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authorMarcin Siodelski <marcin@isc.org>2016-12-01 16:29:07 +0100
committerMarcin Siodelski <marcin@isc.org>2016-12-01 16:29:07 +0100
commit71d45704c0dc4860cee6321130fa950a0e2717fc (patch)
tree6f82ca8780686472aa972dc3fd0d57ec0c2ca98c /src/lib/process/libprocess.dox
parent[5074] Fix doxygen refs after migration to isc::process namespace. (diff)
downloadkea-71d45704c0dc4860cee6321130fa950a0e2717fc.tar.xz
kea-71d45704c0dc4860cee6321130fa950a0e2717fc.zip
[5074] Split developer's documentation of CPL and D2.
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+// Copyright (C) 2016 Internet Systems Consortium, Inc. ("ISC")
+//
+// This Source Code Form is subject to the terms of the Mozilla Public
+// License, v. 2.0. If a copy of the MPL was not distributed with this
+// file, You can obtain one at http://mozilla.org/MPL/2.0/.
+
+/**
+ @page libprocess libkea-process - Controllable Process Layer (CPL)
+
+The D2 module was built upon an abstract set of classes referred to as the
+Controllable Process Layer or CPL. These classes were originally included
+in the src/bin/d2 directory because D2 was the only module using
+them. The classes were later moved to their own libkea-process library with
+the intent to be used as a base for creating new Kea modules.
+
+The origin of the libkea-process implementation, being a part of D2 module,
+is a reason why its design documentation is combined with the design
+documentation of D2:
+<a href="http://kea.isc.org/wiki/DhcpDdnsDesign">D2 Design</a>.
+
+The following sections describe the architecture of the CPL and how
+it can be used to implement new daemons in Kea.
+
+@section cpl Controllable Process Layer (CPL)
+
+This CPL provides the essentials for a controllable, configurable,
+asynchronous process. They are the result of an effort to distill the
+common facets of process control currently duplicated in Kea's
+DHCP servers into a reusable construct. The classes which form this abstract
+base are shown in the following class diagram:
+
+@image html abstract_app_classes.svg "Controllable Process Layer Classes"
+
+- isc::process::DControllerBase - provides all of the services necessary to manage
+an application process class derived from isc::d2::DProcess. These services include:
+ - Command line argument handling
+ - Process instantiation and initialization
+ - Support for stand-alone execution
+ - Process event loop invocation and shutdown
+
+ It creates and manages an instance of isc::process::DProcessBase. The CPL is
+ designed for asynchronous event processing applications. It is constructed
+ to use ASIO library for IO processing. @c DControllerBase owns an
+ isc::asiolink::IOService instance and it passes this into the @c
+ DProcessBase constructor. It is this @c IOService that is used to drive the
+ process's event loop. The controller is designed to provide any interfaces
+ between the process it controls and the outside world.
+
+ @c DControllerBase provides configuration for its process via a JSON file
+ specified as a mandatory command line argument. The file structure is
+ expected be as follows:
+
+ { "<module-name>": {<module-config>} }
+
+ where:
+ - module-name : is a label which uniquely identifies the
+ configuration data for the (i.e. the controlled process.)
+ It is the value returned by @ref
+ isc::process::DControllerBase::getAppName()
+
+ - module-config: a set of zero or more JSON elements which comprise
+ application's configuration values. Element syntax is governed
+ by those elements supported in isc::cc.
+
+ The file may contain an arbitrary number of other modules.
+
+ @todo Eventually, some sort of secure socket interface which supports remote
+ control operations such as configuration changes or status reporting will
+ likely be implemented.
+
+- isc::process::DProcessBase - defines an asynchronous-event processor (i.e.
+application) which provides a uniform interface to:
+ - Instantiate and initialize a process instance
+ - "Run" the application by starting its event loop
+ - Inject events to control the process
+It owns an instance of @c DCfgMgrBase.
+
+- isc::process::DCfgMgrBase - provides the mechanisms for managing an application's
+configuration. This includes services for parsing sets of configuration
+values, storing the parsed information in its converted form, and retrieving
+the information on demand. It owns an instance of @c DCfgContextBase, which
+provides a "global" context for information that is accessible before, during,
+and after parsing.
+
+- isc::process::DCfgContextBase - implements a container for configuration
+information or "context". It provides a single enclosure for the storage of
+configuration parameters or any other information that needs to accessible
+within a given context.
+
+The following sequence diagram shows how a configuration from file moves
+through the CPL layer:
+
+@image html config_from_file_sequence.svg "CPL Configuration From File Sequence"
+
+The CPL classes will likely move into a common library.
+
+@section cplSignals CPL Signal Handling
+
+CPL supports interaction with the outside world via OS signals. The default
+implementation supports the following signal driven behavior:
+- SIGHUP receipt of this signal will cause a reloading of the configuration
+file.
+- SIGINT/SIGTERM receipt of either of these signals will initiate an
+orderly shutdown.
+
+CPL applications wait for for process asynchronous IO events through
+isc::asiolink::IOService::run() or its variants. These calls are not
+interrupted upon signal receipt as is the select() function and while
+boost::asio provides a signal mechanism it requires linking in additional
+libraries. Therefore, CPL provides its own signal handling mechanism to
+propagate an OS signal such as SIGHUP to an IOSerivce as a ready event with a
+callback.
+
+isc::process::DControllerBase uses two mechanisms to carry out signal handling. It
+uses isc::util::SignalSet to catch OS signals, and isc::process::IOSignalQueue to
+propagate them to its isc::asiolink::IOService as instances of
+isc::process::IOSignal.
+
+This CPL signaling class hierarchy is illustrated in the following diagram:
+
+@image html cpl_signal_classes.svg "CPL Signal Classes"
+
+The mechanics of isc::process::IOSignal are straight forward. Upon construction it
+is given the target isc::asiolink::IOService, the value of the OS signal to
+send (e.g. SIGINT, SIGHUP...), and an isc::process::IOSignalHandler. This handler
+should contain the logic the caller would normally execute in its OS signal
+handler. Each isc::process::IOSignal instance has a unique identifier called its
+sequence_id.
+
+Internally, IOSignal creates a 1 ms, one-shot timer, on the given
+IOService. When the timer expires its event handler invokes the caller's
+IOSignalHandler passing it the sequence_id of the IOSignal.
+
+Sending IOSignals is done through an isc::process::IOSignalQueue. This class is
+used to create the signals, house them until they are delivered, and dequeue
+them so they can be been handled. To generate an IOSignal when an OS signal
+arrives, the process's OS signal handler need only call
+isc::process::IOSignalQueue::pushSignal() with the appropriate values.
+
+To dequeue the IOSignal inside the caller's IOSignalHandler, one simply
+invokes isc::process::IOSignalQueue::popSignal() passing it the sequence_id
+parameter passed to the handler. This method returns a pointer to
+instigating IOSignal from which the value of OS signal (i.e. SIGINT,
+SIGUSR1...) can be obtained. Note that calling popSignal() removes the
+IOSignalPtr from the queue, which should reduce its reference count to
+zero upon exiting the handler (unless a deliberate copy of it is made).
+
+A typical isc::process::IOSignalHandler might be structured as follows:
+@code
+
+ void processSignal(IOSignalId sequence_id) {
+ // Pop the signal instance off the queue.
+ IOSignalPtr signal = io_signal_queue_->popSignal(sequence_id);
+
+ int os_signal_value = signal->getSignum();
+ :
+ // logic based on the signal value
+ :
+ }
+
+@endcode
+
+IOSignal's handler invocation code will catch, log ,and then swallow any
+exceptions thrown by an IOSignalHandler. This is done to protect the integrity
+IOService context.
+
+CPL integrates the use of the two mechanisms by registering the method,
+isc::process::DControllerBase::osSignalHandler(), as the
+isc::util::SignalSet::onreceipt_handler_. This configures SignalSet's internal
+handler to invoke the method each time a signal arrives. When invoked, this
+method will call isc::process::IOSignalQueue::pushSignal() to create an
+isc::process::IOSignal, passing in the OS signal received and
+isc::process::DControllerBase::ioSignalHandler() to use as the IOSignal's
+ready event handler
+
+The following sequence diagram depicts the initialization of signal handling
+during startup and the subsequent receipt of a SIGHUP:
+
+@image html cpl_signal_sequence.svg "CPL Signal Handling Sequence"
+
+*/