code.delx.au - gnu-emacs/blob - CONTRIBUTE

   1
   2                         Contributing to Emacs
   3
   4 Emacs is a collaborative project and we encourage contributions from
   5 anyone and everyone.  If you want to contribute in the way that will
   6 help us most, we recommend (1) fixing reported bugs and (2)
   7 implementing the feature ideas in etc/TODO.  However, if you think of
   8 new features to add, please suggest them too -- we might like your
   9 idea.  Porting to new platforms is also useful, when there is a new
  10 platform, but that is not common nowadays.
  11
  12 For documentation on how to develop Emacs changes, refer to the Emacs
  13 Manual and the Emacs Lisp Reference Manual (both included in the Emacs
  14 distribution).  The web pages in http://www.gnu.org/software/emacs
  15 contain additional information.
  16
  17 You may also want to submit your change so that can be considered for
  18 inclusion in a future version of Emacs (see below).
  19
  20 If you don't feel up to hacking Emacs, there are many other ways to
  21 help.  You can answer questions on the mailing lists, write
  22 documentation, find and report bugs, contribute to the Emacs web
  23 pages, or develop a package that works with Emacs.
  24
  25 Here are some style and legal conventions for contributors to Emacs:
  26
  27
  28 o       Coding Standards
  29
  30         Contributed code should follow the GNU Coding Standard.
  31         If it doesn't, we'll need to find someone to fix the code
  32         before we can use it.
  33
  34         Emacs has certain additional style and coding conventions.
  35
  36         Ref: http://www.gnu.org/prep/standards_toc.html
  37         Ref: GNU Coding Standards Info Manual
  38
  39
  40 o       Copyright Assignment
  41
  42         We can accept small changes without legal papers, and for
  43         medium-size changes a copyright disclaimer is ok too.  To
  44         accept substantial contributions from you, we need a copyright
  45         assignment form filled out and filed with the FSF.
  46
  47         Contact us at emacs-devel@gnu.org to obtain the relevant
  48         forms.
  49
  50
  51 o       Getting the Source Code
  52
  53         The latest version of Emacs can be downloaded using CVS or
  54         Arch from the Savannah web site.  It is important to write
  55         your patch based on this version; if you start from an older
  56         version, your patch may be outdated when you write it, and
  57         maintainers will have hard time applying it.
  58
  59         After you have downloaded the CVS source, you should read the
  60         file INSTALL.CVS for build instructions (they differ to some
  61         extent from a normal build).
  62
  63         Ref: http://savannah.gnu.org/projects/emacs
  64
  65
  66 o       Submitting Patches
  67
  68         Every patch must have several pieces of information before we
  69         can properly evaluate it.
  70
  71         * For bug fixes, a description of the bug and how your patch
  72           fixes this bug.
  73
  74         * For new features, a description of the feature and your
  75           implementation.
  76
  77         * A ChangeLog entry as plaintext (separate from the patch);
  78           see the various ChangeLog files for format and content. Note
  79           that, unlike some other projects, we do require ChangeLogs
  80           also for documentation, i.e. Texinfo files.
  81
  82           Ref: "Change Log Concepts" node of the GNU Coding Standards
  83           Info Manual, for how to write good log entries.
  84
  85         * The patch itself.  If you are accessing the CVS repository
  86           use "cvs update; cvs diff -cp"; else, use "diff -cp OLD NEW".
  87           If your version of diff does not support these options, then
  88           get the latest version of GNU Diff.
  89
  90         * We accept the patches as plain text (preferred for the
  91           compilers themselves), MIME attachments (preferred for the
  92           web pages), or as uuencoded gzipped text.
  93
  94         When you have all these pieces, bundle them up in a mail message
  95         and send it to emacs-pretest-bug@gnu.org or emacs-devel@gnu.org.
  96         All subsequent discussion should also be sent to the mailing
  97         list.
  98
  99
 100 o       Please reread your patch before submitting it.
 101
 102
 103 o       If you send several unrelated changes together, we will
 104         ask you to separate them so we can consider each of the changes
 105         by itself.
 106
 107
 108 o       Supplemental information for Emacs Developers:
 109
 110         Once you become a frequent contributor to Emacs, we can
 111         consider giving you write access to the CVS repository.
 112
 113         Discussion about Emacs development takes place on
 114         emacs-devel@gnu.org.
 115
 116         Think carefully about whether your change requires updating the
 117         documentation.  If it does, you can either do this yourself or
 118         add an item to the NEWS file.
 119
 120         If you document your change in NEWS, please mark the NEWS
 121         entry with the documentation status of the change: if you
 122         submit the changes for the manuals, mark it with "+++"; if it
 123         doesn't need to be documented, mark it with "---"; if it needs
 124         to be documented, but you didn't submit documentation changes,
 125         leave the NEWS entry unmarked.  (These marks are checked by
 126         the Emacs maintainers to make sure every change was reflected
 127         in the manuals.)
 128
 129         The best way to understand Emacs Internals is to read the code,
 130         but the nodes "Tips" and "GNU Emacs Internals" in the Appendix
 131         of the Emacs Lisp Reference Manual may also help.
 132
 133         The file etc/DEBUG describes how to debug Emacs bugs.
 134
 135         Avoid using `defadvice' or `eval-after-load' for Lisp
 136         code to be included in Emacs.