@c For double-sided printing, uncomment:
@c @setchapternewpage odd
@c This date is automagically updated when you save this file:
-@set lastupdate January 20, 2011
+@set lastupdate May 9, 2011
@c %**end of header
@dircategory GNU organization
@cindex help, getting
@cindex @code{mentors@@gnu.org} mailing list
-If you have general questions or encounter a situation where it isn't
-clear what to do, you can ask @email{mentors@@gnu.org}, which is a
-list of a few experienced GNU contributors who have offered to answer
-questions for new maintainers.
+If you have any general questions or encounter a situation where it
+isn't clear how to get something done or who to ask, you (as a GNU
+contributor) can always write to @email{mentors@@gnu.org}, which is a
+list of a few experienced GNU folks who have volunteered to answer
+questions. Any GNU-related question is fair game for the
+@code{mentors} list.
@cindex advisory committee
The GNU Advisory Committee helps to coordinate activities in the GNU
committee members. Additional information is in
@file{/gd/gnuorg/advisory}.
+@cindex down, when GNU machines are
+@cindex outage, of GNU machines
+@cindex @url{http://identi.ca/group/fsfstatus}
+If you find that any GNU computer systems (@code{fencepost.gnu.org},
+@code{ftp.gnu.org}, @code{www.gnu.org}, @code{savannah.gnu.org},
+@dots{}) seem to be down, you can check the current status at
+@url{http://identi.ca/group/fsfstatus}. Most likely the problem, if
+it can be alleviated at the FSF end, is already being worked on.
+
+@cindex sysadmin, FSF
+@cindex FSF system administrators
+@cindex GNU system administrators
+The FSF system administrators are responsible for the network and GNU
+hardware. You can email them at @email{sysadmin@@fsf.org}, but please
+try not to burden them unnecessarily.
@node Getting a GNU Account
@gdgnuorgtext{}
-@cindex down, when GNU machines are
-@cindex outage, of GNU machines
-@cindex @url{http://identi.ca/group/fsfstatus}
-If you find that any GNU computer systems (@code{fencepost.gnu.org},
-@code{ftp.gnu.org}, @code{www.gnu.org}, @code{savannah.gnu.org},
-@dots{}) seem to be down, you can check the current status at
-@url{http://identi.ca/group/fsfstatus}. Most likely the problem, if
-it can be alleviated at the FSF end, is already being worked on.
-
@node Stepping Down
@chapter Stepping Down
It is very important to keep backup files of all source files of GNU.
You can do this using a source control system (such as Bazaar, RCS,
CVS, Git, Subversion, @dots{}) if you like. The easiest way to use
-RCS or CVS is via the Version Control library in Emacs (@pxref{VC
-Concepts,, Concepts of Version Control, emacs, The GNU Emacs Manual}).
+RCS or CVS is via the Version Control library in Emacs
+(@pxref{Introduction to VC,, Introduction to Version Control, emacs,
+The GNU Emacs Manual}).
The history of previous revisions and log entries is very important for
future maintainers of the package, so even if you do not make it
@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 May 5, 2011
@c %**end of header
@dircategory GNU organization
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
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
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
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
that can't handle those characters.
Whenever possible, try to make programs work properly with
sequences of bytes that represent multibyte characters, using encodings
-such as UTF-8 and others.
+such as UTF-8 and others. You can use libiconv to deal with a wide
+range of encodings.
@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
@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
projects / gnulib.git / commitdiff