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.
11 The topics are organized alphabetically.
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/>).
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).
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.
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
44 The correct procedure to commit the configure-related files is:
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
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.
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
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
73 The top-level directory. Contains files like README and INSTALL.
76 Contains utility files for the `configure' process. Ordinarily nothing in
77 here needs to be messed with.
80 Contains more specialized documentation, such as this file and
84 Contains files, file templates, and scripts to generate files that will be
85 installed in the ${prefix}/etc directory. Stuff like replcomps.
88 Most of nmh's header (.h) files are kept not in the individual source
89 directories, but in this central location.
92 Contains all the input files that are processed to generate nmh's manual
96 "mts" stands for "Message Transfer Service". Source files specific to the
97 different MTSs go in the subdirectories.
99 mts/mmdf/ (deprecated)
100 "mmdf" stands for "Multichannel Memorandum Distribution Facility". It is an
101 alternative to sendmail used primarily on SCO UNIX.
103 mts/sendmail/ (deprecated: handled by mts.conf)
104 When nmh is configured --with-mts=sendmail, the files in this directory are
108 When nmh is configured to just talk to an SMTP server over TCP/IP, the
109 source in this directory is compiled.
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
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()).
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...
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.
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.
140 zotnet/mts/ (deprecated, now in sbr/)
141 MTS code not specific to any single MTS apparently goes here.
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
151 -------------------------------------------------------
152 nmh-local functions to use in preference to OS versions
153 -------------------------------------------------------
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
161 OS function nmh-local version to use instead
162 =========== ================================
163 getpass() nmh_getpass()
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):
173 1. % echo 1.0.4 > VERSION
174 % date +"%e %B %Y" > DATE
175 (DATE should contain something like "30 December 2000")
177 2. Put a comment like "Released nmh-1.0.4." in the ChangeLog.
179 3. % cvs commit ChangeLog VERSION DATE
181 4. % cvs tag nmh-1_0_4
182 (cvs treats dots specially, so underscores are substituted here.)
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).
190 7. If you have root access on your machine, it's good at this point to do:
192 % chown -R 0:0 nmh-1.0.4
193 % tar cvf nmh-1.0.4.tar nmh-1.0.4
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.
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.
204 9. If all is well and your tarball is final, go back to your CVS tree and do:
206 % echo 1.0.4+dev > VERSION
208 10. Put a comment like "Upped the version number to 1.0.4+dev until the next nmh
209 release." in the ChangeLog.
211 11. % cvs commit ChangeLog VERSION
213 12. If possible, make an MD5 hash and/or a PGP signature of nmh-1.0.4.tar.gz.
215 13. % scp -p nmh-1.0.4.tar.gz* danh@mhost.com:/var/ftp/pub/nmh
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.
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
231 http://www.mhost.com/cgi-bin/cvsweb/nmh/ChangeLog?r1=1.40&r2=1.71