nanonext

R binding for NNG (Nanomsg Next Gen), a successor to ZeroMQ. NNG is a socket library providing high-performance scalability protocols, or common communication patterns, the basic building blocks for distributed systems.

Designed for performance and reliability, the NNG library is written in C and {nanonext} is a light-weight wrapper with no external package dependencies. Supported transports include inproc (intra-process), IPC (inter-process), TCP/IP (IPv4 or IPv6), and WebSocket.

Can be used for sending data across networks, but equally as an interface for code and processes to communicate with each other. Receive data generated in Python, perform analysis in R, and send results to a C++ program – all on the same computer or on networks spanning the globe.

Installation

Install the latest version of {nanonext} from rOpenSci R-universe:

install.packages("nanonext", repos = "https://shikokuchuo.r-universe.dev")

or the Github source:

remotes::install_github("shikokuchuo/nanonext")

Interfaces

{nanonext} offers 2 equivalent interfaces: an object-oriented interface, and a functional interface.

Object-oriented Interface

The primary object in the object-oriented interface is the nano object. Use nano() to create a nano object which encapsulates a Socket and Dialer/Listener. Methods such as $send() or $recv() can then be accessed directly from the object.

Example using Request/Reply (REQ/REP) protocol with inproc transport:

Create nano objects:

library(nanonext)
nano1 <- nano("req", listen = "inproc://nanonext")
#> listener started...
nano2 <- nano("rep", dial = "inproc://nanonext")
#> dialer started...

Send message from ‘nano1’:

nano1$send("hello world!")
#>  [1] 58 0a 00 00 00 03 00 04 01 02 00 03 05 00 00 00 00 05 55 54 46 2d 38 00 00
#> [26] 00 10 00 00 00 01 00 04 00 09 00 00 00 0c 68 65 6c 6c 6f 20 77 6f 72 6c 64
#> [51] 21

Receive message using ‘nano2’:

nano2$recv()
#> $raw
#>  [1] 58 0a 00 00 00 03 00 04 01 02 00 03 05 00 00 00 00 05 55 54 46 2d 38 00 00
#> [26] 00 10 00 00 00 01 00 04 00 09 00 00 00 0c 68 65 6c 6c 6f 20 77 6f 72 6c 64
#> [51] 21
#> 
#> $data
#> [1] "hello world!"

Functional Interface

The primary object in the functional interface is the Socket. Use socket() to create a socket, and optionally dial or listen at an address. The socket is then passed as the first argument of subsequent actions such as send() or recv().

Example using Pipeline (Push/Pull) protocol with TCP/IP transport:

Create sockets:

library(nanonext)
socket1 <- socket("push", listen = "tcp://127.0.0.1:5555")
#> listener started...
socket2 <- socket("pull", dial = "tcp://127.0.0.1:5555")
#> dialer started...

Send message from ‘socket1’:

send(socket1, "hello world!")
#>  [1] 58 0a 00 00 00 03 00 04 01 02 00 03 05 00 00 00 00 05 55 54 46 2d 38 00 00
#> [26] 00 10 00 00 00 01 00 04 00 09 00 00 00 0c 68 65 6c 6c 6f 20 77 6f 72 6c 64
#> [51] 21

Receive message using ‘socket2’:

recv(socket2)
#> $raw
#>  [1] 58 0a 00 00 00 03 00 04 01 02 00 03 05 00 00 00 00 05 55 54 46 2d 38 00 00
#> [26] 00 10 00 00 00 01 00 04 00 09 00 00 00 0c 68 65 6c 6c 6f 20 77 6f 72 6c 64
#> [51] 21
#> 
#> $data
#> [1] "hello world!"

Building from source

Linux / Mac / Solaris

Installation from source requires the C library ‘libnng’ along with its development headers.

This is available in system package repositories as:

• libnng-dev (deb)
• nng-devel (rpm)
• nng (Homebrew on MacOS)
• nng from vcpkg (see https://vcpkg.io/).

A system installation of ‘libnng’ in the standard filesystem locations will be detected and used if possible.

Otherwise, a release version of ‘libnng’ will be downloaded and built from source automatically during package installation (note: this requires ‘cmake’).

Windows

Pre-built libraries (for i386 / x64 / x64-UCRT) are automatically downloaded during the package installation process.

Upstream

• NNG: https://nng.nanomsg.org/
• Github: https://github.com/nanomsg/nng
• Documentation: https://nng.nanomsg.org/man/tip/