50 lines
2.5 KiB
Plaintext
50 lines
2.5 KiB
Plaintext
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XKB introduces several uncommon data structures:
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- switch allows conditional inclusion of fields
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- several complex objects intermix variable and fixed size fields
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- lists with a variable number of variable size objects
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To handle these objects, a number of new functions is generated:
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- _serialize() turns a structured object into a byte stream,
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(re)ordering or including fields according to the protocol
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- _unserialize() rewrites data from a buffer into a structured object
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- _unpack() expands a buffer representing a switch object into
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a special structured type, all flags needed to resolve the switch
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expression have to given as parameters
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- _sizeof() calculates the size of a serialized object, often by calling
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_unserialize()/_unpack() internally
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The new structured data type for switch is special as it contains fixed
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and variable size fields. Variable size fields can be accessed via pointers.
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If switch appears in a request, an additional set of request helpers is
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generated with the suffix _aux or _aux_(un)checked. While the 'common'
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request functions require that switch has been serialized before, the _aux
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variants take the structured data type. They are especially designed to
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replace certain functions in xcb-util/aux.
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Accessors for switch members need two parameters, where the first is usually
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a pointer to the respective request or reply structure, while the second
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is a pointer to the unpacked switch data structure.
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Functions from the serialize family that take a double pointer can allocate
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memory on their own, which is useful if the size of a buffer has to be
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calculated depending on the data within. These functions call malloc() when
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the double pointer is given as the address of a pointer that has been
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initialized to 0. It is the responsibility of the user to free any allocated
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memory.
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Intermixed variable and fixed size fields are an important special case in XKB.
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The current implementation resolves the issue by reordering the fields before
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sending them on the wire as well as before returning a reply. That means that
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these objects look like 'common' XCB data types and they can be accessed as such
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(i.e. fixed size fields directly via the structured type and variable size fields
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via accessors/iterators).
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In case a list with variable size elements needs to be accessed, it is necessary
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to use iterators. The iterator functions take care of determining the actual
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object size for each element automatically.
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A small and preliminary set of auxiliary functions is available in xkb_util.c
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in the check_xkb module.
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