NAME

SYNOPSIS

  use Directory::Queue::Normal;

  #
  # simple schema:
  #  - there must be a "body" which is a string
  #  - there can be a "header" which is a table/hash
  #

  $schema = { "body" => "string", "header" => "table?" };
  $queuedir = "/tmp/test";

  #
  # sample producer
  #

  $dirq = Directory::Queue::Normal->new(path => $queuedir, schema => $schema);
  foreach $count (1 .. 100) {
      $name = $dirq->add(body => "element $count\n", header => \%ENV);
      printf("# added element %d as %s\n", $count, $name);
  }

  #
  # sample consumer (one pass only)
  #

  $dirq = Directory::Queue::Normal->new(path => $queuedir, schema => $schema);
  for ($name = $dirq->first(); $name; $name = $dirq->next()) {
      next unless $dirq->lock($name);
      printf("# reading element %s\n", $name);
      %data = $dirq->get($name);
      # one can use $data{body} and $data{header} here...
      # one could use $dirq->unlock($name) to only browse the queue...
      $dirq->remove($name);
  }

  #
  # looping consumer (sleeping to avoid using all CPU time)
  #

  $dirq = Directory::Queue::Normal->new(path => $queuedir, schema => $schema);
  while (1) {
      sleep(1) unless $dirq->count();
      for ($name = $dirq->first(); $name; $name = $dirq->next()) {
          ... same as above ...
      }
  }

DESCRIPTION

It allows arbitrary data to be stored (see the "SCHEMA" section for more information) but it has a significant disk space and speed overhead.

Please refer to Directory::Queue for general information about directory queues.

CONSTRUCTOR

path

the queue toplevel directory (mandatory)

rndhex

the "random" hexadecimal digit to use in element names (aka R) as a number between 0 and 15 (default: randomly generated)

umask

the umask to use when creating files and directories (default: use the running process' umask)

maxelts

the maximum number of elements that an intermediate directory can hold (default: 16,000)

maxlock

default maximum time for a locked element (in seconds, default 600) as used by the purge() method

maxtemp

default maximum time for a temporary element (in seconds, default 300) as used by the purge() method

schema

the schema defining how to interpret user supplied data (mandatory if elements are added or read)

SCHEMA

The schema must be a reference to a hash containing key/value pairs.

The key must contain only alphanumerical characters. It identifies the piece of data and will be used as file name when storing the data inside the element directory.

The value represents the type of the given piece of data. It can be:

binary

the data is a binary string (i.e. a sequence of bytes), it will be stored directly in a plain file with no further encoding

string

the data is a text string (i.e. a sequence of characters), it will be UTF-8 encoded before being stored in a file

table

the data is a reference to a hash of text strings, it will be serialized and UTF-8 encoded before being stored in a file

By default, all pieces of data are mandatory. If you append a question mark to the type, this piece of data will be marked as optional. See the comments in the "SYNOPSIS" section for an example.

By default, string or binary data is used directly. If you append an asterisk to the type, the data that you add or get will be by reference. This can be useful to avoid string copies of large amounts of data.

METHODS

new()

return a new Directory::Queue::Normal object (class method)

copy()

return a copy of the object; this can be useful to have independent iterators on the same queue

path()

return the queue toplevel path

id()

return a unique identifier for the queue

count()

return the number of elements in the queue

first()

return the first element in the queue, resetting the iterator; return an empty string if the queue is empty

next()

return the next element in the queue, incrementing the iterator; return an empty string if there is no next element

add(DATA)

add the given data (a hash or hash reference) to the queue and return the corresponding element name; the schema must be known and the data must conform to it

lock(ELEMENT[, PERMISSIVE])

attempt to lock the given element and return true on success; if the PERMISSIVE option is true (which is the default), it is not a fatal error if the element cannot be locked and false is returned

unlock(ELEMENT[, PERMISSIVE])

attempt to unlock the given element and return true on success; if the PERMISSIVE option is true (which is not the default), it is not a fatal error if the element cannot be unlocked and false is returned

touch(ELEMENT)

update the access and modification times on the element's directory to indicate that it is still being used; this is useful for elements that are locked for long periods of time (see the purge() method)

remove(ELEMENT)

remove the given element (which must be locked) from the queue

get(ELEMENT)

get the data from the given element (which must be locked) and return basically the same hash as what add() got (in list context, the hash is returned directly while in scalar context, the hash reference is returned instead); the schema must be knownand the data must conform to it

purge([OPTIONS])

purge the queue by removing unused intermediate directories, removing too old temporary elements and unlocking too old locked elements (aka staled locks); note: this can take a long time on queues with many elements; OPTIONS can be:

DIRECTORY STRUCTURE

temporary

the directory holding temporary elements, i.e. the elements being added

obsolete

the directory holding obsolete elements, i.e. the elements being removed

NNNNNNNN

an intermediate directory holding elements; NNNNNNNN is an 8-digits long hexadecimal number

In any of the above directories, an element is stored as a single directory with a 14-digits long hexadecimal name SSSSSSSSMMMMMR where:

SSSSSSSS

represents the number of seconds since the Epoch

MMMMM

represents the microsecond part of the time since the Epoch

R

is a random hexadecimal digit used to reduce name collisions

Finally, inside an element directory, the different pieces of data are stored into different files, named according to the schema. A locked element contains in addition a directory named "locked".

SEE ALSO

AUTHOR

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