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CONTRIBUTING.md

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Contributing

Code of Conduct

This project and everyone participating in it is governed by a Code of Conduct. By participating, you are expected to uphold this code. Please report unacceptable behavior to quack@duckdb.org.

Did you find a bug?

  • Ensure the bug was not already reported by searching on GitHub under Issues.
  • If you're unable to find an open issue addressing the problem, open a new one. Be sure to include a title and clear description, as much relevant information as possible, and a code sample or an executable test case demonstrating the expected behavior that is not occurring.

Did you write a patch that fixes a bug?

  • Great!
  • If possible, add a unit test case to make sure the issue does not occur again.
  • Make sure you run the code formatter (make format).
  • Open a new GitHub pull request with the patch.
  • Ensure the PR description clearly describes the problem and solution. Include the relevant issue number if applicable.

Outside Contributors

  • Discuss your intended changes with the core team on GitHub
  • Announce that you are working or want to work on a specific issue
  • Avoid large pull requests - they are much less likely to be merged as they are incredibly hard to review

Pull Requests

  • Do not commit/push directly to the main branch. Instead, create a fork and file a pull request.
  • When maintaining a branch, merge frequently with the main.
  • When maintaining a branch, submit pull requests to the main frequently.
  • If you are working on a bigger issue try to split it up into several smaller issues.
  • Please do not open "Draft" pull requests. Rather, use issues or discussion topics to discuss whatever needs discussing.
  • We reserve full and final discretion over whether or not we will merge a pull request. Adhering to these guidelines is not a complete guarantee that your pull request will be merged.

CI for pull requests

  • Pull requests will need to pass all continuous integration checks before merging.
  • For faster iteration and more control, consider running CI on your own fork or when possible directly locally.
  • Submitting changes to an open pull request will move it to 'draft' state.
  • Pull requests will get a complete run on the main repo CI only when marked as 'ready for review' (via Web UI, button on bottom right).

Building

  • To build the project, run make -j$(nproc).

Python dependencies

We have several python dependencies for testing and formatting code. You can install these dependencies like this:

# Needed only once
pip -m venv env
# Needed every time you open a new terminal
source env/bin/activate
# Needed only once, or when dependencies change
pip install -r dev_requirements.txt

You can also install the dependencies globally if you prefer, but this is not recommended because they might cause conflicts with other projects.

Testing

  • Tests use standard regression tests for Postgres extensions as well as a custom Python based testing framework. To run tests, run make check.
  • Write many tests.
  • Test with different types, especially numerics, strings and complex nested types.
  • Try to test unexpected/incorrect usage as well, instead of only the happy path.
  • Make sure all unit tests pass before sending a PR.
  • pg_duckdb uses GitHub Actions as its continuous integration (CI) tool. You also have the option to run GitHub Actions on your forked repository. For detailed instructions, you can refer to the GitHub documentation.

Formatting

  • Use tabs for indentation, spaces for alignment.
  • Lines should not exceed 120 columns.
  • To make sure the formatting is consistent, use the instructions in the Python dependencies section to install the correct versions of the dependencies.
  • clang-format and ruff enforce these rules automatically, use make format to run the formatter.
  • The project also comes with an .editorconfig file that corresponds to these rules.

C/C++ Guidelines

By definition this project needs to interface both with Postgres and DuckDB, which are written in C and C++ respectively. These both have fairly different coding styles.

Postgres C Guidelines

  • Use memory contexts to allocate memory, e.g. palloc or palloc0.
  • Casing is very inconsistent in Postgres, we use CamelCase for function names and snake_case for variables. For the C implementation of a SQL function (e.g. duckdb.install_extension(...), use snake_case.
  • If you copied code from Postgres, try to keep the Postgres style and prefer to keep it in a separate function/file so that it is easy to update when the Postgres code changes.
  • TODO: Add more guidelines here.

DuckDB C++ Guidelines

  • Do not use malloc, prefer the use of smart pointers. Keywords new and delete are a code smell.
  • Strongly prefer the use of unique_ptr over shared_ptr, only use shared_ptr if you absolutely have to.
  • Use const whenever possible.
  • Do not import namespaces (e.g. using std).
  • All functions in source files in the core (src directory) should be part of the pgduckdb namespace.
  • When overriding a virtual method, avoid repeating virtual and always use override or final.
  • Use [u]int(8|16|32|64)_t instead of int, long, uint etc. Use idx_t instead of size_t for offsets/indices/counts of any kind.
  • Prefer using references over pointers as arguments.
  • Use const references for arguments of non-trivial objects (e.g. std::vector, ...).
  • Use C++11 for loops when possible: for (const auto& item : items) {...}
  • Use braces for indenting if statements and loops. Avoid single-line if statements and loops, especially nested ones.
  • Class Layout: Start out with a public block containing the constructor and public variables, followed by a public block containing public methods of the class. After that follow any private functions and private variables. For example: 
    class MyClass {
public:
	MyClass();

	int my_public_variable;

public:
	void MyFunction();

private:
	void MyPrivateFunction();

private:
	int my_private_variable;
};
  • Avoid unnamed magic numbers. Instead, use named variables that are stored in a constexpr.
  • Return early. Avoid deep nested branches.
  • Do not include commented out code blocks in pull requests.

Error Handling

  • Use exceptions only when an error is encountered that terminates a query (e.g. parser error, table not found). Exceptions should only be used for exceptional situations. For regular errors that do not break the execution flow (e.g. errors you expect might occur) use a return value instead.
  • There are two distinct parts of the code where error handling is done very differently: The code that executes before we enter DuckDB execution engine (e.g. initial part of the planner hook) and the part that gets executed inside the duckdb execution engine. Below are rules for how to handle errors in both parts of the code. Not following these guidelines can cause crashes, memory leaks and other unexpected problems.
  • Before we enter the DuckDB exection engine no exceptions should ever be thrown here. In cases where you would want to throw an exception here, use elog(ERROR, ...). Any C++ code that might throw an exception is also problematic. Since C++ throws exceptions on allocation failures, this covers lots of C++ APIs. So try to use Postgres datastructures instead of C++ ones whenever possible (e.g. use List instead of Vec)
  • Inside the duckdb execution engine the opposite is true. elog(ERROR, ...) should never be used there, use exceptions instead.
  • Use PostgreSQL elog API can be used to report non-fatal messages back to user. Using ERROR is strictly forbiden to use in code that is executed inside the duckdb engine.
  • Calling PostgreSQL native functions from within DuckDB execution needs extreme care. Pretty much non of these functions are thread-safe, and they might throw errors using elog(ERROR, ...). If you've solved the thread-safety issue by taking a lock (or by carefully asserting that the actual code is thread safe), then you can use PostgresFunctionGuard to solve the `elog(ERROR, ...) problem. PostgresFunctionGuard will correctly handle ERROR log messages that could be emmited from these functions.
  • Try to add test cases that trigger exceptions. If an exception cannot be easily triggered using a test case then it should probably be an assertion. This is not always true (e.g. out of memory errors are exceptions, but are very hard to trigger).
  • Use D_ASSERT to assert. Use assert only when failing the assert means a programmer error. Assert should never be triggered by user input. Avoid code like D_ASSERT(a > b + 3); without comments or context.
  • Assert liberally, but make it clear with comments next to the assert what went wrong when the assert is triggered.

Naming Conventions

  • Choose descriptive names. Avoid single-letter variable names.
  • Files: lowercase separated by underscores, e.g., abstract_operator.cpp
  • Types (classes, structs, enums, typedefs, using): CamelCase starting with uppercase letter, e.g., BaseColumn
  • Variables: lowercase separated by underscores, e.g., chunk_size
  • Functions: CamelCase starting with uppercase letter, e.g., GetChunk
  • Avoid i, j, etc. in nested loops. Prefer to use e.g. column_idx, check_idx. In a non-nested loop it is permissible to use i as iterator index.
  • These rules are partially enforced by clang-tidy.