securityos/node_modules/seq/README.markdown

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Seq
===
Seq is an asynchronous flow control library with a chainable interface for
sequential and parallel actions. Even the error handling is chainable.
Each action in the chain operates on a stack of values.
There is also a variables hash for storing values by name.
[TOC]
Examples
========
stat_all.js
-----------
````javascript
var fs = require('fs');
var Hash = require('hashish');
var Seq = require('seq');
Seq()
.seq(function () {
fs.readdir(__dirname, this);
})
.flatten()
.parEach(function (file) {
fs.stat(__dirname + '/' + file, this.into(file));
})
.seq(function () {
var sizes = Hash.map(this.vars, function (s) { return s.size })
console.dir(sizes);
})
;
````
Output:
{ 'stat_all.js': 404, 'parseq.js': 464 }
parseq.js
---------
````javascript
var fs = require('fs');
var exec = require('child_process').exec;
var Seq = require('seq');
Seq()
.seq(function () {
exec('whoami', this)
})
.par(function (who) {
exec('groups ' + who, this);
})
.par(function (who) {
fs.readFile(__filename, 'ascii', this);
})
.seq(function (groups, src) {
console.log('Groups: ' + groups.trim());
console.log('This file has ' + src.length + ' bytes');
})
;
````
Output:
Groups: substack : substack dialout cdrom floppy audio src video plugdev games netdev fuse www
This file has 464 bytes
API
===
Each method executes callbacks with a context (its `this`) described in the next
section. Every method returns `this`.
Whenever `this()` is called with a non-falsy first argument, the error value
propagates down to the first `catch` it sees, skipping over all actions in
between. There is an implicit `catch` at the end of all chains that prints the
error stack if available and otherwise just prints the error.
Seq(xs=[])
----------
The constructor function creates a new `Seq` chain with the methods described
below. The optional array argument becomes the new context stack.
Array argument is new in 0.3. `Seq()` now behaves like `Seq.ap()`.
.seq(cb)
--------
.seq(key, cb, *args)
--------------------
This eponymous function executes actions sequentially.
Once all running parallel actions are finished executing,
the supplied callback is `apply()`'d with the context stack.
To execute the next action in the chain, call `this()`. The first
argument must be the error value. The rest of the values will become the stack
for the next action in the chain and are also available at `this.args`.
If `key` is specified, the second argument sent to `this` goes to
`this.vars[key]` in addition to the stack and `this.args`.
`this.vars` persists across all requests unless it is overwritten.
All arguments after `cb` will be bound to `cb`, which is useful because
`.bind()` makes you set `this`. If you pass in `Seq` in the arguments list,
it'll get transformed into `this` so that you can do:
````javascript
Seq()
.seq(fs.readdir, __dirname, Seq)
.seq(function (files) { console.dir(files) })
;
````
which prints an array of files in `__dirname`.
.par(cb)
--------
.par(key, cb, *args)
--------------------
Use `par` to execute actions in parallel.
Chain multiple parallel actions together and collect all the responses on the
stack with a sequential operation like `seq`.
Each `par` sets one element in the stack with the second argument to `this()` in
the order in which it appears, so multiple `par`s can be chained together.
Like with `seq`, the first argument to `this()` should be the error value and
the second will get pushed to the stack. Further arguments are available in
`this.args`.
If `key` is specified, the result from the second argument send to `this()` goes
to `this.vars[key]`.
`this.vars` persists across all requests unless it is overwritten.
All arguments after `cb` will be bound to `cb`, which is useful because
`.bind()` makes you set `this`. Like `.seq()`, you can pass along `Seq` in these
bound arguments and it will get tranformed into `this`.
.catch(cb)
----------
Catch errors. Whenever a function calls `this` with a non-falsy first argument,
the message propagates down the chain to the first `catch` it sees.
The callback `cb` fires with the error object as its first argument and the key
that the action that caused the error was populating, which may be undefined.
`catch` is a sequential action and further actions may appear after a `catch` in
a chain. If the execution reaches a `catch` in a chain and no error has occured,
the `catch` is skipped over.
For convenience, there is a default error handler at the end of all chains.
This default error handler looks like this:
````javascript
.catch(function (err) {
console.error(err.stack ? err.stack : err)
})
````
.forEach(cb)
------------
Execute each action in the stack under the context of the chain object.
`forEach` does not wait for any of the actions to finish and does not itself
alter the stack, but the callback may alter the stack itself by modifying
`this.stack`.
The callback is executed `cb(x,i)` where `x` is the element and `i` is the
index.
`forEach` is a sequential operation like `seq` and won't run until all pending
parallel requests yield results.
.seqEach(cb)
------------
Like `forEach`, call `cb` for each element on the stack, but unlike `forEach`,
`seqEach` waits for the callback to yield with `this` before moving on to the
next element in the stack.
The callback is executed `cb(x,i)` where `x` is the element and `i` is the
index.
If `this()` is supplied non-falsy error, the error propagates downward but any
other arguments are ignored. `seqEach` does not modify the stack itself.
.parEach(cb)
------------
.parEach(limit, cb)
-------------------
Like `forEach`, calls cb for each element in the stack and doesn't wait for the
callback to yield a result with `this()` before moving on to the next iteration.
Unlike `forEach`, `parEach` waits for all actions to call `this()` before moving
along to the next action in the chain.
The callback is executed `cb(x,i)` where `x` is the element and `i` is the
index.
`parEach` does not modify the stack itself and errors supplied to `this()`
propagate.
Optionally, if limit is supplied to `parEach`, at most `limit` callbacks will be
active at a time.
.seqMap(cb)
-----------
Like `seqEach`, but collect the values supplied to `this` and set the stack to
these values.
.parMap(cb)
-----------
.parMap(limit, cb)
------------------
Like `parEach`, but collect the values supplied to `this` and set the stack to
these values.
.seqFilter(cb)
-----------
Executes the callback `cb(x, idx)` against each element on the stack, waiting for the
callback to yield with `this` before moving on to the next element. If the callback
returns an error or a falsey value, the element will not be included in the resulting
stack.
Any errors from the callback are consumed and **do not** propagate.
Calls to `this.into(i)` will place the value, if accepted by the callback, at the index in
the results as if it were ordered at i-th index on the stack before filtering (with ties
broken by the values). This implies `this.into` will never override another stack value
even if their indices collide. Finally, the value will only actually appear at `i` if the
callback accepts or moves enough values before `i`.
.parFilter(cb)
-----------
.parFilter(limit, cb)
------------------
Executes the callback `cb(x, idx)` against each element on the stack, but **does not**
wait for it to yield before moving on to the next element. If the callback returns an
error or a falsey value, the element will not be included in the resulting stack.
Any errors from the callback are consumed and **do not** propagate.
Calls to `this.into(i)` will place the value, if accepted by the callback, at the index in
the results as if it were ordered at i-th index on the stack before filtering (with ties
broken by the values). This implies `this.into` will never override another stack value
even if their indices collide. Finally, the value will only actually appear at `i` if the
callback accepts or moves enough values before `i`.
Optionally, if limit is supplied to `parEach`, at most `limit` callbacks will be
active at a time.
.do(cb)
-------
Create a new nested context. `cb`'s first argument is the previous context, and `this`
is the nested `Seq` object.
.flatten(fully=true)
--------------------
Recursively flatten all the arrays in the stack. Set `fully=false` to flatten
only one level.
.unflatten()
------------
Turn the contents of the stack into a single array item. You can think of it
as the inverse of `flatten(false)`.
.extend([x,y...])
-----------------
Like `push`, but takes an array. This is like python's `[].extend()`.
.set(xs)
--------
Set the stack to a new array. This assigns the reference, it does not copy.
.empty()
--------
Set the stack to [].
.push(x,y...), .pop(), .shift(), .unshift(x), .splice(...), reverse()
---------------------------------------------------------------------
.map(...), .filter(...), .reduce(...)
-------------------------------------
Executes an array operation on the stack.
The methods `map`, `filter`, and `reduce` are also proxies to their Array counterparts:
they have identical signatures to the Array methods, operate synchronously on the context
stack, and do not pass a Context object (unlike `seqMap` and `parMap`).
The result of the transformation is assigned to the context stack; in the case of `reduce`,
if you do not return an array, the value will be wrapped in one.
````javascript
Seq([1, 2, 3])
.reduce(function(sum, x){ return sum + x; }, 0)
.seq(function(sum){
console.log('sum: %s', sum);
// sum: 6
console.log('stack is Array?', Array.isArray(this.stack));
// stack is Array: true
console.log('stack:', this.stack);
// stack: [6]
})
;
````
Explicit Parameters
-------------------
For environments like coffee-script or nested logic where threading `this` is
bothersome, you can use:
* seq_
* par_
* forEach_
* seqEach_
* parEach_
* seqMap_
* parMap_
which work exactly like their un-underscored counterparts except for the first
parameter to the supplied callback is set to the context, `this`.
Context Object
==============
Each callback gets executed with its `this` set to a function in order to yield
results, error values, and control. The function also has these useful fields:
this.stack
----------
The execution stack.
this.stack_
-----------
The previous stack value, mostly used internally for hackish purposes.
this.vars
---------
A hash of key/values populated with `par(key, ...)`, `seq(key, ...)` and
`this.into(key)`.
this.into(key)
--------------
Instead of sending values to the stack, sets a key and returns `this`.
Use `this.into(key)` interchangeably with `this` for yielding keyed results.
`into` overrides the optional key set by `par(key, ...)` and `seq(key, ...)`.
this.ok
-------
Set the `err` to null. Equivalent to `this.bind(this, null)`.
this.args
---------
`this.args` is like `this.stack`, but it contains all the arguments to `this()`
past the error value, not just the first. `this.args` is an array with the same
indices as `this.stack` but also stores keyed values for the last sequential
operation. Each element in `this.array` is set to `[].slice.call(arguments, 1)`
from inside `this()`.
this.error
----------
This is used for error propagation. You probably shouldn't mess with it.
Installation
============
With [npm](http://github.com/isaacs/npm), just do:
npm install seq
or clone this project on github:
git clone http://github.com/substack/node-seq.git
To run the tests with [expresso](http://github.com/visionmedia/expresso),
just do:
expresso
Dependencies
------------
This module uses [chainsaw](http://github.com/substack/node-chainsaw)
When you `npm install seq` this dependency will automatically be installed.