# channels

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Channel support for threads.

Note: This is part of the system module. Do not import it directly. To activate thread support compile with the `--threads:on` command line switch.

Note: Channels are designed for the `Thread` type. They are unstable when used with `spawn`

Note: The current implementation of message passing does not work with cyclic data structures.

Note: Channels cannot be passed between threads. Use globals or pass them by `ptr`.

# Example

The following is a simple example of two different ways to use channels: blocking and non-blocking.

    # Be sure to compile with --threads:on.
    # The channels and threads modules are part of system and should not be
    # imported.
    import os

    # Channels can either be:
    #  - declared at the module level, or
    #  - passed to procedures by ptr (raw pointer) -- see note on safety.
    #
    # For simplicity, in this example a channel is declared at module scope.
    # Channels are generic, and they include support for passing objects between
    # threads.
    # Note that objects passed through channels will be deeply copied.
    var chan: Channel[string]

    # This proc will be run in another thread using the threads module.
    proc firstWorker() =
      chan.send("Hello World!")

    # This is another proc to run in a background thread. This proc takes a while
    # to send the message since it sleeps for 2 seconds (or 2000 milliseconds).
    proc secondWorker() =
      sleep(2000)
      chan.send("Another message")

    # Initialize the channel.
    chan.open()

    # Launch the worker.
    var worker1: Thread[void]
    createThread(worker1, firstWorker)

    # Block until the message arrives, then print it out.
    echo chan.recv() # "Hello World!"

    # Wait for the thread to exit before moving on to the next example.
    worker1.joinThread()

    # Launch the other worker.
    var worker2: Thread[void]
    createThread(worker2, secondWorker)
    # This time, use a non-blocking approach with tryRecv.
    # Since the main thread is not blocked, it could be used to perform other
    # useful work while it waits for data to arrive on the channel.
    while true:
      let tried = chan.tryRecv()
      if tried.dataAvailable:
        echo tried.msg # "Another message"
        break

      echo "Pretend I'm doing useful work..."
      # For this example, sleep in order not to flood stdout with the above
      # message.
      sleep(400)

    # Wait for the second thread to exit before cleaning up the channel.
    worker2.joinThread()

    # Clean up the channel.
    chan.close()

## Sample output

The program should output something similar to this, but keep in mind that exact results may vary in the real world:

    Hello World!
    Pretend I'm doing useful work...
    Pretend I'm doing useful work...
    Pretend I'm doing useful work...
    Pretend I'm doing useful work...
    Pretend I'm doing useful work...
    Another message

## Passing Channels Safely

Note that when passing objects to procedures on another thread by pointer (for example through a thread's argument), objects created using the default allocator will use thread-local, GC-managed memory. Thus it is generally safer to store channel objects in global variables (as in the above example), in which case they will use a process-wide (thread-safe) shared heap.

However, it is possible to manually allocate shared memory for channels using e.g. `system.allocShared0` and pass these pointers through thread arguments:

    proc worker(channel: ptr Channel[string]) =
      let greeting = channel[].recv()
      echo greeting

    proc localChannelExample() =
      # Use allocShared0 to allocate some shared-heap memory and zero it.
      # The usual warnings about dealing with raw pointers apply. Exercise caution.
      var channel = cast[ptr Channel[string]](
        allocShared0(sizeof(Channel[string]))
      )
      channel[].open()
      # Create a thread which will receive the channel as an argument.
      var thread: Thread[ptr Channel[string]]
      createThread(thread, worker, channel)
      channel[].send("Hello from the main thread!")
      # Clean up resources.
      thread.joinThread()
      channel[].close()
      deallocShared(channel)

    localChannelExample() # "Hello from the main thread!"

# Types

    Channel*[TMsg] {...}{.gcsafe.} = RawChannel

  a channel for thread communication Source Edit

# Procs

    proc send*[TMsg](c: var Channel[TMsg]; msg: sink TMsg) {...}{.inline.}

  Sends a message to a thread. `msg` is deeply copied. Source Edit

    proc trySend*[TMsg](c: var Channel[TMsg]; msg: sink TMsg): bool {...}{.inline.}

  Tries to send a message to a thread.

  `msg` is deeply copied. Doesn't block.

  Returns `false` if the message was not sent because number of pending items in the channel exceeded `maxItems`.

  Source Edit

    proc recv*[TMsg](c: var Channel[TMsg]): TMsg

  Receives a message from the channel `c`.

  This blocks until a message has arrived! You may use peek proc to avoid the blocking.

  Source Edit

    proc tryRecv*[TMsg](c: var Channel[TMsg]): tuple[dataAvailable: bool, msg: TMsg]

  Tries to receive a message from the channel `c`, but this can fail for all sort of reasons, including contention.

  If it fails, it returns `(false, default(msg))` otherwise it returns `(true, msg)`.

  Source Edit

    proc peek*[TMsg](c: var Channel[TMsg]): int

  Returns the current number of messages in the channel `c`.

  Returns -1 if the channel has been closed.

  Note: This is dangerous to use as it encourages races. It's much better to use tryRecv proc instead.

  Source Edit

    proc open*[TMsg](c: var Channel[TMsg]; maxItems: int = 0)

  Opens a channel `c` for inter thread communication.

  The `send` operation will block until number of unprocessed items is less than `maxItems`.

  For unlimited queue set `maxItems` to 0.

  Source Edit

    proc close*[TMsg](c: var Channel[TMsg])

  Closes a channel `c` and frees its associated resources. Source Edit

    proc ready*[TMsg](c: var Channel[TMsg]): bool

  Returns true iff some thread is waiting on the channel `c` for new messages. Source Edit