CGUL

CGUL: The C Grand Unified Library

File:Cgul.jpg

Actually an albatros

Purpose

The CGUL's purpose is to centralize library code used by various security middleware components.

Features

• Access to Unix privilege information
• Networking
• File handling
• Logging
• SSL wrappers

C Code conventions

• Code should be portable across POSIX-compliant platforms
• Header files should be regarded as documentation
• Prototypes in header files should contain variable names for clarity
• Header files should not contain memory allocation or initializers
• The use of global variables is highly discouraged
• Code should be commented using Doxygen syntax Cheat sheet
• Logging should only be done through CGUL logging function
• The use of stdout or stderr directly is highly discouraged - stderr may only be accessed through the logging function
• Comments should describe whether use of a standard library function is thread-safe or not
• Comments should describe relevant or non-obvious side effects of a standard library function
• Thread-safe functions should have their names suffixed with '_r'
• Internal components of the CGUL should not depend on each other (except maybe logging)

Issues open for debate

Code licensing

IANAL, but...

The gLite project dictates that all shipped source code files should include a license (the Apache license). Because this license occasionally gets updated it could be problematic to simply cat a LICENSE file into the source code files when 'make dist' is ran, as the original authors (who might have left Nikhef) need to sign off on the licensing change.

Code Authorship attribution

Next to including a general AUTHORS file, it might be possible to generate a list of specific authors per file using 'svn blame' information. This can be catted into the source code files as described under 'Code licensing'.