CAF User Manual

C++ Actor Framework version 1.0.1.

Contents

Introduction

• Concepts
  • Actor Model
  • Terminology
  • Experimental Features
• Overview
  • Features
  • Supported Operating Systems
  • Hello World Example

Core Library

• Message Passing
  • Copy on Write
  • Sending Messages: The Mail API
  • Requirements for Message Types
  • Matching Messages
  • Requests
  • Delegating Messages
  • Response Promises
  • Special Message Types
  • Idle Timeouts
• Type Inspection
  • Data Model
  • Inspecting Objects
  • Splitting Save and Load
  • Specializing on the Data Format
  • Unsafe Message Types
• Hashing
• Message Handlers
  • Definition and Composition
  • Atoms
• Actors
  • Environment / Actor Systems
  • Common Actor Types
  • Messaging Interfaces
  • Spawning Actors
  • Function-based Actors
  • State-based Actors
  • Attaching Cleanup Code to Actors
  • Blocking Actors
• 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
  • Default 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
• Copy-on-Write Types
• Typed Message View
• Data Flows
  • Introduction
  • Concurrent Processing
  • Building and Transforming Observables
  • Operators
  • Bridging between Flows and Other Input Sources
  • Notes on Performance
  • Key Differences to ReactiveX
• Metrics
  • Metric Names and Labels
  • Metric Types
  • Metric Units and Flags
  • Timers
  • 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

Networking Library

• Overview
  • Initializing the Module
  • Declarative High-level DSL ^experimental
  • Protocol Layering
• SSL
  • Context
• Actor Shell
• HTTP ^experimental
  • Servers
  • Responders
• Length-prefix Framing ^experimental
  • Servers
  • Clients
• Prometheus
• WebSocket ^experimental
  • Servers
  • Clients
  • Frames

Test Library

• Unit Testing
  • Concepts
  • Checks
  • Approximate Comparisons
  • Requirements
  • Tests
  • Sections
  • Scenarios
  • Scenario Outlines
  • Suites
  • Fixtures
  • Test Binaries
  • Command Line Interface
  • Migrating from the Legacy Test Framework

Appendix

• Frequently Asked Questions
  • Can I Encrypt CAF Communication?
  • Can I Create Messages Dynamically?
  • What Debugging Tools Exist?
• Common Pitfalls
  • Defining Message Handlers
  • Event-Based API
  • Requests
  • Sharing