Here's a simple example of a thread that starts another thread:
parent.hoon
/- spider
/+ *strandio
=, strand=strand:spider
^- thread:spider
|= arg=vase
=/ m (strand ,vase)
^- form:m
;< tid=tid:spider bind:m (start-thread %child)
(pure:m !>(~))
child.hoon
/- spider
/+ *strandio
=, strand=strand:spider
^- thread:spider
|= arg=vase
=/ m (strand ,vase)
^- form:m
%- (slog leaf+"foo" ~)
(pure:m !>(~))
Save parent.hoon and child.hoon in /ted, |commit %home and run -parent. You should see something like:
foo
> -parent
~parent.hoon just uses the strandio function start-thread to start child.hoon, and child.hoon just prints foo to the dojo. Since we got foo we can tell the second thread did, in fact, run.
;< tid=tid:spider bind:m (start-thread %child)
See here how we gave start-thread the name of the thread to run. It returns the tid of the thread, which we could then use to poke it or whatever.
start-thread handles creating the tid for the thread so is quite convenient.
Note that threads we start this way will be a child of the thread that started them, and so will be killed when the parent thread ends.
Start thread and get its result
If we want to actually get the result of the thread we started, it's slightly more complicated:
parent.hoon
/- spider
/+ *strandio
=, strand=strand:spider
^- thread:spider
|= arg=vase
=/ m (strand ,vase)
^- form:m
;< =bowl:spider bind:m get-bowl
=/ tid `@ta`(cat 3 'strand_' (scot %uv (sham %child eny.bowl)))
;< ~ bind:m (watch-our /awaiting/[tid] %spider /thread-result/[tid])
;< ~ bind:m %- poke-our
:* %spider
%spider-start
!>([`tid.bowl `tid %child !>(~)])
==
;< =cage bind:m (take-fact /awaiting/[tid])
;< ~ bind:m (take-kick /awaiting/[tid])
?+ p.cage ~|([%strange-thread-result p.cage %child tid] !!)
%thread-done (pure:m q.cage)
%thread-fail (strand-fail !<([term tang] q.cage))
==
child.hoon
/- spider
/+ *strandio
=, strand=strand:spider
=>
|%
++ url "https://www.whatsthelatestbasehash.com/"
--
^- thread:spider
|= arg=vase
=/ m (strand ,vase)
^- form:m
;< =cord bind:m (fetch-cord url)
=/ hash-as-cord `@t`(end [3 (sub (met 3 cord) 1)] cord)
=/ hash `@uv`(slav %uv hash-as-cord)
(pure:m !>(hash))
child.hoon simply grabs the latest base hash from https://www.whatsthelatestbasehash.com/ and returns it.
parent.hoon is a bit more complicated so we'll look at it line-by-line
;< =bowl:spider bind:m get-bowl
First we grab the bowl
=/ tid `@ta`(cat 3 'strand_' (scot %uv (sham %child eny.bowl)))
Then we generate a tid (thread ID) for the thread we're gonna start
;< ~ bind:m (watch-our /awaiting/[tid] %spider /thread-result/[tid])
We pre-emptively subscribe for the result. Spider sends the result at /thread-result/ so that's where we subscribe.
;< ~ bind:m %- poke-our
:* %spider
%spider-start
!>([`tid.bowl `tid %child !>(~)])
==
Spider takes a poke with a mark %spider-start and a vase containing [parent=(unit tid) use=(unit tid) file=term =vase] to start a thread, where:
parentis an optional parent thread. In this case we say the parent is our tid. Specifying a parent means the child will be killed if the parent ends.useis the thread ID for the thread we're creatingfileis the filename of the thread we want to startvaseis the vase it will be given as an argument when it's started
;< =cage bind:m (take-fact /awaiting/[tid])
We wait for a fact which will be the result of the thread.
;< ~ bind:m (take-kick /awaiting/[tid])
Spider will kick us from the subscription when it ends the thread so we also take that kick.
?+ p.cage ~|([%strange-thread-result p.cage %child tid] !!)
%thread-done (pure:m q.cage)
%thread-fail (strand-fail !<([term tang] q.cage))
==
Finally we test whether the thread produced a %thread-done or a %thread-fail. These are the two possible marks produced by spider when it returns the results of a thread. A %thread-done will contain a vase with the result, and a %thread-fail will contain an error message and traceback, so we see which it is and then either produce the result with pure or trigger a %thread-fail with the error we got from the child.
Stop a thread
parent.hoon
/- spider
/+ *strandio
=, strand=strand:spider
^- thread:spider
|= arg=vase
=/ m (strand ,vase)
^- form:m
;< =bowl:spider bind:m get-bowl
=/ tid `@ta`(cat 3 'strand_' (scot %uv (sham %child eny.bowl)))
%- (slog leaf+"Starting child thread..." ~)
;< ~ bind:m %- poke-our
:* %spider
%spider-start
!>([`tid.bowl `tid %child !>(~)])
==
;< ~ bind:m (sleep ~s5)
%- (slog leaf+"Stopping child thread..." ~)
;< ~ bind:m %- poke-our
:* %spider
%spider-stop
!>([tid %.y])
==
;< ~ bind:m (sleep ~s2)
(pure:m !>("Done"))
child.hoon
/- spider
/+ *strandio
=, strand=strand:spider
=>
|%
++ looper
=/ m (strand ,~)
^- form:m
%- (main-loop ,~)
:~ |= ~
^- form:m
;< ~ bind:m (sleep `@dr`(div ~s1 2))
%- (slog leaf+"child thread" ~)
(pure:m ~)
==
--
^- thread:spider
|= arg=vase
=/ m (strand ,vase)
^- form:m
;< ~ bind:m looper
(pure:m !>(~))
child.hoon just prints to the dojo in a loop.
parent.hoon starts child.hoon, and then pokes spider like:
;< ~ bind:m %- poke-our
:* %spider
%spider-stop
!>([tid %.y])
==
%spider-stopis the mark that tells spider to kill a thread.tidis the tid of the thread to kill%.ytells spider to suppress traceback in the result of the killed thread. If you give it%.nit will include the traceback.