SWI-Prolog C-library
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SWI-Prolog C-library
Jan Wielemaker
VU University of Amsterdam
The Netherlands
E-mail: J.Wielemaker@vu.nl
Abstract
This document describes commonly used foreign language extensions to SWI-Prolog distributed as a package known under the name clib. The package defines a number of Prolog libraries with accompagnying foreign libraries.

On Windows systems, the library(unix) library can only be used if the whole SWI-Prolog suite is compiled using Cygwin. The other libraries have been ported to native Windows.

Table of Contents

1 Introduction
2 library(process): Create processes and redirect I/O
3 library(filesex): Extended operations on files
4 library(uid): User and group management on Unix systems
5 library(syslog): Unix syslog interface
6 Socket library
6.1 Server applications
6.2 Client applications
6.3 The stream_pool library
6.4 UDP protocol support
7 library(uri): Process URIs
8 CGI Support library
8.1 Some considerations
9 library(mime): Parse MIME documents
10 Password encryption library
11 library(uuid): Universally Unique Identifier (UUID) Library
12 SHA1 and SHA2 Secure Hash Algorithms
12.1 License terms
13 Memory files
14 Time and alarm library
15 library(unix): Unix specific operations
16 Limiting process resources
17 library(udp_broadcast): A UDP Broadcast Bridge
17.1 Caveats:

1 Introduction

Many useful facilities offered by one or more of the operating systems supported by SWI-Prolog are not supported by the SWI-Prolog kernel distribution. Including these would enlarge the footprint and complicate portability matters while supporting only a limited part of the user-community.

This document describes library(unix) to deal with the Unix process API, library(socket) to deal with inet-domain TCP and UDP sockets, library(cgi) to deal with getting CGI form-data if SWI-Prolog is used as a CGI scripting language, library(crypt) to provide password encryption and verification, library(sha) providing cryptographic hash functions and library(memfile) providing in-memorty pseudo files.

2 library(process): Create processes and redirect I/O

Compatibility
SICStus 4
To be done
Implement detached option in process_create/3

The module library(process) implements interaction with child processes and unifies older interfaces such as shell/[1,2], open(pipe(command), ...) etc. This library is modelled after SICStus 4.

The main interface is formed by process_create/3. If the process id is requested the process must be waited for using process_wait/2. Otherwise the process resources are reclaimed automatically.

In addition to the predicates, this module defines a file search path (see user:file_search_path/2 and absolute_file_name/3) named path that locates files on the system's search path for executables. E.g. the following finds the executable for ls: 

?- absolute_file_name(path(ls), Path, [access(execute)]).

Incompatibilities and current limitations

[det]process_create(+Exe, +Args:list, +Options)
Create a new process running the file Exe and using arguments from the given list. Exe is a file specification as handed to absolute_file_name/3. Typically one use the path file alias to specify an executable file on the current PATH. Args is a list of arguments that are handed to the new process. On Unix systems, each element in the list becomes a seperate argument in the new process. In Windows, the arguments are simply concatenated to form the commandline. Each argument itself is either a primitive or a list of primitives. A primitive is either atomic or a term file(Spec). Using file(Spec), the system inserts a filename using the OS filename conventions which is properly quoted if needed.

Options:

stdin(Spec)
stdout(Spec)
stderr(Spec)
Bind the standard streams of the new process. Spec is one of the terms below. If pipe(Pipe) is used, the Prolog stream is a stream in text-mode using the encoding of the default locale. The encoding can be changed using set_stream/2. The options stdout and stderr may use the same stream, in which case both output streams are connected to the same Prolog stream.
std
Just share with the Prolog I/O streams
null
Bind to a null stream. Reading from such a stream returns end-of-file, writing produces no output
pipe(-Stream)
Attach input and/or output to a Prolog stream.
cwd(+Directory)
Run the new process in Directory. Directory can be a compound specification, which is converted using absolute_file_name/3.
env(+List)
Specify the environment for the new process. List is a list of Name=Value terms. Note that the current implementation does not pass any environment variables. If unspecified, the environment is inherited from the Prolog process.
process(-PID)
Unify PID with the process id of the created process.
detached(+Bool)
In Unix: If true, detach the process from the terminal Currently mapped to setsid(); In Windows: If true, detach the process from the current job via the CREATE_BREAKAWAY_FROM_JOB flag. In Vista and beyond, processes launched from the shell directly have the 'compatibility assistant' attached to them automatically unless they have a UAC manifest embedded in them. This means that you will get a permission denied error if you try and assign the newly-created PID to a job you create yourself.
window(+Bool)
If true, create a window for the process (Windows only)
priority(+Priority)
In Unix: specifies the process priority for the newly created process. Priority must be an integer between -20 and 19. Positive values are nicer to others, and negative values are less so. The default is zero. Users are free to lower their own priority. Only the super-user may raise it to less-than zero.

If the user specifies the process(-PID) option, he must call process_wait/2 to reclaim the process. Without this option, the system will wait for completion of the process after the last pipe stream is closed.

If the process is not waited for, it must succeed with status 0. If not, an process_error is raised.

Windows notes

On Windows this call is an interface to the CreateProcess() API. The commandline consists of the basename of Exe and the arguments formed from Args. Arguments are separated by a single space. If all characters satisfy iswalnum() it is unquoted. If the argument contains a double-quote it is quoted using single quotes. If both single and double quotes appear a domain_error is raised, otherwise double-quote are used.

The CreateProcess() API has many options. Currently only the CREATE_NO_WINDOW options is supported through the window(+Bool) option. If omitted, the default is to use this option if the application has no console. Future versions are likely to support more window specific options and replace win_exec/2.

Examples

First, a very simple example that behaves the same as shell('ls -l'), except for error handling: 

?- process_create(path(ls), ['-l'], []).

The following example uses grep to find all matching lines in a file. 

grep(File, Pattern, Lines) :-
        process_create(path(grep), [ Pattern, file(File) ],
                       [ stdout(pipe(Out))
                       ]),
        read_lines(Out, Lines).

read_lines(Out, Lines) :-
        read_line_to_codes(Out, Line1),
        read_lines(Line1, Out, Lines).

read_lines(end_of_file, _, []) :- !.
read_lines(Codes, Out, [Line|Lines]) :-
        atom_codes(Line, Codes),
        read_line_to_codes(Out, Line2),
        read_lines(Line2, Out, Lines).
Errors
process_error(Exe, Status) where Status is one of exit(Code) or killed(Signal). Raised if the process does not exit with status 0.
[det]process_id(-PID)
True if PID is the process id of the running Prolog process.
deprecated
Use current_prolog_flag(pid, PID)
[det]process_id(+Process, -PID)
PID is the process id of Process. Given that they are united in SWI-Prolog, this is a simple unify.
[semidet]is_process(+PID)
True if PID might be a process. Succeeds for any positive integer.
process_release(+PID)
Release process handle. In this implementation this is the same as process_wait(PID, _).
[det]process_wait(+PID, -Status)
[det]process_wait(+PID, -Status, +Options)
True if PID completed with Status. This call normally blocks until the process is finished. Options:
timeout(+Timeout)
Default: infinite. If this option is a number, the waits for a maximum of Timeout seconds and unifies Status with timeout if the process does not terminate within Timeout. In this case PID is not invalidated. On Unix systems only timeout 0 and infinite are supported. A 0-value can be used to poll the status of the process.
release(+Bool)
Do/do not release the process. We do not support this flag and a domain_error is raised if release(false) is provided.
Status is one of exit(Code) or killed(Signal), where Code and Signal are integers.
[det]process_kill(+PID)
[det]process_kill(+PID, +Signal)
Send signal to process PID. Default is term. Signal is an integer, Unix signal name (e.g. SIGSTOP) or the more Prolog friendly variation one gets after removing SIG and downcase the result: stop. On Windows systems, Signal is ignored and the process is terminated using the TerminateProcess() API. On Windows systems PID must be obtained from process_create/3, while any PID is allowed on Unix systems.
Compatibility
SICStus does not accept the prolog friendly version. We choose to do so for compatibility with on_signal/3.

3 library(filesex): Extended operations on files

This module provides additional operations on files. This covers both more obscure and possible non-portable low-level operations and high-level utilities.

Using these Prolog primitives is typically to be preferred over using operating system primitives through shell/1 or process_create/3 because (1) there are no potential file name quoting issues, (2) there is no dependency on operating system commands and (3) using the implementations from this library is usually faster.

[det]set_time_file(+File, -OldTimes, +NewTimes)
Query and set POSIX time attributes of a file. Both OldTimes and NewTimes are lists of option-terms. Times are represented in SWI-Prolog's standard floating point numbers. New times may be specified as now to indicate the current time. Defined options are:
access(Time)
Describes the time of last access of the file. This value can be read and written.
modified(Time)
Describes the time the contents of the file was last modified. This value can be read and written.
changed(Time)
Describes the time the file-structure itself was changed by adding (link()) or removing (unlink()) names.

Below are some example queries. The first retrieves the access-time, while the second sets the last-modified time to the current time. 

?- set_time_file(foo, [acess(Access)], []).
?- set_time_file(foo, [], [modified(now)]).
[det]link_file(+OldPath, +NewPath, +Type)
Create a link in the filesystem from NewPath to OldPath. Type defines the type of link and is one of hard or symbolic.

With some limitations, these functions also work on Windows. First of all, the unerlying filesystem must support links. This requires NTFS. Second, symbolic links are only supported in Vista and later.

Errors
domain_error(link_type, Type) if the requested link-type is unknown or not supported on the target OS.
[det]relative_file_name(+Path:atom, +RelTo:atom, -RelPath:atom)
True when RelPath is Path, relative to RelTo. Path and RelTo are first handed to absolute_file_name/2, which makes the absolute and canonical. Below is an example: 
?- relative_file_name('/home/janw/nice',
                      '/home/janw/deep/dir/file', Path).
Path = '../../nice'.
All paths must be in canonical POSIX notation, i.e., using / to separate segments in the path. See prolog_to_os_filename/2.
bug
This predicate is defined as a syntactical operation.
[det]directory_file_path(+Directory, +File, -Path)
[det]directory_file_path(?Directory, ?File, +Path)
True when Path is the full path-name for File in Dir. This is comparable to atom_concat(Directory, File, Path), but it ensures there is exactly one / between the two parts. Notes:

[det]copy_file(From, To)
Copy a file into a new file or directory. The data is copied as binary data.
[det]make_directory_path(+Dir)
Create Dir and all required components (like mkdir -p). Can raise various file-specific exceptions.
[det]copy_directory(+From, +To)
Copy the contents of the directory From to To (recursively). If To is the name of an existing directory, the contents of From are copied into To. I.e., no subdirectory using the basename of From is created.
delete_directory_and_contents(+Dir)
Recursively remove the directory Dir and its contents. Use with care!
[det]delete_directory_contents(+Dir)
Remove all content from directory Dir, without removing Dir itself.

4 library(uid): User and group management on Unix systems

See also
Please check the documentation of your OS for details on the semantics of this predicates.

This module provides and interface to user and group information on Posix systems. In addition, it allows for changing user and group ids.

[det]getuid(-UID)
UID is the real user ID of the calling process.
[det]getgid(-GID)
GID is the real group ID of the calling process.
[det]geteuid(-UID)
UID is the effective user ID of the calling process.
[det]getegid(-GID)
GID is the effective group ID of the calling process.
[det]user_info(+User, -UserData)
UserData represent the passwd information for User. User is either a numeric UID or a user name. The predicate user_data/3 can be used to extract information from UserData.
user_data(?Field, ?UserData, ?Value)
Value is the value for Field in UserData. Defined fields are:
name
Name of the user
password
Password hash of the user (or x if this is not accessible)
uid
Numeric user id of the user
gid
Numeric primary group id of the user
comment
The gecos field
home
Home directory of the user
shell
Default (login) shell of the user.
[det]group_info(+Group, -GroupData)
GroupData represent the group information for Group. Group is either a numeric GID or a group name. The predicate group_data/3 can be used to extract information from GroupData.
group_data(?Field, ?GroupData, ?Value)
Value is the value for Field GroupData. Defined fields are:
name
Name of the user
password
Password hash of the user (or x if this is not accessible)
gid
Numeric group id of the group
members
List of user-names that are member of this group.
setuid(+UID)
Set the user id of the calling process.
seteuid(+UID)
Set the effective user id of the calling process.
setgid(+GID)
Set the group id of the calling process.
setegid(+GID)
Set the effective group id of the calling process.
[det]set_user_and_group(+User)
[det]set_user_and_group(+User, +Group)
Set the UID and GID to the User. User is either a UID or a user name. If Group is not specified, the primary group of User is used.

5 library(syslog): Unix syslog interface

See also
- detach_IO/1 to detach normal I/O of the process and remove it from the process group.
- fork/1 to create a daemon process.
- library(uid) to manage user identifiers (e.g., drop root privileges).

This library provides an interface to the Unix syslog() facility. The interface is an almost direct translation of the POSIX syslog API, with two additions:

Note that this interface makes no attempt to abstract over logging facilities of operating systems. We expect that such abstractions will be implemented at the Prolog level using multiple integrations into library(debug).

[det]openlog(+Ident:atom, +Options:list(atom), +Facility:atom)
Open system log. This predicate provides a direct interface into the openlog() library call. If the library call is successful, it runs at_halt(closelog) to ensure closing the system log on clean exit.
Ident prepended to every message, and is typically set to the program name.
Options is a list of options. Values are corresponding C options, after removing =LOG_= and translation to lower case: cons, ndelay, nowait, odelay, perror, pid.
Facility is one of auth, authpriv, cron, daemon, ftp, kern, local0 ... local7, lpr, mail, news, syslog, user or uucp.
[det]syslog(+Priority, +Message)
Send a message to the system log. Note that syslog/2 implicitly opens a connection to the system log if such a connection has not been opened explicitly using openlog/3.
Priority is one of emerg, alert, crit, err, warning, notice, info or debug.
[det]syslog(+Priority, +Format, +Args)
Send a formatted message to the system log if system logging is opened using openlog/3. This predicate combined format/3 with syslog/2. If there is no open syslog connection, syslog/3 calls print_message/2.
[det]closelog
Close the system log.
[semidet,multifile]prolog:debug_print_hook(+Topic, +Format, +Args)
Integration of debug/3 with the syslog facility. If syslog is enabled, debug/3 is re-routed to use the syslog facilities. If the topic of the debug message matches one of the sylog priority values (see syslog/2), the message is sent with the corresponding syslog priority. Otherwise it it sent with the debug priority.

6 Socket library

The library(socket) library provides TCP and UDP inet-domain sockets from SWI-Prolog, both client and server-side communication. The interface of this library is very close to the Unix socket interface, also supported by the MS-Windows winsock API. SWI-Prolog applications that wish to communicate with multiple sources have three options:

  1. Use I/O multiplexing based on wait_for_input/3. On Windows systems this can only be used for sockets, not for general (device-) file handles.
  2. Use multiple threads, handling either a single blocking socket or a pool using I/O multiplexing as above.
  3. Using XPCE's class socket which synchronises socket events in the GUI event-loop.
tcp_socket(-SocketId)
Creates an INET-domain stream-socket and unifies an identifier to it with SocketId. On MS-Windows, if the socket library is not yet initialised, this will also initialise the library.
tcp_close_socket(+SocketId)
Closes the indicated socket, making SocketId invalid. Normally, sockets are closed by closing both stream handles returned by open_socket/3. There are two cases where tcp_close_socket/1 is used because there are no stream-handles:

  • If, after tcp_accept/3, the server uses fork/1 to handle the client in a sub-process. In this case the accepted socket is not longer needed from the main server and must be discarded using tcp_close_socket/1.
  • If, after discovering the connecting client with tcp_accept/3, the server does not want to accept the connection, it should discard the accepted socket immediately using tcp_close_socket/1.
tcp_open_socket(+Socket, -Stream)
Create streams to communicate to Socket. If Socket is a master socket (see tcp_bind/2), Stream should be used for tcp_accept/3. If Socket is a connected (see tcp_connect/2) or accepted socket (see tcp_accept/3), Stream is unified to a stream pair (see stream_pair/3) that can be used for reading and writing. The stream or pair must be closed with close/1, which also closes Socket.
tcp_open_socket(+SocketId, -InStream, -OutStream)
Similar to tcp_open_socket/2, but creates two separate sockets where tcp_open_socket/2 would have created a stream pair. Deprecated because closing a stream pair is much easier to perform safely.
tcp_bind(+Socket, ?Port)
Bind the socket to Port on the current machine. This operation, together with tcp_listen/2 and tcp_accept/3 implement the server-side of the socket interface. If Port is unbound, the system picks an arbitrary free port and unifies Port with the selected port number. Port is either an integer or the name of a registered service. See also tcp_connect/4.
tcp_listen(+Socket, +Backlog)
Tells, after tcp_bind/2, the socket to listen for incoming requests for connections. Backlog indicates how many pending connection requests are allowed. Pending requests are requests that are not yet acknowledged using tcp_accept/3. If the indicated number is exceeded, the requesting client will be signalled that the service is currently not available. A suggested default value is 5.
tcp_accept(+Socket, -Slave, -Peer)
This predicate waits on a server socket for a connection request by a client. On success, it creates a new socket for the client and binds the identifier to Slave. Peer is bound to the IP-address of the client.
[deprecated]tcp_connect(+Socket, +Host:+Port)
Connect Socket. After successful completion, tcp_open_socket/3 can be used to create I/O-Streams to the remote socket. New code should use tcp_connect/4, which can be hooked to allow for proxy negotiation.
tcp_connect(+Socket, +Host:+Port, -StreamPair)
Client-interface to connect a socket to a given Port on a given Host. Port is either an integer or the name of a registered service. The fragment below connects to the http://www.swi-prolog.org using the service name instead of the hardcoded number `80'. 
    Adress = 'www.swi-prolog.org':http,
    tcp_socket(Socket),
    tcp_connect(Socket, Adress, Read, Write),

This predicate can be hooked by defining the multifile-predicate socket:tcp_connect_hook/4. This hook is specifically intented for proxy negotiation. The code below shows the structure of such a hook. The predicates proxy/1 and proxy_connect/2 must be provided by the user. 

:- multifile socket:tcp_connect_hook/3.

socket:tcp_connect_hook(Socket, Address, Stream) :-
    proxy(ProxyAdress),
    tcp_connect(Socket, ProxyAdress),
    tcp_open_socket(Socket, Stream),
    proxy_connect(Address, Stream).
tcp_connect(+Socket, +Host:+Port, -Read, -Write)
Similar to tcp_connect/3, but providing separate streams. Separate streams are hard to close safely and new code should use tcp_connect/3.
tcp_setopt(+Socket, +Option)
Set options on the socket. Defined options are:
reuseaddr
Allow servers to reuse a port without the system being completely sure the port is no longer in use.
bindtodevice(+Device:atom)
Bind the socket to the indicated device. For example, the code below binds the socket to the loopback device that is typically used to realise the localhost. See the manual pages for setsockopt() and the socket interface (e.g., socket(7) on Linux) for details. 
    tcp_socket(Socket),
    tcp_setopt(Socket, bindtodevice(lo)),

Note that this call requires root privileges, see library(uid). Also note that you can restrict a socket using tcp_bind(Socket, IP:Port), where IP is the numeric IP address or DNS name of that address. For examples, tcp_bind(Socket, localhost:Port) also restricts access to local connections.

nodelay
Same as nodelay(true)
nodelay(Bool)
If true, disable the Nagle optimization on this socket, which is enabled by default on almost all modern TCP/IP stacks. The Nagle optimization joins small packages, which is generally desirable, but sometimes not. Please note that the underlying TCP_NODELAY setting to setsockopt() is not available on all platforms and systems may require additional privileges to change this option. If the option is not supported, tcp_setopt/2 raises a domain_error exception. See Wikipedia for details.
broadcast
UDP sockets only: broadcast the package to all addresses matching the address. The address is normally the address of the local subnet (i.e. 192.168.1.255). See udp_send/4.
dispatch(Bool)
In GUI environments (using XPCE or the Windows plwin.exe executable) this flags defines whether or not any events are dispatched on behalf of the user interface. Default is true. Only very specific situations require setting this to false.
tcp_fcntl(+Stream, +Action, ?Argument)
Interface to the Unix fcntl() call. Currently only suitable to deal switch stream to non-blocking mode using: 
        ...
        tcp_fcntl(Stream, setfl, nonblock),
        ...

As of SWI-Prolog 3.2.4, handling of non-blocking streams is supported. An attempt to read from a non-blocking stream returns -1 (or end_of_file for read/1), but at_end_of_stream/1 fails. On actual end-of-input, at_end_of_stream/1 succeeds.

tcp_host_to_address(?HostName, ?Address)
Translate between a machines host-name and it's (IP-)address. If HostName is an atom, it is resolved using getaddrinfo() and the IP-number is unified to Address using a term of the format ip(Byte1, Byte2, Byte3, Byte4). Otherwise, if Address is bound to a ip/4 term, it is resolved by gethostbyaddr() and the canonical hostname is unified with HostName.1This function should support more functionality provided by gethostbyaddr(), probably by adding an option-list.
gethostname(-Hostname)
Return the canonical fully qualified name of this host. This is achieved by calling gethostname() and return the canonical name returned by getaddrinfo().

6.1 Server applications

The typical sequence for generating a server application is given below. To close the server, use close/1 on AcceptFd. 

create_server(Port) :-
        tcp_socket(Socket),
        tcp_bind(Socket, Port),
        tcp_listen(Socket, 5),
        tcp_open_socket(Socket, AcceptFd, _),
        <dispatch>

There are various options for <dispatch>. The most commonly used option is to start a Prolog thread to handle the connection. Alternatively, input from multiple clients can be handled in a single thread by listening to these clients using wait_for_input/3. Finally, on Unix systems, we can use fork/1 to handle the connection in a new process. Note that fork/1 and threads do not cooperate well. Combinations can be realised but require good understanding of POSIX thread and fork-semantics.

Below is the typical example using a thread. Note the use of setup_call_cleanup/3 to guarantee that all resources are reclaimed, also in case of failure or exceptions. 

dispatch(AcceptFd) :-
        tcp_accept(AcceptFd, Socket, _Peer),
        thread_create(process_client(Socket, Peer), _,
                      [ detached(true)
                      ]),
        dispatch(AcceptFd).

process_client(Socket, Peer) :-
        setup_call_cleanup(tcp_open_socket(Socket, In, Out),
                           handle_service(In, Out),
                           close_connection(In, Out)).

close_connection(In, Out) :-
        close(In, [force(true)]),
        close(Out, [force(true)]).

handle_service(In, Out) :-
        ...

6.2 Client applications

The skeleton for client-communication is given below. 

create_client(Host, Port) :-
        setup_call_catcher_cleanup(tcp_socket(Socket),
                                   tcp_connect(Socket, Host:Port),
                                   exception(_),
                                   tcp_close_socket(Socket)),
        setup_call_cleanup(tcp_open_socket(Socket, In, Out),
                           chat_to_server(In, Out),
                           close_connection(In, Out)).

close_connection(In, Out) :-
        close(In, [force(true)]),
        close(Out, [force(true)]).

chat_to_server(In, Out) :-
        ...

To deal with timeouts and multiple connections, wait_for_input/3 and/or non-blocking streams (see tcp_fcntl/3) can be used.

6.3 The stream_pool library

The library(streampool) library dispatches input from multiple streams based on wait_for_input/3. It is part of the clib package as it is used most of the time together with the library(socket) library. On non-Unix systems it often can only be used with socket streams.

With SWI-Prolog 5.1.x, multi-threading often provides a good alternative to using this library. In this schema one thread watches the listening socket waiting for connections and either creates a thread per connection or processes the accepted connections with a pool of worker threads. The library library(http/thread_httpd) provides an example realising a mult-threaded HTTP server.

add_stream_to_pool(+Stream, :Goal)
Add Stream, which must be an input stream and ---on non-unix systems--- connected to a socket to the pool. If input is available on Stream, Goal is called.
delete_stream_from_pool(+Stream)
Delete the given stream from the pool. Succeeds, even if Stream is no member of the pool. If Stream is unbound the entire pool is emtied but unlike close_stream_pool/0 the streams are not closed.
close_stream_pool
Empty the pool, closing all streams that are part of it.
dispatch_stream_pool(+TimeOut)
Wait for maximum of TimeOut for input on any of the streams in the pool. If there is input, call the Goal associated with add_stream_to_pool/2. If Goal fails or raises an exception a message is printed. TimeOut is described with wait_for_input/3.

If Goal is called, there is some input on the associated stream. Goal must be careful not to block as this will block the entire pool.2This is hard to achieve at the moment as none of the Prolog read-commands provide for a timeout.

stream_pool_main_loop
Calls dispatch_stream_pool/1 in a loop until the pool is empty.

Below is a very simple example that reads the first line of input and echos it back. 

:- use_module(library(streampool)).

server(Port) :-
        tcp_socket(Socket),
        tcp_bind(Socket, Port),
        tcp_listen(Socket, 5),
        tcp_open_socket(Socket, In, _Out),
        add_stream_to_pool(In, accept(Socket)),
        stream_pool_main_loop.

accept(Socket) :-
        tcp_accept(Socket, Slave, Peer),
        tcp_open_socket(Slave, In, Out),
        add_stream_to_pool(In, client(In, Out, Peer)).

client(In, Out, _Peer) :-
        read_line_to_codes(In, Command),
        close(In),
        format(Out, 'Please to meet you: ~s~n', [Command]),
        close(Out),
        delete_stream_from_pool(In).

6.4 UDP protocol support

The current library provides limited support for UDP packets. The UDP protocol is a connection-less and unreliable datagram based protocol. That means that messages sent may or may not arrive at the client side and may arrive in a different order as they are sent. UDP messages are often used for streaming media or for service discovery using the broadcasting mechanism.

udp_socket(-Socket)
Similar to tcp_socket/1, but create a socket using the SOCK_DGRAM protocol, ready for UDP connections.
udp_receive(+Socket, -Data, -From, +Options)
Wait for and return the next datagram. The data is returned as a Prolog string object (see string_to_list/2). From is a term of the format ip(A,B,C,D):Port indicating the sender of the message. Socket can be waited for using wait_for_input/3. Defined Options:
as(+Type)
Defines the returned term-type. Type is one of atom, codes or string (default).
max_message_size(+Size)
Specify the maximum number of bytes to read from a UDP datagram. Size must be within the range 0-65535. If unspecified, a maximum of 4096 bytes will be read.

The typical sequence to receive UDP data is: 

receive(Port) :-
        udp_socket(S),
        tcp_bind(S, Port),
        repeat,
            udp_receive(Socket, Data, From, [as(atom)]),
            format('Got ~q from ~q~n', [Data, From]),
            fail.
udp_send(+Socket, +Data, +To, +Options)
Send a UDP message. Data is a string, atom or code-list providing the data. To is an address of the form Host:Port where Host is either the hostname or a term ip/4. Options is currently unused.

A simple example to send UDP data is: 

send(Host, Port, Message) :-
        udp_socket(S),
        udp_send(S, Message, Host:Port, []),
        tcp_close_socket(S).

A broadcast is achieved by using tcp_setopt(Socket, broadcast) prior to sending the datagram and using the local network broadcast address as a ip/4 term.

The normal mechanism to discover a service on the local network is for the client to send a broadcast message to an agreed port. The server receives this message and replies to the client with a message indicating further details to establish the communication.

7 library(uri): Process URIs

This library provides high-performance C-based primitives for manipulating URIs. We decided for a C-based implementation for the much better performance on raw character manipulation. Notably, URI handling primitives are used in time-critical parts of RDF processing. This implementation is based on RFC-3986: 

http://labs.apache.org/webarch/uri/rfc/rfc3986.html

The URI processing in this library is rather liberal. That is, we break URIs according to the rules, but we do not validate that the components are valid. Also, percent-decoding for IRIs is liberal. It first tries UTF-8; then ISO-Latin-1 and finally accepts %-characters verbatim.

Earlier experience has shown that strict enforcement of the URI syntax results in many errors that are accepted by many other web-document processing tools.

[det]uri_components(+URI, -Components)
[det]uri_components(-URI, +Components)
Break a URI into its 5 basic components according to the RFC-3986 regular expression: 
^(([^:/?#]+):)?(//([^/?#]*))?([^?#]*)(\?([^#]*))?(#(.*))?
 12            3  4          5       6  7        8 9
Components is a term uri_components(Scheme, Authority, Path, Search, Fragment). See uri_data/3 for accessing this structure.
[semidet]uri_data(?Field, +Components, ?Data)
Provide access the uri_component structure. Defined field-names are: scheme, authority, path, search and fragment
[semidet]uri_data(+Field, +Components, +Data, -NewComponents)
NewComponents is the same as Components with Field set to Data.
[det]uri_normalized(+URI, -NormalizedURI)
NormalizedURI is the normalized form of URI. Normalization is syntactic and involves the following steps:

  • 6.2.2.1. Case Normalization
  • 6.2.2.2. Percent-Encoding Normalization
  • 6.2.2.3. Path Segment Normalization
[det]iri_normalized(+IRI, -NormalizedIRI)
NormalizedIRI is the normalized form of IRI. Normalization is syntactic and involves the following steps:

  • 6.2.2.1. Case Normalization
  • 6.2.2.3. Path Segment Normalization
See also
This is similar to uri_normalized/2, but does not do normalization of %-escapes.
[det]uri_normalized_iri(+URI, -NormalizedIRI)
As uri_normalized/2, but percent-encoding is translated into IRI Unicode characters. The translation is liberal: valid UTF-8 sequences of %-encoded bytes are mapped to the Unicode character. Other %XX-sequences are mapped to the corresponding ISO-Latin-1 character and sole % characters are left untouched.
See also
uri_iri/2.
[semidet]uri_is_global(+URI)
True if URI has a scheme. The semantics is the same as the code below, but the implementation is more efficient as it does not need to parse the other components, nor needs to bind the scheme. 
uri_is_global(URI) :-
        uri_components(URI, Components),
        uri_data(Components, scheme, Scheme),
        nonvar(Scheme).
[det]uri_resolve(+URI, +Base, -GlobalURI)
Resolve a possibly local URI relative to Base. This implements http://labs.apache.org/webarch/uri/rfc/rfc3986.html\#relative-transform
[det]uri_normalized(+URI, +Base, -NormalizedGlobalURI)
NormalizedGlobalURI is the normalized global version of URI. Behaves as if defined by: 
uri_normalized(URI, Base, NormalizedGlobalURI) :-
        uri_resolve(URI, Base, GlobalURI),
        uri_normalized(GlobalURI, NormalizedGlobalURI).
[det]iri_normalized(+IRI, +Base, -NormalizedGlobalIRI)
NormalizedGlobalIRI is the normalized global version of IRI. This is similar to uri_normalized/3, but does not do %-escape normalization.
[det]uri_normalized_iri(+URI, +Base, -NormalizedGlobalIRI)
NormalizedGlobalIRI is the normalized global IRI of URI. Behaves as if defined by: 
uri_normalized(URI, Base, NormalizedGlobalIRI) :-
        uri_resolve(URI, Base, GlobalURI),
        uri_normalized_iri(GlobalURI, NormalizedGlobalIRI).
[det]uri_query_components(+String, -Query)
[det]uri_query_components(-String, +Query)
Perform encoding and decoding of an URI query string. Query is a list of fully decoded (Unicode) Name=Value pairs. In mode (-,+), query elements of the forms Name(Value) and Name-Value are also accepted to enhance interoperability with the option and pairs libraries. E.g. 
?- uri_query_components(QS, [a=b, c('d+w'), n-'VU Amsterdam']).
QS = 'a=b&c=d%2Bw&n=VU%20Amsterdam'.

?- uri_query_components('a=b&c=d%2Bw&n=VU%20Amsterdam', Q).
Q = [a=b, c='d+w', n='VU Amsterdam'].
[det]uri_authority_components(+Authority, -Components)
[det]uri_authority_components(-Authority, +Components)
Break-down the authority component of a URI. The fields of the structure Components can be accessed using uri_authority_data/3.
[semidet]uri_authority_data(+Field, ?Components, ?Data)
Provide access the uri_authority structure. Defined field-names are: user, password, host and port
[det]uri_encoded(+Component, +Value, -Encoded)
[det]uri_encoded(+Component, -Value, +Encoded)
Encoded is the URI encoding for Value. When encoding (Value->Encoded), Component specifies the URI component where the value is used. It is one of query_value, fragment or path. Besides alphanumerical characters, the following characters are passed verbatim (the set is split in logical groups according to RFC3986).
query_value, fragment
"-._ " | "!$'()*,;" | ":@" | "/?"
path
"-._ " | "!$&'()*,;=" | ":@" | "/"
[det]uri_iri(+URI, -IRI)
[det]uri_iri(-URI, +IRI)
Convert between a URI, encoded in US-ASCII and an IRI. An IRI is a fully expanded Unicode string. Unicode strings are first encoded into UTF-8, after which %-encoding takes place.
Errors
syntax_error(Culprit) in mode (+,-) if URI is not a legally percent-encoded UTF-8 string.
[semidet]uri_file_name(+URI, -FileName)
[det]uri_file_name(-URI, +FileName)
Convert between a URI and a local file_name. This protocol is covered by RFC 1738. Please note that file-URIs use absolute paths. The mode (-, +) translates a possible relative path into an absolute one.

8 CGI Support library

This is currently a very simple library, providing support for obtaining the form-data for a CGI script:

cgi_get_form(-Form)
Decodes standard input and the environment variables to obtain a list of arguments passed to the CGI script. This predicate both deals with the CGI GET method as well as the POST method. If the data cannot be obtained, an existence_error exception is raised.

Below is a very simple CGI script that prints the passed parameters. To test it, compile this program using the command below, copy it to your cgi-bin directory (or make it otherwise known as a CGI-script) and make the query http://myhost.mydomain/cgi-bin/cgidemo?hello=world 

% pl -o cgidemo --goal=main --toplevel=halt -c cgidemo.pl

:- use_module(library(cgi)).

main :-
        set_stream(current_output, encoding(utf8)),
        cgi_get_form(Arguments),
        format('Content-type: text/html; charset=UTF-8~n~n', []),
        format('<html>~n', []),
        format('<head>~n', []),
        format('<title>Simple SWI-Prolog CGI script</title>~n', []),
        format('</head>~n~n', []),
        format('<body>~n', []),
        format('<p>', []),
        print_args(Arguments),
        format('</body>~n</html>~n', []).

print_args([]).
print_args([A0|T]) :-
        A0 =.. [Name, Value],
        format('<b>~w</b>=<em>~w</em><br>~n', [Name, Value]),
        print_args(T).

8.1 Some considerations

Printing an HTML document using format/2 is not a neat way of producing HTML because it is vulnerable to required escape sequences. A high-level alternative is provided by library(http/html_write) from the HTTP library.

The startup-time of Prolog is relatively long, in particular if the program is large. In many cases it is much better to use the SWI-Prolog HTTP server library and make the main web-server relay requests to the SWI-Prolog webserver. See the SWI-Prolog HTTP package for details.

The CGI standard is unclear about handling Unicode data. The above two declarations ensure the CGI script will send all data in UTF-8 and thus provide full support of Unicode. It is assumed that browsers generally send form-data using the same encoding as the page in which the form appears, UTF-8 or ISO Latin-1. The current version of cgi_get_form/1 assumes the CGI data is in UTF-8.

9 library(mime): Parse MIME documents

license
GPL

This module defines an interface to the rfc2045 (MIME) parsing library by Double Precision, Inc, part of the maildrop system. This library is distributed under the GPL and therefore all code using this library should comply to the GPL.

[det]mime_parse(+Data, -Parsed)
True when Parsed is a parsed representation of the MIME message in Data. Data is one of

  • stream(In)
  • stream(In, Length)
  • an Atom, String or list of characters.

Parsed is a structure of this form:

mime(Attributes, Data, SubMimeList)

Where Data is the (decoded) field data returned as an atom. If a part is of type text/..., the charset is interpreted as follows: if charset contains UTF-8 or an alias thereof, the text is interpreted as UTF-8. If it the charset can be interpreted as ISO-8859-1 or US-ASCII, no conversion is applied. Otherwise, default locale specific conversion is applied. See also mime_default_charset/2.

Attributes is a property-list and SubMimeList is a list of mime/3 terms reflecting the sub-parts. Attributes contains the following members:

id(Atom)
Identifier of the message-part.
description(Atom)
Descriptive text for the \arg{Data}.
language(Atom)
Language in which the text-data is written.
md5(Atom)
type(Atom)
Denotes the Content-Type, how the \arg{Data} should be interpreted.
character_set(Atom)
The character set used for text data. See above.
transfer_encoding(Atom)
How the \arg{Data} was encoded. This is not very interesting as the library decodes the content of the message.
disposition(Atom)
Where the data comes from. The current library only deals with `inline' data.
filename(Atom)
Name of the file the data should be stored in.
name(Atom)
Name of the part.
[det]mime_default_charset(-Old, +New)
True when Old reflects the old and new the new default character set of the library. The system default is us-ascii. This value is returned into the attribute character_set (see mime_parse/2) if the message does not explicitly specifythe character set. It is used for translating the message content.
bug
This setting is global and shared between threads.

10 Password encryption library

The library(crypt) library defines crypt/2 for encrypting and testing passwords. The clib package also provides crytographic hashes as described in section 12

crypt(+Plain, ?Encrypted)
This predicate can be used in three modes. To test whether a password matches an encrypted version thereof, simply run with both arguments fully instantiated. To generate a default encrypted version of Plain, run with unbound Encrypted and this argument is unified to a list of character codes holding an encrypted version.

The library supports two encryption formats: traditional Unix DES-hashes3On non-Unix systems, crypt() is provided by the NetBSD library. The license header is added at the end of this document. and FreeBSD compatible MD5 hashes (all platforms). MD5 hashes start with the magic sequence $1$, followed by an up to 8 character salt. DES hashes start with a 2 character salt. Note that a DES hash considers only the first 8 characters. The MD5 considers the whole string.

Salt and algorithm can be forced by instantiating the start of Encrypted with it. This is typically used to force MD5 hashes: 

?- append("$1$", _, E),
   crypt("My password", E),
   format('~s~n', [E]).

$1$qdaDeDZn$ZUxSQEESEHIDCHPNc3fxZ1

Encrypted is always an ASCII string. Plain only supports ISO-Latin-1 passwords in the current implementation.

Plain is either an atom, SWI-Prolog string, list of characters or list of character-codes. It is not advised to use atoms, as this implies the password will be available from the Prolog heap as a defined atom.

11 library(uuid): Universally Unique Identifier (UUID) Library

See also
http://www.ossp.org/pkg/lib/uuid/
To be done
Compare UUIDs, extract time and version from UUIDs

The library provides operations on UUIDs. Please consult other sources for understanding UUIDs and the implications of the different UUID versions. Some typical calls are given below: 

?- uuid(X).
X = 'ea6589fa-19dd-11e2-8a49-001d92e1879d'.

?- uuid(X, [url('http://www.swi-prolog.org')]).
X = '73a07870-6a90-3f2e-ae2b-ffa538dc7c2c'.
[det]uuid(-UUID)
UUID is an atom representing a new UUID. This is the same as calling uuid(UUID, []). See uuid/2 for options.
[det]uuid(-UUID, +Options)
Create a new UUID according to Options. The following options are defined:
version(+Versions)
Integer in the range 1..5, which specifies the UUID version that is created. Default is 1.
dns(DNS)
url(URL)
oid(OID)
x500(X500)
Provide additional context information for UUIDs using version 3 or 5. If there is no explicit version option, UUID version 3 is used.
format(+Format)
Representation of the UUID. Default is atom, yielding atoms such as 8304efdd-bd6e-5b7c-a27f-83f3f05c64e0. The alternative is integer, returning a large integer that represents the 128 bits of the UUID.

12 SHA1 and SHA2 Secure Hash Algorithms

The library library(sha) provides Secure Hash Algorihms approved by FIPS (Federal Information Processing Standard). Quoting Wikipedia: ``The SHA (Secure Hash Algorithm) hash functions refer to five FIPS-approved algorithms for computing a condensed digital representation (known as a message digest) that is, to a high degree of probability, unique for a given input data sequence (the message). These algorithms are called `secure' because (in the words of the standard), ``for a given algorithm, it is computationally infeasible 1) to find a message that corresponds to a given message digest, or 2) to find two different messages that produce the same message digest. Any change to a message will, with a very high probability, result in a different message digest.''

The current library supports all 5 approved algorithms, both computing the hash-key from data and the hash Message Authentication Code (HMAC).

Input is text, represented as an atom, packed string object or code-list. Note that these functions operate on byte-sequences and therefore are not meaningful on Unicode text. The result is returned as a list of byte-values. This is the most general format that is comfortable supported by standard Prolog and can easily be transformed in other formats. Commonly used text formats are ASCII created by encoding each byte as two hexadecimal digits and ASCII created using base64 encoding. Representation as a large integer can be desirable for computational processing.

sha_hash(+Data, -Hash, +Options)
Hash is the SHA hash of Data. Data is either an atom, packed string or list of character codes. Hash is unified with a list of bytes (integers in the range 0..255) representing the hash. See hash_atom/2 to convert this into the more commonly seen hexadecimal representation. The conversion is controlled by Options:
algorithm(+Algorithm)
One of sha1 (default), sha224, sha256, sha384 or sha512
encoding(+Encoding)
This option defines the mapping from Prolog (Unicode) text to bytes on which the SHA algorithm is performed. It has two values. The defualt is utf8, which implies that Unicode text is encoded as UTF-8 bytes. This option can deal with any atom. The alternative is octet, which implies that the text is considered as a sequence of bytes. This is suitable for e.g., atoms that represent binary data. An error is raised if the text contains code-points outside the range 0..255.
hmac_sha(+Key, +Data, -HMAC, +Options)
Quoting Wikipedia: ``A keyed-hash message authentication code, or HMAC, is a type of message authentication code (MAC) calculated using a cryptographic hash function in combination with a secret key. As with any MAC, it may be used to simultaneously verify both the data integrity and the authenticity of a message. Any iterative cryptographic hash function, such as MD5 or SHA-1, may be used in the calculation of an HMAC; the resulting MAC algorithm is termed HMAC-MD5 or HMAC-SHA-1 accordingly. The cryptographic strength of the HMAC depends upon the cryptographic strength of the underlying hash function, on the size and quality of the key and the size of the hash output length in bits.''

Key and Data are either an atom, packed string or list of character codes. HMAC is unified with a list of integers representing the authentication code. Options is the same as for sha_hash/3, but currently only sha1 and sha256 are supported.

hash_atom(+Hash, -HexAtom)
True when HexAtom is the commonly used hexadecimal encoding of the hash code. E.g., 
?- sha_hash('SWI-Prolog', Hash, []),
   hash_atom(Hash, Hex).
Hash = [61, 128, 252, 38, 121, 69, 229, 85, 199|...],
Hex = '3d80fc267945e555c730403bd0ab0716e2a68c68'.

12.1 License terms

The underlying SHA-2 library is an unmodified copy created by Dr Brian Gladman, Worcester, UK. It is distributed under the license conditions below.

The free distribution and use of this software in both source and binary form is allowed (with or without changes) provided that:

  1. distributions of this source code include the above copyright notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer;

  2. distributions in binary form include the above copyright notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer in the documentation and/or other associated materials;

  3. the copyright holder's name is not used to endorse products built using this software without specific written permission.

ALTERNATIVELY, provided that this notice is retained in full, this product may be distributed under the terms of the GNU General Public License (GPL), in which case the provisions of the GPL apply INSTEAD OF those given above.

13 Memory files

The library(memfile) provides an alternative to temporary files, intended for temporary buffering of data. Memory files in general are faster than temporary files and do not suffer from security riscs or naming conflicts associated with temporary-file management. They do assume proper memory management by the hosting OS and cannot be used to pass data to external processes using a file-name.

There is no limit to the number of memory streams, nor the size of them. However, memory-streams cannot have multiple streams at the same time (i.e. cannot be opened for reading and writing at the same time).

These predicates are first of all intended for building higher-level primitives. See also sformat/3, atom_to_term/3, term_to_atom/2 and the XPCE primitive pce_open/3.

new_memory_file(-Handle)
Create a new memory file and return a unique opaque handle to it.
free_memory_file(+Handle)
Discard the memory file and its contents. If the file is open it is first closed.
open_memory_file(+Handle, +Mode, -Stream)
Open the memory-file. Mode is currently one of read or write. The resulting Stream must be closed using close/1.
open_memory_file(+Handle, +Mode, -Stream, +Options)
Open a memory-file as open_memory_file/3. Options:
encoding(+Encoding)
Set the encoding for a memory file and the created stream. Encoding names are the same as used with open/4. By default, memoryfiles represent UTF-8 streams, making them capable of storing arbitrary Unicode text. In practice the only alternative is octet, turning the memoryfile into binary mode. Please study SWI-Prolog Unicode and encoding issues before using this option.
free_on_close(+Bool)
If true (default false and the memory file is opened for reading, discard the file (see free_memory_file/1) if the input is closed. This is used to realise open_chars_stream/2 in library(charsio).
size_memory_file(+Handle, -Size)
Return the content-length of the memory-file it characters in the current encoding of the memory file. The file should be closed and contain data.
size_memory_file(+Handle, -Size, +Encoding)
Return the content-length of the memory-file it characters in the given Encoding. The file should be closed and contain data.
atom_to_memory_file(+Atom, -Handle)
Turn an atom into a read-only memory-file containing the (shared) characters of the atom. Opening this memory-file in mode write yields a permission error.
memory_file_to_atom(+Handle, -Atom)
Return the content of the memory-file in Atom.
memory_file_to_atom(+Handle, -Atom, +Encoding)
Return the content of the memory-file in Atom, pretending the data is in the given Encoding. This can be used to convert from one encoding into another, typically from/to bytes. For example, if we must convert a set of bytes that contain text in UTF-8, open the memory file as octet stream, fill it, and get the result using Encoding is utf8.
memory_file_to_codes(+Handle, -Codes)
Return the content of the memory-file as a list of character-codes in Codes.
memory_file_to_codes(+Handle, -Codes, +Encoding)
Return the content of the memory-file as a list of character-codes in Codes, pretending the data is in the given Encoding.

14 Time and alarm library

The library(time) provides timing and alarm functions.

alarm(+Time, :Callable, -Id, +Options)
Schedule Callable to be called Time seconds from now. Time is a number (integer or float). Callable is called on the next pass through a call- or redo-port of the Prolog engine, or a call to the PL_handle_signals() routine from SWI-Prolog. Id is unified with a reference to the timer.

The resolution of the alarm depends on the underlying implementation, which is based on pthread_cond_timedwait() (on Windows on the pthread emulation thereof). Long-running foreign predicates that do not call PL_handle_signals() may further delay the alarm. The relation to blocking system calls (sleep, reading from slow devices, etc.) is undefined and varies between implementations.

Options is a list of Name(Value) terms. Defined options are:

remove(Bool)
If true (default false), the timer is removed automatically after fireing. Otherwise it must be destroyed explicitly using remove_alarm/1.
install(Bool)
If false (default true), the timer is allocated but not scheduled for execution. It must be started later using install_alarm/1.
alarm(+Time, :Callable, -Id)
Same as alarm(Time, Callable, Id,[]).
alarm_at(+Time, :Callable, -Id, +Options)
as alarm/3, but Time is the specification of an absolute point in time. Absolute times are specified in seconds after the Jan 1, 1970 epoch. See also date_time_stamp/2.
install_alarm(+Id)
Activate an alarm allocated using alarm/4 with the option install(false) or stopped using uninstall_alarm/1.
install_alarm(+Id, +Time)
As install_alarm/1, but specifies a new timeout value.
uninstall_alarm(+Id)
Deactivate a running alarm, but do not invalidate the alarm identifier. Later, the alarm can be reactivated using either install_alarm/1 or install_alarm/2. Reinstalled using install_alarm/1, it will fire at the originally scheduled time. Reinstalled using install_alarm/2 causes the alarm to fire at the specified time from now.
remove_alarm(+Id)
Remove an alarm. If it is not yet fired, it will not be fired any more.
current_alarm(?At, ?:Callable, ?Id, ?Status)
Enumerate the not-yet-removed alarms. Status is one of done if the alarm has been called, next if it is the next to be fired and scheduled otherwise.
call_with_time_limit(+Time, :Goal)
True if Goal completes within Time seconds. Goal is executed as in once/1. If Goal doesn't complete within Time seconds (wall time), exit using the exception time_limit_exceeded. See catch/3.

Please note that this predicate uses alarm/4 and therefore its effect on long-running foreign code and system calls is undefined. Blocking I/O can be handled using the timeout option of read_term/3.

15 library(unix): Unix specific operations

See also
library(process) provides a portable high level interface to create and manage processes.

The library(unix) library provides the commonly used Unix primitives to deal with process management. These primitives are useful for many tasks, including server management, parallel computation, exploiting and controlling other processes, etc.

The predicates in this library are modelled closely after their native Unix counterparts.

[det]fork(-Pid)
Clone the current process into two branches. In the child, Pid is unified to child. In the original process, Pid is unified to the process identifier of the created child. Both parent and child are fully functional Prolog processes running the same program. The processes share open I/O streams that refer to Unix native streams, such as files, sockets and pipes. Data is not shared, though on most Unix systems data is initially shared and duplicated only if one of the programs attempts to modify the data.

Unix fork() is the only way to create new processes and fork/1 is a simple direct interface to it.

Errors
permission_error(fork, process, main) is raised if the calling thread is not the only thread in the process. Forking a Prolog process with threads will typically deadlock because only the calling thread is cloned in the fork, while all thread synchronization are cloned.
[det]fork_exec(+Command)
Fork (as fork/1) and exec (using exec/1) the child immediately. This behaves as the code below, but bypasses the check for the existence of other threads because this is a safe scenario. 
fork_exec(Command) :-
      (   fork(child)
      ->  exec(Command)
      ;   true
      ).
exec(+Command)
Replace the running program by starting Command. Command is a callable term. The functor is the command and the arguments provide the command-line arguments for the command. Each command-line argument must be atomic and is converted to a string before passed to the Unix call execvp(). Here are some examples:
exec(ls('-l'))
exec('/bin/ls'('-l','/home/jan'))

Unix exec() is the only way to start an executable file executing. It is commonly used together with fork/1. For example to start netscape on an URL in the background, do: 

run_netscape(URL) :-
        (    fork(child),
             exec(netscape(URL))
        ;    true
        ).

Using this code, netscape remains part of the process-group of the invoking Prolog process and Prolog does not wait for netscape to terminate. The predicate wait/2 allows waiting for a child, while detach_IO/0 disconnects the child as a deamon process.

[det]wait(-Pid, -Status)
Wait for a child to change status. Then report the child that changed status as well as the reason. Status is unified with exited(ExitCode) if the child with pid Pid was terminated by calling exit() (Prolog halt/1). ExitCode is the return status. Status is unified with signaled(Signal) if the child died due to a software interrupt (see kill/2). Signal contains the signal number. Finally, if the process suspended execution due to a signal, Status is unified with stopped(Signal).
[det]kill(+Pid, +Signal)
Deliver a software interrupt to the process with identifier Pid using software-interrupt number Signal. See also on_signal/2. Signals can be specified as an integer or signal name, where signal names are derived from the C constant by dropping the SIG prefix and mapping to lowercase. E.g. int is the same as SIGINT in C. The meaning of the signal numbers can be found in the Unix manual.
[det]pipe(-InSream, -OutStream)
Create a communication-pipe. This is normally used to make a child communicate to its parent. After pipe/2, the process is cloned and, depending on the desired direction, both processes close the end of the pipe they do not use. Then they use the remaining stream to communicate. Here is a simple example: 
:- use_module(library(unix)).

fork_demo(Result) :-
        pipe(Read, Write),
        fork(Pid),
        (   Pid == child
        ->  close(Read),
            format(Write, '~q.~n',
                   [hello(world)]),
            flush_output(Write),
            halt
        ;   close(Write),
            read(Read, Result),
            close(Read)
        ).
[det]dup(+FromStream, +ToStream)
Interface to Unix dup2(), copying the underlying filedescriptor and thus making both streams point to the same underlying object. This is normally used together with fork/1 and pipe/2 to talk to an external program that is designed to communicate using standard I/O.

Both FromStream and ToStream either refer to a Prolog stream or an integer descriptor number to refer directly to OS descriptors. See also demo/pipe.pl in the source-distribution of this package.

[det]detach_IO(+Stream)
This predicate is intended to create Unix deamon processes. It performs two actions.

  1. The I/O streams user_input, user_output and user_error are closed if they are connected to a terminal (see tty property in stream_property/2). Input streams are rebound to a dummy stream that returns EOF. Output streams are reboud to forward their output to Stream.
  2. The process is detached from the current process-group and its controlling terminal. This is achieved using setsid() if provided or using ioctl() TIOCNOTTY on /dev/tty.

To ignore all output, it may be rebound to a null stream. For example: 

      ...,
      open_null_stream(Out),
      detach_IO(Out).

The detach_IO/1 should be called only once per process. Subsequent calls silently succeed without any side effects.

See also
detach_IO/0.
[det]detach_IO
Detach I/O similar to detach_IO/1. The output streams are bound to a file /tmp/pl-out.<pid>. Output is line buffered (see set_stream/2).
Compatibility
Older versions of this predicate only created this file if there was output.
To be done
If should be possible to use the syslog facilities for writing messages.

16 Limiting process resources

The library(rlimit) library provides an interface to the POSIX getrlimit()/setrlimit() API that control the maximum resource-usage of a process or group of processes. This call is especially useful for servers such as CGI scripts and inetd-controlled servers to avoid an uncontrolled script claiming too much resources.

rlimit(+Resource, -Old, +New)
Query and/or set the limit for Resource. Time-values are in seconds and size-values are counted in bytes. The following values are supported by this library. Please note that not all resources may be available and accessible on all platforms. This predicate can throw a variety of exceptions. In portable code this should be guarded with catch/3. The defined resources are:
cpu CPU time in seconds
fsize Maximum filesize
data max data size
stack max stack size
core max core file size
rss max resident set size
nproc max number of processes
nofile max number of open files
memlock max locked-in-memory address

When the process hits a limit POSIX systems normally send the process a signal that terminates it. These signals may be catched using SWI-Prolog's on_signal/3 primitive. The code below illustrates this behaviour. Please note that asynchronous signal handling is dangerous, especially when using threads. 100% fail-safe operation cannot be guaranteed, but this procedure will inform the user properly `most of the time'. 

rlimit_demo :-
        rlimit(cpu, _, 2),
        on_signal(xcpu, _, cpu_exceeded),
        ( repeat, fail ).

cpu_exceeded(_Sig) :-
        format(user_error, 'CPU time exceeded~n', []),
        halt(1).

17 library(udp_broadcast): A UDP Broadcast Bridge

author
Jeffrey Rosenwald (JeffRose@acm.org)
See also
tipc.pl
license
LGPL

SWI-Prolog's broadcast library provides a means that may be used to facilitate publish and subscribe communication regimes between anonymous members of a community of interest. The members of the community are however, necessarily limited to a single instance of Prolog. The UDP broadcast library removes that restriction. With this library loaded, any member on your local IP subnetwork that also has this library loaded may hear and respond to your broadcasts.

This module has only two public predicates. When the module is initialized, it starts a two listener threads that listen for broadcasts from others, received as UDP datagrams.

Unlike TIPC broadcast, UDP broadcast has only one scope, udp_subnet. A broadcast/1 or broadcast_request/1 that is not directed to the listener above, behaves as usual and is confined to the instance of Prolog that originated it. But when so directed, the broadcast will be sent to all participating systems, including itself, by way of UDP's multicast addressing facility. A UDP broadcast or broadcast request takes the typical form: broadcast(udp_subnet(+Term, +Timeout)). To prevent the potential for feedback loops, the scope qualifier is stripped from the message before transmission. The timeout is optional. It specifies the amount to time to wait for replies to arrive in response to a broadcast_request. The default period is 0.250 seconds. The timeout is ignored for broadcasts.

An example of three separate processes cooperating on the same Node: 

Process A:

   ?- listen(number(X), between(1, 5, X)).
   true.

   ?-

Process B:

   ?- listen(number(X), between(7, 9, X)).
   true.

   ?-

Process C:

   ?- findall(X, broadcast_request(udp_subnet(number(X))), Xs).
   Xs = [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 7, 8, 9].

   ?-

It is also possible to carry on a private dialog with a single responder. To do this, you supply a compound of the form, Term:PortId, to a UDP scoped broadcast/1 or broadcast_request/1, where PortId is the ip-address and port-id of the intended listener. If you supply an unbound variable, PortId, to broadcast_request, it will be unified with the address of the listener that responds to Term. You may send a directed broadcast to a specific member by simply providing this address in a similarly structured compound to a UDP scoped broadcast/1. The message is sent via unicast to that member only by way of the member's broadcast listener. It is received by the listener just as any other broadcast would be. The listener does not know the difference.

For example, in order to discover who responded with a particular value: 

Host B Process 1:

   ?- listen(number(X), between(1, 5, X)).
   true.

   ?-

Host A Process 1:


   ?- listen(number(X), between(7, 9, X)).
   true.

   ?-

Host A Process 2:

   ?- listen(number(X), between(1, 5, X)).
   true.

   ?- bagof(X, broadcast_request(udp_subnet(number(X):From,1)), Xs).
   From = ip(192, 168, 1, 103):34855,
   Xs = [7, 8, 9] ;
   From = ip(192, 168, 1, 103):56331,
   Xs = [1, 2, 3, 4, 5] ;
   From = ip(192, 168, 1, 104):3217,
   Xs = [1, 2, 3, 4, 5].

17.1 Caveats:

While the implementation is mostly transparent, there are some important and subtle differences that must be taken into consideration:

[nondet]udp_broadcast_service(?Domain, ?Address)
provides the UDP broadcast address for a given Domain. At present, only one domain is supported, udp_subnet.
[nondet]udp_host_to_address(?Service, ?Address)
locates a UDP service by name. Service is an atom or grounded term representing the common name of the service. Address is a UDP address structure. A server may advertise its services by name by including the fact, udp:host_to_address(+Service, +Address), somewhere in its source. This predicate can also be used to perform reverse searches. That is it will also resolve an Address to a Service name.
[semidet]udp_broadcast_initialize(+IPAddress, +SubnetMask)
causes any required runtime initialization to occur. At present, proper operation of UDP broadcast depends on local information that is not easily obtained mechanically. In order to determine the appropriate UDP broadcast address, you must supply the IPAddress and SubnetMask for the node that is running this module. These data are supplied in the form of ip/4 terms. This is now required to be included in an applications intialization directive.

NetBSD Crypt license

 * Copyright (c) 1989, 1993
 *      The Regents of the University of California.  All rights reserved.
 *
 * This code is derived from software contributed to Berkeley by
 * Tom Truscott.
 *
 * Redistribution and use in source and binary forms, with or without
 * modification, are permitted provided that the following conditions
 * are met:
 * 1. Redistributions of source code must retain the above copyright
 *    notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer.
 * 2. Redistributions in binary form must reproduce the above copyright
 *    notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer in the
 *    documentation and/or other materials provided with the distribution.
 * 3. Neither the name of the University nor the names of its contributors
 *    may be used to endorse or promote products derived from this software
 *    without specific prior written permission.
 *
 * THIS SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED BY THE REGENTS AND CONTRIBUTORS ``AS IS'' AND
 * ANY EXPRESS OR IMPLIED WARRANTIES, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, THE
 * IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE
 * ARE DISCLAIMED.  IN NO EVENT SHALL THE REGENTS OR CONTRIBUTORS BE LIABLE
 * FOR ANY DIRECT, INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, EXEMPLARY, OR CONSEQUENTIAL
 * DAMAGES (INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, PROCUREMENT OF SUBSTITUTE GOODS
 * OR SERVICES; LOSS OF USE, DATA, OR PROFITS; OR BUSINESS INTERRUPTION)
 * HOWEVER CAUSED AND ON ANY THEORY OF LIABILITY, WHETHER IN CONTRACT, STRICT
 * LIABILITY, OR TORT (INCLUDING NEGLIGENCE OR OTHERWISE) ARISING IN ANY WAY
 * OUT OF THE USE OF THIS SOFTWARE, EVEN IF ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF
 * SUCH DAMAGE.

Index

?
add_stream_to_pool/2
6.3
alarm/3
14
alarm/4
14 14
alarm_at/4
at_end_of_stream/1
6 6
atom_to_memory_file/2
atom_to_term/3
13
call_with_time_limit/2
catch/3
14 16
cgi_get_form/1
8.1
close/1
6 6.1 13
close_stream_pool/0
6.3
closelog/0
copy_directory/2
copy_file/2
crypt/2
10
current_alarm/4
date_time_stamp/2
14
delete_directory_and_contents/1
delete_directory_contents/1
delete_stream_from_pool/1
directory_file_path/3
dispatch_stream_pool/1
6.3
dup/2
exec/1
fork/1
6 6.1 6.1
fork_exec/1
format/2
8.1
free_memory_file/1
13
getegid/1
geteuid/1
getgid/1
gethostname/1
getuid/1
group_data/3
group_info/2
hash_atom/2
12
hmac_sha/4
install_alarm/1
14 14 14 14
install_alarm/2
14 14
ip/4
6.4 6.4
iri_normalized/2
iri_normalized/3
is_process/1
kill/2
link_file/3
make_directory_path/1
memory_file_to_atom/2
memory_file_to_atom/3
memory_file_to_codes/2
memory_file_to_codes/3
mime_default_charset/2
mime_parse/2
new_memory_file/1
on_signal/3
16
once/1
14
open/4
13
open_chars_stream/2
13
open_memory_file/3
13
open_memory_file/4
open_socket/3
6
openlog/3
pce_open/3
13
pipe/2
process_create/3
process_id/1
process_id/2
process_kill/1
process_kill/2
process_release/1
process_wait/2
process_wait/3
prolog:debug_print_hook/3
read/1
6
read_term/3
14
relative_file_name/3
remove_alarm/1
14
rlimit/3
set_time_file/3
set_user_and_group/1
set_user_and_group/2
setegid/1
seteuid/1
setgid/1
setuid/1
setup_call_cleanup/3
6.1
sformat/3
13
sha_hash/3
12
size_memory_file/2
size_memory_file/3
socket
6
stream_pair/3
6
stream_pool_main_loop/0
string_to_list/2
6.4
syslog/2
syslog/3
tcp_accept/3
6 6 6 6 6 6
tcp_bind/2
6 6
tcp_close_socket/1
6 6 6
tcp_connect/2
6
tcp_connect/3
6 6
tcp_connect/4
6 6
tcp_fcntl/3
6.2
tcp_host_to_address/2
tcp_listen/2
6
tcp_open_socket/2
6 6
tcp_open_socket/3
6
tcp_setopt/2
6
tcp_socket/1
6.4
term_to_atom/2
13
udp_broadcast_initialize/2
udp_broadcast_service/2
udp_host_to_address/2
udp_receive/4
udp_send/4
6
udp_socket/1
uninstall_alarm/1
14
uri_authority_components/2
uri_authority_data/3
uri_components/2
uri_data/3
uri_data/4
uri_encoded/3
uri_file_name/2
uri_iri/2
uri_is_global/1
uri_normalized/2
uri_normalized/3
uri_normalized_iri/2
uri_normalized_iri/3
uri_query_components/2
uri_resolve/3
user_data/3
user_info/2
uuid/1
uuid/2
wait/2
wait_for_input/3
6 6.1 6.2 6.3 6.3 6.4
detach_IO/0
detach_IO/1
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