X-Git-Url: https://projects.mako.cc/source/fspm_howto/blobdiff_plain/6356d08d1336c70711ac47151f80cab78ed8a0e8..c6442cf5548dc6e643c7ac833d04049361133f00:/FreeSoftwareDevelopmentHOWTO.sgml
diff --git a/FreeSoftwareDevelopmentHOWTO.sgml b/FreeSoftwareDevelopmentHOWTO.sgml
index 4499e57..d41ae2b 100644
--- a/FreeSoftwareDevelopmentHOWTO.sgml
+++ b/FreeSoftwareDevelopmentHOWTO.sgml
@@ -206,9 +206,9 @@
- The latest version number of this document should always be listed
- at my webpage at
- http://people.debian.org/~mako/ Debian.
+ The latest version number of this document should always be listed
+ on my webpage at
+ Debian.
@@ -319,7 +319,7 @@
development process that it heralds and I think its ultimate
success will be rooted in this fact. Please send your additions,
comments and criticisms to the following email address :
- mako (at) debian (dot) org.
+ mako@debian. org.
@@ -339,8 +339,7 @@
available. If you would like to help with or do a translation, you
will gain my utmost respect and admiration and you'll get to be
part of a cool process. If you are at all interested, please don't
- hesitate to contact me at: mako (at) debian (dot)
- org.
+ hesitate to contact me at: mako@debian.org.
@@ -397,7 +396,7 @@
- Indentify and Articulate Your Idea
+ Indentify and articulate your idea
Eric S. Raymond writes about how free software projects start in
his paper, "The Cathedral and the Bazaar" which comes as required
@@ -427,7 +426,7 @@
- Evaluate Your Idea
+ Evaluate your idea
In evaluating your idea, you need to ask yourself questions.
@@ -473,7 +472,7 @@
- freshmeat.net
+ freshmeat.net:
freshmeat
describes itself as, the Web's largest index of Linux
@@ -485,7 +484,7 @@
- Slashdot
+ Slashdot:
Slashdot
provides News for Nerds: Stuff that Matters,
@@ -497,7 +496,7 @@
- SourceForge
+ SourceForge:
SourceForge
houses and facilitates a growning number of open source and
@@ -517,7 +516,7 @@
- Google and Google's Linux Search
+ Google and Google's Linux Search:
Google and
Google's Linux
@@ -585,7 +584,7 @@
- Choosing a License
+ Choosing a license
Any discussion of licenses is also sure to generate at least a
@@ -666,7 +665,7 @@
- The Mechanics of Licensing
+ The mechanics of licensing
The text of the GPL offers
- Final License Warning
+ Final license warning
Please, please, please, place your software under some
@@ -809,18 +808,18 @@ for details.
- Whether you plan on having a split development model or only one version released at a time, my
- experience with several free software projects and with the
- Debian project has taught me taht use of Linux's version
- numbering system is worth taking into consideration. In Debian,
- all minor versions are stable distributions (2.0, 2.1,
- etc). However, many people assume that 2.1 is an unstable or
- development version and continue to use an older version until
- they get so frusterated with the lack of development and
- progress that they complain. If you never release an odd minor
- version but only release even ones, nobody is hurt, and less
- people are confused.
+ Whether you plan on having a split development model (as
+ described in ) or only one version
+ released at a time, my experience with several free software
+ projects and with the Debian project has taught me taht use of
+ Linux's version numbering system is worth taking into
+ consideration. In Debian, all minor versions are stable
+ distributions (2.0, 2.1, etc). However, many people assume that
+ 2.1 is an unstable or development version and continue to use
+ an older version until they get so frusterated with the lack of
+ development and progress that they complain. If you never
+ release an odd minor version but only release even ones, nobody
+ is hurt, and less people are confused.
@@ -879,16 +878,337 @@ for details.
Documentation
-
+
+
+ A huge number of otherwise fantastic free software applications
+ have withered because their author was the only person who knew
+ how to use them well. Even if your program is written primarily
+ for a techno-savvy group of users, documentation is helpful and
+ necessary for the survival of your project. You will learn later
+ in that you must always release
+ something that is usable. A piece of software without
+ documentation is not usuable.
+
+
+
+ There are lots of ways to document your project and lots of
+ different people to document for. The idea of documentation the
+ code itself to help facilitate development by a large community is
+ vital but is outside the scope of this HOWTO. This being the case,
+ this section deals mostly useful tactics for user-directed
+ documentation.
+
+
+
+ A combination of tradition and necessity has resulted in a
+ semi-regular system method of documentation in most free software
+ projects that is worth following. Both users and developers expect
+ to be able to get documentation in several ways and its essential
+ that you provide the information they are seeking in a form they
+ can read if your project is ever going to get off the
+ ground. People have come to expect:
+
+
+
+ Man pages
+
+ Your users will want to be able to type man
+ foo
end up with a nicely formatted man page highlighting
+ the basic use of their application. Make sure that before you
+ release your program, you've planned for this.
+
+
+
+ Man pages are not difficult to write. There is excellent
+ documentation on the man page process available through the
+ The Linux Man-Page-HOWTO
available through the
+ Linux Documentation project (LDP) written by
+ Jens Schweikhardt. It is available from
+ Schweikhardt's site or from the
+ LDP.
+
+
+
+ It is also possible to write man pages using DocBook SGML and
+ convert them into man pages. Because manpages are so simple, I
+ have not been able to follow this up but would love help from
+ anyone who can give me more information on how exactly this is
+ done.
+
+
+
+
+ Command line accessable documentation
+
+
+ Most users will expect the most basic amount of documentation to
+ be easily availabe from the command line. For few programs should
+ then documentation extend for more than one screen (24 or 25
+ lines) but it should cover the basic usage, a brief (one or two
+ sentance) description of the program, a list of commands, all the
+ major options, and a pointer to more in-depth documentation for
+ those who need it. The command line documentation for Debian's
+ apt-get serves as an excellent example and a useful model:
+
+
+
+apt 0.3.19 for i386 compiled on May 12 2000 21:17:27
+Usage: apt-get [options] command
+ apt-get [options] install pkg1 [pkg2 ...]
+
+apt-get is a simple command line interface for downloading and
+installing packages. The most frequently used commands are update
+and install.
+
+Commands:
+ update - Retrieve new lists of packages
+ upgrade - Perform an upgrade
+ install - Install new packages (pkg is libc6 not libc6.deb)
+ remove - Remove packages
+ source - Download source archives
+ dist-upgrade - Distribution upgrade, see apt-get(8)
+ dselect-upgrade - Follow dselect selections
+ clean - Erase downloaded archive files
+ autoclean - Erase old downloaded archive files
+ check - Verify that there are no broken dependencies
+
+Options:
+ -h This help text.
+ -q Loggable output - no progress indicator
+ -qq No output except for errors
+ -d Download only - do NOT install or unpack archives
+ -s No-act. Perform ordering simulation
+ -y Assume Yes to all queries and do not prompt
+ -f Attempt to continue if the integrity check fails
+ -m Attempt to continue if archives are unlocatable
+ -u Show a list of upgraded packages as well
+ -b Build the source package after fetching it
+ -c=? Read this configuration file
+ -o=? Set an arbitary configuration option, eg -o dir::cache=/tmp
+See the apt-get(8), sources.list(5) and apt.conf(5) manual
+pages for more information and options.
+
+
+
+ It has become a GNU convention to make this information
+ accessable with the -h
and the
+ --help
options. Most GNU/Linux users will expect
+ to be able to retrieve basic documentation these ways so if you
+ choose to use different method, be prepared for the flames and
+ for the fallout that may result.
+
+
+
+ Files users will expect
+
+ In addition to man pages and online help, there are certain files
+ where people will look to documentation, especially in any
+ package containing source code. In a source distribution, most of
+ these files can be stored in a the root directery of the source
+ distribution or in a subdirectory of the root called
+ doc
or Documentation
. These files include:
+
+
+
+
+ README or Readme
+
+
+
+ A document containing all the basic installation,
+ compiliation, and even basic use instructions that make up
+ the bare minimum information needed to get the program up and
+ running. A README is not your chance to be verbose but needs
+ to be concise and effective. An ideal README is at least 30
+ lines long and more no more than 250.
+
+
+
+
+
+ INSTALL or Install
+
+
+
+ The INSTALL file should be much shorter than the INSTALL file
+ and should quicly and concisely describe how to build and
+ install the program. Usually an install simply instructs the
+ user to run ./configure; make; make install and touches on
+ any unusual options that may be necessary. More advanced
+ users can usually avoid them but it's good practice to at
+ least glance at the file to understand what can be
+ expected. For most relatively standard install procedures and
+ for most programs, INSTALL files are as short as possible are
+ rarely over 100 lines.
+
+
+
+
+
+ Changelog, ChangeLog, CHANGELOG, or changelog
+
+
+
+ A changelog is a simple file that every well-managed free
+ software project should include. A changelog is simple the
+ file that, as its name would imply, logs or documents the
+ changes to a program. The most simple way to do a changelog
+ is to simply keep a file with teh source code for your
+ program and add a section to the top of the changelog with
+ each release describing what has been, changed, fixed, or
+ added to the program. It's a good idea to post the changelog
+ onto the website as well because it can help people decide
+ whether they want or need to upgrade to a newer version or
+ wait for a more signifigant upgrade.
+
+
+
+
+
+ FAQ
+
+
+
+ For those of you that don't already
+ know. FAQ stands for Frequently Asked
+ Questions and the file is a collection of exactly that. FAQs
+ are not difficult to make. Simply make a policy that if you
+ are asked a question or see a question on a mailing list two
+ or more times, add it the question (and its answer) to your
+ FAQs. FAQs are more optional than the files listed above but
+ they can save your time, increase useability, and decrease
+ headaches on all sides.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+ Website
+
+ It's only a sort of an issue of documentation but a good website
+ is quickly becoming an essential part of any free software
+ project. Your website should provide access to documentation (in
+ HTML if possible). It should also include a
+ section for news and events around your program and a section
+ that details the process of getting involved with development or
+ testing and creates an open invitation. It should also supply
+ links to any mailing lists, similar websites, and directly to all
+ the available ways of downloading your software.
+
+
+
+
+ Other documentation hints
+
+
+ It doesn't hurt to distribute any documentation for your program
+ from your website or anywhere else (FAQs etc) with the
+ program. Make a FAQ by cutting and posting common questions and
+ answers from a mailing list or your own email. Then, don't
+ hesitate through this in the programs tarball. If people don't
+ need it, they will delete it. I can repeat it over and over:
+ Too much documentation is not a sin.
+
+
+
+ All your documentation should be in plaintext, or, in cases where
+ it is on your website primarily, in HTML. Everyone can cat a
+ file, everyone has a pager, (almost) everyone can render
+ HTML. You are welcome to distribute information in PDF,
+ PostScript, RTF, or any number of other widely used formats but
+ this information must also be available in plaintext or HTML or
+ people will be very angry at you.
+
+
Other Presentation Issues
-
-
+
+ Many of the remaining issues surrounding the creation of a new
+ free software program fall under what most people describe as
+ common sense actions. Still, they are worth noting briefly in
+ hopes that they may remind a developer of something they may have
+ forgotten.
+
+
+
+ Package formats
+
+ Package formats may differ depending on the system you are
+ developing for. For windows based software, Zip archives (.zip)
+ usually serve as the package format of choice. If you are
+ developing for GNU/Linux, *BSD, or any UN*X, make sure that your
+ source code is always available in tar'ed and gzip'ed format
+ (.tar.gz). UNIX compress (.Z) has gone out of style and
+ usefulness and faster computers have brought bzip2 (.bz2) into
+ the spotlit as a more effective compression medium. I now make
+ all my releases available in both gzip'ed and bzip2'ed formats.
+
+
+
+ Binary packages are largely distribution specific. You can build
+ binary packages against a current version of a major
+ distribution, you will only make your users happy. Try to foster
+ relationships with users or developers of large distribution to
+ develop a system for consistent binary packages. It's often a
+ good idea to provide RedHat RPM's (.rpm),
+ Debian deb's (.deb) and source RPM's
+ SRPM's. Binary packages can also be compiled
+ against a specified system with specificed libraries and
+ distributed in tar.gz format as well. Remember: While
+ these binaries packages are nice, geting the source packaged and
+ released should always be your priority. Other can and will do
+ the the binary packages for you.
+
+
+
+
+ Useful tidbits and presentation hints
+
+
+
+
+
+
+ Make sure that your program can always be found in a
+ single location. Often this means that you have a
+ single directory accessable via FTP or
+ HTTP where the newest version will be
+ quickly recognized. One effective technique is a provide a
+ symlink called projectname-latest
that is
+ always pointing to the most recent released or development
+ version of your free software project.
+
+
+
+
+
+ Make sure that there is a consistent email address
+ for bug reports. It's usually a good idea to make
+ this something that is NOT your primary email address like
+ projectname@host or projectname-bugs@host. This way if you
+ ever decide to hand over maintainership or if your email
+ address changes, you simply need to change where this email
+ address forwards to. It also will allow for more than one
+ person to deal with the influx of mail that is created if your
+ project becomes as huge as you hope it will.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
@@ -946,6 +1266,26 @@ for details.
fswd!users
+
+
+
+ Testing and Testers
+
+
+
+
+
+
+ Setting up a Support Infrastructure
+
+
+
+
+
+
+ Releasing Your Program
+
+
@@ -954,12 +1294,7 @@ for details.
-
-
- Testing and Testers
-
-