Concurrency in Ruby: Tools of the trade

Concurrency has been a popular topic in the programming community in the latest decade and has received special attention in the Ruby community in the latest years. In this talk, José Valim will showcase the tools we have available in Ruby and in the community today, focusing on common pitfalls. This is a great opportunity to discuss why concurrency matters and how we could move forward.

Transcript

1. @josevalim / Plataformatec
   Concurrency
   Ruby
   in
   

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2. About me
   

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3. •Started with Ruby in 2006
   About me
   

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4. •Started with Ruby in 2006
   •Open Source Contributor
   About me
   

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5. •Started with Ruby in 2006
   •Open Source Contributor
   •Joined Rails Core in 2010
   About me
   

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6. •Started with Ruby in 2006
   •Open Source Contributor
   •Joined Rails Core in 2010
   •Author of elixir-lang.org
   About me
   

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7. View Slide

8. Topics
   

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9. •Why concurrency?
   Topics
   

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10. •Why concurrency?
    •The problem today
    Topics
    

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11. •Why concurrency?
    •The problem today
    •Tools of the trade
    Topics
    

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12. Why concurrency?
    

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13. Server Server Server Server
    

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14. 50 cores
    $2600
    

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15. It is no longer about
    the future, it is
    about now
    

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16. Server
    

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17. In Ruby, we talk
    about threads
    

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18. We need our
    applications to be
    thread-safe
    

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19. The problem
    

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20. class User
    def self.current_user=(user)
    @@current_user = user
    end
    def self.current_user
    @@current_user
    end
    end
    

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21. post "/do_something" do
    User.current_user =
    user_from_request
    # some work
    Mailer.deliver_to(
    User.current_user)
    end
    

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22. 1. Assign current_user
    2. Do some work
    3. Get current_user to
    send an e-mail
    

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23. thread 1 current_
    user thread 2
    

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24. thread 1 current_
    user thread 2
    jose
    

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25. thread 1 current_
    user thread 2
    jose
    jose
    

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26. thread 1 current_
    user thread 2
    jose
    jose
    jose
    

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27. thread 1 current_
    user thread 2
    jose
    jose
    jose
    jose
    

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28. thread 1 current_
    user thread 2
    jose
    jose
    matz
    jose
    jose
    

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29. thread 1 current_
    user thread 2
    jose
    jose
    matz
    matz
    jose
    jose
    

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30. thread 1 current_
    user thread 2
    jose
    jose
    matz
    matz
    jose
    jose
    jose
    

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31. thread 1 current_
    user thread 2
    jose
    jose
    matz
    matz
    jose
    jose
    jose
    jose
    

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32. thread 1 current_
    user thread 2
    jose
    jose
    matz
    matz
    jose
    jose
    jose
    jose
    jose
    

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33. thread 1 current_
    user thread 2
    jose
    jose
    matz
    matz
    jose
    jose
    jose
    jose
    jose
    jose
    

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34. thread 1 current_
    user thread 2
    jose
    jose
    matz
    matz
    jose
    jose
    jose
    jose
    jose
    jose
    

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35. User.current_user is
    shared mutable state
    (global)
    

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36. ActionMailer::Base.from
    ActionController::Base.logger
    Devise.password_length
    SimpleForm.form_options
    

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37. What is Ruby?
    

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38. Ruby is a programming
    language with different
    implementations
    

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39. Rails 2.2
    threadsafe
    

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40. Thread-safety means
    different things for
    different implementations
    

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41. hash = {}
    10.times do |i|
    Thread.new {
    hash[i] = "Hello #{rand}"
    }
    end
    Threadsafe?
    

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42. Thread-safe
    YARV Yes
    JRUBY No
    RBX 2.0 No
    Hashes
    

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43. global virtual machine lock (YARV)
    @cached[template] =
    File.read(template)
    static VALUE
    env_aset(VALUE obj,
    VALUE nm, VALUE val)
    {
    ...
    hash.c
    

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44. global virtual machine lock (YARV)
    @cached[template] =
    File.read(template)
    static VALUE
    env_aset(VALUE obj,
    VALUE nm, VALUE val)
    {
    ...
    hash.c
    

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45. C Code
    C2 C3
    C4
    C1
    

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46. C Code
    C2 C3
    C4
    C1
    

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47. C Code
    C2 C3
    C4
    C1
    

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48. C Code
    C2
    C3
    C4
    C1
    

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49. C Code
    C2
    C3
    C4
    C1
    

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50. Without the GVL, other
    Ruby implementations
    may try to change the
    same Hash at the same
    time, corrupting it
    

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51. • Class definitions
    • Instance variables
    • Class variables
    • Data structures
    ...
    

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52. Tools of the trade
    

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53. Thread locals
    

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54. class User
    def self.current_user=(user)
    @@current_user = user
    end
    def self.current_user
    @@current_user
    end
    end
    

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55. class User
    def self.current_user=(user)
    Thread.current[:cu] = user
    end
    def self.current_user
    Thread.current[:cu]
    end
    end
    

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56. Time.zone
    I18n.locale
    ActiveSupport::Notifications.
    instrumenter
    

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57. class Auth
    def initialize(callback)
    @callback = callback
    end
    def call(info)
    @user = user_from_info(info)
    res = @callback.call(info)
    update_user(res) # access @user
    res
    end
    end
    

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58. auth =
    Auth.new -> { puts "Hello" }
    auth.call(id: 13)
    

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59. class Auth
    def initialize(callback)
    @callback = callback
    end
    def call(info)
    @user = user_from_info(info)
    res = @callback.call(info)
    update_user(res) # access @user
    res
    end
    end
    

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60. class AuthMiddleware
    def initialize(callback)
    @callback = callback
    end
    def call(info)
    @user = user_from_info(info)
    res = @callback.call(info)
    update_user(res) # access @user
    res
    end
    end
    

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61. config.middleware.use(
    AuthMiddleware
    )
    

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62. Eager loading
    

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63. class MyApp < Sinatra::Base
    autoload :Broker, "my_app/broker"
    post "/content" do
    # ...
    MyApp::Broker.push(info)
    end
    end
    Threadsafe?
    

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64. module MyApp::Broker
    # ...
    def push do
    # ...
    end
    # ...
    end
    

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65. module MyApp::Broker
    # ...
    def push do
    # ...
    end
    # ...
    end
    

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66. module MyApp::Broker
    # ...
    def push do
    # ...
    end
    # ...
    end
    

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67. Let’s replace all autoloads
    by requires!
    

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68. module MyApp
    extend ActiveSupport::Autoload
    eager_autoload do
    autoload :Broker
    end
    end
    MyApp.eager_load!
    

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69. config.eager_load_namespaces << MyApp
    

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70. Mutex
    

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71. hash = {}
    10.times do |i|
    Thread.new {
    hash[i] = "Hello #{rand}"
    }
    end
    

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73. “There are heaps of non
    thread-safe usage of
    Hashes in Rails and the
    surrounding gems”
    

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74. Using hashes as a cache
    is an extremely common
    pattern in Ruby
    

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75. @cached[template] =
    File.read(template)
    Template lookup
    

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76. @controller_names[“posts”] =
    PostsController
    Router
    

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77. Helper
    def presenter_for(model)
    "#{model.class.name}Presenter".
    constantize.new(model)
    end
    presenter_for(Post.new)
    #=> PostPresenter<@post=...>
    

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78. @@p = Hash.new do |h, k|
    h[k] = "#{k}Presenter".constantize
    end
    def presenter_for(model)
    @@p[model.class.name].new(model)
    end
    

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79. hash = {}
    10.times do |i|
    Thread.new {
    hash[i] = "Hello #{rand}"
    }
    end
    

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80. hash = {}
    mutex = Mutex.new
    10.times do |i|
    Thread.new {
    mutex.synchronize {
    hash[i] = "Hello #{rand}"
    }
    }
    end
    

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81. Hash
    C2 C3
    C4
    C1
    

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82. Hash
    C2 C3
    C4
    C1
    

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83. Hash
    C2 C3
    C4
    C1
    

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84. Hash
    C2
    C3
    C4
    C1
    

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85. Hash
    C2
    C3
    C4
    C1
    

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90. Thread safe gem
    https://github.com/headius/thread_safe
    

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91. ThreadSafe::Hash.new
    ThreadSafe::Array.new
    

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92. Better tools
    of the trade
    

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93. Queues
    

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95. live_assets#sse
    Manager
    SSE
    Subscriber
    live_assets#sse
    SSE
    live_assets#sse
    SSE
    Subscriber
    app/assets vendor/assets
    lib/assets
    Operating System Notifications
    

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96. class Manager
    def initialize
    @subscribers = []
    end
    def subscribe(s)
    @subscribers << s
    end
    

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97. def unsubscribe(s)
    @subscribers.delete(s)
    end
    def notify(event)
    @subscribers.each do |s|
    s << event
    end
    end
    end
    

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98. live_assets#sse
    Manager
    SSE
    Subscriber
    live_assets#sse
    SSE
    live_assets#sse
    SSE
    Subscriber
    app/assets vendor/assets
    lib/assets
    Operating System Notifications
    

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99. class Manager
    attr_reader :queue
    def initialize
    @subscribers = []
    @queue = Queue.new
    end
    def loop
    while message = @queue.pop
    event, *args = message
    send(event, *args)
    end
    end
    

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100. manager = Manager.new
     Thread.new { manager.loop }
     manager.queue <<
     [:notify, :reloadCSS]
     

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101. C2 C3
     C4
     C1
     

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102. C2 C3
     C4
     C1
     

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103. C2 C3
     C4
     C1
     

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104. We need abstractions
     that can move us away
     from shared mutable state
     

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105. github.com/celluloid
     

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106. Conclusion
     

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107. We have learned about
     different tools to tackle
     thread safety issues
     

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108. thread.rb
     • Thread
     • Mutex
     • ConditionVariable
     • Queue
     • SizedQueue
     

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109. Gems
     • atomic
     • thread_safe
     

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110. The different semantics
     existing in different
     implementations makes
     concurrency in Ruby harder
     

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111. We need to push
     for better semantics
     at the same time we change
     how we think about concurrency
     

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112. Thank you!
     @josevalim / Plataformatec
     

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