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rel

More and more applications are coming to rely on pyevent. The problem is that pyevent itself requires compiling external modules and therefore presents a deployment hurdle. The rel module is a drop-in replacement for pyevent that completely emulates pyevent's interface, behavior and functionality on any system with Python. It can use pyevent if preferred/available, and otherwise rel will use the fastest method supported by the system. Epoll, poll, kqueue, and select are currently implemented.

Get rel

Install rel with pip:

pip3 install rel

Current version: 0.4.9.19

Basic Structure

The listener module contains classes for handling individual events. Instances of these classes are managed by the Registrar subclasses (defined in the registrar module).

The core rel module contains functions for selecting and initializing a Registrar subclass, as well as user-facing functions (such as read(), write(), signal(), and timeout()), which utilize said instance.

Examples

One of the most common usage patterns consists of calling a function on an interval, stopping only once the function fails to return True. This is done with the rel.timeout() function - one simple example can be found in the admin module of the util subsystem of the cantools web framework:

class Creeper(object):
    def __init__(self):
        self.last = None
        self.diffs = []
        self.start()

    def signed(self, num):
        return num < 0 and num or "+%s"%(num,)

    def pad(self, s, target=12):
        ls = len(s)
        if ls < target:
            return "%s%s"%(s, " " * (target - ls))
        return s

    def calc(self, diff):
        dz = self.diffs
        dz.append(diff)
        if len(dz) > 10:
            dz.pop(0)
        dl = len(dz)
        line = self.pad("diff: %s"%(self.signed(diff),))
        if dl > 1:
            return "%s ; %s-sec average: %s"%(line, dl, self.signed(sum(dz) / dl))
        return line

    def creep(self):
        current = int(output("free | grep Mem | awk '{print $3}'", True))
        if self.last:
            log(self.calc(current - self.last))
        self.last = current
        return True

    def start(self):
        import rel
        rel.signal(2, rel.abort)
        rel.timeout(1, self.creep)
        rel.dispatch()

def memcreep():
    Creeper()

To see this in action, install cantools and type in the command line:

ctutil admin memcreep

This calls the memcreep() function, which instantiates a Creeper. The Creeper constructor calls start(), which: 1) tells rel (via signal()) to abort() on a KeyBoardInterrupt (operator presses CTR-C); 2) tells rel (via timeout()) to call the creep() function every second; and 3) starts (via dispatch()) the microevent engine.

The creep() function analyzes (via the calc() function) memory usage, and returns True, which tells rel to keep calling it. The cantools cron module essentially functions the same way.

The cantools util module also has a good example of adjusting engine rates:

def init_rel():
    import rel
    from cantools import config
    if config.rel.sleep:
        rel.set_sleep(config.rel.sleep)
    if config.rel.turbo:
        rel.set_turbo(config.rel.turbo)

Here, set_sleep() and set_turbo() are used to adjust the SLEEP_SEC and SLEEP_TURBO values, the defaults of which may be found in the rel registrar module:

SLEEP_SEC = .03
SLEEP_TURBO = 0.0001

SLEEP_TURBO is used whenever the engine is managing active write events.

More usage examples can be found throughout a rel-based asynchronous network library called dez. Note that since dez originally used pyevent, the rel functions are referenced throughout dez under the event module, e.g. event.dispatch() instead of rel.dispatch(). This all works out due to the dez init file calling rel.override():

import rel
rel.override()

This enables a pyevent-based application (such as dez) to instead run on rel without the need to change anything else. However, if this isn't your use case (converting a pyevent application), you can pretty much ignore this and use rel directly.

Anyway, dez is full of rel example code. One concise example is the SocketDaemon in the server submodule of dez.network:

class SocketDaemon(object):
    def __init__(self, hostname, port, cb=None, b64=False, cbargs=[], certfile=None, keyfile=None, cacerts=None):
        self.log = default_get_logger("SocketDaemon")
        self.hostname = hostname
        self.port = port
        self.sock = io.server_socket(self.port, certfile, keyfile, cacerts)
        self.cb = cb
        self.cbargs = cbargs
        self.b64 = b64
        self.secure = bool(certfile)
        self.listen = event.read(self.sock, self.accept_connection)

    def handshake_cb(self, sock, addr):
        def cb():
            conn = Connection(addr, sock, b64=self.b64)
            if self.cb:
                self.cb(conn, *self.cbargs)
        return cb

    def accept_connection(self):
        try:
            sock, addr = self.sock.accept()
            cb = self.handshake_cb(sock, addr)
            if self.secure:
                io.ssl_handshake(sock, cb)
                return True
        except io.socket.error as e:
            self.log.info("abandoning connection on socket error: %s"%(e,))
            return True
        cb()
        return True

    def start(self):
        event.signal(2, event.abort)
        event.dispatch()

Another short example, also in dez.network, is to be found in the controller submodule:

class SocketController(object):
    def __init__(self):
        self.daemons = {}

    def register_address(self, hostname, port, callback=None, cbargs=[], b64=False, daemon="socket", dclass=None):
        d = self.daemons.get((hostname, port))
        if d:
            d.cb = callback
            d.cbargs = cbargs
        else:
            dclass = dclass and daemon_wrapper(dclass) or heads[daemon]
            d = dclass(hostname, port, callback, b64, cbargs=cbargs)
            self.daemons[(hostname, port)] = d
        return d

    def _abort(self):
        if self.onstop:
            self.onstop()
        event.abort()

    def start(self, onstop=False):
        if not self.daemons:
            print("SocketController doesn't know where to listen. Use register_address(hostname, port, callback) to register server addresses.")
            return
        self.onstop = onstop
        event.signal(2, self._abort)
        event.dispatch()

Other brief examples are sprinkled throughout dez.http, including in HTTPApplication, Shield, fetch, inotify, and elsewhere.

test.py

REL Test Suite - regular unittest compatible suite Submitted by Chris Clark on 10/12/2011. Thanks, Chris!

Original code here: http://code.google.com/r/clach04-pyeventtestfixes/source/browse/test.py

Sample usage:

rel\test.py
rel\test.py -v
rel\test.py -v EventTest.test_exception EventTest.test_timeout
... etc.

util.py

This module contains five functions: emit(), ask(), listen(), when(), and transpire().

listen(channel, cb)

This function registers a listener callback on a channel.

emit(channel, *args, **kwargs)

This function emits an event to all listen()ers on a channel.

ask(channel, *args, **kwargs)

This function requests an answer from the first registered listen()er on a channel.

when(event, cb, *args, **kwargs)

This function calls cb if an event has transpire()d or registers it to be called the first time it transpire()s.

transpire(event)

This function triggers any when()-registered event listeners, and notes that the event has transpired.

rel.py

R.E.L. Registed Event Listener is a pure-python implementation of pyevent, which is a wrapper around libevent, providing an identical interface without the need to compile C code, and without breaking the GIL / threading.

basic functions:

read(socket, callback, *args)
write(socket, callback, *args)
timeout(delay, callback, *args)
signal(sig, callback, *args)
event(callback,arg=None,evtype=0,handle=None)
dispatch()
loop()
abort()
abort_branch() (non-pyevent only)
thread()
init()

registrars

rel will use the fastest registrar available on your system:

supported_methods = ['epoll','kqueue','poll','select','pyevent']

The supported_methods[] registrar priority list, as well as other settings, can be altered using the (optional) initialize() function:

initialize(methods=supported_methods,options=()) - possible options:

'verbose' - prints out certain events
'report' - prints status of non-pyevent registrar every 5 seconds
'strict' - ONLY try specified methods
'threaded' - enable GIL hack -- pyevent only!

override()

This override function can be used to seamlessly swap rel into a pyevent application.

buff.py

This module has a BuffWriter and a convenience function, buffwrite().

listener.py

This module includes four classes: Event, SocketIO, Signal, and Timer.

Event

This class uses a Registrar subclass instance to manage read, write, signal, and timeout events.

SocketIO

This class uses a Registrar subclass instance to manage read, and write events.

Signal

This class uses the signal library and a Registrar subclass instance to manage signal events.

Timer

This class uses a Registrar subclass to manage timer events.

registrar.py

This module includes the Registrar class and four subclasses, KqueueRegistrar, SelectRegistrar, PollRegistrar, and EpollRegistrar, each of which utilizes a different subsystem (kqueue, select, poll, or epoll) to manage read and write events. Registrar and its subclasses also manage signals and timers.

Reads and Writes

Reads and writes are handled by the SocketIO class defined in the listener module, which is instantiated by a couple Registrar functions:

def read(self,sock,cb,*args):
    return SocketIO(self,'read',sock,cb,*args)

def write(self,sock,cb,*args):
    return SocketIO(self,'write',sock,cb,*args)

Signals and Timers

Signals and timers are handled by the Signal and Timer classes defined in the listener module, which can be instantiated through a couple Registrar functions:

def signal(self,sig,cb,*args):
    return Signal(self,sig,cb,*args)

def timeout(self,delay,cb,*args):
    return Timer(self,delay,cb,*args)

The Registrar API is taken from pyevent, which is a wrapper around libevent.

Note that while rel can be configured to use pyevent under the hood (instead of one of the Registrar subclasses), such usage forfeits various benefits of the pure-Python Registrar subclasses, including GIL integration / thread compatibility.

Event Engine Rates

Another benefit of the pure-Python Registrar subclasses (wrapping epoll, poll, kqueue, and select - by default, rel uses the fastest available) is that they run at configurable rates. By default, rel's CPU footprint is unnoticeably tiny unless it's currently managing active writes or reads, in which case it ramps up to push the bytes through faster. These rates (normal and turbo) can be adjusted with a couple functions:

def set_sleep(s):
    global SLEEP_SEC
    SLEEP_SEC = s

def set_turbo(s):
    global SLEEP_TURBO
    SLEEP_TURBO = s

tools.py

This module contains a single tool (Timer) and a CLI wrapper (timerCLI()).

Timer

Timer's start() function contains basic usage examples of the timeout(), signal(), and dispatch() functions:

def start(self):
    self.count = 0
    notice("starting countdown to %s"%(self.goal,))
    rel.timeout(1, self.update)
    rel.signal(2, self.stop)
    rel.dispatch()

Similarly, Timer.stop() triggers rel.abort().

timerCLI

This function contains an example of rel initialization, which is optional, but may be used to specify particular settings:

if options.verbose:
    rel.initialize(options=["verbose"])

usage

rtimer [seconds] [minutes] [hours] [update_increment]

All arguments default to zero. So:

rtimer 15 30 2 60

means run for 15 seconds, 30 minutes, and 2 hours, printing a notice every 60 seconds.

rtimer 0 5

means run for 5 minutes, printing no incremental updates.

The -s, -m, -r, and -i flags may also be used to indicate seconds, minutes, hours, and increment, and if any flag is specified, update_increment defaults to 1 (instead of 0).

When the time runs out, a sound will play on two conditions: there is a readable file at the specified path (configurable via the -p flag, with default: ~/.rtimer/), and mplayer is installed.