START-INFO-DIR-ENTRY * Maintaining: (maintain). Maintaining GNU software. END-INFO-DIR-ENTRY Information for maintainers of GNU software. Copyright (C) 1992, 1993, 1994, 1995, 1996, 1997, 1998, 1999, 2000 Free Software Foundation, Inc. Permission is granted to make and distribute verbatim copies of this document, provided the copyright notice and this permission notice are preserved on all copies. Version ******* Last updated December 19, 2000. About This Document ******************* This file contains guidelines and advice for someone who is the maintainer of a GNU program on behalf of the GNU Project. Everyone is entitled to change and redistribute GNU software; you need not pay attention to this file to get permission. But if you want to maintain a version for widespread distribution, we suggest you follow these guidelines; if you would like to be a GNU maintainer, then it is essential to follow these guidelines. Please send corrections or suggestions for this document to . If you make a suggestion, please include a suggested new wording for it, to help us consider the suggestion efficiently. We prefer a context diff to the `maintain.texi' file, but if you don't have that file, you can make a context diff for some other version of this document, or propose it in any way that makes it clear. This document uses the gender-neutral third-person pronouns "person", "per", "pers" and "perself" which were promoted, and perhaps invented, by Marge Piercy in `Woman on the Edge of Time'. They are used just like "she", "her", "hers" and "herself", except that they apply equally to males and females. For example, "Person placed per new program under the GNU GPL, to let the public benefit from per work, and to enable per to feel person has done the right thing." The directory `/gd/gnuorg' is found on the GNU machines; if you are the maintainer of a GNU package, you should have an account on them. Contact if you don't have one. (You can also ask for accounts for people who help you a large amount in working on the package.) `/gd/gnu/maintain.tar.gz' is a tar file containing all of these files in that directory which are mentioned in this file; it is updated daily. This release of the GNU Maintenance Instructions was last updated December 19, 2000. Stepping Down ************* With good forture, you will continue maintaining your package for many decades. But sometimes for various reasons maintainers decide to step down. If you're the official maintainer of a GNU package and you decide to step down, please inform the GNU Project (). We need to know that the package no longer has a maintainer, so we can look for and appoint a new maintainer. If you have an idea for who should take over, please tell your suggestion. The appointment of a new maintainer needs the GNU Project's confirmation, but your judgement that a person is capable of doing the job will carry a lot of weight. Recruiting Helpers ****************** Unless your package is a fairly small, you probably won't do all the work on it yourself. Most maintainers recruit helpers, and often people offer to help. Some of the people who offer to help will be capable, while others will not. It's up to you to determine who provides useful help, and encourage those people to participate more. Some of the people who offer to help will support the GNU Project, while others may be interested for other reasons. Some will support the goals of the Free Software Movement, but some may not. They are all welcome to help with the work--we don't ask people's views or motivations before they contribute to GNU packages. As a consequence, you cannot expect all contributors to support the GNU Project, or to have a concern for its policies and standards. So part of your job as maintainer is to exercise your authority on these points when they arise. No matter how much of the work other people do, you and not they are in charge of what goes in the release. When a crucial point arises, you should calmly state your decision and stick to it. Sometimes a package has several co-maintainers who share the role of maintainer. Unlike helpers, co-maintainers have actually been appointed jointly as the maintainers of the package, and they carry out the maintainer's functions together. If you would like to propose some of your helpers as co-maintainers, please contact . Legal Matters ************* This chapter describes procedures you should follow for legal reasons as you maintain the program, to avoid legal difficulties. Recording Contributors ====================== *Keep correct records of which portions were written by whom.* This is very important. These records should say which files, or parts of files, were written by each person, and which files or portions were revised by each person. But they don't need to be as detailed as a change log. They don't need to distinguish work done at different times, only different people. They don't need describe changes in more detail than which files or parts of a file were changed. And they don't need to say anything about the function or purpose of a file or change-the Register of Copyrights doesn't care what the text does, just who wrote or contributed to which parts. You need not list someone who has contributed just a few lines (less than 15) of minor changes, but keep in mind that a series of minor changes can add up to a significant contribution that does need to be listed. The list should also mention if certain files distributed in the same package are really a separate program. For example, this would describe an early version of GAS: Dean Elsner first version of all files except gdb-lines.c and m68k.c. Jay Fenlason entire files gdb-lines.c and m68k.c, most of app.c, plus extensive changes in messages.c, input-file.c, write.c and revisions elsewhere. Note: GAS is distributed with the files obstack.c and obstack.h, but they are considered a separate package, not part of GAS proper. Please keep these records in a file named `AUTHORS' in the source directory for the program itself. Copyright Papers ================ If you maintain an FSF-copyrighted package, then you should follow certain legal procedures when incorporating changes written by other people. This ensures that the FSF has the legal right to distribute the package, and the right to defend its free status in court if necessary. *Before* incorporating significant changes, make sure that the person who wrote the changes has signed copyright papers and that the Free Software Foundation has received and signed them. We may also need a disclaimer from the person's employer. To check whether papers have been received, look in `/gd/gnuorg/copyright.list'. If you can't look there directly, can check for you. Our clerk can also check for papers that are waiting to be entered and inform you when expected papers arrive. The directory `/gd/gnuorg' is found on the GNU machines; if you are the maintainer of a GNU package, you should have an account on them. Contact if you don't have one. (You can also ask for accounts for people who help you a large amount in working on the package.) In order for the contributor to know person should sign papers, you need to ask for the necessary papers. If you don't know per well, and you don't know that person is used to our ways of handling copyright papers, then it might be a good idea to raise the subject with a message like this: Would you be willing to assign the copyright to the Free Software Foundation, so that we could install it in PROGRAM? or Would you be willing to sign a copyright disclaimer to put this change in the public domain, so that we can install it in PROGRAM? If the contributor wants more information, you can send per `/gd/gnuorg/conditions.text', which explains per options (assign vs. disclaim) and their consequences. Once the conversation is under way and the contributor is ready for more details, you should send one of the templates that are found in `/gd/gnuorg'. This section explains which templates you should use in which circumstances. *Please don't use any of the templates except for those listed here, and please don't change the wording.* Once the conversation is under way, you can send the contributor the precise wording and instructions by email. Before you do this, make sure to get the current version of the template you will use! We change these templates occasionally--don't keep using an old version. For large changes, ask the contributor for an assignment. Send per a copy of the file `/gd/gnuorg/request-assign.changes'. For medium to small changes, request a disclaimer by sending per the file `/gd/gnuorg/request-disclaim.changes'. If the contributor is likely to keep making changes, person might want to sign an assignment for all per future changes to the program. So it is useful to offer per that alternative. If person wants to do it that way, send per the `/gd/gnuorg/request-assign.future'. When you send a `request-' file, you don't need to fill in anything before sending it. Just send the file verbatim to the contributor. The file gives per instructions for how to ask the FSF to mail per the papers to sign. The `request-' file also raises the issue of getting a copyright disclaimer from the contributor's employer. For less common cases, we have template files you should send to the contributor. Be sure to fill in the name of the person and the name of the program in these templates, where it says NAME OF PERSON and NAME OF PROGRAM, before sending; otherwise person might sign without noticing them, and the papers would be useless. Note that in some templates there is more than one place to put the name of the program or the name of the person; be sure to change all of them. All the templates raise the issue of an employer's disclaimer as well. You do not need to ask for separate papers for a manual that is distributed only in the software package it describes. But if we sometimes distribute the manual separately (for instance, if we publish it as a book), then we need separate legal papers for changes in the manual. For smaller changes, use `/gd/gnuorg/disclaim.changes.manual'; for larger ones, use `/gd/gnuorg/assign.changes.manual'. To cover both past and future changes to a manual, you can use `/gd/gnuorg/assign.future.manual'. For a translation of a manual, use `/gd/gnuorg/assign.translate.manual'. If a contributor is reluctant to sign an assignment for a large change, and is willing to sign a disclaimer instead, that is acceptable, so you should offer this alternative if it helps you reach agreement. We prefer an assignment for a larger change, so that we can enforce the GNU GPL for the new text, but a disclaimer is enough to let us use the text. If you maintain a collection of programs, occasionally someone will contribute an entire separate program or manual that should be added to the collection. Then you can use the files `request-assign.program', `disclaim.program', `assign.manual', and `disclaim.manual'. We very much prefer an assignment for a new separate program or manual, unless it is quite small, but a disclaimer is acceptable if the contributor insists on handling the matter that way. *Although there are other templates besides the ones listed here, they are for special circumstances; please do not use them without getting advice from .* If you are not sure what to do, then please ask for advice; if the contributor asks you questions about the meaning and consequences of the legal papers, and you don't know the answers, you can forward them to and we will answer. *Please do not try changing the wording of a template yourself. If you think a change is needed, please talk with , and we will work with a lawyer to decide what to do.* Copyright Notices ================= You should maintain a legally valid copyright notice in each nontrivial file of the program, including makefiles, scripts, and other data files used in building or running the program. (Any file more than ten lines long is nontrivial for this purpose.) Documentation files also should have copyright notices. A copyright notice looks like this: Copyright YEAR1, YEAR2, YEAR3 COPYRIGHT-HOLDER The COPYRIGHT-HOLDER may be the Free Software Foundation, Inc., or someone else; you should know who is the copyright holder for your package. The list of year numbers should include each year in which you finished preparing a version which was actually released, and which was an ancestor of the current version. Please reread the paragraph above, slowly and carefully. It is important to understand that rule precisely, much as you would understand a complicated C statement in order to hand-simulate it. This list is _not_ a list of years in which versions were _released_. It is a list of years in which versions, later released, were _completed_. So if you finish a version on Dec 31, 1994 and release it on Jan 1, 1995, this version requires the inclusion of 1994, but doesn't require the inclusion of 1995. Do not abbreviate the year list using a range; do not write `1996--1998' instead of `1996, 1997, 1998'. The versions that matter, for purposes of this list, are versions that were ancestors of the current version. So if you made a temporary branch in maintenance, and worked on branches A and B in parallel, then each branch would have its own list of years, which is based on the versions released in that branch. A version in branch A need not be reflected in the list of years for branch B, and vice versa. However, if you copy code from branch A into branch B, the years for branch A (or at least, for the parts that you copied into branch B) do need to appear in the list in branch B, because now they are ancestors of branch B. This rule is complicated. If we were in charge of copyright law, we would probably change this (as well as many other aspects). For an FSF-copyrighted package, if you have followed the procedures to obtain legal papers, each file should have just one copyright holder: the Free Software Foundation, Inc. So the copyright notice should give that name. But if contributors are not all assigning their copyrights to a single copyright holder, it can easily happen that one file has several copyright holders. Each contributor of nontrivial amounts is a copyright holder. In that case, you should always include a copyright notice in the name of main copyright holder of the file. You can also include copyright notices for other copyright holders as well, and this is a good idea for those who have contributed a large amount and for those who specifically ask for notices in their names. But you don't have to include a notice for everyone who contributed to the file, and that would be rather inconvenient. License Notices =============== In each file that has a copyright notice or notices, a license notice _must_ follow. (Without a license notice giving permission to copy and change the file, copying and modification are legally prohibited, and that would make the file non-free.) Typically the license notice should look like this: This file is part of GNU PROGRAM GNU PROGRAM 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 2, or (at your option) any later version. GNU PROGRAM 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 PROGRAM; see the file COPYING. If not, write to the Free Software Foundation, Inc., 59 Temple Place - Suite 330, Boston, MA 02111-1307, USA. But in a small program which is just a few files, you can use this instead: This program 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 2 of the License, or (at your option) any later version. This program 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, write to the Free Software Foundation, Inc., 59 Temple Place, Suite 330, Boston, MA 02111-1307 USA. Documentation files should have license notices also. Manuals should use the GNU Free Documentation License. Here is an example of the license notice to use after the copyright notice. Please adjust the list of invariant sections as appropriate for your manual. (If there are none, then say "with no invariant sections".) Permission is granted to copy, distribute and/or modify this document under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License, Version 1.1 or any later version published by the Free Software Foundation; with the Invariant Sections being "GNU General Public License", the Front-Cover texts being (a) (see below), and with the Back-Cover Texts being (b) (see below). A copy of the license is included in the section entitled "GNU Free Documentation License". (a) The FSF's Front-Cover Text is: A GNU Manual (b) The FSF's Back-Cover Text is: You have freedom to copy and modify this GNU Manual, like GNU software. Copies published by the Free Software Foundation raise funds for GNU development. If the FSF does not publish this manual on paper, then omit the last sentence that talks about copies published by the FSF. If the FSF is not the copyright holder, then replace `FSF' with the appropriate name. Short manuals (under 300 lines long) and rough documentation can use simple all-permissive licenses. But note that when you distribute several manuals together in one software package, they can share a single copy of the GFDL (see section 6). If you would like help with license issues or with using the GFDL, please contact . External Libraries ================== When maintaining an FSF-copyrighted GNU package, sometimes you will want to use a general-purpose free software module which offers a useful functionality, as a "library" facility (though the module is not always packaged technically as a library). In a case like this, it would be unreasonable to ask the author of that module to assign the copyright to the FSF. After all, person did not write it specifically as a contribution to your package, so it would be impertinent to ask per, out of the blue, "Please give the FSF your copyright." So the thing to do in this case is to make your program use the module, but not consider it a part of your program. There are two reasonable methods of doing this: 1. Assume the module is already installed on the system, and use it when linking your program. This is only reasonable if the module really has the form of a library. 2. Include the module in your package, putting the source in a separate subdirectory whose `README' file says, "This is not part of the GNU FOO program, but is used with GNU FOO." Then set up your makefiles to build this module and link it into the executable. For this method, it is not necessary to treat the module as a library and make a `.a' file from it. You can link with the `.o' files directly in the usual manner. Both of these methods create an irregularity, and our lawyers have told us to minimize the amount of such irregularity. So consider using these methods only for general-purpose modules that were written for other programs and released separately for general use. For anything that was written as a contribution to your package, please get papers signed. Cleaning Up Changes ******************* Don't feel obligated to include every change that someone asks you to include. You must judge which changes are improvements--partly based on what you think the users will like, and partly based on your own judgement of what is an improverment. If you think a change is not good, you should reject it. If someone sends you changes which are useful, but written in an ugly way or hard to understand and maintain in the future, don't hesitate to ask person to clean up per changes before you merge them. Since the amount of work we can do is limited, the more we convince others to help us work efficiently, the faster GNU will advance. If the contributor will not or can not make the changes clean enough, then it is legitimate to say "I can't install this in its present form; I can only do so if you clean it up." Invite per to distribute per changes another way, or to find other people to make them clean enough for you to install and maintain. The only reason to do these cleanups yourself is if (1) it is easy, less work than telling the author what to clean up, or (2) the change is an important one, important enough to be worth the work of cleaning it up. The GNU Coding Standards are a good thing to send people when you ask them to clean up changes (*note Contents: (standards)Top.). The Emacs Lisp manual contains an appendix that gives coding standards for Emacs Lisp programs; it is good to urge authors to read it (*note Tips and Standards: (elisp)Tips.). Dealing With Mail ***************** Once a program is in use, you will get bug reports for it. Most GNU programs have their own special lists for sending bug reports. The advertised bug-reporting email address should always be address@hidden', to help show users that the program is a GNU package, but it is ok to set up that list to forward to another site for further forwarding. The package distribution should state the name of the bug-reporting list in a prominent place, and ask users to help us by reporting bugs there. We also have a catch-all list, , which is used for all GNU programs that don't have their own specific lists. But nowadays we want to give each program its own bug-reporting list and move away from using . If you are the maintainer of a GNU package, you should have an account on the GNU servers; contact if you don't have one. (You can also ask for accounts for people who help you a large amount in working on the package.) With this account, you can edit `/com/mailer/aliases' to create a new unmanaged list or add yourself to an existing unmanaged list. A comment near the beginning of that file explains how to create a Mailman-managed mailing list. But if you don't want to learn how to do those things, you can alternatively ask to add you to the bug-reporting list for your program. To set up a new list, contact . You can subscribe to a list managed by Mailman by sending mail to the corresponding `-request' address. When you receive bug reports, keep in mind that bug reports are crucial for your work. If you don't know about problems, you cannot fix them. So always thank each person who sends a bug report. You don't have an obligation to give more response than that, though. The main purpose of bug reports is to help you contribute to the community by improving the next version of the program. Many of the people who report bugs don't realize this--they think that the point is for you to help them individually. Some will ask you to focus on that _instead of_ on making the program better. If you comply with their wishes, you will have been distracted from the job of maintaining the program. For example, people sometimes report a bug in a vague (and therefore useless) way, and when you ask for more information, they say, "I just wanted to see if you already knew the solution" (in which case the bug report would do nothing to help improve the program). When this happens, you should explain to them the real purpose of bug reports. (A canned explanation will make this more efficient.) When people ask you to put your time into helping them use the program, it may seem "helpful" to do what they ask. But it is much _less_ helpful than improving the program, which is the maintainer's real job. By all means help individual users when you feel like it, if you feel you have the time available. But be careful to limit the amount of time you spend doing this--don't let it eat away the time you need to maintain the program! Know how to say no; when you are pressed for time, just "thanks for the bug report--I will fix it" is enough response. Some GNU packages, such as Emacs and GCC, come with advice about how to make bug reports useful. If you want to copy and adapt that, it could be a very useful thing to do. Recording Old Versions ********************** It is very important to keep backup files of all source files of GNU. You can do this using RCS, CVS or PRCS if you like. The easiest way to use RCS or CVS is via the Version Control library in Emacs; *Note Concepts of Version Control: (emacs)Concepts of VC. The history of previous revisions and log entries is very important for future maintainers of the package, so be very careful about putting anything in the repository which you would not want to hand over to another maintainer some day. The GNU Project provides a CVS server that GNU software packages can use: `subversions.gnu.org'. (The name refers to the multiple versions and their subversions that are stored in a CVS repository.) You don't have to use this repository, but if you plan to allow public read-only access to your development sources, it is convenient for people to be able to find various GNU packages in a central place. The CVS Server is managed by . Distributions ************* It is important to follow the GNU conventions when making GNU software distributions. Distribution tar Files ====================== The tar file for version M.N of program `foo' should be named `foo-M.N.tar'. It should unpack into a subdirectory named `foo-M.N'. Tar files should not unpack into files in the current directory, because this is inconvenient if the user happens to unpack into a directory with other files in it. Here is how the `Makefile' for Bison creates the tar file. This method is good for other programs. dist: bison.info echo bison-`sed -e '/version_string/!d' \ -e 's/[^0-9.]*\([0-9.]*\).*/\1/' -e q version.c` > .fname -rm -rf `cat .fname` mkdir `cat .fname` dst=`cat .fname`; for f in $(DISTFILES); do \ ln $(srcdir)/$$f $$dst/$$f || { echo copying $$f; \ cp -p $(srcdir)/$$f $$dst/$$f ; } \ done tar --gzip -chf `cat .fname`.tar.gz `cat .fname` -rm -rf `cat .fname` .fname Source files that are symbolic links to other file systems cannot be installed in the temporary directory using `ln', so use `cp' if `ln' fails. Using Automake is a good way to take care of writing the `dist' target. Distribution Patches ==================== If the program is large, it is useful to make a set of diffs for each release, against the previous important release. At the front of the set of diffs, put a short explanation of which version this is for and which previous version it is relative to. Also explain what else people need to do to update the sources properly (for example, delete or rename certain files before installing the diffs). The purpose of having diffs is that they are small. To keep them small, exclude files that the user can easily update. For example, exclude info files, DVI files, tags tables, output files of Bison or Flex. In Emacs diffs, we exclude compiled Lisp files, leaving it up to the installer to recompile the patched sources. When you make the diffs, each version should be in a directory suitably named--for example, `gcc-2.3.2' and `gcc-2.3.3'. This way, it will be very clear from the diffs themselves which version is which. If you use GNU `diff' to make the patch, use the options `-rc2P'. That will put any new files into the output as "entirely different." Also, the patch's context diff headers should have dates and times in Universal Time using traditional Unix format, so that patch recipients can use GNU `patch''s `-Z' option. For example, you could use the following Bourne shell command to create the patch: LC_ALL=C TZ=UTC0 diff -rc2P gcc-2.3.2 gcc-2.3.3 | \ gzip -9 >gcc-2.3.2-2.3.3.patch.gz If the distribution has subdirectories in it, then the diffs probably include some files in the subdirectories. To help users install such patches reliably, give them precise directions for how to run patch. For example, say this: To apply these patches, cd to the main directory of the program and then use `patch -p1'. `-p1' avoids guesswork in choosing which subdirectory to find each file in. It's wise to test your patch by applying it to a copy of the old version, and checking that the result exactly matches the new version. Distribution on `ftp.gnu.org' ============================= GNU packages are distributed through directory `/gnu' on `ftp.gnu.org'. Each package should have a subdirectory named after the package, and all the distribution files for the package should go in that subdirectory. Only the latest version of any program needs to be on `ftp.gnu.org'. Being an archive of old versions is not the function of `ftp.gnu.org'. Diffs are another matter. Since they are much smaller than distribution files, it is good to keep the diffs around for quite a while. Please talk with in regard to putting new versions on `ftp.gnu.org'. If you have an interest in seeing the monthly download logs from the FTP site at `ftp.gnu.org' for your program, that is something that can set up for you. Please contact them if you are interested. Test Releases ============= When you release a greatly changed new major version of a program, you might want to do so as a pretest. This means that you make a tar file, but send it only to a group of volunteers that you have recruited. (Use a suitable GNU mailing list/newsgroup to recruit them.) We normally use the FTP server `alpha.gnu.org' for pretests and prerelease versions. You can place items on `alpha.gnu.org' by putting them in the `~ftp/gnu' directory on `fencepost.gnu.org'. Once a program gets to be widely used and people expect it to work solidly, it is a good idea to do pretest releases before each "real" release. If you are about to release version 4.6 but you want to do a pretest first, call it 4.5.90. If you need a second pretest, call it 4.5.91, and so on. If you are really unlucky and ten pretests are not enough, after 4.5.99 you could advance to 4.5.990 and so on. One thing that you should never do is to release a pretest with the same version number as the planned real release. Many people will look only at the version number (in the tar file name, in the directory name that it unpacks into, or wherever they can find it) to determine whether a tar file is the latest version. People might look at the test release in this way and mistake it for the real release. Therefore, always change the number when you release changed code. Announcing Releases ******************* When you have a new release, please make an announcement. You can maintain your own mailing list for announcements if you like, or you can use the moderated general GNU announcements list, . If you use your own list, you can decide as you see fit what events are worth announcing. If you use , please do not announce pretest releases, only real releases. But real releases do include releases made just to fix bugs. Web Pages ********* Please write pages about your package for installation `www.gnu.org'. The pages should follow our usual standards for web pages (see ); we chose them in order to support a wide variety of browsers, to focus on information rather than flashy eye candy, and to keep the site simple and uniform. Please talk with about the arrangements for installing and updating pages. There are various ways this can be done: you can mail them pages to install, they can make an account for you, or you can keep the pages in CVS on `subversions.gnu.org' and have them automatically checked out into the web server. Some GNU packages have just simple web pages, but the more information you provide, the better. So please write as much as you usefully can, and put all of it on `www.gnu.org'. However, pages that access databases (such as mail logs or bug tracking) are an exception; set them up wherever is convenient for you, and the pages on `www.gnu.org' can link to them. Terminology Issues ****************** This chapter explains a couple of issues of terminology which are important for correcting two widespread and important misunderstandings about GNU. Free Software and Open Source ============================= The terms "free software" and "open source" are the slogans of two different movements which differ in their basic philosophy. The Free Software Movement is idealistic, and raises issues of freedom, ethics, principle and what makes for a good society. The Open Source Movement, founded in 1998, studiously avoids such questions. For more explanation, see . The GNU Project is aligned with the Free Software Movement. This doesn't mean that all GNU contributors and maintainers have to agree; your views on these issues are up to you, and you're entitled to express them when speaking for yourself. However, due to the much greater publicity that the Open Source Movement receives, the GNU Project needs to overcome a widespread mistaken impression that GNU is _and always was_ an activity of the Open Source Movement. For this reason, please use the term "free software," rather than "open source," in GNU software releases, GNU documentation, and announcements and articles that you publish in your role as the maintainer of a GNU package. A reference to the URL given above, to explain the difference, is a useful thing to include as well. GNU and Linux ============= The GNU Project was formed to develop a free Unix-like operating system, GNU. The existence of this system is our major accomplishment. However, the widely used version of the GNU system, in which Linux is used as the kernel, is often called simply "Linux". As a result, most users don't know about the GNU Project's major accomplishment--or more precisely, they know about it, but don't realize it is the GNU Project's accomplishment and reason for existence. Even people who believe they know the real history often believe that the goal of GNU was to develop "tools" or "utilities." To correct this confusion, we have made a years-long effort to distinguish between Linux, the kernel that Linus Torvalds wrote, and GNU/Linux, the operating system that is the combination of GNU and Linux. The resulting increased awareness of what the GNU Project has already done helps every activity of the GNU Project recruit more support and contributors. Please make this distinction consistently in GNU software releases, GNU documentation, and announcements and articles that you publish in your role as the maintainer of a GNU package. If you want to explain the terminology and its reasons, you can refer to the URL . Hosting ******* We would like to recommend using `subversions.gnu.org' as the CVS repository for your package, and using `ftp.gnu.org' as the standard FTP site. It is ok to use other machines if you wish. If you use a company's machine to hold the repository for your program, or as its ftp site, please put this statement in a prominent place on the site, so as to prevent people from getting the wrong idea about the relationship between the package and the company: The programs hosted here are free software packages of the GNU Project, not products of . We call them "free software" because you are free to copy and redistribute them, following the rules stated in the license of each package. For more information, see http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/free-sw.html. If you are looking for service or support for GNU software, see http://www.gnu.org/help/gethelp.html for suggestions of where to ask. If you would like to contribute to the development of one of these packages, contact the package maintainer or the bug-reporting address of the package (which should be listed in the package itself), or look on www.gnu.org for more information on how to contribute. Free Software Directory *********************** The Free Software Directory aims to be a complete list of free software packages, within certain criteria. Every GNU package should be listed there, so please contact to ask for information on how to write an entry for your package. Using the Proofreaders List *************************** If you want help finding errors in documentation, or help improving the quality of writing, or if you are not a native speaker of English and want help producing good English documentation, you can use the GNU proofreaders mailing list: . But be careful when you use the list, because there are over 200 people on it. If you simply ask everyone on the list to read your work, there will probably be tremendous duplication of effort by the proofreaders, and you will probably get the same errors reported 100 times. This must be avoided. Also, the people on the list do not want to get a large amount of mail from it. So do not ever ask people on the list to send mail to the list! Here are a few methods that seem reasonable to use: * For something small, mail it to the list, and ask people to pick a random number from 1 to 20, and read it if the number comes out as 10. This way, assuming 50% response, some 5 people will read the piece. * For a larger work, divide your work into around 20 equal-sized parts, tell people where to get it, and ask each person to pick randomly which part to read. Be sure to specify the random choice procedure; otherwise people will probably use a mental procedure that is not really random, such as "pick a part near the middle", and you will not get even coverage. You can either divide up the work physically, into 20 separate files, or describe a virtual division, such as by sections (if your work has approximately 20 sections). If you do the latter, be sure to be precise about it--for example, do you want the material before the first section heading to count as a section, or not? * For a job needing special skills, send an explanation of it, and ask people to send you mail if they volunteer for the job. When you get enough volunteers, send another message to the list saying "I have enough volunteers, no more please." Index ***** /gd/gnuorg directory: See ``Copyright Papers''. alpha.gnu.org, ftp site for test releases: See ``Test Releases''. AUTHORS file: See ``Recording Contributors''. automake: See ``Distribution tar Files''. beta releases: See ``Test Releases''. bug reports: See ``Dealing With Mail''. contributions, accepting: See ``Cleaning Up Changes''. copyright notices in program files: See ``Copyright Notices''. copyright papers: See ``Copyright Papers''. CVS repository: See ``Hosting''. data base of GNU copyright assignments: See ``Copyright Papers''. diff: See ``Distribution Patches''. distribution, tar files: See ``Distribution tar Files''. email, for receiving bug reports: See ``Dealing With Mail''. free software: See ``Free Software and Open Source''. Free Software Directory: See ``Free Software Directory''. FTP site: See ``Hosting''. ftp.gnu.org, the GNU ftp site: See ``Distribution on `ftp.gnu.org'''. GNU ftp site: See ``Distribution on `ftp.gnu.org'''. GNU/Linux: See ``GNU and Linux''. hosting: See ``Hosting''. legal matters: See ``Legal Matters''. legal papers for changes in manuals: See ``Copyright Papers''. license notices in program files: See ``License Notices''. Linux: See ``GNU and Linux''. mailing list for bug reports: See ``Dealing With Mail''. movements, Free Software and Open Source: See ``Free Software and Open Source''. open source: See ``Free Software and Open Source''. patch: See ``Distribution Patches''. patches, against previous releases: See ``Distribution Patches''. pretest releases: See ``Test Releases''. proofreading: See ``Using the Proofreaders List''. quality of changes suggested by others: See ``Cleaning Up Changes''. recording contributors: See ``Recording Contributors''. repository: See ``Hosting''. responding to bug reports: See ``Dealing With Mail''. terminology: See ``Terminology Issues''. test releases: See ``Test Releases''. time stamp in diffs: See ``Distribution Patches''. version control: See ``Recording Old Versions''. web pages: See ``Web Pages''. Table of Contents ***************** Version About This Document Stepping Down Recruiting Helpers Legal Matters Recording Contributors Copyright Papers Copyright Notices License Notices External Libraries Cleaning Up Changes Dealing With Mail Recording Old Versions Distributions Distribution tar Files Distribution Patches Distribution on `ftp.gnu.org' Test Releases Announcing Releases Web Pages Terminology Issues Free Software and Open Source GNU and Linux Hosting Free Software Directory Using the Proofreaders List Index