The Vulkan API Specification and related tools
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Jon Leech f4c4113d07 Change log for July 15, 2016 Vulkan 1.0.21 spec update:
* Bump API patch number and header version number to 21 for this update.

Github Issues:

  * Clarify how <<features-supported-sample-counts,sample count queries>>
    relate to the limits in slink:VkPhysicalDeviceLimits. (public issue
    185).
  * Clarify in the <<interfaces-iointerfaces,Shader Input and Output
    Interfaces>> section that shader output variables have undefined values
    until the shader writes to them (public issue 240).
  * Specify the implicit value of image parameters that cannot be set in
    slink:VkSwapchainCreateInfo::pname:flags, pname:imageType,
    pname:mipLevels, pname:samples, pname:tiling, and pname:initialLayout
    (public issue 243).
  * Make use of code:NULL and code:VK_NULL_HANDLE consistent in the
    VK_KHR_swapchain extension (public issue 276).

Internal Issues:

  * Clarify that presenting an image to a display surface swapchain applies
    the display surface's mode, and that destroying a display surface
    swapchain may reset the display's mode, in the VK_KHR_display_swapchain
    extension (internal issue 247).
  * Better describe what a slink:VkSurfaceKHR is, and that creating one does
    not set a mode, in the VK_KHR_display extension. This is a round-about
    way of pointing out that mode setting is not covered by the extension,
    but rather is performed as a side effect of presentation (internal issue
    247).
  * Add more valid usage statements to flink:vkQueuePresentKHR command when
    the VK_KHR_display_swapchain extension is present (internal issue
    247).
  * Add more includes to the VK_KHR_swapchain extension to better document
    interactions with VK_KHR_display_swapchain (internal issue 247).
  * Clarify restrictions on location aliasing in the
    <<fxvertex,Fixed-Function Vertex Processing>> section (internal issue
    370).
  * Add mathematical description of blitting to flink:vkCmdBlitImage, and
    link it to the <<textures,Image Operations>> chapter. Use mathematical
    notation for ranges of texel coordinates in the <<textures,Image
    Operations>> chapter. Fixed miscellaneous validity statements for
    flink:vkCmdBlit and slink:VkImageBlit (internal issue 382).

Other Commits:

  * Added a valid usage rule to flink:VkGraphicsPipelineCreateInfo that the
    ename:VK_PRIMITIVE_TOPOLOGY_PATCH_LIST topology must only be used when
    tessellation shaders are used.
  * Expand the style guide into a formal "Procedures and Conventions"
    document. Add a API Naming Conventions section, move most of the API
    Specification Appendix C (Layers and Extensions) content into the new
    document, and define the resulting procedures as mandatory (where
    relevant). This more clearly separates use vs. specification of Vulkan
    APIs.
  * Update vk_platform.h to handle 32-bit ARMv8 binaries.
  * Various minor cleanups to the Makefile and build process.
2016-07-15 19:05:43 -07:00
doc/specs Change log for July 15, 2016 Vulkan 1.0.21 spec update: 2016-07-15 19:05:43 -07:00
out Change log for July 15, 2016 Vulkan 1.0.21 spec update: 2016-07-15 19:05:43 -07:00
src Change log for July 15, 2016 Vulkan 1.0.21 spec update: 2016-07-15 19:05:43 -07:00
.gitignore Change log for July 10, 2016 Vulkan 1.0.20 spec update: 2016-07-10 18:13:41 -07:00
ChangeLog.txt Change log for July 15, 2016 Vulkan 1.0.21 spec update: 2016-07-15 19:05:43 -07:00
README.md Change log for March 10, 2016 Vulkan 1.0.6 spec update: 2016-03-10 17:33:02 -08:00

README.md

Vulkan API Documentation Project

This repository contains formal documentation of the Vulkan API. This includes the main API Specification, the reference (man) pages, the XML API Registry, and related tools and scripts.

Repository Structure

README.md               This file
ChangeLog.txt           Change log summary
doc/specs/              Main documentation tree
    vulkan/             Vulkan specification
        appendices/     Appendices - one file each
        chapters/       Chapters - one file each
        config/         asciidoc configuration
        images/         Images (figures, diagrams, icons)
        man/            Reference (manual) pages for API
        enums/          Includeable snippets for enumerations from vk.xml
        flags/          Includeable snippets for flags from vk.xml
        protos/         Includeable snippets for prototypes from vk.xml
        structs/        Includeable snippets for structures from vk.xml
        validity/       Includeable validity language from vk.xml
    misc/               Related specifications (GL_KHR_vulkan_glsl)
src/spec/               XML API Registry (vk.xml) and related scripts
src/vulkan/             Vulkan headers, generated from the Registry

Building the Specification and Reference Pages

To build the documents, you need to install, at a minimum:

On some systems/build targets you may also need:

  • dblatex
  • source-highlight

These tools are known to work on several varieties of Linux, MacOS X, and Cygwin running under Microsoft Windows.

There are several make targets in doc/specs/vulkan :

  • make xhtml - Build one large HTML specification document.
  • make pdf - Build one large PDF specification document.
  • make chunked - Build an HTML document broken into one file per chapter.
  • make manhtml - Make HTML API reference (all man pages as one big file).
  • make manpdf - Make a one-giant PDF API reference.
  • make manhtmlpages - Make man pages as one-file-per-API.
  • make manpages - Make man pages as nroff Unix-style (real) man pages.
  • make allchecks - Run the validation rules on the specification.

The outputs will be written to $(OUTDIR), which defaults to out/ at the root of the checked-out git repository.

To build PDF outputs (make pdf, make manpdf), you need a2x (part of the asciidoc) package, dblatex and a LaTeX processor. The PDF builds are currently configured to use a2x to go from asciidoc markdown to docbook, and then run the result through dblatex to go from there to LaTeX and then through your LaTeX processor to PDF.

Spec Validation

There are a couple of validation tools which look for inconsistencies and missing material between the specification and ref pages, and the canonical description of the API in vk.xml :

  • checkinc
  • checklinks
  • allchecks - both checkinc and checklinks

They are necessarily heuristic since they're dealing with lots of hand-written material. To use them you'll also need to install:

  • python3

The '''checkinc''' target uses Unix filters to determine which autogenerated API include files are used (and not used) in the spec. It generates several output files, but the only one you're likely to care about is '''actual.only'''. This is a list of the include files which are not referenced anywhere in the spec, and probably correspond to undocumented material in the spec.

The '''checklinks''' target validates the various internal tagged links in the man pages and spec (e.g. the '''fname:vkFuncBlah''', '''sname:VkStructBlah''', etc.) against the canonical description of the API in vk.xml . It generates two output files, manErrs.txt and specErrs.txt, which report problematic tags and the filenames/lines on which those tags were found.

The header file (src/vulkan/vulkan.h) and many parts of the specification and reference page documents are generated from descriptions in the XML API Registry (src/spec/vk.xml). All the generated files are checked into the repository, and should not be modified directly. If you change vk.xml, you can regenerated these files by going to src/spec and running:

  • make clobber (get rid of all old generated files)
  • make full_install (regenerate all the files)