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authorGravatar Jarred Sumner <jarred@jarredsumner.com> 2023-07-16 21:15:24 -0700
committerGravatar GitHub <noreply@github.com> 2023-07-16 21:15:24 -0700
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Implement Workers (#3645)
* copy files * format * options * Introduce `Worker`, `onmessage`, `onerror`, and `postMessage` globals * Stub `Worker.prototype.ref` & `Worker.prototype.unref` * Update web_worker.zig * Worker works * Add "mini" mode * add wakeup * Partially fix the keep-alive issue * clean up refer behavior * Implement `serialize` & `deserialize` in `bun:jsc` & add polyfill for `node:v8` * Types & docs * Update globals.d.ts * Add mutex * Fixes --------- Co-authored-by: Dylan Conway <dylan.conway567@gmail.com> Co-authored-by: Jarred Sumner <709451+Jarred-Sumner@users.noreply.github.com>
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+[`Worker`](https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/API/Worker) lets you start and communicate with a new JavaScript instance running on a separate thread while sharing I/O resources with the main thread. You can use TypeScript, CommonJS, ESM, JSX, etc in your workers. `Worker` support was added in Bun v0.6.15.
+
+Bun implements a minimal version of the [Web Workers API](https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/API/Web_Workers_API) with extensions that make it work better for server-side use cases.
+
+## Usage
+
+Like in browsers, [`Worker`](https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/API/Worker) is a global. Use it to create a new worker thread.
+
+Main thread:
+
+```js
+const worker = new Worker(new URL("worker.ts", import.meta.url).href);
+worker.postMessage("hello");
+worker.onmessage = event => {
+ console.log(event.data);
+};
+```
+
+Worker thread:
+
+{% codetabs %}
+
+```ts#worker.ts
+self.onmessage = (event: MessageEvent) => {
+ console.log(event.data);
+ postMessage("world");
+};
+```
+
+{% /codetabs %}
+
+### Sending & receiving messages with `postMessage`
+
+To send messages, use [`worker.postMessage`](https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/API/Worker/postMessage) and [`self.postMessage`](https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/API/Window/postMessage). This leverages the [HTML Structured Clone Algorithm](https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/API/Web_Workers_API/Structured_clone_algorithm).
+
+```js
+// On the worker thread, `postMessage` is automatically "routed" to the parent thread.
+postMessage({ hello: "world" });
+
+// On the main thread
+worker.postMessage({ hello: "world" });
+```
+
+To receive messages, use the [`message` event handler](https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/API/Worker/message_event) on the worker and main thread.
+
+```js
+// Worker thread:
+self.addEventListener("message", = event => {
+ console.log(event.data);
+});
+// or use the setter:
+// self.onmessage = fn
+
+// if on the main thread
+worker.addEventListener("message", = event => {
+ console.log(event.data);
+});
+// or use the setter:
+// worker.onmessage = fn
+```
+
+### Terminating a worker
+
+A `Worker` instance terminate automatically when Bun's process exits. To terminate a `Worker` sooner, call `worker.terminate()`.
+
+```ts
+const worker = new Worker(new URL("worker.ts", import.meta.url).href);
+
+// ...some time later
+worker.terminate();
+```
+
+### Managing lifetime with `worker.ref` and `worker.unref`
+
+By default, a `Worker` will **not** keep the process alive. To keep the process alive until the `Worker` terminates, call `worker.ref()`.
+
+```ts
+const worker = new Worker(new URL("worker.ts", import.meta.url).href);
+worker.ref();
+```
+
+You can also pass an `options` object to `Worker`:
+
+```ts
+const worker = new Worker(new URL("worker.ts", import.meta.url).href, {
+ bun: {
+ ref: true,
+ },
+});
+```
+
+To stop keeping the process alive, call `worker.unref()`.
+
+```ts
+const worker = new Worker(new URL("worker.ts", import.meta.url).href);
+worker.ref();
+// ...later on
+worker.unref();
+```
+
+Note: `worker.ref()` and `worker.unref()` do not exist in browsers.
+
+### Memory Usage
+
+JavaScript instances sometimes use a lot of memory.
+
+Bun's `Worker` supports a `smol` mode that reduces memory usage, at a cost of performance. To enable `smol` mode, pass `smol: true` to the `options` object in the `Worker` constructor.
+
+```js
+const worker = new Worker("./i-am-smol.ts", {
+ bun: {
+ smol: true,
+ },
+});
+```
+
+#### What does `smol` mode actually do?
+
+It sets ` JSC::HeapSize` to be `Small` instead of the default `Large`
+
+### Modules work
+
+Like the rest of Bun, `Worker` in Bun support CommonJS, ES Modules, TypeScript, JSX, TSX and more out of the box. No extra build steps are necessary. You can use `import` and `export` in your worker code. This is different than browsers, where `"type": "module"` is necessary to use ES Modules.
+
+To simplify error handling, the initial script to load is resolved at the time `new Worker(url)` is called.
+
+```js
+const worker = new Worker("/not-found.js");
+// throws an error immediately
+```
+
+The specifier passed to `Worker` is resolved relative to the project root (like typing `bun ./path/to/file.js`).
+
+### `"open"` event
+
+The `"open"` event is emitted when a worker is created and ready to receive messages.
+
+```ts
+const worker = new Worker(new URL("worker.ts", import.meta.url).href);
+worker.addEventListener("open", () => {
+ console.log("worker is ready");
+});
+```
+
+This event does not exist in browsers.
+
+### `"close"` event
+
+The `"close"` event is emitted when a worker has been terminated. It can take some time for the worker to actually terminate, so this event is emitted when the worker has been marked as terminated.
+
+```ts
+const worker = new Worker(new URL("worker.ts", import.meta.url).href);
+worker.addEventListener("close", () => {
+ console.log("worker is ready");
+});
+```
+
+This event does not exist in browsers.
+
+### `process.exit()` inside a worker
+
+Calling `process.exit()` in a Worker terminates the worker, but does not terminate the main process. Like in Node.js, `process.on('beforeExit', callback)` and `process.on('exit', callback)` are emitted on the worker thread (and not on the main thread).