[Libburn] Reading procedure

Bryan Forbes bryan at reigndropsfall.net
Fri Oct 22 07:59:42 PDT 2004


One big problem I see is that there is no Joliet support in libisofs.
If you know anything about that, I think it would be wise to hack on
that.  What's the point of burning if you can't burn a good format? ;)

On Fri, 2004-10-22 at 13:17 +0000, Tiago Cogumbreiro wrote:
> On Wed, 2004-10-20 at 02:51, Derek Foreman wrote:
> > On Fri, 15 Oct 2004, Tiago Cogumbreiro wrote:
> > 
> > > Hi list,
> > >
> > > I've been thinking about how the reading procedure should be visible to
> > > the user.
> > >
> > > Derek told me the source will be an abstraction layer. One of the
> > > sources will be the real cd drive, the others I assume are cd images, is
> > > this it?
> > 
> > I'm sorry, I was unclear.  The abstraction defines where the data will be 
> > put after it is read from a cd.
> > 
> > > My proposition is that optical media, aka CD's, DVD's and all, should be
> > > presented to the user as an array of data streams, a stream is like C's
> > > FILE struct. It is an array because there are multitracked optical media
> > > and the user needs to destinguish them, for example when extracting
> > > audio tracks from a CD. But we also want to enhance the library with the
> > > possibility for the user to implement it's own error recovery
> > > technology, while reading the streams, this is the simple Strategy
> > > pattern[1].
> > 
> > Interesting.  This isn't quite how I'd planned to expose the CD to a 
> > regular app.
> > 
> > > Let's call the strategy the 'data filter' (DF). What is the DF? It's
> > > basically a hook function that we need to send a certain number of
> > > arguments in order to provide a way to let the user correct the read
> > > errors.
> > >
> > > Most of you might not know, but my interest on libburn began because I
> > > had my own cdrecording library[2] and thought it was a duplicate effort
> > > to work on it when there was already libburn (which is more advanced).
> > >
> > >
> > >
> > > 1. The filter
> > >
> > > In that project I implemented what I am talking about, and the handler
> > > was designed as [3]:
> > > /* translated to C, since it was made in Java
> > > * @source - the data source
> > > * @read - the structure responsible by reading the data from the
> > > optical media
> > > * @sector - the sector you want to read from the CD
> > > * @ret_buff - the returned buffer
> > > * @ret_buff_len - the size of the returned buffer
> > > */
> > > int read_frame (burn_read_source *source, read_operation *read, int
> > > sector, char **ret_buff, int *ret_buff_len);
> > >
> > > This type of callbacks assumes there is someone controlling which lba to
> > > read next. Is this what we want? Is this enough flexibility for what we
> > > need? This will open on the API a function for getting the data from a
> > > given sector, which is READ_CD (0xBE).
> > >
> > > 2. The manager
> > >
> > > Another way to make it extendable would be to let the user define how to
> > > divide the media in streams. For example, an audio source being treated
> > > as a single stream, or each session being represented as a stream, or
> > > the user data being represented as a stream and the subs as another. In
> > > this case the hook function would have to define how the data is
> > > represented. This will still need the READ_CD op as public. And is
> > > somewhat compatible with the extendability explained beforehand.
> > >
> > > 3. Usage
> > >
> > > The usage would be something like this.
> > >
> > > BurnReadSource *source;
> > > source = burn_read_source_new (burn_read_media_new(),
> > > burn_read_manager_new(), burn_read_filter_new());
> > > BurnStream *streams[];
> > > int i, streams_len, buff_len;
> > > char buff[1024];
> > >
> > > burn_read_get_streams (source, &streams, &streams_len);
> > >
> > > for (i = 0; i < streams_len; i++)
> > > 	for (buff_len = burn_stream_read (streams[i], buff, 1024); buff_len >
> > > 0; buff_len = burn_stream_read (streams[i], buff, 1024))
> > > 		write (out, buff, 1024);
> > >
> > > What are your impressions on this?
> > 
> > I'd only really thought about the interface at the highest level...
> > 
> > You register a "burn_sink" with the lib.  The "file sink" would be 
> > provided by libburn, the same way a file source is now.  More advanced 
> > sinks would have to be written by the developer.
> > 
> > A burn_sink would define a target for data.  libburn itself would read 
> > sectors from the disc, and pass the data to the burn_sink callback 
> > function.
> > 
> > The libburn read functions would operate on the disc/session/track 
> > structures only after a sink has been registered.
> > 
> > So to read a track, you'd do something like
> > 
> > sink = burn_file_sink_new("filename.img", "filename.sub");
> > disc = burn_drive_get_disc(whatever);
> > burn_read_disc(drive, disc, sink);
> > 
> > And libburn would dump the disc to a file.
> > 
> > A more advanced data sink would be able to feed sectors into something 
> > like gstreamer for on the fly mp3 encoding, use C2 error information to 
> > discard "corrupt" sound, or read sections of the disc backwards to find 
> > "hidden" data.
> > 
> > A basic app probably shouldn't have to deal with sectors at all, and 
> > should stay in the realm of discs, sessions, and tracks.
> > 
> > I'm thinking what you propose should go in the mid layer, and be how sinks 
> > operate internally.  They'll pull from the drive in sectors, and push to 
> > the app through callbacks.
> Yes, my proposition is in a lower level. So my first question is where
> should I start hacking on?
> 
> I've just bought a new DVD+-rw with dual layer support, I imagine this
> feature is transparent to the user (libburn) and only alters the media
> size. Bottom line is: I am interested in playing around with dvd burning
> as well.
> 
> Maybe you could add one more link to the libburn webpage:
> Linux udf project has a set of tools (udftools) which mess around with
> drives too (for formating them, sending packets...)
> http://cvs.sourceforge.net/viewcvs.py/linux-udf/
> 
> _______________________________________________
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> libburn at freedesktop.org
> http://pdx.freedesktop.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/libburn
-- 
======================================================================
Bryan Forbes
bryan at reigndropsfall.net
http://www.reigndropsfall.net

"It does not take a majority to prevail, but rather an irate, tireless
minority keen to set brush fires in people's minds."
        - Samuel Adams, an architect of the Constitution

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