On 05/12/2009 11:36 AM, Karel Zak wrote:
1) write "libptread" library
[...]
2) write "libptwrite" library (with functionality like
A library abstraction of PT handling code should definitely be the
ultimate goal. It is also the goal for me. The thing which I see
differently is: the code for the possible future library
(ptread/ptwrite) already exists in fdisk, only is in a horrible
unmaintainable shape. I'd like to take the refactoring/cleanup steps
first, and after fdisk has its label handling nice and clean like a baby
butt, it is rather trivial to take it and abstract that one more step
into a library and make fdisk&others use it.
Do you think there's a more suitable base code from which the work
should be started? From the *fdisk stuff, I believe the fdisk (not
[sc]fdisk) code is the most mature and maintained one from my
inspection. I didn't check other utilities that do partition table handling.
3) Error reporting/handling
I nearly forgot. It is not only error checking/handling. One of the
major problems is that the label-specific functions often do direct
interaction with the user, ie. read input and produce output in general.
That is unacceptable (even for monolithic code), and needs to be slowly
moved up in the hierarchy towards the main fdisk utility code, rather
than label-specific code.
I think fdisk code could be refactored in parallel to work on the
libs. But don't forget to use small easy-to-review patches.
... as usually. ;) There'll be basically two phases. a) Taking fdisk,
cutting it into several pieces of code, and basically moving most
functions out into separate files where they should've always been. That
is going to be a _HUGE_ patch, with almost no real code changes, just
moving things around, and it's quite pointless to split that into
smaller pieces. b) Taking the resulting code, and refactoring it piece
by piece towards the ultimate goal - clean separation of abstract
library-like code and UI. That should be several small patches, each
having its own specific purpose.
Zdenek
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