Read Me

PySector - a Python interface to Sector.

Jonathan Seidman (jonathan.seidman@opendatagroup.com)
Collin Bennett (collin.bennett@opendatagroup.com)

Copyright (C) 2008-2009  Open Data ("Open Data" refers to
one or more of the following companies: Open Data Partners LLC,
Open Data Research LLC, or Open Data Capital LLC.)

Licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the "License");
you may not use this file except in compliance with the License.
You may obtain a copy of the License at

http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0

Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software
distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS,
WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or implied.
See the License for the specific language governing permissions and
limitations under the License. 

PySector README
===============

PySector is a Python module which provides a bridge between Python and the
Sector C++ API, allowing Python scripts to execute commands against the Sector
file system. PySector supports the following Sector commands:

  * mkdir     Create a new directory in the Sector file system.
  * remove    Remove a file/directory from the Sector file system.
  * move      Move a file in the Sector file system.
  * open      Open a file in Sector for reading/writing.
  * close     Close a Sector file.
  * read      Read data from a file in Sector.
  * write     Write data to a file in Sector.
  * upload    Copy a file from the local file system into Sector.
  * download  Copy a file from Sector to the local file system.

The following functions are currently unsupported, but planned for a future
release:

  * stat      Return details on a path in Sector such as size, timestamp, etc.
  * list      Return a directory listing - i.e. 'ls'
  * cp        Copy a path in Sector.

Note that PySector is currently considered a proof-of-concept and is provided
as an illustrative example of accessing Sector from Python. PySector is not
yet intended for production use.

Dependencies
============

PySector requires the following software to build and run:

  * Python - PySector has been tested with Python 2.5
  * Sector - PySector has been tested with Sector versions up to 1.23

PySector has been tested on Ubuntu and Debian Linux.

Compiling
=========

PySector uses the standard Python distutils facility for building. To build
PySector follow these steps:

  1. Change into the directory containing PySector. Assuming the PySector
     archive has been expanded into /opt/pysector:

       $ cd /opt/pysector

  2. Open setup.py and update the include_dirs and library_dirs parameters to
     point to the Sector installation directory.
  3. Build PySector:

       $ python setup.py build

  4. Install PySector:

       $ python setup.py install

     Note that this command requires root access. If you do not have root access
     on your system then you can use the --prefix option to install to a
     directory in which you have permissions. For example:

       $ python setup.py install --prefix $HOME/pysector

     If installing to an alternate location, make sure to set your PYTHONPATH to
     include this path.

Using PySector
==============

There's only a couple of simple pre-requisites for using PySector:

  * Set LD_LIBRARY_PATH to point to the Sector libraries. Assuming that Sector
    is installed in /opt/sector:

      $ export LD_LIBRARY_PATH=/opt/sector/lib

  * Import the PySector module. Include the following statement at the top of
    your Python scripts:

       import sector

The following are examples of using PySector from inside the Python interactive
shell. These examples assume that Sector is installed and running, and that
LD_LIBRARY_PATH has been set to include the Sector libraries. Also note that
the certificate path used as an argument to login() is based on Sector 1.23. If
using earlier versions of Sector adjust your path accordingly. 

1. Create a new directory in Sector named 'mydir':

>>> import sector
>>> status = sector.init( 'localhost', 6000 )
>>> status = sector.login( 'test', 'xxx', '/opt/sector/conf/master_node.cert' )
>>> status = sector.mkdir( '/mydir' )
>>> status = sector.logout()
>>> status = sector.closeclient()

2. Remove a path from the Sector file system:

>>> import sector
>>> status = sector.init( 'localhost', 6000 )
>>> status = sector.login( 'test', 'xxx', '/opt/sector/conf/master_node.cert' )
>>> status = sector.remove( '/mydir' )
>>> status = sector.logout()
>>> status = sector.closeclient()

3. Upload a file from the local file system to the Sector file system:

>>> import sector
>>> status = sector.init( 'localhost', 6000 )
>>> status = sector.login( 'test', 'xxx', '/opt/sector/conf/master_node.cert' )
>>> status = sector.upload( '/opt/pysector/SectorModule.cpp', '/SectorModule.cpp' )
open file /SectorModule.cpp 127.0.0.1 32859
>>> status = sector.logout()
>>> status = sector.closeclient()

4. Download a file from Sector to the local file system:

>>> import sector
>>> status = sector.init( 'localhost', 6000 )
>>> status = sector.login( 'test', 'xxx', '/opt/sector/conf/master_node.cert' )
>>> status = sector.download( '/SectorModule.cpp', '/tmp/SectorModule.cpp' )
open file /SectorModule.cpp 127.0.0.1 32859
>>> status = sector.logout()
>>> status = sector.closeclient()

5. Read from a file in the Sector file system:

>>> import sector
>>> status = sector.init( 'localhost', 6000 )
>>> status = sector.login( 'test', 'xxx', '/opt/sector/conf/master_node.cert' )
>>> f = sector.open( '/SectorModule.cpp', 1 )
>>> data = sector.read( f, 4096 )
>>> while data != None:
...     data = sector.read( f, 4096 )
... 
>>> status = sector.close( f )
>>> status = sector.logout()
>>> status = sector.closeclient()