GCCstyle

GCCstyle is the coding convention associated with the GNU Compiler Collection (GCC) project. It describes the formatting, naming, documentation, and organizational rules used to keep the GCC codebase coherent as it spans several languages and a large, distributed development community. GCCstyle is not a standalone published standard; it is best understood as the subset of the broader GNU coding standards that GCC developers follow and enforce through the contribution process.

Scope and content: The style covers source file structure, header comments, license notices, and the placement of whitespace, indentation, and braces. It provides guidelines for naming functions and variables, structuring control flow, and documenting interfaces, as well as practices for handling macros, includes, and module boundaries. The aim is readability, portability, and maintainability across compilers and platforms.

Enforcement and evolution: Compliance is reinforced by code reviews and automated checks in GCC's build and test workflows. The GCCstyle evolves with the project; changes typically arise from contributor discussions and maintainers’ edits, and older code may retain historical deviations for practical reasons.

Relation to GNU standards: GCCstyle reflects the GNU coding standards and the broader philosophy of free software projects coordinated by the Free Software Foundation. It serves both as a guideline for new contributors and as a reference point for ongoing maintenance and refactoring within the GCC codebase.