Crate evmap [−] [src]
A lock-free, eventually consistent, concurrent multi-value map.
This map implementation allows reads and writes to execute entirely in parallel, with no
implicit synchronization overhead. Reads never take locks on their critical path, and neither
do writes assuming there is a single writer (multi-writer is possible using a Mutex
), which
significantly improves performance under contention.
The trade-off exposed by this module is one of eventual consistency: writes are not visible to
readers except following explicit synchronization. Specifically, readers only see the
operations that preceeded the last call to WriteHandle::refresh
by a writer. This lets
writers decide how stale they are willing to let reads get. They can refresh the map after
every write to emulate a regular concurrent HashMap
, or they can refresh only occasionally to
reduce the synchronization overhead at the cost of stale reads.
For read-heavy workloads, the scheme used by this module is particularly useful. Writers can afford to refresh after every write, which provides up-to-date reads, and readers remain fast as they do not need to ever take locks.
The map is multi-value, meaning that every key maps to a collection of values. This
introduces some memory cost by adding a layer of indirection through a Vec
for each value,
but enables more advanced use. This choice was made as it would not be possible to emulate such
functionality on top of the semantics of this map (think about it -- what would the operational
log contain?).
To faciliate more advanced use-cases, each of the two maps also carry some customizeable meta-information. The writers may update this at will, and when a refresh happens, the current meta will also be made visible to readers. This could be useful, for example, to indicate what time the refresh happened.
Examples
Single-reader, single-writer
// new will use the default HashMap hasher, and a meta of () // note that we get separate read and write handles // the read handle can be cloned to have more readers let (book_reviews_r, mut book_reviews_w) = evmap::new(); // review some books. book_reviews_w.insert("Adventures of Huckleberry Finn", "My favorite book."); book_reviews_w.insert("Grimms' Fairy Tales", "Masterpiece."); book_reviews_w.insert("Pride and Prejudice", "Very enjoyable."); book_reviews_w.insert("The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes", "Eye lyked it alot."); // at this point, reads from book_reviews_r will not see any of the reviews! assert_eq!(book_reviews_r.len(), 0); // we need to refresh first to make the writes visible book_reviews_w.refresh(); assert_eq!(book_reviews_r.len(), 4); // reads will now return Some() because the map has been initialized assert_eq!(book_reviews_r.get_and("Grimms' Fairy Tales", |rs| rs.len()), Some(1)); // remember, this is a multi-value map, so we can have many reviews book_reviews_w.insert("Grimms' Fairy Tales", "Eh, the title seemed weird."); book_reviews_w.insert("Pride and Prejudice", "Too many words."); // but again, new writes are not yet visible assert_eq!(book_reviews_r.get_and("Grimms' Fairy Tales", |rs| rs.len()), Some(1)); // we need to refresh first book_reviews_w.refresh(); assert_eq!(book_reviews_r.get_and("Grimms' Fairy Tales", |rs| rs.len()), Some(2)); // oops, this review has a lot of spelling mistakes, let's delete it. // empty deletes *all* reviews (though in this case, just one) book_reviews_w.empty("The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes"); // but again, it's not visible to readers until we refresh assert_eq!(book_reviews_r.get_and("The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes", |rs| rs.len()), Some(1)); book_reviews_w.refresh(); assert_eq!(book_reviews_r.get_and("The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes", |rs| rs.len()), None); // look up the values associated with some keys. let to_find = ["Pride and Prejudice", "Alice's Adventure in Wonderland"]; for book in &to_find { let reviewed = book_reviews_r.get_and(book, |reviews| { for review in reviews { println!("{}: {}", book, review); } }); if reviewed.is_none() { println!("{} is unreviewed.", book); } } // iterate over everything. book_reviews_r.for_each(|book, reviews| { for review in reviews { println!("{}: \"{}\"", book, review); } });
Reads from multiple threads are possible by cloning the ReadHandle
.
use std::thread; let (book_reviews_r, mut book_reviews_w) = evmap::new(); // start some readers let readers: Vec<_> = (0..4).map(|_| { let r = book_reviews_r.clone(); thread::spawn(move || { loop { let l = r.len(); if l == 0 { thread::yield_now(); } else { // the reader will either see all the reviews, // or none of them, since refresh() is atomic. assert_eq!(l, 4); break; } } }) }).collect(); // do some writes book_reviews_w.insert("Adventures of Huckleberry Finn", "My favorite book."); book_reviews_w.insert("Grimms' Fairy Tales", "Masterpiece."); book_reviews_w.insert("Pride and Prejudice", "Very enjoyable."); book_reviews_w.insert("The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes", "Eye lyked it alot."); // expose the writes book_reviews_w.refresh(); // the original read handle still works too assert_eq!(book_reviews_r.len(), 4); // all the threads should eventually see .len() == 4 for r in readers.into_iter() { assert!(r.join().is_ok()); }
If multiple writers are needed, the WriteHandle
must be protected by a Mutex
.
use std::thread; use std::sync::{Arc, Mutex}; let (book_reviews_r, mut book_reviews_w) = evmap::new(); // start some writers. // since evmap does not support concurrent writes, we need // to protect the write handle by a mutex. let w = Arc::new(Mutex::new(book_reviews_w)); let writers: Vec<_> = (0..4).map(|i| { let w = w.clone(); thread::spawn(move || { let mut w = w.lock().unwrap(); w.insert(i, true); w.refresh(); }) }).collect(); // eventually we should see all the writes while book_reviews_r.len() < 4 { thread::yield_now(); }; // all the threads should eventually finish writing for w in writers.into_iter() { assert!(w.join().is_ok()); }
Implementation
Under the hood, the map is implemented using two regular HashMap
s, an operational log,
epoch counting, and some pointer magic. There is a single pointer through which all readers
go. It points to a HashMap
, which the readers access in order to read data. Every time a read
has accessed the pointer, they increment a local epoch counter, and they update it again when
they have finished the read (see #3 for more information). When a write occurs, the writer
updates the other HashMap
(for which there are no readers), and also stores a copy of the
change in a log (hence the need for Clone
on the keys and values). When
WriteHandle::refresh
is called, the writer, atomically swaps the reader pointer to point to
the other map. It then waits for the epochs of all current readers to change, and then replays
the operational log to bring the stale map up to date.
Since the implementation uses regular HashMap
s under the hood, table resizing is fully
supported. It does, however, also mean that the memory usage of this implementation is
approximately twice of that of a regular HashMap
, and more if writes rarely refresh after
writing.
Structs
Options |
Options for how to initialize the map. |
ReadHandle |
A handle that may be used to read from the eventually consistent map. |
WriteHandle |
A handle that may be used to modify the eventually consistent map. |
Traits
ShallowCopy |
Types that implement this trait can be cheaply copied by (potentially) aliasing the data they contain. |
Functions
new |
Create an empty eventually consistent map. |
with_meta |
Create an empty eventually consistent map with meta information. |