implement rgrep, and write part 12 (draft) about it

[rust-101.git] / src / part12.rs

// Rust-101, Part 12: Concurrency (WIP)
// =================

use std::io::prelude::*;
use std::{io, fs, thread};
use std::sync::mpsc::{sync_channel, SyncSender, Receiver};
use std::sync::Arc;

//@ This part is introducing the concurrency features of Rust. We are going to write our own small version of "grep",
//@ called *rgrep*, and it is going to make use of multiple cores: One thread reads the input files, one thread does
//@ the actual matching, and one thread writes the output.

// Before we come to the actual code, we define a data-structure `Options` to store all the information we need
// to complete the job: Which files to work on, which pattern to look for, and how to output. <br/>
// Besides just printing all the matching lines, we will also offer to count them, or alternatively to sort them.
#[derive(Clone,Copy)]
enum OutputMode {
    Print,
    SortAndPrint,
    Count,
}
use self::OutputMode::*;

struct Options {
    files: Vec<String>,
    pattern: String,
    output_mode: OutputMode,
}

//@ Now we can write three functions to do the actual job of reading, matching, and printing, respectively.
//@ To get the data from one thread to the next, we will use *message passing*: We will establish communication
//@ channels between the threads, with one thread *sending* data, and the other one receiving it. `SyncSender<T>`
//@ is the type of the sending end of a synchronous channel transmitting data of type `T`. *Synchronous* here
//@ means that the `send` operation could block, waiting for the other side to make progress. We don't want to
//@ end up with the entire files being stored in the buffer of the channels, and the output not being fast enough
//@ to keep up with the speed of input.
//@
//@ We also need all the threads to have access to the options of the job they are supposed to do. Since it would
//@ be rather unnecessary to actually copy these options around, we will use reference-counting to share them between
//@ all threads. `Arc` is the thread-safe version of `Rc, using atomic operations to keep the reference count up-to-date.
//@ You can also think of this as saying that *all* threads own the `Options` "a bit" - and since there could be other
//@ owners, `Arc` (just like `Rc`) only permits read-only access to its content. That's good enough for the options, though.

// The first functions reads the files, and sends every line over the `out_channel`.
fn read_files(options: Arc<Options>, out_channel: SyncSender<String>) {
    for file in options.files.iter() {
        // First, we open the file, ignoring any errors.
        let file = fs::File::open(file).unwrap();
        // Then we obtain a `BufReader` for it, which provides the `lines` function.
        let file = io::BufReader::new(file);
        for line in file.lines() {
            let line = line.unwrap();
            // Now we send the line over the channel, ignoring the possibility of `send` failing.
            out_channel.send(line).unwrap();
        }
    }
    // When we drop the `out_channel`, it will be closed, which the other end can notice.
}

// The second function filters the lines it receives through `in_channel` with the pattern, and sends
// matches via `out_channel`.
fn filter_lines(options: Arc<Options>, in_channel: Receiver<String>, out_channel: SyncSender<String>) {
    // We can simply iterate over the channel, which will stop when the channel is closed.
    for line in in_channel.iter() {
        // `contains` works on lots of types of patterns, but in particular, we can use it to test whether
        // one string is contained in another.
        if line.contains(&options.pattern) {
            out_channel.send(line).unwrap();                        /*@*/
        }
    }
}

// The third function performs the output operations, receiving the relevant lines on its `in_channel`.
fn output_lines(options: Arc<Options>, in_channel: Receiver<String>) {
    match options.output_mode {
        Print => {
            // Here, we just print every line we see.
            for line in in_channel.iter() {
                println!("{}", line);                               /*@*/
            }
        },
        Count => {
            // We are supposed to count the number of matching lines. There's a convenient iterator adapter that
            // we can use for this job.
            let count = in_channel.iter().count();                  /*@*/
            println!("{} hits for {}.", count, options.pattern);    /*@*/
        },
        SortAndPrint => {
            // We are asked to sort the matching lines before printing. So let's collect them all in a local vector...
            let data: Vec<String> = in_channel.iter().collect();
            // ...and implement the actual sorting later.
            unimplemented!()
        }
    }
}

// With the operations of the three threads defined, we can now implement a function that performs grepping according
// to some given options.
fn run(options: Options) {
    // We move the `options` into an `Arc`, as that's what the thread workers expect.
    let options = Arc::new(options);

    // Set up the channels. Use `sync_channel` with buffer-size of 16 to avoid needlessly filling RAM.
    let (line_sender, line_receiver) = sync_channel(16);
    let (filtered_sender, filtered_receiver) = sync_channel(16);

    // Spawn the read thread: `thread::spawn` takes a closure that is run in a new thread.
    //@ The `move` keyword again tells Rust that we want ownership of captured variables to be moved into the
    //@ closure. This means we need to do the `clone` *first*, otherwise we would lose our `options` to the
    //@ new thread!
    let options1 = options.clone();
    let handle1 = thread::spawn(move || read_files(options1, line_sender));

    // Same with the filter thread.
    let options2 = options.clone();
    let handle2 = thread::spawn(move || filter_lines(options2, line_receiver, filtered_sender));

    // And the output thread.
    let options3 = options.clone();
    let handle3 = thread::spawn(move || output_lines(options3, filtered_receiver));

    // Finally, wait until all three threads did their job.
    handle1.join().unwrap();
    handle2.join().unwrap();
    handle3.join().unwrap();
}

// Now we have all the pieces together for testing our `rgrep` with some hard-coded options.
//@ We need to call `to_string` on string literals to convert them to a fully-owned `String`.
pub fn main() {
    let options = Options {
        files: vec!["src/part10.rs".to_string(), "src/part11.rs".to_string(), "src/part12.rs".to_string()],
        pattern: "let".to_string(),
        output_mode: Print
    };
    run(options);
}

// **Exercise 12.1**: Change `rgrep` such that it prints now only the matching lines, but also the name of the file
// and the number of the line in the file. You will have to change the type of the channels from `String` to something
// that records this extra information.

//@ ## Ownership, Borrowing, and Concurrency
//@ The little demo above showed that concurrency in Rust has a fairly simple API. However, considering Rust has closures,
//@ that should not be entirely surprising. However, as I mentioned in the beginning, Rust ensures that well-typed programs
//@ do not have data races. How can that be? A data race is typically defined as having two concurrent, unsynchronized
//@ accesses to the same memory location, at least one of which is a write. In other words, a data race is mutation in
//@ the presence of aliasing, which Rust reliably rules out! It turns out that the same mechanism that makes our single-threaded
//@ programs memory safe, and that prevents us from invalidating iterators, also helps secure our multi-threaded code against
//@ data races. For example, notice how `read_files` sends a `String` to `filter_lines`. At run-time, only the pointer to
//@ the string will actually be moved around (just like when a `String` is passed to a function with full ownership). However,
//@ `read_files` has to *give up* ownership of the string to perform `send`, to it is impossible for an outstanding borrow to
//@ still be around. After it sent the string to the other side, `read_files` has no way to race on the data with someone else.
//@ 
//@ However, there is more to this. Remember the `'static` bound we had to add to `register` in the previous part, to make
//@ sure that the callbacks to not reference any pointers that might become invalid? This is just as crucial for spawning
//@ a thread: In general, that thread could last for much longer than the current stack frame. Thus, it must not use
//@ any pointers to data in that stack frame. This is achieved by requiring the `FnOnce` closure passed to `thread::spawn`
//@ to be valid for lifetime `'static`, as you can see in [its documentation](http://doc.rust-lang.org/stable/std/thread/fn.spawn.html).
//@ This avoids another kind of data race, where the thread's access races with the callee deallocating its stack frame.

//@ ## Send
//@ However, the story goes further. I said above that `Arc` is a thread-safe version of `Rc`, which uses atomic operations
//@ to manipulate the reference count. It is thus crucial that we don't use `Rc` above, or the reference count may become invalid.
//@ And indeed, if you replace `Arc` by `Rc` (and add the appropriate imports), Rust will tell you that something is wrong.
//@ That's great, of course, but how did it do that?
//@ 
//@ The answer is already hinted at in the error: It will say something about `Send`. You may have noticed that the closure in
//@ `thread::spawn` does not just have a `'static` bound, but also has to satisfy `Send`. `Send` is a trait, and just like `Copy`,
//@ it's just a marker - there are no functions provided by `Send` What the trait says is that types which are `Send`, can be
//@ safely sent to another thread without causing trouble. Of course, all the primitive data-types are `Send`. So is `Arc`,
//@ which is why Rust accepted our code. But `Rc` is not `Send`, and for a good reason!
//@ 
//@ Now, `Send` as a trait is fairly special. It has a so-called *default implementation*. This means that *every type* implements
//@ `Send`, unless it opts out. Opting out is viral: If your type contains a type that opted out, then you don't have `Send`, either.
//@ So if the environment of your closure contains an `Rc`, it won't be `Send`, preventing it from causing trouble. If however every
//@ captured variable *is* `Send`, then so is the entire environment, and you are good.

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