[ViewVC] Diff of: cvs/libev/ev.pod

Comparing libev/ev.pod (file contents):
Revision 1.41 by root, Sat Nov 24 10:19:14 2007 UTC vs.
Revision 1.42 by root, Sat Nov 24 16:31:45 2007 UTC

   ev_ref (myloop);
   ev_signal_stop (myloop, &exitsig);
 =back
 =head1 ANATOMY OF A WATCHER
 A watcher is a structure that you create and register to record your
 interest in some event. For instance, if you want to wait for STDIN to
 become readable, you would create an C<ev_io> watcher for that:
 with the error from read() or write(). This will not work in multithreaded
 programs, though, so beware.
 =back
-=head2 SUMMARY OF GENERIC WATCHER FUNCTIONS
+=head2 GENERIC WATCHER FUNCTIONS
 In the following description, C<TYPE> stands for the watcher type,
 e.g. C<timer> for C<ev_timer> watchers and C<io> for C<ev_io> watchers.
 =over 4
 which rolls both calls into one.
 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 C<void (*)(ev_loop *loop, ev_TYPE *watcher,
+The callback is always of type C<void (*)(ev_loop *loop, ev_TYPE *watcher,
 int revents)>.
 =item C<ev_TYPE_set> (ev_TYPE *, [args])
 This macro initialises the type-specific parts of a watcher. You need to
 This section describes each watcher in detail, but will not repeat
 information given in the last section.
-=head2 C<ev_io> - is this file descriptor readable or writable
+=head2 C<ev_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
+in each iteration of the event loop, or, more precisely, when reading
-level-triggering because you keep receiving events as long as the
+would not block the process and writing would at least be able to write
-condition persists. Remember you can stop the watcher if you don't want to
+some data. This behaviour is called level-triggering because you keep
-act on the event and neither want to receive future events).
+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
 required if you know what you are doing).
 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 C<EVBACKEND_SELECT> and
 C<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 C<EV_READ> but a subsequent C<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 C<read>(2) returning
+C<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).
 =over 4
 =item ev_io_init (ev_io *, callback, int fd, int events)
 =item ev_io_set (ev_io *, int fd, int events)
-Configures an C<ev_io> watcher. The fd is the file descriptor to rceeive
+Configures an C<ev_io> watcher. The C<fd> is the file descriptor to
-events for and events is either C<EV_READ>, C<EV_WRITE> or C<EV_READ |
+rceeive events for and events is either C<EV_READ>, C<EV_WRITE> or
-EV_WRITE> to receive the given events.
+C<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
-C<EVBACKEND_SELECT> or C<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.
 =back
 Example: call C<stdin_readable_cb> when STDIN_FILENO has become, well
 readable, but only once. Since it is likely line-buffered, you could
   ev_io_init (&stdin_readable, stdin_readable_cb, STDIN_FILENO, EV_READ);
   ev_io_start (loop, &stdin_readable);
   ev_loop (loop, 0);
-=head2 C<ev_timer> - relative and optionally recurring timeouts
+=head2 C<ev_timer> - relative and optionally repeating timeouts
 Timer watchers are simple relative timers that generate an event after a
 given time, and optionally repeating in regular intervals after that.
 The timers are based on real time, that is, if you register an event that
   // and in some piece of code that gets executed on any "activity":
   // reset the timeout to start ticking again at 10 seconds
   ev_timer_again (&mytimer);
-=head2 C<ev_periodic> - to cron or not to cron
+=head2 C<ev_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).
 Unlike C<ev_timer>'s, they are not based on real time (or relative time)
   ev_periodic_init (&hourly_tick, clock_cb,
                     fmod (ev_now (loop), 3600.), 3600., 0);
   ev_periodic_start (loop, &hourly_tick);
-=head2 C<ev_signal> - signal me when a signal gets signalled
+=head2 C<ev_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
 will try it's best to deliver signals synchronously, i.e. as part of the
 normal event processing, like any other event.
 of the C<SIGxxx> constants).
 =back
-=head2 C<ev_child> - wait for pid status changes
+=head2 C<ev_child> - watch out for process status changes
 Child watchers trigger when your process receives a SIGCHLD in response to
 some child status changes (most typically when a child of yours dies).
 =over 4
   struct ev_signal signal_watcher;
   ev_signal_init (&signal_watcher, sigint_cb, SIGINT);
   ev_signal_start (loop, &sigint_cb);
-=head2 C<ev_idle> - when you've got nothing better to do
+=head2 C<ev_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
 as your process is busy handling sockets or timeouts (or even signals,
 imagine) it will not be triggered. But when your process is idle all idle
   struct ev_idle *idle_watcher = malloc (sizeof (struct ev_idle));
   ev_idle_init (idle_watcher, idle_cb);
   ev_idle_start (loop, idle_cb);
-=head2 C<ev_prepare> and C<ev_check> - customise your event loop
+=head2 C<ev_prepare> and C<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
 afterwards.
 =back
 Example: *TODO*.
-=head2 C<ev_embed> - when one backend isn't enough
+=head2 C<ev_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 C<ev_io> events are supported in the embedded
 loop, other types of watchers might be handled in a delayed or incorrect
 fashion and must not be used).

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Comparing libev/ev.pod (file contents): Revision 1.41 by root, Sat Nov 24 10:19:14 2007 UTC vs. Revision 1.42 by root, Sat Nov 24 16:31:45 2007 UTC

Diff Legend

Comparing libev/ev.pod (file contents):
Revision 1.41 by root, Sat Nov 24 10:19:14 2007 UTC vs.
Revision 1.42 by root, Sat Nov 24 16:31:45 2007 UTC