Changelog

Source: NEWS.md

mirai 0.11.3.9000 (development)

mirai 0.11.32023-12-07

• Implements serialization() for registering custom serialization and unserialization functions when using daemons.
• Introduces call_mirai_(), a user-interruptible version of call_mirai() suitable for interactive use.
• Simplification of mirai() interface:
  • ‘.args’ will now coerce to a list if an object other than a list is supplied, rather than error.
  • ‘.signal’ argument removed - now all ‘mirai’ signal if daemons are set up.
• everywhere() now returns invisible NULL in the case the specified compute profile is not set up, rather than error.
• mirai() specifying a timeout when daemons() has not been set - the timeout begins immediately rather than after the ephemeral daemon has connected - please factor in a small amount of time for the daemon to launch.
• make_cluster() now prints daemon launch commands where ‘url’ is specified without ‘remote’ whether or not interactive.
• Cluster node failures during load balanced operations now rely on the ‘parallel’ mechanism to error and no longer fail early or automatically stop the cluster.
• Fixes regression since 0.11.0 which prevented dispatcher exiting in a timely manner when tasks are backlogged (thanks @wlandau #86).
• Improved memory efficiency and stability at dispatcher.
• No longer loads the ‘promises’ package if not already loaded (but makes the ‘mirai’ method available via a hook function).
• Requires nanonext >= 0.11.0.

mirai 0.11.22023-11-15

• make_cluster() specifying only ‘url’ now succeeds with implied ‘n’ of one.
• Fixes mirai() specifying a language object by name for ‘.expr’ in R versions 4.0 and earlier.
• Fixes regression in 0.11.1 which prevented the correct random seed being set when using dispatcher.
• Internal performance enhancements.

mirai 0.11.12023-11-04

• Adds ‘mirai’ method for ‘as.promise()’ from the {promises} package (if available). This functionality is merged from the package {mirai.promises}, allowing use of the promise pipe %...>% with a ‘mirai’.
• Parallel clusters (the alternative communications backend for R) now work with existing R versions, no longer requiring R >= 4.4.
• everywhere() evaluates an expression ‘everywhere’ on all connected daemons for a compute profile. Resulting changes to the global environment, loaded pacakges or options are persisted regardless of the ‘cleanup’ setting (request by @krlmlr #80).
• host_url() implemented as a helper function to automatically construct the host URL using the computer’s hostname.
• daemon() adds argument ‘autoexit’, which replaces ‘asyncdial’, to govern persistence settings for a daemon. A daemon can now survive a host session and re-connect to another one (request by @krlmlr #81).
• daemons(NULL) implemented as a variant of daemons(0) which also sends exit signals to connected persistent daemons.
• dispatcher() argument ‘lock’ removed as this is now applied in all cases to prevent more than one daemon dialling into a dispatcher URL at any one time.
• daemon() argument ‘cleanup’ simplified to a logical argument, with more granular control offered by the existing integer bitmask (thanks @krlmlr #79).
• Daemons connecting over TLS now perform synchronous dials by default (as documented).
• Fixes supplying an ssh_config() specifying tunnelling to the ‘remote’ argument of daemons().
• Fixes the print method for a subset ‘miraiCluster’ (thanks @HenrikBengtsson #83).
• Removes the deprecated deferred evaluation pipe %>>%.
• Requires nanonext >= 0.10.4.

mirai 0.11.02023-10-06

• Implements an alternative communications backend for R, adding methods for the ‘parallel’ base package.
  • Fulfils a request by R Core at R Project Sprint 2023, and requires R >= 4.4 (currently R-devel).
  • make_cluster() creates a ‘miraiCluster’, compatible with all existing functions taking a ‘cluster’ object, for example in the ‘parallel’ and ‘doParallel’ / ‘foreach’ packages.
  • status() can now take a ‘miraiCluster’ as the argument to query its connection status.
• launch_remote() improvements:
  • Simplified interface with a single ‘remote’ argument taking a remote configuration to launch daemons.
  • Returned shell commands now have a custom print method which means they may be directly copy/pasted to a remote machine.
  • Can now take a ‘miraiCluster’ or ‘miraiNode’ to return the shell commands for deployment of remote nodes.
• daemons() gains the following features:
  • Adds argument ‘remote’ for launching remote daemons directly without recourse to a separate call to launch_remote().
  • Adds argument ‘resilience’ to control the behaviour, when not using dispatcher, of whether to retry failed tasks on other daemons.
• remote_config() added to generate configurations for directly launching remote daemons, and can be supplied directly to a ‘remote’ argument.
• ssh_config() added as a convenience method to generate launch configurations using SSH, including SSH tunnelling.
• mirai() adds logical argument ‘.signal’ for whether to signal the condition variable within the compute profile upon resolution of the ‘mirai’.
• daemon() argument ‘exitlinger’ retired as daemons now synchronise with the host/dispatcher and exit as soon as possible (although a default ‘exitlinger’ period still applies to ephemeral daemons).
• Optimises scheduling at dispatcher: tasks are no longer assigned to a daemon if it is exiting due to specified time/task-outs.
• An ‘errorValue’ 19 ‘Connection reset’ is now returned for a ‘mirai’ if the connection to either dispatcher or an ephemeral daemon drops, for example if they have crashed, rather than remaining unresolved.
• Invalid type of ‘…’ arguments specified to daemons() or dispatcher() now raise an error early rather than attempting to launch daemons that fail.
• Eliminates a potential crash in the host process after querying status() if there is no longer a connection to dispatcher.
• Reverts the trailing line break added to the end of a ‘miraiError’ character string.
• Moves the ‘…’ argument to daemons(), dispatcher() and daemon() to clearly delineate core vs peripheral options.
• Deprecates the Deferred Evaluation Pipe %>>% in favour of a recommendation to use package mirai.promises for performing side effects upon ‘mirai’ resolution.
• Deprecated use of alias server() for daemon() is retired.
• Adds a ‘reference’ vignette, incorporating most of the information from the readme.
• Requires nanonext >= 0.10.2.

mirai 0.10.02023-09-16

• Uses L’Ecuyer-CMRG streams for safe and reproducible (in certain cases) random number generation across parallel processes (thanks @ltierney for discussion during R Project Sprint 2023).
  • daemons() gains the new argument ‘seed’ to set a random seed for generating these streams.
  • daemon() and dispatcher() gain the argument ‘rs’ which takes a L’Ecuyer-CMRG random seed.
• New developer functions nextstream() and nextget(), opening interfaces for packages which extend mirai.
• Dispatcher enhancements and fixes:
  • Runs in an R session with --vanilla flags for efficiency, avoiding lengthy startup configurations (thanks @alexpiper).
  • Straight pass through without serialization/unserialization allows higher performance and lower memory utilisation.
  • Fixes edge cases of status() occasionally failing to communicate with dispatcher.
  • Fixes edge cases of ending a session with unresolved mirai resulting in a crash rather than a clean exit.
• Tweaks to saisei():
  • specifying argument ‘force’ as TRUE now immediately regenerates the socket and returns any ongoing mirai as an ‘errorValue’. This allows tasks that consistently hang or crash to be cancelled rather than repeated when a new daemon connects.
  • argument ‘i’ is now required and no longer defaults to 1L.
• Tweaks to status():
  • The daemons status matrix adds a column ‘i’ for ease of use with functions such as saisei() or launch_local().
  • The ‘instance’ column is now always cumulative - regenerating a URL with saisei() no longer resets the counter but instead turns it negative until a new daemon connects.
• Improves shell quoting of daemon launch commands, making it easier to deploy manually via launch_remote().
• daemons() and dispatcher() gain the argument ‘pass’ to support password-protected private keys when supplying TLS credentials (thanks @wlandau #76).
• Cryptographic errors when using dispatcher with TLS are now reported to the user (thanks @wlandau #76).
• Passing a filename to the ‘tls’ argument of daemons(), launch_local() or launch_remote() now works correctly as documented.
• Extends and clarifies documentation surrounding use of certificate authority signed TLS certificates.
• Certain error messages are more accurate and informative.
• Increases in performance and lower resource utilisation due to updates in nanonext 0.10.0.
• Requires nanonext >= 0.10.0 and R >= 3.5.

mirai 0.9.12023-07-19

• Secure TLS connections implemented for distributed computing:
  • Zero-configuration experience - simply specify a tls+tcp:// or wss:// URL in daemons(). Single-use keys and certificates are automatically generated.
  • Alternatively, custom certificates may be passed to the ‘tls’ argument of daemons() and daemon(), such as those generated via a Ceritficate Signing Request (CSR) to a Certificate Authority (CA).
• launch_remote() launches daemons on remote machines and/or returns the shell command for launching daemons as a character vector.
  • Example using SSH: launch_remote("ws://192.168.0.1:5555", command = "ssh", args = c("-p 22 192.168.0.2", .).
• User interface optimised for consistency and ease of use:
  • Documentation updated to refer consistently to host and daemons (rather than client and server) for clarity.
  • daemon() replaces server(), which is deprecated (although currently retained as an alias).
  • launch_local() replaces launch_server() and now accepts a vector argument for ‘url’ as well as numeric values to select the relevant dispatcher or host URL, returning invisible NULL instead of an integer value.
  • status() now retrieves connections and daemons status, replacing the call to daemons() with no arguments (which is deprecated). The return value of $daemons is now always the host URL when not using dispatcher.
• Redirection of stdout and stderr from local daemons to the host process is now possible (when running without dispatcher) by specifying output=TRUE for daemons() or launch_local(). daemon() accepts a new ‘output’ argument.
• saisei() argument validation now happens prior to sending a request to dispatcher rather than on dispatcher.
• A ‘miraiError’ now includes the trailing line break at the end of the character vector.
• Requires nanonext >= 0.9.1, with R requirement relaxed back to >= 2.12.

mirai 0.9.02023-06-24

• mirai 0.9.0 is a major release focusing on stability improvements.
• Improvements to dispatcher:
  • Ensures the first URL retains the same format if saisei(i = 1L) is called.
  • Optimal scheduling when tasks are submitted prior to any servers coming online.
  • Fixes rare occasions where dispatcher running a single server instance could get stuck with a task.
  • daemons() status requests have been rendered more robust.
• Ensures saisei() always returns NULL if ‘tcp://’ URLs are being used as they do not support tokens.
• Daemons status matrix ‘assigned’ and ‘complete’ are now cumulative statistics, and not reset upon new instances.
• Requires nanonext >= 0.9.0 and R >= 3.5.0.
• Internal performance enhancements.

mirai 0.8.72023-05-11

• server() and dispatcher() argument ‘asyncdial’ is now FALSE by default, causing these functions to exit if a connection is not immediately available. This means that for distributed computing purposes, daemons() should be called before server() is launched on remote resources, or else server(asyncdial = TRUE) allows servers to wait for a connection.
• launch_server() now parses the passed URL for correctness before attempting to launch a server, producing an error if not valid.

mirai 0.8.42023-05-09

• The deferred evaluation pipe %>>% gains the following enhancements:
  • .() implemented to wrap a piped expression, ensuring return of either an ‘unresolvedExpr’ or ‘resolvedExpr’.
  • expressions may be tested using unresolved() in the same way as a ‘mirai’.
  • allows for general use in all contexts, including within functions.
• Improved error messages for top level evaluation errors in a ‘mirai’.
• Requires nanonext >= 0.8.3.
• Internal stability and performance enhancements.

mirai 0.8.32023-04-17

• mirai() gains the following enhancements (thanks @HenrikBengtsson):
  • accepts a language or expression object being passed to ‘.expr’ for evaluation.
  • accepts a list of ‘name = value’ pairs being passed to ‘.args’ as well as the existing ‘…’.
  • objects specified via ‘…’ now take precedence over ‘.args’ if the same named object appears.
• dispatcher() gains the following arguments:
  • token for appending a unique token to each URL the dispatcher listens at.
  • lock for locking sockets to prevent more than one server connecting at a unique URL.
• saisei() implemented to regenerate the token used by a given dispatcher socket.
• launch_server() replaces launch() for launching local instances, with a simpler interface directly mapping to server().
• Automatically-launched local daemons revised to use unique tokens in their URLs.
• Daemons status matrix headers updated to ‘online’, ‘instance’, ‘assigned’, and ‘complete’.
• Fixes potential issue when attempting to use mirai() with timeouts and no connection to a server.
• Requires nanonext >= 0.8.2.
• Internal performance enhancements.

mirai 0.8.22023-04-03

• dispatcher() re-implemented using an innovative non-polling design. Efficient process consumes zero processor usage when idle and features significantly higher throughput and lower latency.
  • Arguments ‘pollfreqh’ and ‘pollfreql’ removed as no longer applicable.
• Server and dispatcher processes exit automatically if the connection with the client is dropped. This significantly reduces the likelihood of orphaned processes.
• launch() exported as a utility for easily re-launching daemons that have timed out, for instance.
• Correct passthrough of ... variables in the daemons() call.
• Requires nanonext >= 0.8.1.
• Internal performance enhancements.

mirai 0.8.12023-03-17

• Fixes issue where daemon processes may not launch for certain setups (only affecting binary package builds).

mirai 0.8.02023-03-15

• mirai 0.8.0 is a major feature release. Special thanks to @wlandau for suggestions, discussion and testing for many of the new capabilities.
• Compute profiles have been introduced through a new .compute argument in daemons() and mirai() for sending tasks with heterogeneous compute requirements.
  • daemons() can create new profiles to connect to different resources e.g. servers with GPU, accelerators etc.
  • mirai() tasks can be sent using a specific compute profile.
• daemons() interface has a new url argument along with dispatcher for using a background dispatcher process to ensure optimal FIFO task scheduling (now the default).
  • Supplying a client URL with a zero port number :0 will automatically assign a free ephemeral port, with the actual port number subsequently reported by daemons().
  • Calling with no arguments now provides an improved view of the current number of connections / daemons (URL, online and busy status, tasks assigned and completed, instance), replacing the previous daemons("view") functionality.
• dispatcher() is implemented as a new function for the dispatcher.
• server() gains the following arguments:
  • asyncdial to specify how the server dials into the client.
  • maxtasks for specifying a maximum number of tasks before exiting.
  • idletime for specifying an idle time, since completion of the last task before exiting.
  • walltime for specifying a soft walltime before exiting.
  • timerstart for specifying a minimum number of task completions before starting timers.
• Invalid URLs provided to daemons() and server() now error and return immediately instead of potentially causing a hang.
• eval_mirai() is removed as an alias for mirai().
• ‘mirai’ processes are no longer launched in Rscript sessions with the --vanilla argument to enable site / user profile and environment files to be read.
• Requires nanonext >= 0.8.0.
• Internal performance enhancements.

mirai 0.7.22023-01-17

• Internal performance enhancements.

mirai 0.7.12022-11-15

• Allow user interrupts of call_mirai() again (regression in 0.7.0), now returning a ‘miraiInterrupt’.
• Adds auxiliary function is_mirai_interrupt() to test if an object is a ‘miraiInterrupt’.
• Requires nanonext >= 0.7.0: returned ‘errorValues’ e.g. mirai timeouts are no longer accompanied by warnings.
• Internal performance enhancements.

mirai 0.7.02022-10-19

• daemons() now takes ‘n’ and ‘.url’ arguments. ‘.url’ is an optional client URL allowing mirai tasks to be distributed across the network. Compatibility with existing interface is retained.
• The server function server() is exported for creating daemon / ephemeral processes on network resources.
• Mirai errors are formatted better and now print to stdout rather than stderr.
• Improvements to performance and stability requiring nanonext >= 0.6.0.
• Internal enhancements to error handling in a mirai / daemon process.

mirai 0.6.02022-09-16

• Notice: older package versions will no longer be supported by ‘nanonext’ >= 0.6.0. Please ensure you are using the latest version of ‘mirai’ or else refrain from upgrading ‘nanonext’.
• Internal enhancements to daemons() and %>>% deferred evaluation pipe.

mirai 0.5.32022-08-16

• mirai() gains a ‘.args’ argument for passing a list of objects already in the calling environment, allowing for example mirai(func(x, y, z), .args = list(x, y, z)) rather than having to specify mirai(func(x, y, z), x = x, y = y, z = z).
• Errors from inside a mirai will now return the error message as a character string of class ‘miraiError’ and ‘errorValue’, rather than just a nul byte. Utility function is_mirai_error() should be used in place of is_nul_byte(), which is no longer re-exported.
• is_error_value() can be used to test for all errors, including timeouts where the ‘.timeout’ argument has been used.
• All re-exports from ‘nanonext’ have been brought in-package for better documentation.

mirai 0.5.22022-07-21

• Internal optimisations requiring nanonext >= 0.5.2.

mirai 0.5.02022-06-21

• Implements the %>>% deferred evaluation pipe.
• Adds ‘.timeout’ argument to mirai() to ensure a mirai always resolves even if the child process crashes etc.

mirai 0.4.12022-04-21

• Exits cleanly when daemons have not been explicitly zeroed prior to ending an R session.
• Fixes possible hang on Windows when shutting down daemons.

mirai 0.4.02022-04-14

• Back to a pure R implementation thanks to enhanced internal design at nanonext.
• Adds auxiliary function is_mirai() to test if an object is a mirai.
• Versioning system to synchronise with nanonext e.g. v0.4.x requires nanonext >= 0.4.0.

mirai 0.2.02022-03-28

• The value of a mirai is now stored at $data to optimally align with the underlying implementation.
• Package now contains C code (requires compilation), using weak references for simpler management of resources.
• Switch to abstract sockets on Linux.

mirai 0.1.12022-03-15

• mirai() added as an alias for eval_mirai(); supports evaluating arbitrary length expressions wrapped in {}.
• A mirai now resolves automatically without requiring call_mirai(). Access the $value directly and an ‘unresolved’ logical NA will be returned if the async operation is yet to complete.
• stop_mirai() added as a function to stop evaluation of an ongoing async operation.
• Auxiliary functions is_nul_byte() and unresolved() re-exported from {nanonext} to test for evaluation errors and resolution of a ‘mirai’ respectively.
• New daemons() interface to set and manage persistent background processes for receiving ‘mirai’ requests.

mirai 0.1.02022-02-16

• Initial release.