Macros¶

#define ELEKTRA_PLUGIN_FUNCTION(module, function) libelektra_##module##_LTX_elektraPlugin##function
Declare a plugin's function name suitable for compilation variants (see doc/tutorials). #define ELEKTRA_README(module) ELEKTRA_README2(module)
The filename for inclusion of the readme for compilation variants (see doc/tutorials). #define ELEKTRA_SET_ERROR(number, key, text)
Sets the error in the keys metadata. #define ELEKTRA_SET_ERRORF(number, key, formatstring, ...)
Sets the error in the keys metadata. #define ELEKTRA_ADD_WARNINGF(number, key, formatstring, ...)
Adds an warning in the keys metadata. #define ELEKTRA_ADD_WARNING(number, key, text)
Adds an warning in the keys metadata.

Functions¶

Plugin * elektraPluginExport (const char *pluginName,...)
Allows one to Export Methods for a Plugin. KeySet * elektraPluginGetConfig (Plugin *handle)
Returns the configuration of that plugin. void elektraPluginSetData (Plugin *plugin, void *data)
Store a pointer to any plugin related data. void * elektraPluginGetData (Plugin *plugin)
Get a pointer to any plugin related data stored before. int elektraDocOpen (Plugin *handle, Key *warningsKey)
Initialize data for the plugin. int elektraDocClose (Plugin *handle, Key *warningsKey)
Finalize the plugin. int elektraDocGet (Plugin *handle, KeySet *returned, Key *parentKey)
Get data from storage to application. int elektraDocSet (Plugin *handle, KeySet *returned, Key *parentKey)
Set data from application to storage. int elektraDocError (Plugin *handle, KeySet *returned, Key *parentKey)
Rollback in case of errors.

#define ELEKTRA_ADD_WARNING(number, key, text)¶

Adds an warning in the keys metadata. Include kdberrors.h to make it work:

#include <kdberrors.h>

Parameters:

#define ELEKTRA_ADD_WARNINGF(number, key, formatstring, ...)¶

Adds an warning in the keys metadata. Include kdberrors.h to make it work:

#include <kdberrors.h>

Parameters:

#define ELEKTRA_PLUGIN_FUNCTION(module, function) libelektra_##module##_LTX_elektraPlugin##function¶

Declare a plugin's function name suitable for compilation variants (see doc/tutorials). It can be used in the same way as elektraPluginExport().

See also:

Parameters:

#define ELEKTRA_README(module) ELEKTRA_README2(module)¶

The filename for inclusion of the readme for compilation variants (see doc/tutorials).

Parameters:

#define ELEKTRA_SET_ERROR(number, key, text)¶

Sets the error in the keys metadata. Include kdberrors.h to make it work:

#include <kdberrors.h>

Parameters:

#define ELEKTRA_SET_ERRORF(number, key, formatstring, ...)¶

Sets the error in the keys metadata. Include kdberrors.h to make it work:

#include <kdberrors.h>

Parameters:

int elektraDocClose (Plugin * handle, Key * warningsKey)¶

Finalize the plugin. Called prior to unloading the plugin dynamic module. After this function is called, it is ensured that no functions from your plugin will ever be accessed again.

Make sure to free all memory that your plugin requested at runtime. Also make sure to free what you stored by elektraPluginSetData() before.

So for the Doc plugin we need to:

int elektraDocClose(Plugin *handle, Key *warningsKey ELEKTRA_UNUSED)
{


        free (elektraPluginGetData(handle));


        return 0; /* success */
}

After this call, libelektra.so will unload the plugin library, so this is the point to shutdown any affairs with the storage.

Parameters:

Return values:

See also:

int elektraDocError (Plugin * handle, KeySet * returned, Key * parentKey)¶

Rollback in case of errors. First for all plugins elektraDocSet() will be called. If any plugin had problems before the commit (done by the resolver plugin), we can safely rollback our changes.

This method is rarely used by plugins, it is mainly used for resolvers (to implement rollback) or by logging plugins. It is not needed for storage plugins, because they only operate on temporary files created by the resolver.

Parameters:

Return values:

int elektraDocGet (Plugin * handle, KeySet * returned, Key * parentKey)¶

Get data from storage to application. Retrieve information from a permanent storage to construct a keyset.

Contract Handling¶

The contract is a keyset that needs to be returned if the parentKey is system/elektra/modules/yourpluginname.

Which keys and their meaning is specified in doc/CONTRACT.ini

Here is an example for our doc plugin:

int elektraDocGet(Plugin *plugin ELEKTRA_UNUSED, KeySet *returned, Key *parentKey)
{


        if (!strcmp(keyName(parentKey), "system/elektra/modules/doc"))


        {


                KeySet *contract = ksNew (30,


                keyNew ("system/elektra/modules/doc",


                        KEY_VALUE, "doc plugin waits for your orders", KEY_END),


                keyNew ("system/elektra/modules/doc/exports", KEY_END),


                keyNew ("system/elektra/modules/doc/exports/open",


                        KEY_FUNC, elektraDocOpen, KEY_END),


                keyNew ("system/elektra/modules/doc/exports/close",


                        KEY_FUNC, elektraDocClose, KEY_END),


                keyNew ("system/elektra/modules/doc/exports/get",


                        KEY_FUNC, elektraDocGet, KEY_END),


                keyNew ("system/elektra/modules/doc/exports/set",


                        KEY_FUNC, elektraDocSet, KEY_END),


                keyNew ("system/elektra/modules/doc/exports/error",


                        KEY_FUNC, elektraDocError, KEY_END),
#include ELEKTRA_README(doc)


                keyNew ("system/elektra/modules/doc/infos/version",


                        KEY_VALUE, PLUGINVERSION, KEY_END),


                KS_END);


                ksAppend (returned, contract);


                ksDel (contract);


                return 1; /* success */


        }

Some clauses of the contract, especially the description of the plugin can be done more conveniently directly in a README.md that is included by ELEKTRA_README.

Storage Plugins¶

For storage plugins the filename is written in the value of the parentKey. So the first task of the plugin is to open that file. Then it should parse its content and construct a keyset with all information of that file.

You need to be able to reconstruct the same file with the information of the keyset. So be sure to copy all comments, whitespaces and so on into some metadata of the keys. Otherwise the information is lost after writing the file the next time.

Now lets look at an example how the typical elektraDocGet() might be implemented. To explain we introduce some pseudo functions which do all the work with the storage (which is of course 90% of the work for a real plugin):

•

parse_key will parse a key and a value from an open file handle

The typical loop for a storage plugin will be like:

        FILE *fp = fopen (keyString(parentKey), "r");


        char *key;


        char *value;


        while (parseKey(fp, &key, &value) >= 1)


        {


                Key *read = keyNew(0);


                if (keySetName(read, key) == -1)


                {


                        fclose (fp);


                        keyDel (read);


                        ELEKTRA_SET_ERROR(59, parentKey, key);


                        return -1;


                }


                keySetString(read, value);


                ksAppendKey (returned, read);


                free (key);


                free (value);


        }


        if (feof(fp) == 0)


        {


                fclose (fp);


                ELEKTRA_SET_ERROR(60, parentKey, "not at the end of file");


                return -1;


        }


        fclose (fp);

Filter Plugins¶

For filter plugins the actual task is rather unspecified. You basically can do anything with the keyset. To get roundtrip properties you might want to undo any changes you did in elektraDocSet().

The pseudo functions (which do the real work) are:

•

do_action() which processes every key in this filter

        Key *k;


        ksRewind (returned);


        while ((k = ksNext (returned)) != 0)


        {


                doAction(k);


        }


        return 1; // success
}

Precondition:

Invariant:

Postcondition:

Updating

See also:

Parameters:

Return values:

int elektraDocOpen (Plugin * handle, Key * warningsKey)¶

Initialize data for the plugin. This is the first method called after dynamically loading this plugin. It is guaranteed, that this method will be called before any other method.

This method is responsible for:

• plugin's specific configuration gathering
• initialization of all plugin's internal structs
• initial setup of all I/O details such as opening a file, connecting to a database, setup connection to a server, iff this cannot be done per invocation in elektraDocGet() and elektraDocSet().

You may also read the configuration you can get with elektraPluginGetConfig() and transform it into other structures used by your plugin.

Note:

Instead of global variables the methods elektraPluginGetData() and elektraPluginSetData() exist to store and get any information related to your plugin.

The correct substitute for global variables will be:

typedef struct { int global; } GlobalData;

and then initialize it using:

int elektraDocOpen(Plugin *handle, Key *warningsKey ELEKTRA_UNUSED)
{


        GlobalData *data;


        KeySet *config = elektraPluginGetConfig(handle);


        Key * kg = ksLookupByName(config, "/global", 0);


        data=malloc(sizeof(GlobalData));


        data->global = 0;


        if (kg) data->global = atoi(keyString(kg));


        elektraPluginSetData(handle,data);

Make sure to free everything you allocate within elektraDocClose().

If your plugin has no useful way to startup without config, the module loader would not be able to load the module. To solve that problem the module loader adds the configuration key /module. Even if your plugin is basically not able to startup successfully, it should still provide a fallback when /module is present, so that elektraDocGet() on system/elektra/modules can be called successfully later on.

        if (ksLookupByName(config, "/module", 0))


        {


                return 0;


        }


        // do some setup that will fail without configuration

Return values:

Parameters:

See also:

int elektraDocSet (Plugin * handle, KeySet * returned, Key * parentKey)¶

Set data from application to storage. This function does everything related to set and remove keys in a plugin. There is only one function for that purpose to make implementation of file based plugins much easier.

The keyset returned was filled in with information from the application using elektra and the task of this function is to store it in a permanent way so that a subsequent call of elektraPluginGet() can rebuild the keyset as it was before. See the live cycle to understand:

static void usercode (KDB *handle, KeySet *keyset, Key *key)
{


        // some more user code


        keySetString (key, "mycomment"); // the user changes the key


        ksAppendKey(keyset, key); // append the key to the keyset


        kdbSet (handle, keyset, 0); // and syncs it to disc
}
// so now kdbSet is called
int elektraKdbSet(KDB *handle, KeySet *keyset, Key *parentKey)
{


        int ret = 0;


        // find appropriate plugin and then call it:


        Plugin *plugin = findPlugin(handle);


        ret = elektraDocSet (plugin, keyset, parentKey);


        // the keyset with the key (and others for this plugin)


        // will be passed to this function


        return ret;
}
// so now elektraPluginSet(), which is the function described here,
// is called:
int elektraPluginSet(Plugin *plugin ELEKTRA_UNUSED, KeySet *returned, Key *parentKey ELEKTRA_UNUSED)
{


        // the task of elektraPluginSet is now to store the keys


        Key *k;


        ksRewind (returned);


        while ((k = ksNext (returned)) != 0)


        {


                saveToDisc (k);


        }


        return 1; /* success */
}

Of course all information of every key in the keyset returned need to be stored permanently. So this specification needs to give an exhaustive list of information present in a key.

Precondition:

Make sure to set all keys, all directories and also all hidden keys. If some of them are not wished, the caller kdbSet() and plugins will sort them out.

Invariant:

Postcondition:

See also:

Parameters:

Returns:

Return values:

Plugin* elektraPluginExport (const char * pluginName, ...)¶

Allows one to Export Methods for a Plugin. This function must be called within ELEKTRA_PLUGIN_EXPORT. It define the plugin's methods that will be exported.

All KDB methods implemented by the plugin basically could have random names (convention is elektraName*), except ELEKTRA_PLUGIN_EXPORT.

This is the single symbol that will be looked up when loading the plugin, and the first method of the backend implementation that will be called.

You need to use a macro so that both dynamic and static loading of the plugin works. For example for the doc plugin:

Plugin *ELEKTRA_PLUGIN_EXPORT(doc)
{


        return elektraPluginExport(DOC_PLUGIN_NAME,


                ELEKTRA_PLUGIN_OPEN,    &elektraDocOpen,


                ELEKTRA_PLUGIN_CLOSE,   &elektraDocClose,


                ELEKTRA_PLUGIN_GET,     &elektraDocGet,


                ELEKTRA_PLUGIN_SET,     &elektraDocSet,


                ELEKTRA_PLUGIN_ERROR,   &elektraDocError,


                ELEKTRA_PLUGIN_END);
}

The first parameter is the name of the plugin. Then every plugin should have: ELEKTRA_PLUGIN_OPEN, ELEKTRA_PLUGIN_CLOSE, ELEKTRA_PLUGIN_GET, ELEKTRA_PLUGIN_SET and optionally ELEKTRA_PLUGIN_ERROR.

The list is terminated with ELEKTRA_PLUGIN_END.

You must use static 'char arrays' in a read only segment. Don't allocate storage, it won't be freed.

Parameters:

Returns:

KeySet* elektraPluginGetConfig (Plugin * handle)¶

Returns the configuration of that plugin.

• The user/ config holds plugin specific configuration
• The system/ config holds backend specific configuration

So prefer cascading lookups to honor both.

Parameters:

Returns:

void* elektraPluginGetData (Plugin * plugin)¶

Get a pointer to any plugin related data stored before.

Parameters:

Returns:

void elektraPluginSetData (Plugin * plugin, void * data)¶

Store a pointer to any plugin related data.

Parameters: