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1bac2ebb | 1 | GNU Project Electronic Mailing Lists and gnUSENET Newsgroups |
3b113cb9 | 2 | Last Updated 2004-10-19 |
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3 | |
4 | Please report improvements to: gnu@gnu.org | |
5 | ||
6 | * Mailing list archives | |
7 | ||
6a6cc11c RS |
8 | The GNU mailing lists are archived at http://lists.gnu.org. |
9 | ||
10 | * Some GNU mailing lists are also distributed as USENET news groups | |
11 | ||
12 | Certain GNU mailing lists are gated both ways with the gnu.all | |
13 | newsgroups at uunet. You can tell which they are, because the names | |
14 | correspond. For instance, bug-gnu-emacs corresponds to gnu.emacs.bug; | |
15 | info-gnu-emacs, to gnu.emacs.announce; help-gnu-emacs, to | |
16 | gnu.emacs.help; gnu-emacs-sources, to gnu.emacs.sources. Replacing | |
17 | `emacs' with some other program in those four examples shows you | |
18 | the whole pattern. | |
19 | ||
20 | If you don't know if your site is on USENET, ask your system | |
21 | administrator. If you are a USENET site and don't get the gnu.all | |
22 | newsgroups, please ask your USENET administrator to get them. If he has | |
23 | your feeds ask their feeds, you should win. And everyone else wins: | |
24 | newsgroups make better use of the limited bandwidth of the computer | |
25 | networks and your home machine than mailing list traffic; and staying | |
26 | off the mailing lists make better use of the people who maintain the | |
27 | lists and the machines that the GNU people working with rms use (i.e. we | |
28 | have more time to produce code!!). Thanx. | |
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29 | |
30 | * Getting the mailing lists directly | |
31 | ||
32 | If several users at your site or local network want to read a list and | |
33 | you aren't a USENET site, Project GNU would prefer that you would set up | |
34 | one address that redistributes locally. This reduces overhead on our | |
35 | people and machines, your gateway machine, and the network(s) used to | |
36 | transport the mail from us to you. | |
37 | ||
38 | * How to subscribe to and report bugs in mailing lists | |
39 | ||
40 | Send requests to be added or removed, to help-gnu-emacs-request (or | |
41 | info-gnu-request, bug-gdb-request, etc.), NOT to info-gnu-emacs (or | |
42 | info-gnu, etc.). Most <LIST_NAME>-request addresses are now handled | |
6a6cc11c | 43 | automagically by GNU Mailman. |
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44 | |
45 | If you need to report problems to a human, send mail to gnu@gnu.org | |
46 | explaining the problem. | |
47 | ||
48 | Many of the GNU mailing lists are very large and are received by many | |
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49 | people. Most are unmoderated, so please don't send them anything that |
50 | is not seriously important to all their readers. | |
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51 | |
52 | If a message you mail to a list is returned from a MAILER-DAEMON (often | |
53 | with the line: | |
54 | ----- Transcript of session follows ----- | |
55 | don't resend the message to the list. All this return means is that | |
56 | your original message failed to reach a few addresses on the list. Such | |
57 | messages are NEVER a reason to resend a piece of mail a 2nd time. This | |
58 | just bothers all (less the few delivery failures (which will probably | |
59 | just fail again!)) of the readers of the list with a message they have | |
60 | already seen. It also wastes computer and network resources. | |
61 | ||
62 | It is appropriate to send these to the -request address for a list, and | |
63 | ask them to check the problem out. | |
64 | ||
65 | * Send Specific Requests for Information to: gnu@gnu.org | |
66 | ||
67 | Specific requests for information about obtaining GNU software, or GNU | |
68 | activities in Cambridge and elsewhere can be directed to: | |
69 | gnu@gnu.org | |
70 | ||
71 | * General Information about all lists | |
72 | ||
73 | Please keep each message under 25,000 characters. Some mailers bounce | |
74 | messages that are longer than this. If your message is long, it is | |
75 | generally better to send a message offering to make the large file | |
76 | available to only those people who want it (e.g. mailing it to people | |
77 | who ask, or putting it up for FTP). In the case of gnu.emacs.sources, | |
78 | somewhat larger postings (up to 10 parts of no more than 25,000 | |
79 | characters each) are acceptable (assuming they are likely to be of | |
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80 | interest to a reasonable number of people); if it is larger than that, |
81 | put it in a web page and announce its URL. Good bug reports are short. | |
82 | See section '* General Information about bug-* lists and ...' for | |
83 | further details. | |
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84 | |
85 | Most of the time, when you reply to a message sent to a list, the reply | |
86 | should not go to the list. But most mail reading programs supply, by | |
87 | default, all the recipients of the original as recipients of the reply. | |
88 | Make a point of deleting the list address from the header when it does | |
89 | not belong. This prevents bothering all readers of a list, and reduces | |
90 | network congestion. | |
91 | ||
92 | The GNU mailing lists and newsgroups, like the GNU project itself, exist | |
93 | to promote the freedom to share software. So don't use these lists to | |
94 | promote or recommend non-free software or documentation, like | |
95 | proprietary books on GNU software. (Using them to post ordering | |
96 | information is the ultimate faux pas.) If there is no free program to | |
97 | do a certain task, then somebody should write one! Similarly, free | |
98 | documentation that is inadequate should be improved--a way in which | |
99 | non-programmers can make a valuable contribution. See also the article | |
100 | at <URL:http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/free-doc.html>. | |
101 | ||
102 | * General Information about info-* lists | |
103 | ||
104 | These lists and their newsgroups are meant for important announcements. | |
105 | Since the GNU project uses software development as a means for social | |
106 | change, the announcements may be technical or political. | |
107 | ||
108 | Most GNU projects info-* lists (and their corresponding gnu.*.announce | |
109 | newsgroups) are moderated to keep their content significant and | |
110 | relevant. If you have a bug to report, send it to the bug-* list. If | |
111 | you need help on something else and the help-* list exists, ask it. | |
112 | ||
113 | See section '* General Information about all lists'. | |
114 | ||
115 | * General Information about help-* lists | |
116 | ||
117 | These lists (and their newsgroups) exist for anyone to ask questions | |
118 | about the GNU software that the list deals with. The lists are read by | |
119 | people who are willing to take the time to help other users. | |
120 | ||
121 | When you answer the questions that people ask on the help-* lists, keep | |
122 | in mind that you shouldn't answer by promoting a proprietary program as | |
123 | a solution. The only real solutions are the ones all the readers can | |
124 | share. | |
125 | ||
126 | If a program crashes, or if you build it following the standard | |
127 | procedure on a system on which it is supposed to work and it does not | |
128 | work at all, or if an command does not behave as it is documented to | |
129 | behave, this is a bug. Don't send bug reports to a help-* list; mail | |
130 | them to the bug-* list instead. | |
131 | ||
132 | See section '* General Information about all lists'. | |
133 | ||
134 | * General Information about bug-* lists and reporting program bugs | |
135 | ||
136 | If you think something is a bug in a program, it might be one; or, it | |
137 | might be a misunderstanding or even a feature. Before beginning to | |
138 | report bugs, please read the section ``Reporting Emacs Bugs'' toward the | |
139 | end of the GNU Emacs reference manual (or node Emacs/Bugs in Emacs's | |
140 | built-in Info system) for a discussion of how and when to send in bug | |
141 | reports. For GNU programs other than GNU Emacs, also consult their | |
142 | documentation for their bug reporting procedures. Always include the | |
143 | version number of the GNU program, as well as the operating system and | |
144 | machine the program was ran on (if the program doesn't have a version | |
145 | number, send the date of the latest entry in the file ChangeLog). For | |
146 | GNU Emacs bugs, type "M-x emacs-version". A debugger backtrace of any | |
147 | core dump can also be useful. Be careful to separate out hypothesis | |
148 | from fact! For bugs in GNU Emacs lisp, set variable debug-on-error to | |
149 | t, and re-enter the command(s) that cause the error message; Emacs will | |
150 | pop up a debug buffer if something is wrong; please include a copy of | |
151 | the buffer in your bug report. Please also try to make your bug report | |
152 | as short as possible; distill the problem to as few lines of code and/or | |
153 | input as possible. GNU maintainers give priority to the shortest, high | |
154 | quality bug reports. | |
155 | ||
156 | Please don't send in a patch without a test case to illustrate the | |
157 | problem the patch is supposed to fix. Sometimes the patches aren't | |
158 | correct or aren't the best way to do the job, and without a test case | |
159 | there is no way to debug an alternate fix. | |
160 | ||
161 | The purpose of reporting a bug is to enable the bug to be fixed for the | |
162 | sake of the whole community of users. You may or may not receive a | |
163 | response; the maintainers will send one if that helps them find or | |
164 | verify a fix. Most GNU maintainers are volunteers and all are | |
165 | overworked; they don't have time to help individuals and still fix the | |
166 | bugs and make the improvements that everyone wants. If you want help | |
167 | for yourself in particular, you may have to hire someone. The GNU | |
168 | project maintains a list of people providing such services. It is | |
6a6cc11c | 169 | found in <URL:http://www.gnu.org/prep/SERVICE>. |
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170 | |
171 | Anything addressed to the implementors and maintainers of a GNU program | |
172 | via a bug-* list, should NOT be sent to the corresponding info-* or | |
173 | help-* list. | |
174 | ||
175 | Please DON'T post your bug reports on the gnu.*.bug newsgroups! Mail | |
176 | them to bug-*@gnu.org instead! At first sight, it seems to make no | |
177 | difference: anything sent to one will be propagated to the other; but: | |
178 | - if you post on the newsgroup, the information about how to | |
179 | reach you is lost in the message that goes on the mailing list. It | |
180 | can be very important to know how to reach you, if there is anything | |
181 | in the bug report that we don't understand; | |
182 | - bug reports reach the GNU maintainers quickest when they are | |
183 | sent to the bug-* mailing list submittal address; | |
184 | - mail is much more reliable then netnews; and | |
185 | - if the internet mailers can't get your bug report delivered, | |
186 | they almost always send you an error message, so you can find another | |
187 | way to get the bug report in. When netnews fails to get your message | |
188 | delivered to the maintainers, you'll never know about it and the | |
189 | maintainers will never see the bug report. | |
190 | ||
191 | And please DON'T post your GNU bug reports to comp.* or other gnu.* | |
192 | newsgroups, they never make it to the GNU maintainers at all. Please | |
193 | mail them to bug-*@gnu.org instead! | |
194 | ||
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195 | * Some special lists that don't fit the usual patterns of help-, bug- and info- |
196 | ||
197 | ** info-gnu-request@gnu.org to subscribe to info-gnu | |
1bac2ebb | 198 | |
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199 | gnUSENET newsgroup: gnu.announce |
200 | Send announcements to: info-gnu@gnu.org | |
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201 | |
202 | This list distributes progress reports on the GNU Project. It is also | |
203 | used by the GNU Project to ask people for various kinds of help. It is | |
6a6cc11c | 204 | moderated and NOT for general discussion. |
1bac2ebb | 205 | |
6a6cc11c | 206 | ** gnu-misc-discuss-request@gnu.org to subscribe to gnu-misc-discuss |
1bac2ebb | 207 | |
6a6cc11c RS |
208 | gnUSENET newsgroup: gnu.misc.discuss |
209 | Send contributions to: gnu-misc-discuss@gnu.org | |
1bac2ebb | 210 | |
6a6cc11c | 211 | This list is for serious discussion of free software, the GNU Project, |
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212 | the GNU Manifesto, and their implications. It's THE place for |
213 | discussion that is not appropriate in the other GNU mailing lists and | |
214 | gnUSENET newsgroups. | |
215 | ||
216 | Flaming is out of place. Tit-for-tat is not welcome. Repetition | |
217 | should not occur. | |
218 | ||
219 | Good READING and writing are expected. Before posting, wait a while, | |
220 | cool off, and think. | |
221 | ||
222 | Don't use this group for complaints and bug reports about GNU software! | |
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223 | The maintainers of the package you are using probably don't read this |
224 | group; they won't see your complaint. Use the appropriate bug-reporting | |
225 | mailing list instead, so that people who can do something about the | |
226 | problem will see it. Likewise, use the help- list for technical | |
227 | questions. | |
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228 | |
229 | Don't trust pronouncements made on gnu-misc-discuss about what GNU is, | |
230 | what FSF position is, what the GNU General Public License is, etc., | |
231 | unless they are made by someone you know is well connected with GNU and | |
232 | are sure the message is not forged. | |
233 | ||
234 | USENET and gnUSENET readers are expected to have read ALL the articles | |
235 | in news.announce.newusers before posting. If news.announce.newusers is | |
236 | empty at your site, wait (the articles are posted monthly), your posting | |
237 | isn't that urgent! Readers on the Internet can anonymous FTP these | |
238 | articles from host ftp.uu.net under directory ?? | |
239 | ||
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240 | Remember, "GNUs Not Unix" and "gnUSENET is Not USENET". We have |
241 | higher standards! | |
242 | ||
6a6cc11c | 243 | ** guile-sources-request@gnu.org to subscribe to guile-sources |
1bac2ebb | 244 | |
6a6cc11c RS |
245 | gnUSENET newsgroup: NONE PLANNED |
246 | Guile source code to: guile-sources@gnu.org | |
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247 | |
248 | This list will be for the posting, by their authors, of GUILE, Scheme, | |
249 | and C sources and patches that improve Guile. Its contents will be | |
250 | reviewed by the FSF for inclusion in future releases of GUILE. | |
251 | ||
252 | Please do NOT discuss or request source code here. Use bug-guile for | |
253 | those purposes. This allows the automatic archiving of sources posted | |
254 | to this list. | |
255 | ||
256 | Please do NOT post such sources to any other GNU mailing list (e.g | |
257 | bug-guile) or gnUSENET newsgroups. It's up to each poster to decide | |
258 | whether to cross-post to any non-gnUSENET newsgroup. | |
259 | ||
260 | Please do NOT announce that you have posted source code to guile.sources | |
261 | to any other GNU mailing list (e.g. bug-guile) or gnUSENET newsgroups. | |
262 | People who want to keep up with sources will read this list. It's up to | |
263 | each poster to decide whether to announce a guile.sources article in any | |
264 | non-gnUSENET newsgroup (e.g. comp.emacs or comp.sources.d). | |
265 | ||
266 | If source or patches that were previously posted or a simple fix is | |
267 | requested in bug-guile, please mail it to the requester. Do NOT | |
268 | repost it. If you also want something that is requested, send mail to | |
269 | the requester asking him to forward it to you. This kind of traffic is | |
270 | best handled by e-mail, not by a broadcast medium that reaches millions | |
271 | of sites. | |
272 | ||
273 | If the requested source is very long (>10k bytes) send mail offering to | |
274 | send it. This prevents the requester from getting many redundant copies | |
275 | and saves network bandwidth. | |
276 | ||
6a6cc11c | 277 | ** gnu-emacs-sources-request@gnu.org to subscribe to gnu-emacs-sources |
1bac2ebb | 278 | |
6a6cc11c RS |
279 | gnUSENET newsgroup: gnu.emacs.sources |
280 | GNU Emacs source code to: gnu-emacs-sources@gnu.org | |
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281 | |
282 | This list/newsgroup will be for the posting, by their authors, of Emacs | |
283 | Lisp and C sources and patches that improve GNU Emacs. Its contents | |
284 | will be reviewed by the FSF for inclusion in future releases of GNU | |
285 | Emacs. | |
286 | ||
287 | Please do NOT discuss or request source code here. Use | |
288 | help-gnu-emacs/gnu.emacs.help for those purposes. This allows the | |
289 | automatic archiving of sources posted to this list/newsgroup. | |
290 | ||
291 | Please do NOT post such sources to any other GNU mailing list (e.g | |
292 | help-gnu-emacs) or gnUSENET newsgroups (e.g. gnu.emacs.help). It's up | |
293 | to each poster to decide whether to cross-post to any non-gnUSENET | |
294 | newsgroup (e.g. comp.emacs or vmsnet.sources). | |
295 | ||
296 | Please do NOT announce that you have posted source code to | |
297 | gnu.emacs.sources to any other GNU mailing list (e.g. help-gnu-emacs) or | |
298 | gnUSENET newsgroups (e.g. gnu.emacs.help). People who want to keep up | |
299 | with sources will read this list/newsgroup. It's up to each poster to | |
300 | decide whether to announce a gnu.emacs.sources article in any | |
301 | non-gnUSENET newsgroup (e.g. comp.emacs or comp.sources.d). | |
302 | ||
303 | If source or patches that were previously posted or a simple fix is | |
304 | requested in help-gnu-emacs, please mail it to the requester. Do NOT | |
305 | repost it. If you also want something that is requested, send mail to | |
306 | the requester asking him to forward it to you. This kind of traffic is | |
307 | best handled by e-mail, not by a broadcast medium that reaches millions | |
308 | of sites. | |
309 | ||
310 | If the requested source is very long (>10k bytes) send mail offering to | |
311 | send it. This prevents the requester from getting many redundant copies | |
312 | and saves network bandwidth. | |
313 | ||
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314 | Local variables: |
315 | mode: outline | |
316 | fill-column: 72 | |
317 | End: | |
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318 | |
319 | arch-tag: 6e42bba8-7532-4a23-8486-99dbc5770a8e |