tree 7c2885199ce93394c308e3399b4d76d843416505
parent 44c15b7a8fadff949e79be0b843ec9caca61901c
author Neels Hofmeyr <neels@hofmeyr.de> 1548531372 +0100
committer Neels Hofmeyr <neels@hofmeyr.de> 1549302736 +0100

add osmo_tdef API, originally adopted from osmo-bsc T_def

Move T_def from osmo-bsc to libosmocore as osmo_tdef. Adjust naming to be more
consistent. Upgrade to first class API:
- add timer grouping
- add generic vty support
- add mising API doc
- add C test
- add VTY transcript tests, also as examples for using the API

From osmo_fsm_inst_state_chg() API doc, cross reference to osmo_tdef API.

The root reason for moving to libosmocore is that I want to use the
mgw_endpoint_fsm in osmo-msc for inter-MSC handover, and hence want to move the
FSM to libosmo-mgcp-client. This FSM uses the T_def from osmo-bsc. Though the
mgw_endpoint_fsm's use of T_def is minimal, I intend to use the osmo_tdef API
in osmo-msc (and probably elsewhere) as well. libosmocore is the most sensible
place for this.

osmo_tdef provides:

- a list of Tnnnn (GSM) timers with description, unit and default value.
- vty UI to allow users to configure non-default timeouts.
- API to tie T timers to osmo_fsm states and set them on state transitions.

- a few standard units (minute, second, millisecond) as well as a custom unit
  (which relies on the timer's human readable description to indicate the
  meaning of the value).
- conversion for standard units: for example, some GSM timers are defined in
  minutes, while our FSM definitions need timeouts in seconds. Conversion is
  for convenience only and can be easily avoided via the custom unit.

By keeping separate osmo_tdef arrays, several groups of timers can be kept
separately. The VTY tests in tests/tdef/ showcase different schemes:

- tests/vty/tdef_vty_test_config_root.c:
  Keep several timer definitions in separately named groups: showcase the
  osmo_tdef_vty_groups*() API. Each timer group exists exactly once.

- tests/vty/tdef_vty_test_config_subnode.c:
  Keep a single list of timers without separate grouping.
  Put this list on a specific subnode below the CONFIG_NODE.
  There could be several separate subnodes with timers like this, i.e.
  continuing from this example, sets timers could be separated by placing
  timers in specific config subnodes instead of using the global group name.

- tests/vty/tdef_vty_test_dynamic.c:
  Dynamically allocate timer definitions per each new created object.
  Thus there can be an arbitrary number of independent timer definitions, one
  per allocated object.

T_def was introduced during the recent osmo-bsc refactoring for inter-BSC
handover, and has proven useful:

- without osmo_tdef, each invocation of osmo_fsm_inst_state_chg() needs to be
  programmed with the right timeout value, for all code paths that invoke this
  state change. It is a likely source of errors to get one of them wrong.  By
  defining a T timer exactly for an FSM state, the caller can merely invoke the
  state change and trust on the original state definition to apply the correct
  timeout.

- it is helpful to have a standardized config file UI to provide user
  configurable timeouts, instead of inventing new VTY commands for each
  separate application of T timer numbers.

Change-Id: Ibd6b1ed7f1bd6e1f2e0fde53352055a4468f23e5