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Notification Tutorial

Preface

The features described in this document are experimental.

This document explains how notifications are implemented in Elektra and how they can be used by application developers.

Notifications - Overview & Concept

Elektra's notification feature consists of several components. While sending and receiving notifications is implemented by plugins, applications use the notification API in order to use different plugins.

The notification API implemented by the elektra-notification library allows receiving and handling notifications. An I/O abstraction layer allows asynchronous notification processing by compatible plugins. The abstraction layer consists of an interface used by transport plugins and different implementations of that interface called I/O bindings. An I/O binding implements the actual I/O management functions for a specific event loop API. Applications typically use one I/O binding but can also use none or multiple I/O bindings. For more on I/O bindings see the API documentation.

Transport plugins exchange notifications via different protocols like D-Bus or ZeroMQ. For each type of transport there are typically two types of plugins: One for sending and one for receiving notifications. Developers do not interact with those plugins directly. The underlying transports are transparent to them. The "internalnotification" plugin implements notification handling functions and feeds back configuration changes from within the application. It is only used internally by the elektra-notification library.

Overview

When a configuration key is changed Elektra can generate change notifications that allow applications to process those changes. Developers can choose whether and how they want to receive and handle those notifications but not whether notifications are sent or which transport is used. How notifications are sent is specified in the notification configuration by the system operator.

Notification Configuration

System operators can mount the desired transport plugins and configure them (e.g. set channel, host, port and credentials) globally.

They need to mount both sending and receiving plugins in order to use transport.

kdb global-mount dbus announce=once dbusrecv

Plugins usable as transport plugin are marked with notification on the plugin page.

How to integrate an I/O binding and send notifications asynchronously

Developers do not need to change their programs in order to start sending notifications. However, without the integration of an I/O binding notifications may be sent synchronously which would block normal program execution. For programs without time constraints (e.g. CLI programs) this may not be important, but for GUIs or network services this will have negative impact.

The "zeromqsend" and "dbus" plugins do not block program execution for sending as sending is handled asynchronously be the underlying libraries.

The following is a basic example of an application using Elektra extended by the initialization of an I/O binding.

#include <elektra/kdb.h>
#include <elektra/kdbio.h>
#include <elektra/kdbio/uv.h>

#include <uv.h>

int main (void)
{
	// Create libuv event loop
	uv_loop_t * loop = uv_default_loop ();

	// Initialize I/O binding tied to event loop
	ElektraIoInterface * binding = elektraIoUvNew (loop);

	// Create contract that tells Elektra to use the I/O binding
	KeySet * contract = ksNew (0, KS_END);
	elektraIoContract (contract, binding);

	// Open KDB (with contract)
	Key * key = keyNew ("/sw/myorg/myapp/#0/current", KEY_END);
	KDB * kdb = kdbOpen (contract, key);

	// Normal application setup code ...

	// Start the event loop
	uv_run (loop, UV_RUN_DEFAULT);

	// Cleanup
	ksDel (contract);
	kdbClose (kdb, key);
	elektraIoBindingCleanup (binding);
	uv_loop_close (loop);
}

Make sure to compile/link with pkg-config --libs --cflags elektra-io-uv.

How to receive notifications

Since there are many different I/O management libraries (e.g. libuv, glib or libev), the transport plugins use the I/O interface for their I/O operations. Each I/O management library needs its own I/O binding. Developers can also create their own I/O binding for the I/O management library of their choice. This is described in the last section.

Each I/O binding has its own initialization function that creates a new I/O binding and connects it to the I/O management library. For this tutorial we will assume that libuv 1.x is used. For details on how to use a specific binding please look at available I/O bindings on the bindings page.

In order to handle change notifications a developer can either register a variable or a callback.

Register a variable

Values of registered variables are automatically updated when the value of the assigned key has changed. In the following example we will register an integer variable.

The following examples are shortened for tangibility. The complete code is available in "notificationAsync" example.

#include <elektra/kdb.h>
#include <elektra/kdbio.h>
#include <elektra/kdbio/uv.h>
#include <elektra/kdbnotification.h>

#include <uv.h>

static void printVariable (ElektraIoTimerOperation * timerOp)
{
	int value = *(int *) elektraIoTimerGetData (timerOp);
	printf ("\nMy integer value is %d\n", value);
}

int main (void)
{
	// Create libuv event loop
	uv_loop_t * loop = uv_default_loop ();

	// Initialize I/O binding tied to event loop
	ElektraIoInterface * binding = elektraIoUvNew (loop);

	// Create contract that tells Elektra to use the I/O binding
	KeySet * contract = ksNew (0, KS_END);
	elektraIoContract (contract, binding);

	// Add notifications to the contract
	elektraNotificationContract (contract);

	// Open KDB
	Key * key = keyNew ("/sw/myorg/myapp/#0/current", KEY_END);
	KDB * kdb = kdbOpen (contract, key);

	// Register "value" for updates
	Key * registeredKey = keyNew ("/sw/myorg/myapp/#0/current/value", KEY_END);
	int value;
	elektraNotificationRegisterInt (kdb, registeredKey, &value);

	// Create a timer to repeatedly print "value"
	ElektraIoTimerOperation * timer = elektraIoNewTimerOperation (2000, 1, printVariable, &value);
	elektraIoBindingAddTimer (binding, timer);

	// Get configuration
	KeySet * config = ksNew(0, KS_END);
	kdbGet (kdb, config, key);
	printVariable (timer);	 // "value" was automatically updated

	// Start the event loop
	uv_run (loop, UV_RUN_DEFAULT);

	// Cleanup
	kdbClose (kdb, key);
	elektraIoBindingRemoveTimer (timer);
	elektraIoBindingCleanup (binding);
	uv_loop_close (loop);
}

After calling elektraNotificationRegisterInt() the variable value will be automatically updated if the key in the program above is changed by another program (e.g. by using the kdb CLI command). For automatic updates to work transport plugins have to be mounted globally.

Callbacks

Registering a variable is suitable for programs where the key's value is simply displayed or used repeatedly (e.g. by a timer or in a loop). If an initialization code needs to be redone after configuration changes (e.g. a value sets the number of worker threads) updating a registered variable will not suffice. For these situations a callback should be used.

The following snippet shows how a callback can be used if the value of the changed key needs further processing.

#include <signal.h>
#include <stdio.h>
#include <string.h>

// from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ANSI_escape_code#Colors
#define ANSI_COLOR_RED			"\x1b[31m"
#define ANSI_COLOR_GREEN		"\x1b[32m"

void setTerminalColor (Key * color, void * context ELEKTRA_UNUSED)
{
	// context contains whatever was passed as 4th parameter
	// to elektraNotificationRegisterCallback()
	char * value = keyString (color);

	if (strcmp (value, "red") == 0)
	{
		printf (ANSI_COLOR_RED);
	}
	if (strcmp (value, "green") == 0)
	{
		printf (ANSI_COLOR_GREEN);
	}
}

int main (void)
{
	KDB * repo;

	// ... initialization of KDB, I/O binding and notifications

	Key * color = keyNew ("/sw/myorg/myapp/#0/current/color", KEY_END);

	// Re-Initialize on key changes
	elektraNotificationRegisterCallback(repo, color, &setTerminalColor, NULL);

	// ... start loop, etc.
}

How-To: Reload KDB when Elektra's configuration has changed

This section shows how the notification feature is used to reload an application's KDB instance when Elektra's configuration has changed. This enables applications to apply changes to mount points or globally mounted plugins without restarting.

Step 1: Register for changes to Elektra's configuration

To achieve reloading on Elektra configuration changes we register for changes below the key /elektra using elektraNotificationRegisterCallbackSameOrBelow().

Key * elektraKey = keyNew ("/elektra", KEY_END);
elektraNotificationRegisterCallbackSameOrBelow (kdb, elektraKey, elektraChangedCallback, NULL))
keyDel (elektraKey);

Step 2: Create a function for reloading KDB

Since our application needs to repeatedly initialize KDB on configuration changes we need to create a function which cleans up and re-initializes KDB.

void initKdb (ElektraIoTimerOperation * timerOp ELEKTRA_UNUSED)
{
	if (kdb != NULL)
	{
		// Cleanup and close KDB
		kdbClose (kdb, parentKey);
	}

	KeySet * contract = ksNew (0, KS_END);
	elektraIoContract (contract, binding);
	elektraNotificationContract (contract);

	kdb = kdbOpen (parentKey);

	// Code for registration from snippet before
	Key * elektraKey = keyNew ("/elektra", KEY_END);
	elektraNotificationRegisterCallbackSameOrBelow (kdb, elektraKey, elektraChangedCallback, NULL);
	keyDel (elektraKey);

	// TODO: add application specific registrations

	// Get configuration
	kdbGet (kdb, config, parentKey);
}

Step 3: Handle configuration changes

The last step is to connect the registration for changes to the (re-)initialization function. Directly calling the function is discouraged due to tight coupling (see guidelines in the next section) and also results in an application crash since the notification API is closed while processing notification callbacks. Therefore, we suggest to add a timer operation with a sufficiently small interval which is enabled only on configuration changes. This timer will then call the initialization function.

First, we create the timer in the main loop setup of the application.

// (global declaration)
ElektraIoTimerOperation * reload;

// main loop setup (e.g. main())
// the timer operation is disabled for now and
// will reload KDB after 100 milliseconds
reload = elektraIoNewTimerOperation (100, 0, initKdb, NULL);
elektraIoBindingAddTimer (binding, reload);

Now we add the callback function for the registration from step 1:

void elektraChangedCallback (Key * changedKey, void * context)
{
	// Enable operation to reload KDB as soon as possible
	elektraIoTimerSetEnabled (reload, 1);
	elektraIoBindingUpdateTimer (reload);
}

Finally, we disable the timer in the initialization function:

void initKdb (void)
{
	// Stop reload task
	elektraIoTimerSetEnabled (reload, 0);
	elektraIoBindingUpdateTimer (reload);

	if (kdb != NULL)
	{
		// Cleanup notifications and close KDB
		kdbClose (kdb, parentKey);
	}

	// ...
}

By correct application of these three steps any application can react to changes to Elektra's configuration. The snippets above omit error handling for brevity. The complete code including error handling is available in the "notification reload" example. This example also omits globals by passing them as user data using the elektraIo*GetData() functions.

Emergent Behavior Guidelines

When applications react to configuration changes made by other applications this can lead to emergent behavior. We speak of emergent behavior when the parts of a system are functioning as designed but an unintended, unexpected or unanticipated behavior at system level occurs.

For example, take the following sequence of events:

  1. application A changes its configuration
  2. application B receives a notification about the change from A and updates its configuration

Given these two steps, the sequence could be a case of wanted emergent behavior: Maybe application B keeps track of the number of global configuration changes. Now consider adding the following events to the sequence:

  1. application A receives a notification about the change from B and changes its configuration
  2. continue at step 2

The additional step causes an infinite cycle of configuration updates which introduces unwanted behavior.

When designing a system it is desirable to use components with predictable and well-defined behavior. As a system grows larger and gets more complex unpredictable behavior emerges that was neither intended by the system designer nor by the designer of the components. This system behavior is called emergent behavior if it cannot be explained from its components but only from analysis of the whole system.

Emergent behavior can be beneficial for a system. An example from nature is useful cooperation in an ant colony. Nevertheless, it also has disadvantages. Systems that bear unwanted emergent behavior are difficult to manage and experience failures in the worst case. This kind of unwanted emergent behavior is called emergent misbehavior. Examples of emergent misbehavior are traffic jams or the Millennium Footbridge incident in London (see scientific paper or news article).

An evaluation of Elektra's notification feature shows that it can exhibit the following symptoms:

  • Synchronization occurs due to the shared notification medium. Multiple applications receive a notification at the same time and execute their configuration update logic. In turn shared resources like hard disk or CPU become overutilized.
  • Oscillation occurs when applications are reacting to configuration changes by other applications.
  • In the worst case oscillation results in livelock when the frequency of configuration updates becomes so high that applications are only executing configuration update logic.
  • Phase change is a sudden change of the system behavior in reaction to a minor change (e.g. incremental change of a configuration setting). Phase change is introduced by application logic.

Building on these findings we will now present guidelines for preventing emergent misbehavior when using the notification API and callbacks in particular.

Guideline 1: Avoid callbacks

Most of the guidelines are related to callbacks. With normal use of the notification API emergent behavior should not occur.

Callbacks couple an application temporally to configuration changes of other applications or instances of the same application. This observation is the basis for Guidelines 1, 2 and 3. While it is possible with registered variables to check for configuration changes at regular time intervals and react to changes the coupling is not as tight as with callbacks.

Guideline 2: Wait before reacting to changes

Waiting after receiving a notification decouples an application from changes and reduces the risk for unwanted synchronization.

In applications where applying changes has impact on resource usage (e.g. CPU or disk) applying a time delay as suggested by this Guideline is a sensible choice. But this guideline is not only limited to these applications.

Generally waiting before reacting to changes reduces the risk for unwanted synchronization by decoupling the application temporally. Waiting can be implemented using random time delays which further promotes decoupling since applications react at different points in time to changes. Waiting can also be implemented using a flag: Callbacks set the flag and when the control flow is in the main loop again, the pending updates are applied and the flag is cleared.

Guideline 3: Avoid updates as reaction to change

Avoid changing the configuration as reaction to a change. This reduces the risk for unwanted oscillation.

While this guideline does not forbid updating the key database using kdbSet() in a callback it advises to avoid it. If we recall the example from before we see how updating as reaction to change leads to unwanted oscillation. If necessary, the function kdbSet() should be temporally decoupled as suggested in Guideline 2.

This guideline applies especially to callbacks but is also relevant when variables are polled for changes by the application.

Guideline 4: Do not use notifications for synchronization

Applications should not use notifications for synchronization as this can lead to phase change.

This guideline limits the use of the notification API to notifications about configuration changes. There are better suited techniques for different use cases. Applications should not keep track of changes and change their behavior on certain conditions.

For example, this happens when applications synchronize themselves at startup by incrementing a counter in the key database. When a certain limit of application instances is reached the applications proceed with different behavior. If this behavior affects other applications phase change has occurred.

Guideline 5: Apply changes immediately

Call kdbSet() to save updated configuration immediately after a change occurred. This reduces conflicting changes in the key database.

When a configuration setting is updated within an application this guideline suggests to write the change immediately to the key database using kdbSet(). This ensures that other applications have the same view of the key database and operate on current settings.

Guideline 6: Be careful on what to call inside callbacks

Notification callbacks are called from within Elektra. Calling kdbClose() in a callback will lead to undefined behavior or an application crash.

Closing and cleaning up the KDB handle will cause an application crash because the control flow returns from the callback to now removed code. While this can be considered an implementation detail it aligns with Guideline 2 since reinitialization of KDB uses more resources than other operations like kdbGet() or kdbSet().

Logging

In order to analyze application behavior the logging plugins (syslog, journald or logchange) can be used. In order to log not only kdbSet() but also kdbGet(), the option get=on should be used when mounting these plugins.

kdb global-mount syslog get=on

Now both reading from and writing to Elektra's key database is logged.

How to create your own I/O Binding

Developers can create their own bindings if the I/O management library of their choice is not supported by an existing I/O binding.

For details on see the example "doc" binding or the API documentation. Existing I/O bindings provide a good inspiration on how to implement a custom binding. Since a binding is generic and not application specific it is much appreciated if you contribute your I/O binding back to the Elektra Initiative.