[gst-devel] Signals in GStreamer ???

[Jérôme Patey]

Hi,

    I was looking at the GStreamer code, and I can't understand one 
thing, about signals. I'll start my explanation with an example :

    For the signal "plugin_added", it is created by the GstRegistry with :
  gst_registry_signals[PLUGIN_ADDED] =
      g_signal_new ("plugin-added", G_TYPE_FROM_CLASS (klass),
      G_SIGNAL_RUN_LAST, G_STRUCT_OFFSET (GstRegistryClass, 
plugin_added), NULL,
      NULL, gst_marshal_VOID__POINTER, G_TYPE_NONE, 1, G_TYPE_POINTER);

    The prototype of (GstRegistryClass, plugin_added) is :
  void             (*plugin_added)        (GstRegistry *registry, 
GstPlugin *plugin);

    When a user wants to connect to this signal, he does :
    g_signal_connect (G_OBJECT (registry), "plugin_added",
        G_CALLBACK (plugin_added_func), NULL);

    He gives a callback with the following prototype :
static void plugin_added_func (GstRegistry * registry, GstPlugin * plugin,
    gpointer user_data)


    The g_signal_emit will ask the marshaller 
(gst_marshal_VOID__POINTER) to call the different callbacks 
((GstRegistryClass, plugin_added) and plugin_added_func in this case) 
with the parameters "GstRegistry*", "GstPlugin*" and "gpointer".

    But what I can't understand is : how can the marshaller call 2 
different callbacks with 2 different prototypes. When I look at the code 
of gst_marshal_VOID__POINTER (auto generated by glib-genmarshal), I see 
the function call, which is similar to this, for the 2 callbacks :
    callback (pointer1, pointer2, pointer3)

    But the point is : (GstRegistryClass, plugin_added) must receive 
only 2 parameters, and the marshaller sends 3 parameters (even though 
the last one is NULL, and will not be used). plugin_added_func will 
correctly receive the 3 parameters.

    What happens to the last parameter not used in the first function ? 
It will stay on the stack ? Then the program should crash...

    On x86, I think that the caller removes the parameters from the 
stack, and the called uses them, but I thought it was only in certain 
cases, not always (depends on cdecl, or things like this I thought).

    On ARM, the parameters are removed from the stack by the called, and 
thus, how can this work ? The 3rd parameter won't be removed from the 
stack (because the called has only a prototype with 2 parameters), and 
so, how can it work ?

    Thanks in advance for your answers...

-- 
Jerome Patey - jerome.patey at open-plug.com
Tools & Update

Open-Plug, Sophia-Antipolis, FRANCE
www.open-plug.com