Apollo Best Coding Practice¶
Always build, test, and lint all.
./apollo.sh check
Always write unit tests and put them along with the source files.
foobar.h foobar.cc foobar_test.cc
A Bazel target should contain at most one header and one source file.
cc_library( name = "foobar", hdrs = ["foobar.h"], srcs = ["foobar.cc"], deps = [ ... ], ) cc_test( name = "foobar_test", srcs = ["foobar_test.cc"], deps = [ ":foobar", ... ] )
You can use
./apollo.sh format <path/to/BUILD>
to fix BUILD file style issues.In general, Apollo follows Google C++ coding style. You should run
scripts/clang_format.sh <path/to/cpp/dirs/or/files>
or./apollo.sh format -c <path/to/cpp/dirs/or/files>
to fix C++ style issues.Simple and unified function signature.
// 1. For input objects, const reference guarantes that it is valid, while // pointers might be NULL or wild. Don't give others the chance to break // you. // 2. For input scalars, just pass by value, which gives better locality and // thus performance. // 3. For output, it's the caller's responsibility to make sure the pointer // is valid. No need to do sanity check or mark it as "OutputType* const", // as pointer redirection is never allowed. void FooBar(const InputObjectType& input1, const InputScalaType input2, ..., OutputType* output1, ...); // RVO machanism will help you avoid unnecessary object copy. // See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Copy_elision#Return_value_optimization OutputType FooBar(const InputType& input);
Use const whenever possible.
// Variables that don't change. const size_t current_size = vec.size(); // Functions that have no side effect. const std::string& name() const;
Prefer C++ headers over C headers.
We prefer using
#include <ctime>
over#include <time.h>
,<cmath>
over<math.h>
,<cstdio>
over<stdio.h>
,<cstring>
over<string.h>
, etc.Include necessary headers only. No more, no less.
Please also pay attention to header orders. Again, you can use
apollo.sh format -c
orscripts/clang_format.sh
to fix header order issues.List only direct dependencies in
deps
section of a Bazel target.Generally, only targets to which the included headers belongs should be listed as a dependency.
For example, suppose
sandwich.h
includesbread.h
which in turn includesflour.h
. Sincesandwich.h
doesn’t includeflour.h
directly (who wants flour in their sandwich?), the BUILD file would look like this:cc_library( name = "sandwich", srcs = ["sandwich.cc"], hdrs = ["sandwich.h"], deps = [ ":bread", # BAD practice to uncomment the line below # ":flour", ], ) cc_library( name = "bread", srcs = ["bread.cc"], hdrs = ["bread.h"], deps = [":flour"], ) cc_library( name = "flour", srcs = ["flour.cc"], hdrs = ["flour.h"], )
Conform to the DRY principle.
Don’t repeat yourself, in any way. Avoid duplicate classes, functions, const variables, or a simple piece of code. Some examples:
It’s fine to refer a name with full path once, like
apollo::common::util::Type
, but better to make a short alias if you need to use twice or more:using apollo::common::util::Type;
.It’s fine to access a sub-field of proto once in cascade style, like
a_proto.field_1().field_2().field_3()
, but better to save the reference of a common part first if you need to access it twice or more:const auto& field_2 = a_proto.field_1().field_2();
.