[sane-devel] Location of some backend's files

[JKD]

El Sun, 03 de Dec de 2006, a las 11:13:07AM -0500, m. allan noah dijo:
> On Sun, 3 Dec 2006, JKD wrote:
> 
> >Hello,
> >
> >I'm hp3900 backend's developer. Due to this backend supports some
> >scanners and new devices could be supported in the future I'm thinking
> >about the possibility to create different config files for each
> >scanner capabilities to maintain code's structure legible.
> 
> but you will have to add code that parses these files, and builds them 
> into an array of structs. having that array compiled into the backend 
> will be faster, and maybe less code.

Code to parse files would be done the first time. Sources wouldn't
need to be rewriten each time a new scanner is added. Due to config is
out of code, application's size is much lower and only is necessary to
allocate dynamic memory for one scanner instead of all supported
scanners. Another advantage is that any change in structs wouldn't affect
configuration causing compilation problems. The only disadvantage as you
say is that there is a little lapsus of time (may be not perceptible)
when using "sane_open" function. But after sane_open, backend works
as fast as it was before.

> >It's not simple configuration which user should change but internal
> >values to program RTS8822 chip in each case (area constrains to scan,
> >sensor timing values, motor curves...) so I wouldn't set them at
> >sane.d/hp3900.conf
> 
> if they are not user-changeable, then why do they need to be a separate 
> file?

Because it's easier for any developer or anyone who wants to try to
support his new scanner, under his own responsability, editing desired
values without compiling backend in each change (It's faster in
this way). For security reasons these files can be "read only" so normal
users can not make any change.

> >
> >Is there any standard path in SANE to locate such files? Something
> >like sane.d/backend's name/ or may be /usr/share/backend's name/
> >
> 
> i would consider it a security risk to have such a low-level control file 
> read from the home-dir of the user, and non-linux systems may not have a 
> /usr/share, but they will have the sane.d config-file dir, so perhaps 
> sane.d/backendname/ is best (though i dont see the need for it...)
>
> allan

If all of you think that it's not a good idea I'll keep config inside
code.
 
Jonathan Bravo Lopez