changed the TEXT type id format from UTF16LE to UTF8 (no BOM). this
included all displayable text used throughout this project. doing
this reduced overhead because UTF16 strings required 2 bytes per
char while UTF8 runs on 1 byte for char. this string format also
expands support for QTs built in Postgresql driver or any driver
that supports UTF8 unicode only.
added "mod_instructions" to the client header format so the client
applications themselves can send direct command line args to the
modules loaded by the host. note: main.cpp needed to be modified
to check for core module parameters before checking the additional
parameters sent by the client; doing this protects against possible
unintentional core parameters being sent by the client.
added a Q_OS_WINDOWS check to applink.c so this file is completely
ignored when compiling on a Linux platform.
all commands that send emails will now return an appropriate error
message if the internal email client fails for any reason.
added a db_settings.json file that the host will now check for to
get database parameters such as hostname, username, driver and
password. doing this opens up the host to other database drivers
other than SQLITE. if not present, the host will create a default
db_settings file that uses SQLITE.
added the -ls_sql_drvs command line arg that will list all of the
SQL drivers that the host currently has installed and can be used
in the db_settings file.
- fixed a bug that prevented the creator of a channel from being
added to it's member list as the owner.
- fixed a bug that caused the host to open all sub-channels in
read only mode.
- fixed a bug that caused mod processes to not get called to
shutdown when the session is closed.
- removed the internal module idle timer, this removed an
un-needed redundancy. with that, the idle timeout for mod
processes are now 5 secs while the timeout for cmd processes
remain at 2 mins.
Changed the versioning system to a 4 number system that have the first 2
numbers as major.minor for the host application itself and the next 2
numbers (tcp_rev.mod_rev) used by clients and modules to determine
compatibility. A full description of this new system has been edited
into protocol.md. This new system offically starts at v3.0.0.0.
Added the PROMPT data type id that will work exactly like PRIV_TEXT except
it tells the client that the command is asking for non-private information
from the user.
Added PROG and PROG_LAST type ids that can be used by commands to notify
the client of the progress of the command if it is long running. The
long running fs_* commands were updated to use these instead of TEXT for
progress updates.
PUB_IPC, PRIV_IPC and PUB_IPC_WITH_FEEDBACK have all been combined into
one: ASYNC_PAYLOAD. This type id is now the only means at which module
commands can now run async commands. The command process object will
now determine where to direct the async payload (public, private or
public with feedback) based on the async command id being requested.
A description for TERM_CMD was missing in data_types.md so it was added.
Refactored HALT_CMD to YIELD_CMD. The new name just seems more appropriate
or the effect it has on the command.
Module commands can now do input hooking using the new ASYNC_HOOK_INPUT
and ASYNC_UNHOOK async commands. input hooking basically makes it so all
client data gets redirected to the module command that initiated the hook.
This can be used to implement something like a EULA agreement that blocks
all actions that can place during the session until the user accepts or
anything else to that effect.
The command process object will now check the open sub-channels list
being sent by ASYNC_CAST or ASYNC_LIMITED_CAST in any order and will not
be required match exactly to open sub-channels list in the session object.
It however cannot contain sub-channels not already listed in session's
list or else the async payload will be blocked.
Fixed the CmdProcess::validAsync() function that was comparing the input
aysnc command id with the process's command id in some places which is
invalid logic for this function.
Fixed the 'cast' core command that was outputting a malformed async
payload that didn't include the open writable sub-channels list.
Fixed a bug that caused all casted payloads to be forwared to the clients
even when the sub-channel(s) are closed.
Fixed the 'set_disp_name' core command so it can now see the -new_name
argument properly.
security updates:
various commands that change or create account passwords now disallow
the user name, display name or email from being contained in it. this
will force users to not use public information inside the password,
hardening password security a little.
the root user name is now changeable and required to be changed on
initial login. this harden security a little by giving host admins the
option to not have a well known user name attached to a high privileged
account.
users can no longer re-use the old password and/or user name when
required to change. however, this does not actually implement full
password history because the user can then later change the password
back to the old password after the required change.
the host can longer block by ip addresses and the auto block threshold
setting has been removed. something like this is best left up to
firewalls, routers, switches or any other networking infrastructure. in
the future i can consider adding event triggering that run certain
admin defined external or internal commands when the host detects
certain event thresholds.
minor changes/bug fixes:
all commands that change or create user names now no longer accept
user names that looks like an mail address. this works out better for
clients when differentiating logging in via user name or email address.
the recover_acct command now also have cancel on blank text options
making it more consistent with all other commands that take text input.
resetting the root user's account password via command line now also
unlocks it if locked.
the -help and -about command line options no longer display the
default password. a new -default_pw option was added for this purpose.
the -status -addr or -stop command line options require super user
privileges to run properly depending on how the host is installed.
an error message like "permission denied" was addded on failure to
make this requirement clear to the end user.
fs_copy and fs_move now does implicit skip on error instead of stop on
error.
the IDLE frame type id now carry an integer return code that can be
interpreted by clients to determine the result of the command that was
sent to the host.
house keeping:
all documentation was updated to reflect the changes made in this commit.
the module tester example is no longer relevant to this project so it
was deleted.
genfile commands would not terminate properly or
would end up de-synced with the host in one way or
another.
to fix this, i updated the GEN_FILE data type and
sub-protocol to now define the commands as download
or upload on the NEW_CMD frame so clients can now
define the direction of the GEN_FILE data of the
various GEN_FILE commands at the very start instead
of trying to determine that at run time.
also fixed this by creating the onTerminate() virtual
function in CmdObject and have it call this function
when term() is called. this makes it possible to
properly put the command object in a reset state if
using parameters outside of the base class when
term() is called.
updated all documentation related to the GEN_FILE
sub-protocol to reflect these changes.
fixed ASYNC_DEBUG_TEXT to self correct the ipc type
to PRIV_IPC so no debug messages can accidentally be
sent to peers.
fixed some errors found in the documentation and fully updated the internal
commands docs as well.
also updated the internal module to now respond to KILL_CMD so it can now be
signaled to terminate gracefully.
-the add_mod command now requires the -mod_path argument as it should.
-the session now filter out bad NEW_CMD frames based on bad command names and incorrect
frame sizes.
-modules running in list mode can now send ERR frames to the session to log error
messages to the host database.
Made some major changes to the project to facilitate a lighter code base and the
must flexible module interface possible.
-the mutli-process architecture now operate at the command object level so each
command now operate in it's own process instead of a single process handling
multiple command objects.
-each module is now an independent application that will now tell the session
object all of the commands it can run via named pipe. during command execution,
it will run the requested command object also running io with the session object
via named pipe.
with this change, it is now possible for modules to be developed in different
versions or QT or entirely different languages. the only requirement is the need
to support named pipes. shared memory segments is also a nice to have but not
needed.
-clients can now run multiple instances of the same command via changes to the
protocol. mrci frames will now include a branch id along with the command id.
the branch id can be used by clients to differentiate the io between instances
of the same command.
-the command states are longer controlled by a single object. it will now be up
to the command object (internal/exterenal) to send an IDLE frame to the client
to notify it that the command has finished. the session object will still track
if the command is in idle state or not but not directly control it.
-must async commands now use binary formatted data instead of TEXT as a way to
reduce overhead.
-all command objects can now send async commands. it is no longer limited to just
internal commands, however; the data of these async commands are verified by
session in some way to prevent host crashing due to malformed data.
-changed up the database structure to rely more on user ids, channel ids and
removed all foreign keys pointing to user names, channel names and sub-channel
names. also removed the groups table altogether. instead, the host rank is now
directly attached to the user data in the users table.
-changed the query object to now support the INNER JOIN SQL clause. this change
was needed to support the new database structure.
-version negotiation is now one-way via tcp connection or module interface.
the host will make it's own verion numner known to the client connected via
tcp or the module connected via named pipe. it will now be entirely up to the
client or module to decide if they support the host. another change in this
regard is the removal of the import rev for the modules. compatibility for
modules shall now use just the host verion.
-removed ls_cmds and cmd_info. the NEW_CMD frame now carries all information
about the command (cmd_id, cmd_name, summery, io and full_description) so it
is now possible for the clients to display the command documentation instead
of the host.
Documentation for the internal commands were updated to reflect the changes but
all other documentation will need to be updated in the near future.
