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Revision: 1.37
Committed: Tue Aug 23 12:37:19 2005 UTC (18 years, 8 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 = 1.6;
69
70 @EXPORT = qw(aio_read aio_write aio_open aio_close aio_stat aio_lstat aio_unlink
71 aio_rmdir aio_readdir 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<$in_fh> should refer to mmap'able file.
178
179 If the native sendfile call fails or is not implemented, it will be
180 emulated, so you can call C<aio_sendfile> on any type of filehandle
181 regardless of the limitations of the operating system.
182
183 Please note, however, that C<aio_sendfile> can read more bytes from
184 C<$in_fh> than are written, and there is no way to find out how many
185 bytes have been read from C<aio_sendfile> alone, as C<aio_sendfile> only
186 provides the number of bytes written to C<$out_fh>. Only if the result
187 value equals C<$length> one can assume that C<$length> bytes have been
188 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_readdir $pathname $callback
237
238 Unlike the POSIX call of the same name, C<aio_readdir> reads an entire
239 directory (i.e. opendir + readdir + closedir). The entries will not be
240 sorted, and will B<NOT> include the C<.> and C<..> entries.
241
242 The callback a single argument which is either C<undef> or an array-ref
243 with the filenames.
244
245 =item aio_fsync $fh, $callback
246
247 Asynchronously call fsync on the given filehandle and call the callback
248 with the fsync result code.
249
250 =item aio_fdatasync $fh, $callback
251
252 Asynchronously call fdatasync on the given filehandle and call the
253 callback with the fdatasync result code.
254
255 If this call isn't available because your OS lacks it or it couldn't be
256 detected, it will be emulated by calling C<fsync> instead.
257
258 =back
259
260 =head2 SUPPORT FUNCTIONS
261
262 =over 4
263
264 =item $fileno = IO::AIO::poll_fileno
265
266 Return the I<request result pipe file descriptor>. This filehandle must be
267 polled for reading by some mechanism outside this module (e.g. Event or
268 select, see below or the SYNOPSIS). If the pipe becomes readable you have
269 to call C<poll_cb> to check the results.
270
271 See C<poll_cb> for an example.
272
273 =item IO::AIO::poll_cb
274
275 Process all outstanding events on the result pipe. You have to call this
276 regularly. Returns the number of events processed. Returns immediately
277 when no events are outstanding.
278
279 Example: Install an Event watcher that automatically calls
280 IO::AIO::poll_cb with high priority:
281
282 Event->io (fd => IO::AIO::poll_fileno,
283 poll => 'r', async => 1,
284 cb => \&IO::AIO::poll_cb);
285
286 =item IO::AIO::poll_wait
287
288 Wait till the result filehandle becomes ready for reading (simply does a
289 C<select> on the filehandle. This is useful if you want to synchronously wait
290 for some requests to finish).
291
292 See C<nreqs> for an example.
293
294 =item IO::AIO::nreqs
295
296 Returns the number of requests currently outstanding (i.e. for which their
297 callback has not been invoked yet).
298
299 Example: wait till there are no outstanding requests anymore:
300
301 IO::AIO::poll_wait, IO::AIO::poll_cb
302 while IO::AIO::nreqs;
303
304 =item IO::AIO::flush
305
306 Wait till all outstanding AIO requests have been handled.
307
308 Strictly equivalent to:
309
310 IO::AIO::poll_wait, IO::AIO::poll_cb
311 while IO::AIO::nreqs;
312
313 =item IO::AIO::poll
314
315 Waits until some requests have been handled.
316
317 Strictly equivalent to:
318
319 IO::AIO::poll_wait, IO::AIO::poll_cb
320 if IO::AIO::nreqs;
321
322 =item IO::AIO::min_parallel $nthreads
323
324 Set the minimum number of AIO threads to C<$nthreads>. The current default
325 is C<4>, which means four asynchronous operations can be done at one time
326 (the number of outstanding operations, however, is unlimited).
327
328 IO::AIO starts threads only on demand, when an AIO request is queued and
329 no free thread exists.
330
331 It is recommended to keep the number of threads low, as some Linux
332 kernel versions will scale negatively with the number of threads (higher
333 parallelity => MUCH higher latency). With current Linux 2.6 versions, 4-32
334 threads should be fine.
335
336 Under most circumstances you don't need to call this function, as the
337 module selects a default that is suitable for low to moderate load.
338
339 =item IO::AIO::max_parallel $nthreads
340
341 Sets the maximum number of AIO threads to C<$nthreads>. If more than the
342 specified number of threads are currently running, this function kills
343 them. This function blocks until the limit is reached.
344
345 While C<$nthreads> are zero, aio requests get queued but not executed
346 until the number of threads has been increased again.
347
348 This module automatically runs C<max_parallel 0> at program end, to ensure
349 that all threads are killed and that there are no outstanding requests.
350
351 Under normal circumstances you don't need to call this function.
352
353 =item $oldnreqs = IO::AIO::max_outstanding $nreqs
354
355 Sets the maximum number of outstanding requests to C<$nreqs>. If you
356 try to queue up more than this number of requests, the caller will block until
357 some requests have been handled.
358
359 The default is very large, so normally there is no practical limit. If you
360 queue up many requests in a loop it often improves speed if you set
361 this to a relatively low number, such as C<100>.
362
363 Under normal circumstances you don't need to call this function.
364
365 =back
366
367 =cut
368
369 # support function to convert a fd into a perl filehandle
370 sub _fd2fh {
371 return undef if $_[0] < 0;
372
373 # try to generate nice filehandles
374 my $sym = "IO::AIO::fd#$_[0]";
375 local *$sym;
376
377 open *$sym, "+<&=$_[0]" # usually works under any unix
378 or open *$sym, "<&=$_[0]" # cygwin needs this
379 or open *$sym, ">&=$_[0]" # or this
380 or return undef;
381
382 *$sym
383 }
384
385 min_parallel 4;
386
387 END {
388 max_parallel 0;
389 }
390
391 1;
392
393 =head2 FORK BEHAVIOUR
394
395 Before the fork, IO::AIO enters a quiescent state where no requests
396 can be added in other threads and no results will be processed. After
397 the fork the parent simply leaves the quiescent state and continues
398 request/result processing, while the child clears the request/result
399 queue (so the requests started before the fork will only be handled in
400 the parent). Threats will be started on demand until the limit ste in the
401 parent process has been reached again.
402
403 =head1 SEE ALSO
404
405 L<Coro>, L<Linux::AIO>.
406
407 =head1 AUTHOR
408
409 Marc Lehmann <schmorp@schmorp.de>
410 http://home.schmorp.de/
411
412 =cut
413