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+Non-blocking layered I/O
+========================
+
+*[last edited by AOF 24 March 1998 14:15]*
+I've recently been working on a long standing issue regarding NSPR's I/O
+model. For a long time I've believed that the non-blocking I/O prevalent
+in classic operating systems (e.g., UNIX) was the major determent for
+having an reasonable layered protocols. Now that I have some first hand
+experience, albeit just a silly little test program, I am more convinced
+that ever of this truth.
+
+This memo is some of what I think must be done in NSPR's I/O subsystem
+to make layered, non-blocking protocols workable. It is just a proposal.
+There is an API change.
+
+Layered I/O
+-----------
+
+NSPR 2.0 defines a structure by which one may define I/O layers. Each
+layer looks basically like any other in that it still uses a
+:ref:`PRFileDesc` as a object identifier, complete with the
+**``IOMethods``** table of functions. However, each layer may override
+default behavior of a particular operation to implement other services.
+For instance, the experiment at hand is one that implements a little
+reliable echo protocol; the client sends *n* bytes, and the same bytes
+get echoed back by the server. In the non-layered design of this it is
+straight forward.
+The goal of the experiment was to put a layer between the client and
+the network, and not have the client know about it. This additional
+layer is one that, before sending the client's data, must ask permission
+from the peer layer to send that many bytes. It imposes an additional
+send and response inside of each client visible send operation. The
+receive operations parallel the sends. Before actually receiving real
+client data, the layer receives a notification that the other would like
+to send some bytes. The layer is responsible for granting permission for
+that data to be sent, then actually receiving the data itself, which is
+delivered to the client.
+
+The synchronous form of the layer's operation is straight forward. A
+call to receive (:ref:`PR_Recv`) first receives the request to send,
+sends (:ref:`PR_Send`) the grant, then receives the actual data
+(:ref:`PR_Recv`). All the client of the layer sees is the data coming
+in. Similar behavior is observed on the sending side.
+
+Non-blocking layered
+--------------------
+
+The non-blocking method is not so simple. Any of the I/O operations
+potentially result in an indication that no progress can be made. The
+intermediate layers cannot act directly on this information, but must
+store the state of the I/O operation until it can be resumed. The method
+for determining that a I/O operation can make progress is to call
+:ref:`PR_Poll` and indicating what type of progress is desired,
+either input or output (or some others). Therein lies the problem.
+The intermediate layer is performing operations that the client is
+unaware. So when the client calls send (:ref:`PR_Send`) and is told
+that the operation would block, it is possible that the layer below is
+actually doing a receive (:ref:`PR_Recv`). The problem is that the
+flag bits passed to :ref:`PR_Poll` are only reflective of the
+client's knowledge and desires. This is further complicated by the fact
+that :ref:`PR_Poll` is not layered. That is each layer does not have
+the opportunity to override the behavior. It operates, not on a single
+file descriptor (:ref:`PRFileDesc`), but on an arbitrary collection of
+file descriptors.
+
+Into the picture comes another I/O method, **``poll()``**. Keep in mind
+that all I/O methods are those that are part of the I/O methods table
+structure (:ref:`PRIOMethods`). These functions are layered, and layers
+may and sometimes must override their behavior by offering unique
+implementations. The **``poll()``** method is used to provide two
+modifying aspects to the semantics of :ref:`PR_Poll`: redefining the
+polling bits (i.e., what to poll for) and to indicate that a layer is
+already able to make progress in the manner suggested by the polling
+bits.
+
+The **``poll()``** method is called by :ref:`PR_Poll` as the latter
+is building the structure to provide the operating system call. The
+stack's top layer will be called first. Each layer's implementation is
+responsible for performing appropriate operations and possibly calling
+the next lower layer's **``poll()``** method.
+What the poll method is returning are the appropriate flags to assign to
+the operating system's call. A layer would compute these based on the
+values of the argument **``in_flags``** and possibly some state
+maintained by the layer for the particular file descriptor.
+
+Additionally, if the layer has buffered data that will allow the
+operation defined by **``in_flags``** to make progress, it will set
+corresponding bits in **``out_flags``**. For instance, if
+**``in_flags``** indicates that the client (or higher layer) wishes to
+test for read ready and the layer has input data buffered, it would set
+the read bits in the **``out_flags``**. If that is the case, then it
+should also suppress the calling of the next lower layer's
+**``poll()``** method and return a value equal to that of
+**``in_flags``**.