Add post: Lifetime Event Loop (#869)

Co-authored-by: Julien Portalier <[email protected]>
Co-authored-by: Beta Ziliani <[email protected]>

_data/authors.yaml

@@ -55,3 +55,5 @@ alex-kampa:
   name: Aleksander Kampa
 carlhoerberg:
   name: Carl Hörberg
+ysbaddaden:
+  name: Julien Portalier

_posts/2024-11-05-lifetime-event-loop.md

@@ -0,0 +1,105 @@
+---
+title: "A new Event Loop for UNIX operating systems"
+author: straight-shoota,ysbaddaden
+summary: >
+  We're changing how the event loop operates. This improves performance,
+  removes `libevent` as a runtime dependency, and paves the way to
+  multi-threading.
+categories: technical
+tags: [feature, eventloop, concurrency, 84codes]
+---
+
+A core component of Crystal's concurrency model is the **event loop**. It
+integrates asynchronous operations into the runtime, enabling other fibers to
+run while one fiber waits to read data on a socket, for example.
+
+We're changing how the event loop operates under the hood on Unix systems in [#14996].
+
+The new implementation integrates the Crystal event loop directly with system
+selectors, [`epoll`](https://linux.die.net/man/7/epoll) (Linux, Android) and
+[`kqueue`](https://man.freebsd.org/cgi/man.cgi?kqueue) (BSDs, macOS) instead of
+going through [`libevent`](https://libevent.org/).
+
+We're removing an external dependency and take control over a core runtime
+feature. It also changes how file descriptors are treated: instead of being
+added and removed on every blocking IO operation, the file descriptors are now
+added once and kept for their full lifetime, which is how epoll and kqueue have
+been designed. This reduces overhead and improves performance.
+
+This post highlights the relevant information for users.
+
+More technical details are available in [RFC #0009].
+
+## Effects
+
+The new implementation has been merged into `master` and is available in
+[nightly builds](/install/nightlies).
+
+No changes in user code are required, everything plugs right in.
+
+The new implementation is supported on Linux, macOS, FreeBSD and Android and
+automatically enabled on these systems. Read [more about
+availability][availability] in the RFC.
+
+For the time being other UNIX operating systems still use the `libevent` event
+loop by default (regressions, issues or untested). You can still force enable it
+using `-Devloop=kqueue` (BSDs) or `-Devloop=epoll` (e.g. Solaris).
+
+Windows is unaffected and keeps using `IOCP`.
+
+Dropping `libevent` removes an external runtime dependency from Crystal
+programs.
+
+## Caveats
+
+In some cases the new implementation may cause issues. You can switch
+back to the old event loop implementation with the compile-time flag
+`-Devloop=libevent`.
+
+We are aware of some potential regressions but believe they are quite rare and
+should not hinder general availability of this new feature. Exposure through
+nightly builds should help us gather more usage data to assess whether there are
+any more noteworthy implications we have not been aware of.
+
+### Multi-Threading
+
+The new implementation works well with the multi-threading preview
+(`-Dpreview_mt`), having one event loop instance per thread.
+
+
+There is one caveat though: file descriptors can only be owned by a single
+event loop instance _at a time_. A file descriptor _can be moved_ from one
+fiber to another, possibly moving from one event loop instance to another
+along the way (transparently), but this is only possible if there are no
+pending operations on that file descriptor.
+
+For example: Let's assume fiber `A` running on thread `X` waits on file
+descriptor `4`. While this operation is still pending, fiber `B` running on
+thread `Y` tries to start another operation on file descriptor `4`. This is now
+going to raise.
+
+This limitation will be mitigated with the arrival of execution contexts from
+[RFC #0002] which share one event loop instance between all threads in a
+context.
+
+### Timers and Timeouts
+
+At this point, there's a missing optimization for timers (`sleep 1.second`) and
+timeouts (`socket.read_timeout = 1.second`). In case you're using lots of them,
+it might lead to performance degradation.
+
+This is only a temporary limitation until we finish the implementation of an
+efficient data structure. We're already working on that.
+
+> **THANKS:**
+>
+> This feature is part of [the ongoing effort to improve multi threading in
+> Crystal](/2024/02/09/84codes-manas-mt/) sponsored by
+> [84codes](https://www.84codes.com/).
+>
+> Thanks for supporting the language and letting it shine!
+
+[#14996]: https://github.com/crystal-lang/crystal/pull/14996
+[availability]: https://github.com/crystal-lang/rfcs/blob/main/text/0009-lifetime-event_loop.md#availability
+[RFC #0002]: https://github.com/crystal-lang/rfcs/pull/2
+[RFC #0009]: https://github.com/crystal-lang/rfcs/blob/main/text/0009-lifetime-event_loop.md