Haiku Git Repositories¶
Haiku uses Git for source control, combined with Gerrit for review of code changes.
Most of the operating system sources are stored in a single repository at http://cgit.haiku-os.org/haiku .
Another repository at http://cgit.haiku-os.org/buildtools contains the build tools, that is, gcc, binutils, and Jam, which are maintained by Haiku developers.
Additional repositories are hosed on GitHub.
Finally, some pre-compiled packages are downloaded during the build, these are built using Haikuporter from recipes available here.
Getting the sourcecode¶
Sending change reviews¶
Source tree organization¶
The source tree is organized so you can easily find what you look for. If you’re already familiar with Haiku, you will notice that the source directory generally mirrors the way the filesystem in Haiku is organized.
At the top level, things that need to be “built” in some way are put in the src directory.
For example, the “data” folder at the root contains files that are used as-is in the disk image,
while “src/data” contain files that need to be compild or converted to different formats, such as
the MIME database.
src - All files that have to be built
add-ons - Everything that will be installed to /boot/system/add-ons: kernel drivers, media codecs, translators, …
apps - GUI applications that are not preferences
bin - Command-line applications
build - Files to allow using the Haiku buildtools on non-Haiku platforms
data - Data files of any type: icons, MIME database, …
kits - The public C++ API of Haiku: libbe, libmedia, libgame, …
libs - Static and shared libraries used by Haiku applications
preferences - The preference applications
servers - The system servers: app_server, input_server, net_server, …
system - The low-level system that makes Haiku tick
boot - The bootloaders for all supported platforms
glue - The “glue code” that makes shared libraries execute their constructors and destructors, and programs start their execution at
main()kernel - The kernel and all of its core services
ldscripts - Linker scripts for building various parts of Haiku
libnetwork - Files for building libnetwork.so, including the POSIX/BSD socket implementation and some extensions to it, as well as the DNS resolver
libroot - Files for building libroot.so, including the standard C and POSIX library implementation
runtime_loader: The special application that knows how to load and run other applications from ELF executable files
tests - This more or less mirrors the main source tree layout, and contains tests and debugging tools for each component. Some of the tests are run using cppunit, other can be run manually.
tools - Tools that can be built on non-Haiku platforms. Either needed for compiling Haiku itself, or otherwise useful outside of Haiku
headers - All shared, private and public headers
build - Compatibility headers for building Haiku code on non-Haiku systems
compatibility - Compatbility layers allowing to build BSD and GNU code to run on Haiku
config - Platform-specific configuration, definition of standard types that can be used in other places
cpp - The C++ standard library headers (only for gcc2, for later gcc versions this is provided by the gcc package)
glibc - Headers from glibc, for configuration and definition of some glibc specific functions
libs - Headers for the libraries found in src/libs
os - The public headers that define the Haiku API
posix - The POSIX APIs supported by Haiku
private - Private headers that are shared between haiku components, including work-in-progress APIs that may become public in the future
tools - Headers for various tools and utilities
docs - Documentation
develop - Internal documentation for developers working on Haiku itself (this is what you are reading now)
user - API reference <https://api.haiku-os.org>
Some other miscellaneous documentation
build - Build files
jam - Jam rules used by the Haiku build, defining how to build an application, a library, a disk image, …
config_headers - Configurable headers for enabling various debug features
scripts - Various scripts used by the Haiku build process
3rd_party - Developers custom files. Used for various side projects from Haiku developers, useful personal scripts, and integration with other tools and projects such as virtualization software
Managing GCC and binutils updates using vendor branches¶
The buidtools repository uses vendor branches. This concept originates from the SVN Book but applies just as well to Git. This organization allows to clearly separate the imported code from upstream, and the changes we have made to it.
The idea is to import all upstream changes in a dedicated branch (there are currently two, called vendor-gcc and vendor-binutils). These branches contains the sources of gcc and binutils as distributed by the GNU project, without any Haiku changes.
The master branch can then merge new versions from the vendor branches. This allows to use Git conflict resolution to make sure our patches are correctly ported from one version to the next.
It also makes it easy to compare the current state of our sourcecode with the upstream code, for example to extract patches that could be upstreamed.
How to import upstream binutils changes¶
Here is an example of the process used to update to a new version of binutils:
git checkout vendor-binutils # Move to the branch containing binutils
git rm -rf binutils ; rm -rf binutils # Delete the existing version of binutils
wget http://.../binutils-2.36.tar.xz # Download the latest version
tar xf binutils-2.36.tar.xz # Extract the new binutils version
mv binutils-2.36 binutils # Move the extracted files to the right place
git add -f binutils # Add the new files to git
git commit -m "import binutils 2.36" # Commit the files in the vendor branch
git push origin vendor-binutils # You can push this directly to the branch
Now this can easily be merged into the master branch:
git checkout master
git merge vendor-binutils
Review and fix the conflicts, if any, then push the changes for review on Gerrit.
How to import upstream gcc changes¶
Here is an example of the process used to update to a new version of binutils:
git checkout vendor-gcc # Move to the branch containing binutils
git rm -rf gcc ; rm -rf gcc # Delete the existing version of binutils
wget http://.../gcc-13.2.0.tar.xz # Download the latest version
tar xf gcc-13.2.0.tar.xz # Extract the new binutils version
mv gcc-13.2.0 gcc # Move the extracted files to the right place
pushd gcc
./contrib/download_prerequisites # Download the required gmp, isl, mpfr and mpc dependencies
rm gmp gmp-6.2.1.tar.bz2 # Remove gmp download and symbolic link
mv gmp-6.2.1 gmp # Move the downloaded gmp dependency in place
rm isl isl-0.24.tar.bz2
mv isl-0.24 isl
rm mpc mpc-1.2.1.tar.gz
mv mpc-1.2.1 mpc
rm mpfr mpfr-4.1.0.tar.bz2
mv mpfr-4.1.0 mpfr
popd
git add -f gcc # Add the new files to git
git commit -m "import gcc 13.2.0" # Commit the files in the vendor branch
git push origin vendor-binutils # You can push this directly to the branch
Now this can easily be merged into the master branch:
git checkout master
git merge vendor-binutils
Review and fix the conflicts, if any, then push the changes for review on Gerrit.
Comparing our code with upstream¶
Comparing the two versions is easy because you can refer to them by branch names:
git diff vendor-binutils master -- binutils