coding-guidelines.rst 7.4 KB

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  1. .. SPDX-License-Identifier: GPL-2.0
  2. Coding Guidelines
  3. =================
  4. This document describes how to write Rust code in the kernel.
  5. Style & formatting
  6. ------------------
  7. The code should be formatted using ``rustfmt``. In this way, a person
  8. contributing from time to time to the kernel does not need to learn and
  9. remember one more style guide. More importantly, reviewers and maintainers
  10. do not need to spend time pointing out style issues anymore, and thus
  11. less patch roundtrips may be needed to land a change.
  12. .. note:: Conventions on comments and documentation are not checked by
  13. ``rustfmt``. Thus those are still needed to be taken care of.
  14. The default settings of ``rustfmt`` are used. This means the idiomatic Rust
  15. style is followed. For instance, 4 spaces are used for indentation rather
  16. than tabs.
  17. It is convenient to instruct editors/IDEs to format while typing,
  18. when saving or at commit time. However, if for some reason reformatting
  19. the entire kernel Rust sources is needed at some point, the following can be
  20. run::
  21. make LLVM=1 rustfmt
  22. It is also possible to check if everything is formatted (printing a diff
  23. otherwise), for instance for a CI, with::
  24. make LLVM=1 rustfmtcheck
  25. Like ``clang-format`` for the rest of the kernel, ``rustfmt`` works on
  26. individual files, and does not require a kernel configuration. Sometimes it may
  27. even work with broken code.
  28. Comments
  29. --------
  30. "Normal" comments (i.e. ``//``, rather than code documentation which starts
  31. with ``///`` or ``//!``) are written in Markdown the same way as documentation
  32. comments are, even though they will not be rendered. This improves consistency,
  33. simplifies the rules and allows to move content between the two kinds of
  34. comments more easily. For instance:
  35. .. code-block:: rust
  36. // `object` is ready to be handled now.
  37. f(object);
  38. Furthermore, just like documentation, comments are capitalized at the beginning
  39. of a sentence and ended with a period (even if it is a single sentence). This
  40. includes ``// SAFETY:``, ``// TODO:`` and other "tagged" comments, e.g.:
  41. .. code-block:: rust
  42. // FIXME: The error should be handled properly.
  43. Comments should not be used for documentation purposes: comments are intended
  44. for implementation details, not users. This distinction is useful even if the
  45. reader of the source file is both an implementor and a user of an API. In fact,
  46. sometimes it is useful to use both comments and documentation at the same time.
  47. For instance, for a ``TODO`` list or to comment on the documentation itself.
  48. For the latter case, comments can be inserted in the middle; that is, closer to
  49. the line of documentation to be commented. For any other case, comments are
  50. written after the documentation, e.g.:
  51. .. code-block:: rust
  52. /// Returns a new [`Foo`].
  53. ///
  54. /// # Examples
  55. ///
  56. // TODO: Find a better example.
  57. /// ```
  58. /// let foo = f(42);
  59. /// ```
  60. // FIXME: Use fallible approach.
  61. pub fn f(x: i32) -> Foo {
  62. // ...
  63. }
  64. One special kind of comments are the ``// SAFETY:`` comments. These must appear
  65. before every ``unsafe`` block, and they explain why the code inside the block is
  66. correct/sound, i.e. why it cannot trigger undefined behavior in any case, e.g.:
  67. .. code-block:: rust
  68. // SAFETY: `p` is valid by the safety requirements.
  69. unsafe { *p = 0; }
  70. ``// SAFETY:`` comments are not to be confused with the ``# Safety`` sections
  71. in code documentation. ``# Safety`` sections specify the contract that callers
  72. (for functions) or implementors (for traits) need to abide by. ``// SAFETY:``
  73. comments show why a call (for functions) or implementation (for traits) actually
  74. respects the preconditions stated in a ``# Safety`` section or the language
  75. reference.
  76. Code documentation
  77. ------------------
  78. Rust kernel code is not documented like C kernel code (i.e. via kernel-doc).
  79. Instead, the usual system for documenting Rust code is used: the ``rustdoc``
  80. tool, which uses Markdown (a lightweight markup language).
  81. To learn Markdown, there are many guides available out there. For instance,
  82. the one at:
  83. https://commonmark.org/help/
  84. This is how a well-documented Rust function may look like:
  85. .. code-block:: rust
  86. /// Returns the contained [`Some`] value, consuming the `self` value,
  87. /// without checking that the value is not [`None`].
  88. ///
  89. /// # Safety
  90. ///
  91. /// Calling this method on [`None`] is *[undefined behavior]*.
  92. ///
  93. /// [undefined behavior]: https://doc.rust-lang.org/reference/behavior-considered-undefined.html
  94. ///
  95. /// # Examples
  96. ///
  97. /// ```
  98. /// let x = Some("air");
  99. /// assert_eq!(unsafe { x.unwrap_unchecked() }, "air");
  100. /// ```
  101. pub unsafe fn unwrap_unchecked(self) -> T {
  102. match self {
  103. Some(val) => val,
  104. // SAFETY: The safety contract must be upheld by the caller.
  105. None => unsafe { hint::unreachable_unchecked() },
  106. }
  107. }
  108. This example showcases a few ``rustdoc`` features and some conventions followed
  109. in the kernel:
  110. - The first paragraph must be a single sentence briefly describing what
  111. the documented item does. Further explanations must go in extra paragraphs.
  112. - Unsafe functions must document their safety preconditions under
  113. a ``# Safety`` section.
  114. - While not shown here, if a function may panic, the conditions under which
  115. that happens must be described under a ``# Panics`` section.
  116. Please note that panicking should be very rare and used only with a good
  117. reason. In almost all cases, a fallible approach should be used, typically
  118. returning a ``Result``.
  119. - If providing examples of usage would help readers, they must be written in
  120. a section called ``# Examples``.
  121. - Rust items (functions, types, constants...) must be linked appropriately
  122. (``rustdoc`` will create a link automatically).
  123. - Any ``unsafe`` block must be preceded by a ``// SAFETY:`` comment
  124. describing why the code inside is sound.
  125. While sometimes the reason might look trivial and therefore unneeded,
  126. writing these comments is not just a good way of documenting what has been
  127. taken into account, but most importantly, it provides a way to know that
  128. there are no *extra* implicit constraints.
  129. To learn more about how to write documentation for Rust and extra features,
  130. please take a look at the ``rustdoc`` book at:
  131. https://doc.rust-lang.org/rustdoc/how-to-write-documentation.html
  132. Naming
  133. ------
  134. Rust kernel code follows the usual Rust naming conventions:
  135. https://rust-lang.github.io/api-guidelines/naming.html
  136. When existing C concepts (e.g. macros, functions, objects...) are wrapped into
  137. a Rust abstraction, a name as close as reasonably possible to the C side should
  138. be used in order to avoid confusion and to improve readability when switching
  139. back and forth between the C and Rust sides. For instance, macros such as
  140. ``pr_info`` from C are named the same in the Rust side.
  141. Having said that, casing should be adjusted to follow the Rust naming
  142. conventions, and namespacing introduced by modules and types should not be
  143. repeated in the item names. For instance, when wrapping constants like:
  144. .. code-block:: c
  145. #define GPIO_LINE_DIRECTION_IN 0
  146. #define GPIO_LINE_DIRECTION_OUT 1
  147. The equivalent in Rust may look like (ignoring documentation):
  148. .. code-block:: rust
  149. pub mod gpio {
  150. pub enum LineDirection {
  151. In = bindings::GPIO_LINE_DIRECTION_IN as _,
  152. Out = bindings::GPIO_LINE_DIRECTION_OUT as _,
  153. }
  154. }
  155. That is, the equivalent of ``GPIO_LINE_DIRECTION_IN`` would be referred to as
  156. ``gpio::LineDirection::In``. In particular, it should not be named
  157. ``gpio::gpio_line_direction::GPIO_LINE_DIRECTION_IN``.