BlockingSleep

A simple gem with native C extension for Ruby thread experiments.

Description

BlockingSleep provides a sleep method that blocks execution at the native code level without releasing the GVL (Global VM Lock). This differs from the standard Kernel.sleep, which releases the GVL and allows other threads to execute.

Installation

gem build blocking_sleep.gemspec
gem install blocking_sleep-0.2.0.gem

Or for development:

cd ext/blocking_sleep
ruby extconf.rb
make
cd ../..

Usage

require 'blocking_sleep'

# Blocking sleep for 2 seconds
BlockingSleep.sleep(2)

Thread Experiment Example

require 'blocking_sleep'

# Regular sleep - other threads can execute
Thread.new do
  puts "Thread 1: start"
  sleep(2)  # Releases GVL
  puts "Thread 1: end"
end

Thread.new do
  puts "Thread 2: running during sleep"
end

sleep(3)

# Blocking sleep - blocks entire VM
Thread.new do
  puts "Thread 3: start"
  BlockingSleep.sleep(2)  # Does NOT release GVL
  puts "Thread 3: end"
end

Thread.new do
  puts "Thread 4: will be blocked!"
end

sleep(3)

Warning

This gem is created exclusively for educational purposes and GVL experiments. DO NOT use in production code!