#
# 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
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/>).
+GNU autoconf (<ftp://ftp.gnu.org/pub/gnu/autoconf/>). Nmh is currently using
+a minimum of autoconf 2.61.
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
+you should need to manually edit are acconfig.h and configure.ac. 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 <dan-nmh@dilvish.speed.net> // CVS
-updates the strings to have the new version number, the modification time
-of the file gets updated by the OS. -- Kimmo Suominen <kim@tac.nyc.ny.us>]
-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 <kim@tac.nyc.ny.us>]
-
-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).
+Note that the automatically generated autoconf files (such as config.h.in,
+stamp-h.in, and configure), are NOT kept in git. Thus, when you check out
+a git tree, you need to run the autogen.sh script before you can build
+anything:
+ % ./autogen.sh
-------------------
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.
+thinking.
./
The top-level directory. Contains files like README and INSTALL.
Contains utility files for the `configure' process. Ordinarily nothing in
here needs to be messed with.
+docs/
+ Contains more specialized documentation, such as this file and
+ the FAQ.
+
etc/
Contains files, file templates, and scripts to generate files that will be
installed in the ${prefix}/etc directory. Stuff like replcomps.
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.
+ nmh.
uip/
"uip" stands for "User Interface Programs". Most nmh commands have a file
<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.
+---
+git
+---
+
+As of December 2010, nmh has switched to using git for revision control
+instead of CVS. While the topic of git is beyond the scope of this FAQ,
+to get started with git & nmh, you can run the following command to checkout
+the nmh repository:
-zotnet/mf/
- "mf" stands for "Mail Filter". The filtering in this case apparently refers
- to translation between different address and mailbox formats.
+ % git clone git://git.savannah.nongnu.org/nmh.git
-zotnet/mts/
- MTS code not specific to any single MTS apparently goes here.
+That will create a workspace called nmh. To update that workspace
+with changes to the master, cd to it and run:
-zotnet/tws/
- No idea what "tws" stands for, other than 't' almost certainly standing for
- "time". Date and time manipulation routines go here.
+ % git pull
-------------------------------------------------------
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:
+functions:
OS function nmh-local version to use instead
=========== ================================
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):
+To make a public release of nmh (we'll use version 1.0.4 as examples
+here; the convention for release candidates is to use something like
+"1.0.4-RC1"):
1. % echo 1.0.4 > VERSION
+ % date +"%e %B %Y" > DATE
+ (DATE should contain something like "30 December 2000")
- 2. Put a comment like "Released nmh-1.0.4." in the ChangeLog.
+ 2. % git commit VERSION DATE; git push
- 3. % cvs commit ChangeLog VERSION
+ 3. % git tag -a nmh-1_0_4 -m 'Releasing nmh-1_0_4.'
- 4. % cvs tag nmh-1_0_4
- (cvs treats dots specially, so underscores are substituted here.)
+ 4. % make nmhdist
- 5. % make nmhdist
+ 5. Untar nmh-1.0.4.tar.gz and `diff -r' it vs. your workspace. 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).
- 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:
+ 6. 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
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
+ 7. 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:
+ 8. If all is well and your tarball is final, go back to your workspace 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.
+ 9. % git commit VERSION; git push
+
+10. If possible, make an MD5 hash and/or a PGP signature of nmh-1.0.4.tar.gz.
+ Assuming you have gpg set up, this should be:
+ % gpg --output nmh-1.0.4.tar.gz.sig --detach-sig nmh-1.0.4.tar.gz
+
+ You can verify the signature with
+ % gpg --verify nmh-1.0.4.tar.gz.sig nmh-1.0.4.tar.gz
-11. % cvs commit ChangeLog VERSION
+11. Upload the files to savannah. First make sure they are mode 664 so
+ they will have the right permissions on the server end
+ (see https://savannah.gnu.org/maintenance/SharedDownloadArea)
+ % chmod 664 nmh-1.0.4.tar.gz*
-12. If possible, make an MD5 hash and/or a PGP signature of nmh-1.0.4.tar.gz.
+ Then scp them across:
+ % scp -p nmh-1.0.4.tar.gz* youruser@dl.sv.nongnu.org:/releases/nmh/
-13. % scp -p nmh-1.0.4.tar.gz* danh@mhost.com:/var/ftp/pub/nmh
+12. Update the http://www.nongnu.org/nmh/ homepage. (It lives in the CVS
+ 'webpages repository'; see https://savannah.nongnu.org/cvs/?group=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.
+13. Add a news item to the savannah nmh page. You'll have to submit it first
+ and then separately approve it (under News->Manage).
+
+14. Send the release announcement email to the following places:
+ nmh-workers@nongnu.org
+ nmh-announce@nongnu.org
+ exmh-users@redhat.com
+ exmh-workers@redhat.com
+ mh-e-users@lists.sourceforge.net
+ mh-users@ics.uci.edu *or* comp.mail.mh (there is a bidirectional gateway)
+
+ 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
+ and should be PGP-signed. It should include the 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:
+ visible changes, as well as the URL of the git diff page that would show
+ a detailed list of changes. The changes between 1.5 and 1.4 would be
+ shown by [this is just a guess, I don't know anything about cgit, and
+ it assumes that we tag with nmh-x_x-release from now on]:
+
+ http://git.savannah.gnu.org/cgit/nmh.git/diff/?h=nmh-1_5-release?h=nmh-1_4-release
- http://www.mhost.com/cgi-bin/cvsweb/nmh/ChangeLog?r1=1.40&r2=1.71
projects / mmh / blobdiff