Guidelines for Contributing

===========================

Coding Standard

---------------

Coding standards are generally GNOME coding standards, with these exceptions:

    a) 4 space tabs  (_not_ 8-space tabs)

    b) REAL tabs (_not_ a mix of tabs and spaces in the initial indent)

    c) spaces used to align continuation lines past the indent point of the

       first statement line, like so:

		if (   some_really_really_long_variable_name

		    && another_really_really_long_variable_name) {

			...

		}

* Keep a space between the function name and the opening '('.

    GOOD: g_strdup (x)

    BAD:  g_strdup(x)

* C-style comments

    GOOD: f(x);  /* comment */

    BAD:  f(x);  // comment

* Keep assignments in the variable declaration area pretty short.

    GOOD: MyObject *object;

    BAD: MyObject *object = complex_and_long_init_function(arg1, arg2, arg3);

* 80-cols is a guideline, don't make the code uncomfortable in order to fit in

  less than 80 cols.

* Constants are CAPS_WITH_UNDERSCORES and use the preprocessor.

    GOOD: #define MY_CONSTANT 42

    BAD:  static const unsigned myConstant = 42;

Legal

-----

NetworkManager is partly licensed under terms of GNU Lesser General Public License

version 2 or later (LGPL-2.1+). That is for example the case for libnm.

For historical reasons, the daemon itself is licensed under terms of GNU General

Public License, version 2 or later (GPL-2.0+). See the license comment in the source

files.

Note that all new contributions to NetworkManager MUST be made under terms of

LGPL-2.1+, that is also the case for parts that are currently licensed GPL-2.0+.

The reason for that is that we might eventually relicense everything as LGPL and

new contributions already must agree with that future change.

Assertions in NetworkManager code

---------------------------------

There are different kind of assertions. Use the one that is appropriate.

1) g_return_*() from glib. This is usually enabled in release builds and

  can be disabled with G_DISABLE_CHECKS define. This uses g_log() with

  G_LOG_LEVEL_CRITICAL level (which allows the program to continue,

  unless G_DEBUG=fatal-criticals or G_DEBUG=fatal-warnings is set). As such,

  this is usually the preferred way for assertions that are supposed to be

  enabled by default.

  Optimally, after a g_return_*() failure the program can still continue. This is

  also the reason why g_return_*() is preferable over g_assert().

  For example, that is often not given for functions that return a GError, because

  g_return_*() will return failure without setting the error output. That often leads

  to a crash immidiately after, because the caller requires the GError to be set.

  Make a reasonable effort so that an assertion failure may allow the process

  to proceed. But don't put too much effort in it. After all, it's an assertion

  failure that is not supposed to happen either way.

2) nm_assert() from NetworkManager. This is disabled by default in release

  builds, but enabled if you build --with-more-assertions. See "WITH_MORE_ASSERTS"

  define. This is preferred for assertions that are expensive to check or

  nor necessary to check frequently. It's also for conditions that can easily

  verified to be true and where future refactoring is unlikley to break that

  condition.

  Use this deliberately and assume it is removed from production builds.

3) g_assert() from glib. This is used in unit tests and commonly enabled

  in release builds. It can be disabled with G_DISABLE_ASSERT assert

  define. Since this results in a hard crash on assertion failure, you

  should almost always prefer g_return_*() over this (except in unit tests).

4) assert() from <assert.h>. It is usually enabled in release builds and

  can be disabled with NDEBUG define. Don't use it in NetworkManager,

  it's basically like g_assert().

5) g_log() from glib. These are always compiled in, depending on the logging level

  these are assertions too. G_LOG_LEVEL_ERROR aborts the program, G_LOG_LEVEL_CRITICAL

  logs a critical warning (like g_return_*(), see G_DEBUG=fatal-criticals)

  and G_LOG_LEVEL_WARNING logs a warning (see G_DEBUG=fatal-warnings).

  G_LOG_LEVEL_DEBUG level is usually not printed, unless G_MESSAGES_DEBUG environment

  is set.

  In general, avoid using g_log() in NetworkManager. We have nm-logging instead

  which logs to syslog/systemd-journald.

  From a library like libnm it might make sense to log warnings (if someting

  is really wrong) or debug messages. But better don't. If it's important,

  find a way to report the notification via the API to the caller. If it's

  not important, keep silent.

  In particular, don't use levels G_LOG_LEVEL_CRITICAL and G_LOG_LEVEL_WARNING because

  these are effectively assertions and we want to run with G_DEBUG=fatal-warnings.

6) g_warn_if_*() from glib. These are always compiled in and log a G_LOG_LEVEL_WARNING

  warning. Don't use this.

7) G_TYPE_CHECK_INSTANCE_CAST() from glib. Unless building with "WITH_MORE_ASSERTS",

  we set G_DISABLE_CAST_CHECKS. This means, cast macros like NM_DEVICE(ptr)

  translate to plain C pointer casts. Use such cast macros deliberately, in production

  code they are cheap, with more asserts enabled the check that the pointer type is

  suitable.

Of course, every assertion failure is a bug, and calling it must have no side effects.

Theoretically, you are welcome to disable G_DISABLE_CHECKS and G_DISABLE_ASSERT

in production builds. In practice, nobody tests such a configuration, so beware.

For testing, you also want to run NetworkManager with environment variable

G_DEBUG=fatal-warnings to crash upon G_LOG_LEVEL_CRITICAL and G_LOG_LEVEL_WARNING

g_log() message. NetworkManager won't use these levels for regular logging

but for assertions.