Plugin: verboserpc
Author: Louis
Included in ikiwiki: no
Enabled by default: no
Included in goodstuff: no
Currently enabled: no

Debugging external plugins is a pain, as soon as RPC is involved… This kind-of plugin tries to make it a little bit less painful.

It acts as a proxy between Ikiwiki and the plugin (which, for the record, is an executable program communicating with Ikiwiki using XML RPC on standard input/output), and logs everithing on standard error.

  1. Example
  2. Enabling the plugin
  3. Does it work?
  4. Download and install

Example

A sample output of a wiki compilation is shown below.

$ ikiwiki --setup wiki.setup --refresh --verbose
-> <?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?><methodCall><methodName>import</methodName><params></params></methodCall>
<- <?xml version='1.0'?>
<- <methodCall>
<- <methodName>hook</methodName>
<- <params>
<- <param>
<- <value><string>call</string></value>
<- </param>
<- <param>
<- <value><string>getsetup</string></value>
<- </param>
<- <param>
<- <value><string>type</string></value>
<- </param>
<- <param>
<- <value><string>getsetup</string></value>
<- </param>
<- <param>
<- <value><string>id</string></value>
<- </param>
<- <param>
<- <value><string>foo</string></value>
<- </param>
<- <param>
<- <value><string>last</string></value>
<- </param>
<- <param>
<- <value><boolean>0</boolean></value>
<- </param>
<- </params>
<- </methodCall>
-> <?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?><methodResponse><params><param><value><string>1</string></value></param></params></methodResponse>
<- <?xml version='1.0'?>
<- <methodResponse>
<- <params>
<- <param>
<- <value><struct>
<- <member>
<- <name>null</name>
<- <value><string></string></value>
<- </member>
<- </struct></value>
<- </param>
<- </params>
<- </methodResponse>
rebuilding wiki..
scanning index.mdwn
building index.mdwn
done

Enabling the plugin

Let us say you want to debug a plugin foo, located somewhere in your libdir.

  1. Do not not enable plugin foo in the ikiwiki setup file.
  2. Create a symbolic link named foo.verboserpc in one of your libdir, linking to the verboserpc plugin.
  3. In your setup file, enable plugin foo.verboserpc.

That's it. When called, the verboserpc plugin will be called as foo.verboserpc, and will run program foo, while transmitting (to Ikiwiki and foo) and logging (to standard error) any input/output.

Does it work?

Well… External plugins are still a pain to debug, even with this tool. If your plugin is written using python, and you are using the proxy, it might be useless, since this proxy already have an option to log RPC calls (by giving debug_fn=sys.stderr.write as an option to the constructor of IkiWikiProcedureProxy).

I am not sure that this plugin is the solution to the problem of debugging external plugins. I am still publishing it here, hoping that someone might improve it into something useful…

Download and install

Code and documentation can be found here : https://atelier.gresille.org/projects/gresille-ikiwiki/wiki/VerboseRPC.