zmq - 0MQ lightweight messaging kernel
#include <zmq.h>
cc [flags] files -lzmq [libraries]
The ØMQ lightweight messaging kernel is a library which extends the standard socket interfaces with features traditionally provided by specialised messaging middleware products. ØMQ sockets provide an abstraction of asynchronous message queues, multiple messaging patterns, message filtering (subscriptions), seamless access to multiple transport protocols and more.
This documentation presents an overview of ØMQ concepts, describes how ØMQ abstracts standard sockets and provides a reference manual for the functions provided by the ØMQ library.
Before using any ØMQ library functions the caller must initialise a ØMQ context using zmq_init(). The following functions are provided to handle initialisation and termination of a context:
A ØMQ context is thread safe and may be shared among as many application threads as the application has requested using the app_threads parameter to zmq_init(), without any additional locking required on the part of the caller. Each ØMQ socket belonging to a particular context may only be used by the thread that created it using zmq_socket().
Multiple contexts may coexist within a single application. Thus, an application can use ØMQ directly and at the same time make use of any number of additional libraries or components which themselves make use of ØMQ as long as the above guidelines regarding thread safety are adhered to.
A ØMQ message is a discrete unit of data passed between applications or components of the same application. ØMQ messages have no internal structure and from the point of view of ØMQ itself they are considered to be opaque binary data.
The following functions are provided to work with messages:
Standard sockets present a synchronous interface to either connection-mode reliable byte streams (SOCK_STREAM), or connection-less unreliable datagrams (SOCK_DGRAM). In comparison, ØMQ sockets present an abstraction of a asynchronous message queue, with the exact queueing semantics depending on the socket type (messaging pattern) in use. See zmq_socket(3) for the messaging patterns provided.
ØMQ sockets being asynchronous means that the timings of the physical connection setup and teardown, reconnect and effective delivery are organized by ØMQ itself, and that messages may be queued in the event that a peer is unavailable to receive them.
The following functions are provided to work with sockets:
ØMQ provides a mechanism for applications to multiplex input/output events over a set containing both ØMQ sockets and standard sockets. This mechanism mirrors the standard poll() system call, and is described in detail in zmq_poll(3).
A ØMQ socket can use multiple different underlying transport mechanisms. Each transport mechanism is suited to a particular purpose and has its own advantages and drawbacks.
The following transport mechanisms are provided:
Apart from the ØMQ library the ØMQ distribution includes devices which are building blocks intended to serve as intermediate nodes in complex messaging topologies.
The following devices are provided:
The ØMQ library functions handle errors using the standard conventions found on POSIX systems. Generally, this means that upon failure a ØMQ library function shall return either a NULL value (if returning a pointer) or a negative value (if returning an integer), and the actual error code shall be stored in the errno variable.
A zmq_strerror() function is provided to translate ØMQ-specific error codes into error message strings. For further details refer to zmq_strerror(3).
The following miscellaneous functions are provided:
The ØMQ library provides interfaces suitable for calling from programs in any language; this documentation documents those interfaces as they would be used by C programmers. The intent is that programmers using ØMQ from other languages shall refer to this documentation alongside any documentation provided by the vendor of their language binding.
The ØMQ distribution includes a C++ language binding, which is documented separately in zmq_cpp(7).
Other language bindings (Python, Ruby, Java and more) are provided by members of the ØMQ community and pointers can be found on the ØMQ website.
The ØMQ documentation was written by Martin Sustrik <sustrik@250bpm.com> and Martin Lucina <mato@kotelna.sk>.
Main web site: http://www.zeromq.org/
Report bugs to the ØMQ development mailing list: <zeromq-dev@lists.zeromq.org>
Free use of this software is granted under the terms of the GNU Lesser General Public License (LGPL). For details see the files COPYING and COPYING.LESSER included with the ØMQ distribution.