NAME

BDB - Asynchronous Berkeley DB access

SYNOPSIS

use BDB;

DESCRIPTION

See the BerkeleyDB documentation (http://www.oracle.com/technology/documentation/berkeley-db/db/index.html). The BDB API is very similar to the C API (the translation has been very faithful).

See also the example sections in the document below and possibly the eg/ subdirectory of the BDB distribution. Last not least see the IO::AIO documentation, as that module uses almost the same asynchronous request model as this module.

I know this is woefully inadequate documentation. Send a patch!

REQUEST ANATOMY AND LIFETIME

Every request method creates a request. which is a C data structure not directly visible to Perl.

During their existance, bdb requests travel through the following states, in order:

ready

Immediately after a request is created it is put into the ready state, waiting for a thread to execute it.

execute

A thread has accepted the request for processing and is currently executing it (e.g. blocking in read).

pending

The request has been executed and is waiting for result processing.

While request submission and execution is fully asynchronous, result processing is not and relies on the perl interpreter calling poll_cb (or another function with the same effect).

result

The request results are processed synchronously by poll_cb.

The poll_cb function will process all outstanding aio requests by calling their callbacks, freeing memory associated with them and managing any groups they are contained in.

done

Request has reached the end of its lifetime and holds no resources anymore (except possibly for the Perl object, but its connection to the actual aio request is severed and calling its methods will either do nothing or result in a runtime error).

BERKELEYDB FUNCTIONS

All of these are functions. The create functions simply return a new object and never block. All the remaining functions all take an optional callback as last argument. If it is missing, then the fucntion will be executed synchronously.

BDB functions that cannot block (mostly functions that manipulate settings) are method calls on the relevant objects, so the rule of thumb is: if its a method, its not blocking, if its a function, it takes a callback as last argument.

In the following, $int signifies an integer return value, octetstring is a "binary string" (i.e. a perl string with no character indices >255), U32 is an unsigned 32 bit integer, int is some integer, NV is a floating point value.

The SV * types are generic perl scalars (for input and output of data values), and the SV *callback is the optional callback function to call when the request is completed.

The various DB_ENV etc. arguments are handles return by db_env_create, db_create, txn_begin and so on. If they have an appended _ornull this means they are optional and you can pass undef for them, resulting a NULL pointer on the C level.

BDB functions

Functions in the BDB namespace, exported by default:

$env = db_env_create (U32 env_flags = 0)
   flags: RPCCLIENT

db_env_open (DB_ENV *env, octetstring db_home, U32 open_flags, int mode, SV *callback = &PL_sv_undef)
   open_flags: INIT_CDB INIT_LOCK INIT_LOG INIT_MPOOL INIT_REP INIT_TXN RECOVER RECOVER_FATAL USE_ENVIRON USE_ENVIRON_ROOT CREATE LOCKDOWN PRIVATE REGISTER SYSTEM_MEM
db_env_close (DB_ENV *env, U32 flags = 0, SV *callback = &PL_sv_undef)
db_env_txn_checkpoint (DB_ENV *env, U32 kbyte = 0, U32 min = 0, U32 flags = 0, SV *callback = &PL_sv_undef)
   flags: FORCE
db_env_lock_detect (DB_ENV *env, U32 flags = 0, U32 atype = DB_LOCK_DEFAULT, SV *dummy = 0, SV *callback = &PL_sv_undef)
   atype: LOCK_DEFAULT LOCK_EXPIRE LOCK_MAXLOCKS LOCK_MAXWRITE LOCK_MINLOCKS LOCK_MINWRITE LOCK_OLDEST LOCK_RANDOM LOCK_YOUNGEST
db_env_memp_sync (DB_ENV *env, SV *dummy = 0, SV *callback = &PL_sv_undef)
db_env_memp_trickle (DB_ENV *env, int percent, SV *dummy = 0, SV *callback = &PL_sv_undef)

$db = db_create (DB_ENV *env = 0, U32 flags = 0)
   flags: XA_CREATE

db_open (DB *db, DB_TXN_ornull *txnid, octetstring file, octetstring database, int type, U32 flags, int mode, SV *callback = &PL_sv_undef)
   flags: AUTO_COMMIT CREATE EXCL MULTIVERSION NOMMAP RDONLY READ_UNCOMMITTED THREAD TRUNCATE
db_close (DB *db, U32 flags = 0, SV *callback = &PL_sv_undef)
   flags: DB_NOSYNC
db_compact (DB *db, DB_TXN_ornull *txn = 0, SV *start = 0, SV *stop = 0, SV *unused1 = 0, U32 flags = DB_FREE_SPACE, SV *unused2 = 0, SV *callback = &PL_sv_undef)
   flags: FREELIST_ONLY FREE_SPACE
db_sync (DB *db, U32 flags = 0, SV *callback = &PL_sv_undef)
db_key_range (DB *db, DB_TXN_ornull *txn, SV *key, SV *key_range, U32 flags = 0, SV *callback = &PL_sv_undef)
db_put (DB *db, DB_TXN_ornull *txn, SV *key, SV *data, U32 flags = 0, SV *callback = &PL_sv_undef)
   flags: APPEND NODUPDATA NOOVERWRITE
db_get (DB *db, DB_TXN_ornull *txn, SV *key, SV *data, U32 flags = 0, SV *callback = &PL_sv_undef)
   flags: CONSUME CONSUME_WAIT GET_BOTH SET_RECNO MULTIPLE READ_COMMITTED READ_UNCOMMITTED RMW
db_pget (DB *db, DB_TXN_ornull *txn, SV *key, SV *pkey, SV *data, U32 flags = 0, SV *callback = &PL_sv_undef)
   flags: CONSUME CONSUME_WAIT GET_BOTH SET_RECNO MULTIPLE READ_COMMITTED READ_UNCOMMITTED RMW
db_del (DB *db, DB_TXN_ornull *txn, SV *key, U32 flags = 0, SV *callback = &PL_sv_undef)
db_txn_commit (DB_TXN *txn, U32 flags = 0, SV *callback = &PL_sv_undef)
   flags: TXN_NOSYNC TXN_SYNC
db_txn_abort (DB_TXN *txn, SV *callback = &PL_sv_undef)

db_c_close (DBC *dbc, SV *callback = &PL_sv_undef)
db_c_count (DBC *dbc, SV *count, U32 flags = 0, SV *callback = &PL_sv_undef)
db_c_put (DBC *dbc, SV *key, SV *data, U32 flags = 0, SV *callback = &PL_sv_undef)
   flags: AFTER BEFORE CURRENT KEYFIRST KEYLAST NODUPDATA
db_c_get (DBC *dbc, SV *key, SV *data, U32 flags = 0, SV *callback = &PL_sv_undef)
   flags: CURRENT FIRST GET_BOTH GET_BOTH_RANGE GET_RECNO JOIN_ITEM LAST NEXT NEXT_DUP NEXT_NODUP PREV PREV_DUP PREV_NODUP SET SET_RANGE SET_RECNO READ_UNCOMMITTED MULTIPLE MULTIPLE_KEY RMW
db_c_pget (DBC *dbc, SV *key, SV *pkey, SV *data, U32 flags = 0, SV *callback = &PL_sv_undef)
db_c_del (DBC *dbc, U32 flags = 0, SV *callback = &PL_sv_undef)

db_sequence_open (DB_SEQUENCE *seq, DB_TXN_ornull *txnid, SV *key, U32 flags = 0, SV *callback = &PL_sv_undef)
   flags: CREATE EXCL
db_sequence_close (DB_SEQUENCE *seq, U32 flags = 0, SV *callback = &PL_sv_undef)
db_sequence_get (DB_SEQUENCE *seq, DB_TXN_ornull *txnid, int delta, SV *seq_value, U32 flags = DB_TXN_NOSYNC, SV *callback = &PL_sv_undef)
   flags: TXN_NOSYNC
db_sequence_remove (DB_SEQUENCE *seq, DB_TXN_ornull *txnid = 0, U32 flags = 0, SV *callback = &PL_sv_undef)
   flags: TXN_NOSYNC

db_txn_finish (DB_TXN txn, U32 flags = 0, SV callback = &PL_sv_undef)

This is not actually a Berkeley DB function but a BDB module extension. The background for this exytension is: It is very annoying to have to check every single BDB function for error returns and provide a codepath out of your transaction. While the BDB module still makes this possible, it contains the following extensions:

When a transaction-protected function returns any operating system error (errno > 0), BDB will set the TXN_DEADLOCK flag on the transaction. This flag is also set by Berkeley DB functions themselves when an operation fails with LOCK_DEADLOCK, and it causes all further operations on that transaction (including db_txn_commit) to fail.

The db_txn_finish request will look at this flag, and, if it is set, will automatically call db_txn_abort (setting errno to LOCK_DEADLOCK if it isn't set to something else yet). If it isn't set, it will call db_txn_commit and return the error normally.

How to use this? Easy: just write your transaction normally:

my $txn = $db_env->txn_begin;
db_get $db, $txn, "key", my $data;
db_put $db, $txn, "key", $data + 1 unless $! == BDB::NOTFOUND;
db_txn_finish $txn;
die "transaction failed" if $!;

That is, handle only the expected errors. If something unexpected happens (EIO, LOCK_NOTGRANTED or a deadlock in either db_get or db_put), then the remaining requests (db_put in this case) will simply be skipped (they will fail with LOCK_DEADLOCK) and the transaction will be aborted.

You can use the $txn->failed method to check wether a transaction has failed in this way and abort further processing (excluding db_txn_finish).

DB_ENV/database environment methods

Methods available on DB_ENV/$env handles:

DESTROY (DB_ENV_ornull *env)
        CODE:
        if (env)
          env->close (env, 0);

$int = $env->set_data_dir (const char *dir)
$int = $env->set_tmp_dir (const char *dir)
$int = $env->set_lg_dir (const char *dir)
$int = $env->set_shm_key (long shm_key)
$int = $env->set_cachesize (U32 gbytes, U32 bytes, int ncache = 0)
$int = $env->set_flags (U32 flags, int onoff)
$env->set_errfile (FILE *errfile = 0)
$env->set_msgfile (FILE *msgfile = 0)
$int = $env->set_verbose (U32 which, int onoff = 1)
$int = $env->set_encrypt (const char *password, U32 flags = 0)
$int = $env->set_timeout (NV timeout_seconds, U32 flags = SET_TXN_TIMEOUT)
$int = $env->set_mp_max_openfd (int maxopenfd);
$int = $env->set_mp_max_write (int maxwrite, int maxwrite_sleep);
$int = $env->set_mp_mmapsize (int mmapsize_mb)
$int = $env->set_lk_detect (U32 detect = DB_LOCK_DEFAULT)
$int = $env->set_lk_max_lockers (U32 max)
$int = $env->set_lk_max_locks (U32 max)
$int = $env->set_lk_max_objects (U32 max)
$int = $env->set_lg_bsize (U32 max)
$int = $env->set_lg_max (U32 max)

$txn = $env->txn_begin (DB_TXN_ornull *parent = 0, U32 flags = 0)
   flags: READ_COMMITTED READ_UNCOMMITTED TXN_NOSYNC TXN_NOWAIT TXN_SNAPSHOT TXN_SYNC TXN_WAIT TXN_WRITE_NOSYNC

Example:

use AnyEvent;
use BDB;

our $FH; open $FH, "<&=" . BDB::poll_fileno;
our $WATCHER = AnyEvent->io (fh => $FH, poll => 'r', cb => \&BDB::poll_cb);

BDB::min_parallel 8;

my $env = db_env_create;

mkdir "bdtest", 0700;
db_env_open
   $env,
   "bdtest",
   BDB::INIT_LOCK | BDB::INIT_LOG | BDB::INIT_MPOOL | BDB::INIT_TXN | BDB::RECOVER | BDB::USE_ENVIRON | BDB::CREATE,
   0600;

$env->set_flags (BDB::AUTO_COMMIT | BDB::TXN_NOSYNC, 1);

DB/database methods

Methods available on DB/$db handles:

DESTROY (DB_ornull *db)
        CODE:
        if (db)
          {
            SV *env = (SV *)db->app_private;
            db->close (db, 0);
            SvREFCNT_dec (env);
          }

$int = $db->set_cachesize (U32 gbytes, U32 bytes, int ncache = 0)
$int = $db->set_flags (U32 flags)
   flags: CHKSUM ENCRYPT TXN_NOT_DURABLE
          Btree: DUP DUPSORT RECNUM REVSPLITOFF
          Hash:  DUP DUPSORT
          Queue: INORDER
          Recno: RENUMBER SNAPSHOT

$int = $db->set_encrypt (const char *password, U32 flags)
$int = $db->set_lorder (int lorder)
$int = $db->set_bt_minkey (U32 minkey)
$int = $db->set_re_delim (int delim)
$int = $db->set_re_pad (int re_pad)
$int = $db->set_re_source (char *source)
$int = $db->set_re_len (U32 re_len)
$int = $db->set_h_ffactor (U32 h_ffactor)
$int = $db->set_h_nelem (U32 h_nelem)
$int = $db->set_q_extentsize (U32 extentsize)

$dbc = $db->cursor (DB_TXN_ornull *txn = 0, U32 flags = 0)
   flags: READ_COMMITTED READ_UNCOMMITTED WRITECURSOR TXN_SNAPSHOT
$seq = $db->sequence (U32 flags = 0)

Example:

my $db = db_create $env;
db_open $db, undef, "table", undef, BDB::BTREE, BDB::AUTO_COMMIT | BDB::CREATE | BDB::READ_UNCOMMITTED, 0600;

for (1..1000) {
   db_put $db, undef, "key $_", "data $_";

   db_key_range $db, undef, "key $_", my $keyrange;
   my ($lt, $eq, $gt) = @$keyrange;
}

db_del $db, undef, "key $_" for 1..1000;

db_sync $db;

DB_TXN/transaction methods

Methods available on DB_TXN/$txn handles:

DESTROY (DB_TXN_ornull *txn)
        CODE:
        if (txn)
          txn->abort (txn);

$int = $txn->set_timeout (NV timeout_seconds, U32 flags = SET_TXN_TIMEOUT)
   flags: SET_LOCK_TIMEOUT SET_TXN_TIMEOUT

$bool = $txn->failed
# see db_txn_finish documentation, above

DBC/cursor methods

Methods available on DBC/$dbc handles:

DESTROY (DBC_ornull *dbc)
        CODE:
        if (dbc)
          dbc->c_close (dbc);

Example:

my $c = $db->cursor;

for (;;) {
   db_c_get $c, my $key, my $data, BDB::NEXT;
   warn "<$!,$key,$data>";
   last if $!;
}

db_c_close $c;

DB_SEQUENCE/sequence methods

Methods available on DB_SEQUENCE/$seq handles:

DESTROY (DB_SEQUENCE_ornull *seq)
        CODE:
        if (seq)
          seq->close (seq, 0);

$int = $seq->initial_value (db_seq_t value)
$int = $seq->set_cachesize (U32 size)
$int = $seq->set_flags (U32 flags)
   flags: SEQ_DEC SEQ_INC SEQ_WRAP
$int = $seq->set_range (db_seq_t min, db_seq_t max)

Example:

my $seq = $db->sequence;
   
db_sequence_open $seq, undef, "seq", BDB::CREATE;
db_sequence_get $seq, undef, 1, my $value;

SUPPORT FUNCTIONS

EVENT PROCESSING AND EVENT LOOP INTEGRATION

$fileno = BDB::poll_fileno

Return the request result pipe file descriptor. This filehandle must be polled for reading by some mechanism outside this module (e.g. Event or select, see below or the SYNOPSIS). If the pipe becomes readable you have to call poll_cb to check the results.

See poll_cb for an example.

BDB::poll_cb

Process some outstanding events on the result pipe. You have to call this regularly. Returns the number of events processed. Returns immediately when no events are outstanding. The amount of events processed depends on the settings of BDB::max_poll_req and BDB::max_poll_time.

If not all requests were processed for whatever reason, the filehandle will still be ready when poll_cb returns.

Example: Install an Event watcher that automatically calls BDB::poll_cb with high priority:

Event->io (fd => BDB::poll_fileno,
           poll => 'r', async => 1,
           cb => \&BDB::poll_cb);

BDB::max_poll_reqs $nreqs

BDB::max_poll_time $seconds

These set the maximum number of requests (default 0, meaning infinity) that are being processed by BDB::poll_cb in one call, respectively the maximum amount of time (default 0, meaning infinity) spent in BDB::poll_cb to process requests (more correctly the mininum amount of time poll_cb is allowed to use).

Setting max_poll_time to a non-zero value creates an overhead of one syscall per request processed, which is not normally a problem unless your callbacks are really really fast or your OS is really really slow (I am not mentioning Solaris here). Using max_poll_reqs incurs no overhead.

Setting these is useful if you want to ensure some level of interactiveness when perl is not fast enough to process all requests in time.

For interactive programs, values such as 0.01 to 0.1 should be fine.

Example: Install an Event watcher that automatically calls BDB::poll_cb with low priority, to ensure that other parts of the program get the CPU sometimes even under high AIO load.

# try not to spend much more than 0.1s in poll_cb
BDB::max_poll_time 0.1;

# use a low priority so other tasks have priority
Event->io (fd => BDB::poll_fileno,
           poll => 'r', nice => 1,
           cb => &BDB::poll_cb);

BDB::poll_wait

If there are any outstanding requests and none of them in the result phase, wait till the result filehandle becomes ready for reading (simply does a select on the filehandle. This is useful if you want to synchronously wait for some requests to finish).

See nreqs for an example.

BDB::poll

Waits until some requests have been handled.

Returns the number of requests processed, but is otherwise strictly equivalent to:

BDB::poll_wait, BDB::poll_cb

BDB::flush

Wait till all outstanding AIO requests have been handled.

Strictly equivalent to:

BDB::poll_wait, BDB::poll_cb
   while BDB::nreqs;

CONTROLLING THE NUMBER OF THREADS

BDB::min_parallel $nthreads

Set the minimum number of AIO threads to $nthreads. The current default is 8, which means eight asynchronous operations can execute concurrently at any one time (the number of outstanding requests, however, is unlimited).

BDB starts threads only on demand, when an AIO request is queued and no free thread exists. Please note that queueing up a hundred requests can create demand for a hundred threads, even if it turns out that everything is in the cache and could have been processed faster by a single thread.

It is recommended to keep the number of threads relatively low, as some Linux kernel versions will scale negatively with the number of threads (higher parallelity => MUCH higher latency). With current Linux 2.6 versions, 4-32 threads should be fine.

Under most circumstances you don't need to call this function, as the module selects a default that is suitable for low to moderate load.

BDB::max_parallel $nthreads

Sets the maximum number of AIO threads to $nthreads. If more than the specified number of threads are currently running, this function kills them. This function blocks until the limit is reached.

While $nthreads are zero, aio requests get queued but not executed until the number of threads has been increased again.

This module automatically runs max_parallel 0 at program end, to ensure that all threads are killed and that there are no outstanding requests.

Under normal circumstances you don't need to call this function.

BDB::max_idle $nthreads

Limit the number of threads (default: 4) that are allowed to idle (i.e., threads that did not get a request to process within 10 seconds). That means if a thread becomes idle while $nthreads other threads are also idle, it will free its resources and exit.

This is useful when you allow a large number of threads (e.g. 100 or 1000) to allow for extremely high load situations, but want to free resources under normal circumstances (1000 threads can easily consume 30MB of RAM).

The default is probably ok in most situations, especially if thread creation is fast. If thread creation is very slow on your system you might want to use larger values.

$oldmaxreqs = BDB::max_outstanding $maxreqs

This is a very bad function to use in interactive programs because it blocks, and a bad way to reduce concurrency because it is inexact: Better use an aio_group together with a feed callback.

Sets the maximum number of outstanding requests to $nreqs. If you to queue up more than this number of requests, the next call to the poll_cb (and poll_some and other functions calling poll_cb) function will block until the limit is no longer exceeded.

The default value is very large, so there is no practical limit on the number of outstanding requests.

You can still queue as many requests as you want. Therefore, max_oustsanding is mainly useful in simple scripts (with low values) or as a stop gap to shield against fatal memory overflow (with large values).

BDB::set_sync_prepare $cb

Sets a callback that is called whenever a request is created without an explicit callback. It has to return two code references. The first is used as the request callback, and the second is called to wait until the first callback has been called. The default implementation works like this:

sub {
   my $status;
   (
      sub { $status = $! },
      sub { BDB::poll while !defined $status; $! = $status },
   )
}

STATISTICAL INFORMATION

BDB::nreqs

Returns the number of requests currently in the ready, execute or pending states (i.e. for which their callback has not been invoked yet).

Example: wait till there are no outstanding requests anymore:

BDB::poll_wait, BDB::poll_cb
   while BDB::nreqs;

BDB::nready

Returns the number of requests currently in the ready state (not yet executed).

BDB::npending

Returns the number of requests currently in the pending state (executed, but not yet processed by poll_cb).

FORK BEHAVIOUR

This module should do "the right thing" when the process using it forks:

Before the fork, IO::AIO enters a quiescent state where no requests can be added in other threads and no results will be processed. After the fork the parent simply leaves the quiescent state and continues request/result processing, while the child frees the request/result queue (so that the requests started before the fork will only be handled in the parent). Threads will be started on demand until the limit set in the parent process has been reached again.

In short: the parent will, after a short pause, continue as if fork had not been called, while the child will act as if IO::AIO has not been used yet.

MEMORY USAGE

Per-request usage:

Each aio request uses - depending on your architecture - around 100-200 bytes of memory. In addition, stat requests need a stat buffer (possibly a few hundred bytes), readdir requires a result buffer and so on. Perl scalars and other data passed into aio requests will also be locked and will consume memory till the request has entered the done state.

This is not awfully much, so queuing lots of requests is not usually a problem.

Per-thread usage:

In the execution phase, some aio requests require more memory for temporary buffers, and each thread requires a stack and other data structures (usually around 16k-128k, depending on the OS).

KNOWN BUGS

Known bugs will be fixed in the next release, except:

If you use a transaction in any request, and the request returns
with an operating system error or DB_LOCK_NOTGRANTED, the internal
TXN_DEADLOCK flag will be set on the transaction. See C<db_txn_finish>,
above.

AUTHOR

Marc Lehmann <schmorp@schmorp.de>
http://home.schmorp.de/

To install BDB, copy and paste the appropriate command in to your terminal.

cpanm

cpanm BDB

CPAN shell

perl -MCPAN -e shell
install BDB

For more information on module installation, please visit the detailed CPAN module installation guide.

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NAME

SYNOPSIS

DESCRIPTION

REQUEST ANATOMY AND LIFETIME

BERKELEYDB FUNCTIONS

BDB functions

db_txn_finish (DB_TXN *txn, U32 flags = 0, SV *callback = &PL_sv_undef)

DB_ENV/database environment methods

Example:

DB/database methods

Example:

DB_TXN/transaction methods

DBC/cursor methods

Example:

DB_SEQUENCE/sequence methods

Example:

SUPPORT FUNCTIONS

EVENT PROCESSING AND EVENT LOOP INTEGRATION

CONTROLLING THE NUMBER OF THREADS

STATISTICAL INFORMATION

FORK BEHAVIOUR

MEMORY USAGE

KNOWN BUGS

SEE ALSO

AUTHOR

Module Install Instructions

db_txn_finish (DB_TXN txn, U32 flags = 0, SV callback = &PL_sv_undef)