Replace pub with xpub proposal

[JohanMabille]

Replace PUB socket with XPUB socket

Problem

A Jupyter kernel uses a PUB socket as a broadcast channel where it publishes various messages (incoming requests, outputs, events). Any client that wants to be notified of what happens in the kernel can simply subscribe to this channel via a SUB socket. The issue with this simple PUB - SUB pattern is that there is no simple mechanism for clients to wait for their iopub subscription to be established.

This is particularly problematic when a client needs to send a bunch of execution requests just after starting a kernel (a typical use case is the "Restart Kernel and execute all" command of Jupyter Lab, or opening a Notebook with Voilà). In that case, the client needs to ensure that its SUB socket is connected to the PUB socket of the kernel before sending any execution request, otherwise it may miss some outputs. The kernel, on its side, will not emit any event until it receives a request.

Current solution

The current solution consists of sending kernel_info requests until a kernel_info reply is received on the SHELL and an idle status message is received on the SUB socket. If the client receives a kernel_info reply but not the idle status message before a timeout, this means that the SUB socket has not connected yet. The client discards the reply and send a new kernel_info request.

This solution makes the implementation of a Jupyter client more complicated than required. Indeed, ZeroMQ provides a publisher socket that is able to detect new subscriptions.

Proposed Enhancement

We propose to replace the PUB socket of the kernel with an XPUB socket. XPUB sockets receive the following events:

• subscribe (single frame messages with \1{subscription-topic})
• unsubscribe (single frame messages with \0{subscription-topic})

When the IOPub XPUB socket receives an event indicating a new subscription, it shall send an iopub_welcome message with no parent header and the received
subscription in the subscription field, with the given subscription topic:

identity_prefix: ["subscription-topic"]
parent_header: {}
header: {
    "msg_type": "iopub_welcome"
}
content: {
    "subscription": "subscription-topic"
}
metadata: {}

Notes:

• The identity prefix may contain extra information about the message, such as the kernel id, according to the convention used in the IPython kernel:
  kernel.{u-u-i-d}.subscription-topic.
• Subscriptions can be empty (this is almost always the case). An empty subscription means subscribing to all IOPub messages.
• Subscriptions shall be UTF-8 encoded. Non-utf8 subscriptions shall be ignored, and not produce a welcome message.
• Every subscribed client will receive every other client's welcome message, assuming they match existing subscriptions (e.g. empty strings)
• Welcome messages do not and cannot identify the client whose subscription is being received. Receipt of an iopub_welcome message with your subscription does not mean it is in response to your own subscription. However, receiving a message does mean that a matching subscription has been registered for your client, otherwise no message will be received. So if only one subscription is registered, as is normally the case, receiving any welcome message is sufficient to indicate that your client's subscription is fully established. The gist is that receiving a welcome message is a sufficient condition to establish the subscription-propagation event, and additional welcome messages should be expected and ignored.
• Unsubscribe events are ignored.

Impact on existing implementations

Although this enhancement requires changing all the existing kernels, the impact should be limited. Indeed, most of the kernels are based on the kernel wrapper approach, or on xeus.

Regarding clients, this change is backward-incompatible only when they start assuming a welcome message will come. Clients not aware of
the new message will just get an unrecognized iopub message they can safely ignore.

Most of the clients are based on the Jupyter Server. Therefore, the changes should be limited to this repository and to the notebook. The new
recommended starting procedure is:

1. always probe with a single kernel_info_request (required for protocol adaptation)
2. check protocol version in reply
   i. if welcome message is supported, wait for it on iopub
   ii. if not:
   a. use current request & wait loop (recommended, especially for current clients that already have this implemented)
   b. accept and warn about possible loss of early iopub messages for 'old' kernels ((increasingly common over time as protocol updates can be more safely assumed, especially for new clients

Relevant Resources (GitHub repositories, Issues, PRs)

GitHub repositories

• Jupyter Client: https://github.com/jupyter/jupyter_client
  The Jupyter protocol client APIs
• Jupyter Server: https://github.com/jupyter-server/jupyter_server
  The backend to Jupyter web applications
• Jupyter Notebook: https://github.com/jupyter/notebook
  The Jupyter interactive notebook
• IPyKernel: https://github.com/ipython/ipykernel
  IPython kernel for Jupyter
• Xeus: https://github.com/jupyter-xeus/xeus
  The C++ implementation of the Jupyter kernel protocol

GitHub Issues

• Main issue in jupyter_client: SUB sockets take time to subscribe to the IOPub channel and miss important messages (SUB sockets take time to subscribe to the IOPub channel and miss important messages jupyter_client#593)
• Related issue in Xeus for implementation detail: Implement Last Value Cache pattern for iopub (Implement Last Value Cache pattern for iopub jupyter-xeus/xeus#266)

GitHub Pull Requests

• in jupyter_client: retry kernel_info_requests in wait_for_ready (retry kernel_info_requests in wait_for_ready jupyter_client#592)
• in jupyter_server: Nudge kernel with info request until we receive IOPub messages (Nudge kernel with info request until we receive IOPub messages jupyter-server/jupyter_server#361)
• in notebook: ensure iopub subscriptions propagate prior to accepting websocket connections (ensure iopub subscriptions propagate prior to accepting websocket connections notebook#5908)

cc @SylvainCorlay @jtpio @martinRenou @maartenbreddels @minrk

EDIT: incorporated feedbacks from @minrk

[SylvainCorlay]

Thanks @JohanMabille I think this will be a significant improvement!

[Carreau]

I have no objections.

Do we know of any case where a kernel is running without a client, like embedded where you might connect/disconnect every now and then to monitor? Would changing to XPUB block the application until there is a connection ?

[JohanMabille]

Do we know of any case where a kernel is running without a client, like embedded where you might connect/disconnect every now and then to monitor

I'm not aware of such a use case.

Would changing to XPUB block the application until there is a connection ?

It won't. XPUB is really similar to PUB, the only difference is that it can detect new subscription / unsubscription and notify the kernel. If you publish message on XPUB while no subscriber has connected, the message is simply discarded.

[SylvainCorlay]

Ping @minrk @blink1073 @ellisonbg @fperez @Carreau!

We would love to have some feedback on this, as it would greatly simplify the handling of kernels.

[minrk]

I think this is a great idea. Since PUB is really a special case of XPUB where subscription messages are handled internally, the only backward-incompatible part of this proposal happens when clients start assuming a welcome message will come. Everything else will behave the same with no changes on the kernel or client. Clients not aware of the new message will just get an unrecognized iopub message they can safely ignore.

That means that clients can still use a kernel_info request to probe the protocol version to determine if they should expect a welcome message or have to fallback on the current probe & wait loop. There's no downside to kernels migrating promptly, and clients can be conservative about what they do wrt backward-compatibility. I would recommend, for client that want to wait for subscriptions to be ready:

1. always probe with a single kernel_info_request (we've always needed this for protocol adaptation)
2. check protocol version in reply
   1. if welcome message supported, wait for it on iopub
   2. if not:
      1. use current request & wait loop (recommended, especially for current clients that already have this implemented)
      2. accept and warn about possible loss of early iopub messages for 'old' kernels (increasingly common over time as protocol updates can be more safely assumed, especially for new clients)

[blink1073]

This proposal looks great to me, pending incorporation of @minrk's feedback.

[ellisonbg]

It is not likely I will have time to look at this anytime soon, but I trust the input of others here and am fine with it moving forward.

…

On Thu, Feb 25, 2021 at 4:08 AM Min RK ***@***.***> wrote: ***@***.**** approved this pull request. ------------------------------ In jupyter-xpub/jupyter-xpub.md <#65 (comment)> : > + +## Problem + +A Jupyter kernel uses a PUB socket as a broadcast channel where it publishes various messages (incoming requests, outputs, events). Any client that wants to be notified of what happens in the kernel can simply subscribe to this channel via a SUB socket. The issue with this simple PUB - SUB pattern is that the kernel has no mean to detect client subscriptions, and it will broadcast messages whether a client has subscribed or not. + +This is particularly problematic when a client needs to send a bunch of execution requests just after starting a kernel (a typical use case is the "Restart Kernel and execute all" command of Jupyter Lab, or opening a Notebook with Voilà). In that case, the client needs to ensure that its SUB socket is connected to the PUB socket of the kernel before sending any execution request, otherwise it may miss some outputs. The kernel, on its side, will not emit any event until it receives a request. + +## Current solution + +The current solution consists of sending `kernel_info` requests until a `kernel_info` reply is received on the SHELL and an idle status message is received on the SUB socket. If the client receives a `kernel_info` reply but not the idle status message before a timeout, this means that the SUB socket has not connected yet. The client discards the reply and send a new `kernel_info` request. + +This solution makes the implementation of a Jupyter client more complicated than required. Indeed, ZeroMQ provides a publisher socket that is able to detect new subscriptions. + +## Proposed Enhancement + +We propose to replace the PUB socket of the kernel with an XPUB socket. When it detects a new subscriber, the kernel sends a welcome message to the client. This way, the connecting sequence of the client is simplified: it only has to wait for a `kernel_info` reply and a welcome message on the SUB socket. I think we should be a little more specific here and specify some example messages. XPUB sockets receive the following events: - subscribe (receives messages with \1{subscription}) - unsubscribe (receives messages with \0{subscription}) Should we send a "farewell" message on unsubscribe? I'm assuming not, since we don't really know who is unsubscribing. For example: When the IOPub XPUB socket receives a message indicating a new subscription (a single-frame message starting with the byte \x01 followed by the subscription, it shall send an iopub_welcome message with no parent header and the received subscription in the subscription field, *with the given subscription prefix*: identity_prefix = ["subscription-prefix"] parent_header = {} msg_type = "iopub_welcome" content = { "subscription": "subscription-prefix", } A Python example implementation: SUBSCRIBE = b"\1" UNSUBSCRIBE = b"\0" def notify_subscription(stream, msg_frames): """Handle a subscription notification on an XPUB socket""" msg = msg_frames[0] op, prefix_bytes = msg[:1], msg[1:] try: prefix = prefix_bytes.decode("utf8") except UnicodeError: log.warning(f"Received invalid subscription prefix: {prefix_bytes}") return if op == SUBSCRIBE: log.info(f"Received subscription on '{prefix}'") session.send( stream, "iopub_welcome", content={"subscription": prefix}, ident=[prefix_bytes], ) elif op == UNSUBSCRIBE: log.debug(f"Received unsubscribe on '{prefix}'") else: log.warning(f"Received unrecognized XPUB event: '{msg}'") xpub.XPUB_VERBOSE = 1 # ensure we notify on *every* subscription, even duplicates stream = ZMQStream(xpub) stream.on_recv_stream(notify_subscription) (full example with a subscriber <https://gist.github.com/d59add05d11a40c6f70fd6ed82ada136>) Notes: - The XPUB_VERBOSE socket option should be set to 1, such that repeated subscriptions on a socket still produce notifications - Subscriptions can be empty (indeed, this is almost always the case). An empty subscription means subscribing to all iopub messages because zmq does simple bytestring prefix matching. - Subscriptions shall be UTF-8-encoded. Non-utf8 subscriptions shall be ignored, and not produce a welcome message. - every subscribed client will receive every *other* client's welcome message, assuming they match existing subscriptions (e.g. empty strings). - welcome messages do not and cannot identify the client whose subscription is being received. Receipt of an iopub_welcome message with your subscription does *not* mean it is in response to your own subscription. However, receiving a message does mean that *a* matching subscription has been registered for your client, otherwise no message will be received. So if only one subscription is registered, as is normally the case, receiving *any* welcome message is sufficient to indicate that your client's subscription is fully established. The gist is that receiving a welcome message is a sufficient condition to establish the subscription-propagation event, and additional welcome messages should be expected and ignored. ------------------------------ In jupyter-xpub/jupyter-xpub.md <#65 (comment)> : > +### GitHub repositories + +- Jupyter Client: https://github.com/jupyter/jupyter_client +The Jupyter protocol client APIs +- Jupyter Server: https://github.com/jupyter-server/jupyter_server +The backend to Jupyter web applications +- Jupyter Notebook: https://github.com/jupyter/notebook +The Jupyter interactive notebook +- IPyKernel: https://github.com/ipython/ipykernel +IPython kernel for Jupyter +- Xeus: https://github.com/jupyter-xeus/xeus +The C++ implementation of the Jupyter kernel protocol + +### GitHub Issues + +- Main issue in jpuyter_client: SUB sockets take time to subscribe to the IOPub channel and miss important messages (jupyter/jupyter_client#593) ⬇️ Suggested change -- Main issue in jpuyter_client: SUB sockets take time to subscribe to the IOPub channel and miss important messages (jupyter/jupyter_client#593) +- Main issue in jupyter_client: SUB sockets take time to subscribe to the IOPub channel and miss important messages (jupyter/jupyter_client#593) ------------------------------ In jupyter-xpub/jupyter-xpub.md <#65 (comment)> : > @@ -0,0 +1,54 @@ +# Replace PUB socket with XPUB socket + +## Problem + +A Jupyter kernel uses a PUB socket as a broadcast channel where it publishes various messages (incoming requests, outputs, events). Any client that wants to be notified of what happens in the kernel can simply subscribe to this channel via a SUB socket. The issue with this simple PUB - SUB pattern is that the kernel has no mean to detect client subscriptions, and it will broadcast messages whether a client has subscribed or not. I would be a little more specific here and say that the issue is entirely in the client. Maybe start with stating the client issue: *there is no simple mechanism for clients to wait for their iopub subscriptions to be established*. The given examples show when clients want to wait for that condition. It's not an issue that the kernel doesn't know whether it has any pub/sub subscribers - this is handled just fine, and it's no problem for there to be zero subscribers from the kernel's perspective - if there are no subscribers when it sends an iopub message, discarding those is absolutely the right thing to do, and not a bug. The proposed solution also does not require the kernel to 'detect subscriptions' in that it needs to keep track of whether there are any currently subscribed clients. This is good! I think it's more clearly a kernel-side solution to a client-side problem that we can send an 'ack' message on subscription so that clients can see their own subscriptions take effect immediately within a single channel. The client-side handling can still be purely stateless, and unsubscribe events can be ignored. — You are receiving this because you were mentioned. Reply to this email directly, view it on GitHub <#65 (review)>, or unsubscribe <https://github.com/notifications/unsubscribe-auth/AAAGXUDCBUCLTEYLKUCU4LLTAY4VVANCNFSM4VUSN5SA> .

-- Brian E. Granger Principal Technical Program Manager, AWS AI Platform ([email protected]) On Leave - Professor of Physics and Data Science, Cal Poly @ellisonbg on GitHub

[minrk]

At some point, we should probably consider adopting a spec for IOPub message topic prefixes. I don't think anybody really cares and just subscribes to all, but this is still an unspecified part of the protocol other than this one new message.

[MSeal]

I think @minrk covered potential feedback I'd of had better than I would have done and I generally agree with his assessments and recommendations here.

[JohanMabille]

Is there any blocker preventing this JEP from being merged?

[afshin]

Sorry for the lack of attention @JohanMabille!

@jupyter/steeringcouncil If there are any aspects of this JEP that need to be reconsidered, please take a look and comment.

[afshin]

The coming week is the final work week of 2021. This JEP was opened in January of this year.

I propose we merge this JEP on Friday 24 December or earlier. If there are any showstoppers, please comment before then. Thanks, everyone!

Thank you and apologies to Johan for your patience and perseverance.