how to implement node-nan callback using node-addon-api

Question

Until now I've only implemented synchronous node-addon-api methods, i.e., a JavaScript function makes a call, work is done, and the addon returns. I have big gaps in knowledge when it comes to the inner workings of v8, libuv, and node, so please correct any obvious misconceptions.

The goal is to call a JavaScript callback when C++ garbage collection callbacks are called from v8. I originally just called the JavaScript callback from the v8 garbage collection callback but that ended up with a segv after a couple calls. It seems that just making a call into JavaScript while being called from a v8 callback has some problems (v8 docs the callbacks shouldn't allocate objects). So I looked around and found a Nan-based example that uses libuv and Nan's AsyncResource to make the callback. The following approach works using node-nan:

NAN_GC_CALLBACK(afterGC) {
    uint64_t et = uv_hrtime() - gcStartTime;

    // other bookkeeping for GCData_t raw.

    if (doCallbacks) {
        uv_async_t* async = new uv_async_t;
        GCData_t* data = new GCData_t;

        *data = raw;
        data->gcTime = et;

        async->data = data;

        uv_async_init(uv_default_loop(), async, asyncCB);
        uv_async_send(async);
    }
}

class GCResponseResource : public Nan::AsyncResource {
 public:
    GCResponseResource(Local<Function> callback_)
        : Nan::AsyncResource("nan:gcstats.DeferredCallback") {
    callback.Reset(callback_);
    }

    ~GCResponseResource() {
        callback.Reset();
    }

    Nan::Persistent<Function> callback;
};

static GCResponseResource* asyncResource;

static void closeCB(uv_handle_t *handle) {
    delete handle;
}

static void asyncCB(uv_async_t *handle) {
    Nan::HandleScope scope;
    GCData_t* data = static_cast<GCData_t*>(handle->data);

    Local<Object> obj = Nan::New<Object>();

    Nan::Set(obj, Nan::New("gcCount").ToLocalChecked(),
        Nan::New<Number>((data->gcCount));
    Nan::Set(obj, Nan::New("gcTime").ToLocalChecked(),
        Nan::New<Number>(data->gcTime));

    Local<Object> counts = Nan::New<v8::Object>();
    for (int i = 0; i < maxTypeCount; i++) {
        if (data->typeCounts[i] != 0) {
            Nan::Set(counts, i, Nan::New<Number>(data->typeCounts[i]));
        }
    }
    Nan::Set(obj, Nan::New("gcTypeCounts").ToLocalChecked(), counts);

    Local<Value> arguments[] = {obj};
    Local<Function> callback = Nan::New(asyncResource->callback);
    v8::Local<v8::Object> target = Nan::New<v8::Object>();
    asyncResource->runInAsyncScope(target, callback, 1, arguments);
    delete data;
    uv_close((uv_handle_t*) handle, closeCB);
}

My question is how would I do this using the node-addon-api instead of nan?

It's not clear to me what the node-addon-api equivalent of uv_async_init, uv_async_send, etc are. This is partially because it's not clear to me what underlying N-API (as opposed to node-addon-api) functions are required.

I have been unable to find an example like this. The callback example is completely synchronous. The async pi example uses a worker thread to perform a task but that seems overkill compared to the approach in the nan-based code using the uv primitives.

Answer 1

Your example is not really asynchronous, because the GC callbacks run in the main thread. However when the JS world is stopped because of the GC, this does not mean that it is stopped in a way allowing a callback to run - as the GC can stop it in the middle of a function.

You need a ThreadSafeFunction to do this. Look here for an example: https://github.com/nodejs/node-addon-api/blob/main/doc/threadsafe_function.md