% Generated by roxygen2: do not edit by hand
% Please edit documentation in R/Future-class.R
\name{Future-class}
\alias{Future-class}
\alias{Future}
\title{A future represents a value that will be available at some point in the future}
\usage{
Future(
  expr = NULL,
  envir = parent.frame(),
  substitute = TRUE,
  stdout = TRUE,
  conditions = "condition",
  globals = NULL,
  packages = NULL,
  seed = FALSE,
  lazy = FALSE,
  local = TRUE,
  gc = FALSE,
  earlySignal = FALSE,
  label = NULL,
  ...
)
}
\arguments{
\item{expr}{An \R \link[base]{expression}.}

\item{envir}{The \link{environment} from where global objects should be
identified.}

\item{substitute}{If TRUE, argument \code{expr} is
\code{\link[base]{substitute}()}:ed, otherwise not.}

\item{stdout}{If TRUE (default), then the standard output is captured,
and re-outputted when \code{value()} is called.
If FALSE, any output is silenced (by sinking it to the null device as
it is outputted).
If NA (not recommended), output is \emph{not} intercepted.}

\item{conditions}{A character string of conditions classes to be captured
and relayed.  The default is to relay messages and warnings.
To not intercept any types of conditions, use \code{conditions = NULL}.
Attribute \code{exclude} can be used to ignore specific classes, e.g.
\code{conditions = structure("condition", exclude = "message")} will capture
all \code{condition} classes except those that inherits from the \code{message} class.
Errors are always relayed.}

\item{globals}{(optional) a logical, a character vector, or a named list
to control how globals are handled.
For details, see section 'Globals used by future expressions'
in the help for \code{\link[=future]{future()}}.}

\item{packages}{(optional) a character vector specifying packages
to be attached in the \R environment evaluating the future.}

\item{seed}{(optional) If TRUE, the random seed, that is, the state of the
random number generator (RNG) will be set such that statistically sound
random numbers are produced (also during parallelization).
If FALSE (default), it is assumed that the future expression does neither
need nor use random numbers generation.
To use a fixed random seed, specify a L'Ecuyer-CMRG seed (seven integer)
or a regular RNG seed (a single integer).  If the latter, then a
L'Ecuyer-CMRG seed will be automatically created based on the given seed.
Furthermore, if FALSE, then the future will be monitored to make sure it
does not use random numbers.  If it does and depending on the value of
option \code{\link[=future.options]{future.rng.onMisuse}}, the check is
ignored, an informative warning, or error will be produced.
If \code{seed} is NULL, then the effect is as with \code{seed = FALSE}
but without the RNG check being performed.}

\item{lazy}{If FALSE (default), the future is resolved
eagerly (starting immediately), otherwise not.}

\item{local}{If TRUE, the expression is evaluated such that
all assignments are done to local temporary environment, otherwise
the assignments are done to the global environment of the \R process
evaluating the future.}

\item{gc}{If TRUE, the garbage collector run (in the process that
evaluated the future) only after the value of the future is collected.
Exactly when the values are collected may depend on various factors such
as number of free workers and whether \code{earlySignal} is TRUE (more
frequently) or FALSE (less frequently).
\emph{Some types of futures ignore this argument.}}

\item{earlySignal}{Specified whether conditions should be signaled as soon
as possible or not.}

\item{label}{An optional character string label attached to the future.}

\item{\dots}{Additional named elements of the future.}
}
\value{
An object of class \code{Future}.
}
\description{
A \emph{future} is an abstraction for a \emph{value} that may
available at some point in the future.  A future can either be
\code{unresolved} or \code{resolved}, a state which can be checked
with \code{\link[=resolved]{resolved()}}.  As long as it is \emph{unresolved}, the
value is not available.  As soon as it is \emph{resolved}, the value
is available via \code{\link[future]{value}()}.
}
\details{
A Future object is itself an \link{environment}.
}
\seealso{
One function that creates a Future is \code{\link[=future]{future()}}.
It returns a Future that evaluates an \R expression in the future.
An alternative approach is to use the \code{\link{\%<-\%}} infix
assignment operator, which creates a future from the
right-hand-side (RHS) \R expression and assigns its future value
to a variable as a \emph{\link[base:delayedAssign]{promise}}.
}
\keyword{internal}
