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 aclocal.m4 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).
56 Following is a list of nmh's directories along with a brief description of the
57 purpose of each one. Meanings are given for the abbreviations, but note that
58 these meanings are just informed guesses as to what the MH developers were
62 The top-level directory. Contains files like README and INSTALL.
65 Contains utility files for the `configure' process. Ordinarily nothing in
66 here needs to be messed with.
69 Contains files, file templates, and scripts to generate files that will be
70 installed in the ${prefix}/etc directory. Stuff like replcomps.
73 Most of nmh's header (.h) files are kept not in the individual source
74 directories, but in this central location.
77 Contains all the input files that are processed to generate nmh's manual
81 "mts" stands for "Message Transfer Service". Source files specific to the
82 different MTSs go in the subdirectories.
85 "mmdf" stands for "Multichannel Memorandum Distribution Facility". It is an
86 alternative to sendmail used primarily on SCO UNIX.
89 When nmh is configured --with-mts=sendmail, the files in this directory are
93 When nmh is configured to just talk to an SMTP server over TCP/IP, the
94 source in this directory is compiled.
97 "sbr" stands for "subroutine(s)". For the most part, each source file in
98 this directory contains a single function with the same name as the source
99 file. These functions are of general use and are called from throughout
103 "uip" stands for "User Interface Programs". Most nmh commands have a file
104 in this directory named <command>.c containing the code for that command
105 (e.g. repl.c). In some cases there is also an auxiliary file called
106 <command>sbr.c which contains additional subroutines called from <command>.c
107 (which would contain not much else besides main()).
110 Files in this hierarchy were either written by or moved here by UCI
111 (University of California, Irvine) after they took over MH from the Rand
112 Corporation. "Zot!" is the sound effect made by the anteater in the "B.C."
113 comic strip when its tongue lashes out at ants. The anteater is UCI's
114 official mascot. Not sure whether UCInet was once called ZotNet...
117 UCI added Bulletin Board functionality to MH with the `bbc' command. This
118 functionality has been removed from nmh but apparently files in this
119 directory are still needed for other purposes.
122 "mf" stands for "Mail Filter". The filtering in this case apparently refers
123 to translation between different address and mailbox formats.
126 MTS code not specific to any single MTS apparently goes here.
129 No idea what "tws" stands for, other than 't' almost certainly standing for
130 "time". Date and time manipulation routines go here.
133 -------------------------------------------------------
134 nmh-local functions to use in preference to OS versions
135 -------------------------------------------------------
137 For some system functions whose availability or behavior varies from OS to OS,
138 nmh conditionally uses a local definition with the same name as the OS function
139 (e.g. snprintf()). For other functions, developers need to avoid the OS
140 versions and always use the nmh-supplied function. Here is a list of such
143 OS function nmh-local version to use instead
144 =========== ================================
145 getpass() nmh_getpass()
152 To make a public release of nmh (we'll use version 1.0.4 and my mhost.com
153 account, danh, as examples here):
155 1. % echo 1.0.4 > VERSION
157 2. Put a comment like "Released nmh-1.0.4." in the ChangeLog.
159 3. % cvs commit ChangeLog VERSION
161 4. % cvs tag nmh-1_0_4
162 (cvs treats dots specially, so underscores are substituted here.)
166 6. Untar nmh-1.0.4.tar.gz and `diff -r' it vs. your CVS tree. Make sure no
167 files got left out of the distribution that should be in it (due to someone
168 forgetting to update the DIST variables in the Makefiles).
170 7. If you have root access on your machine, it's good at this point to do:
172 % chown -R 0:0 nmh-1.0.4
173 % tar cvf nmh-1.0.4.tar nmh-1.0.4
176 If you leave the files in the archive as being owned by yourself, your UID
177 may coincide with one of a user on a machine where nmh is being installed,
178 making it possible for that user to Trojan the nmh code before the system
179 administrator finishes installing it.
181 8. Make sure your new tarball uncompresses and untars with no problem. Make
182 sure you can configure, make, and install nmh from it.
184 9. If all is well and your tarball is final, go back to your CVS tree and do:
186 % echo 1.0.4+dev > VERSION
188 10. Put a comment like "Upped the version number to 1.0.4+dev until the next nmh
189 release." in the ChangeLog.
191 11. % cvs commit ChangeLog VERSION
193 12. If possible, make an MD5 hash and/or a PGP signature of nmh-1.0.4.tar.gz.
195 13. % scp -p nmh-1.0.4.tar.gz* danh@mhost.com:/var/ftp/pub/nmh
197 14. Send an announcement to exmh-users@redhat.com, exmh-workers@redhat.com,
198 mh-users@ics.uci.edu, and nmh-announce@mhost.com. If the release fixes
199 significant security holes, also send an announcement to
200 bugtraq@securityfocus.com. The exmh lists require you to be subscribed in
201 order to post. Note that you don't need to post separately to comp.mail.mh,
202 as the mh-users mailing list is apparently bidirectionally gatewayed to it.
204 Preferably, the announcement should contain the MD5 hash generated above,
205 and should be PGP-signed. It should include the FTP URL for the tarball as
206 well as the URL of the website. It should contain a brief summary of
207 visible changes, as well as the URL of the cvsweb diff page that would show
208 a detailed list of changes. The changes between 1.0.3 and 1.0.4 would be
211 http://www.mhost.com/cgi-bin/cvsweb/nmh/ChangeLog?r1=1.40&r2=1.71
projects / mmh / blob