net: add mechanism to wait for readability on a TCPConn

[bradfitz]

EDIT: this proposal has shifted. See #15735 (comment) below.

Old:

The net/http package needs a way to wait for readability on a TCPConn without actually reading from it. (See #15224)

http://golang.org/cl/22031 added such a mechanism, making Read(0 bytes) do a wait for readability, followed by returning (0, nil). But maybe that is strange. Windows already works like that, though. (See new tests in that CL)

Reconsider this for Go 1.8.

Maybe we could add a new method to TCPConn instead, like WaitRead.

[bradfitz]

/cc @ianlancetaylor @rsc

[bradfitz]

/cc @ianlancetaylor @rsc

[gopherbot]

CL https://golang.org/cl/23227 mentions this issue.

[gopherbot]

CL https://golang.org/cl/23227 mentions this issue.

[RalphCorderoy]

read(2) with a count of zero may be used to detect errors. Linux man page confirms, as does POSIX's read(3p) here. Mentioning it in case it influences this subverting of a Read(0 bytes) not calling syscall.Read.

[RalphCorderoy]

read(2) with a count of zero may be used to detect errors. Linux man page confirms, as does POSIX's read(3p) here. Mentioning it in case it influences this subverting of a Read(0 bytes) not calling syscall.Read.

[bradfitz]

I found a way to do without this in net/http, so punting to Go 1.9.

[bradfitz]

I found a way to do without this in net/http, so punting to Go 1.9.

[bradfitz]

Actually, the more I think about this, I don't even want my idle HTTP/RPC goroutines to stick around blocked in a read call. In addition to the array memory backed by the slice given to Read, the goroutine itself is ~4KB of wasted memory.

What I'd really like is a way to register a func() to run when my *net.TCPConn is readable (when a Read call wouldn't block). By analogy, I want the time.AfterFunc efficiency of running a func in a goroutine later, rather than running a goroutine just to block in a time.Sleep.

My new proposal is more like:

package net

// OnReadable runs f in a new goroutine when c is readable;
// that is, when a call to c.Read will not block.
func (c *TCPConn) OnReadable(f func()) {
   // ...
}

Yes, maybe this is getting dangerously into event-based programming land.

Or maybe just the name ("OnWhatever") is offensive. Maybe there's something better.

I would use this in http, http2, and grpc.

/cc @ianlancetaylor @rsc

[bradfitz]

Actually, the more I think about this, I don't even want my idle HTTP/RPC goroutines to stick around blocked in a read call. In addition to the array memory backed by the slice given to Read, the goroutine itself is ~4KB of wasted memory.

What I'd really like is a way to register a func() to run when my *net.TCPConn is readable (when a Read call wouldn't block). By analogy, I want the time.AfterFunc efficiency of running a func in a goroutine later, rather than running a goroutine just to block in a time.Sleep.

My new proposal is more like:

package net

// OnReadable runs f in a new goroutine when c is readable;
// that is, when a call to c.Read will not block.
func (c *TCPConn) OnReadable(f func()) {
   // ...
}

Yes, maybe this is getting dangerously into event-based programming land.

Or maybe just the name ("OnWhatever") is offensive. Maybe there's something better.

I would use this in http, http2, and grpc.

/cc @ianlancetaylor @rsc

[ianlancetaylor]

Sounds like you are getting close to #15021.

I'm worried that the existence of such a method will encourage people to start writing their code as callbacks rather than as straightforward goroutines.

[ianlancetaylor]

Sounds like you are getting close to #15021.

I'm worried that the existence of such a method will encourage people to start writing their code as callbacks rather than as straightforward goroutines.

[bradfitz]

Yeah. I'm conflicted. I see the benefits and the opportunity for overuse.

[bradfitz]

Yeah. I'm conflicted. I see the benefits and the opportunity for overuse.

[dvyukov]

If we do OnReadable(f func()), won't we need to fork half of standard library for async style? Compress, io, tls, etc readers all assume blocking style and require a blocked goroutine.
I don't see any way to push something asynchronously into e.g. gzip.Reader. Does this mean that I have to choose between no blocked goroutine + my own gzip impl and blocked goroutine + std lib?

[dvyukov]

If we do OnReadable(f func()), won't we need to fork half of standard library for async style? Compress, io, tls, etc readers all assume blocking style and require a blocked goroutine.
I don't see any way to push something asynchronously into e.g. gzip.Reader. Does this mean that I have to choose between no blocked goroutine + my own gzip impl and blocked goroutine + std lib?

[dvyukov]

Re 0-sized reads.
It should work with level-triggered notifications, but netpoll uses epoll in edge-triggered mode (and kqueue iirc). I am concerned if cl/22031 works in more complex cases: waiting for already ready IO, double wait, wait without completely draining read buffer first, etc?

[dvyukov]

Re 0-sized reads.
It should work with level-triggered notifications, but netpoll uses epoll in edge-triggered mode (and kqueue iirc). I am concerned if cl/22031 works in more complex cases: waiting for already ready IO, double wait, wait without completely draining read buffer first, etc?

[bradfitz]

@dvyukov, no, we would only use OnReadable in very high-level places, like the http1 and http2 servers where we know the conn is expected to be idle for long periods of time. The rest of the code underneath would remain in the blocking style.

[bradfitz]

@dvyukov, no, we would only use OnReadable in very high-level places, like the http1 and http2 servers where we know the conn is expected to be idle for long periods of time. The rest of the code underneath would remain in the blocking style.

[dvyukov]

This looks like a half-measure. An http connection can halt in the middle of request...

[dvyukov]

This looks like a half-measure. An http connection can halt in the middle of request...

[bradfitz]

@dvyukov, but not commonly. This would be an optimization for the common case.

[bradfitz]

@dvyukov, but not commonly. This would be an optimization for the common case.

[dvyukov]

An alternative interface can be to register a channel that will receive readiness notifications. The other camp wants this for packet-processing servers, and there starting a goroutine for every packet will be too expensive. However, if at the end you want a goroutine, then the channel will introduce unnecessary overhead.
Channel has a problem with overflow handling (netpoll can't block on send, on the other hand it is not OK to lose notifications).
For completeness, this API should also handle writes.

[dvyukov]

An alternative interface can be to register a channel that will receive readiness notifications. The other camp wants this for packet-processing servers, and there starting a goroutine for every packet will be too expensive. However, if at the end you want a goroutine, then the channel will introduce unnecessary overhead.
Channel has a problem with overflow handling (netpoll can't block on send, on the other hand it is not OK to lose notifications).
For completeness, this API should also handle writes.

[DemiMarie]

We need to make sure that this works with Windows IOCP as well.

[DemiMarie]

We need to make sure that this works with Windows IOCP as well.

[rsc]

Not obvious to me why the API has to handle writes. The thing about reads is that until the data is ready for reading, you can use the memory for other work. If you're waiting to write data, that memory is not reusable (otherwise you'd lose the data you are waiting to write).

[rsc]

Not obvious to me why the API has to handle writes. The thing about reads is that until the data is ready for reading, you can use the memory for other work. If you're waiting to write data, that memory is not reusable (otherwise you'd lose the data you are waiting to write).

[dvyukov]

@rsc If we do just 0-sized reads, then write support is not necessary. However, if we do Brad's "My new proposal is more like": func (c *TCPConn) OnReadable(f func()), then this equally applies to writes as well -- to avoid 2 blocked goroutines per connection.

[dvyukov]

@rsc If we do just 0-sized reads, then write support is not necessary. However, if we do Brad's "My new proposal is more like": func (c *TCPConn) OnReadable(f func()), then this equally applies to writes as well -- to avoid 2 blocked goroutines per connection.

[noblehng]

If memory usage is the concern, it is possible to make long parked G use less memory instead of changing programming style? One main selling point of Go to me is high efficiency network servers without resorting to callbacks.

Something like shrink the stack or move the stack to heap by the GC using some heuristics, that will be littile different from spinning up a new goroutine on callback memory usage wise, and scheduling wise a callback is not much different than goready(). Also I assume the liveness change in Go1.8 could help here too.

For the backing array, if it is preallocated buffer, than a callback doesn't make much different than Read(), maybe it will make some different if it is allocated per-callback and use a pool.

Edit:
Actually we could have some GC deadline or gopark time in runtime.pollDesc, so we could get a list of long parked G from the poller, then GC can kick in, but more dance is still needed to avoid race and make it fast.

[noblehng]

If memory usage is the concern, it is possible to make long parked G use less memory instead of changing programming style? One main selling point of Go to me is high efficiency network servers without resorting to callbacks.

Something like shrink the stack or move the stack to heap by the GC using some heuristics, that will be littile different from spinning up a new goroutine on callback memory usage wise, and scheduling wise a callback is not much different than goready(). Also I assume the liveness change in Go1.8 could help here too.

For the backing array, if it is preallocated buffer, than a callback doesn't make much different than Read(), maybe it will make some different if it is allocated per-callback and use a pool.

Edit:
Actually we could have some GC deadline or gopark time in runtime.pollDesc, so we could get a list of long parked G from the poller, then GC can kick in, but more dance is still needed to avoid race and make it fast.

[noblehng]

How about a epoll like interface for net.Listener:

type PollableListener interface {
   net.Listener
   // Poll will block till at least one connection been ready for read or write
   // reads and writes are special net.Conn that will not block on EAGAIN
   Poll() (reads []net.Conn, writes []net.Conn)
}

Then the caller of Poll() can has a small number of goroutines to poll for readiness and handle the reads and writes. This should also works well for packet-processing servers.

Note that this only needs to be implemented in the runtime for those Listeners that multiplexed in the kernel, like the net.TCPListener. For other protocol that multiplex in the userspace and doesn't attached to the runtime poller directly, like udp listener or multiplexing streams in a tcp connection, can be implemented outside the runtime. For example, for multiplexing in a tcp connection, we can implemented the epoll like behavior by read from/write to some buffers then poll from them or register callbacks on buffer size changed.

Edit:
To implement this, we can let users of the runtime poller, like socket and os.File, provide a callback function pointer when open the poller for a fd, to notify them the readiness of I/O. The callback should
looks like:

type IOReadyNotify func(mode int32)

And we store this in the runtime.pollDesc, then the runtime.netpollready() function should also call this callback if not nil besides give out the pending goroutine(s).

[noblehng]

How about a epoll like interface for net.Listener:

type PollableListener interface {
   net.Listener
   // Poll will block till at least one connection been ready for read or write
   // reads and writes are special net.Conn that will not block on EAGAIN
   Poll() (reads []net.Conn, writes []net.Conn)
}

Then the caller of Poll() can has a small number of goroutines to poll for readiness and handle the reads and writes. This should also works well for packet-processing servers.

Note that this only needs to be implemented in the runtime for those Listeners that multiplexed in the kernel, like the net.TCPListener. For other protocol that multiplex in the userspace and doesn't attached to the runtime poller directly, like udp listener or multiplexing streams in a tcp connection, can be implemented outside the runtime. For example, for multiplexing in a tcp connection, we can implemented the epoll like behavior by read from/write to some buffers then poll from them or register callbacks on buffer size changed.

Edit:
To implement this, we can let users of the runtime poller, like socket and os.File, provide a callback function pointer when open the poller for a fd, to notify them the readiness of I/O. The callback should
looks like:

type IOReadyNotify func(mode int32)

And we store this in the runtime.pollDesc, then the runtime.netpollready() function should also call this callback if not nil besides give out the pending goroutine(s).

[aajtodd]

I'm fairly new to Go but seeing the callback interface is a little grating given the blocking API exposed everywhere else. Why not expose a public API to the netpoll interfaces?

Go provides no standard public facing event loop (correct me if I'm wrong please). I have need to wait for readability on external FFI socket(s) (given through cgo). It would be nice to re-use the existing netpoll abstraction to also spawn FFI sockets onto rather than having to wrap epoll/IOCP/select. Also I'm guessing wrapping (e.g) epoll from the sys package does not integrate with the scheduler which would also be a bummer.

[aajtodd]

I'm fairly new to Go but seeing the callback interface is a little grating given the blocking API exposed everywhere else. Why not expose a public API to the netpoll interfaces?

Go provides no standard public facing event loop (correct me if I'm wrong please). I have need to wait for readability on external FFI socket(s) (given through cgo). It would be nice to re-use the existing netpoll abstraction to also spawn FFI sockets onto rather than having to wrap epoll/IOCP/select. Also I'm guessing wrapping (e.g) epoll from the sys package does not integrate with the scheduler which would also be a bummer.

[mjgarton]

For a number of my use cases, something like this :

package net

// Readable returns a channel which can be read from whenever a call to c.Read
// would not block.
func (c *TCPConn) Readable() <-chan struct{} {
        // ...
}

.. would be nice because I can select on it. I have no idea whether it's practical to implement this though.

Another alternative (for some of my cases at least) might be somehow enabling reads to be canceled by using a context.

[mjgarton]

For a number of my use cases, something like this :

package net

// Readable returns a channel which can be read from whenever a call to c.Read
// would not block.
func (c *TCPConn) Readable() <-chan struct{} {
        // ...
}

.. would be nice because I can select on it. I have no idea whether it's practical to implement this though.

Another alternative (for some of my cases at least) might be somehow enabling reads to be canceled by using a context.

[funny-falcon]

type ReadableSig struct {
    C *TCPConn,
    I interface{}
}
// Readable marks connection as waiting for read.
// It will send connection to channel when it becomes readable (or closed by peer)
//  together with additional information passed as 'i' argument.
// Note: if channel blocks, it will create goroutine.
func (c *TCPConn) Readable(i interface{}, ch chan<- ReadableSig)

[funny-falcon]

type ReadableSig struct {
    C *TCPConn,
    I interface{}
}
// Readable marks connection as waiting for read.
// It will send connection to channel when it becomes readable (or closed by peer)
//  together with additional information passed as 'i' argument.
// Note: if channel blocks, it will create goroutine.
func (c *TCPConn) Readable(i interface{}, ch chan<- ReadableSig)

[funny-falcon]

Or even better:

type ReadableNotify struct {
    Conn *TCPConn,
    Ctx context.Context
}
// Readable marks connection as waiting for read and It will send connection
// to channel when it becomes readable (or closed) together with context.
// Internally it may spawn goroutine. It will certainly spawn goroutine if channel
// blocks.
// Note: connections always waits for readability, but if context is closed then
// notification may be omitted. If notification recieved, then Context should be
// checked manually.
func (c *TCPConn) Readable(ctx context.Context, ch chan<- ReadableNotify)

btw, can runtime spawn utility goroutine with less stack than user-faced goroutine?

[funny-falcon]

Or even better:

type ReadableNotify struct {
    Conn *TCPConn,
    Ctx context.Context
}
// Readable marks connection as waiting for read and It will send connection
// to channel when it becomes readable (or closed) together with context.
// Internally it may spawn goroutine. It will certainly spawn goroutine if channel
// blocks.
// Note: connections always waits for readability, but if context is closed then
// notification may be omitted. If notification recieved, then Context should be
// checked manually.
func (c *TCPConn) Readable(ctx context.Context, ch chan<- ReadableNotify)

btw, can runtime spawn utility goroutine with less stack than user-faced goroutine?

[gobwas]

Hi! Great idea 🎆

In our go server with >2millions of alive WebSocket connections we were used epoll to bring the same functionality.

epoll.Handle(conn, EPOLLIN | EPOLLONESHOT, func(events uint) {
    // No more calls will be made for conn until we call epoll.Resume().
    ...
    epoll.Resume(conn)
})

That is, it could be useful to make callback call only once after registration.
In our case we've used EPOLLONESHOT to make this work.

[gobwas]

Hi! Great idea 🎆

In our go server with >2millions of alive WebSocket connections we were used epoll to bring the same functionality.

epoll.Handle(conn, EPOLLIN | EPOLLONESHOT, func(events uint) {
    // No more calls will be made for conn until we call epoll.Resume().
    ...
    epoll.Resume(conn)
})

That is, it could be useful to make callback call only once after registration.
In our case we've used EPOLLONESHOT to make this work.

[amits1995]

I think you'll have to add support for Registered IO in Windows

[amits1995]

I think you'll have to add support for Registered IO in Windows