Quix

Distribution layer for Actix. Aims to follow conventions set up by actix, and implement distribution capabilities, similar to erlang's dist.

Usage

See docs

Protobuf:

message M1 {

}
service Exec{
  rpc Method(M1) returns(M1);
}

Code:

#[derive(quix::ProcessDispatch)]
#[dispatch(Method)]
pub struct Act {}

impl Actor for Act {

    type Context = Process<Self>;

    fn started(&mut self, ctx: &mut Self::Context) {
        let pid : Pid<Self> = ctx.pid();
        pid.do_send(M1 { v: 0 });
    }
}
impl Handler<Method> for Act { 
    type Response = Result<M1, DispatchError>;
... 
}

Messages

Both internal and user messages use Protobuf format for serialization. The indivudal Messages from protobuf just passed to prost.

We use the RPC entry in protobuf services as a unit of communication. Each RPC generates a single struct, which implements Service and actix::Message. The user needs to:

Implement Handler<M> for RPCs he wants to consume using the specified Process actor
Derive ProcessDispatch on the actor with dispatch containing the RPC struct

Processes

In order to better handle distribution, we will introduce a concept of a process, which is just an identified actor. This actor is not referneced through the Addr<A> struct, but rather through Pid<A>, which can be:

Pid::Local Wraps Addr<A> and transparently passes messages to this addr
Pid::Remote contains global process ID, and uses local process registry to determine where to send the message

The Pid<A> can be obtained in 2 ways:

Using Process<A> instead of Context<A> - New context type for actors, which have stable identity
Receiving a message containing a Pid<A> - Pids are transparent, and can be sent between nodes. The distribution subsystem should handle node lookup internally, thorugh the node-local registry.

ProcessRegistry

Is a node-local singleton, which contains a map of actors. Process is automatically registered and unregistered from this registry when started and stopping. The registry uses gossip protocol to get rough image of whole cluster.

Message dispatching

Each message which is passable across network boundaries must be serializable using protobuf.

The ProcessDispatch trait is responsible for creating a Dispatcher which performs message serialization and dispatching. It can be implemented by a proc macro:

#[derive(quix::ProcessDispatch)]
#[dispatch(M1, M2)]
pub struct Act {}

impl Actor for Act {
    type Context = Process<Self>;
}
impl Handler<M1> for Act { ... }
impl Handler<M2> for Act { ... }
impl Handler<M3> for Act { ... }