Files
dpm-core-ng/docs/BUILD.md
Christopher M. Punches 97b39cac6c Route all module interaction through dispatch
A module is addressed by name and command string, and nothing else.
Typed API access handed a caller a pointer into the callee's function
table, which meant compiling against that module's struct layout — a
build-time dependency between modules that the design does not permit.
Removing it also removes the manifest, the table magic constant, and
the table size field, which existed only to describe and validate
those tables.

Load validation is now three steps: reserved contract symbols resolve,
the minimum-version handshake passes, and the version and description
probes return well-formed values. The contract is four reserved
symbols, and a module's interface is the command vocabulary it
documents.

Documentation is brought in line, and artifacts are named exactly:
libdpm-core.so for the library, <dpm/core.h> for the header, the dpm
binary for the command-line tool.
2026-08-15 02:15:18 -04:00

3.0 KiB

Building libdpm-core.so and the dpm binary

Prerequisites

  • GCC/G++ supporting C++20
  • CMake 3.22 or later
  • Make
  • Doxygen (optional, for the code reference)
  • pdflatex and makeindex (optional, for the PDF code reference)

The library itself depends only on libc and libstdc++, so it builds and runs on a minimal system.

Development Builds

Configure a build tree and compile it:

cmake -B <build-dir> -DCMAKE_BUILD_TYPE=Debug
cmake --build <build-dir>

Artifacts land in:

<build-dir>/bin/dpm             the dpm binary
<build-dir>/lib/libdpm-core.so  the library
<build-dir>/modules/info.so     the bundled info module

The dpm binary built here finds the locally built libdpm-core.so on its own — an embedded library search path points it at the lib/ directory next to it in the build tree, so running it directly uses the library you just built with nothing to set up first. This is only the default: LD_LIBRARY_PATH takes precedence over the embedded path, so the binary can be pointed at any other libdpm-core, including the system-installed one.

Automated Testing

ctest --test-dir <build-dir> --output-on-failure

This runs the API test binary (which exercises the full load-time validation matrix against the fixture modules in tests/fixtures/) and the CLI end-to-end tests.

Manual Execution

The build tree plus the test fixtures form a complete self-contained environment; no installation is required. Point the dpm binary at local paths with its override flags:

<build-dir>/bin/dpm --config-dir ./tests/fixtures/conf --module-path <build-dir>/modules info version

The flags --config-dir, --module-path, --root, and --log-level each redirect the corresponding system default; --root sets the target root that package-operation modules act on.

Release Builds

One build tree carries the whole sequence, so the artifacts that get tested are the artifacts that get installed:

cmake -B <build-dir> -DCMAKE_BUILD_TYPE=Release -DCMAKE_INSTALL_PREFIX=/usr
cmake --build <build-dir>
ctest --test-dir <build-dir> --output-on-failure
cmake --install <build-dir>

This is the packaging flow: configure once, build once, test what was built, install what was tested.

Automated Testing

The test suite builds and runs in any configuration, so a release tree is tested by the same command a development tree is:

ctest --test-dir <build-dir> --output-on-failure

Running it between the build and the install step is what makes the sequence above a packaging flow rather than four unrelated commands.

Installation

cmake --install <build-dir>

Omit -DCMAKE_INSTALL_PREFIX=/usr at configure time for a /usr/local install. Under the install prefix this installs:

bin/dpm                   the dpm binary
lib/libdpm-core.so        the library
lib/dpm/modules/info.so   the bundled info module
include/dpm/              the public header

The library's own configuration installs to /etc/dpm/conf.d/core.conf regardless of prefix.