This tutorial will guide you through the creation of various example C++ applications, highlighting important Chromium C++ concepts. This tutorial assumes robust knowledge of C++ (the language) but does not assume you know how to write an application specific to Chromium‘s style and architecture. This tutorial does assume that you know how to check files out of Chromium’s repository.
As always, consider the following resources as of primary importance:
This tutorial does not assume you have read any of the above, though you should feel free to peruse them when necessary. This tutorial will cover information across all of those guides.
Exercise solutions are available in the codelabs/cpp101/solutions directory of the Chromium source code. Build all of the example solutions with autoninja -C out/Default codelabs_cpp101. You are encouraged to implement these exercises yourself in the codelabs/cpp101 directory.
Before you can do the exercises you need to set up a system to checkout, build, and run the code. Instructions can be found here.
This exercise demonstrates the use of the ninja build system to build a simple C++ binary and demonstrates how typical C++ builds are organized within Chromium.
Create a new target in codelabs/cpp101/BUILD.gn for a new executable named codelab_cpp101_hello_world. Then write the classic “Hello, world!” program in C++. You should be able to build it with autoninja -C out/Default codelab_cpp101_hello_world and execute it directly by finding the binary within out/Default.
Sample execution:
$ cd /path/to/chromium/src $ gclient runhooks $ autoninja -C out/Default codelab_cpp101_hello_world $ out/Default/codelab_cpp101_hello_world Hello, world! [0923/185218.645640:INFO:hello_world.cc(27)] Hello, world!
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We will augment our codelab_cpp101_hello_world binary to parse command-line flags and use those values to print messages to the user.
Command-line arguments within Chromium are processed by the CommandLine::Init() function, which takes command line flags from the argc and argv (argument count & vector) variables of the main() method. A typical invocation of CommandLine::Init() looks like the following:
int main(int argc, char** argv) { CommandLine::Init(argc, argv); // Main program execution ... return 0; }
Flags are not explicitly defined in Chromium. Instead, we use GetSwitchValueASCII() and friends to retrieve values passed in.
#include "base/command_line.h" #include "base/logging.h"
Change codelab_cpp101_hello_world to take a --greeting and a --name switch. The greeting, if not specified, should default to “Hello”, and the name, if not specified, should default to “World”.
C++, unlike other languages such as Python, Javascript, or Lisp, has only rudimentary support for callbacks and no support for partial application. However, Chromium has the base::OnceCallback<Sig> and base::RepeatingCallback<Sig>class, whose instances can be freely passed around, returned, and generally be treated as first-class values. base::OnceCallback is the move-only, single-call variant, and base::RepeatingCallback is the copyable, multiple-call variant.
The Sig template parameter is a function signature type:
// The type of a callback that: // - Can run only once. // - Is move-only and non-copyable. // - Takes no arguments and does not return anything. // base::OnceClosure is an alias of this type. base::OnceCallback<void()> // The type of a callback that: // - Can run more than once. // - Is copyable. // - Takes no arguments and does not return anything. // base::RepeatingClosure is an alias of this type. base::RepeatingCallback<void()> // The types of a callback that takes two arguments (a string and a double) // and returns an int. base::OnceCallback<int(std::string, double)> base::RepeatingCallback<int(std::string, double)>
Callbacks are executed by invoking the Run() member function. base::OnceCallback needs to be rvalue to run.
void MyFunction1(base::OnceCallback<int(std::string, double)> my_callback) { // OnceCallback int result1 = std::move(my_callback).Run("my string 1", 1.0); // After running a OnceCallback, it's consumed and nulled out. DCHECK(!my_callback); ... } void MyFunction2(base::RepeatingCallback<int(std::string, double)> my_callback) { int result1 = my_callback.Run("my string 1", 1.0); // Run() can be called as many times as you wish for RepeatingCallback. int result2 = my_callback.Run("my string 2", 2); ...
Callbacks are constructed using the base::BindOnce() or base::BindRepeating() function, which handles partial application:
// Declare a function. void MyFunction(int32 a, double b); base::OnceCallback<void(double)> my_callback1 = base::BindOnce(&MyFunction, 10); base::RepeatingCallback<void(double)> my_callback2 = base::BindRepeating(&MyFunction, 10); // Equivalent to: // // MyFunction(10, 3.5); // std::move(my_callback1).Run(3.5); my_callback2.Run(3.5);
base::BindOnce() and base::BindRepeating() can do a lot more, including binding class member functions and binding additional arguments to an existing base::OnceCallback or base::RepeatingCallback. See docs/callback.md for details.
#include "base/functional/bind.h" #include "base/functional/callback.h"
Implement a function that returns a callback that takes no arguments and returns successive Fibonacci numbers. That is, a function that can be used like this:
base::RepeatingCallback<int()> fibonacci_closure = MakeFibonacciClosure(); LOG(INFO) << fibonacci_closure.Run(); // Prints "1" LOG(INFO) << fibonacci_closure.Run(); // Prints "1" LOG(INFO) << fibonacci_closure.Run(); // Prints "2" ...
Each returned Fibonacci callback should be independent; running one callback shouldn't affect the result of running another callback. Write a fibonacci executable that takes an integer argument n and uses your function to print out the first n Fibonacci numbers.
(This exercise was inspired by this Go exercise: Function closures.)
Chromium has a number of abstractions for sequencing and threading. Threading and Tasks in Chrome is a must-read and go-to reference for anything related to tasks, thread pools, task runners, and more.
Sequenced execution (on virtual threads) is strongly preferred to single-threaded execution (on physical threads). Chromium's abstraction for asynchronously running posted tasks is base::TaskRunner. Task runners allow you to write code that posts tasks without depending on what exactly will run those tasks.
base::SequencedTaskRunner (which extends base::TaskRunner) is a commonly used abstraction which handles running tasks (which are instances of base::OnceClosure) in sequential order. These tasks are not guaranteed to run on the same thread. The preferred way of posting to the current (virtual) thread is base::SequencedTaskRunner::GetCurrentDefault().
A task that can run on any thread and doesn’t have ordering or mutual exclusion requirements with other tasks should be posted using one of the base::ThreadPool::PostTask() functions.
There are a number of ways to post tasks to a thread pool or task runner.
PostTask()PostDelayedTask() if you want to add a delay.PostTaskAndReply() lets you post a task which will post a task back to your current thread when its done.PostTaskAndReplyWithResult() to automatically pass the return value of the first call as argument to the second call.Normally you wouldn‘t have to worry about setting up a threading environment and keeping it running, since that is automatically done by Chromium’s thread classes. However, since the main thread doesn‘t automatically start off with TaskEnvironment, there’s a bit of extra setup involved. The following setup code should be enough to create the necessary TaskEnvironment. Include testonly=true flag in the BUILD.gn file, along with "//base/test:test_support" set as a dependency.
#include "base/test/task_environment.h" #include "base/test/test_timeouts.h" #include "base/at_exit.h" #include "base/task/sequenced_task_runner.h" #include "base/time/time.h" #include "base/command_line.h"
int main(int argc, char* argv[]) { base::AtExitManager exit_manager; base::CommandLine::Init(argc, argv); TestTimeouts::Initialize(); base::test::TaskEnvironment task_environment{ base::test::TaskEnvironment::TimeSource::SYSTEM_TIME}; // The rest of your code will go here.
Implement the Unix command-line utility sleep using only a base::SequencedTaskRunner::CurrentDefaultHandle (i.e., without using the sleep function or base::PlatformThread::Sleep). Hint: You will need to use base::RunLoop to prevent the main function from exiting prematurely.
Take the given (slow) function to find a non-trivial factor of a given integer:
absl::optional<int> FindNonTrivialFactor(int n) { // Really naive algorithm. for (int i = 2; i < n; ++i) { if (n % i == 0) { return i; } } return absl::nullopt; }
Write a command-line utility factor that takes a number, posts a task to the background using FindNonTrivialFactor, and prints a status update every second as long as the factoring task is executing.
Mojo is Chromium's abstraction of IPC. Mojo allows for developers to easily connect interface clients and implementations across arbitrary intra- and inter-process boundaries. See the Intro to Mojo and Services guide to get started.
See the building a simple out-of-process service tutorial on using Mojo to define, hook up, and launch an out-of-process service.