Development information

This file aims to introduce developers to conventions for working on the code base of radare2.

The GitHub issues page contains a list of all the bugs that have been reported, with labels to classify them by difficulty, type, milestone, etc. It is a good place to start if you are looking to contribute.

For information about the git process, see CONTRIBUTING.md.

Documentation

Functions should have descriptive names and parameters. It should be clear what the function and its arguments do from the declaration. Comments should be used to explain purpose or clarify something that may not be immediately apparent or relatively complicated.

/* Find the min and max addresses in an RList of maps. Returns (max-min)/width. */
static int findMinMax(RList *maps, ut64 *min, ut64 *max, int skip, int width);

Error diagnosis

There are several utilities that can be used to diagnose errors in r2, whether they are related to memory (segfaults, uninitialized read, etc.) or problems with features.

Compilation options

sys/sanitize.sh: Compile with ASan, the address sanitizer. Provides detailed backtraces for memory errors.
R2_DEBUG_ASSERT=1: Provides a backtrace when a debug assert (typically a r_return_ macro) fails.
R2_DEBUG=1: Show error messages and crash signal. Used for debugging plugin loading issues.

ABI stability and versioning

During abi-stable seassons [x.y.0-x.y.8] it is not allowed to break the abi, this is checked in the CI using the abidiff tool on every commit. Sometimes keeping the abi/api stable implies doing ugly hacks. Those must be marked with the corresponding to the next MAJOR.MINOR release of r2.

For example, during the development of 5.8.x we add a comment or use #if R2_590 code blocks to specify those lines need to be changed when 5.8.9 in git.

Only the even patch version numbers are considered a release. This means that if you have an odd patch version of r2 it was built from git instead of the release tarball or binaries.

For more details read doc/abi.md

Useful macros from r_types.h

EPRINT_*: Allows you to quickly add or remove a debug print without worrying about format specifiers.

Parameter marking

r2 provides several empty macros to make function signatures more informative.

R_OUT: Parameter is output - written to instead of read.
R_INOUT: Parameter is read/write.
R_OWN: Pointer ownership is transferred from the caller.
R_BORROW: The caller retains ownership of the pointer - the reciever must not free it.
R_NONNULL: Pointer must not be null.
R_NULLABLE: Pointer may ne null.
R_DEPRECATE: Do not use in new code and will be removed in the future.
R_IFNULL(x): Default value for a pointer when null.
R_UNUSED: Not used.

Code style

C

In order to contribute patches or plugins, we encourage you to use the same coding style as the rest of the code base.

Please use ./sys/clang-format-diff.py before submitting a PR to be sure you are following the coding style, as described in [CONTRIBUTING.md](CONTRIBUTING.md#Getting Started). If you find a bug in this script, please submit a bug report issue. A detailed style guide can be found below.
See sys/indent.sh for indenting your code automatically.
A pre-commit hook to check coding style is located at sys/pre-commit-indent.sh. You can install it by copying it to .git/hooks/pre-commit. To preserve your existing pre-commit hook, use cat sys/pre-commit-indent.sh >> .git/hooks/pre-commit instead.
For a premade .vimrc, see doc/vim.
See .clang-format for work-in-progress support for automated indentation.

Guidelines

The following guidelines apply to code that we must maintain. Generally, they will not apply to copy-paste external code that will not be touched.

Tabs are used for indentation. In a switch statement, the cases are indented at the switch level.
Switch-cases where local variables are needed should be refactored into separate functions instead of using braces. If braced scope syntax is used, put break; statements inside the scope.

switch (n) {
case 1:
        break;
case 2: {
        break;
}
default:
}

Lines should be at most 140 characters in length. Considering tabs are 8 characters long. Originally this limit was 78, and it's still considered as a good practice, try to keep your functions short and readable, with minimum number of function arguments and not much nesting.
Braces open on the same line as the for/while/if/else/function/etc. Closing braces are put on a line of their own, except in the else of an if statement or in the while of a do-while statement.

if (a == b) {
        ...
}

if (a == b) {
        ...
} else if (a > b) {
        ...
}

if (a == b) {
        ...
} else {
        do_something_else ();
}

do {
        do_something ();
} while (cond);

if (a == b) {
        b = 3;
}

Always use braces for if and while.

-if (a == b)
-        return;
+if (a == b) {
+        return;
+}

In general, avoid goto. The goto statement only comes in handy when a function exits from multiple locations and some common work such as cleanup has to be done. If there is no cleanup needed, then just return directly.

Choose label names which say what the goto does or why it exists. An example of a good name could be out_buffer: if the goto frees buffer. Avoid using GW-BASIC names like err1: and err2:.
Use r_return_* macros to check for conditions that are caused by programming errors or bugs; i.e.: conditions that should never happen. Do not use them when checking for runtime error conditions, such as a NULL value being returned from malloc(). Use a standard if statement for these cases.

int check(RCore *c, int a, int b) {
        /* check for programming errors */
        r_return_val_if_fail (c, false);
        r_return_val_if_fail (a >= 0, b >= 1, false);

        /* check for runtime errors */
        ut8 *buf = calloc (b, sizeof (a));
        if (!buf) {
                return -1;
        }

        /* continue... */
}

Use spaces after keywords and around operators.

a = b + 3;
a = (b << 3) * 5;
a = sizeof (b) * 4;

Multiline ternary operator conditionals are indented in JavaScript style:

-ret = over ?
-        r_debug_step_over (dbg, 1) :
-        r_debug_step (dbg, 1);
+ret = over
+        ? r_debug_step_over (dbg, 1)
+        : r_debug_step (dbg, 1);

When breaking up a long line, use a single additional tab if the current and next lines are aligned. Do not align start of line using spaces.

-x = function_with_long_signature_and_many_args (arg1, arg2, arg3, arg4, arg5,
-                                                arg6, arg7, arg8);
-y = z;
+x = function_with_long_signature_and_many_args (arg1, arg2, arg3, arg4, arg5,
+        arg6, arg7, arg8);
+y = z;

Use two additional tabs if the next line is indented to avoid confusion with control flow.

 if (function_with_long_signature_and_many_args (arg1, arg2, arg3, arg4, arg5,
-        arg6, arg7, arg8)) {
+                arg6, arg7, arg8)) {
         do_stuff ();
 }

When following the above guideline, if additional indentation is needed on consecutive lines, use a single tab for each nested level. Avoid heavy nesting in this manner.

 if (condition_1 && condition_2 && condition_3
                 && (condition_4
-                                || condition_5)) {
+                        || condition_5)) {
         do_stuff ();
 }

Split long conditional expressions into small static inline functions to make them more readable.

+static inline bool inRange(RBreakpointItem *b, ut64 addr) {
+        return (addr >= b->addr && addr < (b->addr + b->size));
+}
+
+static inline bool matchProt(RBreakpointItem *b, int rwx) {
+        return (!rwx || (rwx && b->rwx));
+}
+
 R_API RBreakpointItem *r_bp_get_in(RBreakpoint *bp, ut64 addr, int rwx) {
         RBreakpointItem *b;
         RListIter *iter;
         r_list_foreach (bp->bps, iter, b) {
-                if (addr >= b->addr && addr < (b->addr+b->size) && \
-                        (!rwx || rwx&b->rwx)) {
+                if (inRange (b, addr) && matchProt (b, rwx)) {
                         return b;
                 }
         }
         return NULL;
 }

Use R_API to mark exportable (public) methods for module APIs.
Use R_IPI to mark functions internal to a library.
Other functions should be static to avoid polluting the global namespace.
The structure of C files in r2 should be as follows:

/* Copyright ... */           // copyright
#include <r_core.h>           // includes
static int globals            // const, define, global variables
static void helper(void) {}   // static functions
R_IPI void internal(void) {}  // internal apis (used only inside the library)
R_API void public(void) {}    // public apis starting with constructor/destructor

Why do we return int instead of enum?

The reason why many r2 functions return int instead of an enum type is because enums can't be OR'ed; additionally, it breaks the usage within a switch statement and swig can't handle it.

r_core_wrap.cxx:28612:60: error: assigning to 'RRegisterType' from incompatible type 'long'
  arg2 = static_cast< long >(val2); if (arg1) (arg1)->type = arg2; resultobj = SWIG_Py_Void(); return resultobj; fail:
                                                           ^ ~~~~
r_core_wrap.cxx:32103:61: error: assigning to 'RDebugReasonType' from incompatible type 'int'
    arg2 = static_cast< int >(val2); if (arg1) (arg1)->type = arg2; resultobj = SWIG_Py_Void(); return resultobj; fail:
                                                            ^ ~~~~

Do not leave trailing whitespaces at end-of-line.
Do not use <assert.h>. Use "r_util/r_assert.h" instead.
You can use export R2_DEBUG_ASSERT=1 to set a breakpoint when hitting an assert.
Declare variables at the beginning of code blocks - use C89 declaration instead of C99. In other words, do not mix declarations and code. This helps reduce the number of local variables per function and makes it easier to find which variables are used where.
Always put a space before an opening parenthesis (function calls, conditionals, for loops, etc.) except when defining a function signature. This is useful for searching the code base with grep.

-if(a == b){
+if (a == b) {

-static int check(RCore *core, int a);
+static int check (RCore *core, int a);

Where is function_name() defined?

grep -R 'function_name(' libr

Where is function_name() used?

grep -R 'function_name (' libr

Function names should be explicit enough to not require a comment explaining what it does when seen elsewhere in code.
Do not use global variables. The only acceptable time to use them is for singletons and WIP code. Make a comment explaining why it is needed.
Commenting out code should be avoided because it reduces readability. If you really need to comment out code, use #if 0 and #endif.
Avoid very long functions; split it into multiple sub-functions or simplify your approach.
Use types from <r_types.h> instead of the ones in <stdint.h>, which are known to cause some portability issues. Replace uint8_t with ut8, etc.
Never use %lld or %llx, which are not portable. Use the PFMT64 macros from <r_types.h>.

Shell scripts

Use #!/bin/sh.
Do not use BASH-only features; [[, $'...', etc.
Use sys/shellcheck.sh to check for problems and BASH-only features.

Managing endianness

Endianness is a common stumbling block when processing buffers or streams and storing intermediate values as integers larger than one byte.

Problem

The following code may seem intuitively correct:

ut8 opcode[4] = {0x10, 0x20, 0x30, 0x40};
ut32 value = *(ut32*)opcode;

However, when opcode is cast to ut32, the compiler interprets the memory layout based on the host CPU's endianness. On little-endian architectures such as x86, the least-signficiant byte comes first, so value contains 0x40302010. On a big-endian architecture, the most-significant byte comes first, so value contains 0x10203040. This implementation-defined behavior is inherently unstable and should be avoided.

Solution

To avoid dependency on endianness, use bit-shifting and bitwise OR instructions. Instead of casting streams of bytes to larger width integers, do the following for little endian:

ut8 opcode[4] = {0x10, 0x20, 0x30, 0x40};
ut32 value = opcode[0] | opcode[1] << 8 | opcode[2] << 16 | opcode[3] << 24;

And do the following for big endian:

ut32 value = opcode[3] | opcode[2] << 8 | opcode[1] << 16 | opcode[0] << 24;

This behavior is not dependent on architecture, and will act consistently between any standard compilers regardless of host endianness.

Endian helper functions

The above is not very easy to read. Within radare2, use endianness helper functions to interpret byte streams in a given endianness.

val32 = r_read_be32(buffer)         // reads 4 bytes from a stream in BE
val32 = r_read_le32(buffer)         // reads 4 bytes from a stream in LE
val32 = r_read_ble32(buffer, isbig) // reads 4 bytes from a stream:
                                    //   if isbig is true, reads in BE
                                    //   otherwise reads in LE

Such helper functions exist for 64, 32, 16, and 8 bit reads and writes.

Note that 8 bit reads are equivalent to casting a single byte of the buffer to a ut8 value, i.e.: endian is irrelevant.

Editor configuration

Vim/Neovim:

setl cindent
setl tabstop=8
setl noexpandtab
setl cino=:0,+0,(2,J0,{1,}0,>8,)1,m1

Emacs:

(c-add-style "radare2"
             '((c-basic-offset . 8)
               (tab-width . 8)
               (indent-tabs-mode . t)
               ;;;; You would need (put 'c-auto-align-backslashes 'safe-local-variable 'booleanp) to enable this
               ;; (c-auto-align-backslashes . nil)
               (c-offsets-alist
                (arglist-intro . ++)
                (arglist-cont . ++)
                (arglist-cont-nonempty . ++)
                (statement-cont . ++)
                )))

You may use directory-local variables by adding the following to .dir-locals.el.

((c-mode .  ((c-file-style . "radare2"))))

Packed structures

Due to standards differing between compilers, radare2 provides a portable helper macro for packed structures: R_PACKED(), which will automatically utilize the correct compiler-dependent macro. Do not use #pragma pack or __attribute__((packed)). Place the packed structure inside R_PACKED() like so:

R_PACKED (struct mystruct {
        int a;
        char b;
});

If you are using typedef, do not encapsulate the type name.

R_PACKED (typedef struct mystruct_t {
        int a;
        char b;
}) mystruct;

Modules

radare2 is split into modular libraries in the libr/ directory. The binr/ directory contains programs which use these libraries.

The libraries can be built individually, PIC or non-PIC. You can also create a single static library archive (.a) which you can link your own programs against to use radare2's libraries without depending on an existing system installation. See doc/static.md for more info.

This presentation gives a good overview of the libraries. //Link not working temporarily.

API

The external API is maintained in a different repository. The API function definitions in C header files are derived from and documented in the radare2-bindings repository, found here.

Currently, the process of updating the header files from changed API bindings requires human intervention, to ensure that proper review occurs. Incorrect definitions in the C header files will trigger a build failure in the bindings repository.

If you are able to write a plugin for various IDE that can associate the bindings with the header files, such a contribution would be very welcome.

Dependencies and installation

radare2 does not require external dependencies. On *nix-like systems, it requires only a standard C compiler and GNU make. For compiling on Windows, see doc/windows.md. Browse the doc/ folder for other architectures. For cross-compilation, see doc/cross-compile.md.

Recompiling and Outdated Dependencies

When recompiling code, ensure that you recompile all dependent modules (or simply recompile the entire project). If a module's dependency is not recompiled and relinked, it may cause segmentation faults due to outdated structures and libraries. Such errors are not handles automatically, so if you are not sure, recompile all modules.

To speed up frequent recompilation, you can use ccache like so:

export CC="ccache gcc"

This will automatically detect when files do not need to recompiled and avoid unnecessary work.

Repeated installation

There is an alternative installation method for radare2 to make it easier to repeatedly install while making changes. The symstall target creates a single system-wide installation using symlinks instead of copies, making repeated builds faster.

sudo make symstall

Source repository

The source for radare2 can be found in the following GitHub repository:

git clone https://github.com/radareorg/radare2

Other packages radare2 depends on, such as Capstone, are pulled from their git repository as required.

To get an up-to-date copy of the repository, you should perform the following while on the master branch:

git pull

If your local git repository is not tracking upstream, you may need to use the following:

git pull https://github.com:radareorg/radare2 master

The installation scripts sys/user.sh, sys/install.sh, sys/meson.py, and sys/termux.sh will automatically identify and update using an existing upstream remote, if one exists. If not, it will pull using a direct URL.

If you have modified files on the master branch, you may encounter conflicts that must be resolved manually. To save your changes, work on a different branch as described in CONTRIBUTING.md. If you wish to discard your current work, use the following commands:

git clean -xdf
git reset --hard
rm -rf shlr/capstone

Regression testing

Use r2r to run the radare2 regression test suite, e.g.:

sys/install.sh
r2r

r2r's source can be found in the test/ directory, while binaries used for tests are located in the following GitHub repository:

git clone https://github.com/radareorg/radare2-testbins

These can be found in test/bins/ after being downloaded by r2r.

For more information, see r2r's README.

The test files can be found in test/db/. Each test consists of a unique name, an input file, a list of input commands, and the expected output. The test must be terminated with a line consisting only of RUN.

Testing can always be improved. If you can contribute additional tests or fix existing tests, it is greatly appreciated.

Reporting bugs

If you encounter a broken feature, issue, error, problem, or it is unclear how to do something that should be covered by radare2's functionality, report an issue on the GitHub repository here.

If you are looking for feedback, check out the Community section in the README for places where you can contact other r2 devs.

HOW TO RELEASE

Set RELEASE=1 in global.mk and r2-bindings/config.mk.acr.
Use bsdtar from libarchive package. GNU tar is broken.

RADARE2

bump revision
./configure
make dist

R2-BINDINGS

./configure --enable-devel
make
make dist
Update the paths on the website

Additional resources

CONTRIBUTING.md
README.md
USAGE.md

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DEVELOPERS.md

DEVELOPERS.md

Development information

Documentation

Error diagnosis

Compilation options

ABI stability and versioning

Useful macros from r_types.h

Parameter marking

Code style

C

Guidelines

Shell scripts

Managing endianness

Problem

Solution

Endian helper functions

Editor configuration

Packed structures

Modules

API

Dependencies and installation

Recompiling and Outdated Dependencies

Repeated installation

Source repository

Regression testing

Reporting bugs

HOW TO RELEASE

RADARE2

R2-BINDINGS

Additional resources

Files

DEVELOPERS.md

Latest commit

History

DEVELOPERS.md

File metadata and controls

Development information

Documentation

Error diagnosis

Compilation options

ABI stability and versioning

Useful macros from r_types.h

Parameter marking

Code style

C

Guidelines

Shell scripts

Managing endianness

Problem

Solution

Endian helper functions

Editor configuration

Packed structures

Modules

API

Dependencies and installation

Recompiling and Outdated Dependencies

Repeated installation

Source repository

Regression testing

Reporting bugs

HOW TO RELEASE

RADARE2

R2-BINDINGS

Additional resources