glib/docs/macros.md
Philip Withnall b02e29558f
docs: Set -Dglib_debug=enabled by default and document it for distros
As per https://gitlab.gnome.org/GNOME/glib/-/issues/3421#note_2206315:

It seems like there’s agreement that glib_debug should be enabled for
developers and disabled for distros; and it also seems like there’s no
reliable way to figure this out magically (because not everyone ties
things to `-Dbuildtype=*`). So, we’re left with forcing some group of
people to manually set the value of `glib_debug`. There are more
developers/contributors than there are distros, and distros are more
likely to notice an accidentally-slow GLib package than developers are
likely to notice an accidentally-not-asserting-hard-enough local build,
so let’s say:

The default should be `-Dglib_debug=enabled`, and distros should probably
all override that to `-Dglib_debug=disabled`.

Signed-off-by: Philip Withnall <pwithnall@gnome.org>

Fixes: #3421
2024-08-25 18:34:05 +01:00

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Markdown

GLib's configure options and corresponding macros
=================================================
The following Meson configure options will result in certain macros or options
being defined at build time:
`--buildtype={plain,release,minsize,custom}`
: No special macros or options
`--buildtype={debug,debugoptimized}` (`debugoptimized` is the default)
: `-DG_ENABLE_DEBUG -g`
`-Dglib_debug=disabled`
: Omits `G_ENABLE_DEBUG` when implied by `--buildtype`/`-Ddebug`
`-Dglib_debug=enabled`
: Defines `G_ENABLE_DEBUG` regardless of `--buildtype`/`-Ddebug`
`-Dglib_asserts=false`
: `-DG_DISABLE_ASSERT`
`-Dglib_checks=false`
: `-DG_DISABLE_CHECKS`
Besides these, there are some local feature specific options, but the main
focus here is to concentrate on macros that affect overall GLib behaviour
and/or third party code.
GLib's internal and global macros
=================================
`G_DISABLE_ASSERT`
---
The `g_assert()` and `g_assert_not_reached()` macros become non-functional
with this define. The motivation is to speed up end-user apps by
avoiding expensive checks.
This macro can affect third-party code. Defining it when building GLib
will only disable the assertion macros for GLib itself, but third-party code
that passes `-DG_DISABLE_ASSERT` to the compiler in its own build
will end up with the non-functional variants after including `glib.h`
as well.
Note: Code inside the assertion macros should not have side effects
that affect the operation of the program, as they may get compiled out.
`G_DISABLE_CHECKS`
---
This macro is similar to `G_DISABLE_ASSERT`, it affects third-party
code as mentioned above and the note about `G_DISABLE_ASSERT` applies
too.
The macros that become non-functional here are `g_return_if_fail()`,
`g_return_val_if_fail()`, `g_return_if_reached()` and
`g_return_val_if_reached()`.
This macro also switches off certain checks in the GSignal code.
`G_ENABLE_DEBUG`
---
Quite a bit of additional debugging code is compiled into GLib when this
macro is defined, and since it is a globally visible define, third-party code
may be affected by it similarly to `G_DISABLE_ASSERT`.
Some of these checks can be relatively expensive at runtime, as they affect
every GObject type cast. Distributions are recommended to disable
`G_ENABLE_DEBUG` in stable release builds.
The additional code executed/compiled for this macro currently includes the
following, but this is not an exhaustive list:
- extra validity checks for `GDate`
- breakpoint abortion for fatal log levels in `gmessages.c` instead of
plain `abort()` to allow debuggers trapping and overriding them
- added verbosity of `gscanner.c` to catch deprecated code paths
- added verbosity of `gutils.c` to catch deprecated code paths
- object and type bookkeeping in `gobject.c`
- extra validity checks in `gsignal.c`
- support for tracking still-alive `GTask`s