4 // Fraunhofer Institute for Open Communication Systems (FOKUS)
5 // Competence Center NETwork research (NET), St. Augustin, GERMANY
6 // Stefan Bund <g0dil@berlios.de>
8 // This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify
9 // it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by
10 // the Free Software Foundation; either version 2 of the License, or
11 // (at your option) any later version.
13 // This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful,
14 // but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
15 // MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the
16 // GNU General Public License for more details.
18 // You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License
19 // along with this program; if not, write to the
20 // Free Software Foundation, Inc.,
21 // 59 Temple Place - Suite 330, Boston, MA 02111-1307, USA.
23 /** \mainpage SENF: The Simple and Extensible Network Framework
25 The SENF Simple and Extensible Network Framework aims to be a complete set of libraries to
26 facilitate the development of network applications focusing on network protocols on the layers
27 below the application layer. However, the framework includes many general purpose utilities and
28 will be expedient to use well beyond its primary objective.
32 The main goals of this library are (in no particular order):
34 \li modular framework design
35 \li utilizing the power of modern C++
36 \li very low overhead for frequently called members
40 \section start Getting started
42 To get started using this library, begin by checking out the code from the <a
43 href="http://developer.berlios.de/svn/?group_id=7489">BerliOS SVN repository</a>. You may find
44 help on using the library at '\ref senf_usage'. If you are interested in SENF, feel free to subscribe
45 to the <a href="http://developer.berlios.de/mail/?group_id=7489">SENF mailing lists</a>. If you
46 want to contribute, read the docs and \e please adhere to the \ref senf_conventions.
48 \see \ref senf_usage\n
49 <a href="../../Examples/doc/html/index.html">Examples</a>
52 /** \page senf_usage Using the SENF framework
54 The SENF Framework is a collection of loosely coupled modules. The libraries are heavily object
55 oriented and template based. For compatibility reasons, the libraries are therefore built
56 together with every project making use of the framework.
58 When starting a new project based on the SENF framework, it is advisable, to make use of the
59 SENFSCons build environment and use SVN to manage the code repository. This is the
60 configuration, described in this documentation.
62 \see \ref senf_build \n
63 \ref senf_components \n
67 \section senf_preliminaries Preliminaries
69 Before starting the development, make sure to fulfill the following requirements:
71 \li GNU g++, version at least 3.4
72 \li The Boost libraries (http://www.boost.org)
73 \li The SCons build tool (http://www.scons.org)
75 If you want to build the documentation, you additionally need
77 \li Doxygen (http://www.doxygen.org)
78 \li The \c dia diagram editor (http://www.gnome.org/projects/dia/)
79 \li HTML \c tidy (http://tidy.sourceforge.net/)
80 \li The \c xsltproc XSLT processor (http://xmlsoft.org/XSLT/xsltproc2.html)
81 \li The \c graphviz library (http://www.graphviz.org)
84 The library is only tested with gcc-3.4 and 4.0 on Linux. On other POSIX platforms with a BSD
85 Socket API, the library should be usable, possibly with some tweaking (except for the Scheduler,
86 which relies on \c epoll)
89 /** \page senf_build Building the framework
91 This procedure will test building the complete framework including the unit tests and the
92 Sniffer test application. This build is \e not needed to use the framework since every project
93 will include the full SENF source code itself (via Subversion).
95 After you have successfully built the library tests, you can continue to setup your own project
98 \see \ref senf_components \n
101 \section senf_checkout Getting the code
103 To access the code, check out the code from the BerliOS repository. Change to your development
104 directory and use the following subversion command
107 $ svn checkout http://svn.berlios.de/svnroot/repos/senf/trunk senf
110 This will create a new directory \c senf within the current directory. For further documentation
111 on the use of Subversion, see the \c svn manpage or the subversion homepage at
112 http://subversion.tigris.org. A very good introduction and reference to subversion is available
113 at http://svnbook.red-bean.com.
115 \section senf_compile Building
117 To build the library, execute all unit tests and build the Sniffer test application, use
124 in the \c senf directory. This assumes, that you want to build the library with your default gcc
125 and requires the boost libraries to be available in the system include paths. If this is not the
126 case, you can take a look at <tt>SConfig.template</tt> file. Copy this file to <tt>SConfig</tt>
127 and comment out all the variables you don't want to change (The \e values in the template file
128 are just arbitrary examples).
131 /** \page senf_components The SENF modules
133 The framework is made up of several modular components. When using the library, it is possible
134 to selectively choose to use only a subset of the implemented modules.
136 \see \ref senf_build \n
139 \section libPPI libPPI: Packet Processing Infrastructure
141 The Packet Processing Infrastructure implements a modular framework for implementing packet
142 oriented network applications. The library provides a larget set of pre-defined modules as well
143 as the necessary helpers to implement application specific processing modules.
145 \see <a href="../../PPI/doc/html/index.html">libPPI API reference</a>
147 \section libSocket libSocket: C++ abstraction of the BSD socket API
149 This library provides a high performance and object oriented abstraction of the standard socket
150 API. It utilizes a flexible and extensible policy based design. The library provides predefined
151 types for the important socket types (UDP and TCP sockets etc) including raw and packet sockets.
153 \see <a href="../../Socket/doc/html/index.html">libSocket API reference</a>
155 \section libPackets libPackets: Network packet manipulation
157 This library provides a very flexible infrastructure to parse, create and otherwise manipulate
158 packetized network data. Included is a library of several protocol parsers covering the basic
159 IPv4 and IPv6 network protocols down to the Ethernet layer.
161 \see <a href="../../Packets/doc/html/index.html">libPackets API reference</a>
163 \section libScheduler libScheduler: Asynchronous event handling
165 The scheduler library provides an object oriented interface to the standard UNIX \c select type
166 event dispatcher. It is based on the high performance \c epoll system call. It provides support
167 for read/write events as well as simple timer based events.
169 \see <a href="../../Scheduler/doc/html/index.html">libScheduler API reference</a>
171 \section libUtils libUtils: Collection of arbitrary utilities
173 This library is used be most all of the other modules for miscellaneous tools and utilities. We
176 \li Simple functions to manage daemon processes
177 \li Standard exception classes
178 \li senf::intrusive_refcount to simplify the implementation of classes usable with
180 \li boost::bind extensions
181 \li An interface to the \c g++ demangler integrated with type_info
182 \li Typedefs and rudimentary methods to simplify handling high-resolution time values
184 \see <a href="../../Utils/doc/html/index.html">libUtils API reference</a>
186 \section senfscons SENFSCons, the SENF build environment
188 SENF relies on SCons (http://www.scons.org) to build. To further simplify the common tasks, SENF
189 includes a library of custom routines and builders comprising a very concise build
190 environment. Included are a number of templates to help bootstrapping a new project or
193 \see <a href="../../senfscons/doc/html/index.html">SENFSCons reference</a>
196 /** \page senf_svnsetup Setting up a new project using SENF
198 The preferred way to use SENF in a new project is to rely on Subversion and make use of the
199 SENFSCons build environment. The following sections will describe, how this setup works.
201 \see \ref senf_build \n
202 \ref senf_components \n
205 \section svnext Setting up the project repository
207 The most seamless integration is possible if you rely on Subversion to manage the new
208 project. Subversion does support 'external repositories'. This allows to import code from a
209 foreign repository into the checkout without importing it into your repository. The code will
210 always stay at the remote repository, updates are automatically available.
212 First setup a new empty repository as described for example in the Subversion book at
213 http://svnbook.red-bean.com or as mandated by your site policy. We will call the project 'Foo'
214 and assume, that the project has been checked out into the 'Foo' directory.
216 You now have to decide, which modules you want to use. Every module resides in it's own
217 subdirectory in the SENF repository. Instead of directly checking out the code, we will use \c
218 svn:externals. This will instruct \c svn to automatically check out the needed directories from
219 the BerliOS SENF repository. Change to the 'Foo' directory and type
222 $ svn propedit svn:externals .
225 The default editor (probably VI) will be started with the current value of the svn:externals
226 property (which will probably be empty). Now add all the modules you want plus \c senfscons and
227 possibly \c doclib (if you want to build the documentation). You will almost certainly need the
228 \c Utils module, since all other modules depend on it.
230 For example, if you want to use the \c Scheduler and \c Socket module, the file will look like
233 senfscons http://svn.berlios.de/svnroot/repos/senf/trunk/senfscons
234 Utils http://svn.berlios.de/svnroot/repos/senf/trunk/Utils
235 Scheduler http://svn.berlios.de/svnroot/repos/senf/trunk/Scheduler
236 Socket http://svn.berlios.de/svnroot/repos/senf/trunk/Socket
239 exit the editor and the property will be set. Now run
245 and the code will be checked out into the corresponding directories.
247 \section senf_new_conf Configuring SENFSCons
249 To set up the build environment, copy the <tt>senfscons/SConstruct.template</tt> to
250 <tt>SConstruct</tt> in the project root. The default setup of this file is to build all
251 subdirectories (using the \c SConscript files of the subdirectories). You can add additional
252 global targets and configuration parameters here.
254 If you want to use a non-default compiler or the boost library is not installed in the system
255 directories, you will have to copy <tt>senfscons/SConfig.template</tt> to <tt>SConfig</tt> in
256 the project root and edit it there. You should \e never add \c SConfig to the repository since
257 it should only contain local settings necessary for building on your local system. You should
258 therefore add \c SConfig to the list of files ignored by Subversion in the project root. In the
262 $ svn propedit svn:ignore .
265 and add \c SConfig as a new line to the property.
267 \section new_build Building the project
269 You should now be able to build your project using
275 If you have not changed the \c SConstruct file, this will build all modules you have imported
276 into your project. To build and execute the unit tests, use
282 you can also build only a subdirectory by changing to it and running
288 \see <a href="../../senfscons/doc/html/index.html">SENFSCons reference</a> \n
289 <a href="http://www.scons.org/documentation.php">SCons documentation</a> \n
290 <a href="http://svnbook.red-bean.com">Subversion online book</a> \n
291 <a href="http://subversion.tigris.org">Subversion Homepage</a>
294 /** \page senf_overview Introduction to the framework
296 The SENF framework is relatively complex and makes use of advanced features of the C++
297 language. To make the most efficient use of the framework, you should have at least a basic
298 understanding of C++ templates and the standard library concepts.
300 The library implementation at places makes heavy use of advanced template techniques and relies
301 on some very advanced template libraries from Boost. The aim was however for the \e external
302 interface of the library to be as simple as possible without sacrificing important functionality
303 or adversely impacting the runtime performance.
305 As already mentioned several times, the library relies on Boost (http://www.boost.org) as a
306 generic library of high quality reusable C++ components. It also makes frequent use of the
307 standard library. It is designed, to integrate well into both libraries and to use the same
310 \section senf_startup Getting starting developing with SENF
312 To introduce the framework and it's general structure, a simple example application is provided
313 in the SENF repository in the \c Sniffer module. Peruse this example to get a first look at how
316 When building a network Application with SENF, you will use several modules:
318 \li Use the <a href="../../Socket/doc/html/index.html">Socket library</a> for network
319 communication needs. This library includes support for raw and packet sockets to allow low
320 level network access.
321 \li Use the <a href="../../Scheduler/doc/html/index.html">Scheduler library</a> to coordinate
322 the asynchronous event processing. This drastically reduces the number of threads needed in
323 your application and will greatly enhance the overall responsiveness.
324 \li To interpret low level network packets, use the <a
325 href="../../Packets/doc/html/index.html">Packets library</a>. This library will provide
326 efficient and convenient access to all protocol fields. It supports parsing as well as
327 modifying and creating packets. It has default support for the most important internet
328 protocols and is highly extensible with new protocols.
329 \li Go over the <a href="../../Utils/doc/html/index.html">Utils library</a>. It contains small
330 helpers to simplify tasks like daemonization, exception handling, debugging and so on.
332 The simplest way to get started is: copy the Sniffer application and start to modify it.
334 \see <a href="../../Examples/doc/html/index.html">Examples</a> \n
335 \ref senf_components \n
336 \ref senf_svnsetup \n
339 \section senf_conventions Coding Conventions
341 Here we have laid down the coding conventions used throughout the SENF framework. Please ad here
342 to these conventions when changing or adding code. If you use emacs, you can use the C++ IDE for
343 emacs from http://g0dil.de which greatly simplifies following these conventions.
345 \subsection senf_conventions_file_naming File Naming
347 Files should be named according to the main class they define. A single header file should
348 define only one main class. Exceptions to this rule are OK.
351 This simplifies finding the implementation/header for a given class and also reduces the
352 size of each single file.
354 The implementation is divided into a number of different files:
356 <table class="glossary"> <tr><td>\c .h</td><td>C public header</td></tr>
358 <tr><td>\c .hh</td><td>C++ public header</td></tr>
360 <tr><td>\c .ih</td><td>C++ internal header used only by the implementation. This header will
361 probably be included indirectly by the public header but is not meant to be perused by the
362 library user</td></tr>
364 <tr><td>\c .c</td><td>C implementation</td></tr>
366 <tr><td>\c .cc</td><td>C++ implementation of non-inline non-template functions and
369 <tr><td>\c .ct</td><td>C++ implementation of non-inline template functions and members</td></tr>
371 <tr><td>\c .cci</td><td>C++ implementation of inline non-template functions and
374 <tr><td>\c .cti</td><td>C++ implementation of inline template functions and members</td></tr>
376 <tr><td>\c .mpp</td><td>Special include file used for external iteration by the
377 Boost.Preprocessor library</td></tr> </table>
380 There are two part's to this: First, separating the implementation of inlines and templates
381 out of the header file makes the header file much easier to read. This is important, since
382 the header file will be used as a reference by the developers.
384 Separating inline from non-inline members is used together with the \c prefix_ convention
385 below to ensure the correct placement of inline vs non-inline members in the source
386 code. The C++ language requires, that inline members must be included into \e every
387 compilation unit, non-inline members however must be included \e only in one compilation
388 unit. Placing the inline members into a separate file allows to automate this: Simply moving
389 an implementation from one of the inline files into one of the non-inline files will change
390 the type of implementation accordingly.
392 \subsection senf_conventions_type_naming Type Naming
394 SENF prefers the use of the CapitalziedLettersToSeparateWords convention for class names. In
395 this case, class names must start with a capital letter. There are some exceptions to this rule:
396 Types which define new basic data types to be used like other built-in types may be named using
397 lowercase letters plus underscores. Also, if a type or class is directly related to some other
398 library (STL or Boost) which uses the underscore convention, it might be more sensible to follow
399 this convention. This is open to debate.
402 Naming types with capital letters nicely gives a visual clue, that a symbol is a type
403 name. This can also be used by the editor to highlight type names correctly. Additionally,
404 this convention is compact and does not add additional or repeated overhead.
406 \subsection senf_conventions_impl Implementation
408 Only in very few places, SENF allows the use of inline implementations (not to be confused with
409 inline functions). An \e implementation is inline, if it is written directly into the class
410 definition in the header file. Again there are exceptions to this rule but they are very few:
411 \li When defining simple exception classes, the 'what()' member may be defined inline if it
412 returns a string constant.
413 \li It may be OK to use inline implementations for one-line implementations in internal
415 \li The Packet library allows inline implementations for the definition of parsers since doing
416 so outside the declaration just gets to verbose and parsers definitions are quite length but
417 very simple and straight forward.
420 Implementing members inline inside the class declaration makes the declaration much harder
421 to read. Since the declaration in the header file will be used as a reference by the
422 developer, the header files should be as readable as possible.
424 Every function or method implementation in one of the implementation files must \e always be
425 prefixed with \c prefix_. This symbol is defined at the beginning of the file and undefined at
426 the end. The symbol must be defined to be \c inline in the \c .cti and \c .cci files and must be
427 defined empty in the \c .cc and \c .ct files.
430 Together with splitting inlines and non-inlines into separate files, this allows to
431 automatically include the inline definitions at the right places. See above.
433 Private data members are named with a trailing underscore character.
436 This helps distinguishing local variables from parameter names. The trailing underscore
437 does not interfere with other naming conventions and is allowed by the standard (underscore
438 at the beginning of the name are problematic since some classes of names beginning with an
439 underscore are reserved for the standard library implementation)
446 // c-file-style: "senf"
447 // indent-tabs-mode: nil
448 // ispell-local-dictionary: "american"