ringbuf

A lock-free, single-producer, single-consumer, ring buffer for Python and Cython.

Installation

OS X: brew install boost

Ubuntu: apt-get install libboost-all-dev

Windows: Install the latest version of Boost then set the BOOST_ROOT environment variable to point to its folder.

Then:

pip install ringbuf

Motivation

When working with realtime DSP in Python, we might be wrapping some external C/C++ library (for instance, PortAudio) which runs some user-provided callback function in realtime. The callback function shouldn’t allocate/deallocate memory, shouldn’t contain any critical sections (mutexes), and so forth, to prevent priority inversion. If the callback were to contain Python objects, we’d likely be allocating and deallocating, and at the very least, acquiring and releasing the GIL. So, the callback cannot interact with Python objects if we expect realtime performance. As such, there’s a need for buffering data in a non-locking way between a C/C++ callback and Python.

Enter ringbuf, Cython wrappers for boost::spsc_queue. Our Python code can read from and write to a ringbuf.RingBuffer object, and our C++ code can read from and write to that buffer’s underlying spsc_queue, no GIL required.

Usage

Any Python object which supports the buffer protocol can be stored in ringbuf.RingBuffer. This includes, but is not limited to: bytes, bytearray, array.array, and numpy.ndarray.

NumPy

import numpy as np
from ringbuf import RingBuffer
buffer = RingBuffer(format='f', capacity=100)
data = np.linspace(-1, 1, num=100, dtype='f')
buffer.push(data)
popped = buffer.pop(100)
assert np.array_equal(data, popped)

bytes

from ringbuf import RingBuffer
buffer = RingBuffer(format='B', capacity=11)
buffer.push(b'hello world')
popped = buffer.pop(11)
assert bytes(popped) == b'hello world'

Interfacing with C/C++

mymodule.pxd:

# distutils: language = c++
cdef void callback(void* q)

mymodule.pyx:

# distutils: language = c++
from array import array
from ringbuf.boost cimport spsc_queue, void_ptr_to_spsc_queue_char_ptr
from ringbuf.ringbufcy cimport RingBuffer
from some_c_library cimport some_c_function
cdef void callback(void* q):
    cdef:
        # Cast the void* back to an spsc_queue.
        # The underlying queue always holds chars.
        spsc_queue[char] *queue = void_ptr_to_spsc_queue_char_ptr(q)
        double[5] to_push = [1.0, 2.0, 3.0, 4.0, 5.0]
    # Since the queue holds chars, you'll have to cast and adjust size accordingly.
    queue.push(<char*>to_push, sizeof(double) * 5)
def do_stuff():
    cdef:
        RingBuffer buffer = RingBuffer(format='d', capacity=100)
        void* queue = buffer.queue_void_ptr()
    # Pass our callback and a void pointer to the buffer's queue to some third party library.
    # Presumably, the C library schedules the callback and passes it the queue's void pointer.
    some_c_function(callback, queue)
    sleep(1)
    assert array.array('d', buffer.pop(5)) == array.array('d', range(1, 6))

Handling overflow & underflow

When RingBuffer.push() overflows, it returns the data that couldn’t be pushed (or None, if all was pushed):

from ringbuf import RingBuffer
buffer = RingBuffer(format='B', capacity=10)
overflowed = buffer.push(b'spam eggs ham')
assert overflowed == b'ham'

When RingBuffer.pop() underflows, it returns whatever data could be popped:

from ringbuf import RingBuffer
buffer = RingBuffer(format='B', capacity=13)
buffer.push(b'spam eggs ham')
popped = buffer.pop(buffer.capacity * 100)
assert bytes(popped) == b'spam eggs ham'

For additional usage see the tests.

Supported platforms

GitHub Actions tests the following matrix:

• Linux:
  • CPython 3.7
  • CPython 3.8
  • CPython 3.9
  • CPython 3.10
• macOS:
  • CPython 3.10
• Windows:
  • CPython 3.10

Any platform with a C++11 compiler and boost installed should work.

Contributing

Pull requests are welcome, please file any issues you encounter.

The code is linted with lintball. There is a pre-commit hook to lint, configured by running:

npm install -g lintball
git config --local core.hooksPath .githooks

Changelog

v2.6.0 2022-09-27

• Move CI to GitHub Actions.
• Lint codebase with lintball
• Improve project structure

v2.5.0 2020-04-17

• Added experimental support for Windows.

v2.4.0 2020-03-23

• Added RingBuffer.reset() method to clear the buffer.

v2.3.0 2020-03-22

• Added concatenate function for joining multiple arbitrary Python objects that support the buffer protocol.