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1 | |
2 | Contributing to Emacs | |
3 | ||
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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. | |
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16 | |
17 | You may also want to submit your change so that can be considered for | |
6f82a6d0 | 18 | inclusion in a future version of Emacs (see below). |
d1208b8b | 19 | |
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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. | |
d1208b8b | 24 | |
27e8e710 | 25 | Here are some style and legal conventions for contributors to Emacs: |
6f82a6d0 | 26 | |
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27 | |
28 | o Coding Standards | |
29 | ||
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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. | |
d1208b8b | 33 | |
27e8e710 | 34 | Emacs has certain additional style and coding conventions. |
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35 | |
36 | Ref: http://www.gnu.org/prep/standards_toc.html | |
6f82a6d0 | 37 | Ref: Standards Info Manual |
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38 | |
39 | ||
40 | o Copyright Assignment | |
41 | ||
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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. | |
d1208b8b | 46 | |
27e8e710 | 47 | Contact us at emacs-devel@gnu.org to obtain the relevant |
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48 | forms. |
49 | ||
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50 | |
51 | o Getting the Source Code | |
52 | ||
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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. | |
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57 | |
58 | Ref: http://savannah.gnu.org/projects/emacs | |
59 | ||
60 | ||
61 | o Submitting Patches | |
62 | ||
63 | Every patch must have several pieces of information before we | |
64 | can properly evaluate it. | |
65 | ||
66 | For bug fixes, a description of the bug and how your patch fixes | |
67 | this bug. | |
68 | ||
69 | For new features, a description of the feature and your | |
70 | implementation. | |
71 | ||
72 | A ChangeLog entry as plaintext (separate from the patch); see | |
73 | the various ChangeLog files for format and content. Note that, | |
74 | unlike some other projects, we do require ChangeLogs also for | |
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75 | documentation i.e. texinfo files. |
76 | ||
77 | Ref: Change Log Concepts node of the Standards Info Manual | |
d1208b8b | 78 | |
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79 | The patch itself. If you are accessing the CVS repository use |
80 | "cvs update; cvs diff -cp"; else, use "diff -cp OLD NEW". If | |
81 | your version of diff does not support these options, then get | |
82 | the latest version of GNU diff. | |
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83 | |
84 | We accept patches as plain text (preferred for the compilers | |
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85 | themselves), MIME attachments (preferred for the web pages), or |
86 | as uuencoded gzipped text. | |
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87 | |
88 | When you have all these pieces, bundle them up in a mail message | |
89 | and send it to emacs-pretest-bug@gnu.org or emacs-devel@gnu.org. | |
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90 | All subsequent discussion should also be sent to the mailing |
91 | list. | |
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92 | |
93 | ||
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94 | o Please reread your patch before submitting it. |
95 | ||
d1208b8b | 96 | |
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97 | o If you send several unrelated changes together, we will |
98 | ask you to separate them so we can consider each of the changes | |
99 | by itself. | |
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100 | |
101 | ||
102 | o Supplemental information for Emacs Developers: | |
103 | ||
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104 | Once you become a frequent contributor to Emacs, we can |
105 | consider giving you write access to the CVS repository. | |
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106 | |
107 | Discussion about Emacs development takes place on | |
108 | emacs-devel@gnu.org. | |
109 | ||
110 | Think carefully about whether your change requires updating the | |
111 | documentation. If it does, you can either do this yourself or | |
112 | add an item to the NEWS file. | |
113 | ||
114 | The best way to understand Emacs Internals is to read the code | |
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115 | but the nodes "Tips" and "GNU Emacs Internals" in the Appendix |
116 | of the Emacs Lisp Reference Manual may also help. | |
d1208b8b | 117 | |
27e8e710 | 118 | The file DEBUG describes how to debug Emacs bugs. |
d1208b8b | 119 | |
27e8e710 | 120 | Avoid using `defadvice' or `eval-after-load' for Lisp |
d1208b8b | 121 | code to be included in Emacs. |