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Thomas Haller 297d4985ab core/dbus: rework D-Bus implementation to use lower layer GDBusConnection API
Previously, we used the generated GDBusInterfaceSkeleton types and glued
them via the NMExportedObject base class to our NM types. We also used
GDBusObjectManagerServer.

Don't do that anymore. The resulting code was more complicated despite (or
because?) using generated classes. It was hard to understand, complex, had
ordering-issues, and had a runtime and memory overhead.

This patch refactors this entirely and uses the lower layer API GDBusConnection
directly. It replaces the generated code, GDBusInterfaceSkeleton, and
GDBusObjectManagerServer. All this is now done by NMDbusObject and NMDBusManager
and static descriptor instances of type GDBusInterfaceInfo.

This adds a net plus of more then 1300 lines of hand written code. I claim
that this implementation is easier to understand. Note that previously we
also required extensive and complex glue code to bind our objects to the
generated skeleton objects. Instead, now glue our objects directly to
GDBusConnection. The result is more immediate and gets rid of layers of
code in between.
Now that the D-Bus glue us more under our control, we can address issus and
bottlenecks better, instead of adding code to bend the generated skeletons
to our needs.

Note that the current implementation now only supports one D-Bus connection.
That was effectively the case already, although there were places (and still are)
where the code pretends it could also support connections from a private socket.
We dropped private socket support mainly because it was unused, untested and
buggy, but also because GDBusObjectManagerServer could not export the same
objects on multiple connections. Now, it would be rather straight forward to
fix that and re-introduce ObjectManager on each private connection. But this
commit doesn't do that yet, and the new code intentionally supports only one
D-Bus connection.
Also, the D-Bus startup was simplified. There is no retry, either nm_dbus_manager_start()
succeeds, or it detects the initrd case. In the initrd case, bus manager never tries to
connect to D-Bus. Since the initrd scenario is not yet used/tested, this is good enough
for the moment. It could be easily extended later, for example with polling whether the
system bus appears (like was done previously). Also, restart of D-Bus daemon isn't
supported either -- just like before.

Note how NMDBusManager now implements the ObjectManager D-Bus interface
directly.

Also, this fixes race issues in the server, by no longer delaying
PropertiesChanged signals. NMExportedObject would collect changed
properties and send the signal out in idle_emit_properties_changed()
on idle. This messes up the ordering of change events w.r.t. other
signals and events on the bus. Note that not only NMExportedObject
messed up the ordering. Also the generated code would hook into
notify() and process change events in and idle handle, exhibiting the
same ordering issue too.
No longer do that. PropertiesChanged signals will be sent right away
by hooking into dispatch_properties_changed(). This means, changing
a property in quick succession will no longer be combined and is
guaranteed to emit signals for each individual state. Quite possibly
we emit now more PropertiesChanged signals then before.
However, we are now able to group a set of changes by using standard
g_object_freeze_notify()/g_object_thaw_notify(). We probably should
make more use of that.

Also, now that our signals are all handled in the right order, we
might find places where we still emit them in the wrong order. But that
is then due to the order in which our GObjects emit signals, not due
to an ill behavior of the D-Bus glue. Possibly we need to identify
such ordering issues and fix them.

Numbers (for contrib/rpm --without debug on x86_64):

- the patch changes the code size of NetworkManager by
  - 2809360 bytes
  + 2537528 bytes (-9.7%)

- Runtime measurements are harder because there is a large variance
  during testing. In other words, the numbers are not reproducible.
  Currently, the implementation performs no caching of GVariants at all,
  but it would be rather simple to add it, if that turns out to be
  useful.
  Anyway, without strong claim, it seems that the new form tends to
  perform slightly better. That would be no surprise.

  $ time (for i in {1..1000}; do nmcli >/dev/null || break; echo -n .;  done)
  - real    1m39.355s
  + real    1m37.432s

  $ time (for i in {1..2000}; do busctl call org.freedesktop.NetworkManager /org/freedesktop org.freedesktop.DBus.ObjectManager GetManagedObjects > /dev/null || break; echo -n .; done)
  - real    0m26.843s
  + real    0m25.281s

- Regarding RSS size, just looking at the processes in similar
  conditions, doesn't give a large difference. On my system they
  consume about 19MB RSS. It seems that the new version has a
  slightly smaller RSS size.
  - 19356 RSS
  + 18660 RSS
2018-03-12 18:37:08 +01:00
clients Add calls to g_simple_async_result_set_check_cancellable 2018-03-08 14:52:45 +01:00
contrib netlink: drop libnl3 dependency 2018-02-21 12:08:46 +01:00
data build: add initial support for meson build system 2017-12-13 15:48:50 +01:00
dispatcher all: replace non-leading tabs with spaces 2018-02-07 13:32:04 +01:00
docs build: allow building with address sanitizer only for executables 2018-02-15 15:34:03 +01:00
examples all: drop trailing spaces 2018-02-07 13:32:04 +01:00
introspection build: fix glib dependency to require at least 2.40 2018-02-16 13:26:07 +01:00
libnm Add calls to g_simple_async_result_set_check_cancellable 2018-03-08 14:52:45 +01:00
libnm-core secret-agent: don't use generated NMDBusSecretAgent proxy 2018-03-12 18:02:20 +01:00
libnm-glib Add calls to g_simple_async_result_set_check_cancellable 2018-03-08 14:52:45 +01:00
libnm-util libnm-util: Fix a minor type problem with GValue 2018-02-08 17:47:53 +01:00
m4 m4: parametrize flags variable 2018-02-16 16:06:59 +01:00
man man: update NetworkManager.conf man page to account for stub-resolv.conf (#68) 2018-02-18 14:22:24 +01:00
po po: updated Indonesian translation (bgo #794103) 2018-03-08 00:29:13 +01:00
shared shared: don't validate type-string in G_VARIANT_TYPE() cast macro in production code 2018-03-12 17:44:35 +01:00
src core/dbus: rework D-Bus implementation to use lower layer GDBusConnection API 2018-03-12 18:37:08 +01:00
tools settings: drop unmaintained ifnet settings plugin of Gentoo 2017-12-21 10:50:33 +01:00
vapi meson: Use string variables extensively 2018-01-10 12:22:55 +01:00
.dir-locals.el misc: add toplevel .dir-locals file that tells Emacs to show trailing whitespace 2013-03-08 15:15:28 +01:00
.gitignore gitignore: ignore generated clients/common/settings-docs.h file 2018-01-12 09:51:12 +01:00
.travis.yml travis: install meson 0.44.1 for travis' meson build 2018-03-05 17:47:21 +01:00
AUTHORS misc: update maintainers and authors 2016-04-21 13:39:03 -05:00
autogen.sh build: fix gtk-doc/introspection handling for build 2016-11-28 12:43:51 +01:00
ChangeLog Changelog: remove and replace the changelog by a stub 2017-02-14 17:39:46 +01:00
config.h.meson systemd: merge branch systemd into master 2018-02-15 10:26:10 +01:00
configure.ac netlink: drop libnl3 dependency 2018-02-21 12:08:46 +01:00
CONTRIBUTING Make licensing of contributions more explicit 2017-07-25 07:16:35 +02:00
COPYING docs: create new master NM documentation module 2011-02-16 16:24:16 -06:00
linker-script-binary.ver iface-helper/build: add linker version script 2016-10-13 21:33:33 +02:00
linker-script-devices.ver devices/build: use one linker-script-devices.ver for all device plugins 2016-10-13 21:36:06 +02:00
linker-script-settings.ver settings/build: add linker version script for settings plugins 2016-10-13 21:33:33 +02:00
MAINTAINERS misc: update maintainers and authors 2016-04-21 13:39:03 -05:00
Makefile.am core/dbus: rework D-Bus implementation to use lower layer GDBusConnection API 2018-03-12 18:37:08 +01:00
Makefile.examples version: drop NM_VERSION_MAX_ALLOWED defines for internal build 2018-01-23 10:50:34 +01:00
Makefile.glib build: include "config.h" in nm*enum-types.c sources 2015-10-05 15:01:38 +02:00
Makefile.vapigen build: fix make always re-making vapigen target 2016-10-21 18:46:03 +02:00
meson.build netlink: drop libnl3 dependency 2018-02-21 12:08:46 +01:00
meson_options.txt build: Rename settings-docs.c file 2018-01-12 09:39:06 +01:00
meson_post_install.py build: add initial support for meson build system 2017-12-13 15:48:50 +01:00
NetworkManager.pc.in build: update NetworkManager.pc 2013-01-29 16:17:30 -05:00
NEWS all: drop trailing spaces 2018-02-07 13:32:04 +01:00
README trivial: typo fixes 2010-09-25 00:34:10 -05:00
TODO all: drop trailing spaces 2018-02-07 13:32:04 +01:00
valgrind.suppressions valgrind: update glib2 suppression for Fedora 27 2017-11-15 17:05:01 +01:00
zanata.xml po: add Zanata configuration 2016-04-05 14:35:53 +02:00

******************
2008-12-11: NetworkManager core daemon has moved to git.freedesktop.org!

git clone git://git.freedesktop.org/git/NetworkManager/NetworkManager.git
******************


Networking that Just Works
--------------------------

NetworkManager attempts to keep an active network connection available at all
times.  The point of NetworkManager is to make networking configuration and
setup as painless and automatic as possible.  NetworkManager is intended to
replace default route, replace other routes, set IP addresses, and in general
configure networking as NM sees fit (with the possibility of manual override as
necessary).  In effect, the goal of NetworkManager is to make networking Just
Work with a minimum of user hassle, but still allow customization and a high
level of manual network control.  If you have special needs, we'd like to hear
about them, but understand that NetworkManager is not intended for every
use-case.

NetworkManager will attempt to keep every network device in the system up and
active, as long as the device is available for use (has a cable plugged in,
the killswitch isn't turned on, etc).  Network connections can be set to
'autoconnect', meaning that NetworkManager will make that connection active
whenever it and the hardware is available.

"Settings services" store lists of user- or administrator-defined "connections",
which contain all the settings and parameters required to connect to a specific
network.  NetworkManager will _never_ activate a connection that is not in this
list, or that the user has not directed NetworkManager to connect to.


How it works:

The NetworkManager daemon runs as a privileged service (since it must access
and control hardware), but provides a D-Bus interface on the system bus to
allow for fine-grained control of networking.  NetworkManager does not store
connections or settings, it is only the mechanism by which those connections
are selected and activated.

To store pre-defined network connections, two separate services, the "system
settings service" and the "user settings service" store connection information
and provide these to NetworkManager, also via D-Bus.  Each settings service
can determine how and where it persistently stores the connection information;
for example, the GNOME applet stores its configuration in GConf, and the system
settings service stores it's config in distro-specific formats, or in a distro-
agnostic format, depending on user/administrator preference.

A variety of other system services are used by NetworkManager to provide
network functionality: wpa_supplicant for wireless connections and 802.1x
wired connections, pppd for PPP and mobile broadband connections, DHCP clients
for dynamic IP addressing, dnsmasq for proxy nameserver and DHCP server
functionality for internet connection sharing, and avahi-autoipd for IPv4
link-local addresses.  Most communication with these daemons occurs, again,
via D-Bus.


Why doesn't my network Just Work?

Driver problems are the #1 cause of why NetworkManager sometimes fails to
connect to wireless networks.  Often, the driver simply doesn't behave in a
consistent manner, or is just plain buggy.  NetworkManager supports _only_
those drivers that are shipped with the upstream Linux kernel, because only
those drivers can be easily fixed and debugged.  ndiswrapper, vendor binary
drivers, or other out-of-tree drivers may or may not work well with
NetworkManager, precisely because they have not been vetted and improved by the
open-source community, and because problems in these drivers usually cannot
be fixed.

Sometimes, command-line tools like 'iwconfig' will work, but NetworkManager will
fail.  This is again often due to buggy drivers, because these drivers simply
aren't expecting the dynamic requests that NetworkManager and wpa_supplicant
make.  Driver bugs should be filed in the bug tracker of the distribution being
run, since often distributions customize their kernel and drivers.

Sometimes, it really is NetworkManager's fault.  If you think that's the case,
please file a bug at http://bugzilla.gnome.org and choose the NetworkManager
component.  Attaching the output of /var/log/messages or /var/log/daemon.log
(wherever your distribution directs syslog's 'daemon' facility output) is often
very helpful, and (if you can get) a working wpa_supplicant config file helps
enormously.