[Caml-list] Opaque pointers with camlidl

[Michael Tucker <mtucker@eecs.harvard.edu>]

Hi,

  I am trying to write an O'Caml program that interfaces with Berkeley DB
(which has a C interface). Some of the calls include arguments that are
pointers to opaque structures -- that is, I pass a pointer, the server
goes to the address, fills it, but then my only use of it is to pass it
back to the server. In other words, I will not be examining or altering
the contents, just holding it to preserve state. Some of these structures
are fairly complex, and may require a lot of code-schlepping to get into
IDL format, so it would be great if I could signify that there is a truly
opaque (I don't care about its layout, I just know the size) structure
coming into O'Caml. I looked in the camlidl manual, but didn't see any
attributes that looked relevant. I would like the data to be transferred
and stored in OCaml, but I am fine with it being stored as raw data (a
string?). Is there anything like this that will let me effectively pickle
and unpickle structures without supplying any information beyond their
size?

I'm sure I'm fouling up my explanation, so feel free to send questions...
I am just hoping that someone has run into a similar situation in the
past!

Thanks,
Mike

-------------------
To unsubscribe, mail caml-list-request@inria.fr Archives: http://caml.inria.fr
Bug reports: http://caml.inria.fr/bin/caml-bugs FAQ: http://caml.inria.fr/FAQ/
Beginner's list: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ocaml_beginners