make/README.git

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Copyright (C) 2002-2013 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
This file is part of GNU Make.

GNU Make is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the
terms of the GNU General Public License as published by the Free Software
Foundation; either version 3 of the License, or (at your option) any later
version.

GNU Make is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but WITHOUT ANY
WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR
A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.  See the GNU General Public License for more details.

You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License along with
this program.  If not, see <http://www.gnu.org/licenses/>.
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Obtaining Git Code
------------------

This seems redundant, since if you're reading this you most likely have
already performed this step; however, for completeness, you can obtain the GNU
make source code via Git from the FSF's Savannah project
<http://savannah.gnu.org/projects/make/>:

  $ git clone git://git.savannah.gnu.org/make.git


Changes using Git
-----------------

For non-developers, you can continue to provide patches as before, or if you
make a public repository I can pull from that if you prefer.

Starting with GNU make 4.0 we no longer keep a separate ChangeLog file in
source control.  We use the Gnulib git-to-changelog conversion script to
convert the Git comments into ChangeLog-style entries for release.  As a
result, please format your Git comments carefully so they will look clean
after conversion.  In particular, each line of your comment will have a TAB
added before it so be sure your comment lines are not longer than 72
characters; prefer 70 or less.

Rule #1: Don't rewrite pushed history (don't use "git push --force").

Typical simple workflow might be:

  * Edit files
  * Use "git status" and "git diff" to verify your changes
  * Use "git add" to stage the changes you want to make
  * Use "git commit" to commit the staged changes to your local repository
  * Use "git pull" to accept & merge new changes from the Savannah repository
  * Use "git push" to push your commits back to the Savannah repository

For Emacs users, there are many options for Git integration but I strongly
recommend the Magit package: http://www.emacswiki.org/emacs/Magit
It makes the workflow much clearer, and has advanced features such as
constructing multiple commits from various files and even from different
diff chunks in the same file.  There is a video available which helps a lot.


Coding Standards
----------------

GNU make code adheres to the GNU Coding Standards.  Additionally, GNU make is
a foundational bootstrap package for the GNU project; as such it is very
conservative about language features it expects.  It should build with any C
compiler conforming to the ANSI C89 / ISO C90 standard.

Please use only spaces and no TAB characters in source code.


Building From Git
-----------------

To build GNU make from Git, you will need Autoconf, Automake, and
Gettext, and any tools that those utilities require (GNU m4, Perl,
etc.).  See the configure.ac file to find the minimum versions of each
of these tools.  You will also need a copy of wget and gnulib.

When building from Git you must build in the source directory: "VPATH
builds" from remote directories are not supported.  Once you've created
a distribution, of course, you can unpack it and do a VPATH build from
there.

After checking out the code, you will need to perform these steps to get
to the point where you can run "make".


 1) $ autoreconf -i

    This rebuilds all the things that need rebuilding, installing
    missing files as symbolic links.

    You may get warnings here about missing files like README, etc.
    Ignore them, they are harmless.


 2) $ ./configure

    Generate a Makefile


 3) $ make update

    Use wget to retrieve various other files that GNU make relies on,
    but does not keep in its own source tree.

    NB: You may need GNU make to correctly perform this step; if you use
    a platform-local make you may get problems with missing files in doc/.


At this point you have successfully brought your Git copy of the GNU
make source directory up to the point where it can be treated
more-or-less like the official package you would get from ftp.gnu.org.
That is, you can just run:

  $ make && make check && make install

to build and install GNU make.


Windows builds from Git
-----------------------

If you have a UNIX emulation like CYGWIN you can opt to run the general
build procedure above; it will work.  Be sure to read
README.W32.template for information on options you might want to use
when running ./configure.

If you can't or don't want to do that, then rename the file
README.W32.template to README.W32 and follow those instructions.


Creating a Package
------------------

Once you have performed the above steps (including the configuration and
build) you can create a GNU make package.  This is very simple, just
run:

  $ make dist-gzip

and, if you like:

  $ make dist-bzip2

Even better, you should run this:

  $ make distcheck

Which will build both .gz and .bz2 package files, then unpack them into
a temporary location, try to build them, and repack them, verifying that
everything works, you get the same results, _and_ no extraneous files
are left over after the "distclean" rule--whew!!  Now, _that_ is why
converting to Automake is worth the trouble!  A big "huzzah!" to Tom
T. and the AutoToolers!


Steps to Release
----------------

Here are the things that need to be done (in more or less this order)
before making an official release.  If something breaks such that you need to
change code, be sure to start over again sufficiently that everything is
consistent (that's why we don't finalize the Git tag, etc. until the end).

  * Update the configure.ac file with the new release number.
  * Update the EDITION value in the doc/make.texi file.
  * Update the NEWS file with the release number and date.
  * Ensure the Savannah bug list URL in the NEWS file uses the correct
    "Fixed Release" ID number.
  * Run "make distcheck" to be sure it all works.
  * Run "make update-www" to get a copy of the GNU make web pages
  * Update the web page boilerplate if necessary
  * Run "make gendocs" (requires gnulib) to generate the manual files for
    the GNU make web pages.
  * Follow the directions from gendocs for the web page repository
  * run "make tag-release" to create a Git tag for the release
  * Push everything:
    git push --tags origin master

Manage the Savannah project for GNU make:

  * In Savannah modify the "Value", "Rank", and "Description" values for the
    current "SCM" entry in both "Component Version" and "Fix Release" fields
    to refer to the new release, for "Bugs" and "Patches".
  * In Savannah create a new entry for the "Component Version" and "Fix
    Release" fields:
      - Value: SCM
      - Rank:  20
      - Descr: Fixed in Git; will be available in the next version of Make.
  * Create the new release in the Savannah "Bugs" Administration for
    both the "Component Version" and "Fixed Release" fields.

Start the next release:

  * Update configure.ac and add a ".90" to the release number.
  * Update the NEWS file with a new section for the release / date.
  * Update the Savannah URL for the bugs fixed in the NEWS section.


Publishing a Package
--------------------

In order to publish a package on the FSF FTP site, either the release
site ftp://ftp.gnu.org, or the prerelease site ftp://alpha.gnu.org, you
first need to have my GPG private key and my passphrase to unlock it.
And, you can't have them!  So there!  But, just so I remember here's
what to do:

  Make sure the "Steps to Release" are complete and committed and tagged.

  git clone git://git.savannah.gnu.org/make.git make-release

  cd make-release

  <run the commands above to build the release>

  make upload-alpha             # for alpha.gnu.org (pre-releases)
       -OR-
  make upload-ftp               # for ftp.gnu.org (official releases)

Depending on your distribution (whether GnuPG is integrated with your keyring
etc.) it will either pop up a window asking for your GPG key passphrase one
time, or else it will use the CLI to ask for the GPG passphrase _THREE_ times.
Sigh.


For both final releases and pre-releases, send an email with the URL of
the package to the GNU translation robot to allow the translators to
work on it:

     <coordinator@translationproject.org>


Where to Announce
-----------------

Create the announcement in a text file, then sign it with GPG.

  gpg --clearsign <announcement.txt>

Upload to gnu.org, then login and send from my account there.

To: bug-make@gnu.org, help-make@gnu.org, make-w32@gnu.org
CC: info-gnu@gnu.org
BCC: make-alpha@gnu.org

Add a news item to the Savannah project site.

Add an update to freshmeat.net.


Appendix A - For The Brave
--------------------------

For those of you who trust me implicitly, or are just brave (or
foolhardy), here is a canned sequence of commands to build a GNU make
distribution package from a virgin Git source checkout (assuming all the
prerequisites are available of course).

This list is eminently suitable for a quick swipe o' the mouse and a
swift click o' mouse-2 into an xterm.  Go for it!

autoreconf -i
./configure
make update
make
make check

Or, for a debugging version:

autoreconf -i && ./configure CFLAGS=-g && make update && make && make check

Or, all-in-one:

autoreconf -i && ./configure && make update && make && make check