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Revision: 1.35
Committed: Mon Aug 22 23:20:37 2005 UTC (18 years, 9 months ago) by root
Branch: MAIN
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# Content
1 =head1 NAME
2
3 IO::AIO - Asynchronous Input/Output
4
5 =head1 SYNOPSIS
6
7 use IO::AIO;
8
9 aio_open "/etc/passwd", O_RDONLY, 0, sub {
10 my ($fh) = @_;
11 ...
12 };
13
14 aio_unlink "/tmp/file", sub { };
15
16 aio_read $fh, 30000, 1024, $buffer, 0, sub {
17 $_[0] > 0 or die "read error: $!";
18 };
19
20 # Event
21 Event->io (fd => IO::AIO::poll_fileno,
22 poll => 'r',
23 cb => \&IO::AIO::poll_cb);
24
25 # Glib/Gtk2
26 add_watch Glib::IO IO::AIO::poll_fileno,
27 in => sub { IO::AIO::poll_cb; 1 };
28
29 # Tk
30 Tk::Event::IO->fileevent (IO::AIO::poll_fileno, "",
31 readable => \&IO::AIO::poll_cb);
32
33 # Danga::Socket
34 Danga::Socket->AddOtherFds (IO::AIO::poll_fileno =>
35 \&IO::AIO::poll_cb);
36
37
38 =head1 DESCRIPTION
39
40 This module implements asynchronous I/O using whatever means your
41 operating system supports.
42
43 Currently, a number of threads are started that execute your read/writes
44 and signal their completion. You don't need thread support in your libc or
45 perl, and the threads created by this module will not be visible to the
46 pthreads library. In the future, this module might make use of the native
47 aio functions available on many operating systems. However, they are often
48 not well-supported (Linux doesn't allow them on normal files currently,
49 for example), and they would only support aio_read and aio_write, so the
50 remaining functionality would have to be implemented using threads anyway.
51
52 Although the module will work with in the presence of other threads, it is
53 currently not reentrant, so use appropriate locking yourself, always call
54 C<poll_cb> from within the same thread, or never call C<poll_cb> (or other
55 C<aio_> functions) recursively.
56
57 =cut
58
59 package IO::AIO;
60
61 no warnings;
62
63 use base 'Exporter';
64
65 use Fcntl ();
66
67 BEGIN {
68 $VERSION = 1.5;
69
70 @EXPORT = qw(aio_read aio_write aio_open aio_close aio_stat aio_lstat aio_unlink
71 aio_rmdir aio_symlink aio_fsync aio_fdatasync aio_readahead);
72 @EXPORT_OK = qw(poll_fileno poll_cb min_parallel max_parallel max_outstanding nreqs);
73
74 require XSLoader;
75 XSLoader::load IO::AIO, $VERSION;
76 }
77
78 =head1 FUNCTIONS
79
80 =head2 AIO FUNCTIONS
81
82 All the C<aio_*> calls are more or less thin wrappers around the syscall
83 with the same name (sans C<aio_>). The arguments are similar or identical,
84 and they all accept an additional (and optional) C<$callback> argument
85 which must be a code reference. This code reference will get called with
86 the syscall return code (e.g. most syscalls return C<-1> on error, unlike
87 perl, which usually delivers "false") as it's sole argument when the given
88 syscall has been executed asynchronously.
89
90 All functions expecting a filehandle keep a copy of the filehandle
91 internally until the request has finished.
92
93 The pathnames you pass to these routines I<must> be absolute and
94 encoded in byte form. The reason for the former is that at the time the
95 request is being executed, the current working directory could have
96 changed. Alternatively, you can make sure that you never change the
97 current working directory.
98
99 To encode pathnames to byte form, either make sure you either: a)
100 always pass in filenames you got from outside (command line, readdir
101 etc.), b) are ASCII or ISO 8859-1, c) use the Encode module and encode
102 your pathnames to the locale (or other) encoding in effect in the user
103 environment, d) use Glib::filename_from_unicode on unicode filenames or e)
104 use something else.
105
106 =over 4
107
108 =item aio_open $pathname, $flags, $mode, $callback
109
110 Asynchronously open or create a file and call the callback with a newly
111 created filehandle for the file.
112
113 The pathname passed to C<aio_open> must be absolute. See API NOTES, above,
114 for an explanation.
115
116 The C<$flags> argument is a bitmask. See the C<Fcntl> module for a
117 list. They are the same as used by C<sysopen>.
118
119 Likewise, C<$mode> specifies the mode of the newly created file, if it
120 didn't exist and C<O_CREAT> has been given, just like perl's C<sysopen>,
121 except that it is mandatory (i.e. use C<0> if you don't create new files,
122 and C<0666> or C<0777> if you do).
123
124 Example:
125
126 aio_open "/etc/passwd", O_RDONLY, 0, sub {
127 if ($_[0]) {
128 print "open successful, fh is $_[0]\n";
129 ...
130 } else {
131 die "open failed: $!\n";
132 }
133 };
134
135 =item aio_close $fh, $callback
136
137 Asynchronously close a file and call the callback with the result
138 code. I<WARNING:> although accepted, you should not pass in a perl
139 filehandle here, as perl will likely close the file descriptor another
140 time when the filehandle is destroyed. Normally, you can safely call perls
141 C<close> or just let filehandles go out of scope.
142
143 This is supposed to be a bug in the API, so that might change. It's
144 therefore best to avoid this function.
145
146 =item aio_read $fh,$offset,$length, $data,$dataoffset,$callback
147
148 =item aio_write $fh,$offset,$length, $data,$dataoffset,$callback
149
150 Reads or writes C<length> bytes from the specified C<fh> and C<offset>
151 into the scalar given by C<data> and offset C<dataoffset> and calls the
152 callback without the actual number of bytes read (or -1 on error, just
153 like the syscall).
154
155 The C<$data> scalar I<MUST NOT> be modified in any way while the request
156 is outstanding. Modifying it can result in segfaults or WW3 (if the
157 necessary/optional hardware is installed).
158
159 Example: Read 15 bytes at offset 7 into scalar C<$buffer>, starting at
160 offset C<0> within the scalar:
161
162 aio_read $fh, 7, 15, $buffer, 0, sub {
163 $_[0] > 0 or die "read error: $!";
164 print "read $_[0] bytes: <$buffer>\n";
165 };
166
167 =item aio_sendfile $out_fh, $in_fh, $in_offset, $length, $callback
168
169 Tries to copy C<$length> bytes from C<$in_fh> to C<$out_fh>. It starts
170 reading at byte offset C<$in_offset>, and starts writing at the current
171 file offset of C<$out_fh>. Because of that, it is not safe to issue more
172 than one C<aio_sendfile> per C<$out_fh>, as they will interfere with each
173 other.
174
175 This call tries to make use of a native C<sendfile> syscall to provide
176 zero-copy operation. For this to work, C<$out_fh> should refer to a
177 socket, and C<$in_fh> should refer to mmap'able file.
178
179 If the native sendfile call fails or is not implemented, it will be
180 emulated, so you can call C<aio_sendfile> on any filehandles regardless of
181 the limitations of the OS.
182
183 Please note, however, that C<aio_sendfile> can read more bytes from
184 C<$in_fh> than are written, and there is no way to find out how many
185 bytes have been read form C<aio_sendfile> alone, as C<aio_sendfile> only
186 provides the number of bytes written to C<$out_fh>. Only if the return
187 value (the value provided to the callback) equals C<$length> one can
188 assume that C<$length> bytes have been read.
189
190 =item aio_readahead $fh,$offset,$length, $callback
191
192 C<aio_readahead> populates the page cache with data from a file so that
193 subsequent reads from that file will not block on disk I/O. The C<$offset>
194 argument specifies the starting point from which data is to be read and
195 C<$length> specifies the number of bytes to be read. I/O is performed in
196 whole pages, so that offset is effectively rounded down to a page boundary
197 and bytes are read up to the next page boundary greater than or equal to
198 (off-set+length). C<aio_readahead> does not read beyond the end of the
199 file. The current file offset of the file is left unchanged.
200
201 If that syscall doesn't exist (likely if your OS isn't Linux) it will be
202 emulated by simply reading the data, which would have a similar effect.
203
204 =item aio_stat $fh_or_path, $callback
205
206 =item aio_lstat $fh, $callback
207
208 Works like perl's C<stat> or C<lstat> in void context. The callback will
209 be called after the stat and the results will be available using C<stat _>
210 or C<-s _> etc...
211
212 The pathname passed to C<aio_stat> must be absolute. See API NOTES, above,
213 for an explanation.
214
215 Currently, the stats are always 64-bit-stats, i.e. instead of returning an
216 error when stat'ing a large file, the results will be silently truncated
217 unless perl itself is compiled with large file support.
218
219 Example: Print the length of F</etc/passwd>:
220
221 aio_stat "/etc/passwd", sub {
222 $_[0] and die "stat failed: $!";
223 print "size is ", -s _, "\n";
224 };
225
226 =item aio_unlink $pathname, $callback
227
228 Asynchronously unlink (delete) a file and call the callback with the
229 result code.
230
231 =item aio_rmdir $pathname, $callback
232
233 Asynchronously rmdir (delete) a directory and call the callback with the
234 result code.
235
236 =item aio_fsync $fh, $callback
237
238 Asynchronously call fsync on the given filehandle and call the callback
239 with the fsync result code.
240
241 =item aio_fdatasync $fh, $callback
242
243 Asynchronously call fdatasync on the given filehandle and call the
244 callback with the fdatasync result code.
245
246 If this call isn't available because your OS lacks it or it couldn't be
247 detected, it will be emulated by calling C<fsync> instead.
248
249 =back
250
251 =head2 SUPPORT FUNCTIONS
252
253 =over 4
254
255 =item $fileno = IO::AIO::poll_fileno
256
257 Return the I<request result pipe file descriptor>. This filehandle must be
258 polled for reading by some mechanism outside this module (e.g. Event or
259 select, see below or the SYNOPSIS). If the pipe becomes readable you have
260 to call C<poll_cb> to check the results.
261
262 See C<poll_cb> for an example.
263
264 =item IO::AIO::poll_cb
265
266 Process all outstanding events on the result pipe. You have to call this
267 regularly. Returns the number of events processed. Returns immediately
268 when no events are outstanding.
269
270 Example: Install an Event watcher that automatically calls
271 IO::AIO::poll_cb with high priority:
272
273 Event->io (fd => IO::AIO::poll_fileno,
274 poll => 'r', async => 1,
275 cb => \&IO::AIO::poll_cb);
276
277 =item IO::AIO::poll_wait
278
279 Wait till the result filehandle becomes ready for reading (simply does a
280 C<select> on the filehandle. This is useful if you want to synchronously wait
281 for some requests to finish).
282
283 See C<nreqs> for an example.
284
285 =item IO::AIO::nreqs
286
287 Returns the number of requests currently outstanding (i.e. for which their
288 callback has not been invoked yet).
289
290 Example: wait till there are no outstanding requests anymore:
291
292 IO::AIO::poll_wait, IO::AIO::poll_cb
293 while IO::AIO::nreqs;
294
295 =item IO::AIO::flush
296
297 Wait till all outstanding AIO requests have been handled.
298
299 Strictly equivalent to:
300
301 IO::AIO::poll_wait, IO::AIO::poll_cb
302 while IO::AIO::nreqs;
303
304 =item IO::AIO::poll
305
306 Waits until some requests have been handled.
307
308 Strictly equivalent to:
309
310 IO::AIO::poll_wait, IO::AIO::poll_cb
311 if IO::AIO::nreqs;
312
313 =item IO::AIO::min_parallel $nthreads
314
315 Set the minimum number of AIO threads to C<$nthreads>. The current default
316 is C<4>, which means four asynchronous operations can be done at one time
317 (the number of outstanding operations, however, is unlimited).
318
319 IO::AIO starts threads only on demand, when an AIO request is queued and
320 no free thread exists.
321
322 It is recommended to keep the number of threads low, as some Linux
323 kernel versions will scale negatively with the number of threads (higher
324 parallelity => MUCH higher latency). With current Linux 2.6 versions, 4-32
325 threads should be fine.
326
327 Under most circumstances you don't need to call this function, as the
328 module selects a default that is suitable for low to moderate load.
329
330 =item IO::AIO::max_parallel $nthreads
331
332 Sets the maximum number of AIO threads to C<$nthreads>. If more than the
333 specified number of threads are currently running, this function kills
334 them. This function blocks until the limit is reached.
335
336 While C<$nthreads> are zero, aio requests get queued but not executed
337 until the number of threads has been increased again.
338
339 This module automatically runs C<max_parallel 0> at program end, to ensure
340 that all threads are killed and that there are no outstanding requests.
341
342 Under normal circumstances you don't need to call this function.
343
344 =item $oldnreqs = IO::AIO::max_outstanding $nreqs
345
346 Sets the maximum number of outstanding requests to C<$nreqs>. If you
347 try to queue up more than this number of requests, the caller will block until
348 some requests have been handled.
349
350 The default is very large, so normally there is no practical limit. If you
351 queue up many requests in a loop it often improves speed if you set
352 this to a relatively low number, such as C<100>.
353
354 Under normal circumstances you don't need to call this function.
355
356 =back
357
358 =cut
359
360 # support function to convert a fd into a perl filehandle
361 sub _fd2fh {
362 return undef if $_[0] < 0;
363
364 # try to generate nice filehandles
365 my $sym = "IO::AIO::fd#$_[0]";
366 local *$sym;
367
368 open *$sym, "+<&=$_[0]" # usually works under any unix
369 or open *$sym, "<&=$_[0]" # cygwin needs this
370 or open *$sym, ">&=$_[0]" # or this
371 or return undef;
372
373 *$sym
374 }
375
376 min_parallel 4;
377
378 END {
379 max_parallel 0;
380 }
381
382 1;
383
384 =head2 FORK BEHAVIOUR
385
386 Before the fork, IO::AIO enters a quiescent state where no requests
387 can be added in other threads and no results will be processed. After
388 the fork the parent simply leaves the quiescent state and continues
389 request/result processing, while the child clears the request/result
390 queue (so the requests started before the fork will only be handled in
391 the parent). Threats will be started on demand until the limit ste in the
392 parent process has been reached again.
393
394 =head1 SEE ALSO
395
396 L<Coro>, L<Linux::AIO>.
397
398 =head1 AUTHOR
399
400 Marc Lehmann <schmorp@schmorp.de>
401 http://home.schmorp.de/
402
403 =cut
404