Cross-thread RPC via async channel #254
Open
+213
−0
Conversation
This file contains hidden or bidirectional Unicode text that may be interpreted or compiled differently than what appears below. To review, open the file in an editor that reveals hidden Unicode characters.
Learn more about bidirectional Unicode characters
arnetheduck
added a commit
to status-im/nimbus-eth1
that referenced
this pull request
Dec 11, 2025
Instead of using a socket (and having to open a fake connection between EL and CL), this pr switches to status-im/nim-json-rpc#254 for internal communication. Eventually, one could make this more efficient by skipping the JSON step, but like this, we at least no longer have to open an Engine API port which makes this setup more secure and easy to deploy (fewer open ports). There's also fewer potential errors to contend with and payloads don't have to travel across the OS buffers and instead stay internal to the process.
arnetheduck
added a commit
to status-im/nimbus-eth1
that referenced
this pull request
Dec 11, 2025
Instead of using a socket (and having to open a fake connection between EL and CL), this pr switches to status-im/nim-json-rpc#254 for internal communication. Eventually, one could make this more efficient by skipping the JSON step, but like this, we at least no longer have to open an Engine API port which makes this setup more secure and easy to deploy (fewer open ports). There's also fewer potential errors to contend with and payloads don't have to travel across the OS buffers and instead stay internal to the process.
RpcChannel allows using a pair of [async channels](https://github.com/status-im/nim-async-channels) to communicate between threads as if they were connected over a socket or other transport. This setup avoids having to copy the data onto the OS buffer and instead uses a ThreadSignalPtr to wake the target thread. While it is not the most performant way to make cross-thread calls, it is quite convenient for services that already expose a JSON-RPC server - the choice of an internal channel then becomes a simple configuration option where the only thing that changes is the setup.
arnetheduck
force-pushed
the
thread-chan
branch
from
de005d5 to
47a49bb
Compare
Sign up for free
to join this conversation on GitHub.
Already have an account?
Sign in to comment
1 participant
Add this suggestion to a batch that can be applied as a single commit.
This suggestion is invalid because no changes were made to the code.
Suggestions cannot be applied while the pull request is closed.
Suggestions cannot be applied while viewing a subset of changes.
Only one suggestion per line can be applied in a batch.
Add this suggestion to a batch that can be applied as a single commit.
Applying suggestions on deleted lines is not supported.
You must change the existing code in this line in order to create a valid suggestion.
Outdated suggestions cannot be applied.
This suggestion has been applied or marked resolved.
Suggestions cannot be applied from pending reviews.
Suggestions cannot be applied on multi-line comments.
Suggestions cannot be applied while the pull request is queued to merge.
Suggestion cannot be applied right now. Please check back later.
RpcChannel allows using a pair of async
channels to communicate between threads as if they were connected over a socket or other transport.
This setup avoids having to copy the data onto the OS buffer and instead uses a ThreadSignalPtr to wake the target thread.
While it is not the most performant way to make cross-thread calls, it is quite convenient for services that already expose a JSON-RPC server - the choice of an internal channel then becomes a simple configuration option where the only thing that changes is the setup.