docs/src/features.md

Wed, 28 Jun 2023 20:07:52 +0200

author
Mike Becker <universe@uap-core.de>
date
Wed, 28 Jun 2023 20:07:52 +0200
changeset 727
d92a59f5d261
parent 725
c9b882bef838
child 729
600d72644919
permissions
-rw-r--r--

improve mempool implementation

universe@720 1 ---
universe@720 2 title: UCX Features
universe@720 3 ---
universe@720 4
universe@720 5 <div id="modules">
universe@720 6
universe@720 7 ------------------------ ------------------------- ------------------- ---------------------------------
universe@720 8 [Allocator](#allocator) [String](#string) [Buffer](#buffer) [Memory&nbsp;Pool](#memory-pool)
universe@720 9 [Iterator](#iterator) [Collection](#collection) [List](#list) [Map](#map)
universe@720 10 [Utilities](#utilities)
universe@720 11 ------------------------ ------------------------- ------------------- ---------------------------------
universe@720 12
universe@720 13 </div>
universe@720 14
universe@720 15 ## Allocator
universe@720 16
universe@720 17 *Header file:* [allocator.h](api/allocator_8h.html)
universe@720 18
universe@722 19 The UCX allocator provides an interface for implementing an own memory allocation mechanism.
universe@722 20 Various function in UCX provide an additional alternative signature that takes an allocator as
universe@722 21 argument. A default allocator implementation using the stdlib memory management functions is
universe@722 22 available via the global symbol `cxDefaultAllocator`.
universe@722 23
universe@722 24 If you want to define your own allocator, you need to initialize the `CxAllocator` structure
universe@722 25 with a pointer to an allocator class (containing function pointers for the memory management
universe@722 26 functions) and an optional pointer to an arbitrary memory region that can be used to store
universe@722 27 state information for the allocator. An example is shown below:
universe@722 28
universe@722 29 ```c
universe@722 30 struct my_allocator_state {
universe@722 31 size_t total;
universe@722 32 size_t avail;
universe@727 33 char mem[];
universe@722 34 };
universe@722 35
universe@722 36 static cx_allocator_class my_allocator_class = {
universe@722 37 my_malloc_impl,
universe@722 38 my_realloc_impl, // all these functions are somewhere defined
universe@722 39 my_calloc_impl,
universe@722 40 my_free_impl
universe@722 41 };
universe@722 42
universe@722 43 CxAllocator create_my_allocator(size_t n) {
universe@722 44 CxAllocator alloc;
universe@722 45 alloc.cl = &my_allocator_class;
universe@722 46 alloc.data = calloc(1, sizeof(struct my_allocator_state) + n);
universe@722 47 return alloc;
universe@722 48 }
universe@722 49
universe@722 50 void free_my_allocator(CxAllocator *alloc) {
universe@722 51 free(alloc.data);
universe@722 52 free(alloc);
universe@722 53 }
universe@722 54 ```
universe@722 55
universe@720 56 ## String
universe@720 57
universe@720 58 *Header file:* [string.h](api/string_8h.html)
universe@720 59
universe@723 60 UCX strings come in two variants: immutable (`cxstring`) and mutable (`cxmutstr`).
universe@723 61 The functions of UCX are designed to work with immutable strings by default but in situations where it is necessary,
universe@723 62 the API also provides alternative functions that work directly with mutable strings.
universe@723 63 Functions that change a string in-place are, of course, only accepting mutable strings.
universe@723 64
universe@723 65 When you are using UCX functions, or defining your own functions, you are sometimes facing the "problem",
universe@723 66 that the function only accepts arguments of type `cxstring` but you only have a `cxmutstr` at hand.
universe@723 67 In this case you _should not_ introduce a wrapper function that accepts the `cxmutstr`,
universe@723 68 but instead you should use the `cx_strcast()` function to cast the argument to the correct type.
universe@723 69
universe@723 70 In general, UCX strings are **not** necessarily zero-terminated. If a function guarantees to return zero-terminated
universe@723 71 string, it is explicitly mentioned in the documentation of the respective function.
universe@723 72 As a rule of thumb, you _should not_ pass the strings of a UCX string structure to another API without explicitly
universe@723 73 ensuring that the string is zero-terminated.
universe@723 74
universe@720 75 ## Buffer
universe@720 76
universe@724 77 *Header file:* [buffer.h](api/buffer_8h.html)
universe@724 78
universe@724 79 Instances of this buffer implementation can be used to read from or write to memory like you would do with a stream.
universe@724 80 This allows the use of `cx_stream_copy()` (see [Utilities](#utilities)) to copy contents from one buffer to another,
universe@724 81 or from a file or network streams to the buffer and vice-versa.
universe@724 82
universe@724 83 More features for convenient use of the buffer can be enabled, like automatic memory management and automatic
universe@724 84 resizing of the buffer space.
universe@724 85
universe@724 86 Since UCX 3.0, the buffer also supports automatic flushing of contents to another stream (or buffer) as an alternative
universe@724 87 to automatically resizing the buffer space.
universe@724 88 Please refer to the API doc for the fields prefixed with `flush_` to learn more.
universe@720 89
universe@720 90 ## Memory Pool
universe@720 91
universe@725 92 *Header file:* [mempool.h](api/mempool_8h.html)
universe@720 93
universe@720 94 ## Iterator
universe@720 95
universe@720 96 *Header file:* [iterator.h](api/iterator_8h.html)
universe@720 97
universe@720 98 ## Collection
universe@720 99
universe@720 100 *Header file:* [collection.h](api/collection_8h.html)
universe@720 101
universe@720 102 ## List
universe@720 103
universe@720 104 *Header file:* [list.h](api/list_8h.html)
universe@720 105
universe@720 106 ### Linked List
universe@720 107
universe@720 108 *Header file:* [linked_list.h](api/linked__list_8h.html)
universe@720 109
universe@720 110 ### Array List
universe@720 111
universe@720 112 *Header file:* [array_list.h](api/array__list_8h.html)
universe@720 113
universe@720 114 ## Map
universe@720 115
universe@720 116 *Header file:* [map.h](api/map_8h.html)
universe@720 117
universe@720 118 ### Hash Map
universe@720 119
universe@720 120 *Header file:* [hash_map.h](api/hash__map_8h.html)
universe@720 121
universe@720 122 ## Utilities
universe@720 123
universe@720 124 *Header file:* [utils.h](api/utils_8h.html)
universe@720 125
universe@724 126 UCX provides some utilities for routine tasks. Most of them are simple macros, like e.g. the `cx_for_n()` macro,
universe@724 127 creating a `for` loop counting from zero to (n-1) which is extremely useful to traverse the indices of
universe@724 128 an array.
universe@724 129
universe@724 130 But the most useful utilities are the *stream copy* functions, which provide a simple way to copy all - or a
universe@724 131 bounded amount of - data from one stream to another. Since the read/write functions of a UCX buffer are
universe@724 132 fully compatible with stream read/write functions, you can easily transfer data from file or network streams to
universe@724 133 a UCX buffer or vice-versa.
universe@724 134
universe@724 135 The following example shows, how easy it is to read the contents of a file into a buffer:
universe@724 136 ```c
universe@724 137 FILE *inputfile = fopen(infilename, "r");
universe@724 138 if (inputfile) {
universe@724 139 CxBuffer fbuf;
universe@724 140 cxBufferInit(&fbuf, NULL, 4096, NULL, CX_BUFFER_AUTO_EXTEND);
universe@724 141 cx_stream_copy(inputfile, &fbuf,
universe@724 142 (cx_read_func) fread,
universe@724 143 (cx_write_func) cxBufferWrite);
universe@724 144 fclose(inputfile);
universe@724 145
universe@724 146 // ... do something meaningful with the contents ...
universe@724 147
universe@724 148 cxBufferDestroy(&fbuf);
universe@724 149 } else {
universe@724 150 perror("Error opening input file");
universe@724 151 if (fout != stdout) {
universe@724 152 fclose(fout);
universe@724 153 }
universe@724 154 }
universe@724 155 ```
universe@724 156
universe@720 157 ### Printf Functions
universe@720 158
universe@720 159 *Header file:* [printf.h](api/printf_8h.html)
universe@720 160
universe@725 161 In this utility header you can find `printf()`-like functions that can write the formatted output to an arbitrary
universe@725 162 stream (or UCX buffer, resp.), or to memory allocated by an allocator within a single function call.
universe@725 163 With the help of these convenience functions, you do not need to `snprintf` your string to a temporary buffer anymore,
universe@725 164 plus you do not need to worry about too small buffer sizes, because the functions will automatically allocate enough
universe@725 165 memory to contain the entire formatted string.
universe@725 166
universe@720 167 ### Compare Functions
universe@720 168
universe@720 169 *Header file:* [compare.h](api/compare_8h.html)
universe@725 170
universe@725 171 This header file contains a collection of compare functions for various data types.
universe@725 172 Their signatures are designed to be compatible with the `cx_compare_func` function pointer type.

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