hledger/CONTRIBUTING.md
2021-09-27 01:24:59 -10:00

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Contributor Guide

This is a collection of old developer docs on all topics. Gradually, these are moving to separate files/pages and this doc is becoming a focussed guide for new contributors.

Chat, Mail, Twitter, HN etc. https://hledger.org/#help
hledger-web demo   demo.hledger.org
hledger GHCJS demo https://hledger.alhur.es
Trello old wishlist planning board
Github simonmichael/hledger (shortcut: code.hledger.org)
commits, COMMITS!
open bugs, open wishes, open unknowns, open pull requests, draft open pull requests, ready open pull requests, all issues
issues with bounty tag, bountysource bounties, codemill bounties, codefund bounties
stars.hledger.org: our rank among starred haskell projects:
2016: #71, 2017: #54, 2018: #53, 2020: #36
github projects
ci.hledger.org hledger CI
Hackage packages: hledger-lib, hledger, hledger-ui, hledger-web, hledger-diff, hledger-iadd, hledger-interest, hledger-irr, *hledger*
diffs: hledger-lib, hledger, hledger-ui, hledger-web
build status: hledger-lib, hledger, hledger-ui, hledger-web
reverse deps: hledger-lib, hledger, hledger-ui, hledger-web
on hackage
… …
… …
Stackage build-constraints.yaml
open hledger-related issues
packages: hledger-lib, hledger, hledger-ui, hledger-web
versions: hledger-lib, hledger, hledger-ui, hledger-web
…
Repology quick hledger packaging status, detailed hledger packaging status, all *hledger* packages
Debian source packages: haskell-hledger-lib, bugs, haskell-hledger, bugs, haskell-hledger-ui, bugs, haskell-hledger-web, bugs
stable: hledger, bugs, hledger-ui, bugs, hledger-web, bugs
testing: hledger, bugs, hledger-ui, bugs, hledger-web, bugs
unstable: hledger, bugs, hledger-ui, bugs, hledger-web, bugs
all: *hledger*
sampled install stats: hledger, hledger-ui, hledger-web
Ubuntu source packages: haskell-hledger-lib, bugs, haskell-hledger, bugs, haskell-hledger-ui, bugs, haskell-hledger-web, bugs
binary packages: *hledger*
Gentoo hledger, hledger-web, *hledger*
Fedora hledger, *hledger*, hledger (package db), Haskell SIG
Void Linux package search -> hledger
Nix *hledger*
Homebrew hledger
our 1-year homebrew rank:
2020: #1520 of 10000 on mac, #762 of 8288 on linux
Sandstorm hledger web app & reviews, issues
Reference fosskers GHC compatibility chart

Open issues

An overview of hledgers issue tracker. A good place to start looking for something to work on.

COMPONENT/TOPIC * BUGS WISHES PRS OTHER
all bugs (first/easy/neither) wishes PRs other
Tools:
install (hledger-install.sh) bugs (first/easy/neither) wishes PRs other
cli (hledger) bugs (first/easy/neither) wishes PRs other
ui (hledger-ui) bugs (first/easy/neither) wishes PRs other
web (hledger-web) bugs (first/easy/neither) wishes PRs other
Input/Output Formats:
journal bugs (first/easy/neither) wishes PRs other
timeclock bugs (first/easy/neither) wishes PRs other
timedot bugs (first/easy/neither) wishes PRs other
csv bugs (first/easy/neither) wishes PRs other
json bugs (first/easy/neither) wishes PRs other
html bugs (first/easy/neither) wishes PRs other
Commands:
accounts bugs (first/easy/neither) wishes PRs other
activity bugs (first/easy/neither) wishes PRs other
add bugs (first/easy/neither) wishes PRs other
balcmds (bal/bs/bse/cf/is/…) bugs (first/easy/neither) wishes PRs other
balance bugs (first/easy/neither) wishes PRs other
balancesheet bugs (first/easy/neither) wishes PRs other
cashflow bugs (first/easy/neither) wishes PRs other
checkdates bugs (first/easy/neither) wishes PRs other
checkdupes bugs (first/easy/neither) wishes PRs other
close bugs (first/easy/neither) wishes PRs other
import bugs (first/easy/neither) wishes PRs other
incomestatement bugs (first/easy/neither) wishes PRs other
prices bugs (first/easy/neither) wishes PRs other
print bugs (first/easy/neither) wishes PRs other
printunique bugs (first/easy/neither) wishes PRs other
register bugs (first/easy/neither) wishes PRs other
registermatch bugs (first/easy/neither) wishes PRs other
rewrite bugs (first/easy/neither) wishes PRs other
roi bugs (first/easy/neither) wishes PRs other
stats bugs (first/easy/neither) wishes PRs other
tags bugs (first/easy/neither) wishes PRs other
Miscellaneous:
budget (budgeting) bugs (first/easy/neither) wishes PRs other
packaging (packaging, dependencies) bugs (first/easy/neither) wishes PRs other
doc (documentation, help) bugs (first/easy/neither) wishes PRs other
periodexpressions (-b, -e, -p, date:) bugs (first/easy/neither) wishes PRs other
site (website, web presence) bugs (first/easy/neither) wishes PRs other
tools (dev tools, infrastructure)   bugs (first/easy/neither) wishes PRs other

About the project

Mission

Why was hledger created ?

Mainly:

  • to provide a more usable, robust, documented, cross-platform-installable version of Ledger for users
  • to provide a more maintainable and hackable version of Ledger for developers

Also:

  • to provide a useful library and toolbox for finance-minded haskell programmers
  • to explore the suitability of Haskell for such applications
  • to experiment with building a successful time-and-money-solvent project in a thriving ecosystem of financial software projects

What is the hledger projects current mission ?

  1. Provide peace of mind: bring clarity, relief, and peace of mind to folks stressed, confused, overwhelmed by finances.
  2. Educate and empower: help individuals and communities achieve clarity, accountability and mastery with money and time.

Roles and activities

  • newcomer/potential user
  • user
  • library user
  • field tester
  • bug wrangler
  • support
  • documentor
  • qa
  • developer
  • packager
  • communicator
  • project manager

Getting started

New contributors are always welcome in the hledger project. Jump in! Or ask us to help you find a task.

Funder

Become a financial backer to sustain and grow this project, increase your influence, express gratitude, build prosperity consciousness, and help transform world finance!

  • Use the donate links on the home page
  • Configure a recurring donation
  • Contribute or pledge bounties on issues you care about
  • Ask your organization to contribute
  • Work on project sustainability, accountability, fundraising

Tester

  • Test installation on platforms you have access to
  • Test examples, advice, and links in the docs
  • Run the latest release or developer build in daily use
  • Run tests
  • Run benchmarks
  • Report packaging, documentation, UX, functional, performance issues
  • Report and help analyse problems via irc/mail list/bug tracker

When reporting bugs, dont forget to search the tracker for a similar bug report. Otherwise, open a new bug by clicking “New issue”, or http://bugs.hledger.org/new.

Enhancement requests are sometimes added to the tracker,but for these consider using the IRC channel and mail list (see Getting help). Both are archived and linkable, so the idea wont be lost. There is also a collection of wishes at the old trello board.

Technical Writer

  • get familiar with the website and documentation online, review and test
  • get familiar with the site/doc source files (see Shake.hs)
  • get the latest hledger source
  • send patches with names prefixed with “doc:” (or “site:”)

Graphics Designer

  • more/better logos & graphics
  • illustrations and diagrams
  • web design mockups for home page, site, hledger-web UI

Communicator

Marketing and market understanding is vital.

  • clarify project goals, value proposition, brand, mission, story
  • monitor product-market fit
  • identify new opportunities
  • influence developer priorities
  • spread the word!

Maintainer

Help with issue management

  • watch tracker activity, report status
  • apply/update labels where needed
  • follow up on dormant issues
  • facilitate a consistently good bug-reporting & PR-contributing experience

Help with packaging

  • package hledger for linux distros, macports, etc.
  • develop mac/windows installers
  • find and assist distro packagers/installer developers

Help with project management

  • clarify/update goals and principles
  • monitor, report on project progress and performance
  • research, compare and report on successful projects, related projects
  • identify collaboration opportunities
  • marketing, communication, outreach
  • release management, roadmap planning

Developer

See Developer workflows.

Make

A Makefile is provided to make common developer tasks easy to remember, and to insulate us a little from the ever-evolving Haskell tools ecosystem. Using it is entirely optional, but recommended. Youll need GNU Make installed.

The Makefile contains a fair amount of obsolete cruft and needs cleanup. Some tasks (docs, website) are now handled by the Shake file instead.

The Makefile is self-documenting. Run make to see a list of the main make rules:

$ make
Makefile:37: -------------------- hledger make rules --------------------
Makefile:39: make [help] -- list documented rules in this makefile. make -n RULE shows more detail.
Makefile:204: (INSTALLING:)
Makefile:206: make install -- download dependencies and install hledger executables to ~/.local/bin or equivalent (with stack)
Makefile:231: (BUILDING:)
Makefile:235: make build -- download dependencies and build hledger executables (with stack)
Makefile:304: make hledgerdev -- quickly build the hledger executable (with ghc and -DDEVELOPMENT)
...

To see what a make rule will do without actually doing it, use the -n flag:

$ make build -n
stack build
$ make test -n
(stack test \
		&& echo pkgtest PASSED) || echo pkgtest FAILED
(stack exec hledger test \
		&& echo builtintest PASSED) || echo builtintest FAILED
(COLUMNS=80 PATH=`pwd`/bin:/home/simon/src/hledger/bin:/home/simon/.local/bin:/home/simon/.cabal/bin:/opt/ghc/7.10.1/bin:/usr/local/sbin:/usr/local/bin:/usr/sbin:/usr/bin:/sbin:/bin:/usr/games:/usr/local/games:/var/lib/gems/1.9.1/bin stack exec -- shelltest --execdir -- -j16 --hide-successes tests \
		&& echo functest PASSED) || echo functest FAILED

Shake

Shake.hs in the top directory complements the Makefile; it is used for some more complex tasks, such as building documentation and the web site.

Compile it:

./Shake.hs   # or, make Shake

See help:

./Shake

Code

hledger is a suite of applications, tools and libraries. The main hledger code repository is github.com/simonmichael/hledger (shortcut url code.hledger.org). There are also various hledger addons maintained as separate projects with their own repos.

hledger packages

Within the main repo, there are a number of separate cabal packages, making it easier to pick and choose parts of hledger to install or to package. They are:

hledger-lib

package, code

Core data models, parsing, standard reports, and utilities. Most data types are defined in Hledger.Data.Types, while functions that operate on them are defined in Hledger.Data.TYPENAME. Under Hledger.Read are parsers for the supported input formats. Data files are parsed into a Journal, which contains a list of Transactions, each containing multiple Postings of some MixedAmount (multiple single-CommoditySymbol Amounts) to some AccountName. When needed, the Journal is further processed to derive a Ledger, which contains summed Accounts. In Hledger.Reports there are standard reports, which extract useful data from the Journal or Ledger.

Heres a diagram of the main data model:

diagram

hledger

package, code, manual

hledgers command line interface, and command line options and utilities for other hledger tools.

Try tracing the execution of a hledger command:

  1. Hledger.Cli.Main:main parses the command line to select a command, then
  2. gives it to Hledger.Cli.Utils:withJournalDo, which runs it after doing all the initial parsing.
  3. Parsing code is under hledger-lib:Hledger.Read, eg Hledger.Read.JournalReader.
  4. Commands extract useful information from the parsed data model using hledger-lib:Hledger.Reports, and
  5. render in plain text for console output (or another output format, like CSV).
  6. Everything uses the data types and utilities from hledger-lib:Hledger.Data and hledger-lib:Hledger.Utils.

hledger-ui

package, code, manual

A terminal interface.

hledger-web

package, code, manual

A web interface. hledger-web starts a web server built with the yesod framework, and (by default) opens a web browser view on it. It reads the journal file(s) at startup and again whenever they change. It can also write (append) new transactions to the journal file.

There are two main views, which can be filtered with queries:

  • /journal, showing general journal entries (like hledger print)

  • /register, showing transactions affecting an account (slightly different from hledgers register command, which shows postings).

There is also:

  • a sidebar (toggled by pressing s) showing the chart of accounts (like hledger balance)
  • an add form for adding new transactions (press a)
  • a help dialog showing quick help and keybindings (press h or click ?)

Most of the action is in

Handler module and function names end with R, like the yesod-generated route type they deal with.

Dynamically generated page content is mostly inline hamlet. Lucius/Julius files and widgets generally are not used, except for the default layout.

Here are some ways to run it during development:

  • yesod devel: runs in developer mode, rebuilds automatically when config, template, static or haskell files change (but only files in the hledger-web package):
$ (cd hledger-web; yesod devel)
  • yesod-fast-devel may be a good alternative, also reloads the browser page

  • stack ghci: runs the server in developer mode from GHCI. Changes to static files like hledger.js will be visible on page reload; to see other changes, restart it as shown.

$ (cd hledger-web; stack ghci hledger-web)
hledger-web> :main --serve   # restart: ctrl-c, :r, enter, ctrl-p, ctrl-p, enter
  • make ghci-web: runs the server in developer mode from GHCI, also interprets the hledger-lib and hledger packages so that :reload picks up changes in those packages too:
$ make ghci-web
ghci> :main --serve

(This rule also creates symbolic links to hledger-webs config, messages, static and templates directories, needed in developer mode, so it can run from the top directory. This may not work on Windows.)

Quality

Relevant tools include:

  • unit tests (HUnit, make unittest)
  • functional tests (shelltestrunner, make functest)
  • performance tests (simplebench, make bench)
  • documentation tests (make haddocktest + manual)
  • ui tests (manual)
  • installation tests (manual)
  • code reviews

Code review

Tests

About testing in the hledger project, as of 201809.

Kinds of tests

“Here, then, is a list of properties of tests. Not all tests need to exhibit all properties. However, no property should be given up without receiving a property of greater value in return.

  • Isolated — tests should return the same results regardless of the order in which they are run.
  • Composable — if tests are isolated, then I can run 1 or 10 or 100 or 1,000,000 and get the same results.
  • Fast — tests should run quickly.
  • Inspiring — passing the tests should inspire confidence
  • Writable — tests should be cheap to write relative to the cost of the code being tested.
  • Readable — tests should be comprehensible for reader, invoking the motivation for writing this particular test.
  • Behavioral — tests should be sensitive to changes in the behavior of the code under test. If the behavior changes, the test result should change.
  • Structure-insensitive — tests should not change their result if the structure of the code changes.
  • Automated — tests should run without human intervention.
  • Specific — if a test fails, the cause of the failure should be obvious.
  • Deterministic — if nothing changes, the test result shouldnt change.
  • Predictive — if the tests all pass, then the code under test should be suitable for production.” Kent Beck
  1. Unit tests

    Unit tests exercise small chunks of functionality. In hledger, that means a function. So, many of our functions have one or more unit tests. These are mostly in hledger-lib, with a few in hledger.

    Our unit tests use the tasty test runner, tasty-hunit HUnit-style tests, and some helpers from Hledger.Utils.Test, such as:

    • tests and test aliases for testGroup and testCase
    • assert* helpers for constructing various kinds of assertions

    We would like our unit tests to be:

    • easy to read (clear, concise)
    • easy to write (low boilerplate, low cognitive load)
    • easy to maintain (easy to edit, easy to refactor, robust)
    • easy to associate with the code under test (easy to view/jump between code & test, easy to estimate coverage)
    • and scalable (usable for all devs, easy to run and select, suitable for small/large modules/packages).

    Here's the current pattern (let us know if you see a better way):

    module Foo (
      ...
      tests_Foo -- export this module's and submodules' tests
    )
    where
    import Hledger  -- provides Hledger.Utils.Test helpers
    import Bar      -- submodules, providing tests_Bar etc.
    import Baz
    
    functionA = ...
    functionB = ...
    functionC = ...
    functionD = ...
    
    tests_Foo = tests "Foo" [ -- define tests at the end of each module
    
       -- a group of several named tests for functionA
       tests "functionA" [
         test "a basic test"           $ assertBool "" SOMEBOOL
        ,test "a pretty equality test" $ SOMEEXPR @?= EXPECTEDVALUE
        ,test "a pretty parsing test"  $ assertParseEq PARSER INPUT EXPECTEDRESULT
        ,test "a multiple assertions test" $ do
          A @?= B
          doSomeIO
          C @?= D
        ]
    
       -- a single test containing multiple unnamed assertions for functionB
      ,test "functionB" $ do
         assertBool "" BOOL
         EXPR @?= VALUE
    
      ,tests_Foo            -- aggregate submodule tests
      ,tests_Bar
      ]
    

    Here are some real-world examples.

    The unit tests are shipped as part of the hledger executable, and can always be run via the test command (hledger test).

    Here's the quick way to run unit tests while developing:
    make ghcid-test or make ghcid-test-Some.Module.

  2. Doc tests

    Like unit tests, but defined inside functions' haddock documentation, in the style of a GHCI transcript. These test functionality, provide usage examples in the API docs, and test those examples, all at once. They are a bit more finicky and slower than unit tests. See doctest for more.

    doctests do not work on Mac with GHC 8.4+, out of the box. See ghc#15105 for current status and a workaround.

  3. Functional tests

    Functional tests test the overall functioning of the program. For hledger, that means running hledger with various inputs and options and checking for the expected output. This exercises functionality in the hledger and hledger-lib packages. We do this with shelltestrunner. Tests are defined in files named *.test under hledger/test/, grouped by component (command or topic name). For more about these, see the README there.

  4. Code tests

    We have some tests aimed at testing eg code quality, generally defined as make rules, such as:

    make haddocktest can haddock process all code docs without error
    make buildtest does all code build warning free with the default GHC version & stackage snapshot
    make buildtestall does the code build warning free with all supported GHC versions/stackage snapshots

    See below for examples.

  5. Package test suites

    Haskell tools like stack and cabal recognise test suites defined in a package's cabal file (or package.yaml file). These can be run via stack test, cabal test etc., and they are required to build and pass by services like Stackage. Here are the currently hledger package test suites:

    package test suite what it runs
    hledger-lib doctests doctests
    hledger-lib easytests unit tests
    hledger test builtin test command (hledger's + hledger-lib's unit tests)
    hledger-ui
    hledger-web

Coverage

This means how thoroughly the code is tested - both in breadth (are all parts of the code tested at least a little ?) and in depth (are all possible code paths, states, situations tested ?).

Our current test coverage can be summarised like so:

package unit doc functional
hledger-lib X X X
hledger X X
hledger-ui
hledger-web

There are ways to generate detailed coverage reports for haskell unit tests, at least. It would be useful to set this up for hledger.

How to run tests

Run unit tests:

$ make unittest

Run doctests:

$ make doctest

Run functional tests (and unit tests, now):

$ stack install shelltestrunner
$ make functest

Run the package tests (unit tests, maybe doctests, but not functional tests) of all or selected packages.

$ stack test [PKG]

Run "default tests: package plus functional tests":

$ make test

Test generation of haddock docs:

$ make haddocktest

Thorough test for build issues with current GHC:

$ make buildtest

Thorough test for build issues with all supported GHC versions:

$ make buildtestall

Run built-in hledger/hledger-lib unit tests via hledger command:

$ hledger test  # test installed hledger
$ stack build hledger && stack exec -- hledger test  # test just-built hledger
$ hledger test --help
test [TESTPATTERN] [SEED]
  Run the unit tests built in to hledger-lib and hledger,
  printing results on stdout and exiting with success or failure.
  Tests are run in two batches: easytest-based and hunit-based tests.
  If any test fails or gives an error, the exit code will be non-zero.
  If a pattern argument (case sensitive) is provided, only easytests
  in that scope and only hunit tests whose name contains it are run.
  If a numeric second argument is provided, it will set the randomness
  seed for easytests.

Rebuild and rerun hledger/hledger-lib unit tests via ghcid:

$ make ghcid-test

Rebuild and rerun only some tests via ghcid (see hledger test help):

$ make ghcid-test-TESTPATTERN

See all test-related make rules:

$ make help-test

Benchmarks

Benchmarks are standard performance measurements, which we define using bench declarations in cabal files. There is one in hledger.cabal, with related code and data files in hledger/bench/.

To run the standard hledger benchmark, use stack bench hledger. This installs haskell dependencies (but not system dependencies) and rebuilds as needed, then runs hledger/bench/bench.hs, which by default shows quick elapsed-time measurements for several operations on a standard data file:

$ stack bench hledger
NOTE: the bench command is functionally equivalent to 'build --bench'
...
hledger-0.27: benchmarks
Running 1 benchmarks...
Benchmark bench: RUNNING...
Benchmarking hledger in /Users/simon/src/hledger/hledger with timeit
read bench/10000x1000x10.journal        [1.57s]
print                                   [1.29s]
register                                [1.92s]
balance                                 [0.21s]
stats                                   [0.23s]
Total: 5.22s
Benchmark bench: FINISH

bench.hs has some other modes, which you can use by compiling and running it directly. --criterion reports more detailed and dependable measurements, but takes longer:

$ cd hledger; stack exec -- ghc -ibench bench/bench && bench/bench --criterion
...
Linking bench/bench ...
Benchmarking hledger in /Users/simon/src/hledger/hledger with criterion
benchmarking read bench/10000x1000x10.journal
time                 1.414 s    (1.234 s .. 1.674 s)
                     0.996 R²   (0.989 R² .. 1.000 R²)
mean                 1.461 s    (1.422 s .. 1.497 s)
std dev              59.69 ms   (0.0 s .. 62.16 ms)
variance introduced by outliers: 19% (moderately inflated)

benchmarking print
time                 1.323 s    (1.279 s .. 1.385 s)
                     1.000 R²   (0.999 R² .. 1.000 R²)
mean                 1.305 s    (1.285 s .. 1.316 s)
std dev              17.20 ms   (0.0 s .. 19.14 ms)
variance introduced by outliers: 19% (moderately inflated)

benchmarking register
time                 1.995 s    (1.883 s .. 2.146 s)
                     0.999 R²   (0.998 R² .. NaN R²)
mean                 1.978 s    (1.951 s .. 1.995 s)
std dev              25.09 ms   (0.0 s .. 28.26 ms)
variance introduced by outliers: 19% (moderately inflated)

benchmarking balance
time                 251.3 ms   (237.6 ms .. 272.4 ms)
                     0.998 R²   (0.997 R² .. 1.000 R²)
mean                 260.4 ms   (254.3 ms .. 266.5 ms)
std dev              7.609 ms   (3.192 ms .. 9.638 ms)
variance introduced by outliers: 16% (moderately inflated)

benchmarking stats
time                 325.5 ms   (299.1 ms .. 347.2 ms)
                     0.997 R²   (0.985 R² .. 1.000 R²)
mean                 329.2 ms   (321.5 ms .. 339.6 ms)
std dev              11.08 ms   (2.646 ms .. 14.82 ms)
variance introduced by outliers: 16% (moderately inflated)

--simplebench shows a table of elapsed-time measurements for the commands defined in bench/default.bench. It can also show the results for multiple h/ledger executables side by side, if you tweak the bench.hs code. Unlike the other modes, it does not link with the hledger code directly, but runs the “hledger” executable found in $PATH (so ensure thats the one you intend to test).

$ cd hledger; stack exec -- ghc -ibench bench/bench && bench/bench --simplebench
Benchmarking /Users/simon/.local/bin/hledger in /Users/simon/src/hledger/hledger with simplebench and shell
Using bench/default.bench
Running 4 tests 1 times with 1 executables at 2015-08-23 16:58:59.128112 UTC:
1: hledger -f bench/10000x1000x10.journal print	[3.27s]
1: hledger -f bench/10000x1000x10.journal register	[3.65s]
1: hledger -f bench/10000x1000x10.journal balance	[2.06s]
1: hledger -f bench/10000x1000x10.journal stats	[2.13s]

Summary (best iteration):

+-----------------------------------------++---------+
|                                         || hledger |
+=========================================++=========+
| -f bench/10000x1000x10.journal print    ||    3.27 |
| -f bench/10000x1000x10.journal register ||    3.65 |
| -f bench/10000x1000x10.journal balance  ||    2.06 |
| -f bench/10000x1000x10.journal stats    ||    2.13 |
+-----------------------------------------++---------+

benchs simplebench mode is based on a standalone tool, tools/simplebench.hs. simplebench.hs is a generic benchmarker of one or more executables (specified on the command line) against one or more sets of command-line arguments (specified in a file). It has a better command-line interface than bench.hs, so you may find it more convenient for comparing multiple hledger versions, or hledger and ledger. Eg:

$ stack exec -- ghc tools/simplebench
[1 of 1] Compiling Main             ( tools/simplebench.hs, tools/simplebench.o )
Linking tools/simplebench ...
$ tools/simplebench -h
tools/simplebench -h
simplebench: at least one executable needed
bench [-f testsfile] [-n iterations] [-p precision] executable1 [executable2 ...]

Run some functional tests with each of the specified executables,
where a test is "zero or more arguments supported by all executables",
and report the best execution times.

  -f testsfile   --testsfile=testsfile    file containing tests, one per line, default: bench.tests
  -n iterations  --iterations=iterations  number of test iterations to run, default: 2
  -p precision   --precision=precision    show times with this precision, default: 2
  -v             --verbose                show intermediate results
  -h             --help                   show this help

Tips:
- executables may have arguments if enclosed in quotes
- tests can be commented out with #
- results are saved in benchresults.{html,txt}
cd hledger; $ ../tools/simplebench -f bench/default.bench hledger ledger
Using bench/default.bench
Running 4 tests 2 times with 2 executables at 2015-08-24 04:24:37.257068 UTC:

Summary (best iteration):

+-----------------------------------------++---------+--------+
|                                         || hledger | ledger |
+=========================================++=========+========+
| -f bench/10000x1000x10.journal print    ||    3.24 |   0.43 |
| -f bench/10000x1000x10.journal register ||    3.80 |   3.48 |
| -f bench/10000x1000x10.journal balance  ||    2.05 |   0.18 |
| -f bench/10000x1000x10.journal stats    ||    2.10 |   0.19 |
+-----------------------------------------++---------+--------+

Finally, for quick, fine-grained performance measurements when troubleshooting or optimising, I use dev.hs.

Version numbers

Some places version numbers appear:

  • version (and sometimes help) output of all hledger* executables
  • web manuals on hledger.org
  • download page
  • changelogs
  • release notes
  • release announcements
  • hackage/stackage uris
  • cabal tarball filenames
  • platform-specific packages

Some old version numbering goals:

  1. automation, robustness, simplicity, platform independence
  2. cabal versions must be all-numeric
  3. release versions can be concise (without extra .0s)
  4. releases should have a corresponding VCS tag
  5. development builds should have a precise version appearing in version
  6. development builds should generate cabal packages with non-confusing versions
  7. there should be a way to mark builds/releases as alpha or beta
  8. avoid unnecessary compiling and linking
  9. minimise VCS noise and syncing issues (commits, unrecorded changes)

Current version numbering policy:

  • We (should) follow https://haskell.org/haskellwiki/Package_versioning_policy

  • The “full release version” is ma.jor.minor, where minor is 0 for a normal release or 1..n for bugfix releases. Each component is a natural number (can be >= 10). Eg: 1.13 major release, 1.13.1 bugfix release.

  • The “release version”, which we prefer to use when possible, is just ma.jor when minor is 0. Ie elide the dot zero.

  • The build version is ma.jor.minor+patches, where patches is the number of patches applied in the current repo since the last release tag.

  • hledger --version shows the release version or build version as appropriate.

  • Release tags in the VCS are like PKG-VERSION. Eg hledger-1.13,

  • hledger-ui-1.13.1.

Current process:

  • In each hledger package directory theres a .version file containing its desired version number.

  • After changing a .version file: run ./Shake setversion to propagate the versions to all other places in the packages where they should appear. This is not perfect (see Shake.hs) so review and manually adjust the proposed changes before committing. Those places include (you can also run these rules individually):

    • PKG/package.yaml contains the cabal package version declaration, bounds on other hledger packages, and a CPP VERSION macro used in hledger/Hledger/Cli/Version.hs. Changes in package.yaml will be propagated to PKG/PKG.cabal on the next stack or Shake build, or by make gencabal.

    • PKG/.version.m4 contains the version macro used in documentation source files (*.m4.md). It is updated by ./Shake setversion.

    • PKG/.date.m4 contains the monthyear macro used in man pages. It is updated by ./Shake manuals.

  • At release time:

    • ./Shake PKG/CHANGES.md-finalise converts the topmost heading, if it is an interim heading (just a commit hash), to a permanent heading containing the version and todays date.

    • for each package being released, a PKG-VERSION git tag is created.

  • At major release time:

    • A new snapshot of the reference docs is added to the website, by ./Shake site/doc/VERSION/.snapshot, and added to the links in site/js/site.js.

Sample journals

Synthetic data files like examples/100x100x10.journal are useful for benchmarks and testing. The numbers describe the number of transactions, number of accounts, and maximum account depth respectively. They are generated by tools/generatejournal.hs. They should get built automatically as needed, if not you can use make samplejournals:

$ make samplejournals
ghc tools/generatejournal.hs
[1 of 1] Compiling Main             ( tools/generatejournal.hs, tools/generatejournal.o )
Linking tools/generatejournal ...
tools/generatejournal 100 100 10 >examples/100x100x10.journal
tools/generatejournal 1000 1000 10 >examples/1000x1000x10.journal
tools/generatejournal 1000 10000 10 >examples/1000x10000x10.journal
tools/generatejournal 10000 1000 10 >examples/10000x1000x10.journal
tools/generatejournal 10000 10000 10 >examples/10000x10000x10.journal
tools/generatejournal 100000 1000 10 >examples/100000x1000x10.journal
tools/generatejournal 3 5 5 >examples/ascii.journal
tools/generatejournal 3 5 5 --chinese >examples/chinese.journal
tools/generatejournal 3 5 5 --mixed >examples/mixed.journal

Docs

Four kinds of documentation

20191209: needs update. See also doc/README.

“There is a secret that needs to be understood in order to write good software documentation: there isnt one thing called documentation, there are four. They are: tutorials, how-to guides, explanation and technical reference. They represent four different purposes or functions, and require four different approaches to their creation.” [Daniele Procida] (https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21289832)

https://github.com/simonmichael/hledger/tree/master/doc

Project documentation lives in a number of places:

  • site/*.md is the hledger.org website content, which is generated with hakyll[-std] and pandoc
  • haddock documentation in the code appears on Hackage
  • short blurbs: cabal files, module headers, HCAR, GSOC project, ..
  • doc/notes.org has some old developer notes
  • developer reports (profiles, benchmarks, coverage..) in doc/profs, sometimes published at hledger.org/profs

Funding

My vision for the hledger project has always been for it to be “accountable” and “self-sustaining”, possibly through new forms of incentivisation. Classic non-monetary FOSS communities are a beautiful and precious thing. Adding money can change their dynamic. Yet, we would enjoy having a lot more issues resolved, and a faster rate of progress. So we experiment, gently.

Currently we use bounties as a way to encourage resolution of issues. There are a few ways to do this:

  1. You or your organisation can offer a bounty simply by saying so on the issue.

  2. You can use Bountysource. A few hledger bounties have been completed there.

  3. You can use the new Open Collective process below.

Issues with bounties of any kind are marked with the bounty label. The Bounty Manager is @simonmichael.

New bounty process

It currently looks like this, and will evolve:

  • Issues are marked as bounties by @simonmichael. Feel free to suggest additional issues which should receive the bounty label.

  • Bounties are paid from the hledger projects public Open Collective fund. By contributing to the fund as an individual or organisation, you enable more bounties.

  • These OC bounties (unlike 1 and 2 above) have standard amounts. These may be adjusted over time, depending eg on the state of our funds. Our current bounty amounts are

    • level 1: 10 USD
    • level 2: 25 USD
    • level 3: 50 USD
  • When you complete a bounty, submit an expense to Open Collective, for whichever of the above bounty amounts you think appropriate, based eg on time or expertise spent, how much you need it, how much remains in our fund for other bounties, etc. This will be reviewed by OC and (maybe ?) @simonmichael. Successful claims, like donations, will appear in our public OC ledger.

Our bounty amounts are small, and nothing like professional rates in most countries, but they still establish a principle of sustainability, and help us to experiment. You are encouraged to claim your bounties, though you can also choose to transfer them to a new issue of your choice.

Commit messages

See COMMITS.

Issues

See ISSUES.

Pull Requests

See PULLREQUESTS.

Developer workflows

See WORKFLOWS.