Dear httpd devs,
Mod_macro has been accepted for inclusion into Apache HTTP Server, and my commit access has been extended to "httpd". I should do it when I have time and I'm given the go ahead, hopefully within the month. Some preliminary questions before doing anything. The current module directives are: - <Macro + Use directives to define & use a macro - Error directive, now redundant as one has been added since 2.3.9 - Warning directive, similar to error but which does not stop Macros are kept in a temporary memory pool and can only be used at configuration time. They cannot be defined and/or used within a .htaccess file for instance. This is a feature. *** Question 1: there are several possible strategies to include the module * option "module" vs "core" "module" - add the module more or less "as is" after some cleanup, for instance under "modules/core", or under a new "modules/macro" directory. "core" - incorporate the module in core (mostly "server/core.c"). I'm not sure how Apache core is used, and whether such features should or should not be included. From a language perspective, it makes sense to have macros there, together with preprocessor-like configuration stuff such as "*Define" "<If*" "<Else*" "Error" "Include*". * option "util": Move/merge string array processing stuff into "server/util.c". This is used when expanding a macro, and could be useful to someone else. * option "config": ideally, macros would require "pre/post read config" hooks which do not exist. The existing pre/post config are executed after the file has been read, and this is too late. Adding such a hook would avoid a lazy initialization, but maybe adding a hook just for such a limited benefit is not really worth it. Directive "Define" handling also uses a lazy initialization to deal with the very same issue. It seems to me that the possible choices are: - M "module" - MU "module+util" - MUC "module+util+config" - C "core" - CU "core+util" - CUC "core+util+config" I am in favor of choosing "CU", or at default "MU". If this is kept outside core (choices M*), I think that it should nevertheless be included in the default compilation and installation. *** Question 2: obviously, I'll remove the Error directive which is now provided in core. However, should I keep the Warning directive, possibly added to core independently of what is done with the macro stuff? *** Question 3: would it make sense to add the ability to remove a macro? I'm not sure that it is useful, as a macro can be overwritten, but it would look more complete that way. That could be "UndefMacro xxx" or something similar. -- Fabien
