Developing

For development, Goblint must be installed from source: https://github.com/goblint/analyzer#installing.

Then running make dev does the following:

  1. Installs some additional opam packages useful for developing.
  2. Installs a Git pre-commit hook for ocp-indent (see below).

Git

Pre-commit hook

The pre-commit hook installed by make dev runs ocp-indent on the staged changes to check that they're correctly indented. If it deems something incorrectly indented, it will output a diff showing where and how, and it will prevent the commit. In VSCode you have to click "Show Command Output" in the error popup to see the diff.

If necessary (e.g. you think ocp-indent is wrong or wants you to fix unrelated code), the hook can be bypassed using git commit -n. In such case also let us know about the inconvenience on the following GitHub issue, so we can work towards improving the process: https://github.com/goblint/analyzer/issues/236.

Opam

CIL

The dependency on Goblint's CIL fork (goblint-cil) is pinned in Opam to its repository instead of using the version published to Opam. This speeds up the development process as every change in CIL doesn't require publishing a new version to Opam.

When CIL is changed and the pin is updated, the upgrade must also be performed in the local Opam switch by running the following commands:

  1. Update pinned CIL version: opam install --deps-only . (note the . argument). Otherwise upgrading won't actually do anything.
  2. Actually upgrade CIL: opam upgrade goblint-cil.

Documentation on CIL is available here: https://goblint.github.io/cil/

Developing goblint-cil

To set up:

  1. Clone goblint-cil: https://github.com/goblint/cil.
  2. Navigate to cloned directory.
  3. Change to Goblint's Opam switch: eval $(opam env --switch=GOBLINT_DIRECTORY --set-switch).
  4. Pin goblint-cil to development directory in Opam: opam pin goblint-cil . (note the . argument).

To develop:

  1. Navigate to cloned directory.
  2. Change to Goblint's Opam switch: eval $(opam env --switch=GOBLINT_DIRECTORY --set-switch).
  3. Build and test using dune: https://github.com/goblint/cil#build-with-dune.

To make goblint-cil changes visible to Goblint via Opam: opam upgrade --working-dir goblint-cil.

To change branches in goblint-cil repository, pin it again after branch change: opam pin goblint-cil . (note the . argument).

To end goblint-cil development and switch back to the version pinned in Goblint's Opam lock file, follow the normal upgrade instructions above.