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The API of ODR is designed to reflect the structure of ASN.1, rather
than BER itself. Future releases may be able to represent data in
other external forms.
The interface is based loosely on that of the Sun Microsystems XDR
routines.
Specifically, each function which corresponds to an ASN.1 primitive
type has a dual function. Depending on the settings of the ODR
stream which is supplied as a parameter, the function may be used
either to encode or decode data. The functions that can be built
using these primitive functions, to represent more complex data types,
share this quality. The result is that you only have to enter the
definition for a type once - and you have the functionality of encoding,
decoding (and pretty-printing) all in one unit.
The resulting C source code is quite compact, and is a pretty
straightforward representation of the source ASN.1 specification.
In many cases, the model of the XDR functions works quite well in this
role.
In others, it is less elegant. Most of the hassle comes from the optional
SEQUENCE members which don't exist in XDR.
ASN.1 defines a number of primitive types (many of which correspond
roughly to primitive types in structured programming languages, such as C).
The ODR function for encoding or decoding (or printing) the ASN.1
INTEGER type looks like this:
int odr_integer(ODR o, int **p, int optional, const char *name);
(we don't allow values that can't be contained in a C integer.)
This form is typical of the primitive ODR functions. They are named
after the type of data that they encode or decode. They take an ODR
stream, an indirect reference to the type in question, and an
optional flag (corresponding to the OPTIONAL keyword
of ASN.1) as parameters. They all return an integer value of either one
or zero.
When you use the primitive functions to construct encoders for complex
types of your own, you should follow this model as well. This
ensures that your new types can be reused as elements in yet more
complex types.
The o parameter should obviously refer to a properly
initialized ODR stream of the right type (encoding/decoding/printing)
for the operation that you wish to perform.
When encoding or printing, the function first looks at
* p . If * p (the pointer pointed
to by p ) is a null pointer, this is taken to mean that
the data element is absent. If the optional parameter
is nonzero, the function will return one (signifying success) without
any further processing. If the optional is zero, an
internal error flag is set in the ODR stream, and the function will
return 0. No further operations can be carried out on the stream without
a call to the function odr_reset() .
If *p is not a null pointer, it is expected to
point to an instance of the data type. The data will be subjected to
the encoding rules, and the result will be placed in the buffer held
by the ODR stream.
The other ASN.1 primitives have similar functions that operate in
similar manners:
int odr_bool(ODR o, bool_t **p, int optional, const char *name);
typedef struct odr_oct
{
unsigned char *buf;
int len;
int size;
} Odr_oct;
int odr_octetstring(ODR o, Odr_oct **p, int optional,
const char *name);
The buf field should point to the character array
that holds the octetstring. The len field holds the
actual length, while the size field gives the size
of the allocated array (not of interest to you, in most cases).
The character array need not be null terminated.
To make things a little easier, an alternative is given for string
types that are not expected to contain embedded NULL characters (eg.
VisibleString):
int odr_cstring(ODR o, char **p, int optional, const char *name);
Which encoded or decodes between OCTETSTRING representations and
null-terminates C strings.
Functions are provided for the derived string types, eg:
int odr_visiblestring(ODR o, char **p, int optional,
const char *name);
The simplest way of tagging a type is to use the
odr_implicit_tag() or
odr_explicit_tag() macros:
int odr_implicit_tag(ODR o, Odr_fun fun, int class, int tag,
int optional, const char *name);
int odr_explicit_tag(ODR o, Odr_fun fun, int class, int tag,
int optional, const char *name);
To create a type derived from the integer type by implicit tagging, you
might write:
MyInt ::= [210] IMPLICIT INTEGER
In the ODR system, this would be written like:
int myInt(ODR o, int **p, int optional, const char *name)
{
return odr_implicit_tag(o, odr_integer, p,
ODR_CONTEXT, 210, optional, name);
}
The function myInt() can then be used like any of
the primitive functions provided by ODR . Note that the behavior of
odr_explicit()
and odr_implicit() macros
act exactly the same as the functions they are applied to - they
respond to error conditions, etc, in the same manner - they
simply have three extra parameters. The class parameter may
take one of the values: ODR_CONTEXT ,
ODR_PRIVATE , ODR_UNIVERSAL , or
/ODR_APPLICATION .
Constructed types are created by combining primitive types. The
ODR system only implements the SEQUENCE and SEQUENCE OF constructions
(although adding the rest of the container types should be simple
enough, if the need arises).
For implementing SEQUENCEs, the functions
int odr_sequence_begin(ODR o, void *p, int size, const char *name);
int odr_sequence_end(ODR o);
are provided.
The odr_sequence_begin() function should be
called in the beginning of a function that implements a SEQUENCE type.
Its parameters are the ODR stream, a pointer (to a pointer to the type
you're implementing), and the size of the type
(typically a C structure). On encoding, it returns 1 if
* p is a null pointer. The size
parameter is ignored. On decoding, it returns 1 if the type is found in
the data stream. size bytes of memory are allocated,
and *p is set to point to this space.
odr_sequence_end() is called at the end of the
complex function. Assume that a type is defined like this:
MySequence ::= SEQUENCE {
intval INTEGER,
boolval BOOLEAN OPTIONAL
}
The corresponding ODR encoder/decoder function and the associated data
structures could be written like this:
typedef struct MySequence
{
int *intval;
bool_t *boolval;
} MySequence;
int mySequence(ODR o, MySequence **p, int optional, const char *name)
{
if (odr_sequence_begin(o, p, sizeof(**p), name) == 0)
return optional && odr_ok(o);
return
odr_integer(o, &(*p)->intval, 0, "intval") &&
odr_bool(o, &(*p)->boolval, 1, "boolval") &&
odr_sequence_end(o);
}
Note the 1 in the call to odr_bool() , to mark
that the sequence member is optional.
If either of the member types had been tagged, the macros
odr_implicit() or odr_explicit()
could have been used.
The new function can be used exactly like the standard functions provided
with ODR . It will encode, decode or pretty-print a data value of the
MySequence type. We like to name types with an
initial capital, as done in ASN.1 definitions, and to name the
corresponding function with the first character of the name in lower case.
You could, of course, name your structures, types, and functions any way
you please - as long as you're consistent, and your code is easily readable.
odr_ok is just that - a predicate that returns the
state of the stream. It is used to ensure that the behavior of the new
type is compatible with the interface of the primitive types.
Assume the type above had been defined as
MySequence ::= [10] IMPLICIT SEQUENCE {
intval INTEGER,
boolval BOOLEAN OPTIONAL
}
You would implement this in ODR by calling the function
int odr_implicit_settag(ODR o, int class, int tag);
which overrides the tag of the type immediately following it. The
macro odr_implicit() works by calling
odr_implicit_settag() immediately
before calling the function pointer argument.
Your type function could look like this:
int mySequence(ODR o, MySequence **p, int optional, const char *name)
{
if (odr_implicit_settag(o, ODR_CONTEXT, 10) == 0 ||
odr_sequence_begin(o, p, sizeof(**p), name) == 0)
return optional && odr_ok(o);
return
odr_integer(o, &(*p)->intval, 0, "intval") &&
odr_bool(o, &(*p)->boolval, 1, "boolval") &&
odr_sequence_end(o);
}
The definition of the structure MySequence would be
the same.
Explicit tagging of constructed types is a little more complicated,
since you are in effect adding a level of construction to the data.
Assume the definition:
MySequence ::= [10] IMPLICIT SEQUENCE {
intval INTEGER,
boolval BOOLEAN OPTIONAL
}
Since the new type has an extra level of construction, two new functions
are needed to encapsulate the base type:
int odr_constructed_begin(ODR o, void *p, int class, int tag,
const char *name);
int odr_constructed_end(ODR o);
Assume that the IMPLICIT in the type definition above were replaced
with EXPLICIT (or that the IMPLICIT keyword were simply deleted, which
would be equivalent). The structure definition would look the same,
but the function would look like this:
int mySequence(ODR o, MySequence **p, int optional, const char *name)
{
if (odr_constructed_begin(o, p, ODR_CONTEXT, 10, name) == 0)
return optional && odr_ok(o);
if (o->direction == ODR_DECODE)
*p = odr_malloc(o, sizeof(**p));
if (odr_sequence_begin(o, p, sizeof(**p), 0) == 0)
{
*p = 0; /* this is almost certainly a protocol error */
return 0;
}
return
odr_integer(o, &(*p)->intval, 0, "intval") &&
odr_bool(o, &(*p)->boolval, 1, "boolval") &&
odr_sequence_end(o) &&
odr_constructed_end(o);
}
Notice that the interface here gets kind of nasty. The reason is
simple: Explicitly tagged, constructed types are fairly rare in
the protocols that we care about, so the
esthetic annoyance (not to mention the dangers of a cluttered
interface) is less than the time that would be required to develop a
better interface. Nevertheless, it is far from satisfying, and it's a
point that will be worked on in the future. One option for you would
be to simply apply the odr_explicit() macro to
the first function, and not
have to worry about odr_constructed_* yourself.
Incidentally, as you might have guessed, the
odr_sequence_ functions are themselves
implemented using the /odr_constructed_ functions.
To handle sequences (arrays) of a specific type, the function
int odr_sequence_of(ODR o, int (*fun)(ODR o, void *p, int optional),
void *p, int *num, const char *name);
The fun parameter is a pointer to the decoder/encoder
function of the type. p is a pointer to an array of
pointers to your type. num is the number of elements
in the array.
Assume a type
MyArray ::= SEQUENCE OF INTEGER
The C representation might be
typedef struct MyArray
{
int num_elements;
int **elements;
} MyArray;
And the function might look like
int myArray(ODR o, MyArray **p, int optional, const char *name)
{
if (o->direction == ODR_DECODE)
*p = odr_malloc(o, sizeof(**p));
if (odr_sequence_of(o, odr_integer, &(*p)->elements,
&(*p)->num_elements, name))
return 1;
*p = 0;
return optional && odr_ok(o);
}
The choice type is used fairly often in some ASN.1 definitions, so
some work has gone into streamlining its interface.
CHOICE types are handled by the function:
int odr_choice(ODR o, Odr_arm arm[], void *p, void *whichp,
const char *name);
The arm array is used to describe each of the possible
types that the CHOICE type may assume. Internally in your application,
the CHOICE type is represented as a discriminated union. That is, a
C union accompanied by an integer (or enum) identifying the active
'arm' of the union.
whichp is a pointer to the union discriminator.
When encoding, it is examined to determine the current type.
When decoding, it is set to reference the type that was found in
the input stream.
The Odr_arm type is defined thus:
typedef struct odr_arm
{
int tagmode;
int class;
int tag;
int which;
Odr_fun fun;
char *name;
} Odr_arm;
The interpretation of the fields are:
A handy way to prepare the array for use by the
odr_choice() function is to
define it as a static, initialized array in the beginning of your
decoding/encoding function. Assume the type definition:
MyChoice ::= CHOICE {
untagged INTEGER,
tagged [99] IMPLICIT INTEGER,
other BOOLEAN
}
Your C type might look like
typedef struct MyChoice
{
enum
{
MyChoice_untagged,
MyChoice_tagged,
MyChoice_other
} which;
union
{
int *untagged;
int *tagged;
bool_t *other;
} u;
};
And your function could look like this:
int myChoice(ODR o, MyChoice **p, int optional, const char *name)
{
static Odr_arm arm[] =
{
{-1, -1, -1, MyChoice_untagged, odr_integer, "untagged"},
{ODR_IMPLICIT, ODR_CONTEXT, 99, MyChoice_tagged, odr_integer,
"tagged"},
{-1, -1, -1, MyChoice_other, odr_boolean, "other"},
{-1, -1, -1, -1, 0}
};
if (o->direction == ODR_DECODE)
*p = odr_malloc(o, sizeof(**p);
else if (!*p)
return optional && odr_ok(o);
if (odr_choice(o, arm, &(*p)->u, &(*p)->which), name)
return 1;
*p = 0;
return optional && odr_ok(o);
}
In some cases (say, a non-optional choice which is a member of a
sequence), you can "embed" the union and its discriminator in the
structure belonging to the enclosing type, and you won't need to
fiddle with memory allocation to create a separate structure to
wrap the discriminator and union.
The corresponding function is somewhat nicer in the Sun XDR interface.
Most of the complexity of this interface comes from the possibility of
declaring sequence elements (including CHOICEs) optional.
The ASN.1 specifications naturally requires that each member of a
CHOICE have a distinct tag, so they can be told apart on decoding.
Sometimes it can be useful to define a CHOICE that has multiple types
that share the same tag. You'll need some other mechanism, perhaps
keyed to the context of the CHOICE type. In effect, we would like to
introduce a level of context-sensitiveness to our ASN.1 specification.
When encoding an internal representation, we have no problem, as long
as each CHOICE member has a distinct discriminator value. For
decoding, we need a way to tell the choice function to look for a
specific arm of the table. The function
void odr_choice_bias(ODR o, int what);
provides this functionality. When called, it leaves a notice for the next
call to odr_choice() to be called on the decoding
stream o that only the arm entry with
a which field equal to what
should be tried.
The most important application (perhaps the only one, really) is in
the definition of application-specific EXTERNAL encoders/decoders
which will automatically decode an ANY member given the direct or
indirect reference.