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NAME |
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AnyEvent::Fork - everything you wanted to use fork() for, but couldn't |
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SYNOPSIS |
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use AnyEvent::Fork; |
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1.5 |
AnyEvent::Fork |
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->new |
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->require ("MyModule") |
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->run ("MyModule::server", my $cv = AE::cv); |
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my $fh = $cv->recv; |
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DESCRIPTION |
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This module allows you to create new processes, without actually forking |
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them from your current process (avoiding the problems of forking), but |
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preserving most of the advantages of fork. |
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It can be used to create new worker processes or new independent |
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subprocesses for short- and long-running jobs, process pools (e.g. for |
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use in pre-forked servers) but also to spawn new external processes |
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(such as CGI scripts from a web server), which can be faster (and more |
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well behaved) than using fork+exec in big processes. |
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Special care has been taken to make this module useful from other |
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modules, while still supporting specialised environments such as |
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App::Staticperl or PAR::Packer. |
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WHAT THIS MODULE IS NOT |
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This module only creates processes and lets you pass file handles and |
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strings to it, and run perl code. It does not implement any kind of RPC |
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- there is no back channel from the process back to you, and there is no |
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RPC or message passing going on. |
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1.6 |
If you need some form of RPC, you could use the AnyEvent::Fork::RPC |
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companion module, which adds simple RPC/job queueing to a process |
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created by this module. |
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1.7 |
And if you need some automatic process pool management on top of |
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AnyEvent::Fork::RPC, you can look at the AnyEvent::Fork::Pool companion |
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module. |
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Or you can implement it yourself in whatever way you like: use some |
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message-passing module such as AnyEvent::MP, some pipe such as |
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AnyEvent::ZeroMQ, use AnyEvent::Handle on both sides to send e.g. JSON |
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or Storable messages, and so on. |
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COMPARISON TO OTHER MODULES |
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There is an abundance of modules on CPAN that do "something fork", such |
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as Parallel::ForkManager, AnyEvent::ForkManager, AnyEvent::Worker or |
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AnyEvent::Subprocess. There are modules that implement their own process |
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management, such as AnyEvent::DBI. |
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The problems that all these modules try to solve are real, however, none |
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of them (from what I have seen) tackle the very real problems of |
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unwanted memory sharing, efficiency, not being able to use event |
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processing or similar modules in the processes they create. |
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This module doesn't try to replace any of them - instead it tries to |
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solve the problem of creating processes with a minimum of fuss and |
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overhead (and also luxury). Ideally, most of these would use |
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AnyEvent::Fork internally, except they were written before AnyEvent:Fork |
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was available, so obviously had to roll their own. |
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PROBLEM STATEMENT |
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There are two traditional ways to implement parallel processing on UNIX |
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like operating systems - fork and process, and fork+exec and process. |
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They have different advantages and disadvantages that I describe below, |
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together with how this module tries to mitigate the disadvantages. |
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Forking from a big process can be very slow. |
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A 5GB process needs 0.05s to fork on my 3.6GHz amd64 GNU/Linux box. |
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This overhead is often shared with exec (because you have to fork |
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first), but in some circumstances (e.g. when vfork is used), |
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fork+exec can be much faster. |
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This module can help here by telling a small(er) helper process to |
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fork, which is faster then forking the main process, and also uses |
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vfork where possible. This gives the speed of vfork, with the |
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flexibility of fork. |
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Forking usually creates a copy-on-write copy of the parent process. |
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For example, modules or data files that are loaded will not use |
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additional memory after a fork. When exec'ing a new process, modules |
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and data files might need to be loaded again, at extra CPU and |
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memory cost. But when forking, literally all data structures are |
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copied - if the program frees them and replaces them by new data, |
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the child processes will retain the old version even if it isn't |
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used, which can suddenly and unexpectedly increase memory usage when |
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freeing memory. |
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The trade-off is between more sharing with fork (which can be good |
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or bad), and no sharing with exec. |
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This module allows the main program to do a controlled fork, and |
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allows modules to exec processes safely at any time. When creating a |
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custom process pool you can take advantage of data sharing via fork |
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without risking to share large dynamic data structures that will |
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blow up child memory usage. |
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In other words, this module puts you into control over what is being |
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shared and what isn't, at all times. |
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Exec'ing a new perl process might be difficult. |
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For example, it is not easy to find the correct path to the perl |
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interpreter - $^X might not be a perl interpreter at all. |
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This module tries hard to identify the correct path to the perl |
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interpreter. With a cooperative main program, exec'ing the |
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interpreter might not even be necessary, but even without help from |
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the main program, it will still work when used from a module. |
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Exec'ing a new perl process might be slow, as all necessary modules have |
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to be loaded from disk again, with no guarantees of success. |
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Long running processes might run into problems when perl is upgraded |
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and modules are no longer loadable because they refer to a different |
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perl version, or parts of a distribution are newer than the ones |
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already loaded. |
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This module supports creating pre-initialised perl processes to be |
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used as a template for new processes. |
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Forking might be impossible when a program is running. |
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For example, POSIX makes it almost impossible to fork from a |
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multi-threaded program while doing anything useful in the child - in |
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fact, if your perl program uses POSIX threads (even indirectly via |
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e.g. IO::AIO or threads), you cannot call fork on the perl level |
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anymore without risking corruption issues on a number of operating |
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systems. |
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This module can safely fork helper processes at any time, by calling |
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fork+exec in C, in a POSIX-compatible way (via Proc::FastSpawn). |
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Parallel processing with fork might be inconvenient or difficult to |
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implement. Modules might not work in both parent and child. |
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For example, when a program uses an event loop and creates watchers |
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it becomes very hard to use the event loop from a child program, as |
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the watchers already exist but are only meaningful in the parent. |
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Worse, a module might want to use such a module, not knowing whether |
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another module or the main program also does, leading to problems. |
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Apart from event loops, graphical toolkits also commonly fall into |
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the "unsafe module" category, or just about anything that |
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communicates with the external world, such as network libraries and |
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file I/O modules, which usually don't like being copied and then |
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allowed to continue in two processes. |
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With this module only the main program is allowed to create new |
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processes by forking (because only the main program can know when it |
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is still safe to do so) - all other processes are created via |
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fork+exec, which makes it possible to use modules such as event |
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loops or window interfaces safely. |
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EXAMPLES |
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Create a single new process, tell it to run your worker function. |
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1.2 |
AnyEvent::Fork |
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->new |
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->require ("MyModule") |
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->run ("MyModule::worker, sub { |
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my ($master_filehandle) = @_; |
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# now $master_filehandle is connected to the |
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# $slave_filehandle in the new process. |
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}); |
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"MyModule" might look like this: |
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package MyModule; |
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sub worker { |
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my ($slave_filehandle) = @_; |
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# now $slave_filehandle is connected to the $master_filehandle |
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# in the original prorcess. have fun! |
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} |
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Create a pool of server processes all accepting on the same socket. |
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# create listener socket |
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my $listener = ...; |
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# create a pool template, initialise it and give it the socket |
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my $pool = AnyEvent::Fork |
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->new |
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->require ("Some::Stuff", "My::Server") |
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->send_fh ($listener); |
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# now create 10 identical workers |
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for my $id (1..10) { |
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$pool |
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->fork |
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->send_arg ($id) |
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->run ("My::Server::run"); |
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} |
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# now do other things - maybe use the filehandle provided by run |
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# to wait for the processes to die. or whatever. |
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"My::Server" might look like this: |
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package My::Server; |
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sub run { |
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my ($slave, $listener, $id) = @_; |
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close $slave; # we do not use the socket, so close it to save resources |
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# we could go ballistic and use e.g. AnyEvent here, or IO::AIO, |
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# or anything we usually couldn't do in a process forked normally. |
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while (my $socket = $listener->accept) { |
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# do sth. with new socket |
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} |
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} |
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1.5 |
use AnyEvent::Fork as a faster fork+exec |
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1.6 |
This runs "/bin/echo hi", with standard output redirected to /tmp/log |
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1.5 |
and standard error redirected to the communications socket. It is |
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usually faster than fork+exec, but still lets you prepare the |
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environment. |
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open my $output, ">/tmp/log" or die "$!"; |
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1.5 |
AnyEvent::Fork |
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->new |
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->eval (' |
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# compile a helper function for later use |
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sub run { |
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my ($fh, $output, @cmd) = @_; |
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# perl will clear close-on-exec on STDOUT/STDERR |
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open STDOUT, ">&", $output or die; |
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open STDERR, ">&", $fh or die; |
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exec @cmd; |
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} |
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') |
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->send_fh ($output) |
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->send_arg ("/bin/echo", "hi") |
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->run ("run", my $cv = AE::cv); |
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1.5 |
my $stderr = $cv->recv; |
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1.7 |
For stingy users: put the worker code into a "DATA" section. |
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When you want to be stingy with files, you cna put your code into the |
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"DATA" section of your module (or program): |
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use AnyEvent::Fork; |
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AnyEvent::Fork |
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->new |
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->eval (do { local $/; <DATA> }) |
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->run ("doit", sub { ... }); |
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__DATA__ |
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sub doit { |
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... do something! |
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} |
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For stingy standalone programs: do not rely on external files at |
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all. |
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For single-file scripts it can be inconvenient to rely on external files |
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- even when using < "DATA" section, you still need to "exec" an external |
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perl interpreter, which might not be available when using |
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App::Staticperl, Urlader or PAR::Packer for example. |
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Two modules help here - AnyEvent::Fork::Early forks a template process |
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for all further calls to "new_exec", and AnyEvent::Fork::Template forks |
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the main program as a template process. |
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Here is how your main program should look like: |
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#! perl |
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# optional, as the very first thing. |
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# in case modules want to create their own processes. |
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use AnyEvent::Fork::Early; |
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# next, load all modules you need in your template process |
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use Example::My::Module |
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use Example::Whatever; |
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# next, put your run function definition and anything else you |
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# need, but do not use code outside of BEGIN blocks. |
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sub worker_run { |
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my ($fh, @args) = @_; |
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... |
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} |
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# now preserve everything so far as AnyEvent::Fork object |
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# in §TEMPLATE. |
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use AnyEvent::Fork::Template; |
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# do not put code outside of BEGIN blocks until here |
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# now use the $TEMPLATE process in any way you like |
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# for example: create 10 worker processes |
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my @worker; |
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my $cv = AE::cv; |
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for (1..10) { |
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$cv->begin; |
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$TEMPLATE->fork->send_arg ($_)->run ("worker_run", sub { |
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push @worker, shift; |
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$cv->end; |
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}); |
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} |
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$cv->recv; |
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1.8 |
CONCEPTS |
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1.2 |
This module can create new processes either by executing a new perl |
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process, or by forking from an existing "template" process. |
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1.6 |
All these processes are called "child processes" (whether they are |
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direct children or not), while the process that manages them is called |
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the "parent process". |
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Each such process comes with its own file handle that can be used to |
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communicate with it (it's actually a socket - one end in the new |
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process, one end in the main process), and among the things you can do |
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in it are load modules, fork new processes, send file handles to it, and |
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execute functions. |
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There are multiple ways to create additional processes to execute some |
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jobs: |
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fork a new process from the "default" template process, load code, run |
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it |
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This module has a "default" template process which it executes when |
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it is needed the first time. Forking from this process shares the |
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memory used for the perl interpreter with the new process, but |
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loading modules takes time, and the memory is not shared with |
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anything else. |
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This is ideal for when you only need one extra process of a kind, |
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1.4 |
with the option of starting and stopping it on demand. |
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Example: |
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AnyEvent::Fork |
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->new |
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->require ("Some::Module") |
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->run ("Some::Module::run", sub { |
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my ($fork_fh) = @_; |
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}); |
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fork a new template process, load code, then fork processes off of it |
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and run the code |
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When you need to have a bunch of processes that all execute the same |
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(or very similar) tasks, then a good way is to create a new template |
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process for them, loading all the modules you need, and then create |
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your worker processes from this new template process. |
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This way, all code (and data structures) that can be shared (e.g. |
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the modules you loaded) is shared between the processes, and each |
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new process consumes relatively little memory of its own. |
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The disadvantage of this approach is that you need to create a |
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template process for the sole purpose of forking new processes from |
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1.4 |
it, but if you only need a fixed number of processes you can create |
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1.2 |
them, and then destroy the template process. |
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Example: |
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my $template = AnyEvent::Fork->new->require ("Some::Module"); |
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for (1..10) { |
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$template->fork->run ("Some::Module::run", sub { |
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my ($fork_fh) = @_; |
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}); |
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} |
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# at this point, you can keep $template around to fork new processes |
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# later, or you can destroy it, which causes it to vanish. |
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execute a new perl interpreter, load some code, run it |
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This is relatively slow, and doesn't allow you to share memory |
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between multiple processes. |
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The only advantage is that you don't have to have a template process |
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|
|
hanging around all the time to fork off some new processes, which |
381 |
|
|
might be an advantage when there are long time spans where no extra |
382 |
|
|
processes are needed. |
383 |
|
|
|
384 |
|
|
Example: |
385 |
|
|
|
386 |
|
|
AnyEvent::Fork |
387 |
|
|
->new_exec |
388 |
|
|
->require ("Some::Module") |
389 |
|
|
->run ("Some::Module::run", sub { |
390 |
|
|
my ($fork_fh) = @_; |
391 |
|
|
}); |
392 |
|
|
|
393 |
root |
1.5 |
THE "AnyEvent::Fork" CLASS |
394 |
|
|
This module exports nothing, and only implements a single class - |
395 |
|
|
"AnyEvent::Fork". |
396 |
|
|
|
397 |
|
|
There are two class constructors that both create new processes - "new" |
398 |
|
|
and "new_exec". The "fork" method creates a new process by forking an |
399 |
|
|
existing one and could be considered a third constructor. |
400 |
|
|
|
401 |
|
|
Most of the remaining methods deal with preparing the new process, by |
402 |
|
|
loading code, evaluating code and sending data to the new process. They |
403 |
|
|
usually return the process object, so you can chain method calls. |
404 |
|
|
|
405 |
|
|
If a process object is destroyed before calling its "run" method, then |
406 |
|
|
the process simply exits. After "run" is called, all responsibility is |
407 |
|
|
passed to the specified function. |
408 |
|
|
|
409 |
|
|
As long as there is any outstanding work to be done, process objects |
410 |
|
|
resist being destroyed, so there is no reason to store them unless you |
411 |
|
|
need them later - configure and forget works just fine. |
412 |
|
|
|
413 |
root |
1.6 |
my $proc = new AnyEvent::Fork |
414 |
root |
1.2 |
Create a new "empty" perl interpreter process and returns its |
415 |
|
|
process object for further manipulation. |
416 |
|
|
|
417 |
|
|
The new process is forked from a template process that is kept |
418 |
|
|
around for this purpose. When it doesn't exist yet, it is created by |
419 |
root |
1.5 |
a call to "new_exec" first and then stays around for future calls. |
420 |
root |
1.2 |
|
421 |
root |
1.6 |
$new_proc = $proc->fork |
422 |
root |
1.2 |
Forks $proc, creating a new process, and returns the process object |
423 |
|
|
of the new process. |
424 |
|
|
|
425 |
|
|
If any of the "send_" functions have been called before fork, then |
426 |
|
|
they will be cloned in the child. For example, in a pre-forked |
427 |
|
|
server, you might "send_fh" the listening socket into the template |
428 |
|
|
process, and then keep calling "fork" and "run". |
429 |
|
|
|
430 |
root |
1.6 |
my $proc = new_exec AnyEvent::Fork |
431 |
root |
1.2 |
Create a new "empty" perl interpreter process and returns its |
432 |
|
|
process object for further manipulation. |
433 |
|
|
|
434 |
|
|
Unlike the "new" method, this method *always* spawns a new perl |
435 |
|
|
process (except in some cases, see AnyEvent::Fork::Early for |
436 |
|
|
details). This reduces the amount of memory sharing that is |
437 |
|
|
possible, and is also slower. |
438 |
|
|
|
439 |
|
|
You should use "new" whenever possible, except when having a |
440 |
|
|
template process around is unacceptable. |
441 |
|
|
|
442 |
root |
1.4 |
The path to the perl interpreter is divined using various methods - |
443 |
root |
1.2 |
first $^X is investigated to see if the path ends with something |
444 |
root |
1.9 |
that looks as if it were the perl interpreter. Failing this, the |
445 |
root |
1.2 |
module falls back to using $Config::Config{perlpath}. |
446 |
|
|
|
447 |
root |
1.8 |
The path to perl can also be overriden by setting the global |
448 |
|
|
variable $AnyEvent::Fork::PERL - it's value will be used for all |
449 |
|
|
subsequent invocations. |
450 |
|
|
|
451 |
root |
1.6 |
$pid = $proc->pid |
452 |
root |
1.4 |
Returns the process id of the process *iff it is a direct child of |
453 |
root |
1.9 |
the process running AnyEvent::Fork*, and "undef" otherwise. As a |
454 |
|
|
general rule (that you cannot rely upon), processes created via |
455 |
|
|
"new_exec", AnyEvent::Fork::Early or AnyEvent::Fork::Template are |
456 |
|
|
direct children, while all other processes are not. |
457 |
|
|
|
458 |
|
|
Or in other words, you do not normally have to take care of zombies |
459 |
|
|
for processes created via "new", but when in doubt, or zombies are a |
460 |
|
|
problem, you need to check whether a process is a diretc child by |
461 |
|
|
calling this method, and possibly creating a child watcher or reap |
462 |
|
|
it manually. |
463 |
root |
1.5 |
|
464 |
root |
1.6 |
$proc = $proc->eval ($perlcode, @args) |
465 |
|
|
Evaluates the given $perlcode as ... Perl code, while setting @_ to |
466 |
root |
1.5 |
the strings specified by @args, in the "main" package. |
467 |
root |
1.2 |
|
468 |
|
|
This call is meant to do any custom initialisation that might be |
469 |
|
|
required (for example, the "require" method uses it). It's not |
470 |
|
|
supposed to be used to completely take over the process, use "run" |
471 |
|
|
for that. |
472 |
|
|
|
473 |
|
|
The code will usually be executed after this call returns, and there |
474 |
|
|
is no way to pass anything back to the calling process. Any |
475 |
|
|
evaluation errors will be reported to stderr and cause the process |
476 |
|
|
to exit. |
477 |
|
|
|
478 |
root |
1.5 |
If you want to execute some code (that isn't in a module) to take |
479 |
|
|
over the process, you should compile a function via "eval" first, |
480 |
|
|
and then call it via "run". This also gives you access to any |
481 |
|
|
arguments passed via the "send_xxx" methods, such as file handles. |
482 |
|
|
See the "use AnyEvent::Fork as a faster fork+exec" example to see it |
483 |
|
|
in action. |
484 |
|
|
|
485 |
root |
1.2 |
Returns the process object for easy chaining of method calls. |
486 |
|
|
|
487 |
root |
1.6 |
$proc = $proc->require ($module, ...) |
488 |
root |
1.2 |
Tries to load the given module(s) into the process |
489 |
|
|
|
490 |
|
|
Returns the process object for easy chaining of method calls. |
491 |
|
|
|
492 |
root |
1.6 |
$proc = $proc->send_fh ($handle, ...) |
493 |
root |
1.2 |
Send one or more file handles (*not* file descriptors) to the |
494 |
|
|
process, to prepare a call to "run". |
495 |
|
|
|
496 |
root |
1.5 |
The process object keeps a reference to the handles until they have |
497 |
|
|
been passed over to the process, so you must not explicitly close |
498 |
|
|
the handles. This is most easily accomplished by simply not storing |
499 |
|
|
the file handles anywhere after passing them to this method - when |
500 |
|
|
AnyEvent::Fork is finished using them, perl will automatically close |
501 |
|
|
them. |
502 |
root |
1.2 |
|
503 |
|
|
Returns the process object for easy chaining of method calls. |
504 |
|
|
|
505 |
root |
1.4 |
Example: pass a file handle to a process, and release it without |
506 |
|
|
closing. It will be closed automatically when it is no longer used. |
507 |
root |
1.2 |
|
508 |
|
|
$proc->send_fh ($my_fh); |
509 |
|
|
undef $my_fh; # free the reference if you want, but DO NOT CLOSE IT |
510 |
|
|
|
511 |
root |
1.6 |
$proc = $proc->send_arg ($string, ...) |
512 |
root |
1.2 |
Send one or more argument strings to the process, to prepare a call |
513 |
root |
1.5 |
to "run". The strings can be any octet strings. |
514 |
root |
1.2 |
|
515 |
root |
1.4 |
The protocol is optimised to pass a moderate number of relatively |
516 |
|
|
short strings - while you can pass up to 4GB of data in one go, this |
517 |
|
|
is more meant to pass some ID information or other startup info, not |
518 |
|
|
big chunks of data. |
519 |
|
|
|
520 |
|
|
Returns the process object for easy chaining of method calls. |
521 |
root |
1.2 |
|
522 |
root |
1.6 |
$proc->run ($func, $cb->($fh)) |
523 |
root |
1.5 |
Enter the function specified by the function name in $func in the |
524 |
|
|
process. The function is called with the communication socket as |
525 |
root |
1.2 |
first argument, followed by all file handles and string arguments |
526 |
|
|
sent earlier via "send_fh" and "send_arg" methods, in the order they |
527 |
|
|
were called. |
528 |
|
|
|
529 |
root |
1.5 |
The process object becomes unusable on return from this function - |
530 |
|
|
any further method calls result in undefined behaviour. |
531 |
root |
1.2 |
|
532 |
root |
1.5 |
The function name should be fully qualified, but if it isn't, it |
533 |
|
|
will be looked up in the "main" package. |
534 |
root |
1.2 |
|
535 |
root |
1.5 |
If the called function returns, doesn't exist, or any error occurs, |
536 |
|
|
the process exits. |
537 |
|
|
|
538 |
|
|
Preparing the process is done in the background - when all commands |
539 |
|
|
have been sent, the callback is invoked with the local |
540 |
|
|
communications socket as argument. At this point you can start using |
541 |
|
|
the socket in any way you like. |
542 |
root |
1.2 |
|
543 |
|
|
If the communication socket isn't used, it should be closed on both |
544 |
|
|
sides, to save on kernel memory. |
545 |
|
|
|
546 |
|
|
The socket is non-blocking in the parent, and blocking in the newly |
547 |
root |
1.5 |
created process. The close-on-exec flag is set in both. |
548 |
|
|
|
549 |
|
|
Even if not used otherwise, the socket can be a good indicator for |
550 |
|
|
the existence of the process - if the other process exits, you get a |
551 |
|
|
readable event on it, because exiting the process closes the socket |
552 |
|
|
(if it didn't create any children using fork). |
553 |
root |
1.2 |
|
554 |
root |
1.9 |
Compatibility to AnyEvent::Fork::Remote |
555 |
|
|
If you want to write code that works with both this module and |
556 |
|
|
AnyEvent::Fork::Remote, you need to write your code so that it |
557 |
|
|
assumes there are two file handles for communications, which |
558 |
|
|
might not be unix domain sockets. The "run" function should |
559 |
|
|
start like this: |
560 |
|
|
|
561 |
|
|
sub run { |
562 |
|
|
my ($rfh, @args) = @_; # @args is your normal arguments |
563 |
|
|
my $wfh = fileno $rfh ? $rfh : *STDOUT; |
564 |
|
|
|
565 |
|
|
# now use $rfh for reading and $wfh for writing |
566 |
|
|
} |
567 |
|
|
|
568 |
|
|
This checks whether the passed file handle is, in fact, the |
569 |
|
|
process "STDIN" handle. If it is, then the function was invoked |
570 |
|
|
visa AnyEvent::Fork::Remote, so STDIN should be used for reading |
571 |
|
|
and "STDOUT" should be used for writing. |
572 |
|
|
|
573 |
|
|
In all other cases, the function was called via this module, and |
574 |
|
|
there is only one file handle that should be sued for reading |
575 |
|
|
and writing. |
576 |
|
|
|
577 |
root |
1.2 |
Example: create a template for a process pool, pass a few strings, |
578 |
|
|
some file handles, then fork, pass one more string, and run some |
579 |
|
|
code. |
580 |
|
|
|
581 |
|
|
my $pool = AnyEvent::Fork |
582 |
|
|
->new |
583 |
|
|
->send_arg ("str1", "str2") |
584 |
|
|
->send_fh ($fh1, $fh2); |
585 |
|
|
|
586 |
|
|
for (1..2) { |
587 |
|
|
$pool |
588 |
|
|
->fork |
589 |
|
|
->send_arg ("str3") |
590 |
|
|
->run ("Some::function", sub { |
591 |
|
|
my ($fh) = @_; |
592 |
|
|
|
593 |
|
|
# fh is nonblocking, but we trust that the OS can accept these |
594 |
root |
1.5 |
# few octets anyway. |
595 |
root |
1.2 |
syswrite $fh, "hi #$_\n"; |
596 |
|
|
|
597 |
|
|
# $fh is being closed here, as we don't store it anywhere |
598 |
|
|
}); |
599 |
|
|
} |
600 |
|
|
|
601 |
|
|
# Some::function might look like this - all parameters passed before fork |
602 |
|
|
# and after will be passed, in order, after the communications socket. |
603 |
|
|
sub Some::function { |
604 |
|
|
my ($fh, $str1, $str2, $fh1, $fh2, $str3) = @_; |
605 |
|
|
|
606 |
root |
1.5 |
print scalar <$fh>; # prints "hi #1\n" and "hi #2\n" in any order |
607 |
root |
1.2 |
} |
608 |
|
|
|
609 |
root |
1.8 |
EXPERIMENTAL METHODS |
610 |
|
|
These methods might go away completely or change behaviour, at any time. |
611 |
|
|
|
612 |
root |
1.7 |
$proc->to_fh ($cb->($fh)) # EXPERIMENTAL, MIGHT BE REMOVED |
613 |
|
|
Flushes all commands out to the process and then calls the callback |
614 |
|
|
with the communications socket. |
615 |
|
|
|
616 |
|
|
The process object becomes unusable on return from this function - |
617 |
|
|
any further method calls result in undefined behaviour. |
618 |
|
|
|
619 |
root |
1.9 |
The point of this method is to give you a file handle that you can |
620 |
root |
1.7 |
pass to another process. In that other process, you can call |
621 |
root |
1.9 |
"new_from_fh AnyEvent::Fork $fh" to create a new "AnyEvent::Fork" |
622 |
|
|
object from it, thereby effectively passing a fork object to another |
623 |
root |
1.7 |
process. |
624 |
|
|
|
625 |
|
|
new_from_fh AnyEvent::Fork $fh # EXPERIMENTAL, MIGHT BE REMOVED |
626 |
|
|
Takes a file handle originally rceeived by the "to_fh" method and |
627 |
|
|
creates a new "AnyEvent:Fork" object. The child process itself will |
628 |
|
|
not change in any way, i.e. it will keep all the modifications done |
629 |
|
|
to it before calling "to_fh". |
630 |
|
|
|
631 |
|
|
The new object is very much like the original object, except that |
632 |
|
|
the "pid" method will return "undef" even if the process is a direct |
633 |
|
|
child. |
634 |
|
|
|
635 |
root |
1.4 |
PERFORMANCE |
636 |
|
|
Now for some unscientific benchmark numbers (all done on an amd64 |
637 |
|
|
GNU/Linux box). These are intended to give you an idea of the relative |
638 |
|
|
performance you can expect, they are not meant to be absolute |
639 |
|
|
performance numbers. |
640 |
|
|
|
641 |
|
|
OK, so, I ran a simple benchmark that creates a socket pair, forks, |
642 |
|
|
calls exit in the child and waits for the socket to close in the parent. |
643 |
|
|
I did load AnyEvent, EV and AnyEvent::Fork, for a total process size of |
644 |
|
|
5100kB. |
645 |
|
|
|
646 |
|
|
2079 new processes per second, using manual socketpair + fork |
647 |
|
|
|
648 |
|
|
Then I did the same thing, but instead of calling fork, I called |
649 |
|
|
AnyEvent::Fork->new->run ("CORE::exit") and then again waited for the |
650 |
root |
1.7 |
socket from the child to close on exit. This does the same thing as |
651 |
root |
1.4 |
manual socket pair + fork, except that what is forked is the template |
652 |
|
|
process (2440kB), and the socket needs to be passed to the server at the |
653 |
|
|
other end of the socket first. |
654 |
|
|
|
655 |
|
|
2307 new processes per second, using AnyEvent::Fork->new |
656 |
|
|
|
657 |
|
|
And finally, using "new_exec" instead "new", using vforks+execs to exec |
658 |
|
|
a new perl interpreter and compile the small server each time, I get: |
659 |
|
|
|
660 |
|
|
479 vfork+execs per second, using AnyEvent::Fork->new_exec |
661 |
|
|
|
662 |
|
|
So how can "AnyEvent->new" be faster than a standard fork, even though |
663 |
|
|
it uses the same operations, but adds a lot of overhead? |
664 |
|
|
|
665 |
root |
1.5 |
The difference is simply the process size: forking the 5MB process takes |
666 |
|
|
so much longer than forking the 2.5MB template process that the extra |
667 |
root |
1.6 |
overhead is canceled out. |
668 |
root |
1.4 |
|
669 |
|
|
If the benchmark process grows, the normal fork becomes even slower: |
670 |
|
|
|
671 |
root |
1.5 |
1340 new processes, manual fork of a 20MB process |
672 |
|
|
731 new processes, manual fork of a 200MB process |
673 |
|
|
235 new processes, manual fork of a 2000MB process |
674 |
root |
1.4 |
|
675 |
|
|
What that means (to me) is that I can use this module without having a |
676 |
root |
1.5 |
bad conscience because of the extra overhead required to start new |
677 |
root |
1.4 |
processes. |
678 |
|
|
|
679 |
root |
1.3 |
TYPICAL PROBLEMS |
680 |
|
|
This section lists typical problems that remain. I hope by recognising |
681 |
|
|
them, most can be avoided. |
682 |
|
|
|
683 |
root |
1.5 |
leaked file descriptors for exec'ed processes |
684 |
root |
1.3 |
POSIX systems inherit file descriptors by default when exec'ing a |
685 |
|
|
new process. While perl itself laudably sets the close-on-exec flags |
686 |
|
|
on new file handles, most C libraries don't care, and even if all |
687 |
|
|
cared, it's often not possible to set the flag in a race-free |
688 |
|
|
manner. |
689 |
|
|
|
690 |
|
|
That means some file descriptors can leak through. And since it |
691 |
|
|
isn't possible to know which file descriptors are "good" and |
692 |
root |
1.4 |
"necessary" (or even to know which file descriptors are open), there |
693 |
|
|
is no good way to close the ones that might harm. |
694 |
root |
1.3 |
|
695 |
|
|
As an example of what "harm" can be done consider a web server that |
696 |
|
|
accepts connections and afterwards some module uses AnyEvent::Fork |
697 |
|
|
for the first time, causing it to fork and exec a new process, which |
698 |
|
|
might inherit the network socket. When the server closes the socket, |
699 |
|
|
it is still open in the child (which doesn't even know that) and the |
700 |
|
|
client might conclude that the connection is still fine. |
701 |
|
|
|
702 |
|
|
For the main program, there are multiple remedies available - |
703 |
|
|
AnyEvent::Fork::Early is one, creating a process early and not using |
704 |
|
|
"new_exec" is another, as in both cases, the first process can be |
705 |
|
|
exec'ed well before many random file descriptors are open. |
706 |
|
|
|
707 |
|
|
In general, the solution for these kind of problems is to fix the |
708 |
|
|
libraries or the code that leaks those file descriptors. |
709 |
|
|
|
710 |
root |
1.4 |
Fortunately, most of these leaked descriptors do no harm, other than |
711 |
root |
1.3 |
sitting on some resources. |
712 |
|
|
|
713 |
root |
1.5 |
leaked file descriptors for fork'ed processes |
714 |
root |
1.3 |
Normally, AnyEvent::Fork does start new processes by exec'ing them, |
715 |
|
|
which closes file descriptors not marked for being inherited. |
716 |
|
|
|
717 |
|
|
However, AnyEvent::Fork::Early and AnyEvent::Fork::Template offer a |
718 |
|
|
way to create these processes by forking, and this leaks more file |
719 |
|
|
descriptors than exec'ing them, as there is no way to mark |
720 |
|
|
descriptors as "close on fork". |
721 |
|
|
|
722 |
|
|
An example would be modules like EV, IO::AIO or Gtk2. Both create |
723 |
|
|
pipes for internal uses, and Gtk2 might open a connection to the X |
724 |
|
|
server. EV and IO::AIO can deal with fork, but Gtk2 might have |
725 |
|
|
trouble with a fork. |
726 |
|
|
|
727 |
|
|
The solution is to either not load these modules before use'ing |
728 |
|
|
AnyEvent::Fork::Early or AnyEvent::Fork::Template, or to delay |
729 |
|
|
initialising them, for example, by calling "init Gtk2" manually. |
730 |
|
|
|
731 |
root |
1.5 |
exiting calls object destructors |
732 |
|
|
This only applies to users of AnyEvent::Fork:Early and |
733 |
root |
1.6 |
AnyEvent::Fork::Template, or when initialising code creates objects |
734 |
root |
1.5 |
that reference external resources. |
735 |
root |
1.4 |
|
736 |
|
|
When a process created by AnyEvent::Fork exits, it might do so by |
737 |
|
|
calling exit, or simply letting perl reach the end of the program. |
738 |
|
|
At which point Perl runs all destructors. |
739 |
|
|
|
740 |
|
|
Not all destructors are fork-safe - for example, an object that |
741 |
|
|
represents the connection to an X display might tell the X server to |
742 |
|
|
free resources, which is inconvenient when the "real" object in the |
743 |
|
|
parent still needs to use them. |
744 |
|
|
|
745 |
|
|
This is obviously not a problem for AnyEvent::Fork::Early, as you |
746 |
|
|
used it as the very first thing, right? |
747 |
|
|
|
748 |
|
|
It is a problem for AnyEvent::Fork::Template though - and the |
749 |
|
|
solution is to not create objects with nontrivial destructors that |
750 |
|
|
might have an effect outside of Perl. |
751 |
|
|
|
752 |
root |
1.2 |
PORTABILITY NOTES |
753 |
|
|
Native win32 perls are somewhat supported (AnyEvent::Fork::Early is a |
754 |
|
|
nop, and ::Template is not going to work), and it cost a lot of blood |
755 |
|
|
and sweat to make it so, mostly due to the bloody broken perl that |
756 |
|
|
nobody seems to care about. The fork emulation is a bad joke - I have |
757 |
root |
1.4 |
yet to see something useful that you can do with it without running into |
758 |
root |
1.2 |
memory corruption issues or other braindamage. Hrrrr. |
759 |
|
|
|
760 |
root |
1.7 |
Since fork is endlessly broken on win32 perls (it doesn't even remotely |
761 |
|
|
work within it's documented limits) and quite obviously it's not getting |
762 |
|
|
improved any time soon, the best way to proceed on windows would be to |
763 |
|
|
always use "new_exec" and thus never rely on perl's fork "emulation". |
764 |
|
|
|
765 |
root |
1.5 |
Cygwin perl is not supported at the moment due to some hilarious |
766 |
root |
1.7 |
shortcomings of its API - see IO::FDPoll for more details. If you never |
767 |
|
|
use "send_fh" and always use "new_exec" to create processes, it should |
768 |
|
|
work though. |
769 |
root |
1.2 |
|
770 |
root |
1.3 |
SEE ALSO |
771 |
root |
1.6 |
AnyEvent::Fork::Early, to avoid executing a perl interpreter at all |
772 |
|
|
(part of this distribution). |
773 |
root |
1.3 |
|
774 |
root |
1.6 |
AnyEvent::Fork::Template, to create a process by forking the main |
775 |
|
|
program at a convenient time (part of this distribution). |
776 |
|
|
|
777 |
root |
1.9 |
AnyEvent::Fork::Remote, for another way to create processes that is |
778 |
|
|
mostly compatible to this module and modules building on top of it, but |
779 |
|
|
works better with remote processes. |
780 |
|
|
|
781 |
root |
1.6 |
AnyEvent::Fork::RPC, for simple RPC to child processes (on CPAN). |
782 |
|
|
|
783 |
root |
1.7 |
AnyEvent::Fork::Pool, for simple worker process pool (on CPAN). |
784 |
|
|
|
785 |
root |
1.6 |
AUTHOR AND CONTACT INFORMATION |
786 |
root |
1.2 |
Marc Lehmann <schmorp@schmorp.de> |
787 |
root |
1.6 |
http://software.schmorp.de/pkg/AnyEvent-Fork |
788 |
root |
1.5 |
|