[OpenSIPS-Users] RFC: text pre-processing in OpenSIPS cfg file

Wed Apr 11 21:07:34 CEST 2012

I see your argument Bogdan and it makes sense. I agree that this wouldn't
be a high priority feature. I personally use m4 and will have to use m4
since the same configuration file is used for all my software components
including opensips.

Do you keep of a list of features that you are considering for the next
release?

Regards,
Ali

On Wed, Apr 11, 2012 at 11:41 AM, Bogdan-Andrei Iancu
<bogdan at opensips.org>wrote:

> **
> Well, it is not only about personal preferences and how is nicer,
> etc...you should consider also the required work to do - at the end
> somebody has to implement this. And my questions is: considering that the
> development resources are limited, does it make sense to invest them in
> just creating an alternative to something already existing ?
>
> Regards,
> Bogdan
>
>
> On 04/11/2012 05:04 PM, Ali Pey wrote:
>
> Saúl,
>
>  It's very simple to define a simple text pre-processor. It would be one
> with only basic text/macro replacement with no fancy features.
>
>  I can understand that it would make more sense for you to use m4, but I
> don't understand how this would stop you from doing that? Your personal
> preference doesn't have to change.
>
>  It's all about simplicity. It would make it one or two steps shorter,
> faster and simpler for people that are not quite familiar with m4 or have
> simple requirements. Not every user is an expert.
>
>  Ali
>
>
> On Tue, Apr 10, 2012 at 4:36 PM, Saúl Ibarra Corretgé <
> saul at ag-projects.com> wrote:
>
>> Hi all,
>>
>> On Apr 10, 2012, at 6:13 PM, Ali Pey wrote:
>>
>> > I also think it would be a great addition to have a simple build-in
>> text pre-processing. For more advance features people can continue to use
>> m4 as desired.
>> >
>>
>>  The problem is the word "simple" on your sentence :-) How do we tell if
>> a feature request qualifies as "simple" or not?
>>
>> For me, the config file is fine as it is. It does have limitations, but
>> m4 helps in solving them.
>>
>> > Regards,
>> > Ali
>> >
>> >
>> > On Tue, Apr 10, 2012 at 12:05 PM, Nick Altmann <nick.altmann at gmail.com>
>> wrote:
>> > Against for M4:
>> > Configuration file may not be generated properly from m4 file(s)
>> > sometimes (because missed errors in m4), then server cannot start in
>> > some cases. It's when m4 in init.d script. When cfg-file built from m4
>> > manually, it's uncomfortable.
>> >
>> > In my opinion, opensips is the most powerful sip server, so it should
>> > have both options. And users should make decision which to better use
>> > in each case.
>> >
>>
>>  You should not attempt to run OpenSIPS with the new generated file
>> before testing it, you may have made a silly typo and the server would be
>> stopped. You can do it in 2 steps:
>>
>> - Regenerate the cfg file from the m4 files and call use opensips -c to
>> validate the config file
>> - Restart the service if the config was valid
>>
>> >
>> > 2012/4/10 Bogdan-Andrei Iancu <bogdan at opensips.org>:
>> > > Hi,
>> > >
>> > > I'm bringing here a discussion started on devel list, as I would like
>> to get
>> > > more opinions on the matter.
>> > >
>> > > The discussion started around the decision if makes sense to have
>> MACRO
>> > > substitution (as text pre-processing) directly in OpenSIPS,
>> considering that
>> > > right now M4 is heavenly used for this (as additional tool to
>> opensips).
>> > >
>> > > So, the debate was : have built-in text pre-processing versus using
>> M4 as
>> > > text processor
>> > >
>> > > Pros for M4:
>> > >     - no effort to develop extra stuff - just install M4
>> > >     - can do really complex things (more than only macros, ifdef,
>> include,
>> > > etc)
>> > >     - you can use it or not
>> > >     - easy to integrate with start / stop scripts
>> > > Against for M4:
>> > >     - need to be installed and integrated
>>
>>  I'm not aware of any system where installing m4 is troublesome.
>>
>> > >     - you may have a mismatch for the line number (if errors reported
>> in
>> > > cfg) between the .m4 file and .cfg file
>> > >
>>
>>  While this is true, you can look at the generated cfg file, and leaving
>> comments is also a good idea ;-)
>>
>> > > Pros for buit-in:
>> > >     - you do no need to install M4 at all (everything comes packet)
>> > >     - you may get accurate reporting on errors (for line in cfg)
>> > > Against for M4:
>> > >     - more devel work to re-implement macros, ifdef, etc
>> > >
>> > >
>> > > Now, I would like to get your opinions on that (you as opensips
>> users), to
>> > > see if we stick to using M4 for cfg pre-processing or there is a real
>> need
>> > > to have this functionality as built-in.
>> > >
>>
>>  As I said in the other thread I think that using resources for enhancing
>> the current configuration language is not a good idea. Ideally I'd like to
>> program my routing logic in a real programming language like Python, Lua or
>> Ruby not something totally different which newcomers need to learn and is
>> not a fully blown programing language.
>>
>> M4 is a powerful tool which can be used together with the current
>> configuration language to achieve all the requirements mentioned in the
>> previous mail, without modifying OpenSIPS.
>>
>> Maybe it would be a good idea to use m4 in the sample configs? Having a
>> opensips.m4 file with the main routing logic and some local.m4 file with
>> custom settings like DB configs, etc could help people get their feet wet
>> with m4. Even adding a "opensipsctl reconfigure" command could make sense,
>> it could just do the following:
>>
>> pushd /etc/opensips
>> m4 opensips.m4 > opensips.cfg
>> opensips -c /etc/opensips/opensips.cfg
>> popd
>>
>> So if there is an error you could see it before actually attempting to
>> run OpenSIPS with the change applied.
>>
>> Those are my 2 cents :-)
>>
>>
>> Regards,
>>
>> --
>> Saúl Ibarra Corretgé
>> AG Projects
>>
>>
>>
>>
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>>
>
>
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>
>
> --
> Bogdan-Andrei Iancu
> OpenSIPS Founder and Developerhttp://www.opensips-solutions.com
>
>
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