This directory contains the source code of the pidl (Perl IDL) compiler. pidl.pl is the main file of pidl. Pidl works by building a parse tree from a .pidl file (a simple dump of it's internal parse tree) or a .idl file (a file format mostly like the IDL file format midl uses). The IDL file parser is in idl.yp (a yacc file converted to perl code by yapp) After a parse tree is present, pidl will call one of it's backends (which one depends on the options given on the command-line). Here is a list of current backends: client.pm - Generates client call functions in C dump.pm - Converts the parse tree back to an IDL file eparser.pm - Generates a parser for the ethereal network sniffer header.pm - Generates a header file with structures parser.pm - Generates pull/push functions for parsing server.pm - Generates server side implementation in C template.pm - Generates stubs in C for server implementation validator.pm - Validates the parse tree Other files in this directory are: tables.pl - Generates a table of available interfaces from a list of IDL files util.pm - Misc utility functions used by *.pm and pidl.pl Tips for hacking on pidl: - Look at the pidl's parse tree by using the --keep option and looking at the generated .pidl file. - The various backends have a lot in common, if you don't understand how one implements something, look at the others - See pidl(1) and the documentation on midl - See 'info bison' and yapp(1) for information on the file format of idl.yp