Asynchronous I/O in NodeJS - new standard or challenges?
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The document discusses asynchronous I/O in Node.js and compares processing models using processes, threads, and events. It explains how Node.js uses an event-driven and asynchronous model with callbacks to handle non-blocking I/O. It also discusses challenges with callbacks and introduces flow control libraries that can help address issues with readability and debugging of asynchronous code.
Asynchronous I/O in NodeJS - new standard or challenges?
- 1. Asynchronous I/O in NodeJS - Standard and challenge of web programming? Pham Cong Dinh @ SkunkWorks @pcdinh BarCamp Saigon 2011 Follow us on Twitter: @teamskunkworks
- 2. Notice It is not a comprehensive study
- 3. Things can be changed
- 4. No standard at the moment
- 5. Unix only
- 6. Proven control flow models Single-threaded process model Prefork MPM Apache HTTPd Multi-threaded process model Worker MPM Apache HTTPd
- 7. JVM
- 8. Emerging control flow models Coroutines Coroutines are computer program components that generalize subroutines to allow multiple entry points for suspending and resuming execution at certain locations. Fiber A lightweight thread of execution. Like threads, fibers share address space. However, fibers use co-operative multitasking while threads use pre-emptive multitasking. Events: non-blocking I/O
- 9. Events / Non-blocking I/O From http://bethesignal.org/
- 10. Request handling: Process / Threads / Events Process: A single process is forked per request. That process is blocked until response can be produced
- 11. Threads: A process contains multiple threads. A single thread is assigned to handle an incoming request. Thread-per-request model
- 12. Events: A process consists of the processing of a series of events. At any instant in time, a single event/request is being processed. The process is not blocked on I/O request.
- 13. Request handling: Process / Threads / Events Threads shares ● D efault share memor y ● F ile descriptors ● Filesystem context ● Signals and S ignal handling
- 14. Request handling: Process / Threads / Events Thread creation is expensive - From iobound.com
- 15. Request handling: Process / Threads / Events Context switching is expensive
- 16. Request handling: Process / Threads / Events Blocking model: Process and Threads
- 17. Request handling: Process / Threads / Events Non-blocking model: Events
- 18. Request handling: Event-driven IO loop issue poll vs. epoll epoll: O(1) or O(n=active)
- 19. Request handling: Event-driven callback issues Non-blocking IO Loop vs. Blocking callback Event dispatching is not blocked Callback can be blocked Mixing asynchronous code and synchronous code can be bad
- 20. Events in NodeJS libev for event loops
- 21. libeio for asynchonous file I/O
- 22. c-ares for asynchronous DNS requests and name resolution.
- 23. evcom (by Ryan Dahl) is a stream socket library on top of libev.
- 24. Asynchronous programming model in NodeJS First citizen: High order function/callback
- 25. Most “objects” in NodeJS are Event Emitters (http server/client, etc.)
- 26. Most low level “functions” take callbacks. (posix API, DNS lookups, etc.) Blocking code var a = db.query('SELECT A'); console.log('result a:', a); Non-blocking code using callback db.query('SELECT A', function(result) { console.log('result a:', result); });
- 27. Asynchronous programming model in NodeJS Callbacks is hard Divides things into stages and handle each stage in a a callback
- 28. Do things in a specific order.
- 29. You must keep track of what is done at a point of time
- 30. Hard to handle failures
- 31. Nested callbacks can be hard to read
- 32. Asynchronous programming model in NodeJS Nested callbacks can be hard to read var transferFile = function (request, response) { var uri = url.parse(request.url).pathname; var filepath = path.join(process.cwd(), uri); // check whether the file is exist and get the result from callback path.exists(filepath, function (exists) { if (!exists) { response.writeHead(404, {"Content-Type": "text/plain"}); response.write("404 Not Found\n"); response.end(); } else { // read the file content and get the result from callback fs.readFile(filepath, "binary", function (error, data) { if (error) { response.writeHead(500, {"Content-Type": "text/plain"}); response.write(error + "\n"); } else { response.writeHead(200); response.write(data, "binary"); } response.end(); }); } }); }
- 33. Asynchronous programming model in NodeJS Callback is hard to debug function f () { throw new Error(’foo’); } setTimeout(f, 10000*Math.random()); setTimeout(f, 10000*Math.random()); From which line does the error arise?
- 34. Asynchronous programming model in NodeJS Flow Control Libraries Steps https://github.com/creationix/step
- 37. Asynchronous programming model in NodeJS Flow Control Libraries: Steps Step's goal is to both remove boilerplate code and to improve readability of asynchronous code. The features are easy chaining of serial actions with optional parallel groups within each step. Step( function readSelf() { fs.readFile(__filename, this); }, function capitalize(err, text) { if (err) throw err; return text.toUpperCase(); }, function showIt(err, newText) { if (err) throw err; console.log(newText); } );
- 38. Asynchronous programming model in NodeJS Flow Control Libraries: Flow-JS Flow-JS provides a Javascript construct that is something like a continuation or a fiber found in other languages. Practically speaking, it can be used to eliminate so-called "pyramids" from your multi-step asynchronous logic. dbGet('userIdOf:bobvance', function(userId) { dbSet('user:' + userId + ':email', '[email protected]', function() { dbSet('user:' + userId + ':firstName', 'Bob', function() { dbSet('user:' + userId + ':lastName', 'Vance', function() { okWeAreDone(); }); }); }); }); Asynchronous programming model in NodeJS Flow Control Libraries: Flow-JS flow.exec( function() { dbGet('userIdOf:bobvance', this); }, function(userId) { dbSet('user:' + userId + ':email', '[email protected]', this.MULTI()); dbSet('user:' + userId + ':firstName', 'Bob', this.MULTI()); dbSet('user:' + userId + ':lastName', 'Vance', this.MULTI()); }, function() { okWeAreDone() } );
- 39. Asynchronous programming model in NodeJS JavaScript extension: TameJS Tame (or "TameJs") is an extension to JavaScript, written in JavaScript, that makes event programming easier to write, read, and edit when control-flow libraries are not good enough!.
- 41. Asynchronous programming model in NodeJS JavaScript extension: TameJS Synchronous code handleVisit : function(angel, buffy) { var match_score = getScore(angel, buffy); var next_match = getNextMatch(angel); var visit_info = recordVisitAndGetInfo(angel, buffy); if (match_score > 0.9 && ! visit_info.last_visit) { sendVisitorEmail(angel, buffy); } doSomeFinalThings(match_score, next_match, visit_info); } Asynchrnous code handleVisit : function(angel, buffy) { getScore(angel, buffy, function(match_score) { getNextMatch(angel, function(next_match) { recordVisitAndGetInfo(angel, buffy, function(visit_info) { if (match_score > 0.9 && ! visit_info.last_visit) { sendVisitorEmail(angel, buffy); } doSomeFinalThings(match_score, next_match, visit_info); }); }); }); }
- 42. Asynchronous programming model in NodeJS JavaScript extension: TameJS TameJS style handleVisit : function(angel, buffy) { // // let's fire all 3 at once // await { getScore (angel, buffy, defer (var score)); getNextMatch (angel, buffy, defer (var next)); recordVisitAndGetInfo (angel, buffy, defer (var vinfo)); } // // they've called back, and now we have our data // if (score > 0.9 && ! vinfo.last_visit) { sendVisitorEmail(angel, buffy); } doSomeFinalThings(score, next, vinfo); }
- 43. Asynchronous programming model in NodeJS JavaScript's yield V8/NodeJS has not supported yield, so generator yet
- 44. The end Q & A