Talk:Homebrew ABI

StdioSockets

Currently, there's a broken link in the Loader Config Keys section on the StdioSockets key, caused by a recent removal of the section. I understand the temptation to remove StdioSockets, since it wasn't very well designed in the first place, and nobody uses it anymore, but I don't think that it makes sense to remove it from the ABI specification. The key shouldn't be erased entirely, because that would indicate that it is unreserved. A backwards-incompatible change like that defeats one of the purposes of the ABI. Removing the link and adding a label that the key is deprecated would be acceptable, but it'd leave no specification on the key. I think that, unless I'm misinterpreting the original intent of the edit, it should be reverted and labels should be added to the key's specification that it is deprecated and no longer in use.

Mentioning WinterMute.

--Misson20000 (talk) 17:50, 18 June 2018 (CDT)

Probably better to just reserve it for future use I guess. Had someone interrogate me about why nxlink didn't use the homebrew ABI "properly" so it seemed better to remove it rather than leave it there confusing people.

WinterMute (talk) 04:26, 19 June 2018 (CDT)

RomFS Override

The current strategy for providing RomFS to homebrew applications depends on the application being able to find and open its own NRO file via argv[0] and load RomFS from ASET. This is not practical for several use cases that I am encountering:

- The NRO file is not persisted to the SD card.

- The NRO file is not stored somewhere that the homebrew library knows how to access.

- The application does not exist as an NRO file at all.

I'd like to propose a new HBABI key to allow homebrew applications to access RomFS without needing to open their own NRO file via argv[0].

   ==== RomFSOverride ====
   This is used to override an application's RomFS. If this key is passed and recognized, the application shall make no attempt to open itself via fopen(argv[0]).
   
   * Key: 15
   * Value[0]: Handle to a session implementing Filesystem_services#IFileSystem for the application's RomFS.
   * Value[1]: Ignored.
   
   The given handle must respond to IFileSystem commands 0-12.

Possible alternatives include instead passing IFile/IStorage for the RomFS section, or IFile/IStorage for the entire ASET section.

Concerns include ownership of the session handle. Should the application be required to close the handle or leave it open? Personally, I'm inclined to require that the application borrow the session from the loader and leave it open in case closing the handle is not something desirable. This also simplifies the logic in the loader, since if the handle needs to be closed, the loader can always just close it instead of having to figure out whether it was recognized or not. Possible alternatives to this ownership scheme include either adding flags to HBABI entries for which words contain handles that should be closed if not recognized, or a flag that the application sets on each entry it recognizes so that the loader can take care of closing the handle if the application did not recognize it.

--Misson20000 (talk) 00:36, 6 November 2018 (UTC)

"- The NRO file is not persisted to the SD card." "- The NRO file is not stored somewhere that the homebrew library knows how to access." "- The application does not exist as an NRO file at all." The ABI requires the NRO to located on SD in the first place... --Yellows8 (talk) 19:34, 8 November 2018 (UTC)

Like yellows8 said, the homebrew ABI is designed around NRO files stored on SD card. If we ever support other filesystems (such as hostio access), we'd just add support for host:/ paths being passed through argv (as well as support code in libnx which would be trivial) - homebrew apps would need a recompile anyway with or without new ABI keys. Also, for that use case (hostio), romfs doesn't really make sense because you could just use assets in a folder inside the host filesystem instead of having to go through the trouble of building romfs (which can get pretty large). Finally, homebrew by definition is NRO formatted. Other formats should not be supported or promoted. --Fincs (talk) 19:47, 8 November 2018 (UTC)