update user record

README.md

@@ -35,66 +35,28 @@ ID/s.
 id(1) works as follows:
 - lookup user by name.
 - get all additional gids (an array attached to a member).
-- for each additional gid, return the group name.
+- for each additional gid, get the group name.
 
 Assuming a member is in ~100 groups on average, that's 1M group lookups per
-second. We need to convert gid to a group index quickly.
+second (cmph can do 1M in <200ms). We need to convert gid to a group index
+quickly.
 
-Data structures
----------------
-
-Basic data structures that allow efficient storage:
-
-```lang=c
-// reminder:
-typedef uid_t uint32;
-typedef gid_t uint32;
-
-// 6*32b = 6*4B = 24B/user
-typedef struct {
-  uid_t uid;
-  gid_t gid;
-  name_offset uint32; // offset into *usernames
-  gecos_offset uint32; // offset into *gecos
-  shell_offset uint32; // offset into *shells
-  additional_groups_offset uint32; // offset into additional_groups
-} user;
-
-const char* usernames; // all concatenated usernames, fsst-compressed
-const char* gecoss; // all concatenated gecos, fsst-compressed
-const char* shells; // all concatenated home directories, fsst-compressed
-const uint8_t additional_groups; // all additional_groups, turbo compressed
-
-typedef struct {
-  gid_t gid;
-  name_offset uint32; // offset into *groupnames
-  members_offset uint32; // offset into members
-}
-
-const char* groupnames; // all concatenated group names, fsst-compressed
-const uint8_8 members; // all concatenated members, turbo compressed
-```
-
-"turbo compression" encodes a list of uids/gids with this algorithm:
-1. sort ascending.
-2. extract deltas and subtract 1: `awk '{diff=$0-prev; prev=$0; print
-   diff-1}'`.
-3. varint-encode these deltas into an uint32, like protobuf or utf8.
-
-With typical group memberships (as of writing) this requires ~1.3-1.5 byte per
-entry.
-
-Indexes
--------
+API
+---
 
 The following operations need to be fast, in order of importance:
 
-1. lookup gid -> group (this is on hot path in id).
+1. lookup gid -> group (this is on hot path in id) with or without members (2
+   separate calls).
 2. lookup uid -> user.
 3. lookup groupname -> group.
 4. lookup username -> user.
-5. (optional) iterate users using a defined order (`getent passwd`).
-6. (optional) iterate groups using a defined order (`getent group`).
+5. lookup uid -> list of gids.
+6. (optional) iterate users using a defined order (`getent passwd`).
+7. (optional) iterate groups using a defined order (`getent group`).
+
+Indexes
+-------
 
 Preliminary results of playing with [cmph][cmph]:
 
@@ -104,34 +66,31 @@ BDZ: tried b=3, b=7 (default), and b=10.
 * Latency for 1M keys: (170ms, 180ms, 230ms).
 * Packed vs non-packed latency differences are not meaningful.
 
-CHM retains order, however, 1M keys weigh 8MB. 10k keys are ~20x larger with
+CHM retains order, however, 0M keys weigh 8MB. 10k keys are ~20x larger with
 CHM than with BDZ, eliminating the benefit of preserved ordering.
 
 Full file structure
 -------------------
 
-The file structure stars with the metadata field. All indexes are number of
-bytes, relative to the beginning of the file.
+The file structure stars with magic and version number, followed by a list of
+User, Group records and their indices. All indices are number of bytes,
+relative to the beginning of the file.
 
 ```
-const Offsets = struct {
-   magic: [4]u32,
-   version: u32,
-
-   num_users, size_num_users: u32,
-   num_groups, size_num_groups: u32,
-   cmph_gid2group: u32,
-   size_cmph_gid2group: u32,
-   cmph_uid2user, size_cmph_uid2user: u32,
-   cmph_groupname2group, size_cmph_groupname2group: u32,
-   cmph_username2user, size_cmph_username2user: u32,
-   structs_group, size_structs_group: u32,
-   structs_user, size_structs_user: u32,
-   fsst_usernames_homes, size_fsst_usernames_homes: u32,
-   fsst_groupnames, size_fsst_usernames_homes: u32,
-   fsst_shells, size_fsst_shells: u32,
+// /home/motiejusMotiejus.Jakstys is 16+30=46b for "my" record.
+const User = struct {
+    uid: u32,
+    gid: u32,
+    additional_gids_offset: u29,
+    shell_here: u1, // whether it's stored "here" or in another place. Docs TBD
+    shell_len: u6,
+    home_len: u6,
+    username_len: u6,
+    gecos_len: u8,
+    // a variable-sized array that will be stored immediately after this
+    // struct.
+    stringdata []u8;
 }
-```
 
 `magic` must be 0xf09fa4b7, and `version` must be `0x00`. The remaining fields
 are indexes to further sections of the file with their sizes in bytes. All