C++ N Pv2

C++ Network Programming Systematic Reuse with ACE & Frameworks Dr. Douglas C. Schmidt [email_address] www.dre.vanderbilt.edu/~schmidt/ Professor of EECS Vanderbilt University Nashville, Tennessee

Presentation Outline Patterns, which embody reusable software architectures & designs Frameworks , which can be customized to support concurrent & networked applications Cover OO techniques & language features that enhance software quality OO language features , e.g., classes , dynamic binding & inheritance , parameterized types Presentation Organization Overview of product-line architectures Overview of frameworks Server/service & configuration design dimensions Patterns & frameworks in ACE + applications

Air Frame GPS FLIR Legacy distributed real-time & embedded (DRE) systems have historically been: Stovepiped Proprietary Brittle & non-adaptive Expensive Vulnerable GPS FLIR AP Nav HUD IFF Cyclic Exec F-15 Motivation Consequence: Small HW/SW changes have big (negative) impact on DRE system QoS & maintenance Air Frame AP Nav HUD GPS IFF FLIR Cyclic Exec A/V-8B Air Frame Cyclic Exec AP Nav HUD IFF F/A-18 Air Frame AP Nav HUD GPS IFF FLIR Cyclic Exec UCAV

Common Middleware Services Frameworks factors out many reusable general-purpose & domain-specific services from traditional DRE application responsibility Essential for product-line architectures (PLAs) Product-lines & frameworks offer many configuration opportunities e.g., component distribution & deployment, user interfaces & operating systems, algorithms & data structures, etc. Air Frame AP Nav HUD GPS IFF FLIR Domain-specific Services Motivation F-15 product variant A/V 8-B product variant F/A 18 product variant UCAV product variant Product-line architecture Hardware (CPU, Memory, I/O) OS & Network Protocols Host Infrastructure Middleware Distribution Middleware

Overview of Product-line Architectures (PLAs) PLA characteristics are captured via Scope, Commonalities, & Variabilities (SCV) analysis This process can be applied to identify commonalities & variabilities in a domain to guide development of a PLA [Coplien] James Coplien et al. Commonality & Variability in Software Engineering, IEEE Software 1998 e.g., applying SCV to Bold Stroke Scope: Bold Stroke component architecture, object-oriented application frameworks, & associated components, e.g., GPS, Airframe, & Display Air Frame AP Nav HUD GPS IFF FLIR Reusable Architecture Framework Reusable Application Components OS & Network Protocols Host Infrastructure Middleware Distribution Middleware Common Middleware Services Domain-specific Services

Applying SCV to Bold Stroke PLA Commonalities describe the attributes that are common across all members of the family Common object-oriented frameworks & set of component types e.g., GPS, Airframe, Navigation, & Display components Common middleware infrastructure e.g., Real-time CORBA & a variant of Lightweight CORBA Component Model (CCM) called Prism Hardware (CPU, Memory, I/O) OS & Network Protocols Host Infrastructure Middleware Distribution Middleware Common Middleware Services Domain-specific Services

Variabilities describe the attributes unique to the different members of the family Product-dependent component implementations (GPS/INS) Product-dependent component connections Product-dependent component assemblies (e.g., different weapons systems for security concerns) Different hardware, OS, & network/bus configurations Applying SCV to Bold Stroke PLA Frameworks are essential for developing PLAs Hardware (CPU, Memory, I/O) OS & Network Protocols Host Infrastructure Middleware Distribution Middleware Common Middleware Services Domain-specific Services

Overview of Frameworks Framework Characteristics www.cs.wustl.edu/~schmidt/frameworks.html Application-specific functionality Frameworks exhibit “inversion of control” at runtime via callbacks Networking Database GUI Frameworks provide integrated domain-specific structures & functionality Mission Computing E-commerce Scientific Visualization Frameworks are “semi-complete” applications

Benefits of Frameworks Design reuse e.g., by guiding application developers through the steps necessary to ensure successful creation & deployment of software Distribution Infrastructure Concurrency Infrastructure Thin UI Clients Communication Services OS-Access Layer Broker Component Repository Component Configurator Proxy Proxy Broker Admin Controllres Admin Views AdminClient Picking Controllres Picking Views PickingClient Broker Logging Handler ThreadPool * Reactor Broker Scheduler/ ActivationList Service Request Service Request Service Request WarehouseRepHalfX

Benefits of Frameworks Design reuse e.g., by guiding application developers through the steps necessary to ensure successful creation & deployment of software Implementation reuse e.g., by amortizing software lifecycle costs & leveraging previous development & optimization efforts

Benefits of Frameworks Design reuse e.g., by guiding application developers through the steps necessary to ensure successful creation & deployment of software Implementation reuse e.g., by amortizing software lifecycle costs & leveraging previous development & optimization efforts Validation reuse e.g., by amortizing the efforts of validating application- & platform-independent portions of software, thereby enhancing software reliability & scalability www.dre.vanderbilt.edu/scoreboard

Comparing Reuse Techniques Class Library Architecture ADTs Strings Locks IPC Math LOCAL INVOCATIONS APPLICATION- SPECIFIC FUNCTIONALITY EVENT LOOP GLUE CODE Files GUI A class is a unit of abstraction & implementation in an OO programming language, i.e., a reusable type that often implements patterns Classes in class libraries are typically passive Framework Architecture ADTs Locks Strings Files INVOKES A framework is an integrated set of classes that collaborate to produce a reusable architecture for a family of applications Frameworks implement pattern languages Reactor GUI DATABASE NETWORKING APPLICATION-SPECIFIC FUNCTIONALITY CALLBACKS Middleware Bus Component Architecture A component is an encapsulation unit with one or more interfaces that provide clients with access to its services Components can be deployed & configured via assemblies Naming Locking Logging Events

Taxonomy of Reuse Techniques Class Libraries Frameworks Macro-level Meso-level Micro-level Borrow caller’s thread Inversion of control Borrow caller’s thread Domain-specific or Domain-independent Domain-specific Domain-independent Stand-alone composition entities “ Semi-complete” applications Stand-alone language entities Components

The Frameworks in ACE Acceptor Connector Component Configurator Stream Reactor Proactor Task Application- specific functionality ACE frameworks are a product-line architecture for domain of network applications Calls back to service handlers to initialize them after they are connected Acceptor/Connector Inversion of Control & Hook Methods ACE Framework Calls back to initialize & finalize tasks when they are pushed & popped from a stream Streams Calls back to an application-supplied hook method to perform processing in one or more threads of control Task Calls back to application-supplied service objects to initialize, suspend, resume, & finalize them Service Configurator Calls back to application-supplied event handlers to perform processing when events occur synchronously & asynchronously Reactor & Proactor

Commonality & Variability in ACE Frameworks Layered service composition Message-passing Leverages Task commonality Synchronous/asynchronous & active/passive connection establishment & service handler initialization Intra-process message queueing & processing Concurrency models Methods for controlling service lifecycle Scripting language for interpreting service directives Asynchronous completion event handling interface Time & timer interface Synchronous initiation event handling interface Commonality Time & timer implementation Synchronous event detection, demuxing, & dispatching implementation Reactor Communication protocols Type of service handler Service handler creation, accept/connect, & activation logic Acceptor/ Connector Variability Framework Number, type, & order of services composed Concurrency model Streams Strategized message memory management & synchronization Thread implementations Task Number, type/implementation, & order of service configuration Dynamical linking/unlinking implementation Service Configurator Asynchronous operation & completion event handler demuxing & dispatching implementation Proactor

The Layered Architecture of ACE Features Open-source 200,000+ lines of C++ 40+ person-years of effort Ported to many OS platforms Large open-source user community www.cs.wustl.edu/~schmidt/ACE-users.html Commercial support by Riverace www.riverace.com/ www.cs.wustl.edu/~schmidt/ACE.html

Networked Logging Service Example Key Participants Client application processes Generate log records Client logging daemons Buffer log records & transmit them to the server logging daemon Server logging daemon Receive, process, & store log records C++ code for all logging service examples are in ACE_ROOT/examples/ C++NPv1/ ACE_ROOT/examples/ C++NPv2/

Patterns in the Networked Logging Service Reactor Acceptor- Connector Component Configurator Monitor Object Active Object Proactor Pipes & Filters Wrapper Facade Strategized Locking Scoped Locking Thread-safe Interface Half-Sync/ Half-Async Leader/ Followers

Service/Server Design Dimensions When designing networked applications, it's important to recognize the difference between a service, which is a capability offered to clients, & a server, which is the mechanism by which the service is offered The design decisions regarding services & servers are easily confused, but should be considered separately This section covers the following service & server design dimensions: Short- versus long-duration services Internal versus external services Stateful versus stateless services Layered/modular versus monolithic services Single- versus multiservice servers One-shot versus standing servers

Short- versus Long-duration Services Short-duration services execute in brief, often fixed, amounts of time & usually handle a single request at a time Examples include Computing the current time of day Resolving the Ethernet number of an IP address Retrieving a disk block from the cache of a network file server To minimize the amount of time spent setting up a connection, short-duration services are often implemented using connectionless protocols e.g., UDP/IP Long-duration services run for extended, often variable, lengths of time & may handle numerous requests during their lifetime Examples include Transferring large software releases via FTP Downloading MP3 files from a Web server using HTTP Streaming audio & video from a server using RTSP Accessing host resources remotely via TELNET Performing remote file system backups over a network Services that run for longer durations allow more flexibility in protocol selection. For example, to improve efficiency & reliability, these services are often implemented with connection-oriented protocols e.g., TCP/IP or session-oriented protocols, such as RTSP or SCTP

Internal vs. External Services Internal services execute in the same address space as the server that receives the request Communication & synchronization between internal services can be very efficient Rogue services can cause problems for other services, however External services execute in different process address spaces They are generally more robust than internal services since they are isolated from each other IPC & synchronization overhead is higher, however

Monolithic vs. Layered/Modular Services Layered/modular services can be decomposed into a series of partitioned & hierarchically related tasks They are generally easier to understand, evolve, & maintain Performance can be a problem, however Monolithic services are tightly coupled clumps of functionality that aren't organized hierarchically They are harder to understand, evolve, & maintain They may be more efficient, however

Single Service vs. Multiservice Servers Single-service servers offer only one service Deficiencies include: Consuming excessive OS resources Redundant infrastructure code Manual shutdown & restart Inconsistent administration Multiservice servers address the limitations with single-service servers by integrating a collection of single-service servers into a single administrative unit Master server spawns external services on-demand Benefits are the inverse of single-service server deficiencies

Sidebar: Comparing Multiservice Server Frameworks UNIX INETD Internal services, such as ECHO & DAYTIME , are fixed at static link time External services, such as FTP & TELNET , can be dynamically reconfigured via sending a SIGHUP signal to the daemon & performing socket/bind/listen calls on all services listed in the inetd.conf file Since internal services cannot be reconfigured, any new listing of such services must occur via fork() & exec*() family of system calls System V UNIX LISTEN port monitoring Like INETD Supports only external services via TLI & System V STREAMS Supports standing servers by passing initialized file descriptors via STREAMS pipes from the LISTEN Windows Service Control Manager ( SCM) More than just a port monitoring facility Uses RPC-based interface to initiate & control administrator-installed services that typically run as separate threads within either a single service or a multiservice daemon process

One-shot vs. Standing Servers One-shot servers are spawned on demand, e.g., by an inetd superserver They perform service requests in a separate thread or process A one-shot server terminates after the completion of the request or session that triggered its creation Primary benefit is lower resource utilization Primary drawback is startup latency Standing servers continue to run beyond the lifetime of any particular service request or session they process Standing servers are often initiated at boot time or by a superserver after the first client request Primary benefit is amortized startup latency Primary drawback is higher resource utilization

The ACE Reactor Framework Motivation Many networked applications are developed as event-driven programs Common sources of events in these applications include activity on an IPC stream for I/O operations, POSIX signals, Windows handle signaling, & timer expirations To improve extensibility & flexibility, it’s important to decouple the detection, demultiplexing, & dispatching of events from the handling of events

The ACE Reactor Framework The ACE Reactor framework implements the Reactor pattern (POSA2) This pattern & framework automates the Detection of events from various sources of events Demultiplexing the events to pre-registered handlers of these events Dispatching to hook methods defined by the handlers to process the events in an application-defined manner

The ACE Reactor Framework The classes in the ACE Reactor framework implement the Reactor pattern:

The Reactor Pattern Participants The Reactor architectural pattern allows event-driven applications to demultiplex & dispatch service requests that are delivered to an application from one or more clients Handle owns dispatches * notifies * * handle set Reactor handle_events() register_handler() remove_handler() Event Handler handle_event () get_handle() Concrete Event Handler A handle_event () get_handle() Concrete Event Handler B handle_event () get_handle() Synchronous Event Demuxer select () <<uses>>

The Reactor Pattern Dynamics Observations Note inversion of control Also note how long-running event handlers can degrade the QoS since callbacks steal the reactor’s thread! : Main Program : Concrete Event Handler : Reactor : Synchronous Event Demultiplexer register_handler() get_handle() handle_events() select() handle_event() Handle Handles Handles Con. Event Handler Events service() event

Pros & Cons of the Reactor Pattern This pattern offers four benefits : Separation of concerns This pattern decouples application-independent demuxing & dispatching mechanisms from application-specific hook method functionality Modularity, reusability, & configurability This pattern separates event-driven application functionality into several components, which enables the configuration of event handler components that are loosely integrated via a reactor Portability By decoupling the reactor’s interface from the lower-level OS synchronous event demuxing functions used in its implementation, the Reactor pattern improves portability Coarse-grained concurrency control This pattern serializes the invocation of event handlers at the level of event demuxing & dispatching within an application process or thread This pattern can incur liabilities : Restricted applicability This pattern can be applied efficiently only if the OS supports synchronous event demuxing on handle sets Non-pre-emptive In a single-threaded application, concrete event handlers that borrow the thread of their reactor can run to completion & prevent the reactor from dispatching other event handlers Complexity of debugging & testing It is hard to debug applications structured using this pattern due to its inverted flow of control, which oscillates between the framework infrastructure & the method call-backs on application-specific event handlers

The ACE_Time_Value Class (1/2) Motivation Many types of applications need to represent & manipulate time values Different date & time representations are used on OS platforms, such as POSIX, Windows, & proprietary real-time systems The ACE_Time_Value class encapsulates these differences within a portable wrapper facade

The ACE_Time_Value Class (2/2) Class Capabilities This class applies the Wrapper Façade pattern & C++ operator overloading to simplify portable time & duration related operations with the following capabilities: It provides a standardized representation of time that's portable across OS platforms It can convert between different platform time representations It uses operator overloading to simplify time-based comparisons by permitting standard C++ syntax for time-based arithmetic & relational expressions Its constructors & methods normalize time quantities It can represent either a duration or an absolute date & time

The ACE_Time_Value Class API This class handles variability of time representation & manipulation across OS platforms via a common API

Sidebar: Relative vs. Absolute Timeouts Relative time semantics are often used in ACE when an operation used it just once, e.g.: ACE IPC wrapper façade I/O methods as well as higher level frameworks, such as the ACE Acceptor & Connector ACE_Reactor & ACE_Proactor event loop & timer scheduling ACE_Process , ACE_Process_Manager & ACE_Thread_Manager wait() methods ACE_Sched_Params for time slice quantum Absolute time semantics are often used in ACE when an operation may be run multiple times in a loop, e.g.: ACE synchronizer wrapper facades, such as ACE_Thread_Semaphore & ACE_Condition_Thread_Mutex ACE_Timer_Queue scheduling mechanisms ACE_Task methods ACE_Message_Queue methods & classes using them

Using the ACE_Time_Value Class (1/2) 1 #include "ace/OS.h" 2 3 const ACE_Time_Value max_interval (60 * 60); // 1 hour. 4 5 int main (int argc, char *argv[]) { 6 ACE_Time_Value expiration = ACE_OS::gettimeofday (); 7 ACE_Time_Value interval; 8 9 ACE_Get_Opt opt (argc, argv, " e:i: " )); 10 for (int c; (c = opt ()) != -1;) 11 switch (c) { 12 'e': expiration += ACE_Time_Value (atoi (opt.opt_arg ())); 13 break; 14 'i': interval = ACE_Time_Value (atoi (opt.opt_arg ())); 15 break; 16 } The following example creates two ACE_Time_Value objects whose values can be set via command-line arguments It then performs range checking to ensure the values are reasonable

Using the ACE_Time_Value Class (2/2) 17 if (interval > max_interval) 18 cout << "interval must be less than " 19 << max_interval.sec () << endl; 20 else if (expiration > (ACE_Time_Value::max_time - interval)) 21 cout << "expiration + interval must be less than " 22 << ACE_Time_Value::max_time.sec () << endl; 23 return 0; 24 } Note the use of relational operators

Sidebar: ACE_Get_Opt ACE_Get_Opt is an iterator for parsing command line options that provides a wrapper façade for the POSIX getopt() function Each instance of ACE_Get_Opt maintains its own state, so it can be used reentrantly ACE_Get_Opt is easier to use than getopt() since the optstring & argc/argv arguments are only passed once to its constructor It also supports “long options,” which are more expressive than getopt() ACE_Get_Opt can be used to parse the argc/argv pair passed to main() or to the init() hook method used by the ACE Service Configurator framework

The ACE_Event_Handler Class (1/2) Motivation Networked applications are often “event driven” i.e., their processing is driven by callbacks There are problems with implementing callbacks by defining a separate function for each type of event It is therefore more effective to devise an “object-oriented” event demultiplexing mechanism This mechanism should implement callbacks via object-oriented event handlers function 1 function 2 function 3 data 1 data 2 data 3 Demultiplexer Event Sources

The ACE_Event_Handler Class (2/2) Class Capabilities This base class of all reactive event handlers provides the following capabilities: It defines hook methods for input, output, exception, timer, & signal events Its hook methods allow applications to extend event handler subclasses in many ways without changing the framework Its use of object-oriented callbacks simplifies the association of data with hook methods that manipulate the data Its use of objects also automates the binding of an event source (or set of sources) with data the event source is associated with, such as a network session It centralizes how event handlers can be destroyed when they're not needed It holds a pointer to the ACE_Reactor that manages it, making it simple for an event handler to manage its event (de)registration correctly

The ACE_Event_Handler Class API This class handles variability of event processing behavior via a common event handler API

Types of Events & Event Handler Hooks When an application registers an event handler with a reactor, it must indicate what type(s) of event(s) the event handler should process ACE designates these event types via enumerators defined in ACE_Event_Handler that are associated with handle_*() hook methods These values can be combined (``or'd'' together) to efficiently designate a set of events This set of events can populate the ACE_Reactor_Mask parameter that's passed to the ACE_Reactor::register_handler() methods

Event Handler Hook Method Return Values When registered events occur, the reactor dispatches the appropriate event handler's handle_*() hook methods to process them When a handle_*() method finishes its processing, it must return a value that's interpreted by the reactor as follows: Before the reactor removes an event handler, it invokes the handler's hook method handle_close() , passing ACE_Reactor_Mask of the event that's now unregistered Indicates that the reactor should continue to detect & dispatch the registered event for this event handler If a value >0 is returned after processing an I/O event, the reactor will dispatch this event handler on the handle again before the reactor blocks on its event demultiplexer Greater than zero (> 0) Instructs the reactor to stop detecting the registered event for this event handler (& handle if it's an I/O event) Minus one ( - 1) Indicates that the reactor should continue to detect & dispatch the registered event for this event handler (& handle if it's an I/O event) This behavior is common for event handlers that process multiple instances of an event, for example, reading data from a socket as it becomes available Zero (0) Behavior Return value

Sidebar: Idioms for Designing Event Handlers To prevent starvation of activated event handlers, keep the execution time of an event handler's handle_*() hook methods short Ideally shorter than the average interval between event occurrences If an event handler has to run for a long time, consider queueing the request in an ACE_ Message_Queue & processing it later, e.g., using a Half-Sync/Half-Async pattern Consolidate an event handler's cleanup activities in its handle_close() hook method, rather than dispersing them throughout its other methods This idiom is particularly important when dealing with dynamically allocated event handlers that are deallocated via delete this , because it's easier to check whether there are potential problems with deleting non-dynamically allocated memory Only call delete this in an event handler's handle_close() method & only after the handler's final registered event has been removed from the reactor This idiom avoids dangling pointers that can otherwise occur if an event handler that is registered with a reactor for multiple events is deleted prematurely

Sidebar: Tracking Event Handler Registrations (1/2) class My_Event_Handler : public ACE_Event_Handler { private: // Keep track of the events the handler's registered for. ACE_Reactor_Mask mask_; public: // ... class methods shown below ... }; My_Event_Handler (ACE_Reactor *r): ACE_Event_Handler (r) { ACE_SET_BITS (mask_, ACE_Event_Handler::READ_MASK | ACE_Event_Handler::WRITE_MASK); reactor ()->register_handler (this, mask_); } Applications are responsible for determining when a dynamically allocated event handler can be deleted In the following example, the mask_ data member is initialized to accept both read & write events The this object ( My_Event_Handler instance) is then registered with the reactor

Sidebar: Tracking Event Handler Registrations (2/2) virtual int handle_close (ACE_HANDLE, ACE_Reactor_Mask mask) { if (mask == ACE_Event_Handler::READ_MASK) { ACE_CLR_BITS (mask_, ACE_Event_Handler::READ_MASK); // Perform READ_MASK cleanup logic... } if (mask == ACE_Event_Handler::WRITE_MASK) { ACE_CLR_BITS (mask_, ACE_Event_Handler::WRITE_MASK); // Perform WRITE_MASK cleanup logic. } if (mask_ == 0) delete this; return 0; } Whenever a handle_*() method returns an error (-1), the reactor passes the corresponding event’s mask to the event handler’s handle_close() method to unregister that event The handle_close() method clears the corresponding bit Whenever the mask_ data member becomes zero, the dynamically allocated event handler must be deleted

Using the ACE_Event_Handler Class (1/8) We implement our logging server by inheriting from ACE_Event_Handler & driving its processing via the reactor’s event loop to handle two types of events: Data events , which indicate the arrival of log records from connected client logging daemons Accept events , which indicate the arrival of new connection requests from client logging daemons Logging Event Handler Logging Event Handler Logging Acceptor ACE_Reactor

Using the ACE_Event_Handler Class (2/8) We define two types of event handlers in our logging server: Logging_Event_Handler Processes log records received from a connected client logging daemon Uses the ACE_SOCK_Stream to read log records from a connection Logging_Acceptor A factory that allocates a Logging_Event_Handler dynamically & initializes it when a client logging daemon connects Uses ACE_SOCK_Acceptor to initialize ACE_SOCK_Stream contained in Logging_Event_Handler

Using the ACE_Event_Handler Class (3/8) class Logging_Acceptor : public ACE_Event_Handler { private: // Factory that connects <ACE_SOCK_Stream>s passively. ACE_SOCK_Acceptor acceptor_; public: // Simple constructor. Logging_Acceptor (ACE_Reactor *r = ACE_Reactor::instance ()) : ACE_Event_Handler (r) {} // Initialization method. virtual int open (const ACE_INET_Addr &local_addr); // Called by a reactor when there's a new connection to accept. virtual int handle_input (ACE_HANDLE = ACE_INVALID_HANDLE); Logging_Acceptor is a factory that allocates a Logging_Event_Handler dynamically & initializes it when a client logging daemon connects Note default use of reactor singleton Key hook method dispatched by reactor

Sidebar: Singleton Pattern The Singleton pattern ensures a class has only instance & provides a global point of access to that instance e.g., class Singleton { public: static Singleton * instance (){ if (instance_ == 0) { instance_ = new Singleton ; } return instance_; } void method_1 (); // Other methods omitted. private: static Singleton *instance_; // Initialized to 0 . }; ACE offers singletons of a number of important classes, accessed via their instance() method, e.g., ACE_Reactor & ACE_Thread_Manager You can also turn your class into a singleton via ACE_Singleton e.g., class MyClass {…}; typedef ACE_Singleton <MyClass, ACE_Thread_Mutex > TheSystemClass; … MyClass *c = TheSystemClass:: instance (); Be careful using Singleton – it can cause tightly coupled designs!

Using the ACE_Event_Handler Class (4/8) virtual int handle_close (ACE_HANDLE = ACE_INVALID_HANDLE, ACE_Reactor_Mask = 0); // Return the passive-mode socket's I/O handle. virtual ACE_HANDLE get_handle () const { return acceptor_.get_handle (); } }; int Logging_Acceptor::open (const ACE_INET_Addr &local_addr) { if (acceptor_.open (local_addr) == -1) return -1; return reactor ()->register_handler (this, ACE_Event_Handler::ACCEPT_MASK); } int Logging_Acceptor::handle_close (ACE_HANDLE, ACE_Reactor_Mask) { acceptor_.close (); delete this; return 0; } Register ourselves with the reactor for accept events It’s ok to “delete this” in this context! Hook method called when object removed from Reactor

Using the ACE_Event_Handler Class (5/8) class Logging_Event_Handler : public ACE_Event_Handler { protected: // File where log records are written. ACE_FILE_IO log_file_; Logging_Handler logging_handler_; // Connection to remote peer. public: // Initialize the base class & logging handler. Logging_Event_Handler (ACE_Reactor *r) : ACE_Event_Handler (r), logging_handler_ (log_file_) {} virtual int open (); // Activate the object. // Called by a reactor when logging events arrive. virtual int handle_input (ACE_HANDLE = ACE_INVALID_HANDLE); // Called by a reactor when handler is closing. virtual int handle_close (ACE_HANDLE, ACE_Reactor_Mask); }; Logging_Event_Handler processes log records received from a connected client logging daemon Key hook method dispatched by reactor

Using the ACE_Event_Handler Class (6/8) 1 int Logging_Acceptor::handle_input (ACE_HANDLE) { 2 Logging_Event_Handler *peer_handler = 0; 3 ACE_NEW_RETURN (peer_handler, 4 Logging_Event_Handler (reactor ()), -1); 5 if (acceptor_.accept (peer_handler->peer ()) == -1) { 6 delete peer_handler; 7 return -1; 8 } else if (peer_handler->open () == -1) { 9 peer_handler->handle_close (); 10 return -1; 11 } 12 return 0; 13 } Factory method called back by reactor when a connection event occurs

Sidebar: ACE Memory Management Macros Early C++ compilers returned a NULL for failed memory allocations; the newer compilers throw an exception ACE macros unify the behavior & return NULL irrespective of whether an exception is thrown or not They also set errno to ENOMEM ACE_NEW_RETURN returns a valid pointer or NULL on failure ACE_NEW simply returns ACE_NEW_NORETURN continues to execute even on failure Following version is for compilers that throw std::bad_alloc on allocation failure #define ACE_NEW_RETURN(POINTER,CTOR,RET_VAL) \ do { try { POINTER = new CTOR; } catch (std::bad_alloc) \ { errno = ENOMEM; POINTER = 0; return RET_VAL; } \ } while (0) Following is for compilers that offer a nothrow variant of operator new #define ACE_NEW_RETURN(POINTER,CTOR,RET_VAL) \ do { POINTER = new (ACE_nothrow) CTOR; \ if (POINTER == 0) { errno = ENOMEM; return RET_VAL; } \ } while (0)

Using the ACE_Event_Handler Class (7/8) 1 int Logging_Event_Handler::open () { 2 static std::string logfile_suffix = ".log"; 3 std::string filename (MAXHOSTNAMELEN, ’\0’); 4 ACE_INET_Addr logging_peer_addr; 5 6 logging_handler_.peer ().get_remote_addr (logging_peer_addr); 7 logging_peer_addr.get_host_name (filename.c_str (), 8 filename.size ()); 9 filename += logfile_suffix; ACE_FILE_Connector connector; 11 connector.connect (log_file_, 12 ACE_FILE_Addr (filename.c_str ()), 13 0, // No timeout. 14 ACE_Addr::sap_any, // Ignored. 15 0, // Don't try to reuse the addr. 16 O_RDWR|O_CREAT|O_APPEND, 17 ACE_DEFAULT_FILE_PERMS); 18 19 return reactor ()->register_handler 20 (this, ACE_Event_Handler::READ_MASK); 21 } Register with the reactor for input events Create the log file

Using the ACE_Event_Handler Class (8/8) int Logging_Event_Handler::handle_input (ACE_HANDLE) { return logging_handler_.log_record (); } int Logging_Event_Handler::handle_close (ACE_HANDLE, ACE_Reactor_Mask) { logging_handler_.close (); log_file_.close (); delete this; return 0; } Called back by the reactor when a data event occurs Called back by the reactor when handle_input() returns -1 Returns -1 when client closes connection

Sidebar: Event Handler Memory Management (1/2) Event handlers should generally be allocated dynamically for the following reasons: Simplify memory management: For example, deallocation can be localized in an event handler's handle_close() method, using the event handler event registration tracking idiom Avoid “dangling handler” problems: For example an event handler may be instantiated on the stack or as a member of another class Its lifecycle is therefore controlled externally, however, its reactor registrations are controlled internally to the reactor If the handler gets destroyed while it is still registered with a reactor, there will be unpredictable problems later if the reactor tries to dispatch the nonexistent handler Avoid portability problems: For example, dynamic allocation alleviates subtle problems stemming from the delayed event handler cleanup semantics of the ACE_WFMO_Reactor

Sidebar: Event Handler Memory Management (2/2) Real-time systems They avoid or minimize the use of dynamic memory to improve their predictability Event handlers could be allocated statically for such applications Event Handler Memory Management in Real-time Systems Do not call delete this in handle_close() Unregister all events from reactors in the class destructor, at the latest Ensure that the lifetime of a registered event handler is longer than the reactor it's registered with if it can't be unregistered for some reason. Avoid the use of the ACE_WFMO_Reactor since it defers the removal of event handlers, thereby making it hard to enforce convention 3 If using ACE_WFMO_Reactor , pass the DONT_CALL flag to ACE_Event_Handler :: remove_handler() & carefully manage shutdown activities without the benefit of the reactor's handle_close() callback

Sidebar: Handling Silent Peers A client disconnection, both graceful & abrupt, are handled by the reactor by detecting that the socket has become readable & will dispatch the handle_input() method, which then detects the closing of the connection A client may, however, stop communicating for which no event gets generated in the reactor, which may be due to: A network cable being pulled out & put back shortly A host crashes without closing any connections These situations can be dealt with in a number of ways: Wait until the TCP keepalive mechanism abandons the peer & closes the connection, which can be a very slow procedure Implement an application-level policy where if no data has been received for a while, the connection is considered to be closed Implement an application-level policy or mechanism, like a heartbeat that periodically tests for connection liveness

The ACE Timer Queue Classes (1/2) Motivation Many networked applications perform activities periodically or must be notified when specified time periods have elapsed Conventional OS timer mechanisms are limited since they Support a limited number of timers & Use signals to expire the timers

The ACE Timer Queue Classes (2/2) Class Capabilities The ACE timer queue classes allow applications to register time-driven ACE_Event_Handler subclasses that provides the following capabilities: They allow applications to schedule event handlers whose handle_timeout() hook methods will be dispatched efficiently & scalably at caller-specified times in the future, either once or at periodic intervals They allow applications to cancel a timer associated with a particular event handler or all timers associated with an event handler They allow applications to configure a timer queue's time source

The ACE Timer Queue Classes API This class handles variability of timer queue mechanisms via a common timer queue API

Scheduling ACE_Event_Handler for Timeouts The ACE_Timer_Queue ’s schedule() method is passed two parameters: A pointer to an event handler that will be the target of the subsequent handle_timeout() dispatching and A reference to an ACE_Time_Value indicating the absolute timers future time when the handle_timeout() hook method should be invoked on the event handler schedule() also takes two more optional parameters: A void pointer that's stored internally by the timer queue & passed back unchanged when handle_timeout() is dispatched This pointer can be used as an asynchronous completion token (ACT) in accordance with the Asynchronous Completion Token pattern By using an ACT, the same event handler can be registered with a timer queue at multiple future dispatching times A reference to a second ACE_Time_Value that designates the interval at which the event handler should be dispatched periodically

The Asynchronous Completion Token Pattern Structure & Participants This pattern allows an application to efficiently demultiplex & process the responses of an asynchronous operation it invokes on services Together with each async operation that a client initiator invokes on a service , transmit information (i.e., the ACT ) that identifies how the initiator should process the service’s response schedule() ACE_Timer_Queue ACE_Event_Handler handle_timeout() Timer Queue Impl In the ACE_Timer_Queue , schedule() is the async operation & the ACT is a void * passed to schedule()

The Asynchronous Completion Token Pattern When the timer queue dispatches the handle_timeout() method on the event handler, the ACE is passed so that it can be used to demux the response efficiently ACE_Timer_Queue ACE_Event_Handler Timer Queue Impl handle_timeout() The use of this pattern minimizes the number of event handlers that need to be created to handle timeouts. Dynamic Interactions

Sidebar: ACE Time Sources The static time returning methods of ACE_Timer_Queue are required to provide an accurate basis for timer scheduling & expiration decisions In ACE this is done in two ways: ACE_OS::gettimeofday() is a static method that returns a ACE_Time_Value containing the current absolute date & time as reported by the OS ACE_High_Res_Timer::gettimeofday_hr() is a static method that returns the value of an OS-specific high resolution timer, converted to ACE_Time_Value units based on number of clock ticks since boot time The granularities of these two timers varies by three to four orders of magnitude For timeout events, however, the granularities are similar due to complexities of clocks, OS scheduling & timer interrupt servicing If the application’s timer behavior must remain constant, irrespective of whether the system time was changed or not, its timer source must use the ACE_High_Res_Timer::gettimeofday_hr()

Using the ACE Timer Classes (1/4) class Logging_Acceptor_Ex : public Logging_Acceptor { public: typedef ACE_INET_Addr PEER_ADDR; // Simple constructor to pass <ACE_Reactor> to base class. Logging_Acceptor_Ex (ACE_Reactor *r = ACE_Reactor::instance ()) : Logging_Acceptor (r) {} int handle_input (ACE_HANDLE) { Logging_Event_Handler_Ex *peer_handler = 0; ACE_NEW_RETURN (peer_handler, Logging_Event_Handler_Ex (reactor ()), -1); // ... same as Logging_Acceptor::handle_input() } }; We now show how to apply ACE timer queue “interval timers” to reclaim resources from those event handlers whose clients log records infrequently We use the Evictor pattern , which describes how & when to release resources, such as memory & I/O handles, to optimize system resource management Only difference (variability) is the event handler type…

Using the ACE Timer Classes (2/4) class Logging_Event_Handler_Ex : public Logging_Event_Handler { private: // Time when a client last sent a log record. ACE_Time_Value time_of_last_log_record_; // Maximum time to wait for a client log record. const ACE_Time_Value max_client_timeout_; public: typedef Logging_Event_Handler PARENT; // 3600 seconds == one hour. enum { MAX_CLIENT_TIMEOUT = 3600 }; Logging_Event_Handler_Ex (ACE_Reactor *reactor, const ACE_Time_Value &max_client_timeout = ACE_Time_Value (MAX_CLIENT_TIMEOUT)) : Logging_Event_Handler (reactor), time_of_last_log_record (0), max_client_timeout_ (max_client_timeout) {}

Using the ACE Timer Classes (3/4) virtual int open (); // Activate the event handler. // Called by a reactor when logging events arrive. virtual int handle_input (ACE_HANDLE); // Called when a timeout expires to check if the client has // been idle for an excessive amount of time. virtual int handle_timeout (const ACE_Time_Value &tv, const void *act); }; 1 int Logging_Event_Handler_Ex::open () { 2 int result = PARENT::open (); 3 if (result != -1) { 4 ACE_Time_Value reschedule (max_client_timeout_.sec () / 4); 5 result = reactor ()->schedule_timer 6 (this, 0, 7 max_client_timeout_, // Initial timeout. 8 reschedule); // Subsequent timeouts. 9 } 10 return result; 11 } Creates an interval timer that fires every 15 minutes

Using the ACE Timer Classes (4/4) int Logging_Event_Handler_Ex::handle_input (ACE_HANDLE h) { time_of_last_log_record_ = reactor ()->timer_queue ()->gettimeofday (); return PARENT::handle_input (h); } int Logging_Event_Handler_Ex::handle_timeout (const ACE_Time_Value &now, const void *) { if (now - time_of_last_log_record_ >= max_client_timeout_) reactor ()->remove_handler (this, ACE_Event_Handler::READ_MASK); return 0; } Log the last time this client was active Evict the handler if client has been inactive too long

Sidebar: Using Timers in Real-time Apps Real-time applications must demonstrate predictable behavior If a reactor is used to dispatch both I/O & timer queue handlers, the timing variations in I/O handling can cause unpredictable behavior The event demultiplexing & synchronization framework integrating I/O handlers & timer mechanisms in the reactor can cause unnecessary overhead for real-time applications Real-time applications, must, therefore choose to handle timers in a separate thread using the ACE_Timer_Queue Different thread priorities can be assigned based on the priorities of the timer & I/O events This facility is provided by the ACE_Thread_Timer_Queue_Adapter See $ACE_ROOT/examples/Timer_Queue/ for examples

Sidebar: Minimizing ACE Timer Queue Memory Allocation ACE_Timer_Queue doesn’t support a size() method since there’s no generic way to represent size of different implementations of timer queue The timer queue subclasses therefore offer size related parameters in their constructors The timer queue can resize automatically, however, this strategy involves dynamic memory allocation that can be a source of overhead for real-time applications ACE_Timer_Heap & ACE_Timer_Wheel classes offer the ability to preallocate timer queue entries ACE reactor can use a custom-tuned timer queue using the following: Instantiate the desired ACE timer queue class with the size & preallocation argument, if any Instantiate the ACE reactor implementation object with the timer queue from step 1 Instantiate a new ACE_Reactor object supplying the reactor implementation

The ACE_Reactor Class (1/2) Motivation Event-driven networked applications have historically been programmed using native OS mechanisms, such as the Socket API & the select() synchronous event demultiplexer Applications developed this way, however, are not only nonportable, they are inflexible because they tightly couple low-level event detection, demultiplexing, & dispatching code together with application event processing code Developers must therefore rewrite all this code for each new networked application, which is tedious, expensive, & error prone It's also unnecessary because much of event detection, demultiplexing, & dispatching can be generalized & reused across many networked applications.

The ACE_Reactor Class (2/2) Class Capabilities This class implements the Facade pattern to define an interface for ACE Reactor framework capabilities: It centralizes event loop processing in a reactive application It detects events via an event demultiplexer provided by the OS & used by the reactor implementation It demultiplexes events to event handlers when the event demultiplexer indicates the occurrence of the designated events It dispatches the hook methods on event handlers to perform application-defined processing in response to the events It ensures that any thread can change a Reactor's event set or queue a callback to an event handler & expect the Reactor to act on the request promptly

The ACE_Reactor Class API This class handles variability of synchronous event demuxing mechanisms via a common API

Using the ACE_Reactor Class (1/4) template <class ACCEPTOR> class Reactor_Logging_Server : public ACCEPTOR { public: Reactor_Logging_Server (int argc, char *argv[], ACE_Reactor *); }; This example illustrates a server that runs in a single thread of control in a single process, handling log records from multiple clients reactively Reactor Wrapper Facade Acceptor/Connector

Using the ACE_Reactor Class (2/4) Sequence Diagram for Reactive Logging Server

Using the ACE_Reactor Class (3/4) 1 template <class ACCEPTOR> 2 Reactor_Logging_Server<ACCEPTOR>::Reactor_Logging_Server 3 (int argc, char *argv[], ACE_Reactor *reactor) 4 : ACCEPTOR (reactor) { 5 u_short logger_port = argc > 1 ? atoi (argv[1]) : 0; 6 ACE_TYPENAME ACCEPTOR::PEER_ADDR server_addr; 7 int result; 8 9 if (logger_port != 0) 10 result = server_addr.set (logger_port, INADDR_ANY); 11 else 12 result = server_addr.set ("ace_logger", INADDR_ANY); 13 if (result != -1) 14 result = ACCEPTOR::open (server_addr); 15 if (result == -1) reactor->end_reactor_event_loop (); 16 } Shutdown the reactor’s event loop if an error occurs

Using the ACE_Reactor Class (4/4) 1 typedef Reactor_Logging_Server<Logging_Acceptor_Ex> 2 Server_Logging_Daemon; 3 4 int main (int argc, char *argv[]) { 5 ACE_Reactor reactor; 6 Server_Logging_Daemon *server = 0; 7 ACE_NEW_RETURN (server, 8 Server_Logging_Daemon (argc, argv, &reactor), 9 1); 10 11 if (reactor.run_reactor_event_loop () == -1) 12 ACE_ERROR_RETURN ((LM_ERROR, "%p\n", 13 "run_reactor_event_loop()"), 1); 14 return 0; 15 } Dynamic allocation ensures proper deletion semantics

Sidebar: Avoiding Reactor Deadlock in Multithreaded Applications (1/2) Reactors, though often used in single-threaded applications, can also be used in multithreaded applications In multi-threaded applications it is important to avoid deadlock between multiple threads that are sharing an ACE_Reactor ACE_Reactor attempts to solve this problem to some extent by holding a recursive mutex when it dispatches a callback to an event handler If the dispatched callback method directly or indirectly calls back into the reactor within the same thread of control, the recursive mutex's acquire() method detects this automatically & simply increases its count of the lock recursion nesting depth, rather than deadlocking the thread

Sidebar: Avoiding Reactor Deadlock in Multithreaded Applications (2/2) Deadlock can still occur under the following circumstances: The original callback method calls a second method that blocks trying to acquire a mutex that's held by a second thread executing the same method The second thread directly or indirectly calls into the same reactor Deadlock can occur since the reactor's recursive mutex doesn't realize that the second thread is calling on behalf of the first thread where the callback method was dispatched originally One way to avoid ACE_Reactor deadlock in a multithreaded application is to not make blocking calls to other methods from callbacks if those methods are executed concurrently by competing threads that directly or indirectly call back into the same reactor It may be necessary to use an ACE_Message_Queue to exchange information asynchronously if a handle_*() callback method must communicate with another thread that accesses the same reactor

ACE Reactor Implementations (1/2) The ACE Reactor framework was designed for extensibility There are nearly a dozen different Reactor implementations in ACE The most common ACE Reactor implementations are shown in the following table:

ACE Reactor Implementations (2/2) The relationships amongst these classes are shown in the adjacent diagram Note the use of the Bridge pattern The ACE_Select_Reactor & ACE_TP_Reactor are more similar than the ACE_WFMO_Reactor It’s fairly straightforward to create your own Reactor

The ACE_Select_Reactor Class (1/2) Motivation The select() function is the most common synchronous event demultiplexer The select() function is tedious, error-prone, & non-portable ACE therefore defines the ACE_Select_Reactor class, which is the default on all platforms except Windows int select (int width, // Maximum handle plus 1 fd_set *read_fds, // Set of "read" handles fd_set *write_fds, // Set of "write" handles fd_set *except_fds, // Set of "exception" handles struct timeval *timeout);// Time to wait for events

The ACE_Select_Reactor Class (2/2) Class Capabilities This class is an implementation of the ACE_Reactor interface that provides the following capabilities: It supports reentrant reactor invocations, where applications can call the handle_events() method from event handlers that are being dispatched by the same reactor It can be configured to be either synchronized or nonsynchronized, which trades off thread safety for reduced overhead It preserves fairness by dispatching all active handles in its handle sets before calling select() again

The ACE_Select_Reactor Class API

Sidebar: Controlling the Size of ACE_Select_Reactor (1/2) The number of event handlers that can be managed by an ACE_Select_Reactor defaults to the value of the FD_SETSIZE macro, which is used to manipulate the size of fd_set FD_SETSIZE can play an important role in increasing the number of possible event handlers in ACE_Select_Reactor This value can be controlled as follows: To create an ACE_Select_Reactor that's smaller than the default size of FD_SETSIZE , simply pass in the value to the ACE_Select_Reactor::open() method No recompilation of the ACE library is necessary To create an ACE_Select_Reactor that's larger than the default size of FD_SETSIZE , change the value of FD_SETSIZE in the $ACE_ROOT/ace/config.h file Recompilation of the ACE library (& possibly the OS kernel & C library on some platforms) is required After recompiling & reinstalling the necessary libraries, pass in the desired number of event handlers to the ACE_Select_Reactor::open() method The number of event handlers must be less than or equal to the new FD_SETSIZE & the maximum number of handles supported by the OS

Sidebar: Controlling the Size of ACE_Select_Reactor (2/2) Although the steps described above make it possible to handle a large number of I/O handles per ACE_Select_Reactor , it's not necessarily a good idea since performance may suffer due to deficiencies with select() To handle a large numbers of handles, consider using the ACE_Dev_Poll_Reactor that's available on certain UNIX platforms An alternative choice could be a design using asynchronous I/O based on the ACE Proactor framework The ACE Proactor is available on Windows & certain UNIX platforms that support asynchronous I/O Avoid the temptation to divide a large number of handles between multiple instances of ACE_Select_Reactor since one of the deficiencies stems from the need for select() to scan large fd_set structures, not ACE's use of select()

The ACE_Select_Reactor Notification Mechanism ACE_Select_Reactor implements its default notification mechanism via an ACE_Pipe This class is a bidirectional IPC mechanism that’s implemented via various OS features on different platforms The two ends of the pipe play the following roles:

The ACE_Select_Reactor Notification Mechanism The writer role The ACE_Select_Reactor ’s notify() method exposes the writer end of the pipe to application threads, which use the notify() method to pass event handler pointers to an ACE_Select_Reactor via its notification pipe The reader role The ACE_Select_Reactor registers the reader end of the pipe internally with a READ_MASK When the reactor detects an event in the reader end of its notification pipe it wakes up & dispatches its notify handler to process a user-configurable number of event handlers from the pipe The number of handlers dispatched is controlled by max_notify_iterations()

Sidebar: The ACE_Token Class (1/2) ACE_Token is a lock whose interface is compatible with other ACE synchronization wrapper facades, such as ACE_Thread_Mutex or ACE_RW_Mutex It has the following capabilities: It implements recursive mutex semantics Each ACE_Token maintains two ordered lists that are used to queue high- & low-priority threads waiting to acquire the token Threads requesting the token using ACE_Token::acquire_write() are kept in the high-priority list & take precedence over threads that call ACE_Token::acquire_read() , which are kept in the low-priority list Within a priority list, threads that are blocked awaiting to acquire a token are serviced in either FIFO or LIFO order according to the current queueing strategy as threads release the token The ACE_Token queueing strategy can be obtained or set via calls to ACE_Token::queueing_strategy() & defaults to FIFO , which ensures the fairness among waiting threads In contrast, UNIX International & Pthreads mutexes don't strictly enforce any particular thread acquisition ordering

Sidebar: The ACE_Token Class (2/2) For applications that don't require strict FIFO ordering, the ACE_Token LIFO strategy can improve performance by maximizing CPU cache affinity. The ACE_Token::sleep_hook() hook method is invoked if a thread can't acquire a token immediately This method allows a thread to release any resources it's holding before it waits to acquire the token, thereby avoiding deadlock, starvation, & unbounded priority inversion ACE_Select_Reactor uses an ACE_Token -derived class named ACE_Select_Reactor_Token to synchronize access to a reactor Requests to change the internal states of a reactor use ACE_Token::acquire_write() to ensure other waiting threads see the changes as soon as possible ACE_Select_Reactor_Token overrides its sleep_hook() method to notify the reactor of pending threads via its notification mechanism

Using the ACE_Select_Reactor Class (1/4) 7 // Forward declarations. 8 ACE_THR_FUNC_RETURN controller (void *); 9 ACE_THR_FUNC_RETURN event_loop (void *); 10 11 typedef Reactor_Logging_Server<Logging_Acceptor_Ex> 12 Server_Logging_Daemon; 13 This example show how to use the ACE_Select_Reactor ’s notify() mechanism to shut down the logging server cleanly

Using the ACE_Select_Reactor Class (2/4) 14 int main (int argc, char *argv[]) { 15 ACE_Select_Reactor select_reactor; 16 ACE_Reactor reactor (&select_reactor); 17 18 Server_Logging_Daemon *server = 0; 19 ACE_NEW_RETURN (server, 20 Server_Logging_Daemon (argc, argv, &reactor), 21 1); 22 ACE_Thread_Manager::instance()->spawn (event_loop, &reactor); 23 ACE_Thread_Manager::instance()->spawn (controller, &reactor); 24 return ACE_Thread_Manager::instance ()->wait (); 25 } static ACE_THR_FUNC_RETURN event_loop (void *arg) { ACE_Reactor *reactor = ACE_static_cast (ACE_Reactor *, arg); reactor->owner (ACE_OS::thr_self ()); reactor->run_reactor_event_loop (); return 0; } Ensure we get the ACE_Select_Reactor Barrier synchronization Become “owner” (only needed for ACE_Select_Reactor )

Using the ACE_Select_Reactor Class (3/4) 1 static ACE_THR_FUNC_RETURN controller (void *arg) { 2 ACE_Reactor *reactor = ACE_static_cast (ACE_Reactor *, arg); 3 Quit_Handler *quit_handler = 0; 4 ACE_NEW_RETURN (quit_handler, Quit_Handler (reactor), 0); 5 6 for (;;) { 7 std::string user_input; 8 std::getline (cin, user_input, '\n'); 9 if (user_input == "quit") { 10 reactor->notify (quit_handler); 11 break; 12 } 13 } 14 return 0; 15 } Use the notify pipe to wakeup the reactor & inform it to shut down by calling handle_exception() Runs in a separate thread of control

Using the ACE_Select_Reactor Class (4/4) class Quit_Handler : public ACE_Event_Handler { public: Quit_Handler (ACE_Reactor *r): ACE_Event_Handler (r) {} virtual int handle_exception (ACE_HANDLE) { reactor ()->end_reactor_event_loop (); return -1; } virtual int handle_close (ACE_HANDLE, ACE_Reactor_Mask) { delete this; return 0; } private: // Private destructor ensures dynamic allocation. virtual ~Quit_Handler () {} }; Trigger call to handle_close() method It’s ok to “delete this” in this context

Sidebar: Avoiding Reactor Notification Deadlock The ACE Reactor framework's notification mechanism enables a reactor to Process an open-ended number of event handlers Unblock from its event loop By default, the reactor notification mechanism is implemented with a bounded buffer & notify() uses a blocking send call to insert notifications into the queue A deadlock can therefore occur if the buffer is full & notify() is called by a handle_*() method of an event handler There are several ways to avoid such deadlocks: Pass a timeout to the notify() method This solution pushes the responsibility for handling buffer overflow to the thread that calls notify() Design the application so that it doesn't generate calls to notify() faster than a reactor can process them This is ultimately the best solution, though it requires careful analysis of program behavior

Sidebar: Enlarging ACE_Select_Reactor’s Notifications In some situations, it's possible that a notification queued to an ACE_Select_Reactor won't be delivered until after the desired event handler is destroyed This delay stems from the time window between when the notify() method is called & the time when the reactor reacts to the notification pipe, reads the notification information from the pipe, & dispatches the associated callback Although application developers can often work around this scenario & avoid deleting an event handler while notifications are pending, it's not always possible to do so ACE offers a way to change the ACE_Select_Reactor notification queueing mechanism from an ACE_Pipe to a user-space queue that can grow arbitrarily large This alternate mechanism offers the following benefits: Greatly expands the queueing capacity of the notification mechanism, also helping to avoid deadlock Allows the ACE_Reactor::purge_pending_notifications() method to scan the queue & remove desired event handlers To enable this feature, add #define ACE_HAS_REACTOR_NOTIFICATION_QUEUE to your $ACE_ROOT/ace/config.h file & rebuild ACE This option is not enabled by default because the additional dynamic memory allocation required may be prohibitive for high-performance or embedded systems

The Leader/Followers Pattern This pattern eliminates the need for—& the overhead of—a separate Reactor thread & synchronized request queue used in the Half-Sync/Half-Async pattern The Leader/Followers architectural pattern (P2) provides an efficient concurrency model where multiple threads take turns sharing event sources to detect, demux, dispatch, & process service requests that occur on the event sources TCP Sockets + select() / poll() UDP Sockets + select() / poll() Iterative Handle Sets TCP Sockets + WaitForMultpleObjects() UDP Sockets + WaitForMultipleObjects() Concurrent Handle Sets Iterative Handles Concurrent Handles Handles Handle Sets Handle uses demultiplexes * * Handle Set handle_events() deactivate_handle() reactivate_handle() select() Event Handler handle_event () get_handle() Concrete Event Handler B handle_event () get_handle() Concrete Event Handler A handle_event () get_handle() Thread Pool join() promote_new_leader() synchronizer

Leader/Followers Pattern Dynamics handle_events() new_leader() Leader thread demuxing Follower thread promotion Event handler demuxing & event processing Rejoining the thread pool promote_ : Concrete Event Handler join() handle_event() : Thread Pool : Handle Set join() thread 2 sleeps until it becomes the leader event thread 1 sleeps until it becomes the leader deactivate_ handle() join() Thread 1 Thread 2 handle_ events() reactivate_ handle() handle_event() event thread 2 waits for a new event, thread 1 processes current event deactivate_ handle()

Pros & Cons of Leader/Followers Pattern This pattern provides two benefits : Performance enhancements This can improve performance as follows: It enhances CPU cache affinity & eliminates the need for dynamic memory allocation & data buffer sharing between threads It minimizes locking overhead by not exchanging data between threads, thereby reducing thread synchronization It can minimize priority inversion because no extra queueing is introduced in the server It doesn’t require a context switch to handle each event, reducing dispatching latency Programming simplicity The Leader/Follower pattern simplifies the programming of concurrency models where multiple threads can receive requests, process responses, & demultiplex connections using a shared handle set This pattern also incur liabilities : Implementation complexity The advanced variants of the Leader/ Followers pattern are hard to implement Lack of flexibility In the Leader/ Followers model it is hard to discard or reorder events because there is no explicit queue Network I/O bottlenecks The Leader/Followers pattern serializes processing by allowing only a single thread at a time to wait on the handle set, which could become a bottleneck because only one thread at a time can demultiplex I/O events

The ACE_TP_Reactor Class (1/2) Motivation Although ACE_Select_Reactor is flexible, it's somewhat limited in multithreaded applications because only the owner thread can ACE_Select_Reactor call its handle_events() method One way to solve this problem is to spawn multiple threads & run the event loop of a separate instance of ACE_Select_Reactor in each of them This design can be hard to program, however, since it requires developers to implement a proxy that partitions event handlers evenly between the reactors to divide the load evenly across threads The ACE_TP_Reactor is intended to simplify the use of the ACE Reactor in multithreaded applications

The ACE_TP_Reactor Class (2/2) A pool of threads can call its handle_events() method, which can improve scalability by handling events on multiple handles concurrently It prevents multiple I/O events from being dispatched to the same event handler simultaneously in different thread This constraint preserves the ACE_Select_Reactor ’s I/O dispatching behavior, alleviating the need to add synchronization locks to a handler's I/O processing After a thread obtains a set of active handles from select() , the other reactor threads dispatch from that handle set instead of calling select() again Class Capabilities This class inherits from ACE_Select_Reactor & implements the ACE_Reactor interface & uses the Leader/Followers pattern to provide the following capabilities:

Pros & Cons of ACE_TP_Reactor Given the added capabilities of the ACE_TP_Reactor , here are two reasons why you would still use the ACE_Select_React or: Less overhead – While ACE_Select_Reactor is less powerful than the ACE_TP_Reactor it also incurs less time & space overhead Moreover, single-threaded applications can instantiate the ACE_Select_Reactor_T template with an ACE_Noop_Token -based token to eliminate the internal overhead of acquiring & releasing tokens completely Implicit serialization – ACE_Select_Reactor is particularly useful when explicitly writing serialization code at the application-level is undesirable e.g., application programmers who are unfamiliar with synchronization techniques may prefer to let the ACE_Select_Reactor serialize their event handling, rather than using threads & adding locks in their application code Compared to other thread pool models, such as the half-sync/half-async model, ACE_TP_Reactor keeps all event processing local to the thread that dispatches the handler, which yields the following benefits: It enhances CPU cache affinity & eliminates the need to allocate memory dynamically & share data buffers between threads It minimizes locking overhead by not exchanging data between threads It minimizes priority inversion since no extra queueing is used It doesn't require a context switch to handle each event, which reduces latency

Using the ACE_TP_Reactor Class (1/2) 1 #include "ace/streams.h" 2 #include "ace/Reactor.h" 3 #include "ace/TP_Reactor.h" 4 #include "ace/Thread_Manager.h“ 5 #include "Reactor_Logging_Server.h" 6 #include <string> 7 // Forward declarations 8 ACE_THR_FUNC_RETURN controller (void *); 9 ACE_THR_FUNC_RETURN event_loop (void *); 10 11 typedef Reactor_Logging_Server<Logging_Acceptor_Ex> 12 Server_Logging_Daemon; 13 This example revises the ACE_Select_Reactor example to spawn a pool of threads that share the Reactor_Logging_Server 's I/O handles Note reuse

Using the ACE_TP_Reactor Class (2/2) 14 int main (int argc, char *argv[]) { 15 const size_t N_THREADS = 4; 16 ACE_TP_Reactor tp_reactor; 17 ACE_Reactor reactor (&tp_reactor); 18 auto_ptr<ACE_Reactor> delete_instance 19 (ACE_Reactor::instance (&reactor)); 20 21 Server_Logging_Daemon *server = 0; 22 ACE_NEW_RETURN (server, 23 Server_Logging_Daemon (argc, argv, 24 ACE_Reactor::instance ()), 1); 25 ACE_Thread_Manager::instance ()->spawn_n 26 (N_THREADS, event_loop, ACE_Reactor::instance ()); 27 ACE_Thread_Manager::instance ()->spawn 28 (controller, ACE_Reactor::instance ()); 29 return ACE_Thread_Manager::instance ()->wait (); 30 } Spawn multiple threads Ensure we get the ACE_TP_Reactor

The ACE_WFMO_Reactor Class (1/2) Motivation Although select() is widely available, it's not always the best demuxer: On UNIX platforms, it only supports demuxing of I/O handles On Windows, select() only supports demultiplexing of socket handles It can only be called by one thread at a time for a particular set of I/O handles, which can degrade potential parallelism ACE_WFMO_Reactor uses WaitForMultipleObjects() to alleviate these problems & is the default ACE_Reactor implementation on Windows

The ACE_WFMO_Reactor Class (2/2) Class Capabilities This class is an implementation of the ACE_Reactor interface that also provides the following capabilities: It enables a pool of threads to call its handle_events() method concurrently It allows applications to wait for socket I/O events & scheduled timers, similar to the select() - based reactors, & also integrates event demultiplexing & dispatching for all event types that WaitForMultipleObjects() supports

The ACE_WFMO_Reactor Class API

Sidebar: The WaitForMultipleObjects() Function The Windows WaitForMultipleObjects() event demultiplexer function is similar to select() It blocks on an array of up to 64 handles until one or more of them become active (which is known as being “signaled” in Windows terminology) or until the interval in its timeout parameter elapses It can be programmed to return to its caller when either any one or more of the handles becomes active or all the handles become active In either case, it returns the index of the lowest active handle in the caller-specified array of handles Unlike the select() function, which only demultiplexes I/O handles, WaitForMultipleObjects() can wait for many types of Windows objects, including a thread, process, synchronizer (e.g., event, semaphore, or mutex), change notification, console input, & timer

Sidebar: Why ACE_WFMO_Reactor is Windows Default The ACE_WFMO_Reactor is the default implementation of the ACE_Reactor on Windows platforms for the following reasons: It lends itself more naturally to multithreaded processing, which is common on Windows ACE_WFMO_Reactor was developed before ACE_TP_Reactor & was the first reactor to support multithreaded event handling Applications often use signalable handles in situations where a signal may have been used on POSIX (e.g., child process exit) & these events can be dispatched by ACE_WFMO_Reactor It can handle a wider range of events than the ACE_Select_Reactor , which can only handle socket & timer events on Windows. It's easily integrated with ACE_Proactor event handling

Using the ACE_WFMO_Reactor Class (1/5) class Quit_Handler : public ACE_Event_Handler { private: // Keep track of when to shutdown. ACE_Manual_Event quit_seen_; public: 1 Quit_Handler (ACE_Reactor *r): ACE_Event_Handler (r) { 2 SetConsoleMode (ACE_STDIN, 3 ENABLE_LINE_INPUT | ENABLE_ECHO_INPUT 4 | ENABLE_PROCESSED_INPUT); 5 if (reactor ()->register_handler 6 (this, quit_seen_.handle ()) == -1 7 || ACE_Event_Handler::register_stdin_handler 8 (this, r, ACE_Thread_Manager::instance ()) == -1) 9 r->end_reactor_event_loop (); 10 } This method only works on Windows

Sidebar: ACE_Manual_Event & ACE_Auto_Event ACE provides two synchronization wrapper facade classes : ACE_Manual_Event & ACE_Auto_Event These classes allow threads in a process to wait on an event or inform other threads about the occurrence of a specific event in a thread-safe manner On Windows these classes are wrapper facades around native event objects, whereas on other platforms ACE emulates the Windows event object facility Events are similar to condition variables in the sense that a thread can use them to either signal the occurrence of an application-defined event or wait for that event to occur Unlike stateless condition variables, a signaled event remains set until a class-specific action occurs e.g., an ACE_Manual_Event remains set until it is explicitly reset & an ACE_Auto_Event remains set until a single thread waits on it These two classes allow users to control the number of threads awakened by signaling operations, & allows an event to indicate a state transition, even if no threads are waiting at the time the event is signaled Events are more expensive than mutexes, but provide better control over thread scheduling Events provide a simpler synchronization mechanism than condition variables Condition variables are more useful for complex synchronization activities, however, since they enable threads to wait for arbitrary condition expressions

Using the ACE_WFMO_Reactor Class (2/5) virtual int handle_input (ACE_HANDLE h) { CHAR user_input[BUFSIZ]; DWORD count; if (!ReadFile (h, user_input, BUFSIZ, &count, 0)) return -1; user_input[count] = '\0'; if (ACE_OS_String::strncmp (user_input, "quit", 4) == 0) return -1; return 0; } virtual int handle_close (ACE_HANDLE, ACE_Reactor_Mask) { quit_seen_.signal (); return 0; } virtual int handle_signal (int, siginfo_t *, ucontext_t *) { reactor ()->end_reactor_event_loop (); return 0; } 1 ~Quit_Handler () { 2 ACE_Event_Handler::remove_stdin_handler 3 (reactor (), ACE_Thread_Manager::instance ()); 4 reactor ()->remove_handler (quit_seen_.handle (), 5 ACE_Event_Handler::DONT_CALL); 6 } This hook method is called when a handle is signaled This is a Windows-specific function

Using the ACE_WFMO_Reactor Class (3/5) class Logging_Event_Handler_WFMO : public Logging_Event_Handler_Ex { public: Logging_Event_Handler_WFMO (ACE_Reactor *r) : Logging_Event_Handler_Ex (r) {} protected: int handle_input (ACE_HANDLE h) { ACE_GUARD_RETURN (ACE_SYNCH_MUTEX, monitor, lock_, -1); return logging_handler_.log_record (); } ACE_Thread_Mutex lock_; // Serialize threads in thread pool. }; We need a lock since the ACE_WFMO_Reactor doesn’t suspend handles…

Sidebar: Why ACE_WFMO_Reactor Doesn’t Suspend Handlers (1/2) The ACE_WFMO_Reactor doesn't implement a handler suspension protocol internally to minimize the amount of policy imposed on application classes In particular, multithreaded applications can process events more efficiently when doing so doesn't require inter-event serialization, e.g., when receiving UDP datagrams This behavior isn't possible in the ACE_TP_Reactor because of the semantic differences in the functionality of the following OS event demultiplexing mechanisms: WaitForMultipleObjects() When demultiplexing a socket handle's I/O event, one ACE_WFMO_Reactor thread will obtain the I/O event mask from WSAEnumNetworkEvents() , & the OS atomically clears that socket's internal event mask Even if multiple threads demultiplex the socket handle simultaneously, only one obtains the I/O event mask & will dispatch the handler The dispatched handler must take some action that re-enables demultiplexing for that handle before another thread will dispatch it select() There's no automatic OS serialization for select() If multiple threads were allowed to see a ready-state socket handle, they would all dispatch it, yielding unpredictable behavior at the ACE_Event_Handler layer & reduced performance due to multiple threads all working on the same handle

Sidebar: Why ACE_WFMO_Reactor Doesn’t Suspend Handlers (2/2) It's important to note that the handler suspension protocol can't be implemented in the application event handler class when it's used in conjunction with the ACE_WFMO_Reactor This is because suspension requests are queued & aren't acted on immediately A handler could therefore receive upcalls from multiple threads until the handler was actually suspended by the ACE_WFMO_Reactor The Logging_Event_Handler_WFMO class illustrates how to use mutual exclusion to avoid race conditions in upcalls

Using the ACE_WFMO_Reactor Class (4/5) class Logging_Acceptor_WFMO : public Logging_Acceptor_Ex { public: Logging_Acceptor_WFMO (ACE_Reactor *r = ACE_Reactor::instance ()) : Logging_Acceptor_Ex (r) {} protected: virtual int handle_input (ACE_HANDLE) { Logging_Event_Handler_WFMO *peer_handler = 0; ACE_NEW_RETURN (peer_handler, Logging_Event_Handler_WFMO (reactor ()), -1); if (acceptor_.accept (peer_handler->peer ()) == -1) { delete peer_handler; return -1; } else if (peer_handler->open () == -1) { peer_handler->handle_close (); return -1; } return 0; } }; Note the canonical (common) form of this hook method

Using the ACE_WFMO_Reactor Class (5/5) ACE_THR_FUNC_RETURN event_loop (void *); // Forward declaration. typedef Reactor_Logging_Server<Logging_Acceptor_WFMO> Server_Logging_Daemon; int main (int argc, char *argv[]) { const size_t N_THREADS = 4; ACE_WFMO_Reactor wfmo_reactor; ACE_Reactor reactor (&wfmo_reactor); Server_Logging_Daemon *server = 0; ACE_NEW_RETURN (server, Server_Logging_Daemon (argc, argv, &reactor), 1); Quit_Handler quit_handler (&reactor); ACE_Thread_Manager::instance ()->spawn_n (N_THREADS, event_loop, &reactor); return ACE_Thread_Manager::instance ()->wait (); } Main program Ensure we get the ACE_WFMO_Reactor Constructor registers with reactor Barrier synchronization

Other Reactors Supported By ACE Over the previous decade, ACE's use in new environments has yielded new requirements for event-driven application support e.g., GUI integration is an important area due to new GUI toolkits & event loop requirements The following new Reactor implementations were made easier due to the ACE Reactor framework's modular design:

Challenges of Using Frameworks Effectively Now that we’ve examined the ACE Reactor frameworks, let’s examine the challenges of using frameworks in more depth Determine if a framework applies to the problem domain & whether it has sufficient quality Evaluating the time spent learning a framework outweighs the time saved by reuse Learn how to debug applications written using a framework Identify the performance implications of integration application logic into a framework Evaluate the effort required to develop a new framework www.cs.wustl.edu/~schmidt/PDF/Queue-04.pdf

Determining Framework Applicability & Quality Applicability Have domain experts & product architects identify common functionality with other domains & conduct trade study of COTS frameworks to address domain-specific & -independent functionality during the design phase Conduct pilot studies that apply COTS frameworks to develop representative prototype applications as part of an iterative development approach, e.g., the Spiral model or eXtreme Programming (XP) Quality Will the framework allow applications to cleanly decouple the callback logic from the rest of the software? Can applications interact with the framework via a narrow & well defined set of interfaces & facades? Does the framework document all the API’s that are used by applications to interact with the framework, e.g., does it define pre-conditions & post-conditions of callback methods via contracts? Does the framework explicitly specify the startup, shutdown, synchronization, & memory management contracts available for the clients?

Evaluating Economics of Frameworks Determining effective framework cost metrics, which measure the savings of reusing framework components vs. building applications from scratch Conducting cost/effort estimations, which is the activity of accurately forecasting the cost of buying, building, or adapting a particular framework Perform investment analysis & justification, which determines the benefits of applying frameworks in terms of return on investment COCOMO 2.0 is a widely used software cost model estimator that can help to predict the effort for new software activities The estimates from these types of models can be used as a basis of determining the savings that could be incurred by using frameworks A challenge confronting software development organizations, however, is that many existing software cost/effort estimation methodologies are not well calibrated to handle reusable frameworks or standards-based frameworks that provide subtle advantages, such as code portability or refactoring

Effective Framework Debugging Techniques Track lifetimes of objects by monitoring their reference counts Monitor the internal request queue lengths & buffer sizes maintained by the framework Monitor the status of the network connections in distributed systems Track the activities of designated threads in a thread pool Trace the SQL statements issued by servers to backend databases Identify priority inversions in real-time systems Track authentication & authorization activities Perform design reviews early in application development process to convey interactions between the framework & the application logic Conduct code inspections that focus on common mistakes, such as incorrectly applying memory ownership rules for pre-registered components with the frameworks Select good automated debugging tools, such as Purify & Valgrind Develop automated regression tests

Identify Framework Time & Space Overheads Event dispatching latency Time required to callback event handlers Synchronization latency Time spent acquiring/releasing locks in the framework Resource management latency Time spent allocation/releasing memory & other reusable resources Framework functionality latency Time spent inside the framework for each operation Dynamic & static memory overhead Run-time & disk space usage Conduct systematic engineering analysis to determine features & properties required from a framework Determine the “sweet spot” of framework Develop test cases to empirically evaluate overhead associated with every feature & combination of features Different domains have different requirements Locate third-party performance benchmarks & analysis to compare with data collected Use google!

Evaluating Effort of Developing New Framework Perform commonality & variability analysis to determine which classes should be fixed, thus defining the stable shape & usage characteristics of the framework which classes should be extensible to support adaptation necessary to use the framework for new applications Determine the right protocols for startup & shutdown sequences of operations Develop right memory management & re-entrancy rules for the framework Develop the right set of (narrow) interfaces that can be used by the clients Knowledge of patterns is essential!

Challenges of Using Frameworks Effectively Observations Frameworks are powerful, but hard to develop & use effectively by application developers It’s often better to use & customize COTS frameworks than to develop in-house frameworks Components are easier for application developers to use, but aren’t as powerful or flexible as frameworks Successful projects are therefore often organized using the “funnel” model

Configuration Design Dimensions Networked applications can be created by configuring their constituent services together at various points of time, such as compile time, static link time, installation time, or run time This set of slides covers the following configuration design dimensions: Static versus dynamic naming Static versus dynamic linking Static versus dynamic configuration

Static vs. Dynamic Linking & Configuration Static linking creates a complete executable program by binding together all its object files at compile time and/or static link time It typically tradesoff increased runtime performance for larger executable sizes Dynamic linking loads object files into & unloads object files from the address space of a process when a program is invoked initially or updated at run time There are two general types of dynamic linking: Implicit dynamic linking & Explicit dynamic linking Dynamic linking can greatly reduce memory usage, though there are runtime overheads

The ACE Service Configuration Framework The ACE Service Configurator framework implements the Component Configurator pattern It allows applications to defer configuration & implementation decisions about their services until late in the design cycle i.e., at installation time or runtime The Service Configurator supports the ability to activate services selectively at runtime regardless of whether they are linked statically or dynamically Due to ACE's integrated framework design, services using the ACE Service Configurator framework can also be dispatched by the ACE Reactor framework

The ACE Service Configuration Framework The following classes are associated with the ACE Service Configurator framework These classes are related as follows:

The Component Configurator Pattern Context The implementation of certain application components depends on a variety of factors: Certain factors are static , such as the number of available CPUs & operating system support for asynchronous I/O Other factors are dynamic , such as system workload Problem Prematurely committing to a particular application component configuration is inflexible & inefficient: No single application configuration is optimal for all use cases Certain design decisions cannot be made efficiently until run-time Logger Processing Conn Mgmt Memory Mgmt Threading Demuxing File System I/O

The Component Configurator Pattern Solution Apply the Component Configurator design pattern (P2) to enhance server configurability This pattern allows an application to link & unlink its component implementations at run-time Thus, new & enhanced services can be added without having to modify, recompile, statically relink, or shut down & restart a running application <<contains>> components * Component Configurator Component Repository Concrete Component A Concrete Component B Component init() fini() suspend() resume() info()

Component Configurator Pattern Dynamics run_component() run_component() fini() remove() remove() fini() Comp. A Concrete Comp. B Concrete Comp. A Concrete Comp. B Component initialization & dynamic linking Component processing Component termination & dynamic unlinking : Component Configurator init() : Concrete Component A : Concrete Component B : Component Repository insert() insert() init() Concrete

Pros & Cons of the Component Configurator Pattern This pattern offers four benefits : Uniformity By imposing a uniform configuration & control interface to manage components Centralized administration By grouping one or more components into a single administrative unit that simplifies development by centralizing common component initialization & termination activities Modularity, testability, & reusability Application modularity & reusability is improved by decoupling component implementations from the manner in which the components are configured into processes Configuration dynamism & control By enabling a component to be dynamically reconfigured without modifying, recompiling, statically relinking existing code & without restarting the component or other active components with which it is collocated This pattern also incurs liabilities : Lack of determinism & ordering dependencies This pattern makes it hard to determine or analyze the behavior of an application until its components are configured at run-time Reduced security or reliability An application that uses the Component Configurator pattern may be less secure or reliable than an equivalent statically-configured application Increased run-time overhead & infrastructure complexity By adding levels of abstraction & indirection when executing components Overly narrow common interfaces The initialization or termination of a component may be too complicated or too tightly coupled with its context to be performed in a uniform manner

The ACE_Service_Object Class (1/2) Motivation Configuring & managing service life cycles involves the following aspects: Initialization Execution control Reporting Termination Developing these capabilities in an ad hoc manner can produce tightly coupled data structures & classes

The ACE_Service_Object Class (2/2) Class Capabilities ACE_Service_Object provides a uniform interface that allows service implementations to be configured & managed by the ACE Service Configurator framework to provide the following capabilities: It provides hook methods that initialize a service & shut a service down It provides hook methods to suspend service execution temporarily & to resume execution of a suspended service It provides a hook method that reports key service information, such as its purpose, current status, & the port number where it listens for client connections

The ACE_Service_Object Class API

Sidebar: Dealing with Wide Characters in ACE Developers outside the United States are acutely aware that many character sets in use today require more than one byte, or octet, to represent each character Characters that require more than one octet are referred to as “wide characters” The most popular multiple octet standard is ISO/IEC 10646, the Universal Multiple-Octet Coded Character Set (UCS) Unicode is a separate standard, but is essentially a restricted subset of UCS that uses two octets for each character (UCS-2) To improve portability & ease of use, ACE uses C++ method overloading & the macros described below to use different character types without changing APIs:

Using the ACE_Service_Object Class (1/4) template <class ACCEPTOR> class Reactor_Logging_Server_Adapter : public ACE_Service_Object { public: virtual int init (int argc, ACE_TCHAR *argv[]); virtual int fini (); virtual int info (ACE_TCHAR **, size_t) const; virtual int suspend (); virtual int resume (); private: Reactor_Logging_Server<ACCEPTOR> *server_; }; To illustrate the ACE_Service_Object class, we reimplement our reactive logging server from the Reactor slides This revision can be configured dynamically by the ACE Service Configurator framework, rather than configured statically Note reuse of this class Hook methods inherited from ACE_Service_Object

Using the ACE_Service_Object Class (2/4) 1 template <class ACCEPTOR> int 2 Reactor_Logging_Server_Adapter<ACCEPTOR>::init 3 (int argc, ACE_TCHAR *argv[]) 4 { 5 int i; 6 char **array = 0; 7 ACE_NEW_RETURN (array, char*[argc], -1); 8 ACE_Auto_Array_Ptr<char *> char_argv (array); 9 10 for (i = 0; i < argc; ++i) 11 char_argv[i] = ACE::strnew (ACE_TEXT_ALWAYS_CHAR(argv[i])); 12 ACE_NEW_NORETURN (server_, Reactor_Logging_Server<ACCEPTOR> 13 (i, char_argv.get (), 14 ACE_Reactor::instance ())); 15 for (i = 0; i < argc; ++i) ACE::strdelete (char_argv[i]); 16 return server_ == 0 ? -1 : 0; 17 } This hook method is called back by the ACE Service Configurator framework to initialize the service

Sidebar: Portable Heap Operations with ACE A surprisingly common misconception is that simply ensuring the proper matching of calls to operator new() & operator delete() (or calls to malloc() & free() ) is sufficient for correct heap management While this strategy works if there's one heap per process, there may be multiple heaps e.g., Windows supplies multiple variants of the C/C++ run-time library (such as Debug versus Release & Multithreaded versus Single-threaded), each of which maintains its own heap Memory allocated from one heap must be released back to the same heap It's easy to violate these requirements when code from one subsystem or provider frees memory allocated by another To help manage dynamic memory, ACE offers matching allocate & free methods:

Using the ACE_Service_Object Class (3/4) template <class ACCEPTOR> int Reactor_Logging_Server_Adapter<ACCEPTOR>::fini () { server_->handle_close (); server_ = 0; return 0; } 1 template <class ACCEPTOR> int 2 Reactor_Logging_Server_Adapter<ACCEPTOR>::info 3 (ACE_TCHAR **bufferp, size_t length) const { 4 ACE_TYPENAME ACCEPTOR::PEER_ADDR local_addr; 5 server_->acceptor ().get_local_addr (local_addr); 6 7 ACE_TCHAR buf[BUFSIZ]; 8 ACE_OS::sprintf (buf, 9 ACE_TEXT ("%hu"), 10 local_addr.get_port_number ()); 11 ACE_OS_String::strcat 12 (buf, ACE_TEXT ("/tcp # Reactive logging server\n")); 13 if (*bufferp == 0) *bufferp = ACE::strnew (buf); 14 else ACE_OS_String::strncpy (*bufferp, buf, length); 15 return ACE_OS_String::strlen (*bufferp); 16 } This hook method is called by framework to query the service This hook method is called by framework to terminate the service

Using the ACE_Service_Object Class (4/4) template <class ACCEPTOR> int Reactor_Logging_Server_Adapter<ACCEPTOR>::suspend () { return server_->reactor ()->suspend_handler (server_); } template <class ACCEPTOR> int Reactor_Logging_Server_Adapter<ACCEPTOR>::resume () { return server_->reactor ()->resume_handler (server_); } These hook methods are called by framework to suspend/resume a service

The ACE_Service_Repository Class (1/2) Motivation Applications may need to know what services they are configured with Application services in multiservice servers may require access to each other To provide info on configured services & to avoid tightly coupling these services, ACE_Service_Repository enables applications & services to locate each other at run time

The ACE_Service_Repository Class (2/2) Class Capabilities This class implements the Manager pattern (PLoPD3) to control service objects configured by the Service Configurator & to provide the following capabilities: It keeps track of all service implementations configured into an application & maintains service status It provides the mechanism by which the ACE Service Configurator framework inserts, manages, & removes services It provides a convenient mechanism to terminate all services, in reverse order It allows an individual service to be located by its name

The ACE_Service_Repository Class API

Sidebar: The ACE_Dynamic_Service Template (1/2) The ACE_Dynamic_Service singleton template provides a type-safe way to access the ACE_Service_Repository programmatically An application process can use this template to retrieve services registered with its local ACE_Service_Repository If an instance of the Server_Logging_Daemon service has been linked dynamically & initialized by the ACE Service Configurator framework, an application can use the ACE_Dynamic_Service template to access the service programmatically as shown below: typedef Reactor_Logging_Server_Adapter<Logging_Acceptor> Server_Logging_Daemon; Server_Logging_Daemon *logging_server = ACE_Dynamic_Service<Server_Logging_Daemon>::instance (ACE_TEXT ("Server_Logging_Daemon")); ACE_TCHAR *service_info = 0; logging_server->info (&service_info); ACE_DEBUG ((LM_DEBUG, "%s\n", service_info)); ACE::strdelete (service_info);

Sidebar: The ACE_Dynamic_Service Template (2/2) As shown below, the TYPE template parameter ensures that a pointer to the appropriate type of service is returned from the static instance() method: template <class TYPE> class ACE_Dynamic_Service { public: // Use <name> to search the <ACE_Service_Repository>. static TYPE *instance (const ACE_TCHAR *name) { const ACE_Service_Type *svc_rec; if (ACE_Service_Repository::instance ()->find (name, &svc_rec) == -1) return 0; const ACE_Service_Type_Impl *type = svc_rec->type (); if (type == 0) return 0; ACE_Service_Object *obj = ACE_static_cast (ACE_Service_Object *, type->object ()); return ACE_dynamic_cast (TYPE *, obj); } };

The ACE_Service_Repository_Iterator Class ACE_Service_Repository_Iterator implements the Iterator pattern (GoF) to provide applications with a way to sequentially access the ACE_Service_Type items in an ACE_Service_Repository without exposing its internal representation Never delete entries from an ACE_Service_Repository that's being iterated over since the ACE_Service_Repository_Iterator is not a robust iterator

Using the ACE_Service_Repository Class (1/8) This example illustrates how the ACE_Service_Repository & ACE_Service_Repository_Iterator classes can be used to implement a Service_Reporter class This class provides a “meta-service” that clients can use to obtain information on all services that the ACE Service Configurator framework has configured into an application statically or dynamically A client interacts with a Service_Reporter as follows: The client establishes a TCP connection to the Service_Reporter object The Service_Reporter returns a list of all the server's services to the client The Service_Reporter closes the TCP/IP connection

Using the ACE_Service_Repository Class (2/8) class Service_Reporter : public ACE_Service_Object { public: Service_Reporter (ACE_Reactor *r = ACE_Reactor::instance ()) : ACE_Service_Object (r) {} virtual int init (int argc, ACE_TCHAR *argv[]); virtual int fini (); virtual int info (ACE_TCHAR **, size_t) const; virtual int suspend (); virtual int resume (); protected: virtual int handle_input (ACE_HANDLE); virtual ACE_HANDLE get_handle () const { return acceptor_.get_handle (); } private: ACE_SOCK_Acceptor acceptor_; // Acceptor instance. enum { DEFAULT_PORT = 9411 }; }; These hook methods are inherited from ACE_Service_Object These hook methods are inherited from ACE_Event_Handler

Using the ACE_Service_Repository Class (3/8) 1 int Service_Reporter::init (int argc, ACE_TCHAR *argv[]) { 2 ACE_INET_Addr local_addr (Service_Reporter::DEFAULT_PORT); 3 ACE_Get_Opt get_opt (argc, argv, ACE_TEXT ("p:"), 0); 4 get_opt.long_option (ACE_TEXT ("port"), 5 'p', ACE_Get_Opt::ARG_REQUIRED); 6 for (int c; (c = get_opt ()) != -1;) 7 if (c == 'p') local_addr.set_port_number 8 (ACE_OS::atoi (get_opt.opt_arg ())); 9 acceptor_.open (local_addr); 10 return reactor ()->register_handler 11 (this, 12 ACE_Event_Handler::ACCEPT_MASK); 13 } This hook method is called back by the ACE Service Configurator framework to initialize the service Register to handle connection events Listen for connections

Using the ACE_Service_Repository Class (4/8) 1 int Service_Reporter::handle_input (ACE_HANDLE) { 2 ACE_SOCK_Stream peer_stream; 3 acceptor_.accept (peer_stream); 4 5 ACE_Service_Repository_Iterator iterator 6 (*ACE_Service_Repository::instance (), 0); 7 8 for (const ACE_Service_Type *st; 9 iterator.next (st) != 0; 10 iterator.advance ()) { 11 iovec iov[3]; 12 iov[0].iov_base = ACE_const_cast (char *, st->name ()); 13 iov[0].iov_len = 14 ACE_OS_String::strlen (st->name ()) * sizeof (ACE_TCHAR); 15 const ACE_TCHAR *state = st->active () ? 16 ACE_TEXT (" (active) ") : ACE_TEXT (" (paused) "); 17 iov[1].iov_base = ACE_const_cast (char *, state); 18 iov[1].iov_len = 19 ACE_OS_String::strlen (state) * sizeof (ACE_TCHAR); Note that this is an iterative server This method is called back by ACE_Reactor Note that this is the use of the Iterator pattern

Using the ACE_Service_Repository Class (5/8) 20 ACE_TCHAR *report = 0; // Ask info() to allocate buffer. 21 int len = st->type ()->info (&report, 0); 22 iov[2].iov_base = ACE_static_cast (char *, report); 23 iov[2].iov_len = ACE_static_cast (size_t, len); 24 iov[2].iov_len *= sizeof (ACE_TCHAR); 25 peer_stream.sendv_n (iov, 3); 26 ACE::strdelete (report); 27 } 28 29 peer_stream.close (); 30 return 0; 31 } Gather-write call

Using the ACE_Service_Repository Class (6/8) int Service_Reporter::info (ACE_TCHAR **bufferp, size_t length) const { ACE_INET_Addr local_addr; acceptor_.get_local_addr (local_addr); ACE_TCHAR buf[BUFSIZ]; ACE_OS::sprintf (buf, ACE_TEXT ("%hu"), local_addr.get_port_number ()); ACE_OS_String::strcat (buf, ACE_TEXT ("/tcp # lists services in daemon\n")); if (*bufferp == 0) *bufferp = ACE::strnew (buf); else ACE_OS_String::strncpy (*bufferp, buf, length); return ACE_OS_String::strlen (*bufferp); } int Service_Reporter::suspend () { return reactor ()->suspend_handler (this); } int Service_Reporter::resume () { return reactor ()->resume_handler (this); }

Using the ACE_Service_Repository Class (7/8) int Service_Reporter::fini () { reactor ()->remove_handler (this, ACE_Event_Handler::ACCEPT_MASK | ACE_Event_Handler::DONT_CALL); return acceptor_.close (); } 1 ACE_FACTORY_DEFINE (ACE_Local_Service, Service_Reporter) 2 3 ACE_STATIC_SVC_DEFINE ( 4 Reporter_Descriptor, 5 ACE_TEXT ("Service_Reporter"), 6 ACE_SVC_OBJ_T, 7 &ACE_SVC_NAME (Service_Reporter), 8 ACE_Service_Type::DELETE_THIS 9 | ACE_Service_Type::DELETE_OBJ, 10 0 // This object is not initially active. 11 ) 12 13 ACE_STATIC_SVC_REQUIRE (Reporter_Descriptor) Note the use of the DONT_CALL mask to avoid recursion These macros integrate the service with the ACE Service Configurator framework

Using the ACE_Service_Repository Class (8/8) void _gobble_Service_Reporter (void *arg) { ACE_Service_Object *svcobj = ACE_static_cast (ACE_Service_Object *, arg); delete svcobj; } extern "C" ACE_Service_Object * _make_Service_Reporter (void (**gobbler) (void *)) { if (gobbler != 0) *gobbler = _gobble_Service_Reporter; return new Service_Reporter; } The ACE_FACTORY_DEFINE macro generates these functions automatically This function is typically designated in a svc.conf file We use extern “C” to avoid “name mangling”

Sidebar: The ACE Service Factory Macros (1/2) Factory & gobbler function macros Static & dynamic services must supply a factory function to create the service object & a “gobbler” function to delete it ACE provides the following three macros to help generate & use these functions: ACE_FACTORY_DEFINE(LIB, CLASS) , which is used in an implementation file to define the factory & gobbler functions for a service LIB is the ACE export macro prefix used with the library containing the factory function CLASS is the type of service object the factory must create ACE_FACTORY_DECLARE(LIB, CLASS) , which declares the factory function defined by the ACE_FACTORY_DEFINE macro Use this macro to generate a reference to the factory function from a compilation unit other than the one containing the ACE_FACTORY_DEFINE macro ACE_SVC_NAME(CLASS) , which generates the name of the factory function defined via the ACE_FACTORY_DEFINE macro The generated name can be used to get the function address at compile time, such as for the ACE_STATIC_SVC_DEFINE macro, below

Sidebar: The ACE Service Factory Macros (2/2) Static service information macro ACE provides the following macro to generate static service registration information, which defines the service name, type, & a pointer to the factory function the framework calls to create a service instance: ACE_STATIC_SVC_DEFINE(REG, NAME, TYPE, FUNC_ADDR, FLAGS, ACTIVE) , which is used in an implementation file to define static service info REG forms the name of the information object, which must match the parameter passed to ACE_STATIC_SVC_REQURE & ACE_STATIC_SVC_REGISTER Other parameters set ACE_Static_Svc_Descriptor attribute Static service registration macros The static service registration information must be passed to the ACE Service Configurator framework at program startup The following two macros cooperate to perform this registration: ACE_STATIC_SVC_REQUIRE(REG) , which is used in the service implementation file to define a static object whose constructor will add the static service registration information to the framework's list of known static services. ACE_STATIC_SVC_REGISTER(REG) , which is used at the start of the main program to ensure the object defined in ACE_STATIC_SVC_REQUIRES registers the static service no later than the point this macro appears

Sidebar: The ACE_Service_Manager Class ACE_Service_Manager provides clients with access to administrative commands to access & manage the services currently offered by a network server These commands “externalize” certain internal attributes of the services configured into a server During server configuration, an ACE_Service_Manager is typically registered at a well-known communication port, e.g., port 9411 Clients can connect to an ACE_Service_Manager at that port & issue one of the following commands: help , which lists of all services configured into an application via the ACE Service Configurator framework reconfigure , which is triggered to reread the local service configuration file If a client sends anything other than these two commands, its input is passed to ACE_Service_Config::process_directive() , which enables remote configuration of servers via command-line instructions such as % echo "suspend My_Service" | telnet hostname 9411 It's therefore important to use the ACE_Service_Manager only if your application runs in a trusted environment since a malicious attacker can use it to deny access to legitimate services or configure rogue services in a Trojan Horse manner ACE_Service_Manager is therefore a static service that ACE disables by default

The ACE_Service_Config Class (1/2) Motivation Statically configured applications have the following drawbacks: Service configuration decisions are made prematurely in the development cycle Modifying a service may affect other services adversely System performance may scale poorly

The ACE_Service_Config Class (2/2) Class Capabilities This class implements the Façade pattern to integrate other Service Configurator classes & coordinate the activities necessary to manage the services in an application via the following capabilities: It interprets a scripting language can provide the Service Configurator with directives to locate & initialize a service's implementation at run time, as well as to suspend, resume, reinitialize, & shut down a component after it's been initialized It supports the management of services located in the application (static services) as well as those that must be linked dynamically (dynamic services) from separate shared libraries (DLLs) It allows service reconfiguration at run time

The ACE_Service_Config Class API

ACE_Service_Config Options There's only one instance of ACE_Service_Config 's state in a process This class is a variant of the Monostate pattern, which ensures a unique state for its instances by declaring all data members to be static The open() method is the common way of initializing the ACE_Service_Config It parses arguments passed in the argc & argv parameters, skipping the first parameter ( argv[0] ) since that's the name of the program The options recognized by ACE_Service_Config are outlined in the following table:

Service Configuration Directives Directives are commands that can be passed to the ACE Service Configurator framework to designate its behavior The following directives are supported: Directives can be specified to ACE_Service_Config in either of two ways: Using configuration files (named svc.conf by default) that contain one or more directives Programmatically, by passing individual directives as strings to the ACE_Service_Config::process_directive() method

BNF for the svc.conf File <svc-conf-entries> ::= <svc-conf-entries> <svc-conf-entry> | NULL <svc-conf-entry> ::= <dynamic> | <static> | <suspend> | <resume> | <remove> | <stream> <dynamic> ::= dynamic <svc-location> <parameters-opt> <static> ::= static <svc-name> <parameters-opt> <suspend> ::= suspend <svc-name> <resume> ::= resume <svc-name> <remove> ::= remove <svc-name> <stream> ::= stream <streamdef> '{' <module-list> '}' <streamdef> ::= <svc-name> | dynamic | static <module-list> ::= <module-list> <module> | NULL <module> ::= <dynamic> | <static> | <suspend> | <resume> | <remove> <svc-location> ::= <svc-name> <svc-type> <svc-factory> <status> <svc-type> ::= Service_Object '*' | Module '*' | Stream '*' | NULL <svc-factory> ::= PATHNAME ':' FUNCTION '(' ')' <svc-name> ::= STRING <status> ::= active | inactive | NULL <parameters-opt> ::= '"' STRING '"' | NULL The complete Backus/Naur Format (BNF) syntax for svc.conf files parsed by the ACE_Service_Config is shown below:

Sidebar: The ACE_DLL Class ACE defines the ACE_DLL wrapper facade class to encapsulate explicit linking/unlinking functionality This class eliminates the need for applications to use error-prone, weakly typed handles & also ensures that resources are released properly by its destructor It also uses the ACE::ldfind() method to locate DLLs via the following algorithms: DLL filename expansion , where ACE::ldfind() determines the name of the DLL by adding the appropriate prefix & suffix e.g., it adds the lib prefix & .so suffix for Solaris & the .dll suffix for Windows DLL search path , where ACE::ldfind() will also search for the designated DLL using the platform's DLL search path environment variable e.g., it searches for DLLs using LD_LIBRARY_PATH on many UNIX systems & PATH on Windows The key methods in the ACE_DLL class are outlined in the adjacent UML diagram

Using the ACE_Service_Config Class (1/3) This example shows how to apply the ACE Service Configurator framework to create a server whose initial configuration behaves as follows: It statically configures an instance of Service_Reporter It dynamically links & configures the Reactor_Logging_Server_Adapter template into the server's address space We later show how to dynamically reconfigure the server to support a different implementation of a reactive logging service

Using the ACE_Service_Config Class (2/3) 1 #include "ace/OS.h" 2 #include "ace/Service_Config.h" 3 #include "ace/Reactor.h" 4 5 int ACE_TMAIN (int argc, ACE_TCHAR *argv[]) { 6 ACE_STATIC_SVC_REGISTER (Reporter); 7 8 ACE_Service_Config::open 9 (argc, argv, ACE_DEFAULT_LOGGER_KEY, 0); 10 11 ACE_Reactor::instance ()->run_reactor_event_loop (); 12 return 0; 13 } We start by writing the following generic main() program This program uses a svc.conf file to configure the Service_Reporter & Reactor_Logging_Server_Adapter services into an application process & then runs the reactor's event loop Most of the rest of the examples use a similar main() function!

Using the ACE_Service_Config Class (3/3) 1 static Service_Reporter "-p $SERVICE_REPORTER_PORT" 2 3 dynamic Server_Logging_Daemon Service_Object * 4 SLD:_make_Server_Logging_Daemon() 5 "$SERVER_LOGGING_DAEMON_PORT" This svc.conf file is used to configure the main program The ACE_Service_Config interpreter uses ACE_ARGV to expand environment variables #include "Reactor_Logging_Server_Adapter.h" #include "Logging_Acceptor.h" #include "SLD_export.h" typedef Reactor_Logging_Server_Adapter<Logging_Acceptor> Server_Logging_Daemon; ACE_FACTORY_DEFINE (SLD, Server_Logging_Daemon) This is the SLD.cpp file used to define the Server_Logging_Daemon type

Sidebar: The ACE_ARGV Class The ACE_ARGV class is a useful utility class that can Transform a string into an argc / argv -style vector of strings Incrementally assemble a set of strings into an argc / argv vector Transform an argc / argv -style vector into a string During the transformation, the class can substitute environment variable values for each $-delimited environment variable name encountered. ACE_ARGV provides an easy & efficient mechanism to create arbitrary command-line arguments Consider its use whenever command-line processing is required, especially when environment variable substitution is desirable ACE uses ACE_ARGV extensively, particularly in its Service Configurator framework

Sidebar: Using XML to Configure Services (1/2) ACE_Service_Config can be configured to interpret an XML scripting language The Document Type Definition (DTD) for this language is shown below: The syntax of this XML configuration language is different, though its semantics are the same Although it's more verbose to compose, the ACE XML configuration file format is more flexible <!ELEMENT ACE_Svc_Conf (dynamic|static|suspend|resume |remove|stream|streamdef)*> <!ELEMENT streamdef ((dynamic|static),module)> <!ATTLIST streamdef id IDREF #REQUIRED> <!ELEMENT module (dynamic|static|suspend|resume|remove)+> <!ELEMENT stream (module)> <!ATTLIST stream id IDREF #REQUIRED> <!ELEMENT dynamic (initializer)> <!ATTLIST dynamic id ID #REQUIRED status (active|inactive) "active" type (module|service_object|stream) #REQUIRED> <!ELEMENT initializer EMPTY> <!ATTLIST initializer init CDATA #REQUIRED path CDATA #IMPLIED params CDATA #IMPLIED> <!ELEMENT static EMPTY> <!ATTLIST static id ID #REQUIRED params CDATA #IMPLIED> <!ELEMENT suspend EMPTY> <!ATTLIST suspend id IDREF #REQUIRED> <!ELEMENT resume EMPTY> <!ATTLIST resume id IDREF #REQUIRED> <!ELEMENT remove EMPTY> <!ATTLIST remove id IDREF #REQUIRED>

Sidebar: Using XML to Configure Services (2/2) The XML representation of the svc.conf file shown earlier is shown below: 1 <ACE_Svc_Conf> 2 <static id='Service_Reporter' 3 params='-p $SERVICE_REPORTER_PORT'/> 4 5 <dynamic id='Server_Logging_Daemon' 6 type='service_object'> 7 <initializer path='SLD' 8 init='_make_Server_Logging_Daemon' 9 params='$SERVER_LOGGING_DAEMON_PORT'/> 10 </dynamic> 11 </ACE_Svc_Conf> The XML svc.conf file is more verbose than the original format since it specifies field names explicitly However, the XML format allows svc.conf files to express expanded capabilities, since new sections & fields can be added without affecting existing syntax There's also no threat to backwards compatibility, as might occur if fields were added to the original format or the field order changed

Sidebar: The ACE DLL Import/Export Macros Windows has specific rules for explicitly importing & exporting symbols in DLLs Developers with a UNIX background may not have encountered these rules in the past, but they are important for managing symbol usage in DLLs on Windows ACE makes it easy to conform to these rules by supplying a script that generates the necessary import/export declarations & a set of guidelines for using them successfully To ease porting, the following procedure can be used on all platforms that ACE runs on: Select a concise mnemonic for each DLL to be built Run the $ACE_ROOT/bin/generate_export_file.pl Perl script, specifying the DLL's mnemonic on the command line The script will generate a platform-independent header file & write it to the standard output Redirect the output to a file named <mnemonic>_export.h #include the generated file in each DLL source file that declares a globally visible class or symbol To use in a class declaration, insert the keyword <mnemonic>_Export between class & the class name When compiling the source code for the DLL, define the macro <mnemonic>_BUILD_DLL

Service Reconfiguration An application using the ACE Service Configurator can be reconfigured at runtime using the following mechanisms: On POSIX, ACE_Service_Config can be integrated with the ACE Reactor framework to reprocess its svc.conf files(s) upon receipt of a SIGHUP signal By passing the " reconfigure " command via ACE_Service_Manager An application can request its ACE_Service_Config to reprocess its configuration files at any time e.g., a Windows directory change notification event can be used to help a program learn when its configuration file changes & trigger reprocessing of the configuration An application can also specify individual directives for its ACE_Service_Config to process at any time via the process_directive() method IDLE RUNNING SUSPENDED CONFIGURE init() RECONFIGURE init() fini() fini() resume() suspend() EXECUTE run_component() SUSPEND RESUME TERMINATE TERMINATE Reconfiguration State Chart

Reconfiguring a Logging Server By using the ACE Service Configurator, a logging server can be reconfigured dynamically to support new services & new service implementations Logging Server Process # Configure a logging server. dynamic Server_Logging_Daemon Service_Object * SLD:make_Server_Logging_Daemon() “ $SERVER_LOGGING_DAEMON_PORT" INITIAL CONFIGURATION AFTER RECONFIGURATION # Reconfigure a logging server. Logging Server Process dynamic Server_Logging_Daemon Service_Object * SLDex:make_Server_Logging_Daemon_Ex() “ $SERVER_LOGGING_DAEMON_PORT" remove Server_Logging_Daemon dynamic Server_Shutdown Service_Object * SLDex:_make_Server_Shutdown()

Using Reconfiguration Features (1/2) 1 remove Server_Logging_Daemon 2 3 dynamic Server_Logging_Daemon Service_Object * 4 SLDex:_make_Server_Logging_Daemon_Ex() 5 "$SERVER_LOGGING_DAEMON_PORT" 6 7 dynamic Server_Shutdown Service_Object * 8 SLDex:_make_Server_Shutdown() typedef Reactor_Logging_Server_Adapter<Logging_Acceptor_Ex> Server_Logging_Daemon_Ex; ACE_FACTORY_DEFINE (SLDEX, Server_Logging_Daemon_Ex) The original logging server configuration has the following limitations: It uses Logging_Acceptor , which doesn't time out idle logging handlers ACE_Reactor :: run_reactor_event_loop() can’t be shut down on the reactor singleton We can add these capabilities without affecting existing code or the Service_Reporter service by defining a new svc.conf file & instructing the server to reconfigure itself This SLDex.cpp file defines the new Server_Logging_Daemon_Ex type This is the updated svc.conf file

Using Reconfiguration Features (2/2) class Server_Shutdown : public ACE_Service_Object { public: virtual int init (int, ACE_TCHAR *[]) { reactor_ = ACE_Reactor::instance (); return ACE_Thread_Manager::instance ()->spawn (controller, reactor_, THR_DETACHED); } virtual int fini () { Quit_Handler *quit_handler = 0; ACE_NEW_RETURN (quit_handler, Quit_Handler (reactor_), -1); return reactor_->notify (quit_handler); } // ... Other method omitted ... private: ACE_Reactor *reactor_; }; ACE_FACTORY_DEFINE (SLDEX, Server_Shutdown) Note how we can cleanly add shutdown features via the ACE Service Configurator framework!

The ACE Task Framework The ACE Task framework provides powerful & extensible object-oriented concurrency capabilities that can spawn threads in the context of an object It can also transfer & queue messages between objects executing in separate threads

The ACE Task Framework These classes are reused from the ACE Reactor & Service Configurator frameworks The relationships between classes in ACE Task framework are shown below

The ACE_Message_Queue Class (1/3) Motivation When producer & consumer tasks are collocated in the same process, tasks often exchange messages via an intraprocess message queue In this design, producer task(s) insert messages into a synchronized message queue serviced by consumer task(s) that remove & process the messages If the queue is full, producers can either block or wait a bounded amount of time to insert their messages Likewise, if the queue is empty, consumers can either block or wait a bounded amount of time to remove messages

The ACE_Message_Queue Class (2/3) Class Capabilities This class is a portable intraprocess message queueing mechanism that provides the following capabilities: It allows messages (i.e., ACE_Message_Blocks ) to be enqueued at the front or rear of the queue, or in priority order based on the message's priority Messages can be dequeued from the front or back of the queue ACE_Message_Block provides an efficient message buffering mechanism that minimizes dynamic memory allocation & data copying

The ACE_Message_Queue Class (3/3) Class Capabilities It can be instantiated for either multi- or single-threaded configurations, allowing trade offs of strict synchronization for lower overhead when concurrent access to a queue isn't required In multithreaded configurations, it supports configurable flow control, which prevents fast producers from swamping the processing & memory resources of slower consumers It allows timeouts on both enqueue/dequeue operations to avoid indefinite blocking It can be integrated with the ACE Reactor It provides allocators that can be strategized so the memory used by messages can be obtained from various sources

The ACE_Message_Queue Class API

The Monitor Object Pattern This pattern synchronizes concurrent method execution to ensure that only one method at a time runs within an object It also allows an object’s methods to cooperatively schedule their execution sequences The Monitor Object design pattern (POSA2) can be used to synchronize the message queue efficiently & conveniently It’s instructive to compare Monitor Object pattern solutions with Active Object pattern solutions The key tradeoff is efficiency vs. flexibility 2..* uses uses * Monitor Object sync_method1() sync_methodN() Monitor Lock acquire() release() Client Monitor Condition wait() notify() notify_all()

Monitor Object Pattern Dynamics the OS thread scheduler atomically reacquires the monitor lock the OS thread scheduler atomically releases the monitor lock Synchronized method invocation & serialization Synchronized method thread suspension Monitor condition notification Synchronized method thread resumption : Monitor Object : Monitor Lock : Monitor Condition sync_method1() wait() dowork() : Client Thread1 : Client Thread2 acquire() dowork() acquire() sync_method2() release() notify() dowork() release() the OS thread scheduler automatically suspends the client thread the OS thread scheduler automatically resumes the client thread & the synchronized method

Transparently Parameterizing Synchronization Problem It should be possible to customize component synchronization mechanisms according to the requirements of particular application use cases & configurations Hard-coding synchronization strategies into component implementations is inflexible Maintaining multiple versions of components manually is not scalable Solution Apply the Strategized Locking design pattern to parameterize component synchronization strategies by making them ‘pluggable’ types Each type objectifies a particular synchronization strategy, such as a mutex, readers/writer lock, semaphore, or ‘null’ lock Instances of these pluggable types can be defined as objects contained within a component, which then uses these objects to synchronize its method implementations efficiently

Applying Strategized Locking to ACE_Message_Queue template <class SYNCH_STRATEGY> class ACE_Message_Queue { // ... protected: // C++ traits that coordinate concurrent access. ACE_TYPENAME SYNCH_STRATEGY::MUTEX lock_; ACE_TYPENAME SYNCH_STRATEGY::CONDITION notempty_; ACE_TYPENAME SYNCH_STRATEGY::CONDITION notfull_; }; Parameterized Strategized Locking class ACE_NULL_SYNCH { public: typedef ACE_Null_Mutex MUTEX; typedef ACE_Null_Condition CONDITION; typedef ACE_Null_Semaphore SEMAPHORE; // … }; The traits classes needn’t derive from a common base class or use virtual methods! class ACE_MT_SYNCH { public: typedef ACE_Thread_Mutex MUTEX; typedef ACE_Condition_Thread_Mutex CONDITION; typedef ACE_Thread_Semaphore SEMAPHORE; // … };

Sidebar: C++ Traits & Traits Class Idioms A trait is a type that conveys information used by another class or algorithm to determine policies at compile time A traits class is a useful way to collect a set of traits that should be applied in a given situation to alter another class's behavior appropriately Traits & traits classes are C++ policy-based class design idioms that are widely used throughout the C++ standard library These C++ idioms are similar in spirit to the Strategy pattern, which allows substitution of class behavioral characteristics without requiring a change to the class itself The Strategy pattern involves a defined interface that's commonly bound dynamically at run time using virtual methods In contrast, the traits & traits class idioms involve substitution of a set of class members and/or methods that can be bound statically at compile time using C++ parameterized types ACE_Message_Queue<ACE_NULL_SYNCH> st_mq; ACE_Message_Block *mb; // Does not block. st_mq.dequeue_head (mb); ACE_Message_Queue<ACE_MT_SYNCH> mt_mq; ACE_Message_Block *mb; // Does block. mt_mq.dequeue_head (mb);

Minimizing Unnecessary Locking Context Components in multi-threaded applications that contain intra-component method calls Components that have applied the Strategized Locking pattern Problem Thread-safe components should be designed to avoid unnecessary locking Thread-safe components should be designed to avoid “self-deadlock” template <class SYNCH_STRAT> int ACE_Message_Queue<SYNCH_STRAT>::dequeue_head (ACE_Message_Block &*mb, ACE_Time_Value &tv){ ACE_GUARD_RETURN (SYNCH_STRAT::MUTEX, g, lock_, -1); ... while (is_empty ())... } template <class SYNCH_STRAT> int ACE_Message_Queue<SYNCH_STRAT>::is_empty (void) const { ACE_GUARD_RETURN (SYNCH_STRAT::MUTEX, g, lock_, -1); return cur_bytes_ == 0 && cur_count_ == 0; }

Minimizing Unnecessary Locking Solution Apply the Thread-safe Interface design pattern to minimize locking overhead & ensure that intra-component method calls do not incur ‘self-deadlock’ This pattern structures all components that process intra-component method invocations so that interface methods check & implementation methods trust template <class SYNCH_STRAT> int ACE_Message_Queue<SYNCH_STRAT>::dequeue_head (ACE_Message_Block &*mb, ACE_Time_Value &tv) { ACE_GUARD_RETURN (SYNCH_STRAT::MUTEX, g, lock_, -1); ... while (is_empty_i ())... } template <class SYNCH_STRAT> int ACE_Message_Queue<SYNCH_STRAT>::is_empty_i (void) const { return cur_bytes_ == 0 && cur_count_ == 0; }

Sidebar: Integrating ACE_Message_Queue & ACE_Reactor Some platforms can integrate native message queue events with synchronous event demultiplexing e.g., AIX's select() can demux events generated by System V message queues Although this use of select() is nonportable, it’s useful to integrate a message queue with a reactor in many applications ACE_Message_Queue therefore offers a portable way to integrate event queueing with the ACE Reactor framework The ACE_Message_Queue class contains methods that can set a notification strategy This notification strategy must be derived from ACE_Notification_Strategy , which allows the flexibility to insert any strategy necessary for your application ACE_Reactor_Notification_Strategy ’s constructor associates it with an ACE_Reactor , an ACE_Event_Handler , & an event mask After the strategy object is associated with an ACE_Message_Queue , each queued message triggers the following sequence of actions ACE_Message_Queue calls the strategy's notify() method ACE_Reactor_Notification_Strategy ’s notify() method notifies the associated reactor using the reactor notification mechanism The reactor dispatches the notification to the specified event handler using the designated mask

Sidebar: The ACE_Message_Queue_Ex Class The ACE_Message_Queue class enqueues & dequeues ACE_Message_Block objects, which provide a dynamically extensible way to represent messages For programs requiring strongly typed messaging, ACE provides the ACE_Message_Queue_Ex class, which enqueues & dequeues messages that are instances of a MESSAGE_TYPE template parameter, rather than an ACE_Message_Block ACE_Message_Queue_Ex offers the same capabilities as ACE_Message_Queue Its primary advantage is that application-defined data types can be queued without the need to type cast on enqueue & dequeue or copy objects into the data portion of an ACE_Message_Block Since ACE_Message_Queue_Ex is not derived from ACE_Message_Queue , however, it can't be used with the ACE_Task class template <class SYNCH_STRATEGY, class MESSAGE_TYPE> class ACE_Message_Queue_Ex { int enqueue_tail (MESSAGE_TYPE *, ACE_Time_Value *); // … };

Sidebar: ACE_Message_Queue Shutdown Protocols To avoid losing queued messages unexpectedly when an ACE_Message_Queue needs to be closed, producer & consumer threads can implement the following protocol: A producer thread can enqueue a special message, such as a message block whose payload is size 0 and/or whose type is MB_STOP , to indicate that it wants the queue closed The consumer thread can close the queue when it receives this shutdown message, after processing any other messages ahead of it in the queue A variant of this protocol can use ACE_Message_Queue::enqueue_prio() to boost the priority of the shutdown message so it takes precedence over lower-priority messages that may already reside in the queue There are other methods that can be used to close or temporarily deactivate an ACE_Message_Queue : flush() , releases the messages in a queue, but doesn't change its state deactivate() , changes the queue state to DEACTIVATED & wakes up all threads waiting on enqueue/dequeue operations, but doesn’t release any queued messages

Using the ACE_Message_Queue Class (1/20) This example shows how ACE_Message_Queue can be used to implement a client logging daemon The implementation uses a producer/consumer concurrency model where separate threads handle input & output processing

Using the ACE_Message_Queue Class (2/20) Input Processing The main thread uses an event handler & ACE Reactor framework to read log records from sockets connected to client applications via network loopback The event handler queues each log record in the synchronized ACE_Message_Queue Output Processing A separate forwarder thread runs concurrently, performing following steps: Dequeueing messages from the message queue Buffering messages into larger chunks Forwarding the chunks to the server logging daemon over a TCP connection

Using the ACE_Message_Queue Class (3/20) CLD_Handler : Target of callbacks from the ACE_Reactor that receives log records from clients, converts them into ACE_Message_Blocks , & inserts them into the synchronized message queue that's processed by a separate thread & forwarded to the logging server CLD_Acceptor : A factory that passively accepts connections from clients & registers them with the ACE_Reactor to be processed by the CLD_Handler CLD_Connector : A factory that actively establishes (& when necessary reestablishes) connections with the logging server Client_Logging_Daemon : A facade class that integrates the other three classes together

Using the ACE_Message_Queue Class (4/20) #if !defined (FLUSH_TIMEOUT) #define FLUSH_TIMEOUT 120 /* 120 seconds == 2 minutes. */ #endif /* FLUSH_TIMEOUT */ class CLD_Handler : public ACE_Event_Handler { public: enum { QUEUE_MAX = sizeof (ACE_Log_Record) * ACE_IOV_MAX }; // Initialization hook method. virtual int open (CLD_Connector *); // Shutdown hook method. virtual int close (); // Accessor to the connection to the logging server. virtual ACE_SOCK_Stream &peer () { return peer_; } virtual int handle_input (ACE_HANDLE handle); virtual int handle_close (ACE_HANDLE = ACE_INVALID_HANDLE, ACE_Reactor_Mask = 0); Reactor hook methods Maximum size of the queue

Using the ACE_Message_Queue Class (5/20) protected: // Forward log records to the server logging daemon. virtual ACE_THR_FUNC_RETURN forward (); // Send buffered log records using a gather-write operation. virtual int send (ACE_Message_Block *chunk[], size_t count); // Entry point into forwarder thread of control. static ACE_THR_FUNC_RETURN run_svc (void *arg); // A synchronized <ACE_Message_Queue> that queues messages. ACE_Message_Queue<ACE_MT_SYNCH> msg_queue_; ACE_Thread_Manager thr_mgr_; // Manage the forwarder thread. CLD_Connector *connector_; // Pointer to our <CLD_Connector>. ACE_SOCK_Stream peer_; // Connection to logging server. }; Adapter function Note the use of the ACE_MT_SYNCH traits class

Using the ACE_Message_Queue Class (6/20) 1 int CLD_Handler::handle_input (ACE_HANDLE handle) { 2 ACE_Message_Block *mblk = 0; 3 Logging_Handler logging_handler (handle); 4 5 if (logging_handler.recv_log_record (mblk) != -1) 6 if (msg_queue_.enqueue_tail (mblk->cont ()) != -1) { 7 mblk->cont (0); mblk->release (); 8 return 0; // Success. 9 } else mblk->release (); 12 // Error return. 13 return -1; 14 } Hook method dispatched by reactor Note decoupling of read vs. write for log record

Using the ACE_Message_Queue Class (7/20) 1 int CLD_Handler::open (CLD_Connector *connector) { 2 connector_ = connector; 3 int bufsiz = ACE_DEFAULT_MAX_SOCKET_BUFSIZ; 4 peer ().set_option (SOL_SOCKET, SO_SNDBUF, 5 &bufsiz, sizeof bufsiz); 6 msg_queue_.high_water_mark (CLD_Handler::QUEUE_MAX); 7 return thr_mgr_.spawn (&CLD_Handler::run_svc, 8 this, THR_SCOPE_SYSTEM); 9 } ACE_THR_FUNC_RETURN CLD_Handler::run_svc (void *arg) { CLD_Handler *handler = ACE_static_cast (CLD_Handler *, arg); return handler->forward (); } Create new thread of control that invokes run_svc() adapter function Adapter function forward messages to server logging daemon

Using the ACE_Message_Queue Class (8/20) 1 ACE_THR_FUNC_RETURN CLD_Handler::forward () { 2 ACE_Message_Block *chunk[ACE_IOV_MAX]; 3 size_t message_index = 0; 4 ACE_Time_Value time_of_last_send (ACE_OS::gettimeofday ()); 5 ACE_Time_Value timeout; 6 ACE_Sig_Action no_sigpipe ((ACE_SignalHandler) SIG_IGN); 7 ACE_Sig_Action original_action; 8 no_sigpipe.register_action (SIGPIPE, &original_action); 9 10 for (;;) { 11 if (message_index == 0) { 12 timeout = ACE_OS::gettimeofday (); 13 timeout += FLUSH_TIMEOUT; 14 } 15 ACE_Message_Block *mblk = 0; 16 if (msg_queue_.dequeue_head (mblk, &timeout) == -1) { 17 if (errno != EWOULDBLOCK) break; 18 else if (message_index == 0) continue; 19 } else { 20 if (mblk->size () == 0 21 && mblk->msg_type () == ACE_Message_Block::MB_STOP) 22 { mblk->release (); break; } Ignore SIGPIPE signal Wait a bounded period of time for next message Shutdown protocol

Using the ACE_Message_Queue Class (9/20) 23 chunk[message_index] = mblk; 24 ++message_index; 25 } 26 if (message_index >= ACE_IOV_MAX 27 || (ACE_OS::gettimeofday () - time_of_last_send 28 >= FLUSH_TIMEOUT)) { 29 if (send (chunk, message_index) == -1) break; 30 time_of_last_send = ACE_OS::gettimeofday (); 31 } 32 } 33 34 if (message_index > 0) send (chunk, message_index); 35 msg_queue_.close (); 36 no_sigpipe.restore_action (SIGPIPE, original_action); 37 return 0; 38 } Send buffered messages at appropriate time Restore signal disposition Send any remaining buffered messages

Using the ACE_Message_Queue Class (10/20) 1 int CLD_Handler::send (ACE_Message_Block *chunk[], 2 size_t &count) { 3 iovec iov[ACE_IOV_MAX]; 4 size_t iov_size; 5 int result = 0; 6 7 for (iov_size = 0; iov_size < count; ++iov_size) { 8 iov[iov_size].iov_base = chunk[iov_size]->rd_ptr (); 9 iov[iov_size].iov_len = chunk[iov_size]->length (); 10 } 11 12 while (peer ().sendv_n (iov, iov_size) == -1) 13 if (connector_->reconnect () == -1) { 14 result = -1; 15 break; 16 } 17 Initialize gather-write buffer Send gather-write buffer Trigger reconnection upon failed send

Using the ACE_Message_Queue Class (11/20) 18 while (iov_size > 0) { 19 chunk[--iov_size]->release (); chunk[iov_size] = 0; 20 } 21 count = iov_size; 22 return result; 23 } int CLD_Handler::close () { ACE_Message_Block *shutdown_message = 0; ACE_NEW_RETURN (shutdown_message, ACE_Message_Block (0, ACE_Message_Block::MB_STOP), -1); msg_queue_.enqueue_tail (shutdown_message); return thr_mgr_.wait (); } Release dynamically allocated buffers Initiate shutdown protocol Barrier synchronization

Using the ACE_Message_Queue Class (12/20) class CLD_Acceptor : public ACE_Event_Handler { public: // Initialization hook method. virtual int open (CLD_Handler *, const ACE_INET_Addr &, ACE_Reactor * = ACE_Reactor::instance ()); virtual int handle_input (ACE_HANDLE handle); virtual int handle_close (ACE_HANDLE = ACE_INVALID_HANDLE, ACE_Reactor_Mask = 0); virtual ACE_HANDLE get_handle () const; protected: ACE_SOCK_Acceptor acceptor_; // Pointer to the handler of log records. CLD_Handler *handler_; }; Reactor hook methods Factory that connects ACE_SOCK_Stream’s passively

Using the ACE_Message_Queue Class (13/20) int CLD_Acceptor::open (CLD_Handler *h, const ACE_INET_Addr &addr, ACE_Reactor *r) { reactor (r); // Store reactor pointer. handler_ = h; if (acceptor_.open (addr) == -1 || reactor ()->register_handler (this, ACE_Event_Handler::ACCEPT_MASK) == -1) return -1; return 0; } Register for connection events int CLD_Acceptor::handle_input (ACE_HANDLE) { ACE_SOCK_Stream peer_stream; if (acceptor_.accept (peer_stream) == -1) return -1; else if (reactor ()->register_handler (peer_stream.get_handle (), handler_, ACE_Event_Handler::READ_MASK) == -1) return -1; else return 0; } Register for read events Reactor dispatches this method Listen for connections

Using the ACE_Message_Queue Class (14/20) class CLD_Connector { public: // Establish connection to logging server at <remote_addr>. int connect (CLD_Handler *handler, const ACE_INET_Addr &remote_addr); // Re-establish a connection to the logging server. int reconnect (); private: // Pointer to the <CLD_Handler> that we're connecting. CLD_Handler *handler_; // Address at which the logging server is listening // for connections. ACE_INET_Addr remote_addr_; }

Using the ACE_Message_Queue Class (15/20) 1 int CLD_Connector::connect 2 (CLD_Handler *handler, 3 const ACE_INET_Addr &remote_addr) { 4 ACE_SOCK_Connector connector; 5 6 if (connector.connect (handler->peer (), remote_addr) == -1) 7 return -1; 8 else if (handler->open (this) == -1) 9 { handler->handle_close (); return -1; } 10 handler_ = handler; 11 remote_addr_ = remote_addr; 12 return 0; 13 } These steps form the core part of the active side of the Acceptor/Connector pattern

Using the ACE_Message_Queue Class (16/20) int CLD_Connector::reconnect () { // Maximum # of times to retry connect. const size_t MAX_RETRIES = 5; ACE_SOCK_Connector connector; ACE_Time_Value timeout (1); // Start with 1 second timeout. size_t i; for (i = 0; i < MAX_RETRIES; ++i) { if (i > 0) ACE_OS::sleep (timeout); if (connector.connect (handler_->peer (), remote_addr_, &timeout) == -1) timeout *= 2; else { int bufsiz = ACE_DEFAULT_MAX_SOCKET_BUFSIZ; handler_->peer ().set_option (SOL_SOCKET, SO_SNDBUF, &bufsiz, sizeof bufsiz); break; } } return i == MAX_RETRIES ? -1 : 0; } Exponential backoff algorithm Called when connection has broken

Using the ACE_Message_Queue Class (17/20) class Client_Logging_Daemon : public ACE_Service_Object { public: virtual int init (int argc, ACE_TCHAR *argv[]); virtual int fini (); virtual int info (ACE_TCHAR **bufferp, size_t length = 0) const; virtual int suspend (); virtual int resume (); protected: // Receives, processes, & forwards log records. CLD_Handler handler_; // Factory that passively connects the <CLD_Handler>. CLD_Acceptor acceptor_; // Factory that actively connects the <CLD_Handler>. CLD_Connector connector_; }; Enables dynamic linking Service Configurator hook methods This class brings together all parts of the client logging daemon

Using the ACE_Message_Queue Class (18/20) 1 int Client_Logging_Daemon::init (int argc, ACE_TCHAR *argv[]) { 2 u_short cld_port = ACE_DEFAULT_SERVICE_PORT; 3 u_short sld_port = ACE_DEFAULT_LOGGING_SERVER_PORT; 4 ACE_TCHAR sld_host[MAXHOSTNAMELEN]; 5 ACE_OS_String::strcpy (sld_host, ACE_LOCALHOST); 6 7 ACE_Get_Opt get_opt (argc, argv, ACE_TEXT ("p:r:s:"), 0); 8 get_opt.long_option (ACE_TEXT ("client_port"), 'p', 9 ACE_Get_Opt::ARG_REQUIRED); 10 get_opt.long_option (ACE_TEXT ("server_port"), 'r', 11 ACE_Get_Opt::ARG_REQUIRED); 12 get_opt.long_option (ACE_TEXT ("server_name"), 's', 13 ACE_Get_Opt::ARG_REQUIRED); 14 15 for (int c; (c = get_opt ()) != -1;) 16 switch (c) { 17 case 'p': // Client logging daemon acceptor port number. 18 cld_port = ACE_static_cast 19 (u_short, ACE_OS::atoi (get_opt.opt_arg ())); 20 break; Initialization hook method called by ACE Service Configurator framework

Using the ACE_Message_Queue Class (19/20) 21 case 'r': // Server logging daemon acceptor port number. 22 sld_port = ACE_static_cast 23 (u_short, ACE_OS::atoi (get_opt.opt_arg ())); 24 break; 25 case 's': // Server logging daemon hostname. 26 ACE_OS_String::strsncpy 27 (sld_host, get_opt.opt_arg (), MAXHOSTNAMELEN); 28 break; 29 } 30 31 ACE_INET_Addr cld_addr (cld_port); 32 ACE_INET_Addr sld_addr (sld_port, sld_host); 33 34 if (acceptor_.open (&handler_, cld_addr) == -1) 35 return -1; 36 else if (connector_.connect (&handler_, sld_addr) == -1) 37 { acceptor_.handle_close (); return -1; } 38 return 0; 39 } Establish connection passively Establish connection actively

Using the ACE_Message_Queue Class (20/20) ACE_FACTORY_DEFINE (CLD, Client_Logging_Daemon) dynamic Client_Logging_Daemon Service_Object * CLD:_make_Client_Logging_Daemon() "-p $CLIENT_LOGGING_DAEMON_PORT" svc.conf file for client logging daemon Create entry point for ACE Service Configurator framework The main() function is the same as the one we showed for the ACE Service Configurator example!!!!

The ACE_Task Class (1/2) Motivation The ACE_Message_Queue class can be used to Decouple the flow of information from its processing Link threads that execute producer/consumer services concurrently To use a producer/consumer concurrency model effectively in an object-oriented program, however, each thread should be associated with the message queue & any other service-related information To preserve modularity & cohesion, & to reduce coupling, it's therefore best to encapsulate an ACE_Message_Queue with its associated data & methods into one class whose service threads can access it directly

The ACE_Task Class (2/2) Class Capabilities ACE_Task is the basis of ACE's OO concurrency framework that provides the following capabilities: It uses an ACE_Message_Queue to separate data & requests from their processing It uses ACE_Thread_Manager to activate the task so it runs as an active object that processes its queued messages in one or more threads Since each thread runs a designated class method, they can access all of the task's data members directly It inherits from ACE_Service_Object , so its instances can be configured dynamically via the ACE Service Configurator framework It's a descendant of ACE_Event_Handler , so its instances can also serve as event handlers in the ACE Reactor framework It provides virtual hook methods that application classes can reimplement for task-specific service execution & message handling

The Active Object Pattern The Active Object design pattern decouples method invocation from method execution using an object-oriented programming model A proxy provides an interface that allows clients to access methods of an object A concrete method request is created for every method invoked on the proxy A scheduler receives the method requests & dispatches them on the servant when they become runnable An activation list maintains pending method requests A servant implements the methods A future allows clients to access the results of a method call on the proxy Future Scheduler enqueue dispatch MethodRequest guard call * Proxy method_1 method_n Activation List enqueue dequeue Servant method_1 method_n creates creates maintains Concrete MethodRequest1 Concrete MethodRequest2

Active Object Pattern Dynamics A client invokes a method on the proxy The proxy returns a future to the client, & creates a method request, which it passes to the scheduler The scheduler enqueues the method request into the activation list (not shown here) When the method request becomes runnable, the scheduler dequeues it from the activation list (not shown here) & executes it in a different thread than the client The method request executes the method on the servant & writes results, if any, to the future Clients obtain the method’s results via the future Clients can obtain result from futures via blocking, polling, or callbacks : Future method enqueue : Proxy : Scheduler : Servant : Method Request dispatch call method read write : Client

Pros & Cons of the Active Object Pattern This pattern provides four benefits : Enhanced type-safety Cf. async forwarder/receiver message passing Enhances concurrency & simplifies synchronized complexity Concurrency is enhanced by allowing client threads & asynchronous method executions to run simultaneously Synchronization complexity is simplified by using a scheduler that evaluates synchronization constraints to serialized access to servants Transparent leveraging of available parallelism Multiple active object methods can execute in parallel if supported by the OS/hardware Method execution order can differ from method invocation order Methods invoked asynchronous are executed according to the synchronization constraints defined by their guards & by scheduling policies Methods can be “batched” & sent wholesale to enhance throughput This pattern also has some liabilities : Higher overhead Depending on how an active object’s scheduler is implemented, context switching, synchronization, & data movement overhead may occur when scheduling & executing active object invocations Complicated debugging It is hard to debug programs that use the Active Object pattern due to the concurrency & non-determinism of the various active object schedulers & the underlying OS thread scheduler

Activating an ACE_Task ACE_Task::svc_run() is a static method used by activate() as an adapter function It runs in the newly spawned thread(s) of control, which provide an execution context for the svc() hook method The following illustrates the steps associated with activating an ACE_Task using the Windows _beginthreadex() function to spawn the thread Naturally, the ACE_Task class shields applications from OS-specific details ;

Sidebar: Comparing ACE_Task with Java Threads ACE_Task::activate() is similar to the Java Thread.start() method since they both spawn internal threads The Java Thread.start() method spawns only one thread, whereas activate() can spawn multiple threads within the same ACE_Task , making it easy to implement thread pools ACE_Task::svc() is similar to the Java Runnable.run() method since both methods are hooks that run in newly spawned thread(s) The Java run() hook method executes in only a single thread per object, whereas the ACE_Task::svc() method can execute in multiple threads per task object ACE_Task contains a message queue that allows applications to exchange & buffer messages In contrast, this type of queueing capability must be added by Java developers explicitly

Using the ACE_Task Class (1/13) This example combines ACE_Task & ACE_Message_Queue with the ACE_Reactor & ACE_Service_Config to implement a concurrent server logging daemon using the thread pool concurrency model

Using the ACE_Task Class (2/13) This server design is based on the Half Sync/Half-Async pattern & the eager spawning thread pool strategy

The Half-Sync/Half-Async Pattern The Half-Sync/Half-Async architectural pattern decouples async & sync service processing in concurrent systems, to simplify programming without unduly reducing performance This solution yields two benefits: Threads can be mapped to separate CPUs to scale up server performance via multi-processing Each thread blocks independently, which prevents a flow-controlled connection from degrading the QoS that other clients receive Sync Service Layer Async Service Layer Queueing Layer <<read/write>> <<read/write>> <<read/write>> <<dequeue/enqueue>> <<interrupt>> Sync Service 1 Sync Service 2 Sync Service 3 External Event Source Queue Async Service

This pattern defines two service processing layers—one async & one sync—along with a queueing layer that allows services to exchange messages between the two layers Half-Sync/Half-Async Pattern Dynamics The pattern allows sync services, such as logging record protocol processing, to run concurrently, relative both to each other & to async services, such as event demultiplexing : External Event Source : Async Service : Queue notification read() enqueue() message : Sync Service work() message read() message work() notification

Applying Half-Sync/Half-Async Pattern <<get>> <<get>> <<get>> <<put>> <<ready to read>> Synchronous Service Layer Asynchronous Service Layer Queueing Layer TP Logging Task 1 TP Logging Task 3 ACE_Reactor Socket Event Sources ACE_Messge_Queue TP Acceptor TP Logging Handler, TP Logging Task 2 Server logging daemon uses Half-Sync/Half-Async pattern to process logging records from multiple clients concurrently in separate threads TP_Logging_Task removes the request from a synchronized message queue & stores the logging record in a file If flow control occurs on its client connection this thread can block without degrading the QoS experienced by clients serviced by other threads in the pool

Pros & Cons of Half-Sync/Half-Async Pattern This pattern has three benefits : Simplification & performance The programming of higher-level synchronous processing services are simplified without degrading the performance of lower-level system services Separation of concerns Synchronization policies in each layer are decoupled so that each layer need not use the same concurrency control strategies Centralization of inter-layer communication Inter-layer communication is centralized at a single access point, because all interaction is mediated by the queueing layer This pattern also incurs liabilities : A boundary-crossing penalty may be incurred This overhead arises from context switching, synchronization, & data copying overhead when data is transferred between the sync & async service layers via the queueing layer Higher-level application services may not benefit from the efficiency of async I/O Depending on the design of operating system or application framework interfaces, it may not be possible for higher-level services to use low-level async I/O devices effectively Complexity of debugging & testing Applications written with this pattern can be hard to debug due its concurrent execution

Using the ACE_Task Class (3/13) class TP_Logging_Task : public ACE_Task<ACE_MT_SYNCH> { public: enum { MAX_THREADS = 4 }; virtual int open (void * = 0) { return activate (THR_NEW_LWP, MAX_THREADS); } virtual int put (ACE_Message_Block *mblk, ACE_Time_Value *timeout = 0) { return putq (mblk, timeout); } // … Other methods omitted … }; Hook method called back by Task framework to initialize task Hook method called by client to pass a message to task Enqueue message for subsequent processing Become an ACE Task with MT synchronization trait

Sidebar: Avoiding Memory Leaks When Threads Exit By default, ACE_Thread_Manager (& hence the ACE_Task class that uses it) spawns threads with the THR_JOINABLE flag To avoid leaking resources that the OS holds for joinable threads, an application must call one of the following methods: ACE_Task::wait(), which waits for all threads to exit an ACE_Task object ACE_Thread_Manager::wait_task() , which waits for all threads to exit in a specified ACE_Task object ACE_Thread_Manager::join(), which waits for a designated thread to exit If none of these methods are called, ACE & the OS won't reclaim the thread stack & exit status of a joinable thread, & the program will leak memory If it's inconvenient to wait for threads explicitly in your program, you can simply pass THR_DETACHED when spawning threads or activating tasks Many networked application tasks & long-running daemon threads can be simplified by using detached threads However, an application can't wait for a detached thread to finish with ACE_Task::wait() or obtain its exit status via ACE_Thread_ Manager::join() Applications can, however, use ACE_Thread_Manager::wait() to wait for both joinable & detached threads managed by an ACE_ Thread_Manager to finish

Using the ACE_Task Class (4/13) typedef ACE_Unmanaged_Singleton<TP_Logging_Task, ACE_Null_Mutex> TP_LOGGING_TASK; class TP_Logging_Acceptor : public Logging_Acceptor { public: TP_Logging_Acceptor (ACE_Reactor *r = ACE_Reactor::instance ()) : Logging_Acceptor (r){} virtual int handle_input (ACE_HANDLE) { TP_Logging_Handler *peer_handler = 0; ACE_NEW_RETURN (peer_handler, TP_Logging_Handler (reactor ()), -1); if (acceptor_.accept (peer_handler->peer ()) == -1) { delete peer_handler; return -1; } else if (peer_handler->open () == -1) peer_handler->handle_close (ACE_INVALID_HANDLE, 0); return 0; } }; Unmanaged singletons don’t automatically delete themselves on program exit Hook method called by Reactor framework – performs passive portion of Acceptor/Connector pattern

Sidebar: ACE_Singleton Template Adapter template <class TYPE, class LOCK> class ACE_Singleton : public ACE_Cleanup { public: static TYPE *instance (void) { ACE_Singleton<TYPE, LOCK> *&s = singleton_; if (s == 0) { LOCK *lock = 0; ACE_GUARD_RETURN (LOCK, guard, ACE_Object_Manager::get_singleton_lock (lock), 0); if (s == 0) { ACE_NEW_RETURN (s, (ACE_Singleton<TYPE, LOCK>), 0); ACE_Object_Manager::at_exit (s); } } return &s->instance_; } protected: ACE_Singleton (void); // Default constructor. TYPE instance_; // Contained instance. // Single instance of the <ACE_Singleton> adapter. static ACE_Singleton<TYPE, LOCK> *singleton_; }; ACE_Unmanaged_Singleton omits this step Note Double-Checked Locking Optimization pattern

Synchronizing Singletons Correctly Problem Singletons can be problematic in multi-threaded programs class Singleton { public: static Singleton * instance () { if (instance_ == 0) { // Enter critical // section. instance_ = new Singleton ; // Leave critical // section. } return instance_; } void method_1 (); // Other methods omitted. private: static Singleton *instance_; // Initialized to 0 // by linker. }; Either too little locking… class Singleton { public: static Singleton * instance () { Guard < Thread_Mutex > g (lock_); if (instance_ == 0) { // Enter critical // section. instance_= new Singleton ; // Leave critical // section. } return instance_; } private: static Singleton *instance_; // Initialized to 0 // by linker. static Thread_Mutex lock_; }; … or too much

Double-checked Locking Optimization Pattern Solution Apply the Double-Checked Locking Optimization design pattern (POSA2) to reduce contention & synchronization overhead whenever critical sections of code must acquire locks in a thread-safe manner just once during program execution // Perform first-check to // evaluate ‘hint’. if ( first_time_in is TRUE ) { acquire the mutex // Perform double-check to // avoid race condition. if ( first_time_in is TRUE ) { execute the critical section set first_time_in to FALSE } release the mutex } class Singleton { public: static Singleton * instance () { // First check if (instance_ == 0) { Guard < Thread_Mutex > g(lock_); // Double check. if (instance_ == 0) instance_ = new Singleton ; } return instance_; } private: static Singleton *instance_; static Thread_Mutex lock_; };

Pros & Cons of Double-Checked Locking Optimization Pattern This pattern has two benefits : Minimized locking overhead By performing two first-time-in flag checks, this pattern minimizes overhead for the common case After the flag is set the first check ensures that subsequent accesses require no further locking Prevents race conditions The second check of the first-time-in flag ensures that the critical section is executed just once This pattern has some liabilities : Non-atomic pointer or integral assignment semantics If an instance_ pointer is used as the flag in a singleton implementation, all bits of the singleton instance_ pointer must be read & written atomically in a single operation If the write to memory after the call to new is not atomic, other threads may try to read an invalid pointer Multi-processor cache coherency Certain multi-processor platforms, such as the COMPAQ Alpha & Intel Itanium, perform aggressive memory caching optimizations in which read & write operations can execute ‘out of order’ across multiple CPU caches, such that the CPU cache lines will not be flushed properly if shared data is accessed without locks held

Using the ACE_Task Class (5/13) class TP_Logging_Handler : public Logging_Event_Handler { friend class TP_Logging_Acceptor; protected: virtual ~TP_Logging_Handler () {} // No-op destructor. // Number of pointers to this class instance that currently // reside in the <TP_LOGGING_TASK> singleton's message queue. int queued_count_; // Indicates whether <Logging_Event_Handler::handle_close()> // must be called to cleanup & delete this object. int deferred_close_; // Serialize access to <queued_count_> & <deferred_close_>. ACE_Thread_Mutex lock_; Implements the protocol for shutting down handlers concurrently

Sidebar: Closing TP_Logging_Handlers Concurrently A challenge with thread pool servers is closing objects that can be accessed concurrently by multiple threads e.g., we must therefore ensure that a TP_Logging_Handler object isn't destroyed while there are still pointers to it in use by TP_LOGGING_TASK When a logging client closes a connection, TP_Logging_Handler ’s handle_input() returns -1 & the reactor then calls the handler's handle_close() method, which ordinarily cleans up resources & deletes the handler Unfortunately, this would wreak havoc if one or more pointers to that handler were still enqueued or being used by threads in the TP_LOGGING_TASK pool We therefore use a reference counting protocol to ensure the handler isn't destroyed while a pointer to it is still in use The protocol counts how often a handler resides in the TP_LOGGING_TASK message queue If the count is greater than 0 when the logging client socket is closed then TP_Logging_Handler::handle_close() can't yet destroy the handler Later, as the TP_LOGGING_TASK processes each log record, the handler's reference count is decremented When the count reaches 0, the handler can finish processing the close request that was deferred earlier

Using the ACE_Task Class (6/13) public: TP_Logging_Handler (ACE_Reactor *reactor) : Logging_Event_Handler (reactor), queued_count_ (0), deferred_close_ (0) {} // Called when input events occur, e.g., connection or data. virtual int handle_input (ACE_HANDLE); // Called when this object is destroyed, e.g., when it's // removed from a reactor. virtual int handle_close (ACE_HANDLE, ACE_Reactor_Mask); }; Hook methods dispatched by Reactor framework

Using the ACE_Task Class (7/13) 1 int TP_Logging_Handler::handle_input (ACE_HANDLE) { 2 ACE_Message_Block *mblk = 0; 3 if (logging_handler_.recv_log_record (mblk) != -1) { 4 ACE_Message_Block *log_blk = 0; 5 ACE_NEW_RETURN 6 (log_blk, ACE_Message_Block 7 (ACE_reinterpret_cast (char *, this)), -1); 8 log_blk->cont (mblk); 9 ACE_GUARD_RETURN (ACE_Thread_Mutex, guard, lock_, -1); 10 if (TP_LOGGING_TASK::instance ()->put (log_blk) == -1) 11 { log_blk->release (); return -1; } 12 ++queued_count_; 13 return 0; 14 } else return -1; 15 } Hook method dispatched by Reactor when logging record arrives This lock protects the reference count Store composite message into message queue (half-asynch) Note fact that there’s one more instance of ourselves in use! Add ourselves to composite message Note decoupling of recv vs. write!

Using the ACE_Task Class (8/13) 1 int TP_Logging_Handler::handle_input (ACE_HANDLE) { 2 ACE_Message_Block *mblk = 0; 3 if (logging_handler_.recv_log_record (mblk) != -1) { 4 ACE_Message_Block *log_blk = 0; 5 ACE_NEW_RETURN 6 (log_blk, ACE_Message_Block 7 (ACE_reinterpret_cast (char *, this)), -1); 8 log_blk->cont (mblk); 9 ACE_GUARD_RETURN (ACE_Thread_Mutex, guard, lock_, -1); 10 if (TP_LOGGING_TASK::instance ()->put (log_blk) == -1) 11 { log_blk->release (); return -1; } 12 ++queued_count_; 13 return 0; 14 } else return -1; 15 } This is the composite message created by this method & placed onto the message queue

Using the ACE_Task Class (9/13) 1 int TP_Logging_Handler::handle_close (ACE_HANDLE handle, 2 ACE_Reactor_Mask) { 3 int close_now = 0; 4 if (handle != ACE_INVALID_HANDLE) { 5 ACE_GUARD_RETURN (ACE_Thread_Mutex, guard, lock_, -1); 6 if (queued_count_ == 0) close_now = 1; 7 else deferred_close_ = 1; 8 } else { 9 ACE_GUARD_RETURN (ACE_Thread_Mutex, guard, lock_, -1); 10 queued_count_--; 11 if (queued_count_ == 0) close_now = deferred_close_; 12 } 13 14 if (close_now) return Logging_Event_Handler::handle_close (); 15 return 0; 16 } This hook method is dispatched by the reactor & does the bulk of the work for the deferred shutdown processing We can only close when there are no more instances of TP_Logging_Handler in use! Called implicitly Called explicitly

Using the ACE_Task Class (10/13) 1 int TP_Logging_Task::svc () { 2 for (ACE_Message_Block *log_blk; getq (log_blk) != -1; ) { 3 TP_Logging_Handler *tp_handler = ACE_reinterpret_cast 4 (TP_Logging_Handler *, log_blk->rd_ptr ()); 5 Logging_Handler logging_handler (tp_handler->log_file ()); 6 logging_handler.write_log_record (log_blk->cont ()); 7 log_blk->release (); 8 tp_handler->handle_close (ACE_INVALID_HANDLE, 0); 9 } 10 return 0; 11 } This hook method runs in its own thread(s) of control & is called back by the ACE Task framework This loop blocks until new composite message is queued (half-sync) Remove TP_Logging_Handler pointer from composite message Write log record to log file Indicate that we’re no longer using the handler

Using the ACE_Task Class (11/13) class TP_Logging_Server : public ACE_Service_Object { protected: // Contains the reactor, acceptor, & handlers. typedef Reactor_Logging_Server<TP_Logging_Acceptor> LOGGING_DISPATCHER; LOGGING_DISPATCHER *logging_dispatcher_; public: TP_Logging_Server (): logging_dispatcher_ (0) {} // Other methods defined below... }; This is the primary “façade” class that brings all the other parts together We can dynamically configure this via the ACE Service Configurator framework We can reuse the Reactor_Logging_Server from previous versions of our server logging daemon

Sidebar: Destroying an ACE_Task Before destroying an ACE_Task that’s running as an active object, ensure that the thread(s) running its svc() hook method have exited If a task's life cycle is managed externally, one way to ensure a proper destruction sequence looks like this: My_Task *task = new Task; // Allocate a new task dynamically. task->open (); // Initialize the task. task->activate (); // Run task as an active object. // ... do work ... // Deactive the message queue so the svc() method unblocks // & the thread exits. task->msg_queue ()->deactivate (); task->wait (); // Wait for the thread to exit. delete task; // Reclaim the task memory. If a task is allocated dynamically, however, it may be better to have the task's close() hook delete itself when the last thread exits the task, rather than calling delete on a pointer to the task directly You may still want to wait() on the threads to exit the task, however, particularly if you're preparing to shut down the process On some OS platforms, when the main thread returns from main() , the entire process will be shut down immediately, whether there were other threads active or not

Using the ACE_Task Class (12/13) virtual int init (int argc, ACE_TCHAR *argv[]) { int i; char **array = 0; ACE_NEW_RETURN (array, char*[argc], -1); ACE_Auto_Array_Ptr<char *> char_argv (array); for (i = 0; i < argc; ++i) char_argv[i] = ACE::strnew (ACE_TEXT_ALWAYS_CHAR (argv[i])); ACE_NEW_NORETURN (logging_dispatcher_, TP_Logging_Server::LOGGING_DISPATCHER (i, char_argv.get (), ACE_Reactor::instance ())); for (i = 0; i < argc; ++i) ACE::strdelete (char_argv[i]); if (logging_dispatcher_ == 0) return -1; else return TP_LOGGING_TASK::instance ()->open (); } This hook method is dispatched by ACE Service Configurator framework

Using the ACE_Task Class (13/13) 1 virtual int fini () { 2 TP_LOGGING_TASK::instance ()->flush (); 3 TP_LOGGING_TASK::instance ()->wait (); 4 TP_LOGGING_TASK::close (); 5 delete logging_dispatcher_; 6 return 0; 7 } ACE_FACTORY_DEFINE (TPLS, TP_Logging_Server) dynamic TP_Logging_Server Service_Object * TPLS:_make_TP_Logging_Server() "$TP_LOGGING_SERVER_PORT" svc.conf file for thread pool server logging daemon The main() function is the same as the one we showed for the ACE Service Configurator example!!!! This hook method is called by ACE Service Configurator framework to shutdown the service

The ACE Acceptor/Connector Framework The ACE Acceptor/Connector framework implements the Acceptor/Connector pattern (POSA2) This pattern enhances software reuse & extensibility by decoupling the activities required to connect & initialize cooperating peer services in a networked application from the processing they perform once they're connected & initialized

The ACE Acceptor/Connector Framework The relationships between the ACE Acceptor/Connector framework classes that networked applications can use to establish connections & initialize peer services are shown in the adjacent figure

The Acceptor/Connector Pattern The Acceptor/Connector design pattern (POSA2) decouples the connection & initialization of cooperating peer services in a networked system from the processing performed by the peer services after being connected & initialized <<activate>> owns * uses uses <<creates>> owns uses owns <<activate>> * * * * * * uses notifies notifies notifies Connector Connector() connect() complete() handle_event () Concrete Service Handler B Concrete Service Handler A Concrete Acceptor Concrete Connector Acceptor Acceptor() Accept() handle_event () peer_acceptor_ Service Handler open() handle_event () set_handle() peer_stream_ Dispatcher select() handle_events() register_handler() remove_handler() Transport Handle Transport Handle Transport Handle

Acceptor Dynamics ACCEPT_ EVENT Handle1 Acceptor : Handle2 Handle2 Handle2 Passive-mode endpoint initialize phase Service handler initialize phase Service processing phase The Acceptor ensures that passive-mode transport endpoints aren’t used to read/write data accidentally And vice versa for data transport endpoints… There is typically one Acceptor factory per-service/per-port Additional demuxing can be done at higher layers, a la CORBA Service Handler Events : Application : Acceptor : Dispatcher register_handler() handle_events() accept() open() register_handler() handle_event() service() : Service Handler open()

Synchronous Connector Dynamics Motivation for Synchrony Sync connection initiation phase Service handler initialize phase Service processing phase If the services must be initialized in a fixed order & the client can’t perform useful work until all connections are established If connection latency is negligible e.g., connecting with a server on the same host via a ‘loopback’ device If multiple threads of control are available & it is efficient to use a thread-per-connection to connect each service handler synchronously Handle Addr : Application : Connector : Dispatcher : Service Handler handle_events() connect() open() register_handler() handle_event() service() Service Handler Events Service Handler Handle get_handle()

Asynchronous Connector Dynamics Motivation for Asynchrony Async connection initiation phase Service handler initialize phase Service processing phase If client is initializing many peers that can be connected in an arbitrary order If client is establishing connections over high latency links If client is a single-threaded application Addr : Application : Connector : Dispatcher : Service Handler handle_events() complete() connect() open() register_handler() handle_event() service() Service Handler Connector CONNECT EVENT Events register_handler() Service Handler Handle Handle Handle get_handle()

The ACE_Svc_Handler Class (1/2) Motivation A service handler is the portion of a networked application that either implements or accesses (or both, in the case of a peer-to-peer arrangement) a service Connection-oriented networked applications require at least two communicating service handlers – one for each end of every connection To separate concerns & allow developers to focus on the functionality of their service handlers, the ACE Acceptor/Connector framework defines the ACE_Svc_Handler class

The ACE_Svc_Handler Class (2/2) Class Capabilities This class is the basis of ACE's synchronous & reactive data transfer & service processing mechanisms & it provides the following capabilities: It provides the basis for initializing & implementing a service in a synchronous and/or reactive networked application, acting as the target of the ACE_Connector & ACE_Acceptor connection factories It provides an IPC endpoint used by a service handler to communicate with its peer service handler Since ACE_Svc_Handler derives directly from ACE_Task (& indirectly from ACE_Event_Handler ), it inherits the ACE concurrency, queueing, synchronization, dynamic configuration, & event handling framework capabilities It codifies the most common practices of reactive network services, such as registering with a reactor when a service is opened & closing the IPC endpoint when unregistering a service from a reactor

The ACE_Svc_Handler Class API This class handles variability of IPC mechanism & synchronization strategy via a common network I/O API

Combining ACE_Svc_Handler w/Reactor An instance of ACE_Svc_Handler can be registered with the ACE Reactor framework for READ events The Reactor framework will then dispatch the ACE_Svc_Handler:: handle_input() when input arrives on a connection

Sidebar: Decoupling Service Handler Creation from Activation The motivations for decoupling service activation from service creation in the ACE Acceptor/Connector framework include: To make service handler creation flexible ACE allows for wide flexibility in the way an application creates (or reuses) service handlers. Many applications create new handlers dynamically as needed, but some may recycle handlers or use a single handler for all connections To simplify error handling ACE doesn't rely on native C++ exceptions The constructor used to create a service handler therefore shouldn't perform any operations that can fail Instead, any such operations should be placed in the open() hook method, which must return - 1 if activation fails To ensure thread safety If a thread is spawned in a constructor it's not possible to ensure that the object has been initialized completely before the thread begins to run To avoid this potential race condition, the ACE Acceptor/Connector framework decouples service handler creation from activation

Sidebar: Determining a Service Handler’s Storage Class ACE_Svc_Handler objects are often allocated dynamically by the ACE_Acceptor & ACE_Connector factories in the ACE Acceptor/Connector framework There are situations, however, when service handlers are allocated differently, such as statically or on the stack To reclaim a handler's memory correctly, without tightly coupling it with the classes & factories that may instantiate it, the ACE_Svc_Handler class uses the C++ Storage Class Tracker idiom This idiom performs the following steps to determine automatically whether a service handler was allocated statically or dynamically & act accordingly: ACE_Svc_Handler overloads operator new, which allocates memory dynamically & sets a flag in thread-specific storage that notes this fact The ACE_Svc_Handler constructor inspects thread-specific storage to see if the object was allocated dynamically, recording the result in a data member When the destroy() method is eventually called, it checks the “dynamically allocated” flag If the object was allocated dynamically, destroy() deletes it If not, it will simply let the ACE_Svc_Handler destructor clean up the object when it goes out of scope

Using the ACE_Svc_Handler Class (1/4) This example illustrates how to use the ACE_Svc_Handler class to implement a logging server based on the thread-per-connection concurrency model Note how little “glue” code needs to be written manually since the various ACE frameworks to most of the dirty work… Become a service handler TPC Logging Handler TPC Logging Acceptor TPC Logging Handler

Using the ACE_Svc_Handler Class (2/4) class TPC_Logging_Handler : public ACE_Svc_Handler<ACE_SOCK_Stream, ACE_NULL_SYNCH> { protected: ACE_FILE_IO log_file_; // File of log records. // Connection to peer service handler. Logging_Handler logging_handler_; public: TPC_Logging_Handler (): logging_handler_ (log_file_) {} // ... Other methods shown below ... Become a service handler

Using the ACE_Svc_Handler Class (3/4) 1 virtual int open (void *) { 2 static const ACE_TCHAR LOGFILE_SUFFIX[] = ACE_TEXT (".log"); 3 ACE_TCHAR filename[MAXHOSTNAMELEN + sizeof (LOGFILE_SUFFIX)]; 4 ACE_INET_Addr logging_peer_addr; 5 6 peer ().get_remote_addr (logging_peer_addr); 7 logging_peer_addr.get_host_name (filename, MAXHOSTNAMELEN); 8 ACE_OS_String::strcat (filename, LOGFILE_SUFFIX); 9 10 ACE_FILE_Connector connector; 11 connector.connect (log_file_, 12 ACE_FILE_Addr (filename), 13 0, // No timeout. 14 ACE_Addr::sap_any, // Ignored. 15 0, // Don't try to reuse the addr. 16 O_RDWR|O_CREAT|O_APPEND, 17 ACE_DEFAULT_FILE_PERMS); 18 19 logging_handler_.peer ().set_handle (peer ().get_handle ()); 20 return activate (THR_NEW_LWP | THR_DETACHED); 21 } Become an active object & calls the svc() hook method Activation hook method called back by Acceptor for each connection

Using the ACE_Svc_Handler Class (4/4) virtual int svc () { for (;;) switch (logging_handler_.log_record ()) { case -1: return -1; // Error. case 0: return 0; // Client closed connection. default: continue; // Default case. } /* NOTREACHED */ return 0; } }; Runs in our own thread of control Note how we’re back to a single log method

Sidebar: Working Around Lack of Traits Support If you examine the ACE Acceptor/Connector framework source code closely, you'll notice that the IPC class template argument to ACE_Acceptor , ACE_Connector , & ACE_Svc_Handler is a macro rather than a type parameter Likewise, the synchronization strategy parameter to the ACE_Svc_Handler is a macro rather than a type parameter ACE uses these macros to work around the lack of support for traits classes & templates in some C++ compilers To work portably on those platforms, ACE class types, such as ACE_INET_Addr or ACE_Thread_Mutex , must be passed as explicit template parameters, rather than accessed as traits of traits classes, such as ACE_SOCK_Addr::PEER_ADDR or ACE_MT_SYNCH::MUTEX To simplify the efforts of application developers, ACE defines a set of macros that conditionally expand to the appropriate types, some of which are shown in the following table:

Sidebar: Shutting Down Blocked Service Threads Service threads often perform blocking I/O operations (this is often a bad idea) If the service thread must be stopped before its normal completion, however, the simplicity of this model can cause problems Some techniques to force service threads to shut down include: Exit the server process , letting the OS abruptly terminate the peer connection, as well as any other open resources, such as files (a log file, in the case of this chapter's examples) This approach can result in lost data & leaked resources e.g., System V IPC objects are vulnerable in this approach Enable asynchronous thread cancellation & cancel the service thread This design isn't portable & can also abandon resources if not programmed correctly Close the socket , hoping that the blocked I/O call will abort & end the service thread This solution can be effective, but doesn't work on all platforms Rather than blocking I/O, use timed I/O & check a shutdown flag , or use the ACE_Thread_Manager cooperative cancellation mechanism, to cleanly shut down between I/O attempts This approach is also effective, but may delay the shutdown by up to the specified timeout

The ACE_Acceptor Class (1/2) Motivation Many connection-oriented server applications tightly couple their connection establishment & service initialization code in ways that make it hard to reuse existing code The ACE Acceptor/Connector framework defines the ACE_Acceptor class so that application developers needn't rewrite this code repeatedly

The ACE_Acceptor Class (2/2) Class Capabilities This class is a factory that implements the Acceptor role in the Acceptor/Connector pattern to provide the following capabilities: It decouples the passive connection establishment & service initialization logic from the processing performed by a service handler after it's connected & initialized It provides a passive-mode IPC endpoint used to listen for & accept connections from peers The type of this IPC endpoint can be parameterized with many of ACE's IPC wrapper façade classes, thereby separating lower-level connection mechanisms from application-level service initialization policies It automates the steps necessary to connect the IPC endpoint passively & create/activate its associated service handlers Since ACE_Acceptor derives from ACE_Service_Object , it inherits the event-handling & configuration capabilities from the ACE Reactor & Service Configurator frameworks

The ACE_Acceptor Class API This class handles variability of IPC mechanism & service handler via a common connection establishment & service handler initialization API

Combining ACE_Acceptor w/Reactor An instance of ACE_Acceptor can be registered with the ACE Reactor framework for ACCEPT events The Reactor framework will then dispatch the ACE_Acceptor:: handle_input() when input arrives on a connection

Sidebar: Encryption & Authorization Protocols To protect against potential attacks or third-party discovery, many networked applications must authenticate the identities of their peers & encrypt sensitive data sent over a network To provide these capabilities, various cryptography packages, such as OpenSSL, & security protocols, such as Transport Layer Security (TLS), have been developed These packages & protocols provide library calls that ensure authentication, data integrity, & confidentiality between two communicating applications For example, the TLS protocol can encrypt/decrypt data sent/received across a TCP/IP network TLS is based on an earlier protocol named the Secure Sockets Layer (SSL), which was developed by Netscape The OpenSSL toolkit used by the examples in this chapter is based on the SSLeay library

Using the ACE_Acceptor (1/7) This example is another variant of our server logging daemon It uses the ACE_Acceptor instantiated with an ACE_SOCK_Acceptor to listen on a passive-mode TCP socket handle defined by the “ace_logger” service entry This revision of the server uses the thread-per-connection concurrency model to handle multiple clients simultaneously It also uses SSL authentication via interceptors TPC Logging Acceptor TPC Logging Handler TPC Logging Handler

Using the ACE_Acceptor (2/7) #include "ace/SOCK_Acceptor.h" #include <openssl/ssl.h> class TPC_Logging_Acceptor : public ACE_Acceptor <TPC_Logging_Handler, ACE_SOCK_Acceptor> { protected: // The SSL ``context'' data structure. SSL_CTX *ssl_ctx_; // The SSL data structure corresponding to authenticated // SSL connections. SSL *ssl_; public: typedef ACE_Acceptor<TPC_Logging_Handler, ACE_SOCK_Acceptor> PARENT; typedef ACE_SOCK_Acceptor::PEER_ADDR PEER_ADDR; TPC_Logging_Acceptor (ACE_Reactor *) : PARENT (r), ssl_ctx_ (0), ssl_ (0) {} Become an acceptor

Using the ACE_Acceptor (3/7) // Destructor frees the SSL resources. virtual ~TPC_Logging_Acceptor (void) { SSL_free (ssl_); SSL_CTX_free (ssl_ctx_); } // Initialize the acceptor instance. virtual int open (const ACE_SOCK_Acceptor::PEER_ADDR &local_addr, ACE_Reactor *reactor = ACE_Reactor::instance (), int flags = 0, int use_select = 1, int reuse_addr = 1); // <ACE_Reactor> close hook method. virtual int handle_close (ACE_HANDLE = ACE_INVALID_HANDLE, ACE_Reactor_Mask = ACE_Event_Handler::ALL_EVENTS_MASK); virtual int accept_svc_handler (TPC_Logging_Handler *sh); }; Hook method for connection establishment & authentication

Using the ACE_Acceptor (4/7) 1 #include "ace/OS.h" 2 #include "Reactor_Logging_Server_Adapter.h" 3 #include "TPC_Logging_Server.h" 4 #include "TPCLS_export.h" 5 6 #if !defined (TPC_CERTIFICATE_FILENAME) 7 # define TPC_CERTIFICATE_FILENAME "tpc-cert.pem" 8 #endif /* !TPC_CERTIFICATE_FILENAME */ 9 #if !defined (TPC_KEY_FILENAME) 10 # define TPC_KEY_FILENAME "tpc-key.pem" 11 #endif /* !TPC_KEY_FILENAME */ 12 13 int TPC_Logging_Acceptor::open 14 (const ACE_SOCK_Acceptor::PEER_ADDR &local_addr, 15 ACE_Reactor *reactor, 16 int flags, int use_select, int reuse_addr) { 17 if (PARENT::open (local_addr, reactor, flags, 18 use_select, reuse_addr) != 0) 19 return -1; Delegate to parent ( ACE_Acceptor::open())

Using the ACE_Acceptor (5/7) 20 OpenSSL_add_ssl_algorithms (); 21 ssl_ctx_ = SSL_CTX_new (SSLv3_server_method ()); 22 if (ssl_ctx_ == 0) return -1; 23 24 if (SSL_CTX_use_certificate_file (ssl_ctx_, 25 TPC_CERTIFICATE_FILENAME, 26 SSL_FILETYPE_PEM) <= 0 27 || SSL_CTX_use_PrivateKey_file (ssl_ctx_, 28 TPC_KEY_FILENAME, 29 SSL_FILETYPE_PEM) <= 0 30 || !SSL_CTX_check_private_key (ssl_ctx_)) 31 return -1; 32 ssl_ = SSL_new (ssl_ctx_); 33 return ssl_ == 0 ? -1 : 0; 34 } Do initialization for server-side of SSL authentication

Sidebar: ACE_SSL* Wrapper Facades Although the OpenSSL API provides a useful set of functions, it suffers from the usual problems incurred by native OS APIs written in C To address these problems, ACE provides classes that encapsulate OpenSSL using an API similar to the ACE C++ Socket wrapper facades e.g., the ACE_SOCK_Acceptor , ACE_SOCK_Connector , & ACE_SOCK_Stream classes described in Chapter 3 of C++NPv1 have their SSL-enabled counterparts: ACE_SSL_SOCK_Acceptor , ACE_SSL_SOCK_Connector , & ACE_SSL_SOCK_Stream The ACE SSL wrapper facades allow networked applications to ensure the integrity & confidentiality of data exchanged across a network. They also follow the same structure & APIs as their Socket API counterparts, which makes it easy to replace them wholesale using C++ parameterized types & the ACE_Svc_Handler template class e.g., to apply the ACE wrapper facades for OpenSSL to our networked logging server we can simply remove all the OpenSSL API code & instantiate the ACE_Acceptor , ACE_Connector , & ACE_Svc_Handler with the ACE_SSL_SOCK_Acceptor , ACE_SSL_SOCK_Connector , & ACE_SSL_SOCK_Stream , respectively

Using the ACE_Acceptor (6/7) 1 int TPC_Logging_Acceptor::accept_svc_handler 2 (TPC_Logging_Handler *sh) { 3 if (PARENT::accept_svc_handler (sh) == -1) return -1; 4 SSL_clear (ssl_); // Reset for new SSL connection. 5 SSL_set_fd 6 (ssl_, ACE_reinterpret_cast (int, sh->get_handle ())); 7 8 SSL_set_verify 9 (ssl_, 10 SSL_VERIFY_PEER | SSL_VERIFY_FAIL_IF_NO_PEER_CERT, 11 0); 12 if (SSL_accept (ssl_) == -1 13 || SSL_shutdown (ssl_) == -1) return -1; 14 return 0; 15 } Delegate to parent (ACE_Acceptor::accept_svc_handler()) Verify authentication via SSL Called back by Acceptor to accept connection into service handler

Using the ACE_Acceptor (7/7) typedef Reactor_Logging_Server_Adapter<TPC_Logging_Acceptor> TPC_Logging_Server; ACE_FACTORY_DEFINE (TPCLS, TPC_Logging_Server) dynamic TPC_Logging_Server Service_Object * TPCLS:_make_TPC_Logging_Server() "$TPC_LOGGING_SERVER_PORT" int TPC_Logging_Acceptor::handle_close (ACE_HANDLE h, ACE_Reactor_Mask mask) { PARENT::handle_close (h, mask); delete this; return 0; } Hook method dispatched by Reactor framework to shutdown acceptor The main() function is the same as the one we showed for the ACE Service Configurator example!!!! svc.conf file for thread-per-connection client logging daemon

The ACE_Connector Class (1/2) Motivation We earlier focused on how to decouple the functionality of service handlers from the steps required to passively connect & initialize them It's equally useful to decouple the functionality of service handlers from the steps required to actively connect & initialize them Moreover, networked applications that communicate with a large number of peers may need to actively establish many connections concurrently, handling completions as they occur To consolidate these capabilities into a flexible, extensible, & reusable abstraction, the ACE Acceptor/Connector framework defines the ACE_Connector class

The ACE_Connector Class (2/2) Class Capabilities This class is a factory class that implements the Connector role in the Acceptor/Connector pattern to provide the following capabilities: It decouples the active connection establishment & service initialization logic from the processing performed by a service handler after it's connected & initialized It provides an IPC factory that can actively establish connections with a peer acceptor either synchronously or reactively The type of this IPC endpoint can be parameterized with many of ACE's IPC wrapper facade classes, thereby separating lower-level connection mechanisms from application-level service initialization policies It automates the steps necessary to connect the IPC endpoint actively as well as to create & activate its associated service handler Since ACE_Connector derives from ACE_Service_Object it inherits all the event handling & dynamic configuration capabilities provided by the ACE Reactor & ACE Service Configurator frameworks

The ACE_Connector Class API This class handles variability of IPC mechanism & service handler via a common connection establishment & service handler initialization API

Combining ACE_Connector w/Reactor An instance of ACE_Connector can be registered with the ACE Reactor framework for CONNECT events The Reactor framework will then dispatch the ACE_Acceptor:: handle_output() when non-blocking connections complete

ACE_Synch_Options for ACE_Connector Each ACE_Connector::connect() call tries to establish a connection with its peer If connect() gets an immediate indication of connection success or failure, it ignores the ACE_Synch_Options parameter If it doesn't get an immediate indication of connection success/failure, however, connect() uses its ACE_Synch_Options parameter to vary completion processing class ACE_Synch_Options { // Options flags for controlling synchronization. enum { USE_REACTOR = 1, USE_TIMEOUT = 2 }; ACE_Synch_Options (u_long options = 0, const ACE_Time_Value &timeout = ACE_Time_Value::zero, const void *act = 0); }; The adjacent table illustrates how connect() behaves depending on its ACE_Synch_Options parameters

Using the ACE_Connector Class (1/24) This example applies the ACE Acceptor/Connector framework to enhance our earlier client logging daemon It also integrates with the ACE Reactor & Task frameworks This client logging daemon version uses two threads to perform its input & output tasks

Using the ACE_Connector Class (2/24) Output processing The active object ACE_Svc_Handler runs in its own thread, dequeueing messages from its message queue, buffering the messages into chunks, & forwarding these chunks to the server logging daemon over a TCP connection A subclass of ACE_Connector is used to (re)establish & authenticate connections with the logging server Input processing The main thread uses the singleton ACE_Reactor , an ACE_Acceptor , & an ACE_Svc_Handler passive object to read log records from sockets connected to client applications via the network loopback device Each log record is queued in a second ACE_Svc_Handler that runs as an active object

Using the ACE_Connector Class (3/24) The classes comprising the client logging daemon based on the ACE Acceptor/Connector framework are: AC_Input_Handler : A target of callbacks from the ACE_Reactor that receives log records from clients, stores each in an ACE_Message_Block , & passes them to AC_Output_Handler for processing AC_Output_Handler : An active object that runs in its own thread, whose put() method enqueues message blocks passed to it from the AC_Input_Handler & whose svc() method dequeues messages from its synchronized message queue & forwards them to the logging server AC_CLD_Acceptor : A factory that passively accepts connections from clients & registers them with the singleton ACE_Reactor to be processed by the AC_Input_Handler AC_CLD_Connector : A factory that actively (re)establishes & authenticates connections with the logging server AC_Client_Logging_Daemon : A facade class that integrates the other classes together

Using the ACE_Connector Class (4/24) class AC_Input_Handler : public ACE_Svc_Handler<ACE_SOCK_Stream, ACE_NULL_SYNCH> { public: AC_Input_Handler (AC_Output_Handler *handler = 0) : output_handler_ (handler) {} virtual int open (void *); // Initialization hook method. virtual int close (u_int = 0); // Shutdown hook method. protected: virtual int handle_input (ACE_HANDLE handle); virtual int handle_close (ACE_HANDLE = ACE_INVALID_HANDLE, ACE_Reactor_Mask = 0); // Pointer to the output handler. AC_Output_Handler *output_handler_; // Keep track of connected client handles. ACE_Handle_Set connected_clients_; }; Become a service handler to receive logging records from clients Hook methods dispatched by Reactor framework Hook methods dispatched by Acceptor/Connector framework

Sidebar: Single vs. Multiple Service Handlers The server logging daemon implementation in ACE_Acceptor example dynamically allocates a new service handler for each connected client, whereas this client logging daemon implementation uses a single service handler for all connected clients The rationale & tradeoffs for these approaches are: If each service handler maintains separate state information for each client (in addition to the connection handle) then allocating a service handler per client is generally the most straightforward design If each service handler does not maintain separate state for each client, then a server that allocates one service handler for all clients can potentially use less space & perform faster than if it allocates a handler dynamically for each client It's generally much easier to manage memory if a separate service handler is allocated dynamically for each client since the ACE Acceptor/Connector framework classes embody the most common behavior for this case---the service handler simply calls destroy() from its handle_close() hook method If service handler initialization can be performed from multiple threads, such as when using multiple dispatching threads with ACE_WFMO_Reactor , the design must take possible race conditions into account & use appropriate synchronization to avoid mishandling connections

Using the ACE_Connector Class (5/24) int AC_Input_Handler::handle_input (ACE_HANDLE handle) { ACE_Message_Block *mblk = 0; Logging_Handler logging_handler (handle); if (logging_handler.recv_log_record (mblk) != -1) if (output_handler_->put (mblk->cont ()) != -1) { mblk->cont (0); mblk->release (); return 0; // Success return. } else mblk->release (); return -1; // Error return. } Dispatched by Reactor framework when client logging records arrive Read & enqueue client logging record

Using the ACE_Connector Class (6/24) 1 int AC_Input_Handler::open (void *) { 2 ACE_HANDLE handle = peer ().get_handle (); 3 if (reactor ()->register_handler 4 (handle, this, ACE_Event_Handler::READ_MASK) == -1) 5 return -1; 6 connected_clients_.set_bit (handle); 7 return 0; 8 } int AC_Input_Handler::handle_close (ACE_HANDLE handle, ACE_Reactor_Mask) { connected_clients_.clr_bit (handle); return ACE_OS::closesocket (handle); } Track disconnected clients Track connected clients Register same event handler to READ events for all handles

Using the ACE_Connector Class (7/24) 1 int AC_Input_Handler::close (u_int) { 2 ACE_Message_Block *shutdown_message = 0; 3 ACE_NEW_RETURN 4 (shutdown_message, 5 ACE_Message_Block (0, ACE_Message_Block::MB_STOP), -1); 6 output_handler_->put (shutdown_message); 7 8 reactor ()->remove_handler 9 (connected_clients_, ACE_Event_Handler::READ_MASK); 10 return output_handler_->wait (); 11 } Initiate shutdown protocol Remove all the connected clients Barrier synchronization

Using the ACE_Connector Class (8/24) class AC_Output_Handler : public ACE_Svc_Handler<ACE_SOCK_Stream, ACE_MT_SYNCH> { public: enum { QUEUE_MAX = sizeof (ACE_Log_Record) * ACE_IOV_MAX }; virtual int open (void *); virtual int put (ACE_Message_Block *, ACE_Time_Value * = 0); protected: // Pointer to connection factory for <AC_Output_Handler>. AC_CLD_Connector *connector_; virtual int handle_input (ACE_HANDLE handle); Become a service handler for sending logging records to server logging daemon Dispatched by Reactor when connection to server logging daemon disconnects Dispatched by Acceptor/Connector framework to initiate connections Entry point into AC_Output_Handler

Using the ACE_Connector Class (9/24) virtual int svc (); // Send buffered log records using a gather-write operation. virtual int send (ACE_Message_Block *chunk[], size_t &count); }; #if !defined (FLUSH_TIMEOUT) #define FLUSH_TIMEOUT 120 /* 120 seconds == 2 minutes. */ #endif /* FLUSH_TIMEOUT */ int AC_Output_Handler::put (ACE_Message_Block *mb, ACE_Time_Value *timeout) { int result; while ((result = putq (mb, timeout)) == -1) if (msg_queue ()->state () != ACE_Message_Queue_Base::PULSED) break; return result; } Hook method that ACE Task framework uses to forward log records to server logging daemon Implements reconnection logic

Using the ACE_Connector Class (10/24) 1 int AC_Output_Handler::open (void *connector) { 2 connector_ = 3 ACE_static_cast (AC_CLD_Connector *, connector); 4 int bufsiz = ACE_DEFAULT_MAX_SOCKET_BUFSIZ; 5 peer ().set_option (SOL_SOCKET, SO_SNDBUF, 6 &bufsiz, sizeof bufsiz); 7 if (reactor ()->register_handler 8 (this, ACE_Event_Handler::READ_MASK) == -1) 9 return -1; 10 if (msg_queue ()->activate () 11 == ACE_Message_Queue_Base::ACTIVATED) { 12 msg_queue ()->high_water_mark (QUEUE_MAX); return activate (THR_SCOPE_SYSTEM); 14 } else return 0; 15 } Register to receive a callback when connection to server logging daemon breaks Become an active object the first time we’re called

Using the ACE_Connector Class (11/24) 1 int AC_Output_Handler::svc () { 2 ACE_Message_Block *chunk[ACE_IOV_MAX]; 3 size_t message_index = 0; 4 ACE_Time_Value time_of_last_send (ACE_OS::gettimeofday ()); 5 ACE_Time_Value timeout; 6 ACE_Sig_Action no_sigpipe ((ACE_SignalHandler) SIG_IGN); 7 ACE_Sig_Action original_action; 8 no_sigpipe.register_action (SIGPIPE, &original_action); 9 10 for (;;) { 11 if (message_index == 0) { 12 timeout = ACE_OS::gettimeofday (); 13 timeout += FLUSH_TIMEOUT; 14 } 15 ACE_Message_Block *mblk = 0; 16 if (getq (mblk, &timeout) == -1) { 17 if (errno == ESHUTDOWN) { 18 if (connector_->reconnect () == -1) break; 19 continue; 20 } else if (errno != EWOULDBLOCK) break; 21 else if (message_index == 0) continue; Ignore SIGPIPE signal Wait a bounded period of time for next message Reconnect protocol

Using the ACE_Connector Class (12/24) 22 } else { 23 if (mblk->size () == 0 24 && mblk->msg_type () == ACE_Message_Block::MB_STOP) 25 { mblk->release (); break; } 26 chunk[message_index] = mblk; 27 ++message_index; 28 } 29 if (message_index >= ACE_IOV_MAX 30 || (ACE_OS::gettimeofday () - time_of_last_send 31 >= FLUSH_TIMEOUT)) { 32 if (send (chunk, message_index) == -1) break; 33 time_of_last_send = ACE_OS::gettimeofday (); 34 } 35 } 36 37 if (message_index > 0) send (chunk, message_index); 38 no_sigpipe.restore_action (SIGPIPE, original_action); 39 return 0; 40 } Reconnect protocol Send buffered messages at appropriate time Restore signal disposition Send any remaining buffered messages

Using the ACE_Connector Class (13/24) 1 int AC_Output_Handler::handle_input (ACE_HANDLE h) { 2 peer ().close (); 3 reactor ()->remove_handler 4 (h, ACE_Event_Handler::READ_MASK 5 | ACE_Event_Handler::DONT_CALL); 6 msg_queue ()->pulse (); 7 return 0; 8 } This method is dispatched by Reactor when connection to server logging daemon is broken Cleanup resources associated with broken connection Unblock the output thread from its message queue so it can retrigger the connection

Using the ACE_Connector Class (14/24) class AC_CLD_Acceptor : public ACE_Acceptor<AC_Input_Handler, ACE_SOCK_Acceptor> { public: AC_CLD_Acceptor (AC_Output_Handler *handler = 0) : output_handler_ (handler), input_handler_ (handler) {} protected: typedef ACE_Acceptor<AC_Input_Handler, ACE_SOCK_Acceptor> PARENT; virtual int make_svc_handler (AC_Input_Handler *&sh); virtual int handle_close (ACE_HANDLE = ACE_INVALID_HANDLE, ACE_Reactor_Mask = 0); // Pointer to the output handler. AC_Output_Handler *output_handler_; // Single input handler. AC_Input_Handler input_handler_; }; Become an acceptor Factory method dispatched by Acceptor/Connector framework Hook method dispatched by Reactor framework

Using the ACE_Connector Class (15/24) class AC_CLD_Connector : public ACE_Connector<AC_Output_Handler, ACE_SOCK_Connector> { public: typedef ACE_Connector<AC_Output_Handler, ACE_SOCK_Connector> PARENT; AC_CLD_Connector (AC_Output_Handler *handler = 0) : handler_ (handler), ssl_ctx_ (0), ssl_ (0) {} virtual ~AC_CLD_Connector (void) { // Frees the SSL resources. SSL_free (ssl_); SSL_CTX_free (ssl_ctx_); } // Initialize the Connector. virtual int open (ACE_Reactor *r = ACE_Reactor::instance (), int flags = 0); int reconnect (); // Re-establish connection to server. Become a connector

Using the ACE_Connector Class (16/24) protected: virtual int connect_svc_handler (AC_Output_Handler *svc_handler, const ACE_SOCK_Connector::PEER_ADDR &remote_addr, ACE_Time_Value *timeout, const ACE_SOCK_Connector::PEER_ADDR &local_addr, int reuse_addr, int flags, int perms); // Pointer to <AC_Output_Handler> we're connecting. AC_Output_Handler *handler_; // Address at which logging server listens for connections. ACE_INET_Addr remote_addr_; SSL_CTX *ssl_ctx_; // The SSL "context" data structure. // The SSL data structure corresponding to authenticated SSL // connections. SSL *ssl_; }; Connection establishment & authentication hook method called by Acceptor/Connector framework

Using the ACE_Connector Class (17/24) #if !defined (CLD_CERTIFICATE_FILENAME) # define CLD_CERTIFICATE_FILENAME "cld-cert.pem" #endif /* !CLD_CERTIFICATE_FILENAME */ #if !defined (CLD_KEY_FILENAME) # define CLD_KEY_FILENAME "cld-key.pem" #endif /* !CLD_KEY_FILENAME */ int AC_CLD_Connector::open (ACE_Reactor *r, int flags) { if (PARENT::open (r, flags) != 0) return -1; OpenSSL_add_ssl_algorithms (); ssl_ctx_ = SSL_CTX_new (SSLv3_client_method ()); if (ssl_ctx_ == 0) return -1; if (SSL_CTX_use_certificate_file (ssl_ctx_, CLD_CERTIFICATE_FILENAME, SSL_FILETYPE_PEM) <= 0 || SSL_CTX_use_PrivateKey_file (ssl_ctx_, CLD_KEY_FILENAME, SSL_FILETYPE_PEM) <= 0 || !SSL_CTX_check_private_key (ssl_ctx_)) return -1; ssl_ = SSL_new (ssl_ctx_); if (ssl_ == 0) return -1; return 0; } Perform client-side of SSL authentication

Using the ACE_Connector Class (18/24) 1 int AC_CLD_Connector::connect_svc_handler 2 (AC_Output_Handler *svc_handler, 3 const ACE_SOCK_Connector::PEER_ADDR &remote_addr, 4 ACE_Time_Value *timeout, 5 const ACE_SOCK_Connector::PEER_ADDR &local_addr, 6 int reuse_addr, int flags, int perms) { 7 if (PARENT::connect_svc_handler 8 (svc_handler, remote_addr, timeout, 9 local_addr, reuse_addr, flags, perms) == -1) return -1; 10 SSL_clear (ssl_); 11 SSL_set_fd (ssl_, ACE_reinterpret_cast 12 (int, svc_handler->get_handle ())); 13 14 SSL_set_verify (ssl_, SSL_VERIFY_PEER, 0); 15 16 if (SSL_connect (ssl_) == -1 17 || SSL_shutdown (ssl_) == -1) return -1; 18 remote_addr_ = remote_addr; 19 return 0; 20 }

Using the ACE_Connector Class (19/24) int AC_CLD_Connector::reconnect () { // Maximum number of times to retry connect. const size_t MAX_RETRIES = 5; ACE_Time_Value timeout (1); size_t i; for (i = 0; i < MAX_RETRIES; ++i) { ACE_Synch_Options options (ACE_Synch_Options::USE_TIMEOUT, timeout); if (i > 0) ACE_OS::sleep (timeout); if (connect (handler_, remote_addr_, options) == 0) break; timeout *= 2; } return i == MAX_RETRIES ? -1 : 0; } Exponential backoff algorithm Called when connection has broken

Using the ACE_Connector Class (20/24) class AC_Client_Logging_Daemon : public ACE_Service_Object { protected: // Factory that passively connects the <AC_Input_Handler>. AC_CLD_Acceptor acceptor_; // Factory that actively connects the <AC_Output_Handler>. AC_CLD_Connector connector_; // The <AC_Output_Handler> connected by <AC_CLD_Connector>. AC_Output_Handler output_handler_; public: AC_Client_Logging_Daemon () : acceptor_ (&output_handler_), connector_ (&output_handler_) {} virtual int init (int argc, ACE_TCHAR *argv[]); virtual int fini (); virtual int info (ACE_TCHAR **bufferp, size_t length = 0) const; virtual int suspend (); virtual int resume (); }; Hook method dispatched by ACE Service Configurator framework Integrate with ACE Service Configurator framework

Using the ACE_Connector Class (21/24) 1 int AC_Client_Logging_Daemon::init 2 (int argc, ACE_TCHAR *argv[]) { 3 u_short cld_port = ACE_DEFAULT_SERVICE_PORT; 4 u_short sld_port = ACE_DEFAULT_LOGGING_SERVER_PORT; 5 ACE_TCHAR sld_host[MAXHOSTNAMELEN]; 6 ACE_OS_String::strcpy (sld_host, ACE_LOCALHOST); 7 ACE_Get_Opt get_opt (argc, argv, ACE_TEXT ("p:r:s:"), 0); 8 get_opt.long_option (ACE_TEXT ("client_port"), 'p', 9 ACE_Get_Opt::ARG_REQUIRED); 10 get_opt.long_option (ACE_TEXT ("server_port"), 'r', 11 ACE_Get_Opt::ARG_REQUIRED); 12 get_opt.long_option (ACE_TEXT ("server_name"), 's', 13 ACE_Get_Opt::ARG_REQUIRED); 14 15 for (int c; (c = get_opt ()) != -1;) 16 switch (c) { 17 case 'p': // Client logging daemon acceptor port number. 18 cld_port = ACE_static_cast 19 (u_short, ACE_OS::atoi (get_opt.opt_arg ())); 20 break; Hook method dispatched by ACE Service Configurator framework

Using the ACE_Connector Class (22/24) 21 case 'r': // Server logging daemon acceptor port number. 22 sld_port = ACE_static_cast 23 (u_short, ACE_OS::atoi (get_opt.opt_arg ())); 24 break; 25 case 's': // Server logging daemon hostname. 26 ACE_OS_String::strsncpy 27 (sld_host, get_opt.opt_arg (), MAXHOSTNAMELEN); 28 break; 29 } 30 31 ACE_INET_Addr cld_addr (cld_port); 32 ACE_INET_Addr sld_addr (sld_port, sld_host); 33 34 if (acceptor_.open (cld_addr) == -1) return -1; AC_Output_Handler *oh = &output_handler_; 36 if (connector_.connect (oh, sld_addr) == -1) 37 { acceptor_.close (); return -1; } 38 return 0; 39 } Establish connection passively Establish connection actively

Using the ACE_Connector Class (23/24) int AC_Client_Logging_Daemon::fini () { return acceptor_.close (); } ACE_FACTORY_DEFINE (AC_CLD, AC_Client_Logging_Daemon) dynamic AC_Client_Logging_Daemon Service_Object * AC_CLD : _make_AC_Client_Logging_Daemon() "-p $CLIENT_LOGGING_DAEMON_PORT" svc.conf file for producer/consumer client logging daemon Shutdown hook method dispatched by ACE Service Configurator framework

Using the ACE_Connector Class (24/24) 1 #include "ace/OS.h" 2 #include "ace/Reactor.h" 3 #include "ace/Select_Reactor.h" 4 #include "ace/Service_Config.h" 5 6 int ACE_TMAIN (int argc, ACE_TCHAR *argv[]) { 7 ACE_Select_Reactor *select_reactor; 8 ACE_NEW_RETURN (select_reactor, ACE_Select_Reactor, 1); 9 ACE_Reactor *reactor; 10 ACE_NEW_RETURN (reactor, ACE_Reactor (select_reactor, 1), 1); 11 ACE_Reactor::close_singleton (); 12 ACE_Reactor::instance (reactor, 1); 13 14 ACE_Service_Config::open (argc, argv); 15 16 ACE_Reactor::instance ()->run_reactor_event_loop (); 17 return 0; 18 } This main() function is slight different from earlier ones, but still uses the ACE Service Configurator framework

The ACE Proactor Framework The ACE Proactor framework alleviates reactive I/O bottlenecks without introducing the complexity & overhead of synchronous I/O & multithreading This framework allows an application to execute I/O operations via two phases: The application can initiate one or more asynchronous I/O operations on multiple I/O handles in parallel without having to wait until they complete As each operation completes, the OS notifies an application-defined completion handler that then processes the results from the completed I/O operation

The Proactor Pattern Problem Developing software that achieves the potential efficiency & scalability of async I/O is hard due to the separation in time & space of async operation invocations & their subsequent completion events Solution Apply the Proactor architectural pattern (P2) to make efficient use of async I/O This pattern allows event-driven applications to efficiently demux & dispatch service requests triggered by the completion of async operations, thereby achieving performance benefits of concurrency without incurring its many liabilities Handle <<executes>> * <<uses>> is associated with <<enqueues>> <<dequeues>> <<uses>> <<uses>> Initiator <<demultiplexes & dispatches>> <<invokes>> Event Queue Completion Asynchronous Operation Processor execute_async_op() Asynchronous Operation async_op() Asynchronous Event Demuxer get_completion_event() Proactor handle_events() Completion Handler handle_event() Concrete Completion Handler

Dynamics in the Proactor Pattern Initiate operation Process operation Run event loop Generate & queue completion event Dequeue completion event & perform completion processing Note similarities & differences with the Reactor pattern, e.g.: Both process events via callbacks However, it’s generally easier to multi-thread a proactor Result Completion Handler Completion : Asynchronous Operation : Proactor Completion Handler exec_async_ handle_ Result service() : Asynchronous Operation Processor : Initiator async_operation() Result handle_events() event event Ev. Queue operation () : Completion Event Queue Result event()

Sidebar: Asynchronous I/O Portability Issues The following OS platforms supported by ACE provide asynchronous I/O mechanisms: POSIX platforms that implement the POSIX.4 AIO specification This specification was originally designed for disk file I/O, but can also be used for network I/O with varying degrees of success An application thread can wait for completion events via aio_suspend() or be notified by real-time signals, which are tricky to integrate into an event-driven application In general, POSIX.4 AIO requires extra care to program the proactive model correctly & efficiently Despite UNIX's usual interchangeability of I/O system functions across IPC mechanisms, integration of the POSIX AIO facility with other IPC mechanisms, such as the Socket API, leaves much to be desired… e.g., Socket API functions, such as connect() & accept() , are not integrated with the POSIX AIO model, & some AIO implementations can't handle multiple outstanding operations on a handle under all conditions Windows platforms that support both overlapped I/O & I/O completion ports Overlapped I/O is an efficient & scalable I/O mechanism on Windows Windows performs completion event demultiplexing via I/O completion ports & event handles An I/O completion port is a queue managed by the Windows kernel to buffer I/O completion events

The ACE Async Read/Write Stream Classes Motivation The proactive I/O model is generally harder to program than reactive & synchronous I/O models In particular, there’s a time/space separation between asynchronous invocation & completion handling that requires tricky state management e.g., asynchronous processing is hard to program since the bookkeeping details & data fragments must be managed explicitly, rather than implicitly on the run-time stack There are also significant accidental complexities associated with asynchronous I/O on many OS platforms

The ACE Async Read/Write Stream Classes Class Capabilities These are factory classes that enable applications to initiate portable asynchronous read() & write() operations to provide the following capabilities: They can initiate asynchronous I/O operations on a stream-oriented IPC mechanism, such as a TCP socket They bind an I/O handle, an ACE_Handler object, & a ACE_Proactor to process I/O completion events correctly & efficiently They create an object that carries an operation's parameters through the ACE Proactor framework to its completion handler They derive from ACE_Asynch_Operation , which provides the interface to initialize the object & to request cancellation of outstanding I/O operations

The ACE Async Read/Write Stream Class APIs

Using the ACE Async Read/Write Stream Classes (1/6) This example reimplements the client logging daemon service using the ACE Proactor framework This illustrates the use of asynchronous I/O for both input & output

Using the ACE Async Read/Write Stream Classes (2/6) Although the classes used in the proactive client logging daemon service are similar to those in the Acceptor/Connector version, the proactive version uses a single application thread to initiate & handle completions for all its I/O operations

Using the ACE Async Read/Write Stream Classes (3/6) The classes comprising the client logging daemon based on the ACE Proactor framework are outlined below: AIO_Output_Handler : A message forwarder that initiates asynchronous write() operations to forward messages to the logging server AIO_CLD_Connector : A factory that actively (re)establishes & authenticates connections with the logging server & activates an AIO_Output_Handler AIO_Input_Handler : Processes log record data received from logging clients via asynchronous read() operations & passes completed log records to AIO_Output_Handler for output processing AIO_CLD_Acceptor : A factory that accepts connections from logging clients & creates a new AIO_Input_Handler for each AIO_Client_Logging_Daemon : A facade class that integrate the other classes together

Using the ACE Async Read/Write Stream Classes (4/6) class AIO_Output_Handler : public ACE_Task<ACE_NULL_SYNCH>, public ACE_Service_Handler { public: AIO_Output_Handler (): can_write_ (0) {} virtual ~AIO_Output_Handler (); virtual int put (ACE_Message_Block *, ACE_Time_Value * = 0); virtual void open (ACE_HANDLE new_handle, ACE_Message_Block &message_block); protected: ACE_Asynch_Read_Stream reader_; // Detects connection loss. ACE_Asynch_Write_Stream writer_; // Sends records to server. int can_write_; // Safe to begin sending a log record? // Initiate the send of a log record. void start_write (ACE_Message_Block *mblk = 0); }; Entry point into the AIO_Output_Handler Hook method called by ACE_Asynch_Connector when async server connection completes Inherit message passing from ACE_Task & open() activation hook from ACE_Service_Handler We only send a single async operation at a time

Using the ACE Async Read/Write Stream Classes (5/6) typedef ACE_Unmanaged_Singleton<AIO_Output_Handler, ACE_Null_Mutex> OUTPUT_HANDLER; 1 void AIO_Output_Handler::open 2 (ACE_HANDLE new_handle, ACE_Message_Block &) { 3 ACE_SOCK_Stream temp_peer (new_handle); 4 int bufsiz = ACE_DEFAULT_MAX_SOCKET_BUFSIZ; 5 temp_peer.set_option (SOL_SOCKET, SO_SNDBUF, 6 &bufsiz, sizeof bufsiz); 7 8 reader_.open (*this, new_handle, 0, proactor ()); 9 writer_.open (*this, new_handle, 0, proactor ()); 10 11 ACE_Message_Block *mb; 12 ACE_NEW (mb, ACE_Message_Block (1)); 13 reader_.read (*mb, 1); 14 ACE_Sig_Action no_sigpipe ((ACE_SignalHandler) SIG_IGN); 15 no_sigpipe.register_action (SIGPIPE, 0); 16 can_write_ = 1; 17 start_write (0); 18 } Hook method called when async server connection completes Bind proactor & I/O handle to async read & write objects Initiate async read operation to detect connection failure See if there are any messages queued for delivery

Using the ACE Async Read/Write Stream Classes (6/6) 1 void AIO_Output_Handler::start_write 2 (ACE_Message_Block *mblk) { 3 if (mblk == 0) { 4 ACE_Time_Value nonblock (0); 5 getq (mblk, &nonblock); 6 } 7 if (mblk != 0) { 8 can_write_ = 0; 9 if (writer_.write (*mblk, mblk->length ()) == -1) 10 ungetq (mblk); 11 } 12 } int AIO_Output_Handler::put (ACE_Message_Block *mb, ACE_Time_Value *timeout) { if (can_write_) { start_write (mb); return 0; } return putq (mb, timeout); } Initiate async write Initiate async write, if possible, otherwise queue message Entry point to AIO_Output_Handler – called by AIO_Input_Handler

The ACE_Handler Class (1/2) Motivation Proactive & reactive I/O models differ since proactive I/O initiation & completion are distinct steps that occur separately (possibly in different threads) Using separate classes for the initiation & completion processing avoids unnecessarily coupling the two

The ACE_Handler Class (2/2) Class Capabilities ACE_Handler is the base class of all asynchronous completion handlers in the ACE Proactor framework It plays a similar (albeit inverse) role to the ACE_Event_Handler in the Reactor framework This class provides the following capabilities: It provides hook methods to handle completion of all asynchronous I/O operations defined in ACE, including connection establishment & I/O operations on an IPC stream It provides a hook method to handle timer expiration

Using the ACE_Handler Class (1/6) The AIO_Input_Handler class receives log records from logging clients by initiating asynchronous read() calls & assembling the data fragments into log records that are then forwarded to the server logging daemon via AIO_Output_Handler This class uses the Proactor pattern & asynchronous input operations to concurrently process I/O requests across all logging clients using a single thread

Using the ACE_Handler Class (2/6) class AIO_Input_Handler : public ACE_Service_Handler // Inherits from ACE_Handler { public: AIO_Input_Handler (AIO_CLD_Acceptor *acc = 0) : acceptor_ (acc), mblk_ (0) {} virtual ~AIO_Input_Handler (); virtual void open (ACE_HANDLE new_handle, ACE_Message_Block &message_block); protected: enum { LOG_HEADER_SIZE = 8 }; // Length of CDR header. AIO_CLD_Acceptor *acceptor_; // Our creator. ACE_Message_Block *mblk_; // Buffer to receive log record. ACE_Asynch_Read_Stream reader_; // Asynchronous read() factory. virtual void handle_read_stream (const ACE_Asynch_Read_Stream::Result &result); }; Inherit open() activation hook from ACE_Service_Handler Called by ACE_Asynch_Acceptor when a client connects Handle async received logging records from client applications

Using the ACE_Handler Class (3/6) void AIO_Input_Handler::open (ACE_HANDLE new_handle, ACE_Message_Block &) { reader_.open (*this, new_handle, 0, proactor ()); ACE_NEW_NORETURN (mblk_, ACE_Message_Block (ACE_DEFAULT_CDR_BUFSIZE)); ACE_CDR::mb_align (mblk_); reader_.read (*mblk_, LOG_HEADER_SIZE); } 1 void AIO_Input_Handler::handle_read_stream 2 (const ACE_Asynch_Read_Stream::Result &result) { 3 if (!result.success () || result.bytes_transferred () == 0) 4 delete this; 5 else if (result.bytes_transferred() < result.bytes_to_read()) 6 reader_.read (*mblk_, result.bytes_to_read () - 7 result.bytes_transferred ()); 8 else if (mblk_->length () == LOG_HEADER_SIZE) { 9 ACE_InputCDR cdr (mblk_); 10 Initiate asynchronous read of log record header to bootstrap the daemon Initiate another asynchronous read to get the rest of log record header Hook method called back when an async read completes

Using the ACE_Handler Class (4/6) 11 ACE_CDR::Boolean byte_order; 12 cdr >> ACE_InputCDR::to_boolean (byte_order); 13 cdr.reset_byte_order (byte_order); 14 15 ACE_CDR::ULong length; 16 cdr >> length; 17 18 mblk_->size (length + LOG_HEADER_SIZE); 19 reader_.read (*mblk_, length); 20 } 21 else { 22 if (OUTPUT_HANDLER::instance ()->put (mblk_) == -1) 23 mblk_->release (); 24 25 ACE_NEW_NORETURN 26 (mblk_, ACE_Message_Block (ACE_DEFAULT_CDR_BUFSIZE)); 27 ACE_CDR::mb_align (mblk_); 28 reader_.read (*mblk_, LOG_HEADER_SIZE); 29 } 30 } Initiate asynchronous read to obtain rest of log record Enqueue log record for output processing Initiate new async read to rebootstrap the input process

Using the ACE_Handler Class (5/6) 1 void AIO_Output_Handler::handle_write_stream 2 (const ACE_Asynch_Write_Stream::Result &result) { 3 ACE_Message_Block &mblk = result.message_block (); 4 if (!result.success ()) { 5 mblk.rd_ptr (mblk.base ()); 6 ungetq (&mblk); 7 } 8 else { 9 can_write_ = handle () == result.handle (); 10 if (mblk.length () == 0) { 11 mblk.release (); 12 if (can_write_) start_write (); 13 } 14 else if (can_write_) start_write (&mblk); 15 else { mblk.rd_ptr (mblk.base ()); ungetq (&mblk); } 16 } 17 } Called when an async write to server logging daemon completes If we can write another log record to the server logging daemon, go ahead & initiate it asynchronously

Using the ACE_Handler Class (6/6) 1 void AIO_Output_Handler::handle_read_stream 2 (const ACE_Asynch_Read_Stream::Result &result) { 3 result.message_block ().release (); 4 writer_.cancel (); 5 ACE_OS::closesocket (result.handle ()); 6 handle (ACE_INVALID_HANDLE); 7 can_write_ = 0; 8 CLD_CONNECTOR::instance ()->reconnect (); 9 } This method is called back by the Proactor when the connection to the server logging daemon fails Initiate reconnection

Sidebar: Managing ACE_Message_Block Pointers When initiating an asynchronous read() or write() , the request must specify an ACE_Message_Block to either receive or supply the data The ACE Proactor framework's completion handling mechanism updates the ACE_Message_Block pointers to reflect the amount of data read or written as follows: Read The initial read buffer pointer is the message's wr_ptr() At completion, the wr_ptr is advanced by the number of bytes read Write The initial write buffer pointer is the message's rd_ptr() At completion, the rd_ptr is advanced by the number of bytes written It may seem counterintuitive to use the write pointer for reads & the read pointer for writes It may therefore help to consider that when reading data, it's being written into the message block Similarly, when writing data, it's being read from the message block Upon completion, the updated length of data in the ACE_Message_Block is larger for reads (because the write pointer has advanced) & smaller for writes (because the read pointer has advanced)

The Proactive Acceptor/Connector Classes Class Capabilities ACE_Asynch_Acceptor is another implementation of the acceptor role in the Acceptor/Connector pattern This class provides the following capabilities: It initiates asynchronous passive connection establishment It acts as a factory, creating a new service handler for each accepted connection It can cancel a previously initiated asynchronous accept() operation It provides a hook method to obtain the peer's address when the new connection is established It provides a hook method to validate the peer before initializing the new service handler

The Proactive Acceptor/Connector Classes APIs

Sidebar: ACE_Service_Handler vs. ACE_Svc_Handler The ACE_Service_Handler class plays a role analogous to that of the ACE Acceptor/Connector framework's ACE_Svc_Handler class Although the ACE Proactor framework could have reused ACE_Svc_Handler as the target of ACE_Asynch_Acceptor & ACE_Asynch_Connector , a separate class was chosen for the following reasons: Networked applications that use proactive connection establishment also often use proactive I/O The target of asynchronous connection completions should therefore be a class that can participate seamlessly with the rest of the ACE Proactor framework ACE_Svc_Handler encapsulates an IPC object, but since the ACE Proactor framework uses I/O handles internally Thus, the additional IPC object could be confusing ACE_Svc_Handler is designed for use with the ACE Reactor framework since it descends from ACE_Event_Handler ACE therefore maintains separation in its frameworks to avoid unnecessary coupling & faciliate ACE toolkit subsets

Using Proactive Acceptor/Connector Classes (1/4) class AIO_CLD_Acceptor : public ACE_Asynch_Acceptor<AIO_Input_Handler> { public: void close (void); // Cancel accept & close all clients. // Remove handler from client set. void remove (AIO_Input_Handler *ih) { clients_.remove (ih); } protected: virtual AIO_Input_Handler *make_handler (void); // Set of all connected clients. ACE_Unbounded_Set<AIO_Input_Handler *> clients_; }; This example illustrates how the classes in the proactive implementation are separated into separate input & output roles Become an ACE_Asynch_Acceptor Service handler factory method

Using Proactive Acceptor/Connector Classes (2/4) AIO_Input_Handler *AIO_CLD_Acceptor::make_handler (void) { AIO_Input_Handler *ih; ACE_NEW_RETURN (ih, AIO_Input_Handler (this), 0); if (clients_.insert (ih) == -1) { delete ih; return 0; } return ih; } AIO_Input_Handler::~AIO_Input_Handler () { reader_.cancel (); ACE_OS::closesocket (handle ()); if (mblk_ != 0) mblk_->release (); mblk_ = 0; acceptor_->remove (this); } void AIO_CLD_Acceptor::close (void) { ACE_Unbounded_Set_Iterator<AIO_Input_Handler *> iter (clients_.begin ()); AIO_Input_Handler **ih; while (iter.next (ih)) delete *ih; } Keep track of client input handlers Iterator pattern used to cleanup input handlers

Using Proactive Acceptor/Connector Classes (3/4) class AIO_CLD_Connector : public ACE_Asynch_Connector<AIO_Output_Handler> { public: enum { INITIAL_RETRY_DELAY = 3, MAX_RETRY_DELAY = 60 }; // Constructor. AIO_CLD_Connector () : retry_delay_ (INITIAL_RETRY_DELAY), ssl_ctx_ (0), ssl_ (0) { open (); } virtual int validate_connection (const ACE_Asynch_Connect::Result &result, const ACE_INET_Addr &remote, const ACE_INET_Addr &local); Become an ACE_Asynch_Connector Hook method to detect failure & validate peer before opening handler

Using Proactive Acceptor/Connector Classes (4/4) protected: virtual AIO_Output_Handler *make_handler (void) { return OUTPUT_HANDLER::instance (); } // Address at which logging server listens for connections. ACE_INET_Addr remote_addr_; // Seconds to wait before trying the next connect int retry_delay_; // The SSL "context" data structure. SSL_CTX *ssl_ctx_; // The SSL data structure corresponding to authenticated // SSL connections. SSL *ssl_; }; typedef ACE_Unmanaged_Singleton<AIO_CLD_Connector, ACE_Null_Mutex> CLD_CONNECTOR; Hook method to create a new output handler

Sidebar: Emulating Async Connections on POSIX Windows has native capability for asynchronously connecting sockets In contrast, the POSIX.4 AIO facility was designed primarily for use with disk I/O, so it doesn't include any capability for asynchronous TCP/IP connection establishment To provide uniform capability across all asynchronous I/O-enabled platforms, ACE emulates asynchronous connection establishment where needed To emulate asynchronous connection establishment, active & passive connection requests are begun in nonblocking mode by the ACE_Asynch_Acceptor & ACE_Asynch_Connector If the connection doesn't complete immediately (which is always the case for passive connections), the socket handle is registered with an instance of ACE_Select_Reactor managed privately by the framework An ACE Proactor framework-spawned thread (unseen by the application) runs the private reactor's event loop When the connection request completes, the framework regains control via a reactor callback & posts the completion event The original application thread receives the completion event back in the ACE_Asynch_Acceptor or ACE_Asynch_Connector class, as appropriate

The ACE_Proactor Class (1/2) Motivation Asynchronous I/O operations are handled in two steps: initiation & completion Since multiple steps & classes are involved, there must be a way to demultiplex the completion events & efficiently associate each completion event with the operation that completed & the completion handler that will process the result

The ACE_Proactor Class Class Capabilities This class implements the Facade pattern to allow applications to access the various ACE Proactor framework features that provide the following capabilities: Centralize event loop processing in a proactive application Dispatch timer expirations to their associated ACE_Handle objects Demultiplex completion events to completion handlers & dispatch hook methods on completion handlers

Using the ACE_Proactor Class (1/7) 1 int AIO_CLD_Connector::validate_connection 2 (const ACE_Asynch_Connect::Result &result, 3 const ACE_INET_Addr &remote, const ACE_INET_Addr &) { 4 remote_addr_ = remote; 5 if (!result.success ()) { 6 ACE_Time_Value delay (retry_delay_); 7 retry_delay_ *= 2; 8 if (retry_delay_ > MAX_RETRY_DELAY) 9 retry_delay_ = MAX_RETRY_DELAY; 10 proactor ()->schedule_timer (*this, 0, delay); 11 return -1; } 13 retry_delay_ = INITIAL_RETRY_DELAY; 14 15 if (ssl_ctx_ == 0) { 16 OpenSSL_add_ssl_algorithms (); 17 ssl_ctx_ = SSL_CTX_new (SSLv3_client_method ()); 18 if (ssl_ctx_ == 0) return -1; 19 We use the following validate_connection() hook method to insert application-defined behavior (e.g., SSL authentication) into ACE_Asynch_Connector 's connection completion handling If the connection isn’t established, use the Proactor’s timer queueing mechanism to reinitiate it via expontential backoff

Using the ACE_Proactor Class (2/7) 20 if (SSL_CTX_use_certificate_file (ssl_ctx_, 21 CLD_CERTIFICATE_FILENAME, 22 SSL_FILETYPE_PEM) <= 0 23 || SSL_CTX_use_PrivateKey_file (ssl_ctx_, 24 CLD_KEY_FILENAME, 25 SSL_FILETYPE_PEM) <= 0 26 || !SSL_CTX_check_private_key (ssl_ctx_)) { 27 SSL_CTX_free (ssl_ctx_); 28 ssl_ctx_ = 0; 29 return -1; 30 } 31 ssl_ = SSL_new (ssl_ctx_); 32 if (ssl_ == 0) { 33 SSL_CTX_free (ssl_ctx_); ssl_ctx_ = 0; 34 return -1; 35 } 36 } 37

Using the ACE_Proactor Class (3/7) 38 SSL_clear (ssl_); 39 SSL_set_fd 40 (ssl_, ACE_reinterpret_cast (int, result.connect_handle())); 41 42 SSL_set_verify (ssl_, SSL_VERIFY_PEER, 0); 43 44 if (SSL_connect (ssl_) == -1 45 || SSL_shutdown (ssl_) == -1) return -1; 46 return 0; 47 } void AIO_CLD_Connector::handle_time_out (const ACE_Time_Value &, const void *) { connect (remote_addr_); } Try to reinitiate a connection after the timer expires

Using the ACE_Proactor Class (4/7) class AIO_Client_Logging_Daemon : public ACE_Task<ACE_NULL_SYNCH> { protected: ACE_INET_Addr cld_addr_; // Our listener address. ACE_INET_Addr sld_addr_; // The logging server's address. // Factory that passively connects the <AIO_Input_Handler>. AIO_CLD_Acceptor acceptor_; public: virtual int init (int argc, ACE_TCHAR *argv[]); virtual int fini (); virtual int svc (void); }; Become an ACE_Task to be configured dynamically, run concurrently, & provide a queue ACE Service Configurator framework hook methods

Using the ACE_Proactor Class (5/7) int AIO_Client_Logging_Daemon::init (int argc, ACE_TCHAR *argv[]) { u_short cld_port = ACE_DEFAULT_SERVICE_PORT; u_short sld_port = ACE_DEFAULT_LOGGING_SERVER_PORT; ACE_TCHAR sld_host[MAXHOSTNAMELEN]; ACE_OS::strcpy (sld_host, ACE_LOCALHOST); // Process options (omitted) if (cld_addr_.set (cld_port) == -1 || sld_addr_.set (sld_port, sld_host) == -1) return -1; return activate (); } Called back by Service Configurator framework to initialize the daemon when it’s linked dynamically Become an active object

Using the ACE_Proactor Class (6/7) 1 int AIO_Client_Logging_Daemon::svc (void) { 2 if (acceptor_.open (cld_addr_) == -1) return -1; 3 if (CLD_CONNECTOR::instance ()->connect (sld_addr_) == 0) 4 ACE_Proactor::instance ()->proactor_run_event_loop (); 5 acceptor_.close (); 6 CLD_CONNECTOR::close (); 7 OUTPUT_HANDLER::close (); 8 return 0; 9 } int AIO_Client_Logging_Daemon::fini () { ACE_Proactor::instance ()->proactor_end_event_loop (); wait (); return 0; } Hook method dispatched in separate thread to run client logging daemon’s proactor loop concurrently Called by ACE Service Configurator framework to shut down the proactor Barrier synchronization

Using the ACE_Proactor Class (7/7) ACE_FACTORY_DEFINE (AIO_CLD, AIO_Client_Logging_Daemon) dynamic AIO_Client_Logging_Daemon Service_Object * AIO_CLD:_make_AIO_Client_Logging_Daemon() "-p $CLIENT_LOGGING_DAEMON_PORT" The main() function is the same as the one we showed for the ACE Service Configurator example!!!! svc.conf file for Proactive client logging daemon

Sidebar: Integrating Proactive & Reactive Events on Windows 1 ACE_Proactor::close_singleton (); 2 ACE_WIN32_Proactor *impl = new ACE_WIN32_Proactor (0, 1); 3 ACE_Proactor::instance (new ACE_Proactor (impl, 1), 1); 4 ACE_Reactor::instance ()->register_handler 5 (impl, impl->get_handle ()); // ... Other registration & initiation code omitted. 6 ACE_Reactor::instance ()->run_reactor_event_loop (); 7 ACE_Reactor::instance ()->remove_handler 8 (impl->get_handle (), ACE_Event_Handler::DONT_CALL); The ACE Reactor & ACE Proactor event loops require different event detection & demultiplexing mechanisms that often execute in separate threads On Windows, however, ACE provides a way to integrate the two event loop mechanisms so they can both be driven by a single thread The ACE_Proactor Windows implementation uses an I/O completion port to detect completion events When one or more asynchronous operations complete, Windows signals the corresponding I/O completion port handle This handle can therefore be registered with an ACE_WFMO_Reactor , as follows:

Proactor POSIX Implementations Sun's Solaris OS offers its own proprietary version of asynchronous I/O On Solaris 2.6 & above, the performance of the Sun-specific asynchronous I/O functions is significantly higher than that of Solaris's POSIX.4 AIO The ACE Proactor implementations on POSIX systems present multiple mechanisms for initiating I/O operations & detecting their completions Many UNIX AIO implementations are buggy, however…

The ACE Streams Framework The ACE Streams framework is based on the Pipes & Filters pattern This framework simplifies the development of layered/modular applications that can communicate via bidirectional processing modules The most important relationships between classes in the ACE Streams framework are shown below

The Pipes & Filters Pattern The Pipes & Filters architectural pattern (POSA1) is a common way of organizing layered/modular applications This pattern defines an architecture for processing a stream of data in which each processing step is encapsulated in some type of filter component Data is passed between adjacent filters via a communication mechanism, which can range from IPC channels connecting local or remote processes to simple pointers that reference objects within the same process Each filter can add, modify, or remove data before passing it along to the next filter Filters are often stateless, in which case data passing through the filter are transformed & passed along to the next filter without being stored Common examples of the Pipes & Filters pattern include The UNIX pipe IPC mechanism used by UNIX shells to create unidirectional pipelines System V STREAMs, which provides a framework for integrating bidirectional protocols into the UNIX kernel

Sidebar: ACE Streams Relationship to SVR4 STREAMS The class names & design of the ACE Streams framework correspond to similar componentry in System V STREAMS The techniques used to support extensibility & concurrency in these two frameworks differ significantly, however e.g., application-defined functionality is added in System V STREAMS via tables of pointers to C functions, whereas in the ACE Streams framework it's added by subclassing from ACE_Task , which provides greater type safety & extensibility The ACE Streams framework also uses the ACE Task framework to enhance the coroutine-based concurrency mechanisms used in System V STREAMS These ACE enhancements enable more effective use of multiple CPUs on shared memory multiprocessing platforms by reducing the likelihood of deadlock & simplifying flow control between ACE_Task active objects in an ACE_Stream

The ACE_Module Class (1/2) Motivation Many networked applications can be modeled as an ordered series of processing layers that are related hierarchically & that exchange messages between adjacent layers Each layer can handle a self-contained portion (such as input or output, event analysis, event filtering, or service processing) of a service or networked application

The ACE_Module Class (2/2) Class Capabilities This class defines a distinct layer of application-defined functionality that provides the following capabilities: Each ACE_Module is a bidirectional application-defined processing layer containing a pair of reader & writer tasks that derive from ACE_Task The reader & writer ACE_Task objects contained in an ACE_Module collaborate with adjacent ACE_Task objects by passing messages The objects composed into an ACE_Module can be varied & replaced

Using the ACE_Module Class (1/15) Most fields in a log record are stored in a CDR-encoded binary format, which is concise but not easily understood by humans This example develops a program called display_logfile that reads log records stored by our logging servers, formats the information, & prints it in a human-readable format Logrec Reader converts the log records in a logfile into a canonical composite message block format that's processed by other modules in an ACE_Stream Logrec Formatter determines how the fields in the log record will be formatted, for example by converting them from binary to ASCII Logrec Separator inserts message blocks containing a separator string between the existing message blocks in a composite log record message Logrec Writer prints formatted log record messages to the standard output, where they can be redirected to a file, printer, or console

Using the ACE_Module Class (2/15) template <class TASK> class Logrec_Module : public ACE_Module<ACE_MT_SYNCH> { public: Logrec_Module (const ACE_TCHAR *name) : ACE_Module<ACE_MT_SYNCH> (name, &task_, // Initialize writer-side task. 0, // Ignore reader-side task. 0, ACE_Module<ACE_MT_SYNCH>::M_DELETE_READER) {} private: TASK task_; }; #define LOGREC_MODULE(NAME) \ typedef Logrec_Module<NAME> NAME##_Module

Using the ACE_Module Class (3/15) class Logrec_Reader : public ACE_Task<ACE_MT_SYNCH> { private: ACE_TString filename_; // Name of logfile. ACE_FILE_IO logfile_; // File containing log records. public: enum {MB_CLIENT = ACE_Message_Block::MB_USER, MB_TYPE, MB_PID, MB_TIME, MB_TEXT}; Logrec_Reader (const ACE_TString &file): filename_ (file) {} // ... Other methods shown below ... }; virtual int open (void *) { ACE_FILE_Addr name (filename_.c_str ()); ACE_FILE_Connector con; if (con.connect (logfile_, name) == -1) return -1; return activate (); }

Using the ACE_Module Class (4/15) 1 virtual int svc () { 2 const size_t FILE_READ_SIZE = 8 * 1024; 3 ACE_Message_Block mblk (FILE_READ_SIZE); 4 5 for (;; mblk.crunch ()) { 6 ssize_t bytes_read = logfile_.recv (mblk.wr_ptr (), 7 mblk.space ()); 8 if (bytes_read <= 0) break; 9 mblk.wr_ptr (ACE_static_cast (size_t, bytes_read)); 10 for (;;) { 11 size_t name_len = ACE_OS_String::strnlen 12 (mblk.rd_ptr (), mblk.length ()); 13 if (name_len == mblk.length ()) break; 14 15 char *name_p = mblk.rd_ptr (); 16 ACE_Message_Block *rec = 0, *head = 0, *temp = 0; 17 ACE_NEW_RETURN 18 (head, ACE_Message_Block (name_len, MB_CLIENT), 0); 19 head->copy (name_p, name_len); 20 mblk.rd_ptr (name_len + 1); // Skip nul also 21

Using the ACE_Module Class (5/15) 22 size_t need = mblk.length () + ACE_CDR::MAX_ALIGNMENT; 23 ACE_NEW_RETURN (rec, ACE_Message_Block (need), 0); 24 ACE_CDR::mb_align (rec); 25 rec->copy (mblk.rd_ptr (), mblk.length ()); 26 27 ACE_InputCDR cdr (rec); rec->release (); 28 ACE_CDR::Boolean byte_order; 29 if (!cdr.read_boolean (byte_order)) { 30 head->release (); mblk.rd_ptr (name_p); break; 31 } 32 cdr.reset_byte_order (byte_order); 33 34 ACE_CDR::ULong length; 35 if (!cdr.read_ulong (length)) { 36 head->release (); mblk.rd_ptr (name_p); break; 37 } 38 if (length > cdr.length ()) { 39 head->release (); mblk.rd_ptr (name_p); break; 40 } 41 ACE_NEW_RETURN 42 (temp, ACE_Message_Block (length, MB_TEXT), 0);

Using the ACE_Module Class (6/15) 43 ACE_NEW_RETURN 44 (temp, 45 ACE_Message_Block (2 * sizeof (ACE_CDR::Long), 46 MB_TIME, temp), 0); 47 ACE_NEW_RETURN 48 (temp, 49 ACE_Message_Block (sizeof (ACE_CDR::Long), 50 MB_PID, temp), 0); 51 ACE_NEW_RETURN 52 (temp, 53 ACE_Message_Block (sizeof (ACE_CDR::Long), 54 MB_TYPE, temp), 0); 55 head->cont (temp); 56 // Extract the type... 57 ACE_CDR::Long *lp = ACE_reinterpret_cast 58 (ACE_CDR::Long *, temp->wr_ptr ()); 59 cdr >> *lp; 60 temp->wr_ptr (sizeof (ACE_CDR::Long)); 61 temp = temp->cont ();

Using the ACE_Module Class (7/15) 62 // Extract the PID... 63 lp = ACE_reinterpret_cast 64 (ACE_CDR::Long *, temp->wr_ptr ()); 65 cdr >> *lp; 66 temp->wr_ptr (sizeof (ACE_CDR::Long)); 67 temp = temp->cont (); 68 // Extract the timestamp... 69 lp = ACE_reinterpret_cast 70 (ACE_CDR::Long *, temp->wr_ptr ()); 71 cdr >> *lp; ++lp; cdr >> *lp; 72 temp->wr_ptr (2 * sizeof (ACE_CDR::Long)); 73 temp = temp->cont (); 74 // Extract the text length, then the text message 75 ACE_CDR::ULong text_len; 76 cdr >> text_len; 77 cdr.read_char_array (temp->wr_ptr (), text_len); 78 temp->wr_ptr (text_len); 79

Using the ACE_Module Class (8/15) 80 if (put_next (head) == -1) break; 81 mblk.rd_ptr (mblk.length () - cdr.length ()); 82 } 83 } 84 85 ACE_Message_Block *stop = 0; 86 ACE_NEW_RETURN 87 (stop, 88 ACE_Message_Block (0, ACE_Message_Block::MB_STOP), 0); 89 put_next (stop); 90 return 0; 91 }

Using the ACE_Module Class (9/15) class Logrec_Reader_Module : public ACE_Module<ACE_MT_SYNCH> { public: Logrec_Reader_Module (const ACE_TString &filename) : ACE_Module<ACE_MT_SYNCH> (ACE_TEXT ("Logrec Reader"), &task_, // Initialize writer-side. 0, // Ignore reader-side. 0, ACE_Module<ACE_MT_SYNCH>::M_DELETE_READER), task_ (filename) {} private: // Converts the logfile into chains of message blocks. Logrec_Reader task_; };

Using the ACE_Module Class (10/15) class Logrec_Formatter : public ACE_Task<ACE_MT_SYNCH> { private: typedef void (*FORMATTER[5])(ACE_Message_Block *); static FORMATTER format_; // Array of format static methods. public: virtual int put (ACE_Message_Block *mblk, ACE_Time_Value *) { if (mblk->msg_type () == Logrec_Reader::MB_CLIENT) for (ACE_Message_Block *temp = mblk; temp != 0; temp = temp->cont ()) { int mb_type = temp->msg_type () - ACE_Message_Block::MB_USER; (*format_[mb_type])(temp); } return put_next (mblk); } static void format_client (ACE_Message_Block *) { return; }

Using the ACE_Module Class (11/15) static void format_long (ACE_Message_Block *mblk) { ACE_CDR::Long type = * (ACE_CDR::Long *) mblk->rd_ptr (); mblk->size (11); // Max size in ASCII of 32-bit word. mblk->reset (); mblk->wr_ptr ((size_t) sprintf (mblk->wr_ptr (), "%d", type)); } static void format_time (ACE_Message_Block *mblk) { ACE_CDR::Long secs = * (ACE_CDR::Long *)mblk->rd_ptr (); mblk->rd_ptr (sizeof (ACE_CDR::Long)); ACE_CDR::Long usecs = * (ACE_CDR::Long *)mblk->rd_ptr (); char timestamp[26]; // Max size of ctime_r() string. time_t time_secs (secs); ACE_OS::ctime_r (&time_secs, timestamp, sizeof timestamp); mblk->size (26); // Max size of ctime_r() string. mblk->reset ();

Using the ACE_Module Class (12/15) timestamp[19] = '\0'; // NUL-terminate after the time. timestamp[24] = '\0'; // NUL-terminate after the date. size_t fmt_len (sprintf (mblk->wr_ptr (), "%s.%03d %s", timestamp + 4, usecs / 1000, timestamp + 20)); mblk->wr_ptr (fmt_len); } static void format_string (ACE_Message_Block *) { return; } }; Logrec_Formatter::FORMATTER Logrec_Formatter::format_ = { format_client, format_long, format_long, format_time, format_string }; LOGREC_MODULE (Logrec_Formatter);

Using the ACE_Module Class (13/15) class Logrec_Separator : public ACE_Task<ACE_MT_SYNCH> { private: ACE_Lock_Adapter<ACE_Thread_Mutex> lock_strategy_; public: 1 virtual int put (ACE_Message_Block *mblk, 2 ACE_Time_Value *) { 3 if (mblk->msg_type () == Logrec_Reader::MB_CLIENT) { 4 ACE_Message_Block *separator = 0; 5 ACE_NEW_RETURN 6 (separator, 7 ACE_Message_Block (ACE_OS_String::strlen ("|") + 1, 8 ACE_Message_Block::MB_DATA, 9 0, 0, 0, &lock_strategy_), -1); 10 separator->copy ("|"); 11 12 ACE_Message_Block *dup = 0;

Using the ACE_Module Class (14/15) 13 for (ACE_Message_Block *temp = mblk; temp != 0; ) { 14 dup = separator->duplicate (); 15 dup->cont (temp->cont ()); 16 temp->cont (dup); 17 temp = dup->cont (); 18 } 19 ACE_Message_Block *nl = 0; 20 ACE_NEW_RETURN (nl, ACE_Message_Block (2), 0); 21 nl->copy ("\n"); 22 dup->cont (nl); 23 separator->release (); 24 } 25 26 return put_next (mblk); 27 } LOGREC_MODULE (Logrec_Separator);

Using the ACE_Module Class (15/15) class Logrec_Writer : public ACE_Task<ACE_MT_SYNCH> { public: // Initialization hook method. virtual int open (void *) { return activate (); } virtual int put (ACE_Message_Block *mblk, ACE_Time_Value *to) { return putq (mblk, to); } virtual int svc () { int stop = 0; for (ACE_Message_Block *mb; !stop && getq (mb) != -1; ) { if (mb->msg_type () == ACE_Message_Block::MB_STOP) stop = 1; else ACE::write_n (ACE_STDOUT, mb); put_next (mb); } return 0; } }; LOGREC_MODULE (Logrec_Writer);

Sidebar: ACE_Task Relation to ACE Streams ACE_Task also contains methods that can be used with the ACE Streams framework An ACE_Task that's part of an ACE_Module can use put_next() to forward a message block to an adjacent module This method follows the module's next() pointer to the right task, then calls its put() hook method, passing it the message block. The put() method borrows the thread from the task that invoked put_next() If a task runs as an active object, its put() method can enqueue the message on the task's message queue & allow its svc() hook method to handle the message concurrently with respect to other processing in a stream

Sidebar: Serializing ACE_Message_Block Reference Counts If shallow copies of a message block are created and/or released in different threads there's a potential race condition on access to the reference count & shared data Access to these data must therefore be serialized Since there are multiple message blocks involved, an external locking strategy is applied A message block can therefore be associated with an instance of ACE_Lock_Adapter Logrec_Separator::put() accesses message blocks from multiple threads, so the ACE_Lock_Adapter is parameterized with an ACE_Thread_Mutex This locking strategy serializes calls to the message block's duplicate() & release() methods to avoid race conditions when a message block is created & released concurrently by different threads Although Logrec_Separator::put() calls separator->release() before forwarding the message block to the next module, we take this precaution because a subsequent module inserted in the stream may process the blocks using multiple threads

The ACE_Stream Class (1/2) Motivation ACE_Module does not provide a facility to connect or rearrange modules in a particular order ACE_Stream enables developers to build & manage a series of hierarchically related module layers as a single object

The ACE_Stream Class (2/2) Class Capabilities ACE_Stream implements the Pipes & Filters pattern to enable developers to configure & execute hierarchically related services by customizing reusable application-independent framework classes to provide the following capabilities: Provides methods to dynamically add, replace, & remove ACE_Module objects to form various stream configurations Provides methods to send/receive messages to/from an ACE_Stream Provides a mechanism to connect two ACE_Stream streams together Provides a way to shut down all modules in a stream & wait for them all to stop

Using the ACE_Stream Class int ACE_TMAIN (int argc, ACE_TCHAR *argv[]) { if (argc != 2) ACE_ERROR_RETURN ((LM_ERROR, "usage: %s logfile\n", argv[0]), 1); ACE_TString logfile (argv[1]); ACE_Stream<ACE_MT_SYNCH> stream; if (stream.push (new Logrec_Writer_Module (ACE_TEXT ("Writer"))) != -1 && stream.push (new Logrec_Separator_Module (ACE_TEXT ("Separator"))) != -1 && stream.push (new Logrec_Formatter_Module (ACE_TEXT ("Formatter"))) != -1 && stream.push (new Logrec_Reader_Module (logfile)) != -1) return ACE_Thread_Manager::instance ()->wait () == 0 ? 0 : 1; return 1; } This example shows how to configure the display_logfile program with an ACE_Stream object that contains the modules

Sidebar: ACE Streams Framework Concurrency The ACE Streams framework supports two canonical concurrency architectures: Task-based , where a put() method can borrow the thread of control from its caller to handle a message immediately, as shown by the message-based architecture Message-based , where a put() method may enqueue a message & defer handling to its task's svc() method that executes concurrently in a separate thread, as shown by the task-based architecture

Additional Information Patterns & frameworks for concurrent & networked objects www.posa.uci.edu ACE & TAO open-source middleware www.cs.wustl.edu/~schmidt/ACE.html www.cs.wustl.edu/~schmidt/TAO.html ACE research papers www.cs.wustl.edu/~schmidt/ACE-papers.html Extended ACE & TAO tutorials UCLA extension, July, 2005 www.cs.wustl.edu/~schmidt/UCLA.html ACE books www.cs.wustl.edu/~schmidt/ACE/

Example of Applying ACE Patterns & Frameworks : Real-time CORBA & The ACE ORB (TAO) www.cs.wustl.edu/~schmidt/TAO.html Protocol Properties Explicit Binding Thread Pools Scheduling Service Standard Synchronizers Portable Priorities Large open-source user community www.cs.wustl.edu/~schmidt/TAO-users.html Commercially supported www.theaceorb.com www.prismtechnologies.com End-to-end Priority Propagation TAO Features Open-source 500+ classes & 500,000+ lines of C++ ACE/patterns-based 30+ person-years of effort Ported to UNIX, Win32, MVS, & many RT & embedded OSs e.g., VxWorks, LynxOS, Chorus, QNX

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