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Revision: 1.10
Committed: Tue Jul 8 08:35:12 2008 UTC (15 years, 10 months ago) by root
Branch: MAIN
CVS Tags: rel-1_6
Changes since 1.9: +64 -11 lines
Log Message:
1.6

File Contents

# Content
1 NAME
2 BDB - Asynchronous Berkeley DB access
3
4 SYNOPSIS
5 use BDB;
6
7 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 # when you also use Coro, management is easy:
28 use Coro::BDB;
29
30 # automatic event loop intergration with AnyEvent:
31 use AnyEvent::BDB;
32
33 # automatic result processing with EV:
34 my $WATCHER = EV::io BDB::poll_fileno, EV::READ, \&BDB::poll_cb;
35
36 # with Glib:
37 add_watch Glib::IO BDB::poll_fileno,
38 in => sub { BDB::poll_cb; 1 };
39
40 # or simply flush manually
41 BDB::flush;
42
43 DESCRIPTION
44 See the BerkeleyDB documentation
45 (<http://www.oracle.com/technology/documentation/berkeley-db/db/index.ht
46 ml>). The BDB API is very similar to the C API (the translation has been
47 very faithful).
48
49 See also the example sections in the document below and possibly the eg/
50 subdirectory of the BDB distribution. Last not least see the IO::AIO
51 documentation, as that module uses almost the same asynchronous request
52 model as this module.
53
54 I know this is woefully inadequate documentation. Send a patch!
55
56 REQUEST ANATOMY AND LIFETIME
57 Every request method creates a request. which is a C data structure not
58 directly visible to Perl.
59
60 During their existance, bdb requests travel through the following
61 states, in order:
62
63 ready
64 Immediately after a request is created it is put into the ready
65 state, waiting for a thread to execute it.
66
67 execute
68 A thread has accepted the request for processing and is currently
69 executing it (e.g. blocking in read).
70
71 pending
72 The request has been executed and is waiting for result processing.
73
74 While request submission and execution is fully asynchronous, result
75 processing is not and relies on the perl interpreter calling
76 "poll_cb" (or another function with the same effect).
77
78 result
79 The request results are processed synchronously by "poll_cb".
80
81 The "poll_cb" function will process all outstanding aio requests by
82 calling their callbacks, freeing memory associated with them and
83 managing any groups they are contained in.
84
85 done
86 Request has reached the end of its lifetime and holds no resources
87 anymore (except possibly for the Perl object, but its connection to
88 the actual aio request is severed and calling its methods will
89 either do nothing or result in a runtime error).
90
91 WIN32 FILENAMES/DATABASE NAME MESS
92 Perl on Win32 supports only ASCII filenames (the reason is that it
93 abuses an internal flag to store wether a filename is Unicode or ANSI,
94 but that flag is used for somethign else in the perl core, so there is
95 no way to detect wether a filename is ANSI or Unicode-encoded). The BDB
96 module tries to work around this issue by assuming that the filename is
97 an ANSI filename and BDB was built for unicode support.
98
99 BERKELEYDB FUNCTIONS
100 All of these are functions. The create functions simply return a new
101 object and never block. All the remaining functions take an optional
102 callback as last argument. If it is missing, then the function will be
103 executed synchronously. In both cases, $! will reflect the return value
104 of the function.
105
106 BDB functions that cannot block (mostly functions that manipulate
107 settings) are method calls on the relevant objects, so the rule of thumb
108 is: if it's a method, it's not blocking, if it's a function, it takes a
109 callback as last argument.
110
111 In the following, $int signifies an integer return value, "bdb_filename"
112 is a "filename" (octets on unix, madness on windows), "U32" is an
113 unsigned 32 bit integer, "int" is some integer, "NV" is a floating point
114 value.
115
116 The "SV *" types are generic perl scalars (for input and output of data
117 values), and the "SV *callback" is the optional callback function to
118 call when the request is completed.
119
120 The various "DB_ENV" etc. arguments are handles return by
121 "db_env_create", "db_create", "txn_begin" and so on. If they have an
122 appended "_ornull" this means they are optional and you can pass "undef"
123 for them, resulting a NULL pointer on the C level.
124
125 BDB functions
126 Functions in the BDB namespace, exported by default:
127
128 $env = db_env_create (U32 env_flags = 0)
129 flags: RPCCLIENT
130
131 db_env_open (DB_ENV *env, bdb_filename db_home, U32 open_flags, int mode, SV *callback = &PL_sv_undef)
132 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
133 db_env_close (DB_ENV *env, U32 flags = 0, SV *callback = &PL_sv_undef)
134 db_env_txn_checkpoint (DB_ENV *env, U32 kbyte = 0, U32 min = 0, U32 flags = 0, SV *callback = &PL_sv_undef)
135 flags: FORCE
136 db_env_lock_detect (DB_ENV *env, U32 flags = 0, U32 atype = DB_LOCK_DEFAULT, SV *dummy = 0, SV *callback = &PL_sv_undef)
137 atype: LOCK_DEFAULT LOCK_EXPIRE LOCK_MAXLOCKS LOCK_MAXWRITE LOCK_MINLOCKS LOCK_MINWRITE LOCK_OLDEST LOCK_RANDOM LOCK_YOUNGEST
138 db_env_memp_sync (DB_ENV *env, SV *dummy = 0, SV *callback = &PL_sv_undef)
139 db_env_memp_trickle (DB_ENV *env, int percent, SV *dummy = 0, SV *callback = &PL_sv_undef)
140 db_env_dbremove (DB_ENV *env, DB_TXN_ornull *txnid, bdb_filename file, bdb_filename database, U32 flags = 0, SV *callback = &PL_sv_undef)
141 db_env_dbrename (DB_ENV *env, DB_TXN_ornull *txnid, bdb_filename file, bdb_filename database, bdb_filename newname, U32 flags = 0, SV *callback = &PL_sv_undef)
142
143 $db = db_create (DB_ENV *env = 0, U32 flags = 0)
144 flags: XA_CREATE
145
146 db_open (DB *db, DB_TXN_ornull *txnid, bdb_filename file, bdb_filename database, int type, U32 flags, int mode, SV *callback = &PL_sv_undef)
147 flags: AUTO_COMMIT CREATE EXCL MULTIVERSION NOMMAP RDONLY READ_UNCOMMITTED THREAD TRUNCATE
148 db_close (DB *db, U32 flags = 0, SV *callback = &PL_sv_undef)
149 flags: DB_NOSYNC
150 db_upgrade (DB *db, bdb_filename file, U32 flags = 0, SV *callback = &PL_sv_undef)
151 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)
152 flags: FREELIST_ONLY FREE_SPACE
153 db_sync (DB *db, U32 flags = 0, SV *callback = &PL_sv_undef)
154 db_key_range (DB *db, DB_TXN_ornull *txn, SV *key, SV *key_range, U32 flags = 0, SV *callback = &PL_sv_undef)
155 db_put (DB *db, DB_TXN_ornull *txn, SV *key, SV *data, U32 flags = 0, SV *callback = &PL_sv_undef)
156 flags: APPEND NODUPDATA NOOVERWRITE
157 db_get (DB *db, DB_TXN_ornull *txn, SV *key, SV *data, U32 flags = 0, SV *callback = &PL_sv_undef)
158 flags: CONSUME CONSUME_WAIT GET_BOTH SET_RECNO MULTIPLE READ_COMMITTED READ_UNCOMMITTED RMW
159 db_pget (DB *db, DB_TXN_ornull *txn, SV *key, SV *pkey, SV *data, U32 flags = 0, SV *callback = &PL_sv_undef)
160 flags: CONSUME CONSUME_WAIT GET_BOTH SET_RECNO MULTIPLE READ_COMMITTED READ_UNCOMMITTED RMW
161 db_del (DB *db, DB_TXN_ornull *txn, SV *key, U32 flags = 0, SV *callback = &PL_sv_undef)
162 db_txn_commit (DB_TXN *txn, U32 flags = 0, SV *callback = &PL_sv_undef)
163 flags: TXN_NOSYNC TXN_SYNC
164 db_txn_abort (DB_TXN *txn, SV *callback = &PL_sv_undef)
165
166 db_c_close (DBC *dbc, SV *callback = &PL_sv_undef)
167 db_c_count (DBC *dbc, SV *count, U32 flags = 0, SV *callback = &PL_sv_undef)
168 db_c_put (DBC *dbc, SV *key, SV *data, U32 flags = 0, SV *callback = &PL_sv_undef)
169 flags: AFTER BEFORE CURRENT KEYFIRST KEYLAST NODUPDATA
170 db_c_get (DBC *dbc, SV *key, SV *data, U32 flags = 0, SV *callback = &PL_sv_undef)
171 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
172 db_c_pget (DBC *dbc, SV *key, SV *pkey, SV *data, U32 flags = 0, SV *callback = &PL_sv_undef)
173 db_c_del (DBC *dbc, U32 flags = 0, SV *callback = &PL_sv_undef)
174
175 db_sequence_open (DB_SEQUENCE *seq, DB_TXN_ornull *txnid, SV *key, U32 flags = 0, SV *callback = &PL_sv_undef)
176 flags: CREATE EXCL
177 db_sequence_close (DB_SEQUENCE *seq, U32 flags = 0, SV *callback = &PL_sv_undef)
178 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)
179 flags: TXN_NOSYNC
180 db_sequence_remove (DB_SEQUENCE *seq, DB_TXN_ornull *txnid = 0, U32 flags = 0, SV *callback = &PL_sv_undef)
181 flags: TXN_NOSYNC
182
183 db_txn_finish (DB_TXN *txn, U32 flags = 0, SV *callback = &PL_sv_undef)
184 This is not actually a Berkeley DB function but a BDB module extension.
185 The background for this exytension is: It is very annoying to have to
186 check every single BDB function for error returns and provide a codepath
187 out of your transaction. While the BDB module still makes this possible,
188 it contains the following extensions:
189
190 When a transaction-protected function returns any operating system error
191 (errno > 0), BDB will set the "TXN_DEADLOCK" flag on the transaction.
192 This flag is also set by Berkeley DB functions themselves when an
193 operation fails with LOCK_DEADLOCK, and it causes all further operations
194 on that transaction (including "db_txn_commit") to fail.
195
196 The "db_txn_finish" request will look at this flag, and, if it is set,
197 will automatically call "db_txn_abort" (setting errno to "LOCK_DEADLOCK"
198 if it isn't set to something else yet). If it isn't set, it will call
199 "db_txn_commit" and return the error normally.
200
201 How to use this? Easy: just write your transaction normally:
202
203 my $txn = $db_env->txn_begin;
204 db_get $db, $txn, "key", my $data;
205 db_put $db, $txn, "key", $data + 1 unless $! == BDB::NOTFOUND;
206 db_txn_finish $txn;
207 die "transaction failed" if $!;
208
209 That is, handle only the expected errors. If something unexpected
210 happens (EIO, LOCK_NOTGRANTED or a deadlock in either db_get or db_put),
211 then the remaining requests (db_put in this case) will simply be skipped
212 (they will fail with LOCK_DEADLOCK) and the transaction will be aborted.
213
214 You can use the "$txn->failed" method to check wether a transaction has
215 failed in this way and abort further processing (excluding
216 "db_txn_finish").
217
218 DB_ENV/database environment methods
219 Methods available on DB_ENV/$env handles:
220
221 DESTROY (DB_ENV_ornull *env)
222 CODE:
223 if (env)
224 env->close (env, 0);
225
226 $int = $env->set_data_dir (const char *dir)
227 $int = $env->set_tmp_dir (const char *dir)
228 $int = $env->set_lg_dir (const char *dir)
229 $int = $env->set_shm_key (long shm_key)
230 $int = $env->set_cachesize (U32 gbytes, U32 bytes, int ncache = 0)
231 $int = $env->set_flags (U32 flags, int onoff = 1)
232 $int = $env->log_set_config (U32 flags, int onoff = 1) [v4.7]
233 $int = $env->set_intermediate_dir_mode (const char *modestring) [v4.7]
234 $env->set_errfile (FILE *errfile = 0)
235 $env->set_msgfile (FILE *msgfile = 0)
236 $int = $env->set_verbose (U32 which, int onoff = 1)
237 $int = $env->set_encrypt (const char *password, U32 flags = 0)
238 $int = $env->set_timeout (NV timeout_seconds, U32 flags = SET_TXN_TIMEOUT)
239 $int = $env->set_mp_max_openfd (int maxopenfd);
240 $int = $env->set_mp_max_write (int maxwrite, int maxwrite_sleep);
241 $int = $env->set_mp_mmapsize (int mmapsize_mb)
242 $int = $env->set_lk_detect (U32 detect = DB_LOCK_DEFAULT)
243 $int = $env->set_lk_max_lockers (U32 max)
244 $int = $env->set_lk_max_locks (U32 max)
245 $int = $env->set_lk_max_objects (U32 max)
246 $int = $env->set_lg_bsize (U32 max)
247 $int = $env->set_lg_max (U32 max)
248 $int = $env->mutex_set_increment (U32 increment)
249 $int = $env->mutex_set_tas_spins (U32 tas_spins)
250 $int = $env->mutex_set_max (U32 max)
251 $int = $env->mutex_set_align (U32 align)
252
253 $txn = $env->txn_begin (DB_TXN_ornull *parent = 0, U32 flags = 0)
254 flags: READ_COMMITTED READ_UNCOMMITTED TXN_NOSYNC TXN_NOWAIT TXN_SNAPSHOT TXN_SYNC TXN_WAIT TXN_WRITE_NOSYNC
255
256 Example:
257 use AnyEvent;
258 use BDB;
259
260 our $FH; open $FH, "<&=" . BDB::poll_fileno;
261 our $WATCHER = AnyEvent->io (fh => $FH, poll => 'r', cb => \&BDB::poll_cb);
262
263 BDB::min_parallel 8;
264
265 my $env = db_env_create;
266
267 mkdir "bdtest", 0700;
268 db_env_open
269 $env,
270 "bdtest",
271 BDB::INIT_LOCK | BDB::INIT_LOG | BDB::INIT_MPOOL | BDB::INIT_TXN | BDB::RECOVER | BDB::USE_ENVIRON | BDB::CREATE,
272 0600;
273
274 $env->set_flags (BDB::AUTO_COMMIT | BDB::TXN_NOSYNC, 1);
275
276 DB/database methods
277 Methods available on DB/$db handles:
278
279 DESTROY (DB_ornull *db)
280 CODE:
281 if (db)
282 {
283 SV *env = (SV *)db->app_private;
284 db->close (db, 0);
285 SvREFCNT_dec (env);
286 }
287
288 $int = $db->set_cachesize (U32 gbytes, U32 bytes, int ncache = 0)
289 $int = $db->set_flags (U32 flags)
290 flags: CHKSUM ENCRYPT TXN_NOT_DURABLE
291 Btree: DUP DUPSORT RECNUM REVSPLITOFF
292 Hash: DUP DUPSORT
293 Queue: INORDER
294 Recno: RENUMBER SNAPSHOT
295
296 $int = $db->set_encrypt (const char *password, U32 flags)
297 $int = $db->set_lorder (int lorder)
298 $int = $db->set_bt_minkey (U32 minkey)
299 $int = $db->set_re_delim (int delim)
300 $int = $db->set_re_pad (int re_pad)
301 $int = $db->set_re_source (char *source)
302 $int = $db->set_re_len (U32 re_len)
303 $int = $db->set_h_ffactor (U32 h_ffactor)
304 $int = $db->set_h_nelem (U32 h_nelem)
305 $int = $db->set_q_extentsize (U32 extentsize)
306
307 $dbc = $db->cursor (DB_TXN_ornull *txn = 0, U32 flags = 0)
308 flags: READ_COMMITTED READ_UNCOMMITTED WRITECURSOR TXN_SNAPSHOT
309 $seq = $db->sequence (U32 flags = 0)
310
311 Example:
312 my $db = db_create $env;
313 db_open $db, undef, "table", undef, BDB::BTREE, BDB::AUTO_COMMIT | BDB::CREATE | BDB::READ_UNCOMMITTED, 0600;
314
315 for (1..1000) {
316 db_put $db, undef, "key $_", "data $_";
317
318 db_key_range $db, undef, "key $_", my $keyrange;
319 my ($lt, $eq, $gt) = @$keyrange;
320 }
321
322 db_del $db, undef, "key $_" for 1..1000;
323
324 db_sync $db;
325
326 DB_TXN/transaction methods
327 Methods available on DB_TXN/$txn handles:
328
329 DESTROY (DB_TXN_ornull *txn)
330 CODE:
331 if (txn)
332 txn->abort (txn);
333
334 $int = $txn->set_timeout (NV timeout_seconds, U32 flags = SET_TXN_TIMEOUT)
335 flags: SET_LOCK_TIMEOUT SET_TXN_TIMEOUT
336
337 $bool = $txn->failed
338 # see db_txn_finish documentation, above
339
340 DBC/cursor methods
341 Methods available on DBC/$dbc handles:
342
343 DESTROY (DBC_ornull *dbc)
344 CODE:
345 if (dbc)
346 dbc->c_close (dbc);
347
348 $int = $cursor->set_priority ($priority = PRIORITY_*)
349
350 Example:
351 my $c = $db->cursor;
352
353 for (;;) {
354 db_c_get $c, my $key, my $data, BDB::NEXT;
355 warn "<$!,$key,$data>";
356 last if $!;
357 }
358
359 db_c_close $c;
360
361 DB_SEQUENCE/sequence methods
362 Methods available on DB_SEQUENCE/$seq handles:
363
364 DESTROY (DB_SEQUENCE_ornull *seq)
365 CODE:
366 if (seq)
367 seq->close (seq, 0);
368
369 $int = $seq->initial_value (db_seq_t value)
370 $int = $seq->set_cachesize (U32 size)
371 $int = $seq->set_flags (U32 flags)
372 flags: SEQ_DEC SEQ_INC SEQ_WRAP
373 $int = $seq->set_range (db_seq_t min, db_seq_t max)
374
375 Example:
376 my $seq = $db->sequence;
377
378 db_sequence_open $seq, undef, "seq", BDB::CREATE;
379 db_sequence_get $seq, undef, 1, my $value;
380
381 SUPPORT FUNCTIONS
382 EVENT PROCESSING AND EVENT LOOP INTEGRATION
383 $msg = BDB::strerror [$errno]
384 Returns the string corresponding to the given errno value. If no
385 argument is given, use $!.
386
387 Note that the BDB module also patches the $! variable directly, so
388 you should be able to get a bdb error string by simply stringifying
389 $!.
390
391 $fileno = BDB::poll_fileno
392 Return the *request result pipe file descriptor*. This filehandle
393 must be polled for reading by some mechanism outside this module
394 (e.g. Event or select, see below or the SYNOPSIS). If the pipe
395 becomes readable you have to call "poll_cb" to check the results.
396
397 See "poll_cb" for an example.
398
399 BDB::poll_cb
400 Process some outstanding events on the result pipe. You have to call
401 this regularly. Returns the number of events processed. Returns
402 immediately when no events are outstanding. The amount of events
403 processed depends on the settings of "BDB::max_poll_req" and
404 "BDB::max_poll_time".
405
406 If not all requests were processed for whatever reason, the
407 filehandle will still be ready when "poll_cb" returns.
408
409 Example: Install an Event watcher that automatically calls
410 BDB::poll_cb with high priority:
411
412 Event->io (fd => BDB::poll_fileno,
413 poll => 'r', async => 1,
414 cb => \&BDB::poll_cb);
415
416 BDB::max_poll_reqs $nreqs
417 BDB::max_poll_time $seconds
418 These set the maximum number of requests (default 0, meaning
419 infinity) that are being processed by "BDB::poll_cb" in one call,
420 respectively the maximum amount of time (default 0, meaning
421 infinity) spent in "BDB::poll_cb" to process requests (more
422 correctly the mininum amount of time "poll_cb" is allowed to use).
423
424 Setting "max_poll_time" to a non-zero value creates an overhead of
425 one syscall per request processed, which is not normally a problem
426 unless your callbacks are really really fast or your OS is really
427 really slow (I am not mentioning Solaris here). Using
428 "max_poll_reqs" incurs no overhead.
429
430 Setting these is useful if you want to ensure some level of
431 interactiveness when perl is not fast enough to process all requests
432 in time.
433
434 For interactive programs, values such as 0.01 to 0.1 should be fine.
435
436 Example: Install an EV watcher that automatically calls BDB::poll_cb
437 with low priority, to ensure that other parts of the program get the
438 CPU sometimes even under high load.
439
440 # try not to spend much more than 0.1s in poll_cb
441 BDB::max_poll_time 0.1;
442
443 my $bdb_poll = EV::io BDB::poll_fileno, EV::READ, \&BDB::poll_cb);
444
445 BDB::poll_wait
446 If there are any outstanding requests and none of them in the result
447 phase, wait till the result filehandle becomes ready for reading
448 (simply does a "select" on the filehandle. This is useful if you
449 want to synchronously wait for some requests to finish).
450
451 See "nreqs" for an example.
452
453 BDB::poll
454 Waits until some requests have been handled.
455
456 Returns the number of requests processed, but is otherwise strictly
457 equivalent to:
458
459 BDB::poll_wait, BDB::poll_cb
460
461 BDB::flush
462 Wait till all outstanding BDB requests have been handled.
463
464 Strictly equivalent to:
465
466 BDB::poll_wait, BDB::poll_cb
467 while BDB::nreqs;
468
469 VERSION CHECKING
470 BerkeleyDB comes in various versions, many of them have minor
471 incompatibilities. This means that traditional "at least version x.x"
472 checks are often not sufficient.
473
474 Example: set the log_autoremove option in a way compatible with <v.47
475 and v4.7. Note the use of & on the constants to avoid triggering a
476 compiletime bug when the symbol isn't available.
477
478 $DB_ENV->set_flags (&BDB::LOG_AUTOREMOVE ) if BDB::VERSION v0, v4.7;
479 $DB_ENV->log_set_config (&BDB::LOG_AUTO_REMOVE) if BDB::VERSION v4.7;
480
481 BDB::VERSION
482 The "BDB::VERSION" function, when called without arguments, returns
483 the Berkeley DB version as a v-string (usually with 3 components).
484 You should use "lt" and "ge" operators exclusively to make
485 comparisons.
486
487 Example: check for at least version 4.7.
488
489 BDB::VERSION ge v4.7 or die;
490
491 BDB::VERSION min-version
492 Returns true if the BDB version is at least the given version
493 (specified as a v-string), false otherwise.
494
495 Example: check for at least version 4.5.
496
497 BDB::VERSION v4.7 or die;
498
499 BDB::VERSION min-version, max-version
500 Returns true of the BDB version is at least version "min-version"
501 (specify "undef" or "v0" for any minimum version) and less then
502 "max-version".
503
504 Example: check wether version is strictly less then v4.7.
505
506 BDB::VERSION v0, v4.7
507 or die "version 4.7 is not yet supported";
508
509 CONTROLLING THE NUMBER OF THREADS
510 BDB::min_parallel $nthreads
511 Set the minimum number of BDB threads to $nthreads. The current
512 default is 8, which means eight asynchronous operations can execute
513 concurrently at any one time (the number of outstanding requests,
514 however, is unlimited).
515
516 BDB starts threads only on demand, when an BDB request is queued and
517 no free thread exists. Please note that queueing up a hundred
518 requests can create demand for a hundred threads, even if it turns
519 out that everything is in the cache and could have been processed
520 faster by a single thread.
521
522 It is recommended to keep the number of threads relatively low, as
523 some Linux kernel versions will scale negatively with the number of
524 threads (higher parallelity => MUCH higher latency). With current
525 Linux 2.6 versions, 4-32 threads should be fine.
526
527 Under most circumstances you don't need to call this function, as
528 the module selects a default that is suitable for low to moderate
529 load.
530
531 BDB::max_parallel $nthreads
532 Sets the maximum number of BDB threads to $nthreads. If more than
533 the specified number of threads are currently running, this function
534 kills them. This function blocks until the limit is reached.
535
536 While $nthreads are zero, aio requests get queued but not executed
537 until the number of threads has been increased again.
538
539 This module automatically runs "max_parallel 0" at program end, to
540 ensure that all threads are killed and that there are no outstanding
541 requests.
542
543 Under normal circumstances you don't need to call this function.
544
545 BDB::max_idle $nthreads
546 Limit the number of threads (default: 4) that are allowed to idle
547 (i.e., threads that did not get a request to process within 10
548 seconds). That means if a thread becomes idle while $nthreads other
549 threads are also idle, it will free its resources and exit.
550
551 This is useful when you allow a large number of threads (e.g. 100 or
552 1000) to allow for extremely high load situations, but want to free
553 resources under normal circumstances (1000 threads can easily
554 consume 30MB of RAM).
555
556 The default is probably ok in most situations, especially if thread
557 creation is fast. If thread creation is very slow on your system you
558 might want to use larger values.
559
560 $oldmaxreqs = BDB::max_outstanding $maxreqs
561 This is a very bad function to use in interactive programs because
562 it blocks, and a bad way to reduce concurrency because it is
563 inexact: Better use an "aio_group" together with a feed callback.
564
565 Sets the maximum number of outstanding requests to $nreqs. If you to
566 queue up more than this number of requests, the next call to the
567 "poll_cb" (and "poll_some" and other functions calling "poll_cb")
568 function will block until the limit is no longer exceeded.
569
570 The default value is very large, so there is no practical limit on
571 the number of outstanding requests.
572
573 You can still queue as many requests as you want. Therefore,
574 "max_oustsanding" is mainly useful in simple scripts (with low
575 values) or as a stop gap to shield against fatal memory overflow
576 (with large values).
577
578 BDB::set_sync_prepare $cb
579 Sets a callback that is called whenever a request is created without
580 an explicit callback. It has to return two code references. The
581 first is used as the request callback (it should save the return
582 status), and the second is called to wait until the first callback
583 has been called (it must set $! to the return status).
584
585 This mechanism can be used to include BDB into other event
586 mechanisms, such as AnyEvent::BDB or Coro::BDB.
587
588 The default implementation works like this:
589
590 sub {
591 my $status;
592 (
593 sub { $status = $! },
594 sub { BDB::poll while !defined $status; $! = $status },
595 )
596 }
597
598 It simply blocks the process till the request has finished and then
599 sets $! to the return value. This means that if you don't use a
600 callback, BDB will simply fall back to synchronous operations.
601
602 STATISTICAL INFORMATION
603 BDB::nreqs
604 Returns the number of requests currently in the ready, execute or
605 pending states (i.e. for which their callback has not been invoked
606 yet).
607
608 Example: wait till there are no outstanding requests anymore:
609
610 BDB::poll_wait, BDB::poll_cb
611 while BDB::nreqs;
612
613 BDB::nready
614 Returns the number of requests currently in the ready state (not yet
615 executed).
616
617 BDB::npending
618 Returns the number of requests currently in the pending state
619 (executed, but not yet processed by poll_cb).
620
621 FORK BEHAVIOUR
622 This module should do "the right thing" when the process using it forks:
623
624 Before the fork, BDB enters a quiescent state where no requests can be
625 added in other threads and no results will be processed. After the fork
626 the parent simply leaves the quiescent state and continues
627 request/result processing, while the child frees the request/result
628 queue (so that the requests started before the fork will only be handled
629 in the parent). Threads will be started on demand until the limit set in
630 the parent process has been reached again.
631
632 In short: the parent will, after a short pause, continue as if fork had
633 not been called, while the child will act as if BDB has not been used
634 yet.
635
636 Win32 note: there is no fork on win32, and perls emulation of it is too
637 broken to be supported, so do not use BDB in a windows pseudo-fork,
638 better yet, switch to a more capable platform.
639
640 MEMORY USAGE
641 Per-request usage:
642
643 Each aio request uses - depending on your architecture - around 100-200
644 bytes of memory. In addition, stat requests need a stat buffer (possibly
645 a few hundred bytes), readdir requires a result buffer and so on. Perl
646 scalars and other data passed into aio requests will also be locked and
647 will consume memory till the request has entered the done state.
648
649 This is not awfully much, so queuing lots of requests is not usually a
650 problem.
651
652 Per-thread usage:
653
654 In the execution phase, some aio requests require more memory for
655 temporary buffers, and each thread requires a stack and other data
656 structures (usually around 16k-128k, depending on the OS).
657
658 KNOWN BUGS
659 Known bugs will be fixed in the next release, except:
660
661 If you use a transaction in any request, and the request returns
662 with an operating system error or DB_LOCK_NOTGRANTED, the internal
663 TXN_DEADLOCK flag will be set on the transaction. See C<db_txn_finish>,
664 above.
665
666 SEE ALSO
667 AnyEvent::BDB (event loop integration), Coro::BDB (more natural syntax),
668 IO::AIO (nice to have).
669
670 AUTHOR
671 Marc Lehmann <schmorp@schmorp.de>
672 http://home.schmorp.de/
673