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Homepage: http://software.schmorp.de/pkg/libev
E-Mail: libev@schmorp.de
libev is a high-performance event loop/event model with lots of features.
(see benchmark at http://libev.schmorp.de/bench.html)
Homepage: http://software.schmorp.de/pkg/libev
E-Mail: libev@lists.schmorp.de
It is modelled (very losely) after libevent
(http://monkey.org/~provos/libevent/) and the Event perl module, but aims
to be faster and more correct, and also more featureful.
ABOUT THIS DISTRIBUTION
If you downloaded a distribution of libev, you will find it looks
very much like libevent. In fact, the distributed libev tarballs are
indeed libevent tarballs patched up with the libev event core, taking
the evbuffer, evtag, evdns and evhttpd parts from libevent (they use
the libevent emulation inside libev). Configure and Makefile stuff is
also a more or less direct copy of libevent, and are maintained by the
libevent authors.
If you are looking for an easily embeddable version, I recommend using
the CVS repository (linked from the homepage, above), which contains
only the libev core parts.
Examples of programs that embed libev: the EV perl module,
rxvt-unicode, gvpe (GNU Virtual Private Ethernet) and deliantra
(http://www.deliantra.net).
DIFFERENCES AND COMPARISON TO LIBEVENT
The comparisons below are relative to libevent-1.3e.
- multiple watchers can wait for the same event without deregistering others,
both for file descriptors as well as signals.
(registering two read events on fd 10 and unregistering one will not
break the other).
- fork() is supported and can be handled
(there is no way to recover from a fork with libevent).
It is modelled (very losely) after libevent
(http://monkey.org/~provos/libevent/) and the Event perl module, but aims
to be faster and more correct, and also more featureful.
- timers are handled as a priority queue (important operations are O(1))
(libevent uses a much less efficient but more complex red-black tree).
DIFFERENCES AND COMPARISON TO LIBEVENT:
- supports absolute (wallclock-based) timers in addition to relative ones,
i.e. can schedule timers to occur after n seconds, or at a specific time.
(comparisons relative to libevent-1.3e and libev-0.00, see also the benchmark
at http://libev.schmorp.de/bench.html).
- timers can be repeating (both absolute and relative ones).
- multiple watchers can wait for the same event without deregistering others,
both for file descriptors as well as signals.
(registering two read events on fd 10 and unregistering one will not
break the other).
- absolute timers can have customised rescheduling hooks (suitable for cron-like
applications).
- fork() is supported and can be handled
(there is no way to recover from a fork when libevent is active).
- detects time jumps and adjusts timers
(works for both forward and backward time jumps and also for absolute timers).
- timers are handled as a priority queue (important operations are O(1))
(libevent uses a much less efficient but more complex red-black tree).
- race-free signal processing
(libevent may delay processing signals till after the next event).
- supports absolute (wallclock-based) timers in addition to relative ones,
i.e. can schedule timers to occur after n seconds, or at a specific time.
- more efficient epoll backend
(stopping and starting an io watcher between two loop iterations will not
result in spurious epoll_ctl calls).
- timers can be repeating (both absolute and relative ones).
- usually less calls to gettimeofday and clock_gettime
(libevent calls it on every timer event change, libev twice per iteration).
- detects time jumps and adjusts timers
(works for both forward and backward time jumps and also for absolute timers).
- watchers use less memory
(libevent watcher on amd64: 152 bytes, libev native: <= 56 bytes, libevent emulation: 144 bytes).
- race-free signal processing
(libevent may delay processing signals till after the next event).
- library uses less memory
(libevent allocates large data structures wether used or not, libev
scales all its data structures dynamically).
- less calls to epoll_ctl
(stopping and starting an io watcher between two loop iterations will now
result in spuriois epoll_ctl calls).
- no hardcoded arbitrary limits
(libevent contains an off-by-one bug and sometimes hardcodes limits).
- usually less calls to gettimeofday and clock_gettime
(libevent calls it on every timer event change, libev twice per iteration).
- libev separates timer, signal and io watchers from each other
(libevent combines them, but with libev you can combine them yourself
by reusing the same callback and still save memory).
- watchers use less memory
(libevent on amd64: 152 bytes, libev: <= 56 bytes).
- simpler design, backends are potentially much simpler
(in libevent, backends have to deal with watchers, thus the problems with
wildly different semantics between diferent backends)
(epoll backend in libevent: 366 lines no caching, libev: 90 lines full caching).
- library uses less memory
(libevent allocates large data structures wether used or not, libev
scales all its data structures dynamically).
- libev handles EBADF gracefully by removing the offending fds.
- no hardcoded arbitrary limits
(libevent contains an off-by-one bug and sometimes hardcodes a limit of
32000 fds).
- libev communicates errors to the callback, libevent to the
event adder or not at all.
- libev separates timer, signal and io watchers from each other
(libevent combines them, but with libev you can combine them yourself
by reusing the same callback and still save memory).
- doesn't rely on nonportable BSD header files.
- simpler design, backends are potentially much simpler
(in libevent, backends have to deal with watchers, thus the problems)
(epoll backend in libevent: 366 lines, libev: 90 lines, and more features).
- an event.h compatibility header exists, and can be used to run a wide
range of libevent programs unchanged (such as evdns.c).
- libev handles EBADF gracefully by removing the offending fds.
- win32 compatibility for the core parts.
(the backend is fd-based as documented and on other platforms,
not handle-based like libevent, and can be used for both winscoket environments
and unix-like ones).
- doesn't rely on nonportable BSD header files.
- libev can be embedded easily with or without autoconf support into
other programs, with no changes to the source code necessary.
- a event.h compatibility header exists, and can be used to run a wide
range of libevent programs unchanged (such as evdns.c).
- the event core library (ev and event layer) compiles and works both as
C and C++.
- win32 compatibility for the core parts.
- a simple C++ wrapper that supports methods as callbacks exists.
- the event core library (ev and event layer) compiles and works both as
C and C++.
- a full featured and widely used perl module is available.
whats missing?
whats missing?
- no event-like priority support at the moment (the ev priorities
are not yet finished and work differently, but you can use idle watchers
to get a similar effect).
- no event-like priority support at the moment (the ev priorities work
differently, but you can use idle watchers to get a similar effect).
AUTHOR
libev was written and designed by Marc Lehmann and Emanuele Giaquinta.
libev was written and designed by Marc Lehmann and Emanuele Giaquinta.
The following people sent in patches or made other noteworthy
contributions (if I forgot to include you, please shout at me, it was an
accident):
The following people sent in patches or made other noteworthy
contributions to the design (if I forgot to include you, please shout
at me, it was an accident):
W.C.A. Wijngaards
Christopher Layne
Chris Brody
W.C.A. Wijngaards
Christopher Layne
Chris Brody

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