vrod
Using Task.start with receive -- is this the same as Task.async?
Hello! I am studying the Task module and I am trying to teach myself some patterns of concurrency in Elixir. I found something like this while reading the documentation for Process.sleep/1:
Task.start_link(fn ->
Process.sleep(:timer.seconds(1))
send(parent, :work_is_done)
end)
receive do
:work_is_done -> IO.puts("Task complete!")
after
2_000 -> IO.puts("Operation timed out.")
end
My question is: is this the same as using Task.async?
async_task = Task.async(fn ->
Process.sleep(:timer.seconds(1))
:work_is_done
end)
val = Task.await(async_task)
IO.inspect(val)
# :work_is_done
So this gives me 3 questions (related) that I hope someone can explain to me:
- Does
Task.awaitfunction the same way as thesend+receiveexample? (I like the syntax ofTask.asyncandTask.await, but I want to make sure this is only syntax difference) - I tried doing send/recieve from
Task.start/1and it seems to work the same asTask.start_link/1. Is there case whereTask.start/1must be used or case whereTask.start_link/1must be used? - If I have a list of tasks, is it always better to use
Task.async_stream? I tried usingEnum.mapto put manyTask.asyncs together and it seems likeTask.async_streamis a better way.
Thank you! I want to try to understand this well before I study GenServers.
Most Liked
ityonemo
It’s not exactly the same. Task.async is a bit smarter than that, because when you call it it saves a reference. When the await catches the message, it pattern matches against the reference to make sure it’s matching against the right task.
This protects against the situation where tasks cross streams. In the Task implementation, you can do this:
1..10
|> Enum.map(&Task.async(fn ->
Process.sleep(Enum.random(1..200))
&1
end))
|> Enum.map(&Task.await/1)
And your 1..10 will come back in order; they will not with your await implementation.
Check the elixir code for task.await: elixir/lib/elixir/lib/task.ex at v1.10.4 · elixir-lang/elixir · GitHub
This pattern will reappear in gen_server.call, so understanding it is probably a good idea ![]()
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