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

Comparing libev/ev.pod (file contents):
Revision 1.93 by root, Fri Dec 21 01:29:34 2007 UTC vs.
Revision 1.117 by root, Wed Jan 9 04:15:39 2008 UTC

 =head1 SYNOPSIS
   #include <ev.h>
-=head1 EXAMPLE PROGRAM
+=head2 EXAMPLE PROGRAM
   #include <ev.h>
   ev_io stdin_watcher;
   ev_timer timeout_watcher;
 You register interest in certain events by registering so-called I<event
 watchers>, which are relatively small C structures you initialise with the
 details of the event, and then hand it over to libev by I<starting> the
 watcher.
-=head1 FEATURES
+=head2 FEATURES
 Libev supports C<select>, C<poll>, the Linux-specific C<epoll>, the
 BSD-specific C<kqueue> and the Solaris-specific event port mechanisms
 for file descriptor events (C<ev_io>), the Linux C<inotify> interface
 (for C<ev_stat>), relative timers (C<ev_timer>), absolute timers
 It also is quite fast (see this
 L<benchmark|http://libev.schmorp.de/bench.html> comparing it to libevent
 for example).
-=head1 CONVENTIONS
+=head2 CONVENTIONS
 Libev is very configurable. In this manual the default configuration will
 be described, which supports multiple event loops. For more info about
 various configuration options please have a look at B<EMBED> section in
 this manual. If libev was configured without support for multiple event
 loops, then all functions taking an initial argument of name C<loop>
 (which is always of type C<struct ev_loop *>) will not have this argument.
-=head1 TIME REPRESENTATION
+=head2 TIME REPRESENTATION
 Libev represents time as a single floating point number, representing the
 (fractional) number of seconds since the (POSIX) epoch (somewhere near
 the beginning of 1970, details are complicated, don't ask). This type is
 called C<ev_tstamp>, which is what you should use too. It usually aliases
 Returns the current time as libev would use it. Please note that the
 C<ev_now> function is usually faster and also often returns the timestamp
 you actually want to know.
+=item ev_sleep (ev_tstamp interval)
+Sleep for the given interval: The current thread will be blocked until
+either it is interrupted or the given time interval has passed. Basically
+this is a subsecond-resolution C<sleep ()>.
 =item int ev_version_major ()
 =item int ev_version_minor ()
 You can find out the major and minor ABI version numbers of the library
 =item C<EVBACKEND_SELECT>  (value 1, portable select backend)
 This is your standard select(2) backend. Not I<completely> standard, as
 libev tries to roll its own fd_set with no limits on the number of fds,
 but if that fails, expect a fairly low limit on the number of fds when
-using this backend. It doesn't scale too well (O(highest_fd)), but its usually
+using this backend. It doesn't scale too well (O(highest_fd)), but its
-the fastest backend for a low number of fds.
+usually the fastest backend for a low number of (low-numbered :) fds.
+To get good performance out of this backend you need a high amount of
+parallelity (most of the file descriptors should be busy). If you are
+writing a server, you should C<accept ()> in a loop to accept as many
+connections as possible during one iteration. You might also want to have
+a look at C<ev_set_io_collect_interval ()> to increase the amount of
+readyness notifications you get per iteration.
 =item C<EVBACKEND_POLL>    (value 2, poll backend, available everywhere except on windows)
-And this is your standard poll(2) backend. It's more complicated than
+And this is your standard poll(2) backend. It's more complicated
-select, but handles sparse fds better and has no artificial limit on the
+than select, but handles sparse fds better and has no artificial
-number of fds you can use (except it will slow down considerably with a
+limit on the number of fds you can use (except it will slow down
-lot of inactive fds). It scales similarly to select, i.e. O(total_fds).
+considerably with a lot of inactive fds). It scales similarly to select,
+i.e. O(total_fds). See the entry for C<EVBACKEND_SELECT>, above, for
+performance tips.
 =item C<EVBACKEND_EPOLL>   (value 4, Linux)
 For few fds, this backend is a bit little slower than poll and select,
-but it scales phenomenally better. While poll and select usually scale like
+but it scales phenomenally better. While poll and select usually scale
-O(total_fds) where n is the total number of fds (or the highest fd), epoll scales
+like O(total_fds) where n is the total number of fds (or the highest fd),
-either O(1) or O(active_fds).
+epoll scales either O(1) or O(active_fds). The epoll design has a number
+of shortcomings, such as silently dropping events in some hard-to-detect
+cases and rewiring a syscall per fd change, no fork support and bad
+support for dup.
-While stopping and starting an I/O watcher in the same iteration will
+While stopping, setting and starting an I/O watcher in the same iteration
-result in some caching, there is still a syscall per such incident
+will result in some caching, there is still a syscall per such incident
 (because the fd could point to a different file description now), so its
-best to avoid that. Also, dup()ed file descriptors might not work very
+best to avoid that. Also, C<dup ()>'ed file descriptors might not work
-well if you register events for both fds.
+very well if you register events for both fds.
 Please note that epoll sometimes generates spurious notifications, so you
 need to use non-blocking I/O or other means to avoid blocking when no data
 (or space) is available.
+Best performance from this backend is achieved by not unregistering all
+watchers for a file descriptor until it has been closed, if possible, i.e.
+keep at least one watcher active per fd at all times.
+While nominally embeddeble in other event loops, this feature is broken in
+all kernel versions tested so far.
 =item C<EVBACKEND_KQUEUE>  (value 8, most BSD clones)
 Kqueue deserves special mention, as at the time of this writing, it
-was broken on all BSDs except NetBSD (usually it doesn't work with
+was broken on all BSDs except NetBSD (usually it doesn't work reliably
-anything but sockets and pipes, except on Darwin, where of course it's
+with anything but sockets and pipes, except on Darwin, where of course
-completely useless). For this reason it's not being "autodetected"
+it's completely useless). For this reason it's not being "autodetected"
 unless you explicitly specify it explicitly in the flags (i.e. using
-C<EVBACKEND_KQUEUE>).
+C<EVBACKEND_KQUEUE>) or libev was compiled on a known-to-be-good (-enough)
+system like NetBSD.
+You still can embed kqueue into a normal poll or select backend and use it
+only for sockets (after having made sure that sockets work with kqueue on
+the target platform). See C<ev_embed> watchers for more info.
 It scales in the same way as the epoll backend, but the interface to the
 kernel is more efficient (which says nothing about its actual speed, of
-course). While starting and stopping an I/O watcher does not cause an
+course). While stopping, setting and starting an I/O watcher does never
-extra syscall as with epoll, it still adds up to four event changes per
+cause an extra syscall as with C<EVBACKEND_EPOLL>, it still adds up to
-incident, so its best to avoid that.
+two event changes per incident, support for C<fork ()> is very bad and it
+drops fds silently in similarly hard-to-detect cases.
+This backend usually performs well under most conditions.
+While nominally embeddable in other event loops, this doesn't work
+everywhere, so you might need to test for this. And since it is broken
+almost everywhere, you should only use it when you have a lot of sockets
+(for which it usually works), by embedding it into another event loop
+(e.g. C<EVBACKEND_SELECT> or C<EVBACKEND_POLL>) and using it only for
+sockets.
 =item C<EVBACKEND_DEVPOLL> (value 16, Solaris 8)
-This is not implemented yet (and might never be).
+This is not implemented yet (and might never be, unless you send me an
+implementation). According to reports, C</dev/poll> only supports sockets
+and is not embeddable, which would limit the usefulness of this backend
+immensely.
 =item C<EVBACKEND_PORT>    (value 32, Solaris 10)
-This uses the Solaris 10 port mechanism. As with everything on Solaris,
+This uses the Solaris 10 event port mechanism. As with everything on Solaris,
 it's really slow, but it still scales very well (O(active_fds)).
-Please note that solaris ports can result in a lot of spurious
+Please note that solaris event ports can deliver a lot of spurious
 notifications, so you need to use non-blocking I/O or other means to avoid
 blocking when no data (or space) is available.
+While this backend scales well, it requires one system call per active
+file descriptor per loop iteration. For small and medium numbers of file
+descriptors a "slow" C<EVBACKEND_SELECT> or C<EVBACKEND_POLL> backend
+might perform better.
+On the positive side, ignoring the spurious readyness notifications, this
+backend actually performed to specification in all tests and is fully
+embeddable, which is a rare feat among the OS-specific backends.
 =item C<EVBACKEND_ALL>
 Try all backends (even potentially broken ones that wouldn't be tried
 with C<EVFLAG_AUTO>). Since this is a mask, you can do stuff such as
 C<EVBACKEND_ALL & ~EVBACKEND_KQUEUE>.
+It is definitely not recommended to use this flag.
 =back
 If one or more of these are ored into the flags value, then only these
-backends will be tried (in the reverse order as given here). If none are
+backends will be tried (in the reverse order as listed here). If none are
-specified, most compiled-in backend will be tried, usually in reverse
+specified, all backends in C<ev_recommended_backends ()> will be tried.
-order of their flag values :)
 The most typical usage is like this:
   if (!ev_default_loop (0))
     fatal ("could not initialise libev, bad $LIBEV_FLAGS in environment?");
 usually a better approach for this kind of thing.
 Here are the gory details of what C<ev_loop> does:
    - Before the first iteration, call any pending watchers.
-   * If there are no active watchers (reference count is zero), return.
+   * If EVFLAG_FORKCHECK was used, check for a fork.
-   - Queue all prepare watchers and then call all outstanding watchers.
+   - If a fork was detected, queue and call all fork watchers.
+   - Queue and call all prepare watchers.
    - If we have been forked, recreate the kernel state.
    - Update the kernel state with all outstanding changes.
    - Update the "event loop time".
-   - Calculate for how long to block.
+   - Calculate for how long to sleep or block, if at all
+     (active idle watchers, EVLOOP_NONBLOCK or not having
+     any active watchers at all will result in not sleeping).
+   - Sleep if the I/O and timer collect interval say so.
    - Block the process, waiting for any events.
    - Queue all outstanding I/O (fd) events.
    - Update the "event loop time" and do time jump handling.
    - Queue all outstanding timers.
    - Queue all outstanding periodics.
    - If no events are pending now, queue all idle watchers.
    - Queue all check watchers.
    - Call all queued watchers in reverse order (i.e. check watchers first).
      Signals and child watchers are implemented as I/O watchers, and will
      be handled here by queueing them when their watcher gets executed.
-   - If ev_unloop has been called or EVLOOP_ONESHOT or EVLOOP_NONBLOCK
+   - If ev_unloop has been called, or EVLOOP_ONESHOT or EVLOOP_NONBLOCK
-     were used, return, otherwise continue with step *.
+     were used, or there are no active watchers, return, otherwise
+     continue with step *.
-Example: Queue some jobs and then loop until no events are outsanding
+Example: Queue some jobs and then loop until no events are outstanding
 anymore.
    ... queue jobs here, make sure they register event watchers as long
    ... as they still have work to do (even an idle watcher will do..)
    ev_loop (my_loop, 0);
 Can be used to make a call to C<ev_loop> return early (but only after it
 has processed all outstanding events). The C<how> argument must be either
 C<EVUNLOOP_ONE>, which will make the innermost C<ev_loop> call return, or
 C<EVUNLOOP_ALL>, which will make all nested C<ev_loop> calls return.
+This "unloop state" will be cleared when entering C<ev_loop> again.
 =item ev_ref (loop)
 =item ev_unref (loop)
 returning, ev_unref() after starting, and ev_ref() before stopping it. For
 example, libev itself uses this for its internal signal pipe: It is not
 visible to the libev user and should not keep C<ev_loop> from exiting if
 no event watchers registered by it are active. It is also an excellent
 way to do this for generic recurring timers or from within third-party
-libraries. Just remember to I<unref after start> and I<ref before stop>.
+libraries. Just remember to I<unref after start> and I<ref before stop>
+(but only if the watcher wasn't active before, or was active before,
+respectively).
 Example: Create a signal watcher, but keep it from keeping C<ev_loop>
 running when nothing else is active.
   struct ev_signal exitsig;
 Example: For some weird reason, unregister the above signal handler again.
   ev_ref (loop);
   ev_signal_stop (loop, &exitsig);
+=item ev_set_io_collect_interval (loop, ev_tstamp interval)
+=item ev_set_timeout_collect_interval (loop, ev_tstamp interval)
+These advanced functions influence the time that libev will spend waiting
+for events. Both are by default C<0>, meaning that libev will try to
+invoke timer/periodic callbacks and I/O callbacks with minimum latency.
+Setting these to a higher value (the C<interval> I<must> be >= C<0>)
+allows libev to delay invocation of I/O and timer/periodic callbacks to
+increase efficiency of loop iterations.
+The background is that sometimes your program runs just fast enough to
+handle one (or very few) event(s) per loop iteration. While this makes
+the program responsive, it also wastes a lot of CPU time to poll for new
+events, especially with backends like C<select ()> which have a high
+overhead for the actual polling but can deliver many events at once.
+By setting a higher I<io collect interval> you allow libev to spend more
+time collecting I/O events, so you can handle more events per iteration,
+at the cost of increasing latency. Timeouts (both C<ev_periodic> and
+C<ev_timer>) will be not affected. Setting this to a non-null value will
+introduce an additional C<ev_sleep ()> call into most loop iterations.
+Likewise, by setting a higher I<timeout collect interval> you allow libev
+to spend more time collecting timeouts, at the expense of increased
+latency (the watcher callback will be called later). C<ev_io> watchers
+will not be affected. Setting this to a non-null value will not introduce
+any overhead in libev.
+Many (busy) programs can usually benefit by setting the io collect
+interval to a value near C<0.1> or so, which is often enough for
+interactive servers (of course not for games), likewise for timeouts. It
+usually doesn't make much sense to set it to a lower value than C<0.01>,
+as this approsaches the timing granularity of most systems.
 =back
 =head1 ANATOMY OF A WATCHER
 In general you can register as many read and/or write event watchers per
 fd as you want (as long as you don't confuse yourself). Setting all file
 descriptors to non-blocking mode is also usually a good idea (but not
 required if you know what you are doing).
-You have to be careful with dup'ed file descriptors, though. Some backends
-(the linux epoll backend is a notable example) cannot handle dup'ed file
-descriptors correctly if you register interest in two or more fds pointing
-to the same underlying file/socket/etc. description (that is, they share
-the same underlying "file open").
 If you must do this, then force the use of a known-to-be-good backend
 (at the time of this writing, this includes only C<EVBACKEND_SELECT> and
 C<EVBACKEND_POLL>).
 Another thing you have to watch out for is that it is quite easy to
 such as poll (fortunately in our Xlib example, Xlib already does this on
 its own, so its quite safe to use).
 =head3 The special problem of disappearing file descriptors
-Some backends (e.g kqueue, epoll) need to be told about closing a file
+Some backends (e.g. kqueue, epoll) need to be told about closing a file
 descriptor (either by calling C<close> explicitly or by any other means,
 such as C<dup>). The reason is that you register interest in some file
 descriptor, but when it goes away, the operating system will silently drop
 this interest. If another file descriptor with the same number then is
 registered with libev, there is no efficient way to see that this is, in
 This is how one would do it normally anyway, the important point is that
 the libev application should not optimise around libev but should leave
 optimisations to libev.
+=head3 The special problem of dup'ed file descriptors
+Some backends (e.g. epoll), cannot register events for file descriptors,
+but only events for the underlying file descriptions. That means when you
+have C<dup ()>'ed file descriptors or weirder constellations, and register
+events for them, only one file descriptor might actually receive events.
+There is no workaround possible except not registering events
+for potentially C<dup ()>'ed file descriptors, or to resort to
+C<EVBACKEND_SELECT> or C<EVBACKEND_POLL>.
+=head3 The special problem of fork
+Some backends (epoll, kqueue) do not support C<fork ()> at all or exhibit
+useless behaviour. Libev fully supports fork, but needs to be told about
+it in the child.
+To support fork in your programs, you either have to call
+C<ev_default_fork ()> or C<ev_loop_fork ()> after a fork in the child,
+enable C<EVFLAG_FORKCHECK>, or resort to C<EVBACKEND_SELECT> or
+C<EVBACKEND_POLL>.
 =head3 Watcher-Specific Functions
 =over 4
 =item int events [read-only]
 The events being watched.
 =back
+=head3 Examples
 Example: Call C<stdin_readable_cb> when STDIN_FILENO has become, well
 readable, but only once. Since it is likely line-buffered, you could
 attempt to read a whole line in the callback.
 or C<ev_timer_again> is called and determines the next timeout (if any),
 which is also when any modifications are taken into account.
 =back
+=head3 Examples
 Example: Create a timer that fires after 60 seconds.
   static void
   one_minute_cb (struct ev_loop *loop, struct ev_timer *w, int revents)
   {
 When active, contains the absolute time that the watcher is supposed to
 trigger next.
 =back
+=head3 Examples
 Example: Call a callback every hour, or, more precisely, whenever the
 system clock is divisible by 3600. The callback invocation times have
 potentially a lot of jittering, but good long-term stability.
   static void
 The process exit/trace status caused by C<rpid> (see your systems
 C<waitpid> and C<sys/wait.h> documentation for details).
 =back
+=head3 Examples
 Example: Try to exit cleanly on SIGINT and SIGTERM.
   static void
   sigint_cb (struct ev_loop *loop, struct ev_signal *w, int revents)
 semantics of C<ev_stat> watchers, which means that libev sometimes needs
 to fall back to regular polling again even with inotify, but changes are
 usually detected immediately, and if the file exists there will be no
 polling.
+=head3 Inotify
+When C<inotify (7)> support has been compiled into libev (generally only
+available on Linux) and present at runtime, it will be used to speed up
+change detection where possible. The inotify descriptor will be created lazily
+when the first C<ev_stat> watcher is being started.
+Inotify presense does not change the semantics of C<ev_stat> watchers
+except that changes might be detected earlier, and in some cases, to avoid
+making regular C<stat> calls. Even in the presense of inotify support
+there are many cases where libev has to resort to regular C<stat> polling.
+(There is no support for kqueue, as apparently it cannot be used to
+implement this functionality, due to the requirement of having a file
+descriptor open on the object at all times).
+=head3 The special problem of stat time resolution
+The C<stat ()> syscall only supports full-second resolution portably, and
+even on systems where the resolution is higher, many filesystems still
+only support whole seconds.
+That means that, if the time is the only thing that changes, you might
+miss updates: on the first update, C<ev_stat> detects a change and calls
+your callback, which does something. When there is another update within
+the same second, C<ev_stat> will be unable to detect it.
+The solution to this is to delay acting on a change for a second (or till
+the next second boundary), using a roughly one-second delay C<ev_timer>
+(C<ev_timer_set (w, 0., 1.01); ev_timer_again (loop, w)>). The C<.01>
+is added to work around small timing inconsistencies of some operating
+systems.
 =head3 Watcher-Specific Functions and Data Members
 =over 4
 =item ev_stat_init (ev_stat *, callback, const char *path, ev_tstamp interval)
 =item const char *path [read-only]
 The filesystem path that is being watched.
 =back
+=head3 Examples
 Example: Watch C</etc/passwd> for attribute changes.
   static void
   passwd_cb (struct ev_loop *loop, ev_stat *w, int revents)
   }
   ...
   ev_stat passwd;
-  ev_stat_init (&passwd, passwd_cb, "/etc/passwd");
+  ev_stat_init (&passwd, passwd_cb, "/etc/passwd", 0.);
   ev_stat_start (loop, &passwd);
+Example: Like above, but additionally use a one-second delay so we do not
+miss updates (however, frequent updates will delay processing, too, so
+one might do the work both on C<ev_stat> callback invocation I<and> on
+C<ev_timer> callback invocation).
+  static ev_stat passwd;
+  static ev_timer timer;
+  static void
+  timer_cb (EV_P_ ev_timer *w, int revents)
+  {
+    ev_timer_stop (EV_A_ w);
+    /* now it's one second after the most recent passwd change */
+  }
+  static void
+  stat_cb (EV_P_ ev_stat *w, int revents)
+  {
+    /* reset the one-second timer */
+    ev_timer_again (EV_A_ &timer);
+  }
+  ...
+  ev_stat_init (&passwd, stat_cb, "/etc/passwd", 0.);
+  ev_stat_start (loop, &passwd);
+  ev_timer_init (&timer, timer_cb, 0., 1.01);
 =head2 C<ev_idle> - when you've got nothing better to do...
 Idle watchers trigger events when no other events of the same or higher
 Initialises and configures the idle watcher - it has no parameters of any
 kind. There is a C<ev_idle_set> macro, but using it is utterly pointless,
 believe me.
 =back
+=head3 Examples
 Example: Dynamically allocate an C<ev_idle> watcher, start it, and in the
 callback, free it. Also, use no error checking, as usual.
   static void
 It is recommended to give C<ev_check> watchers highest (C<EV_MAXPRI>)
 priority, to ensure that they are being run before any other watchers
 after the poll. Also, C<ev_check> watchers (and C<ev_prepare> watchers,
 too) should not activate ("feed") events into libev. While libev fully
-supports this, they will be called before other C<ev_check> watchers did
+supports this, they will be called before other C<ev_check> watchers
-their job. As C<ev_check> watchers are often used to embed other event
+did their job. As C<ev_check> watchers are often used to embed other
-loops those other event loops might be in an unusable state until their
+(non-libev) event loops those other event loops might be in an unusable
-C<ev_check> watcher ran (always remind yourself to coexist peacefully with
+state until their C<ev_check> watcher ran (always remind yourself to
-others).
+coexist peacefully with others).
 =head3 Watcher-Specific Functions and Data Members
 =over 4
 Initialises and configures the prepare or check watcher - they have no
 parameters of any kind. There are C<ev_prepare_set> and C<ev_check_set>
 macros, but using them is utterly, utterly and completely pointless.
 =back
+=head3 Examples
 There are a number of principal ways to embed other event loops or modules
 into libev. Here are some ideas on how to include libadns into libev
 (there is a Perl module named C<EV::ADNS> that does this, which you could
 use for an actually working example. Another Perl module named C<EV::Glib>
 portable one.
 So when you want to use this feature you will always have to be prepared
 that you cannot get an embeddable loop. The recommended way to get around
 this is to have a separate variables for your embeddable loop, try to
-create it, and if that fails, use the normal loop for everything:
+create it, and if that fails, use the normal loop for everything.
+=head3 Watcher-Specific Functions and Data Members
+=over 4
+=item ev_embed_init (ev_embed *, callback, struct ev_loop *embedded_loop)
+=item ev_embed_set (ev_embed *, callback, struct ev_loop *embedded_loop)
+Configures the watcher to embed the given loop, which must be
+embeddable. If the callback is C<0>, then C<ev_embed_sweep> will be
+invoked automatically, otherwise it is the responsibility of the callback
+to invoke it (it will continue to be called until the sweep has been done,
+if you do not want thta, you need to temporarily stop the embed watcher).
+=item ev_embed_sweep (loop, ev_embed *)
+Make a single, non-blocking sweep over the embedded loop. This works
+similarly to C<ev_loop (embedded_loop, EVLOOP_NONBLOCK)>, but in the most
+apropriate way for embedded loops.
+=item struct ev_loop *other [read-only]
+The embedded event loop.
+=back
+=head3 Examples
+Example: Try to get an embeddable event loop and embed it into the default
+event loop. If that is not possible, use the default loop. The default
+loop is stored in C<loop_hi>, while the mebeddable loop is stored in
+C<loop_lo> (which is C<loop_hi> in the acse no embeddable loop can be
+used).
   struct ev_loop *loop_hi = ev_default_init (0);
   struct ev_loop *loop_lo = 0;
   struct ev_embed embed;
       ev_embed_start (loop_hi, &embed);
     }
   else
     loop_lo = loop_hi;
-=head3 Watcher-Specific Functions and Data Members
+Example: Check if kqueue is available but not recommended and create
+a kqueue backend for use with sockets (which usually work with any
+kqueue implementation). Store the kqueue/socket-only event loop in
+C<loop_socket>. (One might optionally use C<EVFLAG_NOENV>, too).
-=over 4
+  struct ev_loop *loop = ev_default_init (0);
+  struct ev_loop *loop_socket = 0;
+  struct ev_embed embed;
+  if (ev_supported_backends () & ~ev_recommended_backends () & EVBACKEND_KQUEUE)
+    if ((loop_socket = ev_loop_new (EVBACKEND_KQUEUE))
+      {
+        ev_embed_init (&embed, 0, loop_socket);
+        ev_embed_start (loop, &embed);
+      }
-=item ev_embed_init (ev_embed *, callback, struct ev_loop *embedded_loop)
+  if (!loop_socket)
+    loop_socket = loop;
-=item ev_embed_set (ev_embed *, callback, struct ev_loop *embedded_loop)
+  // now use loop_socket for all sockets, and loop for everything else
-Configures the watcher to embed the given loop, which must be
-embeddable. If the callback is C<0>, then C<ev_embed_sweep> will be
-invoked automatically, otherwise it is the responsibility of the callback
-to invoke it (it will continue to be called until the sweep has been done,
-if you do not want thta, you need to temporarily stop the embed watcher).
-=item ev_embed_sweep (loop, ev_embed *)
-Make a single, non-blocking sweep over the embedded loop. This works
-similarly to C<ev_loop (embedded_loop, EVLOOP_NONBLOCK)>, but in the most
-apropriate way for embedded loops.
-=item struct ev_loop *other [read-only]
-The embedded event loop.
-=back
 =head2 C<ev_fork> - the audacity to resume the event loop after a fork
 Fork watchers are called when a C<fork ()> was detected (usually because
 runtime if successful). Otherwise no use of the realtime clock option will
 be attempted. This effectively replaces C<gettimeofday> by C<clock_get
 (CLOCK_REALTIME, ...)> and will not normally affect correctness. See the
 note about libraries in the description of C<EV_USE_MONOTONIC>, though.
+=item EV_USE_NANOSLEEP
+If defined to be C<1>, libev will assume that C<nanosleep ()> is available
+and will use it for delays. Otherwise it will use C<select ()>.
 =item EV_USE_SELECT
 If undefined or defined to be C<1>, libev will compile in support for the
 C<select>(2) backend. No attempt at autodetection will be done: if no
 other method takes over, select will be it. Otherwise the select backend
 wants osf handles on win32 (this is the case when the select to
 be used is the winsock select). This means that it will call
 C<_get_osfhandle> on the fd to convert it to an OS handle. Otherwise,
 it is assumed that all these functions actually work on fds, even
 on win32. Should not be defined on non-win32 platforms.
+=item EV_FD_TO_WIN32_HANDLE
+If C<EV_SELECT_IS_WINSOCKET> is enabled, then libev needs a way to map
+file descriptors to socket handles. When not defining this symbol (the
+default), then libev will call C<_get_osfhandle>, which is usually
+correct. In some cases, programs use their own file descriptor management,
+in which case they can provide this function to map fds to socket handles.
 =item EV_USE_POLL
 If defined to be C<1>, libev will compile in support for the C<poll>(2)
 backend. Otherwise it will be enabled on non-win32 platforms. It
 be detected at runtime.
 =item EV_H
 The name of the F<ev.h> header file used to include it. The default if
-undefined is C<< <ev.h> >> in F<event.h> and C<"ev.h"> in F<ev.c>. This
+undefined is C<"ev.h"> in F<event.h> and F<ev.c>. This can be used to
-can be used to virtually rename the F<ev.h> header file in case of conflicts.
+virtually rename the F<ev.h> header file in case of conflicts.
 =item EV_CONFIG_H
 If C<EV_STANDALONE> isn't C<1>, this variable can be used to override
 F<ev.c>'s idea of where to find the F<config.h> file, similarly to
 C<EV_H>, above.
 =item EV_EVENT_H
 Similarly to C<EV_H>, this macro can be used to override F<event.c>'s idea
-of how the F<event.h> header can be found.
+of how the F<event.h> header can be found, the dfeault is C<"event.h">.
 =item EV_PROTOTYPES
 If defined to be C<0>, then F<ev.h> will not define any function
 prototypes, but still define all the structs and other symbols. This is
 than enough. If you need to manage thousands of children you might want to
 increase this value (I<must> be a power of two).
 =item EV_INOTIFY_HASHSIZE
-C<ev_staz> watchers use a small hash table to distribute workload by
+C<ev_stat> watchers use a small hash table to distribute workload by
 inotify watch id. The default size is C<16> (or C<1> with C<EV_MINIMAL>),
 usually more than enough. If you need to manage thousands of C<ev_stat>
 watchers you might want to increase this value (I<must> be a power of
 two).
 =item Starting and stopping timer/periodic watchers: O(log skipped_other_timers)
 This means that, when you have a watcher that triggers in one hour and
 there are 100 watchers that would trigger before that then inserting will
-have to skip those 100 watchers.
+have to skip roughly seven (C<ld 100>) of these watchers.
-=item Changing timer/periodic watchers (by autorepeat, again): O(log skipped_other_timers)
+=item Changing timer/periodic watchers (by autorepeat or calling again): O(log skipped_other_timers)
-That means that for changing a timer costs less than removing/adding them
+That means that changing a timer costs less than removing/adding them
 as only the relative motion in the event queue has to be paid for.
 =item Starting io/check/prepare/idle/signal/child watchers: O(1)
 These just add the watcher into an array or at the head of a list.
 =item Stopping check/prepare/idle watchers: O(1)
 =item Stopping an io/signal/child watcher: O(number_of_watchers_for_this_(fd/signal/pid % EV_PID_HASHSIZE))
 These watchers are stored in lists then need to be walked to find the
 correct watcher to remove. The lists are usually short (you don't usually
 have many watchers waiting for the same fd or signal).
-=item Finding the next timer per loop iteration: O(1)
+=item Finding the next timer in each loop iteration: O(1)
+By virtue of using a binary heap, the next timer is always found at the
+beginning of the storage array.
 =item Each change on a file descriptor per loop iteration: O(number_of_watchers_for_this_fd)
 A change means an I/O watcher gets started or stopped, which requires
-libev to recalculate its status (and possibly tell the kernel).
+libev to recalculate its status (and possibly tell the kernel, depending
+on backend and wether C<ev_io_set> was used).
-=item Activating one watcher: O(1)
+=item Activating one watcher (putting it into the pending state): O(1)
 =item Priority handling: O(number_of_priorities)
 Priorities are implemented by allocating some space for each
 priority. When doing priority-based operations, libev usually has to
-linearly search all the priorities.
+linearly search all the priorities, but starting/stopping and activating
+watchers becomes O(1) w.r.t. prioritiy handling.
 =back
+=head1 Win32 platform limitations and workarounds
+Win32 doesn't support any of the standards (e.g. POSIX) that libev
+requires, and its I/O model is fundamentally incompatible with the POSIX
+model. Libev still offers limited functionality on this platform in
+the form of the C<EVBACKEND_SELECT> backend, and only supports socket
+descriptors. This only applies when using Win32 natively, not when using
+e.g. cygwin.
+There is no supported compilation method available on windows except
+embedding it into other applications.
+Due to the many, low, and arbitrary limits on the win32 platform and the
+abysmal performance of winsockets, using a large number of sockets is not
+recommended (and not reasonable). If your program needs to use more than
+a hundred or so sockets, then likely it needs to use a totally different
+implementation for windows, as libev offers the POSIX model, which cannot
+be implemented efficiently on windows (microsoft monopoly games).
+=over 4
+=item The winsocket select function
+The winsocket C<select> function doesn't follow POSIX in that it requires
+socket I<handles> and not socket I<file descriptors>. This makes select
+very inefficient, and also requires a mapping from file descriptors
+to socket handles. See the discussion of the C<EV_SELECT_USE_FD_SET>,
+C<EV_SELECT_IS_WINSOCKET> and C<EV_FD_TO_WIN32_HANDLE> preprocessor
+symbols for more info.
+The configuration for a "naked" win32 using the microsoft runtime
+libraries and raw winsocket select is:
+  #define EV_USE_SELECT 1
+  #define EV_SELECT_IS_WINSOCKET 1   /* forces EV_SELECT_USE_FD_SET, too */
+Note that winsockets handling of fd sets is O(n), so you can easily get a
+complexity in the O(n²) range when using win32.
+=item Limited number of file descriptors
+Windows has numerous arbitrary (and low) limits on things. Early versions
+of winsocket's select only supported waiting for a max. of C<64> handles
+(probably owning to the fact that all windows kernels can only wait for
+C<64> things at the same time internally; microsoft recommends spawning a
+chain of threads and wait for 63 handles and the previous thread in each).
+Newer versions support more handles, but you need to define C<FD_SETSIZE>
+to some high number (e.g. C<2048>) before compiling the winsocket select
+call (which might be in libev or elsewhere, for example, perl does its own
+select emulation on windows).
+Another limit is the number of file descriptors in the microsoft runtime
+libraries, which by default is C<64> (there must be a hidden I<64> fetish
+or something like this inside microsoft). You can increase this by calling
+C<_setmaxstdio>, which can increase this limit to C<2048> (another
+arbitrary limit), but is broken in many versions of the microsoft runtime
+libraries.
+This might get you to about C<512> or C<2048> sockets (depending on
+windows version and/or the phase of the moon). To get more, you need to
+wrap all I/O functions and provide your own fd management, but the cost of
+calling select (O(n²)) will likely make this unworkable.
+=back
 =head1 AUTHOR
 Marc Lehmann <libev@schmorp.de>.

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Comparing libev/ev.pod (file contents): Revision 1.93 by root, Fri Dec 21 01:29:34 2007 UTC vs. Revision 1.117 by root, Wed Jan 9 04:15:39 2008 UTC

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Revision 1.93 by root, Fri Dec 21 01:29:34 2007 UTC vs.
Revision 1.117 by root, Wed Jan 9 04:15:39 2008 UTC