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authorAndreas Schneider <asn@cryptomilk.org>2020-06-19 16:08:42 +0200
committerAndreas Schneider <asn@cryptomilk.org>2020-06-19 16:48:14 +0200
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Merge SubmittingPatches and README.CodingStyle to CONTRIBUTING.md
Signed-off-by: Andreas Schneider <asn@cryptomilk.org> Reviewed-by: Anderson Toshiyuki Sasaki <ansasaki@redhat.com>
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+# How to contribute a patch to libssh
+
+Please checkout the libssh source code using git.
+
+For contributions we prefer Merge Requests on Gitlab:
+
+https://gitlab.com/libssh/libssh-mirror/
+
+This way you get contintious integration which runs the complete libssh
+testsuite for you.
+
+For larger code changes, breaking the changes up into a set of simple
+patches, each of which does a single thing, are much easier to review.
+Patch sets like that will most likely have an easier time being merged
+into the libssh code than large single patches that make lots of
+changes in one large diff.
+
+Also bugfixes and new features should be covered by tests. We use the cmocka
+and cwrap framework for our testing and you can simply run it locally by
+calling `make test`.
+
+## Ownership of the contributed code
+
+libssh is a project with distributed copyright ownership, which means
+we prefer the copyright on parts of libssh to be held by individuals
+rather than corporations if possible. There are historical legal
+reasons for this, but one of the best ways to explain it is that it's
+much easier to work with individuals who have ownership than corporate
+legal departments if we ever need to make reasonable compromises with
+people using and working with libssh.
+
+We track the ownership of every part of libssh via https://git.libssh.org,
+our source code control system, so we know the provenance of every piece
+of code that is committed to libssh.
+
+So if possible, if you're doing libssh changes on behalf of a company
+who normally owns all the work you do please get them to assign
+personal copyright ownership of your changes to you as an individual,
+that makes things very easy for us to work with and avoids bringing
+corporate legal departments into the picture.
+
+If you can't do this we can still accept patches from you owned by
+your employer under a standard employment contract with corporate
+copyright ownership. It just requires a simple set-up process first.
+
+We use a process very similar to the way things are done in the Linux
+Kernel community, so it should be very easy to get a sign off from
+your corporate legal department. The only changes we've made are to
+accommodate the license we use, which is LGPLv2 (or later) whereas the
+Linux kernel uses GPLv2.
+
+The process is called signing.
+
+## How to sign your work
+
+Once you have permission to contribute to libssh from your employer, simply
+email a copy of the following text from your corporate email address to:
+
+contributing@libssh.org
+
+
+```
+libssh Developer's Certificate of Origin. Version 1.0
+
+
+By making a contribution to this project, I certify that:
+
+(a) The contribution was created in whole or in part by me and I
+ have the right to submit it under the appropriate
+ version of the GNU General Public License; or
+
+(b) The contribution is based upon previous work that, to the best of
+ my knowledge, is covered under an appropriate open source license
+ and I have the right under that license to submit that work with
+ modifications, whether created in whole or in part by me, under
+ the GNU General Public License, in the appropriate version; or
+
+(c) The contribution was provided directly to me by some other
+ person who certified (a) or (b) and I have not modified it.
+
+(d) I understand and agree that this project and the contribution are
+ public and that a record of the contribution (including all
+ metadata and personal information I submit with it, including my
+ sign-off) is maintained indefinitely and may be redistributed
+ consistent with the libssh Team's policies and the requirements of
+ the GNU GPL where they are relevant.
+
+(e) I am granting this work to this project under the terms of the
+ GNU Lesser General Public License as published by the
+ Free Software Foundation; either version 2.1 of
+ the License, or (at the option of the project) any later version.
+
+ https://www.gnu.org/licenses/lgpl-2.1.html
+```
+
+We will maintain a copy of that email as a record that you have the
+rights to contribute code to libssh under the required licenses whilst
+working for the company where the email came from.
+
+Then when sending in a patch via the normal mechanisms described
+above, add a line that states:
+
+ Signed-off-by: Random J Developer <random@developer.example.org>
+
+using your real name and the email address you sent the original email
+you used to send the libssh Developer's Certificate of Origin to us
+(sorry, no pseudonyms or anonymous contributions.)
+
+That's it! Such code can then quite happily contain changes that have
+copyright messages such as:
+
+ (c) Example Corporation.
+
+and can be merged into the libssh codebase in the same way as patches
+from any other individual. You don't need to send in a copy of the
+libssh Developer's Certificate of Origin for each patch, or inside each
+patch. Just the sign-off message is all that is required once we've
+received the initial email.
+
+
+# Coding conventions in the libssh tree
+
+## Quick Start
+
+Coding style guidelines are about reducing the number of unnecessary
+reformatting patches and making things easier for developers to work together.
+
+You don't have to like them or even agree with them, but once put in place we
+all have to abide by them (or vote to change them). However, coding style
+should never outweigh coding itself and so the guidelines described here are
+hopefully easy enough to follow as they are very common and supported by tools
+and editors.
+
+The basic style for C code, is the Linux kernel coding style (See
+Documentation/CodingStyle in the kernel source tree). This closely matches what
+libssh developers use already anyways, with a few exceptions as mentioned
+below.
+
+But to save you the trouble of reading the Linux kernel style guide, here
+are the highlights.
+
+* Maximum Line Width is 80 Characters
+ The reason is not about people with low-res screens but rather sticking
+ to 80 columns prevents you from easily nesting more than one level of
+ if statements or other code blocks.
+
+* Use 4 Spaces to Indent
+
+* No Trailing Whitespace
+ Clean up your files before committing.
+
+* Follow the K&R guidelines. We won't go through all of them here. Do you
+ have a copy of "The C Programming Language" anyways right?
+
+
+## Editor Hints
+
+### Emacs
+
+Add the follow to your $HOME/.emacs file:
+
+ (add-hook 'c-mode-hook
+ (lambda ()
+ (c-set-style "linux")
+ (c-toggle-auto-state)))
+
+
+## Neovim/VIM
+
+For the basic vi editor included with all variants of \*nix, add the
+following to ~/.config/nvim/init.rc or ~/.vimrc:
+
+ set ts=4 sw=4 et cindent
+
+You can use the Vim gitmodline plugin to store this in the git config:
+
+https://git.cryptomilk.org/projects/vim-gitmodeline.git/
+
+For Vim, the following settings in $HOME/.vimrc will also deal with
+displaying trailing whitespace:
+
+ if has("syntax") && (&t_Co > 2 || has("gui_running"))
+ syntax on
+ function! ActivateInvisibleCharIndicator()
+ syntax match TrailingSpace "[ \t]\+$" display containedin=ALL
+ highlight TrailingSpace ctermbg=Red
+ endf
+ autocmd BufNewFile,BufRead * call ActivateInvisibleCharIndicator()
+ endif
+ " Show tabs, trailing whitespace, and continued lines visually
+ set list listchars=tab:»·,trail:·,extends:…
+
+ " highlight overly long lines same as TODOs.
+ set textwidth=80
+ autocmd BufNewFile,BufRead *.c,*.h exec 'match Todo /\%>' . &textwidth . 'v.\+/'
+
+
+## FAQ & Statement Reference
+
+### Comments
+
+Comments should always use the standard C syntax. C++ style comments are not
+currently allowed.
+
+The lines before a comment should be empty. If the comment directly belongs to
+the following code, there should be no empty line after the comment, except if
+the comment contains a summary of multiple following code blocks.
+
+This is good:
+
+ ...
+ int i;
+
+ /*
+ * This is a multi line comment,
+ * which explains the logical steps we have to do:
+ *
+ * 1. We need to set i=5, because...
+ * 2. We need to call complex_fn1
+ */
+
+ /* This is a one line comment about i = 5. */
+ i = 5;
+
+ /*
+ * This is a multi line comment,
+ * explaining the call to complex_fn1()
+ */
+ ret = complex_fn1();
+ if (ret != 0) {
+ ...
+
+ /**
+ * @brief This is a doxygen comment.
+ *
+ * This is a more detailed explanation of
+ * this simple function.
+ *
+ * @param[in] param1 The parameter value of the function.
+ *
+ * @param[out] result1 The result value of the function.
+ *
+ * @return 0 on success and -1 on error.
+ */
+ int example(int param1, int *result1);
+
+This is bad:
+
+ ...
+ int i;
+ /*
+ * This is a multi line comment,
+ * which explains the logical steps we have to do:
+ *
+ * 1. We need to set i=5, because...
+ * 2. We need to call complex_fn1
+ */
+ /* This is a one line comment about i = 5. */
+ i = 5;
+ /*
+ * This is a multi line comment,
+ * explaining the call to complex_fn1()
+ */
+ ret = complex_fn1();
+ if (ret != 0) {
+ ...
+
+ /*This is a one line comment.*/
+
+ /* This is a multi line comment,
+ with some more words...*/
+
+ /*
+ * This is a multi line comment,
+ * with some more words...*/
+
+### Indention & Whitespace & 80 columns
+
+To avoid confusion, indentations have to be 4 spaces. Do not use tabs!. When
+wrapping parameters for function calls, align the parameter list with the first
+parameter on the previous line. For example,
+
+ var1 = foo(arg1,
+ arg2,
+ arg3);
+
+The previous example is intended to illustrate alignment of function
+parameters across lines and not as encourage for gratuitous line
+splitting. Never split a line before columns 70 - 79 unless you
+have a really good reason. Be smart about formatting.
+
+
+### If, switch, & Code blocks
+
+Always follow an 'if' keyword with a space but don't include additional
+spaces following or preceding the parentheses in the conditional.
+This is good:
+
+ if (x == 1)
+
+This is bad:
+
+ if ( x == 1 )
+
+or
+
+ if (x==1)
+
+Yes we have a lot of code that uses the second and third form and we are trying
+to clean it up without being overly intrusive.
+
+Note that this is a rule about parentheses following keywords and not
+functions. Don't insert a space between the name and left parentheses when
+invoking functions.
+
+Braces for code blocks used by for, if, switch, while, do..while, etc. should
+begin on the same line as the statement keyword and end on a line of their own.
+You should always include braces, even if the block only contains one
+statement. **NOTE**: Functions are different and the beginning left brace should
+be located in the first column on the next line.
+
+If the beginning statement has to be broken across lines due to length, the
+beginning brace should be on a line of its own.
+
+The exception to the ending rule is when the closing brace is followed by
+another language keyword such as else or the closing while in a do..while loop.
+
+Good examples:
+
+ if (x == 1) {
+ printf("good\n");
+ }
+
+ for (x = 1; x < 10; x++) {
+ print("%d\n", x);
+ }
+
+ for (really_really_really_really_long_var_name = 0;
+ really_really_really_really_long_var_name < 10;
+ really_really_really_really_long_var_name++)
+ {
+ print("%d\n", really_really_really_really_long_var_name);
+ }
+
+ do {
+ printf("also good\n");
+ } while (1);
+
+Bad examples:
+
+ while (1)
+ {
+ print("I'm in a loop!\n"); }
+
+ for (x=1;
+ x<10;
+ x++)
+ {
+ print("no good\n");
+ }
+
+ if (i < 10)
+ print("I should be in braces.\n");
+
+
+### Goto
+
+While many people have been academically taught that "goto"s are fundamentally
+evil, they can greatly enhance readability and reduce memory leaks when used as
+the single exit point from a function. But in no libssh world what so ever is a
+goto outside of a function or block of code a good idea.
+
+Good Examples:
+
+ int function foo(int y)
+ {
+ int *z = NULL;
+ int rc = 0;
+
+ if (y < 10) {
+ z = malloc(sizeof(int)*y);
+ if (z == NULL) {
+ rc = 1;
+ goto done;
+ }
+ }
+
+ print("Allocated %d elements.\n", y);
+
+ done:
+ if (z != NULL) {
+ free(z);
+ }
+
+ return rc;
+ }
+
+### Initialize pointers
+
+All pointer variables **MUST** be initialized to `NULL`. History has
+demonstrated that uninitialized pointer variables have lead to various
+bugs and security issues.
+
+Pointers **MUST** be initialized even if the assignment directly follows
+the declaration, like pointer2 in the example below, because the
+instructions sequence may change over time.
+
+Good Example:
+
+ char *pointer1 = NULL;
+ char *pointer2 = NULL;
+
+ pointer2 = some_func2();
+
+ ...
+
+ pointer1 = some_func1();
+
+### Typedefs
+
+libssh tries to avoid `typedef struct { .. } x_t;` so we do always try to use
+`struct x { .. };`. We know there are still such typedefs in the code, but for
+new code, please don't do that anymore.
+
+### Make use of helper variables
+
+Please try to avoid passing function calls as function parameters in new code.
+This makes the code much easier to read and it's also easier to use the "step"
+command within gdb.
+
+Good Example:
+
+ char *name;
+
+ name = get_some_name();
+ if (name == NULL) {
+ ...
+ }
+
+ rc = some_function_my_name(name);
+ ...
+
+
+Bad Example:
+
+ rc = some_function_my_name(get_some_name());
+ ...
+
+Please try to avoid passing function return values to if- or while-conditions.
+The reason for this is better handling of code under a debugger.
+
+Good example:
+
+ x = malloc(sizeof(short) * 10);
+ if (x == NULL) {
+ fprintf(stderr, "Unable to alloc memory!\n");
+ }
+
+Bad example:
+
+ if ((x = malloc(sizeof(short)*10)) == NULL ) {
+ fprintf(stderr, "Unable to alloc memory!\n");
+ }
+
+There are exceptions to this rule. One example is walking a data structure in
+an iterator style:
+
+ while ((opt = poptGetNextOpt(pc)) != -1) {
+ ... do something with opt ...
+ }
+
+But in general, please try to avoid this pattern.
+
+
+### Control-Flow changing macros
+
+Macros like `STATUS_NOT_OK_RETURN` that change control flow (return/goto/etc)
+from within the macro are considered bad, because they look like function calls
+that never change control flow. Please do not introduce them.
+
+
+Have fun and happy libssh hacking!
+
+The libssh Team