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

   1 #
   2 # README.developers
   3 #
   4 # $Id$
   5 #
   6
   7 This file is intended to provide a few tips for anyone doing development on nmh.
   8 Developers who learn things "the hard way" about the nmh codebase (as opposed to
   9 local info best encoded in a comment) are encouraged to share their wisdom here.
  10
  11 The topics are organized alphabetically.
  12
  13
  14 --------------
  15 autoconf files
  16 --------------
  17
  18 If you wish to change the `configure' script or its related files, you'll need
  19 to first install GNU m4, available from <ftp://ftp.gnu.org/pub/gnu/m4/> and then
  20 GNU autoconf (<ftp://ftp.gnu.org/pub/gnu/autoconf/>).
  21
  22 Most of the configure-related files are automatically generated.  The only files
  23 you should need to manually edit are acconfig.h and configure.in.  Don't, for
  24 instance, edit config.h.in.  Though it is an input file from the point of view
  25 of the users (and the configure script) it is an output file from the point of
  26 view of the developers (and the autoconf script).
  27
  28 If you do change acconfig.h or configure.in and want to `cvs commit' them, be
  29 sure to regenerate the output files and commit them as well.  The easiest way to
  30 regenerate the files is to simply run `make' -- it'll do the necessary calls of
  31 autoconf and autoheader and will do a `./config.status --recheck', which will
  32 exercise your new configure script.
  33
  34 When you commit the configure-related files, it's very important to commit them
  35 in the right order.  The timestamps on the files in the CVS archive are based on
  36 the current time at the moment they were committed -- the timestamps from the
  37 local files you commit are not copied over.  If you commit the files in the
  38 wrong order, you'll cause unnecessary calls of `autoconf' to occur when people
  39 try to `make' their copies of the latest CVS source.  These people may be
  40 end-users who don't have any interest in changing the configure-related files
  41 and don't have autoconf installed.  They'll be unable to make without playing
  42 around with `touch'.
  43
  44 The correct procedure to commit the configure-related files is:
  45
  46     % cvs commit acconfig.h aclocal.m4 configure.in
  47     % autoheader; autoconf; date > stamp-h.in
  48     % cvs commit config.h.in configure stamp-h.in
  49
  50 The reason for the three-step commit is that configure.in contains the RCS $Id
  51 keyword, so when you commit it, a new version is written locally.  Therefore,
  52 the autoconf regeneration should be held off until after the commit, or your
  53 local stamp-h.in will become out-of-sync with the CVS version (granted, not that
  54 big a deal).  For the second step, you're doing the same commands as a
  55 `make reset' would do, but using that command would require extra configure runs
  56 to make Makefile be up-to-date.
  57
  58 If you haven't changed all the files noted above, just commit the ones you have
  59 changed, in the stated order (for instance, configure.in, then configure and
  60 stamp-h.in).
  61
  62
  63 -------------------
  64 directory structure
  65 -------------------
  66
  67 Following is a list of nmh's directories along with a brief description of the
  68 purpose of each one.  Meanings are given for the abbreviations, but note that
  69 these meanings are just informed guesses as to what the MH developers were
  70 thinking.
  71
  72 ./
  73     The top-level directory.  Contains files like README and INSTALL.
  74
  75 config/
  76     Contains utility files for the `configure' process.  Ordinarily nothing in
  77     here needs to be messed with.
  78
  79 doc/
  80     Contains more specialized documentation, such as this file and
  81     the FAQ.
  82
  83 etc/
  84     Contains files, file templates, and scripts to generate files that will be
  85     installed in the ${prefix}/etc directory.  Stuff like replcomps.
  86
  87 h/
  88     Most of nmh's header (.h) files are kept not in the individual source
  89     directories, but in this central location.
  90
  91 man/
  92     Contains all the input files that are processed to generate nmh's manual
  93     pages.
  94
  95 mts/
  96     "mts" stands for "Message Transfer Service".  Source files specific to the
  97     different MTSs go in the subdirectories.
  98
  99 mts/mmdf/ (deprecated)
 100     "mmdf" stands for "Multichannel Memorandum Distribution Facility".  It is an
 101     alternative to sendmail used primarily on SCO UNIX.
 102
 103 mts/sendmail/ (deprecated: handled by mts.conf)
 104     When nmh is configured --with-mts=sendmail, the files in this directory are
 105     used.
 106
 107 mts/smtp/
 108     When nmh is configured to just talk to an SMTP server over TCP/IP, the
 109     source in this directory is compiled.
 110
 111 sbr/
 112     "sbr" stands for "subroutine(s)".  For the most part, each source file in
 113     this directory contains a single function with the same name as the source
 114     file.  These functions are of general use and are called from throughout
 115     nmh.
 116
 117 uip/
 118     "uip" stands for "User Interface Programs".  Most nmh commands have a file
 119     in this directory named <command>.c containing the code for that command
 120     (e.g. repl.c).  In some cases there is also an auxiliary file called
 121     <command>sbr.c which contains additional subroutines called from <command>.c
 122     (which would contain not much else besides main()).
 123
 124 zotnet/ (deprecated)
 125     Files in this hierarchy were either written by or moved here by UCI
 126     (University of California, Irvine) after they took over MH from the Rand
 127     Corporation.  "Zot!" is the sound effect made by the anteater in the "B.C."
 128     comic strip when its tongue lashes out at ants.  The anteater is UCI's
 129     official mascot.  Not sure whether UCInet was once called ZotNet...
 130
 131 zotnet/bboards/ (deprecated)
 132     UCI added Bulletin Board functionality to MH with the `bbc' command.  This
 133     functionality has been removed from nmh but apparently files in this
 134     directory are still needed for other purposes.
 135
 136 zotnet/mf/ (deprecated, now in sbr/)
 137     "mf" stands for "Mail Filter".  The filtering in this case apparently refers
 138     to translation between different address and mailbox formats.
 139
 140 zotnet/mts/ (deprecated, now in sbr/)
 141     MTS code not specific to any single MTS apparently goes here.
 142
 143 zotnet/tws/ (deprecated, now in sbr/)
 144     "tws" apparently stands for "time with structure", a rather odd phrase.
 145     This directory used to be the place for date and time manipulation code, but
 146     currently nothing in here is compiled.  There are new, more portable
 147     versions of the key files in h/ and sbr/, and this directory will soon go
 148     away completely.
 149
 150
 151 -------------------------------------------------------
 152 nmh-local functions to use in preference to OS versions
 153 -------------------------------------------------------
 154
 155 For some system functions whose availability or behavior varies from OS to OS,
 156 nmh conditionally uses a local definition with the same name as the OS function
 157 (e.g. snprintf()).  For other functions, developers need to avoid the OS
 158 versions and always use the nmh-supplied function.  Here is a list of such
 159 functions:
 160
 161 OS function  nmh-local version to use instead
 162 ===========  ================================
 163 getpass()    nmh_getpass()
 164
 165
 166 -------------
 167 releasing nmh
 168 -------------
 169
 170 To make a public release of nmh (we'll use version 1.0.4 and my mhost.com
 171 account, danh, as examples here):
 172
 173  1. % echo 1.0.4 > VERSION
 174     % date +"%e %B %Y" > DATE
 175     (DATE should contain something like "30 December 2000")
 176
 177  2. Put a comment like "Released nmh-1.0.4." in the ChangeLog.
 178
 179  3. % cvs commit ChangeLog VERSION DATE
 180
 181  4. % cvs tag nmh-1_0_4
 182     (cvs treats dots specially, so underscores are substituted here.)
 183
 184  5. % make nmhdist
 185
 186  6. Untar nmh-1.0.4.tar.gz and `diff -r' it vs. your CVS tree.  Make sure no
 187     files got left out of the distribution that should be in it (due to someone
 188     forgetting to update the DIST variables in the Makefiles).
 189
 190  7. If you have root access on your machine, it's good at this point to do:
 191
 192     % chown -R 0:0 nmh-1.0.4
 193     % tar cvf nmh-1.0.4.tar nmh-1.0.4
 194     % gzip nmh-1.0.4.tar
 195
 196     If you leave the files in the archive as being owned by yourself, your UID
 197     may coincide with one of a user on a machine where nmh is being installed,
 198     making it possible for that user to Trojan the nmh code before the system
 199     administrator finishes installing it.
 200
 201  8. Make sure your new tarball uncompresses and untars with no problem.  Make
 202     sure you can configure, make, and install nmh from it.
 203
 204  9. If all is well and your tarball is final, go back to your CVS tree and do:
 205
 206     % echo 1.0.4+dev > VERSION
 207
 208 10. Put a comment like "Upped the version number to 1.0.4+dev until the next nmh
 209     release." in the ChangeLog.
 210
 211 11. % cvs commit ChangeLog VERSION
 212
 213 12. If possible, make an MD5 hash and/or a PGP signature of nmh-1.0.4.tar.gz.
 214
 215 13. % scp -p nmh-1.0.4.tar.gz* danh@mhost.com:/var/ftp/pub/nmh
 216
 217 14. Send an announcement to exmh-users@redhat.com, exmh-workers@redhat.com,
 218     mh-users@ics.uci.edu, and nmh-announce@mhost.com.  If the release fixes
 219     significant security holes, also send an announcement to
 220     bugtraq@securityfocus.com.  The exmh lists require you to be subscribed in
 221     order to post.  Note that you don't need to post separately to comp.mail.mh,
 222     as the mh-users mailing list is apparently bidirectionally gatewayed to it.
 223
 224     Preferably, the announcement should contain the MD5 hash generated above,
 225     and should be PGP-signed.  It should include the FTP URL for the tarball as
 226     well as the URL of the website.  It should contain a brief summary of
 227     visible changes, as well as the URL of the cvsweb diff page that would show
 228     a detailed list of changes.  The changes between 1.0.3 and 1.0.4 would be
 229     shown by:
 230
 231         http://www.mhost.com/cgi-bin/cvsweb/nmh/ChangeLog?r1=1.40&r2=1.71