NAME

Prima::File - asynchronous stream I/O.

DESCRIPTION

Prima::File provides access to the I/O stream events, that are called when a file handle becomes readable, writable or if an exception occurred. Registering file handles to Prima::File objects makes possible the stream operations coexist with the event loop.

USAGE

Prima::File is a descendant of Prima::Component. Objects of Prima::File class must be binded to a valid file handle object, before the associated events can occur:

  my $f = Prima::File-> create();
  $f-> file( *STDIN);

When a file handle, binded via the ::file property becomes readable, writable or when an exception signaled, one of three correspondent events called - Read, Write or Exception. When a handle is always readable, or always writable, or, some of these events are desired to be blocked, the file event mask can be set via the ::mask property:

  $f-> mask( fe::Read | fe::Exception);

NB. Due to different system implementations, the only handles, currently supported on all systems, are socket handle and disk file handles. Pipes only work on unix platforms. The example file socket.pl elucidates the use of sockets together with Prima::File.

When a file handle is not needed anymore, it is expected to be detached from an object explicitly:

  $f-> file( undef);

However, if the system detects that a file handle is no longer valid, it is automatically detached. It is possible to check, if a file handle is still valid by calling the is_active() method.

Prima::File events are basically the same I/O callbacks, provided by a system select() call. See documentation of your system's select() for the implementation details.

API

Properties

file HANDLE

Selects a file handle, that is to be monitored for stream I/O events. If HANDLE is undef, object is returned to a passive state, and the previously binded file handle is de-selected.

mask EVENT_MASK

Selects a event mask, that is a combination of fe::XXX integer constants, each representing an event:

   fe::Read
   fe::Write
   fe::Exception

The omitted events are effectively excluded from the system file event multiplexing mechanism.

Methods

get_handle: Returns sprintf("0x%08x", fileno( file )) string. If ::file is undef, -1 is used instead fileno() result.
is_active AUTODETACH = 0: Returns a boolean flag, indicating if a file handle is valid. If AUTODETACH is 1, and the file handle is not valid, file(undef) is called.

Events

Read: Called when a file handle becomes readable. The callback procedure is expected to call a non-blocking read() on the file handle.
Write: Called when a file handle becomes writable. The callback procedure is expected to call a non-blocking write() on the file handle.
Exception: Called when an exception is signaled on a file handle. The exceptions are specific to handle type and the operating system. For example, a unix socket signals Exception when a control status data for a pseudo terminal or an out-of-band data arrives.

AUTHOR

Dmitry Karasik, <dmitry@karasik.eu.org>.