test_ok1/py/doc/execnet.txt

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The py.execnet library
======================
.. contents::
.. sectnum::
A new view on distributed execution
-----------------------------------
``py.execnet`` supports ad-hoc distribution of parts of
a program across process and network barriers. *Ad-hoc*
means that the client side may completely control
* which parts of a program execute remotely and
* which data protocols are used between them
without requiring any prior manual installation
of user program code on the remote side. In fact,
not even a prior installation of any server code
is required, provided there is a way to get
an input/output connection to a python interpreter
(for example via "ssh" and a "python" executable).
By comparison, traditional Remote Method Based (RMI)
require prior installation and manual rather
heavy processes of setup, distribution and
communication between program parts.
What about Security? Are you completely nuts?
---------------------------------------------
We'll talk about that later :-)
Basic Features
==============
With ''py.execnet'' you get the means
- to navigate through the network with Process, Thread, SSH
and Socket- gateways that allow you ...
- to distribute your program across a network and define
communication protocols from the client side, making
server maintenance superflous. In fact, there is no such
thing as a server. It's just another computer ... if it
doesn't run in a kernel-level jail [#]_ in which case
even that is virtualized.
Available Gateways/Connection methods
-----------------------------------------
You may use one of the following connection methods:
* :api:`py.execnet.PopenGateway` a subprocess on the local
machine. Useful for jailing certain parts of a program
or for making use of multiple processors.
* :api:`py.execnet.SshGateway` a way to connect to
a remote ssh server and distribute execution to it.
* :api:`py.execnet.SocketGateway` a way to connect to
a remote Socket based server. *Note* that this method
requires a manually started
:source:py/execnet/script/socketserver.py
script. You can run this "server script" without
having the py lib installed on that remote system.
Remote execution approach
-------------------------------------
All gateways offer one main high level function:
def remote_exec(source):
"""return channel object for communicating with the asynchronously
executing 'source' code which will have a corresponding 'channel'
object in its executing namespace."""
With `remote_exec` you send source code to the other
side and get both a local and a remote Channel_ object,
which you can use to have the local and remote site
communicate data in a structured way. Here is
an example:
>>> import py
>>> gw = py.execnet.PopenGateway()
>>> channel = gw.remote_exec("""
... import os
... channel.send(os.getpid())
... """)
>>> remote_pid = channel.receive()
>>> remote_pid != py.std.os.getpid()
True
`remote_exec` implements the idea to ``determine
protocol and remote code from the client/local side``.
This makes distributing a program run in an ad-hoc
manner (using e.g. :api:`py.execnet.SshGateway`) very easy.
You should not need to maintain software on the other sides
you are running your code at, other than the Python
executable itself.
.. _`Channel`:
.. _`channel-api`:
.. _`exchange data`:
The **Channel** interface for exchanging data across gateways
-------------------------------------------------------------
While executing custom strings on "the other side" is simple enough
it is often tricky to deal with. Therefore we want a way
to send data items to and fro between the distributedly running
program. The idea is to inject a Channel object for each
execution of source code. This Channel object allows two
program parts to send data to each other.
Here is the current interface::
#
# API for sending and receiving anonymous values
#
channel.send(item):
sends the given item to the other side of the channel,
possibly blocking if the sender queue is full.
Note that items need to be marshallable (all basic
python types are):
channel.receive():
receives an item that was sent from the other side,
possibly blocking if there is none.
Note that exceptions from the other side will be
reraised as gateway.RemoteError exceptions containing
a textual representation of the remote traceback.
channel.waitclose(timeout=None):
wait until this channel is closed. Note that a closed
channel may still hold items that will be received or
send. Note that exceptions from the other side will be
reraised as gateway.RemoteError exceptions containing
a textual representation of the remote traceback.
channel.close():
close this channel on both the local and the remote side.
A remote side blocking on receive() on this channel
will get woken up and see an EOFError exception.
The complete Fileserver example
........................................
problem: retrieving contents of remote files::
import py
contentserverbootstrap = py.code.Source(
"""
for fn in channel:
f = open(fn, 'rb')
try:
channel.send(f.read())
finally:
f.close()
""")
# open a gateway to a fresh child process
contentgateway = py.execnet.SshGateway('codespeak.net')
channel = contentgateway.remote_exec(contentserverbootstrap)
for fn in somefilelist:
channel.send(fn)
content = channel.receive()
# process content
# later you can exit / close down the gateway
contentgateway.exit()
A more complicated "nested" Gateway Example
...........................................
The following example opens a PopenGateway, i.e. a python
child process, starts a socket server within that process and
then opens a SocketGateway to the freshly started
socketserver. Thus it forms a "triangle"::
CLIENT < ... > PopenGateway()
< .
. .
. .
. .
> SocketGateway()
The below "socketserver" mentioned script is a small script that
basically listens and accepts socket connections, receives one
liners and executes them.
Here are 20 lines of code making the above triangle happen::
import py
port = 7770
socketserverbootstrap = py.code.Source(
mypath.dirpath().dirpath('bin', 'socketserver.py').read(),
"""
import socket
sock = bind_and_listen(("localhost", %r))
channel.send("ok")
startserver(sock)
""" % port)
# open a gateway to a fresh child process
proxygw = py.execnet.PopenGateway()
# execute asynchronously the above socketserverbootstrap on the other
channel = proxygw.remote_exec(socketserverbootstrap)
# the other side should start the socket server now
assert channel.receive() == "ok"
gw = py.execnet.SocketGateway('localhost', cls.port)
print "initialized socket gateway to port", cls.port
.. [#] There is an interesting emerging `Jail`_ linux technology
as well as a host of others, of course.
.. _`Jail`: http://books.rsbac.org/unstable/x2223.html