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+ _ _ ____ _
+ ___| | | | _ \| |
+ / __| | | | |_) | |
+ | (__| |_| | _ <| |___
+ \___|\___/|_| \_\_____|
+
+INTERNALS
+
+ The project is split in two. The library and the client. The client part uses
+ the library, but the library is designed to allow other applications to use
+ it.
+
+ The largest amount of code and complexity is in the library part.
+
+GIT
+===
+ All changes to the sources are committed to the git repository as soon as
+ they're somewhat verified to work. Changes shall be committed as independently
+ as possible so that individual changes can be easier spotted and tracked
+ afterwards.
+
+ Tagging shall be used extensively, and by the time we release new archives we
+ should tag the sources with a name similar to the released version number.
+
+Portability
+===========
+
+ We write curl and libcurl to compile with C89 compilers. On 32bit and up
+ machines. Most of libcurl assumes more or less POSIX compliance but that's
+ not a requirement.
+
+ We write libcurl to build and work with lots of third party tools, and we
+ want it to remain functional and buildable with these and later versions
+ (older versions may still work but is not what we work hard to maintain):
+
+ OpenSSL 0.9.6
+ GnuTLS 1.2
+ zlib 1.1.4
+ libssh2 0.16
+ c-ares 1.6.0
+ libidn 0.4.1
+ cyassl 2.0.0
+ openldap 2.0
+ MIT krb5 lib 1.2.4
+ qsossl V5R2M0
+ NSS 3.12.x
+ axTLS 1.2.7
+ Heimdal ?
+
+ On systems where configure runs, we aim at working on them all - if they have
+ a suitable C compiler. On systems that don't run configure, we strive to keep
+ curl running fine on:
+
+ Windows 98
+ AS/400 V5R2M0
+ Symbian 9.1
+ Windows CE ?
+ TPF ?
+
+ When writing code (mostly for generating stuff included in release tarballs)
+ we use a few "build tools" and we make sure that we remain functional with
+ these versions:
+
+ GNU Libtool 1.4.2
+ GNU Autoconf 2.57
+ GNU Automake 1.7 (we currently avoid 1.10 due to Solaris-related bugs)
+ GNU M4 1.4
+ perl 5.004
+ roffit 0.5
+ groff ? (any version that supports "groff -Tps -man [in] [out]")
+ ps2pdf (gs) ?
+
+Windows vs Unix
+===============
+
+ There are a few differences in how to program curl the unix way compared to
+ the Windows way. The four perhaps most notable details are:
+
+ 1. Different function names for socket operations.
+
+ In curl, this is solved with defines and macros, so that the source looks
+ the same at all places except for the header file that defines them. The
+ macros in use are sclose(), sread() and swrite().
+
+ 2. Windows requires a couple of init calls for the socket stuff.
+
+ That's taken care of by the curl_global_init() call, but if other libs also
+ do it etc there might be reasons for applications to alter that behaviour.
+
+ 3. The file descriptors for network communication and file operations are
+ not easily interchangeable as in unix.
+
+ We avoid this by not trying any funny tricks on file descriptors.
+
+ 4. When writing data to stdout, Windows makes end-of-lines the DOS way, thus
+ destroying binary data, although you do want that conversion if it is
+ text coming through... (sigh)
+
+ We set stdout to binary under windows
+
+ Inside the source code, We make an effort to avoid '#ifdef [Your OS]'. All
+ conditionals that deal with features *should* instead be in the format
+ '#ifdef HAVE_THAT_WEIRD_FUNCTION'. Since Windows can't run configure scripts,
+ we maintain a curl_config-win32.h file in lib directory that is supposed to
+ look exactly as a curl_config.h file would have looked like on a Windows
+ machine!
+
+ Generally speaking: always remember that this will be compiled on dozens of
+ operating systems. Don't walk on the edge.
+
+Library
+=======
+
+ There are plenty of entry points to the library, namely each publicly defined
+ function that libcurl offers to applications. All of those functions are
+ rather small and easy-to-follow. All the ones prefixed with 'curl_easy' are
+ put in the lib/easy.c file.
+
+ curl_global_init_() and curl_global_cleanup() should be called by the
+ application to initialize and clean up global stuff in the library. As of
+ today, it can handle the global SSL initing if SSL is enabled and it can init
+ the socket layer on windows machines. libcurl itself has no "global" scope.
+
+ All printf()-style functions use the supplied clones in lib/mprintf.c. This
+ makes sure we stay absolutely platform independent.
+
+ curl_easy_init() allocates an internal struct and makes some initializations.
+ The returned handle does not reveal internals. This is the 'SessionHandle'
+ struct which works as an "anchor" struct for all curl_easy functions. All
+ connections performed will get connect-specific data allocated that should be
+ used for things related to particular connections/requests.
+
+ curl_easy_setopt() takes three arguments, where the option stuff must be
+ passed in pairs: the parameter-ID and the parameter-value. The list of
+ options is documented in the man page. This function mainly sets things in
+ the 'SessionHandle' struct.
+
+ curl_easy_perform() does a whole lot of things:
+
+ It starts off in the lib/easy.c file by calling Curl_perform() and the main
+ work then continues in lib/url.c. The flow continues with a call to
+ Curl_connect() to connect to the remote site.
+
+ o Curl_connect()
+
+ ... analyzes the URL, it separates the different components and connects to
+ the remote host. This may involve using a proxy and/or using SSL. The
+ Curl_resolv() function in lib/hostip.c is used for looking up host names
+ (it does then use the proper underlying method, which may vary between
+ platforms and builds).
+
+ When Curl_connect is done, we are connected to the remote site. Then it is
+ time to tell the server to get a document/file. Curl_do() arranges this.
+
+ This function makes sure there's an allocated and initiated 'connectdata'
+ struct that is used for this particular connection only (although there may
+ be several requests performed on the same connect). A bunch of things are
+ inited/inherited from the SessionHandle struct.
+
+ o Curl_do()
+
+ Curl_do() makes sure the proper protocol-specific function is called. The
+ functions are named after the protocols they handle. Curl_ftp(),
+ Curl_http(), Curl_dict(), etc. They all reside in their respective files
+ (ftp.c, http.c and dict.c). HTTPS is handled by Curl_http() and FTPS by
+ Curl_ftp().
+
+ The protocol-specific functions of course deal with protocol-specific
+ negotiations and setup. They have access to the Curl_sendf() (from
+ lib/sendf.c) function to send printf-style formatted data to the remote
+ host and when they're ready to make the actual file transfer they call the
+ Curl_Transfer() function (in lib/transfer.c) to setup the transfer and
+ returns.
+
+ If this DO function fails and the connection is being re-used, libcurl will
+ then close this connection, setup a new connection and re-issue the DO
+ request on that. This is because there is no way to be perfectly sure that
+ we have discovered a dead connection before the DO function and thus we
+ might wrongly be re-using a connection that was closed by the remote peer.
+
+ Some time during the DO function, the Curl_setup_transfer() function must
+ be called with some basic info about the upcoming transfer: what socket(s)
+ to read/write and the expected file transfer sizes (if known).
+
+ o Transfer()
+
+ Curl_perform() then calls Transfer() in lib/transfer.c that performs the
+ entire file transfer.
+
+ During transfer, the progress functions in lib/progress.c are called at a
+ frequent interval (or at the user's choice, a specified callback might get
+ called). The speedcheck functions in lib/speedcheck.c are also used to
+ verify that the transfer is as fast as required.
+
+ o Curl_done()
+
+ Called after a transfer is done. This function takes care of everything
+ that has to be done after a transfer. This function attempts to leave
+ matters in a state so that Curl_do() should be possible to call again on
+ the same connection (in a persistent connection case). It might also soon
+ be closed with Curl_disconnect().
+
+ o Curl_disconnect()
+
+ When doing normal connections and transfers, no one ever tries to close any
+ connections so this is not normally called when curl_easy_perform() is
+ used. This function is only used when we are certain that no more transfers
+ is going to be made on the connection. It can be also closed by force, or
+ it can be called to make sure that libcurl doesn't keep too many
+ connections alive at the same time (there's a default amount of 5 but that
+ can be changed with the CURLOPT_MAXCONNECTS option).
+
+ This function cleans up all resources that are associated with a single
+ connection.
+
+ Curl_perform() is the function that does the main "connect - do - transfer -
+ done" loop. It loops if there's a Location: to follow.
+
+ When completed, the curl_easy_cleanup() should be called to free up used
+ resources. It runs Curl_disconnect() on all open connections.
+
+ A quick roundup on internal function sequences (many of these call
+ protocol-specific function-pointers):
+
+ Curl_connect - connects to a remote site and does initial connect fluff
+ This also checks for an existing connection to the requested site and uses
+ that one if it is possible.
+
+ Curl_do - starts a transfer
+ Curl_handler::do_it() - transfers data
+ Curl_done - ends a transfer
+
+ Curl_disconnect - disconnects from a remote site. This is called when the
+ disconnect is really requested, which doesn't necessarily have to be
+ exactly after curl_done in case we want to keep the connection open for
+ a while.
+
+ HTTP(S)
+
+ HTTP offers a lot and is the protocol in curl that uses the most lines of
+ code. There is a special file (lib/formdata.c) that offers all the multipart
+ post functions.
+
+ base64-functions for user+password stuff (and more) is in (lib/base64.c) and
+ all functions for parsing and sending cookies are found in (lib/cookie.c).
+
+ HTTPS uses in almost every means the same procedure as HTTP, with only two
+ exceptions: the connect procedure is different and the function used to read
+ or write from the socket is different, although the latter fact is hidden in
+ the source by the use of Curl_read() for reading and Curl_write() for writing
+ data to the remote server.
+
+ http_chunks.c contains functions that understands HTTP 1.1 chunked transfer
+ encoding.
+
+ An interesting detail with the HTTP(S) request, is the Curl_add_buffer()
+ series of functions we use. They append data to one single buffer, and when
+ the building is done the entire request is sent off in one single write. This
+ is done this way to overcome problems with flawed firewalls and lame servers.
+
+ FTP
+
+ The Curl_if2ip() function can be used for getting the IP number of a
+ specified network interface, and it resides in lib/if2ip.c.
+
+ Curl_ftpsendf() is used for sending FTP commands to the remote server. It was
+ made a separate function to prevent us programmers from forgetting that they
+ must be CRLF terminated. They must also be sent in one single write() to make
+ firewalls and similar happy.
+
+ Kerberos
+
+ The kerberos support is mainly in lib/krb4.c and lib/security.c.
+
+ TELNET
+
+ Telnet is implemented in lib/telnet.c.
+
+ FILE
+
+ The file:// protocol is dealt with in lib/file.c.
+
+ LDAP
+
+ Everything LDAP is in lib/ldap.c and lib/openldap.c
+
+ GENERAL
+
+ URL encoding and decoding, called escaping and unescaping in the source code,
+ is found in lib/escape.c.
+
+ While transferring data in Transfer() a few functions might get used.
+ curl_getdate() in lib/parsedate.c is for HTTP date comparisons (and more).
+
+ lib/getenv.c offers curl_getenv() which is for reading environment variables
+ in a neat platform independent way. That's used in the client, but also in
+ lib/url.c when checking the proxy environment variables. Note that contrary
+ to the normal unix getenv(), this returns an allocated buffer that must be
+ free()ed after use.
+
+ lib/netrc.c holds the .netrc parser
+
+ lib/timeval.c features replacement functions for systems that don't have
+ gettimeofday() and a few support functions for timeval conversions.
+
+ A function named curl_version() that returns the full curl version string is
+ found in lib/version.c.
+
+Persistent Connections
+======================
+
+ The persistent connection support in libcurl requires some considerations on
+ how to do things inside of the library.
+
+ o The 'SessionHandle' struct returned in the curl_easy_init() call must never
+ hold connection-oriented data. It is meant to hold the root data as well as
+ all the options etc that the library-user may choose.
+ o The 'SessionHandle' struct holds the "connection cache" (an array of
+ pointers to 'connectdata' structs). There's one connectdata struct
+ allocated for each connection that libcurl knows about. Note that when you
+ use the multi interface, the multi handle will hold the connection cache
+ and not the particular easy handle. This of course to allow all easy handles
+ in a multi stack to be able to share and re-use connections.
+ o This enables the 'curl handle' to be reused on subsequent transfers.
+ o When we are about to perform a transfer with curl_easy_perform(), we first
+ check for an already existing connection in the cache that we can use,
+ otherwise we create a new one and add to the cache. If the cache is full
+ already when we add a new connection, we close one of the present ones. We
+ select which one to close dependent on the close policy that may have been
+ previously set.
+ o When the transfer operation is complete, we try to leave the connection
+ open. Particular options may tell us not to, and protocols may signal
+ closure on connections and then we don't keep it open of course.
+ o When curl_easy_cleanup() is called, we close all still opened connections,
+ unless of course the multi interface "owns" the connections.
+
+ You do realize that the curl handle must be re-used in order for the
+ persistent connections to work.
+
+multi interface/non-blocking
+============================
+
+ We make an effort to provide a non-blocking interface to the library, the
+ multi interface. To make that interface work as good as possible, no
+ low-level functions within libcurl must be written to work in a blocking
+ manner.
+
+ One of the primary reasons we introduced c-ares support was to allow the name
+ resolve phase to be perfectly non-blocking as well.
+
+ The ultimate goal is to provide the easy interface simply by wrapping the
+ multi interface functions and thus treat everything internally as the multi
+ interface is the single interface we have.
+
+ The FTP and the SFTP/SCP protocols are thus perfect examples of how we adapt
+ and adjust the code to allow non-blocking operations even on multi-stage
+ protocols. They are built around state machines that return when they could
+ block waiting for data. The DICT, LDAP and TELNET protocols are crappy
+ examples and they are subject for rewrite in the future to better fit the
+ libcurl protocol family.
+
+SSL libraries
+=============
+
+ Originally libcurl supported SSLeay for SSL/TLS transports, but that was then
+ extended to its successor OpenSSL but has since also been extended to several
+ other SSL/TLS libraries and we expect and hope to further extend the support
+ in future libcurl versions.
+
+ To deal with this internally in the best way possible, we have a generic SSL
+ function API as provided by the sslgen.[ch] system, and they are the only SSL
+ functions we must use from within libcurl. sslgen is then crafted to use the
+ appropriate lower-level function calls to whatever SSL library that is in
+ use.
+
+Library Symbols
+===============
+
+ All symbols used internally in libcurl must use a 'Curl_' prefix if they're
+ used in more than a single file. Single-file symbols must be made static.
+ Public ("exported") symbols must use a 'curl_' prefix. (There are exceptions,
+ but they are to be changed to follow this pattern in future versions.) Public
+ API functions are marked with CURL_EXTERN in the public header files so that
+ all others can be hidden on platforms where this is possible.
+
+Return Codes and Informationals
+===============================
+
+ I've made things simple. Almost every function in libcurl returns a CURLcode,
+ that must be CURLE_OK if everything is OK or otherwise a suitable error code
+ as the curl/curl.h include file defines. The very spot that detects an error
+ must use the Curl_failf() function to set the human-readable error
+ description.
+
+ In aiding the user to understand what's happening and to debug curl usage, we
+ must supply a fair amount of informational messages by using the Curl_infof()
+ function. Those messages are only displayed when the user explicitly asks for
+ them. They are best used when revealing information that isn't otherwise
+ obvious.
+
+API/ABI
+=======
+
+ We make an effort to not export or show internals or how internals work, as
+ that makes it easier to keep a solid API/ABI over time. See docs/libcurl/ABI
+ for our promise to users.
+
+Client
+======
+
+ main() resides in src/main.c together with most of the client code.
+
+ src/tool_hugehelp.c is automatically generated by the mkhelp.pl perl script
+ to display the complete "manual" and the src/urlglob.c file holds the
+ functions used for the URL-"globbing" support. Globbing in the sense that
+ the {} and [] expansion stuff is there.
+
+ The client mostly messes around to setup its 'config' struct properly, then
+ it calls the curl_easy_*() functions of the library and when it gets back
+ control after the curl_easy_perform() it cleans up the library, checks status
+ and exits.
+
+ When the operation is done, the ourWriteOut() function in src/writeout.c may
+ be called to report about the operation. That function is using the
+ curl_easy_getinfo() function to extract useful information from the curl
+ session.
+
+ Recent versions may loop and do all this several times if many URLs were
+ specified on the command line or config file.
+
+Memory Debugging
+================
+
+ The file lib/memdebug.c contains debug-versions of a few functions. Functions
+ such as malloc, free, fopen, fclose, etc that somehow deal with resources
+ that might give us problems if we "leak" them. The functions in the memdebug
+ system do nothing fancy, they do their normal function and then log
+ information about what they just did. The logged data can then be analyzed
+ after a complete session,
+
+ memanalyze.pl is the perl script present in tests/ that analyzes a log file
+ generated by the memory tracking system. It detects if resources are
+ allocated but never freed and other kinds of errors related to resource
+ management.
+
+ Internally, definition of preprocessor symbol DEBUGBUILD restricts code which
+ is only compiled for debug enabled builds. And symbol CURLDEBUG is used to
+ differentiate code which is _only_ used for memory tracking/debugging.
+
+ Use -DCURLDEBUG when compiling to enable memory debugging, this is also
+ switched on by running configure with --enable-curldebug. Use -DDEBUGBUILD
+ when compiling to enable a debug build or run configure with --enable-debug.
+
+ curl --version will list 'Debug' feature for debug enabled builds, and
+ will list 'TrackMemory' feature for curl debug memory tracking capable
+ builds. These features are independent and can be controlled when running
+ the configure script. When --enable-debug is given both features will be
+ enabled, unless some restriction prevents memory tracking from being used.
+
+Test Suite
+==========
+
+ The test suite is placed in its own subdirectory directly off the root in the
+ curl archive tree, and it contains a bunch of scripts and a lot of test case
+ data.
+
+ The main test script is runtests.pl that will invoke test servers like
+ httpserver.pl and ftpserver.pl before all the test cases are performed. The
+ test suite currently only runs on unix-like platforms.
+
+ You'll find a description of the test suite in the tests/README file, and the
+ test case data files in the tests/FILEFORMAT file.
+
+ The test suite automatically detects if curl was built with the memory
+ debugging enabled, and if it was it will detect memory leaks, too.
+
+Building Releases
+=================
+
+ There's no magic to this. When you consider everything stable enough to be
+ released, do this:
+
+ 1. Tag the source code accordingly.
+
+ 2. run the 'maketgz' script (using 'make distcheck' will give you a pretty
+ good view on the status of the current sources). maketgz requires a
+ version number and creates the release archive. maketgz uses 'make dist'
+ for the actual archive building, why you need to fill in the Makefile.am
+ files properly for which files that should be included in the release
+ archives.
+
+ 3. When that's complete, sign the output files.
+
+ 4. Upload
+
+ 5. Update web site and changelog on site
+
+ 6. Send announcement to the mailing lists
+
+ NOTE: you must have curl checked out from git to be able to do a proper
+ release build. The release tarballs do not have everything setup in order to
+ do releases properly.