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NAME

MCE::Shared::Handle - Handle helper class

VERSION

This document describes MCE::Shared::Handle version 1.893

DESCRIPTION

A handle helper class for use as a standalone or managed by MCE::Shared.

SYNOPSIS

# non-shared or local construction for use by a single process
# shorter, mce_open is an alias for MCE::Shared::Handle::open
MCE::Shared::Handle->open( my $fh, "<", "bio.fasta" )
or die "open error: $!";
MCE::Shared::Handle::open my $fh, "<", "bio.fasta"
or die "open error: $!";
mce_open my $fh, "<", "bio.fasta" or die "open error: $!";
# construction for sharing with other threads and processes
# shorter, mce_open is an alias for MCE::Shared::open
MCE::Shared->open( my $fh, "<", "bio.fasta" )
or die "open error: $!";
MCE::Shared::open my $fh, "<", "bio.fasta"
or die "open error: $!";
mce_open my $fh, "<", "bio.fasta" or die "open error: $!";
# example, output is serialized, not garbled
mce_open my $ofh, ">>", \*STDOUT or die "open error: $!";
mce_open my $ifh, "<", "file.log" or die "open error: $!";
sub parallel {
$/ = "\n"; # can set the input record separator
while (my $line = <$ifh>) {
printf {$ofh} "[%5d] %s", $., $line;
}
}
MCE::Hobo->create( \&parallel ) for 1 .. 4;
$_->join() for MCE::Hobo->list();
# handle functions
my $bool = eof($ifh);
my $off = tell($ifh);
my $fd = fileno($ifh);
my $char = getc($ifh);
my $line = readline($ifh);
binmode $ifh;
seek $ifh, 10, 0;
read $ifh, my($buf), 80;
print {$ofh} "foo\n";
printf {$ofh} "%s\n", "bar";
open $ofh, ">>", \*STDERR;
syswrite $ofh, "shared handle to STDERR\n";
close $ifh;
close $ofh;

API DOCUMENTATION

MCE::Shared::Handle->new ( )

Called by MCE::Shared for constructing a shared-handle object.

open ( filehandle, expr )

open ( filehandle, mode, expr )

open ( filehandle, mode, reference )

In version 1.007 and later, constructs a new object by opening the file whose filename is given by expr, and associates it with filehandle. When omitting error checking at the application level, MCE::Shared emits a message and stop if open fails.

# non-shared or local construction for use by a single process
MCE::Shared::Handle->open( my $fh, "<", "file.log" ) or die "$!";
MCE::Shared::Handle::open my $fh, "<", "file.log" or die "$!";
mce_open my $fh, "<", "file.log" or die "$!"; # ditto
# construction for sharing with other threads and processes
MCE::Shared->open( my $fh, "<", "file.log" ) or die "$!";
MCE::Shared::open my $fh, "<", "file.log" or die "$!";
mce_open my $fh, "<", "file.log" or die "$!"; # ditto

mce_open ( filehandle, expr )

mce_open ( filehandle, mode, expr )

mce_open ( filehandle, mode, reference )

Native Perl-like syntax to open a file for reading:

# mce_open is exported by MCE::Shared or MCE::Shared::Handle.
# It creates a shared file handle with MCE::Shared present
# or a non-shared handle otherwise.
mce_open my $fh, "< input.txt" or die "open error: $!";
mce_open my $fh, "<", "input.txt" or die "open error: $!";
mce_open my $fh, "<", \*STDIN or die "open error: $!";

and for writing:

mce_open my $fh, "> output.txt" or die "open error: $!";
mce_open my $fh, ">", "output.txt" or die "open error: $!";
mce_open my $fh, ">", \*STDOUT or die "open error: $!";

CHUNK IO

Starting with MCE::Shared v1.007, chunk IO is possible for both non-shared and shared handles. Chunk IO is enabled by the trailing 'k' or 'm' for read size. Also, chunk IO supports the special "\n>"-like record separator. That anchors ">" at the start of the line. Workers receive record(s) beginning with ">" and ending with "\n".

# non-shared handle ---------------------------------------------
mce_open my $fh, '<', 'bio.fasta' or die "open error: $!";
# shared handle -------------------------------------------------
mce_open my $fh, '<', 'bio.fasta' or die "open error: $!";
# 'k' or 'm' indicates kibiBytes (KiB) or mebiBytes (MiB) respectively.
# Read continues reading until reaching the record separator or EOF.
# Optionally, one may specify the record separator.
$/ = "\n>";
while ( read($fh, my($buf), '2k') ) {
print "# chunk number: $.\n";
print "$buf\n";
}

$. contains the chunk_id above or the record_number below. readline($fh) or $fh may be used for reading a single record.

while ( my $buf = <$fh> ) {
print "# record number: $.\n";
print "$buf\n";
}

The following provides a parallel demonstration. Workers receive the next chunk from the shared-manager process where the actual read takes place. MCE::Shared also works with threads, forks, and likely other parallel modules.

use MCE::Hobo; # (change to) use threads; (or) use forks;
use feature qw( say );
my $pattern = 'something';
my $hugefile = 'somehuge.log';
my $result = MCE::Shared->array();
mce_open my $fh, "<", $hugefile or die "open error: $!";
sub task {
# the trailing 'k' or 'm' for size enables chunk IO
while ( read $fh, my( $slurp_chunk ), "640k" ) {
my $chunk_id = $.;
# process chunk only if a match is found; ie. fast scan
# optionally, comment out the if statement and closing brace
if ( $slurp_chunk =~ /$pattern/m ) {
my @matches;
while ( $slurp_chunk =~ /([^\n]+\n)/mg ) {
my $line = $1; # save $1 to not lose the value
push @matches, $line if ( $line =~ /$pattern/ );
}
$result->push( @matches ) if @matches;
}
}
}
MCE::Hobo->create('task') for 1 .. 4;
# do something else
MCE::Hobo->waitall();
say $result->len();

For comparison, the same thing using MCE::Flow. MCE workers read the file directly when given a plain path, so will have lesser overhead. However, the run time is similar if one were to pass a file handle instead to mce_flow_f.

The benefit of chunk IO is from lesser IPC for the shared-manager process (above). Likewise, for the mce-manager process (below).

use feature qw( say );
my $pattern = 'something';
my $hugefile = 'somehuge.log';
my @result = mce_flow_f {
max_workers => 4, chunk_size => '640k',
use_slurpio => 1,
},
sub {
my ( $mce, $slurp_ref, $chunk_id ) = @_;
# process chunk only if a match is found; ie. fast scan
# optionally, comment out the if statement and closing brace
if ( $$slurp_ref =~ /$pattern/m ) {
my @matches;
while ( $$slurp_ref =~ /([^\n]+\n)/mg ) {
my $line = $1; # save $1 to not lose the value
push @matches, $line if ( $line =~ /$pattern/ );
}
MCE->gather( @matches ) if @matches;
}
}, $hugefile;
say scalar( @result );

CREDITS

Implementation inspired by Tie::StdHandle.

LIMITATIONS

Perl must have IO::FDPass for constructing a shared condvar or queue while the shared-manager process is running. For platforms where IO::FDPass isn't possible, construct condvar and queue before other classes. On systems without IO::FDPass, the manager process is delayed until sharing other classes or started explicitly.

my $has_IO_FDPass = $INC{'IO/FDPass.pm'} ? 1 : 0;
my $cv = MCE::Shared->condvar();
my $que = MCE::Shared->queue();
MCE::Shared->start() unless $has_IO_FDPass;

Regarding mce_open, IO::FDPass is needed for constructing a shared-handle from a non-shared handle not yet available inside the shared-manager process. The workaround is to have the non-shared handle made before the shared-manager is started. Passing a file by reference is fine for the three STD* handles.

# The shared-manager knows of \*STDIN, \*STDOUT, \*STDERR.
mce_open my $shared_in, "<", \*STDIN; # ok
mce_open my $shared_out, ">>", \*STDOUT; # ok
mce_open my $shared_err, ">>", \*STDERR; # ok
mce_open my $shared_fh1, "<", "/path/to/sequence.fasta"; # ok
mce_open my $shared_fh2, ">>", "/path/to/results.log"; # ok
mce_open my $shared_fh, ">>", \*NON_SHARED_FH; # requires IO::FDPass

The IO::FDPass module is known to work reliably on most platforms. Install 1.1 or later to rid of limitations described above.

perl -MIO::FDPass -le "print 'Cheers! Perl has IO::FDPass.'"

INDEX

MCE, MCE::Hobo, MCE::Shared

AUTHOR

Mario E. Roy, <marioeroy AT gmail DOT com>