Coro/Coro/State.pm

=head1 NAME

Coro::State - create and manage simple coroutines

=head1 SYNOPSIS

 use Coro::State;

 $new = new Coro::State sub {
    print "in coroutine (called with @_), switching back\n";
    $new->transfer($main);
    print "in coroutine again, switching back\n";
    $new->transfer($main);
 }, 5;

 $main = new Coro::State;

 print "in main, switching to coroutine\n";
 $main->transfer($new);
 print "back in main, switch to coroutine again\n";
 $main->transfer($new);
 print "back in main\n";

=head1 DESCRIPTION

This module implements coroutines. Coroutines, similar to continuations,
allow you to run more than one "thread of execution" in parallel. Unlike
threads this, only voluntary switching is used so locking problems are
greatly reduced.

This module provides only low-level functionality. See L<Coro> and related
modules for a more useful process abstraction including scheduling.

=head2 MEMORY CONSUMPTION

A newly created coroutine that has not been used only allocates a
relatively small (a few hundred bytes) structure. Only on the first
C<transfer> will perl stacks (a few k) and optionally C stack (4-16k) be
allocated. On systems supporting mmap a 128k stack is allocated, on the
assumption that the OS has on-demand virtual memory. All this is very
system-dependent. On my i686-pc-linux-gnu system this amounts to about 10k
per coroutine, 5k when the experimental context sharing is enabled.

=over 4

=cut

package Coro::State;

no warnings qw(uninitialized);

BEGIN {
   $VERSION = 0.7;

   require XSLoader;
   XSLoader::load Coro::State, $VERSION;
}

use base 'Exporter';

@EXPORT_OK = qw(SAVE_DEFAV SAVE_DEFSV SAVE_ERRSV SAVE_CURPM SAVE_CCTXT);

=item $coro = new [$coderef] [, @args...]

Create a new coroutine and return it. The first C<transfer> call to this
coroutine will start execution at the given coderef. If the subroutine
returns it will be executed again.

If the coderef is omitted this function will create a new "empty"
coroutine, i.e. a coroutine that cannot be transfered to but can be used
to save the current coroutine in.

=cut

# this is called (or rather: goto'ed) for each and every
# new coroutine. IT MUST NEVER RETURN and should not call
# anything that changes the stacklevel (like eval).
sub initialize {
   my $proc = shift;
   eval {
      &$proc while 1;
   };
   if ($@) {
      print STDERR "FATAL: uncaught exception\n$@";
   }
   _exit 255;
}

sub new {
   my $class = shift;
   my $proc = shift || sub { die "tried to transfer to an empty coroutine" };
   bless _newprocess [$proc, @_], $class;
}

=item $prev->transfer($next,$flags)

Save the state of the current subroutine in C<$prev> and switch to the
coroutine saved in C<$next>.

The "state" of a subroutine includes the scope, i.e. lexical variables and
the current execution state (subroutine, stack). The C<$flags> value can
be used to specify that additional state be saved (and later restored), by
C<||>-ing the following constants together:

   Constant    Effect
   SAVE_DEFAV  save/restore @_
   SAVE_DEFSV  save/restore $_
   SAVE_ERRSV  save/restore $@
   SAVE_CCTXT  save/restore C-stack (you usually want this)

These constants are not exported by default. If you don't need any extra
additional state saved use C<0> as the flags value.

If you feel that something important is missing then tell me.  Also
remember that every function call that might call C<transfer> (such
as C<Coro::Channel::put>) might clobber any global and/or special
variables. Yes, this is by design ;) You can always create your own
process abstraction model that saves these variables.

The easiest way to do this is to create your own scheduling primitive like
this:

  sub schedule {
     local ($_, $@, ...);
     $old->transfer($new);
  }

IMPLEMENTORS NOTE: all Coro::State functions/methods expect either the
usual Coro::State object or a hashref with a key named "_coro_state" that
contains the real Coro::State object. That is, you can do:

  $obj->{_coro_state} = new Coro::State ...;
  Coro::State::transfer(..., $obj);

This exists mainly to ease subclassing (wether through @ISA or not).

=cut

=item Coro::State::flush

To be efficient (actually, to not be abysmaly slow), this module does
some fair amount of caching (a possibly complex structure for every
subroutine in use). If you don't use coroutines anymore or you want to
reclaim some memory then you can call this function which will flush all
internal caches. The caches will be rebuilt when needed so this is a safe
operation.

=cut

1;

=back

=head1 BUGS

This module has not yet been extensively tested. Expect segfaults and
specially memleaks.

This module is not thread-safe. You must only ever use this module from
the same thread (this requirenmnt might be loosened in the future).

=head1 SEE ALSO

L<Coro>.

=head1 AUTHOR

 Marc Lehmann <pcg@goof.com>
 http://www.goof.com/pcg/marc/

=cut

Revision:	1.32
Committed:	Tue May 27 01:15:31 2003 UTC (21 years ago) by root
Branch:	MAIN
Changes since 1.31:	+1 -1 lines
Log Message:	* empty log message *
#	User	Rev	Content
1	root	1.1	=head1 NAME
2
3			Coro::State - create and manage simple coroutines
4
5			=head1 SYNOPSIS
6
7			use Coro::State;
8
9			$new = new Coro::State sub {
10	root	1.3	print "in coroutine (called with @_), switching back\n";
11	root	1.1	$new->transfer($main);
12			print "in coroutine again, switching back\n";
13			$new->transfer($main);
14	root	1.3	}, 5;
15	root	1.1
16			$main = new Coro::State;
17
18			print "in main, switching to coroutine\n";
19			$main->transfer($new);
20			print "back in main, switch to coroutine again\n";
21			$main->transfer($new);
22			print "back in main\n";
23
24			=head1 DESCRIPTION
25
26			This module implements coroutines. Coroutines, similar to continuations,
27			allow you to run more than one "thread of execution" in parallel. Unlike
28			threads this, only voluntary switching is used so locking problems are
29			greatly reduced.
30
31			This module provides only low-level functionality. See L<Coro> and related
32			modules for a more useful process abstraction including scheduling.
33
34	root	1.9	=head2 MEMORY CONSUMPTION
35
36			A newly created coroutine that has not been used only allocates a
37			relatively small (a few hundred bytes) structure. Only on the first
38			C<transfer> will perl stacks (a few k) and optionally C stack (4-16k) be
39			allocated. On systems supporting mmap a 128k stack is allocated, on the
40			assumption that the OS has on-demand virtual memory. All this is very
41			system-dependent. On my i686-pc-linux-gnu system this amounts to about 10k
42	root	1.11	per coroutine, 5k when the experimental context sharing is enabled.
43	root	1.9
44	root	1.1	=over 4
45
46			=cut
47
48			package Coro::State;
49
50	root	1.19	no warnings qw(uninitialized);
51	root	1.18
52	root	1.1	BEGIN {
53	root	1.32	$VERSION = 0.7;
54	root	1.1
55			require XSLoader;
56			XSLoader::load Coro::State, $VERSION;
57			}
58
59	root	1.5	use base 'Exporter';
60
61	root	1.22	@EXPORT_OK = qw(SAVE_DEFAV SAVE_DEFSV SAVE_ERRSV SAVE_CURPM SAVE_CCTXT);
62	root	1.5
63	root	1.3	=item $coro = new [$coderef] [, @args...]
64	root	1.1
65			Create a new coroutine and return it. The first C<transfer> call to this
66	root	1.10	coroutine will start execution at the given coderef. If the subroutine
67	root	1.1	returns it will be executed again.
68
69			If the coderef is omitted this function will create a new "empty"
70			coroutine, i.e. a coroutine that cannot be transfered to but can be used
71			to save the current coroutine in.
72
73			=cut
74
75	root	1.12	# this is called (or rather: goto'ed) for each and every
76			# new coroutine. IT MUST NEVER RETURN and should not call
77			# anything that changes the stacklevel (like eval).
78	root	1.8	sub initialize {
79	root	1.3	my $proc = shift;
80	root	1.13	eval {
81			&$proc while 1;
82			};
83			if ($@) {
84			print STDERR "FATAL: uncaught exception\n$@";
85			}
86			_exit 255;
87	root	1.3	}
88
89	root	1.1	sub new {
90	root	1.3	my $class = shift;
91	root	1.4	my $proc = shift \|\| sub { die "tried to transfer to an empty coroutine" };
92	root	1.3	bless _newprocess [$proc, @_], $class;
93	root	1.1	}
94
95	root	1.10	=item $prev->transfer($next,$flags)
96	root	1.1
97			Save the state of the current subroutine in C<$prev> and switch to the
98			coroutine saved in C<$next>.
99
100	root	1.5	The "state" of a subroutine includes the scope, i.e. lexical variables and
101	root	1.23	the current execution state (subroutine, stack). The C<$flags> value can
102			be used to specify that additional state be saved (and later restored), by
103			C<\|\|>-ing the following constants together:
104	root	1.5
105	root	1.9	Constant Effect
106			SAVE_DEFAV save/restore @_
107			SAVE_DEFSV save/restore $_
108			SAVE_ERRSV save/restore $@
109			SAVE_CCTXT save/restore C-stack (you usually want this)
110	root	1.5
111	root	1.15	These constants are not exported by default. If you don't need any extra
112			additional state saved use C<0> as the flags value.
113	root	1.2
114	root	1.5	If you feel that something important is missing then tell me. Also
115	root	1.2	remember that every function call that might call C<transfer> (such
116			as C<Coro::Channel::put>) might clobber any global and/or special
117			variables. Yes, this is by design ;) You can always create your own
118			process abstraction model that saves these variables.
119	root	1.1
120	root	1.9	The easiest way to do this is to create your own scheduling primitive like
121			this:
122	root	1.1
123			sub schedule {
124			local ($_, $@, ...);
125			$old->transfer($new);
126			}
127
128			IMPLEMENTORS NOTE: all Coro::State functions/methods expect either the
129			usual Coro::State object or a hashref with a key named "_coro_state" that
130			contains the real Coro::State object. That is, you can do:
131
132			$obj->{_coro_state} = new Coro::State ...;
133			Coro::State::transfer(..., $obj);
134
135			This exists mainly to ease subclassing (wether through @ISA or not).
136
137			=cut
138
139	root	1.5	=item Coro::State::flush
140
141			To be efficient (actually, to not be abysmaly slow), this module does
142			some fair amount of caching (a possibly complex structure for every
143			subroutine in use). If you don't use coroutines anymore or you want to
144			reclaim some memory then you can call this function which will flush all
145			internal caches. The caches will be rebuilt when needed so this is a safe
146			operation.
147
148			=cut
149
150	root	1.1	1;
151
152			=back
153
154			=head1 BUGS
155
156			This module has not yet been extensively tested. Expect segfaults and
157			specially memleaks.
158	root	1.5
159			This module is not thread-safe. You must only ever use this module from
160			the same thread (this requirenmnt might be loosened in the future).
161	root	1.1
162			=head1 SEE ALSO
163
164			L<Coro>.
165
166			=head1 AUTHOR
167
168			Marc Lehmann <pcg@goof.com>
169			http://www.goof.com/pcg/marc/
170
171			=cut
172