AG_EVENTLOOP(3)

NAME
AG_EventLoop - agar low-level event loop

SYNOPSIS

    #include <agar/core.h>

DESCRIPTION
The AG_EventLoop routine loops, continually checking for low-level events and processing them. Its operation is governed by a registered set of Event Sinks which determine the type of low-level events to monitor, and the procedures to invoke in order to handle them.

The most common type of low-level events are:

1.  Activity on a socket or file descriptor.
2.  Expiration of a timer.
3.  Kernel-event notifications (e.g., kqueue(2) events). This includes filesystem events and process monitoring.

Concurrent instances of AG_EventLoop() are allowed in multithreaded builds. In threaded builds, event sinks are associated with running thread at the time of creation (in thread-local storage).

MAIN INTERFACE
int AG_EventLoop(void)

void AG_Terminate(int exitCode)

void AG_TerminateEv(AG_Event *event)

AG_EventLoop() blocks the current thread, waiting for low-level events, and processing them until termination is requested. Its operation is governed by the registered set of event sinks.

The AG_Terminate() function requests termination of the event loop associated with the current thread. If the current thread is the main thread, AG_Terminate() will terminate the application with exitCode as return code. The AG_TerminateEv() variant accepts an AG_Event style argument instead of an int for the exit code.

EVENT SINKS
AG_EventSink * AG_AddEventSink(enum ag_event_sink_type type, int ident, Uint flags, AG_EventSinkFn fn, const char *fnArgs)

void AG_DelEventSink(AG_EventSink *sink)

void AG_DelEventsSinkByIdent(enum ag_event_sink_type type, int ident, Uint flags)

AG_EventSink * AG_AddEventPrologue(AG_EventSinkFn fn, const char *fnArgs, ...)

AG_EventSink * AG_AddEventEpilogue(AG_EventSinkFn fn, const char *fnArgs, ...)

AG_EventSink * AG_AddEventSpinner(AG_EventSinkFn fn, const char *fnArgs, ...)

void AG_DelEventPrologue(AG_EventSink *sink)

void AG_DelEventEpilogue(AG_EventSink *sink)

void AG_DelEventSpinner(AG_EventSink *sink)

The AG_AddEventSink() routine creates a new event sink under the current thread, and returns a pointer to a newly-allocated AG_EventSink structure. The type argument may be one of:

AG_SINK_READ
    Data is available for reading on file referenced by ident.

AG_SINK_WRITE
    Data is available for writing on file referenced by ident.

AG_SINK_FSEVENT
    A filesystem event has occurred on the file/directory referenced by ident. The type of event is specified in flags (see FILESYSTEM EVENTS for the accepted flags).

AG_SINK_PROCEVENT
    An event has occurred on the monitored process ident. The type of event is specified in flags (see PROCESS EVENTS below).

The AG_DelEventSink() function destroys the specified event sink. The AG_DelEventSinksByIdent() function destroys all event sinks with matching ident and flags.

The AG_AddEventPrologue() function registers a callback routine to be invoked once at the start of AG_EventLoop(). AG_AddEventEpilogue() registers a callback routine to be invoked on exit, before AG_EventLoop() returns. AG_DelEventEpilogue() and AG_DelEventPrologue() destroy the specified epilogue/prologue routine.

The AG_AddEventSpinner() routine registers a "spinner" callback routine. Spinner routines are invoked repeatedly and unconditionally by AG_EventLoop(), until the event loop terminates, or AG_DelEventSpinner() is invoked.

FILESYSTEM EVENTS
Acceptable flags for the AG_SINK_FSEVENT event sink include:

AG_FSEVENT_DELETE
    The file has been deleted.
AG_FSEVENT_WRITE
    The file was written to.
AG_FSEVENT_EXTEND
    The file was extended in size.
AG_FSEVENT_ATTRIB
    File attributes have been changed.
AG_FSEVENT_LINK
    The link count on the file has changed.
AG_FSEVENT_RENAME
    The referenced file has been renamed.
AG_FSEVENT_REVOKE
    Filesystem has unmount, or revoke(2) called.

PROCESS EVENTS
Acceptable flags for the AG_SINK_PROCEVENT event sink include:

AG_PROCEVENT_EXIT
    Monitored process has exited.
AG_PROCEVENT_FORK
    Monitored process has called fork(2).
AG_PROCEVENT_EXEC
    Monitored process has called exec(3).

EXAMPLES
Agar's X11 driver AG_DriverGLX(3) sets up an event sink of type AG_SINK_READ in order to receive events from the X file descriptor.

For directory listings to refresh automatically on platforms which offer filesystem monitoring capabilities, AG_FileDlg(3) uses AG_SINK_FSEVENT.

The AG_ConsoleOpenFile(3) feature of AG_Console(3) sets up an event sink of type AG_SINK_READ to monitor changes on a file or stream.

The agardb(1) debugger uses AG_SINK_PROCEVENT to monitor events related to processes being debugged.

SEE ALSO
AG_CustomEventLoop(3), AG_Event(3), AG_Intro(3), poll(2), select(2), kqueue(2)

HISTORY
The AG_EventLoop call first appeared in Agar 1.0. Event sinks first appeared in Agar 1.5.0.