iliad-regutils: Easy editing of the iLiad registry

[Martijn]

Here's iliad-regutils 0.1 complete with an installer.

The iliad-regutils package contains some utilities to make it easier to edit the registry of the iLiad.
It's primarily aimed at facilitating the installation and de-installation of applications, but it is relatively easy to expand it for other functions as well.

Anyway, these are the four utilities currently included in the package:

Usage: registry-application-remove [OPTION...] APPLICATION
This program removes APPLICATION and its associated file types from the
registry, where APPLICATION matches the type attribute in the registry.
  -f, --file=FILE            Read/modify FILE instead of the registry
  -v, --verbose              Produce verbose output
  -?, --help                 Give this help list
      --usage                Give a short usage message
  -V, --version              Print program version


Usage: registry-application-install [OPTION...] APPLICATION [EXTENSION, ...]
This program installs APPLICATION in the registry and associates it as the
default application for the file EXTENSIONs.
  -c, --appCategory=CATEGORY The application category
  -e, --execute=EXECUTABLE   The executable of the application
  -f, --file=FILE            Read/modify FILE instead of the registry
  -i, --appIconPath=ICON     The icon path of the application
  -I, --exticon=ICON     The icon associated with the file extensions that
                             are supported by the application
  -m, --argMask=MASK         The argument mask for the application
  -p, --ipcChannel=CHANNEL   The IPC channel of the application
  -v, --verbose              Produce verbose output
  -x, --xResourceName=RESOURCE   The x resource name of the application
  -?, --help                 Give this help list
      --usage                Give a short usage message
  -V, --version              Print program version


Usage: registry-extension [OPTION...] EXTENSION
This program updates the settings for file extension EXTENSION in the registry,
or prints the current settings.
  -a, --get-app              Print the application associated with the
                             extension
  -A, --set-app=APP          Set the application associated with the extension
                             to APP
  -d, --delete               Remove the extension from the registry
  -f, --file=FILE            Read/modify FILE instead of the registry
  -i, --get-icon             Print the icon associated with the extension
  -I, --set-icon=ICON        Set the icon associated with the extension to ICON
                            
  -v, --verbose              Produce verbose output
  -?, --help                 Give this help list
      --usage                Give a short usage message
  -V, --version              Print program version


Usage: regutil [OPTION...] XPATH
This program evaluates the XPATH expression on the registry and prints the
result. Alternatively, the options can be used to alter the nodes indicated by
the XPATH expression.
  -d, --delete               Delete the nodes in the XPATH from the registry
  -f, --file=FILE            Read/modify FILE instead of the registry
  -s, --set=VALUE            Set the nodes in the XPATH to VALUE
  -v, --verbose              Produce verbose output
  -?, --help                 Give this help list
      --usage                Give a short usage message
  -V, --version              Print program version
WARNING: This program does not check your modifications, you may screw up your
registry. The other regutil programs can be used to alter the registry in a
safer way.

The installer installs these in internal memory. The utilities consist of a single executable (of 20K) and some symlinks, so not much of the internal memory is wasted.
The utilities use the libxml2 library on the iLiad to access the registry, so they may break in case of a firmware update (if libxml gets removed or the registry layout changes), but this is unlikely IMO.

Note that all the utilities support a --file argument, you can use this for testing purposes to modify a copy of the registry. (I highly recommend you use it for testing, since the utilities may still contain bugs.)

The utilities do not handle the associateOrder fields yet. If there are multiple applications associated with a file extension then they avoid modifying those entries in the registry.
I'll try to fix that in a future version.

So to change the icon associated with the extension "pdf":
1) enter the command line (via mrxvt or ssh)
2) type something like: registry-extension pdf --set-icon /usr/share/contentlister/Icon_misc.png
3) restart your iLiad

The primary goal of these utilities is, however, to make it easier to write installers and uninstallers for iLiad software. So I hope they will be useful in that area as well

[yokos]

This is cool for hacking maniacs. I will test it/have a look at src.

Thanks Martijn for the unintended reminder to finish my "Setting volume" project. very OT: Xfce sound mixer app is running.

Originally Posted by registry.xml

<sound>
<enable>true</enable>
<volume>75</volume>
</sound>

[Adam B.]

Brilliant!

I'll have to look into this as well. This could be *very* useful for application installers. You don't mind it being distributed with other packages, right?

Edit: I just saw it's GPL'd. Great!

[Martijn]

Indeed, I don't mind if it is redistributed, that's why I released it under the GPL.

The source code is not the cleanest around, but I hope it is readable. The majority is actually used to define all the different utilities and glue them together into one executable.
The actual work of updating the registry is being done by the regutil_*_main functions, and the functions in regutil.c.
Most of those function are about error handling (of which there is still not enough as shown by the FIXMEs in the code).

BTW Yokos, to control the sound settings in the registry you can use the regutil program like this:
regutil /iLiadRegistry/userSetting/sound/enable --set true
regutil /iLiadRegistry/userSetting/sound/volume --set 75
I can easily wrap this into a registry-sound utility if you like

The utilities only update the settings in the xml file though. I don't know how make the iLiad re-read the registry (other than rebooting).
Maybe there's some kind of API call for that? If anybody knows about it, please let me know and I'll incorporate it into the utilities.

[nekokami]

Thank you so much. I can finally read html files with FBReader easily!

[artur]

Does regutils really works? I have written

registry-extension --set-app=BROWSER txt1

and after switching off to make effect, all was cleared,
all my settings were gone.

I had to refill the settings, and of course the extension associations
came back to standard. Now I need to reinstall programs.

[Martijn]

I'm sorry to hear that regutils corrupted your registry.
The last time I tested it it worked OK, but it has been a while and my testing wasn't very extensive.

Next time please make a copy of your registry and use the -f option to modify the copy. This allows you to check the changes made by the utility.
If it corrupts the registry again, I would be interested in the original registry, the command used to modify it, and the corrupted registry.
If you send those to me I can use them to improve the utilities.

Anyway, after next week I should have some more time to start developing software for the iLiad again. So I'll check your command on my registry, and if the same problem occurs I'll fix it.

[Nomac]

mmm, this is dead link. Post it once more please