tpool - Part of the Tcl threading extension implementing pools of
worker threads.
package require Tcl 8.4
package require Thread ?2.8?
tpool::create ?options?
tpool::names
tpool::post ?-detached? ?-nowait? tpool
script
tpool::wait tpool joblist ?varname?
tpool::cancel tpool joblist ?varname?
tpool::get tpool job
tpool::preserve tpool
tpool::release tpool
tpool::suspend tpool
tpool::resume tpool
This package creates and manages pools of worker threads. It
allows you to post jobs to worker threads and wait for their completion. The
threadpool implementation is Tcl event-loop aware. That means that any time
a caller is forced to wait for an event (job being completed or a worker
thread becoming idle or initialized), the implementation will enter the
event loop and allow for servicing of other pending file or timer (or any
other supported) events.
- tpool::create
?options?
- This command creates new threadpool. It accepts several options as
key-value pairs. Options are used to tune some threadpool parameters. The
command returns the ID of the newly created threadpool.
Following options are supported:
- -minworkers
number
- Minimum number of worker threads needed for this threadpool instance.
During threadpool creation, the implementation will create somany worker
threads upfront and will keep at least number of them alive during the
lifetime of the threadpool instance. Default value of this parameter is 0
(zero). which means that a newly threadpool will have no worker threads
initialy. All worker threads will be started on demand by callers running
tpool::post command and posting jobs to the job queue.
- -maxworkers
number
- Maximum number of worker threads allowed for this threadpool instance. If
a new job is pending and there are no idle worker threads available, the
implementation will try to create new worker thread. If the number of
available worker threads is lower than the given number, new worker thread
will start. The caller will automatically enter the event loop and wait
until the worker thread has initialized. If. however, the number of
available worker threads is equal to the given number, the caller will
enter the event loop and wait for the first worker thread to get idle,
thus ready to run the job. Default value of this parameter is 4 (four),
which means that the threadpool instance will allow maximum of 4 worker
threads running jobs or being idle waiting for new jobs to get posted to
the job queue.
- -idletime
seconds
- Time in seconds an idle worker thread waits for the job to get posted to
the job queue. If no job arrives during this interval and the time
expires, the worker thread will check the number of currently available
worker threads and if the number is higher than the number set by the
minthreads option, it will exit. If an exitscript has been
defined, the exiting worker thread will first run the script and then
exit. Errors from the exit script, if any, are ignored.
The idle worker thread is not servicing the event loop. If
you, however, put the worker thread into the event loop, by evaluating
the vwait or other related Tcl commands, the worker thread will
not be in the idle state, hence the idle timer will not be taken into
account. Default value for this option is unspecified.
- -initcmd
script
- Sets a Tcl script used to initialize new worker thread. This is usually
used to load packages and commands in the worker, set default variables,
create namespaces, and such. If the passed script runs into a Tcl error,
the worker will not be created and the initiating command (either the
tpool::create or tpool::post) will throw error. Default
value for this option is unspecified, hence, the Tcl interpreter of the
worker thread will contain just the initial set of Tcl commands.
- -exitcmd
script
- Sets a Tcl script run when the idle worker thread exits. This is normaly
used to cleanup the state of the worker thread, release reserved
resources, cleanup memory and such. Default value for this option is
unspecified, thus no Tcl script will run on the worker thread exit.
- tpool::names
- This command returns a list of IDs of threadpools created with the
tpool::create command. If no threadpools were found, the command
will return empty list.
- tpool::post
?-detached? ?-nowait? tpool script
- This command sends a script to the target tpool threadpool
for execution. The script will be executed in the first available idle
worker thread. If there are no idle worker threads available, the command
will create new one, enter the event loop and service events until the
newly created thread is initialized. If the current number of worker
threads is equal to the maximum number of worker threads, as defined
during the threadpool creation, the command will enter the event loop and
service events while waiting for one of the worker threads to become idle.
If the optional ?-nowait? argument is given, the command will not wait for
one idle worker. It will just place the job in the pool's job queue and
return immediately.
The command returns the ID of the posted job. This ID is used
for subsequent tpool::wait, tpool::get and
tpool::cancel commands to wait for and retrieve result of the
posted script, or cancel the posted job respectively. If the optional
?-detached? argument is specified, the command will post a detached job.
A detached job can not be cancelled or waited upon and is not identified
by the job ID.
If the threadpool tpool is not found in the list of
active thread pools, the command will throw error. The error will also
be triggered if the newly created worker thread fails to initialize.
- tpool::wait
tpool joblist ?varname?
- This command waits for one or many jobs, whose job IDs are given in the
joblist to get processed by the worker thread(s). If none of the
specified jobs are ready, the command will enter the event loop, service
events and wait for the first job to get ready.
The command returns the list of completed job IDs. If the
optional variable ?varname? is given, it will be set to the list of jobs
in the joblist which are still pending. If the threadpool
tpool is not found in the list of active thread pools, the
command will throw error.
- tpool::cancel
tpool joblist ?varname?
- This command cancels the previously posted jobs given by the
joblist to the pool tpool. Job cancellation succeeds only
for job still waiting to be processed. If the job is already being
executed by one of the worker threads, the job will not be cancelled. The
command returns the list of cancelled job IDs. If the optional variable
?varname? is given, it will be set to the list of jobs in the
joblist which were not cancelled. If the threadpool tpool is
not found in the list of active thread pools, the command will throw
error.
- tpool::get
tpool job
- This command retrieves the result of the previously posted job.
Only results of jobs waited upon with the tpool::wait command can
be retrieved. If the execution of the script resulted in error, the
command will throw the error and update the errorInfo and
errorCode variables correspondingly. If the pool tpool is
not found in the list of threadpools, the command will throw error. If the
job job is not ready for retrieval, because it is currently being
executed by the worker thread, the command will throw error.
- tpool::preserve
tpool
- Each call to this command increments the reference counter of the
threadpool tpool by one (1). Command returns the value of the
reference counter after the increment. By incrementing the reference
counter, the caller signalizes that he/she wishes to use the resource for
a longer period of time.
- tpool::release
tpool
- Each call to this command decrements the reference counter of the
threadpool tpool by one (1).Command returns the value of the
reference counter after the decrement. When the reference counter reaches
zero (0), the threadpool tpool is marked for termination. You
should not reference the threadpool after the tpool::release
command returns zero. The tpool handle goes out of scope and should
not be used any more. Any following reference to the same threadpool
handle will result in Tcl error.
- tpool::suspend
tpool
- Suspends processing work on this queue. All pool workers are paused but
additional work can be added to the pool. Note that adding the additional
work will not increase the number of workers dynamically as the pool
processing is suspended. Number of workers is maintained to the count that
was found prior suspending worker activity. If you need to assure certain
number of worker threads, use the minworkers option of the
tpool::create command.
- tpool::resume
tpool
- Resume processing work on this queue. All paused (suspended) workers are
free to get work from the pool. Note that resuming pool operation will
just let already created workers to proceed. It will not create additional
worker threads to handle the work posted to the pool's work queue.
Threadpool is one of the most common threading paradigm when it
comes to server applications handling a large number of relatively small
tasks. A very simplistic model for building a server application would be to
create a new thread each time a request arrives and service the request in
the new thread. One of the disadvantages of this approach is that the
overhead of creating a new thread for each request is significant; a server
that created a new thread for each request would spend more time and consume
more system resources in creating and destroying threads than in processing
actual user requests. In addition to the overhead of creating and destroying
threads, active threads consume system resources. Creating too many threads
can cause the system to run out of memory or trash due to excessive memory
consumption.
A thread pool offers a solution to both the problem of thread
life-cycle overhead and the problem of resource trashing. By reusing threads
for multiple tasks, the thread-creation overhead is spread over many tasks.
As a bonus, because the thread already exists when a request arrives, the
delay introduced by thread creation is eliminated. Thus, the request can be
serviced immediately. Furthermore, by properly tuning the number of threads
in the thread pool, resource thrashing may also be eliminated by forcing any
request to wait until a thread is available to process it.