This document aims to help the developer with the expectations when dealing with the FVWM source code.
The FVWM source conforms to the Linux kernel style guide.
The internal representation of how fvwm parses commands in undergoing a rewrite. Some notes on how fvwm parses commands exists.
The main FVWM repository treats the master
branch as stable, in that it's the
branch which has the most tested code on it, and the branch from which releases
are made. Formal releases of FVWM are tagged, in the form x.y.z
, historical
versions of FVWM are tagged as version-x_y_z
. Untagged code may well
accumulate on master
, which will go to form the next release.
Other branches in the repository will reflect on-going development from core fvwm-workers. As such, these branches are often in a state of flux, and likely to be rebased against other branches. NO code should be based off topic branches, unless explicitly agreed with other developers, who might need to collaborate.
Branch names are used to try and indicate the feature, and who is working on them. So for example, a topic-branch will be named as:
initials/rough-description-of-branch
For example:
ta/fix-clang-warnings
denotes that the branch is worked on by someone with the initials TA
and that
the branch is about fixing warnings from Clang.
Sometimes, if more than one person is collaborating on a branch, the initials prefix might not be needed.
When submitting patches, please also update the NEWS file with relevant highlights as to new functionality and/or bug-fixes. For inspiration, GNU have a list.
External contributions are always welcomed and encouraged. If you're thinking
of writing a new feature, it is worthwhile posting an email to the
fvwm-workers
mailing list to discuss whether it's a good idea, and to check no
one else is working on that feature.
Those wishing to submit code/bug-fixes should:
- Fork the FVWM-repository
- Add the FVWM-repo as an upstream
remote:
git remote add fvwmorg https://github.com/fvwmorg/fvwm.git && git fetch fvwmorg
- Create a topic-branch to house your work;
- Rebase it against
fvwmorg/master
- Push the latest changes to your fork;
- Open a pull-request
Once a pull-request is opened, an email is sent to the fvwm-workers
list so we
can take a look at it.
Alternatively, if pull-requests are not an option, then git-send-email
can be
used, sending the relevant patchsets to the fvwm-workers
mailing list.
Pull-requests made will result in the use of Travis-CI being run against the
branch. This builds the copy of the pushed code in a Ubuntu environment, with
all the additional libraries FVWM could use, loaded in. Builds are made against
gcc
and clang
, because both those compilers cover slightly different angles
with respect to compiling. All warnings are treated as errors, and if a build
does not succeeded, ensure the code is fixed, and pushed back out on the same
branch. Rebasing is recommended; Travis-CI and Github handle this just fine.
The FVWM repository also treats the master
branch as protected. This is a
GitHub feature
which means the master
branch in this case cannot have changes merged into it
until Travis-CI has verified the builds do not fail.
This has merit since not every developer will be using the same operating
systems (Linux versus BSD for instance), and that master
is meant to try and
be as release-worthy as can be.
NOTE: This means that no work can be commited to master
directly. ALL
work that needs to appear on master
---including the release
process---MUST go via a separate topic-branch, with a PR (pull-request).
Not even fvwmorg owners are an exception to this.
The history of master
should be as linear as possible, therefore when
merging changes to it the branch(es) in question should be rebased against
master first of all. This will stop a merge commit from happening.
If using github this process is easy, since the Merge pull request
button
has an option to Rebase and Merge
. This is what should be used. See also
the documentation on Github
If this is manual (which will only work when the Travis-CI checks have passed), then:
git checkout topic/branch
git rebase origin/master
git checkout master
git merge topic/branch
git push
The following tries to list all the conventions that the fvwm developers adhere to, either by consensus through discussion, common practice or unspoken agreement. It is hopefully useful for the fvwm development newbie.
The following programming languages are allowed:
- ANSI C
- Perl
- Portable /bin/sh scripts for examples.
-
There are templates for new code files in the fvwm directory. Try to always use them as they provide a clean structure of the header and code files. Please honour the section titles. For example, put all static functions (and only static functions) under the "local functions" section.
-
All .c files must have
#include "config.h"
as the first non-comment line. Otherwise the settings made by the configure script may not be used. This can cause random problems.
- The names of the code files in the fvwm directory are in lower case.
- Files in the libs directory may begin with a capital 'F'. This letter is reserved for wrapper files for third party libraries or modules. For example, FShape is an abstraction of the XShape X server extension and FBidi is a wrapper for the fribidi library. Do not use the 'F' for other purposes.
- A copy of the GPL should be at the beginning of all code files (.c) and scripts, but not at the beginning of header files (.h).
- Every feature must be described with all options in the man page.
Before deciding to make a new release, please check with the fvwm-workers
mailing list that this is the right time to do so. This will give adequate
warning for other developers to give status updates about any in-flight
development that's happening which might impact a potential release.
Make sure you have all optional libraries installed.
NOTE: as master
is a protected branch, changes made to files during the
release phase must be done on a separate branch, and not on master directly,
as pushes to this branch are not allowed until checks have been done on it.
This means the end result of the release-phase must have these changes issued
as a pull-request against master
.
-
git checkout master && git pull && git checkout -b release/x.y.z
Where:x.y.z
will be the next release. -
Change the dates in configure.ac and fill in the release dates.
-
Set
ISRELEASED
to"yes"
. -
Change
utils/fvwm-version-str.sh
and include the approrpiate version string. -
Commit the results.
-
Run:
./autogen.sh && make clean
to get the tree into a clean slate. Because this is a release, the source needs compiling. To do that, run:make CFLAGS="-g -O2 -Wall -Wpointer-arith -fno-strict-aliasing -Werror"
Fix all warnings and problems, commit the changes and repeat the previous command until no more warnings occur.
-
Tag the release:
git tag -a x.y.z
-- wherex.y.z
represents the appropriate version number for the release. -
Build and test the release tarballs:
Run:
make dist
If that succeeds, check for
fvwm-x.y.z.tar.gz
in the current working directory. This is the release tarball which will be uploaded to Github. Unpack it to a temporary directory and build it; check the version as well, via:./fvwm --version
. -
Push the tag out:
git push origin x.y.z
-- wherex.y.z
is the specific tag created in step 6. -
Set
ISRELEASED
to"no"
in configure.ac and commit and push that out. -
Issue a PR (pull-request) against
master
and mege that in assuming all checks pass. If not, fix the problems, and repeat this step. -
Upload the
fvwm-x.y.z.tar.gz
tarball to Github against the tag just pushed. -
Update the fvwm web site (see below)
-
Ensure you've a checkout of the repository:
git clone git@github.com:fvwmorg/fvwmorg.github.io.git
-
Update the
RELEASE
variable inMakefile
to the desired version which has been released. -
Run
make
. This will update all relevant files. -
git commit -a
the result, and push it out.