Debugging

The codebase incorporates EDK II debugging and few custom features to improve the experience.

• Use module prefixes, 2-5 letters followed by a colon (:), for debug messages. For OpenCorePkg use OC:, for libraries and drivers use their own unique prefixes.
• Do not use dots (.) in the end of debug messages and separate EFI_STATUS, printed by %r, with a hyphen (e.g. OCRAM: Allocation of %u bytes failed - %r\n).
• Use DEBUG_CODE_BEGIN () and DEBUG_CODE_END () constructions to guard debug checks that may potentially reduce the performance of release builds and are otherwise unnecessary.
• Use DEBUG macro to print debug messages during normal functioning, and RUNTIME_DEBUG for debugging after EXIT_BOOT_SERVICES.
• Use DEBUG_VERBOSE debug level to leave debug messages for future debugging of the code, which are currently not necessary. By default DEBUG_VERBOSE messages are ignored even in DEBUG builds.
• Use DEBUG_INFO debug level for all non critical messages (including errors) and DEBUG_BULK_INFO for extensive messages that should not appear in NVRAM log that is heavily limited in size. These messages are ignored in RELEASE builds. 11
• Use DEBUG_ERROR to print critical human visible messages that may potentially halt the boot process, and DEBUG_WARN for all other human visible errors, RELEASE builds included. The git-bisect functionality may be useful when trying to find problematic changes. Unofficial sources of per-commit OpenCore binary builds, such as Dortania, may also be useful.