#
# libslack - http://libslack.org/
#
# Copyright (C) 1999-2010 raf <raf@raf.org>
#
# This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify
# it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by
# the Free Software Foundation; either version 2 of the License, or
# (at your option) any later version.
#
# This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful,
# but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
# MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.  See the
# GNU General Public License for more details.
#
# You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License
# along with this program; if not, write to the Free Software
# Foundation, Inc., 59 Temple Place, Suite 330, Boston, MA  02111-1307  USA
# or visit http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/gpl.html
#
# 20100612 raf <raf@raf.org>

=head1 NAME

I<libslack> - A UNIX/C library of general utilities for programmers with Slack

    Slack(n.): The state in which you need nothing,
               because you already have it.
                   -- Dobbs, 1956

=head1 SYNOPSIS

Compiling:

    gcc -o app app.c `libslack-config --cflags --libs`

Headers:

    /* Include this before all other header files */
    #include <slack/lib.h>

or

    /* Include this before all other header files */
    #include <slack/std.h>

    /* Then select what you want from the rest */
    #include <slack/agent.h>
    #include <slack/coproc.h>
    #include <slack/daemon.h>
    #include <slack/err.h>
    #include <slack/fio.h>
    #include <slack/hsort.h>
    #include <slack/lim.h>
    #include <slack/link.h>
    #include <slack/list.h>
    #include <slack/locker.h>
    #include <slack/map.h>
    #include <slack/mem.h>
    #include <slack/msg.h>
    #include <slack/net.h>
    #include <slack/prog.h>
    #include <slack/prop.h>
    #include <slack/pseudo.h>
    #include <slack/sig.h>
    #include <slack/str.h>

    #ifndef HAVE_SNPRINTF
    #include <slack/snprintf.h>
    #endif

    #ifndef HAVE_VSSCANF
    #include <slack/vsscanf.h>
    #endif

=head1 DESCRIPTION

Libslack is a library of general utilities designed to make UNIX/C programming
a bit easier on the eye. It is a seemingly random collection of modules and
functions that I find commonly useful.

It's a small library with lots of functionality, accurately documented and
thoroughly tested. Good library naming conventions are not rigorously observed
on the principle that common operations should always be easy to write and code
should always be easy to read.

=head1 FEATURES

=over 4

=item Program Framework

The "framework" parts of I<libslack> are bound to be the most objectionable.
Nobody likes frameworks. Don't worry, there isn't much to it. If you don't
like it, pretend it's not there.

I<Libslack> provides the ability for programs to identify themselves,
perform command line option processing in a single line of code and produce
"standard" GNU style C<--help>, C<--version> and usage messages. Debug and
verbose messaging is also provided and is enabled by the use of "standard"
C<--debug> and C<--verbose> command line options.

Messages (including error, debug and verbose messages) are provided with
clean call syntax and flexible semantics. Messages can be directed to log
files, file descriptors, syslog or multiplexed to any of the above (and to
anywhere else (e.g. dialog boxes) if you implement your own message
handlers) without complicating the call syntax.

ISO C imposes extreme restrictions on signal handlers. POSIX imposes less
extreme but still annoying restrictions. I<Libslack> contains functions that
provide a level of abstraction between the signal handlers that you write
and the real (ISO C compliant) signal handlers. This allows you to write
unrestricted signal handlers.

Coarse grained persistence of simple configuration information is provided
by the use of Java style properties files in "well-known" locations.

=item Daemon Services

I<Libslack> provides functions that make writing daemons trivial. It
includes functions to become a daemon and to optionally create a locked pid
file to ensure that only a single instance of a named daemon is ever active
at the same time. The daemon function behaves appropriately if the client
process is started by I<init(8)> or I<inetd(8)>. There are also functions to
streamline the parsing of simple configuration files (like those commonly
found in the C</etc> directory). There are also functions that help you
write more secure daemons (i.e. revoke setuid/setgid privileges, prevent
core file generation, change user and group, test the safety of a given file
path).

=item Network Services

I<Libslack> provides functions to simplify the implementation of network
servers and clients (TCP, UDP, unicast and multicast) and the (text or
binary) application protocols that they use. Network servers and clients can
be setup in a single line of code. There is transparent support for IPv4,
IPv6 and UNIX domain socket addresses. There is support for reliability over
UDP. Text protocols are implemented by sequences of expect and send
functions. Binary protocol packets can be packed and unpacked (using
functions similar to I<pack()> and I<unpack()> in I<Perl> but
network/storage friendly). There's also a function to send mail.

=item Agent Oriented Programming

I<Libslack> provides a generic agent oriented programming model in the form
of the I<Agent> data type. Like objects, agents can react to external
stimuli. Unlike objects, agents can can also take independent actions. This
is performed by multiplexing I/O events on arbitrary file descriptors using
I<poll()> or I<select()> and also multiplexing timers for scheduling
actions. Connecting and disconnecting file descriptors is done in constant
time. Scheduling and cancelling actions is done in constant time. Timer
maintenance is performed in constant average time. This means that agents
are scalable with respect to the number of outstanding timers and can
support thousands of scheduled actions. A single agent may be used like a
simple event loop, or multiple agents can be connected to each other in
arbitrary networks across multiple threads, processes and/or hosts. A single
agent isn't scalable with respect to the number of connected descriptors but
multiple agents can be combined to achieve much higher scalability.
They're useful for networked applications, distributed systems and
simulations.

=item Data Types

I<Libslack> provides a generic growable pointer array data type called
I<List>, a generic growable hash table data type called I<Map> and a decent
I<String> data type that comes with heaps of functions (many lifted from
I<Perl>). There are also abstract singly and doubly linked list data types
with optional, "growable" freelists.

=item Decoupled Thread Safety

I<Libslack> provides the I<Locker> data type which decouples thread
synchronisation strategies from client code. This allows code to be written
that delegates the choice of synchronisation strategy to the client. This
enables run time selection of locking strategies which means it's even
possible to let the end user specify which locking strategy to use. It
supports mutual exclusion locks, readers/writer locks and no locking. There
are also debug versions that print messages to standard output to help
clients locate deadlocks. See
C<http://raf.org/papers/mt-disciplined.html>.

=item Coprocesses and Pseudo Terminals

I<Libslack> provides functions for creating pseudo terminals portably and
for creating coprocesses that use either pipes or a pseudo terminal for
communication with the client process.

=item Miscellaneous

I<Libslack> contains convenience/shorthand functions for random things such
as reading a line of text with any line ending (UNIX, DOS or Macintosh),
fifo and file control, retrieving POSIX.1 limits, parsing syslog
facility/priority pairs, dynamic allocation of multi-dimensional arrays,
memory pools, secure memory, secure memory pools, There's also a heap sort
function. And there are also implementations of GNU I<getopt_long()>,
I<strlcat()>, I<strlcpy()>, I<snprintf()>, I<vsnprintf()>, I<vsscanf()>,
I<asprinf()> and I<vasprintf()> for systems that don't have them.

=item Low Level API

Although there is a lot of functionality in I<libslack>, the API itself is
as low-level as possible. There are no gratuitous data structures that wrap
around perfectly acceptable data structures that are provided by the system.
For instance, the networking functions do not return some home grown
I<Socket> object. They return file descriptors just like underlying system
calls. The coprocess API is similar in spirit to I<popen(3)> and
I<pclose(3)>. The I<fgetline(3)> function interoperates perfectly with
standard I/O. Errors are returned via C<errno> just like system calls and
some standard library functions. You may not like C<errno> if you write
threaded programs but I figured that until C<errno> goes away, it's best to
accept it and find a way to benefit from it. Unavoidably, the string module
does wrap an object around perfectly good char pointers but the underlying
char pointer is always accessible and many of the string functions have
versions that work on ordinary C strings.

The purpose of this design is Laziness. It means I don't have to wrap every
net related system call or standard string function in an extra function and
you don't have to learn a load of new identifiers for functionality that you
already know how to access. The same goes for error codes. I don't want to
re-invent them and you don't need to re-learn them. It also means that
I<libslack> functions can be more easily incorporated into existing programs
to enhance their functionality without huge code rewrites and without the
need for a steep learning curve.

=item Accurate Documentation

Every module has a manpage that explains every function in detail. The
function signatures in the manpages are systematically checked against the
source code to make sure that they never get out of sync.

There are plenty of examples in the manpages. Most of them are
systematically compiled and executed to make sure that they never get out of
sync with the source code.

The actual text of the manpages can't be systematically checked but it does
get proofread regularly. If you find any errors of any kind in the
documentation, please let me know.

All of the documentation takes the form of manpages because manpages are
faster and more accessible than anything else.

=item Thorough Testing

I<Libslack> is thoroughly tested. This doesn't mean that there are no bugs
but it does mean that there is a large list of bugs that it doesn't have.
Excluding the snprintf module, there are nearly 2,800 tests. Including the
snprintf module, there are nearly 150,000 tests. These tests also serve as
extra examples.

=back

=head1 MODULES

Libslack contains the following modules:

    agent    - agent oriented programming
    coproc   - coprocesses using pipes or pseudo terminals
    daemon   - becoming a daemon
    err      - message/error/debug/verbosity/alert messaging
    fio      - fifo and file control and some I/O
    getopt   - GNU getopt_long() for systems that don't have it
    hsort    - generic heap sort
    lim      - POSIX.1 limits convenience functions
    link     - abstract linked lists with optional growable free lists
    list     - list (growable pointer array) data type
    locker   - abstract locking and reader/writer lock implementation
    map      - map (hash table) data type
    mem      - memory helper functions, secure memory, memory pools
    msg      - message handling and syslog helper functions
    net      - network functions (clients/servers, expect/send, pack/unpack, mail)
    prog     - program framework and flexible command line option handling
    prop     - program properties files
    pseudo   - pseudo terminals
    sig      - ISO C compliant signal handling
    snprintf - safe sprintf() for systems that don't have it
    str      - string data type (tr, regexpr, regsub, fmt, trim, lc, uc, ...)
    vsscanf  - sscanf() with va_list argument for systems that don't have it

Each module, as well as each function, has its own section 3 manpage.

=head1 HEADER FILES

Each module has its own header file (see SYNOPSIS). If you want to include
these header files individually, you must first include the <slack/std.h>
header file. Alternatively, you can just include the <slack/lib.h> header
file and get everything. B<Note:> Make sure that <slack/lib.h> or
<slack/std.h> is included before any system header files. Otherwise, the
system headers won't be set up properly.

If I<libslack> was installed on your system with a prefix added to each
identifier, you may also want to include <slack/prefix.h> which allows you
to continue to use the original I<libslack> identifiers and have them
automatically translated into the prefixed identifiers.

Alternatively, if I<libslack> was installed on your system with the original
names and you wish to compile client code that does use a prefix, you can
include I<"remove_prefix.h"> which allows you to continue to use the
prefixed identifiers and have them automatically translated into the
original identifiers. Note that you will probably have to generate this
header file yourself (see the prefix program in the tools directory).

If your client code uses one prefix and the I<libslack> installed on your
current system uses a different prefix, you will need to include both of
these header files. First include I<"remove_prefix.h">. Then include
<slack/prefix.h>.

=head1 EXAMPLES

There are examples in all of the module manpages. If you can't find what
you're looking for there, look at the test code which can be found at the
bottom of each module's source file. The test code executes every function
and thus serves as a treasure trove of examples. If you think of an example
that really needs to be in the manpages, don't hesitate to let me know.

=head1 MAILING LISTS

The following mailing lists exist for libslack related discussion:

 slack-announce.libslack.org - Announcements
 slack-users@libslack.org    - User forum
 slack-dev@libslack.org      - Development forum

To subscribe to any of these mailing lists, send a mail message to
I<listname>C<-request@libslack.org> with C<subscribe> as the message body.
e.g.

 $ mail slack-announce-request@libslack.org
 subscribe
 .
 $ mail slack-users-request@libslack.org
 subscribe
 .
 $ mail slack-dev-request@libslack.org
 subscribe
 .

Or you can send a mail message to C<majordomo@libslack.org> with
C<subscribe> I<listname> in the message body. This way, you can
subscribe to multiple lists at the same time.
e.g.

 $ mail majordomo@libslack.org
 subscribe slack-announce
 subscribe slack-users
 subscribe slack-dev
 .

A digest version of each mailing list is also available. Subscribe to
digests as above but append C<-digest> to the listname.

=head1 SEE ALSO

C<http://libslack.org/>,
C<http://raf.org/papers/mt-disciplined.html>,
I<libslack-config(1)>,
I<agent(3)>,
I<coproc(3)>,
I<daemon(3)>,
I<err(3)>,
I<fio(3)>,
I<getopt(3)>,
I<hsort(3)>,
I<lim(3)>,
I<link(3)>,
I<list(3)>,
I<locker(3)>,
I<map(3)>,
I<mem(3)>,
I<msg(3)>,
I<net(3)>,
I<prog(3)>,
I<prop(3)>,
I<pseudo(3)>,
I<sig(3)>,
I<snprintf(3)>,
I<str(3)>,
I<vsscanf(3)>

=head1 AUTHOR

20100612 raf <raf@raf.org>

=cut
