package threads;
-use 5.7.2;
+use 5.008;
use strict;
use warnings;
+use Config;
-use overload
- '==' => \&equals,
+BEGIN {
+ unless ($Config{useithreads}) {
+ my @caller = caller(2);
+ die <<EOF;
+$caller[1] line $caller[2]:
+
+This Perl hasn't been configured and built properly for the threads
+module to work. (The 'useithreads' configuration option hasn't been used.)
+
+Having threads support requires all of Perl and all of the XS modules in
+the Perl installation to be rebuilt, it is not just a question of adding
+the threads module. (In other words, threaded and non-threaded Perls
+are binary incompatible.)
+
+If you want to the use the threads module, please contact the people
+who built your Perl.
+
+Cannot continue, aborting.
+EOF
+ }
+}
+
+use overload
+ '==' => \&equal,
'fallback' => 1;
#use threads::Shared;
+BEGIN {
+ warn "Warning, threads::shared has already been loaded. ".
+ "To enable shared variables for these modules 'use threads' ".
+ "must be called before any of those modules are loaded\n"
+ if($threads::shared::threads_shared);
+}
+
require Exporter;
require DynaLoader;
our @ISA = qw(Exporter DynaLoader);
-our %EXPORT_TAGS = ( all => [qw()]);
+our %EXPORT_TAGS = ( all => [qw(yield)]);
our @EXPORT_OK = ( @{ $EXPORT_TAGS{'all'} } );
our @EXPORT = qw(
-
+async
);
-our $VERSION = '0.05';
+our $VERSION = '0.99';
-sub equals {
+sub equal {
return 1 if($_[0]->tid() == $_[1]->tid());
return 0;
}
+sub async (&;@) {
+ my $cref = shift;
+ return threads->new($cref,@_);
+}
+
+sub object {
+ return undef unless @_ > 1;
+ foreach (threads->list) {
+ return $_ if $_->tid == $_[1];
+ }
+ return undef;
+}
+
$threads::threads = 1;
bootstrap threads $VERSION;
+# why document 'new' then use 'create' in the tests!
+*create = \&new;
+
# Preloaded methods go here.
1;
=head1 SYNOPSIS
-use threads;
+ use threads;
-sub start_thread {
- print "Thread started\n";
-}
+ sub start_thread {
+ print "Thread started\n";
+ }
-my $thread = threads->new("start_thread","argument");
+ my $thread = threads->create("start_thread","argument");
+ my $thread2 = $thread->create(sub { print "I am a thread"},"argument");
+ my $thread3 = async { foreach (@files) { ... } };
-$thread->new(sub { print "I am a thread"},"argument");
+ $thread->join();
+ $thread->detach();
-$thread->join();
+ $thread = threads->self();
+ $thread = threads->object( $tid );
-$thread->detach();
+ $thread->tid();
+ threads->tid();
+ threads->self->tid();
-$thread = threads->self();
+ threads->yield();
-thread->tid();
+ threads->list();
=head1 DESCRIPTION
-Perl 5.6 has something called interpreter threads, interpreter threads
-are built on MULTIPLICITY and allows for several different perl
-interpreters to run in different threads. This has been used in win32
-perl to fake forks, it has also been available to people embedding
-perl.
+Perl 5.6 introduced something called interpreter threads. Interpreter
+threads are different from "5005threads" (the thread model of Perl
+5.005) by creating a new perl interpreter per thread and not sharing
+any data or state between threads by default.
+
+Prior to perl 5.8 this has only been available to people embedding
+perl and for emulating fork() on windows.
+
+The threads API is loosely based on the old Thread.pm API. It is very
+important to note that variables are not shared between threads, all
+variables are per default thread local. To use shared variables one
+must use threads::shared.
+
+It is also important to note that you must enable threads by doing
+C<use threads> as early as possible in the script itself and that it
+is not possible to enable threading inside an C<eval "">, C<do>,
+C<require>, or C<use>. In particular, if you are intending to share
+variables with threads::shared, you must C<use threads> before you
+C<use threads::shared> and C<threads> will emit a warning if you do
+it the other way around.
=over
-=item new, function, LIST
+=item $thread = threads->create(function, LIST)
This will create a new thread with the entry point function and give
it LIST as parameters. It will return the corresponding threads
-object.
+object. The new() method is an alias for create().
-=item $threads->join
+=item $thread->join
-This will wait for the corresponding thread to join. When it finishes join will return the return values of the root function.
-If a thread has been detached, join will return without wait.
+This will wait for the corresponding thread to join. When the thread
+finishes, join() will return the return values of the entry point
+function. If the thread has been detached, an error will be thrown.
+If the program exits without all other threads having been either
+joined or detached, then a warning will be issued. (A program exits
+either because one of its threads explicitly calls exit(), or in the
+case of the main thread, reaches the end of the main program file.)
-=item $threads->detach
+=item $thread->detach
-Will throw away the return value from the thread and make non joinable
+Will make the thread unjoinable, and cause any eventual return value
+to be discarded.
=item threads->self
-This will return the object for the current thread.
+This will return the thread object for the current thread.
+
+=item $thread->tid
+
+This will return the id of the thread. Thread IDs are integers, with
+the main thread in a program being 0. Currently Perl assigns a unique
+tid to every thread ever created in your program, assigning the first
+thread to be created a tid of 1, and increasing the tid by 1 for each
+new thread that's created.
+
+NB the class method C<< threads->tid() >> is a quick way to get the
+current thread id if you don't have your thread object handy.
+
+=item threads->object( tid )
+
+This will return the thread object for the thread associated with the
+specified tid. Returns undef if there is no thread associated with the tid
+or no tid is specified or the specified tid is undef.
+
+=item threads->yield();
+
+This is a suggestion to the OS to let this thread yield CPU time to other
+threads. What actually happens is highly dependent upon the underlying
+thread implementation.
+
+You may do C<use threads qw(yield)> then use just a bare C<yield> in your
+code.
+
+=item threads->list();
+
+This will return a list of all non joined, non detached threads.
-=item $threads->tid
+=item async BLOCK;
-This will return the id of the thread.
-threads->self->tid() is a quick way to get current thread id
+C<async> creates a thread to execute the block immediately following
+it. This block is treated as an anonymous sub, and so must have a
+semi-colon after the closing brace. Like C<< threads->new >>, C<async>
+returns a thread object.
=back
+=head1 WARNINGS
+
+=over 4
+
+=item A thread exited while %d other threads were still running
+
+A thread (not necessarily the main thread) exited while there were
+still other threads running. Usually it's a good idea to first collect
+the return values of the created threads by joining them, and only then
+exit from the main thread.
+
+=back
=head1 TODO
+The current implementation of threads has been an attempt to get
+a correct threading system working that could be built on,
+and optimized, in newer versions of perl.
+
+Currently the overhead of creating a thread is rather large,
+also the cost of returning values can be large. These are areas
+were there most likely will be work done to optimize what data
+that needs to be cloned.
+
+=head1 BUGS
+
=over
-=item Fix so the return value is returned when you join
+=item Parent-Child threads.
+
+On some platforms it might not be possible to destroy "parent"
+threads while there are still existing child "threads".
+
+This will possibly be fixed in later versions of perl.
+
+=item tid is I32
+
+The thread id is a 32 bit integer, it can potentially overflow.
+This might be fixed in a later version of perl.
+
+=item Returning objects
-=item Add join_all
+When you return an object the entire stash that the object is blessed
+as well. This will lead to a large memory usage. The ideal situation
+would be to detect the original stash if it existed.
-=item Fix memory leaks!
+=item Creating threads inside BEGIN blocks
+
+Creating threads inside BEGIN blocks (or during the compilation phase
+in general) does not work. (In Windows, trying to use fork() inside
+BEGIN blocks is an equally losing proposition, since it has been
+implemented in very much the same way as threads.)
+
+=item PERL_OLD_SIGNALS are not threadsafe, will not be.
+
+If your Perl has been built with PERL_OLD_SIGNALS (one has
+to explicitly add that symbol to ccflags, see C<perl -V>),
+signal handling is not threadsafe.
=back
=head1 AUTHOR and COPYRIGHT
-Artur Bergman E<lt>artur at contiller.seE<gt>
+Arthur Bergman E<lt>arthur at contiller.seE<gt>
-threads is released under the same license as Perl
+threads is released under the same license as Perl.
-Thanks to
+Thanks to
-Richard Soderberg E<lt>rs at crystalflame.netE<gt>
+Richard Soderberg E<lt>rs at crystalflame.netE<gt>
Helping me out tons, trying to find reasons for races and other weird bugs!
Simon Cozens E<lt>simon at brecon.co.ukE<gt>
please join perl-ithreads@perl.org for more information
-=head1 BUGS
-
-=over
-
-=item creating a thread from within a thread is unsafe under win32
-
-=item PERL_OLD_SIGNALS are not threadsafe, will not be.
-
-=back
-
=head1 SEE ALSO
-L<perl>, L<perlcall>, L<perlembed>, L<perlguts>
+L<threads::shared>, L<perlthrtut>,
+L<http://www.perl.com/pub/a/2002/06/11/threads.html>,
+L<perlcall>, L<perlembed>, L<perlguts>
=cut