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CONTRIBUTING.md

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Contributing to libc

Welcome! If you are reading this document, it means you are interested in contributing to the libc crate.

Adding an API

Want to use an API which currently isn't bound in libc? It's quite easy to add one!

The internal structure of this crate is designed to minimize the number of #[cfg] attributes in order to easily be able to add new items which apply to all platforms in the future. As a result, the crate is organized hierarchically based on platform. Each module has a number of #[cfg]'d children, but only one is ever actually compiled. Each module then reexports all the contents of its children.

This means that for each platform that libc supports, the path from a leaf module to the root will contain all bindings for the platform in question. Consequently, this indicates where an API should be added! Adding an API at a particular level in the hierarchy means that it is supported on all the child platforms of that level. For example, when adding a Unix API it should be added to src/unix/mod.rs, but when adding a Linux-only API it should be added to src/unix/linux_like/linux/mod.rs.

If you're not 100% sure at what level of the hierarchy an API should be added at, fear not! This crate has CI support which tests any binding against all platforms supported, so you'll see failures if an API is added at the wrong level or has different signatures across platforms.

New symbol(s) (i.e. functions, constants etc.) should also be added to the symbols list(s) found in the libc-test/semver directory. These lists keep track of what symbols are public in the libc crate and ensures they remain available between changes to the crate. If the new symbol(s) are available on all supported Unixes it should be added to unix.txt list1, otherwise they should be added to the OS specific list(s).

With that in mind, the steps for adding a new API are:

  1. Determine where in the module hierarchy your API should be added.
  2. Add the API, including adding new symbol(s) to the semver lists.
  3. Send a PR to this repo.
  4. Wait for CI to pass, fixing errors.
  5. Wait for a merge!

1: Note that this list has nothing to do with any Unix or Posix standard, it's just a list shared between all OSs that declare #[cfg(unix)].

Test before you commit

We have two automated tests running on GitHub Actions:

  1. libc-test
  • cd libc-test && cargo test
  • Use the skip_*() functions in build.rs if you really need a workaround.
  1. Style checker
  • rustc ci/style.rs && ./style src

Breaking change policy

Sometimes an upstream adds a breaking change to their API e.g. removing outdated items, changing the type signature, etc. And we probably should follow that change to build the libc crate successfully. It's annoying to do the equivalent of semver-major versioning for each such change. Instead, we mark the item as deprecated and do the actual change after a certain period. The steps are:

  1. Add #[deprecated(since = "", note="")] attribute to the item.
  • The since field should have a next version of libc (e.g., if the current version is 0.2.1, it should be 0.2.2).
  • The note field should have a reason to deprecate and a tracking issue to call for comments (e.g., "We consider removing this as the upstream removed it. If you're using it, please comment on #XXX").
  1. If we don't see any concerns for a while, do the change actually.

Releasing your change to crates.io

Now that you've done the amazing job of landing your new API or your new platform in this crate, the next step is to get that sweet, sweet usage from crates.io! The only next step is to bump the version of libc and then publish it. If you'd like to get a release out ASAP you can follow these steps:

  1. Increment the patch version number in Cargo.toml and libc-test/Cargo.toml.
  2. Send a PR to this repository. It should look like this, but it'd also be nice to fill out the description with a small rationale for the release (any rationale is ok though!)
  3. Once merged, the release will be tagged and published by one of the libc crate maintainers.