libvirt/docs/hacking.html.in

<html>
  <body>
    <h1>Contributor guidelines</h1>

    <ul id="toc"></ul>

    <h2><a name="patches">General tips for contributing patches</a></h2>

    <ol>
      <li>Discuss any large changes on the mailing list first.  Post patches
        early and listen to feedback.</li>

      <li><p>Post patches in unified diff format.  A command similar to this
        should work:</p>
        <pre>
  diff -urp libvirt.orig/ libvirt.modified/ &gt; libvirt-myfeature.patch</pre>
        <p>
          or:
        </p>
        <pre>
  git diff > libvirt-myfeature.patch</pre>
      </li>
      <li>Split large changes into a series of smaller patches, self-contained
        if possible, with an explanation of each patch and an explanation of how
        the sequence of patches fits together.</li>
      <li>Make sure your patches apply against libvirt GIT.  Developers
        only follow GIT and don't care much about released versions.</li>
      <li><p>Run the automated tests on your code before submitting any changes.
          In particular, configure with compile warnings set to -Werror:</p>
        <pre>
  ./configure --enable-compile-warnings=error</pre>
        <p>
          and run the tests:
        </p>
        <pre>
  make check
  make syntax-check
  make -C tests valgrind</pre>
        <p>
          The latter test checks for memory leaks.
        </p>

	<p>
	  If you encounter any failing tests, the VIR_TEST_DEBUG
	  environment variable may provide extra information to debug
	  the failures. Larger values of VIR_TEST_DEBUG may provide
	  larger amounts of information:
	</p>

	<pre>
  VIR_TEST_DEBUG=1 make check    (or)
  VIR_TEST_DEBUG=2 make check</pre>
	<p>
	  Also, individual tests can be run from inside the 'tests/'
	  directory, like:
	</p>
	<pre>
  ./qemuxml2xmltest</pre>

      </li>
      <li>Update tests and/or documentation, particularly if you are adding
        a new feature or changing the output of a program.</li>
    </ol>

    <p>
      There is more on this subject, including lots of links to background
      reading on the subject, on
      <a href="http://et.redhat.com/~rjones/how-to-supply-code-to-open-source-projects/">
        Richard Jones' guide to working with open source projects</a>
    </p>


    <h2><a name="indent">Code indentation</a></h2>
    <p>
      Libvirt's C source code generally adheres to some basic code-formatting
      conventions.  The existing code base is not totally consistent on this
      front, but we do prefer that contributed code be formatted similarly.
      In short, use spaces-not-TABs for indentation, use 4 spaces for each
      indentation level, and other than that, follow the K&amp;R style.
    </p>
    <p>
      If you use Emacs, add the following to one of one of your start-up files
      (e.g., ~/.emacs), to help ensure that you get indentation right:
    </p>
    <pre>
  ;;; When editing C sources in libvirt, use this style.
  (defun libvirt-c-mode ()
    "C mode with adjusted defaults for use with libvirt."
    (interactive)
    (c-set-style "K&amp;R")
    (setq indent-tabs-mode nil) ; indent using spaces, not TABs
    (setq c-indent-level 4)
    (setq c-basic-offset 4))
  (add-hook 'c-mode-hook
            '(lambda () (if (string-match "/libvirt" (buffer-file-name))
                            (libvirt-c-mode))))
</pre>

    <h2><a name="formatting">Code formatting (especially for new code)</a></h2>

    <p>
      With new code, we can be even more strict.
      Please apply the following function (using GNU indent) to any new code.
      Note that this also gives you an idea of the type of spacing we prefer
      around operators and keywords:
    </p>

    <pre>
  indent-libvirt()
  {
    indent -bad -bap -bbb -bli4 -br -ce -brs -cs -i4 -l75 -lc75 \
      -sbi4 -psl -saf -sai -saw -sbi4 -ss -sc -cdw -cli4 -npcs -nbc \
      --no-tabs "$@"
  }
</pre>

    <p>
      Note that sometimes you'll have to post-process that output further, by
      piping it through "expand -i", since some leading TABs can get through.
      Usually they're in macro definitions or strings, and should be converted
      anyhow.
    </p>


    <h2><a name="curly_braces">Curly braces</a></h2>

    <p>
      Omit the curly braces around an "if", "while", "for" etc. body only
      when that body occupies a single line.  In every other case we require
      the braces.  This ensures that it is trivially easy to identify a
      single-*statement* loop: each has only one *line* in its body.
    </p>
    <p>
      Omitting braces with a single-line body is fine:
    </p>

    <pre>
  while (expr) // one-line body -> omitting curly braces is ok
      single_line_stmt ();</pre>

    <p>
      However, the moment your loop/if/else body extends onto a second
      line, for whatever reason (even if it's just an added comment), then
      you should add braces.  Otherwise, it would be too easy to insert a
      statement just before that comment (without adding braces), thinking
      it is already a multi-statement loop:
    </p>

    <pre>
  while (true) // BAD! multi-line body with no braces
      /* comment... */
      single_line_stmt ();</pre>
    <p>
      Do this instead:
    </p>
    <pre>
  while (true) { // Always put braces around a multi-line body.
      /* comment... */
      single_line_stmt ();
  }</pre>
    <p>
      There is one exception: when the second body line is not at the same
      indentation level as the first body line:
    </p>
    <pre>
  if (expr)
      die ("a diagnostic that would make this line"
           " extend past the 80-column limit"));</pre>

    <p>
      It is safe to omit the braces in the code above, since the
      further-indented second body line makes it obvious that this is still
      a single-statement body.
    </p>

    <p>
      To reiterate, don't do this:
    </p>

    <pre>
  if (expr)            // BAD: no braces around...
      while (expr_2) { // ... a multi-line body
          ...
      }</pre>

    <p>
      Do this, instead:
    </p>

    <pre>
  if (expr) {
      while (expr_2) {
          ...
      }
  }</pre>

    <p>
      However, there is one exception in the other direction, when even a
      one-line block should have braces.  That occurs when that one-line,
      brace-less block is an "else" block, and the corresponding "then" block
      *does* use braces.  In that case, either put braces around the "else"
      block, or negate the "if"-condition and swap the bodies, putting the
      one-line block first and making the longer, multi-line block be the
      "else" block.
    </p>

    <pre>
  if (expr) {
      ...
      ...
  }
  else
      x = y;    // BAD: braceless "else" with braced "then"</pre>

    <p>
      This is preferred, especially when the multi-line body is more than a
      few lines long, because it is easier to read and grasp the semantics of
      an if-then-else block when the simpler block occurs first, rather than
      after the more involved block:
    </p>

    <pre>
  if (!expr)
    x = y; // putting the smaller block first is more readable
  else {
      ...
      ...
  }</pre>

    <p>
      If you'd rather not negate the condition, then at least add braces:
    </p>

    <pre>
  if (expr) {
      ...
      ...
  } else {
      x = y;
  }</pre>

    <h2><a href="types">Preprocessor</a></h2>

    <p>
      For variadic macros, stick with C99 syntax:
    </p>
  <pre>
  #define vshPrint(_ctl, ...) fprintf(stdout, __VA_ARGS__)
  </pre>

    <p>Use parenthesis when checking if a macro is defined, and use
    indentation to track nesting:
    </p>
  <pre>
  #if defined(HAVE_POSIX_FALLOCATE) &amp;&amp; !defined(HAVE_FALLOCATE)
  # define fallocate(a,ignored,b,c) posix_fallocate(a,b,c)
  #endif
  </pre>

    <h2><a href="types">C types</a></h2>

    <p>
      Use the right type.
    </p>

    <h3>Scalars</h3>

    <ul>
      <li>If you're using "int" or "long", odds are good that there's a better type.</li>
      <li>If a variable is counting something, be sure to declare it with an
        unsigned type.</li>
      <li>If it's memory-size-related, use size_t (use ssize_t only if required).</li>
      <li>If it's file-size related, use uintmax_t, or maybe off_t.</li>
      <li>If it's file-offset related (i.e., signed), use off_t.</li>
      <li>If it's just counting small numbers use "unsigned int";
        (on all but oddball embedded systems, you can assume that that
        type is at least four bytes wide).</li>
      <li>If a variable has boolean semantics, give it the "bool" type
        and use the corresponding "true" and "false" macros.  It's ok
        to include &lt;stdbool.h&gt;, since libvirt's use of gnulib ensures
          that it exists and is usable.</li>
      <li>In the unusual event that you require a specific width, use a
        standard type like int32_t, uint32_t, uint64_t, etc.</li>
      <li>While using "bool" is good for readability, it comes with minor caveats:
        <ul>
          <li>Don't use "bool" in places where the type size must be constant across
            all systems, like public interfaces and on-the-wire protocols.  Note
            that it would be possible (albeit wasteful) to use "bool" in libvirt's
            logical wire protocol, since XDR maps that to its lower-level bool_t
            type, which *is* fixed-size.</li>
          <li>Don't compare a bool variable against the literal, "true",
            since a value with a logical non-false value need not be "1".
            I.e., don't write "if (seen == true) ...".  Rather, write "if (seen)...".</li>
        </ul>
      </li>
    </ul>

    <p>
      Of course, take all of the above with a grain of salt.  If you're about
      to use some system interface that requires a type like size_t, pid_t or
      off_t, use matching types for any corresponding variables.
    </p>

    <p>
      Also, if you try to use e.g., "unsigned int" as a type, and that
      conflicts with the signedness of a related variable, sometimes
      it's best just to use the *wrong* type, if "pulling the thread"
      and fixing all related variables would be too invasive.
    </p>

    <p>
      Finally, while using descriptive types is important, be careful not to
      go overboard.  If whatever you're doing causes warnings, or requires
      casts, then reconsider or ask for help.
    </p>

    <h3>Pointers</h3>

    <p>
      Ensure that all of your pointers are "const-correct".
      Unless a pointer is used to modify the pointed-to storage,
      give it the "const" attribute.  That way, the reader knows
      up-front that this is a read-only pointer.  Perhaps more
      importantly, if we're diligent about this, when you see a non-const
      pointer, you're guaranteed that it is used to modify the storage
      it points to, or it is aliased to another pointer that is.
    </p>

    <h2><a name="memalloc">Low level memory management</a></h2>

    <p>
      Use of the malloc/free/realloc/calloc APIs is deprecated in the libvirt
      codebase, because they encourage a number of serious coding bugs and do
      not enable compile time verification of checks for NULL. Instead of these
      routines, use the macros from memory.h
    </p>

    <ul>
      <li><p>eg to allocate  a single object:</p>

<pre>
      virDomainPtr domain;

      if (VIR_ALLOC(domain) &lt; 0) {
          virReportOOMError();
          return NULL;
      }
</pre></li>

      <li><p>eg to allocate an array of objects</p>

<pre>
       virDomainPtr domains;
       int ndomains = 10;

       if (VIR_ALLOC_N(domains, ndomains) &lt; 0) {
           virReportOOMError();
           return NULL;
       }
</pre></li>

      <li><p>eg to allocate an array of object pointers</p>

<pre>
       virDomainPtr *domains;
       int ndomains = 10;

       if (VIR_ALLOC_N(domains, ndomains) &lt; 0) {
           virReportOOMError();
           return NULL;
       }
</pre></li>

      <li><p>eg to re-allocate the array of domains to be longer</p>

<pre>
       ndomains = 20

       if (VIR_REALLOC_N(domains, ndomains) &lt; 0) {
           virReportOOMError();
           return NULL;
       }
</pre></li>

      <li><p>eg to free the domain</p>

<pre>
       VIR_FREE(domain);
</pre></li>
    </ul>

    <h2><a name="file_handling">File handling</a></h2>

    <p>
      Use of the close() API is deprecated in libvirt code base to help
      avoiding double-closing of a file descriptor. Instead of this API,
      use the macro from files.h
    </p>

    <ul>
      <li><p>eg close a file descriptor</p>

<pre>
       if (VIR_CLOSE(fd) &lt; 0) {
           virReportSystemError(errno, _("failed to close file"));
       }
</pre></li>

      <li><p>eg close a file descriptor in an error path, without losing
             the previous errno value</p>

<pre>
       VIR_FORCE_CLOSE(fd);
</pre></li>
    </ul>

    <h2><a name="string_comparision">String comparisons</a></h2>

    <p>
      Do not use the strcmp, strncmp, etc functions directly. Instead use
      one of the following semantically named macros
    </p>

    <ul>
      <li><p>For strict equality:</p>
        <pre>
     STREQ(a,b)
     STRNEQ(a,b)
</pre>
      </li>

      <li><p>For case insensitive equality:</p>
        <pre>
     STRCASEEQ(a,b)
     STRCASENEQ(a,b)
</pre>
      </li>

      <li><p>For strict equality of a substring:</p>

        <pre>
     STREQLEN(a,b,n)
     STRNEQLEN(a,b,n)
</pre>
      </li>

      <li><p>For case insensitive equality of a substring:</p>

        <pre>
     STRCASEEQLEN(a,b,n)
     STRCASENEQLEN(a,b,n)
</pre>
      </li>

      <li><p>For strict equality of a prefix:</p>

        <pre>
     STRPREFIX(a,b)
</pre>
      </li>
    </ul>


    <h2><a name="string_copying">String copying</a></h2>

    <p>
      Do not use the strncpy function.  According to the man page, it
      does <b>not</b> guarantee a NULL-terminated buffer, which makes
      it extremely dangerous to use.  Instead, use one of the
      functionally equivalent functions:
    </p>
    <pre>virStrncpy(char *dest, const char *src, size_t n, size_t destbytes)</pre>
    <p>
      The first three arguments have the same meaning as for strncpy;
      namely the destination, source, and number of bytes to copy,
      respectively.  The last argument is the number of bytes
      available in the destination string; if a copy of the source
      string (including a \0) will not fit into the destination, no
      bytes are copied and the routine returns NULL.  Otherwise, n
      bytes from the source are copied into the destination and a
      trailing \0 is appended.
    </p>

    <pre>virStrcpy(char *dest, const char *src, size_t destbytes)</pre>

    <p>
      Use this variant if you know you want to copy the entire src
      string into dest.  Note that this is a macro, so arguments could
      be evaluated more than once.  This is equivalent to
      virStrncpy(dest, src, strlen(src), destbytes)
      </p>

    <pre>virStrcpyStatic(char *dest, const char *src)</pre>

    <p>
      Use this variant if you know you want to copy the entire src
      string into dest *and* you know that your destination string is
      a static string (i.e. that sizeof(dest) returns something
      meaningful).  Note that this is a macro, so arguments could be
      evaluated more than once.  This is equivalent to
      virStrncpy(dest, src, strlen(src), sizeof(dest)).
    </p>

    <h2><a name="strbuf">Variable length string buffer</a></h2>

    <p>
      If there is a need for complex string concatenations, avoid using
      the usual sequence of malloc/strcpy/strcat/snprintf functions and
      make use of the virBuffer API described in buf.h
    </p>

    <p>eg typical usage is as follows:</p>

    <pre>
  char *
  somefunction(...) {
     virBuffer buf = VIR_BUFFER_INITIALIZER;

     ...

     virBufferAddLit(&amp;buf, "&lt;domain&gt;\n");
     virBufferVSprint(&amp;buf, "  &lt;memory&gt;%d&lt;/memory&gt;\n", memory);
     ...
     virBufferAddLit(&amp;buf, "&lt;/domain&gt;\n");

     ...

     if (virBufferError(&amp;buf)) {
         virBufferFreeAndReset(&amp;buf);
         virReportOOMError();
         return NULL;
     }

     return virBufferContentAndReset(&amp;buf);
  }
</pre>


    <h2><a name="includes">Include files</a></h2>

    <p>
      There are now quite a large number of include files, both libvirt
      internal and external, and system includes.  To manage all this
      complexity it's best to stick to the following general plan for all
      *.c source files:
    </p>

    <pre>
  /*
   * Copyright notice
   * ....
   * ....
   * ....
   *
   */

  #include &lt;config.h&gt;             Must come first in every file.

  #include &lt;stdio.h&gt;              Any system includes you need.
  #include &lt;string.h&gt;
  #include &lt;limits.h&gt;

  #if HAVE_NUMACTL                Some system includes aren't supported
  # include &lt;numa.h&gt;               everywhere so need these #if guards.
  #endif

  #include "internal.h"           Include this first, after system includes.

  #include "util.h"               Any libvirt internal header files.
  #include "buf.h"

  static myInternalFunc ()        The actual code.
  {
    ...
</pre>

    <p>
      Of particular note: *DO NOT* include libvirt/libvirt.h or
      libvirt/virterror.h.  It is included by "internal.h" already and there
      are some special reasons why you cannot include these files
      explicitly.
    </p>


    <h2><a name="printf">Printf-style functions</a></h2>

    <p>
      Whenever you add a new printf-style function, i.e., one with a format
      string argument and following "..." in its prototype, be sure to use
      gcc's printf attribute directive in the prototype.  For example, here's
      the one for virAsprintf, in util.h:
    </p>

    <pre>
    int virAsprintf(char **strp, const char *fmt, ...)
        ATTRIBUTE_FORMAT(printf, 2, 3);
</pre>

    <p>
      This makes it so gcc's -Wformat and -Wformat-security options can do
      their jobs and cross-check format strings with the number and types
      of arguments.
    </p>

    <h2><a name="goto">Use of goto</a></h2>

    <p>
      The use of goto is not forbidden, and goto is widely used
      throughout libvirt.  While the uncontrolled use of goto will
      quickly lead to unmaintainable code, there is a place for it in
      well structured code where its use increases readability and
      maintainability.  In general, if goto is used for error
      recovery, it's likely to be ok, otherwise, be cautious or avoid
      it all together.
    </p>

    <p>
      The typical use of goto is to jump to cleanup code in the case
      of a long list of actions, any of which may fail and cause the
      entire operation to fail.  In this case, a function will have a
      single label at the end of the function.  It's almost always ok
      to use this style.  In particular, if the cleanup code only
      involves free'ing memory, then having multiple labels is
      overkill.  VIR_FREE() and every function named XXXFree() in
      libvirt is required to handle NULL as its arg.  Thus you can
      safely call free on all the variables even if they were not yet
      allocated (yes they have to have been initialized to NULL).
      This is much simpler and clearer than having multiple labels.
    </p>

    <p>
      There are a couple of signs that a particular use of goto is not
      ok:
    </p>

    <ul>
      <li>You're using multiple labels.  If you find yourself using
      multiple labels, you're strongly encouraged to rework your code
      to eliminate all but one of them.</li>
      <li>The goto jumps back up to a point above the current line of
      code being executed.  Please use some combination of looping
      constructs to re-execute code instead; it's almost certainly
      going to be more understandable by others.  One well-known
      exception to this rule is restarting an i/o operation following
      EINTR.</li>
      <li>The goto jumps down to an arbitrary place in the middle of a
      function followed by further potentially failing calls.  You
      should almost certainly be using a conditional and a block
      instead of a goto.  Perhaps some of your function's logic would
      be better pulled out into a helper function.</li>
    </ul>

    <p>
      Although libvirt does not encourage the Linux kernel wind/unwind
      style of multiple labels, there's a good general discussion of
      the issue archived at
      <a href=http://kerneltrap.org/node/553/2131>KernelTrap</a>
    </p>

    <p>
      When using goto, please use one of these standard labels if it
      makes sense:
    </p>

    <pre>
      error: A path only taken upon return with an error code
    cleanup: A path taken upon return with success code + optional error
  no_memory: A path only taken upon return with an OOM error code
      retry: If needing to jump upwards (eg retry on EINTR)</pre>


    <h2><a name="committers">Libvirt committer guidelines</a></h2>

    <p>
      The AUTHORS files indicates the list of people with commit access right
      who can actually merge the patches.
    </p>

    <p>
      The general rule for committing a patch is to make sure
      it has been reviewed
      properly in the mailing-list first, usually if a couple of people gave an
      ACK or +1 to a patch and nobody raised an objection on the list it should
      be good to go. If the patch touches a part of the code where you're not
      the main maintainer, or where you do not have a very clear idea of
      how things work, it's better
      to wait for a more authoritative feedback though. Before committing, please
      also rebuild locally, run 'make check syntax-check', and make sure you
      don't raise errors. Try to look for warnings too; for example,
      configure with
    </p>
<pre>
      --enable-compile-warnings=error
</pre>
    <p>
      which adds -Werror to compile flags, so no warnings get missed
    </p>

    <p>
      An exception to 'review and approval on the list first' is fixing failures
      to build:
    </p>
    <ul>
      <li>if a recently committed patch breaks compilation on a platform
        or for a given driver, then it's fine to commit a minimal fix
        directly without getting the review feedback first</li>
      <li>if make check or make syntax-check breaks, if there is
        an obvious fix, it's fine to commit immediately.
        The patch should still be sent to the list (or tell what the fix was if
        trivial), and 'make check syntax-check' should pass too, before committing
        anything</li>
      <li>
        fixes for documentation and code comments can be managed
        in the same way, but still make sure they get reviewed if non-trivial.
      </li>
    </ul>
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