Source Server home stretch...on the road to mere python coding

Huge changes since last night's post.

I can insert a .stream file (see previous post for what a .stream file data block contains) into an unindexed .pdb file via pdbstr -w as long as it has certain variables.

I still need to test what the minimum info needed is, right now I just copied and pasted from one that works. I will slowly delete variables from it until it doesn't work anymore.

Using cvs to pull a specific revision of a file looks like this: cvs export -r 1.23 filename

So - in my test.pdb.stream file I changed the CVS_EXTRACT_CMD to :

CVS_EXTRACT_CMD=%fnchdir%(%CVS_WORKINGDIR%)cvs.exe -d %fnvar%(%var2%) export -r %var4% -d %cvsdatetarg% %var3%

(p.s. %var#% are based on * delimited text in the source files section)

In the source files, i add a source file that contains cvs in the symbol file
like so:

SRCSRV: source files ---------------------------------------
c:\ff\mozilla\accessible\public\msaa\AccessibleMarshal.def*MYSERVER*mozilla/accessible/public/msaa/AccessibleMarshal.def*1.3

Then, when I write that to the accessiblemarshal.pdb file followed by a call to srctool -f on that .pdb file, I am greeted with a source indexed file that contains the cvs command that the source server will use to extract the source code when the time comes.

The result looks like this:

[c:\ff\mozilla\accessible\public\msaa\AccessibleMarshal.def] cmd: cvs.exe -d :pserver:anonymous@cvs-mirror.mozilla.org:/cvsroot export -r 1.3 -d 12-01-07 mozilla/accessible/public/msaa/AccessibleMarshal.def

c:\ff\mozilla\objdir_debugInfo\dist\crashreporter-symbols\2007120119\accessiblemarshal.pdb\8EEE4D7316254E22AE3D99EB4082744C3\accessiblemarshal.pdb: 1 source files are indexed - 199 are not

So now I need to learn how best to add this into the symbolstore.py file.

My first instinct is to add something in the ProcessFile function that keeps track of all the files that start with cvs, they look like this:

FILE 2 cvs:cvs-mirror.mozilla.org/cvsroot:mozilla/accessible/public/msaa/AccessibleMarshal.def:1.3
FILE 3 c:/program files/microsoft visual studio 8/vc/platformsdk/include/RpcNsi.h

I already did a little playing around with the python script and was able to insert some code here where I wrote if filename.startswith("cvs") then some debug statement to see that I could in fact catch the right lines (which I did).

So let's break it down:

1. I need to track all lines that start with "cvs" and then turn these into proper file paths



2. I need a (minimal) template .pdb.stream file that I can write the source file paths to in source files section



3. Then I will call pdbstr -w and write that .pdb.stream (each named for the pdb it will write to) to the appropriate pdb file

The final hurdle - learn to write good python code to make this all happen.

Source Server 0.3 goals

Well, it turns out that my 0.2 release was a little buggy but Ted (luser) was able to hack his srcsrv.ini file to overwrite the URL I had indexed into the pdb files so that he was able to pull code from my server. Instead of hacking the 0.2 and fixing that though, I am moving forward with 0.3 which is to put into symbolstore.py the ability to do the cvs pulls.

This is the most complicated part yet, for me, because I am not too familiar with python and because I still see all this code as a nebulous cloud and finding the path from A to B is difficult.

So my steps toward my 0.3 goal so far have been:

• Reading up on Python and how it works with some: Python Tutorials


• Studying the logic of symbolstore.py

And coming soon, some hacks of symbolstore.py to see what kind of havoc I can wreak.

Going in circles

I don't know how many times I can read the 3 main sources of information about this source server business. Everytime I read them it's like being in a house of mirrors. Tonight I found a new site that refers to a source server. Once again I hear how amazing this source server is, yet no real information about how to make it happen. His final sentence - "After all, "It just works!" Why would I need to know anything more? :-)" is just poking at me as I am so in need of knowing more and can't find a single human being who knows more.

The main msdn help files state that:

Generally, binaries are source indexed during the build process after the application has been built. The information needed by source server is stored in the PDB files.

So does this mean that I need to add something to the firefox build files that will do this indexing around the same time that the buildsymbols are pulled? Around the time that the build wraps up? And if yes, then what do I put there? Why is there not ONE example of someone successfully writing a source server for their project? If this source server is so amazing (and it sure sounds like it will be) then why no examples? No discussion in the msdn community forums, no blogs, nothing.

I emailed a person who sounded like they had written one for their versioning system, he wrote back and said that it actually wasn't him, it was another team member.

Is the source server really an urban legend? Has *anyone* seen it in action?

First extension

Is done.

First attempt lead to error messages about the malformed or non-existent install.rdf file. Well, I knew it existed because I brought it into existence. So I looked around the other mozilla documents and made a replacement install.rdf - no error.

After this point though, I hit a wall because I could install the extension and yet the tabs weren't being added to the side. So I checked the Error Console, no errors related to the addtabbeside extension. After entering some dump() messages in the addtabbeside.js file I try again, starting ff with -console. Nothing to go on.

Anyway, a while later I found mullin on IRC and we troubleshooted it. He knew that the xml spacing is all messed up with you copy and paste from the wiki - I started from scratch paying closer attention to the indentation and voila!

So what I have learned from this is to be careful of indentation when I copy and paste. I look forward to my next extension, when I can really get deeper into modifying the browser, like menu items and whatnot.

My first patch, a true story

Well. I am jazzed up while I sit in BTB right now because I MADE A PATCH!

Yessir. The lab for today's class asked us to try and modify our browsers so that opening a new tab makes it appear to the right of the current tab, instead of the way it currently opens the new tab at the far right end of all tabs.

We all jumped on to MXR and ... it froze. So for a bit, I stared at the screen and wondered - "How hard is this going to be?".

Well, not too bad actually. I searched for "New Tab" and found /browser/base/content/tabbrowser.xml which has a comment:

// We're adding a new tab here.

Looks like I'm in the right place.

Turns out tabbrowser.xml is the best place to go because that's where my changes will be made and it also happens to be where all the methods regarding tabs are located.

Now I'm staring at some javascript. Immediate guilt sets in for not being more competent in this language. When did we take javascript? Back in third term. It's now buried beneath a tiny bit of perl, a pinch of php and attempts at ruby.

loadOneTab() is called when a new tab is added, loadOneTab() calls on addTab(). These are all in the same file. I'm focusing on addTab(). This is my target for adding some lines.

addTab() creates a tab object with the variable name t and then appendChild(t) to mTabContainer. Let's look at mTabContainer...

What do you know - it has a method called moveTabTo(). Cool, that's what I want to do. I want to moveTabTo() the index next to the one that's calling the addTab().

See tabPatch to get the rest of the story I've got to go do a victory lap.