> On Nov 2, 2020, at 6:47 PM, Barrett J Schonefeld <bscho...@utexas.edu> wrote: > > Hey folks, > > We have started work on issue 11, and we have some questions to ensure we > tackle the issue properly. > > • What are the different use cases for g_autoptr vs g_autofree? We > found that g_autofree is preferred for anything that uses g_malloc according > to the Glib documentation, and g_autoptr is for types with custom > destructors. However, when using g_autoptr, we got compile errors when trying > to pass the g_autoptr as an argument (the argument seems to be converted to > an integer). When should we use each of these, and when should we not convert > them at all?
To use g_autoptr(), the cleanup function for that type has to have been declared using G_DEFINE_AUTOPTR_CLEANUP_FUNC(): https://developer.gnome.org/glib/stable/glib-Miscellaneous-Macros.html#G-DEFINE-AUTOPTR-CLEANUP-FUNC:CAPS This hasn't been done for all of libvirt's types yet, so you have to look at the type's code to see if you can declare variables with g_autoptr() or if you still have to manually manage their memory. I'm a new contributor, as well. I've found myself doing a ton of codebase-wide searches. Using rg (ripgrep) instead of grep has saved me a ton of time, so I suggest giving it a try if you don't already use it. > • We see that some work has been done to convert files to use the Glib > API. In some cases, files contain code that uses both the old memory > management API and the Glib API. Should we focus our attention on files where > these conversions are not yet underway? Or should we expect that many of the > files are only partially converted? I've been working on the Hyper-V API and it was partially converted when I started. I've been gradually moving existing unconverted code to GLib as I update it and using GLib for anything new that I add. Daniel P. Berrangé has a blog with some very helpful articles about the modernization of libvirt's codebase, including automatic cleanup functionality: https://www.berrange.com/tags/kvmforum2019/ I don't think I have enough experience with this codebase to weigh in on your other questions. -- Matt
