ev_io - is this file descriptor readable or writableev_timer - relative and optionally recurring timeoutsev_periodic - to cron or not to cronev_signal - signal me when a signal gets signalledev_child - wait for pid status changesev_idle - when you've got nothing better to doev_prepare and ev_check - customise your event loopev_embed - when one backend isn't enoughev_io - is this file descriptor readable or writable?ev_timer - relative and optionally repeating timeoutsev_periodic - to cron or not to cron?ev_signal - signal me when a signal gets signalled!ev_child - watch out for process status changesev_idle - when you've got nothing better to do...ev_prepare and ev_check - customise your event loop!ev_embed - when one backend isn't enough...In the following description, TYPE stands for the watcher type,
e.g. timer for ev_timer watchers and io for ev_io watchers.
You can reinitialise a watcher at any time as long as it has been stopped (or never started) and there are no pending events outstanding.
-The callbakc is always of type The callback is always of type void (*)(ev_loop *loop, ev_TYPE *watcher,
+ void (*)(ev_loop *loop, ev_TYPE *watcher,
int revents).ev_TYPE_set (ev_TYPE *, [args])
ev_io - is this file descriptor readable or writableev_io - is this file descriptor readable or writable?I/O watchers check whether a file descriptor is readable or writable -in each iteration of the event loop (This behaviour is called -level-triggering because you keep receiving events as long as the -condition persists. Remember you can stop the watcher if you don't want to -act on the event and neither want to receive future events).
+in each iteration of the event loop, or, more precisely, when reading +would not block the process and writing would at least be able to write +some data. This behaviour is called level-triggering because you keep +receiving events as long as the condition persists. Remember you can stop +the watcher if you don't want to act on the event and neither want to +receive future events.In general you can register as many read and/or write event watchers per fd as you want (as long as you don't confuse yourself). Setting all file descriptors to non-blocking mode is also usually a good idea (but not @@ -750,28 +756,31 @@
You have to be careful with dup'ed file descriptors, though. Some backends (the linux epoll backend is a notable example) cannot handle dup'ed file descriptors correctly if you register interest in two or more fds pointing -to the same underlying file/socket etc. description (that is, they share +to the same underlying file/socket/etc. description (that is, they share the same underlying "file open").
If you must do this, then force the use of a known-to-be-good backend
(at the time of this writing, this includes only EVBACKEND_SELECT and
EVBACKEND_POLL).
Another thing you have to watch out for is that it is quite easy to
+receive "spurious" readyness notifications, that is your callback might
+be called with EV_READ but a subsequent read(2) will actually block
+because there is no data. Not only are some backends known to create a
+lot of those (for example solaris ports), it is very easy to get into
+this situation even with a relatively standard program structure. Thus
+it is best to always use non-blocking I/O: An extra read(2) returning
+EAGAIN is far preferable to a program hanging until some data arrives.
If you cannot run the fd in non-blocking mode (for example you should not +play around with an Xlib connection), then you have to seperately re-test +wether a file descriptor is really ready with a known-to-be good interface +such as poll (fortunately in our Xlib example, Xlib already does this on +its own, so its quite safe to use).
Configures an ev_io watcher. The fd is the file descriptor to rceeive
-events for and events is either EV_READ, EV_WRITE or EV_READ |
-EV_WRITE to receive the given events.
Please note that most of the more scalable backend mechanisms (for example
-epoll and solaris ports) can result in spurious readyness notifications
-for file descriptors, so you practically need to use non-blocking I/O (and
-treat callback invocation as hint only), or retest separately with a safe
-interface before doing I/O (XLib can do this), or force the use of either
-EVBACKEND_SELECT or EVBACKEND_POLL, which don't suffer from this
-problem. Also note that it is quite easy to have your callback invoked
-when the readyness condition is no longer valid even when employing
-typical ways of handling events, so its a good idea to use non-blocking
-I/O unconditionally.
Configures an ev_io watcher. The fd is the file descriptor to
+rceeive events for and events is either EV_READ, EV_WRITE or
+EV_READ | EV_WRITE to receive the given events.
Example: call stdin_readable_cb when STDIN_FILENO has become, well
@@ -797,7 +806,7 @@
ev_timer - relative and optionally recurring timeoutsev_timer - relative and optionally repeating timeoutsTimer watchers are simple relative timers that generate an event after a given time, and optionally repeating in regular intervals after that.
@@ -883,7 +892,7 @@ev_periodic - to cron or not to cronev_periodic - to cron or not to cron?Periodic watchers are also timers of a kind, but they are very versatile (and unfortunately a bit complex).
@@ -1012,7 +1021,7 @@ev_signal - signal me when a signal gets signalledev_signal - signal me when a signal gets signalled!Signal watchers will trigger an event when the process receives a specific signal one or more times. Even though signals are very asynchronous, libev @@ -1038,8 +1047,8 @@
ev_child - wait for pid status changesev_child - watch out for process status changesChild watchers trigger when your process receives a SIGCHLD in response to some child status changes (most typically when a child of yours dies).
ev_idle - when you've got nothing better to doev_idle - when you've got nothing better to do...Idle watchers trigger events when there are no other events are pending (prepare, check and other idle watchers do not count). That is, as long @@ -1114,7 +1123,7 @@
ev_prepare and ev_check - customise your event loopev_prepare and ev_check - customise your event loop!Prepare and check watchers are usually (but not always) used in tandem: prepare watchers get invoked before the process blocks and check watchers @@ -1155,7 +1164,7 @@
ev_embed - when one backend isn't enoughev_embed - when one backend isn't enough...This is a rather advanced watcher type that lets you embed one event loop
into another (currently only ev_io events are supported in the embedded