package shuttle
Install
Dune Dependency
Authors
Maintainers
Sources
sha256=e701a36d3383156f5b1d16f6676622377ab148e39c44b96821ea45fb7e22abb7
sha512=8405350a606782d8cda314b86327bb6823e5635fd6f72fb8cb2d734a91a10b81e50d468f5539fdbce4f71f67b0aed91fb012a85ec4673b2e9f2bfff477d881e7
README.md.html
Shuttle
Reasonably performant buffered channels1 for async.
Overview
There are multiple options for performing I/O using async. The Reader and Writer modules provide a high level API for buffered I/O, and are typically the go-to option for applications that use async for I/O. These modules maintain their own internal buffer, and offer users a simple interface that lets them interact with the underlying file descriptor without having to write custom (and often error prone) buffer management logic.
The Reader/Writer modules provide convinence, but they might not be suitable in scenarios where one wants slightly more control over when write operations are scheduled, or when the overhead of the reader/writer is not desirable2. In such scenarios, it is possible to drop down to async's Fd module and schedule reads and writes manually. This approach will give full control over how I/O operations are scheduled, but will come at a cost of more complexity as the user is now responsible for buffer management, and proper handling of syscall responses.
Shuttle aims to provide a middle ground for a subset of use-cases handled by Reader/Writer. It doesn't aim to support the full feature set of the reader/writes modules. In return, it allows for a high level api that pairs the ease of use of reader/writer modules with performance and latency curves that are closer to implementations with manual buffer management.
Supported Platforms
Currently only linux, macOS and bsd based systems.
How to Install
opam install shuttle for the current published release, and opam pin add shuttle --dev-repo for the development version.
Notes:
1: Channel is a high-level construct for performing I/O.
2: As always, make your own measurements. Also weigh in the fact that reader/writer modules in async are mature, battle tested and cover more use-cases.
3: The implementation started as a fork async_rpc's low latency transport.
4: A shuttle based http server benchmark can be found at https://github.com/ocaml-multicore/retro-httpaf-bench/pull/16