find-maint: Documentation
1
1 7 Documentation
1 ***************
1
1 The findutils git tree includes several different types of
1 documentation.
1
1 7.1 git change log
1 ==================
1
1 The git change log for the source tree contains check-in messages which
1 describe each check-in. These have a standard format:
1
1 Summary of the change.
1
1 (ChangeLog-style detail)
1
1 Here, the format of the detail part follows the standard GNU
1 ChangeLog style, but without whitespace in the left margin and without
1 author/date headers. Take a look at the output of 'git log' to see some
1 examples. The README-hacking file also contains an example with an
1 explanation.
1
1 7.2 User Documentation
1 ======================
1
1 User-oriented documentation is provided as manual pages and in Texinfo.
1 See ⇒Introduction (find)Introduction.
1
1 Please make sure both sets of documentation are updated if you make a
1 change to the code. The GNU coding standards do not normally call for
1 maintaining manual pages on the grounds of effort duplication. However,
1 the manual page format is more convenient for quick reference, and so
1 it's worth maintaining both types of documentation. However, the manual
1 pages are normally rather more terse than the Texinfo documentation.
1 The manual pages are suitable for reference use, but the Texinfo manual
1 should also include introductory and tutorial material.
1
1 7.3 Build Guidance
1 ==================
1
1 'ABOUT-NLS'
1 Describes the Free Translation Project, the translation status of
1 various GNU projects, and how to participate by translating an
1 application.
1 'AUTHORS'
1 Lists the authors of findutils.
1 'COPYING'
1 The copyright license covering findutils; currently, the GNU GPL,
1 version 3.
1 'INSTALL'
1 Generic installation instructions for installing GNU programs.
1 'README'
1 Information about how to compile findutils in particular
1 'README-alpha'
1 A README file which is included with testing releases of findutils.
1 'README-hacking'
1 Describes how to build findutils from the code in git.
1 'THANKS'
1 Thanks for people who contributed to findutils. Generally, if
1 someone's contribution was significant enough to need a copyright
1 assignment, their name should go in here.
1 'TODO'
1 Mainly obsolete. Please add bugs to the Savannah bug tracker
1 instead of adding entries to this file.
1
1 7.4 Release Information
1 =======================
1
1 'NEWS'
1 Enumerates the user-visible change in each release. Typical
1 changes are fixed bugs, functionality changes and documentation
1 changes. Include the date when a release is made.
1 'ChangeLog'
1 This file enumerates all changes to the findutils source code (with
1 the possible exception of '.cvsignore' and '.gitignore' changes).
1 The level of detail used for this file should be sufficient to
1 answer the questions "what changed?" and "why was it changed?".
1 The file is generated from the git commit messages during 'make
1 dist'. If a change fixes a bug, always give the bug reference
1 number in the 'NEWS' file and of course also in the checkin
1 message. In general, it should be possible to enumerate all
1 material changes to a function by searching for its name in
1 'ChangeLog'. Mention when each release is made.
1