Merge #12759: [Docs] Improve formatting of developer notes
0bd2ec5 Improve formatting of developer notes (Evan Klitzke)
Pull request description:
The developer notes file has gotten pretty large and unwieldly. This reorganizes some content, most notably by adding a TOC to the page. Compare how the page looks in [my branch](https://github.com/eklitzke/bitcoin/blob/developer-notes/doc/developer-notes.md) vs [master](https://github.com/eklitzke/bitcoin/blob/master/doc/developer-notes.md).
I know there's long-term interest in moving a lot of this content to the bitcoin-core/docs repo on GitHub, but this makes things better now.
The TOC format here is a semi-standard extension to Markdown files that you may have seen on GitHub pages in other projects. The `<!-- markdown-toc -->` comments used by these tools to know where the TOC starts/ends. The following tools all understand this format:
* [Sphinx](http://www.sphinx-doc.org/en/master/)
* [Pandoc](https://pandoc.org/)
* [markdown-toc.el](https://github.com/ardumont/markdown-toc) (what I used)
* various plugins for [vim](https://github.com/mzlogin/vim-markdown-toc) and other editors
I used this TOC extension at a previous job, and my observation is that it's fine if people just edit the TOC manually. It's just text and it's not a huge deal if it gets a little out of sync. It can also be regenerated at any time by anyone with any of these tools.
Tree-SHA512: 298d1605ea5e8bfc0f75e70570c23ebd6891e4ffcdedd24fefadc23edd6e4b96509d8d102209868468a1b3ddbe2c3b8462698cdda8b9421348b5bc6f7b8d0cb8This commit is contained in:
Wladimir J. van der Laan
commit
d3908e2cee
1 changed files with 66 additions and 28 deletions
|
|
@ -1,6 +1,43 @@
|
|||
Developer Notes
|
||||
===============
|
||||
|
||||
<!-- markdown-toc start -->
|
||||
**Table of Contents**
|
||||
|
||||
- [Developer Notes](#developer-notes)
|
||||
- [Coding Style](#coding-style)
|
||||
- [Doxygen comments](#doxygen-comments)
|
||||
- [Development tips and tricks](#development-tips-and-tricks)
|
||||
- [Compiling for debugging](#compiling-for-debugging)
|
||||
- [Compiling for gprof profiling](#compiling-for-gprof-profiling)
|
||||
- [debug.log](#debuglog)
|
||||
- [Testnet and Regtest modes](#testnet-and-regtest-modes)
|
||||
- [DEBUG_LOCKORDER](#debug_lockorder)
|
||||
- [Valgrind suppressions file](#valgrind-suppressions-file)
|
||||
- [Compiling for test coverage](#compiling-for-test-coverage)
|
||||
- [Locking/mutex usage notes](#lockingmutex-usage-notes)
|
||||
- [Threads](#threads)
|
||||
- [Ignoring IDE/editor files](#ignoring-ideeditor-files)
|
||||
- [Development guidelines](#development-guidelines)
|
||||
- [General Bitcoin Core](#general-bitcoin-core)
|
||||
- [Wallet](#wallet)
|
||||
- [General C++](#general-c)
|
||||
- [C++ data structures](#c-data-structures)
|
||||
- [Strings and formatting](#strings-and-formatting)
|
||||
- [Variable names](#variable-names)
|
||||
- [Threads and synchronization](#threads-and-synchronization)
|
||||
- [Source code organization](#source-code-organization)
|
||||
- [GUI](#gui)
|
||||
- [Subtrees](#subtrees)
|
||||
- [Git and GitHub tips](#git-and-github-tips)
|
||||
- [Scripted diffs](#scripted-diffs)
|
||||
- [RPC interface guidelines](#rpc-interface-guidelines)
|
||||
|
||||
<!-- markdown-toc end -->
|
||||
|
||||
Coding Style
|
||||
---------------
|
||||
|
||||
Various coding styles have been used during the history of the codebase,
|
||||
and the result is not very consistent. However, we're now trying to converge to
|
||||
a single style, which is specified below. When writing patches, favor the new
|
||||
|
|
@ -138,43 +175,44 @@ Documentation can be generated with `make docs` and cleaned up with `make clean-
|
|||
Development tips and tricks
|
||||
---------------------------
|
||||
|
||||
**compiling for debugging**
|
||||
### 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.
|
||||
Run configure with `--enable-debug` to add additional compiler flags that
|
||||
produce better debugging builds.
|
||||
|
||||
**compiling for gprof profiling**
|
||||
### Compiling for gprof profiling
|
||||
|
||||
Run configure with the --enable-gprof option, then make.
|
||||
Run configure with the `--enable-gprof` option, then make.
|
||||
|
||||
**debug.log**
|
||||
### debug.log
|
||||
|
||||
If the code is behaving strangely, take a look in the debug.log file in the data directory;
|
||||
error and debugging messages are written there.
|
||||
|
||||
The -debug=... command-line option controls debugging; running with just -debug or -debug=1 will turn
|
||||
The `-debug=...` command-line option controls debugging; running with just `-debug` or `-debug=1` 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
|
||||
The Qt code routes `qDebug()` output to debug.log under category "qt": run with `-debug=qt`
|
||||
to see it.
|
||||
|
||||
**testnet and regtest modes**
|
||||
### Testnet and Regtest modes
|
||||
|
||||
Run with the -testnet option to run with "play bitcoins" on the test network, if you
|
||||
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 test/functional/ for tests
|
||||
that run in -regtest mode.
|
||||
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 [test/functional/](/test/functional) for tests
|
||||
that run in `-regtest` mode.
|
||||
|
||||
**DEBUG_LOCKORDER**
|
||||
### 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 which locks
|
||||
are held, and adds warnings to the debug.log file if inconsistencies are detected.
|
||||
Bitcoin Core is a multi-threaded application, and deadlocks or other
|
||||
multi-threading bugs can be very difficult to track down. The `--enable-debug`
|
||||
configure option adds `-DDEBUG_LOCKORDER` to the compiler flags. This inserts
|
||||
run-time checks to keep track of which locks are held, and adds warnings to the
|
||||
debug.log file if inconsistencies are detected.
|
||||
|
||||
**Valgrind suppressions file**
|
||||
### Valgrind suppressions file
|
||||
|
||||
Valgrind is a programming tool for memory debugging, memory leak detection, and
|
||||
profiling. The repo contains a Valgrind suppressions file
|
||||
|
|
@ -189,7 +227,7 @@ $ valgrind --suppressions=contrib/valgrind.supp --leak-check=full \
|
|||
$ valgrind -v --leak-check=full src/bitcoind -printtoconsole
|
||||
```
|
||||
|
||||
**compiling for test coverage**
|
||||
### Compiling for test coverage
|
||||
|
||||
LCOV can be used to generate a test coverage report based upon `make check`
|
||||
execution. LCOV must be installed on your system (e.g. the `lcov` package
|
||||
|
|
@ -209,18 +247,18 @@ Locking/mutex usage notes
|
|||
-------------------------
|
||||
|
||||
The code is multi-threaded, and uses mutexes and the
|
||||
LOCK/TRY_LOCK macros to protect data structures.
|
||||
`LOCK` and `TRY_LOCK` macros to protect data structures.
|
||||
|
||||
Deadlocks due to inconsistent lock ordering (thread 1 locks cs_main
|
||||
and then cs_wallet, while thread 2 locks them in the opposite order:
|
||||
result, deadlock as each waits for the other to release its lock) are
|
||||
a problem. Compile with -DDEBUG_LOCKORDER to get lock order
|
||||
inconsistencies reported in the debug.log file.
|
||||
Deadlocks due to inconsistent lock ordering (thread 1 locks `cs_main` and then
|
||||
`cs_wallet`, while thread 2 locks them in the opposite order: result, deadlock
|
||||
as each waits for the other to release its lock) are a problem. Compile with
|
||||
`-DDEBUG_LOCKORDER` (or use `--enable-debug`) to get lock order inconsistencies
|
||||
reported in the debug.log file.
|
||||
|
||||
Re-architecting the core code so there are better-defined interfaces
|
||||
between the various components is a goal, with any necessary locking
|
||||
done by the components (e.g. see the self-contained CBasicKeyStore class
|
||||
and its cs_KeyStore lock for example).
|
||||
done by the components (e.g. see the self-contained `CBasicKeyStore` class
|
||||
and its `cs_KeyStore` lock for example).
|
||||
|
||||
Threads
|
||||
-------
|
||||
|
|
|
|||
Loading…
Reference in a new issue