Filepath redirection - c

Using Linux, I want to redirect access to files according to the app accessing them. For example:
App1: when trying to access "/foo/bar", access /foo1/bar1
App2: when trying to access "/foo/bar", access /foo2/bar2
The way I tough into doing this is by overwriting fopen and related functions using LD_PRELOAD.
My two questions:
Would be this strategy language independent?
Edit: by language independent I mean it will not be affected by what language app1 and app2 are built.
There are better approaches, or maybe something already existing to achieve my goal?
Thanks
Edit: to simplify the question, think of /foo as symbolic link which resolves differently according to the app trying to access it.

For my particular case, the best option is to use LD_PRELOAD to overwrite open, open64, etc.
If you are facing a similar problem, check also chroot, jail root and docker container.

Related

How to use shp2pgsql

My question should be very simple to answer for anyone not being a self-taught newbie like me...
On this page is a cheatsheet concerning a function to be used in GIS/DB environnement : http://www.bostongis.com/pgsql2shp_shp2pgsql_quickguide.bqg
I would like to create a script allowing users to just have to click on it to launch the process, given the proper datas. But I don't understand how to use this. It obviously doesn't work in a Python console, nor directly in the windows console. How is it supposed to work ? What language is this ?
Thanks
shp2pgsql is indeed a command line tool. It comes with your PostgreSQL/PostGIS installation (usually) and, if not accessible via PATH-variable, can (usually) be run from within the /bin-folder in your PostgreSQL-Installation. You can also always 'make' the programm from source in any location yourself, if needed.
EDIT:
One way to set up a script (independent of whether you use it within qgis own python environment or not) would be to use Pythons subprocess (or os.system) module (check related question here) to write to shell and execute shp2pgsql.
A slightly more sophisitcated solution to (batch) insert (multiple) shapefiles via script could be to implement ogr2ogr via gdal/ogr module within python (check this blog). That, however, would require a working installation of the gdal core library, and the respective Python bindings (at least to use outside of QGIS Python environment, where it is pre-installed AFAIK), which can be tiresome at times. Once installed correctly, it offers a powerful (I dare say almighty) toolset for geodata management and manipulation via Python, though.
Apart from that, the blog link I provided also states the implementation of a batch insert script/tool (which operates ogr2ogr) in qgis 2.8 toolbox...maybe that can help you, either with your work directly or (via sourcecode) to point you in the direction of creating your own tool.

How can I programmatically open the default browser and pass a URL in C/Linux?

Is there a convenient library call that allows me to open the default browser that I can use from C? I poked around in glib and didn't see anything. There is xdg-open, and I can just system that I guess. Any better ideas?
Since you tagged this question with "glib", the right solution is probably to use g_app_info_launch_default_for_uri (or one of the other GAppInfo methods, depending on your exact use case).
If it is installed then xdg-open would work.
xdg-open http://www.stackoverflow.com

Rely on PATH or provide an explicit path when using system()

I'm writing a 'C' program that makes several calls to system() to execute other programs. When constructing the command string is it better to explicitly give the full path to the program being called, or should I just give the executable name and let the shell resolve its location using the PATH environment variable?
The programs I'm calling are all part of a single package and I have the path to the installation directory from a preprocessor definition. Giving the explicit path would seem to avoid errors that might occur if multiple installed programs share the same name. However it makes building the command strings a little more complicated, and everything will break if the user moves the programs around after installation.
Is there a widely accepted best practice covering this?
[Clarification]
I'm using autoconf/automake to generate the distribuion. The preprocessor definition providing the installation directory is created by the makefile. It reflects the user's choice of the installation directory as specified either on the configure comamnd line or the make command line. I do take the point about using environment variables to specify the location for the binaries though. It seems like an unneeded pain in the butt to make users rebuild just to change the location of the binaries.
Best practice is never to assume that you know your install directory at build time. Let your users decide where to install and work anyway.
This means that you will need to find out where your programs are located using some other mechanism. Consider using environment variables or command line parameters to allow the user to specify the actual path, if your platform does not provide you with the means to find out where the executables are located. You can use your knowledge of where you are normally installed as a fallback option.
For your actual question, in case you can build the absolute path to your program (using another mechanism than preprocessor directives) - use that. Otherwise, fall back to having the system find out for you.
The best practice is to not presume anything about the system you're installing onto. You can have the best of both worlds if you just let the user choose. Make the command you call an application preference or require paths to be defined in the environment:
PATH_TO_TOOL1=foo
PATH_TO_TOOL2=/usr/bin/bar
You can, of course, just fall back to a default of some kind if the variables aren't defined or the preference isn't set. Writing your application to be more flexible is always the best choice!
You should definitely let the user specify the path with an environment variable to the installed binaries. Not all systems are the same and many people will want to put their execs in different places.
the best example I can think of is people doing a local install vs system install. If your program is installed in a home directory that user will have to set and env variable to say where the binaries are copied to.
If you're absolutely sure of the path names, and if they are not "well-known" commands (for example, POSIX shell utilities on Unix are "well-known"), you should specify the pathname, otherwise don't specify the full path, or let the user control it by using an environment variable.
In fact, you may be able to write something like a function such as int my_system(const char *);, which does the prefixing of the path for you. If later you determine that it was a bad idea, it's just a matter of making my_system() identical to system().
I'm not sure if it's a best practice, but what I do in these cases is I write my C code to extend the PATH environment variable to include the installation directory at the end. Then I just use the PATH. That way, if the user's PATH wants to override where I believe the stuff was installed, it can—but if the software was installed in an out-of-the-way place, I can call it without forcing my users to put the directory on $PATH themselves.
Please note that the extended PATH lasts only as long as the C program runs; I'm not proposing changing the persistent PATH.

Getting proxy information on Linux programmatically

I am currently using libproxy to get the proxy information (if any) on RedHat and Debian Linux. It doesn't work all that well, but it's the only way I know I can use to get the proxy information from my code.
I need to stop using the lib since in most cases it doesn't recognize the proxy.
Is there any way to acquire the proxy information? What i mean is, is there a file (or group of files) i can read, or an env variable or an API or system call that i can use to get the information?
Gnome based code is OK, KDE might help as well but i am looking for something more generic.
The code is C.
Now, before anyone asks, I don't want to use libproxy anymore. Period. I don't want to start investigating why it doesn't work. I don't really want to know whether there is a new version of that lib. I know it might work, I just don't want to use it. i can't use it (just because). So please don't point me that way.
Code is appreciated.
thanks.
In linux, the "global proxy setting" is typically just environment variables that are usually set in /etc/profile. You can examine those variables to see what proxy is set.
The variables are:
http_proxy - the proxy for HTTP connections
ftp_proxy - the proxy for FTP connections
Using the Network Proxy Preferences tool under Gnome saves information in the GConf database. The path to the keys are /system/http_proxy and /system/proxy. You can read about the detail in those trees at this page.
You can access the GConf database using the library API. Note that GConf is based on GObject. To examine the contents of this tree using the command line, try the following:
gconftool-2 -R /system/http_proxy
This will provide a "name = value" listing of the tree, which may be usable in your application. Note that this requires a system() call, so it's not recommended for a deployed application, but it might help you get started.
GNOME has its own place to store the Proxy settings, and I am sure KDE or any other DE has its own place too. May be you can look for any mention of where Proxy settings should be store in the Linux Standard Base. That could hint you a standard of doing it irrespective of Distro or DE.
DE -> Desktop Environment
char* proxy = getenv("all_proxy");
This statement puts the value of the environment variable called all_proxy, which is used by the system as a global proxy, in your C variable.
To print it in bash, try env | grep 'all_proxy' | cut -d= -f 2.

Tricking programs in C

Say I launch a program from the program I make. Is it possible to trick the launched program into thinking the windows directory is in a different place?
If it uses the %windir% or %systemroot% environment variables to determine the Windows directory, it would certainly be easy to change these. But if it uses an API call, you'll have to hook that call, as ChrisW suggests. You might take a look at Detours.
Faking the location of the windows directory is generally not something that is done. My own reaction is similar to those above, that its a recipe for disaster if it were even possible.
If you could explain your situation in more detail (possibly in a new question), there might be better suggestions to solve your actual underlying problem.
It would be difficult. There are several system APIs which the program might be using to determine the path of the windows directory. To trick it you would need to intercept the program's calls to whichever API it is, and return a different result.
There are many articles about intercepting APIs on Windows: here's the first one I found using Google: API hooking revealed.
The location of Windows directory is in the Registry. Vista may let you change it per user, but as far as I know it's impossible to do per-process.

Resources