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Update Embedding.md

sunsetbrew 12 years ago
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      docs/Embedding.md

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docs/Embedding.md

@@ -95,3 +95,63 @@ LUA is a server side include functionality.  Files ending in .la will be process
   - build/sqlite3.c
   - build/sqlite3.h
   - build/lsqlite3.c
+
+
+Civetweb internals
+------
+
+Civetweb is multithreaded web server. `mg_start()` function allocates
+web server context (`struct mg_context`), which holds all information
+about web server instance:
+
+- configuration options. Note that civetweb makes internal copies of
+  passed options.
+- SSL context, if any
+- user-defined callbacks
+- opened listening sockets
+- a queue for accepted sockets
+- mutexes and condition variables for inter-thread synchronization
+
+When `mg_start()` returns, all initialization is quaranteed to be complete
+(e.g. listening ports are opened, SSL is initialized, etc). `mg_start()` starts
+two threads: a master thread, that accepts new connections, and several
+worker threads, that process accepted connections. The number of worker threads
+is configurable via `num_threads` configuration option. That number puts a
+limit on number of simultaneous requests that can be handled by civetweb.
+
+When master thread accepts new connection, a new accepted socket (described by
+`struct socket`) it placed into the accepted sockets queue,
+which has size of 20 (see [code](https://github.com/sunsetbrew/civetweb/blob/3892e0199e6ca9613b160535d9d107ede09daa43/civetweb.c#L486)). Any idle worker thread
+can grab accepted sockets from that queue. If all worker threads are busy,
+master thread can accept and queue up to 20 more TCP connections,
+filling up the queue.
+In the attempt to queue next accepted connection, master thread blocks
+until there is space in a queue. When master thread is blocked on a
+full queue, TCP layer in OS can also queue incoming connection.
+The number is limited by the `listen()` call parameter on listening socket,
+which is `SOMAXCONN` in case of Civetweb, and depends on a platform.
+
+Worker threads are running in an infinite loop, which in simplified form
+looks something like this:
+
+    static void *worker_thread() {
+      while (consume_socket()) {
+        process_new_connection();
+      }
+    }
+
+Function `consume_socket()` gets new accepted socket from the civetweb socket
+queue, atomically removing it from the queue. If the queue is empty,
+`consume_socket()` blocks and waits until new sockets are placed in a queue
+by the master thread. `process_new_connection()` actually processes the
+connection, i.e. reads the request, parses it, and performs appropriate action
+depending on a parsed request.
+
+Master thread uses `poll()` and `accept()` to accept new connections on
+listening sockets. `poll()` is used to avoid `FD_SETSIZE` limitation of
+`select()`. Since there are only a few listening sockets, there is no reason
+to use hi-performance alternatives like `epoll()` or `kqueue()`. Worker
+threads use blocking IO on accepted sockets for reading and writing data.
+All accepted sockets have `SO_RCVTIMEO` and `SO_SNDTIMEO` socket options set
+(controlled by `request_timeout_ms` civetweb option, 30 seconds default) which
+specify read/write timeout on client connection.