Merge #12759: [Docs] Improve formatting of developer notes

0bd2ec5 Improve formatting of developer notes (Evan Klitzke)

Pull request description:

  The developer notes file has gotten pretty large and unwieldly. This reorganizes some content, most notably by adding a TOC to the page. Compare how the page looks in [my branch](https://github.com/eklitzke/bitcoin/blob/developer-notes/doc/developer-notes.md) vs [master](https://github.com/eklitzke/bitcoin/blob/master/doc/developer-notes.md).

  I know there's long-term interest in moving a lot of this content to the bitcoin-core/docs repo on GitHub, but this makes things better now.

  The TOC format here is a semi-standard extension to Markdown files that you may have seen on GitHub pages in other projects. The `<!-- markdown-toc -->` comments used by these tools to know where the TOC starts/ends. The following tools all understand this format:

   * [Sphinx](http://www.sphinx-doc.org/en/master/)
   * [Pandoc](https://pandoc.org/)
   * [markdown-toc.el](https://github.com/ardumont/markdown-toc) (what I used)
   * various plugins for [vim](https://github.com/mzlogin/vim-markdown-toc) and other editors

  I used this TOC extension at a previous job, and my observation is that it's fine if people just edit the TOC manually. It's just text and it's not a huge deal if it gets a little out of sync. It can also be regenerated at any time by anyone with any of these tools.

Tree-SHA512: 298d1605ea5e8bfc0f75e70570c23ebd6891e4ffcdedd24fefadc23edd6e4b96509d8d102209868468a1b3ddbe2c3b8462698cdda8b9421348b5bc6f7b8d0cb8
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Wladimir J. van der Laan 2018-03-29 15:37:20 +02:00 committed by pasta
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@ -1,6 +1,43 @@
Developer Notes
===============
<!-- markdown-toc start -->
**Table of Contents**
- [Developer Notes](#developer-notes)
- [Coding Style](#coding-style)
- [Doxygen comments](#doxygen-comments)
- [Development tips and tricks](#development-tips-and-tricks)
- [Compiling for debugging](#compiling-for-debugging)
- [Compiling for gprof profiling](#compiling-for-gprof-profiling)
- [debug.log](#debuglog)
- [Testnet and Regtest modes](#testnet-and-regtest-modes)
- [DEBUG_LOCKORDER](#debug_lockorder)
- [Valgrind suppressions file](#valgrind-suppressions-file)
- [Compiling for test coverage](#compiling-for-test-coverage)
- [Locking/mutex usage notes](#lockingmutex-usage-notes)
- [Threads](#threads)
- [Ignoring IDE/editor files](#ignoring-ideeditor-files)
- [Development guidelines](#development-guidelines)
- [General Bitcoin Core](#general-bitcoin-core)
- [Wallet](#wallet)
- [General C++](#general-c)
- [C++ data structures](#c-data-structures)
- [Strings and formatting](#strings-and-formatting)
- [Variable names](#variable-names)
- [Threads and synchronization](#threads-and-synchronization)
- [Source code organization](#source-code-organization)
- [GUI](#gui)
- [Subtrees](#subtrees)
- [Git and GitHub tips](#git-and-github-tips)
- [Scripted diffs](#scripted-diffs)
- [RPC interface guidelines](#rpc-interface-guidelines)
<!-- markdown-toc end -->
Coding Style
---------------
Various coding styles have been used during the history of the codebase,
and the result is not very consistent. However, we're now trying to converge to
a single style, which is specified below. When writing patches, favor the new
@ -141,43 +178,44 @@ Documentation can be generated with `make docs` and cleaned up with `make clean-
Development tips and tricks
---------------------------
**compiling for debugging**
### Compiling for debugging
Run configure with the --enable-debug option, then make. Or run configure with
CXXFLAGS="-g -ggdb -O0" or whatever debug flags you need.
Run configure with `--enable-debug` to add additional compiler flags that
produce better debugging builds.
**compiling for gprof profiling**
### Compiling for gprof profiling
Run configure with the --enable-gprof option, then make.
Run configure with the `--enable-gprof` option, then make.
**debug.log**
### debug.log
If the code is behaving strangely, take a look in the debug.log file in the data directory;
error and debugging messages are written there.
The -debug=... command-line option controls debugging; running with just -debug or -debug=1 will turn
The `-debug=...` command-line option controls debugging; running with just `-debug` or `-debug=1` will turn
on all categories (and give you a very large debug.log file).
The Qt code routes qDebug() output to debug.log under category "qt": run with -debug=qt
The Qt code routes `qDebug()` output to debug.log under category "qt": run with `-debug=qt`
to see it.
**testnet and regtest modes**
### Testnet and Regtest modes
Run with the -testnet option to run with "play coins" on the test network, if you
Run with the `-testnet` option to run with "play coins" on the test network, if you
are testing multi-machine code that needs to operate across the internet.
If you are testing something that can run on one machine, run with the -regtest option.
In regression test mode, blocks can be created on-demand; see test/functional/ for tests
that run in -regtest mode.
If you are testing something that can run on one machine, run with the `-regtest` option.
In regression test mode, blocks can be created on-demand; see [test/functional/](/test/functional) for tests
that run in `-regtest` mode.
**DEBUG_LOCKORDER**
### DEBUG_LOCKORDER
Dash Core is a multithreaded application, and deadlocks or other multithreading bugs
can be very difficult to track down. Compiling with -DDEBUG_LOCKORDER (configure
CXXFLAGS="-DDEBUG_LOCKORDER -g") inserts run-time checks to keep track of which locks
are held, and adds warnings to the debug.log file if inconsistencies are detected.
Dash Core is a multi-threaded application, and deadlocks or other
multi-threading bugs can be very difficult to track down. The `--enable-debug`
configure option adds `-DDEBUG_LOCKORDER` to the compiler flags. This inserts
run-time checks to keep track of which locks are held, and adds warnings to the
debug.log file if inconsistencies are detected.
**Valgrind suppressions file**
### Valgrind suppressions file
Valgrind is a programming tool for memory debugging, memory leak detection, and
profiling. The repo contains a Valgrind suppressions file
@ -192,7 +230,7 @@ $ valgrind --suppressions=contrib/valgrind.supp --leak-check=full \
$ valgrind -v --leak-check=full src/dashd -printtoconsole
```
**compiling for test coverage**
### Compiling for test coverage
LCOV can be used to generate a test coverage report based upon `make check`
execution. LCOV must be installed on your system (e.g. the `lcov` package
@ -212,18 +250,18 @@ Locking/mutex usage notes
-------------------------
The code is multi-threaded, and uses mutexes and the
LOCK/TRY_LOCK macros to protect data structures.
`LOCK` and `TRY_LOCK` macros to protect data structures.
Deadlocks due to inconsistent lock ordering (thread 1 locks cs_main
and then cs_wallet, while thread 2 locks them in the opposite order:
result, deadlock as each waits for the other to release its lock) are
a problem. Compile with -DDEBUG_LOCKORDER to get lock order
inconsistencies reported in the debug.log file.
Deadlocks due to inconsistent lock ordering (thread 1 locks `cs_main` and then
`cs_wallet`, while thread 2 locks them in the opposite order: result, deadlock
as each waits for the other to release its lock) are a problem. Compile with
`-DDEBUG_LOCKORDER` (or use `--enable-debug`) to get lock order inconsistencies
reported in the debug.log file.
Re-architecting the core code so there are better-defined interfaces
between the various components is a goal, with any necessary locking
done by the components (e.g. see the self-contained CKeyStore class
and its cs_KeyStore lock for example).
done by the components (e.g. see the self-contained `CKeyStore` class
and its `cs_KeyStore` lock for example).
Threads
-------