Development Notes

Adding Extentions

To add a new GL extension to Mesa you have to do at least the following.

If glext.h doesn't define the extension, edit include/GL/gl.h and add code like this:

     #ifndef GL_EXT_the_extension_name
     #define GL_EXT_the_extension_name 1
     /* declare the new enum tokens */
     /* prototype the new functions */
     /* TYPEDEFS for the new functions */
     #endif

In the src/mesa/glapi/ directory, add the new extension functions and enums to the gl_API.xml file. Then, a bunch of source files must be regenerated by executing the corresponding Python scripts.
Add a new entry to the gl_extensions struct in mtypes.h
Update the extensions.c file.
From this point, the best way to proceed is to find another extension, similar to the new one, that's already implemented in Mesa and use it as an example.
If the new extension adds new GL state, the functions in get.c, enable.c and attrib.c will most likely require new code.

Coding Style

Mesa's code style has changed over the years. Here's the latest.

Comment your code! It's extremely important that open-source code be well documented. Also, strive to write clean, easily understandable code.

3-space indentation

If you use tabs, set them to 8 columns

Line width: the preferred width to fill comments and code in Mesa is 78 columns. Exceptions are sometimes made for clarity (e.g. tabular data is sometimes filled to a much larger width so that extraneous carriage returns don't obscure the table).

Brace example:

	if (condition) {
	   foo;
	}
	else {
	   bar;
	}

	switch (condition) {
	case 0:
	   foo();
	   break;

	case 1: {
	   ...
	   break;
	}

	default:
	   ...
	   break;
	}

Here's the GNU indent command which will best approximate my preferred style: (Note that it won't format switch statements in the preferred way)

	indent -br -i3 -npcs --no-tabs infile.c -o outfile.c

Local variable name example: localVarName (no underscores)

Constants and macros are ALL_UPPERCASE, with _ between words

Global variables are not allowed.

Function name examples:

	glFooBar()       - a public GL entry point (in glapi_dispatch.c)
	_mesa_FooBar()   - the internal immediate mode function
	save_FooBar()    - retained mode (display list) function in dlist.c
	foo_bar()        - a static (private) function
	_mesa_foo_bar()  - an internal non-static Mesa function

Places that are not directly visible to the GL API should prefer the use of bool, true, and false over GLboolean, GL_TRUE, and GL_FALSE. In C code, this may mean that #include <stdbool.h> needs to be added. The try_emit_* methods in src/mesa/program/ir_to_mesa.cpp and src/mesa/state_tracker/st_glsl_to_tgsi.cpp can serve as examples.

Making a New Mesa Release

These are the instructions for making a new Mesa release.

Get latest source files

Use git to get the latest Mesa files from the git repository, from whatever branch is relevant.

Verify and update version info

Create/edit the docs/relnotes-x.y.html file to document what's new in the release. Add the new relnotes-x.y.html file to relnotes.html.

Update the MESA_MAJOR, MESA_MINOR and MESA_TINY version numbers in configs/default. Also update the VERSION line in the top-level Makefile.

Make sure the values in src/mesa/main/version.h are correct.

Update docs/news.html.

Check in all updates to git.

Tag the files with the release name (in the form mesa_X_Y) with: git tag -a mesa_X_Y Then: git push origin mesa_X_Y

Make the tarballs

Make the distribution files. From inside the Mesa directory:

	make tarballs

After the tarballs are created, the md5 checksums for the files will be computed. Add them to the docs/relnotes-X.Y.html file.

Copy the distribution files to a temporary directory, unpack them, compile everything, and run some demos to be sure everything works.

Update the website and announce the release

Follow the directions on SourceForge for creating a new "release" and uploading the tarballs.

Basically, to upload the tarball files with:
rsync -avP ssh Mesa*-X.Y.* USERNAME@frs.sourceforge.net:uploads/

Update the web site by copying the docs/ directory's files to /home/users/b/br/brianp/mesa-www/htdocs/ with:
sftp USERNAME,mesa3d@web.sourceforge.net

Make an announcement on the mailing lists: mesa-dev@lists.freedesktop.org, mesa-users@lists.freedesktop.org and mesa-announce@lists.freedesktop.org