2013-12-17 08:47:30 +01:00
|
|
|
Bitcoin Core integration/staging tree
|
2013-12-17 11:50:26 +01:00
|
|
|
=====================================
|
2012-12-13 03:27:58 +01:00
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
http://www.bitcoin.org
|
|
|
|
|
2014-04-05 12:43:27 +02:00
|
|
|
Copyright (c) 2009-2014 Bitcoin Core Developers
|
2012-12-13 03:27:58 +01:00
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
What is Bitcoin?
|
|
|
|
----------------
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Bitcoin is an experimental new digital currency that enables instant payments to
|
|
|
|
anyone, anywhere in the world. Bitcoin uses peer-to-peer technology to operate
|
|
|
|
with no central authority: managing transactions and issuing money are carried
|
2013-12-17 08:47:30 +01:00
|
|
|
out collectively by the network. Bitcoin Core is the name of open source
|
2012-12-13 03:27:58 +01:00
|
|
|
software which enables the use of this currency.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
For more information, as well as an immediately useable, binary version of
|
2013-12-17 08:47:30 +01:00
|
|
|
the Bitcoin Core software, see http://www.bitcoin.org/en/download.
|
2012-12-13 03:27:58 +01:00
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
License
|
|
|
|
-------
|
|
|
|
|
2013-12-17 08:47:30 +01:00
|
|
|
Bitcoin Core is released under the terms of the MIT license. See [COPYING](COPYING) for more
|
2012-12-13 03:27:58 +01:00
|
|
|
information or see http://opensource.org/licenses/MIT.
|
2010-09-23 20:06:50 +02:00
|
|
|
|
2011-01-21 16:52:48 +01:00
|
|
|
Development process
|
2012-12-13 03:27:58 +01:00
|
|
|
-------------------
|
2010-09-23 20:06:50 +02:00
|
|
|
|
2012-12-13 03:27:58 +01:00
|
|
|
Developers work in their own trees, then submit pull requests when they think
|
|
|
|
their feature or bug fix is ready.
|
2011-09-06 05:02:35 +02:00
|
|
|
|
2012-12-13 03:27:58 +01:00
|
|
|
If it is a simple/trivial/non-controversial change, then one of the Bitcoin
|
|
|
|
development team members simply pulls it.
|
2011-09-06 05:02:35 +02:00
|
|
|
|
2012-12-13 03:27:58 +01:00
|
|
|
If it is a *more complicated or potentially controversial* change, then the patch
|
|
|
|
submitter will be asked to start a discussion (if they haven't already) on the
|
|
|
|
[mailing list](http://sourceforge.net/mailarchive/forum.php?forum_name=bitcoin-development).
|
2010-12-19 16:39:36 +01:00
|
|
|
|
2012-12-13 03:27:58 +01:00
|
|
|
The patch will be accepted if there is broad consensus that it is a good thing.
|
|
|
|
Developers should expect to rework and resubmit patches if the code doesn't
|
2013-10-12 16:45:25 +02:00
|
|
|
match the project's coding conventions (see [doc/coding.md](doc/coding.md)) or are
|
2012-12-13 03:27:58 +01:00
|
|
|
controversial.
|
2010-12-19 16:39:36 +01:00
|
|
|
|
2012-12-13 03:27:58 +01:00
|
|
|
The `master` branch is regularly built and tested, but is not guaranteed to be
|
|
|
|
completely stable. [Tags](https://github.com/bitcoin/bitcoin/tags) are created
|
|
|
|
regularly to indicate new official, stable release versions of Bitcoin.
|
2010-12-19 16:39:36 +01:00
|
|
|
|
2013-01-09 21:55:47 +01:00
|
|
|
Testing
|
2012-12-13 03:27:58 +01:00
|
|
|
-------
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Testing and code review is the bottleneck for development; we get more pull
|
2014-05-23 09:49:01 +02:00
|
|
|
requests than we can review and test on short notice. Please be patient and help out by testing
|
|
|
|
other people's pull requests, and remember this is a security-critical project where any mistake might cost people
|
2012-12-13 03:27:58 +01:00
|
|
|
lots of money.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
### Automated Testing
|
2011-09-27 04:22:19 +02:00
|
|
|
|
2012-12-13 03:27:58 +01:00
|
|
|
Developers are strongly encouraged to write unit tests for new code, and to
|
2013-10-12 16:45:25 +02:00
|
|
|
submit new unit tests for old code. Unit tests can be compiled and run (assuming they weren't disabled in configure) with: `make check`
|
2013-01-09 21:55:47 +01:00
|
|
|
|
2012-12-13 03:27:58 +01:00
|
|
|
Every pull request is built for both Windows and Linux on a dedicated server,
|
|
|
|
and unit and sanity tests are automatically run. The binaries produced may be
|
2013-05-05 22:32:35 +02:00
|
|
|
used for manual QA testing — a link to them will appear in a comment on the
|
|
|
|
pull request posted by [BitcoinPullTester](https://github.com/BitcoinPullTester). See https://github.com/TheBlueMatt/test-scripts
|
2012-12-13 03:27:58 +01:00
|
|
|
for the build/test scripts.
|
2013-01-09 21:55:47 +01:00
|
|
|
|
2012-12-13 03:27:58 +01:00
|
|
|
### Manual Quality Assurance (QA) Testing
|
2013-01-09 21:55:47 +01:00
|
|
|
|
2012-12-13 03:27:58 +01:00
|
|
|
Large changes should have a test plan, and should be tested by somebody other
|
|
|
|
than the developer who wrote the code.
|
2013-05-05 22:32:35 +02:00
|
|
|
See https://github.com/bitcoin/QA/ for how to create a test plan.
|
2014-04-09 20:11:08 +02:00
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Translations
|
|
|
|
------------
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Changes to translations as well as new translations can be submitted to
|
|
|
|
[Bitcoin Core's Transifex page](https://www.transifex.com/projects/p/bitcoin/).
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Periodically the translations are pulled from Transifex and merged into the git repository. See the
|
|
|
|
[translation process](doc/translation_process.md) for details on how this works.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
**Important**: We do not accept translation changes as github pull request because the next
|
|
|
|
pull from Transifex would automatically overwrite them again.
|
2014-05-23 16:30:38 +02:00
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Development tips and tricks
|
|
|
|
---------------------------
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
**compiling for debugging**
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Run configure with the --enable-debug option, then make. Or run configure with
|
|
|
|
CXXFLAGS="-g -ggdb -O0" or whatever debug flags you need.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
**debug.log**
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
If the code is behaving strangely, take a look in the debug.log file in the data directory;
|
|
|
|
error and debugging message are written there.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
The -debug=... command-line option controls debugging; running with just -debug will turn
|
|
|
|
on all categories (and give you a very large debug.log file).
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
The Qt code routes qDebug() output to debug.log under category "qt": run with -debug=qt
|
|
|
|
to see it.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
**testnet and regtest modes**
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Run with the -testnet option to run with "play bitcoins" on the test network, if you
|
|
|
|
are testing multi-machine code that needs to operate across the internet.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
If you are testing something that can run on one machine, run with the -regtest option.
|
|
|
|
In regression test mode blocks can be created on-demand; see qa/rpc-tests/ for tests
|
|
|
|
that run in -regest mode.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
**DEBUG_LOCKORDER**
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Bitcoin Core is a multithreaded application, and deadlocks or other multithreading bugs
|
|
|
|
can be very difficult to track down. Compiling with -DDEBUG_LOCKORDER (configure
|
|
|
|
CXXFLAGS="-DDEBUG_LOCKORDER -g") inserts run-time checks to keep track of what locks
|
|
|
|
are held, and adds warning to the debug.log file if inconsistencies are detected.
|