Fiber
¶ ↑
Fibers provide a mechanism for cooperative concurrency.
Context Switching¶ ↑
Fibers execute a user-provided block. During the execution, the block may call Fiber.yield
or Fiber.transfer
to switch to another fiber. Fiber#resume
is used to continue execution from the point where Fiber.yield
was called.
#!/usr/bin/env ruby puts "1: Start program." f = Fiber.new do puts "3: Entered fiber." Fiber.yield puts "5: Resumed fiber." end puts "2: Resume fiber first time." f.resume puts "4: Resume fiber second time." f.resume puts "6: Finished."
This program demonstrates the flow control of fibers.
Scheduler¶ ↑
The scheduler interface is used to intercept blocking operations. A typical implementation would be a wrapper for a gem like EventMachine
or Async
. This design provides separation of concerns between the event loop implementation and application code. It also allows for layered schedulers which can perform instrumentation.
To set the scheduler for the current thread:
Fiber.set_scheduler(MyScheduler.new)
When the thread exits, there is an implicit call to set_scheduler
:
Fiber.set_scheduler(nil)
Design¶ ↑
The scheduler interface is designed to be a un-opinionated light-weight layer between user code and blocking operations. The scheduler hooks should avoid translating or converting arguments or return values. Ideally, the exact same arguments from the user code are provided directly to the scheduler hook with no changes.
Interface¶ ↑
This is the interface you need to implement.
class Scheduler # Wait for the specified process ID to exit. # This hook is optional. # @parameter pid [Integer] The process ID to wait for. # @parameter flags [Integer] A bit-mask of flags suitable for `Process::Status.wait`. # @returns [Process::Status] A process status instance. def process_wait(pid, flags) Thread.new do Process::Status.wait(pid, flags) end.value end # Wait for the given io readiness to match the specified events within # the specified timeout. # @parameter event [Integer] A bit mask of `IO::READABLE`, # `IO::WRITABLE` and `IO::PRIORITY`. # @parameter timeout [Numeric] The amount of time to wait for the event in seconds. # @returns [Integer] The subset of events that are ready. def io_wait(io, events, timeout) end # Read from the given io into the specified buffer. # WARNING: Experimental hook! Do not use in production code! # @parameter io [IO] The io to read from. # @parameter buffer [IO::Buffer] The buffer to read into. # @parameter length [Integer] The minimum amount to read. def io_read(io, buffer, length) end # Write from the given buffer into the specified IO. # WARNING: Experimental hook! Do not use in production code! # @parameter io [IO] The io to write to. # @parameter buffer [IO::Buffer] The buffer to write from. # @parameter length [Integer] The minimum amount to write. def io_write(io, buffer, length) end # Sleep the current task for the specified duration, or forever if not # specified. # @parameter duration [Numeric] The amount of time to sleep in seconds. def kernel_sleep(duration = nil) end # Execute the given block. If the block execution exceeds the given timeout, # the specified exception `klass` will be raised. Typically, only non-blocking # methods which enter the scheduler will raise such exceptions. # @parameter duration [Integer] The amount of time to wait, after which an exception will be raised. # @parameter klass [Class] The exception class to raise. # @parameter *arguments [Array] The arguments to send to the constructor of the exception. # @yields {...} The user code to execute. def timeout_after(duration, klass, *arguments, &block) end # Resolve hostname to an array of IP addresses. # This hook is optional. # @parameter hostname [String] Example: "www.ruby-lang.org". # @returns [Array] An array of IPv4 and/or IPv6 address strings that the hostname resolves to. def address_resolve(hostname) end # Block the calling fiber. # @parameter blocker [Object] What we are waiting on, informational only. # @parameter timeout [Numeric | Nil] The amount of time to wait for in seconds. # @returns [Boolean] Whether the blocking operation was successful or not. def block(blocker, timeout = nil) end # Unblock the specified fiber. # @parameter blocker [Object] What we are waiting on, informational only. # @parameter fiber [Fiber] The fiber to unblock. # @reentrant Thread safe. def unblock(blocker, fiber) end # Intercept the creation of a non-blocking fiber. # @returns [Fiber] def fiber(&block) Fiber.new(blocking: false, &block) end # Invoked when the thread exits. def close self.run end def run # Implement event loop here. end end
Additional hooks may be introduced in the future, we will use feature detection in order to enable these hooks.
Non-blocking Execution¶ ↑
The scheduler hooks will only be used in special non-blocking execution contexts. Non-blocking execution contexts introduce non-determinism because the execution of scheduler hooks may introduce context switching points into your program.
Fibers¶ ↑
Fibers can be used to create non-blocking execution contexts.
Fiber.new do puts Fiber.current.blocking? # false # May invoke `Fiber.scheduler&.io_wait`. io.read(...) # May invoke `Fiber.scheduler&.io_wait`. io.write(...) # Will invoke `Fiber.scheduler&.kernel_sleep`. sleep(n) end.resume
We also introduce a new method which simplifies the creation of these non-blocking fibers:
Fiber.schedule do puts Fiber.current.blocking? # false end
The purpose of this method is to allow the scheduler to internally decide the policy for when to start the fiber, and whether to use symmetric or asymmetric fibers.
You can also create blocking execution contexts:
Fiber.new(blocking: true) do # Won't use the scheduler: sleep(n) end
However you should generally avoid this unless you are implementing a scheduler.
IO
¶ ↑
By default, I/O is non-blocking. Not all operating systems support non-blocking I/O. Windows is a notable example where socket I/O can be non-blocking but pipe I/O is blocking. Provided that there is a scheduler and the current thread is non-blocking, the operation will invoke the scheduler.
Mutex¶ ↑
The Mutex
class can be used in a non-blocking context and is fiber specific.
ConditionVariable¶ ↑
The ConditionVariable
class can be used in a non-blocking context and is fiber-specific.
Queue / SizedQueue¶ ↑
The Queue
and SizedQueue
classes can be used in a non-blocking context and are fiber-specific.
Thread
¶ ↑
The Thread#join
operation can be used in a non-blocking context and is fiber-specific.