PROPLIB(3) | Library Functions Manual | PROPLIB(3) |
proplib
—
#include <prop/proplib.h>
proplib
library provides an abstract interface for
creating and manipulating property lists. Property lists have object types for
boolean values, opaque data, numbers, and strings. Structure is provided by
the array and dictionary collection types.
Property lists can be passed across protection boundaries by translating them to an external representation. This external representation is an XML document whose format is described by the following DTD:
Property container objects are reference counted. When an object is created, its reference count is set to 1. Any code that keeps a reference to an object, including the collection types (arrays and dictionaries), must “retain” the object (increment its reference count). When that reference is dropped, the object must be “released” (reference count decremented). When an object's reference count drops to 0, it is automatically freed.
The rules for managing reference counts are very simple:
Object collections may be iterated by creating a special iterator object. Iterator objects are special; they may not be retained, and they are released using an iterator-specific release function.
proplib
property container object library first
appeared in NetBSD 4.0.
proplib
does not have a ‘date’ object
type, and thus will not parse ‘date’ elements from an Apple XML
property list.
The proplib
‘number’ object
type differs from the Apple XML property list format in the following
ways:
proplib
is able to parse base 8, base 10, and base
16 ‘integer’ elements.In order to facilitate use of proplib
in
kernel, standalone, and user space environments, the
proplib
parser is not a real XML parser. It is
hard-coded to parse only the property list external representation.
January 17, 2011 | NetBSD 9.0 |