=head1 NAME Coro - coroutine process abstraction =head1 SYNOPSIS use Coro; async { # some asynchronous thread of execution }; # alternatively create an async process like this: sub some_func : Coro { # some more async code } cede; =head1 DESCRIPTION This module collection manages coroutines. Coroutines are similar to threads but don't run in parallel. In this module, coroutines are defined as "callchain + lexical variables + @_ + $_ + $@ + $^W + C stack), that is, a coroutine has it's own callchain, it's own set of lexicals and it's own set of perl's most important global variables. =cut package Coro; use strict; no warnings "uninitialized"; use Coro::State; use base Exporter::; our $idle; # idle coroutine our $main; # main coroutine our $current; # current coroutine our $VERSION = '2.1'; our @EXPORT = qw(async cede schedule terminate current); our %EXPORT_TAGS = ( prio => [qw(PRIO_MAX PRIO_HIGH PRIO_NORMAL PRIO_LOW PRIO_IDLE PRIO_MIN)], ); our @EXPORT_OK = @{$EXPORT_TAGS{prio}}; { my @async; my $init; # this way of handling attributes simply is NOT scalable ;() sub import { no strict 'refs'; Coro->export_to_level(1, @_); my $old = *{(caller)[0]."::MODIFY_CODE_ATTRIBUTES"}{CODE}; *{(caller)[0]."::MODIFY_CODE_ATTRIBUTES"} = sub { my ($package, $ref) = (shift, shift); my @attrs; for (@_) { if ($_ eq "Coro") { push @async, $ref; unless ($init++) { eval q{ sub INIT { &async(pop @async) while @async; } }; } } else { push @attrs, $_; } } return $old ? $old->($package, $ref, @attrs) : @attrs; }; } } =over 4 =item $main This coroutine represents the main program. =cut $main = new Coro; =item $current (or as function: current) The current coroutine (the last coroutine switched to). The initial value is C<$main> (of course). =cut # maybe some other module used Coro::Specific before... if ($current) { $main->{specific} = $current->{specific}; } $current = $main; sub current() { $current } =item $idle The coroutine to switch to when no other coroutine is running. The default implementation prints "FATAL: deadlock detected" and exits. =cut # should be done using priorities :( $idle = new Coro sub { print STDERR "FATAL: deadlock detected\n"; exit(51); }; # this coroutine is necessary because a coroutine # cannot destroy itself. my @destroy; my $manager; $manager = new Coro sub { while () { # by overwriting the state object with the manager we destroy it # while still being able to schedule this coroutine (in case it has # been readied multiple times. this is harmless since the manager # can be called as many times as neccessary and will always # remove itself from the runqueue while (@destroy) { my $coro = pop @destroy; $coro->{status} ||= []; $_->ready for @{delete $coro->{join} || []}; # the next line destroys the _coro_state, but keeps the # process itself intact (we basically make it a zombie # process that always runs the manager thread, so it's possible # to transfer() to this process). $coro->{_coro_state} = $manager->{_coro_state}; } &schedule; } }; # static methods. not really. =back =head2 STATIC METHODS Static methods are actually functions that operate on the current process only. =over 4 =item async { ... } [@args...] Create a new asynchronous process and return it's process object (usually unused). When the sub returns the new process is automatically terminated. # create a new coroutine that just prints its arguments async { print "@_\n"; } 1,2,3,4; =cut sub async(&@) { my $pid = new Coro @_; $manager->ready; # this ensures that the stack is cloned from the manager $pid->ready; $pid; } =item schedule Calls the scheduler. Please note that the current process will not be put into the ready queue, so calling this function usually means you will never be called again. =cut =item cede "Cede" to other processes. This function puts the current process into the ready queue and calls C, which has the effect of giving up the current "timeslice" to other coroutines of the same or higher priority. =cut =item terminate [arg...] Terminates the current process with the given status values (see L). =cut sub terminate { $current->cancel (@_); } =back # dynamic methods =head2 PROCESS METHODS These are the methods you can call on process objects. =over 4 =item new Coro \&sub [, @args...] Create a new process and return it. When the sub returns the process automatically terminates as if C with the returned values were called. To make the process run you must first put it into the ready queue by calling the ready method. =cut sub _newcoro { terminate &{+shift}; } sub new { my $class = shift; bless { _coro_state => (new Coro::State $_[0] && \&_newcoro, @_), }, $class; } =item $process->ready Put the given process into the ready queue. =cut =item $process->cancel (arg...) Temrinates the given process and makes it return the given arguments as status (default: the empty list). =cut sub cancel { my $self = shift; $self->{status} = [@_]; push @destroy, $self; $manager->ready; &schedule if $current == $self; } =item $process->join Wait until the coroutine terminates and return any values given to the C or C functions. C can be called multiple times from multiple processes. =cut sub join { my $self = shift; unless ($self->{status}) { push @{$self->{join}}, $current; &schedule; } wantarray ? @{$self->{status}} : $self->{status}[0]; } =item $oldprio = $process->prio($newprio) Sets (or gets, if the argument is missing) the priority of the process. Higher priority processes get run before lower priority processes. Priorities are small signed integers (currently -4 .. +3), that you can refer to using PRIO_xxx constants (use the import tag :prio to get then): PRIO_MAX > PRIO_HIGH > PRIO_NORMAL > PRIO_LOW > PRIO_IDLE > PRIO_MIN 3 > 1 > 0 > -1 > -3 > -4 # set priority to HIGH current->prio(PRIO_HIGH); The idle coroutine ($Coro::idle) always has a lower priority than any existing coroutine. Changing the priority of the current process will take effect immediately, but changing the priority of processes in the ready queue (but not running) will only take effect after the next schedule (of that process). This is a bug that will be fixed in some future version. =cut sub prio { my $old = $_[0]{prio}; $_[0]{prio} = $_[1] if @_ > 1; $old; } =item $newprio = $process->nice($change) Similar to C, but subtract the given value from the priority (i.e. higher values mean lower priority, just as in unix). =cut sub nice { $_[0]{prio} -= $_[1]; } =item $olddesc = $process->desc($newdesc) Sets (or gets in case the argument is missing) the description for this process. This is just a free-form string you can associate with a process. =cut sub desc { my $old = $_[0]{desc}; $_[0]{desc} = $_[1] if @_ > 1; $old; } =back =cut 1; =head1 BUGS/LIMITATIONS - you must make very sure that no coro is still active on global destruction. very bad things might happen otherwise (usually segfaults). - this module is not thread-safe. You should only ever use this module from the same thread (this requirement might be losened in the future to allow per-thread schedulers, but Coro::State does not yet allow this). =head1 SEE ALSO Support/Utility: L, L, L, L. Locking/IPC: L, L, L, L, L. Event/IO: L, L, L, L, L. Embedding: L =head1 AUTHOR Marc Lehmann http://home.schmorp.de/ =cut