HACKING - automake - Git at Google


            
            ============================================================================

            
            = This file


            * This file attempts to describe the rules to use when hacking

            
              automake.


            ============================================================================

            
            = Administrivia


            * The correct response to most actual bugs is to write a new test case

            
              which demonstrates the bug.  Then fix the bug, re-run the test suite,

            
              and check everything in.


            * If you incorporate a change from somebody on the net:

            
              First, if it is a large change, you must make sure they have signed the

            
              appropriate paperwork.

            
              Second, be sure to add their name and email address to THANKS.


            * If a change fixes a test, mention the test in the commit message.

            
              If a change fixes a bug registered in the Automake debbugs tracker,

            
              mention the bug number in the commit message.


            * If somebody reports a new bug, mention his name in the commit message

            
              and in the test case you write.  Put him into THANKS.


            * When documenting a non-trivial idiom or example in the manual, be

            
              sure to add a test case for it, and to reference such test case from

            
              a proper Texinfo comment.


            * Some files in the automake package are not owned by automake; these

            
              files are listed in the $(FETCHFILES) variable in Makefile.am.  They

            
              should never be edited here.  Almost all of them can be updated from

            
              respective upstreams with "make fetch" (this should be done especially

            
              before releases).  The only exception is the 'lib/COPYING' (from FSF),

            
              which should be updated by hand whenever the GPL gets updated (which

            
              shouldn't happen that often anyway :-)


            * Changes other than bug fixes must be mentioned in NEWS.  Important

            
              bug fixes should be mentioned in NEWS, too.


            * Changes which are potentially controversial, require a non-trivial

            
              plan, or must be implemented gradually with a roadmap spanning several

            
              releases (either minor or major) should be discussed on the list,

            
              and have a proper entry in the PLANS directory.  This entry should be

            
              always committed in the "maint" branch, even if the change it deals

            
              with is only for the master branch, or a topic branch.  Usually, in

            
              addition to this, it is useful to open a "wishlist" report on the

            
              Automake debbugs tracker, to keep the idea more visible, and have the

            
              discussions surrounding it easily archived in a central place.


            ============================================================================

            
            = Naming


            * We've adopted the convention that internal AC_SUBSTs should be

            
              named with a leading 'am__', and internally generated targets

            
              should be named with a leading 'am--'.  This convention, although

            
              in place from at least February 2001, isn't yet universally used.

            
              But all new code should use it.


              We used to use '_am_' as the prefix for an internal AC_SUBST.

            
              However, it turns out that NEWS-OS 4.2R complains if a Makefile

            
              variable begins with the underscore character.  Yay for them.

            
              I changed the target naming convention just to be safe.


            ============================================================================

            
            = Editing '.am' files


            * Always use $(...) and not ${...}


            * Use ':', not 'true'.  Use 'exit 1', not 'false'.


            * Use '##' comments liberally.  Comment anything even remotely

            
              unusual.


            * Never use basename or dirname.  Instead use sed.


            * Do not use 'cd' within back-quotes, use '$(am__cd)' instead.

            
              Otherwise the directory name may be printed, depending on CDPATH.

            
              More generally, do not ever use plain 'cd' together with a relative

            
              directory that does not start with a dot, or you might end up in one

            
              computed with CDPATH.


            * For install and uninstall rules, if a loop is required, it should be

            
              silent.  Then the body of the loop itself should print each

            
              "important" command it runs.  The printed commands should be preceded

            
              by a single space.


            * Ensure install rules do not create any installation directory where

            
              nothing is to be actually installed.  See automake bug#11030.


            ============================================================================

            
            = Editing automake.in and aclocal.in


            * Indent using GNU style.  For historical reasons, the perl code

            
              contains portions indented using Larry Wall's style (perl-mode's

            
              default), and other portions using the GNU style (cperl-mode's

            
              default).  Write new code using GNU style.


            * Don't use & for function calls, unless really required.

            
              The use of & prevents prototypes from being checked.


            ============================================================================

            
            = Automake versioning and compatibility scheme


            * There are three kinds of automake releases:


                - new major releases (e.g., 2.0, 5.0)

            
                - new minor releases (e.g., 1.14, 2.1)

            
                - micro a.k.a. "bug-fixing" releases (e.g., 1.13.2, 2.0.1, 3.5.17).


              A new major release should have the major version number bumped, and

            
              the minor and micro version numbers reset to zero.  A new minor release

            
              should have the major version number unchanged, the minor version number

            
              bumped, and the micro version number reset to zero.  Finally, a new

            
              micro version should have the major and minor version numbers unchanged,

            
              and the micro version number bumped.


              For example, the first minor version after 1.13.2 will be 1.14; the

            
              first bug-fixing version after 1.14 that will be 1.14.1; the first

            
              new major version after all such releases will be 2.0; the first

            
              bug-fixing version after 2.0 will be 2.0.1; and a further bug-fixing

            
              version after 2.0.1 will be 2.0.2.


            * Micro releases should be just bug-fixing releases; no new features

            
              should be added, and ideally, only trivial bugs, recent regressions,

            
              or documentation issues should be addressed by them.


            * Minor releases can introduce new "safe" features, do non-trivial

            
              but mostly safe code clean-ups, and even add new runtime warnings

            
              (rigorously non-fatal); but they shouldn't include any backward

            
              incompatible change, nor contain any potentially destabilizing

            
              refactoring or sweeping change, nor introduce new features whose

            
              implementation might be liable to cause bugs or regressions in

            
              existing code.


            * Major releases can introduce backward-incompatibilities (albeit

            
              such incompatibilities should be announced well in advance, and

            
              a smooth transition plan prepared for them), and try more risking

            
              and daring refactorings and code cleanups.


            * For more information, refer to the extensive discussion associated

            
              with automake bug#13578.


            ============================================================================

            
            = Working with git


            * To regenerate dependent files created by aclocal and automake,

            
              use the 'bootstrap.sh' script.  It uses the code from the source

            
              tree, so the resulting files (aclocal.m4 and Makefile.in) should

            
              be the same as you would get if you install this version of

            
              automake and use it to generate those files.  Be sure to have the

            
              latest stable version of Autoconf installed and available early

            
              in your PATH.


            * The Automake git tree currently carries three basic branches: 'maint',

            
              'master' and 'next'.


            * The 'maint' branch, reserved to changes that should go into the next

            
              micro release; so it will just see fixes for regressions, trivial

            
              bugs, or documentation issues, and no "active" development whatsoever.

            
              Since emergency regression-fixing or security releases could be cut

            
              from this branch at any time, it should always be kept in a releasable

            
              state.


            * The 'master' branch is where the development of the next minor release

            
              takes place.  It should be kept in a stable, almost-releasable state,

            
              to simplify testing and deploying of new minor version.  Note that

            
              this is not a hard rule, and such "stability" is not expected to be

            
              absolute (emergency releases are cut from maint anyway).


            * The 'next' branch is reserved for the development of the next major

            
              release.  Experimenting a little here is OK, but don't let the branch

            
              grow too unstable; if you need to do exploratory programming

            
              or over-arching change, you should use a dedicated topic branch, and

            
              only merge that back once it is reasonably stable.


            * The 'maint' branch should be kept regularly merged into the 'master'

            
              branch, and the 'master' branch into the 'next' branch.  It is advisable

            
              to merge only after a set of related commits have been applied, to avoid

            
              introducing too much noise in the history.


            * There may be a number of longer-lived feature branches for new

            
              developments.  They should be based off of a common ancestor of all

            
              active branches to which the feature should or might be merged later.


            * After a new minor release is done, the 'master' branch is to be merged

            
              into the 'maint' branch, and then a "new" 'master' branch created

            
              stemming from the resulting commit.

            
              Similarly, after a new major release is done, the 'next' branch is to

            
              be merged into both the 'master' and 'maint' branch, and then "new"

            
              'master' and 'next' branches created stemming from the resulting commit.


            * When fixing a bug (especially a long-standing one), it may be useful

            
              to commit the fix to a new temporary branch based off the commit that

            
              introduced the bug.  Then this "bugfix branch" can be merged into all

            
              the active branches descending from the buggy commit.  This offers a

            
              simple way to fix the bug consistently and effectively.


            * When merging, prefer 'git merge --log' over plain 'git merge', so that

            
              a later 'git log' gives an indication of which actual patches were

            
              merged even when they don't appear early in the list.


            * The 'master' and 'maint' branches should not be rewound, i.e., should

            
              always fast-forward, except maybe for privacy issues.  For 'next'

            
              (if that will ever be implemented), and for feature branches, the

            
              announcement for the branch should document rewinding policy.  If a

            
              topic branch is expected to be rewound, it is good practice to put

            
              it in the 'experimental/*' namespace; for example, a rewindable branch

            
              dealing with Vala support could be named like "experimental/vala-work".


            ============================================================================

            
            = Writing a good commit message


            * Here is the general format that Automake's commit messages are expected

            
              to follow.  See the further points below for clarifications and minor

            
              corrections.


                  topic: brief description (this is the "summary line")


                  <reference to relevant bugs, if any>


                  Here goes a more detailed explanation of why the commit is needed,

            
                  and a general overview of what it does, and how.  This section

            
                  should almost always be provided, possibly only with the expection

            
                  of obvious fixes or very trivial changes.


                  And if the detailed explanation is quite long or detailed, you can

            
                  want to break it in more paragraphs.


                  Then you can add references to relevant mailing list discussions

            
                  (if any), with proper links.  But don't take this as an excuse for

            
                  writing incomplete commit messages!  The "distilled" conclusions

            
                  reached in such discussions should have been placed in the

            
                  paragraphs above.


                  Finally, here you can thank people that motivated or helped the

            
                  change.  So, thanks to John Doe for bringing up the issue, and to

            
                  J. Random Hacker for providing suggestions and testing the patch.


                  <detailed list of touched files>


            * The <detailed list of touched files> should usually be provided (but

            
              for short or trivial changes), and should follow the GNU guidelines

            
              for ChangeLog entries (described explicitly in the GNU Coding

            
              Standards); it might be something of this sort:


                * some/file (func1): Improved frobnication.

            
                (func2): Adjusted accordingly.

            
                * another/file (foo, bar): Likewise.

            
                * tests/foo.tap: New test.

            
                * tests/Makefile.am (TESTS): Add it.


            * If your commit fixes an automake bug registered in the tracker (say

            
              numbered 1234), you should put the following line after the summary

            
              line:


                  This change fixes automake bug#1234.


            * If your commit is just related to the given bug report, but does not

            
              fix it, you might want to add a line like this instead:


                  This change is related to automake bug#1234.


            * When referring to older commits, use 'git describe' output as pointer.

            
              But also try to identify the given commit by date and/or summary line

            
              if possible.  Examples:


                  Since yesterday's commit, v1.11-2019-g4d2bf42, ...


                  ... removed in commit 'v1.11-1674-g02e9072' of 01-01-2012,

            
                  "dist: ditch support for lzma"...


            ============================================================================

            
            = Test suite


            * Use "make check" and "make maintainer-check" liberally.


            * Make sure each test file is executable.


            * Export the 'keep_testdirs' environment variable to "yes" to keep

            
              test directories for successful tests also.


            * Use perl coverage information to ensure your new code is thoroughly

            
              tested by your new tests.


            * See file 't/README' for more information.


            ============================================================================

            
            = Release procedure


            * The steps outlined here are meant to be followed for alpha and stable

            
              releases as well.  Where differences are expected, they will be

            
              explicitly described.


            * Fetch new versions of the files that are maintained by the FSF by

            
              running "make fetch".  In case any file in the automake repository

            
              has been updated, commit and re-run the testsuite.


            * Ensure that the copyright notices of the distributed files is up to

            
              date.  The maintainer-only target "update-copyright" can help with

            
              this.


            * Check NEWS; in particular, ensure that all the relevant differences

            
              with the last release are actually reported.


            * Update the version number in configure.ac.

            
              (The idea is that every other alpha number will be a net release.

            
              The repository will always have its own "odd" number so we can easily

            
              distinguish net and repo versions.)


            * Run these commands, in this order:


                make bootstrap

            
                make check keep_testdirs=yes

            
                make maintainer-check

            
                make distcheck

            
                make check-no-trailing-backslash-in-recipes

            
                make check-cc-no-c-o


              It is also advised to run "git clean -fdx" before invoking the

            
              bootstrap, to ensure a really clean rebuild.  However, it must

            
              be done carefully, because that command will remove *all* the

            
              files that are not tracked by git!


            * Run "make git-tag-release".

            
              This will run the maintainer checks, verify that the local git

            
              repository and working tree are clean and up-to-date, and create

            
              a proper signed git tag for the release (based on the contents

            
              of $(VERSION)).


            * Run "make git-upload-release".

            
              This will first verify that you are releasing from a tagged version

            
              and that the local git repository and working tree are clean and

            
              up-to-date, and will then run "make dist" to create the tarballs,

            
              and invoke the 'gnupload' script sign and upload them to the correct

            
              locations.  In case you need to sign with a non-default key, you can

            
              use "make GNUPLOADFLAGS='--user KEY' git-upload-release".


            * For stable releases you'll have to update the manuals at www.gnu.org.


              - Generate manuals (with the help of the standard gendocs.sh script):


                   make web-manual


                The ready-to-be-uploaded manuals (in several formats) will be left

            
                in the 'doc/web-manuals' directory.


              - Commit the updated manuals to web CVS:


                  make web-manual-update


                If your local username is different from your username at Savannah,

            
                you'll have to override the 'CVS_USER' make variable accordingly;

            
                for example:


                  make web-manual-update CVS_USER=slattarini


              - Check for link errors, fix them, recheck until convergence:

            
                <http://validator.w3.org/checklink>


            * Create an announcement message with "make announcement".  Edit the

            
              generated 'announcement' file appropriately, in particularly filling

            
              in by hand any "TODO" left in there.


            * Update version number in configure.ac to next alpha number.

            
              Re-run ./bootstrap.sh and commit.


            * Don't forget to "git push" your changes so they appear in the public

            
              git tree.


            * Send the announcement generated in the earlier steps at least to

            
              <autotools-announce@gnu.org> and <automake@gnu.org>.  If the release

            
              is a stable one, the announcement must also go to <info-gnu@gnu.org>;

            
              if it is an alpha or beta release, announcement should be sent also

            
              to <platform-testers@gnu.org>, to maximize the possibility of early

            
              testing on exotic or proprietary systems.  Finally, copy an abridged

            
              version of the announcement into the NEWS feed at:

            
              <https://savannah.gnu.org/projects/automake>.

            
              Be sure to link a  version to the complete announcement (from

            
              the version you sent to the automake list, as get archived on

            
              <http://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/automake/>).


            -----


            Copyright (C) 2003-2013 Free Software Foundation, Inc.


            This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify

            
            it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by

            
            the Free Software Foundation; either version 2, or (at your option)

            
            any later version.


            This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful,

            
            but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of

            
            MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.  See the

            
            GNU General Public License for more details.


            You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License

            
            along with this program.  If not, see <http://www.gnu.org/licenses/>.


            Local Variables:

            
            mode: text

            
            End:
	============================================================================
	= This file

	* This file attempts to describe the rules to use when hacking
	automake.

	============================================================================
	= Administrivia

	* The correct response to most actual bugs is to write a new test case
	which demonstrates the bug. Then fix the bug, re-run the test suite,
	and check everything in.

	* If you incorporate a change from somebody on the net:
	First, if it is a large change, you must make sure they have signed the
	appropriate paperwork.
	Second, be sure to add their name and email address to THANKS.

	* If a change fixes a test, mention the test in the commit message.
	If a change fixes a bug registered in the Automake debbugs tracker,
	mention the bug number in the commit message.

	* If somebody reports a new bug, mention his name in the commit message
	and in the test case you write. Put him into THANKS.

	* When documenting a non-trivial idiom or example in the manual, be
	sure to add a test case for it, and to reference such test case from
	a proper Texinfo comment.

	* Some files in the automake package are not owned by automake; these
	files are listed in the $(FETCHFILES) variable in Makefile.am. They
	should never be edited here. Almost all of them can be updated from
	respective upstreams with "make fetch" (this should be done especially
	before releases). The only exception is the 'lib/COPYING' (from FSF),
	which should be updated by hand whenever the GPL gets updated (which
	shouldn't happen that often anyway :-)

	* Changes other than bug fixes must be mentioned in NEWS. Important
	bug fixes should be mentioned in NEWS, too.

	* Changes which are potentially controversial, require a non-trivial
	plan, or must be implemented gradually with a roadmap spanning several
	releases (either minor or major) should be discussed on the list,
	and have a proper entry in the PLANS directory. This entry should be
	always committed in the "maint" branch, even if the change it deals
	with is only for the master branch, or a topic branch. Usually, in
	addition to this, it is useful to open a "wishlist" report on the
	Automake debbugs tracker, to keep the idea more visible, and have the
	discussions surrounding it easily archived in a central place.

	============================================================================
	= Naming

	* We've adopted the convention that internal AC_SUBSTs should be
	named with a leading 'am__', and internally generated targets
	should be named with a leading 'am--'. This convention, although
	in place from at least February 2001, isn't yet universally used.
	But all new code should use it.

	We used to use '_am_' as the prefix for an internal AC_SUBST.
	However, it turns out that NEWS-OS 4.2R complains if a Makefile
	variable begins with the underscore character. Yay for them.
	I changed the target naming convention just to be safe.

	============================================================================
	= Editing '.am' files

	* Always use $(...) and not ${...}

	* Use ':', not 'true'. Use 'exit 1', not 'false'.

	* Use '##' comments liberally. Comment anything even remotely
	unusual.

	* Never use basename or dirname. Instead use sed.

	* Do not use 'cd' within back-quotes, use '$(am__cd)' instead.
	Otherwise the directory name may be printed, depending on CDPATH.
	More generally, do not ever use plain 'cd' together with a relative
	directory that does not start with a dot, or you might end up in one
	computed with CDPATH.

	* For install and uninstall rules, if a loop is required, it should be
	silent. Then the body of the loop itself should print each
	"important" command it runs. The printed commands should be preceded
	by a single space.

	* Ensure install rules do not create any installation directory where
	nothing is to be actually installed. See automake bug#11030.

	============================================================================
	= Editing automake.in and aclocal.in

	* Indent using GNU style. For historical reasons, the perl code
	contains portions indented using Larry Wall's style (perl-mode's
	default), and other portions using the GNU style (cperl-mode's
	default). Write new code using GNU style.

	* Don't use & for function calls, unless really required.
	The use of & prevents prototypes from being checked.

	============================================================================
	= Automake versioning and compatibility scheme

	* There are three kinds of automake releases:

	- new major releases (e.g., 2.0, 5.0)
	- new minor releases (e.g., 1.14, 2.1)
	- micro a.k.a. "bug-fixing" releases (e.g., 1.13.2, 2.0.1, 3.5.17).

	A new major release should have the major version number bumped, and
	the minor and micro version numbers reset to zero. A new minor release
	should have the major version number unchanged, the minor version number
	bumped, and the micro version number reset to zero. Finally, a new
	micro version should have the major and minor version numbers unchanged,
	and the micro version number bumped.

	For example, the first minor version after 1.13.2 will be 1.14; the
	first bug-fixing version after 1.14 that will be 1.14.1; the first
	new major version after all such releases will be 2.0; the first
	bug-fixing version after 2.0 will be 2.0.1; and a further bug-fixing
	version after 2.0.1 will be 2.0.2.

	* Micro releases should be just bug-fixing releases; no new features
	should be added, and ideally, only trivial bugs, recent regressions,
	or documentation issues should be addressed by them.

	* Minor releases can introduce new "safe" features, do non-trivial
	but mostly safe code clean-ups, and even add new runtime warnings
	(rigorously non-fatal); but they shouldn't include any backward
	incompatible change, nor contain any potentially destabilizing
	refactoring or sweeping change, nor introduce new features whose
	implementation might be liable to cause bugs or regressions in
	existing code.

	* Major releases can introduce backward-incompatibilities (albeit
	such incompatibilities should be announced well in advance, and
	a smooth transition plan prepared for them), and try more risking
	and daring refactorings and code cleanups.

	* For more information, refer to the extensive discussion associated
	with automake bug#13578.

	============================================================================
	= Working with git

	* To regenerate dependent files created by aclocal and automake,
	use the 'bootstrap.sh' script. It uses the code from the source
	tree, so the resulting files (aclocal.m4 and Makefile.in) should
	be the same as you would get if you install this version of
	automake and use it to generate those files. Be sure to have the
	latest stable version of Autoconf installed and available early
	in your PATH.

	* The Automake git tree currently carries three basic branches: 'maint',
	'master' and 'next'.

	* The 'maint' branch, reserved to changes that should go into the next
	micro release; so it will just see fixes for regressions, trivial
	bugs, or documentation issues, and no "active" development whatsoever.
	Since emergency regression-fixing or security releases could be cut
	from this branch at any time, it should always be kept in a releasable
	state.

	* The 'master' branch is where the development of the next minor release
	takes place. It should be kept in a stable, almost-releasable state,
	to simplify testing and deploying of new minor version. Note that
	this is not a hard rule, and such "stability" is not expected to be
	absolute (emergency releases are cut from maint anyway).

	* The 'next' branch is reserved for the development of the next major
	release. Experimenting a little here is OK, but don't let the branch
	grow too unstable; if you need to do exploratory programming
	or over-arching change, you should use a dedicated topic branch, and
	only merge that back once it is reasonably stable.

	* The 'maint' branch should be kept regularly merged into the 'master'
	branch, and the 'master' branch into the 'next' branch. It is advisable
	to merge only after a set of related commits have been applied, to avoid
	introducing too much noise in the history.

	* There may be a number of longer-lived feature branches for new
	developments. They should be based off of a common ancestor of all
	active branches to which the feature should or might be merged later.

	* After a new minor release is done, the 'master' branch is to be merged
	into the 'maint' branch, and then a "new" 'master' branch created
	stemming from the resulting commit.
	Similarly, after a new major release is done, the 'next' branch is to
	be merged into both the 'master' and 'maint' branch, and then "new"
	'master' and 'next' branches created stemming from the resulting commit.

	* When fixing a bug (especially a long-standing one), it may be useful
	to commit the fix to a new temporary branch based off the commit that
	introduced the bug. Then this "bugfix branch" can be merged into all
	the active branches descending from the buggy commit. This offers a
	simple way to fix the bug consistently and effectively.

	* When merging, prefer 'git merge --log' over plain 'git merge', so that
	a later 'git log' gives an indication of which actual patches were
	merged even when they don't appear early in the list.

	* The 'master' and 'maint' branches should not be rewound, i.e., should
	always fast-forward, except maybe for privacy issues. For 'next'
	(if that will ever be implemented), and for feature branches, the
	announcement for the branch should document rewinding policy. If a
	topic branch is expected to be rewound, it is good practice to put
	it in the 'experimental/*' namespace; for example, a rewindable branch
	dealing with Vala support could be named like "experimental/vala-work".

	============================================================================
	= Writing a good commit message

	* Here is the general format that Automake's commit messages are expected
	to follow. See the further points below for clarifications and minor
	corrections.

	topic: brief description (this is the "summary line")

	<reference to relevant bugs, if any>

	Here goes a more detailed explanation of why the commit is needed,
	and a general overview of what it does, and how. This section
	should almost always be provided, possibly only with the expection
	of obvious fixes or very trivial changes.

	And if the detailed explanation is quite long or detailed, you can
	want to break it in more paragraphs.

	Then you can add references to relevant mailing list discussions
	(if any), with proper links. But don't take this as an excuse for
	writing incomplete commit messages! The "distilled" conclusions
	reached in such discussions should have been placed in the
	paragraphs above.

	Finally, here you can thank people that motivated or helped the
	change. So, thanks to John Doe for bringing up the issue, and to
	J. Random Hacker for providing suggestions and testing the patch.

	<detailed list of touched files>

	* The <detailed list of touched files> should usually be provided (but
	for short or trivial changes), and should follow the GNU guidelines
	for ChangeLog entries (described explicitly in the GNU Coding
	Standards); it might be something of this sort:

	* some/file (func1): Improved frobnication.
	(func2): Adjusted accordingly.
	* another/file (foo, bar): Likewise.
	* tests/foo.tap: New test.
	* tests/Makefile.am (TESTS): Add it.

	* If your commit fixes an automake bug registered in the tracker (say
	numbered 1234), you should put the following line after the summary
	line:

	This change fixes automake bug#1234.

	* If your commit is just related to the given bug report, but does not
	fix it, you might want to add a line like this instead:

	This change is related to automake bug#1234.

	* When referring to older commits, use 'git describe' output as pointer.
	But also try to identify the given commit by date and/or summary line
	if possible. Examples:

	Since yesterday's commit, v1.11-2019-g4d2bf42, ...

	... removed in commit 'v1.11-1674-g02e9072' of 01-01-2012,
	"dist: ditch support for lzma"...

	============================================================================
	= Test suite

	* Use "make check" and "make maintainer-check" liberally.

	* Make sure each test file is executable.

	* Export the 'keep_testdirs' environment variable to "yes" to keep
	test directories for successful tests also.

	* Use perl coverage information to ensure your new code is thoroughly
	tested by your new tests.

	* See file 't/README' for more information.

	============================================================================
	= Release procedure

	* The steps outlined here are meant to be followed for alpha and stable
	releases as well. Where differences are expected, they will be
	explicitly described.

	* Fetch new versions of the files that are maintained by the FSF by
	running "make fetch". In case any file in the automake repository
	has been updated, commit and re-run the testsuite.

	* Ensure that the copyright notices of the distributed files is up to
	date. The maintainer-only target "update-copyright" can help with
	this.

	* Check NEWS; in particular, ensure that all the relevant differences
	with the last release are actually reported.

	* Update the version number in configure.ac.
	(The idea is that every other alpha number will be a net release.
	The repository will always have its own "odd" number so we can easily
	distinguish net and repo versions.)

	* Run these commands, in this order:

	make bootstrap
	make check keep_testdirs=yes
	make maintainer-check
	make distcheck
	make check-no-trailing-backslash-in-recipes
	make check-cc-no-c-o

	It is also advised to run "git clean -fdx" before invoking the
	bootstrap, to ensure a really clean rebuild. However, it must
	be done carefully, because that command will remove all the
	files that are not tracked by git!

	* Run "make git-tag-release".
	This will run the maintainer checks, verify that the local git
	repository and working tree are clean and up-to-date, and create
	a proper signed git tag for the release (based on the contents
	of $(VERSION)).

	* Run "make git-upload-release".
	This will first verify that you are releasing from a tagged version
	and that the local git repository and working tree are clean and
	up-to-date, and will then run "make dist" to create the tarballs,
	and invoke the 'gnupload' script sign and upload them to the correct
	locations. In case you need to sign with a non-default key, you can
	use "make GNUPLOADFLAGS='--user KEY' git-upload-release".

	* For stable releases you'll have to update the manuals at www.gnu.org.

	- Generate manuals (with the help of the standard gendocs.sh script):

	make web-manual

	The ready-to-be-uploaded manuals (in several formats) will be left
	in the 'doc/web-manuals' directory.

	- Commit the updated manuals to web CVS:

	make web-manual-update

	If your local username is different from your username at Savannah,
	you'll have to override the 'CVS_USER' make variable accordingly;
	for example:

	make web-manual-update CVS_USER=slattarini

	- Check for link errors, fix them, recheck until convergence:
	<http://validator.w3.org/checklink>

	* Create an announcement message with "make announcement". Edit the
	generated 'announcement' file appropriately, in particularly filling
	in by hand any "TODO" left in there.

	* Update version number in configure.ac to next alpha number.
	Re-run ./bootstrap.sh and commit.

	* Don't forget to "git push" your changes so they appear in the public
	git tree.

	* Send the announcement generated in the earlier steps at least to
	<autotools-announce@gnu.org> and <automake@gnu.org>. If the release
	is a stable one, the announcement must also go to <info-gnu@gnu.org>;
	if it is an alpha or beta release, announcement should be sent also
	to <platform-testers@gnu.org>, to maximize the possibility of early
	testing on exotic or proprietary systems. Finally, copy an abridged
	version of the announcement into the NEWS feed at:
	<https://savannah.gnu.org/projects/automake>.
	Be sure to link a version to the complete announcement (from
	the version you sent to the automake list, as get archived on
	<http://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/automake/>).

	-----

	Copyright (C) 2003-2013 Free Software Foundation, Inc.

	This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify
	it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by
	the Free Software Foundation; either version 2, or (at your option)
	any later version.

	This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful,
	but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
	MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the
	GNU General Public License for more details.

	You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License
	along with this program. If not, see <http://www.gnu.org/licenses/>.

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