# # README.developers # # $Id$ # This file is intended to provide a few tips for anyone doing development on nmh. Developers who learn things "the hard way" about the nmh codebase (as opposed to local info best encoded in a comment) are encouraged to share their wisdom here. The topics are organized alphabetically. -------------- autoconf files -------------- If you wish to change the `configure' script or its related files, you'll need to first install GNU m4, available from and then GNU autoconf (). Most of the configure-related files are automatically generated. The only files you should need to manually edit are acconfig.h and configure.in. Don't, for instance, edit config.h.in. Though it is an input file from the point of view of the users (and the configure script) it is an output file from the point of view of the developers (and the autoconf script). If you do change acconfig.h or configure.in and want to `cvs commit' them, be sure to regenerate the output files and commit them as well. The easiest way to regenerate the files is to simply run `make' -- it'll do the necessary calls of autoconf and autoheader and will do a `./config.status --recheck', which will exercise your new configure script. When you commit the configure-related files, it's very important to commit them in the right order. The timestamps on the files in the CVS archive are based on the current time at the moment they were committed -- the timestamps from the local files you commit are not copied over. If you commit the files in the wrong order, you'll cause unnecessary calls of `autoconf' to occur when people try to `make' their copies of the latest CVS source. These people may be end-users who don't have any interest in changing the configure-related files and don't have autoconf installed. They'll be unable to make without playing around with `touch'. The correct procedure to commit the configure-related files is: % cvs commit acconfig.h aclocal.m4 configure.in % autoconf && autoheader # or simply "make" % cvs commit config.h.in configure % make stamp-h.in # or simply "make" % cvs commit stamp-h.in The reason that the commits need to be split up is that the RCS Id strings in the files change when you commit, which can apparently mess up the dependencies. [How? -- Dan Harkless // CVS updates the strings to have the new version number, the modification time of the file gets updated by the OS. -- Kimmo Suominen ] If this were not the case, you could commit with a single make followed by a cvs commit acconfig.h aclocal.m4 config.h.in configure.in configure stamp-h.in. [But since we have the RCS Id strings in the files, isn't it useless to even mention this? The fix would be to remove the strings, and I don't think that would be good. -- Kimmo Suominen ] If you haven't changed all the files noted above, just commit the ones you have, in the stated order (for instance, configure.in, then configure, then stamp-h.in). ------------------- directory structure ------------------- Following is a list of nmh's directories along with a brief description of the purpose of each one. Meanings are given for the abbreviations, but note that these meanings are just informed guesses as to what the MH developers were thinking. ./ The top-level directory. Contains files like README and INSTALL. config/ Contains utility files for the `configure' process. Ordinarily nothing in here needs to be messed with. etc/ Contains files, file templates, and scripts to generate files that will be installed in the ${prefix}/etc directory. Stuff like replcomps. h/ Most of nmh's header (.h) files are kept not in the individual source directories, but in this central location. man/ Contains all the input files that are processed to generate nmh's manual pages. mts/ "mts" stands for "Message Transfer Service". Source files specific to the different MTSs go in the subdirectories. mts/mmdf/ "mmdf" stands for "Multichannel Memorandum Distribution Facility". It is an alternative to sendmail used primarily on SCO UNIX. mts/sendmail/ When nmh is configured --with-mts=sendmail, the files in this directory are used. mts/smtp/ When nmh is configured to just talk to an SMTP server over TCP/IP, the source in this directory is compiled. sbr/ "sbr" stands for "subroutine(s)". For the most part, each source file in this directory contains a single function with the same name as the source file. These functions are of general use and are called from throughout nmh. uip/ "uip" stands for "User Interface Programs". Most nmh commands have a file in this directory named .c containing the code for that command (e.g. repl.c). In some cases there is also an auxiliary file called sbr.c which contains additional subroutines called from .c (which would contain not much else besides main()). zotnet/ Files in this hierarchy were either written by or moved here by UCI (University of California, Irvine) after they took over MH from the Rand Corporation. "Zot!" is the sound effect made by the anteater in the "B.C." comic strip when its tongue lashes out at ants. The anteater is UCI's official mascot. Not sure whether UCInet was once called ZotNet... zotnet/bboards/ UCI added Bulletin Board functionality to MH with the `bbc' command. This functionality has been removed from nmh but apparently files in this directory are still needed for other purposes. zotnet/mf/ "mf" stands for "Mail Filter". The filtering in this case apparently refers to translation between different address and mailbox formats. zotnet/mts/ MTS code not specific to any single MTS apparently goes here. zotnet/tws/ No idea what "tws" stands for, other than 't' almost certainly standing for "time". Date and time manipulation routines go here. ------------------------------------------------------- nmh-local functions to use in preference to OS versions ------------------------------------------------------- For some system functions whose availability or behavior varies from OS to OS, nmh conditionally uses a local definition with the same name as the OS function (e.g. snprintf()). For other functions, developers need to avoid the OS versions and always use the nmh-supplied function. Here is a list of such functions: OS function nmh-local version to use instead =========== ================================ getpass() nmh_getpass() ------------- releasing nmh ------------- To make a public release of nmh (we'll use version 1.0.4 and my mhost.com account, danh, as examples here): 1. % echo 1.0.4 > VERSION 2. Put a comment like "Released nmh-1.0.4." in the ChangeLog. 3. % cvs commit ChangeLog VERSION 4. % cvs tag nmh-1_0_4 (cvs treats dots specially, so underscores are substituted here.) 5. % make nmhdist 6. Untar nmh-1.0.4.tar.gz and `diff -r' it vs. your CVS tree. Make sure no files got left out of the distribution that should be in it (due to someone forgetting to update the DIST variables in the Makefiles). 7. If you have root access on your machine, it's good at this point to do: % chown -R 0:0 nmh-1.0.4 % tar cvf nmh-1.0.4.tar nmh-1.0.4 % gzip nmh-1.0.4.tar If you leave the files in the archive as being owned by yourself, your UID may coincide with one of a user on a machine where nmh is being installed, making it possible for that user to Trojan the nmh code before the system administrator finishes installing it. 8. Make sure your new tarball uncompresses and untars with no problem. Make sure you can configure, make, and install nmh from it. 9. If all is well and your tarball is final, go back to your CVS tree and do: % echo 1.0.4+dev > VERSION 10. Put a comment like "Upped the version number to 1.0.4+dev until the next nmh release." in the ChangeLog. 11. % cvs commit ChangeLog VERSION 12. If possible, make an MD5 hash and/or a PGP signature of nmh-1.0.4.tar.gz. 13. % scp -p nmh-1.0.4.tar.gz* danh@mhost.com:/var/ftp/pub/nmh 14. Send an announcement to exmh-users@redhat.com, exmh-workers@redhat.com, mh-users@ics.uci.edu, and nmh-announce@mhost.com. If the release fixes significant security holes, also send an announcement to bugtraq@securityfocus.com. The exmh lists require you to be subscribed in order to post. Note that you don't need to post separately to comp.mail.mh, as the mh-users mailing list is apparently bidirectionally gatewayed to it. Preferably, the announcement should contain the MD5 hash generated above, and should be PGP-signed. It should include the FTP URL for the tarball as well as the URL of the website. It should contain a brief summary of visible changes, as well as the URL of the cvsweb diff page that would show a detailed list of changes. The changes between 1.0.3 and 1.0.4 would be shown by: http://www.mhost.com/cgi-bin/cvsweb/nmh/ChangeLog?r1=1.40&r2=1.71