gs/doc/Maintain.htm

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<title>AFPL Ghostscript maintenance procedures</title>
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<h1>AFPL Ghostscript maintenance procedures</h1>

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<h2>Table of contents</h2>

<blockquote><ul>
<li><a href="#Introduction">Introduction</a>
<li><a href="#Problem_reporting">Problem reporting</a>
<ul>
<li><a href="#Uploading_test_data">Uploading test data</a>
</ul>
<li><a href="#CVS">Rules for CVS commits</a>
<li><a href="#Adding_or_removing_files">Adding or Removing Files</a>
</ul></blockquote>

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<p>For other information, see the <a href="Readme.htm">Ghostscript
overview</a> and the instructions on how to <a href="Make.htm">build
Ghostscript</a>.

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<h2><a name="Introduction"></a>Introduction</h2>

<p>
This document describes various maintenance procedures associated with AFPL
Ghostscript.  It is only meant for developers actively working on AFPL
Ghostscript; some parts of it are only relevant to developers who have
commit access to the source repository.

<hr>

<h2><a name="Problem_reporting"></a>Problem reporting</h2>

<h3><a name="#Uploading_test_data"></a>Uploading test data</h3>

<p>
If a test file can't be attached to the report in the public
bug tracking system, put it in <tt>casper:/home/support/<bug number>/</tt>.
This is a good place to collect test files of all kinds.

<hr>

<h2><a name="CVS"></a>Rules for CVS Commits</h2>

<p>
The primary repository for Ghostscript code is
<a href="http://cvs.ghostscript.com" class="offsite">cvs.ghostscript.com</a>
This section describes a few rules intended to make life easier
for people working with this code base.

<p>
At any given time, there are usually two active branches: a stable
branch and a development branch. The development branch is HEAD, which
is the default when doing a checkout without a -r flag. The stable
branch is tagged after the previous major release. For example:
GS_8_0x, GS_7_0x, GS_6_5.

<p>
A concise and useful document for working with CVS branches is Jeff
Semke's <a href="http://www.psc.edu/~semke/cvs_branches.html"
class="offsite">CVS
Branch and Tag Primer</a>. A
somewhat more detailed explanation is the <a
href="http://www.loria.fr/~molli/cvs/doc/cvs_5.html"
class="offsite">Branching and
merging</a> section from the CVS documentation by Pascal Molli.

<p>
For new development commits, you can basically ignore the
branches. Just commit to the HEAD branch. For bug fixes for the stable
branch, it is your responsibility to commit to both the stable branch
and, if appropriate, HEAD.

<p>
When modifying a number of files for a single issue, please group them
together as a single commit. For two separate sets of changes dealing
with two different issues, there should be two commits.

<p>
You should strive not to introduce any new bugs with your
commit. Always make sure the code compiles before committing. Test the
changes with several files, including the problem file in the case of
a bug fix, and other files that may have been affected by the
changes.

<p>
Always supply a descriptive log message for your commits. These log
messages are used to automatically generate the <a
href="News.htm">News.htm</a> file and History changelogs, and are also
crucial for navigating the change history. Please try to
keep the style of the descriptions similar to those in the current
History#.htm files.

<p>
Log messages beginning with 'Fix' are treated specially. Such messages are
put under the "Fixes problems" heading when the History files are
generated. Additionally, if the first four characters are 'Fix:' this is removed
(i.e., "Fix: The xyz" becomes "The xyz", but "Fixes xyz" is copied unchanged).
This feature is intended for explicit bugfixes and should be avoided for
enhancements or commits with long explanations.

<p>
Information about who changed what, when, and why is maintained in the
CVS logs. In general, a file should be a clean representation of the
current version rather than a history trail of how it got
there. Keeping old code around for reference is usually not necessary,
as it is stored in the CVS diffs. When necessary, use #if / #endif, or
descriptive conditionals such as #ifdef OLD_CMAP_TABLES. Do not
comment out old code. (A very few files that are distributed separate
from Ghostscript have a change log at the beginning, which should be
maintained: currently, only ansiknr.c and md5.[ch].)

<p>
Additionally, if your patch removes a feature, changes an interface or
otherwise creates an incompatibility with the last release, you
must add an entry to the "Incompatible changes" section of <tt>News.htm</tt>
as this information can only be generated manually.
This admonition applies to api changes that might
affect other developers as well as user issues like switch behavior.
Upon release, the accumulated incompatible changes will be moved to the
relevant History file, and the News collection in cvs will be wiped clean
for the next version.

<p>
All patches should be reviewed before being committed. Please email your
patch to <a
href="mailto:gs-code-review@ghostscript.com">gs-code-review@ghostscript.com</a>.
Make sure to include your commit comment and any other information
that would be helpful for the review. Also, please identify which
branches the patch is intended for. The code review list is also
a good place to put extensive documentation on changes (motivation and
associated reasoning for example) that are too verbose for the cvs
changelog.

<p>
If you are not an employee or consultant of Artifex or artofcode, then
we need a copyright assignment form so we can incorporate your
changes. Please email Raph Levien &lt;<a
href="mailto:raph@artofcode.com">raph@artofcode.com</a>&gt; and
include your snailmail address for a hardcopy assignment form.

<h2><a name="Adding_or_removing_files"></a>Adding or removing files</h2>

<p>
When adding or removing files, don't forget to invoke <b><tt>cvs
add</tt></b> or <b><tt>cvs rm</tt></b>.

<p>
When adding files, update the file roadmap in
<b><tt>doc/Develop.htm</tt></b>.

<p>
When adding or removing files other than .c or .h: If the files will be
used at runtime, check the install list in <b><tt>unixinst.mak</tt></b>.

<p>
When adding .c files, update the relevant <b><tt>.mak</tt></b> file
(usually <b><tt>devs.mak</tt></b>, <b><tt>int.mak</tt></b>, or
<b><tt>lib.mak</tt></b>).

<p>
When adding new documentation, add a link to <tt>doc/Readme.htm</tt> and
a short blurb describing the contents of the file.

<p>
When adding or changing fonts, update <b><tt>lib/Fontmap.GS</tt></b>,
<b><tt>fonts.mak</tt></b>, and possibly the compiled fonts in
<b><tt>gs.mak</tt></b> and the examples in
<b><tt>doc/Fonts.htm</tt></b>.

<p>
When adding .ps files, update <b><tt>doc/Psfiles.htm</tt></b>.

<p>
Likewise, you will want to delete any references for a file you
remove from Ghostscript.

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<p>
<small>Copyright &copy; 2000-2002 artofcode LLC.
All rights reserved.</small>

<p>
This software is provided AS-IS with no warranty, either express or
implied.

This software is distributed under license and may not be copied,
modified or distributed except as expressly authorized under the terms
of the license contained in the file LICENSE in this distribution.

For more information about licensing, please refer to
http://www.ghostscript.com/licensing/. For information on
commercial licensing, go to http://www.artifex.com/licensing/ or
contact Artifex Software, Inc., 101 Lucas Valley Road #110,
San Rafael, CA  94903, U.S.A., +1(415)492-9861.

<p>
<small>Ghostscript version 8.53, 20 October 2005

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