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		1	=encoding utf-8
		2
1	=head1 NAME	3	=head1 NAME
2		4
3	libev - a high performance full-featured event loop written in C	5	libev - a high performance full-featured event loop written in C
4		6
5	=head1 SYNOPSIS	7	=head1 SYNOPSIS
6		8
7	#include <ev.h>	9	#include <ev.h>
8		10
9	=head1 EXAMPLE PROGRAM	11	=head2 EXAMPLE PROGRAM
10		12
		13	// a single header file is required
11	#include <ev.h>	14	#include <ev.h>
12		15
		16	#include <stdio.h> // for puts
		17
		18	// every watcher type has its own typedef'd struct
		19	// with the name ev_TYPE
13	ev_io stdin_watcher;	20	ev_io stdin_watcher;
14	ev_timer timeout_watcher;	21	ev_timer timeout_watcher;
15		22
16	/* called when data readable on stdin */	23	// all watcher callbacks have a similar signature
		24	// this callback is called when data is readable on stdin
17	static void	25	static void
18	stdin_cb (EV_P_ struct ev_io *w, int revents)	26	stdin_cb (EV_P_ ev_io *w, int revents)
19	{	27	{
20	/* puts ("stdin ready"); */	28	puts ("stdin ready");
21	ev_io_stop (EV_A_ w); /* just a syntax example */	29	// for one-shot events, one must manually stop the watcher
22	ev_unloop (EV_A_ EVUNLOOP_ALL); /* leave all loop calls */	30	// with its corresponding stop function.
		31	ev_io_stop (EV_A_ w);
		32
		33	// this causes all nested ev_run's to stop iterating
		34	ev_break (EV_A_ EVBREAK_ALL);
23	}	35	}
24		36
		37	// another callback, this time for a time-out
25	static void	38	static void
26	timeout_cb (EV_P_ struct ev_timer *w, int revents)	39	timeout_cb (EV_P_ ev_timer *w, int revents)
27	{	40	{
28	/* puts ("timeout"); */	41	puts ("timeout");
29	ev_unloop (EV_A_ EVUNLOOP_ONE); /* leave one loop call */	42	// this causes the innermost ev_run to stop iterating
		43	ev_break (EV_A_ EVBREAK_ONE);
30	}	44	}
31		45
32	int	46	int
33	main (void)	47	main (void)
34	{	48	{
35	struct ev_loop *loop = ev_default_loop (0);	49	// use the default event loop unless you have special needs
		50	struct ev_loop *loop = EV_DEFAULT;
36		51
37	/* initialise an io watcher, then start it */	52	// initialise an io watcher, then start it
		53	// this one will watch for stdin to become readable
38	ev_io_init (&stdin_watcher, stdin_cb, /*STDIN_FILENO*/ 0, EV_READ);	54	ev_io_init (&stdin_watcher, stdin_cb, /*STDIN_FILENO*/ 0, EV_READ);
39	ev_io_start (loop, &stdin_watcher);	55	ev_io_start (loop, &stdin_watcher);
40		56
		57	// initialise a timer watcher, then start it
41	/* simple non-repeating 5.5 second timeout */	58	// simple non-repeating 5.5 second timeout
42	ev_timer_init (&timeout_watcher, timeout_cb, 5.5, 0.);	59	ev_timer_init (&timeout_watcher, timeout_cb, 5.5, 0.);
43	ev_timer_start (loop, &timeout_watcher);	60	ev_timer_start (loop, &timeout_watcher);
44		61
45	/* loop till timeout or data ready */	62	// now wait for events to arrive
46	ev_loop (loop, 0);	63	ev_run (loop, 0);
47		64
		65	// break was called, so exit
48	return 0;	66	return 0;
49	}	67	}
50		68
51	=head1 DESCRIPTION	69	=head1 ABOUT THIS DOCUMENT
52		70
		71	This document documents the libev software package.
		72
53	The newest version of this document is also available as a html-formatted	73	The newest version of this document is also available as an html-formatted
54	web page you might find easier to navigate when reading it for the first	74	web page you might find easier to navigate when reading it for the first
55	time: L<http://cvs.schmorp.de/libev/ev.html>.	75	time: L<http://pod.tst.eu/http://cvs.schmorp.de/libev/ev.pod>.
		76
		77	While this document tries to be as complete as possible in documenting
		78	libev, its usage and the rationale behind its design, it is not a tutorial
		79	on event-based programming, nor will it introduce event-based programming
		80	with libev.
		81
		82	Familiarity with event based programming techniques in general is assumed
		83	throughout this document.
		84
		85	=head1 WHAT TO READ WHEN IN A HURRY
		86
		87	This manual tries to be very detailed, but unfortunately, this also makes
		88	it very long. If you just want to know the basics of libev, I suggest
		89	reading L</ANATOMY OF A WATCHER>, then the L</EXAMPLE PROGRAM> above and
		90	look up the missing functions in L</GLOBAL FUNCTIONS> and the C<ev_io> and
		91	C<ev_timer> sections in L</WATCHER TYPES>.
		92
		93	=head1 ABOUT LIBEV
56		94
57	Libev is an event loop: you register interest in certain events (such as a	95	Libev is an event loop: you register interest in certain events (such as a
58	file descriptor being readable or a timeout occuring), and it will manage	96	file descriptor being readable or a timeout occurring), and it will manage
59	these event sources and provide your program with events.	97	these event sources and provide your program with events.
60		98
61	To do this, it must take more or less complete control over your process	99	To do this, it must take more or less complete control over your process
62	(or thread) by executing the I<event loop> handler, and will then	100	(or thread) by executing the I<event loop> handler, and will then
63	communicate events via a callback mechanism.	101	communicate events via a callback mechanism.
…		…
65	You register interest in certain events by registering so-called I<event	103	You register interest in certain events by registering so-called I<event
66	watchers>, which are relatively small C structures you initialise with the	104	watchers>, which are relatively small C structures you initialise with the
67	details of the event, and then hand it over to libev by I<starting> the	105	details of the event, and then hand it over to libev by I<starting> the
68	watcher.	106	watcher.
69		107
70	=head1 FEATURES	108	=head2 FEATURES
71		109
72	Libev supports C<select>, C<poll>, the Linux-specific C<epoll>, the	110	Libev supports C<select>, C<poll>, the Linux-specific aio and C<epoll>
73	BSD-specific C<kqueue> and the Solaris-specific event port mechanisms	111	interfaces, the BSD-specific C<kqueue> and the Solaris-specific event port
74	for file descriptor events (C<ev_io>), the Linux C<inotify> interface	112	mechanisms for file descriptor events (C<ev_io>), the Linux C<inotify>
75	(for C<ev_stat>), relative timers (C<ev_timer>), absolute timers	113	interface (for C<ev_stat>), Linux eventfd/signalfd (for faster and cleaner
76	with customised rescheduling (C<ev_periodic>), synchronous signals	114	inter-thread wakeup (C<ev_async>)/signal handling (C<ev_signal>)) relative
77	(C<ev_signal>), process status change events (C<ev_child>), and event	115	timers (C<ev_timer>), absolute timers with customised rescheduling
78	watchers dealing with the event loop mechanism itself (C<ev_idle>,	116	(C<ev_periodic>), synchronous signals (C<ev_signal>), process status
79	C<ev_embed>, C<ev_prepare> and C<ev_check> watchers) as well as	117	change events (C<ev_child>), and event watchers dealing with the event
80	file watchers (C<ev_stat>) and even limited support for fork events	118	loop mechanism itself (C<ev_idle>, C<ev_embed>, C<ev_prepare> and
81	(C<ev_fork>).	119	C<ev_check> watchers) as well as file watchers (C<ev_stat>) and even
		120	limited support for fork events (C<ev_fork>).
82		121
83	It also is quite fast (see this	122	It also is quite fast (see this
84	L<benchmark|http://libev.schmorp.de/bench.html> comparing it to libevent	123	L<benchmark|http://libev.schmorp.de/bench.html> comparing it to libevent
85	for example).	124	for example).
86		125
87	=head1 CONVENTIONS	126	=head2 CONVENTIONS
88		127
89	Libev is very configurable. In this manual the default configuration will	128	Libev is very configurable. In this manual the default (and most common)
90	be described, which supports multiple event loops. For more info about	129	configuration will be described, which supports multiple event loops. For
91	various configuration options please have a look at B<EMBED> section in	130	more info about various configuration options please have a look at
92	this manual. If libev was configured without support for multiple event	131	B<EMBED> section in this manual. If libev was configured without support
93	loops, then all functions taking an initial argument of name C<loop>	132	for multiple event loops, then all functions taking an initial argument of
94	(which is always of type C<struct ev_loop *>) will not have this argument.	133	name C<loop> (which is always of type C<struct ev_loop *>) will not have
		134	this argument.
95		135
96	=head1 TIME REPRESENTATION	136	=head2 TIME REPRESENTATION
97		137
98	Libev represents time as a single floating point number, representing the	138	Libev represents time as a single floating point number, representing
99	(fractional) number of seconds since the (POSIX) epoch (somewhere near	139	the (fractional) number of seconds since the (POSIX) epoch (in practice
100	the beginning of 1970, details are complicated, don't ask). This type is	140	somewhere near the beginning of 1970, details are complicated, don't
101	called C<ev_tstamp>, which is what you should use too. It usually aliases	141	ask). This type is called C<ev_tstamp>, which is what you should use
102	to the C<double> type in C, and when you need to do any calculations on	142	too. It usually aliases to the C<double> type in C. When you need to do
103	it, you should treat it as such.	143	any calculations on it, you should treat it as some floating point value.
		144
		145	Unlike the name component C<stamp> might indicate, it is also used for
		146	time differences (e.g. delays) throughout libev.
		147
		148	=head1 ERROR HANDLING
		149
		150	Libev knows three classes of errors: operating system errors, usage errors
		151	and internal errors (bugs).
		152
		153	When libev catches an operating system error it cannot handle (for example
		154	a system call indicating a condition libev cannot fix), it calls the callback
		155	set via C<ev_set_syserr_cb>, which is supposed to fix the problem or
		156	abort. The default is to print a diagnostic message and to call C<abort
		157	()>.
		158
		159	When libev detects a usage error such as a negative timer interval, then
		160	it will print a diagnostic message and abort (via the C<assert> mechanism,
		161	so C<NDEBUG> will disable this checking): these are programming errors in
		162	the libev caller and need to be fixed there.
		163
		164	Via the C<EV_FREQUENT> macro you can compile in and/or enable extensive
		165	consistency checking code inside libev that can be used to check for
		166	internal inconsistencies, suually caused by application bugs.
		167
		168	Libev also has a few internal error-checking C<assert>ions. These do not
		169	trigger under normal circumstances, as they indicate either a bug in libev
		170	or worse.
		171
104		172
105	=head1 GLOBAL FUNCTIONS	173	=head1 GLOBAL FUNCTIONS
106		174
107	These functions can be called anytime, even before initialising the	175	These functions can be called anytime, even before initialising the
108	library in any way.	176	library in any way.
…		…
111		179
112	=item ev_tstamp ev_time ()	180	=item ev_tstamp ev_time ()
113		181
114	Returns the current time as libev would use it. Please note that the	182	Returns the current time as libev would use it. Please note that the
115	C<ev_now> function is usually faster and also often returns the timestamp	183	C<ev_now> function is usually faster and also often returns the timestamp
116	you actually want to know.	184	you actually want to know. Also interesting is the combination of
		185	C<ev_now_update> and C<ev_now>.
		186
		187	=item ev_sleep (ev_tstamp interval)
		188
		189	Sleep for the given interval: The current thread will be blocked
		190	until either it is interrupted or the given time interval has
		191	passed (approximately - it might return a bit earlier even if not
		192	interrupted). Returns immediately if C<< interval <= 0 >>.
		193
		194	Basically this is a sub-second-resolution C<sleep ()>.
		195
		196	The range of the C<interval> is limited - libev only guarantees to work
		197	with sleep times of up to one day (C<< interval <= 86400 >>).
117		198
118	=item int ev_version_major ()	199	=item int ev_version_major ()
119		200
120	=item int ev_version_minor ()	201	=item int ev_version_minor ()
121		202
122	You can find out the major and minor version numbers of the library	203	You can find out the major and minor ABI version numbers of the library
123	you linked against by calling the functions C<ev_version_major> and	204	you linked against by calling the functions C<ev_version_major> and
124	C<ev_version_minor>. If you want, you can compare against the global	205	C<ev_version_minor>. If you want, you can compare against the global
125	symbols C<EV_VERSION_MAJOR> and C<EV_VERSION_MINOR>, which specify the	206	symbols C<EV_VERSION_MAJOR> and C<EV_VERSION_MINOR>, which specify the
126	version of the library your program was compiled against.	207	version of the library your program was compiled against.
127		208
		209	These version numbers refer to the ABI version of the library, not the
		210	release version.
		211
128	Usually, it's a good idea to terminate if the major versions mismatch,	212	Usually, it's a good idea to terminate if the major versions mismatch,
129	as this indicates an incompatible change. Minor versions are usually	213	as this indicates an incompatible change. Minor versions are usually
130	compatible to older versions, so a larger minor version alone is usually	214	compatible to older versions, so a larger minor version alone is usually
131	not a problem.	215	not a problem.
132		216
133	Example: Make sure we haven't accidentally been linked against the wrong	217	Example: Make sure we haven't accidentally been linked against the wrong
134	version.	218	version (note, however, that this will not detect other ABI mismatches,
		219	such as LFS or reentrancy).
135		220
136	assert (("libev version mismatch",	221	assert (("libev version mismatch",
137	ev_version_major () == EV_VERSION_MAJOR	222	ev_version_major () == EV_VERSION_MAJOR
138	&& ev_version_minor () >= EV_VERSION_MINOR));	223	&& ev_version_minor () >= EV_VERSION_MINOR));
139		224
140	=item unsigned int ev_supported_backends ()	225	=item unsigned int ev_supported_backends ()
141		226
142	Return the set of all backends (i.e. their corresponding C<EV_BACKEND_*>	227	Return the set of all backends (i.e. their corresponding C<EV_BACKEND_*>
143	value) compiled into this binary of libev (independent of their	228	value) compiled into this binary of libev (independent of their
…		…
145	a description of the set values.	230	a description of the set values.
146		231
147	Example: make sure we have the epoll method, because yeah this is cool and	232	Example: make sure we have the epoll method, because yeah this is cool and
148	a must have and can we have a torrent of it please!!!11	233	a must have and can we have a torrent of it please!!!11
149		234
150	assert (("sorry, no epoll, no sex",	235	assert (("sorry, no epoll, no sex",
151	ev_supported_backends () & EVBACKEND_EPOLL));	236	ev_supported_backends () & EVBACKEND_EPOLL));
152		237
153	=item unsigned int ev_recommended_backends ()	238	=item unsigned int ev_recommended_backends ()
154		239
155	Return the set of all backends compiled into this binary of libev and also	240	Return the set of all backends compiled into this binary of libev and
156	recommended for this platform. This set is often smaller than the one	241	also recommended for this platform, meaning it will work for most file
		242	descriptor types. This set is often smaller than the one returned by
157	returned by C<ev_supported_backends>, as for example kqueue is broken on	243	C<ev_supported_backends>, as for example kqueue is broken on most BSDs
158	most BSDs and will not be autodetected unless you explicitly request it	244	and will not be auto-detected unless you explicitly request it (assuming
159	(assuming you know what you are doing). This is the set of backends that	245	you know what you are doing). This is the set of backends that libev will
160	libev will probe for if you specify no backends explicitly.	246	probe for if you specify no backends explicitly.
161		247
162	=item unsigned int ev_embeddable_backends ()	248	=item unsigned int ev_embeddable_backends ()
163		249
164	Returns the set of backends that are embeddable in other event loops. This	250	Returns the set of backends that are embeddable in other event loops. This
165	is the theoretical, all-platform, value. To find which backends	251	value is platform-specific but can include backends not available on the
166	might be supported on the current system, you would need to look at	252	current system. To find which embeddable backends might be supported on
167	C<ev_embeddable_backends () & ev_supported_backends ()>, likewise for	253	the current system, you would need to look at C<ev_embeddable_backends ()
168	recommended ones.	254	& ev_supported_backends ()>, likewise for recommended ones.
169		255
170	See the description of C<ev_embed> watchers for more info.	256	See the description of C<ev_embed> watchers for more info.
171		257
172	=item ev_set_allocator (void *(*cb)(void *ptr, long size))	258	=item ev_set_allocator (void *(*cb)(void *ptr, long size) throw ())
173		259
174	Sets the allocation function to use (the prototype is similar - the	260	Sets the allocation function to use (the prototype is similar - the
175	semantics is identical - to the realloc C function). It is used to	261	semantics are identical to the C<realloc> C89/SuS/POSIX function). It is
176	allocate and free memory (no surprises here). If it returns zero when	262	used to allocate and free memory (no surprises here). If it returns zero
177	memory needs to be allocated, the library might abort or take some	263	when memory needs to be allocated (C<size != 0>), the library might abort
178	potentially destructive action. The default is your system realloc	264	or take some potentially destructive action.
179	function.	265
		266	Since some systems (at least OpenBSD and Darwin) fail to implement
		267	correct C<realloc> semantics, libev will use a wrapper around the system
		268	C<realloc> and C<free> functions by default.
180		269
181	You could override this function in high-availability programs to, say,	270	You could override this function in high-availability programs to, say,
182	free some memory if it cannot allocate memory, to use a special allocator,	271	free some memory if it cannot allocate memory, to use a special allocator,
183	or even to sleep a while and retry until some memory is available.	272	or even to sleep a while and retry until some memory is available.
184		273
		274	Example: The following is the C<realloc> function that libev itself uses
		275	which should work with C<realloc> and C<free> functions of all kinds and
		276	is probably a good basis for your own implementation.
		277
		278	static void *
		279	ev_realloc_emul (void *ptr, long size) EV_NOEXCEPT
		280	{
		281	if (size)
		282	return realloc (ptr, size);
		283
		284	free (ptr);
		285	return 0;
		286	}
		287
185	Example: Replace the libev allocator with one that waits a bit and then	288	Example: Replace the libev allocator with one that waits a bit and then
186	retries).	289	retries.
187		290
188	static void *	291	static void *
189	persistent_realloc (void *ptr, size_t size)	292	persistent_realloc (void *ptr, size_t size)
190	{	293	{
		294	if (!size)
		295	{
		296	free (ptr);
		297	return 0;
		298	}
		299
191	for (;;)	300	for (;;)
192	{	301	{
193	void *newptr = realloc (ptr, size);	302	void *newptr = realloc (ptr, size);
194		303
195	if (newptr)	304	if (newptr)
…		…
200	}	309	}
201		310
202	...	311	...
203	ev_set_allocator (persistent_realloc);	312	ev_set_allocator (persistent_realloc);
204		313
205	=item ev_set_syserr_cb (void (*cb)(const char *msg));	314	=item ev_set_syserr_cb (void (*cb)(const char *msg) throw ())
206		315
207	Set the callback function to call on a retryable syscall error (such	316	Set the callback function to call on a retryable system call error (such
208	as failed select, poll, epoll_wait). The message is a printable string	317	as failed select, poll, epoll_wait). The message is a printable string
209	indicating the system call or subsystem causing the problem. If this	318	indicating the system call or subsystem causing the problem. If this
210	callback is set, then libev will expect it to remedy the sitution, no	319	callback is set, then libev will expect it to remedy the situation, no
211	matter what, when it returns. That is, libev will generally retry the	320	matter what, when it returns. That is, libev will generally retry the
212	requested operation, or, if the condition doesn't go away, do bad stuff	321	requested operation, or, if the condition doesn't go away, do bad stuff
213	(such as abort).	322	(such as abort).
214		323
215	Example: This is basically the same thing that libev does internally, too.	324	Example: This is basically the same thing that libev does internally, too.
…		…
222	}	331	}
223		332
224	...	333	...
225	ev_set_syserr_cb (fatal_error);	334	ev_set_syserr_cb (fatal_error);
226		335
		336	=item ev_feed_signal (int signum)
		337
		338	This function can be used to "simulate" a signal receive. It is completely
		339	safe to call this function at any time, from any context, including signal
		340	handlers or random threads.
		341
		342	Its main use is to customise signal handling in your process, especially
		343	in the presence of threads. For example, you could block signals
		344	by default in all threads (and specifying C<EVFLAG_NOSIGMASK> when
		345	creating any loops), and in one thread, use C<sigwait> or any other
		346	mechanism to wait for signals, then "deliver" them to libev by calling
		347	C<ev_feed_signal>.
		348
227	=back	349	=back
228		350
229	=head1 FUNCTIONS CONTROLLING THE EVENT LOOP	351	=head1 FUNCTIONS CONTROLLING EVENT LOOPS
230		352
231	An event loop is described by a C<struct ev_loop *>. The library knows two	353	An event loop is described by a C<struct ev_loop *> (the C<struct> is
232	types of such loops, the I<default> loop, which supports signals and child	354	I<not> optional in this case unless libev 3 compatibility is disabled, as
233	events, and dynamically created loops which do not.	355	libev 3 had an C<ev_loop> function colliding with the struct name).
234		356
235	If you use threads, a common model is to run the default event loop	357	The library knows two types of such loops, the I<default> loop, which
236	in your main thread (or in a separate thread) and for each thread you	358	supports child process events, and dynamically created event loops which
237	create, you also create another event loop. Libev itself does no locking	359	do not.
238	whatsoever, so if you mix calls to the same event loop in different
239	threads, make sure you lock (this is usually a bad idea, though, even if
240	done correctly, because it's hideous and inefficient).
241		360
242	=over 4	361	=over 4
243		362
244	=item struct ev_loop *ev_default_loop (unsigned int flags)	363	=item struct ev_loop *ev_default_loop (unsigned int flags)
245		364
246	This will initialise the default event loop if it hasn't been initialised	365	This returns the "default" event loop object, which is what you should
247	yet and return it. If the default loop could not be initialised, returns	366	normally use when you just need "the event loop". Event loop objects and
248	false. If it already was initialised it simply returns it (and ignores the	367	the C<flags> parameter are described in more detail in the entry for
249	flags. If that is troubling you, check C<ev_backend ()> afterwards).	368	C<ev_loop_new>.
		369
		370	If the default loop is already initialised then this function simply
		371	returns it (and ignores the flags. If that is troubling you, check
		372	C<ev_backend ()> afterwards). Otherwise it will create it with the given
		373	flags, which should almost always be C<0>, unless the caller is also the
		374	one calling C<ev_run> or otherwise qualifies as "the main program".
250		375
251	If you don't know what event loop to use, use the one returned from this	376	If you don't know what event loop to use, use the one returned from this
252	function.	377	function (or via the C<EV_DEFAULT> macro).
		378
		379	Note that this function is I<not> thread-safe, so if you want to use it
		380	from multiple threads, you have to employ some kind of mutex (note also
		381	that this case is unlikely, as loops cannot be shared easily between
		382	threads anyway).
		383
		384	The default loop is the only loop that can handle C<ev_child> watchers,
		385	and to do this, it always registers a handler for C<SIGCHLD>. If this is
		386	a problem for your application you can either create a dynamic loop with
		387	C<ev_loop_new> which doesn't do that, or you can simply overwrite the
		388	C<SIGCHLD> signal handler I<after> calling C<ev_default_init>.
		389
		390	Example: This is the most typical usage.
		391
		392	if (!ev_default_loop (0))
		393	fatal ("could not initialise libev, bad $LIBEV_FLAGS in environment?");
		394
		395	Example: Restrict libev to the select and poll backends, and do not allow
		396	environment settings to be taken into account:
		397
		398	ev_default_loop (EVBACKEND_POLL | EVBACKEND_SELECT | EVFLAG_NOENV);
		399
		400	=item struct ev_loop *ev_loop_new (unsigned int flags)
		401
		402	This will create and initialise a new event loop object. If the loop
		403	could not be initialised, returns false.
		404
		405	This function is thread-safe, and one common way to use libev with
		406	threads is indeed to create one loop per thread, and using the default
		407	loop in the "main" or "initial" thread.
253		408
254	The flags argument can be used to specify special behaviour or specific	409	The flags argument can be used to specify special behaviour or specific
255	backends to use, and is usually specified as C<0> (or C<EVFLAG_AUTO>).	410	backends to use, and is usually specified as C<0> (or C<EVFLAG_AUTO>).
256		411
257	The following flags are supported:	412	The following flags are supported:
…		…
263	The default flags value. Use this if you have no clue (it's the right	418	The default flags value. Use this if you have no clue (it's the right
264	thing, believe me).	419	thing, believe me).
265		420
266	=item C<EVFLAG_NOENV>	421	=item C<EVFLAG_NOENV>
267		422
268	If this flag bit is ored into the flag value (or the program runs setuid	423	If this flag bit is or'ed into the flag value (or the program runs setuid
269	or setgid) then libev will I<not> look at the environment variable	424	or setgid) then libev will I<not> look at the environment variable
270	C<LIBEV_FLAGS>. Otherwise (the default), this environment variable will	425	C<LIBEV_FLAGS>. Otherwise (the default), this environment variable will
271	override the flags completely if it is found in the environment. This is	426	override the flags completely if it is found in the environment. This is
272	useful to try out specific backends to test their performance, or to work	427	useful to try out specific backends to test their performance, to work
273	around bugs.	428	around bugs, or to make libev threadsafe (accessing environment variables
		429	cannot be done in a threadsafe way, but usually it works if no other
		430	thread modifies them).
274		431
275	=item C<EVFLAG_FORKCHECK>	432	=item C<EVFLAG_FORKCHECK>
276		433
277	Instead of calling C<ev_default_fork> or C<ev_loop_fork> manually after	434	Instead of calling C<ev_loop_fork> manually after a fork, you can also
278	a fork, you can also make libev check for a fork in each iteration by	435	make libev check for a fork in each iteration by enabling this flag.
279	enabling this flag.
280		436
281	This works by calling C<getpid ()> on every iteration of the loop,	437	This works by calling C<getpid ()> on every iteration of the loop,
282	and thus this might slow down your event loop if you do a lot of loop	438	and thus this might slow down your event loop if you do a lot of loop
283	iterations and little real work, but is usually not noticeable (on my	439	iterations and little real work, but is usually not noticeable (on my
284	Linux system for example, C<getpid> is actually a simple 5-insn sequence	440	GNU/Linux system for example, C<getpid> is actually a simple 5-insn
285	without a syscall and thus I<very> fast, but my Linux system also has	441	sequence without a system call and thus I<very> fast, but my GNU/Linux
286	C<pthread_atfork> which is even faster).	442	system also has C<pthread_atfork> which is even faster). (Update: glibc
		443	versions 2.25 apparently removed the C<getpid> optimisation again).
287		444
288	The big advantage of this flag is that you can forget about fork (and	445	The big advantage of this flag is that you can forget about fork (and
289	forget about forgetting to tell libev about forking) when you use this	446	forget about forgetting to tell libev about forking, although you still
290	flag.	447	have to ignore C<SIGPIPE>) when you use this flag.
291		448
292	This flag setting cannot be overriden or specified in the C<LIBEV_FLAGS>	449	This flag setting cannot be overridden or specified in the C<LIBEV_FLAGS>
293	environment variable.	450	environment variable.
		451
		452	=item C<EVFLAG_NOINOTIFY>
		453
		454	When this flag is specified, then libev will not attempt to use the
		455	I<inotify> API for its C<ev_stat> watchers. Apart from debugging and
		456	testing, this flag can be useful to conserve inotify file descriptors, as
		457	otherwise each loop using C<ev_stat> watchers consumes one inotify handle.
		458
		459	=item C<EVFLAG_SIGNALFD>
		460
		461	When this flag is specified, then libev will attempt to use the
		462	I<signalfd> API for its C<ev_signal> (and C<ev_child>) watchers. This API
		463	delivers signals synchronously, which makes it both faster and might make
		464	it possible to get the queued signal data. It can also simplify signal
		465	handling with threads, as long as you properly block signals in your
		466	threads that are not interested in handling them.
		467
		468	Signalfd will not be used by default as this changes your signal mask, and
		469	there are a lot of shoddy libraries and programs (glib's threadpool for
		470	example) that can't properly initialise their signal masks.
		471
		472	=item C<EVFLAG_NOSIGMASK>
		473
		474	When this flag is specified, then libev will avoid to modify the signal
		475	mask. Specifically, this means you have to make sure signals are unblocked
		476	when you want to receive them.
		477
		478	This behaviour is useful when you want to do your own signal handling, or
		479	want to handle signals only in specific threads and want to avoid libev
		480	unblocking the signals.
		481
		482	It's also required by POSIX in a threaded program, as libev calls
		483	C<sigprocmask>, whose behaviour is officially unspecified.
		484
		485	=item C<EVFLAG_NOTIMERFD>
		486
		487	When this flag is specified, the libev will avoid using a C<timerfd> to
		488	detect time jumps. It will still be able to detect time jumps, but takes
		489	longer and has a lower accuracy in doing so, but saves a file descriptor
		490	per loop.
		491
		492	The current implementation only tries to use a C<timerfd> when the first
		493	C<ev_periodic> watcher is started and falls back on other methods if it
		494	cannot be created, but this behaviour might change in the future.
294		495
295	=item C<EVBACKEND_SELECT> (value 1, portable select backend)	496	=item C<EVBACKEND_SELECT> (value 1, portable select backend)
296		497
297	This is your standard select(2) backend. Not I<completely> standard, as	498	This is your standard select(2) backend. Not I<completely> standard, as
298	libev tries to roll its own fd_set with no limits on the number of fds,	499	libev tries to roll its own fd_set with no limits on the number of fds,
299	but if that fails, expect a fairly low limit on the number of fds when	500	but if that fails, expect a fairly low limit on the number of fds when
300	using this backend. It doesn't scale too well (O(highest_fd)), but its usually	501	using this backend. It doesn't scale too well (O(highest_fd)), but its
301	the fastest backend for a low number of fds.	502	usually the fastest backend for a low number of (low-numbered :) fds.
		503
		504	To get good performance out of this backend you need a high amount of
		505	parallelism (most of the file descriptors should be busy). If you are
		506	writing a server, you should C<accept ()> in a loop to accept as many
		507	connections as possible during one iteration. You might also want to have
		508	a look at C<ev_set_io_collect_interval ()> to increase the amount of
		509	readiness notifications you get per iteration.
		510
		511	This backend maps C<EV_READ> to the C<readfds> set and C<EV_WRITE> to the
		512	C<writefds> set (and to work around Microsoft Windows bugs, also onto the
		513	C<exceptfds> set on that platform).
302		514
303	=item C<EVBACKEND_POLL> (value 2, poll backend, available everywhere except on windows)	515	=item C<EVBACKEND_POLL> (value 2, poll backend, available everywhere except on windows)
304		516
305	And this is your standard poll(2) backend. It's more complicated than	517	And this is your standard poll(2) backend. It's more complicated
306	select, but handles sparse fds better and has no artificial limit on the	518	than select, but handles sparse fds better and has no artificial
307	number of fds you can use (except it will slow down considerably with a	519	limit on the number of fds you can use (except it will slow down
308	lot of inactive fds). It scales similarly to select, i.e. O(total_fds).	520	considerably with a lot of inactive fds). It scales similarly to select,
		521	i.e. O(total_fds). See the entry for C<EVBACKEND_SELECT>, above, for
		522	performance tips.
		523
		524	This backend maps C<EV_READ> to C<POLLIN | POLLERR | POLLHUP>, and
		525	C<EV_WRITE> to C<POLLOUT | POLLERR | POLLHUP>.
309		526
310	=item C<EVBACKEND_EPOLL> (value 4, Linux)	527	=item C<EVBACKEND_EPOLL> (value 4, Linux)
311		528
		529	Use the Linux-specific epoll(7) interface (for both pre- and post-2.6.9
		530	kernels).
		531
312	For few fds, this backend is a bit little slower than poll and select,	532	For few fds, this backend is a bit little slower than poll and select, but
313	but it scales phenomenally better. While poll and select usually scale like	533	it scales phenomenally better. While poll and select usually scale like
314	O(total_fds) where n is the total number of fds (or the highest fd), epoll scales	534	O(total_fds) where total_fds is the total number of fds (or the highest
315	either O(1) or O(active_fds).	535	fd), epoll scales either O(1) or O(active_fds).
316		536
		537	The epoll mechanism deserves honorable mention as the most misdesigned
		538	of the more advanced event mechanisms: mere annoyances include silently
		539	dropping file descriptors, requiring a system call per change per file
		540	descriptor (and unnecessary guessing of parameters), problems with dup,
		541	returning before the timeout value, resulting in additional iterations
		542	(and only giving 5ms accuracy while select on the same platform gives
		543	0.1ms) and so on. The biggest issue is fork races, however - if a program
		544	forks then I<both> parent and child process have to recreate the epoll
		545	set, which can take considerable time (one syscall per file descriptor)
		546	and is of course hard to detect.
		547
		548	Epoll is also notoriously buggy - embedding epoll fds I<should> work,
		549	but of course I<doesn't>, and epoll just loves to report events for
		550	totally I<different> file descriptors (even already closed ones, so
		551	one cannot even remove them from the set) than registered in the set
		552	(especially on SMP systems). Libev tries to counter these spurious
		553	notifications by employing an additional generation counter and comparing
		554	that against the events to filter out spurious ones, recreating the set
		555	when required. Epoll also erroneously rounds down timeouts, but gives you
		556	no way to know when and by how much, so sometimes you have to busy-wait
		557	because epoll returns immediately despite a nonzero timeout. And last
		558	not least, it also refuses to work with some file descriptors which work
		559	perfectly fine with C<select> (files, many character devices...).
		560
		561	Epoll is truly the train wreck among event poll mechanisms, a frankenpoll,
		562	cobbled together in a hurry, no thought to design or interaction with
		563	others. Oh, the pain, will it ever stop...
		564
317	While stopping and starting an I/O watcher in the same iteration will	565	While stopping, setting and starting an I/O watcher in the same iteration
318	result in some caching, there is still a syscall per such incident	566	will result in some caching, there is still a system call per such
319	(because the fd could point to a different file description now), so its	567	incident (because the same I<file descriptor> could point to a different
320	best to avoid that. Also, dup()ed file descriptors might not work very	568	I<file description> now), so its best to avoid that. Also, C<dup ()>'ed
321	well if you register events for both fds.	569	file descriptors might not work very well if you register events for both
		570	file descriptors.
322		571
323	Please note that epoll sometimes generates spurious notifications, so you	572	Best performance from this backend is achieved by not unregistering all
324	need to use non-blocking I/O or other means to avoid blocking when no data	573	watchers for a file descriptor until it has been closed, if possible,
325	(or space) is available.	574	i.e. keep at least one watcher active per fd at all times. Stopping and
		575	starting a watcher (without re-setting it) also usually doesn't cause
		576	extra overhead. A fork can both result in spurious notifications as well
		577	as in libev having to destroy and recreate the epoll object, which can
		578	take considerable time and thus should be avoided.
		579
		580	All this means that, in practice, C<EVBACKEND_SELECT> can be as fast or
		581	faster than epoll for maybe up to a hundred file descriptors, depending on
		582	the usage. So sad.
		583
		584	While nominally embeddable in other event loops, this feature is broken in
		585	a lot of kernel revisions, but probably(!) works in current versions.
		586
		587	This backend maps C<EV_READ> and C<EV_WRITE> in the same way as
		588	C<EVBACKEND_POLL>.
		589
		590	=item C<EVBACKEND_LINUXAIO> (value 64, Linux)
		591
		592	Use the Linux-specific Linux AIO (I<not> C<< aio(7) >> but C<<
		593	io_submit(2) >>) event interface available in post-4.18 kernels (but libev
		594	only tries to use it in 4.19+).
		595
		596	This is another Linux train wreck of an event interface.
		597
		598	If this backend works for you (as of this writing, it was very
		599	experimental), it is the best event interface available on Linux and might
		600	be well worth enabling it - if it isn't available in your kernel this will
		601	be detected and this backend will be skipped.
		602
		603	This backend can batch oneshot requests and supports a user-space ring
		604	buffer to receive events. It also doesn't suffer from most of the design
		605	problems of epoll (such as not being able to remove event sources from
		606	the epoll set), and generally sounds too good to be true. Because, this
		607	being the Linux kernel, of course it suffers from a whole new set of
		608	limitations, forcing you to fall back to epoll, inheriting all its design
		609	issues.
		610
		611	For one, it is not easily embeddable (but probably could be done using
		612	an event fd at some extra overhead). It also is subject to a system wide
		613	limit that can be configured in F</proc/sys/fs/aio-max-nr>. If no AIO
		614	requests are left, this backend will be skipped during initialisation, and
		615	will switch to epoll when the loop is active.
		616
		617	Most problematic in practice, however, is that not all file descriptors
		618	work with it. For example, in Linux 5.1, TCP sockets, pipes, event fds,
		619	files, F</dev/null> and many others are supported, but ttys do not work
		620	properly (a known bug that the kernel developers don't care about, see
		621	L<https://lore.kernel.org/patchwork/patch/1047453/>), so this is not
		622	(yet?) a generic event polling interface.
		623
		624	Overall, it seems the Linux developers just don't want it to have a
		625	generic event handling mechanism other than C<select> or C<poll>.
		626
		627	To work around all these problem, the current version of libev uses its
		628	epoll backend as a fallback for file descriptor types that do not work. Or
		629	falls back completely to epoll if the kernel acts up.
		630
		631	This backend maps C<EV_READ> and C<EV_WRITE> in the same way as
		632	C<EVBACKEND_POLL>.
326		633
327	=item C<EVBACKEND_KQUEUE> (value 8, most BSD clones)	634	=item C<EVBACKEND_KQUEUE> (value 8, most BSD clones)
328		635
329	Kqueue deserves special mention, as at the time of this writing, it	636	Kqueue deserves special mention, as at the time this backend was
330	was broken on all BSDs except NetBSD (usually it doesn't work with	637	implemented, it was broken on all BSDs except NetBSD (usually it doesn't
331	anything but sockets and pipes, except on Darwin, where of course its	638	work reliably with anything but sockets and pipes, except on Darwin,
332	completely useless). For this reason its not being "autodetected"	639	where of course it's completely useless). Unlike epoll, however, whose
333	unless you explicitly specify it explicitly in the flags (i.e. using	640	brokenness is by design, these kqueue bugs can be (and mostly have been)
334	C<EVBACKEND_KQUEUE>).	641	fixed without API changes to existing programs. For this reason it's not
		642	being "auto-detected" on all platforms unless you explicitly specify it
		643	in the flags (i.e. using C<EVBACKEND_KQUEUE>) or libev was compiled on a
		644	known-to-be-good (-enough) system like NetBSD.
		645
		646	You still can embed kqueue into a normal poll or select backend and use it
		647	only for sockets (after having made sure that sockets work with kqueue on
		648	the target platform). See C<ev_embed> watchers for more info.
335		649
336	It scales in the same way as the epoll backend, but the interface to the	650	It scales in the same way as the epoll backend, but the interface to the
337	kernel is more efficient (which says nothing about its actual speed, of	651	kernel is more efficient (which says nothing about its actual speed, of
338	course). While starting and stopping an I/O watcher does not cause an	652	course). While stopping, setting and starting an I/O watcher does never
339	extra syscall as with epoll, it still adds up to four event changes per	653	cause an extra system call as with C<EVBACKEND_EPOLL>, it still adds up to
340	incident, so its best to avoid that.	654	two event changes per incident. Support for C<fork ()> is very bad (you
		655	might have to leak fds on fork, but it's more sane than epoll) and it
		656	drops fds silently in similarly hard-to-detect cases.
		657
		658	This backend usually performs well under most conditions.
		659
		660	While nominally embeddable in other event loops, this doesn't work
		661	everywhere, so you might need to test for this. And since it is broken
		662	almost everywhere, you should only use it when you have a lot of sockets
		663	(for which it usually works), by embedding it into another event loop
		664	(e.g. C<EVBACKEND_SELECT> or C<EVBACKEND_POLL> (but C<poll> is of course
		665	also broken on OS X)) and, did I mention it, using it only for sockets.
		666
		667	This backend maps C<EV_READ> into an C<EVFILT_READ> kevent with
		668	C<NOTE_EOF>, and C<EV_WRITE> into an C<EVFILT_WRITE> kevent with
		669	C<NOTE_EOF>.
341		670
342	=item C<EVBACKEND_DEVPOLL> (value 16, Solaris 8)	671	=item C<EVBACKEND_DEVPOLL> (value 16, Solaris 8)
343		672
344	This is not implemented yet (and might never be).	673	This is not implemented yet (and might never be, unless you send me an
		674	implementation). According to reports, C</dev/poll> only supports sockets
		675	and is not embeddable, which would limit the usefulness of this backend
		676	immensely.
345		677
346	=item C<EVBACKEND_PORT> (value 32, Solaris 10)	678	=item C<EVBACKEND_PORT> (value 32, Solaris 10)
347		679
348	This uses the Solaris 10 port mechanism. As with everything on Solaris,	680	This uses the Solaris 10 event port mechanism. As with everything on Solaris,
349	it's really slow, but it still scales very well (O(active_fds)).	681	it's really slow, but it still scales very well (O(active_fds)).
350		682
351	Please note that solaris ports can result in a lot of spurious	683	While this backend scales well, it requires one system call per active
352	notifications, so you need to use non-blocking I/O or other means to avoid	684	file descriptor per loop iteration. For small and medium numbers of file
353	blocking when no data (or space) is available.	685	descriptors a "slow" C<EVBACKEND_SELECT> or C<EVBACKEND_POLL> backend
		686	might perform better.
		687
		688	On the positive side, this backend actually performed fully to
		689	specification in all tests and is fully embeddable, which is a rare feat
		690	among the OS-specific backends (I vastly prefer correctness over speed
		691	hacks).
		692
		693	On the negative side, the interface is I<bizarre> - so bizarre that
		694	even sun itself gets it wrong in their code examples: The event polling
		695	function sometimes returns events to the caller even though an error
		696	occurred, but with no indication whether it has done so or not (yes, it's
		697	even documented that way) - deadly for edge-triggered interfaces where you
		698	absolutely have to know whether an event occurred or not because you have
		699	to re-arm the watcher.
		700
		701	Fortunately libev seems to be able to work around these idiocies.
		702
		703	This backend maps C<EV_READ> and C<EV_WRITE> in the same way as
		704	C<EVBACKEND_POLL>.
354		705
355	=item C<EVBACKEND_ALL>	706	=item C<EVBACKEND_ALL>
356		707
357	Try all backends (even potentially broken ones that wouldn't be tried	708	Try all backends (even potentially broken ones that wouldn't be tried
358	with C<EVFLAG_AUTO>). Since this is a mask, you can do stuff such as	709	with C<EVFLAG_AUTO>). Since this is a mask, you can do stuff such as
359	C<EVBACKEND_ALL & ~EVBACKEND_KQUEUE>.	710	C<EVBACKEND_ALL & ~EVBACKEND_KQUEUE>.
360		711
		712	It is definitely not recommended to use this flag, use whatever
		713	C<ev_recommended_backends ()> returns, or simply do not specify a backend
		714	at all.
		715
		716	=item C<EVBACKEND_MASK>
		717
		718	Not a backend at all, but a mask to select all backend bits from a
		719	C<flags> value, in case you want to mask out any backends from a flags
		720	value (e.g. when modifying the C<LIBEV_FLAGS> environment variable).
		721
361	=back	722	=back
362		723
363	If one or more of these are ored into the flags value, then only these	724	If one or more of the backend flags are or'ed into the flags value,
364	backends will be tried (in the reverse order as given here). If none are	725	then only these backends will be tried (in the reverse order as listed
365	specified, most compiled-in backend will be tried, usually in reverse	726	here). If none are specified, all backends in C<ev_recommended_backends
366	order of their flag values :)	727	()> will be tried.
367
368	The most typical usage is like this:
369
370	if (!ev_default_loop (0))
371	fatal ("could not initialise libev, bad $LIBEV_FLAGS in environment?");
372
373	Restrict libev to the select and poll backends, and do not allow
374	environment settings to be taken into account:
375
376	ev_default_loop (EVBACKEND_POLL | EVBACKEND_SELECT | EVFLAG_NOENV);
377
378	Use whatever libev has to offer, but make sure that kqueue is used if
379	available (warning, breaks stuff, best use only with your own private
380	event loop and only if you know the OS supports your types of fds):
381
382	ev_default_loop (ev_recommended_backends () | EVBACKEND_KQUEUE);
383
384	=item struct ev_loop *ev_loop_new (unsigned int flags)
385
386	Similar to C<ev_default_loop>, but always creates a new event loop that is
387	always distinct from the default loop. Unlike the default loop, it cannot
388	handle signal and child watchers, and attempts to do so will be greeted by
389	undefined behaviour (or a failed assertion if assertions are enabled).
390		728
391	Example: Try to create a event loop that uses epoll and nothing else.	729	Example: Try to create a event loop that uses epoll and nothing else.
392		730
393	struct ev_loop *epoller = ev_loop_new (EVBACKEND_EPOLL | EVFLAG_NOENV);	731	struct ev_loop *epoller = ev_loop_new (EVBACKEND_EPOLL | EVFLAG_NOENV);
394	if (!epoller)	732	if (!epoller)
395	fatal ("no epoll found here, maybe it hides under your chair");	733	fatal ("no epoll found here, maybe it hides under your chair");
396		734
		735	Example: Use whatever libev has to offer, but make sure that kqueue is
		736	used if available.
		737
		738	struct ev_loop *loop = ev_loop_new (ev_recommended_backends () | EVBACKEND_KQUEUE);
		739
		740	Example: Similarly, on linux, you mgiht want to take advantage of the
		741	linux aio backend if possible, but fall back to something else if that
		742	isn't available.
		743
		744	struct ev_loop *loop = ev_loop_new (ev_recommended_backends () | EVBACKEND_LINUXAIO);
		745
397	=item ev_default_destroy ()	746	=item ev_loop_destroy (loop)
398		747
399	Destroys the default loop again (frees all memory and kernel state	748	Destroys an event loop object (frees all memory and kernel state
400	etc.). None of the active event watchers will be stopped in the normal	749	etc.). None of the active event watchers will be stopped in the normal
401	sense, so e.g. C<ev_is_active> might still return true. It is your	750	sense, so e.g. C<ev_is_active> might still return true. It is your
402	responsibility to either stop all watchers cleanly yoursef I<before>	751	responsibility to either stop all watchers cleanly yourself I<before>
403	calling this function, or cope with the fact afterwards (which is usually	752	calling this function, or cope with the fact afterwards (which is usually
404	the easiest thing, youc na just ignore the watchers and/or C<free ()> them	753	the easiest thing, you can just ignore the watchers and/or C<free ()> them
405	for example).	754	for example).
406		755
		756	Note that certain global state, such as signal state (and installed signal
		757	handlers), will not be freed by this function, and related watchers (such
		758	as signal and child watchers) would need to be stopped manually.
		759
		760	This function is normally used on loop objects allocated by
		761	C<ev_loop_new>, but it can also be used on the default loop returned by
		762	C<ev_default_loop>, in which case it is not thread-safe.
		763
		764	Note that it is not advisable to call this function on the default loop
		765	except in the rare occasion where you really need to free its resources.
		766	If you need dynamically allocated loops it is better to use C<ev_loop_new>
		767	and C<ev_loop_destroy>.
		768
407	=item ev_loop_destroy (loop)	769	=item ev_loop_fork (loop)
408		770
409	Like C<ev_default_destroy>, but destroys an event loop created by an	771	This function sets a flag that causes subsequent C<ev_run> iterations
410	earlier call to C<ev_loop_new>.
411
412	=item ev_default_fork ()
413
414	This function reinitialises the kernel state for backends that have	772	to reinitialise the kernel state for backends that have one. Despite
415	one. Despite the name, you can call it anytime, but it makes most sense	773	the name, you can call it anytime you are allowed to start or stop
416	after forking, in either the parent or child process (or both, but that	774	watchers (except inside an C<ev_prepare> callback), but it makes most
417	again makes little sense).	775	sense after forking, in the child process. You I<must> call it (or use
		776	C<EVFLAG_FORKCHECK>) in the child before resuming or calling C<ev_run>.
418		777
419	You I<must> call this function in the child process after forking if and	778	In addition, if you want to reuse a loop (via this function or
420	only if you want to use the event library in both processes. If you just	779	C<EVFLAG_FORKCHECK>), you I<also> have to ignore C<SIGPIPE>.
421	fork+exec, you don't have to call it.	780
		781	Again, you I<have> to call it on I<any> loop that you want to re-use after
		782	a fork, I<even if you do not plan to use the loop in the parent>. This is
		783	because some kernel interfaces *cough* I<kqueue> *cough* do funny things
		784	during fork.
		785
		786	On the other hand, you only need to call this function in the child
		787	process if and only if you want to use the event loop in the child. If
		788	you just fork+exec or create a new loop in the child, you don't have to
		789	call it at all (in fact, C<epoll> is so badly broken that it makes a
		790	difference, but libev will usually detect this case on its own and do a
		791	costly reset of the backend).
422		792
423	The function itself is quite fast and it's usually not a problem to call	793	The function itself is quite fast and it's usually not a problem to call
424	it just in case after a fork. To make this easy, the function will fit in	794	it just in case after a fork.
425	quite nicely into a call to C<pthread_atfork>:
426		795
		796	Example: Automate calling C<ev_loop_fork> on the default loop when
		797	using pthreads.
		798
		799	static void
		800	post_fork_child (void)
		801	{
		802	ev_loop_fork (EV_DEFAULT);
		803	}
		804
		805	...
427	pthread_atfork (0, 0, ev_default_fork);	806	pthread_atfork (0, 0, post_fork_child);
428		807
429	At the moment, C<EVBACKEND_SELECT> and C<EVBACKEND_POLL> are safe to use	808	=item int ev_is_default_loop (loop)
430	without calling this function, so if you force one of those backends you
431	do not need to care.
432		809
433	=item ev_loop_fork (loop)	810	Returns true when the given loop is, in fact, the default loop, and false
		811	otherwise.
434		812
435	Like C<ev_default_fork>, but acts on an event loop created by
436	C<ev_loop_new>. Yes, you have to call this on every allocated event loop
437	after fork, and how you do this is entirely your own problem.
438
439	=item unsigned int ev_loop_count (loop)	813	=item unsigned int ev_iteration (loop)
440		814
441	Returns the count of loop iterations for the loop, which is identical to	815	Returns the current iteration count for the event loop, which is identical
442	the number of times libev did poll for new events. It starts at C<0> and	816	to the number of times libev did poll for new events. It starts at C<0>
443	happily wraps around with enough iterations.	817	and happily wraps around with enough iterations.
444		818
445	This value can sometimes be useful as a generation counter of sorts (it	819	This value can sometimes be useful as a generation counter of sorts (it
446	"ticks" the number of loop iterations), as it roughly corresponds with	820	"ticks" the number of loop iterations), as it roughly corresponds with
447	C<ev_prepare> and C<ev_check> calls.	821	C<ev_prepare> and C<ev_check> calls - and is incremented between the
		822	prepare and check phases.
		823
		824	=item unsigned int ev_depth (loop)
		825
		826	Returns the number of times C<ev_run> was entered minus the number of
		827	times C<ev_run> was exited normally, in other words, the recursion depth.
		828
		829	Outside C<ev_run>, this number is zero. In a callback, this number is
		830	C<1>, unless C<ev_run> was invoked recursively (or from another thread),
		831	in which case it is higher.
		832
		833	Leaving C<ev_run> abnormally (setjmp/longjmp, cancelling the thread,
		834	throwing an exception etc.), doesn't count as "exit" - consider this
		835	as a hint to avoid such ungentleman-like behaviour unless it's really
		836	convenient, in which case it is fully supported.
448		837
449	=item unsigned int ev_backend (loop)	838	=item unsigned int ev_backend (loop)
450		839
451	Returns one of the C<EVBACKEND_*> flags indicating the event backend in	840	Returns one of the C<EVBACKEND_*> flags indicating the event backend in
452	use.	841	use.
…		…
455		844
456	Returns the current "event loop time", which is the time the event loop	845	Returns the current "event loop time", which is the time the event loop
457	received events and started processing them. This timestamp does not	846	received events and started processing them. This timestamp does not
458	change as long as callbacks are being processed, and this is also the base	847	change as long as callbacks are being processed, and this is also the base
459	time used for relative timers. You can treat it as the timestamp of the	848	time used for relative timers. You can treat it as the timestamp of the
460	event occuring (or more correctly, libev finding out about it).	849	event occurring (or more correctly, libev finding out about it).
461		850
		851	=item ev_now_update (loop)
		852
		853	Establishes the current time by querying the kernel, updating the time
		854	returned by C<ev_now ()> in the progress. This is a costly operation and
		855	is usually done automatically within C<ev_run ()>.
		856
		857	This function is rarely useful, but when some event callback runs for a
		858	very long time without entering the event loop, updating libev's idea of
		859	the current time is a good idea.
		860
		861	See also L</The special problem of time updates> in the C<ev_timer> section.
		862
		863	=item ev_suspend (loop)
		864
		865	=item ev_resume (loop)
		866
		867	These two functions suspend and resume an event loop, for use when the
		868	loop is not used for a while and timeouts should not be processed.
		869
		870	A typical use case would be an interactive program such as a game: When
		871	the user presses C<^Z> to suspend the game and resumes it an hour later it
		872	would be best to handle timeouts as if no time had actually passed while
		873	the program was suspended. This can be achieved by calling C<ev_suspend>
		874	in your C<SIGTSTP> handler, sending yourself a C<SIGSTOP> and calling
		875	C<ev_resume> directly afterwards to resume timer processing.
		876
		877	Effectively, all C<ev_timer> watchers will be delayed by the time spend
		878	between C<ev_suspend> and C<ev_resume>, and all C<ev_periodic> watchers
		879	will be rescheduled (that is, they will lose any events that would have
		880	occurred while suspended).
		881
		882	After calling C<ev_suspend> you B<must not> call I<any> function on the
		883	given loop other than C<ev_resume>, and you B<must not> call C<ev_resume>
		884	without a previous call to C<ev_suspend>.
		885
		886	Calling C<ev_suspend>/C<ev_resume> has the side effect of updating the
		887	event loop time (see C<ev_now_update>).
		888
462	=item ev_loop (loop, int flags)	889	=item bool ev_run (loop, int flags)
463		890
464	Finally, this is it, the event handler. This function usually is called	891	Finally, this is it, the event handler. This function usually is called
465	after you initialised all your watchers and you want to start handling	892	after you have initialised all your watchers and you want to start
466	events.	893	handling events. It will ask the operating system for any new events, call
		894	the watcher callbacks, and then repeat the whole process indefinitely: This
		895	is why event loops are called I<loops>.
467		896
468	If the flags argument is specified as C<0>, it will not return until	897	If the flags argument is specified as C<0>, it will keep handling events
469	either no event watchers are active anymore or C<ev_unloop> was called.	898	until either no event watchers are active anymore or C<ev_break> was
		899	called.
470		900
		901	The return value is false if there are no more active watchers (which
		902	usually means "all jobs done" or "deadlock"), and true in all other cases
		903	(which usually means " you should call C<ev_run> again").
		904
471	Please note that an explicit C<ev_unloop> is usually better than	905	Please note that an explicit C<ev_break> is usually better than
472	relying on all watchers to be stopped when deciding when a program has	906	relying on all watchers to be stopped when deciding when a program has
473	finished (especially in interactive programs), but having a program that	907	finished (especially in interactive programs), but having a program
474	automatically loops as long as it has to and no longer by virtue of	908	that automatically loops as long as it has to and no longer by virtue
475	relying on its watchers stopping correctly is a thing of beauty.	909	of relying on its watchers stopping correctly, that is truly a thing of
		910	beauty.
476		911
		912	This function is I<mostly> exception-safe - you can break out of a
		913	C<ev_run> call by calling C<longjmp> in a callback, throwing a C++
		914	exception and so on. This does not decrement the C<ev_depth> value, nor
		915	will it clear any outstanding C<EVBREAK_ONE> breaks.
		916
477	A flags value of C<EVLOOP_NONBLOCK> will look for new events, will handle	917	A flags value of C<EVRUN_NOWAIT> will look for new events, will handle
478	those events and any outstanding ones, but will not block your process in	918	those events and any already outstanding ones, but will not wait and
479	case there are no events and will return after one iteration of the loop.	919	block your process in case there are no events and will return after one
		920	iteration of the loop. This is sometimes useful to poll and handle new
		921	events while doing lengthy calculations, to keep the program responsive.
480		922
481	A flags value of C<EVLOOP_ONESHOT> will look for new events (waiting if	923	A flags value of C<EVRUN_ONCE> will look for new events (waiting if
482	neccessary) and will handle those and any outstanding ones. It will block	924	necessary) and will handle those and any already outstanding ones. It
483	your process until at least one new event arrives, and will return after	925	will block your process until at least one new event arrives (which could
484	one iteration of the loop. This is useful if you are waiting for some	926	be an event internal to libev itself, so there is no guarantee that a
485	external event in conjunction with something not expressible using other	927	user-registered callback will be called), and will return after one
		928	iteration of the loop.
		929
		930	This is useful if you are waiting for some external event in conjunction
		931	with something not expressible using other libev watchers (i.e. "roll your
486	libev watchers. However, a pair of C<ev_prepare>/C<ev_check> watchers is	932	own C<ev_run>"). However, a pair of C<ev_prepare>/C<ev_check> watchers is
487	usually a better approach for this kind of thing.	933	usually a better approach for this kind of thing.
488		934
489	Here are the gory details of what C<ev_loop> does:	935	Here are the gory details of what C<ev_run> does (this is for your
		936	understanding, not a guarantee that things will work exactly like this in
		937	future versions):
490		938
491	* If there are no active watchers (reference count is zero), return.	939	- Increment loop depth.
492	- Queue prepare watchers and then call all outstanding watchers.	940	- Reset the ev_break status.
		941	- Before the first iteration, call any pending watchers.
		942	LOOP:
		943	- If EVFLAG_FORKCHECK was used, check for a fork.
		944	- If a fork was detected (by any means), queue and call all fork watchers.
		945	- Queue and call all prepare watchers.
		946	- If ev_break was called, goto FINISH.
493	- If we have been forked, recreate the kernel state.	947	- If we have been forked, detach and recreate the kernel state
		948	as to not disturb the other process.
494	- Update the kernel state with all outstanding changes.	949	- Update the kernel state with all outstanding changes.
495	- Update the "event loop time".	950	- Update the "event loop time" (ev_now ()).
496	- Calculate for how long to block.	951	- Calculate for how long to sleep or block, if at all
		952	(active idle watchers, EVRUN_NOWAIT or not having
		953	any active watchers at all will result in not sleeping).
		954	- Sleep if the I/O and timer collect interval say so.
		955	- Increment loop iteration counter.
497	- Block the process, waiting for any events.	956	- Block the process, waiting for any events.
498	- Queue all outstanding I/O (fd) events.	957	- Queue all outstanding I/O (fd) events.
499	- Update the "event loop time" and do time jump handling.	958	- Update the "event loop time" (ev_now ()), and do time jump adjustments.
500	- Queue all outstanding timers.	959	- Queue all expired timers.
501	- Queue all outstanding periodics.	960	- Queue all expired periodics.
502	- If no events are pending now, queue all idle watchers.	961	- Queue all idle watchers with priority higher than that of pending events.
503	- Queue all check watchers.	962	- Queue all check watchers.
504	- Call all queued watchers in reverse order (i.e. check watchers first).	963	- Call all queued watchers in reverse order (i.e. check watchers first).
505	Signals and child watchers are implemented as I/O watchers, and will	964	Signals and child watchers are implemented as I/O watchers, and will
506	be handled here by queueing them when their watcher gets executed.	965	be handled here by queueing them when their watcher gets executed.
507	- If ev_unloop has been called or EVLOOP_ONESHOT or EVLOOP_NONBLOCK	966	- If ev_break has been called, or EVRUN_ONCE or EVRUN_NOWAIT
508	were used, return, otherwise continue with step *.	967	were used, or there are no active watchers, goto FINISH, otherwise
		968	continue with step LOOP.
		969	FINISH:
		970	- Reset the ev_break status iff it was EVBREAK_ONE.
		971	- Decrement the loop depth.
		972	- Return.
509		973
510	Example: Queue some jobs and then loop until no events are outsanding	974	Example: Queue some jobs and then loop until no events are outstanding
511	anymore.	975	anymore.
512		976
513	... queue jobs here, make sure they register event watchers as long	977	... queue jobs here, make sure they register event watchers as long
514	... as they still have work to do (even an idle watcher will do..)	978	... as they still have work to do (even an idle watcher will do..)
515	ev_loop (my_loop, 0);	979	ev_run (my_loop, 0);
516	... jobs done. yeah!	980	... jobs done or somebody called break. yeah!
517		981
518	=item ev_unloop (loop, how)	982	=item ev_break (loop, how)
519		983
520	Can be used to make a call to C<ev_loop> return early (but only after it	984	Can be used to make a call to C<ev_run> return early (but only after it
521	has processed all outstanding events). The C<how> argument must be either	985	has processed all outstanding events). The C<how> argument must be either
522	C<EVUNLOOP_ONE>, which will make the innermost C<ev_loop> call return, or	986	C<EVBREAK_ONE>, which will make the innermost C<ev_run> call return, or
523	C<EVUNLOOP_ALL>, which will make all nested C<ev_loop> calls return.	987	C<EVBREAK_ALL>, which will make all nested C<ev_run> calls return.
		988
		989	This "break state" will be cleared on the next call to C<ev_run>.
		990
		991	It is safe to call C<ev_break> from outside any C<ev_run> calls, too, in
		992	which case it will have no effect.
524		993
525	=item ev_ref (loop)	994	=item ev_ref (loop)
526		995
527	=item ev_unref (loop)	996	=item ev_unref (loop)
528		997
529	Ref/unref can be used to add or remove a reference count on the event	998	Ref/unref can be used to add or remove a reference count on the event
530	loop: Every watcher keeps one reference, and as long as the reference	999	loop: Every watcher keeps one reference, and as long as the reference
531	count is nonzero, C<ev_loop> will not return on its own. If you have	1000	count is nonzero, C<ev_run> will not return on its own.
532	a watcher you never unregister that should not keep C<ev_loop> from	1001
533	returning, ev_unref() after starting, and ev_ref() before stopping it. For	1002	This is useful when you have a watcher that you never intend to
		1003	unregister, but that nevertheless should not keep C<ev_run> from
		1004	returning. In such a case, call C<ev_unref> after starting, and C<ev_ref>
		1005	before stopping it.
		1006
534	example, libev itself uses this for its internal signal pipe: It is not	1007	As an example, libev itself uses this for its internal signal pipe: It
535	visible to the libev user and should not keep C<ev_loop> from exiting if	1008	is not visible to the libev user and should not keep C<ev_run> from
536	no event watchers registered by it are active. It is also an excellent	1009	exiting if no event watchers registered by it are active. It is also an
537	way to do this for generic recurring timers or from within third-party	1010	excellent way to do this for generic recurring timers or from within
538	libraries. Just remember to I<unref after start> and I<ref before stop>.	1011	third-party libraries. Just remember to I<unref after start> and I<ref
		1012	before stop> (but only if the watcher wasn't active before, or was active
		1013	before, respectively. Note also that libev might stop watchers itself
		1014	(e.g. non-repeating timers) in which case you have to C<ev_ref>
		1015	in the callback).
539		1016
540	Example: Create a signal watcher, but keep it from keeping C<ev_loop>	1017	Example: Create a signal watcher, but keep it from keeping C<ev_run>
541	running when nothing else is active.	1018	running when nothing else is active.
542		1019
543	struct ev_signal exitsig;	1020	ev_signal exitsig;
544	ev_signal_init (&exitsig, sig_cb, SIGINT);	1021	ev_signal_init (&exitsig, sig_cb, SIGINT);
545	ev_signal_start (loop, &exitsig);	1022	ev_signal_start (loop, &exitsig);
546	evf_unref (loop);	1023	ev_unref (loop);
547		1024
548	Example: For some weird reason, unregister the above signal handler again.	1025	Example: For some weird reason, unregister the above signal handler again.
549		1026
550	ev_ref (loop);	1027	ev_ref (loop);
551	ev_signal_stop (loop, &exitsig);	1028	ev_signal_stop (loop, &exitsig);
		1029
		1030	=item ev_set_io_collect_interval (loop, ev_tstamp interval)
		1031
		1032	=item ev_set_timeout_collect_interval (loop, ev_tstamp interval)
		1033
		1034	These advanced functions influence the time that libev will spend waiting
		1035	for events. Both time intervals are by default C<0>, meaning that libev
		1036	will try to invoke timer/periodic callbacks and I/O callbacks with minimum
		1037	latency.
		1038
		1039	Setting these to a higher value (the C<interval> I<must> be >= C<0>)
		1040	allows libev to delay invocation of I/O and timer/periodic callbacks
		1041	to increase efficiency of loop iterations (or to increase power-saving
		1042	opportunities).
		1043
		1044	The idea is that sometimes your program runs just fast enough to handle
		1045	one (or very few) event(s) per loop iteration. While this makes the
		1046	program responsive, it also wastes a lot of CPU time to poll for new
		1047	events, especially with backends like C<select ()> which have a high
		1048	overhead for the actual polling but can deliver many events at once.
		1049
		1050	By setting a higher I<io collect interval> you allow libev to spend more
		1051	time collecting I/O events, so you can handle more events per iteration,
		1052	at the cost of increasing latency. Timeouts (both C<ev_periodic> and
		1053	C<ev_timer>) will not be affected. Setting this to a non-null value will
		1054	introduce an additional C<ev_sleep ()> call into most loop iterations. The
		1055	sleep time ensures that libev will not poll for I/O events more often then
		1056	once per this interval, on average (as long as the host time resolution is
		1057	good enough).
		1058
		1059	Likewise, by setting a higher I<timeout collect interval> you allow libev
		1060	to spend more time collecting timeouts, at the expense of increased
		1061	latency/jitter/inexactness (the watcher callback will be called
		1062	later). C<ev_io> watchers will not be affected. Setting this to a non-null
		1063	value will not introduce any overhead in libev.
		1064
		1065	Many (busy) programs can usually benefit by setting the I/O collect
		1066	interval to a value near C<0.1> or so, which is often enough for
		1067	interactive servers (of course not for games), likewise for timeouts. It
		1068	usually doesn't make much sense to set it to a lower value than C<0.01>,
		1069	as this approaches the timing granularity of most systems. Note that if
		1070	you do transactions with the outside world and you can't increase the
		1071	parallelity, then this setting will limit your transaction rate (if you
		1072	need to poll once per transaction and the I/O collect interval is 0.01,
		1073	then you can't do more than 100 transactions per second).
		1074
		1075	Setting the I<timeout collect interval> can improve the opportunity for
		1076	saving power, as the program will "bundle" timer callback invocations that
		1077	are "near" in time together, by delaying some, thus reducing the number of
		1078	times the process sleeps and wakes up again. Another useful technique to
		1079	reduce iterations/wake-ups is to use C<ev_periodic> watchers and make sure
		1080	they fire on, say, one-second boundaries only.
		1081
		1082	Example: we only need 0.1s timeout granularity, and we wish not to poll
		1083	more often than 100 times per second:
		1084
		1085	ev_set_timeout_collect_interval (EV_DEFAULT_UC_ 0.1);
		1086	ev_set_io_collect_interval (EV_DEFAULT_UC_ 0.01);
		1087
		1088	=item ev_invoke_pending (loop)
		1089
		1090	This call will simply invoke all pending watchers while resetting their
		1091	pending state. Normally, C<ev_run> does this automatically when required,
		1092	but when overriding the invoke callback this call comes handy. This
		1093	function can be invoked from a watcher - this can be useful for example
		1094	when you want to do some lengthy calculation and want to pass further
		1095	event handling to another thread (you still have to make sure only one
		1096	thread executes within C<ev_invoke_pending> or C<ev_run> of course).
		1097
		1098	=item int ev_pending_count (loop)
		1099
		1100	Returns the number of pending watchers - zero indicates that no watchers
		1101	are pending.
		1102
		1103	=item ev_set_invoke_pending_cb (loop, void (*invoke_pending_cb)(EV_P))
		1104
		1105	This overrides the invoke pending functionality of the loop: Instead of
		1106	invoking all pending watchers when there are any, C<ev_run> will call
		1107	this callback instead. This is useful, for example, when you want to
		1108	invoke the actual watchers inside another context (another thread etc.).
		1109
		1110	If you want to reset the callback, use C<ev_invoke_pending> as new
		1111	callback.
		1112
		1113	=item ev_set_loop_release_cb (loop, void (*release)(EV_P) throw (), void (*acquire)(EV_P) throw ())
		1114
		1115	Sometimes you want to share the same loop between multiple threads. This
		1116	can be done relatively simply by putting mutex_lock/unlock calls around
		1117	each call to a libev function.
		1118
		1119	However, C<ev_run> can run an indefinite time, so it is not feasible
		1120	to wait for it to return. One way around this is to wake up the event
		1121	loop via C<ev_break> and C<ev_async_send>, another way is to set these
		1122	I<release> and I<acquire> callbacks on the loop.
		1123
		1124	When set, then C<release> will be called just before the thread is
		1125	suspended waiting for new events, and C<acquire> is called just
		1126	afterwards.
		1127
		1128	Ideally, C<release> will just call your mutex_unlock function, and
		1129	C<acquire> will just call the mutex_lock function again.
		1130
		1131	While event loop modifications are allowed between invocations of
		1132	C<release> and C<acquire> (that's their only purpose after all), no
		1133	modifications done will affect the event loop, i.e. adding watchers will
		1134	have no effect on the set of file descriptors being watched, or the time
		1135	waited. Use an C<ev_async> watcher to wake up C<ev_run> when you want it
		1136	to take note of any changes you made.
		1137
		1138	In theory, threads executing C<ev_run> will be async-cancel safe between
		1139	invocations of C<release> and C<acquire>.
		1140
		1141	See also the locking example in the C<THREADS> section later in this
		1142	document.
		1143
		1144	=item ev_set_userdata (loop, void *data)
		1145
		1146	=item void *ev_userdata (loop)
		1147
		1148	Set and retrieve a single C<void *> associated with a loop. When
		1149	C<ev_set_userdata> has never been called, then C<ev_userdata> returns
		1150	C<0>.
		1151
		1152	These two functions can be used to associate arbitrary data with a loop,
		1153	and are intended solely for the C<invoke_pending_cb>, C<release> and
		1154	C<acquire> callbacks described above, but of course can be (ab-)used for
		1155	any other purpose as well.
		1156
		1157	=item ev_verify (loop)
		1158
		1159	This function only does something when C<EV_VERIFY> support has been
		1160	compiled in, which is the default for non-minimal builds. It tries to go
		1161	through all internal structures and checks them for validity. If anything
		1162	is found to be inconsistent, it will print an error message to standard
		1163	error and call C<abort ()>.
		1164
		1165	This can be used to catch bugs inside libev itself: under normal
		1166	circumstances, this function will never abort as of course libev keeps its
		1167	data structures consistent.
552		1168
553	=back	1169	=back
554		1170
555		1171
556	=head1 ANATOMY OF A WATCHER	1172	=head1 ANATOMY OF A WATCHER
557		1173
		1174	In the following description, uppercase C<TYPE> in names stands for the
		1175	watcher type, e.g. C<ev_TYPE_start> can mean C<ev_timer_start> for timer
		1176	watchers and C<ev_io_start> for I/O watchers.
		1177
558	A watcher is a structure that you create and register to record your	1178	A watcher is an opaque structure that you allocate and register to record
559	interest in some event. For instance, if you want to wait for STDIN to	1179	your interest in some event. To make a concrete example, imagine you want
560	become readable, you would create an C<ev_io> watcher for that:	1180	to wait for STDIN to become readable, you would create an C<ev_io> watcher
		1181	for that:
561		1182
562	static void my_cb (struct ev_loop *loop, struct ev_io *w, int revents)	1183	static void my_cb (struct ev_loop *loop, ev_io *w, int revents)
563	{	1184	{
564	ev_io_stop (w);	1185	ev_io_stop (w);
565	ev_unloop (loop, EVUNLOOP_ALL);	1186	ev_break (loop, EVBREAK_ALL);
566	}	1187	}
567		1188
568	struct ev_loop *loop = ev_default_loop (0);	1189	struct ev_loop *loop = ev_default_loop (0);
		1190
569	struct ev_io stdin_watcher;	1191	ev_io stdin_watcher;
		1192
570	ev_init (&stdin_watcher, my_cb);	1193	ev_init (&stdin_watcher, my_cb);
571	ev_io_set (&stdin_watcher, STDIN_FILENO, EV_READ);	1194	ev_io_set (&stdin_watcher, STDIN_FILENO, EV_READ);
572	ev_io_start (loop, &stdin_watcher);	1195	ev_io_start (loop, &stdin_watcher);
		1196
573	ev_loop (loop, 0);	1197	ev_run (loop, 0);
574		1198
575	As you can see, you are responsible for allocating the memory for your	1199	As you can see, you are responsible for allocating the memory for your
576	watcher structures (and it is usually a bad idea to do this on the stack,	1200	watcher structures (and it is I<usually> a bad idea to do this on the
577	although this can sometimes be quite valid).	1201	stack).
578		1202
		1203	Each watcher has an associated watcher structure (called C<struct ev_TYPE>
		1204	or simply C<ev_TYPE>, as typedefs are provided for all watcher structs).
		1205
579	Each watcher structure must be initialised by a call to C<ev_init	1206	Each watcher structure must be initialised by a call to C<ev_init (watcher
580	(watcher *, callback)>, which expects a callback to be provided. This	1207	*, callback)>, which expects a callback to be provided. This callback is
581	callback gets invoked each time the event occurs (or, in the case of io	1208	invoked each time the event occurs (or, in the case of I/O watchers, each
582	watchers, each time the event loop detects that the file descriptor given	1209	time the event loop detects that the file descriptor given is readable
583	is readable and/or writable).	1210	and/or writable).
584		1211
585	Each watcher type has its own C<< ev_<type>_set (watcher *, ...) >> macro	1212	Each watcher type further has its own C<< ev_TYPE_set (watcher *, ...) >>
586	with arguments specific to this watcher type. There is also a macro	1213	macro to configure it, with arguments specific to the watcher type. There
587	to combine initialisation and setting in one call: C<< ev_<type>_init	1214	is also a macro to combine initialisation and setting in one call: C<<
588	(watcher *, callback, ...) >>.	1215	ev_TYPE_init (watcher *, callback, ...) >>.
589		1216
590	To make the watcher actually watch out for events, you have to start it	1217	To make the watcher actually watch out for events, you have to start it
591	with a watcher-specific start function (C<< ev_<type>_start (loop, watcher	1218	with a watcher-specific start function (C<< ev_TYPE_start (loop, watcher
592	*) >>), and you can stop watching for events at any time by calling the	1219	*) >>), and you can stop watching for events at any time by calling the
593	corresponding stop function (C<< ev_<type>_stop (loop, watcher *) >>.	1220	corresponding stop function (C<< ev_TYPE_stop (loop, watcher *) >>.
594		1221
595	As long as your watcher is active (has been started but not stopped) you	1222	As long as your watcher is active (has been started but not stopped) you
596	must not touch the values stored in it. Most specifically you must never	1223	must not touch the values stored in it except when explicitly documented
597	reinitialise it or call its C<set> macro.	1224	otherwise. Most specifically you must never reinitialise it or call its
		1225	C<ev_TYPE_set> macro.
598		1226
599	Each and every callback receives the event loop pointer as first, the	1227	Each and every callback receives the event loop pointer as first, the
600	registered watcher structure as second, and a bitset of received events as	1228	registered watcher structure as second, and a bitset of received events as
601	third argument.	1229	third argument.
602		1230
…		…
611	=item C<EV_WRITE>	1239	=item C<EV_WRITE>
612		1240
613	The file descriptor in the C<ev_io> watcher has become readable and/or	1241	The file descriptor in the C<ev_io> watcher has become readable and/or
614	writable.	1242	writable.
615		1243
616	=item C<EV_TIMEOUT>	1244	=item C<EV_TIMER>
617		1245
618	The C<ev_timer> watcher has timed out.	1246	The C<ev_timer> watcher has timed out.
619		1247
620	=item C<EV_PERIODIC>	1248	=item C<EV_PERIODIC>
621		1249
…		…
639		1267
640	=item C<EV_PREPARE>	1268	=item C<EV_PREPARE>
641		1269
642	=item C<EV_CHECK>	1270	=item C<EV_CHECK>
643		1271
644	All C<ev_prepare> watchers are invoked just I<before> C<ev_loop> starts	1272	All C<ev_prepare> watchers are invoked just I<before> C<ev_run> starts to
645	to gather new events, and all C<ev_check> watchers are invoked just after	1273	gather new events, and all C<ev_check> watchers are queued (not invoked)
646	C<ev_loop> has gathered them, but before it invokes any callbacks for any	1274	just after C<ev_run> has gathered them, but before it queues any callbacks
		1275	for any received events. That means C<ev_prepare> watchers are the last
		1276	watchers invoked before the event loop sleeps or polls for new events, and
		1277	C<ev_check> watchers will be invoked before any other watchers of the same
		1278	or lower priority within an event loop iteration.
		1279
647	received events. Callbacks of both watcher types can start and stop as	1280	Callbacks of both watcher types can start and stop as many watchers as
648	many watchers as they want, and all of them will be taken into account	1281	they want, and all of them will be taken into account (for example, a
649	(for example, a C<ev_prepare> watcher might start an idle watcher to keep	1282	C<ev_prepare> watcher might start an idle watcher to keep C<ev_run> from
650	C<ev_loop> from blocking).	1283	blocking).
651		1284
652	=item C<EV_EMBED>	1285	=item C<EV_EMBED>
653		1286
654	The embedded event loop specified in the C<ev_embed> watcher needs attention.	1287	The embedded event loop specified in the C<ev_embed> watcher needs attention.
655		1288
656	=item C<EV_FORK>	1289	=item C<EV_FORK>
657		1290
658	The event loop has been resumed in the child process after fork (see	1291	The event loop has been resumed in the child process after fork (see
659	C<ev_fork>).	1292	C<ev_fork>).
660		1293
		1294	=item C<EV_CLEANUP>
		1295
		1296	The event loop is about to be destroyed (see C<ev_cleanup>).
		1297
		1298	=item C<EV_ASYNC>
		1299
		1300	The given async watcher has been asynchronously notified (see C<ev_async>).
		1301
		1302	=item C<EV_CUSTOM>
		1303
		1304	Not ever sent (or otherwise used) by libev itself, but can be freely used
		1305	by libev users to signal watchers (e.g. via C<ev_feed_event>).
		1306
661	=item C<EV_ERROR>	1307	=item C<EV_ERROR>
662		1308
663	An unspecified error has occured, the watcher has been stopped. This might	1309	An unspecified error has occurred, the watcher has been stopped. This might
664	happen because the watcher could not be properly started because libev	1310	happen because the watcher could not be properly started because libev
665	ran out of memory, a file descriptor was found to be closed or any other	1311	ran out of memory, a file descriptor was found to be closed or any other
		1312	problem. Libev considers these application bugs.
		1313
666	problem. You best act on it by reporting the problem and somehow coping	1314	You best act on it by reporting the problem and somehow coping with the
667	with the watcher being stopped.	1315	watcher being stopped. Note that well-written programs should not receive
		1316	an error ever, so when your watcher receives it, this usually indicates a
		1317	bug in your program.
668		1318
669	Libev will usually signal a few "dummy" events together with an error,	1319	Libev will usually signal a few "dummy" events together with an error, for
670	for example it might indicate that a fd is readable or writable, and if	1320	example it might indicate that a fd is readable or writable, and if your
671	your callbacks is well-written it can just attempt the operation and cope	1321	callbacks is well-written it can just attempt the operation and cope with
672	with the error from read() or write(). This will not work in multithreaded	1322	the error from read() or write(). This will not work in multi-threaded
673	programs, though, so beware.	1323	programs, though, as the fd could already be closed and reused for another
		1324	thing, so beware.
674		1325
675	=back	1326	=back
676		1327
677	=head2 GENERIC WATCHER FUNCTIONS	1328	=head2 GENERIC WATCHER FUNCTIONS
678
679	In the following description, C<TYPE> stands for the watcher type,
680	e.g. C<timer> for C<ev_timer> watchers and C<io> for C<ev_io> watchers.
681		1329
682	=over 4	1330	=over 4
683		1331
684	=item C<ev_init> (ev_TYPE *watcher, callback)	1332	=item C<ev_init> (ev_TYPE *watcher, callback)
685		1333
…		…
691	which rolls both calls into one.	1339	which rolls both calls into one.
692		1340
693	You can reinitialise a watcher at any time as long as it has been stopped	1341	You can reinitialise a watcher at any time as long as it has been stopped
694	(or never started) and there are no pending events outstanding.	1342	(or never started) and there are no pending events outstanding.
695		1343
696	The callback is always of type C<void (*)(ev_loop *loop, ev_TYPE *watcher,	1344	The callback is always of type C<void (*)(struct ev_loop *loop, ev_TYPE *watcher,
697	int revents)>.	1345	int revents)>.
698		1346
		1347	Example: Initialise an C<ev_io> watcher in two steps.
		1348
		1349	ev_io w;
		1350	ev_init (&w, my_cb);
		1351	ev_io_set (&w, STDIN_FILENO, EV_READ);
		1352
699	=item C<ev_TYPE_set> (ev_TYPE *, [args])	1353	=item C<ev_TYPE_set> (ev_TYPE *watcher, [args])
700		1354
701	This macro initialises the type-specific parts of a watcher. You need to	1355	This macro initialises the type-specific parts of a watcher. You need to
702	call C<ev_init> at least once before you call this macro, but you can	1356	call C<ev_init> at least once before you call this macro, but you can
703	call C<ev_TYPE_set> any number of times. You must not, however, call this	1357	call C<ev_TYPE_set> any number of times. You must not, however, call this
704	macro on a watcher that is active (it can be pending, however, which is a	1358	macro on a watcher that is active (it can be pending, however, which is a
705	difference to the C<ev_init> macro).	1359	difference to the C<ev_init> macro).
706		1360
707	Although some watcher types do not have type-specific arguments	1361	Although some watcher types do not have type-specific arguments
708	(e.g. C<ev_prepare>) you still need to call its C<set> macro.	1362	(e.g. C<ev_prepare>) you still need to call its C<set> macro.
709		1363
		1364	See C<ev_init>, above, for an example.
		1365
710	=item C<ev_TYPE_init> (ev_TYPE *watcher, callback, [args])	1366	=item C<ev_TYPE_init> (ev_TYPE *watcher, callback, [args])
711		1367
712	This convinience macro rolls both C<ev_init> and C<ev_TYPE_set> macro	1368	This convenience macro rolls both C<ev_init> and C<ev_TYPE_set> macro
713	calls into a single call. This is the most convinient method to initialise	1369	calls into a single call. This is the most convenient method to initialise
714	a watcher. The same limitations apply, of course.	1370	a watcher. The same limitations apply, of course.
715		1371
		1372	Example: Initialise and set an C<ev_io> watcher in one step.
		1373
		1374	ev_io_init (&w, my_cb, STDIN_FILENO, EV_READ);
		1375
716	=item C<ev_TYPE_start> (loop *, ev_TYPE *watcher)	1376	=item C<ev_TYPE_start> (loop, ev_TYPE *watcher)
717		1377
718	Starts (activates) the given watcher. Only active watchers will receive	1378	Starts (activates) the given watcher. Only active watchers will receive
719	events. If the watcher is already active nothing will happen.	1379	events. If the watcher is already active nothing will happen.
720		1380
		1381	Example: Start the C<ev_io> watcher that is being abused as example in this
		1382	whole section.
		1383
		1384	ev_io_start (EV_DEFAULT_UC, &w);
		1385
721	=item C<ev_TYPE_stop> (loop *, ev_TYPE *watcher)	1386	=item C<ev_TYPE_stop> (loop, ev_TYPE *watcher)
722		1387
723	Stops the given watcher again (if active) and clears the pending	1388	Stops the given watcher if active, and clears the pending status (whether
		1389	the watcher was active or not).
		1390
724	status. It is possible that stopped watchers are pending (for example,	1391	It is possible that stopped watchers are pending - for example,
725	non-repeating timers are being stopped when they become pending), but	1392	non-repeating timers are being stopped when they become pending - but
726	C<ev_TYPE_stop> ensures that the watcher is neither active nor pending. If	1393	calling C<ev_TYPE_stop> ensures that the watcher is neither active nor
727	you want to free or reuse the memory used by the watcher it is therefore a	1394	pending. If you want to free or reuse the memory used by the watcher it is
728	good idea to always call its C<ev_TYPE_stop> function.	1395	therefore a good idea to always call its C<ev_TYPE_stop> function.
729		1396
730	=item bool ev_is_active (ev_TYPE *watcher)	1397	=item bool ev_is_active (ev_TYPE *watcher)
731		1398
732	Returns a true value iff the watcher is active (i.e. it has been started	1399	Returns a true value iff the watcher is active (i.e. it has been started
733	and not yet been stopped). As long as a watcher is active you must not modify	1400	and not yet been stopped). As long as a watcher is active you must not modify
…		…
744		1411
745	=item callback ev_cb (ev_TYPE *watcher)	1412	=item callback ev_cb (ev_TYPE *watcher)
746		1413
747	Returns the callback currently set on the watcher.	1414	Returns the callback currently set on the watcher.
748		1415
749	=item ev_cb_set (ev_TYPE *watcher, callback)	1416	=item ev_set_cb (ev_TYPE *watcher, callback)
750		1417
751	Change the callback. You can change the callback at virtually any time	1418	Change the callback. You can change the callback at virtually any time
752	(modulo threads).	1419	(modulo threads).
753		1420
754	=item ev_set_priority (ev_TYPE *watcher, priority)	1421	=item ev_set_priority (ev_TYPE *watcher, int priority)
755		1422
756	=item int ev_priority (ev_TYPE *watcher)	1423	=item int ev_priority (ev_TYPE *watcher)
757		1424
758	Set and query the priority of the watcher. The priority is a small	1425	Set and query the priority of the watcher. The priority is a small
759	integer between C<EV_MAXPRI> (default: C<2>) and C<EV_MINPRI>	1426	integer between C<EV_MAXPRI> (default: C<2>) and C<EV_MINPRI>
760	(default: C<-2>). Pending watchers with higher priority will be invoked	1427	(default: C<-2>). Pending watchers with higher priority will be invoked
761	before watchers with lower priority, but priority will not keep watchers	1428	before watchers with lower priority, but priority will not keep watchers
762	from being executed (except for C<ev_idle> watchers).	1429	from being executed (except for C<ev_idle> watchers).
763		1430
764	This means that priorities are I<only> used for ordering callback
765	invocation after new events have been received. This is useful, for
766	example, to reduce latency after idling, or more often, to bind two
767	watchers on the same event and make sure one is called first.
768
769	If you need to suppress invocation when higher priority events are pending	1431	If you need to suppress invocation when higher priority events are pending
770	you need to look at C<ev_idle> watchers, which provide this functionality.	1432	you need to look at C<ev_idle> watchers, which provide this functionality.
771		1433
772	You I<must not> change the priority of a watcher as long as it is active or	1434	You I<must not> change the priority of a watcher as long as it is active or
773	pending.	1435	pending.
774		1436
		1437	Setting a priority outside the range of C<EV_MINPRI> to C<EV_MAXPRI> is
		1438	fine, as long as you do not mind that the priority value you query might
		1439	or might not have been clamped to the valid range.
		1440
775	The default priority used by watchers when no priority has been set is	1441	The default priority used by watchers when no priority has been set is
776	always C<0>, which is supposed to not be too high and not be too low :).	1442	always C<0>, which is supposed to not be too high and not be too low :).
777		1443
778	Setting a priority outside the range of C<EV_MINPRI> to C<EV_MAXPRI> is	1444	See L</WATCHER PRIORITY MODELS>, below, for a more thorough treatment of
779	fine, as long as you do not mind that the priority value you query might	1445	priorities.
780	or might not have been adjusted to be within valid range.
781		1446
782	=item ev_invoke (loop, ev_TYPE *watcher, int revents)	1447	=item ev_invoke (loop, ev_TYPE *watcher, int revents)
783		1448
784	Invoke the C<watcher> with the given C<loop> and C<revents>. Neither	1449	Invoke the C<watcher> with the given C<loop> and C<revents>. Neither
785	C<loop> nor C<revents> need to be valid as long as the watcher callback	1450	C<loop> nor C<revents> need to be valid as long as the watcher callback
786	can deal with that fact.	1451	can deal with that fact, as both are simply passed through to the
		1452	callback.
787		1453
788	=item int ev_clear_pending (loop, ev_TYPE *watcher)	1454	=item int ev_clear_pending (loop, ev_TYPE *watcher)
789		1455
790	If the watcher is pending, this function returns clears its pending status	1456	If the watcher is pending, this function clears its pending status and
791	and returns its C<revents> bitset (as if its callback was invoked). If the	1457	returns its C<revents> bitset (as if its callback was invoked). If the
792	watcher isn't pending it does nothing and returns C<0>.	1458	watcher isn't pending it does nothing and returns C<0>.
793		1459
		1460	Sometimes it can be useful to "poll" a watcher instead of waiting for its
		1461	callback to be invoked, which can be accomplished with this function.
		1462
		1463	=item ev_feed_event (loop, ev_TYPE *watcher, int revents)
		1464
		1465	Feeds the given event set into the event loop, as if the specified event
		1466	had happened for the specified watcher (which must be a pointer to an
		1467	initialised but not necessarily started event watcher). Obviously you must
		1468	not free the watcher as long as it has pending events.
		1469
		1470	Stopping the watcher, letting libev invoke it, or calling
		1471	C<ev_clear_pending> will clear the pending event, even if the watcher was
		1472	not started in the first place.
		1473
		1474	See also C<ev_feed_fd_event> and C<ev_feed_signal_event> for related
		1475	functions that do not need a watcher.
		1476
794	=back	1477	=back
795		1478
		1479	See also the L</ASSOCIATING CUSTOM DATA WITH A WATCHER> and L</BUILDING YOUR
		1480	OWN COMPOSITE WATCHERS> idioms.
796		1481
797	=head2 ASSOCIATING CUSTOM DATA WITH A WATCHER	1482	=head2 WATCHER STATES
798		1483
799	Each watcher has, by default, a member C<void *data> that you can change	1484	There are various watcher states mentioned throughout this manual -
800	and read at any time, libev will completely ignore it. This can be used	1485	active, pending and so on. In this section these states and the rules to
801	to associate arbitrary data with your watcher. If you need more data and	1486	transition between them will be described in more detail - and while these
802	don't want to allocate memory and store a pointer to it in that data	1487	rules might look complicated, they usually do "the right thing".
803	member, you can also "subclass" the watcher type and provide your own
804	data:
805		1488
806	struct my_io	1489	=over 4
807	{
808	struct ev_io io;
809	int otherfd;
810	void *somedata;
811	struct whatever *mostinteresting;
812	}
813		1490
814	And since your callback will be called with a pointer to the watcher, you	1491	=item initialised
815	can cast it back to your own type:
816		1492
817	static void my_cb (struct ev_loop *loop, struct ev_io *w_, int revents)	1493	Before a watcher can be registered with the event loop it has to be
818	{	1494	initialised. This can be done with a call to C<ev_TYPE_init>, or calls to
819	struct my_io *w = (struct my_io *)w_;	1495	C<ev_init> followed by the watcher-specific C<ev_TYPE_set> function.
820	...
821	}
822		1496
823	More interesting and less C-conformant ways of casting your callback type	1497	In this state it is simply some block of memory that is suitable for
824	instead have been omitted.	1498	use in an event loop. It can be moved around, freed, reused etc. at
		1499	will - as long as you either keep the memory contents intact, or call
		1500	C<ev_TYPE_init> again.
825		1501
826	Another common scenario is having some data structure with multiple	1502	=item started/running/active
827	watchers:
828		1503
829	struct my_biggy	1504	Once a watcher has been started with a call to C<ev_TYPE_start> it becomes
830	{	1505	property of the event loop, and is actively waiting for events. While in
831	int some_data;	1506	this state it cannot be accessed (except in a few documented ways), moved,
832	ev_timer t1;	1507	freed or anything else - the only legal thing is to keep a pointer to it,
833	ev_timer t2;	1508	and call libev functions on it that are documented to work on active watchers.
834	}
835		1509
836	In this case getting the pointer to C<my_biggy> is a bit more complicated,	1510	=item pending
837	you need to use C<offsetof>:
838		1511
839	#include <stddef.h>	1512	If a watcher is active and libev determines that an event it is interested
		1513	in has occurred (such as a timer expiring), it will become pending. It will
		1514	stay in this pending state until either it is stopped or its callback is
		1515	about to be invoked, so it is not normally pending inside the watcher
		1516	callback.
840		1517
		1518	The watcher might or might not be active while it is pending (for example,
		1519	an expired non-repeating timer can be pending but no longer active). If it
		1520	is stopped, it can be freely accessed (e.g. by calling C<ev_TYPE_set>),
		1521	but it is still property of the event loop at this time, so cannot be
		1522	moved, freed or reused. And if it is active the rules described in the
		1523	previous item still apply.
		1524
		1525	It is also possible to feed an event on a watcher that is not active (e.g.
		1526	via C<ev_feed_event>), in which case it becomes pending without being
		1527	active.
		1528
		1529	=item stopped
		1530
		1531	A watcher can be stopped implicitly by libev (in which case it might still
		1532	be pending), or explicitly by calling its C<ev_TYPE_stop> function. The
		1533	latter will clear any pending state the watcher might be in, regardless
		1534	of whether it was active or not, so stopping a watcher explicitly before
		1535	freeing it is often a good idea.
		1536
		1537	While stopped (and not pending) the watcher is essentially in the
		1538	initialised state, that is, it can be reused, moved, modified in any way
		1539	you wish (but when you trash the memory block, you need to C<ev_TYPE_init>
		1540	it again).
		1541
		1542	=back
		1543
		1544	=head2 WATCHER PRIORITY MODELS
		1545
		1546	Many event loops support I<watcher priorities>, which are usually small
		1547	integers that influence the ordering of event callback invocation
		1548	between watchers in some way, all else being equal.
		1549
		1550	In libev, watcher priorities can be set using C<ev_set_priority>. See its
		1551	description for the more technical details such as the actual priority
		1552	range.
		1553
		1554	There are two common ways how these these priorities are being interpreted
		1555	by event loops:
		1556
		1557	In the more common lock-out model, higher priorities "lock out" invocation
		1558	of lower priority watchers, which means as long as higher priority
		1559	watchers receive events, lower priority watchers are not being invoked.
		1560
		1561	The less common only-for-ordering model uses priorities solely to order
		1562	callback invocation within a single event loop iteration: Higher priority
		1563	watchers are invoked before lower priority ones, but they all get invoked
		1564	before polling for new events.
		1565
		1566	Libev uses the second (only-for-ordering) model for all its watchers
		1567	except for idle watchers (which use the lock-out model).
		1568
		1569	The rationale behind this is that implementing the lock-out model for
		1570	watchers is not well supported by most kernel interfaces, and most event
		1571	libraries will just poll for the same events again and again as long as
		1572	their callbacks have not been executed, which is very inefficient in the
		1573	common case of one high-priority watcher locking out a mass of lower
		1574	priority ones.
		1575
		1576	Static (ordering) priorities are most useful when you have two or more
		1577	watchers handling the same resource: a typical usage example is having an
		1578	C<ev_io> watcher to receive data, and an associated C<ev_timer> to handle
		1579	timeouts. Under load, data might be received while the program handles
		1580	other jobs, but since timers normally get invoked first, the timeout
		1581	handler will be executed before checking for data. In that case, giving
		1582	the timer a lower priority than the I/O watcher ensures that I/O will be
		1583	handled first even under adverse conditions (which is usually, but not
		1584	always, what you want).
		1585
		1586	Since idle watchers use the "lock-out" model, meaning that idle watchers
		1587	will only be executed when no same or higher priority watchers have
		1588	received events, they can be used to implement the "lock-out" model when
		1589	required.
		1590
		1591	For example, to emulate how many other event libraries handle priorities,
		1592	you can associate an C<ev_idle> watcher to each such watcher, and in
		1593	the normal watcher callback, you just start the idle watcher. The real
		1594	processing is done in the idle watcher callback. This causes libev to
		1595	continuously poll and process kernel event data for the watcher, but when
		1596	the lock-out case is known to be rare (which in turn is rare :), this is
		1597	workable.
		1598
		1599	Usually, however, the lock-out model implemented that way will perform
		1600	miserably under the type of load it was designed to handle. In that case,
		1601	it might be preferable to stop the real watcher before starting the
		1602	idle watcher, so the kernel will not have to process the event in case
		1603	the actual processing will be delayed for considerable time.
		1604
		1605	Here is an example of an I/O watcher that should run at a strictly lower
		1606	priority than the default, and which should only process data when no
		1607	other events are pending:
		1608
		1609	ev_idle idle; // actual processing watcher
		1610	ev_io io; // actual event watcher
		1611
841	static void	1612	static void
842	t1_cb (EV_P_ struct ev_timer *w, int revents)	1613	io_cb (EV_P_ ev_io *w, int revents)
843	{	1614	{
844	struct my_biggy big = (struct my_biggy *	1615	// stop the I/O watcher, we received the event, but
845	(((char *)w) - offsetof (struct my_biggy, t1));	1616	// are not yet ready to handle it.
		1617	ev_io_stop (EV_A_ w);
		1618
		1619	// start the idle watcher to handle the actual event.
		1620	// it will not be executed as long as other watchers
		1621	// with the default priority are receiving events.
		1622	ev_idle_start (EV_A_ &idle);
846	}	1623	}
847		1624
848	static void	1625	static void
849	t2_cb (EV_P_ struct ev_timer *w, int revents)	1626	idle_cb (EV_P_ ev_idle *w, int revents)
850	{	1627	{
851	struct my_biggy big = (struct my_biggy *	1628	// actual processing
852	(((char *)w) - offsetof (struct my_biggy, t2));	1629	read (STDIN_FILENO, ...);
		1630
		1631	// have to start the I/O watcher again, as
		1632	// we have handled the event
		1633	ev_io_start (EV_P_ &io);
853	}	1634	}
		1635
		1636	// initialisation
		1637	ev_idle_init (&idle, idle_cb);
		1638	ev_io_init (&io, io_cb, STDIN_FILENO, EV_READ);
		1639	ev_io_start (EV_DEFAULT_ &io);
		1640
		1641	In the "real" world, it might also be beneficial to start a timer, so that
		1642	low-priority connections can not be locked out forever under load. This
		1643	enables your program to keep a lower latency for important connections
		1644	during short periods of high load, while not completely locking out less
		1645	important ones.
854		1646
855		1647
856	=head1 WATCHER TYPES	1648	=head1 WATCHER TYPES
857		1649
858	This section describes each watcher in detail, but will not repeat	1650	This section describes each watcher in detail, but will not repeat
859	information given in the last section. Any initialisation/set macros,	1651	information given in the last section. Any initialisation/set macros,
860	functions and members specific to the watcher type are explained.	1652	functions and members specific to the watcher type are explained.
861		1653
862	Members are additionally marked with either I<[read-only]>, meaning that,	1654	Most members are additionally marked with either I<[read-only]>, meaning
863	while the watcher is active, you can look at the member and expect some	1655	that, while the watcher is active, you can look at the member and expect
864	sensible content, but you must not modify it (you can modify it while the	1656	some sensible content, but you must not modify it (you can modify it while
865	watcher is stopped to your hearts content), or I<[read-write]>, which	1657	the watcher is stopped to your hearts content), or I<[read-write]>, which
866	means you can expect it to have some sensible content while the watcher	1658	means you can expect it to have some sensible content while the watcher
867	is active, but you can also modify it. Modifying it may not do something	1659	is active, but you can also modify it. Modifying it may not do something
868	sensible or take immediate effect (or do anything at all), but libev will	1660	sensible or take immediate effect (or do anything at all), but libev will
869	not crash or malfunction in any way.	1661	not crash or malfunction in any way.
870		1662
		1663	In any case, the documentation for each member will explain what the
		1664	effects are, and if there are any additional access restrictions.
871		1665
872	=head2 C<ev_io> - is this file descriptor readable or writable?	1666	=head2 C<ev_io> - is this file descriptor readable or writable?
873		1667
874	I/O watchers check whether a file descriptor is readable or writable	1668	I/O watchers check whether a file descriptor is readable or writable
875	in each iteration of the event loop, or, more precisely, when reading	1669	in each iteration of the event loop, or, more precisely, when reading
…		…
882	In general you can register as many read and/or write event watchers per	1676	In general you can register as many read and/or write event watchers per
883	fd as you want (as long as you don't confuse yourself). Setting all file	1677	fd as you want (as long as you don't confuse yourself). Setting all file
884	descriptors to non-blocking mode is also usually a good idea (but not	1678	descriptors to non-blocking mode is also usually a good idea (but not
885	required if you know what you are doing).	1679	required if you know what you are doing).
886		1680
887	You have to be careful with dup'ed file descriptors, though. Some backends
888	(the linux epoll backend is a notable example) cannot handle dup'ed file
889	descriptors correctly if you register interest in two or more fds pointing
890	to the same underlying file/socket/etc. description (that is, they share
891	the same underlying "file open").
892
893	If you must do this, then force the use of a known-to-be-good backend
894	(at the time of this writing, this includes only C<EVBACKEND_SELECT> and
895	C<EVBACKEND_POLL>).
896
897	Another thing you have to watch out for is that it is quite easy to	1681	Another thing you have to watch out for is that it is quite easy to
898	receive "spurious" readyness notifications, that is your callback might	1682	receive "spurious" readiness notifications, that is, your callback might
899	be called with C<EV_READ> but a subsequent C<read>(2) will actually block	1683	be called with C<EV_READ> but a subsequent C<read>(2) will actually block
900	because there is no data. Not only are some backends known to create a	1684	because there is no data. It is very easy to get into this situation even
901	lot of those (for example solaris ports), it is very easy to get into	1685	with a relatively standard program structure. Thus it is best to always
902	this situation even with a relatively standard program structure. Thus	1686	use non-blocking I/O: An extra C<read>(2) returning C<EAGAIN> is far
903	it is best to always use non-blocking I/O: An extra C<read>(2) returning
904	C<EAGAIN> is far preferable to a program hanging until some data arrives.	1687	preferable to a program hanging until some data arrives.
905		1688
906	If you cannot run the fd in non-blocking mode (for example you should not	1689	If you cannot run the fd in non-blocking mode (for example you should
907	play around with an Xlib connection), then you have to seperately re-test	1690	not play around with an Xlib connection), then you have to separately
908	whether a file descriptor is really ready with a known-to-be good interface	1691	re-test whether a file descriptor is really ready with a known-to-be good
909	such as poll (fortunately in our Xlib example, Xlib already does this on	1692	interface such as poll (fortunately in the case of Xlib, it already does
910	its own, so its quite safe to use).	1693	this on its own, so its quite safe to use). Some people additionally
		1694	use C<SIGALRM> and an interval timer, just to be sure you won't block
		1695	indefinitely.
		1696
		1697	But really, best use non-blocking mode.
		1698
		1699	=head3 The special problem of disappearing file descriptors
		1700
		1701	Some backends (e.g. kqueue, epoll, linuxaio) need to be told about closing
		1702	a file descriptor (either due to calling C<close> explicitly or any other
		1703	means, such as C<dup2>). The reason is that you register interest in some
		1704	file descriptor, but when it goes away, the operating system will silently
		1705	drop this interest. If another file descriptor with the same number then
		1706	is registered with libev, there is no efficient way to see that this is,
		1707	in fact, a different file descriptor.
		1708
		1709	To avoid having to explicitly tell libev about such cases, libev follows
		1710	the following policy: Each time C<ev_io_set> is being called, libev
		1711	will assume that this is potentially a new file descriptor, otherwise
		1712	it is assumed that the file descriptor stays the same. That means that
		1713	you I<have> to call C<ev_io_set> (or C<ev_io_init>) when you change the
		1714	descriptor even if the file descriptor number itself did not change.
		1715
		1716	This is how one would do it normally anyway, the important point is that
		1717	the libev application should not optimise around libev but should leave
		1718	optimisations to libev.
		1719
		1720	=head3 The special problem of dup'ed file descriptors
		1721
		1722	Some backends (e.g. epoll), cannot register events for file descriptors,
		1723	but only events for the underlying file descriptions. That means when you
		1724	have C<dup ()>'ed file descriptors or weirder constellations, and register
		1725	events for them, only one file descriptor might actually receive events.
		1726
		1727	There is no workaround possible except not registering events
		1728	for potentially C<dup ()>'ed file descriptors, or to resort to
		1729	C<EVBACKEND_SELECT> or C<EVBACKEND_POLL>.
		1730
		1731	=head3 The special problem of files
		1732
		1733	Many people try to use C<select> (or libev) on file descriptors
		1734	representing files, and expect it to become ready when their program
		1735	doesn't block on disk accesses (which can take a long time on their own).
		1736
		1737	However, this cannot ever work in the "expected" way - you get a readiness
		1738	notification as soon as the kernel knows whether and how much data is
		1739	there, and in the case of open files, that's always the case, so you
		1740	always get a readiness notification instantly, and your read (or possibly
		1741	write) will still block on the disk I/O.
		1742
		1743	Another way to view it is that in the case of sockets, pipes, character
		1744	devices and so on, there is another party (the sender) that delivers data
		1745	on its own, but in the case of files, there is no such thing: the disk
		1746	will not send data on its own, simply because it doesn't know what you
		1747	wish to read - you would first have to request some data.
		1748
		1749	Since files are typically not-so-well supported by advanced notification
		1750	mechanism, libev tries hard to emulate POSIX behaviour with respect
		1751	to files, even though you should not use it. The reason for this is
		1752	convenience: sometimes you want to watch STDIN or STDOUT, which is
		1753	usually a tty, often a pipe, but also sometimes files or special devices
		1754	(for example, C<epoll> on Linux works with F</dev/random> but not with
		1755	F</dev/urandom>), and even though the file might better be served with
		1756	asynchronous I/O instead of with non-blocking I/O, it is still useful when
		1757	it "just works" instead of freezing.
		1758
		1759	So avoid file descriptors pointing to files when you know it (e.g. use
		1760	libeio), but use them when it is convenient, e.g. for STDIN/STDOUT, or
		1761	when you rarely read from a file instead of from a socket, and want to
		1762	reuse the same code path.
		1763
		1764	=head3 The special problem of fork
		1765
		1766	Some backends (epoll, kqueue, linuxaio, iouring) do not support C<fork ()>
		1767	at all or exhibit useless behaviour. Libev fully supports fork, but needs
		1768	to be told about it in the child if you want to continue to use it in the
		1769	child.
		1770
		1771	To support fork in your child processes, you have to call C<ev_loop_fork
		1772	()> after a fork in the child, enable C<EVFLAG_FORKCHECK>, or resort to
		1773	C<EVBACKEND_SELECT> or C<EVBACKEND_POLL>.
		1774
		1775	=head3 The special problem of SIGPIPE
		1776
		1777	While not really specific to libev, it is easy to forget about C<SIGPIPE>:
		1778	when writing to a pipe whose other end has been closed, your program gets
		1779	sent a SIGPIPE, which, by default, aborts your program. For most programs
		1780	this is sensible behaviour, for daemons, this is usually undesirable.
		1781
		1782	So when you encounter spurious, unexplained daemon exits, make sure you
		1783	ignore SIGPIPE (and maybe make sure you log the exit status of your daemon
		1784	somewhere, as that would have given you a big clue).
		1785
		1786	=head3 The special problem of accept()ing when you can't
		1787
		1788	Many implementations of the POSIX C<accept> function (for example,
		1789	found in post-2004 Linux) have the peculiar behaviour of not removing a
		1790	connection from the pending queue in all error cases.
		1791
		1792	For example, larger servers often run out of file descriptors (because
		1793	of resource limits), causing C<accept> to fail with C<ENFILE> but not
		1794	rejecting the connection, leading to libev signalling readiness on
		1795	the next iteration again (the connection still exists after all), and
		1796	typically causing the program to loop at 100% CPU usage.
		1797
		1798	Unfortunately, the set of errors that cause this issue differs between
		1799	operating systems, there is usually little the app can do to remedy the
		1800	situation, and no known thread-safe method of removing the connection to
		1801	cope with overload is known (to me).
		1802
		1803	One of the easiest ways to handle this situation is to just ignore it
		1804	- when the program encounters an overload, it will just loop until the
		1805	situation is over. While this is a form of busy waiting, no OS offers an
		1806	event-based way to handle this situation, so it's the best one can do.
		1807
		1808	A better way to handle the situation is to log any errors other than
		1809	C<EAGAIN> and C<EWOULDBLOCK>, making sure not to flood the log with such
		1810	messages, and continue as usual, which at least gives the user an idea of
		1811	what could be wrong ("raise the ulimit!"). For extra points one could stop
		1812	the C<ev_io> watcher on the listening fd "for a while", which reduces CPU
		1813	usage.
		1814
		1815	If your program is single-threaded, then you could also keep a dummy file
		1816	descriptor for overload situations (e.g. by opening F</dev/null>), and
		1817	when you run into C<ENFILE> or C<EMFILE>, close it, run C<accept>,
		1818	close that fd, and create a new dummy fd. This will gracefully refuse
		1819	clients under typical overload conditions.
		1820
		1821	The last way to handle it is to simply log the error and C<exit>, as
		1822	is often done with C<malloc> failures, but this results in an easy
		1823	opportunity for a DoS attack.
		1824
		1825	=head3 Watcher-Specific Functions
911		1826
912	=over 4	1827	=over 4
913		1828
914	=item ev_io_init (ev_io *, callback, int fd, int events)	1829	=item ev_io_init (ev_io *, callback, int fd, int events)
915		1830
916	=item ev_io_set (ev_io *, int fd, int events)	1831	=item ev_io_set (ev_io *, int fd, int events)
917		1832
918	Configures an C<ev_io> watcher. The C<fd> is the file descriptor to	1833	Configures an C<ev_io> watcher. The C<fd> is the file descriptor to
919	rceeive events for and events is either C<EV_READ>, C<EV_WRITE> or	1834	receive events for and C<events> is either C<EV_READ>, C<EV_WRITE> or
920	C<EV_READ | EV_WRITE> to receive the given events.	1835	C<EV_READ | EV_WRITE>, to express the desire to receive the given events.
921		1836
922	=item int fd [read-only]	1837	=item ev_io_modify (ev_io *, int events)
923		1838
924	The file descriptor being watched.	1839	Similar to C<ev_io_set>, but only changes the event mask. Using this might
		1840	be faster with some backends, as libev can assume that the C<fd> still
		1841	refers to the same underlying file description, something it cannot do
		1842	when using C<ev_io_set>.
925		1843
		1844	=item int fd [no-modify]
		1845
		1846	The file descriptor being watched. While it can be read at any time, you
		1847	must not modify this member even when the watcher is stopped - always use
		1848	C<ev_io_set> for that.
		1849
926	=item int events [read-only]	1850	=item int events [no-modify]
927		1851
928	The events being watched.	1852	The set of events the fd is being watched for, among other flags. Remember
		1853	that this is a bit set - to test for C<EV_READ>, use C<< w->events &
		1854	EV_READ >>, and similarly for C<EV_WRITE>.
		1855
		1856	As with C<fd>, you must not modify this member even when the watcher is
		1857	stopped, always use C<ev_io_set> or C<ev_io_modify> for that.
929		1858
930	=back	1859	=back
		1860
		1861	=head3 Examples
931		1862
932	Example: Call C<stdin_readable_cb> when STDIN_FILENO has become, well	1863	Example: Call C<stdin_readable_cb> when STDIN_FILENO has become, well
933	readable, but only once. Since it is likely line-buffered, you could	1864	readable, but only once. Since it is likely line-buffered, you could
934	attempt to read a whole line in the callback.	1865	attempt to read a whole line in the callback.
935		1866
936	static void	1867	static void
937	stdin_readable_cb (struct ev_loop *loop, struct ev_io *w, int revents)	1868	stdin_readable_cb (struct ev_loop *loop, ev_io *w, int revents)
938	{	1869	{
939	ev_io_stop (loop, w);	1870	ev_io_stop (loop, w);
940	.. read from stdin here (or from w->fd) and haqndle any I/O errors	1871	.. read from stdin here (or from w->fd) and handle any I/O errors
941	}	1872	}
942		1873
943	...	1874	...
944	struct ev_loop *loop = ev_default_init (0);	1875	struct ev_loop *loop = ev_default_init (0);
945	struct ev_io stdin_readable;	1876	ev_io stdin_readable;
946	ev_io_init (&stdin_readable, stdin_readable_cb, STDIN_FILENO, EV_READ);	1877	ev_io_init (&stdin_readable, stdin_readable_cb, STDIN_FILENO, EV_READ);
947	ev_io_start (loop, &stdin_readable);	1878	ev_io_start (loop, &stdin_readable);
948	ev_loop (loop, 0);	1879	ev_run (loop, 0);
949		1880
950		1881
951	=head2 C<ev_timer> - relative and optionally repeating timeouts	1882	=head2 C<ev_timer> - relative and optionally repeating timeouts
952		1883
953	Timer watchers are simple relative timers that generate an event after a	1884	Timer watchers are simple relative timers that generate an event after a
954	given time, and optionally repeating in regular intervals after that.	1885	given time, and optionally repeating in regular intervals after that.
955		1886
956	The timers are based on real time, that is, if you register an event that	1887	The timers are based on real time, that is, if you register an event that
957	times out after an hour and you reset your system clock to last years	1888	times out after an hour and you reset your system clock to January last
958	time, it will still time out after (roughly) and hour. "Roughly" because	1889	year, it will still time out after (roughly) one hour. "Roughly" because
959	detecting time jumps is hard, and some inaccuracies are unavoidable (the	1890	detecting time jumps is hard, and some inaccuracies are unavoidable (the
960	monotonic clock option helps a lot here).	1891	monotonic clock option helps a lot here).
		1892
		1893	The callback is guaranteed to be invoked only I<after> its timeout has
		1894	passed (not I<at>, so on systems with very low-resolution clocks this
		1895	might introduce a small delay, see "the special problem of being too
		1896	early", below). If multiple timers become ready during the same loop
		1897	iteration then the ones with earlier time-out values are invoked before
		1898	ones of the same priority with later time-out values (but this is no
		1899	longer true when a callback calls C<ev_run> recursively).
		1900
		1901	=head3 Be smart about timeouts
		1902
		1903	Many real-world problems involve some kind of timeout, usually for error
		1904	recovery. A typical example is an HTTP request - if the other side hangs,
		1905	you want to raise some error after a while.
		1906
		1907	What follows are some ways to handle this problem, from obvious and
		1908	inefficient to smart and efficient.
		1909
		1910	In the following, a 60 second activity timeout is assumed - a timeout that
		1911	gets reset to 60 seconds each time there is activity (e.g. each time some
		1912	data or other life sign was received).
		1913
		1914	=over 4
		1915
		1916	=item 1. Use a timer and stop, reinitialise and start it on activity.
		1917
		1918	This is the most obvious, but not the most simple way: In the beginning,
		1919	start the watcher:
		1920
		1921	ev_timer_init (timer, callback, 60., 0.);
		1922	ev_timer_start (loop, timer);
		1923
		1924	Then, each time there is some activity, C<ev_timer_stop> it, initialise it
		1925	and start it again:
		1926
		1927	ev_timer_stop (loop, timer);
		1928	ev_timer_set (timer, 60., 0.);
		1929	ev_timer_start (loop, timer);
		1930
		1931	This is relatively simple to implement, but means that each time there is
		1932	some activity, libev will first have to remove the timer from its internal
		1933	data structure and then add it again. Libev tries to be fast, but it's
		1934	still not a constant-time operation.
		1935
		1936	=item 2. Use a timer and re-start it with C<ev_timer_again> inactivity.
		1937
		1938	This is the easiest way, and involves using C<ev_timer_again> instead of
		1939	C<ev_timer_start>.
		1940
		1941	To implement this, configure an C<ev_timer> with a C<repeat> value
		1942	of C<60> and then call C<ev_timer_again> at start and each time you
		1943	successfully read or write some data. If you go into an idle state where
		1944	you do not expect data to travel on the socket, you can C<ev_timer_stop>
		1945	the timer, and C<ev_timer_again> will automatically restart it if need be.
		1946
		1947	That means you can ignore both the C<ev_timer_start> function and the
		1948	C<after> argument to C<ev_timer_set>, and only ever use the C<repeat>
		1949	member and C<ev_timer_again>.
		1950
		1951	At start:
		1952
		1953	ev_init (timer, callback);
		1954	timer->repeat = 60.;
		1955	ev_timer_again (loop, timer);
		1956
		1957	Each time there is some activity:
		1958
		1959	ev_timer_again (loop, timer);
		1960
		1961	It is even possible to change the time-out on the fly, regardless of
		1962	whether the watcher is active or not:
		1963
		1964	timer->repeat = 30.;
		1965	ev_timer_again (loop, timer);
		1966
		1967	This is slightly more efficient then stopping/starting the timer each time
		1968	you want to modify its timeout value, as libev does not have to completely
		1969	remove and re-insert the timer from/into its internal data structure.
		1970
		1971	It is, however, even simpler than the "obvious" way to do it.
		1972
		1973	=item 3. Let the timer time out, but then re-arm it as required.
		1974
		1975	This method is more tricky, but usually most efficient: Most timeouts are
		1976	relatively long compared to the intervals between other activity - in
		1977	our example, within 60 seconds, there are usually many I/O events with
		1978	associated activity resets.
		1979
		1980	In this case, it would be more efficient to leave the C<ev_timer> alone,
		1981	but remember the time of last activity, and check for a real timeout only
		1982	within the callback:
		1983
		1984	ev_tstamp timeout = 60.;
		1985	ev_tstamp last_activity; // time of last activity
		1986	ev_timer timer;
		1987
		1988	static void
		1989	callback (EV_P_ ev_timer *w, int revents)
		1990	{
		1991	// calculate when the timeout would happen
		1992	ev_tstamp after = last_activity - ev_now (EV_A) + timeout;
		1993
		1994	// if negative, it means we the timeout already occurred
		1995	if (after < 0.)
		1996	{
		1997	// timeout occurred, take action
		1998	}
		1999	else
		2000	{
		2001	// callback was invoked, but there was some recent
		2002	// activity. simply restart the timer to time out
		2003	// after "after" seconds, which is the earliest time
		2004	// the timeout can occur.
		2005	ev_timer_set (w, after, 0.);
		2006	ev_timer_start (EV_A_ w);
		2007	}
		2008	}
		2009
		2010	To summarise the callback: first calculate in how many seconds the
		2011	timeout will occur (by calculating the absolute time when it would occur,
		2012	C<last_activity + timeout>, and subtracting the current time, C<ev_now
		2013	(EV_A)> from that).
		2014
		2015	If this value is negative, then we are already past the timeout, i.e. we
		2016	timed out, and need to do whatever is needed in this case.
		2017
		2018	Otherwise, we now the earliest time at which the timeout would trigger,
		2019	and simply start the timer with this timeout value.
		2020
		2021	In other words, each time the callback is invoked it will check whether
		2022	the timeout occurred. If not, it will simply reschedule itself to check
		2023	again at the earliest time it could time out. Rinse. Repeat.
		2024
		2025	This scheme causes more callback invocations (about one every 60 seconds
		2026	minus half the average time between activity), but virtually no calls to
		2027	libev to change the timeout.
		2028
		2029	To start the machinery, simply initialise the watcher and set
		2030	C<last_activity> to the current time (meaning there was some activity just
		2031	now), then call the callback, which will "do the right thing" and start
		2032	the timer:
		2033
		2034	last_activity = ev_now (EV_A);
		2035	ev_init (&timer, callback);
		2036	callback (EV_A_ &timer, 0);
		2037
		2038	When there is some activity, simply store the current time in
		2039	C<last_activity>, no libev calls at all:
		2040
		2041	if (activity detected)
		2042	last_activity = ev_now (EV_A);
		2043
		2044	When your timeout value changes, then the timeout can be changed by simply
		2045	providing a new value, stopping the timer and calling the callback, which
		2046	will again do the right thing (for example, time out immediately :).
		2047
		2048	timeout = new_value;
		2049	ev_timer_stop (EV_A_ &timer);
		2050	callback (EV_A_ &timer, 0);
		2051
		2052	This technique is slightly more complex, but in most cases where the
		2053	time-out is unlikely to be triggered, much more efficient.
		2054
		2055	=item 4. Wee, just use a double-linked list for your timeouts.
		2056
		2057	If there is not one request, but many thousands (millions...), all
		2058	employing some kind of timeout with the same timeout value, then one can
		2059	do even better:
		2060
		2061	When starting the timeout, calculate the timeout value and put the timeout
		2062	at the I<end> of the list.
		2063
		2064	Then use an C<ev_timer> to fire when the timeout at the I<beginning> of
		2065	the list is expected to fire (for example, using the technique #3).
		2066
		2067	When there is some activity, remove the timer from the list, recalculate
		2068	the timeout, append it to the end of the list again, and make sure to
		2069	update the C<ev_timer> if it was taken from the beginning of the list.
		2070
		2071	This way, one can manage an unlimited number of timeouts in O(1) time for
		2072	starting, stopping and updating the timers, at the expense of a major
		2073	complication, and having to use a constant timeout. The constant timeout
		2074	ensures that the list stays sorted.
		2075
		2076	=back
		2077
		2078	So which method the best?
		2079
		2080	Method #2 is a simple no-brain-required solution that is adequate in most
		2081	situations. Method #3 requires a bit more thinking, but handles many cases
		2082	better, and isn't very complicated either. In most case, choosing either
		2083	one is fine, with #3 being better in typical situations.
		2084
		2085	Method #1 is almost always a bad idea, and buys you nothing. Method #4 is
		2086	rather complicated, but extremely efficient, something that really pays
		2087	off after the first million or so of active timers, i.e. it's usually
		2088	overkill :)
		2089
		2090	=head3 The special problem of being too early
		2091
		2092	If you ask a timer to call your callback after three seconds, then
		2093	you expect it to be invoked after three seconds - but of course, this
		2094	cannot be guaranteed to infinite precision. Less obviously, it cannot be
		2095	guaranteed to any precision by libev - imagine somebody suspending the
		2096	process with a STOP signal for a few hours for example.
		2097
		2098	So, libev tries to invoke your callback as soon as possible I<after> the
		2099	delay has occurred, but cannot guarantee this.
		2100
		2101	A less obvious failure mode is calling your callback too early: many event
		2102	loops compare timestamps with a "elapsed delay >= requested delay", but
		2103	this can cause your callback to be invoked much earlier than you would
		2104	expect.
		2105
		2106	To see why, imagine a system with a clock that only offers full second
		2107	resolution (think windows if you can't come up with a broken enough OS
		2108	yourself). If you schedule a one-second timer at the time 500.9, then the
		2109	event loop will schedule your timeout to elapse at a system time of 500
		2110	(500.9 truncated to the resolution) + 1, or 501.
		2111
		2112	If an event library looks at the timeout 0.1s later, it will see "501 >=
		2113	501" and invoke the callback 0.1s after it was started, even though a
		2114	one-second delay was requested - this is being "too early", despite best
		2115	intentions.
		2116
		2117	This is the reason why libev will never invoke the callback if the elapsed
		2118	delay equals the requested delay, but only when the elapsed delay is
		2119	larger than the requested delay. In the example above, libev would only invoke
		2120	the callback at system time 502, or 1.1s after the timer was started.
		2121
		2122	So, while libev cannot guarantee that your callback will be invoked
		2123	exactly when requested, it I<can> and I<does> guarantee that the requested
		2124	delay has actually elapsed, or in other words, it always errs on the "too
		2125	late" side of things.
		2126
		2127	=head3 The special problem of time updates
		2128
		2129	Establishing the current time is a costly operation (it usually takes
		2130	at least one system call): EV therefore updates its idea of the current
		2131	time only before and after C<ev_run> collects new events, which causes a
		2132	growing difference between C<ev_now ()> and C<ev_time ()> when handling
		2133	lots of events in one iteration.
961		2134
962	The relative timeouts are calculated relative to the C<ev_now ()>	2135	The relative timeouts are calculated relative to the C<ev_now ()>
963	time. This is usually the right thing as this timestamp refers to the time	2136	time. This is usually the right thing as this timestamp refers to the time
964	of the event triggering whatever timeout you are modifying/starting. If	2137	of the event triggering whatever timeout you are modifying/starting. If
965	you suspect event processing to be delayed and you I<need> to base the timeout	2138	you suspect event processing to be delayed and you I<need> to base the
966	on the current time, use something like this to adjust for this:	2139	timeout on the current time, use something like the following to adjust
		2140	for it:
967		2141
968	ev_timer_set (&timer, after + ev_now () - ev_time (), 0.);	2142	ev_timer_set (&timer, after + (ev_time () - ev_now ()), 0.);
969		2143
970	The callback is guarenteed to be invoked only when its timeout has passed,	2144	If the event loop is suspended for a long time, you can also force an
971	but if multiple timers become ready during the same loop iteration then	2145	update of the time returned by C<ev_now ()> by calling C<ev_now_update
972	order of execution is undefined.	2146	()>, although that will push the event time of all outstanding events
		2147	further into the future.
		2148
		2149	=head3 The special problem of unsynchronised clocks
		2150
		2151	Modern systems have a variety of clocks - libev itself uses the normal
		2152	"wall clock" clock and, if available, the monotonic clock (to avoid time
		2153	jumps).
		2154
		2155	Neither of these clocks is synchronised with each other or any other clock
		2156	on the system, so C<ev_time ()> might return a considerably different time
		2157	than C<gettimeofday ()> or C<time ()>. On a GNU/Linux system, for example,
		2158	a call to C<gettimeofday> might return a second count that is one higher
		2159	than a directly following call to C<time>.
		2160
		2161	The moral of this is to only compare libev-related timestamps with
		2162	C<ev_time ()> and C<ev_now ()>, at least if you want better precision than
		2163	a second or so.
		2164
		2165	One more problem arises due to this lack of synchronisation: if libev uses
		2166	the system monotonic clock and you compare timestamps from C<ev_time>
		2167	or C<ev_now> from when you started your timer and when your callback is
		2168	invoked, you will find that sometimes the callback is a bit "early".
		2169
		2170	This is because C<ev_timer>s work in real time, not wall clock time, so
		2171	libev makes sure your callback is not invoked before the delay happened,
		2172	I<measured according to the real time>, not the system clock.
		2173
		2174	If your timeouts are based on a physical timescale (e.g. "time out this
		2175	connection after 100 seconds") then this shouldn't bother you as it is
		2176	exactly the right behaviour.
		2177
		2178	If you want to compare wall clock/system timestamps to your timers, then
		2179	you need to use C<ev_periodic>s, as these are based on the wall clock
		2180	time, where your comparisons will always generate correct results.
		2181
		2182	=head3 The special problems of suspended animation
		2183
		2184	When you leave the server world it is quite customary to hit machines that
		2185	can suspend/hibernate - what happens to the clocks during such a suspend?
		2186
		2187	Some quick tests made with a Linux 2.6.28 indicate that a suspend freezes
		2188	all processes, while the clocks (C<times>, C<CLOCK_MONOTONIC>) continue
		2189	to run until the system is suspended, but they will not advance while the
		2190	system is suspended. That means, on resume, it will be as if the program
		2191	was frozen for a few seconds, but the suspend time will not be counted
		2192	towards C<ev_timer> when a monotonic clock source is used. The real time
		2193	clock advanced as expected, but if it is used as sole clocksource, then a
		2194	long suspend would be detected as a time jump by libev, and timers would
		2195	be adjusted accordingly.
		2196
		2197	I would not be surprised to see different behaviour in different between
		2198	operating systems, OS versions or even different hardware.
		2199
		2200	The other form of suspend (job control, or sending a SIGSTOP) will see a
		2201	time jump in the monotonic clocks and the realtime clock. If the program
		2202	is suspended for a very long time, and monotonic clock sources are in use,
		2203	then you can expect C<ev_timer>s to expire as the full suspension time
		2204	will be counted towards the timers. When no monotonic clock source is in
		2205	use, then libev will again assume a timejump and adjust accordingly.
		2206
		2207	It might be beneficial for this latter case to call C<ev_suspend>
		2208	and C<ev_resume> in code that handles C<SIGTSTP>, to at least get
		2209	deterministic behaviour in this case (you can do nothing against
		2210	C<SIGSTOP>).
		2211
		2212	=head3 Watcher-Specific Functions and Data Members
973		2213
974	=over 4	2214	=over 4
975		2215
976	=item ev_timer_init (ev_timer *, callback, ev_tstamp after, ev_tstamp repeat)	2216	=item ev_timer_init (ev_timer *, callback, ev_tstamp after, ev_tstamp repeat)
977		2217
978	=item ev_timer_set (ev_timer *, ev_tstamp after, ev_tstamp repeat)	2218	=item ev_timer_set (ev_timer *, ev_tstamp after, ev_tstamp repeat)
979		2219
980	Configure the timer to trigger after C<after> seconds. If C<repeat> is	2220	Configure the timer to trigger after C<after> seconds (fractional and
981	C<0.>, then it will automatically be stopped. If it is positive, then the	2221	negative values are supported). If C<repeat> is C<0.>, then it will
		2222	automatically be stopped once the timeout is reached. If it is positive,
982	timer will automatically be configured to trigger again C<repeat> seconds	2223	then the timer will automatically be configured to trigger again C<repeat>
983	later, again, and again, until stopped manually.	2224	seconds later, again, and again, until stopped manually.
984		2225
985	The timer itself will do a best-effort at avoiding drift, that is, if you	2226	The timer itself will do a best-effort at avoiding drift, that is, if
986	configure a timer to trigger every 10 seconds, then it will trigger at	2227	you configure a timer to trigger every 10 seconds, then it will normally
987	exactly 10 second intervals. If, however, your program cannot keep up with	2228	trigger at exactly 10 second intervals. If, however, your program cannot
988	the timer (because it takes longer than those 10 seconds to do stuff) the	2229	keep up with the timer (because it takes longer than those 10 seconds to
989	timer will not fire more than once per event loop iteration.	2230	do stuff) the timer will not fire more than once per event loop iteration.
990		2231
991	=item ev_timer_again (loop)	2232	=item ev_timer_again (loop, ev_timer *)
992		2233
993	This will act as if the timer timed out and restart it again if it is	2234	This will act as if the timer timed out, and restarts it again if it is
994	repeating. The exact semantics are:	2235	repeating. It basically works like calling C<ev_timer_stop>, updating the
		2236	timeout to the C<repeat> value and calling C<ev_timer_start>.
995		2237
		2238	The exact semantics are as in the following rules, all of which will be
		2239	applied to the watcher:
		2240
		2241	=over 4
		2242
996	If the timer is pending, its pending status is cleared.	2243	=item If the timer is pending, the pending status is always cleared.
997		2244
998	If the timer is started but nonrepeating, stop it (as if it timed out).	2245	=item If the timer is started but non-repeating, stop it (as if it timed
		2246	out, without invoking it).
999		2247
1000	If the timer is repeating, either start it if necessary (with the	2248	=item If the timer is repeating, make the C<repeat> value the new timeout
1001	C<repeat> value), or reset the running timer to the C<repeat> value.	2249	and start the timer, if necessary.
1002		2250
1003	This sounds a bit complicated, but here is a useful and typical	2251	=back
1004	example: Imagine you have a tcp connection and you want a so-called idle
1005	timeout, that is, you want to be called when there have been, say, 60
1006	seconds of inactivity on the socket. The easiest way to do this is to
1007	configure an C<ev_timer> with a C<repeat> value of C<60> and then call
1008	C<ev_timer_again> each time you successfully read or write some data. If
1009	you go into an idle state where you do not expect data to travel on the
1010	socket, you can C<ev_timer_stop> the timer, and C<ev_timer_again> will
1011	automatically restart it if need be.
1012		2252
1013	That means you can ignore the C<after> value and C<ev_timer_start>	2253	This sounds a bit complicated, see L</Be smart about timeouts>, above, for a
1014	altogether and only ever use the C<repeat> value and C<ev_timer_again>:	2254	usage example.
1015		2255
1016	ev_timer_init (timer, callback, 0., 5.);	2256	=item ev_tstamp ev_timer_remaining (loop, ev_timer *)
1017	ev_timer_again (loop, timer);
1018	...
1019	timer->again = 17.;
1020	ev_timer_again (loop, timer);
1021	...
1022	timer->again = 10.;
1023	ev_timer_again (loop, timer);
1024		2257
1025	This is more slightly efficient then stopping/starting the timer each time	2258	Returns the remaining time until a timer fires. If the timer is active,
1026	you want to modify its timeout value.	2259	then this time is relative to the current event loop time, otherwise it's
		2260	the timeout value currently configured.
		2261
		2262	That is, after an C<ev_timer_set (w, 5, 7)>, C<ev_timer_remaining> returns
		2263	C<5>. When the timer is started and one second passes, C<ev_timer_remaining>
		2264	will return C<4>. When the timer expires and is restarted, it will return
		2265	roughly C<7> (likely slightly less as callback invocation takes some time,
		2266	too), and so on.
1027		2267
1028	=item ev_tstamp repeat [read-write]	2268	=item ev_tstamp repeat [read-write]
1029		2269
1030	The current C<repeat> value. Will be used each time the watcher times out	2270	The current C<repeat> value. Will be used each time the watcher times out
1031	or C<ev_timer_again> is called and determines the next timeout (if any),	2271	or C<ev_timer_again> is called, and determines the next timeout (if any),
1032	which is also when any modifications are taken into account.	2272	which is also when any modifications are taken into account.
1033		2273
1034	=back	2274	=back
1035		2275
		2276	=head3 Examples
		2277
1036	Example: Create a timer that fires after 60 seconds.	2278	Example: Create a timer that fires after 60 seconds.
1037		2279
1038	static void	2280	static void
1039	one_minute_cb (struct ev_loop *loop, struct ev_timer *w, int revents)	2281	one_minute_cb (struct ev_loop *loop, ev_timer *w, int revents)
1040	{	2282	{
1041	.. one minute over, w is actually stopped right here	2283	.. one minute over, w is actually stopped right here
1042	}	2284	}
1043		2285
1044	struct ev_timer mytimer;	2286	ev_timer mytimer;
1045	ev_timer_init (&mytimer, one_minute_cb, 60., 0.);	2287	ev_timer_init (&mytimer, one_minute_cb, 60., 0.);
1046	ev_timer_start (loop, &mytimer);	2288	ev_timer_start (loop, &mytimer);
1047		2289
1048	Example: Create a timeout timer that times out after 10 seconds of	2290	Example: Create a timeout timer that times out after 10 seconds of
1049	inactivity.	2291	inactivity.
1050		2292
1051	static void	2293	static void
1052	timeout_cb (struct ev_loop *loop, struct ev_timer *w, int revents)	2294	timeout_cb (struct ev_loop *loop, ev_timer *w, int revents)
1053	{	2295	{
1054	.. ten seconds without any activity	2296	.. ten seconds without any activity
1055	}	2297	}
1056		2298
1057	struct ev_timer mytimer;	2299	ev_timer mytimer;
1058	ev_timer_init (&mytimer, timeout_cb, 0., 10.); /* note, only repeat used */	2300	ev_timer_init (&mytimer, timeout_cb, 0., 10.); /* note, only repeat used */
1059	ev_timer_again (&mytimer); /* start timer */	2301	ev_timer_again (&mytimer); /* start timer */
1060	ev_loop (loop, 0);	2302	ev_run (loop, 0);
1061		2303
1062	// and in some piece of code that gets executed on any "activity":	2304	// and in some piece of code that gets executed on any "activity":
1063	// reset the timeout to start ticking again at 10 seconds	2305	// reset the timeout to start ticking again at 10 seconds
1064	ev_timer_again (&mytimer);	2306	ev_timer_again (&mytimer);
1065		2307
1066		2308
1067	=head2 C<ev_periodic> - to cron or not to cron?	2309	=head2 C<ev_periodic> - to cron or not to cron?
1068		2310
1069	Periodic watchers are also timers of a kind, but they are very versatile	2311	Periodic watchers are also timers of a kind, but they are very versatile
1070	(and unfortunately a bit complex).	2312	(and unfortunately a bit complex).
1071		2313
1072	Unlike C<ev_timer>'s, they are not based on real time (or relative time)	2314	Unlike C<ev_timer>, periodic watchers are not based on real time (or
1073	but on wallclock time (absolute time). You can tell a periodic watcher	2315	relative time, the physical time that passes) but on wall clock time
1074	to trigger "at" some specific point in time. For example, if you tell a	2316	(absolute time, the thing you can read on your calendar or clock). The
1075	periodic watcher to trigger in 10 seconds (by specifiying e.g. C<ev_now ()	2317	difference is that wall clock time can run faster or slower than real
1076	+ 10.>) and then reset your system clock to the last year, then it will	2318	time, and time jumps are not uncommon (e.g. when you adjust your
1077	take a year to trigger the event (unlike an C<ev_timer>, which would trigger	2319	wrist-watch).
1078	roughly 10 seconds later and of course not if you reset your system time
1079	again).
1080		2320
1081	They can also be used to implement vastly more complex timers, such as	2321	You can tell a periodic watcher to trigger after some specific point
		2322	in time: for example, if you tell a periodic watcher to trigger "in 10
		2323	seconds" (by specifying e.g. C<ev_now () + 10.>, that is, an absolute time
		2324	not a delay) and then reset your system clock to January of the previous
		2325	year, then it will take a year or more to trigger the event (unlike an
		2326	C<ev_timer>, which would still trigger roughly 10 seconds after starting
		2327	it, as it uses a relative timeout).
		2328
		2329	C<ev_periodic> watchers can also be used to implement vastly more complex
1082	triggering an event on eahc midnight, local time.	2330	timers, such as triggering an event on each "midnight, local time", or
		2331	other complicated rules. This cannot easily be done with C<ev_timer>
		2332	watchers, as those cannot react to time jumps.
1083		2333
1084	As with timers, the callback is guarenteed to be invoked only when the	2334	As with timers, the callback is guaranteed to be invoked only when the
1085	time (C<at>) has been passed, but if multiple periodic timers become ready	2335	point in time where it is supposed to trigger has passed. If multiple
1086	during the same loop iteration then order of execution is undefined.	2336	timers become ready during the same loop iteration then the ones with
		2337	earlier time-out values are invoked before ones with later time-out values
		2338	(but this is no longer true when a callback calls C<ev_run> recursively).
		2339
		2340	=head3 Watcher-Specific Functions and Data Members
1087		2341
1088	=over 4	2342	=over 4
1089		2343
1090	=item ev_periodic_init (ev_periodic *, callback, ev_tstamp at, ev_tstamp interval, reschedule_cb)	2344	=item ev_periodic_init (ev_periodic *, callback, ev_tstamp offset, ev_tstamp interval, reschedule_cb)
1091		2345
1092	=item ev_periodic_set (ev_periodic *, ev_tstamp after, ev_tstamp repeat, reschedule_cb)	2346	=item ev_periodic_set (ev_periodic *, ev_tstamp offset, ev_tstamp interval, reschedule_cb)
1093		2347
1094	Lots of arguments, lets sort it out... There are basically three modes of	2348	Lots of arguments, let's sort it out... There are basically three modes of
1095	operation, and we will explain them from simplest to complex:	2349	operation, and we will explain them from simplest to most complex:
1096		2350
1097	=over 4	2351	=over 4
1098		2352
1099	=item * absolute timer (interval = reschedule_cb = 0)	2353	=item * absolute timer (offset = absolute time, interval = 0, reschedule_cb = 0)
1100		2354
1101	In this configuration the watcher triggers an event at the wallclock time	2355	In this configuration the watcher triggers an event after the wall clock
1102	C<at> and doesn't repeat. It will not adjust when a time jump occurs,	2356	time C<offset> has passed. It will not repeat and will not adjust when a
1103	that is, if it is to be run at January 1st 2011 then it will run when the	2357	time jump occurs, that is, if it is to be run at January 1st 2011 then it
1104	system time reaches or surpasses this time.	2358	will be stopped and invoked when the system clock reaches or surpasses
		2359	this point in time.
1105		2360
1106	=item * non-repeating interval timer (interval > 0, reschedule_cb = 0)	2361	=item * repeating interval timer (offset = offset within interval, interval > 0, reschedule_cb = 0)
1107		2362
1108	In this mode the watcher will always be scheduled to time out at the next	2363	In this mode the watcher will always be scheduled to time out at the next
1109	C<at + N * interval> time (for some integer N) and then repeat, regardless	2364	C<offset + N * interval> time (for some integer N, which can also be
1110	of any time jumps.	2365	negative) and then repeat, regardless of any time jumps. The C<offset>
		2366	argument is merely an offset into the C<interval> periods.
1111		2367
1112	This can be used to create timers that do not drift with respect to system	2368	This can be used to create timers that do not drift with respect to the
1113	time:	2369	system clock, for example, here is an C<ev_periodic> that triggers each
		2370	hour, on the hour (with respect to UTC):
1114		2371
1115	ev_periodic_set (&periodic, 0., 3600., 0);	2372	ev_periodic_set (&periodic, 0., 3600., 0);
1116		2373
1117	This doesn't mean there will always be 3600 seconds in between triggers,	2374	This doesn't mean there will always be 3600 seconds in between triggers,
1118	but only that the the callback will be called when the system time shows a	2375	but only that the callback will be called when the system time shows a
1119	full hour (UTC), or more correctly, when the system time is evenly divisible	2376	full hour (UTC), or more correctly, when the system time is evenly divisible
1120	by 3600.	2377	by 3600.
1121		2378
1122	Another way to think about it (for the mathematically inclined) is that	2379	Another way to think about it (for the mathematically inclined) is that
1123	C<ev_periodic> will try to run the callback in this mode at the next possible	2380	C<ev_periodic> will try to run the callback in this mode at the next possible
1124	time where C<time = at (mod interval)>, regardless of any time jumps.	2381	time where C<time = offset (mod interval)>, regardless of any time jumps.
1125		2382
		2383	The C<interval> I<MUST> be positive, and for numerical stability, the
		2384	interval value should be higher than C<1/8192> (which is around 100
		2385	microseconds) and C<offset> should be higher than C<0> and should have
		2386	at most a similar magnitude as the current time (say, within a factor of
		2387	ten). Typical values for offset are, in fact, C<0> or something between
		2388	C<0> and C<interval>, which is also the recommended range.
		2389
		2390	Note also that there is an upper limit to how often a timer can fire (CPU
		2391	speed for example), so if C<interval> is very small then timing stability
		2392	will of course deteriorate. Libev itself tries to be exact to be about one
		2393	millisecond (if the OS supports it and the machine is fast enough).
		2394
1126	=item * manual reschedule mode (reschedule_cb = callback)	2395	=item * manual reschedule mode (offset ignored, interval ignored, reschedule_cb = callback)
1127		2396
1128	In this mode the values for C<interval> and C<at> are both being	2397	In this mode the values for C<interval> and C<offset> are both being
1129	ignored. Instead, each time the periodic watcher gets scheduled, the	2398	ignored. Instead, each time the periodic watcher gets scheduled, the
1130	reschedule callback will be called with the watcher as first, and the	2399	reschedule callback will be called with the watcher as first, and the
1131	current time as second argument.	2400	current time as second argument.
1132		2401
1133	NOTE: I<This callback MUST NOT stop or destroy any periodic watcher,	2402	NOTE: I<This callback MUST NOT stop or destroy any periodic watcher, ever,
1134	ever, or make any event loop modifications>. If you need to stop it,	2403	or make ANY other event loop modifications whatsoever, unless explicitly
1135	return C<now + 1e30> (or so, fudge fudge) and stop it afterwards (e.g. by	2404	allowed by documentation here>.
1136	starting a prepare watcher).
1137		2405
		2406	If you need to stop it, return C<now + 1e30> (or so, fudge fudge) and stop
		2407	it afterwards (e.g. by starting an C<ev_prepare> watcher, which is the
		2408	only event loop modification you are allowed to do).
		2409
1138	Its prototype is C<ev_tstamp (*reschedule_cb)(struct ev_periodic *w,	2410	The callback prototype is C<ev_tstamp (*reschedule_cb)(ev_periodic
1139	ev_tstamp now)>, e.g.:	2411	*w, ev_tstamp now)>, e.g.:
1140		2412
		2413	static ev_tstamp
1141	static ev_tstamp my_rescheduler (struct ev_periodic *w, ev_tstamp now)	2414	my_rescheduler (ev_periodic *w, ev_tstamp now)
1142	{	2415	{
1143	return now + 60.;	2416	return now + 60.;
1144	}	2417	}
1145		2418
1146	It must return the next time to trigger, based on the passed time value	2419	It must return the next time to trigger, based on the passed time value
1147	(that is, the lowest time value larger than to the second argument). It	2420	(that is, the lowest time value larger than to the second argument). It
1148	will usually be called just before the callback will be triggered, but	2421	will usually be called just before the callback will be triggered, but
1149	might be called at other times, too.	2422	might be called at other times, too.
1150		2423
1151	NOTE: I<< This callback must always return a time that is later than the	2424	NOTE: I<< This callback must always return a time that is higher than or
1152	passed C<now> value >>. Not even C<now> itself will do, it I<must> be larger.	2425	equal to the passed C<now> value >>.
1153		2426
1154	This can be used to create very complex timers, such as a timer that	2427	This can be used to create very complex timers, such as a timer that
1155	triggers on each midnight, local time. To do this, you would calculate the	2428	triggers on "next midnight, local time". To do this, you would calculate
1156	next midnight after C<now> and return the timestamp value for this. How	2429	the next midnight after C<now> and return the timestamp value for
1157	you do this is, again, up to you (but it is not trivial, which is the main	2430	this. Here is a (completely untested, no error checking) example on how to
1158	reason I omitted it as an example).	2431	do this:
		2432
		2433	#include <time.h>
		2434
		2435	static ev_tstamp
		2436	my_rescheduler (ev_periodic *w, ev_tstamp now)
		2437	{
		2438	time_t tnow = (time_t)now;
		2439	struct tm tm;
		2440	localtime_r (&tnow, &tm);
		2441
		2442	tm.tm_sec = tm.tm_min = tm.tm_hour = 0; // midnight current day
		2443	++tm.tm_mday; // midnight next day
		2444
		2445	return mktime (&tm);
		2446	}
		2447
		2448	Note: this code might run into trouble on days that have more then two
		2449	midnights (beginning and end).
1159		2450
1160	=back	2451	=back
1161		2452
1162	=item ev_periodic_again (loop, ev_periodic *)	2453	=item ev_periodic_again (loop, ev_periodic *)
1163		2454
1164	Simply stops and restarts the periodic watcher again. This is only useful	2455	Simply stops and restarts the periodic watcher again. This is only useful
1165	when you changed some parameters or the reschedule callback would return	2456	when you changed some parameters or the reschedule callback would return
1166	a different time than the last time it was called (e.g. in a crond like	2457	a different time than the last time it was called (e.g. in a crond like
1167	program when the crontabs have changed).	2458	program when the crontabs have changed).
1168		2459
		2460	=item ev_tstamp ev_periodic_at (ev_periodic *)
		2461
		2462	When active, returns the absolute time that the watcher is supposed
		2463	to trigger next. This is not the same as the C<offset> argument to
		2464	C<ev_periodic_set>, but indeed works even in interval and manual
		2465	rescheduling modes.
		2466
		2467	=item ev_tstamp offset [read-write]
		2468
		2469	When repeating, this contains the offset value, otherwise this is the
		2470	absolute point in time (the C<offset> value passed to C<ev_periodic_set>,
		2471	although libev might modify this value for better numerical stability).
		2472
		2473	Can be modified any time, but changes only take effect when the periodic
		2474	timer fires or C<ev_periodic_again> is being called.
		2475
1169	=item ev_tstamp interval [read-write]	2476	=item ev_tstamp interval [read-write]
1170		2477
1171	The current interval value. Can be modified any time, but changes only	2478	The current interval value. Can be modified any time, but changes only
1172	take effect when the periodic timer fires or C<ev_periodic_again> is being	2479	take effect when the periodic timer fires or C<ev_periodic_again> is being
1173	called.	2480	called.
1174		2481
1175	=item ev_tstamp (*reschedule_cb)(struct ev_periodic *w, ev_tstamp now) [read-write]	2482	=item ev_tstamp (*reschedule_cb)(ev_periodic *w, ev_tstamp now) [read-write]
1176		2483
1177	The current reschedule callback, or C<0>, if this functionality is	2484	The current reschedule callback, or C<0>, if this functionality is
1178	switched off. Can be changed any time, but changes only take effect when	2485	switched off. Can be changed any time, but changes only take effect when
1179	the periodic timer fires or C<ev_periodic_again> is being called.	2486	the periodic timer fires or C<ev_periodic_again> is being called.
1180		2487
1181	=back	2488	=back
1182		2489
		2490	=head3 Examples
		2491
1183	Example: Call a callback every hour, or, more precisely, whenever the	2492	Example: Call a callback every hour, or, more precisely, whenever the
1184	system clock is divisible by 3600. The callback invocation times have	2493	system time is divisible by 3600. The callback invocation times have
1185	potentially a lot of jittering, but good long-term stability.	2494	potentially a lot of jitter, but good long-term stability.
1186		2495
1187	static void	2496	static void
1188	clock_cb (struct ev_loop *loop, struct ev_io *w, int revents)	2497	clock_cb (struct ev_loop *loop, ev_periodic *w, int revents)
1189	{	2498	{
1190	... its now a full hour (UTC, or TAI or whatever your clock follows)	2499	... its now a full hour (UTC, or TAI or whatever your clock follows)
1191	}	2500	}
1192		2501
1193	struct ev_periodic hourly_tick;	2502	ev_periodic hourly_tick;
1194	ev_periodic_init (&hourly_tick, clock_cb, 0., 3600., 0);	2503	ev_periodic_init (&hourly_tick, clock_cb, 0., 3600., 0);
1195	ev_periodic_start (loop, &hourly_tick);	2504	ev_periodic_start (loop, &hourly_tick);
1196		2505
1197	Example: The same as above, but use a reschedule callback to do it:	2506	Example: The same as above, but use a reschedule callback to do it:
1198		2507
1199	#include <math.h>	2508	#include <math.h>
1200		2509
1201	static ev_tstamp	2510	static ev_tstamp
1202	my_scheduler_cb (struct ev_periodic *w, ev_tstamp now)	2511	my_scheduler_cb (ev_periodic *w, ev_tstamp now)
1203	{	2512	{
1204	return fmod (now, 3600.) + 3600.;	2513	return now + (3600. - fmod (now, 3600.));
1205	}	2514	}
1206		2515
1207	ev_periodic_init (&hourly_tick, clock_cb, 0., 0., my_scheduler_cb);	2516	ev_periodic_init (&hourly_tick, clock_cb, 0., 0., my_scheduler_cb);
1208		2517
1209	Example: Call a callback every hour, starting now:	2518	Example: Call a callback every hour, starting now:
1210		2519
1211	struct ev_periodic hourly_tick;	2520	ev_periodic hourly_tick;
1212	ev_periodic_init (&hourly_tick, clock_cb,	2521	ev_periodic_init (&hourly_tick, clock_cb,
1213	fmod (ev_now (loop), 3600.), 3600., 0);	2522	fmod (ev_now (loop), 3600.), 3600., 0);
1214	ev_periodic_start (loop, &hourly_tick);	2523	ev_periodic_start (loop, &hourly_tick);
1215		2524
1216		2525
1217	=head2 C<ev_signal> - signal me when a signal gets signalled!	2526	=head2 C<ev_signal> - signal me when a signal gets signalled!
1218		2527
1219	Signal watchers will trigger an event when the process receives a specific	2528	Signal watchers will trigger an event when the process receives a specific
1220	signal one or more times. Even though signals are very asynchronous, libev	2529	signal one or more times. Even though signals are very asynchronous, libev
1221	will try it's best to deliver signals synchronously, i.e. as part of the	2530	will try its best to deliver signals synchronously, i.e. as part of the
1222	normal event processing, like any other event.	2531	normal event processing, like any other event.
1223		2532
		2533	If you want signals to be delivered truly asynchronously, just use
		2534	C<sigaction> as you would do without libev and forget about sharing
		2535	the signal. You can even use C<ev_async> from a signal handler to
		2536	synchronously wake up an event loop.
		2537
1224	You can configure as many watchers as you like per signal. Only when the	2538	You can configure as many watchers as you like for the same signal, but
1225	first watcher gets started will libev actually register a signal watcher	2539	only within the same loop, i.e. you can watch for C<SIGINT> in your
1226	with the kernel (thus it coexists with your own signal handlers as long	2540	default loop and for C<SIGIO> in another loop, but you cannot watch for
1227	as you don't register any with libev). Similarly, when the last signal	2541	C<SIGINT> in both the default loop and another loop at the same time. At
1228	watcher for a signal is stopped libev will reset the signal handler to	2542	the moment, C<SIGCHLD> is permanently tied to the default loop.
1229	SIG_DFL (regardless of what it was set to before).	2543
		2544	Only after the first watcher for a signal is started will libev actually
		2545	register something with the kernel. It thus coexists with your own signal
		2546	handlers as long as you don't register any with libev for the same signal.
		2547
		2548	If possible and supported, libev will install its handlers with
		2549	C<SA_RESTART> (or equivalent) behaviour enabled, so system calls should
		2550	not be unduly interrupted. If you have a problem with system calls getting
		2551	interrupted by signals you can block all signals in an C<ev_check> watcher
		2552	and unblock them in an C<ev_prepare> watcher.
		2553
		2554	=head3 The special problem of inheritance over fork/execve/pthread_create
		2555
		2556	Both the signal mask (C<sigprocmask>) and the signal disposition
		2557	(C<sigaction>) are unspecified after starting a signal watcher (and after
		2558	stopping it again), that is, libev might or might not block the signal,
		2559	and might or might not set or restore the installed signal handler (but
		2560	see C<EVFLAG_NOSIGMASK>).
		2561
		2562	While this does not matter for the signal disposition (libev never
		2563	sets signals to C<SIG_IGN>, so handlers will be reset to C<SIG_DFL> on
		2564	C<execve>), this matters for the signal mask: many programs do not expect
		2565	certain signals to be blocked.
		2566
		2567	This means that before calling C<exec> (from the child) you should reset
		2568	the signal mask to whatever "default" you expect (all clear is a good
		2569	choice usually).
		2570
		2571	The simplest way to ensure that the signal mask is reset in the child is
		2572	to install a fork handler with C<pthread_atfork> that resets it. That will
		2573	catch fork calls done by libraries (such as the libc) as well.
		2574
		2575	In current versions of libev, the signal will not be blocked indefinitely
		2576	unless you use the C<signalfd> API (C<EV_SIGNALFD>). While this reduces
		2577	the window of opportunity for problems, it will not go away, as libev
		2578	I<has> to modify the signal mask, at least temporarily.
		2579
		2580	So I can't stress this enough: I<If you do not reset your signal mask when
		2581	you expect it to be empty, you have a race condition in your code>. This
		2582	is not a libev-specific thing, this is true for most event libraries.
		2583
		2584	=head3 The special problem of threads signal handling
		2585
		2586	POSIX threads has problematic signal handling semantics, specifically,
		2587	a lot of functionality (sigfd, sigwait etc.) only really works if all
		2588	threads in a process block signals, which is hard to achieve.
		2589
		2590	When you want to use sigwait (or mix libev signal handling with your own
		2591	for the same signals), you can tackle this problem by globally blocking
		2592	all signals before creating any threads (or creating them with a fully set
		2593	sigprocmask) and also specifying the C<EVFLAG_NOSIGMASK> when creating
		2594	loops. Then designate one thread as "signal receiver thread" which handles
		2595	these signals. You can pass on any signals that libev might be interested
		2596	in by calling C<ev_feed_signal>.
		2597
		2598	=head3 Watcher-Specific Functions and Data Members
1230		2599
1231	=over 4	2600	=over 4
1232		2601
1233	=item ev_signal_init (ev_signal *, callback, int signum)	2602	=item ev_signal_init (ev_signal *, callback, int signum)
1234		2603
…		…
1241		2610
1242	The signal the watcher watches out for.	2611	The signal the watcher watches out for.
1243		2612
1244	=back	2613	=back
1245		2614
		2615	=head3 Examples
		2616
		2617	Example: Try to exit cleanly on SIGINT.
		2618
		2619	static void
		2620	sigint_cb (struct ev_loop *loop, ev_signal *w, int revents)
		2621	{
		2622	ev_break (loop, EVBREAK_ALL);
		2623	}
		2624
		2625	ev_signal signal_watcher;
		2626	ev_signal_init (&signal_watcher, sigint_cb, SIGINT);
		2627	ev_signal_start (loop, &signal_watcher);
		2628
1246		2629
1247	=head2 C<ev_child> - watch out for process status changes	2630	=head2 C<ev_child> - watch out for process status changes
1248		2631
1249	Child watchers trigger when your process receives a SIGCHLD in response to	2632	Child watchers trigger when your process receives a SIGCHLD in response to
1250	some child status changes (most typically when a child of yours dies).	2633	some child status changes (most typically when a child of yours dies or
		2634	exits). It is permissible to install a child watcher I<after> the child
		2635	has been forked (which implies it might have already exited), as long
		2636	as the event loop isn't entered (or is continued from a watcher), i.e.,
		2637	forking and then immediately registering a watcher for the child is fine,
		2638	but forking and registering a watcher a few event loop iterations later or
		2639	in the next callback invocation is not.
		2640
		2641	Only the default event loop is capable of handling signals, and therefore
		2642	you can only register child watchers in the default event loop.
		2643
		2644	Due to some design glitches inside libev, child watchers will always be
		2645	handled at maximum priority (their priority is set to C<EV_MAXPRI> by
		2646	libev)
		2647
		2648	=head3 Process Interaction
		2649
		2650	Libev grabs C<SIGCHLD> as soon as the default event loop is
		2651	initialised. This is necessary to guarantee proper behaviour even if the
		2652	first child watcher is started after the child exits. The occurrence
		2653	of C<SIGCHLD> is recorded asynchronously, but child reaping is done
		2654	synchronously as part of the event loop processing. Libev always reaps all
		2655	children, even ones not watched.
		2656
		2657	=head3 Overriding the Built-In Processing
		2658
		2659	Libev offers no special support for overriding the built-in child
		2660	processing, but if your application collides with libev's default child
		2661	handler, you can override it easily by installing your own handler for
		2662	C<SIGCHLD> after initialising the default loop, and making sure the
		2663	default loop never gets destroyed. You are encouraged, however, to use an
		2664	event-based approach to child reaping and thus use libev's support for
		2665	that, so other libev users can use C<ev_child> watchers freely.
		2666
		2667	=head3 Stopping the Child Watcher
		2668
		2669	Currently, the child watcher never gets stopped, even when the
		2670	child terminates, so normally one needs to stop the watcher in the
		2671	callback. Future versions of libev might stop the watcher automatically
		2672	when a child exit is detected (calling C<ev_child_stop> twice is not a
		2673	problem).
		2674
		2675	=head3 Watcher-Specific Functions and Data Members
1251		2676
1252	=over 4	2677	=over 4
1253		2678
1254	=item ev_child_init (ev_child *, callback, int pid)	2679	=item ev_child_init (ev_child *, callback, int pid, int trace)
1255		2680
1256	=item ev_child_set (ev_child *, int pid)	2681	=item ev_child_set (ev_child *, int pid, int trace)
1257		2682
1258	Configures the watcher to wait for status changes of process C<pid> (or	2683	Configures the watcher to wait for status changes of process C<pid> (or
1259	I<any> process if C<pid> is specified as C<0>). The callback can look	2684	I<any> process if C<pid> is specified as C<0>). The callback can look
1260	at the C<rstatus> member of the C<ev_child> watcher structure to see	2685	at the C<rstatus> member of the C<ev_child> watcher structure to see
1261	the status word (use the macros from C<sys/wait.h> and see your systems	2686	the status word (use the macros from C<sys/wait.h> and see your systems
1262	C<waitpid> documentation). The C<rpid> member contains the pid of the	2687	C<waitpid> documentation). The C<rpid> member contains the pid of the
1263	process causing the status change.	2688	process causing the status change. C<trace> must be either C<0> (only
		2689	activate the watcher when the process terminates) or C<1> (additionally
		2690	activate the watcher when the process is stopped or continued).
1264		2691
1265	=item int pid [read-only]	2692	=item int pid [read-only]
1266		2693
1267	The process id this watcher watches out for, or C<0>, meaning any process id.	2694	The process id this watcher watches out for, or C<0>, meaning any process id.
1268		2695
…		…
1275	The process exit/trace status caused by C<rpid> (see your systems	2702	The process exit/trace status caused by C<rpid> (see your systems
1276	C<waitpid> and C<sys/wait.h> documentation for details).	2703	C<waitpid> and C<sys/wait.h> documentation for details).
1277		2704
1278	=back	2705	=back
1279		2706
1280	Example: Try to exit cleanly on SIGINT and SIGTERM.	2707	=head3 Examples
1281		2708
		2709	Example: C<fork()> a new process and install a child handler to wait for
		2710	its completion.
		2711
		2712	ev_child cw;
		2713
1282	static void	2714	static void
1283	sigint_cb (struct ev_loop *loop, struct ev_signal *w, int revents)	2715	child_cb (EV_P_ ev_child *w, int revents)
1284	{	2716	{
1285	ev_unloop (loop, EVUNLOOP_ALL);	2717	ev_child_stop (EV_A_ w);
		2718	printf ("process %d exited with status %x\n", w->rpid, w->rstatus);
1286	}	2719	}
1287		2720
1288	struct ev_signal signal_watcher;	2721	pid_t pid = fork ();
1289	ev_signal_init (&signal_watcher, sigint_cb, SIGINT);	2722
1290	ev_signal_start (loop, &sigint_cb);	2723	if (pid < 0)
		2724	// error
		2725	else if (pid == 0)
		2726	{
		2727	// the forked child executes here
		2728	exit (1);
		2729	}
		2730	else
		2731	{
		2732	ev_child_init (&cw, child_cb, pid, 0);
		2733	ev_child_start (EV_DEFAULT_ &cw);
		2734	}
1291		2735
1292		2736
1293	=head2 C<ev_stat> - did the file attributes just change?	2737	=head2 C<ev_stat> - did the file attributes just change?
1294		2738
1295	This watches a filesystem path for attribute changes. That is, it calls	2739	This watches a file system path for attribute changes. That is, it calls
1296	C<stat> regularly (or when the OS says it changed) and sees if it changed	2740	C<stat> on that path in regular intervals (or when the OS says it changed)
1297	compared to the last time, invoking the callback if it did.	2741	and sees if it changed compared to the last time, invoking the callback
		2742	if it did. Starting the watcher C<stat>'s the file, so only changes that
		2743	happen after the watcher has been started will be reported.
1298		2744
1299	The path does not need to exist: changing from "path exists" to "path does	2745	The path does not need to exist: changing from "path exists" to "path does
1300	not exist" is a status change like any other. The condition "path does	2746	not exist" is a status change like any other. The condition "path does not
1301	not exist" is signified by the C<st_nlink> field being zero (which is	2747	exist" (or more correctly "path cannot be stat'ed") is signified by the
1302	otherwise always forced to be at least one) and all the other fields of	2748	C<st_nlink> field being zero (which is otherwise always forced to be at
1303	the stat buffer having unspecified contents.	2749	least one) and all the other fields of the stat buffer having unspecified
		2750	contents.
1304		2751
1305	The path I<should> be absolute and I<must not> end in a slash. If it is	2752	The path I<must not> end in a slash or contain special components such as
		2753	C<.> or C<..>. The path I<should> be absolute: If it is relative and
1306	relative and your working directory changes, the behaviour is undefined.	2754	your working directory changes, then the behaviour is undefined.
1307		2755
1308	Since there is no standard to do this, the portable implementation simply	2756	Since there is no portable change notification interface available, the
1309	calls C<stat (2)> regularly on the path to see if it changed somehow. You	2757	portable implementation simply calls C<stat(2)> regularly on the path
1310	can specify a recommended polling interval for this case. If you specify	2758	to see if it changed somehow. You can specify a recommended polling
1311	a polling interval of C<0> (highly recommended!) then a I<suitable,	2759	interval for this case. If you specify a polling interval of C<0> (highly
1312	unspecified default> value will be used (which you can expect to be around	2760	recommended!) then a I<suitable, unspecified default> value will be used
1313	five seconds, although this might change dynamically). Libev will also	2761	(which you can expect to be around five seconds, although this might
1314	impose a minimum interval which is currently around C<0.1>, but thats	2762	change dynamically). Libev will also impose a minimum interval which is
1315	usually overkill.	2763	currently around C<0.1>, but that's usually overkill.
1316		2764
1317	This watcher type is not meant for massive numbers of stat watchers,	2765	This watcher type is not meant for massive numbers of stat watchers,
1318	as even with OS-supported change notifications, this can be	2766	as even with OS-supported change notifications, this can be
1319	resource-intensive.	2767	resource-intensive.
1320		2768
1321	At the time of this writing, only the Linux inotify interface is	2769	At the time of this writing, the only OS-specific interface implemented
1322	implemented (implementing kqueue support is left as an exercise for the	2770	is the Linux inotify interface (implementing kqueue support is left as an
1323	reader). Inotify will be used to give hints only and should not change the	2771	exercise for the reader. Note, however, that the author sees no way of
1324	semantics of C<ev_stat> watchers, which means that libev sometimes needs	2772	implementing C<ev_stat> semantics with kqueue, except as a hint).
1325	to fall back to regular polling again even with inotify, but changes are	2773
1326	usually detected immediately, and if the file exists there will be no	2774	=head3 ABI Issues (Largefile Support)
1327	polling.	2775
		2776	Libev by default (unless the user overrides this) uses the default
		2777	compilation environment, which means that on systems with large file
		2778	support disabled by default, you get the 32 bit version of the stat
		2779	structure. When using the library from programs that change the ABI to
		2780	use 64 bit file offsets the programs will fail. In that case you have to
		2781	compile libev with the same flags to get binary compatibility. This is
		2782	obviously the case with any flags that change the ABI, but the problem is
		2783	most noticeably displayed with ev_stat and large file support.
		2784
		2785	The solution for this is to lobby your distribution maker to make large
		2786	file interfaces available by default (as e.g. FreeBSD does) and not
		2787	optional. Libev cannot simply switch on large file support because it has
		2788	to exchange stat structures with application programs compiled using the
		2789	default compilation environment.
		2790
		2791	=head3 Inotify and Kqueue
		2792
		2793	When C<inotify (7)> support has been compiled into libev and present at
		2794	runtime, it will be used to speed up change detection where possible. The
		2795	inotify descriptor will be created lazily when the first C<ev_stat>
		2796	watcher is being started.
		2797
		2798	Inotify presence does not change the semantics of C<ev_stat> watchers
		2799	except that changes might be detected earlier, and in some cases, to avoid
		2800	making regular C<stat> calls. Even in the presence of inotify support
		2801	there are many cases where libev has to resort to regular C<stat> polling,
		2802	but as long as kernel 2.6.25 or newer is used (2.6.24 and older have too
		2803	many bugs), the path exists (i.e. stat succeeds), and the path resides on
		2804	a local filesystem (libev currently assumes only ext2/3, jfs, reiserfs and
		2805	xfs are fully working) libev usually gets away without polling.
		2806
		2807	There is no support for kqueue, as apparently it cannot be used to
		2808	implement this functionality, due to the requirement of having a file
		2809	descriptor open on the object at all times, and detecting renames, unlinks
		2810	etc. is difficult.
		2811
		2812	=head3 C<stat ()> is a synchronous operation
		2813
		2814	Libev doesn't normally do any kind of I/O itself, and so is not blocking
		2815	the process. The exception are C<ev_stat> watchers - those call C<stat
		2816	()>, which is a synchronous operation.
		2817
		2818	For local paths, this usually doesn't matter: unless the system is very
		2819	busy or the intervals between stat's are large, a stat call will be fast,
		2820	as the path data is usually in memory already (except when starting the
		2821	watcher).
		2822
		2823	For networked file systems, calling C<stat ()> can block an indefinite
		2824	time due to network issues, and even under good conditions, a stat call
		2825	often takes multiple milliseconds.
		2826
		2827	Therefore, it is best to avoid using C<ev_stat> watchers on networked
		2828	paths, although this is fully supported by libev.
		2829
		2830	=head3 The special problem of stat time resolution
		2831
		2832	The C<stat ()> system call only supports full-second resolution portably,
		2833	and even on systems where the resolution is higher, most file systems
		2834	still only support whole seconds.
		2835
		2836	That means that, if the time is the only thing that changes, you can
		2837	easily miss updates: on the first update, C<ev_stat> detects a change and
		2838	calls your callback, which does something. When there is another update
		2839	within the same second, C<ev_stat> will be unable to detect unless the
		2840	stat data does change in other ways (e.g. file size).
		2841
		2842	The solution to this is to delay acting on a change for slightly more
		2843	than a second (or till slightly after the next full second boundary), using
		2844	a roughly one-second-delay C<ev_timer> (e.g. C<ev_timer_set (w, 0., 1.02);
		2845	ev_timer_again (loop, w)>).
		2846
		2847	The C<.02> offset is added to work around small timing inconsistencies
		2848	of some operating systems (where the second counter of the current time
		2849	might be be delayed. One such system is the Linux kernel, where a call to
		2850	C<gettimeofday> might return a timestamp with a full second later than
		2851	a subsequent C<time> call - if the equivalent of C<time ()> is used to
		2852	update file times then there will be a small window where the kernel uses
		2853	the previous second to update file times but libev might already execute
		2854	the timer callback).
		2855
		2856	=head3 Watcher-Specific Functions and Data Members
1328		2857
1329	=over 4	2858	=over 4
1330		2859
1331	=item ev_stat_init (ev_stat *, callback, const char *path, ev_tstamp interval)	2860	=item ev_stat_init (ev_stat *, callback, const char *path, ev_tstamp interval)
1332		2861
…		…
1336	C<path>. The C<interval> is a hint on how quickly a change is expected to	2865	C<path>. The C<interval> is a hint on how quickly a change is expected to
1337	be detected and should normally be specified as C<0> to let libev choose	2866	be detected and should normally be specified as C<0> to let libev choose
1338	a suitable value. The memory pointed to by C<path> must point to the same	2867	a suitable value. The memory pointed to by C<path> must point to the same
1339	path for as long as the watcher is active.	2868	path for as long as the watcher is active.
1340		2869
1341	The callback will be receive C<EV_STAT> when a change was detected,	2870	The callback will receive an C<EV_STAT> event when a change was detected,
1342	relative to the attributes at the time the watcher was started (or the	2871	relative to the attributes at the time the watcher was started (or the
1343	last change was detected).	2872	last change was detected).
1344		2873
1345	=item ev_stat_stat (ev_stat *)	2874	=item ev_stat_stat (loop, ev_stat *)
1346		2875
1347	Updates the stat buffer immediately with new values. If you change the	2876	Updates the stat buffer immediately with new values. If you change the
1348	watched path in your callback, you could call this fucntion to avoid	2877	watched path in your callback, you could call this function to avoid
1349	detecting this change (while introducing a race condition). Can also be	2878	detecting this change (while introducing a race condition if you are not
1350	useful simply to find out the new values.	2879	the only one changing the path). Can also be useful simply to find out the
		2880	new values.
1351		2881
1352	=item ev_statdata attr [read-only]	2882	=item ev_statdata attr [read-only]
1353		2883
1354	The most-recently detected attributes of the file. Although the type is of	2884	The most-recently detected attributes of the file. Although the type is
1355	C<ev_statdata>, this is usually the (or one of the) C<struct stat> types	2885	C<ev_statdata>, this is usually the (or one of the) C<struct stat> types
1356	suitable for your system. If the C<st_nlink> member is C<0>, then there	2886	suitable for your system, but you can only rely on the POSIX-standardised
		2887	members to be present. If the C<st_nlink> member is C<0>, then there was
1357	was some error while C<stat>ing the file.	2888	some error while C<stat>ing the file.
1358		2889
1359	=item ev_statdata prev [read-only]	2890	=item ev_statdata prev [read-only]
1360		2891
1361	The previous attributes of the file. The callback gets invoked whenever	2892	The previous attributes of the file. The callback gets invoked whenever
1362	C<prev> != C<attr>.	2893	C<prev> != C<attr>, or, more precisely, one or more of these members
		2894	differ: C<st_dev>, C<st_ino>, C<st_mode>, C<st_nlink>, C<st_uid>,
		2895	C<st_gid>, C<st_rdev>, C<st_size>, C<st_atime>, C<st_mtime>, C<st_ctime>.
1363		2896
1364	=item ev_tstamp interval [read-only]	2897	=item ev_tstamp interval [read-only]
1365		2898
1366	The specified interval.	2899	The specified interval.
1367		2900
1368	=item const char *path [read-only]	2901	=item const char *path [read-only]
1369		2902
1370	The filesystem path that is being watched.	2903	The file system path that is being watched.
1371		2904
1372	=back	2905	=back
1373		2906
		2907	=head3 Examples
		2908
1374	Example: Watch C</etc/passwd> for attribute changes.	2909	Example: Watch C</etc/passwd> for attribute changes.
1375		2910
1376	static void	2911	static void
1377	passwd_cb (struct ev_loop *loop, ev_stat *w, int revents)	2912	passwd_cb (struct ev_loop *loop, ev_stat *w, int revents)
1378	{	2913	{
1379	/* /etc/passwd changed in some way */	2914	/* /etc/passwd changed in some way */
1380	if (w->attr.st_nlink)	2915	if (w->attr.st_nlink)
1381	{	2916	{
1382	printf ("passwd current size %ld\n", (long)w->attr.st_size);	2917	printf ("passwd current size %ld\n", (long)w->attr.st_size);
1383	printf ("passwd current atime %ld\n", (long)w->attr.st_mtime);	2918	printf ("passwd current atime %ld\n", (long)w->attr.st_mtime);
1384	printf ("passwd current mtime %ld\n", (long)w->attr.st_mtime);	2919	printf ("passwd current mtime %ld\n", (long)w->attr.st_mtime);
1385	}	2920	}
1386	else	2921	else
1387	/* you shalt not abuse printf for puts */	2922	/* you shalt not abuse printf for puts */
1388	puts ("wow, /etc/passwd is not there, expect problems. "	2923	puts ("wow, /etc/passwd is not there, expect problems. "
1389	"if this is windows, they already arrived\n");	2924	"if this is windows, they already arrived\n");
1390	}	2925	}
1391		2926
1392	...	2927	...
1393	ev_stat passwd;	2928	ev_stat passwd;
1394		2929
1395	ev_stat_init (&passwd, passwd_cb, "/etc/passwd");	2930	ev_stat_init (&passwd, passwd_cb, "/etc/passwd", 0.);
1396	ev_stat_start (loop, &passwd);	2931	ev_stat_start (loop, &passwd);
		2932
		2933	Example: Like above, but additionally use a one-second delay so we do not
		2934	miss updates (however, frequent updates will delay processing, too, so
		2935	one might do the work both on C<ev_stat> callback invocation I<and> on
		2936	C<ev_timer> callback invocation).
		2937
		2938	static ev_stat passwd;
		2939	static ev_timer timer;
		2940
		2941	static void
		2942	timer_cb (EV_P_ ev_timer *w, int revents)
		2943	{
		2944	ev_timer_stop (EV_A_ w);
		2945
		2946	/* now it's one second after the most recent passwd change */
		2947	}
		2948
		2949	static void
		2950	stat_cb (EV_P_ ev_stat *w, int revents)
		2951	{
		2952	/* reset the one-second timer */
		2953	ev_timer_again (EV_A_ &timer);
		2954	}
		2955
		2956	...
		2957	ev_stat_init (&passwd, stat_cb, "/etc/passwd", 0.);
		2958	ev_stat_start (loop, &passwd);
		2959	ev_timer_init (&timer, timer_cb, 0., 1.02);
1397		2960
1398		2961
1399	=head2 C<ev_idle> - when you've got nothing better to do...	2962	=head2 C<ev_idle> - when you've got nothing better to do...
1400		2963
1401	Idle watchers trigger events when no other events of the same or higher	2964	Idle watchers trigger events when no other events of the same or higher
1402	priority are pending (prepare, check and other idle watchers do not	2965	priority are pending (prepare, check and other idle watchers do not count
1403	count).	2966	as receiving "events").
1404		2967
1405	That is, as long as your process is busy handling sockets or timeouts	2968	That is, as long as your process is busy handling sockets or timeouts
1406	(or even signals, imagine) of the same or higher priority it will not be	2969	(or even signals, imagine) of the same or higher priority it will not be
1407	triggered. But when your process is idle (or only lower-priority watchers	2970	triggered. But when your process is idle (or only lower-priority watchers
1408	are pending), the idle watchers are being called once per event loop	2971	are pending), the idle watchers are being called once per event loop
…		…
1415	Apart from keeping your process non-blocking (which is a useful	2978	Apart from keeping your process non-blocking (which is a useful
1416	effect on its own sometimes), idle watchers are a good place to do	2979	effect on its own sometimes), idle watchers are a good place to do
1417	"pseudo-background processing", or delay processing stuff to after the	2980	"pseudo-background processing", or delay processing stuff to after the
1418	event loop has handled all outstanding events.	2981	event loop has handled all outstanding events.
1419		2982
		2983	=head3 Abusing an C<ev_idle> watcher for its side-effect
		2984
		2985	As long as there is at least one active idle watcher, libev will never
		2986	sleep unnecessarily. Or in other words, it will loop as fast as possible.
		2987	For this to work, the idle watcher doesn't need to be invoked at all - the
		2988	lowest priority will do.
		2989
		2990	This mode of operation can be useful together with an C<ev_check> watcher,
		2991	to do something on each event loop iteration - for example to balance load
		2992	between different connections.
		2993
		2994	See L</Abusing an ev_check watcher for its side-effect> for a longer
		2995	example.
		2996
		2997	=head3 Watcher-Specific Functions and Data Members
		2998
1420	=over 4	2999	=over 4
1421		3000
1422	=item ev_idle_init (ev_signal *, callback)	3001	=item ev_idle_init (ev_idle *, callback)
1423		3002
1424	Initialises and configures the idle watcher - it has no parameters of any	3003	Initialises and configures the idle watcher - it has no parameters of any
1425	kind. There is a C<ev_idle_set> macro, but using it is utterly pointless,	3004	kind. There is a C<ev_idle_set> macro, but using it is utterly pointless,
1426	believe me.	3005	believe me.
1427		3006
1428	=back	3007	=back
1429		3008
		3009	=head3 Examples
		3010
1430	Example: Dynamically allocate an C<ev_idle> watcher, start it, and in the	3011	Example: Dynamically allocate an C<ev_idle> watcher, start it, and in the
1431	callback, free it. Also, use no error checking, as usual.	3012	callback, free it. Also, use no error checking, as usual.
1432		3013
1433	static void	3014	static void
1434	idle_cb (struct ev_loop *loop, struct ev_idle *w, int revents)	3015	idle_cb (struct ev_loop *loop, ev_idle *w, int revents)
1435	{	3016	{
		3017	// stop the watcher
		3018	ev_idle_stop (loop, w);
		3019
		3020	// now we can free it
1436	free (w);	3021	free (w);
		3022
1437	// now do something you wanted to do when the program has	3023	// now do something you wanted to do when the program has
1438	// no longer asnything immediate to do.	3024	// no longer anything immediate to do.
1439	}	3025	}
1440		3026
1441	struct ev_idle *idle_watcher = malloc (sizeof (struct ev_idle));	3027	ev_idle *idle_watcher = malloc (sizeof (ev_idle));
1442	ev_idle_init (idle_watcher, idle_cb);	3028	ev_idle_init (idle_watcher, idle_cb);
1443	ev_idle_start (loop, idle_cb);	3029	ev_idle_start (loop, idle_watcher);
1444		3030
1445		3031
1446	=head2 C<ev_prepare> and C<ev_check> - customise your event loop!	3032	=head2 C<ev_prepare> and C<ev_check> - customise your event loop!
1447		3033
1448	Prepare and check watchers are usually (but not always) used in tandem:	3034	Prepare and check watchers are often (but not always) used in pairs:
1449	prepare watchers get invoked before the process blocks and check watchers	3035	prepare watchers get invoked before the process blocks and check watchers
1450	afterwards.	3036	afterwards.
1451		3037
1452	You I<must not> call C<ev_loop> or similar functions that enter	3038	You I<must not> call C<ev_run> (or similar functions that enter the
1453	the current event loop from either C<ev_prepare> or C<ev_check>	3039	current event loop) or C<ev_loop_fork> from either C<ev_prepare> or
1454	watchers. Other loops than the current one are fine, however. The	3040	C<ev_check> watchers. Other loops than the current one are fine,
1455	rationale behind this is that you do not need to check for recursion in	3041	however. The rationale behind this is that you do not need to check
1456	those watchers, i.e. the sequence will always be C<ev_prepare>, blocking,	3042	for recursion in those watchers, i.e. the sequence will always be
1457	C<ev_check> so if you have one watcher of each kind they will always be	3043	C<ev_prepare>, blocking, C<ev_check> so if you have one watcher of each
1458	called in pairs bracketing the blocking call.	3044	kind they will always be called in pairs bracketing the blocking call.
1459		3045
1460	Their main purpose is to integrate other event mechanisms into libev and	3046	Their main purpose is to integrate other event mechanisms into libev and
1461	their use is somewhat advanced. This could be used, for example, to track	3047	their use is somewhat advanced. They could be used, for example, to track
1462	variable changes, implement your own watchers, integrate net-snmp or a	3048	variable changes, implement your own watchers, integrate net-snmp or a
1463	coroutine library and lots more. They are also occasionally useful if	3049	coroutine library and lots more. They are also occasionally useful if
1464	you cache some data and want to flush it before blocking (for example,	3050	you cache some data and want to flush it before blocking (for example,
1465	in X programs you might want to do an C<XFlush ()> in an C<ev_prepare>	3051	in X programs you might want to do an C<XFlush ()> in an C<ev_prepare>
1466	watcher).	3052	watcher).
1467		3053
1468	This is done by examining in each prepare call which file descriptors need	3054	This is done by examining in each prepare call which file descriptors
1469	to be watched by the other library, registering C<ev_io> watchers for	3055	need to be watched by the other library, registering C<ev_io> watchers
1470	them and starting an C<ev_timer> watcher for any timeouts (many libraries	3056	for them and starting an C<ev_timer> watcher for any timeouts (many
1471	provide just this functionality). Then, in the check watcher you check for	3057	libraries provide exactly this functionality). Then, in the check watcher,
1472	any events that occured (by checking the pending status of all watchers	3058	you check for any events that occurred (by checking the pending status
1473	and stopping them) and call back into the library. The I/O and timer	3059	of all watchers and stopping them) and call back into the library. The
1474	callbacks will never actually be called (but must be valid nevertheless,	3060	I/O and timer callbacks will never actually be called (but must be valid
1475	because you never know, you know?).	3061	nevertheless, because you never know, you know?).
1476		3062
1477	As another example, the Perl Coro module uses these hooks to integrate	3063	As another example, the Perl Coro module uses these hooks to integrate
1478	coroutines into libev programs, by yielding to other active coroutines	3064	coroutines into libev programs, by yielding to other active coroutines
1479	during each prepare and only letting the process block if no coroutines	3065	during each prepare and only letting the process block if no coroutines
1480	are ready to run (it's actually more complicated: it only runs coroutines	3066	are ready to run (it's actually more complicated: it only runs coroutines
1481	with priority higher than or equal to the event loop and one coroutine	3067	with priority higher than or equal to the event loop and one coroutine
1482	of lower priority, but only once, using idle watchers to keep the event	3068	of lower priority, but only once, using idle watchers to keep the event
1483	loop from blocking if lower-priority coroutines are active, thus mapping	3069	loop from blocking if lower-priority coroutines are active, thus mapping
1484	low-priority coroutines to idle/background tasks).	3070	low-priority coroutines to idle/background tasks).
1485		3071
		3072	When used for this purpose, it is recommended to give C<ev_check> watchers
		3073	highest (C<EV_MAXPRI>) priority, to ensure that they are being run before
		3074	any other watchers after the poll (this doesn't matter for C<ev_prepare>
		3075	watchers).
		3076
		3077	Also, C<ev_check> watchers (and C<ev_prepare> watchers, too) should not
		3078	activate ("feed") events into libev. While libev fully supports this, they
		3079	might get executed before other C<ev_check> watchers did their job. As
		3080	C<ev_check> watchers are often used to embed other (non-libev) event
		3081	loops those other event loops might be in an unusable state until their
		3082	C<ev_check> watcher ran (always remind yourself to coexist peacefully with
		3083	others).
		3084
		3085	=head3 Abusing an C<ev_check> watcher for its side-effect
		3086
		3087	C<ev_check> (and less often also C<ev_prepare>) watchers can also be
		3088	useful because they are called once per event loop iteration. For
		3089	example, if you want to handle a large number of connections fairly, you
		3090	normally only do a bit of work for each active connection, and if there
		3091	is more work to do, you wait for the next event loop iteration, so other
		3092	connections have a chance of making progress.
		3093
		3094	Using an C<ev_check> watcher is almost enough: it will be called on the
		3095	next event loop iteration. However, that isn't as soon as possible -
		3096	without external events, your C<ev_check> watcher will not be invoked.
		3097
		3098	This is where C<ev_idle> watchers come in handy - all you need is a
		3099	single global idle watcher that is active as long as you have one active
		3100	C<ev_check> watcher. The C<ev_idle> watcher makes sure the event loop
		3101	will not sleep, and the C<ev_check> watcher makes sure a callback gets
		3102	invoked. Neither watcher alone can do that.
		3103
		3104	=head3 Watcher-Specific Functions and Data Members
		3105
1486	=over 4	3106	=over 4
1487		3107
1488	=item ev_prepare_init (ev_prepare *, callback)	3108	=item ev_prepare_init (ev_prepare *, callback)
1489		3109
1490	=item ev_check_init (ev_check *, callback)	3110	=item ev_check_init (ev_check *, callback)
1491		3111
1492	Initialises and configures the prepare or check watcher - they have no	3112	Initialises and configures the prepare or check watcher - they have no
1493	parameters of any kind. There are C<ev_prepare_set> and C<ev_check_set>	3113	parameters of any kind. There are C<ev_prepare_set> and C<ev_check_set>
1494	macros, but using them is utterly, utterly and completely pointless.	3114	macros, but using them is utterly, utterly, utterly and completely
		3115	pointless.
1495		3116
1496	=back	3117	=back
1497		3118
1498	Example: To include a library such as adns, you would add IO watchers	3119	=head3 Examples
1499	and a timeout watcher in a prepare handler, as required by libadns, and	3120
		3121	There are a number of principal ways to embed other event loops or modules
		3122	into libev. Here are some ideas on how to include libadns into libev
		3123	(there is a Perl module named C<EV::ADNS> that does this, which you could
		3124	use as a working example. Another Perl module named C<EV::Glib> embeds a
		3125	Glib main context into libev, and finally, C<Glib::EV> embeds EV into the
		3126	Glib event loop).
		3127
		3128	Method 1: Add IO watchers and a timeout watcher in a prepare handler,
1500	in a check watcher, destroy them and call into libadns. What follows is	3129	and in a check watcher, destroy them and call into libadns. What follows
1501	pseudo-code only of course:	3130	is pseudo-code only of course. This requires you to either use a low
		3131	priority for the check watcher or use C<ev_clear_pending> explicitly, as
		3132	the callbacks for the IO/timeout watchers might not have been called yet.
1502		3133
1503	static ev_io iow [nfd];	3134	static ev_io iow [nfd];
1504	static ev_timer tw;	3135	static ev_timer tw;
1505		3136
1506	static void	3137	static void
1507	io_cb (ev_loop *loop, ev_io *w, int revents)	3138	io_cb (struct ev_loop *loop, ev_io *w, int revents)
1508	{	3139	{
1509	// set the relevant poll flags
1510	// could also call adns_processreadable etc. here
1511	struct pollfd *fd = (struct pollfd *)w->data;
1512	if (revents & EV_READ ) fd->revents |= fd->events & POLLIN;
1513	if (revents & EV_WRITE) fd->revents |= fd->events & POLLOUT;
1514	}	3140	}
1515		3141
1516	// create io watchers for each fd and a timer before blocking	3142	// create io watchers for each fd and a timer before blocking
1517	static void	3143	static void
1518	adns_prepare_cb (ev_loop *loop, ev_prepare *w, int revents)	3144	adns_prepare_cb (struct ev_loop *loop, ev_prepare *w, int revents)
1519	{	3145	{
1520	int timeout = 3600000;	3146	int timeout = 3600000;
1521	struct pollfd fds [nfd];	3147	struct pollfd fds [nfd];
1522	// actual code will need to loop here and realloc etc.	3148	// actual code will need to loop here and realloc etc.
1523	adns_beforepoll (ads, fds, &nfd, &timeout, timeval_from (ev_time ()));	3149	adns_beforepoll (ads, fds, &nfd, &timeout, timeval_from (ev_time ()));
1524		3150
1525	/* the callback is illegal, but won't be called as we stop during check */	3151	/* the callback is illegal, but won't be called as we stop during check */
1526	ev_timer_init (&tw, 0, timeout * 1e-3);	3152	ev_timer_init (&tw, 0, timeout * 1e-3, 0.);
1527	ev_timer_start (loop, &tw);	3153	ev_timer_start (loop, &tw);
1528		3154
1529	// create on ev_io per pollfd	3155	// create one ev_io per pollfd
1530	for (int i = 0; i < nfd; ++i)	3156	for (int i = 0; i < nfd; ++i)
1531	{	3157	{
1532	ev_io_init (iow + i, io_cb, fds [i].fd,	3158	ev_io_init (iow + i, io_cb, fds [i].fd,
1533	((fds [i].events & POLLIN ? EV_READ : 0)	3159	((fds [i].events & POLLIN ? EV_READ : 0)
1534	| (fds [i].events & POLLOUT ? EV_WRITE : 0)));	3160	| (fds [i].events & POLLOUT ? EV_WRITE : 0)));
1535		3161
1536	fds [i].revents = 0;	3162	fds [i].revents = 0;
1537	iow [i].data = fds + i;
1538	ev_io_start (loop, iow + i);	3163	ev_io_start (loop, iow + i);
1539	}	3164	}
1540	}	3165	}
1541		3166
1542	// stop all watchers after blocking	3167	// stop all watchers after blocking
1543	static void	3168	static void
1544	adns_check_cb (ev_loop *loop, ev_check *w, int revents)	3169	adns_check_cb (struct ev_loop *loop, ev_check *w, int revents)
1545	{	3170	{
1546	ev_timer_stop (loop, &tw);	3171	ev_timer_stop (loop, &tw);
1547		3172
1548	for (int i = 0; i < nfd; ++i)	3173	for (int i = 0; i < nfd; ++i)
		3174	{
		3175	// set the relevant poll flags
		3176	// could also call adns_processreadable etc. here
		3177	struct pollfd *fd = fds + i;
		3178	int revents = ev_clear_pending (iow + i);
		3179	if (revents & EV_READ ) fd->revents |= fd->events & POLLIN;
		3180	if (revents & EV_WRITE) fd->revents |= fd->events & POLLOUT;
		3181
		3182	// now stop the watcher
1549	ev_io_stop (loop, iow + i);	3183	ev_io_stop (loop, iow + i);
		3184	}
1550		3185
1551	adns_afterpoll (adns, fds, nfd, timeval_from (ev_now (loop));	3186	adns_afterpoll (adns, fds, nfd, timeval_from (ev_now (loop));
1552	}	3187	}
		3188
		3189	Method 2: This would be just like method 1, but you run C<adns_afterpoll>
		3190	in the prepare watcher and would dispose of the check watcher.
		3191
		3192	Method 3: If the module to be embedded supports explicit event
		3193	notification (libadns does), you can also make use of the actual watcher
		3194	callbacks, and only destroy/create the watchers in the prepare watcher.
		3195
		3196	static void
		3197	timer_cb (EV_P_ ev_timer *w, int revents)
		3198	{
		3199	adns_state ads = (adns_state)w->data;
		3200	update_now (EV_A);
		3201
		3202	adns_processtimeouts (ads, &tv_now);
		3203	}
		3204
		3205	static void
		3206	io_cb (EV_P_ ev_io *w, int revents)
		3207	{
		3208	adns_state ads = (adns_state)w->data;
		3209	update_now (EV_A);
		3210
		3211	if (revents & EV_READ ) adns_processreadable (ads, w->fd, &tv_now);
		3212	if (revents & EV_WRITE) adns_processwriteable (ads, w->fd, &tv_now);
		3213	}
		3214
		3215	// do not ever call adns_afterpoll
		3216
		3217	Method 4: Do not use a prepare or check watcher because the module you
		3218	want to embed is not flexible enough to support it. Instead, you can
		3219	override their poll function. The drawback with this solution is that the
		3220	main loop is now no longer controllable by EV. The C<Glib::EV> module uses
		3221	this approach, effectively embedding EV as a client into the horrible
		3222	libglib event loop.
		3223
		3224	static gint
		3225	event_poll_func (GPollFD *fds, guint nfds, gint timeout)
		3226	{
		3227	int got_events = 0;
		3228
		3229	for (n = 0; n < nfds; ++n)
		3230	// create/start io watcher that sets the relevant bits in fds[n] and increment got_events
		3231
		3232	if (timeout >= 0)
		3233	// create/start timer
		3234
		3235	// poll
		3236	ev_run (EV_A_ 0);
		3237
		3238	// stop timer again
		3239	if (timeout >= 0)
		3240	ev_timer_stop (EV_A_ &to);
		3241
		3242	// stop io watchers again - their callbacks should have set
		3243	for (n = 0; n < nfds; ++n)
		3244	ev_io_stop (EV_A_ iow [n]);
		3245
		3246	return got_events;
		3247	}
1553		3248
1554		3249
1555	=head2 C<ev_embed> - when one backend isn't enough...	3250	=head2 C<ev_embed> - when one backend isn't enough...
1556		3251
1557	This is a rather advanced watcher type that lets you embed one event loop	3252	This is a rather advanced watcher type that lets you embed one event loop
…		…
1563	prioritise I/O.	3258	prioritise I/O.
1564		3259
1565	As an example for a bug workaround, the kqueue backend might only support	3260	As an example for a bug workaround, the kqueue backend might only support
1566	sockets on some platform, so it is unusable as generic backend, but you	3261	sockets on some platform, so it is unusable as generic backend, but you
1567	still want to make use of it because you have many sockets and it scales	3262	still want to make use of it because you have many sockets and it scales
1568	so nicely. In this case, you would create a kqueue-based loop and embed it	3263	so nicely. In this case, you would create a kqueue-based loop and embed
1569	into your default loop (which might use e.g. poll). Overall operation will	3264	it into your default loop (which might use e.g. poll). Overall operation
1570	be a bit slower because first libev has to poll and then call kevent, but	3265	will be a bit slower because first libev has to call C<poll> and then
1571	at least you can use both at what they are best.	3266	C<kevent>, but at least you can use both mechanisms for what they are
		3267	best: C<kqueue> for scalable sockets and C<poll> if you want it to work :)
1572		3268
1573	As for prioritising I/O: rarely you have the case where some fds have	3269	As for prioritising I/O: under rare circumstances you have the case where
1574	to be watched and handled very quickly (with low latency), and even	3270	some fds have to be watched and handled very quickly (with low latency),
1575	priorities and idle watchers might have too much overhead. In this case	3271	and even priorities and idle watchers might have too much overhead. In
1576	you would put all the high priority stuff in one loop and all the rest in	3272	this case you would put all the high priority stuff in one loop and all
1577	a second one, and embed the second one in the first.	3273	the rest in a second one, and embed the second one in the first.
1578		3274
1579	As long as the watcher is active, the callback will be invoked every time	3275	As long as the watcher is active, the callback will be invoked every
1580	there might be events pending in the embedded loop. The callback must then	3276	time there might be events pending in the embedded loop. The callback
1581	call C<ev_embed_sweep (mainloop, watcher)> to make a single sweep and invoke	3277	must then call C<ev_embed_sweep (mainloop, watcher)> to make a single
1582	their callbacks (you could also start an idle watcher to give the embedded	3278	sweep and invoke their callbacks (the callback doesn't need to invoke the
1583	loop strictly lower priority for example). You can also set the callback	3279	C<ev_embed_sweep> function directly, it could also start an idle watcher
1584	to C<0>, in which case the embed watcher will automatically execute the	3280	to give the embedded loop strictly lower priority for example).
1585	embedded loop sweep.
1586		3281
1587	As long as the watcher is started it will automatically handle events. The	3282	You can also set the callback to C<0>, in which case the embed watcher
1588	callback will be invoked whenever some events have been handled. You can	3283	will automatically execute the embedded loop sweep whenever necessary.
1589	set the callback to C<0> to avoid having to specify one if you are not
1590	interested in that.
1591		3284
1592	Also, there have not currently been made special provisions for forking:	3285	Fork detection will be handled transparently while the C<ev_embed> watcher
1593	when you fork, you not only have to call C<ev_loop_fork> on both loops,	3286	is active, i.e., the embedded loop will automatically be forked when the
1594	but you will also have to stop and restart any C<ev_embed> watchers	3287	embedding loop forks. In other cases, the user is responsible for calling
1595	yourself.	3288	C<ev_loop_fork> on the embedded loop.
1596		3289
1597	Unfortunately, not all backends are embeddable, only the ones returned by	3290	Unfortunately, not all backends are embeddable: only the ones returned by
1598	C<ev_embeddable_backends> are, which, unfortunately, does not include any	3291	C<ev_embeddable_backends> are, which, unfortunately, does not include any
1599	portable one.	3292	portable one.
1600		3293
1601	So when you want to use this feature you will always have to be prepared	3294	So when you want to use this feature you will always have to be prepared
1602	that you cannot get an embeddable loop. The recommended way to get around	3295	that you cannot get an embeddable loop. The recommended way to get around
1603	this is to have a separate variables for your embeddable loop, try to	3296	this is to have a separate variables for your embeddable loop, try to
1604	create it, and if that fails, use the normal loop for everything:	3297	create it, and if that fails, use the normal loop for everything.
1605		3298
1606	struct ev_loop *loop_hi = ev_default_init (0);	3299	=head3 C<ev_embed> and fork
1607	struct ev_loop *loop_lo = 0;
1608	struct ev_embed embed;
1609
1610	// see if there is a chance of getting one that works
1611	// (remember that a flags value of 0 means autodetection)
1612	loop_lo = ev_embeddable_backends () & ev_recommended_backends ()
1613	? ev_loop_new (ev_embeddable_backends () & ev_recommended_backends ())
1614	: 0;
1615		3300
1616	// if we got one, then embed it, otherwise default to loop_hi	3301	While the C<ev_embed> watcher is running, forks in the embedding loop will
1617	if (loop_lo)	3302	automatically be applied to the embedded loop as well, so no special
1618	{	3303	fork handling is required in that case. When the watcher is not running,
1619	ev_embed_init (&embed, 0, loop_lo);	3304	however, it is still the task of the libev user to call C<ev_loop_fork ()>
1620	ev_embed_start (loop_hi, &embed);	3305	as applicable.
1621	}	3306
1622	else	3307	=head3 Watcher-Specific Functions and Data Members
1623	loop_lo = loop_hi;
1624		3308
1625	=over 4	3309	=over 4
1626		3310
1627	=item ev_embed_init (ev_embed *, callback, struct ev_loop *embedded_loop)	3311	=item ev_embed_init (ev_embed *, callback, struct ev_loop *embedded_loop)
1628		3312
1629	=item ev_embed_set (ev_embed *, callback, struct ev_loop *embedded_loop)	3313	=item ev_embed_set (ev_embed *, struct ev_loop *embedded_loop)
1630		3314
1631	Configures the watcher to embed the given loop, which must be	3315	Configures the watcher to embed the given loop, which must be
1632	embeddable. If the callback is C<0>, then C<ev_embed_sweep> will be	3316	embeddable. If the callback is C<0>, then C<ev_embed_sweep> will be
1633	invoked automatically, otherwise it is the responsibility of the callback	3317	invoked automatically, otherwise it is the responsibility of the callback
1634	to invoke it (it will continue to be called until the sweep has been done,	3318	to invoke it (it will continue to be called until the sweep has been done,
1635	if you do not want thta, you need to temporarily stop the embed watcher).	3319	if you do not want that, you need to temporarily stop the embed watcher).
1636		3320
1637	=item ev_embed_sweep (loop, ev_embed *)	3321	=item ev_embed_sweep (loop, ev_embed *)
1638		3322
1639	Make a single, non-blocking sweep over the embedded loop. This works	3323	Make a single, non-blocking sweep over the embedded loop. This works
1640	similarly to C<ev_loop (embedded_loop, EVLOOP_NONBLOCK)>, but in the most	3324	similarly to C<ev_run (embedded_loop, EVRUN_NOWAIT)>, but in the most
1641	apropriate way for embedded loops.	3325	appropriate way for embedded loops.
1642		3326
1643	=item struct ev_loop *loop [read-only]	3327	=item struct ev_loop *other [read-only]
1644		3328
1645	The embedded event loop.	3329	The embedded event loop.
1646		3330
1647	=back	3331	=back
		3332
		3333	=head3 Examples
		3334
		3335	Example: Try to get an embeddable event loop and embed it into the default
		3336	event loop. If that is not possible, use the default loop. The default
		3337	loop is stored in C<loop_hi>, while the embeddable loop is stored in
		3338	C<loop_lo> (which is C<loop_hi> in the case no embeddable loop can be
		3339	used).
		3340
		3341	struct ev_loop *loop_hi = ev_default_init (0);
		3342	struct ev_loop *loop_lo = 0;
		3343	ev_embed embed;
		3344
		3345	// see if there is a chance of getting one that works
		3346	// (remember that a flags value of 0 means autodetection)
		3347	loop_lo = ev_embeddable_backends () & ev_recommended_backends ()
		3348	? ev_loop_new (ev_embeddable_backends () & ev_recommended_backends ())
		3349	: 0;
		3350
		3351	// if we got one, then embed it, otherwise default to loop_hi
		3352	if (loop_lo)
		3353	{
		3354	ev_embed_init (&embed, 0, loop_lo);
		3355	ev_embed_start (loop_hi, &embed);
		3356	}
		3357	else
		3358	loop_lo = loop_hi;
		3359
		3360	Example: Check if kqueue is available but not recommended and create
		3361	a kqueue backend for use with sockets (which usually work with any
		3362	kqueue implementation). Store the kqueue/socket-only event loop in
		3363	C<loop_socket>. (One might optionally use C<EVFLAG_NOENV>, too).
		3364
		3365	struct ev_loop *loop = ev_default_init (0);
		3366	struct ev_loop *loop_socket = 0;
		3367	ev_embed embed;
		3368
		3369	if (ev_supported_backends () & ~ev_recommended_backends () & EVBACKEND_KQUEUE)
		3370	if ((loop_socket = ev_loop_new (EVBACKEND_KQUEUE))
		3371	{
		3372	ev_embed_init (&embed, 0, loop_socket);
		3373	ev_embed_start (loop, &embed);
		3374	}
		3375
		3376	if (!loop_socket)
		3377	loop_socket = loop;
		3378
		3379	// now use loop_socket for all sockets, and loop for everything else
1648		3380
1649		3381
1650	=head2 C<ev_fork> - the audacity to resume the event loop after a fork	3382	=head2 C<ev_fork> - the audacity to resume the event loop after a fork
1651		3383
1652	Fork watchers are called when a C<fork ()> was detected (usually because	3384	Fork watchers are called when a C<fork ()> was detected (usually because
1653	whoever is a good citizen cared to tell libev about it by calling	3385	whoever is a good citizen cared to tell libev about it by calling
1654	C<ev_default_fork> or C<ev_loop_fork>). The invocation is done before the	3386	C<ev_loop_fork>). The invocation is done before the event loop blocks next
1655	event loop blocks next and before C<ev_check> watchers are being called,	3387	and before C<ev_check> watchers are being called, and only in the child
1656	and only in the child after the fork. If whoever good citizen calling	3388	after the fork. If whoever good citizen calling C<ev_default_fork> cheats
1657	C<ev_default_fork> cheats and calls it in the wrong process, the fork	3389	and calls it in the wrong process, the fork handlers will be invoked, too,
1658	handlers will be invoked, too, of course.	3390	of course.
		3391
		3392	=head3 The special problem of life after fork - how is it possible?
		3393
		3394	Most uses of C<fork ()> consist of forking, then some simple calls to set
		3395	up/change the process environment, followed by a call to C<exec()>. This
		3396	sequence should be handled by libev without any problems.
		3397
		3398	This changes when the application actually wants to do event handling
		3399	in the child, or both parent in child, in effect "continuing" after the
		3400	fork.
		3401
		3402	The default mode of operation (for libev, with application help to detect
		3403	forks) is to duplicate all the state in the child, as would be expected
		3404	when I<either> the parent I<or> the child process continues.
		3405
		3406	When both processes want to continue using libev, then this is usually the
		3407	wrong result. In that case, usually one process (typically the parent) is
		3408	supposed to continue with all watchers in place as before, while the other
		3409	process typically wants to start fresh, i.e. without any active watchers.
		3410
		3411	The cleanest and most efficient way to achieve that with libev is to
		3412	simply create a new event loop, which of course will be "empty", and
		3413	use that for new watchers. This has the advantage of not touching more
		3414	memory than necessary, and thus avoiding the copy-on-write, and the
		3415	disadvantage of having to use multiple event loops (which do not support
		3416	signal watchers).
		3417
		3418	When this is not possible, or you want to use the default loop for
		3419	other reasons, then in the process that wants to start "fresh", call
		3420	C<ev_loop_destroy (EV_DEFAULT)> followed by C<ev_default_loop (...)>.
		3421	Destroying the default loop will "orphan" (not stop) all registered
		3422	watchers, so you have to be careful not to execute code that modifies
		3423	those watchers. Note also that in that case, you have to re-register any
		3424	signal watchers.
		3425
		3426	=head3 Watcher-Specific Functions and Data Members
1659		3427
1660	=over 4	3428	=over 4
1661		3429
1662	=item ev_fork_init (ev_signal *, callback)	3430	=item ev_fork_init (ev_fork *, callback)
1663		3431
1664	Initialises and configures the fork watcher - it has no parameters of any	3432	Initialises and configures the fork watcher - it has no parameters of any
1665	kind. There is a C<ev_fork_set> macro, but using it is utterly pointless,	3433	kind. There is a C<ev_fork_set> macro, but using it is utterly pointless,
1666	believe me.	3434	really.
1667		3435
1668	=back	3436	=back
1669		3437
1670		3438
		3439	=head2 C<ev_cleanup> - even the best things end
		3440
		3441	Cleanup watchers are called just before the event loop is being destroyed
		3442	by a call to C<ev_loop_destroy>.
		3443
		3444	While there is no guarantee that the event loop gets destroyed, cleanup
		3445	watchers provide a convenient method to install cleanup hooks for your
		3446	program, worker threads and so on - you just to make sure to destroy the
		3447	loop when you want them to be invoked.
		3448
		3449	Cleanup watchers are invoked in the same way as any other watcher. Unlike
		3450	all other watchers, they do not keep a reference to the event loop (which
		3451	makes a lot of sense if you think about it). Like all other watchers, you
		3452	can call libev functions in the callback, except C<ev_cleanup_start>.
		3453
		3454	=head3 Watcher-Specific Functions and Data Members
		3455
		3456	=over 4
		3457
		3458	=item ev_cleanup_init (ev_cleanup *, callback)
		3459
		3460	Initialises and configures the cleanup watcher - it has no parameters of
		3461	any kind. There is a C<ev_cleanup_set> macro, but using it is utterly
		3462	pointless, I assure you.
		3463
		3464	=back
		3465
		3466	Example: Register an atexit handler to destroy the default loop, so any
		3467	cleanup functions are called.
		3468
		3469	static void
		3470	program_exits (void)
		3471	{
		3472	ev_loop_destroy (EV_DEFAULT_UC);
		3473	}
		3474
		3475	...
		3476	atexit (program_exits);
		3477
		3478
		3479	=head2 C<ev_async> - how to wake up an event loop
		3480
		3481	In general, you cannot use an C<ev_loop> from multiple threads or other
		3482	asynchronous sources such as signal handlers (as opposed to multiple event
		3483	loops - those are of course safe to use in different threads).
		3484
		3485	Sometimes, however, you need to wake up an event loop you do not control,
		3486	for example because it belongs to another thread. This is what C<ev_async>
		3487	watchers do: as long as the C<ev_async> watcher is active, you can signal
		3488	it by calling C<ev_async_send>, which is thread- and signal safe.
		3489
		3490	This functionality is very similar to C<ev_signal> watchers, as signals,
		3491	too, are asynchronous in nature, and signals, too, will be compressed
		3492	(i.e. the number of callback invocations may be less than the number of
		3493	C<ev_async_send> calls). In fact, you could use signal watchers as a kind
		3494	of "global async watchers" by using a watcher on an otherwise unused
		3495	signal, and C<ev_feed_signal> to signal this watcher from another thread,
		3496	even without knowing which loop owns the signal.
		3497
		3498	=head3 Queueing
		3499
		3500	C<ev_async> does not support queueing of data in any way. The reason
		3501	is that the author does not know of a simple (or any) algorithm for a
		3502	multiple-writer-single-reader queue that works in all cases and doesn't
		3503	need elaborate support such as pthreads or unportable memory access
		3504	semantics.
		3505
		3506	That means that if you want to queue data, you have to provide your own
		3507	queue. But at least I can tell you how to implement locking around your
		3508	queue:
		3509
		3510	=over 4
		3511
		3512	=item queueing from a signal handler context
		3513
		3514	To implement race-free queueing, you simply add to the queue in the signal
		3515	handler but you block the signal handler in the watcher callback. Here is
		3516	an example that does that for some fictitious SIGUSR1 handler:
		3517
		3518	static ev_async mysig;
		3519
		3520	static void
		3521	sigusr1_handler (void)
		3522	{
		3523	sometype data;
		3524
		3525	// no locking etc.
		3526	queue_put (data);
		3527	ev_async_send (EV_DEFAULT_ &mysig);
		3528	}
		3529
		3530	static void
		3531	mysig_cb (EV_P_ ev_async *w, int revents)
		3532	{
		3533	sometype data;
		3534	sigset_t block, prev;
		3535
		3536	sigemptyset (&block);
		3537	sigaddset (&block, SIGUSR1);
		3538	sigprocmask (SIG_BLOCK, &block, &prev);
		3539
		3540	while (queue_get (&data))
		3541	process (data);
		3542
		3543	if (sigismember (&prev, SIGUSR1)
		3544	sigprocmask (SIG_UNBLOCK, &block, 0);
		3545	}
		3546
		3547	(Note: pthreads in theory requires you to use C<pthread_setmask>
		3548	instead of C<sigprocmask> when you use threads, but libev doesn't do it
		3549	either...).
		3550
		3551	=item queueing from a thread context
		3552
		3553	The strategy for threads is different, as you cannot (easily) block
		3554	threads but you can easily preempt them, so to queue safely you need to
		3555	employ a traditional mutex lock, such as in this pthread example:
		3556
		3557	static ev_async mysig;
		3558	static pthread_mutex_t mymutex = PTHREAD_MUTEX_INITIALIZER;
		3559
		3560	static void
		3561	otherthread (void)
		3562	{
		3563	// only need to lock the actual queueing operation
		3564	pthread_mutex_lock (&mymutex);
		3565	queue_put (data);
		3566	pthread_mutex_unlock (&mymutex);
		3567
		3568	ev_async_send (EV_DEFAULT_ &mysig);
		3569	}
		3570
		3571	static void
		3572	mysig_cb (EV_P_ ev_async *w, int revents)
		3573	{
		3574	pthread_mutex_lock (&mymutex);
		3575
		3576	while (queue_get (&data))
		3577	process (data);
		3578
		3579	pthread_mutex_unlock (&mymutex);
		3580	}
		3581
		3582	=back
		3583
		3584
		3585	=head3 Watcher-Specific Functions and Data Members
		3586
		3587	=over 4
		3588
		3589	=item ev_async_init (ev_async *, callback)
		3590
		3591	Initialises and configures the async watcher - it has no parameters of any
		3592	kind. There is a C<ev_async_set> macro, but using it is utterly pointless,
		3593	trust me.
		3594
		3595	=item ev_async_send (loop, ev_async *)
		3596
		3597	Sends/signals/activates the given C<ev_async> watcher, that is, feeds
		3598	an C<EV_ASYNC> event on the watcher into the event loop, and instantly
		3599	returns.
		3600
		3601	Unlike C<ev_feed_event>, this call is safe to do from other threads,
		3602	signal or similar contexts (see the discussion of C<EV_ATOMIC_T> in the
		3603	embedding section below on what exactly this means).
		3604
		3605	Note that, as with other watchers in libev, multiple events might get
		3606	compressed into a single callback invocation (another way to look at
		3607	this is that C<ev_async> watchers are level-triggered: they are set on
		3608	C<ev_async_send>, reset when the event loop detects that).
		3609
		3610	This call incurs the overhead of at most one extra system call per event
		3611	loop iteration, if the event loop is blocked, and no syscall at all if
		3612	the event loop (or your program) is processing events. That means that
		3613	repeated calls are basically free (there is no need to avoid calls for
		3614	performance reasons) and that the overhead becomes smaller (typically
		3615	zero) under load.
		3616
		3617	=item bool = ev_async_pending (ev_async *)
		3618
		3619	Returns a non-zero value when C<ev_async_send> has been called on the
		3620	watcher but the event has not yet been processed (or even noted) by the
		3621	event loop.
		3622
		3623	C<ev_async_send> sets a flag in the watcher and wakes up the loop. When
		3624	the loop iterates next and checks for the watcher to have become active,
		3625	it will reset the flag again. C<ev_async_pending> can be used to very
		3626	quickly check whether invoking the loop might be a good idea.
		3627
		3628	Not that this does I<not> check whether the watcher itself is pending,
		3629	only whether it has been requested to make this watcher pending: there
		3630	is a time window between the event loop checking and resetting the async
		3631	notification, and the callback being invoked.
		3632
		3633	=back
		3634
		3635
1671	=head1 OTHER FUNCTIONS	3636	=head1 OTHER FUNCTIONS
1672		3637
1673	There are some other functions of possible interest. Described. Here. Now.	3638	There are some other functions of possible interest. Described. Here. Now.
1674		3639
1675	=over 4	3640	=over 4
1676		3641
1677	=item ev_once (loop, int fd, int events, ev_tstamp timeout, callback)	3642	=item ev_once (loop, int fd, int events, ev_tstamp timeout, callback, arg)
1678		3643
1679	This function combines a simple timer and an I/O watcher, calls your	3644	This function combines a simple timer and an I/O watcher, calls your
1680	callback on whichever event happens first and automatically stop both	3645	callback on whichever event happens first and automatically stops both
1681	watchers. This is useful if you want to wait for a single event on an fd	3646	watchers. This is useful if you want to wait for a single event on an fd
1682	or timeout without having to allocate/configure/start/stop/free one or	3647	or timeout without having to allocate/configure/start/stop/free one or
1683	more watchers yourself.	3648	more watchers yourself.
1684		3649
1685	If C<fd> is less than 0, then no I/O watcher will be started and events	3650	If C<fd> is less than 0, then no I/O watcher will be started and the
1686	is being ignored. Otherwise, an C<ev_io> watcher for the given C<fd> and	3651	C<events> argument is being ignored. Otherwise, an C<ev_io> watcher for
1687	C<events> set will be craeted and started.	3652	the given C<fd> and C<events> set will be created and started.
1688		3653
1689	If C<timeout> is less than 0, then no timeout watcher will be	3654	If C<timeout> is less than 0, then no timeout watcher will be
1690	started. Otherwise an C<ev_timer> watcher with after = C<timeout> (and	3655	started. Otherwise an C<ev_timer> watcher with after = C<timeout> (and
1691	repeat = 0) will be started. While C<0> is a valid timeout, it is of	3656	repeat = 0) will be started. C<0> is a valid timeout.
1692	dubious value.
1693		3657
1694	The callback has the type C<void (*cb)(int revents, void *arg)> and gets	3658	The callback has the type C<void (*cb)(int revents, void *arg)> and is
1695	passed an C<revents> set like normal event callbacks (a combination of	3659	passed an C<revents> set like normal event callbacks (a combination of
1696	C<EV_ERROR>, C<EV_READ>, C<EV_WRITE> or C<EV_TIMEOUT>) and the C<arg>	3660	C<EV_ERROR>, C<EV_READ>, C<EV_WRITE> or C<EV_TIMER>) and the C<arg>
1697	value passed to C<ev_once>:	3661	value passed to C<ev_once>. Note that it is possible to receive I<both>
		3662	a timeout and an io event at the same time - you probably should give io
		3663	events precedence.
1698		3664
		3665	Example: wait up to ten seconds for data to appear on STDIN_FILENO.
		3666
1699	static void stdin_ready (int revents, void *arg)	3667	static void stdin_ready (int revents, void *arg)
		3668	{
		3669	if (revents & EV_READ)
		3670	/* stdin might have data for us, joy! */;
		3671	else if (revents & EV_TIMER)
		3672	/* doh, nothing entered */;
		3673	}
		3674
		3675	ev_once (STDIN_FILENO, EV_READ, 10., stdin_ready, 0);
		3676
		3677	=item ev_feed_fd_event (loop, int fd, int revents)
		3678
		3679	Feed an event on the given fd, as if a file descriptor backend detected
		3680	the given events.
		3681
		3682	=item ev_feed_signal_event (loop, int signum)
		3683
		3684	Feed an event as if the given signal occurred. See also C<ev_feed_signal>,
		3685	which is async-safe.
		3686
		3687	=back
		3688
		3689
		3690	=head1 COMMON OR USEFUL IDIOMS (OR BOTH)
		3691
		3692	This section explains some common idioms that are not immediately
		3693	obvious. Note that examples are sprinkled over the whole manual, and this
		3694	section only contains stuff that wouldn't fit anywhere else.
		3695
		3696	=head2 ASSOCIATING CUSTOM DATA WITH A WATCHER
		3697
		3698	Each watcher has, by default, a C<void *data> member that you can read
		3699	or modify at any time: libev will completely ignore it. This can be used
		3700	to associate arbitrary data with your watcher. If you need more data and
		3701	don't want to allocate memory separately and store a pointer to it in that
		3702	data member, you can also "subclass" the watcher type and provide your own
		3703	data:
		3704
		3705	struct my_io
		3706	{
		3707	ev_io io;
		3708	int otherfd;
		3709	void *somedata;
		3710	struct whatever *mostinteresting;
		3711	};
		3712
		3713	...
		3714	struct my_io w;
		3715	ev_io_init (&w.io, my_cb, fd, EV_READ);
		3716
		3717	And since your callback will be called with a pointer to the watcher, you
		3718	can cast it back to your own type:
		3719
		3720	static void my_cb (struct ev_loop *loop, ev_io *w_, int revents)
		3721	{
		3722	struct my_io *w = (struct my_io *)w_;
		3723	...
		3724	}
		3725
		3726	More interesting and less C-conformant ways of casting your callback
		3727	function type instead have been omitted.
		3728
		3729	=head2 BUILDING YOUR OWN COMPOSITE WATCHERS
		3730
		3731	Another common scenario is to use some data structure with multiple
		3732	embedded watchers, in effect creating your own watcher that combines
		3733	multiple libev event sources into one "super-watcher":
		3734
		3735	struct my_biggy
		3736	{
		3737	int some_data;
		3738	ev_timer t1;
		3739	ev_timer t2;
		3740	}
		3741
		3742	In this case getting the pointer to C<my_biggy> is a bit more
		3743	complicated: Either you store the address of your C<my_biggy> struct in
		3744	the C<data> member of the watcher (for woozies or C++ coders), or you need
		3745	to use some pointer arithmetic using C<offsetof> inside your watchers (for
		3746	real programmers):
		3747
		3748	#include <stddef.h>
		3749
		3750	static void
		3751	t1_cb (EV_P_ ev_timer *w, int revents)
		3752	{
		3753	struct my_biggy big = (struct my_biggy *)
		3754	(((char *)w) - offsetof (struct my_biggy, t1));
		3755	}
		3756
		3757	static void
		3758	t2_cb (EV_P_ ev_timer *w, int revents)
		3759	{
		3760	struct my_biggy big = (struct my_biggy *)
		3761	(((char *)w) - offsetof (struct my_biggy, t2));
		3762	}
		3763
		3764	=head2 AVOIDING FINISHING BEFORE RETURNING
		3765
		3766	Often you have structures like this in event-based programs:
		3767
		3768	callback ()
1700	{	3769	{
1701	if (revents & EV_TIMEOUT)	3770	free (request);
1702	/* doh, nothing entered */;
1703	else if (revents & EV_READ)
1704	/* stdin might have data for us, joy! */;
1705	}	3771	}
1706		3772
1707	ev_once (STDIN_FILENO, EV_READ, 10., stdin_ready, 0);	3773	request = start_new_request (..., callback);
1708		3774
1709	=item ev_feed_event (ev_loop *, watcher *, int revents)	3775	The intent is to start some "lengthy" operation. The C<request> could be
		3776	used to cancel the operation, or do other things with it.
1710		3777
1711	Feeds the given event set into the event loop, as if the specified event	3778	It's not uncommon to have code paths in C<start_new_request> that
1712	had happened for the specified watcher (which must be a pointer to an	3779	immediately invoke the callback, for example, to report errors. Or you add
1713	initialised but not necessarily started event watcher).	3780	some caching layer that finds that it can skip the lengthy aspects of the
		3781	operation and simply invoke the callback with the result.
1714		3782
1715	=item ev_feed_fd_event (ev_loop *, int fd, int revents)	3783	The problem here is that this will happen I<before> C<start_new_request>
		3784	has returned, so C<request> is not set.
1716		3785
1717	Feed an event on the given fd, as if a file descriptor backend detected	3786	Even if you pass the request by some safer means to the callback, you
1718	the given events it.	3787	might want to do something to the request after starting it, such as
		3788	canceling it, which probably isn't working so well when the callback has
		3789	already been invoked.
1719		3790
1720	=item ev_feed_signal_event (ev_loop *loop, int signum)	3791	A common way around all these issues is to make sure that
		3792	C<start_new_request> I<always> returns before the callback is invoked. If
		3793	C<start_new_request> immediately knows the result, it can artificially
		3794	delay invoking the callback by using a C<prepare> or C<idle> watcher for
		3795	example, or more sneakily, by reusing an existing (stopped) watcher and
		3796	pushing it into the pending queue:
1721		3797
1722	Feed an event as if the given signal occured (C<loop> must be the default	3798	ev_set_cb (watcher, callback);
1723	loop!).	3799	ev_feed_event (EV_A_ watcher, 0);
1724		3800
1725	=back	3801	This way, C<start_new_request> can safely return before the callback is
		3802	invoked, while not delaying callback invocation too much.
		3803
		3804	=head2 MODEL/NESTED EVENT LOOP INVOCATIONS AND EXIT CONDITIONS
		3805
		3806	Often (especially in GUI toolkits) there are places where you have
		3807	I<modal> interaction, which is most easily implemented by recursively
		3808	invoking C<ev_run>.
		3809
		3810	This brings the problem of exiting - a callback might want to finish the
		3811	main C<ev_run> call, but not the nested one (e.g. user clicked "Quit", but
		3812	a modal "Are you sure?" dialog is still waiting), or just the nested one
		3813	and not the main one (e.g. user clocked "Ok" in a modal dialog), or some
		3814	other combination: In these cases, a simple C<ev_break> will not work.
		3815
		3816	The solution is to maintain "break this loop" variable for each C<ev_run>
		3817	invocation, and use a loop around C<ev_run> until the condition is
		3818	triggered, using C<EVRUN_ONCE>:
		3819
		3820	// main loop
		3821	int exit_main_loop = 0;
		3822
		3823	while (!exit_main_loop)
		3824	ev_run (EV_DEFAULT_ EVRUN_ONCE);
		3825
		3826	// in a modal watcher
		3827	int exit_nested_loop = 0;
		3828
		3829	while (!exit_nested_loop)
		3830	ev_run (EV_A_ EVRUN_ONCE);
		3831
		3832	To exit from any of these loops, just set the corresponding exit variable:
		3833
		3834	// exit modal loop
		3835	exit_nested_loop = 1;
		3836
		3837	// exit main program, after modal loop is finished
		3838	exit_main_loop = 1;
		3839
		3840	// exit both
		3841	exit_main_loop = exit_nested_loop = 1;
		3842
		3843	=head2 THREAD LOCKING EXAMPLE
		3844
		3845	Here is a fictitious example of how to run an event loop in a different
		3846	thread from where callbacks are being invoked and watchers are
		3847	created/added/removed.
		3848
		3849	For a real-world example, see the C<EV::Loop::Async> perl module,
		3850	which uses exactly this technique (which is suited for many high-level
		3851	languages).
		3852
		3853	The example uses a pthread mutex to protect the loop data, a condition
		3854	variable to wait for callback invocations, an async watcher to notify the
		3855	event loop thread and an unspecified mechanism to wake up the main thread.
		3856
		3857	First, you need to associate some data with the event loop:
		3858
		3859	typedef struct {
		3860	mutex_t lock; /* global loop lock */
		3861	ev_async async_w;
		3862	thread_t tid;
		3863	cond_t invoke_cv;
		3864	} userdata;
		3865
		3866	void prepare_loop (EV_P)
		3867	{
		3868	// for simplicity, we use a static userdata struct.
		3869	static userdata u;
		3870
		3871	ev_async_init (&u->async_w, async_cb);
		3872	ev_async_start (EV_A_ &u->async_w);
		3873
		3874	pthread_mutex_init (&u->lock, 0);
		3875	pthread_cond_init (&u->invoke_cv, 0);
		3876
		3877	// now associate this with the loop
		3878	ev_set_userdata (EV_A_ u);
		3879	ev_set_invoke_pending_cb (EV_A_ l_invoke);
		3880	ev_set_loop_release_cb (EV_A_ l_release, l_acquire);
		3881
		3882	// then create the thread running ev_run
		3883	pthread_create (&u->tid, 0, l_run, EV_A);
		3884	}
		3885
		3886	The callback for the C<ev_async> watcher does nothing: the watcher is used
		3887	solely to wake up the event loop so it takes notice of any new watchers
		3888	that might have been added:
		3889
		3890	static void
		3891	async_cb (EV_P_ ev_async *w, int revents)
		3892	{
		3893	// just used for the side effects
		3894	}
		3895
		3896	The C<l_release> and C<l_acquire> callbacks simply unlock/lock the mutex
		3897	protecting the loop data, respectively.
		3898
		3899	static void
		3900	l_release (EV_P)
		3901	{
		3902	userdata *u = ev_userdata (EV_A);
		3903	pthread_mutex_unlock (&u->lock);
		3904	}
		3905
		3906	static void
		3907	l_acquire (EV_P)
		3908	{
		3909	userdata *u = ev_userdata (EV_A);
		3910	pthread_mutex_lock (&u->lock);
		3911	}
		3912
		3913	The event loop thread first acquires the mutex, and then jumps straight
		3914	into C<ev_run>:
		3915
		3916	void *
		3917	l_run (void *thr_arg)
		3918	{
		3919	struct ev_loop *loop = (struct ev_loop *)thr_arg;
		3920
		3921	l_acquire (EV_A);
		3922	pthread_setcanceltype (PTHREAD_CANCEL_ASYNCHRONOUS, 0);
		3923	ev_run (EV_A_ 0);
		3924	l_release (EV_A);
		3925
		3926	return 0;
		3927	}
		3928
		3929	Instead of invoking all pending watchers, the C<l_invoke> callback will
		3930	signal the main thread via some unspecified mechanism (signals? pipe
		3931	writes? C<Async::Interrupt>?) and then waits until all pending watchers
		3932	have been called (in a while loop because a) spurious wakeups are possible
		3933	and b) skipping inter-thread-communication when there are no pending
		3934	watchers is very beneficial):
		3935
		3936	static void
		3937	l_invoke (EV_P)
		3938	{
		3939	userdata *u = ev_userdata (EV_A);
		3940
		3941	while (ev_pending_count (EV_A))
		3942	{
		3943	wake_up_other_thread_in_some_magic_or_not_so_magic_way ();
		3944	pthread_cond_wait (&u->invoke_cv, &u->lock);
		3945	}
		3946	}
		3947
		3948	Now, whenever the main thread gets told to invoke pending watchers, it
		3949	will grab the lock, call C<ev_invoke_pending> and then signal the loop
		3950	thread to continue:
		3951
		3952	static void
		3953	real_invoke_pending (EV_P)
		3954	{
		3955	userdata *u = ev_userdata (EV_A);
		3956
		3957	pthread_mutex_lock (&u->lock);
		3958	ev_invoke_pending (EV_A);
		3959	pthread_cond_signal (&u->invoke_cv);
		3960	pthread_mutex_unlock (&u->lock);
		3961	}
		3962
		3963	Whenever you want to start/stop a watcher or do other modifications to an
		3964	event loop, you will now have to lock:
		3965
		3966	ev_timer timeout_watcher;
		3967	userdata *u = ev_userdata (EV_A);
		3968
		3969	ev_timer_init (&timeout_watcher, timeout_cb, 5.5, 0.);
		3970
		3971	pthread_mutex_lock (&u->lock);
		3972	ev_timer_start (EV_A_ &timeout_watcher);
		3973	ev_async_send (EV_A_ &u->async_w);
		3974	pthread_mutex_unlock (&u->lock);
		3975
		3976	Note that sending the C<ev_async> watcher is required because otherwise
		3977	an event loop currently blocking in the kernel will have no knowledge
		3978	about the newly added timer. By waking up the loop it will pick up any new
		3979	watchers in the next event loop iteration.
		3980
		3981	=head2 THREADS, COROUTINES, CONTINUATIONS, QUEUES... INSTEAD OF CALLBACKS
		3982
		3983	While the overhead of a callback that e.g. schedules a thread is small, it
		3984	is still an overhead. If you embed libev, and your main usage is with some
		3985	kind of threads or coroutines, you might want to customise libev so that
		3986	doesn't need callbacks anymore.
		3987
		3988	Imagine you have coroutines that you can switch to using a function
		3989	C<switch_to (coro)>, that libev runs in a coroutine called C<libev_coro>
		3990	and that due to some magic, the currently active coroutine is stored in a
		3991	global called C<current_coro>. Then you can build your own "wait for libev
		3992	event" primitive by changing C<EV_CB_DECLARE> and C<EV_CB_INVOKE> (note
		3993	the differing C<;> conventions):
		3994
		3995	#define EV_CB_DECLARE(type) struct my_coro *cb;
		3996	#define EV_CB_INVOKE(watcher) switch_to ((watcher)->cb)
		3997
		3998	That means instead of having a C callback function, you store the
		3999	coroutine to switch to in each watcher, and instead of having libev call
		4000	your callback, you instead have it switch to that coroutine.
		4001
		4002	A coroutine might now wait for an event with a function called
		4003	C<wait_for_event>. (the watcher needs to be started, as always, but it doesn't
		4004	matter when, or whether the watcher is active or not when this function is
		4005	called):
		4006
		4007	void
		4008	wait_for_event (ev_watcher *w)
		4009	{
		4010	ev_set_cb (w, current_coro);
		4011	switch_to (libev_coro);
		4012	}
		4013
		4014	That basically suspends the coroutine inside C<wait_for_event> and
		4015	continues the libev coroutine, which, when appropriate, switches back to
		4016	this or any other coroutine.
		4017
		4018	You can do similar tricks if you have, say, threads with an event queue -
		4019	instead of storing a coroutine, you store the queue object and instead of
		4020	switching to a coroutine, you push the watcher onto the queue and notify
		4021	any waiters.
		4022
		4023	To embed libev, see L</EMBEDDING>, but in short, it's easiest to create two
		4024	files, F<my_ev.h> and F<my_ev.c> that include the respective libev files:
		4025
		4026	// my_ev.h
		4027	#define EV_CB_DECLARE(type) struct my_coro *cb;
		4028	#define EV_CB_INVOKE(watcher) switch_to ((watcher)->cb)
		4029	#include "../libev/ev.h"
		4030
		4031	// my_ev.c
		4032	#define EV_H "my_ev.h"
		4033	#include "../libev/ev.c"
		4034
		4035	And then use F<my_ev.h> when you would normally use F<ev.h>, and compile
		4036	F<my_ev.c> into your project. When properly specifying include paths, you
		4037	can even use F<ev.h> as header file name directly.
1726		4038
1727		4039
1728	=head1 LIBEVENT EMULATION	4040	=head1 LIBEVENT EMULATION
1729		4041
1730	Libev offers a compatibility emulation layer for libevent. It cannot	4042	Libev offers a compatibility emulation layer for libevent. It cannot
1731	emulate the internals of libevent, so here are some usage hints:	4043	emulate the internals of libevent, so here are some usage hints:
1732		4044
1733	=over 4	4045	=over 4
		4046
		4047	=item * Only the libevent-1.4.1-beta API is being emulated.
		4048
		4049	This was the newest libevent version available when libev was implemented,
		4050	and is still mostly unchanged in 2010.
1734		4051
1735	=item * Use it by including <event.h>, as usual.	4052	=item * Use it by including <event.h>, as usual.
1736		4053
1737	=item * The following members are fully supported: ev_base, ev_callback,	4054	=item * The following members are fully supported: ev_base, ev_callback,
1738	ev_arg, ev_fd, ev_res, ev_events.	4055	ev_arg, ev_fd, ev_res, ev_events.
…		…
1743		4060
1744	=item * Priorities are not currently supported. Initialising priorities	4061	=item * Priorities are not currently supported. Initialising priorities
1745	will fail and all watchers will have the same priority, even though there	4062	will fail and all watchers will have the same priority, even though there
1746	is an ev_pri field.	4063	is an ev_pri field.
1747		4064
		4065	=item * In libevent, the last base created gets the signals, in libev, the
		4066	base that registered the signal gets the signals.
		4067
1748	=item * Other members are not supported.	4068	=item * Other members are not supported.
1749		4069
1750	=item * The libev emulation is I<not> ABI compatible to libevent, you need	4070	=item * The libev emulation is I<not> ABI compatible to libevent, you need
1751	to use the libev header file and library.	4071	to use the libev header file and library.
1752		4072
1753	=back	4073	=back
1754		4074
1755	=head1 C++ SUPPORT	4075	=head1 C++ SUPPORT
1756		4076
		4077	=head2 C API
		4078
		4079	The normal C API should work fine when used from C++: both ev.h and the
		4080	libev sources can be compiled as C++. Therefore, code that uses the C API
		4081	will work fine.
		4082
		4083	Proper exception specifications might have to be added to callbacks passed
		4084	to libev: exceptions may be thrown only from watcher callbacks, all other
		4085	callbacks (allocator, syserr, loop acquire/release and periodic reschedule
		4086	callbacks) must not throw exceptions, and might need a C<noexcept>
		4087	specification. If you have code that needs to be compiled as both C and
		4088	C++ you can use the C<EV_NOEXCEPT> macro for this:
		4089
		4090	static void
		4091	fatal_error (const char *msg) EV_NOEXCEPT
		4092	{
		4093	perror (msg);
		4094	abort ();
		4095	}
		4096
		4097	...
		4098	ev_set_syserr_cb (fatal_error);
		4099
		4100	The only API functions that can currently throw exceptions are C<ev_run>,
		4101	C<ev_invoke>, C<ev_invoke_pending> and C<ev_loop_destroy> (the latter
		4102	because it runs cleanup watchers).
		4103
		4104	Throwing exceptions in watcher callbacks is only supported if libev itself
		4105	is compiled with a C++ compiler or your C and C++ environments allow
		4106	throwing exceptions through C libraries (most do).
		4107
		4108	=head2 C++ API
		4109
1757	Libev comes with some simplistic wrapper classes for C++ that mainly allow	4110	Libev comes with some simplistic wrapper classes for C++ that mainly allow
1758	you to use some convinience methods to start/stop watchers and also change	4111	you to use some convenience methods to start/stop watchers and also change
1759	the callback model to a model using method callbacks on objects.	4112	the callback model to a model using method callbacks on objects.
1760		4113
1761	To use it,	4114	To use it,
1762		4115
1763	#include <ev++.h>	4116	#include <ev++.h>
1764		4117
1765	This automatically includes F<ev.h> and puts all of its definitions (many	4118	This automatically includes F<ev.h> and puts all of its definitions (many
1766	of them macros) into the global namespace. All C++ specific things are	4119	of them macros) into the global namespace. All C++ specific things are
1767	put into the C<ev> namespace. It should support all the same embedding	4120	put into the C<ev> namespace. It should support all the same embedding
1768	options as F<ev.h>, most notably C<EV_MULTIPLICITY>.	4121	options as F<ev.h>, most notably C<EV_MULTIPLICITY>.
…		…
1770	Care has been taken to keep the overhead low. The only data member the C++	4123	Care has been taken to keep the overhead low. The only data member the C++
1771	classes add (compared to plain C-style watchers) is the event loop pointer	4124	classes add (compared to plain C-style watchers) is the event loop pointer
1772	that the watcher is associated with (or no additional members at all if	4125	that the watcher is associated with (or no additional members at all if
1773	you disable C<EV_MULTIPLICITY> when embedding libev).	4126	you disable C<EV_MULTIPLICITY> when embedding libev).
1774		4127
1775	Currently, functions, and static and non-static member functions can be	4128	Currently, functions, static and non-static member functions and classes
1776	used as callbacks. Other types should be easy to add as long as they only	4129	with C<operator ()> can be used as callbacks. Other types should be easy
1777	need one additional pointer for context. If you need support for other	4130	to add as long as they only need one additional pointer for context. If
1778	types of functors please contact the author (preferably after implementing	4131	you need support for other types of functors please contact the author
1779	it).	4132	(preferably after implementing it).
		4133
		4134	For all this to work, your C++ compiler either has to use the same calling
		4135	conventions as your C compiler (for static member functions), or you have
		4136	to embed libev and compile libev itself as C++.
1780		4137
1781	Here is a list of things available in the C<ev> namespace:	4138	Here is a list of things available in the C<ev> namespace:
1782		4139
1783	=over 4	4140	=over 4
1784		4141
…		…
1794	=item C<ev::io>, C<ev::timer>, C<ev::periodic>, C<ev::idle>, C<ev::sig> etc.	4151	=item C<ev::io>, C<ev::timer>, C<ev::periodic>, C<ev::idle>, C<ev::sig> etc.
1795		4152
1796	For each C<ev_TYPE> watcher in F<ev.h> there is a corresponding class of	4153	For each C<ev_TYPE> watcher in F<ev.h> there is a corresponding class of
1797	the same name in the C<ev> namespace, with the exception of C<ev_signal>	4154	the same name in the C<ev> namespace, with the exception of C<ev_signal>
1798	which is called C<ev::sig> to avoid clashes with the C<signal> macro	4155	which is called C<ev::sig> to avoid clashes with the C<signal> macro
1799	defines by many implementations.	4156	defined by many implementations.
1800		4157
1801	All of those classes have these methods:	4158	All of those classes have these methods:
1802		4159
1803	=over 4	4160	=over 4
1804		4161
1805	=item ev::TYPE::TYPE ()	4162	=item ev::TYPE::TYPE ()
1806		4163
1807	=item ev::TYPE::TYPE (struct ev_loop *)	4164	=item ev::TYPE::TYPE (loop)
1808		4165
1809	=item ev::TYPE::~TYPE	4166	=item ev::TYPE::~TYPE
1810		4167
1811	The constructor (optionally) takes an event loop to associate the watcher	4168	The constructor (optionally) takes an event loop to associate the watcher
1812	with. If it is omitted, it will use C<EV_DEFAULT>.	4169	with. If it is omitted, it will use C<EV_DEFAULT>.
…		…
1835	your compiler is good :), then the method will be fully inlined into the	4192	your compiler is good :), then the method will be fully inlined into the
1836	thunking function, making it as fast as a direct C callback.	4193	thunking function, making it as fast as a direct C callback.
1837		4194
1838	Example: simple class declaration and watcher initialisation	4195	Example: simple class declaration and watcher initialisation
1839		4196
1840	struct myclass	4197	struct myclass
1841	{	4198	{
1842	void io_cb (ev::io &w, int revents) { }	4199	void io_cb (ev::io &w, int revents) { }
1843	}	4200	}
1844		4201
1845	myclass obj;	4202	myclass obj;
1846	ev::io iow;	4203	ev::io iow;
1847	iow.set <myclass, &myclass::io_cb> (&obj);	4204	iow.set <myclass, &myclass::io_cb> (&obj);
1848		4205
1849	=item w->set (void (*function)(watcher &w, int), void *data = 0)	4206	=item w->set (object *)
		4207
		4208	This is a variation of a method callback - leaving out the method to call
		4209	will default the method to C<operator ()>, which makes it possible to use
		4210	functor objects without having to manually specify the C<operator ()> all
		4211	the time. Incidentally, you can then also leave out the template argument
		4212	list.
		4213
		4214	The C<operator ()> method prototype must be C<void operator ()(watcher &w,
		4215	int revents)>.
		4216
		4217	See the method-C<set> above for more details.
		4218
		4219	Example: use a functor object as callback.
		4220
		4221	struct myfunctor
		4222	{
		4223	void operator() (ev::io &w, int revents)
		4224	{
		4225	...
		4226	}
		4227	}
		4228
		4229	myfunctor f;
		4230
		4231	ev::io w;
		4232	w.set (&f);
		4233
		4234	=item w->set<function> (void *data = 0)
1850		4235
1851	Also sets a callback, but uses a static method or plain function as	4236	Also sets a callback, but uses a static method or plain function as
1852	callback. The optional C<data> argument will be stored in the watcher's	4237	callback. The optional C<data> argument will be stored in the watcher's
1853	C<data> member and is free for you to use.	4238	C<data> member and is free for you to use.
1854		4239
		4240	The prototype of the C<function> must be C<void (*)(ev::TYPE &w, int)>.
		4241
1855	See the method-C<set> above for more details.	4242	See the method-C<set> above for more details.
1856		4243
		4244	Example: Use a plain function as callback.
		4245
		4246	static void io_cb (ev::io &w, int revents) { }
		4247	iow.set <io_cb> ();
		4248
1857	=item w->set (struct ev_loop *)	4249	=item w->set (loop)
1858		4250
1859	Associates a different C<struct ev_loop> with this watcher. You can only	4251	Associates a different C<struct ev_loop> with this watcher. You can only
1860	do this when the watcher is inactive (and not pending either).	4252	do this when the watcher is inactive (and not pending either).
1861		4253
1862	=item w->set ([args])	4254	=item w->set ([arguments])
1863		4255
1864	Basically the same as C<ev_TYPE_set>, with the same args. Must be	4256	Basically the same as C<ev_TYPE_set> (except for C<ev::embed> watchers>),
		4257	with the same arguments. Either this method or a suitable start method
1865	called at least once. Unlike the C counterpart, an active watcher gets	4258	must be called at least once. Unlike the C counterpart, an active watcher
1866	automatically stopped and restarted when reconfiguring it with this	4259	gets automatically stopped and restarted when reconfiguring it with this
1867	method.	4260	method.
		4261
		4262	For C<ev::embed> watchers this method is called C<set_embed>, to avoid
		4263	clashing with the C<set (loop)> method.
1868		4264
1869	=item w->start ()	4265	=item w->start ()
1870		4266
1871	Starts the watcher. Note that there is no C<loop> argument, as the	4267	Starts the watcher. Note that there is no C<loop> argument, as the
1872	constructor already stores the event loop.	4268	constructor already stores the event loop.
1873		4269
		4270	=item w->start ([arguments])
		4271
		4272	Instead of calling C<set> and C<start> methods separately, it is often
		4273	convenient to wrap them in one call. Uses the same type of arguments as
		4274	the configure C<set> method of the watcher.
		4275
1874	=item w->stop ()	4276	=item w->stop ()
1875		4277
1876	Stops the watcher if it is active. Again, no C<loop> argument.	4278	Stops the watcher if it is active. Again, no C<loop> argument.
1877		4279
1878	=item w->again () C<ev::timer>, C<ev::periodic> only	4280	=item w->again () (C<ev::timer>, C<ev::periodic> only)
1879		4281
1880	For C<ev::timer> and C<ev::periodic>, this invokes the corresponding	4282	For C<ev::timer> and C<ev::periodic>, this invokes the corresponding
1881	C<ev_TYPE_again> function.	4283	C<ev_TYPE_again> function.
1882		4284
1883	=item w->sweep () C<ev::embed> only	4285	=item w->sweep () (C<ev::embed> only)
1884		4286
1885	Invokes C<ev_embed_sweep>.	4287	Invokes C<ev_embed_sweep>.
1886		4288
1887	=item w->update () C<ev::stat> only	4289	=item w->update () (C<ev::stat> only)
1888		4290
1889	Invokes C<ev_stat_stat>.	4291	Invokes C<ev_stat_stat>.
1890		4292
1891	=back	4293	=back
1892		4294
1893	=back	4295	=back
1894		4296
1895	Example: Define a class with an IO and idle watcher, start one of them in	4297	Example: Define a class with two I/O and idle watchers, start the I/O
1896	the constructor.	4298	watchers in the constructor.
1897		4299
1898	class myclass	4300	class myclass
1899	{	4301	{
1900	ev_io io; void io_cb (ev::io &w, int revents);	4302	ev::io io ; void io_cb (ev::io &w, int revents);
		4303	ev::io io2 ; void io2_cb (ev::io &w, int revents);
1901	ev_idle idle void idle_cb (ev::idle &w, int revents);	4304	ev::idle idle; void idle_cb (ev::idle &w, int revents);
1902		4305
1903	myclass ();	4306	myclass (int fd)
1904	}	4307	{
1905
1906	myclass::myclass (int fd)
1907	{
1908	io .set <myclass, &myclass::io_cb > (this);	4308	io .set <myclass, &myclass::io_cb > (this);
		4309	io2 .set <myclass, &myclass::io2_cb > (this);
1909	idle.set <myclass, &myclass::idle_cb> (this);	4310	idle.set <myclass, &myclass::idle_cb> (this);
1910		4311
1911	io.start (fd, ev::READ);	4312	io.set (fd, ev::WRITE); // configure the watcher
		4313	io.start (); // start it whenever convenient
		4314
		4315	io2.start (fd, ev::READ); // set + start in one call
		4316	}
1912	}	4317	};
		4318
		4319
		4320	=head1 OTHER LANGUAGE BINDINGS
		4321
		4322	Libev does not offer other language bindings itself, but bindings for a
		4323	number of languages exist in the form of third-party packages. If you know
		4324	any interesting language binding in addition to the ones listed here, drop
		4325	me a note.
		4326
		4327	=over 4
		4328
		4329	=item Perl
		4330
		4331	The EV module implements the full libev API and is actually used to test
		4332	libev. EV is developed together with libev. Apart from the EV core module,
		4333	there are additional modules that implement libev-compatible interfaces
		4334	to C<libadns> (C<EV::ADNS>, but C<AnyEvent::DNS> is preferred nowadays),
		4335	C<Net::SNMP> (C<Net::SNMP::EV>) and the C<libglib> event core (C<Glib::EV>
		4336	and C<EV::Glib>).
		4337
		4338	It can be found and installed via CPAN, its homepage is at
		4339	L<http://software.schmorp.de/pkg/EV>.
		4340
		4341	=item Python
		4342
		4343	Python bindings can be found at L<http://code.google.com/p/pyev/>. It
		4344	seems to be quite complete and well-documented.
		4345
		4346	=item Ruby
		4347
		4348	Tony Arcieri has written a ruby extension that offers access to a subset
		4349	of the libev API and adds file handle abstractions, asynchronous DNS and
		4350	more on top of it. It can be found via gem servers. Its homepage is at
		4351	L<http://rev.rubyforge.org/>.
		4352
		4353	Roger Pack reports that using the link order C<-lws2_32 -lmsvcrt-ruby-190>
		4354	makes rev work even on mingw.
		4355
		4356	=item Haskell
		4357
		4358	A haskell binding to libev is available at
		4359	L<http://hackage.haskell.org/cgi-bin/hackage-scripts/package/hlibev>.
		4360
		4361	=item D
		4362
		4363	Leandro Lucarella has written a D language binding (F<ev.d>) for libev, to
		4364	be found at L<http://www.llucax.com.ar/proj/ev.d/index.html>.
		4365
		4366	=item Ocaml
		4367
		4368	Erkki Seppala has written Ocaml bindings for libev, to be found at
		4369	L<http://modeemi.cs.tut.fi/~flux/software/ocaml-ev/>.
		4370
		4371	=item Lua
		4372
		4373	Brian Maher has written a partial interface to libev for lua (at the
		4374	time of this writing, only C<ev_io> and C<ev_timer>), to be found at
		4375	L<http://github.com/brimworks/lua-ev>.
		4376
		4377	=item Javascript
		4378
		4379	Node.js (L<http://nodejs.org>) uses libev as the underlying event library.
		4380
		4381	=item Others
		4382
		4383	There are others, and I stopped counting.
		4384
		4385	=back
1913		4386
1914		4387
1915	=head1 MACRO MAGIC	4388	=head1 MACRO MAGIC
1916		4389
1917	Libev can be compiled with a variety of options, the most fundemantal is	4390	Libev can be compiled with a variety of options, the most fundamental
1918	C<EV_MULTIPLICITY>. This option determines whether (most) functions and	4391	of which is C<EV_MULTIPLICITY>. This option determines whether (most)
1919	callbacks have an initial C<struct ev_loop *> argument.	4392	functions and callbacks have an initial C<struct ev_loop *> argument.
1920		4393
1921	To make it easier to write programs that cope with either variant, the	4394	To make it easier to write programs that cope with either variant, the
1922	following macros are defined:	4395	following macros are defined:
1923		4396
1924	=over 4	4397	=over 4
…		…
1927		4400
1928	This provides the loop I<argument> for functions, if one is required ("ev	4401	This provides the loop I<argument> for functions, if one is required ("ev
1929	loop argument"). The C<EV_A> form is used when this is the sole argument,	4402	loop argument"). The C<EV_A> form is used when this is the sole argument,
1930	C<EV_A_> is used when other arguments are following. Example:	4403	C<EV_A_> is used when other arguments are following. Example:
1931		4404
1932	ev_unref (EV_A);	4405	ev_unref (EV_A);
1933	ev_timer_add (EV_A_ watcher);	4406	ev_timer_add (EV_A_ watcher);
1934	ev_loop (EV_A_ 0);	4407	ev_run (EV_A_ 0);
1935		4408
1936	It assumes the variable C<loop> of type C<struct ev_loop *> is in scope,	4409	It assumes the variable C<loop> of type C<struct ev_loop *> is in scope,
1937	which is often provided by the following macro.	4410	which is often provided by the following macro.
1938		4411
1939	=item C<EV_P>, C<EV_P_>	4412	=item C<EV_P>, C<EV_P_>
1940		4413
1941	This provides the loop I<parameter> for functions, if one is required ("ev	4414	This provides the loop I<parameter> for functions, if one is required ("ev
1942	loop parameter"). The C<EV_P> form is used when this is the sole parameter,	4415	loop parameter"). The C<EV_P> form is used when this is the sole parameter,
1943	C<EV_P_> is used when other parameters are following. Example:	4416	C<EV_P_> is used when other parameters are following. Example:
1944		4417
1945	// this is how ev_unref is being declared	4418	// this is how ev_unref is being declared
1946	static void ev_unref (EV_P);	4419	static void ev_unref (EV_P);
1947		4420
1948	// this is how you can declare your typical callback	4421	// this is how you can declare your typical callback
1949	static void cb (EV_P_ ev_timer *w, int revents)	4422	static void cb (EV_P_ ev_timer *w, int revents)
1950		4423
1951	It declares a parameter C<loop> of type C<struct ev_loop *>, quite	4424	It declares a parameter C<loop> of type C<struct ev_loop *>, quite
1952	suitable for use with C<EV_A>.	4425	suitable for use with C<EV_A>.
1953		4426
1954	=item C<EV_DEFAULT>, C<EV_DEFAULT_>	4427	=item C<EV_DEFAULT>, C<EV_DEFAULT_>
1955		4428
1956	Similar to the other two macros, this gives you the value of the default	4429	Similar to the other two macros, this gives you the value of the default
1957	loop, if multiple loops are supported ("ev loop default").	4430	loop, if multiple loops are supported ("ev loop default"). The default loop
		4431	will be initialised if it isn't already initialised.
		4432
		4433	For non-multiplicity builds, these macros do nothing, so you always have
		4434	to initialise the loop somewhere.
		4435
		4436	=item C<EV_DEFAULT_UC>, C<EV_DEFAULT_UC_>
		4437
		4438	Usage identical to C<EV_DEFAULT> and C<EV_DEFAULT_>, but requires that the
		4439	default loop has been initialised (C<UC> == unchecked). Their behaviour
		4440	is undefined when the default loop has not been initialised by a previous
		4441	execution of C<EV_DEFAULT>, C<EV_DEFAULT_> or C<ev_default_init (...)>.
		4442
		4443	It is often prudent to use C<EV_DEFAULT> when initialising the first
		4444	watcher in a function but use C<EV_DEFAULT_UC> afterwards.
1958		4445
1959	=back	4446	=back
1960		4447
1961	Example: Declare and initialise a check watcher, utilising the above	4448	Example: Declare and initialise a check watcher, utilising the above
1962	macros so it will work regardless of whether multiple loops are supported	4449	macros so it will work regardless of whether multiple loops are supported
1963	or not.	4450	or not.
1964		4451
1965	static void	4452	static void
1966	check_cb (EV_P_ ev_timer *w, int revents)	4453	check_cb (EV_P_ ev_timer *w, int revents)
1967	{	4454	{
1968	ev_check_stop (EV_A_ w);	4455	ev_check_stop (EV_A_ w);
1969	}	4456	}
1970		4457
1971	ev_check check;	4458	ev_check check;
1972	ev_check_init (&check, check_cb);	4459	ev_check_init (&check, check_cb);
1973	ev_check_start (EV_DEFAULT_ &check);	4460	ev_check_start (EV_DEFAULT_ &check);
1974	ev_loop (EV_DEFAULT_ 0);	4461	ev_run (EV_DEFAULT_ 0);
1975		4462
1976	=head1 EMBEDDING	4463	=head1 EMBEDDING
1977		4464
1978	Libev can (and often is) directly embedded into host	4465	Libev can (and often is) directly embedded into host
1979	applications. Examples of applications that embed it include the Deliantra	4466	applications. Examples of applications that embed it include the Deliantra
1980	Game Server, the EV perl module, the GNU Virtual Private Ethernet (gvpe)	4467	Game Server, the EV perl module, the GNU Virtual Private Ethernet (gvpe)
1981	and rxvt-unicode.	4468	and rxvt-unicode.
1982		4469
1983	The goal is to enable you to just copy the neecssary files into your	4470	The goal is to enable you to just copy the necessary files into your
1984	source directory without having to change even a single line in them, so	4471	source directory without having to change even a single line in them, so
1985	you can easily upgrade by simply copying (or having a checked-out copy of	4472	you can easily upgrade by simply copying (or having a checked-out copy of
1986	libev somewhere in your source tree).	4473	libev somewhere in your source tree).
1987		4474
1988	=head2 FILESETS	4475	=head2 FILESETS
1989		4476
1990	Depending on what features you need you need to include one or more sets of files	4477	Depending on what features you need you need to include one or more sets of files
1991	in your app.	4478	in your application.
1992		4479
1993	=head3 CORE EVENT LOOP	4480	=head3 CORE EVENT LOOP
1994		4481
1995	To include only the libev core (all the C<ev_*> functions), with manual	4482	To include only the libev core (all the C<ev_*> functions), with manual
1996	configuration (no autoconf):	4483	configuration (no autoconf):
1997		4484
1998	#define EV_STANDALONE 1	4485	#define EV_STANDALONE 1
1999	#include "ev.c"	4486	#include "ev.c"
2000		4487
2001	This will automatically include F<ev.h>, too, and should be done in a	4488	This will automatically include F<ev.h>, too, and should be done in a
2002	single C source file only to provide the function implementations. To use	4489	single C source file only to provide the function implementations. To use
2003	it, do the same for F<ev.h> in all files wishing to use this API (best	4490	it, do the same for F<ev.h> in all files wishing to use this API (best
2004	done by writing a wrapper around F<ev.h> that you can include instead and	4491	done by writing a wrapper around F<ev.h> that you can include instead and
2005	where you can put other configuration options):	4492	where you can put other configuration options):
2006		4493
2007	#define EV_STANDALONE 1	4494	#define EV_STANDALONE 1
2008	#include "ev.h"	4495	#include "ev.h"
2009		4496
2010	Both header files and implementation files can be compiled with a C++	4497	Both header files and implementation files can be compiled with a C++
2011	compiler (at least, thats a stated goal, and breakage will be treated	4498	compiler (at least, that's a stated goal, and breakage will be treated
2012	as a bug).	4499	as a bug).
2013		4500
2014	You need the following files in your source tree, or in a directory	4501	You need the following files in your source tree, or in a directory
2015	in your include path (e.g. in libev/ when using -Ilibev):	4502	in your include path (e.g. in libev/ when using -Ilibev):
2016		4503
2017	ev.h	4504	ev.h
2018	ev.c	4505	ev.c
2019	ev_vars.h	4506	ev_vars.h
2020	ev_wrap.h	4507	ev_wrap.h
2021		4508
2022	ev_win32.c required on win32 platforms only	4509	ev_win32.c required on win32 platforms only
2023		4510
2024	ev_select.c only when select backend is enabled (which is enabled by default)	4511	ev_select.c only when select backend is enabled
2025	ev_poll.c only when poll backend is enabled (disabled by default)	4512	ev_poll.c only when poll backend is enabled
2026	ev_epoll.c only when the epoll backend is enabled (disabled by default)	4513	ev_epoll.c only when the epoll backend is enabled
		4514	ev_linuxaio.c only when the linux aio backend is enabled
		4515	ev_iouring.c only when the linux io_uring backend is enabled
2027	ev_kqueue.c only when the kqueue backend is enabled (disabled by default)	4516	ev_kqueue.c only when the kqueue backend is enabled
2028	ev_port.c only when the solaris port backend is enabled (disabled by default)	4517	ev_port.c only when the solaris port backend is enabled
2029		4518
2030	F<ev.c> includes the backend files directly when enabled, so you only need	4519	F<ev.c> includes the backend files directly when enabled, so you only need
2031	to compile this single file.	4520	to compile this single file.
2032		4521
2033	=head3 LIBEVENT COMPATIBILITY API	4522	=head3 LIBEVENT COMPATIBILITY API
2034		4523
2035	To include the libevent compatibility API, also include:	4524	To include the libevent compatibility API, also include:
2036		4525
2037	#include "event.c"	4526	#include "event.c"
2038		4527
2039	in the file including F<ev.c>, and:	4528	in the file including F<ev.c>, and:
2040		4529
2041	#include "event.h"	4530	#include "event.h"
2042		4531
2043	in the files that want to use the libevent API. This also includes F<ev.h>.	4532	in the files that want to use the libevent API. This also includes F<ev.h>.
2044		4533
2045	You need the following additional files for this:	4534	You need the following additional files for this:
2046		4535
2047	event.h	4536	event.h
2048	event.c	4537	event.c
2049		4538
2050	=head3 AUTOCONF SUPPORT	4539	=head3 AUTOCONF SUPPORT
2051		4540
2052	Instead of using C<EV_STANDALONE=1> and providing your config in	4541	Instead of using C<EV_STANDALONE=1> and providing your configuration in
2053	whatever way you want, you can also C<m4_include([libev.m4])> in your	4542	whatever way you want, you can also C<m4_include([libev.m4])> in your
2054	F<configure.ac> and leave C<EV_STANDALONE> undefined. F<ev.c> will then	4543	F<configure.ac> and leave C<EV_STANDALONE> undefined. F<ev.c> will then
2055	include F<config.h> and configure itself accordingly.	4544	include F<config.h> and configure itself accordingly.
2056		4545
2057	For this of course you need the m4 file:	4546	For this of course you need the m4 file:
2058		4547
2059	libev.m4	4548	libev.m4
2060		4549
2061	=head2 PREPROCESSOR SYMBOLS/MACROS	4550	=head2 PREPROCESSOR SYMBOLS/MACROS
2062		4551
2063	Libev can be configured via a variety of preprocessor symbols you have to define	4552	Libev can be configured via a variety of preprocessor symbols you have to
2064	before including any of its files. The default is not to build for multiplicity	4553	define before including (or compiling) any of its files. The default in
2065	and only include the select backend.	4554	the absence of autoconf is documented for every option.
		4555
		4556	Symbols marked with "(h)" do not change the ABI, and can have different
		4557	values when compiling libev vs. including F<ev.h>, so it is permissible
		4558	to redefine them before including F<ev.h> without breaking compatibility
		4559	to a compiled library. All other symbols change the ABI, which means all
		4560	users of libev and the libev code itself must be compiled with compatible
		4561	settings.
2066		4562
2067	=over 4	4563	=over 4
2068		4564
		4565	=item EV_COMPAT3 (h)
		4566
		4567	Backwards compatibility is a major concern for libev. This is why this
		4568	release of libev comes with wrappers for the functions and symbols that
		4569	have been renamed between libev version 3 and 4.
		4570
		4571	You can disable these wrappers (to test compatibility with future
		4572	versions) by defining C<EV_COMPAT3> to C<0> when compiling your
		4573	sources. This has the additional advantage that you can drop the C<struct>
		4574	from C<struct ev_loop> declarations, as libev will provide an C<ev_loop>
		4575	typedef in that case.
		4576
		4577	In some future version, the default for C<EV_COMPAT3> will become C<0>,
		4578	and in some even more future version the compatibility code will be
		4579	removed completely.
		4580
2069	=item EV_STANDALONE	4581	=item EV_STANDALONE (h)
2070		4582
2071	Must always be C<1> if you do not use autoconf configuration, which	4583	Must always be C<1> if you do not use autoconf configuration, which
2072	keeps libev from including F<config.h>, and it also defines dummy	4584	keeps libev from including F<config.h>, and it also defines dummy
2073	implementations for some libevent functions (such as logging, which is not	4585	implementations for some libevent functions (such as logging, which is not
2074	supported). It will also not define any of the structs usually found in	4586	supported). It will also not define any of the structs usually found in
2075	F<event.h> that are not directly supported by the libev core alone.	4587	F<event.h> that are not directly supported by the libev core alone.
2076		4588
		4589	In standalone mode, libev will still try to automatically deduce the
		4590	configuration, but has to be more conservative.
		4591
		4592	=item EV_USE_FLOOR
		4593
		4594	If defined to be C<1>, libev will use the C<floor ()> function for its
		4595	periodic reschedule calculations, otherwise libev will fall back on a
		4596	portable (slower) implementation. If you enable this, you usually have to
		4597	link against libm or something equivalent. Enabling this when the C<floor>
		4598	function is not available will fail, so the safe default is to not enable
		4599	this.
		4600
2077	=item EV_USE_MONOTONIC	4601	=item EV_USE_MONOTONIC
2078		4602
2079	If defined to be C<1>, libev will try to detect the availability of the	4603	If defined to be C<1>, libev will try to detect the availability of the
2080	monotonic clock option at both compiletime and runtime. Otherwise no use	4604	monotonic clock option at both compile time and runtime. Otherwise no
2081	of the monotonic clock option will be attempted. If you enable this, you	4605	use of the monotonic clock option will be attempted. If you enable this,
2082	usually have to link against librt or something similar. Enabling it when	4606	you usually have to link against librt or something similar. Enabling it
2083	the functionality isn't available is safe, though, althoguh you have	4607	when the functionality isn't available is safe, though, although you have
2084	to make sure you link against any libraries where the C<clock_gettime>	4608	to make sure you link against any libraries where the C<clock_gettime>
2085	function is hiding in (often F<-lrt>).	4609	function is hiding in (often F<-lrt>). See also C<EV_USE_CLOCK_SYSCALL>.
2086		4610
2087	=item EV_USE_REALTIME	4611	=item EV_USE_REALTIME
2088		4612
2089	If defined to be C<1>, libev will try to detect the availability of the	4613	If defined to be C<1>, libev will try to detect the availability of the
2090	realtime clock option at compiletime (and assume its availability at	4614	real-time clock option at compile time (and assume its availability
2091	runtime if successful). Otherwise no use of the realtime clock option will	4615	at runtime if successful). Otherwise no use of the real-time clock
2092	be attempted. This effectively replaces C<gettimeofday> by C<clock_get	4616	option will be attempted. This effectively replaces C<gettimeofday>
2093	(CLOCK_REALTIME, ...)> and will not normally affect correctness. See tzhe note about libraries	4617	by C<clock_get (CLOCK_REALTIME, ...)> and will not normally affect
2094	in the description of C<EV_USE_MONOTONIC>, though.	4618	correctness. See the note about libraries in the description of
		4619	C<EV_USE_MONOTONIC>, though. Defaults to the opposite value of
		4620	C<EV_USE_CLOCK_SYSCALL>.
		4621
		4622	=item EV_USE_CLOCK_SYSCALL
		4623
		4624	If defined to be C<1>, libev will try to use a direct syscall instead
		4625	of calling the system-provided C<clock_gettime> function. This option
		4626	exists because on GNU/Linux, C<clock_gettime> is in C<librt>, but C<librt>
		4627	unconditionally pulls in C<libpthread>, slowing down single-threaded
		4628	programs needlessly. Using a direct syscall is slightly slower (in
		4629	theory), because no optimised vdso implementation can be used, but avoids
		4630	the pthread dependency. Defaults to C<1> on GNU/Linux with glibc 2.x or
		4631	higher, as it simplifies linking (no need for C<-lrt>).
		4632
		4633	=item EV_USE_NANOSLEEP
		4634
		4635	If defined to be C<1>, libev will assume that C<nanosleep ()> is available
		4636	and will use it for delays. Otherwise it will use C<select ()>.
		4637
		4638	=item EV_USE_EVENTFD
		4639
		4640	If defined to be C<1>, then libev will assume that C<eventfd ()> is
		4641	available and will probe for kernel support at runtime. This will improve
		4642	C<ev_signal> and C<ev_async> performance and reduce resource consumption.
		4643	If undefined, it will be enabled if the headers indicate GNU/Linux + Glibc
		4644	2.7 or newer, otherwise disabled.
		4645
		4646	=item EV_USE_SIGNALFD
		4647
		4648	If defined to be C<1>, then libev will assume that C<signalfd ()> is
		4649	available and will probe for kernel support at runtime. This enables
		4650	the use of EVFLAG_SIGNALFD for faster and simpler signal handling. If
		4651	undefined, it will be enabled if the headers indicate GNU/Linux + Glibc
		4652	2.7 or newer, otherwise disabled.
		4653
		4654	=item EV_USE_TIMERFD
		4655
		4656	If defined to be C<1>, then libev will assume that C<timerfd ()> is
		4657	available and will probe for kernel support at runtime. This allows
		4658	libev to detect time jumps accurately. If undefined, it will be enabled
		4659	if the headers indicate GNU/Linux + Glibc 2.8 or newer and define
		4660	C<TFD_TIMER_CANCEL_ON_SET>, otherwise disabled.
		4661
		4662	=item EV_USE_EVENTFD
		4663
		4664	If defined to be C<1>, then libev will assume that C<eventfd ()> is
		4665	available and will probe for kernel support at runtime. This will improve
		4666	C<ev_signal> and C<ev_async> performance and reduce resource consumption.
		4667	If undefined, it will be enabled if the headers indicate GNU/Linux + Glibc
		4668	2.7 or newer, otherwise disabled.
2095		4669
2096	=item EV_USE_SELECT	4670	=item EV_USE_SELECT
2097		4671
2098	If undefined or defined to be C<1>, libev will compile in support for the	4672	If undefined or defined to be C<1>, libev will compile in support for the
2099	C<select>(2) backend. No attempt at autodetection will be done: if no	4673	C<select>(2) backend. No attempt at auto-detection will be done: if no
2100	other method takes over, select will be it. Otherwise the select backend	4674	other method takes over, select will be it. Otherwise the select backend
2101	will not be compiled in.	4675	will not be compiled in.
2102		4676
2103	=item EV_SELECT_USE_FD_SET	4677	=item EV_SELECT_USE_FD_SET
2104		4678
2105	If defined to C<1>, then the select backend will use the system C<fd_set>	4679	If defined to C<1>, then the select backend will use the system C<fd_set>
2106	structure. This is useful if libev doesn't compile due to a missing	4680	structure. This is useful if libev doesn't compile due to a missing
2107	C<NFDBITS> or C<fd_mask> definition or it misguesses the bitset layout on	4681	C<NFDBITS> or C<fd_mask> definition or it mis-guesses the bitset layout
2108	exotic systems. This usually limits the range of file descriptors to some	4682	on exotic systems. This usually limits the range of file descriptors to
2109	low limit such as 1024 or might have other limitations (winsocket only	4683	some low limit such as 1024 or might have other limitations (winsocket
2110	allows 64 sockets). The C<FD_SETSIZE> macro, set before compilation, might	4684	only allows 64 sockets). The C<FD_SETSIZE> macro, set before compilation,
2111	influence the size of the C<fd_set> used.	4685	configures the maximum size of the C<fd_set>.
2112		4686
2113	=item EV_SELECT_IS_WINSOCKET	4687	=item EV_SELECT_IS_WINSOCKET
2114		4688
2115	When defined to C<1>, the select backend will assume that	4689	When defined to C<1>, the select backend will assume that
2116	select/socket/connect etc. don't understand file descriptors but	4690	select/socket/connect etc. don't understand file descriptors but
…		…
2118	be used is the winsock select). This means that it will call	4692	be used is the winsock select). This means that it will call
2119	C<_get_osfhandle> on the fd to convert it to an OS handle. Otherwise,	4693	C<_get_osfhandle> on the fd to convert it to an OS handle. Otherwise,
2120	it is assumed that all these functions actually work on fds, even	4694	it is assumed that all these functions actually work on fds, even
2121	on win32. Should not be defined on non-win32 platforms.	4695	on win32. Should not be defined on non-win32 platforms.
2122		4696
		4697	=item EV_FD_TO_WIN32_HANDLE(fd)
		4698
		4699	If C<EV_SELECT_IS_WINSOCKET> is enabled, then libev needs a way to map
		4700	file descriptors to socket handles. When not defining this symbol (the
		4701	default), then libev will call C<_get_osfhandle>, which is usually
		4702	correct. In some cases, programs use their own file descriptor management,
		4703	in which case they can provide this function to map fds to socket handles.
		4704
		4705	=item EV_WIN32_HANDLE_TO_FD(handle)
		4706
		4707	If C<EV_SELECT_IS_WINSOCKET> then libev maps handles to file descriptors
		4708	using the standard C<_open_osfhandle> function. For programs implementing
		4709	their own fd to handle mapping, overwriting this function makes it easier
		4710	to do so. This can be done by defining this macro to an appropriate value.
		4711
		4712	=item EV_WIN32_CLOSE_FD(fd)
		4713
		4714	If programs implement their own fd to handle mapping on win32, then this
		4715	macro can be used to override the C<close> function, useful to unregister
		4716	file descriptors again. Note that the replacement function has to close
		4717	the underlying OS handle.
		4718
		4719	=item EV_USE_WSASOCKET
		4720
		4721	If defined to be C<1>, libev will use C<WSASocket> to create its internal
		4722	communication socket, which works better in some environments. Otherwise,
		4723	the normal C<socket> function will be used, which works better in other
		4724	environments.
		4725
2123	=item EV_USE_POLL	4726	=item EV_USE_POLL
2124		4727
2125	If defined to be C<1>, libev will compile in support for the C<poll>(2)	4728	If defined to be C<1>, libev will compile in support for the C<poll>(2)
2126	backend. Otherwise it will be enabled on non-win32 platforms. It	4729	backend. Otherwise it will be enabled on non-win32 platforms. It
2127	takes precedence over select.	4730	takes precedence over select.
2128		4731
2129	=item EV_USE_EPOLL	4732	=item EV_USE_EPOLL
2130		4733
2131	If defined to be C<1>, libev will compile in support for the Linux	4734	If defined to be C<1>, libev will compile in support for the Linux
2132	C<epoll>(7) backend. Its availability will be detected at runtime,	4735	C<epoll>(7) backend. Its availability will be detected at runtime,
2133	otherwise another method will be used as fallback. This is the	4736	otherwise another method will be used as fallback. This is the preferred
2134	preferred backend for GNU/Linux systems.	4737	backend for GNU/Linux systems. If undefined, it will be enabled if the
		4738	headers indicate GNU/Linux + Glibc 2.4 or newer, otherwise disabled.
		4739
		4740	=item EV_USE_LINUXAIO
		4741
		4742	If defined to be C<1>, libev will compile in support for the Linux aio
		4743	backend (C<EV_USE_EPOLL> must also be enabled). If undefined, it will be
		4744	enabled on linux, otherwise disabled.
		4745
		4746	=item EV_USE_IOURING
		4747
		4748	If defined to be C<1>, libev will compile in support for the Linux
		4749	io_uring backend (C<EV_USE_EPOLL> must also be enabled). Due to it's
		4750	current limitations it has to be requested explicitly. If undefined, it
		4751	will be enabled on linux, otherwise disabled.
2135		4752
2136	=item EV_USE_KQUEUE	4753	=item EV_USE_KQUEUE
2137		4754
2138	If defined to be C<1>, libev will compile in support for the BSD style	4755	If defined to be C<1>, libev will compile in support for the BSD style
2139	C<kqueue>(2) backend. Its actual availability will be detected at runtime,	4756	C<kqueue>(2) backend. Its actual availability will be detected at runtime,
…		…
2152	otherwise another method will be used as fallback. This is the preferred	4769	otherwise another method will be used as fallback. This is the preferred
2153	backend for Solaris 10 systems.	4770	backend for Solaris 10 systems.
2154		4771
2155	=item EV_USE_DEVPOLL	4772	=item EV_USE_DEVPOLL
2156		4773
2157	reserved for future expansion, works like the USE symbols above.	4774	Reserved for future expansion, works like the USE symbols above.
2158		4775
2159	=item EV_USE_INOTIFY	4776	=item EV_USE_INOTIFY
2160		4777
2161	If defined to be C<1>, libev will compile in support for the Linux inotify	4778	If defined to be C<1>, libev will compile in support for the Linux inotify
2162	interface to speed up C<ev_stat> watchers. Its actual availability will	4779	interface to speed up C<ev_stat> watchers. Its actual availability will
2163	be detected at runtime.	4780	be detected at runtime. If undefined, it will be enabled if the headers
		4781	indicate GNU/Linux + Glibc 2.4 or newer, otherwise disabled.
2164		4782
		4783	=item EV_NO_SMP
		4784
		4785	If defined to be C<1>, libev will assume that memory is always coherent
		4786	between threads, that is, threads can be used, but threads never run on
		4787	different cpus (or different cpu cores). This reduces dependencies
		4788	and makes libev faster.
		4789
		4790	=item EV_NO_THREADS
		4791
		4792	If defined to be C<1>, libev will assume that it will never be called from
		4793	different threads (that includes signal handlers), which is a stronger
		4794	assumption than C<EV_NO_SMP>, above. This reduces dependencies and makes
		4795	libev faster.
		4796
		4797	=item EV_ATOMIC_T
		4798
		4799	Libev requires an integer type (suitable for storing C<0> or C<1>) whose
		4800	access is atomic with respect to other threads or signal contexts. No
		4801	such type is easily found in the C language, so you can provide your own
		4802	type that you know is safe for your purposes. It is used both for signal
		4803	handler "locking" as well as for signal and thread safety in C<ev_async>
		4804	watchers.
		4805
		4806	In the absence of this define, libev will use C<sig_atomic_t volatile>
		4807	(from F<signal.h>), which is usually good enough on most platforms.
		4808
2165	=item EV_H	4809	=item EV_H (h)
2166		4810
2167	The name of the F<ev.h> header file used to include it. The default if	4811	The name of the F<ev.h> header file used to include it. The default if
2168	undefined is C<< <ev.h> >> in F<event.h> and C<"ev.h"> in F<ev.c>. This	4812	undefined is C<"ev.h"> in F<event.h>, F<ev.c> and F<ev++.h>. This can be
2169	can be used to virtually rename the F<ev.h> header file in case of conflicts.	4813	used to virtually rename the F<ev.h> header file in case of conflicts.
2170		4814
2171	=item EV_CONFIG_H	4815	=item EV_CONFIG_H (h)
2172		4816
2173	If C<EV_STANDALONE> isn't C<1>, this variable can be used to override	4817	If C<EV_STANDALONE> isn't C<1>, this variable can be used to override
2174	F<ev.c>'s idea of where to find the F<config.h> file, similarly to	4818	F<ev.c>'s idea of where to find the F<config.h> file, similarly to
2175	C<EV_H>, above.	4819	C<EV_H>, above.
2176		4820
2177	=item EV_EVENT_H	4821	=item EV_EVENT_H (h)
2178		4822
2179	Similarly to C<EV_H>, this macro can be used to override F<event.c>'s idea	4823	Similarly to C<EV_H>, this macro can be used to override F<event.c>'s idea
2180	of how the F<event.h> header can be found.	4824	of how the F<event.h> header can be found, the default is C<"event.h">.
2181		4825
2182	=item EV_PROTOTYPES	4826	=item EV_PROTOTYPES (h)
2183		4827
2184	If defined to be C<0>, then F<ev.h> will not define any function	4828	If defined to be C<0>, then F<ev.h> will not define any function
2185	prototypes, but still define all the structs and other symbols. This is	4829	prototypes, but still define all the structs and other symbols. This is
2186	occasionally useful if you want to provide your own wrapper functions	4830	occasionally useful if you want to provide your own wrapper functions
2187	around libev functions.	4831	around libev functions.
…		…
2192	will have the C<struct ev_loop *> as first argument, and you can create	4836	will have the C<struct ev_loop *> as first argument, and you can create
2193	additional independent event loops. Otherwise there will be no support	4837	additional independent event loops. Otherwise there will be no support
2194	for multiple event loops and there is no first event loop pointer	4838	for multiple event loops and there is no first event loop pointer
2195	argument. Instead, all functions act on the single default loop.	4839	argument. Instead, all functions act on the single default loop.
2196		4840
		4841	Note that C<EV_DEFAULT> and C<EV_DEFAULT_> will no longer provide a
		4842	default loop when multiplicity is switched off - you always have to
		4843	initialise the loop manually in this case.
		4844
2197	=item EV_MINPRI	4845	=item EV_MINPRI
2198		4846
2199	=item EV_MAXPRI	4847	=item EV_MAXPRI
2200		4848
2201	The range of allowed priorities. C<EV_MINPRI> must be smaller or equal to	4849	The range of allowed priorities. C<EV_MINPRI> must be smaller or equal to
…		…
2206	When doing priority-based operations, libev usually has to linearly search	4854	When doing priority-based operations, libev usually has to linearly search
2207	all the priorities, so having many of them (hundreds) uses a lot of space	4855	all the priorities, so having many of them (hundreds) uses a lot of space
2208	and time, so using the defaults of five priorities (-2 .. +2) is usually	4856	and time, so using the defaults of five priorities (-2 .. +2) is usually
2209	fine.	4857	fine.
2210		4858
2211	If your embedding app does not need any priorities, defining these both to	4859	If your embedding application does not need any priorities, defining these
2212	C<0> will save some memory and cpu.	4860	both to C<0> will save some memory and CPU.
2213		4861
2214	=item EV_PERIODIC_ENABLE	4862	=item EV_PERIODIC_ENABLE, EV_IDLE_ENABLE, EV_EMBED_ENABLE, EV_STAT_ENABLE,
		4863	EV_PREPARE_ENABLE, EV_CHECK_ENABLE, EV_FORK_ENABLE, EV_SIGNAL_ENABLE,
		4864	EV_ASYNC_ENABLE, EV_CHILD_ENABLE.
2215		4865
2216	If undefined or defined to be C<1>, then periodic timers are supported. If	4866	If undefined or defined to be C<1> (and the platform supports it), then
2217	defined to be C<0>, then they are not. Disabling them saves a few kB of	4867	the respective watcher type is supported. If defined to be C<0>, then it
2218	code.	4868	is not. Disabling watcher types mainly saves code size.
2219		4869
2220	=item EV_IDLE_ENABLE	4870	=item EV_FEATURES
2221
2222	If undefined or defined to be C<1>, then idle watchers are supported. If
2223	defined to be C<0>, then they are not. Disabling them saves a few kB of
2224	code.
2225
2226	=item EV_EMBED_ENABLE
2227
2228	If undefined or defined to be C<1>, then embed watchers are supported. If
2229	defined to be C<0>, then they are not.
2230
2231	=item EV_STAT_ENABLE
2232
2233	If undefined or defined to be C<1>, then stat watchers are supported. If
2234	defined to be C<0>, then they are not.
2235
2236	=item EV_FORK_ENABLE
2237
2238	If undefined or defined to be C<1>, then fork watchers are supported. If
2239	defined to be C<0>, then they are not.
2240
2241	=item EV_MINIMAL
2242		4871
2243	If you need to shave off some kilobytes of code at the expense of some	4872	If you need to shave off some kilobytes of code at the expense of some
2244	speed, define this symbol to C<1>. Currently only used for gcc to override	4873	speed (but with the full API), you can define this symbol to request
2245	some inlining decisions, saves roughly 30% codesize of amd64.	4874	certain subsets of functionality. The default is to enable all features
		4875	that can be enabled on the platform.
		4876
		4877	A typical way to use this symbol is to define it to C<0> (or to a bitset
		4878	with some broad features you want) and then selectively re-enable
		4879	additional parts you want, for example if you want everything minimal,
		4880	but multiple event loop support, async and child watchers and the poll
		4881	backend, use this:
		4882
		4883	#define EV_FEATURES 0
		4884	#define EV_MULTIPLICITY 1
		4885	#define EV_USE_POLL 1
		4886	#define EV_CHILD_ENABLE 1
		4887	#define EV_ASYNC_ENABLE 1
		4888
		4889	The actual value is a bitset, it can be a combination of the following
		4890	values (by default, all of these are enabled):
		4891
		4892	=over 4
		4893
		4894	=item C<1> - faster/larger code
		4895
		4896	Use larger code to speed up some operations.
		4897
		4898	Currently this is used to override some inlining decisions (enlarging the
		4899	code size by roughly 30% on amd64).
		4900
		4901	When optimising for size, use of compiler flags such as C<-Os> with
		4902	gcc is recommended, as well as C<-DNDEBUG>, as libev contains a number of
		4903	assertions.
		4904
		4905	The default is off when C<__OPTIMIZE_SIZE__> is defined by your compiler
		4906	(e.g. gcc with C<-Os>).
		4907
		4908	=item C<2> - faster/larger data structures
		4909
		4910	Replaces the small 2-heap for timer management by a faster 4-heap, larger
		4911	hash table sizes and so on. This will usually further increase code size
		4912	and can additionally have an effect on the size of data structures at
		4913	runtime.
		4914
		4915	The default is off when C<__OPTIMIZE_SIZE__> is defined by your compiler
		4916	(e.g. gcc with C<-Os>).
		4917
		4918	=item C<4> - full API configuration
		4919
		4920	This enables priorities (sets C<EV_MAXPRI>=2 and C<EV_MINPRI>=-2), and
		4921	enables multiplicity (C<EV_MULTIPLICITY>=1).
		4922
		4923	=item C<8> - full API
		4924
		4925	This enables a lot of the "lesser used" API functions. See C<ev.h> for
		4926	details on which parts of the API are still available without this
		4927	feature, and do not complain if this subset changes over time.
		4928
		4929	=item C<16> - enable all optional watcher types
		4930
		4931	Enables all optional watcher types. If you want to selectively enable
		4932	only some watcher types other than I/O and timers (e.g. prepare,
		4933	embed, async, child...) you can enable them manually by defining
		4934	C<EV_watchertype_ENABLE> to C<1> instead.
		4935
		4936	=item C<32> - enable all backends
		4937
		4938	This enables all backends - without this feature, you need to enable at
		4939	least one backend manually (C<EV_USE_SELECT> is a good choice).
		4940
		4941	=item C<64> - enable OS-specific "helper" APIs
		4942
		4943	Enable inotify, eventfd, signalfd and similar OS-specific helper APIs by
		4944	default.
		4945
		4946	=back
		4947
		4948	Compiling with C<gcc -Os -DEV_STANDALONE -DEV_USE_EPOLL=1 -DEV_FEATURES=0>
		4949	reduces the compiled size of libev from 24.7Kb code/2.8Kb data to 6.5Kb
		4950	code/0.3Kb data on my GNU/Linux amd64 system, while still giving you I/O
		4951	watchers, timers and monotonic clock support.
		4952
		4953	With an intelligent-enough linker (gcc+binutils are intelligent enough
		4954	when you use C<-Wl,--gc-sections -ffunction-sections>) functions unused by
		4955	your program might be left out as well - a binary starting a timer and an
		4956	I/O watcher then might come out at only 5Kb.
		4957
		4958	=item EV_API_STATIC
		4959
		4960	If this symbol is defined (by default it is not), then all identifiers
		4961	will have static linkage. This means that libev will not export any
		4962	identifiers, and you cannot link against libev anymore. This can be useful
		4963	when you embed libev, only want to use libev functions in a single file,
		4964	and do not want its identifiers to be visible.
		4965
		4966	To use this, define C<EV_API_STATIC> and include F<ev.c> in the file that
		4967	wants to use libev.
		4968
		4969	This option only works when libev is compiled with a C compiler, as C++
		4970	doesn't support the required declaration syntax.
		4971
		4972	=item EV_AVOID_STDIO
		4973
		4974	If this is set to C<1> at compiletime, then libev will avoid using stdio
		4975	functions (printf, scanf, perror etc.). This will increase the code size
		4976	somewhat, but if your program doesn't otherwise depend on stdio and your
		4977	libc allows it, this avoids linking in the stdio library which is quite
		4978	big.
		4979
		4980	Note that error messages might become less precise when this option is
		4981	enabled.
		4982
		4983	=item EV_NSIG
		4984
		4985	The highest supported signal number, +1 (or, the number of
		4986	signals): Normally, libev tries to deduce the maximum number of signals
		4987	automatically, but sometimes this fails, in which case it can be
		4988	specified. Also, using a lower number than detected (C<32> should be
		4989	good for about any system in existence) can save some memory, as libev
		4990	statically allocates some 12-24 bytes per signal number.
2246		4991
2247	=item EV_PID_HASHSIZE	4992	=item EV_PID_HASHSIZE
2248		4993
2249	C<ev_child> watchers use a small hash table to distribute workload by	4994	C<ev_child> watchers use a small hash table to distribute workload by
2250	pid. The default size is C<16> (or C<1> with C<EV_MINIMAL>), usually more	4995	pid. The default size is C<16> (or C<1> with C<EV_FEATURES> disabled),
2251	than enough. If you need to manage thousands of children you might want to	4996	usually more than enough. If you need to manage thousands of children you
2252	increase this value (I<must> be a power of two).	4997	might want to increase this value (I<must> be a power of two).
2253		4998
2254	=item EV_INOTIFY_HASHSIZE	4999	=item EV_INOTIFY_HASHSIZE
2255		5000
2256	C<ev_staz> watchers use a small hash table to distribute workload by	5001	C<ev_stat> watchers use a small hash table to distribute workload by
2257	inotify watch id. The default size is C<16> (or C<1> with C<EV_MINIMAL>),	5002	inotify watch id. The default size is C<16> (or C<1> with C<EV_FEATURES>
2258	usually more than enough. If you need to manage thousands of C<ev_stat>	5003	disabled), usually more than enough. If you need to manage thousands of
2259	watchers you might want to increase this value (I<must> be a power of	5004	C<ev_stat> watchers you might want to increase this value (I<must> be a
2260	two).	5005	power of two).
		5006
		5007	=item EV_USE_4HEAP
		5008
		5009	Heaps are not very cache-efficient. To improve the cache-efficiency of the
		5010	timer and periodics heaps, libev uses a 4-heap when this symbol is defined
		5011	to C<1>. The 4-heap uses more complicated (longer) code but has noticeably
		5012	faster performance with many (thousands) of watchers.
		5013
		5014	The default is C<1>, unless C<EV_FEATURES> overrides it, in which case it
		5015	will be C<0>.
		5016
		5017	=item EV_HEAP_CACHE_AT
		5018
		5019	Heaps are not very cache-efficient. To improve the cache-efficiency of the
		5020	timer and periodics heaps, libev can cache the timestamp (I<at>) within
		5021	the heap structure (selected by defining C<EV_HEAP_CACHE_AT> to C<1>),
		5022	which uses 8-12 bytes more per watcher and a few hundred bytes more code,
		5023	but avoids random read accesses on heap changes. This improves performance
		5024	noticeably with many (hundreds) of watchers.
		5025
		5026	The default is C<1>, unless C<EV_FEATURES> overrides it, in which case it
		5027	will be C<0>.
		5028
		5029	=item EV_VERIFY
		5030
		5031	Controls how much internal verification (see C<ev_verify ()>) will
		5032	be done: If set to C<0>, no internal verification code will be compiled
		5033	in. If set to C<1>, then verification code will be compiled in, but not
		5034	called. If set to C<2>, then the internal verification code will be
		5035	called once per loop, which can slow down libev. If set to C<3>, then the
		5036	verification code will be called very frequently, which will slow down
		5037	libev considerably.
		5038
		5039	Verification errors are reported via C's C<assert> mechanism, so if you
		5040	disable that (e.g. by defining C<NDEBUG>) then no errors will be reported.
		5041
		5042	The default is C<1>, unless C<EV_FEATURES> overrides it, in which case it
		5043	will be C<0>.
2261		5044
2262	=item EV_COMMON	5045	=item EV_COMMON
2263		5046
2264	By default, all watchers have a C<void *data> member. By redefining	5047	By default, all watchers have a C<void *data> member. By redefining
2265	this macro to a something else you can include more and other types of	5048	this macro to something else you can include more and other types of
2266	members. You have to define it each time you include one of the files,	5049	members. You have to define it each time you include one of the files,
2267	though, and it must be identical each time.	5050	though, and it must be identical each time.
2268		5051
2269	For example, the perl EV module uses something like this:	5052	For example, the perl EV module uses something like this:
2270		5053
2271	#define EV_COMMON \	5054	#define EV_COMMON \
2272	SV *self; /* contains this struct */ \	5055	SV *self; /* contains this struct */ \
2273	SV *cb_sv, *fh /* note no trailing ";" */	5056	SV *cb_sv, *fh /* note no trailing ";" */
2274		5057
2275	=item EV_CB_DECLARE (type)	5058	=item EV_CB_DECLARE (type)
2276		5059
2277	=item EV_CB_INVOKE (watcher, revents)	5060	=item EV_CB_INVOKE (watcher, revents)
2278		5061
2279	=item ev_set_cb (ev, cb)	5062	=item ev_set_cb (ev, cb)
2280		5063
2281	Can be used to change the callback member declaration in each watcher,	5064	Can be used to change the callback member declaration in each watcher,
2282	and the way callbacks are invoked and set. Must expand to a struct member	5065	and the way callbacks are invoked and set. Must expand to a struct member
2283	definition and a statement, respectively. See the F<ev.v> header file for	5066	definition and a statement, respectively. See the F<ev.h> header file for
2284	their default definitions. One possible use for overriding these is to	5067	their default definitions. One possible use for overriding these is to
2285	avoid the C<struct ev_loop *> as first argument in all cases, or to use	5068	avoid the C<struct ev_loop *> as first argument in all cases, or to use
2286	method calls instead of plain function calls in C++.	5069	method calls instead of plain function calls in C++.
		5070
		5071	=back
		5072
		5073	=head2 EXPORTED API SYMBOLS
		5074
		5075	If you need to re-export the API (e.g. via a DLL) and you need a list of
		5076	exported symbols, you can use the provided F<Symbol.*> files which list
		5077	all public symbols, one per line:
		5078
		5079	Symbols.ev for libev proper
		5080	Symbols.event for the libevent emulation
		5081
		5082	This can also be used to rename all public symbols to avoid clashes with
		5083	multiple versions of libev linked together (which is obviously bad in
		5084	itself, but sometimes it is inconvenient to avoid this).
		5085
		5086	A sed command like this will create wrapper C<#define>'s that you need to
		5087	include before including F<ev.h>:
		5088
		5089	<Symbols.ev sed -e "s/.*/#define & myprefix_&/" >wrap.h
		5090
		5091	This would create a file F<wrap.h> which essentially looks like this:
		5092
		5093	#define ev_backend myprefix_ev_backend
		5094	#define ev_check_start myprefix_ev_check_start
		5095	#define ev_check_stop myprefix_ev_check_stop
		5096	...
2287		5097
2288	=head2 EXAMPLES	5098	=head2 EXAMPLES
2289		5099
2290	For a real-world example of a program the includes libev	5100	For a real-world example of a program the includes libev
2291	verbatim, you can have a look at the EV perl module	5101	verbatim, you can have a look at the EV perl module
…		…
2296	file.	5106	file.
2297		5107
2298	The usage in rxvt-unicode is simpler. It has a F<ev_cpp.h> header file	5108	The usage in rxvt-unicode is simpler. It has a F<ev_cpp.h> header file
2299	that everybody includes and which overrides some configure choices:	5109	that everybody includes and which overrides some configure choices:
2300		5110
2301	#define EV_MINIMAL 1	5111	#define EV_FEATURES 8
2302	#define EV_USE_POLL 0	5112	#define EV_USE_SELECT 1
2303	#define EV_MULTIPLICITY 0
2304	#define EV_PERIODIC_ENABLE 0	5113	#define EV_PREPARE_ENABLE 1
		5114	#define EV_IDLE_ENABLE 1
2305	#define EV_STAT_ENABLE 0	5115	#define EV_SIGNAL_ENABLE 1
2306	#define EV_FORK_ENABLE 0	5116	#define EV_CHILD_ENABLE 1
		5117	#define EV_USE_STDEXCEPT 0
2307	#define EV_CONFIG_H <config.h>	5118	#define EV_CONFIG_H <config.h>
2308	#define EV_MINPRI 0
2309	#define EV_MAXPRI 0
2310		5119
2311	#include "ev++.h"	5120	#include "ev++.h"
2312		5121
2313	And a F<ev_cpp.C> implementation file that contains libev proper and is compiled:	5122	And a F<ev_cpp.C> implementation file that contains libev proper and is compiled:
2314		5123
2315	#include "ev_cpp.h"	5124	#include "ev_cpp.h"
2316	#include "ev.c"	5125	#include "ev.c"
2317		5126
		5127	=head1 INTERACTION WITH OTHER PROGRAMS, LIBRARIES OR THE ENVIRONMENT
2318		5128
		5129	=head2 THREADS AND COROUTINES
		5130
		5131	=head3 THREADS
		5132
		5133	All libev functions are reentrant and thread-safe unless explicitly
		5134	documented otherwise, but libev implements no locking itself. This means
		5135	that you can use as many loops as you want in parallel, as long as there
		5136	are no concurrent calls into any libev function with the same loop
		5137	parameter (C<ev_default_*> calls have an implicit default loop parameter,
		5138	of course): libev guarantees that different event loops share no data
		5139	structures that need any locking.
		5140
		5141	Or to put it differently: calls with different loop parameters can be done
		5142	concurrently from multiple threads, calls with the same loop parameter
		5143	must be done serially (but can be done from different threads, as long as
		5144	only one thread ever is inside a call at any point in time, e.g. by using
		5145	a mutex per loop).
		5146
		5147	Specifically to support threads (and signal handlers), libev implements
		5148	so-called C<ev_async> watchers, which allow some limited form of
		5149	concurrency on the same event loop, namely waking it up "from the
		5150	outside".
		5151
		5152	If you want to know which design (one loop, locking, or multiple loops
		5153	without or something else still) is best for your problem, then I cannot
		5154	help you, but here is some generic advice:
		5155
		5156	=over 4
		5157
		5158	=item * most applications have a main thread: use the default libev loop
		5159	in that thread, or create a separate thread running only the default loop.
		5160
		5161	This helps integrating other libraries or software modules that use libev
		5162	themselves and don't care/know about threading.
		5163
		5164	=item * one loop per thread is usually a good model.
		5165
		5166	Doing this is almost never wrong, sometimes a better-performance model
		5167	exists, but it is always a good start.
		5168
		5169	=item * other models exist, such as the leader/follower pattern, where one
		5170	loop is handed through multiple threads in a kind of round-robin fashion.
		5171
		5172	Choosing a model is hard - look around, learn, know that usually you can do
		5173	better than you currently do :-)
		5174
		5175	=item * often you need to talk to some other thread which blocks in the
		5176	event loop.
		5177
		5178	C<ev_async> watchers can be used to wake them up from other threads safely
		5179	(or from signal contexts...).
		5180
		5181	An example use would be to communicate signals or other events that only
		5182	work in the default loop by registering the signal watcher with the
		5183	default loop and triggering an C<ev_async> watcher from the default loop
		5184	watcher callback into the event loop interested in the signal.
		5185
		5186	=back
		5187
		5188	See also L</THREAD LOCKING EXAMPLE>.
		5189
		5190	=head3 COROUTINES
		5191
		5192	Libev is very accommodating to coroutines ("cooperative threads"):
		5193	libev fully supports nesting calls to its functions from different
		5194	coroutines (e.g. you can call C<ev_run> on the same loop from two
		5195	different coroutines, and switch freely between both coroutines running
		5196	the loop, as long as you don't confuse yourself). The only exception is
		5197	that you must not do this from C<ev_periodic> reschedule callbacks.
		5198
		5199	Care has been taken to ensure that libev does not keep local state inside
		5200	C<ev_run>, and other calls do not usually allow for coroutine switches as
		5201	they do not call any callbacks.
		5202
		5203	=head2 COMPILER WARNINGS
		5204
		5205	Depending on your compiler and compiler settings, you might get no or a
		5206	lot of warnings when compiling libev code. Some people are apparently
		5207	scared by this.
		5208
		5209	However, these are unavoidable for many reasons. For one, each compiler
		5210	has different warnings, and each user has different tastes regarding
		5211	warning options. "Warn-free" code therefore cannot be a goal except when
		5212	targeting a specific compiler and compiler-version.
		5213
		5214	Another reason is that some compiler warnings require elaborate
		5215	workarounds, or other changes to the code that make it less clear and less
		5216	maintainable.
		5217
		5218	And of course, some compiler warnings are just plain stupid, or simply
		5219	wrong (because they don't actually warn about the condition their message
		5220	seems to warn about). For example, certain older gcc versions had some
		5221	warnings that resulted in an extreme number of false positives. These have
		5222	been fixed, but some people still insist on making code warn-free with
		5223	such buggy versions.
		5224
		5225	While libev is written to generate as few warnings as possible,
		5226	"warn-free" code is not a goal, and it is recommended not to build libev
		5227	with any compiler warnings enabled unless you are prepared to cope with
		5228	them (e.g. by ignoring them). Remember that warnings are just that:
		5229	warnings, not errors, or proof of bugs.
		5230
		5231
		5232	=head2 VALGRIND
		5233
		5234	Valgrind has a special section here because it is a popular tool that is
		5235	highly useful. Unfortunately, valgrind reports are very hard to interpret.
		5236
		5237	If you think you found a bug (memory leak, uninitialised data access etc.)
		5238	in libev, then check twice: If valgrind reports something like:
		5239
		5240	==2274== definitely lost: 0 bytes in 0 blocks.
		5241	==2274== possibly lost: 0 bytes in 0 blocks.
		5242	==2274== still reachable: 256 bytes in 1 blocks.
		5243
		5244	Then there is no memory leak, just as memory accounted to global variables
		5245	is not a memleak - the memory is still being referenced, and didn't leak.
		5246
		5247	Similarly, under some circumstances, valgrind might report kernel bugs
		5248	as if it were a bug in libev (e.g. in realloc or in the poll backend,
		5249	although an acceptable workaround has been found here), or it might be
		5250	confused.
		5251
		5252	Keep in mind that valgrind is a very good tool, but only a tool. Don't
		5253	make it into some kind of religion.
		5254
		5255	If you are unsure about something, feel free to contact the mailing list
		5256	with the full valgrind report and an explanation on why you think this
		5257	is a bug in libev (best check the archives, too :). However, don't be
		5258	annoyed when you get a brisk "this is no bug" answer and take the chance
		5259	of learning how to interpret valgrind properly.
		5260
		5261	If you need, for some reason, empty reports from valgrind for your project
		5262	I suggest using suppression lists.
		5263
		5264
		5265	=head1 PORTABILITY NOTES
		5266
		5267	=head2 GNU/LINUX 32 BIT LIMITATIONS
		5268
		5269	GNU/Linux is the only common platform that supports 64 bit file/large file
		5270	interfaces but I<disables> them by default.
		5271
		5272	That means that libev compiled in the default environment doesn't support
		5273	files larger than 2GiB or so, which mainly affects C<ev_stat> watchers.
		5274
		5275	Unfortunately, many programs try to work around this GNU/Linux issue
		5276	by enabling the large file API, which makes them incompatible with the
		5277	standard libev compiled for their system.
		5278
		5279	Likewise, libev cannot enable the large file API itself as this would
		5280	suddenly make it incompatible to the default compile time environment,
		5281	i.e. all programs not using special compile switches.
		5282
		5283	=head2 OS/X AND DARWIN BUGS
		5284
		5285	The whole thing is a bug if you ask me - basically any system interface
		5286	you touch is broken, whether it is locales, poll, kqueue or even the
		5287	OpenGL drivers.
		5288
		5289	=head3 C<kqueue> is buggy
		5290
		5291	The kqueue syscall is broken in all known versions - most versions support
		5292	only sockets, many support pipes.
		5293
		5294	Libev tries to work around this by not using C<kqueue> by default on this
		5295	rotten platform, but of course you can still ask for it when creating a
		5296	loop - embedding a socket-only kqueue loop into a select-based one is
		5297	probably going to work well.
		5298
		5299	=head3 C<poll> is buggy
		5300
		5301	Instead of fixing C<kqueue>, Apple replaced their (working) C<poll>
		5302	implementation by something calling C<kqueue> internally around the 10.5.6
		5303	release, so now C<kqueue> I<and> C<poll> are broken.
		5304
		5305	Libev tries to work around this by not using C<poll> by default on
		5306	this rotten platform, but of course you can still ask for it when creating
		5307	a loop.
		5308
		5309	=head3 C<select> is buggy
		5310
		5311	All that's left is C<select>, and of course Apple found a way to fuck this
		5312	one up as well: On OS/X, C<select> actively limits the number of file
		5313	descriptors you can pass in to 1024 - your program suddenly crashes when
		5314	you use more.
		5315
		5316	There is an undocumented "workaround" for this - defining
		5317	C<_DARWIN_UNLIMITED_SELECT>, which libev tries to use, so select I<should>
		5318	work on OS/X.
		5319
		5320	=head2 SOLARIS PROBLEMS AND WORKAROUNDS
		5321
		5322	=head3 C<errno> reentrancy
		5323
		5324	The default compile environment on Solaris is unfortunately so
		5325	thread-unsafe that you can't even use components/libraries compiled
		5326	without C<-D_REENTRANT> in a threaded program, which, of course, isn't
		5327	defined by default. A valid, if stupid, implementation choice.
		5328
		5329	If you want to use libev in threaded environments you have to make sure
		5330	it's compiled with C<_REENTRANT> defined.
		5331
		5332	=head3 Event port backend
		5333
		5334	The scalable event interface for Solaris is called "event
		5335	ports". Unfortunately, this mechanism is very buggy in all major
		5336	releases. If you run into high CPU usage, your program freezes or you get
		5337	a large number of spurious wakeups, make sure you have all the relevant
		5338	and latest kernel patches applied. No, I don't know which ones, but there
		5339	are multiple ones to apply, and afterwards, event ports actually work
		5340	great.
		5341
		5342	If you can't get it to work, you can try running the program by setting
		5343	the environment variable C<LIBEV_FLAGS=3> to only allow C<poll> and
		5344	C<select> backends.
		5345
		5346	=head2 AIX POLL BUG
		5347
		5348	AIX unfortunately has a broken C<poll.h> header. Libev works around
		5349	this by trying to avoid the poll backend altogether (i.e. it's not even
		5350	compiled in), which normally isn't a big problem as C<select> works fine
		5351	with large bitsets on AIX, and AIX is dead anyway.
		5352
		5353	=head2 WIN32 PLATFORM LIMITATIONS AND WORKAROUNDS
		5354
		5355	=head3 General issues
		5356
		5357	Win32 doesn't support any of the standards (e.g. POSIX) that libev
		5358	requires, and its I/O model is fundamentally incompatible with the POSIX
		5359	model. Libev still offers limited functionality on this platform in
		5360	the form of the C<EVBACKEND_SELECT> backend, and only supports socket
		5361	descriptors. This only applies when using Win32 natively, not when using
		5362	e.g. cygwin. Actually, it only applies to the microsofts own compilers,
		5363	as every compiler comes with a slightly differently broken/incompatible
		5364	environment.
		5365
		5366	Lifting these limitations would basically require the full
		5367	re-implementation of the I/O system. If you are into this kind of thing,
		5368	then note that glib does exactly that for you in a very portable way (note
		5369	also that glib is the slowest event library known to man).
		5370
		5371	There is no supported compilation method available on windows except
		5372	embedding it into other applications.
		5373
		5374	Sensible signal handling is officially unsupported by Microsoft - libev
		5375	tries its best, but under most conditions, signals will simply not work.
		5376
		5377	Not a libev limitation but worth mentioning: windows apparently doesn't
		5378	accept large writes: instead of resulting in a partial write, windows will
		5379	either accept everything or return C<ENOBUFS> if the buffer is too large,
		5380	so make sure you only write small amounts into your sockets (less than a
		5381	megabyte seems safe, but this apparently depends on the amount of memory
		5382	available).
		5383
		5384	Due to the many, low, and arbitrary limits on the win32 platform and
		5385	the abysmal performance of winsockets, using a large number of sockets
		5386	is not recommended (and not reasonable). If your program needs to use
		5387	more than a hundred or so sockets, then likely it needs to use a totally
		5388	different implementation for windows, as libev offers the POSIX readiness
		5389	notification model, which cannot be implemented efficiently on windows
		5390	(due to Microsoft monopoly games).
		5391
		5392	A typical way to use libev under windows is to embed it (see the embedding
		5393	section for details) and use the following F<evwrap.h> header file instead
		5394	of F<ev.h>:
		5395
		5396	#define EV_STANDALONE /* keeps ev from requiring config.h */
		5397	#define EV_SELECT_IS_WINSOCKET 1 /* configure libev for windows select */
		5398
		5399	#include "ev.h"
		5400
		5401	And compile the following F<evwrap.c> file into your project (make sure
		5402	you do I<not> compile the F<ev.c> or any other embedded source files!):
		5403
		5404	#include "evwrap.h"
		5405	#include "ev.c"
		5406
		5407	=head3 The winsocket C<select> function
		5408
		5409	The winsocket C<select> function doesn't follow POSIX in that it
		5410	requires socket I<handles> and not socket I<file descriptors> (it is
		5411	also extremely buggy). This makes select very inefficient, and also
		5412	requires a mapping from file descriptors to socket handles (the Microsoft
		5413	C runtime provides the function C<_open_osfhandle> for this). See the
		5414	discussion of the C<EV_SELECT_USE_FD_SET>, C<EV_SELECT_IS_WINSOCKET> and
		5415	C<EV_FD_TO_WIN32_HANDLE> preprocessor symbols for more info.
		5416
		5417	The configuration for a "naked" win32 using the Microsoft runtime
		5418	libraries and raw winsocket select is:
		5419
		5420	#define EV_USE_SELECT 1
		5421	#define EV_SELECT_IS_WINSOCKET 1 /* forces EV_SELECT_USE_FD_SET, too */
		5422
		5423	Note that winsockets handling of fd sets is O(n), so you can easily get a
		5424	complexity in the O(n²) range when using win32.
		5425
		5426	=head3 Limited number of file descriptors
		5427
		5428	Windows has numerous arbitrary (and low) limits on things.
		5429
		5430	Early versions of winsocket's select only supported waiting for a maximum
		5431	of C<64> handles (probably owning to the fact that all windows kernels
		5432	can only wait for C<64> things at the same time internally; Microsoft
		5433	recommends spawning a chain of threads and wait for 63 handles and the
		5434	previous thread in each. Sounds great!).
		5435
		5436	Newer versions support more handles, but you need to define C<FD_SETSIZE>
		5437	to some high number (e.g. C<2048>) before compiling the winsocket select
		5438	call (which might be in libev or elsewhere, for example, perl and many
		5439	other interpreters do their own select emulation on windows).
		5440
		5441	Another limit is the number of file descriptors in the Microsoft runtime
		5442	libraries, which by default is C<64> (there must be a hidden I<64>
		5443	fetish or something like this inside Microsoft). You can increase this
		5444	by calling C<_setmaxstdio>, which can increase this limit to C<2048>
		5445	(another arbitrary limit), but is broken in many versions of the Microsoft
		5446	runtime libraries. This might get you to about C<512> or C<2048> sockets
		5447	(depending on windows version and/or the phase of the moon). To get more,
		5448	you need to wrap all I/O functions and provide your own fd management, but
		5449	the cost of calling select (O(n²)) will likely make this unworkable.
		5450
		5451	=head2 PORTABILITY REQUIREMENTS
		5452
		5453	In addition to a working ISO-C implementation and of course the
		5454	backend-specific APIs, libev relies on a few additional extensions:
		5455
		5456	=over 4
		5457
		5458	=item C<void (*)(ev_watcher_type *, int revents)> must have compatible
		5459	calling conventions regardless of C<ev_watcher_type *>.
		5460
		5461	Libev assumes not only that all watcher pointers have the same internal
		5462	structure (guaranteed by POSIX but not by ISO C for example), but it also
		5463	assumes that the same (machine) code can be used to call any watcher
		5464	callback: The watcher callbacks have different type signatures, but libev
		5465	calls them using an C<ev_watcher *> internally.
		5466
		5467	=item null pointers and integer zero are represented by 0 bytes
		5468
		5469	Libev uses C<memset> to initialise structs and arrays to C<0> bytes, and
		5470	relies on this setting pointers and integers to null.
		5471
		5472	=item pointer accesses must be thread-atomic
		5473
		5474	Accessing a pointer value must be atomic, it must both be readable and
		5475	writable in one piece - this is the case on all current architectures.
		5476
		5477	=item C<sig_atomic_t volatile> must be thread-atomic as well
		5478
		5479	The type C<sig_atomic_t volatile> (or whatever is defined as
		5480	C<EV_ATOMIC_T>) must be atomic with respect to accesses from different
		5481	threads. This is not part of the specification for C<sig_atomic_t>, but is
		5482	believed to be sufficiently portable.
		5483
		5484	=item C<sigprocmask> must work in a threaded environment
		5485
		5486	Libev uses C<sigprocmask> to temporarily block signals. This is not
		5487	allowed in a threaded program (C<pthread_sigmask> has to be used). Typical
		5488	pthread implementations will either allow C<sigprocmask> in the "main
		5489	thread" or will block signals process-wide, both behaviours would
		5490	be compatible with libev. Interaction between C<sigprocmask> and
		5491	C<pthread_sigmask> could complicate things, however.
		5492
		5493	The most portable way to handle signals is to block signals in all threads
		5494	except the initial one, and run the signal handling loop in the initial
		5495	thread as well.
		5496
		5497	=item C<long> must be large enough for common memory allocation sizes
		5498
		5499	To improve portability and simplify its API, libev uses C<long> internally
		5500	instead of C<size_t> when allocating its data structures. On non-POSIX
		5501	systems (Microsoft...) this might be unexpectedly low, but is still at
		5502	least 31 bits everywhere, which is enough for hundreds of millions of
		5503	watchers.
		5504
		5505	=item C<double> must hold a time value in seconds with enough accuracy
		5506
		5507	The type C<double> is used to represent timestamps. It is required to
		5508	have at least 51 bits of mantissa (and 9 bits of exponent), which is
		5509	good enough for at least into the year 4000 with millisecond accuracy
		5510	(the design goal for libev). This requirement is overfulfilled by
		5511	implementations using IEEE 754, which is basically all existing ones.
		5512
		5513	With IEEE 754 doubles, you get microsecond accuracy until at least the
		5514	year 2255 (and millisecond accuracy till the year 287396 - by then, libev
		5515	is either obsolete or somebody patched it to use C<long double> or
		5516	something like that, just kidding).
		5517
		5518	=back
		5519
		5520	If you know of other additional requirements drop me a note.
		5521
		5522
2319	=head1 COMPLEXITIES	5523	=head1 ALGORITHMIC COMPLEXITIES
2320		5524
2321	In this section the complexities of (many of) the algorithms used inside	5525	In this section the complexities of (many of) the algorithms used inside
2322	libev will be explained. For complexity discussions about backends see the	5526	libev will be documented. For complexity discussions about backends see
2323	documentation for C<ev_default_init>.	5527	the documentation for C<ev_default_init>.
2324		5528
2325	All of the following are about amortised time: If an array needs to be	5529	All of the following are about amortised time: If an array needs to be
2326	extended, libev needs to realloc and move the whole array, but this	5530	extended, libev needs to realloc and move the whole array, but this
2327	happens asymptotically never with higher number of elements, so O(1) might	5531	happens asymptotically rarer with higher number of elements, so O(1) might
2328	mean it might do a lengthy realloc operation in rare cases, but on average	5532	mean that libev does a lengthy realloc operation in rare cases, but on
2329	it is much faster and asymptotically approaches constant time.	5533	average it is much faster and asymptotically approaches constant time.
2330		5534
2331	=over 4	5535	=over 4
2332		5536
2333	=item Starting and stopping timer/periodic watchers: O(log skipped_other_timers)	5537	=item Starting and stopping timer/periodic watchers: O(log skipped_other_timers)
2334		5538
2335	This means that, when you have a watcher that triggers in one hour and	5539	This means that, when you have a watcher that triggers in one hour and
2336	there are 100 watchers that would trigger before that then inserting will	5540	there are 100 watchers that would trigger before that, then inserting will
2337	have to skip those 100 watchers.	5541	have to skip roughly seven (C<ld 100>) of these watchers.
2338		5542
2339	=item Changing timer/periodic watchers (by autorepeat, again): O(log skipped_other_timers)	5543	=item Changing timer/periodic watchers (by autorepeat or calling again): O(log skipped_other_timers)
2340		5544
2341	That means that for changing a timer costs less than removing/adding them	5545	That means that changing a timer costs less than removing/adding them,
2342	as only the relative motion in the event queue has to be paid for.	5546	as only the relative motion in the event queue has to be paid for.
2343		5547
2344	=item Starting io/check/prepare/idle/signal/child watchers: O(1)	5548	=item Starting io/check/prepare/idle/signal/child/fork/async watchers: O(1)
2345		5549
2346	These just add the watcher into an array or at the head of a list.	5550	These just add the watcher into an array or at the head of a list.
		5551
2347	=item Stopping check/prepare/idle watchers: O(1)	5552	=item Stopping check/prepare/idle/fork/async watchers: O(1)
2348		5553
2349	=item Stopping an io/signal/child watcher: O(number_of_watchers_for_this_(fd/signal/pid % EV_PID_HASHSIZE))	5554	=item Stopping an io/signal/child watcher: O(number_of_watchers_for_this_(fd/signal/pid % EV_PID_HASHSIZE))
2350		5555
2351	These watchers are stored in lists then need to be walked to find the	5556	These watchers are stored in lists, so they need to be walked to find the
2352	correct watcher to remove. The lists are usually short (you don't usually	5557	correct watcher to remove. The lists are usually short (you don't usually
2353	have many watchers waiting for the same fd or signal).	5558	have many watchers waiting for the same fd or signal: one is typical, two
		5559	is rare).
2354		5560
2355	=item Finding the next timer per loop iteration: O(1)	5561	=item Finding the next timer in each loop iteration: O(1)
		5562
		5563	By virtue of using a binary or 4-heap, the next timer is always found at a
		5564	fixed position in the storage array.
2356		5565
2357	=item Each change on a file descriptor per loop iteration: O(number_of_watchers_for_this_fd)	5566	=item Each change on a file descriptor per loop iteration: O(number_of_watchers_for_this_fd)
2358		5567
2359	A change means an I/O watcher gets started or stopped, which requires	5568	A change means an I/O watcher gets started or stopped, which requires
2360	libev to recalculate its status (and possibly tell the kernel).	5569	libev to recalculate its status (and possibly tell the kernel, depending
		5570	on backend and whether C<ev_io_set> was used).
2361		5571
2362	=item Activating one watcher: O(1)	5572	=item Activating one watcher (putting it into the pending state): O(1)
2363		5573
2364	=item Priority handling: O(number_of_priorities)	5574	=item Priority handling: O(number_of_priorities)
2365		5575
2366	Priorities are implemented by allocating some space for each	5576	Priorities are implemented by allocating some space for each
2367	priority. When doing priority-based operations, libev usually has to	5577	priority. When doing priority-based operations, libev usually has to
2368	linearly search all the priorities.	5578	linearly search all the priorities, but starting/stopping and activating
		5579	watchers becomes O(1) with respect to priority handling.
		5580
		5581	=item Sending an ev_async: O(1)
		5582
		5583	=item Processing ev_async_send: O(number_of_async_watchers)
		5584
		5585	=item Processing signals: O(max_signal_number)
		5586
		5587	Sending involves a system call I<iff> there were no other C<ev_async_send>
		5588	calls in the current loop iteration and the loop is currently
		5589	blocked. Checking for async and signal events involves iterating over all
		5590	running async watchers or all signal numbers.
2369		5591
2370	=back	5592	=back
2371		5593
2372		5594
		5595	=head1 PORTING FROM LIBEV 3.X TO 4.X
		5596
		5597	The major version 4 introduced some incompatible changes to the API.
		5598
		5599	At the moment, the C<ev.h> header file provides compatibility definitions
		5600	for all changes, so most programs should still compile. The compatibility
		5601	layer might be removed in later versions of libev, so better update to the
		5602	new API early than late.
		5603
		5604	=over 4
		5605
		5606	=item C<EV_COMPAT3> backwards compatibility mechanism
		5607
		5608	The backward compatibility mechanism can be controlled by
		5609	C<EV_COMPAT3>. See L</"PREPROCESSOR SYMBOLS/MACROS"> in the L</EMBEDDING>
		5610	section.
		5611
		5612	=item C<ev_default_destroy> and C<ev_default_fork> have been removed
		5613
		5614	These calls can be replaced easily by their C<ev_loop_xxx> counterparts:
		5615
		5616	ev_loop_destroy (EV_DEFAULT_UC);
		5617	ev_loop_fork (EV_DEFAULT);
		5618
		5619	=item function/symbol renames
		5620
		5621	A number of functions and symbols have been renamed:
		5622
		5623	ev_loop => ev_run
		5624	EVLOOP_NONBLOCK => EVRUN_NOWAIT
		5625	EVLOOP_ONESHOT => EVRUN_ONCE
		5626
		5627	ev_unloop => ev_break
		5628	EVUNLOOP_CANCEL => EVBREAK_CANCEL
		5629	EVUNLOOP_ONE => EVBREAK_ONE
		5630	EVUNLOOP_ALL => EVBREAK_ALL
		5631
		5632	EV_TIMEOUT => EV_TIMER
		5633
		5634	ev_loop_count => ev_iteration
		5635	ev_loop_depth => ev_depth
		5636	ev_loop_verify => ev_verify
		5637
		5638	Most functions working on C<struct ev_loop> objects don't have an
		5639	C<ev_loop_> prefix, so it was removed; C<ev_loop>, C<ev_unloop> and
		5640	associated constants have been renamed to not collide with the C<struct
		5641	ev_loop> anymore and C<EV_TIMER> now follows the same naming scheme
		5642	as all other watcher types. Note that C<ev_loop_fork> is still called
		5643	C<ev_loop_fork> because it would otherwise clash with the C<ev_fork>
		5644	typedef.
		5645
		5646	=item C<EV_MINIMAL> mechanism replaced by C<EV_FEATURES>
		5647
		5648	The preprocessor symbol C<EV_MINIMAL> has been replaced by a different
		5649	mechanism, C<EV_FEATURES>. Programs using C<EV_MINIMAL> usually compile
		5650	and work, but the library code will of course be larger.
		5651
		5652	=back
		5653
		5654
		5655	=head1 GLOSSARY
		5656
		5657	=over 4
		5658
		5659	=item active
		5660
		5661	A watcher is active as long as it has been started and not yet stopped.
		5662	See L</WATCHER STATES> for details.
		5663
		5664	=item application
		5665
		5666	In this document, an application is whatever is using libev.
		5667
		5668	=item backend
		5669
		5670	The part of the code dealing with the operating system interfaces.
		5671
		5672	=item callback
		5673
		5674	The address of a function that is called when some event has been
		5675	detected. Callbacks are being passed the event loop, the watcher that
		5676	received the event, and the actual event bitset.
		5677
		5678	=item callback/watcher invocation
		5679
		5680	The act of calling the callback associated with a watcher.
		5681
		5682	=item event
		5683
		5684	A change of state of some external event, such as data now being available
		5685	for reading on a file descriptor, time having passed or simply not having
		5686	any other events happening anymore.
		5687
		5688	In libev, events are represented as single bits (such as C<EV_READ> or
		5689	C<EV_TIMER>).
		5690
		5691	=item event library
		5692
		5693	A software package implementing an event model and loop.
		5694
		5695	=item event loop
		5696
		5697	An entity that handles and processes external events and converts them
		5698	into callback invocations.
		5699
		5700	=item event model
		5701
		5702	The model used to describe how an event loop handles and processes
		5703	watchers and events.
		5704
		5705	=item pending
		5706
		5707	A watcher is pending as soon as the corresponding event has been
		5708	detected. See L</WATCHER STATES> for details.
		5709
		5710	=item real time
		5711
		5712	The physical time that is observed. It is apparently strictly monotonic :)
		5713
		5714	=item wall-clock time
		5715
		5716	The time and date as shown on clocks. Unlike real time, it can actually
		5717	be wrong and jump forwards and backwards, e.g. when you adjust your
		5718	clock.
		5719
		5720	=item watcher
		5721
		5722	A data structure that describes interest in certain events. Watchers need
		5723	to be started (attached to an event loop) before they can receive events.
		5724
		5725	=back
		5726
2373	=head1 AUTHOR	5727	=head1 AUTHOR
2374		5728
2375	Marc Lehmann <libev@schmorp.de>.	5729	Marc Lehmann <libev@schmorp.de>, with repeated corrections by Mikael
		5730	Magnusson and Emanuele Giaquinta, and minor corrections by many others.
2376		5731

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