Redundant epoll_ctl with ev_io watcher

[Nick Zavaritsky]

Hi, Marc!

Please kindly provide some advice.

Tarantool.org is observing redundant epoll_ctl(EPOLL_CTL_ADD) when using ev_io watchers.

Here is the (edited) strace fragment:

read(7, 0x7f8a23008030, 16336)          = -1 EAGAIN (Resource temporarily unavailable)
epoll_ctl(4, EPOLL_CTL_ADD, 7, {EPOLLIN, {u32=7, u64=4294967303}}) = 0
epoll_wait(4, {{EPOLLIN, {u32=7, u64=4294967303}}}, 64, 59743) = 1
read(7, "1\n", 16336)                   = 2
read(7, 0x7f8a23008032, 16334)          = -1 EAGAIN (Resource temporarily unavailable)
epoll_ctl(4, EPOLL_CTL_ADD, 7, {EPOLLIN, {u32=7, u64=8589934599}}) = -1 EEXIST (File exists)


Presumably the problem is due to the code doing ev_io_init before starting the watcher again (borrowing example from the manual):

static void
stdin_readable_cb (struct ev_loop *loop, ev_io *w, int revents)
{
     ev_io_stop (loop, w);
     .. consume input ..
     ev_io_init (w, stdin_readable_cb, w->fd, EV_READ); /* < A culprit? */
     ev_io_start(loop, w);
}

...
struct ev_loop *loop = ev_default_init (0);
ev_io stdin_readable;
ev_io_init (&stdin_readable, stdin_readable_cb, STDIN_FILENO, EV_READ);
ev_io_start (loop, &stdin_readable);
ev_run (loop, 0);


As far as I understand ’the special problem of disappearing file descriptors’, by doing ev_io_init we trigger full re-initialization, just in case the fd was reused and is referencing another object now.

Unfortunately we can’t get rid of that ev_io_init. In fact we are using C coroutines and we have a function like wait_fd(int). When called, wait_fd initializes a brand new ev_io watcher, starts the watcher and finally switches to another coroutine. Eventually the ev_io handler transfers control back to the original coroutine, resuming wait_fd. Once wait_fd completes, the watcher is no more.


How wrong would it be to bypass ev_io_set when we know for sure that the descriptor didn’t get reused in the meantime?

Can we change watcher flags directly provided that it is inactive?

Thanks,
Nick