Hooks

Hooks are central points in the KDB lifecycle, where specialized plugins are called.

Selecting which Plugin will be Used for a Specific Hook

The names of the plugins are hard coded. This decision was made, because these plugins are meant to fulfil very specific purposes. A symlink replacing the shared library file of the plugin could be used to change the implementation.

Interface of the hooks

If a plugin should be able to act upon a hook, it must export all the functions that the hook requires. These exports are of the form system:/elektra/modules/<plugin name>/exports/hook/<hook name>/<hook function>.

For example, the gopts hook only requires the get function. A plugin that wants to act upon the gopts hook therefore has to export system:/elektra/modules/<plugin name>/exports/hook/gopts/get.

Other hooks (e.g. spec) require multiple exported functions.

<tt>gopts</tt> hook

Hard coded to search for a plugin named gopts.

The following function must be exported:

• get
  • Signature: (Plugin * handle, KeySet * returned, Key * parentKey)
  • Called in kdbGet after the storage phase, after notification/send hook but before the spec hook.
  • TODO: Describe what the function should do

<tt>spec</tt> hook

Hard coded to search for a plugin named spec.

The following functions must be exported:

• copy
  • Signature: (Plugin * handle, KeySet * returned, Key * parentKey, bool isKdbGet)
  • Called in:
    • kdbGet: after the storage phase, after notification/send and gopts hook.
    • kdbSet: right after the backends are initialized
  • Should copy all the spec meta keys into the keyset
• remove
  • Signature: (Plugin * handle, KeySet * returned, Key * parentKey)
  • Called in kdbSet right after the prestorage phase
  • Should remove all the spec meta keys from the keyset

<tt>notification/send</tt> hook

We look within the array system:/elektra/hook/notification/send/plugins for the plugins that shall be loaded. The name of the plugin must be the value of the keys directly below this, e.g. system:/elektra/hook/notification/send/plugins/#0 (= dbus).

The following functions may be exported (optional):

• get:
  • Signature: (Plugin * handle, KeySet * returned, Key * parentKey)
  • Called in kdbGet after the storage phase.
• set:
  • Signature: (Plugin * handle, KeySet * returned, Key * parentKey)
  • Called in kdbSet after the storage phase.

<tt>record</tt> hook

Used for the session recording plugin. Hard coded to search for a plugin named recorder.

The following function must be exported:

• record:
  • Signature: (Plugin * handle, KeySet * returned, Key * parentKey)
  • Called in kdbSet after the storage phase.
  • Must not modify the returned keyset.
  • The parentKey must not be modified, except for adding errors and warnings.
  • Calculates the changes and stores them.
• lock:
  • Signature: int (Plugin * handle, Key * parentKey)
  • Called in kdbSet before the storage phase.
  • The parentKey must not be modified, except for adding errors and warnings.
  • Must ensure that this is only process that can record changes until unlock is called.
    • If successful, must return ELEKTRA_PLUGIN_STATUS_SUCCESS.
    • If not successful, must return ELEKTRA_PLUGIN_STATUS_ERROR
• unlock:
  • Signature: int (Plugin * handle, Key * parentKey)
  • Called in kdbSet before returning, after lock has been called.
  • The parentKey must not be modified, except for adding errors and warnings.
  • Must remove any acquired locks and mutexes, so that other processes can record changes again.

Lifecycle

1. Hooks are initialized within kdbOpen after the contract has been processed. This includes loading the plugins.
2. The appropriate hooks are called within each kdbGet and kdbSet call.
3. Hooks are deinitialized within kdbClose. This includes unloading the plugins.

Additional information

To specify the place of a hook plugin add infos/placements = hook to your plugins README.md.