24 ms·

Varlink: Interface description format and protocol for humans and machines

29 points by based2 6y ago

detaro 6y ago
frontpage seems clearer about what it actually is: https://varlink.org/ https://varlink.org/
- ampdepolymerase 6y ago
  Seems like some sort of gRPC alternative for microcontrollers.
kdps 6y ago
The first time I came across varlink was the Podman 1.x remote API for client/server communication between clients and a host with the actual Podman installation. However, in Podman 2.x, it was replaced by a RESTful API. Afair, the reason was that the varlink C client was discontinued. Does anyone know if varlink is still actively maintained?
jitl 6y ago
Here are some facts I gathered last time Varlink was discussed: Varlink is produced by Red Hat, apparently - or by people who use Red Hat things: both examples (DNF, Podman) are Redhat projects. It seems to be an effort to apply the Interface Definition Language model to UNIX daemons/services/tools by adding a new “standard IO file descriptor” for structured IO using a typed interface, as opposed to the current STDIN/STDOUT/STDERR which are existing un typed byte streams. Using a new FD instead of agreeing to layer Varlink protocol over STDIO means that existing programs can adopt Varlink without breaking backwards compat or making negotiation even more complicated. EDIT: Podman removed Varlink https://podman.io/blogs/2020/01/17/podman-new-api.html https://podman.io/blogs/2020/01/17/podman-new-api.html
deleted 6y ago
[deleted]
rikroots 6y ago
On a complete tangent - because after reading the link I remain clueless about what services/things varlink wants to connect (and also: why are the error messages not human readable by default?) - I find myself wondering if the time has yet come for us to start writing our Human-Machine interfaces in Lojban[1]? [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lojban https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lojban and https://mw.lojban.org/papri/Lojban#Learning_Lojban https://mw.lojban.org/papri/Lojban#Learning_Lojban

29 points by based2 6y ago

detaro 6y ago

frontpage seems clearer about what it actually is: https://varlink.org/ https://varlink.org/

ampdepolymerase 6y ago
Seems like some sort of gRPC alternative for microcontrollers.

kdps 6y ago

The first time I came across varlink was the Podman 1.x remote API for client/server communication between clients and a host with the actual Podman installation. However, in Podman 2.x, it was replaced by a RESTful API. Afair, the reason was that the varlink C client was discontinued. Does anyone know if varlink is still actively maintained?

jitl 6y ago

Here are some facts I gathered last time Varlink was discussed: Varlink is produced by Red Hat, apparently - or by people who use Red Hat things: both examples (DNF, Podman) are Redhat projects. It seems to be an effort to apply the Interface Definition Language model to UNIX daemons/services/tools by adding a new “standard IO file descriptor” for structured IO using a typed interface, as opposed to the current STDIN/STDOUT/STDERR which are existing un typed byte streams. Using a new FD instead of agreeing to layer Varlink protocol over STDIO means that existing programs can adopt Varlink without breaking backwards compat or making negotiation even more complicated. EDIT: Podman removed Varlink https://podman.io/blogs/2020/01/17/podman-new-api.html https://podman.io/blogs/2020/01/17/podman-new-api.html

deleted 6y ago

[deleted]

rikroots 6y ago

On a complete tangent - because after reading the link I remain clueless about what services/things varlink wants to connect (and also: why are the error messages not human readable by default?) - I find myself wondering if the time has yet come for us to start writing our Human-Machine interfaces in Lojban[1]? [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lojban https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lojban and https://mw.lojban.org/papri/Lojban#Learning_Lojban https://mw.lojban.org/papri/Lojban#Learning_Lojban