Thread::Serialize - serialize data-structures between threads
use Thread::Serialize; # export freeze() and thaw() use Thread::Serialize (); # must call fully qualified subs my $frozen = freeze( any data structure ); any data structure = thaw( $frozen );
*** A note of CAUTION *** This module only functions on Perl versions 5.8.0 and later. And then only when threads are enabled with -Dusethreads. It is of no use with any version of Perl before 5.8.0 or without threads enabled. *************************
The Thread::Serialize module is a library for centralizing the routines used to serialize data-structures between threads. Because of this central location, other modules such as Thread::Conveyor, Thread::Pool or Thread::Tie can benefit from the same optimilizations that may take place here in the future.
There are only two subroutines.
my $frozen = freeze( $scalar ); my $frozen = freeze( @array );
The "freeze" subroutine takes all the parameters passed to it, freezes them and returns a frozen representation of what was given. The parameters can be scalar values or references to arrays or hashes. Use the thaw subroutine to obtain the original data-structure back.
my $scalar = thaw( $frozen ); my @array = thaw( $frozen );
The "thaw" subroutine returns the data-structure that was frozen with a call to freeze. If called in a scalar context, only the first element of the data-structure that was passed, will be returned. Otherwise the entire data-structure will be returned.
It is up to the developer to make sure that single argument calls to freeze are always matched by scalar context calls to thaw.
To reduce memory and CPU usage, this module uses AutoLoader. This causes subroutines only to be compiled in a thread when they are actually needed at the expense of more CPU when they need to be compiled. Simple benchmarks however revealed that the overhead of the compiling single routines is not much more (and sometimes a lot less) than the overhead of cloning a Perl interpreter with a lot of subroutines pre-loaded.
Elizabeth Mattijsen, <liz@dijkmat.nl>.
Please report bugs to <perlbugs@dijkmat.nl>.
Copyright (c) 2002-2003 Elizabeth Mattijsen <liz@dijkmat.nl>. All rights reserved. This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the same terms as Perl itself.
Thread::Conveyor, Thread::Pool, Thread::Tie.
To install Thread::Serialize, copy and paste the appropriate command in to your terminal.
cpanm
cpanm Thread::Serialize
CPAN shell
perl -MCPAN -e shell install Thread::Serialize
For more information on module installation, please visit the detailed CPAN module installation guide.