diff third_party/libuv/docs/src/guide/processes.rst @ 160:948de3f54cea

[ThirdParty] Added libuv
author June Park <parkjune1995@gmail.com>
date Wed, 14 Jan 2026 19:39:52 -0800
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+Processes
+=========
+
+libuv offers considerable child process management, abstracting the platform
+differences and allowing communication with the child process using streams or
+named pipes.
+
+A common idiom in Unix is for every process to do one thing and do it well. In
+such a case, a process often uses multiple child processes to achieve tasks
+(similar to using pipes in shells). A multi-process model with messages
+may also be easier to reason about compared to one with threads and shared
+memory.
+
+A common refrain against event-based programs is that they cannot take
+advantage of multiple cores in modern computers. In a multi-threaded program
+the kernel can perform scheduling and assign different threads to different
+cores, improving performance. But an event loop has only one thread.  The
+workaround can be to launch multiple processes instead, with each process
+running an event loop, and each process getting assigned to a separate CPU
+core.
+
+Spawning child processes
+------------------------
+
+The simplest case is when you simply want to launch a process and know when it
+exits. This is achieved using ``uv_spawn``.
+
+.. rubric:: spawn/main.c
+.. literalinclude:: ../../code/spawn/main.c
+    :language: c
+    :linenos:
+    :lines: 6-8,15-
+    :emphasize-lines: 11,13-17
+
+.. NOTE::
+
+    ``options`` is implicitly initialized with zeros since it is a global
+    variable.  If you change ``options`` to a local variable, remember to
+    initialize it to null out all unused fields::
+
+        uv_process_options_t options = {0};
+
+The ``uv_process_t`` struct only acts as the handle, all options are set via
+``uv_process_options_t``. To simply launch a process, you need to set only the
+``file`` and ``args`` fields. ``file`` is the program to execute. Since
+``uv_spawn`` uses :man:`execvp(3)` internally, there is no need to supply the full
+path. Finally as per underlying conventions, **the arguments array has to be
+one larger than the number of arguments, with the last element being NULL**.
+
+After the call to ``uv_spawn``, ``uv_process_t.pid`` will contain the process
+ID of the child process.
+
+The exit callback will be invoked with the *exit status* and the type of *signal*
+which caused the exit.
+
+Note that it is important **not** to call ``uv_close`` before the exit callback.
+
+.. rubric:: spawn/main.c
+.. literalinclude:: ../../code/spawn/main.c
+    :language: c
+    :linenos:
+    :lines: 9-12
+    :emphasize-lines: 3
+
+It is **required** to close the process watcher after the process exits.
+
+Changing process parameters
+---------------------------
+
+Before the child process is launched you can control the execution environment
+using fields in ``uv_process_options_t``.
+
+Change execution directory
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++
+
+Set ``uv_process_options_t.cwd`` to the corresponding directory.
+
+Set environment variables
++++++++++++++++++++++++++
+
+``uv_process_options_t.env`` is a null-terminated array of strings, each of the
+form ``VAR=VALUE`` used to set up the environment variables for the process. Set
+this to ``NULL`` to inherit the environment from the parent (this) process.
+
+Option flags
+++++++++++++
+
+Setting ``uv_process_options_t.flags`` to a bitwise OR of the following flags,
+modifies the child process behaviour:
+
+* ``UV_PROCESS_SETUID`` - sets the child's execution user ID to ``uv_process_options_t.uid``.
+* ``UV_PROCESS_SETGID`` - sets the child's execution group ID to ``uv_process_options_t.gid``.
+
+Changing the UID/GID is only supported on Unix, ``uv_spawn`` will fail on
+Windows with ``UV_ENOTSUP``.
+
+* ``UV_PROCESS_WINDOWS_VERBATIM_ARGUMENTS`` - No quoting or escaping of
+  ``uv_process_options_t.args`` is done on Windows. Ignored on Unix.
+* ``UV_PROCESS_DETACHED`` - Starts the child process in a new session, which
+  will keep running after the parent process exits. See example below.
+
+Detaching processes
+-------------------
+
+Passing the flag ``UV_PROCESS_DETACHED`` can be used to launch daemons, or
+child processes which are independent of the parent so that the parent exiting
+does not affect it.
+
+.. rubric:: detach/main.c
+.. literalinclude:: ../../code/detach/main.c
+    :language: c
+    :linenos:
+    :lines: 9-30
+    :emphasize-lines: 12,19
+
+Just remember that the handle is still monitoring the child, so your program
+won't exit. Use ``uv_unref()`` if you want to be more *fire-and-forget*.
+
+Sending signals to processes
+----------------------------
+
+libuv wraps the standard ``kill(2)`` system call on Unix and implements one
+with similar semantics on Windows, with *one caveat*: all of ``SIGTERM``,
+``SIGINT`` and ``SIGKILL``, lead to termination of the process. The signature
+of ``uv_kill`` is::
+
+    uv_err_t uv_kill(int pid, int signum);
+
+For processes started using libuv, you may use ``uv_process_kill`` instead,
+which accepts the ``uv_process_t`` watcher as the first argument, rather than
+the pid. In this case, **remember to call** ``uv_close`` on the watcher _after_
+the exit callback has been called.
+
+Signals
+-------
+
+libuv provides wrappers around Unix signals with `some Windows support
+<http://docs.libuv.org/en/v1.x/signal.html#signal>`_ as well.
+
+Use ``uv_signal_init()`` to initialize
+a handle and associate it with a loop. To listen for particular signals on
+that handler, use ``uv_signal_start()`` with the handler function. Each handler
+can only be associated with one signal number, with subsequent calls to
+``uv_signal_start()`` overwriting earlier associations. Use ``uv_signal_stop()`` to
+stop watching. Here is a small example demonstrating the various possibilities:
+
+.. rubric:: signal/main.c
+.. literalinclude:: ../../code/signal/main.c
+    :language: c
+    :linenos:
+    :emphasize-lines: 17-18,27-28
+
+.. NOTE::
+
+    ``uv_run(loop, UV_RUN_NOWAIT)`` is similar to ``uv_run(loop, UV_RUN_ONCE)``
+    in that it will process only one event. UV_RUN_ONCE blocks if there are no
+    pending events, while UV_RUN_NOWAIT will return immediately. We use NOWAIT
+    so that one of the loops isn't starved because the other one has no pending
+    activity.
+
+Send ``SIGUSR1`` to the process, and you'll find the handler being invoked
+4 times, one for each ``uv_signal_t``. The handler just stops each handle,
+so that the program exits. This sort of dispatch to all handlers is very
+useful. A server using multiple event loops could ensure that all data was
+safely saved before termination, simply by every loop adding a watcher for
+``SIGINT``.
+
+Child Process I/O
+-----------------
+
+A normal, newly spawned process has its own set of file descriptors, with 0,
+1 and 2 being ``stdin``, ``stdout`` and ``stderr`` respectively. Sometimes you
+may want to share file descriptors with the child. For example, perhaps your
+applications launches a sub-command and you want any errors to go in the log
+file, but ignore ``stdout``. For this you'd like to have ``stderr`` of the
+child be the same as the stderr of the parent. In this case, libuv supports
+*inheriting* file descriptors. In this sample, we invoke the test program,
+which is:
+
+.. rubric:: proc-streams/test.c
+.. literalinclude:: ../../code/proc-streams/test.c
+    :language: c
+
+The actual program ``proc-streams`` runs this while sharing only ``stderr``.
+The file descriptors of the child process are set using the ``stdio`` field in
+``uv_process_options_t``. First set the ``stdio_count`` field to the number of
+file descriptors being set. ``uv_process_options_t.stdio`` is an array of
+``uv_stdio_container_t``, which is:
+
+.. code-block:: c
+
+    typedef struct uv_stdio_container_s {
+        uv_stdio_flags flags;
+
+        union {
+            uv_stream_t* stream;
+            int fd;
+        } data;
+    } uv_stdio_container_t;
+
+where flags can have several values. Use ``UV_IGNORE`` if it isn't going to be
+used. If the first three ``stdio`` fields are marked as ``UV_IGNORE`` they'll
+redirect to ``/dev/null``.
+
+Since we want to pass on an existing descriptor, we'll use ``UV_INHERIT_FD``.
+Then we set the ``fd`` to ``stderr``.
+
+.. rubric:: proc-streams/main.c
+.. literalinclude:: ../../code/proc-streams/main.c
+    :language: c
+    :linenos:
+    :lines: 15-17,27-
+    :emphasize-lines: 6,10,11,12
+
+If you run ``proc-stream`` you'll see that only the line "This is stderr" will
+be displayed. Try marking ``stdout`` as being inherited and see the output.
+
+It is dead simple to apply this redirection to streams.  By setting ``flags``
+to ``UV_INHERIT_STREAM`` and setting ``data.stream`` to the stream in the
+parent process, the child process can treat that stream as standard I/O. This
+can be used to implement something like CGI_.
+
+.. _CGI: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Common_Gateway_Interface
+
+A sample CGI script/executable is:
+
+.. rubric:: cgi/tick.c
+.. literalinclude:: ../../code/cgi/tick.c
+    :language: c
+
+The CGI server combines the concepts from this chapter and :doc:`networking` so
+that every client is sent ten ticks after which that connection is closed.
+
+.. rubric:: cgi/main.c
+.. literalinclude:: ../../code/cgi/main.c
+    :language: c
+    :linenos:
+    :lines: 49-63
+    :emphasize-lines: 10
+
+Here we simply accept the TCP connection and pass on the socket (*stream*) to
+``invoke_cgi_script``.
+
+.. rubric:: cgi/main.c
+.. literalinclude:: ../../code/cgi/main.c
+    :language: c
+    :linenos:
+    :lines: 16, 25-45
+    :emphasize-lines: 8-9,18,20
+
+The ``stdout`` of the CGI script is set to the socket so that whatever our tick
+script prints, gets sent to the client. By using processes, we can offload the
+read/write buffering to the operating system, so in terms of convenience this
+is great. Just be warned that creating processes is a costly task.
+
+.. _pipes:
+
+Parent-child IPC
+----------------
+
+A parent and child can have one or two way communication over a pipe created by
+settings ``uv_stdio_container_t.flags`` to a bit-wise combination of
+``UV_CREATE_PIPE`` and ``UV_READABLE_PIPE`` or ``UV_WRITABLE_PIPE``. The
+read/write flag is from the perspective of the child process.  In this case,
+the ``uv_stream_t* stream`` field must be set to point to an initialized,
+unopened ``uv_pipe_t`` instance.
+
+New stdio Pipes
++++++++++++++++
+
+The ``uv_pipe_t`` structure represents more than just `pipe(7)`_ (or ``|``),
+but supports any streaming file-like objects. On Windows, the only object of
+that description is the `Named Pipe`_.  On Unix, this could be any of `Unix
+Domain Socket`_, or derived from `mkfifo(1)`_, or it could actually be a
+`pipe(7)`_.  When ``uv_spawn`` initializes a ``uv_pipe_t`` due to the
+`UV_CREATE_PIPE` flag, it opts for creating a `socketpair(2)`_.
+
+This is intended for the purpose of allowing multiple libuv processes to
+communicate with IPC. This is discussed below.
+
+.. _pipe(7): https://man7.org/linux/man-pages/man7/pipe.7.html
+.. _mkfifo(1): https://man7.org/linux/man-pages/man1/mkfifo.1.html
+.. _socketpair(2): https://man7.org/linux/man-pages/man2/socketpair.2.html
+.. _Unix Domain Socket: https://man7.org/linux/man-pages/man7/unix.7.html
+.. _Named Pipe: https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/win32/ipc/named-pipes
+
+
+Arbitrary process IPC
++++++++++++++++++++++
+
+Since domain sockets [#]_ can have a well known name and a location in the
+file-system they can be used for IPC between unrelated processes. The D-BUS_
+system used by open source desktop environments uses domain sockets for event
+notification. Various applications can then react when a contact comes online
+or new hardware is detected. The MySQL server also runs a domain socket on
+which clients can interact with it.
+
+.. _D-BUS: https://www.freedesktop.org/wiki/Software/dbus
+
+When using domain sockets, a client-server pattern is usually followed with the
+creator/owner of the socket acting as the server. After the initial setup,
+messaging is no different from TCP, so we'll re-use the echo server example.
+
+.. rubric:: pipe-echo-server/main.c
+.. literalinclude:: ../../code/pipe-echo-server/main.c
+    :language: c
+    :linenos:
+    :lines: 70-
+    :emphasize-lines: 5,10,14
+
+We name the socket ``echo.sock`` which means it will be created in the local
+directory. This socket now behaves no different from TCP sockets as far as
+the stream API is concerned. You can test this server using `socat`_::
+
+    $ socat - /path/to/socket
+
+A client which wants to connect to a domain socket will use::
+
+    void uv_pipe_connect(uv_connect_t *req, uv_pipe_t *handle, const char *name, uv_connect_cb cb);
+
+where ``name`` will be ``echo.sock`` or similar. On Unix systems, ``name`` must
+point to a valid file (e.g. ``/tmp/echo.sock``). On Windows, ``name`` follows a
+``\\?\pipe\echo.sock`` format.
+
+.. _socat: http://www.dest-unreach.org/socat/
+
+Sending file descriptors over pipes
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
+
+The cool thing about domain sockets is that file descriptors can be exchanged
+between processes by sending them over a domain socket. This allows processes
+to hand off their I/O to other processes. Applications include load-balancing
+servers, worker processes and other ways to make optimum use of CPU. libuv only
+supports sending **TCP sockets or other pipes** over pipes for now.
+
+To demonstrate, we will look at an echo server implementation that hands off
+clients to worker processes in a round-robin fashion. This program is a bit
+involved, and while only snippets are included in the book, it is recommended
+to read the full code to really understand it.
+
+The worker process is quite simple, since the file-descriptor is handed over to
+it by the master.
+
+.. rubric:: multi-echo-server/worker.c
+.. literalinclude:: ../../code/multi-echo-server/worker.c
+    :language: c
+    :linenos:
+    :lines: 7-9,81-
+    :emphasize-lines: 6-8
+
+``queue`` is the pipe connected to the master process on the other end, along
+which new file descriptors get sent. It is important to set the ``ipc``
+argument of ``uv_pipe_init`` to 1 to indicate this pipe will be used for
+inter-process communication! Since the master will write the file handle to the
+standard input of the worker, we connect the pipe to ``stdin`` using
+``uv_pipe_open``.
+
+.. rubric:: multi-echo-server/worker.c
+.. literalinclude:: ../../code/multi-echo-server/worker.c
+    :language: c
+    :linenos:
+    :lines: 51-79
+    :emphasize-lines: 10,15,20
+
+First we call ``uv_pipe_pending_count()`` to ensure that a handle is available
+to read out. If your program could deal with different types of handles,
+``uv_pipe_pending_type()`` can be used to determine the type.
+Although ``accept`` seems odd in this code, it actually makes sense. What
+``accept`` traditionally does is get a file descriptor (the client) from
+another file descriptor (The listening socket). Which is exactly what we do
+here. Fetch the file descriptor (``client``) from ``queue``. From this point
+the worker does standard echo server stuff.
+
+Turning now to the master, let's take a look at how the workers are launched to
+allow load balancing.
+
+.. rubric:: multi-echo-server/main.c
+.. literalinclude:: ../../code/multi-echo-server/main.c
+    :language: c
+    :linenos:
+    :lines: 9-13
+
+The ``child_worker`` structure wraps the process, and the pipe between the
+master and the individual process.
+
+.. rubric:: multi-echo-server/main.c
+.. literalinclude:: ../../code/multi-echo-server/main.c
+    :language: c
+    :linenos:
+    :lines: 51,61-95
+    :emphasize-lines: 17,20-21
+
+In setting up the workers, we use the nifty libuv function ``uv_cpu_info`` to
+get the number of CPUs so we can launch an equal number of workers. Again it is
+important to initialize the pipe acting as the IPC channel with the third
+argument as 1. We then indicate that the child process' ``stdin`` is to be
+a readable pipe (from the point of view of the child). Everything is
+straightforward till here. The workers are launched and waiting for file
+descriptors to be written to their standard input.
+
+It is in ``on_new_connection`` (the TCP infrastructure is initialized in
+``main()``), that we accept the client socket and pass it along to the next
+worker in the round-robin.
+
+.. rubric:: multi-echo-server/main.c
+.. literalinclude:: ../../code/multi-echo-server/main.c
+    :language: c
+    :linenos:
+    :lines: 31-49
+    :emphasize-lines: 9,12-13
+
+The ``uv_write2`` call handles all the abstraction and it is simply a matter of
+passing in the handle (``client``) as the right argument. With this our
+multi-process echo server is operational.
+
+Thanks to Kyle for `pointing out`_ that ``uv_write2()`` requires a non-empty
+buffer even when sending handles.
+
+.. _pointing out: https://github.com/nikhilm/uvbook/issues/56
+
+----
+
+.. [#] In this section domain sockets stands in for named pipes on Windows as
+    well.