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gen_batch_server

A generic batching server for erlang / elixir

gen_batch_server is a stateful generic server similar to gen_server that instead of processing incoming requests one by one gathers them into batches before they are passed to the behaviour implementation.

Batches are processed either when the Erlang process mailbox has no further messages to batch or when the number of messages in the current batch reaches the maximum batch size limit. gen_batch_server tries to trade latency for throughput by automatically growing the max batch size limit when message ingress is high and shrinks it down again as ingress reduces.

This behaviour makes it suitable for use as a data sink, proxy or other kinds of aggregator that benefit from processing messages in batches. Examples would be a log writer that needs to flush messages to disk using file:sync/1 without undue delay or a metrics sink that aggregates metrics from multiple processes and writes them to an external service. It could also be beneficial to use gen_batch_server to proxy a bunch of processes that want to update some resource (such as a dets table) that doesn't handle casts.

Usage

start_link(Name, Mod, Args) -> Result

start_link(Name, Mod, Args, Opts) -> Result

Types:
    Name = {local,Name} | {global,GlobalName} | {via,Module,ViaName}
    Mod = module()
    Args = term()
    Opt = {debug, Dbgs} |
          {min_batch_size | max_batch_size, non_neg_integer()} |
          {reversed_batch, boolean()}
    Opts = [Opt]
    Opts = [term()]
    Result = {ok,Pid} | ignore | {error,Error}

Creates a gen_batch_server as part of a supervision tree. The minimum and maximum batch sizes that control the bounds of the batch sizes that are processed can be controlled using the min_batch_size (default: 32) and max_batch_size (default: 8192) options.

The reversed_batch option is an advanced option that where the batch that is passed to handle_batch/2 is in reversed order to the one the messages were received in. This avoids a list:reverse/1 all before the batch handling and is somewhat more performant.

cast(ServerRef, Request) -> ok

Types:
    ServerRef = pid() | {Name :: atom(), node()} | Name :: atom()
    Request = term()

Sends an asynchronous request to the gen_batch_server returning ok immediately. The request tuple ({cast, Request}) is included in the list of operations passed to Module:handle_batch/2.

cast_batch(ServerRef, Batch) -> ok

Types:
    ServerRef = pid() | {Name :: atom(), node()} | Name :: atom()
    Batch = [term()]

Sends an asynchronous batch of requests to the gen_batch_server returning ok immediately. The batch is appended in order to the current gen_batch_server batch.

call(ServerRef, Request) -> Reply

call(ServerRef, Request, Timeout) -> Reply

Types:
    ServerRef = pid() | {Name :: atom(), node()} | Name :: atom()
    Request = term()
    Reply = term()
    Timeout = non_neg_integer() | infinity.

Makes a synchronous call to the gen_batch_server and waits for the response provided by Module:handle_batch/2. The timeout is optional and defaults to 5000ms.

Module:init(Args) -> Result

Types:
    Args = term()
    Result = {ok, State} | {stop, Reason}
    State = term(),
    Reason = term()

Called whenever a gen_batch_server is started with the arguments provided to start_link/4.

Module:handle_batch(Batch, State) -> Result.

Types:
    Batch = [Op]
    UserOp = term(),
    Op = {cast, UserOp} |
         {call, from(), UserOp} |
         {info, UserOp}.
    Result = {ok, State} | {ok, Actions, State} | {stop, Reason}
    State = term()
    From = {Pid :: pid(), Tag :: reference()}
    Action = {reply, From, Msg} | garbage_collect
    Actions = [Action]
    Reason = term()

Called whenever a new batch is ready for processing. The implementation can optionally return a list of reply actions used to reply to call operations.

Module:terminate(Reason, State) -> Result

Types:
    Reason = term()
    Result = term()
    State = term(),

Optional. Called whenever a gen_batch_server is terminating.

Module:format_status(State) -> Result

Types:
    Result = term()
    State = term(),

Optional. Used to provide a custom formatting of the user state.