Proc/NiceSleep version 0.50 STATUS This is BETA software; it seems to work, but use it at you own risk. The API is subject to change until release 0.75, at which point it will be considered stable. This module has been tested on linux, freebsd, and win32, but it should work on any machine that runs perl. Comments, ideas, bug reports, patches, and ports are greatly appreciated. ABSTRACT Proc::NiceSleep is a Perl module which defines simple functions to allow a process to yield use of the system in a quasi-intelligent manner. See SYNOPSIS and DESCRIPTION below for details. The Proc::NiceSleep module is available on the Comprehensive Perl Archive Network (CPAN). The latest version should always be available at http://joshr.com/src/ ; http://cpan.perl.org/authors/id/J/JO/JOSHR/ and mirrors may lag behind. INSTALLATION To install this module type the following: perl Makefile.PL make make test make install or, if you use the CPAN shell, from the command line you can use: perl -MCPAN -e 'install "Proc::NiceSleep"' DEPENDENCIES This module requires no other non-standard perl modules, but will perform with sub-second resolution only if Time::HiRes is detected and supports it. NAME Proc::NiceSleep - yield system in a quasi-intelligent fashion SYNOPSIS use Proc::NiceSleep qw( sleepfactor minruntime maybesleep nice ); nice(5); # lower our priority if our OS supports it sleepfactor(2); # sleep 2x as long as we run minruntime(2); # run at least 2 seconds without sleep while($somecondition) { dosomething(); $slept = maybesleep(); # sleep some amount of time if appropriate } DESCRIPTION Proc::NiceSleep is a Perl 5 module which defines subroutines to allow a process to yield use of the system in a method consistent with the configured policy. Proc::NiceSleep is intended for use in situations where the operating system does not support priorities, or where using the operating system's built-in priorities does not yield the system sufficiently. A convenient nice() function, which acts much like the shell command and executable of the same name, is also provided for easy, platform independent access to your system's priorities (if available). If Proc::NiceSleep autodetects the presence of the Time::HiRes module and your operating system supports it then timing and yielding operations will occur with sub-second granularity. If not, no warning or error will be issued but Proc::NiceSleep operations will occur with a granularity of about one second. By default Proc::NiceSleep expects to yield the process for an amount of time equal to the amount of time that process runs without sleeping (wallclock time). This is expressed by the default Sleep Factor of 1.0. The following functions can be imported from this module. No functions are exported by default. nice () Sets or gets the priority of the process, as understood by the operating system. If passed an integer, nice() attempts to set priority of the process to the value specified, and returns that value. If no parameter is passed, nice() attempts to query the operating system for the priority of the process and return it. If your OS doesn't support priorities then nice() will likely always return 0. The exact nice() values returned and recognized, and their meanings to the system, are system dependent, but usually range from about -20 (signifying highest priority) to 20 (signifying lowest priority, 'nicest'). maybesleep () Checks to see if this process should yield use of the system by issuing some kind of sleep at this point, and if so, does so for an appropriate amount of time. Returns 0 if no sleep was performed, otherwise returns the amount of seconds we think maybesleep() actually slept for. sleepfactor () Sets or gets the sleep factor depending on whether a number is passed or not. A sleep factor of 1 means to sleep an equal amount of time as we run, 2 means to sleep twice as long, and so on. The default value is 1. minruntime () Sets or gets the minimum run time, in seconds, depending on whether a number is passed or not. The minumum run time is the least amount of time that Proc::NiceSleep will allow the process to run between sleeps. The default value is 1. Dump () Returns a reference to a hash with internal information about Proc::NiceSleep configuration and statistics. The names and presence of Dump()'s returned hash names and values are for informational and debugging purposes only and are subject to change without notice. Modifying this hash will have no effect on the operation of Proc::NiceSleep Proc::NiceSleep is loosely modeled on Lincoln Stein's CGI.pm and on D. Wegscheid and other's Time::HiRes.pm. EXPORT None by default. AUTHOR Josh Rabinowitz, CAVEATS sleepfactor() and minruntime() require numeric parameters if present, but no check is made that the passed scalar is a number. Uncoordinated use of sleep() (and possibly of signal() and alarm()) in your perl program may cause your program to yield the system more or less than specified via Proc::NiceSleep policies. SEE ALSO Time::HiRes, Proc::Queue, Proc::Swarm COPYRIGHT Copyright (c) 2002 Josh Rabinowitz All rights reserved. This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the same terms as Perl itself. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS Thanks to D. Wegscheid and others for Time::HiRes.pm. Thanks also to Michael G Schwern, Terrence Brannon, and David Alban for their valuable input.