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Ractor: a proposal for new concurrent abstraction without thread-safety issues#3365

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Ractor: a proposal for new concurrent abstraction without thread-safety issues#3365
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@ko1 ko1 commented Jul 27, 2020 •
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Quoted from https://bugs.ruby-lang.org/issues/17100

This ticket proposes a new concurrent abstraction named "Ractor", Ruby's
Actor-like feature (not an exact Actor-model).

Ractor achieves the following goals:

  • Parallel execution in a Ruby interpreter process
  • Avoid thread-safety issues (especially race issues) by limiting the object sharing
  • Communication via copying and moving

I'm working on this proposal in a few years, and the project name was
"Guild". I renamed it from Guild to Ractor because of Matz's preference.

Resources:

Current implementation is not complete (many bugs are remaining) but it passes current CI.
I propose to merge it soon and try the APIs, continue to develop the implementation on a master branch.

@ko1 ko1 force-pushed the ractor_parallel branch 3 times, most recently from d02410a to 847d281 Compare July 31, 2020 21:10
benoittgt
benoittgt reviewed Aug 1, 2020
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Hello @ko1. Thanks a lot for Ractor. This is a very interesting feature. While playing with code snippet. I noticed few things. Feel free to use any suggestion or not. 😄

🙇🏻‍♂️

Comment thread bootstraptest/test_ractor.rb
Comment thread bootstraptest/test_ractor.rb Outdated
Comment thread doc/ractor.md
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Comment thread doc/ractor.md Outdated
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@ko1 ko1 force-pushed the ractor_parallel branch 2 times, most recently from d04762d to 602f56e Compare August 2, 2020 00:31
@ko1

ko1 commented Aug 2, 2020

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@benoittgt I'll squash most of commit, is it okay? (your commit doesn't appear in ruby repo).

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benoittgt commented Aug 2, 2020

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@ko1 No problem! ;)

@ko1 ko1 force-pushed the ractor_parallel branch from 7a3f56a to 8fd9c51 Compare August 3, 2020 05:45
@ko1 ko1 changed the title Ractor parallel Ractor: a proposal for new concurrent abstraction without thread-safety issues Aug 3, 2020
@ko1 ko1 marked this pull request as ready for review August 3, 2020 05:56
@ko1 ko1 force-pushed the ractor_parallel branch 5 times, most recently from 2d946c8 to 7194182 Compare September 3, 2020 05:49
@ko1
Introduce Ractor mechanism for parallel execution
5c2b3ad 
This commit introduces Ractor mechanism to run Ruby program in
parallel. See doc/ractor.md for more details about Ractor.
See ticket [Feature ruby#17100] to see the implementation details
and discussions.

[Feature ruby#17100]

This commit does not complete the implementation. You can find
many bugs on using Ractor. Also the specification will be changed
so that this feature is experimental. You will see a warning when
you make the first Ractor with `Ractor.new`.

I hope this feature can help programmers from thread-safety issues.
@ko1
skip Ractor tests on Compiler tests
dc7f421 
This implementation has memory corruption errors so and
it causes BUG on rare occasions. This commit skips
suspect tests on Github actions Compiler tests.
@ko1 ko1 merged commit b52513e into ruby:master Sep 3, 2020
@okeeblow okeeblow mentioned this pull request Jul 26, 2021
Open
okeeblow added a commit to okeeblow/ox that referenced this pull request Jul 26, 2021
@okeeblow
Mark Ox::sax_parse as Ractor-safe and add a Ractor-based `Ox::S…
b784352 
…ax` example.

For ohler55#277

I've been experimenting with `Ractor`s since upgrading to Ruby 3.0 for ohler55#275
but quickly ran into `Ractor::UnsafeError` when trying to call `Ox::sax_parse` in anything except the main `Ractor`.

Per Ruby's `Ractor` C extension documentation (link below):
"By default, all C extensions are recognized as `Ractor`-unsafe. If C extension becomes `Ractor`-safe,
the extension should call `rb_ext_ractor_safe(true)` at the `Init_` function and all defined method marked as `Ractor`-safe.
`Ractor`-unsafe C-methods only been called from main-ractor. If non-main ractor calls it, then `Ractor::UnsafeError` is raised."

I don't like to open seemingly-large feature requests like this without making some attempt at it myself first,
and luckily it seems like `Ox::sax_parse` Just Works™ since I marked it `Ractor`-safe, even with the `class_cache`.
Confirming this safety, making any remaining changes to `Ox::Sax`, and expanding this to the non-`Sax` parts of `Ox`
are all unfortunately out of my depth as a n00b C coder, so I would appreciate if you could take this over if it interests you.
I am happy with just `Sax` support since I have no current need for marshalling,
but I imagine other `Ox` users wouldn't be satisfied if stratified.

In this commit:
- Enable `rb_ext_ractor_safe` preprocessor macro via `have_func` in `extconf.rb`.
- Mark `Init_Ox` and `ox_sax_parse` as `Ractor` -safe.
- Add a new `Ractor`-based `Ox::Sax` example exercising both parallel and serial `Ox::Sax` handler `Ractor`s
  to parse data from `shared-mime-info` XML files many users likely already have on their systems.

Official `Ractor` info:

- "Ractor: a proposal for a new concurrent abstraction without thread-safety issues": https://bugs.ruby-lang.org/issues/17100 (ruby/ruby#3365)
- Ruby's official `Ractor` documentation: https://docs.ruby-lang.org/en/master/doc/ractor_md.html
- "A way to mark C extensions as thread-safe, Ractor-safe, or unsafe": https://bugs.ruby-lang.org/issues/17307 (ruby/ruby#3824)
- Ruby's C Extension `Ractor` documention covering `rb_ext_ractor_safe`: https://docs.ruby-lang.org/en/master/doc/extension_rdoc.html#label-Appendix+F.+Ractor+support
- A `Ractor` C Extension from the creator of `Ractor` that might serve as a useful example: https://github.com/ko1/ractor-tvar

Blogs:

- "Ractors: Multi-Core Parallel Processing Comes to Ruby 3": https://www.ruby3.dev/ruby-3-fundamentals/2021/01/27/ractors-multi-core-parallel-processing-in-ruby-3/
- "Ruby Ractor Experiments: Safe async communication" :https://ivoanjo.me/blog/2021/02/14/ractor-experiments-safe-async/
- "Playing with Ruby Ractors": https://billy-ruffian.co.uk/playing-with-ruby-ractors/
- "How Fast are Ractors?": https://www.fastruby.io/blog/ruby/performance/how-fast-are-ractors.html (https://github.com/noahgibbs/ractor_basic_benchmarks/tree/main/benchmarks)

Before this change:

```
[okeeblow@emi#CHECKING-YOU-OUT] time ./bin/checking-you-out ~/224031-dot-jpg
Received /home/okeeblow/.local/share/mime/packages/user-extension-rsrc.xml
/home/okeeblow/Works/DistorteD/CHECKING-YOU-OUT/lib/checking-you-out/ghost_revival/mr_mime.rb:375:in `sax_parse': ractor unsafe method called from not main ractor (Ractor::UnsafeError)
        from /home/okeeblow/Works/DistorteD/CHECKING-YOU-OUT/lib/checking-you-out/ghost_revival/mr_mime.rb:375:in `block in open'
        from /home/okeeblow/Works/DistorteD/CHECKING-YOU-OUT/lib/checking-you-out/ghost_revival/mr_mime.rb:331:in `open'
        from /home/okeeblow/Works/DistorteD/CHECKING-YOU-OUT/lib/checking-you-out/ghost_revival/mr_mime.rb:331:in `open'
        from /home/okeeblow/Works/DistorteD/CHECKING-YOU-OUT/lib/checking-you-out/ghost_revival.rb:24:in `block (2 levels) in remember_me'
        from /home/okeeblow/Works/DistorteD/CHECKING-YOU-OUT/lib/checking-you-out/ghost_revival.rb:19:in `loop'
        from /home/okeeblow/Works/DistorteD/CHECKING-YOU-OUT/lib/checking-you-out/ghost_revival.rb:19:in `block in remember_me'
<internal:ractor>:583:in `send': The incoming-port is already closed (Ractor::ClosedError)
        from /home/okeeblow/Works/DistorteD/CHECKING-YOU-OUT/lib/checking-you-out/ghost_revival.rb:86:in `block in extended'
        from /home/okeeblow/Works/DistorteD/CHECKING-YOU-OUT/lib/checking-you-out/ghost_revival.rb:63:in `each'
        from /home/okeeblow/Works/DistorteD/CHECKING-YOU-OUT/lib/checking-you-out/ghost_revival.rb:63:in `each_with_object'
        from /home/okeeblow/Works/DistorteD/CHECKING-YOU-OUT/lib/checking-you-out/ghost_revival.rb:63:in `extended'
        from /home/okeeblow/Works/DistorteD/CHECKING-YOU-OUT/lib/checking-you-out/inner_spirit.rb:216:in `extend'
        from /home/okeeblow/Works/DistorteD/CHECKING-YOU-OUT/lib/checking-you-out/inner_spirit.rb:216:in `<top (required)>'
        from /home/okeeblow/Works/DistorteD/CHECKING-YOU-OUT/lib/checking-you-out.rb:10:in `require_relative'
        from /home/okeeblow/Works/DistorteD/CHECKING-YOU-OUT/lib/checking-you-out.rb:10:in `<top (required)>'
        from ./bin/checking-you-out:3:in `require_relative'
        from ./bin/checking-you-out:3:in `<main>'
./bin/checking-you-out ~/224031-dot-jpg  0.12s user 0.05s system 100% cpu 0.168 total
```

My new `Ox::Sax` Ractor example script's usage:

```
[okeeblow@emi#ox] ./examples/sax_ractor.rb
Please provide the path to a `shared-mime-info` XML package and some media-type query arguments (e.g. 'image/jpeg')
```

```
[okeeblow@emi#ox] ./examples/sax_ractor.rb /usr/share/mime/packages/freedesktop.org.xml
Please provide some media-type query arguments (e.g. 'image/jpeg')
```

Finding all-extant types:

```
[okeeblow@emi#ox] ./examples/sax_ractor.rb /usr/share/mime/packages/freedesktop.org.xml image/jpeg font/ttf application/xhtml+xml image/x-pict
Parallel Ractors
["Worker 0 gave us JPEG 影像 (image/jpeg) [.jpeg,.jpg,.jpe]",
 "Worker 1 gave us TrueType 字型 (font/ttf) [.ttf]",
 "Worker 2 gave us XHTML 網頁 (application/xhtml+xml) [.xhtml,.xht]",
 "Worker 3 gave us Macintosh Quickdraw/PICT 繪圖 (image/x-pict) [.pct,.pict,.pict1,.pict2]"]

Serial Ractor
"ONLY ONE OX gave us [#<CYO JPEG 影像 (image/jpeg) [.jpeg,.jpg,.jpe]>, #<CYO TrueType 字型 (font/ttf) [.ttf]>, #<CYO XHTML 網頁 (application/xhtml+xml) [.xhtml,.xht]>, #<CYO Macintosh Quickdraw/PICT 繪圖 (image/x-pict) [.pct,.pict,.pict1,.pict2]>]"
```

…and not finding invalid ones:

```
[okeeblow@emi#ox] ./examples/sax_ractor.rb /usr/share/mime/packages/freedesktop.org.xml lol/rofl fart/butt image/jpeg
Parallel Ractors
["Worker 0 gave us nothing",
 "Worker 1 gave us nothing",
 "Worker 2 gave us JPEG 影像 (image/jpeg) [.jpeg,.jpg,.jpe]"]

Serial Ractor
"ONLY ONE OX gave us [nil, nil, #<CYO JPEG 影像 (image/jpeg) [.jpeg,.jpg,.jpe]>]"
```

Unit tests pass.
@okeeblow okeeblow mentioned this pull request Jul 26, 2021
Merged
ohler55 pushed a commit to ohler55/ox that referenced this pull request Jul 27, 2021
@okeeblow
Mark Ox::sax_parse as Ractor-safe and add a Ractor-based `Ox::S…
5cc4bff 
…ax` example. (#278)

For #277

I've been experimenting with `Ractor`s since upgrading to Ruby 3.0 for #275
but quickly ran into `Ractor::UnsafeError` when trying to call `Ox::sax_parse` in anything except the main `Ractor`.

Per Ruby's `Ractor` C extension documentation (link below):
"By default, all C extensions are recognized as `Ractor`-unsafe. If C extension becomes `Ractor`-safe,
the extension should call `rb_ext_ractor_safe(true)` at the `Init_` function and all defined method marked as `Ractor`-safe.
`Ractor`-unsafe C-methods only been called from main-ractor. If non-main ractor calls it, then `Ractor::UnsafeError` is raised."

I don't like to open seemingly-large feature requests like this without making some attempt at it myself first,
and luckily it seems like `Ox::sax_parse` Just Works™ since I marked it `Ractor`-safe, even with the `class_cache`.
Confirming this safety, making any remaining changes to `Ox::Sax`, and expanding this to the non-`Sax` parts of `Ox`
are all unfortunately out of my depth as a n00b C coder, so I would appreciate if you could take this over if it interests you.
I am happy with just `Sax` support since I have no current need for marshalling,
but I imagine other `Ox` users wouldn't be satisfied if stratified.

In this commit:
- Enable `rb_ext_ractor_safe` preprocessor macro via `have_func` in `extconf.rb`.
- Mark `Init_Ox` and `ox_sax_parse` as `Ractor` -safe.
- Add a new `Ractor`-based `Ox::Sax` example exercising both parallel and serial `Ox::Sax` handler `Ractor`s
  to parse data from `shared-mime-info` XML files many users likely already have on their systems.

Official `Ractor` info:

- "Ractor: a proposal for a new concurrent abstraction without thread-safety issues": https://bugs.ruby-lang.org/issues/17100 (ruby/ruby#3365)
- Ruby's official `Ractor` documentation: https://docs.ruby-lang.org/en/master/doc/ractor_md.html
- "A way to mark C extensions as thread-safe, Ractor-safe, or unsafe": https://bugs.ruby-lang.org/issues/17307 (ruby/ruby#3824)
- Ruby's C Extension `Ractor` documention covering `rb_ext_ractor_safe`: https://docs.ruby-lang.org/en/master/doc/extension_rdoc.html#label-Appendix+F.+Ractor+support
- A `Ractor` C Extension from the creator of `Ractor` that might serve as a useful example: https://github.com/ko1/ractor-tvar

Blogs:

- "Ractors: Multi-Core Parallel Processing Comes to Ruby 3": https://www.ruby3.dev/ruby-3-fundamentals/2021/01/27/ractors-multi-core-parallel-processing-in-ruby-3/
- "Ruby Ractor Experiments: Safe async communication" :https://ivoanjo.me/blog/2021/02/14/ractor-experiments-safe-async/
- "Playing with Ruby Ractors": https://billy-ruffian.co.uk/playing-with-ruby-ractors/
- "How Fast are Ractors?": https://www.fastruby.io/blog/ruby/performance/how-fast-are-ractors.html (https://github.com/noahgibbs/ractor_basic_benchmarks/tree/main/benchmarks)

Before this change:

```
[okeeblow@emi#CHECKING-YOU-OUT] time ./bin/checking-you-out ~/224031-dot-jpg
Received /home/okeeblow/.local/share/mime/packages/user-extension-rsrc.xml
/home/okeeblow/Works/DistorteD/CHECKING-YOU-OUT/lib/checking-you-out/ghost_revival/mr_mime.rb:375:in `sax_parse': ractor unsafe method called from not main ractor (Ractor::UnsafeError)
        from /home/okeeblow/Works/DistorteD/CHECKING-YOU-OUT/lib/checking-you-out/ghost_revival/mr_mime.rb:375:in `block in open'
        from /home/okeeblow/Works/DistorteD/CHECKING-YOU-OUT/lib/checking-you-out/ghost_revival/mr_mime.rb:331:in `open'
        from /home/okeeblow/Works/DistorteD/CHECKING-YOU-OUT/lib/checking-you-out/ghost_revival/mr_mime.rb:331:in `open'
        from /home/okeeblow/Works/DistorteD/CHECKING-YOU-OUT/lib/checking-you-out/ghost_revival.rb:24:in `block (2 levels) in remember_me'
        from /home/okeeblow/Works/DistorteD/CHECKING-YOU-OUT/lib/checking-you-out/ghost_revival.rb:19:in `loop'
        from /home/okeeblow/Works/DistorteD/CHECKING-YOU-OUT/lib/checking-you-out/ghost_revival.rb:19:in `block in remember_me'
<internal:ractor>:583:in `send': The incoming-port is already closed (Ractor::ClosedError)
        from /home/okeeblow/Works/DistorteD/CHECKING-YOU-OUT/lib/checking-you-out/ghost_revival.rb:86:in `block in extended'
        from /home/okeeblow/Works/DistorteD/CHECKING-YOU-OUT/lib/checking-you-out/ghost_revival.rb:63:in `each'
        from /home/okeeblow/Works/DistorteD/CHECKING-YOU-OUT/lib/checking-you-out/ghost_revival.rb:63:in `each_with_object'
        from /home/okeeblow/Works/DistorteD/CHECKING-YOU-OUT/lib/checking-you-out/ghost_revival.rb:63:in `extended'
        from /home/okeeblow/Works/DistorteD/CHECKING-YOU-OUT/lib/checking-you-out/inner_spirit.rb:216:in `extend'
        from /home/okeeblow/Works/DistorteD/CHECKING-YOU-OUT/lib/checking-you-out/inner_spirit.rb:216:in `<top (required)>'
        from /home/okeeblow/Works/DistorteD/CHECKING-YOU-OUT/lib/checking-you-out.rb:10:in `require_relative'
        from /home/okeeblow/Works/DistorteD/CHECKING-YOU-OUT/lib/checking-you-out.rb:10:in `<top (required)>'
        from ./bin/checking-you-out:3:in `require_relative'
        from ./bin/checking-you-out:3:in `<main>'
./bin/checking-you-out ~/224031-dot-jpg  0.12s user 0.05s system 100% cpu 0.168 total
```

My new `Ox::Sax` Ractor example script's usage:

```
[okeeblow@emi#ox] ./examples/sax_ractor.rb
Please provide the path to a `shared-mime-info` XML package and some media-type query arguments (e.g. 'image/jpeg')
```

```
[okeeblow@emi#ox] ./examples/sax_ractor.rb /usr/share/mime/packages/freedesktop.org.xml
Please provide some media-type query arguments (e.g. 'image/jpeg')
```

Finding all-extant types:

```
[okeeblow@emi#ox] ./examples/sax_ractor.rb /usr/share/mime/packages/freedesktop.org.xml image/jpeg font/ttf application/xhtml+xml image/x-pict
Parallel Ractors
["Worker 0 gave us JPEG 影像 (image/jpeg) [.jpeg,.jpg,.jpe]",
 "Worker 1 gave us TrueType 字型 (font/ttf) [.ttf]",
 "Worker 2 gave us XHTML 網頁 (application/xhtml+xml) [.xhtml,.xht]",
 "Worker 3 gave us Macintosh Quickdraw/PICT 繪圖 (image/x-pict) [.pct,.pict,.pict1,.pict2]"]

Serial Ractor
"ONLY ONE OX gave us [#<CYO JPEG 影像 (image/jpeg) [.jpeg,.jpg,.jpe]>, #<CYO TrueType 字型 (font/ttf) [.ttf]>, #<CYO XHTML 網頁 (application/xhtml+xml) [.xhtml,.xht]>, #<CYO Macintosh Quickdraw/PICT 繪圖 (image/x-pict) [.pct,.pict,.pict1,.pict2]>]"
```

…and not finding invalid ones:

```
[okeeblow@emi#ox] ./examples/sax_ractor.rb /usr/share/mime/packages/freedesktop.org.xml lol/rofl fart/butt image/jpeg
Parallel Ractors
["Worker 0 gave us nothing",
 "Worker 1 gave us nothing",
 "Worker 2 gave us JPEG 影像 (image/jpeg) [.jpeg,.jpg,.jpe]"]

Serial Ractor
"ONLY ONE OX gave us [nil, nil, #<CYO JPEG 影像 (image/jpeg) [.jpeg,.jpg,.jpe]>]"
```

Unit tests pass.
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