11 This file contains information for anyone wanting to work on the Geany
12 codebase. You should be aware of the open source licenses used - see
13 the README file or the documentation. It is reStructuredText; the
14 source file is HACKING. You can generate hacking.html by running ``make
15 hacking-doc`` from the doc/ subdirectory.
19 * src/plugindata.h contains the plugin API data types.
20 * See plugins/demoplugin.c for a very basic example plugin.
21 * src/plugins.c loads and unloads plugins (you shouldn't need to read
23 * The API documentation contains a few basic guidelines and hints to
26 You should generate and read the plugin API documentation, see below.
28 Plugin API documentation
29 ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
30 You can generate documentation for the plugin API using the doxygen
31 tool. Run ``make api-doc`` in the doc subdirectory. The documentation
32 will be output to doc/reference/index.html.
33 Alternatively you can view the API documentation online at
34 http://www.geany.org/manual/reference/.
38 We are happy to receive patches, but it's best to check with us by email
39 or mailing list whether a new feature is appropriate, and whether someone
40 is already working on similar code.
42 In general it's best to provide git-formatted patches made from the
43 current Git (see `Committing`_)::
46 $ git format-patch HEAD^
48 We also accept patches against other releases, but it's more work for us.
50 If you're not using Git, although you're strongly suggested to used it,
51 you can use the diff command::
53 $ diff -u originalpath modifiedpath > new-feature.patch
55 However, such a patch won't contain the authoring information nor the
59 Please make sure patches follow the style of existing code - In
60 particular, use tabs for indentation. See `Coding`_.
64 * Git: http://git-scm.com/ and http://code.google.com/p/msysgit/
65 * diff, grep, etc: http://mingw.org/ or http://unxutils.sourceforge.net/
67 See also the 'Building on Windows' document on the website.
71 callbacks.c is just for Glade callbacks.
72 Avoid adding code to geany.h if it will fit better elsewhere.
73 See the top of each ``src/*.c`` file for a brief description of what
78 Please be aware that anything with a doc-comment (a comment with an
79 extra asterix: ``/**``) is something in the plugin API. Things like
80 enums and structs can usually still be appended to, ensuring that all
81 the existing elements stay in place - this will keep the ABI stable.
85 Some structs like GeanyCallback cannot be appended to without
86 breaking the ABI because they are used to declare structs by
87 plugins, not just for accessing struct members through a pointer.
88 Normally structs should never be allocated by plugins.
90 Keeping the plugin ABI stable
91 ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
92 Before the 1.0 release series, the ABI can change when necessary, and
93 even the API can change. An ABI change just means that all plugins will
94 not load and they must be rebuilt. An API change means that some plugins
95 might not build correctly.
97 If you're reordering or changing existing elements of structs that are
98 used as part of the plugin API, you must increment GEANY_ABI_VERSION
99 in plugindata.h. This is usually not needed if you're just appending
100 fields to structs. The GEANY_API_VERSION value should be incremented
101 for any changes to the plugin API, including appending elements.
103 If you're in any doubt when making changes to plugin API code, just ask us.
105 Plugin API/ABI design
106 ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
107 You should not make plugins rely on the size of a struct. This means:
109 * Don't let plugins allocate any structs (stack or heap).
110 * Don't let plugins index any arrays of structs.
111 * Don't add any array fields to structs in case we want to change the
116 * The @file tag can go in the source .c file, but use the .h header name so
117 it appears normally in the generated documentation. See ui_utils.c for an
119 * Function doc-comments should always go in the source file, not the
120 header, so they can be updated if/when the implementation changes.
124 Use the code generation features of Glade instead of editing interface.c
125 or support.c. Glade 2.12 is required as later Glade versions do not
126 have the code generation features anymore. At some point we'll switch to
127 GtkBuilder, probably.
129 You can build Glade 2.12 and run the binary in place, without installing
130 it - this should work fine even if you have another version of Glade
131 installed on the system.
133 You can download Glade 2.12.2 here:
134 http://download.geany.org/glade-2.12.2.tar.gz
136 On recent GTK versions, you need a small patch to make it compile.
137 You can get the patch from:
138 http://download.geany.org/glade-2.12.2-build-fixes.patch
140 And then simply apply it like so::
142 $ /tmp/glade-2.12.2% patch -p1 < glade-2.12.2-build-fixes.patch
145 GTK versions & API documentation
146 --------------------------------
147 Geany requires GTK >= 2.12 and GLib >= 2.16. API symbols from newer
148 GTK/GLib versions should be avoided or made optional to keep the source
149 code building on older systems.
151 The official GTK 2.12 API documentation may not be available online
152 anymore, so we put it on http://www.geany.org/manual/gtk/. There
153 is also a tarball with all available files for download and use with
156 Using the 2.12 API documentation of the GTK libs (including GLib, GDK
157 and Pango) has the advantages that you don't get confused by any
158 newer API additions and you don't have to take care about whether
159 you can use them or not.
163 * Don't write long functions with a lot of variables and/or scopes - break
164 them down into smaller static functions where possible. This makes code
165 much easier to read and maintain.
166 * Use GLib types and functions - gint not int, g_free() not free().
167 * Your code should build against GLib 2.16 and GTK 2.12. At least for the
168 moment, we want to keep the minimum requirement for GTK at 2.12 (of
169 course, you can use the GTK_CHECK_VERSION macro to protect code using
171 * Variables should be declared before statements. You can use
172 gcc's -Wdeclaration-after-statement to warn about this.
173 * Don't let variable names shadow outer variables - use gcc's -Wshadow
176 Compiler options & warnings
177 ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
178 Use ``CFLAGS='-Wfoo' ./configure`` or ``CFLAGS='-Wfoo' ./autogen.sh``
179 to set warning options (as well as anything else e.g. -g -O2).
181 * Enable warnings - for gcc use '-Wall -W' (and optionally
182 -Wno-unused-parameter to avoid unused parameter warnings in Glade
184 * You should try to write ISO C90 code for portability, so always
185 use C ``/* */`` comments and function_name(void) instead of
186 function_name(). This is for compatibility with various Unix-like
187 compilers. You should use -ansi to help check this.
190 Remember for gcc you need to enable optimization to get certain
191 warnings like uninitialized variables, but for debugging it's
192 better to have no optimization on.
196 * We use a tab width of 4 and indent completely with tabs not spaces.
197 Note the documentation files use (4) spaces instead, so you may want
198 to use the 'Detect from file' indent pref.
199 * Use the multiline comment ``/* */`` to comment small blocks of code,
200 functions descriptions or longer explanations of code, etc. C++ single
201 line comments will cause portability issues. The more comments are in
202 your code the better. (See also ``scripts/fix-cxx-comments.pl`` in Git).
203 * Lines should not be longer than about 100 characters and after 100
204 characters the lines should be wrapped and indented once more to
205 show that the line is continued.
206 * We don't put spaces between function names and the opening brace for
208 * Variable declarations come first after an opening brace, then one
209 newline to separate declarations and code.
210 * 2-operand operators should have a space each side.
211 * Function bodies should have 2 blank newlines after them.
212 * Align braces together on separate lines.
213 * Don't put assignments in 'if/while/etc' expressions.
214 * if statements without brace bodies should have the code on a separate
215 line, then a blank line afterwards.
216 * Use braces after if/while statements if the body uses another
218 * Try to fit in with the existing code style.
221 A few of the above can be done with the Git
222 ``scripts/fix-alignment.pl``, but it is quite dumb and it's much better
223 to write it correctly in the first place.
225 .. below tabs should be used, but spaces are required for reST.
229 gint some_func(void);
232 gint function_long_name(gchar arg1, <too many args to fit on this line>,
235 /* variable declarations go before code in each scope */
236 gint foo, bar; /* variables can go on the same line */
237 gchar *ptr; /* pointer symbol must go next to variable name, not type */
238 gchar *another; /* pointers should normally go on separate lines */
240 /* Some long comment block
241 * taking several different
242 * lines to explain */
245 gint dir = -1; /* -1 to search backwards */
248 if ((bar & (guint)dir) != 7)
249 some_code(arg1, <too many args to fit on this line>,
257 gint another_function(void)
265 Commit one thing at a time, do small commits. Commits should be
266 meaningful and not too big when possible; multiple small commits are
267 good if there is no good reason to group them.
269 When working on a new feature, create a new branch for it. When merging
270 it, use the --no-ff option to make sure a merge commit will be created
271 to better track what happened. However, if the feature only took one
272 commit you might merge it fast-forward since there is not history to
277 Follow the standard Git formatting:
279 * First line is the commit's summary and should use less than about 80
280 characters, and is followed by an empty line. See it like the subject
281 of an email: keep it concise and as precise as you can, but not tool
283 * Following lines are optional detailed commit information, with
284 paragraphs separated by blank lines.
288 Ask the user if spawn fails in utils_open_browser()
290 Ask the user to configure a valid browser command if spawning it
291 fails rather than falling back to some arbitrary hardcoded defaults.
293 This avoid spawning an unexpected browser when the configured one is
294 wrong, and gives the user a chance to correctly fix the preference.
299 * Run with ``-v`` to print any debug messages.
300 * You can use a second instance (``geany -i``).
301 * To check first-run behaviour, use an alternate config directory by
302 passing ``-c some_dir`` (but make sure the directory is clean first).
303 * For debugging tips, see `GDB`_.
305 Bugs to watch out for
306 ---------------------
307 * Forgetting to check *doc->is_valid* when looping through
308 *documents_array* - instead use *foreach_document()*.
309 * Inserting fields into structs in the plugin API instead of appending.
310 * Not breaking the plugin ABI when necessary.
311 * Using an idle callback that doesn't check main_status.quitting.
312 * Forgetting CRLF line endings on Windows.
313 * Not handling Tabs & Spaces indent mode.
317 We try to use an unmodified version of Scintilla - any new lexers or
318 other changes should be passed on to the maintainers at
319 http://scintilla.org. We normally update to a new Scintilla release
320 shortly after one is made. See also scintilla/README.
322 Tagmanager was originally taken from Anjuta 1.2.2, and parts of it
323 (notably c.c) have been merged from later versions of Anjuta and
324 CTags. The independent Tagmanager library itself ceased development
325 before Geany was started. It's source code parsing is mostly taken from
326 Exuberant CTags (see http://ctags.sf.net). If appropriate it's good to
327 pass language parser changes back to the CTags project.
332 Some of these notes below are brief (or maybe incomplete) - please
333 contact the geany-devel mailing list for more information.
335 Using pre-defined autotools values
336 ----------------------------------
337 When you are use macros supplied by the autotools like GEANY_PREFIX,
338 GEANY_LIBDIR, GEANY_DATADIR and GEANY_LOCALEDIR be aware that these
339 might not be static strings when Geany is configured with
340 --enable-binreloc. Then these macros will be replaced by function calls
341 (in src/prefix.h). So, don't use anything like
342 printf("Prefix: " GEANY_PREFIX); but instead use
343 printf("Prefix: %s", GEANY_PREFIX);
345 Adding a source file foo.[hc] in src/ or plugins/
346 -------------------------------------------------
347 * Add foo.c, foo.h to SRCS in path/Makefile.am.
348 * Add foo.o to OBJS in path/makefile.win32.
349 * Add path/foo.c to geany_sources in wscript.
350 * Add path/foo.c to po/POTFILES.in (for string translation).
354 You can add a filetype without syntax highlighting or tag parsing, but
355 check to see if those features have been written in other projects first.
357 * Add GEANY_FILETYPES_FOO to filetypes.h.
358 * Initialize GEANY_FILETYPES_FOO in init_builtin_filetypes() of
359 filetypes.c. You should use filetype_make_title() to avoid a
360 translation whenever possible.
361 * Update data/filetype_extensions.conf.
363 filetypes.* configuration file
364 ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
365 All languages need a data/filetypes.foo configuration file. See
366 the "Filetype definition files" section in the manual and/or
367 data/filetypes.c for an example.
369 Programming languages should have:
371 * [keywords] if the lexer supports it.
372 * [settings] mostly for comment settings.
373 * [build_settings] for commands to run.
375 For languages with a Scintilla lexer, there should be a [styling] section,
376 to correspond to the styles used in styleset_foo() in highlighting.c -
381 It may be possible to use an existing Scintilla lexer in the scintilla/
382 subdirectory - if not, you will need to find (or write) one,
383 LexFoo.cxx. Try the official Scintilla project first.
386 We won't accept adding a lexer that conflicts with one in
387 Scintilla. All new lexers should be submitted back to the Scintilla
388 project to save duplication of work.
390 When adding a lexer, update:
392 * scintilla/Makefile.am
393 * scintilla/makefile.win32
395 * scintilla/KeyWords.cxx - add a LINK_LEXER command *manually*
397 For syntax highlighting, you will need to edit highlighting.c and add
398 the following things:
400 1. Write styleset_foo_init() to setup lexer styles and load style
401 settings from the filetypes.foo configuration file. You should probably
402 start by copying and adapting another filetype's initialization, such
403 as styleset_tcl_init(). You may want to use load_style_entries().
404 2. Write styleset_foo() to apply styles when a new scintilla widget
405 is created. Again you could copy and adapt a function like
406 styleset_tcl(). You may want to use apply_style_entries().
407 3. In highlighting_init_styles(), add
408 ``init_styleset_case(GEANY_FILETYPES_FOO, styleset_foo_init);``.
409 4. In highlighting_set_styles(), add
410 ``styleset_case(GEANY_FILETYPES_FOO, styleset_foo);``.
411 5. Write data/filetypes.foo configuration file [styling] section. See
412 the manual and see data/filetypes.d for a named style example.
415 Please try to make your styles fit in with the other filetypes'
416 default colors, and to use named styles where possible (e.g.
417 "commentline=comment"). Filetypes that share a lexer should have
418 the same colors. If not using named styles, leave the background color
419 empty to match the default color.
421 Error message parsing
422 ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
423 New-style error message parsing is done with an extended GNU-style regex
424 stored in the filetypes.foo file - see the [build_settings] information
425 in the manual for details.
427 Old-style error message parsing is done in
428 msgwin_parse_compiler_error_line() of msgwindow.c - see the ParseData
429 typedef for more information.
433 If the lexer has comment styles, you should add them in
434 highlighting_is_comment_style(). You should also update
435 highlighting_is_string_style() for string/character styles. For now,
436 this prevents calltips and autocompletion when typing in a comment
437 (but it can still be forced by the user).
439 For brace indentation, update lexer_has_braces() in editor.c;
440 indentation after ':' is done from on_new_line_added().
442 If the Scintilla lexer supports user type keyword highlighting (e.g.
443 SCLEX_CPP), update editor_lexer_get_type_keyword_idx() in editor.c.
445 Adding a TagManager parser
446 ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
447 This assumes the filetype for Geany already exists.
449 First write or find a CTags compatible parser, foo.c. Note that there
450 are some language patches for CTags at:
451 http://sf.net/projects/ctags - see the tracker.
453 (You can also try the Anjuta project's tagmanager codebase.)
456 From Geany 1.22 GLib's GRegex engine is used instead of POSIX
457 regex, unlike CTags. It should be close enough to POSIX to work
459 We no longer support regex parsers with the "b" regex flag
460 option set and Geany will print debug warnings if it's used.
461 CTags supports it but doesn't currently (2011) include any
462 parsers that use it. It should be easy to convert to extended
467 * Add foo.c to SRCS in Makefile.am.
468 * Add foo.o to OBJS in makefile.win32.
469 * Add path/foo.c to geany_sources in wscript.
470 * Add Foo to parsers.h & fill in comment with parser number for foo.
473 Edit FooKinds 3rd column to match a s_tag_type_names string in tm_tag.c.
474 (You may want to make the symbols.c change before doing this).
476 In filetypes.c, init_builtin_filetypes():
477 Set filetypes[GEANY_FILETYPES_FOO].lang = foo's parser number.
480 Unless your parser uses C-like tag type kinds, update
481 add_top_level_items() for foo, calling tag_list_add_groups(). See
482 get_tag_type_iter() for which tv_iters fields to use.
490 When a GLib or GTK warning is printed, often you want to get a
491 backtrace to find out what code caused them. You can do that with the
492 ``--g-fatal-warnings`` argument, which will abort Geany on the first
495 But for ordinary testing, you don't always want your editor to abort
496 just because of a warning - use::
498 (gdb) b handler_log if level <= G_LOG_LEVEL_WARNING
501 Running with batch commands
502 ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
505 $ gdb src/geany -x gdb-commands
507 Where ``gdb-commands`` is a file with the following lines::
510 b handler_log if level <= G_LOG_LEVEL_WARNING
516 This is useful so you can load plugins without installing them first.
517 Alternatively you can use a symlink in ~/.config/geany/plugins or
518 $prefix/lib/geany (where $prefix is /usr/local by default).
520 The gdb session below was run from the toplevel Geany source directory.
521 Start normally with e.g. "gdb src/geany".
523 Press Ctrl-C from the gdb window to interrupt program execution.
527 Program received signal SIGINT, Interrupt.
528 0x00d16402 in __kernel_vsyscall ()
529 (gdb) call plugin_new("./plugins/.libs/demoplugin.so")
530 ** INFO: Loaded: ./plugins/.libs/demoplugin.so (Demo)
531 $1 = (Plugin *) 0x905a890
535 Program received signal SIGINT, Interrupt.
536 0x00d16402 in __kernel_vsyscall ()
537 (gdb) call plugin_free(0x905a890)
538 ** INFO: Unloaded: ./plugins/.libs/demoplugin.so