#
# README.developers
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# $Id$
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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 <ftp://ftp.gnu.org/pub/gnu/m4/> and then
GNU autoconf (<ftp://ftp.gnu.org/pub/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 order to commit the configure-related files is:

% cvs commit acconfig.h aclocal.m4 config.h.in configure.in configure stamp-h.in

If you haven't changed all of those files, just commit the rest in the
stated order (e.g. cvs commit acconfig.h config.h.in 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 <command>.c containing the code for that command
    (e.g. repl.c).  In some cases there is also an auxiliary file called
    <command>sbr.c which contains additional subroutines called from <command>.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.


-------------
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. Preferably make an MD5 hash and/or a PGP signature of nmh-1.0.4.tar.gz.

7. Preferably test out the tarball, making sure you can uncompress and untar it,
   and configure, make, install, and use nmh from it.

8. % scp -p nmh-1.0.4.tar.gz* danh@mhost.com:/home/ftp/pub/nmh

9. 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