[PATCH RFC] cifs-utils: new plugin architecture for ID mapping code

[Jeff Layton]

On Thu, 06 Dec 2012 10:34:10 -0500
simo <idra at samba.org> wrote:

> On Thu, 2012-12-06 at 09:58 -0500, Jeff Layton wrote:
> > On Thu, 06 Dec 2012 08:42:31 -0500
> > simo <idra at samba.org> wrote:
> > 
> > > On Thu, 2012-12-06 at 07:37 -0500, Jeff Layton wrote:
> > > > Currently, the ACL-related tools in cifs-utils call into the wbclient
> > > > libs directly in order to do their bidding. The wbclient developers want
> > > > to get away from needing to configure winbind on the clients and instead
> > > > allow sssd to handle the id-mapping. Less muss, less fuss...
> > > > 
> > > > This patch represents an initial step in that direction. It adds a
> > > > plugin architecture for cifs-utils, adds wrappers around the calls into
> > > > libwbclient that find an idmap plugin library to use and then has it
> > > > call into that plugin to do the actual ID mapping.
> > > > 
> > > > This patch should be considered an RFC on the overall design. Once I
> > > > have some positive feedback (or lack of negative feedback), I'll do the
> > > > same with cifs.idmap and setcifsacl.
> > > > 
> > > > This patch is still pretty rough, but should demonstrate the basic
> > > > design:
> > > > 
> > > > The application will call into a set of routines that find the correct
> > > > plugin and dlopen() it. Currently the plugin is located in a hardcoded
> > > > location that will eventually be settable via autoconf. That location is
> > > > intended to be a symlink that points to the real plugin (generally under
> > > > %libdir/cifs-utils).
> > > > 
> > > > The plugin will export a number of functions with well-known names. The
> > > > wrappers find those by using dlsym() and then call them.
> > > > 
> > > > I'm tracking progress on this work here:
> > > > 
> > > >     https://bugzilla.samba.org/show_bug.cgi?id=9203
> > > > 
> > > > Here are some questions to ponder:
> > > > 
> > > > 1/ Should we switch this code to use a config file of some sort instead
> > > > of this symlink? The symlink would probably be more efficient, but it
> > > > is a little odd and might confuse people. It also might make it hard to
> > > > expand the idmapping interfaces later.
> > > 
> > > I think a symlink is ok for starters, a config file can always be added
> > > later if needed.
> > > 
> > 
> > To play devil's advocate, a config file might make more sense. What if
> > a plugin wants to be able to set certain parameters globally (domain
> > names or something)?
> 
> Then the plugin will have it's own file.
> 
> Which made me understand what looked strange in your code. You are not
> calling an initialization function which is customary to do, so plugins
> can do their setup.
> Of course plugins can also do lazy init the first time you call any of
> their function, but calling a init plugin explicitly may be useful, esp
> if you pass in a 'interface version number', so that should you require
> changes to the interface in future the plugin may adapt and you can use
> the same with multiple cifs versions.
> 

Ok, another good point. I'll put that in.

> > Having that configuration in a single place might be less confusing
> > than having to set a symlink and set up a config file. Switching to a
> > config file later is a UI change and those are always more painful...
> 
> If you defer configuration to the plugin it is not your problem, and I
> think that would be the correct way to go, otherwise you need to provide
> methods for the plugins to read this config file and it quickly winds
> down becoming a complex and more tightly coupled interface.
> 
> I think you want to stay out of plugins configuration business, they can
> take care of that on their own.
> 
> If you want to make things easier maybe call an initializer function and
> expect an opaque handle out of it.
> Then always pass that handle back in any plugin function. This way the
> interface can also be thread safe w/o forcing the plugin to use mutexes,
> should you ever need thread safety.
> 

Ok, that sounds reasonable and simple, I'll add that in too.

> > > > 2/ Should I switch this code to use libltdl for the plugin architecture?
> > > > I started to use that initially, but it was awfully complex to get working.
> > > > Since portability isn't really a concern with cifs-utils, I punted. Does
> > > > anyone see issues with rolling our own here?
> > > 
> > > Well the cifs kernel module is Linux only, I would leave the hassle of
> > > dealing with portability to whomever would like to port this.
> > > Using dlopen/dlsym is simple, so roll-your-own seem fine to me.
> > > 
> > > One thing though I would name-space the symbol, so instead of
> > > idmap_sid_to_str call it cifs_idmap_sid_to_str, in the plugin.
> > > Internally you can call whatever you want.
> > > 
> > 
> > Ok, the namespace thing is probably a good idea. Perhaps we should even
> > take a page out of the libltdl book, and prefix the symbols with the
> > name of the plugin? So in this patch, that would be something like
> > "idmapwb_sid_to_str". That way if we ever want to be able to stack
> > plugins, we can potentially do so without conflicts.
> 
> It is not really needed, because you are not going to load the symbols
> as is, but you assign them to an internal name.
> And I do not think you are ever going to support multiple idmappers, but
> even if you do by using dlsym() you shouldn't really care about names,
> because you have handle to a specific shared object and you can assign
> and rename those symbols when you resolve them (as i showed in my
> example) so you still do not get a conflict issue).
> 
> Namespacing using plugin names is needed if you want to just dlopen()
> and then use the plugin's names directly without an explicit dlsym().
> In that case name conflicts would arise.
> 

Yeah, that occurred to me after I sent this. Probably no need to add
that complexity since we're going to rely on dlsym().

> > > Also I think you shouldn't resolve symbols each time,
> > > 
> > > Declare a function pointer in the data segment (so inited to NULL at
> > > startup) and do a lazy init only if it is NULL, by assigning it.
> > > 
> > > #define RESOLVE_SYMBOL(name) \
> > > do { \
> > >     if (name == NULL) { \
> > >         name = resolve_symbol("cifs_" # name); \
> > >         if (name == NULL) \
> > >             return -ENOSYS; \
> > >     } \
> > > } while(0);
> > > 
> > > sid_to_str()
> > > {
> > >     RESOLVE_SYMBOL(idmap_sid_to_str);
> > >     return idmap_sid_to_str(..);
> > > }
> > > 
> > 
> > Yep, I was planning to add that in a later patch. I just wanted to make
> > the initial patch simple to focus on the interfaces between components.
> > 
> > Thanks for the review so far...
> 
> YW,
> HTH.
> 
> Simo.
> 

Thanks again,
-- 
Jeff Layton <jlayton at samba.org>