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 order to commit the configure-related files is:
46 % cvs commit acconfig.h config.h.in configure.in configure stamp-h.in
48 If you haven't changed all of those files, just commit the rest in the
49 stated order (e.g. cvs commit acconfig.h config.h.in stamp-h.in). If
50 you change aclocal.m4, put that after acconfig.h.
57 Following is a list of nmh's directories along with a brief description of the
58 purpose of each one. Meanings are given for the abbreviations, but note that
59 these meanings are just informed guesses as to what the MH developers were
63 The top-level directory. Contains files like README and INSTALL.
66 Contains utility files for the `configure' process. Ordinarily nothing in
67 here needs to be messed with.
70 Contains files, file templates, and scripts to generate files that will be
71 installed in the ${prefix}/etc directory. Stuff like replcomps.
74 Most of nmh's header (.h) files are kept not in the individual source
75 directories, but in this central location.
78 Contains all the input files that are processed to generate nmh's manual
82 "mts" stands for "Message Transfer Service". Source files specific to the
83 different MTSs go in the subdirectories.
86 "mmdf" stands for "Multichannel Memorandum Distribution Facility". It is an
87 alternative to sendmail used primarily on SCO UNIX.
90 When nmh is configured --with-mts=sendmail, the files in this directory are
94 When nmh is configured to just talk to an SMTP server over TCP/IP, the
95 source in this directory is compiled.
98 "sbr" stands for "subroutine(s)". For the most part, each source file in
99 this directory contains a single function with the same name as the source
100 file. These functions are of general use and are called from throughout
104 "uip" stands for "User Interface Programs". Most nmh commands have a file
105 in this directory named <command>.c containing the code for that command
106 (e.g. repl.c). In some cases there is also an auxiliary file called
107 <command>sbr.c which contains additional subroutines called from <command>.c
108 (which would contain not much else besides main()).
111 Files in this hierarchy were either written by or moved here by UCI
112 (University of California, Irvine) after they took over MH from the Rand
113 Corporation. "Zot!" is the sound effect made by the anteater in the "B.C."
114 comic strip when its tongue lashes out at ants. The anteater is UCI's
115 official mascot. Not sure whether UCInet was once called ZotNet...
118 UCI added Bulletin Board functionality to MH with the `bbc' command. This
119 functionality has been removed from nmh but apparently files in this
120 directory are still needed for other purposes.
123 "mf" stands for "Mail Filter". The filtering in this case apparently refers
124 to translation between different address and mailbox formats.
127 MTS code not specific to any single MTS apparently goes here.
130 No idea what "tws" stands for, other than 't' almost certainly standing for
131 "time". Date and time manipulation routines go here.
138 To make a public release of nmh (we'll use version 1.0.4 and my mhost.com
139 account, danh, as examples here):
141 1. % echo 1.0.4 > VERSION
143 2. Put a comment like "Released nmh-1.0.4." in the ChangeLog.
145 3. % cvs commit ChangeLog VERSION
147 4. % cvs tag nmh-1_0_4
148 (cvs treats dots specially, so underscores are substituted here.)
152 6. Preferably make an MD5 hash and/or a PGP signature of nmh-1.0.4.tar.gz.
154 7. Preferably test out the tarball, making sure you can uncompress and untar it,
155 and configure, make, install, and use nmh from it.
157 8. % scp -p nmh-1.0.4.tar.gz* your-uid@mhost.com:/home/ftp/pub/nmh
159 9. Send an announcement to exmh-users@redhat.com, exmh-workers@redhat.com,
160 mh-users@ics.uci.edu, and nmh-announce@mhost.com. If the release fixes
161 significant security holes, also send an announcement to
162 bugtraq@securityfocus.com. None of these lists require you to be subscribed
163 to post. Note that you don't need to post separately to comp.mail.mh, as the
164 mh-users mailing list is apparently bidirectionally gatewayed to it.
166 Preferably, the announcement should contain the MD5 hash generated above, and
167 should be PGP-signed. It should include the FTP URL for the tarball as well
168 as the URL of the website. It should contain a brief summary of visible
169 changes, as well as the URL of the cvsweb diff page that would show a
170 detailed list of changes. The changes between 1.0.3 and 1.0.4 would be shown
173 http://www.mhost.com/cgi-bin/cvsweb/nmh/ChangeLog?r1=1.40&r2=1.71