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     % autoconf && autoheader
  48     % cvs commit config.h.in configure
  49     % make stamp-h.in
  50     % cvs commit stamp-h.in
  51
  52 If you haven't changed all of those files, just commit the rest in the stated
  53 order (e.g. cvs commit acconfig.h config.h.in stamp-h.in).  The reason for
  54 the sequence is the RCS Id strings in the edited files -- they change when
  55 you commit the changes.
  56
  57 You can run just "make" instead of the other commands in between cvs commits.
  58
  59
  60 -------------------
  61 directory structure
  62 -------------------
  63
  64 Following is a list of nmh's directories along with a brief description of the
  65 purpose of each one.  Meanings are given for the abbreviations, but note that
  66 these meanings are just informed guesses as to what the MH developers were
  67 thinking.
  68
  69 ./
  70     The top-level directory.  Contains files like README and INSTALL.
  71
  72 config/
  73     Contains utility files for the `configure' process.  Ordinarily nothing in
  74     here needs to be messed with.
  75
  76 etc/
  77     Contains files, file templates, and scripts to generate files that will be
  78     installed in the ${prefix}/etc directory.  Stuff like replcomps.
  79
  80 h/
  81     Most of nmh's header (.h) files are kept not in the individual source
  82     directories, but in this central location.
  83
  84 man/
  85     Contains all the input files that are processed to generate nmh's manual
  86     pages.
  87
  88 mts/
  89     "mts" stands for "Message Transfer Service".  Source files specific to the
  90     different MTSs go in the subdirectories.
  91
  92 mts/mmdf/
  93     "mmdf" stands for "Multichannel Memorandum Distribution Facility".  It is an
  94     alternative to sendmail used primarily on SCO UNIX.
  95
  96 mts/sendmail/
  97     When nmh is configured --with-mts=sendmail, the files in this directory are
  98     used.
  99
 100 mts/smtp/
 101     When nmh is configured to just talk to an SMTP server over TCP/IP, the
 102     source in this directory is compiled.
 103
 104 sbr/
 105     "sbr" stands for "subroutine(s)".  For the most part, each source file in
 106     this directory contains a single function with the same name as the source
 107     file.  These functions are of general use and are called from throughout
 108     nmh.
 109
 110 uip/
 111     "uip" stands for "User Interface Programs".  Most nmh commands have a file
 112     in this directory named <command>.c containing the code for that command
 113     (e.g. repl.c).  In some cases there is also an auxiliary file called
 114     <command>sbr.c which contains additional subroutines called from <command>.c
 115     (which would contain not much else besides main()).
 116
 117 zotnet/
 118     Files in this hierarchy were either written by or moved here by UCI
 119     (University of California, Irvine) after they took over MH from the Rand
 120     Corporation.  "Zot!" is the sound effect made by the anteater in the "B.C."
 121     comic strip when its tongue lashes out at ants.  The anteater is UCI's
 122     official mascot.  Not sure whether UCInet was once called ZotNet...
 123
 124 zotnet/bboards/
 125     UCI added Bulletin Board functionality to MH with the `bbc' command.  This
 126     functionality has been removed from nmh but apparently files in this
 127     directory are still needed for other purposes.
 128
 129 zotnet/mf/
 130     "mf" stands for "Mail Filter".  The filtering in this case apparently refers
 131     to translation between different address and mailbox formats.
 132
 133 zotnet/mts/
 134     MTS code not specific to any single MTS apparently goes here.
 135
 136 zotnet/tws/
 137     No idea what "tws" stands for, other than 't' almost certainly standing for
 138     "time".  Date and time manipulation routines go here.
 139
 140
 141 -------------------------------------------------------
 142 nmh-local functions to use in preference to OS versions
 143 -------------------------------------------------------
 144
 145 For some system functions whose availability or behavior varies from OS to OS,
 146 nmh conditionally uses a local definition with the same name as the OS function
 147 (e.g. snprintf()).  For other functions, developers need to avoid the OS
 148 versions and always use the nmh-supplied function.  Here is a list of such
 149 functions:
 150
 151 OS function  nmh-local version to use instead
 152 ===========  ================================
 153 getpass()    nmh_getpass()
 154
 155
 156 -------------
 157 releasing nmh
 158 -------------
 159
 160 To make a public release of nmh (we'll use version 1.0.4 and my mhost.com
 161 account, danh, as examples here):
 162
 163  1. % echo 1.0.4 > VERSION
 164
 165  2. Put a comment like "Released nmh-1.0.4." in the ChangeLog.
 166
 167  3. % cvs commit ChangeLog VERSION
 168
 169  4. % cvs tag nmh-1_0_4
 170     (cvs treats dots specially, so underscores are substituted here.)
 171
 172  5. % make nmhdist
 173
 174  6. Untar nmh-1.0.4.tar.gz and `diff -r' it vs. your CVS tree.  Make sure no
 175     files got left out of the distribution that should be in it (due to someone
 176     forgetting to update the DIST variables in the Makefiles).
 177
 178  7. If you have root access on your machine, it's good at this point to do:
 179
 180     % chown -R 0:0 nmh-1.0.4
 181     % tar cvf nmh-1.0.4.tar nmh-1.0.4
 182     % gzip nmh-1.0.4.tar
 183
 184     If you leave the files in the archive as being owned by yourself, your UID
 185     may coincide with one of a user on a machine where nmh is being installed,
 186     making it possible for that user to Trojan the nmh code before the system
 187     administrator finishes installing it.
 188
 189  8. Make sure your new tarball uncompresses and untars with no problem.  Make
 190     sure you can configure, make, and install nmh from it.
 191
 192  9. If all is well and your tarball is final, go back to your CVS tree and do:
 193
 194     % echo 1.0.4+dev > VERSION
 195
 196 10. Put a comment like "Upped the version number to 1.0.4+dev until the next nmh
 197     release." in the ChangeLog.
 198
 199 11. % cvs commit ChangeLog VERSION
 200
 201 12. If possible, make an MD5 hash and/or a PGP signature of nmh-1.0.4.tar.gz.
 202
 203 13. % scp -p nmh-1.0.4.tar.gz* danh@mhost.com:/var/ftp/pub/nmh
 204
 205 14. Send an announcement to exmh-users@redhat.com, exmh-workers@redhat.com,
 206     mh-users@ics.uci.edu, and nmh-announce@mhost.com.  If the release fixes
 207     significant security holes, also send an announcement to
 208     bugtraq@securityfocus.com.  The exmh lists require you to be subscribed in
 209     order to post.  Note that you don't need to post separately to comp.mail.mh,
 210     as the mh-users mailing list is apparently bidirectionally gatewayed to it.
 211
 212     Preferably, the announcement should contain the MD5 hash generated above,
 213     and should be PGP-signed.  It should include the FTP URL for the tarball as
 214     well as the URL of the website.  It should contain a brief summary of
 215     visible changes, as well as the URL of the cvsweb diff page that would show
 216     a detailed list of changes.  The changes between 1.0.3 and 1.0.4 would be
 217     shown by:
 218
 219         http://www.mhost.com/cgi-bin/cvsweb/nmh/ChangeLog?r1=1.40&r2=1.71