NIO
New I/O
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Rationale and Goals
Haskell 98 specifies and number of I/O actions. All these actions accept and return Strings. However, Strings are not a good type for performing I/O in all cases. Their structure give them bad cache locality and they take up more memory per byte or character than more compact representations like ByteStrings. It is also conceptually the wrong type for some operations. For example, sockets receive and send bytes while file I/O often deals in terms of characters and yet both use String to represent these two different concepts.
We need to first create a low-level API that covers the basic I/O functionality provided by the operating system which other, more high-level libraries can build upon.
Background Study
To get a good idea of the different possible trade-offs in designing an I/O library here's an overview over what I/O libraries look like in other programming languages.
Java
While Java first I/O library was built using streams the new I/O library, dubbed NIO, uses a similar concept called channels. The two basic channels, ReadableByteChannel and WritableByteChannel, have a very narrow interface only providing a single read and a single write function. These two function operate on ByteBuffers. ByteBuffers are mutable buffers that keep track on the next position available for writing and reading. Since the buffers can be allocated in a memory region used by the operating system for its native I/O operations additional copying can be avoided and the CPU might not have to be involved in the data transfer at all.
A Haskell clone of this API split into two modules could look as follows. First the buffer module:
module System.Nio.Buffers
( ByteBuffer,
allocate,
clear,
flip,
get,
hasRemaining,
limit,
position,
put,
remaining,
rewind,
setLimit,
setPosition
) where
import Data.ByteString.Internal (mallocByteString)
import Data.IORef (IORef, newIORef, modifyIORef, readIORef, writeIORef)
import Data.Word (Word8)
import Foreign (ForeignPtr, peek, plusPtr, poke, withForeignPtr)
import Prelude hiding (flip)
-- ---------------------------------------------------------------------
-- Buffers
-- | A byte buffer.
data ByteBuffer = ByteBuffer
{-# UNPACK #-} !(IORef Int) -- capacity
{-# UNPACK #-} !(IORef Int) -- limit
{-# UNPACK #-} !(IORef Int) -- position
{-# UNPACK #-} !(ForeignPtr Word8)
-- | Allocates a new byte buffer.
--
-- The new buffer's position will be zero, its limit will be its
-- capacity, and its mark will be undefined.
allocate :: Int -> IO ByteBuffer
allocate capacity = do
cap <- newIORef capacity
lim <- newIORef capacity
pos <- newIORef 0
fp <- mallocByteString capacity
return $! ByteBuffer cap lim pos fp
-- | Clears this buffer. The position is set to zero, and the limit is
-- set to the capacity.
--
-- This method does not actually erase the data in the buffer, but it
-- is named as if it did because it will most often be used in
-- situations in which that might as well be the case.
clear :: ByteBuffer -> IO ()
clear (ByteBuffer cap lim pos _) = do
readIORef cap >>= writeIORef lim
writeIORef pos 0
-- | Flips this buffer. The limit is set to the current position and
-- then the position is set to zero.
flip :: ByteBuffer -> IO ()
flip (ByteBuffer _ lim pos _) = do
readIORef pos >>= writeIORef lim
writeIORef pos 0
-- | Reads the byte at this buffer's current position, and then
-- increments the position.
get :: ByteBuffer -> IO Word8
get (ByteBuffer _ lim pos fp) = do
lim' <- readIORef lim
pos' <- readIORef pos
if pos' == lim'
then error "BufferUnderflowException"
else do
b <- withForeignPtr fp $ \p -> peek (p `plusPtr` pos')
modifyIORef pos (+ 1)
return b
-- | Tells whether there are any elements between the current position
-- and the limit.
hasRemaining :: ByteBuffer -> IO Bool
hasRemaining (ByteBuffer _ lim pos _) = do
lim' <- readIORef lim
pos' <- readIORef pos
return $! pos' < lim'
-- | Returns this buffer's limit.
limit :: ByteBuffer -> IO Int
limit (ByteBuffer _ lim _ _) = readIORef lim
-- | Returns this buffer's position.
position :: ByteBuffer -> IO Int
position (ByteBuffer _ _ pos _) = readIORef pos
-- | Writes the given byte into this buffer at the current position,
-- and then increments the position.
put :: Word8 -> ByteBuffer -> IO ()
put b (ByteBuffer _ lim pos fp) = do
lim' <- readIORef lim
pos' <- readIORef pos
if pos' == lim'
then error "BufferOverflowException"
else do withForeignPtr fp $ \p -> poke (p `plusPtr` pos') b
modifyIORef pos (+ 1)
-- | Returns the number of elements between the current position and
-- the limit.
remaining :: ByteBuffer -> IO Int
remaining (ByteBuffer _ lim pos _) = do
lim' <- readIORef lim
pos' <- readIORef pos
return $! lim' - pos'
-- | Rewinds this buffer. The position is set to zero.
rewind :: ByteBuffer -> IO ()
rewind (ByteBuffer _ _ pos _) = writeIORef pos 0
-- | Sets this buffer's limit. If the position is larger than the new
-- limit then it is set to the new limit.
setLimit :: Int -> ByteBuffer -> IO ()
setLimit newLimit (ByteBuffer cap lim pos _) = do
cap' <- readIORef cap
if newLimit < 0 || newLimit > cap'
then error "IllegalArgumentException"
else do
writeIORef lim newLimit
pos' <- readIORef pos
writeIORef pos $! (min pos' newLimit)
-- | Sets this buffer's position.
setPosition :: Int -> ByteBuffer -> IO ()
setPosition newPosition (ByteBuffer _ lim pos _) = do
lim' <- readIORef lim
if newPosition < 0 || newPosition > lim'
then error "IllegalArgumentException"
else writeIORef pos newPosition
And then the channel module:
module System.Nio.Channels
( Channel(..),
ReadableByteChannel(..),
WriteableByteChannel(..)
) where
import System.Nio.Buffers
-- ---------------------------------------------------------------------
-- Channels
class Channel a where
close :: a -> IO ()
isOpen :: a -> IO Bool
class Channel a => ReadableByteChannel a where
read :: a -> ByteBuffer -> IO Int
class Channel a => WritableByteChannel a where
write :: a -> ByteBuffer -> IO Int
Missing from this implementation is a function to allocate buffers inside the operating system's area for native I/O and instances of the different channel classes.
The main drawback of this design is that it makes heavy use of mutable data structures (i.e. the buffers).
Raw I/O
The new I/O library resides in the New I/O (NIO) module.
module System.Nio
All I/O actions deal in terms of ByteStrings.
import Data.ByteString
read :: Handle -> Int -> IO ByteString
write :: Handle -> ByteString -> IO Int
tell :: Handle -> IO Integer
seek :: Handle -> SeekMode -> Integer -> IO ()
close :: Handle -> IO ()
truncate :: Handle -> Integer -> IO () -- should throw some kind of exception
isReadable :: Handle -> IO Bool
isWritable :: Handle -> IO Bool