Files
video-setup/planning.md
mikael-lovqvists-claude-agent ba26bd0cb7 Add config module: INI loader with schema-driven defaults
Config_Def schema tables declare section/key/type/default per module.
Typed getters: config_get_str, _u16, _u32, _flags.
FLAGS type parses space/comma-separated tokens via a Config_Flag_Def table.
config_defaults() gives schema defaults without a file.
config_dump() prints effective values for diagnostics.

config_cli: load a file or --defaults and dump effective config.
dev/example.cfg: sample config covering node, discovery, transport.

Co-Authored-By: Claude Sonnet 4.6 <noreply@anthropic.com>
2026-03-26 22:37:53 +00:00

103 lines
5.4 KiB
Markdown

# Planning
## Approach
Build the system module by module in C11. Each module is a translation unit (`.h` + `.c`) with a clearly defined API. Modules are exercised by small driver programs in `dev/` before anything depends on them. This keeps each unit independently testable and prevents architectural decisions from being made prematurely in code.
The final binary is a single configurable node program. That integration work comes after the modules are solid.
---
## Directory Structure
```
video-setup/
src/
modules/
common/ - shared definitions (error types, base types)
media_ctrl/ - Linux Media Controller API (topology, pad formats, links)
v4l2_ctrl/ - V4L2 camera controls (enumerate, get, set)
serial/ - little-endian binary serialization primitives
transport/ - framed TCP stream, single-write send
protocol/ - typed write_*/read_* message functions
node/ - video node entry point and top-level integration (later)
include/ - public headers
dev/
cli/ - exploratory CLI drivers, one per module
web/ - development web UI (Node.js/Express); browser-side equivalent
of the CLI tools; depends on protocol being finalised
experiments/ - freeform experiments
tests/ - automated tests (later)
Makefile
architecture.md
planning.md
conventions.md
```
---
## Module Order
Modules are listed in intended build order. Each depends only on modules above it.
| # | Module | Status | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | `common` | done | Error types, base definitions — no dependencies |
| 2 | `media_ctrl` | done | Media Controller API — device and topology enumeration, pad format config |
| 3 | `v4l2_ctrl` | done | V4L2 controls — enumerate, get, set camera parameters |
| 4 | `serial` | done | `put`/`get` primitives for little-endian binary serialization into byte buffers |
| 5 | `transport` | done | Encapsulated transport — frame header, TCP stream abstraction, single-write send |
| 6 | `discovery` | done | UDP multicast announcements, peer table, found/lost callbacks |
| 8 | `protocol` | not started | Typed `write_*`/`read_*` functions for all message types; builds on serial + transport |
| 9 | `frame_alloc` | not started | Per-frame allocation with bookkeeping (byte budget, ref counting) |
| 10 | `relay` | not started | Input dispatch to output queues (low-latency and completeness modes) |
| 11 | `ingest` | not started | V4L2 capture loop — dequeue buffers, emit one encapsulated frame per buffer |
| 12 | `archive` | not started | Write frames to disk, control messages to binary log |
| 13 | `codec` | not started | Per-frame encode/decode — MJPEG (libjpeg-turbo), QOI, ZSTD-raw, VA-API H.264 intra; used by screen grab source and archive |
| 14 | `xorg` | not started | X11 screen geometry queries (XRandR), screen grab source (calls codec), frame viewer sink — see architecture.md |
| 15 | `web node` | not started | Node.js/Express peer — speaks binary protocol on socket side, HTTP/WebSocket to browser; `protocol.mjs` mirrors C protocol module |
| — | `mjpeg_scan` | future | EOI marker scanner for misbehaving hardware that does not deliver clean per-buffer frames; not part of the primary pipeline |
| — | `config` | done | INI file loader with schema-driven defaults, typed getters, FLAGS type for bitmask values |
---
## Dev Tools
### CLI (`dev/cli/`)
Each module gets a corresponding CLI driver that exercises its API and serves as both an integration check and a useful development tool.
| Driver | Exercises | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| `media_ctrl_cli` | `media_ctrl` | List media devices, show topology, configure pad formats |
| `v4l2_ctrl_cli` | `v4l2_ctrl` | List controls, get/set values — lightweight `v4l2-ctl` equivalent |
| `transport_cli` | `transport` | Send/receive framed messages, inspect headers |
### Web UI (`dev/web/`)
A Node.js/Express development web UI — the browser-side equivalent of the CLI tools. Connects to a running video node as a binary protocol peer and exposes its capabilities through a browser interface: V4L2 control inspection and adjustment, media topology view, stream state.
**Prerequisite**: the `transport` and `protocol` modules must be finalised before `dev/web/` can be implemented — the web UI depends on a stable wire format and a `protocol.mjs` that mirrors the C protocol module.
This is a development aid, not the production dashboard. The production dashboard (full stream configuration UI) is a later, separate project.
---
## Future: Protocol Preprocessor
The C `protocol` module and JavaScript `protocol.mjs` will eventually be generated from a single schema by a future preprocessor. This eliminates drift between the two implementations. The preprocessor also handles error location codes (see `common/error`). Neither the schema format nor the preprocessor tool exists yet — the hand-written implementations are the interim state.
---
## Deferred Decisions
These are open questions tracked in `architecture.md` that do not need to be resolved before module work begins:
- Graph representation format
- Connection establishment model (push vs pull)
- Completeness queue drop policy (oldest vs newest, per-output config)
- Stream ID remapping across relay hops
- Transport for relay edges (TCP / UDP / shared memory)
- Node discovery mechanism
- Hard vs soft byte budget limits