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Revision: 1.19
Committed: Mon Nov 12 09:02:16 2007 UTC (16 years, 6 months ago) by root
Branch: MAIN
Changes since 1.18: +4 -3 lines
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# User Rev Content
1 root 1.1 =head1 NAME
2    
3     libev - a high performance full-featured event loop written in C
4    
5     =head1 SYNOPSIS
6    
7     #include <ev.h>
8    
9     =head1 DESCRIPTION
10    
11     Libev is an event loop: you register interest in certain events (such as a
12     file descriptor being readable or a timeout occuring), and it will manage
13 root 1.4 these event sources and provide your program with events.
14 root 1.1
15     To do this, it must take more or less complete control over your process
16     (or thread) by executing the I<event loop> handler, and will then
17     communicate events via a callback mechanism.
18    
19     You register interest in certain events by registering so-called I<event
20     watchers>, which are relatively small C structures you initialise with the
21     details of the event, and then hand it over to libev by I<starting> the
22     watcher.
23    
24     =head1 FEATURES
25    
26     Libev supports select, poll, the linux-specific epoll and the bsd-specific
27     kqueue mechanisms for file descriptor events, relative timers, absolute
28     timers with customised rescheduling, signal events, process status change
29     events (related to SIGCHLD), and event watchers dealing with the event
30 root 1.5 loop mechanism itself (idle, prepare and check watchers). It also is quite
31 root 1.7 fast (see this L<benchmark|http://libev.schmorp.de/bench.html> comparing
32     it to libevent for example).
33 root 1.1
34     =head1 CONVENTIONS
35    
36     Libev is very configurable. In this manual the default configuration
37     will be described, which supports multiple event loops. For more info
38 root 1.7 about various configuration options please have a look at the file
39 root 1.1 F<README.embed> in the libev distribution. If libev was configured without
40     support for multiple event loops, then all functions taking an initial
41     argument of name C<loop> (which is always of type C<struct ev_loop *>)
42     will not have this argument.
43    
44 root 1.17 =head1 TIME REPRESENTATION
45 root 1.1
46 root 1.2 Libev represents time as a single floating point number, representing the
47     (fractional) number of seconds since the (POSIX) epoch (somewhere near
48     the beginning of 1970, details are complicated, don't ask). This type is
49 root 1.1 called C<ev_tstamp>, which is what you should use too. It usually aliases
50     to the double type in C.
51    
52 root 1.17 =head1 GLOBAL FUNCTIONS
53    
54 root 1.18 These functions can be called anytime, even before initialising the
55     library in any way.
56    
57 root 1.1 =over 4
58    
59     =item ev_tstamp ev_time ()
60    
61     Returns the current time as libev would use it.
62    
63     =item int ev_version_major ()
64    
65     =item int ev_version_minor ()
66    
67     You can find out the major and minor version numbers of the library
68     you linked against by calling the functions C<ev_version_major> and
69     C<ev_version_minor>. If you want, you can compare against the global
70     symbols C<EV_VERSION_MAJOR> and C<EV_VERSION_MINOR>, which specify the
71     version of the library your program was compiled against.
72    
73 root 1.9 Usually, it's a good idea to terminate if the major versions mismatch,
74 root 1.1 as this indicates an incompatible change. Minor versions are usually
75     compatible to older versions, so a larger minor version alone is usually
76     not a problem.
77    
78     =item ev_set_allocator (void *(*cb)(void *ptr, long size))
79    
80     Sets the allocation function to use (the prototype is similar to the
81 root 1.7 realloc C function, the semantics are identical). It is used to allocate
82     and free memory (no surprises here). If it returns zero when memory
83     needs to be allocated, the library might abort or take some potentially
84     destructive action. The default is your system realloc function.
85 root 1.1
86     You could override this function in high-availability programs to, say,
87     free some memory if it cannot allocate memory, to use a special allocator,
88     or even to sleep a while and retry until some memory is available.
89    
90     =item ev_set_syserr_cb (void (*cb)(const char *msg));
91    
92     Set the callback function to call on a retryable syscall error (such
93     as failed select, poll, epoll_wait). The message is a printable string
94     indicating the system call or subsystem causing the problem. If this
95     callback is set, then libev will expect it to remedy the sitution, no
96 root 1.7 matter what, when it returns. That is, libev will generally retry the
97 root 1.1 requested operation, or, if the condition doesn't go away, do bad stuff
98     (such as abort).
99    
100     =back
101    
102     =head1 FUNCTIONS CONTROLLING THE EVENT LOOP
103    
104     An event loop is described by a C<struct ev_loop *>. The library knows two
105     types of such loops, the I<default> loop, which supports signals and child
106     events, and dynamically created loops which do not.
107    
108     If you use threads, a common model is to run the default event loop
109 root 1.17 in your main thread (or in a separate thread) and for each thread you
110 root 1.7 create, you also create another event loop. Libev itself does no locking
111     whatsoever, so if you mix calls to the same event loop in different
112     threads, make sure you lock (this is usually a bad idea, though, even if
113 root 1.9 done correctly, because it's hideous and inefficient).
114 root 1.1
115     =over 4
116    
117     =item struct ev_loop *ev_default_loop (unsigned int flags)
118    
119     This will initialise the default event loop if it hasn't been initialised
120     yet and return it. If the default loop could not be initialised, returns
121     false. If it already was initialised it simply returns it (and ignores the
122     flags).
123    
124     If you don't know what event loop to use, use the one returned from this
125     function.
126    
127     The flags argument can be used to specify special behaviour or specific
128 root 1.8 backends to use, and is usually specified as 0 (or EVFLAG_AUTO).
129 root 1.1
130     It supports the following flags:
131    
132     =over 4
133    
134 root 1.10 =item C<EVFLAG_AUTO>
135 root 1.1
136 root 1.9 The default flags value. Use this if you have no clue (it's the right
137 root 1.1 thing, believe me).
138    
139 root 1.10 =item C<EVFLAG_NOENV>
140 root 1.1
141 root 1.8 If this flag bit is ored into the flag value (or the program runs setuid
142     or setgid) then libev will I<not> look at the environment variable
143     C<LIBEV_FLAGS>. Otherwise (the default), this environment variable will
144     override the flags completely if it is found in the environment. This is
145     useful to try out specific backends to test their performance, or to work
146     around bugs.
147 root 1.1
148 root 1.10 =item C<EVMETHOD_SELECT> (portable select backend)
149 root 1.1
150 root 1.10 =item C<EVMETHOD_POLL> (poll backend, available everywhere except on windows)
151 root 1.1
152 root 1.10 =item C<EVMETHOD_EPOLL> (linux only)
153 root 1.1
154 root 1.10 =item C<EVMETHOD_KQUEUE> (some bsds only)
155 root 1.1
156 root 1.10 =item C<EVMETHOD_DEVPOLL> (solaris 8 only)
157 root 1.1
158 root 1.10 =item C<EVMETHOD_PORT> (solaris 10 only)
159 root 1.1
160     If one or more of these are ored into the flags value, then only these
161     backends will be tried (in the reverse order as given here). If one are
162     specified, any backend will do.
163    
164     =back
165    
166     =item struct ev_loop *ev_loop_new (unsigned int flags)
167    
168     Similar to C<ev_default_loop>, but always creates a new event loop that is
169     always distinct from the default loop. Unlike the default loop, it cannot
170     handle signal and child watchers, and attempts to do so will be greeted by
171     undefined behaviour (or a failed assertion if assertions are enabled).
172    
173     =item ev_default_destroy ()
174    
175     Destroys the default loop again (frees all memory and kernel state
176     etc.). This stops all registered event watchers (by not touching them in
177 root 1.9 any way whatsoever, although you cannot rely on this :).
178 root 1.1
179     =item ev_loop_destroy (loop)
180    
181     Like C<ev_default_destroy>, but destroys an event loop created by an
182     earlier call to C<ev_loop_new>.
183    
184     =item ev_default_fork ()
185    
186     This function reinitialises the kernel state for backends that have
187     one. Despite the name, you can call it anytime, but it makes most sense
188     after forking, in either the parent or child process (or both, but that
189     again makes little sense).
190    
191     You I<must> call this function after forking if and only if you want to
192     use the event library in both processes. If you just fork+exec, you don't
193     have to call it.
194    
195 root 1.9 The function itself is quite fast and it's usually not a problem to call
196 root 1.1 it just in case after a fork. To make this easy, the function will fit in
197     quite nicely into a call to C<pthread_atfork>:
198    
199     pthread_atfork (0, 0, ev_default_fork);
200    
201     =item ev_loop_fork (loop)
202    
203     Like C<ev_default_fork>, but acts on an event loop created by
204     C<ev_loop_new>. Yes, you have to call this on every allocated event loop
205     after fork, and how you do this is entirely your own problem.
206    
207     =item unsigned int ev_method (loop)
208    
209     Returns one of the C<EVMETHOD_*> flags indicating the event backend in
210     use.
211    
212 root 1.9 =item ev_tstamp ev_now (loop)
213 root 1.1
214     Returns the current "event loop time", which is the time the event loop
215     got events and started processing them. This timestamp does not change
216     as long as callbacks are being processed, and this is also the base time
217     used for relative timers. You can treat it as the timestamp of the event
218     occuring (or more correctly, the mainloop finding out about it).
219    
220     =item ev_loop (loop, int flags)
221    
222     Finally, this is it, the event handler. This function usually is called
223     after you initialised all your watchers and you want to start handling
224     events.
225    
226     If the flags argument is specified as 0, it will not return until either
227     no event watchers are active anymore or C<ev_unloop> was called.
228    
229     A flags value of C<EVLOOP_NONBLOCK> will look for new events, will handle
230     those events and any outstanding ones, but will not block your process in
231 root 1.9 case there are no events and will return after one iteration of the loop.
232 root 1.1
233     A flags value of C<EVLOOP_ONESHOT> will look for new events (waiting if
234     neccessary) and will handle those and any outstanding ones. It will block
235 root 1.9 your process until at least one new event arrives, and will return after
236     one iteration of the loop.
237 root 1.1
238     This flags value could be used to implement alternative looping
239     constructs, but the C<prepare> and C<check> watchers provide a better and
240     more generic mechanism.
241    
242     =item ev_unloop (loop, how)
243    
244 root 1.9 Can be used to make a call to C<ev_loop> return early (but only after it
245     has processed all outstanding events). The C<how> argument must be either
246     C<EVUNLOOP_ONCE>, which will make the innermost C<ev_loop> call return, or
247     C<EVUNLOOP_ALL>, which will make all nested C<ev_loop> calls return.
248 root 1.1
249     =item ev_ref (loop)
250    
251     =item ev_unref (loop)
252    
253 root 1.9 Ref/unref can be used to add or remove a reference count on the event
254     loop: Every watcher keeps one reference, and as long as the reference
255     count is nonzero, C<ev_loop> will not return on its own. If you have
256     a watcher you never unregister that should not keep C<ev_loop> from
257     returning, ev_unref() after starting, and ev_ref() before stopping it. For
258     example, libev itself uses this for its internal signal pipe: It is not
259     visible to the libev user and should not keep C<ev_loop> from exiting if
260     no event watchers registered by it are active. It is also an excellent
261     way to do this for generic recurring timers or from within third-party
262     libraries. Just remember to I<unref after start> and I<ref before stop>.
263 root 1.1
264     =back
265    
266     =head1 ANATOMY OF A WATCHER
267    
268     A watcher is a structure that you create and register to record your
269     interest in some event. For instance, if you want to wait for STDIN to
270 root 1.10 become readable, you would create an C<ev_io> watcher for that:
271 root 1.1
272     static void my_cb (struct ev_loop *loop, struct ev_io *w, int revents)
273     {
274     ev_io_stop (w);
275     ev_unloop (loop, EVUNLOOP_ALL);
276     }
277    
278     struct ev_loop *loop = ev_default_loop (0);
279     struct ev_io stdin_watcher;
280     ev_init (&stdin_watcher, my_cb);
281     ev_io_set (&stdin_watcher, STDIN_FILENO, EV_READ);
282     ev_io_start (loop, &stdin_watcher);
283     ev_loop (loop, 0);
284    
285     As you can see, you are responsible for allocating the memory for your
286     watcher structures (and it is usually a bad idea to do this on the stack,
287     although this can sometimes be quite valid).
288    
289     Each watcher structure must be initialised by a call to C<ev_init
290     (watcher *, callback)>, which expects a callback to be provided. This
291     callback gets invoked each time the event occurs (or, in the case of io
292     watchers, each time the event loop detects that the file descriptor given
293     is readable and/or writable).
294    
295     Each watcher type has its own C<< ev_<type>_set (watcher *, ...) >> macro
296     with arguments specific to this watcher type. There is also a macro
297     to combine initialisation and setting in one call: C<< ev_<type>_init
298     (watcher *, callback, ...) >>.
299    
300     To make the watcher actually watch out for events, you have to start it
301     with a watcher-specific start function (C<< ev_<type>_start (loop, watcher
302     *) >>), and you can stop watching for events at any time by calling the
303     corresponding stop function (C<< ev_<type>_stop (loop, watcher *) >>.
304    
305     As long as your watcher is active (has been started but not stopped) you
306     must not touch the values stored in it. Most specifically you must never
307     reinitialise it or call its set method.
308    
309 root 1.14 You can check whether an event is active by calling the C<ev_is_active
310 root 1.4 (watcher *)> macro. To see whether an event is outstanding (but the
311 root 1.14 callback for it has not been called yet) you can use the C<ev_is_pending
312 root 1.1 (watcher *)> macro.
313    
314     Each and every callback receives the event loop pointer as first, the
315     registered watcher structure as second, and a bitset of received events as
316     third argument.
317    
318 root 1.14 The received events usually include a single bit per event type received
319 root 1.1 (you can receive multiple events at the same time). The possible bit masks
320     are:
321    
322     =over 4
323    
324 root 1.10 =item C<EV_READ>
325 root 1.1
326 root 1.10 =item C<EV_WRITE>
327 root 1.1
328 root 1.10 The file descriptor in the C<ev_io> watcher has become readable and/or
329 root 1.1 writable.
330    
331 root 1.10 =item C<EV_TIMEOUT>
332 root 1.1
333 root 1.10 The C<ev_timer> watcher has timed out.
334 root 1.1
335 root 1.10 =item C<EV_PERIODIC>
336 root 1.1
337 root 1.10 The C<ev_periodic> watcher has timed out.
338 root 1.1
339 root 1.10 =item C<EV_SIGNAL>
340 root 1.1
341 root 1.10 The signal specified in the C<ev_signal> watcher has been received by a thread.
342 root 1.1
343 root 1.10 =item C<EV_CHILD>
344 root 1.1
345 root 1.10 The pid specified in the C<ev_child> watcher has received a status change.
346 root 1.1
347 root 1.10 =item C<EV_IDLE>
348 root 1.1
349 root 1.10 The C<ev_idle> watcher has determined that you have nothing better to do.
350 root 1.1
351 root 1.10 =item C<EV_PREPARE>
352 root 1.1
353 root 1.10 =item C<EV_CHECK>
354 root 1.1
355 root 1.10 All C<ev_prepare> watchers are invoked just I<before> C<ev_loop> starts
356     to gather new events, and all C<ev_check> watchers are invoked just after
357 root 1.1 C<ev_loop> has gathered them, but before it invokes any callbacks for any
358     received events. Callbacks of both watcher types can start and stop as
359     many watchers as they want, and all of them will be taken into account
360 root 1.10 (for example, a C<ev_prepare> watcher might start an idle watcher to keep
361 root 1.1 C<ev_loop> from blocking).
362    
363 root 1.10 =item C<EV_ERROR>
364 root 1.1
365     An unspecified error has occured, the watcher has been stopped. This might
366     happen because the watcher could not be properly started because libev
367     ran out of memory, a file descriptor was found to be closed or any other
368     problem. You best act on it by reporting the problem and somehow coping
369     with the watcher being stopped.
370    
371     Libev will usually signal a few "dummy" events together with an error,
372     for example it might indicate that a fd is readable or writable, and if
373     your callbacks is well-written it can just attempt the operation and cope
374     with the error from read() or write(). This will not work in multithreaded
375     programs, though, so beware.
376    
377     =back
378    
379     =head2 ASSOCIATING CUSTOM DATA WITH A WATCHER
380    
381     Each watcher has, by default, a member C<void *data> that you can change
382 root 1.14 and read at any time, libev will completely ignore it. This can be used
383 root 1.1 to associate arbitrary data with your watcher. If you need more data and
384     don't want to allocate memory and store a pointer to it in that data
385     member, you can also "subclass" the watcher type and provide your own
386     data:
387    
388     struct my_io
389     {
390     struct ev_io io;
391     int otherfd;
392     void *somedata;
393     struct whatever *mostinteresting;
394     }
395    
396     And since your callback will be called with a pointer to the watcher, you
397     can cast it back to your own type:
398    
399     static void my_cb (struct ev_loop *loop, struct ev_io *w_, int revents)
400     {
401     struct my_io *w = (struct my_io *)w_;
402     ...
403     }
404    
405     More interesting and less C-conformant ways of catsing your callback type
406     have been omitted....
407    
408    
409     =head1 WATCHER TYPES
410    
411     This section describes each watcher in detail, but will not repeat
412     information given in the last section.
413    
414 root 1.11 =head2 C<ev_io> - is this file descriptor readable or writable
415 root 1.1
416 root 1.4 I/O watchers check whether a file descriptor is readable or writable
417 root 1.1 in each iteration of the event loop (This behaviour is called
418     level-triggering because you keep receiving events as long as the
419 root 1.14 condition persists. Remember you can stop the watcher if you don't want to
420 root 1.1 act on the event and neither want to receive future events).
421    
422 root 1.8 In general you can register as many read and/or write event watchers oer
423     fd as you want (as long as you don't confuse yourself). Setting all file
424     descriptors to non-blocking mode is also usually a good idea (but not
425     required if you know what you are doing).
426    
427     You have to be careful with dup'ed file descriptors, though. Some backends
428     (the linux epoll backend is a notable example) cannot handle dup'ed file
429     descriptors correctly if you register interest in two or more fds pointing
430     to the same file/socket etc. description.
431    
432     If you must do this, then force the use of a known-to-be-good backend
433     (at the time of this writing, this includes only EVMETHOD_SELECT and
434     EVMETHOD_POLL).
435    
436 root 1.1 =over 4
437    
438     =item ev_io_init (ev_io *, callback, int fd, int events)
439    
440     =item ev_io_set (ev_io *, int fd, int events)
441    
442 root 1.10 Configures an C<ev_io> watcher. The fd is the file descriptor to rceeive
443 root 1.1 events for and events is either C<EV_READ>, C<EV_WRITE> or C<EV_READ |
444     EV_WRITE> to receive the given events.
445    
446     =back
447    
448 root 1.10 =head2 C<ev_timer> - relative and optionally recurring timeouts
449 root 1.1
450     Timer watchers are simple relative timers that generate an event after a
451     given time, and optionally repeating in regular intervals after that.
452    
453     The timers are based on real time, that is, if you register an event that
454     times out after an hour and youreset your system clock to last years
455     time, it will still time out after (roughly) and hour. "Roughly" because
456     detecting time jumps is hard, and soem inaccuracies are unavoidable (the
457     monotonic clock option helps a lot here).
458    
459 root 1.9 The relative timeouts are calculated relative to the C<ev_now ()>
460     time. This is usually the right thing as this timestamp refers to the time
461     of the event triggering whatever timeout you are modifying/starting. If
462     you suspect event processing to be delayed and you *need* to base the timeout
463     ion the current time, use something like this to adjust for this:
464    
465     ev_timer_set (&timer, after + ev_now () - ev_time (), 0.);
466    
467 root 1.1 =over 4
468    
469     =item ev_timer_init (ev_timer *, callback, ev_tstamp after, ev_tstamp repeat)
470    
471     =item ev_timer_set (ev_timer *, ev_tstamp after, ev_tstamp repeat)
472    
473     Configure the timer to trigger after C<after> seconds. If C<repeat> is
474     C<0.>, then it will automatically be stopped. If it is positive, then the
475     timer will automatically be configured to trigger again C<repeat> seconds
476     later, again, and again, until stopped manually.
477    
478     The timer itself will do a best-effort at avoiding drift, that is, if you
479     configure a timer to trigger every 10 seconds, then it will trigger at
480     exactly 10 second intervals. If, however, your program cannot keep up with
481     the timer (ecause it takes longer than those 10 seconds to do stuff) the
482     timer will not fire more than once per event loop iteration.
483    
484     =item ev_timer_again (loop)
485    
486     This will act as if the timer timed out and restart it again if it is
487     repeating. The exact semantics are:
488    
489     If the timer is started but nonrepeating, stop it.
490    
491     If the timer is repeating, either start it if necessary (with the repeat
492     value), or reset the running timer to the repeat value.
493    
494     This sounds a bit complicated, but here is a useful and typical
495     example: Imagine you have a tcp connection and you want a so-called idle
496     timeout, that is, you want to be called when there have been, say, 60
497     seconds of inactivity on the socket. The easiest way to do this is to
498 root 1.10 configure an C<ev_timer> with after=repeat=60 and calling ev_timer_again each
499 root 1.1 time you successfully read or write some data. If you go into an idle
500     state where you do not expect data to travel on the socket, you can stop
501     the timer, and again will automatically restart it if need be.
502    
503     =back
504    
505 root 1.14 =head2 C<ev_periodic> - to cron or not to cron
506 root 1.1
507     Periodic watchers are also timers of a kind, but they are very versatile
508     (and unfortunately a bit complex).
509    
510 root 1.10 Unlike C<ev_timer>'s, they are not based on real time (or relative time)
511 root 1.1 but on wallclock time (absolute time). You can tell a periodic watcher
512     to trigger "at" some specific point in time. For example, if you tell a
513     periodic watcher to trigger in 10 seconds (by specifiying e.g. c<ev_now ()
514     + 10.>) and then reset your system clock to the last year, then it will
515 root 1.10 take a year to trigger the event (unlike an C<ev_timer>, which would trigger
516 root 1.1 roughly 10 seconds later and of course not if you reset your system time
517     again).
518    
519     They can also be used to implement vastly more complex timers, such as
520     triggering an event on eahc midnight, local time.
521    
522     =over 4
523    
524     =item ev_periodic_init (ev_periodic *, callback, ev_tstamp at, ev_tstamp interval, reschedule_cb)
525    
526     =item ev_periodic_set (ev_periodic *, ev_tstamp after, ev_tstamp repeat, reschedule_cb)
527    
528     Lots of arguments, lets sort it out... There are basically three modes of
529     operation, and we will explain them from simplest to complex:
530    
531    
532     =over 4
533    
534     =item * absolute timer (interval = reschedule_cb = 0)
535    
536     In this configuration the watcher triggers an event at the wallclock time
537     C<at> and doesn't repeat. It will not adjust when a time jump occurs,
538     that is, if it is to be run at January 1st 2011 then it will run when the
539     system time reaches or surpasses this time.
540    
541     =item * non-repeating interval timer (interval > 0, reschedule_cb = 0)
542    
543     In this mode the watcher will always be scheduled to time out at the next
544     C<at + N * interval> time (for some integer N) and then repeat, regardless
545     of any time jumps.
546    
547     This can be used to create timers that do not drift with respect to system
548     time:
549    
550     ev_periodic_set (&periodic, 0., 3600., 0);
551    
552     This doesn't mean there will always be 3600 seconds in between triggers,
553     but only that the the callback will be called when the system time shows a
554 root 1.12 full hour (UTC), or more correctly, when the system time is evenly divisible
555 root 1.1 by 3600.
556    
557     Another way to think about it (for the mathematically inclined) is that
558 root 1.10 C<ev_periodic> will try to run the callback in this mode at the next possible
559 root 1.1 time where C<time = at (mod interval)>, regardless of any time jumps.
560    
561     =item * manual reschedule mode (reschedule_cb = callback)
562    
563     In this mode the values for C<interval> and C<at> are both being
564     ignored. Instead, each time the periodic watcher gets scheduled, the
565     reschedule callback will be called with the watcher as first, and the
566     current time as second argument.
567    
568 root 1.18 NOTE: I<This callback MUST NOT stop or destroy any periodic watcher,
569     ever, or make any event loop modifications>. If you need to stop it,
570     return C<now + 1e30> (or so, fudge fudge) and stop it afterwards (e.g. by
571     starting a prepare watcher).
572 root 1.1
573 root 1.13 Its prototype is C<ev_tstamp (*reschedule_cb)(struct ev_periodic *w,
574 root 1.1 ev_tstamp now)>, e.g.:
575    
576     static ev_tstamp my_rescheduler (struct ev_periodic *w, ev_tstamp now)
577     {
578     return now + 60.;
579     }
580    
581     It must return the next time to trigger, based on the passed time value
582     (that is, the lowest time value larger than to the second argument). It
583     will usually be called just before the callback will be triggered, but
584     might be called at other times, too.
585    
586 root 1.18 NOTE: I<< This callback must always return a time that is later than the
587 root 1.19 passed C<now> value >>. Not even C<now> itself will do, it I<must> be larger.
588 root 1.18
589 root 1.1 This can be used to create very complex timers, such as a timer that
590     triggers on each midnight, local time. To do this, you would calculate the
591 root 1.19 next midnight after C<now> and return the timestamp value for this. How
592     you do this is, again, up to you (but it is not trivial, which is the main
593     reason I omitted it as an example).
594 root 1.1
595     =back
596    
597     =item ev_periodic_again (loop, ev_periodic *)
598    
599     Simply stops and restarts the periodic watcher again. This is only useful
600     when you changed some parameters or the reschedule callback would return
601     a different time than the last time it was called (e.g. in a crond like
602     program when the crontabs have changed).
603    
604     =back
605    
606 root 1.10 =head2 C<ev_signal> - signal me when a signal gets signalled
607 root 1.1
608     Signal watchers will trigger an event when the process receives a specific
609     signal one or more times. Even though signals are very asynchronous, libev
610 root 1.9 will try it's best to deliver signals synchronously, i.e. as part of the
611 root 1.1 normal event processing, like any other event.
612    
613 root 1.14 You can configure as many watchers as you like per signal. Only when the
614 root 1.1 first watcher gets started will libev actually register a signal watcher
615     with the kernel (thus it coexists with your own signal handlers as long
616     as you don't register any with libev). Similarly, when the last signal
617     watcher for a signal is stopped libev will reset the signal handler to
618     SIG_DFL (regardless of what it was set to before).
619    
620     =over 4
621    
622     =item ev_signal_init (ev_signal *, callback, int signum)
623    
624     =item ev_signal_set (ev_signal *, int signum)
625    
626     Configures the watcher to trigger on the given signal number (usually one
627     of the C<SIGxxx> constants).
628    
629     =back
630    
631 root 1.10 =head2 C<ev_child> - wait for pid status changes
632 root 1.1
633     Child watchers trigger when your process receives a SIGCHLD in response to
634     some child status changes (most typically when a child of yours dies).
635    
636     =over 4
637    
638     =item ev_child_init (ev_child *, callback, int pid)
639    
640     =item ev_child_set (ev_child *, int pid)
641    
642     Configures the watcher to wait for status changes of process C<pid> (or
643     I<any> process if C<pid> is specified as C<0>). The callback can look
644     at the C<rstatus> member of the C<ev_child> watcher structure to see
645 root 1.14 the status word (use the macros from C<sys/wait.h> and see your systems
646     C<waitpid> documentation). The C<rpid> member contains the pid of the
647     process causing the status change.
648 root 1.1
649     =back
650    
651 root 1.10 =head2 C<ev_idle> - when you've got nothing better to do
652 root 1.1
653 root 1.14 Idle watchers trigger events when there are no other events are pending
654     (prepare, check and other idle watchers do not count). That is, as long
655     as your process is busy handling sockets or timeouts (or even signals,
656     imagine) it will not be triggered. But when your process is idle all idle
657     watchers are being called again and again, once per event loop iteration -
658     until stopped, that is, or your process receives more events and becomes
659     busy.
660 root 1.1
661     The most noteworthy effect is that as long as any idle watchers are
662     active, the process will not block when waiting for new events.
663    
664     Apart from keeping your process non-blocking (which is a useful
665     effect on its own sometimes), idle watchers are a good place to do
666     "pseudo-background processing", or delay processing stuff to after the
667     event loop has handled all outstanding events.
668    
669     =over 4
670    
671     =item ev_idle_init (ev_signal *, callback)
672    
673     Initialises and configures the idle watcher - it has no parameters of any
674     kind. There is a C<ev_idle_set> macro, but using it is utterly pointless,
675     believe me.
676    
677     =back
678    
679 root 1.16 =head2 C<ev_prepare> and C<ev_check> - customise your event loop
680 root 1.1
681 root 1.14 Prepare and check watchers are usually (but not always) used in tandem:
682     Prepare watchers get invoked before the process blocks and check watchers
683     afterwards.
684 root 1.1
685     Their main purpose is to integrate other event mechanisms into libev. This
686     could be used, for example, to track variable changes, implement your own
687     watchers, integrate net-snmp or a coroutine library and lots more.
688    
689     This is done by examining in each prepare call which file descriptors need
690 root 1.14 to be watched by the other library, registering C<ev_io> watchers for
691     them and starting an C<ev_timer> watcher for any timeouts (many libraries
692     provide just this functionality). Then, in the check watcher you check for
693     any events that occured (by checking the pending status of all watchers
694     and stopping them) and call back into the library. The I/O and timer
695     callbacks will never actually be called (but must be valid neverthelles,
696     because you never know, you know?).
697 root 1.1
698 root 1.14 As another example, the Perl Coro module uses these hooks to integrate
699 root 1.1 coroutines into libev programs, by yielding to other active coroutines
700     during each prepare and only letting the process block if no coroutines
701 root 1.14 are ready to run (its actually more complicated, it only runs coroutines
702     with priority higher than the event loop and one lower priority once,
703     using idle watchers to keep the event loop from blocking if lower-priority
704     coroutines exist, thus mapping low-priority coroutines to idle/background
705     tasks).
706 root 1.1
707     =over 4
708    
709     =item ev_prepare_init (ev_prepare *, callback)
710    
711     =item ev_check_init (ev_check *, callback)
712    
713     Initialises and configures the prepare or check watcher - they have no
714     parameters of any kind. There are C<ev_prepare_set> and C<ev_check_set>
715 root 1.14 macros, but using them is utterly, utterly and completely pointless.
716 root 1.1
717     =back
718    
719     =head1 OTHER FUNCTIONS
720    
721 root 1.14 There are some other functions of possible interest. Described. Here. Now.
722 root 1.1
723     =over 4
724    
725     =item ev_once (loop, int fd, int events, ev_tstamp timeout, callback)
726    
727     This function combines a simple timer and an I/O watcher, calls your
728     callback on whichever event happens first and automatically stop both
729     watchers. This is useful if you want to wait for a single event on an fd
730     or timeout without havign to allocate/configure/start/stop/free one or
731     more watchers yourself.
732    
733 root 1.14 If C<fd> is less than 0, then no I/O watcher will be started and events
734     is being ignored. Otherwise, an C<ev_io> watcher for the given C<fd> and
735     C<events> set will be craeted and started.
736 root 1.1
737     If C<timeout> is less than 0, then no timeout watcher will be
738 root 1.14 started. Otherwise an C<ev_timer> watcher with after = C<timeout> (and
739     repeat = 0) will be started. While C<0> is a valid timeout, it is of
740     dubious value.
741    
742     The callback has the type C<void (*cb)(int revents, void *arg)> and gets
743     passed an events set like normal event callbacks (with a combination of
744     C<EV_ERROR>, C<EV_READ>, C<EV_WRITE> or C<EV_TIMEOUT>) and the C<arg>
745     value passed to C<ev_once>:
746 root 1.1
747     static void stdin_ready (int revents, void *arg)
748     {
749     if (revents & EV_TIMEOUT)
750 root 1.14 /* doh, nothing entered */;
751 root 1.1 else if (revents & EV_READ)
752 root 1.14 /* stdin might have data for us, joy! */;
753 root 1.1 }
754    
755 root 1.14 ev_once (STDIN_FILENO, EV_READ, 10., stdin_ready, 0);
756 root 1.1
757     =item ev_feed_event (loop, watcher, int events)
758    
759     Feeds the given event set into the event loop, as if the specified event
760 root 1.14 had happened for the specified watcher (which must be a pointer to an
761     initialised but not necessarily started event watcher).
762 root 1.1
763     =item ev_feed_fd_event (loop, int fd, int revents)
764    
765 root 1.14 Feed an event on the given fd, as if a file descriptor backend detected
766     the given events it.
767 root 1.1
768     =item ev_feed_signal_event (loop, int signum)
769    
770     Feed an event as if the given signal occured (loop must be the default loop!).
771    
772     =back
773    
774     =head1 AUTHOR
775    
776     Marc Lehmann <libev@schmorp.de>.
777