Contributor’s guide
*******************

We use a reasonably standard open source workflow somewhat resembling Scott
Chacon’s “`GitHub Flow <https://scottchacon.com/2011/08/31/github-flow>`_”, though we use `GitLab <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GitLab>`_:

* :code:`main` is stable (hopefully)
* organize plans with prioritized, labeled issues
* work on short-lived topic branches
* use peer-reviewed merge requests (MRs) to manage the flow of changes into
  :code:`main`

This section explains the current workflow in more detail. The level of
approximation and completeness here varies, but it’s a best-effort description
of what actually happens, and it seemed useful to write down what we see as
best practices. Some of this is automatically validated with CI. There have
been previous workflows, and we have not updated closed issues and MRs.

Related wiki pages:

* `quick reference <https://gitlab.com/charliecloud/charliecloud/-/wikis/workflow_quick>`_
* `issue reports <https://gitlab.com/charliecloud/charliecloud/-/wikis/issues>`_

.. important::

   “Imperfect” help is better than no help at all. While it does make things
   easier and faster if external contributors follow the workflow, that’s a
   lot to expect. Just do your best and it will be much appreciated. We’ll
   wrangle logistics and/or help you figure it out.

.. contents::
   :depth: 2
   :local:


Issues (work planning)
======================

We use issues to organize planned work. The issue body should describe the
problem or desired feature, ideally following a “steps to reproduce, expected
behavior, actual behavior, comments” format. Include the exact Charliecloud
version in use, and any relevant logs (e.g. :code:`-v` or :code:`-vv`) are
also very helpful.

The issue fields we use are listed below. Charliecloud team members should
manage their own issues accordingly. The general public are more than welcome
to label their issues if they like, but in practice this is rare, which is
fine. Whoever triages the incoming issue should update the fields as needed.
We do not use issue fields not listed below.

Important workflow notes
------------------------

**Triaging issues.** Issues and PRs submitted from outside should be
acknowledged promptly: move them out of :code:`incoming`, update title/descriptions if needed, and set fields appropriately.

**Closing issues.** We close issues when the issue is actually resolved. It is
OK for “stale” issues to sit around indefinitely awaiting this. Unlike many
projects, we do not automatically close issues just because they’re old.  You
are not going to have some bot yelling at you every 30 days.

The reasoning is that we want a listing of deficiencies that’s as
comprehensive as we can practically make it, and that includes issues we know
about that haven’t had much or any recent attention. That is, Charliecloud is
small enough (326 open issues as of this writing) to prune moot issues
manually rather than assuming some level of arbitrary “staleness” implies
mootness.

We aren’t the only project that does this. For example, the currently oldest
bug in Debian is `#2297
<https://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=2297>`_, a race condition
in :code:`xterm(1)` reported in 1996.

**Re-opening issues.** Closed issues can be re-opened if new information
arises, for example a :code:`worksforme` issue with new reproduction steps.

Assignee
--------

This is the person responsible for issue logistics, who may or may not be the
person who actually did the work. For internal implementations, this is
typically the person who did most of the coding; for external submissions,
this is typically the person who wrangled the contribution.

While GitLab allows multiple assignees, we almost always have just one.

Status
------

We use the GitLab `status field
<https://docs.gitlab.com/user/work_items/status/>`_ to describe where an issue
falls in its lifecycle.

**Open** issues have decisions or work remaining. Within that:

:code:`incoming`
  Awaiting triage by a Charliecloud team member. This is the default status
  for new issues.

:code:`blocked`
  We can’t do this yet because something else needs to happen first. If that
  something is other issue(s), link those using GitLab’s *Linked items → is
  blocked by*. Otherwise, the description should explain; use the phrase
  “blocked by” or “waiting on”.

:code:`uncertain`
  The course of action is unclear. For example: is the feature a good idea,
  what is a good approach to solve the bug, additional information is needed
  to understand the issue. The description should explain; use the phrase “uncertain because”.

:code:`open`
  We plan to do the thing but nobody has started on it.

:code:`inprogress`
  Somebody is actively working on it. Importantly, issues should not stay here
  for too long (a week? a fortnight?) if work has stalled; in that case,
  return the issue to :code:`open`.

**Closed** issues have nothing left to do. The “cancelled” statuses (everything except :code:`done`) may not have a milestone.

:code:`done`
  Work is complete. These issues must have a milestone assigned.

:code:`duplicate`
  Same as some other issue. In addition to this tag, duplicates should refer
  to the other issue in a comment to record the link. Of the duplicates, the
  better one should stay open (e.g., clearer reproduction steps); if they are
  roughly equal in quality, the older one should stay open.

:code:`moot`
  No longer relevant. Examples: withdrawn by reporter, can’t be reproduced any
  more and we don’t know what changed (i.e., :code:`duplicate` does not
  apply), obsoleted by change in plans.

:code:`noaction`
  The issue is not something we can solve by modifying Charliecloud. Common
  examples: problems with other software, problems with containers in general
  that we can’t work around, not actionable due to clarity or other reasons,
  or someone asks a question rather than making a request for some change.
  (Formerly :code:`cantfix`.)

  .. warning::

     Note the conspicuous absence of “user error” in the examples. While it’s
     true that user error does happen, rarely is there really nothing to do.
     Much more frequently, there is a documentation or usability bug that
     contributed to the “user error”.

:code:`wontfix`
  We are not going to do this, even if someone else provides an MR. Sometimes
  you’ll want to tag and then wait a few days before closing, to allow for
  further discussion to catch mistaken labels.

:code:`worksforme`
  We cannot reproduce the issue, and it seems unlikely this will change given
  available information. Typically you’ll want to tag, then wait a few days
  for clarification before closing. Bugs closed with this tag that do gain a
  reproducer later should be re-opened.

  For some bugs, it really feels like they should be reproducible but we’re
  missing it somehow; such bugs should be left open in hopes of new insight
  arising.

GitLab does have subcategories of Open (*Triage*, *Open*, and *In progress*)
and Closed (*Done* and *Canceled* [sic]). We don’t think about them much, but
this is what the tiny status icons mean.

Labels
------

Each issue should be labeled along three dimensions.

Change type
~~~~~~~~~~~

Choose *one type* from:

:code:`bug`
  Something doesn’t work; e.g., it doesn’t work as intended or it was
  mis-designed. This includes usability and documentation problems.

:code:`enhancement`
  Things work, but it would be better if something was different. For example,
  a new feature proposal, an improvement in how a feature works, or clarifying
  an error message.

:code:`refactor`
  Change that will improve Charliecloud but does not materially affect
  user-visible behavior. Note this doesn’t mean “invisible to the user”; even
  user-facing documentation or logging changes could feasibly be this type, if
  they are more cleanup-oriented.

Component
~~~~~~~~~

This describes what part of Charliecloud is affected. Choose *one or more*
from:

:code:`runtime`
  The container runtime itself; largely :code:`ch-run`.

:code:`image`
  Image building and interaction with image registries; largely
  :code:`ch-image`. (Not to be confused with image management tasks done by
  glue code.)

:code:`glue`
  The “glue” that ties the runtime and image management (:code:`ch-image` or
  another builder) together. In general, this is the other executables in
  :code:`bin`.

:code:`install`
  Charliecloud build & install system, :code:`configure`, packaging, etc. (Not
  to be confused with image building.)

:code:`doc`
  Documentation and log messages, including internal docs.

:code:`test`
  Test suite, examples, and/or CI.

:code:`misc`
  Everything else. Do not combine with another component.

Priority
~~~~~~~~

We prioritize bugs on the two dimensions of the “`Eisenhower Matrix
<https://sps.columbia.edu/sites/default/files/2023-08/Eisenhower%20Matrix.pdf>`_”,
namely *urgency* and *importance*, though we call the latter *impact*. This
lets us think separately about the benefit of doing something and when that
thing needs to be done in order to get the benefit.

Note that this view of priority does not address the *cost* of doing the
thing, i.e., the difficulty of a bug fix does not affect its priority.

This is all subjective and imprecise, so work does not follow a strict
priority queue, i.e., we do work on lower-priority issues while
higher-priority ones are still open. Related to this, issues do often move
between priority levels. In particular, if you think we picked the wrong
priority level, please say so.

Relevant other perspectives:

  * `Debian <https://www.debian.org/Bugs/Developer#severities>`_  bug severity
    levels (one-dimensional).
  * `Firefox <https://wiki.mozilla.org/BMO/UserGuide/BugFields>`_ priority and
    severity.
  * `Bugzilla
    <https://github.com/bugzilla/bugzilla/blob/release-3.6.13/template/en/default/pages/fields.html.tmpl>`_
    priority and severity, as documented until version 3.7 (2010), when the
    detailed priority descriptions were deleted, as well as a few
    modifications:

    * `Eclipse Web Tools Platform
      <https://wiki.eclipse.org/WTP/Conventions_of_bug_priority_and_severity>`_
      priority and severity.
    * `GCC <https://gcc.gnu.org/bugs/management.html#importance>`_ importance.
    * `Gentoo
      <https://web.archive.org/web/20090413015235/http://www.gentoo.org/doc/en/bugzilla-howto.xml#doc_chap6>`_
      severity circa 2009.

**Impact** describes the cost of not doing the thing and/or the benefit of
doing the thing. We have five levels. The table below describes factors to
consider but is not comprehensive. Generally, the “worst” factor defines the
impact, but it’s a judgement call. “Normal” is a good default.

Issues of impact :code:`important` and higher should probably explain why.

.. list-table::
   :header-rows: 1

   * -
     - :code:`minor`
     - :code:`normal`
     - :code:`important`
     - :code:`serious`
     - :code:`critical`
   * - use case(s) affected [1]
     - any
     - notable minority
     - many or high-value
     - many or high-value
     - many or high-value
   * - impact on use case(s)
     - inconvenience
     - moderate impairment
     - moderate impairment
     - significant impairment
     - unusuable
   * - security vulnerability
     - no
     - no
     - trivial
     - minor
     - yes
   * - impact on project sustainability [2]
     - trivial
     - average
     - notable
     - significant
     - major
   * - embarrassment level [3]
     - none
     - none
     - minor
     - moderate
     - high
   * - issue types
     - any
     - any
     - any
     - features and bugs
     - bugs only
   * - how many open (goal)
     - many
     - many
     - few
     - none
     - none

Notes:

  #. Charliecloud development is considered a high-value use case. Use of
     another container implementation is considered an unsatisfactory
     workaround.
  #. *Project sustainability* is things like funding, reputation, etc.
  #. *Embarrasment level* refers to questions like “how embarrassed are we to
     make a release with this issue open?” or “how embarrassed are we if it’s
     reported in a release”.

While these are easiest to interpret in terms of bugs, they apply just as well
to feature requests and refactoring (“unless we implement feature X,
Charliecloud’s usability for high-value use case Y is significantly impaired
because ...”).

**Urgency** refers to timing. How soon must the issue be resolved to gain
its benefit?

:code:`panic`
  Highest urgency; “drop everything else and skip all your meetings”. Maybe
  someone has a crazy deadline, or Charliecloud is just spectacularly broken.
  Often the work is mostly complete before someone gets around to submitting
  an issue. Typical deadline: days or less.

:code:`immediately`
  Pre-emptively urgent; often becomes your top priority. Typical deadline: weeks.

:code:`soon`
  A reasonable default. Someone is waiting but there is plenty of time to plan
  ahead. Typical, often vague deadline: months.

:code:`eventually`
  Limited urgency but we *would* like to get to it; completed as time permits.
  No one is actively waiting. Many of these issues will unfortunately persist
  for the life of the project due to resource constraints.

:code:`deferred`
  One can hope. We keep these issues open because we want to retain the fact
  that issue was made and the reasoning for its indefinite deferral. MRs are
  still welcome but will likely benefit from an argument that their future
  maintenance load, if merged, will be low.

Deprecated labels
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

You might see these on old issues, but they are no longer in use. They have a
tilde (:code:`~`) prefix to push them to the bottom of the alphabetical list,
because GitLab has no way to mark a label as deprecated.

* :code:`blocked`: Replaced by :code:`blocked` status above.

* :code:`disp::*`: Replaced by “Canceled” statuses above.

* :code:`help wanted`: This tended to get stale and wasn’t generating any
  leads.

* :code:`hpc`: Related specifically to HPC and HPC scaling considerations.
  This tended to not get used, and the definition was fuzzy.

* :code:`key issue`: Replaced by importance and urgency tags.

* :code:`n00b`: We used to go occasionally through the issues and mark those
  that seemed good for new Charliecloud developers to work on, but these never
  stayed up to date and didn’t seem to attract volunteers.

* :code:`pri::*`: Replaced by importance and urgency tags.

* :code:`question`: Replaced by GitHub Discussions, which then went away when
  we moved to GitLab.

* :code:`uncertain`: Replaced by :code:`uncertain` status above.

* :code:`usability`: Affects usability of any part of Charliecloud, including
  documentation and project organization. This information was rarely acted
  on.

Milestone
---------

We use one milestone per release, so this says which release the issue
corresponds to. Specifically:

* *Open* statuses: Planned to be included in the specified milestone. A
  milestone should be added to an Open issue only when we’re reasonably
  confident or hopeful, but even so, expect some churn.

* *Closed* statuses:

  * :code:`done`: The issue *is* in the specified milestone. All :code:`done`
    issues must have a milestone.

  * others, i.e. all the *Canceled* [sic] statuses with a red slash icon: May
    not have a milestone.


Workflow
========

Charliecloud’s standard coding workflow is intended to fairly
straightforward/normal; in summary:

1. Do the work in a feature branch. At some point, make a merge request (MR)
   for the branch.
2. Pass CI testing.
3. Have someone on the Charliecloud core team review the code.
4. Iterate steps 1–3 until the MR passes both CI and code review.
5. Project lead or designee merges the MR to main.

Branches
--------

Naming convention
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Name the branch with a *brief* summary of the issue being fixed (just a couple
of words). Separate words with hyphen, then follow with an underscore and the
issue number being addressed.

For example, issue `#1773
<https://gitlab.com/charliecloud/main/-/issues/1773>`_ is titled “ch-image
build: --force=fakeroot outputs to stderr despite -q”; the corresponding
branch (for `MR !1812
<https://gitlab.com/charliecloud/main/-/merge_requests/1812>`_) is called
:code:`fakeroot-quiet-rhel_1773`. Something even shorter, such as
:code:`fakeroot_1773`, would have been fine too.

It’s okay if the branch name misses a little. For example, if you discover
during work on a PR that you should close a second issue in the same PR, it’s
not necessary to add the second issue number to the branch name.

Document first
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Best practice for significant changes is to (1) draft documentation, key
comments, and possibly some tests first, (2) get feedback on that, and then
(3) write the code. Reasons for this include:

* Writing the docs helps you understand the necessary code changes better,
  because you’re forced to clearly articulate its effects, including corner
  cases.

* Reviews of the form “you need a completely different approach” are no fun.

* A good description of the intended behavior helps the reviewer better
  understand and evaluate the work.

Granularity
~~~~~~~~~~~

Ideally, one branch addresses one concern, i.e., a branch comprises one
self-contained change corresponding to one issue. If there are multiple
concerns, make separate issues and/or PRs.

For example, branches should not tidy unrelated code, and non-essential
complications should be split into a follow-on issue.

However, in practice, branches often address several related issues, which is
fine.

Keeping branches up-to-date
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

If main progresses significantly while a branch is open, you will want those
changes to also be reflected in your feature branch so it’s easier to merge
into main when the time comes, or because main includes bug fixes you need.
Updating your branch can be done in multiple ways, most commonly rebase or
merging main into your branch.

We generally prefer the merge approach because (1) conflicts need be resolved
only once and (2) it doesn’t alter branch history (which can cause confusion
for others). Conversely, it does yield a messier branch history. Example
procedure:

.. code-block::

  $ git stash                           # if you have un-committed changes
  $ git switch main
  $ git fetch                           # update origin/main
  $ git merge                           # merge origin/main to your main
  $ git switch mybranch
  $ git merge --no-ff --no-commit main
  $ emacs ...                           # resolve merge conflicts
  $ git gui                             # sanity-check merge diff
  $ git commit -m 'merge from main'
  $ git stash pop

If you prefer rebase, that’s fine too.

.. warning::

   This is a common source of Git problems, so be careful. A typical symptom
   is commits from main showing up in the branch’s history; another is the
   GitLab diff showing changes you didn’t make. If you find yourself in this
   situation and feel lost, ask for help sooner than later because it’s very
   easy to tangle Git further if you make mistakes attempting to untangle.

Commit history
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Best practice is to keep your branch history tidy, but not to the extent that
it interferes with getting things done. Commit frequently at semantically
relevant times. Commit messages that are brief, technically relevant, and
quick to write are what you want on feature branches. It is not necessary to
rebase or squash to keep branch history tidy.

We squash-merge branches, so the branch history has limited visibility; the
audience is approximately whoever looks at your merge request.

Non-best-practices include consistently well-proofread commit messages as well
as (much more commonly) content-free ones like “try 2”, “does this work?”,
“please pass CI”, “ugh”, and/or “foo”.

.. note::

   Do not commit and push just to run the test suite. Run tests locally until
   you really need remote CI (see the :code:`ch-test(1)` :doc:`man page
   <ch-test>`). Your local dev box *is* set up to pass the test suite, right?
   😉

Local repository hygiene
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Because we delete branches in the main repository on merge, it’s easy for your
local repository to accumulate a clutter of dangling branch pointers (how long
is your :code:`git branch -a`?). Remove these with the script
:code:`misc/branches-tidy`.

Merge requests (MRs)
--------------------

Draft marker
~~~~~~~~~~~~

GitLab merge requests have a “draft” toggle that can be true or false. We
*only* use this to indicate to code reviewers whether the MR is ready to
merge, given an approved code review. (In fact, GitLab will not merge a draft
MR.)

**Draft MR:** A review request means intermediate feedback is desired. The
branch author plans to continue work after the review cycle.

**Non-draft MR:** A review request is a request to merge the work into main.
Note that un-checking the draft box does not request review; you have to do
that separately.

Draft MRs are indicated with a title prefix of “Draft:” in the web UI.

Linking with other GitLab artifacts
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

**Closed issues.** We use GitLab’s `issue close notation
<https://docs.gitlab.com/user/project/issues/managing_issues/#closing-issues-automatically>`_
to mark issues that should be closed (as :code:`done`) when the MR is merged.
Put this at the end of the MR description and update it as needed.

Include the title-inclusion `plus notation
<https://docs.gitlab.com/user/markdown/#show-item-title>`_ so readers can
immediately see a comprehensible list of issues, rather than hovering over or
clicking through opaque issue numbers. This does break the built-in syntax for
a single :code:`Closes:` keyword. We recommend, for example:

.. code-block:: markdown

   Closes: #1414+ \
   Closes: #2135+ \
   Closes: #6237+

Note that a line break within a paragraph is indicated by escaping the newline
with a backslash.

**Milestone.** MRs should also be linked (using the *Milestone* menu) with the
milestone at which they were merged. This should be the same milestone as the
linked-to-close issues.

**Other artifacts.** MRs can use the standard `GitLab notation
<https://docs.gitlab.com/user/markdown/#gitlab-specific-references>`_ to
“mention” arbitrary artifacts. Use this as appropriate.

No stand-alone MRs
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Each merge request must be linked to one or more issues, i.e., we do not use
stand-alone MRs. This is new as of August 2025.

We changed the procedure because issues and merge requests are quite distinct
in GitLab, unlike GitHub. GitLab work planning and analysis features only look
at issues (e.g., milestone burn-down and burn-up charts).

Another motivation is issue and MR numbering. GitHub uses the same ID sequence
for issues and pull requests, e.g., :code:`#XXXX` can refer to *either* issue
XXXX or pull request XXXX, and only one of those can exist. However, GitLab
issues and merge requests eash use an independent sequence, e.g.,
:code:`#YYYY` refers only to issue YYYY and :code:`!ZZZZ` only to merge
request ZZZZ, and possibly YYYY = ZZZZ even though they are different objects.
Note, however, that issues and merge requests imported from the old GitHub
project do retain their numbers.

Avoid stale MRs
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Unlike issues, we do try to avoid retaining stale or stalled MRs due to the
merge conflicts they inevitably accumulate. Ideally an MR would be either
merged or rejected in a timely manner, but occasionally we do just close them
for staleness. This isn’t automated, however.

Merge procedures
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

We merge to main using the GitLab web UI, typically with squash-merge. This is
because the meaningful unit of work once something gets to main is the merge
request, and it lets us avoid the effort of lots of branch rebasing and
curation of branch commits. After merge, we delete the branch, to avoid
accumulating stale branches.

The merge commit messages are formulaic using a template defined in GitLab,
and importantly they mention the merge request in the first line. This lets
readers find relevant discussion about the merge using only command-line Git.
For example:

.. code-block:: none

   b07acfdb reidpr MR !1902: add CDI support, big refactor
   85098b46 reidpr merge PR #268 from @j-ogas: remove ch-docker-run

Note that the specific notation has changed over time. Notably, merges from
when we were on GitHub say :code:`PR #XXXX` instead of the now-correct
:code:`MR !XXXX`, but the numbers are still valid.

Code review
-----------

Peer review of code within Charliecloud is important because we are all human
and thus make mistakes. All merge requests must pass review, *especially* if
done by senior team members. We use the GitLab MR web UI for code review.

Developer expectations
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Seek code review early and often. Intermediate-stage review is often useful,
as it helps you make sure you’re on the right track before writing a bunch of
code. In particular, anything that requires non-trivial documentation updates
or complex code design should have that documentation or design reviewed
before proceeding to significant code.

When your MR is ready for review, do this:

#. Double-check that your MR is marked draft or not, as appropriate (see
   above).

#. Verify that CI has passed, or explain why there should be an exception to
   the usual CI-before-review policy.

#. Choose a reviewer. Generally, you want to find a reviewer with available
   time and appropriate expertise. Feel free to ask if you’re not sure. Note
   that the project lead must approve any MRs before merge, so they are
   typically a reasonable choice if you don’t have someone else in mind.

   Parallel reviews (i.e., selecting more than one person) are generally not
   needed but are sometimes appropriate. In this case, explain in a comment
   why you are selecting each person.

   You *can* select yourself or the branch author as reviewer. This is useful
   when multiple people are working on a branch or the branch received tidying
   that the original author should look at.

#. Request review in the GitLab MR UI. This notifies the reviewer that you
   need their help.

#. When the review is done, examine the feedback and deal with it
   appropriately.

Once you request review, the person from whom you requested it now owns the
branch, and you should stop work on it unless and until you get it back
(modulo other communication, of course). This is so they can make tidy commits
if needed without collision.

It is a best practice to ask the original bug reporter to also review, to make
sure it solved their problem. This is done with a comment, since GitLab will
not request a normal review from external people.

 .. important::

   *Resolve all threads*. If the resolution is a code change, replying in
   GitLab is usually not necessary, even if the feedback takes the form of a
   question; just click resolve.

   Even if there are no changes, omit a text reply unless it’s really needed.
   For example, if a thread requests a code change but incorrectly (reviewers
   are human too), it’s probably good to explain why you’re not doing it. On
   the other hand, threads of the form “consider approach XYZ” or “do you know
   about related skill ABC” do not need any reply. Just resolving the thread
   says “OK” or whatever simple acknowledgement is needed.

   These best practices avoid cluttering the reviewer’s inbox.

Reviewer expectations
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Your job as a code reviewer is to catch the errors and possible improvements
that CI doesn’t. Guidelines include:

#. Be timely. The work is blocked until you review it, and delays mean
   progressive loss of context as whoever wrote the code forgets what was in
   it. We have a robot that e-mails :code:`dev@lists.charliecloud.io` nightly
   listing the open reviews and who they are waiting on.

   As part of this, pay attention to your review requests. It is a best
   practice to see them when they appear, without need for manual notification
   or reminders.

#. Be critical and thorough. Do your best to find errors, even if you are a
   junior person reviewing a more senior’s work and they have a track record
   of good work. If you can’t find problems on a non-trivial patch, you
   probably haven’t looked hard enough.

#. Be constructive and kind. It’s easy to be mean when the entire purpose of
   your work is to find mistakes. Assume good faith and that the work was done
   by a good person doing their best available at the time. Criticize the
   work, not the person. Remember we’re all on the same team, working together
   to make the best product we can.

#. Don’t test the code (usually). Sometimes you do need to do this to check
   something specific, but remember you should complement rather than
   duplicate CI. If there’s a test needed but not added, decribe the test in a
   request for changes, rather than just trying it and being satisfied if it
   worked.

#. Use multi-comment reviews rather than individual separate comments, to
   avoid cluttering inboxes. Write a meaningful summary comment with your
   judgement.

#. The review can also include actual code changes commited to the branch.
   This is called “tidying”.

.. tip::

   #. To enter a review without commenting on any individual diff lines, click
      *Your review* at upper right. If the button doesn’t appear, you need to
      request review from yourself.

   #. To see your pending review requests, use GitLab’s “`To-Do List
      <https://gitlab.com/dashboard/todos>`_”. I have not yet found a way in
      the merge requests view to see MRs where a review request is pending.

Decision/recommendation
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

We use two of the three possible review decisions, somewhat oddly described
collectively by GitLab as “review approval”. When you are done with your
review, write a summary comment and choose one of the following. The key
difference is whether you (the reviewer) want to re-review after the feedback
is considered.

Approve
  The work is ready to proceed (more coding if draft, merging if not). The
  MR’s developer should respond to and/or implement all the feedback, but
  re-review of those changes is not needed (e.g., developers with the merge
  bit can immediately self-merge after dealing with all feedback).

Request changes
  The work is not yet ready to proceed. Re-review is needed after the feedback
  is responded to and/or implemented.

In both cases, all types of feedback are appropriate: Recommendations for
change, questions, other comments, dad jokes, etc.

We are constrained by GitLab behavior here, specifically enforcement of
re-review, which is why the meanings are not orthogonal. There is also a
*Comment* decision, which behaves the same as *Request changes* except with a
friendlier (?) color; it seemed redundant.


Test suite
==========

Continuous integration (CI) testing
-----------------------------------

We use GitLab CI testing, driven by YAML files in :code:`test/gitlab.com`.
This is moderately well documented there. Additional guidelines include:

#. MRs will usually not be merged until they pass CI, with exceptions if the
   failures are clearly unconnected and we are confident they aren’t masking a
   real issue. If appropriate, tests should also pass on relevant
   supercomputers.

#. Be judicious with CI cycles. The resources are there for you to use, so
   take advantage of them, but be mindful of their usage costs. For example:
   use :code:`[skip ci]` commit messages, cancel pipeline or jobs no longer
   useful, don’t push every single commit (CI tests only the most recent
   commit). Avoid making commits merely to trigger CI.

Timing the tests
----------------

The :code:`ts` utility from :code:`moreutils` is quite handy. The following
prepends each line with the elapsed time since the previous line::

  $ ch-test -s quick | ts -i '%M:%.S'

Note: a skipped test isn’t free; I see ~0.15 seconds to do a skip.

:code:`ch-test` complains about inconsistent versions
-----------------------------------------------------

There are multiple ways to ask Charliecloud for its version number. These
should all give the same result. If they don’t, :code:`ch-test` will fail.
Typically, something needs to be rebuilt. Recall that :code:`configure`
contains the version number as a constant, so a common way to get into this
situation is to change Git branches without rebuilding it.

Charliecloud is small enough to just rebuild everything with::

  $ ./autogen.sh && ./configure && make clean && make

Special images
--------------

For images not needed after completion of a test, tag them :code:`tmpimg`.
This leaves only one extra image at the end of the test suite.

Writing a test image using the standard workflow
------------------------------------------------

Summary
~~~~~~~

The Charliecloud test suite has a workflow that can build images by two
methods:

1. From a Dockerfile, using :code:`ch-image` or another builder (see
   :code:`common.bash:build_()`).

2. By running a custom script.

To create an image that will be built and unpacked and/or mounted, create a
file in :code:`examples` (if the image recipe is useful as an example) or
:code:`test` (if not) called :code:`{Dockerfile,Build}.foo`. This will create
an image tagged :code:`foo`. Additional tests can be added to the test suite
Bats files.

To create an image with its own tests, documentation, etc., create a directory
in :code:`examples`. In this directory, place
:code:`{Dockerfile,Build}[.foo]` to build the image and :code:`test.bats` with
your tests. For example, the file :code:`examples/foo/Dockerfile` will create
an image tagged :code:`foo`, and :code:`examples/foo/Dockerfile.bar` tagged
:code:`foo-bar`. These images also get the build and unpack/mount tests.

Additional directories can be symlinked into :code:`examples` and will be
integrated into the test suite. This allows you to create a site-specific test
suite. :code:`ch-test` finds tests at any directory depth; e.g.
:code:`examples/foo/bar/Dockerfile.baz` will create a test image tagged
:code:`bar-baz`.

Image tags in the test suite must be unique.

Order of processing; within each item, alphabetical order:

1. Dockerfiles in :code:`test`.
2. :code:`Build` files in :code:`test`.
3. Dockerfiles in :code:`examples`.
4. :code:`Build` files in :code:`examples`.

The purpose of doing :code:`Build` second is so they can leverage what has
already been built by a Dockerfile, which is often more straightforward.

How to specify when to include and exclude a test image
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Each of these image build files must specify its scope for building and
running, which must be greater than or equal than the scope of all tests in
any corresponding :code:`.bats` files. Exactly one of the following strings
must appear:

.. code-block:: none

  ch-test-scope: skip
  ch-test-scope: quick
  ch-test-scope: standard
  ch-test-scope: full

Other stuff on the line (e.g., comment syntax) is ignored.

Optional test modification directives are:

  :code:`ch-test-arch-exclude: ARCH`
    If the output of :code:`uname -m` matches :code:`ARCH`, skip the file.

  :code:`ch-test-builder-exclude: BUILDER`
    If using :code:`BUILDER`, skip the file.

  :code:`ch-test-builder-include: BUILDER`
    If specified, run only if using :code:`BUILDER`. Can be repeated to
    include multiple builders. If specified zero times, all builders are
    included.

  :code:`ch-test-need-sudo`
    Run only if user has sudo.

How to write a :code:`Dockerfile` recipe
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

It’s a standard Dockerfile.

How to write a :code:`Build` recipe
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

This is an arbitrary script or program that builds the image. It gets three
command line arguments:

  * :code:`$1`: Absolute path to directory containing :code:`Build`.

  * :code:`$2`: Absolute path and name of output image, without extension.
    This can be either:

    * Tarball compressed with gzip or xz; append :code:`.tar.gz` or
      :code:`.tar.xz` to :code:`$2`. If :code:`ch-test --pack-fmt=squash`,
      then this tarball will be unpacked and repacked as a SquashFS.
      Therefore, only use tarball output if the image build process naturally
      produces it and you would have to unpack it to get a directory (e.g.,
      :code:`docker export`).

    * Directory; use :code:`$2` unchanged. The contents of this directory will
      be packed without any enclosing directory, so if you want an enclosing
      directory, include one. Hidden (dot) files in :code:`$2` will be ignored.

  * :code:`$3`: Absolute path to temporary directory for use by the script.
    This can be used for whatever and need no be cleaned up; the test harness
    will delete it.

Other requirements:

  * The script may write only in two directories: (a) the parent directory of
    :code:`$2` and (b) :code:`$3`. Specifically, it may not write to the
    current working directory. Everything written to the parent directory of
    :code:`$2` must have a name starting with :code:`$(basename $2)`.

  * The first entry in :code:`$PATH` will be the Charliecloud under test,
    i.e., bare :code:`ch-*` commands will be the right ones.

  * Any programming language is permitted. To be included in the Charliecloud
    source code, a language already in the test suite dependencies is
    required.

  * The script must test for its dependencies and fail with appropriate error
    message and exit code if something is missing. To be included in the
    Charliecloud source code, all dependencies must be something we are
    willing to install and test.

  * Exit codes:

    * 0: Image successfully created.
    * 65: One or more dependencies were not met.
    * 126 or 127: No interpreter available for script language (the shell
      takes care of this).
    * else: An error occurred.


Building RPMs
=============

We maintain :code:`.spec` files and infrastructure for building RPMs in the
Charliecloud source code. This is for two purposes:

  1. We maintain our own Fedora RPMs (see `packaging guidelines
     <https://docs.fedoraproject.org/en-US/packaging-guidelines/>`_).

  2. We want to be able to build an RPM of any commit.

Item 2 is tested; i.e., if you break the RPM build, the test suite will fail.

This section describes how to build the RPMs and the pain we’ve hopefully
abstracted away.

Dependencies
------------

  * Charliecloud
  * Python 3.6+
  * either:

    * the provided example :code:`centos_7ch` or :code:`almalinux_9ch` images,
      or
    * a RHEL/CentOS 7 or newer container image with (note there are different
      python version names for the listed packages in RHEL 8 and derivatives):

      * autoconf
      * automake
      * gcc
      * make
      * python36
      * python36-sphinx
      * python36-sphinx_rtd_theme
      * rpm-build
      * rpmlint
      * rsync


:code:`rpmbuild` wrapper script
-------------------------------

While building the Charliecloud RPMs is not too weird, we provide a script to
streamline it. The purpose is to (a) make it easy to build versions not
matching the working directory, (b) use an arbitrary :code:`rpmbuild`
directory, and (c) build in a Charliecloud container for non-RPM-based
environments.

The script must be run from the root of a Charliecloud Git working directory.

Usage::

  $ packaging/fedora/build [OPTIONS] IMAGE VERSION

Options:

  * :code:`--install` : Install the RPMs after building into the build
    environment.

  * :code:`--rpmbuild=DIR` : Use RPM build directory root :code:`DIR`
    (default: :code:`~/rpmbuild`).

For example, to build a version 0.9.7 RPM from the CentOS 7 image provided
with the test suite, on any system, and leave the results in
:code:`~/rpmbuild/RPMS` (note the test suite would also build the
necessary image directory)::

  $ bin/ch-image build -f ./examples/Dockerfile.centos_7ch ./examples
  $ bin/ch-convert centos_7ch $CH_TEST_IMGDIR/centos_7ch
  $ packaging/fedora/build $CH_TEST_IMGDIR/centos_7ch 0.9.7-1

To build a pre-release RPM of Git HEAD using the CentOS 7 image::

  $ bin/ch-image build -f ./examples/Dockerfile.centos_7ch ./examples
  $ bin/ch-convert centos_7ch $CH_TEST_IMGDIR/centos_7ch
  $ packaging/fedora/build ${CH_TEST_IMGDIR}/centos_7ch HEAD

Gotchas and quirks
------------------

RPM versions and releases
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

If :code:`VERSION` is :code:`HEAD`, then the RPM version will be the content
of :code:`VERSION.full` for that commit, including Git gobbledygook, and the
RPM release will be :code:`0`. Note that such RPMs cannot be reliably upgraded
because their version numbers are unordered.

Otherwise, :code:`VERSION` should be a released Charliecloud version followed
by a hyphen and the desired RPM release, e.g. :code:`0.9.7-3`.

Other values of :code:`VERSION` (e.g., a branch name) may work but are not
supported.

Packaged source code and RPM build config come from different commits
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The spec file, :code:`build` script, :code:`.rpmlintrc`, etc. come from the
working directory, but the package source is from the specified commit. This
is what enables us to make additional RPM releases for a given Charliecloud
release (e.g. 0.9.7-2).

Corollaries of this policy are that RPM build configuration can be any or no
commit, and it’s not possible to create an RPM of uncommitted source code.

Changelog maintenance
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The spec file contains a manually maintained changelog. Add a new entry for
each new RPM release; do not include the Charliecloud release notes.

For released versions, :code:`build` verifies that the most recent changelog
entry matches the given :code:`VERSION` argument. The timestamp is not
automatically verified.

For other Charliecloud versions, :code:`build` adds a generic changelog entry
with the appropriate version stating that it’s a pre-release RPM.


.. _build-ova:

Style hints
===========

We haven’t written down a comprehensive style guide. Generally, follow the
style of the surrounding code, think in rectangles rather than lines of code
or text, and avoid CamelCase.

Note that Reid is very picky about style, so don’t feel singled out if he
complains (or even updates this section based on your patch!). He tries to be
nice about it.

Writing English
---------------

* When describing what something does (e.g., your PR or a command), use the
  `imperative mood <https://chris.beams.io/posts/git-commit/#imperative>`_,
  i.e., write the orders you are giving rather than describe what the thing
  does. For example, do:

    | Inject files from the host into an image directory.
    | Add :code:`--join-pid` option to :code:`ch-run`.

  Do not (indicative mood):

    | Injects files from the host into an image directory.
    | Adds :code:`--join-pid` option to :code:`ch-run`.

* Use sentence case for titles, not title case.

* If it’s not a sentence, start with a lower-case character.

* Use spell check. Keep your personal dictionary updated so your editor is not
  filled with false positives.

Documentation
-------------

Heading underline characters:

  1. Asterisk, :code:`*`, e.g. "5. Contributor’s guide"
  2. Equals, :code:`=`, e.g. "5.7 OCI technical notes"
  3. Hyphen, :code:`-`, e.g. "5.7.1 Gotchas"
  4. Tilde, :code:`~`, e.g. "5.7.1.1 Namespaces" (try to avoid)

.. _dependency-policy:

Dependency policy
-----------------

Specific dependencies (prerequisites) are stated elsewhere in the
documentation. This section describes our policy on which dependencies are
acceptable.

Generally
~~~~~~~~~

All dependencies must be stated and justified in the documentation.

We want Charliecloud to run on as many systems as practical, so we work hard
to keep dependencies minimal. However, because Charliecloud depends on new-ish
kernel features, we do depend on standards of similar vintage.

Core functionality should be available even on small systems with basic Linux
distributions, so dependencies for run-time and build-time are only the bare
essentials. Exceptions, to be used judiciously:

  * Features that add convenience rather than functionality may have
    additional dependencies that are reasonably expected on most systems where
    the convenience would be used.

  * Features that only work if some other software is present can add
    dependencies of that other software (e.g., :code:`ch-convert` depends on
    Docker to convert to/from Docker image storage).

The test suite is tricky, because we need a test framework and to set up
complex test fixtures. We have not yet figured out how to do this at
reasonable expense with dependencies as tight as run- and build-time, so there
are systems that do support Charliecloud but cannot run the test suite.

Building the RPMs should work on RPM-based distributions with a kernel new
enough to support Charliecloud. You might need to install additional packages
(but not from third-party repositories).


:code:`curl` vs. :code:`wget`
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

For URL downloading in shell code, including Dockerfiles, use :code:`wget -nv`.

Both work fine for our purposes, and we need to use one or the other
consistently. According to Debian’s popularity contest, 99.88% of reporting
systems have :code:`wget` installed, vs. about 44% for :code:`curl`. On the
other hand, :code:`curl` is in the minimal install of CentOS 7 while
:code:`wget` is not.

For now, Reid just picked :code:`wget` because he likes it better.

Variable conventions in shell scripts and :code:`.bats` files
-------------------------------------------------------------

* Separate words with underscores.

* User-configured environment variables: all uppercase, :code:`CH_TEST_`
  prefix. Do not use in individual :code:`.bats` files; instead, provide an
  intermediate variable.

* Variables local to a given file: lower case, no prefix.

* Bats: set in :code:`common.bash` and then used in :code:`.bats` files: lower
  case, :code:`ch_` prefix.

* Surround lower-case variables expanded in strings with curly braces, unless
  they’re the only thing in the string. E.g.:

  .. code-block:: none

    "${foo}/bar"  # yes
    "$foo"        # yes
    "$foo/bar"    # no
    "${foo}"      # no

* Don’t quote variable assignments or other places where not needed (e.g.,
  case statements). E.g.:

  .. code-block:: none

    foo=${bar}/baz    # yes
    foo="${bar}/baz"  # no

Statement ordering within source files
--------------------------------------

In general, we order things alphabetically.

Python
~~~~~~

The module as a whole, and each class, comprise a sequence of ordering units
separated by section header comments surrounded by two or more hashes, e.g.
:code:`## Globals ##`. Sections with the following names must be in this order
(omissions are fine). Other section names may appear in any order. There is
also an unnamed zeroth section.

  #. Enums
  #. Constants
  #. Globals
  #. Exceptions
  #. Main
  #. Functions
  #. Supporting classes
  #. Core classes
  #. Classes

Within each section, statements occur in the following order.

  #. imports

     #. standard library
     #. external imports not in the standard library
     #. :code:`import charliecloud`
     #. other Charliecloud imports

  #. assignments

  #. class definitions

  #. function definitions

     #. :code:`__init__`
     #. static methods
     #. class methods
     #. other double-underscore methods (e.g. :code:`__str__`)
     #. properties
     #. “normal” functions (instance methods)

Within each group of statements above, identifiers must occur in alphabetical
order. Exceptions:

  #. Classes must appear after their base class.
  #. Assignments may appear in any order.

Statement types not listed above may appear in any order.

A statement that must be out of order is exempted with a comment on its first
line containing 👻, because a ghost says “OOO”, i.e. “out of order”.

Python code
-----------

Indentation width
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

`3 spaces <https://peps.python.org/pep-0008/#indentation>`_ per level. No tab
characters.


C code
------

Wrapper/substitute functions
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

We have a number of functions that wrap or substitute for library functions,
to provide error handling, a better interface, etc. The specific reasoning and
usage variations should be documented for each.

Sometimes these are renamed when clarity demands (e.g. :code:`strcmp(3)` vs
:code:`streq()`); otherwise, they have a :code:`_ch` suffix (e.g.
`realpath(3)` vs :code:`realpath_ch()`).

Calling the original functions is generally disallowed with preprocessor
magic. To do so, use the :code:`FN_BLOCKED` macro from :code:`misc.h`, e.g.:

.. code-block:: c

   #define strcmp FN_BLOCKED

If you really need to use a blocked function, e.g. in order to actually
implement the wrapper, un-block and re-block it with the preprocessor, e.g.:

.. code-block:: c

   #undef strcmp
   strcmp("a", "b");
   #define strcmp FN_BLOCKED

This could also be done with something called *symbol wrapping*, but that
seems to mostly be a GNU thing.

Memory management
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

*TL;DR:* Charliecloud does not free any memory. You can enable garbage
collection with :code:`libgc` if you want, and this is the default, but it may
not be necessary, i.e. simply leaking all allocated memory could still be
smaller than the overhead of trying to clean up.

*How-To:* (1) Use Charliecloud wrappers for all library functions that
allocate memory, e.g. :code:`ch_malloc()` instead of :code:`malloc(3)`.
Importantly, this includes things like :code:`strdup(3)` and
:code:`asprintf(3)`. (2) Don’t call :code:`free(3)` or any other library
functions that free memory.

:code:`ch-run.c` has, since `very nearly the beginning
<https://github.com/hpc/charliecloud/commit/b65e7c1>`_, carried the notice
that it “does not bother to free memory allocations, since they are modest and
the program is short-lived”. Explicit memory management is difficult and
time-consuming, and it didn’t seem worth the effort.

Eventually, we grew a `long-running process
<https://github.com/hpc/charliecloud/releases/tag/v0.26>`_ to serve a
SquashFUSE filesystem, and the short-lived justification became obsolete. The
rough goal became: convert to proper memory management, freeing everything
that we allocated. Various :code:`free(3)` crept in here and there, but a full
refactor was never a priority.

Then `PR #1919 <https://github.com/hpc/charliecloud/pull/1902>`_ came to be
and grew in scope until it was a significant refactor. We tried to Do It Right
on memory management everywhere this PR touched, and we did, until Reid got
fed up writing comments about whose problem it was to free this or that and
copying data simply so those comments could be tractable.

So now we’re back full circle. Memory management is not worth Charliecloud
developers’ time. We gleefully :code:`malloc(3)` and :code:`realloc(3)`
without a care in the world, sinning every time. But now you have options. You
can either:

1. YOLO, i.e. simply never free anything, i.e. leak like a sieve. But
   Charliecloud is still a small program and it’s unlikely to be an actual
   problem. Our quick-and-dirty tests with a small “hello world” Alpine image
   running :code:`true(1)` show a main :code:`ch-run` process using 350 KiB
   just before it executes the user program, and the SquashFUSE process the
   same just before forking and 1,600 KiB upon exit.

2. Link with :code:`libgc`, i.e. the `Boehm-Demers-Weiser
   <https://hboehm.info/gc/>`_ conservative garbage collector. The idea is
   that garbage collection scans the stack, heap, and other pointer sources
   for integers that *look* like pointers and assumes they *are* pointers.
   Apparently it `works quite well <https://hboehm.info/gc/issues.html>`_ and
   can even be faster than explicit memory management in some cases. The
   quick-and-dirty tests show 900 KiB by the main process, and the SquashFUSE
   process the same just before forking (after an explicit garbage collection)
   and 2,200 KiB upon exit.

:code:`ch-run` logs memory usage to syslog, and also stderr with :code:`-vv`,
so you can analyze your specific situation.

:code:`const`
~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The :code:`const` keyword is used to indicate that variables are read-only. It
has a variety of uses; in Charliecloud, we use it for `function pointer
arguments <https://softwareengineering.stackexchange.com/a/204720>`_ to state
whether or not the object pointed to will be altered by the function. For
example:

.. code-block:: c

  void foo(const char *in, char *out)

is a function that will not alter the string pointed to by :code:`in` but may
alter the string pointed to by :code:`out`. (Note that :code:`char const` is
equivalent to :code:`const char`, but we use the latter order because that’s
what appears in GCC error messages.)

We do not use :code:`const` on local variables or function arguments passed by
value. One could do this to be more clear about what is and isn’t mutable, but
it adds quite a lot of noise to the source code, and in our evaluations didn’t
catch any bugs. We also do not use it on double pointers (e.g., :code:`char
**out` used when a function allocates a string and sets the caller’s pointer
to point to it), because so far those are all out-arguments and C has
`confusing rules <http://c-faq.com/ansi/constmismatch.html>`_ about double
pointers and :code:`const`.

:code:`#include` order and gotchas
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Implementation files (:code:`.c`) should normally use this order:

.. code-block:: c

  #define _GNU_SOURCE
  #include "config.h"

  #include <grp.h>  // standard library headers in alphabetical order
  #include <pwd.h>
  // ...
  #include <sys/syscall.h>
  #include <time.h>

  #include <libfoo.h>  // non-standard library headers in alpha-order

  #include "all.h"

:code:`config.h` needs to come first because it defines things that alter
library headers.

:code:`all.h` is an auto-generated header file that includes all the other
Charliecloud headers (except :code:`config.h`). It needs to come last because
it disallows (at compile time) some library functions, which the library
headers must use. Implementation files should include it rather than the
individual headers to simplify dependency management, and also to consistently
enforce the disallowed functions.

Header files (:code:`.h`) should normally use this order:

.. code-block:: c

  #define _GNU_SOURCE
  #pragma once
  #include "config.h"

  #include <stdbool.h>  // stdlib headers in alpha-order

  #include <libfoo.h>   // non-std library headers

  #include "core.h"     // individual Charliecloud headers in alpha-order
  #include "misc.h"

Because :code:`all.h` includes the header being defined, including it rather
than the individual headers seemed excessively circular. Also, the set of
other Charliecloud headers tends to be fairly short because it’s basically
only types that tend to be needed.

.. note::

   This approach invokes some C preprocessor warts that I couldn’t figure out
   how to work around in a way I liked. :code:`#include` is a simple text
   operation that substitutes the contents of the specified file for the line.
   Therefore:

     1. Any library headers included by our own headers are also available to
        the implementation files. For example, :code:`log.h` includes
        :code:`errno.h`, so none of the C files also need :code:`errno.h`. An
        ordering convention that put our headers before the libraries would
        not change this.

     2. Conversely, library headers included by implementation files are also
        available to our header. For example, if all the :code:`.c` files
        included :code:`errno.h`, :code:`log.h` wouldn’t need to do so.
        Putting our headers before the library headers would avoid this, at
        the cost of working around the disallowed functions somehow.

   This can lead to both over-including, e.g. implementation file
   :code:`#include`s :code:`errno.h` even though :code:`errno` is already
   available, as well as under-including, e.g. implementation file does not
   :code:`#include`s :code:`errno.h` (relying on getting it via our header)
   but confusingly has access to :code:`errno` anyway. Clarity would have us
   include everything actually needed by a file, but the compiler won’t
   enforce that so it would be unlikely to be reliable.

   Generally we try to minimize the number of explicit headers included by
   implementation files, i.e. in this case don’t :code:`#include <errno.h>` in
   the :code:`.c` file, but we also don’t worry too hard about that.

   We could also keep the same order and include nothing in our headers, which
   would solve the above two problems but require every implementation file to
   include the library headers needed by our headers, which seemed like a
   weird dependency.


Debugging
=========

Python :code:`printf(3)`-style debugging
----------------------------------------

Consider :code:`ch.ILLERI()`. This uses the same mechanism as the standard
logging functions (:code:`ch.INFO()`, :code:`ch.VERBOSE()`, etc.) but it
(1) cannot be suppressed and (2) uses a color that stands out.

All :code:`ch.ILLERI()` calls must be removed before a PR can be merged.

:code:`seccomp(2)` BPF
----------------------

:code:`ch-run --seccomp -vv` will log the BPF instructions as they are
computed, but it’s all in raw hex and hard to interpret, e.g.::

  $ ch-run --seccomp -vv alpine:3.17 -- true
  [...]
  ch-run[62763]: seccomp: arch c00000b7: found 13 syscalls (core.c:582)
  ch-run[62763]: seccomp: arch 40000028: found 27 syscalls (core.c:582)
  [...]
  ch-run[62763]: seccomp(2) program has 156 instructions (core.c:591)
  ch-run[62763]:    0: { op=20 k=       4 jt=  0 jf=  0 } (core.c:423)
  ch-run[62763]:    1: { op=15 k=c00000b7 jt=  0 jf= 17 } (core.c:423)
  ch-run[62763]:    2: { op=20 k=       0 jt=  0 jf=  0 } (core.c:423)
  ch-run[62763]:    3: { op=15 k=      5b jt=145 jf=  0 } (core.c:423)
  [...]
  ch-run[62763]:  154: { op= 6 k=7fff0000 jt=  0 jf=  0 } (core.c:423)
  ch-run[62763]:  155: { op= 6 k=   50000 jt=  0 jf=  0 } (core.c:423)
  ch-run[62763]: note: see FAQ to disassemble the above (core.c:676)
  ch-run[62763]: executing: true (core.c:538)

You can instead use `seccomp-tools
<https://github.com/david942j/seccomp-tools>`_ to disassemble and pretty-print
the BPF code in a far easier format, e.g.::

  $ sudo apt install ruby-dev
  $ gem install --user-install seccomp-tools
  $ export PATH=~/.gem/ruby/3.1.0/bin:$PATH
  $ seccomp-tools dump -c 'ch-run --seccomp alpine:3.19 -- true'
   line  CODE  JT   JF      K
  =================================
   0000: 0x20 0x00 0x00 0x00000004  A = arch
   0001: 0x15 0x00 0x11 0xc00000b7  if (A != ARCH_AARCH64) goto 0019
   0002: 0x20 0x00 0x00 0x00000000  A = sys_number
   0003: 0x15 0x91 0x00 0x0000005b  if (A == aarch64.capset) goto 0149
  [...]
   0154: 0x06 0x00 0x00 0x7fff0000  return ALLOW
   0155: 0x06 0x00 0x00 0x00050000  return ERRNO(0)

Note that the disassembly is not perfect; e.g. if an architecture is not in
your kernel headers, the system call name is wrong.


OCI technical notes
===================

This section describes our analysis of the Open Container Initiative (OCI)
specification and implications for our implementations of :code:`ch-image`, and
:code:`ch-run-oci`. Anything relevant for users goes in the respective man
page; here is for technical details. The main goals are to guide Charliecloud
development and provide and opportunity for peer-review of our work.


ch-run-oci
----------

Currently, :code:`ch-run-oci` is only tested with Buildah. These notes
describe what we are seeing from Buildah’s runtime expectations.

Gotchas
~~~~~~~

Namespaces
""""""""""

Buildah sets up its own user and mount namespaces before invoking the runtime,
though it does not change the root directory. We do not understand why. In
particular, this means that you cannot see the container root filesystem it
provides without joining those namespaces. To do so:

#. Export :code:`CH_RUN_OCI_LOGFILE` with some logfile path.
#. Export :code:`CH_RUN_OCI_DEBUG_HANG` with the step you want to examine
   (e.g., :code:`create`).
#. Run :code:`ch-build -b buildah`.
#. Make note of the PID in the logfile.
#. :code:`$ nsenter -U -m -t $PID bash`

Supervisor process and maintaining state
""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""

OCI (and thus Buildah) expects a process that exists throughout the life of
the container. This conflicts with Charliecloud’s lack of a supervisor process.

Bundle directory
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

* OCI documentation (very incomplete): https://github.com/opencontainers/runtime-spec/blob/master/bundle.md

The bundle directory defines the container and is used to communicate between
Buildah and the runtime. The root filesystem (:code:`mnt/rootfs`) is mounted
within Buildah’s namespaces, so you’ll want to join them before examination.

:code:`ch-run-oci` has restrictions on bundle directory path so it can be
inferred from the container ID (see the man page). This lets us store state in
the bundle directory instead of maintaining a second location for container
state.

Example::

   # cd /tmp/buildah265508516
   # ls -lR . | head -40
   .:
   total 12
   -rw------- 1 root root 3138 Apr 25 16:39 config.json
   d--------- 2 root root   40 Apr 25 16:39 empty
   -rw-r--r-- 1 root root  200 Mar  9  2015 hosts
   d--x------ 3 root root   60 Apr 25 16:39 mnt
   -rw-r--r-- 1 root root   79 Apr 19 20:23 resolv.conf

   ./empty:
   total 0

   ./mnt:
   total 0
   drwxr-x--- 19 root root 380 Apr 25 16:39 rootfs

   ./mnt/rootfs:
   total 0
   drwxr-xr-x  2 root root 1680 Apr  8 14:30 bin
   drwxr-xr-x  2 root root   40 Apr  8 14:30 dev
   drwxr-xr-x 15 root root  720 Apr  8 14:30 etc
   drwxr-xr-x  2 root root   40 Apr  8 14:30 home
   [...]

Observations:

#. The weird permissions on :code:`empty` (000) and :code:`mnt` (100) persist
   within the namespaces, so you’ll want to be namespace root to look around.

#. :code:`hosts` and :code:`resolv.conf` are identical to the host’s.

#. :code:`empty` is still an empty directory with in the namespaces. What is
   this for?

#. :code:`mnt/rootfs` contains the container root filesystem. It is a tmpfs.
   No other new filesystems are mounted within the namespaces.

:code:`config.json`
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

* OCI documentation:

  * https://github.com/opencontainers/runtime-spec/blob/master/config.md
  * https://github.com/opencontainers/runtime-spec/blob/master/config-linux.md

This is the meat of the container configuration. Below is an example
:code:`config.json` along with commentary and how it maps to :code:`ch-run`
arguments. This was pretty-printed with :code:`jq . config.json`, and we
re-ordered the keys to match the documentation.

There are a number of additional keys that appear in the documentation but not
in this example. These are all unsupported, either by ignoring them or
throwing an error. The :code:`ch-run-oci` man page documents comprehensively
what OCI features are and are not supported.

.. code-block:: javascript

   {
     "ociVersion": "1.0.0",

We validate that this is "1.0.0".

.. code-block:: javascript

     "root": {
       "path": "/tmp/buildah115496812/mnt/rootfs"
     },

Path to root filesystem; maps to :code:`NEWROOT`. If key :code:`readonly` is
:code:`false` or absent, add :code:`--write`.

.. code-block:: javascript

     "mounts": [
       {
         "destination": "/dev",
         "type": "tmpfs",
         "source": "/dev",
         "options": [
           "private",
           "strictatime",
           "noexec",
           "nosuid",
           "mode=755",
           "size=65536k"
         ]
       },
       {
         "destination": "/dev/mqueue",
         "type": "mqueue",
         "source": "mqueue",
         "options": [
           "private",
           "nodev",
           "noexec",
           "nosuid"
         ]
       },
       {
         "destination": "/dev/pts",
         "type": "devpts",
         "source": "pts",
         "options": [
           "private",
           "noexec",
           "nosuid",
           "newinstance",
           "ptmxmode=0666",
           "mode=0620"
         ]
       },
       {
         "destination": "/dev/shm",
         "type": "tmpfs",
         "source": "shm",
         "options": [
           "private",
           "nodev",
           "noexec",
           "nosuid",
           "mode=1777",
           "size=65536k"
         ]
       },
       {
         "destination": "/proc",
         "type": "proc",
         "source": "/proc",
         "options": [
           "private",
           "nodev",
           "noexec",
           "nosuid"
         ]
       },
       {
         "destination": "/sys",
         "type": "bind",
         "source": "/sys",
         "options": [
           "rbind",
           "private",
           "nodev",
           "noexec",
           "nosuid",
           "ro"
         ]
       },
       {
         "destination": "/etc/hosts",
         "type": "bind",
         "source": "/tmp/buildah115496812/hosts",
         "options": [
           "rbind"
         ]
       },
       {
         "destination": "/etc/resolv.conf",
         "type": "bind",
         "source": "/tmp/buildah115496812/resolv.conf",
         "options": [
           "rbind"
         ]
       }
     ],

This says what filesystems to mount in the container. It is a mix; it has
tmpfses, bind-mounts of both files and directories, and other
non-device-backed filesystems. The docs suggest a lot of flexibility,
including stuff that won’t work in an unprivileged user namespace (e.g.,
filesystems backed by a block device).

The things that matter seem to be the same as Charliecloud defaults.
Therefore, for now we just ignore mounts.

.. code-block:: javascript

     "process": {
       "terminal": true,

This says that Buildah wants a pseudoterminal allocated. Charliecloud does not
currently support that, so we error in this case.

However, Buildah can be persuaded to set this :code:`false` if you redirect
its standard input from :code:`/dev/null`, which is the current workaround.
Things work fine.

.. code-block:: javascript

       "cwd": "/",

Maps to :code:`--cd`.

.. code-block:: javascript

       "args": [
         "/bin/sh",
         "-c",
         "apk add --no-cache bc"
       ],

Maps to :code:`COMMAND [ARG ...]`. Note that we do not run :code:`ch-run` via
the shell, so there aren’t worries about shell parsing.

.. code-block:: javascript

       "env": [
         "PATH=/usr/local/sbin:/usr/local/bin:/usr/sbin:/usr/bin:/sbin:/bin",
         "https_proxy=http://proxyout.lanl.gov:8080",
         "no_proxy=localhost,127.0.0.1,.lanl.gov",
         "HTTP_PROXY=http://proxyout.lanl.gov:8080",
         "HTTPS_PROXY=http://proxyout.lanl.gov:8080",
         "NO_PROXY=localhost,127.0.0.1,.lanl.gov",
         "http_proxy=http://proxyout.lanl.gov:8080"
       ],

Environment for the container. The spec does not say whether this is the
complete environment or whether it should be added to some default
environment.

We treat it as a complete environment, i.e., place the variables in a file and
then :code:`--unset-env='*' --set-env=FILE`.

.. code-block:: javascript

       "rlimits": [
         {
           "type": "RLIMIT_NOFILE",
           "hard": 1048576,
           "soft": 1048576
         }
       ]

Process limits Buildah wants us to set with :code:`setrlimit(2)`. Ignored.

.. code-block:: javascript

       "capabilities": {
         ...
       },

Long list of capabilities that Buildah wants. Ignored. (Charliecloud provides
security by remaining an unprivileged process.)

.. code-block:: javascript

       "user": {
         "uid": 0,
         "gid": 0
       },
     },

Maps to :code:`--uid=0 --gid=0`.

.. code-block:: javascript

     "linux": {
       "namespaces": [
         {
           "type": "pid"
         },
         {
           "type": "ipc"
         },
         {
           "type": "mount"
         },
         {
           "type": "user"
         }
       ],

Namespaces that Buildah wants. Ignored; Charliecloud just does user and mount.

.. code-block:: javascript

       "uidMappings": [
         {
           "hostID": 0,
           "containerID": 0,
           "size": 1
         },
         {
           "hostID": 1,
           "containerID": 1,
           "size": 65536
         }
       ],
       "gidMappings": [
         {
           "hostID": 0,
           "containerID": 0,
           "size": 1
         },
         {
           "hostID": 1,
           "containerID": 1,
           "size": 65536
         }
       ],

Describes the identity map between the namespace and host. Buildah wants it
much larger than Charliecloud’s single entry and asks for container root to be
host root, which we can’t do. Ignored.

.. code-block:: javascript

       "maskedPaths": [
         "/proc/acpi",
         "/proc/kcore",
         ...
       ],
       "readonlyPaths": [
         "/proc/asound",
         "/proc/bus",
         ...
       ]

Spec says to "mask over the provided paths ... so they cannot be read" and
"sed the provided paths as readonly". Ignored. (Unprivileged user namespace
protects us.)

.. code-block:: javascript

     }
   }

End of example.

State
~~~~~

The OCI spec does not say how the JSON document describing state should be
given to the caller. Buildah is happy to get it on the runtime’s standard
output.

:code:`ch-run-oci` provides an OCI compliant state document. Status
:code:`creating` will never be returned, because the create operation is
essentially a no-op, and annotations are not supported, so the
:code:`annotations` key will never be given.

Additional sources
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

* :code:`buildah` man page: https://github.com/containers/buildah/blob/master/docs/buildah.md
* :code:`buildah bud` man page: https://github.com/containers/buildah/blob/master/docs/buildah-bud.md
* :code:`runc create` man page: https://raw.githubusercontent.com/opencontainers/runc/master/man/runc-create.8.md
* https://github.com/opencontainers/runtime-spec/blob/master/runtime.md


ch-image
--------

pull
~~~~

Images pulled from registries come with OCI metadata, i.e. a "config blob".
This is stored verbatim in :code:`/ch/config.pulled.json` for debugging.
Charliecloud metadata, which includes a translated subset of the OCI config,
is kept up to date in :code:`/ch/metadata.json`.

push
~~~~

Image registries expect a config blob at push time. This blob consists of both
OCI runtime and image specification information.

* OCI run-time and image documentation:

  * https://github.com/opencontainers/runtime-spec/blob/master/config.md
  * https://github.com/opencontainers/image-spec/blob/master/config.md

Since various OCI features are unsupported by Charliecloud we push only what is
necessary to satisfy general image registry requirements.

The pushed config is created on the fly, referencing the image’s metadata
and layer tar hash. For example, including commentary:

.. code-block:: javascript

    {
      "architecture": "amd64",
      "charliecloud_version": "0.26",
      "comment": "pushed with Charliecloud",
      "config": {},
      "container_config": {},
      "created": "2021-12-10T20:39:56Z",
      "os": "linux",
      "rootfs": {
        "diff_ids": [
          "sha256:607c737779a53d3a04cbd6e59cae1259ce54081d9bafb4a7ab0bc863add22be8"
        ],
        "type": "layers"
      },
      "weirdal": "yankovic"

The fields above are expected by the registry at push time, with the exception
of :code:`charliecloud_version` and :code:`weirdal`, which are Charliecloud
extensions.

.. code-block:: javascript

      "history": [
        {
          "created": "2021-11-17T02:20:51.334553938Z",
          "created_by": "/bin/sh -c #(nop) ADD file:cb5ed7070880d4c0177fbe6dd278adb7926e38cd73e6abd582fd8d67e4bbf06c in / ",
          "empty_layer": true
        },
        {
          "created": "2021-11-17T02:20:51.921052716Z",
          "created_by": "/bin/sh -c #(nop)  CMD [\"bash\"]",
          "empty_layer": true
        },
        {
          "created": "2021-11-30T20:14:08Z",
          "created_by": "FROM debian:buster",
          "empty_layer": true
        },
        {
          "created": "2021-11-30T20:14:19Z",
          "created_by": "RUN ['/bin/sh', '-c', 'apt-get update     && apt-get install -y        bzip2        wget     && rm -rf /var/lib/apt/lists/*']",
          "empty_layer": true
        },
        {
          "created": "2021-11-30T20:14:19Z",
          "created_by": "WORKDIR /usr/local/src",
          "empty_layer": true
        },
        {
          "created": "2021-11-30T20:14:19Z",
          "created_by": "ARG MC_VERSION='latest'",
          "empty_layer": true
        },
        {
          "created": "2021-11-30T20:14:19Z",
          "created_by": "ARG MC_FILE='Miniconda3-latest-Linux-x86_64.sh'",
          "empty_layer": true
        },
        {
          "created": "2021-11-30T20:14:21Z",
          "created_by": "RUN ['/bin/sh', '-c', 'wget -nv https://repo.anaconda.com/miniconda/$MC_FILE']",
          "empty_layer": true
        },
        {
          "created": "2021-11-30T20:14:33Z",
          "created_by": "RUN ['/bin/sh', '-c', 'bash $MC_FILE -bf -p /usr/local']",
          "empty_layer": true
        },
        {
          "created": "2021-11-30T20:14:33Z",
          "created_by": "RUN ['/bin/sh', '-c', 'rm -Rf $MC_FILE']",
          "empty_layer": true
        },
        {
          "created": "2021-11-30T20:14:33Z",
          "created_by": "RUN ['/bin/sh', '-c', 'which conda && conda --version']",
          "empty_layer": true
        },
        {
          "created": "2021-11-30T20:14:34Z",
          "created_by": "RUN ['/bin/sh', '-c', 'conda config --set auto_update_conda False']",
          "empty_layer": true
        },
        {
          "created": "2021-11-30T20:14:34Z",
          "created_by": "RUN ['/bin/sh', '-c', 'conda config --add channels conda-forge']",
          "empty_layer": true
        },
        {
          "created": "2021-11-30T20:15:07Z",
          "created_by": "RUN ['/bin/sh', '-c', 'conda install --yes obspy']",
          "empty_layer": true
        },
        {
          "created": "2021-11-30T20:15:07Z",
          "created_by": "WORKDIR /",
          "empty_layer": true
        },
        {
          "created": "2021-11-30T20:15:08Z",
          "created_by": "RUN ['/bin/sh', '-c', 'wget -nv http://examples.obspy.org/RJOB_061005_072159.ehz.new']",
          "empty_layer": true
        },
        {
          "created": "2021-11-30T20:15:08Z",
          "created_by": "COPY ['hello.py'] -> '.'",
          "empty_layer": true
        },
        {
          "created": "2021-11-30T20:15:08Z",
          "created_by": "RUN ['/bin/sh', '-c', 'chmod 755 ./hello.py']"
        }
      ],
    }

The history section is collected from the image’s metadata and
:code:`empty_layer` added to all entries except the last to represent a
single-layer image. This is needed because Quay checks that the number of
non-empty history entries match the number of pushed layers.

Miscellaneous notes
===================

Updating bundled Lark parser
----------------------------

In order to change the version of the bundled lark parser you must modify
multiple files. To find them, e.g. for version 1.1.9 (the regex is hairy to
catch both dot notation and tuples, but not the list of filenames in
:code:`lib/Makefile.am`)::

  $ misc/grep -E '1(\.|, )1(\.|, )9($|\s|\))'

What to do in each location should either be obvious or commented.


..  LocalWords:  milestoned gh nv cht Chacon’s scottchacon mis cantfix tmpimg
..  LocalWords:  rootfs cbd cae ce bafb bc weirdal yankovic nop cb fbe adb fd
..  LocalWords:  abd bbf LOGFILE logfile rtd Enums WIP rpmlintrc rhel ILLERI
