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NAMExs - Crossroads I/O, a lightweight messaging layerSYNOPSIS#include <xs/xs.h> cc [flags] files -lxs [libraries]DESCRIPTIONCrossroads I/O is a library for building scalable and high performance distributed applications. It fits between classic BSD sockets, JMS/AMQP-style message queues, and enterprise message-oriented middleware. Crossroads I/O extends the standard socket interfaces with features traditionally provided by specialised messaging middleware products. Crossroads sockets provide an abstraction of asynchronous message queues, multiple messaging patterns, message filtering (subscriptions), seamless access to multiple transport protocols and more. Crossroads I/O provides a native C API for applications. Support for many more languages is provided by the community through language bindings which can be found at the Crossroads website. This documentation presents an overview of Crossroads concepts, describes how Crossroads abstract standard sockets and provides a reference manual for the functions provided by the Crossroads library.ContextBefore using any Crossroads library functions the caller must initialise a context using xs_init(). The following functions are provided to handle initialisation and termination of a context: Initialise Crossroads contextxs_init(3)
Terminate Crossroads context
xs_term(3)
Set Crossroads context options
xs_setctxopt(3)
A context is thread safe and may be shared among as many application
threads as necessary, without any additional locking required on the part of
the caller.
The individual sockets within a context are not thread safe
— applications may not use a single socket concurrently
from multiple threads.
A socket may be migrated from one thread to another, by
issuing a full memory barrier between individual calls on the socket.
For example, this means applications can create a socket in one thread with
xs_socket() and then pass it to a newly created thread as part
of thread initialization via a structure passed as an argument to
pthread_create().
Multiple contexts may coexist within a single application. Thus, an
application can use Crossroads directly and at the same time make use of any
number of additional libraries or components which themselves make use of
Crossroads.
MessagesA Crossroads message is a discrete unit of data passed between applications or components of the same application. Crossroads messages have no internal structure and from the point of view of Crossroads themselves they are considered to be opaque binary data. Applications using the Crossroads library send and receive messages directly from/to buffers provided by the application, using the Crossroads functions xs_send() and xs_recv(). Alternatively, applications desiring zero-copy messaging and/or reference counted allocation of messages can use the message handling functions described in this section, and send and receive messages using xs_sendmsg() and xs_recvmsg() respectively. These two approaches are interchangeable. The following functions are provided to work with messages using zero-copy and/or reference-counted allocation of messages: Initialise a messagexs_msg_init(3) xs_msg_init_size(3)
xs_msg_init_data(3)
Release a message
xs_msg_close(3)
Access message content
xs_msg_data(3) xs_msg_size(3)
Message manipulation
xs_msg_copy(3) xs_msg_move(3)
Retrieve message option
xs_getmsgopt(3)
SocketsCrossroads sockets present an abstraction of a asynchronous message queue, with the exact queueing semantics depending on the socket type in use. See xs_socket(3) for the socket types provided. The following functions are provided to work with sockets: Creating a socketxs_socket(3)
Closing a socket
xs_close(3)
Manipulating socket options
xs_getsockopt(3) xs_setsockopt(3)
Creating and modifiying topologies
xs_bind(3) xs_connect(3)
xs_shutdown(3)
Sending and receiving messages
xs_send(3) xs_recv(3)
Sending and receiving messages (zero-copy)
xs_sendmsg(3) xs_recvmsg(3)
Input/output multiplexing. Crossroads provides a mechanism for
applications to multiplex input/output events over a set containing both
Crossroads sockets and standard sockets. This mechanism mirrors the standard
poll() system call, and is described in detail in xs_poll(3).
TransportsA Crossroads socket can use multiple different underlying transport mechanisms. Each transport mechanism is suited to a particular purpose and has its own advantages and drawbacks. The following transport mechanisms are provided: Unicast transport using TCPxs_tcp(7)
Reliable multicast transport using PGM
xs_pgm(7)
Local inter-process communication transport
xs_ipc(7)
Local in-process (inter-thread) communication transport
xs_inproc(7)
ERROR HANDLINGThe Crossroads library functions handle errors using the standard conventions found on POSIX systems. Generally, this means that upon failure a Crossroads library function shall return either a NULL value (if returning a pointer) or a negative value (if returning an integer), and the actual error code shall be stored in the errno variable. On non-POSIX systems some users may experience issues with retrieving the correct value of the errno variable. The xs_errno() function is provided to assist in these cases; for details refer to xs_errno(3). The xs_strerror() function is provided to translate Crossroads-specific error codes into error message strings; for details refer to xs_strerror(3).MISCELLANEOUSThe following miscellaneous functions are provided: Report Crossroads library versionxs_version(3)
LANGUAGE BINDINGSThe Crossroads library provides interfaces suitable for calling from programs in any language; this documentation documents those interfaces as they would be used by C programmers. The intent is that programmers using Crossroads from other languages shall refer to this documentation alongside any documentation provided by the vendor of their language binding.ZEROMQ COMPATIBILITYThe Crossroads library provides an optional drop-in libzmq compatibility library for ZeroMQ applications. See xs_zmq(7) for documentation on this option.AUTHORSThe Crossroads documentation was written by Martin Sustrik < sustrik@250bpm.com[1]> and Martin Lucina < martin@lucina.net[2]>.COPYINGFree use of the Crossroads library software is granted under the terms of the GNU Lesser General Public License (LGPL). For details see the files COPYING and COPYING.LESSER included with the libxs distribution. As a special exception, the copyright holders of libxs grant you the right to link the library statically with your software. Refer to the end of the COPYING.LESSER file included with the libxs distribution for details.NOTES
mailto:sustrik@250bpm.com
mailto:martin@lucina.net
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