--- /dev/null
+
+The afm-user-daemon
+===================
+
+Foreword
+--------
+
+This document describes application framework user daemon fundamentals.
+FCF (Fully Conform to Specification) implementation is still under development.
+It may happen that current implementation somehow diverges with specifications.
+
+
+Introduction
+------------
+
+The daemon **afm-user-daemon** is in charge of handling
+applications on behalf of a user. Its main tasks are:
+
+ - enumerate applications that end user can run
+ and keep this list available on demand
+
+ - start applications on behalf of end user, set user running
+ environment, set user security context
+
+ - list current runnable or running applications
+
+ - stop (aka pause), continue (aka resume), terminate
+ a running instance of a given application
+
+ - transfer requests for installation/uninstallation
+ of applications to the corresponding system daemon
+ **afm-system-daemon**
+
+The **afm-user-daemon** takes its orders from the session
+instance of D-Bus.
+
+The figure below summarizes the situation of **afm-user-daemon** in the system.
+
+ +------------------------------------------------------------+
+ | User |
+ | +---------------------+ |
+ | +---------------------+ | Smack isolated | |
+ | | D-Bus session + | APPLICATIONS | |
+ | +----------+----------+ +---------+-----------+ |
+ | | | |
+ | | | |
+ | +----------+--------------------------+-----------+ |
+ | | | |
+ | | afm-user-daemon | |
+ | | | |
+ | +----------+----------------------+----------+----+ |
+ | | | : |
+ | | | : |
+ :================|======================|==========:=========:
+ | | | : |
+ | +----------+----------+ +-----+-----+ : |
+ | | D-Bus system +-----+ CYNARA | : |
+ | +----------+----------+ +-----+-----+ : |
+ | | | : |
+ | +----------+---------+ +-------+----------+----+ |
+ | | afm-system-daemon +----+ SECURITY-MANAGER | |
+ | +--------------------+ +-----------------------+ |
+ | |
+ | System |
+ +------------------------------------------------------------+
+
+
+Tasks of **afm-user-daemon**
+----------------------------
+
+### Maintaining list of applications ###
+
+At start **afm-user-daemon** scans the directories containing
+applications and load in memory a list of avaliable applications
+accessible by current user.
+
+When **afm-system-daemon** installs or removes an application.
+On success it sends the signal *org.AGL.afm.system.changed*.
+When receiving such a signal, **afm-user-daemon** rebuilds its
+applications list.
+
+**afm-user-daemon** provides the data it collects about
+applications to its clients. Clients may either request the full list
+of avaliable applications or a more specific information about a
+given application.
+
+### Launching application ###
+
+**afm-user-daemon** launches application. Its builds a secure
+environment for the application before starting it within a
+secured environment.
+
+Different kind of applications can be launched.
+
+This is set using a configuration file that describes
+how to launch an application of a given kind within a given
+mode.
+
+There is two launching modes: local or remote.
+
+Launching an application locally means that
+the application and its binder are launched together.
+
+Launching application remotely translates in only launching
+the application binder. The UI by itself has to be activated
+remotely by the requested (ie: HTML5 homescreen in a browser)
+
+Once launched, running instances of application receive
+a runid that identify them.
+
+### Managing instances of running applications ###
+
+**afm-user-daemon** manages the list of applications
+that it launched.
+
+When owning the right permissions, a client can get the list
+of running instances and details about a specific
+running instance. It can also terminates, stops or
+continues a given application.
+
+### Installing and uninstalling applications ###
+
+If the client own the right permissions,
+**afm-user-daemon** delegates that task
+to **afm-system-daemon**.
+
+
+Starting **afm-user-daemon**
+-----------------------------
+
+**afm-user-daemon** is launched as a **systemd** service
+attached to user sessions. Normally, the service file is
+located at /usr/lib/systemd/user/afm-user-daemon.service.
+
+The options for launching **afm-user-daemon** are:
+
+ -a
+ --application directory
+
+ Includes the given application directory to
+ the database base of applications.
+
+ Can be repeated.
+
+ -r
+ --root directory
+
+ Includes root application directory or directories when
+ passing multiple rootdir to
+ applications database.
+
+ Note that default root directory for
+ applications is always added. In current version
+ /usr/share/afm/applications is used as default.
+
+ -m
+ --mode (local|remote)
+
+ Set the default launch mode.
+ The default value is 'local'
+
+ -d
+ --daemon
+
+ Daemonizes the process. It is not needed by sytemd.
+
+ -q
+ --quiet
+
+ Reduces the verbosity (can be repeated).
+
+ -v
+ --verbose
+
+ Increases the verbosity (can be repeated).
+
+ -h
+ --help
+
+ Prints a short help.
+
+
+Launcher Configuration
+-----------------------------
+
+It contains rules for launching applications.
+When **afm-user-daemon** has to launch an application,
+it looks for launch mode (local or remote), as well as
+for the type of application describe in ***config.xml***
+widget configuration file.
+
+This tuple mode+type allows to select the adequate rule.
+
+Configuration file is **/etc/afm/afm-launch.conf**.
+
+It contains sections and rules. It can also contain comments
+and empty lines to improve readability.
+
+The separators are space and tabulation, any other character
+should have a meaning.
+
+The format is line oriented.
+The new line character separate the lines.
+
+Lines having only separators are blank lines and ignored.
+Line having character #(sharp) at first position are comment
+lines and ignored.
+
+Lines not starting with a separator are different
+from lines starting with a separator character.
+
+The grammar of the configuration file is defined below:
+
+ CONF: *COMMENT *SECTION
+
+ SECTION: MODE *RULE
+
+ RULE: +TYPE VECTOR ?VECTOR
+
+ MODE: 'mode' +SEP ('local' | 'remote') *SEP EOL
+
+ TYPE: DATA *SEP EOL
+
+ VECTOR: +SEP DATA *(+SEP NDATA) *SEP EOL
+
+ DATA: CHAR *NCHAR
+ NDATA: +NCHAR
+
+ EOL: NL *COMMENT
+ COMMENT: *SEP CMT *(SEP | NCHAR) NL
+
+ NL: '\x0a'
+ SEP: '\x20' | '\x09'
+ CMT: '#'
+ CHAR: '\x00'..'\x08' | '\x0b'..'\x1f' | '\x21' | '\x22' | '\x24'..'\xff'
+ NCHAR: CMT | CHAR
+
+Here is a sample of configuration file for defining how
+to launch an application of types *application/x-executable*,
+*text/x-shellscript* and *text/html* in local mode:
+
+ mode local
+
+ application/x-executable
+ text/x-shellscript
+ %r/%c
+
+ text/html
+ /usr/bin/afb-daemon --mode=local --readyfd=%R --alias=/icons:%I --port=%P --rootdir=%r --token=%S --sessiondir=%D/.afb-daemon
+ /usr/bin/web-runtime http://localhost:%P/%c?token=%S
+
+This shows that:
+
+ - within a section, several rules can be defined
+ - within a rule, several types can be defined
+ - within a rule, one or two vectors can be defined
+ - vectors are using %substitution
+ - launched binaries must be defined with their full path
+
+### mode local
+
+Within this mode, the launchers have either one or two description vectors.
+All of those vectors are treated as programs
+and are executed with 'execve' system call.
+
+The first vector is the leader vector and it defines the process
+group. The second vector (if any) is attached to the group
+defined by this first vector.
+
+### mode remote
+
+Within this mode, the launchers have either one or two vectors
+describing them.
+
+The first vector is process as a program and is executed with
+system call 'execve'.
+
+The second vector (if any) defines a text that is returned
+to the caller. This mechanism can be used to return a uri
+for remote UI to connect on the newly launched application.
+
+The daemon ***afm-user-daemon*** allocates a port for each
+new remote application.
+The current implementation port allocation is incremental.
+A smarter (cacheable and discoverable) allocation should be defined.
+
+### %substitutions
+
+Vectors can include sequences of 2 characters that have a special
+meaning. These sequences are named *%substitution* because their
+first character is the percent sign (%) and because each occurrence
+of the sequence is replaced, at launch time, by the value associated
+to sequences.
+
+Here is the list of *%substitutions*:
+
+ - ***%%***: %.
+
+ This simply emits the percent sign %
+
+ - ***%a***: appid
+
+ Holds application Id of launched application.
+
+ Defined by the attribute **id** of the element **<widget>**
+ of **config.xml**.
+
+ - ***%b***: bindings
+
+ In the future should represent the list of bindings and bindings directory separated by ','.
+ Warning: not supported in current version.
+
+ - ***%c***: content
+
+ The file within the widget directory that is the entry point.
+
+ For HTML applications, it represents the relative path to main
+ page (aka index.html).
+
+ Defined by attribute **src** of the element **<content>** within **config.xml**.
+
+ - ***%D***: datadir
+
+ Path of the directory where the application runs (cwd)
+ and stores its data.
+
+ It is equal to %h/%a.
+
+ - ***%H***: height
+
+ Requested height for the widget.
+
+ Defined by the attribute **height** of the element **<widget>**
+ of **config.xml**.
+
+ - ***%h***: homedir
+
+ Path of the home directory for all applications.
+
+ It is generally equal to $HOME/app-data
+
+ - ***%I***: icondir
+
+ Path of the directory were the icons of the applications can be found.
+
+ - ***%m***: mime-type
+
+ Mime type of the launched application.
+
+ Defined by the attribute **type** of the element **<content>**
+ of **config.xml**.
+
+ - ***%n***: name
+
+ Name of the application as defined by the content of the
+ element **<name>** of **config.xml**.
+
+ - ***%P***: port
+
+ A port to use. It is currently a kind of random port. The precise
+ model is to be defined later.
+
+ - ***%R***: readyfd
+
+ Number of file descriptor to use for signaling
+ readiness of launched process.
+
+ - ***%r***: rootdir
+
+ Path of directory containing the widget and its data.
+
+ - ***%S***: secret
+
+ An hexadecimal number that can be used to initialize pairing of client
+ and application binder.
+
+ - ***%W***: width
+
+ Requested width for the widget.
+
+ Defined by the attribute **width** of the element **<widget>**
+ of **config.xml**.
+
+
+The D-Bus interface
+-------------------
+
+### Overview of the dbus interface
+
+***afm-user-daemon*** takes its orders from the session instance
+of D-Bus. D-Bus is nice to use in this context because it allows
+discovery and signaling.
+
+The dbus session is by default addressed by environment
+variable ***DBUS_SESSION_BUS_ADDRESS***. Using **systemd**
+variable *DBUS_SESSION_BUS_ADDRESS* is automatically set for
+user sessions.
+
+The **afm-user-daemon** is listening on destination name
+***org.AGL.afm.user*** at object path ***/org/AGL/afm/user***
+on interface ***org.AGL.afm.user*** for following members:
+ ***runnables***, ***detail***, ***start***, ***terminate***,
+***stop***, ***continue***, ***runners***, ***state***,
+***install*** and ***uninstall***.
+
+D-Bus is mainly used for signaling and discovery. Its optimized
+typed protocol is not used except for transmission of standalone strings.
+
+Clients and Services are using JSON serialisation to exchange data.
+
+The D-Bus interface is defined by:
+
+ * DESTINATION: **org.AGL.afm.user**
+
+ * PATH: **/org/AGL/afm/user**
+
+ * INTERFACE: **org.AGL.afm.user**
+
+The signature of any member of the interface is ***string -> string***
+for ***JSON -> JSON***.
+
+This is the normal case. In case of error, the current implementation
+returns a dbus error as a string.
+
+Here an example using *dbus-send* to query data on
+installed applications.
+
+ dbus-send --session --print-reply \
+ --dest=org.AGL.afm.user \
+ /org/AGL/afm/user \
+ org.AGL.afm.user.runnables string:true
+
+### Using ***afm-util***
+
+The command line tool ***afm-util*** uses dbus-send to send
+orders to **afm-user-daemon**. This small scripts allows to
+send command to ***afm-user-daemon*** either interactively
+at shell prompt or scriptically.
+
+The syntax is simple: it accept a command and when requires attached arguments.
+
+Here is the summary of ***afm-util***:
+
+ - **afm-util runnables **:
+
+ list the runnable widgets installed
+
+ - **afm-util install wgt **:
+
+ install the wgt file
+
+ - **afm-util uninstall id **:
+
+ remove the installed widget of id
+
+ - **afm-util detail id **:
+
+ print detail about the installed widget of id
+
+ - **afm-util runners **:
+
+ list the running instance
+
+ - **afm-util start id **:
+
+ start an instance of the widget of id
+
+ - **afm-util terminate rid **:
+
+ terminate the running instance rid
+
+ - **afm-util stop rid **:
+
+ stop the running instance rid
+
+ - **afm-util continue rid **:
+
+ continue the previously rid
+
+ - **afm-util state rid **:
+
+ get status of the running instance rid
+
+
+Here is how to list applications using ***afm-util***:
+
+ afm-util runnables
+
+---
+
+### The protocol over D-Bus
+
+Recall:
+
+ * **DESTINATION**: org.AGL.afm.user
+
+ * **PATH**: /org/AGL/afm/user
+
+ * **INTERFACE**: org.AGL.afm.user
+
+---
+
+#### Method org.AGL.afm.user.detail
+
+**Description**: Get details about an application from its id.
+
+**Input**: the id of the application as below.
+
+Either just a string:
+
+ "appli@x.y"
+
+Or an object having the field "id" of type string:
+
+ {"id":"appli@x.y"}
+
+**Output**: A JSON object describing the application containing
+the fields described below.
+
+ {
+ "id": string, the application id (id@version)
+ "version": string, the version of the application
+ "width": integer, requested width of the application
+ "height": integer, resqueted height of the application
+ "name": string, the name of the application
+ "description": string, the description of the application
+ "shortname": string, the short name of the application
+ "author": string, the author of the application
+ }
+
+---
+
+#### Method org.AGL.afm.user.runnables
+
+**Description**: Get the list of applications that can be run.
+
+**Input**: any valid json entry, can be anything except null.
+
+**output**: An array of description of the runnable applications.
+Each item of the array contains an object containing the detail of
+an application as described above for the method
+*org.AGL.afm.user.detail*.
+
+---
+
+#### Method org.AGL.afm.user.install
+
+**Description**: Install an application from its widget file.
+
+If an application of the same *id* and *version* exists, it is not
+reinstalled except when *force=true*.
+
+Applications are installed in the subdirectories of the common directory
+reserved for applications.
+If *root* is specified, the application is installed under
+sub-directories of defined *root*.
+
+Note that this methods is a simple accessor to the method
+***org.AGL.afm.system.install*** of ***afm-system-daemon***.
+
+After the installation and before returning to the sender,
+***afm-user-daemon*** sends the signal ***org.AGL.afm.user.changed***.
+
+**Input**: The *path* of widget file to be installed. Optionally,
+a flag to *force* reinstallation and/or a *root* directory.
+
+Simple form a simple string containing the absolute widget path:
+
+ "/a/path/driving/to/the/widget"
+
+Or an object:
+
+ {
+ "wgt": "/a/path/to/the/widget",
+ "force": false,
+ "root": "/a/path/to/the/root"
+ }
+
+"wgt" and "root" MUST be absolute paths.
+
+**output**: An object containing field "added" to use as application ID.
+
+ {"added":"appli@x.y"}
+
+---
+
+#### Method org.AGL.afm.user.uninstall
+
+**Description**: Uninstall an application from its id.
+
+
+Note that this methods is a simple accessor to
+***org.AGL.afm.system.uninstall*** method from ***afm-system-daemon***.
+
+After the uninstallation and before returning to the sender,
+***afm-user-daemon*** sends the signal ***org.AGL.afm.user.changed***.
+
+**Input**: the *id* of the application and, optionally, the path to
+application *root*.
+
+Either a string:
+
+ "appli@x.y"
+
+Or an object:
+
+ {
+ "id": "appli@x.y",
+ "root": "/a/path/to/the/root"
+ }
+
+**output**: the value 'true'.
+
+---
+
+#### Method org.AGL.afm.user.start
+
+**Description**:
+
+**Input**: the *id* of the application and, optionally, the
+start *mode* as below.
+
+Either just a string:
+
+ "appli@x.y"
+
+Or an object containing field "id" of type string and
+optionally a field mode:
+
+ {"id":"appli@x.y","mode":"local"}
+
+The field "mode" is a string equal to either "local" or "remote".
+
+**output**: The *runid* of the application launched. *runid* is an integer.
+
+---
+
+#### Method org.AGL.afm.user.terminate
+
+**Description**: Terminates the application attached to *runid*.
+
+**Input**: The *runid* (an integer) of running instance to terminate.
+
+**output**: the value 'true'.
+
+---
+
+#### Method org.AGL.afm.user.stop
+
+**Description**: Stops the application attached to *runid* until terminate or continue.
+
+**Input**: The *runid* (integer) of the running instance to stop.
+
+**output**: the value 'true'.
+
+---
+
+#### Method org.AGL.afm.user.continue
+
+**Description**: Continues the application attached to *runid* previously stopped.
+
+**Input**: The *runid* (integer) of the running instance to continue.
+
+**output**: the value 'true'.
+
+---
+
+#### Method org.AGL.afm.user.state
+
+**Description**: Get informations about a running instance of *runid*.
+
+**Input**: The *runid* (integer) of the running instance inspected.
+
+**output**: An object describing instance state. It contains:
+the runid (integer), the id of the running application (string),
+the state of the application (string either: "starting", "running", "stopped").
+
+Example of returned state:
+
+ {
+ "runid": 2,
+ "state": "running",
+ "id": "appli@x.y"
+ }
+
+---
+
+#### Method org.AGL.afm.user.runners
+
+**Description**: Get the list of currently running instances.
+
+**Input**: anything.
+
+**output**: An array of states, one per running instance, as returned by
+the methodd ***org.AGL.afm.user.state***.
+
Code Review / src / app-framework-main.git / blobdiff