From: marcandre-ruby-core@...
Date: 2020-11-12T18:24:49+00:00
Subject: [ruby-core:100818] [Ruby master Feature#17323] Ractor::LVar to provide ractor-local storage

Issue #17323 has been updated by marcandre (Marc-Andre Lafortune).


I'm curious for better use cases.

The above example is not very convincing:

- there's no much use in sending this object to a Ractor to start with
- deep-copying the cache is probably faster than having to recalculate part of it
- more importantly, this would probably be the wrong solution if we had `SharedHash`:

```ruby
class SharedHash
  def initialize(initial = {})
    @ractor = Ractor.new(initial) do |hash|
      loop do
        case Ractor.receive
        in [:read, key, default] then Ractor.yield(hash.fetch(key, default))
        in [:write, key, value]  then hash[key] = value
        in :inspect |
           :to_s |
           :to_h => cmd          then Ractor.yield(hash.send(cmd))
        else raise ArgumentError
        end
      end
    end
  end

  def [](key)
    @ractor << [:read, key, nil]
    @ractor.take
  end

  def []=(key, value)
    @ractor << [:write, key, value]
    value
  end

  def inspect
    @ractor << :inspect
    @ractor.take
  end
end

class Fib
  attr_reader :cache

  def initialize
    @cache = SharedHash.new
  end

  private def _fib n
    if n < 2
      1
    else
      fib(n-1) + fib(n-2)
    end
  end

  def fib n
    @cache[n] ||= _fib(n)
  end
end


fiboner = Fib.new
p fiboner.fib(10) #=> 89
pp fiboner.cache
#=> {1=>1, 0=>1, 2=>2, 3=>3, 4=>5, 5=>8, 6=>13, 7=>21, 8=>34, 9=>55, 10=>89}

Ractor.new fiboner do |f2|
  p f2.fib(5) #=> 8 already cached!gi
  p f2.cache #=> {1=>1, 0=>1, 2=>2, 3=>3, 4=>5, 5=>8, 6=>13, 7=>21, 8=>34, 9=>55, 10=>89}
end.take
```

If the "start from a clear cache" is actually the right idea, than a solution could look like:

```ruby
class Fib
  attr_reader :cache

  def initialize
    @cache = {}
  end

  def initialize_copy(_)
    @cache = {}
  end

  private def _fib n
    if n < 2
      1
    else
      fib(n-1) + fib(n-2)
    end
  end

  def fib n
    @cache[n] ||= _fib(n)
  end
end

fiboner = Fib.new
p fiboner.fib(10) #=> 89
pp fiboner.cache
#=> {1=>1, 0=>1, 2=>2, 3=>3, 4=>5, 5=>8, 6=>13, 7=>21, 8=>34, 9=>55, 10=>89}

Ractor.new fiboner.dup, move: true do |f2|
  p f2.fib(5) #=> 8
  p f2.cache.value #=> {1=>1, 0=>1, 2=>2, 3=>3, 4=>5, 5=>8}
end.take
```

Above does not work yet, depends on #17286...

It seems to me that having a way to define how to deep-copy an object might be important.

----------------------------------------
Feature #17323: Ractor::LVar to provide ractor-local storage
https://bugs.ruby-lang.org/issues/17323#change-88458

* Author: ko1 (Koichi Sasada)
* Status: Open
* Priority: Normal
----------------------------------------
Ruby supports thread and fiber local storage:

* `Thread#[sym]` provides *Fiber* local storage
* `Thread#thread_variable_get(sym)

These APIs can access other threads/fibers like that:

```ruby
th = Thread.new{
  Thread.current.thread_variable_set(:a, 10)
}
th.join
# access from main thread to child thread
p th.thread_variable_get(:a)
```

To make Ractor local storage, this kind of feature should not be allowed to protect isolation.

This ticket propose alternative API `Ractor::LVar` that allows to provide Ractor local variable.

```ruby
LV1 = Ractor::LVar.new

p LV1.value #=> nil # default value
LV1.value = 'hello' # can set unshareable objects because LVar is ractor local.

Ractor.new do
  LV1.value = 'world' # set Ractor local variable
end.take

p LV1.value #=> 'hello'


# Lvar.new can accept default_proc which should be isolated Proc.

LV2 = Ractor::LVar.new{ "x" * 4 }
p LV2.value #=> "xxxx"
LV2.value = 'yyy'

Ractor.new do
  p LV2.value #=> 'xxx'
end

p LV2.value #=> 'yyy'
```

This API doesn't support accessing from other ractors.

`Ractor::LVar` is from `Ractor::TVar`, but I have no strong opinion about it.
For example, `Ractor::LocalVariable` is longer and clearer.

Implementation: https://github.com/ruby/ruby/pull/3762




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