $fcp->client_get ($url);
2348
2349 2. Blocking, but running in parallel:
2350
2351 my @datas = map $_->result,
2352 map $fcp->txn_client_get ($_),
2353 @urls;
2354
2355 Both blocking examples work without the module user having to know
2356 anything about events.
2357
2358 3a. Event-based in a main program, using any supported event module:
2359
2360 use EV;
2361
2362 $fcp->txn_client_get ($url)->cb (sub {
2363 my $txn = shift;
2364 my $data = $txn->result;
2365 ...
2366 });
2367
2368 EV::loop;
2369
2370 3b. The module user could use AnyEvent, too:
2371
2372 use AnyEvent;
2373
2374 my $quit = AnyEvent->condvar;
2375
2376 $fcp->txn_client_get ($url)->cb (sub {
2377 ...
2378 $quit->send;
2379 });
2380
2381 $quit->recv;
2382
2383
2384 =head1 BENCHMARKS
2385
2386 To give you an idea of the performance and overheads that AnyEvent adds
2387 over the event loops themselves and to give you an impression of the speed
2388 of various event loops I prepared some benchmarks.
2389
2390 =head2 BENCHMARKING ANYEVENT OVERHEAD
2391
2392 Here is a benchmark of various supported event models used natively and
2393 through AnyEvent. The benchmark creates a lot of timers (with a zero
2394 timeout) and I/O watchers (watching STDOUT, a pty, to become writable,
2395 which it is), lets them fire exactly once and destroys them again.
2396
2397 Source code for this benchmark is found as F<eg/bench> in the AnyEvent
2398 distribution. It uses the L<AE> interface, which makes a real difference
2399 for the EV and Perl backends only.
2400
2401 =head3 Explanation of the columns
2402
2403 I<watcher> is the number of event watchers created/destroyed. Since
2404 different event models feature vastly different performances, each event
2405 loop was given a number of watchers so that overall runtime is acceptable
2406 and similar between tested event loop (and keep them from crashing): Glib
2407 would probably take thousands of years if asked to process the same number
2408 of watchers as EV in this benchmark.
2409
2410 I<bytes> is the number of bytes (as measured by the resident set size,
2411 RSS) consumed by each watcher. This method of measuring captures both C
2412 and Perl-based overheads.
2413
2414 I<create> is the time, in microseconds (millionths of seconds), that it
2415 takes to create a single watcher. The callback is a closure shared between
2416 all watchers, to avoid adding memory overhead. That means closure creation
2417 and memory usage is not included in the figures.
2418
2419 I<invoke> is the time, in microseconds, used to invoke a simple
2420 callback. The callback simply counts down a Perl variable and after it was
2421 invoked "watcher" times, it would C<< ->send >> a condvar once to
2422 signal the end of this phase.
2423
2424 I<destroy> is the time, in microseconds, that it takes to destroy a single
2425 watcher.
2426
2427 =head3 Results
2428
2429 name watchers bytes create invoke destroy comment
2430 EV/EV 100000 223 0.47 0.43 0.27 EV native interface
2431 EV/Any 100000 223 0.48 0.42 0.26 EV + AnyEvent watchers
2432 Coro::EV/Any 100000 223 0.47 0.42 0.26 coroutines + Coro::Signal
2433 Perl/Any 100000 431 2.70 0.74 0.92 pure perl implementation
2434 Event/Event 16000 516 31.16 31.84 0.82 Event native interface
2435 Event/Any 16000 1203 42.61 34.79 1.80 Event + AnyEvent watchers
2436 IOAsync/Any 16000 1911 41.92 27.45 16.81 via IO::Async::Loop::IO_Poll
2437 IOAsync/Any 16000 1726 40.69 26.37 15.25 via IO::Async::Loop::Epoll
2438 Glib/Any 16000 1118 89.00 12.57 51.17 quadratic behaviour
2439 Tk/Any 2000 1346 20.96 10.75 8.00 SEGV with >> 2000 watchers
2440 POE/Any 2000 6951 108.97 795.32 14.24 via POE::Loop::Event
2441 POE/Any 2000 6648 94.79 774.40 575.51 via POE::Loop::Select
2442
2443 =head3 Discussion
2444
2445 The benchmark does I<not> measure scalability of the event loop very
2446 well. For example, a select-based event loop (such as the pure perl one)
2447 can never compete with an event loop that uses epoll when the number of
2448 file descriptors grows high. In this benchmark, all events become ready at
2449 the same time, so select/poll-based implementations get an unnatural speed
2450 boost.
2451
2452 Also, note that the number of watchers usually has a nonlinear effect on
2453 overall speed, that is, creating twice as many watchers doesn't take twice
2454 the time - usually it takes longer. This puts event loops tested with a
2455 higher number of watchers at a disadvantage.
2456
2457 To put the range of results into perspective, consider that on the
2458 benchmark machine, handling an event takes roughly 1600 CPU cycles with
2459 EV, 3100 CPU cycles with AnyEvent's pure perl loop and almost 3000000 CPU
2460 cycles with POE.
2461
2462 C<EV> is the sole leader regarding speed and memory use, which are both
2463 maximal/minimal, respectively. When using the L<AE> API there is zero
2464 overhead (when going through the AnyEvent API create is about 5-6 times
2465 slower, with other times being equal, so still uses far less memory than
2466 any other event loop and is still faster than Event natively).
2467
2468 The pure perl implementation is hit in a few sweet spots (both the
2469 constant timeout and the use of a single fd hit optimisations in the perl
2470 interpreter and the backend itself). Nevertheless this shows that it
2471 adds very little overhead in itself. Like any select-based backend its
2472 performance becomes really bad with lots of file descriptors (and few of
2473 them active), of course, but this was not subject of this benchmark.
2474
2475 The C<Event> module has a relatively high setup and callback invocation
2476 cost, but overall scores in on the third place.
2477
2478 C<IO::Async> performs admirably well, about on par with C<Event>, even
2479 when using its pure perl backend.
2480
2481 C<Glib>'s memory usage is quite a bit higher, but it features a
2482 faster callback invocation and overall ends up in the same class as
2483 C<Event>. However, Glib scales extremely badly, doubling the number of
2484 watchers increases the processing time by more than a factor of four,
2485 making it completely unusable when using larger numbers of watchers
2486 (note that only a single file descriptor was used in the benchmark, so
2487 inefficiencies of C<poll> do not account for this).
2488
2489 The C<Tk> adaptor works relatively well. The fact that it crashes with
2490 more than 2000 watchers is a big setback, however, as correctness takes
2491 precedence over speed. Nevertheless, its performance is surprising, as the
2492 file descriptor is dup()ed for each watcher. This shows that the dup()
2493 employed by some adaptors is not a big performance issue (it does incur a
2494 hidden memory cost inside the kernel which is not reflected in the figures
2495 above).
2496
2497 C<POE>, regardless of underlying event loop (whether using its pure perl
2498 select-based backend or the Event module, the POE-EV backend couldn't
2499 be tested because it wasn't working) shows abysmal performance and
2500 memory usage with AnyEvent: Watchers use almost 30 times as much memory
2501 as EV watchers, and 10 times as much memory as Event (the high memory
2502 requirements are caused by requiring a session for each watcher). Watcher
2503 invocation speed is almost 900 times slower than with AnyEvent's pure perl
2504 implementation.
2505
2506 The design of the POE adaptor class in AnyEvent can not really account
2507 for the performance issues, though, as session creation overhead is
2508 small compared to execution of the state machine, which is coded pretty
2509 optimally within L<AnyEvent::Impl::POE> (and while everybody agrees that
2510 using multiple sessions is not a good approach, especially regarding
2511 memory usage, even the author of POE could not come up with a faster
2512 design).
2513
2514 =head3 Summary
2515
2516 =over 4
2517
2518 =item * Using EV through AnyEvent is faster than any other event loop
2519 (even when used without AnyEvent), but most event loops have acceptable
2520 performance with or without AnyEvent.
2521
2522 =item * The overhead AnyEvent adds is usually much smaller than the overhead of
2523 the actual event loop, only with extremely fast event loops such as EV
2524 does AnyEvent add significant overhead.
2525
2526 =item * You should avoid POE like the plague if you want performance or
2527 reasonable memory usage.
2528
2529 =back
2530
2531 =head2 BENCHMARKING THE LARGE SERVER CASE
2532
2533 This benchmark actually benchmarks the event loop itself. It works by
2534 creating a number of "servers": each server consists of a socket pair, a
2535 timeout watcher that gets reset on activity (but never fires), and an I/O
2536 watcher waiting for input on one side of the socket. Each time the socket
2537 watcher reads a byte it will write that byte to a random other "server".
2538
2539 The effect is that there will be a lot of I/O watchers, only part of which
2540 are active at any one point (so there is a constant number of active
2541 fds for each loop iteration, but which fds these are is random). The
2542 timeout is reset each time something is read because that reflects how
2543 most timeouts work (and puts extra pressure on the event loops).
2544
2545 In this benchmark, we use 10000 socket pairs (20000 sockets), of which 100
2546 (1%) are active. This mirrors the activity of large servers with many
2547 connections, most of which are idle at any one point in time.
2548
2549 Source code for this benchmark is found as F<eg/bench2> in the AnyEvent
2550 distribution. It uses the L<AE> interface, which makes a real difference
2551 for the EV and Perl backends only.
2552
2553 =head3 Explanation of the columns
2554
2555 I<sockets> is the number of sockets, and twice the number of "servers" (as
2556 each server has a read and write socket end).
2557
2558 I<create> is the time it takes to create a socket pair (which is
2559 nontrivial) and two watchers: an I/O watcher and a timeout watcher.
2560
2561 I<request>, the most important value, is the time it takes to handle a
2562 single "request", that is, reading the token from the pipe and forwarding
2563 it to another server. This includes deleting the old timeout and creating
2564 a new one that moves the timeout into the future.
2565
2566 =head3 Results
2567
2568 name sockets create request
2569 EV 20000 62.66 7.99
2570 Perl 20000 68.32 32.64
2571 IOAsync 20000 174.06 101.15 epoll
2572 IOAsync 20000 174.67 610.84 poll
2573 Event 20000 202.69 242.91
2574 Glib 20000 557.01 1689.52
2575 POE 20000 341.54 12086.32 uses POE::Loop::Event
2576
2577 =head3 Discussion
2578
2579 This benchmark I<does> measure scalability and overall performance of the
2580 particular event loop.
2581
2582 EV is again fastest. Since it is using epoll on my system, the setup time
2583 is relatively high, though.
2584
2585 Perl surprisingly comes second. It is much faster than the C-based event
2586 loops Event and Glib.
2587
2588 IO::Async performs very well when using its epoll backend, and still quite
2589 good compared to Glib when using its pure perl backend.
2590
2591 Event suffers from high setup time as well (look at its code and you will
2592 understand why). Callback invocation also has a high overhead compared to
2593 the C<< $_->() for .. >>-style loop that the Perl event loop uses. Event
2594 uses select or poll in basically all documented configurations.
2595
2596 Glib is hit hard by its quadratic behaviour w.r.t. many watchers. It
2597 clearly fails to perform with many filehandles or in busy servers.
2598
2599 POE is still completely out of the picture, taking over 1000 times as long
2600 as EV, and over 100 times as long as the Perl implementation, even though
2601 it uses a C-based event loop in this case.
2602
2603 =head3 Summary
2604
2605 =over 4
2606
2607 =item * The pure perl implementation performs extremely well.
2608
2609 =item * Avoid Glib or POE in large projects where performance matters.
2610
2611 =back
2612
2613 =head2 BENCHMARKING SMALL SERVERS
2614
2615 While event loops should scale (and select-based ones do not...) even to
2616 large servers, most programs we (or I :) actually write have only a few
2617 I/O watchers.
2618
2619 In this benchmark, I use the same benchmark program as in the large server
2620 case, but it uses only eight "servers", of which three are active at any
2621 one time. This should reflect performance for a small server relatively
2622 well.
2623
2624 The columns are identical to the previous table.
2625
2626 =head3 Results
2627
2628 name sockets create request
2629 EV 16 20.00 6.54
2630 Perl 16 25.75 12.62
2631 Event 16 81.27 35.86
2632 Glib 16 32.63 15.48
2633 POE 16 261.87 276.28 uses POE::Loop::Event
2634
2635 =head3 Discussion
2636
2637 The benchmark tries to test the performance of a typical small
2638 server. While knowing how various event loops perform is interesting, keep
2639 in mind that their overhead in this case is usually not as important, due
2640 to the small absolute number of watchers (that is, you need efficiency and
2641 speed most when you have lots of watchers, not when you only have a few of
2642 them).
2643
2644 EV is again fastest.
2645
2646 Perl again comes second. It is noticeably faster than the C-based event
2647 loops Event and Glib, although the difference is too small to really
2648 matter.
2649
2650 POE also performs much better in this case, but is is still far behind the
2651 others.
2652
2653 =head3 Summary
2654
2655 =over 4
2656
2657 =item * C-based event loops perform very well with small number of
2658 watchers, as the management overhead dominates.
2659
2660 =back
2661
2662 =head2 THE IO::Lambda BENCHMARK
2663
2664 Recently I was told about the benchmark in the IO::Lambda manpage, which
2665 could be misinterpreted to make AnyEvent look bad. In fact, the benchmark
2666 simply compares IO::Lambda with POE, and IO::Lambda looks better (which
2667 shouldn't come as a surprise to anybody). As such, the benchmark is
2668 fine, and mostly shows that the AnyEvent backend from IO::Lambda isn't
2669 very optimal. But how would AnyEvent compare when used without the extra
2670 baggage? To explore this, I wrote the equivalent benchmark for AnyEvent.
2671
2672 The benchmark itself creates an echo-server, and then, for 500 times,
2673 connects to the echo server, sends a line, waits for the reply, and then
2674 creates the next connection. This is a rather bad benchmark, as it doesn't
2675 test the efficiency of the framework or much non-blocking I/O, but it is a
2676 benchmark nevertheless.
2677
2678 name runtime
2679 Lambda/select 0.330 sec
2680 + optimized 0.122 sec
2681 Lambda/AnyEvent 0.327 sec
2682 + optimized 0.138 sec
2683 Raw sockets/select 0.077 sec
2684 POE/select, components 0.662 sec
2685 POE/select, raw sockets 0.226 sec
2686 POE/select, optimized 0.404 sec
2687
2688 AnyEvent/select/nb 0.085 sec
2689 AnyEvent/EV/nb 0.068 sec
2690 +state machine 0.134 sec
2691
2692 The benchmark is also a bit unfair (my fault): the IO::Lambda/POE
2693 benchmarks actually make blocking connects and use 100% blocking I/O,
2694 defeating the purpose of an event-based solution. All of the newly
2695 written AnyEvent benchmarks use 100% non-blocking connects (using
2696 AnyEvent::Socket::tcp_connect and the asynchronous pure perl DNS
2697 resolver), so AnyEvent is at a disadvantage here, as non-blocking connects
2698 generally require a lot more bookkeeping and event handling than blocking
2699 connects (which involve a single syscall only).
2700
2701 The last AnyEvent benchmark additionally uses L<AnyEvent::Handle>, which
2702 offers similar expressive power as POE and IO::Lambda, using conventional
2703 Perl syntax. This means that both the echo server and the client are 100%
2704 non-blocking, further placing it at a disadvantage.
2705
2706 As you can see, the AnyEvent + EV combination even beats the
2707 hand-optimised "raw sockets benchmark", while AnyEvent + its pure perl
2708 backend easily beats IO::Lambda and POE.
2709
2710 And even the 100% non-blocking version written using the high-level (and
2711 slow :) L<AnyEvent::Handle> abstraction beats both POE and IO::Lambda
2712 higher level ("unoptimised") abstractions by a large margin, even though
2713 it does all of DNS, tcp-connect and socket I/O in a non-blocking way.
2714
2715 The two AnyEvent benchmarks programs can be found as F<eg/ae0.pl> and
2716 F<eg/ae2.pl> in the AnyEvent distribution, the remaining benchmarks are
2717 part of the IO::Lambda distribution and were used without any changes.
2718
2719
2720 =head1 SIGNALS
2721
2722 AnyEvent currently installs handlers for these signals:
2723
2724 =over 4
2725
2726 =item SIGCHLD
2727
2728 A handler for C<SIGCHLD> is installed by AnyEvent's child watcher
2729 emulation for event loops that do not support them natively. Also, some
2730 event loops install a similar handler.
2731
2732 Additionally, when AnyEvent is loaded and SIGCHLD is set to IGNORE, then
2733 AnyEvent will reset it to default, to avoid losing child exit statuses.
2734
2735 =item SIGPIPE
2736
2737 A no-op handler is installed for C<SIGPIPE> when C<$SIG{PIPE}> is C<undef>
2738 when AnyEvent gets loaded.
2739
2740 The rationale for this is that AnyEvent users usually do not really depend
2741 on SIGPIPE delivery (which is purely an optimisation for shell use, or
2742 badly-written programs), but C<SIGPIPE> can cause spurious and rare
2743 program exits as a lot of people do not expect C<SIGPIPE> when writing to
2744 some random socket.
2745
2746 The rationale for installing a no-op handler as opposed to ignoring it is
2747 that this way, the handler will be restored to defaults on exec.
2748
2749 Feel free to install your own handler, or reset it to defaults.
2750
2751 =back
2752
2753 =cut
2754
2755 undef $SIG{CHLD}
2756 if $SIG{CHLD} eq 'IGNORE';
2757
2758 $SIG{PIPE} = sub { }
2759 unless defined $SIG{PIPE};
2760
2761 =head1 RECOMMENDED/OPTIONAL MODULES
2762
2763 One of AnyEvent's main goals is to be 100% Pure-Perl(tm): only perl (and
2764 its built-in modules) are required to use it.
2765
2766 That does not mean that AnyEvent won't take advantage of some additional
2767 modules if they are installed.
2768
2769 This section explains which additional modules will be used, and how they
2770 affect AnyEvent's operation.
2771
2772 =over 4
2773
2774 =item L<Async::Interrupt>
2775
2776 This slightly arcane module is used to implement fast signal handling: To
2777 my knowledge, there is no way to do completely race-free and quick
2778 signal handling in pure perl. To ensure that signals still get
2779 delivered, AnyEvent will start an interval timer to wake up perl (and
2780 catch the signals) with some delay (default is 10 seconds, look for
2781 C<$AnyEvent::MAX_SIGNAL_LATENCY>).
2782
2783 If this module is available, then it will be used to implement signal
2784 catching, which means that signals will not be delayed, and the event loop
2785 will not be interrupted regularly, which is more efficient (and good for
2786 battery life on laptops).
2787
2788 This affects not just the pure-perl event loop, but also other event loops
2789 that have no signal handling on their own (e.g. Glib, Tk, Qt).
2790
2791 Some event loops (POE, Event, Event::Lib) offer signal watchers natively,
2792 and either employ their own workarounds (POE) or use AnyEvent's workaround
2793 (using C<$AnyEvent::MAX_SIGNAL_LATENCY>). Installing L<Async::Interrupt>
2794 does nothing for those backends.
2795
2796 =item L<EV>
2797
2798 This module isn't really "optional", as it is simply one of the backend
2799 event loops that AnyEvent can use. However, it is simply the best event
2800 loop available in terms of features, speed and stability: It supports
2801 the AnyEvent API optimally, implements all the watcher types in XS, does
2802 automatic timer adjustments even when no monotonic clock is available,
2803 can take avdantage of advanced kernel interfaces such as C<epoll> and
2804 C<kqueue>, and is the fastest backend I<by far>. You can even embed
2805 L<Glib>/L<Gtk2> in it (or vice versa, see L<EV::Glib> and L<Glib::EV>).
2806
2807 If you only use backends that rely on another event loop (e.g. C<Tk>),
2808 then this module will do nothing for you.
2809
2810 =item L<Guard>
2811
2812 The guard module, when used, will be used to implement
2813 C<AnyEvent::Util::guard>. This speeds up guards considerably (and uses a
2814 lot less memory), but otherwise doesn't affect guard operation much. It is
2815 purely used for performance.
2816
2817 =item L<JSON> and L<JSON::XS>
2818
2819 One of these modules is required when you want to read or write JSON data
2820 via L<AnyEvent::Handle>. L<JSON> is also written in pure-perl, but can take
2821 advantage of the ultra-high-speed L<JSON::XS> module when it is installed.
2822
2823 =item L<Net::SSLeay>
2824
2825 Implementing TLS/SSL in Perl is certainly interesting, but not very
2826 worthwhile: If this module is installed, then L<AnyEvent::Handle> (with
2827 the help of L<AnyEvent::TLS>), gains the ability to do TLS/SSL.
2828
2829 =item L<Time::HiRes>
2830
2831 This module is part of perl since release 5.008. It will be used when the
2832 chosen event library does not come with a timing source of its own. The
2833 pure-perl event loop (L<AnyEvent::Loop>) will additionally load it to
2834 try to use a monotonic clock for timing stability.
2835
2836 =back
2837
2838
2839 =head1 FORK
2840
2841 Most event libraries are not fork-safe. The ones who are usually are
2842 because they rely on inefficient but fork-safe C<select> or C<poll> calls
2843 - higher performance APIs such as BSD's kqueue or the dreaded Linux epoll
2844 are usually badly thought-out hacks that are incompatible with fork in
2845 one way or another. Only L<EV> is fully fork-aware and ensures that you
2846 continue event-processing in both parent and child (or both, if you know
2847 what you are doing).
2848
2849 This means that, in general, you cannot fork and do event processing in
2850 the child if the event library was initialised before the fork (which
2851 usually happens when the first AnyEvent watcher is created, or the library
2852 is loaded).
2853
2854 If you have to fork, you must either do so I<before> creating your first
2855 watcher OR you must not use AnyEvent at all in the child OR you must do
2856 something completely out of the scope of AnyEvent.
2857
2858 The problem of doing event processing in the parent I<and> the child
2859 is much more complicated: even for backends that I<are> fork-aware or
2860 fork-safe, their behaviour is not usually what you want: fork clones all
2861 watchers, that means all timers, I/O watchers etc. are active in both
2862 parent and child, which is almost never what you want. USing C<exec>
2863 to start worker children from some kind of manage rprocess is usually
2864 preferred, because it is much easier and cleaner, at the expense of having
2865 to have another binary.
2866
2867
2868 =head1 SECURITY CONSIDERATIONS
2869
2870 AnyEvent can be forced to load any event model via
2871 $ENV{PERL_ANYEVENT_MODEL}. While this cannot (to my knowledge) be used to
2872 execute arbitrary code or directly gain access, it can easily be used to
2873 make the program hang or malfunction in subtle ways, as AnyEvent watchers
2874 will not be active when the program uses a different event model than
2875 specified in the variable.
2876
2877 You can make AnyEvent completely ignore this variable by deleting it
2878 before the first watcher gets created, e.g. with a C<BEGIN> block:
2879
2880 BEGIN { delete $ENV{PERL_ANYEVENT_MODEL} }
2881
2882 use AnyEvent;
2883
2884 Similar considerations apply to $ENV{PERL_ANYEVENT_VERBOSE}, as that can
2885 be used to probe what backend is used and gain other information (which is
2886 probably even less useful to an attacker than PERL_ANYEVENT_MODEL), and
2887 $ENV{PERL_ANYEVENT_STRICT}.
2888
2889 Note that AnyEvent will remove I<all> environment variables starting with
2890 C<PERL_ANYEVENT_> from C<%ENV> when it is loaded while taint mode is
2891 enabled.
2892
2893
2894 =head1 BUGS
2895
2896 Perl 5.8 has numerous memleaks that sometimes hit this module and are hard
2897 to work around. If you suffer from memleaks, first upgrade to Perl 5.10
2898 and check wether the leaks still show up. (Perl 5.10.0 has other annoying
2899 memleaks, such as leaking on C<map> and C<grep> but it is usually not as
2900 pronounced).
2901
2902
2903 =head1 SEE ALSO
2904
2905 Tutorial/Introduction: L<AnyEvent::Intro>.
2906
2907 FAQ: L<AnyEvent::FAQ>.
2908
2909 Utility functions: L<AnyEvent::Util> (misc. grab-bag), L<AnyEvent::Log>
2910 (simply logging).
2911
2912 Development/Debugging: L<AnyEvent::Strict> (stricter checking),
2913 L<AnyEvent::Debug> (interactive shell, watcher tracing).
2914
2915 Supported event modules: L<AnyEvent::Loop>, L<EV>, L<EV::Glib>,
2916 L<Glib::EV>, L<Event>, L<Glib::Event>, L<Glib>, L<Tk>, L<Event::Lib>,
2917 L<Qt>, L<POE>, L<FLTK>.
2918
2919 Implementations: L<AnyEvent::Impl::EV>, L<AnyEvent::Impl::Event>,
2920 L<AnyEvent::Impl::Glib>, L<AnyEvent::Impl::Tk>, L<AnyEvent::Impl::Perl>,
2921 L<AnyEvent::Impl::EventLib>, L<AnyEvent::Impl::Qt>,
2922 L<AnyEvent::Impl::POE>, L<AnyEvent::Impl::IOAsync>, L<Anyevent::Impl::Irssi>,
2923 L<AnyEvent::Impl::FLTK>.
2924
2925 Non-blocking handles, pipes, stream sockets, TCP clients and
2926 servers: L<AnyEvent::Handle>, L<AnyEvent::Socket>, L<AnyEvent::TLS>.
2927
2928 Asynchronous DNS: L<AnyEvent::DNS>.
2929
2930 Thread support: L<Coro>, L<Coro::AnyEvent>, L<Coro::EV>, L<Coro::Event>.
2931
2932 Nontrivial usage examples: L<AnyEvent::GPSD>, L<AnyEvent::IRC>,
2933 L<AnyEvent::HTTP>.
2934
2935
2936 =head1 AUTHOR
2937
2938 Marc Lehmann <schmorp@schmorp.de>
2939 http://home.schmorp.de/
2940
2941 =cut
2942
2943 1
2944