NAME

Net::Server::SIG - adpf - Safer signal handling

SYNOPSIS

use Net::Server::SIG qw(register_sig check_sigs);
use IO::Select ();
use POSIX qw(WNOHANG);

my $select = IO::Select->new();

register_sig(PIPE => 'IGNORE',
             HUP  => 'DEFAULT',
             USR1 => sub { print "I got a SIG $_[0]\n"; },
             USR2 => sub { print "I got a SIG $_[0]\n"; },
             CHLD => sub { 1 while waitpid(-1, WNOHANG) > 0; },
             );

# add some handles to the select
$select->add(\*STDIN);

# loop forever trying to stay alive
while (1) {

    # do a timeout to see if any signals got passed us
    # while we were processing another signal
    my @fh = $select->can_read(10);

    my $key;
    my $val;

    # this is the handler for safe (fine under unsafe also)
    if (check_sigs()) {
      # or my @sigs = check_sigs();
      next unless @fh;
    }

    my $handle = $fh[@fh];

    # do something with the handle

}

DESCRIPTION

Signals prior in Perl prior to 5.7 were unsafe. Since then signals have been implemented in a more safe algorithm. Net::Server::SIG provides backwards compatibility, while still working reliably with newer releases.

Using a property of the select() function, Net::Server::SIG attempts to fix the unsafe problem. If a process is blocking on select() any signal will short circuit the select. Using this concept, Net::Server::SIG does the least work possible (changing one bit from 0 to 1). And depends upon the actual processing of the signals to take place immediately after the select call via the "check_sigs" function. See the example shown above and also see the sigtest.pl script located in the examples directory of this distribution.

FUNCTIONS

register_sig($SIG => \&code_ref)

Takes key/value pairs where the key is the signal name, and the argument is either a code ref, or the words 'DEFAULT' or 'IGNORE'. The function register_sig must be used in conjunction with check_sigs, and with a blocking select() function call -- otherwise, you will observe the registered signal mysteriously vanish.

unregister_sig($SIG)

Takes the name of a signal as an argument. Calls register_sig with a this signal name and 'DEFAULT' as arguments (same as register_sig(SIG,'DEFAULT')

check_sigs()

Checks to see if any registered signals have occurred. If so, it will play the registered code ref for that signal. Return value is array containing any SIGNAL names that had occurred.

sig_is_registered($SIG)

Takes a signal name and returns any registered code_ref for that signal.

AUTHORS

Paul Seamons (paul@seamons.com)

Rob B Brown (rob@roobik.com) - Provided a sounding board and feedback in creating Net::Server::SIG and sigtest.pl.

LICENSE

This package may be distributed under the terms of either the
GNU General Public License
  or the
Perl Artistic License

All rights reserved.