Coding Guidelines

Updated 1,497 Days AgoPublic

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Like any other project we have some small guidelines about our source
code, too. The rules we have are not there to punish you - the rules are
in place to help us all. By having a consistent coding style it becomes
very easy for new and also longtime contributors to navigate through the
sources and all the implied logic of any one source file..

Python 3 shall be used. How long can we keep Python 2 alive anyway?
No considerations for Python 2 compatibility should be taken at any
time.

Formatting

• Python: Tabs shall not be used. Every indentation level should be 4 spaces
• XML: Tabs shall not be used. Every indentation level should be 2 spaces

::: {.note}
::: {.title}
Note
:::

There are extensions to e.g. VIM (xmllint) which will help you to get
your indention levels correct. Add to following to your .vimrc file:
au FileType xml setlocal equalprg=xmllint\ --format\ --recover\ -\ 2>/dev/null
now you can call the linter using gg=G in command mode.
:::

Text generation

Template processor should be used for generating config files.
Built-in string formatting may be used for simple line-oriented
formats where every line is self-contained, such as iptables rules.
Template processor must be used for structured, multi-line formats
such as those used by ISC DHCPd.

The default template processor for VyOS code is [Jinja2]().

Summary

When modifying the source code, remember these rules of the legacy
elimination campaign:

• No new features in Perl
• No old style command definitions
• No code incompatible with Python3