package async_unix

  1. Overview
  2. Docs
Legend:
Library
Module
Module type
Parameter
Class
Class type

Writer is Async's main API for output to a file descriptor. It is the analog of Core.Out_channel.

Each writer has an internal buffer, to which Writer.write* adds data. Each writer uses an Async microthread that makes write() system calls to move the data from the writer's buffer to an OS buffer via the file descriptor. There is no guarantee that the data sync on the other side of the writer can keep up with the rate at which you are writing. If it cannot, the OS buffer will fill up and the writer's micro-thread will be unable to send any bytes. In that case, calls to Writer.write* will grow the writer's buffer without bound, as long as your program produces data. One solution to this problem is to call Writer.flushed and not continue until that becomes determined, which will only happen once the bytes in the writer's buffer have been successfully transferred to the OS buffer. Another solution is to check Writer.bytes_to_write and not produce any more data if that is beyond some bound.

There are two kinds of errors that one can handle with writers. First, a writer can be closed, which will cause future writes (and other operations) to synchronously raise an excecption. Second, the writer's microthread can fail due to a write() system call failing. This will cause an exception to be sent to the writer's monitor, which will be a child of the monitor in effect when the writer is created. One can deal with such asynchronous exceptions in the usual way, by handling the stream returned by Monitor.detach_and_get_error_stream (Writer.monitor writer).

module Line_ending : sig ... end
type t
include sig ... end
val sexp_of_t : t -> Sexplib.Sexp.t
include Async_unix.Import.Invariant.S with type t := t
val invariant : t -> unit
val io_stats : Io_stats.t

io_stats Overall IO statistics for all writers

val stdout : t Core.Lazy.t

stdout and stderr are writers for file descriptors 1 and 2. They are lazy because we don't want to create them in all programs that happen to link with Async.

When either stdout or stderr is created, they both are created. Furthermore, if they point to the same inode, then they will be the same writer to Fd.stdout. This can be confusing, because fd (force stderr) will be Fd.stdout, not Fd.stderr. And subsequent modifications of Fd.stderr will have no effect on Writer.stderr.

Unfortunately, the sharing is necessary because Async uses OS threads to do write() syscalls using the writer buffer. When calling a program that redirects stdout and stderr to the same file, as in:

      foo.exe >/tmp/z.file 2>&1

if Writer.stdout and Writer.stderr weren't the same writer, then they could have threads simultaneously writing to the same file, which could easily cause data loss.

val stderr : t Core.Lazy.t
type buffer_age_limit = [
  1. | `At_most of Core.Time.Span.t
  2. | `Unlimited
]
include sig ... end
val bin_buffer_age_limit : buffer_age_limit Core.Bin_prot.Type_class.t
val bin_read_buffer_age_limit : buffer_age_limit Core.Bin_prot.Read.reader
val __bin_read_buffer_age_limit__ : (int -> buffer_age_limit) Core.Bin_prot.Read.reader
val bin_reader_buffer_age_limit : buffer_age_limit Core.Bin_prot.Type_class.reader
val bin_size_buffer_age_limit : buffer_age_limit Core.Bin_prot.Size.sizer
val bin_write_buffer_age_limit : buffer_age_limit Core.Bin_prot.Write.writer
val bin_writer_buffer_age_limit : buffer_age_limit Core.Bin_prot.Type_class.writer
val bin_shape_buffer_age_limit : Core.Bin_prot.Shape.t
val buffer_age_limit_of_sexp : Sexplib.Sexp.t -> buffer_age_limit
val __buffer_age_limit_of_sexp__ : Sexplib.Sexp.t -> buffer_age_limit
val sexp_of_buffer_age_limit : buffer_age_limit -> Sexplib.Sexp.t
val create : ?buf_len:int -> ?syscall:[ `Per_cycle | `Periodic of Core.Time.Span.t ] -> ?buffer_age_limit:buffer_age_limit -> ?raise_when_consumer_leaves:bool -> ?line_ending:Line_ending.t -> Fd.t -> t

create ?buf_len ?syscall ?buffer_age_limit fd creates a new writer. The file descriptor fd should not be in use for writing by anything else.

By default, a write system call occurs at the end of a cycle in which bytes were written. One can supply ~syscall:(`Periodic span) to get better performance. This batches writes together, doing the write system call periodically according to the supplied span.

A writer can asynchronously fail if the underlying write syscall returns an error, e.g. EBADF, EPIPE, ECONNRESET, ....

buffer_age_limit specifies how backed up you can get before raising an exception. The default is `Unlimited for files, and 2 minutes for other kinds of file descriptors. You can supply `Unlimited to turn off buffer-age checks.

raise_when_consumer_leaves specifies whether the writer should raise an exception when the consumer receiving bytes from the writer leaves, i.e. in Unix, the write syscall returns EPIPE or ECONNRESET. If not raise_when_consumer_leaves, then the writer will silently drop all writes after the consumer leaves, and the writer will eventually fail with a writer-buffer-older-than error if the application remains open long enough.

line_ending determines how newline and write_line terminate lines by default. If line_ending = Unix then end of line is "\n", if line_ending = Dos then end of line is "\r\n". Note that line_ending = Dos is not equivalent to opening the file in text mode because any "\n" characters being printed by other means (e.g. write "\n") are still written verbatim (in Unix style).

val raise_when_consumer_leaves : t -> bool
val set_raise_when_consumer_leaves : t -> bool -> unit

set_raise_when_consumer_leaves t bool sets the raise_when_consumer_leaves flag of t, which determies how t responds to a write system call raising EPIPE and ECONNRESET (see create).

val set_buffer_age_limit : t -> buffer_age_limit -> unit

set_buffer_age_limit t buffer_age_limit replaces the existing buffer age limit with the new one. This is useful for stdout and stderr, which are lazily created in a context that does not allow applications to specify buffer_age_limit.

val consumer_left : t -> unit Async_unix.Import.Deferred.t

consumer_left t returns a deferred that becomes determined when t attempts to write to a pipe that broke because the consumer on the other side left.

val of_out_channel : Core.Out_channel.t -> Fd.Kind.t -> t
val open_file : ?append:bool -> ?buf_len:int -> ?perm:int -> ?line_ending:Line_ending.t -> string -> t Async_unix.Import.Deferred.t

open_file file opens file for writing and returns a writer for it. It uses Unix_syscalls.openfile to open the file.

val with_file : ?perm:int -> ?append:bool -> ?exclusive:bool -> ?line_ending:Line_ending.t -> string -> f:(t -> 'a Async_unix.Import.Deferred.t) -> 'a Async_unix.Import.Deferred.t

with_file ~file f opens file for writing, creates a writer t, and runs f t to obtain a deferred d. When d becomes determined, the writer is closed. When the close completes, the result of with_file becomes determined with the value of d.

There is no need to call Writer.flushed to ensure that with_file waits for the writer to be flushed before closing it. Writer.close will already wait for the flush.

val id : t -> Id.t

id t

  • returns

    an id for this writer that is unique among all other writers

val fd : t -> Fd.t

fd t

  • returns

    the Fd.t used to create this writer

val set_fd : t -> Fd.t -> unit Async_unix.Import.Deferred.t

set_fd t fd sets the fd used by t for its underlying system calls. It first waits until everything being sent to the current fd is flushed. Of course, one must understand how the writer works and what one is doing to use this.

val write_gen : ?pos:int -> ?len:int -> t -> 'a -> blit_to_bigstring:('a, Core.Bigstring.t) Core.Blit.blit -> length:('a -> int) -> unit

write_gen t a writes a to writer t, with length specifying the number of bytes needed and blit_to_bigstring blitting a directly into the t's buffer. If one has a type that has length and blit_to_bigstring functions, like:

module A : sig
  type t
  val length : t -> int
  val blit_to_bigstring : (t, Bigstring.t) Blit.blit
end 

then one can use write_gen to implement a custom analog of Writer.write, like:

module Write_a : sig
  val write : ?pos:int -> ?len:int -> A.t -> Writer.t -> unit
end = struct
  let write ?pos ?len a writer =
    Writer.write_gen
      ~length:A.length
      ~blit_to_bigstring:A.blit_to_bigstring
      ?pos ?len writer a
end 

In some cases it may be difficult to write only part of a value:

module B : sig
  type t
  val length : t -> int
  val blit_to_bigstring : t -> Bigstring.t -> pos:int -> unit
end 

In these cases, use write_gen_whole instead. It never requires writing only part of a value, although it is potentially less space-efficient. It may waste portions of previously-allocated write buffers if they are too small.

module Write_b : sig
  val write : B.t -> Writer.t -> unit
end = struct
  let write b writer =
    Writer.write_gen_whole
      ~length:B.length
      ~blit_to_bigstring:B.blit_to_bigstring
      writer b
end 

Note: write_gen and write_gen_whole give you access to the writer's internal buffer. You should not capture it; doing so might lead to errors of the segfault kind.

val write_gen_whole : t -> 'a -> blit_to_bigstring:('a -> Core.Bigstring.t -> pos:int -> unit) -> length:('a -> int) -> unit
val write_direct : t -> f:(Core.Bigstring.t -> pos:int -> len:int -> 'a * int) -> 'a option

write_direct t ~f gives t's internal buffer to f. pos and len define the portion of the buffer that can be filled. f must return a pair (x, written) where written is the number of bytes written to the buffer at pos. write_direct raises if written < 0 || written > len. write_direct returns Some x, or None if the writer is stopped. By using write_direct only, one can ensure that the writer's internal buffer never grows. Look at the write_direct expect tests for an example of how this can be used to construct a write_string like function that never grows the internal buffer.

val write : ?pos:int -> ?len:int -> t -> string -> unit

write ?pos ?len t s adds a job to the writer's queue of pending writes. The contents of the string are copied to an internal buffer before write returns, so clients can do whatever they want with s after that.

val write_bigstring : ?pos:int -> ?len:int -> t -> Core.Bigstring.t -> unit
val write_iobuf : ?pos:int -> ?len:int -> t -> ([> Core.read ], _) Core.Iobuf.t -> unit
val write_substring : t -> Core.Substring.t -> unit
val write_bigsubstring : t -> Core.Bigsubstring.t -> unit
val writef : t -> ('a, unit, string, unit) Core.format4 -> 'a
val to_formatter : t -> Format.formatter

to_formatter t

  • returns

    an OCaml-formatter that one can print to using Format.fprintf. Note that flushing the formatter will only submit all buffered data to the writer, but does _not_ guarantee flushing to the operating system.

val write_char : t -> char -> unit

write_char t c writes the character

val newline : ?line_ending:Line_ending.t -> t -> unit

newline t writes the end-of-line terminator. line_ending can override t's line_ending.

val write_line : ?line_ending:Line_ending.t -> t -> string -> unit

write_line t s ?line_ending is write t s; newline t ?line_ending.

val write_byte : t -> int -> unit

write_byte t i writes one 8-bit integer (as the single character with that code). The given integer is taken modulo 256.

module Terminate_with : sig ... end
val write_sexp : ?hum:bool -> ?terminate_with:Terminate_with.t -> t -> Core.Sexp.t -> unit

write_sexp t sexp writes to t the string representation of sexp, possibly followed by a terminating character as per Terminate_with. With ~terminate_with:Newline, the terminating character is a newline. With ~terminate_with:Space_if_needed, if a space is needed to ensure that the sexp reader knows that it has reached the end of the sexp, then the terminating character will be a space; otherwise, no terminating character is added. A terminating space is needed if the string representation doesn't end in ')' or '"'.

val write_bin_prot : t -> 'a Core.Bin_prot.Type_class.writer -> 'a -> unit

write_bin_prot writes out a value using its bin_prot sizer/writer pair. The format is the "size-prefixed binary protocol", in which the length of the data is written before the data itself. This is the format that Reader.read_bin_prot reads.

val write_bin_prot_no_size_header : t -> size:int -> 'a Core.Bin_prot.Write.writer -> 'a -> unit

Writes out a value using its bin_prot writer. Unlike write_bin_prot, this doesn't prefix the output with the size of the bin_prot blob. size is the expected size. This function will raise if the bin_prot writer writes an amount other than size bytes.

val write_marshal : t -> flags:Marshal.extern_flags list -> _ -> unit

Serialize data using marshal and write it to the writer

Unlike the write_ functions, all functions starting with schedule_ require flushing or closing of the writer after returning before it is safe to modify the bigstrings which were directly or indirectly passed to these functions. The reason is that these bigstrings will be read from directly when writing; their contents is not copied to internal buffers.

This is important if users need to send the same large data string to a huge number of clients simultaneously (e.g. on a cluster), because these functions then avoid needlessly exhausting memory by sharing the data.

val schedule_bigstring : t -> ?pos:int -> ?len:int -> Core.Bigstring.t -> unit

schedule_bigstring t bstr schedules a write of bigstring bstr. It is not safe to change the bigstring until the writer has been successfully flushed or closed after this operation.

val schedule_bigsubstring : t -> Core.Bigsubstring.t -> unit
val schedule_iobuf_peek : t -> ?pos:int -> ?len:int -> ([> Core.read ], _) Core.Iobuf.t -> unit

schedule_iobuf_peek is like schedule_bigstring, but for an iobuf. It is not safe to change the iobuf until the writer has been successfully flushed or closed after this operation.

val schedule_iobuf_consume : t -> ?len:int -> ([> Core.read ], Core.Iobuf.seek) Core.Iobuf.t -> unit Async_unix.Import.Deferred.t

schedule_iobuf_consume is like schedule_iobuf_peek, and additionally advances the iobuf beyond the portion that has been written. Until the result is determined, it is not safe to assume whether the iobuf has been advanced yet or not.

val schedule_iovec : t -> Core.Bigstring.t Core.Unix.IOVec.t -> unit

schedule_iovec t iovec schedules a write of I/O-vector iovec. It is not safe to change the bigstrings underlying the I/O-vector until the writer has been successfully flushed or closed after this operation.

val schedule_iovecs : t -> Core.Bigstring.t Core.Unix.IOVec.t Core.Queue.t -> unit

schedule_iovecs t iovecs like schedule_iovec, but takes a whole queue iovecs of I/O-vectors as argument. The queue is guaranteed to be empty when this function returns and can be modified. It is not safe to change the bigstrings underlying the I/O-vectors until the writer has been successfully flushed or closed after this operation.

val flushed : t -> unit Async_unix.Import.Deferred.t

flushed t returns a deferred that will become determined when all prior writes complete (i.e. the write() system call returns). If a prior write fails, then the deferred will never become determined.

It is OK to call flushed t after t has been closed.

val fsync : t -> unit Async_unix.Import.Deferred.t
val fdatasync : t -> unit Async_unix.Import.Deferred.t
val send : t -> string -> unit

send t s writes a string to the channel that can be read back using Reader.recv

monitor t returns the writer's monitor.

val close : ?force_close:unit Async_unix.Import.Deferred.t -> t -> unit Async_unix.Import.Deferred.t

close ?force_close t waits for the writer to be flushed, and then calls Unix.close on the underlying file descriptor. force_close causes the Unix.close to happen even if the flush hangs. By default force_close is Deferred.never () for files and after (sec 5) for other types of file descriptors (e.g. sockets). If the close is forced, data in the writer's buffer may not be written to the file descriptor. You can check this by calling bytes_to_write after close finishes.

WARNING: force_close will not reliably stop any write that is in progress. If there are any in-flight system calls, it will wait for them to finish, which includes writev, which can legitimately block forever.

close will raise an exception if the Unix.close on the underlying file descriptor fails.

It is required to call close on a writer in order to close the underlying file descriptor. Not doing so will cause a file descriptor leak. It also will cause a space leak, because until the writer is closed, it is held on to in order to flush the writer on shutdown.

It is an error to call other operations on t after close t has been called, except that calls of close subsequent to the original call to close will return the same deferred as the original call.

close_started t becomes determined as soon as close is called.

close_finished t becomes determined after t's underlying file descriptor has been closed, i.e. it is the same as the result of close. close_finished differs from close in that it does not have the side effect of initiating a close.

is_closed t returns true iff close t has been called.

is_open t is not (is_closed t)

with_close t ~f runs f (), and closes t after f finishes or raises.

val close_started : t -> unit Async_unix.Import.Deferred.t
val close_finished : t -> unit Async_unix.Import.Deferred.t
val is_closed : t -> bool
val is_open : t -> bool
val with_close : t -> f:(unit -> 'a Async_unix.Import.Deferred.t) -> 'a Async_unix.Import.Deferred.t
val can_write : t -> bool

can_write t returns true if calls to write* functions on t are allowed. If is_open t then can_write t. But one can have is_closed t and can_write t, during the time after close t before closing has finished.

val is_stopped_permanently : t -> bool

Errors raised within the writer can stop the background job that flushes out the writer's buffers. is_stopped_permanently returns true when the background job has stopped. stopped_permanently becomes determined when the background job has stopped.

val stopped_permanently : t -> unit Async_unix.Import.Deferred.t
val with_flushed_at_close : t -> flushed:(unit -> unit Async_unix.Import.Deferred.t) -> f:(unit -> 'a Async_unix.Import.Deferred.t) -> 'a Async_unix.Import.Deferred.t

In addition to flushing its internal buffer prior to closing, a writer keeps track of producers that are feeding it data, so that when Writer.close is called, it does the following:

  1. requests that the writer's producers flush their data to it
  2. flushes the writer's internal buffer
  3. calls Unix.close on the writer's underlying file descriptor

with_flushed_at_close t ~flushed ~f calls f and adds flushed to the set of producers that should be flushed-at-close, for the duration of f.

val bytes_to_write : t -> int

bytes_to_write t returns how many bytes have been requested to write but have not yet been written.

val bytes_written : t -> Core.Int63.t

bytes_written t returns how many bytes have been written.

val bytes_received : t -> Core.Int63.t

bytes_received t returns how many bytes have been received by the writer. As long as the writer is running, bytes_received = bytes_written + bytes_to_write.

with_file_atomic ?temp_file ?perm ?fsync file ~f creates a writer to a temp file, feeds that writer to f, and when the result of f becomes determined, atomically moves (i.e. uses Unix.rename) the temp file to file. If file currently exists, it will be replaced, even if it is read only. The temp file will be file (or temp_file if supplied) suffixed by a unique random sequence of six characters. The temp file may need to be removed in case of a crash so it may be prudent to choose a temp file that can be easily found by cleanup tools.

If fsync is true, the temp file will be flushed to disk before it takes the place of the target file, thus guaranteeing that the target file will always be in a sound state, even after a machine crash. Since synchronization is extremely slow, this is not the default. Think carefully about the event of machine crashes and whether you may need this option!

We intend for with_file_atomic to preserve the behavior of the open system call, so if file does not exist, we will apply the umask to perm. If file does exist, perm will default to the file's current permissions rather than 0o666.

save is a special case of with_file_atomic that atomically writes the given string to the specified file.

save_sexp is a special case of with_file_atomic that atomically writes the given sexp to the specified file.

val with_file_atomic : ?temp_file:string -> ?perm:Core.Unix.file_perm -> ?fsync:bool -> string -> f:(t -> 'a Async_unix.Import.Deferred.t) -> 'a Async_unix.Import.Deferred.t
val save : ?temp_file:string -> ?perm:Core.Unix.file_perm -> ?fsync:bool -> string -> contents:string -> unit Async_unix.Import.Deferred.t
val save_lines : ?temp_file:string -> ?perm:Core.Unix.file_perm -> ?fsync:bool -> string -> string list -> unit Async_unix.Import.Deferred.t

save_lines file lines writes all lines in lines to file, with each line followed by a newline.

val save_sexp : ?temp_file:string -> ?perm:Core.Unix.file_perm -> ?fsync:bool -> ?hum:bool -> string -> Core.Sexp.t -> unit Async_unix.Import.Deferred.t

save_sexp t sexp writes sexp to t, followed by a newline. To read a file produced using save_sexp, one would typically use Reader.load_sexp, which deals with the additional whitespace and works nicely with converting the sexp to a value.

val save_sexps : ?temp_file:string -> ?perm:Core.Unix.file_perm -> ?fsync:bool -> ?hum:bool -> string -> Core.Sexp.t list -> unit Async_unix.Import.Deferred.t

save_sexps works similarly to save_sexp, but saves a sequence of sexps instead, separated by newlines. There is a corresponding Reader.load_sexps for reading back in.

val save_bin_prot : ?temp_file:string -> ?perm:Core.Unix.file_perm -> ?fsync:bool -> string -> 'a Core.Bin_prot.Type_class.writer -> 'a -> unit Async_unix.Import.Deferred.t

save_bin_prot t bin_writer 'a writes 'a to t using its bin_writer, in the size-prefixed format, like write_bin_prot. To read a file produced using save_bin_prot, one would typically use Reader.load_bin_prot.

val transfer' : ?stop:unit Async_unix.Import.Deferred.t -> ?max_num_values_per_read:int -> t -> 'a Async_unix.Import.Pipe.Reader.t -> ('a Core.Queue.t -> unit Async_unix.Import.Deferred.t) -> unit Async_unix.Import.Deferred.t

transfer' t pipe_r f repeatedly reads values from pipe_r and feeds them to f, which should in turn write them to t. It provides pushback to pipe_r by not reading when t cannot keep up with the data being pushed in.

By default, each read from pipe_r reads all the values in pipe_r. One can supply max_num_values_per_read to limit the number of values per read.

The transfer' stops and the result becomes determined when stop becomes determined, when pipe_r reaches its EOF, when t is closed, or when t's consumer leaves. In the latter two cases, transfer' closes pipe_r.

transfer' causes Pipe.flushed on pipe_r's writer to ensure that the bytes have been flushed to t before returning. It also waits on Pipe.upstream_flushed at shutdown.

transfer t pipe_r f is equivalent to:

transfer' t pipe_r (fun q -> Queue.iter q ~f; return ()) 
val transfer : ?stop:unit Async_unix.Import.Deferred.t -> ?max_num_values_per_read:int -> t -> 'a Async_unix.Import.Pipe.Reader.t -> ('a -> unit) -> unit Async_unix.Import.Deferred.t
val pipe : t -> string Async_unix.Import.Pipe.Writer.t

pipe t returns the writing end of a pipe attached to t that pushes back when t cannot keep up with the data being pushed in. Closing the pipe does not close t.

val of_pipe : Core.Info.t -> string Async_unix.Import.Pipe.Writer.t -> (t * [ `Closed_and_flushed_downstream of unit Async_unix.Import.Deferred.t ]) Async_unix.Import.Deferred.t

of_pipe info pipe_w returns a writer t such that data written to t will appear on pipe_w. If either t or pipe_w are closed, the other is closed as well.

of_pipe is implemented by attaching t to the write-end of a Unix pipe, and shuttling bytes from the read-end of the Unix pipe to pipe_w.

val behave_nicely_in_pipeline : ?writers:t list -> unit -> unit

behave_nicely_in_pipeline ~writers () causes the program to silently exit status zero if any of the consumers of writers go away. It also sets the buffer age to unlimited, in case there is a human (e.g. using less) on the other side of the pipeline.

OCaml

Innovation. Community. Security.