1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60 61 62 63 64 65 66 67 68 69 70 71 72 73 74 75 76 77 78 79 80 81 82 83 84 85 86 87 88 89 90 91 92 93 94 95 96 97 98 99 100 101 102 103 104 105 106 107 108 109 110 111 112 113 114 115 116 117 118 119 120 121 122 123 124 125 126 127 128 129 130 131 132 133 134 135 136 137 138 139 140 141 142 143 144 145 146 147 148 149 150 151 152 153 154 155 156 157 158 159 160 161 162 163 164 165 166 167 168 169 170 171 172 173 174 175 176 177 178 179 180 181 182 183 184 185 186 187 188 189 190 191 192 193 194 195 196 197 198 199 200 201 202 203 204 205 206 207 208 209 210 211 212 213 214 215 216 217 218 219 220 221 222 223 224 225 226 227 228 229 230 231 232 233 234 235 236 237 238 239 240 241 242
//! Asynchronous green-threads.
//!
//! ## What are Tasks?
//!
//! A _task_ is a light weight, non-blocking unit of execution. A task is similar
//! to an OS thread, but rather than being managed by the OS scheduler, they are
//! managed by the [Tokio runtime][rt]. Another name for this general pattern is
//! [green threads]. If you are familiar with [Go's goroutines], [Kotlin's
//! coroutines], or [Erlang's processes], you can think of Tokio's tasks as
//! something similar.
//!
//! Key points about tasks include:
//!
//! * Tasks are **light weight**. Because tasks are scheduled by the Tokio
//! runtime rather than the operating system, creating new tasks or switching
//! between tasks does not require a context switch and has fairly low
//! overhead. Creating, running, and destroying large numbers of tasks is
//! quite cheap, especially compared to OS threads.
//!
//! * Tasks are scheduled **cooperatively**. Most operating systems implement
//! _preemptive multitasking_. This is a scheduling technique where the
//! operating system allows each thread to run for a period of time, and then
//! _preempts_ it, temporarily pausing that thread and switching to another.
//! Tasks, on the other hand, implement _cooperative multitasking_. In
//! cooperative multitasking, a task is allowed to run until it _yields_,
//! indicating to the Tokio runtime's scheduler that it cannot currently
//! continue executing. When a task yields, the Tokio runtime switches to
//! executing the next task.
//!
//! * Tasks are **non-blocking**. Typically, when an OS thread performs I/O or
//! must synchronize with another thread, it _blocks_, allowing the OS to
//! schedule another thread. When a task cannot continue executing, it must
//! yield instead, allowing the Tokio runtime to schedule another task. Tasks
//! should generally not perform system calls or other operations that could
//! block a thread, as this would prevent other tasks running on the same
//! thread from executing as well. Instead, this module provides APIs for
//! running blocking operations in an asynchronous context.
//!
//! [rt]: crate::runtime
//! [green threads]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Green_threads
//! [Go's goroutines]: https://tour.golang.org/concurrency/1
//! [Kotlin's coroutines]: https://kotlinlang.org/docs/reference/coroutines-overview.html
//! [Erlang's processes]: http://erlang.org/doc/getting_started/conc_prog.html#processes
//!
//! ## Working with Tasks
//!
//! This module provides the following APIs for working with tasks:
//!
//! ### Spawning
//!
//! Perhaps the most important function in this module is [`task::spawn`]. This
//! function can be thought of as an async equivalent to the standard library's
//! [`thread::spawn`][`std::thread::spawn`]. It takes an `async` block or other
//! [future], and creates a new task to run that work concurrently:
//!
//! ```
//! use tokio::task;
//!
//! # async fn doc() {
//! task::spawn(async {
//! // perform some work here...
//! });
//! # }
//! ```
//!
//! Like [`std::thread::spawn`], `task::spawn` returns a [`JoinHandle`] struct.
//! A `JoinHandle` is itself a future which may be used to await the output of
//! the spawned task. For example:
//!
//! ```
//! use tokio::task;
//!
//! # #[tokio::main] async fn main() -> Result<(), Box<dyn std::error::Error>> {
//! let join = task::spawn(async {
//! // ...
//! "hello world!"
//! });
//!
//! // ...
//!
//! // Await the result of the spawned task.
//! let result = join.await?;
//! assert_eq!(result, "hello world!");
//! # Ok(())
//! # }
//! ```
//!
//! Again, like `std::thread`'s [`JoinHandle` type][thread_join], if the spawned
//! task panics, awaiting its `JoinHandle` will return a [`JoinError`]`. For
//! example:
//!
//! ```
//! use tokio::task;
//!
//! # #[tokio::main] async fn main() {
//! let join = task::spawn(async {
//! panic!("something bad happened!")
//! });
//!
//! // The returned result indicates that the task failed.
//! assert!(join.await.is_err());
//! # }
//! ```
//!
//! `spawn`, `JoinHandle`, and `JoinError` are present when the "rt-core"
//! feature flag is enabled.
//!
//! [`task::spawn`]: crate::task::spawn()
//! [future]: std::future::Future
//! [`std::thread::spawn`]: std::thread::spawn
//! [`JoinHandle`]: crate::task::JoinHandle
//! [thread_join]: std::thread::JoinHandle
//! [`JoinError`]: crate::task::JoinError
//!
//! ### Blocking and Yielding
//!
//! As we discussed above, code running in asynchronous tasks should not perform
//! operations that can block. A blocking operation performed in a task running
//! on a thread that is also running other tasks would block the entire thread,
//! preventing other tasks from running.
//!
//! Instead, Tokio provides two APIs for running blocking operations in an
//! asynchronous context: [`task::spawn_blocking`] and [`task::block_in_place`].
//!
//! #### spawn_blocking
//!
//! The `task::spawn_blocking` function is similar to the `task::spawn` function
//! discussed in the previous section, but rather than spawning an
//! _non-blocking_ future on the Tokio runtime, it instead spawns a
//! _blocking_ function on a dedicated thread pool for blocking tasks. For
//! example:
//!
//! ```
//! use tokio::task;
//!
//! # async fn docs() {
//! task::spawn_blocking(|| {
//! // do some compute-heavy work or call synchronous code
//! });
//! # }
//! ```
//!
//! Just like `task::spawn`, `task::spawn_blocking` returns a `JoinHandle`
//! which we can use to await the result of the blocking operation:
//!
//! ```rust
//! # use tokio::task;
//! # async fn docs() -> Result<(), Box<dyn std::error::Error>>{
//! let join = task::spawn_blocking(|| {
//! // do some compute-heavy work or call synchronous code
//! "blocking completed"
//! });
//!
//! let result = join.await?;
//! assert_eq!(result, "blocking completed");
//! # Ok(())
//! # }
//! ```
//!
//! #### block_in_place
//!
//! When using the [threaded runtime][rt-threaded], the [`task::block_in_place`]
//! function is also available. Like `task::spawn_blocking`, this function
//! allows running a blocking operation from an asynchronous context. Unlike
//! `spawn_blocking`, however, `block_in_place` works by transitioning the
//! _current_ worker thread to a blocking thread, moving other tasks running on
//! that thread to another worker thread. This can improve performance by avoiding
//! context switches.
//!
//! For example:
//!
//! ```
//! use tokio::task;
//!
//! # async fn docs() {
//! let result = task::block_in_place(|| {
//! // do some compute-heavy work or call synchronous code
//! "blocking completed"
//! });
//!
//! assert_eq!(result, "blocking completed");
//! # }
//! ```
//!
//! #### yield_now
//!
//! In addition, this module provides a [`task::yield_now`] async function
//! that is analogous to the standard library's [`thread::yield_now`]. Calling
//! and `await`ing this function will cause the current task to yield to the
//! Tokio runtime's scheduler, allowing other tasks to be
//! scheduled. Eventually, the yielding task will be polled again, allowing it
//! to execute. For example:
//!
//! ```rust
//! use tokio::task;
//!
//! # #[tokio::main] async fn main() {
//! async {
//! task::spawn(async {
//! // ...
//! println!("spawned task done!")
//! });
//!
//! // Yield, allowing the newly-spawned task to execute first.
//! task::yield_now().await;
//! println!("main task done!");
//! }
//! # .await;
//! # }
//! ```
//!
//! [`task::spawn_blocking`]: crate::task::spawn_blocking
//! [`task::block_in_place`]: crate::task::block_in_place
//! [rt-threaded]: ../runtime/index.html#threaded-scheduler
//! [`task::yield_now`]: crate::task::yield_now()
//! [`thread::yield_now`]: std::thread::yield_now
cfg_blocking! {
mod blocking;
pub use blocking::spawn_blocking;
cfg_rt_threaded! {
pub use blocking::block_in_place;
}
}
cfg_rt_core! {
pub use crate::runtime::task::{JoinError, JoinHandle};
mod spawn;
pub use spawn::spawn;
mod yield_now;
pub use yield_now::yield_now;
}
cfg_rt_util! {
mod local;
pub use local::{spawn_local, LocalSet};
mod task_local;
pub use task_local::LocalKey;
}