--*- outline -*-
-
This file attempts to describe the rules to use when hacking Bison.
Don't put this file into the distribution.
the appropriate paperwork. Second, be sure to add their name and
email address to THANKS.
-** If a change fixes a test, mention the test in the ChangeLog entry.
+** If a change fixes a test, mention the test in the commit message.
** Bug reports
-If somebody reports a new bug, mention his name in the ChangeLog entry
+If somebody reports a new bug, mention his name in the commit message
and in the test case you write. Put him into THANKS.
The correct response to most actual bugs is to write a new test case
which demonstrates the bug. Then fix the bug, re-run the test suite,
and check everything in.
-** You may find it useful to install the git-merge-changelog merge driver:
-
- http://git.sv.gnu.org/gitweb/?p=gnulib.git;a=blob;f=lib/git-merge-changelog.c
-
-When following the generic installation instructions there, keep in mind that
-your clone of Bison's git repository already contains appropriate
-.gitattributes files, and running Bison's bootstrap script will make the
-necessary changes to .git/config.
-
* Hacking
(comparable to assert/abort), and all the --trace output which is
meant for the maintainers only.
+** Horizontal tabs
+Do not add horizontal tab characters to any file in Bison's repository
+except where required. For example, do not use tabs to format C code.
+However, make files, ChangeLog, and some regular expressions require
+tabs. Also, test cases might need to contain tabs to check that Bison
+properly processes tabs in its input.
+
* Working from the repository
- Rsync <http://samba.anu.edu.au/rsync/>
- Tar <http://www.gnu.org/software/tar/>
-Valgrind <http://valgrind.org/> is also highly recommended, if
-Valgrind supports your architecture.
+Valgrind <http://valgrind.org/> is also highly recommended, if it supports
+your architecture.
Bison is written using Bison grammars, so there are bootstrapping
issues. The bootstrap script attempts to discover when the C code
Also, you may run into similar problems yourself if you modify Bison.
Only building the initial full source tree will be a bit painful.
-Later, after synchronizing from the repository a plain `make' should
-be sufficient.
+Later, after synchronizing from the repository a plain 'make' should
+be sufficient. Note, however, that when gnulib is updated, running
+'./bootstrap' again might be needed.
** First checkout
*** Updating Bison
-If you pull a newer version of a branch, say via `git pull', you might
-import requests for updated submodules. A simple `git diff' will
+If you pull a newer version of a branch, say via "git pull", you might
+import requests for updated submodules. A simple "git diff" will
reveal if the current version of the submodule (i.e., the actual
contents of the gnulib directory) and the current request from the
subscriber (i.e., the reference of the version of gnulib that the
-Bison reporitory requests) differ. To upgrade the submodules (i.e.,
+Bison repository requests) differ. To upgrade the submodules (i.e.,
to check out the version that is actually requested by the subscriber,
-run `git submodule update'.
+run "git submodule update".
$ git pull
$ git submodule update
$ git checkin ...
+For a suggestion of what gnulib commit might be stable enough for a
+formal release, see the ChangeLog in the latest gnulib snapshot at:
+
+ http://erislabs.net/ianb/projects/gnulib/
+
+The Autoconf files we use are currently:
+
+ m4/m4.m4
+ lib/m4sugar/m4sugar.m4
+ lib/m4sugar/foreach.m4
+
+These files don't change very often in Autoconf, so it should be
+relatively straight-forward to examine the differences in order to
+decide whether to update.
* Test suite
** make check
Use liberally.
+** make maintainer-check-valgrind
+This target uses valgrind both to check bison, and the generated parsers.
+
+This is not mature on Mac OS X. First, Valgrind does support the way bison
+calls m4, so Valgrind cannot be used to check bison on Mac OS X.
+
+Second, there are many errors that come from the platform itself, not from
+bison. build-aux/darwin11.4.0.valgrind addresses some of them.
+
+Third, valgrind issues warnings such as:
+
+ --99312:0:syswrap- WARNING: Ignoring sigreturn( ..., UC_RESET_ALT_STACK );
+
+which cause the test to fail uselessly. It is hard to ignore these errors
+with a major overhaul of the way instrumentation is performed in the test
+suite. So currently, do not try to run valgrind on Mac OS X.
+
** Release checks
Try to run the test suite with more severe conditions before a
release:
that 1. Bison compiles cleanly, 2. the parsers it produces compile
cleanly too.
-- Build with -DGNULIB_POSIXCHECK. It suggests gnulib modules that can
- fix portability issues.
+- Maybe build with -DGNULIB_POSIXCHECK, which suggests gnulib modules
+ that can fix portability issues. See if you really want to pay
+ attention to its warnings; there's no need to obey blindly to it
+ (<http://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/bison-patches/2012-05/msg00057.html>).
-- run `make maintainer-check' which:
- - runs `valgrind -q bison' to run Bison under Valgrind.
+- Check with "make syntax-check" if there are issues diagnosed by
+ gnulib.
+
+- run "make maintainer-check" which:
+ - runs "valgrind -q bison" to run Bison under Valgrind.
- runs the parsers under Valgrind.
- runs the test suite with G++ as C compiler...
-- run `make maintainer-push-check', which runs `make maintainer-check'
+- run "make maintainer-push-check", which runs "make maintainer-check"
while activating the push implementation and its pull interface wrappers
in many test cases that were originally written to exercise only the
pull implementation. This makes certain the push implementation can
perform every task the pull implementation can.
-- run `make maintainer-xml-check', which runs `make maintainer-check'
+- run "make maintainer-xml-check", which runs "make maintainer-check"
while checking Bison's XML automaton report for every working grammar
passed to Bison in the test suite. The check just diffs the output of
Bison's included XSLT style sheets with the output of --report=all and
--graph.
+- running "make maintainer-release-check" takes care of running
+ maintainer-check, maintainer-push-check and maintainer-xml-check.
+
- Change tests/atlocal/CFLAGS to add your preferred options. For
- instance, `-traditional' to check that the parsers are K&R. Note
- that it does not make sense for glr.c, which should be ANSI,
- but currently is actually GNU C, nor for lalr1.cc.
+ instance, "-traditional" to check that the parsers are K&R. Note
+ that it does not make sense for glr.c, which should be ANSI, but
+ currently is actually GNU C, nor for lalr1.cc.
+
+- Test with a very recent version of GCC for both C and C++. Testing
+ with older versions that are still in use is nice too.
* Release Procedure
+This section needs to be updated to take into account features from
+gnulib. In particular, be sure to read README-release.
+
+** Update the submodules. See above.
+
+** Update maintainer tools, such as Autoconf. See above.
** Try to get the *.pot files to the Translation Project at least one
week before a stable release, to give them time to translate them.
See above.
** Update the foreign files
-Running `./bootstrap' in the top level should update them all for you.
+Running "./bootstrap" in the top level should update them all for you.
This covers PO files too. Sometimes a PO file contains problems that
causes it to be rejected by recent Gettext releases; please report
these to the Translation Project.
** Check copyright years.
We update years in copyright statements throughout Bison once at the
-start of every year by running `make update-copyright'. However, before
+start of every year by running "make update-copyright". However, before
a release, it's good to verify that it's actually been run. Besides the
copyright statement for each Bison file, check the copyright statements
that the skeletons insert into generated parsers, and check all
occurrences of PACKAGE_COPYRIGHT_YEAR in configure.ac.
-** Update NEWS
-The version number, *and* the date of the release (including for
-betas).
+** Update NEWS, commit and tag.
+See do-release-commit-and-tag in README-release. For a while, we used
+beta names such as "2.6_rc1". Now that we use gnulib in the release
+procedure, we must use "2.5.90", which has the additional benefit of
+being properly sorted in "git tag -l".
-** Update ChangeLog
-Should have an entry similar to `Version 1.49b.'.
+** make alpha, beta, or stable
+See README-release.
-** Tag the release
-Before Bison will build with the right version number, you must tag the release
-in git. Do this after all other changes. The command is similar to:
-
- git tag -a v2.3b
+** Upload
+There are two ways to upload the tarballs to the GNU servers: using
+gnupload (from gnulib), or by hand. Obviously prefer the former. But
+in either case, be sure to read the following paragraph.
-The log message can be simply:
+*** Setup
+You need "gnupg".
- Bison 2.3b
+Make sure your public key has been uploaded at least to
+keys.gnupg.net. You can upload it with:
-** Push
-Once `make distcheck' passes, push your changes and the tag.
-`git push' without arguments will not push the tag.
+ gpg --keyserver keys.gnupg.net --send-keys F125BDF3
-** make alpha
-FIXME: `make alpha' is not maintained and is broken. These
-instructions need to be replaced or removed.
+where F125BDF3 should be replaced with your key ID.
-Running `make alpha' is absolutely perfect for beta releases: it makes
-the tarballs, the xdeltas, and prepares (in /tmp/) a proto
-announcement. It is so neat, that that's what I use anyway for
-genuine releases, but adjusting things by hand (e.g., the urls in the
-announcement file, the ChangeLog which is not needed etc.).
+*** Using gnupload
+You need "ncftp".
-If it fails, you're on your own...
+At the end "make stable" (or alpha/beta) will display the procedure to
+run. Just copy and paste it in your shell.
-It requires GNU Make.
+*** By hand
-** Upload
The generic GNU upload procedure is at:
http://www.gnu.org/prep/maintain/maintain.html#Automated-FTP-Uploads
Follow the instructions there to register your information so you're permitted
-to upload. Make sure your public key has been uploaded at least to
-keys.gnupg.net. You can upload it with:
-
- gpg --keyserver keys.gnupg.net --send-keys F125BDF3
-
-where F125BDF3 should be replaced with your key ID.
+to upload.
Here's a brief reminder of how to roll the tarballs and upload them:
*** make distcheck
*** gpg -b bison-2.3b.tar.gz
-*** In a file named `bison-2.3b.tar.gz.directive', type:
+*** In a file named "bison-2.3b.tar.gz.directive", type:
version: 1.1
directory: bison
*** put bison-2.3b.tar.gz # This can take a while.
*** put bison-2.3b.tar.gz.sig
*** put bison-2.3b.tar.gz.directive.asc
-*** Repeat all these steps for bison-2.3b.tar.bz2.
+*** Repeat all these steps for bison-2.3b.tar.xz.
** Update Bison manual on www.gnu.org.
issue.
** Announce
-To generate a template announcement file:
+The "make stable" (or alpha/beta) command just created a template,
+$HOME/announce-bison-X.Y. Otherwise, to generate it, run:
make RELEASE_TYPE=alpha gpg_key_ID=F125BDF3 announcement
Complete/fix the announcement file. The generated list of recipients
(info-gnu@gnu.org, bug-bison@gnu.org, help-bison@gnu.org,
bison-patches@gnu.org, and coordinator@translationproject.org) is
-appropriate for a stable release or a ``serious beta''. For any other
-release, drop at least info-gnu@gnu.org. For an example of how to fill
-out the rest of the template, search the mailing list archives for the
-most recent release announcement.
+appropriate for a stable release or a "serious beta". For any other
+release, drop at least info-gnu@gnu.org. For an example of how to
+fill out the rest of the template, search the mailing list archives
+for the most recent release announcement.
For a stable release, send the same announcement on the comp.compilers
newsgroup by sending email to compilers@iecc.com. Do not make any Cc as
the moderator will throw away anything cross-posted or Cc'ed. It really
needs to be a separate message.
-** Bump the version number
-In configure.ac. Run `make'. So that developers don't accidentally add new
-items to the old NEWS entry, create a new empty NEWS entry something like:
+** Prepare NEWS
+So that developers don't accidentally add new items to the old NEWS
+entry, create a new empty entry in line 3 (without the two leading
+spaces):
- Changes in version ?.? (????-??-??):
+ * Noteworthy changes in release ?.? (????-??-??) [?]
Push these changes.
-
-----
-Copyright (C) 2002-2005, 2007-2011 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
+Copyright (C) 2002-2005, 2007-2012 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
This file is part of GNU Bison.
You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License
along with this program. If not, see <http://www.gnu.org/licenses/>.
+
+ LocalWords: Automake Autoconf Gettext Gzip Rsync Valgrind gnulib submodules
+ LocalWords: submodule init cd distcheck checkin ChangeLog valgrind sigreturn
+ LocalWords: UC gcc DGNULIB POSIXCHECK xml XSLT glr lalr README po runtime rc
+ LocalWords: gnupload gnupg gpg keyserver BDF ncftp filename clearsign cvs dir
+ LocalWords: symlinks vti html lt POSIX Cc'ed
+
+Local Variables:
+mode: outline
+fill-column: 76
+End:
projects / bison.git / blobdiff