[ruby-core:112754] [Ruby master Feature#19472] Ractor::Selector to wait multiple ractors

9 Mar 2023

      Issue #19472 has been updated by ioquatix (Samuel Williams).
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Is there a real use-case for so many Ractors?
...
This is why I'm working on MaNy project (M:N threads).
So it sounds like there is no use case?

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Feature #19472: Ractor::Selector to wait multiple ractors
https://bugs.ruby-lang.org/issues/19472#change-102247

* Author: ko1 (Koichi Sasada)
* Status: Open
* Priority: Normal
* Assignee: ko1 (Koichi Sasada)
* Target version: 3.3
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This ticket propose `Ractor::Selector` API to wait multiple ractor events.

Now, if we want to wait for taking from r1, r2 and r3, we can use `Ractor.select()` like that.

```ruby
r, v = Ractor.select(r1, r2, r3)
p "taking an object #{v} from #{r}"
```

With proposed `Ractor::Selector` API, we can write the following:

```ruby
selector = Ractor.selector.new(r1, r2) # make a waiting set with r1 and r2
selector.add(r3) # we can add r3 to the waiting set after that.
selector.add(r4)
selector.remove(r4) # we can remove r4 from the waiting set.

r, v = selector.wait
p "taking an object #{v} from #{r}"
```

* `Ractor::Selector.new(*ractors)`: creates a selector.
* `Ractor::Selector#add(r)`: adds `r` to the waiting set.
* `Ractor::Selector#remove(r)`: removes `r` from the waiting set.
* `Ractor::Selector#clear`: remove all ractors from the waiting set.
* `Ractor::Selector#empty?`: returns if the waiting set is empty or not.
* `Ractor::Selector#wait`: waits for the ractor events from the waiting set.

https://github.com/ruby/ruby/blob/master/ractor.rb#L380

The advantages comparing with `Ractor.select` are:

* (1) (API design) We can preset the waiting set before waiting. Providing unified way to manage a waiting set seems better.
* (2) (Performance) It is lighter than passing an array object to the `Ractor.select(*rs)` if `rs` is bigger and bigger.

For (2), it is important to supervise thousands of ractors.

`Ractor::Selector#wait` also has additional features:

* `wait(receive: true)` also waits receiving.
  * `Ractor.select(*rs, Ractor.current)` does same, but I believe `receive: true` keyword is more direct to understand.
* `wait(yield_value: obj, move: true/false)` also waits yielding.
  * Same as `Ractor.select(yield_value: obj, move: true/false)`
* If a ractor `r` is closing, then `#wait` removes `r` automatically.
* If there is no waiting ractors, it raises an exception (now `Ractor::Error` is raised but it should be a better exception class)

With automatic removing, we can write the code to wait n tasks.

```ruby
rs = n.times.map{ Ractor.new{ do_task } }
selector = Ractor::Selector.new(*rs)

loop do
  r, v = selector.wait
  handle_answers(r, v)
rescue Ractor::Error
  p :all_tasks_done
end
```

Without auto removing, we can write the following code.

```ruby
rs = n.times.map{ Ractor.new{ do_task } }
selector = Ractor::Selector.new(*rs)

loop do
  r, v = selector.wait
  handle_answers(r, v)
rescue Ractor::ClosedError => e
  selector.remove e.ractor
rescue Ractor::Error
  p :all_tasks_done
end

# or on this case worker ractors only yield one value (at exit) so the following code works as well.

loop do
  r, v = selector.wait
  handle_answers(r, v)
  selector.remove r
rescue Ractor::Error
  p :all_tasks_done
end

``` 

I already merged it but I want to discuss about the spec.

Discussion:

* The name `Selector` is acceptable?
* Auto-removing seems convenient but it can hide the behavior.
  * allow auto-removing
  * allow auto-removing as configurable option
    * per ractor or per selector
    * which is default?
  * disallow auto-removing
* What happens on no taking ractors
  * raise an exception (which exception?)
  * return nil simply

maybe and more...

-- 
https://bugs.ruby-lang.org/