[PATCH 1/5] [RFC] drm: Documentation style guide
Daniel Vetter
daniel.vetter at ffwll.ch
Tue Dec 8 00:49:17 PST 2015
Every time I type or review docs this seems a bit different. Try to
document the common style so we can try to unify at least new docs.
Signed-off-by: Daniel Vetter <daniel.vetter at intel.com>
---
Documentation/DocBook/gpu.tmpl | 37 +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
1 file changed, 37 insertions(+)
diff --git a/Documentation/DocBook/gpu.tmpl b/Documentation/DocBook/gpu.tmpl
index 86e5b12a49ba..5698c93dae8b 100644
--- a/Documentation/DocBook/gpu.tmpl
+++ b/Documentation/DocBook/gpu.tmpl
@@ -124,6 +124,43 @@
<para>
[Insert diagram of typical DRM stack here]
</para>
+ <sect1>
+ <title>Style Guidelines</title>
+ <para>
+ For consistency these documentations use American English. Abbreviations
+ are written as all-uppercase, for example: DRM, KMS, IOCTL, CRTC, and so
+ on. To aid in reading documentations make full use of the markup
+ characters kerneldoc provides: @parameter for function paramters, @member
+ for structure members, &structure to refernce structures and
+ function() for functions. These all get automatically hyperlinked if
+ kerneldoc for the referencec objects exists When referencing entries in
+ function vtables please use -<vfunc(). Note that with kerneldoc does
+ not support referncing struct members directly, so please add a reference
+ to the vtable struct somewhere in the same paragraph or at least section.
+ </para>
+ <para>
+ Except in special situations (to separate locked from unlocked variants)
+ locking requirements for functions aren't documented in the kerneldoc.
+ Instead locking should be check at runtime using e.g.
+ <code>WARN_ON(!mutex_is_locked(...));</code>. Since it's much easier to
+ ignore documentation than runtime noise this provides more value. And on
+ top of that runtime checks do need to be updated when the locking rules
+ change, increasing the changes that they're correct. Within the
+ documentation the locking rules should be explained in the relevant
+ structures: Either in the comment for the lock explaining what it
+ protects, or data fields need a note about which lock protects them, or
+ both.
+ </para>
+ <para>
+ Functions which have a non-<code>void</code> return value should have a
+ section called "Returns" explaining the expected return values in
+ different cases an their meanings. Currently there's no consensus whether
+ that section name should be all upper-case or not, and whether it should
+ end in a colon or not. Go with the file-local style. Other common section
+ names are "Notes" with information for dangerous or tricky corner cases,
+ and "FIXME" where the interface could be cleaned up.
+ </para>
+ </sect1>
</chapter>
<!-- Internals -->
--
2.5.1
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