dbc/changelog.md

Changelog

This changelog summarizes release and development history. Entries are listed newest first. Historical dates follow the commit author dates. v1.0 is the existing Git tag; subsequent changes are listed as unreleased.

Unreleased

2026-10-14

Fixed

• Issue #18: frame/signal comments share frame-definition CAN ID validation and resolve after definitions are read. Support tabs, escaped quotes/backslashes, and multiline text while preserving whitespace and starting source locations.
• Report malformed comments and missing references as InvalidStatement errors; keep statement-order overwrites, including empty comments. Added regression coverage and updated parser/test documentation. Verified with qmake6, make -j4, and make check: all six regression suites passed.

Changed

• Validate duplicate frame keys before building the runtime lookup index, alongside CAN IDs, signal layouts, numeric parameters, and multiplexing metadata.

Added

• Root AGENTS.md with project coding rules, build/test commands, and documentation requirements, based on the existing .project_rules.

• End-to-end DBC fixture tests for parsed metadata, runtime frame/signal lookup, raw and physical decoding, value descriptions, and tree nodes. Both builders preserve supported metadata across same-numeric standard/extended IDs, comments, empty databases, and database replacement.

• Exhaustive layout checks for both byte orders at representative payload sizes (0, 1, 8, 64, and 255 bytes), including invalid lengths and uint32 overflow inputs.

• Regression coverage for builder input mutation/destruction and failed replacement with duplicate frame or signal keys, preserving existing lookups.

2026-10-13

Added

• Issue #16: construction-time validation for both manual runtime definitions and DbcDecodeBuilder input: normalized CAN IDs, duplicate keys, signal lengths and positions, enums, finite numeric parameters, ordered ranges, selectors, branch ranges, and overlaps.

• Regression tests for both construction paths, numeric and bit boundaries, mixed byte orders, exclusive overlaps, mutable input aliases, and failed reloads.

• FrameDecodeStatus distinguishes unknown frames, insufficient payloads, signal errors, and successful decoding; frame valid still means matched.

• SignalDecodeStatus::PhysicalConversionFailed reports NaN/Inf results, retaining exact raw values and the non-finite physical result.

• Regression tests for payload-length policy, partial results, invalid runtime metadata, physical overflow/non-finite parameters, and raw branch selection when selector physical conversion fails.

Changed

• Runtime construction rejects invalid definitions with std::invalid_argument before publishing a snapshot. Decoder tests now expect construction failures for malformed definitions; finite arithmetic overflow remains a decode status.

• Shared overflow-safe layout validation across parsing, construction, and decoding. Intel extraction also widens bit coordinates before arithmetic.

• DecodeDatabase now accepts definitions by const reference and copies them, even for rvalues, preventing retained mutable aliases from modifying the frozen snapshot or invalidating its index.

• Short payloads decode available signals without padding; longer payloads ignore bytes beyond the declared DLC. Short frame status takes precedence over signal errors, with per-signal causes retained in definition order.

• Runtime signal validation checks enum values and bit layouts against declared DLC using overflow-safe coordinates. Extra bytes cannot rescue invalid layouts.

• Documented frame/signal status meanings, value availability, and payload policy.

2026-10-11

Added

• Stable application identifiers: FrameKey (normalized CAN ID and frame type) and SignalKey (frame key and signal name), with equality and hashers.

• Runtime FindSignal, frame GetKey, and keys on decoded frame/signal results.

• Reload/lifetime tests for retained frames and independent signals, lookup handles, copies/moves, snapshot release, stable keys, removed/renamed definitions, failed/empty reloads, duplicate keys, and insufficient payloads.

• ParseFileWithDiagnostics and DbcParseResult with severity, stable error code, supplied file path, physical line number, and message for each diagnostic.

• Warnings for unregistered statements, including floating-point signal types, attributes, signal type references, environment variables, and vendor extensions.

• Quiet common DBC header handlers registered through TypeFactory; NS_ symbol declarations do not produce unsupported-statement warnings.

• Regression tests for warning locations, header handling, immediate/deferred errors, file errors, empty results on failure, and legacy exception compatibility.

Changed

• API change: DecodeDatabase is an immutable shared snapshot. Use GetFrames() for reads or construct a new snapshot from a vector; its frame index is private and built automatically, with duplicate-key validation.

• API change: decoded definition fields and DbcDecoder::FindFrame return shared_ptr<const ...> ownership. Stored results retain old definitions across reload/clear/destruction, including separately copied signals and VAL_ strings. Decoding shares metadata without per-result definition copies.

• Documented borrowed views, owning handles, snapshot retention, identifier scope, reload behavior, application migration, and synchronization requirements.

• Kept ParseFile compatible while sharing parsing with the diagnostic API. Parsing stops at the first error and never returns a partial database.

• Deferred value-description and multiplexing errors carry structured source locations without extracting them from exception messages.

• Documented supported syntax, warning behavior, diagnostic codes, and limitations.

• Audited diagnostic coverage and added unsupported-statement variants, namespace termination, formatting/path handling, first-error stopping, deferred diagnostic order, duplicate/overlap errors, and supported decoding preservation tests. Linux file-read errors and legacy file-error messages are checked explicitly.

2026-10-07

Added

• Added regression coverage for signed bit-length boundaries, deterministic Intel/Motorola extraction, lookup failures, runtime validation, PGN, comments, file formatting, metadata copying/lifetime, and TypeFactory behavior.
• Added direct-handler and resolver tests for unsupported comments and ambiguous VAL_ references in manually constructed databases.
• Documented GCC/gcov/LCOV instrumentation, Qt Creator setup, and HTML reports. Coverage after the added tests: 98.4% of lines and 71.4% of branches with GCC 14.2 and Qt 6.8.2, including the standalone tree test.
• Added a reusable post-build coverage report script and step-by-step Qt Creator configurations for model tests, strict warning checks, coverage, core-only, standalone tree tests, and the demo. Machine-specific .user settings stay outside version control.
• Basic M / mN multiplexing metadata in parsed, tree, and runtime definitions.
• Deferred selector and overlap validation with source locations: one unsigned selector, representable branch values, and overlaps only between exclusive branches.
• Selector-first decoding using exact raw values, preserving definition order and unconditional signals. Explicit statuses distinguish inactive branches, missing selector data, insufficient payloads, and malformed runtime metadata.
• Registered SG_MUL_VAL_ rejection through TypeFactory; extended and nested multiplexing remain unsupported. Added parser/decoder regression coverage and documented supported syntax and consumer behavior.

Changed

• Qt-dependent targets now require the installed Qt 6.8.2 through a shared qmake version check; removed Qt 5 compatibility instructions. Core remains Qt-free.
• Used explicit local types in the additional coverage and model tests. Functions retain explicit return types, and runtime handler selection uses TypeFactory without lambdas or extra factory layers for concrete objects.
• Coverage documentation now describes the selected open GCC/LCOV toolchain.
• Overlapping unconditional signals are now rejected during parsing.

Fixed

• Linked QtGui only in the optional model tests and used QGuiApplication with an offscreen default, resolving the QAbstractItemModelTester invalid QPixmap metatype warning without adding QtGui to the adapter library.
• Accepted tabs after CM_ by using the comment parser's keyword extraction instead of requiring a literal-space prefix.
• Removed test compiler warnings by using QVERIFY_THROWS_EXCEPTION and explicitly discarding nodiscard return values in exception checks.
• Reject duplicate frames by normalized CAN ID and frame type, including equivalent extended ID encodings, and duplicate signal names within a frame. Errors report the file path and line of the repeated definition. Standard and extended frames may share a numeric ID; separate frames may reuse signal names. Added regression coverage and updated parser documentation.

2026-10-06

Added

• Added non-owning TreeNode parent navigation and stable sibling positions; disabled node moves to preserve links while retaining unique_ptr ownership.

• Added optional read-only Qt Core DbcTreeModel with documented columns and metadata roles, exact VAL_ entries, exclusive tree ownership, and reset-based reload/clear support. Core remains independent of Qt.

• Added QAbstractItemModelTester coverage, navigation/metadata/reset tests, a standalone Qt-free tree test, and adapter build and usage documentation.

• Added VAL_ signal value descriptions through the statement dispatcher and factory, with complete syntax validation, exact signed/unsigned 64-bit keys, deferred reference resolution, duplicate detection, and source error locations. Distinct keys from multiple statements merge; standard and extended frames remain distinct under existing CAN ID normalization.

• Preserved descriptions in parsed metadata, runtime decode definitions, and UI tree metadata. Added DecodedSignalValue::GetValueDescription() and FindValueDescription() for raw integer lookup before physical scaling. Unknown values retain normal numeric decoding.

• Added regression coverage for syntax, quoting, whitespace, integer boundaries, declaration order, invalid references, duplicates, scaling, and both builders; documented syntax, lookup behavior, and limitations in README.

2026-10-05

Changed

• Split the qmake project into a reusable static library in core/, a demo in examples/, and a combined regression test executable in tests/. Added shared .pri files and updated build instructions. (f17ddb6, #11)
• Added .clang-format and applied consistent formatting to the source code and tests. (b91cf4a, #7)
• Replaced lambdas with explicit functions and simpler code in statement handlers, the decoder, the demo, and regression tests. (03dc8f2)

Fixed

• Added complete validation of SG_ signal statements, including syntax, receivers, numeric fields, lengths of 1–64 bits, physical ranges, and signal bounds within the declared frame payload for Intel and Motorola bit order. Invalid definitions report the file path and line number. Multiplexing markers are explicitly rejected. Added regression tests and documentation. (8d82b13, #6)

Documentation and maintenance

• Regenerated Doxygen documentation after code changes and the project restructuring. (6cd9976, 0067cb4, f17ddb6)
• Removed the temporary signal-validation issue document. (1163277)

2026-10-01

Changed

• Moved DBC statement parsing into TypeFactory-registered handlers for BO_, SG_, and CM_, with a shared parse context and keyword dispatcher. Added tests for dispatch and handler replacement, and documented how to register additional handlers. (88b5883, #4)
• API change: DecodedSignalValue::rawValue now uses std::variant<std::int64_t, std::uint64_t> instead of int64_t. Consumers must handle the appropriate variant alternative. Physical values remain double and may lose precision for large integers. (69074e3, #2)

Fixed

• Corrected Motorola signal extraction within bytes and across byte boundaries using DBC sawtooth bit numbering. Added decoder regression tests and build instructions; introduced the TypeFactory utility. (2c057b6)
• Preserved the full unsigned 64-bit raw-value range, including values above INT64_MAX, and updated physical conversion and demo output. Added tests for signed and unsigned boundaries and numeric output. (69074e3, #2)
• Validated BO_ frame syntax, CAN identifiers, payload lengths, numeric overflow, and unexpected trailing fields. Parsing errors now include the file path and physical line number. Added parser regression tests. (3bd9339, #3)

v1.0 — 2026-06-14

Tag v1.0 points to 38ce043 and includes the initial implementation below.

Documentation

• Added source-file headers with author information and MIT license references. (e2ffa97)
• Added and subsequently simplified the Doxygen configuration. (e2c07dd, 4c8af9f)
• Generated API documentation and refreshed the generated documentation. (dfec39d, 38ce043)

Initial implementation — 2026-03-13

Added

• Initialized the repository with a README and MIT license. (4270459)
• Added the DBC parser, frame and signal metadata, a tree representation and builder, a demonstration program, and a qmake project. (2a90b2d)
• Added runtime decoding through DbcDecodeBuilder, DecodeDatabase, and DbcDecoder, including CAN-frame lookup, Intel and Motorola extraction, signed and unsigned signals, and factor/offset conversion. Updated parser metadata and the demo to support decoding. (a53a5df)

Documentation and maintenance

• Added .gitignore and expanded the README with architecture, data structures, parsing behavior, decoding examples, and usage documentation. (efc57d6, f2aa10c, cb20f5f, f0e7065)