TWI428765B - Electronic system and method thereof capable of sharing application configurations - Google Patents

Description

Electronic system and method for sharing application configuration parameters

The present invention relates to computer technology, and more particularly to an electronic system that can share application configuration parameters.

In the program development, the eXtensible Markup Language (XML) is often used to store configuration parameters. The application calls the XML parsing library or uses its parsing function to parse the configuration file of its own XML format to generate the configuration. tree. This method is simple and intuitive and has been widely adopted.

However, in practice, applications are difficult to complete with existing methods when they need to share a configuration between each other, or between an application and an operating system kernel. For details, please refer to FIG. 1. The memory 100 includes a user space and a kernel space. The application groups 10a-10b and the file 12 for recording configuration parameters are all set in the user space; the kernel program is located in the kernel space. When any application wants to access its configuration parameters, it will parse the XML content of the file 12 to obtain the configuration parameters, and according to the structural relationship of each configuration parameter in the content of the XML format to establish a relationship tree of configuration parameters, or configuration Trees, such as configuration trees 11a-11c in Figure 1. Each node in the configuration parameter relationship tree records the value of the configuration parameter. The application sets the configuration parameter relationship tree to a location in the memory 100 that the application itself can access, while other applications do not know their location and have no access rights. This will make the parameter values in each configuration tree difficult to synchronize, and it is difficult to share between programs.

However, some parameters need to be shared between programs. For example, in an Asymmetric Digital Subscriber Line (ADSL) data machine, a Point-To-Point Protocol (PPP) or a dynamic host configuration protocol ( Referred to as DHCP), after obtaining the Internet Protocol (IP) address, other programs in the modem, such as network address translation (NAT) or firewall (Firewall), need to use the above. IP address. The parameters that need to be shared and synchronized are difficult to achieve in the current architecture of the configuration tree described above. The result of this is that the configuration parameters cannot be shared between programs, and the operating system kernel program 13 is also difficult to use the configuration tree or XML configuration parameter file.

In view of this, it is desirable to provide an electronic system that can share application configuration parameters, including memory, interface modules, and device drivers. The above memory includes a user space and a kernel space. The user space stores a plurality of applications and files, and the file records a plurality of configuration parameters, wherein the configuration parameters are used by the first application. The interface module responds to the request of the first application to parse the file containing the configuration parameter and obtain the configuration parameter. The device driver establishes the data of the configuration parameter in a kernel space in the memory, and allows the plurality of applications of the electronic system to jointly access the configuration parameter from the data structure via the device driver to execute the electronic system. Different features.

In addition, a method of sharing application configuration parameters is required to be implemented in an electronic system. The above electronic system includes an application, an interface module, and a device driver. The application requests the interface module to use the configuration parameters of the application, wherein the application is stored in a user space in the memory of the electronic system. The interface module responds to the request of the application to parse the file containing the configuration parameters of the application and obtain the configuration parameters. The device driver establishes the data of the configuration parameter in a kernel space in the memory, and allows the plurality of applications of the electronic system to jointly access the configuration parameter from the data structure via the device driver to execute the electronic system. Different features.

The present invention can be implemented in various electronic devices or systems, such as routers, Asymmetric Digital Subscriber Line (ADSL) devices, cable modems, and Set Top Boxes.

Referring to FIG. 2, the electronic system 200 includes a nonvolatile memory 210, a processor 220, a main memory 230, and a communication unit 240. The communication unit 240 can include communication ports and communication related components, such as a controller and an antenna for wireless communication, a Digital Signal Processor in an ADSL device, and an Analog-to-Digital Converter. Tuner, Ethernet controller, Universal Serial Bus (USB) controller and/or peripheral component interconnection standard in cable modem (Peripheral Component Interconnect, PCI) controller. The processor 220 can be composed of an integrated circuit (Simplified IC) for processing data and executing programs. The processor 10 may be composed of a single packaged IC or an IC connected to a plurality of packages. For example, the processor 10 may only include a Central Processing Unit (CPU), or a combination of a CPU and a communication controller. The communication controller is used to control communication of various components in the electronic system 200, or communication between the electronic system 200 and an external device. In various embodiments, the various communication components described above may be integrated into communication unit 240 or processor 220.

The main memory 230 can include various Random Access Memory (RAM); an example of the non-volatile memory 210 is an Electronically Erasable Programmable ROM (EEPROM). Or flash memory. The non-volatile memory 210 includes an operating system and an application of the electronic system 200. The programs and data in the non-volatile memory 210 can be stored in a compressed form and decompressed to the main memory 230 when needed or used.

Referring to FIG. 3, the electronic system 200 can include a memory 100A. The memory 100A may be a virtual memory that may actually be mapped to the main memory 230 and/or the non-volatile memory 210. The memory 100A contains user space and kernel space. The configuration parameter file 12 has a plurality of configuration parameters of the application 10c, wherein the configuration parameters are used by at least two programs.

In order to achieve the purpose of configuration parameter sharing and synchronization, one of the applications of the electronic system 200 (for example, the application 10c in FIG. 3) initiates matching. After the parsing program of the parameter file 12 is set, the configuration tree (for example, the configuration tree 11d) of each configuration parameter in the configuration parameter file 12 is established in the kernel of the memory 100A via the kernel program 13 according to the relationship between the configuration parameters in the configuration parameter file 12. space. All applications that want to use the parameters in the configuration tree 11d need to be read or modified by the kernel program 13. Although the data structure of the configuration parameter is a tree structure in this embodiment, the present invention is not limited thereto, and a data structure such as an array or a linked list may be used. The application programs 10a-10c can read or modify the parameters in the configuration tree 11d through the kernel program 13, thereby achieving the purpose of sharing and synchronizing the configuration parameters. Please refer to FIG. 4 for the specific implementation manner.

In FIG. 4, electronic system 200 has an application group 10 that includes a plurality of applications A1~An, where n is a positive integer greater than one. Examples of applications A1~An may include application groups 10a-10c in FIG. The electronic system 200 also has an application interface 30, a system call 32 provided by the kernel program 13, a driver 34, and a device file or device special file 36.

The application interface 30 includes a library containing a function for parsing a configuration parameter file (for example, the configuration parameter file 12), a function for establishing a corresponding configuration tree according to the above analysis result, and a modification. And a function that reads the configuration tree and its parameter values. Since the configuration tree is in kernel space, the application interface 30 function can utilize the system call (such as "ioctl") provided by the kernel program 13 to drive the kernel program 13 to actuate the driver 34 to complete the setup or modify configuration. The action of the configuration tree in tree group 38. The configuration tree group 38 includes a complex configuration tree T1~Tm, where m is a positive integer greater than one. Lift For example, configuration tree group 38 includes configuration tree 11d in FIG.

Device files are used in Unix, Linux, etc. and similar operating systems to represent specific device drivers and their corresponding devices, such as in the /dev directory, so that applications can be called through standard output/input system calls. The device file represents the driver interaction. In the present embodiment, the file name of the device file 36 is "xmlconf", and the device file 36 is used to correspond to the configuration tree group 38 to represent the complex configuration tree. In FIG. 4, the device major number N1 in the device file 36 is a number representing the driver 34, and the device minor code N2 includes a plurality of pen numbers representing the configuration trees T1 to Tm, each pen. The device minor code represents a configuration tree. The application in application group 10, the function or driver 34 in application interface 30, can be accessed through device file 36 to specify and configure or modify a particular configuration tree in configuration tree group 38.

The application can open the device file /dev/xmlconf to find the device main code N1. Through the device number, the kernel program 13 can be requested to find and utilize the driver 34. The driver 34 can find a corresponding specific configuration tree by using a device code, and modify the configuration tree or read and return the configuration parameter value to the application according to the request of the application.

Examples of device files include a character special file or a character device and a block special file or block device. The character device corresponding to the character device file and the operating system exchange data in units of characters, and the block device and the operating system are in units of larger data blocks. To exchange information. Examples of character devices include modems and telephony related devices. Examples of block devices include hard disk drives and optical disk drives. The driver 34 reads the configuration parameter values of one node on the configuration tree each time, so the device file 36 can be a character device file.

Example:

Figure 5 shows an example of a configuration parameter file 12, a portion of its corresponding configuration tree being shown in Figure 6. Configuration parameter file 12a, where the configuration parameters are contained between <ConfigTree> and </ConfigTree>. <AtmCfg> and </AtmCfg> contain settings related to asynchronous transfer mode (ATM). <AtmCfgTd> and </AtmCfgTd> contain settings regarding the ATM connection type (Link Type), such as "CBR" means to connect at a constant rate. The <AtmCfgVcc> and </AtmCfgVcc> mainly contain the persistent virtual circuit (PVC) parameters of the ATM layer. The relationship between <SecCfg> and </SecCfg> mainly includes network security. Between [WirelessCfg> and </WirelessCfg> is a Wi-Fi (IEEE 802.11) related setting. A static routing table of the electronic system 200 is mainly set between <RouteCfg> and </RouteCfg>. The relationship between <PMapCfg> and </PMapCfg> is mainly used for Port Map. Between <SNTPCfg> and </SNTPCfg> is a parameter for setting the time server, that is, a parameter related to a Simple Network Time Protocol (SNTP) server. Between <Voice> and </Voice> is a setting related to Voice Over Internet Protocol (VoIP). Between <pppsrv_8_35> and </pppsrv_8_35> is a point-to-point protocol (Point-To-Point Protocol, PPP) Related settings when connecting to a PPP server. The configuration parameters between <wan_8_35> and </wan_8_35> are mainly used to establish the interface of the Wide Area Network (WAN), which is closely related to ATM PVC.

The kernel program 13 or the application in the electronic system 200 can initiate the conversion of the configuration parameter file 12a into a configuration tree. For example, the kernel program 13 initiates the establishment of a configuration tree when the electronic system 200 is powered on. Alternatively, the application Ai (where i is a positive integer and 1≦i≦n) initiates the establishment of the configuration tree. The kernel program 13 or the application programs A1 to An executed in the electronic system 200 can convert the configuration parameter file 12a into a specific data format by using the application interface 30, and then hand it to the driver 34 to establish a corresponding configuration tree of the configuration parameter file 12a.

Referring to FIG. 7, when a program in the electronic system 200 needs to establish a configuration tree, it requests to execute a function in the application interface 30 for establishing a configuration tree (step 700). The name of the device file 36 corresponding to the driver 34 is included in the above request. The above function responds to the request of the above program to analyze the configuration parameter file 12a to generate a data structure representing the structure of the configuration parameter file 12a and its configuration parameter values (step 702). The autoScan attribute value in the <protocol> tag can be represented by "protocol.autoScan=enable" in the data structure of step 702. The above function is further transmitted through the system call 32 of the operating system of the electronic system 200 to transfer the file name of the device file 36, the data structure and other data to the kernel program 13 (step 704). The kernel program 13 obtains the device main code N1 in the device file 36 according to the above file name, and then obtains the driver 34 according to the device main code N1, and passes the data structure to the driver 34 to cause the driver 34 to open. A configuration tree corresponding to the above data structure is established (step 706). The driver 34 adds the device minor code N2 as the code of the configuration tree to be established (step 708), and according to the above data structure, establishes the configuration tree Tj corresponding to the configuration parameter file 12a (where j is a positive integer, and 1≦i ≦m) (step 710).

Fig. 6 shows a schematic diagram of the conversion of the block B1 in the configuration parameter file 12a into a configuration tree. The <SystemInfo> and </SystemInfo> tags in block B1 are named "SystemInfo" and contain tags named "protocol", "sysLog", and "sysUserName". Therefore, in the case of being requested by the program, the driver 34 establishes nodes corresponding to "SystemInfo", "protocol", "sysLog", and "sysUserName" in the configuration tree corresponding to the configuration parameter file 12a, and "SystemInfo" is " The parent node of nodes such as protocol, sysLog, and sysUserName. The "protocol" tag contains attributes of "autoScan", "upnp", "igmpSnp", "igmpMode", macFilterPolicy", "encodePassword", and "enetwan". Accordingly, the driver 34 will create "autoScan", "upnp", Nodes such as "igmpSnp", "igmpMode", "macFilterPolicy", "encodePassword", and "enetwan" are children of the "protocol" node, and the node corresponding to each attribute contains its attribute value. Similarly, the driver 34 also The child nodes of the "sysLog" and "sysUserName" nodes are established, as well as other nodes of the above configuration tree.

After the configuration tree Tj is created, other programs can read or modify the configuration. Set the configuration parameter value in the node of Tj. Referring to FIG. 8, when a program in the electronic system 200 needs to modify a specific node (hereinafter referred to as a target node) in the configuration tree, it requests to execute a function in the application interface 30 for modifying the configuration tree (step 800). The request includes the name of the device file 36 corresponding to the driver 34, new configuration parameter values, and other materials. For example, a program that executes PPP or a Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol (DHCP) program retrieves a new IP address of the electronic system 200 from the WAN as a new configuration parameter value, and then updates the configuration tree Tj. The IP address in the target node used to record the IP address of the electronic system 200. The application may indicate the name of the target node and the path from the configuration tree Tj to the target node in the above request in step 800, wherein the path includes the name of the parent node and the ancestor node of the target node.

The function in response to the request of the program transmits a file name, a target node name, and a new configuration parameter value in the request to the kernel program 13 via a system call of the operating system of the electronic system 200 (step 802). The kernel program 13 obtains the device main code N1 in the device file 36 according to the above file name, and then obtains the driver 34 according to the device main code N1, and passes the new configuration parameter value to the driver 34, so that the driver 34 updates the configuration tree. The configuration parameter value within the target node in Tj (step 804). The driver 34 retrieves the target node in the configuration tree Tj (step 806), and updates the configuration parameter value in the target node with the new configuration parameter value (step 808). In step 806, the driver 34 may obtain the target node according to the path of the target node or search the configuration tree Tj for acquisition.

In the example of configuring the tree Tj in FIG. 6, the IP address of the electronic system 200 is from The address of the "entry1" tag in block B2 is obtained by the attribute of "192.168.1.1". After the above IP address is updated, the firewall program in the electronic system 200 can read the IP address of the electronic system 200 from the configuration tree Tj and perform its task according to the new IP address in the above node. The network address translation (NAT) program of the electronic system 200 performs NAT based on the new IP address in the above node.

Referring to FIG. 9, when a program in the electronic system 200 needs to read a specific node (hereinafter referred to as a target node) in the configuration tree, request to execute a function in the application interface 30 for reading the configuration tree (step 900). . The request contains the name of the device file 36 corresponding to the driver 34 and the name of the target node. The application may indicate the path from the configuration tree Tj to the target node in the above request of step 900, wherein the path includes the name of the parent node and the ancestor node of the target node.

The above function responds to the request of the program, and transmits the file name and the name of the target node in the request to the kernel program 13 via the system call of the operating system of the electronic system 200 (step 902). The kernel program 13 obtains the device main code N1 in the device file 36 according to the above file name, and then obtains the driver 34 according to the device main code N1, and passes the name of the target node to the driver 34, so that the driver 34 obtains the configuration tree Tj. The configuration parameter value within the target node above (step 904). The driver 34 retrieves the target node in the configuration tree Tj based on the name of the target node (step 906), and passes back the configuration parameter values in the target node to the kernel program 13 (step 908). The kernel program 13 then passes back the configuration parameter values in the target node to the program requesting the read (step 910). In step 906, the driver 34 can be based on the above items. The path of the target node is obtained to obtain the above target node, or the configuration tree Tj is searched for.

With the above system structure and method, the application programs A1 to An and the kernel program 13 in the electronic system 200 can share and synchronize configuration parameters. As another example, electronic system 200 includes a system setup program. The user name allowed by the system setting program is recorded in the child node "value" of the "sysUserName" node in Figure 6, and the user name is "admin". The system setting program provides a user interface for the user to set the configuration parameter values of the configuration tree in FIG. 6. Each program in electronic system 200 records events related to its execution period in a log file. The electronic system 200 can send the above log file to an external server for analysis. Each program in the electronic system 200 determines the event category recorded in the above log file based on the configuration parameter values of the logLevel node in FIG. In other words, the logLevel configuration parameter value determines the level of detail of the complex program recorded events in the electronic system 200. The configuration parameter values of the "sysUserName" and "logLevel" nodes can be modified and read using the above methods.

The electronic system 200 further includes a user authentication program. The system setting program provides a user interface for the user to set an Internet Protocol (IP) address of the remote device of the user who can access the electronic system 200 from the remote end, and records it in the configuration parameter file 12a. Block B3, which is between <TelnetAcl> and </TelnetAcl>. After the configuration parameters in block B3 are converted into nodes in the configuration tree Tj, the system setting program can add, delete or modify the IP addresses in the above nodes. The user authentication program utilizes the IP address in the above-described node (not shown) of the configuration tree Tj to allow or deny the remote device used by the user to connect to the electronic system 200.

The method provided by the present invention can overcome the deficiencies of the prior methods. With the above system structure and method, applications and kernel programs in the electronic system can share and synchronize configuration parameters. The above method can be widely applied to program development in a Linux/Unix environment or other operating system environment.

In summary, the present invention complies with the requirements of the invention patent and submits a patent application according to law. The above description is only the preferred embodiment of the present invention, and equivalent modifications or variations made by those skilled in the art of the present invention should be included in the following claims.

A1~An‧‧‧App

B1~B3‧‧‧ configuration parameter block

N1‧‧‧ device master code

N2‧‧‧ device minor code

T1~Tm‧‧‧ configuration tree

10‧‧‧Application Group

10a, 10b, 10c‧‧‧ applications

11a, 11b, 11c, 11d‧‧‧ configuration tree

12,12a‧‧‧Configuration parameter file

13‧‧‧ kernel program

30‧‧‧Application interface

32‧‧‧System Call

34‧‧‧Driver

36‧‧‧Device files

38‧‧‧Configuration Tree Group

100,100A‧‧‧ memory

200‧‧‧Electronic system

210‧‧‧ Non-volatile memory

220‧‧‧ processor

230‧‧‧ main memory

240‧‧‧Communication unit

Figure 1 is a schematic diagram of a conventional setup of a configuration tree in a memory.

2 is a block diagram showing the structure of an electronic system.

Figure 3 is a schematic diagram of the new configuration of the configuration tree in the memory.

4 is a schematic diagram of a module of the above electronic system.

Figure 5 shows an example of a configuration parameter file.

Figure 6 shows a schematic diagram of a portion of the configuration parameter file in which the block B1 is converted into a configuration tree.

Figure 7 shows a flow chart for establishing a configuration tree within an electronic system.

Figure 8 shows a modified flow diagram of a configuration tree within an electronic system.

Figure 9 shows a flow chart for reading a particular node in a configuration tree within an electronic system.

10a, 10b, 10c‧‧‧ applications

11d‧‧‧Configuration Tree

12‧‧‧Configuration parameter file

13‧‧‧ kernel program

100A‧‧‧ memory

Claims (21)

An electronic system for sharing application configuration parameters, comprising: a memory, including a user space and a kernel space, the user space storing a plurality of applications and files, the file recording a plurality of configuration parameters, wherein the configuration parameters are configured by the first application Using, as the configuration parameter on which the first application can operate or how to operate a first function; an interface module responsive to the request of the first application to parse the file containing the configuration parameter and obtain The configuration parameter; and a device driver, the data structure for establishing the configuration parameter is configured in a kernel space of the memory, as a configuration parameter according to whether the plurality of applications can operate or how to operate a plurality of different functions, so that the plurality of applications are The data structure accessing the configuration parameter to perform different functions of the electronic system, wherein at least two of the plurality of applications are in the case that one of the plurality of applications updates the configuration parameter in the data structure should Program via the driver means through said access request and to issue through said driver means receives the reply to the access request to access data from the configuration of the configuration parameters. The electronic system of the shareable application configuration parameter of claim 1, further comprising a second application different from the first application, wherein the second application saves from the data structure via the device driver Take the above configuration parameters of the first application. An electronic system for sharing application configuration parameters as described in claim 1 further includes an operating system kernel program, the kernel program The configuration parameter of the first application is accessed from the data structure via the device driver. An electronic system for sharing application configuration parameters as described in claim 1 further comprising: a device file for indicating an object controlled by said device driver, said object controlled by said device driver being passed through said electronic system The provided system call and the file name of the device file are accessed, and the object controlled by the device driver is a data structure set of the data structure including the configuration parameters of the first application. An electronic system for sharing application configuration parameters as described in claim 4, wherein the device file includes a device main code and a device minor code, and if the first application has a complex data structure of configuration parameters, each device The secondary code is used to represent one of the data structures of the above complex data structure. An electronic system for sharing application configuration parameters as described in claim 5, wherein the data structure of the configuration parameters is a tree structure. An electronic system for sharing application configuration parameters as described in claim 4, wherein the device file is a character device file. An electronic system for sharing application configuration parameters as described in claim 1, wherein the electronic system is a network communication device, and the configuration parameter includes an address of the network communication device. An electronic system for sharing application configuration parameters as described in claim 2, wherein the first application is configured to obtain a network communication protocol address of the electronic system, and recorded in the data structure, the foregoing The second application reads the network protocol address to perform network address translation, and the plurality of different functions include network address translation. As described in the patent application scope 2, the shareable application configuration parameters An electronic system, wherein the first application is configured to set a configuration parameter value in a node in the data structure to determine a level of detail of the related event recorded by the plurality of programs in the electronic system, the second application reading the above The configuration parameter values of the nodes determine the event categories recorded in the log file, and the plurality of different functions include recording related events of the plurality of programs in the electronic system in the log file. An electronic system for sharing application configuration parameters as described in claim 2, wherein the first application sets a network of at least one remote device of the user who can access the electronic system from the remote end in the data structure. a communication address, wherein the configuration parameter includes a network communication address of the remote device, and the second application reads and allows the at least one remote terminal according to the network communication address of the at least one remote device The device is connected to an electronic system. A method for sharing an application configuration parameter is implemented in an electronic system, the electronic system comprising a first application, an interface module, and a device driver, including: the first application requesting the interface module Using the configuration parameters of the first application, wherein the configuration parameter of the first application is used as a configuration parameter according to whether the first application can operate or how to operate a first function, and the first application is stored in the electronic system. User space in the memory, and the configuration parameters of the first application are used by at least two applications of the electronic system; the interface module responds to the request of the first application to parse the first application a file of configuration parameters, and obtaining the above configuration parameters; and the data structure of the device driver to establish the above configuration parameters in the above The kernel space in the memory is such that the configuration parameter of the first application is used as a configuration parameter according to whether the at least two applications can operate or how to operate a plurality of different functions, and the at least two applications are driven by the device driver. Accessing the configuration parameters from the data structure to perform different functions of the electronic system, and if at least one of the at least two applications updates the configuration parameter in the data structure, the at least two applications The program accesses the configuration parameters from the data structure via the device driver to issue an access request and the device driver to receive the response to the access request. The method for sharing application configuration parameters according to claim 12, wherein the electronic system includes a second application different from the first application, and the second application uses the device driver to obtain the data from the device The structure accesses the above configuration parameters of the first application. The method for sharing an application configuration parameter according to claim 12, wherein the electronic system includes a kernel program of the operating system, and the kernel program accesses the first application from the data structure via the device driver. The above configuration parameters. The method for sharing application configuration parameters according to claim 12, wherein the electronic system includes a device file for indicating an object controlled by the device driver, and the object controlled by the device driver is The system call provided by the electronic system and the file name of the device file are accessed, and the object controlled by the device driver is a data structure set of the data structure including the configuration parameters of the first application. As described in claim 15 of the sizable application configuration parameters The method, wherein the device file includes a device main code and a device minor code. If the first application has a complex data structure of configuration parameters, each device secondary code is used to represent one of the data structures of the plurality of data structures. The method for sharing application configuration parameters as described in claim 16 wherein the data structure of the configuration parameters is a tree structure. The method for sharing application configuration parameters as described in claim 15 wherein the device file is a character device file. The method for sharing the application configuration parameter according to claim 13 , wherein the first application is configured to obtain a network communication protocol address of the electronic system, and record the data in the data structure, the second The application reads the network protocol address to perform network address translation, and the plurality of different functions include network address translation. The method for sharing application configuration parameters according to claim 13 , wherein the first application is configured to set a configuration parameter value in a node in the data structure to determine a plurality of the electronic system. The program records the level of detail of the related event, and the second application reads the configuration parameter value of the node to determine an event category recorded in the log file, and the plurality of different functions include recording related events of the plurality of programs in the electronic system. The above record file. The method for sharing application configuration parameters according to claim 13 , wherein the first application sets a network of at least one remote device of a user who can access the electronic system from a remote end in the data structure. a communication address, wherein the configuration parameter includes a network communication address of the remote device, and the second application reads and allows the at least one remote device according to the network communication address of the at least one remote device Connected to the electronics department System.