Coding Style and Conventions¶

Historical Context¶

The Zeek codebase is quite old as code goes, with the original code being written in 1995. Some of the internal container types date from around 1987. This means that a large portion of it was written before a lot of modern C++ existed. As such, a lot of the early design decisions were made in that context. This guide strives to suggest modern techniques where possible, even when the existing code doesn’t follow it to the letter. All new code should follow this guide. Old code should be updated to follow this guide when it is modified.

The base formatting for all Zeek C++ code, including C++ code inside BIF files, follows the Whitesmiths coding style

Whitespace¶

Tabs vs. Spaces¶

Use tabs for indentation and spaces for alignment. An example for alignment is below.

>   void FunctionWithALongName(int argument1,
>   ...........................int argument2)
>   >   {
>   >   if ( argument1 == 1 ||
>   >   .....argument2 == 2 )
>   >   >   {
>   >   >   DoSomething();
>   >   >   DoSomethingMore();
>   >   >   }
>   >   }
}

Tabs (represented by >) are used to match indentation levels, and then then spaces (represented by . in the cases where they’re used for alignment) are used to match a particular column of the line above it.

Conditional Expressions¶

Spaces should exist inside the outer parentheses for all control statements (conditional expressions), but not function calls. A space should also follow the keyword. For example:

if ( condition )
      {
      }

SomeFunction(arg1);

Logical not-operator (!)¶

A space should exist after any not-operator. For example:

if ( ! condition )
      {
      }

File Naming¶

Header files should always use the .h extension. Implementation files should always use the .cc extension.

Include Guards¶

All headers should start with a #pragma once line to guard against duplicate includes. Avoid using #ifndef/#define include guards.

Braces¶

For multi-line blocks, braces should start on the line after the construct. Single-line blocks can remove the braces. For single-line function definitions the braces can be on the same line as the function definition, with a tab between the close of the function definition and the opening brace.

Multi-line Blocks¶

if ( true )
      {
      DoSomething();
      DoSomethingElse();
      }

Single-line Functions¶

bool Foo()    { return false; }

Note that for single-line functions there should be a tab between the closing ) and the opening {.

Function and Variable Naming¶

Type names (classes, enums, structs, etc) and function names should always be CamelCase. Variable names, including member variables, should always be snake_case. Prefer using more descriptive variable names, except for counter variables.

Including Files¶

Include files in both headers and implementation files should be ordered as follows:

C includes such as <unistd.h>
C++ includes such as <string> and <vector>
Local include headers from Zeek

Futher conventions include:

Prefer to use the C++ version of headers rather than the C Standard version (when writing C++, of course). E.g. use <cstdio> over <stdio.h>.
Use angle braces around the file name for anything not coming directly from the Zeek code base, e.g. <string>. This includes any system headers, any external libraries, and anything that can be referring to a file outside the code distribution, even if typically it does refer to a file within the Zeek source tree because it’s embedded for convenience (e.g. Broker/CAF).
Use quotes around the file name for anything that always comes from the Zeek code base. E.g. "Val.h"
Use forward declarations instead of including whenever possible.

Commenting¶

Functions inside of header files should include doxygen-style comments, including documentation for all parameters and return values. Implementation of those methods in .cc files do not need to include the comment. Example:

/**
 * Recursively searches all (direct or indirect) childs of the
 * analyzer for an analyzer with a specific ID.
 *
 * @param id The analyzer id to search. This is the ID that GetID()
 * returns.
 *
 * @return The analyzer, or null if not found.
 */
virtual Analyzer* FindChild(ID id);

Non-obvious algorithms should include comments about what the code is doing to aid in later maintenance. Avoid writing comments for code where it is obvious what that code is doing.

Pointers and References¶

Pointer and reference characters should associate with a type name rather than the variable identifier. For example, use int* var and not int *var.

Class Member Visibility/Ordering¶

Use the ordering public -> protected -> private in class definitions for members.
If the class includes friend methods, list those at the start of the class prior to the public block.
Within each visibility block, use the following ordering for members:
- Static member functions
- Non-static member functions
- Static member variables
- Non-static member variables
Attempt to order member variables to avoid the compiler adding padding between them and bloating the size of the objects.

Language Support and Preferences¶

The Zeek build system only supports up to C++11 as supported by gcc 4.8.3 (meaning not the whole C++11 feature set). This is due to compiler support on the target platforms users have reported needing.

Exceptions¶

Avoid using exceptions for error handling. The primary reason to avoid them is that it makes error handling more difficult to reason about. Due to the nature of the reference counting in the Zeek code, exceptions will often cause the counting to be invalid unless handled very carefully.

Casting¶

Use C++-style casting (static_cast, dynamic_cast, reinterpret_cast, const_cast) instead of bare C-style casts.

Strings¶

One artifact of the long life of this Zeek code is that a large number of the strings created internally are plain char* values. For new code, prefer using std::string instead, unless for obvious reasons of avoiding a copy. e.g. external library API returns a char*, then just use that. Or writing a new API that is expected to commonly be passed in char* (in this case, we’ll eventually want to use std::string_view to replace const std::string& parameters, but that’s not until adopting C++17).

Explicit Constructors¶

Single-argument constructors should be marked explicit to aid in type-checking.

Global Namespace¶

Another artifact of the old Zeek code is that a large amount of variables, functions, and constants are defined in the global namespace and then extern’d when needed in other places. Avoid adding any more to the global namespace when possible. Prefer using constructs like the Singleton pattern or static class members instead.

Function Parameter Passing¶

Follow the typical C++ best practices for parameter passing. Avoid passing large objects by value, except in cases where the function can use move semantics and the caller can use std::move. For objects that will not be modified by the function, pass by const-reference. For objects that may be modified by the function, prefer making the argument a pointer instead of a reference.

Default Member Variable Initialization¶

In new code, prefer using default initialization to set the values of member variables when they are defined in the header. Override the values in constructors only when necessary. For older code, use constructor initialization for consistency.