# Ghostscript maintenance procedures

## Table of contents

> - Introduction
> - Rules for CVS commits
> - Adding or Removing Files

For other information, see the Ghostscript overview and the instructions on how to build Ghostscript.

## Introduction

This document describes various maintenance procedures associated with development version Ghostscript. It is only meant for developers actively working on Ghostscript.

## Rules for CVS Commits

This section describes a few rules intended to make life easier for people working with this code base.

At any given time, there are usually two active branches: a stable branch and a development branch. The development branch is HEAD, which is the default when doing a checkout without a -r flag. At the time of this writing (7 October 2002), the stable branch is tagged GS_7_0x.

A concise and useful document for working with CVS branches is Jeff Semke's CVS Branch and Tag Primer. A somewhat more detailed explanation is the Branching and merging section from the CVS documentation by Pascal Molli.

For new development commits, you can basically ignore the branches. Just commit to the HEAD branch. For bug fixes for the stable branch, it is your responsibility to commit to both the stable branch and, if appropriate, HEAD. Commits to HEAD are appropriate if they are in an area not being actively reworked, if the development version exhibits the same bug symptoms, and if the patch fixes these symptoms.

When modifying a number of files for a single issue, please group them together as a single commit. For two separate sets of changes dealing with two different issues, there should be two commits.

You should strive not to introduce any new bugs with your commit. Always make sure the code compiles before committing. Test the changes with several files, including the problem file in the case of a bug fix, and other files that may have been affected by the changes.

Always supply a descriptive log message for your commits. These log messages are used to automatically generate the News.htm file and History changelogs, and are also crucial for navigating CVS using the CVSweb gateway. Please try to keep the style of the descriptions similar to those in the current History#.htm files.

Log messages beginning with 'Fix' are treated specially. Such messages are put under the "Fixes problems" heading when the History files are generated. Additionally, if the first four characters are 'Fix:' this is removed (i.e., "Fix: The xyz" becomes "The xyz", but "Fixes xyz" is copied unchanged). This feature is intended for explicit bugfixes and should be avoided for enhancements or commits with long explanations.

Information about who changed what, when, and why is maintained in the CVS logs. In general, a file should be a clean representation of the current version rather than a history trail of how it got there. Keeping old code around for reference is usually not necessary, as it is stored in the CVS diffs. When necessary, use #if / #endif, or descriptive conditionals such as #ifdef OLD_CMAP_TABLES. Do not comment out old code. (A very few files that are distributed separate from Ghostscript have a change log at the beginning, which should be maintained: currently, only ansiknr.c and md5.[ch].)

Additionally, if your patch removes a feature, changes an interface or otherwise creates an incompatibility with the last release, you must add an entry to the "Incompatible changes" section of `News.htm` as this information can only be generated manually. This admonition applies to api changes that might affect other developers as well as user issues like switch behavior. Upon release, the accumulated incompatible changes will be moved to the relevant History file, and the News collection in cvs will be wiped clean for the next version.

All patches must be reviewed before being committed. Please email your patch to gs-code-review@ghostscript.com. Make sure to include your commit comment and any other information that would be helpful for the review. Also, please identify which branches the patch is intended for.

If you are not an employee or consultant of Artifex or artofcode, then we need a copyright assignment form so we can incorporate your changes. Please email Raph Levien <raph@artofcode.com> and include your snailmail address for a hardcopy assignment form.

## Adding or removing files

When adding or removing files, don't forget to invoke `cvs add` or `cvs rm`.

When adding files, update the file roadmap in `doc/Develop.htm`.

When adding or removing files other than .c or .h: If the files will be used at runtime, check the install list in `unixinst.mak`.

When adding .c files, update the relevant `.mak` file (usually `devs.mak`, `int.mak`, or `lib.mak`).

When adding new documentation, add a link to `doc/Readme.htm` and a short blurb describing the contents of the file.

When adding or changing fonts, update `lib/Fontmap.GS`, `fonts.mak`, and possibly the compiled fonts in `gs.mak` and the examples in `doc/Fonts.htm`.

When adding .ps files, update `doc/Psfiles.htm`.

Likewise, you will want to delete any references for a file you remove from Ghostscript.

Copyright © 2000 artofcode LLC. All rights reserved.

This software is provided AS-IS with no warranty, either express or implied. This software is distributed under license and may not be copied, modified or distributed except as expressly authorized under the terms of the license contained in the file LICENSE in this distribution.

Ghostscript version 7.06, 1 April 2003