Re: Clarification on rdma-core Code Style and Contribution Guidelines

[Leon Romanovsky <leon@kernel.org>]

On Wed, May 07, 2025 at 02:31:36PM +0800, 周洪锋 wrote:
> 
> 
> Dear Maintainers,
> 
> 
> I hope this message finds you well.
> 
> 
> I'm Zhou Hongfeng from BitIntelligence, a network company from China, and I’m interested in contributing to rdma-core. While preparing my patches, I want to ensure my code adheres to the project’s style guidelines. However, I noticed a few uncertainties regarding the current practices:
> 
> 
>   `.clang-format` Usage: The repository includes a .clang-format file, but it hasn’t been updated in a while. When I ran clang-format-11) on the existing codebase, nearly all files showed formatting differences. This suggests the config might not fully align with the actual code style. Is `clang-format` the recommended tool for enforcing style consistency? If so, is there an updated version of the config file that maintainers endorse?

We follow kernel coding style in rdma-core too, but some code was
written before we adopted this policy. So the guidelines are relatively
simple: use kernel style for new files, and "existing to that file" for
changes in already existing codebase.

> 
> 
>   Manual Style Rules: If the project prioritizes manual style enforcement over automated tools, could you point me to documented conventions (e.g., indentation, naming, comments)?
> 
> 
>   Pre-Submission Handling: Should contributors manually match the existing style, or is it acceptable to submit patches reformatted with an updated .clang-format?

Sure, it is perfectly fine to extend existing .clang-format.

> 
> 
> Additionally, if there are other contribution guidelines (e.g., commit message format, testing requirements), I’d appreciate any pointers to avoid unnecessary review overhead.

Kernel coding style, pyverbs tests coverage and +1 from CI.

Thanks

> 
> 
> Thank you for your time and guidance! I’m happy to adjust my workflow to align with the project’s standards. Looking forward to your insights.
> 
> 
> Best regards,
> Zhou Hongfeng
> Github.com/zhf999