README.md

In nanonext: Lightweight Toolkit for Messaging, Concurrency and the Web

nanonext

Fast, lightweight toolkit for messaging, concurrency, and the web in R. Built on NNG (Nanomsg Next Gen) and implemented almost entirely in C.

• Scalability protocols - pub/sub, req/rep, push/pull, surveyor/respondent, bus, pair
• Multiple transports - TCP, IPC, WebSocket, TLS, in-process
• Async I/O - non-blocking operations with auto-resolving ‘aio’ objects
• Cross-language - exchange data with Python, C++, Go, Rust
• Web toolkit - unified HTTP, WebSocket, and streaming (SSE, NDJSON) on a single port

Quick Start

library(nanonext)

# Open sockets
s1 <- socket("req", listen = "ipc:///tmp/nanonext")
s2 <- socket("rep", dial = "ipc:///tmp/nanonext")

# Send
s1 |> send("hello world")
#> [1] 0

# Receive on the other
s2 |> recv()
#> [1] "hello world"

close(s1)
close(s2)

Async I/O

Non-blocking operations that resolve automatically:

s1 <- socket("rep", listen = "tcp://127.0.0.1:5556")
s2 <- socket("req", dial = "tcp://127.0.0.1:5556")

# Sender
s2 |> send_aio("async request")

# Async operations return immediately
aio <- recv_aio(s1)
aio
#> < recvAio | $data >

# Retrieve result when ready
aio$data
#> [1] "async request"

close(s1)
close(s2)

Web Toolkit

One server, one port – HTTP endpoints, WebSocket connections, and streaming all coexist. Mbed TLS built in for HTTPS/WSS.

# Generate self-signed certificates
cert <- write_cert(cn = "127.0.0.1")

# HTTPS server (port 0 = auto-assign a free port)
server <- http_server(
  url = "https://127.0.0.1:0",
  handlers = list(
    handler("/", \(req) list(status = 200L, body = '{"status":"ok"}'))
  ),
  tls = tls_config(server = cert$server)
)
server$start()

# Async HTTPS client
aio <- ncurl_aio(server$url, tls = tls_config(client = cert$client))
while (unresolved(aio)) later::run_now(1)
aio$data
#> [1] "{\"status\":\"ok\"}"

server$close()

Documentation

| Guide | Topics | |:---|:---| | Quick Reference | At-a-glance API overview | | Messaging | Cross-language, async, synchronisation | | Protocols | req/rep, pub/sub, surveyor/respondent | | Configuration | TLS, options, serialization | | Web Toolkit | HTTP client/server, WebSocket, streaming |

Installation

# CRAN
install.packages("nanonext")

# Development version
install.packages("nanonext", repos = "https://r-lib.r-universe.dev")

Building from Source

Linux / Mac / Solaris

Requires ‘libnng’ >= v1.11.0 and ‘libmbedtls’ >= 2.5.0, or ‘cmake’ to compile bundled libraries (libnng v1.11.1-pre, libmbedtls v3.6.5).

Recommended: Let the package compile bundled libraries for optimal performance:

Sys.setenv(NANONEXT_LIBS = 1)
install.packages("nanonext")

System packages: libnng-dev / nng-devel, libmbedtls-dev / libmbedtls-devel. Set INCLUDE_DIR and LIB_DIR for custom locations.

Windows

Requires Rtools. For R >= 4.2, cmake is included. Earlier versions need cmake installed separately and added to PATH.

Links

Documentation \| NNG \| Mbed TLS \| CRAN HPC Task View \| CRAN Web Technologies

Acknowledgements

• Garrett D’Amore (NNG author) for advice and implementing features for nanonext
• R Consortium for funding TLS development, with support from Henrik Bengtsson and Will Landau
• Joe Cheng for prototyping event-driven promises integration
• Luke Tierney and Mike Cheng for R serialization documentation
• Travers Ching for novel ideas on custom serialization
• Jeroen Ooms for the Anticonf configure script

–

Please note that this project is released with a Contributor Code of Conduct. By participating in this project you agree to abide by its terms.

nanonext documentation built on May 4, 2026, 5:06 p.m.