1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
31
32
33
34
35
36
37
38
39
40
41
42
43
44
45
46
47
48
49
50
51
52
53
54
55
56
57
58
59
60
61
62
63
64
65
66
67
68
69
70
71
72
73
74
75
76
77
78
79
80
81
82
83
84
85
86
87
88
89
90
91
92
93
94
95
96
97
98
99
100
101
102
103
104
105
106
107
108
109
110
111
112
113
114
115
116
117
118
119
120
121
122
123
124
125
126
127
128
129
130
131
132
133
134
135
136
137
138
139
140
141
142
143
144
145
146
147
148
149
150
151
152
153
154
155
156
157
158
159
160
161
162
163
164
165
166
167
168
169
170
171
172
173
174
175
176
177
178
179
180
181
182
183
184
185
186
187
188
189
190
191
192
193
194
195
196
197
198
199
200
201
202
203
204
205
206
207
208
209
210
211
212
213
214
215
216
217
218
219
220
221
222
223
224
225
226
227
228
229
230
231
232
233
234
235
236
237
238
239
240
241
242
243
244
245
246
247
248
249
250
251
252
253
254
255
256
257
258
259
260
261
262
263
264
265
266
267
268
269
270
271
272
273
274
275
276
277
278
279
280
281
282
283
284
285
286
287
288
289
290
291
292
293
294
295
296
297
298
299
300
301
302
303
304
305
306
307
308
309
310
311
312
313
314
315
316
317
318
319
320
321
322
323
324
|
============================================================================
= 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.sh' 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.
* Ensure that the copyright notices of the distributed files is up to
date. The maintainer-only target "update-copyright" can help with
this.
* Check NEWS; in particular, ensure that all the relevant differences
with the last release are actually reported.
* 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:
make bootstrap && make check && make distcheck
It is also advised to run "git clean -fdx" before invoking the
bootstrap, to ensure a really clean rebuild. However, it must
be done carefully, because that command will remove *all* the
files that are not tracked by git!
* Run "make git-tag-release".
This will run the maintainer checks, verify 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".
* For stable releases you'll have to update the manuals at www.gnu.org.
- Generate manuals (with the help of the standard gendocs.sh script):
make web-manual
The ready-to-be-uploaded manuals (in several formats) will be left
in the 'doc/web-manuals' directory.
- Commit the updated manuals to web CVS:
make web-manual-update
If your local username is different from your username at Savannah,
you'll have to override the 'CVS_USER' make variable accordingly;
for example:
make web-manual-update CVS_USER=slattarini
- Check for link errors, fix them, recheck until convergence:
<http://validator.w3.org/checklink>
* Create an announcement message with "make announcement". Edit the
generated 'announcement' file appropriately, in particularly filling
in by hand any "TODO" left in there.
* Update version number in configure.ac to next alpha number.
Re-run ./bootstrap.sh and commit.
* Don't forget to "git push" your changes so they appear in the public
git tree.
* Send the announcement generated in the earlier steps 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 an abridged
version of the announcement into the NEWS feed at:
<https://savannah.gnu.org/projects/automake>.
Be sure to link a version to the complete announcement (from
the version you sent to the automake list, as get archived on
<http://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/automake/>).
-----
Copyright (C) 2003-2013 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:
|