libevent reference Mannual I

FYI:http://www.wangafu.net/~nickm/libevent-book/

This lib is a integral of asynchronous IO. we should change the concept from blocking PRO to nonblocking PRO.

Example: A simple blocking HTTP client

 /* For sockaddr_in */
 #include <netinet/in.h>
 /* For socket functions */
 #include <sys/socket.h>
 /* For gethostbyname */
 #include <netdb.h>

 #include <unistd.h>
 #include <string.h>
 #include <stdio.h>

 int main(int c, char **v)
 {
     const char query[] =
         "GET / HTTP/1.0\r\n"
         "Host: www.google.com\r\n"
         "\r\n";
     const char hostname[] = "www.google.com";
     struct sockaddr_in sin;
     struct hostent *h;
     const char *cp;
     int fd;
     ssize_t n_written, remaining;
     char buf[];

     /* Look up the IP address for the hostname.   Watch out; this isn't
        threadsafe on most platforms. */
     h = gethostbyname(hostname);
     if (!h) {
         fprintf(stderr, "Couldn't lookup %s: %s", hostname, hstrerror(h_errno));
         return ;
     }
     if (h->h_addrtype != AF_INET) {
         fprintf(stderr, "No ipv6 support, sorry.");
         return ;
     }

     /* Allocate a new socket */
     fd = socket(AF_INET, SOCK_STREAM, );
     if (fd < ) {
         perror("socket");
         return ;
     }

     /* Connect to the remote host. */
     sin.sin_family = AF_INET;
     sin.sin_port = htons();
     sin.sin_addr = *(struct in_addr*)h->h_addr;
     if (connect(fd, (struct sockaddr*) &sin, sizeof(sin))) {
         perror("connect");
         close(fd);
         return ;
     }

     /* Write the query. */
     /* XXX Can send succeed partially? */
     cp = query;
     remaining = strlen(query);
     while (remaining) {
       n_written = send(fd, cp, remaining, );
       if (n_written <= ) {
         perror("send");
         return ;
       }
       remaining -= n_written;
       cp += n_written;
     }

     /* Get an answer back. */
     while () {
         ssize_t result = recv(fd, buf, sizeof(buf), );
         if (result == ) {
             break;
         } else if (result < ) {
             perror("recv");
             close(fd);
             return ;
         }
         fwrite(buf, , result, stdout);
     }

     close(fd);
     return ;
 }

All the network calls are in the code above are blocking, gethostbyname, connect, recv, send. This makes the code cannot work effectively. To work with multiple IO, please see following code with fork()

Example: Forking ROT13 server:

 /* For sockaddr_in */
 #include <netinet/in.h>
 /* For socket functions */
 #include <sys/socket.h>

 #include <unistd.h>
 #include <string.h>
 #include <stdio.h>
 #include <stdlib.h>

 #define MAX_LINE 16384

 char
 rot13_char(char c)
 {
     /* We don't want to use isalpha here; setting the locale would change
      * which characters are considered alphabetical. */
     if ((c >= 'a' && c <= 'm') || (c >= 'A' && c <= 'M'))
         return c + ;
     else if ((c >= 'n' && c <= 'z') || (c >= 'N' && c <= 'Z'))
         return c - ;
     else
         return c;
 }

 void
 child(int fd)
 {
     char outbuf[MAX_LINE+];
     size_t outbuf_used = ;
     ssize_t result;

     while () {
         char ch;
         result = recv(fd, &ch, , );
         if (result == ) {
             break;
         } else if (result == -) {
             perror("read");
             break;
         }

         /* We do this test to keep the user from overflowing the buffer. */
         if (outbuf_used < sizeof(outbuf)) {
             outbuf[outbuf_used++] = rot13_char(ch);
         }

         if (ch == '\n') {
             send(fd, outbuf, outbuf_used, );
             outbuf_used = ;
             continue;
         }
     }
 }

 void
 run(void)
 {
     int listener;
     struct sockaddr_in sin;

     sin.sin_family = AF_INET;
     sin.sin_addr.s_addr = ;
     sin.sin_port = htons();

     listener = socket(AF_INET, SOCK_STREAM, );

 #ifndef WIN32
     {
         int one = ;
         setsockopt(listener, SOL_SOCKET, SO_REUSEADDR, &one, sizeof(one));
     }
 #endif

     if (bind(listener, (struct sockaddr*)&sin, sizeof(sin)) < ) {
         perror("bind");
         return;
     }

     if (listen(listener, )<) {
         perror("listen");
         return;
     }

     while () {
         struct sockaddr_storage ss;
         socklen_t slen = sizeof(ss);
         int fd = accept(listener, (struct sockaddr*)&ss, &slen);
         if (fd < ) {
             perror("accept");
         } else {
             if (fork() == ) {
                 child(fd);
                 exit();
             }
         }
     }
 }

 int
 main(int c, char **v)
 {
     run();
     return ;
 }

Perfect? Not quite. Process creation (and even thread creation) can be pretty expensive on some platforms. A thread pool is the answer to having multiple connections.

First, set sockets nonblocking.  Call

fcntl(fd, F_SETFL, O_NONBLOCK);

Once nonblocking is set to fd (the socket), return of the fd call is complete the operation immediately or a special error code.

For example:

 /* This will work, but the performance will be unforgivably bad. */
 int i, n;
 char buf[];
 for (i=; i < n_sockets; ++i)
     fcntl(fd[i], F_SETFL, O_NONBLOCK);

 while (i_still_want_to_read()) {
     for (i=; i < n_sockets; ++i) {
         n = recv(fd[i], buf, sizeof(buf), );
         if (n == ) {
             handle_close(fd[i]);
         } else if (n < ) {
             if (errno == EAGAIN)
                  ; /* The kernel didn't have any data for us to read. */
             else
                  handle_error(fd[i], errno);
          } else {
             handle_input(fd[i], buf, n);
          }
     }
 }

Using nonblocking sockets, the code would work, but only barely. The performance will be awful, for two reasons.

• First, when there is no data to read on either connection the loop will spin indefinitely, using up all your CPU cycles.
• Second, the delay is proportional to the number of users.

So what we need is a way to tell the kernel "wait until one of these sockets is ready to give me some data, and tell me which ones are ready."

The oldest solution that people still use for this problem is select(). Here’s a reimplementation of our ROT13 server, using select() this time.

Example: select()-based ROT13 server

 /* For sockaddr_in */
 #include <netinet/in.h>
 /* For socket functions */
 #include <sys/socket.h>
 /* For fcntl */
 #include <fcntl.h>
 /* for select */
 #include <sys/select.h>

 #include <assert.h>
 #include <unistd.h>
 #include <string.h>
 #include <stdlib.h>
 #include <stdio.h>
 #include <errno.h>

 #define MAX_LINE 16384

 char
 rot13_char(char c)
 {
     /* We don't want to use isalpha here; setting the locale would change
      * which characters are considered alphabetical. */
     if ((c >= 'a' && c <= 'm') || (c >= 'A' && c <= 'M'))
         return c + ;
     else if ((c >= 'n' && c <= 'z') || (c >= 'N' && c <= 'Z'))
         return c - ;
     else
         return c;
 }

 struct fd_state {
     char buffer[MAX_LINE];
     size_t buffer_used;

     int writing;
     size_t n_written;
     size_t write_upto;
 };

 struct fd_state *
 alloc_fd_state(void)
 {
     struct fd_state *state = malloc(sizeof(struct fd_state));
     if (!state)
         return NULL;
     state->buffer_used = state->n_written = state->writing =
         state->write_upto = ;
     return state;
 }

 void
 free_fd_state(struct fd_state *state)
 {
     free(state);
 }

 void
 make_nonblocking(int fd)
 {
     fcntl(fd, F_SETFL, O_NONBLOCK);
 }

 int
 do_read(int fd, struct fd_state *state)
 {
     char buf[];
     int i;
     ssize_t result;
     while () {
         result = recv(fd, buf, sizeof(buf), );
         if (result <= )
             break;

         for (i=; i < result; ++i)  {
             if (state->buffer_used < sizeof(state->buffer))
                 state->buffer[state->buffer_used++] = rot13_char(buf[i]);
             if (buf[i] == '\n') {
                 state->writing = ;
                 state->write_upto = state->buffer_used;
             }
         }
     }

     if (result == ) {
         return ;
     } else if (result < ) {
         if (errno == EAGAIN)
             return ;
         return -;
     }

     return ;
 }

 int
 do_write(int fd, struct fd_state *state)
 {
     while (state->n_written < state->write_upto) {
         ssize_t result = send(fd, state->buffer + state->n_written,
                               state->write_upto - state->n_written, );
         if (result < ) {
             if (errno == EAGAIN)
                 return ;
             return -;
         }
         assert(result != );

         state->n_written += result;
     }

     if (state->n_written == state->buffer_used)
         state->n_written = state->write_upto = state->buffer_used = ;

     state->writing = ;

     return ;
 }

 void
 run(void)
 {
     int listener;
     struct fd_state *state[FD_SETSIZE];
     struct sockaddr_in sin;
     int i, maxfd;
     fd_set readset, writeset, exset;

     sin.sin_family = AF_INET;
     sin.sin_addr.s_addr = ;
     sin.sin_port = htons();

     for (i = ; i < FD_SETSIZE; ++i)
         state[i] = NULL;

     listener = socket(AF_INET, SOCK_STREAM, );
     make_nonblocking(listener);

 #ifndef WIN32
     {
         int one = ;
         setsockopt(listener, SOL_SOCKET, SO_REUSEADDR, &one, sizeof(one));
     }
 #endif

     if (bind(listener, (struct sockaddr*)&sin, sizeof(sin)) < ) {
         perror("bind");
         return;
     }

     if (listen(listener, )<) {
         perror("listen");
         return;
     }

     FD_ZERO(&readset);
     FD_ZERO(&writeset);
     FD_ZERO(&exset);

     while () {
         maxfd = listener;

         FD_ZERO(&readset);
         FD_ZERO(&writeset);
         FD_ZERO(&exset);

         FD_SET(listener, &readset);

         for (i=; i < FD_SETSIZE; ++i) {
             if (state[i]) {
                 if (i > maxfd)
                     maxfd = i;
                 FD_SET(i, &readset);
                 if (state[i]->writing) {
                     FD_SET(i, &writeset);
                 }
             }
         }

         if (select(maxfd+, &readset, &writeset, &exset, NULL) < ) {
             perror("select");
             return;
         }

         if (FD_ISSET(listener, &readset)) {
             struct sockaddr_storage ss;
             socklen_t slen = sizeof(ss);
             int fd = accept(listener, (struct sockaddr*)&ss, &slen);
             if (fd < ) {
                 perror("accept");
             } else if (fd > FD_SETSIZE) {
                 close(fd);
             } else {
                 make_nonblocking(fd);
                 state[fd] = alloc_fd_state();
                 assert(state[fd]);/*XXX*/
             }
         }

         for (i=; i < maxfd+; ++i) {
             int r = ;
             if (i == listener)
                 continue;

             if (FD_ISSET(i, &readset)) {
                 r = do_read(i, state[i]);
             }
             if (r ==  && FD_ISSET(i, &writeset)) {
                 r = do_write(i, state[i]);
             }
             if (r) {
                 free_fd_state(state[i]);
                 state[i] = NULL;
                 close(i);
             }
         }
     }
 }

 int
 main(int c, char **v)
 {
     setvbuf(stdout, NULL, _IONBF, );

     run();
     return ;
 }

Problem: generating and reading the select() bit arrays takes time proportional to the largest fd that you provided for select(), the select() call scales terribly when the number of sockets is high.

Solution: diversity repalcement functions are comming out in different operating systems.  Unfortunately, none of the efficient interfaces is a ubiquitous standard.

Linux: epoll(),

BSDs (including Darwin): kqueue(),

Solaris: evports and /dev/poll…

Libevent API is an abstraction that wraps all of these interfaces, and provides whichever one of them is the most efficient.