[ViewVC] Contents of: cvs/IO-AIO/README

NAME
    IO::AIO - Asynchronous Input/Output

SYNOPSIS
     use IO::AIO;

DESCRIPTION
    This module implements asynchronous I/O using whatever means your
    operating system supports.

    Currently, a number of threads are started that execute your read/writes
    and signal their completion. You don't need thread support in your libc
    or perl, and the threads created by this module will not be visible to
    the pthreads library. In the future, this module might make use of the
    native aio functions available on many operating systems. However, they
    are often not well-supported (Linux doesn't allow them on normal files
    currently, for example), and they would only support aio_read and
    aio_write, so the remaining functionality would have to be implemented
    using threads anyway.

    Although the module will work with in the presence of other threads, it
    is currently not reentrant, so use appropriate locking yourself.

FUNCTIONS
  AIO FUNCTIONS
    All the "aio_*" calls are more or less thin wrappers around the syscall
    with the same name (sans "aio_"). The arguments are similar or
    identical, and they all accept an additional $callback argument which
    must be a code reference. This code reference will get called with the
    syscall return code (e.g. most syscalls return -1 on error, unlike perl,
    which usually delivers "false") as it's sole argument when the given
    syscall has been executed asynchronously.

    All functions that expect a filehandle will also accept a file
    descriptor.

    The filenames you pass to these routines *must* be absolute. The reason
    is that at the time the request is being executed, the current working
    directory could have changed. Alternatively, you can make sure that you
    never change the current working directory.

    aio_open $pathname, $flags, $mode, $callback
        Asynchronously open or create a file and call the callback with a
        newly created filehandle for the file.

        The pathname passed to "aio_open" must be absolute. See API NOTES,
        above, for an explanation.

        The $mode argument is a bitmask. See the "Fcntl" module for a list.
        They are the same as used in "sysopen".

        Example:

           aio_open "/etc/passwd", O_RDONLY, 0, sub {
              if ($_[0]) {
                 print "open successful, fh is $_[0]\n";
                 ...
              } else {
                 die "open failed: $!\n";
              }
           };

    aio_close $fh, $callback
        Asynchronously close a file and call the callback with the result
        code. *WARNING:* although accepted, you should not pass in a perl
        filehandle here, as perl will likely close the file descriptor
        itself when the filehandle is destroyed. Normally, you can safely
        call perls "close" or just let filehandles go out of scope.

    aio_read $fh,$offset,$length, $data,$dataoffset,$callback
    aio_write $fh,$offset,$length, $data,$dataoffset,$callback
        Reads or writes "length" bytes from the specified "fh" and "offset"
        into the scalar given by "data" and offset "dataoffset" and calls
        the callback without the actual number of bytes read (or -1 on
        error, just like the syscall).

        Example: Read 15 bytes at offset 7 into scalar $buffer, strating at
        offset 0 within the scalar:

           aio_read $fh, 7, 15, $buffer, 0, sub {
              $_[0] >= 0 or die "read error: $!";
              print "read <$buffer>\n";
           };

    aio_readahead $fh,$offset,$length, $callback
        Asynchronously reads the specified byte range into the page cache,
        using the "readahead" syscall. If that syscall doesn't exist the
        status will be -1 and $! is set to ENOSYS.

        readahead() populates the page cache with data from a file so that
        subsequent reads from that file will not block on disk I/O. The
        $offset argument specifies the starting point from which data is to
        be read and $length specifies the number of bytes to be read. I/O is
        performed in whole pages, so that offset is effectively rounded down
        to a page boundary and bytes are read up to the next page boundary
        greater than or equal to (off-set+length). aio_readahead() does not
        read beyond the end of the file. The current file offset of the file
        is left unchanged.

    aio_stat $fh_or_path, $callback
    aio_lstat $fh, $callback
        Works like perl's "stat" or "lstat" in void context. The callback
        will be called after the stat and the results will be available
        using "stat _" or "-s _" etc...

        The pathname passed to "aio_stat" must be absolute. See API NOTES,
        above, for an explanation.

        Currently, the stats are always 64-bit-stats, i.e. instead of
        returning an error when stat'ing a large file, the results will be
        silently truncated unless perl itself is compiled with large file
        support.

        Example: Print the length of /etc/passwd:

           aio_stat "/etc/passwd", sub {
              $_[0] and die "stat failed: $!";
              print "size is ", -s _, "\n";
           };

    aio_unlink $pathname, $callback
        Asynchronously unlink (delete) a file and call the callback with the
        result code.

    aio_fsync $fh, $callback
        Asynchronously call fsync on the given filehandle and call the
        callback with the fsync result code.

    aio_fdatasync $fh, $callback
        Asynchronously call fdatasync on the given filehandle and call the
        callback with the fdatasync result code.

  SUPPORT FUNCTIONS
    $fileno = IO::AIO::poll_fileno
        Return the *request result pipe filehandle*. This filehandle must be
        polled for reading by some mechanism outside this module (e.g. Event
        or select, see below). If the pipe becomes readable you have to call
        "poll_cb" to check the results.

        See "poll_cb" for an example.

    IO::AIO::poll_cb
        Process all outstanding events on the result pipe. You have to call
        this regularly. Returns the number of events processed. Returns
        immediately when no events are outstanding.

        You can use Event to multiplex, e.g.:

           Event->io (fd => IO::AIO::poll_fileno,
                      poll => 'r', async => 1,
                      cb => \&IO::AIO::poll_cb);

    IO::AIO::poll_wait
        Wait till the result filehandle becomes ready for reading (simply
        does a select on the filehandle. This is useful if you want to
        synchronously wait for some requests to finish).

        See "nreqs" for an example.

    IO::AIO::nreqs
        Returns the number of requests currently outstanding.

        Example: wait till there are no outstanding requests anymore:

           IO::AIO::poll_wait, IO::AIO::poll_cb
              while IO::AIO::nreqs;

    IO::AIO::min_parallel $nthreads
        Set the minimum number of AIO threads to $nthreads. The default is
        1, which means a single asynchronous operation can be done at one
        time (the number of outstanding operations, however, is unlimited).

        It is recommended to keep the number of threads low, as some Linux
        kernel versions will scale negatively with the number of threads
        (higher parallelity => MUCH higher latency). With current Linux 2.6
        versions, 4-32 threads should be fine.

        Under normal circumstances you don't need to call this function, as
        this module automatically starts some threads (the exact number
        might change, and is currently 4).

    IO::AIO::max_parallel $nthreads
        Sets the maximum number of AIO threads to $nthreads. If more than
        the specified number of threads are currently running, kill them.
        This function blocks until the limit is reached.

        This module automatically runs "max_parallel 0" at program end, to
        ensure that all threads are killed and that there are no outstanding
        requests.

        Under normal circumstances you don't need to call this function.

    $oldnreqs = IO::AIO::max_outstanding $nreqs
        Sets the maximum number of outstanding requests to $nreqs. If you
        try to queue up more than this number of requests, the caller will
        block until some requests have been handled.

        The default is very large, so normally there is no practical limit.
        If you queue up many requests in a loop it it often improves speed
        if you set this to a relatively low number, such as 100.

        Under normal circumstances you don't need to call this function.

SEE ALSO
    Coro, Linux::AIO.

AUTHOR
     Marc Lehmann <schmorp@schmorp.de>
     http://home.schmorp.de/

Revision:	1.4
Committed:	Sun Jul 10 21:04:46 2005 UTC (18 years, 10 months ago) by root
Branch:	MAIN
Changes since 1.3:	+72 -73 lines
Log Message:	* empty log message *
#	Content
1	NAME
2	IO::AIO - Asynchronous Input/Output
3
4	SYNOPSIS
5	use IO::AIO;
6
7	DESCRIPTION
8	This module implements asynchronous I/O using whatever means your
9	operating system supports.
10
11	Currently, a number of threads are started that execute your read/writes
12	and signal their completion. You don't need thread support in your libc
13	or perl, and the threads created by this module will not be visible to
14	the pthreads library. In the future, this module might make use of the
15	native aio functions available on many operating systems. However, they
16	are often not well-supported (Linux doesn't allow them on normal files
17	currently, for example), and they would only support aio_read and
18	aio_write, so the remaining functionality would have to be implemented
19	using threads anyway.
20
21	Although the module will work with in the presence of other threads, it
22	is currently not reentrant, so use appropriate locking yourself.
23
24	FUNCTIONS
25	AIO FUNCTIONS
26	All the "aio_*" calls are more or less thin wrappers around the syscall
27	with the same name (sans "aio_"). The arguments are similar or
28	identical, and they all accept an additional $callback argument which
29	must be a code reference. This code reference will get called with the
30	syscall return code (e.g. most syscalls return -1 on error, unlike perl,
31	which usually delivers "false") as it's sole argument when the given
32	syscall has been executed asynchronously.
33
34	All functions that expect a filehandle will also accept a file
35	descriptor.
36
37	The filenames you pass to these routines must be absolute. The reason
38	is that at the time the request is being executed, the current working
39	directory could have changed. Alternatively, you can make sure that you
40	never change the current working directory.
41
42	aio_open $pathname, $flags, $mode, $callback
43	Asynchronously open or create a file and call the callback with a
44	newly created filehandle for the file.
45
46	The pathname passed to "aio_open" must be absolute. See API NOTES,
47	above, for an explanation.
48
49	The $mode argument is a bitmask. See the "Fcntl" module for a list.
50	They are the same as used in "sysopen".
51
52	Example:
53
54	aio_open "/etc/passwd", O_RDONLY, 0, sub {
55	if ($_[0]) {
56	print "open successful, fh is $_[0]\n";
57	...
58	} else {
59	die "open failed: $!\n";
60	}
61	};
62
63	aio_close $fh, $callback
64	Asynchronously close a file and call the callback with the result
65	code. WARNING: although accepted, you should not pass in a perl
66	filehandle here, as perl will likely close the file descriptor
67	itself when the filehandle is destroyed. Normally, you can safely
68	call perls "close" or just let filehandles go out of scope.
69
70	aio_read $fh,$offset,$length, $data,$dataoffset,$callback
71	aio_write $fh,$offset,$length, $data,$dataoffset,$callback
72	Reads or writes "length" bytes from the specified "fh" and "offset"
73	into the scalar given by "data" and offset "dataoffset" and calls
74	the callback without the actual number of bytes read (or -1 on
75	error, just like the syscall).
76
77	Example: Read 15 bytes at offset 7 into scalar $buffer, strating at
78	offset 0 within the scalar:
79
80	aio_read $fh, 7, 15, $buffer, 0, sub {
81	$_[0] >= 0 or die "read error: $!";
82	print "read <$buffer>\n";
83	};
84
85	aio_readahead $fh,$offset,$length, $callback
86	Asynchronously reads the specified byte range into the page cache,
87	using the "readahead" syscall. If that syscall doesn't exist the
88	status will be -1 and $! is set to ENOSYS.
89
90	readahead() populates the page cache with data from a file so that
91	subsequent reads from that file will not block on disk I/O. The
92	$offset argument specifies the starting point from which data is to
93	be read and $length specifies the number of bytes to be read. I/O is
94	performed in whole pages, so that offset is effectively rounded down
95	to a page boundary and bytes are read up to the next page boundary
96	greater than or equal to (off-set+length). aio_readahead() does not
97	read beyond the end of the file. The current file offset of the file
98	is left unchanged.
99
100	aio_stat $fh_or_path, $callback
101	aio_lstat $fh, $callback
102	Works like perl's "stat" or "lstat" in void context. The callback
103	will be called after the stat and the results will be available
104	using "stat _" or "-s _" etc...
105
106	The pathname passed to "aio_stat" must be absolute. See API NOTES,
107	above, for an explanation.
108
109	Currently, the stats are always 64-bit-stats, i.e. instead of
110	returning an error when stat'ing a large file, the results will be
111	silently truncated unless perl itself is compiled with large file
112	support.
113
114	Example: Print the length of /etc/passwd:
115
116	aio_stat "/etc/passwd", sub {
117	$_[0] and die "stat failed: $!";
118	print "size is ", -s _, "\n";
119	};
120
121	aio_unlink $pathname, $callback
122	Asynchronously unlink (delete) a file and call the callback with the
123	result code.
124
125	aio_fsync $fh, $callback
126	Asynchronously call fsync on the given filehandle and call the
127	callback with the fsync result code.
128
129	aio_fdatasync $fh, $callback
130	Asynchronously call fdatasync on the given filehandle and call the
131	callback with the fdatasync result code.
132
133	SUPPORT FUNCTIONS
134	$fileno = IO::AIO::poll_fileno
135	Return the request result pipe filehandle. This filehandle must be
136	polled for reading by some mechanism outside this module (e.g. Event
137	or select, see below). If the pipe becomes readable you have to call
138	"poll_cb" to check the results.
139
140	See "poll_cb" for an example.
141
142	IO::AIO::poll_cb
143	Process all outstanding events on the result pipe. You have to call
144	this regularly. Returns the number of events processed. Returns
145	immediately when no events are outstanding.
146
147	You can use Event to multiplex, e.g.:
148
149	Event->io (fd => IO::AIO::poll_fileno,
150	poll => 'r', async => 1,
151	cb => \&IO::AIO::poll_cb);
152
153	IO::AIO::poll_wait
154	Wait till the result filehandle becomes ready for reading (simply
155	does a select on the filehandle. This is useful if you want to
156	synchronously wait for some requests to finish).
157
158	See "nreqs" for an example.
159
160	IO::AIO::nreqs
161	Returns the number of requests currently outstanding.
162
163	Example: wait till there are no outstanding requests anymore:
164
165	IO::AIO::poll_wait, IO::AIO::poll_cb
166	while IO::AIO::nreqs;
167
168	IO::AIO::min_parallel $nthreads
169	Set the minimum number of AIO threads to $nthreads. The default is
170	1, which means a single asynchronous operation can be done at one
171	time (the number of outstanding operations, however, is unlimited).
172
173	It is recommended to keep the number of threads low, as some Linux
174	kernel versions will scale negatively with the number of threads
175	(higher parallelity => MUCH higher latency). With current Linux 2.6
176	versions, 4-32 threads should be fine.
177
178	Under normal circumstances you don't need to call this function, as
179	this module automatically starts some threads (the exact number
180	might change, and is currently 4).
181
182	IO::AIO::max_parallel $nthreads
183	Sets the maximum number of AIO threads to $nthreads. If more than
184	the specified number of threads are currently running, kill them.
185	This function blocks until the limit is reached.
186
187	This module automatically runs "max_parallel 0" at program end, to
188	ensure that all threads are killed and that there are no outstanding
189	requests.
190
191	Under normal circumstances you don't need to call this function.
192
193	$oldnreqs = IO::AIO::max_outstanding $nreqs
194	Sets the maximum number of outstanding requests to $nreqs. If you
195	try to queue up more than this number of requests, the caller will
196	block until some requests have been handled.
197
198	The default is very large, so normally there is no practical limit.
199	If you queue up many requests in a loop it it often improves speed
200	if you set this to a relatively low number, such as 100.
201
202	Under normal circumstances you don't need to call this function.
203
204	SEE ALSO
205	Coro, Linux::AIO.
206
207	AUTHOR
208	Marc Lehmann <schmorp@schmorp.de>
209	http://home.schmorp.de/
210