CAF User Manual

C++ Actor Framework version 0.18.0-dev+exp.sha.27645cc.

Contents

Core Library

• Introduction
  • Actor Model
  • Terminology
  • Experimental Features
• Overview
  • Features
  • Minimal Compiler Versions
  • Supported Operating Systems
  • Hello World Example
• Type Inspection (Serialization and String Conversion)
  • Inspector Concept
  • Annotations
  • Backwards and Third-party Compatibility
  • Whitelisting Unsafe Message Types
  • Splitting Save and Load Operations
• Message Handlers
  • Definition and Composition
  • Atoms
• Actors
  • Environment / Actor Systems
  • Common Actor Base Types
  • Messaging Interfaces
  • Spawning Actors
  • Function-based Actors
  • Class-based Actors
  • Stateful Actors
  • Attaching Cleanup Code to Actors
  • Blocking Actors
• Message Passing
  • Structure of Mailbox Elements
  • Copy on Write
  • Requirements for Message Types
  • Default and System Message Handlers
  • Requests
  • Delaying Messages
  • Delegating Messages
  • Response Promises
  • Message Priorities
• Scheduler
  • Policies
  • Work Stealing
  • Work Sharing
• Registry
• Reference Counting
  • Shared Ownership in C++
  • Smart Pointers to Actors
  • Strong and Weak References
  • Converting Actor References with actor_cast
  • Breaking Cycles Manually
• Errors
  • Class Interface
  • Add Custom Error Categories
  • System Error Codes
  • Default Exit Reasons
• Configuring Actor Applications
  • Loading Modules
  • Program Options
  • Configuration Files
  • Adding Custom Message Types
  • Adding Custom Error Types
  • Adding Custom Actor Types ^experimental
  • Log Output
• Type-Erased Tuples, Messages and Message Views
  • RTTI and Type Numbers
  • Class type_erased_tuple
  • Class message
  • Class message_builder
  • Extracting
  • Extracting Command Line Options
• Group Communication
  • Anonymous Groups
  • Local Groups
  • Remote Groups
• Managing Groups of Workers ^experimental
  • Dispatching Policies
• Streaming ^experimental
  • Stream Managers
  • Defining Sources
  • Defining Stages
  • Defining Sinks
  • Initiating Streams
• Testing
  • Testing Actors
  • Deterministic Testing
• Metrics
  • Metric Names and Labels
  • Metric Types
  • Metric Units and Flags
  • The Metric Registry
  • Accessing Metrics
  • Configuration Parameters
  • Performance Considerations
  • Builtin Metrics
  • Exporting Metrics to Prometheus

I/O Library

• Middleman
  • Class middleman
  • Publishing and Connecting
  • Free Functions
  • Transport Protocols ^experimental
• Network I/O with Brokers
  • Spawning Brokers
  • Class broker
  • Broker-related Message Types
  • Manually Triggering Events ^experimental
• Remote Spawning of Actors ^experimental

Appendix

• Frequently Asked Questions
  • Can I Encrypt CAF Communication?
  • Can I Create Messages Dynamically?
  • What Debugging Tools Exist?
• Utility
  • Class optional
  • Class expected
  • Constant unit
  • Constant none
• Common Pitfalls
  • Defining Message Handlers
  • Event-Based API
  • Requests
  • Sharing
• Using aout – A Concurrency-safe Wrapper for cout