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: 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.  Toa
  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 this version; if you start from an older
  56         version, your patch may be outdated when you write it.
  57
  58         After you have downloaded the source, you should read the file
  59         INSTALL.CVS for further instructions.
  60
  61         Ref: http://savannah.gnu.org/projects/emacs
  62
  63
  64 o       Submitting Patches
  65
  66         Every patch must have several pieces of information before we
  67         can properly evaluate it.
  68
  69         For bug fixes, a description of the bug and how your patch fixes
  70         this bug.
  71
  72         For new features, a description of the feature and your
  73         implementation.
  74
  75         A ChangeLog entry as plaintext (separate from the patch); see
  76         the various ChangeLog files for format and content. Note that,
  77         unlike some other projects, we do require ChangeLogs also for
  78         documentation i.e. texinfo files.
  79
  80         Ref: Change Log Concepts node of the Standards Info Manual
  81
  82         The patch itself.  If you are accessing the CVS repository use
  83         "cvs update; cvs diff -cp"; else, use "diff -cp OLD NEW".  If
  84         your version of diff does not support these options, then get
  85         the latest version of GNU diff.
  86
  87         We accept patches as plain text (preferred for the compilers
  88         themselves), MIME attachments (preferred for the web pages), or
  89         as uuencoded gzipped text.
  90
  91         When you have all these pieces, bundle them up in a mail message
  92         and send it to emacs-pretest-bug@gnu.org or emacs-devel@gnu.org.
  93         All subsequent discussion should also be sent to the mailing
  94         list.
  95
  96
  97 o       Please reread your patch before submitting it.
  98
  99
 100 o       If you send several unrelated changes together, we will
 101         ask you to separate them so we can consider each of the changes
 102         by itself.
 103
 104
 105 o       Supplemental information for Emacs Developers:
 106
 107         Once you become a frequent contributor to Emacs, we can
 108         consider giving you write access to the CVS repository.
 109
 110         Discussion about Emacs development takes place on
 111         emacs-devel@gnu.org.
 112
 113         Think carefully about whether your change requires updating the
 114         documentation.  If it does, you can either do this yourself or
 115         add an item to the NEWS file.
 116
 117         The best way to understand Emacs Internals is to read the code
 118         but the  nodes "Tips" and "GNU Emacs Internals" in the Appendix
 119         of the Emacs Lisp Reference Manual may also help.
 120
 121         The file DEBUG describes how to debug Emacs bugs.
 122
 123         Avoid using `defadvice' or `eval-after-load' for Lisp
 124         code to be included in Emacs.