Manual

Blocking calls and the extension

Which blocking calls become cooperative and the drop-in functions.

Introduction#

Without the extension, a call such as sleep() or file_get_contents() blocks the whole process: every other coroutine waits until it returns. phasync ships drop-in functions in the phasync namespace — sleep, file_get_contents, file_put_contents and flock — that do the same job but let the other coroutines run while they wait. Import them with use function and the rest of the code stays as it is.

The optional extension goes further: it makes the ordinary blocking calls cooperative, so code you did not write (a database driver, a framework, a library) also stops blocking the other coroutines. ensure_loaded tells you whether it is there. This topic lists which calls the extension covers and which ones it does not.

Concepts#

• The phasync extension – The optional extension: blocking I/O in existing code suspends the coroutine, not the process.

Examples#

• All examples of this topic – 5 with their output.

Reference#

• CurlAwaiter – Runs cURL handles cooperatively, so other coroutines run while a request is in flight.
• MySQLiAwaiter – Waits for a mysqli asynchronous query without blocking other coroutines.
• ensure_loaded – Ensure the phasync extension is loaded, re-executing this CLI process with -d extension=<matching .so> if it is not.
• file_get_contents – Reads a whole file, letting other coroutines run while it waits.
• file_put_contents – Writes a file, letting other coroutines run while it waits.
• flock – Locks a file, letting other coroutines run while it waits for the lock.
• sleep – Suspends the current coroutine for $seconds seconds, letting the others run.