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This is the ubiquitous Reference Manual, version 1.2.3, generated automatically by Declt version 2.4 "Will Decker" on Wed Jun 20 12:43:16 2018 GMT+0.
| • Introduction: | What ubiquitous is all about | |
| • Systems: | The systems documentation | |
| • Files: | The files documentation | |
| • Packages: | The packages documentation | |
| • Definitions: | The symbols documentation | |
| • Indexes: | Concepts, functions, variables and data types |
Ubiquitous is a very easy-to-use library for persistent configuration storage. It automatically takes care of finding a suitable place to save your data, and provides simple functions to access and modify the data within.
Load ubiquitous through ASDF or Quicklisp.
(ql:quickload :ubiquitous)
The main functions you will be using are restore, and value. The former loads the configuration according to a designator, and the latter is an accessor allowing you to retrieve and set properties.
(restore 'my-config)
(setf (value :test) "hi!")
(value :test)
Ubiquitous will not perform any loading unless you tell it to. Thus, before the storage is truly persistent, you need to tell it where to restore from. Then, when values are set, it automatically saves the configuration to file. The location of the file is stored in *storage-pathname*, which is automatically computed according to what is most suitable for the given restore designator and OS. On Windows it will be under %HOME%\AppData\Local\common-lisp\ubiquitous\ and everywhere else under ~/.config/common-lisp/ubiquitous/. The exact behaviour of the pathname choosing is documented in designator-pathname.
value doesn't take a single name, but rather a path to a configuration value. The way things are traversed is handled by the field generic accessor. It tries to handle a number of commonly used structures, but you might have to extend it for your own classes, if you want to store those directly and traverse them. If a place does not exist yet, Ubiquitous will try to augment it if possible by creating a hash-table. This allows you to directly write a long path without having to worry about the containers existing.
(setf (value 'something 'that 'goes 6 'levels 'deep) "Calling from the depths!")
Often times for configuration one might want to specify a default value to use.
(defaulted-value "localhost" :hostname)
In case you need to remove a value, there's remvalue.
(remvalue 'something 'that 'goes 6 'levels 'deep)
By default, an extended s-expression format is used to store things in a file. If you need a different format, you can add methods to read-storage and write-storage, and set *storage-type* to your type name. Since (setf value) automatically calls offload to persist the storage, this might lead to a lot of saving all over the place. In order to avoid this, you can bundle a block of operations in a with-transaction form, which will only perform an offload once the block exits.
Ubiquitous in itself does not have any external dependencies, so you may also bundle it into a singular file to just load using ASDF:
(asdf:operate :build-op :ubiquitous)
Which will produce an independent ubiquitous.lisp file in (asdf:system-source-directory :ubiquitous).
By default Ubiquitous does not try to handle concurrent access in any way. The reason for this is not laziness, but merely the desire to avoid dependencies for those that don't need it. However, if you require safe concurrent access and handling of the storage, simply load ubiquitous-concurrent instead of ubiquitous. This will also pull in bordeaux-threads and establish additional methods around the standard definitions that will ensure concurrency safety.
This will still work irregardless of how many different storage objects you use, as the locking on the operations happens on the currently accessed storage object itself, rather than on a global lock. In order to avoid needless locking and unlocking, you should bundle your operations into a with-transaction block, which will only perform a lock once.
A couple of shortcomings exist in Ubiquitous, almost by necessity. As you might know out of experience, certain modifying operations are not possible to do without being able to modify the container of the object itself. As an example, poping an element off the head of the list requires setting the variable that contains the list, rather than the list itself. This sort of thing is rather annoying to model in a generic manner without complicating the common case needlessly. Furthermore, in a couple of instances ambiguity arises due to multiple actions being possible.
In detail, the following operations are supported suboptimally, or not at all:
remfield on a list with one element left that is to be removed. The car of the cons will simply be set to NIL.remfield on a vector. This would require shifting fields and potentially adjusting it. The desired effect cannot be estimated and so Ubiquitous does not support the operation at all.remfield on a standard-object, as class-slots cannot be removed without the MOP and you probably wouldn't want that to happen anyway.setf field on a list or vector where the field is an index exceeding the length. In this case, an error is signalled as extending the object to the required length might not be a desired or possible effect.setf field on a list where the field is a symbol or string. Lists are commonly used as alists or plists. Ubiquitous strictly expects alists.Another shortcoming is in the department of serialisation. Ubiquitous does not try to be overly smart about things, which especially comes into effect when serialising standard-objects. Ubiquitous saves the class' slots and restores it by calling allocate-instance without initargs and then setf slot-value-ing one slot after the other. If you need more tailored support for serialising your object, you must extend define-ubiquitous-reader and define-ubiquitous-writer, or write a new storage format altogether. Furthermore, since the default behaviour is to use the lisp printer and reader (with special handling for hash-table, standard-object, standard-class, and package) to serialise objects, several things might get lost in translation, such as the fill-pointer and adjustability of a vector.
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The main system appears first, followed by any subsystem dependency.
| • The ubiquitous system: |
Nicolas Hafner <shinmera@tymoon.eu>
Nicolas Hafner <shinmera@tymoon.eu>
Artistic
A library providing a universal application configuration mechanism.
1.2.3
ubiquitous.asd (file)
Files are sorted by type and then listed depth-first from the systems components trees.
| • Lisp files: |
Next: The ubiquitous/package<dot>lisp file, Previous: Lisp files, Up: Lisp files [Contents][Index]
ubiquitous.asd
ubiquitous (system)
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ubiquitous (system)
package.lisp
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package.lisp (file)
ubiquitous (system)
pathname.lisp
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pathname.lisp (file)
ubiquitous (system)
accessor.lisp
*nothing* (special variable)
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accessor.lisp (file)
ubiquitous (system)
storage.lisp
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storage.lisp (file)
ubiquitous (system)
config.lisp
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config.lisp (file)
ubiquitous (system)
documentation.lisp
setdocs (macro)
Next: Definitions, Previous: Files, Up: Top [Contents][Index]
Packages are listed by definition order.
| • The ubiquitous package: |
package.lisp (file)
org.shirakumo.ubiquitous
common-lisp
Definitions are sorted by export status, category, package, and then by lexicographic order.
| • Exported definitions: | ||
| • Internal definitions: |
Next: Internal definitions, Previous: Definitions, Up: Definitions [Contents][Index]
| • Exported special variables: | ||
| • Exported macros: | ||
| • Exported functions: | ||
| • Exported generic functions: | ||
| • Exported conditions: |
Next: Exported macros, Previous: Exported definitions, Up: Exported definitions [Contents][Index]
When non-NIL it means a change has occurred and the config should be offloaded.
config.lisp (file)
When non-NIL, an OFFLOAD is performed after a call to (SETF VALUE) or REMVALUE.
config.lisp (file)
Special variable containing the current root storage object. Defaults to an EQUAL hash-table.
storage.lisp (file)
The pathname for the file where the current *STORAGE* is stored.
Defaults to (DESIGNATOR-PATHNAME :GLOBAL *STORAGE-TYPE*).
See DESIGNATOR-PATHNAME
See *STORAGE-TYPE*
storage.lisp (file)
An indicator for the type of storage format to use.
Defaults to :LISP
Only used as a discerning argument to READ/WRITE-STORAGE.
storage.lisp (file)
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Define a new function that produces an object of TYPE by parsing the read FORM.
storage.lisp (file)
Define a new function that produces a list of objects to be written to reproduce OBJECT of TYPE.
storage.lisp (file)
Useful for completely encapsulating the storage in a local block.
Unlike WITH-STORAGE, this also binds the *STORAGE-TYPE* and
*STORAGE-PATHNAME*. If TRANSACTION is non-NIL, WITH-TRANSACTION is
used, and otherwise a simple LET*. STORAGE defaults to the LAZY-LOADER
function, meaning that if the storage is never accessed, it is never
loaded to begin with. This, along with WITH-TRANSACTION can be a
good optimisation to avoid unnecessary disk access.
See *STORAGE*
See *STORAGE-TYPE*
See *STORAGE-PATHNAME*
See WITH-TRANSACTION
See LAZY-LOADER
storage.lisp (file)
Binds *STORAGE* to the given STORAGE object, ensuring a local configuration.
storage.lisp (file)
Executes BODY within a transaction.
See CALL-WITH-TRANSACTION
config.lisp (file)
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Returns a hopefully suitable directory for ubiquitous configuration files.
On Windows this is (USER-HOMEDIR-PATHNAME)/AppData/Local/common-lisp/ubiquitous On other systems (USER-HOMEDIR-PATHNAME)/.config/common-lisp/ubiquitous
pathname.lisp (file)
Returns a pathname with the proper directory and type set.
See CONFIG-DIRECTORY
pathname.lisp (file)
A function that is to be used as a direct *STORAGE* value to delay the restoring.
When called, the function will call RESTORE and then delegate the given
action to the proper function (FIELD, (SETF FIELD), REMFIELD) using the
*STORAGE* as object.
See *STORAGE*
See FIELD
See REMFIELD
See WITH-LOCAL-STORAGE
storage.lisp (file)
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Attempts to augment OBJECT on FIELD to be able to host a SECONDARY place.
This is done by (SETF FIELD) a hash-table on the given OBJECT and FIELD. The
type of SECONDARY decides the hash-table test to use:
SYMBOL, INTEGER, CHARACTER — EQL
STRING, BIT-VECTOR, PATHNAME — EQUAL
ARRAY, STRUCTURE-OBJECT, HASH-TABLE — EQUALP
See FIELD
accessor.lisp (file)
Calls FUNCTION with *COMMIT* set to NIL and offloads if necessary upon exit.
OFFLOAD is only called if *CHANGED* is non-NIL. Otherwise no change is assumed to
have taken place and the offload is prevented to avoid unnecessary writing.
The keyword parameters replace the bindings for *STORAGE* *STORAGE-TYPE* and
*STORAGE-PATHNAME* respectively.
See *COMMIT*
See *CHANGED*
See OFFLOAD
config.lisp (file)
Same as VALUE, but automatically returns and sets DEFAULT if the field cannot be found.
See VALUE
config.lisp (file)
Attempts to automatically find the proper pathname for the given DESIGNATOR and TYPE.
If DESIGNATOR is..
An absolute PATHNAME:
The pathname is used as-is.
A relative PATHNAME:
The pathname is merged with that of CONFIG-DIRECTORY.
A STRING:
The string is turned into a pathname by PATHNAME and merged with CONFIG-PATHNAME.
An uninterned or keyword SYMBOL:
The symbol-name is used as the pathname-name and merged with CONFIG-PATHNAME.
A SYMBOL from the CL package:
An error is raised, as in almost all certainty don’t want to do this. Using a CL
symbol would very likely run you into configuration conflicts with other applications.
An interned SYMBOL:
A pathname with the symbol’s package-name as relative directory and the symbol-name
as pathname-name is merged with CONFIG-PATHNAME.
Examples:
(designator-pathname #p"/a" :lisp) — #p"/a"
(designator-pathname #p"a" :lisp) — #p"~/.config/common-lisp/ubiquitous/a"
(designator-pathname "a" :lisp) — #p"~/.config/common-lisp/ubiquitous/a.conf.lisp"
(designator-pathname :foo :lisp) — #p"~/.config/common-lisp/ubiquitous/foo.conf.lisp"
(designator-pathname #:foo :lisp) — #p"~/.config/common-lisp/ubiquitous/foo.conf.lisp"
(designator-pathname ’cl:find :lisp) — ERROR
(designator-pathname ’foo:bar :lisp) — #p"~/.config/common-lisp/ubiquitous/foo/bar.conf.lisp"
pathname.lisp (file)
Destroys *STORAGE* by deleting its file and restoring it to an empty hash table.
The file used to destroy the storage is calculated by passing
DESIGNATOR (defaulting to *STORAGE-PATHNAME*) and TYPE (defaulting to
*STORAGE-TYPE*) to DESIGNATOR-PATHNAME.
This sets *STORAGE*, *STORAGE-TYPE*, *STORAGE-PATHNAME*, and *CHANGED*.
See *STORAGE*
See *STORAGE-TYPE*
See *STORAGE-PATHNAME*
See *CHANGED*
See DESIGNATOR-PATHNAME
storage.lisp (file)
Access FIELD on OBJECT if possible. Returns DEFAULT if FIELD is not present. The secondary return value is a boolean depicting whether the field could be found.
This is SETF-able. However, while some objects and field combinations may be used
to read a field, an equivalent SETF method must not necessarily exist.
In the case where the object is a function, the function is called as follows:
(field func field default) => (funcall func :get field default)
(setf (field func field) value) => (funcall func :set field value)
Note that if there is no matching method to look up the requested field, an error is signalled.
accessor.lisp (file)
(setf field) (generic function)
accessor.lisp (file)
field (generic function)
To be used on NO-STORAGE-FILE, returns the pathname to the file that could not be found.
(setf file) (generic function)
storage.lisp (file)
file (generic function)
storage.lisp (file)
Offloads *STORAGE* by writing it to file.
The file used to read the storage is calculated by passing
DESIGNATOR (defaulting to *STORAGE-PATHNAME*) and TYPE (defaulting to
*STORAGE-TYPE*) to DESIGNATOR-PATHNAME.
The file is first written to a temporary one and then renamed to the
actual file to avoid potential errors or interruptions that would result
in a garbled configuration file.
This sets *STORAGE-TYPE*, *STORAGE-PATHNAME*, and *CHANGED*.
During OFFLOAD, the following restarts are active:
ABORT Aborts and does not set any of the usual variables.
See *STORAGE*
See *STORAGE-TYPE*
See *STORAGE-PATHNAME*
See *CHANGED*
See DESIGNATOR-PATHNAME
See WRITE-STORAGE
storage.lisp (file)
Reads a storage object from STREAM, which must be stored in a format suitable for TYPE. Returns the read storage object.
storage.lisp (file)
Removes FIELD from OBJECT if possible.
The secondary return value is a boolean depicting whether the field was removed.
In the case where the object is a function, the function is called as follows:
(remfield func field) => (funcall func :remove field)
Note that if there is no matching method to look up the requested field, an error is signalled.
accessor.lisp (file)
Removes the value denoted by the PATH.
The secondary return value is a boolean depicting whether the field could be found.
First traverses *STORAGE* until the last field in PATH by FIELD, then uses REMFIELD
on the last remaining field. If no PATH is given, the *STORAGE* is reset to an empty
hash-table.
See FIELD
See REMFIELD
config.lisp (file)
Restores *STORAGE* by reading it from file if possible and returns it.
The file used to read the storage is calculated by passing
DESIGNATOR (defaulting to *STORAGE-PATHNAME*) and TYPE (defaulting to
*STORAGE-TYPE*) to DESIGNATOR-PATHNAME. If it exists, a stream is opened
and subsequently passed to READ-STORAGE. The result thereof is used as
the new storage object. If it does not exist, a warning of type
NO-STORAGE-FILE is signalled and a new EQUAL hash-table is used for the
storage object (unless a restart is invoked of course).
This sets *STORAGE*, *STORAGE-TYPE*, *STORAGE-PATHNAME*, and *CHANGED*.
During OFFLOAD, the following restarts are active:
USE-NEW-STORAGE Takes one argument to use as the new storage instead.
ABORT Aborts and does not set any of the usual variables.
See *STORAGE*
See *STORAGE-TYPE*
See *STORAGE-PATHNAME*
See *CHANGED*
See NO-STORAGE-FILE
See DESIGNATOR-PATHNAME
See READ-STORAGE
storage.lisp (file)
Traverses *STORAGE* by the fields in PATH and returns the value if it can be found. The secondary return value is a boolean depicting whether the field could be found.
This is SETF-able. If a PATH is set that is made up of fields that do not exist yet,
then these fields are automatically created as necessary (if possible) by usage of
AUGMENT. Setting with no PATH given sets the value of *STORAGE*. After setting a value,
OFFLOAD is called, unless *COMMIT* is NIL
See FIELD
See AUGMENT
See OFFLOAD
See *COMMIT*
config.lisp (file)
(setf value) (generic function)
config.lisp (file)
value (generic function)
Writes the STORAGE object to STREAM in a format suitable for TYPE. Returns the written STORAGE object.
storage.lisp (file)
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Condition signalled when the storage FILE to be RESTOREd does not exist.
This does not usually denote a problem, but can be useful to know about
if you want perform certain actions on what is probably a first-time
launch.
See FILE
See RESTORE
storage.lisp (file)
condition (condition)
:file
file (generic function)
(setf file) (generic function)
| Initarg | Value |
|---|---|
| :file | (error "file required.") |
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| • Internal special variables: | ||
| • Internal macros: | ||
| • Internal functions: |
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Variable with a value used to represent an inexistent value.
accessor.lisp (file)
A string of two characters denoting the start and end of a special construct.
storage.lisp (file)
The pprint-dispatch-table used to write storage objects to file.
storage.lisp (file)
The readtable used to read storage objects from file.
storage.lisp (file)
A hash table of functions invoked upon reading a special construct.
storage.lisp (file)
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documentation.lisp (file)
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storage.lisp (file)
storage.lisp (file)
Reader function invoked when encountering the first character of *UBIQUITOUS-CHAR*.
storage.lisp (file)
Function to pretty print a generalised FORM to STREAM.
Emits a logical block wherein the FORM is printed.
The form must be a list and is stepped one by one. If the item in the list
is not a list, it is written readably to the stream. If it is a list, it is
written to the stream after a PPRINT-NEWLINE by PPRINT-LINEAR.
storage.lisp (file)
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| • Concept index: | ||
| • Function index: | ||
| • Variable index: | ||
| • Data type index: |
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