Hacking Guidelines
==================
This document is an introduction to hacking on GnuCash.
Related Documents
-----------------
In addition to this file, you should read the README file, which
explains the details of getting the SVN source, building GnuCash,
and creating patches for submission.
The src/doc/design directory contains a preliminary design document
which you should read as well. You should also feel free to hack on
the design document.
Coding Style Conventions
------------------------
General:
* When modifying a file, the style convention in that file should be
followed.
* When creating a new file, the style of existing files should be
followed.
* When creating lots of new files in a new directory, you may use
your own coding standards, but please try to stick as closely as
possible to the GNU coding standards.
* Do not submit patches that consist of (gratuitous) stylistic changes.
C:
* Use ISO C.
* Use glib memory routines where possible. This means you should be
using g_malloc(), g_new(), g_free(), etc., instead of malloc(),
free(), etc. Do not mix glib memory calls with libc calls!
* Where possible, use glib data abstractions instead of rolling your
own. Glib linked lists and pointer arrays are very convenient and
have been extensively used and tested.
* All gnucash functions and global variables are prefixed with gnc_
* Use static functions whenever possible
* Use const whenever possible
Scheme:
* All gnucash functions and global variables are prefixed with gnc:
* All global variables are enclosed in ** (i.e. gnc:*load-path*)
* All private functions are enclosed in __ (i.e. gnc:_do-not-call_)
* All C functions wrapped into scheme have dashes in place of underscores.
(xaccSplitGetBalance --> gnc:split-get-balance) - but FIXME:
This policy seems to have been dropped in favor of having
identical function names. cstim, 2006-10-30.
Dave Peticolas <dave@krondo.com>
August 22, 2000
==============
TIPS AND HINTS
==============
Starting GnuCash from the build tree
------------------------------------
This is known to not work very well. Instead, `--prefix` your build into /opt/gnc/svn/ (or some such).
Getting Trace Messages From GnuCash
-----------------------------------
See the doxygen comments in lib/libqof/qof/qoflog.h (and .c)
Starting GnuCash in GDB
-----------------------
To run gdb on an installed version of gnucash (installed in /opt/gnc/unstable:)
% gdb /opt/gnc/unstable/bin/gnucash
OS X/Quartz developers can't run gnucash in gdb this way. They should instead use:
% /opt/gnc/unstable/bin/gnucash-gdb
You'll also probably want to know about these:
gdb> catch fork
gdb> set follow-fork-mode child
-----
It may be the case that running GDB from within emacs doesn't work for you,
with the following error:
[C-u M-x gdb /opt/gnucash-cvs/bin/gnucash
...in buffer *gud-gdb*:]
(gdb) attach <pid>
jsled needed to re-define a gud.el function as such:
(defun gud-gdb-massage-args (file args)
(let ((l (copy-list args)))
(nconc l (list "-cd" (expand-file-name default-directory) "-fullname"))))
jsled does not need the above with emacs-22, thankfully. It was getting quite tiresome.
Using Electric Fence with GnuCash
---------------------------------
% configure --enable-efence
(except this doesn't actually enable efence :-( need to hack
configure.in and add $LIBS = -lefence and re-run ./autogen.sh)
Don't know why, efence does not currently work with gnucash:
I get a bunch of errors:
warning: Cannot initialize thread debugging library: unknown thread_db error '22'
If you know how to fix this, please update these instructions.
Using Valgrind with GnuCash
---------------------------
-- run ${prefix}/bin/gnucash-valgrind
However, I did not find valgrind to be useful. It reported a bunch of
guile bugs, some g_hash_table bugs, and then the program exited prematurely
for no apparent reason. :-(
For the moment, gnucash-valgrind uses the suppressions in
src/debug/valgrind/valgrind-*.supp
For valgrind-gnucash.supp, this comment was made (but is perhaps outdated
by now ?):
This file needs to be cleaned up in two ways:
1/ There are a bunch of duplicate suppressions in the file.
* The suppressions in place were auto-generated by valgrind itself
[--gen-suppressions=yes], and it makes no effort to output the
suppression only once.
2/ There are a bunch of suppressions which need to not be suppressions, but
instead just not be generated by valgrind.
Look up exported and imported symbols
-------------------------------------
These commands may be useful to find out the library that actually
exported a particular symbol, and to check which import symbol one
particular library depends upon and where they are imported
from. Run these from the top-level of the build tree.
# Create a table of all exported symbols and where they come from
nm -A `find . -name '*.so'` | grep ' T ' | \
sed 's/^\([^:]*\).* \([^ ]*\)$/\1: \2/' > exportedsymbols
# For a particular library, check symbol import requirements,
# listing all symbols (needs the file from above)
A=src/gnc-module/.libs/libgw-gnc-module.so && echo "$A requirements:" \
&& nm $A | grep ' U ' | sed 's/^.* \([^ ]*\)$/\1/' | \
grep -wFf- exportedsymbols
# For a particular library, check import requirements,
# summarized by library
A=src/gnc-module/.libs/libgw-gnc-module.so && echo "$A requirements:" \
&& nm $A | grep ' U ' | sed 's/^.* \([^ ]*\)$/\1/' | \
grep -wFf- exportedsymbols | cut -d: -f1 | sort | uniq
# For a particular library, check import requirements,
# summarized by library, formatted for Makefile.am
A=src/gnc-module/.libs/libgw-gnc-module.so && echo "$A requirements:" \
&& nm $A | grep ' U ' | sed 's/^.* \([^ ]*\)$/\1/' | \
grep -wFf- exportedsymbols | cut -d: -f1 | sort | uniq | \
sed 's!.libs/!!' | sed 's/.so$/.la \\/' | sed 's!^.! \${top_builddir}!'
# List all import requirements summarized by library for a full
# recursive directory tree
for A in `find src/business/business-core -name '*.so'`; do \
echo -e "\n##$A requirements:" && nm $A | grep ' U ' | \
sed 's/^.* \([^ ]*\)$/\1/' | grep -wFf- exportedsymbols | \
cut -d: -f1 | sort | uniq; done