X-Git-Url: https://git.llucax.com/software/libev.git/blobdiff_plain/a29fb691be0c199fb643de22a7969a410c3b1e31..d9672b1486ca958bdd2c51b6c30dfe94e534ce73:/README diff --git a/README b/README index 5895388..ee8f492 100644 --- a/README +++ b/README @@ -1,59 +1,92 @@ -libev is modelled after libevent (http://monkey.org/~provos/libevent/), but aims -to be faster and more correct, and also more featureful. Examples: +Homepage: http://software.schmorp.de/pkg/libev +E-Mail: libev@schmorp.de -- multiple watchers can wait for the same event without deregistering others. +libev is a high-performance event loop/event model with lots of features. + +It is modelled (very losely) after libevent +(http://monkey.org/~provos/libevent/) and the Event perl module, but aims +to be faster and more correct, and also more featureful. + +DIFFERENCES AND COMPARISON TO LIBEVENT: + +(comparisons relative to libevent-1.3e and libev-0.00, see also the benchmark +at http://libev.schmorp.de/bench.html). + +- multiple watchers can wait for the same event without deregistering others, + both for file descriptors as well as signals. (registering two read events on fd 10 and unregistering one will not - break the other) + break the other). - fork() is supported and can be handled - (there is no way to recover from a fork when libevent is active) + (there is no way to recover from a fork when libevent is active). -- timers are handled as a priority queue - (libevent uses a less efficient red-black tree) +- timers are handled as a priority queue (important operations are O(1)) + (libevent uses a much less efficient but more complex red-black tree). - supports absolute (wallclock-based) timers in addition to relative ones, i.e. can schedule timers to occur after n seconds, or at a specific time. -- timers can be repeating (both absolute and relative ones) +- timers can be repeating (both absolute and relative ones). - detects time jumps and adjusts timers - (works for both forward and backward time jumps and also for absolute timers) + (works for both forward and backward time jumps and also for absolute timers). -- can correctly remove timers while executing callbacks - (libevent doesn't handle this reliably and can crash) +- race-free signal processing + (libevent may delay processing signals till after the next event). - less calls to epoll_ctl (stopping and starting an io watcher between two loop iterations will now - result in spuriois epoll_ctl calls) + result in spuriois epoll_ctl calls). - usually less calls to gettimeofday and clock_gettime - (libevent calls it on every timer event change, libev twice per iteration) + (libevent calls it on every timer event change, libev twice per iteration). - watchers use less memory - (libevent on amd64: 152 bytes, libev: <= 56 bytes) + (libevent on amd64: 152 bytes, libev: <= 56 bytes). - library uses less memory (libevent allocates large data structures wether used or not, libev - scales all its data structures dynamically) + scales all its data structures dynamically). - no hardcoded arbitrary limits (libevent contains an off-by-one bug and sometimes hardcodes a limit of - 32000 fds) + 32000 fds). - libev separates timer, signal and io watchers from each other (libevent combines them, but with libev you can combine them yourself - by reusing the same callback and still save memory) + by reusing the same callback and still save memory). - simpler design, backends are potentially much simpler (in libevent, backends have to deal with watchers, thus the problems) - (epoll backend in libevent: 366 lines, libev: 89 lines, and more features) + (epoll backend in libevent: 366 lines, libev: 90 lines, and more features). + +- libev handles EBADF gracefully by removing the offending fds. + +- doesn't rely on nonportable BSD header files. + +- a event.h compatibility header exists, and can be used to run a wide + range of libevent programs unchanged (such as evdns.c). + +- win32 compatibility for the core parts. + +- the event core library (ev and event layer) compiles and works both as + C and C++. whats missing? -- evdns, evhttp, bufferevent are missing, libev is only an even library at - the moment. +- no event-like priority support at the moment (the ev priorities + are not yet finished and work differently, but you can use idle watchers + to get a similar effect). + +AUTHOR + +libev was written and designed by Marc Lehmann and Emanuele Giaquinta. -- no priority support at the moment. +The following people sent in patches or made other noteworthy +contributions (if I forgot to include you, please shout at me, it was an +accident): -- kqueue, poll (libev currently implements epoll and select). +W.C.A. Wijngaards +Christopher Layne +Chris Brody