Inclusion Graph

C++ headers may not form a circular dependency. The graph of header dependencies therefore forms a directed acyclic graph (DAG). Cycles can create build breaks that are hard to identify, seemingly unrelated to current changes.

In order to avoid header inclusion cycles and to facilitate refactoring, the following inclusion restrictions are used. These restrictions apply to all header files (.hpp) and implementation files (.ipp). Inclusions by source files (.cpp) outside of this DAG is allowed, as it will not cause inclusion cycles, but is discouraged in the interest of clean factoring.

Each root include directory contains a master include file. This should be used by internal library sources as opposed to individual includes. This simplifies refactoring and reduces code bloat while enforcing include dependency ordering. Sources internal to a given directory may not reference their own master include, as this creates a cycle. These includes should not be "chained" other than by the use of master includes, as this complicates refactoring by hiding true dependencies. define.hpp is considered a master include file for assert.hpp and version.hpp, as these provide the full set of global macro definitions.

A dependency is indicated below in a manner similar to class inheritance, using : and ,. Only the highest level dependency in a dependency chain is listed. In some cases there may be more than one. An inclusion cycle can be broken using a C++ forward declaration. These dependencies are indicated by square braces [].

mutex         :
optional      :
assert        :
version       :
define        : assert, version
error         : define
exceptions    : define
constants     : define
constraints   : constants
/unicode      : exceptions
/math         : constraints, exceptions
/data         : /math, /unicode
/words        : /data
/radix        : /words
/serial       : /radix
/stream       : /serial, error
/crypto       : /stream
/chain        : /crypo, mutex, optional, [/settings]
/machine      : /chain
/message      : /chain
/config       : /message
/wallet       : /message
settings      : /config
property_tree : /config, /wallet