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----
-title: "Erlang, tcp sockets, and active true"
-description: >-
-    Using `{active:once}` isn't always the best way to handle connections.
----
-
-If you don't know erlang then [you're missing out][0].  If you do know erlang,
-you've probably at some point done something with tcp sockets. Erlang's highly
-concurrent model of execution lends itself well to server programs where a high
-number of active connections is desired. Each thread can autonomously handle its
-single client, greatly simplifying the logic of the whole application while
-still retaining [great performance characteristics][1].
-
-## Background
-
-For an erlang thread which owns a single socket there are three different ways
-to receive data off of that socket. These all revolve around the `active`
-[setopts][2] flag. A socket can be set to one of:
-
-* `{active,false}` - All data must be obtained through [recv/2][3] calls. This
-                     amounts to syncronous socket reading.
-
-* `{active,true}`  - All data on the socket gets sent to the controlling thread
-                     as a normal erlang message. It is the thread's
-                     responsibility to keep up with the buffered data in the
-                     message queue. This amounts to asyncronous socket reading.
-
-* `{active,once}`  - When set the socket is placed in `{active,true}` for a
-                     single packet. That is, once set the thread can expect a
-                     single message to be sent to when data comes in. To receive
-                     any more data off of the socket the socket must either be
-                     read from using [recv/2][3] or be put in `{active,once}` or
-                     `{active,true}`.
-
-## Which to use?
-
-Many (most?) tutorials advocate using `{active,once}` in your application
-\[0]\[1]\[2]. This has to do with usability and security. When in `{active,true}`
-it's possible for a client to flood the connection faster than the receiving
-process will process those messages, potentially eating up a lot of memory in
-the VM. However, if you want to be able to receive both tcp data messages as
-well as other messages from other erlang processes at the same time you can't
-use `{active,false}`.  So `{active,once}` is generally preferred because it
-deals with both of these problems quite well.
-
-## Why not to use `{active,once}`
-
-Here's what your classic `{active,once}` enabled tcp socket implementation will
-probably look like:
-
-```erlang
--module(tcp_test).
--compile(export_all).
-
--define(TCP_OPTS, [
-    binary,
-    {packet, raw},
-    {nodelay,true},
-    {active, false},
-    {reuseaddr, true},
-    {keepalive,true},
-    {backlog,500}
-]).
-
-%Start listening
-listen(Port) ->
-    {ok, L} = gen_tcp:listen(Port, ?TCP_OPTS),
-    ?MODULE:accept(L).
-
-%Accept a connection
-accept(L) ->
-    {ok, Socket} = gen_tcp:accept(L),
-    ?MODULE:read_loop(Socket),
-    io:fwrite("Done reading, connection was closed\n"),
-    ?MODULE:accept(L).
-
-%Read everything it sends us
-read_loop(Socket) ->
-    inet:setopts(Socket, [{active, once}]),
-    receive
-    {tcp, _, _} ->
-        do_stuff_here,
-        ?MODULE:read_loop(Socket);
-    {tcp_closed, _}-> donezo;
-    {tcp_error, _, _} -> donezo
-    end.
-```
-
-This code isn't actually usable for a production system; it doesn't even spawn a
-new process for the new socket. But that's not the point I'm making. If I run it
-with `tcp_test:listen(8000)`, and in other window do:
-
-```bash
-while [ 1 ]; do echo "aloha"; done | nc localhost 8000
-```
-
-We'll be flooding the the server with data pretty well. Using [eprof][4] we can
-get an idea of how our code performs, and where the hang-ups are:
-
-```erlang
-1> eprof:start().
-{ok,<0.34.0>}
-
-2> P = spawn(tcp_test,listen,[8000]).
-<0.36.0>
-
-3> eprof:start_profiling([P]).
-profiling
-
-4> running_the_while_loop.
-running_the_while_loop
-
-5> eprof:stop_profiling().
-profiling_stopped
-
-6> eprof:analyze(procs,[{sort,time}]).
-
-****** Process <0.36.0>    -- 100.00 % of profiled time *** 
-FUNCTION                           CALLS      %      TIME  [uS / CALLS]
---------                           -----    ---      ----  [----------]
-prim_inet:type_value_2/2               6   0.00         0  [      0.00]
-
-....snip....
-
-prim_inet:enc_opts/2                   6   0.00         8  [      1.33]
-prim_inet:setopts/2             12303599   1.85   1466319  [      0.12]
-tcp_test:read_loop/1            12303598   2.22   1761775  [      0.14]
-prim_inet:encode_opt_val/1      12303599   3.50   2769285  [      0.23]
-prim_inet:ctl_cmd/3             12303600   4.29   3399333  [      0.28]
-prim_inet:enc_opt_val/2         24607203   5.28   4184818  [      0.17]
-inet:setopts/2                  12303598   5.72   4533863  [      0.37]
-erlang:port_control/3           12303600  77.13  61085040  [      4.96]
-```
-
-eprof shows us where our process is spending the majority of its time. The `%`
-column indicates percentage of time the process spent during profiling inside
-any function. We can pretty clearly see that the vast majority of time was spent
-inside `erlang:port_control/3`, the BIF that `inet:setopts/2` uses to switch the
-socket to `{active,once}` mode. Amongst the calls which were called on every
-loop, it takes up by far the most amount of time. In addition all of those other
-calls are also related to `inet:setopts/2`.
-
-I'm gonna rewrite our little listen server to use `{active,true}`, and we'll do
-it all again:
-
-```erlang
--module(tcp_test).
--compile(export_all).
-
--define(TCP_OPTS, [
-    binary,
-    {packet, raw},
-    {nodelay,true},
-    {active, false},
-    {reuseaddr, true},
-    {keepalive,true},
-    {backlog,500}
-]).
-
-%Start listening
-listen(Port) ->
-    {ok, L} = gen_tcp:listen(Port, ?TCP_OPTS),
-    ?MODULE:accept(L).
-
-%Accept a connection
-accept(L) ->
-    {ok, Socket} = gen_tcp:accept(L),
-    inet:setopts(Socket, [{active, true}]), %Well this is new
-    ?MODULE:read_loop(Socket),
-    io:fwrite("Done reading, connection was closed\n"),
-    ?MODULE:accept(L).
-
-%Read everything it sends us
-read_loop(Socket) ->
-    %inet:setopts(Socket, [{active, once}]),
-    receive
-    {tcp, _, _} ->
-        do_stuff_here,
-        ?MODULE:read_loop(Socket);
-    {tcp_closed, _}-> donezo;
-    {tcp_error, _, _} -> donezo
-    end.
-```
-
-And the profiling results:
-
-```erlang
-1> eprof:start().
-{ok,<0.34.0>}
-
-2>  P = spawn(tcp_test,listen,[8000]).
-<0.36.0>
-
-3> eprof:start_profiling([P]).
-profiling
-
-4>  running_the_while_loop.
-running_the_while_loop
-
-5> eprof:stop_profiling().
-profiling_stopped
-
-6> eprof:analyze(procs,[{sort,time}]).
-
-****** Process <0.36.0>    -- 100.00 % of profiled time *** 
-FUNCTION                           CALLS       %      TIME  [uS / CALLS]
---------                           -----     ---      ----  [----------]
-prim_inet:enc_value_1/3                7    0.00         1  [      0.14]
-prim_inet:decode_opt_val/1             1    0.00         1  [      1.00]
-inet:setopts/2                         1    0.00         2  [      2.00]
-prim_inet:setopts/2                    2    0.00         2  [      1.00]
-prim_inet:enum_name/2                  1    0.00         2  [      2.00]
-erlang:port_set_data/2                 1    0.00         2  [      2.00]
-inet_db:register_socket/2              1    0.00         3  [      3.00]
-prim_inet:type_value_1/3               7    0.00         3  [      0.43]
-
-.... snip ....
-
-prim_inet:type_opt_1/1                19    0.00         7  [      0.37]
-prim_inet:enc_value/3                  7    0.00         7  [      1.00]
-prim_inet:enum_val/2                   6    0.00         7  [      1.17]
-prim_inet:dec_opt_val/1                7    0.00         7  [      1.00]
-prim_inet:dec_value/2                  6    0.00        10  [      1.67]
-prim_inet:enc_opt/1                   13    0.00        12  [      0.92]
-prim_inet:type_opt/2                  19    0.00        33  [      1.74]
-erlang:port_control/3                  3    0.00        59  [     19.67]
-tcp_test:read_loop/1            20716370  100.00  12187488  [      0.59]
-```
-
-This time our process spent almost no time at all (according to eprof, 0%)
-fiddling with the socket opts.  Instead it spent all of its time in the
-read_loop doing the work we actually want to be doing.
-
-## So what does this mean?
-
-I'm by no means advocating never using `{active,once}`. The security concern is
-still a completely valid concern and one that `{active,once}` mitigates quite
-well. I'm simply pointing out that this mitigation has some fairly serious
-performance implications which have the potential to bite you if you're not
-careful, especially in cases where a socket is going to be receiving a large
-amount of traffic.
-
-## Meta
-
-These tests were done using R15B03, but I've done similar ones in R14 and found
-similar results. I have not tested R16.
-
-* \[0] http://learnyousomeerlang.com/buckets-of-sockets
-* \[1] http://www.erlang.org/doc/man/gen_tcp.html#examples
-* \[2] http://erlycoder.com/25/erlang-tcp-server-tcp-client-sockets-with-gen_tcp
-
-[0]: http://learnyousomeerlang.com/content
-[1]: http://www.metabrew.com/article/a-million-user-comet-application-with-mochiweb-part-1
-[2]: http://www.erlang.org/doc/man/inet.html#setopts-2
-[3]: http://www.erlang.org/doc/man/gen_tcp.html#recv-2
-[4]: http://www.erlang.org/doc/man/eprof.html