HOW-TO-CONTRIBUTE

   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:
   5
   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
  13   cygutils).
  14
  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.
  22
  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
  27   program does.
  28
  29 Second, once you're obtained agreement that yourfile.c
  30 should be added to cygutils:
  31
  32   Don't just send me yourfile.c and expect me to
  33   do all the integration work.
  34
  35 You need to do more than merely insure that it builds
  36 on your machine with a simple
  37
  38   gcc -o yourfile.exe yourfile.c -lthislibrary -lthatlibrary
  39
  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 standalone program is a lot easier...
  45
  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.
  51
  52 ------------------------------------------------------
  53
  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'.
  57
  58 The simple 12 step program:
  59 ---------------------------
  60
  61 1) Get the cygutils source
  62
  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
  66
  67    you now have a 'cygutils' directory with the existing source.
  68
  69 2) License information
  70
  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.
  75
  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)
  81
  82 3) Make a home
  83
  84    create a new directory for your contribution underneath 'src'
  85    In our case, we will do this:
  86      cd cygutils/src
  87      mkdir foo
  88
  89    copy your source into the new directory
  90      cp <location>/foo.c <cygutils>/src/foo/
  91
  92 4) Modify your source code
  93
  94    Add the following snippet to the beginning of your .c and .h(*)
  95    files, just after the license information:
  96
  97      #if HAVE_CONFIG_H
  98      #include "config.h"
  99      #endif
 100      #include "common.h"
 101
 102    a) If your contribution has its own .h file(s), the entire .h file
 103       should be "guarded" as follows:
 104
 105         /* license information */
 106         #ifndef _FOO_H
 107         #define _FOO_H
 108         /* the config.h/common.h stuff */
 109         /* your header stuff */
 110         #endif /* !_FOO_H */
 111
 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.
 114
 115       Naturally, the header files should also be copied into src/foo/.
 116
 117 5) Modify cygutils/Makefile.am
 118
 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:
 122
 123      bin_PROGRAMS = ... src/foo/foo ...
 124
 125      If your contribution is windows-specific, then you should add it
 126      to BOTH the "windows_progs" and the EXTRA_PROGRAMS variables:
 127
 128      windows_progs = ... src/foo/foo ...
 129      EXTRA_PROGRAMS = ... src/foo/foo ...
 130
 131   b) Special link libraries
 132
 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:
 136
 137      src_foo_foo_LDADD = -lwinlib
 138
 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
 144      for an example.
 145
 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.
 153
 154      src_foo_foo_LDADD = -lreadline
 155
 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...
 158
 159      -lintl -lcygipc -lpopt  (that is, gettext, cygipc, or popt)
 160
 161   c) man pages and other documentation
 162
 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:
 165
 166      man_MANS = ... src/foo/foo.1 ...
 167
 168      If there are non-man-page documentation files, you should those
 169      files to the EXTRA_DIST variable:
 170
 171      EXTRA_DIST = ... src/foo/foo.README ...
 172
 173      However, there is no provisiion for actually INSTALLING these
 174      additional documentation files.  At least not yet.
 175
 176   d) Extra files
 177
 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
 180      of them:
 181
 182      src_foo_foo_SOURCES = foo.c otherfoo.c foo.h
 183
 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
 186      your program + '.c'.
 187
 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
 191      want that!
 192
 193      noinst_HEADERS = ... src/foo/foo.h ...
 194
 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.
 198
 199 6) Simplify your #includes.
 200
 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
 210    you prefer.
 211
 212 7) Add information to cygutils documentation files:
 213
 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.
 217
 218 8) Bootstrap
 219
 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:
 223
 224    cd <cygutils>
 225    ./bootstrap
 226
 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.
 230
 231 9) Build and test
 232
 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...
 237
 238 10) Create a patch and ChangeLog entry
 239
 240    a) PATCH
 241
 242       cd <cygutils>
 243       cvs diff -u > foo.patch
 244
 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
 249       below).
 250
 251    b) NEW FILES
 252
 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
 256
 257       cd <cygutils>
 258       tar cvjf foo.tar.bz2 src/foo
 259
 260    c) CHANGELOG
 261
 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:
 265
 266       2002-03-02  Your Name  <your_email_address@domain.com>
 267
 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
 273          * PROGLIST: add foo
 274          * README: add foo
 275
 276       Don't list src/foo/Makefile.  Do list every original
 277       file in src/foo/ (like your man pages, or extra documentation
 278       files, or headers)
 279
 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.
 285
 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).
 292
 293 12) Bask in the glow of a job well done.
 294
 295 --
 296 Chuck Wilson
 297 cygutils maintainer
 298
 299 Note to self: how to commit contributions:
 300   apply the patch
 301   untar the contribution
 302   Add the Changelog entry
 303   ./bootstrap
 304   cvs add src/directory
 305   cvs add src/directory/srcfiles
 306   cvs commit -m "Add foo contribution"
 307   ./bootstrap
 308   cvs diff | grep Index > foo
 309   >>> use 'foo' to add another Changelog entry
 310   cvs commit -m "Add foo contribution"
 311   cvs tag something
 312