diff --git a/doc/programmers-guide.rst b/doc/programmers-guide.rst index 94c72e98..253c9fd3 100644 --- a/doc/programmers-guide.rst +++ b/doc/programmers-guide.rst @@ -1,6 +1,62 @@ Programmers' Guide ================== +Architecture +------------ + +The most notable point in nghttp2 library architecture is it does not +perform any I/O. nghttp2 only performs HTTP/2 protocol stuff based on +input byte strings. It will calls callback functions set by +applications while processing input. The output of nghttp2 is just +byte string. An application is responsible to send these output to +the remote peer. The callback functions may be called while producing +output. + +Not doing I/O makes embedding nghttp2 library in the existing code +base very easy. Usually, the existing applications have its own I/O +event loops. It is very hard to use nghttp2 in that situation if +nghttp2 does its own I/O. It also makes light weight language wrapper +for nghttp2 easy with the same reason. The down side is that an +application author has to write more code to write complete +application using nghttp2. This is especially true for simple "toy" +application. For the real applications, however, this is not the +case. This is because you probably want to support HTTP/1 which +nghttp2 does not provide, and to do that, you will need to write your +own HTTP/1 stack or use existing third-party library, and bind them +together with nghttp2 and I/O event loop. In this point, not +performing I/O in nghttp2 has more point than doing it. + +The primary object that an application uses is :type:`nghttp2_session` +object, which is opaque struct and its details are hidden in order to +ensure the upgrading its internal architecture without breaking the +backward compatibility. An application can set callbacks to +:type:`nghttp2_session` object through the dedicated object and +functions, and it also interacts with it via many API function calls. + +An application can create as many :type:`nghttp2_session` object as it +wants. But single :type:`nghttp2_session` object must be used by a +single thread at the same time. This is not so hard to enforce since +most event-based architecture applicatons use is single thread per +core, and handling one connection I/O is done by single thread. + +To feed input to :type:`nghttp2_session` object, one can use +`nghttp2_session_recv()` or `nghttp2_session_mem_recv()` functions. +They behave similarly, and the difference is that +`nghttp2_session_recv()` will use :type:`nghttp2_read_callback` to get +input. On the other hand, `nghttp2_session_mem_recv()` will take +input as its parameter. If in doubt, use `nghttp2_session_mem_recv()` +since it is simpler, and could be faster since it avoids calling +callback function. + +To get output from :type:`nghttp2_session` object, one can use +`nghttp2_session_send()` or `nghttp2_session_mem_send()`. The +difference between them is that the former uses +:type:`nghttp2_send_callback` to pass output to an application. On +the other hand, the latter returns the output to the caller. If in +doubt, use `nghttp2_session_mem_send()` since it is simpler. But +`nghttp2_session_send()` might be easier to use if the output buffer +an application has is fixed sized. + Includes --------