Re: [MirageOS-devel] Irmin watch API

[Thomas Leonard <talex5@xxxxxxxxx>]

On 24 April 2015 at 15:47, Thomas Gazagnaire <thomas@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
> I've just merged the new watch API into the master branch of Irmin and I've 
> updated the online docs.
>
> Feedback is welcome, the new functions are described on the related pull 
> request [1].

Some more documentation would be useful. Currently, I see:

  val watch_head: t -> ?init:head -> (head diff -> unit Lwt.t) ->
    (unit -> unit Lwt.t) Lwt.t
  (** [watch_tag t f] calls [f] every time the contents of [t]'s tag is
      updated. Do nothing if [t] is not persistent. Return a clean-up
      function to remove the watch handler.

      {b Note:} even [f] might skip some head updates, it will never
      be called concurrently: all consecutive calls to [f] are done in
      sequence, so we ensure that the previous one ended before
      calling the next one. *)

What does the "init" argument do? Will the callback be called
immediately with the current value if it's not given? What's the
recommended race-free way to start watching a branch?

Currently (with the old API) I do:

      let watch_tags = I.watch_head (store "Watch branch") in
      I.head (store "Get latest commit") >>= ... initial head ...
      let head_id = ref (Some initial_head_id) in
      async (fun () ->
        watch_tags |> Lwt_stream.iter_s (function
          ...
          I.head (store "Get latest commit") >>= fun new_head_id ->
          if new_head_id <> !head_id then (
            head_id := new_head_id
          )
        )
      )

Here, I'm assuming that any change made after I.watch_head returns
will result in the callback being called. If the head has changed by
the time the initial I.head thread returns then the callback might get
called unnecessarily, but that's OK.

How should this be done with the new API? I'm guessing something like:

1. Read the current head into a ref.
2. Call I.watch_head with a callback to update the ref.
3. Read the current head again in case it updated between (1) and (2).

Is that right?


-- 
Dr Thomas Leonard        http://roscidus.com/blog/
GPG: DA98 25AE CAD0 8975 7CDA  BD8E 0713 3F96 CA74 D8BA

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