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gawk: New Ports

 
 C.2.3 Porting 'gawk' to a New Operating System
 ----------------------------------------------
 
 If you want to port 'gawk' to a new operating system, there are several
 steps:
 
   1. Follow the guidelines in Adding Code, concerning coding
      style, submission of diffs, and so on.
 
   2. Be prepared to sign the appropriate paperwork.  In order for the
      FSF to distribute your code, you must either place your code in the
      public domain and submit a signed statement to that effect, or
      assign the copyright in your code to the FSF. Both of these actions
      are easy to do and _many_ people have done so already.  If you have
      questions, please contact me, or <gnu@gnu.org>.
 
   3. When doing a port, bear in mind that your code must coexist
      peacefully with the rest of 'gawk' and the other ports.  Avoid
      gratuitous changes to the system-independent parts of the code.  If
      at all possible, avoid sprinkling '#ifdef's just for your port
      throughout the code.
 
      If the changes needed for a particular system affect too much of
      the code, I probably will not accept them.  In such a case, you
      can, of course, distribute your changes on your own, as long as you
      comply with the GPL (Copying).
 
   4. A number of the files that come with 'gawk' are maintained by other
      people.  Thus, you should not change them unless it is for a very
      good reason; i.e., changes are not out of the question, but changes
      to these files are scrutinized extra carefully.  The files are
      'dfa.c', 'dfa.h', 'getopt.c', 'getopt.h', 'getopt1.c',
      'getopt_int.h', 'gettext.h', 'regcomp.c', 'regex.c', 'regex.h',
      'regex_internal.c', 'regex_internal.h', and 'regexec.c'.
 
   5. A number of other files are provided by the GNU Autotools
      (Autoconf, Automake, and GNU 'gettext').  You should not change
      them either, unless it is for a very good reason.  The files are
      'ABOUT-NLS', 'config.guess', 'config.rpath', 'config.sub',
      'depcomp', 'INSTALL', 'install-sh', 'missing', 'mkinstalldirs',
      'xalloc.h', and 'ylwrap'.
 
   6. Be willing to continue to maintain the port.  Non-Unix operating
      systems are supported by volunteers who maintain the code needed to
      compile and run 'gawk' on their systems.  If no-one volunteers to
      maintain a port, it becomes unsupported and it may be necessary to
      remove it from the distribution.
 
   7. Supply an appropriate 'gawkmisc.???' file.  Each port has its own
      'gawkmisc.???' that implements certain operating system specific
      functions.  This is cleaner than a plethora of '#ifdef's scattered
      throughout the code.  The 'gawkmisc.c' in the main source directory
      includes the appropriate 'gawkmisc.???' file from each
      subdirectory.  Be sure to update it as well.
 
      Each port's 'gawkmisc.???' file has a suffix reminiscent of the
      machine or operating system for the port--for example,
      'pc/gawkmisc.pc' and 'vms/gawkmisc.vms'.  The use of separate
      suffixes, instead of plain 'gawkmisc.c', makes it possible to move
      files from a port's subdirectory into the main subdirectory,
      without accidentally destroying the real 'gawkmisc.c' file.
      (Currently, this is only an issue for the PC operating system
      ports.)
 
   8. Supply a 'Makefile' as well as any other C source and header files
      that are necessary for your operating system.  All your code should
      be in a separate subdirectory, with a name that is the same as, or
      reminiscent of, either your operating system or the computer
      system.  If possible, try to structure things so that it is not
      necessary to move files out of the subdirectory into the main
      source directory.  If that is not possible, then be sure to avoid
      using names for your files that duplicate the names of files in the
      main source directory.
 
   9. Update the documentation.  Please write a section (or sections) for
      this Info file describing the installation and compilation steps
      needed to compile and/or install 'gawk' for your system.
 
    Following these steps makes it much easier to integrate your changes
 into 'gawk' and have them coexist happily with other operating systems'
 code that is already there.
 
    In the code that you supply and maintain, feel free to use a coding
 style and brace layout that suits your taste.
 

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