# Developing DPM Modules

A DPM module is one shared object in the module directory. libdpm-core loads it, validates it completely, routes commands to it, and serves its functions to other modules and to programs linked against libdpm-core. This document covers writing, building, testing, and installing a module.

## The module contract

Every module exports the following symbols as extern "C". All returned strings must be non-NULL, static or module-owned, and valid for the lifetime of the loaded module; callers never free them.

**int dpm_module_execute(dpm_ctx\* ctx, const char\* command, int argc, char\*\* argv)**
The generic command entry point. `ctx` is the host context that dispatched the call; the module reaches every libdpm-core service (dpm_log, dpm_config_get, dpm_module_path, ...) through it. `command` is the subcommand name, equal to argv[0] when argc > 0. NULL or empty `command` must behave as the module's help command. Returns 0 on success, nonzero on failure. It must be callable immediately after load with no other setup.

**const char\* dpm_module_version(void)**
The module's own version as an X.Y.Z string. libdpm-core reports this value to consumers, and each consumer decides for itself whether the version suits it.

**const char\* dpm_module_description(void)**
A one-line human-readable description, shown in module listings.

**const char\* dpm_module_core_min(void)**
The minimum libdpm-core version (X.Y.Z) the module supports — the oldest one whose contract and services it was written against. A libdpm-core older than that refuses to load the module, and the refusal message says so.

**const dpm_manifest\* dpm_module_manifest(void)**
A static table declaring the module's entire functional surface: an entry count and, per entry, the API name, its table version, and the exact exported symbol carrying the table — for example { "mymodule", 1, "mymodule_api_v1" }. Only manifest-declared tables are ever handed to consumers; an API absent from the manifest does not exist, even if its symbol does. A module providing no API tables returns a manifest with a count of zero.

The dpm_manifest and dpm_manifest_entry types, the table header, and the service declarations all come from the installed public header:

```
#include <dpm/core.h>
```

## API tables

A module's functions are published to consumers as API tables: one exported symbol per API version (mymodule_api_v1), pointing to a plain C struct of function pointers. Every table opens with a dpm_api_table_header — the DPM_API_TABLE_MAGIC constant, then the table struct's size in bytes as the module compiled it. Later revisions of the same version may append fields at the tail; the size field lets consumers detect what is present.

All parameters and return values crossing a table are C types only. State passes through opaque handles; errors are int codes.

**Symbol naming**: every functional export is prefixed with the module's name (mymodule_\*). The dpm_ prefix is reserved for the contract symbols and libdpm-core.

## Validation at load

libdpm-core is the sole authority on module validity, and validation is all-or-nothing. Before a module is offered to anyone, it verifies, in order: every reserved contract symbol resolves; the minimum-version handshake passes; the version and description probes return well-formed values; every manifest-declared symbol resolves; and every declared table carries the correct magic and a sane size. A module failing any step is refused with an itemized reason, visible in the load-failure output. A module that loads is fully valid — consumers never defend against partial states.

## Building

A module repository builds with CMake:

```
cmake_minimum_required(VERSION 3.22)
project(mymodule)

set(CMAKE_CXX_STANDARD 20)
set(CMAKE_CXX_STANDARD_REQUIRED ON)

add_library(mymodule MODULE mymodule.cpp)

set_target_properties(mymodule PROPERTIES
        PREFIX ""
        SUFFIX ".so"
)

target_link_libraries(mymodule PRIVATE dpm-core)

install(TARGETS mymodule LIBRARY DESTINATION lib/dpm/modules)
```

```
cmake -B <build-dir>
cmake --build <build-dir>
```

libdpm-core is the only DPM link dependency a module ever has. Dependencies on other modules are runtime concerns, resolved through the require/get_api pair — a peer module is never linked and never needs to be present to build.

A module that depends on a peer is the party that judges the peer's version. Require it, read its reported version with dpm_module_info_of, and decide whether it is too new or too old for the calls you intend to make. libdpm-core reports; it does not rule.

## Running and testing locally

Load the freshly built module through a locally run dpm without installing anything:

```
dpm --module-path <build-dir> mymodule <command>
```

libdpm-core runs the full validation sequence on every load, so a contract mistake surfaces here, immediately and itemized, rather than after installation. The --config-dir flag points the module's configuration namespace at local files during development, and --root directs package operations at a scratch tree.

## Installing

Modules install to lib/dpm/modules under the install prefix (/usr/lib/dpm/modules on a distribution install). libdpm-core discovers the module on its next scan; no registration step exists beyond the file being present and valid.

## A working example

The info module bundled with the dpm binary and libdpm-core, at src/bundled-modules/info/, tests and demonstrates full DPM system functionality, and in doing so shows the contract, an API table, and this build structure in working form.