comparison doc/manual.tex @ 2001:16f5f136a807

uw_register_transactional() can return error codes
author Adam Chlipala <adam@chlipala.net>
date Thu, 17 Apr 2014 17:41:24 -0400
parents bddee3af70c4
children 93ff76058825
comparison
equal deleted inserted replaced
2000:bddee3af70c4 2001:16f5f136a807
2457 For performance and correctness reasons, it is usually preferable to use \texttt{uw\_malloc()} instead of \texttt{malloc()}. The former manipulates a local heap that can be kept allocated across page requests, while the latter uses global data structures that may face contention during concurrent execution. However, we emphasize again that \texttt{uw\_malloc()} should never be used to implement some logic that couldn't be implemented trivially by a constant-valued expression in Ur. 2457 For performance and correctness reasons, it is usually preferable to use \texttt{uw\_malloc()} instead of \texttt{malloc()}. The former manipulates a local heap that can be kept allocated across page requests, while the latter uses global data structures that may face contention during concurrent execution. However, we emphasize again that \texttt{uw\_malloc()} should never be used to implement some logic that couldn't be implemented trivially by a constant-valued expression in Ur.
2458 2458
2459 \item \begin{verbatim} 2459 \item \begin{verbatim}
2460 typedef void (*uw_callback)(void *); 2460 typedef void (*uw_callback)(void *);
2461 typedef void (*uw_callback_with_retry)(void *, int will_retry); 2461 typedef void (*uw_callback_with_retry)(void *, int will_retry);
2462 void uw_register_transactional(uw_context, void *data, uw_callback commit, 2462 int uw_register_transactional(uw_context, void *data, uw_callback commit,
2463 uw_callback rollback, uw_callback_with_retry free); 2463 uw_callback rollback, uw_callback_with_retry free);
2464 \end{verbatim} 2464 \end{verbatim}
2465 All side effects in Ur/Web programs need to be compatible with transactions, such that any set of actions can be undone at any time. Thus, you should not perform actions with non-local side effects directly; instead, register handlers to be called when the current transaction is committed or rolled back. The arguments here give an arbitary piece of data to be passed to callbacks, a function to call on commit, a function to call on rollback, and a function to call afterward in either case to clean up any allocated resources. A rollback handler may be called after the associated commit handler has already been called, if some later part of the commit process fails. A free handler is told whether the runtime system expects to retry the current page request after rollback finishes. 2465 All side effects in Ur/Web programs need to be compatible with transactions, such that any set of actions can be undone at any time. Thus, you should not perform actions with non-local side effects directly; instead, register handlers to be called when the current transaction is committed or rolled back. The arguments here give an arbitary piece of data to be passed to callbacks, a function to call on commit, a function to call on rollback, and a function to call afterward in either case to clean up any allocated resources. A rollback handler may be called after the associated commit handler has already been called, if some later part of the commit process fails. A free handler is told whether the runtime system expects to retry the current page request after rollback finishes. The return value of \texttt{uw\_register\_transactional()} is 0 on success and nonzero on failure (where failure currently only happens when exceeding configured limits on number of transactionals).
2466 2466
2467 Any of the callbacks may be \texttt{NULL}. To accommodate some stubbornly non-transactional real-world actions like sending an e-mail message, Ur/Web treats \texttt{NULL} \texttt{rollback} callbacks specially. When a transaction commits, all \texttt{commit} actions that have non-\texttt{NULL} rollback actions are tried before any \texttt{commit} actions that have \texttt{NULL} rollback actions. Furthermore, an SQL \texttt{COMMIT} is also attempted in between the two phases, so the nicely transactional actions have a chance to influence whether data are committed to the database, while \texttt{NULL}-rollback actions only get run in the first place after committing data. The reason for all this is that it is \emph{expected} that concurrency interactions will cause database commits to fail in benign ways that call for transaction restart. A truly non-undoable action should only be run after we are sure the database transaction will commit. 2467 Any of the callbacks may be \texttt{NULL}. To accommodate some stubbornly non-transactional real-world actions like sending an e-mail message, Ur/Web treats \texttt{NULL} \texttt{rollback} callbacks specially. When a transaction commits, all \texttt{commit} actions that have non-\texttt{NULL} rollback actions are tried before any \texttt{commit} actions that have \texttt{NULL} rollback actions. Furthermore, an SQL \texttt{COMMIT} is also attempted in between the two phases, so the nicely transactional actions have a chance to influence whether data are committed to the database, while \texttt{NULL}-rollback actions only get run in the first place after committing data. The reason for all this is that it is \emph{expected} that concurrency interactions will cause database commits to fail in benign ways that call for transaction restart. A truly non-undoable action should only be run after we are sure the database transaction will commit.
2468 2468
2469 When a request handler ends with multiple pending transactional actions, their handlers are run in a first-in-last-out stack-like order, wherever the order would otherwise be ambiguous. 2469 When a request handler ends with multiple pending transactional actions, their handlers are run in a first-in-last-out stack-like order, wherever the order would otherwise be ambiguous.
2470 2470