class PEROBS::Store

PEROBS::Store is a persistent storage system for Ruby objects. Regular Ruby objects are transparently stored in a back-end storage and retrieved when needed. It features a garbage collector that removes all objects that are no longer in use. A build-in cache keeps access latencies to recently used objects low and lazily flushes modified objects into the persistend back-end. The default back-end is a filesystem based database. Alternatively, an Amazon DynamoDB can be used as well. Adding support for other key/value stores is fairly trivial to do. See PEROBS::DynamoDB for an example

Persistent objects must be defined by deriving your class from PEROBS::Object, PERBOS::Array or PEROBS::Hash. Only instance variables that are declared via po_attr will be persistent. It is recommended that references to other objects are all going to persistent objects again. TO create a new persistent object you must call Store.new(). Don't use the constructors of persistent classes directly. Store.new() will return a proxy or delegator object that can be used like the actual object. By using delegators we can disconnect the actual object from the delegator handle.

require 'perobs'

class Person < PEROBS::Object

attr_persist :name, :mother, :father, :kids

# The contructor is only called for the creation of a new object. It is
# not called when the object is restored from the database. In that case
# only restore() is called.
def initialize(cf, name)
  super(cf)
  self.name = name
  self.kids = @store.new(PEROBS::Array)
end

def restore
  # In case you need to do any checks or massaging (e. g. for additional
  # attributes) you can provide this method.
end

def to_s
  "#{@name} is the child of #{self.mother ? self.mother.name : 'unknown'} " +
  "and #{self.father ? self.father.name : 'unknown'}.
end

end

store = PEROBS::Store.new('family') store = joe = store.new(Person, 'Joe') store = jane = store.new(Person, 'Jane') jim = store.new(Person, 'Jim') jim.father = joe joe.kids << jim jim.mother = jane jane.kids << jim store.exit

Attributes

cache[R]
class_map[R]
db[R]
root_objects[W]

Public Class Methods

new(data_base, options = {}) click to toggle source

Create a new Store. @param data_base [String] the name of the database @param options [Hash] various options to affect the operation of the

     database. Currently the following options are supported:
     :engine     : The class that provides the back-end storage
                   engine. By default FlatFileDB is used. A user
                   can provide it's own storage engine that must
                   conform to the same API exposed by FlatFileDB.
     :cache_bits : the number of bits used for cache indexing. The
                   cache will hold 2 to the power of bits number of
                   objects. We have separate caches for reading and
                   writing. The default value is 16. It probably makes
                   little sense to use much larger numbers than that.
     :serializer : select the format used to serialize the data. There
                   are 3 different options:
                   :marshal : Native Ruby serializer. Fastest option
                   that can handle most Ruby data types. Big
                   disadvantate is the stability of the format. Data
                   written with one Ruby version may not be readable
                   with another version.
                   :json : About half as fast as marshal, but the
                   format is rock solid and portable between
                   languages. It only supports basic Ruby data types
                   like String, Integer, Float, Array, Hash. This is
                   the default option.
                   :yaml : Can also handle most Ruby data types and is
                   portable between Ruby versions (1.9 and later).
                   Unfortunately, it is 10x slower than marshal.
  :progressmeter : reference to a ProgressMeter object that receives
                   progress information during longer running tasks.
                   It defaults to ProgressMeter which only logs into
                   the log. Use ConsoleProgressMeter or a derived
                   class for more fancy progress reporting.
:no_root_objects : Create a new store without root objects. This only
                   makes sense if you want to copy the objects of
                   another store into this store.
# File lib/perobs/Store.rb, line 151
def initialize(data_base, options = {})
  # Create a backing store handler
  @progressmeter = (options[:progressmeter] ||= ProgressMeter.new)
  @db = (options[:engine] || FlatFileDB).new(data_base, options)
  @db.open
  # Create a map that can translate classes to numerical IDs and vice
  # versa.
  @class_map = ClassMap.new(@db)

  # List of PEROBS objects that are currently available as Ruby objects
  # hashed by their ID.
  @in_memory_objects = {}
  # List of objects that were destroyed already but were still found in
  # the in_memory_objects list. _collect has not yet been called for them.
  @zombie_objects = {}

  # This objects keeps some counters of interest.
  @stats = Statistics.new
  @stats[:created_objects] = 0
  @stats[:collected_objects] = 0

  # The Cache reduces read and write latencies by keeping a subset of the
  # objects in memory.
  @cache = Cache.new(options[:cache_bits] || 16)

  # The named (global) objects IDs hashed by their name
  unless options[:no_root_objects]
    unless (@root_objects = object_by_id(0))
      PEROBS.log.debug "Initializing the PEROBS store"
      # The root object hash always has the object ID 0.
      @root_objects = _construct_po(Hash, 0)
      # Mark the root_objects object as modified.
      @cache.cache_write(@root_objects)
    end
    unless @root_objects.is_a?(Hash)
      PEROBS.log.fatal "Database corrupted: Root objects must be a Hash " +
        "but is a #{@root_objects.class}"
    end
  end
end

Public Instance Methods

[](name) click to toggle source

Return the object with the provided name. @param name [Symbol] A Symbol specifies the name of the object to be

returned.

@return The requested object or nil if it doesn't exist.

# File lib/perobs/Store.rb, line 324
def [](name)
  # Return nil if there is no object with that name.
  return nil unless (id = @root_objects[name])

  POXReference.new(self, id)
end
[]=(name, obj) click to toggle source

Store the provided object under the given name. Use this to make the object a root or top-level object (think global variable). Each store should have at least one root object. Objects that are not directly or indirectly reachable via any of the root objects are no longer accessible and will be garbage collected. @param name [Symbol] The name to use. @param obj [PEROBS::Object] The object to store @return [PEROBS::Object] The stored object.

# File lib/perobs/Store.rb, line 296
def []=(name, obj)
  # If the passed object is nil, we delete the entry if it exists.
  if obj.nil?
    @root_objects.delete(name)
    return nil
  end

  # We only allow derivatives of PEROBS::Object to be stored in the
  # store.
  unless obj.is_a?(ObjectBase)
    PEROBS.log.fatal 'Object must be of class PEROBS::Object but ' +
      "is of class #{obj.class}"
  end

  unless obj.store == self
    PEROBS.log.fatal 'The object does not belong to this store.'
  end

  # Store the name and mark the name list as modified.
  @root_objects[name] = obj._id

  obj
end
_collect(id, ruby_object_id) click to toggle source

Remove the object from the in-memory list. This is an internal method and should never be called from user code. It will be called from a finalizer, so many restrictions apply! @param id [Integer] Object ID of object to remove from the list

# File lib/perobs/Store.rb, line 555
def _collect(id, ruby_object_id)
  if @in_memory_objects[id] == ruby_object_id
    @in_memory_objects.delete(id)
    @stats[:collected_objects] += 1
  elsif @zombie_objects[id] == ruby_object_id
    @zombie_objects.delete(id)
    @stats[:collected_objects] += 1
  end
end
_construct_po(klass, id, *args) click to toggle source

For library internal use only! This method will create a new PEROBS object. @param klass [BasicObject] Class of the object to create @param id [Integer] Requested object ID @param args [Array] Arguments to pass to the object constructor. @return [BasicObject] Newly constructed PEROBS object

# File lib/perobs/Store.rb, line 275
def _construct_po(klass, id, *args)
  klass.new(Handle.new(self, id), *args)
end
_new_id() click to toggle source

Internal method. Don't use this outside of this library! Generate a new unique ID that is not used by any other object. It uses random numbers between 0 and 2**64 - 1. @return [Integer]

# File lib/perobs/Store.rb, line 520
def _new_id
  begin
    # Generate a random number. It's recommended to not store more than
    # 2**62 objects in the same store.
    id = rand(2**64)
    # Ensure that we don't have already another object with this ID.
  end while @in_memory_objects.include?(id) || @db.include?(id)

  id
end
_register_in_memory(obj, id) click to toggle source

Internal method. Don't use this outside of this library! Add the new object to the in-memory list. We only store a weak reference to the object so it can be garbage collected. When this happens the object finalizer is triggered and calls _forget() to remove the object from this hash again. @param obj [BasicObject] Object to register @param id [Integer] object ID

# File lib/perobs/Store.rb, line 538
def _register_in_memory(obj, id)
  unless obj.is_a?(ObjectBase)
    PEROBS.log.fatal "You can only register ObjectBase objects"
  end
  if @in_memory_objects.include?(id)
    PEROBS.log.fatal "The Store::_in_memory_objects list already " +
      "contains an object for ID #{id}"
  end

  @in_memory_objects[id] = obj.object_id
  @stats[:created_objects] += 1
end
check(repair = false) click to toggle source

This method can be used to check the database and optionally repair it. The repair is a pure structural repair. It cannot ensure that the stored data is still correct. E. g. if a reference to a non-existing or unreadable object is found, the reference will simply be deleted. @param repair [TrueClass/FalseClass] true if a repair attempt should be

made.

@return [Integer] The number of references to bad objects found.

# File lib/perobs/Store.rb, line 419
def check(repair = false)
  stats = { :errors => 0, :object_cnt => 0 }

  # All objects must have in-db version.
  sync
  # Run basic consistency checks first.
  stats[:errors] += @db.check_db(repair)

  # We will use the mark to mark all objects that we have checked already.
  # Before we start, we need to clear all marks.
  @db.clear_marks

  @progressmeter.start("Checking object link structure",
                       @db.item_counter) do
    @root_objects.each do |name, id|
      check_object(id, repair, stats)
    end
  end

  # Delete all broken root objects.
  if repair
    @root_objects.delete_if do |name, id|
      unless @db.check(id, repair)
        PEROBS.log.error "Discarding broken root object '#{name}' " +
          "with ID #{id}"
        stats[:errors] += 1
      end
    end
  end

  if stats[:errors] > 0
    if repair
      PEROBS.log.error "#{stats[:errors]} errors found in " +
        "#{stats[:object_cnt]} objects"
    else
      PEROBS.log.fatal "#{stats[:errors]} errors found in " +
        "#{stats[:object_cnt]} objects"
    end
  else
    PEROBS.log.debug "No errors found"
  end

  # Ensure that any fixes are written into the DB.
  sync if repair

  stats[:errors]
end
copy(dir, options = {}) click to toggle source

Copy the store content into a new Store. The arguments are identical to Store.new(). @param options [Hash] various options to affect the operation of the

# File lib/perobs/Store.rb, line 195
def copy(dir, options = {})
  # Make sure all objects are persisted.
  sync

  # Create a new store with the specified directory and options.
  new_options = options.clone
  new_options[:no_root_objects] = true
  new_db = Store.new(dir, new_options)
  # Clear the cache.
  new_db.sync
  # Copy all objects of the existing store to the new store.
  i = 0
  each do |ref_obj|
    obj = ref_obj._referenced_object
    obj._transfer(new_db)
    obj._sync
    i += 1
  end
  new_db.root_objects = new_db.object_by_id(0)
  PEROBS.log.debug "Copied #{i} objects into new database at #{dir}"
  # Flush the new store and close it.
  new_db.exit

  true
end
delete_store() click to toggle source

Delete the entire store. The store is no longer usable after this method was called. This is an alternative to exit() that additionaly deletes the entire database.

# File lib/perobs/Store.rb, line 282
def delete_store
  @db.delete_database
  @db = @class_map = @in_memory_objects = @zombie_objects =
    @stats = @cache = @root_objects = nil
end
each() { |myself| ... } click to toggle source

Calls the given block once for each object, passing that object as a parameter.

# File lib/perobs/Store.rb, line 486
def each
  @db.clear_marks
  # Start with the object 0 and the indexes of the root objects. Push them
  # onto the work stack.
  stack = [ 0 ] + @root_objects.values
  while !stack.empty?
    # Get an object index from the stack.
    id = stack.pop
    next if @db.is_marked?(id)

    unless (obj = object_by_id(id))
      PEROBS.log.fatal "Database is corrupted. Object with ID #{id} " +
        "not found."
    end
    # Mark the object so it will never be pushed to the stack again.
    @db.mark(id)
    yield(obj.myself) if block_given?
    # Push the IDs of all unmarked referenced objects onto the stack
    obj._referenced_object_ids.each do |r_id|
      stack << r_id unless @db.is_marked?(r_id)
    end
  end
end
exit() click to toggle source

Close the store and ensure that all in-memory objects are written out to the storage backend. The Store object is no longer usable after this method was called.

# File lib/perobs/Store.rb, line 224
def exit
  if @cache && @cache.in_transaction?
    @cache.abort_transaction
    @cache.flush
    @db.close if @db
    PEROBS.log.fatal "You cannot call exit() during a transaction: #{Kernel.caller}"
  end
  @cache.flush if @cache
  @db.close if @db

  GC.start
  if @stats
    unless @stats[:created_objects] == @stats[:collected_objects] +
        @in_memory_objects.length
      PEROGS.log.fatal "Created objects count " +
        "(#{@stats[:created_objects]})" +
        " is not equal to the collected count " +
        "(#{@stats[:collected_objects]}) + in_memory_objects count " +
        "(#{@in_memory_objects.length})"
    end
  end

  @db = @class_map = @in_memory_objects = @zombie_objects =
    @stats = @cache = @root_objects = nil
end
gc() click to toggle source

Discard all objects that are not somehow connected to the root objects from the back-end storage. The garbage collector is not invoked automatically. Depending on your usage pattern, you need to call this method periodically. @return [Integer] The number of collected objects

# File lib/perobs/Store.rb, line 364
def gc
  sync
  mark
  sweep
end
names() click to toggle source

Return a list with all the names of the root objects. @return [Array of Symbols]

# File lib/perobs/Store.rb, line 333
def names
  @root_objects.keys
end
new(klass, *args) click to toggle source

You need to call this method to create new PEROBS objects that belong to this Store. @param klass [Class] The class of the object you want to create. This

must be a derivative of ObjectBase.

@param args Optional list of other arguments that are passed to the

constructor of the specified class.

@return [POXReference] A reference to the newly created object.

# File lib/perobs/Store.rb, line 257
def new(klass, *args)
  unless klass.is_a?(BasicObject)
    PEROBS.log.fatal "#{klass} is not a BasicObject derivative"
  end

  obj = _construct_po(klass, _new_id, *args)
  # Mark the new object as modified so it gets pushed into the database.
  @cache.cache_write(obj)
  # Return a POXReference proxy for the newly created object.
  obj.myself
end
object_by_id(id) click to toggle source

Return the object with the provided ID. This method is not part of the public API and should never be called by outside users. It's purely intended for internal use.

# File lib/perobs/Store.rb, line 373
def object_by_id(id)
  if (ruby_object_id = @in_memory_objects[id])
    # We have the object in memory so we can just return it.
    begin
      object = ObjectSpace._id2ref(ruby_object_id)
      # Let's make sure the object is really the object we are looking
      # for. The GC might have recycled it already and the Ruby object ID
      # could now be used for another object.
      if object.is_a?(ObjectBase) && object._id == id
        return object
      end
    rescue RangeError => e
      # Due to a race condition the object can still be in the
      # @in_memory_objects list but has been collected already by the Ruby
      # GC. In that case we need to load it again. The _collect() call
      # will happen much later, potentially after we have registered a new
      # object with the same ID.
      @zombie_objects[id] = @in_memory_objects.delete(id)
    end
  end

  if (obj = @cache.object_by_id(id))
    PEROBS.log.fatal "Object #{id} with Ruby #{obj.object_id} is in cache but not in_memory"
  end

  # We don't have the object in memory. Let's find it in the storage.
  if @db.include?(id)
    # Great, object found. Read it into memory and return it.
    obj = ObjectBase::read(self, id)
    # Add the object to the in-memory storage list.
    @cache.cache_read(obj)

    return obj
  end

  # The requested object does not exist. Return nil.
  nil
end
rename_classes(rename_map) click to toggle source

Rename classes of objects stored in the data base. @param rename_map [Hash] Hash that maps the old name to the new name

# File lib/perobs/Store.rb, line 512
def rename_classes(rename_map)
  @class_map.rename(rename_map)
end
size() click to toggle source

Return the number of object stored in the store. CAVEAT: This method will only return correct values when it is separated from any mutating call by a call to sync(). @return [Integer] Number of persistently stored objects in the Store.

# File lib/perobs/Store.rb, line 353
def size
  # We don't include the Hash that stores the root objects into the object
  # count.
  @db.item_counter - 1
end
statistics() click to toggle source

This method returns a Hash with some statistics about this store.

# File lib/perobs/Store.rb, line 566
def statistics
  @stats.in_memory_objects = @in_memory_objects.length
  @stats.root_objects = @root_objects.length
  @stats.zombie_objects = @zombie_objects.length

  @stats
end
sync() click to toggle source

Flush out all modified objects to disk and shrink the in-memory list if needed.

# File lib/perobs/Store.rb, line 339
def sync
  if @cache.in_transaction?
    @cache.abort_transaction
    @cache.flush
    PEROBS.log.fatal "You cannot call sync() during a transaction: \n" +
      Kernel.caller.join("\n")
  end
  @cache.flush
end
transaction() { || ... } click to toggle source

This method will execute the provided block as an atomic transaction regarding the manipulation of all objects associated with this Store. In case the execution of the block generates an exception, the transaction is aborted and all PEROBS objects are restored to the state at the beginning of the transaction. The exception is passed on to the enclosing scope, so you probably want to handle it accordingly.

# File lib/perobs/Store.rb, line 473
def transaction
  @cache.begin_transaction
  begin
    yield if block_given?
  rescue => e
    @cache.abort_transaction
    raise e
  end
  @cache.end_transaction
end

Private Instance Methods

check_object(start_id, repair, stats) click to toggle source

Check the object with the given start_id and all other objects that are somehow reachable from the start object. @param start_id [Integer] ID of the top-level object to start

with

@param repair [Boolean] Delete refernces to broken objects if true @return [Integer] The number of references to bad objects.

# File lib/perobs/Store.rb, line 614
def check_object(start_id, repair, stats)
  @db.mark(start_id)
  # The todo list holds a touple for each object that still needs to be
  # checked. The first item is the referring object and the second is the
  # ID of the object to check.
  todo_list = [ [ nil, start_id ] ]

  while !todo_list.empty?
    # Get the next PEROBS object to check
    ref_obj, id = todo_list.pop

    begin
      obj = object_by_id(id)
    rescue PEROBS::FatalError
      obj = nil
    end

    if obj
      # The object exists and is OK. Mark is as checked.
      @db.mark(id)
      # Now look at all other objects referenced by this object.
      obj._referenced_object_ids.each do |refd_id|
        # Push them onto the todo list unless they have been marked
        # already.
        todo_list << [ obj, refd_id ] unless @db.is_marked?(refd_id, true)
      end
    else
      # Remove references to bad objects.
      if ref_obj
        if repair
          PEROBS.log.error "Removing reference to " +
            "#{obj ? 'broken' : 'non-existing'} object #{id} from:\n" +
            ref_obj.inspect
          ref_obj._delete_reference_to_id(id)
        else
          PEROBS.log.error "The following object references a " +
            "#{obj ? 'broken' : 'non-existing'} object #{id}:\n" +
            ref_obj.inspect
        end
      end
      stats[:errors] += 1
    end

    @progressmeter.update(stats[:object_cnt] += 1)
  end
end
mark() click to toggle source

Mark phase of a mark-and-sweep garbage collector. It will mark all objects that are reachable from the root objects.

# File lib/perobs/Store.rb, line 578
def mark
  classes = Set.new
  marked_objects = 0
  @progressmeter.start("Marking linked objects", @db.item_counter) do
    each do |obj|
      classes.add(obj.class)
      @progressmeter.update(marked_objects += 1)
    end
  end
  @class_map.keep(classes.map { |c| c.to_s })

  # The root_objects object is included in the count, but we only want to
  # count user objects here.
  PEROBS.log.debug "#{marked_objects - 1} of #{@db.item_counter} " +
    "objects marked"
  @stats.marked_objects = marked_objects - 1
end
sweep() click to toggle source

Sweep phase of a mark-and-sweep garbage collector. It will remove all unmarked objects from the store.

# File lib/perobs/Store.rb, line 598
def sweep
  @stats.swept_objects = @db.delete_unmarked_objects do |id|
    @cache.evict(id)
  end
  @db.clear_marks
  GC.start
  PEROBS.log.debug "#{@stats.swept_objects} objects collected"
  @stats.swept_objects
end