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Revision: 1.8
Committed: Sun Mar 30 08:01:59 2008 UTC (16 years, 1 month ago) by root
Branch: MAIN
CVS Tags: rel-1_45
Changes since 1.7: +7 -5 lines
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File Contents

# User Rev Content
1 root 1.3 NAME
2     BDB - Asynchronous Berkeley DB access
3    
4     SYNOPSIS
5     use BDB;
6    
7 root 1.4 my $env = db_env_create;
8    
9     mkdir "bdtest", 0700;
10     db_env_open
11     $env,
12     "bdtest",
13     BDB::INIT_LOCK | BDB::INIT_LOG | BDB::INIT_MPOOL
14     | BDB::INIT_TXN | BDB::RECOVER | BDB::USE_ENVIRON | BDB::CREATE,
15     0600;
16    
17     $env->set_flags (BDB::AUTO_COMMIT | BDB::TXN_NOSYNC, 1);
18    
19     my $db = db_create $env;
20     db_open $db, undef, "table", undef, BDB::BTREE, BDB::AUTO_COMMIT | BDB::CREATE
21     | BDB::READ_UNCOMMITTED, 0600;
22     db_put $db, undef, "key", "data", 0, sub {
23     db_del $db, undef, "key";
24     };
25     db_sync $db;
26    
27 root 1.6 # when you also use Coro, management is easy:
28     use Coro::BDB;
29    
30 root 1.4 # automatic result processing with AnyEvent:
31     our $FH; open $FH, "<&=" . BDB::poll_fileno;
32     our $WATCHER = AnyEvent->io (fh => $FH, poll => 'r', cb => \&BDB::poll_cb);
33    
34     # automatic result processing with EV:
35     my $WATCHER = EV::io BDB::poll_fileno, EV::READ, \&BDB::poll_cb;
36    
37     # with Glib:
38     add_watch Glib::IO BDB::poll_fileno,
39     in => sub { BDB::poll_cb; 1 };
40    
41     # or simply flush manually
42     BDB::flush;
43    
44 root 1.3 DESCRIPTION
45     See the BerkeleyDB documentation
46     (<http://www.oracle.com/technology/documentation/berkeley-db/db/index.ht
47     ml>). The BDB API is very similar to the C API (the translation has been
48     very faithful).
49    
50     See also the example sections in the document below and possibly the eg/
51     subdirectory of the BDB distribution. Last not least see the IO::AIO
52     documentation, as that module uses almost the same asynchronous request
53     model as this module.
54    
55     I know this is woefully inadequate documentation. Send a patch!
56    
57     REQUEST ANATOMY AND LIFETIME
58     Every request method creates a request. which is a C data structure not
59     directly visible to Perl.
60    
61     During their existance, bdb requests travel through the following
62     states, in order:
63    
64     ready
65     Immediately after a request is created it is put into the ready
66     state, waiting for a thread to execute it.
67    
68     execute
69     A thread has accepted the request for processing and is currently
70     executing it (e.g. blocking in read).
71    
72     pending
73     The request has been executed and is waiting for result processing.
74    
75     While request submission and execution is fully asynchronous, result
76     processing is not and relies on the perl interpreter calling
77     "poll_cb" (or another function with the same effect).
78    
79     result
80     The request results are processed synchronously by "poll_cb".
81    
82     The "poll_cb" function will process all outstanding aio requests by
83     calling their callbacks, freeing memory associated with them and
84     managing any groups they are contained in.
85    
86     done
87     Request has reached the end of its lifetime and holds no resources
88     anymore (except possibly for the Perl object, but its connection to
89     the actual aio request is severed and calling its methods will
90     either do nothing or result in a runtime error).
91    
92 root 1.8 WIN32 FILENAMES/DATABASE NAME MESS
93     Perl on Win32 supports only ASCII filenames (the reason is that it
94     abuses an internal flag to store wether a filename is Unicode or ANSI,
95     but that flag is used for somethign else in the perl core, so there is
96     no way to detect wether a filename is ANSI or Unicode-encoded). The BDB
97     module tries to work around this issue by assuming that the filename is
98     an ANSI filename and BDB was built for unicode support.
99 root 1.7
100 root 1.3 BERKELEYDB FUNCTIONS
101     All of these are functions. The create functions simply return a new
102 root 1.7 object and never block. All the remaining functions take an optional
103 root 1.5 callback as last argument. If it is missing, then the function will be
104     executed synchronously. In both cases, $! will reflect the return value
105     of the function.
106 root 1.3
107     BDB functions that cannot block (mostly functions that manipulate
108     settings) are method calls on the relevant objects, so the rule of thumb
109 root 1.7 is: if it's a method, it's not blocking, if it's a function, it takes a
110 root 1.3 callback as last argument.
111    
112     In the following, $int signifies an integer return value, "octetstring"
113     is a "binary string" (i.e. a perl string with no character indices
114     >255), "U32" is an unsigned 32 bit integer, "int" is some integer, "NV"
115     is a floating point value.
116    
117     The "SV *" types are generic perl scalars (for input and output of data
118     values), and the "SV *callback" is the optional callback function to
119     call when the request is completed.
120    
121     The various "DB_ENV" etc. arguments are handles return by
122     "db_env_create", "db_create", "txn_begin" and so on. If they have an
123     appended "_ornull" this means they are optional and you can pass "undef"
124     for them, resulting a NULL pointer on the C level.
125    
126     BDB functions
127     Functions in the BDB namespace, exported by default:
128    
129     $env = db_env_create (U32 env_flags = 0)
130     flags: RPCCLIENT
131    
132     db_env_open (DB_ENV *env, octetstring db_home, U32 open_flags, int mode, SV *callback = &PL_sv_undef)
133     open_flags: INIT_CDB INIT_LOCK INIT_LOG INIT_MPOOL INIT_REP INIT_TXN RECOVER RECOVER_FATAL USE_ENVIRON USE_ENVIRON_ROOT CREATE LOCKDOWN PRIVATE REGISTER SYSTEM_MEM
134     db_env_close (DB_ENV *env, U32 flags = 0, SV *callback = &PL_sv_undef)
135     db_env_txn_checkpoint (DB_ENV *env, U32 kbyte = 0, U32 min = 0, U32 flags = 0, SV *callback = &PL_sv_undef)
136     flags: FORCE
137     db_env_lock_detect (DB_ENV *env, U32 flags = 0, U32 atype = DB_LOCK_DEFAULT, SV *dummy = 0, SV *callback = &PL_sv_undef)
138     atype: LOCK_DEFAULT LOCK_EXPIRE LOCK_MAXLOCKS LOCK_MAXWRITE LOCK_MINLOCKS LOCK_MINWRITE LOCK_OLDEST LOCK_RANDOM LOCK_YOUNGEST
139     db_env_memp_sync (DB_ENV *env, SV *dummy = 0, SV *callback = &PL_sv_undef)
140     db_env_memp_trickle (DB_ENV *env, int percent, SV *dummy = 0, SV *callback = &PL_sv_undef)
141    
142     $db = db_create (DB_ENV *env = 0, U32 flags = 0)
143     flags: XA_CREATE
144    
145     db_open (DB *db, DB_TXN_ornull *txnid, octetstring file, octetstring database, int type, U32 flags, int mode, SV *callback = &PL_sv_undef)
146     flags: AUTO_COMMIT CREATE EXCL MULTIVERSION NOMMAP RDONLY READ_UNCOMMITTED THREAD TRUNCATE
147     db_close (DB *db, U32 flags = 0, SV *callback = &PL_sv_undef)
148     flags: DB_NOSYNC
149 root 1.5 db_upgrade (DB *db, octetstring file, U32 flags = 0, SV *callback = &PL_sv_undef)
150 root 1.3 db_compact (DB *db, DB_TXN_ornull *txn = 0, SV *start = 0, SV *stop = 0, SV *unused1 = 0, U32 flags = DB_FREE_SPACE, SV *unused2 = 0, SV *callback = &PL_sv_undef)
151     flags: FREELIST_ONLY FREE_SPACE
152     db_sync (DB *db, U32 flags = 0, SV *callback = &PL_sv_undef)
153     db_key_range (DB *db, DB_TXN_ornull *txn, SV *key, SV *key_range, U32 flags = 0, SV *callback = &PL_sv_undef)
154     db_put (DB *db, DB_TXN_ornull *txn, SV *key, SV *data, U32 flags = 0, SV *callback = &PL_sv_undef)
155     flags: APPEND NODUPDATA NOOVERWRITE
156     db_get (DB *db, DB_TXN_ornull *txn, SV *key, SV *data, U32 flags = 0, SV *callback = &PL_sv_undef)
157     flags: CONSUME CONSUME_WAIT GET_BOTH SET_RECNO MULTIPLE READ_COMMITTED READ_UNCOMMITTED RMW
158     db_pget (DB *db, DB_TXN_ornull *txn, SV *key, SV *pkey, SV *data, U32 flags = 0, SV *callback = &PL_sv_undef)
159     flags: CONSUME CONSUME_WAIT GET_BOTH SET_RECNO MULTIPLE READ_COMMITTED READ_UNCOMMITTED RMW
160     db_del (DB *db, DB_TXN_ornull *txn, SV *key, U32 flags = 0, SV *callback = &PL_sv_undef)
161     db_txn_commit (DB_TXN *txn, U32 flags = 0, SV *callback = &PL_sv_undef)
162     flags: TXN_NOSYNC TXN_SYNC
163     db_txn_abort (DB_TXN *txn, SV *callback = &PL_sv_undef)
164    
165     db_c_close (DBC *dbc, SV *callback = &PL_sv_undef)
166     db_c_count (DBC *dbc, SV *count, U32 flags = 0, SV *callback = &PL_sv_undef)
167     db_c_put (DBC *dbc, SV *key, SV *data, U32 flags = 0, SV *callback = &PL_sv_undef)
168     flags: AFTER BEFORE CURRENT KEYFIRST KEYLAST NODUPDATA
169     db_c_get (DBC *dbc, SV *key, SV *data, U32 flags = 0, SV *callback = &PL_sv_undef)
170     flags: CURRENT FIRST GET_BOTH GET_BOTH_RANGE GET_RECNO JOIN_ITEM LAST NEXT NEXT_DUP NEXT_NODUP PREV PREV_DUP PREV_NODUP SET SET_RANGE SET_RECNO READ_UNCOMMITTED MULTIPLE MULTIPLE_KEY RMW
171     db_c_pget (DBC *dbc, SV *key, SV *pkey, SV *data, U32 flags = 0, SV *callback = &PL_sv_undef)
172     db_c_del (DBC *dbc, U32 flags = 0, SV *callback = &PL_sv_undef)
173    
174     db_sequence_open (DB_SEQUENCE *seq, DB_TXN_ornull *txnid, SV *key, U32 flags = 0, SV *callback = &PL_sv_undef)
175     flags: CREATE EXCL
176     db_sequence_close (DB_SEQUENCE *seq, U32 flags = 0, SV *callback = &PL_sv_undef)
177     db_sequence_get (DB_SEQUENCE *seq, DB_TXN_ornull *txnid, int delta, SV *seq_value, U32 flags = DB_TXN_NOSYNC, SV *callback = &PL_sv_undef)
178     flags: TXN_NOSYNC
179     db_sequence_remove (DB_SEQUENCE *seq, DB_TXN_ornull *txnid = 0, U32 flags = 0, SV *callback = &PL_sv_undef)
180     flags: TXN_NOSYNC
181    
182     db_txn_finish (DB_TXN *txn, U32 flags = 0, SV *callback = &PL_sv_undef)
183     This is not actually a Berkeley DB function but a BDB module extension.
184     The background for this exytension is: It is very annoying to have to
185     check every single BDB function for error returns and provide a codepath
186     out of your transaction. While the BDB module still makes this possible,
187     it contains the following extensions:
188    
189     When a transaction-protected function returns any operating system error
190     (errno > 0), BDB will set the "TXN_DEADLOCK" flag on the transaction.
191     This flag is also set by Berkeley DB functions themselves when an
192     operation fails with LOCK_DEADLOCK, and it causes all further operations
193     on that transaction (including "db_txn_commit") to fail.
194    
195     The "db_txn_finish" request will look at this flag, and, if it is set,
196     will automatically call "db_txn_abort" (setting errno to "LOCK_DEADLOCK"
197     if it isn't set to something else yet). If it isn't set, it will call
198     "db_txn_commit" and return the error normally.
199    
200     How to use this? Easy: just write your transaction normally:
201    
202     my $txn = $db_env->txn_begin;
203     db_get $db, $txn, "key", my $data;
204     db_put $db, $txn, "key", $data + 1 unless $! == BDB::NOTFOUND;
205     db_txn_finish $txn;
206     die "transaction failed" if $!;
207    
208     That is, handle only the expected errors. If something unexpected
209     happens (EIO, LOCK_NOTGRANTED or a deadlock in either db_get or db_put),
210     then the remaining requests (db_put in this case) will simply be skipped
211     (they will fail with LOCK_DEADLOCK) and the transaction will be aborted.
212    
213     You can use the "$txn->failed" method to check wether a transaction has
214     failed in this way and abort further processing (excluding
215     "db_txn_finish").
216    
217     DB_ENV/database environment methods
218     Methods available on DB_ENV/$env handles:
219    
220     DESTROY (DB_ENV_ornull *env)
221     CODE:
222     if (env)
223     env->close (env, 0);
224    
225     $int = $env->set_data_dir (const char *dir)
226     $int = $env->set_tmp_dir (const char *dir)
227     $int = $env->set_lg_dir (const char *dir)
228     $int = $env->set_shm_key (long shm_key)
229     $int = $env->set_cachesize (U32 gbytes, U32 bytes, int ncache = 0)
230     $int = $env->set_flags (U32 flags, int onoff)
231     $env->set_errfile (FILE *errfile = 0)
232     $env->set_msgfile (FILE *msgfile = 0)
233     $int = $env->set_verbose (U32 which, int onoff = 1)
234     $int = $env->set_encrypt (const char *password, U32 flags = 0)
235     $int = $env->set_timeout (NV timeout_seconds, U32 flags = SET_TXN_TIMEOUT)
236     $int = $env->set_mp_max_openfd (int maxopenfd);
237     $int = $env->set_mp_max_write (int maxwrite, int maxwrite_sleep);
238     $int = $env->set_mp_mmapsize (int mmapsize_mb)
239     $int = $env->set_lk_detect (U32 detect = DB_LOCK_DEFAULT)
240     $int = $env->set_lk_max_lockers (U32 max)
241     $int = $env->set_lk_max_locks (U32 max)
242     $int = $env->set_lk_max_objects (U32 max)
243     $int = $env->set_lg_bsize (U32 max)
244     $int = $env->set_lg_max (U32 max)
245 root 1.4 $int = $env->mutex_set_increment (U32 increment)
246     $int = $env->mutex_set_tas_spins (U32 tas_spins)
247     $int = $env->mutex_set_max (U32 max)
248     $int = $env->mutex_set_align (U32 align)
249 root 1.3
250     $txn = $env->txn_begin (DB_TXN_ornull *parent = 0, U32 flags = 0)
251     flags: READ_COMMITTED READ_UNCOMMITTED TXN_NOSYNC TXN_NOWAIT TXN_SNAPSHOT TXN_SYNC TXN_WAIT TXN_WRITE_NOSYNC
252    
253     Example:
254     use AnyEvent;
255     use BDB;
256    
257     our $FH; open $FH, "<&=" . BDB::poll_fileno;
258     our $WATCHER = AnyEvent->io (fh => $FH, poll => 'r', cb => \&BDB::poll_cb);
259    
260     BDB::min_parallel 8;
261    
262     my $env = db_env_create;
263    
264     mkdir "bdtest", 0700;
265     db_env_open
266     $env,
267     "bdtest",
268     BDB::INIT_LOCK | BDB::INIT_LOG | BDB::INIT_MPOOL | BDB::INIT_TXN | BDB::RECOVER | BDB::USE_ENVIRON | BDB::CREATE,
269     0600;
270    
271     $env->set_flags (BDB::AUTO_COMMIT | BDB::TXN_NOSYNC, 1);
272    
273     DB/database methods
274     Methods available on DB/$db handles:
275    
276     DESTROY (DB_ornull *db)
277     CODE:
278     if (db)
279     {
280     SV *env = (SV *)db->app_private;
281     db->close (db, 0);
282     SvREFCNT_dec (env);
283     }
284    
285     $int = $db->set_cachesize (U32 gbytes, U32 bytes, int ncache = 0)
286     $int = $db->set_flags (U32 flags)
287     flags: CHKSUM ENCRYPT TXN_NOT_DURABLE
288     Btree: DUP DUPSORT RECNUM REVSPLITOFF
289     Hash: DUP DUPSORT
290     Queue: INORDER
291     Recno: RENUMBER SNAPSHOT
292    
293     $int = $db->set_encrypt (const char *password, U32 flags)
294     $int = $db->set_lorder (int lorder)
295     $int = $db->set_bt_minkey (U32 minkey)
296     $int = $db->set_re_delim (int delim)
297     $int = $db->set_re_pad (int re_pad)
298     $int = $db->set_re_source (char *source)
299     $int = $db->set_re_len (U32 re_len)
300     $int = $db->set_h_ffactor (U32 h_ffactor)
301     $int = $db->set_h_nelem (U32 h_nelem)
302     $int = $db->set_q_extentsize (U32 extentsize)
303    
304     $dbc = $db->cursor (DB_TXN_ornull *txn = 0, U32 flags = 0)
305     flags: READ_COMMITTED READ_UNCOMMITTED WRITECURSOR TXN_SNAPSHOT
306     $seq = $db->sequence (U32 flags = 0)
307    
308     Example:
309     my $db = db_create $env;
310     db_open $db, undef, "table", undef, BDB::BTREE, BDB::AUTO_COMMIT | BDB::CREATE | BDB::READ_UNCOMMITTED, 0600;
311    
312     for (1..1000) {
313     db_put $db, undef, "key $_", "data $_";
314    
315     db_key_range $db, undef, "key $_", my $keyrange;
316     my ($lt, $eq, $gt) = @$keyrange;
317     }
318    
319     db_del $db, undef, "key $_" for 1..1000;
320    
321     db_sync $db;
322    
323     DB_TXN/transaction methods
324     Methods available on DB_TXN/$txn handles:
325    
326     DESTROY (DB_TXN_ornull *txn)
327     CODE:
328     if (txn)
329     txn->abort (txn);
330    
331     $int = $txn->set_timeout (NV timeout_seconds, U32 flags = SET_TXN_TIMEOUT)
332     flags: SET_LOCK_TIMEOUT SET_TXN_TIMEOUT
333    
334     $bool = $txn->failed
335     # see db_txn_finish documentation, above
336    
337     DBC/cursor methods
338     Methods available on DBC/$dbc handles:
339    
340     DESTROY (DBC_ornull *dbc)
341     CODE:
342     if (dbc)
343     dbc->c_close (dbc);
344    
345 root 1.6 $int = $cursor->set_priority ($priority = PRIORITY_*)
346    
347 root 1.3 Example:
348     my $c = $db->cursor;
349    
350     for (;;) {
351     db_c_get $c, my $key, my $data, BDB::NEXT;
352     warn "<$!,$key,$data>";
353     last if $!;
354     }
355    
356     db_c_close $c;
357    
358     DB_SEQUENCE/sequence methods
359     Methods available on DB_SEQUENCE/$seq handles:
360    
361     DESTROY (DB_SEQUENCE_ornull *seq)
362     CODE:
363     if (seq)
364     seq->close (seq, 0);
365    
366     $int = $seq->initial_value (db_seq_t value)
367     $int = $seq->set_cachesize (U32 size)
368     $int = $seq->set_flags (U32 flags)
369     flags: SEQ_DEC SEQ_INC SEQ_WRAP
370     $int = $seq->set_range (db_seq_t min, db_seq_t max)
371    
372     Example:
373     my $seq = $db->sequence;
374 root 1.7
375     db_sequence_open $seq, undef, "seq", BDB::CREATE;
376 root 1.3 db_sequence_get $seq, undef, 1, my $value;
377    
378     SUPPORT FUNCTIONS
379     EVENT PROCESSING AND EVENT LOOP INTEGRATION
380 root 1.5 $msg = BDB::strerror [$errno]
381     Returns the string corresponding to the given errno value. If no
382     argument is given, use $!.
383    
384 root 1.7 Note that the BDB module also patches the $! variable directly, so
385     you should be able to get a bdb error string by simply stringifying
386     $!.
387    
388 root 1.3 $fileno = BDB::poll_fileno
389     Return the *request result pipe file descriptor*. This filehandle
390     must be polled for reading by some mechanism outside this module
391     (e.g. Event or select, see below or the SYNOPSIS). If the pipe
392     becomes readable you have to call "poll_cb" to check the results.
393    
394     See "poll_cb" for an example.
395    
396     BDB::poll_cb
397     Process some outstanding events on the result pipe. You have to call
398     this regularly. Returns the number of events processed. Returns
399     immediately when no events are outstanding. The amount of events
400     processed depends on the settings of "BDB::max_poll_req" and
401     "BDB::max_poll_time".
402    
403     If not all requests were processed for whatever reason, the
404     filehandle will still be ready when "poll_cb" returns.
405    
406     Example: Install an Event watcher that automatically calls
407     BDB::poll_cb with high priority:
408    
409     Event->io (fd => BDB::poll_fileno,
410     poll => 'r', async => 1,
411     cb => \&BDB::poll_cb);
412    
413     BDB::max_poll_reqs $nreqs
414     BDB::max_poll_time $seconds
415     These set the maximum number of requests (default 0, meaning
416     infinity) that are being processed by "BDB::poll_cb" in one call,
417     respectively the maximum amount of time (default 0, meaning
418     infinity) spent in "BDB::poll_cb" to process requests (more
419     correctly the mininum amount of time "poll_cb" is allowed to use).
420    
421     Setting "max_poll_time" to a non-zero value creates an overhead of
422     one syscall per request processed, which is not normally a problem
423     unless your callbacks are really really fast or your OS is really
424     really slow (I am not mentioning Solaris here). Using
425     "max_poll_reqs" incurs no overhead.
426    
427     Setting these is useful if you want to ensure some level of
428     interactiveness when perl is not fast enough to process all requests
429     in time.
430    
431     For interactive programs, values such as 0.01 to 0.1 should be fine.
432    
433 root 1.4 Example: Install an EV watcher that automatically calls BDB::poll_cb
434     with low priority, to ensure that other parts of the program get the
435     CPU sometimes even under high load.
436 root 1.3
437     # try not to spend much more than 0.1s in poll_cb
438     BDB::max_poll_time 0.1;
439    
440 root 1.4 my $bdb_poll = EV::io BDB::poll_fileno, EV::READ, \&BDB::poll_cb);
441 root 1.3
442     BDB::poll_wait
443     If there are any outstanding requests and none of them in the result
444     phase, wait till the result filehandle becomes ready for reading
445     (simply does a "select" on the filehandle. This is useful if you
446     want to synchronously wait for some requests to finish).
447    
448     See "nreqs" for an example.
449    
450     BDB::poll
451     Waits until some requests have been handled.
452    
453     Returns the number of requests processed, but is otherwise strictly
454     equivalent to:
455    
456     BDB::poll_wait, BDB::poll_cb
457    
458     BDB::flush
459 root 1.4 Wait till all outstanding BDB requests have been handled.
460 root 1.3
461     Strictly equivalent to:
462    
463     BDB::poll_wait, BDB::poll_cb
464     while BDB::nreqs;
465    
466     CONTROLLING THE NUMBER OF THREADS
467     BDB::min_parallel $nthreads
468 root 1.4 Set the minimum number of BDB threads to $nthreads. The current
469 root 1.3 default is 8, which means eight asynchronous operations can execute
470     concurrently at any one time (the number of outstanding requests,
471     however, is unlimited).
472    
473 root 1.4 BDB starts threads only on demand, when an BDB request is queued and
474 root 1.3 no free thread exists. Please note that queueing up a hundred
475     requests can create demand for a hundred threads, even if it turns
476     out that everything is in the cache and could have been processed
477     faster by a single thread.
478    
479     It is recommended to keep the number of threads relatively low, as
480     some Linux kernel versions will scale negatively with the number of
481     threads (higher parallelity => MUCH higher latency). With current
482     Linux 2.6 versions, 4-32 threads should be fine.
483    
484     Under most circumstances you don't need to call this function, as
485     the module selects a default that is suitable for low to moderate
486     load.
487    
488     BDB::max_parallel $nthreads
489 root 1.4 Sets the maximum number of BDB threads to $nthreads. If more than
490 root 1.3 the specified number of threads are currently running, this function
491     kills them. This function blocks until the limit is reached.
492    
493     While $nthreads are zero, aio requests get queued but not executed
494     until the number of threads has been increased again.
495    
496     This module automatically runs "max_parallel 0" at program end, to
497     ensure that all threads are killed and that there are no outstanding
498     requests.
499    
500     Under normal circumstances you don't need to call this function.
501    
502     BDB::max_idle $nthreads
503     Limit the number of threads (default: 4) that are allowed to idle
504     (i.e., threads that did not get a request to process within 10
505     seconds). That means if a thread becomes idle while $nthreads other
506     threads are also idle, it will free its resources and exit.
507    
508     This is useful when you allow a large number of threads (e.g. 100 or
509     1000) to allow for extremely high load situations, but want to free
510     resources under normal circumstances (1000 threads can easily
511     consume 30MB of RAM).
512    
513     The default is probably ok in most situations, especially if thread
514     creation is fast. If thread creation is very slow on your system you
515     might want to use larger values.
516    
517     $oldmaxreqs = BDB::max_outstanding $maxreqs
518     This is a very bad function to use in interactive programs because
519     it blocks, and a bad way to reduce concurrency because it is
520     inexact: Better use an "aio_group" together with a feed callback.
521    
522     Sets the maximum number of outstanding requests to $nreqs. If you to
523     queue up more than this number of requests, the next call to the
524     "poll_cb" (and "poll_some" and other functions calling "poll_cb")
525     function will block until the limit is no longer exceeded.
526    
527     The default value is very large, so there is no practical limit on
528     the number of outstanding requests.
529    
530     You can still queue as many requests as you want. Therefore,
531     "max_oustsanding" is mainly useful in simple scripts (with low
532     values) or as a stop gap to shield against fatal memory overflow
533     (with large values).
534    
535     BDB::set_sync_prepare $cb
536     Sets a callback that is called whenever a request is created without
537     an explicit callback. It has to return two code references. The
538     first is used as the request callback, and the second is called to
539     wait until the first callback has been called. The default
540     implementation works like this:
541    
542     sub {
543     my $status;
544     (
545     sub { $status = $! },
546     sub { BDB::poll while !defined $status; $! = $status },
547     )
548     }
549    
550     STATISTICAL INFORMATION
551     BDB::nreqs
552     Returns the number of requests currently in the ready, execute or
553     pending states (i.e. for which their callback has not been invoked
554     yet).
555    
556     Example: wait till there are no outstanding requests anymore:
557    
558     BDB::poll_wait, BDB::poll_cb
559     while BDB::nreqs;
560    
561     BDB::nready
562     Returns the number of requests currently in the ready state (not yet
563     executed).
564    
565     BDB::npending
566     Returns the number of requests currently in the pending state
567     (executed, but not yet processed by poll_cb).
568    
569     FORK BEHAVIOUR
570     This module should do "the right thing" when the process using it forks:
571    
572 root 1.4 Before the fork, BDB enters a quiescent state where no requests can be
573     added in other threads and no results will be processed. After the fork
574     the parent simply leaves the quiescent state and continues
575 root 1.3 request/result processing, while the child frees the request/result
576     queue (so that the requests started before the fork will only be handled
577     in the parent). Threads will be started on demand until the limit set in
578     the parent process has been reached again.
579    
580     In short: the parent will, after a short pause, continue as if fork had
581 root 1.4 not been called, while the child will act as if BDB has not been used
582     yet.
583 root 1.3
584 root 1.5 Win32 note: there is no fork on win32, and perls emulation of it is too
585     broken to be supported, so do not use BDB in a windows pseudo-fork,
586     better yet, switch to a more capable platform.
587    
588 root 1.3 MEMORY USAGE
589     Per-request usage:
590    
591     Each aio request uses - depending on your architecture - around 100-200
592     bytes of memory. In addition, stat requests need a stat buffer (possibly
593     a few hundred bytes), readdir requires a result buffer and so on. Perl
594     scalars and other data passed into aio requests will also be locked and
595     will consume memory till the request has entered the done state.
596    
597     This is not awfully much, so queuing lots of requests is not usually a
598     problem.
599    
600     Per-thread usage:
601    
602     In the execution phase, some aio requests require more memory for
603     temporary buffers, and each thread requires a stack and other data
604     structures (usually around 16k-128k, depending on the OS).
605    
606     KNOWN BUGS
607     Known bugs will be fixed in the next release, except:
608    
609     If you use a transaction in any request, and the request returns
610     with an operating system error or DB_LOCK_NOTGRANTED, the internal
611     TXN_DEADLOCK flag will be set on the transaction. See C<db_txn_finish>,
612     above.
613    
614     SEE ALSO
615 root 1.4 Coro::BDB, IO::AIO.
616 root 1.3
617     AUTHOR
618     Marc Lehmann <schmorp@schmorp.de>
619     http://home.schmorp.de/
620