Commit a5ea67d7 authored by Martin Mares's avatar Martin Mares
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Update development docs on the CLI

parent f9cbd620
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+21 −20
Original line number Diff line number Diff line
@@ -32,35 +32,36 @@
 * Each CLI session is internally represented by a &cli structure and a
 * resource pool containing all resources associated with the connection,
 * so that it can be easily freed whenever the connection gets closed, not depending
 * on the current state of command processing.
 * on the current state of command processing. A socket is associated with
 * the session, over which requests and replies are sent.
 *
 * The CLI commands are declared as a part of the configuration grammar
 * by using the |CF_CLI| macro. When a command is received, it is processed
 * by the same lexical analyzer and parser as used for the configuration, but
 * it's switched to a special mode by prepending a fake token to the text,
 * so that it uses only the CLI command rules. Then the parser invokes
 * an execution routine corresponding to the command, which either constructs
 * the whole reply and returns it back or (in case it expects the reply will be long)
 * it prints a partial reply and asks the CLI module (using the @cont hook)
 * to call it again when the output is transferred to the user.
 * an execution routine corresponding to the command, which constructs the
 * reply.
 *
 * The @this_cli variable points to a &cli structure of the session being
 * currently parsed, but it's of course available only in command handlers
 * not entered using the @cont hook.
 * Replies are buffered in memory and then sent asynchronously. Commands
 * which produce long outputs must split them to pieces and yield to other
 * operations between pieces. To simplify this (and possibly also complex
 * parsing of input), the CLI session runs in a coroutine with its own
 * execution context. At any time, cli_yield() can be called to interrupt
 * the current coroutine and have the buffered output sent.
 *
 * Alternatively, a long sequence of replies can be split to parts
 * using the @cont hook, which translates to yielding internally.
 *
 * TX buffer management works as follows: At cli.tx_buf there is a
 * list of TX buffers (struct cli_out), cli.tx_write is the buffer
 * currently used by the producer (cli_printf(), cli_alloc_out()) and
 * cli.tx_pos is the buffer currently used by the consumer
 * (cli_write(), in system dependent code). The producer uses
 * cli_out.wpos ptr as the current write position and the consumer
 * uses cli_out.outpos ptr as the current read position. When the
 * producer produces something, it calls cli_write_trigger(). If there
 * is not enough space in the current buffer, the producer allocates
 * the new one. When the consumer processes everything in the buffer
 * queue, it calls cli_written(), tha frees all buffers (except the
 * first one) and schedules cli.event .
 * The @this_cli variable points to a &cli structure of the session being
 * currently parsed, but it's available only before the first yield.
 *
 * A note on transmit buffer management: cli.tx_buf is a head of a list
 * of TX buffers (struct cli_out). A buffer pointed to by cli.tx_write
 * is the one currently written to using cli_printf() and cli_alloc_out(),
 * its wpos field points to the position of the write head in that buffer.
 * On the other side, cli.tx_pos is the buffer being set to the socket
 * and its outpos field is the position of the read head.
 */

#undef LOCAL_DEBUG