From 7d5c3dcd969161322deed6c43f8a6a3cb92c3369 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001 From: Micah Anderson Date: Tue, 11 Nov 2014 11:53:55 -0500 Subject: upgrade to 14.4.1 --- docs/source/morethanbindings.rst | 166 +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ 1 file changed, 166 insertions(+) create mode 100644 docs/source/morethanbindings.rst (limited to 'docs/source/morethanbindings.rst') diff --git a/docs/source/morethanbindings.rst b/docs/source/morethanbindings.rst new file mode 100644 index 0000000..1bff8f0 --- /dev/null +++ b/docs/source/morethanbindings.rst @@ -0,0 +1,166 @@ +.. PyZMQ Bindings doc, by Min Ragan-Kelley, 2011 + +.. _bindings: + +More Than Just Bindings +======================= + +PyZMQ is ostensibly the Python bindings for `ØMQ`_, but the project, following +Python's 'batteries included' philosophy, provides more than just Python methods and +objects for calling into the ØMQ C++ library. + + + +The Core as Bindings +-------------------- + +PyZMQ is currently broken up into four subpackages. First, is the Core. :mod:`zmq.core` +contains the actual bindings for ZeroMQ, and no extended functionality beyond the very +basic. The core modules are split, such that each basic ZeroMQ object (or function, if no +object is associated) is a separate module, e.g. :mod:`zmq.core.context` contains the +:class:`.Context` object, :mod:`zmq.core.poll` contains a :class:`.Poller` object, as well +as the :func:`.select` function, etc. ZMQ constants are, for convenience, all kept +together in :mod:`zmq.core.constants`. + +There are two reasons for breaking the core into submodules: *recompilation* and +*derivative projects*. The monolithic PyZMQ became quite tedious to have to recompile +everything for a small change to a single object. With separate files, that's no longer +necessary. The second reason has to do with Cython. PyZMQ is written in Cython, a tool for +efficiently writing C-extensions for Python. By separating out our objects into individual +`pyx` files, each with their declarations in a `pxd` header, other projects can write +extensions in Cython and call directly to ZeroMQ at the C-level without the penalty of +going through our Python objects. + +Thread Safety +------------- + +In ØMQ, Contexts are threadsafe objects, but Sockets are **not**. It is safe to use a +single Context (e.g. via :meth:`zmq.Context.instance`) in your entire multithreaded +application, but you should create sockets on a per-thread basis. If you share sockets +across threads, you are likely to encounter uncatchable c-level crashes of your +application unless you use judicious application of :py:class:`threading.Lock`, but this +approach is not recommended. + +.. seealso:: + + ZeroMQ API note on threadsafety on `2.2 `_ + or `3.2 `_ + + +Socket Options as Attributes +---------------------------- + +.. versionadded:: 2.1.9 + +In 0MQ, socket options are set/retrieved with the :meth:`set/getsockopt` methods. With the +class-based approach in pyzmq, it would be logical to perform these operations with +simple attribute access, and this has been added in pyzmq 2.1.9. Simply assign to or +request a Socket attribute with the (case-insensitive) name of a sockopt, and it should +behave just as you would expect: + +.. sourcecode:: python + + s = ctx.socket(zmq.DEALER) + s.identity = b'dealer' + s.hwm = 10 + s.events + # 0 + s.fd + # 16 + + +Default Options on the Context +****************************** + +.. versionadded:: 2.1.11 + +Just like setting socket options as attributes on Sockets, you can do the same on Contexts. +This affects the default options of any *new* sockets created after the assignment. + +.. sourcecode:: python + + ctx = zmq.Context() + ctx.linger = 0 + rep = ctx.socket(zmq.REP) + req = ctx.socket(zmq.REQ) + +Socket options that do not apply to a socket (e.g. SUBSCRIBE on non-SUB sockets) will +simply be ignored. + + +Core Extensions +--------------- + +We have extended the core functionality in two ways that appear inside the :mod:`core` +bindings, and are not general ØMQ features. + +Builtin Serialization +********************* + +First, we added common serialization with the builtin :py:mod:`json` and :py:mod:`pickle` +as first-class methods to the :class:`Socket` class. A socket has the methods +:meth:`~.Socket.send_json` and :meth:`~.Socket.send_pyobj`, which correspond to sending an +object over the wire after serializing with :mod:`json` and :mod:`pickle` respectively, +and any object sent via those methods can be reconstructed with the +:meth:`~.Socket.recv_json` and :meth:`~.Socket.recv_pyobj` methods. Unicode strings are +other objects that are not unambiguously sendable over the wire, so we include +:meth:`~.Socket.send_string` and :meth:`~.Socket.recv_string` that simply send bytes +after encoding the message ('utf-8' is the default). + +.. seealso:: + + * :ref:`Further information ` on serialization in pyzmq. + + * :ref:`Our Unicode discussion ` for more information on the trials and + tribulations of working with Unicode in a C extension while supporting Python 2 and 3. + + +MessageTracker +************** + +The second extension of basic ØMQ functionality is the :class:`MessageTracker`. The +MessageTracker is an object used to track when the underlying ZeroMQ is done with a +message buffer. One of the main use cases for ØMQ in Python is the ability to perform +non-copying sends. Thanks to Python's buffer interface, many objects (including NumPy +arrays) provide the buffer interface, and are thus directly sendable. However, as with any +asynchronous non-copying messaging system like ØMQ or MPI, it can be important to know +when the message has actually been sent, so it is safe again to edit the buffer without +worry of corrupting the message. This is what the MessageTracker is for. + +The MessageTracker is a simple object, but there is a penalty to its use. Since by its +very nature, the MessageTracker must involve threadsafe communication (specifically a +builtin :py:class:`~Queue.Queue` object), instantiating a MessageTracker takes a modest +amount of time (10s of µs), so in situations instantiating many small messages, this can +actually dominate performance. As a result, tracking is optional, via the ``track`` flag, +which is optionally passed, always defaulting to ``False``, in each of the three places +where a Frame object (the pyzmq object for wrapping a segment of a message) is +instantiated: The :class:`.Frame` constructor, and non-copying sends and receives. + +A MessageTracker is very simple, and has just one method and one attribute. The property +:attr:`MessageTracker.done` will be ``True`` when the Frame(s) being tracked are no +longer in use by ØMQ, and :meth:`.MessageTracker.wait` will block, waiting for the +Frame(s) to be released. + +.. Note:: + + A Frame cannot be tracked after it has been instantiated without tracking. If a + Frame is to even have the *option* of tracking, it must be constructed with + ``track=True``. + + +Extensions +---------- + +So far, PyZMQ includes four extensions to core ØMQ that we found basic enough to be +included in PyZMQ itself: + +* :ref:`zmq.log ` : Logging handlers for hooking Python logging up to the + network +* :ref:`zmq.devices ` : Custom devices and objects for running devices in the + background +* :ref:`zmq.eventloop ` : The `Tornado`_ event loop, adapted for use + with ØMQ sockets. +* :ref:`zmq.ssh ` : Simple tools for tunneling zeromq connections via ssh. + +.. _ØMQ: http://www.zeromq.org +.. _Tornado: https://github.com/facebook/tornado -- cgit v1.2.3