Edit
kc3-lang/automake/HACKING
Pavel Roskin
- HACKING
-
================================================================ = This file * This file attempts to describe the rules to use when hacking automake. * Don't put this file into the distribution. Don't mention it in the ChangeLog. ================================================================ = Administrivia * If you incorporate a change from somebody on the net: First, if it is a large change, you must make sure they have signed the appropriate paperwork. Second, be sure to add their name and email address to THANKS * If a change fixes a test, mention the test in the ChangeLog entry. * If somebody reports a new bug, mention his name in the ChangeLog entry and in the test case you write. Put him into THANKS. * The correct response to most actual bugs is to write a new test case which demonstrates the bug. Then fix the bug, re-run the test suite, and check everything in. * Some files in the automake package are not owned by automake. These files should never be edited here. These files are COPYING, INSTALL, ansi2knr.1, ansi2knr.c, config.guess config.sub, install-sh, mdate-sh, missing, mkinstalldirs, texinfo.tex * Changes other than bug fixes must be mentioned in NEWS ================================================================ = Naming * We've adopted the convention that internal AC_SUBSTs should be named with a leading `am__', and internally generated targets should be named with a leading `am--'. This convention is very new (as of Feb 7 2001) and so it isn't yet universally used. But all new code should use it. We used to use `_am_' as the prefix for an internal AC_SUBST. However, it turns out that NEWS-OS 4.2R complains if a Makefile variable begins with `_'. Yay for them. I changed the target naming convention just to be safe. ================================================================ = Editing `.am' files * Always use $(...) and not ${...} * Use `:', not `true'. Use `exit 1', not `false'. * Use `##' comments liberally. Comment anything even remotely unusual. * Never use basename or dirname. Instead use sed * Do not use `cd' within back-quotes, use `$(am__cd)' instead. Otherwise the directory name may be printed, depending on CDPATH. * For install and uninstall rules, if a loop is required, it should be silent. Then the body of the loop itself should print each "important" command it runs. The printed commands should be preceded by a single space. ================================================================ = Editing automake.in and aclocal.in * Indent using GNU style. For historical reasons, the perl code contains portions indented using Larry Wall's style (perl-mode's default), and other portions using the GNU style (cperl-mode's default). Write new code using GNU style. * Perl 5 is now OK. ================================================================ = Working with CVS * To regenerate dependent files created by aclocal and automake, use the `bootstrap' script. It uses the code from the source tree, so the resulting files (aclocal.m4 and Makefile.in) should be the same as you would get if you install this version of automake and use it to generate those files. * Dependent files aclocal.m4, configure and Makefile.in in all directories should be up to date in the CVS repository, so that the changes in them can be easily noticed and analyzed. ================================================================ = Test suite * Use "make check" and "make maintainer-check" liberally * Make sure each test file is executable ================================================================ = Release procedure * Fetch new versions of the files that are maintained by the FSF. Commit. Unfortunately you need an FSF account to do this. (You can also use `make fetch', but that is still woefully incomplete.) * Update NEWS. For an alpha release, update README-alpha. * Update the version number in configure.in. (The idea is that every other alpha number will be a net release. The repository will always have its own "odd" number so we can easily distinguish net and repo versions.) * Configure, build, and install. * Run aclocal, automake, and autoconf. * Commit * Run `make cvs-dist' * Put new release on ftp site and send announcement to automake list. If not an alpha, announcement must also go to FSF: Put the files on a public ftp site and send a message to ftp-upload@gnu.org. Then send the announcement to info-gnu@gnu.org. * Update version number in configure.in to next alpha number. Re-run autoconf and commit.