# Being a DragonX Developer

## Compiling DragonX

Normal compiling is as simple as:

	./build.sh

To make it use as many CPU threads as you have:

	./build.sh -j$(nproc)  # assumes linux
	./build.sh -j8 		  # use a fixed 8 threads, more portable

This is dangerous! You need about 2GB of RAM per thread, plus all the
other programs and Operating System overhead. A good rule of thumb is:

Divide how many GBs of RAM you have by 2, subtract one. Use that many jobs.


## Dealing with dependency changes

Let's say you change a dependency and want the compile to notice. If your
change is outside of the main DragonX source code, in ./src, simply running
`make` will not notice, and sometimes not even `build.sh`. You can always
do a fresh clone or `make clean`, but that will take a lot of time. Those
methods are actually best for Continuous Integration systems, but to help
reduce the time a developer has to wait, here are some PROTIPs.


If you are changing how a dependency is built, you should remove the entire directory like this:

    rm -rf depends/work/build/x86_64-unknown-linux-gnu/wolfssl/

The above will delete the entire source code of wolfssl dependency on `x86_64`
but it will keep the tar.gz and you will not need to download it again. If
you are testing a change in URL or SHA256, you will want to force it to download
again:

    rm -rf depends/sources/wolfssl*.tar.gz

Now when you run `build.sh` again, you will be able to test your changes.


## Good Hygiene

To avoid weird build system issues, it's often good to run:

	make clean

*before* you switch Git branches. Otherwise, the new branches Makefiles
often are incompatible and `make clean` will be impossible, which can
sometimes introduce weird bugs or make compiling really annoying.
If `make clean` produces a compilation error, you just experienced it.

## Switching branches

Switching branches and doing partial compiles in DragonX source code
can introduce weird bugs, which are fixed by running `build.sh` again.
Additionally, it's a good idea to run `make clean` before you switch
between branches.

## Partial compiles

At any point, you can modify DragonX source code and then use `make` or `build.sh`
to do a partial compile. The first is faster but the latter is more likely to
work correctly in all circustances. Sometimes partial compiles break weird
build system dependencies, and you must do a `make clean` first, or even
`git clean -fdx` (look up what it means first!) to clean things. The nuclear
option is to re-clone the repo, which sometimes is the least work to fix
the problem.

Running `make` doesn't understand about dependency changes, such as Rust crates.
A simple C/C++ change can be tested with just `make` but if you change the version
of a dependency or something inside of Rust, you will need `build.sh` .

## Generating new unix man pages

Make sure that you have updated all version numbers in dragonxd and compiled, then
to generate new unix man pages for that version :

	./util/gen-manpages.sh

## Generating new debian packages

After successfully compiling DragonX, you can generate a debian package of these binaries with:

	./util/build-debian-package.sh

This command will not work on Mac OS X. Currently you cannot generate a Debian package
from operating systems other than Linux. Oh well.

## Adding new CLI options that change consensus rules

If you are adding a new CLI option that changes consensus rules such as
`-ac_foo` then make sure to also modify the the `extraptr` variable in
`src/hush_utils.h` with the value of the `ASSETCHAINS_FOO` variable.  Our
convention is that if a CLI option affects consensus, it MUST begin with `-ac_`
and if it does not affect consensus (such as -datadir) then it MUST NOT begin
with `-ac_`. Originally the `ac` meant "asset chain" but now it means "affects
consensus" or "arrakis chain", take your pick.

The reason for this is the `extraptr` variable is used to deterministically
generate the "chain magic" `ASSETCHAINS_MAGIC` as well as the default p2p and
rpc ports for a HAC. This means that if two HACs have *exactly* the same
consensus options except for `-ac_foo` (even if they have the same `-ac_name`)
then they will still get different chain magic values and p2p and rpc ports.
This is a way of preventing HACs with different consensus rules from trying to
talk with each other when they should not. For instance, if you make a HAC with
`-ac_name=MYCOIN` on one machine with one set of consensus rules and then
another HAC with the same name on a different machine but with different
consensus rules, the chain magic being different (as well as the default p2p
port) are ways to prevent them from communicating. This is good because these
two HACs will eventually chain fork due to their different consensus rules and
ban each other, wasting time, bandwidth and sanity.

An example of this pattern in the Git history is the commit which added the
`-ac_burn` consensus changing option; search the log for `ac_burn` to find it.

The chain magic value is the CRC32 checksum of every non-default consensus
option the HAC uses.

Also make sure to actually validate the new consensus option! That is probably
going to happen in `src/main.cpp` . If you don't, a malicious node can just
modify `src/miner.cpp` to do whatever they want.

## Updates to this document

If you think something else should be in this guide, please send your suggestions!

Gitea: https://git.dragonx.is/DragonX/dragonx
