On this page:
place-enabled?
place?
place-channel?
dynamic-place
place
place-wait
place-dead-evt
place-kill
place-break
place-channel
place-channel-put
place-channel-get
place-channel-put/ get
place-message-allowed?

10.5 Places

Currently, parallel support for places is enabled only for Racket 3m (which is the main variant of Racket), and only by default for Windows, Linux x86/x86_64, and Mac OS X x86/x86_64. To enable support for other platforms, use --enable-places with configure when building Racket. The place-enabled? function reports whether places run in parallel.

The bindings documented in this section are provided by the racket/place and racket libraries, but not racket/base.

Places enable the development of parallel programs that take advantage of machines with multiple processors, cores, or hardware threads.

A place is a parallel task that is effectively a separate instance of the Racket virtual machine. Places communicate through place channels, which are endpoints for a two-way buffered communication.

To a first approximation, place channels support only immutable, transparent values as messages. In addition, place channels themselves can be sent across channels to establish new (possibly more direct) lines of communication in addition to any existing lines. Finally, mutable values produced by shared-flvector, make-shared-flvector, shared-fxvector, make-shared-fxvector, shared-bytes, and make-shared-bytes can be sent across place channels; mutation of such values is visible to all places that share the value, because they are allowed in a shared memory space. See place-message-allowed?.

A place channel can be used as a synchronizable event (see Events) to receive a value through the channel. A place can also receive messages with place-channel-get, and messages can be sent with place-channel-put.

Constraints on messages across a place channel—and therefore on the kinds of data that places share—enable greater parallelism than future, even including separate garbage collection of separate places. At the same time, the setup and communication costs for places can be higher than for futures.

For example, the following expression lanches two places, echoes a message to each, and then waits for the places to terminate:

(let ([pls (for/list ([i (in-range 2)])
              (dynamic-place "place-worker.rkt" 'place-main))])
   (for ([i (in-range 2)]
         [p pls])
      (place-channel-put p i)
      (printf "~a\n" (place-channel-get p)))
   (map place-wait pls))

The "place-worker.rkt" module must export the place-main function that each place executes, where place-main must accept a single place channel argument:

#lang racket
(provide place-main)
 
(define (place-main pch)
  (place-channel-put pch (format "Hello from place ~a"
                                  (place-channel-get pch))))

Returns #t if Racket is configured so that dynamic-place and place create places that can run in parallel, #f if dynamic-place and place are simulated using thread.

(place? v)  boolean?
  v : any/c
Returns #t if v is a place descriptor value, #f otherwise. Every place descriptor is also a place channel.

(place-channel? v)  boolean?
  v : any/c
Returns #t if v is place channel, #f otherwise.

(dynamic-place module-path start-proc)  place?
  module-path : module-path?
  start-proc : symbol?
Creates a place to run the procedure that is identified by module-path and start-proc. The result is a place descriptor value that represents the new parallel task; the place descriptor is returned immediately. The place descriptor value is also a place channel that permits communication with the place.

The module indicated by module-path must export a function with the name start-proc. The function must accept a single argument, which is a place channel that corresponds to the other end of communication for the place descriptor returned by place.

When the place is created, the initial exit handler terminates the place, using the argument to the exit handler as the place’s completion value. Use (exit v) to immediately terminate a place with the completion value v. Since a completion value is limited to an exact integer between 0 and 255, any other value for v is converted to 0.

If the function indicated by module-path and start-proc returns, then the place terminates with the completion value 0.

(place id body ...+)
Creates a place that evaluates body expressions with id bound to a place channel. The bodys close only over id plus the top-level bindings of the enclosing module, because the bodys are lifted to a function that is exported by the module. The result of place is a place descriptor, like the result of dynamic-place.

(place-wait p)  exact-integer?
  p : place?
Returns the completion value of the place indicated by p, blocking until the place has terminated.

(place-dead-evt p)  evt?
  p : place?
Returns a synchronizable event (see Events) that is ready if and only if p has terminated.

(place-kill p)  void?
  p : place?
Immediately terminates the place, setting the place’s completion value to 1 if the place does not have a completion value already.

(place-break p)  void?
  p : place?
Sends place p a break signal; see Breaks.

Returns two place channels. Data sent through the first channel can be received through the second channel, and data sent through the second channel can be received from the first.

Typically, one place channel is used by the current place to send messages to a destination place; the other place channel is sent to the destination place (via an existing place channel).

(place-channel-put pch v)  void
  pch : place-channel?
  v : place-message-allowed?
Sends a message v on channel pch.

See place-message-allowed? form information on automatic coercions in v, such as converting a mutable string to an immutable string.

Returns a message received on channel pch.

(place-channel-put/get pch v)  void
  pch : place-channel?
  v : any/c
Sends an immutable message v on channel pch and then waits for a reply message on the same channel.

Returns #t if v is allowed as a message on a place channel, #f otherwise.

If (place-enabled?) returns #f, then the result is always #t and no conversions are performed on v as a message. Otherwise, the following kinds of data are allowed as messages: