1. Preprocessor 1.1. Variadic macros For variadic macros, stick with this C99-like syntax: #define DPRINTF(fmt, ...) \ do { printf("IRQ: " fmt, ## __VA_ARGS__); } while (0) 1.2. Include directives Order include directives as follows: #include "qemu/osdep.h" /* Always first... */ #include <...> /* then system headers... */ #include "..." /* and finally QEMU headers. */ The "qemu/osdep.h" header contains preprocessor macros that affect the behavior of core system headers like <stdint.h>. It must be the first include so that core system headers included by external libraries get the preprocessor macros that QEMU depends on. Do not include "qemu/osdep.h" from header files since the .c file will have already included it. 2. C types It should be common sense to use the right type, but we have collected a few useful guidelines here. 2.1. Scalars If you're using "int" or "long", odds are good that there's a better type. If a variable is counting something, it should be declared with an unsigned type. If it's host memory-size related, size_t should be a good choice (use ssize_t only if required). Guest RAM memory offsets must use ram_addr_t, but only for RAM, it may not cover whole guest address space. If it's file-size related, use off_t. If it's file-offset related (i.e., signed), use off_t. If it's just counting small numbers use "unsigned int"; (on all but oddball embedded systems, you can assume that that type is at least four bytes wide). In the event that you require a specific width, use a standard type like int32_t, uint32_t, uint64_t, etc. The specific types are mandatory for VMState fields. Don't use Linux kernel internal types like u32, __u32 or __le32. Use hwaddr for guest physical addresses except pcibus_t for PCI addresses. In addition, ram_addr_t is a QEMU internal address space that maps guest RAM physical addresses into an intermediate address space that can map to host virtual address spaces. Generally speaking, the size of guest memory can always fit into ram_addr_t but it would not be correct to store an actual guest physical address in a ram_addr_t. For CPU virtual addresses there are several possible types. vaddr is the best type to use to hold a CPU virtual address in target-independent code. It is guaranteed to be large enough to hold a virtual address for any target, and it does not change size from target to target. It is always unsigned. target_ulong is a type the size of a virtual address on the CPU; this means it may be 32 or 64 bits depending on which target is being built. It should therefore be used only in target-specific code, and in some performance-critical built-per-target core code such as the TLB code. There is also a signed version, target_long. abi_ulong is for the *-user targets, and represents a type the size of 'void *' in that target's ABI. (This may not be the same as the size of a full CPU virtual address in the case of target ABIs which use 32 bit pointers on 64 bit CPUs, like sparc32plus.) Definitions of structures that must match the target's ABI must use this type for anything that on the target is defined to be an 'unsigned long' or a pointer type. There is also a signed version, abi_long. Of course, take all of the above with a grain of salt. If you're about to use some system interface that requires a type like size_t, pid_t or off_t, use matching types for any corresponding variables. Also, if you try to use e.g., "unsigned int" as a type, and that conflicts with the signedness of a related variable, sometimes it's best just to use the *wrong* type, if "pulling the thread" and fixing all related variables would be too invasive. Finally, while using descriptive types is important, be careful not to go overboard. If whatever you're doing causes warnings, or requires casts, then reconsider or ask for help. 2.2. Pointers Ensure that all of your pointers are "const-correct". Unless a pointer is used to modify the pointed-to storage, give it the "const" attribute. That way, the reader knows up-front that this is a read-only pointer. Perhaps more importantly, if we're diligent about this, when you see a non-const pointer, you're guaranteed that it is used to modify the storage it points to, or it is aliased to another pointer that is. 2.3. Typedefs Typedefs are used to eliminate the redundant 'struct' keyword. 2.4. Reserved namespaces in C and POSIX Underscore capital, double underscore, and underscore 't' suffixes should be avoided. 3. Low level memory management Use of the malloc/free/realloc/calloc/valloc/memalign/posix_memalign APIs is not allowed in the QEMU codebase. Instead of these routines, use the GLib memory allocation routines g_malloc/g_malloc0/g_new/ g_new0/g_realloc/g_free or QEMU's qemu_memalign/qemu_blockalign/qemu_vfree APIs. Please note that g_malloc will exit on allocation failure, so there is no need to test for failure (as you would have to with malloc). Calling g_malloc with a zero size is valid and will return NULL. Memory allocated by qemu_memalign or qemu_blockalign must be freed with qemu_vfree, since breaking this will cause problems on Win32. 4. String manipulation Do not use the strncpy function. As mentioned in the man page, it does *not* guarantee a NULL-terminated buffer, which makes it extremely dangerous to use. It also zeros trailing destination bytes out to the specified length. Instead, use this similar function when possible, but note its different signature: void pstrcpy(char *dest, int dest_buf_size, const char *src) Don't use strcat because it can't check for buffer overflows, but: char *pstrcat(char *buf, int buf_size, const char *s) The same limitation exists with sprintf and vsprintf, so use snprintf and vsnprintf. QEMU provides other useful string functions: int strstart(const char *str, const char *val, const char **ptr) int stristart(const char *str, const char *val, const char **ptr) int qemu_strnlen(const char *s, int max_len) There are also replacement character processing macros for isxyz and toxyz, so instead of e.g. isalnum you should use qemu_isalnum. Because of the memory management rules, you must use g_strdup/g_strndup instead of plain strdup/strndup. 5. Printf-style functions Whenever you add a new printf-style function, i.e., one with a format string argument and following "..." in its prototype, be sure to use gcc's printf attribute directive in the prototype. This makes it so gcc's -Wformat and -Wformat-security options can do their jobs and cross-check format strings with the number and types of arguments. 6. C standard, implementation defined and undefined behaviors C code in QEMU should be written to the C99 language specification. A copy of the final version of the C99 standard with corrigenda TC1, TC2, and TC3 included, formatted as a draft, can be downloaded from: http://www.open-std.org/jtc1/sc22/WG14/www/docs/n1256.pdf The C language specification defines regions of undefined behavior and implementation defined behavior (to give compiler authors enough leeway to produce better code). In general, code in QEMU should follow the language specification and avoid both undefined and implementation defined constructs. ("It works fine on the gcc I tested it with" is not a valid argument...) However there are a few areas where we allow ourselves to assume certain behaviors because in practice all the platforms we care about behave in the same way and writing strictly conformant code would be painful. These are: * you may assume that integers are 2s complement representation * you may assume that right shift of a signed integer duplicates the sign bit (ie it is an arithmetic shift, not a logical shift) In addition, QEMU assumes that the compiler does not use the latitude given in C99 and C11 to treat aspects of signed '<<' as undefined, as documented in the GNU Compiler Collection manual starting at version 4.0. 7. Error handling and reporting 7.1 Reporting errors to the human user Do not use printf(), fprintf() or monitor_printf(). Instead, use error_report() or error_vreport() from error-report.h. This ensures the error is reported in the right place (current monitor or stderr), and in a uniform format. Use error_printf() & friends to print additional information. error_report() prints the current location. In certain common cases like command line parsing, the current location is tracked automatically. To manipulate it manually, use the loc_*() from error-report.h. 7.2 Propagating errors An error can't always be reported to the user right where it's detected, but often needs to be propagated up the call chain to a place that can handle it. This can be done in various ways. The most flexible one is Error objects. See error.h for usage information. Use the simplest suitable method to communicate success / failure to callers. Stick to common methods: non-negative on success / -1 on error, non-negative / -errno, non-null / null, or Error objects. Example: when a function returns a non-null pointer on success, and it can fail only in one way (as far as the caller is concerned), returning null on failure is just fine, and certainly simpler and a lot easier on the eyes than propagating an Error object through an Error ** parameter. Example: when a function's callers need to report details on failure only the function really knows, use Error **, and set suitable errors. Do not report an error to the user when you're also returning an error for somebody else to handle. Leave the reporting to the place that consumes the error returned. 7.3 Handling errors Calling exit() is fine when handling configuration errors during startup. It's problematic during normal operation. In particular, monitor commands should never exit(). Do not call exit() or abort() to handle an error that can be triggered by the guest (e.g., some unimplemented corner case in guest code translation or device emulation). Guests should not be able to terminate QEMU. Note that &error_fatal is just another way to exit(1), and &error_abort is just another way to abort().