tokio/task/
blocking.rs

1use crate::task::JoinHandle;
2
3cfg_rt_multi_thread! {
4    /// Runs the provided blocking function on the current thread without
5    /// blocking the executor.
6    ///
7    /// In general, issuing a blocking call or performing a lot of compute in a
8    /// future without yielding is problematic, as it may prevent the executor
9    /// from driving other tasks forward. Calling this function informs the
10    /// executor that the currently executing task is about to block the thread,
11    /// so the executor is able to hand off any other tasks it has to a new
12    /// worker thread before that happens. See the [CPU-bound tasks and blocking
13    /// code][blocking] section for more information.
14    ///
15    /// Be aware that although this function avoids starving other independently
16    /// spawned tasks, any other code running concurrently in the same task will
17    /// be suspended during the call to `block_in_place`. This can happen e.g.
18    /// when using the [`join!`] macro. To avoid this issue, use
19    /// [`spawn_blocking`] instead of `block_in_place`.
20    ///
21    /// Note that this function cannot be used within a [`current_thread`] runtime
22    /// because in this case there are no other worker threads to hand off tasks
23    /// to. On the other hand, calling the function outside a runtime is
24    /// allowed. In this case, `block_in_place` just calls the provided closure
25    /// normally.
26    ///
27    /// Code running behind `block_in_place` cannot be cancelled. When you shut
28    /// down the executor, it will wait indefinitely for all blocking operations
29    /// to finish. You can use [`shutdown_timeout`] to stop waiting for them
30    /// after a certain timeout. Be aware that this will still not cancel the
31    /// tasks — they are simply allowed to keep running after the method
32    /// returns.
33    ///
34    /// [blocking]: ../index.html#cpu-bound-tasks-and-blocking-code
35    /// [`spawn_blocking`]: fn@crate::task::spawn_blocking
36    /// [`join!`]: macro@join
37    /// [`thread::spawn`]: fn@std::thread::spawn
38    /// [`shutdown_timeout`]: fn@crate::runtime::Runtime::shutdown_timeout
39    ///
40    /// # Examples
41    ///
42    /// ```
43    /// use tokio::task;
44    ///
45    /// # async fn docs() {
46    /// task::block_in_place(move || {
47    ///     // do some compute-heavy work or call synchronous code
48    /// });
49    /// # }
50    /// ```
51    ///
52    /// Code running inside `block_in_place` may use `block_on` to reenter the
53    /// async context.
54    ///
55    /// ```
56    /// use tokio::task;
57    /// use tokio::runtime::Handle;
58    ///
59    /// # async fn docs() {
60    /// task::block_in_place(move || {
61    ///     Handle::current().block_on(async move {
62    ///         // do something async
63    ///     });
64    /// });
65    /// # }
66    /// ```
67    ///
68    /// # Panics
69    ///
70    /// This function panics if called from a [`current_thread`] runtime.
71    ///
72    /// [`current_thread`]: fn@crate::runtime::Builder::new_current_thread
73    #[track_caller]
74    pub fn block_in_place<F, R>(f: F) -> R
75    where
76        F: FnOnce() -> R,
77    {
78        crate::runtime::scheduler::block_in_place(f)
79    }
80}
81
82cfg_rt! {
83    /// Runs the provided closure on a thread where blocking is acceptable.
84    ///
85    /// In general, issuing a blocking call or performing a lot of compute in a
86    /// future without yielding is problematic, as it may prevent the executor from
87    /// driving other futures forward. This function runs the provided closure on a
88    /// thread dedicated to blocking operations. See the [CPU-bound tasks and
89    /// blocking code][blocking] section for more information.
90    ///
91    /// Tokio will spawn more blocking threads when they are requested through this
92    /// function until the upper limit configured on the [`Builder`] is reached.
93    /// After reaching the upper limit, the tasks are put in a queue.
94    /// The thread limit is very large by default, because `spawn_blocking` is often
95    /// used for various kinds of IO operations that cannot be performed
96    /// asynchronously.  When you run CPU-bound code using `spawn_blocking`, you
97    /// should keep this large upper limit in mind. When running many CPU-bound
98    /// computations, a semaphore or some other synchronization primitive should be
99    /// used to limit the number of computation executed in parallel. Specialized
100    /// CPU-bound executors, such as [rayon], may also be a good fit.
101    ///
102    /// This function is intended for non-async operations that eventually finish on
103    /// their own. If you want to spawn an ordinary thread, you should use
104    /// [`thread::spawn`] instead.
105    ///
106    /// Be aware that tasks spawned using `spawn_blocking` cannot be aborted
107    /// because they are not async. If you call [`abort`] on a `spawn_blocking`
108    /// task, then this *will not have any effect*, and the task will continue
109    /// running normally. The exception is if the task has not started running
110    /// yet; in that case, calling `abort` may prevent the task from starting.
111    ///
112    /// When you shut down the executor, it will wait indefinitely for all blocking operations to
113    /// finish. You can use [`shutdown_timeout`] to stop waiting for them after a
114    /// certain timeout. Be aware that this will still not cancel the tasks — they
115    /// are simply allowed to keep running after the method returns.  It is possible
116    /// for a blocking task to be cancelled if it has not yet started running, but this
117    /// is not guaranteed.
118    ///
119    /// Note that if you are using the single threaded runtime, this function will
120    /// still spawn additional threads for blocking operations. The current-thread
121    /// scheduler's single thread is only used for asynchronous code.
122    ///
123    /// # Related APIs and patterns for bridging asynchronous and blocking code
124    ///
125    /// In simple cases, it is sufficient to have the closure accept input
126    /// parameters at creation time and return a single value (or struct/tuple, etc.).
127    ///
128    /// For more complex situations in which it is desirable to stream data to or from
129    /// the synchronous context, the [`mpsc channel`] has `blocking_send` and
130    /// `blocking_recv` methods for use in non-async code such as the thread created
131    /// by `spawn_blocking`.
132    ///
133    /// Another option is [`SyncIoBridge`] for cases where the synchronous context
134    /// is operating on byte streams.  For example, you might use an asynchronous
135    /// HTTP client such as [hyper] to fetch data, but perform complex parsing
136    /// of the payload body using a library written for synchronous I/O.
137    ///
138    /// Finally, see also [Bridging with sync code][bridgesync] for discussions
139    /// around the opposite case of using Tokio as part of a larger synchronous
140    /// codebase.
141    ///
142    /// [`Builder`]: struct@crate::runtime::Builder
143    /// [blocking]: ../index.html#cpu-bound-tasks-and-blocking-code
144    /// [rayon]: https://docs.rs/rayon
145    /// [`mpsc channel`]: crate::sync::mpsc
146    /// [`SyncIoBridge`]: https://docs.rs/tokio-util/latest/tokio_util/io/struct.SyncIoBridge.html
147    /// [hyper]: https://docs.rs/hyper
148    /// [`thread::spawn`]: fn@std::thread::spawn
149    /// [`shutdown_timeout`]: fn@crate::runtime::Runtime::shutdown_timeout
150    /// [bridgesync]: https://tokio.rs/tokio/topics/bridging
151    /// [`AtomicBool`]: struct@std::sync::atomic::AtomicBool
152    /// [`abort`]: crate::task::JoinHandle::abort
153    ///
154    /// # Examples
155    ///
156    /// Pass an input value and receive result of computation:
157    ///
158    /// ```
159    /// use tokio::task;
160    ///
161    /// # async fn docs() -> Result<(), Box<dyn std::error::Error>>{
162    /// // Initial input
163    /// let mut v = "Hello, ".to_string();
164    /// let res = task::spawn_blocking(move || {
165    ///     // Stand-in for compute-heavy work or using synchronous APIs
166    ///     v.push_str("world");
167    ///     // Pass ownership of the value back to the asynchronous context
168    ///     v
169    /// }).await?;
170    ///
171    /// // `res` is the value returned from the thread
172    /// assert_eq!(res.as_str(), "Hello, world");
173    /// # Ok(())
174    /// # }
175    /// ```
176    ///
177    /// Use a channel:
178    ///
179    /// ```
180    /// use tokio::task;
181    /// use tokio::sync::mpsc;
182    ///
183    /// # async fn docs() {
184    /// let (tx, mut rx) = mpsc::channel(2);
185    /// let start = 5;
186    /// let worker = task::spawn_blocking(move || {
187    ///     for x in 0..10 {
188    ///         // Stand in for complex computation
189    ///         tx.blocking_send(start + x).unwrap();
190    ///     }
191    /// });
192    ///
193    /// let mut acc = 0;
194    /// while let Some(v) = rx.recv().await {
195    ///     acc += v;
196    /// }
197    /// assert_eq!(acc, 95);
198    /// worker.await.unwrap();
199    /// # }
200    /// ```
201    #[track_caller]
202    pub fn spawn_blocking<F, R>(f: F) -> JoinHandle<R>
203    where
204        F: FnOnce() -> R + Send + 'static,
205        R: Send + 'static,
206    {
207        crate::runtime::spawn_blocking(f)
208    }
209}