doc/index.html - external/github.com/v8/node - Git at Google

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       <ol>
         <li><a href="#download">Download</a></li>
         <li><a href="#build">Build</a></li>
         <li><a href="#about">About</a></li>
         <li><a href="#demo">Demo</a></li>
         <li><a href="#community">Community</a></li>
         <li><a href="#contribute">Contribute</a></li>
         <li><a href="#benchmarks">Benchmarks</a></li>
         <li><a href="api.html">Documentation</a></li>
       </ol>
     </div>
     <div id="content">

       <!-- <h1><a href="http://tinyclouds.org/node">Node</a></h1> -->
       <img id="logo" src="logo.png" alt="node.js"/>

       <p id="introduction">
         Evented I/O for
         <a href="http://code.google.com/p/v8/">V8 javascript</a>.
       </p>

       <p>
         An example of a web server written with Node which responds with
         "Hello World" after waiting two seconds:
       </p>

       <pre>
 var sys = require('sys'),
    http = require('http');
 http.createServer(function (req, res) {
   setTimeout(function () {
     res.sendHeader(200, {'Content-Type': 'text/plain'});
     res.sendBody('Hello World');
     res.finish();
   }, 2000);
 }).listen(8000);
 sys.puts('Server running at http://127.0.0.1:8000/');</pre>
 </pre>

       <p>
         To run the server, put the code into a file
         <code>example.js</code> and execute it with the <code>node</code>
         program
       </p>
       <pre class="sh_none">
 % node example.js
 Server running at http://127.0.0.1:8000/</pre>

       <p>
         Here is an example of a simple TCP server which listens on port 7000
         and echos whatever you send it:
       </p>

       <pre>
 var tcp = require('tcp');
 var server = tcp.createServer(function (socket) {
   socket.setEncoding("utf8");
   socket.addListener("connect", function () {
     socket.send("hello\r\n");
   });
   socket.addListener("receive", function (data) {
     socket.send(data);
   });
   socket.addListener("eof", function () {
     socket.send("goodbye\r\n");
     socket.close();
   });
 });
 server.listen(7000, "localhost");</pre>

       <p>
         See the <a href="api.html">API documentation</a> for more
         examples.
       </p>

       <h2 id="download">Download</h2>

       <p>
         <a href="http://github.com/ry/node/tree/master">git repo</a>
       </p>
       <p>
         2009.12.06
         <a
         href="http://s3.amazonaws.com/four.livejournal/20091206/node-v0.1.21.tar.gz">node-v0.1.21.tar.gz</a>
       </p>

       <h2 id="build">Build</h2>

       <p>
         Node eventually wants to support all POSIX operating systems
         (including Windows with MinGW) but at the moment it is only being
         tested on <b>Linux</b>, <b>Macintosh</b>, and <b>FreeBSD</b>. The
         build system requires Python 2.4 or better.  V8, on which Node is
         built, supports only IA-32 and ARM processors. V8 is included in the
         Node distribution. There are no other dependencies.
       </p>

       <pre class="sh_none">
 ./configure
 make
 make install</pre>

       <p>
         Then have a look at the <a href="api.html">API documentation</a>.
       </p>

       <p>To run the tests</p>

       <pre class="sh_none">make test</pre>

       <h2 id="about">About</h2>

       <p>
         Node's goal is to provide an easy way to build scalable network
         programs. In the above example, the two second delay does not
         prevent the server from handling new requests. Node tells the
         operating system (through <code>epoll</code>, <code>kqueue</code>,
         <code class="sh_none">/dev/poll</code>, or <code>select</code>)
         that it should be notified when the 2 seconds are up or if a new
         connection is made&mdash;then it goes to sleep. If someone new
         connects, then it executes the callback, if the timeout expires,
         it executes the inner callback. Each connection is only a small
         heap allocation.
       </p>

       <p>
         This is in contrast to today's more common concurrency model where
         OS threads are employed. Thread-based networking
         <a href="http://www.sics.se/~joe/apachevsyaws.html">is</a>
         <a href="http://www.kegel.com/c10k.html">relatively</a>
         <a href="http://bulk.fefe.de/scalable-networking.pdf">inefficient</a>
         <!-- TODO needs links -->
         and very difficult to use.

         Node will show much better memory efficiency under high-loads
         <!-- TODO benchmark -->
         than systems which allocate 2mb thread stacks for each connection.

         Furthermore, users of Node are free from worries of dead-locking
         the process&mdash;there are no locks.  Almost no function in Node
         directly performs I/O, so the process never blocks. Because
         nothing blocks, less-than-expert programmers are able to develop
         fast systems.
       </p>

       <p>
         Node is similar in design to and influenced by systems like Ruby's <a
         href="http://rubyeventmachine.com/">Event Machine</a> or Python's <a
         href="http://twistedmatrix.com/">Twisted</a>.  Node takes the event
         model a bit further&mdash;it presents the event loop as a language
         construct instead of as a library. In other systems there is always
         a blocking call to start the event-loop.  Typically one defines
         behavior through callbacks at the beginning of a script and at the
         end starts a server through a blocking call like
         <code>EventMachine::run()</code>. In Node there is no such
         start-the-event-loop call.  Node simply enters the event loop after
         executing the input script. Node exits the event loop when there are
         no more callbacks to perform.  This behavior is like browser
         javascript&mdash;the event loop is hidden from the user.
       </p>

       <p>
         HTTP is a first class protocol in Node.  Node's HTTP library has
         grown out of the author's experiences developing and working with
         web servers. For example, streaming data through most web frameworks
         is impossible.  Node attempts to correct these problems in its HTTP
         <a href="http://github.com/ry/http-parser/tree/master">parser</a>
         and API. Coupled with Node's purely evented infrastructure, it makes
         a good foundation for web libraries or frameworks.
       </p>

       <p>
         <i>
           But what about multiple-processor concurrency? Threads are
           necessary to scale programs to multi-core computers.
         </i>
         Processes are necessary to scale to multi-core computers, not
         memory-sharing threads. The fundamentals of scalable systems are
         fast networking and non-blocking design&mdash;the rest is message
         passing.  In future versions, Node will be able to fork new
         processes (using the <a
         href="http://www.whatwg.org/specs/web-workers/current-work/"> Web
         Workers API </a>), but this is something that fits well into the
         current design.
       </p>

       <p>
         See also: <a href="http://s3.amazonaws.com/four.livejournal/20091117/jsconf.pdf">slides</a> from jsconf.
       </p>


       <h2 id="demo">Demo</h2>
       <p>
         A chat room demo is running at <a
           href="http://chat.nodejs.org">chat.nodejs.org</a>. The
         source code for the chat room is at <a
           href="http://github.com/ry/node_chat/tree/master">http://github.com/ry/node_chat</a>.
         The chat room is not stable and might occasionally be down.
       </p>

       <h2 id="community">Community</h2>
       <p>
         For help and discussion subscribe to the mailing list at
         <a href="http://groups.google.com/group/nodejs">http://groups.google.com/group/nodejs</a>
         or send an email to <a href="mailto:nodejs+subscribe@googlegroups.com">nodejs+subscribe@googlegroups.com</a>.
       </p>

       <p>
         For real-time discussion, check irc.freenode.net #node.js.
       </p>

       <p>
         <a href="http://wiki.github.com/ry/node">Projects/libraries which are using/for Node.js</a>
       </p>
       <h2 id="contribute">Contribute</h2>
       <p>
         Patches are always welcome. The process is simple:
       </p>

       <pre class="sh_none">
 git clone git://github.com/ry/node.git
 cd node
 # edit/compile/test
 git commit -m "Good description of what your patch does"
 git format-patch HEAD^
 </pre>

       <p>
         The best way for your patch to get noticed is to submit it to the
        <a href="http://groups.google.com/group/nodejs">mailing list</a> in form
        of a <a href="http://gist.github.com/">gists</a> or file attachement.
       </p>

       <p>
         Feature patches should usually be discussed before putting in the work.
       </p>

       <h2 id="benchmarks">Benchmarks</h2>
       <p>
         2009.09.06 <a href="http://four.livejournal.com/1019177.html">narwhal, node, v8cgi, thin/eventmachine</a>
       </p>
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	<title>node.js</title>
	</head>
	<body onload="sh_highlightDocument();">
	<div id="toc">
	<ol>
	<li><a href="#download">Download</a></li>
	<li><a href="#build">Build</a></li>
	<li><a href="#about">About</a></li>
	<li><a href="#demo">Demo</a></li>
	<li><a href="#community">Community</a></li>
	<li><a href="#contribute">Contribute</a></li>
	<li><a href="#benchmarks">Benchmarks</a></li>
	<li><a href="api.html">Documentation</a></li>
	</ol>
	</div>
	<div id="content">

	<!-- <h1><a href="http://tinyclouds.org/node">Node</a></h1> -->
	<img id="logo" src="logo.png" alt="node.js"/>

	<p id="introduction">
	Evented I/O for
	<a href="http://code.google.com/p/v8/">V8 javascript</a>.
	</p>

	<p>
	An example of a web server written with Node which responds with
	"Hello World" after waiting two seconds:
	</p>

	<pre>
	var sys = require('sys'),
	http = require('http');
	http.createServer(function (req, res) {
	setTimeout(function () {
	res.sendHeader(200, {'Content-Type': 'text/plain'});
	res.sendBody('Hello World');
	res.finish();
	}, 2000);
	}).listen(8000);
	sys.puts('Server running at http://127.0.0.1:8000/');</pre>
	</pre>

	<p>
	To run the server, put the code into a file
	<code>example.js</code> and execute it with the <code>node</code>
	program
	</p>
	<pre class="sh_none">
	% node example.js
	Server running at http://127.0.0.1:8000/</pre>

	<p>
	Here is an example of a simple TCP server which listens on port 7000
	and echos whatever you send it:
	</p>

	<pre>
	var tcp = require('tcp');
	var server = tcp.createServer(function (socket) {
	socket.setEncoding("utf8");
	socket.addListener("connect", function () {
	socket.send("hello\r\n");
	});
	socket.addListener("receive", function (data) {
	socket.send(data);
	});
	socket.addListener("eof", function () {
	socket.send("goodbye\r\n");
	socket.close();
	});
	});
	server.listen(7000, "localhost");</pre>

	<p>
	See the <a href="api.html">API documentation</a> for more
	examples.
	</p>

	<h2 id="download">Download</h2>

	<p>
	<a href="http://github.com/ry/node/tree/master">git repo</a>
	</p>
	<p>
	2009.12.06
	<a
	href="http://s3.amazonaws.com/four.livejournal/20091206/node-v0.1.21.tar.gz">node-v0.1.21.tar.gz</a>
	</p>

	<h2 id="build">Build</h2>

	<p>
	Node eventually wants to support all POSIX operating systems
	(including Windows with MinGW) but at the moment it is only being
	tested on <b>Linux</b>, <b>Macintosh</b>, and <b>FreeBSD</b>. The
	build system requires Python 2.4 or better. V8, on which Node is
	built, supports only IA-32 and ARM processors. V8 is included in the
	Node distribution. There are no other dependencies.
	</p>

	<pre class="sh_none">
	./configure
	make
	make install</pre>

	<p>
	Then have a look at the <a href="api.html">API documentation</a>.
	</p>

	<p>To run the tests</p>

	<pre class="sh_none">make test</pre>

	<h2 id="about">About</h2>

	<p>
	Node's goal is to provide an easy way to build scalable network
	programs. In the above example, the two second delay does not
	prevent the server from handling new requests. Node tells the
	operating system (through <code>epoll</code>, <code>kqueue</code>,
	<code class="sh_none">/dev/poll</code>, or <code>select</code>)
	that it should be notified when the 2 seconds are up or if a new
	connection is made—then it goes to sleep. If someone new
	connects, then it executes the callback, if the timeout expires,
	it executes the inner callback. Each connection is only a small
	heap allocation.
	</p>

	<p>
	This is in contrast to today's more common concurrency model where
	OS threads are employed. Thread-based networking
	<a href="http://www.sics.se/~joe/apachevsyaws.html">is</a>
	<a href="http://www.kegel.com/c10k.html">relatively</a>
	<a href="http://bulk.fefe.de/scalable-networking.pdf">inefficient</a>
	<!-- TODO needs links -->
	and very difficult to use.

	Node will show much better memory efficiency under high-loads
	<!-- TODO benchmark -->
	than systems which allocate 2mb thread stacks for each connection.

	Furthermore, users of Node are free from worries of dead-locking
	the process—there are no locks. Almost no function in Node
	directly performs I/O, so the process never blocks. Because
	nothing blocks, less-than-expert programmers are able to develop
	fast systems.
	</p>

	<p>
	Node is similar in design to and influenced by systems like Ruby's <a
	href="http://rubyeventmachine.com/">Event Machine</a> or Python's <a
	href="http://twistedmatrix.com/">Twisted</a>. Node takes the event
	model a bit further—it presents the event loop as a language
	construct instead of as a library. In other systems there is always
	a blocking call to start the event-loop. Typically one defines
	behavior through callbacks at the beginning of a script and at the
	end starts a server through a blocking call like
	<code>EventMachine::run()</code>. In Node there is no such
	start-the-event-loop call. Node simply enters the event loop after
	executing the input script. Node exits the event loop when there are
	no more callbacks to perform. This behavior is like browser
	javascript—the event loop is hidden from the user.
	</p>

	<p>
	HTTP is a first class protocol in Node. Node's HTTP library has
	grown out of the author's experiences developing and working with
	web servers. For example, streaming data through most web frameworks
	is impossible. Node attempts to correct these problems in its HTTP
	<a href="http://github.com/ry/http-parser/tree/master">parser</a>
	and API. Coupled with Node's purely evented infrastructure, it makes
	a good foundation for web libraries or frameworks.
	</p>

	<p>
	<i>
	But what about multiple-processor concurrency? Threads are
	necessary to scale programs to multi-core computers.
	</i>
	Processes are necessary to scale to multi-core computers, not
	memory-sharing threads. The fundamentals of scalable systems are
	fast networking and non-blocking design—the rest is message
	passing. In future versions, Node will be able to fork new
	processes (using the <a
	href="http://www.whatwg.org/specs/web-workers/current-work/"> Web
	Workers API </a>), but this is something that fits well into the
	current design.
	</p>

	<p>
	See also: <a href="http://s3.amazonaws.com/four.livejournal/20091117/jsconf.pdf">slides</a> from jsconf.
	</p>


	<h2 id="demo">Demo</h2>
	<p>
	A chat room demo is running at <a
	href="http://chat.nodejs.org">chat.nodejs.org</a>. The
	source code for the chat room is at <a
	href="http://github.com/ry/node_chat/tree/master">http://github.com/ry/node_chat</a>.
	The chat room is not stable and might occasionally be down.
	</p>

	<h2 id="community">Community</h2>
	<p>
	For help and discussion subscribe to the mailing list at
	<a href="http://groups.google.com/group/nodejs">http://groups.google.com/group/nodejs</a>
	or send an email to <a href="mailto:nodejs+subscribe@googlegroups.com">nodejs+subscribe@googlegroups.com</a>.
	</p>

	<p>
	For real-time discussion, check irc.freenode.net #node.js.
	</p>

	<p>
	<a href="http://wiki.github.com/ry/node">Projects/libraries which are using/for Node.js</a>
	</p>
	<h2 id="contribute">Contribute</h2>
	<p>
	Patches are always welcome. The process is simple:
	</p>

	<pre class="sh_none">
	git clone git://github.com/ry/node.git
	cd node
	# edit/compile/test
	git commit -m "Good description of what your patch does"
	git format-patch HEAD^
	</pre>

	<p>
	The best way for your patch to get noticed is to submit it to the
	<a href="http://groups.google.com/group/nodejs">mailing list</a> in form
	of a <a href="http://gist.github.com/">gists</a> or file attachement.
	</p>

	<p>
	Feature patches should usually be discussed before putting in the work.
	</p>

	<h2 id="benchmarks">Benchmarks</h2>
	<p>
	2009.09.06 <a href="http://four.livejournal.com/1019177.html">narwhal, node, v8cgi, thin/eventmachine</a>
	</p>
	</div>
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