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Changelog

All notable changes to this project will be documented in this file. The format is based on Keep a Changelog.

0.18.0 - Unreleased

Added

  • The new fan_out_request function streamlines fan-out/fan-in work flows (see the new example in examples/message_passing/fan_out_request.cpp as well as the new manual entry). The policy-based design further allows us to support more use cases in the future (#932, #964).
  • We introduced the lightweight template class error_code as an alternative to the generic but more heavyweight class error. The new error code abstraction simply wraps an enumeration type without allowing users to add additional context such as error messages. However, whenever such information is unneeded, the new class is much more efficient than using error.
  • Tracing messages in distributed systems is a common practice for monitoring and debugging message-based systems. The new tracing_data abstraction in CAF enables users to augment messages between actors with arbitrary meta data. This is an experimental API that requires building CAF with the CMake option CAF_ENABLE_ACTOR_PROFILER (#981).
  • Add compact from..to..step list notation in configuration files. For example, [1..3] expands to [1, 2, 3] and [4..-4..-2] expands to [4, 2, 0, -2, -4] (#999).
  • Allow config keys to start with numbers (#1014).
  • The fan_out_request function got an additional policy for picking just the fist result: select_any (#1012).
  • Run-time type information in CAF now uses 16-bit type IDs. Users can assign this ID by specializing type_id manually (not recommended) or use the new API for automatically assigning ascending IDs inside CAF_BEGIN_TYPE_ID_BLOCK and CAF_END_TYPE_ID_BLOCK code blocks.
  • The new typed view types typed_message_view and const_typed_message_view make working with message easier by providing a std::tuple-like interface (#1034).
  • The class exit_msg finally got its missing operator== (#1039).
  • The class node_id received an overload for parse to allow users to convert the output of to_string back to the original ID (#1058).
  • Actors can now monitor and demonitor CAF nodes (#1042). Monitoring a CAF node causes the actor system to send a node_down_msg to the observer when losing connection to the monitored node.
  • In preparation of potential future API additions/changes, CAF now includes an RFC4122-compliant uuid class.
  • The new trait class is_error_code_enum allows users to enable conversion of custom error code enums to error and error_code.
  • CAF now enables users to tap into internal CAF metrics as well as adding their own instrumentation! Since this addition is too large to cover in a changelog entry, please have a look at the new Metrics Section of the manual to learn more.

Deprecated

  • The to_string output for error now renders the error code enum by default. This renders the member functions actor_system::render and actor_system_config::render obsolete.
  • Actors that die due to an unhandled exception now use sec::runtime_error consistently. This makes exit_reason::unhandled_exception obsolete.

Changed

  • CAF now requires C++17 to build.
  • On UNIX, CAF now uses visibility hidden by default. All API functions and types that form the ABI are explicitly exported using module-specific macros. On Windows, this change finally enables building native DLL files.
  • We switched our coding style to the C++17 nested namespace syntax.
  • CAF used to generate the same node ID when running on the same machine and only differentiates actors systems by their process ID. When running CAF instances in a container, this process ID is most likely the same for each run. This means two containers can produce the same node ID and thus equivalent actor IDs. In order to make it easier to use CAF in a containerized environment, we now generate unique (random) node IDs (#970).
  • We did a complete redesign of all things serialization. The central class data_processor got removed. The two classes for binary serialization no longer extend the generic interfaces serializer and deserializer in order to avoid the overhead of dynamic dispatching as well as the runtime cost of error return values. This set of changes leads so some code duplication, because many CAF types now accept a generic (de)serializer as well as a binary_(de)serializer but significantly boosts performance in the hot code paths of CAF (#975).
  • With C++17, we no longer support compilers without support for thread_local. Consequently, we removed all workarounds and switched to the C++ keyword (#996).
  • Our manual now uses reStructuredText instead of LaTeX. We hope this makes extending the manual easier and lowers the barrier to entry for new contributors.
  • A stateful_actor now forwards excess arguments to the State rather than to the Base. This enables states with non-default constructors. When using stateful_actor<State> as pointer type in function-based actors, nothing changes (i.e. the new API is backwards compatible for this case). However, calling spawn<stateful_actor<State>>(xs...) now initializes the State with the argument pack xs... (plus optionally a self pointer as first argument). Furthermore, the state class can now provide a make_behavior member function to initialize the actor (this has no effect for function-based actors).
  • In order to stay more consistent with naming conventions of the standard library, we have renamed some values of the pec enumeration:
    • illegal_escape_sequence => invalid_escape_sequence
    • illegal_argument => invalid_argument
    • illegal_category => invalid_category
  • CAF no longer automagically flattens tuple, optional, or expected when returning these types from message handlers. Users can simply replace std::tuple<A, B, C> with caf::result<A, B, C> for returning more than one value from a message handler.
  • A caf::result can no longer represent skip. Whether a message gets skipped or not is now only for the default handler to decide. Consequently, default handlers now return skippable_result instead of result<message>. A skippable result is a variant over delegated<message>, message, error, or skip_t. The only good use case for message handlers that skip a message in their body was in typed actors for getting around the limitation that a typed behavior always must provide all message handlers (typed behavior assume a complete implementation of the interface). This use case received direct support: constructing a typed behavior with partial_behavior_init as first argument suppresses the check for completeness.
  • In order to reduce complexity of typed actors, CAF defines interfaces as a set of function signatures rather than using custom metaprogramming facilities. Function signatures must always wrap the return type in a result<T>. For example: typed_actor<result<double>(double)>. We have reimplemented the metaprogramming facilities racts_to<...> and replies_to<...>::with<...> as an alternative way of writing the function signature.
  • All parsing functions in actor_system_config that take an input stream exclusively use the new configuration syntax (please consult the manual for details and examples for the configuration syntax).
  • The returned string of name() must not change during the lifetime of an actor. Hence, stateful_actor now only considers static name members in its State for overriding this function. CAF always assumed names belonging to types, but did not enforce it because the name was only used for logging. Since the new metrics use this name for filtering now, we enforce static names in order to help avoid hard-to-find issues with the filtering mechanism.

Removed

  • A vendor-neutral API for GPGPU programming sure sounds great. Unfortunately, OpenCL did not catch on in the way we had hoped. At this point, we can call OpenCL dead and gone. There is only legacy support available and recent versions of the standard were never implemented in the first place. Consequently, we've dropped the opencl module.
  • The old duration type is now superseded by timespan (#994).
  • The enum match_result became obsolete. Individual message handlers can no longer skip messages. Hence, message handlers can only succeed (match) or not. Consequently, invoking a message handler or behavior now returns a boolean.
  • All member functions of scheduled_actor for adding stream managers (such as make_source) were removed in favor their free-function equivalent, e.g., attach_stream_source
  • The configuration format of CAF has come a long way since first starting to allow user-defined configuration via .ini files. Rather than sticking with the weird hybrid that evolved over the years, we finally get rid of the last pieces of INI syntax and go with the much cleaner, scoped syntax. The new default file name for configuration files is caf-application.conf.

Fixed

  • Fix uninstall target when building CAF as CMake subdirectory.
  • Using inline_all_enqueues in deterministic unit tests could result in deadlocks when calling blocking functions in message handlers. This function now behaves as expected (#1016).
  • Exceptions while handling requests now trigger error messages (#1055).
  • The member function demonitor falsely refused typed actor handles. Actors could monitor typed actors but not demonitoring it again. This member function is now a template that accepts any actor handle in the same way monitor already did.
  • The typed_actor_view decorator lacked several member functions such as link_to, send_exit, etc. These are now available.
  • Constructing a typed_actor handle from a pointer view failed du to a missing constructor overload. This (explicit) overload now exists and the conversion should work as expected.
  • Sending floating points to remote actors changed infinity and NaN to garbage values (#1107). The fixed packing / unpacking routines for IEEE 754 values keep these non-numeric values intact now. It is worth mentioning that the new algorithm downgrades signaling NaN values to silent NaN values, because the standard API does not provide predicates to distinguish between the two. This should have no implications for real-world applications, because actors that produce a signaling NaN trigger trap handlers before sending the result to another actor.
  • The URI parser stored IPv4 addresses as strings (#1123). Users can now safely assume that the parsed URI for tcp://127.0.0.1:8080 returns an IP address when calling authority().host.

[0.17.7] - Unreleased

Fixed

  • Datagram servants are not added to their broker on creation and should no longer prevent system shutdown if they never enconutered a new endpoint.

0.17.6 - 2020-07-24

Fixed

  • Trying to connect to an actor published via the OpenSSL module with the I/O module no longer hangs indefinitely (#1119). Instead, the OpenSSL module immediately closes the socket if initializing the SSL session fails.

0.17.5 - 2020-05-13

Added

  • In order to allow users to start migrating towards upcoming API changes, CAF 0.17.5 includes a subset of the CAF 0.18 type_id API. Listing all user-defined types between CAF_BEGIN_TYPE_ID_BLOCK and CAF_END_TYPE_ID_BLOCK assigns ascending type IDs. Only one syntax for CAF_ADD_ATOM exists, since the atom text is still mandatory. Assigning type IDs has no immediate effect by default. However, the new function actor_system_config::add_message_types accepts an ID block and adds runtime-type information for all types in the block.
  • In order to opt into the compile-time checks for all message types, users can set the CAF_ENABLE_TYPE_ID_CHECKS CMake flag to ON (pass --enable-type-id-checks when using the configure script). Building CAF with this option causes compiler errors when sending a type without a type ID. This option in conjunction with the new add_message_types function removes a common source of bugs: forgetting to call add_message_type<T> for all types that can cross the wire.

Changed

  • Our manual now uses reStructuredText instead of LaTeX (backport from 0.18.0).

Fixed

  • Fix handling of OS-specific threading dependency in CMake.
  • Fix uninstall target when building CAF as CMake subdirectory (backport from 0.18.0).
  • Fix potential deadlock with inline_all_enqueues (backport from 0.18.0).
  • Exceptions while handling requests now trigger error messages (backport from 0.18.0).
  • Fix build on GCC 7.2
  • Fix build error in the OpenSSL module under some MSVC configurations
  • Serializer and deserializer now accept std::chrono::time_point for all clock types instead of hard-wiring std::system_clock.
  • In some edge cases, actors failed to shut down properly when hosting a stream source (#1076). The handshake process for a graceful shutdown has been fixed.
  • Fixed a compiler error on Clang 10 (#1077).
  • Setting lists and dictionaries on the command line now properly overrides default values and values from configuration files instead of appending to them (#942).
  • Using unquoted strings in command-line arguments inside lists now works as expected. For example, --foo=abc,def is now equivalent to --foo=["abc", "def"].
  • Fixed a type mismatch in the parameter middleman.heartbeat-interval (#1095). CAF consistently uses timespan for this parameter now.

0.17.4 - 2019-02-08

Added

  • The class exit_msg finally got its missing operator== (#1039, backport from 0.18.0).

Changed

  • Make sure actors that receive stream input shut down properly (#1019).
  • Improve to_string output for caf::error (#1021).
  • Properly report errors to users while connecting two CAF nodes (#1023).
  • Simplify crosscompilation: remove build dependency on code generators (#1026).
  • Leave CXX settings to the (CMake) parent when building as subdirectory (#1032).
  • Build without documentation in subdirectory mode (#1037).
  • Allow parents to set OPENSSL_INCLUDE_DIR in subdirectory mode (#1037).
  • Add -pthread flag on UNIX when looking for libc++ support (#1038).
  • Avoid producing unexpected log files (#1024).

Fixed

  • Accept numbers as keys in the config syntax (#1014).
  • Fix undesired function hiding in fused_downstream_manager (#1020).
  • Fix behavior of inline_all_enqueues in the testing DSL (#1016).
  • Fix path recognition in the URI parser, e.g., file:/// is now valid (#1013).

0.17.3 - 2019-11-11

Added

  • Add support for OpenBSD (#955).
  • Provide uniform access to actor properties (#958).
  • Add missing to_string(pec) (#940).

Fixed

  • Fix bug in stream managers that caused finalizers to get called twice (#937).
  • Fix verbosity level with disabled console output (#953).
  • Fix excessive buffering in stream stages (#952).

0.17.2 - 2019-10-20

Added

  • Add scheduled_send for delayed sends with absolute timeout (#901).
  • Allow actors based on composable behaviors to use the streaming API (#902).
  • Support arbitrary list and map types in config_value (#925).
  • Allow users to extend the config_value API (#929, #938).

Changed

  • Reduce stack usage of serializers (#912).
  • Use default installation directories on GNU/Linux (#917).

Fixed

  • Fix memory leak when deserializing node_id (#905).
  • Fix composition of statically typed actors using streams (#908).
  • Fix several warnings on GCC and Clang (#915).
  • Fix holds_alternative and get_if for settings (#920).
  • Fix silent dropping of errors in response handlers (#935).
  • Fix stall in remote_group on error (#933).

0.17.1 - 2019-08-31

Added

  • Support nesting of group names in .ini files (#870).
  • Support all alphanumeric characters in config group names (#869).

Changed

  • Improve CMake setup when building CAF as subfolder (#866).
  • Properly set CLI remainder (#871).

Fixed

  • Fix endless loop in config parser (#894).
  • Fix debug build with Clang 7 on Linux (#861).
  • Fix type-specific parsing of config options (#814).
  • Fix potential deadlock in proxy registry (#880).
  • Fix output of --dump-config (#876).
  • Fix potential segfault when using streams with trace logging enabled (#878).
  • Fix handling of containers with user-defined types (#867).
  • Fix defaulted_function_deleted warning on Clang (#859).

0.17.0 - 2019-07-27

Added

  • Add marker to make categories optional on the CLI. Categories are great at organizing program options. However, on the CLI they get in the way quickly. This change allows developers to prefix category names with ? to make it optional on the CLI.
  • Add conversion from nullptr to intrusive and COW pointer types.
  • Support move-only behavior functions.
  • Allow users to omit global in config files.
  • Allow IPO on GCC/Clang.

Changed

  • Parallelize deserialization of messages received over the network (#821). Moving the deserialization out of the I/O loop significantly increases performance. In our benchmark, CAF now handles up to twice as many messages per second.
  • Relax ini syntax for maps by making = for defining maps and , for separating key-value pairs optional. For example, this change allows to rewrite an entry like this: 
    logger = {
  console-verbosity='trace',
  console='colored'
}
    to a slightly less noisy version such as this: 
    logger {
  console-verbosity='trace'
  console='colored'
}
  • Allow apps to always use the logger, whether or not CAF was compiled with logging enabled.
  • Streamline direct node-to-node communication and support multiple app identifiers.
  • Reimplement binary_serializer and binary_deserializer without STL-style stream buffers for better performance.

Fixed

  • Fix performance of the thread-safe actor clock (#849). This clock type is used whenever sending requests, delayed messages, receive timeouts etc. With this change, CAF can handle about 10x more timeouts per second.
  • Fix multicast address detection in caf::ipv4_address.cpp (#853).
  • Fix disconnect issue / WSAGetLastError usage on Windows (#846).
  • Fix --config-file option (#841).
  • Fix parsing of CLI arguments for strings and atom values.

0.16.5 - 2019-11-11

Added

  • Support for OpenBSD.

0.16.4 - 2019-11-11

Fixed

  • Backport parser fixes from the CAF 0.17 series.
  • Silence several compiler warnings on GCC and Clang.

0.16.3 - 2018-12-27

Added

  • The new class cow_tuple provides an std::tuple-like interface for a heap-allocated, copy-on-write tuple.
  • Missing overloads for dictionary.
  • The new to_lowercase function for atoms allows convenient conversion without having to convert between strings and atoms.

Changed

  • Printing timestamps now consistently uses ISO 8601 format.
  • The logger now uses a bounded queue. This change in behavior will cause the application to slow down when logging faster than the logger can do I/O, but the queue can no longer grow indefinitely.
  • Actors now always try to dequeue from the high-priority queue first.

Fixed

  • Solved linker errors related to socket_guard in some builds.
  • Fix the logger output for class names.
  • Deserializing into non-empty containers appended to the content instead of overriding it. The new implementation properly clears the container before filling it.
  • The split function from the string algorithms header now works as the documentation states.
  • Silence several compiler warnings on GCC and Clang.

0.16.2 - 2018-11-03

Fixed

  • The copy-on-write pointer used by message failed to release memory in some cases. The resulting memory leak is now fixed.

0.16.1 - 2018-10-31

Added

  • Adding additional flags for the compiler when using the configure script is now easier thanks to the --extra-flags= option.
  • The actor clock now supports non-overriding timeouts.
  • The new intrusive_cow_ptr is a smart pointer for copy-on-write access.

Changed

  • Improve noexcept-correctness of variant.
  • CAF threads now have recognizable names in a debugger.
  • The middleman now passes CLOEXEC on socket/accept/pipe calls.
  • Users can now set the log verbosity for file and console output separately.

Fixed

  • A dictionary now properly treats C-strings as strings when using emplace.
  • Eliminate a potential deadlock in the thread-safe actor clock.
  • Added various missing includes and forward declarations.

0.16.0 - 2018-09-03

Added

  • As part of CE-0002, config_value received support for lists, durations and dictionaries. CAF now exposes the content of an actor system config as a dictionary of config_value. The free function get_or offers convenient access to configuration parameters with hard-coded defaults as fallback.
  • The C++17-compatible string_view class enables us to make use of recent standard addition without having to wait until it becomes widely available.
  • In preparation of plans for future convenience API, we've added uri according to RFC 3986 as well as ipv6_address and ipv4_address.
  • A new, experimental streaming API. Please have a look at the new manual section for more details.

Deprecated

  • Going forward, the preferred way to access configuration parameters is using the new get_or API. Hence, these member variables are now deprecated in actor_system_config:
    • scheduler_policy
    • scheduler_max_threads
    • scheduler_max_throughput
    • scheduler_enable_profiling
    • scheduler_profiling_ms_resolution
    • scheduler_profiling_output_file
    • work_stealing_aggressive_poll_attempts
    • work_stealing_aggressive_steal_interval
    • work_stealing_moderate_poll_attempts
    • work_stealing_moderate_steal_interval
    • work_stealing_moderate_sleep_duration_us
    • work_stealing_relaxed_steal_interval
    • work_stealing_relaxed_sleep_duration_us
    • logger_file_name
    • logger_file_format
    • logger_console
    • logger_console_format
    • logger_verbosity
    • logger_inline_output
    • middleman_network_backend
    • middleman_app_identifier
    • middleman_enable_automatic_connections
    • middleman_max_consecutive_reads
    • middleman_heartbeat_interval
    • middleman_detach_utility_actors
    • middleman_detach_multiplexer
    • middleman_cached_udp_buffers
    • middleman_max_pending_msgs

Removed

  • The boost::asio was part of an initiative to contribute CAF as boost::actor. Since there was little interest by the Boost community, this backend now serves no purpose.

Fixed

  • Setting the log level to quiet now properly suppresses any log output.
  • Configuring colored terminal output should now print colored output.