lep: threadpool handle

000-index.md

@@ -2,4 +2,5 @@
 
 * [001-remove-unix-support](https://github.com/libuv/leps/blob/master/001-remove-unix-support.md)
 * [002-custom-uv-streams](https://github.com/libuv/leps/blob/master/002-custom-uv-streams.md)
-* [003-create-sockets-early.md](https://github.com/libuv/leps/blob/master/003-create-sockets-early.md)
+* [003-create-sockets-early](https://github.com/libuv/leps/blob/master/003-create-sockets-early.md)
+* [004-threadpool-handle.md](https://github.com/libuv/leps/blob/master/004-threadpool-handle.md)

004-threadpool-handle.md

@@ -0,0 +1,55 @@
+| Title  | Threadpool handle    |
+|--------|----------------------|
+| Author | @saghul              |
+| Status | REJECTED             |
+| Date   | 2014-11-27 08:00:44  |
+
+
+## Overview
+
+Every now and then we get questions / complaints regarding the thread pool. It’s too
+small, doesn’t scale, and so on. Right now the following stuff is ran on the thread pool:
+
+- DNS requests (`uv_getaddrinfo`, `uv_getnameinfo`)
+- File system operations (`uv_fs_*`)
+- User code (through `uv_queue_work`)
+
+The thread pool is also global and has a fixed size of 4, which currently can only
+be changed using an environment variable.
+
+This proposal explores the possibility of converting the thread pool to a handle,
+with the following API:
+
+~~~~
+int uv_tpool_init(uv_loop_t* loop, uv_tpool_t* handle, int min_threads, int max_threads)
+int uv_tpool_queue_work(uv_work_t*req, uv_tpool_t* handle, uv_work_cb work_cb, uv_after_work_cb after_work_cb)
+~~~~
+
+The thread pool would be created with a minimum number of threads, which could then
+scale up tot he given max_threads. A resize API could be added in the future. Running
+code on the threadpool is only safe from the event loop thread.
+
+`uv_queue_work` would effectively disappear. The user would have to create her own
+thread pool and use `uv_tpool_queue_work` manually.
+
+DNS and file system APIs would change in order to accept a `uv_tpool_t` handle instead
+of a loop. This gives the user the flexibility to create multiple pools of different
+sizes and run DNS operations on one and file system operations in another one, for example.
+
+Example `uv_getaddrinfo`:
+
+~~~~
+int uv_getaddrinfo(uv_getaddrinfo_t* req,
+                   uv_tpool_t* handle,
+                   uv_getaddrinfo_cb getaddrinfo_cb,
+                   const char* node,
+                   const char* service,
+                   const struct addrinfo* hints);
+~~~~
+
+
+# Reasons for rejection
+
+The libuv core team (part of it) gathered together at Node Interactive Amsterdam 2016 and decided
+to withdraw this course of action and focus on a pluggable API for threaded operations. A new
+LEP will be written about it.