libfprint/HACKING.md
2018-06-12 11:06:26 +02:00

1.9 KiB

Contributing to libfprint

GLib

Although the library uses GLib internally, libfprint is designed to provide a completely neutral interface to it's application users. So, the public APIs should never return GLib data types or anything like that.

Two-faced-ness

Like any decent library, this one is designed to provide a stable and documented API to its users: applications. Clear distinction is made between data available internally in the library, and data/functions available to the applications.

This library is confused a little by the fact that there is another 'interface' at hand: the internal interface provided to drivers. So, we effectively end up with 2 APIs:

  1. The external-facing API for applications
  2. The internal API for fingerprint drivers

Non-static functions which are intended for internal use only are prepended with the "fpi_" prefix.

Documentation

All additions of public API functions must be accompanied with gtk-doc comments.

All changes which potentially change the behaviour of the public API must be reflected by updating the appropriate gtk-doc comments.

Contributing

Patches should be sent as merge requests to the gitlab page: https://gitlab.freedesktop.org/libfprint/libfprint/merge_requests

Drivers are not usually written by libfprint developers, but when they are, we require:

  • 3 stand-alone devices. Not in a laptop or another embedded device, as space is scarce, unless the device has special integration with that hardware.
  • specifications of the protocol.

If you are an end-user, you can file a feature request with the "Driver Request" tag on libfprint's issue page, or subscribe to an existing feature request there.

If you are an enterprising hacker, please file a new merge request with the driver patches integrated.