uloop: add support for interval timers

So far, the only way to implement periodic interval timers was to use
one-shot uloop_timeout timers which are rearmed within their completion
callback immediately on expiration.

While simple, this approach is not very precise and interval lengths will
slowly drift over time, due to callback execution overhead, scheduling
granularity etc.

In order to make uloop provide stable and precise interval timer
capabilities, this commit introduces a new `uloop_interval` structure
along with the new related `uloop_interval_set()`, `uloop_interval_cancel()`
and `uloop_interval_remaining()` api functions.

Periodic timers are implemented using the timerfd facility an Linux and
kqueue EVFILT_TIMER events on macOS/BSD.

The Lua binding has been updated to include support for the new timer type
as well.

Signed-off-by: Jo-Philipp Wich <jo@mein.io>

1 files changed, 16 insertions, 0 deletions

diff --git a/uloop.c b/uloop.c
index 8fc5aee..a3d3712 100644
--- a/uloop.c
+++ b/uloop.c
@@ -36,6 +36,7 @@
 #endif
 #ifdef USE_EPOLL
 #include <sys/epoll.h>
+#include <sys/timerfd.h>
 #endif
 #include <sys/wait.h>
 
@@ -422,6 +423,21 @@ static void uloop_handle_processes(void)
 
 }
 
+int uloop_interval_set(struct uloop_interval *timer, unsigned int msecs)
+{
+	return timer_register(timer, msecs);
+}
+
+int uloop_interval_cancel(struct uloop_interval *timer)
+{
+	return timer_remove(timer);
+}
+
+int64_t uloop_interval_remaining(struct uloop_interval *timer)
+{
+	return timer_next(timer);
+}
+
 static void uloop_signal_wake(void)
 {
 	do {