diplodocus.org Git - nmh/blob - docs/README.developers

   1 #
   2 # README.developers
   3 #
   4
   5 This file is intended to provide a few tips for anyone doing development on nmh.
   6 Developers who learn things "the hard way" about the nmh codebase (as opposed to
   7 local info best encoded in a comment) are encouraged to share their wisdom here.
   8
   9 Following a commit checklist, the topics are organized alphabetically.
  10
  11 ----------------
  12 commit checklist
  13 ----------------
  14
  15 1. code updated?
  16 2. test added?
  17 3. make distcheck passed?
  18 4. man page and other documentation updated?
  19 5. docs/pending-release-notes updated?
  20 6. should commit message reference bug report?
  21 7. update/close bug report (with commit id)?
  22 8. notify nmh-users?
  23
  24
  25 -------------------------
  26 autoconf & automake files
  27 -------------------------
  28
  29 If you wish to change the `configure' script, the generated Makefile
  30 or other related files, you'll need to first install GNU m4, available
  31 from <ftp://ftp.gnu.org/pub/gnu/m4/>, then GNU autoconf
  32 (<ftp://ftp.gnu.org/pub/gnu/autoconf/>) and GNU automake
  33 (<ftp://ftp.gnu.org/pub/gnu/automake/>).  Nmh is currently using a
  34 minimum of autoconf 2.68 and automake 1.12.
  35
  36 Most of the configure-related files are automatically generated.
  37 The only files you should need to manually edit are configure.ac
  38 and any autoconf macros in the m4 directory.  Don't, for instance,
  39 edit config.h.in.  Though it is an input file from the point of
  40 view of the users (and the configure script) it is an output file
  41 from the point of view of the developers (and the autoconf script).
  42
  43 If you wish to add a new autoconf macro, it should be placed in it's
  44 own file and put in the m4 directory; aclocal will automatically pick
  45 it up and automake will add it to the distribution target automatically.
  46
  47 If you wish to make changes to the Makefile, you will need to edit
  48 Makefile.am.  See the automake documentation if you need further help.
  49 You should always check changes to Makefile.am by using "make distcheck".
  50
  51 Note that the automatically generated autotools files (such as config.h.in,
  52 Makefile.in, and configure), are NOT kept in git.  Thus, when you check out
  53 a git tree, you need to run the autogen.sh script before you can build
  54 anything:
  55
  56         % ./autogen.sh
  57
  58
  59 -------------------
  60 directory structure
  61 -------------------
  62
  63 Following is a list of nmh's directories along with a brief description of the
  64 purpose of each one.  Meanings are given for the abbreviations, but note that
  65 these meanings are just informed guesses as to what the MH developers were
  66 thinking.
  67
  68 ./
  69     The top-level directory.  Contains files like README and INSTALL.
  70
  71 config/
  72     Contains utility files for the `configure' process.  Ordinarily nothing in
  73     here needs to be messed with.
  74
  75 docs/
  76     Contains more specialized documentation, such as this file and
  77     the FAQ.
  78
  79 etc/
  80     Contains files, file templates, and scripts to generate files that will be
  81     installed in the ${prefix}/etc directory.  Stuff like replcomps.
  82
  83 h/
  84     Most of nmh's header (.h) files are kept not in the individual source
  85     directories, but in this central location.
  86
  87 man/
  88     Contains all the input files that are processed to generate nmh's manual
  89     pages.
  90
  91 mts/
  92     "mts" stands for "Message Transfer Service".  Source files specific to the
  93     different MTSs go in the subdirectories.
  94
  95 mts/smtp/
  96     When nmh is configured to just talk to an SMTP server over TCP/IP, the
  97     source in this directory is compiled.
  98
  99 sbr/
 100     "sbr" stands for "subroutine(s)".  For the most part, each source file in
 101     this directory contains a single function with the same name as the source
 102     file.  These functions are of general use and are called from throughout
 103     nmh.
 104
 105 test/
 106     The num unit test suite.
 107
 108 uip/
 109     "uip" stands for "User Interface Programs".  Most nmh commands have a file
 110     in this directory named <command>.c containing the code for that command
 111     (e.g. repl.c).  In some cases there is also an auxiliary file called
 112     <command>sbr.c which contains additional subroutines called from <command>.c
 113     (which would contain not much else besides main()).
 114
 115
 116 ---
 117 git
 118 ---
 119
 120 As of December 2010, nmh has switched to using git for revision control
 121 instead of CVS.  While the topic of git is beyond the scope of this FAQ,
 122 to get started with git & nmh, you can run the following command to checkout
 123 the nmh repository (with read-only access to it):
 124
 125     % git clone git://git.savannah.nongnu.org/nmh.git
 126
 127 That will create a workspace called nmh.  To update that workspace
 128 with changes to the master, cd to it and run:
 129
 130     % git pull
 131
 132 If you are a project member and want write access to the repository,
 133 you'll have to checkout with the following command instead of the one
 134 above:
 135
 136     % git clone <username>@git.sv.nongnu.org:/srv/git/nmh.git
 137
 138 We suggest using git pull --rebase instead of the default merge for
 139 git pull.  If you don't want to add the --rebase option every time,
 140 you can tell git pull to always rebase in your nmh workspace by
 141 cd'ing to it and running the following command:
 142
 143     % git config --bool branch.master.rebase true
 144
 145 And you'll probably want the following, also, so that --rebase applies
 146 to any new branches that you create:
 147
 148     % git config branch.autosetuprebase always
 149
 150 -------------------------------------------------------
 151 nmh-local functions to use in preference to OS versions
 152 -------------------------------------------------------
 153
 154 For some system functions whose availability or behavior varies from OS to OS,
 155 nmh conditionally uses a local definition with the same name as the OS function
 156 (e.g. snprintf()).  For other functions, developers need to avoid the OS
 157 versions and always use the nmh-supplied function.  Here is a list of such
 158 functions:
 159
 160 OS function  nmh-local version to use instead
 161 ===========  ================================
 162 getpass()    nmh_getpass()
 163
 164
 165 --------------
 166 nmh test suite
 167 --------------
 168
 169 The nmh test suite is run through the Makefile, with "make check"
 170 or "make distcheck".
 171
 172 To enable the use of valgrind, where available, set the environment
 173 variable NMH_VALGRIND to a non-null value.  However, a separate
 174 environment variable, VALGRIND_ME, triggers the use of valgrind in
 175 test/inc/test-eom-align because it greatly extends the duration of
 176 that test.
 177
 178 In the nmh test suite, nmh programs to be tested should be invoked
 179 through the run_test or run_prog shell functions defined in
 180 test/common.sh.
 181
 182 -------------
 183 releasing nmh
 184 -------------
 185
 186 To make a public release of nmh (we'll use version 1.5 as the example
 187 here; the convention for release candidates is to use something like
 188 "1.5-RC1"):
 189
 190  1. % echo 1.5 > VERSION
 191     % date +"%e %B %Y" > DATE
 192     (DATE should contain something like "30 December 2000")
 193
 194  2. % git commit VERSION DATE; git push
 195
 196  3. % git tag -a 1.5 -m 'Releasing nmh-1.5.'
 197
 198     Note that the new convention for tagging is to simply tag with the
 199     version number (tag formats in the past have varied).
 200
 201  4. % make distcheck
 202
 203     If you want to check the distribution build with some particular
 204     configure options, set the DISTCHECK_CONFIGURE_FLAGS variable.
 205     E.g.:
 206
 207     % make distcheck DISTCHECK_CONFIGURE_FLAGS=--with-cyrus-sasl
 208
 209  5. If all is well and your tarball is final, go back to your workspace and do:
 210
 211     % echo 1.5+dev > VERSION
 212
 213  6. % git commit VERSION; git push
 214
 215  7. Upload the distribution file to savannah.  You can automate this process
 216     by doing:
 217
 218     % make upload SAVANNAH_USERNAME=username
 219
 220     This will automatically call gpg to sign the release.  You can bypass
 221     this step by setting the SKIP_GPG_SIG variable.
 222
 223  8. Update the http://www.nongnu.org/nmh/ homepage. (It lives in the CVS
 224     'webpages repository'; see https://savannah.nongnu.org/cvs/?group=nmh)
 225
 226  9. Add a news item to the savannah nmh page. You'll have to submit it first
 227     and then separately approve it (under News->Manage).
 228
 229 10. Send the release announcement email to the following places:
 230      nmh-workers@nongnu.org
 231      nmh-announce@nongnu.org
 232      exmh-users@redhat.com
 233      exmh-workers@redhat.com
 234      mh-e-users@lists.sourceforge.net
 235
 236     If the release fixes significant security holes, also send an announcement
 237     to bugtraq@securityfocus.com.  The exmh lists require you to be subscribed
 238     in order to post.  Note that you don't need to post separately to
 239     comp.mail.mh, as the mh-users mailing list is apparently bidirectionally
 240     gatewayed to it.
 241
 242     Preferably, the announcement should contain the MD5 hash generated above,
 243     and should be PGP-signed.  It should include the URL for the tarball as
 244     well as the URL of the website.  It should contain a brief summary of
 245     visible changes, as well as the URL of the git diff page that would show
 246     a detailed list of changes.  The changes between 1.5 and 1.4 would be
 247     shown by [this is just a guess, I don't know anything about cgit, and
 248     it assumes that we tag with nmh-x_x-release from now on]:
 249
 250         http://git.savannah.gnu.org/cgit/nmh.git/diff/?h=nmh-1_5-release?h=nmh-1_4-release