Re: unreadable XML proplists from drvctl(8)

[Matthew Mondor <mm_lists%pulsar-zone.net@localhost>]

On Fri, 20 Jan 2012 05:51:35 +0000
David Holland <dholland-current%netbsd.org@localhost> wrote:

> On Wed, Jan 18, 2012 at 04:00:12PM -0500, Matthew Mondor wrote:
>  > Although the above example didn't exactly use JSON, I think that
>  > yes, decently indented JSON would be a good alternative output format
>  > for humans.
> 
> I think JSON is at most only slightly preferable.
> 
> If the output can be tabular, it should be tabular. Otherwise, how
> about outputting in mib format like the various *ctl tools? Hardly
> optimal but not awful and there's lots of precedent.

XML plist format:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<!DOCTYPE plist PUBLIC "-//Apple Computer//DTD PLIST 1.0//EN"
"http://www.apple.com/DTDs/PropertyList-1.0.dtd";> <plist version="1.0">
<dict>
        <key>device-driver</key>
        <string>wd</string>
        <key>device-unit</key>
        <integer>0x0</integer>
        <key>disk-info</key>
        <dict>
                <key>geometry</key>
                <dict>
                        <key>cylinders-per-unit</key>
                        <integer>0x97695</integer>
                        <key>sector-size</key>
                        <integer>0x200</integer>
                        <key>sectors-per-track</key>
                        <integer>0x3f</integer>
                        <key>sectors-per-unit</key>
                        <integer>0x2542eab0</integer>
                        <key>tracks-per-cylinder</key>
                        <integer>0x10</integer>
                </dict>
                <key>type</key>
                <string>ESDI</string>
        </dict>
</dict>
</plist>

My current "humanize" format:

{
  
  "device-driver" = "wd" 
  "device-unit" = 0 
  "disk-info" = {
    
    "geometry" = {
      
      "cylinders-per-unit" = 620181 
      "sector-size" = 512 
      "sectors-per-track" = 63 
      "sectors-per-unit" = 625142448 
      "tracks-per-cylinder" = 16 
    }  
    "type" = "ESDI" 
  }  
} 

Proposed MIB format?

wd0.device-driver = wd
wd0.device-unit = 0
wd0.disk-info.geometry.cylenders-per-unit = 620181
wd0.disk-info.geometry.sector-size = 512
wd0.disk-info.geometry.sectors-per-track = 63
wd0.disk-info.geometry.sectors-per-unit = 625142448
wd0.disk-info.geometry.tracks-per-cylinder = 16
wd0.type = ESDI

Which could be generated with some function such as:

int prop_object_externalize_mib(const char *parent, prop_object_t, FILE *);

Where in this case <parent> could be "wd0"...  which if NULL would not
include a top-level parent.  Yet now I'm wondering, would arrays be
output such as [ 1 2 3 4 ... ] ?  There different various formats
output by some multi-value sysctl klobs at the moment.

Once we mostly agree on a human format (we're pretty close :) I can
propose a function for review...

Thanks,
-- 
Matt