Elektra
0.9.5
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This plugin is a storage plugin that supports full Elektra semantics. Combined with a resolver plugin it already assembles a fully featured backend. No other plugins are needed.
The file starts with the magic word kdbOpen
followed by a version number (currently 2
) and a newline. The plugin can read files of version 1
and 2
, but it only writes version 2
.
After this first line, the format consists of a series of commands. The supported commands are $key
, $meta
and $copymeta
. We use the $
prefix to make the commands standout more. However, $
does not always mean command. Keynames and values could also start with $
, but since the plugin always knows whether a command or something else comes next, we do not need any kind of escaping.
The $key
command creates a new key. It takes 5 arguments. The first 3 are on the same line separated by a space. The other two are on separate lines:
<type>
is either string
or binary
and indicates what kind of value the key contains. <nsize>
and <vsize>
are the name size and value size respectively. For the name and for string values, the size does not include the null-terminator present in C strings. For binary keys all bytes (including any null-terminators) are counted. <name>
and <value>
are the keyname and key value. Because we know their length, they can contain arbitrary characters. Even newlines are allowed. The newlines between <name>
and <value>
, and after <value>
are just to make the file more readable. They must be present, but they do not determine where <name>
or <value>
end.
The $meta
command adds a new metakey to the last key. It is very similar to the $key
command, but it only takes 4 arguments. There is no type argument, because metakeys always have string values.
The arguments work just like they do for $key
.
Finally, there is $copymeta
. It is needed, because a keyCopyMeta
call results in two keys with the same metakey (equal pointers). To achieve this, we indicate which metakey should be copied from which key. The $copymeta
command also takes 4 arguments:
<keyname>
is the name of the key from which the metadata is copied and <knsize>
is its size (without the null-terminator). Similarly, <metaname>
is the name of the metakey that is copied and <mnsize>
is its size (without the null-terminator).
There is also $end
. It is used to signal the end of the data to the plugin. The $end
command is completely optional. Without it, the plugin will just read the file until the end. However, in streaming use $end
is needed, because there is no end of the "file".
The following is an example dump
file that was mounted at system:/elektra/mountpoints
:
A few things you might have noticed:
0
for the first key makes it a NULL
key, but only because it is binary
. The third key ($key string 11 0
) also has value size 0, but is a string
key. This means its value is an empty string ""
.$key binary 0 -1
and dbus/config
are because the respective names/values are empty.$key string 25 0
shows that newlines in key values are completely fine, because we know what size the value has to be.(status -1000)
Export a KeySet using dump
:
Import a KeySet using dump
:
Using grep/diff or other Unix tools on the dump file. Make sure that you treat it as text file, e.g.: