1 .. SPDX-License-Identifier: BSD-3-Clause
2 Copyright 2018 The DPDK contributors
12 This document specifies the preferred style for source files in the DPDK source tree.
13 It is based on the Linux Kernel coding guidelines and the FreeBSD 7.2 Kernel Developer's Manual (see man style(9)), but was heavily modified for the needs of the DPDK.
18 The rules and guidelines given in this document cannot cover every situation, so the following general guidelines should be used as a fallback:
20 * The code style should be consistent within each individual file.
21 * In the case of creating new files, the style should be consistent within each file in a given directory or module.
22 * The primary reason for coding standards is to increase code readability and comprehensibility, therefore always use whatever option will make the code easiest to read.
24 Line length is recommended to be not more than 80 characters, including comments.
25 [Tab stop size should be assumed to be 8-characters wide].
29 The above is recommendation, and not a hard limit.
30 However, it is expected that the recommendations should be followed in all but the rarest situations.
38 These comments should be used in normal cases.
39 To document a public API, a doxygen-like format must be used: refer to :ref:`doxygen_guidelines`.
44 * VERY important single-line comments look like this.
47 /* Most single-line comments look like this. */
50 * Multi-line comments look like this. Make them real sentences. Fill
51 * them so they look like real paragraphs.
57 Each file should begin with a special comment containing the appropriate copyright and license for the file.
58 Generally this is the BSD License, except for code for Linux Kernel modules.
59 After any copyright header, a blank line should be left before any other contents, e.g. include statements in a C file.
61 C Preprocessor Directives
62 -------------------------
67 In DPDK sources, the include files should be ordered as following:
69 #. libc includes (system includes first)
71 #. DPDK misc libraries includes
72 #. application-specific includes
74 Include files from the local application directory are included using quotes, while includes from other paths are included using angle brackets: "<>".
86 #include <rte_mempool.h>
88 #include "application.h"
93 Headers should be protected against multiple inclusion with the usual:
102 #endif /* _FILE_H_ */
108 Do not ``#define`` or declare names except with the standard DPDK prefix: ``RTE_``.
109 This is to ensure there are no collisions with definitions in the application itself.
111 The names of "unsafe" macros (ones that have side effects), and the names of macros for manifest constants, are all in uppercase.
113 The expansions of expression-like macros are either a single token or have outer parentheses.
114 If a macro is an inline expansion of a function, the function name is all in lowercase and the macro has the same name all in uppercase.
115 If the macro encapsulates a compound statement, enclose it in a do-while loop, so that it can be used safely in if statements.
116 Any final statement-terminating semicolon should be supplied by the macro invocation rather than the macro, to make parsing easier for pretty-printers and editors.
122 #define MACRO(x, y) do { \
123 variable = (x) + (y); \
129 Wherever possible, enums and inline functions should be preferred to macros, since they provide additional degrees of type-safety and can allow compilers to emit extra warnings about unsafe code.
131 Conditional Compilation
132 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
134 * When code is conditionally compiled using ``#ifdef`` or ``#if``, a comment may be added following the matching
135 ``#endif`` or ``#else`` to permit the reader to easily discern where conditionally compiled code regions end.
136 * This comment should be used only for (subjectively) long regions, regions greater than 20 lines, or where a series of nested ``#ifdef``'s may be confusing to the reader.
137 Exceptions may be made for cases where code is conditionally not compiled for the purposes of lint(1), or other tools, even though the uncompiled region may be small.
138 * The comment should be separated from the ``#endif`` or ``#else`` by a single space.
139 * For short conditionally compiled regions, a closing comment should not be used.
140 * The comment for ``#endif`` should match the expression used in the corresponding ``#if`` or ``#ifdef``.
141 * The comment for ``#else`` and ``#elif`` should match the inverse of the expression(s) used in the preceding ``#if`` and/or ``#elif`` statements.
142 * In the comments, the subexpression ``defined(FOO)`` is abbreviated as "FOO".
143 For the purposes of comments, ``#ifndef FOO`` is treated as ``#if !defined(FOO)``.
148 #include <sys/ktrace.h>
152 /* A large region here, or other conditional code. */
153 #else /* !COMPAT_43 */
155 #endif /* COMPAT_43 */
158 /* Yet another large region here, or other conditional code. */
159 #else /* COMPAT_43 */
161 #endif /* !COMPAT_43 */
165 Conditional compilation should be used only when absolutely necessary, as it increases the number of target binaries that need to be built and tested.
173 For fixed/minimum-size integer values, the project uses the form uintXX_t (from stdint.h) instead of older BSD-style integer identifiers of the form u_intXX_t.
178 * Enumeration values are all uppercase.
182 enum enumtype { ONE, TWO } et;
184 * Enum types should be used in preference to macros #defining a set of (sequential) values.
185 * Enum types should be prefixed with ``rte_`` and the elements by a suitable prefix [generally starting ``RTE_<enum>_`` - where <enum> is a shortname for the enum type] to avoid namespace collisions.
190 The developer should group bitfields that are included in the same integer, as follows:
207 Variable Declarations
208 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
210 In declarations, do not put any whitespace between asterisks and adjacent tokens, except for tokens that are identifiers related to types.
211 (These identifiers are the names of basic types, type qualifiers, and typedef-names other than the one being declared.)
212 Separate these identifiers from asterisks using a single space.
218 int *x; /* no space after asterisk */
219 int * const x; /* space after asterisk when using a type qualifier */
221 * All externally-visible variables should have an ``rte_`` prefix in the name to avoid namespace collisions.
222 * Do not use uppercase letters - either in the form of ALL_UPPERCASE, or CamelCase - in variable names.
223 Lower-case letters and underscores only.
225 Structure Declarations
226 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
228 * In general, when declaring variables in new structures, declare them sorted by use, then by size (largest to smallest), and then in alphabetical order.
229 Sorting by use means that commonly used variables are used together and that the structure layout makes logical sense.
230 Ordering by size then ensures that as little padding is added to the structure as possible.
231 * For existing structures, additions to structures should be added to the end so for backward compatibility reasons.
232 * Each structure element gets its own line.
233 * Try to make the structure readable by aligning the member names using spaces as shown below.
234 * Names following extremely long types, which therefore cannot be easily aligned with the rest, should be separated by a single space.
239 struct foo *next; /* List of active foo. */
240 struct mumble amumble; /* Comment for mumble. */
241 int bar; /* Try to align the comments. */
242 struct verylongtypename *baz; /* Won't fit with other members */
246 * Major structures should be declared at the top of the file in which they are used, or in separate header files if they are used in multiple source files.
247 * Use of the structures should be by separate variable declarations and those declarations must be extern if they are declared in a header file.
248 * Externally visible structure definitions should have the structure name prefixed by ``rte_`` to avoid namespace collisions.
252 Uses of ``bool`` in structures are not preferred as is wastes space and
253 it's also not clear as to what type size the bool is. A preferred use of
254 ``bool`` is mainly as a return type from functions that return true/false,
255 and maybe local variable functions.
257 Ref: `LKML <https://lkml.org/lkml/2017/11/21/384>`_
262 Use queue(3) macros rather than rolling your own lists, whenever possible.
263 Thus, the previous example would be better written:
267 #include <sys/queue.h>
270 LIST_ENTRY(foo) link; /* Use queue macros for foo lists. */
271 struct mumble amumble; /* Comment for mumble. */
272 int bar; /* Try to align the comments. */
273 struct verylongtypename *baz; /* Won't fit with other members */
275 LIST_HEAD(, foo) foohead; /* Head of global foo list. */
278 DPDK also provides an optimized way to store elements in lockless rings.
279 This should be used in all data-path code, when there are several consumer and/or producers to avoid locking for concurrent access.
284 Avoid using typedefs for structure types.
290 struct my_struct_type {
294 struct my_struct_type my_var;
301 typedef struct my_struct_type {
305 my_struct_type my_var
308 Typedefs are problematic because they do not properly hide their underlying type;
309 for example, you need to know if the typedef is the structure itself, as shown above, or a pointer to the structure.
310 In addition, they must be declared exactly once, whereas an incomplete structure type can be mentioned as many times as necessary.
311 Typedefs are difficult to use in stand-alone header files.
312 The header that defines the typedef must be included before the header that uses it, or by the header that uses it (which causes namespace pollution),
313 or there must be a back-door mechanism for obtaining the typedef.
315 Note that #defines used instead of typedefs also are problematic (since they do not propagate the pointer type correctly due to direct text replacement).
316 For example, ``#define pint int *`` does not work as expected, while ``typedef int *pint`` does work.
317 As stated when discussing macros, typedefs should be preferred to macros in cases like this.
319 When convention requires a typedef; make its name match the struct tag.
320 Avoid typedefs ending in ``_t``, except as specified in Standard C or by POSIX.
324 It is recommended to use typedefs to define function pointer types, for reasons of code readability.
325 This is especially true when the function type is used as a parameter to another function.
332 * Definition of a remote launch function.
334 typedef int (lcore_function_t)(void *);
336 /* launch a function of lcore_function_t type */
337 int rte_eal_remote_launch(lcore_function_t *f, void *arg, unsigned slave_id);
346 * Indentation is a hard tab, that is, a tab character, not a sequence of spaces,
350 Global whitespace rule in DPDK, use tabs for indentation, spaces for alignment.
352 * Do not put any spaces before a tab for indentation.
353 * If you have to wrap a long statement, put the operator at the end of the line, and indent again.
354 * For control statements (if, while, etc.), continuation it is recommended that the next line be indented by two tabs, rather than one,
355 to prevent confusion as to whether the second line of the control statement forms part of the statement body or not.
356 Alternatively, the line continuation may use additional spaces to line up to an appropriately point on the preceding line, for example, to align to an opening brace.
360 As with all style guidelines, code should match style already in use in an existing file.
364 while (really_long_variable_name_1 == really_long_variable_name_2 &&
365 var3 == var4){ /* confusing to read as */
366 x = y + z; /* control stmt body lines up with second line of */
367 a = b + c; /* control statement itself if single indent used */
370 if (really_long_variable_name_1 == really_long_variable_name_2 &&
371 var3 == var4){ /* two tabs used */
372 x = y + z; /* statement body no longer lines up */
376 z = a + really + long + statement + that + needs +
377 two + lines + gets + indented + on + the +
378 second + and + subsequent + lines;
381 * Do not add whitespace at the end of a line.
383 * Do not add whitespace or a blank line at the end of a file.
386 Control Statements and Loops
387 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
389 * Include a space after keywords (if, while, for, return, switch).
390 * Do not use braces (``{`` and ``}``) for control statements with zero or just a single statement, unless that statement is more than a single line in which case the braces are permitted.
394 for (p = buf; *p != '\0'; ++p)
399 z = a + really + long + statement + that + needs +
400 two + lines + gets + indented + on + the +
401 second + and + subsequent + lines;
408 val = realloc(val, newsize);
411 * Parts of a for loop may be left empty.
415 for (; cnt < 15; cnt++) {
420 * Closing and opening braces go on the same line as the else keyword.
421 * Braces that are not necessary should be left out.
437 * Do not use spaces after function names.
438 * Commas should have a space after them.
439 * No spaces after ``(`` or ``[`` or preceding the ``]`` or ``)`` characters.
443 error = function(a1, a2);
451 * Unary operators do not require spaces, binary operators do.
452 * Do not use parentheses unless they are required for precedence or unless the statement is confusing without them.
453 However, remember that other people may be more easily confused than you.
458 Exits should be 0 on success, or 1 on failure.
463 * Avoid obvious comments such as
464 * "Exit 0 on success."
471 * Variables should be declared at the start of a block of code rather than in the middle.
472 The exception to this is when the variable is ``const`` in which case the declaration must be at the point of first use/assignment.
473 * When declaring variables in functions, multiple variables per line are OK.
474 However, if multiple declarations would cause the line to exceed a reasonable line length, begin a new set of declarations on the next line rather than using a line continuation.
475 * Be careful to not obfuscate the code by initializing variables in the declarations, only the last variable on a line should be initialized.
476 If multiple variables are to be initialized when defined, put one per line.
477 * Do not use function calls in initializers, except for ``const`` variables.
481 int i = 0, j = 0, k = 0; /* bad, too many initializer */
483 char a = 0; /* OK, one variable per line with initializer */
486 float x, y = 0.0; /* OK, only last variable has initializer */
492 * Casts and sizeof statements are not followed by a space.
493 * Always write sizeof statements with parenthesis.
494 The redundant parenthesis rules do not apply to sizeof(var) instances.
496 C Function Definition, Declaration and Use
497 -------------------------------------------
502 * It is recommended (and generally required by the compiler) that all non-static functions are prototyped somewhere.
503 * Functions local to one source module should be declared static, and should not be prototyped unless absolutely necessary.
504 * Functions used from other parts of code (external API) must be prototyped in the relevant include file.
505 * Function prototypes should be listed in a logical order, preferably alphabetical unless there is a compelling reason to use a different ordering.
506 * Functions that are used locally in more than one module go into a separate header file, for example, "extern.h".
507 * Do not use the ``__P`` macro.
508 * Functions that are part of an external API should be documented using Doxygen-like comments above declarations. See :ref:`doxygen_guidelines` for details.
509 * Functions that are part of the external API must have an ``rte_`` prefix on the function name.
510 * Do not use uppercase letters - either in the form of ALL_UPPERCASE, or CamelCase - in function names. Lower-case letters and underscores only.
511 * When prototyping functions, associate names with parameter types, for example:
515 void function1(int fd); /* good */
516 void function2(int); /* bad */
518 * Short function prototypes should be contained on a single line.
519 Longer prototypes, e.g. those with many parameters, can be split across multiple lines.
520 The second and subsequent lines should be further indented as for line statement continuations as described in the previous section.
524 static char *function1(int _arg, const char *_arg2,
528 static void usage(void);
532 Unlike function definitions, the function prototypes do not need to place the function return type on a separate line.
537 * The function type should be on a line by itself preceding the function.
538 * The opening brace of the function body should be on a line by itself.
543 function(int a1, int a2, float fl, int a4)
547 * Do not declare functions inside other functions.
548 ANSI C states that such declarations have file scope regardless of the nesting of the declaration.
549 Hiding file declarations in what appears to be a local scope is undesirable and will elicit complaints from a good compiler.
550 * Old-style (K&R) function declaration should not be used, use ANSI function declarations instead as shown below.
551 * Long argument lists should be wrapped as described above in the function prototypes section.
556 * All major routines should have a comment briefly describing what
557 * they do. The comment before the "main" routine should describe
558 * what the program does.
561 main(int argc, char *argv[])
567 C Statement Style and Conventions
568 ---------------------------------
573 * NULL is the preferred null pointer constant.
574 Use NULL instead of ``(type *)0`` or ``(type *)NULL``, except where the compiler does not know the destination type e.g. for variadic args to a function.
575 * Test pointers against NULL, for example, use:
579 if (p == NULL) /* Good, compare pointer to NULL */
581 if (!p) /* Bad, using ! on pointer */
584 * Do not use ! for tests unless it is a boolean, for example, use:
588 if (*p == '\0') /* check character against (char)0 */
593 * Functions which create objects, or allocate memory, should return pointer types, and NULL on error.
594 The error type should be indicated may setting the variable ``rte_errno`` appropriately.
595 * Functions which work on bursts of packets, such as RX-like or TX-like functions, should return the number of packets handled.
596 * Other functions returning int should generally behave like system calls:
597 returning 0 on success and -1 on error, setting ``rte_errno`` to indicate the specific type of error.
598 * Where already standard in a given library, the alternative error approach may be used where the negative value is not -1 but is instead ``-errno`` if relevant, for example, ``-EINVAL``.
599 Note, however, to allow consistency across functions returning integer or pointer types, the previous approach is preferred for any new libraries.
600 * For functions where no error is possible, the function type should be ``void`` not ``int``.
601 * Routines returning ``void *`` should not have their return values cast to any pointer type.
602 (Typecasting can prevent the compiler from warning about missing prototypes as any implicit definition of a function returns int,
603 which, unlike ``void *``, needs a typecast to assign to a pointer variable.)
607 The above rule about not typecasting ``void *`` applies to malloc, as well as to DPDK functions.
609 * Values in return statements should not be enclosed in parentheses.
614 In the DPDK environment, use the logging interface provided:
618 /* register log types for this application */
619 int my_logtype1 = rte_log_register("myapp.log1");
620 int my_logtype2 = rte_log_register("myapp.log2");
622 /* set global log level to INFO */
623 rte_log_set_global_level(RTE_LOG_INFO);
625 /* only display messages higher than NOTICE for log2 (default
627 rte_log_set_level(my_logtype2, RTE_LOG_NOTICE);
629 /* enable all PMD logs (whose identifier string starts with "pmd.") */
630 rte_log_set_level_pattern("pmd.*", RTE_LOG_DEBUG);
632 /* log in debug level */
633 rte_log_set_global_level(RTE_LOG_DEBUG);
634 RTE_LOG(DEBUG, my_logtype1, "this is a debug level message\n");
635 RTE_LOG(INFO, my_logtype1, "this is a info level message\n");
636 RTE_LOG(WARNING, my_logtype1, "this is a warning level message\n");
637 RTE_LOG(WARNING, my_logtype2, "this is a debug level message (not displayed)\n");
639 /* log in info level */
640 rte_log_set_global_level(RTE_LOG_INFO);
641 RTE_LOG(DEBUG, my_logtype1, "debug level message (not displayed)\n");
646 * When a test is done in a critical zone (called often or in a data path) the code can use the ``likely()`` and ``unlikely()`` macros to indicate the expected, or preferred fast path.
647 They are expanded as a compiler builtin and allow the developer to indicate if the branch is likely to be taken or not. Example:
651 #include <rte_branch_prediction.h>
657 The use of ``likely()`` and ``unlikely()`` should only be done in performance critical paths,
658 and only when there is a clearly preferred path, or a measured performance increase gained from doing so.
659 These macros should be avoided in non-performance-critical code.
661 Static Variables and Functions
662 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
664 * All functions and variables that are local to a file must be declared as ``static`` because it can often help the compiler to do some optimizations (such as, inlining the code).
665 * Functions that should be inlined should to be declared as ``static inline`` and can be defined in a .c or a .h file.
668 Static functions defined in a header file must be declared as ``static inline`` in order to prevent compiler warnings about the function being unused.
673 The ``const`` attribute should be used as often as possible when a variable is read-only.
678 The ``asm`` and ``volatile`` keywords do not have underscores. The AT&T syntax should be used.
679 Input and output operands should be named to avoid confusion, as shown in the following example:
683 asm volatile("outb %[val], %[port]"
691 * Forever loops are done with for statements, not while statements.
692 * Elements in a switch statement that cascade should have a FALLTHROUGH comment. For example:
696 switch (ch) { /* Indent the switch. */
697 case 'a': /* Don't indent the case. */
698 aflag = 1; /* Indent case body one tab. */
712 DPDK provides infrastructure to perform logging during runtime. This is very
713 useful for enabling debug output without recompilation. To enable or disable
714 logging of a particular topic, the ``--log-level`` parameter can be provided
715 to EAL, which will change the log level. DPDK code can register topics,
716 which allows the user to adjust the log verbosity for that specific topic.
718 In general, the naming scheme is as follows: ``type.section.name``
720 * Type is the type of component, where ``lib``, ``pmd``, ``bus`` and ``user``
721 are the common options.
722 * Section refers to a specific area, for example a poll-mode-driver for an
723 ethernet device would use ``pmd.net``, while an eventdev PMD uses
725 * The name identifies the individual item that the log applies to.
726 The name section must align with
727 the directory that the PMD code resides. See examples below for clarity.
731 * The virtio network PMD in ``drivers/net/virtio`` uses ``pmd.net.virtio``
732 * The eventdev software poll mode driver in ``drivers/event/sw`` uses ``pmd.event.sw``
733 * The octeontx mempool driver in ``drivers/mempool/octeontx`` uses ``pmd.mempool.octeontx``
734 * The DPDK hash library in ``lib/librte_hash`` uses ``lib.hash``
739 In addition to the above logging topic, any PMD or library can further split
740 logging output by using "specializations". A specialization could be the
741 difference between initialization code, and logs of events that occur at runtime.
743 An example could be the initialization log messages getting one
744 specialization, while another specialization handles mailbox command logging.
745 Each PMD, library or component can create as many specializations as required.
747 A specialization looks like this:
749 * Initialization output: ``type.section.name.init``
750 * PF/VF mailbox output: ``type.section.name.mbox``
752 A real world example is the i40e poll mode driver which exposes two
753 specializations, one for initialization ``pmd.net.i40e.init`` and the other for
754 the remaining driver logs ``pmd.net.i40e.driver``.
756 Note that specializations have no formatting rules, but please follow
757 a precedent if one exists. In order to see all current log topics and
758 specializations, run the ``app/test`` binary, and use the ``dump_log_types``
763 All Python code should work with Python 2.7+ and 3.2+ and be compliant with
764 `PEP8 (Style Guide for Python Code) <https://www.python.org/dev/peps/pep-0008/>`_.
766 The ``pep8`` tool can be used for testing compliance with the guidelines.
768 Integrating with the Build System
769 ---------------------------------
771 DPDK supports being built in two different ways:
773 * using ``make`` - or more specifically "GNU make", i.e. ``gmake`` on FreeBSD
774 * using the tools ``meson`` and ``ninja``
776 Any new library or driver to be integrated into DPDK should support being
777 built with both systems. While building using ``make`` is a legacy approach, and
778 most build-system enhancements are being done using ``meson`` and ``ninja``
779 there are no plans at this time to deprecate the legacy ``make`` build system.
781 Therefore all new component additions should include both a ``Makefile`` and a
782 ``meson.build`` file, and should be added to the component lists in both the
783 ``Makefile`` and ``meson.build`` files in the relevant top-level directory:
784 either ``lib`` directory or a ``driver`` subdirectory.
789 The ``Makefile`` for the component should be of the following format, where
790 ``<name>`` corresponds to the name of the library in question, e.g. hash,
791 lpm, etc. For drivers, the same format of Makefile is used.
795 # pull in basic DPDK definitions, including whether library is to be
797 include $(RTE_SDK)/mk/rte.vars.mk
800 LIB = librte_<name>.a
802 # any library cflags needed. Generally add "-O3 $(WERROR_FLAGS)"
804 CFLAGS += $(WERROR_FLAGS)
806 # the symbol version information for the library
807 EXPORT_MAP := rte_<name>_version.map
809 # all source filenames are stored in SRCS-y
810 SRCS-$(CONFIG_RTE_LIBRTE_<NAME>) += rte_<name>.c
813 SYMLINK-$(CONFIG_RTE_LIBRTE_<NAME>)-include += rte_<name>.h
815 # pull in rules to build the library
816 include $(RTE_SDK)/mk/rte.lib.mk
818 Meson Build File Contents - Libraries
819 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
821 The ``meson.build`` file for a new DPDK library should be of the following basic
824 .. code-block:: python
826 sources = files('file1.c', ...)
827 headers = files('file1.h', ...)
830 This will build based on a number of conventions and assumptions within the DPDK
831 itself, for example, that the library name is the same as the directory name in
832 which the files are stored.
834 For a library ``meson.build`` file, there are number of variables which can be
835 set, some mandatory, others optional. The mandatory fields are:
838 **Default Value = []**.
839 This variable should list out the files to be compiled up to create the
840 library. Files must be specified using the meson ``files()`` function.
843 The optional fields are:
846 **Default Value = true**
847 Used to optionally compile a library, based on its dependencies or
848 environment. When set to "false" the ``reason`` value, explained below, should
849 also be set to explain to the user why the component is not being built.
850 A simple example of use would be:
852 .. code-block:: python
856 reason = 'only supported on Linux'
861 **Default Value = [<-march/-mcpu flags>]**.
862 Used to specify any additional cflags that need to be passed to compile
863 the sources in the library.
866 **Default Value = ['eal']**.
867 Used to list the internal library dependencies of the library. It should
868 be assigned to using ``+=`` rather than overwriting using ``=``. The
869 dependencies should be specified as strings, each one giving the name of
870 a DPDK library, without the ``librte_`` prefix. Dependencies are handled
871 recursively, so specifying e.g. ``mempool``, will automatically also
872 make the library depend upon the mempool library's dependencies too -
873 ``ring`` and ``eal``. For libraries that only depend upon EAL, this
874 variable may be omitted from the ``meson.build`` file. For example:
876 .. code-block:: python
882 **Default Value = []**.
883 Used to specify external dependencies of this library. They should be
884 returned as dependency objects, as returned from the meson
885 ``dependency()`` or ``find_library()`` functions. Before returning
886 these, they should be checked to ensure the dependencies have been
887 found, and, if not, the ``build`` variable should be set to ``false``.
890 .. code-block:: python
892 my_dep = dependency('libX', required: 'false')
901 **Default Value = []**.
902 Used to return the list of header files for the library that should be
903 installed to $PREFIX/include when ``ninja install`` is run. As with
904 source files, these should be specified using the meson ``files()``
908 **Default Value = []**.
909 Used to indicate any additional header file paths which should be
910 added to the header search path for other libs depending on this
911 library. EAL uses this so that other libraries building against it
912 can find the headers in subdirectories of the main EAL directory. The
913 base directory of each library is always given in the include path,
914 it does not need to be specified here.
917 **Default Value = library name derived from the directory name**.
918 If a library's .so or .a file differs from that given in the directory
919 name, the name should be specified using this variable. In practice,
920 since the convention is that for a library called ``librte_xyz.so``, the
921 sources are stored in a directory ``lib/librte_xyz``, this value should
922 never be needed for new libraries.
926 The name value also provides the name used to find the function version
927 map file, as part of the build process, so if the directory name and
928 library names differ, the ``version.map`` file should be named
929 consistently with the library, not the directory
932 **Default Value = []**.
933 This variable can be used to pass to the library build some pre-built
934 objects that were compiled up as part of another target given in the
935 included library ``meson.build`` file.
938 **Default Value = '<unknown reason>'**.
939 This variable should be used when a library is not to be built i.e. when
940 ``build`` is set to "false", to specify the reason why a library will not be
941 built. For missing dependencies this should be of the form
942 ``'missing dependency, "libname"'``.
944 use_function_versioning
945 **Default Value = false**.
946 Specifies if the library in question has ABI versioned functions. If it
947 has, this value should be set to ensure that the C files are compiled
948 twice with suitable parameters for each of shared or static library
951 Meson Build File Contents - Drivers
952 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
954 For drivers, the values are largely the same as for libraries. The variables
970 **Default Value = <driver directory>** Some drivers include a base
971 directory for additional source files and headers, so we have this
972 variable to allow the headers from that base directory to be found when
973 compiling driver sources. Should be appended to using ``+=`` rather than
974 overwritten using ``=``. The values appended should be meson include
975 objects got using the ``include_directories()`` function. For example:
977 .. code-block:: python
979 includes += include_directories('base')
982 As above, though note that each driver class can define it's own naming
983 scheme for the resulting ``.so`` files.
986 As above, generally used for the contents of the ``base`` directory.
989 **Default Value = []**
990 This variable is used to pass additional library link flags through to
991 the DPDK pkgconfig file generated, for example, to track any additional
992 libraries that may need to be linked into the build - especially when
993 using static libraries. Anything added here will be appended to the end
994 of the ``pkgconfig --libs`` output.