diff --git a/README.md b/README.md index 7c54dd42..64b6e090 100644 --- a/README.md +++ b/README.md @@ -137,6 +137,69 @@ There are two types of callbacks: Callbacks must return 0 on success. Returning a non-zero value indicates error to the parser, making it exit immediately. +For cases where it is necessary to pass local information to/from a callback, +the `http_parser` object's `data` field can be used. +An example of such a case is when using threads to handle a socket connection, +parse a request, and then give a response over that socket. By instantiation +of a thread-local struct containing relevant data (e.g. accepted socket, +allocated memory for callbacks to write into, etc), a parser's callbacks are +able to communicate data between the scope of the thread and the scope of the +callback in a threadsafe manner. This allows http-parser to be used in +multi-threaded contexts. + +Example: +``` + typedef struct { + socket_t sock; + void* buffer; + int buf_len; + } custom_data_t; + + +int my_url_callback(http_parser* parser, const char *at, size_t length) { + /* access to thread local custom_data_t struct. + Use this access save parsed data for later use into thread local + buffer, or communicate over socket + */ + parser->data; + ... + return 0; +} + +... + +void http_parser_thread(socket_t sock) { + int nparsed = 0; + /* allocate memory for user data */ + custom_data_t *my_data = malloc(sizeof(custom_data_t)); + + /* some information for use by callbacks. + * achieves thread -> callback information flow */ + my_data->sock = sock; + + /* instantiate a thread-local parser */ + http_parser *parser = malloc(sizeof(http_parser)); + http_parser_init(parser, HTTP_REQUEST); /* initialise parser */ + /* this custom data reference is accessible through the reference to the + parser supplied to callback functions */ + parser->data = my_data; + + http_parser_settings settings; / * set up callbacks */ + settings.on_url = my_url_callback; + + /* execute parser */ + nparsed = http_parser_execute(parser, &settings, buf, recved); + + ... + /* parsed information copied from callback. + can now perform action on data copied into thread-local memory from callbacks. + achieves callback -> thread information flow */ + my_data->buffer; + ... +} + +``` + In case you parse HTTP message in chunks (i.e. `read()` request line from socket, parse, read half headers, parse, etc) your data callbacks may be called more than once. Http-parser guarantees that data pointer is only