etcd-cpp-api is a C++ API for [etcd]

Requirements

0. CMake 3.1.3 and greater required

   • Also needed: autoconf automake curl gcc gcc-c++ gflags-devel git glib2-devel glibc-common glibc-devel gtest-devel libtool make patch unzip wget which xz-devel zlib-devel

1. Build Boost Library (1.55 required for DSSL Cloud)

2. Build Casablanca:

	git clone https://github.com/Microsoft/cpprestsdk.git casablanca &&\
	cd casablanca &&\
	git checkout tags/v2.10.6 &&\
	mkdir build && cd build &&\
	cmake .. -DCMAKE_BUILD_TYPE=Release -DWERROR=OFF -DCMAKE_INSTALL_PREFIX=/usr &&\
	make &&\
	make install

3. Install Protoc & Protobuf & gRPC for C++:

	git clone https://github.com/grpc/grpc.git grpc &&\
	cd grpc &&\
	git checkout tags/v1.15.1 &&\
	git submodule update --init --recursive &&\
	cd third_party/protobuf &&\
	./autogen.sh &&\
	./configure --prefix=/usr &&\
	make && make check && make install && make clean &&\
	ldconfig &&\
	cd - &&\
	make &&\
	make install

etcd 3.3.9 required for DSSL Cloud

Build API

0. Set LIBRARY_TYPE to desired value (STATIC or SHARED) in root CMakeLists.txt
1. If needed, generate .h and .cc files from .proto files, they must be placed into include/etcd/v3/proto directory:

	cd proto &&\
	protoc -I . --grpc_out=../include/etcd/client/v3/proto/ --plugin=protoc-gen-grpc=`which grpc_cpp_plugin` ./rpc.proto &&\
	protoc -I . --cpp_out=../include/etcd/client/v3/proto/ ./*.proto &&\
	cd -

2. Build & install API:

	mkdir build && cd build &&\
	cmake .. &&\
	make &&\
	make install

generic notes

  etcd::Client etcd("http://127.0.0.1:4001");
  etcd::Response response = etcd.get("/test/key1").get();
  std::cout << response.value.value;

Methods of the etcd client object are sending the corresponding gRPC requests and are returning immediatelly with a pplx::task object. The task object is responsible for handling the reception of the HTTP response as well as parsing the gRPC of the response. All of this is done asynchronously in a background thread so you can continue your code to do other operations while the current etcd operation is executing in the background or you can wait for the response with the wait() or get() methods if a synchron behaviour is enough for your needs. These methods are blocking until the HTTP response arrives or some error situation happens. get() method also returns the etcd::Response object.

  etcd::Client etcd("http://127.0.0.1:4001");
  pplx::task<etcd::Response> response_task = etcd.get("/test/key1");
  // ... do something else
  etcd::Response response = response_task.get();
  std::cout << response.value.value;

The pplx library allows to do even more. You can attach continuation ojects to the task if you do not care about when the response is coming you only want to specify what to do then. This can be achieved by calling the then method of the task, giving a funcion object parameter to it that can be used as a callback when the response is arrived and processed. The parameter of this callback should be either a etcd::Response or a pplx::task<etcd:Response>. You should probably use a C++ lambda funcion here as a callback.

  etcd::Client etcd("http://127.0.0.1:4001");
  etcd.get("/test/key1").then([](etcd::Response response)
  {
    std::cout << response.value.value;
  });

  // ... your code can continue here without any delay

Your lambda function should have a parameter of type etcd::Response or pplx::task<etcd::Response>. In the latter case you can get the actual etcd::Response object with the get() function of the task. Calling get can raise exeptions so this is the way how you can catch the errors generated by the REST interface. The get() call will not block in this case since the respose has been already arrived (we are inside the callback).

  etcd::Client etcd("http://127.0.0.1:4001");
  etcd.get("/test/key1").then([](pplx::task<etcd::Response> response_task)
  {
    try
    {
      etcd::Response response = response.task.get(); // can throw
      std::cout << response.value.value;
    }
    catch (std::ecxeption const & ex)
    {
      std::cerr << ex.what();
    }
  });

  // ... your code can continue here without any delay

etcd operations

reading a value

You can read a value with the get method of the clinent instance. The only parameter is the key to be read. If the read operation is successful then the value of the key can be acquired with the value member of the response. Success of the operation can be checked with the is_ok() method of the response. In case of an error, the error_code and error_message members can be used for some further detail.

Please note that there can be two kind of error situations. There can be some problem with the communication between the client and the etcd server. In this case the get() method of the response task will throw an exception as shown above. If the communication is ok but there is some problem with the content of the actual operation, like attemp to read a non-existing key then the response object will give you all the details. Let's see this in an example.

The Value object of the response also holds some extra information besides the string value of the key. You can also get the index number of the creation and the last modification of this key with the created_revision and the modified_revision members.

  etcd::Client etcd("http://127.0.0.1:4001");
  pplx::task<etcd::Response> response_task = etcd.get("/test/key1");

  try
  {
    etcd::Response response = response_task.get(); // can throw
    if (response.is_ok())
      std::cout << "successful read, value=" << response.value.value;
    else
      std::cout << "operation failed, details: " << response.error_message;
  }
  catch (std::ecxeption const & ex)
  {
    std::cerr << "communication problem, details: " << ex.what();
  }

modifying a value

Setting the value of a key can be done with the set() method of the client. You simply pass the key and the value as string parameters and you are done. The newly set value object can be asked from the response object exactly the same way as in case of the reading (with the value member). This way you can check for example the index value of your modification. You can also check what was the previous value that this operation was overwritten. You can do that with the prev_value member of the response object.

  etcd::Client etcd("http://127.0.0.1:4001");
  pplx::task<etcd::Response> response_task = etcd.set("/test/key1", "42");

  try
  {
    etcd::Response response = response_task.get();
    if (response.is_ok())
      std::cout << "The new value is successfully set, previous value was "
                << response.prev_value.value;
    else
      std::cout << "operation failed, details: " << response.error_message;
  }
  catch (std::ecxeption const & ex)
  {
    std::cerr << "communication problem, details: " << ex.what();
  }

The set method creates a new leaf node if it weren't exists already or modifies an existing one. There are a couple of other modification methods that are executing the write operation only upon some specific conditions.

• add(key, value) creates a new value if it's key does not exists and returns a "Key already exists" error otherwise (error code 105)
• modify(key, value) modifies an already existing value or returns a "Key not found" error otherwise (error code 100)
• modify_if(key, value, old_value) modifies an already existing value but only if the previous value equals with old_value. If the values does not match returns with "Compare failed" error (code 101)
• modify_if(key, value, old_index) modifies an already existing value but only if the index of the previous value equals with old_index. If the indices does not match returns with "Compare failed" error (code 101)

deleting a value

Values can be deleted with the rm method passing the key to be deleted as a parameter. The key should point to an existing value. There are conditional variations for deletion too.

• rm_if(key, value, old_value) deletes an already existing value but only if the previous value equals with old_value. If the values does not match returns with "Compare failed" error (code 101)
• rm_if(key, value, old_index) deletes an already existing value but only if the index of the previous value equals with old_index. If the indices does not match returns with "Compare failed" error (code 101)

handling directory nodes

Directory nodes are not supported anymore in etcdv3.

However, ls and rmdir will list/delete keys defined by the prefix. mkdir method is removed since etcdv3 treats everything as keys.

1. Creating a directory: Creating a directory is not supported anymore in etcdv3 cpp client. Users should remove the API from their code.

2. Listing a directory: Listing directory in etcd3 cpp client will return all keys that matched the given prefix recursively.

  etcd.set("/test/key1", "value1").wait();
  etcd.set("/test/key2", "value2").wait();
  etcd.set("/test/key3", "value3").wait();
  etcd.set("/test/subdir/foo", "foo").wait();
  
  etcd::Response resp = etcd.ls("/test/new_dir").get();

resp.key will have the following values: /test/key1 /test/key2 /test/key3 /test/subdir/foo

Note: Regarding the returned keys when listing a directory: In etcdv3 cpp client, resp.key(0) will return "/test/new_dir/key1" since everything is treated as keys in etcdv3. While in etcdv2 cpp client it will return "key1" and "/test/new_dir" directory should be created first before you can set "key1".

When you list a directory the response object's keys and values members gives you a vector of key names and values. The values member with an integer parameter returns with the i-th element of the values vector: response.values[i].

  etcd::Client etcd("http://127.0.0.1:4001");
  etcd::Response resp = etcd.ls("/test/new_dir").get();
  for (int i = 0; i < resp.keys.size(); ++i)
  {
    std::cout << resp.keys[i];
    std::cout << " = " << resp.values[i].value << std::endl;
  }

3. Removing directory: If you want the delete recursively then you have to pass a second true parameter to rmdir and supply a key. This key will be treated as a prefix. All keys that match the prefix will be deleted. All deleted keys will be placed in response.values and response.keys. This parameter defaults to false.

  etcd::Client etcd("http://127.0.0.1:4001");
  etcd.set("/test/key1", "foo");
  etcd.set("/test/key2", "bar");
  etcd.set("/test/key3", "foo_bar");
  etcd::Response resp = etcd.rmdir("/test", true).get();
  for (int i = 0; i < resp.keys.size(); ++i)
  {
    std::cout << resp.keys[i];
    std::cout << " = " << resp.values[i].value << std::endl;
  }  

However, if recursive parameter is false, functionality will be the same as just deleting a key. The key supplied will NOT be treated as a prefix and will be treated as a normal key name.

watching for changes

Watching for a change is possible with the watch() operation of the client. The watch method simply does not deliver a response object until the watched value changes in any way (modified or deleted). When a change happens the returned result object will be the same as the result object of the modification operation. So if the change is triggered by a value change, then response.action will be equal to "set", response.value will hold the new value and response.prev_value will contain the previous value. In case of a delete response.action will be equal to "delete", response.value will be empty and should not be accessed at all and response.prev_value will contain the deleted value.

As mentioned in the section "handling directory nodes", directory nodes are not supported anymore in etcdv3. However it is still possible to watch a whole "directory subtree", or more specifically a set of keys that match the prefix, for changes with passing true to the second recursive parameter of watch (this parameter defaults to false if omitted). In this case the modified value object's key member can be handy to determine what key is actually changed. Since this can be a long lasting operation you have to be prepared that is terminated by an exception and you have to restart the watch operation.

The watch also accepts an index parameter that specifies what is the first change we are interested about. Since etcd stores the last couple of modifications with this feature you can ensure that your client does not miss a single change.

Here is an example how you can watch continuously for changes of one specific key.

void watch_for_changes()
{
  etcd.watch("/nodes", index + 1, true).then([this](pplx::task<etcd::Response> resp_task)
  {
    try
    {
      etcd::Response resp = resp_task.get();
      index = resp.index();
      std::cout << resp.action << " " << resp.value.value << std::endl;
    }
    catch(...) {}
    watch_for_changes();
  });
}

At first glance it seems that watch_for_changes() calls itself on every value change but in fact it just sends the asynchron request, sets up a callback for the response and then returns. The callback is executed by some thread from the pplx library's thread pool and the callback (in this case a small lambda function actually) will call watch_for_changes again from there.

requesting for lease

Users can request for lease which is governed by a time-to-live(TTL) value given by the user. Moreover, user can attached the lease to a key(s) by indicating the lease id in add(), set(), modify() and modify_if(). Also the ttl will that was granted by etcd server will be indicated in ttl().

  etcd::Client etcd("http://127.0.0.1:4001");
  etcd::Response resp = etcd.leasegrant(60).get();
  etcd.set("/test/key2", "bar", resp.value.lease_id);
  std::cout <<"ttl" << resp.value.ttl;

Watcher Class

Users can watch a key indefinitely or until user cancels the watch. This can be done by instantiating a Watcher class. The supplied callback function in Watcher class will be called every time there is an event for the specified key. Watch stream will be cancelled either by user implicitly calling cancel() or when watcher class is destroyed.

  etcd::Watcher watcher("http://127.0.0.1:2379", "/test", printResponse);
  etcd.set("/test/key", "42"); /* print response will be called */
  etcd.set("/test/key", "43"); /* print response will be called */
  watcher.cancel();
  etcd.set("/test/key", "43"); /* print response will NOT be called, since watch is already cancelled */
}

TODO

1. Cancellation of asynchronous calls (except for watch)
2. LeaseKeepAlive