This directory contains the source code of the pidl (Perl IDL) compiler. pidl is the main file of pidl. Pidl works by building a parse tree from a .pidl file (a simple dump of it's internal parse tree) or a .idl file (a file format mostly like the IDL file format midl uses). The IDL file parser is in idl.yp (a yacc file converted to perl code by yapp) After a parse tree is present, pidl will call one of it's backends (which one depends on the options given on the command-line). Here is a list of current backends: -- Generic -- Parse::Pidl::Dump - Converts the parse tree back to an IDL file Parse::Pidl::Samba::Header - Generates header file with data structures defined in IDL file Parse::Pidl::NDR - Generates intermediate datastructures for use by NDR parses/generators Parse::Pidl::ODL - Generates IDL structures from ODL structures for use in the NDR parser generator -- Samba NDR -- Parse::Pidl::Samba::NDR::Client - Generates client call functions in C using the NDR parser Parse::Pidl::Samba::SWIG - Generates SWIG interface files (.i) Parse::Pidl::Samba::NDR::Header - Generates a header file with NDR-parser specific data Parse::Pidl::Samba::NDR::Parser - Generates pull/push functions for parsing NDR Parse::Pidl::Samba::NDR::Server - Generates server side implementation in C Parse::Pidl::Samba::Template - Generates stubs in C for server implementation Parse::Pidl::Samba::EJS - Generates bindings for Embedded JavaScript (EJS) Parse::Pidl::Samba::EJSHeader - Generates headers for the EJS bindings -- Samba COM / DCOM -- Parse::Pidl::Samba::COM::Proxy - Generates proxy object for DCOM (client-side) Parse::Pidl::Samba::COM::Stub - Generates stub call handler for DCOM (server-side) Parse::Pidl::Samba::COM::Header - Generates header file for COM interface(s) -- Ethereal -- Parse::Pidl::Ethereal::NDR - Generates a parser for the ethereal network sniffer Parse::Pidl::Ethereal::Conformance - Reads conformance files containing additional data for generating Ethereal parsers -- Utility modules -- Parse::Pidl::Util - Misc utility functions used by *.pm and pidl.pl Parse::Pidl::Typelist - Utility functions for keeping track of known types and their representation in C Tips for hacking on pidl: - Look at the pidl's parse tree by using the --keep option and looking at the generated .pidl file. - The various backends have a lot in common, if you don't understand how one implements something, look at the others - See pidl(1) and the documentation on midl - See 'info bison' and yapp(1) for information on the file format of idl.yp