rfc module autodetection patch set

[Trevor Saunders]

> >There are some things that should be thought about some here.
> >* currently modules file name starts with sd_xxxx do we have a good
> >  reason for this when coming up with a name rom each file this code
> >  simply adds three to the pointer to the string to skip the sd_ when
> >  getting the name, which should be checked if we want to keep the sd_
> >  prefix.
> 
> The motivation for using the sd_ prefix was to be able to
> easily distinguish Speech Dispatcher module binaries in
> active process listings in ps, top and such.

yes, I agree with keeping this.

> >* we still deal with all the module loading in
> >speechd_load_configuration() is this where we want it to happen.
> 
> I would prefer to separate it. Please also look how this is related
> to SIGHUP handling, which reloads configuration at runtime and
> is also supposed to do the correct thing for modules and their
> configurations.

In general I agreee this should be seperated although I think we'll
really want to kill and restart all modules  when handling SIGHUP (I
think we could be a little more clever, but see no reason to be).

> SIGHUP is I think the only way to change (some parts of) configuration
> without disconnecting the clients. (e.g. add a new module or change default
> or module parameters) On one side, I think its usefulness on the desktop
> is quite questionable, especially as most clients would
> automatically reconnect

well, I can't think of another way to get configuration reread without a
restart, which is significantly less desireable than sending SIGHUP.
Also it is a standard feature of deamons.

> on full server restart anyway. But perhaps in some network setups
> with multiple
> remote clients, one would want to do configuration changes in the
> server without
> disconnecting the clients.

imho SIGHUP is generally preferable to a restart when possibe because of
speed, and because if we where to ever implement history then that would
be preserved, and if messages are in the queue when you go to reread the
config they will still get spoken if you don't restart.

> >*it would be nice for autodetection to be able to work with the generic
> >module to some degree, based on the way the current support works this
> >is fairly easy if we can add links in MODULEBINDIR from say
> >espeak-generic to the binary sd_generic that way the detection would try
> >to exec sd_generic with the config file modules/espeak-generic.conf.
> 
> Symlinks are a nice solution. The generic modules should not be
> handled as a special case in the server logic. There is nothing
> fundamentally
> different about them except for their internal implementation details
> and their restricted capabilities.

yes, I see no reason to specially handle sd_generic.

> On platforms where symlinks are not possible, packagers can simply
> supply wrapper scripts in MODULEBINDIR.

yes, that is also a clean solution to the problem.

Trev

> >*I keept the Addmodule directive so people could deal with configuring
> >modules not in the MODULEBINDIR, and other nonstandard things.  It would
> >be nice if a hand configured module with the same name as an
> >autodetected one could override the autoditected value, instead of
> >dupplicating it.
> 
> I agree.
> 
> Best regards,
> Hynek Hanke
> 
> 
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