Open Screen Library

The Open Screen Library implements the Open Screen Protocol, Multicast DNS and DNS-SD, and the Chromecast protocols (discovery, application control, and media streaming).

The library consists of feature modules that share a common platform API that must be implemented and linked by the embedding application.

The major feature modules in the library can be used independently and have their own documentation:

• Cast protocols (aka libcast)
• Open Screen Protocol
• Multicast DNS and DNS-SD

Getting the code

Installing depot_tools

Library dependencies are managed using gclient, from the depot_tools repo.

To get gclient, run the following command in your terminal: bash git clone https://chromium.googlesource.com/chromium/tools/depot_tools.git

Then add the depot_tools folder to your PATH environment variable.

Note that openscreen does not use other features of depot_tools like repo or drover. However, some git-cl functions do work, like git cl try, git cl format, git cl lint, and git cl upload.

Checking out code

From the parent directory of where you want the openscreen checkout (e.g., ~/my_project_dir), configure gclient and check out openscreen with the following commands:

bash cd ~/my_project_dir gclient config https://chromium.googlesource.com/openscreen gclient sync

The first gclient command will create a default .gclient file in ~/my_project_dir that describes how to pull down the openscreen repository. The second command creates an openscreen/ subdirectory, downloads the source code, all third-party dependencies, and the toolchain needed to build things; and at their appropriate revisions.

Syncing your local checkout

To update your local checkout from the openscreen reference repository, just run

bash cd ~/my_project_dir/openscreen git pull gclient sync

This will rebase any local commits on the remote top-of-tree, and update any dependencies that have changed.

Build setup

The following are the main tools are required for development/builds.

• Installed by gclient automatically
  • Build file generator: gn (installed into buildtools/)
  • Code formatter: clang-format (installed into buildtools/)
  • Builder: ninja
  • Compiler/Linker: clang
• Installed by you
  • JSON validator: yajsv
  • libstdc++
  • gcc
  • XCode

yajsv installation

1. Install go from https://golang.org or your Linux package manager.
2. go install github.com/neilpa/yajsv@latest

libstdc++ (Linux only)

Ensure that libstdc++ 8 is installed, as clang depends on the system instance of it. On Debian flavors, you can run:

bash sudo apt-get install libstdc++-8-dev libstdc++6-8-dbg

XCode (Mac only)

On Mac OS X, the build will use the clang provided by XCode. You can install the XCode command-line tools only or the full version of XCode.

bash xcode-select --install

TODO(https://issuetracker.google.com/202964797): Switch to use Chromium clang for Mac builds.

gcc (optional, Linux only)

Setting the gn argument is_gcc=true on Linux enables building using gcc instead.

bash mkdir out/debug-gcc gn gen out/debug-gcc --args="is_gcc=true"

Note that g++ version 7 or newer must be installed. On Debian flavors you can run:

bash sudo apt-get install gcc-7

Debug build

Setting the gn argument is_debug=true enables debug build.

bash gn gen out/debug --args="is_debug=true"

gn configuration

Running gn args opens an editor that allows to create a list of arguments passed to every invocation of gn gen. gn args --list will list all of the possible arguments you can set.

bash gn args out/debug

Building targets

We use the Open Screen Protocol demo application as an example, however, the instructions are essentially the same for all executable targets.

bash mkdir out/debug gn gen out/debug # Creates the build directory and necessary ninja files ninja -C out/debug osp_demo # Builds the executable with ninja ./out/debug/osp_demo # Runs the executable

The -C argument to ninja works just like it does for GNU Make: it specifies the working directory for the build. So the same could be done as follows:

bash ./gn gen out/debug cd out/debug ninja osp_demo ./osp_demo

After editing a file, only ninja needs to be rerun, not gn. If you have edited a BUILD.gn file, ninja will re-run gn for you.

We recommend using autoninja instead of ninja, which takes the same command-line arguments but automatically parallelizes the build for your system, depending on number of processor cores, amount of RAM, etc.

Also, while specifying build targets is possible while using ninja, typically for development it is sufficient to just build everything, especially since the Open Screen repository is still quite small. That makes the invocation to the build system simplify to:

bash autoninja -C out/debug

For details on running osp_demo, see its README.md.

Building all targets

Running ninja -C out/debug gn_all will build all non-test targets in the repository.

gn ls --type=executable out/debug will list all of the executable targets that can be built.

If you want to customize the build further, you can run gn args out/debug to pull up an editor for build flags. gn args --list out/debug prints all of the build flags available.

Building and running unit tests

bash ninja -C out/debug openscreen_unittests ./out/debug/openscreen_unittests

Contributing changes

Open Screen library code should follow the Open Screen Library Style Guide.

This library uses Chromium Gerrit for patch management and code review (for better or worse). You will need to register for an account at chromium-review.googlesource.com to upload patches for review.

The following sections contain some tips about dealing with Gerrit for code reviews, specifically when pushing patches for review, getting patches reviewed, and committing patches.

Uploading a patch for review

The git cl tool handles details of interacting with Gerrit (the Chromium code review tool) and is recommended for pushing patches for review. Once you have committed changes locally, simply run:

bash git cl format git cl upload

The first command will will auto-format the code changes using clang-format. Then, the second command runs the PRESUBMIT.py script to check style and, if it passes, a newcode review will be posted on chromium-review.googlesource.com.

If you make additional commits to your local branch, then running git cl upload again in the same branch will merge those commits into the ongoing review as a new patchset.

It's simplest to create a local git branch for each patch you want reviewed separately. git cl keeps track of review status separately for each local branch.

Addressing merge conflicts

If conflicting commits have been landed in the repository for a patch in review, Gerrit will flag the patch as having a merge conflict. In that case, use the instructions above to rebase your commits on top-of-tree and upload a new patchset with the merge conflicts resolved.

Tryjobs

Clicking the CQ DRY RUN button (also, confusingly, labeled COMMIT QUEUE +1) will run the current patchset through all LUCI builders and report the results. It is always a good idea get a green tryjob on a patch before sending it for review to avoid extra back-and-forth.

You can also run git cl try from the commandline to submit a tryjob.

Code reviews

Send your patch to one or more committers in the COMMITTERS file for code review. All patches must receive at least one LGTM by a committer before it can be submitted.

Submitting patches

After your patch has received one or more LGTM commit it by clicking the SUBMIT button (or, confusingly, COMMIT QUEUE +2) in Gerrit. This will run your patch through the builders again before committing to the main openscreen repository.

Additional resources

• Continuous builders
• Building and running fuzz tests
• Running on a Raspberry PI
• Unit test code coverage