It is a common task for me to need to run many nearly identical child processes. Not often but sometimes I need those child processes to communicate their results back to the parent process. I have created the following implementation to avoid  boiler plate pcntl_fork() calls, and standardize the client code.I will in line my questions with the relative components.<?php namespace robbmj;/* The MIT License (MIT) */  interface ChildWorker {    /**     * produce must return a string     */    function produce();}interface ParentWorker {    /**     * $input will always be a string     */    function consume($input);}1) Is the SocketPair class over engineering, I could easily just use an array?2) Is there a preferred way to initialize class members in PHP? default arguments to the constructor, initialize the variables when they are declared or initialize in the constructor?class SocketPair {    private $clientSock, $serverSock, $createTime;    function __construct($clientSock, $serverSock, $createTime = null) {        $this->clientSock = $clientSock;        $this->serverSock = $serverSock;        $this->createTime = isset($createTime) ? $createTime : time();    }    function passedAllotedTime($allotedTime) {        return $this->createTime + $allotedTime <= time();    }    function clientSock() {        return $this->clientSock;    }    function serverSock() {        return $this->serverSock;    }    function closeClient() {        socket_close($this->clientSock);    }    function closeServer() {        socket_close($this->serverSock);    }}3) Should I be using bean style method names  setMaxChildren instead maxChildren?  class IPC {// indented properly in the file, just trying to avoid horizontal scrollprivate $pWorker, $cWorkers, $maxChildren, $maxWaitTime;function __construct(ParentWorker $pWorker, array /* ChildWorker */ $cWorkers) {    $this->pWorker = $pWorker;    $this->cWorkers = $cWorkers;    $this->maxChildren = 0;    $this->maxWaitTime = 0;}/** * Sets the maximum number of Child Processes that can be running at any one time. * If set to 0, There is no limit.  * * If $max is not a integer of is less than 0 an InvalidArgumentException is thrown   */public function maxChildren($max) {    if (!is_int($max) || $max < 0) {        throw new \InvalidArgumentException(max must be greater than or equal to 0);    }    $this->maxChildren = $max;    return $this;}/** * Sets the maximum amount of time a child process can run for before the process is terminated. * If set to 0, There is no limit.  * * If $seconds is not a integer of is less than 0 an InvalidArgumentException is thrown   */public function maxWaitTime($seconds) {    if (!is_int($seconds) || $seconds < 0) {        throw new \InvalidArgumentException(seconds must be greater than or equal to 0);    }    $this->maxWaitTime = $seconds;    return $this;}4) Should the start method be reporting errors to the caller? Or would that be an example of a leaked implementation detail?function start() {    $pids = array();    $sockets = array();    foreach ($this->cWorkers as $i => $cWorker) {        $socketPair = $this->makeSocketPair();                  if (!$socketPair) {            continue;        }        $pid = pcntl_fork();        if ($pid === 0) {            $this->childProcess($socketPair, $cWorker);            exit(0);        }        else if ($pid > 0) {            $sockets[$pid] = $socketPair;            if ($this->maxChildren > 0 && (count($sockets) >= $this->maxChildren)) {                $this->reduceProcessCount($sockets, $this->maxChildren - 1);            }        }    }    $this->reduceProcessCount($sockets, 0);}5) Can anyone foresee an edge cases I am not accounting for?6) Should I be trimming the output of $cWorker->produce()protected function childProcess(SocketPair $socketPair, ChildWorker $cWorker) {    $socketPair->closeClient();    $output = $cWorker->produce();    socket_set_nonblock($socketPair->serverSock());    $output = ($output) ? trim($output) : '';    while ((strlen($output) > 0) && ($wrote = socket_write($socketPair->serverSock(), $output))) {        $output = substr($output, $wrote);    }    $socketPair->closeServer();}protected function parentProcess(SocketPair $socketPair) {    $socketPair->closeServer();    $content = '';    while ($line = socket_read($socketPair->clientSock(), 1129)) {        $len = strlen($content);        $content .= $line;    }    $socketPair->closeClient();    $this->pWorker->consume($content);}7) Should this makeSocketPair be static, should it be moved to the SocketPair?8) Should the $sockets array created in start() be a class member? It would save me having to pass by reference to reduceProcessCount and killExpiredProcesses.protected function makeSocketPair() {    $pair = array();    if (socket_create_pair(AF_UNIX, SOCK_STREAM, 0, $pair) === false) {        // TODO: install a logger, echoing is not cool        echo socket_create_pair failed. Reason:  . socket_strerror(socket_last_error());        return null;    }    return new SocketPair($pair[0], $pair[1]);}protected function reduceProcessCount(array &$sockets, $to) {    while (count($sockets) > $to) {        $pid = pcntl_wait($status, WNOHANG);        if ($pid > 0) {            $this->parentProcess($sockets[$pid]);            unset($sockets[$pid]);          }        else {            $this->killExpiredProcesses($sockets);            var_dump(count($sockets));            usleep(200000);        }    }}protected function killExpiredProcesses(array &$sockets) {    if ($this->maxWaitTime) {        foreach ($sockets as $pid => $pair) {            if ($pair->passedAllotedTime($this->maxWaitTime)) {                $pair->closeServer();                $pair->closeClient();                unset($sockets[$pid]);                // TODO: install a logger, echoing is not cool                echo PID: $pid took to long\n;                posix_kill($pid, SIGINT);            }           }    }}} // closes the classAs a reference this is one example of using the library<?phprequire_once 'ipc.php';class CurlWorker implements robbmj\ChildWorker {    private $url;    public function __construct($url) {        $this->url = $url;    }    public function produce() {        $ch = curl_init($this->url);        curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_SSL_VERIFYPEER, 0);        curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_SSL_VERIFYHOST, 0);        curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_RETURNTRANSFER, 1);        $content = curl_exec($ch);        curl_close($ch);        return $content;    }}class PWorker implements robbmj\ParentWorker {    private $content = array();    public function consume($input) {        $this->content[] = $input;    }    public function getContent() {        foreach ($this->content as $value) {            $r[] = strlen($value);        }        return $r;    }}$cWorkers = [new CurlWorker('https://www.google.ca/'), new CurlWorker('http://php.net/')];$p = new PWorker();$ipc = (new robbmj\IPC($p, $cWorkers))        ->maxWaitTime(0)        ->maxChildren(1);$ipc->start();var_dump($p->getContent());All comments, criticisms, suggestions for improvement, sarcastic comments, pictures of unicorns, etc. are welcome.
Simple One Way IPC Implementation for pcntl_fork
php;library;socket;child process
1) Is the SocketPair class over engineering, I could easily just use an array?It's not over-engineering, it's actually a really good idea.An array is too generic,for example you would need additional checks to ensure size == 2.Using a dedicated object is explicit and clear, definitely a good thing.2) Is there a preferred way to initialize class members in PHP? default arguments to the constructor, initialize the variables when they are declared or initialize in the constructor?I don't know PHP well enough, but I would guess it's a matter of personal preference.I prefer to initialize in the constructor,as it makes future extensions easier:adding another constructor lateradding factory methods laterBoth of these will involve less typing and rewriting if I initialize in the constructor rather than at declaration.In any case, it doesn't make much difference either way.You can simplify this:    $this->createTime = isset($createTime) ? $createTime : time();If you have PHP >= 5.3, this is easier:    $this->createTime = $createTime ?: time();3) Should I be using bean style method names  setMaxChildren instead maxChildren?I think that's a matter of taste. I prefer get* / set* to make the intention explicit.4) Should the start method be reporting errors to the caller? Or would that be an example of a leaked implementation detail?You're probably talking about the exit(0); in the middle.Yeah that won't help anyone:doesn't give a chance to caller to recover gracefully, or log and print a helpful error message.It would be better to raise an exception.To avoid leaking implementation detail you can use a custom exception,using a vocabulary that's appropriate for the level of abstraction and not revealing implementation details.6) Should I be trimming the output of $cWorker->produce()A well-behaving $cWorker->produce() should do the trimming itself,rather forcing each of its callers to remember and do it.Add to the interface documentation that the method should returned strings that don't need trimming.7) Should this makeSocketPair be static, should it be moved to the SocketPair?SocketPair has a single responsibility now:it contains a pair.Moving this logic there would be an additional responsibility.Maybe a static method in a SocketPairFactory class would be better.$output = $cWorker->produce();socket_set_nonblock($socketPair->serverSock());$output = ($output) ? trim($output) : '';Is that line in the middle inserted between the operations on $output just to confuse readers and make them wonder if socket_set_nonblock might magically have some impact on $output?// Sarcastic comment:  ;-)And this review wouldn't be complete without a picture of a unicorn: