CODING_STYLE - systemd-stable - Rivoreo Source Code Repositories


 - 8ch indent, no tabs

 - Variables and functions *must* be static, unless they have a
   prototype, and are supposed to be exported.

 - structs in MixedCase (with exceptions, such as public API structs),
   variables + functions in lower_case.

 - The destructors always unregister the object from the next bigger
   object, not the other way around

 - To minimize strict aliasing violations, we prefer unions over casting

 - For robustness reasons, destructors should be able to destruct
   half-initialized objects, too

 - Error codes are returned as negative Exxx. i.e. return -EINVAL. There
   are some exceptions: for constructors, it is OK to return NULL on
   OOM. For lookup functions, NULL is fine too for "not found".

   Be strict with this. When you write a function that can fail due to
   more than one cause, it *really* should have "int" as return value
   for the error code.

 - Do not bother with error checking whether writing to stdout/stderr
   worked.

 - Do not log errors from "library" code, only do so from "main
   program" code. (With one exception: it is OK to log with DEBUG level
   from any code, with the exception of maybe inner loops).

 - Always check OOM. There is no excuse. In program code, you can use
   "log_oom()" for then printing a short message, but not in "library" code.

 - Do not issue NSS requests (that includes user name and host name
   lookups) from PID 1 as this might trigger deadlocks when those
   lookups involve synchronously talking to services that we would need
   to start up

 - Do not synchronously talk to any other service from PID 1, due to
   risk of deadlocks

 - Avoid fixed-size string buffers, unless you really know the maximum
   size and that maximum size is small. They are a source of errors,
   since they possibly result in truncated strings. It is often nicer
   to use dynamic memory, alloca() or VLAs. If you do allocate fixed-size
   strings on the stack, then it is probably only OK if you either
   use a maximum size such as LINE_MAX, or count in detail the maximum
   size a string can have. (DECIMAL_STR_MAX and DECIMAL_STR_WIDTH
   macros are your friends for this!)

   Or in other words, if you use "char buf[256]" then you are likely
   doing something wrong!

 - Stay uniform. For example, always use "usec_t" for time
   values. Do not usec mix msec, and usec and whatnot.

 - Make use of _cleanup_free_ and friends. It makes your code much
   nicer to read!

 - Be exceptionally careful when formatting and parsing floating point
   numbers. Their syntax is locale dependent (i.e. "5.000" in en_US is
   generally understood as 5, while on de_DE as 5000.).

 - Try to use this:

       void foo() {
       }

   instead of this:

       void foo()
       {
       }

   But it is OK if you do not.

 - Do not write "foo ()", write "foo()".

 - Please use streq() and strneq() instead of strcmp(), strncmp() where applicable.

 - Please do not allocate variables on the stack in the middle of code,
   even if C99 allows it. Wrong:

   {
           a = 5;
           int b;
           b = a;
   }

   Right:

   {
           int b;
           a = 5;
           b = a;
   }

 - Unless you allocate an array, "double" is always the better choice
   than "float". Processors speak "double" natively anyway, so this is
   no speed benefit, and on calls like printf() "float"s get promoted
   to "double"s anyway, so there is no point.

 - Do not invoke functions when you allocate variables on the stack. Wrong:

   {
           int a = foobar();
           uint64_t x = 7;
   }

   Right:

   {
           int a;
           uint64_t x = 7;

           a = foobar();
   }

 - Use "goto" for cleaning up, and only use it for that. i.e. you may
   only jump to the end of a function, and little else. Never jump
   backwards!

 - Think about the types you use. If a value cannot sensibly be
   negative, do not use "int", but use "unsigned".

 - Do not use types like "short". They *never* make sense. Use ints,
   longs, long longs, all in unsigned+signed fashion, and the fixed
   size types uint32_t and so on, as well as size_t, but nothing else.

 - Public API calls (i.e. functions exported by our shared libraries)
   must be marked "_public_" and need to be prefixed with "sd_". No
   other functions should be prefixed like that.

 - In public API calls, you *must* validate all your input arguments for
   programming error with assert_return() and return a sensible return
   code. In all other calls, it is recommended to check for programming
   errors with a more brutal assert(). We are more forgiving to public
   users then for ourselves! Note that assert() and assert_return()
   really only should be used for detecting programming errors, not for
   runtime errors. assert() and assert_return() by usage of _likely_()
   inform the compiler that he should not expect these checks to fail,
   and they inform fellow programmers about the expected validity and
   range of parameters.

 - Never use strtol(), atoi() and similar calls. Use safe_atoli(),
   safe_atou32() and suchlike instead. They are much nicer to use in
   most cases and correctly check for parsing errors.

 - For every function you add, think about whether it is a "logging"
   function or a "non-logging" function. "Logging" functions do logging
   on their own, "non-logging" function never log on their own and
   expect their callers to log. All functions in "library" code,
   i.e. in src/shared/ and suchlike must be "non-logging". Everytime a
   "logging" function calls a "non-logging" function, it should log
   about the resulting errors. If a "logging" function calls another
   "logging" function, then it should not generate log messages, so
   that log messages are not generated twice for the same errors.

 - Avoid static variables, except for caches and very few other
   cases. Think about thread-safety! While most of our code is never
   used in threaded environments, at least the library code should make
   sure it works correctly in them. Instead of doing a lot of locking
   for that, we tend to prefer using TLS to do per-thread caching (which
   only works for small, fixed-size cache objects), or we disable
   caching for any thread that is not the main thread. Use
   is_main_thread() to detect whether the calling thread is the main
   thread.

 - Option parsing:
   - Do not print full help() on error, be specific about the error.
   - Do not print messages to stdout on error.
   - Do not POSIX_ME_HARDER unless necessary, i.e. avoid "+" in option string.

	- 8ch indent, no tabs

	- Variables and functions must be static, unless they have a
	prototype, and are supposed to be exported.

	- structs in MixedCase (with exceptions, such as public API structs),
	variables + functions in lower_case.

	- The destructors always unregister the object from the next bigger
	object, not the other way around

	- To minimize strict aliasing violations, we prefer unions over casting

	- For robustness reasons, destructors should be able to destruct
	half-initialized objects, too

	- Error codes are returned as negative Exxx. i.e. return -EINVAL. There
	are some exceptions: for constructors, it is OK to return NULL on
	OOM. For lookup functions, NULL is fine too for "not found".

	Be strict with this. When you write a function that can fail due to
	more than one cause, it really should have "int" as return value
	for the error code.

	- Do not bother with error checking whether writing to stdout/stderr
	worked.

	- Do not log errors from "library" code, only do so from "main
	program" code. (With one exception: it is OK to log with DEBUG level
	from any code, with the exception of maybe inner loops).

	- Always check OOM. There is no excuse. In program code, you can use
	"log_oom()" for then printing a short message, but not in "library" code.

	- Do not issue NSS requests (that includes user name and host name
	lookups) from PID 1 as this might trigger deadlocks when those
	lookups involve synchronously talking to services that we would need
	to start up

	- Do not synchronously talk to any other service from PID 1, due to
	risk of deadlocks

	- Avoid fixed-size string buffers, unless you really know the maximum
	size and that maximum size is small. They are a source of errors,
	since they possibly result in truncated strings. It is often nicer
	to use dynamic memory, alloca() or VLAs. If you do allocate fixed-size
	strings on the stack, then it is probably only OK if you either
	use a maximum size such as LINE_MAX, or count in detail the maximum
	size a string can have. (DECIMAL_STR_MAX and DECIMAL_STR_WIDTH
	macros are your friends for this!)

	Or in other words, if you use "char buf[256]" then you are likely
	doing something wrong!

	- Stay uniform. For example, always use "usec_t" for time
	values. Do not usec mix msec, and usec and whatnot.

	- Make use of _cleanup_free_ and friends. It makes your code much
	nicer to read!

	- Be exceptionally careful when formatting and parsing floating point
	numbers. Their syntax is locale dependent (i.e. "5.000" in en_US is
	generally understood as 5, while on de_DE as 5000.).

	- Try to use this:

	void foo() {
	}

	instead of this:

	void foo()
	{
	}

	But it is OK if you do not.

	- Do not write "foo ()", write "foo()".

	- Please use streq() and strneq() instead of strcmp(), strncmp() where applicable.

	- Please do not allocate variables on the stack in the middle of code,
	even if C99 allows it. Wrong:

	{
	a = 5;
	int b;
	b = a;
	}

	Right:

	{
	int b;
	a = 5;
	b = a;
	}

	- Unless you allocate an array, "double" is always the better choice
	than "float". Processors speak "double" natively anyway, so this is
	no speed benefit, and on calls like printf() "float"s get promoted
	to "double"s anyway, so there is no point.

	- Do not invoke functions when you allocate variables on the stack. Wrong:

	{
	int a = foobar();
	uint64_t x = 7;
	}

	Right:

	{
	int a;
	uint64_t x = 7;

	a = foobar();
	}

	- Use "goto" for cleaning up, and only use it for that. i.e. you may
	only jump to the end of a function, and little else. Never jump
	backwards!

	- Think about the types you use. If a value cannot sensibly be
	negative, do not use "int", but use "unsigned".

	- Do not use types like "short". They never make sense. Use ints,
	longs, long longs, all in unsigned+signed fashion, and the fixed
	size types uint32_t and so on, as well as size_t, but nothing else.

	- Public API calls (i.e. functions exported by our shared libraries)
	must be marked "_public_" and need to be prefixed with "sd_". No
	other functions should be prefixed like that.

	- In public API calls, you must validate all your input arguments for
	programming error with assert_return() and return a sensible return
	code. In all other calls, it is recommended to check for programming
	errors with a more brutal assert(). We are more forgiving to public
	users then for ourselves! Note that assert() and assert_return()
	really only should be used for detecting programming errors, not for
	runtime errors. assert() and assert_return() by usage of _likely_()
	inform the compiler that he should not expect these checks to fail,
	and they inform fellow programmers about the expected validity and
	range of parameters.

	- Never use strtol(), atoi() and similar calls. Use safe_atoli(),
	safe_atou32() and suchlike instead. They are much nicer to use in
	most cases and correctly check for parsing errors.

	- For every function you add, think about whether it is a "logging"
	function or a "non-logging" function. "Logging" functions do logging
	on their own, "non-logging" function never log on their own and
	expect their callers to log. All functions in "library" code,
	i.e. in src/shared/ and suchlike must be "non-logging". Everytime a
	"logging" function calls a "non-logging" function, it should log
	about the resulting errors. If a "logging" function calls another
	"logging" function, then it should not generate log messages, so
	that log messages are not generated twice for the same errors.

	- Avoid static variables, except for caches and very few other
	cases. Think about thread-safety! While most of our code is never
	used in threaded environments, at least the library code should make
	sure it works correctly in them. Instead of doing a lot of locking
	for that, we tend to prefer using TLS to do per-thread caching (which
	only works for small, fixed-size cache objects), or we disable
	caching for any thread that is not the main thread. Use
	is_main_thread() to detect whether the calling thread is the main
	thread.

	- Option parsing:
	- Do not print full help() on error, be specific about the error.
	- Do not print messages to stdout on error.
	- Do not POSIX_ME_HARDER unless necessary, i.e. avoid "+" in option string.