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Diffstat (limited to 'design-notes.html')
| -rw-r--r-- | design-notes.html | 44 |
1 files changed, 42 insertions, 2 deletions
diff --git a/design-notes.html b/design-notes.html index 54549ff8..b6ddec2d 100644 --- a/design-notes.html +++ b/design-notes.html @@ -10,7 +10,7 @@ <table width="100%" cellpadding=0><tr> <td width="30%">Back to <a href="index.html">Fetchmail Home Page</a> <td width="30%" align=center>To <a href="/~esr/sitemap.html">Site Map</a> -<td width="30%" align=right>$Date: 1998/03/04 05:45:27 $ +<td width="30%" align=right>$Date: 1998/03/06 04:17:44 $ </table> <HR> <H1 ALIGN=CENTER>Design Notes On Fetchmail</H1> @@ -287,6 +287,46 @@ in a system's libc, but we can just include that source file if the day comes when we want to support IPv6 without the inet6-apps library. It just makes life easier.<P> +<H1>Checklist for Adding Options + +Adding a control option is not complicated in principle, but there are +a lot of fiddly details in the process. You'll need to do the +following minimum steps. + +<UL> +<LI>Add a field to represent the control in <code>struct query</code> or + <code>struct hostdata</code>. + +<LI>Pick a token to declare the option in the .fetchmailrc file. Add + the token to <code>rcfile_l</code>. + +<LI>Go to <code>rcfile_y.y</code>. Add the token to the grammar. Don't + forget the <code>%token</code> declaration. Add proper + <code>FLAG_FORCE</code> and <code>FLAG_MERGE</code> actions. + +<LI>Pick a long-form option name, and a one-letter short option if any + are left. Go to <code>options.c</code>. Pick a new <code>LA_<code> + value. Hack the <code>longoptions</code> table to set up the + association. Hack the big switch statement to set the option. + Hack the `?' message to describe it. + +<LI>If the default is nonzero, set it in <code>def_opts</code> near the top of + <code>load_params</code> in <code>fetchmail.c</code>. + +<LI>Add code to dump the option value in <code>fetchmail.c:dump_params</code>. + +<LI>Document the option in fetchmail.man. This will require at least + two changes; one to the collected table of options, and one full + text description of the option. + +<LI>Add the new token and a brief description to the header comment of + sample.rcfile. + +<LI>Add an entry to NEWS. +</UL> + +There may be other things you have to do in the way of logic, of course.<P> + <H1>Lessons learned</H1> <H3>1. Server-side state is essential</H3> @@ -423,7 +463,7 @@ all shaped the design in one way or another.<P> <table width="100%" cellpadding=0><tr> <td width="30%">Back to <a href="index.html">Fetchmail Home Page</a> <td width="30%" align=center>To <a href="/~esr/sitemap.html">Site Map</a> -<td width="30%" align=right>$Date: 1998/03/04 05:45:27 $ +<td width="30%" align=right>$Date: 1998/03/06 04:17:44 $ </table> <P><ADDRESS>Eric S. Raymond <A HREF="mailto:esr@thyrsus.com"><esr@snark.thyrsus.com></A></ADDRESS> |