Provided by: librinci-perl_1.1.43-1_all 
NAME
Rinci::Undo - (DEPRECATED) Protocol for undo operations in functions
VERSION
version 1.1.43
SPECIFICATION VERSION
1.1
STATUS
This protocol (riundo for short) is now deprecated in favor of Rinci::Transaction (ritx for short) for
several reasons:
• riundo is inherently unreliable
Undo information is returned by function after the function has performed the action. If function
dies in the middle of action, client does not have the information to undo the (partially completed)
action. That is why in ritx, the TM asks the function first for undo information before asking the
function to perform its action.
• ritx does not limit using the same function for undo
In riundo, we must call the same function (passing the previously obtained undo data from the that
function) to undo the information. This is sometimes slightly cumbersome. The undo action might be
provided by other functions, but we still have to go through the same function first.
• ritx can also implement undo/redo
So there is no need for maintaining two specifications.
SPECIFICATION
This document describes the Rinci undo protocol. This protocol must be followed by functions that claim
that they support undo (have their "undo" "feature" set to true). Such functions are from here on called
undoable function (or just function, unless when ambiguous).
The protocol is basically the non-OO version of the command pattern, a design pattern most commonly used
to implement undo/redo functionality. In this case, each function behaves like a command object. You pass
a special argument "-undo_action" with the value of "do" and "undo" to execute or undo a command,
respectively. For "do" and "undo", the same set of arguments are passed.
Requirements
Function MUST check special argument "-undo_action" before it checks other arguments. Function MUST at
least support the following undo action: "do", "undo". On unsupported/unknown undo action, function MUST
return status 400, with message like "Unsupported undo action".
If "-undo_action" is not set, it means caller does not care about undo. Undoable function should execute
as any normal function.
Performing 'do'
To indicate that we need undo, we call function by passing special argument "-undo_action" with the value
of "do". Function should perform its operation and save undo data along the way. If "-undo_action" is not
passed or false/undef, function should assume that caller does not need undo later, so function need not
save any undo data. After completing operation successfully, function should return status 200, the
result, and undo data. Undo data is returned in the result metadata (the fourth element of result
envelope), example:
[200, "OK", $result, {undo_data=>$undo_data}]
Undo data should be serializable so it is easy to be made persistent if necessary (e.g. by some
undo/transaction manager).
Performing 'undo'
To perform an undo, caller must call the function again with the same previous arguments, except
"-undo_action" should be set to "undo" and "-undo_data" set to undo data previously given by the
function. Function should perform the undo operation using the undo data. Upon success, it must return
status 200, the result, and an undo data (in other words, redo data, since it can be used to undo the
undo operation).
Performing 'redo'
To perform redo, caller can call the function again with <-undo_action> set to "undo" and "-undo_data"
set to the redo data given in the undo step. Or, alternatively, caller can just perform a normal do (see
above).
An example:
$SPEC{setenv} = {
v => 1.1,
summary => 'Set environment variable',
args => {
name => {req=>1, schema=>'str*'},
value => {req=>1, schema=>'str*'},
},
features => {undo=>1},
};
sub setenv {
my %args = @_;
my $name = $args{name};
my $value = $args{value};
my $undo_action = $args{-undo_action} // '';
my $undo_data = $args{-undo_data};
my $old;
if ($undo_action) {
# save original value and existence state
$old = [exists($ENV{$name}), $ENV{$name}];
}
if ($undo_action eq 'undo') {
if ($undo_data->[0]) {
$ENV{$name} = $undo_data->[1];
} else {
delete $ENV{$name};
}
} else {
$ENV{$name} = $value;
}
[200, "OK", undef, $undo_action ? {undo_data=>$old} : {}];
}
The above example declares an undoable command "setenv" to set an environment variable (%ENV).
To perform command:
my $res = setenv(name=>"DEBUG", value=>1, -undo_action=>"do");
die "Failed: $res->[0] - $res->[1]" unless $res->[0] == 200;
my $undo_data = $res->[3]{undo_data};
To perform undo:
$res = setenv(name=>"DEBUG", value=>1,
-undo_action="undo", -undo_data=>$undo_data);
die "Can't undo: $res->[0] - $res->[1]" unless $res->[0] == 200;
After this undo, DEBUG environment variable will be set to original value. If it did not exist
previously, it will be deleted.
To perform redo:
my $redo_data = $res->[3]{undo_data};
$res = setenv(name=>"DEBUG", value=>1,
-undo_action="undo", -undo_data=>$redo_data);
or you can just do:
$res = setenv(name=>"DEBUG", value=>1, -undo_action="do");
Saving undo data in external storage
Although the complete undo data can be returned by the function in the "undo_data" result metadata
property, sometimes it is more efficient to just return a pointer to said undo data, while saving the
actual undo data in some external storage.
For example, if a function deletes a big file and wants to save undo data, it is more efficient to move
the file to trash directory and return its path as the undo data, instead of reading the whole file
content and its metadata to memory and return it in "undo_data" result metadata.
Functions which require undo trash directory should specify this in its metadata, through the
"undo_trash_dir" dependency clause. For example:
deps => {
...
trash_dir => 1,
}
When calling function, caller needs to provide path to undo trash directory via special argument
"-trash_dir", for example:
-trash_dir => "/home/.trash/2fe2f4ad-a494-0044-b2e0-94b2b338056e"
What about non-undoable actions?
Like in real life, not all actions are undoable. Examples of undoable/irreversible actions include wiping
a file/directory (more generally speaking, any action to permanently delete/destroy something, without
backing up the data first), sending an email (more generally speaking, any action that is sent to an
external entity beyond our control, unless that external entity provides a way to undo the action).
An undoable function MUST NOT mix undoable and non-undoable actions. For example:
safe_delete(file=>'/path/to/file'); # puts file into Trash, undoable action
safe_delete(file=>'/path/to/file', permanent=>1); # deletes file, non-undoable
The "safe_delete" function above mixes undoable action (putting a file into Trash directory) and non-
undoable action (permanently deleting a file without putting it in Trash). Without domain knowledge of
the function, a caller cannot know whether a call will be undoable or not. This will also prevent the
function from participating in a transaction, because transaction requires function call to always be
undoable, for rollback purpose.
The solution is to separate non-undoable action in another function, for example:
trash(file=>'/path/to/file'); # undoable, can execute inside transaction
delete(file=>'/path/to/file'); # non-undoable, executes outside transaction
empty_trash(); # non-undoable, executes outside transaction
The non-undoable function is also non-transactional (it operates outside the scope of a transaction). But
it can still be idempotent. And it can manipulate the transactions if it needs too. In the example, the
empty_trash() function instructs the transaction manager to discard the trash() transactions, since after
the trash is emptied, the trash() transactions cannot be undone anyway.
SEE ALSO
Related specifications: Rinci::Transaction
HOMEPAGE
Please visit the project's homepage at <https://metacpan.org/release/Rinci>.
SOURCE
Source repository is at <https://github.com/sharyanto/perl-Rinci>.
BUGS
Please report any bugs or feature requests on the bugtracker website
<https://rt.cpan.org/Public/Dist/Display.html?Name=Rinci>
When submitting a bug or request, please include a test-file or a patch to an existing test-file that
illustrates the bug or desired feature.
AUTHOR
Steven Haryanto <stevenharyanto@gmail.com>
COPYRIGHT AND LICENSE
This software is copyright (c) 2013 by Steven Haryanto.
This is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the same terms as the Perl 5
programming language system itself.
perl v5.18.1 2013-12-25 Rinci::Undo(3pm)