std/threadpool

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Implements Nim's parallel & spawn statements.

Unstable API.

See also

Types

FlowVar[T] {.compilerproc.} = ref FlowVarObj[T]
A data flow variable. Source   Edit  
FlowVarBase = ref FlowVarBaseObj
Untyped base class for FlowVar[T]. Source   Edit  
ThreadId = range[0 .. MaxDistinguishedThread - 1]
A thread identifier. Source   Edit  

Consts

MaxDistinguishedThread {.intdefine.} = 32
Maximum number of "distinguished" threads. Source   Edit  
MaxThreadPoolSize {.intdefine.} = 256
Maximum size of the thread pool. 256 threads should be good enough for anybody ;-) Source   Edit  

Procs

proc `^`[T](fv: FlowVar[T]): T
Blocks until the value is available and then returns this value. Source   Edit  
proc awaitAndThen[T](fv: FlowVar[T]; action: proc (x: T) {.closure.})

Blocks until fv is available and then passes its value to action.

Note that due to Nim's parameter passing semantics, this means that T doesn't need to be copied, so awaitAndThen can sometimes be more efficient than the ^ proc.

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proc blockUntil(fv: var FlowVarBaseObj) {....raises: [], tags: [], forbids: [].}

Waits until the value for fv arrives.

Usually it is not necessary to call this explicitly.

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proc blockUntilAny(flowVars: openArray[FlowVarBase]): int {....raises: [],
    tags: [], forbids: [].}

Awaits any of the given flowVars. Returns the index of one flowVar for which a value arrived.

A flowVar only supports one call to blockUntilAny at the same time. That means if you blockUntilAny([a,b]) and blockUntilAny([b,c]) the second call will only block until c. If there is no flowVar left to be able to wait on, -1 is returned.

Note: This results in non-deterministic behaviour and should be avoided.

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proc isReady(fv: FlowVarBase): bool {....raises: [], tags: [], forbids: [].}

Determines whether the specified FlowVarBase's value is available.

If true, awaiting fv will not block.

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proc parallel(body: untyped) {.magic: "Parallel", ...raises: [], tags: [],
                               forbids: [].}

A parallel section can be used to execute a block in parallel.

body has to be in a DSL that is a particular subset of the language.

Please refer to the manual for further information.

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proc pinnedSpawn(id: ThreadId; call: sink typed) {.magic: "Spawn", ...raises: [],
    tags: [], forbids: [].}

Always spawns a new task on the worker thread with id, so that the call is always executed on the thread.

call has to be a proc call p(...) where p is gcsafe and has a return type that is either void or compatible with FlowVar[T].

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proc preferSpawn(): bool {....raises: [], tags: [], forbids: [].}

Use this proc to determine quickly if a spawn or a direct call is preferable.

If it returns true, a spawn may make sense. In general it is not necessary to call this directly; use the spawnX template instead.

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proc setMaxPoolSize(size: range[1 .. MaxThreadPoolSize]) {....raises: [], tags: [],
    forbids: [].}
Sets the maximum thread pool size. The default value of this is MaxThreadPoolSize. Source   Edit  
proc setMinPoolSize(size: range[1 .. MaxThreadPoolSize]) {....raises: [], tags: [],
    forbids: [].}
Sets the minimum thread pool size. The default value of this is 4. Source   Edit  
proc spawn(call: sink typed) {.magic: "Spawn", ...raises: [], tags: [], forbids: [].}

Always spawns a new task, so that the call is never executed on the calling thread.

call has to be a proc call p(...) where p is gcsafe and has a return type that is either void or compatible with FlowVar[T].

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proc sync() {....raises: [], tags: [TimeEffect], forbids: [].}

A simple barrier to wait for all spawned tasks.

If you need more elaborate waiting, you have to use an explicit barrier.

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proc unsafeRead[T](fv: FlowVar[ref T]): ptr T
Blocks until the value is available and then returns this value. Source   Edit  

Templates

template spawnX(call)

Spawns a new task if a CPU core is ready, otherwise executes the call in the calling thread.

Usually, it is advised to use the spawn proc in order to not block the producer for an unknown amount of time.

call has to be a proc call p(...) where p is gcsafe and has a return type that is either 'void' or compatible with FlowVar[T].

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