FIFOStr 1.0.8

fifostr - A FIFO (first in first out) buffer for strings derived from deque with pattern match callbacks

# fifostr.py

a small python lib for treating strings as fifos with callback-based pattern matching

(c) 2011 manu chatterjee deftio (at) deftio.com

fifostr (First In First Out String) is a small python library originally used for combining deque with pattern-trigger operations for an embedded terminal program. It allows pieces of a string to be treated in a mutable way with operations that you would expect from a bi-directional list such as insertion at either end and adding/removing N chars from either end.

fifostr has built-in pattern matching and triggering. Simply add / remove patterns which can call a user supplied function (E.g. if the pattern is "seen" then trigger the function). Patterns can be strings, regexes or user-supplied-functions. A pattern consists of:
* pattern: string <or> compiled regex <or> user-supplied-parser-function
* label: user supplied 'name' for this pattern
* start index : position in fifostr to begin pattern match. default is 0 (also accepts the character '^' as start anchor for those familiar with regexes)
* stop index : position in fifostr to end pattern match. default is end of fifostr. the letter '$' has special meaning as end of string no matter the length (again regex)
* callback_fn : called if pattern is found, fifostr(start:end) and the label are passed to the callback function (callback('thematchingstring','label'))
* active : default is True, sets whether this pattern should be actively looked for

There is nothing really profound here -- one can argue its not worth its own repo. Originally a lighter version of this was used in a python serial terminal program dioterm (which allowed the serial terminal to parse commands sent/received by both sides).

And finally .. I just wanted to get some practice on python module packaging ...

cheers-
manu

### License
See LICENSE.txt file in this directory. The license is the "FreeBSD" 2 clause license.

### Installation
```
pip install fifostr # or just pull fifostr.py from the source repository and put in your source path
```

### Original Usage

Originally part of a terminal program called 'dioterm' (albeit in much more compact form), this library was used used to 'listen' to traffic in either direction on a serial port. When certain patterns were found such as a command sent from the host or a special piece of data from the embedded microntroller client, fifostr would trigger a callback to do something. This was very useful when sequences of commands had to be set up between the host and client. Many of these sequences where conditional based on what either the host or client sent resulting in many variations of sequence-test cases, especially if this results in the host then having to make some other call to an unrelated process or hardware to reply correctly.


### Functionality
allows a string which is treated as a deque (fifo) object with:
* add/remove chars or strings at either end
* use slices, lists, or tuples to retrieve members (just like a real str object)
* get head/tail (returns as a str)
* match head/tail --> match a supplied string to either the head or tail
* use patterns to trigger callbacks --> pattern can be string | regex | user_supplied_parser any of which triggers user supplied callback_fn
* all patterns can look at either the whole fifostr or any subset e.g. addPattern("foo",myCallback,2,5,"bar")
--> only looks for "foo" between positions 2 and 5 in the fifostr and will call myCallback with ("foo","bar") if found
* all patterns have optional label which can be used for logging purposes (eg. when pattern found, in addition to callback, emit label)
* user supplied callback_fn is called with both the string-match section and the label
* patterns can be added/deleted from the list of patterns "watching" the fifostr content
* clear all patterns --> removes patterns from processing
* get/setPattern Active/Inactive --> allows a stored pattern to set on or off
* Python 2.7+, Python 3+ support with no mods

### Usage example

See example.py -- same examples as here but more comments, more use cases
```
from fifostr import *
def main():
myFifoStr=fifostr(5) #make a fifostr of length 5 (for unlimited length omit number)
myFifoStr+='1234567' #adds 1234567 to fifostr ... but len of fifostr is 5
# so only 34567 is retained

print "myFifoStr.head(3)= ",myFifoStr.head(3) #shows 345
print "myFifoStr.tail(4)= ",myFifoStr.tail(4) #shows 4567

# the eqhead and eqtail functions allow string compares against
# the head or the tail

myFifoStr.eqhead("3456") #True
myFifoStr.eqhead("567") #False
myFifoStr.eqtail("4567") #True
myFifoStr.eqtail("abc") #False

#fifostr.testPattern() allows you to test if the pattern is present in the fifostr object
#test a string pattern directly
myFifoStr.testPattern('67890') #False

#test a regex pattern directly
r1=re.compile("[0-9]+")
myFifoStr.testPattern(r1) #True

r2=re.compile("[a-z]+")
myFifoStr.testPattern(r2) #False

#more generally we can add (and remove) patterns which will scan and trigger a call back everytime the fifostr
#internal content changes (whether adding or deleting chars from either end or even rotating/reversing the fifstr object)

#adding patterns
p1 = myFifoStr.addPattern("234",logf,label="234 was here") #integer index returned managing pattern
p2 = myFifoStr.addPattern("67890",logf,label="67890 detected")
p3 = myFifoStr.addPattern(r1,logf,label="r1 detected")
myFifoStr.addPattern(r2,logf,label="r2 hit")
myFifoStr.addPattern(f1,logf,label="f1 hit")
myFifoStr.addPattern(f2,logf,label="f2 hit")

#patterns can be set active/inactive via pattern management fns
myFifoStr.setPatternActiveState(p1,False) #based on index returned from addPattern

#now show searching for stored pattern matchers in the pattern dict
#this is not searching the fifo-string itself, just the stored patterns that we have entered
print("find pattern by label 'foo':",myFifoStr.findPatternByLabel("foo")) #no matches returns empty list
print("find pattern by label '234 hit':",myFifoStr.findPatternByLabel("234 hit")) #shows match
print("find pattern by label using regex '[rf][0-9]':")
pp.pprint(myFifoStr.findPatternByLabel(re.compile("[rf][0-9]")))

#and finally demonstrate that patterns auto-trigger when items inserted in fifostr .. which afterall
#is the point of the whole thing.. ;)
print("\n fifo operations ============")
for c in '01234567890abcdefghijklmnop': #show using inc which accomplishes same thing
myFifoStr += c

myFifoStr+= 'abcdefghi'
print (myFifoStr.all())

```

### Notes
Absolutley *no* warranties on performance. This is not replacement for a compiler/parser front end! It just iterates over stored patterns every time something is added to the
fifostr object. If you do have a parser you wish to be called then just add it as a function so that every time the fifostr is updated with a char it will call your parserto do the work. Your parser must return a boolean result if you wish to use the callback based triggering.

```
#let your own parser do the work
myFifo = fifostr(20) # make a 20 char fifostr
myFifo.addPattern(myParser,myCallbk) #myParser passed entire fifostr (as str) when char(s) added
myFifo.addPattern(myParser,myCallbk2,3,5) #myParser passed fifostr btw (3,5). My Parser must return True if match found for callback to be invoked

```

### Source code home
all source is at github:
http://github.com/deftio/fifostr

docs and other projects at
http://deftio.com/open-source

### Tests & Coverage
for quick usage see
see __main__ in example.py file

for test coverage look in the /tests directory
to run tests pytest needs to be installed.

#### on Ubuntu
```
pip install -U pytest # or
easy_install -U pytest
```
note: more info at pytest.org for installation on other OSes

cd to the tests directory
```
run
py.test
```

### Release History
*1.0.0 Initial release

### Docs
documentation is in /docs directory (generated by pydoc)
to (re)generate the docs. cd to the docs directory. then type:
```
pydoc -w ../fifostr.py
```
note that as of this writing pydoc generates its output in the current directory and doesn't seem to be pipeable to another.

naming as fifostr vs FifoStr --> since the other collections are lowercase it seemed more natural even though some Python conventions refer to naming classes with MixedCase. No real pref here just seemed the best fit at the time since this *is* a collection