Edit
kc3-lang/automake/HACKING
Stefano Lattarini
- HACKING
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================================================================ = This file * This file attempts to describe the rules to use when hacking automake. ================================================================ = Administrivia * 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. * 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 commit message. If a change fixes a bug registered in the Automake debbugs tracker, mention the bug number in the commit message. * If somebody reports a new bug, mention his name in the commit message and in the test case you write. Put him into THANKS. * When documenting a non-trivial idiom or example in the manual, be sure to add a test case for it, and to reference such test case from a proper Texinfo comment. * Some files in the automake package are not owned by automake; these files are listed in the $(FETCHFILES) variable in Makefile.am. They should never be edited here. Almost all of them can be updated from respective upstreams with "make fetch" (this should be done especially before releases). The only exception is the 'lib/COPYING' (from FSF), which should be updated by hand whenever the GPL gets updated (which shouldn't happen that often anyway :-) * Changes other than bug fixes must be mentioned in NEWS. Important bug fixes should be mentioned in NEWS, too. ================================================================ = 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, although in place from at least February 2001, 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 the underscore character. 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. More generally, do not ever use plain 'cd' together with a relative directory that does not start with a dot, or you might end up in one computed with 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. * Ensure install rules do not create any installation directory where nothing is to be actually installed. See automake bug#11030. ================================================================ = 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. * Don't use & for function calls, unless required. The use of & prevents prototypes from being checked. Just as above, don't change massively all the code to strip the &, just convert the old code as you work on it, and write new code without. ================================================================ = Working with git * 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. Be sure to have the latest stable version of Autoconf installed and available early in your PATH. * The Automake git tree currently carries two basic branches: 'master' for the current development, and 'maint' for maintenance and bug fixes. The maint branch should be kept regularly merged into the master branch. It is advisable to merge only after a set of related commits have been applied, to avoid introducing too much noise in the history. * There may be a number of longer-lived feature branches for new developments. They should be based off of a common ancestor of all active branches to which the feature should or might be merged later. in the future, we might introduce a special branch named 'next' that may serve as common ground for feature merging and testing, should they not yet be ready for master. * After a major release is done, the master branch is to be merged into the maint branch, and then a "new" master branch created stemming from the resulting commit. * When fixing a bug (especially a long-standing one), it may be useful to commit the fix to a new temporary branch based off the commit that introduced the bug. Then this "bugfix branch" can be merged into all the active branches descending from the buggy commit. This offers a simple way to fix the bug consistently and effectively. * For merges from branches other than maint, prefer 'git merge --log' over plain 'git merge', so that a later 'git log' gives an indication of which actual patches were merged even when they don't appear early in the list. * master and release branches should not be rewound, i.e., should always fast-forward, except maybe for privacy issues. The maint branch should not be rewound except maybe after retiring a release branch or a new stable release. For next, and for feature branches, the announcement for the branch should document rewinding policy. ================================================================ = Writing a good commit message * Here is the general format that Automake's commit messages are expected to follow. See the further points below for clarifications and minor corrections. topic: brief description (this is the "summary line") <reference to relevant bugs, if any> Here goes a more detailed explanation of why the commit is needed, and a general overview of what it does, and how. This section is optional, but you are expected to provide it more often than not. And if the detailed explanation is quite long or detailed, you can want to break it in more paragraphs. Then you can add references to relevant mailing list discussions (if any), with proper links. But don't take this as an excuse for writing incomplete commit messages! The "distilled" conclusions reached in such discussions should have been placed in the paragraphs above. Finally, here you can thank people that motivated or helped the change. So, thanks to John Doe for bringing up the issue, and to J. Random Hacker for providing suggestions and testing the patch. <detailed list of touched files> * The <detailed list of touched files> is mandatory but for the most trivial changes, and should follows the GNU guidelines for ChangeLog entries (described explicitly in the GNU Coding Standards); it might be something of this sort: * some/file (func1): Improved frobnication. (func2): Adjusted accordingly. * another/file (foo, bar): Likewise. * tests/foo.tap: New test. * tests/Makefile.am (TESTS): Add it. * If your commit fixes an automake bug registered in the tracker (say numbered 1234), you should put the following line after the summary line: This change fixes automake bug#1234. * If your commit is just related to the given bug report, but does not fix it, you might want to add a line like this instead: This change is related to automake bug#1234. * When referring to older commits, use 'git describe' output as pointer. But also try to identify the given commit by date and/or summary line if possible. Examples: Since yesterday's commit, v1.11-2019-g4d2bf42, ... ... removed in commit 'v1.11-1674-g02e9072' of 01-01-2012, "dist: ditch support for lzma"... ================================================================ = Test suite * Use "make check" and "make maintainer-check" liberally. * Make sure each test file is executable. * Export the 'keep_testdirs' environment variable to "yes" to keep test directories for successful tests also. * Use perl coverage information to ensure your new code is thoroughly tested by your new tests. * See file 't/README' for more information. ================================================================ = Release procedure * The steps outlined here are meant to be followed for alpha and stable releases as well. Where differences are expected, they will be explicitly described. * Fetch new versions of the files that are maintained by the FSF by running "make fetch". In case any file in the automake repository has been updated, commit and re-run the testsuite. * Update NEWS. * Update the version number in configure.ac. (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.) * Run this: ./bootstrap && ./configure && make && make check && make distcheck * Run "make git-tag-release". This will run the maintainer checks, check that the NEWS file is up-to-date, check that the local git repository and working tree are clean and up-to-date, and create a proper signed git tag for the release (based on the contents of $(VERSION)). * Run "make git-upload-release". This will first verify that you are releasing from a tagged version and that the local git repository and working tree are clean and up-to-date, and will then run "make dist" to create the tarballs, and invoke the 'gnupload' script sign and upload them to the correct locations. In case you need to sign with a non-default key, you can use "make GNUPLOADFLAGS='--user KEY' git-upload-release". * Update version number in configure.ac to next alpha number. Re-run ./bootstrap and commit. * Don't forget to "git push" your changes so they appear in the public git tree. * For stable releases, update the manuals at www.gnu.org: - Generate manuals: cd doc wget "http://savannah.gnu.org/cgi-bin/viewcvs/~checkout~/texinfo/texinfo/util/gendocs.sh" wget "http://savannah.gnu.org/cgi-bin/viewcvs/~checkout~/texinfo/texinfo/util/gendocs_template" sh ./gendocs.sh --email bug-automake@gnu.org automake "GNU Automake" - copy manuals recursively to web cvs, - commit. - Check for link errors, fix them, recheck until convergence: <http://validator.w3.org/checklink> * Send the announcement at least to <autotools-announce@gnu.org> and <automake@gnu.org>. If the release is a stable one, the announcement must also go to <info-gnu@gnu.org>; if it is an alpha or beta release, announcement should be sent also to <platform-testers@gnu.org>, to maximize the possibility of early testing on exotic or proprietary systems. Finally, copy the announcement into the NEWS feed at <https://savannah.gnu.org/projects/automake>. ----- Copyright (C) 2003-2012 Free Software Foundation, Inc. This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by the Free Software Foundation; either version 2, or (at your option) any later version. This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the GNU General Public License for more details. You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License along with this program. If not, see <http://www.gnu.org/licenses/>. Local Variables: mode: text End: