summaryrefslogtreecommitdiffstats
path: root/doc/styleguide.txt
diff options
context:
space:
mode:
authorDaniel Baumann <daniel.baumann@progress-linux.org>2024-04-15 16:24:27 +0000
committerDaniel Baumann <daniel.baumann@progress-linux.org>2024-04-15 16:24:27 +0000
commit6c18848a903eb3ee06dccd915859ce64195c257c (patch)
treeea0fe36eb5e6f40e0a1f765d44c4b0c0b2bfb089 /doc/styleguide.txt
parentInitial commit. (diff)
downloadbash-completion-6c18848a903eb3ee06dccd915859ce64195c257c.tar.xz
bash-completion-6c18848a903eb3ee06dccd915859ce64195c257c.zip
Adding upstream version 1:2.11.upstream/1%2.11
Signed-off-by: Daniel Baumann <daniel.baumann@progress-linux.org>
Diffstat (limited to 'doc/styleguide.txt')
-rw-r--r--doc/styleguide.txt134
1 files changed, 134 insertions, 0 deletions
diff --git a/doc/styleguide.txt b/doc/styleguide.txt
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..2251e77
--- /dev/null
+++ b/doc/styleguide.txt
@@ -0,0 +1,134 @@
+Coding Style Guide
+==================
+
+Introduction
+------------
+This document attempts to explain the basic styles and patterns that
+are used in the bash completion. New code should try to conform to
+these standards so that it is as easy to maintain as existing code.
+Of course every rule has an exception, but it's important to know
+the rules nonetheless!
+
+This is particularly directed at people new to the bash completion
+codebase, who are in the process of getting their code reviewed.
+Before getting a review, please read over this document and make
+sure your code conforms to the recommendations here.
+
+Indentation
+-----------
+Indent step should be 4 spaces, no tabs.
+
+Globbing in case labels
+-----------------------
+
+Avoid "fancy" globbing in case labels, just use traditional style when
+possible. For example, do "--foo|--bar)" instead of "--@(foo|bar))".
+Rationale: the former is easier to read, often easier to grep, and
+doesn't confuse editors as bad as the latter, and is concise enough.
+
+&#91;[ ]] vs [ ]
+----------------
+
+Always use [[ ]] instead of [ ]. Rationale: the former is less error
+prone, more featureful, and slightly faster.
+
+Line wrapping
+-------------
+
+Try to wrap lines at 79 characters. Never go past this limit, unless
+you absolutely need to (example: a long sed regular expression, or the
+like). This also holds true for the documentation and the testsuite.
+Other files, like ChangeLog, or COPYING, are exempt from this rule.
+
+$(...) vs \`...`
+----------------
+
+When you need to do some code substitution in your completion script,
+you *MUST* use the $(...) construct, rather than the \`...`. The former
+is preferable because anyone, with any keyboard layout, is able to
+type it. Backticks aren't always available, without doing strange
+key combinations.
+
+-o filenames
+------------
+
+As a rule of thumb, do not use "complete -o filenames". Doing it makes
+it take effect for all completions from the affected function, which
+may break things if some completions from the function must not be
+escaped as filenames. Instead, use "compopt -o filenames" to turn on
+"-o filenames" behavior dynamically when returning completions that
+need that kind of processing (e.g. file and command names). The
+_filedir and _filedir_xspec helpers do this automatically whenever
+they return some completions.
+
+&#91;[ ${COMPREPLY-} == *= ]] && compopt -o nospace
+------------------------------------------------
+
+The above is functionally a shorthand for:
+----
+if [[ ${#COMPREPLY[@]} -eq 1 && ${COMPREPLY[0]} == *= ]]; then
+ compopt -o nospace
+fi
+----
+It is used to ensure that long options' name won't get a space
+appended after the equal sign. Calling compopt -o nospace makes sense
+in case completion actually occurs: when only one completion is
+available in COMPREPLY.
+
+$split && return
+----------------
+
+Should be used in completions using the -s flag of _init_completion,
+or other similar cases where _split_longopt has been invoked, after
+$prev has been managed but before $cur is considered. If $cur of the
+form --foo=bar was split into $prev=--foo and $cur=bar and the $prev
+block did not process the option argument completion, it makes sense
+to return immediately after the $prev block because --foo obviously
+takes an argument and the remainder of the completion function is
+unlikely to provide meaningful results for the required argument.
+Think of this as a catch-all for unknown options requiring an
+argument.
+
+Note that even when using this, options that are known to require an
+argument but for which we don't have argument completion should be
+explicitly handled (non-completed) in the $prev handling block because
+--foo=bar options can often be written without the equals sign, and in
+that case the long option splitting does not occur.
+
+Use arithmetic evaluation
+-------------------------
+
+When dealing with numeric data, take advantage of arithmetic evaluation.
+In essence, use (( ... )) whenever it can replace [[ ... ]] because the
+syntax is more readable; no need for $-prefixes, numeric comparison etc
+operators are more familiar and easier on the eye.
+
+Array subscript access
+----------------------
+
+Array subscripts are arithmetic expressions, take advantage of that.
+E.g. write ${foo[bar]}, not ${foo[$bar]}, and similarly ${foo[bar+1]}
+vs ${foo[((bar+1))]} or ${foo[$((bar+1))]}, ${foo[--i]} vs ${foo[((--i))]}.
+
+Loop variable names
+-------------------
+
+Use i, j, k for loop-local indices; n and m for lengths; some other descriptive
+name typically based on array name but in singular when looping over actual
+values. If an index or value is to be accessed later on instead of being just
+locally for looping, use a more descriptive and specific name for it.
+
+/////////////////////////////////////////
+case/esac vs if
+---------------
+
+quoting
+-------
+
+awk vs cut for simple cases
+---------------------------
+
+variable and function naming
+----------------------------
+
+/////////////////////////////////////////