From Wikipedia:
"An anti-pattern is a common response to a recurring problem that is usually ineffective and risks being highly counterproductive."
The developers of OpenBMC do not get 100% of decisions right 100% of the time. That, combined with the fact that software development is often an exercise in copying and pasting, results in mistakes happening over and over again.
This page aims to document some of the anti-patterns that exist in OpenBMC to ease the job of those reviewing code. If an anti-pattern is spotted, rather that repeating the same explanations over and over, a link to this document can be provided.
(1 paragraph) Describe how to spot the anti-pattern.
(1 paragraph) Describe the negative effects of the anti-pattern.
(1 paragraph) Describe why the anti-pattern exists. If you don't know, try running git blame and look at who wrote the code originally, and ask them on the mailing list or in IRC what their original intent was, so it can be documented here (and you may possibly discover it isn't as much of an anti-pattern as you thought). If you are unable to determine why the anti-pattern exists, put: "Unknown" here.
(1 paragraph) Describe the preferred way to solve the problem solved by the anti-pattern and the positive effects of solving it in the manner described.
The ArgumentParser object is typically present to wrap calls to get options. It abstracts away the parsing and provides a [] operator to access the parameters.
Writing a custom ArgumentParser object creates nearly duplicate code in a repository. The ArgumentParser itself is the same, however, the options provided differ. Writing a custom argument parser re-invents the wheel on c++ command line argument parsing.
The ArgumentParser exists because it was in place early and then copied into each new repository as an easy way to handle argument parsing.
The CLI11 library was designed and implemented specifically to support modern argument parsing. It handles the cases seen in OpenBMC daemons and has some handy built-in validators, and allows easy customizations to validation.
PKG_CHECK_MODULES(
[PHOSPHOR_LOGGING],
[phosphor-logging],
[],
[AC_MSG_ERROR([Could not find phosphor-logging...openbmc/phosphor-logging package required])])
The autotools PKG_CHECK_MODULES macro provides the ability to specify an "if found" and "if not found" behavior. By default, the "if not found" behavior will list the package not found. In many cases, this is sufficient to a developer to know what package is missing. In most cases, it's another OpenBMC package.
If the library sought's name isn't related to the package providing it, then the failure message should be set to something more useful to the developer.
Use the default macro behavior when it is clear that the missing package is another OpenBMC package.
PKG_CHECK_MODULES([PHOSPHOR_LOGGING], [phosphor-logging])
RDEPENDS_${PN} = "libsystemd"
Out of the box bitbake examines built applications, automatically adds runtime dependencies and thus ensures any library packages dependencies are automatically added to images, sdks, etc. There is no need to list them explicitly in a recipe.
Dependencies change over time, and listing them explicitly is likely prone to errors - the net effect being unnecessary shared library packages being installed into images.
Consult https://www.yoctoproject.org/docs/latest/mega-manual/mega-manual.html#var-RDEPENDS for information on when to use explicit runtime dependencies.
The initial bitbake metadata author for OpenBMC was not aware that bitbake added these dependencies automatically. Initial bitbake metadata therefore listed shared library dependencies explicitly, and was subsequently copy pasted.
Do not list shared library packages in RDEPENDS. This eliminates the possibility of installing unnecessary shared library packages due to unmaintained library dependency lists in bitbake metadata.
In systemd unit files:
[Service] ExecStart=/usr/bin/env some-application
Outside of OpenBMC, most applications that provide systemd unit files don't launch applications in this way. So if nothing else, this just looks strange and violates the princple of least astonishment.
This anti-pattern exists because a requirement exists to enable live patching of applications on read-only filesystems. Launching applications in this way was part of the implementation that satisfied the live patch requirement. For example:
/usr/bin/phosphor-hwmon
on a read-only filesystem becomes:
/usr/local/bin/phosphor-hwmon`
on a writeable /usr/local filesystem.
The /usr/bin/env method only enables live patching of applications. A method that supports live patching of any file in the read-only filesystem has emerged. Assuming a writeable filesystem exists somewhere on the bmc, something like:
mkdir -p /var/persist/usr mkdir -p /var/persist/work/usr mount -t overlay -o lowerdir=/usr,upperdir=/var/persist/usr,workdir=/var/persist/work/usr overlay /usr
can enable live system patching without any additional requirements on how applications are launched from systemd service files. This is the preferred method for enabling live system patching as it allows OpenBMC developers to write systemd service files in the same way as most other projects.
To undo existing instances of this anti-pattern remove /usr/bin/env from systemd service files and replace with the fully qualified path to the application being launched. For example, given an application in /usr/bin:
sed -i s,/usr/bin/env ,/usr/bin/, foo.service
OpenBMC applications that are installed in /usr/sbin. $sbindir in bitbake metadata, makefiles or configure scripts.
Installing OpenBMC applications in /usr/sbin violates the principle of least astonishment and more importantly violates the FHS.
The sbin anti-pattern exists because the FHS was misinterpreted at an early point in OpenBMC project history, and has proliferated ever since.
From the hier(7) man page:
/usr/bin This is the primary directory for executable programs. Most programs executed by normal users which are not needed for booting or for repairing the system and which are not installed locally should be placed in this directory. /usr/sbin This directory contains program binaries for system administration which are not essential for the boot process, for mounting /usr, or for system repair.
The FHS description for /usr/sbin refers to "system administration" but the de-facto interpretation of the system being administered refers to the OS installation and not a system in the OpenBMC sense of managed system. As such OpenBMC applications should be installed in /usr/bin.
Install OpenBMC applications in /usr/bin/.