5/ZDCF

ZeroMQ Device Configuration File

Status: retired
Editor: Pieter Hintjens ph@imatix.com

The ZeroMQ Device Configuration File (ZDCF) specifies a standard language for configuring 0MQ devices. It provides information to configure a 0MQ context, and a set of 0MQ sockets. This specification aims to make it easier to build, share, and reuse 0MQ devices and build systems for device administration.

License

This Specification is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by the Free Software Foundation; either version 3 of the License, or (at your option) any later version.

This Specification is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the GNU General Public License for more details.

You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License along with this program; if not, see http://www.gnu.org/licenses.

Change Process

This Specification is a free and open standard (see “Definition of a Free and Open Standard") and is governed by the Digital Standards Organization’s Consensus-Oriented Specification System (COSS) (see “Consensus Oriented Specification System").

Language

The key words “MUST”, “MUST NOT”, “REQUIRED”, “SHALL”, “SHALL NOT”, “SHOULD”, “SHOULD NOT”, “RECOMMENDED”, “MAY”, and “OPTIONAL” in this document are to be interpreted as described in RFC 2119 (see “Key words for use in RFCs to Indicate Requirement Levels").

Goals

ZDCF aims to:

Provide a standard reusable semantic for device configuration.
Allow compatible expression in any tree-structured syntax.
Be as widely accessible as possible for different programming languages.
Cover all 0MQ context and socket configuration options.

Architecture

ZDCF uses tree-structured semantics that can be implemented using arbitrary syntaxes such as ZPL (see “ZFL Property Language"), JSON (see “Introducing JSON"), XML, or others. A ZDCF file contains an optional context object and zero or more device objects. Conceptually, one ZDCF file maps to one process, consisting of a single context and zero or more device threads.

Here is a typical example of a ZDCF file expressed in JSON:

{
    "context": {
        "iothreads": 1,
        "verbose": true
    },
    "main" : {
        "type": "zmq_queue",
        "frontend": {
            "type": "SUB",
            "option": {
                "hwm": 1000,
                "swap": 25000000
            },
            "bind": "tcp://eth0:5555"
        },
        "backend": {
            "bind": "tcp://eth0:5556"
        }
    }
}

Here is the same property tree expressed in ZPL (see “ZFL Property Language"):

context
    iothreads = 1
    verbose = 1

main
    type = zmq_queue
    frontend
        type = SUB
        option
            hwm = 1000
            swap = 25000000
        bind = tcp://eth0:5555
    backend
        bind = tcp://eth0:5556

And in simple XML:

<zdcf>
    <context iothreads = "1" verbose = "1" />
    <main type = "zmq_queue">
        <frontend type = "SUB">
            <option hwm = "1000" swap = "25000000" />
            <bind>tcp://eth0:5555</bind>
        </frontend>
        <backend>
            <bind>tcp://eth0:5556</bind>
        </backend>
    </main>
</zdcf>

A ZDCF tree can be empty; this is a valid JSON-specified file:

{
}

The Context Object

The context object is optional and has these properties:

Its name is “context”.
“iothreads” - (integer) - specifies the number of I/O threads for the context. Defaults to 1 if not specified.
“verbose” - (Boolean) - if “true”, the program parsing the JSON should output tracing information. Defaults to “false” if not specified.

The Device Object

Device objects can occur zero or more times and have these properties:

The name is any value except “context”.
“type” - (string) - specifies the device type. Types starting with “z” are reserved for built-in 0MQ devices. Other device types may be defined by the application as needed.
Zero or more socket objects.

The built-in device types that exist at time of writing are:

“zmq_queue” - ZMQ_QUEUE
“zmq_forwarder” - ZMQ_FORWARDER
“zmq_streamer” - ZMQ_STREAMER

See zmq_device(3) for details.

The Socket Object

Socket objects can occur zero or more times within a device object, and have these properties:

The name is any value except “type”.
“type” - (string) - specifies the type of the socket.
“bind” - (string) - specifies zero or more endpoints to bind the socket to.
“connect” - (string) - specifies zero or more endpoints to connect the socket to.
“option” - (object) - specifies configuration of the socket.

The socket types that exist at time of writing are:

“sub” - ZMQ_SUB
“pub” - ZMQ_PUB
“req” - ZMQ_REQ
“rep” - ZMQ_REP
“xreq” - ZMQ_XREQ
“xrep” - ZMQ_XREP
“push” - ZMQ_PUSH
“pull” - ZMQ_PULL
“pair” - ZMQ_PAIR

See zmq_socket(3) for details.

The Option Object

An option object is optional inside a socket object. It has these properties:

Its name is “option”.
“hwm” - (integer) - specifies the ZMQ_HWM option.
“swap” - (integer) - specifies the ZMQ_SWAP option.
“affinity” - (integer) - specifies the ZMQ_AFFINITY option.
“identity” - (string) - specifies the ZMQ_IDENTITY option.
“subscribe” - (string) - specifies the ZMQ_SUBSCRIBE option.
“rate” - (integer) - specifies the ZMQ_RATE option.
“recovery_ivl” - (integer) - specifies the ZMQ_RECOVERY_IVL option.
“mcast_loop” - (Boolean) - specifies the ZMQ_MCAST_LOOP option.
“sndbuf” - (integer) - specifies the ZMQ_SNDBUF option.
“rcvbuf” - (integer) - specifies the ZMQ_RCVBUF option.

See zmq_setsockopt(3) for details.

Value Arrays

Properties may be specified as value arrays where it makes sense and at least for:

The socket “bind” property.
The socket “connect” property.
The option “subscribe” property.

For example:

    "frontend": {
        "option": {
            "subscribe": [ "10001", "10002" ]
        },
        "bind": [ "tcp://eth0:5555", "inproc://device" ]
    }