NAME Coro::Mysql - let other threads run while doing mysql requests SYNOPSIS use Coro::Mysql; my $DBH = Coro::Mysql::unblock DBI->connect (...); DESCRIPTION (Note that in this manual, "thread" refers to real threads as implemented by the Coro module, not to the built-in windows process emulation which unfortunately is also called "threads") This module "patches" DBD::mysql database handles so that they do not block the whole process, but only the thread that they are used in. This can be used to make parallel sql requests using Coro, or to do other stuff while mysql is rumbling in the background. CAVEAT Note that this module must be linked against exactly the same libmysqlclient library as DBD::mysql, otherwise it will not work. Also, while this module makes database handles non-blocking, you still cannot run multiple requests in parallel on the same database handle. If you want to run multiple queries in parallel, you have to create multiple database connections, one for each thread that runs queries. Not doing so can corrupt your data - use a Coro::Semaphore when in doubt. If you make sure that you never run two or more requests in parallel, you can freely share the database handles between threads, of course. Also, this module uses a number of "unclean" techniques (patching an internal libmysql structure for one thing) and was hacked within a few hours on a long flight to Malaysia. It does, however, check whether it indeed got the structure layout correct, so you should expect perl exceptions or early crashes as opposed to data corruption when something goes wrong during patching. SPEED This module is implemented in XS, and as long as mysqld replies quickly enough, it adds no overhead to the standard libmysql communication routines (which are very badly written, btw.). For very fast queries ("select 0"), this module can add noticable overhead (around 15%) as it tries to switch to other coroutines when mysqld doesn't deliver the data instantly. For most types of queries, there will be no overhead, especially on multicore systems where your perl process can do other things while mysqld does its stuff. LIMITATIONS This module only supports "standard" mysql connection handles - this means unix domain or TCP sockets, and excludes SSL/TLS connections, named pipes (windows) and shared memory (also windows). No support for these connection types is planned, either. FUNCTIONS Coro::Mysql offers a single user-accessible function: $DBH = Coro::Mysql::unblock $DBH This function takes a DBI database handles and "patches" it so it becomes compatible to Coro threads. After that, it returns the patched handle - you should always use the newly returned database handle. It is safe to call this function on any database handle (or just about any value), but it will only do anything to DBD::mysql handles, others are returned unchanged. That means it is harmless when applied to database handles of other databases. USAGE EXAMPLE This example uses PApp::SQL and Coro::on_enter to implement a function "with_db", that connects to a database, uses "unblock" on the resulting handle and then makes sure that $PApp::SQL::DBH is set to the (per-thread) database handle when the given thread is running (it does not restore any previous value of $PApp::SQL::DBH, however): use Coro; use Coro::Mysql; use PApp::SQL; sub with_db($$$&) { my ($database, $user, $pass, $cb) = @_; my $dbh = Coro::Mysql::unblock DBI->connect ($database, $user, $pass) or die $DBI::errstr; Coro::on_enter { $PApp::SQL::DBH = $dbh }; $cb->(); } This function makes it possible to easily use PApp::SQL with Coro::Mysql, without worrying about database handles. # now start 10 threads doing stuff async { with_db "DBI:mysql:test", "", "", sub { sql_exec "update table set col = 5 where id = 7"; my $st = sql_exec \my ($id, $name), "select id, name from table where name like ?", "a%"; while ($st->fetch) { ... } my $id = sql_insertid sql_exec "insert into table values (1,2,3)"; # etc. }; } for 1..10; SEE ALSO Coro, PApp::SQL (a user friendly but efficient wrapper around DBI). AUTHOR Marc Lehmann http://home.schmorp.de/