pidl 1 pidl IDL Compiler written in Perl pidl --help --output OUTNAME --parse --dump --header --parser --server --template --eparser --diff --keep idlfile pidl is an IDL compiler written in Perl that aims to be somewhat compatible with the midl compiler. IDL stands for "Interface Definition Language". pidl can generate stubs for DCE/RPC server code, DCE/RPC client code and ethereal dissectors for DCE/RPC traffic. IDL compilers like pidl take a description of an interface as their input and use it to generate C (though support for other languages may be added later) code that can use these interfaces, pretty print data sent using these interfaces, or even generate ethereal dissectors that can parse data sent over the wire by these interfaces. pidl takes IDL files in the same format that is used by midl, converts it to a .pidl file (which contains pidl's internal representation of the interface) and can then generate whatever output you need. .pidl files should be used for debugging purposes only. Write your interface definitions in (midl) .idl format. The goal of pidl is to implement a IDL compiler that can be used while developing the RPC subsystem in Samba (for both marshalling/un-marshalling and debugging purposes). --help Show list of available options. --output OUTNAME Write output files to OUTNAME.*, e.g. OUTNAME.pidl. If --output is not used, the name of the input IDL file is used without the extension and the dot before the extension. --parse Tell pidl the files specified are (midl-style) IDL files. --dump Convert .pidl files to (midl-style) IDL files. FIle will be named OUTNAME.idl. --header Generate a C header file for the specified interface. File will be named OUTNAME.h. --parser Generate a C file capable of parsing data sent using the interface. File will be named OUTNAME.c. --server Generate boilerplate for the RPC server that implements the interface. Generates OUTNAME_s.c --template Generate stubs for a RPC server that implements the interface. Output will be written to stdout. --eparser Generate an Ethereal dissector (in C) for the interface. Output will be written to packet-dcerpc-OUTNAME.c. --diff Convert an IDL file to a pidl file and then back to a IDL file and see if there are any differences with the original IDL file. Useful for debugging pidl. --keep Tell pidl to keep the pidl files (used as intermediate files between the IDL files and the parser/server/etc code). Useful for debugging pidl. IDL files are always preprocessed using the C preprocessor. Each IDL file describes exactly one interface. Interfaces can contain several C-like function definitions. Pretty much everything in an interface (the interface itself, functions, parameters) can have attributes (or properties whatever name you give them). Attributes always prepend the element they apply to and are surrounded by square brackets ([]). Multiple attributes are separated by comma's; arguments to attributes are specified between parentheses. See the section COMPATIBILITY for the list of attributes that pidl supports. C-style comments can be used. pidl uses slightly different types to midl by default. The following defines in your MS IDL may make things easier to use the same IDL on both platforms. #define unistr [string] wchar_t * #define uint8 char #define uint16 short #define uint32 long #define HYPER_T hyper Let's look at the multiple ways you can encode an array. A conformant array is one with that ends in [*] or []. The strange things about conformant arrays are: they can only appear as the last element of a structure the array size appears before the structure itself on the wire. So, in this example: typedef struct { long abc; long count; long foo; [size_is(count)] long s[*]; } Struct1; it appears like this: [size_is] [abc] [count] [foo] [s...] the first [size_is] field is the allocation size of the array, and occurs before the array elements and even before the structure alignment. Note that size_is() can refer to a constant, but that doesn't change the wire representation. It does not make the array a fixed array. midl.exe would write the above array as the following C header: typedef struct { long abc; long count; long foo; long s[1]; } Struct1; pidl takes a different approach, and writes it like this: typedef struct { long abc; long count; long foo; long *s; } Struct1; A varying array looks like this: typedef struct { long abc; long count; long foo; [size_is(count)] long *s; } Struct1; This will look like this on the wire: [abc] [count] [foo] [PTR_s] [count] [s...] A fixed array looks like this: typedef struct { long s[10]; } Struct1; The NDR representation looks just like 10 separate long declarations. The array size is not encoded on the wire. pidl also supports "inline" arrays, which are not part of the IDL/NDR standard. These are declared like this: typedef struct { uint32 foo; uint32 count; uint32 bar; long s[count]; } Struct1; This appears like this: [foo] [count] [bar] [s...] Fixed arrays are an extension added to support some of the strange embedded structures in security descriptors and spoolss. Pidl does not support "full" pointers in the DCE meaning of the word. However, its "unique" pointer is compatible with MIDL's full ("ptr") pointer support. Pidl does not assume all top level pointers for functions are "ref". ncadg is not supported yet. in, out, ref, length_is, switch_is, size_is, uuid, case, default, string, unique, ptr, pointer_default, v1_enum, object, helpstring, range, local, call_as, endpoint, switch_type, progid, coclass, iid_is. public The [public] property on a structure or union is a pidl extension that forces the generated pull/push functions to be non-static. This allows you to declare types that can be used between modules. If you don't specify [public] then pull/push functions for other than top-level functions are declared static. noprint The [noprint] property is a pidl extension that allows you to specify that pidl should not generate a ndr_print_*() function for that structure or union. This is used when you wish to define your own print function that prints a structure in a nicer manner. A good example is the use of [noprint] on dom_sid, which allows the pretty-printing of SIDs. value The [value(expression)] property is a pidl extension that allows you to specify the value of a field when it is put on the wire. This allows fields that always have a well-known value to be automatically filled in, thus making the API more programmer friendly. The expression can be any C expression, although if you refer to variables in the current structure you will need to dereference them with r->. See samr_Name as a good example. relative The [relative] property can be supplied on a pointer. When it is used it declares the pointer as a spoolss style "relative" pointer, which means it appears on the wire as an offset within the current encapsulating structure. This is not part of normal IDL/NDR, but it is a very useful extension as it avoids the manual encoding of many complex structures. subcontext(length) Specifies that a size of length bytes should be read, followed by a blob of that size, which will be parsed as NDR. flag Specify boolean options, mostly used for low-level NDR options. Several options can be specified using the | character. Note that flags are inherited by substructures! nodiscriminant The [nodiscriminant] property on a union means that the usual uint16 discriminent field at the start of the union on the wire is omitted. This is not normally allowed in IDL/NDR, but is used for some spoolss structures. align Force the alignment of the field this attribute is placed on to the number of bytes specified. aggregatable, appobject, async_uuid, bindable, control, cpp_quote, defaultbind, defaultcollelem, defaultvalue, defaultvtable, dispinterface, displaybind, dual, entry, first_is, helpcontext, helpfile, helpstringcontext, helpstringdll, hidden, idl_module, idl_quote, id, immediatebind, importlib, import, include, includelib, last_is, lcid, licensed, max_is, module, ms_union, no_injected_text, nonbrowsable, noncreatable, nonextensible, odl, oleautomation, optional, pragma, propget, propputref, propput, readonly, requestedit, restricted, retval, source, transmit_as, uidefault, usesgetlasterror, vararg, vi_progid, wire_marshal. Input should be validated better. This man page is correct for version 4.0 of the Samba suite. Field Attributes [Remote Procedure Call], ethereal &man.credits.samba; pidl was written by Andrew Tridgell, Stefan Metzmacher, Tim Potter and Jelmer Vernooij. This manpage was written by Andrew Tridgell and Jelmer Vernooij.