GSoC 2012

[Gedare Bloom]

On Thu, Mar 22, 2012 at 8:55 PM, Kevin Polulak <kpolulak at gmail.com> wrote:
> I've just completed my Hello World example so I can now begin seriously
> considering my proposal.
>
>
> On Wed, Mar 21, 2012 at 7:24 AM, Joel Sherrill <joel.sherrill at oarcorp.com>
> wrote:
>>
>> Other requirements include it being very desirable to be able to use the
>> same driver with either stack. And to be able to use vanilla existing LWIP
>> drivers with RTEMS LWIP port but not the BSD stack.
>
>
> While talking to Gedare Bloom on IRC yesterday, he too mentioned that part
> of the project would include the addition of a BSD compatibility layer. This
> would allow applications to freely switch between the BSD stack and LWIP.
> Doing so wouldn't be too difficult as LWIP already includes a BSD socket
> compatibility API. In fact, the documentation for LWIP even provides a
> reference implementation.
>
> However, there are a few caveats. First, the BSD sockets compatibility API
> does not support the select() and poll() functions since LWIP simply does
> not have any functions for implementing them. According to Dunkel, such an
> implementation could not use the API and instead would have to directly
> communicate with the stack.
>
> Would implementing the select() and poll() functions be necessary? If so,
> I'll have to look a little further into how they are implemented on other
> systems. I worry about select() because when I was with the Parrot project,
> the test suite was always failing on certain platforms due to the highly
> platform-dependent nature of this function and is very tricky to implement.
>
I don't think so. I view the "compatibility" issue as being one of
simplifying the transition of an application from lwIP to the BSD
stack in RTEMS. If lwIP already has a decent compatibility layer for
BSD then you might just be able to rely on that. We don't want to add
much code on top of lwIP for applications that will use it.

The real trick is to be able to reuse driver code for the two stacks...

> From what I've been able to gather from other LWIP implementations, it seems
> that the BSD sockets compatibility API is not meant to be used as a complete
> replacement for applications designed for a full implementation of the BSD
> stack. Rather, it should only be used to help assist in porting existing
> applications. So far, I haven't been able to determine exactly what features
> aren't possible but I'll look into it a little further. Is that going to be
> a problem? I will certainly do my best to implement as many features as I
> can but if it's not possible, it's not possible.
>
Not a problem because those applications will have the option to use
the BSD stack. This is why we want to have support for both stacks.
The lwIP stack is meant for smaller devices and applications that need
a smaller footprint.

> All that aside, I've found a good article on what should be included in the
> operating system compatibility layer. Granted, it is for an older 0.6
> version (the most recent is 1.4.0) but it should at least provide a decent
> starting point for my proposal.
>
Great. See if you can get more updated material.

-Gedare
>
> --
> - Kevin Polulak (soh_cah_toa)
> - http://cybercrud.net
>
>
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