backoff: new package.

backoff/README.md

@@ -0,0 +1,83 @@
+# backoff
+## Go implementation of "Exponential Backoff And Jitter"
+
+This package implements the backoff strategy described in the AWS
+Architecture Blog article
+["Exponential Backoff And Jitter"](http://www.awsarchitectureblog.com/2015/03/backoff.html). Essentially,
+the backoff has an interval `time.Duration`; the *n<sup>th</sup>* call
+to backoff will return an a `time.Duration` that is *2 <sup>n</sup> *
+interval*. If jitter is enabled (which is the default behaviour), the
+duration is a random value between 0 and *2 <sup>n</sup> * interval*.
+The backoff is configured with a maximum duration that will not be
+exceeded; e.g., by default, the longest duration returned is
+`backoff.DefaultMaxDuration`.
+
+## Usage
+
+A `Backoff` is initialised with a call to `New`. Using zero values
+causes it to use `DefaultMaxDuration` and `DefaultInterval` as the
+maximum duration and interval.
+
+```
+package something
+
+import "github.com/cloudflare/backoff"
+
+func retryable() {
+        b := backoff.New(0, 0)
+        for {
+                err := someOperation()
+                if err == nil {
+                    break
+                }
+
+                log.Printf("error in someOperation: %v", err)
+                <-time.After(b.Duration())
+        }
+
+        log.Printf("succeeded after %d tries", b.Tries()+1)
+        b.Reset()
+}
+```
+
+It can also be used to rate limit code that should retry infinitely, but which does not
+use `Backoff` itself.
+
+```
+package something
+
+import (
+    "time"
+
+    "github.com/cloudflare/backoff"
+)
+
+func retryable() {
+        b := backoff.New(0, 0)
+        b.SetDecay(30 * time.Second)
+
+        for {
+                // b will reset if someOperation returns later than
+                // the last call to b.Duration() + 30s.
+                err := someOperation()
+                if err == nil {
+                    break
+                }
+
+                log.Printf("error in someOperation: %v", err)
+                <-time.After(b.Duration())
+        }
+}
+```
+
+## Tunables
+
+* `NewWithoutJitter` creates a Backoff that doesn't use jitter.
+
+The default behaviour is controlled by two variables:
+
+* `DefaultInterval` sets the base interval for backoffs created with
+  the zero `time.Duration` value in the `Interval` field.
+* `DefaultMaxDuration` sets the maximum duration for backoffs created
+  with the zero `time.Duration` value in the `MaxDuration` field.
+