Metadata-Version: 1.1
Name: lynk
Version: 0.1.0
Summary: Client for using AWS DynamoDB as a distributed lock.
Home-page: https://github.com/stealthycoin/lynk
Author: John Carlyle
Author-email: UNKNOWN
License: Apache License 2.0
Description: Lynk
        ====
        
        .. intro-begin
        
        Lynk is a Distributed Lock Manager (DLM) that uses DynamoDB to track the state
        of it's locks. Lynk is a cooporative locking scheme where each client assumes
        that all others in the system are obeying a set of  rules in order to assure
        the integrity of the locks.
        
        .. intro-end
        
        
        Quickstart
        ==========
        
        .. quick-start-begin
        
        
        Installation
        ------------
        
        Lynk is available on PyPi as ``lynk`` and can be installed in the usual way
        with pip::
        
          $ pip install lynk
        
        
        AWS Credentials
        ---------------
        
        Lynk uses boto3 in order to make all calls to AWS, which means it uses the
        boto3 standard credential chain. Make sure your machine has AWS credentials
        configured in the way `boto3 expects <https://boto3.amazonaws.com/v1/documentation/api/latest/guide/configuration.html>`_.
        
        
        Creating a table
        ----------------
        
        In order to store the locks we need to create a DynamoDB table. For ease of
        getting started there is a command line tool installed along with the package
        to help manage lynk tables.
        
        To create a table called ``quickstart`` run the ``lynk create-table`` command::
        
          $ lynk create-table lynk-quickstart
          Creating table lynk-quickstart
          Created
        
        With the ``lynk list-tables`` command line tool you can check a list of tables
        created this way by lynk::
        
          $ lynk list-tables
          lynk-quickstart
        
        
        Creating a lock
        ---------------
        
        Locks are shared through a DynamoDB table, in our case we will be using the
        ``lynk-quickstart`` we created earlier table. Locks are distinguished by a
        lock name, within their table. To get create a lock, we first need to create a
        :class:`lynk.lock.LockFactory` that is bound to our table. The factory can
        then be used to create multiple locks that will be backed by that table.
        
        The easiet way to make a :class:`lynk.lock.LockFactory` is by using the
        :func:`lynk.get_lock_factory` function. This function only takes one argument
        which is the name of the table it is bound to. Once a factory has been created
        it can be used to create lock objects using the
        :meth:`lynk.lock.LockFactory.create_lock` method.
        
        .. code-block:: python
        
           import lynk
        
           factory = lynk.get_lock_factory('lynk-quickstart')
           lock = factory.create_lock('my lock')
        
        ``lock`` is an instance of :class:`lynk.lock.Lock` which is bound to both our
        table ``lynk-quickstart``, and the logical lock name ``my lock``. If we create
        another lock object bound to the same table, with the same lock name, only one
        will be acquireable at a time, with the second having to wait for the first one
        to release before being able to acquire it. This is a little bit awkard to
        show in a single code segment since it requires muiltiple threads. Below is a
        minimal but complete example of using two threads to contend for the same lock.
        
        .. code-block:: python
        
           import time
           import logging
           import threading
        
           import lynk
        
        
           LOG = logging.getLogger(__file__)
        
        
           def configure_logging():
               LOG.setLevel(logging.DEBUG)
               formatter = logging.Formatter('%(threadName)s - %(message)s')
               ch = logging.StreamHandler()
               ch.setFormatter(formatter)
               LOG.addHandler(ch)
        
        
           def thread(factory):
               LOG.debug('Starting')
               lock = factory.create_lock('my lock')
               lock.acquire()
               LOG.debug('Lock acquired')
               time.sleep(10)
               lock.release()
               LOG.debug('Lock released')
        
        
           def main():
               configure_logging()
               factory = lynk.get_lock_factory('lynk-quickstart')
               t1 = threading.Thread(target=thread, args=(factory,))
               t2 = threading.Thread(target=thread, args=(factory,))
        
               t1.start()
               t2.start()
               t1.join()
               t2.join()
        
        
           if __name__ == "__main__":
               main()
        
        
        First, we can ignore the ``configure_logging`` function, it just sets up
        logging show which thread is logging.
        
        Looking at the ``main`` function, the first real thing that happens is the same
        as the first example, we create a lock factory that can create locks bound to
        our table ``lynk-quickstart``.
        
        .. code-block:: python
        
           factory = lynk.get_lock_factory('lynk-quickstart')
        
        We then create two thread objects, and pass our ``factory`` object into each
        as a shared variable. Once started each thread will execute the ``thread``
        function.
        
        .. code-block:: python
        
           t1 = threading.Thread(target=thread, args=(factory,))
           t2 = threading.Thread(target=thread, args=(factory,))
        
        
        The last thing the ``main`` function does is start both threads, then join on
        them, which will wait for them to terminate before exiting.
        
        .. code-block:: python
        
           t1.start()
           t2.start()
           t1.join()
           t2.join()
        
        
        Now we have two threads executing the ``thread`` function. Following along each
        thread, disregarding the log statements, the first thing it does is create a
        lock object.
        
        .. code-block:: python
        
           lock = factory.create_lock('my lock')
        
        This means each thread will have its own unique lock object linked logically to
        the name ``my lock``. The threads share a factory, which is bound to the table
        ``lynk-quickstart``. Simply create the lock does not interact with the
        DynamoDB Tables in any way.
        
        Next each thread tries to acquire the lock.
        
        .. code-block:: python
        
           lock.acquire()
        
        This simple statement is what makes the call to write an entry in our DynamoDB
        Table that this lock name is in use. Once this call succeeds we are safe to
        operate on whatever resource this lock was responsiblef or protecting. In this
        example case we simply sleep for 10 seconds and then release the lock.
        
        .. code-block:: python
        
           time.sleep(10)
           lock.release()
        
        The ``time.sleep(10)`` call would be replaced with real work in an actual
        application. Once the protected resource is done being operated on, and has
        been safely written and is ready for another actor to use it we release the
        lock. The :meth:`lynk.lock.Lock.release` call deletes the entry from the table
        freeing the lock name up to be used by another agent.
        
        
        The output of our little sample application is shown below. You can see how
        one thread gets the lock, does its work, and the lock is released the other
        thread can acquire it and begin working::
        
           Thread-1 - Starting
           Thread-2 - Starting
           Thread-2 - Lock acquired
           Thread-2 - Lock released
           Thread-1 - Lock acquired
           Thread-1 - Lock released
        
        
        Lock entry details
        ------------------
        
        If you have the AWS CLI installed you can run the following command while the
        example script above is running (shouldn't be too difficult since the script
        takes around 30 seconds to complete)::
        
          $ aws dynamodb scan --table-name lynk-quickstart --query Items
          [
              {
        	  "lockKey": {
        	      "S": "my lock"
        	  },
        	  "leaseDuration": {
        	      "N": "20"
        	  },
        	  "versionNumber": {
        	      "S": "dabbbfde-93cb-47f8-a249-fbae84c4a5e3"
        	  },
        	  "hostIdentifier": {
        	      "S": "Johns-MacBook-Pro.local"
        	  }
              }
          ]
        
        While the lock is held by a thread, we can see the entry that marks it as in
        use. It has four components, the ``lockKey`` which is clearly the lock name
        that we selected when creating our lock object. A ``leaseDuration``, this is
        the amount of time we have a lease on this lock. Any other agent that wants
        to acquire this lock must wait at least that long before trying again. Our
        example code will refresh this lock automatically, even if we had slept longer
        than 20 seconds.
        The ``versionNumber`` is used as a fencing token, each write to this entry
        changes this value. You can read more about how the ``leaseDuration`` and
        ``versionNumber`` are used to ensure the lock integrity in the documentation
        for the :class:`lynk.techniques.VersionLeaseTechinque`. Finally there is a
        ``hostIdentifier`` which is just there to show the host that created the lock.
        This can be used for debugging a distributed multi-agent system all using one
        lock table.
        
        More examples can be found in the
        `examples <https://github.com/stealthycoin/lynk/tree/master/examples>`_
        directory in the source repo.
        
        Teardown
        --------
        
        To tear down the resources created during the quickstart tutorial run the
        ``lynk delete-table`` command::
        
          $ lynk delete-table lynk-quickstart
          Deleting table lynk-quickstart
          Deleted
        
        Verify that there are no left over tables checking that the following has no
        output::
        
          $ lynk list-tables
        
        
        .. quick-start-end
        
Platform: UNKNOWN
Classifier: Development Status :: 2 - Pre-Alpha
Classifier: Intended Audience :: Developers
Classifier: Natural Language :: English
Classifier: License :: OSI Approved :: Apache Software License
Classifier: Programming Language :: Python
Classifier: Programming Language :: Python :: 2
Classifier: Programming Language :: Python :: 2.7
Classifier: Programming Language :: Python :: 3
Classifier: Programming Language :: Python :: 3.6
