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Revision: 1.3
Committed: Thu Nov 22 12:28:27 2007 UTC (16 years, 5 months ago) by root
Branch: MAIN
Changes since 1.2: +62 -24 lines
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# Content
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131 .IX Title ""<STANDARD INPUT>" 1"
132 .TH "<STANDARD INPUT>" 1 "2007-11-22" "perl v5.8.8" "User Contributed Perl Documentation"
133 .SH "NAME"
134 libev \- a high performance full\-featured event loop written in C
135 .SH "SYNOPSIS"
136 .IX Header "SYNOPSIS"
137 .Vb 1
138 \& #include <ev.h>
139 .Ve
140 .SH "DESCRIPTION"
141 .IX Header "DESCRIPTION"
142 Libev is an event loop: you register interest in certain events (such as a
143 file descriptor being readable or a timeout occuring), and it will manage
144 these event sources and provide your program with events.
145 .PP
146 To do this, it must take more or less complete control over your process
147 (or thread) by executing the \fIevent loop\fR handler, and will then
148 communicate events via a callback mechanism.
149 .PP
150 You register interest in certain events by registering so-called \fIevent
151 watchers\fR, which are relatively small C structures you initialise with the
152 details of the event, and then hand it over to libev by \fIstarting\fR the
153 watcher.
154 .SH "FEATURES"
155 .IX Header "FEATURES"
156 Libev supports select, poll, the linux-specific epoll and the bsd-specific
157 kqueue mechanisms for file descriptor events, relative timers, absolute
158 timers with customised rescheduling, signal events, process status change
159 events (related to \s-1SIGCHLD\s0), and event watchers dealing with the event
160 loop mechanism itself (idle, prepare and check watchers). It also is quite
161 fast (see this benchmark comparing
162 it to libevent for example).
163 .SH "CONVENTIONS"
164 .IX Header "CONVENTIONS"
165 Libev is very configurable. In this manual the default configuration
166 will be described, which supports multiple event loops. For more info
167 about various configuration options please have a look at the file
168 \&\fI\s-1README\s0.embed\fR in the libev distribution. If libev was configured without
169 support for multiple event loops, then all functions taking an initial
170 argument of name \f(CW\*(C`loop\*(C'\fR (which is always of type \f(CW\*(C`struct ev_loop *\*(C'\fR)
171 will not have this argument.
172 .SH "TIME REPRESENTATION"
173 .IX Header "TIME REPRESENTATION"
174 Libev represents time as a single floating point number, representing the
175 (fractional) number of seconds since the (\s-1POSIX\s0) epoch (somewhere near
176 the beginning of 1970, details are complicated, don't ask). This type is
177 called \f(CW\*(C`ev_tstamp\*(C'\fR, which is what you should use too. It usually aliases
178 to the double type in C.
179 .SH "GLOBAL FUNCTIONS"
180 .IX Header "GLOBAL FUNCTIONS"
181 These functions can be called anytime, even before initialising the
182 library in any way.
183 .IP "ev_tstamp ev_time ()" 4
184 .IX Item "ev_tstamp ev_time ()"
185 Returns the current time as libev would use it. Please note that the
186 \&\f(CW\*(C`ev_now\*(C'\fR function is usually faster and also often returns the timestamp
187 you actually want to know.
188 .IP "int ev_version_major ()" 4
189 .IX Item "int ev_version_major ()"
190 .PD 0
191 .IP "int ev_version_minor ()" 4
192 .IX Item "int ev_version_minor ()"
193 .PD
194 You can find out the major and minor version numbers of the library
195 you linked against by calling the functions \f(CW\*(C`ev_version_major\*(C'\fR and
196 \&\f(CW\*(C`ev_version_minor\*(C'\fR. If you want, you can compare against the global
197 symbols \f(CW\*(C`EV_VERSION_MAJOR\*(C'\fR and \f(CW\*(C`EV_VERSION_MINOR\*(C'\fR, which specify the
198 version of the library your program was compiled against.
199 .Sp
200 Usually, it's a good idea to terminate if the major versions mismatch,
201 as this indicates an incompatible change. Minor versions are usually
202 compatible to older versions, so a larger minor version alone is usually
203 not a problem.
204 .IP "ev_set_allocator (void *(*cb)(void *ptr, long size))" 4
205 .IX Item "ev_set_allocator (void *(*cb)(void *ptr, long size))"
206 Sets the allocation function to use (the prototype is similar to the
207 realloc C function, the semantics are identical). It is used to allocate
208 and free memory (no surprises here). If it returns zero when memory
209 needs to be allocated, the library might abort or take some potentially
210 destructive action. The default is your system realloc function.
211 .Sp
212 You could override this function in high-availability programs to, say,
213 free some memory if it cannot allocate memory, to use a special allocator,
214 or even to sleep a while and retry until some memory is available.
215 .IP "ev_set_syserr_cb (void (*cb)(const char *msg));" 4
216 .IX Item "ev_set_syserr_cb (void (*cb)(const char *msg));"
217 Set the callback function to call on a retryable syscall error (such
218 as failed select, poll, epoll_wait). The message is a printable string
219 indicating the system call or subsystem causing the problem. If this
220 callback is set, then libev will expect it to remedy the sitution, no
221 matter what, when it returns. That is, libev will generally retry the
222 requested operation, or, if the condition doesn't go away, do bad stuff
223 (such as abort).
224 .SH "FUNCTIONS CONTROLLING THE EVENT LOOP"
225 .IX Header "FUNCTIONS CONTROLLING THE EVENT LOOP"
226 An event loop is described by a \f(CW\*(C`struct ev_loop *\*(C'\fR. The library knows two
227 types of such loops, the \fIdefault\fR loop, which supports signals and child
228 events, and dynamically created loops which do not.
229 .PP
230 If you use threads, a common model is to run the default event loop
231 in your main thread (or in a separate thread) and for each thread you
232 create, you also create another event loop. Libev itself does no locking
233 whatsoever, so if you mix calls to the same event loop in different
234 threads, make sure you lock (this is usually a bad idea, though, even if
235 done correctly, because it's hideous and inefficient).
236 .IP "struct ev_loop *ev_default_loop (unsigned int flags)" 4
237 .IX Item "struct ev_loop *ev_default_loop (unsigned int flags)"
238 This will initialise the default event loop if it hasn't been initialised
239 yet and return it. If the default loop could not be initialised, returns
240 false. If it already was initialised it simply returns it (and ignores the
241 flags).
242 .Sp
243 If you don't know what event loop to use, use the one returned from this
244 function.
245 .Sp
246 The flags argument can be used to specify special behaviour or specific
247 backends to use, and is usually specified as 0 (or \s-1EVFLAG_AUTO\s0).
248 .Sp
249 It supports the following flags:
250 .RS 4
251 .ie n .IP """EVFLAG_AUTO""" 4
252 .el .IP "\f(CWEVFLAG_AUTO\fR" 4
253 .IX Item "EVFLAG_AUTO"
254 The default flags value. Use this if you have no clue (it's the right
255 thing, believe me).
256 .ie n .IP """EVFLAG_NOENV""" 4
257 .el .IP "\f(CWEVFLAG_NOENV\fR" 4
258 .IX Item "EVFLAG_NOENV"
259 If this flag bit is ored into the flag value (or the program runs setuid
260 or setgid) then libev will \fInot\fR look at the environment variable
261 \&\f(CW\*(C`LIBEV_FLAGS\*(C'\fR. Otherwise (the default), this environment variable will
262 override the flags completely if it is found in the environment. This is
263 useful to try out specific backends to test their performance, or to work
264 around bugs.
265 .ie n .IP """EVMETHOD_SELECT"" (value 1, portable select backend)" 4
266 .el .IP "\f(CWEVMETHOD_SELECT\fR (value 1, portable select backend)" 4
267 .IX Item "EVMETHOD_SELECT (value 1, portable select backend)"
268 This is your standard \fIselect\fR\|(2) backend. Not \fIcompletely\fR standard, as
269 libev tries to roll its own fd_set with no limits on the number of fds,
270 but if that fails, expect a fairly low limit on the number of fds when
271 using this backend. It doesn't scale too well (O(highest_fd)), but its usually
272 the fastest backend for a low number of fds.
273 .ie n .IP """EVMETHOD_POLL"" (value 2, poll backend, available everywhere except on windows)" 4
274 .el .IP "\f(CWEVMETHOD_POLL\fR (value 2, poll backend, available everywhere except on windows)" 4
275 .IX Item "EVMETHOD_POLL (value 2, poll backend, available everywhere except on windows)"
276 And this is your standard \fIpoll\fR\|(2) backend. It's more complicated than
277 select, but handles sparse fds better and has no artificial limit on the
278 number of fds you can use (except it will slow down considerably with a
279 lot of inactive fds). It scales similarly to select, i.e. O(total_fds).
280 .ie n .IP """EVMETHOD_EPOLL"" (value 4, Linux)" 4
281 .el .IP "\f(CWEVMETHOD_EPOLL\fR (value 4, Linux)" 4
282 .IX Item "EVMETHOD_EPOLL (value 4, Linux)"
283 For few fds, this backend is a bit little slower than poll and select,
284 but it scales phenomenally better. While poll and select usually scale like
285 O(total_fds) where n is the total number of fds (or the highest fd), epoll scales
286 either O(1) or O(active_fds).
287 .Sp
288 While stopping and starting an I/O watcher in the same iteration will
289 result in some caching, there is still a syscall per such incident
290 (because the fd could point to a different file description now), so its
291 best to avoid that. Also, \fIdup()\fRed file descriptors might not work very
292 well if you register events for both fds.
293 .ie n .IP """EVMETHOD_KQUEUE"" (value 8, most \s-1BSD\s0 clones)" 4
294 .el .IP "\f(CWEVMETHOD_KQUEUE\fR (value 8, most \s-1BSD\s0 clones)" 4
295 .IX Item "EVMETHOD_KQUEUE (value 8, most BSD clones)"
296 Kqueue deserves special mention, as at the time of this writing, it
297 was broken on all BSDs except NetBSD (usually it doesn't work with
298 anything but sockets and pipes, except on Darwin, where of course its
299 completely useless). For this reason its not being \*(L"autodetected\*(R" unless
300 you explicitly specify the flags (i.e. you don't use \s-1EVFLAG_AUTO\s0).
301 .Sp
302 It scales in the same way as the epoll backend, but the interface to the
303 kernel is more efficient (which says nothing about its actual speed, of
304 course). While starting and stopping an I/O watcher does not cause an
305 extra syscall as with epoll, it still adds up to four event changes per
306 incident, so its best to avoid that.
307 .ie n .IP """EVMETHOD_DEVPOLL"" (value 16, Solaris 8)" 4
308 .el .IP "\f(CWEVMETHOD_DEVPOLL\fR (value 16, Solaris 8)" 4
309 .IX Item "EVMETHOD_DEVPOLL (value 16, Solaris 8)"
310 This is not implemented yet (and might never be).
311 .ie n .IP """EVMETHOD_PORT"" (value 32, Solaris 10)" 4
312 .el .IP "\f(CWEVMETHOD_PORT\fR (value 32, Solaris 10)" 4
313 .IX Item "EVMETHOD_PORT (value 32, Solaris 10)"
314 This uses the Solaris 10 port mechanism. As with everything on Solaris,
315 it's really slow, but it still scales very well (O(active_fds)).
316 .ie n .IP """EVMETHOD_ALL""" 4
317 .el .IP "\f(CWEVMETHOD_ALL\fR" 4
318 .IX Item "EVMETHOD_ALL"
319 Try all backends (even potentially broken ones). Since this is a mask, you
320 can do stuff like \f(CW\*(C`EVMETHOD_ALL & ~EVMETHOD_KQUEUE\*(C'\fR.
321 .RE
322 .RS 4
323 .Sp
324 If one or more of these are ored into the flags value, then only these
325 backends will be tried (in the reverse order as given here). If none are
326 specified, most compiled-in backend will be tried, usually in reverse
327 order of their flag values :)
328 .RE
329 .IP "struct ev_loop *ev_loop_new (unsigned int flags)" 4
330 .IX Item "struct ev_loop *ev_loop_new (unsigned int flags)"
331 Similar to \f(CW\*(C`ev_default_loop\*(C'\fR, but always creates a new event loop that is
332 always distinct from the default loop. Unlike the default loop, it cannot
333 handle signal and child watchers, and attempts to do so will be greeted by
334 undefined behaviour (or a failed assertion if assertions are enabled).
335 .IP "ev_default_destroy ()" 4
336 .IX Item "ev_default_destroy ()"
337 Destroys the default loop again (frees all memory and kernel state
338 etc.). This stops all registered event watchers (by not touching them in
339 any way whatsoever, although you cannot rely on this :).
340 .IP "ev_loop_destroy (loop)" 4
341 .IX Item "ev_loop_destroy (loop)"
342 Like \f(CW\*(C`ev_default_destroy\*(C'\fR, but destroys an event loop created by an
343 earlier call to \f(CW\*(C`ev_loop_new\*(C'\fR.
344 .IP "ev_default_fork ()" 4
345 .IX Item "ev_default_fork ()"
346 This function reinitialises the kernel state for backends that have
347 one. Despite the name, you can call it anytime, but it makes most sense
348 after forking, in either the parent or child process (or both, but that
349 again makes little sense).
350 .Sp
351 You \fImust\fR call this function after forking if and only if you want to
352 use the event library in both processes. If you just fork+exec, you don't
353 have to call it.
354 .Sp
355 The function itself is quite fast and it's usually not a problem to call
356 it just in case after a fork. To make this easy, the function will fit in
357 quite nicely into a call to \f(CW\*(C`pthread_atfork\*(C'\fR:
358 .Sp
359 .Vb 1
360 \& pthread_atfork (0, 0, ev_default_fork);
361 .Ve
362 .IP "ev_loop_fork (loop)" 4
363 .IX Item "ev_loop_fork (loop)"
364 Like \f(CW\*(C`ev_default_fork\*(C'\fR, but acts on an event loop created by
365 \&\f(CW\*(C`ev_loop_new\*(C'\fR. Yes, you have to call this on every allocated event loop
366 after fork, and how you do this is entirely your own problem.
367 .IP "unsigned int ev_method (loop)" 4
368 .IX Item "unsigned int ev_method (loop)"
369 Returns one of the \f(CW\*(C`EVMETHOD_*\*(C'\fR flags indicating the event backend in
370 use.
371 .IP "ev_tstamp ev_now (loop)" 4
372 .IX Item "ev_tstamp ev_now (loop)"
373 Returns the current \*(L"event loop time\*(R", which is the time the event loop
374 got events and started processing them. This timestamp does not change
375 as long as callbacks are being processed, and this is also the base time
376 used for relative timers. You can treat it as the timestamp of the event
377 occuring (or more correctly, the mainloop finding out about it).
378 .IP "ev_loop (loop, int flags)" 4
379 .IX Item "ev_loop (loop, int flags)"
380 Finally, this is it, the event handler. This function usually is called
381 after you initialised all your watchers and you want to start handling
382 events.
383 .Sp
384 If the flags argument is specified as 0, it will not return until either
385 no event watchers are active anymore or \f(CW\*(C`ev_unloop\*(C'\fR was called.
386 .Sp
387 A flags value of \f(CW\*(C`EVLOOP_NONBLOCK\*(C'\fR will look for new events, will handle
388 those events and any outstanding ones, but will not block your process in
389 case there are no events and will return after one iteration of the loop.
390 .Sp
391 A flags value of \f(CW\*(C`EVLOOP_ONESHOT\*(C'\fR will look for new events (waiting if
392 neccessary) and will handle those and any outstanding ones. It will block
393 your process until at least one new event arrives, and will return after
394 one iteration of the loop.
395 .Sp
396 This flags value could be used to implement alternative looping
397 constructs, but the \f(CW\*(C`prepare\*(C'\fR and \f(CW\*(C`check\*(C'\fR watchers provide a better and
398 more generic mechanism.
399 .Sp
400 Here are the gory details of what ev_loop does:
401 .Sp
402 .Vb 15
403 \& 1. If there are no active watchers (reference count is zero), return.
404 \& 2. Queue and immediately call all prepare watchers.
405 \& 3. If we have been forked, recreate the kernel state.
406 \& 4. Update the kernel state with all outstanding changes.
407 \& 5. Update the "event loop time".
408 \& 6. Calculate for how long to block.
409 \& 7. Block the process, waiting for events.
410 \& 8. Update the "event loop time" and do time jump handling.
411 \& 9. Queue all outstanding timers.
412 \& 10. Queue all outstanding periodics.
413 \& 11. If no events are pending now, queue all idle watchers.
414 \& 12. Queue all check watchers.
415 \& 13. Call all queued watchers in reverse order (i.e. check watchers first).
416 \& 14. If ev_unloop has been called or EVLOOP_ONESHOT or EVLOOP_NONBLOCK
417 \& was used, return, otherwise continue with step #1.
418 .Ve
419 .IP "ev_unloop (loop, how)" 4
420 .IX Item "ev_unloop (loop, how)"
421 Can be used to make a call to \f(CW\*(C`ev_loop\*(C'\fR return early (but only after it
422 has processed all outstanding events). The \f(CW\*(C`how\*(C'\fR argument must be either
423 \&\f(CW\*(C`EVUNLOOP_ONE\*(C'\fR, which will make the innermost \f(CW\*(C`ev_loop\*(C'\fR call return, or
424 \&\f(CW\*(C`EVUNLOOP_ALL\*(C'\fR, which will make all nested \f(CW\*(C`ev_loop\*(C'\fR calls return.
425 .IP "ev_ref (loop)" 4
426 .IX Item "ev_ref (loop)"
427 .PD 0
428 .IP "ev_unref (loop)" 4
429 .IX Item "ev_unref (loop)"
430 .PD
431 Ref/unref can be used to add or remove a reference count on the event
432 loop: Every watcher keeps one reference, and as long as the reference
433 count is nonzero, \f(CW\*(C`ev_loop\*(C'\fR will not return on its own. If you have
434 a watcher you never unregister that should not keep \f(CW\*(C`ev_loop\*(C'\fR from
435 returning, \fIev_unref()\fR after starting, and \fIev_ref()\fR before stopping it. For
436 example, libev itself uses this for its internal signal pipe: It is not
437 visible to the libev user and should not keep \f(CW\*(C`ev_loop\*(C'\fR from exiting if
438 no event watchers registered by it are active. It is also an excellent
439 way to do this for generic recurring timers or from within third-party
440 libraries. Just remember to \fIunref after start\fR and \fIref before stop\fR.
441 .SH "ANATOMY OF A WATCHER"
442 .IX Header "ANATOMY OF A WATCHER"
443 A watcher is a structure that you create and register to record your
444 interest in some event. For instance, if you want to wait for \s-1STDIN\s0 to
445 become readable, you would create an \f(CW\*(C`ev_io\*(C'\fR watcher for that:
446 .PP
447 .Vb 5
448 \& static void my_cb (struct ev_loop *loop, struct ev_io *w, int revents)
449 \& {
450 \& ev_io_stop (w);
451 \& ev_unloop (loop, EVUNLOOP_ALL);
452 \& }
453 .Ve
454 .PP
455 .Vb 6
456 \& struct ev_loop *loop = ev_default_loop (0);
457 \& struct ev_io stdin_watcher;
458 \& ev_init (&stdin_watcher, my_cb);
459 \& ev_io_set (&stdin_watcher, STDIN_FILENO, EV_READ);
460 \& ev_io_start (loop, &stdin_watcher);
461 \& ev_loop (loop, 0);
462 .Ve
463 .PP
464 As you can see, you are responsible for allocating the memory for your
465 watcher structures (and it is usually a bad idea to do this on the stack,
466 although this can sometimes be quite valid).
467 .PP
468 Each watcher structure must be initialised by a call to \f(CW\*(C`ev_init
469 (watcher *, callback)\*(C'\fR, which expects a callback to be provided. This
470 callback gets invoked each time the event occurs (or, in the case of io
471 watchers, each time the event loop detects that the file descriptor given
472 is readable and/or writable).
473 .PP
474 Each watcher type has its own \f(CW\*(C`ev_<type>_set (watcher *, ...)\*(C'\fR macro
475 with arguments specific to this watcher type. There is also a macro
476 to combine initialisation and setting in one call: \f(CW\*(C`ev_<type>_init
477 (watcher *, callback, ...)\*(C'\fR.
478 .PP
479 To make the watcher actually watch out for events, you have to start it
480 with a watcher-specific start function (\f(CW\*(C`ev_<type>_start (loop, watcher
481 *)\*(C'\fR), and you can stop watching for events at any time by calling the
482 corresponding stop function (\f(CW\*(C`ev_<type>_stop (loop, watcher *)\*(C'\fR.
483 .PP
484 As long as your watcher is active (has been started but not stopped) you
485 must not touch the values stored in it. Most specifically you must never
486 reinitialise it or call its set method.
487 .PP
488 You can check whether an event is active by calling the \f(CW\*(C`ev_is_active
489 (watcher *)\*(C'\fR macro. To see whether an event is outstanding (but the
490 callback for it has not been called yet) you can use the \f(CW\*(C`ev_is_pending
491 (watcher *)\*(C'\fR macro.
492 .PP
493 Each and every callback receives the event loop pointer as first, the
494 registered watcher structure as second, and a bitset of received events as
495 third argument.
496 .PP
497 The received events usually include a single bit per event type received
498 (you can receive multiple events at the same time). The possible bit masks
499 are:
500 .ie n .IP """EV_READ""" 4
501 .el .IP "\f(CWEV_READ\fR" 4
502 .IX Item "EV_READ"
503 .PD 0
504 .ie n .IP """EV_WRITE""" 4
505 .el .IP "\f(CWEV_WRITE\fR" 4
506 .IX Item "EV_WRITE"
507 .PD
508 The file descriptor in the \f(CW\*(C`ev_io\*(C'\fR watcher has become readable and/or
509 writable.
510 .ie n .IP """EV_TIMEOUT""" 4
511 .el .IP "\f(CWEV_TIMEOUT\fR" 4
512 .IX Item "EV_TIMEOUT"
513 The \f(CW\*(C`ev_timer\*(C'\fR watcher has timed out.
514 .ie n .IP """EV_PERIODIC""" 4
515 .el .IP "\f(CWEV_PERIODIC\fR" 4
516 .IX Item "EV_PERIODIC"
517 The \f(CW\*(C`ev_periodic\*(C'\fR watcher has timed out.
518 .ie n .IP """EV_SIGNAL""" 4
519 .el .IP "\f(CWEV_SIGNAL\fR" 4
520 .IX Item "EV_SIGNAL"
521 The signal specified in the \f(CW\*(C`ev_signal\*(C'\fR watcher has been received by a thread.
522 .ie n .IP """EV_CHILD""" 4
523 .el .IP "\f(CWEV_CHILD\fR" 4
524 .IX Item "EV_CHILD"
525 The pid specified in the \f(CW\*(C`ev_child\*(C'\fR watcher has received a status change.
526 .ie n .IP """EV_IDLE""" 4
527 .el .IP "\f(CWEV_IDLE\fR" 4
528 .IX Item "EV_IDLE"
529 The \f(CW\*(C`ev_idle\*(C'\fR watcher has determined that you have nothing better to do.
530 .ie n .IP """EV_PREPARE""" 4
531 .el .IP "\f(CWEV_PREPARE\fR" 4
532 .IX Item "EV_PREPARE"
533 .PD 0
534 .ie n .IP """EV_CHECK""" 4
535 .el .IP "\f(CWEV_CHECK\fR" 4
536 .IX Item "EV_CHECK"
537 .PD
538 All \f(CW\*(C`ev_prepare\*(C'\fR watchers are invoked just \fIbefore\fR \f(CW\*(C`ev_loop\*(C'\fR starts
539 to gather new events, and all \f(CW\*(C`ev_check\*(C'\fR watchers are invoked just after
540 \&\f(CW\*(C`ev_loop\*(C'\fR has gathered them, but before it invokes any callbacks for any
541 received events. Callbacks of both watcher types can start and stop as
542 many watchers as they want, and all of them will be taken into account
543 (for example, a \f(CW\*(C`ev_prepare\*(C'\fR watcher might start an idle watcher to keep
544 \&\f(CW\*(C`ev_loop\*(C'\fR from blocking).
545 .ie n .IP """EV_ERROR""" 4
546 .el .IP "\f(CWEV_ERROR\fR" 4
547 .IX Item "EV_ERROR"
548 An unspecified error has occured, the watcher has been stopped. This might
549 happen because the watcher could not be properly started because libev
550 ran out of memory, a file descriptor was found to be closed or any other
551 problem. You best act on it by reporting the problem and somehow coping
552 with the watcher being stopped.
553 .Sp
554 Libev will usually signal a few \*(L"dummy\*(R" events together with an error,
555 for example it might indicate that a fd is readable or writable, and if
556 your callbacks is well-written it can just attempt the operation and cope
557 with the error from \fIread()\fR or \fIwrite()\fR. This will not work in multithreaded
558 programs, though, so beware.
559 .Sh "\s-1ASSOCIATING\s0 \s-1CUSTOM\s0 \s-1DATA\s0 \s-1WITH\s0 A \s-1WATCHER\s0"
560 .IX Subsection "ASSOCIATING CUSTOM DATA WITH A WATCHER"
561 Each watcher has, by default, a member \f(CW\*(C`void *data\*(C'\fR that you can change
562 and read at any time, libev will completely ignore it. This can be used
563 to associate arbitrary data with your watcher. If you need more data and
564 don't want to allocate memory and store a pointer to it in that data
565 member, you can also \*(L"subclass\*(R" the watcher type and provide your own
566 data:
567 .PP
568 .Vb 7
569 \& struct my_io
570 \& {
571 \& struct ev_io io;
572 \& int otherfd;
573 \& void *somedata;
574 \& struct whatever *mostinteresting;
575 \& }
576 .Ve
577 .PP
578 And since your callback will be called with a pointer to the watcher, you
579 can cast it back to your own type:
580 .PP
581 .Vb 5
582 \& static void my_cb (struct ev_loop *loop, struct ev_io *w_, int revents)
583 \& {
584 \& struct my_io *w = (struct my_io *)w_;
585 \& ...
586 \& }
587 .Ve
588 .PP
589 More interesting and less C\-conformant ways of catsing your callback type
590 have been omitted....
591 .SH "WATCHER TYPES"
592 .IX Header "WATCHER TYPES"
593 This section describes each watcher in detail, but will not repeat
594 information given in the last section.
595 .ie n .Sh """ev_io"" \- is this file descriptor readable or writable"
596 .el .Sh "\f(CWev_io\fP \- is this file descriptor readable or writable"
597 .IX Subsection "ev_io - is this file descriptor readable or writable"
598 I/O watchers check whether a file descriptor is readable or writable
599 in each iteration of the event loop (This behaviour is called
600 level-triggering because you keep receiving events as long as the
601 condition persists. Remember you can stop the watcher if you don't want to
602 act on the event and neither want to receive future events).
603 .PP
604 In general you can register as many read and/or write event watchers per
605 fd as you want (as long as you don't confuse yourself). Setting all file
606 descriptors to non-blocking mode is also usually a good idea (but not
607 required if you know what you are doing).
608 .PP
609 You have to be careful with dup'ed file descriptors, though. Some backends
610 (the linux epoll backend is a notable example) cannot handle dup'ed file
611 descriptors correctly if you register interest in two or more fds pointing
612 to the same underlying file/socket etc. description (that is, they share
613 the same underlying \*(L"file open\*(R").
614 .PP
615 If you must do this, then force the use of a known-to-be-good backend
616 (at the time of this writing, this includes only \s-1EVMETHOD_SELECT\s0 and
617 \&\s-1EVMETHOD_POLL\s0).
618 .IP "ev_io_init (ev_io *, callback, int fd, int events)" 4
619 .IX Item "ev_io_init (ev_io *, callback, int fd, int events)"
620 .PD 0
621 .IP "ev_io_set (ev_io *, int fd, int events)" 4
622 .IX Item "ev_io_set (ev_io *, int fd, int events)"
623 .PD
624 Configures an \f(CW\*(C`ev_io\*(C'\fR watcher. The fd is the file descriptor to rceeive
625 events for and events is either \f(CW\*(C`EV_READ\*(C'\fR, \f(CW\*(C`EV_WRITE\*(C'\fR or \f(CW\*(C`EV_READ |
626 EV_WRITE\*(C'\fR to receive the given events.
627 .ie n .Sh """ev_timer"" \- relative and optionally recurring timeouts"
628 .el .Sh "\f(CWev_timer\fP \- relative and optionally recurring timeouts"
629 .IX Subsection "ev_timer - relative and optionally recurring timeouts"
630 Timer watchers are simple relative timers that generate an event after a
631 given time, and optionally repeating in regular intervals after that.
632 .PP
633 The timers are based on real time, that is, if you register an event that
634 times out after an hour and you reset your system clock to last years
635 time, it will still time out after (roughly) and hour. \*(L"Roughly\*(R" because
636 detecting time jumps is hard, and some inaccuracies are unavoidable (the
637 monotonic clock option helps a lot here).
638 .PP
639 The relative timeouts are calculated relative to the \f(CW\*(C`ev_now ()\*(C'\fR
640 time. This is usually the right thing as this timestamp refers to the time
641 of the event triggering whatever timeout you are modifying/starting. If
642 you suspect event processing to be delayed and you \fIneed\fR to base the timeout
643 on the current time, use something like this to adjust for this:
644 .PP
645 .Vb 1
646 \& ev_timer_set (&timer, after + ev_now () - ev_time (), 0.);
647 .Ve
648 .PP
649 The callback is guarenteed to be invoked only when its timeout has passed,
650 but if multiple timers become ready during the same loop iteration then
651 order of execution is undefined.
652 .IP "ev_timer_init (ev_timer *, callback, ev_tstamp after, ev_tstamp repeat)" 4
653 .IX Item "ev_timer_init (ev_timer *, callback, ev_tstamp after, ev_tstamp repeat)"
654 .PD 0
655 .IP "ev_timer_set (ev_timer *, ev_tstamp after, ev_tstamp repeat)" 4
656 .IX Item "ev_timer_set (ev_timer *, ev_tstamp after, ev_tstamp repeat)"
657 .PD
658 Configure the timer to trigger after \f(CW\*(C`after\*(C'\fR seconds. If \f(CW\*(C`repeat\*(C'\fR is
659 \&\f(CW0.\fR, then it will automatically be stopped. If it is positive, then the
660 timer will automatically be configured to trigger again \f(CW\*(C`repeat\*(C'\fR seconds
661 later, again, and again, until stopped manually.
662 .Sp
663 The timer itself will do a best-effort at avoiding drift, that is, if you
664 configure a timer to trigger every 10 seconds, then it will trigger at
665 exactly 10 second intervals. If, however, your program cannot keep up with
666 the timer (because it takes longer than those 10 seconds to do stuff) the
667 timer will not fire more than once per event loop iteration.
668 .IP "ev_timer_again (loop)" 4
669 .IX Item "ev_timer_again (loop)"
670 This will act as if the timer timed out and restart it again if it is
671 repeating. The exact semantics are:
672 .Sp
673 If the timer is started but nonrepeating, stop it.
674 .Sp
675 If the timer is repeating, either start it if necessary (with the repeat
676 value), or reset the running timer to the repeat value.
677 .Sp
678 This sounds a bit complicated, but here is a useful and typical
679 example: Imagine you have a tcp connection and you want a so-called idle
680 timeout, that is, you want to be called when there have been, say, 60
681 seconds of inactivity on the socket. The easiest way to do this is to
682 configure an \f(CW\*(C`ev_timer\*(C'\fR with after=repeat=60 and calling ev_timer_again each
683 time you successfully read or write some data. If you go into an idle
684 state where you do not expect data to travel on the socket, you can stop
685 the timer, and again will automatically restart it if need be.
686 .ie n .Sh """ev_periodic"" \- to cron or not to cron"
687 .el .Sh "\f(CWev_periodic\fP \- to cron or not to cron"
688 .IX Subsection "ev_periodic - to cron or not to cron"
689 Periodic watchers are also timers of a kind, but they are very versatile
690 (and unfortunately a bit complex).
691 .PP
692 Unlike \f(CW\*(C`ev_timer\*(C'\fR's, they are not based on real time (or relative time)
693 but on wallclock time (absolute time). You can tell a periodic watcher
694 to trigger \*(L"at\*(R" some specific point in time. For example, if you tell a
695 periodic watcher to trigger in 10 seconds (by specifiying e.g. c<ev_now ()
696 + 10.>) and then reset your system clock to the last year, then it will
697 take a year to trigger the event (unlike an \f(CW\*(C`ev_timer\*(C'\fR, which would trigger
698 roughly 10 seconds later and of course not if you reset your system time
699 again).
700 .PP
701 They can also be used to implement vastly more complex timers, such as
702 triggering an event on eahc midnight, local time.
703 .PP
704 As with timers, the callback is guarenteed to be invoked only when the
705 time (\f(CW\*(C`at\*(C'\fR) has been passed, but if multiple periodic timers become ready
706 during the same loop iteration then order of execution is undefined.
707 .IP "ev_periodic_init (ev_periodic *, callback, ev_tstamp at, ev_tstamp interval, reschedule_cb)" 4
708 .IX Item "ev_periodic_init (ev_periodic *, callback, ev_tstamp at, ev_tstamp interval, reschedule_cb)"
709 .PD 0
710 .IP "ev_periodic_set (ev_periodic *, ev_tstamp after, ev_tstamp repeat, reschedule_cb)" 4
711 .IX Item "ev_periodic_set (ev_periodic *, ev_tstamp after, ev_tstamp repeat, reschedule_cb)"
712 .PD
713 Lots of arguments, lets sort it out... There are basically three modes of
714 operation, and we will explain them from simplest to complex:
715 .RS 4
716 .IP "* absolute timer (interval = reschedule_cb = 0)" 4
717 .IX Item "absolute timer (interval = reschedule_cb = 0)"
718 In this configuration the watcher triggers an event at the wallclock time
719 \&\f(CW\*(C`at\*(C'\fR and doesn't repeat. It will not adjust when a time jump occurs,
720 that is, if it is to be run at January 1st 2011 then it will run when the
721 system time reaches or surpasses this time.
722 .IP "* non-repeating interval timer (interval > 0, reschedule_cb = 0)" 4
723 .IX Item "non-repeating interval timer (interval > 0, reschedule_cb = 0)"
724 In this mode the watcher will always be scheduled to time out at the next
725 \&\f(CW\*(C`at + N * interval\*(C'\fR time (for some integer N) and then repeat, regardless
726 of any time jumps.
727 .Sp
728 This can be used to create timers that do not drift with respect to system
729 time:
730 .Sp
731 .Vb 1
732 \& ev_periodic_set (&periodic, 0., 3600., 0);
733 .Ve
734 .Sp
735 This doesn't mean there will always be 3600 seconds in between triggers,
736 but only that the the callback will be called when the system time shows a
737 full hour (\s-1UTC\s0), or more correctly, when the system time is evenly divisible
738 by 3600.
739 .Sp
740 Another way to think about it (for the mathematically inclined) is that
741 \&\f(CW\*(C`ev_periodic\*(C'\fR will try to run the callback in this mode at the next possible
742 time where \f(CW\*(C`time = at (mod interval)\*(C'\fR, regardless of any time jumps.
743 .IP "* manual reschedule mode (reschedule_cb = callback)" 4
744 .IX Item "manual reschedule mode (reschedule_cb = callback)"
745 In this mode the values for \f(CW\*(C`interval\*(C'\fR and \f(CW\*(C`at\*(C'\fR are both being
746 ignored. Instead, each time the periodic watcher gets scheduled, the
747 reschedule callback will be called with the watcher as first, and the
748 current time as second argument.
749 .Sp
750 \&\s-1NOTE:\s0 \fIThis callback \s-1MUST\s0 \s-1NOT\s0 stop or destroy any periodic watcher,
751 ever, or make any event loop modifications\fR. If you need to stop it,
752 return \f(CW\*(C`now + 1e30\*(C'\fR (or so, fudge fudge) and stop it afterwards (e.g. by
753 starting a prepare watcher).
754 .Sp
755 Its prototype is \f(CW\*(C`ev_tstamp (*reschedule_cb)(struct ev_periodic *w,
756 ev_tstamp now)\*(C'\fR, e.g.:
757 .Sp
758 .Vb 4
759 \& static ev_tstamp my_rescheduler (struct ev_periodic *w, ev_tstamp now)
760 \& {
761 \& return now + 60.;
762 \& }
763 .Ve
764 .Sp
765 It must return the next time to trigger, based on the passed time value
766 (that is, the lowest time value larger than to the second argument). It
767 will usually be called just before the callback will be triggered, but
768 might be called at other times, too.
769 .Sp
770 \&\s-1NOTE:\s0 \fIThis callback must always return a time that is later than the
771 passed \f(CI\*(C`now\*(C'\fI value\fR. Not even \f(CW\*(C`now\*(C'\fR itself will do, it \fImust\fR be larger.
772 .Sp
773 This can be used to create very complex timers, such as a timer that
774 triggers on each midnight, local time. To do this, you would calculate the
775 next midnight after \f(CW\*(C`now\*(C'\fR and return the timestamp value for this. How
776 you do this is, again, up to you (but it is not trivial, which is the main
777 reason I omitted it as an example).
778 .RE
779 .RS 4
780 .RE
781 .IP "ev_periodic_again (loop, ev_periodic *)" 4
782 .IX Item "ev_periodic_again (loop, ev_periodic *)"
783 Simply stops and restarts the periodic watcher again. This is only useful
784 when you changed some parameters or the reschedule callback would return
785 a different time than the last time it was called (e.g. in a crond like
786 program when the crontabs have changed).
787 .ie n .Sh """ev_signal"" \- signal me when a signal gets signalled"
788 .el .Sh "\f(CWev_signal\fP \- signal me when a signal gets signalled"
789 .IX Subsection "ev_signal - signal me when a signal gets signalled"
790 Signal watchers will trigger an event when the process receives a specific
791 signal one or more times. Even though signals are very asynchronous, libev
792 will try it's best to deliver signals synchronously, i.e. as part of the
793 normal event processing, like any other event.
794 .PP
795 You can configure as many watchers as you like per signal. Only when the
796 first watcher gets started will libev actually register a signal watcher
797 with the kernel (thus it coexists with your own signal handlers as long
798 as you don't register any with libev). Similarly, when the last signal
799 watcher for a signal is stopped libev will reset the signal handler to
800 \&\s-1SIG_DFL\s0 (regardless of what it was set to before).
801 .IP "ev_signal_init (ev_signal *, callback, int signum)" 4
802 .IX Item "ev_signal_init (ev_signal *, callback, int signum)"
803 .PD 0
804 .IP "ev_signal_set (ev_signal *, int signum)" 4
805 .IX Item "ev_signal_set (ev_signal *, int signum)"
806 .PD
807 Configures the watcher to trigger on the given signal number (usually one
808 of the \f(CW\*(C`SIGxxx\*(C'\fR constants).
809 .ie n .Sh """ev_child"" \- wait for pid status changes"
810 .el .Sh "\f(CWev_child\fP \- wait for pid status changes"
811 .IX Subsection "ev_child - wait for pid status changes"
812 Child watchers trigger when your process receives a \s-1SIGCHLD\s0 in response to
813 some child status changes (most typically when a child of yours dies).
814 .IP "ev_child_init (ev_child *, callback, int pid)" 4
815 .IX Item "ev_child_init (ev_child *, callback, int pid)"
816 .PD 0
817 .IP "ev_child_set (ev_child *, int pid)" 4
818 .IX Item "ev_child_set (ev_child *, int pid)"
819 .PD
820 Configures the watcher to wait for status changes of process \f(CW\*(C`pid\*(C'\fR (or
821 \&\fIany\fR process if \f(CW\*(C`pid\*(C'\fR is specified as \f(CW0\fR). The callback can look
822 at the \f(CW\*(C`rstatus\*(C'\fR member of the \f(CW\*(C`ev_child\*(C'\fR watcher structure to see
823 the status word (use the macros from \f(CW\*(C`sys/wait.h\*(C'\fR and see your systems
824 \&\f(CW\*(C`waitpid\*(C'\fR documentation). The \f(CW\*(C`rpid\*(C'\fR member contains the pid of the
825 process causing the status change.
826 .ie n .Sh """ev_idle"" \- when you've got nothing better to do"
827 .el .Sh "\f(CWev_idle\fP \- when you've got nothing better to do"
828 .IX Subsection "ev_idle - when you've got nothing better to do"
829 Idle watchers trigger events when there are no other events are pending
830 (prepare, check and other idle watchers do not count). That is, as long
831 as your process is busy handling sockets or timeouts (or even signals,
832 imagine) it will not be triggered. But when your process is idle all idle
833 watchers are being called again and again, once per event loop iteration \-
834 until stopped, that is, or your process receives more events and becomes
835 busy.
836 .PP
837 The most noteworthy effect is that as long as any idle watchers are
838 active, the process will not block when waiting for new events.
839 .PP
840 Apart from keeping your process non-blocking (which is a useful
841 effect on its own sometimes), idle watchers are a good place to do
842 \&\*(L"pseudo\-background processing\*(R", or delay processing stuff to after the
843 event loop has handled all outstanding events.
844 .IP "ev_idle_init (ev_signal *, callback)" 4
845 .IX Item "ev_idle_init (ev_signal *, callback)"
846 Initialises and configures the idle watcher \- it has no parameters of any
847 kind. There is a \f(CW\*(C`ev_idle_set\*(C'\fR macro, but using it is utterly pointless,
848 believe me.
849 .ie n .Sh """ev_prepare""\fP and \f(CW""ev_check"" \- customise your event loop"
850 .el .Sh "\f(CWev_prepare\fP and \f(CWev_check\fP \- customise your event loop"
851 .IX Subsection "ev_prepare and ev_check - customise your event loop"
852 Prepare and check watchers are usually (but not always) used in tandem:
853 prepare watchers get invoked before the process blocks and check watchers
854 afterwards.
855 .PP
856 Their main purpose is to integrate other event mechanisms into libev. This
857 could be used, for example, to track variable changes, implement your own
858 watchers, integrate net-snmp or a coroutine library and lots more.
859 .PP
860 This is done by examining in each prepare call which file descriptors need
861 to be watched by the other library, registering \f(CW\*(C`ev_io\*(C'\fR watchers for
862 them and starting an \f(CW\*(C`ev_timer\*(C'\fR watcher for any timeouts (many libraries
863 provide just this functionality). Then, in the check watcher you check for
864 any events that occured (by checking the pending status of all watchers
865 and stopping them) and call back into the library. The I/O and timer
866 callbacks will never actually be called (but must be valid nevertheless,
867 because you never know, you know?).
868 .PP
869 As another example, the Perl Coro module uses these hooks to integrate
870 coroutines into libev programs, by yielding to other active coroutines
871 during each prepare and only letting the process block if no coroutines
872 are ready to run (it's actually more complicated: it only runs coroutines
873 with priority higher than or equal to the event loop and one coroutine
874 of lower priority, but only once, using idle watchers to keep the event
875 loop from blocking if lower-priority coroutines are active, thus mapping
876 low-priority coroutines to idle/background tasks).
877 .IP "ev_prepare_init (ev_prepare *, callback)" 4
878 .IX Item "ev_prepare_init (ev_prepare *, callback)"
879 .PD 0
880 .IP "ev_check_init (ev_check *, callback)" 4
881 .IX Item "ev_check_init (ev_check *, callback)"
882 .PD
883 Initialises and configures the prepare or check watcher \- they have no
884 parameters of any kind. There are \f(CW\*(C`ev_prepare_set\*(C'\fR and \f(CW\*(C`ev_check_set\*(C'\fR
885 macros, but using them is utterly, utterly and completely pointless.
886 .SH "OTHER FUNCTIONS"
887 .IX Header "OTHER FUNCTIONS"
888 There are some other functions of possible interest. Described. Here. Now.
889 .IP "ev_once (loop, int fd, int events, ev_tstamp timeout, callback)" 4
890 .IX Item "ev_once (loop, int fd, int events, ev_tstamp timeout, callback)"
891 This function combines a simple timer and an I/O watcher, calls your
892 callback on whichever event happens first and automatically stop both
893 watchers. This is useful if you want to wait for a single event on an fd
894 or timeout without having to allocate/configure/start/stop/free one or
895 more watchers yourself.
896 .Sp
897 If \f(CW\*(C`fd\*(C'\fR is less than 0, then no I/O watcher will be started and events
898 is being ignored. Otherwise, an \f(CW\*(C`ev_io\*(C'\fR watcher for the given \f(CW\*(C`fd\*(C'\fR and
899 \&\f(CW\*(C`events\*(C'\fR set will be craeted and started.
900 .Sp
901 If \f(CW\*(C`timeout\*(C'\fR is less than 0, then no timeout watcher will be
902 started. Otherwise an \f(CW\*(C`ev_timer\*(C'\fR watcher with after = \f(CW\*(C`timeout\*(C'\fR (and
903 repeat = 0) will be started. While \f(CW0\fR is a valid timeout, it is of
904 dubious value.
905 .Sp
906 The callback has the type \f(CW\*(C`void (*cb)(int revents, void *arg)\*(C'\fR and gets
907 passed an \f(CW\*(C`revents\*(C'\fR set like normal event callbacks (a combination of
908 \&\f(CW\*(C`EV_ERROR\*(C'\fR, \f(CW\*(C`EV_READ\*(C'\fR, \f(CW\*(C`EV_WRITE\*(C'\fR or \f(CW\*(C`EV_TIMEOUT\*(C'\fR) and the \f(CW\*(C`arg\*(C'\fR
909 value passed to \f(CW\*(C`ev_once\*(C'\fR:
910 .Sp
911 .Vb 7
912 \& static void stdin_ready (int revents, void *arg)
913 \& {
914 \& if (revents & EV_TIMEOUT)
915 \& /* doh, nothing entered */;
916 \& else if (revents & EV_READ)
917 \& /* stdin might have data for us, joy! */;
918 \& }
919 .Ve
920 .Sp
921 .Vb 1
922 \& ev_once (STDIN_FILENO, EV_READ, 10., stdin_ready, 0);
923 .Ve
924 .IP "ev_feed_event (loop, watcher, int events)" 4
925 .IX Item "ev_feed_event (loop, watcher, int events)"
926 Feeds the given event set into the event loop, as if the specified event
927 had happened for the specified watcher (which must be a pointer to an
928 initialised but not necessarily started event watcher).
929 .IP "ev_feed_fd_event (loop, int fd, int revents)" 4
930 .IX Item "ev_feed_fd_event (loop, int fd, int revents)"
931 Feed an event on the given fd, as if a file descriptor backend detected
932 the given events it.
933 .IP "ev_feed_signal_event (loop, int signum)" 4
934 .IX Item "ev_feed_signal_event (loop, int signum)"
935 Feed an event as if the given signal occured (loop must be the default loop!).
936 .SH "LIBEVENT EMULATION"
937 .IX Header "LIBEVENT EMULATION"
938 Libev offers a compatibility emulation layer for libevent. It cannot
939 emulate the internals of libevent, so here are some usage hints:
940 .IP "* Use it by including <event.h>, as usual." 4
941 .IX Item "Use it by including <event.h>, as usual."
942 .PD 0
943 .IP "* The following members are fully supported: ev_base, ev_callback, ev_arg, ev_fd, ev_res, ev_events." 4
944 .IX Item "The following members are fully supported: ev_base, ev_callback, ev_arg, ev_fd, ev_res, ev_events."
945 .IP "* Avoid using ev_flags and the EVLIST_*\-macros, while it is maintained by libev, it does not work exactly the same way as in libevent (consider it a private \s-1API\s0)." 4
946 .IX Item "Avoid using ev_flags and the EVLIST_*-macros, while it is maintained by libev, it does not work exactly the same way as in libevent (consider it a private API)."
947 .IP "* Priorities are not currently supported. Initialising priorities will fail and all watchers will have the same priority, even though there is an ev_pri field." 4
948 .IX Item "Priorities are not currently supported. Initialising priorities will fail and all watchers will have the same priority, even though there is an ev_pri field."
949 .IP "* Other members are not supported." 4
950 .IX Item "Other members are not supported."
951 .IP "* The libev emulation is \fInot\fR \s-1ABI\s0 compatible to libevent, you need to use the libev header file and library." 4
952 .IX Item "The libev emulation is not ABI compatible to libevent, you need to use the libev header file and library."
953 .PD
954 .SH "\*(C+ SUPPORT"
955 .IX Header " SUPPORT"
956 \&\s-1TBD\s0.
957 .SH "AUTHOR"
958 .IX Header "AUTHOR"
959 Marc Lehmann <libev@schmorp.de>.