1 So, you have a utility that you believe would
2 be a good addition to cygutils, do you? You
3 probably want to know how you could contribute it,
4 don't you? Well, first:
6 Not every spiffy utility belongs in cygutils. We
7 don't want cygutils to become a huge grab bag of
8 hundreds of small programs...in many cases, your
9 spiffy new program should become a standalone package
10 and a full-fledged member of the cygwin distribution.
11 (Don't worry -- that's not hard. It's probably
12 easier than integrating your spiffy program into
15 So, your first step is to post a message to the
16 cygwin-apps mailing list, present your program, and
17 ASK if it should be included in cygutils, or turned
18 into a standalong package. If you believe it should
19 become part of cygutils, explain why. I will not
20 add any program to cygutils without a consensus
21 from the cygwin-apps list.
23 In the body of your email, describe what your program
24 does, why it's needed, and why you think it should be
25 added to the cygutils package. Also explain why (or
26 state that) existing tools will not meet the need your
29 Second, once you're obtained agreement that yourfile.c
30 should be added to cygutils:
32 Don't just send me yourfile.c and expect me to
33 do all the integration work.
35 You need to do more than merely insure that it builds
36 on your machine with a simple
38 gcc -o yourfile.exe yourfile.c -lthislibrary -lthatlibrary
40 In addition to that, you need to check out the cygutils
41 source and integrate yourfile into the whole system. Instructions
42 follow below. However, you'll notice that it's quite a bit
43 of work. Again, are you SURE you want it to become part
44 of cygutils? Making a standalong program is a lot easier...
46 Also, note that I will not fix your bugs. If, at some time
47 after your program is accepted into cygutils, I (as cygutils
48 maintainer) get a bug report on your program, I will forward
49 it to you. If you don't fix it or respond within a reasonable
50 time, I will remove it from the distribution.
52 ------------------------------------------------------
54 Okay, now that we're past that unpleasantness, here's how to
55 integrate your spiffy new utility. First, let's assume that
56 your spiffy utility is called 'foo', and its source is in 'foo.c'.
58 The simple 12 step program:
59 ---------------------------
61 1) Get the cygutils source
63 cvs -d:pserver:anoncvs@sources.redhat.com:/cvs/cygwin-apps login
64 use 'anoncvs' as the password
65 cvs -z3 -d:pserver:anoncvs@sources.redhat.com:/cvs/cygwin-apps co cygutils
67 you now have a 'cygutils' directory with the existing source.
69 2) License information
71 make sure that all .c and .h files in your contribution
72 have license information: preferably GPL, but other
73 open licenses are acceptable, too. See the top of
74 src/lpr/lpr.c for an example.
76 a) if your license is not GPL or BSD-no-advert, then
77 you must also include a copy of the ENTIRE license
78 in the licenses subdirectory. (Most of the time,
79 the blurb in the .c or .h file is just that: a short
80 blurb, with a reference to the full text elsewhere)
84 create a new directory for your contribution underneath 'src'
85 In our case, we will do this:
89 copy your source into the new directory
90 cp <location>/foo.c <cygutils>/src/foo/
92 4) Modify your source code
94 Add the following snippet to the beginning of your .c and .h(*)
95 files, just after the license information:
102 a) If your contribution has its own .h file(s), the entire .h file
103 should be "guarded" as follows:
105 /* license information */
108 /* the config.h/common.h stuff */
109 /* your header stuff */
112 the "_FOO_H" identifier should be changed to match the filename
113 of your header file. Thus, "bob.h" would be guarded with _BOB_H.
115 Naturally, the header files should also be copied into src/foo/.
117 5) Modify cygutils/Makefile.am
119 a) Add your program to the list of progs to be built. If your
120 program will build on non-windows platforms in addition to cygwin,
121 then you can add your program to the "bin_PROGRAMS" variable:
123 bin_PROGRAMS = ... src/foo/foo ...
125 If your contribution is windows-specific, then you should add it
126 to BOTH the "windows_progs" and the EXTRA_PROGRAMS variables:
128 windows_progs = ... src/foo/foo ...
129 EXTRA_PROGRAMS = ... src/foo/foo ...
131 b) Special link libraries
133 If you need to link to special *WINDOWS* libraries, then obviously
134 your program is windows-specific, but also you should add a line
135 in your Makefile.am like this:
137 src_foo_foo_LDADD = -lwinlib
139 Where "src_foo_foo" is the path to your program, where the '/'
140 characters are replaced with '_' characters. Yes, it looks a little
141 funny -- but because our subdirectory has the same name as our
142 program, we get double foo's... Also, 'winlib' is the library
143 that you need. See the src_lpr_lpr_LDADD variable in Makefile.am
146 If, on the other hand, you need to link to some other (cygwin)
147 library that is also more generally available -- like libreadline
148 or libncurses -- then you'll need to do a little more work.
149 For your initial submission, just create an LDADD variable in
150 Makefile.am with -lreadline (or whatever). We'll figure out how
151 to handle it better further down the road. However, make sure
152 to let me know about your special link requirements.
154 src_foo_foo_LDADD = -lreadline
156 Note that you do NOT need to include the following libraries in
157 a 'src_foo_foo_LDADD' line; these will be added automatically...
159 -lintl -lcygipc -lpopt (that is, gettext, cygipc, or popt)
161 c) man pages and other documentation
163 If you got 'em, copy 'em to your src/foo directory, and add the
164 manpage to the man_MANS variable in Makefile.am like this:
166 man_MANS = ... src/foo/foo.1 ...
168 If there are non-man-page documentation files, you should those
169 files to the EXTRA_DIST variable:
171 EXTRA_DIST = ... src/foo/foo.README ...
173 However, there is no provisiion for actually INSTALLING these
174 additional documentation files. At least not yet.
178 If your contribution consists of more source files than a single
179 .c, then you need to add a variable to Makefile.am that lists all
182 src_foo_foo_SOURCES = foo.c otherfoo.c foo.h
184 Note that this variable should NOT be specified if your program
185 consists merely of a single .c file whose name is the same as
188 If there are .h files in your SOURCES list, then you need to
189 add those .h files to the noinst_HEADERS variable, or the headers
190 would get installed into /usr/include/src/foo/ -- and we don't
193 noinst_HEADERS = ... src/foo/foo.h ...
195 If you have other questions about the Makefile.am file, try to
196 follow the "patterns" established in it by the other programs,
197 or (gasp) read the automake documentation.
199 6) Simplify your #includes.
201 Take a good look at the #include statements in your .c and .h
202 files. If the dependencies are listed in <cygutils>/common.h,
203 then you shouldn't re-include them. If a dependency is NOT
204 listed in common.h, then leave it in your .h/.c file -- for
205 now. We may choose to add them to common.h and add new tests
206 to configure.ac, or we may choose to let your .c file
207 include it directly. However, anything that's already in
208 common.h, remove from your .c/.h file. It's okay to just
209 comment them out, rather than deleting them entirely, if
212 7) Add information to cygutils documentation files:
214 Add a short blurb about your app to <cygutils>/PROGLIST
215 Add your app to the list at the end of the README file
216 Add your name to the AUTHORS file.
220 (You need to have autoconf, autoconf-devel, automake, and
221 automake-devel installed for this to work). Change dir
222 to the top of your checked-out source, and run bootstrap:
227 If you haven't made any mistakes, you should (a) see no
228 errors, and (b) see some new rules in Makefile.in that
229 correspond to your program.
233 Now, just run './configure ; make' as usual. Somewhere
234 amongst the flurry of messages, you should see your application
235 being built. If so, you're almost done. If not, then you
236 need to figure out why. Time to read the auto* documentation...
238 10) Create a patch and ChangeLog entry
243 cvs diff -u > foo.patch
245 If you've already edited the ChangeLog file, make sure to
246 *remove* that chunk from foo.patch. I don't want a PATCH
247 for the ChangeLog, I want the ChangeLog entry itself (ChangeLog
248 patches rarely apply cleanly; it's easier to cut-n-paste. More
253 However, you'll notice that none of the files in your src/foo
254 directory are represented in the patch. That's normal. Remove
255 any .o and .exe files from src/foo, and then just make a tarball
258 tar cvjf foo.tar.bz2 src/foo
262 You should also create a ChangeLog entry. Don't actually edit
263 the ChangeLog itself; create a new file (foo.changelog?) and
264 put your stuff there. It should look like this:
266 2002-03-02 Your Name <your_email_address@domain.com>
268 * src/foo: new directory
269 * src/foo/foo.c: new file
270 * Makefile.am: add program 'foo'
271 * Makefile.in: regenerate
272 * AUTHORS: add yourname for foo
276 Don't list src/foo/Makefile. Do list every original
277 file in src/foo/ (like your man pages, or extra documentation
280 11) Send a notice email to cygwin-apps@cygwin.com, that says "Hey, I
281 finished the integration work neceesary to include 'foo' in the
282 'cygutils' package, as previously agreed on this list." Paste
283 the ChangeLog into that notice. But do NOT send the patch or
284 tarball to the mailing list.
286 Instead, send that to ME, cwilson@ece.gatech.edu. The patch
287 and tarball should be attachments, but paste the ChangeLog entry
288 into the body of the message. Do NOT paste your patch into the
289 body of the email; most mail programs will horrendously distort
290 it if you do). Also, be sure and warn of any special link
291 requirements (cf. section 5a and 5b above).
293 12) Bask in the glow of a job well done.
299 Note to self: how to commit contributions:
301 untar the contribution
302 Add the Changelog entry
304 cvs add src/directory
305 cvs add src/directory/srcfiles
306 cvs commit -m "Add foo contribution"
308 cvs diff | grep Index > foo
309 >>> use 'foo' to add another Changelog entry
310 cvs commit -m "Add foo contribution"