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stock binutils-2.8
1997-09-24 19:39:15 +04:00
This is Info file standards.info, produced by Makeinfo-1.64 from the
input file ./standards.texi.
START-INFO-DIR-ENTRY
* Standards: (standards). GNU coding standards.
END-INFO-DIR-ENTRY
GNU Coding Standards Copyright (C) 1992, 1993, 1994, 1995, 1996 Free
Software Foundation, Inc.
Permission is granted to make and distribute verbatim copies of this
manual provided the copyright notice and this permission notice are
preserved on all copies.
Permission is granted to copy and distribute modified versions of
this manual under the conditions for verbatim copying, provided that
the entire resulting derived work is distributed under the terms of a
permission notice identical to this one.
Permission is granted to copy and distribute translations of this
manual into another language, under the above conditions for modified
versions, except that this permission notice may be stated in a
translation approved by the Free Software Foundation.

File: standards.info, Node: Directory Variables, Next: Standard Targets, Prev: Command Variables, Up: Makefile Conventions
Variables for Installation Directories
--------------------------------------
Installation directories should always be named by variables, so it
is easy to install in a nonstandard place. The standard names for these
variables are described below. They are based on a standard filesystem
layout; variants of it are used in SVR4, 4.4BSD, Linux, Ultrix v4, and
other modern operating systems.
These two variables set the root for the installation. All the other
installation directories should be subdirectories of one of these two,
and nothing should be directly installed into these two directories.
`prefix'
A prefix used in constructing the default values of the variables
listed below. The default value of `prefix' should be
`/usr/local'. When building the complete GNU system, the prefix
will be empty and `/usr' will be a symbolic link to `/'. (If you
are using Autoconf, write it as `@prefix@'.)
`exec_prefix'
A prefix used in constructing the default values of some of the
variables listed below. The default value of `exec_prefix' should
be `$(prefix)'. (If you are using Autoconf, write it as
`@exec_prefix@'.)
Generally, `$(exec_prefix)' is used for directories that contain
machine-specific files (such as executables and subroutine
libraries), while `$(prefix)' is used directly for other
directories.
Executable programs are installed in one of the following
directories.
`bindir'
The directory for installing executable programs that users can
run. This should normally be `/usr/local/bin', but write it as
`$(exec_prefix)/bin'. (If you are using Autoconf, write it as
`@bindir@'.)
`sbindir'
The directory for installing executable programs that can be run
from the shell, but are only generally useful to system
administrators. This should normally be `/usr/local/sbin', but
write it as `$(exec_prefix)/sbin'. (If you are using Autoconf,
write it as `@sbindir@'.)
`libexecdir'
The directory for installing executable programs to be run by other
programs rather than by users. This directory should normally be
`/usr/local/libexec', but write it as `$(exec_prefix)/libexec'.
(If you are using Autoconf, write it as `@libexecdir@'.)
Data files used by the program during its execution are divided into
categories in two ways.
* Some files are normally modified by programs; others are never
normally modified (though users may edit some of these).
* Some files are architecture-independent and can be shared by all
machines at a site; some are architecture-dependent and can be
shared only by machines of the same kind and operating system;
others may never be shared between two machines.
This makes for six different possibilities. However, we want to
discourage the use of architecture-dependent files, aside from object
files and libraries. It is much cleaner to make other data files
architecture-independent, and it is generally not hard.
Therefore, here are the variables Makefiles should use to specify
directories:
`datadir'
The directory for installing read-only architecture independent
data files. This should normally be `/usr/local/share', but write
it as `$(prefix)/share'. (If you are using Autoconf, write it as
`@datadir@'.) As a special exception, see `$(infodir)' and
`$(includedir)' below.
`sysconfdir'
The directory for installing read-only data files that pertain to a
single machine-that is to say, files for configuring a host.
Mailer and network configuration files, `/etc/passwd', and so
forth belong here. All the files in this directory should be
ordinary ASCII text files. This directory should normally be
`/usr/local/etc', but write it as `$(prefix)/etc'. (If you are
using Autoconf, write it as `@sysconfdir@'.)
Do not install executables in this directory (they probably belong
in `$(libexecdir)' or `$(sbindir)'). Also do not install files
that are modified in the normal course of their use (programs
whose purpose is to change the configuration of the system
excluded). Those probably belong in `$(localstatedir)'.
`sharedstatedir'
The directory for installing architecture-independent data files
which the programs modify while they run. This should normally be
`/usr/local/com', but write it as `$(prefix)/com'. (If you are
using Autoconf, write it as `@sharedstatedir@'.)
`localstatedir'
The directory for installing data files which the programs modify
while they run, and that pertain to one specific machine. Users
should never need to modify files in this directory to configure
the package's operation; put such configuration information in
separate files that go in `$(datadir)' or `$(sysconfdir)'.
`$(localstatedir)' should normally be `/usr/local/var', but write
it as `$(prefix)/var'. (If you are using Autoconf, write it as
`@localstatedir@'.)
`libdir'
The directory for object files and libraries of object code. Do
not install executables here, they probably ought to go in
`$(libexecdir)' instead. The value of `libdir' should normally be
`/usr/local/lib', but write it as `$(exec_prefix)/lib'. (If you
are using Autoconf, write it as `@libdir@'.)
`infodir'
The directory for installing the Info files for this package. By
default, it should be `/usr/local/info', but it should be written
as `$(prefix)/info'. (If you are using Autoconf, write it as
`@infodir@'.)
`lispdir'
The directory for installing any Emacs Lisp files in this package.
By default, it should be `/usr/local/share/emacs/site-lisp', but
it should be written as `$(prefix)/share/emacs/site-lisp'.
If you are using Autoconf, write the default as `@lispdir@'. In
order to make `@lispdir@' work, you need the following lines in
your `configure.in' file:
lispdir='${datadir}/emacs/site-lisp'
AC_SUBST(lispdir)
`includedir'
The directory for installing header files to be included by user
programs with the C `#include' preprocessor directive. This
should normally be `/usr/local/include', but write it as
`$(prefix)/include'. (If you are using Autoconf, write it as
`@includedir@'.)
Most compilers other than GCC do not look for header files in
`/usr/local/include'. So installing the header files this way is
only useful with GCC. Sometimes this is not a problem because some
libraries are only really intended to work with GCC. But some
libraries are intended to work with other compilers. They should
install their header files in two places, one specified by
`includedir' and one specified by `oldincludedir'.
`oldincludedir'
The directory for installing `#include' header files for use with
compilers other than GCC. This should normally be `/usr/include'.
(If you are using Autoconf, you can write it as `@oldincludedir@'.)
The Makefile commands should check whether the value of
`oldincludedir' is empty. If it is, they should not try to use
it; they should cancel the second installation of the header files.
A package should not replace an existing header in this directory
unless the header came from the same package. Thus, if your Foo
package provides a header file `foo.h', then it should install the
header file in the `oldincludedir' directory if either (1) there
is no `foo.h' there or (2) the `foo.h' that exists came from the
Foo package.
To tell whether `foo.h' came from the Foo package, put a magic
string in the file--part of a comment--and `grep' for that string.
Unix-style man pages are installed in one of the following:
`mandir'
The top-level directory for installing the man pages (if any) for
this package. It will normally be `/usr/local/man', but you should
write it as `$(prefix)/man'. (If you are using Autoconf, write it
as `@mandir@'.)
`man1dir'
The directory for installing section 1 man pages. Write it as
`$(mandir)/man1'.
`man2dir'
The directory for installing section 2 man pages. Write it as
`$(mandir)/man2'
`...'
*Don't make the primary documentation for any GNU software be a
man page. Write a manual in Texinfo instead. Man pages are just
for the sake of people running GNU software on Unix, which is a
secondary application only.*
`manext'
The file name extension for the installed man page. This should
contain a period followed by the appropriate digit; it should
normally be `.1'.
`man1ext'
The file name extension for installed section 1 man pages.
`man2ext'
The file name extension for installed section 2 man pages.
`...'
Use these names instead of `manext' if the package needs to
install man pages in more than one section of the manual.
And finally, you should set the following variable:
`srcdir'
The directory for the sources being compiled. The value of this
variable is normally inserted by the `configure' shell script.
(If you are using Autconf, use `srcdir = @srcdir@'.)
For example:
# Common prefix for installation directories.
# NOTE: This directory must exist when you start the install.
prefix = /usr/local
exec_prefix = $(prefix)
# Where to put the executable for the command `gcc'.
bindir = $(exec_prefix)/bin
# Where to put the directories used by the compiler.
libexecdir = $(exec_prefix)/libexec
# Where to put the Info files.
infodir = $(prefix)/info
If your program installs a large number of files into one of the
standard user-specified directories, it might be useful to group them
into a subdirectory particular to that program. If you do this, you
should write the `install' rule to create these subdirectories.
Do not expect the user to include the subdirectory name in the value
of any of the variables listed above. The idea of having a uniform set
of variable names for installation directories is to enable the user to
specify the exact same values for several different GNU packages. In
order for this to be useful, all the packages must be designed so that
they will work sensibly when the user does so.

File: standards.info, Node: Standard Targets, Next: Install Command Categories, Prev: Directory Variables, Up: Makefile Conventions
Standard Targets for Users
--------------------------
All GNU programs should have the following targets in their
Makefiles:
`all'
Compile the entire program. This should be the default target.
This target need not rebuild any documentation files; Info files
should normally be included in the distribution, and DVI files
should be made only when explicitly asked for.
By default, the Make rules should compile and link with `-g', so
that executable programs have debugging symbols. Users who don't
mind being helpless can strip the executables later if they wish.
`install'
Compile the program and copy the executables, libraries, and so on
to the file names where they should reside for actual use. If
there is a simple test to verify that a program is properly
installed, this target should run that test.
Do not strip executables when installing them. Devil-may-care
users can use the `install-strip' target to do that.
If possible, write the `install' target rule so that it does not
modify anything in the directory where the program was built,
provided `make all' has just been done. This is convenient for
building the program under one user name and installing it under
another.
The commands should create all the directories in which files are
to be installed, if they don't already exist. This includes the
directories specified as the values of the variables `prefix' and
`exec_prefix', as well as all subdirectories that are needed. One
way to do this is by means of an `installdirs' target as described
below.
Use `-' before any command for installing a man page, so that
`make' will ignore any errors. This is in case there are systems
that don't have the Unix man page documentation system installed.
The way to install Info files is to copy them into `$(infodir)'
with `$(INSTALL_DATA)' (*note Command Variables::.), and then run
the `install-info' program if it is present. `install-info' is a
program that edits the Info `dir' file to add or update the menu
entry for the given Info file; it is part of the Texinfo package.
Here is a sample rule to install an Info file:
$(infodir)/foo.info: foo.info
$(POST_INSTALL)
# There may be a newer info file in . than in srcdir.
-if test -f foo.info; then d=.; \
else d=$(srcdir); fi; \
$(INSTALL_DATA) $$d/foo.info $@; \
# Run install-info only if it exists.
# Use `if' instead of just prepending `-' to the
# line so we notice real errors from install-info.
# We use `$(SHELL) -c' because some shells do not
# fail gracefully when there is an unknown command.
if $(SHELL) -c 'install-info --version' \
>/dev/null 2>&1; then \
install-info --dir-file=$(infodir)/dir \
$(infodir)/foo.info; \
else true; fi
When writing the `install' target, you must classify all the
commands into three categories: normal ones, "pre-installation"
commands and "post-installation" commands. *Note Install Command
Categories::.
`uninstall'
Delete all the installed files--the copies that the `install'
target creates.
This rule should not modify the directories where compilation is
done, only the directories where files are installed.
The uninstallation commands are divided into three categories,
just like the installation commands. *Note Install Command
Categories::.
`install-strip'
Like `install', but strip the executable files while installing
them. In many cases, the definition of this target can be very
simple:
install-strip:
$(MAKE) INSTALL_PROGRAM='$(INSTALL_PROGRAM) -s' \
install
Normally we do not recommend stripping an executable unless you
are sure the program has no bugs. However, it can be reasonable
to install a stripped executable for actual execution while saving
the unstripped executable elsewhere in case there is a bug.
`clean'
Delete all files from the current directory that are normally
created by building the program. Don't delete the files that
record the configuration. Also preserve files that could be made
by building, but normally aren't because the distribution comes
with them.
Delete `.dvi' files here if they are not part of the distribution.
`distclean'
Delete all files from the current directory that are created by
configuring or building the program. If you have unpacked the
source and built the program without creating any other files,
`make distclean' should leave only the files that were in the
distribution.
`mostlyclean'
Like `clean', but may refrain from deleting a few files that people
normally don't want to recompile. For example, the `mostlyclean'
target for GCC does not delete `libgcc.a', because recompiling it
is rarely necessary and takes a lot of time.
`maintainer-clean'
Delete almost everything from the current directory that can be
reconstructed with this Makefile. This typically includes
everything deleted by `distclean', plus more: C source files
produced by Bison, tags tables, Info files, and so on.
The reason we say "almost everything" is that running the command
`make maintainer-clean' should not delete `configure' even if
`configure' can be remade using a rule in the Makefile. More
generally, `make maintainer-clean' should not delete anything that
needs to exist in order to run `configure' and then begin to build
the program. This is the only exception; `maintainer-clean' should
delete everything else that can be rebuilt.
The `maintainer-clean' target is intended to be used by a
maintainer of the package, not by ordinary users. You may need
special tools to reconstruct some of the files that `make
maintainer-clean' deletes. Since these files are normally
included in the distribution, we don't take care to make them easy
to reconstruct. If you find you need to unpack the full
distribution again, don't blame us.
To help make users aware of this, the commands for the special
`maintainer-clean' target should start with these two:
@echo 'This command is intended for maintainers to use; it'
@echo 'deletes files that may need special tools to rebuild.'
`TAGS'
Update a tags table for this program.
`info'
Generate any Info files needed. The best way to write the rules
is as follows:
info: foo.info
foo.info: foo.texi chap1.texi chap2.texi
$(MAKEINFO) $(srcdir)/foo.texi
You must define the variable `MAKEINFO' in the Makefile. It should
run the `makeinfo' program, which is part of the Texinfo
distribution.
Normally a GNU distribution comes with Info files, and that means
the Info files are present in the source directory. Therefore,
the Make rule for an info file should update it in the source
directory. When users build the package, ordinarily Make will not
update the Info files because they will already be up to date.
`dvi'
Generate DVI files for all Texinfo documentation. For example:
dvi: foo.dvi
foo.dvi: foo.texi chap1.texi chap2.texi
$(TEXI2DVI) $(srcdir)/foo.texi
You must define the variable `TEXI2DVI' in the Makefile. It should
run the program `texi2dvi', which is part of the Texinfo
distribution.(1) Alternatively, write just the dependencies, and
allow GNU `make' to provide the command.
`dist'
Create a distribution tar file for this program. The tar file
should be set up so that the file names in the tar file start with
a subdirectory name which is the name of the package it is a
distribution for. This name can include the version number.
For example, the distribution tar file of GCC version 1.40 unpacks
into a subdirectory named `gcc-1.40'.
The easiest way to do this is to create a subdirectory
appropriately named, use `ln' or `cp' to install the proper files
in it, and then `tar' that subdirectory.
Compress the tar file file with `gzip'. For example, the actual
distribution file for GCC version 1.40 is called `gcc-1.40.tar.gz'.
The `dist' target should explicitly depend on all non-source files
that are in the distribution, to make sure they are up to date in
the distribution. *Note Making Releases: Releases.
`check'
Perform self-tests (if any). The user must build the program
before running the tests, but need not install the program; you
should write the self-tests so that they work when the program is
built but not installed.
The following targets are suggested as conventional names, for
programs in which they are useful.
`installcheck'
Perform installation tests (if any). The user must build and
install the program before running the tests. You should not
assume that `$(bindir)' is in the search path.
`installdirs'
It's useful to add a target named `installdirs' to create the
directories where files are installed, and their parent
directories. There is a script called `mkinstalldirs' which is
convenient for this; you can find it in the Texinfo package. You
can use a rule like this:
# Make sure all installation directories (e.g. $(bindir))
# actually exist by making them if necessary.
installdirs: mkinstalldirs
$(srcdir)/mkinstalldirs $(bindir) $(datadir) \
$(libdir) $(infodir) \
$(mandir)
This rule should not modify the directories where compilation is
done. It should do nothing but create installation directories.
---------- Footnotes ----------
(1) `texi2dvi' uses TeX to do the real work of formatting. TeX is
not distributed with Texinfo.

File: standards.info, Node: Install Command Categories, Prev: Standard Targets, Up: Makefile Conventions
Install Command Categories
--------------------------
When writing the `install' target, you must classify all the
commands into three categories: normal ones, "pre-installation"
commands and "post-installation" commands.
Normal commands move files into their proper places, and set their
modes. They may not alter any files except the ones that come entirely
from the package they belong to.
Pre-installation and post-installation commands may alter other
files; in particular, they can edit global configuration files or data
bases.
Pre-installation commands are typically executed before the normal
commands, and post-installation commands are typically run after the
normal commands.
The most common use for a post-installation command is to run
`install-info'. This cannot be done with a normal command, since it
alters a file (the Info directory) which does not come entirely and
solely from the package being installed. It is a post-installation
command because it needs to be done after the normal command which
installs the package's Info files.
Most programs don't need any pre-installation commands, but we have
the feature just in case it is needed.
To classify the commands in the `install' rule into these three
categories, insert "category lines" among them. A category line
specifies the category for the commands that follow.
A category line consists of a tab and a reference to a special Make
variable, plus an optional comment at the end. There are three
variables you can use, one for each category; the variable name
specifies the category. Category lines are no-ops in ordinary execution
because these three Make variables are normally undefined (and you
*should not* define them in the makefile).
Here are the three possible category lines, each with a comment that
explains what it means:
$(PRE_INSTALL) # Pre-install commands follow.
$(POST_INSTALL) # Post-install commands follow.
$(NORMAL_INSTALL) # Normal commands follow.
If you don't use a category line at the beginning of the `install'
rule, all the commands are classified as normal until the first category
line. If you don't use any category lines, all the commands are
classified as normal.
These are the category lines for `uninstall':
$(PRE_UNINSTALL) # Pre-uninstall commands follow.
$(POST_UNINSTALL) # Post-uninstall commands follow.
$(NORMAL_UNINSTALL) # Normal commands follow.
Typically, a pre-uninstall command would be used for deleting entries
from the Info directory.
If the `install' or `uninstall' target has any dependencies which
act as subroutines of installation, then you should start *each*
dependency's commands with a category line, and start the main target's
commands with a category line also. This way, you can ensure that each
command is placed in the right category regardless of which of the
dependencies actually run.
Pre-installation and post-installation commands should not run any
programs except for these:
[ basename bash cat chgrp chmod chown cmp cp dd diff echo
egrep expand expr false fgrep find getopt grep gunzip gzip
hostname install install-info kill ldconfig ln ls md5sum
mkdir mkfifo mknod mv printenv pwd rm rmdir sed sort tee
test touch true uname xargs yes
The reason for distinguishing the commands in this way is for the
sake of making binary packages. Typically a binary package contains
all the executables and other files that need to be installed, and has
its own method of installing them--so it does not need to run the normal
installation commands. But installing the binary package does need to
execute the pre-installation and post-installation commands.
Programs to build binary packages work by extracting the
pre-installation and post-installation commands. Here is one way of
extracting the pre-installation commands:
make -n install -o all \
PRE_INSTALL=pre-install \
POST_INSTALL=post-install \
NORMAL_INSTALL=normal-install \
| gawk -f pre-install.awk
where the file `pre-install.awk' could contain this:
$0 ~ /^\t[ \t]*(normal_install|post_install)[ \t]*$/ {on = 0}
on {print $0}
$0 ~ /^\t[ \t]*pre_install[ \t]*$/ {on = 1}
The resulting file of pre-installation commands is executed as a
shell script as part of installing the binary package.

File: standards.info, Node: Releases, Prev: Makefile Conventions, Up: Managing Releases
Making Releases
===============
Package the distribution of Foo version 69.96 in a gzipped tar file
named `foo-69.96.tar.gz'. It should unpack into a subdirectory named
`foo-69.96'.
Building and installing the program should never modify any of the
files contained in the distribution. This means that all the files
that form part of the program in any way must be classified into "source
files" and "non-source files". Source files are written by humans and
never changed automatically; non-source files are produced from source
files by programs under the control of the Makefile.
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, `lex', TeX, and `makeinfo'; this helps avoid
unnecessary dependencies between our distributions, so that users can
install whichever packages they want to install.
Non-source files that might actually be modified by building and
installing the program should *never* be included in the distribution.
So if you do distribute non-source files, always make sure they are up
to date when you make a new distribution.
Make sure that the directory into which the distribution unpacks (as
well as any subdirectories) are all world-writable (octal mode 777).
This is so that old versions of `tar' which preserve the ownership and
permissions of the files from the tar archive will be able to extract
all the files even if the user is unprivileged.
Make sure that all the files in the distribution are world-readable.
Make sure that no file name in the distribution is more than 14
characters long. Likewise, no file created by building the program
should have a name longer than 14 characters. The reason for this is
that some systems adhere to a foolish interpretation of the POSIX
standard, and refuse to open a longer name, rather than truncating as
they did in the past.
Don't include any symbolic links in the distribution itself. If the
tar file contains symbolic links, then people cannot even unpack it on
systems that don't support symbolic links. Also, don't use multiple
names for one file in different directories, because certain file
systems cannot handle this and that prevents unpacking the distribution.
Try to make sure that all the file names will be unique on MS-DOS. A
name on MS-DOS consists of up to 8 characters, optionally followed by a
period and up to three characters. MS-DOS will truncate extra
characters both before and after the period. Thus, `foobarhacker.c'
and `foobarhacker.o' are not ambiguous; they are truncated to
`foobarha.c' and `foobarha.o', which are distinct.
Include in your distribution a copy of the `texinfo.tex' you used to
test print any `*.texinfo' or `*.texi' files.
Likewise, if your program uses small GNU software packages like
regex, getopt, obstack, or termcap, include them in the distribution
file. Leaving them out would make the distribution file a little
smaller at the expense of possible inconvenience to a user who doesn't
know what other files to get.