regex: port to Stratus OpenVOS

[gnulib.git] / doc / standards.texi

diff --git a/doc/standards.texi b/doc/standards.texi
index 1847370..38d2c21 100644 (file)
--- a/doc/standards.texi
+++ b/doc/standards.texi
@@ -3,7 +3,7 @@
 @setfilename standards.info
 @settitle GNU Coding Standards
 @c This date is automagically updated when you save this file:
-@set lastupdate March 28, 2011
+@set lastupdate August 1, 2011
 @c %**end of header
 
 @dircategory GNU organization
@@ -181,6 +181,7 @@ Or turn some parts of the program into independently usable libraries.
 Or use a simple garbage collector instead of tracking precisely when
 to free memory, or use a new GNU facility such as obstacks.
 
+
 @node Contributions
 @section Accepting Contributions
 @cindex legal papers
@@ -223,10 +224,11 @@ The very worst thing is if you forget to tell us about the other
 contributor.  We could be very embarrassed in court some day as a
 result.
 
-We have more detailed advice for maintainers of programs; if you have
-reached the stage of actually maintaining a program for GNU (whether
-released or not), please ask us for a copy.  It is also available
-online for your perusal: @uref{http://www.gnu.org/prep/maintain/}.
+We have more detailed advice for maintainers of GNU packages.  If you
+have reached the stage of maintaining a GNU program (whether released
+or not), please take a look: @pxref{Legal Matters,,, maintain,
+Information for GNU Maintainers}.
+
 
 @node Trademarks
 @section Trademarks
@@ -594,6 +596,7 @@ POSIX is never a problem in practice, and it is very useful.
 In particular, don't reject a new feature, or remove an old one,
 merely because a standard says it is ``forbidden'' or ``deprecated.''
 
+
 @node Semantics
 @section Writing Robust Programs
 
@@ -604,6 +607,7 @@ all data structures dynamically.  In most Unix utilities, ``long lines
 are silently truncated''.  This is not acceptable in a GNU utility.
 
 @cindex @code{NUL} characters
+@findex libiconv
 Utilities reading files should not drop NUL characters, or any other
 nonprinting characters @emph{including those with codes above 0177}.
 The only sensible exceptions would be utilities specifically intended
@@ -614,12 +618,12 @@ sequences of bytes that represent multibyte characters, using encodings
 such as UTF-8 and others.
 
 @cindex error messages
-Check every system call for an error return, unless you know you wish to
-ignore errors.  Include the system error text (from @code{perror} or
-equivalent) in @emph{every} error message resulting from a failing
-system call, as well as the name of the file if any and the name of the
-utility.  Just ``cannot open foo.c'' or ``stat failed'' is not
-sufficient.
+Check every system call for an error return, unless you know you wish
+to ignore errors.  Include the system error text (from @code{perror},
+@code{strerror}, or equivalent) in @emph{every} error message
+resulting from a failing system call, as well as the name of the file
+if any and the name of the utility.  Just ``cannot open foo.c'' or
+``stat failed'' is not sufficient.
 
 @cindex @code{malloc} return value
 @cindex memory allocation failure
@@ -2329,10 +2333,11 @@ memory and give a fatal error if @code{malloc} returns zero.
 
 @pindex valgrind
 @cindex memory leak
-Memory leak detectors such as @command{valgrind} can be useful, but
+Memory analysis tools such as @command{valgrind} can be useful, but
 don't complicate a program merely to avoid their false alarms.  For
 example, if memory is used until just before a process exits, don't
-free it simply to silence a leak detector.
+free it simply to silence such a tool.
+
 
 @node File Usage
 @section File Usage
@@ -4019,11 +4024,13 @@ copying conditions.  The GNU GPL, if used, should be in a file called
 @file{COPYING}.  If the GNU LGPL is used, it should be in a file called
 @file{COPYING.LESSER}.
 
-Naturally, all the source files must be in the distribution.  It is okay
-to include non-source files in the distribution, provided they are
-up-to-date and machine-independent, so that building the distribution
-normally will never modify them.  We commonly include non-source files
-produced by Bison, @code{lex}, @TeX{}, and @code{makeinfo}; this helps avoid
+Naturally, all the source files must be in the distribution.  It is
+okay to include non-source files in the distribution along with the
+source files they are generated from, provided they are up-to-date
+with the source they are made from, and machine-independent, so that
+normal building of the distribution will never modify them.  We
+commonly include non-source files produced by Autoconf, Automake,
+Bison, @code{lex}, @TeX{}, and @code{makeinfo}; this helps avoid
 unnecessary dependencies between our distributions, so that users can
 install whichever packages they want to install.