Crate simpl_actor

simpl_actor - A Rust library for actor-based concurrency, built on Tokio.

Features

• Simple Actor Definition: Define actors with minimal code using Rust structs and macros.
• Automatic Message Handling: Leverages Rust’s type system and async capabilities.
• Asynchronous & Synchronous Messaging: Flexible interaction patterns for actors.
• Lifecycle Management: Hooks for actor initialization, restart, and shutdown.

Quick Start

use simpl_actor::{actor, Actor, Spawn};

#[derive(Actor, Default)]
pub struct CounterActor { count: i64 }

#[actor]
impl CounterActor {
    #[message]
    pub fn inc(&mut self, amount: i64) { ... }

    #[message]
    pub fn count(&self) -> i64 { ... }

    #[message]
    pub async fn fetch(&self) -> String { ... }
}

let actor = CounterActor::default().spawn();
actor.inc(1).await?;
actor.count().await?; // Returns 1
actor.fetch().await?;

Messaging Variants

When you define a message in simpl_actor, six variants of the message handling function are automatically generated to offer flexibility in how messages are sent and processed:

#[actor]
impl MyActor {
    #[message]
    fn msg() -> i32 {}
}

// Generates
impl MyActorRef {
    /// Sends the messages, waits for processing, and returns a response.
    async fn msg() -> Result<i32, ActorError> {}
    /// Sends the message with a timeout for adding to the mailbox if the mailbox is full.
    async fn msg_timeout(timeout: Duration) -> Result<i32, ActorError> {}
    /// Attempts to send the message immediately without waiting for mailbox capacity.
    async fn try_msg() -> Result<i32, ActorError> {}
    /// Sends the message asynchronously, not waiting for a response.
    async fn msg_async() -> Result<(), ActorError> {}
    /// Sends the message asyncronously with a timeout for mailbox capacity.
    async fn msg_async_timeout(timeout: Duration) -> Result<(), ActorError> {}
    /// Attempts to immediately send the message asyncronously without waiting for a response or mailbox capacity.
    fn try_msg_async() -> Result<(), ActorError> {}
}

Async variants (_async, _async_timeout, and try_async) are only generated if the method does not have any lifetimes. In other words, all parameters must be owned or &'static for async variants to be generated, otherwise the actor might reference deallocated memory causing UB.

These variants provide a range of options for how and when messages are processed by the actor, from synchronous waiting to non-blocking attempts, with or without timeouts.

Enums

• ActorError
  Error that can occur when sending a message to an actor.
• ActorStopReason
  Reason for an actor being stopped.
• ShouldRestart
  Enum indiciating if an actor should be restarted or not after panicking.
• ShouldStop
  Enum indiciating if an actor should be stopped.

Traits

• Actor
  Defines the core functionality for actors within an actor-based concurrency model.
• ActorRef
  Provides functionality to stop and wait for an actor to complete based on an actor ref.
• Spawn
  Provides functionality to spawn actors and obtain references to them.

Attribute Macros

• actor
  Attribute macro placed on impl blocks of actors to defined messages.

Derive Macros

• Actor
  Derive macro implementing the Actor trait with default behaviour.