xref: /haiku/docs/user/support/BufferIO.dox (revision 820dca4df6c7bf955c46e8f6521b9408f50b2900)
1/*
2 * Copyright 2007,Haiku, Inc. All rights reserved.
3 * Distributed under the terms of the MIT License.
4 *
5 * Authors:
6 *		Stefano Ceccherini, burton666@libero.it
7 *		Niels Sascha Reedijk, niels.reedijk@gmail.com
8 *
9 * Corresponds to:
10 *		headers/os/support/BufferIO.h	rev 19972
11 *		src/kits/support/BufferIO.cpp	rev 20510
12 */
13
14
15/*!
16	\file BufferIO.h
17	\ingroup support
18	\ingroup libbe
19	\brief Provides the BBufferIO class.
20*/
21
22
23/*!
24	\class BBufferIO
25	\ingroup support
26	\ingroup libbe
27	\brief A buffered adapter for BPositionIO objects.
28	\author Stefano Ceccherini \<burton666@freemail.it\>
29
30	This class differs from other classes derived from BPositionIO in a sense
31	that it does not actually provide an actual entity to be read or written
32	to, but rather acts like a "frontend" to a stream. This class especially
33	comes in handy when working with files that are constantly written and
34	rewritten and where you want do this writing buffered so that the hard
35	disk or the network will not have to be accessed so frequently.
36
37	This class works as follows. After constructing a BBufferIO object that
38	you want to be buffered, you can create this object. The constructor
39	takes a \a stream parameter that points to the object to be buffered.
40
41	You then use this object as a proxy to the resource you want to read
42	of or write to. As soon as you use ReadAt(), the buffer will be
43	initialized to the contents of the original stream, and subsequent calls
44	to the positions within the buffer will not be routed to the original
45	stream. In the same way WriteAt() will change the data in the buffer,
46	but not in the actual stream. In order to flush the changes to the
47	original stream, use the Flush() method. Deleting the object when you are
48	done with it will also flush the stream and update the original stream.
49
50	\note This class is not meant to be used in cases where the
51		original stream requires to be in a consistent state. Neither should
52		this class be used as a way to perform 'atomic' writes, because the
53		object might need to do partial writes if it needs to 'move' the
54		buffer. This happens for instance if the original stream is bigger
55		than the buffer.
56*/
57
58/*!
59	\fn BBufferIO::BBufferIO(BPositionIO *stream, size_t bufferSize,
60		bool ownsStream)
61	\brief Initialize a BBufferIO object.
62
63	The constructor will create a buffer of the given size
64	and associate the object with the given BPositionIO stream.
65
66	\param stream A pointer to a BPositionIO object.
67	\param bufferSize The size of the buffer that the object will allocate and
68    	use.
69	\param ownsStream Specifies if the object will delete the stream on
70		destruction.
71*/
72
73/*!
74	\fn BBufferIO::~BBufferIO()
75	\brief Free the resources allocated by the object
76
77	Flush pending changes to the stream and free the allocated memory.
78	If the \c owns_stream property is \c true, the destructor also
79	deletes the stream associated with the BBufferIO object.
80*/
81
82
83/*!
84	\fn ssize_t BBufferIO::ReadAt(off_t pos, void *buffer, size_t size)
85	\brief Read the specified amount of bytes at the given position.
86
87	\param pos The offset into the stream where to read.
88	\param buffer A pointer to a buffer where to copy the read data.
89	\param size The amount of bytes to read.
90
91	\return The amount of bytes actually read, or an error code.
92	\retval B_NO_INIT The object is not associated with a valid BPositionIO
93    stream.
94	\retval B_BAD_VALUE The \c buffer parameter is not valid.
95*/
96
97/*!
98	\fn ssize_t BBufferIO::WriteAt(off_t pos, const void *buffer, size_t size)
99	\brief Write the specified amount of bytes at the given position.
100
101	\param pos The offset into the stream where to write.
102	\param buffer A pointer to a buffer which contains the data to write.
103	\param size The amount of bytes to write.
104
105	\return The amount of bytes actually written, or an error code.
106	\retval B_NO_INIT The object is not associated with a valid BPositionIO
107		stream.
108	\retval B_BAD_VALUE The \c buffer parameter is not valid.
109*/
110
111/*!
112	\fn off_t BBufferIO::Seek(off_t position, uint32 seekMode)
113	\brief Set the position in the stream.
114
115	Set the position in the stream where the Read() and Write() functions
116	(inherited from BPositionIO) begin reading and writing.
117	How the position argument is understood depends on the seek_mode flag.
118
119	\param position The position where you want to seek.
120	\param seekMode Can have three values:
121		- \c SEEK_SET The position passed is an offset from the beginning of
122			the stream; in other words, the current position is set to
123			position. For this mode, position should be a positive value.
124		- \c SEEK_CUR The position argument is an offset from the current
125			position; the value of the argument is added to the current
126			position.
127		- \c SEEK_END. The position argument is an offset from the end of the
128			stream. In this mode the position argument should be negative
129			(or zero).
130
131	\return The current position as an offset in bytes from the beginning of
132		the stream.
133	\retval B_NO_INIT The object is not associated with a valid BPositionIO
134		stream.
135*/
136
137/*!
138	\fn off_t BBufferIO::Position() const
139	\brief Return the current position in the stream.
140
141	\return The current position as an offset in bytes
142	from the beginning of the stream.
143	\retval B_NO_INIT The object is not associated with a valid BPositionIO
144		stream.
145*/
146
147/*!
148	\fn status_t BBufferIO::SetSize(off_t size)
149	\brief Call the SetSize() function of the assigned BPositionIO stream.
150
151	\param size The new size of the BPositionIO object.
152
153	\returns A status code.
154	\retval B_OK The stream is resized.
155	\retval B_NO_INIT The object is not associated with a valid BPositionIO
156		stream.
157*/
158
159/*!
160	\fn status_t BBufferIO::Flush()
161	\brief Write pending modifications to the stream.
162
163	\return The amount of bytes written, or if it failed it will return an error
164    code.
165*/
166
167
168/*!
169	\fn BPositionIO *BBufferIO::Stream() const
170	\brief Return a pointer to the stream specified on construction.
171
172	\return A pointer to the BPositionIO stream specified on construction.
173*/
174
175
176/*!
177	\fn size_t BBufferIO::BufferSize() const
178	\brief Return the size of the internal buffer.
179
180	\return The size of the buffer allocated by the object.
181*/
182
183
184/*!
185	\fn bool BBufferIO::OwnsStream() const
186	\brief Tell if the BBufferIO object "owns" the specified stream.
187
188	\retval true The object "owns" the stream and will destroy it upon
189		destruction.
190	\retval false The object does not own the stream.
191
192	\see SetOwnsStream()
193*/
194
195
196/*!
197	\fn void BBufferIO::SetOwnsStream(bool owns_stream)
198	\brief Set the \c owns_stream property of the object.
199
200	\param owns_stream If you pass \c true, the object will delete the stream
201		upon destruction, if you pass \c false it will not.
202*/
203
204
205/*!
206	\fn void BBufferIO::PrintToStream() const
207	\brief Print the object to stdout.
208*/
209