Update TODO with mention of the CONFIG->ENABLE migration and ruminations
about FEATURE_CLEAN_UP.
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TODO
65
TODO
@ -115,3 +115,68 @@ Memory Allocation
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free for an alloca()), and this means that various cleanup loops that just
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call free might also be optimized out by the compiler if written right, so
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we can yank those #ifdefs too, and generally clean up the code.
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---
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Switch CONFIG_SYMBOLS to ENABLE_SYMBOLS
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In busybox 1.0 and earlier, configuration was done by CONFIG_SYMBOLS
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that were either defined or undefined to indicate whether the symbol was
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selected in the .config file. They were used with #ifdefs, ala:
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#ifdef CONFIG_SYMBOL
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if (other_test) {
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do_code();
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}
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#endif
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In 1.1, we have new ENABLE_SYMBOLS which are always defined (as 0 or 1),
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meaning you can still use them for preprocessor tests by replacing
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"#ifdef CONFIG_SYMBOL" with "#if ENABLE_SYMBOL". But more importantly, we
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can use them as a true or false test in normal C code:
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if (ENABLE_SYMBOL && other_test) {
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do_code();
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}
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(Optimizing away if() statements that resolve to a constant value
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is known as "dead code elimination", an optimization so old and simple that
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Turbo Pascal for DOS did it twenty years ago. Even modern mini-compilers
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like the Tiny C Compiler (tcc) and the Small Device C Compiler (SDCC)
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perform dead code elimination.)
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Right now, busybox.h is #including both "config.h" (defining the
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CONFIG_SYMBOLS) and "bb_config.h" (defining the ENABLE_SYMBOLS). At some
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point in the future, it would be nice to wean ourselves off of the
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CONFIG versions. (Among other things, some defective build environments
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leak the Linux kernel's CONFIG_SYMBOLS into the system's standard #include
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files. We've experienced collisions before.)
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---
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FEATURE_CLEAN_UP
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This is more an unresolved issue than a to-do item. More thought is needed.
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Normally we rely on exit() to free memory, close files, and unmap segments
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for us. This makes most calls to free(), close(), and unmap() optional in
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busybox applets that don't intend to run for very long, and optional stuff
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can be omitted to save size.
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The idea was raised that we could simulate fork/exit with setjmp/longjmp
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for _really_ brainless embedded systems, or speed up the standalone shell
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by not forking. Doing so would require a reliable FEATURE_CLEAN_UP.
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Unfortunately, this isn't as easy as it sounds.
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The problem is, lots of things exit(), sometimes unexpectedly (xmalloc())
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and sometimes reliably (bb_perror_msg_and_die() or show_usage()). This
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jumps out of the normal flow control and bypasses any cleanup code we
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put at the end of our applets.
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It's possible to add hooks to libbb functions like xmalloc() and bb_xopen()
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to add their entries to a linked list, which could be traversed and
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freed/closed automatically. (This would need to be able to free just the
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entries after a checkpoint to be usable for a forkless standalone shell.
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You don't want to free the shell's own resources.)
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Right now, FEATURE_CLEAN_UP is more or less a debugging aid, to make things
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like valgrind happy. It's also documentation of _what_ we're trusting
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exit() to clean up for us. But new infrastructure to auto-free stuff would
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render the existing FEATURE_CLEAN_UP code redundant.
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For right now, exit() handles it just fine.
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