Re: [coldsync-hackers] plugins (dynamic library) and search paths.

[Andrew Arensburger <arensb+CShackers@ooblick.com>]

On Thu, 16 Aug 2001, Fred Gylys-Colwell wrote:
> search paths:  I would like to have the .coldsyncrc file have a "search path"
> so that I do not need to specify full path for each conduit.  The default path
> would be the same place that the default plugins get installed.  Would anyone
> else find this useful?  (I haven't actually done anything on this one yet.)

	Yes. IMHO the way to do this would be to have an "options" block
in .coldsyncrc:

	options {
		path: /usr/local/sbin:/usr/local/libexec/conduits
	}

or something. Obviously it'd be nice to be able to add to the path, rather
than just set it once and for all.

	In any case, if I were doing it right now, I'd probably have the
parser create a linked list, put it in the configuration struct, and allow
run_conduit() to look at the list. If you want to do something like this,
go for it.

> plugins:  I have added a routine that loads a library (using dlopen etc.) so
> that I can recompile my plugin without re-installing coldsync.  It works under
> linux, but I would need help getting it to compile on other platforms.  Should
> I clean it up and post a patch?   To make it really clean, some of the data
> structures in "coldsync.h" would have to be visible to the plugin, like in
> include/pconn/something.h.

	That can probably be arranged. What needs to be visible?
	I originally conceived of conduits as being dlopen()able shared
libraries, but eventually decided to have them run as separate processes.
That way, if a conduit dumps core, it doesn't bring down the entire
application with it. Also, an external conduit can be setuid without
requiring the entire application to be setuid. Plus, IIRC, inter-process
pipes are more portable than dlopen(), though I could be wrong.
	Having said this, I guess you could still make a case for shared
objects.

> Perhaps I have the wrong end of the stick on the second idea.  Can a conduit
> talk to the palm directly?  I want to use high level routines like DlpOpenDB,
> but that needs a PConnection.  It looks like only one PConnection is created at
> the beginning, not one per conduit.

	Sync conduits can use SPC. This is basically a DLP request with a
header in front. ColdSync relays this to the Palm, and relays the response
back to the conduit.
	Obviously, this involves more processing and isn't as efficient as
the built-in generic conduit.

> Are there any examples of Sync conduits
> out there?

	Take a look at "conduits/copy-appinfo".

-- 
Andrew Arensburger                      Actually, these _do_ represent the
arensb@ooblick.com                      opinions of ooblick.com!
                        Generic Tagline V 6.01

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