Elektra  0.8.7
Functions
Value Manipulation Methods
Key

Methods to do various operations on Key values. More...

Collaboration diagram for Value Manipulation Methods:

Functions

const void * keyValue (const Key *key)
const char * keyString (const Key *key)
ssize_t keyGetValueSize (const Key *key)
ssize_t keyGetString (const Key *key, char *returnedString, size_t maxSize)
ssize_t keySetString (Key *key, const char *newStringValue)
ssize_t keyGetBinary (const Key *key, void *returnedBinary, size_t maxSize)
ssize_t keySetBinary (Key *key, const void *newBinary, size_t dataSize)
const char * keyComment (const Key *key)
ssize_t keyGetCommentSize (const Key *key)
ssize_t keyGetComment (const Key *key, char *returnedComment, size_t maxSize)
ssize_t keySetComment (Key *key, const char *newComment)

Detailed Description

Methods to do various operations on Key values.

A key can contain a value in different format. The most likely situation is, that the value is interpreted as text. Use keyGetString() for that. You can save any Unicode Symbols and Elektra will take care that you get the same back, independent of your current environment.

In some situations this idea fails. When you need exactly the same value back without any interpretation of the characters, there is keySetBinary(). If you use that, its very likely that your Configuration is not according to the standard. Also for Numbers, Booleans and Date you should use keyGetString(). To do so, you might use strtod() strtol() and then atol() or atof() to convert back.

To use them:

#include <kdb.h>

Function Documentation

const char* keyComment ( const Key *  key)

Return a pointer to the real internal key comment.

This is a much more efficient version of keyGetComment() and you should use it if you are responsible enough to not mess up things. You are not allowed to change anything in the memory region the returned pointer points to.

keyComment() returns "" when there is no keyComment. The reason is

key=keyNew(0);
keySetComment(key,"");
keyComment(key); // you would expect "" here
keyDel(key);

See keySetComment() for more information on comments.

Note
Note that the Key structure keeps its own size field that is calculated by library internal calls, so to avoid inconsistencies, you must never use the pointer returned by keyComment() method to set a new value. Use keySetComment() instead.
Parameters
keythe key object to work with
Returns
a pointer to the internal managed comment
"" when there is no comment
0 on NULL pointer
See Also
keyGetCommentSize() for size and keyGetComment() as alternative
ssize_t keyGetBinary ( const Key *  key,
void *  returnedBinary,
size_t  maxSize 
)

Get the value of a key as a binary.

If the type is not binary -1 will be returned.

When the binary data is empty (this is not the same as ""!) 0 will be returned and the returnedBinary will not be changed.

For string values see keyGetString() and keyIsString().

When the returnedBinary is to small to hold the data (its maximum size is given by maxSize), the returnedBinary will not be changed and -1 is returned.

Example:
Key *key = keyNew ("user/keyname", KEY_TYPE, KEY_TYPE_BINARY, KEY_END);
char buffer[300];
if (keyGetBinary(key,buffer,sizeof(buffer)) == -1)
{
// handle error
}
Parameters
keythe object to gather the value from
returnedBinarypre-allocated memory to store a copy of the key value
maxSizenumber of bytes of pre-allocated memory in returnedBinary
Returns
the number of bytes actually copied to returnedBinary
Return values
0if the binary is empty
-1on NULL pointers
-1if maxSize is 0
-1if maxSize is too small for string
-1if maxSize is larger than SSIZE_MAX
-1on type mismatch: binary expected, but found string
See Also
keyValue(), keyGetValueSize(), keySetBinary()
keyGetString() and keySetString() as preferred alternative to binary
keyIsBinary() to see how to check for binary type
ssize_t keyGetComment ( const Key *  key,
char *  returnedComment,
size_t  maxSize 
)

Get the key comment.

Comments

A Key comment is description for humans what this key is for. It may be a textual explanation of valid values, when and why a user or administrator changed the key or any other text that helps the user or administrator related to that key.

Don't depend on a comment in your program. A user is always allowed to remove or change it in any way he wants to. But you are allowed or even encouraged to always show the content of the comment to the user and allow him to change it.

Parameters
keythe key object to work with
returnedCommentpre-allocated memory to copy the comments to
maxSizenumber of bytes that will fit returnedComment
Returns
the number of bytes actually copied to returnedString, including final NULL
1 if the string is empty
-1 on NULL pointer
-1 if maxSize is 0, not enough to store the comment or when larger then SSIZE_MAX
See Also
keyGetCommentSize(), keySetComment()
ssize_t keyGetCommentSize ( const Key *  key)

Calculates number of bytes needed to store a key comment, including final NULL.

Use this method to know to size for allocated memory to retrieve a key comment.

See keySetComment() for more information on comments.

For an empty key name you need one byte to store the ending NULL. For that reason 1 is returned.

char *buffer;
buffer = malloc (keyGetCommentSize (key));
// use this buffer to store the comment
// pass keyGetCommentSize (key) for maxSize
Parameters
keythe key object to work with
Returns
number of bytes needed
1 if there is no comment
-1 on NULL pointer
See Also
keyGetComment(), keySetComment()
ssize_t keyGetString ( const Key *  key,
char *  returnedString,
size_t  maxSize 
)

Get the value of a key as a string.

When there is no value inside the string, 1 will be returned and the returnedString will be empty "" to avoid programming errors that old strings are shown to the user.

For binary values see keyGetBinary() and keyIsBinary().

Example:
Key *key = keyNew ("user/keyname", KEY_END);
char buffer[300];
if (keyGetString(key,buffer,sizeof(buffer)) == -1)
{
// handle error
} else {
printf ("buffer: %s\n", buffer);
}
Parameters
keythe object to gather the value from
returnedStringpre-allocated memory to store a copy of the key value
maxSizenumber of bytes of allocated memory in returnedString
Returns
the number of bytes actually copied to returnedString, including final NULL
Return values
1if the string is empty
-1on any NULL pointers
-1on type mismatch: string expected, but found binary
-1maxSize is 0
-1if maxSize is too small for string
-1if maxSize is larger than SSIZE_MAX
See Also
keyValue(), keyGetValueSize(), keySetString(), keyString()
keyGetBinary() for working with binary data
ssize_t keyGetValueSize ( const Key *  key)

Returns the number of bytes needed to store the key value, including the NULL terminator.

It returns the correct size, independent of the Key Type. If it is a binary there might be '\0' values in it.

For an empty string you need one byte to store the ending NULL. For that reason 1 is returned. This is not true for binary data, so there might be returned 0 too.

A binary key has no '\0' termination. String types have it, so to there length will be added 1 to have enough space to store it.

This method can be used with malloc() before keyGetString() or keyGetBinary() is called.

char *buffer;
buffer = malloc (keyGetValueSize (key));
// use this buffer to store the value (binary or string)
// pass keyGetValueSize (key) for maxSize
Parameters
keythe key object to work with
Returns
the number of bytes needed to store the key value
1 when there is no data and type is not binary
0 when there is no data and type is binary
-1 on null pointer
See Also
keyGetString(), keyGetBinary(), keyValue()
ssize_t keySetBinary ( Key *  key,
const void *  newBinary,
size_t  dataSize 
)

Set the value of a key as a binary.

A private copy of newBinary will allocated and saved inside key, so the parameter can be deallocated after the call.

Binary values might be encoded in another way then string values depending on the plugin. Typically character encodings should not take place on binary data. Consider using a string key instead.

When newBinary is a NULL pointer the binary will be freed and 0 will be returned.

Note
The meta data "binary" will be set to mark that the key is binary from now on. When the key is already binary the meta data won't be changed. This will only happen in the successful case, but not when -1 is returned.
Parameters
keythe object on which to set the value
newBinaryis a pointer to any binary data or NULL to free the previous set data
dataSizenumber of bytes to copy from newBinary
Returns
the number of bytes actually copied to internal struct storage
0 when the internal binary was freed and is now a null pointer
-1 if key is a NULL pointer
-1 when dataSize is 0 (but newBinary not NULL) or larger than SSIZE_MAX
See Also
keyGetBinary()
keyIsBinary() to check if the type is binary
keyGetString() and keySetString() as preferred alternative to binary
ssize_t keySetComment ( Key *  key,
const char *  newComment 
)

Set a comment for a key.

A key comment is like a configuration file comment. See keySetComment() for more information.

Parameters
keythe key object to work with
newCommentthe comment, that can be freed after this call.
Returns
the number of bytes actually saved including final NULL
0 when the comment was freed (newComment NULL or empty string)
-1 on NULL pointer or memory problems
See Also
keyGetComment()
ssize_t keySetString ( Key *  key,
const char *  newStringValue 
)

Set the value for key as newStringValue.

The function will allocate and save a private copy of newStringValue, so the parameter can be freed after the call.

String values will be saved in backend storage, when kdbSetKey() will be called, in UTF-8 universal encoding, regardless of the program's current encoding, when iconv plugin is present.

Note
The type will be set to KEY_TYPE_STRING. When the type of the key is already a string type it won't be changed.
Parameters
keythe key to set the string value
newStringValueNULL-terminated text string to be set as key's value
Returns
the number of bytes actually saved in private struct including final NULL
Return values
1if newStringValue is a NULL pointer, this will make the string empty (string only containing null termination)
-1if key is a NULL pointer
See Also
keyGetString(), keyValue(), keyString()
const char* keyString ( const Key *  key)

Get the c-string representing the value.

Will return (null) on null pointers. Will return (binary) on binary data not ended with a null byte.

It is not checked if it is actually a string, only if it terminates for security reasons.

Returns
the c-string of the value
Return values
(null)on null keys
""if no data found
(binary)on binary keys
Parameters
keythe key object to get the string from
const void* keyValue ( const Key *  key)

Return a pointer to the real internal key value.

This is a much more efficient version of keyGetString() keyGetBinary(), and you should use it if you are responsible enough to not mess up things. You are not allowed to modify anything in the returned string. If you need a copy of the Value, consider to use keyGetString() or keyGetBinary() instead.

String Handling

If key is string (keyIsString()), you may cast the returned as a "char *" because you'll get a NULL terminated regular string.

keyValue() returns "" in string mode when there is no value. The reason is

key=keyNew(0);
keySetString(key,"");
keyValue(key); // you would expect "" here
keyDel(key);

Binary Data Handling

If the data is binary, the size of the value must be determined by keyGetValueSize(), any strlen() operations are not suitable to determine the size.

keyValue() returns 0 in binary mode when there is no value. The reason is

key=keyNew(0);
keySetBinary(key, 0, 0);
keyValue(key); // you would expect 0 here
keySetBinary(key,"", 1);
keyValue(key); // you would expect "" (a pointer to '\0') here
int i=23;
keySetBinary(key, (void*)&i, 4);
(int*)keyValue(key); // you would expect a pointer to (int)23 here
keyDel(key);
Note
Note that the Key structure keeps its own size field that is calculated by library internal calls, so to avoid inconsistencies, you must never use the pointer returned by keyValue() method to set a new value. Use keySetString() or keySetBinary() instead.
Warning
Binary keys will return a NULL pointer when there is no data in contrast to keyName(), keyBaseName(), keyOwner() and keyComment(). For string value the behaviour is the same.
Example:
KDB *handle = kdbOpen();
KeySet *ks=ksNew(0);
Key *current=0;
kdbGetByName(handle,ks,"system/sw/my",KDB_O_SORT|KDB_O_RECURSIVE);
while(current=ksNext(ks)) {
size_t size=0;
if (keyIsBin(current)) {
size=keyGetValueSize(current);
printf("Key %s has a value of size %d bytes. Value: <BINARY>\nComment: %s",
keyName(current),
size,
keyComment(current));
} else {
size=elektraStrLen((char *)keyValue(current));
printf("Key %s has a value of size %d bytes. Value: %s\nComment: %s",
keyName(current),
size,
(char *)keyValue(current),
keyComment(current));
}
}
ksDel (ks);
kdbClose (handle);
Parameters
keythe key object to work with
Returns
a pointer to internal value
"" when there is no data and key is not binary
0 where there is no data and key is binary
0 on NULL pointer
See Also
keyGetValueSize(), keyGetString(), keyGetBinary()