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6576b74b 1QEMU Coding Style
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2=================
3
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4Please use the script checkpatch.pl in the scripts directory to check
5patches before submitting.
6
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71. Whitespace
8
9Of course, the most important aspect in any coding style is whitespace.
10Crusty old coders who have trouble spotting the glasses on their noses
11can tell the difference between a tab and eight spaces from a distance
56bef851 12of approximately fifteen parsecs. Many a flamewar has been fought and
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13lost on this issue.
14
15QEMU indents are four spaces. Tabs are never used, except in Makefiles
1cb499fa 16where they have been irreversibly coded into the syntax.
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17Spaces of course are superior to tabs because:
18
19 - You have just one way to specify whitespace, not two. Ambiguity breeds
20 mistakes.
21 - The confusion surrounding 'use tabs to indent, spaces to justify' is gone.
22 - Tab indents push your code to the right, making your screen seriously
23 unbalanced.
24 - Tabs will be rendered incorrectly on editors who are misconfigured not
25 to use tab stops of eight positions.
26 - Tabs are rendered badly in patches, causing off-by-one errors in almost
27 every line.
28 - It is the QEMU coding style.
29
30Do not leave whitespace dangling off the ends of lines.
31
322. Line width
33
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34Lines should be 80 characters; try not to make them longer.
35
36Sometimes it is hard to do, especially when dealing with QEMU subsystems
37that use long function or symbol names. Even in that case, do not make
38lines much longer than 80 characters.
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39
40Rationale:
41 - Some people like to tile their 24" screens with a 6x4 matrix of 80x24
42 xterms and use vi in all of them. The best way to punish them is to
43 let them keep doing it.
44 - Code and especially patches is much more readable if limited to a sane
45 line length. Eighty is traditional.
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46 - The four-space indentation makes the most common excuse ("But look
47 at all that white space on the left!") moot.
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48 - It is the QEMU coding style.
49
503. Naming
51
c227f099 52Variables are lower_case_with_underscores; easy to type and read. Structured
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53type names are in CamelCase; harder to type but standing out. Enum type
54names and function type names should also be in CamelCase. Scalar type
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55names are lower_case_with_underscores_ending_with_a_t, like the POSIX
56uint64_t and family. Note that this last convention contradicts POSIX
57and is therefore likely to be changed.
58
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59When wrapping standard library functions, use the prefix qemu_ to alert
60readers that they are seeing a wrapped version; otherwise avoid this prefix.
61
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624. Block structure
63
64Every indented statement is braced; even if the block contains just one
65statement. The opening brace is on the line that contains the control
66flow statement that introduces the new block; the closing brace is on the
67same line as the else keyword, or on a line by itself if there is no else
68keyword. Example:
69
70 if (a == 5) {
71 printf("a was 5.\n");
72 } else if (a == 6) {
73 printf("a was 6.\n");
74 } else {
75 printf("a was something else entirely.\n");
76 }
77
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78Note that 'else if' is considered a single statement; otherwise a long if/
79else if/else if/.../else sequence would need an indent for every else
80statement.
81
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82An exception is the opening brace for a function; for reasons of tradition
83and clarity it comes on a line by itself:
84
85 void a_function(void)
86 {
87 do_something();
88 }
89
90Rationale: a consistent (except for functions...) bracing style reduces
91ambiguity and avoids needless churn when lines are added or removed.
92Furthermore, it is the QEMU coding style.
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93
945. Declarations
95
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96Mixed declarations (interleaving statements and declarations within
97blocks) are generally not allowed; declarations should be at the beginning
98of blocks.
99
100Every now and then, an exception is made for declarations inside a
101#ifdef or #ifndef block: if the code looks nicer, such declarations can
102be placed at the top of the block even if there are statements above.
103On the other hand, however, it's often best to move that #ifdef/#ifndef
104block to a separate function altogether.
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105
1066. Conditional statements
107
108When comparing a variable for (in)equality with a constant, list the
109constant on the right, as in:
110
111if (a == 1) {
112 /* Reads like: "If a equals 1" */
113 do_something();
114}
115
116Rationale: Yoda conditions (as in 'if (1 == a)') are awkward to read.
117Besides, good compilers already warn users when '==' is mis-typed as '=',
118even when the constant is on the right.
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119
1207. Comment style
121
122We use traditional C-style /* */ comments and avoid // comments.
123
124Rationale: The // form is valid in C99, so this is purely a matter of
125consistency of style. The checkpatch script will warn you about this.
44c6d638 126
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127Multiline comment blocks should have a row of stars on the left,
128and the initial /* and terminating */ both on their own lines:
129 /*
130 * like
131 * this
132 */
133This is the same format required by the Linux kernel coding style.
134
135(Some of the existing comments in the codebase use the GNU Coding
136Standards form which does not have stars on the left, or other
137variations; avoid these when writing new comments, but don't worry
138about converting to the preferred form unless you're editing that
139comment anyway.)
140
141Rationale: Consistency, and ease of visually picking out a multiline
142comment from the surrounding code.
143
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1448. trace-events style
145
1468.1 0x prefix
147
148In trace-events files, use a '0x' prefix to specify hex numbers, as in:
149
150some_trace(unsigned x, uint64_t y) "x 0x%x y 0x" PRIx64
151
152An exception is made for groups of numbers that are hexadecimal by
153convention and separated by the symbols '.', '/', ':', or ' ' (such as
154PCI bus id):
155
156another_trace(int cssid, int ssid, int dev_num) "bus id: %x.%x.%04x"
157
158However, you can use '0x' for such groups if you want. Anyway, be sure that
159it is obvious that numbers are in hex, ex.:
160
161data_dump(uint8_t c1, uint8_t c2, uint8_t c3) "bytes (in hex): %02x %02x %02x"
162
163Rationale: hex numbers are hard to read in logs when there is no 0x prefix,
164especially when (occasionally) the representation doesn't contain any letters
165and especially in one line with other decimal numbers. Number groups are allowed
166to not use '0x' because for some things notations like %x.%x.%x are used not
167only in Qemu. Also dumping raw data bytes with '0x' is less readable.
168
1698.2 '#' printf flag
170
171Do not use printf flag '#', like '%#x'.
172
173Rationale: there are two ways to add a '0x' prefix to printed number: '0x%...'
174and '%#...'. For consistency the only one way should be used. Arguments for
175'0x%' are:
176 - it is more popular
177 - '%#' omits the 0x for the value 0 which makes output inconsistent