Introduction:
=============
This directory contains the source code of the pidl (Perl IDL)
compiler for Samba 4.
The main sources for pidl are available using Git as part of
the combined Samba 3 / Samba 4 tree. Use:
git clone git://git.samba.org/samba.git
Pidl works by building a parse tree from a .pidl file (a simple
dump of it's internal parse tree) or a .idl file
(a file format mostly like the IDL file format midl uses).
The IDL file parser is in idl.yp (a yacc file converted to
perl code by yapp)
After a parse tree is present, pidl will call one of it's backends
(which one depends on the options given on the command-line). Here is
a list of current backends:
Standalone installation:
========================
Run Makefile.PL to generate the Makefile.
Then run "make install" (as root) to install.
Internals overview:
===================
-- Generic --
Parse::Pidl::Dump - Converts the parse tree back to an IDL file
Parse::Pidl::Samba4::Header - Generates header file with data structures defined in IDL file
Parse::Pidl::NDR - Generates intermediate datastructures for use by NDR parses/generators
Parse::Pidl::ODL - Generates IDL structures from ODL structures for use in the NDR parser generator
Parse::Pidl::Test - Utility functions for use in pidl's testsuite
-- Samba NDR --
Parse::Pidl::Samba4::NDR::Client - Generates client call functions in C using the NDR parser
Parse::Pidl::Samba4::NDR::Parser - Generates pull/push functions for parsing NDR
Parse::Pidl::Samba4::NDR::Server - Generates server side implementation in C
Parse::Pidl::Samba4::TDR - Parser generator for the "Trivial Data Representation"
Parse::Pidl::Samba4::Template - Generates stubs in C for server implementation
Parse::Pidl::Samba4::Python - Generates bindings for Python
-- Samba COM / DCOM --
Parse::Pidl::Samba4::COM::Proxy - Generates proxy object for DCOM (client-side)
Parse::Pidl::Samba4::COM::Stub - Generates stub call handler for DCOM (server-side)
Parse::Pidl::Samba4::COM::Header - Generates headers for COM
-- Wireshark --
Parse::Pidl::Wireshark::NDR - Generates a parser for the Wireshark network sniffer
Parse::Pidl::Wireshark::Conformance - Reads conformance files containing additional data for generating Wireshark parsers
-- Utility modules --
Parse::Pidl::Util - Misc utility functions used by *.pm and pidl.pl
Parse::Pidl::Typelist - Utility functions for keeping track of known types and their representation in C
Tips for hacking on pidl:
- Look at the pidl's parse tree by using the --keep option and looking
at the generated .pidl file.
- The various backends have a lot in common, if you don't understand how one
implements something, look at the others
- See pidl(1) and the documentation on midl
- See 'info bison' and yapp(1) for information on the file format of idl.yp
