python-dlt

python-dlt is a thin Python ctypes wrapper around libdlt functions. It was primarily created for use with BMW's test execution framework. However, the implementation is independent and the API makes few assumptions about the intended use.

Note: This is only tested with libdlt version v2.18.5 (33fbad18c814e13bd7ba2053525d8959fee437d1), later versions might require adaptations. The package will not support previous libdlt versions from python-dlt v2.0. Also only GENIVI DLT daemon produced traces have been tested.

Design

The code is split up into 3 primary components:

• The core: This subpackage provides the major chunk of ctypes wrappers for the structures defined in libdlt. It abstracts out the libdlt structures for use by the rest of mgu_dlt. Classes defined here ideally should not be used outside of mgu_dlt. The module core_base.py provides the default implementation of the classes and the other core_*.py modules provide the overrides for the version specific implementations of libdlt. The correct version specific implementation will be loaded automatically at runtime. (the logic for this is in core/__init__.py)
• The python interface classes: These are defined in dlt.py. Most of the classes here derive from their corresponding ctypes class definitions from core and provide a more python friendly api/access to the underlying C/ctypes implementations. Ideally, python code using mgu_dlt would use these classes rather than the base classes in core.
• API for tools: This is the component that provides common interfaces required by the tools that use mgu_dlt, like the DLTBroker, 'DLTLifecycle' etc. These classes do not have equivalents in libdlt and were created based on usage requirements (and as such make assumptions about the manner in which they would be used).

If you're reading this document to work on the core or the python classes, it would be a good idea to first understand the design of libdlt itself. This is fairly well documented (look under the doc/ directory of the dlt-deamon code base). Of course the best reference is the code itself. dlt-daemon is written in C and is a pretty well laid out, straight forward (ie: not many layers of abstractions), small code base. Makes for good bedtime reading.

The rest of this document will describe and demonstrate some of the design of the external API of mgu_dlt.

The classes most relevant for users of python-dlt possibly are DLTClient, DLTFile, DLTMessage, DLTBroker. The names hopefully make their purpose evident.

Here are examples of some interesting ways to use these classes:

• DLTFile and DLTMessage:

  >>> from dlt import dlt
  >>> # DLTFile object can be obtained by lading a trace file
  >>> d = dlt.load("high_full_trace.dlt")
  >>> print(d.counter_total)  # number of DLT messages in the file
  ...
  >>> print(d[0])             # messages can be indexed
  ...
  >>> for msg in d:           # DLTFile object is iterable
  ...     print(msg.apid)             # DLTMessage objects have all the attrs
  ...     print(msg.payload_decoded)  # one might expect from a DLT frame
  ...     print(msg)          # The str() of the DLTMessage closely matches the
  ...                         # output of dlt-receive
  >>> d[0] == d[-1]           # DLTMessage objects can be compared to each other
  >>> d.compare(dict(apid="SYS", citd="JOUR")) # ...or can be compared to an
  ...                                          # dict of attributes
  >>> import pickle
  >>> pickle.dumps(d[0])      # DLTMessage objects are (de)serializable using
  ...                         # the pickle protocol (this is to enable sharing
  ...                         # of the DLTMessage in a multiprocessing
  ...                         # environment)
  

• DLTClient and DLTBroker:

  >>> from dlt import dlt
  >>> c = dlt.DLTClient(servIP="127.0.0.1")   # Only initializes the client
  >>> c.connect()                      # ...this connects
  >>> dlt.dltlib.dlt_receiver_receive(ctypes.byref(client.receiver), DLT_RECEIVE_SOCKET)  # receives data
  >>> c.read_message()                 # reads a single DLTMessage from received data  and returns it
  >>>
  >>> # more interesting is the DLTBroker class...
  >>> # - create an instance that initializes a DLTClient. Accepts a filename
  >>> #   where DLT traces would be stored
  >>> broker = DLTBroker(ip_address="127.0.0.1", filename='/tmp/testing_log.dlt')
  >>> # needs to be started and stopped explicitly and will create a run a
  >>> # DLTClient instance in a new *process*.
  >>> broker.start()
  >>> broker.stop()
  >>>
  >>> # Usually, used in conjunction with the DLTContext class from mtee
  >>> from mtee.testing.connectors.connector_dlt import DLTContext
  >>> broker = DLTBroker(ip_address="127.0.0.1", filename="/tmp/testing_log.dlt", verbose=True)
  >>> ctx = DLTContext(broker, filters=[("SYS", "JOUR")])
  >>> broker.start()
  >>> print(ctx.wait_for(count=10))
  >>>
  

Design of DLTBroker

The DLTBroker abstracts out the management of 2 (multiprocessing) queues:

• The message_queue: This queue receives all messages from the DLT daemon (via a DLTClient instance, running as a separate process, code in dlt.dlt_broker_handlers.DLTMessageHandler) and stores them to a trace file.
• The filter_queue: This queue instructs the DLTMessageHandler which messages would be interesting at runtime, to be filtered and returned (for example, via a request from DLTContext). This is run as a separate thread in the DLTBroker process. The code for this is in dlt.dlt_broker_handlers.DLTContextHandler.