Modules system and backends

[Andrew Bartlett]

On Thu, Aug 28, 2003 at 10:35:10AM +0300, Tom Alsberg wrote:
> I have a small request for Samba 3 (when it comes).  Since now some
> backends of things (e.g. passdb, vfs, etc.) can be built as external
> modules (not part of the Samba build), it would be good if the Samba
> install (make install) would also install the necessary include files,
> etc. for it.

That is every Samba include file.

> This way one wouldn't need the current Samba source to build such
> modules, and Makefiles of modules could be written in a better way
> (not having to take into consideration the location of the includes
> and libraries in the Samba source).
> 
> This would also better define the interface of modules (that is - what
> module writers need to know and can trust to stay compatible), so one
> writing a module would need to mess less with the source of all kinds
> of things without Samba and will be able to work with a cleaner
> environment containing only what he could need.
> 
> (This is the way it works with many other systems which support
> modules - pam, nss, etc., as well as commercial software which only
> provides to module writers an SDK to write plug-ins, etc.)

We know this - however Samba isn't (and wasn't) built with the idea that
plugins should be a primary focus.  As such, it's a bit of a mess - there
really is no simple interface to write to, if you every want to call any
internal Samba function (like DEBUG, or the lp code).

>   Thanks, hope this is possible to get into Samba before 3.0 is
> released,
>   -- Tom

Probably not,

Andrew Bartlett